#Also really wanted it to actually have big and bulky pieces

[goffilolo]

Hello tumblr, I was once again offended by Tabata's ass design choices for Noelle's new armour (and his ass choices for the narrative), therefore I had to take matters into my own hands.

[asherashedwings]

PICOS SCHOOL DESIGN DUMP

Pico

So, I decided that my previous designs for a lot of these characters are going to be more-so their designs during the events of the Pico’s School games. So when they were kids. Like, some will be a bit different, but for the most part, that’s how it is. So then these new designs are them as adults.

When trying to figure out Pico’s design, I didn’t know how I wanted his outfit in this new design to differ from his previous. Cuz like, that’s already the perfect Pico fit. But then I realized “omg, it’d be so much funnier if I DIDN���T change it.” Cuz he is definitely the type of mf to be wearing the same clothes he’s had since middle school.

Like, Cass or Nin come back for a rematch, and they both look super different, and then they look at Pico and he looks NO DIFFERENT than last time they saw him.

Darnell

I immediately broke my rule with the previous designs with Darnell, cuz I just really liked the previous design’s outfit and was like “eh, imma use that for his adult design, and just change the kid design.”

I imagine he got that varsity jacket like, custom made, and it was like super fuckin expensive. But like, when he got it, he decided “wait, I don’t want the sleeves” and just ripped them off 💀

Can’t have long sleeves when you’re always working with fire ig.

Nene

I think Nene is the one I’ve drawn in alt. outfits the most. What can I say, I just really like drawing her and messing around with her clothes. So I had a lot of previous pieces of mine I could look back on for reference.

The main change that isn’t outfit related is her hair. I just decided to dick around and see what looked good, and landed on that. I think it looks pretty good, idk.

Also, gave her a WWJD bracelet cuz sometimes I forget she’s Christian and I thought it was funny.

Reminded me of this one stupid idea I had, featuring my very headcanoned version of the G-Squad:

Like, the G-Squad are doing their whole cult thing, worshipping the Peniliens, when the Pico trio burst in, and Nene says something like “THERE IS ONLY ONE LORD AND SAVIOR, AND HIS NAME IS JESUS CHRIST.”

And then they kick their asses, idk.

Also, here, them as kids. Pico just got spikier as he got older

Okay, time for some antags 💥💥💥

Cassandra

She was actually the first redesign I made in this batch.

Main change: Beard. I just sorta wanted to make the Penilien duo more androgynous. I imagine that they don’t really care about transitioning that much, since they don’t have the same gender roles and stereotypes as humans. Just “I’m [insert gender here], that’s it.” Also, I just think Cass slayed with a beard.

I also wanted to incorporate shapes from their alien forms more into their human disguises. So I gave Cass these big sleeve things to sorta emulate the big bulky arms she has in her true form.

One of her pincers is also chipped. This comes from the fact that in Pico’s School, one of her horn-hair things is shorter than the other, and I wanted to find a way to incorporate that.

Damien

I don’t think there’s much to say here that I have already said while talking about Cassandra.

I imagine Damien does less to hide his alien features, since he has a huge superiority complex and thinks Peniliens are superior anyways, so like, why hide his true colors? Why hide what makes him greater than everyone around him?

So yeah, that’s why he keeps his tail out.

Nin

YIPPEE, HEAVYILY HEADCANONED CHARACTER TIME‼️‼️

So Nin differs with the whole “previous design is them as a kid” thing, cuz he doesn’t really age past his age in Pico’s School. Cuz bro dies.

(Also, quick HC timeline: Pico 1 and “Pico 2” (the conflict with the robo-kids) both take place in middle school, while what I call “Pico 3” (the conflict with the G-Squad) happens in high school. So that’s why Nin appears less child-like; he’s a high schooler)

So like, I hc that when Pico killed Nin, Nin pulled some necromancy bullshit and revived HIMSELF. Cuz idk, that feels like some bullshit Pico’s School would pull.

So now he’s undead. His hair also sorta resembles horns cuz it’s sorta to symbolize his devotion to the Peniliens. If y’all are interested in hearing all the HCs I have for the G-Squad (or just PS in general), I might share more at a later date.

That’s all for now tho.

Bonus:

My color palettes for these fuckers. They’re all named after the MSI songs I associate with each of them. I do not support MSI, I just really like the music and it reminds me of Pico’s School for some reason, so I always listen to a lot of it whenever I get sucked back into this fandom

[das-a-kirby-blog]

do you have any dedede drawing guides like i actually haven't a CLUE how to draw this man and neither do the games;

its pissing me off >:( Pls send help + i love ur art i eat it for breakfast everyday <3 ♥️♥️

oh boy do I..

(note: take this with a grain of salt. I'm no professional when it comes to asks like these)

When it comes to Dedede's body, I think of it as a piece of clay, easy to squish into different shapes. ALSO I keep his bottom half heavier than the top, so think of it as a raindrop

the beak is probably the most difficult on this guy, so I tried to simplify it as much as I could. If you wanna do the first beak, draw three circles then connect those together. If you wanna go the 64 route, it's easier. just draw a diamond shape and work around it.

His mouth also comes in different varieties. You can do one where he has a dip in the middle, similar to most of his designs, you can do one where it looks like a wave, similar to his original appearance, or you can do one where it's simply a curve.

BIG ARMS. Think of puffy marshmallows (ignore that mispelling) and work around it. you want his arms to match the bulkiness of his body.

with his clothes, I personally make them really puffy to take up more room, but you want them to fit around the body without them looking stiff (idk if that's the right word)

and it's not in here because tumblr won't allow more than 10 images, but when it comes to the crown, always keep the front in center with the face. It can help when it comes to angles.

lastly the eyes! out of any character, dedede is probably the most expressive, so when making expressions for him, don't be afraid to exaggerate sometimes.

I WOULD HAVE TRACED OVER AND COLORED BUT ALAS TUMBLR HATES ME

That's about all I have for a guide. Hopefully this helped! (also tyy!!!)

[puhpandas]

out of curiosity, what would you want out of revamped gregory and vanessa models?

oh dont even get me started. I think my number 1 want is literally just. fixing their faces. they could keep everything else the exact same and I'd be fine if they made their faces not weird and alien looking.

Cassies hw2 model was designed after her ruin cutouts. theres 2 pieces of Gregory official art in ruin that I think they would (and I would want them to) design his model around, which are the missing poster and cutout with cassie comforting her. i think they're closer to how his face is supposed to look

and he also doesnt look overly young in them. cassies new model just looks like 'kid' and not like, mistakeable for an 8 year old or something. they're supposed to be 12 and Cassies remodel rlly captures that. I really want Gregory's remodel to make him look older, bc I think they didnt know his age yet when they made his SB model, but they should now with all the ggy refs. making him look similar to Cassies models level of age is a big one for me too

another one is HAIR!!! they upgraded cassies hair in the hw2 model by adding extra strands and changing the shape and style and stuff! making Gregory's hair look less like, stiff and clay and sims 4 maxis match would be awesome. and this applies for vanessa too. her ponytail is so rigid lmao and she uh. doesnt have much hair on her model let's just say

as for vanessa, besides fixing her face, I think restoring her old proportions in her art pre-SB is a big deal. their modelers modeled her body to keep the big muscular chest but only in her boobs 😒 giving her back her muscular bulky frame would be huge! and it's not that big of an ask bc they changed Cassies proportions in her hw2 model to look better

also obviously a new outfit. she can't wear her security uniform post-game lol but that feels obvious. I'd die if we got a new outfit for her but I'd be satisfied if they just kept her purple flannel outfit at the end of sb. this also applies to Gregory too. if we got a new outfit for him in a new model I'd pass away. even if it was just a jacket on top of his sb outfit I'd die and throw up and descend into hell

also I already said this but giving vanessa more hair is big. plz give her more bangs and strands and an actual top of her head I miss her tailcoat ponytail

and also I kinda want vanessa to look older. like I absolutely love her smokey eye smudged mascara 'I've been wearing this makeup for 3 days look in sb, bc it gives off a lot of 'I'm going through it' vibes and I think it aids her character in a way her sb face doesnt. i rewatched an animation the other day and was like damn vanessa looks like 16. she was I think 24/25 in FNAF AR. not even counting security breach era and whatever amount of time would have passed since security breach by the time they appear again. she isnt old by any means but shes not super young either! let her immense amount of stress shes experienced show with making her actually look her age 😭

