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be-ready-when-i-say-go · 3 years

Text

Inked

Still on hiatus. But I found an old piece of writing and I revamped it just a smidge! It was originally published in 2018 on calumh-excess. Which is now deactivated. Hooray for finding pieces!

Calum's been watching Jay for a while. She's cute, talented, but a bit of mystery. Should he really give into her? What will it take for him to admit he has a crush?

Enjoy my masterlist (on hiatus)

______________

He watched her sometimes for far too long. The way her tongue stuck out as she pulled the skin and her hand worked steadily with the needle made it hard for him to resist. Her face always seemed to catch the harsh fluorescent lights and reflect it back so that it twinkled against her skin. A slight sheen, but nothing just of ethereal. He wasn’t even interested in any new ink, not seriously anyway. He had slowed on the ink train, but the shop his tattoo artist owned was a nice place to hang out sometimes. When he wanted to get out of his house but didn’t want to actually go somewhere, he could hang out here, listening to the buzz of the tattoo gun, poke his hand at trying a design here or there. They weren't great. He hadn't considered him this kind of artist, but the shop felt like a second home.

Besides, having her around was a more than welcomed bonus.

He wasn’t even sure what it was about her. She showed up about a year and a half ago, under an apprenticeship. Calum’s artist was unsure of her, much like everyone else that asked to work under him. A hazard of the job, according to the job, according to Calum's artist. However, her drawings spoke volumes; the colors and line work were impeccable. She had talent and knew it without being cocky about it. Well, sometimes she wasn’t. Calum watched her run into the occasional asshole that tried to belittle her; she always put her foot down in those situations. He didn’t fault her.

Today’s no different. When Calum walks in, he greets the guy at the front desk, eyes searching for her. He spots her in the back with her oversized frames creating a small glare over her brown eyes. He never quite got the appeal of the grandma-shaped glasses trend, but on her, they worked. She looked wise but soft. The glass pulled him in, felt like she was seeing into his soul. Maybe she was; maybe the pain made people more vulnerable than they anticipated--entrusting someone, a stranger in some ways, to permanently mark you and not fuck it up. Whatever the reason, looking at her felt timeless. Like she had seen it all, and you are just waiting for you to spill all the secrets.

“You finally going to get some new ink?” Calum’s artist teases.

Calum shakes his head, turning his attention away from her. “You finally took her training wheels off?”

“Your girlfriend’s got mad skills. I couldn’t baby her forever. Jay works hard on each piece, learned fast. Got a steady ass hand and pretty gentle for handling a needle.”

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

“Yeah, because you haven’t hardly even talked to her. Go for it, you wuss. What’s the worst she says? No?”

Calum exhales a chuckle. "I mean, the worst she stabs me with the tattoo gun. But considering the ink I'm already sporting, I doubt that's really all that bad.”

“Jay would not do that unless you asked for it, ff course. But really, go on, ask her out.”

Calum glances back at Jay. It’s a nickname. No one in the shop calls her by her full name. The only reason Calum heard it was when a client came asking for her. Jay was quick to correct them.

She wipes, clearing excess ink, before dipping back into the small cup. Jay smiles up at her client. Calum's sure they appreciate the reprise. Getting tattoos weren't always fun, but bearable enough to forget about it and get more.

Calum turns his gaze away. “I recommended you to a friend,” he says, hoping that he’ll escape the teasing. It’s not likely to happen. But at least he tries to minimize the ridicule.

"I appreciate it. Are they a first-timer?"

"A second-timer, but they're visiting town and want some new ink. I figured best not to fuck them over."

The two men laugh before Calum's escorted back to look through some new designs. Just in case something sparks his interest. Calum's visit is supposed to be short, but there's not much else on his to-do list for the day. He could kill a few hours here.

When Calum comes out from the back, after spending too much time pretending art was ever a talent of his, he looks for Jay again. She’s not in her corner, nor is she at the front. Calum shrugs, figuring she might have gone for lunch, or home depending.

As Calum walks to his car, he checks his phone. Nothing major's happened.

“Leaving so soon?” A voice states. Calum knows that voice, a little gravelly, mostly sweet. He’s dreamt of it every so often. He prays to hear it when he visits the shop.

He turns to Jay, who leans against the bricks. A vape is wrapped in her fingers. “Gotta get some dinner, maybe make a run to the grocery store," Calum returns. "I've gotten lazy."

She nods. “This reminds me that I can't survive off BLTs forever," she laughs.

"You could try, but I think you'd need other vegetables and some fruit in that mix too."

She pushes up on her glass with a nod. "Ah, yes, gotta get the whole food pyramid." It goes silent between them and Calum gives another nod, raising a few fingers to signal his departure while still keeping his phone in a secure enough grip.

"Hey, wait!" Jay calls out again, taking a half step forward. Calum turns to her. "Can I give you something before you leave?”

Calum nods, not trusting his voice. What would she give him? She nods back to the front door, taking back that initial half-step. “It's inside. Give me like two minutes.”

She disappears inside and Calum stands, his phone still in his hands, staring at the spot she once stood. Just as quickly as she disappeared, Jay reappears. In hand is her portfolio. She flips through before stopping and slides the heavy-duty drawing paper out.

Calum stares down at the green and black drawing. It’s his face, for the most part, that stares back at him. It’s distorted by a crystal ball that glows green. Inside are some instruments and something else, but right now he can’t really put it all together. His eyes keep moving over the lightning bolt, the crystal ball, the uncanniness of his face on a piece of paper, his three-dimensional face somehow translated perfectly into a 2-D space.

“Holy shit, this is amazing,” he breathes. “Thank you,” he says looking back up to her.

She shrugs with a smile. “You’re welcome.”

“Seriously, this is so fucking awesome. I’m going to frame it,” he gushes. He’s too excited to be nervous, or be embarrassed. "What are the dimensions?"

“I'm just really glad you don’t find it too creepy. I was watching you a couple weeks ago when you stopped by. It just sort hit me, the image of the crystal ball and lightning bolt; I had to draw it,” Jay elaborates. "And it's 8.5 by 11--standard printer paper size."

Calum shakes his head, staring over the drawing again. It feels so delicate suddenly in his hands. It’s almost like Jay recognizes the change in his handling. She shuffles her load in her hands and pulls out an empty plastic over. “Here,” she laughs handing it over. “So it doesn’t smudge or anything if you're worried."

Calum slides it in. “Thank you. Again. Seriously.”

“You’re welcome, Calum. Good luck with your grocery store trip and dinner,” Jay nods and then heads back inside. Calum watches the way the denim stretches across her hips, the way her hair billows just a little in the breeze of her strut.

For a moment, Calum can't move. The weight of the paper in his hand is hardly ounces, but it holds him--traps him to the point of the sidewalk. Jay thought enough of him to draw him. What did it all mean? Should he have found the courage to ask her out? He could walk back inside. But what if she didn't like him like that? Would it be too weird?

Calum blinks up into the hardly settling sun and thinks to himself, the second he can come back here, it better be with a bit more courage and possibly a gift certificate. No one can be made about free food, right?

It’s months before Calum can visit the shop again. The tour is a whirlwind and he only gets a few days off between legs. Not long enough to get back home or feel like he had any energy to drive out to the shop. But now that he's settled back in at home, he knows exactly where he's going.

It’s not his typical practice to just walk in and ask for a tattoo. But given the ink already on him, worse things could happen. When he pulls open the door, he notices it's kind of slow. Jay greets him at the front desk. “Hey, stranger,” she grins.

“Hey, how are you?” he asks in return.

“Pretty good. How was it? The tour? See any cool places?”

He nods. “Yeah, got to explore a few cities.” He taps his fingers against the wooden desk. “Do you have an appointment anytime soon?”

Jay shakes her head. “My 2 o’clock had to reschedule. I’m here until 4 before I see anyone. Why? What's tickling your fancy?”

“I was wondering if you could do a tat for me? I know this is very last minute and if you need me to come in another day this week, I totally can.” His words run into each other; his palms start to sweat. He wipes them on his jeans.

Jay laughs, holding up a hand. “Whoa, pump the brakes. One, what are you looking for?”

“You know that drawing you did for me?” She nods. “I was kind of hoping you could create something with just the crystal ball and lightning bolt. I know the drawing itself is kind of big.”

A grin lifts her cheeks; Calum’s heart settles for a second. “I think I can do that. Where are you thinking to put it?”

“Inner bicep.” He watches her gaze land on his arm. The t-shirt is baggy, he at least thought about that with enough advance.

“Give me 30 minutes to come up with some sketches.” Jay pushes away from the front desk and heads to the back, but not for calling to the shop to watch the front desk.

Calum slides into the seat at the front, leg bouncing as he settles down. This isn’t even his first tattoo, but the nerves flood his body. His scalp tingles. The thirty minutes move by too fast, but also too slow simultaneously. The seconds feel like hours but move by milliseconds.

Eventually, Jay resurfaces, waving him over to her. He walks back and looks at the sketches she places out in front of him. There are two different ones. One’s a bit more minimalistic, which is her style, with the lightning bolt in the background and a simple crystal ball at the point. The other is a bit bolder, the ball has a slightly warped edge where it connects to the bolt. It looks like the bolt is melting the glass ball.

“I can whip up more if neither one of them are quite right. But I wasn’t sure if it wanted something a bit more crisp and sharp or not,” Jay explains.

Calum admits that most of his tattoos are more cleaned up and sharp. He likes the idea of playing with a new style. “I like the second one,” he says, tapping it.

“You sure?” He nods, he’s never been more sure of something in his life. “Which bicep? Let me line it up and make sure it’ll fit.”

Calum lifts his left arm up for her. Laying the stencil over his skin, Jay notes she has to make a couple small tweaks. But after that, she’ll be ready. They discuss full color, or just outline, or shading, price, and a few other details before Jay concludes with, “Hop in my seat. I’ll be there soon.”

Calum nods and walks over to her station. Her stuff is already laid out, probably for her canceled 2 o’clock. It’s about five more minutes before Jay returns with the final stencil. Calum rolls up the sleeve of his shirt before she places the stencil. Happy with the placement, he stretches out on the table.

Jay gets herself ready before she brings the needle over his skin. The first puncture always makes him jolt a little, the first jab of pain causes his heart to race. “Do you plan on relaxing now that you're back home?"

"Yeah, for a little bit. I might go see my family, but I know we'll be back in the studio soon. Anything exciting happen while I was gone?"

"I mean exciting things happen every day at this place. But it's not like I could recall them all now."

Calum hums, acknowledging her statement, but not quite sure what to say next. Luckily, Jay's faster to fill in the silence. "You do realize you didn’t have to get a tattoo to have a real conversation with me?” Jay teases, pushing up her glasses.

Calum’s cheeks heat. “It’s not like that,” he chuckles.

“Well, that’s how it seems.”

“You were always busy when I stopped by. I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“Not always,” she laughs. “But it’s alright. You’re going to have plenty of time while I’m stabbing you to say all those things you didn’t.”

A chuckle escapes him; of course, Jay would have this sense of humor. “Wow, I can’t believe I’m paying so much for people just to stab me and act as a therapy. Maybe I am a masochist.”

“So are a lot of people. Sometimes you just take the emotional pain out in the physical realm.”

“I always imagined people that worked in a tattoo shop to be more heavily tatted,” Calum hums, taking in scattered ink across her arms and one pokes out from the V in her t-shirt.

“I focused it more on my back and legs and not so much my arms. I’m getting there. So, why this one today?”

Calum goes to shrug, but stops himself as he hears the gun nearing his skin again. “Not really sure. It looked cool. I guess it also serves to remind me that fate isn’t linear. There’s going to be twists and turns, maybe some trouble. And that’s okay. Don’t be afraid of the journey. Also, it's really fucking cool art.”

Jay hums her laugh, “Why thank you. Wise brain you got there. Besides, it seems like you also have people you keep close to you.” She eyes the initials and the name under the bird. “Whoever they are to you, I hope you all stay close.”

“Those are my parents' initials,” he explains. “And my sister’s name. They’ve been with me through it all--I love them dearly.”

“So sweet. I wish my parents and I were closer. I tattooed my brother’s jersey number on me. It was my first tattoo.”

“What did he play?”

“Soccer, or for your kind, football.”

“Hey now, it’s played with the feet, it makes much more sense.”

Jay laughs, wiping off excess ink. She cocks her head to the side a little, then goes back in for the black ink. “I’m only teasing. Us Americans are so dumb sometimes. Like why is our football not called something else? Literally, the only thing that happens with the feet is the running. We carry the fucking ball.”

“I’ve wondered that as well!” he laughs. "Does your brother still play?"

“Yeah, the whole knucklehead still plays for his college.”

“What position?”

Jay laughs. “I'll have you know my job as the older sister is to show up and cheer him on. Something defensive? I don’t remember off the top my head.”

“I’ll give you credit for that. I’m sure he appreciates it.”

“He does until he sees with me in face paint on and then he’s acting like he doesn’t know me. Oh, oh wait, I think remember what he does. It’s defensive,” she pauses, lips pursed together, “something fielder.”

“Defensive midfielder?” he asks.

“Yeah, that. But like I said, I show up when I can and scream. That’s it. When he’s old enough, I’ll buy him a beer after his games too.”

“How old is he?”

“Nineteen, we’re three years apart.”

“The only sibling you have?”

“Nah, got a baby sister too. She’s fifteen. If you’re impressed by my eyeshadow thank her. Because she’s the one that taught me how to do it.”

Calum finds himself staring at the red and gold coloring her eyelids. “It looks really nice,” he breathes.

“Why thank you.” She pauses to bats her eyelashes. “I even managed to get those godforsaken falsies on right too. They look good, but the raise hell.”

“I think you’re the first woman I’ve met in LA that’s not obsessed with makeup,” he notes.

“Oh, you were doing so well. There are a lot of people of who aren’t huge in the makeup scene.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” he tries to backtrack. “I’m sorry. In my experience, it’s not like that. They’re hiding the fact they aren’t wearing makeup--embarrassed by it or something.”

Jay nods, pushing up her glasses yet again. “Yeah, it’s not easy. We’re told to be perfect, but in reality, we’re just like everyone. We’re human, imperfect and flaw-full and beautiful.”

“Not in spite of, but because of.”

“Exactly,” she chuckles. Silences settles in around them. Calum wonders why she said she was closer to her family, but the way she talks about her siblings doesn’t match. She’s cheering her brother on at his game; she’s sitting down to learn makeup with and from her sister.

“Can I ask a bit of a personal question?” he asks.

“What kind of personal? Do I get a lifeline?”

Cal exhales a laugh. “You can always say no.”

“Hit me with it.”

“Why say that you’re family isn’t close but you clearly take a lot of pride in your siblings?”

“An observant one on my table, I see. It’s my parents. They don’t like that I’m pansexual, say I’m going to hell. My siblings don’t fucking care. I’m still the crazy-ass sister that loves and supports them.”

With a hum of acknowledgment from Calum, it goes quiet again around them for a moment. “I’m sorry,” he whispers. He knows it doesn’t really fix anything for her; it doesn’t take away the potential years of her suffering. It’s the only thing he can offer her though. It feels right to say.

“Oh, no need for you to be sorry. It’s not like you threw me out of the house.”

“Ouch. You’re making it though right?”

“Yeah, now that I work here, things are on the up and up.”

“That’s good; I’m glad.”

“Thanks.”

“Favorite tattoo you’ve done?” he asks, wanting to hear her voice again.

“This one,” she laughs. “Though I had someone ask for a pin-up witch, which was also pretty fucking cool to do.”

Calum remembers seeing that on her Instagram. “That one was amazing! Her lips looked so good; I know that’s a strange thing to admit.”

“Don’t worry. I am quite proud of that myself.”

“Do you have a favorite tattoo on you?”

“The blue jay on my shoulder. My parents would take me on walks when I was still an infant. According to the legend, while they were sitting on a park bench a blue jay landed on me. I didn’t cry; it didn’t hurt me. It just landed for a second and then flew off. They called me Blue Jay ever since. I just shortened the nickname as I got older.” She gives one more wipe. “Finished. Check it out.”

Calum sits up, walking over to the mirror. He grins seeing the melting ball sitting against his skin. He grins over to Jay. “It looks amazing. Thank you.”

“No problem.” They head back over to her station. Jay cleans it and wraps the fresh ink. Calum carefully gets his sleeve back down with a little help from Jay. He pays their agreed price with his card, but slides two fifties over to her. “You do know that’s more than double a twenty percent tip right?”

Calum shrugs. “Is it? I’m bad at math,” he grins. “Treat your sister to a new palette or something. Treat yourself to something.”

“Thank you. Now next time, you come by, I hope we don’t talk while I’m stabbing you repeatedly.”

Calum shakes his head, a grin still on his face. Of course. He had forgotten to get the gift certificate. But possibly asking Jay to dinner wouldn't be such a bad idea. “Give me your number and I can promise the next time we talk, it won’t in your chair.”

She holds out her hand, waiting. He hands her his phone, after unlocking it. She puts her number in. She goes to hand the phone back but just before his fingers touch it, she draws it back. "I mean it--actually text me. I adore memes, dogs, TikToks, your favorite songs."

"I'll actually talk to you. I promise."

Jay hands over his phone with a smile. Calum steps outside the glass doors. Why should he wait? He could do it now. For fuck sake, the last hour had been the groundwork for a clear sign a date was absolutely an option. His fingers hovering over her name. He taps it, and then presses for a call. Holding the phone to his ear, he listens to it ring for a second.

“I can still see you, you know?” Jay laughs.

Calum turns around, catching her leaning against the front desk. “I told you the next time we talked you wouldn’t be inking me.”

“What can I help you with, Calum?”

“Dinner, tonight-- I may have ordered too many appetizers for just little old me."

Her laugh trickles in over the speaker. She drops her head, giving it a shake before looking back up to him in the afternoon sun. “I think I can help you with that. Give me the time and place."

Calum rattles off the name of a restaurant that he had been wanting to try. Nothing too upscale, but not something that would be too casual. "How does 8 sound?"

"I love it there. I'll see you at 8."

“Bye, Jay.”

“Bye, Calum.” As he walks to his car, his phone buzzes yet again. This time a text from his artist, I’m being fucking replaced, I see. I can’t be too mad since it’s Jay. Calum laughs as he slides into his car. Maybe he is getting replaced; maybe he’s not. Calum’s not sure. He is sure that he needs to figure out if he can make reservations and what to wear for tonight.

#calum hood #calum hood fanfic #calum hood blurb #calum hood imagine #calum hood 5sos #calum 5sos #5sos fanfic #5sos imagine #5sos fic #calum hood fic #5 seconds of summer #5 seconds of summer fanfic #5 seconds of summer fic #5 seconds of summer imagine #h writes

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scoutception · 3 years

Text

A look at: Moon.

Writing reviews is always a learning experience for me, and one of the important things I’ve learned is that, sometimes, it’s pretty hard to write about certain individual games, visual novels, or such considering the kind of detail I like to go into. Therefore, this will be the first in a new series of mini reviews, or as mini as they get with me. Maybe there’s just not enough to a game to really give me details to dig into, or maybe it’s difficult to talk about without giving away more than I wish, or maybe there’s just something related to it that I’m more interested in talking about than the actual product; whatever the reason, these will hopefully be less rambly and excessive than my usual reviews, while still giving enough of an overview that they stand as proper reviews on their own. Either way, the subject of this post is an old, obscure visual novel from 1997 with a bit of history to it, called Moon.

Moon was developed by Tactics, a humble developer of adult visual novels, and was the second one developed by them, with the first, Dōsei, seemingly just being, well, a plain H-game, and the third, One ~To the Radiant Season~, while still obscure, is actually fairly notable for being a prototype to Kanon in a lot of ways, as many key staff at Tactics would later break off to form Key afterwards, with them having also worked on Moon beforehand. Thus, Moon is in a very interesting spot when it comes to the progression of the developers that would change VNs as a genre with the release of Kanon, and that’s really the only reason I checked it out.

