#I needed it for cosplay stuff and was having *a time* going to different crafts stores before going to wally world

[pierswife]

I still think my favorite picture I've ever taken of myself is standing in a Walmart holding a mannequin head

[christabelq]

I was going to post a cosplay photo today, but decided to do another of my tutorial type things instead👩‍🏫. This time it’s for the steampunk handgun I used in my recent Typhoid Mary shoot and also seen in a few of my earlier pics. I’ve found it super useful to have, as it suits a bunch of different characters. If you want to rustle one up yourself, you’ll need these ingredients…

1 x Nerf gun or similar – Choose your gun carefully, as it will dictate what your finished weapon looks like. I went for something small, but chunky, which I picked up cheap in a thrift store (💜 my bargains).

Sandpaper for prepping the gun.

1 x can of black spray paint (or possibly more depending on the size of your gun – tbh I regularly misjudge how much paint I’ll need for stuff and end up having to make extra trips to the craft store to stock up 🚶‍♀️😩

Silver acrylic paint and 🖌️🖌️ to give the gun a metallic look (or gold if you want to bling out).

Assorted fixtures for decorations – I used some gears left over from another project, a bit of an old speaker and some circuitry from a broken tablet, but loads of other stuff will work. Btw, if you haven’t tried it, it’s super therapeutic pulling bits out of an old tablet, especially if it’s one that used to crash on you a lot like mine😈😈😈 

 Plastic knob – Replacement for the cocking thingy at the back of the Nerf gun, as this totally gave away that it was a toy. My piece was stripped off a toy gun I used in another project, but you can use whatever’s available.

A piece of leather – Trim for the barrel to add to the steampunk vibe and (hopefully) make the gun look a bit more realistic.

Needle and thread 🪡 – Most of my projects involve sewing in some way, as it’s something I like doing. Here it was used for finishing the edges of the piece of leather.

Fixative spray – Used to try and ensure I don’t accidentally scratch off any paint when I’m using the gun in a typical display of klutziness 🥴

Normally when I do these tutorials, I start rambling on at this point about whatever bits of the project pop into my head, but this time, I’m totally going to be structured about it, so here’s a step-by-step guide…

Sand off any logos and stuff on your gun, as these always make them look toy like. If the gun you’ve chosen has any smooth surfaces, you might want to sand these as well, as the paint will go on better that way. Top tip here is not to use really rough sandpiper or you’ll end up with nasty scratches.

Strip off any fittings on the gun which don’t look realistic and replace if necessary. In my case, this included replacing the thing for getting the gun ready to fire (I’m sure there’s a technical term for this, but it beats me what it is). I screwed the new bit into the end of the mechanism, so it still works, which is pretty cool.

⛫💨 Spray the gun matt black to prime it, plus any of your fittings which need to match. Usually this has to be done in a couple of stages, as if you’re working on a table or something you won’t be able to turn anything over until it’s dry. Also, no matter how good a surface looks at the time, you often come back to find the paint hasn’t covered something properly 😠😠. Here’s another tip… go off and do something else between coats rather than waiting around for however many hours it takes the paint to dry 💡

🎨 Add the metallic distressed look with the arcylic paint. For this to work, you need to dust the paint on super lightly. I usually wipe my brush on a bit of paper each time I dip it in the paint to get rid of the excess.

Once the paint is dry, attach your fittings. The trick here is to try to make them look like they have some kind of purpose and aren’t just window-dressing. Glue is the easiest way to stick things on, but I use bolts and screws when possible 🪛🔧, as these are more secure and allow gears and stuff to spin around if you want them to. If you’re using leather like me (or any other material), you’ll probably want to sew in a folded overedge before attaching it to stop it fraying 🪡.   

Touch up any damage you did to your paintwork when working on step 5. Maybe you’ll be luckier than me, but no matter how careful I am, there always seems to be some.

⛫💨 Spray on your fixative for protection. This should be done in steady lines with the can about 30 cms away from the gun. It’s best to do a few coats, sometimes working from side to side and sometimes from top to bottom, so you get good coverage. My tip for this stage is to shake the can well before use and do a quick test spray first to make sure the fixative is coming out evenly.

Pick up the finished gun and start rocking it /̵͇̿̿/’̿’̿ ̿ ̿̿ ̿̿ ̿̿💥

So there you have it. Hopefully if you’re new to projects like this, it will give you a good starting point. I think you get good results for some pretty easy steps. Let me know if you found it useful or if you have any questions 💬, and stay tuned for more cosplay stuff.

Luv your friendly neighborhood  cosplayer, Christabel ❤️🧡💛💚💙����

ko-fi.com/christabelq instagram.com/christabel.simpson/ deviantart.com/christabelq

[tasty-littl-snack]

Hey there! First of all, love the account! I don't lurk as much in the watcher fandom (not cause I hate them, I just have another fandom I am currently highly fixated on XD)

But my God. I will not get people/audiences that does not want their creators to grow or evolve from their craft. I keep getting peeved with people of not liking their overproduced stuff and reprimanding them for like "using a lot of money and effects when we only wanted a camera and your presence"

Like I get that they love their audience and those audiences love their past work, but since when did fandoms dictate what a creator wants to make and how to make it?! Absolutely insane to me. Some of them need to move on.

Hi! Thank you for the message it's nice to see that someone enjoys what I'm posting I really appreciate it.

I agree with what you're saying honestly, and especially the comments on ghost files alone being like "this is better than ghost files you should make more of this because ghost files is overproduced that you should fire your crew and do things alone always" is like... very backhanded compliment of the people saying this.

Like yes Ryan said that he's proud of what he made and it really is a good show, but it's not because he had one single camera (even that isn't true, like the shot from the airport is him joking about "travelling light" with only 5 bags to have the entire equipment. He uses his Iphone as a static cam but that's still 2-3 cameras if not more. But of course there's shots of him having one camera on himself so there's the illusion of him just going with an iphone cam and investigating alone.

The fact that people fall for that, only shows that Ryan is very talented at making videos. I think that Ghost files alone is great but not because of the low production but because Ryan had a plan for this show and knew what he wanted to prove with it. The heart he puts in it and his geniuine curiosity about ghosts is what's good about the show. The footage is of very high quality and those cameras aren't free. So while Ghost Files Alone cosplays a lower production youtube video of "just a guy with a camera" and a bit of vlogging it made people think that it's "back to the roots of bfu" or whatever.

I am a watcher fan and discovered them with ghost files and I've been blown away by the production value. I love the things people consider "overproduced" because there's not much of that on youtube and it's unique to me. So maybe I don't have the nostalgia that comes with watching them for years like others. But even when my fave youtuber that I followed for a long time upped his production value the last thing I'd do is complain. I don't really get that argument to be honest. Like "Ohh nooo I'm gonna have to watch well produced shows on youtube for free in 4k with good color grading and great microphones" like what is your problem here?

And the fun thing about watcher is that they went to the bfu channel and made a bfu collab video in december 2024. And even then they sat in the boonker and had their set and everything. The only thing different about that is the buzzfeed editing which is pretty jarring to watch after all these years. Like there really isn't going back to the old times.

I feel like people are entitled and feel like they can tell them what to do because usually for youtubers you have that audience-creator feedback that's not very common in other mediums. So the entitlement comes from the fans because they got used to it. It also comes from the usual disrespect people have for service workers and other people that they pay money for. In this case of course the currency isn't money but their attention (or whatever data youtube gathers when you watch a video and the advertisements and whatever), so they feel like "we ""paid"" you so now you have to listen to us". And when watcher dared to ask for actual money it's like "wait no you're just entertainment in the background why would I actually pay for it". It doesn't matter that watcher puts effort in their videos and they're meant to be watched, from the perspective of average person not respecting people in the service industry it's very easy to be like "I pay you so you have to do what I want". So I think that's where that comes from.

I don't know it's very easy to say "don't like don't watch". The problem with ex-watcher/bfu stans is that they loudly need to announce "Btw I'm not watching those greedy assholes and you're a loser if you do". And when you try to point out that they are still uploading things to youtube then you're apparenly being a loser for idk, being a fan of something.

I really wish they moved on and find something better to do with their time.

[poupeesdecirque]

Posting by Queue, or: why I need some distance from my crafts

It has been some time since my last hobby meta blog entry, it had different reasons and one is that I need distance. Like, yes I of course enjoy crafting and sometimes I am like a little child that runs everywhere to show off things.

But it got ... less intense. And I learned I do better when I keep projects or at least details to myself to sit on them for longer. That the first euphoria is purely mine and not to be shared.

Like for my photos I have a buffer of several weeks now. Yes, I know past-me would have kind of hated that. But I learned I do better when I have a time buffer. I do take photos weekly but sometimes they don't feel special enough to get the weekly photo feature?

Friday & yesterday I went out for photos and while I like the ones from yesterday way more than the ones from friday I am not sure if the set from yesterday will get the feature or not as it's only a hand full of photos giving me that certain spark.