[arceespinkgun]

Hey I saw your Elita in One posting, and I just want to say that I totally agree abt the misogyny and I was thinking about it as well even before you posted abt it. That movie was actually my introduction to the fandom so I'm fond of it, (I've been a new fan of the franchise itself since last September hehe) but after having seen earthspark, all the live action films, a bit of cyberverse (working on it), reading all of the energon universe/Skybound so far, reading some bits and pieces of IDW1+2, and also having just finished the G1 cartoon (yippee!), the worse that Elita in One comes off to me. Even when it first came out I did not enjoy her character writing, but I assumed it was due to casting/the performance. But really, the fact that it didn't pass the Bechdel Test (a notably simple test to pass) in 2024 is a big part of what is still wrong with the franchise. Elita's arc in Skybound is so...cool! It is so damn cool. And she has so much agency + does NOT change her ideals for Optimus' sake. Even Elita in the G1 episode she was introduced in is characterized as someone who is already a leader in her own right, separate from Optimus for a long period of time. In One it's just so obvious how Elita was not prioritized as a character, and a lot of her character traits reek of "this is what's progressive now right?". It's not like I would expect Elita to be centered in a film abt the origins of Oppy n Megs but I feel like she doesn't get to be "cool" in the same way they and Bee are... 💔 An extended one on one (with actual dialogue) between her and Airachnid would have really helped, but also not framing her violence as humorous and delegitimizing it. I never even noticed that until you brought it up, and I feel like that's a big part of the way she doesn't get to feel as "cool". The pseudo sexually dimorphic design is also pretty frustrating at this point, there was no reason for her to be a motorcycle, and the fact that they tend to make the girls bikes really annoys me. If anyone deserves to be bulky it'd be her! Or at least let her have a builtin machine gun or something lmao. Anyway TL;DR I'm glad you talked abt the misogyny in the film bc it's an example of really subtle misogyny and the tokenization of women, which unfortunately just...does not truly make girls growing up feel included, even if that is theoretically the intent. Actually, thinking about it, it's really wild how the Bumblebee film feels less misogynistic, not just because Charlie is a girl + the protag, but Shatter! Despite her like 7 min of screentime, she gets to be as scary and violent as any other Decepticon + a triple changer! Which is *cool*. Not saying it's perfect of course, but I wish we could have female transformers taken seriously like that all the time

YES 100% THIS, YOU GET IT, ANON!!!

The TF franchise has a history of being super weird about women, but in some of the media you've been checking out that's not the case... and I just really don't want to see any backsliding! I remember a character like Shatter being praised and in continuities like Earthspark, Cyberverse, and IDW2, the gender balance of the casts is handled great. Even Elita-1's intro in G1 with her team, like you say, was surprisingly well-written (I think the fact that Beth Bornstein, the writer, is a woman is evident). When I'm in the middle of watching/reading those I don't even really think about how many women are in those continuities because I just see characters, and that's great. I feel like if there's the beginning of backsliding, fans should point that out.

And I kept really struggling trying to explain my discomfort with the portrayal of women in TF One because when other people have criticized Elita-1's writing in it it's often been because she's too "bossy" or whatever (sometimes people use another word that starts with "B" ;_;) but that isn't what I mean... Elita-1 in Skybound right now is this great, tragic character and is awesome like you say! Elita-1 in IDW started out as a tyrant. And I really love those characters. It's just like you say, it's that Elita isn't treated with the gravity of others, and even though the climax of her story in the movie is this fight with the one other woman character, they don't even say one word to each other....

Skybound and Earthspark are ongoing right now, so I think the contrast was extra clear!

[hawfstuff]

Who-lahan's your favorite Dulahan?

Short answer, very few aside from my own. Long answer, I'm not a terribly big fan of the Headless Horseman from Sleepy Hollow over shadowing all Dullahans in a pop-cultural sense. I feel like The HH under utilizes the Dullahans more interesting quirks. (no spine whips, no blood throwing, no fear of gold, no name calling, etc) He's fine. Bunch of examples under cut.

First off the classic 1949 Disney Sleepy Hollow

He's a lot of fun but just too simple. No substance other than to be something fast and scary to terrorize Ichabod Crane.

Fun to watch but WHATEVER. 1999 Timmy Burty Sleepy Hollow HH is pretty cool.

like this is fantastic atmosphere, until he finds his head.

Oh cool, a skull.

oh god put it back. This is hideous.

The HH from Fox's Sleepy Hollow is actually pretty excellent.

Making him generally faceless is an improvement.

The shotgun bandolier adds A LOT. I think this is a great Dullahan but it's really hard to find good photos of him online that aren't super underexposed or horribly compressed. I'm also not a terribly big fan of how Dullahans are used in anime, the vibe they give off in anime feels nasty. Celty from Durarara I don't actually mind that much. I think a motorcycle in place of a horse is a good way to adapt the Dullahan to more contemporary settings. But she's like the only GOOD example.

This however is just disappointing.

If I recall correctly this one was used to write a lot of "head gags" around including but not limited to "repeatedly being groped by one of her friends while her head is far away from her body and unable to maintain agency over it"

And I just fucking hate looking at this THING.

Also what's with all the scythes? Dullahans don't fuckin' use those, get that shit outta here. There are more examples but I don't care enough for them to post any more. They're all pretty bad, and they are all harem filler. GROSS. I also wish the Dullahan was used more in games, their depictions are usually pretty cool but it's almost exclusive to Japanese developers. Western game devs are sleeping on the Dullahan and I want to rectify that.

Golden Sun Dullahan is cool but I don't typically think of them as "super tanky armoured dudes", too bulky imo.

Castlevania Curse of Darkness Dullahan has a great outfit, but that sword and shield combo looks worse that the Final Fantasy 14 grapes, awful weapon design. Speaking of FF14

Cool design, but same issue. Far too bulky for my tastes. Dullahan also makes an appearance in SMT

This just kinda sucks. More recently we got one in Dragons Dogma 2

He's alright. And then there's the beloved Horseless Headless Horsemann from TF2.

He's just too goofy, I don't like him. There are also dozens of Headless horsemen in card games, but they all feel like they are just there to pad out the monster menagerie. My biggest issue with Dullahans in games is that they are almost exclusively a throw away boss/miniboss and never get to be a real primary focus of their respective games, despite how cool they are. For these reasons there hasn't ever been a Dullahan in popular culture I've REALLY latched on to. Out of all of these I only really like 1999 Sleepy Hollow HH and Fox's Sleepy Hollow HH, because they are the primary focus of their respective stories but this all keeps coming back to Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" as it's the only REAL substantive piece of fiction that uses the Dullahan in a strong manner, and even then he only shows up for the finale. A lot of this is pretty surface level, I'm sure there are far better depictions of Dullahans out there but none of them have made it back to me.