Moon follows Ikumi Amasawa, a girl who joins a mysterious organization called Fargo, which recruits others with the promise of acquiring an alleged “invisible strength” that can put one far ahead of ordinary humans, in order to investigate their possible connections to the murder of her mother, and if possible, take revenge on the ones responsible. Upon arriving at the Fargo facility, Ikumi quickly befriends two other initiates with ulterior motives of their own for joining: Haruka Mima, a determined girl with a cool attitude who keeps her goal to herself, and Yui Nakura, a cheerful, but naive girl who’s seeking to bring home her older sister, who joined Fargo several months prior. Though the three agree to become allies and help each other achieve their goals, they are quickly separated in different “classes” housed in different buildings, with Ikumi being assigned to Class A, the most prestigious of them all. Settling into her new life as a Fargo initiate, which mostly consists of “training” with the Minmes and Elpod, machines that confront her with various parts of her very troubled past for the purpose of “mental reinforcement” in the form of a vengeful doppelganger of herself, Ikumi gradually discovers many strange things about her situation, such as there only being one other member of Class A, that being Youko Kanuma, a quiet, cold woman who has been part of Fargo for many years. Additionally, Ikumi is forced to share her room with a strange boy who doesn’t volunteer his name, who, though part of Fargo itself, is quite low ranking, and more than a bit dim witted at times. Worst of all, upon finding a passage that allows her to access the buildings where her allies are kept, Ikumi finds that the other classes are subjected to horrific abuses by Fargo’s personnel in order to further their mental reinforcement. As Ikumi struggles to aid her allies however she can, the confrontations with her past begin to put a heavy strain on her mind, and the existence of the invisible strength Fargo claims to have starts to become more and more plausible.

Needless to say, Moon isn’t exactly Clannad. I did not know much about this VN before I got into it, and finding it to be a psychological horror VN was a bit of a shock. Even more of a shock was just what form the majority of the horror came in. You see, even though One ~To the Radiant Season~, Kanon, and Air were all released as adult games, the h-scenes are very disconnected from the plot, most of the time, to the point of losing nothing from skipping them or even removing them from the game, and were pretty much just obligatory inclusions to help them sell better. From Clannad onward, most Key VNs have been clean to start. With Moon, on the other hand, you can’t go 5 minutes without running into some explicit scene, the main source being the Elpod sequences and the abuses the Fargo personnel inflict, and it wastes no time getting to them, at that. This is the biggest thing that drives off many of the few who go out of their way to experience Moon, and even with me having just watched an understandably censored playthrough of this on Youtube due to its shorter length, I almost quit very early into it, and definitely would have if I had actually played it. The Elpod is one thing, as the sequences are used for the purpose of developing Ikumi, but even then, most of them are just excessively disgusting more than disturbing, and that goes doubly for the sequences outside of it. Instead of really changing things up, they’re just content to get gradually more and more depraved, and outside of disgusting, the main thing I can even call them is repetitive. This is one of my biggest problems with Moon, and it was pretty hard for me to get into it because of it.

Another major problem I have with Moon is how it handles its cast. Moon is pretty short for a VN, only around 10 or 11 hours if you go straight for the true ending, and even though there are 7 endings in total, they don’t add much more time onto that, with two being worse variants on the true ending, and the rest being bad endings gotten through making bad choices. Having as small a cast as it does should naturally work fine with that, but they really aren’t balanced well. While Ikumi gets developed across the whole game, and Yui gets a good arc pretty early on, Haruka only gets a short arc that ends as quickly as it starts and doesn’t do a lot for her, Youko barely has any screentime despite establishing a good dynamic with Ikumi, and the boy doesn’t have much presence or relevance until late in the story. The pacing is just bizarre and rushed feeling.

That’s not to say there aren’t a number of good points to Moon’s story. Ikumi is very well developed throughout the story, with the Minmes in particular leading to many melancholic scenes that make her quite sympathetic, and were definitely the high points of the normally rigid daily schedule much of the story takes place during for me. Despite the story’s flawed handling of some of them, the cast is still decent on a whole, with Youko’s gradually developing friendship with Ikumi and Yui’s development during her arc being some of the more memorable parts for me. The atmosphere is very well done, with the cramped, depressing corridors of the facility always feeling like they’re hiding something awful just around the corner, especially since you need to manually navigate the place using a map screen, and once the plot really kicks into high gear things become much more compelling, with the final days containing many high points in characterization and an infamous mindscrew of a sequence that, once looked back on with a more understanding eye, is actually quite fascinating in its own right.

Visually, Moon’s art was done by Itaru Hinoue, the same artist as the majority of Key’s VNs, and it’s a lot rougher than the art of, say, Kanon. It’s not outright bad, but it looks very dated, with the designs and sprites not really sticking out. The CGs vary in quality, as some look pretty ridiculous, but others are quite good. Most impressive, though, is two animated intro sequences included in the DVD version, which happens to be the only version with an English patch anyway. They’re fairly brief, but do a great job of setting up the atmosphere and premise despite that.

On the sound side, the soundtrack is great. It’s not a very big one, with only about 16 tracks, and the use of them can get a bit repetitive, but most of them are just a joy to listen to. From the electronic and tense Closed Space, to the wistful, yet peaceful The Place Where the Sun Shines, to Youko’s ethereal theme, to the credits theme, Sorrow, and especially the nostalgic music box theme, Memory, it’s worth looking up even if you hold no interest in the VN itself. There’s also voice acting, also added in the DVD version, and most of it is just average, with not many performances standing out, with the exception of Kahoru Sasajima as Ikumi, who delivers a very solid performance, especially during the more intense moments.

Overall, Moon can be a pretty hard sell. While I thought it was a decent experience by the end, its very offputting content, lack of similarity to any other Key works, and bleak atmosphere can make it pretty hard to go through even if you’re prepared for what’s to come. Even if you wanted a horror VN, there’s plenty others out there, like Chaos;Head and Chaos;Child, Higurashi: When They Cry, Wonderful Everyday, Raging Loop, or just about anything from nitro+. That said, if you can stick to the end, I definitely feel it becomes fairly satisfying, and when I got to thinking, I realized something that actually boosted my opinion quite a bit just by itself. As much as Moon is a story about cults and psychic powers with a somewhat unclear point to it all, it’s even more so just a story about a very troubled youth struggling with her grief, irrationally falling in with a bad crowd, and being forced to face her past and actions if she wishes to accomplish anything. Looking at the story that way, it’s actually quite well done, and going in with that in mind may even make it a bit more palatable. Still, I wouldn’t especially go out of my way to recommend it, and ultimately it’s still very far from being one of my favorite visual novels out there. Either way, that concludes my first mini review, which still turned out longer than I thought it would. My next post will be something unusual for me as well, but that’ll take a bit to come. Till next time. -Scout

#moon #visual novel #key #game review #vn

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mondaijo · 3 years

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god they way you draw anatomy is *chef’s kiss* and the way you colour is brejhfdkdb *big chef’s kiss* really admire your work!! if I may ask, do you have any tips on how to improve on drawing anatomy? ;u; totally cool if you don’t feel like it tho!

I'm sorry it took so long to reply, anatomy anon!!! I ;A;

Okay, so. First of all - you're too kind and both these asks gave me like a 300% boost in dopamine and it really makes my day to read things like these ;;;A;;; really, this is a very sweet gesture. thank you so so much!

So, onto the good stuff!! Mmmmm I might have a couple, yeah! I started learning anatomy early 2018 (I did draw and paint before that, but it was a more contemporary approach to some of it so despite me learning a lot about traditional painting itself, in the drawing department per se I was definitely.... lacking.... I had never drawn male characters before!), and I think I learned a couple things since then! My art is definitely not where I want it to be and I still have many issues my so-called ~art style~, but I think I learned a couple things along the way that might help. This might be kind of long, sorry!

1. Doing gesture drawings. I recently picked up gestures again thanks to @/aruurara on Twitter, who's responsible for the #kemonogesture hashtag. I still suck quite a lot at it but I think it's helped me improve a lot! Croquis Cafe on Youtube/Vimeo has hundreds of videos of short gesture sessions with AMAZING models for free. Doing 30s/1min drawings will be really tough at first, but once you get the hang of it it's not too bad! This will teach you what should usually be the first (and arguably most important) step of every drawing (that focuses on characters, of course), which is putting down the idea quickly with broad strokes, focusing on movement, composition and gesture. You'll need to learn how to simplify the human body, so it might be a good idea to look into how people do that - Michael Hampton's Figure Drawing: Design and Invention and Proko's videos (proko.com) are some that I can think off the top of my head, but there are many many other great resources out there!

2. Learning anatomy fundamentals/basics. You really don't need to learn ALL bones and muscle groups, but the only way to properly learn anatomy is, well.... sitting down and learning anatomy. Unfortunately we can move in SO many different ways so it's Hard to know exactly what goes where in any position, BUT that's also what makes it beautiful, I think! Go slow and focus on small areas at a time. For example - start from the neck, then go to the shoulders, arms, upper back etc etc. It is a lot so it's no use to try and learn everything in one go! A lot of it you'll learn as you keep drawing and drawing and looking at references (which I'll talk about below). I've drawn some poses/angles so much that the knowledge kind of stuck to me and I can draw these without reference. That will happen with time, too, and become more and more frequent! Some good resources on anatomy are Proko's lessons on anatomy; I used the free ones when I started and they are SO good! I always recommend them. There's also this amazing book called Anatomy for Sculptors, which has a LOT of references about lots of muscle groups! It's a good reference book when you're unsure of how this or that muscle go.

3. References references references. Fill a folder with pics of people in different angles and poses, preferably with different body types! I have so many saved photos of beefy dudes it's insane, lmao. That way, if you don't know how to draw something in a certain angle you can check them! You can always take photos of yourself, too. References are a MUST. Pro artists use them, so why shouldn't we? It's not cheating! And it'll help improve your art so so much. Even if you’re not aiming for realism, if you do know your realism, you’ll be able to draw anything you want, in any art style you want. This is definitely not family or work-friendly, but if you're okay with it, gathering p/orn screencaps/photos and studying from them is really good! It helped me so much when I was starting out and had no idea what to do. P/orn usually has some weird angles and limb positioning that will definitely force you to learn. Not to mention, it was what kept me interested in learning anatomy - I wanted to draw beautiful men in not so sfw situations, so hey, profit! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

You might ask me, why do I need to learn how to anatomy if I can always look at references then? a, if you know anatomy you'll use these references better, since ideally you won't just look and copy, but analyse and interpret what you see, but also b, if you know anatomy you'll be able to morph those references into what you want. It's rare for me to find a perfect reference, so most times I'm creating poses that I don't have references for. I'm also not beefy AT ALL so I can't just take photos of myself when I need to know how to draw muscles... I have to learn it so I can change it at will and draw whatever I want ♥ (that’s the ultimate goal, at least lmao)

4. Practice! The you in a year will be SO much better than the you now. Keep that in mind! Learning art is so hard as everything takes time... But try not to fret too much and think of failures as just opportunities you had to learn - maybe they didn't end up as you expected them to, but you definitely learned along the way so in the long run that's what really matters. Stay positive, be kind to yourself and try to have fun along the way. It’s not easy, but it can be so so rewarding! ♥

And I think that’s it! I tried not to digress too much as I tend to do that, but hopefully these tidbits will cover most of it and at least give you some pointers on how to start/advance on your crafts! If anything doesn’t make sense I blame adhd just hit me up! Wishing you the best of luck ♥

#myreplies #anon #the kindest anon #TOOK ME FOREVER but here it is #hope it helps you or someone else out there!!!!!!#art be Hard and frustrating af even nowadays but!! it be so rewarding too #GOOD LUCK

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breanime · 3 years

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Hey it’s California anon:)

My dream career is anything to do with animals! I’m currently studying to be a zoologist and work part time as an exotic animal trainer (tbh it’s mainly learning to take care of the animals but it’s still cool). I’m thinking of going into a career of training animals for movies and stuff, so if you end up coming to LA to write/act lmk:) well lmk if you come to LA in general but you get my drift

I have 2 siblings, both older (26M and 24F). I have pets: Bailey the dog (looks like a dingo), Joe and Kelly the fish (we’re big on baseball in my family. I literally just got back from a Dodgers game lol), and squirt the baby tortoise.

It’s great that your family is open with one another; that’s the total opposite of my family. Recently I realized I don’t even know my dad’s mom’s name because she died before I was born and we NEVER talk about her so like...

Do you like the hood or the suburbs better?

I also like Broadway- Hamilton is good, I also like newsies and DEH (from a music perspective, I still don’t know how I feel about the plot). I’ve also been getting into Les Mis just because I love period pieces and being dramatic so the songs all feel perfect for me.

Tbh growing up most of the music I was exposed to was Christian stuff so if you have any recommendations for artists to check out or songs you like, I’m always open to listening to new stuff.

Where do you watch the boys and bobs burgers? I’ll have to check them both out. I should also watch undrafted, esp since I’m big on baseball, but for some reason I’ve never checked it out. Where can I find it?

Okay here are some more questions:

What’s something you love to talk about but rarely get asked about?

What’s one of your favorite memories?

If you were to design a good day for yourself (doesn’t have to be perfect), what would be a part of it?

Who is your favorite peaky blinder?

Do you have someone you look up to?

Oh duh! I knew that about you! So what animals do you work with? Have you worked with any particularly cool animals? What's your dream animal to train/take care of?

Do you think if you ASKED, your parents might talk more about your grandma or like other family stories? Or is your family more likely to not want to talk about that kind of stuff regardless if you asked or not?

I haven't heard Newsies, but I've read good things about it. I have no interest in DEH, but again, heard good things about the songs. I could recommend some music for you! Have you heard "First Burn"? It's like 7 of the women who've played Eliza Hamilton singing the original version of Burn and its AMAZING. It's on YouTube and Spotify!

You can watch Bob's on Hulu or Fox, The Boys is Amazon Prime, and Undrafted USED to be on Hulu, but they took it off last I checked. I bought it on Prime and then bought it again on DVD lol.

I actually like being asked about my family. My brothers and cousins and sisters are all so funny and messed up and interesting (or at least I think they are). I love talking about them!

One of my favorite memories is going to New York City for the first time when I was 16 and getting to see my all time favorite musical In The Heights on Broadway. But Corbin Bleu was playing Usnavi and I wasn't too fond of his portrayal, but I still enjoyed the hell out of it.

Hm... a good day for me would either be a lazy day with no responsibilities or guilt OR a really fun active day out and about with my best friend.

My favorite Peaky Blinder... Isiah Jesus. I want more of him, I always headcanon him as my younger brother in my self-insert me and Tommy fantasies haha!

I look up to my Mom, she's a strong woman. Raised my brother and I to be the best people we can be and is raising my little sister all by herself. She's a genuinely good and kind person, like a true Christian, and she's just the best. 💗

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stranger-who-writes-fiction · 3 years

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Still a few weeks out from issue 4 of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and DC’s solicit schedule is exceedingly wonky so WHO KNOWS when those will drop...THUS. A tiny bit of art appreciation, to tide us (read: me) over. XD

Potentially (?) spoiler-y art tease below!

FIRST UP, issue 4 variant by Rose Besch! The September solicits had a bunch of variant covers listed without previews, so I think this only started showing up in the last few weeks? Regardless, check it ouuuuuttttt:

First of all: So sparkly. :D

Second, MMMMM, look at that CMY(sans K) color palette! I also think the artist’s style of coloring is just very neat--like, refracted light through a prism, if that makes sense? Very geometric. And of course, always dig a cool, shojo manga-esque look for Supergirl. I think, of the variants released thus far, this one and the Amy Reeder cover are my favorite.

The other little bit of art comes courtesy of Evely, who is back to posting in-progress snippets. As always, I recommend following her and colorist Mat Lopes on their various social media sites because 1.) they are both INCREDIBLY TALENTED and post that Good Good art and 2.) you get to see stuff LIKE THIS:

HNNNNNNGGGGG.

I will go through my usual happy art shouting: HAIR! FACE! BODY LANGUAGE!!!!!!

This is the potentially spoiler-y bit, though without text/additional panels for context, there’s not much it’s actually spoiling? Still. Just want to be extra careful.

I continue to be so completely, utterly thrilled to have eight--EIGHT--issues of Evely’s Supergirl. I mean. Just look at that. Beautiful.

Can’t wait to see the whole page, and Lopes’ colors. Aaaah. S’gonna be GOOD.

Another quick social media account recommendation: Evely’s represented by Felix Comic Art. Even if you aren’t an original art collector, the site usually has decent scans of the original black and white pages. (Watermarked, natch.) But it’s so neat getting to see the original art vs. the colored pages.

And, okay, on that subject of inks vs. colors, I had not originally planned on including this but HERE WE GO, MORE ART, BECAUSE I CAN ALWAYS RAMBLE ABOUT ART.

This time, from Lopes’ twitter; he shared the colors for this page from issue 3, and then later posted Evely’s initial inks:

It’s maybe a little hard to tell, scrolling, but when you check these out on Lopes’ twitter, and toggle back and forth, you can actually see that the colors ever so slightly soften Kara’s expression.

Which I find FASCINATING, because it really illustrates the wild game of telephone that is comics creation.

You’ve got the writer and the editor, who work sort of in tandem to figure out how best to tell the story that the writer has in mind. That then goes to the penciller, who puts their own spin on the script, then it goes to the inker who has to interpret the penciller’s lines and choose what lines to keep and how best to highlight them (though, in this case, Evely is inking her own stuff so there’s less chance for any drastic changes between these phases) and then FINALLY (at least on the art side of things) it goes to the colorist who adds a whole NEW layer (literally and figuratively) to the art by selecting palettes and color holds and so on and so forth.

In fact, I was just reading the coda in the most recent Fire Power issue, (a comic by Robert Kirkman--of The Walking Dead fame--Chris Samnee, and Matt Wilson) and Samnee said he’d imagined a particular scene taking place at night, but got the colors back from Wilson, who had set the action early in the morning. Samnee drew the pages for a night palette, but Wilson totally made the morning lighting work, and Samnee felt the storytelling was better that way, as it made the time-skip more apparent. (The previous scene also took place at night, which would’ve been confusing for readers, had they both been set at night.)

ALL OF THIS TO SAY! You have multiple storytellers working on any given book, and here, specifically, I think it’s very cool that Lopes choices enhanced the acting that Evely already put on the page.

(Though, disclaimer: it occurs to me that this is entirely subjective, and some folks might feel that there WASN’T any discernable change between inks and colors. *Shrug* ARRRTTT!!!!)

Caught a Felix Comic Art stream a few weeks back when he unboxed the art for these issues, and someone in the chat mentioned wanting an Artist Edition for Evely.

And may I just say: Yes.

Like. I don’t think it’ll happen, but I really wish this book would get the usual King trade treatment--a special edition hardcover with a bunch of backmatter, so that we can just DRINK IN THE ARTWORK.

(Would also love to see the script for any of the issues! They did that with Strange Adventures and much like seeing inks vs. colors, it’s always cool to see script to pencils.)

Actually, what I’d really love is an unlettered version of an issue, to highlight Lopes’ colors in particular.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Clayton Cowles is doing a great job on letters, but this is a very wordy book! And sometimes you just wanna push those caption boxes and word balloons aside and see the entire panel, free of text. XD

Sadly, as I said, this probably won’t get too many bells and whistles in the trade release. Maybe a little bit of Evely’s design work? Hopefully?

She actually posted her initial sketches of Kara, a while back! I think they should be on her IG somewhere?

Anyways. I would kill for a large format of ANYTHING by Evely. Seriously, just. Do it DC! Take my money! (Or, IDW? Who handles the oversized editions for DC? ...I think it’s IDW. Either way! Do it! Come on! XD)

(Again, someone in that same art unboxing chat mentioned they don’t really do large format editions for contemporary artists, BUT. They totally released a Samnee Daredevil book! That’s pretty contemporary! Or, it was. At the time of release.)

Okay, I will stop now. For real.

That’s it, I think, in terms of art teases and updates! Until solicits and/or preview art, I guess!

