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thefirsttree · 3 years

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A personal update + my next game

OK, time to do this. I’ve been meaning to do a big DAVID WEHLE™ update for a while now and explain why I haven’t released a new game yet, but you know how life gets in the way. Especially when life is a quarantine hellscape, you have three beautiful, amazing, exhausting kids to raise, a spouse’s job you support, a viral YouTube channel that turns your brain to mush, a thousand emails waiting in your inbox since your game is free on the Epic Games Store (with an impressive number of redemptions too! … meaning lots of emails and customer support issues), etc., etc. What also contributes to my lack of updates is because… I just don’t really like posting online. Fascinating correlation, I know!

Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a venting/ranting blog post (well, maybe a bit), because my life is seriously AMAZING and INSANELY BLESSED and LUCKY. I can’t believe how many dreams keep coming true, so much so that I feel I don’t deserve it and I really pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes… but I did want to at least be honest, because I owe that to myself.

Wow, where do I even begin? Well, how about we start with the reason I’m even a full-time indie game dev now: The First Tree. This small hobby project I worked on at night morphed into this gargantuan beast (or fox) that took over my life the past 5 years. Which is great! I’m living the dream! And yet, I really didn’t expect it to do as well as it did. At its core, my game is a slow-paced, sad walking simulator (ahem, I prefer the term “exploration game,” but you know what I mean) that somehow seemed to launch at the right time to the right audience. It resonated deeply with some of you, and for that I’m eternally grateful. I still get emails almost daily how my game changed their lives in some formative way. I’m beyond honored.

However, with that spotlight came criticism and demands from the ever-present, insatiable internet. I would randomly be surfing the gamedev subreddit trying to decompress, and I would see a comment by some rando saying how much I didn’t deserve my success, and how it was all one huge lucky fluke. And I believed them!

And to add to it, some devs considered me an indie marketing “guru”, which I was uncomfortable with. I worked hard to market my game every week, and after my GDC talk, people assumed marketing was my passion; the reason I got up every morning. Just to clarify… NO, I don’t like marketing, and I hate being the center of attention. I don’t like asking people for money and wishlists. But I did what was necessary because I was passionate about telling stories, and I wanted to give my story a fighting chance to be seen on the crowded pages of Steam.

So now, you’re probably wondering “well then David, why did you make fancy YouTube videos showing off your success? Not very modest if you ask me.” This honestly could be a long blog post all on its own, because my experience of putting myself in the spotlight and becoming a “content creator” is… complicated. It was an unusual step for me, especially since I never even showed my face online (as a game developer) until my GDC talk.

First off, I always wanted to teach and start a YouTube channel. I love video editing, especially since I’ve been doing it longer than making games! It’s a huge passion of mine. And teaching people who didn’t know they could make and finish games was a huge motivator (and it’s been so rewarding already). But the second reason is, I was scared. I was self-employed, and I was riding the success of a “huge lucky fluke” that would probably not happen again. I wanted to make sure I could provide for my amazing family, and give them food and health insurance and security in these tumultuous times. I was turning my lifelong passions and hobbies into a business, and it wasn’t as simple of a mental transition as I thought.

So, I went all in on YouTube and the accompanying online course called Game Dev Unlocked. I spent years editing the scripts and videos, and polishing them to a shine. At first, no one watched my videos, no one was buying… and in the blink of an eye, the YouTube algorithm picked up my main autobiographical video (“How Making Indie Games Changed My Life”), and I started getting 5,000 subscribers a day. Right now, I’m at 150,000 subs, which is still hard for me to believe. I always had a dream of earning 100k subs on YouTube, so I was pretty happy with the whole thing. Sales were OK, but mostly people didn’t want to buy the course. Then the emails came in…

Something you should know about me: I am a textbook “people pleaser,” and if someone asks for my help, I take it very seriously. If someone is mad at me, even if I didn’t do anything wrong, it’s all I can think about, and it ruins my day. So, taking an onslaught of people begging for help and multiplying that by an impossible amount of people for my brain to truly comprehend thanks to the internet… and let’s just say it wasn’t a healthy mix.

I received thousands of emails from people who were begging me for some kind of reassurance that everything would be OK. That their dreams would come true too. And I wanted to help every single one of them. I went from a nobody working on a game for fun to becoming a spokesperson for the indie game dream. I couldn’t even get a shake from the Chick-Fil-A drive-thru without someone recognizing me and asking for game dev advice. And it didn’t stop there… I would get emails from suicidal kids asking for help, teenagers from Afghanistan asking me to get them out of their country, and on one occasion I received an email from a hopeful game developer in a war-torn country who had just experienced a bomb blowing up their neighboring village. His friends were dead, and he was hoping he could finish a game before he died too, and he needed my help. How do you say no to something like that? Didn’t I owe it to everyone because I was lucky with my hit game and I needed to “pay it forward”? (Something people constantly reminded me of)

And then to top it off, after you’ve given everything you’ve got to other people in need… you get hate mail in your inbox. You spend the whole day serving your children and strangers on the internet, then when the kids are finally asleep, you hit the bed to relax and take a look at your phone to decompress, and you randomly come across an angry gamer in your Twitter mentions telling you your game they got for free sucks, and that you took away a potentially great game from them and that your apology isn’t good enough.

Long story short, I went to a mental therapist for the first time in my life. I was broken trying to care for two toddlers and a new baby in a pandemic (which is very, very hard), taking care of my course students who gave me their hard-earned money and demanded results, and the countless people begging for help on the internet. I was this introverted, internet-lurker trying to take on the weight of the world. I was so tired and hurt that no one cared about me and my needs… only what I could do for them.

Quitting my day job and making this hobby my full-time job has stirred up… mixed emotions. This statement may disturb some of you, but I was definitely 100% happier when I had a full-time job and I was working on my game at night. I missed working with the amazing team at The VOID, working on Star Wars… back when the success of my game was this abstract thing I could only daydream about. Mostly, I was making my game for me with no outside expectations to pay the bills or satisfy the ever-demanding internet, and that brought me a lot of joy.

It’s not all doom and gloom though! I’m actually very happy now and in the best shape I’ve been since the pandemic started. I’ve had to confront my weaknesses and personality quirks, but I’m a better person for it (and I’m sure these issues would’ve come out eventually). I hired an awesome community manager for Game Dev Unlocked who is helping SO MUCH with the emails, I can’t even tell you the mental burden it alleviates. I even leased a co-working office to help separate work from my home, and that’s been a huge help too. I’ve decided to work with my old friends from The VOID on a cool, new VR experience. It will take me away from my projects a bit, but I’m ecstatic to work with a great team again (and not manage anything, whew).

These are all things I would’ve never guessed I needed, because I thought I knew myself pretty well… turns out I didn’t.

The reality is: running a business is HARD. Running it solo is even harder. You have to remember, I was burnt out on The First Tree well into the Steam release in 2017, but I kept working on it for 4 more years due to my fears of failing again and not earning enough money for my family.

So, I was wrestling with the age-old concept of commercialism and art. There was this dichotomy of doing whatever I wanted and being true to my vision (what most people assume the indie dev dream is like), and doing only what customers wanted to buy. This is something that has killed me with YouTube… in one specific instance, I was super excited to make the exact video I wanted to make. I loved every part of its creation, and I thought it had a message that would inspire everyone. I lovingly edited it over several weeks, posted it, and excitedly waited for the stats… and it was by far my worst performing video.

This is not a new problem. Even the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo was a commission forced upon him by the very violent Pope Julius II. My wife and I regularly talk about the fine balance between artistic integrity and commercialism, a problem she is very familiar with as an artist who constantly needs to balance what she wants to make with what the customer wants to hang up in their home.

For The First Tree, I was lucky. It was pretty much what I wanted to make (I had to compromise a lot of things of course), and it turned out millions of people wanted it too. Recently, I thought the safe business decision would be to do it all over again, so I started work on a spiritual successor to The First Tree (an idea that I may revisit one day since I do love the story idea). But that isn’t happening anytime soon. Trust me when I say I am now currently burnt out on animal exploration games.

So that realization left me with a question: what do I do next?

I’ve decided I need to make a game that I want to make, for me. It will be a bit different and I’m almost certain most fans of The First Tree will not love it… but it’s an idea that gets me super excited. It’s an idea that could help me fall in love with game development again.

A few more details: this game will be story-driven, first-person, and will use the Unreal Engine. That means development is gonna be slow going, because I have to learn a whole new tool. The “smart business” decision would be to make something quickly in Unity which I’m already familiar with… but I want to do this for me, and UE5 looks like a lot of fun. I’m also shooting for an early-ish release date so I avoid burn out and I keep the game short: I want to release it in Fall 2022, but knowing game development, it will probably take longer.

With the help of my therapist, I’ve also concluded that I’ve been too accessible on the internet and that my self-worth isn’t determined by the amount of people I try to help online. Of course, I love helping people and seeing them succeed, but I need to step back and focus on my family and myself. I will delete my social media apps on my phone (I will still post big updates occasionally) and stop responding to most emails, tweets, DMs, etc. It’s not that I’m ungrateful… in fact, if I don’t say thank you or at least acknowledge the incredibly nice people who share a sweet message about my game or want to tell me how I inspire them (still hard for me to believe, lol), I feel a ton of guilt… but I need to let that go. Please know I’m extremely grateful to all the fans who follow my work, so even if I don’t thank you directly, I truly mean it: thank you.

I will still post and stream occasionally on YouTube when I want to (and I still do live Q&A’s for my GDU students). The online course sales will help support my family as I work on a potentially risky game idea (and my new job will help alleviate the risk too). I’m gonna try one more marketing experiment and sell a mini-course soon (and add an Unreal section), and after that I’m done working on it. A gigantic thank you to the people who bought my course and are part of the amazing community, it has helped me and my family tremendously, and it’s inspiring seeing the games you make!

I’m a bit worried about the whole thing since this new game idea could flop, which could definitely affect my family. But a sappy, high-school yearbook quote is coming to mind… I think it applies here: “A ship in harbor is safe—but that is not what ships are built for.”

Thanks for reading,

David

#gamedev #indie games #the first tree

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savrenim · 3 years

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hi hi hi. so I just got into the Hamilton fandom, I swear I am four years late where did everybody go, and, well. I am apparently a hamburr shipper. bcs that is my life now. anyway I saw your fic ifmlam and I swear it is my favourite of all the fics I've ever read (and trust me I've read literally thousands). I love it so so much, how do you write fics like that??? I cried about four times during the whole thing, I stayed up till 4am reading it even when I had to wake up at 7 because it is just. that. good. I could not stop thinking about it for days afterwards and ifmlam has just ruined me. I can't think of listen to Hamilton without thinking of ifmlam anymore.

on to my qursttion: is it abandoned? of course it's perfectly FINE if it is. don't let anyone tell u differently, your fic is YOURS and u are amazing.

but pls I really need closure from ur fic, it has been haunting me if its abandoned or ongoing and I've read ur other fics and they are just chefskiss and thank you so much for writing them all. thank you thank you thank you, I will never be able to thank you enough for writing this fic and for everything it's done for me. I am probably thousands of miles away but I am sending you virtual jugs through a co.puter screen right now.