[bakurapika]

GOOD NEWS!! THE VIBES ARE CORRECT

i believe i am truly achieving the official character art in doll form

oh and uhhhh i haven't had capacity to do anything other than a single pic which is NOT styled etc. i will figure out peter's wig later. but elena's hair is in and the wig caps arrived, so they do both have non-placeholder hair now

yes that is a rescue american girl beside them. i never said i was good at this.

i got to take off the bandages on rumi's face up when he arrived and then had to wrap him right back up again to attempt to make a wig cap. I would really like to do the doll justice so i KNOW i may not get it on the first try, but i'd still like to hope. no wigs match him but i had some yarn i bought specifically due to the rumi vibes, so i have tentative plans to make a wig that way. I also dropped [HIGH NUMBER WITHHELD] at joann for fabric and other fun bits, and have been spending all my breaks at work watching tutorials on hand rolling sheer seams.

Current plan is to carve the horns out of a hot glue stick and then test different methods of paint. I just remembered I have some very thin shimmer paint that i usually need a million coats of , but i bet that would be an option for coloring the surface while still keeping some transparency, since actual stone or glass shaping is sort of beyond my ken for now.

tbh i might as well also copy/paste my notes from before i went shopping under a cut as being my plans going in.

I did stick to the plan but fabric wise, found a nice dark purple for the sleeves and a vague star and flower pattern that is ok for the lining.

Actually, I think everything but the sleeves is SUPPOSED to be stiff. So everything except the sleeves can be normal cotton etc. Although I think it would be nice to have the inner be lined (you wouldn't see it much anyway) and then the outer still be the galaxy design.

I should invest in a (NEW!!) method of marking up the fabric. A fabric pencil maybe. Or even use a mechanical pencil?

Should probably also invest in a fabric paint set.

Depending on options available, the gauzy part could be a solid color (either lilac or black or in between) painted with a gradient. May want to reference dollightful videos as I know she's done something similar before. The flowiness and thinness of the fabric is probably more important than the color matching, especially given how it'll be thicker when scaled down. May need to iron it or otherwise give it some kind of heat treatment at the end of all this?

I wanted to go spandex for the shoes but I'm not sure that's the right call anymore. To get down to the meat and potatoes, in order for everything to be tucked in where it should be, I think the top and bottom should be a single layer.

I'd been planning from the start to make the boots attached to the pants.

So I think it's a heel/sole shoe form (using one I already have if it fits - making my own with cardboard, air dry clay, something else similar if it doesn't) with white fabric stretched on top. This goes up to the waist.

Note that in the reference images, the fabric for the pants is in fact stiff and creased, like trousers or jeans. Spandex may not be ideal here.

However, the top could maybe be made with a spandex and thus be slipped over the top. Since his head and arms … and chest if needed… will be detachable, it won't even need that much give to it though. I think that, instead of a bulky fastener like in most doll clothes, would be better, even if it means you'd have to reassemble him to change his clothes, since I don't intend to get him out of costume. If I took him apart entirely and shimmied his torso in, the tiny neck piece may not even be a big problem.

All that to say that the shirt may not need to be spandex after all. Another thing to be aware of is that the gold bits will probably be paint and not very stretchy.

Gloves and jewelry, based on the zoomed-in face reference pic, are possibly optional and I'll treat them that way for now. The tattoos are important though and I'm not sure how to achieve that - possibly buying some cricut paper and hand carving that with an exacto blade? Need to make sure that is possible though.

This article says that "clear transfer tape" is needed too - I thought that was built in.

I think I might want to buy an actual brand name exacto blade for this. My shitty dollar store ones are in fact shitty.

Anyway. Shoes part 2, I was going to say any dark fabric with gold paint. However, they need to allow for posability! They're going to restrict that even more with the pants in place.

I do want the black bits to be separate, not only because that's more practical to make, but because they clearly are in the design. They're shoe covers.

The darker belt bits and those particular gold embellishments may need to wait until I have the main clothing done.

Also, for the sake of the ankles bending, may in fact want to have just a thin strip of fabric running up the calf or something? The white only starts showing again just below the knee.

So to summarize for shopping list.

1 - fabric paints, variety of colors or enough to mix. 2 - fabric paint, gold metallic. 3 - lilac fabric, ideally a cotton print with star designs. 4 - gauzy outer layer, the thinner the better, lilac or black or in between. 5- white fabric for pants, needs to have SOME give for joint posability 6 - black fabric for shirt and shoe covers. Enough stretch for the knee

Also should look up any options to finish fabric that aren't hemming. Eg melting?

[ghostinthegallery]

Hey there!! I really enjoyed your insight the other day about how writing a serial differs from a plotted-out-and-written-in-advance novel! As someone who's just dipping my toes into posting as I write, any chance you could give some advice or tips you've learned about that style of writing specifically? 💚

(from @inquisitor-gayfax)

Why yes! I'd love to (thank you for giving me the excuse XD)

The main thing I have realized is that experience with traditional, "complete on arrival" novels is actually super helpful for serial writing. The principles of character writing, world building, and all that still apply, but even more importantly the beats you want your story to hit are all pretty much the same. You want that into, the inciting incident, the midpoint turn, etc. Those are all vital to keeping your story on track. Especially as serials are prone to meandering. It is so easy to get lost and lose sight of the forest for the trees. For me, always checking with myself that I am hitting or actively working towards those major beats helps to keep me on track.

Also note that one big thing will be different is the length. Serials tend to get much longer and thus the beats are stretched out. The length is because each chapter essentially functions as a short story in and of itself. It has to be a satisfying reading experience on its own as well as in the context of the larger work. This oftentimes means fleshing things out more than you otherwise would and bam, longer work. (not necessarily as long as I often go! but the tendency is there). FWIW, I find editing these chapters as I got to be much easier than editing a whole novel. I do miss being able to move big chunks and scenes around (cut and paste, my beloved), but it is worth the tradeoff to me.

The nature of the chapters functioning as short stories (minus a definitive ending of course) is probably going to be the biggest difference if you are someone who writes the entire thing ahead of time and then posts chapter by chapter, as opposed to posting as you write or posting with a backlog but not a finished novel.

Now, the other biggest difference if you are posting as you go is that you will not have the chance to revise the entire story the way you do with a traditional novel. You cannot go back and change things, add foreshadowing or a character beat or anything. Once you publish that chapter, the events are set in stone.

I actually enjoy this! It is a fun challenge to work with what I have established. But...I also cheat. I have a tendency to drop little things here and there that could be hints at larger plot points or things that are setting up things later on, but they are vague enough that I am not fully locked into anything.

The secret is that your readers are unlikely to remember a small detail in chapter 3 that didn't really go anywhere. But they will remember that detail in chapter 4 that got paid off in chapter 35 and you will look like a super genius (I am 99% sure Eiichiro Oda, possibly the greatest serial fantasy writer/artist of all time has done this writing One Piece, alongside his legit 5-D chess long game reveals)

To call myself out, here is an interaction from chapter 5 of The Silence & the Storm (poster child of fics that got too long)

Before he turned to go, he placed a hand on Anrakyr’s shoulder. Anrakyr tried to shake him off, but his grip was as strong as his bulky build would imply. Through an interstitial message he said, “If you ever wish to hear of Pyrrhia, you need only ask. Perhaps you still have friends there? Perhaps not. But would you not like to know?” “What are you—” Zultanekh broke the connection. He started back down the corridor, and Anrakyr had to choose whether to chase him, or remain with this stranger.

