why do youtubers always give themselves really thin heads in their icons. not like they remove any fat (altho they often do that too, getting outrageously sharp cheekbones), but 80% of drawn icons have really skinny anime villain ass heads. let your head be round its okay

Hi! I love your art specially Jaime with short hair and i was asking myself how you do it? I have tried drawing short curly hair but never works :(

Also slutty Jaime is better Jaime 🤣

thanks!! and honestly, researching how curly hair sits on the hair + how curly hair generally works helps out a lot lool. i think it's pretty useful if you keep like a reference board with a bunch of examples of the kind of hair that you want to draw, and just refer to that when you're stuck on something. anyway, how i approach curly is typically like this:

(under the cut bc it got pretty long!)

here is the kind of research i would've done beforehand. i took examples from people who i think will have the same hair texture as jaime, but obvs ur references depend on who or what your drawing. what you're want to look out for is to know where the scalp is, the silhouette of the hair (or the general shape of it), and how the hair is sitting on the scalp.

here we can see that the hair poofs out a bit from the scalp but the style gradiates downwards by the end. it's at its tallest at the crown of the head, and there's a space on the side where the hair ascends before curving.

and if you take a look closer to the references, you can see how the hair strands are shaped. i tend to draw hair in clumps so i observe them that way. this depends on how you like to draw obviously, but for me, it usually goes something like this:

so combining what i researched before above and that, my idea of how ill draw curly hair would be like

and bc of it's curved shape, the hair strands--since they are not curling in the same direction after all-- are pushing away from each other which gives it a lift and it gives that kind of poofy look-- as opposed to straight hair which just falls downwards

i think the key thing to keep in mind is that you're not drawing a hat or a wig. if you want to keep it organic, you have to show how the hair is growing from the scalp. there are other factors to take into consideration too since hair differs from person to person so stuff like length, hair texture, the hair quality etc. they all differ depending on the character that you're drawing but they're all really helpful things to keep in mind!

anyway, how i draw jaime's hair is usually like this:

i like making a rough draft beforehand because i don't want to redo anything when im drawing the lineart lool. anyway, in that draft you can see how i want the hair to be shaped plus where the hair parting is, the sideburns, etc. i also like styling jaime's hair a bit as in it gets shorter in the nape of the neck--which i think would be inaccurate for his setting--but i dont care it looks good lmao. you can also see how im gonna draw the hair strands + i tried to make the direction of the curls go differently from each other since it looks organic that way imo.

and this is the final product!! you can see that i kept the general curved shape for the curls but i also added extra tails to show that his hair growing a bit. i also added extra singular strands so his hair looks more unkempt. i differed from the draft though and made the back of jaime's hair a bit more shaggier than planned, but other than this is what i wanted to go for in the draft so im pretty pleased with it.

another tip i have though is to make sure to turn off the sketching layers from time to time and see how the end product is looking like. sometimes the shape might end up looking a bit goofier than how you wanted it (speaking from personal experience) so don't be afraid to erase and add on parts!!

but i hope this helps!! really, my biggest suggestion is to just do a bit of research first to get a general gist of how it works before drawing it. sometimes, tutorials show you how to draw it but not exactly why you should draw it that way and for me personally, knowing why it works like that gives me a clearer understanding of how to approach the subject.

anyway if you have any questions or if you want me to explain something in further detail, my ask or dm is always open 🥰💖💖

How would you describe the relationship between each respective goggleboy and 'rival'? Ive seen different interpretations but im curious what you think! Not to mention that the fans are sometimes arguing over who the 'rival' actually is, like with Daisuke where some people say its Ken and others say its Takeru. (I dont think there are actual rivals in the show, except for maybe Manga!Kiriha who outright says he will be just that with Taiki.)

One thing to keep in mind is that the word "rival" has kind of integrated itself into anime lingo as a full-on English loanword, so it comes from expectations of anime tropes more than anything. While even official staff has used that word in talking about Digimon, as you say, it never really fit to begin with, because not only has Digimon TV anime never been a particularly conventional shounen series in many ways, that term was also mostly coined in light of series where that term made a lot more sense. As in, they were more likely to be actually competing over something (in sports, or something tournament-based like card games); in that sense, a "rival" would be someone who might be antagonistic by being on the other side of the field, but would have a mutually positive relationship with the other person overall because the competitiveness would keep both of them on their toes and allow both of them to improve together. Digimon is not the first time this term has started getting overapplied to contexts where it doesn't really fit at all (it's been going on in Super Sentai for years), so people generally have a greater perception of it broadly meaning "two characters who have differing opinions on how something should be done due to their differing personalities, and sometimes fight over it", but in Digimon especially, it really does seem like trying to smash a square peg into a round hole.

The short answer: Xros Wars is probably the only one you can make a real argument for.

The long answer, in detail:

Adventure: I cannot emphasize enough that Adventure, being a series that was really big on that whole trope subversion thing, is a series that casts the trope of "rivalry" as "getting in a lot of fights" as a bad thing -- it's actually pretty unsubtle about it, because the word "rival" itself is explicitly used in Adventure episode 44, by Jureimon trying to manipulate Yamato. Or, in other words, "hey, if you saw someone who's supposed to be your supportive friend as someone you had to constantly compete against for no good reason, wouldn't that be really messed up?" Adventure does not even bother with or remotely believe in the idea that fighting somehow is a sign of how good friends you are, at least, not as long as that fighting is a sign of genuine hostility and refusal to communicate (which is why Yamato punching Taichi in 02 doesn't count). Every time Taichi and Yamato got in a fight back in Adventure, it was heated and ugly, and everyone in their presence was horrified, and once they sorted out their issues in Adventure, their appearances in 02 and Kizuna involved properly talking things out and making an active attempt to understand each other's feelings. There's a bit of bickering between them due to said opposing personalities, but it's never over anything serious (see the contrast in Kizuna between them having a bit of a minor row at the beginning, but high-fiving right after and spending the rest of the movie practically counseling each other).

02: Straight-up does not exist. Daisuke may have seen Takeru in that way due to the Hikari issue at first, but he was really running in circles getting absolutely nowhere about it, Takeru was mostly like "okay, you have fun with that," their only major argument about anything was the very serious issue in 02 episode 11, and it still resulted in Daisuke trying to understand Takeru's feelings. I think all of it boils down to Daisuke himself just not having that kind of personality to begin with, because he's friendly and supportive before anything else, and the whole thing with Takeru became a non-issue after a fashion (way before we even get into Kizuna, at that). Ken has the word "rival" sometimes applied to him in official franchise media, but nobody ever believes it. Sure, Daisuke and Ken have fairly complementary personalities, but they seem to both be aware of this fact and actively using it to help each other. It's very, very, very hard to imagine them ever getting into any kind of fight the way Taichi and Yamato used to in Adventure. It's just not happening! They're "best friends" who enjoy each other's company and actively hang out, and...yeah, that's it.

Tamers: Also does not exist! I know a lot of people really try to say it's Ruki because she's the one with the lone-wolf attitude and aggravated Takato at first, but my impression of Takato's attitude with her wasn't out of any competition but more that he'd like it if she didn't try to pick fights with him. Which she does actually stop after a while, mind you, and you could even make an argument that she's more of a foil to Jian than Takato, because Jian's the one who was completely pacifist at first, with Takato caught in the middle. In the end, Ruki never actually attains a particularly close relationship with Takato compared to Jian, nor does she really keep up a particular competitive streak with Takato; she kind of pops in and out at her leisure because of her more independent streak, and Jian ends up more of Takato's right-hand man (which is why the franchise presumably picks him as the secondary character to feature whenever they do "secondary characters"), but neither Takato nor Jian are prone to conflict and the entire trope is just fundamentally absent. The Tamers trio, is, ultimately, a trio.

Frontier: Takuya and Kouji are probably the first pair to really look like a proper execution of the trope, and at the very least they align pretty perfectly to how it's known in Sentai: a more hot-headed, aggressive lead with a more cool-headed and cynical right-hand man, where they end up often prone to conflict over dispute on how to best lead the team. However, while it's much more of a conventional execution than Adventure (since Adventure had Yamato actually be more prone to being an emotional fuse bomb whereas Taichi was often too chill more than anything), there being any conflict isn’t gone into that deeply beyond just "their personalities are complementary", and in that sense it's not far off from Adventure itself.

Savers: The series kind of baits you into thinking it might go this way when Nanami taunts Tohma about how he had to resort to a Masaru-esque tactic to beat her (it's one of its early red herrings about Tohma supposedly betraying the group), and it does have traces at the start because of how blatant of a foil Tohma is to Masaru, but one thing important to consider is that while the "rivalry" of what's being competed over is barely even relevant in most Digimon series to begin with, Masaru and Tohma don't even have a "group" to lead -- they're the employees under DATS who are being given orders from above, and are dealing with situations as they come. Masaru ends up leading the charge a bit, but he's not actually a leader in any shape or form, and Savers is more of a story of Masaru's coming-of-age than anything else, so while the series mostly has to do with his personal philosophy more than Tohma's, it ultimately lets the two of them pursue their lives their own ways. Masaru's worst bout of infamous anger is at being hurt over Tohma's apparent betrayal, not against him personally.

Xros Wars: I would say this is the only series to date where the term "rivals" properly applies, and it's because they're fighting over something concrete: the Code Crowns, and eventually Digital World territory. So in this case, for the first two parts, the answer is obviously Kiriha; Nene was a rival at first, but after various events happened she allied with Xros Heart early into Death Generals, and while Taiki and Kiriha had a relationship of mutual respect, Kiriha still considered him an opponent over what they were competing for until eventually the Xros Heart United Army fully came into formation. In the manga version, Kiriha does invoke the word "rival" in the above sense of competing to polish one's skills, but ironically, its version of the Death Generals arc involves them being much more in-tune with the same goals, so it might actually apply less because Taiki kind of responds with "uh, sure...?" since he's not nearly as interested in self-improvement. In Hunters, while it initially seems like it might be Yuu, the answer is really Ryouma, and note that Ryouma never really forms a particularly close relationship with Tagiru; it's just that he's the person most at the forefront for competing with Tagiru in the Hunt, to the point he's the first person chosen to wield the Brave Snatcher and turns out to be a bit of a foil for Tagiru in terms of actually having admired Taiki this whole time.

Appmon: Also does not exist. Rei tried to do the whole schtick in terms of competing for the Seven Code Appmon at first, but Haru was having none of that and immediately reached out to him emotionally, worrying about his welfare, and although Rei had a bit of a detached relationship with the other Appli Drivers thereafter, it really was friendly more than anything, just a bit awkward. Haru and Yuujin aren't even on the table, since their relationship is "best friends" akin to Daisuke and Ken.

Adventure: reboot: Also does not exist, considering that Taichi and Yamato bickering over the best way to approach things is limited to the very beginning of the series (and one of those times was with Yamato and Sora, not Yamato and Taichi, at that). In fact, I think most of these kids have been acting separately for most of the series anyway...?

Im like right on the due date lol Can I get a match-up for creepypasta? And if you allow can you add nsfw to it? 🤣

My appearance: I'm about 5'4 and im pear shaped, I have hazel eyes, and strawberry/ blond/brown hair (I dye it a lot the last color I had was red and when I was going back to my normal color it left a pinkish red undertone to it), I'm ghostly pale, I have slight bit of freckles on my cheeks, I'm a tad bit chubby but oh well that just make me soft to hug, you'll usually catch me in a tye dye jacket with peace signs on it

My personality: I'm known to be subtly chaotic, I make jokes at the worst times and sometimes they can be mean without me meaning to be mean, I lack a filter so I can sometimes be to straightforward, im imaginative I express things through either music writing or art, i love animals more the people most of the time, im very stubborn, I can either be the mom friend or the friend that's feral, im not the best with words I usually show my feelings through actions

My likes: I love tarot, I'm into astrology (im a libra/scorpio cusp), I love animals I have a pet hedgehog, I enjoy doing art, I love music (est 40s through 90s music), I like musicals, I enjoy dancing with a partner (I only really know how to waltz but I like it), i love naps especially when its raining, I like neck kisses, I enjoy cuddling, im a theater kid so I also love acting

My dislikes: i hate being ignored, drunks, my anxiety disorder, a lot of food I have a sensory problem so a lot of different foods freak me out, out of nowhere calls, when someone tests me

Sexuality: im pansexual but I lean more towards men and I'm open minded so im not opposed to polyamorous relationships as long as its close-knit (as in we all love each other not just us loving one person)

Extra: my dream date is being at a gas station at 2 AM in the morning sitting in the corner drinking slushies and having deep discussions. I have ADD, generalized anxiety disorder and depression. I'm a bit obsessive and possesvie due to being from a divorced family (dad cheated on mom ect.). Im definitely a switch in bed. I'm not energetic but I enjoy energetic peoples company. I'm known to have a bit of a hipster aesthetic.

NSFW info:im a try everything at least once unless its something im very uncomfortable with. Im a switch. I don't mind bdsm. I do like pet play and I'm also known to be a bit of a mommy ngl.

I match you with: Laughing Jack!

In honesty, Laughing Jack didn't like you when he first set eyes upon you. The beginning of your relationship was quite rough. He disliked your loud colors, and the subtle way you accidentally insulted him while joking around with the clown.