(don't feel pressured to reply to this or update it flam, I know how overwhelming it can get with so many messages and after a while u get desensitized to it. u can literally reply "thx. itfmlam is abandoned" and I would still be amazingly star struck. anyway has gotten way too long and I need to sleep and I'm sorry u probably won't see this so I'm just talking to myself right now but bye!!)

and thank you so so much for writing itfmlam.

aaaah hello anon!

thank you so so much???? I am so??? honored??? that ifmlam rates so highly to you, and also that you've read my other fics??????

the answer to the "is ifmlam abandoned" question is probably the worst possible one, which is pretty much "I do want to finish it, both for the folks that still want closure as well as it bothers to me have abandoned projects that are in the public eye/ already partially published, but also, it is last on my current writing projects list"

my current actually active writing projects list, kind of in order of priority, is

I'm literally three chapters away from being Actually Fully Done with the not-quite-first-not-quite-second let's call it 1.5th draft of an actual?? full?? original?? novel?? Opus which of course then goes out to beta readers and then gets who-knows-how-much edited and then maybe beta readers again if a lot does change and then a copyeditor my mom, my copyeditor is my mom, and maybe my little brother he's one of the betas but is very good at catching typos and then I!!! get to publish it!!!! which is the single thing I am most excited for!!!!!!!!! this should be closed up in the next week or two, and then take a while for people to actually read the draft and get back to me.

I really desperately want to finish my open-but-like-90%-written fic, which means we raise it up, the final chapter of to the bottom of the river bc I realized that it was kind of incomplete, and the second chapter of a buried and a burning flame because any more work there will need to wait until the author publishes the next book in the series. this should be closed up in the next month or two.

Speedwrite the draft of the second book of the Opus series so that hopefully by the time book 1 edits are happening, I have an almost complete draft of the second book. this is mostly me side-eyeing myself about taking nearly four years to write the first book, but that is solidly in part because I had so many other open projects which point 2 is about clearing that docket. this should be done in the next year.

And then just have my major projects be, at least until books 1-5 are written and published, books 1-5 of that because that is arguably the first major 'plot arc' of the series, so if I'm looking for a pause point on writing, that's probably where to stop.

There are two or three other short side projects (a weird fun second person short story tentatively titled witch-queen, a collection of four short stories Memoirs about a not-so-evil necromancer and the shenanigans he gets up to trying to rule a kingdom, working title Perfectly Normal Recipe Blog which is a collaborative project about a perfectly normal recipe blog that definitely doesn't include anything out of the normal) that will happen when they happen

There are other projects that are on the backburner -- The Numanok Files, a series of probably 12-15 short novellas about a mercenary/ bounty hunter esque person in space whose specialty is dealing with hauntings, but, like, 80% of their jobs is actually "you are effectively a space home inspector pointing out faulty wiring reacting to solar flares/ there's a weird alien fungus/ it's carbon monoxide okay change your atmosphere filters" and 20% of it is punching ghosts; there's a post-post apocalypse novel that I want to write that I know characters and general pacing and half the setting but need to work out the other half and figure out how much aesthetic I want to commit to; there's Strangeside7 aka spacerace book that is my reaction to how much I love how Redline the anime movie commits itself to "no we are about a race, like 60% of the screentime is just fully going to be an utterly ridiculous sci fi space race"; there's even a ridiculous YA trilogy that I would have to completely transplant the setting but might end up writing because the interplay between angel-physics and physics-physics was one of my favorite things in the world. and I guess the weird ridiculous technically a sequel series to ifmlam that was going to be published as original books that was basically me having fun with 'okay I fucking love star wars prequels old rotting space bureaucracy galactic republic style' except with seers and that also still might happen because it does have some of the coolest sci fi concepts and honestly I thiiiink that's all?

but the tl;dr of that timeline is I'm trying to finish a punch of projects Right Now, so that I can write books 2-5 of Opus, and then when I'm done that (which honestly, my average fiction-writing output is close to 100k a year. if I'm concentrating purely on one project, and writing books that are about 100k, we are talking four years. although my job situation is super up in the air in that period and writing might get put solidly on the backburner as I try to make it in academia, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) I will re-evaluate which projects go next, and that's when ifmlam is likely to come up for review.

I do not have any expectations that I will make it as an original author. I'm planning on posting all of my stuff online for free, but, like. it is incredibly difficult to convince people to try out even a piece of free and easily accessibly original work even if one has a huge following, I am a very small fanfiction author, and from what I can tell the majority of the people who are interested in my work are mostly interested in me finishing ifmlam. writing is a hobby for me, and while I'm writing mostly for me--and hence the for me bit at least for the next five years is pretty solidly going to be this series that I am deeply excited about and have sunk my heart and soul into every single aspect of--I'm human, and I don't really like shouting into the void, and I expect if I spend five years publishing to absolutely no response I will either stop writing for a while and do other things gods know my life is busy enough, return to fandom in general to write some other fanfic about whatever I get deeply into, or return to a work that I actually get response to. so ifmlam will probably start getting worked on a bit at that point one way or another. unless, of course, we are in the incredibly rare timeline in which I do make it as an original author, there are people who are deeply hyped for my original works and an actual demand for them, in which case as you may have noticed there are enough ideas there to keep me busy for a decade or two, and they will just get my full attention instead of fanfiction*. in this timeline, I will do what I was considering doing a few years ago, which is officially declare ifmlam otherwise abandoned and make one more giant chapter update which is a full and cleaned up outline of what I was going to write, interspersed with the scenes already written, and have ifmlam be given at least that closure.

*I want to make it clear that I very much love fanfiction and am proud to have been a fanfiction author and in my heart of hearts would keep writing it forever, I just also have a lot of ideas for characters and settings and magic systems and Aesthetics and I have been biting at the bit to write something that is //mine// and all mine and only mine for a while, I don't see original work as superior so much as there are a dozen fandoms that I am currently in and bursting to make content about except oops these fandoms currently only exist in my head, and I want to correct that

of course given how much as writing is my vent activity and I write what I'm in the mood for, there's a chance I'll feel ifmlam cravings before then, just... expect it to take a couple of years for an update, but also for there to be an update one way of another in a couple of years? but as for right now, I'm turning to original writing, because that is what brings me joy.

but I am really deeply honored that it brought you so much joy!!! and while I will never publish spoilers in a public place, if you message me off anon I am perfectly happy to give a run-down of my current plans for the ending, bc I know "wait a couple years and see" is not the most satisfactory of answers! and hey maybe you'll be like me and once you've given Opus a try you'll decide you like it better too, it does have Seers although they are deeply different Seers than in ifmlam but imo it's very gay and fun and at least politics on one side

#my life #my writing #ifmlam

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morgynemberisagenderfluiddaddy · 3 years

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All of them *^*

Heya Ash!! Oof you're giving me a project lol thank you so much for the ask!!!

1. How big is your mods folder?

That is a really great question. I couldn't tell you off the top of my head, but it got to the point where I had to put all my mods on a thumb drive and only move them around as I need them because I'm computer was running so terribly. So I'd say it's a lot 😅.

2. How would you describe your style?

Uh, I would say very graphic novel type vibes. I'm a huge graphic novel buff and the story I'm actually working on I intended to be a graphic novel, but it really got away from me and is much too big for that now (not a brag, just my legitimate crack head antics) so when I got into Sims editing the thought was always to kind of keep the drawn/comicbook-y feel to it.

3. What is your favorite challenge?

Thus far it's been the stereotype challenge ! It was a lot of fun and I got to do it with four of my OCs who ended up fitting the criteria pretty well! I just think it came out really well both as an edit and as my OCs.

4. Do you make CC?

Aahahaahahahhaahahaah!!!!!! No. I tried to make poses one time! One singular time and it ended so poorly that I decided to swear off making anymore off my own CC for the distant future. Maybe I'll try it again, maybe I'm scarred for life, only time can tell!

5. What type of CC do you hoard?

I had answered this one before, but I FUCKING LOVE POSES!!!! And like I said I didn't have the best experience making my own so I prefer to use downloaded ones. But I never really clean out my poses in case I need them for something else! So my pose folder is astronomical at this point.

6. What default eyes and skin do you use?

You know.... This really is a question I should have the answer to but I'm totally drawing a blank right now so I'll go ahead and put a link to the eyes here and the skin here when I can look it up! ✌

7. How many URLs have you had, and what are the meanings behind them?

On this blog I've only had the one? And I feel like it's pretty self explanatory, I love Morgyn because 1.) They're the absolute best 2.) Untamed magic? Yes ma'am! 3.) They're gender fluid / nonbinary like me!! And 4.) They're an absolute snack!!!! So it was a perfect fit for me.

8. Who is your favorite gameplay blog?

Why would you do me like this??????? I can't choose!!! I love them all and I'm friends with all of them because they're absolutely amazing people that I love so much!!! I don't have a favorite! 🥺

9. Favorite story telling blog?

Please see above answer!!!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS ALL SO MUCH I AHDHAHSGA I CANT!!!!

10. Who is your favorite CC creator?

I don't really want to answer this one either 😭 but I think the only person I know that makes CC is the awesome @barbieaiden they made a really kick ass emo glove CC that I absolutely love and you should check out. (Sorry if the rest of you make CC I'm sure I've probably seen it, probably even downloaded and reblogged, but this is all I can think if right now 💜) Also my go to for all pose stuff is the glorious @katverse they do incredible poses for pretty much anything you could think up, highly recommend.

11. How do you edit you photos?

This is certainly going to get a few gasps, but I make all of my edits on my phone!!!!! I use just a basic free photo editor app and kind of bend it to my will to get what I want out of it! I'm really bad at figuring out stuff like Photoshop and I'm not willing to pay the expensive price when I can do it and get just as good as a result as I want from something free easy and portable.

12. What's the last screenshot you took?

Once again it has to do with an edit I'm working on so here's the last one I put up if you're interested.

13. What do you do when you are unmotivated?

Honestly, this! Editing and the Sims are my escape from the real world. It helps me when I'm having a hard time with my anxiety because it gives me control over something, it helps me a lot with writer's block I can't tell you how my stories have been inspired because of it. But I guess if I'm bored in the game I usually just start a new save or play another game for a bit, I always come back after like a day though! To be fair I haven't been doing this long enough to feel unmotivated yet, maybe we should revisit this when I've been doing this longer than two months 😅

14. Who is your current favorite Sim?

Ugh!!! As you guys have found out about me I don't like to play favorites......... But if I had to say maybe my OC Parker's Sim, he just came out perfectly and is just spot on.

15. Who is your current favorite Sims that isn't yours?

Guidry!!!! He's frickin' hilarious and just so great. I honestly didn't expect them to put as much into him as they did but I'm glad they did!!! He's the best!! He's no Morgyn, but he's pretty great too.

16. Recreate someone else's Sim in your style.

So this sounds like a lot of fun! But I really don't want to change anyone else's Sim, I know how much we all put into them and they're basically like our babies. They mean a lot, so unless I get explicit consent from someone saying I can use their Sim in my style I'm going to pass out of respect this time.

17. Do you talk about the Sims with people in your life?

Yes! One of my really close friends is the whole reason I'm into editing and mods and stuff! She showed me everything I know and is totally awesome for that. (@jennifermakesstuff on Instagram, go check out she's absolutely amazing and a crocheting god, go do it)

18. How many packs do you own?

.......... I don't want to answer this..... It's honestly a problem..... But I have them all.... Minus the star wars one I just I cannot bring myself to get it, it just looks terrible. But yeah I collect the packs and it's a problem 😅 but if you need advice on what pack to get next I'm your person!

19. How many posts do you have on your blog currently?

141 👀 I uh.... I have nothing else to say about that lol

20. How many drafts do you have currently?

Too many. But they're all like ask games and stuff for my OCs so yup!

21. How many posts are currently in your queue?

Only two 🙃 I need to get back to editing so I can hopefully have some more but I'm sick right now so... Maybe it's time for me to start that gameplay I've been threatening.

