#But it'll be interesting to see if the sorts of videos they do change

[yukidragon]

Sunny Day Jack - Recording Love

We I interrupt the baby-focused ramble train to share a thought/theory that popped into my head that has some smutty fun possibilities. This post will probably be short, but I'm still throwing in a quick Content Warning that this post contains a heck of a lot of Adults Only NSFW lewdness.

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur @kurokrisps

Most people in the fandom remember this classic audio of Jack giving a villainous monologue, right? I've theorized in previous posts that Jack becomes stronger and more real the more his sunshine loves him, while conversely if they stop caring about him, he just might disappear. After all, it certainly sounds like the person Jack is talking to isn't his sunshine, which is something he can't do in the demo.

Well, at least as far as MC is aware, but that's a theory for another time.

It does make me wonder if MC being intimate with Jack via sex and telling him that they love him will make him more perceptible to others. That might mean the demo ends right before we get to see that something changed.

Also, given the fact that cats don't care for Jack and vice-versa, perhaps that's a sign that cats are more sensitive to ghosts(?) like Jack. It could be that after Jack asks, "Who's this?" we might get an interesting reaction from Shaun and/or Moon Pie...

But, again, another theory for another post.

It's hard to say what the progression will be like as Jack grows stronger thanks to his sunshine's love. Perhaps he'll be visible out of the corner of peoples' eyes at first. Maybe he'll appear as some sort of "glitch" in reality like a distortion in an analog tape. Maybe it'll start with just his voice being clearly audible before his body becomes solidly visible to others. Maybe he'll start off the way he became in the "no" route, untouchable while visually being there.

It's this thought about an analog distortion that reminded me that Jack can't be seen in mirrors or photographed. It's kind of interesting that the ghost(?) of a murdered TV show host who came from a VHS tape can't be filmed. Perhaps the first impact he might have on reality is the ability to be caught on video.

As another quick aside, this makes me imagine a tense scenario where Nick, Ian, and/or Shaun are using their phones to film the area around them, frantically looking for where Jack is, because he's not visible to the naked eye yet. His voice comes through their speakers, taunting them, and they only get glimpses of him in their sweeping shots before he gets them.

Man, there are so many possibilities for Jack being a really terrifying analog horror entity. But that's also for another post. This is one is about smut, and I need to stop getting distracted so we can get to the good stuff already.

Back on topic... it'd be kind of fitting that Jack's first real return to reality, outside of MC, is being recorded by them. He was once a famous star known nation-wide, recorded on film and audio tape. He was loved by so many because he was recorded. He came back to the world of the living thanks to a video tape. It'd be kind of poetic.

Heck, what if those recordings are what allow Jack to become fully human(?) If the love of MC got Jack this far, then maybe if they spread the word about him, uploading videos of him to the internet, and making the world know about him... Perhaps by being remembered by more people will give him a stronger foothold in reality, especially if they love him like they used to when he was on the SunnyTime Crew Show.

Perhaps the fastest way to make Jack real again is for MC to film them showing him lots of love~

Yes, this was all build up to suggest that the solution to Jack's problem is for him and his sunshine to film pornos together.

It'd be kind of fitting, don't you think? Especially in an NC-17 eroge. Not to mention that Jack does have that exhibitionist kink after all. I'm sure he'd be more than happy to show the world just how much he loves his sunshine and how much they love him~

Of course, not all MCs will be open to the idea of sharing such intimate recordings publicly. Heck, there'll be plenty not comfortable taking nude snapshots to share privately with a partner. I know my girl Alice wouldn't!

That was when I wondered... what might convince Alice to change her mind? At least to some extent.

See, what led me down this rabbit hole in the first place was thinking about what comes next in Sunshine in Hell, specifically the fact that Alice isn't just going to be ignore the giant clown shaped elephant in the room. MC did some testing and found out about the mirrors and photographs in the demo, but Alice is going to want to investigate more and get more proof. Either she's lost her mind, or she has a supernatural entity living with her. She needs to know which it is in order to know how to proceed.

Jack can't be photographed? Okay, but he can pick up objects. He can interact with Alice physically, and that can be recorded.

If you can't draw the subject for your picture, then you can show show it's there by emphasizing the negative space where it should be.

Alice is going to do some experiments. First she tries to film Jack juggling some balls he pulled out of his pocket. (Because clowns gotta juggle am I right?) The balls don't show up either. Neither does anything else Jack manages to just pull out of nowhere like his wardrobe changes.

Okay then, Jack can juggle, um... er... Alice looks around for something not breakable then finally gives Jack random writing utensils. She films him picking up pillows, moving furniture, making her bed, cooking food, etc. She could even film him writing messages on paper.

It certainly looks spooky to Alice seeing items moving around like that when she plays back the video.

A darn shame that there's hundreds of these sort of "ghost" videos online. It's amazing what people can do with homemade special effects and video editing software! Even if Alice wanted to post these online to see if this is something other people might know about or have a similar experience with, no one would actually believe it's a real ghost(?)

This led to thoughts of Jack using Alice's body as a more convincing prop of his presence. Of course, this would only be after they get together as a couple. He might suggest picking her up among the early experiments, but she wouldn't feel comfortable with that in the early days. It'd be a while later when Jack remembers the experiments that he decides to bring up the idea again.

Alice is a bit hesitant, not wanting to record herself and plaster it all over the internet, but Jack suggests this time they just do it for them. Even if they can't see him, it'd be cute to see how she looks in his arms from every angle.

Though a bit embarrassed, Jack does manage to convince Alice. It would be more proof that he's really there after all, even if they can't see him. Jack even spins her around a bit once they start filming, catching her off guard. He tells jokes to make her laugh, they banter playfully, and she surprises him in return with a kiss.

When playing back the recording, they see distortions, hints of someone there besides Alice, hints of a voice in the background laughing along with her and responding.

Then, for just a moment, just for a single frame, when Alice is kissing Jack, he's visible. He's distorted and not perfectly clear, but he's there, all blue haired and brightly colored.

It's a huge shock and Jack is practically vibrating with excitement. Alice can't help but be overwhelmed as well by it. Yes, by this point she was certain Jack had to be real, and she had other small bits of proof but this... this is so much more.

Jack wants to do it again. He needs to do it again. Alice is more than willing to help, and the two of them try a few more experiments, quickly realizing that it's when they show each other love that he becomes more visible.

This leads to some rather... intimate footage.

Jack takes it slow, knowing that Alice is insecure about her body and very shy. He starts off with playing with her hair, telling her sweet words of love. He encourages her to do the same to him as well, as that might help. He kisses her, blazing a trail down to her neck where he sucks firmly and nips, wanting to leave a mark on her skin in full view of the camera.

The more intimate they are, the more Jack appears in the video, more real and solid.