Other than that I am a very emotional artist, I sometimes really fuck up my art and hate it at the moment I worked on it, but then, sometimes, after a few days or weeks I can look at it and just wonder about what was my problem the day I made it.

Another thing is that I, myself, enjoy my art. The process of it. And I like to see my blog updating, sometimes I forget what post will go online and then I check the blog and think "ah yes, this was that thing!", and it reminds me why I made the blog overall, to show myself I had progress and that every tiny step counts.

Which leads to another reason why I hold back in regards of posting. Yes, I do share some snippets in my stories over on insta but not always and not all. I sit on over 300 drawings from the last two years alone nobody ever will see, I enjoyed drawing but it's nothing for the public eye. I will maybe go back and redraw some and share the redraws then, who knows?

But wait, there is actually more reasons.

The biggest or main reason is ... i sometimes go really wild on projects. In January I finished so many dolls it was insane, I worked on Cosplays and other crafts in an incredible speed, I have literally no idea where I found the time but I somehow did and doll parts arriving every week did the rest.

I keep the blog running with partially 2 month old stuff but .... to be honest I don't have doll stuff aside photos to do anymore. All I can do is wait for bodies to be shipped (or dolls even) and arrive. There has been no movement since January. Aside Iza getting the shipping notice for our Split, might take a while until its at her place and I can't really start on the Akuma until I got the body (which I at least have finally ordered this month) as colors need to be matched and mods to be made.

I am truly itchy to do something else than sewing all the time, I do enjoy cosplay but you know how much I like sewing (hint: not at all). So to remind myself of the fun I had in the past weeks I have mixed my blog to bless me with some progress I had which was maybe not sewing all the time. And well, the Cosplays have deadlines and I do get some ideas aside purely sewing while doing them, so that keeps me going for now.

Yes, I could start redoing dolls like Alastor or Erwin. But you know what? IT'S ALMOST ALL SEWING. Urgh.

Aside that real life is pretty good at eating me up and I just want to enjoy crafting. Right now drawing feels like stress relief but I hate the results and just scan the pieces and put them away to never look at them again, I have a bunch of posts queued up without any captions, a wip entry of a current project only has two photos but I lack the spoons to actually get them done. But since those posts are so far back it's fine (yes I know drafts are a thing).

In general I enjoy having my art to myself to get used to it before I put it out into the wild as I just recently got reminded I do bad with direct comparisons still and it hits some triggerpoints from the past and makes everything harder, I don't need that.

I literally have no idea if this blog makes sense even, lol. I just am tired of sewing and stopped working on my current project around lunch time and have drawn so much today and I walked way too much the whole week my friends urged me to stay the ef home and at least try to relax. But I'm restless as my body is too stressed (I know it all I'm a certified relaxation trainer so eh), so, have an over the place blog entry.

[eclipse-studios]

Tutoriel Bendy Props (Part 2 )

Hello and welcome ( back ) onto this ongoing series of BATIM props tutorial. Today, we’ll make the radio ! And a working one.

This time, Orion was a big helper. He deisgned the patterns, took all the measurements and worked out a way for that radio to swing !

This tutorial will only cover the radio because the process is kinda different from the other props ( that you can find here ), we took extra time and care because we DO wanna listen to Sammy Jam on loop. Best OST, can’t change my mind.

So, you’ll need :

EVA Foam, 5, 7 and 10mm ( or you can use cardboard. Like really, don’t feel pressured into buying those pricey materials if it’s JUST for the radio. Go ham on empty amazon packages and have fun. )

Foam Clay & Kwik Seal, those two are to buy only if you’re using EVA foam. They’re meant to seal the irregularities in foam.

Contact Cement & Hot Glue. Same here, Contact Cement is hardcore glue and isn’t that useful for cardboard, so use Hot Glue instead ! If you use extra-strong glue ( the ones in tiny packages ), be really careful not to put any on your skin ( it burns like hell ).

Yellow Ochre & Black acrylic paint

Cutter & Rotary Tool

little pieces of wood ( like lollipop sticks. )

Snap buttons

Strap ( anything from a rigid piece of cloth to leather is good for what we’re doing here. )

Hinge ( take it from a small box you don’t use anymore. oh, and maybe a screwdriver. )

a mini speaker ! the only thing you’re supposed to buy for the craft. Purchase the cheapest speaker you can find, since low quality speakers perfectly replicate the “no bass” feel of old radios. :)

If you’re looking for the cosplay materials we talked about, visit CosplayShop ( especially if you’re from Europe since they’re Belgian ), but don’t forget, you can use cardboard !

Step 1 : The pattern

The first thing to do is figuring out the pattern. If you already have your Bluetooth speaker, take it in account for the overall size of the radio.

You don’t need to understand all that complicated stuff, Orion figured it out for you.

Sorry for the shaky hand, I did it with my PC’s trackpad.

Step 2 : Cut the foam around your pattern.

The face and back sides will be cut in 0,7mm EVA Foam ( High Density ) ; then you cut the grill cloth in thinner foam, or using a real cloth. It’s important that part stays thin, for the sound to come out of it.

Above, you also have the pattern for the relief, that I also cut in 0,5mm Foam. Use a cutter for this !

The buttons are just two cylinders. Since they don’t need to be working, they’re pretty simple to make. Just make sure you don’t use a material that’s too thick, else it’ll be hard to bend.

The depth of the radio is just a 10cm wide piece of material, cut to the right size, that’ll vary with the perimeter of your own radio : don’t bother with the calculus, just test and cut a bit more each time until you got the right size.

After everything is cut nicely, you have to glue it with hot glue or contact cement. For perfect seams, I recommend you sand it gently before filling the holes with Foam Clay or Kwik Seal.

Now that your radio is in 3D, you have to make the base ! Use rigid, thicker foam / cardboard, or double it and stick it together. There should be around a centimetre between the edge of the base and the edge of the radio.

Now, don’t glue it if you wanna have access to the speaker inside. Screw and / or glue the hinge in order to open it. Place the hinge on the back side of the radio.

Now, the inside of the radio ! You gotta put a strap to stitch the speaker in place : we used a piece of leather but anything will do. To make it sit nicely, you can build a base to put it on. We built ours with both small pieces of wood and foam, because foam is easier to glue on foam than wood.

Now, it’s painting time ! This step is explained in the first part of these tutorials, but I’m sure you can figure it out with reference pictures !

Ta-da !

We personally use this radio as a prop when roleplaying to develop our Alternate Universe, Eclipse Studios ! By the way, we’re working on a new comic I think people will love…

Don’t forget to ask me if you need help for your own props, since I keep all my patterns and techniques.

I hope you enjoyed this post and this technic radio, and I’ll tell you soon about Eclipse Studios !

[cookiekitkat8484]

dipper hcs

This is super long, like 2000 words super long because i have a huge hyperfixation and cringe culture is dead. he reminds me of me and my friends/family so i have a million ideas. split into topics for reading convenience

low 20s, autistic, bi + demi with a preference for women, ftm. I totally understand people disliking ftm dipper because of stan and mabel making fun of his masculinity and it would be shitty in canon but this is my post so i make the rules bitch and am pretending that never happened. None of this is ship stuff. I imagine him to basically look like the lovley art in this post.  

shares an apartment with mabel in portland, completely full of nerd memorabilia, stacks of boardgames, mabels diys, a conspiracy corkboard, and arts & crafts materials 

works in a bar/arcade where wendy bartends, calls soos and fidds when he needs help fixing machines

pet ferret called pippin

started his own journal 

pacificas plus one to her prissy rich person events, sit in the corner and shit talk

carries around fidget toys, was too embarrassed till mabel convinced him (partially because his pens kept exploding everywhere)

has protective runes tattooed 

mabel talks about astrology to be annoying, is baited into getting mad and rambling about how modern astrology is fake and a scam every single time

nervous driver, doesnt have a car but is sometimes driven by mabel in her heavily adorned funmobile; worries about her "enthusiastic" driving

helps mabel dye her hair after a three am hair emergency, got really good and started bleaching pacificas till she decided to chop it and grow it out natural (refused money from her parents after moving out), which used to be the ultimate gossip sessions

joint problems and pain, god awful posture

one sided beef with all of mabels partners till they “prove themselves”

doesnt believe in cooking like he (mainly) used to not believe in laundry

punched someone for making fun of mabel, got beat up so mabel kicked their asses (thank you stan and wendy for her "training")

only social media is reddit, an instagram account made and run by pacifica, youtube, and a tumblr on nerd/mystery stuff 

only has tumblr bc candy convinced him in like 2014 then he succumbed to the brain rott, they're mutuals and make weird references no one else gets, personalises blog extensively via html/css, had a brief superwholock phase in 2015 (fight me)

coded mabels laptop into a custom 2000s esc blinged out hellscape she made in graphic design class, got her rgb stuff bc she likes rainbows and he thinks its funny

occasionally clashes with mabel bc shes sensory seeking and he gets sensory overload

pacifica takes him clothes shopping bc otherwise he will literally never buy new clothes, sometimes go thrifting with mabel the thrift god

mildly dyslexic and in denial

needs glasses but usually wears contacts because he finds them annoying then forgets to take them out

wears glasses when he misses the grunkles

Sugar addict like mabel and their pantry shows it 

Best nerd shirt collection, like, that's all he wears

Gets into online arguments way too much for no reason 

Mabel makes like ten different protective friendship bracelets with unicorn hair so he could have options, just wears all of them at once

uni

journalism major with a minor in computer science 

takes history, pure maths, and film units as electives 

member/helps run the clubs for DnD [DD&MD], MTG, Warhammer, and scifi & fantasy appreciation

founder and president of the uni cryptozoology, supernatural, aliens, and occult society (CSACS)

gets ford to proof read his writing/math and fidds his code

attends lectures for units hes not even enrolled in for fun

has gotten into multiple arguments with professors, including ones that dont even teach him 

has read theory (all people who’ve read theory are annoying including myself)

hobbies

goes to cons with mabel, she helps with (/mainly makes for him) matching cosplays to fill the trick or treating void

once met spock and kirks actors and got so excited he passed out so mabel took pics of him on the floor next to them and she thinks its the funniest thing to ever exist

