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tmzrkstan · 10 months

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nct dream as teen romances.

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★warnings: maybe cursing, relationship between minors (legal).

★genre: fluff, romantic tropes, (kinda of) korean school trope.

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★Mark:

•Not just a boyfriend, also a bandmate;

•Beeing raised abroad gave him an advantage to join the band (english speaker), and of course, his ability with music;

•You and your friends found everything that were looking for to complete what became a kinda famous band in the city;

•Don't took long for you two get along and spend some afternoons with his guitar and a composition book: "You did in a few days what the music did in my whole life."

•When the relantionship became official you just couldn't separate from each other;

•The lovely looks during performances, dates in karaokes and make out sessions at the "backstage" were always present;

•"We can't be sure about the band future, but I know we're never splitting up."

★Renjun:

• The boy admired you for a long time from afar;

•When he heard from a friend that you were looking for a boyfriend he gained courage;

•He had to miss some afternoons and even morning classes in order to finish a project to win you over;

•That's why you found a drawing of you made by hand, which was noticeable the use of watercolor, and behind it, his initials;

•You soon realized who it was from and decided to text him, which led to a sleepless night with your cell phone;

•Without taking too long to return the feelings, you started dating and he nicknamed you as his "muse";

•You can be sure that your dates would always end with you taking a drawing home, whether on a small canvas or on a napkin from the restaurant you went to;

•"The best part of drawing you is being able to look at you as much as I want."

★Jeno:

•If it wasn't for the jock who falls in love with the cheerleader, I'd be lying;

•Despite his popularity, he had to struggle to get the attention of everyone on the team, which led to him crashing several rehearsals;

•He made his interest obvious when he scored a decisive point in the game and dedicate it to you in front of the whole school;

•The minute I became his girlfriend, the whole school would suffer because of you two, like the team being forced to participate in his surprises, the game being stopped for you to kiss each other at each point;

•Despite the masculine and strong exterior, inside he looked like a puppy running after his owner, he was completely passionate and silly. It's visible how he would try to help you with the cheerleading thing;

•"So, the deal is if I win the game tonight, I got a make out session for as long as I want?"

★Haechan:

•At first, no one could tell if you were friends or not;

•You competed with everything you could for years now, Hyuck knew how to make you lose and made a point of winning every time, whether in a test, sports or any activity;

•One day you got tired of it all, making it clear to him that you didn't care about it anymore, and that sent him into a fit;

•His friends consoled him that this was his final victory, but he knew well that he wanted to win you instead. Pride made him say nothing 'till the moment;

•He chased you for days and you just ran, until you had no choice when he pinned you to the wall of an empty hallway: "You really are very stupid for not understanding what I wanted all of this time";

•Sure had a lot more drama until yall finally bring fellings out and started dating, a relationship full of silly little fights and a lot of teasing on both sides, this time with some kisses, caresses and loving words in between;

•"I admit you won, look who you made fall in love with you."

★Jaemin:

•You had your reasons and he had an (toxic) ex he wanted to win back, a little gossip going around and you ended up in a fake relationship;

•The plan was doing great, everyone was getting what they wanted, or at least what you thought that you wanted;

•After weeks of "fake" dates, talking about your lives, sharing secrets and dreams, Jaemin couldn't care less when his ex showed up at his house: "Sorry, but There's no way, I'm completely in love with her."

•When he realized this, appeared the other day at school with a huge bouquet and an even bigger smile stating that dating would no longer be fake;

•You thought he could take it back later, but the kisses and declarations of love he gave you made it clear how right he was about It;

•"In the very first minute of our deal, my feelings already became real, it would be impossible not to."

★Chenle:

•It's not like anyone was really forbidding it, like arresting you at home or hiring a security guard to follow you around, but your parents made it clear that they were against it;

•His family, more modest, did not agree with the luxurious way that Chenle lived with his, who preferred that his son was with someone more similar;

•They imagined that this was going to happen, that's why they even took a while to start dating, but when they got together, there was nothing he wouldn't do for you;

•The boy was used to always getting what he wanted, and this time it would be no different, he would just have to change his strategy, like going on hidden dates, finding empty places at school and running away at midnight, it made everything harder, but more exciting;

•"You can't give up on us, it's hard right now, but I promisse I'll make it worth it."

★Jisung:

•You two been friends since the first day you can remember;

•Always inseparable, if one wasn't welcome in a group of friends then the other wouldn't even consider staying in it;

•They faced everything together, all the first experiences, like tests, graduations, parties, simply everything. Even first love, which Jisung took a long time to realize when feelings changed;

•He freaked out every time he saw some guy trying to hit on you, or when you seemed interested in another one, but he didn't want to confess and look like a silly teen that ruins the friendship;

•You're the one who had to admit you liked him first, or you'd never start dating. And everyone, including the families, loved it.

•It doesn't changed much in reality, apart from the kissing/toching and your parents no longer letting you stay alone in your bedroom for so long.

•"I can't wait to spend my whole with my best friend."

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author: Hope yall like It<3

#nct #kpop #imagine #nct dream #nct dream imagines #park jisung #mark lee #haechan #jaemin #lee jeno #renjun #chenle #nct dream x reader #kpop imagines #nct dream reactions #romantic tropes

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flowerandblood · 1 year

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Ophelia

[modern! photographer • Aemond x female]

[warnings: mention of sex, domination, sexual tension, fluff]

[description: Aemond is a photographer dealing with works referring to the painting of the old masters. His sister poses in class for a girl who catches his attention. He decides that she would be a perfect model for one of his photos. Lots of sexual tension and slowly built fascination.]

* English is not my first language. Please, do not repost. Enjoy! *

This is Part 3 of story: Girl with a Pearl Earring

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Aemond and she didn't talk about what happened at the last photo shoot. She couldn't stop thinking about what his mouth and tongue had done to her. How unearthly and sublime the experience was. How hard she came on his face.

She wondered if he did this with all his models. Did he ask her to pose for him just because he was physically attracted to her. She once asked Helaena if he ever had another model to pose for so many photos. His sister thought for a moment.

"I don't recall such a situation. Female models always frustrated my brother very quickly. He often complained that they couldn't focus on their task. He praises you very much in this regard." She added finally. She looked at her surprised.

"Really?" She asked, surprised and intrigued by what he might be telling his family about her. Helena looked at her with a smile.

"Yes. He says that you have amazing facial expressions and gaze. That you are able to show very complex, elusive feelings and emotions. He said that his professor is delighted with the photos you have taken recently. Especially the one where there is no mirror." She said contentedly.

"He said you have an inscrutable, thoughtful, jittery expression on your face that fits the whole composition wonderfully."

She swallowed hard, feeling her face turn red at the thought that his professor appreciated the most picture he took of her at the end of photo shoot.

She shuddered to think that perhaps he was doing it on purpose, deliberately, to get the shot he desired. To get the expression he wanted out of her. She pursed her lips, ashamed to think that she had succumbed to his advances so easily.

Although until now she had always looked for him in the hallway of the university to greet him, she decided to stop doing it. She decided that if all this meant nothing to him then she shouldn't have bothered to get his attention.

Aemond wrote to her a few days later informing her that the next painting they would be copying would be Ophelia painted by John Everett Millais. The studio was not suitable for water photography, so Aemond decided that she would be lying on the floor full of flowers. He booked the studio for next Thursday.

Although she usually wrote him very long messages, sharing her ideas and being inventive, this time she only wrote back that she understood and of course she would come at the appointed time.

She slowly finished painting Helaena's portrait. Her bright, beautiful face and almost white hair stood out against the golden background, her blue eyes and gown blended wonderfully with the yellows around. She was very pleased with the effect she got. Helaena looked light, gentle and happy in her portrait, her face framed by an almost imperceptible smile.

She heard someone enter the room, but no one paid any attention to that - students came and went as they pleased. She jumped in place as Aemond suddenly appeared in front of her, looking at her expectantly. She looked at him, swallowing softly, but didn't speak first. Aemond pursed his lips and cleared his throat.

"Can you give me a moment alone?" He asked unusually softly compared to how he usually spoke.

"Yes, of course". She said surprised, getting up from her seat and following him. They were led away by the curious looks of her classmates.

They went out into the corridor and stand in front of each other. She looked at him expectantly, smiling slightly. She felt her heart pounding hard and swallowed softly as the memory of him kneeling between her legs flashed through her mind. Aemond spoke after a moment.

"My professor is delighted with the photos we have taken so far. He thinks we are going in the right direction. I agree with his opinion." He spoke calmly and matter-of-factly.

She looked at him surprised. She wondered if he was implying something with that statement, wanting to say that what was going on between them should continue for the sake of his art. She swallowed hard at the thought, dropping her gaze.

"Well, I'm glad that you and he are satisfied." She said calmly, trying to smile. Aemond looked at her intensely, concerned. He was clearly struggling to ask her something. He gave up at the last moment, looking away.

"See you on Thursday."

***

Already two days before the photo shoot, she felt that she had caught a cold. At first she had only a sore throat and a runny nose. She took vitamin C tablets and aspirin, but despite her best efforts on the day they were to meet she woke up with a fever. She looked at herself in the mirror as she changed clothes.

