#<- to make this post easier to find im sorry its not a creation

[beanbagbuddies4life]

Simplicity Crafts 8091 looks like mostly generic beanbag animals... but Simplicity Crafts 8472 and Butterick 5295 look like potentially Beanie Baby replicas and spoofs. (That Butterick pattern is for sure-- that rabbit is spot on!)

These patterns are probably small enough to scan and upload. Just saying. Should anyone get their hands on one

[ghostiezone]

YESSSS HI ROS I LOVE YOU FOR THIS . THANK YOU. IM GOING CRAZY OVER HERE . putting. most of this under a cut bc its gonna get Long

I DONT KNOW HOW MUCH U KNOW ABOUT OFF. so i am going 2 give a very quick rundown of the basics. french rpg game where you play as a guy called the batter who declares its his "holy mission" to purify the world, aka kill a bunch of ghosts and creatures that are haunting the land. i wont get into spoilers until later so this is basically all u need to know for now.

ZACHARIE is like. sans undertale but for people in 2008. hes a 4th wall breaking merchant that talks over the batter's shoulder directly to the player, referencing the fact that theyre in a video game etc etc. i love him dearly. (off as a whole does a lot of cool 4th wall break stuff, the player (you) is as much of a character involved in the story as anyone onscreen. very cool. anyway)

so. in the second zone of the game you are in this library trying to find codes in some of the books. most of the books are kind of nonsense flavor text so the codes stand out easier with the exception of ONE. called "the toad king and the merchant". its written as a fairy tale, ("once upon a time" in the beginning and everything) and it very briefly tells the story of a king whose "actions and appearance were so repulsive he was named the Toad King" until one day a man in a mask shows up in the kings court to challenge him to a duel and eventually kills him. now this is NEVER officially confirmed in canon but its. very heavily implied that the hero in this story is supposed to be zacharie. man in a mask AND a merchant . etc etc u get the point

SO HERES WHERE I WILL GET INTO SOME. SPOILERS. so beware. the game has been out since 2008 but its suuuch a good story to go into completely blind AND a lot of it is very open ended and everyone sort of interprets it differently so this is entirely just. my point of view how i personally like to interpret the story. so not everyone will feel this way but its how *I* feel and thats all i care about rn 😌 my blog i get ti make the rules etc.

ok ive stalled enough spoiler time: at the end of the game you sort of find out that this world youve been "purifying" is actually the creation of a very sick little boy named hugo. he's trapped in his room bc of his unspecified terminal illness so he creates this entire world to entertain himself so he has something to do/people to talk to etc. a LOT of the characters that you meet in the story are like... simulacra of people who hugo knows in his real life (ex: its implied that the "queen" trapping hugo in his room is his mother, the batter is his father, etc.) so he created the batter (the character) as a representation of his real father, who would sometimes bring him comic books to read. these comic books featured a guy dressed as a baseball player as the main villain, and hugo was angry at his father for not letting him leave and bringing him books he didnt want, so he sort of combined the two in this world in his head. im getting off track here but god i could talk about OFF for hours dude. ok. back to zacharie

theres a scrap of paper you can find in Hugo's room at some point that says something to the effect of zacharie is his best friend/the nicest person he knows. so this is where we get into my personal takes on the situation: hugo at one point had been given the toad king fairy tale to read, and latched onto this hero and made him a permanent fixture in his imaginary land. etc etc something to the effect of having a hero who would slay the evil king keeping all of his subjects trapped in their kingdom; hugo wsnting someone to do that for him too, so he creates a version of that hero to be his friend. which gives us. the zacharie we see in the game.

does this make ANY sense. im realizing now that ive just spent 90% of this post explaining the plot of OFF and not actually talking about my backstory stuff. sorry. here we go.

i am going 2 direct everyone who has read this far to THIS VIDEO which i saw for the first time when i was first getting super into OFF back in like. 2015 or so. and let me tell you it is absolutely instrumental for so many of my zacharie thoughts. i love it so much

so the way i like to think about it is. zacharie was a sort of travelling merchant; he carried around all of his wares on his back as he moved from town to town/kingdom to kingdom. (he always kept his face covered too, but i am taking artistic liberty with the reasoning behind this because i have not decided which reason i like best. so its a mystery. important part is he wears a mask over the lower half of his face. oooooo mysterious). because he was also alone on the road so much, he carried a sword with him and knew how to defend himself. when he first visited the Toad King's kingdom, he saw how miserable the people were, but they still welcomed him in and treated him as kindly as one of their own, and he knew he had to do Something to help them. he wasnt a fighter, he wasnt some trained hero, he was just. a guy who happened to kind of know how to use a sword and wanted to do something good with it.

the king in my mind started off as just some horrible evil guy, but he was cursed by a witch or a sorcerer who he had offended somehow. this curse turned him into a giant humanoid toad, and everyone who ever set eyes on his face would be forever filled with hatred and fear (etc etc something like that. fairy tale curse.)

oh shit cool fight scene etc etc. i like to think zacharie has his add-ons at this point simply because i LOVE the guardian angel imagery that would evoke but i have not fully decided on how/when he gets his add-ons. ill thunk abt the logistics of that later. imagine if you will, though. a man in a hooded cape with most of his face covered walks into the king's court and announces that he's challenging the king to a duel. the king laughs in his face and boasts that no one has ever beaten him in a fight before, what makes this stranger think he's so tough. the king goes to attack him and he throws the cape off to reveal a sword and a glowing halo and wings. GOD thats so cool. its so like. basic fantasy fairy tale type stuff but i gotta admit im weak for that sometimes.

zacharie wins the fight, but just before hes about to kill the king, in one last act of defiance the king chooses zacharie as his heir, and when zacharie kills him it transferrs the king's curse onto him.

not wanting the sudden responsibility of an entire kingdom on his shoulders, especially with the effects of the curse, zacharie hides his face again and flees the kingdom. he felt guilty for leaving them without a ruler so suddenly, but hoped that now that the evil king was gone, they could rebuild themselves on their own. his sudden disappearance + the description of angel wings from the people who witnessed the fight kind of immortalized him in the eyes of that village as some sort of mythical hero: a guardian angel who disguises himself as a humble merchant and rids the world of evil tyrants to protect the people who treat him kindly etc etc etc. this is where the book comes from. ... when in reality hes just . some guy who wanted to do the right thing once and got cursed for it

FAST FORWARD HOWEVER LONG to the events of OFF, this version of zacharie that hugo created isnt exactly the same guy but he believes he is/remembers being that guy in the story. but because he's been living with the curse for so long he found ways to get it under control: make himself appear more humanoid (with a few exceptions; eyes, neck, skin, etc), wearing full masks to hide his face so nobody gets affected by that aspect of the curse, etc. he just goes back to being a travelling merchant again, but hes way more weird and offputting and unhinged about it . the beloved.

god this got . so very long and i didnt even talk about everything i am SO sorry but if u want 2 know anything more specific pleaseeeee feel free 2 ask me about it im literally buzzing irl because ive been thinking abt this for so long AUGH

do u guys want to hear my thoughts about zacharie's backstory because i think about it so much. i unlocked something in my brain with that art earlier and i cannot stop thinking about pre-toad king zacharie.

[madfantasy]

I haven't seen you post in a while, I hope you've been doing okay? How is everything? Hope it's been a good year so far for you 💕💕

You're too kind, u & everyone who made inquiries, bless ur hearts.. im sorry for disappearing, but yeah, I don't have net— using my phone credit and hope this posts..

I tried to record my voice answering this, like I sometimes did on tik, suddenly ended up trying to muffle the floods of my burning tears, so now I have an awkward vid of me talking then weeping out of nowhere, which a good reason for me to keep up the no cry habit, heh.. but seriously, I suppose I'm fine till I be conscious of it.. its much easier for not to talk .. even tho I'm aching to be back in thy company, lonely in my foresight to catch on to the present that joins us, hand held out to reach like minded souls but shying from the fear of forgetfulness occurring..