#supergirl: woman of tomorrow #DC comics #long post #kinda #comic thoughts #comic opinions #ARRRRRRRRRRRT

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carriagelamp · 4 years

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~ Queer Lit 30 Day Book Challenge ~

I decided to do this challenge I came across for June! Originally it was designed as a “day-by-day” thing, but my June was way too hectic to do a write up every single day… so I decided to make a nice compilation for the end of the month instead!

This is perhaps not the “purest” form of the challenge but I wanted it to be personal for me. Growing up when I did and where I did, I had very little exposure to queer books, especially age-appropriate queer books. That being said, there’s some books on this list that are really only “queer” by technically, or through a secondary character rather than the main character. I debated whether to include these but finally decided that, yes, I would. I owe it to myself. Even though some of these books that aren’t “as queer” as other, they were (or are) really important to me as a queer person and my journey is understanding that, so I wanted to acknowledge them!

More info about the books and the challenge under the cut!

Day One: First Queer Book You Remember Reading

Color by Taishi Zaou and Eiki Eiki

Remember how I mentioned a lack of available, age-appropriate queer books? I was one of those kids who was definitely exposed (probably too young) to queer manga/yaoi. It wasn’t necessarily what I wanted, especially as a wee ace teen, but it was the best I had at the time and it meant the world to me at the time, to see same-sex relationships even if looking back on them is very “YIKES”.

I’m sure I read others before this, but Color is one of the first that I really remember and which I a) actually owned and which b) wasn’t completely repellent in hindsight! I haven’t reread it in probably over a decade so I have no idea how it stands up, but at the time it read like a much more “realistic” account of two teenagers developing a crush and starting a relationship and as a questioning teenager it really helped me realize that this was a real, viable option.

Day Two: Queer Book That Reminds You Of Home

The Witch Boy by Molly Knox Ostertag

I hummed and hawed about this one for a long time because honestly I tend to read books that make me feel far from home. I decided to go with The Witch Boy though because it’s a story that challenges gender norms and stars a large family out in the woods, running wild and exploring magic, and honestly it gives me vibes that remind me of vacationing with my extended family. We’re also partially ginger and inclined to run wild in the woods. If we knew magic we’d have used it for sure.

This book is about 13 year old Aster, who lives in a family where the women all become witches and the men all become shifters. Aster, however, has no interest in shapeshifting and instead finds ways to study magic and learn the arts of witchcraft while constantly being pushed out by his female relatives… though everything might change when a new danger, that may or may not be connected to Aster studying magic, begins to appear.

Day Three: Queer Book That Has Been On Your TBR Too Long

Beneath The Citadel by Destiny Soria

That was an easy choice, this has been sitting on my bookshelf for months, staring at me accusingly every time I enter my room. I’m really excited to read it (Magical heist? Rebellion? With an asexual protagonist? Yes please) but for some reason I have not gotten around to it. Some day, baby, some day.

Day Four: Queer Book With A Name Or Number In The Title

George by Alex Gino

George is an absolutely charming middle grade novel about a child named George who the world perceives as male… but who knows she’s definitely a girl. The novel begins when her class decided to put on a play about the novel they had just read: Charlotte’s Web. George is desperate to play Charlotte, her favourite character, but isn’t even allowed to try out because it’s a “girl’s role”. George and her best friend struggle with how to handle this problem and manage George’s secret amid elementary school and home drama.

This book is really adorable – it was a nice, easy, cozy read for an adult, and would also make a great read aloud to elementary-age children if you want to introduce them to transgender characters.

Day Five: Queer Book Where The Protag Has A Fun Job

The Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris

Not actually a queer protagnoist, but a queer side character who plays a major role in the series. Mister Vernon, one of Leila’s fathers, has arguable the coolest job: he’s a retired stage magician turn magic shop owner, which is complete with large rabbit, hidden room, and tons of fascinating gadgets to help a young practical magician learn their trade. He is hands down one of the neatest character in the series and is a major catalyst throughout the series.

The first book follows Carter, a runaway orphan who practices street magic to get by, as he runs away from his horrible uncle and winds up meeting a gang of magic-loving friends in a small town. Hiding from his uncle is only the beginning though, and the mysteries surrounding the town and Mister Vernon become thicker and thicker as the series goes on.

Day Six: Favourite Queer Graphic Novel

Check, Please! by Ngozi Ukazu

There’s lots of fantastic queer graphic novels out there, but I have to name Check, Please! as my favourite (and not just because I’m Canadian and am legally obligated to at least show interest in a hockey story). Check, Please! is the friggin cutest story about Eric “Bitty” Bittle, former figure skater and avid baker, who joins the Samwell University hockey team. The story is told in the form of Bitty’s vlog as he recounts the bizarre quirks of the Samwell hockey team, his struggle to overcome his fear of checking, and his growing crush on the team captain, Jack. Seriously guys, this is cavity-inducing sweetness and you can read it all online for free, here on tumblr @omgcheckplease or at its own website, checkpleasecomic.

Day Seven: Queer Book You Often Reread

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

Another book I haven’t reread in years, but this was the first queer novel I ever read (and owned!) so I read it obsessively, first the copy from the high school library and then my own copy (which is, let us say, well-thumbed by this point). It was pure fluff, in an aggressively diverse, relentlessly accepting, rainbow-coloured high school and it was exactly what I wanted in high school, and it still makes me happy whenever I remember it. It’s a straight-up high school romance, pretty traditional to the genre, but it has the most delightful supporting cast you could ever ask for. Maybe I should reread it again this summer…

Day Eight: Queer Book With A Happy Ending

Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst

This was a bit more of a “yeah it was fine” book for me, but honestly… queer people deserve some average, run-of-the-mill YA fantasies. As far as my normal reading preferences go, run-of-the-mill YA fantasies are my bread and butter. And this one has a cute sapphic romance to go with it. It’s about Denna, a princess with a dangerous secret: she has a magical Affinity for fire, despite being betrothed to the prince of a kingdom that aggressively prosecutes and fears magic-users. So now Denna is in a strange land, trying to hide her increasingly volatile magic, solve an assassination that rocked the kingdom, and deal with the growing connection between her and the prince’s wild sister, Mare. It has court intrigue, a murder mystery, horses, and lots of confused sapphic pining so it’s totally worth picking up if you want a light summer fantasy adventure.

Day Nine: Queer Book With (Over) 100 Pages

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

I decided to try to get as close to 100 pages as possible! River of Teeth is a 114-page novella that I haven’t quite finished (work and covid stress happened) but which I am fucking losing my mind for. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s peak alternative history, about queer hippopotamus-riding cowboys in Louisiana during the early 20th (late 19th?) century. Like… I don’t know how to emphasize how unbelievably cool this book is. Genderqueer demolition expert with a giant crush and a penance for making things blow up and attempting to poison guests when they’re bored?? Check. Gay gunslinging hippo-riding cowboy with an angsty backstory (and also a giant crush)? Check. Sexy, fat, badass lady con artist with an albino hippo that she spoils? Check. Like damn guys. I’m not done the book and I’ve already bought the sequel because I know the second I pick it back up I’m not gonna stop until I’ve ploughed through it all. This book is the epitome of “refuge in audacity” and “rule of cool”. Is it over the fucking top? Absolutely but that’s the point.

Day Ten: Favourite Queer Genre Novel

The Red Scrolls of Magic by Cassandra Clare

I’ll be honest, I’m a little shaky on what counts as a genre novel (isn’t… everything… a genre??) so I decided to interpret it as “slightly trashy YA supernatural fantasy” because that sure is a hella specific genre I’m weak for.

I really thought I was done with the Shadowhunter novels, I thought they were a goofy series I left behind in teenagerhood that I could look back on with amused indulgence. And then I found out that there was a novel specifically about Alec and Magnus and! Oh no! Ding dong I was wrong. I fell back in hard because listen… I love them. They were one of the first canonical same-sex relationships I ever read about in an actual novel, they meant a lot to me then and still mean a lot to me now. I have nothing to say to defend myself here except that this book wrecked me and I can’t wait for the sequel.

Day Eleven: Queer Book You Love In A Genre You Don’t Read

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connel

I am very rarely a slice-of-life / romance genre sort of person. I like my stories cut with a heavy dose of fantasy, scifi, action-adventure… something. So a graphic novel that’s not only a romance, but one about an unhealthy relationship and infidelity is like… super outside my usual range of reading material. But it was very much worth the read! The art was stunning, and the complicated emotions it tapped into really touched me. I’m very happy to have read it, and was so damn satisfied by the end.

Day Twelve: Queer Book With A Strong Sense Of Place

Belle Révolte by Linsey Miller

Linsey Miller is one author I very actively follow, I love her works and they always have very distinct, complicated worlds with unique societies and magic systems. Belle Révolte was her latest book and followed a prince-and-the-pauper type of story, in which wealthy Emilie des Marais is determined to learn noonday (magical) arts in order to become a physician, someone who can actually work to make her home a better place… but this is not something a proper lady would ever be allowed to do. So she flees her finishing school and meets poor, but magically gifted, Annette Boucher and offers her the chance to switch places. Annette goes back to school as “Emilie” and gets to hone her skills at the midnight arts while Emilie will use her name to sneak into medical school and fight her way up the ranks to physician. This is a challenging enough task, with rebellion roiling just beneath the surface and the country about to slip into a arrogant war that threatens the lives of hundreds…

Day Thirteen: Queer Book That Really Made You Think

Our Dreams At Dusk by Yuhki Kamatani

This is a four book manga series that is completely breath-taking. It’s touched by magical-realism and completely drowned in visually stunning metaphors and symbolism. Seriously, I’ve reread these books multiples times trying to digest how the wide variety of symbols overlap and contradict and compliment and challenge each other. I still haven’t really gotten a solid handle on it, it’s very fluid, so yeah… definitely makes me think.

The story starts with Tasuku Kaname who believes he may have just been outed as gay by a high school friend, and feels like he’s watching his entire world crumble around him. He is seriously considering taking his own life, when he runs into the mysterious woman “Someone-san” and winds up leading him to a drop-in center that’s run by a local non-profit, and is also a hub for a number of queer people in the community. The books follow Tasuku as he grows, learns, makes mistakes, and confronts his feelings, along with a number of other members at the drop-in center. It is completely beautiful, optimistic, but also quite stark and harsh at its look at homophobia and transphobia in modern Japanese society and how it can effect people in different ways. I just bought book four and can’t wait to read it and see how everything ends.

Day Fourteen: Queer Book That Made You Cry

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

Holy shit guys. Listen. Listen. If you don’t read any other book on this list, please consider reading The Marrow Thieves. It is hands down the best book I’ve read so far this year. Another book that doesn’t have a queer character as the protag, but as one of the main supporting characters and listen, his story fucking destroyed me as a person. That romance just… aaaaaaah. AAAAAAAAH.

Anyway. The Marrow Thieves is a Canadian dystopian novel. It takes place in a post-climate change world in which society has been ravaged – partially due to the wildly different and extreme weather patterns, but also through a strange disease that has spread through the population that has left people completely incapable of dreaming. Now unable to rest, process their lives, and dream of a future, people are being driven insane and only one group appears to be immune: North America’s First Nations people appear to be unaffected. And so they begin to be harvested, rounded up and collected in “school” in order for people to suck the marrow out of them to give to white people afflicted by this disease. The Marrow Thieves follows a First Nations boy named Frenchie as he flees the recruiters and tries his best to survive in this post-apocalyptic like wilderness, banding together with other First Nations people who are heading north, where they hope to find communities of their own people with whom they can shelter and start to rebuild their lives.

It’s a YA level novel, not very long, and such an insanely good read. I cannot emphasize enough PLEASE GO READ THIS BOOK.

Day Fifteen: Queer Book That Made You LOL

Mostly Void, Partially Stars by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

Welcome to Nightvale always makes me laugh and it was a lot of fun to get to read the transcripts of the episodes. I’m a sucker for novelizations/transcripts of shows. It was a nice nostalgia trip and gave me an excuse to go back and relisten to some of my favourite episodes too! If you’ve never gotten into Nightvale… hey, it’s a classic! Podcast is fucking stunning if you’re into podcasts, and if you’re not but would enjoy a weird, queer, eldritch horror comedy then try the book! It’s the first “season” compiled in text form, exactly how it’s heard in the show.

Day Sixteen: Queer Book That Is Really Personal To You

Jughead volume 1 by Chip Zdarsky et al

Including this one because gee golly it sure did make me want to fight a lot of people for quite a while. It was one of the first stories I ever found/read that had an explicitly asexual main character… (and a character I already really loved! Which I now got to feel an even stronger connection to! It was so fun and validating!) so it was super awesome how like half of tumblr decided for a year there that this was apparently a cardinal sin. Imagine… one single version of old, long standing comic series deciding to retcon a character to represent a heavily under-represented community… imagine being so fucking angry about that that you decide to start a hate campaign on the internet. So much fun to live through that as an ace person. Anyway, these comics were nothing amazing but I sure do love them aggressively out of pure spite, even now that the aphobia on tumblr has died back down I will hold this to my chest and adore it.

Day Seventeen: Favourite Queer Book Sequel or Spin Off

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee

Honestly do I even need to say anything here? Is there any queer person who hasn’t read Mackenzi Lee’s The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue series? If you are someone who hasn’t read it yet… go do that?? Absolutely stunning, one of my all-time favourite book series. It’s the perfect combination of hilarious and goofy, intense action, heartfelt character development, and a dash of “wait was that supernatural or??” This sequel was fantastic, this time focusing on Felicity, Monty’s sister, and her quest to become a physician despite being a woman in the 18th century. Awesome look at femininity, feminism, asexuality, and race. (Also… OT3? OT3.)

Day Eighteen: Favourite Queer Book By A Favourite Author

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

One of those “ehh is this technically queer? Not really but close enough, it is in my heart” books. It was one of the books I read as a teenager when I was still beginning to seek out and try to explore queer lit in so much as I could.

Terry Pratchett is, hands down, my favourite author, and though he doesn’t tend to write explicitly queer literature, his exploration of gender through allegory is top fucking tier. Everything to do with the dwarves in his series is fascinating, and a really great challenge/critique/exploration of gender, and this is the book that takes it to the next level (and brings in at least implicitly queer characters). It’s about Polly Perks, who lives in a small, war torn nation, choosing to join the army in order to find out what happened to her brother. However, as tradition dictates, she can’t join as a girl… so she disguises herself as Ozzer, a young man. There’s a lot of twists and turns, and as always Pratchett delivers fantastic humour and just absolutely delicious satire.

Day Nineteen: Queer Book That Changed Your Life

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson

This was the book that made me realize that I, as a queer teacher, could have queer kid lit in my future classroom. Maybe a comparatively small revelation, but a really important one to me. It made me realize that this didn’t need to be something I kept a secret in my professional life and which could really positively influence children, especially queer children. It was the first queer children’s book I ever bought.

Day Twenty: Favourite Queer Book Series

Candy Color Paradox by Isaku Natsume

Alright… I’ll admit it, this isn’t actually my favourite series, but I’ve used my favourites in other spots. And this is a good one! Definitely more of an actual “yaoi” than the other manga I’ve included (here there be sex) but it has a very different vibe that what I’m used to from that type of manga. The main pair are actually both capable, mature adults, with careers they actively care about, and who get together in the first volume!

The rest of the series is less about them angst-ily toeing around their relationship, and much more about them learning to grow as a couple and balance their work and relationship and society. It’s funny and sweet, and I really enjoy these two losers. It’s a very low-stakes enemy-to-friends-to-lovers story, in which Onoe (a reporter) and Kaburagi (a photographer) are paired up on a news story they’re supposed to dig into together. What starts as a bickering rivalry gradually becomes respect, friendship, and love~ Onoe is a gremlin of a protag, so he’s a treat to follow.

Day Twenty-One: Queer Book That You Recommend A Lot

Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller

To repeat myself: Linsey Miller is awesome! This is my favourite book of hers, the first of a duology. It’s kind of like an intense, edgy Tamora Pierce novel with murder. In this world, the Queen has a team of assassins known as the Left Hand. They’re an elite group that keeps the Queen safe and does the dirty work that needs to be done to protect the kingdom and keep the encroaching nations at bay. When the assassin Opal is killed, a contest is announced to find the new Opal. People from all over come to complete for the honour of being one of the Queen’s royal assassins, including gender-fluid thief Sallot Leon. Sal has some deep motivations to become Opal that go beyond a loyalty to their kingdom, but they’re going to have to survive their competitors if they even wants a chance at it… (Sal generally goes by either she or he in the books, but I’m using they in this instance since it’s in a more general sense.)

Day Twenty-Two: Queer Book That Made You Take Action

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

Uhh, I don’t really have any books that made me take action per se, but this one sure gave me a lot to think about. It’s about deep sea mermaids who originated from the pregnant slave women tossed into the ocean to drown during passage to North America. From those dying women, this race was born and were taken in by whales, raised and protected until they could descend into the deep ocean waters, to form their own safe society. Their collective past is so painful though that as a species they’ve developed a very short term memory. But a people can’t live without any ties to their roots and so one of them, the Historian, holds all the memories for their entire species and shares it with everyone once a year so that the community can be connected to their ancestors before once again returning the memories to the Historian for safe keeping. Yetu, the current Historian, is so overwhelmed by these memories, that she can no longer take it – she flees her people, her responsibilities, and her pain and escapes to the surface instead...

Day Twenty-Three: Queer Book By An Author Who I Killed Is Dead

Cybersix by Carlos Trillo

I cannot emphasize enough, this is not actually a queer comic, it is in fact a very homophobic, transphobic and sexist comic written by a horrible person.

That being said, he’s dead and I own it now the TV series was essentially about a genderqueer superhero and a very confused bi biology professor who has a crush on both personas. I had a passionate crush on both personas as a child, and I will cherrypick this comic until I die in order to enjoy the only kickass genderqueer/genderfluid noir antihero I’ve come across. I am valid and I am not open to debate or discussion. Do not read this comic it’s horrible (but consider watching the show).

Day Twenty-Four: Queer Book You Wish You’d Read When Younger

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

This is such an incredibly soft story with the nicest art. There’s so much understanding and compassion in it and its exploration of gender and self-confidence and being true to yourself would have been very reassuring to me as a child, especially by late elementary/middle school.

Day Twenty-Five: Queer Book In A Historical Setting

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

A retelling of Achilles’ and Patroclus’ relationship from childhood to the Trojan war. So yeah, you can imagine that this was also a candidate for Day 14 :’) I haven’t read this one in years but god it was lovely and emotionally destroyed me as a person.

Day Twenty-Six: Queer Superhero Book or Comic

Overwatch: Reflections by Michael Chu and Miki Montillo

I don’t really read superhero stories very often (the comics have always driven me a little bonkers, trying to find a way to enter the totally unapproachable Marvel/DC canons, and the MCU burnt me out years ago for every other sort of superhero story) so this is the closest I can get. Tracer’s a superhero yeah? Anyway, I, like every other queer person in the Overwatch fandom, lost my fucking mind when this dropped for Christmas a few years back and officially declared Lena Oxton not only the face of the entire franchise but also a lesbian. It’s an adorable little comic and Tracer’s girlfriend is a sweetheart.

Day Twenty-Seven: Favourite Queer Children’s Picture Book

Prince & Knight by Daniel Haack

There’s a number of sweet queer children’s books that are popping up these days, but this is my favourite just because it’s less about “explaining the gays to children” (though those books also have their place) and more of a cute little fantasy adventure in which the actual protagonist is gay. It’s about a prince who sets out to find himself a bride who can help rule by his side, but it quickly becomes clear that he isn’t interested in any of the girls. Instead, when a fire breathing dragon threatens his kingdom, he meets a brave knight who fights along side him. It’s very supportive and the art is lovely.

Day Twenty-Eight: Queer Book That Made You Feel Uncomfortable

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

This is a book with an asexual protagonist that I was originally really excited for. I know there are a lot of people out there who really enjoy this book and connected with it, but it didn’t do it for me. Maybe because my expectations were too high, but the protagonist’s experience with asexuality was vastly different than my own and the narrative voice ended up rubbing me wrong (and let’s be honest, slice-of-life romance is NOT my usual genre at all). So it’s not “made me uncomfortable because it’s Bad And Wrong” more just… totally vibed wrong with me. Maybe the perfect book for other people but definitely not for me, I had to return this one unfinished because it’s portrayal of asexuality just made me so deeply uncomfortable.