She was pale, there were light circles under her eyes. She thought she really did look like she was dying. That she really looked and felt like Ophelia, inside and out. She decided not to cancel the session.

She came to the set more stressed than ever before. As she entered the room, she and Aemond looked at each other quickly. They nodded to each other without saying a word. Aemond was spreading wildflowers on the floor for her to lie down on. They looked like a large, colorful eiderdown.

She went straight to the room where she could change. She did not consult it with him, but she sewed a dress for the photo. It was white and slightly translucent, a delicate, flowing material. It had puffy, long sleeves, ending at the wrists with embroidered cuffs. The boat neckline of the dress was also decorated with white embroidery.

She decided to take off her bra, knowing it would look bad in the photo. She shuddered at the thought, both terrified and excited that her nipples would be barely visible.

Her head was spinning from the fever.

She deliberately didn't take any pills, wanting to look as pale as possible. She decided that if he wanted her to sacrifice herself for his art, she would.

She left the room after a while, closing the door quietly behind her and headed towards the flowers and plants spread on the ground. Aemond looked at her and raised his eyebrows in surprise, only now noticing how pale she was. His gaze traveled down to her cleavage and froze for a moment. He cleared his throat, looking at his feet, and went straight to the point.

"Lie where the flowers are more piled up. I want them to be visible around your head in the frame as well." He said calmly. She thought he was trying to sound less cold than usual.

She lay down obediently, placing her face where he had directed her. She spread her arms out to the sides as in the painting, placing her fingers as if she was holding a needle. She tilted her head back slightly, feeling waves of heat flowing down her body.

Aemond crouched beside her, camera in one hand. With his free hand, he gently combed her hair as he saw fit. She saw that involuntarily his gaze escaped towards her slightly translucent breasts. He brought the camera up to his face and looked at her through the lens.

"Open your mouth." He spoke softly and she obeyed. She heard the sound of the camera shutter.

"Think of something depressing. Something that keeps you awake at night." He said finally, lowering the camera, looking at her expectantly. "Your gaze must express the emptiness of suffering."

She swallowed softly at his words. She thought about him. That once he took all the photos of her he wanted she would never see him again. That he would find another model and muse. That she was just a moment in his life that he immortalized on his films and nothing more.

She felt her lips quiver at the thought, her body shivering. Her eyes turned painfully red. She inhaled softly, trembling, a tear rolling down her cheek. She stared straight ahead, somewhere to the side, her eyes completely absent. She heard him get up on his knees and take a series of pictures of her.

"God, it's beautiful." He whispered.

After a while he lowered the camera down. She saw out of the corner of her eye that he was staring at her silently. Her chest heaved steadily. She couldn't stop the tears streaming down her face.

It was getting harder and harder to breathe due to the high temperature of her body. She flinched as she felt his cool hand touch her cheek, wiping away her tears. She heard him suddenly draw in a breath.

"Why are you so warm?" He asked worriedly, quickly moving his hand from her cheek to her forehead.

"Do you have a fever?" He asked, but she didn't answer him, looking away. Aemond pursed his lips.

"Why didn't you call me? I would reschedule our session, you should be in bed. Have you taken any meds?" He finally asked, his tone of voice impatient. She swallowed softly, feeling like she was all on fire.

"I thought it would benefit your photography." She spoke calmly, her voice weak and quiet. She felt him staring at her in disbelief. He lowered the camera, running his hand over his mouth and chin. He didn't know what to say.

"I…fuck. Do you think a good picture is all that matters to me?" He finally asked with a note of regret in his voice that surprised her. She turned her head to him with difficulty, the traces of her tears still adorning her cheeks. Her lips trembled.

"Yes."

Aemond stared at her silently. His hand touched her cheeks and forehead again and again, as if he was constantly checking to see if she was getting worse. There was a tenderness and delicacy in that touch that didn't suit him. She had a feeling that if he didn't stop she would start crying again. For some reason she felt that the state she was now experiencing was literally dying before his eyes.

She thought he saw it, because his lips parted slightly, his gaze softer than ever. A pleasant shiver went through her as he stroked her head gently as if she were a small child.

"I wake up thinking about you. I fall asleep thinking about you." He whispered, his fingers running through her hair. She felt her breath go out. She thought she was hallucinating from the fever. She looked at him uncomprehendingly.

"You are my inexhaustible source of inspiration. I adore you, my muse." He whispered softly as if saying the words of some prayer.

She stared at him with wide eyes. She felt like she was about to collapse in this sea of flowers and just pass out. Her body couldn't handle what he was doing to her. Her lips parted slightly, trembling all over. She closed her eyes, burying her cheek in his hand. She heard him suck in a sharp breath and swallow softly.

"Do you have any pills with you?" He asked quietly. She nodded.

"Are they in your backpack?"

She nodded again without opening her eyes. Aemond took his hand from her and stood up. She heard his footsteps and the sound of the door opening.

She did not have the strength to open her eyes. She felt that she had fallen asleep for a moment when he was not there, completely weak. He woke her up by gently touching her cheek. He crouched in front of her, holding paracetamol tablets and a bottle of water.

"Take two at once and drink it." He said calmly, handing them to her, helping her get up slightly so she could drink some water without choking at the same time. She swallowed the pills and immediately fell back down, not having the strength to sit. As soon as she opened her eyes, it seemed to her that everything was spinning. After a moment she heard his quiet voice.

"Do you want to take a nap here?"

She nodded slightly. The smell of wildflowers, leaves and grass filled her lungs. Her body was already refusing to obey, demanding rest and regeneration from the morning, unable to accept any more stimuli. She literally fell asleep before his eyes.

She felt something warm envelop her, some large, pleasant material. She heard the rustle of fabric and felt arms pulling her close, a hand in her hair. His scent filled her lungs. Her fingers tightened on the material of his turtleneck.

"Aemond." She whispered.

_____

If you want to be tagged, leave a comment below. Bold are the ones I couldn't tag. ♥

@zenka69 @melsunshine @opheliaas-stuff @chainsawsangel @tinykryptonitewerewolf @malfoytargaryen @toodlesxcuddles @fan-goddess @bellaisasleep @skikikikiikhhjuuh @douadeer

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single-malt-scotch · 3 months

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Given we are two episodes in to bdubs this HC seasons I will ramble a tad about his format this season and the timeline/comparisons to past ones!

Let's talk in parts for a second. For thumbnails. I didn't really know what to expect tbh. He's been going more minimalist in thumbnails for a while now- HC S9 and Create have very simple thumbnails very focus on the builds (if they occur in the HC video). Go from season 7 HC to now and they've changed a Lot. S8 was simple too if you take away the color overlay. But S10 is mega simple. There isn't even a title on the thumbnails!

Then intros. S7 and S8 would randomly have an intro of "welcome to hermitcraft!" And sometimes none at all. S9 started "welcome to hoymicraf" (how do we spell this) consistently. Additionally all those seasons had some intros beginning with some third person camera to start a scene (more consistent as time went), or without that intro in season 7, 8 and 10 we'd also just start in first pov while bdubs is already in action. Additionally intro music was always very energetic, and so far what we heard in his first s10 intro (and based off the time lapses) we are getting something way more chill. Ep2's intro is one of those exceptions for the specific scenarios that happen sometimes. The choice of situational music.

General editing? Kinda crossed over with intros here because intros have very blatant editing with music and camera etc. Tbh the biggest thing to any season is music choice, which changes how things feel entirely. Past seasons had faster paced songs in intros and many building segments had orchestral, so on. The way those building segments play out has slowly turned into bdubs cutting it up to fit the beat of music, which is most apparent now in S10 and bwb S3. For S10 I feel like this enunciates the calm music even more as it puts emphasis on what is the louder/more striking note of the song. Through S10 episodes right now we have seen more use of replay mod in more than just the intro. Usually wide shots with music. Thought out compositions and wide shots often showing scale of things around him. Even purposefully taking moments to stop and pause and linger on the shot. Definitely more cinematic, and completely different with his it slows down.

It is interesting to see what some people might feel is a total 180! Considering I have seen the flow of his format for so long "slow" is not unfamiliar but because he has grown so much as a commentator he handles this very well. It's not "old inexperienced commentator" slow. Because you can tell if you pay attention he isn't different from who he has been in recent years. He's always the same and going this direction is done w the same level of development and experience. Hes still silly, he's still got energy. It's just presentation! It feels different a lot by how he's editing.

Even so it makes me wonder Why. Was his previous loud style and high energy more aimed at when his kids were just born and very little, and he had an obvious shift to making his videos possibly more appealing to children and be child appropriate? Has he 'mellowed out' for any particular reason? If you watch him a lot, especially his Livestreams (the member ones rly) bdubs thinks hard about his building skills. He is genuinely an artist aiming to improve every day and I think he's gotten a lot back into really expressing his thoughts and feelings regarding the art. It's been a gradual focus returning I have seen. Perhaps he has decided to lean into this more on purpose, and in doing so that shifts his focus away from what people felt was "childish" acting. But it's important to remember, as a bdubs lover, the analysis here isn't actually one to say he's "changed" because he hasn't. As a content creator he knows what he's going for and to some level has consciously made these changes. We still got bdubs, he's just doing it different. And honestly if you were turned off by the energy of S9, I highly recommend giving this season a watch if you want something more artistic, and good discussion about building process.