DMs multiple online DnD [DD&MD] and ttrpgs groups, 3.5e truther

competes in MTG tournaments 

does karaoke night with mabel and the gals atleast once a month, sometimes brings pacifica 

goes to the renaissance fair with the squad where him, mabel, ford, and soos all dress up and get super into character with melony; wendy and stan take shrooms and go to watch the sword fighting 

listens to DnD podcasts 

ex band kid and still plays Sousaphone, often to mabels dismay 

obsessed with boardgames and hosts boardgame nights, always makes everyone play super overcomplicated ones then has to play monopoly when its stan and mabels choice

almost always wins boardgames and knows how every mechanic works, has only occasionally lost to ford (who is a sore loser lol)

has had risk games last multiple days after its only him and ford left

bonds with mabel and soos painting figures (warhammer, dnd, the usual) and embraces her covering hers in glitter and gems

goes ghost hunting, has a shit tone of real gear from ford and fidds and sometimes vlogs, quotes buzzfeed unsolved

secret AO3 account, caught grunkle stan writing dutches approves fics but both have sworn an oath of secrecy 

wendy taught him skateboarding, doesnt do tricks (uncoordinated as shit) but uses it as transport

broke bc he cant resist collectables 

made his own pc from scratch using parts he bought and custom ones made by fidds

goes to local band concerts with wendy and her gang including watching wendy play drums

Did debate in highschool, usually gets nervous doing public speaking but gets so invested he forgets; is second speaker

tech guy for productions mabel is in

games 

loves all strategy and puzzle games

fav games include fallout 1&2, nethack, xcom, civ, FTL, and dwarf fortress

ford and fidds play games they used to play before the portal accident with him eg. zork, MUD1, rouge, star trek, colossal cave adventure, and mystery house

plays portal 2 with ford and sometimes mabel

plays baldurs gate with mabel and she spent five hours doing character customisation, he plays wizard and she plays bard and both are total stereotypes

played lethal company and phasmophobia with mabel, soos, wendy, grenda, and candy (goes as expected) (lots of screaming)

BDG unravelled fan and grew up on matpat but cant play fnaf or ddlc bc giffany 

had a breakdown playing dark souls and started crying at 2am so mabel banned it permanently

spectacularly bad at rhythm games but will play with mabel anyway and she completely sweeps, esp in arcades and just dance

plays bishi bashi with the gang and have broken the machine multiple times

really good at retro arcade games, shares strats with soos and remembers all the combos for everything; helps kids beat levels at work

gets ford to help optimise game stats/teams/strats with the POWER OF MATHS !!!, has on occasion coded algorithms to assist 

forced everyone to play among us constantly for like three months straight

member of mabel, candy, and grendas chaotic nightmare of a minecraft server, usually offline and generally regrets it when he joins; more of a terraria guy

undertale kid

ports/emulates games himself, esp retro console stuff like old fire emblem, Zelda, earthbound

in the ace attorney fandom  

runs a server for online friends he plays games with

shows/movies

does annual lotr (extended edition) marathons with ford, mabel drifts in and out of watching because snacks and that legolas and arwin are both a “total smash” (elf apreciator)

loves all scifi, including classics like star trek, star wars, ext.

watches doctor who with mabel (shes a david tennant enjoyer) including the super old stuff, replies with one of the classic who doctors when people ask his fav and confuse them 

goes to old scifi/horror/fantasy rerun marathons, wendy joins depending on the films

watches scifi and mecha anime with soos and fidds, sometimes ford joins

loves evangelion, knows cruel angels thesis in japanese, lowkey a shinji kinnie and is bullied ruthlessly 

watches candys exquisite curation of 90s shoujo with her, mabel, and grenda; wont admit he gets super into it but has been caught doing sailor moon magical girl transformation poses 

watched madoka magica with the gals and was kuybey hater #1 from the start

never shuts the fuck up about theories and guesses the end of movies unless mabel smothers him with a pillow

hate watches conspiracy theory/ghost hunting shows with wendy bc theyre either laughably wrong or so close and totally missing the obvious, except this one random guy who was somehow spot on (like doug forcett in the good place) 

Made to watch all of twilight at a girls night because mabel (mostly) watched lotr, cant stop overthinking the insane lore implications which somehow get worse with every book fact mabel tells him (because what the fuck ???? the world building is batshit), him and candy keep periodically saying effervescent and bursting into hysterics to the others confusion

still quotes star wars bad lip readings with mabel

books

favs include hitchikers guide to the galaxy, discworld, lotr, do androids dream of electric sheep, earthsea, dune, and HP lovecraft esp cuthullu 

him and ford have both read the salmirilion and make it everyones problem

likes classic scifi and early cyberpunk, esp spec fic thats wacky or raises ethical questions to ponder with ford

loves sherlock homes and agatha christie, big who dunnit story fan

read good omens bc mabel likes the show (again, david tennant enjoyer) and its terry pratchet + neil gaiman, tries to get her to read the book for ages and eventually she listens to the audiobook

music

owns spirit phone on vinyl, made ford listen once and accidentally gave him flashbacks

likes lemon demon, TWERP, starbomb, NSP, tally hall, will wood, and other nerd bands 

they might be giants and potusa enjoyer

can and will recite the entirety of the ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny at the drop of a hat

went through a midwest emo phase, still listens to csh

listens to vocaloid with candy; went to a concert with the gals and everyone learnt the dances, mabel decorated their light sticks 

always ends up belting [B]ABBA when drunk

Fav [B]ABBA songs are disco girl and under attack 

weezer defender, bullied by mabel and wendy

listens to math rock with ford while stan complains the time signatures and polyrhythms (though he’d never bother to learn the terms) give him a headache 

listens to game OSTs and chiptune stuff

mabel got him into musicals, knows the words to hamilton, bmc, and dear evan hansen, sing duets together

trans 

once forgot to take off a too small binder for like two days and fainted, mabel made him a custom one

short king, used to have hight dysphoria

mabel alters his pants bc mens trousers are evil for the transmasc gang

didnt shave ever when he first got his wiskers till pacifica staged an intervention 

forgot to tell stan he was trans till he got body hair and stan joked it was his genetics to thank, dipper responded he was lucky the T was actually effective

drinking/drugs

cant smoke weed or he gets suuuuper paranoid, only smoked once w wendy and tried to smoke more to calm down but just ended up greening hard

drinks alcoholic ginger beer and indie APIs wendy recommends, though shes more of a whisky and scotch

super low alcohol tolerance, doesnt drink often

drinks mabels own recipe cocktail monstrosities when she convinces him they wont get shitfaced, always ends up shitfaced because theyre 100% alcohol + sugar and mabels tolerance is like double his; always eventually ends with him trying to explain lotr poorly

once drank so much caffeine he started hallucinating 

tripsits mabel (LSD legend) and sometimes wendy (totally does shrooms), again is neurotic and should under no circumstances take hallucinogens 

sometimes smokes cigs when stressed, tries to hide it but is laughably bad, will ocasionally bum a cig off wendy

[sasuhinasno1fan]

A wish come true - Adrien AUGreste Day 1+2

@adrienaugust  Day 1! I decided to continue from last year's story 'A wish for a different life' but with a new twist, Adrien doesn't have the cat Miraculous just yet. You can go back and check out the 3 new chapters I posted on the previous story so it connects to this one. Since Lukadrien June didn't happen this year, I just wanted the excuse to have those two be adorable. Now, this isn't gonna be compliant past S3, so no Lila with a way to confusing life, or Jagged Dad or Sentimonster of main charaecters.