I'm fine tho, did few new stuff, merely drowning in too muchness and nothingness as usual, this month I guess you could say I took an act of mad fury in search of any happy source because the echoing silence and the swarm of sadness nipping on my brain cells thickened, and the reasoning merged with the obscene. So instead of giving my guardians the usual of 3/4 of my earnings last month for net and groceries, I spent it all. Ya know, as it was told to me it mine to do as I please? As being prevented any chance of work if it was possible, 't was supposed to be spent on art supplies & measly delights craved for years ?

Before hand, I've been begging them to take me for months to get any clothing or whatever, be it the first time I ever see a shop, then just to drive around, then just me peaking to the outside when the front door is open, merely seeking change I suppose. They kept vaguely promising me until they refused point blank— getting tired of my nagging, then their car just stopped working till this day. Its in the workshop rn..

Anyway, befouled by despair, needing the mere basics of life and not granted, I was delighted when i found a site to buy from cheap & pretty, I pressed buy without any further considerations, or taking their permission and thrilled to be able get gifts for my siblings too. I say gifts but really they are deprived necessities too and not even much just one each cuz well, they are 5 of my babies and to start with the top of priorities; we all draw

I could already see it, they can't help themselves; heck seeped through the clenched gates of their mouths, trying desperately to poison me with undirect attempts this time, cuz I bought for my sibs they're out of the option of calling me selfish. I was upping the same trance like state of vague existence dealing with them, absorbing their insults and degrading just to make sure my shi arrives safe.

Unfortunate for me, the site chose the worst carrier in this country

I did everything in my power to make it into their convenience, by embarrassingly messaging the carrier daily, they took a week of promising to deliver and flanking so my guardians reached a heated level of threatening, waving their hands nd almost tossing shi at mE saying that they don't care if they came and if i dared to order something again they'll do this and that. Not allowing me to open the door for the delivery guy when he comes, blaming me for missing vaccination dates (they kept missing them even before)& missing going to important places(again, they just didn't go to for ages), made them loose sleep, etc etc— in turn, I seen red and regretfully blew up.

I screamed at them its literally the only time I ever did this, it BECAUSE it easier on them & I'll do what I want whatever anyway, & to stop interrupting me while I try to explain things , then they suddnly back done and be like I'm not mad at u I'm mad at the delivery ppl, that they are proud of me for being able to do all this, and such sort. I left them to cool in my room, Idk how I did it but must have slam-gripped something so hard it chipped most of my short nails & cracked one, was glad I didn't hurt my drawing hand but yeah, goofy mani

They robbed me of the joy of anticipation & the dissipation of apathy, I started to lose sleep again and my liberating dreams left me and I don't think I remember leaving bed.

But still, If not force myself to do things.. there'll be nothing for me if I don't.. at least I know im able of that

I got my guardians happy tho after another tiresome refusal, by trying out one of those Uber-eat like local apps here, since they have no car and being disabled & ill, I ordered McDonald's for the first time. Slythry behind their backs per habit, told them someone coming and they had that look again, but thankfully the guy came through and didn't steal my money, heh. For a big 1800 calories meal I suppose it was passable, the happy fam faces I got was the real treat..

Oh with that thing with the credit card stating I owe them money, waited weeks & nobody got back to us? They started taking from my guardian's account directly to pay it, saying oh we did send you warnings--- TO THE SHADOWY LINES OF THEIR POSTERIOR A.K.A NOWHERE. Thankfully the account is mostly empty nd just for random transactions, i alerted my guardians not to use it. And again, my god, another round of endless calls and promises started, and we wait again so they just don't act as if we owe them a frking 17k dollars that we don't have.. was panicking cuz I have nothing and but my guardians were weirdly comforting about it and told me not to worry

One thing good bout no net is it made me stop thinking about life in general, and stop the tiny unnoticeable prick of misery when I have no input to share, trying not to helplessly compare people just living, in inflated style or not, in media, to my isolated-most-of-my-life style and missing much of that organic "life experiences and chances", heh. At least, my situation would be favorable to me if it was ever possible for it to let me have peace, or have the simple knowledge I'm not virtually imprisoned and have never familiarised with nothing of this world but the surrounding walls.. its nice to have more time to be consumed by muse and day dreaming that flutters life through my dull being and sing chorus of inspiring means for art to flow and finds its way delicately onto my realised canvas.. but no, I continued drawing whilst sight blurred with salty droplets contradicting that happy tintin dance on tiktok I worked so long on just cuz I couldn't stop, not the tears or the mad scribbles of determined intention to visualise the mourned excitement I need, hating everything I make

Somehow the lilac dream still intrudes, visualising me friends, living, in a quaint home, maybe we roommate, arm in arm we go to make every fracture of fate's encounters a disgusting adventurous thrill, like building a maze of cardboard or chasing each other in the dark.. maybe getting that half bleached head and endless ear pericings ... then it dies and I totally forget it..

But what those awesome headphones helped me do, literally blocks all their voices listening to Sev losing it and I can Waltz around not feeling gutted to go and interfere or play the referee each time. But I can't wear them forever, gives me a bad headache, and honestly; I can't be too neglectful.. my sibs hates me for it already hehe

At least these clothing came true to their measurements, felt the new sensations on how everything I wore hugs me & learnt the baffling ways on how "gender" and region plays different tunes on the same measurements. Getting fitting things felt like suddenly there's hope to be, for myself to be me, and ease this severe disassociation between who I am, and what my body is .. from how little I see myself nd consider it worthy of anything because of how long it been living like a phantom among people.. to numb this dysphoria until it be gone one day

Saddened that the only site I can't order from again if they keep using that awful carrier

...

I missed our country's 91 national day, too. They made sales everything 91 riyal so.. but knowing the sellers here, I don't think most of em went true with their offers.. Horrible news tho on the celebrations, sigh

I turned this into a dear diary, guess bothered you enough today, sorry

So thankful to yous, Idk if I can be back, but I'll remain creating, and will keep the thought alive of being tickled when sharing my creations with your viewing pleasure somehow

'till then my precious dears, take care 💛🙏

26.9.2021, 8 pm, sleeping

[bakujho]

Strap in folks, it’s rant time.

So, let's talk a bit about manipulation and abuse present in fandom. It’s uncomfortable, but fuck it lets go, I’m tired of the “good vibes only” push that sweeps all this shit under the rug. I’m not pretending to be an expert by a longshot here and I’m happy to discuss, but I have dealt with enough abusive and manipulative people personally and professionally to spot em a fucking mile away and generally keep my distance. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed a gross trend where there are people being attacked, then are guilted into keeping quiet because the Abusers make it seem like it’s not worth mentioning or that it doesn’t really matter... Unfortunately, the Abusers know exactly what they’re doing, they’re really fucking good at it, and they know exactly the kind of response they’re going to receive (because in some cases, this isn’t the first fandom they’ve pulled this same shit in). 

Right off the bat though, lets get some basic facts about fandom out of the way. No one in fandom owns any character: be it interactions, personality or anything else about said character. No fandom creator owns an idea, or has any right to tell people off for having similar ideas/techniques/styles etc. There’s no such thing as a completely original singular thought, and pretty sure if you think of something ‘original’, there’s inspiration from another source. No one owns a hairstyle, a costume, a backstory, a colour scheme, an item, a scar etc etc. If someone has a similar thing, neat, clearly you’ve got similar tastes. If someone has a carbon copy of your creation on multiple points, ABSOLUTELY question it, but having the same hairstyle isn’t copyright infringement, and having a similar history isn’t ripping someone off, it’s coincidence. 

Going to put the rest under the cut, CW for manipulation tactics, abuse, and all those sorts of goodies.

So, I’ll start with the Abusers here. Everyone knows who they are, they know who they are, unfortunately the victims of them are worried about speaking out because, for the most part, the ones abusing people are in a position of perceived power and speaking out against them can put the victim in a tricky position. No one wants to be ousted from a fandom they enjoy for speaking out against someone that’s been around fandom since its inception. Which brings me to my first point.