#hermitcraft #bdoubleo100 #bdubs #hermitblr

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goron-king-darunia · 7 months

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Eggtober 12th 2023

"Forbidden": Fried Eggs and Bacon

(Clip Studio Paint, Gouache Brush, Dry Gouache Brush, Gouache Blender, and some Pencil Brush details. Labor of love, however many colors, 2 hours.)

If you guess the source before you see the speedpaint, then I did it correctly. ;D

@lady-quen's breadbugs will have to wait for the fire to die down before they can snatch an eggy or two. And tagging @quezify, the, ahem, Wizard of Fried Eggs.

(This time I am not forgetting the speedpaint! Look at all those beginning details that end up hidden. XD

In other news, fire is hard to draw. I will have to do a study of it. Last time I drew fire it was for the background of my current icon and I used a method that would not work for this piece.

The reflection in the pan was hard too, the fan art I was referencing did is so perfectly. I'll have to study it further to properly do it justice.

I was going to use the grid method to make a more perfect study, but honestly it would have taken way longer and put way too much stress on it for me, I think, trying to get it perfect. Especially trying to put eyes on Calcifer. So it's all freehand and all eyeballed so you can see the pan is a little wonky. Also I couldn't find a good reference for the log-holder/grating in the hearth and I wasn't gonna pull out my DVD and get sidetracked for an hour for that one detail. So yeah, that part is just... being cleaned by Sophie. Or Howl disappeared it from the frame.

Anyway, 10/10, Ghibli really knows how to make food look ethereal and perfect and otherworldly and I hope I captured that with the unrealistically red bacon because yeah, I want to eat it even more when it's bright red for some reason... I was going to try to fit in a slice of bread and bowl of tea (That IS tea, right?) but didn't have a good place composition-wise to put it.

I wanted to do this piece last year but I decided that I would save it for a potential "film only" eggs ensemble, but couldn't resist this year. The pull was too strong. Besides, if I do more eggs from movies and TV, then I can always make a collection of them later.

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys! And this time I made SURE not to forget the speedpaint! The file is too beefy for me to share on discord with friends, so I'm happy Tumblr can accept my hefty chunky speedpaint file!

#Eggtober 12 2023 #Eggtober 2023 #my art #art by GKD #fried eggs #bacon #and at the risk of spoiling it for people who didn't go under the readmore yet #who didn't recognize it right away #Howl's Moving Castle #fanart

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bluebudgie · 9 months

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Oh hi. I heard it's gifs tips'n'tricks time.

View this as a little addition to this post I made a while back.

This time I thought I'd take you through my gif making process. It'll be very specific to Photoshop CS6 but maybe some of you will find parts of it helpful regardless.

And since our biggest nemesis appears to be ~The Tumblr 10MB File Size Limit~ I decided to go for the absolute worst premise for a gif: Lots of stupid wobbly particles and gw2 bloom and transparency effects. Because huge gifs love these.

Aah, a horrifying amount of those in this single scene. Perfect!

Let's start with a little timelapse video, and I'll get into the details with screenshots below then.

So this actually went smoother than expected? Not super much fiddling needed in the end, but here's how it went in detail:

Load the raw footage into photoshop.

You can do this in two different ways: What I do is simply drag & drop the video file into the program and it'll open with a video timeline and some rudimentary video editing options.

What you can also do is File -> Import -> Videoframes to Layers and select your source video, which will give you a timeline of separate still image frames instead.

It comes down to preference, I used both methods in the past but nowadays I find the video timeline more intuitive.

Cut the footage to roughly the right length.

From experience I know that most of my gifs are around 3-4 seconds long. This can of course vary depending on different factors. Don't get too attached to the exact seconds you selected, you might have to shave off a bit depending on how evil the file size decides to act.

Optional: Change footage speed

Depending on the gif and its purpose, I slow the footage down. I usually do this for the visual effect (especially nice for showing off animation details) but it also has the practical side effect that it can help with file size. Say you want a gif that loops after 4 seconds. At 100% speed your gif will move at your original framerate (in my case 60 fps); if you slow it down but keep the same length in seconds it'll logically use less frames. That's less data to blow up the size! Yey.

Crop the image.

Now this is probably one of the most crucial parts when it comes to your final file size, and your gif looking nice on tumblr. Since the tumblr dashboard displays images at a width of 540px, you want this to be your absolute minimum image width to ensure a crisp image. If I can, I'll make the gifs larger (I like starting at a minimum of 600px and then reduce the image dimensions if needed).

With that in mind.... choose your image crop wisely.

A "widescreen" image like this will be the most merciful in terms of file size, but might not always be what you want in terms of composition.

Given tumblr's very vertical nature, this kind of approach will look great in posts (if it fits your image composition of course), but at 540px minimum width tends to be a file size monster.

For the gif I'm attempting to make here I opted for a more square approach. The subjects of the scene fill out the image's space nicely, and it's still a nice size for tumblr posts overall. Let's see what the file size will say about this.

Replay your footage after cropping to make sure you didn't accidentally cut off any motion you didn't mean to cut.

Next up: optional colour corrections

I tend to crank up the saturation for gifs way, way more than I ever would for regular screenshots since I find that often the limited web palette can make them look fairly dull. But like everything else so far, this greatly varies depending on the scene you're showing.

Note that colour correction can increase or decrease file size depending on what exactly you're doing. The more different colours you have, the larger your file size will be.

Reduce image dimensions

Since my original video footage was fairly zoomed out, the cropped area only left me 575px of width to begin with. In an earlier attempt (that I absolutely did not fail to capture and therefore had to record the whole thing a second time) I tried to leave it at these dimensions, but the 10MB size limit did not like that so now I knew better and immediately reduced the width to 560px.

Note: After you've changed the video's dimensions it won't let you edit the speed anymore (for some reason), so make sure you've got that settled.

After all the adjustments are done it's time for the moment of truth...

File > Save for Web...

This beautiful window will open and...

Aww almost.

But honestly? That's not bad at all. I've had completely different disasters to deal with in the past (starting somewhere in the mid 20MB, good luck trying to make use of every size-reducing trick you've got up your sleeve).

Before I do any adjustments to shave off the last few KB though, I preview the gif to make sure it loops correctly. I want the Chak to sway seemlessly. Turns out it didn't, so I back out of the window to remove a few frames from the footage. And when I open the "Save for Web" window again....

Well that's anticlimatic. Apparently those few frames were enough to get the file size where I need it. (Note: Sometimes Tumblr likes to be a little b* and pretends your file is too big when you're this close to the 10MB limit. It be like that.)

While my gif journey theoretically ends here, I want to at least show you a few more things that could have helped if I had needed to get the file even smaller.

So this dithering thing I keep making a big deal of...

It can make or break a gif. In my experience this is so, so crucial to the final file size and quality of the gif.

In my own very amateurish words, dithering is a way to emulate colours that aren't actually part of the images colour palette. This is especially needed for in-game transparency effects like fog, glowy stuff, or smooth gradients. And that is part of why I chose this hell scene of all the ley line glow and the typical gw2 bloom that's particularly bad in this area.

PS CS6 offers you three different kinds of dithering techniques: Diffusion, pattern and noise.

My go-to is diffusion dithering, which has adjustable quality levels.

In my opinion it's generally the type of dithering that's often the least noticeable and creates the smoothest looking images. Unfortunately, it's also the one that creates by far the largest file sizes. Another downside is that it doesn't work super well with heavy DoF/fog etc. effects and is prone to really ugly banding, especially visible the more you decrease the quality. It looks awful for this particular scene. (Look at the glow around my asura's headpiece if you don't know what I'm talking about. Or... just the entire background.)

Both noise and pattern dithering will get you smaller file sizes, luckily.

I've never used noise so far (it tends to look messy in my opinion), but pattern gets the job done! Especially for gradient heavy gifs it's a lifesaver. It's definitely more noticeable than the diffusion dithering on static parts of the gif, but it absolutely makes up for it by not having any ugly banding effects. This is also what gave me the neat little 9.99MB file size in comparison to the diffusion dithering's 15.31MB.

Last but not least, if fiddling with the dithering or image dimensions doesn't help you get below that magic 10MB mark...

Limit the colour palette

You can either manually colour edit your image to use less colours for a more artistic approach, or you can let Photoshop limit the palette to its best abilities.

Additionally you can double click each individual colour to replace it how you see fit. (I've done that in the past when Petthri's yellow eye colour got erased and I had to bring it back manually.)

In this gif's example, reducing the palette from 256 to 128 colours has brought the file size down from 9.9 MB to about 8 MB. It can have a big effect, but doesn't always in my experience.

SHOW US THE GODDAMN GIF ALREADY!!!

Not the best quality gif we've ever seen on tumblr, but given the extremely unfavourable source material I think it turned out alright. I have to admit I'm actually surprised it worked at all.

Oh well! This got long (once again). I hope this was at least a little bit helpful to someone out there. Happy gif making!