But he kept finding excuses to be around you. He had to take the long way, through the lounge area of the manor, and pass you to get to the back door. It was good exercise, that's all. And it was absolutely insulting to think that he asked you to step to the side JUST so he could catch a glimpse of eye contact. Preposterous.

He started liking your colors, and your love for animals, and especially the way he always found you by the large window in the game room whenever it was raining. Jack started to realize that you two had more much more in common than he originally thought, and he wanted your acquaintance to eventually blossom into a friendship.

The gaze from his muted gray eyes started lingering on you whenever you were conversing, and one day he even brought an animal from home to watch you smile. (Snuggles the two-headed lizard adored your tye-dye very much).

He asked you on a date, and unfortunately it went completely haywire. Nothing was prepared at dinner, the theatre closed early due to a water leak, so you two resorted to drinking slushies on a gas station curb and counting red cars that passed by.

Jack definitely has that chaotic, slightly unhinged behavior that completes the balance of two dangerously insane feral creatures. Jack is a huge fucking instigator, and will usually be the one to propose something dangerous because it will be 'fun'.

Jack suffers from abandonment issues, depression, touch starvation, the whole shebang. He will gladly accept your possessivness. In fact, one might just say he thrives off of it.

capella and rigel

au where you don’t see color until you meet your soulmate. they come to you one at a time the longer you’re together.

word count: 2,530

a.n.: you guys are BREAKING MY HEART you’ve been so sweet and receptive with the last one ( sing to me ) im such a mess ( ´༎ຶv༎ຶ`) i SEE YOU i WILL kiss you i am not playing. anyway!! im posting these soulmate works in an order backwards from which i started - which is funny, because that way it goes from least angstish to most. 

here are the others!

Shinso

Sero

Bakugou

ao3

When the blue exploded, you weren’t ready for your world to change with a rushing suddenness. You were blindsided with the odd experience of a first time that felt like memory.

First off, you didn’t know how you knew blue would be it, but you did.

When someone told you that’s what color that sweater you liked to wear all the time was, you just knew. When someone told you that’s what color some of your favorite fruits were, you just knew. When someone told you that’s what color the sky was, you just knew.

When someone told you that’s what color the ocean was—because it reflected the sky—you cried because you just knew.

There was something revelatory of such a relationship—the rhapsodic truth that two forces of nature could be reflections of the other, even with completely opposing standpoints.

In your greyscale vacuum, you were none the wiser to a life that could promise that yet. From a young age, you hoped and prayed for that day to come, until it became a hapless strain of static that took a backseat to growing up.

In general, you hadn’t known what to expect; you imagined that cats were probably the color of sprinkles on ice cream, trees were balloons floating in the air, and pavements were the color of spring. When you looked up to the night, you thought that stars might be like lighting a candle. You thought that might mean yellow.

And even when it was so dark, you hoped the sky would still be blue.

It tore through every crevice of your vision, crowding your sight and singeing your senses.

Blue wasn’t supposed to come to you in a maelstrom on a previously peaceful Sunday morning. It wasn’t supposed to burn through the pages of one of your favorite books, or weld your utensils together.

It was supposed to bump into you on a tramline station, at a park, in a crowd, and then apologise quickly; it was supposed to be in widening eyes and stuttering breaths that gave you a name you’d knew like an old friend you had yet to meet.

It wasn’t supposed to be in so much pain.

It wasn’t supposed to cause any of it, either.

You’re on your back, starry eyed and afraid all at once, suffering the memory of your first time seeing color. It’s burning you, you realize, and the tears evaporate before they touch skin.

Blue fire is attention grabbing—it’s blue, you know it is—and watching it move like you imagined blue waves would was mesmerizing. It soaked the ground with scorch marks, scarring bedlam and terror into the earth.

Your eyes blown wide catch every moment, frozen in blue.

Though, as more of the hue crops up in all different directions, your eyes are suddenly the only part of you that can’t sit still. If the fire does anything else better than burn, it’s cast light—as it throws your vision farther than usual.

You don’t miss a single detail.

The sea of people around you scatter in fear— there’s chaos but you just can’t move—and you’re anchored to the ground like roots of a tree that didn’t get to choose its growing place. You’re trapped somewhere off centre in a spiraling vortex of entropy simultaneously inhaling and granting your newfound freedom.

Across the street in spots on a mailbox, the smallest pieces detailed the metal in cool colored rivets; in the scorching bed along the stone wall cafe lay crisped, blue calla lilies; the delicate hue accented in little flora shaded your spilled and shattered tea glass.

With the proximity of unimaginable heat, noise, and overall calamity shuffling so quickly around you, you felt encased in time. An hourglass tipped in your throat and the scalding sands ran through your veins. The inferno raged on until you noticed your place in it. It spun in a tempest around you and everything melted away.

Your vision shifts and you find the catalyst to be a tall, dark, and lanky shadow of a man. He contrasted the unyielding light—that he was producing, you agnised—to an almost sardonic degree. He held his hands in his pockets and shoulders in a slouch that said all of this was of no consequence, concern, or effort to him. He looked bored.

That is, until he saw you, too.

Freezing blue eyes glistened back at you in a cacophony of emotions.

There’s comprehension, apprehension, indignation—you try to settle on one, though absolutely fruitless with a whirlpool of your own at your feet.

You tried to speak your disbelief, a sense of joy, a simple admission to life, but your voice died on your tongue. The fumes coiled at your throat, still you held your ground. It was all you could do in your dormancy, and it was all you were going to do on the precipice of eruption.

It was like watching someone conduct a hurricane, what he did next.

His hands hummed an unknown melody to the flames, and you watched and waited and listened to the music that poured out if him—quickly becoming a little more afraid at the prospect of becoming an unwittingly unwilling participant from the audience.

However, the coiling and dissipation of the blue told you that this was the grand finale, and in a voiceless and motionless dance, he swayed out of sight under the haze of blue hellfire—so searing it was cold to the touch.

•.•.•.

When the heroes arrived, the police whisked you away to take your statement and check for injuries. It was like talking—and mostly listening—through a thick pane of glass, though. You said very little, and perceived even less.

What were you going to do? Include in your witness report that the perpetrator was your soulmate? That fact alone changed everything, and you knew that if you were to speak up about it now, the authorities would take you in. You weren’t about to be used as an asset when you had barely any time to process the truth yourself.

Everything was running smoothly, until the heroes came around to check on the injured. An expressionless man with two-toned hair and a nasty scar over his eye stepped before you, an ‘Are you alright?’ soft on his lips, contrasting the sternness in his features.

You took one look at the color of his left eye and fainted against the ambulance doors.

•.•.•.

Waking in a sweating bundle on your bedcovers was not a good way to end the day. It skewed your sense of reality, and you had to wrestle away the idea that the whole thing might have been a dream. The headache didn’t help, but it was proof you know what you saw. And what you were currently seeing.

A lot of everything else was still in greyscale, but your eyes weren’t lying to you as you took in your room. Blue comic books, pens, decals, posters, pictures; the laundry overflowed your basket, spilling in a pile of blue onto your carpet.

Blue eyes in the corner of your room.

“What did you see?” you whispered. He’s there like the shade of gossamer window curtains, a figureless concept of existence, and yet you speak knowing he’s suddenly the most solid thing there.

“You.”

You inhaled sharply, barely a pinprick to the weight in the room.

“You know that’s not what I mean. I’m not a color.”

“You were the brightest thing there. Might as well have been.”

“Impossible,” you laughed, waving your hand absently to dismiss your incredulity. “You set everything on fire.”

“Makes no difference,” he affirmed in a tone that sounded rich, drawled, and deep like molasses and a smoky room. There was silence as his voice drizzled along your skin, a safe distance in the uncertainty. It doesn’t break, even when you speak the opposite of what you should be uncertain about.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

“Yet here I am.”

There’s a flutter by your open window, and you unfold yourself from your stagnant place on your bed. Without argument, you wisp to its side, facing the world like it was unchanged.

His presence is permeable next to you, yet you were sure you had never felt anything as real.

Everything and nothing was the same.

“What do you see?”

“Still you.”

You glance to the side and see an almost facetious simper gliding across his features, even though you knew he was probably being anything but flippant.

“Dabi.”

He shifted almost imperceptibly, coiling with the dark to a time and space closer. He smelled like amber pine and sawdust, collecting evening dew.

“So you do know who I am.”

You picked at the peeling paint along the sill. It was still white.

“I follow the news. I’ve seen your face stuck to faded alley posters.”

“Now what would you be doing in alleyways?” He chuckled lowly through thinly veiled, amused bewilderment.

So he didn’t know who you were.

Just as well, it wasn’t like you lived a life of any consequence.

Truth was, you were simply a curious person with an awkward and clumsy sense of direction—finding yourself on adventures you could easily get yourself out of, only with a little time, effort, and backtracking. Even though you’d much rather see it through to the end, no matter how dark, twisted, or ugly.

The truth wasn’t meant to be pretty.

But he didn’t need to know that.

And if this were to keep up anyway, he’d find out soon enough.

You peered at him through your eyelashes and his shape almost disappeared. Instead, you leaned forward into the open world, trying to catch life as it moved below you. Your eyes spotted grass and trees, and you gasped before you could stop yourself.

“They’re green.”

“So I’ve been told.”

You turned your head to face him, chewing the inside of your cheek.

“I’ve never seen green before.”

He’s quiet as he stares at you. He had leaned against the wall beside you, hip and head propped like he wouldn’t rather be looking anywhere else. You stare back softly, still not used to the visceral experience in eye contact.

“What do you see?” he asks like holding glass. You’re tempted to keep it to yourself for at least a day longer—safeguard the truth like you were the only one in the world who could see colors. An innocent secret you’d never have to share with anybody.

And yet here was a thread presented to you by the universe, asking to be pulled from the tangle.

You looked at his frayed edges and twisted knots, feeling your own pull tighten like a lifeline.

“Blue,” you breathe. He’s beside you now, angled to the open window, eyes still burning answers and questions—so many questions—across your very surface.

You both stretch out, casting your eyes up to the night sky, in your own world like he wasn’t who he was and you weren’t who you were. Collected in a jar of your own making, you spill your breath across the open air, and he’s there with you like a pooling splash of ink you don’t want out. Oh, the memories you could write with him.

“So these are the stars, huh?” his tone hasn’t lifted from that tedium, but he talks like he’s standing among them.

Tears prickled the corner of your eyes. You couldn’t tell whether from happiness or nostalgia or disappointment or confusion or another nameless thing—you only knew that you were looking at the stars. You were looking at the night sky and suddenly seeing the stars, and—

“Some of them are blue.”

Dabi traces the bottom hemline of your sweater with his thumb, breathing clearer air than he had in a long, long time.

“There’s yellow up there, too.”

The tears spill down your cheeks, but his hand is there to catch them with cracked fingertips.

“You know,” you begin with a small sniffle, “I don’t remember the night being this… luminous.” His face splits in to a grin.

“That’s your fault.”

You roll your eyes, peeling back to lightly shove against his arm. You had barely touched him, but his heart beats as though he’d been caught in an earthquake. He’s unsteady, and grows more and more terrified by the second of the anchor in your eyes. He’s not strong enough to try and move it.

You watched him pull back, startled by the alertness in his movements. He sweeps his legs up and over the side, perched on the windowsill as though he made to jump through it.

“You’re leaving?”

“I thought you were the one who said I shouldn’t be here,” he grinned, though not without that bitter glint in his already harshly blue eyes. Your lip finds its place pulled between your teeth.

“I think there are still some things I want to see.” You glance to the side, searching for words in the spots of color blooming along the edges of your world. “With you.”

Dabi bridges small gaps between you two—some rickety and many burnt, but still there—leaving space for you to jump ship. His fingers brush warm trails across the skin of your face again, like forfeiting a whittling candelabrum to the shaking hands of a blind man.

You suppose someone like him defies all laws, even the ones of the natural world as he ghosts down the siding of the building, just another wandering shade looking for its way back.

In a day of unforseens, you try and convince yourself that it was the stars that got to you. It’s easier to place blame on things you can’t control, and part of you feels liberated knowing this was just not one of those things you were meant to expect. You let your hopes and predictions solidify the labyrinthian ground you walk on.

But as you lean through the window, you call out to him and realize you’re swallowing your assumptions like antifreeze.

“Wait!”

His head turns to the side to catch you pouring out of your mundane and into his living underworld.

“You have to come back.” The yellow on your sweater burns into your irises, and he has never been more wary of his place in the universe. Especially when it glows back at him through the eyes of a future he didn’t know he even had.

“I want to know what sunrises look like.”

The tempest in him glares up at the beacon your window—no—you provide and he feels a weird, opposing sense of mitigation and incertitude. A ubiquitous tangibility his first instinct declares a malignant impediment.

Still, he can’t help but feel as though a tide were in the process of crashing his lifeboat—a stray piece of driftwood—on to obscure shores.

That can’t be all that much of a bad thing, he considers.

With a small, barely there and imperceptibly honest smile, he places a two fingered tap to the crown of his forehead—throwing an ignition to the wind in a quiet promise.

The light fades, and you clutch the matchstick, watching the blue disappear with him into the dark of night.