22. Have you ever moved blogs?

Okay yes, but not intentionally but I've moved three times? I had a blog for when I first started on tumblr it was for music stuff but I forgot to pass code to it so now it's just there, the other one I had was for my art & make up stuff but it wasn't doing good at all so I just turned it into my personal blog, and then from there I moved to this one! Also I'm avoiding my personal one like the plague right now because of a whole disaster that happened with someone I followed and I don't have the balls to unfollow them so I'm just pretending that account doesn't exist 😅.

23. Are you in any Sims related discords?

Yep! This one right here by the very amazing @clumsyghostie I'm really new to discord so it's the only one I've been apart of (EVER) but everyone has been really nice and friendly!!

24. What are your thoughts on the most recent pack? (Paranormal)

I like it! It added more to the gameplay than past packs have, but I always felt it left something to be desired in the way of CAS and build mode. Spoilers starting here if you care: Also it would've been cool if you could have had more interactions with Temperance like you can with Guidry, and if the specters did more that would be cool too. Either way I think it's good, I wouldn't say it's groundbreaking for the game experience, but it is fun.

25. How many hours have you played the Sims?

Let's find out 3,215 hours 😅 that's board line a problem hahaha if my math is right (it probably isn't because I'm gay and bad at math) that's a hundred and thirty three days straight? Jesus I might need help lol.

26. If you play gameplay, do you play with mods?

I used to! But I play on a regular laptop so it can't really run gameplay mods unfortunately so unless I'm doing edits my game is vanilla.

27. What's the furthest you've gotten on a challenge?

So I'm really bad at challenges! My favorite lately has been rags to riches it's a lot of fun but I always get bored after they get married and pregnant :/ I never know what to do after that because like the challenge is over but I'm so invested in these Sims 😅

Thank you again for the asks! This was a lot of fun 💖 I know I answered all the questions just now but feel free to send me an ask for whatever you want! I love interacting with you all, you're all so amazing 💖💖💖

#get to know the simblr #get to know me #izzy answers things #izzy speaks but i really shouldnt #lilypixels #love ya ash!!!#ask game #ask #send me an ask if you want

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memes-saved-me · 3 years

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I was tagged by: (In no particular order lol) @draculcid @prettyboyporter @deepend-swimmer @allaboardtheussharringrove 😘❤

rules: answer 30 questions and tag however many blogs you want!

Name: Alice

Gender: She/her

Star Sign: Leo♌🦁

Height: 5'6

Time: 3:50am lol

Birthday: 28th of July

Favourite bands: I mean if we're talking favourite until I die, My Chemical Romance🤭 but other than that I'd be here forever listening bands

Last Movie: Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Favourite Solo Artist: I listen to Djo/Joe Keery the most out of all the solo artists I listen to but other than that its random songs from random people lol

Last Show: Does editing a ST video count??😂 Nah, it was Sons of Anarchy but in passing because my mam was watching it

When did I create this blog: Oof idk like 2013ish

What I post: Too much😂

Last thing I googled: I think it was something to do with POTC

Other blogs: I'm too lazy

Do I get asks: Recently yes! And I love it so much!

Why I chose my url: I ran an insta fan account called "5soskilledmysociallife" and then it become "memeskilledmysociallife" and when I ditched Instagram I made an email account for another YouTube channel called memeskilledme@whatever and I accidentally put saved when renaming my blog and just never changed it lmao. It stuck and now I use it for everything because I lowkey find it funny

Following: 1177

Followers: 2166 (I've had this blog a long ass time)

Instruments: *laughs nervously* I go to a music university and do not play and instrument.....I plan events

What am I wearing: Shirt and underwear🤭 because I'm in bed lmao

Dream Job: Personal assistant at conventions or part of a large scale event team involving comic cons or general entertainment industry events

Dream Trip: Oof I have a world made on my wall of places so its hard to pick

Favourite Foods: Pizza, spicy chicken of any kind. Idk oreo icecream

Nationality: British

Favourite song: Dancing with myself by Billy Idol

Last book: I tried to continue Tale of the Body thief but gave up so I have Will my cat eat my eyeballs by my bed incase I get the urge to read anytime soon

Top 3 fictional universes I'd like to live in: Harry Potter is a given. Star Wars because pew pew and himbos galore (Minus the spacw n*zis) and Assassin's Creed because that would be awesome in general

Tagging: (only if you want to!!) @livedsomanylives @withoneheadlight @disdaidal @lazybakerart @fredsythe @scoobydoo-ghoulschool If I missed anyone I'm really sorry its almost 4am and I'm tired lol. Also any anon who has sent me an ask, this goes out to you as well😘

#ily guys #and this fandom #tag game #now I sleep

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beg2differbuilds · 3 years

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simblr asks - answers

Originally from @an0nymousghost

1. how big is your mods folder? I’m not on my gaming computer at the moment but last I remember it was over 21 gigs...or was that 24...

2. how would you describe your style? I’m kind of all over the place but I definitely tend to design lots with modern design, warehouse/factory/industrial, abandoned, Asian-inspired, Southwest or Mexican-style, or just whatever I happen to be in the mood for. And most of the time I build cluttery lots but occasionally I will try to be minimalist.

3. what is your favorite challenge? I haven’t really done any TS4 challenges but I did a few legacies in TS2. I don’t actually play much in TS4 besides building and designing lots.

4. do you make cc? if so, what kind? I haven’t learned to make anything in TS4 yet but in TS2 (and TS1!!) I mostly did clothing and skin recolors as well as floors and wallpapers.

5. what type of cc do you hoard? From my favorite CC creators mostly! The second I see they have new goodies up I have to grab them immediately.

6. what default eyes and skin do you use? TBH I don’t use any or have any CAS CC in TS4. I had a TON in TS2 but I find all that takes up too much space and again I never really actually play the game.

7. how many urls have you had, and what are the meanings behind them? I haven’t had my own website in ages and it was not Sims-related but art-related. I’ve definitely used many usernames in the Sims community though including darkambiance, sushiphobia (whyyy did I make that one, I actually looove sushi), beg2differ (of course!), and maybe a few others.

8. who is your favorite gameplay blog? Hmm, I don’t really follow too many gameplay blogs. I’m mainly here on tumblr to find more CC.

9. who is your favorite storytelling blog? Same as previous.

10. who is your favorite cc creator? I’d definitely consider @novvvas as one of my many faves!

11. how do you edit your photos? I use ReShade (don’t ask me which one, I don’t remember!) and super old-school Adobe Photoshop CS3.

12. what is the last screenshot you took? Of a warehouse-style lot I’m building.

13. what do you do when you are unmotivated? To build? I just live my life. I work not-quite 50 hours a week so if I’m not building it’s because I’m either working nights or recovering from working nights.

14. who is your current favorite sim? I don’t really have one.

15. who is your current favorite sim that is not by you? See previous.

16. recreate someone else’s sim in your style. Don’t really play the game for that.

17. do you talk about sims with people in real life? Tbh if I’m good friends with someone I do talk about it and some of my friends IRL play as well.

18. how many of the packs do you own? All except Star Wars, Paranormal, Snowy Escape, and Spooky Stuff.

19. how many posts do you have on your blog currently? 14 if I”m counting correctly.

20. how many drafts do you have on your blog currently? None. If I want to post something I do. If I don’t, I don’t start to write one.

21. how many posts are in your queue currently? None. I don’t know how to use that feature yet.

22. have you ever moved blogs? Outside of the Sims world, yup. I do still have a Sims-related Livejournal but I haven’t updated it in years.

23. are you in any sims related discord servers? TBH I’m a bit older than most of you all so I haven’t even been on Discord.

24. what are your thoughts on the most recent pack? (paranormal). Eh. I’m not into paranormal stuff so I doubt I’d ever be buying that.

25. how many hours have you played sims? More than I care to think about considering I’ve been a Simmer since TS1 came out.

26. if you play gameplay, do you play with mods? I do have a couple mods installed but I don’t remember which ones because I’m on my work computer.

27. what’s the farthest you’ve gotten in a challenge? In a TS2 legacy I believe I got to about 4 generations before I got bored with it. All I know is you were supposed to make a completely normal human Sim and a horrifically ugly alien Sim and see how many generations it took before you had a beautiful sim again. Or something like that. I had some that looked okay but they all had some weird characteristics or they looked normal but had like blue skin or something.

#nonbuildrelated #ts4 #sims 4 simblr #sims 4 #textonly #asks

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echoequinox · 3 years

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rules: answer 30 questions and tag 20 blogs you wish to know better (i’m not gonna do that lmao). tagged by @hardisonparker

name/nickname: echo! no nicknames, thank god

gender: woman comma trans question mark

star sign: i was born under the sign of the shadow on the first of sun’s height (or cancer, for the boring astrology)

height: 5′ 10″ (blech, tall girl squad)

time: 8:42am - only awake this early for a therapist who isn’t responding

birthday: july 1

favorite bands: at the moment uhhhh i dont... really listen to a lot of band bands. i’ll just say linkin park still

favorite solo artist: matt maeson and porter robinson for fuckin SURE

song stuck in my head: hero too from my hero academia by... chrissy costanza, i think?

last movie: i think my roommate made me watch To All the Boys I Loved Before: The Third One

last show: cw flash!! i’m really into it rn it’s fuckin great, cisco is a gem tbh

when did you create this blog: like..... 2013 i think, it was when i came out

what do I post: rarely anything, i dunno, clowns?

last thing googled: survey says.... elder scrolls star signs for the above joke JFDKSALC

do I get asks: no :) <3

why I chose my url: when i changed my name to echo i wanted to overhaul my brand so i moved from realityengineer/realityassassin to echoequinox. equinox doesn’t actually have any special meaning, it’s just another E word i liked, like echo

following: 286 but i really should go prune that and then follow new blogs with my more recent hyperfixations (like flash and my hero)

followers: i actually have like 400 followers but i keep forgetting followers on tumblr don’t mean shit like they do on twitter - zero fuckin engagement when it’s not people you know personally

average hours of sleep: anywhere from 6-14 hours a day, broken up every two hours by my insane sleep apnea that stops my breathing completely. i snore really bad lmfao

lucky number: lucky? none. i like 7s though, like 7, 17, 27, etc. maybe it’s because they’re usually prime

instruments: so i played trombone in high school (ilu @exrayspex <3) but i dont play anything as of late. i really wanna get into music and make fun music in a daw like fruityloops, which i wholeheartedly believe to be an instrument

what am I wearing: this pink shirt that’s too small for me, like all my shirts. that’s it. the bare minimum of a therapy zoom call

dream job: either novelist or video game designer/writer. i really like writing. i wrote a really smutty monster fucker erotica that i’d love to publish but no one to read and edit it lmao whomp whomp (like it put it up on twitter and it didn’t even get any likes, it was rough)

dream trip: somewhere overseas. i really like italy and i’ve wanted to go to greece since i saw it in mamma mia lmfao

last book I read: OOOOOH the new star wars novel from the high republic uhhh light of the jedi i think. “read” is a strong word - i finished about half of it and got distracted by everything else in my shitty life

favorite food: taco bell, PERIOD. more specifically like... the crunchwrap i guess - lots of meat and cheese, in a convenient to eat package (pro-tip: customize it in ANY way or you’ll get one of the ones sitting on the rack for like an hour). or the quesadilla but you literally have to get extra everything for it to be worth it, but the sauce is to die for. get the app, y’all, you can customize whatever you want super easy, pay for it there, and at the drive thru be like “i have a mobile order for echo” and that’s IT. minimal contact, it’s a godsend

nationality: white (american)

favorite song: uhhh? right now it’s either Hero Too from my hero or Get Your Wish by Porter Robinson 🥺 it feels so painfully trans (also whenever i see porter robinson i think of the “your brother is gnc af” “YOURE INSANE” post because got damn porter is gnc af lmfao)

top three fictional universes: i gueeess i gotta say....... tamriel (elder scrolls), thedas (dragon age), and the my hero universe? yeah that tracks

#ayy #i love being tagged in shit thank you hun lol #personal #text post #tag post

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smokeybrand · 3 years

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Smokey brand Postmortem: You Suck

I don’t really talk about my love for Mortal Kombat near as much as i do for Marvel, Fate, Star Wars, or Batman, but i adore that bloody franchise. Seriously, the vast majority of this blog is just Marvel and Star Wars content but, i mean, I'm an Eighties baby. That was a massive chunk of our childhoods. See? Even in an essay bout Mortal Kombat, Marvel and Star Wars found it’s way into the conversation. I have a problem but that’s not the problem i want to address in this essay. The problem i have with this one, is the f*cking Mortal Kombat release that just dropped. F*ck did they get so much wrong! I haven’t felt this frustrated with a movie since The Old Guard. I wanted this to be a Comparison but, as i tried to coalesce my thoughts about both films, it became mad apparent to me that the Nineties version of this movie would runaway with it. How is it possible that a film which came out twenty-six years ago, sh*ts all over one with modern shooting techniques and effects? How can a PG-13 movie, saturated with tongue-in-cheek camp and constant nods to the camera, do the Enter the Dragon knock-off franchise more justice that the blockbuster, R-rated, third attempt? Yeah, so this is a postmortem now.

