#(i need to learn how to use clip for animation though... still using SAI to animate...)

[kvroii]

It's been years since I used to frequently draw pixel pagedolls like this, but I decided it would be worth trying again. Actually, back in 2018 and 2019 I drew a lot of these, so I feel comparatively out of practice! But here is a pagedoll of the Third One that I drew for a bit of fun.

[danieyells]

Re: Towa's voicelines

@disassociationdive

I can go into that a little bit sure lol NOT SO MUCH CONSPIRACY THEORIES AS OBSERVATIONS BUT LET'S START WITH ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS YOU CAN LEARN ABOUT TOWA.

What do you mean we don't know his blood type.

They run health checks on everyone and you're telling me in the year he's been here they somehow haven't found out? They have everyone else's bloodtypes, firstyears included, but Towa's is unknown?? If anyone else had an unstated blood type it'd be a little less suspicious but like. . . .

Next, his stigma. He controls weather. That's like six powers in practice? I know he has an incantation because he has an audio clip of it in the files, but he uses it exclusively in his head so far and. . .i find it hard to believe he's always reciting it when it responds to his emotions? Like his instinctive response to any minor irritation is to recite his stigma in his head? Maybe that's just me but it seems unlikely?

He's also constantly running around and using it even in casual situations. The only other person who uses their stigma that much is Leo and that's because he's using it to spy on people. Towa just silently changes the weather for fun and because he's been angered or offended or Haru was hurt or Ren was mildly irritating or whatever. He causes whole snowstorms and lightning and rain showers at the drop of a hat. Most people don't even realize he's doing it and just blame the weird weather!

Not to mention that when he was gone for more than a day Jabberwock's nature was suddenly in chaos??? The waters dried up, the sky was dark, he's the only thing keeping that place kind of temperate.

So his control of weather understandably makes anomalies obey him--animals know not to fuck with nature. But in the undersea palace the anomalies didn't know that, he just. . . .

Jin would be jealous at how easily things just do what Towa tells them to. He just MAKES THEM SO INTIMIDATED THEY KNEEL BEFORE HIM AND STAY OUT OF HIS WAY. Young anomalies like Peekaboo and Calamari don't even need him to do anything around them before they feel scared of him--just having him nearby stresses them out sometimes afair? That's not him using his stigma. That's just him. Anomalies are just obedient to him and scared of him. Considering the weather responds to his emotions it's entirely possible the entire island anomaly Darkwick is on is scared of him and just changes patterns if he gets upset to try and get rid of his problems.

Speaking of the undersea palace, why can he smell Haru? Maybe I'm misremembering but even Taiga, the guy who eats people, never seems to suggest he has any scent awareness of them? Also they're underwater, several hallways away??? But he still smells him?????

And he just follows Haru's scent to him, down the halls, under the sea. . . .

Next. . .Towa's total lack of regard for the lives and wellbeing of others. When told that people went missing in a way that says they're almost definitely dead, he was happy. Haru had to tell him, no that's a bad thing. Based on his expression I'm not entirely sure he agrees.

Towa is clearly capable of self-determination. He has no problem whatsoever doing things without instruction. But if he doesn't want to do something he needs to be given an explanation he likes to comply. Even if it means saving the life of someone he cares about. You beg him with tears in your eyes to save everyone and he still thinks about it before deciding he'll do it. Even though he's the one who told you to ask him.

TRY GROVELING HARDER. HE LIKES IT WHEN THEY BEG. it has the feeling of 'i'll grant your wish but you have to wish for it' y'know? like a demon? remember when Taiga showed you his demon impression and did something similar?

Another thing relating to the wellbeing of people he enjoys. . .he adores Haru. He electrocutes animals that even remotely offend Haru let alone hurt him.

Also, he handles Haru with 0 delicacy despite his broken leg.

And when you're in the water and he sees Haru and wants to rescue him he drags you back under the water with 0 warning.

Another thing displayed there and that he mentions in his home screen lines. . .he can see near perfectly in the dark? That water is pitch black, you cannot see Haru down there, but he can.

The last thing is. . .he speak to animals and plants? He already has like three other powers--he can 1. see in the dark; 2. control weather and electricity(even able to use his ability UNDER WATER, making what I think was a cyclone that was so fast and sharp it started to cut apart anything caught in it? May have been astonishingly controlled lightning though. I assume his near-flight jumps are controlling the wind to carry him higher up and he can't also almost fly); and 3. anomalies are so intimidated by him even when he can't electrocute them that they obey him and kneel at his feet!--but on top of that he can also understand any living thing that isn't a human? Like he is the only one who's exhibited the ability to understand what plants and animals say. Haru even knows and says 'you're the only one who can do this, ask the Kraken for help'.

In his voicelines he mentions the tree telling him something about it waiting for a long time and crying. And he cries and hugs the tree too--he's more affected by the emotions of a tree than the wellbeing of his loved ones lmao

The tree must be connected to something important. Of note, the background with this particular tree is called "kibou" in the files. "Kibou" can mean either "hope/wish/aspiration" or "ruse/trick/deception" depending on the kanji used. the positive meaning of 'hope' is more common i think--but I wonder if the double meaning is intentional? maybe i'm reading into it too much.

apparently Towa spends a lot of time on this hill--to the point that he didn't go to the assembly where you were introduced. I assume he spends a lot of time talking to this tree. Maybe the tree knows what's going on too. Towa could be helping by way of the tree. . .but the tree could also be evil. Maybe someday we'll learn. Speaking of him not going to the assembly, when Haru mentions that you were there, Towa acts like he knows this, but Haru says he was on the hill and didn't attend. Towa proceeds to look confused, like it doesn't sound right to him that he wasn't there or wouldn't have had that information. Maybe the tree told him? Maybe he remembers things from other timelines too, like Taiga might???

The one thing that's suspicious but also not thanks to that Taiga's also got an inhuman feature is that his pupils are a non-human shape. They look more like goat or octopus eyes than human eyes(most likely meant to be goat since he eats so many flowers.) But since Taiga's got big pointy teeth for chompin' that may not be an issue. I don't think Taiga's suspicious for having inhuman features, so Towa's eyes don't really make me feel like they're a huge point of suspicion--aside from that they add suspicion when combined with everything else ofc.

SO THE TL;DR REASONS I FIND HIM SUSPICIOUS ARE LARGELY BECAUSE HE HAS AN IMBALANCED AMOUNT OF ABILITIES AND THEY AREN'T EVEN RELATED TO HIS ARTIFACT--AND THOSE ABILITIES ARE RELATED TO NATURE AND ANOMALIES. . .WHICH MAKE ME THINK HE'S NOT ACTUALLY A GHOUL, HE'S MORE OF A NATURAL ENTITY OR A DEMON OR SOMETHING. And perhaps his communication with plants and anomalies and animals is him communicating with who or whatever he's spying for--he might be able to pass along information that way.

A lot of it could be chalked up to mental illness just unique personality of course. But that doesn't explain why he's halfway to being nature incarnate.

Kaito is more believably suspicious imo because he exhibits connection to other aspects of the world in a somewhat suspicious way but like. . .Towa seems imbalanced in terms of power and abilities compared to everyone else. Everybody else gets one power and an artifact. Towa's got like 5, not including the bubble wand. And a lot of them are connected to nature.

However one could argue that his wish was to be closer to nature--and the demon took his ability to speak during the day(and perhaps took most of his empathy) in exchange for the ability to communicate with animals and plants. This is really very likely when you think about it. But it doesn't explain a few other things. Maybe he made multiple pacts or swallowed multiple demons? It'd be nice to learn someday.

Now to be fair!!! Moby, one of your teachers, is a humanoid tentacle horror anomaly who doesn't have human features so his facial expressions have to be portrayed via screen! So it's possible that Towa isn't a ghoul, he's a humanoid anomaly and he's allowed to be with the ghoul students instead and nobody explained that he's not an ex-human like everybody else--nobody seemed surprised by Professor Moby's apperance so 'anomalies as members of society' are probably somewhat normal at least by the time you're a second year. But. . .just. . .seems shady to me. Which is not a complaint i love shady characters and villains lol

BUT YEAH THOSE ARE MY LITTLE OBSERVATIONS ABOUT TOWA THAT MAKE ME SUSPECT THAT HEY MAYBE HE'S NOT HUMAN MAYBE SOMETHING'S UP. But also, thanks to the nature of that things here are anomalous to begin with, it's hard to say that these are for sure something to be suspicious over. Towa could just be insanely powerful. Maybe the demon he made a deal with was high ranking or something. Who knows. I really hope the game lasts long enough for us to find out lmao

[nelapanela94]

Nelaaaa!!! BB TODAY I AM HERE FOR SOME NELA X LEVI HEADCANONSJDJD .. tell me the little stufff toooooooo 🤍

Hi lovely. This one was so fun to write. <3 thank you for the request and please let me live in my delulu world 🌎

Levi and I currently live in Marley (What's left) in a coastal town where the streets finish at the beach.

Levi, though he doesn't admit it, is still afraid of the elevator. He just can't trust it. It jars him when it quivers right before stopping, and he hates it's tight and stuffy. He prefers swallowing the pain in his leg to risking getting stuck and climbs the stairs up to the third floor. And it is worse when the chains start to screech pleading for maintenance. In his defense, he claims it is a great exercise. He takes his time and says hi to the brats who live in the second floor. Sometimes he brings them desserts from the tea shop.

Levi loves sea food, specially shrimps. That is why I took some cooking classes with Niccolo. Steamed, stir-fried, tempura, in pastas, salads, rice and ceviche, I had to learn every preparation. Though we usually eat at home, we love trying new restaurants in town. From fancy to fast food. Once I tried to cajole Levi to a street food stall but he refused, questioning their cleaning procedures.