#i did not proof read this #budgie plays gw2 #gif

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alicent-vi-britannia · 2 months

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Lelouch vi Britannia, the Prometheus of Japanese animation

Today I want to upload an analysis about Lelouch that I had saved for a long time. This analysis is very special to me because it was a university essay (I wrote it in 2021 and it was a way to reconnect with this series since I didn't want to know anything about it after I was destroyed by the canon ending, I was disappointed by the alternative universe and the fandom disgusted me). I got a good grade, but it wasn't the best and it made me very sad because I worked hard and wrote that essay with a lot of love.

Anyway, the professor was terrible and I hated with every cell of my being every one of her classes and her way of teaching (some people shouldn't be teachers), so I don't care that I gave her a spoiler for one of the best endings from the television (maybe some of you will say that she didn't give me a higher grade because of the prejudice against Japanese animation and that could be, although it would be ironic because she said that it was allowed to choose anime characters as long as we explained to her everything with luxury detail and that's what I did.)

The essay exercise consisted of choosing a fictional character and explaining what archetype it was based on. What is an archetype? They are expressions of the collective unconscious or psychic elaborations that are part of the universal common language and that help in the composition of stories. In Jungian terms, Lelouch is a "Trickster" that mythologist Campbell defines as characters who violate the principles of the natural order, destroy life as we know it and restore it as a new dynamic. Lelouch also fits the Shadow archetype with respect to Suzaku, who is the Hero archetype, since Lelouch, in a way, represents everything that he represses about himself. I decided to analyze Lelouch starting from the figure of Prometheus because I felt that I was going to do a more complete analysis within the limit of extension that I had. If you notice that I'm being a little too explanatory in some parts or I don't stop to delve into others, keep in mind that it is because the essay was directed to someone who has never seen Code Geass in her life. With that said, here we go.

"It was 2006 when one of the most important Japanese animated series in the world premiered: Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. The story is about Lelouch vi Britannia, the seventeenth prince of the Holy Empire of Britannia, who at his young age was sent to Japan as a political hostage with his sister after rebuking his father, the Emperor, for failing to protect his family during an attack that left his mother dead and his sister paralyzed and blind. The series begins ten years after the tragedy when Britannia has already colonized three quarters of the world, including Japan, which is renamed Area 11. It's then that Lelouch obtains Geass, a mystical power that will allow him to dominate the will of the others, and with it he will adopt the alter ego of Zero, a masked vigilante, and will lead a rebellion in order to find answers for the murder of his mother and to give a kind world to his sister - and, in the process, destroy the empire who repudiated him. Stories about rebellions have been told many times. In his book The Rebel Man, Albert Camus observed that man rises up against the order that oppresses him when the situation has lasted so long that it is unsustainable. But the feeling of insurrection, although it is an awareness, arises from the archetypes that serve as a guide in times of crisis for societies and establish patterns for the characters in the stories we like. That being so, what archetype do we identify in Lelouch? The one from Prometheus. In this work, we will unravel Lelouch through this archetype.

The myth of Prometheus is of vast symbolic richness. Hence it lends itself to inexhaustible reinterpretations and is one of the most reworked myths. In Prometheus: myth and tragedy, Carlos García Gual traces the different materializations of Prometheus throughout the ages and declares: "all these Prometheans (...) are united by the same resistance, the same insurrection, the same voluntary suffering" (p .194). So Prometheus transcends as a benevolent rogue who disobeys the commands of Zeus in favor of humanity, emphasizing values of rebellion and progress. However, this is far from Lelouch because, while it is true that Area 11 is under the yoke of Britannia, it is not driven by a genuine desire to free the Elevens (the colonists of Area 11), but by revenge and resentment, and it disguises its selfish reasons with intentions altruistic. He does, at least initially, as, at a turning point in the second season, Lelouch realizes that his struggle extends beyond him and his sister. He also fights for the people he loves and the humanity. In this sense, we can say that Lelouch embodies the negative expression of the archetype and this, in turn, makes him similar to another mythical figure: Lucifer. Like Lelouch, Lucifer questions the supreme power of God and incites the angels to oppose him by masking his personal motivations. When the rebellion fails, he hatches a plan to corrupt man in order to get revenge on God. And the similarities don't end there. Lelouch and Lucifer were exiled and as a result they harbor a deep hatred against their creators - in God, in the Emperor of Britannia and even in Zeus we can identify the archetype of the Father. Lelouch and Satan, additionally, are manipulators and liars. Both resort to rhetoric to get what they want from others and, like evil itself, they are seductive and charismatic. We see how Lucifer deceived Eve and how Lelouch pretends to love Rolo as his brother when he is really using him. To make it more evident, in the final stretch of the series, the other characters distinguish Lelouch as "Demon Emperor" in allusion to his evil. It may seem like we are getting off topic; however, the opposite is true. Prometheus and Lucifer are more similar than it seems at first glance. In fact, Milton's Satan drinks from Prometheus and, apart from that, emerged in the Baroque, a movement that preceded Romanticism, which had an intense affinity with Prometheus. Thus, Satan, Lelouch and Prometheus have their origin in the fact that they were part of the order that they challenge and stand out for their powerful nature. Lucifer was an angel at the service of God; Prometheus was a titan with the prophetic gift who helped Zeus during the titanomachy and Lelouch was the son of the Emperor (plus he possesses mystical power and genius intellect). And, above all, all three are essentially characterized by their cunning.

Outside of his love for the human race, Prometheus is still a scoundrel who used tricks to get his way. Hesiod presents him as a challenger to the omnipotence and omnipresence of Zeus in the Theogony, highlighting his negative traits (because his attitude is contrary to the purposes of Zeus, who wants everything good). The myth of Mecona demonstrates this since Prometheus mocked the father of the gods with malicious art with the distribution of the parts of the sacrificed bull, knowing that he would choose the most appetizing one. Here Prometheus is transgressing the sacrifice between men and gods [here I open a parenthesis to tell my readers who aren't familiar with Greek mythology nor are they mythologists that the myth of Macona is the explanation and meaning that the Greeks gave to their sacrificial rituals and if we analyze it carefully, you will see that the Prometheus' trick benefited humanity since it was established that humans could eat the meat and that the burned bones would be the sacrifice for the gods; if it had been the other way around, human would have chewed the bones as if they were dogs and the gods would have eaten the meat because that was what Zeus, who "knows what is good for man", wanted (f*ck you Zeus).] Lelouch does something similar in the eighth episode of the second season. The vicereine of Area 11 decides to restore the Administrative Zone of Japan, which is a conceptual State created with the aim of returning the rights and privileges to the Elevens that were previously denied to them as colonial powers, and establishes a dialogue with Zero (Lelouch). He accepts, on behalf of the Elevens, on the condition that "Zero" be exiled and, in this way, they close the agreement. On the day of the inauguration, Lelouch, his army and the Elevens attend the ceremony dressed as Zero, forcing Britannia to let all the Zeros go and, in turn, preventing the reduction of support for his rebel group and the Elevens are subordinated to a puppet State. This situation is one of many in which Lelouch uses his cunning to benefit the people (and his own plans).

Prometheus' other trick is the theft of fire. Against the will of Zeus, Prometheus steals the fire from the gods and gives it to men. The myth of the creation of humanity tells that Prometheus decided to give man fire to elevate him to a higher category than the animal and guarantee his survival; but what does fire symbolize in this context? David Fontana answers, in The Secret Language of Symbols, that it is "a symbol of the wisdom that differentiates men from gods" (p.111). Fire is the light that allows us to see through the shadows. It's the knowledge that constitutes the central axis in the progress of civilizations. And isn't knowledge what Lucifer offers to man in Genesis? Just in case you have any doubts, the etymology reveals it: Lucifer comes from Latin and is made up of lux (light) and ferre (carry). Therefore, Lucifer means "bringer of light." Several literary critics will compare Lucifer to Prometheus, among other aspects, for this. Paolo Astorgo, in his essay "The myth of Prometheus and human knowledge", points out in relation to this: "[Prometheus] favors humanity by providing it with certain means by which it not only systematizes its activities more quickly (... ), but it creates the first ideas about technology” (para. 5). With fire, man can create weapons and instruments. For this reason, Astorgo talks about technological advancement and this brings us back to Code Geass. In the preamble to the first episode they explain to us that Britannia conquered Japan (and many other nations) because they had "Knightmares" at their disposal, which are large armed robots. No matter how hard the Japanese tried to get their land back, they were always outmatched. It's Lelouch who obtains several Knightmares and bestows them on the rebels. Thanks to its resources and tricks, the group establishes itself as a kind of organization that soon gains the sympathy of the people and the patronage of the Japanese plutocrats. Under Lelouch's leadership, the organization grows exponentially, becoming an army that rivals that of Britannia and, consequently, is capable of fighting for the freedom of Japan. Astorgo shows that men find themselves in the need to depend on the divinities because they have fire that they also use to subdue them. By giving them fire, Prometheus not only makes man rebel against the oppressive divinities, he also provides him with tools to free himself from them. Likewise, Lelouch provides the Elevens with the same power with which Britannia bends them to become independent. And, to this, Astorgo adds: "This almost dialectical relationship God-Humanity, revolves in the myth as a constant closely linked to the fact of necessity and rebellion, which is what regularizes all the acts of “deception” that Prometheus uses before Zeus. , to steal power, with the sole objective of providing freedom to humanity" (para. 13). Here one of the values that Prometheus represents comes into play: freedom.