Issue: Cole Young

Why? F*cking why? Listen, I'm all for reimaginings. I love when people can take an established work, recontextualize it, and present something new but familiar. That’s why i keep seeing Batman movies. You can only tell that dude’s story so many times but it’s how you present that story which grabs me. I like the idea of Cole. A fresh face for the audience to view these fantastical circumstances through? Good idea. I hate the execution of Cole. Punk ass weenie who literally develops powers by getting his ass kicked, portrayed by an actor who can’t act, but brought in because of his stunt background, only to nerf the physicality of the role, relegating dude’s greatest strength to his greatest weakness? F*cking, why?

Fix 1: Drop Cole Young, Start Liu Kang

Look, Liu Kang IS Mortal Kombat. He’s their Ryu. He’s their Link. He’s their guy. Drop the family. Drop the Scorpion stuff. Drop the professional fight thrower shtick Build him up as a dude who learned all of this in the Buddhist orphanage he grew up in, denying all of it as just legend and storytelling, until he’s attacked by Sub-Zero. Force him to fight Subby-boy, only to get his ass beat without his Arcana, but have Jax save him just in time. Basically follow Cole’s plot going forward with an emphasis on Liu’s training.

Issue: Shang Tsung

Listen, Ng Chin Han is a get. Dude is a decent actor and i enjoyed he take on the shapeshifter but come on? If you’re not trying to do a Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, you’re doing it wrong. Shang Tsung should be snarky, quippy, and overconfident. This dude has won nine straight Mortal Kombat tournaments. It’s fine for him to be conniving and deceitful, Deadly Alliance, but this version of Shang is just too flaccid for the title. Hell, when Tagawa came back for the game, he STILL exuded that same smarmy energy and it was perfect.

Fix 2: Give Shang Tsung more agency

I, personally, love smarmy Shang Tsung but if you want to go different, go brutal. Make Shang the spear head of the offense. Give him a seen where he is just mowing down jobber monks in Raiden’s temple before getting real intimate with Hung Lao. Have Tsung absolutely brutalized Lao as Liu watches, breaking his neck before sucking the sole out of his limp body. You got an R, Lean into that sh*t. You gotta give Liu that Chan moment. Lao’s death not only establishes Shang as a straight up force, but activates Liu’s Arcana, fulfilling the prophecy.

Issue: The f*cking prophecy

Bro, you gotta get rid of all the Scorpion prophecy sh*t. That doesn’t fit. It doesn’t make any sense. The prophecy is supposed to be a foreshadowing of Outworld’s downfall. Tying everything to Scorpion and Sub-Zero just because Ed Boon loves the character is kind of ridiculous. And that’s coming from me, a guy who uses Scorpion as his main since MKI. I love Scorpion, Dude is my favorite character in the entire franchise but giving him such a prominent role in this first film was a mistake.

Fix 3: Make it the Shaolin Prophecy

Have Shang Tsung send Sub-Zero into the Shaolin Temple with a team of Jobbers, probably Tarkatan or other Lin Kuei, and murder everyone. It is whispered that a great champion, kin to Master Kung Lao, would defeat the armies of Outworld, sealing Earthrealm off from the Emperor's grasp. baby Liu and Kung are saved, sent off to an orphanage in the US where they grow up in an orphanage run by a weird old man who tells stories. Eventually, the two separate, Kung returns to their homeland, Liu stays in the states, and they live their lives. Fast forward a bit and Shang gets wind that there are two survivors and he dispatches Sub-Zero to go after Liu. Fast forward to the temple, Liu reconnects with his cousin, Kung, who explains his powers activated during a battle against, let’s say... Baraka? Raiden feels it, recruits Kung Lao, who has been training in the temple ever since. He spars with Liu, teaching him the secrets her learned from Master Bo Rai Cho, until Raiden’s Temple is singed. Everything lays out like it did in the film except Liu watched Lao die at the hand of Shang, his Dragon Arcana activates, and the Sorcerer knows he dun goof’d.

Issue: Fights

The fighting sucked in this, man. It was shot like none of the principal actors were physical enough to pull off the fight scenes, which is ridiculous, because that opening scene was exceptional and those dues are old as f*ck. The dude who plays Scorpion, Hiroyuki Sanada, is f*cking sixty, man. You’re telling me these youngsters with actual stunt backgrounds, can’t give me a scrap as entertaining as a sixty year old man? Word?

Fix 4: Oh, there’s a lot here, bud

First, shoot the scraps better. Holy sh*t, that Taken editing was stupid. We live in an age of John Wick, The Raid, and Jason Bourne films, but you chose to shoot these scenes like this? Really? Bro, no. Hell, the fights in Enter the Dragon are some of the best I've eve seen and that motherf*cker dropped forty-eight years ago. Just do whatever he f*ck they did, just do it with a modern twist. Two, cast motherf*ckers that can believable execute the choreography. The chick that played Sonya in the first one, had to learn her fighting n set during the downtime of production because she as late to the shoot. THAT chick was a more believable fighter than the dude who played Cole and that was his f*cking job before he was an actor! F*cking, how?? Three, hire better stunt coordinators. These fights needed to be plotted out much better. Sure, fatalities are cool and special moves are awesome but they aren’t necessary. Liu Kang through one fireball in the first MK film and it was ll the better for it. I don’t need giant flame dragons and head claps and sh*t, i just need brutal, intense, violence inflicted upon a person. These people are in the fight for their lives. I need to feel that. Four, hire more jobbers. Too many actual named characters died in this movie. Too many actual named characters appeared in this movie. Why the f*ck was Nitara in this?

Look, there’s still SO much i would change about this flick. The costumes, the tone, the choice in music, the writing; All need to be adjusted. I would hold Scorpion back until sequel. Have him breaking out of the Netherrealm as a post credit stinger or something. This movie is broken and i think that’s because WB just made this thing to secure rights or a a backdoor pilot for HBO max content. Either way, this movie is bad, man and it didn’t have to be. You can make dope ass, martial arts films, on the cheap, especially when you “ground them in reality.” Why the f*ck didn’t that happen here? How the f*ck is the budget so high, and the film so cheap looking? I miss the ingenuity of the Eighties. Cats had to figure out how to make sh*t work because CG was too expensive. Now, that sh*t is everywhere and it’s a detriment to film. That sh*t takes casualties out of practical films and Mortal Kombat is definitely one of those.

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toloveawarlord · 4 years

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Author Interview

Eeeek! I was tagged by @alloveroliver and @claire-maccarthy Thanks for the tag!

Name: My blog name is listed as Ruka, but my real name is Bekah so you can call me either. When I first made this blog, I wasn’t comfortable sharing my name online but now, I don’t mind.

Fandoms Now:

Ikemen Revolution, Ikemen Sengoku, Ikemen Vampire, Obey Me, Nightmare Harem, Several Shades of Sadism, Midnight Cinderella, Romance MD, Star Crossed Myth, Kings of Paradise, Scandal in the Spotlight, Kissed by the Baddest Bidder, My Wedding and Seven Rings. Probably a few more that I’ve got on my phone and log into once in a blue moon.

Want to do in the future:

Any of the Cybird games (they own my soul and wallet), So many voltage games I plan to start in the future, too many to name.

Where you post:

Mostly tumblr but I have an Ao3, Fanfiction and wattpad account (under the name moriartyswife)

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story:

“And So They Met” which stars my little baby Alara at 6 years old coming to the mansion under bad circumstances and being adopted by Comte and the boys.

Favorite Story You Wrote:

Can I choose? As far as one shots go, Made a Made is by far a favorite of mine. Multi-chapter... how can I choose between my babies!? Personally, I love The Red Army Princess and The Black Army Mischief Maker. I have to name them both because there made as two sides of a coin, my first ikerev next gen. Eden and Finley will always have a special place in my heart.

Story You were Nervous to Post:

All of them I could probably say Telling Luka. It’s a mini series about Emery dating Luka and getting pregnant with Jonah’s baby. I was afraid of how it would come across. It seems to be pretty popular so that’s good.

How You Choose Your Titles:

It’s a roulette, I throw a dart and just go with it... Just kidding. I try to make all my titles have some meaning within the story. It might be a description of something that happens, or have something to do with the character themselves. Most of my titles tie in to the story. Sometimes with one shots, it’s just word association, but typically, I try to make them mean something.

Completed:

I have 141 One Shots completed.I do have other things for other fandoms posted on my other writing accounts, but for this blog, that’s all I have for now.

Incomplete:

I have posted 77 chapters of various multichapter fics. All of those and add in the amount of OC’s I have in the works which is over 100 (not including all the ikerev next gen babies). Plus, I have some one-shots and requests to fill so I have a lot coming up.

Do you outline:

Yes and no. Most of the time, I wing what I’m writing. I jot down ideas and things that might happen in the future of the story when they come to me. It’s less of an outline more like a pile of notes that I forget that I have until after I’ve written it. I do get ahead of myself when I’m writing, so I’ll grab a little piece of paper and write down some dialogue or scenes that come later in the chapter. And there are rare occasions were I’ll write out an entire chapter, but that’s very rare.

Coming Soon/ Not Yet Started:

I have 3 new Ikevamp Ocs coming in the next few weeks. Amelia Earhart, Mina Van Gogh, and Asha. I’m not sure what order they’ll come in, but they’ll be making their debut soon.

As for Ikerev, Atticus Kingsley is getting his story, which I’ve been nearly completed with for a few months now. Also, my witch Sage is going to be having her first chapter published.

Also there are some Voltage fics I want to publish. I have a romance md first chapter for Hosho’s daughter but I’m unsure if I’m going to post it. Some star crossed myth and Kings of Paradise are on the backburner but I want to post them as well.

AND OBEY ME! I’ve already made 12 ocs for the game and I have a few stories started. My little succubus is definitely my favorite.

Do you accept prompts?