Day Twenty-Nine: Queer Book That Made You Want To Fall In Love

The Gentleman’s Guide To Vice And Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

This book had to make it on here somewhere, and honestly it could have gone in a lot of different spots, but I chose to put it here because the relationship between Monty and Percy is so incredibly sweet and authentic it really does make you want something like that. TGGTVAV (for anyone who has somehow not heard of it) takes place in the 18th century, and is about Monty, his best friend (and crush) Percy, and his sister Felicity going on a final “hurrah” tour of Europe before Monty's father finally tries to pin him down in England and force every part of Monty that’s deemed “unacceptable” out of him. So Monty intends to live this summer up… until everything goes off the rail and the three of them are suddenly fleeing across the continent with assassins at their heels and a strange, stolen artifact in their possession.

Monty has a lot of growing to do in this novel, and that’s one of my favourite things about it. For his and Percy’s relationship to ever have a chance, Monty needs to learn and change and actually communicate with other people, and it makes the relationship feel strong. Not a fluffy, surface level romance that often happens in YA but something built from the ground up by two friends who really want to make it work. Ahh, it’s lovely. One of my favourite novels.

Day Thirty: Queer Book With Your Favourite Ending

My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame

A two-book manga series that was completely stunning. It deals with queer relationships and homophobia in a very stark, real-world manner that you don’t often get in manga, while still being incredibly loving and sympathetic. The book is about Yaichi, a single father whose estranged brother (Ryoji) recently died. One day, a Canadian named Mike arrives, introducing himself as Ryoji’s widower. Mike had come hoping to visit his late husband’s homeland to try to get some closure, and Yaichi ends up inviting Mike to stay. The whole story looks Japan’s societal biases, through Mike’s experiences, Yaichi’s thoughts, feelings and prejudices, and those of his daughter who adores Mike.

Seriously, this is one of the kindest, most earnest looks I’ve ever seen to internal prejudices that critiques them without demonizing the person who feels them. Instead it lovingly embraces grief, growth, and love. This series made me cry multiple times, was good enough that even my straight brother practically ordered me to go out and buy the second book when he finished the first, and the ending was just *chef’s kiss*

Honourable Mentions

A few books I really wanted to fit on my list somehow but couldn’t quite manage it, so here: All Out an anthology of historical fiction short stories about queer teens. The Tea Dragon Society series and Princess Princess Ever After, graphic novels by the amazingly talented Katie O’Neill. Heartstopper a webcomic turn graphic novel by Alice Oseman about a pair of rugby players. The Different Dragon a cute picture book in which the boy has two moms and which is about accepting different ways of being. And Lady Knight a part of Tamora Pierce’s Protector of the Small series because because Kel is word-of-god aro(and/or ace) and I’ve adored that series and Kel since I was about thirteen so by god I’ll take it.

Now for those that wanted to do their own challenge, I found it on @gailcarriger’s blog.

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chimtaera · 4 years

Text

imagine model namjoon.

ok let’s not kid ourselves

boy’s already a model

he’s got the body.

got the looks.

what can i say, he’s no super model (too clumsy), but he get’s around with the more diverse castings yanno

probably got started on instagram,

with his #kimdaily outfits

which are sometimes just chill, pretty, sporty, casual, cool

and other times completely wacky and just ??? how did you even think to wear those ??? at the same time?? together ???

he always looks good tho

but some looks will give you whiplash. ur warned.

but that’s part of his appeal tbh

hhhh probably gains a lot of popularity when one of those more ‘out there’ outfits circulates on twitter or reddit and people are like “hOW does he make that work??? why does it look good??? is he just that hot??”

the answer is yes.

from there he builds a solid following.

for his great looks, great fashion sense, and his 4am instagram stories that are just a black pic with like a three paragraph text about how rain might feel if it had feelings.

also, solid music recommendations omg

you probably make ur own spotify playlist with just his recommendations.

ok ok so you best bELIEVE when this boy finally gets cast for a show he’s gonna fall on his ass and go viral

claim to fame baby

probably becomes a meme and rolls with it tbh

like he’ll share the memes in his story, so as not to ruin the ・ﾟ:*aesthetic*:・ﾟand react to them and shit

but then also get on live and talk at length about how faceplanting on the catwalk impacts your self-esteem, how he’s habit he could benefit positively from such an embarrassing moment, and how there’s a lesson for everyone here, and that he hopes all our embarrassing moments may in some way benefit us one day.

he’s such a sweetheart im-

so you might be a stylist?

a hair stylist?

makeup artist?

fellow model?

whatever you’re comfortable with.

you definitely see him on instagram first tho

you came for the memes but are super impressed with his profile and end up staying for the music.

...... and him.

he’s hot, come on.

also 90% of networking is done on instagram these days let us be real.

okay so oNE DAY, or like late evening, who cares

he post a music recommendation and you’re like !!!!!!!!

it’s that low key indie band with like only one EP out that you found on some obscure spotify playlist and you’ve been jamming to since october

and apparently namjoon has too because they’ve released a new single and you didn’t even know ????

and you’re so excited your fingers slip and oopsie you’ve sent a short but rambling message explaining exactly that into his DM’s

instant regret.

then the anxiety bubbles up in you.

and then you calm yourself and convince yourself that he gets a LOT of messages he probably won’t even see yours, so it’s fine it’s fine it’s-

next morning you have a reply

a new follow

and a mcfUCKING LIKE ON A PICTURE OF YOU FROM TWO WEEKS AGO

yikes, you didn’t even have time to give your feed a spring cleaning

you just like his short “ikr!!!!”, too mortified to reply.

alas, the regrets!

but also

the butterflies.

then you see him at an event one time.

it’s fashion week, you’re hecking busy and about to leave because it’s like midnight and you’ve got places to be tomorrow

but it’s always so strange to see people from insta irl like ??? all those dimensions??? you really be lookign like that ??? damn.

once you’ve stared long enough to be certain that’s actually what he looks like (so handome!!! so tall!!!! wtf!!!! who allowed this??) you turn to leave just as he glances up and cetches your eye for like the tiniest fraction of a second

and you hightail it outta there and hope to heaven he doesn’t know you were staring.

but he likes your pic from the party the next morning and you almost choke on your coffee and the lump in your throat stays there all day

and you’re like, am i?? catching feelings ??? for the catwalk faceplant guy??? you’ve never even talked to the man smh

he’s fucking hot tho.

so, fashion week ends and with it comes another party

you can finally relax, celebrate, wind down from the long week.

yA THOUGHT lmao

you’re talking to some designer about their next project and they’re going on about this instagram dude who’s already on board when they start waving someone over like “hey hey, there he is, y/n have you met kim namjoon yet?”

you turn around you’re like !!!!! fuck. he’s so much taller up close.

“hey, no, yeah, no, but i’ve seen you on, uh, on instagram. i think.” smooth, y/n.

after introductions, the designer gets pulled along into some other conversation and you and namjoon are kinda awkward for a minute.

you just sip your drink like ‘fuck fuck fuckfuck fuck aaaaaaa’

but then he asks you easy questions about what you do and what you’ve been working on this week and it’s the same thing you’ve been talking about with everyone you’ve met this week so it goes pretty smoothly

he makes it easy for you, like he’s very attentive, nods along enthusiastically asking follow-up questions and seems genuinely interested in your work it’s so nice! he’s so nice!

and you ask him the same things you’ve asked everyone else this week like you haven’t seen everything on his instagram already.

actually you’ve missed a few things since you’ve been so busy and your interest is genuine, before you know it the two of you are at a table and getting along like a house on fire, showing each other pics from the week.

he asks you send him a pic from one of the shows he didn’t get to see and when he do he’s sees your old messages and is like ?? oh !!

i mean, he totally knew it was you, but he had forgotten the part about that obscure indie band and the new single, so he shows you!

you’ve been following them even closer since then so you know they’re playing a gig in like two weeks and you tell him.

turns out he’s missed this info because of fashion week and he’s super excited!! you guys have to go together!!!¨

“i mean, we don’t have to- it’s just, i don’t know anyone else who listens to them, i could probably go alone, but, you know, it would be cool-”

and of course you’ll go with him, so you two exchange numbers and end up texting the next two weeks.

at first you’re just making tentative plans to meet and go to to the gig, but then there’s a gallery opening the same day, and you know this realy good thrift shop nearby that he should check out, and you guys should get dinner before because namjoon knows this really cool place and-

and it’s a date.

namjoon has every intention to kiss you that night after the gig, but he wants to ask you first and he’s not sure exactly how so he’s just like “um ??? can i ??? uhhh ?? do you ??? uh”

and ur like, “hey, namjoon, i really want u to kiss me, please?”

the rest is history.

you two are too cute, with your instagram aesthetic and lowkey couple outfits, and highkey couple pics, i’d follow.

you two would be gOALS, and it does wonders for both your careers tbh

omg imagine all the cool collaborations you two could do.

and eventually namjoon would go viral again when the paparazzi captures him spilling his coffee and your cute reaction.

but the best thing about dating model namjoon is he makes you your very own playlist.

and you get your very own story highlight with all the aesthetic pics he snaps of you just like buying milk and stealing his fries, and exploring the city on sundays afternoons, going vintage shopping and reading in the park, titled: “bae.” with every colour heart.

hyping each other in the comments always.

and the thirst omg

anyway, nsfw under the cut.

so you take it kinda slow at first because turns out namjoon has a huge crush on you and he lowkey can’t keep his hands off you but also wants to “date you properly”, whatever that means.

props to you if you get impatient with him and tease him a little, a thirst trap here, a netflix and chill there, sending a sexy song his way, or even better post it on your story for him to see.

if it doesn’t provoke him to action it’ll at least get him hard flustered, which is cute.

in the end joon is a soft boy and you can sit up all night talking, so you end up talking about sex long before having it.

and that just makes it all the more special tbh

and when it does happen, it’s like everything else the two of you do, a little awkward at first, a little clumsy, fumbly, but a lot of fun, and it’s namjoon, and you love namjoon. so, so much.

like it doesn’t matter if he accidentally bumps your nose, because he’ll apologise and the two of you will just giggle and continue.

and he might pull your hair on accident, but that way you can admit to him that it’s.. kinda hot.

and when your teeth collide when you kiss it’s only because any amount of distance between you quickly becomes unbearable, and you both need each other so, so much.

imagine slow, lazy sunday morning snuggle fuck with namjoon.

and then later when you’re on a blanket in the park reading both your books he’ll get distracted, thinking about it, lean in close and tell you something ridiculous like he wishes you would wake him up by sitting on his face.

and imagine backstage heavy petting after a show, leaving the afterparty early, because you’re both buzzing with unrelieved tension and namjoon is very hard in his pants, pressing himself against you as you try to have a polite conversation with some influencer.

love, love, loooooves, watching you ride.

and he’ll go down on you for hours if you let him, honestly.

anytime, anywhere tbh

how did you get so lucky?

#namjoon smut #namjoon scenario #namjoon #namjoon imagine #bts scenarios #bts smut #BTS au #bts imagines #bts reactions #kpop smut #kpop scenarios #kpop reactions #kpop imagines

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albatris · 4 years

Note

Hey hello I sent in an anon about starting tarot a while ago (I do not know when I know it was post quarantine starting but...time is wild) and i was wondering if you answered it? This isn't at all me trying to pressure you please please don't read it that way, i totally get it if you didn't! I just know that tumblr's search function is very broke and I'm scared I missed your answer, which would be sad. (I hope this doesn't sound like a bother it's genuinely all good if not I'm just checking!)

YES oh my gosh holy shit hello hi yes hi anon my dear I did in fact completely fucking forget to actually answer your original ask I am so sorry lmao

thank you for reminding me ajhdfgjhsdfg and again I’m so sorry it took me forever anyway I’m gonna just uhhhh look up your original ask real quick

OKAY so resources and starting decks! there are lots and lots of people who know more than me so I feel a little unqualified to answer this but I can tell you my thoughts?? but I definitely recommend looking into what other folks have to say on starting out, I’m sure there are lots of different opinions and ideas! :D

also sorry, it’s me you’re asking, so you’re not gonna get nice neat dot points and I’m not great at being concise, I’m just going to ramble if that’s ok, very sorry, very sorry

under the cut rambles

so........................

for learning meanings........ it’s a lot of work, there’s a lot of detail and a lot of different things to think about during readings, I’ve been learning tarot for around seven years on and off and I still don’t remember everything!

so IMO it’s best not to come at tarot with the intent to Learn Everything before you start! it’s the perfect thing to learn as you go! my advice would be to just kinda throw yourself in. when you first get a deck, go through the cards and vibe with them some and look at their meanings, but mostly just kinda contemplate them, don’t try to memorise everything at once. start doing readings, look stuff up as you go............. I would recommend keeping a journal where you document your readings............ which will help you with memory and picking up on patterns and connections....... uhhhh

I really like using apps as a companion as well! they can be a super good resource even if you don’t want to use them FOR readings necessarily

I use Galaxy Tarot as a convenient way to look up meanings and summaries of the cards when I just need to kinda jog my memory (though the descriptions aren’t super detailed), and it has a function where you can either do a reading with the app or you can do a reading yourself and then plug the cards you’ve drawn into the app, and it can help you with pointing out recurring themes and symbols and connections between the cards, which can be handy when you’re first starting out and maybe feel a little overwhelmed by the Amount Of Information you’re trying to take in

uhhhh another one I’ve used in the past is Labyrinthos Tarot, which is an app to help you learn and memorise the cards and their meanings., from what I can remember there are sorta, games and exercises to help with it, I forget exactly how it works since it’s been a while since I used it! but maybe that’s a good one to check out too?

I feel like apps is something i should’ve mentioned at the end but anyway moving on to the rest of it

most decks will come with a guidebook of some sort! so you’ve got the traditional rider waite tarot deck (which is probably the default deck most people think of when they think of tarot), and there are plenty of resources online such as Biddy Tarot which can give you a fairly detailed rundown of the card meanings! these meanings can be applied to variations of the rider waite cards, but lots of decks are a little wild and a little funky and are off doing their own thing while still following the basic rider waite structure, and if you receive a guidebook with a deck, that’s definitely an invaluable resource!! ‘cause it’ll give you the artist’s kinda interpretation and their meanings, their own personal touch, even if you then look up the card in more detail online

ALSO tarot is just a whole fuckin tonne about intuition as well though! so as much as it can feel like something where you need to focus on all the details and try and keep them all rigid and by-the-book, you might do a reading and feel yourself drawn in a certain different direction or just get a “feeling”, so you should definitely be open and flexible and listen to what your gut tells you as far as meanings go! plus, you will develop your own relationship to the cards and maybe draw your own personal meanings and associations! that’s definitely not something to fight against and don’t worry about whether that means you’re doing it “wrong” - you should listen to those feelings, those r important!! :D

lastly I will say, it can be helpful to have someone who is more experienced with tarot around who you feel you can ask for advice from or get second opinions from if there’s something you’re confused about! or who can give you tips and tricks from firsthand experience. like, it doesn’t have to be something you learn alone, and having a teacher or companion can be really helpful in terms of bouncing ideas and getting new perspectives! I throw this out there because I always forget to say things like this, ‘cause I forget that other people Are Not Me and other people like being around people lmao rip

and as far as starting decks go........... it really depends so much on what you want and what’s important to you! some people will say start with the traditional rider waite tarot, and if you decide to do that, you will certainly have a lot of resources at your disposal! it’s a valid place to start for sure

but there’s also SO many different decks out there with all sorts of themes and art and personality, and IMO......... I’d kinda urge you in the direction of choosing something you’re personally interested in and engaged with! it can make connecting with a deck easier and can help you stay interested and engaged during learning! but that’s just me

when I got my first deck the lady in the store kinda just took me to the collection of decks and just asked me which ones I vibed with and which one kinda called out to me or one I was drawn to, then she let me take a look at some of them and she showed me how to handle them and use them!! this was my first experience, n I was told just to go with what Feels Good And Right

n there’s so much cool art out there! and many interesting themes! you might not know which one you’ll latch onto until you see it, so take some time to look around and see what speaks to you c:

for instance, certain themes like cats or flowers, certain art styles, maybe certain series you’re into (I have two welcome to night vale decks n the raven’s prophecy by maggie stiefvater), or queer friendly decks! I have the Numinous Tarot which I ADORE, which is a deck with gorgeous artwork and extremely queer, all gender neutral language and lots of diverse designs, etc

so it depends what you’re into! take some time to feel it out, my friend

I would also like to throw out a mention to oracle decks as well! I actually started with oracle decks long before I used any tarot decks c:

I am................... very tired. and blanking on the best way to explain the difference between oracle and tarot decks, but you can look into this if you’re interested! lots of people use both or use them in conjunction with each other and there’s benefits to both n so on and so forth........

but in terms of Starting Out, and getting comfy with doing readings? they can also be really helpful in this regard! I found since oracle decks can have any number of cards and are less “structured” than tarot decks in a way, it can be really helpful as a way to get comfortable with things if you find, just, the Amount Of Detail that is involved in tarot decks overwhelming!!

it was something that helped me get the ~feel~ of doing readings and sensing with the cards and vibin and such, n get some practice drawing connections between cards and deriving meanings from the stories the cards present! but in a way that’s not quite as...... overwhelming?? as traditional tarot decks?? I was SUPER intimidated by just how extensive tarot decks were when I first started and I thought I’d never figure out what I was doing HAHAHA

but again, it’s just practice, I think!

where tarot will follow the same 78 cards and structure and is very traditional and I guess “rigid” is not exactly the right word?? but yeah?? oracle decks are a lot more flexible in what they represent and a lot more loose in the structures they can take

I do love oracle decks because of how varied they are!! each one is its own little system and its own unique universe and it’s really quite lovely, even if you aren’t into Actually Doing Readings with them, y’know?

but then, I find tarot decks the same way, what will all the different art styles and different people’s interpretations and renditions of the same story, like, it’s really fascinating!!

this has just turned into me rambling about how cool they are now

point is, do a little research into what sorts of decks and themes you might like to buy, when you get a chance I thoroughly recommend visiting a store so you can speak to someone who has some experience with tarot decks, they can help guide you when it comes to picking one and giving you some tips!! remember that it’s about intuition and following your gut as much as it is about memory and precision, so you should pick a deck that Feels Right

and uhhhhhhhhhhh

just kinda throw yourself in!! that’s literally my best advice!! you’re never gonna memorise everything beforehand (I’ve been learning on and off for seven years and I still often have to consult guidebooks and webpages) but you WILL absolutely learn as you go

it might feel very clumsy starting out, but as with any craft, you will improve with practice and begin to feel more comfy and confident with it as you go!

I hope this helped out some!! maybe!! possibly!!!!! ok goodnight!!!

#Anonymous #important caveat is that ive kinda just #been vibin on my own for most of my learning so i feel like #maybe there will be things i do that are not necessarily the ''right'' way or the common way or i might be #a little inexperienced and all #but i think it's also very personal and you'll find a way of doing things that works for u #in other words I Have No Idea If I Sound Like A Complete Dumbass when i talk about tarot #HAHAHAHA #anyway ok i hope this maybe gave you........ something...........? to work with #again i am so sorry i dont know how to be concise honestly i could have probably explained this in like #3 paragraphs #i can only hope u were aware of my rambling tendencies before u sent this and knew what u were in for lmaoo

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rmg91 · 5 years

Text

The Woes and Antics of Living Together-12

So here's a bit I've been waiting to write! It fought me a little but I think it turned out in the end c: Also sorry for any inaccuracies for the main thing this chapter's about, I did what research I could but sometimes real life experience is better for things and well...I haven't gotten a tattoo yet XD Oops? Did I just give away what happens? Guess you'll have to read and find out ;)

Enjoy!

Previous Chapter/Next Chapter; AO3/FF.net

@writerofberk The next chapter is out and Branch is a good (boy)friend to Poppy!