Alice is too shy about taking her clothes off while being recorded, but lets Jack slide his hands underneath her shirt. Even if the glitches won't show him in that moment, there's a perfect outline of his hands through the cloth, massaging her breasts. It feels so lewd, almost too much, but it's more proof that he's real. Jack makes sure to distract her by tweaking her nipples and whispering in her ear that she's being so good for him.

Huh. Sorry for another quick aside, but I'm suddenly reminded of all the fan art of Jack doing lewd things to MC's body while they're at work. It takes place when they're standing behind the counter, trying desperately not to react and let anyone know that they're having sex right there in public. There are security cameras all over the place, with only one blind spot that is definitely not where the front counter is. Maybe if this scene appears in the game, security footage of the incident is what gives Jack his first solid footing in reality.

Man, won't Barry be surprised. Imagine that phone call of the boss yelling at MC for having sex with their boyfriend right in front of the customers. And what the hell were they thinking letting someone who doesn't work there behind the counter?

Back to Alice and Jack experimenting... it'd be a slow progression of Jack encouraging Alice to try more and more. After all, the more love they show each other, the more Jack appears, the more he's heard. He's even visible at times when they're not actively groping at each other. Maybe they just need to go further.

Alice wants to help Jack interact with the world, and he's so happy about it, so excited... How can she refuse? Besides, no one will see these but the two of them. She's going to make absolutely sure to hide these videos where no one else can find them.

Boy would it be awful for a certain remorseful cheating ex if he came across these, wouldn't it? Good thing Jack won't let Ian near even a recording of Alice ever again.

Back to the good stuff. Jack fondles Alice through her clothes, makes her mewl and beg him for his touch. It's so lewd when playing back the video that she has a hard time watching herself in such a state, but he's sure to praise her during the viewing as well telling her how beautiful she is. He just adores the way she calls his name, how lovely she looks arching into him as she cums all over his fingers.

Next the clothes come off, for Jack at least, at first. He has no shame showing his body before the camera, especially when Alice is the one touching him, kissing him, and taking off all his clothes. He's visible the entire time in this video, more solid and defined when she's caressing and kissing him. They can see the way he laces his fingers through her hair when she goes down on him. Even the mess he left behind that she couldn't quite swallow all of remains visible on film while they get cleaned up.

Alice is mortified by how she looks, but Jack is right there to praise her, both in the video and in reality. Watching her get him off just gets him excited all over again, and he wants to do even more. He wants to repay the favor... while recording it. He wants her to see how beautiful she looks when he shows her love.

They've come this far, going further and further each time. Alice has seen herself so lewd already, so going this far is less scary by this point. Besides, it's been so helpful for Jack, and he's done so much to make her feel loved and adored, not used. He made the experience so much easier than she thought it could be.

Jack makes sure to angle Alice's body so she has a perfect view of what his mouth and fingers are doing to her. He makes sure to describe what he's doing as well whenever his tongue isn't otherwise busy teasing out obscene noises from her. The camera was initially aimed as a sideways view to show both of them and not so much a close up of her sex, but at some point Jack grabbed the phone to get different angles. He wanted to record Alice's expressions of bliss and give her a good look at just what he's doing to her body. He wants to see it all and share this glorious experience with his precious sunshine. He goes overboard groping and licking, making marks all over her thighs, breasts, stomach. It goes from just cunnilingus to a full body experience. They don't stop even after he makes her cum, as he wants to see her cum in more positions and get more angles of her in a state of bliss screaming his name.

It's their longest video. After worshipping her body so much and sharing so much of her pleasure, Jack eventually can't hold back anymore. He just has to be inside of Alice. Now. He needs it so, so badly.

The camera gets set aside, still angled at them, but Alice is too dazed to remember it even exists, and Jack is too desperate for her to want to mess with it anymore. When he's finally inside her, he has to take a moment to keep from exploding. Maybe it was all the build up and teasing, maybe it was from sharing one of his biggest kinks with the one he loves all day, maybe it's the act of doing this making him more real, but the feeling of being one with her is as intense as the first time they made love.

The first round is just for them in that moment, Jack just reveling in the pleasure and love he has for Alice and vice-versa. The next rounds are where he takes advantage of the camera, changing positions so that they get good shots without him needing to mess with the phone again but mindful of where the camera's lens is aimed. He keeps his sunshine's attention on him and the praise he showers her in the entire time so she doesn't think about the video. He adores seeing her like this, so needy for him and unashamed to show him just how much she loves him.

They only really stop when Alice is too exhausted to continue. Jack gently praises her and reassures her that he'll clean her up and take care of things. She's half-asleep when he mentions that he'll turn off the camera, and for a moment she wonders, what camera? But she's feeling too good and too tired to think too much about it.

Of course, Jack makes sure they watch the video after breakfast the next day. This one is the best yet. He's perfectly visible and audible the entire time, with nary a glitch in sight. Even when he's seen cleaning Alice up afterwards - while looking mighty pleased with himself and giving her adoring looks the whole time - he looks perfectly normal, perfectly human.

It's still embarrassing for Alice to see herself in such a state, and she certainly won't ever let anyone else see the video, but it worked. Now when they take videos of Jack, he remains in the recording, regardless of what the video is rated.

Still, even though they succeeded and technically they don't have to keep filming pornos to have Jack visible in the videos, it couldn't hurt to keep doing it, right? Just for the two of them of course. It was a lot of fun, don't you think~?

After all, it'd be nice to save these precious memories of how much they love each other captured forever on video so that they never forget~

Okay, I know I said this was going to be a short post, but I got carried away once I finally got the smutty ball rolling. I just can't resist indulging in my OTP, okay?

As another aside (as if I didn't have a ton of them throughout this post), if Jack is made stronger through his sunshine's love, maybe the reason why he has insane stamina is the more they love him, the more charged with energy he gets. I guess that incubus costume is more fitting than we all realized~

Really... aren't cubi created from dreams in legend? That might be something to explore in another post.

On that note, let's wrap things up. I'm sure there's plenty of MCs who would have a ton of fun not only filming themselves loving on Jack in the naughtiest of ways, but they might decide to share it with others if they're especially bold. A shame for any of the other love interests who might come across it.

You know, MC and Jack might get a lot of money for those videos if they start up a LonelyFans account. They could even do livestreams there like Nick does.

Funny how Jack might become Nick's biggest rival in more than just romance, don't you think?

I hope y'all enjoyed this silly, smutty romp of a theory!

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Have you ever seen the SuperCarlinBrothers series on what if Harry had been in Slytherin?

Got any thoughts on if differing house would have changed anything in an interesting way?

I did listen to it a while ago (I put their videos as podcasts sometimes while I'm drawing or doing something else), and I agree with some of them and disagree with other parts.

The first year is probably the one I agree with them most on and the further in the story we go the more our visions diverge. Obviously, this is a what-if scenario and therefore almost entirely made up of speculation and headcanon, and even in my own mind I don't have a single true version of how it'll go since there are tons of potential variations and many fics about this.