Yes, but I rarely do them. Sometimes if I get in the mood, I’ll start working on them but I just have so many ocs and stories to work on that requests get forgotten about. That doesn’t mean I’ll never do them, it just means that it will take a while. I used to stress about requests a lot. Please feel free to send me a request as my box is always open but I don’t fill requests often. It’s a little hit or miss, because I switch between what I’m obsessively writing, so you kind of have to catch me with whatever I’m posting the most about at the time.

Upcoming Story You are Most Excited About:

Mina Van Gogh! I’ve worked super hard to make the story as accurate as possible, doing research. It’s a story more focused on platonic relationships at first, although she does have a suitor (Charles) but that is not in the foreground in the beginning of the story.

What do you use to edit?

A human being. I don’t do near as much editing on these fics as I do with my original writing. Unless something needs a major overhaul, I simply write what I want and check for mistakes before posting. If I’m looking for a word, I’ll google and search through the Thesaurus for a synonym. Nothing fancy here.

As for actual program that I write with, I used to exclusively use word. Now, I tend to use Tumblr and save the post as a draft. It’s super easy to access from anywhere and I can type on my phone if I want to. I’ve made the mistake more than once of tumblr glitching and eating my posts, so it’s not the most ideal situation..

Writing Set up:

Up until July of 2019, I exclusively sat at my desk. I get distracted very easily, so having a workspace that I only used for writing worked wonders for me. Now that I can’t sit for very long in hard chairs (thanks herniated discs), I usually sit in an arm chair with a little box to put my feet up on.

Most the time, I write with headphones in and listen to piano/instrumental music. Occasionally, I’ll pick one song that fits the story but I find myself singing along and getting distracted if there are words.

Do You Use a Beta Reader?

I have my best friend read over for any mistakes, so I guess, yes. Sometimes if she is busy, I’ll let Word read it out loud to check for missing words.

Where Do You Get Your Writing Inspiration?

From everything. Reading, other writing, tv/movies, real life. I’ve said before that a lot of the speech and actions of the children that I write are based on things I’ve witnessed while working for 10+ years with young children. Talking about the fics with friends also helps. They can help to figure out an ideas.

I would say that a lot of the time, it just comes to me. I’ll be writing something completely different and then an idea will come to mind about another character or story. Like poof, it’s there.

Can we get a quote from an upcoming WIP? Have a few!

Obey upcoming fic:

Verena knew how incredibly lucky she was to have his attention, his touch. Though he cared for all his incubus and succubus but never had he done this. Observing and critiquing, but not joining. “Lord Asmodeus, I-um-”

“No, no. All I want coming from these lips are those sweet, delicious sounds of pleasure.” Golden eyes were filled with delight. This was new, a succubus a completely blank canvas begging to be painted in his colors. Her mind lingered in a muddled state of uncertainty. “I’ve not used an ounce of my charm and yet you’re grinding your hips against mine, clinging to me tightly. You don’t want me to let you go.”

Her cheeks flushed red. It was like she had turned on autopilot, unable to stop her own body from wanting to drown in him. “Please…“

The word drenched in absolute urgency for more.

Ikemen Revolution New OC: Wren Blackwell

“Uncle Fenrir! Uncle Ray!” The ten year old’s voice echoed through the small building laced with surprise and joy. Abandoning his schoolwork for a chance to spend time with his two uncles. Amber eyes sparkled up at the two. Rarely did he get a visit from his family.

Fenrir beamed a grin at him, accepting the welcoming hug. “Reece, ya got taller!” He stopped by any time he came down to the ports, pitching in to help if Wren needed it.

Which meant today must be business. Never did Ray come by her work without warning. Placing down the files in their proper piles, Wren maneuvered through the chaos to emerge from the office. “Reece, you can go out for a break.” She didn’t want him to hear any military discussions, lest he want to join.

“Come on, I’ll buy ya a treat if it’s alright with your mom,” Fenrir offered to the eager boy, glancing to her for the okay.

It was like looking at two needy puppies. “That’s fine.” As Reece raced out the front door, Wren called to the ace with a serious tone. “No guns this time. I’ll kick your ass if you even think about it.”

She received a salute paired with wicked grin. “Yes, ma’am.”

“This time?” Ray questioned, emerald eyes moving from the vacant doorway to his sister.

Ikemen Vampire New OC: Juniper Haywood

Juniper tugged at the door handle, heels digging into the plush carpet as she put all her strength into trying to open the door. It refused to budge. Locked? Unlikely. It must have something to do with why the door only appears at certain times. Now, she was surely stuck until the stars aligned again.

Here’s what she knew.

The hallway led to a mansion. How? Unclear. Why? Also unclear.

In hindsight, there was very little that she actually knew.

**********

Tagging: @plumpblueberry @rikumorimachisgirl @mythiica @emeraldtawny and anyone else who wants to do it! ^_^

#author interview #i write things #sometimes #ikemen revolution #ikerev #about me #ikemen vampire #ikevamp #obey me #other otome games

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dweemeister · 4 years

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When Worlds Collide (1951)

Stop-motion animator György Pál Marczincsak garnered pan-European fame for his pioneering Puppetoons series of short films in the 1930s. Sensing tumult in continental Europe, he fled his native Hungary to Britain as the Nazis rose to power in Germany. With the assistance of Walter Lantz (the creator of Woody Woodpecker), he moved to the United States, changed his name to George Pal, and attained American citizenship. In America, Puppetoons resumed with Paramount Pictures’ financing until 1948. Puppetoons, unlike most stop-motion films, utilized “replacement animation” – a form of stop-motion animation where a new hand-carved, wooden puppet would be used for each photographed frame rather than modifying the same figure for each successive frame. Though Paramount discontinued the series due to its increasing costs, Pal nevertheless remained in good standing with the moviegoing public and the studio’s executives. Transitioning from an animator/director to producer, George Pal took an interest in a genre that – since the silent era’s end – had been relegated to low-budget serial films and comic book stands.

As the world’s nations shuffled to take sides for the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union’s greatest engineering and scientific minds were imagining new possibilities in aerospace. The renewed interest in space flight and scientific discovery led to Paramount’s Destination Moon (1950), produced by Pal. Destination Moon was the first film released by a major American studio to consider a speculative human landing on the Moon. For Pal’s follow-up, he purchased a science fiction property gathering dust at Paramount. The property: When Worlds Collide, based on Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie’s novel of the same name. With acclaimed cinematographer Rudolph Maté (1928’s The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1940’s Foreign Correspondent) as director and providing aesthetic expertise, When Worlds Collide is the origin of all subsequent apocalyptic movies where a celestial body smashes into another celestial body. In two inconsistent films that deem their characters’ humanity as secondary, George Pal rejuvenated an entire film genre in the United States – and Hollywood has never looked back.

In South Africa, astronomer Dr. Emery Bronson (Hayden Rorke) instructs American pilot David Randall (Richard Derr) to pass along confidential, unsealed photographs and research to his American counterpart, Dr. Cole Hendron (Larry Keating). Drs. Bronson and Hendron will warn the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) that a star named Bellus will strike and destroy Earth within a year. Shortly before the projected impact, Bellus’ sole orbiting planet, Zyra, will pass by Earth close enough to wreak gravitational and geologic devastation before the Earth’s ultimate destruction. Bronson and Hendron thus propose the construction of human spaceships – “arks” – to transport human survivors to Zyra just before Bellus arrives. The astronomers are not taken seriously by the UNSC. However, private donors such as wheelchair-bound businessman Sidney Stanton (John Hoyt) provide the necessary funds for the ark’s construction.

Various arks are assembled across Earth, but When Worlds Collide concentrates on the effort spearheaded by Drs. Bronson and Hendron and financed by Stanton. This American ark will also include co-pilot, Dr. George Frye (Stephen Chase), and Dr. Hendron’s daughter/assistant, Joyce (Barbara Rush). Joyce is attracted to David because 1950s science-fiction films always seem to have an obligatory romance.

With an acting lineup filled with B-movie stalwarts and future television stars (who may be recognizable by those who know their ‘50s-‘70s television), When Worlds Collide is hindered by stiff line readings and an emphasis on the mission rather than its human characters. Screenwriter Sydney Boehm (1952’s The Atomic City, 1953’s The Big Heat) has written a procedural screenplay, one where decisions about the ark’s construction, its flightpath, and the selection of its passengers are the film’s primary drama. From that screenplay, only John Hoyt, as the irascible Sydney Stanton, distinguishes himself in the film with his patrician sneering. Disaster films and invasion literature during and prior to the mid-twentieth century typically did not privilege individual viewpoints, and that trends continues in When Worlds Collide.

That is to the film’s benefit and its detriment. It is a mechanical motion picture, with the occasional reminders that humanity, collectively, is staring down its certain destruction. Once Drs. Bronson and Hendron have made their presentation to the UNSC, every character in the film is henceforth defined by the looming apocalypse. Whatever lives they lived outside their work are extinguished in service of constructing the arks. All over the construction facility, numerous signs read:

WASTE ANYTHING EXCEPT TIME TIME IS OUR SHORTEST MATERIAL

The privileged few tasked with the ark’s construction and its piloting are but a fraction of a fraction of humanity. Even among the several hundred persons (unsurprisingly, due to a complete lack of imagination, they are all white) involved, everyone reacts differently to the situation they all share. Some are despairing, believing they have not lived a fulfilling life; some commit to their final purpose, subsuming their emotions in service of a space age Noah’s ark; some are possessive, concluding that their involvement with the ark makes them more worthy than others to embark the ship come doomsday. With precision, the elements comprising the ark’s first and final flight are assembled. Perhaps the most unrealistic aspect of When Worlds Collide is the uncritical adherence to the scientists by the faceless masses who construct the ark (the scientists’ hand-picked survivors are few, but these individuals’ placement on the ark is somehow never questioned). Interpersonal and inter-group conflict does not appear until far later than is realistic – the film’s romantic triangle is devoid of comprehensible motivation other than the fact that the film’s top-billed actor and actress should end up together somehow. Anyways, When Worlds Collide is not depicting a humanity akin to Star Trek at its most utopian. Thus, one must assume there will be at least some level of destructive human ego that confounds the ultimate task. Here the film falters, as the characters become the means to the end.

Maté and Pal choose not to show Zyra’s passing and Bellus’ catastrophic impact. Only their aftermaths are shown. On paper, any similar decision in a modern apocalyptic movie would be hounded across the Internet – but it works for When Worlds Collide. Here, the aftermath of Zyra’s passing is portrayed in a montage of film miniatures, matte paintings (mostly of the ark and its surroundings), and tactful slow-motion. With no computer-generated imagery to assist these scenes, the special effects team outdo themselves. Special effects artists Harry Barndollar (1946’s Cloak and Dagger, 1956’s The Ten Commandments) and Gordon Jennings (1942’s Reap the Wild Wind, 1953’s War of the Worlds) contributed to the miniature-heavy montage of Zyra’s approach. Their colleague, artist Chesley Bonestell (known as the “Father of Modern Space art”, Bonestell also worked on 1941’s Citizen Kane, Destination Moon, and 1953’s War of the Worlds) provided the novel idea of the ark beginning its launch on a one-mile mostly horizontal ramp (the miniature of this ramp was an enormous 700 feet long) rather than the conventional vertical launch.