~*~*~*~*~*~

Poppy sat in the park one bright and clear afternoon a few days later, scrapbook laid out in front of her as she cut out decorative pieces of paper out. The last few days had been spent silently arguing with Branch by trading his shirt back and forth. She'd had given back, as much as she had really wanted to keep it, and the next day found it laying on her bed. When confronted, Branch reiterated that he had said it was fine if she kept it. Except it clearly wasn't as he wouldn't even look at her when he said it! So the two had been shuffling it back and forth and she was gonna make sure he kept it or so help her-! Taking a deep breath, she was out here scrapbooking as a stress relief after all, the pinkette tapped her phone to play some music as she mused what to do with the current page.

It wasn't long before she was pulled from her musings with a shout of her name, “Poppy!”

Looking up, she grinned at the sight of her friends coming over, “Hey, guys! What's up?”

“Look who's here!” Satin crooned, pulling one teal haired, extreme sports expert over.

“Oh my gosh!” Poppy squealed, jumping up for a hug, “Ripley! Hey!”

“Hey yourself, Popstar~” Ripley greeted with a wink.

Ripley Turner was a twenty-three year old extreme sport enthusiast and an old high-school friend of the Snack Pack. She made a living off of blogs about all the various sports and activities she did and in turn got to travel the world. It was a rare event for her to decide to show up in Bergenville.

“What you doing here?” Poppy asked excitedly.

Ripley smirked and nudged Satin, “Came to see my favorite designer of course~” Satin blushed and giggled as Chenille rolled her eyes, “And her equally cool sister.”

“Thanks, Ripley.” The older twin said with a bit of sass before sitting by Poppy. Prompting Guy, Suki, Smidge and Biggie to do the same.

Before Poppy could ask anything else, Satin was bouncing up and down, “Oooh~! Show her!”

“Show me what?”

Ripley chuckled and turned to raise a bit of her tank up, “Check it!” She had revealed a new tattoo, one of many, of a pink scaled mermaid with teal hair cradling a large gem stone.

“Wooow.” Poppy awed before grinning at the older woman, “Very nice.”

The conversation moved on from there to some of Ripley's adventures and on goings. She had been surfing down in the tropics and was heading to the mountains next to do some free climbing. Of course, she first had to come to the Couture twins, or rather Satin, before speeding off to her next quest. Poppy insisted they have a little party and go clubbing before she had to leave to which Ripley happily agreed. It was after that, she and Satin went to go skateboarding leaving the rest of the group to chat.

Once they were gone, Chenille slumped on the table and buried her head in her arms with a groan. The rest the Pack chuckled sympathetically as Biggie patted her back. It was well known throughout their group how much Chenille put up with when the sporty woman was around.

“I love Ripley, I do! And I know Satin does too,” She groaned, “But I am not looking forward to the post Ripley Departure depression.”

“Don't worry, Chenille.” Biggie consoled, “We'll help cheer Satin up, like always.”

“Yeah, we've gotten pretty good at it.” Smidge boasted, “Isn't that right, Poppy?”

“Yeah, uh-huh,” Poppy distractedly replied, phone held steady in her hands as she looked at pictures.

Suki leaned over her shouldered and chuckled, “She's scrolling again.”

“I'm gonna do it this time, you guys. I mean it!” Poppy had decided a long time ago she had wanted a tattoo and seeing the newest one of Ripley's had made her determined to finally commit to have an image forever etched into her skin. If only she could choose something! There were so many great choices! Hearts, butterflies, cats, pride symbols, fish, mermaids, she could even get one of her little troll-self if she wanted! She just couldn't decide and it was driving her crazy!

Guy laughed lightly, “We've all heard that one before. What are the choices this time?”

“Uugg! Too many!” And the pinkette folded onto the table to groan into her scrapbook, “Help me.”

“Well...” Biggie started, looking pensive, “Perhaps you should first choose what category you'd want? Cute, fancy, abstract. Something with words maybe?”

“Yeah!” Smidge cheered, “You could get something with your fave lyrics!”

“With some music notes! Or a guitar?” Suki suggested.

“Perhaps maybe something immortalizing someone special?” Guy prompted, “Like Fuzzbert.”

Poppy groaned again, those were all such great ideas! She loved music but deciding on favorite lyrics? She loved too many different songs to choose just one. She liked the music note idea but thought they'd really go best with some lyrics. She loved her cat but immortalizing him on her skin...didn't feel right. “I don't knoooooow....”

“Oh!” Chenille exclaimed, “Why not get one of those cupid hearts? With the arrow going through it?” She then giggled, “With yours and Creek's names in it?”

Poppy looked up at Chenille, blush dusting her cheeks, “Oh...That's...good...” She didn't hate that idea, “But...Creek and I aren't actually together yet. I donno if I should...”

“You so should!” Cheered Chenille, the rest of their friends nodding in agreement, “It'd be so romantic.”

“And maybe then he'd finally ask out for real!” Added Smidge.

“And you could live happily ever after~” Cooed Biggie.

“Well....” Poppy bit her lip to keep herself from smiling too much. Smidge had a point, maybe it'd be the final push for Creek to finally ask her to be his girlfriend.

“You know you want to, Pops...” Needled Suki, elbowing her.

“Oh yes. You so do.” Added Guy, smirking.

Poppy whined low in her throat before crying out, “Okay, okay! I do! I want to do that idea!” She giggled happily as her friends cheered, “Think you guys can help me keep it a secret until I get it? Oh! I should ask him to come with me when I get it!”

“Yes!”

“Totally!”

“Okay!” Poppy said with determination, “I'll ask Creek to come with me when I get my first tattoo but first...Help me design it?”

~*~*~*~*~*~

“You're going to do what?!”

Poppy rolled her eyes at Branch's expected reaction to hearing she was getting a tattoo. She had brought it up while they did the dishes that evening. Although she hadn't told him what she was getting yet, she wanted it to be kept as secret as it could before she actually got it. Not that she thought Branch would go and ruin the surprise to Creek, she just wanted to keep the final design to herself until she got it. Plus Branch always got so weird whenever she talked about Creek and she just had a feeling he'd be even more adamant she not get it once he heard who she was getting it for.

Branch couldn't believe Poppy wanted to do something so ridiculous and irresponsible...Okay he could, she'd done things like that before but a tattoo?! That was permanent! It be with her for the rest of her life! Didn't she know all the risks involved?! Then of course there was the question of what if she changed her mind? She could never change it or remove it! It was a terrible idea.

“Poppy.” He said seriously, looking her in the eye, “Don't you know what bad idea this is?! It's permanent! You can never get it removed! What if the artist does a terrible job, hmm? What if you flinch and gets ruined? What if they don't sterilize the needles correctly and you get an infection?!” He waved his hands around, “This isn't like the time you drew cupcakes all over yourself and then hour later changed them to kittens! You can't change your mind once it's there! Have you thought of that?!”

Huffing, Poppy crossed her arms and stared at her worry-wort of a roommate, “Branch. I've thought about this for a year, this isn't a random decision made on a whim. Also the artist I'm going to is very well recommended so I doubt there's any reason to worry about it getting messed up or infected.” She smirked at him, “And I am not going to change my mind. I know what I want.”

The dark haired man rolled his eyes, “You say that now.”

“I mean it,” Poppy pouted, “Plus I can always get another if I do want something different. So I'm getting this, wither you approve or not.”

Branch frowned, “Fine. Just don't blame me when you regret this. I warned you.” He then turned to go to his room.

“I'm not gonna regret this!” Poppy called after him after she stuck her tongue out at him. She wasn't, her design was perfect.

~*~*~*~*~*~

A few days later found Poppy pacing and fidgeting across the street from the tattoo parlor she'd chosen as she waited for Creek to show up. While she was certain she wanted this, she couldn't help but be a little nervous about it. She had always thought having one would be cool and had gone back and forth with getting it throughout most of high school but just hadn't gone through with it. It honestly hadn't been since the last year that she had seriously thought about it and had been looking at ideas. And she knew this was going to be with her forever and that it could hurt but Poppy wasn't going to let that, or paranoid roommate's, stop her.

Checking her phone for the time and wondering where her not-quite boyfriend was, the pinkette sort of wished the rest of the Pack, or at least maybe Suki or Smidge, was there with her. They had all decided to make themselves busy with work or other obligations so she could be here with only Creek as to not get in the way of any official asking out. Poppy loved that they did that but she really wanted some company right now. For moral support.

She sighed and was about to steer herself into the parlor when her phone beeped. Jumping slightly, she pulled it back out to see a text from Creek.

'Can't make it, Love. Apologies.'

Oh...

Poppy unconsciously pouted, disappointed he wasn't coming but was sure he had a good reason. He always did. But now she was going to have to get her first tattoo by herself and she wasn't so sure she wanted to do that. But all her friends were busy... Well everyone except Branch, who was actually off today but was against her gong through with this. Biting her lip and bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet, Poppy decided to give it a chance anyway and poked at Branch's contact in her phone. If he said no, as he probably would, she'd go in anyway! She was Poppy Meadows and she never backed down!

“What?” Branch's bored voice echoed from the phone.

“Will you come join me?! Creek can't make it and everyone else is busy!” Poppy said in a rush, her nervous energy making her talk fast, “Pleeease, Branch? I'll do anything if you go with me! Bake your favorite dessert, cook dinner, not sing or play pop music for an entire night! I know you don't want me to do this but I really want a little moral support, please?!”

She waited with bated breath before she heard him sigh, “Fine...Where are you?”

Poppy jumped up and down, her bracelets jingling, “Thank you, thank you, thank you! Ooooh~ I'm so gonna hug you when you get here! No question!” Giggling a little she spun in place before telling Branch where she was, “See you soon~!”

“Yeah, yeah...”

~*~*~*~*~*~

It luckily only took Branch about twenty minutes to find the place Poppy was waiting at, finding her dancing in nervous excitement. He still couldn't believe she was going through with this, tattoo's were a big deal! He hoped whatever design she had was something she wouldn't mind having forever because he had looked up just how difficult it was to change certain ones. He also couldn't believe he'd agreed to be her moral support. Where were all her wonderful friends? Shouldn't they be here to cheer her on with this horrible decision? They were probably the cause of this was happening in the first place and-No. No. Branch mentally scolded himself because he knew, deep down, the Snack Pack were all good people who just supported Poppy the same why she supported them. And if he continued down that thought path he'd inevitably insult them in someway this afternoon and that would upset Poppy. Which was something he didn't want to deal with today if he could help it because he hated feeling guilty.

Approaching her, he made to say something but she noticed him first and hugged him without warning, “Oh my glitter! Thank you again!”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay! Get off!” He cried, pushing her away, “Let's just go get your horrible life choice over.”

Poppy stuck her tongue out at him, “Don't be such a spoil-sport. Come on!” She grabbed his hand and pulled him across the street and into the shop.

A little bell twinkled as Poppy pushed open the door and dragged Branch inside before looking around with awe. Shops like this never stopped to amaze her since they could be so different from other places. A glass front counter sat on the right with the register, displays of knick-knacks and pictures of past and favorite customers on the shelves. All around the shop were displays of the varying designs that this shop offered and more pictures of amazing and complicated tattoos. There were also displays around the shop holding the choices for multiple different body piercings, something else this particular shop offered. Last but not least was a curtained off area in the back where the chairs and supplies sat, waiting to be used.

As Poppy and Branch looked around by the entrance, a tall, statuesque red haired woman with tattoos all down her arms and across her chest came out from behind the curtain, where a buzzing sound could be heard, “Hey. Welcome. What can I do for you today?”

“Hi!” Poppy enthusiastically greeted, hopping up to the counter with a grin, “I was looking to get a tattoo today.”

The woman chuckled at Poppy's excitement, “Alright.” She turned to the nearby computer and started typing, “Do you have anything in mind? Or are you choosing from our collection today?”

“I-um...I have a design.” Poppy giggled, a light blush staining her cheeks as she pulled out the sketch Chenille had helped her draw. A large red heart with an arrow going through it and her name and Creek's done it fancy cursive. It even had a few colorful flowers and music notes peppered around for fun. She handed it over for the other woman to see.

The employee took a look at it with a grimace, “Ah...”

“Is-is something wrong with it?”

“No.” She was quick to assure, “It's just...tattoo's like this can be....regretted later on more often than not. What if you and you're boyfriend,” Her eyes flashed briefly to Branch, who was wandering the store, “Break up?”

“Oh!” Poppy waved a hand over her shoulder, “That's my roommate. As for my...boyfriend I don't think we'll break up.” Well, once they were actually together that was, “He's amazing.”

“Ah, well,” The worker shrugged, “Customer's always right.” She then placed the sketch by the scanner and continued typing, “Should be about fifteen minutes until the artist's free.”

Poppy nodded with a smile before looking around the shop some more. Finding a book of examples on the counter, she began flipping through, interested in seeing what else could be done. Humming a little tune, she saw lots of interesting ideas, including some that she thought fit her friends perfectly. Maybe she could convince them to get a tattoo one day, they could even get matching ones! Flipping the next page, Poppy suddenly paused, eyes being drawn to a sun design, the wavy rays stretching outward. It almost looked like the sun symbol from Tangled and Poppy couldn't help but be interested in it.

“Excuse me?” She asked pointing to the design, “How much would this one be?”

The red head looked over, “About the same.” She smiled kindly at Poppy, “Do you want a few minutes to decide if you'd rather want that one? I don't have to scan this yet.”

“Um...” Poppy bit her lip before nodding. She had really wanted the one for her and Creek but now...she wasn't so sure.

Meanwhile Branch was looking around the various displays and wondering just why people got some of these images permanently inked onto their skin. Some were just plain weird and questionable. Then there were the body piercing choices, some of which looked extremely painful. Although he did see one particular little charm that had just sung Poppy to him and he was eternally grateful she wasn't getting a belly button piecing as he wasn't quite sure what he'd do with that knowledge.

Branch was about to turn and rejoin Poppy at the register when she came rushing over, grabbing onto his arm and looking torn, “What's wrong?”

“I....Well...” Poppy stalled before explaining, “I was looking through this book of choices they have upfront and I saw a design I really like and now I don't know what to get! Help?!”

Branch sighed, of course something like this would happen, this was why he told her not to do it. At least she was having this issue now before she was sitting down with the needle about to pierce her skin, “I thought you wanted the design you and your friends came up with?”

“Our friends. And I did-Do! I just....” She bit her lip and Branch had to focus hard on not wanting to cup her face and stop her from doing so, “I saw this sun design and it reminded of Tangled and I really, really like it cause I can totally see it on me and I feel like it's calling to me but then if I do, I'll disappoint everyone by not getting the one we worked on!”

“Poppy.” Branch said, placing his hands on her shoulders and looking her in the eye, “As much as I disapprove of this, it's your body. This thing will be with you forever, get something you know you want. Your friends will understand and if they don't, it's their problem not yours. Get this sun if you want it so badly and wait and get this mystery design some other time.”

Poppy opened her mouth to reply before really thinking about Branch just said. He did have a point, there wasn't anything stopping her from coming back and getting another one. And now that she thought about it maybe she should wait to get the one for Creek until after they were together. It could be an anniversary present of something! She smiled up at Branch, eyes twinkling, “You're right. I can always get the other one some other time. Thanks~”

Branch gulped and forced the blush threatening to rise down when she thanked him, “Don't mention it. Really.” He pulled back and crossed his arms, “I still think this is a bad idea.”

“Too bad~” She winked at him, “You just said it's my body and I can do want I want with it.” And with a giggle, she went back to the front counter to confirm the design she wanted.

About ten minutes later the buzzing in the back stopped and a two men stepped out. One shook the other's hand before waving to the red head as he exited. The other man, one with even more tattoo's than the woman, was burly with short shaved haired and multiple piercings including one in his lip. While his outer appearance almost screamed 'bad guy' there was a kind look in his blue eyes. He grinned at the woman warmly, “Alright, Rita. Anyone else?”

Rita smirked and gestured to Poppy, “Right here.”

“Hey! How ya doin'?” The man gave his hand to Poppy to shake, “Name's Alex.”

“Poppy.”

Alex grinned and shoved his hands in his pockets, “So getting a tat today, are you? First one?” At Poppy's nod he laughed joyously, “Then you came to right place. This way, little lady.”

As she and Branch followed his toward the back, Poppy asked, “Would it be alright if we filmed a little bit of the process for my vlog?”

“Go right ahead! I'm always happy to share the artistry.” Alex said, sitting in a rolling chair and pointing Poppy toward another chair as Rita handed him a few pieces of paper. He rolled over to sit in front of Poppy as she handed her purse to Branch, “So getting a sun today, huh?” The artist grinned as Poppy giggled and nodded, “Seems like a fitting choice. So what size were ya thinkin'?”

Poppy and Alex talked logistics about the tattoo for a little while, size and where she wanted it. They also spoke about how she wanted it colored and Alex suggested making it variegate from yellow in the center to orange in the rays with a dark red/orange outline. Poppy agreed with the idea so Alex had her turn in the chair and rest her arms on an arm rest while he marked out the position on her left shoulder blade. Poppy had already decided that's where she had wanted it and had worn a halter top to make things easier. Once Alex confirmed the place for it with Poppy he pasted the template on her skin, transferring the outline before rolling over to gather the needles and ink.

Poppy grinned up at Branch, who had been watching somewhat impressed at how thorough Alex was with his questions and suggestions, “Hey? Grab my camera from my purse and start filming? Please?”

Sighing, Branch rolled his eyes, “I still don't understand your need to vlog everything.” But he still grabbed the smaller camera from her purse and fiddled with it to turn it on.

Alex rolled back over, bringing a tray with ink, wipes and the needles necessary for the process before attaching the first needle to the machine. He smiled and asked, “Okay, ready?”

Poppy took a deep breath and tried to relax her shoulders before holding out a hand to Branch. She looked up at him with pleading, amber eyes and after a second, he gave her his to hold tightly as he filmed with his free hand. At her nod, Alex turned on the machine and began drawing.

It surprisingly didn't hurt as much as Poppy had expected and she was pleasantly surprised when it was announced she had the first few lines done. The rest of the time Alex took to do the outline, he talked to her and Branch, asking questions on what they did and such. Rita eventually joined them, leaning against a wall and helping to distract Poppy from what little pain she did feel. Soon enough Alex proclaimed the outline done as he wiped away excess ink. Once done, he switched the needles and dipped it into the yellow ink before he began to color.

~*~*~*~*~*~

All in all it took perhaps not quite two hours with the little waiting they did and the time it took for Poppy and Alex to talk about what she wanted before her new tattoo was done. Alex finished wiping all the excess ink off before pulling back and declaring it finished before pulling over a mirror to help Poppy see it. She exclaimed it was perfect and thanked him profusely before he bandaged it up and gave her a pamphlet on aftercare.

“Thank you again soo much~!” Poppy squealed, dancing in place but being careful not to jiggle her shoulder too much, it did hurt just a little.

“You're welcome!” Alex laughed as Rita cleaned up a bit, “If you have any questions or concerns just let us know. You can come in or contact us via phone or email. “ He then winked playfully, “And, of course, if you ever want another you know where to come.”

Poppy giggled, “Of course!” She then turned and started hopping out the door, “Come on, Branch. We need to make a stop for some scent free lotion.”

Rolling his eyes, Branch nodded goodbye to the artists and followed Poppy out, “No need. I already got you some.” At her surprised look, he shrugged, “What? I did some research and decided to save you a trip.”

Alex chuckled as their conversation was cut off by the closing of the door and a bell twinkle, “Cute couple. Bet you anything he decides her tattoo was worth getting once he gets use to seeing it.”

Rita laughed, “Yeah, 'cept they're not a couple. Apparently he's just the roommate.”

“If he's just the roommate, than I'm three feet tall.”

Rita shrugged, “Hey. Whatever their relationship, I'm just glad he talked her out of the tat she wanted first. Her and the apparent boyfriend's name.”

Alex groaned, “Oooh, those are horrible. Nobody should never get those.” He then chuckled, “Good on that guy then. That sun was much more appropriate for a happy girl like that.”

“Agreed.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

“So you'll help me take some pictures of my tat later, won't you?” Poppy asked as they walked down the sidewalk, “Please?”

“Anything else the princess demands?”