I had no idea what had actually happened on Pyrrhia when I wrote that. I just knew I wanted to address Anrakyr's backstory and why he left his home planet, so I left myself that set up figuring I would pay it off later. And then in chapter 48 we got this:

“Do you remember back when the mot was called,” Anrakyr said. “You told me that if I wished to know about Pyrrhia I need only ask. That I might still have friends there. Was that true?” “Would I lie about such a thing? Never,” Zultanekh replied, surprisingly softly. “Did my own wanderings take me to Pyrrhia? Yes, they did. An unlucky clash with some orks left this ship in need of repairs—although make no mistake the orks were far worse off! Space debris after we were done with them.” Anrakyr flashed a glyph of impatience.  “In any case,” Zultanekh continued. “We landed, declaring our intentions to repair and leave. Had we heard rumors of lost Pyrrhia? We had, however the planet itself was quite…orderly. Calm.”

The conversation goes on as Zultanekh describes more of what he saw because 33 chapters later I, the author, now know what happened and can start giving that pay off. Sometimes I will get really lucky and find something I didn't intend as foreshadowing but that happens to work! Those are good days.

Now this is a risky strategy. You can limit your options when you do this, and you have to make the pay off make sense given whatever you set up. I've definitely wished for the power to go back and edit some of my vague hints in the past. But that is the challenge! True you could actually be good at planning and meticulously plant all your little seeds and reveals. Or you can be me, a creature of vibes and chaos.

Speaking of vibes, I think it is important to talk about the audience. And how they will influence you. When you present a finished story, that is it. It is done. The audience can talk about the story all they want, but it cannot retroactively influence how you wrote the book. With serial writing 99% of the time readers will be able to comment. And I think we writers have to be very careful about how we let that affect our writing.

The Game of Thrones writing team apparently at some point decided that "fooling the audience" and being unpredictable was more important than telling a good story, so they changed plot points when too many audience members predicted certain outcomes. This is bad. However, sometimes audience feedback is good! I personally unlocked a whole subplot because a commenter asked about a character I had included totally at random. It was a filler name! I did not realize this character was in a game, but realizing that gave me incredible stuff to work with. I'm glad I listened to them! Not to mention the incredible kindness and support that has kept me going through some rough patches in my life. By that same token, negative comments can feel awful. I have not found that to be an issue in my corner of the 40k fandom, but it is absolutely a consideration in other spaces (especially outside of fanfic) so just be aware.

I hope that answered your question! Probably too much, but as we have firmly established, I am verbose ☺️

[spaceorphan18]

Hi! I have a question about your fanfic Head Over Feet (it’s really good by the way). What made you decide to have Blaine be the one who is married with a husband who is very different to Kurt, while Kurt struggles to commit to a serious relationship?

Hi! Thanks for the question, Nonny, with as much Glee conversation as I get, I don't usually get things that discuss my writing, so I really appreciate the question!!

Also, just in case anyone is worried, yes, I am still working on it. I was working on the chapter the other day. I know I've been a little sidetracked (oops) but I promise, it's a passion project I'm still planning on finishing. :)

So, first of all, the structure of Head Over Feet is a mirror to Season 6, and my intention was to implement a lot of the characteristics and plot points that Season 6 had. One of those elements is that Blaine is (seemingly) in a committed relationship. While Kurt kind of flounders because his no matter how hard he tries, his heart is already at a fixed point.

I also liked to imagine what kind of place Blaine and Kurt would be ten/fifteen years down the road had they not had each other.

One of the elements of Blaine's character is that he did want to be married. And yes, in the show, he wants to be married to Kurt. But there was a romantic ideal about marriage in general. It is a big deal for him, and a goal he wanted to achieve. And I think a Blaine without Kurt would still try to latch on to someone who held those same ideals. I think Blaine -- finding someone who would be good enough -- would jump at the chance at marriage, whether it was truly the right person or not.

And... I'd like to point out that -- there's this kind of misconception about relationships sometimes. That they only have meaning if it's your one true person soul mate, etc, etc, etc. And I don't necessarily think that's true. I think Blaine and Sean's marriage helped Blaine heal in a lot of ways -- in the way that I actually think Blaine's relationship with Karofsky helped him heal.

Blaine being married to someone else, and for so long, will forever remain a part of him. He won't regret being in that marriage, and Sean will have always had an impactful moment in his life, even if the two of them get divorced.

Like the show -- I wanted Blaine to have some time to mature and grow and learn how to be in a functional relationship that didn't need to the epitome of perfect. And even as it ends, Blaine and Sean end on good terms, the same way Blaine and Karofsky ended on good terms. It was an important relationship at the moment, but it isn't the most passionate, the most love filled, the most soul searching relationship. And that's okay.

I also want to point out, I did subtly throw in a nod to Kurt. Sean is a fashion designer for Broadway. That was completely intentional, and while Sean is a lot different (I think Blaine wanted to move away from someone with the same personality) there are ways we keep finding the same people, and Sean's profession was one of those ways.

(Also - as an aside, I purposely made Sean a big and bulky guy - somewhat to mirror Karofsky, and also because Blaine would choose someone who didn't remind him of Kurt.)

Likewise, I intentionally made Ian (Kurt's bf) a professional piano player as a nod to Kurt finding someone who had nods to Blaine.

So, on the flip side we have Kurt. Kurt is one stubborn guy -- and he did a serious, serious relationship when he was younger and decided that he would not do that again. He is very, very protective of his own heart, and he has no desire to ever put himself through that pain again. So he walls himself up and plays it safe by making sure he never gets in too deep with someone else. If he lets someone else in, there is always the possibility that his heart would break into a thousand pieces again when he and Blaine broke again. And consciously or not, he won't go through it again.

This is also a Kurt who didn't deal with the fact that he made a hasty mistake in calling off the wedding. He firmly believed he wouldn't get married until he was thirty. Didn't believe that marriage would work. And if he gave in, if he allowed someone in his space and in his heart, he'd have to face up to the fact that he fucked up. And he spends a lot of time trying to reconcile that his head and his heart are in two different places.

Much like Season 6, though, Kurt is quicker to return to Blaine than vice versa.

The thing about Klaine is this... Back in season 2 and 3, Kurt had an almost blind faith that his relationship with Blaine would work and Blaine had doubts, and then they ended up breaking up because Kurt didn't realize he had to put in work in his relationship, and Blaine didn't trust it enough. By the time Season 6 comes along, it's clear that the dynamic had flipped. Blaine had too much faith that marriage would fix all their issues, and Kurt was the one who had doubts -- because his heart had been broken before.

So, I wanted to take that dynamic and layer it onto the fic. Kurt figures out that he doesn't have doubts - that he knows Blaine is the one and he knows it'll be hard work. While Blaine learns that he needs to be skeptical and take his time to rebuild.

The upcoming part of the fic -- the last five/six chapters deal with this... and it's something I wish they had done more of during the actual show. In coming back together, it doesn't necessarily solve the issues they began with, so now that they are able to have a relationship again -- how do they fix what was broken before? How do they make sure it's the right fit this time and that it doesn't break. So that's the trajectory of the final chapters.

Anyway... I suppose that kind of scratches the surface of your question, Nonny! Characterization is very important to me, and I wanted to make sure I was making logical progressions of the characters in a post-Season 5 world where they didn't return to each other, while reflecting on elements we see in Season 6 only set 10 years down the road.

I hope that all makes sense! Thanks for the question, I always enjoy chatting about writing! :)

[fellowstrangetownappreciator]

Wormville: The Next Round of Builds

...or, "it is MY mental health crisis and I get to choose my method of procrastination!"