Zyra’s approach is visceral terror in its timing (the effects are felt several seconds after scientific projections), sharp editing, and mass bedlam. Where the impacting sun will vaporize the Earth’s remaining inhabitants instantly, the passing planet will leave survivors left to wander or repair, perhaps futilely, the pre-apocalyptic wreckage. When Worlds Collide’s final minutes are special effects wizardry, partially redeeming the film of its ill-conceived storytelling and sketchy science. Yet, there could have been more in the film’s final minutes. George Pal envisioned a scene featuring an ark miniature resting on the surface of Zyra. Due to success of Destination Moon, Paramount expedited When Worlds Collide and rejected Pal’s request for an additional $5,000 (almost $50,000 in 2020’s USD) to cap off the Zyra scene. This forced Pal to utilize a Bonestell concept painting instead for Zyra’s surface – and it is too obviously concept art.

When Worlds Collide solidified George Pal as one of Hollywood’s best producers, and Pal already set his eyes on a sequel: After Worlds Collide (based on the novel’s sequel of the same name). But the failure of Conquest of Space (1955) led Paramount to nix the idea. The coming decade saw the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States and an explosion in American science-fiction films. Whether these 1950s sci-fi features contained spacefaring, exploration, or alien invasions, they invariably influenced succeeding entries into the genre that have made it dominant in contemporary Hollywood. George Pal, as a producer uniquely suited to special effects animation, became a science fiction and fantasy film innovator in the second half of his career. When Worlds Collide, though seemingly primeval compared to its sci-fi contemporaries a decade or so after, was fortuitous in its timing and for having George Pal as its producer.

My rating: 7/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

#When Worlds Collide #Rudolph Mate #Rudolph Maté #George Pal #Richard Derr #Barbara Rush #Peter Hansen #John Hoyt #Hayden Rorke #Sydney Boehm #Chesley Bonestell #Harry Barndollar #Gordon Jennings #TCM #My Movie Odyssey

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nny11writes · 4 years

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Hello! I just read Declarations and... OMG it’s amazing! I know it’s unfinished but I’m so thankful that you’ve written that much for me to consume because they’ve absolutely made my day. I wish there was more fics focused on stuff like that! (so well written too!) I read your statement about why it’s on hiatus and completely understand, but was wondering if a chapter would be published anytime soon! No pressure as I understand how personal it is and hope you’ve experienced good things since ❤️

Hello anon! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it! :D Declarations does hold a place very near and dear to my heart, and I’m really happy that it connects so well for people. And I am so sorry that you wrote hoping for the best and will get this answer instead.Because I’ve been trying to figure out how to make this announcement for a few months now and this seems like as good a time as any.I’m sure some people out there have already guessed at this, but I have decided to kill the fic. This is for a few reasons. First, when I go to look at the chapter outlines and try to write my anxiety shoots through the roof. It’s no longer fun to write, instead becoming a slog of trying to balance what little I can create before I become so uncomfortable and nervous that I bail. It’s unfortunate, and I’m sure someone well meaning will say “you should write more for yourself than others, don’t let what they say bother you”. The thing is I do write primarily for myself, but that doesn’t mean that what people say and do doesn’t have consequences or effect me. So in order to keep my writing a fun activity I won’t be continuing on with this particular fic, which does suck because I love it and I would love to feel excited to write for it!The second reason is that I am slowly but surely falling out of the star wars fandom. I do still enjoy it! But it doesn’t follow my every waking moment anymore, my daydreams and writing has shifted to focus now more on She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. So I’m just not as into writing SW these days.Right now my Star Wars fanfic goal is to finish LTTA. I don’t know how much if any SW I’ll write once I’ve gotten than done. This is actually the longest I’ve been able to balance being in two different fandoms, usually I get punched with a new fandom love and can’t stay with whatever I was enjoying before causing kind of a hard break between them. I did push hard to keep my SW stuff alive, and keep engaging with content which I think has helped!But I really don’t know if I’ll write or finish any of the projects I genuinely meant to complete this time last year.That all said, there is some good news for Declarations! While I plan on leaving it where it is on AO3 (as I think that flower scene is sweet and a nice ending point), back when I published the last chapter (which was only in 2019?????? I thought it had been way longer than that) I did already have the next chapter written and just not edited at /all/.So the good news is that I probably will end up posting that chapter in it’s rough state here on tumblr! My original intention with this blog was to post anything and everything here regardless of the quality and make AO3 where I put more polished works. So I plan to take advantage and post that here.It doesn’t have Obi-Wan, but we do get some great Ahsoka & Anakin learning better boundaries!Again, I’m sorry I didn’t have better news to give you. Thank you so much for reading and dropping me an ask! Please feel free to send in more asks about that universe, I’m more than happy to share any and everything about it from meta to characterization choices to what I’d planned for the future of the fic!

#Declarations #Star Wars the Clone Wars #Obi-Wan Kenobi #Ahsoka Tano #Anakin Skywalker #killing fics is hard as fuck #but I think it's necessary for me to be honest with myself and my readers #I know I already said it but #SERIOUSLY THANK YOU #that fic wouldn't have gone anywhere without people who loved it as dearly as I did #and seeing that people are finding it and loving it even now is seriously a big heart eye motherfucker moment #please feel free to ask about Declarations #with it being over officially I am happy to spoil things and give away my takes on it #I'm also down to PM with anyone who would rather do that!#Anonymous

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norcumii · 5 years

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Reblogged from the prior tumbl, originally posted 02/04/2016. Question submitted by @makiruz. Slightly reformatted to avoid a readmore cut and whatnot.

In Full of Sith, they always ask new guests how they got into Star Wars. And you know? That's a good question, how did you got into Star Wars?

HEH. Oooh, that’s a bit of a loaded question. So I’ll give you the short answer, which I suspect would fit the thing you mentioned what I haven’t heard of; and then because I’m a wordy bastard what overshares, the long answer which is more accurate and has content warnings for self harm and suicide.

SHORT ANSWER

It was the 80’s. I was young, in single digits, though I couldn’t tell you exactly what age. I was already dealing with an irregular sleep cycle, though all I knew was I had a flashlight, a pile of books near/on my bed, and a thick pound puppies duvet to read under.

I don’t know if I was in my room or on my way to/from the bathroom, but I could hear my parents watching something downstairs. Swooshy noises, a shrill screee, and some thwoom bzzts.

Of course I went downstairs.

I don’t know if it was episode 5 or 6. I’ve a fondness for 6, but carbonite left a HUGE fucking impression on me, and my parents have always approved of muppets, so Yoda.

I knew I loved it. I didn’t have any toys, though I think somewhere there was a print edition of A New Hope running around. I do recall multiple sleepovers at my grandmother’s place – a tiny house on acres and acres of woods – and she’d sometimes pull out Return of the Jedi and we’d watch it together on her tiny TV. Later on I’d be in bed, staring out at woods and trees that I knew, but seemed huge to a little kid, and I’d dream of Ewoks.

RotJ was Gram’s favorite, and for many years mine, too.

I like Ewoks.

VERY LONG ANSWER

TW: mental illness, depression, self harm, suicide, abuse

In late elementary, early middle school, my brother and I were basically reading ANYTHING we could get our hands on. He sometimes dove into books that didn’t interest me, so I’d read the first of something and then be bored and he’d keep going.

Star Wars EU was one of those. It was too grim for me. I think I didn’t run into any of the really good writers. It was all Han and Luke and Leia on the covers, so take that for what you will. There also was no Wookiepeia, so I was depending heavily on the writers’ abilities to convey things to someone very visual, yet pretty impatient with descriptions, so it never took.

I was in high school when The Phantom Menace came out. Mine honorable brother was off at college, so it was with great excitement on my part, and bemused tolerance on my parents’, that they and I went off to the theater.

On the one hand, I was dazzled.

On the other, there was Jar Jar. There was the fact that I hadn’t been impressed with the re-release of the OT – Han shot first. FITE ME. There was the fact that TPM didn’t feel like Star Wars, which was darker and grittier and…simpler to me.

So I wrote it off. Packed Star Wars away as “one of those things” that I’d been into, but felt like I was moving past. I was obsessed with Gargoyles, I was looking at going to college, and I would keep m’damn ewoks without needing to try to extend that vision with gungans.

College sucked. I went in, not sure if I wanted to go into English, for writing, or Psych, because I had always been what I’d now call The Mom Friend. I met a nice guy who tried, but things never really clicked between us, and there was an interesting bit that he was mad about Star Wars and insisted that I read the Rogue Squadron books.

That was a Good Decision. Dating him, not so much.

I had a huge assortment of Life Issues. Got into an abusive relationship that would end up lasting 14 years. Transferred schools. Got the fucking Psych degree, though literally only by the grace of a professor who didn’t want to see the kid not graduate just ‘cause she couldn’t numbers and I did go in and try. Talked to him and still couldn’t with the maths but the effort was there to bump me a few points above failing.

I was burnt out. I was depressed. I tried killing myself a few times – not very good at it, as you can see. Took up self-harm as a coping mechanism. Failed in the still never successful search for a decent therapist in Pittsburgh. Got a job slinging food, because needed some kind of income, and people without pressure was nice. The keeping on a schedule thing failed, leading to an average of 4 hours sleep a night. Losing contact with family and friends because I couldn’t stand the pressure of “how are you?” and “what’s going on in your life?” Clinging to Warcraft because repetitively farming was better than clawing open my back or neck again, and the people there were ok with some rando dropping out of sight on a dime, and only a persistent few had the grace and spirit to make it past some serious defensive issues of mine.

I stopped writing. Stopped caring about Gargoyles, stopped being able to see into that AU I’d made for myself of a crazy clan and the weird human who survived cancer with them.

Stopped going on IM, for the same reasons I stopped talking to people.

I still kept track of some folks via LiveJournal. A handful of the Gargoyles folks who were determined, gods know why and thank you, since I know several are here on the tumbles and I genuinely love you to bits.

I quit my job after five years, because enough was enough between the fact that it had all the hallmarks of an abusive relationship and I was fucking tired of being a manager without any actual authority, and the endless hamster wheel of hiring and people quitting because it was a nice, but highly dysfunctional place.

I missed the customers, though. Several of them are here too, and it’s kinda funny ‘cause I know in at least one case I talked to them about Star Wars. I still hope they’re not too shellshocked that I kinda went down the rabbit hole pretty deep.

Started getting more sleep. Not less anxiety, not less depressed. Tried out a few depression medications, with very mixed results.

Then one day @dogmatix came into the LJ area I still hung out in. Enthusiastically recommending to all and sundry that if there is even a shred of interest in Star Wars, THERE IS THIS THING YOU SHOULD READ.

She drew a Wookiee. That was a character?

I’d always liked Wookiees.

And I needed something to read.

Star Wars was one of those things, from back in the day before things went to shit. Low investment, since if I didn’t like it or didn’t care, then eh. Whatevs. Dogmatix was one of the Gargs holdouts still in my circle (or whatever it is that I was hovering at the edges of), and in the past I’d liked her recommendations more often than I disliked them.

I’m also endlessly weak to her art.

Wookiee.

So I did that thing. That so many of us here have done. It took me about 2 weeks to get through Re-Entry. It had trouble taking root in the depression, but Obi-Wan going crackers was something I could empathize with and appreciate.

There was the hope that had been missing from the EU novels I’d tried reading back in the day.

There was Wookieepedia, which meant I could stop and see what a Nautolan was. I had tabs open for DAYS so when someone named Adi or Gallia who were apparently the same person? I could see who that was. I got stupidly distressed that Abella didn’t have an entry, until I twigged and checked for a Chitanook, and holy shit I could never tell what character was going to crop up as canon, obscure EU character, or home brewed.

I honestly expected to set it aside, get updates as they happened, and gradually step away because that’s how things were going at the time.

But I still needed something to read, to stave off empty hours when my brain was too full of screaming.