Levi owns a tea shop downtown that has been awarded twice by the city's chamber of commerce for excellence, quality and service. He was interviewed and his photo appeared in the newspaper, with Gabi and Falco thumbing up behind him. We still have the clippings of the articles, and Levi had the stars framed. He spends all day drinking tea, doing accounts, making payments to suppliers, bossing everyone around, the latter his favorite. When he loses his patience, he jabs the staff with his walking stick on the back of their knees. He also likes to go on Sundays to the spice market where herbs and spices from all corners of the world are found. He takes them home and experiments with them to develop new blends. Although sometimes we have purged by accident.

Meanwhile, I work at the post office right across the street and in my break time we had lunch together in his office and take naps.

We spend hours in the cleaning supplies aisle because Levi can't decide between lavender, cinnamon and apple or citronella. In any case, he decides on all three. One day after work, he brought home a wooden barrel with a crank handle. He explained that it was for washing clothes, although it took me a while to understand how it was operated. He acquired it at a home novelty fair after the inventor convinced him by promising to make our lives easier. I thought it was a scam, but he made it work! It really saves us time and I don't have to ruin my manicure anymore.

On my last birthday, Levi got me a gramophone. We love dancing in the living room despite our clumsy feet, and we’re often off the beat. But who cares, with a drop of wine sprinkling the mix, we hardly notice it. I’ve been collecting discs from thrift stores and garage sales, cramming our place, so Levi felt compelled to build a box to store them safely.

As you might guess, Levi is little fond of PDA. He only feels confortable holding hands, however, from time to time I’d steal a kiss to tease him. He grunts and mellows right after, blushing like a teenage boy kissing his crush for the first time. In private, on the other hand, he’s embarrassingly clingy (don’t ever mention it). When we’re reading in the sofa, he’d snuggle on my chest and loves it when I drop kisses on his head and coddle him. He loves hugs from the back and unexpected kisses on the cheek. Levi is milk with sugar but needs to keep a reputation.

We love traveling. For our honey moon, we visited a tropical island in hizuru. Roasted on the beach all day. He’s still wary of the sea water, can’t stand the slimy animals brushing his legs. But he enjoyed the scenery, the food, drinks and long loving sexy sessions in our suite with ocean view. We’ve been to other places, even though the voyage makes us seasick. We’ve seen temples, museums, archeological sites, lavender fields, all captured in photo albums.

Levi and I live a slow, tranquil life after the war. I think that we deserve that respite. <3

[blondeaxolotl]

Do you think Clip Studio is worth the payments? ( asking for a friend/j ) And do the pros outway the cons or is it the other way around? Also, do you use custom brushes? And one last question.. Do you just draw on your laptop? Like, do you use a mouse, touchscreen or maybe a drawing tablet?

I've never seen anybody ask these questions and I'm curious, you don't have to answer though! Have a bagel 🥯🤲 and if you don't like bagels... 🥪🤲 Have a sammich.. and.. if you don't like either uhmm- Have a whole damn cake 🎂🤲 happy birthday [/silly], or hell, take all three! Have a wonderful day ❤️ [/gen]

Do you think Clip Studio is worth the payments?: When it comes to payments, I think it's always better to get it when it's on sale (which do come every now and then), it is a onetime payment and it's better to get it when the price is as low as it can be For pros and cons, the biggest pro of the program is you can get new brushes, blenders, erasers, tools, etc (anything that will help you with drawing easier) from the programs own little assets store (and majority of the brushes are free to download). And it's also easy to import brushes you get from other places (ex: you buy a brush from Kofi made by another artist). Meaning you have options in CSP's own brush store, and also other places on the internet, you aren't stuck with just using the default brushes you're given when you start the program That's the biggest pro to me, besides that you have everything else that comes with your average art program,

I will also mention that clipstudio also has it's own 3D modeler program, like you can import 3D figures and use them as your reference if you can't find one on pinterest. Though I've haven't used it myself so I do not know how easy it is or what the features are, so I can't comment much.

I think the last biggest pro is that if you program crashes (not often, but the chances are never low unfortunately), clip studio will restore your drawing for you and your drawing won't be sent to the shadow realm meaning you don't lose progress. I compare it to dropping your phone and you slowly pick it up out of fear that theres a crack in it only to find out oh there's not one it's fine.

Now for the cons, the biggest is the definitely the price, which is why I recommend getting it while it's on sale while it's at it's lowest. The program is insanely pricey. I also recommend the PRO ver instead of the EX ver. The PRO ver is cheaper and it's main focus is illustrations which is all you need if you're only planning on drawing. The EX ver is both for drawing and animation, while you can still animate on the PRO ver, it limits you insanely, like you can only make 25 second long animations and refuses to let you do more unless you pay for the EX ver. Now I have the EX ver and I'm learning animation, I will say Clip Studio's animation set up and layout is very confusing and tedious to beginners (I had to watch a good amount of tutorials to understand the features and everything), I believe some people compared it to animating on Photoshop, so if you haven't animated on Photoshop before, good luck. I'd say just use another animation program for animating (Flipaclip, ibispaint etc), the only reason why I'm sticking to animating to ClipStudio is because I'm stubborn and don't like switching programs. Clip Studio also has a free trial feature (which I believe lasts for 3 months), now this is good yes, but the problem is that the program refuses you to save your drawings with the free trial. I don't know if this was changed or not since it's been a while when I used the free trial, but if you want to get a hang of the program and test it out, there is a free trial, just be aware that it won't let you save your progress at all which is bull.

Those are my pros and cons, I have a lot more pros than cons but I tried to sum it up as best as I could. It's really your choice to decide if the program is worth it or not (again there is a free trial, and if you do plan on buying it, get it while it's on sale) The assets store with all the downloadable brushes is my biggest pro, but I'm aware other programs like IbisPaint also have that. I think that's all I have to say now for ClipStudio, i've yapped alot gulps.

---- do you use custom brushes?:

A good handful of the brushes I use are brushes I bought from other artists:

These brushes from PharanBrush on Kofi , I'm someone who likes to experiment with alot of brushes, so I often download/buy from other artists (I also have no self control). The EnpitsuP set comes with 100 brushes, alot I know, but your options are endless. The Krupuk set comes with 160 brushes, and alot of them are similar to like copic markers but for digital art. And the last one is BōrupenP sets, these are free and mimic school supplies, if you miss the feeling of drawing on your school books with pens, this one is also neat (plus it's free) Another brushpack I have is Cole's Pencil Pack , it comes with 19 brushes, of all kinds of taste and texture. I use this set alot, especially the "Cream Sketch 2" pencil as it's fun for lineart or sketching.

(Can you tell I like supporting artists) next set I have is Brush Box Vol.1 Markers by Olguioo this set mimics the feel of traditional art and even has a brush that makes your canvas look like paper!! It's very neat

Now of course I do have brushes that are free from the assets store, like these, which you can easily find by searching up their content ID codes:

Ofc there's more, but these are just some I use which I find neat!

---- Do you just draw on your laptop? Like, do you use a mouse, touchscreen or maybe a drawing tablet?:

I use a laptop and a drawing tablet! I specifically use the VEIKK Studio VK1200 pen display, my brother bought me it as a birthday gift this year, but before I had that one, I used the beginners One by Wacom tablet for like 4 years or more, I still use it sometimes, but only when i'm on vacation somewhere I can't bring my main one

OKAY I think that's about everything!!! Very long post so apologies if there are any typos or misspells or repeats! And thank you for the food, in return I will share the food with you because sharing is caring (ALSO if anyone elses wants to add something like other pros or cons about ClipStudio, or other brushes or anything like that, please feel free to leave it in the replies!!!)

[hollyhomburg]

It is June finally, summer polishing it's restless claws, and you are dying.

You didn't love me at first, and i was alright with that. i remember back when there were bunkbeds in the middle room, and you'd sit on top where my sister slept, how i'd climb up the ladder just to look at you. you where always so good, so quieht and invisible when you'd hunt in the autumn leaves, delicate paws that have now started to curl with arthritis and age.

i remember the first time you bit me and i didn't tell mom, because i thought she'd get mad at you and think you weren’t worth petting, and I didn’t want her not to touch you.

she didn't get mad. But she did notice my bloody hand clutched to my chest. “It’s not that bad,” It was never too bad, for me to keep trying with you. you've lived in my house for 21 years now.

i wish you'd let me clip your claws, but somehow that feels like something you wouldn't want on principle. You were always so quick to use them whenever someone reached down to pet you that you didn't like. hissing and biting were your language the way you told my family and me /no/ before i had the experience to know how important that was. How essential it was to say the word /no/.

I learned. Oh, how I /learned/ from you.

My family likes to joke that i'm still the only one out of them that knows how to set healthy boundaries, i can't have learned it from my parents. The way i see it, it has to be from you. You taught me how to fight tooth and claw for what i know i need. You taught me that there is always room to be loved better, always a reason to teach the people who love you how to love you in ways that won't hurt.

and although it hurts now, i think it's just because the love i have for you has no were to go, now that i know that you're dying.

i still remember the first night you really /asked/ me to pet you. the first time you asked for more than the occasional chin rub (those are still your favorite) i was 16, and spending alot of time in my room because the stalking had gotten particularly bad. you were always in my room too- because it was always soft and quiet- the same room i write from now. where underneath you are dying beneath the porch (i won't be cruel and try to move you if thats where you've chosen to rest, i know how to respect what you want now, you taught me so well!).

The same room you died in, because you couldn’t stand it, how I kept trying to bring you back to my room.