I'm here to cherish your great writing and ask for a match-up 😆😊

My appearance: I'm about 5'4 and im pear shaped, I have hazel eyes, and strawberry/ blond/brown hair (I dye it a lot the last color I had was red and when I was going back to my normal color it left a pinkish red undertone to it), I'm ghostly pale, I have slight bit of freckles on my cheeks, I'm a tad bit chubby but oh well that just make me soft to hug, you'll usually catch me in a tye dye jacket with peace signs on it

My personality: I'm known to be subtly chaotic, I make jokes at the worst times and sometimes they can be mean without me meaning to be mean, I lack a filter so I can sometimes be to straightforward, im imaginative I express things through either music writing or art, i love animals more the people most of the time, im very stubborn, I can either be the mom friend or the friend that's feral, im not the best with words I usually show my feelings through actions

My likes: I love tarot, I'm into astrology (im a libra/scorpio cusp), I love animals I have a pet hedgehog, I enjoy doing art, I love music (est 40s through 90s music), I like musicals, I enjoy dancing with a partner (I only really know how to waltz but I like it), i love naps especially when its raining, I like neck kisses, I enjoy cuddling, im a theater kid so I also love acting

My dislikes: i hate being ignored, drunks, my anxiety disorder, a lot of food I have a sensory problem so a lot of different foods freak me out, out of nowhere calls, when someone tests me

Sexuality: im pansexual but I lean more towards men and I'm open minded so im not opposed to polyamorous relationships as long as its close-knit (as in we all love each other not just us loving one person)

Extra: my dream date is being at a gas station at 2 AM in the morning sitting in the corner drinking slushies and having deep discussions. I have ADD, generalized anxiety disorder and depression. I'm a bit obsessive and possesvie due to being from a divorced family (dad cheated on mom ect.). Im definitely a switch in bed. I'm not energetic but I enjoy energetic peoples company. I'm known to have a bit of a hipster aesthetic.

Cusp buddies!! I’m a Sagittarius/Capricorn cusp!! Sun Sag, Moon Capricorn, and my Rising is Scorpio— Oop.

I ship you with:

Tim/Masky!

SFW:

Heads up: Masky and Tim are different people

Tim loves how light you are, in personality

You’re so different from him, and its why he calls you sunshine and his sweetheart

You’re a bit much for him sometimes, but hes just glad it brings him out of his comfort zone, which he really appreciates.

He plays guitar, so like. He’ll sing to you and write songs, usually strumming while he watches you draw

Teach him how to dance plz, hes super awkward.

Likes touching you but is awkward at first and needs an excuse

He loves cuddling. So much. He likes to cuddle with his arms draped around your side while he cuddles you close from behind

Big fan of spooning cause somft

Will probably telll you everything you need to figure out his birth chart just to see you excited.

Loves late night dates, especially just random walks around town

He loves seeing you smile, and constantly brings back little things he finds at gas stations that he thinks you’ll like

Masky, on the other hand

Is possessive and grabby

He likes cuddling forcibly, and will hold you borderline hostage while laying down because he wants to be near you

V blunt. Doesn’t care. He will tell you what hes thinking so, like, you never need to worry about that.

Brings back random shit h e finds from missions and gifts them to you

Once brought you a pretty constellation necklace, it ended up being the Libra constellation and he got to see you super happy

Doesn’t talk much, but when he does please listen

You’re one of the few people he doesn’t get tired of hearing vent or rant, but please dont ignore him. He won’t ignore you, but he’ll listen quietly

NSFW

Tim is def a switch

He’s shy and submissive when hes awkward

Tends to bottom the first couple times yall have sex

Totally a service sub. Just use him please

When hes domming???

He’s a brat tamer and takes a SHIT ton of joy in making you cry for him and making you whine

Aww, his little prinx wants to cum? Beg him more for it.

Loves choking, both giving and receiving

Likes fucking you in front of people to make sure they know you’re his

He is a MASTER with his tongue

Masky is NOT a switch

He’s a very very primal dom

Doesn’t talk much normally, but during sex hes even less verbal, mostly just grunting and groaning your name in your ear

Like Tim, hes very into choking, just don’t choke him plz. He will bite.

Speaking of biting, he loves to leave marks all over your body, making sure you can see them no matter what you’re wearing.

Very possessive, and will NOT have sex where people can see.

You’re his, and only his. Only person he’s sharing with is Tim, and they share a body so its fine.

Makes sure to lock the door, and knows how to roll his hips just right to brush against that spot that has you screaming-

Overall: Both good boys

aaaa you really put into words what i have been struggling with for a longer time now :( i always struggle talking with my friends in my native language, as opposed to my online friends who i mostly speak with in english... also some of the things i say in english, i just cant imagine myself saying them in my native language, which leaves me thinking whether i should be saying them... it baffles me how im all lovey dovey in english, but in my native language im unable to express any affection

i’ve spent a lot of my time growing up disliking my native lang, thinking that since it’s just spoken by few people and most of them live in the same country, i wouldn’t need it if i ever went to live abroad. those thoughts were mostly the product of years of exposure to american and british tv and movies, songs and books. exposure that, yes, was necessary in order to improve my english skills but at the same time, i didn’t realise the lack of those media and sources of entertainment and learning in my own native lang. i sadly live in a country that has no self-preservation instict language-wise and that means that kids and adults are still exposed to foreign media and subconsciously learn to value the sound of the english language over their own. (countries like turkey, france, spain, italy have great dubbing industries that help kids, adults, immigrants learn the language of the country, but also offer the subtitled version to the part of the population that enjoys watching content in the original language)

i think it’s that exact exposure that makes people unwillingly separate themselves from their native lang when they come online. we reserve our language for more intimate situations bc we believe that words like i love you carry a whole different weight. and it’s kinda true but it’s also kinda in our heads. english provides non-native speakers with a protective “wall” that allows us to say things more openly bc it’s a language that speakers can still shape to fit their needs: take for example the internet language and how many of those things that you write in engish wouldn’t make sense or can’t even be said out loud in your own lang, like you said. i may be wrong but, from my exprerience with translation, i think that the internet lingo has given us the false idea that english provides a linguistic freedom that one can’t achieve in their own language and that’s not true. all languages have the potential to their linguistic freedom, we’re just too busy shaping the english language that we forget to do it to our own (new words get added to the english language very often, whereas that happens rarely for other and minor languages; we just adopt the english terms) bc many of us (younger generations on the internet) don’t read books, articles, listen to music or watch tv, movies in our native language as much/anymore. and the answer to why that is, is basically the western influence over language, our entertainment, our media and basically everything else. when you are a country as big and as powerful as the us (and maybe the uk) you want to exude that power over the world, but at the end of the day, the way american media has taken over everything feels, dare i say, propagandistic? also there’s the topic of the internet being a threat to languages but it’s already a long post...

my conclusion is, don’t think less of your native language. read and write in it as much as you do in english and start saying i love you again even if it feels like it makes you vulnerable. so many things get lost in translation and i believe saying i love you in english is one of them...

What do the wedding dresses of the Winx’s planets traditionally look like?

omg i literally never thought of this thank you

ok so in these scenarios im gonna be talking mostly about the bride (and a little about the groom) just for simplicity’s sake, but bride/bride, groom/groom, and multiple partners are all on the table too, the ceremonies can all be adjusted to suit the participants.

melody has an incredibly ritualistic marriage ceremony, the participants wear red(unity) with white(wealth) and gold(luck) accents. the bride and groom are both weighed down with heavy metal embroidery, jewelry, and lots of layers, the family and friends help the bride and groom to reach each other symbolizing the community commitment to helping the marriage succeed. The embroidery frequently features melodian cranes and the singing whales, both symbolizing unity, luck, and harmony. The ceremony itself is a duet of vows between the bride and groom, with the guests joining in at the choruses. (the groom version of wedding wear is about the same, with a taller, squarer, head-dress)

Zenith doesn’t really have a marriage ceremony, they just go to the nearest governmental kiosk, register their identity, fill out the marriage form, and boom. married. more flamboyant zenithians will dress in more formal clothing and bring their family and friends with them to register, and then go back home to have a congratulatory dinner. 

Solarians wear a simple tunic, leave their hair down, and don’t wear shoes or jewelry. the only accessories are the knotted leather chord, and the flammeum, an orange/yellow/or red veil mean to represent the blessing of sunlight on the bride(some solarians decorate the flammeum with stones or embroidery but this is kind of considered tacky and trying too hard) the groom has a similar cloth article called the ignium but it is worn as a draped sash. both bride and groom wear the knotted chords as belts, these are used in the ceremony, where the bride and groom untie each others chords and the priest knots them around the couple’s hands and wrists. neither wear shoes, symbolizing a humble approach to the relationship. the party after the ceremony generally lasts three full days. 

domino’s wedding dress isn’t really a dress…. so basically the Dominian marriage ceremony consists of 3 stages, the spar, the threat, and the victory. The bride and groom start off by choosing a method of battle(either magic or fighting) and then don the proper clothing (transformations or enchanted clothing for magic, armor and weapons for fighting) bloom here is in armor since her magic version would just be her preferred transformation. The the couple faces off and fights each other. while this seems counter intuitive the fight is meant to establish an equal footing between the couple. the fight HAS to end in a draw, if one defeats the other too easily they don’t get married because theres a power imbalance. the second stage, the threat, is the friends and family of the couple setting up a third party for the couple to defeat together, symbolizing their strength together as opposed to alone. the victory is basically just a party celebrating the marriage. traditionally the fights were all real, actual threats, but modern marriage fights are staged. 

Lynphean marriage clothing is almost literally underwear. its meant to strip the couple of social statuses and prejudices, as well as returning to nature(some more traditionalist marriages are conducted in the nude). The bride and groom each venture into the forest alone, to select a marriage tree. the friends and family wear costumes, representing spirits of nature or animals and try to guide the couple to the same tree with out being found out(kind of like a game of hide and seek). the couple ties a thin magical chain around the trunk of the tree(getting married at a tree that already has a chain is fine) the chain will eventually be absorbed into the tree trunk as it grows causing no harm (it will leave a mark but the tree is fine). the couple spends the night sleeping at the tree’s roots, and in the morning the marriage is official. 

in contrast, the Androsian marriage outfit (for both bride and groom) covers almost everything except the hands, feet, and eyes. the eyes uncovered represent the connection between the bride and groom, the hands represent service and healing, the feet represent walking with each other. the couple generally splits between land and sea (aisha is in the “sea” version here), the biggest difference is the coloring, teal for the sea and yellow/tan for the land, but the sea generally has softer more curves shapes and the land has more square shapes. the ceremony is a procession, the bride leads her party from her house, and the groom leads his party from his house, they traditionally meet in a sea side temple, but modern marriages can be held basically anywhere. after the procession meets the crowd performs a push/pull motion while the bride and groom keep their hands joined, their feet toe to toe, and sustain eye contact. then the head scarves are removed and the couple kisses. 

hold this isn’t too much haha!!  

Give us the good boy Bap tips 👀 I’ve been playing him a lot and it’d be nice to learn some new things!

yall want TIPS? yall want to see an autistic ramble at full power for an embarrassingly long post??

OKAY so baptiste is a really interesting support hero in that he rewards good mechanics, but he isnt completely useless if your aim isnt that good, especially if you just focus on healing your team and using your abilities

that being said! his primary fire can be very deadly and its absolutely worth it to practice using his gun so you can take out enemies on your own. his burst fire is a little weird to get used to, but after a while ive found that his gun plays really similar to soldier, so if youve played him bap might be a little easier

baptist’s spread is a vertical three round burst that looks like this:

(i tried to get an in-game pic but it didnt show up well lol)

the shape of it means that its better to aim his crosshair at the neck of heroes as opposed to their head, but the verticality is mainly due to his recoil. as such, it helps a lot if you pull down slightly when you shoot

heres a gif of me shooting at the head without fighting the recoil

and one where i am. note that at this range it only takes two shots

baptistes primary fire is best used when:

behind a shield/in a bunker. baptiste can help a lot with shield wars so dont just pump grenades into your team afraid that they might take tiny bits of damage if you focus on something else for a second

to finish off low health targets. it helps if your team calls them out but usually you’ll have to keep an eye out yourself. baptiste is very good for this as opposed to trying to get solo kills, especially if you just have average mechanics (like me)

in chaotic teamfights that could go either way, use your best judgement as to whether to do damage or healing. on attack, i would say to try being more offensive, and on defense always be defensive with his kit unless youre the only person left alive

against tanks and certain squishies (hes really good against pharah/mercy, zen, junkrat, etc, but has trouble fighting tracer/mini dva and snipers that are out of range)

when using his ultimate. the extra damage is actually really good

important note as of the current patch (6/18): baptistes ult is bugged so that it doesnt amplify healing, so dps away until its fixed lol

now onto his healing grenades!

they have a lot less range than you would think (like 3m i think) its good to go into the practice range and see for yourself just how close they have to be to hit teammates so you have a better feel for it in game.

he does 60 heals per second (120 when his matrix,, actually works.) and has 12 ammo per clip, making him a decent primary healer.

