blueduplicity

[blueduplicity]

i just saw SUCH a great tiktok about people insisting on keeping politics out of online communities and i was just nodddinggggggggg.

[blueduplicity]

I want to tell a story to the artists and would-be artists out there.

When I was 19, I made a large oil painting of the nerd I would eventually marry. I poured all my attention and care into this painting. It's the only art I have from back then that still holds up as a work I'm proud of today.

I entered it into a judged show at the local art center. It got an honorable mention. I went to see the show with my beloved model. One of the judges came up to talk to me, and highlighted that all the judges really liked the painting. It would have placed, except, you see, the feet were incorrect. They were too wide and short, and if I just studied a bit more anatomy-

I called over my future wife, and asked her to take off her shoe. Being already very used to humoring me, she did. The judge looked at her very short, very wide little foot. Exactly as I'd lovingly rendered it. I would never edit her appearance in any way.

The judge looked me in the eye, and to his credit, he really looked like he meant it when he said "Oh I'm so sorry."

Anyways the moral of the story is that all of those anatomy books that teach you proportions are either showing you averages, or a very specific idea of an idealized body. Actual bodies are much more varied than that.

So don't forget to draw from observation, and remember that humans aren't mass produced mannequins. Delight in our variation. Because it's supposed to be there.

[blueduplicity]

The problem with commercial F/M romance is that it's written by the most heterosexual women alive and reading it you feel yourself slowly suffocating from the Gender of it all like a fish in a eutrophying lake. And what we actually need as a culture is F/M written by insane bisexuals violently allergic to heteronormativity

[blueduplicity]

I wanna get over it but I'm actually getting more and more upset the more time passes? I honestly don't want to be, but I feel like I'm grieving for the characters and the world I put my time and love into on most days of a decade now. Like, I really mean daily even if it's not been on Tumblr for the entire time.

For many of us, these characters found us during a really dark time and we don't call them our emotional support characters for nothing. And to have all that history so dismissively handwaved by the devs in their social media posts is actually hurtful as hell on a personal level...

(I get that 117 choices is insane and would take up an unreasonable amount of resources and limit storytelling. But I did expect 8 or 10, even if half of them just lead to codex entries. That would have been fine! I mostly expected that there wouldn't be choices from DAO and DA2 as well, but Inquisition?

How will they even give a throwaway mention to the Inquisitor's romance like they did for Hawke in dialogue in DAI, if you can't even select that Cass is Divine or Bull, Blackwall or Cullen are dead? You can't even say oh they're at home doing this and that. At best romances like Dorian or Josephine will get some content while others get none. At worst the romance choice input is actually just there to ask if you romanced Solas. Yes, I'm hella upset at that even as I am currently obsessed with Solavellan.)

Because most importantly this just makes the whole world of Thedas feel.. idk cold? Knowing that there is nothing to make it feel like we affected anything in the world so far and that so many of the characters we love will never appear again because they once gave us a choice involving them. Like, do I now need to hope I don't get any major choices for the new characters I fall in love with because that means they'll never bring them back again?? Better not get attached?? Is that really what you want to teach your players?

I don't have any hope that they are self-reflecting enough or care enough to do this, but maybe if the backlash is bad enough they'll start working on a patch that at least contains some codex entries and ambient voice lines? That's like my one piece of copium I can try to actually suspend disbelief for rn. Apparently I've entered the bargaining stage..

I've been hardcore hyping about Veilguard since 11 June (which happens to have been my birthday and like that was the best part of it for me) and I really don't want to feel this way, but I do and I don't know how to describe it other than I'm grieving.

This line currently feels immeasurably ironic...

[blueduplicity]

it makes me so fucking angry. Why do palestinians trying to escape genocide have to ask how you are. Why do they have to apologize for sending asks. Why must every message stast with saying they wish the reader well, they they hope you're doing okay, that they're so sorry to bother you. Do these people have to act nice and sweet for anyone to care? Do they have to make sure you're doing well before they have the right to ask for anything? Its horrific.

[blueduplicity]

cw: ya pregnant

you tell the family you’re pregnant during a regular miya dinner.

ma’s smiling through her rice, too overjoyed to cover her mouth, an expected reaction.

but atsumu? he’s pissed.

“ya pregnant?!” he looks at you for a millisecond then to his brother. you’ve never seen shock transform into fury so fast. “and ya didn’t tell me?!”

“we just told ya, doofus.” osamu remarks while turning his body to place a palm on your belly as if to shield you and your growing child from his ire.

the answer flummoxes atsumu even further. “no, ya shit—“

“language.”

“—turd wad!” he corrects without missing a beat, ma’s reprimand just as inevitable as it is futile. “why didn’t ya tell me earlier?”

“what’d ya want me to do? facetime ya while she was pissing on the fuc—“

“language.”