The first time i pet you because you wanted it, i had a bottle of benedryl and two bottles of advil on my bedside table and i knew that taking them would make my organs fail. God, i was sitting on the edge of that single bed and sobbing. Ready to go. Ready to end it,

And then you started circling my heals and /meowing/ at me. the cat who never wanted to be touched hopped up on my bed, wormed its way between my knees and started nudging at my hands and purring. begging for touches that i barely knew how to give.

i was sobbing too hard to see, but i could feel you purring against my fingertips. Maybe you knew, animals have a 6th sense about things. but i don't think i knew how much i needed to not feel alone right then. i think you stopped me from taking them, i don't know if it would have killed me.

You stopped purring 3 days ago.

I’m convinced You saved my life regardless, it’s a pity that there’s nothing I can do to save yours now.

i didn't feel alone after that, and i suspect i won't feel alone until your body is cold and you're gone. i suspect it will be hours now, i'll check on you again before i go to sleep and once more before that, after i'm done writing this.

later in life, you got softer. kinder, less likely to swat and attack, i think maybe you realized that you actually liked me a little or at the very least you knew i was hurting and needed love too. We made up for lost time you and I.

i started to pet you a little longer, even though you were hairy and thick furred and tended to get orange hair on everything. in the winter i'd sit by the fire and pet you until i had enough fur to felt a hat with, and in the summer, you'd tollerate sweaty nudges of my fingers. i always pet you more in wintertime, you always hated the cold. I got up and closed the window, just before you died.

i always gave you one more pet after i thought i was too tired to give you anymore if you didn't walk away from me first, one more. just one more. I used to say, just one more so that when she dies I’ll know I gave her all the love I could and then some.

That was a lie, I have so much love for you left and when you die there will be no where for it to go. I should have given you double, or triple the love I did.

i really hoped, this last winter, that you'd make it to see the summer, just because then you'd be more comfortable, and maybe you could go back to watching the chiptmunks in the garden. Your days of chasing them long over. maybe i should feel happy, you got to see the spring. it's june now, 7 days shy of summer, and i know it's your time to go.

i just want to say thank you, thank you for being my friend, thank you for being my cat. if i'm allowed one more lifetime, i'd like to spend it with you <3 you where the best cat ever.

i promise i'll listen and learn to love you just as well next time <3

[snowberrydream]

Käärijä @ Puoli seitsemän - talk show 26.4.2023

Here is an english translation/transcript of Käärijä’s appearance on Finnish talk show Puoli seitsemän for the enjoyment of all the non-finnish Käärijä & Eurovision fans. I have no clue how to screenrecord videos or put subtitles on them, but I can offer you a written translation :D (if someone has access to the video and can do that, feel free to use the translation if you want to, just tag me if you do, please). If there’s anything confusing or weird, comment or message me and I’ll try to clarify it 

So here it goes, enjoy!

Käärijä @ Puoli seitsemän - talk show 26.4.2023

(hosts talking about generic beginning-of-the-show-stuff, introducing Käärijä)

host1: Today we are having a party, holding onto pina coladas with both hands (handing out drinks). These are non-alcoholic, I assume it’s fine by you?

Käärijä: Absolutely. It’s probably for the better. This time.

host2: And it’s tasty! You can try both of them.

K: Is this green one also a pina colada? (tastes)

hosts: Ummmm (unsure noises) we are also curious to know (laugh) But hey, glad you could come amidst all the hustle! You’ve been all over like a … a pina colada.

K: (sipping his drinks) (chuckles at the metaphor). Exactly. Happy to be here, thank you for inviting me. And amazing that we have these [pina coladas] here. I actually haven’t really drunk these that much, so thank you for this!

H1: They’ve gotten a lot more popular lately, the sales have gotten up. Have you heard about that?

K: Well yeah, yeah I’ve been told that there has been some empty shelves.

H1: Green yarns sold-out, green fabrics sold-out, (H2: green nailpolish too), pina coladas…

K: It’s indeed quite a circus that I’ve managed to create, but well, (shrugs) why not.

H2: And this is only the beginning, isn’t it?

K: That’s what I’m a bit scared of, really (laughs). That what else will people come up with?

H2: Right now you surely don’t have time for days-off, but when you do get to relax a bit, what do you like to do?

K: I think I’ll just snuggle underneath my Formula1 -sheets, take a little nap and think about absolutely nothing, if one is really able to do that. Or watch some series or listen to some relaxing music. But probably just be in silence.

H1: Yeah, there was a couple moments before the broadcast started, like a half a minute of quiet in the studio. You had like this serene smile on your face.

K: Yeah, I was enjoying that (laughs). I mean I of course like talking with you, too. But, when you are constantly surrounded by thousands of people, at some point it just starts to feel like you need a bit of your own space. As much as we humans are pack animals [=like and need others], too much is too much.

H2: (agreeing hums) Do you know how to take that own space when you need it?

K: Not always. Though I’ve been trying to learn to say no to things. I used to be really bad at doing that, worrying that what if I’ll upset someone etc. But now I’ve been learning, also because of this [Eurovision] that sometimes it’s just …Too bad, I just can’t do that now. That I just need to take that space (moment of realization) …And yet I still don’t have it (laughs). But, on the other hand, some things you just have to get done, and then you’ll take care of those. So… Let’s just hope that everything will go smoothly.

H1: The contest itself is about two and a half weeks away, but there has already been pre-parties all over Europe, getting people into the Eurovision spirit.

H2: Yes, let’s see how it was in London about a week ago. (cue a clip of Käärijä’s performance & fan interactions from London, Cha Cha Cha playing in the background)

(back to studio, hosts and Käärijä jumping and dancing before sitting down again)

hosts: You just can’t stay still while listening to that.

K: Even I joined in too.

H2: So much for resting.

K: Yeah, there it goes again (laughs). When I could’ve just been like (slouches on the sofa) for once.

H1: It happens to everyone! It just pulls you in, it’s such a banger.

K: Yeah, it’s quite enegetic. Though I’ve also tried to not listen to it a little bit, so that it doesn’t become completely (gun to the head -gestures). But I hear it all the time anyway. Everywhere (flailing hands).

H2: So, pre-parties all over Europe. How did you feel about those?

K: Damn good, foremost. It was so amazing to see people singing along to a finnish song. Hadn’t really even imagined that something like that could happen. Met wonderful people there, such amazing personalities, and the mood was great. It really felt like a family, everyone cheering for each other and no like, any disturbances, like what could sometimes happen in an ordinary gig, you know. Really great. I’m glad I went. At first I thought that I wouldn’t go at all (H2: to Eurovision, or…?) – No, no! I meant the pre-parties (H2: Ah, yes) so that I could rest, because they can be quite …demanding. Lots of interviews, travelling, waiting around and so on… And then during Madrid trip I also got sunburnt …roasted my skin a little (laughs) Oh well, I’ll have a bit of a tan now, no burns any longer. But overall it was really good, though also tough.

H1: So you keep a professional attitude about it all? Like, ’this is work, not partying, focus on the job’?

K: Keep focus on the job, yeah. You always aim for a win. Of course you must also remember to enjoy the experience, but the attitude is still like ”See you at the Market Square [= for victory celebrations], all of Finland”. I’d feel so quilty if I’d be just drinking and partying around amid all this, I might never forgive myself.

H2: People have been fitting the victor’s mantle on you [=predicting him to win] already. And on Sweden’s Loreen, whom we saw briefly in the video clip. How do you feel about the pressure of being a fan favorite?

K: I don’t really take pressure about it. In a way. I mean of course I feel like …I have that pressure, but, I haven’t really understood it, It hasn’t quite sunk in yet, because I’m just running from one place to another all the time. I haven’t had time to be stressed about the H-hour, because there is still so much happening before that. I don’t think that quite a panic alarm moment (slamming gesture) will happen before the contest, but some level of nervousness will probably still hit me, as it did in the UMK. But the moment you get on the stage, it’s quite an easy case from there on, in the end.

H1: Right. But hey, here we are, holding on to our drinks with both hands, but you’d actually need a third one, as you have also a cup of tea there in front of you.

K: Yes, and also a cup of water on top of that.

H1: For some voice maintenance, right?

K: Yes, as you can probably hear, my voice has taken some damage [he is sounding a little hoarse occasionally] but let’s hope it’ll get better before the contest. You wouldn’t want to attend with a voice like this.

H1: Yeah, but let’s not be too worried for now, as there is still time left.

K: Luckily there is. And we’ll make some more if we have to.

H2: Right. So, you’ll leave on Sunday?

K: On Sunday, yes. You all will be here celebrating May Day, while I’ll be packing my funnel cakes and mead with me and taking off to Liverpool.

H1: The fan phenomenon has caught everyone by surprise. It’s… I assume it has surprised you, surely it has surprised all of Finland, maybe Europe too. I mean, it’s massive!

K: Right. It’s awesome. It’s kinda funny, all the things this has lead into and like, the kind of people that have sent me messages. Like, world-class artists even from abroad and so on. It’s strange how at some point nothing feels like anything anymore. I mean, when you don’t have time to enjoy it, like getting good news about one thing, because another thing is already happening right after. And then comes another thing, and another and another and another. Because every day there is something new, cool and fun happening to me at the moment. I haven’t had time… - I’ve really had no time to properly process any of what I’ve been given. I’ve just, gone somewhere to do stuff and then been off to the next place already and been like ’ok you do that I do this’ (delegating gestures) and so on. I hope that at some point I’ll get some time to think about all that has happened. Of course I’ve enjoyed this, but…maybe not in a way that people might assume? It hasn’t been just living on cloud nine all the time, for real. Even though this is what I’ve wanted, and wanted to get my music out there here in Finland, and, now it seems to be happening in Europe and elsewhere too, so yeah…

H2: Fans have been running after you and so on… Apparently there has been some extreme reactions even? Someone had…?