in general, his healing works best when youre on the high ground, due to them being grenades. so use his jump boots to take high ground as needed to heal your team! also, if youre in an area that has open sky, they can be shot directly up into the air for a delayed healing effect

technically, you can shoot his primary and secondary fire at the same time, but its rare that doing so would actually be helpful imo, where you aim for each is very different. i guess it wouldnt hurt to practice it just in case

also, his grenades have the same projectile trajectory as his immortality field, which is good to keep in mind if you want to aim the field more precisely. when i first picked up baptiste i made a lot of mistakes bc i flung it way too far lol

speaking of his immortality field, my Most General baptiste tip would be to use his ultimate on cooldown like an ability (since it charges so fast) and to use his immortality field like an ultimate

if you play zenyatta or lucio, i would compare using it to their ultimates. ive found that the longer i wait before using it the better (in my replays i see myself use it too early out of panic and the result is Sad), but you dont want to avoid using it completely and end up with a dead team. finding the balance is hard but it comes with practice

like lucios ult (and sometimes zen) it can be used for initiation! i had a really good team that fought a bastion bunker on paris with dive, and i helped by throwing my immortality frisbee on top of the bastion when they went in. if you have a winston, try throwing it in after him when he initiates

its also very important to pay attention to where exactly the frisbee ends up, because if you place it right, it cant be hit by the enemy team. try to place it slightly behind cover whenever possible. this is by far the most abusable part of his kit and i wouldnt be surprised if the duration of it gets nerfed to compensate. so if you want to cheese your way up the ranks, go into each map in custom games and practice where to put the field so that enemies cant hit it. this alone wont do much if you dont have the game sense to know when to do it, though

ultimates that immortality field is good at countering:

GRAV. zaryas get so mad about this bc people forget to shoot it and its so funny. also hanzos dragons cant kill the field so it can counter that combo entirely, just be sure to communicate to your zen so they dont waste ult

dva bomb/junkrat, but it will be instantly destroyed and your team will be very low health, so be careful. it also counters pulse bomb if you get stuck

earth shatter. if you suspect rein has it, stick to the high ground at all costs to avoid being caught! this is good advice in general for supports, but especially for ones with defensive abilities

in that same vein, you can counter emp if you can avoid being caught by sombra. note that sombra can hack baps frisbee so watch out

genji. genji can kill the field but it takes away from the amount of slashes he has and in this time your team should be able to kill him. if hes nanoboosted, you have less time to get to safety, so try charging your boots to get away from him in the meantime

mccree. high noon cant target the field. press f for everyones favorite trash cowboy. (it can however help friendly mccrees and pharahs from dying as soon as they hit q so try to combo!)

speaking of pharah, its possible to get her to kill herself with barrage if you put your frisbee right in front of her face

not good ultimates to try to counter:

doomfists ult can be avoided by charging your shoes and jumping up in the air (as long as youre not directly beneath him lol) so its not worth it unless you see someone else about to be smashed

related to doomfist, if he gets on you it can be hard to set the field down right bc of how his abilities displace you, so be sure to look straight down when you use it

reaper, soldier, and bob all auto target the field, so if its out in the open it just disintegrates

torbjorn and hammonds ults also kill the field pretty much immediately

also, as good as immortality is, there are some situations where baptiste just doesnt work as well as other heroes. if you have a good zen or lucio who use their ults well, or if you have a really mobile/spread out comp, you might want to pick one of the other main healers.

if in general you feel like youre not doing enough healing, try switching to mercy to reach your teammates better. if you need crowd control or anti heal then pick ana, and moira can be good at lower ranks if youre not getting any peel/dying too much (just please keep focusing on healing)

on that note, if your other healer insists on playing dps moira, baptiste is a good fit since he can main heal and also provide defense abilities to make up for that

as for his regenerative burst, all i really have to say is to try not to use it out of panic every time you take chip shots (i do this still lol) it works best when you and your teammates are all in a fight, actively taking damage

im sure that even with all i wrote im still forgetting something but i think im gonna call this done for now. i uhhhh love baptiste a lot and think hes a good hero to try to rank up with bc his primary fire has a high skill ceiling but his healing/abilities are more forgiving at lower ranks

NORI’DUN HUMAN SUBRACE

the next race i have most mapped out are the northerly human clan: a subrace of very tall, heavy set and muscular humans who reside in the moorlands alongside goblins and orcs. While orcs are mostly nomadic, these barbaric humans sort of bridge the gap between the endless bogs and the more varied mountain range that borders the kingdom’s edge. They often act as a trade mediator between the goblins and orcs, but also will live amongst and intermingle with the two races.

they call themselves the Nori’dun (bastard mix of the little gaelic i know paired with icelandic (or olde english depending which sounds cooler lol) which i know nothing about!), common folk to the south hardly know they exist but those who do refer to them as the North Folk, Norfole, or Nawfelv. 

their society is matriarchal, with a head mother leading small clans who exist in settlements that pepper the moors at the mountain’s feet. the great mother choses a small group of esteemed individuals to act as her council, and this group travels from one settlement to another, spreading news and diffusing ideas. They act as merchants as well as bards and scholars, and report back to their home establishment bringing back goods and valuable knowledge. this council tends to be the only literate individuals, but even then their writing system is simplistic and much like the goblin written language, focuses primarily on identifying items and their quantity for trade purposes. many of the symbols used to denote trade don’t have a spoken equivalent, and common nori people have no use or even knowledge of this system. they do make use of pictogrographs, though there is hardly a commonality between tribes and most images rely on rudimentary depictions of humans or animals, and are mostly created for art or entertainment. 

nori people live in pueblo-like buildings crafted out of a brick called ‘vergs’, made of peat, peat moss, gravel, and guano. the mixture is shaped into blocks and fired, then stacked into long, rectangular modules and set with a slit like mud/clay type mortar, and then finally covered in a thin limestone paste gathered from within the mountains. Once the paste fills any gaps and sets, the structure is often painted using natural dyes and pigments such as soot and charcoal, animal bloods, fats, or waste, berries, local roots, vegetables, and plants such as lichen or moss, and various soils such as clay, lime, or peat. The outer architecture also utilizes bits of stone or petrified woods to border door frames or window holes in a peg like fashion, and painted designs (differing from tribe to tribe) tend to use simple lines, borders, or geometric figures surrounding entrances and exists. the interiors are similarly overlaid with lime but usually not painted like the outside of the homes. the arrangement centers around an elongated room dedicated to cooking and eating; there is usually a large fire pit surrounded by seating in the center of these rooms-- like so: 

not the best example but still gives you an idea of the CENTRAL room layout. additional modules are merged, called ‘ryms’ for sleeping quarters, storage, or religious purposes. minecraft doesnt lend much to decor but there would be shelves and cabinets, baskets and even counter like constructs with hollowed innards for food and wares storage. the top chimney like openings are outfitted with stones in place of the fence I used, and during heavy storms they are covered dried and stretched animal skins. otherwise the water collects in the central fire pit and drains out of through a small and simplistic network of clay enforced tunnels that run under and down from the house. the pits are not as deep as depicted, and the houses are built on a foundation of dirt and rocks that elevate the fire pit just enough for these tiny pipes to run downards. 

nori make use of the limited supply of wood for structural reinforcement and decor in important settlement buildings such as the clan’s meeting hall, temple, great hall, or the great mother’s home. decor ranges from dyed and painted animal hides, woven linen tapestries, wreaths, dried and hollowed gourds, animal bones, weaponry, metal work, baskets, and pottery. many of these items tend to serve a purpose as well, be it practical for storage, fighting, or ritualistic in nature.

most settlements include the aforementioned buildings as well as a smithy or forge, grain and meat storage, as well as more basic, temporary structures called ‘jaels’-- made of sticks, animal bones, dried hides, and moss in the form of forest tent/lean to shapes. these are used for vendors to set up shop outside their homes if need be, or simply to offer animals and travelers shelter during the night or a storm.

the nori keep small herds of domesticated cats, dogs, rats, birds, rabbits, foxes, badgers, insects, and even deer. they use these animals as both pets and food and keep them outside in various shelters, generally only one household will produce an animal product and offer it to the rest of the settlement through barter. they also hunt larger herds of native animal such as bears, wolves, and allegedly even the occasional mammoth if they live far enough north. since settlements typically run under 100 people, farming is also done by single households who offer their goods to others: berries, roots, gourds and squashes, latuca genus wildflowers and greens, legumes/trefoil, lichen, moss, ferns, and mushrooms. nori also trade all of these goods to orcs and goblins and very rarely dwarves or travelers from the south.

despite not being united by one great mother, the nori people seem to share a very unified religion, one which incorporates the worship of storms, moreso than an individual deity or even element. melanism, though not common enough to be considered typical, is frequent enough within this gene pool that most communities have one or two individuals with the gene who are revered as storm prophets and lead religious activities within the settlement. if a melanistic nori is not present, or is otherwise unfit or unwilling to take on this role, a different woman will be selected based of magical ability. in some settlements there are many melanistic people who have little or no clerical affiliation, in others there are no melanistic people. it should be noted that either gender can take on this role, but only a non-melanistic woman is allowed otherwise. these individuals often specialize in storm barbianism or storm sorcery of some form and seem genetically predisposed to have an ability with some form of elemental magic, be it classified as divine or unholy within the borders of the empire. the gene can be inherited but also seems to be carried passively by enough individuals that it can pop up unexpectedly or not be passed down through having a mellanistic parent. like twins or multiples, it is seen as a sign of exceptionalism and highly revered.  

individual family units tend to be headed by a matriarch, her sisters, cousins, or offspring (according to age), and so forth. a great grandmother, grandmother, or mother may take this role, or in some cases, an aunt or eldest cousin, taking on the role of hunter and warrior. men tend to the earth and domesticated animal, deal with trade and bartering/distribution of their household goods, and settlement building/infrastructure. there are exceptions, when men hunt, fight, or even lead households, and vice versa, wherein women see fit to raising crops, animals, and overseeing the riches of a house. all elder members of a house are expected to aid in child rearing regardless of gender. 

tomorrow i will try and divulge further into their dress, music, war practices, trade goods and crafts, and other facets of culture but i am still developing this race! i think the idea of placing humans as the barbarians in a fantasy setting is interesting, as opposed to delegating it to greenskins and having that culture marked as negative through implication! i also wanted to try my hand at conceptualizing 1) humans who get along with the races painted as lesser and violent, 2) melding different tidbits of cultures that interest me in a respectful but also uh...unique? way so that im not making trolls and going LOL THEYRE JAMAICAN or some shit. i.e. pueblos, hakas, celtic tribes, pacific islander skin art traditions, etc! it needs a lot of work but, yknow im just posting it here for my own reference and having fun with it!

Photoshop Tutorial

Plenty of people have inquired how exactly I really do lots of my characterizations and peculiar aliens, and so I thought I would finally sit back and write a new tutorial.

I presumed a pleasure image to concentrate on is my face-off image for the Alien Nation 3 competition.

To begin with, I thought I d explain a bit about my strategy. I do a lot of modification layers, curing brush combined with a little liquefy, and cloning. My theory with characters is I try to leave as a number of the pixels. What I attempt to accomplish is create them a color that is different. I scarcely hotel to doing some other paint pops that are destructive.

First things first, I did not have the full concept in your mind once I started this image, and sometimes what the alien had been about to appear to be. In reality, I even plan for this to function as Tom Cruise for almost just about any reason other than that I enjoy the high end photo retoucher intense look in his head and it turned out to be a resolution record to govern without needing to work around .jpeg artifacts.

That said it evolved to some ridiculous goof on Mr. Cruise that wound up having a fantastic reaction from the Republicans thus, go figure!

Let us start...

Mr. Storm has too much hair to generate a persuasive alien, therefore, enables take it off!

Start by cloning out of the middle of the eyebrow outside developing a digital bald-cap.

Remember it doesn't fundamentally matter how far how to wash that your cloning is. It we'll fix it.

(Hint ) I sporadically un-check the aligned button towards the very top once I find an excellent subject of eyebrow which pits to function as a standard skin feel.

After roughing into a new mind contour from the eyebrow outside, then replicate in the gray backdrop from the surface, in creating a new border for the form of the mind.

Following Tom's new eyebrow is glistening and it could still look somewhat like a demanding patchwork of both skin-tones and feel.

Establish the magnitude of the healing brush into something moderate like 20 pixels or so and get started targeting the obvious of one's lousy trademark marks. Clone from the middle of the forehead. (preferably from the unaffected parts ) Magically up on letting upward out of each brush stroke, it's going to set the feel you've set merely there, and then auto color-correct it into to coincide with the nearby pixels! (obtained Id love that curing brush! ) )

Time and energy to eradicate a few of the pesky facial features...

To begin with, let's keep on with the rubber stamp tool and demanding from the removals of Tom's eyebrows in addition to his nose. Once those are all gone, I want to get rid of the piece of stubble and feel on his brow to acquire a complete smoother face.

Measure 4: Much like measure two we are likely to go straight back during these areas with the healing brush and find yourself a beautiful mixture of skin-tone and feel. (for all those wondering why that can be really just a two-step procedure involving the rubber stamp and also the healing brush, then the reply is relatively straightforward. I've gotten a better result from regions of the facial skin having a closest to my result color. Like that once the healing brush does its magical color-correction into the nearby pixels that you don't have any lingering color from the initial pixels inhabiting that place )

Time and energy to get started making his face a little more alien...

I decided I needed to bisect his head having a slit which travels the course of his head in addition to alter the functionality of the mouth.

To accomplish so I generated a new modification layer setting it into degrees.

At the degrees dialog box that I took in the low right white triangle to the middle of the histogram. This left the high lights of how the image rip-off.