Feather

“Adrien? Sole, why is there a massive package from the craft store at our door?” Viola Rossi, Italian diplomat assigned to France to help with the Hawkmoth situation, struggled to close the door to the apartment she lived in with her son. “Caro, are you here?” it wouldn’t surprise her if he wasn’t. unlike usual times where Adrien was in a new location, he had a massive amount of people he hung out with, so normally he was home later. She herself was usually in the office, but she’d been allowed home early today. “Adrien?”

She walked into his room and found him asleep on the floor with 3 of his classmates. Marinette, Alya and Nino if she remembered correctly. Homework was strewn around the floor, looking mostly done. They’d formed an odd square, each using another person as a pillow; Adrien on Nino’s stomach, Alya resting on Nino’s outstretched arm, Marinette on Alya’s legs and Adrien’s own legs thrown over Marinette’s lap. She meant to leave them when Nino started to move, pulling his arm from under Alya. Like a domino effect, the four woke up, stretching and whining like a pile of kittens.

“Mama?” Adrien asked, noticing her by the door. “When did you get here? What time is it?”

“Only 5. I was able to leave early. If you kids aren’t needed at home right away, how about I make dinner for everyone?”

It took a second for everyone to actually focus but they all agreed. Adrien left his friends to continue waking up and cleaning up their mess and joined his mother in the kitchen.

“I think we have enough pasta for Carbonara. I’ve still got all the garlic one of my coworkers gave me, it’s a shame I don’t have the time to make focaccia. I guess I’ll just do garlic bread. Oh, Adrien, what was this package the front desk had me pick up?”

“Hmm?” Adrien asked, pulling down the bagged pasta, trying to remember where the pot disappeared to. “Oh, I had an order. Since Gabriel Agreste sent money to buy a whole new jacket his daughter ruined before it even got sent to the cleaners, I decided to use the money for my biggest cosplay yet.”

“And what is that?”

“It’s one I got Max to help me out with.”

Viola turned and looked at her son who seemed oh so focused on anything but her. He was hiding something. Not any normal teenager stuff, oh no. this had to do with his health. Adrien had a habit of hiding how he felt when he thought his parents were too busy. They’d gotten good at catching him early, but this wasn’t him hiding being sick.

“What’s in the box Adrien?”

The Italian boy flinched at the tone and turned to his mother. “About, 1000 feathers?”

“Adrien!”

                                              __________________

It was definitely one of the odder allergies his parents had heard of. Pigeons were in abundance in Italian streets, not to mention other birds. The smallest feather or one too close to him and Adrien would descend into a sneezing storm. Usually, an allergy pill would take care of the worst of it but all his doctors recommended he avoided feathers. As he got into cosplay, he learned that also meant most fake feathers. He tried to avoid using them in cosplays, sometimes not having a choice like for his Cardcaptor Sakura shoots, but with meds, a lot of eyedrops to hide the red eyes and copious amounts of tissues, he could get through them. dealing with nearly 1000 of them to create opening and closing wings for a Queen Serenity cosplay? Adrien was going to count his luck if he didn’t die.

                                                __________________

“Achoo!” Adrien blew his nose, turning the fan in his room to face him, as Max set up the backpack for him. Only the first row of both wings had been finished and today was to check if they could open without them getting tangled.

“Alright. Here’s the backpack.” Max said, handing him the metal box with straps. It was missing the wing pieces, which Adrien was fine with. Anything to keep from dying quicker. Once he had it on his shoulders and secured around his waist, he held his breath as Max fit the poles into the back, listening to them click in place. Once he found his centre again with the new weight, Max clicked something on his laptop and after a moment and some mechanical wiring, the wings started to move, unfurling. The movement of it wasn’t as opulent yet with only a row of feathers each, but still. Adrien could just imagine how it would look with his white gown and wig.

“Achoo! Oh, fuck!” his sneeze tilted him forward and with the wings, there was no stopping it. he landed on a squishy surface instead of his bedroom floor. It took a bit of finagling to get the wings out of his way, but he saw he landed on one of his beanbags.

“Sorry. There was no way I was going to be able to catch you so I did something else.” Max said, patting the end of the beanbag.

“No, you’re – achoo! Achoo! Achoo! Oh god, get these off of me!”

Adrien wasn’t waving the white flag just yet, he just needed to breath air for a second. He could do this. he would do this.

He could tell his friends were going to judge him so hard at the end of this.

                                         __________________

Luka smiled as the door to Adrien’s apartment opened and there he stood. His boyfriend flashed him a smile and moved back to let him in. He stepped inside, ready to press a kiss on Adrien’s cheek, if only to see him turn red like he did the first time when Adrien sneezed, turning his head so he didn’t sneeze on him. 

“You ok?” Luka asked, slightly concerned.

“Yep.” he said, nodding before sneezing again at least 3 times in a row. Luka raised an eyebrow with a look on his face that said he didn’t believe him. “Maybe. I might have a minor allergy to feathers.”

Luka looked down at the bag he was asked to pick up on his way over of white feathers.

“Adrien,” he started.

“You sound like my mama.” he said before he sneezed again. “The wings are almost done and Marinette agreed to keep them at her place. Achoo!” Adrien sniffed, taking in the raised brow of Luka. “I swear it’s not nearly as bad as you think.” he sneezed once more, sniffing and groaning.

“You make a compelling case.” Luka said sarcastically. 

Adrien stuck his tongue out, before sneezing again, covering his mouth and yelping when he bit his tongue. “Not a word.” he spoke from behind his hands, watching Luka’s brow raise again.

“You’re cute.” Luka couldn’t help but laugh. “Come on, I'll put this in your room and we can take a walk so you can breathe.”

“Fine.” but Adrien wasn’t going to complain. He was getting to the point of needing to scratch his eyes out. But it was fine. He could do this.

                                            ________________

He could not do this. He was half hanging out of his window, as far as he could get from the wings. Why did he think he could do this? He should have just commissioned Max and Marinette to make them and deal with fittings and then the final photoshoot.

“Hello?” Marinette answered from the other end of the phone.

“Mari.” he whined.

“Oh boy. Waving the flag huh?”

“Can you please help me finish them? I will pay you; I just can’t do this anymore.”

Marinette sighed, “If anything, you actually won me money. I bet Alya you last until this week. She thought you would have given up before.”

He’d be insulted but after sneezing again and struggling to not drop his phone, he didn’t care.

“You poor thing. I’ll be over soon and I'll have some of my dad’s cookies.”

“Thank you.” he whimpered, near tears.

“But what the heck are you going to do come shoot day?”

“I…don’t know. Suffer?”

“Adrien.” she groaned. 

That was starting to get insulting. Everyone kept saying his name like he was supposed to know better. Ok, yeah, he did but they also knew how he got when making cosplays. Marinette acted the same with her designs.

“Don’t lecture me, just, please come quick.”

“Alright, alright. I’m on my way.” 

she hung up and Adrien dropped his phone on the floor of his room before hiding his face in his arms. He hadn’t mentioned to others he had planned a cosplay of the Wind Card, who was covered in feathers. He was really going to need to come up with an alternative. Which involved research that he’d totally do after his head stopped spinning.

The final product had better be perfect.

                                        ___________________

“Remind me to thank Chloe.” Adrien said, tugging at his wig, trying to fix it.

Chloe, in an attempt to be nicer, had heard Adrien trying to finalize a location for his shoot and offered to get him half an hour in front of Notre Dame before construction continued for the day. He was confused as to why she was going out of her way to be nicer on her own, as she hadn’t really been even after the Naruto shoot, but he decided to not question it.

His friends had given up part of their morning, early morning to be more accurate, to help him in exchange for food. Max just wanted him to be a beta player for his new video game. 

“Ok, we’re at 20 minutes and those construction workers keep giving us looks so let’s work quick.”

“Hold your breath,” Max ordered, pushing the blonde locks away from the backpack Adrien had worn under his gown. With Marinette’s help, he managed to disguise it with extra fabric from the bow. Max slid them into place and adjusted them, not noticing them brushing Adrien’s face. “Ok, we’re good!”

“And dress is good!” Marinette called from the back

“Achoo!”

“Nino, keep pressing the shutter button!” Alya ordered.

“Achoo!”

“Repeat purple elephant! It’ll stop you from sneezing.” Max called.

Adrien was willing to try anything. With Nino moving around him like he was attached to a camera jib, he muttered the words under his breath, knowing his eyes had to be getting red. His eyes started to sting as the natural wind moved the feathers closer to him, even worse as Max opened them.

“Purple - achoo! Achoo!”

“Last ones!”

“Hey kids, hurry up. We’ve got work to do!”

                                     ________________________

“You know,” Nino said, leaning against Adrien, who once again had his head in his arms, “some of these are pretty good for only 20 minutes and construction workers yelling at us.”

Pulling his head out enough to look at Nino’s camera, he had to admit he was right. Nino had gotten a side profile just as Adrien had sneezed. With his eyes closed, mouth covered and tears starting to pool, he looked like he was in anguish. All they had to do was erase the redness from his eyes and no one would know it was allergy induced anguish he was in.