K: Yeah, one person fainted.

H1: Where did this happen?

K: In Madrid (H2: so they saw you?). Yes. And… They all behaved really well, like, in Finland people just take pics and whisper to each other, but there – they’ll run after you. It’s really a shocking feeling when you step out the door and everyone starts screaming and (running gesture) they are running and then we are running (laughs). But, it’s not like …If you said no to something that they asked for, they were really respectful and nice about it [despite the enthusiasm].

H2: So, someone just saw you and just, simply couldn’t handle the shock?

K: Yeeahh. Though, sometimes I can barely handle it either, when I see myself in the mirror (laughs) (hosts laughing).

H1: The Käärijä hype is intensifying indeed. But, let’s add to that a bit more with the following clip.

(Videoclip about a family of real Käärijä superfans, where the mom had made Käärijä’s Cha Cha Cha costumes for her three sons and even the family dogs. the boys are dancing and talking about how much they like Käärijä)

H1: They are really rooting for you.

H2: Aww, such sweet boys.

K: So cool.

H2: They really got it down, dance moves and all.

K: Yeah, I’m speechless, honestly. Like, amidst all this there’s little time to pay attention to what is happening around you in the world. And then there’s kids like that… It’s truly amazing thing, thank you to them, really. All the best to them. And the parents too, truly tipping my hat to them for like, for doing all that for the kids. I remember back when I played ice hockey, it was my parents made it happen for me too, taking care of things so that I got to play. And now those boys want to be Käärijäs. Just, lots of love to the whole family. [He seemed to be quite touched about this clip. Either that or he just happens to struggle with his voice a bit right then, sounding a little quivering for a sec]  

H1: Exactly. So. Käärijä is Jere and Jere is Käärijä, is that the way it goes? Are you still just Jere for those closest to you, or is everyone calling you Käärijä by now?

K: Ahhh, well, mom is calling me Käärijä now (H2: okay). I’ve had to sometimes tell her to stop it already, or that else I’ll adopt myself into a new family to have someone who calls me Jere (laughs). Just kidding, really, she’s just proud and excited about all this. But I hear it a lot, this Käärijä stuff. It can get a little dull, because sometimes you’d just like to forget this work stuff, when you are at home etc. and talk about other things than Käärijä and Cha Cha Cha and music. Sometimes it makes me wonder like, …what have I gotten myself into?

H2: A phenomenon has been born, indeed. Well,  we asked for you to bring some pics from your home album, and you brought these two (pics of him as a kid behind a drum kit and him in his late teens wearing hospital pj’s appear on the screen). There they are… You could tell us a little about them yourself.  (H1: a little drummer boy). A little rookie instrumentalist there. A little drummer boy, yes.

K: (looking at the pic) Yeah, I’ve enjoyed banging drums since I was little. My brother played guitar and we watched some Fröbelin Palikat [a finnish kid’s music band], used kettles as drums and and, brother had this weird thingy as a guitar.  Then at some point I got my own drums, started drum lessons and eventually even taught my classmates at school how to play. My teacher assigned that task for me. But that career didn’t last, in the end. Wasn’t quite that interested in drums after all, I guess. But that’s where my sense of rhythm and all comes, surely. And anyway, where would you put those things in a small flat? Banging them in some apartment building, you’ll get evicted in a second. But, drums are still close to my heart and whenever I get the chance I do grab the sticks and see if I’m still any good at playing them.

H1: And then, how about the second pic (of him in a hospital cafeteria or some common area, sitting by a table filling lottery coupons)

K: Right, that’s an interesting one. I got sick with Colitis ulcerosa, I think that was the latin name for it. And well, I think that was taken around the time it was at it’s worst.

H2: So it’s a bowel disease?

K: Yes, my entire colon got inflamed eventually and I ended up needing an emergency operation to remove it quickly, to prevent the inflammation from spreading to other parts of the body. I was hanging by a thread, honestly. I wasn’t even going to go [to the hospital] at first, but dad forced me and dragged me in there. Packed up some The Simpsons movies and my pillow and was like ’we are going now, son’ and… yeah. Honestly the shittiest time of my life, not wishing that for anyone. But it did also make me grow a lot as a person, and I wouldn’t change anything for myself, I’m totally okay with this. I’m alive, in the situation that I’m in now, and it changed who I am. Of course I have things where to improve even now, but it took me forward at the time, regarding my values and such, I think I’m in quite a good place now. (back to describing the pic) I went to place some bets [the lottery coupons] to pass time, there wasn’t anything else to do. Friends or my brother sometimes came to watch ice hockey from TV with me while I was laying in the hospital.

H2: You are wearing hospital clothes in the pic. Did you spend long periods of time in there?

K: I was there for like two weeks at a time. Went there every now and then, had an IV drip and laid there, had some medication and such. But in the end the treatments didn’t work and had to have the surgery, remove the colon completely. So, yeah. But, it’s a thing that happened to me and one just has to learn – and I have learned – to live with it. It won’t destroy your world if a thing like that does happen, on the contrary, it can open some new doors, that’s how I try to view it. But again, wouldn’t wish that for anyone, or anything like it. Yeah. That was a tough time. Made a young guy think about stuff, how others are out there partying, going to festivals and all that, and I didn’t get to have that. It went on for about a year, and towards the end I just laid in bed. I couldn’t go anywhere because I’d be just shitting blood in my pants right away etc. I was just, bumping into doors, barely able to stay on my feet, so…

H2: And a year is a long time in a young person’s life.

K: It was, yes. I had to drop everything. All the sports I did back then. I was really into going to the gym at the time, had certain goals I wanted to achieve and was working towards them. They aren’t important any longer, guess they weren’t even back then, really, but it did hit me hard at the time, when I lost 10 kg, from that kind of body (H2: woah). I weighed 49 kg at the worst point, hemoglobin about 54, or 56.

H2: Rough numbers, truly.

K: Yeah, it wasn’t healthy at all, I was pale as a sheet. In that pic I’m actually still looking surprisingly fresh. Yeah, I was just skin and bones.

H1: And does the disease still affect your life today?

K: Well, of course in the way that I have to go to the bathroom more often, 7 or 8 times a day on average. But I’m used to it, it’s not an issue for me. I can hold it in – so, rest easy there on the other side of the camera, no need to worry that something might happen mid-performance …Well let’s knock on wood just in case – But otherwise, not really… well, I can’t eat spicy food anymore. That will surely destroy my mood and the pipes, so to speak. So there are some things, but I’ve lived with this for so long already that it’s just normal for me.

H2: Surely. Bit of a balancing act.

H1: Hey, you spoke earlier about how people want to talk a lot [about you], and we want to talk and everyone wants to talk about Eurovision, and how it would be great to speak about anything else, even about the weather. But now! Now we’ll talk about it!

H2: Yes, let’s watch the clip first, about a very fundamental question.

(a videoclip of interviewing people abouth whether winters used to be better in your childhood than they are nowadays :D Conclusion: it’s more a matter of childhood nostalgia and personal memories than anything else)

H1: Soo, Jere. Were the winters better back when you were a kid?

K: Well, yeah. Especially now that I’m thinking about all the memories connected to them. I liked snowboarding/downhill skiing [unclear which one he means] a lot back then, and i do feel that there was more snow and it came earlier, but of course my memories might be faulty and in reality we were just skidding on bare ground. But yeah, I have a feeling there used to be more snow and outdoor ice rinks and chances to build snow castles and things like that.

H2: Yeah, you must’ve been familiar with the ice rinks, since you played ice hockey for many years, right?

K: Yes, though with little success. But yeah, I did go swat the puck for a time.

H2: That looks quite proper to me (looking at pics of him in a hockey match).

K: Well, I’ve got the gear on and the puck in my control, so that helps (laughs).

H1: I gathered that you played quite many positions?

K: Yeah, I did go through them all, but none of them was my thing, in the end. But I have very fond memories from my hockey days, too. Though it was also like banging your head to a wall sometimes, too. That either wasn’t just sunshine and rainbows all the time. Very hard training at one point, and from there it swung to the other end when I was mainly just fiddling around. Like, training once a week and then playing a match. But yeah, spent a lot of time at ice halls.

H2. Yes, and speaking of halls. It was on the news today that your iconic green bolero has now been frozen and hoisted up to the ceiling of Helsinki Ice hall rink.

K: Yes, there it hangs now. Up there it went.

H2: An honorary gesture for the shirtless rager. To cheer you on.

K: Yes, my thanks for them all, too. And we’ll have a gig there at the hall in May also, so it was really cool of them to come up with such event. I guess they wanted to wish me luck and bring some joy to the people with a silly happening like that.

H1: And there’s also the positive side to it that it wont get lost from up there (chuckles).

K: Yes, it sure won’t. Unless someone finds a crane or something to get it. So I’m sure it’ll be waiting for me there.

H2: Your live performances are quite demanding physically. Do you think this (points at the hockey pic) laid the groundwork for that?

K: Yes, I’m sure of it. Like, thinking back to the time I was in hospital, I bounced back really fast and got back in good shape even though I was a total wreck after that one year. But when I got back to the gym and jogging trails I started putting weight and muscle back on quite soon. There is some, like, muscle memory to it. I can tell my sports background has it’s effect. That’s why I wish that also the youth of today would all have the chance to have hobbies. It’s not possible for everyone, but I wish it was, because it brings a lot of good, improves your health and brings new friends and so on.