On Ebon Wings. I’d loved The Crow when I’d seen it back in high school, and that story tapped into the powerful visuals and the lovely message I’d adored and in ways I still don’t quite understand it somehow validated that I could be mad and still be ok. Maybe. Maybe not now, but someday.

Maybe.

So I gave in and got a Tumbl. I’d been a stubborn holdout, regularly checking the same half dozen feeds daily because dammit, I don’t wanna go through the trouble and I was close to giving up on LJ and another journaly thing? That was stupid. But I wanted to follow Flamethrower and Dogmatix, and it made it infinitely easier to follow several blogs (and oh GODS one of those is a mutual and holy fuck I swear I screamed the day that happened and it’s still a high to realize).

Dogmatix wrote Möbius and Accidental Timeshare, wherein Venge goes universe hopping. That’s also a weakness of mine.

I’d been kvetching IRL about the treadmill and wanting something to watch, and someone mentioned in Dogmatix’s feed The Clone Wars – which conveniently was on Netflix. So I figured what the hell. I was disinclined to like clones – ‘cause yeesh, they’re the reason the Jedi all died, and yeah, ok, the Order was SERIOUSLY FUCKED UP, but.

I still had never seen Episodes 2 or 3.

I turned on the Clone Wars movie, and within ten minutes I nearly fell off the back of the treadmill due to crying.

THIS was the Star Wars of my youth. THIS was what I remembered. A little grim. Lots of quips.

That sound. Lightsabers igniting. A-wings rumbling overhead. Blasterfire, and that music.

I had to stop and calm down and for the first time in ages WRITE [, because I just had to ramble about how it all hit me in the feels]. I had no idea I’d missed this.

By the end of the movie I’d decided ok, I wanted more. Wasn’t sold on these clone fellas, and damned if I could tell one set of armor from another (this is ALSO due to the treadmill screen being calibrated to be a compromise of a very short person – me – and a very tall person, which means neither person gets a decent view but that’s not what the treadmill tv is for).

I’d been told there was an order to the episodes, but I didn’t care. Continuity is for those who think about the future, and I was still regularly suicidal.

So the first episode I watched was Yoda romping around a planet, playing with droids while three clone troopers tried to babysit his mad little ass.

They had me, all in one episode. I loved these guys. They had individuality, I could tell them apart by the voices (which is sometimes just as important to me as visuals) even if I couldn’t name them, and the personalities –

They were loyal. Their primary concern was old batty Yoda which I had adored as a child because MUPPETS. They were willing to die to keep him safe and there was this lovely reciprocity in taking care of each other and all of them, clones and Jedi alike were doomed to extinction and I don’t think I knew yet HOW the clones were except they weren’t in the OT so there was shit going down.

Tragic figures, loyal found family, incredible voice acting, Batty Old Yoda who OH YEAH FUCKING KICKED SO MUCH ASS I COULD NEVER GET ENOUGH.

I wanted to keep those three clones. I was willing to keep them all.

Final blow, that knocked me into the fandom so hard I’ll be surprised if I ever leave?

THIS.

The origins of Balance. This is the post that started a simple notion, to try to write something when I’d gone….anywhere from 7 to 10 years of not writing A SINGLE. DAMNED. THING of substance – and that was after thinking I might try to get a degree related to it.

Darth Wraith was a tentative idea. I was scared @deadcatwithaflamethrower would be irked I wanted to play in her sandbox (oh my gods I was inserting myself into a conversation with her this amazing person who wrote blindingly well and so damn much and how the FUCK was I daring to speak up about a silly half DREAM I’d had because once again I couldn’t sleep).

Then, because I was trying to break out of the depression, the cycles of mental ill health, and if I was on this tumbls thing, fuck it, I’d try the IM thing again.

I’d been gone long enough that pretty much no one on my contact list was still there. That…was ok. There wasn’t the pressure.

And Dogmatix popped on, asking if I wanted to share details about this Sith Qui-Gon thing.

I had A SCENE. ONE. SCENE. And she was spinning it off into this EPIC, which at first I was gleeful because she had neat ideas and I couldn’t wait to see what she would do with it and then wait, she’s not talking about writing it herself, this is more about something WE could work on.

Thank gods it was IM, because I had a little panic about commitment to a project when I regularly was sure I wasn’t going to see tomorrow and if I didn’t wake up one morning that’d be MORE than ok.

Still. There was that itch. The visuals in my brain. The characters I’d started to like in Flamethrower’s universe, which had formed my mental voices for them.

The only sound in my head for so long was just screaming.

Writing down that scene in Knock On Effect, where Venge meets Wraith – that felt good. It never changed much from the first draft to what was posted. The rest grew, and quickly. It was clear if we were doing this, then there were multiple stories, spanning in universe years.

And then there were spinoffs. Wonderful ideas and plots spiraling away from this one notion, and gods I wanted to write about those glorious clones.

How’d I get into Star Wars?

Chance. One strange little step at a time, and a bunch of miracles and horrors that kept me bleeding but not dying. Damn good fic. The kindness of friends. The generosity of strangers.

The tragedy of a once great order of space monks, and their allies-forced-to-be-betrayers clones.

One little picture, of Qui-Gon Jinn with Sith eyes.

#tumblageddon #reviving from the purge #star wars #tw #self harm #suicide #depression #mental illness #abuse #emotional #Norcumi has Opinions again #deadcatwithaflamethrower #dogmatix #i did not expect to cry when writing this #star wars saved my life #literally

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aziras-art-center-for-the-weird · 5 years

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Art and commissions!

Hey guys! It’s @superwhoavengelock-etc here. This was just a random side blog I made, but @logic-glue convinced me to start up a commission thing. I’d use paypal for payments, and figure out a delivery system with whomever wants to order.

I hope you don’t think prices are outrageous, because what I use to paint can get expensive.

So quick pencil sketches, under 8x11 inches, would range from 5 to 10 US dollars, dependent on size and intricacy. A simple portrait such as below would be like, 5 US dollars because of detail and time.

And 8x11 inches Pencil Work would cost more than 10, depending on intricacy and detail, a pen piece of that size or colored could start at around 15. For example, a piece like crosshatching, like below, I’d do for 20, due to time and detail, as well as the pens used (They were actually really expensive, god they’re pens, wtf market?)

Of course, you decide what you want. Colored pencil work would more than likely be 20 US Dollars as well, as more time goes into it, but colored pencils are usually cheaper.

Now this is where I’m a bit nervous.

I’m very open minded on art, but I will not due charcoal, chalk, or oil. All of which are incredibly expensive here and very messy. However, I like to think I’m very good with watercolor. I’ve posted here before, and I’ve done water color the most. However, the paints are expensive. The ones I currently own were Christmas Gifts and were on sale, but still expensive. As such, a Base colored water color (No real detail and shadowing) at 8x11 Inches I’d like to start out at 25. I thought about 30, but that seems to high, considering I’m not popular or super incredibly talented. I’m willing to do an exchange for some shameless promoting maybe?

To elaborate, I perfectly willing to do animals, humans, fandoms (please clarify, because I there is a strong chance I don’t know the fandom. I’m a Marvel, Supernatural, Doctor Who, Sherlock, Harry Potter, Warcraft, Star Wars, DC persons, along with a couple Animes like Fairy Tail and Soul Eater. I might know it, I might not) SFW work with have a 97% chance of being agreed to unless the content is something I don't know (like a fandom). As for NSFW work, I mean, I’m uh, okay I guess with nudity, but sexual content is not something I will do. I mean, if female presenting nipples are asked for, okay. A Man’s dick, eh, I’ll try and be a bit embarrassed. Sex, no. Sorry. Oh, and no fucking pedophilia. I know you all aren’t like that, but “Minor Attracted Person” is another way of saying “I’m a sick fuck” (I mean people out of your age range, if your 18 dating 16 17 whatever, but under 13 14 is *shudders* even 15 is stretching it for an 18 year old. it isn’t the gap, it’s the age guys) Incestuous content is a firm No, even if it’s SFW. Sorry not Sorry guys.

If you a monster lover, that’s cool, just remember the above. I think that’s it there, sorry if I ranted a bit.

Back on track, anything bigger than 8x11 inches would be 30 dollars at base color, maybe more depending on size. I’d put pricing higher for more detailed and shadowed paintings.

And intricate background would maybe raise that price as well.

Despite how often I do it, I prefer water coloring to Digital Art. If someone wants a digital piece, I think we can talk about it.

Specialized Pieces, like Scratch art such as below would have a specialized price dependent on content. Scratch paper is expensive Lol.

As for the water color paintings, several examples are below, you may have seen some of them. Please understand, if you would like the shinier look, metallic paints are expensive. I might keep the same price but *shrugs*.

The above image is 10 1/2 inches by 14 inches, made with watercolor and metallic water based paints, outline in sharpie. In total, this took me almost ten hours to complete. The intended image is an almost tribal/forest wolf, transitioned into flowers, each with a significant meaning.

This image is 11 inches by 14 inches, with loose water color. It is outlined in sharpie. Line art is in the back, and perhaps took me longer than the other image to complete. Before anyone comments, sometimes my style shifts without me realizing it.

Pardon the light glare, my fan was overhead. This is a personalized image made for someone’s birthday. The above image uses loose water color and the metallic water color, as well as a white marker and light sharpie to highlight certain features and took me perhaps seven total hours to perfect.

This is an image I have posted before on my main blog @superwhoavengelock-etc, and there was some editing to make the image brighter due to the darker light of the room so as to extenuate the metallic shine to the wings. This was made with watercolor and the same metallic paints in the wings, halo, and moon in the back. I did use black paint to highlight some lining in the wings, and sharpie for finer lines. If you do not wish to have lining (as in outlining or even small lines to emphasize certain features, please tell me. I usually do one or the other, dependent on which makes it look better) The watermark was made when my main was called SabrielTrash ignore me I’m weird.

I really hope you guys are okay with commissioning me here. I swear to uphold confidentiality and other private conversations or information during our dealings/contracts or whatever they are. @logic-glue shared with me this (please note this is a chklist and guide, not an actual binding contract) helpful PDF to solidify things.

But, yeah. I hope you all take a look and decided what you want. I started this to help my mother pay for my college in the future, and other expensives. I’m not saying this for pity or guilt tripping, because I have wanted to do this, but @logic-glue and our financial situation convinced me to push forward. Payment would be done through PayPal.

Many Thanks! Fandoms I am comfortable with are down below in the tags after the first three!

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calzonekestis · 6 years

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So, I’m older. I’ve got about 1130 followers. Gonna give a shout out to my homies, with a follow forever/bias list thing where I also compliment y’all bc you deserve it.

@prof-anity Davis is my best friend in the world. Davis is my best friend in the sea.

@thelordvader Bethany is the coolest nerd I know. She’s smart, witty, pretty (selfie game unparalleled), and pretty… much always right. We had been mutuals for years but somehow over the past two years or so became friends and it is still an honor.

@viktorfrankensteins Listen I’ve followed Royan for a while bc Bethany did and I trust Bethany’s judgement, but in just a matter of a few months Royan somehow managed to become one of my most beloved and valued friends. I’ve only known her for a short while but if anything happened to her I would kill everyone on this hell site and then myself.

@jjoelswatch Sarah is honestly one of the first people I remember following on tumblr, like back around 2012, and it’s bc of her I became exposed to Bethany and like… I don’t even know when we really became friends? After being mutuals for so long, it just sort of happened and she’s been a constant and comforting presence ever since. Except when she sends me sad Star Wars videos. That’s not comforting. She’s one good natured people I’ve encountered on the internet tho.