“Alright, four flat whites, one tea infusion, two French toasts and two pancakes all with fruit. Sweetie, are you sure I can’t get you anything to eat?” their waitress asked Adrien as she dropped off the orders for the others.

“Not unless you have a sharp object, I can use to rip my eyes out with.”

“He’s got allergies.” Nino said in reply to the scared waitress.

“So, I'm guessing no Cardcaptor characters?” Alya teased, cutting into her French toast. When Adrien didn’t answer, she poked him, watching his shoulders pull in. “Oh my god! Adrien!”

“I already spent the money on the outfit, leave me alone!” Let it not be said that Adrien wasn’t a glutton for punishment.

[fioras-resolve]

i'm an hour away from San Francisco, and less than a day away from gdc. the stuff is terrifying to me, and i'm almost scared to go. like, i'll be on my own in a massive conference center, potentially interacting with people a lot better than me at this whole gamedev shtick. it's strange, you know? to a lot of people i've met i *am* the intimidating gamedev, but when i'm in the presence of other devs i'm reminded that i'm a socially awkward loser who probably wouldn't fit in with this whole thing anyway. i mean fuck, i'm going to wear the cat ears, in large part because i'm hoping that gives people an easy in for talking with me. but it can just as easily make me look like a weirdo who's not taking this seriously. and i do take it seriously! i take it very seriously. i take it more seriously than anyone else i know, because goddammit games are my life. my truest love. the constant in my life that makes it all worth it.

and i'm scared, you know? i'm scared that despite how mature i feel of late, i'm still a fuckin kid. and like, i know, okay? i know that "realizing you're still a kid is the mature thing," but it's different, okay? this isn't "humbling." for years, since i was in high school, i've been insecure about fitting in with people older than me. with rare exception, i'm the youngest one in any group, because i've always been doing shit that few others can. and like, look, i know it's not the Correct thing to say, i know that saying that i, angie nyx, have special talents that others don't is entering some real shit territory. i am well aware that despite my obstacles i am still in an immense position of privilege for even being able to make games in the first place. but i haven't come this far, in creating, analyzing, and learning about games to be told that i'm just like anyone else. 

*sigh* i want to have self-respect and self-confidence without being vain, but really sometimes i just wanna tell someone "i know more than you, why are you questioning me?" i'm in a position where i get to talk about games with people in a way where they listen, and i have an obligation to listen to them. and i hate the feeling i get when someone tells me they see me as a standard they need to live up to, because it shows the contradiction of my whole approach to my work. i take this stuff really seriously, i pursue it as a passion like no other, and i hold myself to a high standard, but i also recognize that holding literally anyone else to that standard would be harmful. i've lost friends over this, and only one has come back.

man, i just... i'm pushed all sorts of ways by this. i'm worried that my going to gdc makes me a sellout or an uberdweeb or an ivory tower elitist. but at the same time i'm worried that i'm NOT good enough to even be in this space. i'm choosing to go to this conference because i believe in my craft, because i want to get better, and because gdc talks have been my comfort media for years. there's some part of me, at the core of my being, that thinks this will be a nice and enriching conference where i'll learn a lot and maybe get to network. this is the place i'll go to meet My People. but i'm terrified, you know? i'm scared that all that i've built up is just pretend. i'm even MORE scared that i'll fuck it up somehow by being so autistic. scared that the mask will slip and i'll reveal myself to be a scared cat in a human body. scared that i'll embarrass myself, or make someone uncomfortable. i'm scared that maybe i'm not a real game developer, but someone just cosplaying as one.

man, i just... i wish i could cuddle with someone right now. it's been months since i've seen a partner or even a friend in person. it's been so long since i've had any kind of contact, any kind of warmth or closeness. i wish i was doing that instead of going by myself to a convention full of people i don't know. i'm lonely. i'm scared. the real reason why i wanted a friend to go with me is because that way i wouldn't feel so alone. i'd have someone i could talk to who was right here with me. if things went badly, i'd get support. instead i'm going with my mom, who very openly treats this as a vacation opportunity like any other. she wants to see the sights of san francisco. what i need is someone who i can share a room with and know it's all gonna be okay. god dammit.

[the-firebird69]

Our son stopped in to its tattoo it maker who's making small statuettes and I'm superheroes and villains from comics damn you got a lot of attention after, it's really because of the material it's a form of plastic the last for a long time and he can mold it pretty easy and he has a bunch of originals and he has license they're wondering who he is and he's a retailer and he sells these things and he's at the arts and crafts festival punta Gorda and the quality is as good as sideshow and a lot of people are stepping in and admitting they're pretty good and buying them you have sunset I like to juggernaut I'm into cosplay and just thinking you'd like to get the juggernaut then maybe the Hulk get back to the juggernaut it's kind of for real, and they're saying it. The idiot is bothering her son he's bothering our son and he says tell him I scam so it's okay so he wants to sell it to people and collect it and use it to kidnap them just need the competition he says. This revelation about Charlton Heston just kicking into high gear for Trump and for cheeseman and they are suiting up and getting ready to go there and try and find him and they want a piece of him and they want to kidnapping and use them for his cause. It's horrible he's a horrible person people hate him and his wife is disowning him she can't go anywhere without him grabbing her and saying what's going on today and she's sick of him who ruined the resort the only people going there are local building inspectors no federal agency when investigating and they're resting a lot of people putting them in custody and hauling them off everyday you see a stream of cars go in a bunch of cars on the outside then they leave and she's horrified the similar things happening at the athletic center and sheriff's office they're picked up daily we have air cover. When you go to Maine then go ahead and they get caught by Trump and Trump gets caught by the pseudo Empire most of them get caught and they get a bunch of information.. they grab them all and question them all and they're seeking certain things you can they grab a computers and information leads all over the place they have their people do it different groups for different areas and it's kind of quiet and it's a silent approach and they get more and more skilled as they grab more of them so they're up to this and they're getting stuff done they have grabbed tons of them and they're starting making noises and running around circles blabbing at people yelling it doesn't do anything but that's the name of the game right now and that's what they're up to. So we have kind of a schedule if Uncle Phil gets grabbed or tires actually sore around the 11th or 12th usually funerals are two days after the week the wake is probably like immediately it's like a day after sometimes day long these days and so do the 12th to the and then 13th he would be on usually for a week or four or five days now fought faster it's a lot faster I'm so we're talking about you know a little less than a week and a half weekends count regarding death. So he's going to look at the calendar we think it's the 15th and he says that works out to pass the 15th yeah

Thor Freya

Olympus

Don't talk out your butt yeah I'm helping it says I got to sleep for a minute here so no not yet to get back

Hera

Ok

Zues

[absolutepokemontrash]

MC With A Lot Of Hobbies

As requested by an Anon! (Sorry, I accidentally posted a draft of the actual request)

Lucifer

Huh, the human’s painting, that’s nice. Anyway, back to work.

It appears now the human is… embroidering. They evidently brought down an artistic type. Oh, now they’re programming, and… baking, and knitting Mammon some socks…

MC stop, they should know by now that Mammon’s going to try and make money off of their multitude of hobbies.

Lucifer does find it quite nice that they brought such a talented human into the exchange program.

It’s just… their room is a mess of stuff. Their bookshelves are filled with scrapbooks instead of their textbooks, their drawers are filled with yarn, their back table is coated in painting supplies… MC needs to organize or Lucifer’s going to have an aneurism.

Mammon

Sorry everyone, this guy’s one of those “monetize your hobbies!” types. He cannot fathom having a talent and not making money off it. Well, at least till MC tries to teach him how to knit.

He gives up a total of 7 times on the first day, but always ends up picking the needles back up and trying again. It wasn’t like he liked sharing a hobby with MC or anything even though he wasn’t making any money off of it…

It wasn’t like he likes watching them get so passionate about all the things they enjoyed!

It’s not like he LIKES them or anything- oh shit MC! Look! He made a scarf!!!! A real scarf he can wear!

He’s so happy! MC! Teach him something else because he’s clearly mastered knitting!

Leviathan

Levi’s got three hobbies, gaming, watching anime, and self loathing. Okay that’s not true, he has more.

But the first time Levi saw MC engaging in all their interests, he wasn’t impressed. Pfft, stupid normie and their stupid hobbies.

Once he found out MC also makes cosplays as a hobby he’s over the damn moon. He finally has a buddy! And they game too?? Oh marry him now! Wait- no- he didn’t mean that- shit-

MC and Levi do that whole “parallel play” thing when they hang out, where Levi’s making his cosplay and MC’s making their’s and the vibe is just, *chill*.

It’s also very comforting to Levi to know that other people like the things he likes!

Satan

So it appears the human is a bookworm. How nice, anyway-

Satan’s not impressed at first, sure the human likes to read and the two could hold a casual conversation, but Satan still wasn’t all too interested in this human.