Power: Abusers LOVE the feeling of having power (be it follower count, general clout, perceived hierarchy etc) and get really uncomfortable when they feel someone new comes to threaten their position. So, what do these people do in that situation? Option A is to completely ignore and hope they’re not dethroned, Option B is befriend immediately and subtly manipulate the person to keep a close eye on their actions. Keep your friends close, but enemies closer amirite? 

So how the fuck does a person subtly manipulate another person, shouldn’t it be obvious? Fuck man, I wish. But there’s a lot of different techniques used to keep people reigned in and submissive: guilt tripping, evasion/diversion, attention seeking, lying, intimidation, playing the victim etc etc. So obviously these will all present differently based on the abuser, but the goal of all of them is the same. To stay in power, and keep control over everything they can. 

So how would all of these present online? (of course these examples leave some wiggle room for context lost in text/translation/cultural differences etc, but for the most part it all fits the same pattern that the abuser would use in a face to face situation). 

Guilt- tripping: “Well you wouldn’t be here if not for me” “You owe me for your place in the fandom” “well if we really were friends you’d do this for me…” etc etc. Things that pit your emotional attachment to the Abuser against you, the closer you are, the easier it is. Suddenly the Victim finds themselves indebted to the Abuser for their ‘friendship’ that the Victim didn’t realize was conditional. 

Shaming: Invalidating the victims feelings by saying things like “even a child knows better than this”, “it’s okay you don’t understand, you’re probably young”, “I’ve been around fandom longer so I know how things go” etc etc. It makes the Victim feel like they’ve done something wrong by drawing boundaries for themselves, or sticking up for themselves. Remember, the Abuser doesn’t want to lose their crown so they will talk down to their Victims to make them more unsure of their stance, second guess themselves, and feel bad that they spoke up in the first place. 

Projection: “Others have done X to me, I would NEVER do the same” It’s a simple yet effective tactic. The Abuser takes the things they’ve done to people, say it happened to them, and shift the blame to the now faceless enemy so the Victim feels obligated to side with the abuser because, yea, those things mentioned fucking SUCK and no one wants to experience it. No one wants to be that asshole saying “no you deserved it” (because no one fucking deserves to be doxxed, swatted, hacked, etc etc)

Playing-the-victim: Abusers LOVE playing this game. It’s their bread and butter to set the stage for manipulation. “Having a really hard time rn, sorry im such a fuckup”, “struggling with mental health”, “this is all so hard for me” (legit though, if you are struggling please seek help where/when you can, mental health is important). So any of these statements alone can be harmless, and overlooking someone's mental health can have dangerous outcomes, HOWEVER, when these sort of statements are paired with the other things mentioned, it’s no longer simply a vent or a way to work past personal demons, it’s a way to gain sympathy and support, and it is very intentionally done to garner that emotional response from those that will listen to them. 

Attention-Seeking: can be as simple as “no one interacts with me anymore”, making a dramatic vague post, deleting that same post and making a newer, more dramatic post but this time seeking affirmation from the good responses of the last post, posting cryptic messages that ooze “ask me what happened” (vaguebooking is a plague), basically anything that is asking for a response without asking. How is it manipulative though? Guilt. If you’re aware of the Abuser, these types of posts are meant to abuse the Victim's sense of empathy, the natural response to these sorts of posts is “what happened, I’m sorry that happened to you”. 

Diversion/Evasion: straight up changing the subject or switching the blame to anywhere BUT the Abuser. The Abuser says “change X you’re copying me”, the Victim responds “I feel I didn’t copy you”, and the Abuser presses “well the fandom might not think so” and changes it from a personal issue to a larger, more aggressive problem. In this case, the Abuser is the ONLY one with a problem, but are purposely misleading the victim to take the blame off themselves. It’s not THEIR problem, it’s the FANDOMS problem...now making it the Victims problem. 

Blame: Abusers love to blame everyone BUT themselves for their perceived problems. Fandom isn’t interacting with them as much? It’s the fandom that’s dying. More drama in the fandom? Well there’s too many people here now. Getting called out for bad behavior? That’s the problem of the person who CLEARLY doesn’t understand how fandom must work. It’s the age old tale of “I’m perfect, it’s obviously everyone else who is wrong”. At what point does the Abuser realize that they may be the cause for their own misery? They don’t. 

Intimidation: This is a fun one that’s usually a last resort because if the Abuser is pretending to be a sheep caught in a snowstorm, it doesn’t look good for them to publicly announce they’ve been the wolf the whole time. It looks like “well I have X on you”, “if you only knew what I could say about you”, and “I could ruin you” type shit. Of course, in most cases, the Victim hasn’t done anything to warrant this sort of aggression, but the queen is losing her pawns and is now grasping for anything to fight back with. And who knows what sort of lengths the Abuser has gone to to gain information on the victim. It’s pretty easy to find out a lot about a person online, so the Victims back down due to the threat of the unknown.

Avoidance: refusing to talk about the problem, which is an issue I have with fandom itself, in this case. The “no drama good vibes only” is so fucking detrimental when there are problems that need to be addressed. An Abuser will push the narrative that they’re only here for a good time and don’t want drama, while actively creating drama in the shadows. Its not a problem if we don’t talk about it, right? If no one knows, it’s fine. It’s fine. No, it’s manipulative, and if there are problems they NEED to be talked about, because that’s how you find resolutions. 

Denial: This one ties in with avoidance and blame, in that the Abuser will straight up deny that they’ve ever been, or have ever created a problem. The Victim is making a big deal from nothing, they can’t control how others feel about them, so they’ve done nothing wrong. The Abuser will claim they had the best intentions when approaching someone, so clearly they have done nothing wrong. 

Lying: Including omitting any information from arguments that may paint the Abuser in a bad light. The Abuser absolutely doesn’t want anyone to find out what they’re up to, so they’ll say exactly what they need to to change the narrative surrounding them. It could be minor changes to conversations to complete fabrications. Ex “I only approached X to make sure they were okay after X happened”, but X screenshots tell a completely different story. It’s not always easy to catch an Abuser in a lie, especially when there’s the push for “no drama�� so no one talks about their personal experiences and can confirm/deny what was/reported to be said. 

So bringing all of those points together and bringing it back to the Abuser wanting to have the power to control what they like/don’t like in fandom. Once they have that feeling of invincibility, they may coyly ask people to delete posts that could lead back to them looking bad, politely ask another creator to change their creation because the Abuser doesn’t like it, or them asking nicely to stop interacting with another member of fandom the Abuser doesn’t like. It may not seem like much at a first glance...after all they asked nicely. However, once you look a little harder and a little longer, it becomes very clear that the intention is to stay in control. The Abuser will do ANYTHING to stay on top, and will employ every trick they have in their arsenal to sew discord and mistrust amongst other members of the fandom to keep the fingers pointed anywhere but at themselves.

So, sound familiar to anyone? My inbox is open for anyone who wants to chat about the topic. If I’ve now made you uncomfortable and you’re going to unfollow/block, cheers, wish you the best. And if you’re feeling called out and attacked by my post? GOOD, stop being a fucking shitty person. 

A few last reminders before adding some resources:

Setting and enforcing personal boundaries is not abuse.

Choosing not to interact with those who make you uncomfortable is not rude.

It is important to call out abuse when you encounter it, it could save someone from becoming a victim themselves.

Always stand up for yourself, you’re your own best advocate. 

Now for some resources: I used a few of these while researching along with my old textbooks from my psych, abnormal psych, and human relations classes I took back in university.