As I'm slowly but surely working on posting worm (and also trying to work on putting my real life together, or, better yet, stop it from falling apart), I sometimes take a breather and go ham on my virtual dollhouse with bulldozers. This time, three old buildings got a reno and one popped out from the void.

The Entity's Grove

A small, misty forest (it IS misty in the neighborhood view, but I haven't figured out how to keep the mist when I load in) that hides a small grotto with a-

Actually, nevermind. There's nothing to see in the grotto. A really fucked up weird creep would've probably put a sacrificial altar there, but I'm a normal, well-adjusted Simmer with a normal, well-adjusted custom neighborhood. Anyway, something to trouble Nico in the future.

Wormville's school (rebuild)

This is the original look of the school:

And this is the new one. I decided to focus on whimsy, given that it is meant to be a space for the young. I don't have the mod that allows you to run an active school, and I don't plan on getting it (since my game is complicated enough by now), but I do send teenagers and kids with their teenage siblings here to work on skills and, of course, socialize. It's furnished way more with actual children in mind than teenagers (who are going to be the main audience for this building), but I don't think it bugs me that much. The Wormville teens do mostly live in a neverending shitstorm of drama, schemes, plague outbreaks and arsons, so I think some color and whimsy will only do them good.

Temple of the Entity

The previous design of the Temple was majestic and bulky, but most of the majesty and bulk were the decorative pyramid steps from Bon Voyage. I've decided to rebuild, since I was no longer fully satisfied with the look, especially of the interior, and we've, after all, switched priests. I thought it could be fun if the personality and values of the current high priest always impacted the way the Temple looked, so I might be rebuilding it each generation. Fun fact! This one, Avery's version, is actually not the original Temple I built when starting the save! That one is long forgotten (no screenshots...), and the only thing I remember about it was that it was fairly ugly and looked very clumsy. (sorry, Archibald)

Nico's version is much smaller, looks lighter and much, much airier, reflecting the current priest's open-minded and laid-back nature. It's still made mostly out of the same materials, but natural-looking stone and wood are way more prominent to fit Nico's push for embracing the wild and mythical.

I wouldn't say I'm 100% satisfied with the way it turned out, but I had a lot of fun and I hope it will serve its purpose. That reminds me of the actual functional parts! Unfortunately, I can't give you a comparision of the old interior, since I didn't take many screenshots there (for a good reason, may I add), so I can only hope you'll find the new one pretty enough on its own.

New temple interior

This is the main chappel. I originally wanted to cover all the grassy areas in folliage, but I got worried about restricting the movement of the Sims inside way too much. The room si relatively small and many of the pieces are diagonal, which alone is enough to make me doubt the game's pathfinding will play nice.

This is the (small) mauzoleum! (Wormville will also receive a big one in the Arcane Lake area) I'm low-key really proud of this part, because we all know how basements are in TS2, and I'm glad I've managed to add one without spilling too much blood. As for the dead who rest here, those are worms that died and got resurrected, leaving a soulless grave behind waiting for them to return one day. (at the moment, that's Regina and Lester) There are also townies and NPCs who got a bit too close to the everpresent chaos. I'm also surprised it's only so few of them, but then again, Wormville has much fewer townies than a normal hood to begin with. (only social group peeps, garden club and NPCs, with downtownies, vacation locals, turists and dormies also present in the save, but keeping out of the main neighborhood)

And last but not least, there is a secondary prayer spot in an open area upstairs. There is also an altar, although any interactions with it will unfortunately have to take place in the theatre of mind.

You might've also noticed that the temple is full of cat statues - that's because a cat is one of the Entity's symbols. That's why there is also more of them than dogs in the households around the community, taking care of them is a religious practice for worms. (also, dogs have to be walked, and I find checking the dog's bladder motive constantly to be a huge annoyance in the Sims, and I keep forgetting about it)

The Devir Residence

Not to be mistaken for the Home of the Priest (the main estate of clan Devir), this is a house that stood abandoned for most of a generation. It was build by Audrey and Avery Devir and it's the birthplace of Cyrus Anora, however the Devirs moved into the Home of the Priest after the Grim Reaper made Archibald and Amanda Devir vacate it. Nowdays, the Devir family has moved back in, but the branches switched - it's Felicia Devir, descended from Archibald, with her wife Hannah, and their young daughter Naomi.

This is the house pre-remodel.

And this is after! I've slimmed it down a little to make the roofing work better, varied the texture a bit, and added a terrace for Felicia's telescope over a parking spot for an eventual car. The funny thing is that right after I finished the remodelling, I've realized that it's very probable this household will fuse with another in the 11th rotation, so I'll have to remodel it again to make more space. See you in the next worm architecture article-

[shybluenight]

Okay, I just had to create a post about this because I think I'm legit about to cry or something.

Ya'll remember when I said I was probably going to do another Nuzlocke sometime in the near future? Well, I decided I would do a nuzlocke with one of my favorite rom hacks known as Pokemon WTF or Pokemon Weird Type Fun.

To quickly summarize, the game follows the basic plot of Fire Red with swapped out characters and expanded areas. The main draw of the rom hack however are the brand new type chart and pokemon designs. All types in the game have been swapped out with brand new ones, coming with a new type chart and pokemon designs to match, as well as new fakemon. It's a lot of fun, would highly recommend people check it out.

So anyway, back to the Nuzlocke...

Well for starters I decided to randomize it, mostly because I found out it could be with my randomizer program but also because I just really liked all the Pokemon designs and really wanted to try using ones I've not used before.

I failed... 2 seperate runs. Both were mostly due to bad early game RNG and bad mistakes by your truly. The third run, however, was fantastic. Sure my Starter died almost immediately, but I got some good early encounters and way better trainer RNG. I actually made it to the Elite Four and was pretty happy with the team I had by that point. However, that was when my luck ran out.

One of my longest lasting members, Light the Chandelure, was killed right before victory road, so I was already pretty disheartened and replaced them with a Pokemon I felt had good type coverage. In the end it didn't really matter because, Oasis the Camerupt, died almost instantly due to a freaking super effective crit one-shot during the first elite four member... And my run only grew worse.

During the second elite four member fight, Gaia the Wailord was next to go due to a Pokemon I didn't realize could have destiny bond using it right as Gaia stole the kill, killing her in turn. The third member was next and that went fine, for the most part... then the most evil thing I have ever seen in Pokemon happened.

The fourth elite member's battle was going perfectly fine until his last Pokemon, which was a Spinarak. I thought it would be fine. I had been killing these things all playthrough, it wouldn't be a big deal that it was few levels higher than the rest of my team. It's a weak little spider, what can it do?

...

...It can land three one-hit KO moves in a row, that's what it can do. I wasn't even aware that Spinarak could learn this move much less use it like it did. It's killed Webby the Rediata (fakemon), Moppsy the Plaineon (another fakemon) and Botter the Cofagrigus. It was faster than most of my Pokemon and the ones that were faster just didn't do enough damage to kill it (it was bulky as hell for some freaking reason). Thankfully Botter got a paralysis down before it was one-shot, so my last member, SunnyGo the Drampa, survived the slaughter and won the battle...

I honestly don't know why I went into that Champion fight. I felt like I was pretty screwed. I was going up against a trainer that had 6 pokemon, most being higher level than my level 56 Drampa and could easily take out my Pokemon if the right moves were used. But I went in anyway, willing to see if I could get through.

...

And I somehow won.