Today every time a flat's modification coating is inserted into an image it creates a new clean white coating mask. Target this mask from the layers dialogue box and then invert it shifting. (Command/or Control Id )

Your image should look as if you inserted the degrees adjustment layer. You are all set to begin painting. Then I placed two vertical lines, then one on both sides of the lip of the mouth area.

(that is precisely what the coating mask appears like if you've completed painting )

Today I wish to provide these lines somewhat of thickness. Therefore, I will bring a layer style to the alteration coating.

Either tap into a negative subject of the coating in the coating's pouch or click onto the layer and select Blending Options from the menu that arises to match a coating style.

Here are the configurations that I've selected:

Fundamentally I only noodled up until the light also matched it gave the illusion of thickness into the traces of the facial skin.

I want to provide the traces some modeling to signify there are arteries at the borders of the trails. Therefore went to bring another alteration layer with levels. Now my guideline to be able not to adjust their color. The means to get this done would be to take away the difference of the color I am attempting to incorporate. Therefore that I can take away blue and green, in cases like this, I need a wash.

From the RGB slider that I shoot out high lights together with the underside white arrow taken towards the middle. And that I take out mid tones by slipping the gray shaft to the best. I am the green histogram and choose out green from the high lights, (underside white arrow, then go on into the left) I then do the same with all the gloomy. Even though I take more blue out to compel at the color into more of the opposed to your red. Reach fine from the dialogue box and then aim the mask at the modification layer and invert it.

Today, we're prepared to paint with all the reddish color correction. Make use of a soft border brush 20 30 pixels in size and gently color in approximately every one the traces of the facial skin. Im by applying this particular color correction to begin a number of the bone workaround the eyes together with to generate several shadow locations.

That is a measure that's going to become replicated again and again! I tend to possess heaps of modification layers every serving a color-correction which advertisements or remove from the coating before it. If things get somewhat tricky. .Sorry!

I initially thought I would desire this alien to become aquatic, and so I started down the trail of bright coloring to produce him fish just such as (apparently at any time after I decided to change directions somewhat ).

We are going to accomplish a little shading with a turquoise green tone.

I need this alien to possess a wrinkled feel to his head, rather than glue within a feeling will use my same procedure just like the former modification layers and go to town along with my Wacom tablet computer and stick to the contours of his head and begin to introduce some intriguing shapes and lines that'll start to shape the personality.

With this modification layer Im color adjusting to your rusty orange tone.

Continuing the simulating of the facial skin, I make a dark reddish color correction and get started painting squiggles all around the face area. You'd be amazed how effective that is when warmed on while inside the quantities that are ideal. I discovered this method called figure eights with the way of a make. (They do that kind of item to find skin blotchiness for good special effects makeups, and so I figured why not check it out for virtual blushes, huh?)

Fundamentally what I do will work in tight nit spots with varying amounts of pressure in my pill computer.

Eliminate a couple of other pesky body parts.

Only at that point, I started getting an adequate idea of the way I needed the final piece to check and that I chose people ears to go!

A great deal more color!

I inserted red into the slits of the head to produce them stand out more.

A little cardiovascular work. I included a few darkish veins.

Produce a glowing whitish, yellowish adjustment coating and then sew the mask to paint having a huge feathered brush. Do the shadow areas using a dark brownish color correction focusing into the shadow and light regions of the face being careful not to place shadows where they don't belong.

Another highlight color-correction that time around stained with a 10-pixel brush to essentially make textured lines around the base of the eyes and also at the borders of the lips.

Another dark color-correction to create a few colored stripes and wrinkles to the lips and forehead, creating shining lines into the face area.

Another accent color-correction to put twist specular hi-lights on the newly generated wrinkles.

Full color to a light green. I made the decision now I wasn't going to help keep him. Therefore, a muted coloration was generated by me and then also did a coating mask to sweep it.

I followed up this with a dark reddish color to generate darkly shaded sections of the head and put in comparison to the bone restructuring.

His face appeared too high now, and I am a sucker for older StarTrek type extraterrestrial beings, therefore that I thought I'd opt for a beautiful seen Trill-like pattern (if you watched STNG or even DS9 the mention is eloquent.)

I wanted to possess stains which were trimmed having a darker color and also maintain a lighter color at the middle. I Command/Control-clicked onto the layer mask for the stains color-correction loading its coating mask. I then produced a new adjustment layer which brightened the last one building an outside stroke to my stains and a green tone.

My idea once I began directing this alien to get a peculiar form of species was I would displace Tom's eyes. It looked interesting nonetheless it rendered him unrecognizable. And that I picked the intense look in his eyes which steered me to the image since the origin from the first location. I merely shifted to reddish to the color of the eyes.

Now I had been happy with the cryptic face, and I chose to proceed and produce a scene outside of it.

Therefore I spared my multi-layered color-correction alien and then piled all of my layers together and blended them that I might work somewhat faster (things get somewhat slow with this numerous layers!).

After consolidating the layers that I stored this for a new version and proceeded on into the upcoming few information.

With hardly any modification I watched this as a rubber mask that was lost that was perfect to place to the dining table facing the newly revealed alien.

Then I moved to Liquefy.

I flexed and warped the facial skin area into squish it and also make it seem like churns up rubberized putting onto a desk.

Then, also that I understand in this time sef mccullough, this could shock you...I inserted a modification layer!

I started using a darkish color and gently slit in certain huge wrinkles to signify the folds of the mask.

Then I emphasized those traces with another modification layer.

Then I went over the new springs using a sizable brushed dark color-correction to smooth out things a little.

Another glowing color correction to get things to appears shiny.

And a super-dark color correction to the shadow.

I packed most this up into friends, replicated it and then merged the copy bunch.

Then put the mask onto its side and left a dark gray solid to be a symbol of a desktop for it to lay.

Then following some more Google hunts for several Scleral lenses, some spirit gum glue, and a few sponges for application of the adhesive, I put all together using some vertical blurring to the flopped reflections onto the desk... Done!

ok so are there any like reference guides for like, posing like a guy? im starting out and trying to be more guyish and i just realized that i cant put my hands on my hips anymore aaaa

Lee says:

I don’t think guys pose much per se, but you should try people-watching to see how guys behave!

General info on mannerisms:

Confident Body Language

How to Have an Effective Handshake

How to walk more masculinely 

Remembering to sit masculinely

The greeting nod

Body Language Tips 

Feminine “tells?”

Masculine body language

How to Dude

9 Body Language Tips

Crossing your arms?

Trans guy specific advice:

“Women tend to be less obtrusive, while men tend to take up more space. If you watch commuters on a bus, women tend to sit with their legs crossed and their arms drawn in, and men tend to sit with their legs apart and their arms out.

Observe, observe, observe. Go to the mall or a park, sit on a bench, and watch the male world go by. Take notes. Later at home, practice in front of a mirror. Try not to be too exaggerated in your movements. Once you’re comfortable with your movements, go out in public and try them. They should become second nature after a while.

Be sure, when observing, to observe a wide range of guys, of all races, shapes and sizes. If you’re tall and thin, feel free to pay closer attention to tall thin guys, but watch everyone. Otherwise, you’ll just be doing an impression of the one or two tall thin guys you saw. Get an average and go with that.

Handshakes: Make them firm, not like a dead fish. Lock your thumb into the other person’s hand, and look them in the eye. Don’t pump excessively.”

http://t-vox.org/advice/trans-man-passing-tips

…

“Practice walking. Women tend to take up less space when they walk, with their feet close together as if walking on an invisible line, causing the hips to sway. Men tend to walk slightly on each side of that invisible line, giving them more of a straight, swaggering walk that accents their hips less and takes up more space. A lot of guys also keep their hands busy by holding something, or keeping their hands in their pockets.

Work on sitting. Again, women try to take up less space, often crossing their legs, while men usually don’t care how much space they take up. Leave your legs open and lean back more. If you do cross your legs, put your ankle on your knee, making a box shape.

Consider your stance. Men don’t usually put their hands on their hips unless they’re thinking. They also tend to cross their arms higher over their chests. Putting your hands in your pockets is always good. Some ladies stick their hip out and angle their foot, while masculine guys tend to stand straight and without their hips off to one side.

Hold conversations. Women tend to send more signals to show that they’re listening: nodding, saying “Uh huh,” or “Oh no,” asking “And then what happened?” etc. Men do less of this, usually tilting their head or looking at the speaker to show they’re paying attention. Their voices may also be more monotone, with less inflections.

Pay attention to your arms. Women tend to move their arms a lot more than men when walking, so try to keep your arms to your sides. Just avoid making your arms extremely stiff or you may look suspicious.

Try hanging out in a populated spot and watch guys of all ages and “types” and see how they interact. Get a feel for their mannerisms, and try to emulate them. You may find that you already do a lot of those things, but you probably still have a number of typically female characteristics you’ll want to unlearn. If you’re having a hard time figuring this out, follow someone and imitate their walk.”

https://www.wikihow.com/Pass-As-a-Male-%28For-FTMs%29

…

Sit in a coffee shop window or on a park bench and watch the way men and women move. There is certainly a difference, though not a universal one. Men tend to stand with a wider stance and not lean on one hip, tend to cross their legs at their ankles or rest their ankle above their knee, gesture less, and walk with their chests instead of their hips. If you’re interested, think about what specific mannerisms tend to be common in men or in women that you see. Keep in mind that there can be tremendous variation in different areas of the world, different cultures, and different social settings. For example, a man walking up to the ring for a boxing match does not walk the same as a man waiting in line at the post office.

If you want to examine how your mannerisms compare to other men around you, here are some guiding questions.

How do men walk? Do they seem to lead with their shoulders, or with their hips? Look at the stance of the shoulders and elbows, and the placement of the feet. Check out this walking demo applet.

How do men sit down? Do they keep their legs close together, or open?

How do men greet other men? Do they shake hands, or nod slightly? Is it the same when greeting women?

How do men convey emotion? When do they smile, laugh, or raise the tone of their voice?

Are there mannerisms that tend to read as gay or straight? Young or old? Serious or relaxed?

https://www.reddit.com/r/ftm/wiki/index#wiki_passing_and_presentation

…

Followers say:

mutantami said: Hi 🙂 There are a number of tools that you can utilize. HRC.org has a ton of literature on so many different topics! The Human Right Campaign is extremely reliable and resourceful site. They stay up to date with the latest information in the LGBTQ community. If you are already aware of aware the HRC then you know what it’s all about 😀 I have so much more I want 2 say 2 u, & I typed it all out, but I got cut off 2 many characters. Feel free to message me. Hope to hear from you!

moostacheo said: For the Guy pose anon, most guys at my school tend pretty straight with their hands behind their backs, or with their hands in their pockets. If they have something like a bag on them, they usually sling it over one shoulder and put that hand in their pocket, though it’s probably not great for posture.

kriahfox said: not posing but when men walk they shift their weight more from foot to foot, kinda lurching, keeping their torso stiffer, while women sway their hips and shoulders to walk more upright. it’s pretty subtle. it’s not posing i know but it’s what I’ve noticed

osteoclastics said: unitymanipulator.devian… has served me well

whatsthatcat said: If this was about passing. The best (and most convenient) way to go is to just be mostly natural and relaxed. Youll absorb the behaviours you like anyway.

thisnamehasbeenreserved said: For the guy poses anon—I’ve actually looked into this. It takes some practice to get used to, but men and boys typically keep their hands to their side/in their pockets. They stand with spread legs, on occasion leaning onto one more than the other. Someone said that going for your most relaxed and natural position is best and I just wanted to add on that I do agree with that, but for people who are looking for more ways, observing and practicing the different behaviors to see which fit best can help a lot. I thought this info might help a bit as well. If anyone wants more tips on this they can message me on my blog(the one I’m sending this from^^)

farkenshnoffingottom said: If you’re sitting, crossing your leg with your ankle over your other knee so you create a sort of triangle thing (as opposed to your legs being pressed together and the crossed leg hanging down over the other knee) wow this is surprisingly difficult to put into words. Anyway, that’s a more masc way to do that

macksthetranstiger said: Standing with your legs about shoulder length apart is a good start, and guys tend to either put their hands in their pockets or cross their arms a lot.

mysinsarehypothetical said: Guys tend to stand straightish but not quite straight, normally with either their hands in their pockets or their arms crossed across their chest from what I’ve seen

hypermxbile said: @guy pose anon- guys stand with their hands on their hips all the time, actually. my step dad and his male relatives do it anytime they’re standing around and they’re the epitome of Southern Hypermasculinity. the difference is that they keep their legs/hips straight while “feminine” people shift their weight to one hip or the other (making a hip “pop” out).

nonbinaryresource said: Walk with your shoulders, not your hips. Imagine a line in front of you. Traditionally, a more feminine gait would involve putting one foot in front of the other, toe to heel and heel to toe on the line itself. A more masculine one, or one that accommodates a packer, would involve walking parallel to the lines, not directly on top of it, and more aligned with the width of your shoulders. Imagine your center of balance being higher in your body. -mod bion

in your art tutorial (which was awesome and helpful btw) you had an example which i believe was the last one of a person with a long ponytail and honestly the way their hair looks in that fascinates me so i was wondering... how did you do the thing ? im rubbish at hair .