H1: So then, like, most of us have only seen Cha Cha Cha from you at this point, but how are your usual gigs? How long and how physical are they typically?

K: About 45 min to an hour, around 12 or 13 songs a gig. And… yeah, they are quite a mayhem, even more than Cha Cha Cha is, some pretty fast-paced songs in there. You get to shriek and rage and run and hype the audience to your heart’s content.

H2: No wonder that your voice is a bit down, then. You aren’t holding anything back while on stage?

K: No, I think that if somebody has paid, whether it’s 5 euros or 50 euros for the ticket, I’ll give it my all every time. I don’t want the people to feel like I’m slacking off , came there to just collect some easy money, or that I’m not interested in being there. Because it is our shared experience, when the audience is there. I am not alone in there, but together with everyone, and it should be a party for all of us then.

H1: Of course. So, on Sunday you’ll be on the move, but before that a little time to rest, to spare yourself. You won’t be doing any gigs before the ESC anymore, right?

K: I won’t, no.

H1: Great. You’ll get your voice in top condition, yes?

K: Yes.

Hosts: (starting to wrap up the interview] But! BUT! Now, let’s put on some music, shall we? Just a couple little dance moves, pleeease. We can’t end this without a little Cha Cha Cha! So, good luck to you in Liverpool (K: thank you], but now, let’s head onto the dance floor (everyone running away from the sofas). Teach us some moves that everyone should know!

(chaotic Cha Cha Cha-ing ensues, until the hosts form a mini-piggytrain and Käärijä rides away from the camera view. The End.)

[cooltrainererika]

Just watched the Hetalia musical!

It was fun, though I had no idea what was going on sometimes lol. It didn’t take itself completely seriously, and was good goofy fun.

If I had any complaints it would be the aforementioned at times confusing story. Or maybe that’s just because I couldn’t hear what everyone was singing half the time. The main story was about Japan being chosen to host an international festival, and trying to find what’s so unique about himself. And this somehow results in him falling back in time. There was this whole “Open the country, stop having it be closed” mini-arc that I didn’t know how it connected to the whole thing about Japan finding his uniqueness. They could have made it relevant; like maybe Japan has realized how unique he is and goes too far in the other direction, deciding that to preserve his culture he’s going to remain closed, and he has to learn that he needs his friends too, but from what I could gather that wasn’t what they were going for. Or maybe it was? Idk really.

Also man they flanderized Ame badly. He was a brute in this! Like he didn’t even care when Japan disappeared, WTF America??? That’s one of your best friends like??? Also Past!America was trying to prevent the Axis Stooges from returning to the present because… Reasons? Seriously Ame why are you such a jerk here?! Also I swear China was way more hyper in the opening scene than I’d ever expect him to be (Like there was a gag at the beginning where he and Italy were like “Uneasiness? Like the uneasiness of wanting to go to the bathroom oh no we forgot!” and run around goofily). Though that didn’t last long, and he appeared to act slightly like his old salty self, at least in the past, at least what I know of his old personality, after the fact. And Ned was way more cheerful, though that’s not a complaint. Also I kind of wish the JP fandom didn’t push the whole Axis thing still. …And they mistook tomatoes as being North American lmao. Those come from South America, writers!

As mentioned, the story was about Japan finding himself basically. It really was a story made for Japanese audiences and to pull at Japanese heartstrings lol. Also, the actors were really cute. Especially Japan and China. Man Japan was so smol. Though Ame and China’s voices were really jarring to me because wow they were low. Like I’m expecting them to be these tenors and then bam, I hear these goddamn baritone voices come out of their mouths. It’s not bad, just jarring and hard to get used to. Italy and Spain and England’s actors were clearly trying their best to match the anime though. And I remember saying Ame’s singing was… Eh in another Hetamyu clip I saw, but everyone was great here!

Also man the Netherlands fans were eating good tonight! On the other hand, as soon as the characters started talking about how “The world is uneasy recently” in the opening scene I immediately noticed the giant Russia-shaped hole in the cast. His lack of presence was pretty noticeable. Is it because of current events…?

I found it kind of funny that Past!China was like “You don’t have to copy me to the letter you know?” (and at one point quips something like “What is there to copy about me?”) because of how I write Imperial China and how Imperial China was in history, and I’m pretty sure it was the opposite in canon too lol. This was in response to how Japan basically goes the opposite direction of nationalism and is like “Being unique is too hard, imma copy China for the rest of my life”, which was also funny also because of how I write him (then again so was the entire central story of how he doesn’t know who he is and what’s so unique about himself).

But yeah it was a great time. Btw the climax involved past!China appearing out of nowhere and having an epic ping-pong battle with Japan. On Mt. Fuji. And Japan and the rest of the Axis trio are there because supposedly volcanic eruptions release enough energy to create wormholes. Because screw you it’s that type of show. I’m not complaining, that was awesome.

[ailurocide]

Question- do companions get their wings clipped, or pinioned? Not to out myself as a bird nerd but while they're both very bad things to do to a bird, one is a LOT worse than the other.

Clipping a bird's wing means cutting back the primary flight feathers on one wing. Clipping only one wing prevents the bird from properly balancing in flight, meaning it'll swerve to one side and fall to the ground if it tries, so it won't be able to maintain flight. It's technically painless (though robbing a bird of its ability to fly is still Bad, they're designed almost entirely for wing-powered flight from the ground up. You should see what the avian respiratory system looks like), and is reversible.

After molting, the flight feathers will grow back, and the bird will be capable of flight unless its wings are re-clipped. However, clipping often starts before a bird can learn to fly, and even without that the wing muscles will atrophy over time due to disuse, meaning that a bird whose been getting wing-clipped every molt will still have a significant road to recovery after the clipping stops, and may need to be trained or re-trained on the basics of flight.

Pinioning is worse. Pinioning means amputating one wing just above the wrist joint (the second joint of the wing, further from the body. usually just past this, to leave the thumb/alula/"bastard wing" intact so its feathers cover the stump), usually while the bird is still so young that its bones haven't had time to harden, usually without painkillers of any sort. This has a similar effect to clipping, but A. it's fully permanent and B. it throws off the bird's balance even when on the ground, as that's a not-insignificant amount of weight removed from just one side (if both sides are clipped/pinioned, the lack of imbalance means the bird can re-learn how to fly even with shortened wings). Doesn't effect heavier birds like waterfowl too bad iirc, but those tend to keep both feet on solid ground (or just float on water).

A pinioned felfolk would likely have some trouble with delicate balancing, especially as instinct might tell them to use their wings to aid them in balancing- which only makes things worse, since one is, of course, pinioned. One with clipped wings might struggle a bit, but the weight difference would be a lot less drastic, and it's just a matter of waiting to molt & regrow those flight feathers (molts usually happen at least once a year for most species, sometimes more often but most will at least molt in late fall, so their feathers are in good condition to keep them warm during winter)

...Sorry for the unprompted nitpicky inbox essay, but both options have significantly different implications for dear Castel and I'm not good at keeping my mouth shut about bird stuff. Still, I hope this could be helpful to you in some way!

Okay first off: please don’t apologize!! Thank you sincerely for bringing this to my attention… I always love learning new things about animals, even if they’re heartbreaking like this.

Everybody say thank you to bird nerd anon!!

After reading through this a few times and really think about it, I’m gonna alter a few things now that I’m more informed:

(I’d also like to reiterate that what the Sunguard Guild does to their companions is barbaric and not the norm for Guilds and their companions. I do not support the practice of declawing, pinioning, or wing-clipping.)

The Sunguard Guild typically pinions their companions. They have this process done to prevent their companions from leaving the Guild, and typically the head of the primary companion family, or the overall oldest companion, is in charge of ensuring that the pinioning goes well and relatively smoothly.

So most of the current Sunguard companions have a pinioned wing.

[tau1tvec]

I know the design of the infants is a hot topic, but what’s interesting is despite what everyone’s saying, it’s actually even worse than just an aesthetic issue, it’s just further proof EA will choose the path of least resistance to minimize development time and costs.

Infants, are technically between 0-18 months, which considering all the development that happens in that period, it’s tough to assume exactly where these ones sit at, considering they still crawl and use support pillows, and that bassinet babies will still be a thing, let's assume they're between 9-18 months… now, at this age, their necks are still a bit shorter, and their fingers and shoulders are still quite small, at least compared to their enormous head, which is why keeping balance while learning to walk, and even sitting up is quite the challenge for them to overcome. So if these “infants” look odd to you, this could be why.

Though it’s pretty obvious considering the design we ended up with, why these details couldn’t quite make it into the final result. Having spent enough time making poses, I’ve learned that doing anything at all to the width of a sim’s shoulders, or the size of the hands will without a doubt result in clipping or hovering when it comes to poses and animations… and seeing as it’s obvious they just used some of the animations for toddlers, for infants ( the building blocks being one I believe they showed ), save possibly a few new loops specific to their age group, this all seems like a technical decision.

Now, I personally still find them quite cute, as I did the toddlers, even if a few tiny details bug me about them too, but I also understand, having had a baby myself, that it can be jarring ( although I still to this day find the whole aesthetic of TS4 very jarring in general ) and being a person who appreciates the tiny details, a bit disappointing… as always cc and mods will be our saviors for those of us contending with how they look, but I can’t help but remind myself that not every simmer has access to these, and that’s why in the end we still really need to remember that a lot of the criticism The Sims 4 gets is pretty valid, even if it doesn’t feel that way to us personally… bc EA is gonna EA.