SunnyGo absolutely steamrolled over a lot of the Champions Pokemon because they were either just generally weak pokemon or I had moves that were super effective (I had all my bases covered with his moveset). Any of the Pokemon that SunnyGo struggled with, I could only do chip damage as I healed almost every other turn.

So this was my team that got me through the hell that was the Elite Four with SunnyGo being the only survivor as well as my MVP.

This was really stressful but also one of the most invigorating things I've done in Pokemon in a long time. Had a lot of fun and would recommend others doing if they are up for a challenge.

Expect an art piece of at least SunnyGo in the near future along with the members of my Elite Four Team (with Light instead of Oasis because Oasis literally did nothing).

[mushroomnoodlez]

its no problem at all- i quite love your comments! this does, however, make me want to go into some further detail on simon's journey and emotional state and just.. events during his pregnancy with morrigan. granted, i'm no writer- i'm much more of an artist, but i guess this kinda stuff has me thinking a lot? so sorry if it's weird.

tw for the sfw and non kink mpreg talk ofc, also i touch on simon being depressed and feeling like a burden again. but there's fluff in there too i swear! not tagging this under art because.. i didn't actually draw anything but myself. lol

i think something i find really fascinating, especially from personal experience, is how hard it is to change your frame of mind. it takes long, consistent effort, and you generally have to want to do it. simon becomes pregnant with morrigan, oh.. i don't know, 6-10 months after the events of F + C? he's 60 years old, physically at least. he's going to therapy and staying away from the bar, he's going outside for walks to get that sunlight and appreciate nature.

then GOLBetty dumps a baby in him. simon isn't instantly attached to the baby yet- this whole thing is sudden and terrifying. his mind is racing with thoughts of some terrifying chaos entity inside him, because god knows it's not a normal child with the way pb's equipment has been literally blown to smithereens at the mere attempt to monitor the fetus.

but he's refusing to terminate the pregnancy, because betty had to have wanted this for him if she did it. they wanted kids before everything happened, and she did so much for him- gave up her ambitions, her body, her humanity- she was asking this one thing from him, and it was the absolute least he could do in return.

also.. betty's not coming back. ever. not as his betty. this is a piece of her she's given to him. a parting gift. how could he ever let that go?

even at risk of death or worse, he couldn't bring himself to do it. and simon starts to struggle again, even if he tries to resume his life- he's so hyperaware of this thing growing inside him, and because of its mother he doesn't dare say or announce anything. he agrees with pb on that part- carrying a child of GOLB(etty) is definitely not something any of them want to make public.

he refuses minervabot's therapy in fear she'll detect his pregnancy, or worse, fucking explode.

simon's so guilty and yet so determined by his sense of duty to betty- betty wouldn't do this if she knew it would destroy ooo, he rationalizes, she wouldn't do this if it would kill him, surely? (golbaby, aware unbeknownst to simon, hears his fretting and decides to take a form that closely resembles his own, because they don't want to scare him.)

but simon's a dad at heart. of course he's going to warm up to the baby. and subconsciously, constantly defending betty's decision (to the girls and in his mind) slowly wears down his apprehension, too. and then he finally feels golbaby kick and it's scary because it's new but it's nothing like he thought it was going to be if he was carrying some.. inherently evil chaos entity his deepest fears (and pb, gently) were telling him it was. (not that he wouldn't have loved it in some degree anyway. look at him.) it was more.. just like a gentle reminder that the thing in him is, y'know, alive. like.. alive. it's just a little guy. huh.

and suddenly it's not really about betty's wish as much, it's about.. like.. getting ready to be a parent to this little guy inside him! and there is so much to do and prepare for. even with golbaby's powers sparking up and effecting the world around him in bizarre ways, simon is more and more convinced that it's just.. a baby. a baby what, he had no clue, but it was a baby, and it was going to be his.

but simon is still shutting down his life around him, because he has to. he's getting bigger and he can't really hide his pregnancy constantly anymore. he shuts down his exhibit and has to go out hunched over in his big ass bulky coat, and it's not too long before he simply leaves the human city altogether, because golbaby is fucking with any machine he passes by. and he's not about to be like, "oh no, i'm not trying to break your stuff, i'm just pregnant with the offspring of the most powerful cosmic entity known and it's an unfortunate side effect. sorry"

being alone is hard! especially when the pregnancy symptoms got worse he just found himself missing betty, not just in the normal way but the, yknow, you knocked me up and i could really use some emotional support way. but also in the please god i just wanna be a little spoon rn way. marceline was there for him (assured him he could call her anytime, too) but he wasn't calling her as much as he should. he didn't want to bug her too much. he knew the whole ordeal was freaking her out anyway, and he tended to keep his innermost thoughts to himself when she'd take him out to see pb. pb wasn't helping either, and neither was constantly seeing the effect the baby had on her equipment.

seeing yourself as something other than a burden and an outcast is a hard thing to get rid of, and sometimes he'd just cling to that idea of pushing onwards because somebody is relying on him now- even when the depression had its really bad point simon was pushing himself to take care of himself because golbaby was depending on him to. he still dragged himself to the store to buy groceries and shit, just for his kiddo. this idealogy didn't last- that he was simply going on because his baby needed him to, but it was a good way to keep his head above the water. simon feeling as though he has a purpose keeps him going through extremely difficult times.

things look up again when unexpectedly fionna and cake pay a visit to his new place in the woods. he tries to hide that he's pregnant- he has been since the start, but it doesn't work in person. he kinda breaks down and has a heart to heart with fionna, and they just sort of end up having tv dinners while sitting on the kitchen floor with cake as a pillow.

it gives him some time out of his head. helps him remember all that stuff minerva told him about handling his feelings and coping with them. he goes back to his walks (and getting that sweet sunshine) and i particularly enjoy imagining him awkwardly asking marceline if she wants to come over for dinner.. he has this board game he wants to try and he needs two people..

he finally says yes to the clothes shopping offer too after a while, and fionna keeps in close touch with him to make sure he's doing ok! simon loves listening to her stories and whatever is happening in his little brain universe. plus, he actually goes out and eats or shops sometimes! wow! he bought a lava lamp! cool!

and even when pb ends up placing that seal on him, he keeps his head up and focuses on those things to keep his mood and social life up because he's not about to let himself go back to that state of being again. you got this dr petrikov.

plus, when pb finally builds a machine that can handle golbaby's power and he finally, finally gets to hear their little, very much human heartbeat? he is over the fucking moon. getting to see that ever so fuzzy outline of the baby on the sonogram? serotonin +10000. there it is! simon doesn't happy cry often but he was happy bawling holding that little picture like a lifeline.

(side note, fionna is very entertained by how sassy he gets during the last few months of his pregnancy when golbaby is sealed. simon's filter is slacking. marceline's pretty amused, too.)

he feels like he can hold his own again, sort of, i guess? and golbaby is very much still his purpose, but he knows just being alive is good enough. maybe he still doesn't entirely believe it yet, but he keeps saying it aloud and in his brain so eventually he will.

uh, i was a human being who also felt like i had to have purpose to justify living. soo.. the ups and downs of the journey are important to me, cause i had them too! i'm still growing and learning (and i have a lot of work to do, i'm pretty young) but. idk. shakes simon around like a chew toy

[msfcatlover]

Shadow Jason (Reverse Robins)

(Jason has... too many costumes, I literally cannot find a single reference page that has even a majority of them, let alone all of them. Massive pain in the ass to research this.)

Jason started out with just Tim's costume (he inherited it on incredibly short notice, so he didn't have time to do any modifications before he first hit the streets in it,) but over time he makes it his own.