First of all thanks! I’m going to try and roll both a tutorial as to how I draw that particular hairstyle as well as an overall hair tutorial, aight?

when it comes to that sorta thing I draw a rough sketch first (sometimes i don’t out of habit, but with unfamiliar or more complicated hairstyles it never hurts to have your hairline down

I also lay down where the parts in the hair are (rella specifically has kinda roundish bangs along her forehead)

ok so a lot of more anime-ish hairstyles can be broken down into different parts

rella has:

the bottom part of her hair (red, which is a little closer to her skull and comes off of it a little bc That’s Just What Ponytail Hair Does unless it’s a really tight one or something)

a braid along each side of her hair that meets around in the back (blue, it’s relatively stylized because I don’t want to draw a lot of strands All The Time)

the Rest of It (green) which is essentially just hair going from the part into the braid or into the other side of her head

she also has a ponytail

the way i stylized it basically makes her hair really ribbonlike in shape but it’s also really thin in shape and texture so it’s easier to play with in terms of shape and volume

if i were to make it thicker hair, this is how i’d do it: a lot closer to tufts as opposed to strands, though when shading, i’d follow more or less the same ribbon shape (with respect to the bumpy shape of the tufts of course)

when i’m done with all of that, i normally merge my sketches and make them transparent and i take a brush and start lining (this one i just used is this one, it’s my only downloaded brush pack and that’s just because i’ve been using it for so long tbh)

little detail things that i do:

divide the hair into mini strands as you see fit, define it!! especially on shorter, tuft-ier hair (like in rella’s bangs). generally i define it more where more shading is, because that gives me more of a baseline as a whole.

hair is like fabric but it’s on your head. and your head is round, so rumple it! make it come up OFF of the head, make it emphasize the shape of it! it’s a wonderful way to make it realistic just by making it a little ruffly

hairlines are not always super clean cut. jag em up! show where individual follicles are being pulled if u Gotta. 

for the back hair: pretty much always show it going into the background. the more you indicate that there is DEPTH to the hair, the better it works.

more detail things but more actual bodies of hair:

do whatever you can to continue to indicate that the hair is 3-dimensional. make it twist around corners, make it move and spill together. have fun this is the payoff

separate it! it’s a very art nouveau look, plus it makes it look to actual hair with strands moving and doing their own thing

have hair not only break away from the bigger body, but also have it interact with obstacles. hair does that

rella has auburn hair, and i just randomly picked out some colors that seemed legit, if not a little ugly

screen layer + multiply + overlay + a background to set the mood

im making a palette out of this

ok with the base colors all flatted in, i’m finally ready to actually…color the hair

there are several ways to go about it this time around i’m blocking it large areas with (circular) gradients. it’s a trick i picked up from studying how himaruya (the artist for hetalia) does things and I think it lends itself pretty well to a silky hair texture.

i also took her skin color and used it right next to the bangs to make them look more transparent

i took the highlighter color from the palette i made and blocked in some soild shadows on a multiply layer. i’m probably going to change up the colors after a bit to make it look nicer, but for now, this will do just fine!

i did the same with the highlight and an overlay layer. it looks a little off right now, but i can always change it later.

i ended up not using the palette as much as i thought (which is ok! it happens) and i locked the layer with the shading on it so i can just go in with a light blue instead, so that it looks more unified!

and there!

this last bit is optional because black lines look fine but a style thing to consider is coloring the lines, which i did here:

and yeah that’s how i do hair

‘Call me a racist, but don’t say I’m a Buddhist’: America’s alt right

They present themselves as modern thinkers of extremism. But the US far right, discovers Sanjiv Bhattacharya, have the same white supremacist obsessions

Every few weeks, William Johnson, the chairman of the white nationalist American Freedom Party (AFP), holds a lunch for members, the goal being to make America a white ethnostate, a project that begins with electing Donald Trump. This week, its at a grand old French restaurant called Taix, in Echo Park, Los Angeles an odd choice on the face of it. Echo Park is a trendy hood. Its hipster and heavily Hispanic. In fact, given the predominance of Latino kitchen staff in this city, it may be wise to hold off on the Trump talk until the food arrives.

About three months ago, Johnson begins, I was talking to Richard Spencer about how we need to plan for a Trump victory. Spencer is another prominent white nationalist he heads the generic-sounding National Policy Institute. I said: I want Jared Taylor [of American Renaissance] as UN Ambassador, and Kevin MacDonald [an evolutionary psychologist] as secretary of health and Ann Coulter as homeland security! And Spencer said: Oh Johnson, thats a pipe dream! But today, hed no longer say that, because if Trump wins, all the establishment Republicans, theyre gone They hate him! So whos left? If we can lobby, we can put our people in there.

Around the table five young men, roughly half Johnsons age (hes 61), nod and lean in. They all wear suits and ties, address the waiter as sir and identify as the alt right, the much-discussed nouvelle vague of racism. Are you guys familiar with the Plum Book? Johnson asks. Its plum because of the colour, but also because of the plum positions there are 20,000 jobs in that book that are open to a new administration.

So we need to identify our top people! says Eric, one of the men at the table.

Just anyone with a college degree! Johnson says.

Right. Eric is practically bouncing in his seat with excitement. We need to get the word out. We are the new GOP!

A whiter future: pro- and anti-Trump supporters clash outside Trump Towers in New York. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Its not every day that a brown journalist gets to sit in on a white-nationalist strategy meeting. But these are strange times. Racism is trending. Like Brexit, Trump has normalised views that were once beyond the pale, and groups like the AFP have grown bold. Their mans stubby orange fingers are within reach of actual power, so maybe its time to emerge from the shadows at last.

I first met Johnson in May after he signed up as a Trump delegate before being swiftly struck off by the campaign when the press found out. Hes a surprising figure. An avid environmentalist, fluent in Japanese and, in person, not the bitter old racist Id expected but rather a jolly Mormon grandfather, bright eyed and chuckling, a Wind in the Willows character. Eric is even more unexpected. Tall and impassioned, he came to racism via hypnotherapy, of all things. He sells solar panels for a living and practises yoga. Together with his friends Matt and Nathan, who are also here at lunch, he runs an alt-right fraternity in Manhattan Beach a beer and barbecues thing. Theyre called the Beach Goys. Were starting a parody band, he beams. Weve found a drummer!

Between them they represent two poles of a racist spectrum, young and old. And judging from this lunch, its the millennials who are the more extreme. Johnson wants white nationalists to appear less mean and he finds the JQ, the Jewish Question, archaic. But Eric loves the meanness of the alt right. Were the troll army! he says. Were here to win. Were savage! And antisemitism is non-negotiable. In fact, hed like to clear up a misnomer about the alt right, propagated by the Breitbart columnist Milo Yiannopoulos, who is often described, mistakenly, as the movements leader. Milo casts the alt right as principally a trolling enterprise, dedicated to attacking liberal shibboleths for the lulz theres precious little actual bigotry. But Eric insists otherwise. Yes, they like to joke, they have memes, theyre just as funny as liberals have I heard of their satirical news podcasts, the Daily Shoah and Fash the Nation? But make no mistake, the racism is real. Eric especially enjoys The Daily Stormer, a leading alt-right news site, which is unashamedly pro-Hitler.

What unites Johnson and Eric is what they describe as the systematic browbeating of the white male namely all this talk of privilege, the Confederate flag, Black Lives Matter and mansplaining. But beyond that, its the looming extinction of the white race. This is the language they use. Also: Diversity equals white genocide. The alt right loves to evoke genocide while harbouring Holocaust deniers. Their point is that white people are melting away like the icecaps, and they have a primal drive to stop it. In 2044, non-Hispanic whites will drop below 50% of the US population. The generation of the white minority has already been born, Eric says. Look at South Africa and Rhodesia. Thats where were headed. Total disenfranchisement.

Mexican activists on the campaign trail. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

I want to reassure him that his Brown Rulers will be gentle and that slavery isnt so bad when you get used to it. But its not me they want to hear from, its white people. This is the white nationalists burden the very people theyre trying to save are the ones who most fiercely oppose them. The only group I cannot get along with is white people, says Johnson. Because white people hate white people who like white people.

A couple of days later, Johnson is at his cluttered desk in downtown LA, nattering merrily in Japanese to a woman in Tokyo. He gets lots of media requests these days, but especially from Japan. Theres an uncanny connection between Japan and white nationalism in America. Jared Taylor, white nationalisms foremost intellectual, is another fluent speaker. Its an ethnostate and its deeply nationalist, he says. And they have resisted the pressure to admit refugees. I say: God bless them!

For his part, Johnsons racism was shaped in Japan. He grew up in Eugene, Oregon, a state founded as a white utopia, in a modest Mormon home, back before the LDS church gave black people the priesthood in 1978. But it was his two-year mission to Tohoku, Japan, that turned him. As he went from door to door, locals would opine on the greatness of white America. They had an inferiority complex after the war, so we were treated like celebrities, he says. Oh, it was just the funnest time! A few years later, while working in Japan as an attorney, he wrote a book advocating the repatriation of all non-whites with appropriate reparations, because I thought America was going to collapse unless I did something. When he returned to LA, he sent a copy to every congressman. He was 32.

Clearly things didnt work out as planned. His forays into politics floundered and then his offices were bombed. So he retreated from activism for nearly 15 years, only returning in 2009 to form the AFP just in time for the rise of the alt right.

We head to his 67-acre ranch near Pasadena, a hilly lot backing on to a national forest. I asked to meet his family, but his wife refused, so we tour the farm instead his persimmon orchard, his horses and ducks. And there on his pick-up truck is a stencil of Jimi Hendrix. My daughter likes to paint, he says proudly. None of his five children are white nationalists, though they have promised to marry within the race.

Youre a white supremacist with a black artist painted on your truck, I tell him. And he flinches. Thats the meanest, most hurtful swearword there is. Just because I say different races have different strengths doesnt mean I think Im superior. He doesnt like racist either. Its a pejorative. I prefer race realist.

But its not my reality, Bill. Im sticking with racist.

Well, OK. But people who embrace racist are mad at everybody. I get along with people. You cannot function in Los Angeles without encountering other races, so I look for areas of similarity and agreement. Its important to treat everyone with the highest respect on a micro level.

I thought America was going to collapse unless I did something: William Johnson, chairman of the American Freedom Party, at home on his ranch near Pasadena. Photograph: Barry J Holmes for the Observer

On a macro level, however, darkness falls multiculturalism is doomed, the different races will never get along, and our only hope is Balkanisation: separate territories for separate tribes. And whatever accelerates that transition is welcome, even racial strife. I dont think friction is a good thing, he says, but it would help facilitate the split that is necessary.

We stop to feed his alpacas. Theres a brown one, a black one and a white one, standing peacefully together against the chicken wire fence.

See Bill, theyre getting along.

He laughs. I wish people were like alpacas.

Im with Eric at a Mexican restaurant in Manhattan Beach where he lives, an upscale, white neighbourhood in the South Bay. He clears space on the table and grins. OK, you ready? Your first tarot card reading with the Hitler Youth!

Its been an odd afternoon. We walked along the beach and I asked about his gmail address which includes the number 1488, a potent number for white supremacists. The 14 stands for the 14 words coined by the late David Lane of the group The Order: We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children. And the 88 refers to HH (H being eighth in the alphabet) or Heil Hitler. Eric sighed. OK, but this stuffs hard to talk about, he said. It depends how red-pilled you are.

Alt-righters love talking about the red pill. Its a reference to The Matrix blue-pilled people bumble through a life of illusion, while the red-pilled have seen the truth and theres no turning back. Like all conspiracy theorists they see the hidden hand that guides all things, but for the alt right that hand is Jewish. The red pill is classic antisemitism, rebooted for a younger generation. As we walked, he laid it out the banking, the media, the globalism. We passed games of beach volleyball and family picnics, while he explained why the Holocaust was exaggerated and Hitler got a bad rap.

A nation without colour: William Johnson speaking at an AFP conference in 2013.

Have you noticed that kombucha isnt as fizzy as it used to be? he asks, along the way, because Eric isnt your average Nazi. He trained as a spiritualist. He has taught meditation. He brought his tarot cards in case I wanted a reading.

Dont tell me its the Jews, I tell him. He laughs. You said it, not me!

In the late 70s, the Klansman David Duke swapped his hood and robes for a suit and tie, and took white supremacy out of the cross-burning fields and into the boardroom. Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center describes the alt right in similar terms, as Racism 2.0, a rebranding for the digital generation. Its a trendy reboot alt right makes white supremacy sound like an art collective. And Eric, the kombucha Nazi, just takes it a step further into the aisles of Whole Foods. Hes a locally sourced, wild-caught bigot high in omega-3s and antisemitism. It makes him more sinister in some ways, and more harmless in others. As Nazis go.

Hmm, Nazi. Like Johnson, hes squeamish about terms. Warriors against political correctness can be awfully sensitive. Its such a slur, he says. But come on hes a Hitler apologist. OK, fine, he says. Just dont say Im a Buddhist, because Im actually more into Norse and Celtic mysticism now.