If there's interest I could write, like, an outline of what if Harry got sorted into Slytherin fic I'd probably never write, but there are a lot of variations in this what-if and it's going to need to be split into multiple posts that detail what I think is likely, what could happen and what I'd like to happen if Harry was sorted into Slytherin.

Because, like, there are so many ways this could go and still be possible. Like, this what-if is essentially 30,000 different what-ifs in a trench coat. Because like, how would Snape react? It's possible he'd be nicer to a Slytherin Harry, and then that changes book 1 quite drastically. But it's equally possible the similarity to James Potter would override that. Both are equally plausible for this what-if. And what would Dumbledore do? Would he do something at all or more likely, just watch with growing concern and hope this isn't another Tom Riddle but keep the test of book 1 going, to see what kind of person Harry is (I think the second is more likely because Dumbledore tends to hope, so he'll hope Harry is a Gryffindor deep down and Harry telling him he sees his parents in the mirror of Erised would confirm it to Dumbledore). And I wonder how kind Hagrid would be to this sorting, I mean, the fandom doesn't talk about it much, but Hagrid definitely has a favorite house considering he's the one who told Harry: "There was not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin", so, I don't think Hagrid would be as friendly to Harry if Harry was in Slytherin, which means no Hagrid spilling info about Fluffy and the trials in book 1 (Harry would still learn all that information, but it'd be from a different source). But it's possible Hagrid would look past it since Harry is the son of James and Lily and he can't be bad.

And I think Harry will make friends within Slytherin, like, I disagree with SCB about that, I don't think all of them would be assholes. I also think Harry is more of a social chameleon than SCB gave him credit for. He acts the way we see him act because he mirrors Ron's behavior a lot of the time (especially in first year), in Slytherin, he'd try to mimic the Slytherin's behavior, so he wouldn't necessarily be that much of an outsider (he'd still have his sass, Harry should have his sass in every AU). I don't see him ever becoming a blood purist, but I can see a Slytherin Harry being a bit more aloof and carrying himself a little differently. I mentioned here, here, and here, how Harry can be colder and ruthless when push comes to shove, there's a reason the hat offered Slytherin. I do agree with SCB, that it's likely Harry would still be friends with Ron and possibly also Hermione, but even here there are different possibilities depending on what we change so Harry would get sorted into Slytherin in the first place. The story of the books could change a lot, but also barely change at all, depending on how you choose to interrupt certain characters and decisions.

The point is, there are a ton of moving parts and I don't really have a singular answer to how I think the books would go if Harry was in a different house. I have, like, this tree of possibilities.

[faux-parenchyma]

[Winter Drop and Story of the Illagers video talk below]

Now that the initial hype has been settled over the creaking and the winter drop [not really, I'm actually exploding over it] I really want to step back and just consider how the context of the Minecraft world here is changing. I find it so incredibly interesting how a new Minecraft lore video was posted about one of the mobs to be absolutely TERRIFIED of the Creaking shortly after its announcement - the illagers

I've been messing around in my experimental world, found a lovely patch of the pale garden absolutely surrounded by dark forest, only to find a big ol woodland mansion posted up a few blocks from this little border. And I could not just stop thinking like!! Imagine the illagers, living out in the dark forests due to their sickness and post-war riddled minds, having to just constantly think 'hey! remember to avoid this one teensy patch of spooooky forest! it'll kill you!!' The pale garden clearly is on the defense to keep itself alive, I've mentioned that before in a post about it's living ancient ecosystem, but something about their avoidance just makes the illagers feel more human rather than villainous. Like the recent Illager lore video states: they're sickly, they may like to tend to gardens, have an affinity for building totems, monuments, learning magic and transfiguring themselves, like that's all so inherently passive if you leave out the fact that they are 'aggressive' mobs. But just like the creaking, they attack when you approach, you as the PLAYER perceive them as the bad guys. I'd believe they too would have reasons to be defensive whether we know why exactly or not. I'll cook more with illager lore later I need to add this to my list of lore fanon bits to yap about- yall definitely wanna ask me for my thoughts on lore and let me cook on this i promise /lh.

I dunno, I just think as the game moves forward, there will be more substance to this entire region of worlds, more connective lore and whatnot. They did mention in the new video that we should expect to see more illager related things in the future. I do hope we get some sort of fixed up dark forest, for my own sake. In general, things are getting so much bigger, and yet everything small is slowly shifting along with it. and I definitely think that's in a good way.

[septiccoffeefreak]

Source's new video hit a little hard. A lot of the things he said resonated with me. The struggle to open up, the loneliness and shyness with people, trying to make jokes and analyze people and break your way in that way. Saying something out loud you normally don't and just collapsing because you needed that, but it's so difficult, and afterwards you're drained but... relieved, too.

Honestly I've been meaning to make some sort of art using the idea of a mirror for a while because the idea of reflections really connects with me; the same image, backwards. Something that looks like you, but isn't. A copy of doupleganger, something that follows you and reflects back at you. Something you see yourself in.

Something about that idea tastes familiar, as an introject- sometimes I'll be doing my own thing when source will suddenly say or do something that mirrors it unexpectedly, and it feels like we're copying each other. I'll think that an interest or feeling is unique to me and suddenly he'll mention the same thing. it's actually sort of hard to find differences sometimes because I'll think, "aha! this is unique to me. This is a difference between us." And then it'll turn out that we match there, too. It's not a bad thing, but odd. It feels uncanny sometimes, but not foreign. When I look at him I'm never sure when we'll say or do the same thing, or when his shape will break away from me in the glass, and we'll fall out of sync. But it's natural, you know; I've always been an introject so this is just how things are. This is how it always feels. And for me, personally, it's actually a comfortable feeling. I suppose I'm the reflection though, right? The ripple in the water. The image behind the glass. Doesn't change anything, either way.

Hearing a lot of the mental struggles I've been dealing with come up again in this video spurred me on and gave me the push I needed to actually do something with that concept. It's been in my mind for months but I finally put it on paper; I guess I needed something for it to launch onto, a specific thing being reflected between us, and I found that. I tied it to the loneliness and isolation he was talking about, and the struggle to speak to anyone. The natural instinct to keep things to yourself, always engaging with everyone else so carefully, overthinking, not letting your guard down, dancing around honesty and vulnerability like they're poison. And it was cathartic to get that on paper.

It's my turn to force myself to be honest now and get out of my comfort zone, I think. So here it is. My drawing, and the explanation behind it. It means a lot to me.

Donate to thanksmas if you can and try to do what's best for your mental health, even if it's terrifying. Posting this is terrifying, but you know. Growth takes time and effort. It can't always be easy.

I'm not sure how to close this so I'll just say; thanks for listening to me ramble for a while.

[malachiwardyt]

Hello again, podcast side of Tumblr.