[nochi-quinn]

legend of vox machina season 2 episode 2: the trials of vasselheim OR sphinx-assisted therapy speedrun

giant eagle keyleth my beloved

"before I met you I would have found this very upsetting"

my partner remembers grog calling it vagisil in the stream; I do not remember this but also absolutely do not doubt it

australian matt mercer my behated

well. "behated" is strong. my beconfused.

getting "bidet" WAY early

percy you didn't get any education in statecraft you were like the fifth in line for anything

"expand the quadroads" I HEARD THAT (this time)

grant us a clip show

"when peril arrives here, our walls stand ready" yeah about that

raven queen!

"I have an old friend on the inside" a bitter ex-girlfriend more like

so much is being condensed and moved around but it mostly works!

kashaw!

stabby wheelchair!

fucking memelords

hello king bumi

"did you say yours already and I just forgot, or…" relateable

"the stormlord has no interest in dragons. his interest lies in warriors" mala: and yasha's personal relationships

I do miss grog naming pike as one of his friends for the groon fight even though she wasn't there at the time

(and vex hiding behind grog's leg)

zahra!

"you're not as charming as you think you are" vex: you take that back right the fuck now

"I just wanna put her in my pocket"

this is condensing quite a bit (and possibly combining zahra with the original leader of the Take) but also I'm just as glad to not have to deal with wil wheaton or felicia day

this demon slayer looking motherfucker

super-convenient trap door

the squeaky little "rage"

poor flametounge, only ever used as a flashlight

osysa is so fucking COOL

callout post for all of vox machina

wonder if that "save those closest to you" will come back with vex

like if kashaw will still do the ritual and pike has guilt over that, or if she learns how to rez out of sheer desperation

we do not need the lifespan angst right now osysa

"no one cares about you" what's his mother's name

who fixes these walls after grog bounces off of them

we don't do anything with dignity

"I don't care if I die. none of us do." scanlan: she doesn't speak for me

the divergence sequence is so fucking cool

ugh osysa's design, the way she's animated, her voice, everything about her

"step three?" "profit?" MEMELORDS

VICTOR

the fact that I can SEE matt's face

PERCY

no more LIES, PERCIVAL

and that was the last anyone saw of victor

I thought that was sumalee as the highbearer

(if that was already announced I absolutely forgot, I have a deficit of attention)

WELP TIME TO CRY

[nonnui]

Pokémon Violet

They don’t let you break into people’s houses anymore.

Uh, from the beginning: one of the latest generation of mainline Pokémon RPGs, set in the region of Paldea, Violet version is the “futuristic”-themed counterpart to the “prehistory”-themed Scarlet.  I got Violet because its flagship Pokémon looked cooler to me, and I got a Pokémon game at all because I learned that they can all be played in a variety of languages these days and my six year old is studying German.  So now she’s allowed to play Pokémon during nominal school hours and occasionally reports that her “Hopspross” has won a “kampf” or whatever.

This generation is the first to go open-world: you can, theoretically, do things in any order, though there are soft prerequisites, like “that Gym’s Pokémon are leveled in the forties” and “I’m not sure how you could get there before you unlock the ability to motorcycle on water”.  (Oh, yeah, you get a motorcycle.  It’s also a Pokémon which doesn’t count toward your party limit.  It likes sandwiches.)  I’ve played at least one of every generation of Pokémon to date, and some of the side games, so I’m going to be doing a lot of comparing Violet to the rest of the franchise, rather than video games in general.

QoL: The developers have been doggedly innovating on this since I was seven years old.  Basically nothing that was a problem in 1996, or even 2010, is still an issue at this point.  A lot of these changes do work to make the game gentler and accordingly easier, but in the long run they make all the right tradeoffs: Pokémon can now remember moves they once knew, you can access your stored Pokémon from the field, it’s not too dark in caves, you don’t need to juggle terrain navigation with party Pokémon movesets, if you’ve encountered a species before you get helpful reminders of type advantages in your party’s summaries, you can take a flying taxi to any Pokémon Center you’ve hit before.  However: there are problems now that weren’t technologically possible in days of yore.  Mostly it’s clipping; I watched a Mudbray doing its walk animation while stuck nose-first through the side of a mountain slope, hooves in midair, and that was just the funniest example.  It takes some getting used to to maneuver the camera, and there are positions you can wind up in where no angle is actually good.  I once had to use the flying taxi service because I jumped onto a boat, fell into the water trying to jump back off, disembarked involuntarily from my motorcycle in the process, and was not allowed to mount the motorcycle on the boat because there wasn’t enough room.  But this isn’t game-ruining, at least not for me.  I think I appreciate where they focused their effort instead, if they didn’t have the time to make everything perfect.  4/5.

Throughline: Startlingly good for an open world game, or even without considering that handicap, for a Pokémon game - they made dialogue decisions that work no matter what order you do things in (and most of them even sound like things a human person might say).  There are soft incentives for going through each of three questlines till they tie together in the endgame (ability to control higher level Pokémon, unlocking movement options on your motorcycle, loot).  A lot of the characters have simple but respectable arcs of their own, and they made positively baller choices in setting up the final conflict.  5/5.

Pacing: This one is tough in open world but I think they pretty much pulled it off.  I cheated a little, by looking up which gyms and bases would have Pokémon at which levels - but only a little.  Merely going where I felt like, exploring the map, and catching one of everything I saw, tended to accumulate my team enough XP to be getting on with.  And they sacrificed the little bit of difficulty-curve-handholding that conventional Pokémon games have had in exchange for a really great payoff in explorability.  Paldea is incredibly explorable.  I’d set out in a direction, spot a shiny object, challenge a trainer, chase a species of Pokémon I wanted to catch, notice a Pokémon Center in the distance and figure I might as well, make a wrong turn on the way out, and be halfway across the continent from where I meant to be, in a delightfully organic way that really made me feel like I was the sleepless and fearless ten year old owner of half a dozen mighty creatures to protect me on my self-directed journey.  The minimap, and the flying taxi service from early on, together seal the deal; if I get lost, I can just go back to where I last knew where I was and put a flag in the map app to keep me going roughly the right way.  But I am keenly aware that if I had happened to cheat less, explore in other directions, I might have gotten in over my head.  I think this is the sort of thing you ideally want to solve with a difficulty level slider, or more in-game hints, rather than with player luck/metagaming.  4/5.

Aesthetics: I tried on every hairstyle offered for female player characters and they were almost uniformly awful.  (I settled on “space buns”.)  I had to google how to take off my hat, because it was a bad hat.  (And I wanted to show off my “space buns”.)  There was a kind of disconcerting amount of available facial customization, we’re talking “more than a dozen kinds of eyebrows”, but the only shade of green I could make my eyes was uncomfortably neon so I settled on hazel.  You can go shopping for accessories in the in-game stores, but as far as I could determine, it was impossible to wear any outfits other than the four seasons of unlovely school uniform.  (You’re in school in this one.  You still bop around the continent mostly unsupervised, of course, but you spend the whole game technically enrolled, and you can show up at the school and take classes too, if you want.)  The Pokémon looked fine, the cute ones were cute and the pretty ones were pretty and the ridiculous land whales were ridiculous.  The landscapes were in many places genuinely beautiful, and there was a real day-night cycle; I could sit on a mountaintop and watch the virtual sun set and the pixelated moon rise and have a pleasant visual experience.  But the clipping issue hits here, and the PC customization is in an unhappy medium (grateful though I am for the “space buns”).  4/5.

Charm: Really mixed bag.  On the one hand, it’s so nice that we’re in a technological place where Actual Size Pokémon can roam the overworld to be charged into or scurried away from depending on the player’s encounter tolerance, but I wasn’t very into the encounter format of Tera Raids, and they shoot obtrusive columns of light up into the sky till you beat them.  It was so cute to have a motorcycle Pokémon stealing my sandwiches, but the amount of emphasis the game puts on food - principally but not exclusively sandwiches - is honestly really weird; the distribution of businesses made all the towns feel kind of fake to me.  I’m glad that these days your lead Pokémon can follow you around outside their ball without having to be specifically a Pikachu or in a specific park, but none of them, even the fliers, can actually keep up with the PC at any speed greater than a sedate stroll.  I like the “encouraging mentor” format for the “rival” character, but there are  now NPCs who won’t talk to you at all, who will orient their bodies to look at you if you approach but won’t say a word no matter how many times you press A.  And you can’t break into people’s houses any more.  There were almost no explorable interiors in the game.  The great outdoors really was!  Mountains!  Rivers!  Forests!  Seas!  Deserts!  Lakes!  Caves!  Cliffs you can safely jump off, saved from the sudden stop at the end by your haunted cellphone!  And doors you can’t walk through, a school building you have to navigate by naming your destination to an in-game computer terminal, restaurants that consist solely of buy/sell menus with no floorspace, cutscenes that whisk you from reception desk to rooftop battle court with no intervening stairwell.  I didn’t find one house I could walk into that wasn’t mine.  I really felt the lack.  I liked that historical feature of Pokémon games so much that when I worldbuilt a reification of the setting I decided it was just a cultural thing that you don’t lock your door and anyone can just walk in.  Not in Paldea, I guess.  3/5

Nonnui™:  I enjoyed this game very much while I was playing the main plot.  But I tried to go back to do some post-credits content earlier today, and it turned out someone had swapped the cartridge, and I didn’t muster the energy to go look for the box.  Maybe I’ll do it next time I have a bad cold or something.  Maybe I won’t.  But ultimately the plot is well worth playing, and that’s a perfectly solid achievement for a game.  4/5.

[scarabiaa]

"Oh! Um, how can I help you? If you want to talk to our student council president, I can take a message or resolve it on my own. Is that okay for you?"