Itll come as no surprise that someone whod rather be called a Nazi than a Buddhist has a strange story to tell. Originally from a well-off white suburb of Chicago, he moved to Las Vegas to pursue music. Then one day, in the gym of his condo building, he met a guru figure well call Frank. A spiritualist and businessman, Frank introduced Eric to New Age mysticism and Japanese Buddhism. And it was under Franks guidance that Eric moved to LA to study hypnotherapy and began a career giving readings and tarot shows at a psychic bookshop. Frank, he says, was his mentor and best friend. But then Eric took a turn. He radicalised himself. He left the New Age life, finding it too feminine, and spiralled down a sinkhole of conspiracy theory. He and Frank have been estranged ever since. Frank is black.

By the book: author Ann Coulter. Photograph: Aaron Davidson/Getty Images

Today, Eric still meditates and practises yoga. His weeks are spent like David Brent, as a travelling salesman, driving around meeting his solar energy clients. His weekends, however, are all about the Beach Goys, which now has 15 members. Last week, they went on a hike to the Murphy Ranch in the Pacific Palisades, a decrepit old property that was originally built as a refuge for Hitler after the war. Next week is their first band rehearsal. Erics going to play guitar and sing. And this is the future he wants not a plum job with the Trump administration. I dont see myself as a bureaucrat, he says. I want to take the Beach Goys national. I want to inspire people.

It could happen. Trump has unleashed something in America. Johnson wont reveal the AFPs membership numbers Maybe we want to appear bigger than we are? but Eric insists the alt right is on the march. Were growing with every hashtag, every BLM protest, every city that becomes a Detroit, or a London, he says. Were everywhere! Were the guy next to you at yoga, the barista at Starbucks… Its like Fight Club for supremacists, a deeply unsettling thought (which is why Eric loves it).

But his delight in being a secret Nazi detracts from the seriousness of it all, the white genocide stuff. Hes having too much fun. And I wonder, as we finish our beers, if it will pass for Eric, this Nazi phase. He just doesnt seem that threatening. Then he starts up about a race war, that old white-supremacist chestnut. Because behind the trolling veneer, the alt right is more traditional than alt. What Eric believes is vintage racism, the same old wine in a new ironic cask. And Tony Benns words ring as true as ever: Every generation must fight the same battles again and again.

Our civilisation is at war and we need to secure our people, Eric says. We must seize power and take control. And the idea that we can do this peacefully is probably not realistic.

We get along well enough, Eric and I, but he has the same micro/macro discrepancy as Johnson. And at a macro level, there is only despair and division. I do not advocate violence, but I will give my life for my blood and for the honour of my ancestors.

He thrums the tarot cards in his hands, his voice getting more animated. We accept the game thats being played. We accept that the lion and the gazelle are competition. But they dont have to hate each other. Thats just how we view it.

He shrugs. Its scary. The world is scary. This is not a game for children.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/call-me-a-racist-but-dont-say-im-a-buddhist-americas-alt-right/

518.

5000 Question Survey Pt. 28

2601. Do you think cell phones cause cancer? apparently everything causes cancer these days. i don’t know anyone personally who doesn’t have a cell phone, would that mean the chances of getting cancer at at its highest? Are cell phone users more likely to get into car accidents? while using the phone while driving, yes. Do cell phones really interfere with a plane's navigation equipment? apparently so. Are cell phones immune from computer viruses? i don’t think so? Can using a cell phone at a gas station spark a fire? apparently. geez, five questions within one question. cool.

2602. What makes a guy see a chick as less of a cute little girl and more of a woman? i guess if they look older? 2603. What is it about football that makes people want to watch it? the passion, the atmosphere and the game itself? i hate football though lmao. 2604. What is the best show on tv? tbh i think it’s the office.  2605. Are you more of a tape dispenser or a stereo speaker and why? i’m... not sure. 2606. What do you think is overrated? instagram models and most youtubers. What is underrated? people out there trying to make a difference in the world. 2607. Can spiders ump? huh? Did you interpret that as 'jump' or 'hump or 'bump' or other? jump. 2608. What's the matter with adults today? we’re too reliant on technology. 2609. Have you ever worked 'off the books'? no...? 2610. Have you ever worked 9-5? i have before. If not do you think you ever will? i don’t right now, but i’d love to have a normal working schedule like that. i hate working nights. 2611. Do men or woman make better bosses? it honestly just depends on the person. 2612. Do you believe that people should more up through a company or that the higher up positions should be filled by people hired from outseide the company? i think people should be offered to move up in their company since they’re more likely experienced with the ‘smaller’ things. 2613. Why is it that no one seems to care about their job? it’s just a grind, need to work to live, right? 2614. When I go into a store, why doesn't anyone know anything about what they are selling? that just means their training wasn’t in depth enough. 2615. Have you ever seen those people that get that blank, lost expression when they go into a store and kinda shuffle along like zombies? not really? Do you wonder how they got up, dressed themselves, and made it to the store in the first place? ... 2616. When did you/will you graduate college? i graduated in 2013. 2617. When will Eminem stop whining about his bad childhood and move on?? i haven’t heard him whine about that in a long time. 2618. I am drug free. Are you drug free? yes. 2619. I have piercings and am getting tattoos. Do you have either? i have my ears and nose pierced. no desire to get tatts. 2620. Can you REALLY say that your way is the right way? sometimes. Maybe there is a different way for everyone? sure. 2621. What do you think of the song 'Imagine'? it’s soothing and thought provoking. 2622. Can you think of any reason i might have written this, other than I am bored with too much time on my hands? no idea. 2623. What is the purpose of art? i guess to get our visual senses running. How about movies? Music? 2624. Do you think that anything has lost its value because it's become too 'commercial'? What? instagram. before it was just a way to share photos but now it’s a popularity contest. 2625. Have you ever been promoted? no actually lol. fired? not really, more like ‘let go’. they didn’t need me anymore coz their business was failing. 2626. What do you call your private area? Does it have a nickname? vag. and no. 2627. What parts of your body are shaved? armpits, legs and down there. 2628. What is a peachclam? female genitals? 2629. What is the american dream? being successful in america. Is it the same as your dream? no, i don’t like there. 2630. Do you need to be right all the time? no. 2631. There was a sculpture that was supposed to be displayed for a week in the Rockafeller Center in NYC of a falling woman - designed as a memorial to those who jumped or fell to their death from the World Trade Center. It was complained about as grotesque, innopropriate and describe as 'not art' What do you think? 9/11 is still a very sensitive topic, i believe it could be considered art but the negative way it’ll make people feel overpowers its artistic message. It was taken down early because it was seen as 'offensive'. What do you think about that? that totally fair enough. The artist, Fischl, said in a statement. ``It was a sincere expression of deepest sympathy for the vulnerability of the human condition. Both specifically towards the victims of Sept. 11 and towards humanity in general.'' Are people just too sensitive? Or maybe people are NOT sensitive ENOUGH to the idea that others may have different views from them (or from the majority)? i can see it from both ways. She these different, opposing or offensive views be allowed to be expressed freely and openly? Why or why not? i think it’s best if it were in an art gallery instead. more like-minded people would visit it and appreciate it how the artist wanted it to be portrated. 2632. What letter's sound do you like the best? i’ve... never thought about that. 2633. What is one movie charater you identify with and why? none really. 2634. Do you act the same when you are alone as you do when people are watching? not really. 2635. Why is everyone so obssessed with superheros? i don’t knowww. 2636. What cliches do you hear over-used the most? meh. 2637. Do you handle inconvieniences well? not really. i’ll most likely complain. 2638. Are you a fan of Jackie Chan? yeah, he’s funny, talented, charming and does his own stunts lol. 2639. Is a promise a big deal? to me, yes. i don’t take them lightly. 2640. What is your place in the universe? right here. 2641. Once some scientists dug up a woolly mamoth, frozen in ice. It was still completely whole, not rotted or fosilized. The scientists decided to have a dinner party. It was a very posh affair. they served roast woolly mamoth steaks, the rarest meat in all the world. So, if you were invited, would you have eaten it? no. 2642. What are 3 things you DON'T want to know? when im gna die, any ‘truths’ in my family that would make me think differently of them and sob stories in general. 2643. It seems to me that a lot of people don't value their lives, or life in general very highly. Why do you suppose that is? it’s just the way the world works i guess. not everyone wants to eat healthy, work out, strive to be the best person they can be etc.  Are you like that? sometimes. 2644. Do you celebrate the harvest moon? no. 2645. Do you believe in out of body experiances? possibly. 2646. Why does so much depend upon a red wheel barrel glazed with rain water beside the white chickens? ok. 2647. Why do so many people get jobs that they dislike? because it’s all about earning money. 2648. Do you think that in THIS world, being creative is a handicap? no? Why or why not? being creative is a blessing and a way to express yourself. 2649. Do you ever get chills or shivers during movies? What movies? not really. 2650. Do you believe in the collective unconsiouss(that people are like onions..the outer layers are individualistic and the deeper you go the more similar we all are)? lol haven’t thought about it that deeply. 2651. Do you think that most people have the qualities you look for in friends/intimate relationships or do you feel alienated? the people i surround myself with are enough. i’m not really looking for new friends. 2652. Are you very critical: of others? yes. of yourself? yes. 2653. Is there such a thing as expecting too much? definitely. 2654. Would you rather take an hour lunch break or skip lunch and get out of work early? ski[ lunch and get off work early, always. 2655. Do you believe that happiness is equal to fakeness? shallowness? joy? something good that happens? an attitude you have inside no matter what happens? idk. 2656. Can you control your emotions? for the most part, yes. have you ever tried? yes. 2657. Imagine you are 34 weeks pregnant. You are healthy and you didn't have any major problems in your pregnancy. Would you consider flying from the UK to Germany, which takes one hour, without a bad feeling that something could go wrong or the baby decides to come out earlier? there would have to be a really good reason that i’m flying in the first place. i usually wouldn’t risk it. 2658. How long do you think it would take you to jog a mile? forever. i’m really unfit. 2659. Word assciation: twilight: wolf. garden: gnome. warm: sun. stars: sky. crash: bandicoot. mold: bathrooms. gold: leaf. green: leaf. lush: garden. 2660. Picture a triangle: Quick! What color is it? orange. Picture a square. Quick! What color is it? blue. Picture a circle. Quick! What color is it? yellow. Why do you think you saw these shapes as these colors? idk lol. 2661. What things are endless? nothing. 2662. Are you ever subtle? i can be. 2663. Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood...some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't conceive of your life without it? How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? How can you fully appreciate these moments, every moment, when it all seems limitless? ~Paul Bowles excerpt from The Sheltering Sky 2664. Do you never have an ordinary day? yes. 2665. Do you embrace every single thing you've never known? not everything. 2666. Has anyone ever mistaken you for a satanist? no lol. 2667. Can stress sometimes be good? if you work well under stress, then yeah. 2668. Write something random, just whatever flows out of your head without thinking. Forget punctuation just try to type as fast as you think: okay, this is getting boring.  2669. Are you a musical snob? yes. How about a film snob? no. 2670. When you were in school did you learn to think or repeat? think. 2671. Do you have everything you need to be happy? not yet. If not, what is missing? a direction. 2672. Would you take a very casualy dropped 'maybe I should just kill myself' as a warning ssign? yes, for sure. 2673. What does the word 'ironic' mean? Can you give an example of an ironic situation? no. 2674. What did you see today that was beautiful in an ordinary way? a plane flying through the sky. 2675. Have you ever been on the edge of the night? no? 2676. Do you feel oppressed in some way? no. 2677. Who do you think shot JFK? idk. Who do you think shot Martin Luthar King? idk. Why do you think they got shot? haters. 2679. Are you aware that although only about 14 percent of the american total population is black, that about 70 percent of the people in jail in america are black? Why do you think that is? a large part of it is racism, surely. a lot of the stuff in the media basically proves it. What conclusion can you draw based on this? whatever. 2678. Do you think that the culture you live in is completely open to all ideas and forms of expression? hell no. australia is one of the most narrow minded countries that’s very developed. tell me otherwise, please. 2680. What do you think of the character (muppet) on sesame street that has aids and should this kind of a theme be explored in children's television? it’s good. and yes, i feel like children should be educated on the different backgrounds and situations people in the world can be in. 2681. Are you dyslexic? no. 2682, Can you construct a bong out of: household objects? sure. an apple? sure. your cat? i dont have a cat. 2683. Starwars, star trek or star gate? none. 2684. Windows or mac? mac. 2685. Do you start conversations or wait for other people to start them? it depends who it is. 2686. How many phallac symbols can you think of? plenty. 2687. Would you but tickets to see the top ten american idols sing live? no. 2688. A bird may love a fish...but where would they live? on the shore. 2689. Are you a hologram or a misfit? none. 2690. How are you oriented sexually? straight. Do you agree with the people who say that everyone is bi-sexual even if they don't want to admit it? i think preferences are purely dependant on the person. you can’t label anyone but yourself. 2691. If you are the only human on the planet of the apes do you have sex with an ape? i don’t know. 2692. If you are making out with a sex someone and you reach down and find they have a fish tail instead of legs do you still fool around with them? no. 2693. Does superman wear kryptonite condoms? idk. 2694. Do you know exactly where you are? Do you know the meaning of it all? Do you know the distance to the sun? Do you know the echo that is love? *yawn* 2694. Do you believe you are: extraordinary? Blessed? Cursed? Won? lame lol. 2695. What are you doing this weekend? not sure yet. definitely going out on sunday night though.  2696. Do you believe that black people should get money to make up for their previous enslavement? the ones who have been freed, yes definitely. Do you believe that all oppressed people should get money to make up for their oppression? yes. 2697. What's a quagmire? that guy from family guy. 2698. Is philosophy a science or can everyone have their own philosophy? to each their own. 2699. Are you a big fish in a small pond? no. 2700. Would you like to read an entire novel written in stream of consciousness form? idk.