Satan, Prometheus and Lelouch affirm themselves as rebels against the tyranny of the powerful, but humanity suffers the consequences. Adam and Eve are expelled from Paradise; Zeus takes fire from man and grants him a new evil, and in his obsession with revenge, Lelouch unintentionally drags down innocent lives and his loved ones. But while Lucifer is apathetic; Lelouch and Prometheus suffer. In his work "Prometheus: Human Existence in Greek Interpretation", Karl Kerényi says that the nature of this archetype pushes the Prometheans to think deviously, which brings misfortune for humanity and for themselves. He alleges: “in their devious (ankyios) way of thinking (…) they are caught in their own web (ankyie): (…). And all kinds of devious paths correspond to it, from lies and deceptions to the most ingenious inventions, whose precondition, however, is always representative of a lack in the way of existing of the clever" (p.45). This is the imperfection that Kerényi reiterates throughout the text. Even though they are "titanic", Lelouch and Prometheus are imperfect because they suffer and that pain humanizes them. From there, Kerényi stipulates that suffering is part of the human condition. Lelouch, in particular, is aware of the damage that his actions have on those close to him and the innocent and lives with remorse. An example is episode thirteen of the first season: the father of one of his love interests dies due to a landslide that he causes in a confrontation with Britannia. Lelouch never forgave himself. Of course, if there was an event whose guilt always tormented him, it was the massacre of the Administrative Zone of Japan, of which he was the indirect author. The sum of the tragedies in his life leads Lelouch towards the positive side of him as an archetype and, eventually, makes him make the decision to pay for his sins, but not before leaving behind him a kind world as he had proposed.

Both Prometheus and Lelouch end up succumbing to divine justice for their misdeeds. Prometheus is tied with strong chains to a rock where an eagle devours his liver and remains there for a long time until Heracles appears and shoots the animal. Lelouch's punishment, on the other hand, takes the form of the Zero Requiem; which is a plan that he develops with Suzaku, his best friend, with the aim of ending all wars and ushering in an era of peace and, in unison, answering for their crimes. After killing the Emperor and usurping the throne, Lelouch quells the insurrections against him, imposes a cruel dictatorship and establishes himself as the enemy of the world by kidnapping the leaders of the United Nations Federation (a coalition of states equivalent to the ONU), which forces the world to confront him, giving way to a war that culminates in Lelouch's victory. During the public execution of the fallen, Suzaku, dressed as Zero, appears and kills Lelouch. With his death, Lelouch accepts his punishment and takes all the hatred with him, leaving a peaceful world. Kerényi stops to analyze the tetralogy of tragedies dedicated to Prometheus by Aeschylus and observes that the cunning titan's hardships will not cease until a divinity takes charge, since Prometheus' suffering is inherent to existence. In such circumstances one could speak of a "redemption." Who replaces Prometheus is Chiron, since longed to die after being wounded by a poisoned arrow. In Lelouch's case it is Suzaku. Suzaku is a knight in the service of Britannia. Like Lelouch, he aspires to a better world, only he doesn't believe a rebellion is the key. In him we recognize, as in Heracles, the archetype of the hero. And he, like Chiron, wanted to die. However, in the end, Lelouch, who longed to live with his sister, is the one who dies and he, who wanted to die in order to purge his guilt, is the one who lives at the cost of giving up his own happiness for the good of humanity by existing. just like Zero. Thus, the two friends atone for his sins and Lelouch, who proclaimed himself as the Messiah, achieves his redemption by becoming what he preached so much (although a few know that). There is no doubt that this sacrifice for love of humanity makes us think of Jesus Christ.

Literary critics also often compare him to Prometheus and, by extension, we could compare him to Lelouch. The three are united by their closeness to men, for whom they endure a via crucis and the three are saviors of humanity. And this brings us back to Joseph Campbell's words about the definition of "hero." In simple terms, a hero is one who gives his life for something greater than himself or different from him. It is likely that there will be those who resist considering Christ as a hero. Lelouch, for his part, certainly falls within the category of tragic hero. Regarding Prometheus, García Gual attributes his heroic character to Aeschylus stating that it was his work that immortalized in tragedy for posterity the myth of an old trickster.

Either way, Lelouch is an excellent example that archetypes are rooted in the collective imagination and are binary, universal, and ahistorical in nature. Despite the enormous time gap and the difference between cultures, the archetypes represent the same values that they once had and are still capable of continuing to captivate us with wonderful narratives that have a lot to teach us."

And, well, that's how I concluded my essay. The truth is, I think I could have gone deeper since the approach has enough potential to develop a thesis, but I couldn't go on for five pages and the proffesor complained that some of my classmates decided to ignore the rule and, therefore, exceed the limit. It seems that she is one of those proffesors who doesn't want to read shit (did I mention that I despise her?). So I apologize for so little and I will allow you to hate me for this horrible English (I didn't put the quotes in their original language and then translate them, I know, I deserve you to hate me for that too).

But, if you don't hate me and you liked my work, I invite you to give me a like. If you've never thought about what archetype Lelouch is based on, give me a like. If you found the association between Jesus Christ, Satan, Prometheus and Lelouch fascinating, give me a like. If my essay made you think, give me a like. If you want to make me happy or would like my humble essay to be more widely disseminated, share it. This way I will take into account that you like me to analyze Code Geass characters through archetypes and I can bring more similar content. I would like to talk soon about a part of Joseph Campbell's hero's journey in particular that is very easy to identify in Lelouch's journey (how the hell can Lelouch be an antihero, if he has the word HERO tattooed all over his forehead?). Well, there are a lot of things I want to discuss! It's just that my life and time are not enough for me to do everything I want. Anyway, have a nice night and don't forget to eat meat to piss off Zeus.

#code geass: lelouch of the rebellion #code geass #code geass: hangyaku no lelouch #lelouch #lelouch vi britannia #lelouch lamperouge #greek mythology #prometheus #archetypes

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budgie-city · 9 months

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THE ORIGINS OF BUDGIE CITY

Welcome to this informational article where I will be explaining what exactly this "Budgie City" is, where it came from, and in which direction it will be going. So, sit down comfortably - there are some interesting things waiting ahead of you! If you are interested in the lore, visit this article.

What exactly is "Budgie City"?

It is a fictional world that I am actively developing. At the moment, I’m in the process of writing it in the form of a paper draft. I write long texts by hand, and it seems to me that spelling out each letter, unlike typing, helps to approach the composition of sentences more thoughtfully, and to more successfully avoid strange and crooked constructions that will then have to be rewritten and corrected. It is far from the final, but I want to warm up people's interest in this world before the release of a full-fledged work, which is what I am doing now. I will not publish too many pieces of text until I have finished the story completely (though I probably will show some sneak-peeks). For now the content on "Budgie City" is mostly limited to drawings — concepts, sketches and character designs. Gradually, I've been starting to bring this topic to my YouTube channel in order to introduce the setting and concept to my viewers.

You may have seen my first video of Budgie City since 2014, which I have released quite recently — “I am not insane”, a video that focuses on one of the secondary conflicts of the story.

Where did this concept even come from?

It's quite a long story, and it's funny that this year is the ten year anniversary of me registering on the forum called "Budgie City". Yes, it all started with a regular internet forum — a by now almost extinct site format, which in the early 2000s and until about 2016-17 was the main place for interest groups on the internet. Now this has moved almost completely to social media, but before almost any hobby or interest had its own forum with different sections and topics. It saddens me a little that the golden age of forums has already passed.

In 2012, for the New Year, my parents bought me my first budgie — a classic green one, and I named him Gesha. At that time, I was not a regular "user" of the Internet yet. I only started to comprehend the vastness of the virtual network a few months later, and at first it leaned purely on me viewing memes in Google pictures and all sorts of videos on YouTube.

But in the spring of 2013, I discovered these wonderful things known as forums. And it was that point in time when I, having had a budgie with me for a year, decided to find a forum thematically fitting. Upon the request from my country, Google led me straight to the “Budgie City” forum.

The topics on there were something like rooms in a big house. The users randomly surfed through them and followed each other's daily lives. Therefore, Budgie City did actually feel really like being in a virtual society where everyone knows each other. I was getting used to the frequent people, getting to know each person individually. I went to their topics to write comments and answers, they wrote in mine. That's how we existed as this cozy club of interests.

There is an interesting thing with almost every child that is on the Internet — no matter where, in which community — a person with the admin/moder status is perceived as an absolute authority, any response from which causes awe and delight. And there were certain, more active and sociable admins in Budgie City — Anya under the nickname "Phoenix Bird" and Olga under the nickname "Olivka". The "Phoenix Bird" nickname spoke for itself — the image of a large bird of fire that walks around the city and receives admiring glances from everyone, was drawn in my head almost instantly. Olivka didn't have an image yet; I started turning her into a character much later.