NAME: Sebastian Maes

NICKNAME(S): Seb by the Vice President ; Seb-chan by Seth ; Snowball by NBC students ; Pretty Boy by Ivy

AFFILIATION: Student

AGE: 19

SPECIES: Human

INSPIRATION: Snowball

UNIQUE MAGIC: Shadows Taken - His Unique Magic allows him to gain a twin, only that this twin is a shadow version of him. During this time, his own eyes turn pure black and he can see everything from a higher perspective, literally. His shadow twin can do things he physically cannot so his magic takes advantage of that perspective. He has to be careful with controlling the twin, lest it winds up having a mind of its own and being able to become recklessly evil.

PERSONALITY: With a softer voice, Sebastian tends to be timid on his own. When he is beside Rollo as his assistant, that is when he can hold his head higher. He knows that he is good at his job and he is especially confident when it comes to paperwork. He is really kind with new people, as long as they talk to him first. He can't really be the first one to talk, someone else has to talk to him first. He's extremely loyal, yet he knows when things are wrong, even if he has been with a certain person for a long time. He can usually be counted upon when it comes to certain subjects that you may need help in.

APPEARANCE: He has purple eyes, pale skin, and long black hair that reaches past his shoulder blades. He has two long strands of hair and bangs that cover his forehead. When in NBC uniform, he wears a beret the colors of NBC. He usually can be found wearing that uniform as the student council president's assistant.

~

SCHOOL: Noble Bell College

GENDER: Male

DORM: Cieloluz

GRADE/CLASS: Year 3

BIRTHDAY: September 22 (Virgo)

HEIGHT: 6'0"/186 cm

DOMINANT HAND: Ambidextrous

HOMELAND: Queendom of Roses

CLUB: None, he follows Rollo around when checking up on the clubs.

BEST SUBJECT: Alchemy

HOBBIES: Reading shojo/romance manga, crocheting cute animals, knitting, tiny hair clips, doing paperwork, reading textbooks for fun, writing, calligraphy, computer science, haircare

PET PEEVES: Neon colors, bad book covers

FAVORITE FOOD: Broiled lobster tail with garlic bread

LEAST FAVORITE FOOD: Haggis

LIKES: Listening to people ramble about their favorite things, doodling in the edges of notebooks, buying new shoes

DISLIKES: Actual mocking and teasing, heights

TALENT: Able to fall from a high place and land without a scratch

SONG: Shinunoga E-Wa by Fujii Kaze

~

His MBTI is INFP.

He tends to play with his hair a lot when he's nervous.

He cannot deal with any horror movies whatsoever.

Contrary to popular opinion, he is actually decent at cooking. He just stopped once he got to learning about oil. He still screams if he sees a pan full of oil and it is popping.

He has three older sisters and a younger sister. He gets teased a lot by his sisters. He does take care of his younger sister though.

He remembers when his family was actually really poor and everyone thought that there was no chance he would be able to go to NRC. Instead, by some miracle, his family was saved from poverty and he was allowed to go to Noble Bell.

He gets a headache when seeing yellow or orange colors.

Does not like meeting new people or when he does, he greets them silently. He's afraid of saying anything awkward in front of them.

He loves building tiny things, like Lego sets.

There was one time where the VP and Rollo were sick and could not handle the responsibilities as the heads of the council, so it was up to Sebastian. He makes them both swear they will never make him do that again.

To this day, he does not know what he wants to do in life. Being someone's assistant sounds great and all, but he doesn't really know if that's the only career he wants to pursue.

The reason why he doesn't cut his hair is because of a story his mother used to tell him when he was little. As long as he had long hair, there would be an invisible string that attached him to his soulmate. He should have grown out of it, but to be honest, he likes the idea too much.

He doesn't have any grandparents.

He likes crunchy food. You'll hardly find him eating soft foods.

He can play the piano very well and he has gotten singing lessons since he was little. He does not sing in front of anyone but he has been known to be able to put his youngest sister to sleep when she's really upset.

He sucks at history.

He's actually a bit of a hopeless romantic, he likes consuming romance media. There's a manga that makes him wish he had the relationship the protagonists have.

Has accidentally pulled all nighters, only because he is too focused on his work. He ends up collapsing in the student council meetings.

~

DYNAMICS:

The President's Assistant: Rollo + Sebastian

Sebastian actually became Rollo's assistant because he didn't want to join any clubs and he thought that maybe, with the president's help, he would not have to. He ended up enjoying what he did a lot because of all the paperwork he is allowed to do. He's extremely good when it comes to paperwork and he's very organized. When left alone for a while, he will go through a stack of files in thirty minutes or so and it is all done very well.

[worldofgoo]

yayayay yippee (≧◡≦) i love how vibrant & lively your art is, i think my fav pieces are Horse Surgery & hanyuu (even tho i have no idea who that is) but that one wip with the rainbow is also v ery special 2me because it reminds me of my fav kind of weather ^_^ generic Which Program Do You Use question & also which programs have you tried so far? which one would you recommend for someone whose only experience so far wiht digital art has been scribbling in ms paint -_-? on topic, what do you draw with (mouse, phone, drawing tablet, ??) & was it easy for you to get used to digital art? i always get overwhelmed by the amound of different functions available so im not sure where to even start, any advice? which physical art forms do you like / would you like to learn (anything at all, i personally have been getting into air dry clay... well actually ive been using my sisters playdoh but maybe ill purchase smthn fancier :3) & final question how do you come up with poses to draw? your characters (+creatures) seem very animated and i really like that :)

HI okay i guess ill answer these in a list. actually will put it under the cut since i ended up saying a lot (and dw i enjoy being able to talk a lot so thank you!)

-THANK YOU im glad some of my more recent works (in my more current style) are appealing 2 people! like i wanna draw my own way even though i think it gets less notes... the higurashi fanarts (hanyuu and shion) r very memorable pieces to me because its when i started doing the loose sketches with the thin lines and block colors and thats the direction i reallyreally wanted to take my style in. also the rainbow is rian my friend rian

-i draw in paint tool sai! the only program i used before that was sketchbook pro, which i didnt like because the brushes were kind of... blurry/smudgy? sai allows you to zoom in and draw pixel by pixel which is something i like, and i like the way it does its blending. its also just easier for me to understand. i didnt pay for it i think i found some deviantart page that had the link, id have to find it again

-i draw with a wacom intuos tablet! its lasted me... almost 10 years now. ive heard newer ones are poorer quality in terms of at least the nibs needing to be replaced constantly, so idk what the most recommended tablet these days is. ive drawn with my mouse and tbh it caused awful hand pain so i would not recommend this. i draw on my phone with my finger sometimes but i find doing it on my laptop easier, however it is doable once you get used to it

-the way i got into digital art... well. i still have an archive of my earliest art if you wanna see! i was 14 n just drew random shit, often lining over doodles i did on paper and coloring them in. i think esp if youre overwhelmed start with making like throwaway experimental pieces, scribble around, doodle stupid things and color them in with different brushes and see what you enjoy. and then you can just keep the files to yourself if they dont look too good or maybe itll look interesting, it depends i guess haha. the other thing that ive always found helped me was telling myself id draw every day even if it was a little scribble or the tiniest amount of work on a wip bc getting a habit going helped my art a Lot beause it helped me spend more time thinking n focusing on it

more specific advice for sai that i found useful- using clipping groups & the preserve opacity functions are both lifesavers in terms of not spending so much time trying to color in the lines. if you color in a base layer you can just put everything above it as a clipping group and just not worry about it anymore. i also really like using the filters (like multiply) to mess around with the colors a drawing has, though sometimes its more effective to just select a layer/individual color and fuck with the hue/saturation/etc until it looks good. when i color, esp when its not turning out how i wanted to, i rely on shifting colors A LOT. n also mixing colors together using a blending brush and then colorpicking the intermediate color. very useful

-for the most part i stick to uncolored pencil doodles on like, notebook paper (even though i have some fancy supplies X[ one day) but i LOVE making things with clay, wish it was more accessible to do at home. i have a handful of clay animal statues and stuff that i made in my ceramics class in high school. would looove to do more

-because my poses tend to be very pushed/cartoony using references of real people isnt always useful (though obv knowing the basics of anatomy always helps) so in those cases ill use other cartoony art i like as inspiration, i try to see what i like about their poses nd emulate that with my own. sometimes when im struggling ill just do a bunch of studies where i copy art i like to try to get a feel for what im missing. mostly ive realized i like when the pose conveys some level of like, volume and taking up a 3D space (which im still definitely not a master of but bullshitting it can be fun). and i also like to have a balance of curved and angular shapes. sometimes i try to just do a pose that conveys a specific emotion or i just make shit up lol

alsooooo i cant reccomend aimless doodling enough! just random shapes, turning the random shapes into creatures, trying and trying and trying different ways to draw something until you like it, i feel like the things my hand makes when i shut my brain off and just scribble can inspire me as well, and i try to emulate whatever i made by chance while doodling. and if your doodles turn out better in traditional i tend to consider using a photo of a drawing as a way to skip the "preliminary sketch" phase nd drawing a rough sketch over that which i then use for my drawing (or just directly color since i draw very fast/lazy...)

[kyrodo]

On the subject of trash. In this case I mean crappy tiktoks, funny video clip montages, avatars that are used to troll or illicit laughter or wow people with explosions and invasive post processing effects, that kinda stuff isn't for me. It wasn't back then either. I prefer anime or movies over random videos. I prefer games over watching stuff, unless it's vrchat games. Then I prefer watching stuff. I prefer socializing over games.

And at the bottom of everything is low quality content. I do not have a thirst for it that ever needs to be quenched. I just never developed a taste for brainrot.