Manipulation tactics

How to recognize a guilt trip

How to spot an attention seeker

[ad1thi]

for everybody who isn’t indian - this is what is happening in india

there is so much misinformation going around, so i just want to clarify some things because nobody is getting the right information and its pissing me off

this isn’t an opinion piece, this is a piece on the facts of what is happening in india - all sources are linked

this is a series of events - and this is what is happening right the fuck now

/

1. During the drafting of the Constitution of India, the Constitution Drafting Committee decided that India as a state would not have a religious identity, and hat under Article 14 of the Constitution - all religious identities would be equal under the eyes of the law

2. In the 1970s, close to 10 million people left Pakistan and moved to India during a Civil War that eventually lead to the creation of Bangladesh

3. Of these 10 million, a reported 1.5 million chose to stay after the creation of Bangladesh as an independent state

3. Earlier this year - the Assamese government took steps to get rid of these refugees

4. This resulted in the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which was created in order to identify “illegal migrants”. Its important to note that the NRC always existed, it was just being updated for the first time ever

5. In order to find yourself on the NRC - among other things, citizens of the state of Assam needed to prove ancestral heritage to India. That is, they needed to prove that they lived in India before the mass migration 

6. The NRC was implemented, and close to 2 million people found themselves no longer considered to be citizens of India

7. The central government recently passed the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 - intended to provide a pass to citizenship for 6 religious minorities: Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Buddhists, Christians and Jains, from 3 specific countries - Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan

8. The central gov plans to conduct the NRC nationwide - that is, all citizens of India will soon be asked to prove their citizenship under the guidelines of the NRC

9. In tandem, the central gov aims to make obtaining citizenship easier for the religious minorities listed above

10. In protest to this Act, because it specifically defines only certain religious minorities - there have been protests around the country

11. One of these protests in particular, a march led by students of Jamia in Delhi turned violent 

12. The police got involved because, and I cannot stress this enough - local residents got involved and started setting fire to buses and private vehicles

13. The police retaliated by storming the university and attacking students who were not involved in the protests

14. Again, the STUDENTS did not get involved in the violence of the protests, but the protests themselves DID TURN VIOLENT

15. Similar extreme action has been seen by the police, even where protestors have legal permits to be protesting

16. The country is still at a stand-still between protestors who oppose the bill, and MPS who support the bill

/

this is the current state of affairs in India

again, this is not an opinion piece - this is just a post listing out the facts of the situation as they have been occurring

tagging a couple of people who that this goes around: @webheadstan, @spiderrpcrker, @rocknrollonthat45, @littlemissstark , @icarustarks , @lgbtonystarks, @rxmanoff , @starkrogerrs , @talesofsuspenses, @deathsweetqueen (if you didn’t want to be tagged im sorry)

/

edit: this post has now been updated to include a link to an extensive post on what the National Register of Citizens is

[merlinthoughts]

Season 1 Episode 4 - The Poisoned Chalice

- god fucking dammit here we go again, i'm bloody done with my life and do not, at all, want to see merlin die bc i don't remember anything except that, yeah, he dies and someone has to get off their ass and save the motherfucking day and kiss him

- i realise how much i swear in these posts bc 1. when do i not? 2. i'm emotionally invested 3. i have no other excuse i just like swearing

- AAAND NIMUEHS IN CAMELOT SHE THINKS SHE'S SO SLY WITH HER HEAD THING

- id recognise her in a split second tbfh, she aint subtle

- *heterosexual tension*

- merlins skin be looking so smooth this episode, this boy be wearing lots of Dove

- he looked so excited to be in the banquet, then arthur just fucking slashes him with “not quite” and his hopes and dreams are destroyed

- “wanna see what you’ll be wearing tonight?” arthur says as he's behind the fucking changing curtains, about to get undressed and show merlin his birthday suit

- i honest to god thought that was where he was going, but no, he was just getting something from behind it

- “tonight you’ll be wearing the official ceremonial robes of the servants of camelot” IT'S A FUCKING DRESS ISN'T IT

- aw damn id have preferred a dress

- that smile shared between them was the most adorable scene

- god

- i

- fucking

- love

- their

- smiles 

- sm

- best thing ive ever seen

- i mean… hunty look at that piece of glistening butter beauty

- wow ok back to the episode:

- bros being bros and giving each other a handshake to destroy the mortal enemy pack and put together a family, we stan.

- as if a servant who has only had eye sex with another servant ONCE would trust them enough to say that one of the chalices were poisoned. like??? “ur the only one i could tell” LMAO NO?

- she's a sly fucking dog tfbh

- “if he kills arthur, uthers soul will be broken and camelot will fall” at this rate uther prob wouldn't care if his son dies or not, look at him, he's already mentally broken. he has anxiety and paranoia over magic. child services where u at in the medieval ages?

- i wouldn't believe a word she said, or well, id have believed it was poisoned but id say yeah no damn way you aren't in on it if you know which one it is. bayard wouldn't tell a fucking servant.

- HE'S GONNA SNAP ISN'T HE

- MERLIN FUCKING SNAPPED

- yknow what we say here folks? U DO U MERLIN

- okay i was fine if uther made bayard drink it but like the moment uther said “mmmh… no.” and slowly turned to merlin i think my arteries just crunched together and died so

- “if it is poisoned, he’ll die” HE'S FUCKING SCARED MERLIN WILL PASS AWAY ISN'T HE?

- “it's fine” he says, then starts to fucking choke

- ah fuck he's down

- my boy is down

- FUCK ME SIDEWAYS WITH A CHAINSAW

- ARTHUR CROUCHES NEXT TO HIM LIKE “BB NO”

- lmfao bayard looks so shocked, his face is in disbelief and confusion, he's like who tf done me bad

- arthurs carrying merlin fireman style this is what i live for folks

- did like nobody notice the flower stuck on the inside of the cup? like honestly if you take a sip you’d kinda spot it or perhaps even the person pouring the drinks would have been “is this chamomile tea? no? then what the fuckery-doo is this leaf in here for?” yknow. it's like that scene in Matilda when the angry buff lady completely missed a fucking salamander in her cup when it was the size of her bloody hand. it brings out the same mood honestly

- does gaius have an index for these books or does he just have every page memorised and know exactly what page to go bc I FUCKING NEED THAT it would make bio so much easier if i knew what page it was on instead of looking back and forth from the homework sheet to my textbook, then closing it by accident and having to find the index again for that specific page i need

- arthur wants to fucking go on a life-or-death journey to save merlin i've never been so happy

- this is honestly my favourite episode, like it may be really fucking angsty but i love it so much

- arthur betrays his dad and leaves his room even after being told not to just so he can save a servants life is literally my new moto

- NO IT WON'T LOAD MY NETFLIX IS STUCK ON 99%

- okay so while i'm waiting for my shit to load, i just discovered the new fucking tumblr rule starting dec 17 and i'm like 0.2 inches away from just spamming NSFW pics on here just for laughs

- like hunty, that won't stop people from posting elsewhere or for thinking about sex bc like??? whatchu gonna do tumblr?? get the fbi to erase it from our minds

- i think nOT thot

- watch me get flagged for just using the fucking term “NSFW”

- i'm gonna end up asterisking everything (is asterisking a word? wow it has red under it so like probably not but i just added it to my dictionary so uhh it is now)

- by asterisking i dont mean furry kin shit ew no

- i mean like N*FW, s*x, t*mblr, m*rthur

- god it took me like 20 minutes to calibrate my fucking wifi and fix the connection problem

- wow the stage for the poison increased by 75% in 30 mins, damn

- merlins like like having a conniption on his bed lmao, chanting arthurs name and sweating lot

- do we ever find out how uther gets that scar bc i'm like 100% positive arthur was a little child and swayed his fucking sword too hard just as uther rounded the corner. the sword then collided into his fucking brain and destroyed a good part of his intelligence, targeting especially his morals on how to accept people and how to be a good father

- that’s my theory

- merlin starts talking enchantments in his sleep while gwens watching, and gaius is just there like wtf merlin ur blowing ur cover “oh! gwen!! uhhh sorry. he’s just... in a latin study group in his pastime and has an oral presentation in minutes”

- omg, nimueh, stfu

- i didn't know dinosaurs existed back then, this reptile be whack

- y’know what's funny? ppl thinking dinosaurs didn’t exist. i find creationism very very very intriguing bc how fucking stupid could you be

- that sword throw was faker than my moms tits

- arthur could have done better

- k but like what if merlin’s hand wasn’t under the covers? like he was just throwing that blue ball around right in front of gwen

- can arthur like not hear her? nimuehs literally enchanting the rocks right behind his ear lobes and arthur acts nothing of it until those said rocks collapse and he gasps and suddenly he realises shes evil

- also his fucking hair in this scene looks glorious. perhaps bc it's pushed back rather than his bowl cut, but its doing things to my abdomen