Phoenix and Olivka in their modern designs (2022)

In the early summer of 2014, I read "Warrior Cats", and that’s where the whole story took off. I suddenly felt like I should become a writer too and write my own book. And 12-year-old me, who was spending 80% of my online traffic on the forum, decided to write a story, turning part of the admin staff and the budgies of familiar forum members into their own characters. Phoenix and Olivka turned into birds, the latter in particular acquired an image in the form of a wompoo fruit dove with olive-tinged wings, the budgies of the forum were also turned into their respective characters: Gesha and Yasha (mine); Glasha and Gosha (Hoatzin); Clementine, Jack, Fenya, Nira, Mouse, Castorka, Mithril and Small (Phoenix); Kuzya (Dmitriy68), Milana (Radujniy), Raisin (yyna) and others.

Sections of the forum have turned into parts of the city — the restaurant, the mayor's office, the registry office and nursery, and suburbs with parrots of other species, located on trees surrounding baobabs.

This is how the novel of the same name with the slogan "Feathered Metropolis" was born from the "Budgie City" forum. I posted it in its own topic, had about a dozen readers and, judging by the reviews, they all really liked reading the story. Although, looking back at the writing now... I wouldn't call it something breathtaking. Rather the opposite. But then again, I am now judging from the perspective of a third-year animation director student, and not the fifth grader I was at that time.

A couple of my original illustrations from 2014

The story was successfully brought to an end in about seven months, and after a while I started writing a sequel — however, the central conflict wasn’t thought out the slightest, so the plot quickly crumbled and was abandoned after several chapters.

Now the original text is lost in the vastness of the web — somewhere there is a piece of the prologue, somewhere even a couple of chapters. But the full version no longer exists — it was published only on the forum, and the said forum, unfortunately was — somewhere around 2019 — ruthlessly deleted from the Internet due to the desolation. All that's left of it are snapshots in the Wayback Machine.

Rewriting from the old version into a new one

In 2017, three years later, I made an attempt to rewrite "Budgie City" from scratch — leaving only the main conflict, the structure of the world, and the set of characters the same, to write a new text out of this "skeleton". Progress did not go beyond the prologue and the first chapter however, and rewriting was abandoned.

The same story with 2019 — a couple of pages, that’s all.

Two artworks from 2019

The next approach took till early 2021 to happen, when the original story turned almost six and a half years old. At that time I was already in the middle of my first year of animation directing at SPbGIKiT (Saint Petersburg State Institute of Film and Television). I wrote the prologue and part of the first chapter and went to proudly tell our master Galina Voropai about my "really cool" world. Galina interrupted me in the middle of the impromptu presentation, after which followed a forty-minute roast, thoroughly and in detail explaining that the "Budgie City" in its concept is a piece of junk that does not have the right to exist in its current form. And all this was in the presence of my classmates in the workshop. I gave up trying to defend myself halfway through, and when it was all over, I got up, quietly thanked Galina for a detailed objective analysis of the shortcomings of my project, went down to the first floor, huddled in a bathroom stall, and burst into tears.

It was the first (and yet the only) time in my life where I was literally crying over my work, and the girls from senior courses came to my howls, and we sat together on the windowsill of a public toilet. I was all red, shaking, and dropping snot, as they tried to calm me down.

(my mental state that day)

After that, I did not return to those written several pages for about a year and a half. I began to doubt whether I should continue at all or if it would just be a waste of time.

After the roast from the master, I went through all five stages of grief:

Yes, that was tough. But after so much time, I was finally able to evaluate the message of this scolding with a cool head and understand that most of the comments were actually really helpful - the conflict and the world did require a lot more careful study and rework. With the next approach, I wrote out all the conflicts, all the character motivations, and made a proper plan. And since the end of last autumn, I have returned to writing. Now I know where the story will begin, where it will head, and how it will end. All the actions performed by the heroes are finally based in actual logic. And, although Galina will not see the final result (she sadly passed away at the end of 2021), I hope that the new version will be one that she would have approved of.

A small FAQ:

Q: When will the book be released?

A: I don't want to make any promises as of now, because writing is a rather spontaneous and uneven process. I write more when I am inspired, and inspiration is impossible to predict. So the answer is simple — it will come out when it's finished :D

Q: Will it be released electronically or in a printed book form? Will I have to pay for reading it?

A: I plan to release the final version "Budgie City" in the same way as the old one — in open access, so that everyone can read it at any time. I will not charge money for reading the electronic version, but if there will be a demand for physical copies, I may release a small print run, which will cost money for those who want to get a copy. But it's a little early to think about that anyway.

Q: How does the world in Budgie City work? How do they live? What is the main conflict of the story?

A: All of this you can find out in this article!

Q: Where can I find more content to this world and story?

A: On this very blog or on my YouTube channel

I hope this article was helpful and informative enough for you to know where "Budgie City" comes from and in which direction it is currently heading. Thank you for reading!

Huge thanks to @annchanorsomethin for helping with translation of this article!

#budgie city #introducing post #information post #writers on tumblr #artists on tumblr #art #original writing #writing #info #lore article #article

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starsh0cked · 3 months

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okay so. two things!! first of all, over the course of january (and the beginning of february) i participated in the kirby oc secret santa, which was wonderfully hosted by @/moonverc3x. i was lucky enough to be the santa for @/starflungwaddledee, and ended up with two of my best pieces so far!!

these were CHALLENGING, though. which is where the second thing comes in!! under the cut, i'll be going over some of the sketches, drafts and phases of either piece! there's also a speedpaint. exciting!!

i'll be starting with my starstruck piece! the theme here was wanderlust - literally one of the most whimsical words i know - and generally anything to do with the stars. i had a few things in mind, but considering how long it sometimes takes to make artwork, i decided to roll with what inspired me the most.

this is the final sketch compared to the final artwork. certainly one of the crazier transformations i've done. i had a mental image of most parts of the artwork, from the material of starstruck's bow to the lighting cast by the stars. everything except for the grass (i hate grass!!) i ended up rendering the grass and background first, anyway.

doing the background before the rest of the artwork helps define the lighting and shadows! if i decided to draw starstruck before the background, i'd have to draw it according to the lighting.

weird explanation, but in summary: background before character helps the character look like a part of the environment! character before background means extra steps need to be taken before the character fits in the environment!

starstruck's bow was also a decent challenge! i'm a fan of bows and satin, so a satin bow sounded like a good idea. it was, but i've never drawn satin before. the workaround was an active satin study! i stared at a satin bow i found on pinterest and tried to understand how light spread over the material. it's quite interesting!!

you might notice that i flipped the direction of the shooting stars. this is for composition reasons!! i wanted to make starstruck the obvious focus, and while the contrast between her warmer palette and the background's cooler palette easily achieve that, i wanted to cement it. i also added little hand drawn sparklies everywhere. because i like it.

of course, i have to talk about the eyes!! if anything, i noticed that in all of starflung's drawings of starstruck, she had really glittery eyes. literally adorable. so i made it my mission to capture her feelings in her eyes!! i had a lot of fun making them super shiny and adding little stars in there. i also needed to pay attention to the subtle gradient, though - they fade from blue to pink if you zoom into starflung's artworks - and decided to keep it vibrant.

okay. thats all for this one!! i'd like to mention that in the original sketch for this specific pose, bandee was in the background. i really regret scrapping that now. oh, well!

time for morpho dee! i'll be starting for with the speedpaint for this one, mainly because it sort of explains some of the process by itself.

i restarted the shading... three or four times at least? so yeah. i was losing it on this piece. i'll be completely honest, i contemplated dropping it for the sake of meeting the deadline. it wasn't stressing me out, but i had studies to worry about too, and i was worried that it wouldn't be of great quality? but after some advice from my beloved older sister, i managed to turn the tide!!

this is a first for me, but everything here was a challenge. if you scroll through my account and the few artworks i've posted, you'll notice that i draw gijinkas far more than orbs. now, you may be wondering why this didn't pose so much of an issue for my starstruck piece! it's mainly because i chose a far simpler pose for her than i did for morpho over here.

for morpho, the artwork needed to be dramatic. i draw cutesy things - while i've always wanted to draw something dramatic, i've never pushed myself to do it. until this artwork! i went for a dynamic pose which would (hopefully) pull the viewer's eye towards morpho dee. that's what's up with the foreshortned spear! i also realised that the plcement of his feet would be quite significant to the artwork. you might not know this, but feet are my greatest enemy. i'm still trying to figure out how best to draw them for people or orbs, but i'm getting there.

after 'lineart' (which really ended up being a cleaned sketch - this was supposed to be linelessly rendered, but i gave up on that) the pose was no longer a problem. because the shading was! hooray!!

nothing has quite bewildered me like metal shading has. i've shaded gold. satin. cotton, fluffy scarves, shiny things, grass. yet metal shading continues to elude me! this was, hands down, the most difficult part of this artwork. i struggled to make sense of how the lighting was supposed to work, even with references. and every time i thought it made sense, i ended up with something i didn't like the look of. the solution? long breaks, more references and pinterest tutorials. i have no clue how i managed this, but we got here anyways. i finished it off by colouring the lineart according to the shading.

i have experience with drawing fire, at least! it was three or four years ago in an old artwork, but i have experience! i simply had to figure out how to work it into the atmosphere. for the glow, i duplicated the layer, gaussian blurred it and used a slight glow layer! i did something similar for the durst particles, but i used motion blur instead.

i also want to talk about the spear a little bit. you might notice that i added a bit of ambient glow around the blue gem. that was with the light intensity in mind, but also for a sense of realism! i also had to keep the pink light in mind, though. so i ended up using an airbrush to create a base for the lighting and i continued from there. i added a few scratches on the handle just to give it a bit more life, too.

and, finally, a one-to-one comparison between the sketch and the final! i have literally no idea how i pulled either of these pieces off, but i'm quite proud of them.

i recommend you drop by @/kirbyoc-secretsanta for other artworks! a total of 75 artists participated, so there are plenty of super cool ocs to adore over there and new artists to find!! this was my first secret santa experience, and @/moonverc3x made an amazing host (thank you for hosting, by the way!!) bye bye!!