Well, until Satan sees them arts and crafting a felt cat figurine.

He casually slides into whatever room MC is and asks how they make such adorable things. MC explains like the sweetheart they are, and since Satan can’t control his love of cats, he gets to work making some kitty figurines!

Later down the line, Satan gifts MC a little felt cat figurine that he made. Sure it isn’t the nicest, but he tried his best. The kitty sits proudly on whatever surface in MC’s room that isn’t occupied by other hobby supplies.

Asmodeus

Ooooo~ he’s got a talented little human on his hands. Did he ever tell MC that being multi talented is a massive turn on?

Well, it’s Asmo, almost everything is at least a little bit of a turn on.

Asmo took note of MC’s love of painting and asked begged to be the subject of their next painting. MC accepted and Asmo got into a “paint me like one of your French girls” pose.

Asmo just adores everything his sweet MC makes for him, and he’s practically over the moon whenever MC invites him to come and try out whatever they’re doing with them!

It’s just… MC please organize your stuff a little better… would they like some clear bins? He has a Pinterest board for these kinds of things you know.

Beelzebub

MC has a lot of hobbies? That’s nice.

…

Is cooking one of them?

As cliche as this is, the first thing on Beel’s brain is food. Can MC cook? What can they cook? Can he have some? But once he finds out MC likes to play sports too, he’s even more excited!

…until he realizes that Fangol probably isn’t safe for them :/

Either way, the two exercise in the gym together, and MC makes plenty of fun food for Beel.

Every time it’s MC’s turn to cook Beel shows up with suggestions.

But the cutest thing? MC knitted Beel a pair of mittens because it was getting a tad colder in the Devildom. The human is just so cute Beel can’t even…

Belphegor

The human does… things? Gross. One of their hobbies better be sleeping or Belphie’s going to whine about lack of cuddles.

…brat.

The whining all came to an end when Belphie had the misfortune of falling asleep without his pillow… he had nothing to snuggle or rest his head on… this world… so lonely and cold…

Oh! What was this! Something to snuggle has been given to him! He can now sleep easy…

Belphie wakes up to find a little handmade plushie in his arms… who could this have been made by?! He must go on a quest to find his plushie Cinderella!

Oh, it was MC… they were sitting right next to him. Good, a quest would have taken a lot of energy.

Next time MC invites him to try on of their hobbies, he’s going. Maybe MC can teach him how to make more stuffed animals.

——————

This entire family is going to be sitting on their knees around the coffee table doing various different types of crafts while Diavolo stands in the doorway like a proud father.

[20dollarlolita]

Found your blog, cool stuff and guides, but getting anxious. I've always wanted to get into Lolita, don't know a whole lot of specifics but admire from afar. But your talks of what the community will or won't accept reminds me that I am naturally unfeminine. My facial hair alone needs shaving every morning because I'm stubby by the afternoon, I don't know how to do makeup and it's sensory hell for me. I've never performed femininity, even for like school dances, because my body precludes me from it, and I guess Lolita became this dream of wearing the stuff I've wanted to all along.

So, I guess what I'm saying is... Should I just drop the idea, at least insofar as taking part in the community? If people are going to judge for things like chokers or types of lace, I don't see how I'd be remotely accepted as someone that can dress fem and still be mistaken for being a guy.

You've got two issues you've brought up here. The first is the way that the lolita community generally treats the "rules" of lolita, or what we do and don't accept in the fashion. The second is about finding acceptance in the lolita community, even if you don't present in a way that's traditionally feminine. Let's look at both of those, starting with the first one.

The vast majority of the lolita community is very aware of the difference between giving concrit like, "you should get a different necklace," and the shitty comments like, "have you tried getting a new face?" We build coordinates the way we build IKEA cabinets or draw a picture of a house. We put them together and then ask, "Does this look right?" or "how can I make this look more real?" On this blog, I make posts to answer questions people might have, or to bring up points that other people might not have seen. All of these things that we get picky about on this blog are elements of things you build or craft or create. You're making an outfit. You're making a thing.

People who are not assholes understand that most people are not building or crafting or tailoring their bodies the way we build/craft/tailor our inanimate objects. We don't pick out what body we start with. Altering our bodies takes a long time, and no one should be obligated to do that just to wear clothing. It's pretty unanimous in the mainstream western lolita community that giving "concrit" (in quotes because it's not really what concrit is) about something someone can't change exists somewhere in the spectrum between rude and bullying.

As a tip to people who follow this blog, if you see someone critiquing someone's body instead of someone's outfit, dropping the comment of, "Wow, that's pretty rude," actually does a whole lot of good for everyone involved. Do that.

I'm not going to say that if you want to participate in the lolita community, you will find universal acceptance. A lot of people who don't look like the models that the big brands use to advertise their new releases will find that there's some parts of the fashion that are more difficult for them. A lot of brands don't specifically cater to people who aren't the standard size they've decided they use. This has gotten better over the years, but size discrimination is still a thing.

You don't actually need to join a lolita community, if you don't want to. For a long time, I made handmade lolita garments and just wore them for a couple of pictures in my selfie hallway. I'd put them on tumblr and get very little notice, but I liked how I looked in those clothes and so I'd make more of them. I had a couple of lolita friends and we'd talk about the fashion online. I posted and got some feedback in a cosplay.com thread, which wasn't a lolita-themed space. I wore it to conventions like a cosplay instead of like a fashion. And the thing about this that made a difference to me was that, when I decided I did want to join a mainstream community, I'd already had some experience what what I could and couldn't make and what I did and didn't like.

By the way, it's actually very common in outfit shots to block your face either with your phone or with a sticker, so if you have facial hair and don't like makeup, you can still participate in the online community without having to change that.

So my advice to you is to look for high-quality lolita pieces made by legitimate lolita brands. You don't need to spend a lot of money, but don't buy from Amazon, don't buy anything labeled with or reminiscent of the term "sissy". Go onto places where people freely post lolita coordinates, like instagram and lookbook, and search tags of brand names. You get much better results when you search #babythestarsshingbright than you do with just a #lolita search. Find a dress that you like, and see how other people coordinated it. Check all the components of their outfits and see if you can put similar components into your coordinate. I've found that people from the lolita community react more positively to a coordinate if the person posting knows the right terms (coordinate/jsk/op/some brand names/etc), and follows the convention of posting their pronouns and then posting what brand the parts of the coordinates are from. If someone who is appropriating lolita fashion terms and styling for fetish reasons tries to join a legitimate lolita community just to get their rocks off, they usually don't do that standard way of interacting with the group, so doing the pronouns+coord rundown shows that you've done some research about how coordinates are usually posted to social media.

You're totally welcome to just wear lolita for your own sake. There's plenty of places to post a look online that aren't lolita-specific, but where lolita fashion is accepted positively by the average viewer. You could even make a separate account on instagram or facebook or twitter or wherever you'd like to, and just post pictures of your coordinates with your face censored. There's a lot of ways to participate in parts of the lolita fashion without diving straight in to very critical groups like BSoLF or Rufflechat or CoF.

Thank you for sending this ask in. I know that other people have similar questions and that it's a difficult thing to ask.

On things like this, please come back in a couple of days and check out the notes. The 20dollarlolita reader community is pretty great about adding information that I didn't think to add.

[flingza-roller]

Hi hi wow your cosplay looks so cool, do you have any tips or advice on making a splatoon cosplay? And happy birthday for last week, that pinata video lives in my head rent free

OUGH THANK U!! it makes me rly happy that so many people like my cosplay.... i appreciate all the stuff yall have said so much!

gonna put this under the cut cuz i typed a lot lmao

if u can find patterns online to use they will be ur best friend, winging it CAN work but. not always DSGKJ

so there would be a lot to cover but im just gonna gonna start with the tentacles- mine are made from minky but i know ppl who've used like, a more vinyl-ish material? do NOT fucking use satin, i made that mistake with my original agent 3 cosplay and i nearly smashed my sewing machine out of pure rage. satin + minky is SO slippery and no matter what u do the pattern will just, Fuck Up. its why the tentacles were shaped so weirdly :/ so this time i stuck to ONLY minky and the result was way better. i had a friend help with hand sewing em and it meant more control over how the shape turns out so it was way better than my first attempt. (i then used plushie stuffing to give em shape and it makes em sooo fucking squishy n soft)

I FORGOT TO MENTION. the tentacles are safety pinned to the inside of the hat for stability, im not wearing a wig or anything.

eye mask? use eyeliner or body paint! ive done both and they both work well, id recommend using a setting spray tho. and if ur gonna wear contacts like i did, ALWAYS put contacts in before any makeup. this avoids the risk of getting shit in ur eye while putting em in (also my eyes always water a fucktonne lmao) oh and if u use a blind contact, be prepared to have fucky vision whenever ur in cosplay. agent 3 cosplayers stay suffering 💔

if ur gonna hand sew anything, definitely try to use proper techniques. luckily my gf is very good at that kinda stuff and they helped me through sewing the poncho/cape/idk fuckin old rags, i used a whip stitch so the threading isnt visible (im thinking of modifying it to add big thick cosmetic stitches so it looks more game-accurate, same with the patch on the hat)

craft stores are ur best friend for supplies! if ur australian, i highly recommend spotlight and lincraft for pretty much everything. spotlight usually has the most variety in fabric, but i always need to order my minky online. if ur not an aussie, prolly just google which places to go to DSGJ idk what yall have.