Entities Explained has officially come to a close with the final episode explaining the End. If you didn't know, Entities Explained has been a series where I, over the course of the last year and change, have explained each of the Fears from hit horror anthology podcast The Magnus Archives. This is the longest episode of the series, but I think it's totally worth watching.

Also, this video contains a major announcement: I am currently working on a MASSIVE video explaining The Magnus Archives in as much detail as I possibly can. Hopefully, it'll be a great refresher course before Protocol, and trying to get it done in a month won't absolutely destroy me.

For the art, I decided to draw the moment from Oliver Banks' statement in MAG 121: Far Away where he and the rest of the crew on a research vessel are destroyed by falling satellite pieces. I wanted the whole piece to be very dark and to have this slightly dusty feel to it, which I think I succeeded at.

I went back and forth a lot on what to dress Banks in, but, in the end (pun intended), I went with something a bit more casual, since he is mostly just hanging around a shipping vessel. If I ever drew him as The Coroner, I'd probably go with something more formal (full black suit with a wilted red flower on the lapel?), but this felt fitting. I also wanted to give him a rain coat because, hey, I imagine it gets pretty rainy out there.

Unfortunately, Banks' design doesn't get to shine through too much in this piece, since his back is to the audience but, for one, I think that's sort of fitting for his themes, and, two, it makes the composition, at least in my mind, a bit more interesting.

The falling satellite was something I experimented around with a lot. Using reference pictures of real satellites, I tried to get something that felt small, but also like it could do some serious damage. The motion blur was a late addition, but I can't say I don't like it.

The moon was always going to be an important part of this piece, but it was during the sketching phase that I realised I could make it into a bit of a stylised skull, which is just a subtle enough detail to be fun. The angular clouds were originally meant to cut through it, but I settled on it being in full view instead, which I think looks much better.

Finally, there's the veins themselves. I actually went with less of them than I originally planned because I think it felt less repetitive, but I'm really happy with the way they turned out. My one addition was adding a pop of colour to this very drab and grey piece (which could, now that I think about it, be seen as a parallel to the desaturated people in Banks' dreams) in the form of the red flowing through the veins. This is technically only described as happening when Banks saw Gertrude Robinson in his dreams, but I figured, if there was another time for it, it was in the moment that he was truly in the grasp of Terminus. I also, honestly, just think it looks better.

That wraps up Entities Explained, so I hope y'all have enjoyed this series while it lasted. I'm not going to stop Magnus content, as I have plenty of ideas already and I'm sure Protocol will only bring more, but I am interested to see where my content goes from here. If you've read this far, thank you so much for listening to my ramblings and, if you celebrate, enjoy your holidays. Good night, Tumblr people!

[trellia]

GOOD MORNING LOVELIES!

This isn't my character but a friend's character who prefers remaining anonymous for the most part for the time being :) I drew this character before, but I wasn't happy with the result as I am with this one. I've said before that l've been writing again, and this is one of the main characters.

It takes me much longer working on paintings these days and I think I figured out why, and it's quite obvious in the following slides showing the general work I did just why that is: my brain is stupid, essentially LOL.

Now hear me out: what I really mean is that at some point, usually near the end, where I start seeing all the errors, or at least a lot of them. That means I end up doing a lot of erasing and fixing in the last part, usually very significant changes at that, something I did not do prior in my earlier paintings and drawings. This is GOOD because I learn a lot doing this... but also very annoying because by then I wanna get it done and move on LOL Mind you, I also do not work on these all day long as I have chores to work on in the meantime.

But I'm happy with how this came put in the end. :D

As always, thank you for your continued support!

I am thinking of starting youtube videos ( moreso a diary of sorts where I speak about things that interest me and art as well of course. I will post the link when I begin. I'm still doing lots of brainstorming but I feel it'll be easier than streaming, which is very very tiring, and frankly l'm not that great at it lol)

You can find the progress on my insta: trellia.art

And Cara: trelliaart

[phoenixlionme]

Vaggie's Possible New Form

Past Official Art

l made a previous post about this and I believe it's an early bit of foreshadowing. Even in the canon series, we have yet to see Vaggie go into any sort of demon form. And this official art of her shows that it's very different than her demon counterparts and even Lucifer. Her eye changes, her mouth has no teeth, and she looks so ominous and mysterious. And now that I'm looking at it again, I also notice how her "X" is smaller or turned to its' side.

2. Still Mysterious Past

Simple reason - We may know that Vaggie was an Exorcist but we don't the lore behind them, and thus, still know relatively very little about Vaggie's life. It's hinted through some dialogue that she was ostracized by her fellow Exorcists but nothing too concrete, though they do hate her in the present.

3. Interesting Theory with her two foils - Alastor and Lilith

In the show Vaggie has two foils - Alastor and Lilith. Her foil with the former is best explained here; as for the latter, it's pretty evident that Vaggie and Charlie's relationship is meant to parallel Lilith and Lucifer's. We've often seen Vaggie compared to Lucifer but too much of her with Lilith but they do have some things in common - the most blatant being how they were once connected to Adam, refused to follow orders, and were found by their respective Morningstar partners. And what all three of them have in common is a mystery element - Alastor's owner, why Lilith is in Heaven, Vaggie's entire backstory beyond as an Exorcist. Now, one person on YouTube made an analysis video that he believes both Lilith and Alastor received their powers from Roo; and I (and some fans) believe that Roo is the scary, red looking woman at the very top pic on the right. Now, given how Vaggie is meant to foil these two, I theorize that Vaggie will gain a power boost on the heavenly figure shown on the left. I don't know how or why and maybe I'm just plain wrong but it would provide an interesting contrast between her and the other two.

4. Foreshadowing in plain sight?

This show just FEELS like a subtle foreshadowing moment. The audience are so busy focusing on Charlie's stunned reaction to Vaggie's secret, we don't recognize that there's foreshadowing going on. Vaggie's angel form is placed in front of a bird-like seraphim; plus, the painting's eyes are very noticeable given how Vaggie is missing her left eye.

5. Her Single Wing Stripe

Given how deliberate the designers are, it's meant to be important that Vaggie has a single stripe while the other Exorcists have 2, even Adam as two. It may not have been relevant in season 1 but it'll probably come up next season.

6. Comments from Stephanie Beatriz

Stephanie Beatriz stated in an interview that Vaggie's red bow foreshadows her character arc in season 2. And Vaggie's design is meant to resemble a moth and moths have often been symbols of transformation. Hint?

[halfagone]

I seriously love your fic 'Social Media + Insomnia = Epic Fails'. It's honestly amazing that you managed to write an entire fic through just snapshots of different social media. If I may, can I ask how you did it? I can't imagine that it would be easy, considering that there's barely any conventional dialogue or real action scenes.

Oh my gosh, yay!! Ironically I just reread that one the other night. It was very self-indulgent, but I'm so happy to hear so many other people could enjoy it too! 🥰✨😊

There are definitely some parts that are easier than others. Interestingly enough, I probably have the hardest time with formatting and the overall structure of the fic when I publish than the writing itself. I love playing around with HTML, but Ao3's HTML is notoriously hard. (Also, tip: the Rich Text Editor doesn't always allow the same amount of versatility, hence the HTML.)