#kirby #digital art #starstruck dee #morpho dee #sorry to everyone who thought this was short. and sorry to everyone who reblogs this #it really wasn't supposed to be so long but i had a lot to talk about #i'm pretty sure i've covered everything though #but these were a thrill to make!!#i've always wanted to make fanart for starflung because her characters are so cool and unique #so i was hoping to get her in the santa and. somehow i did #yeah i screamed when that happened. heehee #but!! i'll probably try to participate in more events like this!! this was super fun!!#i literally cannot thank moon enough for being such a great host #i'm generally a nervous person when it comes to talking online but moon was quite warm and sociable!!#this was an exciting first time for me!!#glitter in my ink

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aftongkier · 4 months

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youtube

Hello again, podcast side of Tumblr.

Entities Explained has officially come to a close with the final episode explaining the End. If you didn't know, Entities Explained has been a series where I, over the course of the last year and change, have explained each of the Fears from hit horror anthology podcast The Magnus Archives. This is the longest episode of the series, but I think it's totally worth watching.

Also, this video contains a major announcement: I am currently working on a MASSIVE video explaining The Magnus Archives in as much detail as I possibly can. Hopefully, it'll be a great refresher course before Protocol, and trying to get it done in a month won't absolutely destroy me.

For the art, I decided to draw the moment from Oliver Banks' statement in MAG 121: Far Away where he and the rest of the crew on a research vessel are destroyed by falling satellite pieces. I wanted the whole piece to be very dark and to have this slightly dusty feel to it, which I think I succeeded at.

I went back and forth a lot on what to dress Banks in, but, in the end (pun intended), I went with something a bit more casual, since he is mostly just hanging around a shipping vessel. If I ever drew him as The Coroner, I'd probably go with something more formal (full black suit with a wilted red flower on the lapel?), but this felt fitting. I also wanted to give him a rain coat because, hey, I imagine it gets pretty rainy out there.

Unfortunately, Banks' design doesn't get to shine through too much in this piece, since his back is to the audience but, for one, I think that's sort of fitting for his themes, and, two, it makes the composition, at least in my mind, a bit more interesting.

The falling satellite was something I experimented around with a lot. Using reference pictures of real satellites, I tried to get something that felt small, but also like it could do some serious damage. The motion blur was a late addition, but I can't say I don't like it.

The moon was always going to be an important part of this piece, but it was during the sketching phase that I realised I could make it into a bit of a stylised skull, which is just a subtle enough detail to be fun. The angular clouds were originally meant to cut through it, but I settled on it being in full view instead, which I think looks much better.

Finally, there's the veins themselves. I actually went with less of them than I originally planned because I think it felt less repetitive, but I'm really happy with the way they turned out. My one addition was adding a pop of colour to this very drab and grey piece (which could, now that I think about it, be seen as a parallel to the desaturated people in Banks' dreams) in the form of the red flowing through the veins. This is technically only described as happening when Banks saw Gertrude Robinson in his dreams, but I figured, if there was another time for it, it was in the moment that he was truly in the grasp of Terminus. I also, honestly, just think it looks better.

That wraps up Entities Explained, so I hope y'all have enjoyed this series while it lasted. I'm not going to stop Magnus content, as I have plenty of ideas already and I'm sure Protocol will only bring more, but I am interested to see where my content goes from here. If you've read this far, thank you so much for listening to my ramblings and, if you celebrate, enjoy your holidays. Good night, Tumblr people!

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wis-art · 11 months

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Wiki is an angel who becomes a human over time, she learns a lot of human things. And most importantly learns how humans feel over time. Feel everything, love, lust, pain, pleasure, joy, food, anything that makes humans, humans. Over time she learns. She isn't really like the other angels, she learns that she loves being a human and that she can't be an angel anymore even if she tries. All that's left is her halo, wings and black eyes. But she's not in despair, this is exactly what she wants, she is freed by this. She loves not being constrained by arbitrary things angels are supposed to do that had been taught to her for her whole life to the point she never knew anything else.

When she first met humans and they didn't fit her specific narrow world view. She could not accept it and just put them down through rage and dismissing them. How can they feel anything with their puny human experience. She used to think she is so superior, desperately trying to claw at the idea of her being better than humans. And until she was humbled by one, she did not question herself. When she met humanity again, in this case Lucy. She decided to try a different approach. Talk with people other than her, she learned that there's a lot of concepts that humans have that angels just don't. She became intrigued. She started studying humans, and trying to understand them.

She learned the concept of gender and molded her angel body unconsciously to what she felt like was right. She was introduced to romantic love which angels frown upon. Lucy really always wanted to show her the best parts of humanity, she showed her everything through art she loves and enjoys. She showed Wiki movies and read books with her, she explained tricky human words. She really wanted wiki to understand, and over time, she did. She begun to feel overwhelming amounts of happiness from simply living. Not because she toppled someone, or because she achieved the greatest goals in her life. But simply because she enjoyed waking up and hanging about in the meadows and forests, she enjoyed staying up late at night reading books with Lucy. She started understanding why humans make art, and she fell in love with it. She fell in love with music and expression, and composition. She eventually dyed her hair with help of her new human friend. She started resenting her old ways, feeling remorse and guilt over the apathy of her old ways. It was a traumatic experience for her. Like for anyone reconciling with the mistakes of their past. Without even noticing it, she lost her angel ways, she could not turn into her "biblical" form anymore, her name that seemingly has been with her for eternity just did not fit, Wiktoria or Wiki for short was just so much better. She did not ever feel the need to be an angel again. She became comfortable in her human form, something she thought she resented. She did not. She just never learned what it really meant and she lived her whole life trying to fit in among other angels as an angel which she always found very uncomfortable, but for eternity she felt a pressure of needing to keep up the glory and respect of angels.

The humans, admittedly never really accepted her as a real human. The miscoloured skin, and her black eyes and wings. They always thought she's playing pretend. That she has some kind of ulterior motive. But she found comfort in Lucy. Lucy liked her for who she were. And they had a lot in common. Lucy is not a demon. She's just a girl who happens to look like a demon. Red skin and horns, and unnaturally blue hair, making her appear a lot different from other people, and a lot of people treated her as what she resembles. A devil. Over time she grew into it, she decided she is a demon and she is proud of it, but she never really could be evil she kept this charade as a way to protect herself from people, so they don't approach her and talk about it. She became very distinct and disconnected from humanity despite being a human herself. She never rejected any of her humanity, she loves other people. The few that aren't scared of her anyway.

They understood each other very well. Sharing the dehumanizing experience and pressures from societies they were a part of, they both knew. They are humans. No matter how they might appear to outsiders. through this experience they learn a lot about each other. They eventually fall in love. After having shared their insecurities, fears and short comings and vulnerabilities, and trusting each other to take care of them as well as trusting their partner, they will take care of their problems themselves. It's not any kind of love, it's the human love, a love full of emotions, lust, joy, happiness, comfort, safety, fun, help, understanding. A love that brings them happiness and that makes them glad they can share an experience like that.

#lore #wiki #lucy #hi #long text

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aster-riskite · 7 days

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Cuddles

(Because I'm feeling self indulgent and touch-starved, take this for my day 1 piece :3) @spaus-week

He had been sitting there for hours, writing, rewriting, dotting the staff paper over and over to achieve something. But what? There was no point to it, he would only ever look at this piece and see a failure. This composition would never be perfect as it was. Maybe it was time to reconsider the sounds of the modern day, maybe even return to that era of structure and style that didn't fit much more than the art he wanted to create. Maybe he needed to give it up for now, laying down and accepting defeat, but what good would that be?

Then, bursting through the door, his beloved spaniard came to provide him with something to eat. Roderich had set Antonio on a fetch quest a while ago, feeling pangs of hunger in his fragile stomach. So, dutiful as he was to most everything else, Antonio took no less than an hour to return.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to take so long!" The spaniard sighed, exhausted. "I felt stupid walking into those buildings and looking around and buying nothing. Nobody had what you wanted!"

"Felt?" Roderich scoffed.

"Aw, don't be like that." Antonio approached from behind, and Roderich let him. Good, this was a game, he thought. "I've been around the entire city looking for your very specific desserts, and all for what reward?" His hands snaked around the Austrian's body, holding him softly and swaying to the beats of his own heart. "The least I deserve is a kiss, no?"

"Hm, true..." Roderich took his own hands from the staff paper, inevitably relaxing into the sways of his own beloved. "But first, how about you take me away from here. I'm getting tired, and I'd like to rest."