Poppy elbowed him lightly, “How about we order out tonight? Or stop somewhere? You did kind of do me a big favor by coming with me so... least I can do is give you a break from cooking. Once in a while at least, wouldn't want you getting rusty.”

“Haha.” Branch glanced at her before looking away. He would do pretty much anything she asked of him because of his feelings, not that she knew that, “And sure. We can stop somewhere.”

“Yay! Let's go!” She grabbed his hand and started happily pulling him down the street.

~*~*~*~*~*~

And there you go! Poppy now has a tattoo! Also give it up for more random OCs that came about! Anyway, not too much to say here other than I hope you liked it and to stay tuned for more~!

#Dreamworks Trolls #Branch #Poppy #Broppy #fanfiction #Human AU #Modern AU #Roommate AU #dreamworkstrolls #Snack Pack #Ripley

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theonyxpath · 5 years

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Pirates of Pugmire, from which you see the awesome beach duel by artist Pat McEvoy above, launched last week and is over half-way to its funding goal!

Thanks to everybody who has backed so far, and please check it out and spread the word! Pirates of Pugmire is a sourcebook that expands on the entirety of the Realms of Pugmire, and contains new rules and info on piracy on the Acid Sea and the port city of Waterdog Keep, new callings for dogs and cats, new player character types with the birds and lizards, gunpowder weapon rules (originally imported from other lands where the lizard-folk trade), and contains new and connected adventures.

It really has just a ton of new stuff for all of the Realms of Pugmire, but a lot of times folks will hold off on backing supplements – which we know from long experience – but this time it’s so much more than just that.

Plus, we’d really like to get this traditionally printed and in stores like Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau, but we can’t OK that unless we get over the funding goal (and into all the cool Stretch Goals). So, give it a looksee, me hearties! Don’t be scurvy dogs! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/pirates-of-pugmire-a-realms-of-pugmire-tabletop-rpg

Trinity Continuum: Aeon art by Gregor Pedrycz

Most of our talk in today’s meeting was setting everything up for our trip out to UK Games Expo. Mighty Matt and I are headed out in order to get there Wednesday, and Eddy will meet up with us and Matthew on Thursday to set up the booth and welcome Steffie de Vaan, John Burke, Chris Allen, and Klara Herbol, as they all roll in throughout the day.

Then, it is demos and chatting to folks in the booth – and directing those interested in purchasing our stuff to our friends at the Leisure Games booth. Matthew and I were enthusing about recreating entire scenes from Miller’s Crossing, in character and voices, or maybe doing Dueling Walkens if we get left alone at the booth – so watch out.

Like I said a couple of weeks ago, we’re experimenting with different booth/demo/sales arrangements depending on the con, and we’re starting with this one.

If you missed it before, here’s the UKGE hall map:

We also finalized the prizes for the Contagion Chronicle “tournament” our creators are running that culminates in a final round for all the declared winners of the previous Chronicles of Darkness games. Really looking forward to seeing how this event plays out!

Also really looking forward to Curry Take-Away if we can get it, but that’s just my personal thing I’m fascinated by. We do not have it around these parts.

Shunned By The Moon art by Leo Albiero

Since I’ll be gone still next week, our own Dynamic Dixie Cochran will be guest-writing this blog! So please make her feel welcome. Other than the updates, I have no idea what she’ll choose to write about, but I’m sure you’re all in good hands.

I hope.

Speaking of Dixie – thanks to all of you who left questions for her interview with me for the Onyx Pathcast. Some guy named Eddy Webb was there too, and they posted it last Friday. The link’s below in the Onyx Path Media section of the MMN, and I had a great time chatting with the Trio (minus Matthew).

Both of them (but mostly Dixie) were great at keeping me on point as I do love to ramble on, and their questions tended to deal with the olden days – although we got into the future of our projects and the Pathcast itself, so it wasn’t all lookin’ back stuff.

The other big category of questions, and I get these all the time, were of the “What is your favorite X” kind. Where most of the Xs are Clan, or Book, or Game Line, sort of subjects. Which are so hard for me to honestly answer since I really do have a lot of favorites in those categories for different reasons. But it’s also really rough to say that I love X as your bashful publisher.

If I name one thing, the folks who love all the others may think I’m not necessarily going to push anything but the one I said was my favorite. Or the creators of the others now think I think they didn’t do a good job. That’s not really something it’s worth risking.

If only people asked non-work related questions like Favorite Color (purple), or Favorite Inker of Gene Colan’s Comic Book Pencils (Tom Palmer). Favorite Novel Set On A Desert Planet, even (Dune). Those I can answer!

One question I have received a fair bit these last couple of months that we didn’t cover, and that I now can answer, is when is Scion going on sale to non-KS backers? Well, we’ll be putting the PDF and PoD versions up for sale next Wednesday, June 5th on DTRPG to match when retailers should have the traditionally printed books to sell.

Trinity Continuum: Aeon art by Gunship Revolution

Finally, I’m told that the D&D sale at DTRPG is featuring our Scarred Lands books until the end of the month with super discounts. Which is cool, because our 5e Scarred Lands plans are really heating up! Here’s a link: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/featured.php?promotion_id=2019SlarecianMay

I’ll be finalizing plans for the new 5e Creature Collection with Jon Hodgson, who is handling the creation of the book and running the Kickstarter, at UKGE, and we’ll be announcing a new developer for the line and the projects they are overseeing once we get back. Plus, on the Scarred Lands Community Content site, the Slarecian Vault, the beginning of July marks the start of a phenomenal linked adventure series you will not want to miss!

Just to give you one more teaser before I leave the country, the beginning of July will also mean the start of something folks here also ask me about all the time, but before then – on June 13th even – we’ll be starting a little treat for everyone that leads into the July event. Keep your eyes peeled, and tally-ho, old chap, right into our

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

Our Pirates of Pugmire Kickstarter is more than half-way funded, so swing over to our ship and check it out you sea-dogs!

Pirates of Pugmire is a chronicle sourcebook for both Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau. It’s usable in either game, or as part of a joint experience. Some highlights include: * Two new species for players to enjoy: lizards and birds * Six new callings, including two for dogs and two for cats * Rules for building, sailing, and sinking ships * A trove of new allies, enemies, and treasures * Information on Waterdog Port and Port Matthew * “Going on the Account,” a chronicle of three new adventures, taking characters from 1st through 6th level

You can also hear Eddy discuss the writing and design of Pirates of Pugmire on this week’s Onyx Pathcast podcast on your favorite podcast venues, or here on : https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/)

ONYX PATH MEDIA

Illustration by Charles Bates

This Friday’s Onyx Pathcast is the first episode in Dixie, Eddy, and Matthew’s actual play of Scion!: https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

And Here’s More Media About Our Worlds:

The Onyx Path News will return later this week with more than one exciting release announcement!

In actual plays, as Matthew ran Scion: Origin for Eddy and Dixie live last week! The video is in two parts and will be edited for the Onyx Pathcast, but here’s part one of the Miami Hotel story for your enjoyment: https://youtu.be/uEzgr74CfOE Don’t steal from Poseidon!

It’s actual plays a-go-go, we have uploaded parts one and two of our Pirates of Pugmire playthrough, run by Travis Legge, to our Onyx Path YouTube account! Travis is a superb author and a fantastic Guide for the players, and we sincerely recommend you check these two videos out. Here’s part one: https://youtu.be/fU9y3tl77GM and here’s part two: https://youtu.be/rSzjLVW1rnQ

Fandible have uploaded the second part of their excellent They Came From Beneath the Sea! actual play, and it’s available for listening right here: http://www.fandible.com/they-came-from-beneath-the-sea-the-things-that-slither-2-of-2/ Please check this one out!

They Came from Beneath the Sea: The Things That Slither 2 of 2

We can’t get away from the superb talents of Travis Legge, as here is his Scarred Lands actual play on the Myths & Matchmakers series: https://youtu.be/zq4Uw1YaS9g

The Story Told Podcast have reached episode six of their Dragon-Blooded actual play. This episode closes out the dinner party at Kai’s villa and follows the Dragon-Blooded into the evening. https://thestorytold.libsyn.com/

Caffeinated Conquests are picking up a good number of viewers for their actual play of Scarred Lands‘ Gauntlet of Spiragos (they have gone totally off-piste by this point) and they’re incredibly entertaining to watch every time: https://youtu.be/lD7V7fm3cso

Twin Cities by Night continues with their Hunter’s Hunted II actual play, reaching an impressive episode 16! If you’re into long-form plays, give this one a go! https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-rg9ye-b19cb0

And of course, Red Moon Roleplaying, podcasters extraordinaire, have uploaded another episode of The Great Vilhaim Heist, a Scarred Lands game run by Matthew Dawkins: https://www.redmoonroleplaying.com/ Keep your eye on Red Moon Roleplaying, as soon they’ll be running The Sacrifice, from Chicago by Night!

Please check any of these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games!

ELECTRONIC GAMING:

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

Here’s an update from the App devs:

We’ve been having trouble fixing the android bug that messes up the resolution for newer phones. I think we have a fix for that. It was also brought up that the store display is wrong on most tablet devices, so that is getting fixed too. That should all be soon!

ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scarred Lands (Pathfinder) books are also on sale at Studio 2: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/scarred-lands

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can now order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, we have both our regular monthly Exalted 3rd PDF offerings AND the Advance PDF release of The Realm all on DTRPG!

CONVENTIONS

UK Games Expo: THIS WEEK! May 31st – June 2nd From the US comes Eddy Webb, Matt McElroy, and Rich Thomas to join with Matthew Dawkins, Steffie de Vaan, John Burke, Chris Allen, and Klara Herbol! Gen Con: August 1st – August 4th Save Against Fear: Oct 12-14 GameHoleCon: October 31st – November 3rd We’ll also be back at PAX Unplugged later this year.

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Geist2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum Core)

Wraith20 Fiction Anthology (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Titanomachy (Scion 2nd Edition)

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Redlines

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Second Draft

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

TC: Aeon Ready Made Characters (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

TC: Aeon Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Development

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Creatures of the World Bestiary (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Chicago Folio/Dossier (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Let The Streets Run Red (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Heroic Land Dwellers (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

DR:E Threat Guide (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

DR:E Jumpstart (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Manuscript Approval:

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Pirates of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Memento Mori: the GtSE 2e Companion (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

Editing:

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Blood Sea: Crimson Abyss for 5e (Scarred Lands)

Post-Editing Development:

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

V5 Chicago By Night Screen (Vampire: The Masquerade)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)

Distant Worlds (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Scion Ready Made Characters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Indexing:

Trinity Aeon

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

They Came From Beneath the Sea! – Art notes in.

EX3 Lunars

Hunter: The Vigil 2

Contagion Chronicle

VtR Spilled Blood – Contracted.

M20 Book of the Fallen – More sketches coming in.

Dark Eras 2 – More sketches coming in.

Pirates of Pugmire – KS art in, the rest has been contracted.

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant – KS art notes and contracts going out.

Scion Ready Made Characters

TC Aeon: Distant Worlds

Marketing Stuff

In Layout

Trinity Continuum Core

Cavs – Witch Queen of the Shadowed Citadel

V5 Chicago By Night

Proofing

Signs of Sorcery – Inputting final Dev note changes.

Aeon Aexpansion – In 2nd Proof.

C20 Cup of Dreams Novel

Scion Jumpstart

Dystopia Rising: Evolution

Shunned By The Moon

At Press

Scion Hero – Shipped to backers, PoD coupon out to backers.

Scion Origin – Shipped to backers, PoD coupon out to backers.

In Media Res – PDF out to backers, gathering errata with new sheet.

Geist 2e – PDF out to backers, gathering errata with new sheet.

Adventures for Curious Cats – PoD proof ordered.

Tales of Excellent Cats – PoD proof ordered.

Dragon-Blooded – Deluxe printing.

Dragon-Blooded Screen – At printer.

Trinity Core and Aeon Screens – Files at printer.

The Realm – Advance PDF on sale on DTRPG this Weds, Backer PDF already to backers, errata gathering from both.

TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE:

Today is Memorial Day here in the US, where we honor our fallen members of the armed forces. It’s a national holiday, and it’s also important to reflect on the sacrifices many have made that ultimately allow us to have lives where we can make and play games.

#Onyx Path Publishing

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scandinaviacroatiaengbergs · 5 years

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Monday and Tuesday: Stockholm to Gothenburg (with a few extra nice words about the Stockholm Central Station!)

Wow! I am so behind on these posts! We’ve been having such full days, with the kids going to bed later than usual, that I haven’t had time to write a post in the evening on many days. OK, so after we successfully woke up on the Baltic Princess to disembark by 6:10, we got off the ship with little fanfare and found ourselves in the chilly Stockholm morning. It was the first time the weather on this trip has been chilly at all (but it warmed up in the daytime, considerably, during our two daytimes there). The kids and I actually waited inside for our Uber. We got to our hotel, the Nordic Light, by 7 a.m. and miraculously, they were able to check us in. We were so glad. Now, this hotel is one of the last things we booked for the trip (actually, we still have two things to book: our rental car in Croatia and a night back in Gothenburg in a week). Finding lodging in Stockholm was *so hard.* I mean, I felt totally rejected because I seriously put booking attempts in at about 7 Airbnbs and was declined on all of them. We have an extensive Airbnb track record with a good set of reviews ourselves, so I couldn’t figure out what the deal was! And all of the places were *so* expensive! We had similar trouble in Oslo and Copenhagen, trouble like I’ve never had booking something anywhere we’ve traveled. Rejection after rejection. So, for Copenhagen, I selected “instant book” and got something, and in Oslo, one guy finally accepted our request (I am writing this from Oslo now and the place is totally awesome). Anyway, back to the Nordic Light, it is actually a very good thing we booked a hotel rather than an Airbnb because we were able to check in early, which would’ve been very unlikely for an Airbnb. It was a really cool-looking hotel, just recently updated and kind of on a main drag, right adjacent to the train station, which I will come back to. We got ourselves collected, after the kids watched some show on National Geographic about extreme truck/equipment repairs in Alaska, and we walked first to the Old Town and, en route, we passed a wonderful shopping street, and I noticed two stores I had to return to later (and did): Paper Tiger (which is based in Copenhagen and I’d noticed two years ago in Warsaw) and Villervalla children’s clothing. It looked *totally* cute. When I went back later that day, I got the kids new sun-protecting long-sleeved swim one-pieces. So cute. OK, so on our walk to the Old Town, we passed Parliament and then the royal palace, and once we were on the other side of the royal palace, we actually saw two horse-and-carriages go by. The kids were pretty into that. Once we were kind of on the outskirts of the Old Town, we stopped to eat and the kids got quiche and a waffle with ice cream—yes, ice cream at breakfast time. This was Eric’s choice and he chose carrot cake ice cream, and Cece and he gobbled it up, and Rowan actually turned it down! It was crazy! The boy has been asking for ice cream like multiple times daily, and then we have it for *breakfast* and he’s like, no thanks! So, after going through the Old Town, we went along one of the rivers (Stockholm is comprised of multiple islands so there are rivers –or inlets, whatever—everywhere and bridges everywhere) and visited the Vasa Museum. It was recommended to us by our friend Ethan, whose brother lived in Stockholm for a long time. Anyway, the Vasa was a 17th century multi-use transport/war ship (it had a ton of cannons) which, on its maiden voyage, sunk in Stockholm harbor. We learned that a lot of ships are lying in the muck at the bottom of the harbor, as capsizing was not uncommon. What is unique about this ship is that, a) it was brand new, so it was kind of state-of-the-art at the time and loaded with provisions that reflected the times, and b) it sunk in just the right kind of mud and in water of just the right kind of brackishness, so it was excellently preserved. Its sinking had gone down in lore with people searching for it from time to time, and then, in the 1960s, a private citizen decided to organize an effort to locate it (which he did) and then galvanized the interest of the citizenry and government to undertake the huge project of lifting it out of the sea. So, the whole museum is about the ship being brought back up out of the muck and its restoration and then all about it: its history, its crew, its back-story, what life was like in Sweden in the late 1600s, etc. It was really interesting, but the kids were not as engaged as would’ve been ideal for parental enjoyment ;) Walking home from the Vasa, we took a meandering route, and that took us to a high-end shopping era and to the central market, something we always love to check out in new cities. From there, we went back to the hotel for naptime, which is when I went out and did a spot of shopping. Afterwards, I took the kids to the Abba Museum and Eric went for a run. The Abba Museum was so, so, so amazing!!!! I can’t even do it justice with a brief explanation here, so I am going to spare you all my attempt. I love Abba, and even if you’re not a huge fan, I think it’s really engaging and fun. Cece was luke-warm about it, calling it “too boring” from time to time, but Rowan and I were into it ;)

After our museum time, we all went out and managed find a restaurant to eat in before I lost my mind from exhaustion, hunger, overall crankiness, and an aching body, haha. We actually ate at an Italian restaurant (I think we’ve done pretty good work at eating Scandinavian delicacies, well some, so having a comfort/familiar meal was fine, especially for the kids). My mood really improved after dinner and we actually walked some more. We didn’t tarry too long this time, and got home and the kids went right to bed (after their first actual bath in quite some time; they’ve had irregular showers on other days) and then I managed to get to bed by 11-ish and the next morning when my alarm went off at 8:45, I was like, whoa, wait, where am I? I hadn’t stirred or anything that whole time; I slept like log.

Tuesday morning we had breakfast at the Nordic Light and I put Cece in some new black-and-white Marimekko pants I’d gotten on sale for her at the outlet. Let me tell you, a four-year-old in black-and-white pants and mixed berry compote do not get along well together. Within ten minutes of her getting dressed—and seriously, don’t judge me, because I also *knew* this was likely but was looking on the bright side that, for once, it might not—she had red splotched all down the leg of one pant. I quickly swooped the child and her pants upstairs and did some quick internet research and let me tell you, if you need to get berry stains out, flush them out with boiling water. It totally worked! I was amazed! Anyway, we went back down and finished breakfast and then were on our way to our next adventure: to the Swedish Center for Architecture and Design! It goes by ArkDes for short and it shared a building with the modern art museum. What a great few hours we had there. Rowan says he wants to be an architect and general contractor when he grows up and Cece wants to be a cat doctor (veterinarian) and a variety of other things when she grows up. Both kids were really pretty interested in ArkDes! Rowan loved looking at all of the models and seeing all of the different architectural styles. We went over to the modern art side and it was really incredible. So many really interesting paintings, multi-media works, audio installations, and so much more. We actually had very little time there, but Rowan was interested the whole time (and Cece was not quite as interested and I think she was really getting tired). Rowan loved this mixed-media large format painting/sculpture by Yves Klein, and we took a picture of him in front of it. There were some Jackson Pollock painting and Picassos and other folks I recognized, even though I am not the most hip to all the important artists, though I can kind of hang ;) We scooched on back to our hotel to collect our bags (passing by the “pink carpet” that was going to be used that night at the Grand Hotel for the Polar Music Prize, Sweden’s biggest award, funded by the royal family). Bags in hand, we walked around the corner to the Central Station for our 2:32 p.m train to Gothenburg on SJ. We’d bought our tickets online that day and we had plenty of time. So, the train station is so crazy convenient. I think of big-city train stations like London’s Euston or Victoria – you know, insane, busy, lots of tracks and platforms, etc. So, this was also a pretty big situation, but imagine that if you walked into an airport from the curb and approached the ticket counter and the *track* was where the luggage conveyer belt is behind the ticket agent. It was like so convenient and unexpectedly nearby! There were taxis that were pulled up literally *at* the platform! Eric and I were both totally thrown off by it, but it seemed great and very convenient. We had a very smooth and pleasant three-hour ride to Gothenburg. Cece slept for an hour and I managed to get a grant application submitted, which was due in three days, so it was a big relief to get that off my plate. More about our Volvo adventure in Gothenburg in the next post!

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frederator-studios · 6 years

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Meet Gabe Janisz, creator of “Tyler & Co.”