“—flipping stick?”

the blonde twin looks at his brother as if he were an idiot.

“yes!” the answer basically expels like a demon exorcised out of his body, shaking him from hair to toes.

“are ya crazy?!”

atsumu stands which triggers osamu’s fight or flight (it’s just fight) response. he stands too.

“you’re the crazy one if ya think i didn’t deserve to know that moment ya find out!!”

the two are swapping fists now and though it’s not a reaction you expected, you’re not unused to it either. ma steals osamu’s chair, sliding in next to you as you ignore both her boys and she places half her portion of vegetables onto your plate.

“congratulations, baby,” she says while giving you a messy kiss to the temple of your head. you’re sure she’s left a grain of rice in her wake. “eat more. ya got a miya to feed now.”

[blueduplicity]

let's say for a second that x reader fanfic means literally that- the character in focus is paired with you, the reader. are you REALLY going to expect an author (who likely lives a few hundred or thousand miles away from you) to know EXACTLY what you're going to say/do/think? if you're requesting or commissioning a fic, that's one thing. but the vast majority of fics are going to be written based on what's happening in the story, according to the dynamic the author wants to set up within the universe.

fact: you are not part of the Canon universe, so already we are practicing suspension of disbelief. good job! hang on to that and use that to finish reading the story that the author has so graciously posted, FOR FREE. FOR YOU TO ENJOY.

fact: baby, it's all fiction. it's all make believe. you wouldn't fucking say that? guess what? you just did, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it because I wrote it. not you.

[blueduplicity]

[blueduplicity]

the kids online safety act passed the u.s. senate.

long story short (for anyone who hadn't heard of this before) the kids online safety act, aka kosa, is a bill that will censor online content and resources for lgbtq+ matters, reproductive healthcare, activism (INCLUDING PALESTINE AND LIKELY OTHER CRISES GOING ON LIKE IN CONGO OR SUDAN), mental health, etc. everywhere--its effects likely won't be contained to just america.

today, july 30th, 2024, the senate passed it 91-3. it has officially moved to the house of representatives.

is this a pretty massive setback? yes. do you have every right to be scared, sad, angry, or whatever else about this happening? absolutely. but should you give up hope completely? NO!

even though kosa passed the senate, the house is on break/august recess at the moment. we have around an entire month to get emails, calls, and faxes in to house reps, maybe more depending on when they decide to vote on it.

should it pass the house and get signed into law, we still have a whole 18 months before it actually goes into effect. this is plenty of time for digital rights orgs (e.g. fight for the future, the electronic frontier foundation) and other groups that oppose it to file a lawsuit against it. even if, worst-case scenario, it flies through the house immediately after the recess ends, we can still fight this up to march 2026.

so, yes, remember what's at stake here, but also remember that it's not over yet. we lost a battle, not the war.

below are some resources to learn more about kosa and how to contact your reps (first link) + a page that lets you directly contact progressive house reps, sign an open letter opposing the bill, and view others' testimonies against it (second link):

FIGHT. FIGHT. FIGHT.

[blueduplicity]

a non-selective plan for the resurgence of fic commissions

[blueduplicity]

The downside of following so many wonderful writers purely for their writing style and not the characters is I'm subjected to a lot of other posts about these characters that I don't actually like LMFAO really popular characters too so it floods tf out of my feed

[blueduplicity]

I really think everyone needs to truly internalize this:

Fictional characters are objects.

They are not people. You cannot "objectify" them, because they have no personhood to be deprived of. They have no humanity to be erased. You cannot "disrespect" them, because they are not real.

[blueduplicity]

[blueduplicity]

the first time toge meets you, he turns to his friends and signs just to them. Hand open, he rolls his fingers across the front of his face and closes his hand in front of his chin, tracing an oval around his face. Every now and again, he repeats it, turning to Yuuta with a firm, serious face as he does the motion. He signs it as if it's the most serious thing he's ever had to say.

"What did Inumaki say about me?" you ask later, far out of earshot of the man in question. "Was it bad?"

"What?" Yuuta crinkles his nose in delight as he repeats the motion, "You mean this sign?"

"Yeah."

Yuuta laughs. "It means beautiful. He thinks you're very pretty."

[blueduplicity]

hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

[blueduplicity]

sukuna is this bad boy womanizer that claims that he'll never settle down, and then you happen and BAM. he's in your shared kitchen, heating up a bottle for your baby so you can get a bath and a glass of wine

he's like. wait how the fuck did THIS happen?

[blueduplicity]

i think writing reader-inserts is a special kind of love. it's like, i love you, im going to give you an epic love story. i love you, im going to put you into a world filled with magic. i love you, may you spend your desire with you f/o. i love you, im going to make you the dream you deserve. but also, i love you, here's a part of me, woven into words so it may bring you joy. i love you