For me personally, it was important for me to have plot in the background. It doesn't have to be deep plot, but just some sort of guideline that I could follow so I know where it began and end.

In that fic, I'm sure you noticed, things went down in the background like Danny joining the Justice League and becoming Ghost King and Tim getting overshadowed by Pariah Dark. (Yes, I did try to heavily imply that Tim was overshadowed by Pariah for five days. That's a fun plot point lol.) But the overarching story that people really came for was Tim and Danny being lovesick idiots and trying to navigate being public personalities and getting together.

You are totally right about unconventional dialogue. There is a bit at the end where we get actual dialogue with quotation marks and dialogue tags, but otherwise we just get a lot of chatting sequences. For me it was very important to get the tones right. Little clues in the messages that shows how they're feeling or what they're implying. And for things like sarcasm, which don't translate through writing the same way, you can even have characters call each other out on it. I know I've done the same for "Insomniacs Anonymous". (Can you tell I love social media fics? lol)

One of the things I will say about this kind of fic format is that it's so much easier to write fight scenes. On one hand, you don't get really inspiration scenes where your characters are out there kicking ass and saving the day, but that's also a let less work on your part. In this case the details aren't as important, it's the results. So that's why we just see Breaking News alerts.

For this fic, it's kind of a mixture of present-action and reactions. There are parts where we watch as plot points unfold but we also learn about other plot points via the reactions from other people on social media.

There are also smaller things you can do. Whenever I showed Danny's Twitter profile or YouTube channel, I changed little details to show the passage of time. I showed him steadily gaining new followers or subscribers, or in the case with YouTube, I showed his number of videos slowly ticking up higher. It's very easy to miss, and maybe most people don't notice it at all, but it's also a good bookmark as an author.

If you're looking for inspiration or ideas, then I would definitely recommend looking into other social media AUs. There's a canonized tag for it on Ao3, but the social media fics I read that helped me with "Social Media + Insomnia = Epic Fails! (Not Clickbait)" were from Yuri! On Ice, Batman, and BNHA. If you're interested in more specific fics, let me know and I can make up a list of recs. Even if you're not into the fandom, they offer some good ideas for what it can look like.

All in all, I'm really glad you liked that one! I have a number of more ideas for social media fics going forward like a Model AU, my Actor AU, and then a AITA Reddit fic which I believe I did post a while ago as well. I can't promise it'll be soon, but the format is so fun and I hope you get to have some fun with it too. 😉

[smallcrystals]

pls pls pls i need some flashspruce headcanons, idc what they're abt i just NEED

i've been on the verge of insanity lately

this is so real and honestly your insanity brought back mine so thank you

i feel like part of the reason i've kinda fell off my eqg soapbox is bc i felt like i've said all i've ever wanted to say abt them, but i don't think i have actually! if you do not mind me repeating myself occasionally:

between flashspruce, flash has the most experience with boys despite having realised his attraction to them later than timber did. this is mainly because flash is surrounded by more boys because high school, the maths is pretty simple

timber, on the other hand, had a more complicated relationship with sexuality because his gender was doing all sorts of funny things. he had an idea that he was pan (of course, he didn't have the words for it yet) but he was never sure if he was romantically interested in boys or just admired them so obsessively he wanted to be one. as timber grew into his teen years he realised it was both lol

timber hides this with his confidence but flash can see right through it because he's dealt with boys like this before when they've hit on him previously (though they're never quite as cute as timber is. pretty privilege i tell ya)

when they're friends, they have this specific dynamic that idk how to explain (the closest i can think of is hyung-dongsaeng in korean culture), but essentially it's this feeling of wanting to dote on your friends that are younger than you (even if it's just by months). that's how flash treats timber in the early stages – flash finds out he's older than timber by a few months and now he cannot think outside of timber = baby

timber loves the mane 7 but if flash is tagging along with their hangouts (which is usually the case, timber only rarely hangs out with them as a group by himself), he's very clingy and has his arm hooked with flash's. flash finds it adorable, especially when timber refuses to let go in public

i see 2 ways in which they can go from friends to lovers; either it's very natural and it doesn't feel like anything's changed, OR they've reached a breaking point where they're just seconds away from devouring each other. sunset says that sometimes flash looks at timber like he will leave bite marks on the guy if he doesn't stop whatever he's doing (existing). both are good i'd say

timber has always filmed little candids of flash when they start being friends, mainly on his phone but whenever they're out by themselves, he brings his fancy camera out. flash doesn't know this, mainly because timber doesn't show him out of embarrassment, but you can really tell the person who filmed the videos loves their muse

flash sends over lyric docs whenever he feels like it and usually these are without any context, literally no "hello" or "how are you", just [text].doc and timber's like ???. but then timber reads them and is like sad™. timber's never admitted to this, and it'll take him a while to do so, but there have been certain lines in flash's lyrics that had him crying. how many chances do you get in life where your muse considers you their muse too?

flash sometimes buys timber books that he's read just so timber can also read them and then freak out the same way he did. most of the time timber's reaction is "why would you make me read this i am now clinically insane" which was exactly flash's goal

i would try to debate who would be the pathetic lover between flashspruce but there is no answer to that bc they are both equally pathetic in their own ways sorry loverboys

flash actively joins timber when he goes to get more wood just so he can see timber in a tanktop and an axe but flash will deny this every step of the way

timber can't say anything though bc man does this as well during the summer months when the flash drive are performing at bars; flash is Not about to wear leather in this weather and timber's gonna enjoy every moment of it

and yeah flash teaches timber the guitar bc what is he if not a lover of music and queer rockstars (he thinks timber could make a really cool queer rockstar if not for the fact he would steal a million of girls' hearts in one second and a smile)

these two make me want to chew a wall. dead serious

(i see your ask about flash, i will get to that soon i promise 🫡)

[vendily-blog]

Mario & Luigi: Brothership Announcement Trailer Analysis

Okay okay, I'm done with making gifs for right now. I still can't believe it's real. And releasing in November too.

As per usual, everything goes under a read more.

So first things first. The Brothership.

It seems to be a floating island, and brings to mind the Starship Mario (the "Faceship") from Mario Galaxy 2.

At the front of the ship is the cannon, which the brothers use to launch to other islands, as you can see the sail and the cliffs behind it in this shot.

I wonder if this means we'll get a slightly less linear adventure, since there's clearly a selection for islands using the telescope mounted to the cannon.

If so, I wonder if it'll be a world map type thing, where completing an island gets you the path forward to more islands (Galaxy 2 style), or a central hub style, where you upgrade the ship to reach farther islands (Galaxy 1 style). It could go either way honestly, and there's not enough evidence either way to say yet.