- i thought for a second she was pulling off her mask to say “nimueh” and arthur was gasping bc he only recognised her after her hair was shown, just like in that scene with joker and harvey in the hospital

- OH RIGHT THE SPIDERS I LIKE COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THOSE SONS OF A GUNS

- i’d be dead if those spiders came crawling up to eat me lmfao

- k so nimueh went from :) to >:D in half a second

- i'm smelling up those symbolisms, boys

- watch out pals cause here are some of them:

- merlin is the LIGHT of arthur’s life

- he LIGHTS up the party

- he gives arthur a BRIGHTER future

- he's the GUIDE for his path

- hahhahahaha

- i'm serious when i say i have a huge fear of insects (spiders count in that too, no discrimination) so i'm just putting that there, saying to yall id be fucking terrified

- gaius would be so confused, like we don't see his face here but merlins close-up sweaty concentrated frown, but he’s literally just screaming “ARTHUR!!” “FASTERRR!!” “YESS!!” “CLIMB!!!” gaius would be looking like he walked into something he wasn't supposed to. prob thinking he should just let the kid die so he doesn’t have to deal with this shit anymore

- UTHER LOCKED HIS SON AWAY I'M FUCKING QUESTIONING HIS PARENTING SKILLS

- that's grounding???? throwing ur child in prison???

- yes 999 can i have child services on his ass

- gwens so smart honestly i love her

- pretending to be a maiden for the food, god what a queen

- arthur buying it and saying “yuck you say this is food?! disgustang!”

- the fact that i misspelled disgusting but it autocorrected to disgustang (which is originally what i wanted but autocorrect shouldn’t have known) makes me consider if i should really check my dictionary…. who knows what words are on there

- they’re so smart

- and then this fucker ruins it all while eating his food, checking her out and saying yeah arthurs a prick, hyuck hyuck, realising only that wait fuck u aint the maiden

- how’d they know GWEN was the one not supposed to have delivered the food, what if it was that chick right there???

- welll….. maybe it's because gwen took her sweet time up those steps, staring as if she couldn’t blink at the guards below

- i forget what happens at the end of this episode besides the kiss, and there's like 9 minutes left my fingers may rot at this point

- wake him up! wake him up!

- OH WAIT HE DOESN'T FUCKING WAKE UP DOES HE AND EVERYONE PANICS

- YEAH OKAY I'M SEEING THAT NOW

- MERLIN STOPPED BREATHING

- LMAO GWEN IS IN TEARS

- “HE'S DEAD” SHE SAYS

- ARTHUR BB COME IN HERE TO KISS UR HUBBY ALIVE

- OH WAIT UR IN FUCKING PRISON

- WAIT UP, HE'S ALIVE AND SHE KISSES HIM AFTERWARDS????

- FUCK ME I THOUGHT FOR THE WHOLE EPISODE THE KISS HAPPENED BC HE COULDN'T WAKE UP THAT'S FUCKING WITH ME I DIDN'T KNOW

- i keep forgetting to switch up the cap locks, sorry if it seems im screaming im legit using my inside voice for most of the time just emphasizing my words a little more

- goddamn, everytime they say mercia i just think of “murica”, like those americans on the 7th of july or whatever date the “we love our country” day is, chanting it as they throw around beers and fireworks as people gather round in jerseys or crop tops

- it's not that hard to spot the european on here

- the most celebrated holiday here which contains a lot of beers and big pub gatherings (besides every fucking night honestly) is either new years, lowkey stereotypically correct saint patricks, and ig easter monday but that's more for the kiddos

- i mean ofc christmas and all that shit but im not the most devoted christian, i just like presents and small gatherings among good friends

- wow okay it wasn't the 7th of july

- i mean at first i looked up “USA day” (i couldn’t remember the name) and it popped up today’s date, and i was like no thats not it at all. dec?? its in like july i think. and i was close! it was july 4th.

- uther damn knows it's nimueh!!!

- i mean, he just overheard morgana and arthur talk about it, and initiated himself into a convo about it once morgana left, as his sneaky ass just slithered up like “hey man, u know that woman? yeah uhh, what she say? anything about me? no? k i know who it is tho”

- i thought he was going to apologize or like explain to arthur what's the sitch, but he just waits for five whole seconds before saying. “those who practice magic know only evil. they despise and seek to destroy goodness wherever they find it.”

- arthur, confused: sounds as if you know her

- uther, walking away: i do

- arthur:

- wow k lots of fucking quotes here cause it's the merthur reunion

- get ready babs

- arthur: still alive then?

- merlin: oh yes, just about… i understand i have you to thank for that

- arthur, leaning on the chair merlin is sitting in, stifling a smile: ah it's nothing, a half-decent servant is hard to come by. i was only dropping by to make sure you’re alright… i.... expect you to be back to work tomorrow

- merlin, watching arthur as he slightly walks away having embarrassed himself: arthur... thank you

- arthur, slowly: you too

- they stare for like 5 whole seconds

- arthur, uncomfortable: well… get some rest

- there we go folks: my eulogy.

- hope someone reads it at my funeral

[partlycharlie-archive]

gender? who is she? (they???)

chapter one: what’s my name again? link to prologue

summary: [18:00] ???: LUNA [18:00] ???: WHAT IF [??? (SumayaPotter) changed their name to harry?] [18:00] harry?: !!!!!! word count: 1,573 warnings: n/a a/n: we’re getting into it!!! hope u enjoy

read on ao3

[FRIDAY; 10.12.18]

  the golden trio™ [POTter (SumayaPotter), grangerstranger (HermioneGranger), DieselWeasel (RonWeasley)]

  [16:45] POTter: @everyone

[17:34] grangerstranger: What’s a mood [17:34] grangerstranger: Sorry [17:34] grangerstranger: What’s up

[17:36] DieselWeasel: how do you accidentally type whats a mood

[17:36] grangerstranger: Magic [17:36] grangerstranger: And a conversation going on next to me

[17:37] DieselWeasel: okay [17:37] DieselWeasel: sounds fake but . okay [17:37] DieselWeasel: a n y w a y [17:37] DieselWeasel: @POTter whats up

[17:40] POTter: oH [17:40] POTter: yh sry [17:40] POTter: if yall were th opp sex wht wld ur names b ?

[17:41] grangerstranger: Sorry just [17:41] grangerstranger: Give me a minute to decipher that

[17:41] DieselWeasel: #rekt

[17:41] POTter: r00d

[17:42] grangerstranger: Wait Maya

[17:42] POTter: ye

[17:42] grangerstranger: As in what our parents would've named us or what we'd want our names to be if we were the opposite sex

[17:42] POTter: idc both

[17:43] grangerstranger: William

[17:43] POTter: y

[17:43] grangerstranger: Well [17:43] grangerstranger: I don’t know what my parents were thinking when they named me [17:44] grangerstranger: But the name Hermione is from the winter’s tale by Shakespeare [17:44] grangerstranger: I'm not the hugest fan of Shakespeare but I'd still like to have an older name [17:44] grangerstranger: Plus his first name was William so it's still a nod to my parents

[17:44] POTter: damn out here w tht Knowledge [17:45] POTter: ron????

[17:46] DieselWeasel: uhhhhhhh [17:46] DieselWeasel: i mean if i had been born a girl it wouldve been ginerva bc yall KNOW ma and dad have been holding onto that for ages [17:46] DieselWeasel: but . harper maybe? i like that name

[17:46] POTter: huh [17:46] POTter: harperd fit u

[17:47] DieselWeasel: what about you

[17:50] POTter: idk [17:50] POTter: what do u think

[17:50] grangerstranger: Alex [17:50] grangerstranger: ?