Which is like...90% tributes & callbacks to Steph, Jason's personal hero. Jason does keep Tim's predominantly black styling and switches his highlight colors from purple & gold to blue & silver, but the blue is very much a dark indigo (cutting the middle ground between Steph's dark purple & midnight blue, and allowing different artists to draw him either leaning more blue or purple depending on lighting & personal taste.)

(Guess who found an even better bat symbol chart? Anyway, Jason's is the "Batman: Hush" bat symbol, and he trades the ribbon-border for silver stitching. Because Cass is right, the stitched look is badass.)

Jason keeps the black cloak with "purple" (now indigo) lining, but he replaces the gold ribbon trim for a thick silver stitching. He also makes the cloak shorter, hanging just below his knees rather than around his ankles. The trim also now traces the entire hem of the cloak, rather than just the hood.

(Once again, thank you Stephanie Brown Costume History page!)

I will add that though all past Shadow hoods have had a pretty basic silhouette, Jason wanted a droopy-pointy one, because he's a dramatic nerd.

(Basic hood vs Jason's hood)

Jason keeps the headset, but he switches Tim's visor out for glowing goggles in tribute to Steph's original Spoiler costume. He also brings back Steph's full-face mask, if a touch more armored than her original mask probably was.

(Jason's goggles glow white, though.)

Jason's chest piece is a lot less bulletproof vest, instead going for a segmented/borderline laminar piece. Somewhere between Duke's "White Knight" armor & Jason's "Gotham Knights: Eternal" chest armor. The panels are all black, but the base underneath them is indigo.

(Keep in mind that this is pre-growth spurt Jason, so while both of these chest pieces are for pretty bulky dudes, Jason's still on the short & lean side side of things. He's not trying to look bulkier, these are just the best references I could find..)

The sleeves are dark blue & fitted, made of durable slash- & stab-resistant fabric. Jason wears basically his RHatO Robin gloves, but without the weird loops on the sides. The gloves are predominantly black, but the red highlights are now indigo. He also has polished metal caps on his knuckles, echoing Steph's costume & buffing his own punches.

(Once again, it is really really hard to get a good reference shot of these gloves, but I think these 2 pages together give you a pretty good turn-around of them.)

I have not been defining utility belt styles, but whatever the differences between them have been, Jason rolls back to Steph's design. His is black with silver clasps/buckles, for the record.

I do like Jason's big pockets & cargo pants from recent comics, but I think he'd want to take Shadow back to its sleeker look than Tim's padded up & kitted out design. (Jason also doesn't need to carry nearly as much gear himself, since the rest of the family kinda babies him a little, so there's almost always one within shouting distance if he needs them.) I'd say he goes back to the padded leggings, but adds pouches that hang from his belt & strap to his thighs, mimicking both the look of Steph & Dami's thigh armor, and his own big-pockets look in recent comics.

(So imagine if those pockets were actually hanging from his belt the way his holsters are here, with a second strap around the thigh to keep them from bouncing around or getting in the way.)

I actually realized while looking at that Gotham Knights article that I wanted to give Jason the boots/greaves from the "Year One" costume, and while hunting for a better image of them found this awesome piece, which not only gives an excellent view of that leg armor but also actually has fitted pants with thigh-strapped holsters, to give a better idea what that should look like.

(Pants & straps should be black, red armor should be indigo with silver edges, which you even kinda get with the grey backing in this piece. Seriously, huge shout out to Damián Navarro Méndez, though, this design & render both look awesome! I hope they paid you really well for this one, and you didn't have to crunch over it.)

And that wraps up Shadow Jason! Hopefully it's enough of his own style to feel unique from the three other designs I've already done for Shadow, and like something Jason would actually wear. It's still recognizable as a Shadow outfit, and makes it very clear who Jason's primary inspiration was without directly ripping Steph off (or even being too obvious at a glance that he's shouting her out.)

I hope there's also enough echo of Cass & Duke to show that Jason's having to serve as kinda both Moonbeam & Shadow simultaneously; the guiding light & grounding dark to Gotham's Batman. Because Jason (like Tim) doesn't have a partner in this, but (unlike Tim) Jason doesn't have to stand fully alone in his efforts.

Phew! Thanks for sticking with me, folks, but we're done with Shadow now! Now I just have to do... everyone's grown-up designs...

(Don't worry, I'm still having fun and it's not nearly as daunting at it seems at a glance. It's just a lot, and their independent identities are going to be a touch harder since I'm basically starting from scratch—just a stack of references & a half-concept/half-vibe—where the legacy costumes have iterated on eachother, allowing me to start from a base every time I make a new one.)

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #3089: Xerneas Prism Star (Lost Thunder)

Xerneas Prism Star played a rather familiar trick. There had been several Pokemon in the past that had a way to attract Energy to it, giving a deck a clean attacker late in a game. Many of the others even became the Active Pokemon automatically. Xerneas Prism Star wasn't as good since it couldn't do that, but still had that Fairy-type late-game attacker role in its back pocket with access to any switching card. Such cards were already good in the decks you could use it in, giving this card quite a bit of hope to find a spot in important decks.

160 HP was fantastic for a Basic Pokemon. Yes, it needed to be high to be worth using since you could only use a single Xerneas Prism Star in your deck. Still, any single Prize Basic Pokemon that even made Pikachu & Zekrom-GX dig into the Electropowers for a KO was quite bulky. The Metal Weakness rarely meant much, as the biggest Metal deck was Zacian which already shredded through that relatively high HP without it. A Resistance to Darkness could help against Spiritomb decks, which could be really nice in a close game even though it was hard to take advantage of a second term on offense. The Retreat Cost here was 2, and you could actually afford to do this reasonably often unless this was your only Pokemon at the start of the game. You'd still want switching cards to help other things switch to Xerneas Prism Star in the first place, however.

Path of Life was the Ability that let Xerneas Prism Star do something useful. Once during your turn, when moving Xerneas Prism Star from your Bench to be your Active Pokemon, you could move any Energy you wanted from your other Pokemon to it. The play was to put Xerneas Prism Star down, use Switch or a similar card to get Xerneas up front, and then move Energy for an immediate attack that wasn't prepared for. The combo had a few pieces but was quite impressive when it did actually work, as it wasn't always easy to deal with a high HP Pokemon that could change how Prize trades went.

Bright Horns did a rather impressive 160 damage for 3 Fairy Energy. The downside was that you couldn't use this attack again during your next turn, keeping it in check from getting a second hit off so easily. This was still an impressive chunk of damage with that being considered, and a somewhat weakened Pokemon could be giving up a couple of Prizes while something that didn't was the target up front. This was pretty valuable, though also needed to be timed to get maximum use out of an attack that wasn't just going to KO a ton of things from full health.

Xerneas Prism Star was a useful surprise play in decks that could use it. It saw the most play in Mewtwo & Mew-GX decks that ran a variety of types alongside both Rainbow Energy and Aurora Energy, providing a single Prize trick to use when the time was right. There was also a bit of use before that with Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX. These decks were both in the UPR-On format, which was where taking 160 HP off a Pokemon being a big deal and Fairy-types being good aligned the best. It did not, however, make it into every deck with the required Energy, as the restrictions made it more of something to finish a big Pokemon off than anything, and not every deck needed an extra Pokemon just for that. If you could fit it in and didn't have a different way to mess with Prize math, Xerneas Prism Star was a great option.

[silvertherogue715]

Hey. It's been a hot minute since i've posted any art. I really just post for myself, but i felt especially proud of the progress ive made over the course of (many) months designing the Sunstar of my BrainrotAU. Feel free to disregard! I'm just gonna ramble. Art will be included in the 'keep reading' section though.