What I do have evidence of, is the selection screen for different overworld Bros Moves! The Japanese trailer is very slightly different from the English one, and we get a much clearer view of the icons before they use the UFO spin one.

So it seems that Bros. Ball is back! It doesn't quite look like Ball Hop from Dream Team, it has little speed lines, so I think it really is the version of the move from Partners in Time!

We can also see there's at least 1 more action yet to be unlocked. Maybe it's a burrow action?

Speaking of UI, there's a few shortcuts in the corner. Interestingly, the top two options, a thinking bubble and a golden pipe, don't appear in the middle screenshot, which may be from early game, given the low coin counts (2201 coins, 98 coins, and 476 coins respectively). A hint system, Return to Brothership, and your normal menu to adjust gear and use items perhaps?

Speaking of currency, there's 2 of them in the game.

Seems like magic sparkles, and standard coins.

Sparkles might be used to upgrade the ship? We see in other shots that Connie seems to be a gardener of sorts and the ship is partially organic.

She has this seed or lightbulb shaped symbol on her head and there's other garden equipment here, like the trowel.

Speaking of important characters, Princess Peach being here is a fun surprise!

It seems the the Princess also ended up in this otherworld too, but not at the same time as the brothers, as she's picked up her own crew, and Dorrie. I wonder if she'll join along on the Brothership once you find her, or if she has her own adventure during the course of the story (sort of like Minion Quest/Bowser Jr.'s Journey from the Superstar Saga and Bower's Inside Story remakes).

It's also interesting that Bowser's here. He might not be behind this plot if the princess is here, he's not one to go sending Peach to alternative dimensions. Maybe he's followed them here because the Princess disappeared.

And perhaps a bit of fighting with the bros for good measure. It seems he fires upon the Brothership here, but he might not be working with the Extension Corps.

They share the same electrical theming as the other NPCs we've seen so far and their plot seems to revolve around these odd generators, which we can also see in the pre-bossfight intro here.

I suppose their plot might involve powering something. Or maybe they're taking something from these generators, given they seem to be spread out.

On the topic of battles though, either we get stat upgrades through food items, like the various coffees from Superstar Saga, or we get random rolls back (maybe both) because there's some variation in the stats of the bros at times between the JP and EN trailers.

Left is from the English video and right is from the Japanese one during the Headphone Jack Corp Boss. Which is odd, because every other part of the videos has tried its hardest to be identical save for the language change.

Same deal for the Gorumbla boss. Left English, Right Japanese.

It just seems like a rather odd decision to do the boss on different levels for the video, so that's why I think the fluctuation is from random rolls. But there could still be a cooking system, as we have this shot of the brothers and they may be in a kitchen of sorts?

I have other questions for the battle system too. We never see any battle action selection so it's hard to say in any particular way, but all the attacks we see seem to be duo attacks.

This Hammer move has an extra effect, "Kaboom Attack" but I don't know if it's an effect of the Bros. attack (it'll always do this) or a special effect of an equipped hammer for instance (much like how you could equip gear that allows you to stomp on spiked foes or spawn a spike ball to do extra damage afterwards).

On the overworld, it seems like Luigi is the one to come up with ideas? The Exclamation mark that denotes Luigi interaction is slightly shaped like an L, both in the animation and in the overworld afterwards.

Luigi retains this green glow whenever he's currently doing a Luigi action for lack of a better term.

It visually reminds me of Luiginary Works in Dream Team. I'm not sure if it's specifically a mechanic in the plot (Much like Dreamy Luigi was), or just a tool to show you Luigi is preoccupied.

(Also yes, Hammer on X and Y again, I missed that so much.)

Anyway rapid fire random thoughts before I stop.

I like the Mario Odyssey inspired Mushroom Kingdom, with the towers around the main castle.

I suppose the plot starts because they're just such good bros to each other, but that doesn't quite explain why Princess Peach and Bowser are here? I also don't see much involving this odd sparkle hand power outside the intro, but it just seems too important to ignore.

I like the one off movement abilities, just like how you had climbing pipes in Superstar Saga or the bike pads/gonzola.

[focsle]

dearest creator of a comic that includes a lot of ships. how draw sailing vessel???? (do you have any advice beyond Look At Reference Picture And Cry. because that is my current strategy)

thanks sorry

I'm afraid the best way to learn how to draw something is Look At Reference (and hopefully not cry too much!)

I'm not sure what kind of vessel you're interested in--an ocean liner is different from a man o war is different from a caravel is different from all the whaleships I draw, but whatever sort you're interested in, get a lot of references.

Tracing is a really good learning tool! Take your refs and just trace the basic shapes. Ultimately ships are...basically cylinders/rectangles with various edges shaved off or flared in certain ways. But tracing the basic shape can help you internalize an understanding of the Bones of the thing. And can also help with drawing them in different perspectives if you're thinking 'it's just a rectangle with some edges shaved off and some pointy bits'.

Sailing, as an activity, also has a lot of diagrams that can be referred to. The information on them can be overwhelming, but it's good to be able to identify basic parts of the ship (such as the different masts, different sailing rigs, the names and locations of the sails themselves)

Not every ship is going to carry that much sail nor all at once, and it'll change depending on weather conditions, sailing objectives, etc. I'd also say that if you were planning on including all of those lines in the first diagram in your own art that would probably be...excessive. But it's helpful again to have something broken down to better understand your own references / how you want to draw the ship in various conditions. Books like the Young Officer's Sheet Anchor by Darcy Lever are good too--it has really nice diagrams of a lot of different components of a vessel, if you wanna get granular.

This isn't the most accessible piece of advice, but if you have the opportunity to dabble in actually sailing, try it! I don't sail professionally; I am the most seasonal of hobbyists and I'm feeling particularly rusty right about now, but I found that when I started sailing I gained an understanding of how things worked when otherwise just reading about it or looking at images was pretty inscrutable to me. Being able to actually see how something works and feel it and handle it was enlightening. In lieu of that, while it's harder to find video tutorials for tall ships compared to sailboats, those exist too! Here's one.

Granted my sailing experience is exclusively on schooners and I still have no idea how square riggers really work. If I ever get the chance to learn on one and look back at my comic I'm sure SO many things will be wrong. There are absolutely issues with my ships in that comic. Sometimes I forget what sails I set from one page to the next. Yadda yadda yadda. That's why I'm always whispering 'don't look too closely at my ships' @ any sailor-inclined person who's reading said comic.

Which ultimately brings me tooooo--I don't know what your aims are in drawing sailing vessels, but my aims are not to draw a perfectly accurate depiction of a ship. I'm not making diagrams. I'm trying to get the spirit of the thing, and hopefully in a way that looks......not completely incorrect. Sometimes photo references or sailing diagrams can be really challenging to parse. What's helpful to me is identifying what's Most Essential to getting my point across. And one way to find out what's most essential is through a sailor's simplification of a ship.