[17:51] DieselWeasel: i mean ? would you want like [17:51] DieselWeasel: an ethnic name ? [17:53] DieselWeasel: imagine quotes on that lol

[17:53] POTter: ehhhhhhh [17:53] POTter: i wldnt b opposed but ? [17:54] POTter: idk rly i guess itd be cool either way [17:54] POTter: also @grangerstranger alex is nice

[17:54] DieselWeasel: mkay [17:56] DieselWeasel: what about harry [17:56] DieselWeasel: hari ? harry ? who knows

[17:56] POTter: OH [17:56] POTter: y e s [17:56] POTter: thank

[17:59] DieselWeasel: uh ? [17:59] DieselWeasel: no problem lol [17:59] DieselWeasel: :)

  ??? (SumayaPotter), luna! (LunaLovegood)

 [18:00] ???: LUNA [18:00] ???: WHAT IF

[??? (SumayaPotter) changed their name to hari?]

[18:00] hari?: !!!!!! [18:00] hari?: wait wait wait

[hari? (SumayaPotter) changed their name to harry?]

[18:01] harry?: i like this better i think [18:01] harry?: idk im still trying 2 figure it out

[18:04] luna!: oh! that's a lovely name. congratulations harry! i'm glad you've found something that suits you. :D

[18:04] harry?: :D

 ---

  [SATURDAY; 10.13.18]

  everyone except sumaya [granger (HermioneGranger), weasley_1 (RonWeasley), weasley_2 (GinnyWeasley), malfoy (DracoMalfoy), longbottom (NevilleLongbottom)…]

 [13:35] granger: I just want all of you to know I still disagree with the name of this chat

[14:57] malfoy: Yes, yes, we know. [14:57] malfoy: You’ve been saying that since the creation of this groupchat.

[15:15] weasley_1: #rekt

[15:28] granger: Shut up malfoy

[15:28] weasley_1: #rekt

[16:01] longbottom: ok but we haven’t had to use this chat for a couple weeks now? what’s up hermione?

[16:01] weasley_1: sus acting weird

[16:01] longbottom: okay but she’s always acting weird, what’s different about this time?

[16:02] weasley_1: we had an entire conversation about what our names would be if we were the opposite sex

[16:02] longbottom: oh. [16:02] longbottom: yeah okay that’s a bit weird. [16:02] longbottom: what did she say her’s would be?

[16:02] granger: That's the thing though [16:03] granger: She didn’t [16:03] granger: She asked us what we thought it should be

[16:03] weasley_1: here gimme a sec

[weasley_1 (RonWeasley) sent a screenshot.] [weasley_1 (RonWeasley) sent a screenshot.]

[16:05] parkinson: im dead her name is my MOOD

[16:05] longbottom: damn. okay. [16:05] longbottom: what do you think it means?

[16:06] weasley_1: i dunno why does it have to mean anything

[16:06] longbottom: well, obviously you think it means something - you wouldn’t have posted it here if you didn’t?

[16:06] weasley_1: damn youre right [16:07] weasley_1: i dunno? it just feels like kind of an odd thing to ask about ? [16:07] weasley_1: especially because its not like we were talking about names today or anything [16:07] weasley_1: it just seemed like an out of the blue subject thats all

[16:09] lovegood: if i may interject? i find it very likely that sumaya is simply settling into their personality, and part of that may include an exploration of the different facets of themself! [16:09] lovegood: her*, whoops!

[16:09] weasley_1: ? [16:09] weasley_1: oh okay

[16:09] longbottom: you’re so right, luna!

[16:09] weasley_1: huh yeah that makes sense lol

  #girlsforluna (GinnyWeasley), #boysforluna (NevilleLongbottom)

 [16:10] #girlsforluna: gay

[16:11] #boysforluna: :’) [16:11] #boysforluna: i can’t help it! she’s so [16:11] #boysforluna: wait.

  everyone except sumaya [weasley_1 (RonWeasley), longbottom (NevilleLongbottom), lovegood (LunaLovegood), granger (HermioneGranger), malfoy (DracoMalfoy)…]

 [16:12] longbottom: hey, @lovegood?

[16:13] lovegood: yes! hi neville!

[16:13] longbottom: hey! what pronouns are you using right now?

[16:13] lovegood: he/him for now! :)

[16:13] longbottom: okay! thanks so much.

[16:14] weasley_2: neville you fucking nerd i cant,,,,,,

  #girlsforluna (GinnyWeasley), #boysforluna (NevilleLongbottom)

 [16:12] #girlsforluna: you okay??? [16:13] #girlsforluna: oh my god lmfao

[16:14] #boysforluna: okay, i got it. [16:14] #boysforluna: he’s just so cute! and smart! and kind! and! ugh my god i love him so much.

[16:14] #girlsforluna: youre so fucking cute i wanna die [16:14] #girlsforluna: you really just paused an online conversation to get pronouns i love you oh my god [16:14] #girlsforluna: also. i feel you so hard he’s such a lovely person??? hhhh [16:14] #girlsforluna: anyway :)

[16:14] #boysforluna: :)

  everyone except sumaya [weasley_2 (GinnyWeasley), longbottom (NevilleLongbottom), lovegood (LunaLovegood), weasley_1 (RonWeasley), granger (HermioneGranger)…]

[16:15] lovegood: is everything okay, neville?

[16:16] weasley_2: oh yeah totally i just had the sudden and urgent realization that neville’s a fucking nerd

[16:16] longbottom: shut the hell up n stop ghosting u hoe

[16:17] parkinson: damn son okay [16:17] parkinson: i dont know if im more surprised tht u cursed or tht u didnt use Perfect Punctuation ???? either way im lowkey impressed good job

[16:17] longbottom: :)

  mione (HermioneGranger), nevs (NevilleLongbottom)

 [16:46] mione: Hey neville

[17:09] nevs: yeah, what’s up?

[17:11] mione: Do you think sue might be [17:11] mione: Trans or something?

[17:11] nevs: huh. [17:11] nevs: i guess i’d never thought of it but. [17:11] nevs: i suppose it’s entirely possible? [17:12] nevs: especially because she’s been wearing her hijab more often.

[17:12] mione: Yeah [17:12] mione: Wait but why would that mean shes trans?

[17:13] nevs: well, she has really long hair, and when she’s not wearing a hijab she usually has it in a braid because it’s easier to manage, right?

[17:13] mione: Yeah I know what hou mean [17:13] mione: You

[17:13] nevs: but it’s also a constant reminder that she has hair. [17:13] nevs: i mean, i was talking to luna the other day? [17:14] nevs: and he mentioned that on his masculine days he like to put his hair up, but only when he’s feeling really dysphoric. [17:14] granger: so now that i think about it in that light, it makes a lot of sense - [17:15] nevs: her hair goes into a bun when she puts it up, and it’s tight so she doesn’t have to think about it so much.

[17:15] mione: Oh [17:15] mione: Yeah that makes sense [17:16] mione: Thanks Neville

[17:16] nevs: no problem! [17:16] nevs: i probably wouldn’t go around sharing this with everyone, though. [17:16] nevs: especially because we don’t really know if it’s true or not.

[17:17] mione: Yeah of course

  hermyownknee (HermioneGranger), ronniekins (RonWeasley)

 [17:20] hermyownknee: Hey Ron

 ---

  ron (RonWeasley), luna (LunaLovegood)

 [17:34] ron: hey luna

[17:38] luna: hello, ron! is everything okay?

[17:38] ron: um . i think so?

[17:38] luna: okay! [17:40] luna: what did you want to talk to me about? [17:40] luna: i assume you contacted me for a reason? :)

[17:40] ron: haha yeah [17:40] ron: um [17:40] ron: dont take this the wrong way [17:41] ron: i know sometimes sumaya tells you stuff that she doesn’t tell me or hermione [17:41] ron: and that’s fine [17:41] ron: obviously shes allowed to make those kinds of decisions for herself [17:41] ron: but uh

[17:41] luna: she’s fine, i promise. [17:42] luna: i would tell you if she told me anything that i found concerning.

[17:44] ron: okay [17:44] ron: thanks

[17:50] luna: of course, ron.

[visitorsfromdreams]

So heres that big news update I was talking about, watch out! Engaged

Well, first of all the biggest and most important news. Last Tuesday I took my girlfriend who was visiting Australia for 3 weeks from Canada to a local waterfall. We had the whole place to ourselves and I knew that it was the right time to propose, so I did. She said yes and now we begin the long process to immigration.