Nostalgia time: I met Gabe in my second week at Frederator. I knew a Gabe was coming in to pitch, and when I went out to see if he’d arrived, I encountered a guy in pajama pants in our lobby. Now, animation is a lax industry in terms of work attire, but the notion of pitching a TV show in one’s PJs was beyond the reaches of my conception; I am too uncool. So my immediate thought was that he was a random dude who’d wandered in off the street - not that he was the guy pitching, let alone already a creator with us, of the GO! Cartoon “Tyler & Co.” No doubt he heard the question mark in my greeting of “Gaaabe?,” but he didn’t let on, because as I’ve mentioned, Gabe is cooler than me. He wears PJs to job interviews and then gets the job. He’s cooler than all of us. “Tyler & Co.” well demonstrates this, but here’s an interview with him for further proof.

Walk us down memory lane. How did you decide to make cartoons?

I guess… I don’t know if I ever decided. I headed down this road because I used to make games a lot as a kid, because that’s what my older brother and dad do.

Whaaat what’d they work on?

My dad worked on the RoboCop 2 game. My brother still works in games; he was on “Where’s My Water,” that mobile game that blew up a couple years back. The thing with me making games was, I’d spend so long on the intro cinematics and character animations, that I’d run out of steam by the time I had to think about the actual mechanics and programming. So I finally decided to focus on the stuff I actually liked, and that interests me, and that’s story and character.

Where did that interest lead you?

Well, I grew up in Buttcrack, Colorado. There weren’t any real art programs or teachers who could show me the ropes, so I had to go it alone for a long time - not the best route. But I did draw a lot of comics. It wasn’t until I started visiting colleges that someone recommended life drawing, so I took a class on it at a local community college at the end of high school. That’s when my art started improving.

What’d you do after high school?

I went to SCAD for comics and animation. At first, I was in all of these kinda useless foundation classes. So I actually went to the chair, showed him my portfolio and he was like “Well, if you think you can handle it…” and exempted me from them. The next semester was one of the hardest, maybe the hardest, of my life. I was in classes that I wasn’t prepared for, especially this one storyboarding course. Maybe the foundation classes would have prepared me, maybe not - point is, I was totally unprepared to perform at the level expected, and felt unable to make the kind of stuff I was expected to make. I was up until 8am every night. I got really close to quitting animation altogether.

Wow, that’s hectic. What changed?

After that I was in a paper animation class that dragged me out of the pit. I made some good friends who helped me improve. And my paper animation professor liked me and actually wanted me to succeed. I got more confident in my abilities. I’d always seen things in my head that I couldn’t translate onto paper, and I finally could. And I did some cool things like studying abroad in France for a semester. That was amazing because comics there are considered one of the ‘Great Arts’—they seriously respect them. Instead of flimsy paper copies, everything was hardbound and gorgeous. They have a huge range of art styles, but they all feel so unashamed, whereas stuff made in the US feels like it’s constantly apologizing to you for being a comic. I’d been applying to CalArts every year since senior year of high school - it took 3 years, 3 applications before I got in. But I was really glad to have spent time at SCAD majoring in comics, because as much as I love animation, I get so pumped about comics. It was great to do both.

Then you entered the fabled gates of CalArts - and what’d you discover?

A lot of great friends. Who also happened to be great artists I could collaborate with on projects. I was in Character Animation, and because CalArts is so picky, you’re surrounded by people you can learn from, with all different tastes and ways of doing things.

Do you seek a studio gig - or how bout - what do you most want to do with your life?

Once online a stranger told me "your art is like an awkward hug" and I've kind of tried to run with that. If I can make at least one person feel a little less lonely, then I feel like I'm doing a good thing. I’d work at a studio if it were the right project, but mostly I want to be an independent comic maker and cartoonist. As long as I’ve got stuff in the pipeline, I’ll be happy. I was hospitalized a lot as a kid (and adult) and it kinda... broke me in a lotta ways, so it’s nice that me and Frederator found each other.

How did you come to pitch to the GO! Cartoons series?

Eric (Homan, our VP Development) came to CalArts to speak and my professor introduced us. He invited me to come by Frederator and check out the place. And then when I came by he was like, “You don’t have anything to pitch?” And I was like, “No, you said I was just checking out the place.” But I plugged in my flashdrive and just looked for the first thing that was around 5 minutes I could find and showed it to him. It was my first year CalArts film about a bunch of kids making bombs. And he liked it, so we started developing it, and it actually got all the way to the stage of pitching to Sony Animation. But the Sony people definitely couldn’t get behind the bombs stuff, but they liked me I guess. So they greenlit me but not the bombs. So Eric had me go back and make something new. I’d been doing stuff with Tyler for years so I pulled him out and figured out a new idea.

Where did the idea for Tyler come from?

Well in high school, I had Crohn’s disease, so I had the right to leave class whenever. I’d just up and go wander, hang out with the janitors. And one of them loved the Muppets a lot. He hung little pictures of them all over the school and I actually never noticed them until he mentioned it. But they were everywhere. So I started watching Sesame Street and got into that aesthetic, and admired the puppeteers. I’d also had a falling out with my high school friends, which was part of why I was wandering around so much. I started devoting more time to close friends in Canada that I’d met online.

Did you meet them through gaming?

Yeah, gaming and game message boards. It was a found family. I don’t have a large family, I don’t really have that foundation to fall back on. So finding kinship online was huge for me in a time of isolation. And watching a lot of the Muppets.

Did the Muppets inspire those puppet versions of Tyler and Lil G from the title cards?

Yeah - Tyler and Lil G are actual puppets.

(At this point Gabe pulls puppet Tyler and puppet Lil G from a mysterious red duffel bag that’s been on the floor. I didn’t know what it held, but I didn’t expect puppets. Ecstatic, I try Tyler on)

Puppets are in a lot of what I do, but not everything. I’ve made YouTube videos with them too - my roommate is really good at performing with them. So the characters were designed to look like puppets.

youtube

If Tyler & co. got a full series, would the puppets be in it?

Yeah, there'd be puppet cutaways. There’s an old Super Mario Bros show - it’s a really bad show, but funny - and they had intros and outros with live action actors playing Mario and Luigi on like a trash covered set. They’d do skits. So that makes me want to cap off Tyler episodes with puppet skits.

So Tyler came first, then how did the other characters come about - like Lil G?

Lil G is a younger, innocent guy that Tyler sees a lot of himself in. He feels like he has this chance to sculpt this younger dude, and kind of save him. He doesn’t want Lil G to screw up his life like he did.

How did Tyler screw up his life?

So Tyler used to be a child star in a show like Sesame Street. But his camera operators, the crew were super abusive to him, in order to get him to perform for the camera how they wanted. Pushed him into traffic, manipulated him, did really messed up stuff. They once strapped cursed swords onto his hands while he slept, and he involuntarily butchered a bunch of people while trying to find help. He got acquitted in trial and got a restraining order against them. But now he’s just trying to pick up the pieces, and his roommates are a huge part of that. The logline has been, “Tyler, why can’t you see that if you’ve got friends like these, you’ll be fine?”

Whose house is it that they’re living in? And what’s the dynamic among these roommates?

Rex’s - he inherited it from his grandma when she passed. Rex and Moe have a shared interest in ghost hunting. There’s another roommate, Rocko, who’s a retired boxing robot. There’s Marky Mouse, he hangs out, doesn’t hurt nobody. Lil G is a nuisance to them—he’s enamored with Tyler because Tyler’s the first person he’s met from out of state. So he associates Tyler with his dream of getting out of the town.

Where does this take place?

It’s set in the River Rouge area, by Detroit, Michigan. It’s where my dad grew up and he’s told me horror stories. Once in school, the river’s surface actually caught on fire. So they could see from the school windows that the river was in flames, burning oil on water. School wasn’t even cancelled. It’s a super heavily polluted river.

Have you ever visited there?

No, thank God.

So why does Tyler WANT to be Mayor of Cerealtown? Why is that of value?

Because they’re kinda losers, and that’s the kind of thing that’s important to them. These guys don’t really have jobs. The house was bequeathed to them. Moe does some tech repair, and he and Rex do freelance ghost hunting. Tyler’s big project is repairing a car, which’ll be his and Lil G’s way to get out of town. That’d be a big thrust of the show’s plot if it got a series.

Where do they want to go?

Anywhere else.

Let’s talk about the music in this, cause it’s great. How’d it come about?

All the music was done by Bo-en, and yeah, he did an awesome job. He composes music for games a lot, which is how I found him. He has this unique, glitchy style. I emailed him out of the blue, not even expecting a response. But he got back to me and immediately sent over a test composition. That was good because he was actually excited about the project. Overall, I went with everything that he chose.

Which cartoons inspire you most?

I’m more of an anime fan, usually. I’m a big Soul Eater fan - it’s stupid in the most creative ways, like I love the moon and sun up there gnashing their teeth and laughing when there’s a heavy emotional scene happening below them. FLCL and Gurren Lagann. Masaaki Yuasa is a big guy for a lot of people right now: his shows Kemonozume, Kaiba, and Tatami Galaxy inspire me, even if they all turn into trainwrecks by the end. That happens to a lot of stuff I like. My favorite scene in animation is from Kaiba; it has a lot of quick worldbuilding and weighty animation that i really like and tried to replicate in “Tyler” a bit. But I get a lot of inspiration from outside of animation too. Games, music.

Let’s hear about those influences, from games, comics, music, everything else?

One game is “Cave Story”, it’s incredible: it was made by a Japanese dude -- all by himself! I think that the more you can do on your own, the more your original soul and vision shine through. The character designs in the “Professor Layton” games are also pretty incredible, like retro anime with a european flair. Those two games are very different, but they both tell impactful stories!

I was all about Mike Mignola's Hellboy comics for a long time; they ended recently. I probably steal a lot of how I draw slouchy characters from him. Hellboy is probably my favorite character design ever, for a lot of reasons: the asymmetry, his big arm, the sanded down horns... just looking at him tells a story, and it's crazy rare to see a character design get that thoughtful. I like Soul Eater for a lot of the same reasons. Just about my favorite written comic is King City by Brandon Graham, which is all over the place but manages to stay very human at its core. Osamu Tezuka, Naoki Urusawa, Katsuhiro Otomo, Inio Asano, Enrique Fernandez.... I get too pumped talking about comics!!

(Moonkiller, a dope comic and to-be short film)

My favorite bands are probably Gorillaz and Passion Pit, and i think a lot about telling stories that feel like their music feels. I guess it’s mostly about hanging onto the feeling that the music gives you and drawing with that, like translating a language? I do my best work when I can already *see* a show in my head before i draw it. When I made Bombadiers, my old Frederator pitch, i was thinking of this song Beck made for a videogame. They don't like, sync up perfect, but they still ~feel~ the same to me. Beck's composing work in films like Scott Pilgrim and Nacho Libre is really great! I’ve also been into The Postal Service recently because a lot of their music sounds... backwards, almost, and it’s interesting to me. Baths is another cool guy who I almost worked with on Tyler; his music can sound very otherworldly.

On a whole other note: why did they put snakes in the attic?

They put them up there to clear out another infestation. It might have been rats, might have been gorillas… I don’t remember. But they didn’t expect the snakes to breed so fast. They put the rats or gorillas up there too. So it’s really been a series of bad decisions.

Why snakes thoo?

Well once, I caught a baby rattlesnake with a plastic bottle in the Lodge. It wasn’t until I let it go that we realized it was a rattler - and the baby ones are actually the most lethal, because they can’t control how much venom they release when they bite.

What’s the Lodge?

Oh, so at CalArts, you’re assigned a cubicle. And there are two buildings with cubicles, the Palace and the Lodge. The Palace is a lot nicer, but the Lodge is more fun, fewer restrictions. My friend Justin and I - he was the board artist on “Tyler”, and a character designer on Rick and Morty - we built a shanty town out of cardboard boxes in the Lodge. It was our cardboard fortress. And there was one student who was in charge of keeping the other students in line, and he ordered us to take it down. And as we felt that was a violation of our liberties, we started a bulletin called the Lodge Gazette, which we posted around campus to air our grievances and report important Lodge news. I still write for it, when I can.

Tell us about your friendship with Jonni Phillips, which may be Frederator’s #1 most adorable friendship story?

I met Jonni through “Rachel” and offered to carpool with her to Frederator, and we became friends. We have a lot in common! We both share a sort of fatigue over mainstream animation in the west and east, and it was helpful for us to vent about these toxic animation communities, like, realizing that we're not going crazy, haha. I make these comics about us in hell together.

She also convinced me to pitch Grandpa 2.0 to Nickelodeon, which was it’s own whole can of worms.

(Pls click that link for the Grandpa 2.0 experience, you will not regret it)

Okay, gonna need the whole Grandpa 2.0 story please, stat.

So Jonni DOUBLE dares me to submit it to Nick’s shorts program because "They'll make anything!!" so I pretty much have to do it. I just submit the website along with the description, "I based this pitch off my own life in which i replaced my grandpa with a robot” and turned it in. First thing in the morning I get a response from them: "When can you come in and pitch the boards???" Boards!!! There were no boards!!! So Justin and I spent the weekend cranking out these rushed but actually pretty funny storyboards for an episode of Grandpa 2.0. But I was suuuper unhealthy at the time, literally bleeding to death (42% of the blood an adult male should've had) and I straight up blacked out and missed my pitch date. We rescheduled, which is cool, but now I’ve gotta fight the 'unreliable' reputation that the first meeting got me. So I start by rifling through flash drives for 10 minutes. The files are actually in the folder "Grandpa 2.0". The last place I'd ever look!! While I'm pitching I get to a segment Justin drew at such low opacity that it’s straight up invisible on the projector screen. And I just have to describe to them whats going on. "IMAGINE if you will, a high tech display screen..." and this other part where grandpa has a guitar solo, Justin copy pasted the animation, like, an obscene amount of times, so even if I held down on the keyboard it still took minutes to chew through them. He wanted me to make the guitar noises. After the pitch was over they were like, "What’s the emotional connection between the boys and grandpa?" and im just like "I dunno.. fear??" And then way later i got an email saying that they were "blown away by how professional the pitch was..." (and I'm like um were you guys in the same room??) "...but the content just wasn't right for Nickelodeon”. That part almost makes me think they actually noticed all the 9/11 jokes and stuff... So that’s how the pitch went, and for now Grandpa 2.0 sleeps, unless I can convince Eric to swing it by Netflix or something, hahaha.

What are you working on now?

I’ve always got a lot of projects going. An animated feature idea, Token Town. And Moonkiller, a comic I’ve been working on that I want to turn into a short. Paper Desperado is a game I’m making - my friend is coding it. We’re fans of the old Paper Mario games, so we’re trying to draw from those - not copying, more like figuring out how they made everything and trying to build off of those techniques. I’m also working on a radio play called Spookwood, about a drug that turns you into a ghost. It’s tough because I’m so used to describing stuff visually, and now I have to get everything across with just words.

When it turns you into a ghost, do you stay a ghost or turn back?

No, you stay a ghost.

So the drug kills you?

Yeah, it kills you, and then you’re a ghost.

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Thus concludes our interview with Gabe Janisz! Thanks for taking the time Gabe, it’s always good talking with you. Sure we’ll be working together again in no time!

- Cooper

#The Frederator Interview #Frederator Studios #GO! Cartoons #cartoon hangover #tyler & co #cartoon #animation #cool art #comics #SCAD #CalArts #puppets

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inge-theron · 3 years

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TOP-TO-TOKYO INSPIRATION

My obsession with Japanese spas and beauty was fostered almost a decade ago, when I discovered the authority on “gourmet bathing”, Leonard Koren, and his 1996 book Undesigning the Bath. This Japanophile US artist and writer’s paean to the understated, understudied, unassuming objects that constitute a great bath ignited my passion for heat and steam – the holy grail being the laidback cousin of the hammam, Japan’s simple onsen. However, on this trip to the country I wanted to dive beyond the well-known Japanese ritual of ofuro: a warm, soothing bath that can take place in an onsen (a mineral-rich natural hot spring) or a sento (public indoor baths). I wanted to experience the lesser-known Japanese beauty rituals and unlock some of the alternative beauty and wellness scene secrets. As I realised during my painstaking research, Tokyo and its subcultures and insider geekery often mean this world is very much out of reach to foreigners. But after months of soft-stalking Japanese beauty bloggers on Instagram, a couple of them responded and I finally found something more than the wabi- sabi aesthetic to write home about.

Day 1

Tk.TktmTokyo is a city of contradictions, as the classic Zen principles of kanso and shibui constantly clash with colourful chaos at every street corner. And in no other district of this vast warren of a city is this more apparent than in Otemachi (pictured below), with its skyscraper skyline located east of the ancient Imperial Palace. It is a really tough choice deciding where to stay, as my inner Spa Junkie is desperate to be immersed in gentler waters. I want to spend my days in a kimono, enveloped in wafts of sandalwood, while lounging on tatami mats and eating sushi. This is not a dream but a reality at the recently opened Hoshinoya, a modern-day ryokan in the heart of the business district. Or do I stay at the super-cool Aman Tokyo – only a couple of blocks away?

Given that I have to work on this trip, I check into the latter. Aman Tokyo comes furnished with all the Japanese design I crave and every mod con I need. Jet-lagged and exhausted, I take a lift to the hotel lobby on the 33rd floor of the 38-storey Otemachi Tower. Aman Tokyo’s urban retreat chic occupies the top six floors, and upon entering its 30m-tall lobby, serene sounds from a koto player synchronise with the dancing rays of sunlight pouring into the soaring 420sq m space. The room features a giant washi-rice- paper lantern and the music gently serenades the guests as they take tea in minimalist splendour. Tk.TktmI retreat directly to the hotel’s stunning and tranquil temple-like 30m pool, where basalt sets the scene.

The giant floor-to-ceiling windows mean each time I finish a lap and draw a breath I look out at the city panorama before me – and a snow-covered Mount Fuji. Tk.Tktm Next I gravitate towards one of the spa rooms (pictured overleaf) to experience an Aman treatment called the Signature Spa Journey. Before it begins, a bento-style box is curated in front of me with each of the ingredients that will be used. And in typical Japanese fashion, presentation is an important part of the experience. The assortment includes a body scrub – containing camphor, known for its deeply calming scent, kuromoji powder and a Japanese clay – that stimulates circulation, boosts the lymphatic system and removes toxins; and a flowering spicewood rice oil that is used in traditional Japanese medicine.

The 150-minute treatment starts with a foot bath with seasonal kampo herbs and mineral sea salt, and is followed by a deep-breathing exercise using kuromoji powder and rice oil, renowned for its relaxing and calming properties. I am given the full-body camphor scrub, then bathed and finally pummelled with a 90-minute combination of shiatsu and western-style elbow-in- the-tight-spot massage. By the time the treatment is over, I am relaxed, rebalanced and truly ready for bed. I switch the kampo-inspired herbal refreshment for a sake nightcap and a deep-cleansing 3D sheet face mask of my own in my room, while I watch the incredible light show that is Tokyo by night.

Day 2

9am – For me, nothing beats the notorious Tokyo jet lag faster than a quick yoga session. I join Yuco, an amazing instructor, back in the spa for an hour of powerful ashtanga.

11am – After lunch I head off to the neighbourhood of Akasaka to meet my otonamaki teacher Mr Ishii at Suitengu Seikotsuin clinic. Otonamaki (pictured top left), which directly translates as “adult wrapping”, is a new underground meditation practice of “rebirthing” that claims to alleviate problems related to posture, stiffness and insomnia. I’m asked to strip down to the bare minimum – which is my stockings – and then Ishii asks me to curl up into a ball, to be the smallest I possibly can. He tucks my shoulders in as my chin presses tightly on my chest and ties the first of many tight knots as he begins to wrap me in a blanket – thankfully made from breathable cloth. It gets kind of kinky as the knots become tighter and tighter and I find myself swaddled from head to toe.