I love model ships for instance! I love being able to see and handle something in a three dimensional space, and look at how things connect even if it's not an exact replica. Here's mine that I pull out sometimes when I'm trying to figure out how to lead rigging:

I also like collaborating with my deceased whalers of whom I am so fond. They have a lot to teach me, including--with those who were more artistically inclined--how to condense the visual information of a ship. If you can find the historical art done by sailors (such as in logbooks or diaries), especially amateur art, it gets to the heart of the thing without being too much. These men were intimately familiar with the ship and how it functioned, so I look to them to better get a sense of what they felt was most important to include. Here's a couple from 19th century whaler journals that have absolutely been helpful to me.

I hope some part of this was helpful! Good luck drawin boats!

[dreamlink3d]

i wish the stuff i'm working on rn was like. in any way, shape,or form presentable yet cuz like it is all just a lot of spreadsheet work and planning documents, but things are moving! i'm finishing a lot of work to get wisps set up properly this time. you know what actually i'll talk a little bit about it in the read more bc it's all infodump and really technically overbearing but for the nerds who keep up with this blog a lot it might be interesting so 👀

update: oh this is LONG long. whatever i'm keeping it read if you want like peak infodump abt the recruitable characters' role in the game atm.

ok ok ok so like as of the last time i worked on this (like last year i mean) the battling and wisp uniqueness were both really understated and this was on purpose! i wanted battling to be something the player is introduced to later than usual and it's not required at all, bc it's not even your intended goal -- this much is still true, but i wanted it to have more prominence and depth, so i'm elaborating on team building now.

the main thing i'm working out now is that i want each individual wisp (the animal recruitable characters) to function almost like a miniature pokemon and be used to do little roguelike deck-building activities to clear the main progression story thing of the game. before, each wisp technically had a species and catalog wing + 2 abilities, but none of those did anything for battling. my long term idea was that the abilities would have in-battle functionality, but at most that's still like 20ish moves across an at-the-time 400 character roster-- not good enough imo.

so! now what i've been mainly doing is finally embracing the battle system and leaning in on it more. each wisp now is gonna get a couple of things that'll modify each of their stats a little and give them each a couple of "moves." that way every character IN THEORY should play differently in some way.

first up is species, which i actually did the full stat spread for already. it's just simple single-digit buff/nerfs to individual rpg maker stats (hp, mp, atk, def, so on and so forth) but it gives each one a base layer of uniqueness. i want to give each species a dedicated move that is thus attached to each wisp.

second up is catalog wing, this follows the same rule but i haven't done stat changes yet. i also have a little list of like parameters / etc. that i can assign, and i definitely want to give some of those to each of these groups, so that wisps can be even more specific. catalog wing is just colors, and as such i think it makes sense for each to get an associated move as well.

third up are the big new thing. i've been kinda inspired by a video i saw recently of a "pokemon but i added 50 types" mod and i kinda wondered about adding small modifier labels to wisps. almost like pokemon types, but not as type-intensive, and originally i wanted them to be cosmetic. however, i'm realizing i can give them small tweaks as well (literally like +1 something and -1 something else, and that's it) and it'll still have a pretty notable impact on wisp variety. each wisp gets 3 types and i'm currently sorting out the list but it's a little silly, i want to keep it lighthearted and not do it completely seriously in the way pokemon does. you'll see when it comes out but i think it's rather fun. these i would also like to make moves for, but we'll see.

last up are the abilities. i don't think these are gonna have any stat changes, but will have the passive parameters in some cases (double currency/item drops comes to mind.) these already have existed in the game for a long time, and each wisp gets 2. they're how you interact with the dreamscape overworld itself, and solve puzzles in the main progression story thing (which i am referring to this way bc i don't wanna reveal it completely yet!) they're obviously gonna have moves associated with them.

i'm kinda worried abt doing stat stuff bc like obviously an unbalanced game can be a complete mess, but i also think having a wide variety of options that range in power levels (and combine to get even crazier) is like half of the appeal of these teambuilders? like taking the worst possible team and sweeping, or doing the opposite and watching the carnage. i honestly just wanna have fun with it bc i think this is the thing this project really needs to be entertaining in long stretches. the game currently is about gathering wisps and using them to progress but like, without battling it's kinda very thin gameplay wise? dream exploration is still like the big essential part-- i want battling to stay optional and available to be underexplored as each player decides-- but i do think that at least giving players the tools to explore further in that way will go a long way.

i don't know how to end this other than to say i'll probably make more of these kinds of posts in the future? i'm making a lot of scattered smaller progress on this in various areas, mostly working on dreamscape overhauls and wisp categorization but like. i've been retooling the game to have a bit more characters and story than originally intended. finally leaving my burnout phase has led me to really retool this project from the inside out, and i can't wait to share more honestly. i won't be speaking on a release date or even a window, because i don't think it'll be ready before like 2025 at this rate. sucks bc it means 5 year dev cycle (on top of aspects of this going back as far as 2016, or 2012 depending on what you count) but like hey! it's still churning and i'm still chipping away at it. thank you for reading <3

[jamiekb]

more things that i loved (and got to explore) from the Welcome home update

i had already made a post about my first thoughts and stuff, this is just me playing around again

More things!!!:

ok so the 'you' section in the neighborhood now has a little heart. huh i think that's the first time his voice is so distorted in the audios

oh my god even on their illustration page, on the welcome home section, clown changed the banner. looks so cool!!!

hey the telephone was part of the original concept art!!

now forth with the secrets that people have been so kind as to share

finally get the last video. there's something about barnabys voice that just doesnt let me pay attention to what hes saying, maybe its just too calm. that definitely has a different tone from the others at the end, you good Wally??

now past the password page

why is the banner called sneezing??

ok now i get why they say the question answerer went insane

probably nothing but i do find it funny that the 'it's in here' text gives you the 404 page. also are you calling Wally it?

so he can just communicate with people involved in the project i guess??? i do love that he just cant write in a normal way, still the name of a picture

can you not touch ink then?? or just like in general any of the material from Welcome Home???

Frank my dear! from the art in Clown's portafolio, didn't actually expect to see it in the page

more stuff to read! but it's too far away :(

is the question answerer the one that's.. you know.. asking the questions?

more emails!!! ok so you definitely dont touch it and you have to check it then. who is sending these??? im confused. and of course its not alarming to handle material from lost media and then have symptoms like nausea or fatigue, totally normal thing to experience

so im guessing for some of these pictures you have to play with exposure and stuff, some seem near legible

the little vault! i know it's scary but it's so small!!! and Wally from the portafolio!

another shot of the one where wally writes

you can sort of see the script! is it the one we had already seen?

who is sorry??? i just get more confused, need to go back to the exhibition page

back to the audios. I only got four the first time around (i, will, a, i-2), so it'll be nice to hear the rest

nevermind i didnt write down some that i did find (help, you-1, will-2, find). this is why 3am when you're tired is not the best time to do this. and of course the return of 'Neighbor', the angry vynil

pretty sure i hadn't heard 'understand' (some light distortion, interesting), 'way' (sorry darling, no can do, that was a weird way to request that) and 'soon' (creepy, not a fan)

back to the merch page. oh yeah you can click on the red button, why didn't i notice that? creepy and cool audio, not the duet i was expecting, it really is wallys part of the phone thing. again mentioning that we have looked into his eyes. Home says something? what is the work i have to do Wally??? are you just directly speaking to the question answerer?