So what I'm saying is, even though I didn't enjoy how things turned out, there is a very good chance I wouldn't have enjoyed how things would be if we managed to survive that. I would never feel like I actually belong. I would always find things off-putting. There is a good chance you would always enjoy or share that type of content, while on my end of things the ridiculous roleplay and self pity shit I was doing would have been temporary. And that is a difference. A lot of the things you found uncomfortable about me was temporary. The tmi stuff, or the art I look at, that was always going to be permanent. So you could make a case there perhaps. But none of my friends know me for that. Your pathological lying and such, I mean you can't fix shitty if it's literally a personality trait.

You do you bro, not my problem anymore. I don't know how many toes you think I've been going around and stepping on, but I'm not as problematic as you are. And everyone who was ever involved in your active attempt to harass me knows it.

I will never cease to drill home the fact that I have a certain pride that cares how people think about me, how people feel about me, and I fix my mistakes. Ineffective attempts at communicating are difficult to acknowledge, so I'll keep the number of times I have to to a minimum. My capabilities are harder to question when you're not there to frustrate or confuse people with memes or read expressions of emotion through favorites that you were never meant to actually read. I'm not the most anxiety friendly person out there when you monitor every little thing I do.

In the meantime the kinda stunts you pull off aren't even in the realm of consideration for me. Not because I can't learn to but because I straight up wouldn't fucking do it. And you were worried about me? Me doing what!? You've seen everything. Me doing what? Obsess over parasocial relationships whenever I'm lonely? I don't do that shit anymore.

I could be on my worst behavior and still not put a dent in your shitty legacy. Especially Luke with his Republican like strong arming semantically butchering everything literally up until it is opportunistic for him to pretend people are things they are not to fuel hatred and villainize people in ways they don't truly represent. The very essence of predatory behavior. I'm not going to vouch for myself when my heart was on a string but you want someone who will take all the pettiest reasons to take extreme actions on people without taking the slightest bit of effort to actually understand what is going on, there's fucking Luke. Some people know when to admit they're wrong, not him. You thought I had a power fantasy back then? I've yet to see anyone since then who acts as hostile as he does.

The thing about Luke is as long as he can make someone look bad, even for but a moment, he's done his job. Those aren't the actions of someone who actually gives a shit about what they stand for. It's just a means to an end. Those are the actions of someone who doesn't want to do their fucking homework. He doesn't need a good reason to hate someone, he just needs the nearest possible excuse.

I'm not expecting royal treatment for obsessing over someone and journaling about them, but sub tweeting someone and shitting on them whenever they act on it, you did that ever since we met. Who fucking does that?

[helpmeimblorboing]

An extract from the book I'm writing (or trying to write), called "The Demon King". I would love to hear your opinions !!

My father was a Hunter, or so I am told. It is my duty to follow in his footsteps. To purge the world of the vile abominations that are the demons. Tall and lithe, his eyes cold and hard as the diamonds that crown the rings that shine on his fingers, he stands at the head of the hall of Hunters. I look at them, sometimes, when I am granted leave from my training

Aching with bruises and sore with injuries, I huddle up against the great marble pillars of the Hall of Kings, beside the statue of mighty Tenebris that stands tall beside the doorway to the vast marble training halls and watch him speak, his muscles rising and falling under the pale skin of his lean, almost-too-thin arms, his body lithe and muscular as a panther.

The White Death. Pride and joy of the human race

And I, his son

The priests of Tenebris come to me in droves. Great One, they call me, Destined to lead us to victory. I look back at them, my eyes blank and devoid of emotion. They lie as they speak. Their tongues are stained with them, dripping black and poisonous. They seek only our gold, or so Father says, and little else

He speaks to me rarely, if ever, his words curt and short, his voice heavy with meaning and utterly void of emotion. He calls on me as we fight, his white blade flashing against my black. The other Hunters call us “The Two Deaths”. An apt name.

He is greater than me, in battle. His speed is faster, his blade, stronger. His sword flashes as it moves, mighty Deathbringer, engraved with hundreds of thousands of notches on the flat of it’s blade, making it look white and mottled

I had asked him once, why they were there. He had replied, his lips pulled back in a wolfish grin, cold and ruthless, that each notch marked a demon killed. He looked at me, and I saw an animal, wild and ruthless, mad and intoxicated with the stench of blood. Then, as quickly as the madness came, it left, and once more, his eyes glittered, dark and unfathomable, but, for perhaps the first time in my short life, I did not want to know what lay behind them

I asked him once, how any woman could possibly love him. Surely it would be an easier feat to love a mountain-face, perhaps, or a statue.

He had simply stopped, his back stiffening at the words. He had turned to me, his eyes alight with sapphire fire, an unnamable emotion- an unknowable madness- swirling in their depths, and had spat out, his lips pursed, as though the words were poison

“No earthly creature gave you birth, boy. You were born for blood and the pyre”

Before I could ask what he meant, he was already gone, his steps hard and fast- almost stomping- as he marched up the vast staircase that led to his office

The great hand of Tenebris casts a shadow over me as I stand before his altar, and look up. His face is marble, carved by priests born centuries ago. Founder of our Order. First of the Hunters. It is cold and harsh, and my father stands beside me, and speaks, his words clipped and quick, devoid of everything but reproach

“This is what a Hunter is. This is what it means to be a Hunter. Be fast as lightning. Be free from all dross, all worldly emotion, save the heat of battle, and let your sword speak for you. He knew that. I only pray that you learn it soon”

I want to scream. To shout and cry. “The people love me”, I want to say, “What more do you want from me ? Why am I never enough ?”, but then his eyes, hard as crystal, fall on me, and my tongue stills in my throat, freezing over as fear fills me. I bow, “Y-yes, sir”

He gestures to the door. He does not need to speak. The meaning is clear. Get out of my sight, he seems to speak with his eyes alone. And as I leave, I see him look back to the great statue of Tenebris, and fall to his knees, as if begging for penance

“Again”, my father’s harsh voice rings out, echoing out over the grasses that populate the hillside beside the Hunter Order’s headquarters.

I raise my black blade, that I had not seen fit to name, and perform the drills again. My hand shivers on the last thrust. A harsh blow lands on it

“Perfection is needed”, my father spits out, his eyes glittering like black beads, “Only perfection will bring victory. A dance of blade and flesh – their flesh, your blade. Unless you want to end up on some demon’s menu ?”

“N-no sir”

“Then… again !!”, he roars out the last words. I do as I am commanded

I wonder about my childhood, whenever I am given time to do so. I remember only fragments, flashes of memory – of two brilliant blue eyes peering down at me, disdain clear in them. I remember rain and lightning illuminating pools of blood. I remember tears on my face. I remember Father, kneeling in front of me, so that he may look my small form in the eye. An inscrutable expression decorates his face – as unknowable as the dark fabric of the night sky behind his back. He curls his upper lips back in a sneer of disdain, and makes as if to say something.

The memories end there

“Your father was eaten by those filthy demons”, I am told, “The great White Death saw fit to take you under his wing and raise you as his own. Be grateful !!”. I do not believe them. My father is not a man known for kindness

I kneel at the altar every day and I pray for an answer

I beg ceaselessly, a constant stream of questions.

Who am I ? Why am I ? What am I ?

[catastrophic-crow]

i had to go watch a few clips of amorpho to remind myself what he was like for this, but—

kicking my feet and giggling thinking about vlad trying to figure out what's gone wrong in danny's life lately that his ecto-energy's been all over the place in terms of color?? and he's pouring over recordings of his recent ghost fights and having the vultures keep a look out for anything unusual and even broke down and asked jack if something had happened lately— V-Man! good to see you! you're just in time to help me test out my latest invention!!—which was as informative as he could have expected it to be. shame that he did everything except ask danny directly. though who's to say he would've told vlad anyway, really

ember just asked. sure, babypop's a stick-in-the-mud, but he's not a bad guy and she was a little concerned when his normally green ecto-blasts and shields were a somewhat alarming red in their latest fight. she and kitty think it's hilarious once they're in the loop; johnny still hasn't noticed and they're starting to wonder if he's colorblind.

i think danny-as-phantom would tell some of his rogues what was going on if they just asked directly. at least, he'd tell them part of the truth; not enough to directly contradict the bit, but maybe more than he might tell someone else. sure, he's danny "commit to the bit" fenton, but—that's just it. the bit's always been more of a "fenton" holdover, and as "phantom," he already has such an inside-out backpack of a secret identity—he can sometimes afford to be a little more straightforward, when he wants to be.

amorpho taking danny as his student is incredible, actually. first lesson, billy: you said i should never let you see me around here again; now you need to learn how to tell if you do~

cue danny having to track down various small animals and duplicate people across amity just to find where amorpho wanted to meet to start teaching him

at the end of the first lesson, amorpho tells danny; i don't normally share my secrets with anybody, billy. by the time i'm through with you, you'll know how to be everybody

that's uh—that's great, but i was just here to ask about some minor color changes—

you wanted a teacher. now, you've got one! just. fully steamrolls danny's whole thing. you wanted to learn? buckle up, billy, you're going to.

does amorpho know danny's name? of course he does! why would that matter? danny might be "commit to the bit" fenton, but he doesn't have a monopoly on it or anything

and you're so right, clockwork would be having such a good time just watching all this go down in ultra-high definition and with replay on his time monitors. it's a better use of his time than listening to those inept, repetitive observants, anyway; and if there's something clockwork knows, it's how to best use time.

DP x DC prompt #78

There's a reason why the black lantern ring turns all who encounter it into mindless, crazed zombies. It's because the black lantern ring wasn't designed for living people, it was designed for ghosts. Enter Danny Fenton, the newest member of the Black Lantern Corps.