Totally cocooned, I can’t move at all. Although breathing is hard, I’m not in pain as Ishii starts to rock me back and forth. He explains that in a couple of minutes he will invert me, and this is meant to take me back to the moment of birth when I was head down in the womb. The blood rushes to my head as he holds me up by my feet for two minutes, though it feels like 15. Down again and rocking on my back, we start the light therapy part of the session. Ishii places small squares of bright satin cloth over my eyes. The squares are individually coloured – red, blue and green – which makes for a very surreal experience. The red cloth evokes the feeling of sunlight on my tummy, and now everything about this experience seems to fall into place. I’m feeling very relaxed, my breathing slows down and I have the sensation that I’m floating. At the end of the half-hour session, I feel de-stressed, but relieved to be freed.

3pm – Next up, I head into the backstreets of Tokyo’s Azabu district, to a clinic called Harieq Azabu, run by Mari Okamoto. She’s one of Tokyo’s top facial acupuncturists and has agreed to let me experience her facial lifting and sculpting treatment called electric facial acupuncture. The session starts with body-detoxing acupuncture (pictured on opening page), and things get heated when Okamoto begins the okyu or moxibustion, in which a mugwort extract is lit and burnt close to the needles, heating them and filling the room with a thick, cannabis-like smoke. Moxibustion is a regular feature of Japanese acupuncture and is intended to elevate blood cell levels (especially those of white blood cells) by stimulating the immune system with a small amount of heat directly applied to the body’s acupuncture points. Okamoto also places eight cupping glasses (pictured top left) from my shoulders all down my spine – a localised detoxing therapy that uses special cups that suction the skin for a few minutes.

It really hurts – and leaves me with huge circular blue bruises for a week. I’m feeling woozy when she turns me over for my facelift treatment. About 40 needles are placed carefully into my face – along my jawline, hairline, deep nasolabial lines and brows, with one slap bang in the middle of my third eye, which is riddled with tiny fine lines. Next, Okamoto attaches a microcurrent to each of the needles: my face feels like it is being electrocuted. My muscles start twitching wildly as she keeps turning up the current to get even deeper into my tissue. It’s no fun at all. I grit my teeth and think of all the sake I’ll have later. Okamoto explains, “Facial acupuncture targets ageing from within. The needles stimulate the derma, encouraging collagen production and skin cell regeneration. It also helps with wrinkles, fine lines and saggy jowls.” After 20 minutes, I can feel the muscle fatigue in my face and the results are undeniable. My brows are a good half an inch higher and I look like the millennial me from my past.

Day 3

10am – Because Japanese beauty is the new Korean beauty, a trip to Tokyo is not complete without a morning buying its prized products. I’ve been sent a list of places to visit from Alisa, one of my Instagram contacts (@tokyobeautybook), and pop into First Avenue Tokyo Station; Ainz & Tulpe, a two-floor beauty megastore; Matsumoto Kiyoshi, one of the biggest drugstore chains; and Cosme Kitchen for natural skincare. On my shopping spree I stock up on LuLuLun masks (these masks are available in day and night formulas and are so nourishing. I always see an instant lift and plump whenever I use them), Kanebo Clear Enzyme Cleansing Powder (which leaves my skin incredibly soft and smooth) and the obligatory jumbo-sized SK-II Facial Treatment Essence (most SK-II products contain Pitera – a natural byproduct of yeast fermentation believed to keep wrinkles at bay. It’s a classic beauty staple and catapulted Japanese beauty into my life. It leaves my skin hydrated and the tone really bright). I also buy a stack of Rohto’s eye-whitening drops. They’re truly redemption in a bottle. I have to buy an extra suitcase to bring my beauty products back home with me.

2pm – Thanks to another Instagram recommendation, I find myself back in the alleys of Akasaka at beauty parlour Spa Hinoki, this time for a 160-minute anti- ageing facial that comes with a carbon dioxide head and scalp treatment. I am led up a steep flight of stairs and into another world of dim lighting, dark cherrywood floors and rice-paper doors. I am miffed I’m not offered a kimono to round off this authentic experience. My therapist reads a few words of broken English from a piece of paper. I’m told to lie down and relax. However, with most Japanese facials you will not simply find a bed but a bed with a basin, as scalp and face are intrinsically linked in Japanese beauty regimes.

I have no desire to get my hair washed, but eventually I give in and go with the flow. It feels like extremely fizzy club soda is being poured and worked vigorously all over my hair. The Japanese include scalp care in their weekly routine to deter any “scalp odour”, and it’s believed the bubbles help to clean deeply, promote blood flow and alleviate hair loss. After the hairwashing, a microcurrent machine is up next, which feels like a family of centipedes gathering for Sunday lunch on my head. Then my feet are massaged and eight small pebble-like hot stones are placed between my toes to stimulate key pressure points. But now it’s time for my face massage. I am in heaven for the next hour, as my therapist’s slow and rhythmic hand movements excite and delight my forgotten face muscles. Finally, a mask is applied – a mask finishes off every Japanese beauty ritual – and I leave positively lifted and glowing. I wish I could take my beauty therapist back to London in my luggage.

The Bottom Line

My three days delving into Tokyo’s alternative beauty scene barely scratched the surface of a culture that seamlessly marries authenticity, perfectionism, innovation and ritual. Nevertheless, my overwhelming impression was that beauty treatments in Japan are performed like a perfectly choreographed dance. I arrived with high expectations and was not disappointed by the originality and effectiveness of the treatments. As I boarded the plane home, relaxed and rebalanced, my taster of this esoteric beauty scene had supercharged my passion for all things Japanese spa and beauty related.

#toptotokyo skincare japanesespa spajunkie blog

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Psycho Goreman: Steve Kostanski on Building a Better Monster

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It’s rare that a horror-comedy film gets the attention it deserves. At least, not around the time that it’s released. Even the great ones tend to be labeled a “cult classic” later on, but mastering the genre can regularly lead to bigger things. We see that happen as often as we do because horror and comedy are deceptively hard to balance, and it stands to reason that if you could pull off that balancing act once, you might be able do it again combining other genres.

Steve Kostanski has been in the movie business for the better part of two decades, mostly working behind the scenes in creature and makeup effects, but this very much feels like Kostanski’s “time” thanks to his latest movie, Psycho Goreman.

The director, who already had an established fanbase thanks to other low budget movies like Manborg and The Void, released his latest flick in the time of COVID, so it was denied what would have no doubt been a very long stretch in smaller theatres with sticky floors and worn seats – the kind that would embrace a film so “out there” that audiences might have left wondering what exactly they just witnessed.

But all was not lost, because Psycho Goreman found a home on streaming and immediately started generating a buzz anyway.

The urge to conceal some of the joys of Psycho Goreman from other people is pretty strong. It’s definitely a movie that you’ll get more out of if you don’t know what to expect, so we’ll just sum up the plot a little for those who are uninitiated: a brother and sister accidentally dig up an alien overlord who the sister discovers she can control using a magical amulet.

We talked to Kostanski about how the movie got made, how working on The Void and Manborg taught him the lessons he needed to learn to get Psycho Goreman right, and whether there might be a sequel on the way…

Den of Geek: Last month I got a text from a friend I hadn’t spoken to for ages. It just said, “You need to watch Psycho Goreman.” Nothing else, but I could tell it was a pretty serious situation, so I checked the film out and immediately recommended it to somebody else who I knew would love it. Have you found there’s been a lot of this kind of word of mouth support?

Steve Kostanski: Yeah, I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me like, “My friend recommended this randomly and it was totally crazy. So thank you for making this movie”, which is a reaction I don’t usually get.

I mean, I was expecting my usual fanbase to be into it. I thought I was making a pretty decent movie, but it seems to have spread a lot further into public consciousness than I was expecting it to, which is great. I guess that just means I made a really bonkers film that people like to talk about, so I’m pretty grateful for that.

We’ve been talking about the film quite a lot here; it comes up all the time. The attention to detail is incredible. How early on in life did the makeup and effects bug bite?

I’ve always loved movies. I was a video store kid. I was constantly renting VHS movies in the ‘90s and obsessing over them. My dad loaned me his Super 8 camera when I was 12 and I used that to do stop-motion animation because I was into special effects. I was a big fan of stuff like Star Wars, and I really wanted to emulate all my favorite movies.

Eventually, I started shooting live-action movies and did the effects and animation for those, too. It’s been a constant through my whole life of wanting to make movies and monsters and effects and just tell crazy sci-fi fantasy adventure stories. It’s always been there.

When I got out of high school, I decided I wanted to try pursuing creature effects and prosthetic effects for a living, and luckily, I was able to mentor under a prosthetic artist name Doug Morrow in my hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, who showed me the ropes and taught me about the actual job of doing makeup effects. That’s how I was able to pursue it as a career, while also making movies on the side. I’ve kind of been jumping back and forth between the two ever since.

One of the benefits of growing up in the ‘80s was that there were these wild sci-fi and fantasy concept movies basically on tap. They made it to completion so regularly. The shelves would be stacked with intoxicating covers and unique monster designs. You’d see an image from something like Xtro in a magazine and think “I need to see this at all costs.” It’s fair to say you’ve made a “see it at all costs” movie here. I know you name-checked Prince of Darkness as being a big influence for The Void, but what were the influences for Psycho Goreman?

It was really just a combination of my experiences growing up watching R-rated movies when I was way too young to be watching them – movies like Terminator 2. One of my earliest memories as a kid was watching that movie and being enthralled by the sci-fi action component to it.

As a kid, you’re into video games and comics and cartoons, so seeing these cool chrome robots shooting lasers is really thrilling, but then you’re also seeing people get their kneecaps shot out and get impaled through the eye. It’s that kind of unexpectedly violent and brutal realism that maybe a little kid isn’t prepared for. Psycho Goreman is me working through a bit of that trauma!

Did you learn any valuable lessons from making Manborg and The Void that ended up paying off during Psycho Goreman?

I think Manborg taught me that I have to be realistic with my ambitions on making a movie. I went into that project thinking I could feasibly make a sci-fi action epic with no money, and it ended up consuming three years of my life. So going into PG, I tried to be a little more realistic about what I could accomplish on a low budget.

The Void was a punishing experience. It hardened me a little bit and gave me more experience in working within the system, in the traditional sense of working with a crew and producers. It gave me a “worst case scenario” in every possible filmmaking situation to then carry over.

I’m a very introverted person, so The Void was a real “trial by fire” for me and forced me out of my shell. It helped me as a director – keeping everyone motivated, answering questions and just being involved and present. Not thinking like an effects artist sitting in the corner sculpting monsters all day.

Watching Psycho Goreman has become a kind of moral imperative for genre fans. Honestly, it looked like so much work went into it. How did it go from concept to final cut, and did you hit any roadblocks along the way from people who just didn’t get it?

This film was a once in a lifetime opportunity where a friend of a friend was looking to finance a feature film, and he really just bought into the “Steve Kostanski brand,” and loved my previous work and wanted me to have free reign to make the thing I wanted to make. That’s not to say that the producers didn’t chime in and have opinions on things, but they very much put their trust in me to make a movie that would be entertaining and that audiences would like.

I think I’ve always been a pop filmmaker. I love cliches and conventions and I like making things that are crowd-pleasing. I think the producers knew that. They knew that if the movie didn’t hit the mark in some way, that it would at least deliver on effects and spectacle and be crowd-pleasing. So I was very lucky to have their confidence.

It is crowd-pleasing, but still subverts your expectations. Did that happen organically while you were making it or was it always planned that way?

I always want to make a movie that would have sat on the video store shelf amongst the other movies that I loved as a kid. I wanted to make a thing that was satisfying, that delivered on its promises in a way that I felt like a lot of low-budget genre films of the past didn’t.

I wanted to make something that delivered on the epic poster art, but at the same time make something that had a familiar emotional arc, subverting it as much as possible without taking away from the satisfying kind of build up and climaxes that those types of stories have.

I feel like in this day and age, telling a conventional story is almost taboo. The idea of having a traditional story arc is frowned upon. So I liked the idea of committing to that, but then also just using it as a through-line to hang all kinds of weirdness, and go on all sorts of bizarre digressions. I also liked the idea of shocking people a little bit and lulling them into a sense of familiarity, but then doing something totally off the wall just to throw them off.

Mimi is such an interesting twist on the wholesome little girl in the creature feature. Was casting the role hard? Did you audition a lot of actors for that part?

We did a lot of auditions. It was definitely a big concern going into the movie. On the page it all read great and everybody was excited about the idea of this crazy little girl being our protagonist, but finding somebody that could pull that off definitely had the producers nervous.

Nita [Hanna] was one of our first auditions. Even though her audition performance wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, I could tell that there was a level of professionalism there that I wasn’t getting from the other auditions. So, we had her come back for subsequent auditions, and every time I talked through the role, she just got better and better.

Big question now, brace yourself: what was it like working with Rich Evans?

[Laughs] It’s such a small cameo from him! I reached out and asked if he’d be interested, and he agreed. I sent him a rough version of the scene that he’s in, and he recorded me a good like 15, 20 minutes of audio that I could just pull from. It was great. It was basically the barest minimum of interaction, but what he gave me was fantastic and I’m very thankful that he agreed to be a part of the movie because it’s a very weird choice of cameo.

You were into RedLetterMedia before you contacted him, I assume.

I’m a big RedLetterMedia fan. I watch all of their stuff and love their reviews. I’m a fan of anything that brings me back to the days of watching movies with my friends, because I feel like that’s informed who I am as a filmmaker. Watching other people shoot the shit about films and have that kind of casual discourse is very comforting and entertaining to me.

I’ve heard you’d be up for doing a Psycho Goreman sequel or a spinoff. Have there been any recent developments on that?

Nothing concrete, but there is definitely interest and people are asking about it. I think there will be more PG adventures in the future. I’d love to do more of it, I just want to figure out the smartest way forward is before actually diving into another project.

Thank you, Steve.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Psycho Goreman is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.

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ogrepixel · 6 years

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GDC18 Full Experience

Hey! For those who don’t know, my name is Steve Duran and since 2014 I created an indie game development studio from México called Ogre Pixel where we create fantasy stories in form of indie video games.

So far we create pixel art styled mobile games and since the middle of last year I work full time in this business.

GDC18 was my first GDC ever.

Prior GDC

Every year since 2015 I have always wanted to go to GDC, but for reasons like my day job, the lack of USA VISA and even money I wasn’t able to do it.

In 2017 my wife and I made the effort to get the USA VISA thinking in going on vacation to the USA and also thinking in attending this kind of events like GDC.

This was the first time I would be attending GDC! So I started reading a lot of tips and videos about the conference, because of that I made a lot of business cards, bought candies, registered for parties, prepared a demo for our game Pixel Stars and a couple of weeks before we thought about a cool game concept and rushed on that becoming this into Jumper Jon demo.

I read about the importance of having a goal for GDC, for me, the goal was to enjoy the experience (as a first timer), learn about how everything works and show 2 game demos to press and people: Pixel Stars and Jumper Jon.

Last 4 weeks before GDC we had a lot of work rushing on game demos, because of that I didn’t get enough sleep. I was afraid the effort wouldn’t be worth it because maybe game demos wouldn’t be ready and/or people wouldn’t like them after all.

The stress prior GDC was huge!

On my way

When the day came, Jumper Jon demo was not ready (nothing happened after defeating the boss), stickers did not arrive in time but at least Pixel Stars demo was working pretty well (tested it on iPad that day in the morning).

This was the first time I would be going outside the country on my own, that wasn’t easy either, however, I kept myself thinking about it as an adventure.

I traveled from my city Aguascalientes to Guadalajara on a 3 hours trip on bus, after that I took a flight to San Jose California on a 4 hours trip on air, after that I waited like 1 hour for a bus to take me to San Francisco Airport, took the 1 hour trip to SFO Airport on that bus and finally took a 30 minutes trip on BART to a station near Moscone Center (Powell station).

A good thing about going 4 hours on air was that I was able to finish Jumper Jon demo =D! I added the intro and outro images to demo and with that, it was some kind of finished.

Just arriving near the Moscone Center I bought a 5-bucks hotdog and went to the Hotel when I stayed with a very good friend.

GDC Week

Monday in the morning I went to Moscone West to pick my badge. The feeling when going inside the building and watching all that people with GDC badges was really great.

As other game devs, always talking about this with other people feels pretty good, now, being in the same place with thousands of people who are also fascinated by the game development is really a very comforting experience.

I won’t describe what I experienced at every moment the whole week, but I will give a quick summary and will highlight the best moments on GDC:

Overall my GDC week was spent between few meetings, parties, events, networking and a couple of expo hours.

Meetings

As one of my goals for this GDC was to show Pixel Stars and Jumper Jon to people and press, I scheduled a couple of meetings to show it to good friends, a couple of streamers and press.

This was very important for us because was the result of a lot of work weeks before GDC… The good thing was that Pixel Stars and Jumper Jon had a great reception from the people who played them.

Even if these games are very different from each other, both of them were liked by people =).

Here are a couple of videos from Touch Arcade where I’m showing our games:

youtube

http://toucharcade.com/2018/03/23/gdc-2018-jumper-jon-and-pixel-stars/

Parties

Parties on GDC are something very cool because that’s the perfect place for networking, meeting cool and interesting people and also meeting good old friends.

I went to a couple of Unity parties, one of them was the keynote where we knew about the new stuff coming for the engine. There we could meet one of the guys who created Unity: Joachim Ante and that was really great.

A cool party I attended which was really great was The Other Party, that one was great because I was able to pick a free table and show Jumper Jon demo for playtesting.

That was very fun because a lot of people went to our table and went through the demo from the beginning to end (demo lasts like 3 minutes).

I received a lot of feedback, good comments and the most rewarding was that people asked us about when it would be available because they wanted to buy it at that same moment =D.

I was also able to show Jumper Jon demo on another party called BYO INIDE (Bring your own indie) there I was able to pick a table too, set up the demo and people went there to check it.

Pretty much was the same result, a lot of people enjoyed it.

Showing Jumper Jon on the parties was one of the best moments from GDC because I felt all the effort was totally worth it, we spent a lot of time programming, making art and designing the level… Knowing that people really liked it was very comforting.

Events

The best events for me on GDC were the Independent Games Festival Awards and the Game Developers Choice Awards.

I will describe the feeling of being there and watching the Awards with just one word: Inspiring.

Watching all that talented people receiving awards, giving their speech and sharing on stage situations that many of us game devs live is something really inspiring.

Networking

Networking most of the time was made during the parties… Even if on the Moscone center and Yerba buena garden there is a lot of people around, resting or working on their computers, networking is not very good there (at least for me).

I sat down there a couple of times but I made it because I wanted to finish something or send a mail or just to charge my cell phone.

There I tried to speak with people and it worked most of the times but, for other people, they sometimes just didn’t want to talk, maybe because they were tired or something (I didn’t talk to people I found was busy).

So for networking, I would suggest parties.

Expo

Something I really missed on this GDC was the expo.

I was at the expo and could give an overall check but unfortunately I couldn’t enjoy it in detail. I was just walking through it when the GDC ended and I had to go out =(

Taking the following pic was really sad because that was the end of GDC.

Conclusions

Some friends told me that if game development is my passion I had to attend GDC… Now I can confirm that because as this is the largest professional game industry event in the world this is the meeting point for game designers, programmers, artists, producers and artists from the global game development community.

And that is absolutely awesome.

Here I made a small list of tips for everyone who is planning to attend GDC in the future:

Define a goal for your GDC attendance and work for that goal prior GDC (make a demo, a good presentation, schedule meetings)

Bring at least 200 business cards

Join the Fellowship of the GDC Parties facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheFellowshipOfParties/)

Bring a fully charged power bank all the time

If you want to show a game on parties (for free) register to the right parties and attend earlier

If you like swags and stuff go to the expo on Wednesday and take your time to check it

Take a good sit at the Awards and enjoy the show

Share business cards with everyone and take a pen with you and write down on business cards who is who so you can remember the people you met.

Business cards I received:

Last but not least I want to recommend the GDC attendees to take a time and enjoy San Francisco, this place is amazing too:

Well, that’s all, I tried to summarize my GDC experience as a first timer, I definitely want to attend next year and hope this read is helpful for the people who are planning to go and get the best experience.

Thanks for reading, hope you like it, feel free to stay in touch with us through our social media and discord server

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Discord: discord.me/ogrepixel

Steve =)

#ogre pixel #gdc #gdc18 #video games #game development #indie game #indieaf

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