One Blog

Second of all in general terms is the multiple blogs I have been using for game development (both Flatwoods and Shooty and the Catfish had their own dedicated stand alone blogs). I was struggling to manage multiple blogs due to my hectic life schedule and so I have decided to keep all updates, regardless of if its related to game development, animation, illustration or photography exclusively on this blog. I know it might make it harder for people who are only interested in one of those things but it will make life easier on my end and free up more time for actual production of said projects.

Animation

Due to it being a relatively quiet year freelance wise (okay, incedibly quiet) I decided to enrol in some reanimate projects to help bolster a new showreel. That said now my work week has dropped down from 4 days a week to 3 days a week I am going to be actively hunting freelance work more. 

DKReanimated

So far I have completed one of the two segments for this project that I applied for. I am hoping to have the second shot done in the next 2 days. Its been an absolute blast to work on and people have been releasing some fantastic work on twitter.

The Bartman Reanimated Collab

Next up is The Bartman Reanimated Collab which is the shortest of the animated projects I signed on for. Unfortunately it doesn’t feature any of the main cast (which would have been fun to redesign) but it is a group shot so it will still require a bit of work despite its short length. Im hoping it wont take more than a couple of days once I start on it.

DoverBoysReAnimated

Lastly we have the very exciting DoverBoysReAnimated project. Dover Boys is an incredibly important cartoon for me and has been a massive influence on my work, especially in more recent years. The shot I have is quite long but its also quite simple. I get to draw all of the Dover Boys along with Dorris Standpipe so I am pretty damn excited about working on it. 

Game Development

Despite being quiet on the game update front Shooty and the Catfish is still in production, its just been hiatus for a couple of months. That said, during the last couple of months I managed to plan a number of other projects (not all of which are listed below) and a business model I am hoping to persue going forward, that being smaller games (1 - 3 hours average) with hopefully 2 games released a year for $2 on Steam and Itch.io. All of them will be based on the heavily customized RPG Maker MV engine I am using to make Shooty and the Catfish (I call it “RPG Maker MV GB”. I will also be releasing my games unencrypted to help encourage the creation of fan games, a huge part of the RPG Maker Community in my opinion).

Shooty and the Catfish

First of all and most importantly is obviously Shooty and the Catfish. I actually managed to get a huge chunk of the games world built before going on holidays. Currently all I have left is the creation of assets and mapping for 5 more areas and thats all of the mapping for the game completed. After this I can move on to actually building the rest of the game which if the demo was anything to go by, might not take as long as I think. I am determined to get the game completed and released by Christmas this year, in order to do that I cut out quite a bit of content, but fear not because that content is not going to waste, quite the opposite actually.

Stripe: The Last Tiger

Stripe: The Last Tiger is a prequel to Flatwoods (and as such also a prequel to Shooty and the Catfish... more on that in a moment) that is a collaboration between me and my 5 year old nephew. I sat down with him recently and asked him to give me a story for a game as well as its levels, enemies and characters. He told me the story of Stripe, who is a tiger and the last of his kind. He goes on a quest to kill all the aliens that wiped out his people (dont they always) using his samurai sword and a stolen alien laser gun. The game will use the same turn based combat system as Shooty and the Catfish as well as its 4 scrapped areas (along with a few new ones). Unlike Shooty and the Catfish it is going to be a linear experience. I am hoping to have this game out for June 2019.

Flatwoods GB

That brings us back around to Flatwoods GB. An expanded remake of Flatwoods (or demake seeing as it will use the same art style and limitations of Shooty and the Catfish) which will this time focus on 2 characters. Lemon will once again return as one of the lead characters and will follow the same path as he did last time for the most part. The other lead will be a young girl who comes home to find something rather grizzly has happened while she was out playing (this girl will also feature in Shooty and the Catfish with Flatwoods itself being one of the major zones you visit). It will switch back and forth as the 2 solve puzzles that bring them closer and closer together and unlike the 2 previous games wont feature combat. This is planned for a Halloween 2019 release.

With those 3 titles out of the way we will see if a new version of RPG Maker is due to come out and I will plan accordingly. In either case thanks for reading this huge post. Sorry for those not interested. I look forward to keeping everyone updated with more frequent (and much shorter) posts in the future!

[beyourstar]

just wanted to say that your birthday's gifs were really pretty! i was wondering how did you make them?

hi!! thank you for your lovely compliment! also sorry for responding so late D:.

so, just fyi im using photoshop and a drawing tablet (here is the one i have–its dinky but its the first one ive ever had and it gets the job done so hey).

here you can find the tutorial i wrote after i made moonbins bday post. I would check out this one first since it covers some technical stuff like working with new layers and such (since im not sure how familiar you are with photoshop). it also goes over the techniques(??) i use in pretty much all of my doodle gifs.

however, i did figure out how to do some new stuff so im gonna show you what i learned!! :D

(continuing from the previous tutorial) STEP 5: overusing the “free transform” tool!

basically this changed my life lol

so in the rocky gif above i made the clouds move by just copying the drawing layer and shifting the doodles incrementally with each frame instead of drawing the clouds by hand over and over again

(^^ i made a gif explaining how to do this so this post isnt ten miles long. below are the steps written out in case its hard to read my handwriting)

have your doodles drawn and ready on a new layer. make sure the layer is placed over the layer that corresponds with the first frame

click on the next frame. make a copy of the previous doodle layer and move it so its placed over the layer that corresponds with the second frame.

select the marquee tool and make a box over your doodles. make sure the current drawing layer is highlighted.

the shortcut “ctrl t” activates the free transform tool (u can also find it under “edit”). using my arrow keys i shifted the doodles to the right four times and kept this consistent throughout so their movement was steady when played back)

click enter when you’ve finished making your transformations (i just shifted the clouds sideways, you can do other things like rotate, flip, angle, or change the size of your drawings)

when you click on the next frame, the marquee outline remains. make a duplicate drawing layer from the previous drawing layer, not the original one.***

make sure your drawing layer is in the right place and the visibility is turned on.

bc the marquee selection is already outlining the doodles, you can activate the free transform tool and then make your transformations.

click enter when you’ve finished with the transformations and then repeat!

*** if you go from frame 3 to frame 4, you would then make a copy of layer 3 not layer 2 or 1. this just makes it easier for you to create gradual movement. 

heres what it looks like. once i was satisfied with the clouds i would then go back and erase the areas where the clouds overlap rockys face so it would look like they were moving in the bg. 

in this gif, on the halo thingy i used the transform tool to gradually deepen the angle of the halo and the planets so they move with his head. doing this can be kinda irksome and you kinda have to pay attention to how much movement there is between frames to be able to follow the natural movement of the head.

basically i played around with what i could do with the transform tool. i used it in variations like with the rocket in this gif

(^^ just shifting the rocket to the left and up in increments and then eventually changing the angle)

and mjs wings and arrow in this gif

(i did a whole lot of stuff in this one and tbh it would need its own tutorial, so if anyone wants know how i did this one let me know!)

CONCLUSION: this was really hard to explain and tbh i couldve done it better but i didnt want to overload, if anyone has questions dont hesitate to ask. just remember the layer copying thing!! also, like i said in the last tutorial, im still learning myself, so there might be a ton of shortcuts i dont even know about. let me know if you discover any! and send me your creations, id love to see them and learn from you. if you wanna know how i do something specific in a gif i’d be happy to explain it.