"Rest how?" That could have meant anything from going out to eat to forsaking all dignity to sleeping.

"You decide. I'm so tired, I can't think straight." And those words were what damned Roderich to the act of being loved.

"Alright, I see." Antonio lifted the pianist, smiling in that stupid way he always did. He carried the man like a bride or a princess, letting him acquaint himself with the lack of control slowly. Most have known Roderich was prone to overthinking, but Antonio also knew that revoking the right to do anything would help him stop thinking so much. "No preference between the couch and the bed?"

"The bed sounds nice." Roderich muttered. He found himself incapable of struggling. Why would he, though?

"Bed it is." Antonio pressed a kiss to his lover's forehead, then carried both himself and the other to their shared bed. The pastry was even taken along, even in spite of the 'no food in bed' policy they instated. Comfort was inevitably prioritized over the efforts, and as it turned out, lying down and accepting that he had been defeated was far from pointless.

#they're soft because i feel soft.#that's all.#hetalia #hws austria #hws spain #spaus #spausweek #aster's risks and rewards

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bts-hyperfixation · 1 year

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Outside of the fox

Chapter 14

Y/N longs for a new life when the one she'd been living comes to an abrupt stop. Without much thought to those she is leaving behind, the little fox packs a backpack and disappears. She stumbles across the shelter and makes an interim home for herself while she works out exactly what she wants from her second chance.

Last

"Good Evening Kim family." Dr Jin says as he looks up at you all over the chart in his hand.

"Hello, Jin." Jungkook practically giggles before Namjoon even has a chance to extend a greeting himself.

You all glance at the rabbit, bewildered by his sudden confidence.

"You seem to have some new additions with you today." The doctor comments, gesturing to Hobi and Tae in the corner.

"Friends joining us for the holiday." Namjoon fills in.

"Ah, of course, a wonderful time to spend with friends, although it's a shame you seem to have ended up here..."

Jin places the chart on the end of the bed and shoos Jungkook and Namjoon from Jimin's side to get a better look at Jimin's arm. The red panda is clutching it to his side with his good arm. The nurse gave him a painkiller, but it didn't do much for the odd angle it was stuck at.

"Do you not have plans for the holidays Doctor?" Jungkook asks peering over the man's shoulder.

"Me? No, I have the day off which is a blessing, but my plans are limited to dinner alone and a movie marathon." He shrugs. "Anyway, Jimin, I think you have definitely dislocated your shoulder, and there is potential for a fracture, I would like to get a better look with some x-rays. I'll have the nurse set up radiology for you and I'll be back."

He nods his head firmly and exits the room. Namjoon and Jungkook immediately take up positions next to the bed again. Jungkook nuzzles into Jimin's uninjured side while Namjoon pets Jimin's hair, careful to avoid all contact with the shoulder.

You sit across the room with Taehyung, Hoseok, and Yoongi. Yoongi uses his nervous energy by playing with Hoseok's hair, musing it up beyond easy repair. Taehyung looks far more upset than you would've thought possible for a near stranger. His leg jitters, knocking in to you in the cramped space.

"How are you doing Chim?" Namjoon asks.

"It hurts Joonie." Jimin pouts.

"Why would you hide so high up in a tree baby?" Namjoon pets him softly, trying not to sound accusatory.

"It worked didn't it?" Jimin laughs, the motion causing him to squeak in pain. "Someone distract me."

"How?" Yoongi asks, desperate to be helpful.

"Tell me a story, in fact, tell me my favourite story."

"That story? You've heard it a million times." Yoongi sighs, but a smile pulls at the edges of his lips.

"And I want to hear it at least a million more."

"What story?" You ask.

"The story of how I met Yoongi." Namjoon supplies.

"Okay, if that's what you really want, settle in." Yoongi begins

_______________

It was almost ten years ago now. On a dreary day, on a run-down campus, in a little town, not far from where they now called home. Yoongi had come to the music studios inside the university library to work on his latest composition for his final assessment. He already spent hours on the track and it seemed like he might still have hours more ahead of him.

He'd gone through countless coffees and instant noodles trying to keep himself isolated in the little room. He was practically pulling his hair out trying to understand why his bridge section wouldn't flow how he wanted it to into the chorus. Both sections were exactly what he wanted them to be and yet neither one fitted together in the way that he wanted them to. It was infuriating.

Eventually, he decided if he didn't remove himself from the room he was going to drive himself insane. He wandered through the stacks on one of the lesser-used floors, something about obscure medical studies. He was always alone when he walked this floor, but today it seemed someone else was around. He couldn't see them, but he could hear them, humming along to something. The sound was offkey and unfamiliar but the melody stuck with him.

He never found the source that day but it did give him the inspiration he needed to work out exactly what he was missing to connect his piece.

______

Namjoon had been studying hard in his first year of medical studies. No matter how hard he tried though the information just wouldn't stick. It wasn't that he wasn't smart enough, it was just that it was dull. He had tried many different ways to get himself to focus. He studied completely alone in the depths of medical journals at the library but his mind always wandered and he would end up writing stories or making up pointless songs. He tried working in groups with other students on his course, but they somehow made the content even less interesting. He even tried working amongst the other first years in the more populated areas but they were all too chatty, not really there to work.

He found his solace by accident. He was stumbling through the library looking for another place he could study when he stumbled into the music studios. Each one was locked but he could hear a song coming from one that left him mesmerised, he sat down outside of the door and finally managed to get some studying done. The repetition might have annoyed some people but he enjoyed the slight changes each time to track was replayed.

He returned to that studio for the next couple of days, sitting cross-legged outside the door with his notes splayed around him. A perfect setup, until one day when the composer came tumbling through the door tripping over his work.

"Wah, the fuck..." The stranger said as he stumbled.

"I'm so sorry," Namjoon said.

He rushed up to help the man balance and found himself getting lost in his eyes.

"You realise there is a whole library full of workbenches outside right?" The man asks annoyance evident in his features.

"I... I struggle to work out there." Namjoon rubs the back of his neck sheepishly.

"So you are just perched outside of my studio?" Yoongi raises an eyebrow.

"The music sounded pretty..."

"You're a fresher, aren't you? I haven't seen you before" The annoyance slowly fades from the older man's face as he takes in Namjoon.

"Yeah, first-year medical." Namjoon confirms "I'm Namjoon."

The bear extends his hand and the musician takes it.

"Yoongi, senior in music production."

He isn't sure he would call it a friendship. More of a partnership from there on. Namjoon was invited inside the studio to sit in the corner so he could work and occasionally Yoongi would talk to him so he wouldn't go days without talking to another person again.

He told Namjoon how he had stolen part of the melody from someone humming on the upper level, Namjoon decided it best not to tell him that it was most likely his off-key attempt that Yoongi had heard (although he did find out shortly after his graduation).

They spent months together in that little box of a room, sharing parts of their days with one another as they worked on different assignments. They really didn't realise how close they'd become until it was a week before Yoongi's final submission and their time together was coming to an end.

Namjoon's heart grew heavy as Yoongi concluded that his work was complete, there was not another note that he could add that would make the slightest bit of difference to his grade. The senior ordered pizza and beer for them both to enjoy that night and instead of studying with minimal conversation, the two of them talked all night.

Yoongi shared his dream of wanting to produce music for the biggest stars, but he also wanted to produce an album just for himself, one where he would rap and sing, and maybe dance if he were brave enough.

Namjoon shared that he wasn't really sure medicine was for him. In fact, he was only going through the motions because his parents had thought it would be a good idea, he was so smart after all. He wanted to be a writer.

Yoongi had looked Namjoon right in his eyes, grabbed his shoulders, and told him that he should go after what he wanted, others be damned. He went on a monologue about others always putting people like them in a box and telling them what they could do and how they should act. He was so passionate in his delivery, so fired up that the passion was all that Namjoon could see on his face.

Yoongi was mere inches away from Namjoon's face when he finished, making one last comment about taking the things that were meant for you before anyone else tried to take them away. The younger man couldn't resist closing the gap and taking Yoongi's lips in his.

It was evident that the older man was startled, pulling back confused.

"What was that for?" He asked, blinking owlishly.

"Taking what was mine before it went away I guess?" Namjoon shrugged, although inside he felt like he was about to explode if this didn't go how he thought it would.

"I just meant you should change your major..."

"Oh, okay, yeah maybe I should..."

Yoongi fiddled with his hands, thinking through what to say next. Namjoon stuffed more pizza into his mouth. The silence grew quickly as they both awkwardly thought of how to pass by what just happened. Eventually, Yoongi swallowed his pride and spoke first.

"Namjoon?.."

"Uh-huh?"

"Do you really want me to be yours?" Yoongi doesn't look up from his hands.

"Yes, yes I do."

"Okay."

Namjoon studies the older man's face as he finally looks up to face him again. He looked unsure and insecure but resolute in his words. So Namjoon leant over and kissed him again, this time receiving a kiss in return and from that moment onwards they truly did belong to each other. And Namjoon changed his major the very next day.

________

"That might be the sweetest story I've ever heard." Doctor Jin says as he comes through the door breaking the silence in the room. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop but I didn't want to interrupt either, Jimin we are ready for you in radiology."

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