I didn't want to deal with uploading the actual art files, and just used snippet to capture pieces of my art instead. The pictures could be irregularly large or small as a result--I don't have a good way to control then when using snippet. Sorry! Some old art of Sunstar.exe (not in order):

So, as you can see above, a lot of blue. It's kind of overpowering, honestly, and it took me a while to figure out I needed to start making changes to his color palette.

This was his first half body reference sheet. A ton of blue. Also my only REF of him with his back showing. I haven't updated his back design yet, but the final product will be much different.

Eventually, I decided to make his shoulder-braiser things orange instead of blue, as well as the sun-like gem on his helmet. I also started working out any built-in flaws I wanted to force his character to work around--like his hands being constantly on fire, or extremely hot. This just means he has to be extremely careful touching anything or anyone. It's not something he can just "turn off". Also, I think this was my first attempt at a proper full body design for him. It's fine for a second first attempt, and I was happy with it for a few months, but eventually I started thinking it shared the bulky OG robot master traits, rather than the 'netnavi' look I was wanting.

I started tinkering with his colors again, but only made minor changes. It was hard to pinpoint exactly what was 'off' to me without a proper full body to experiment on, but I very rarely have the willpower to make one. Some of these expression snippets were more helpful for me to use to at least get a read on exactly how expressive he can be in the AU, if he wanted to. Another big thing this helped me realize was how limited his expressions felt with the current colors (like his eyelashes), especially with how dark his face was. It made his nose/mouth harder to see. I end up making it a lighter shade in future doodles. Oh, and I wanted to start integrating pieces of Duo.exe's design into him as well--like the flat nose.

Woe, Sunterra doodle be upon ye. I need to finish this some day, but a big thing this helped me identify were: 1.) I desperately need to work on poses. 2.) I needed to figure out how to give Sunstar a "soft" look. In the expressions practice above, this was one of his faces i really struggled to get down. Still working on that. 3.) Another reminder he was too clunky to match a normal Navi design. Terra looks much more 'navi'-like. I needed to do a whole ass reboot for Sunstar from top-down. Anyway! The most recent stuff will be below. A few (bad) attempts:

And then I basically went "screw it" and went goblin mode at a full body attempt. Here's what I finally ended up with :")

For now I've decided to stick with a (mostly) cool/silver base with some warm orange and yellows mixed in in (hopefully) unobtrusive ways. Maybe this will change in the future, but for now I'm happy with his design :)

The orange on the bottom of his cape is meant to be a fire-y design, but I'm too tired to refine it (or anything else) further. Hopefully I'll have more art to update. eventually.

If you made it this far, thanks for sticking around, lol.

[onegirlatelier]

August 2023 | Dressing gown based on yukata

I wrote a while ago that I want to post more finished objects here, now that I'm trying to repair my relationship with dressmaking. It's thirty-five degrees Celsius over here and I'm having either covid or a really bad cold, so forgive me if my logic is twisted in places.

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This is a dressing gown heavily inspired/pretty much based on a yukata (a lighter kimono which you wear in the summer, especially to the summer festivals). I've wanted a kimono/yukata for so long, but practicality-wise I was also in need of a dressing gown less warm than my fluffy towel one, and when I saw this fabric I had the idea to make a dressing gown that's basically a yukata but with mods because a) it was a Western fabric, b) I wouldn't be wearing it the traditional way.

I hope it's fine and not culture appropriation...and to be able to defend that, I have watched documentaries on the making of yukata in Kyoto and also examined carefully two websites containing detailed info on how to make an actual yukata. Any changes I made should hopefully be a conscious decision, and this project can be a test run for when I can afford an actual kimono roll of fabric and an occasion to wear it!

That's my reasoning. Now let's move on to the fabric...

Guthrie & Ghani floral stencil print in #navy. 20%linen+80% viscose. I would NOT recommend this fabric for dressmaking unless it's for a rough outer garment. The fabric was very scratchy with linen bits, and I had to manually pull out the prickly bits as well as tumble wash it twice. I don't think it's intended for dressmaking...but I was so excited and realised it too late lol.

To help reduce the scratchiness, the shoulder lining was a cotton/silk blend. I think a thin but sturdy cotton would be a great choice but I didn't have that; I just had a lot of sheer cotton/silk blend leftover from other projects.

The contrasting colour facing (which is not traditional): from a scrap fabric basket of a shop, a cotton/viscose blend. It was a twill weave with that typical smooth powdery finish you get with viscose twill.

Notes/Mods:

130cm on CB instead of the traditional 160cm. A yukata is quite long (equals your height) because you wear it with a triple fold at the waist, called an ohashori. This fold allows the wearer to adjust the length of the yukata i.e. where the hem hits. Since I'm not doing the ohashori, I don't need the extra length.

My fabric would actually only allow an 110cm CB if I were to cut the front and back in one piece (as is traditional), because I had only 2.2m of it. It was not cut on grain, but also there had probably been a bad shrinkage. 110cm was way too short for me. To maintain the flow of the pattern on the back, I decided to add fabric pieces directly to the bottom of the front, because there were more things going on in the front so the pattern was disrupted anyways. This way, the front and back were still largely cut in one big rectangle, which is more recyclable.

There are not separate front strips (okumi) on my gown. Usually there would be, and there would actually be some shaping for the upper body achieved through this seam between the okumi and the front body. I omitted them because a) I wouldn't have enough fabric to match patterns if I had cut them separately, and b) I wanted to reduce weight as much as possible because this fabric was so heavy.

Perhaps most importantly I omitted kise. A kise is when you press open a seam, you don't press it entirely open, but leave about 0.2mm of fabric folding over the seam so that the seam is hidden. This technique is used throughout a yukata. I suppose that this helps protect the seam, since it's easier to reinforce a kise than a seam when it's worn. I omitted this again because of the fabric. Too heavy and bulky.

Since I used a Western fabric, this means I had to use different seaming methods than the traditional ones, because traditionally almost the entire yukata/kimono would be have selvage edges at seams. I could not just anchor down the seam allowance; I had to hide the raw edges neatly.

The shaping of the collar is traditional, but the construction was me. Usually you would use a long strip that's double the width of the finished collar, and fold it. I'm not sure if it's traditionally accepted to have the outer fabric and the lining of the collar cut separately. You would also need a collar reinforcement, which I omitted.

Traditionally you don't cut away any excess fabric on the front (on each side you would have two rectangular pieces of fabrics, the front body and the okumi). You just encase the excess as seam allowance in the collar. This way the fabric remains very recyclable and you can also adjust the collar for another wearer. I think this is truly a great idea, but I had to do some trimmings again to reduce bulk and weight.

Contrast colour for facing. I am pretty sure this should not be happening, because a yukata is supposed to be simple and summer-y. My mind was so dominated by the Orientalist paintings of G. H. Breitner which was a shame but the kimonos themselves were so pretty. Since I'm wearing it just for my pleasure, I added a bit of flare.

Normally, when I deal with raw edges, I whip-stitch with a tiny mark on the right side. This time I tried to do a blind stitch that leaves a tiny mark on the right side and no stitch marks on the wrong side. It is easier than I thought it would be (after lots of practice) and I might be converted.

In two or three places I just could not do a two-fold hem, so I smoothed out the fabric and did a little bit of overcasting.

I had tried the latest way of doing bar tacks and I didn't like it, so I stuck to my usual method.

Just a wide belt for now~I don't think I'll ever make an obi for it, but if this pattern is ever done on silk, I might just make a lined kimono with an obi!