@thealbooty Alberto is someone I met through Davis years ago, and again, I don’t even know how it happened. One day they were just there, and tho I don’t talk to them nearly enough they are just one of the nicest and raddest people you could meet. I’ve seen them grow from a youngling into an Adult, and gosh, the word could use more people like them. Kind, pure, smart, amazing, spectacular. Killer eyebrows, tbh.

@frostborn is someone who I believe I first encountered through the wonderful ladies listen above, and she herself is just really nice and awesome? She’s another person I don’t talk to nearly enough, but she’s just a lovely presence on my dash. Always liking and reblogging things, making me feel valid.

@rocktheholygrail Dana makes gifs and things, and is always willing to let me exploit her skill by taking requests. She’s also just super chill and friendly, and likes my selfies when I post them, ergo she also makes me feel valid. We also enjoy the same terrible bleached asshole, which I’m not gonna give any context for whatsoever. That’s a bond that connects us tho~

@readytocomply IDEK how or when I started following Stef. She’s another person who is just super nice and chill. She’s talented when it comes to both edits and cosplay. She’s just a great person and I’m glad I know her.

@uncleclustersthirdbrain and @helenawayne, I hope you’re not offended by me lumping you together, but I mean… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Two people who I also first encountered around 2012ish, when I was an obnoxious outspoken teenager. We kind of drifted apart and fell out of touch for a while, but we reconnected actually around this time last year. Because Donnie’s fucking talented, and I wanted to reach out and tell him that I was happy for him/proud of him. Buy his comics here. Morgan ofc is also talented, and has a YouTube channel here. They’re just both good people, who care about people, and they have a cute dog.

@88ecto Derek is someone I’ve respected for going on a decade but somehow over the past year or so, we’ve become really good friends? I’m not even sure how that happened, it’s still surreal for me. He’s actually the one person on this list I’ve had the pleasure of actually meeting. Not to sound like a broken record, but he truly is just a good person. Also, plug.

@apol-lo Cristian. Again, someone who I don’t talk to nearly enough. He’s a good person. Another person who I’ve seen grow up, better himself. He should be proud, cause I’m proud of him. You’ve did alright for yourself, buddy.

@diaryofawriter Again, I don’t remember I met Jess tbh. She’s just been another presence. Whenever I need to rant or vent, she’s there to provide an ear or distraction. Good writer, good friend. She’s rad.

@fullonzombae Kim also likes the bleached asshole. No, I still won’t give you context. She’s got a kind heart, a sharp wit, and is a talented writer. She’s also British, so that automatically gives her some class.

@timelessmulder Emily-Alice and I aren’t even the same fandoms anymore but I wouldn’t recognize my dash without them. Again, they’ve followed me since my tumblr beginnings. She has seen things. The highs, and the lows. A rational and grounded person, who is lovely and deserves good things.

@kryptonians I think I encountered Gil through Davis? I’m not sure. He’s just a good dude. Decent. Rational, funny, and all around good people. He likes Superman. That makes him alright in my book. Pretty much all of my DC exposure comes from his blog these days.

@thejazzdalek Max is another awesome guy who has been a mutual for ages, and that I don’t talk to enough. There’s a pattern here. We have a lot of the same fandoms though, and he’s always been friendly towards me.

@cimikat It’s Katie’s fault I started watching critical role, tbh. Yet another person I’ve followed since the beginning of time. Or at least, 2012. She’s just really sweet and chill. Marvel, Star Wars, whatever content she puts on my dash is Good Content.

@chujo-hime Stacy was “tumblr famous” imo and I remember having a mini freakout when she first followed me. Again, just a constant and friendly presence. A voice of reason, and back during the fandom wankery and ship wars that were going around 2013 or so… that was hard to find. Nothing but respect for her.

@ilikethequiet Ally is the photoshop fairy, and another friend who lets me exploit her talents. She reminds me of Bubbles from Power Puff Girls tbh. Really endearing and happy and fun, tho she’s not afraid to call out bullshit when she needs to. We need to talk more/write together more, friend.

@dreamimpcssiblethings Kath, you honestly are the sweetest person I think I’ve ever met tbh. We don’t talk as much as we used to, and that’s on me. You’re smart, and I love listening to you ramble on about things you’re passionate about and I’m sorry I suck and usually only reply with emojis. You’re another person the world could do to have more people like, but you’re one of a kind my friend.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten someone, and if I have, I’m truly sorry. It’s not a slight. Ilu. I know there are some people I’ve left off bc they’re not really that active anymore on tumblr so.

Also. @mulaney. Notice me.

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whitetrashjj · 6 years

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Lara’s birthday mutual appreciation rant

Anyway as of 50 minutes ago, it’s my birthday and I’ve been playing tennis all day so naturally, I’m drunk.

So feeling the love and affection right now, I thought why not show some appreciation to all my mutuals who are amazing and I love.

there is a good chance I’ll regret this when I’m sober but lets take that gamble

Let’s start with a blanket statement, which is how happy even having mutuals makes me. Things from seeing my mutuals on my dash to seeing my posts on my dash and even just seeing that little *reblogged from* you thing makes me smile. Every time any of you say my name in your tags, it just remind me that you are real people and that I am real and some how I am connected to all these amazing people from around the world. i don’t even care if sometimes you have to check my description to remember my name

Having an outlet where I can share my thoughts and feelings on these stupid things I get obsessed with is amazing, and the fact that even one of you would listen to my stupid rants means the most to. I honestly think this is something we take for granted and some times we focus to much on the negative but tonight we are sharing the love, because we need more of that in this world.

In all honesty I don’t talk to many of you, and the ones that I do it’s only been once or twice. Please don’t take this the wrong way, mostly I think that I’m not that interesting, so why would you want to talk to me ? If I ever drop out of a conversation randomly it’s because I think I’m boring you and I don’t want to bother you even if you messaged me first . If I never message you first I promise it’s not because I don’t want to talk, but more my brain tells me you only wanted to talk once about that specific topic and then never wanted to interact again. But I promise if you want to talk to me, I’m always game.

That fact that you all continue to follow me and support me even when i’m posting and talking shit, or go through phases of shows that you don’t watch, or post about characters or ship that you don’t like, or sometimes actively hate (*cough*murven*cough*), really does mean alot in this small little world and i want to thank all of you for it...

Now onto some specifics... in no particular order

@clarkegriffintitties - i followed you because of you’re url because eternal mood, lets be real. I’m pretty sure I’ve told you this before, another drunk lara declaration, but not a single regret because you are officially my #1 crush, according to Tumblr. So keep doing your thang boo !

@eizagonzalezs - oh meg, a fellow cora hale stan. the literal reason I started watching the 100, you know back in the day when i thought they were canon and their names were the other way around. and ofcourse one of my murvensource gals. follow forever and eternal devotion !

@madigriffen - my other murvensource gal! i’m eternal grateful for you kat because I no longer feel like I’m single handedly coming out with murven content! im both shocked and impressed how quickly you have gained followers, but not at all surprised because you deserve every single on of them.

@blarke - maggie. you gave me this url. and that should be enough to express how much i appreciate you. but it’s not. you love for the boys from my old url, gendry and bell will always be remembered. and i wish you came and talked to me sooner because i honestly can’t remember what it’s like not to follow you, they must have been dark times. ALSO when I was stalking your about page when i first followed you i noticed our birthdays were one day apart, same year and all (different time zones but whatever) and that really excited me, so happy late birthday and hope you’re pumped for your 20′s!

@clarkebell - without a doubt one of my favourite mutuals. can i say, even though you seem like the sweetest most approachable people you intimidate the hell out of me. because you are pretty af, seem so cool and are all around just amazing. also i always love a fellow aussie, you are a blues supporter but i guess i can let that slide

@starboybellamy - i feel the thing i will always associate with you is the ‘my husband doesn’t understand the meaning of fucking hurry’ text post because it was the most unintentionally blarke thing ever. i always live for you’re bfsn, partly because you’re usually drinking and/or drunk and i respect that, mainly because you are gorgeous ..

@bellofthesky - i followed you because tumblr wouldn’t stop recommending you’re blog. and for once they got something right! despite me not having followed you for very long (5th most recent follow) you are one of my top 9 tumblr crushes. basically, i feel you’re content boo so keep it up xx

@bellarkes-hope - how long have we been mutuals? about a month. how long have i thought we’ve been mutuals? like all year. not much to say other than i dropped the ball, I've corrected that mistake and i’m now out here living my best life will you on my dash

@bb-8 - have i watched a single star wars movie? nope. did i squeal with excitement for you when you got this url? of-fucking-course! cody, you are the queen of icons and an amazing person. and anyone who loves anne bonny as much as i do will always be loved and respected in this house

@sanssa - a multifandom blog that is actually consistently multifandom? sorcery or just an icon? maybe both. Kyra, i feel like you were out there giving me love and supporting me back when i barely had any mutuals and for that you will always have a special place in my heart. i will admit i lost you for a minute there with url changes but i found you again of course you just moved to a different sansa stark url

@blueshirtbell - Isla you are probably the person who uses my name in the tags the most often and every time it makes me feel warm and fuzzy. also you’re comments on my bfsn are always so sweet and make me smile. you truely are a great person and i feel like everyone in you’re life is better off for it

@bellamynochillblake - you’re ship and let ship attitude is truly an inspiration, and lets be honest a massive relief at times when this fandom can become a negative mess!

@jarleene - as the author of some of my fave murven fics you will always deserve a special mention. when i saw you updated crazy recently i couldn’t stop smiling. that fic has been a slow process but worth every wait, i couldn’t care less if it ever gets finished because even having any of it is truly a gift!

@hvitserkk - desirae, you followed me soon after i followed you. why? i’ll never know. but you’re url alone is enough reason to love you. in this brief time i’ve already learnt so much from you about colourings and you are always my first stop to learn more! and eternal thank yous for getting me onto animal kingdom

@lieutenantshaw - im? not? worthy? im not sure why i feel this way.. maybe it’s the amazing edits or the whole aesthetic or maybe that your whole blog seems well thought out and clean and i feel like you looking at my blog would kinda be like that ‘damn bitch you live like this?’ picture.. do you feel like you’re blog is like that ? idk,, but if you are happy following me you do you cause it makes me feel good :)

the rest of my mutals - not because i love you less or don’t have anything to say about you but simply because i’m coming down, i’m tired and lazy as all fuck.

if you want a paragraph about why you are amazing swing into my ask box because i guarantee you I’ve got one ;)

@bellammy @p-tonkins @halfbloodduchess @the-most-beautiful-broom @octannibal-blake @failing-at-being-an-angel @diyozaa @niylvh @blakes-griffin @joncthanmurphy @johnmurphe @pandalandalopalis @izzycheeese @grumpymonty @tracylorde @bellamyblakesass @clarkesgrfin @a-timely-interruption @clorkegriffin @platonic-bellarke @abugonahotplate @smoakedvigilanties @beelarkes @inajohncriminalway @kaymarie195 @vixiously @otakujess @harpersmcintyred @the100lunarsship @vulgarvixen4 @head-and-heart @the-ships-to-rule-them-all @deadshotbellamy @fuckitforgendry @spaaleb

a few things before i go to bed..

if you read your paragraph and gone ‘damn girl that aint me’, so sorry i am drunk and easily confused

if i have tagged you and you are no longer/never was a mutual, many apologies and best of luck in your future endeavours

if you don’t like this feel free to completely ignore it, i wont mind :)

much love, drunk lara x

#t: ignore me #idk what to tag this?

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