but heres my number 1 tip for cosplay- HAVE FUN! i know this sounds cliche but seriously. i sometimes to caught up in my head over little things, like "this isnt game accurate enough" "the colours are off" "people are gonna notice (X)" but cosplay is supposed to be fun, silly, crafting experience, a hobby, but most of all ur just dressing up as a fictional character and what could possibly be dorkier than that? feel free to do things differently, u never need to adhere to canon (i literally did the hijack scar AND i have a face full of metal), being accurate is NOT the most important thing, and of course- body type, gender, skin colour, NONE of these things should stop u from doing whatever the hell u want. the naysayers can go fuck themselves <3

and if u dont have the budget to buy good supplies, theres nothing wrong with a closet cosplay! work with whatever ya got!

imma finish here but if theres a specific cosplay thing u wanna know more about please ask and ill help as much as i can :]

[poupeesdecirque]

Hobby Update.

For quite some time I have been sitting on a drafted hobby update entry, I wrote it back in October.

I took the last step this week and left one hobby space I loved for years.

I can tell 2023 was a quite difficult year for me in doll hobby terms, well, on the social side. A lot of things have changed.

For the last week, since I left the space, feel like a huge load fell off my chest, it's coincidence that a lot of things arrived this week and some orders finally came to an end, it's still on going in some cases but I can tell I feel ... free?

My close friends know I have been struggling with a lot of things in hobby terms as I am trying to care for myself more and some people were constantly poisoning my mind.

My conclusion right now is I love my creative hobbies, I don't want to end any of all but I also don't want to feel like I need to hide my decisions. I know I don't need to but being reduced to just "having a lot of" while I am using the dolls as blank canvas and learned how to sculpt my own head, learned to do face ups, to make wigs, full clothing sets, I draw, I write, I take photos, I can use my knowledge on cosplay and cosplay knowledge on the dolls. I am versatile. Also it's my way to cope with stress. I am stressed I draw, I sew, I write. Take that away from me and I will become a braindead mess.

2023 showed me that I hate certain parts of the doll community, I hate the binge & purge mindset, I hate that you are reduced to be a "content creator", I am not. I don't put out mindless stuff I pour my heart into every creation, every photo, every display, every drawing.

People have expectations of me, and I can't and won't cater their interests anymore. I got shit for so many things and I want to step away from that. Disconnecting from the community is the best I can do right now. Will I return? I can't tell that now. I need my distance for now.

I want to create my own little cosy places and I am thankful for everyone who became a friend with me during the last years.

2024 will be full of dolls, full of fun projects, full of sewing, crafting, creating, full of cosplay, full of traveling. It will be full of meeting friends, learning new things, challeging myself.

I want to get this off my chest as well. If you are interested in a glimpse of my feelings during the last months... behind the cut is the old entry.

Here is my original drafted journal from the 24th October.

For those who are knowing me for longer (and with that I mean longer than this blog here exist) there is the fact I cut ties with several communities over the years. Not only doll ones but different too. It all had several reasons over the last two decades but I won't go that much into detail here.

I am about to do the same again and I know I don't owe anyone an explanation why, but I need to get it out of my head and that's what I made this blog for in the first place. This is subjective I will not discuss anything about it and you can't change how I perceive it, I know I have my flaws too, not innocent, no saint. I just want to get steam off. Thanks.

Don't read further if just the pure art content interests you :)

Two years ago I had a literal doll burn out, I overstressed myself with keeping up on releases "because omg they are so cool" and pressured myself to get customs done in inhumane speed, that sucked all energy from me and I only saw mistakes and hated my work.

It was the time I picked up watching Anime again and fell into DGM and that brought me my love for not only Anime/Mana back but also for the dolls. My focus shifted into doing fan based dolls again. I can say my relationship with OC dolls isn't on par with what it was before the burn out but I will come to that later on.

In the last two years the hobby changed, not only because I had a different approach to it but because of the people who joined the places I used to socialize within the hobby.

First the type, who is annyoing, but well you can ignore quite well. It's people who glorify buying every clothing fullset they can get their hands on and the only love they show for the hobby is actually telling everyone to do the same and just buy half of taobao, like they do. I know people like this were common in before but it got out of hand the last years. You don't buy from taobao? You don't even consider it? Well, you are not part of the club anymore. We always had brand snobs, nothing new. But the amount of energy regarding taobao got quite annyoing.

That's a thing you can ignore, as mentioned, what I can't ignore is stealing ideas or telling lies or just downtalking every release you come across.

And those three type of people is what just makes me leave the hobby spaces I am in.

First of all if something goes wrong just have the balls to apologize to everyone who is involved. Don't go telling lies, don't go and show you basically do what you said I can't do just in another shape. This behaviour took something from me I loved within the hobby: seeing how people grow with their dolls, because I had to block whole areas as I got constantly reminded of person X. I was reminded of situations, of being told my opinion doesn't matter, several times, I got reminded that handcraft work means nothing as long as you can sculpt on a pc and just vomit out products to hide the fact you messed up something else. Oh and of course the "how can't you have time for fast progress"? Coming from a burn out trying to slow down while the real life basically ate me ... ahaha. thanks. And all that despite the fact the people who are causing those problems for me are protected by everyone, oh beware if you dare to say a word. It started with one person and got a bigger mess over the time.

This overall leads to the fact that somehow almost all preorders from non-Asian artists were all super chewy or went horribily wrong for me in the last 3 years. Started with ZeligenArt whom at least popped up after calling out, the clusterfuck with IntotheDeepDolls to the failed Preorder with AceofDolls to Logan.Dolls taking forever with several reminders, or the one with LenaRuiiz I'm still in I literally don't have the nerves to go into details here anymore as it just tires me out. Oh and the post eating my Parcel from Mirror didn't help much either, but that was out of control for us both and Mirror replaced the lost heads for me and just send them out. I don't have the patience for this anymore, I just want them all to be done. That's the reason why I kept pushing back some dolls, normally I do them by arrival. In one(!) preorder case I was asked directly(!) if I want a refund instead of my heads, but I was waiting for 1 1/2 years now, I didn't want to end up with nothing/or even less than I have begun with.

Then we have the audacity of people using other people's creations as their own and only mentioning it briefly, after they got popular with the doll/character "they" have created. If you have references just tell people you have used them. There is nothing wrong with that.

I can't overlook the fact of people 1:1 taking someone's character and slapping on another name and calling them theirs though. There is something going very wrong here.

Then we have the people being nasty about releases that don't fit their aesthetics (yes I am aware this is a thing for years, don't come at me I was member of Den of Demons I know the drill), comparing them to real people and downtalking people they never met and never will understand their beauty standards.

Those 4 types are ruining what I learned to love after leaving the bitch fights of my local community. The support, the open ears, the - we grow together - even when we have different tastes. I miss that.

I know i have withdrawn from telling my OC's backstories as there were too many putting their expectations on how I have to do dolls onto me. I stopped sharing even more photos ... which resulted in people thinking I'm just that one person with a lot of dolls. Sigh. I know growing a thick skin, I'm healing from being a people pleaser and all but in the end ...

i love the dolls. I love the hobby. I love being creative, I love sharing my joy, I love seeing how other people get inspired, how they grow and not this "fast"-fashion type of mentality that somehow came into the hobby. I hate THAT.

I love the people I met and have conversations with, but I don't love how I feel like not part of the hobby anymore, like someone like me don't have space anymore because I just want to have fun, I don't want to buy brand x, and I don't want to be urged to buy size Y, I don't want to reduced to the number of dolls I have - because every finished doll is a huge project for me, all tell a story, some a whole epic book some more just a small article. Because I don't want to be a sassy asshole, because I can't read the irony among the lines when people making fun of me, I take this literally.

I just have no idea anymore if there is a space for me. As I write this I have unboxed a new head and the excitement of having it here, it's still there, I love the hobby, but fell out of love with what the community space - that once felt like home to me - has become.

I will continue my blog, as I like to see my own progress and smile at what I have created. And as long as just one person maybe smiles at my creations or is inspired, or I can help with what I have written down I know it's worth sharing.

... I just want to enjoy my hobby.

There is a ton more going on, my head is full of thoughts, but getting at least this out of my head here might help to sort my feelings.