‘ Call me a racist, but don’t say I’m a Buddhist ‘: America’s alt right

They present themselves as modern intellectuals of extremism. But the US far right, detects Sanjiv Bhattacharya, have the same white supremacist obsessions

Every few weeks, William Johnson, the chairman of the white patriot American Freedom Party( AFP ), holds a lunch for members, the goal being to stimulate America a white ethnostate, a project that begins with electing Donald Trump. This week, its at a grand old French eatery called Taix, in Echo Park, Los Angeles an odd choice on the face of it. Echo Park is a trendy hood. Its hipster and heavily Hispanic. In fact, given the predominance of Latino kitchen staff in this city, it may be wise to hold off on the Trump talk until the food arrives.

About three months ago, Johnson begins, I was talking to Richard Spencer about how we need to plan for a Trump victory. Spencer is another prominent white patriot he heads the generic-sounding National Policy Institute. I said: I want Jared Taylor[ of American Renaissance] as UN Ambassador, and Kevin MacDonald[ an evolutionary psychologist] as secretary of health and Ann Coulter as homeland security! And Spencer said: Oh Johnson, thats a pipe dream! But today, hed no longer say that, because if Trump wins, all the establishment Republican, theyre run They detest him! So whos left? If we can foyer, we can set our people in there.

Around the table five young men, roughly half Johnsons age( hes 61 ), nod and tilt in. They all wear suits and ties, relating to the waiter as sir and identify as the alt right, the much-discussed nouvelle vague of racism. Are you guys familiar with the Plum Book ? Johnson asks. Its plum because of the colour, but also because of the plum positions there are 20,000 jobs in that volume that are open to a new administration.

So we need to identify our top people! says Eric, one of “the mens” at the table.

Just anyone with a college degree! Johnson says.

Right. Eric is practically ricochetting in his seat with exhilaration. We need to get the word out. We are the new GOP!

A whiter future: pro- and anti-Trump advocates clash outside Trump Towers in New York. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Its not every day that a brown journalist gets to sit in on a white-nationalist strategy meeting. But these are strange days. Racism is trending. Like Brexit, Trump has normalised views that were once beyond the pale, and groups like the AFP have grown bold. Their mans stubby orange fingers are within reach of actual power, so perhaps its time to emerge from the darkness at last.

I first gratified Johnson in May after he signed up as a Trump delegate before being swiftly struck off by the campaign when the press found out. Hes a surprising figure. An avid environmentalist, fluent in Japanese and, in person , not the bitter old racist Id expected but instead a jolly Mormon grandfather, bright eyed and chuckle, a Wind in the Willows character. Eric is even more unexpected. Tall and impassioned, “hes come to” racism via hypnotherapy, of all things. He sells solar panels for a life and practises yoga. Together with his friends Matt and Nathan, who are also here at lunch, he operates an alt-right frat in Manhattan Beach a brew and barbecues thing. Theyre called the Beach Goys. Were starting a parody band, he beams. Weve discovered a drummer!

Between them they represent two poles of a racist spectrum, young and old. And judging from this lunch, its the millennials who are the more extreme. Johnson wants white patriots to appear less mean and he discovers the JQ, the Jewish Question, archaic. But Eric loves the meanness of the alt right. Were the troll army! he says. Were here to win. Were savage! And antisemitism is non-negotiable. In fact, hed like to clear up a misnomer about the alt right, propagated by the Breitbart columnist Milo Yiannopoulos, who is often described, mistakenly, as the movements leader. Milo casts the alt right as principally a trolling enterprise, dedicated to assaulting liberal shibboleths for the lulz theres precious little actual intolerance. But Eric insists otherwise. Yes, they like to gag, they have memes, theyre just as funny as liberals have I heard of their satirical news podcasts, the Daily Shoah and Fash the Nation ? But build no mistake, the racism is real. Eric especially enjoys The Daily Stormer , a resulting alt-right news site, which is unashamedly pro-Hitler.

What unites Johnson and Eric is what they describe as the systematic browbeating of the white male namely all this talk of privilege, the Confederate flag, Black Lives Matter and mansplaining. But beyond that, its the looming extinction of the white race. This is the language they use. Also: Diversity equals white genocide. The alt right loves to provoke genocide while harbouring Holocaust deniers. Their point is that white people are melting away like the icecaps, and they have a primal drive to stop it. In 2044 , non-Hispanic whites will drop below 50% of the US population. The generation of the white minority has already been born, Eric says. Look at South Africa and Rhodesia. Thats where were headed. Total disenfranchisement.

Mexican activists on the campaign trail. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

I want to reassure him that his Brown Rulers is likely to be gentle and that bondage isnt even worse when you get used to it. But its not me they want to hear from, its white people. This is the white patriots burden the very people theyre trying to save are the ones who most ferociously oppose them. The only group I cannot get along with is white people, says Johnson. Because white people detest white people who like white people.

A couple of days later, Johnson is at his cluttered desk in downtown LA, nattering blithely in Japanese to a woman in Tokyo. He gets lots of media requests these days, but especially from Japan. Theres an uncanny connection between Japan and white patriotism in America. Jared Taylor, white patriotisms foremost intellectual, is another fluent speaker. Its an ethnostate and its deep nationalist, he says. And they have resisted the pressure to admit refugees. I say: God bless them!

For his part, Johnsons racism was shaped in Japan. He grew up in Eugene, Oregon, a nation founded as a white utopia, in a modest Mormon home, back before the LDS church dedicated black people the priesthood in 1978. But it was his two-year mission to Tohoku, Japan, that turned him. As “hes been gone” from doorway to door, locals would opine on the greatness of white America. They had an inferiority complex after the war, so we were treated like celebrities, he says. Oh, it was just the funnest hour! A few years later, while working in Japan as an attorney, he wrote a book advocating the repatriation of all non-whites with appropriate reparations, because I thought America was going to breakdown unless I did something. When he returned to LA, he sent a transcript to every congressman. He was 32.

Clearly things didnt work up as schemed. His forays into politics floundered and then his offices were bombed. So he retreated from activism for nearly 15 years, merely returning in 2009 to form the AFP merely in time for the rise of the alt right.

We head to his 67 -acre ranch near Pasadena, a hilly lot backing on to a national forest. I asked to meet his family, but his wife refused, so we tour the farm instead his persimmon orchard, his ponies and ducks. And there on his pick-up truck is a stencil of Jimi Hendrix. My daughter likes to paint, he says proudly. None of his five children are white patriots, though they have promised to marry within the race.

Youre a white supremacist with a black artist painted on your truck, I tell him. And he flinches. Thats the meanest, most hurtful swearword there is. Just because I say different races have differing strengths doesnt entail I believe Im superior. He doesnt like racist either. Its a pejorative. I prefer race realist.

But its not my reality, Bill. Im sticking with racist.

Well, OK. But people who espouse racist are mad at everybody. I get along with people. You cannot function in Los Angeles without encountering other races, so I look for areas of similarity and arrangement. Its important to treat everyone with the highest respect on a micro level.

I believed America was going to breakdown unless I did something: William Johnson, chairman of the American Freedom Party, at home on his ranch near Pasadena. Photograph: Barry J Holmes for the Observer

On a macro level, however, darkness falls multiculturalism is doomed, the different races will never get along, and our only hope is Balkanisation: separate territories for separate tribes. And whatever accelerates that transition is greeting, even racial strife. I dont suppose friction is a good thing, he says, but it would help facilitate the divide that is necessary.

We stop to feed his alpacas. Theres a brown one, a black one and a white one, standing peacefully together against the chicken wire fence.

See Bill, theyre get along.

He laughs. I wish people were like alpacas.

Im with Eric at a Mexican restaurant in Manhattan Beach where he lives, an upscale, white neighbourhood in the South Bay. He clears space on the table and smiles. OK, you ready? Your first tarot card reading with the Hitler Youth!

Its been an odd afternoon. We walked along the beach and I asked about his gmail address which includes the number 1488, a potent number for white supremacists. The 14 stands for the 14 terms coined by the late David Lane of the group The Order: We must procure the existence of our people and a future for white children. And the 88 refers to HH( H being eighth in the alphabet) or Heil Hitler. Eric sighed. OK, but this stuffs hard to talk about, he said. It depends how red-pilled you are.

Alt-righters love talking about the red pill. Its a reference to The Matrix blue-pilled people bumble through a life of illusion, while the red-pilled have watched the truth and theres no going back. Like all conspiracy theorists they ensure the hidden hand that guides all things, but for the alt right that hand is Jewish. The red pill is classic antisemitism, rebooted for a younger generation. As we walked, he laid it out the banking, the media, the globalism. We passed games of beach volleyball and family barbecues, while he explained why the Holocaust was exaggerated and Hitler got a bad rap.

A nation without colour: William Johnson speaking at an AFP conference in 2013.

Have you noticed that kombucha isnt as fizzy as it used to be? he asks, along the way, because Eric isnt your average Nazi. He trained as a spiritualist. He has taught meditation. He brought his tarot cards in case I wanted a reading.

Dont tell me its the Jews, I tell him. He chuckles. You said it , not me!

In the late 70 s, the Klansman David Duke swapped his hood and robes for a suit and affiliation, and took white dominance out of the cross-burning fields and into the boardroom. Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center describes the alt right in similar terms, as Racism 2.0, a rebranding for the digital generation. Its a trendy reboot alt right builds white domination sound like an art collective. And Eric, the kombucha Nazi, just takes it a step further into the aisles of Whole Foods. Hes a locally sourced, wild-caught bigot high in omega-3s and antisemitism. It attains him more sinister in some manner, and more harmless in others. As Nazis go.

Hmm, Nazi. Like Johnson, hes squeamish about terms. Warriors against political correctness can be awfully sensitive. Its such a slur, he says. But come along hes a Hitler apologist. OK, penalty, he says. Just dont say Im a Buddhist, because Im actually more into Norse and Celtic mysticism now.

Itll come as no surprise that someone whod instead be called a Nazi than a Buddhist has a strange story to tell. Originally from a well-off white suburb of Chicago, he moved to Las Vegas to pursue music. Then one day, in the gym of his condo house, he met a guru figure well call Frank. A spiritualist and businessman, Frank introduced Eric to New Age mysticism and Japanese Buddhism. And it was under Franks guidance that Eric moved to LA to study hypnotherapy and began a career giving reads and tarot demonstrates at a psychic bookshop. Frank, he says, was his mentor and best friend. But then Eric took a turning. He radicalised himself. He left the New Age life, detecting it too feminine, and spiralled down a sinkhole of conspiracy hypothesi. He and Frank have been estranged ever since. Frank is black.

By the book: author Ann Coulter. Photograph: Aaron Davidson/ Getty Images

Today, Eric still meditates and practises yoga. His weeks are spent like David Brent, as a travelling salesman, driving around gratifying his solar energy clients. His weekends, however, are all about the Beach Goys, which now has 15 members. Last week, they went on a hike to the Murphy Ranch in the Pacific Palisades, a decrepit old property that was originally constructed as a refuge for Hitler after the war. Next week is their first band rehearsal. Erics going to play guitar and sing. And this is the future he wants not a plum job with the Trump administration. I dont find myself as a bureaucrat, he says. I want to take the Beach Goys national. I want to inspire people.

It could happen. Trump has unleashed something in America. Johnson wont uncover the AFPs membership numbers Perhaps we want to appear bigger than we are? but Eric insists the alt right is on the procession. Were growing with every hashtag, every BLM protest, every city that becomes a Detroit, or a London, he says. Were everywhere! Were the guy next to you at yoga, the barista at Starbucks … Its like Fight Club for supremacists, a profoundly unsettling thought( which is why Eric loves it ).

But his delight in being a secret Nazi detracts from the seriousness of it all, the white genocide stuff. Hes having too much fun. And I wonder, as we finish our brews, if it will pass for Eric, this Nazi phase. He simply doesnt seem that threatening. Then he starts up about a race war, that old white-supremacist chestnut. Because behind the trolling veneer, the alt right is more traditional than alt. What Eric believes is vintage racism, the same old wine in a new ironic cask. And Tony Benns terms ring as true as ever: Every generation must fight the same combats again and again.

Our civilisation is at war and we need to secure our people, Eric says. We must seize power and take control. And the idea that we can do this peacefully is probably not realistic.

We get along well enough, Eric and I, but he has the same micro/ macro discrepancy as Johnson. And at a macro level, there is only desperation and division. I do not advocate violence, but I will give my life for my blood and for the honour of my ancestors.

He thrums the tarot cards in his hands, his voice becoming ever more animated. We accept the game thats being played. We accept that the lion and the gazelle are competitor. But they dont “re going to have to” dislike one another. Thats just how we view it.

He shrugs. Its scary. The world is scary. This is not a game for children.

Read more: www.theguardian.com

The post ‘ Call me a racist, but don’t say I’m a Buddhist ‘: America’s alt right appeared first on Top Rated Solar Panels.

from Top Rated Solar Panels http://ift.tt/2EbkleY via IFTTT