[mobianstrip]

sonic forces me to analyze the game

this is by no means a full, in depth review of sonic forces. however, since im working on a Forces au i think its only fitting to talk about my personal gripes with the game. just to be clear, i dont hate sonic forces by any means! there are some really neat concepts about it that i enjoy, which ill include my thoughts on as well! though with that said, theres a lot about it that could have been dealt with better. this post is gonna be a bit long and messy, sorry!

now i cant speak for what the gameplay controls itself are like since i havent actually played it with my own hands, so my primary focus will be the story and general format of the game. everything under the cut!

ill start by saying that in hindsight, i think the general premise of the game is actually really neat (had the war framing of the plot not been so overly glorified and bland. more on that below). eggman taking over most of the world is very reminiscent to the initial circumstance of mobius in the early archie sonic publication. it seems especially reflective of the comic in the fact that sonic forces takes place on a planet setting more akin to that of Mobius than that of Sonic’s World/Earth, the difference being the lack of human beings aside from Eggman. while this does somewhat bother me for the fact that it paints an inconsistency with the setting, im also all for the planet being strictly Mobians + Eggman again tbh. the concept of sonic being on earth populated by humans, complete with a mock version of the united states, never really settled well with me. it always felt like just a means to make sonic more relatable, which is true, but not done because it made anything more interesting. a problem that then arises is that the origins of shadow and silver/blaze would be radically different or at least would need some retcon alterations to make sense...but thats a topic for another day

overall, looking past the inconsistency with the setting and its implications, i enjoy how the premise of the game feels like going back to the basics. but even the premise still has its problems...which is never a good sign, and this point practically sealed forces’s fate of inconsistency: the theme of war and how it frames the story is so, so poorly written

starting with whats presented at the beginning of the game, sonic is captured by eggman as a prisoner. if the writing had just left it at that, fine. however, the exposition goes on to say that sonic has been there for six months being tortured...and that tails has completely lost it. again id be fine with this - the theme of war is a darker one so these two events would make sense in this circumstance. however, that tension is just totally lost in a matter of a few episodes. you rescue sonic who is just as cheery and jokey as ever, somehow able to fight a boss despite being supposedly locked away and tortured for six months

of course i understand that its not like they could give sonic ptsd and make him look tortured and weak and so on - but why even mention the torture thing at all? the same problem is apparent with the first cutscene with tails. tails is hardly given enough time to seem like he has "lost it". i will say though that tails WAS given a bit more of an emotional response to work with than sonic overall. particularly when tails is about to be attacked by chaos, and he ducks his head in fear and calls for sonic to help him even though sonic isnt there - i actually enjoyed this small segment bc it does reflect some of what was said about how he reacted to sonics capture (aside from also being across the planet...for seemingly no reason except bc he "lost it" and to get him away from the main group so that classic sonic can appear)

frankly speaking from these two points alone, the games tone just feels kind of confused. its obvious the writers wanted some parts of the darker theme of war...and its also obvious that going all out wasnt gonna be an option bc of the nature of sonic as a character and franchise being about more lighthearted, easier to relate to stories about sonics heroism. which im fine with that being the case; sonic is a hero and more importantly a mascot that profits off of kids being able to relate and look up to. my issue is simply that the premise of this game makes consistent writing kind of doomed from the start if the writers are trying to appeal to both the kids AND older fans. they cant go to the lengths necessary to adequately build the narrative. cant go too dark, cant go too lighthearted, and not finding a balance between to two gives you a confused and bland story 

on that note,  i personally find the theme of war to be...uncomfortably glorified and unchecked (adding to the tone confusion and blandness). sonic forces is named so because...yknow. armed forces. armies. the whole point of the game is that theres a war going on and youre on the good guy side. i mean its not as if youre fighting against other living creatures, just infinite and eggmans robots, but still. i think what put me off the most is the first comic with the soldier cat. after they save the day, the last lines are "I'll do better. I'll be better. I'll become a real soldier and a real hero." now slap that as the tagline to a united states army corps commercial and suddenly its really...sour tasting

war is just one of those subjects that i think needs to be handled with a bit more care. i mean think about it: the primary gimmick of forces is that you get to make your own character, to be the sonic version of yourself in this world. the plot of the game is that theres a war, and your character joins the resistance to defeat eggman. this game is pretty blatantly glorifying the idea that joining in on a war can make you a REAL soldier, a REAL hero. to some kids, that might sound pretty cool. but theres no nuance to it whatsoever, nothing thought provoking on the subject. no one steps back to be like ‘its good to do good things but wars are tough and not fun, and being a hero isnt everything’. none-a that

now do i think a sonic game could get it into a childs head that they should join the army for real? no, not necessarily. i think its possible, but i think that would also be due to a larger issue of military glorification present in modern culture in general (especially in america). mostly i just find the implications at play with glorifying the theme of war in conjunction to the avatar gimmick to be in poor taste and also entirely avoidable because...

i dont think the war and army framing even had to be a thing. not only is it just so sloppily done in general, with that fact that the supposed soldier forces on the Resistance side are literally never seen on screen except for some dialogue boxes in one episode and the rest of the time only being mentioned through other characters, but i seriously think never saying the words “war” or “army” and not including literal soldiers would have worked just as well and even been the better route. they could have just been like yeah heres eggman taking over the world, heres the resistance fighters that have come together to stop him, they are opposing forces and you play as your avatar to stop eggman - and just leave it at that. it wouldve made the glorification of war less obvious and the handling of the topics at hand appear less confused, appealing to a more lighthearted tone rather than weighing it down with frankly out of place hints to a darker subject of war

finally i wanna talk about the story as it relates to how its told through the game. the plot itself is fairly standard - eggman starts war, captures sonic, takes over planet. you rescue sonic, and together you fight eggman and infinite and ultimately defeat them. thats all good and well even if its cheesy sometimes. the REAL problem is how its executed. a lot of the exposition is given not through cutscenes, but through spoken dialogue with text box subtitles over the episode select screen. and it just feels so...stiff. it doesnt feel like world building, it just feels like being forcefed information with no substance behind it

i get that fully rendered cutscenes throughout can be expensive and time consuming, but shoot id take in-game rendered cut scenes at least. (like in sa, sa2, shadow 2005...) anything that could have provided the world building with a bit more ground to stand on would have been great. sure, there are levels to traverse which look cool...but they dont provide any sense of scale, they dont tell us what the area is like, and more importantly, you never see the other characters who are supposedly on the battlefield "alongside" you in a couple episodes. the storyline from the exposition along sounds like it could be an epic journey - but the way its told with the given game mechanics (i.e.: stage-based gameplay with no open worlds to explore) leaves a lot to be desired

i feel like the stuff explained in the comics should have just been cutscenes or exposition or something to pad out the game a bit. the comics are so short anyways so why just put it in the game? maybe not the first comic about the rando soldier saving the day or w/e...but the comic with silver and knuckles fighting chaos? the comic about infinites origins? all of that could have easily been included. at LEAST the comic with shadow was part of the DLC...but even thats just so gimmicky. they provide important background to the main plot of this game so i really dont understand why it was sidelined to comics and not just included from the beginning

the tension that the exposition already fails to build up is brought down even worse when coupled with the confusing timing of the stage complete screens, where you get your completion rank and see what new character creation items you unlocked. listen, i know immediate gratification for completing the level is important and all...but i swear, having these screens between the end of a boss fight and the cutscene showing what happens to them after being defeated seriously impairs the flow of the game. maybe having it there allows for the cutscene to load up in the background to improve efficiency, but personally id prefer seeing a loading screen as the break between a boss fight and the following cutscene after it and THEN the stage complete screen to finish the sequence off. the boss fight end cutscenes arent that long anyways for the most part, so its just nonsensical to have the stage complete screen interrupt the action when theres only a two minute scene left to it

i cant stand how streamlined forces is to the point of the main plot. what happened to games that actually take the time to explain stuff, show us extra bits to the story and how they connect? and even when forces' does explain SOME stuff, its through audio/text only dialogue. nothing visually interesting, just...dialogue. and then its off to the next level. forces' feels very bare bones honestly. the story is supposed to feel big and epic but it just wasnt given enough to bring that feeling into fruition. this is probably the only thing that saves forces’ from the war glorification issue because the game simply fails so miserably at telling a compelling story due to poor writing and poor formatting that the war stuff gets lost in the mix - and thats just sad

all of this brings me to my conclusion. fuck i wish sonic forces was a better written and executed game, because i do think it could have been so cool. i really like infinite as a villain, in both his design and personality. yeah hes kind of a whiny, edgy bitch - but he had potential. and its really gonna suck if this game killed off all that potential in one fell swoop

(then again, thats why we have fan content and aus :3)