[barbiegirldream]

"Gon kind of the worst friend in the world though "

 I love him, he's my son but also yes!! ! I'll need to talk about it when you'll have finish the anime!! But yeaaah... I mean, he clearly loves his friend but being an adult and rewatching this show I ... I was like.... God I'm glad I watched it young AND a again while growing so I could be in the same mindset as them and clearly not seeing how Gon is fucked up (lol he's a child and so messy), then later realize more and more how my perspection of Gon's actions changed (and I love it)

"Gon losing his hand and it meaning nothing cause of Archangel's breath hmmmm "

 Me having multiples theories about the significant of this moment and especially how characters are responding to it but you can only understand when you finish the anime and think about Gon's whole personally

"...yep no meaning "

"Gon saying he wants to introduce Killua to Ging waahhh okay you can get out of the well "

... I love your reactions. Trust me, it's making my whole week.

I get the vibes Killua and Gon are too attached and neither of them have a clue what a good relationship looks like. They're both 12 but want to be adults. They latched onto each other for being the same age and never let go. Killua lacks direction as an ex assassin and now hunter. Gon's direction is to fucking crazy town (your dad doesn't want you pleaseeee he's not your identity. Though in the instance the theory about Ging having him with the baby pregnancy card there is an interesting 'clone' sort of thing to thing about if Gon is like a missing part of Ging and can do nothing but chase him. cause no other parent was mentioned as needed and there has to be some condition to 'have baby' but i digress)

Hey I will be excited to know there was consequences for getting a hand exploded and then having a video game card put it back.

Listen I am sometimes a disney movie adult I think those kids need to get back inside and learn their letters. And if they're annoying should be dropped down a well. I will say Gon endears to me a lot because even though he's not a great friend he does love his friends so much and is doing things a twelve year old (who can punch through mountains) would. Killua is going to be slightly more mature and level headed because he isn't just talented he was a trained professional killer who worked jobs. I have yet to find an anime character I thought deserved well time more than ciel and lizzie though so it'll be interesting if i do

[teamfreewill2pointo]

I could care less that antis try to use Jensen's words against him in reference to phones on set. Phones in my workplace can be on your person, yet you are not to be used during shooting. You can afterwards. Not rocket science. Same in most workplaces. Haters will hate. My understanding is that the NDA's came right after the tragedy on the Rust set. For legal reasons and trauma reasons, they didn't want any questions to come up about Rust.

I too think Jensen's new house is fascinating, so please continue. It seems like a safe and interesting topic considering the strike. Fun fact, I noted that in the podcast where Rob and Rich mentioned the Ackles move, Rich also commented on some custom furniture maker that was a friend of his. He said that Jensen's wife, Danneel was into the same artist. Interested in whether they are commissioning any new furniture pieces for this massive house?

I also don't think he had his phone on him when he was doing the fight scenes in his suit, but the whole thing has been blown out of proportion. J2 are clearly over it. Fandom haters are the only ones still fighting about it.

I did a lot of remodeling of my house recently, and I'm totally relandscaping my yard, so I've been watching a bunch of videos and reading a bunch of blog posts on remodels. I'm also close with some people who are doing remodeling, so I've been looking at what they are doing, and what works and what doesn't work.

A lot of my family members have purchased new homes within the past few years, and I'm at the age where we go on tours of our new houses and talk about various problems we've been having and give each other suggestions.

I've never seen Unsellable Houses, but when I was purchasing my home, I spent a lot of time looking at blogs about that show and similar pieces of media, so I could look at what people selling the houses were doing to make their houses seem more appealing to the market. Also, I wanted to get an idea about what sort of things people were looking at when buying houses, so I could have a better idea of what price points the house was likely be sold at.

People have this idea that house renovations have to be extensive in order for it to get a much higher price point, but shows like that show that the Ackles could make small minor changes, but earn a huge profit on the house if they knew what they were doing.

I love their use of reclaimed wood in their lake house.

One of the first things I did in my house was to tear out all the carpet and replace it with a light oak to brighten up the space.

The use of the brighter color here should lighten up the space, especially in contrast with the dark wood.

The first thing I noticed with the Connecticut house is that it's going to be a lot of work to landscape, and in my opinion, needs some serious landscaping done, especially because they're going to lose some of their privacy once those parcels have houses built upon them. I don't know if they've done much landscaping work before, but it'll be interesting to see what they do there, if they choose to share with us.

[solsearchingnights]

How do you keep yourself motivated enough to write chapters as long as yours are(also I'm still thinking about that tweet from Velvet that you mentioned and it's absolutely terrible when it comes to the front of my mind)

Honestly, I set a minimum time limit. I don't post a chapter more than once a week unless I have more than 6k words. That stops me from rushing, and also lets me really think about if a shorter chapter fits where I think it does. It also sets a casual expectation that approximately once a week, I'll have a chapter done.

As far as the motivation to actually write the words; I have a brain that hates being idle. My job is work from home so I have my personal computer set up just behind the keyboard for my work computer, and anytime there's a pause at work, I swap. It gives me space to consider the next lines, just enough time to write a couple, and then I'm back to my job. And usually I have a video or podcast going at the same time.

If I try to just focus on writing, I won't get it done. I get too caught up in my own head about it. Taking breaks to write one-shots has helped, and some of those I post. If I get an idea that I want to do, I follow it: mid paragraph I'm struck with the thought that I have days old rice in the kitchen and I should make egg fried rice? Put down the chapter and go make rice. Because if my brain is telling me that's more interesting than writing, I know I'm not going to get anything done that I'm happy with.

And letting myself post things I don't love has been a good lesson. Once I see it as part of the continuum of the story, I like it more. Write scenes out of order, then paste them in when they sort-of fit and write around them to make it smooth. If you have a specific idea that's motivating the work, write that first. You can always change it to fit the rest of the story later.

I feel like, for me at least, it boils down to: figure out how your brain is broken and leverage it to your advantage. Writing should be fun, not miserable. So if you feel obligated to work on one project, let yourself cheat when you feel your motivation flagging. Work on the thing that makes you happy right then, and eventually it'll come back around to being the project.

That's a lot of words for: I'm not really sure. Though I gotta give credit where it's due, a hypeman beta reader and the sweet things the comments have to say are probably the biggest dopamine hit I can rely on.

ALSO dear lord that tweet needs to start paying: either for rent or for my therapy.