[tenaciousdecapitator]

I posted 2,951 times in 2022

12 posts created (0%)

2,939 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@sometipsygnostalgic

@vethbrenatto

@sporesgalaxy

@sinorfen

@phoenixyfriend

I tagged 2,951 of my posts in 2022

#good art - 1,208 posts

#cartoons - 1,004 posts

#netflix - 523 posts

#she ra - 478 posts

#entrapta - 478 posts

#she ra and the princesses of power - 433 posts

#video games - 423 posts

#tabletop gaming - 303 posts

#disney channel - 283 posts

#dungeons & dragons - 260 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#tfw youve only known about the existence of  space beyond your moons for like a month tops and youre already qualified for a masters degree

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I can only assume that during the development of Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe, Galactic Cafe managed to get a few seconds into their "So we need some new games for the "Let's play someone else's games" ending-" request before Campo Santo and Psyonix were like "HOLY SHIT, YES, HERE'S THE ASSET FILES, GO NUTS"

61 notes - Posted May 1, 2022

#4

AroAce Hunter and/or Willow theorists when they see Hunter in the previews seemingly dressed as a Borg version of Data from TNG, who was (albeit roughly handled) aspec coded:

AroAce Hunter and/or Willow theorists when they realize Hunter’s cosplay character is named after Chief Engineer Miles O’ Brien from TNG/DS9, who canonically marries a botanist:

102 notes - Posted October 23, 2022

#3

So. I have a theory about this. Blue Pearl commissioned Bismuth to make wedding armor for Yellow Pearl potentially because, after attending a lecture on Medieval Knighthood by Pearl, she finds out about the concept of courtly love. She sees a parallel with it to her own centuries-long relationship with YP, and a wedding theme is cemented. The armor’s cape is green because BP heard about Garnet’s Tux-Dress and wanted a similar result, so she went to Bismuth, who canonically has a method of crafting armor that shifts and grows with its wearer. We never saw what BP’s dress looks like because the Crewniverse wanted to keep its design as open to interpretation as the various other plot prompts that SUF left unresolved, like the continuing adventures of Captain Centi and the Nephrite Crew. All I know is, Vidalia deserves to be maid of honor.

109 notes - Posted March 1, 2022

#2

Entrapta, like Catra, has all the foundations for a corruption arc. Pre-existing deviance, a solid motivation for revenge, climbing up the enemy ranks until she is the head boss's left hand, and then gaining powet over Hordak himself. Like many villain scientists she assists and joins with the good guys from time to time.

What makes Entrapta different is that, through all of this, she ISNT a mastermind, morally grey ends justifies the means scientist. She is in fact a complete cinnamon roll who's hurt by what happened but doesn't hold a grudge at all and has joined the villains because they gave her sense of belonging, and a place to foster her love of science. So you have the top dog villain at the start of season 3 when shes finally got power over Hordak, and she's using it to tell him to love himself, to show him that our flaws are what make us beautiful and they shouldn't be masked, especially if we need help. And in season 5 she's not the sneaky ex villain getting a questionable redemption, she's literally leading the front lines in terms of converting people to the Rebellion, pulling one clone of a million clones out from under Prime and immediately being able to connect with him, being the one to tell Prime to his face he will never understand love, wrecking his brainwashing network, her connection with Hordak leading to Prime's death.

It's... so OPPOSITE to Shadow Weaver, who joined the rebellion about the same time Entrapta overtook Catra in the horde and then disappeared. Weaver has the standard "redemption" arc but doesn't learn a damn thing in her life, has no humility, and is constantly fucking with people's heads underneath her silver tongued words, all stuff Entrapta literally cannot do.

So you have this very compassionate pure of heart character influencing the iron cold leader of the villains, and this incredibly manipulative abusive character influencing the leaders of the heroes.

I think it's interested how shera plays so hard with tropes.

Yes! Exactly! One of my favorite parts about Entrapta’s character is that, in seemingly direct contrast to Shadow Weaver who looks, talks, and acts like a fairy tale Disney villain evil witch 24/7, with even her attempted ‘redemption martyr moment’ just piling more mental scars onto her surrogate daughters,  everything that we’re presented with in the first few minutes System Failure gives us the idea that Entrapta is this typical (albeit sweet-toothed) Mad Scientist soon-to-be-if-not-already-villain. She lives in a classically evil scary castle on a mountain, it’s full of traps, secret passageways, and (conveniently timed) robot zombies, and there’s mutants in the sewers apparently?!? Especially since some fans know her old incarnation was a shallow villain, once she finally crawls out of a vent like a goddamn Xenomorph with welding mask eyes glowing with menace the audience thinks they have her character figured out, and then she subverts these expectations by greeting our heroes with a genuine, cheery, hospitable welcome that still acknowledges the immediate danger they’re facing and her direct involvement in it. And ever since then, all she’s wanted to do is help people and do science (and hopefully make friends with people by doing those two things). Even when she learns She Ra’s most direct and effective weakness, even when she’s given the chance to use that weakness *again* after she thinks the BFS and Princess Alliance left her for dead, she still doesn’t take the opportunity to go full "They laughed at my experiments, but now I’ll show them all! Brand New Day! Muahahahaha!” etc etc. Shadow Weaver WISHES she could’ve climbed the evil corporate ladder as fast as Entrapta did, and ironically she accomplished it by doing the exact opposite approach to SW: Being 100% genuine and honest about her opinions, knowledge, and feelings. And Hordak establishes time and time again that he hates dishonesty in his ranks (mostly because he’s not great at subterfuge and trickery himself) and gains valuable knowledge and self-worth from Entrapta’s genuine honesty. I may be forgetting something, but I’m pretty sure the one and only time Entrapta intentionally, consciously lies about something is that bit in System Failure where she find the lab and says “We’re here! Uh, I mean, of course we’re here, we were never lost.” Of course, just because she never even considers taking steps towards actual, conscious Villainy and Vengeance doesn’t mean we can’t think up AUs where she does go down that path a bit.  One concept that I’ve yet to make into a proper fic is an alternate ending to Season 5 in which she has a more active role in usurping Prime, fully disconnecting him from the other Clones before Hordak does the Darth Vader/Emperor reference, then taking over the Velvet Glove’s army of clones, droids, and drones in order to collect data on the flora, fauna, and magic of Etheria before expanding her DC Brainiac style "data collection” to the rest of the newly entered galaxy. 

anyway thanks for prompting and then coming to my Ted Talk

135 notes - Posted August 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

So, due to some unexpected yet welcome news presented during tonight’s Owl House charity stream, I made some edits of one particular shared Season 2b screencap. Enjoy, and use with credit! 

187 notes - Posted March 13, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[loquaciousquark]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E116-119 (Dec. 15, 2020)

Hi! I missed the first three minutes or so and opened the stream to Brian giving an absolutely incoherent ...ad? for some jewel game? Six thousand jewels just for logging in? Some app in the app store and he’s literally been talking about this now for six minutes and I don’t know what he’s talking about. He finally wraps up, Laura brings the show to a close, and we’re all a little worse than we were before.

Ashley tries to get us back on track and Henry bays over her. Brian tries to ask the first question and breaks off into feigned sobs halfway through. This is chaos incarnate.

Tonight’s guests: Laura Bailey & Ashley Johnson.

How’s Yasha feeling right now about Molly? She and Jester both are desperately curious about whether there’s a spark of Molly left in Lucien that can be brought back. It’s not the same as when Yasha was controlled by Obann; this seems more like just the way this is now. They’d settle for even finding the good in him, like they did with Essek. Brian jokes that they can monitor his mental state if Matt’s Irish accent starts to slip a little bit.

Jester is a little wary about scrying on Lucien now since he’s able to see her back.  She’s interested to try again now that Fjord’s given her the necklace.

Ashley has to run and grab a replacement set of headphones from Brian after hers get “crunchy.” It’s pretty cute seeing them run around and smooch on another screen. Brian teases that he doesn’t have any more questions for Jester since Caduceus has been doing all the healing lately. Laura tells us indignantly that she had Heal prepared for Caduceus in that last big fight, but Fjord got to Cad first. Brian explains how this is the same as all the good jokes he always lines up for Talks but never tells. Ashley’s crunchiness continues and we go briefly to a technical difficulties screen while Brian hops up to fix it.

Dani pips in to get this show back on track. Save us, Dani!

Ashley hadn’t thought about the aspect of Lucien controlling his friends’ minds, but finds it really creepy. It’s a cool game dynamic, and it’s a little different because they’re there willingly, but it’s really weird.

Jester thinks that “the tarot cards know all. She wants to buy into it real hard.” If it doesn’t make sense now, it will later. Laura has an Idiot’s Guide to Tarot Reading.

They’re super interested in why Aeor is like it is. Were they more advanced than us? Did they evolve along a different line? Ashley loves sci-fi and is all about this, especially since she wasn’t there for Happy Fun Ball time & hasn’t been able to get caught up on some of the things she missed in between, so she’s using this as an erstwhile replacement. She can already tell there are some things from this campaign that will bother her the way the unopened box did from C1. She and Laura both seethe at the camera about having to leave the spider behind.

Cosplay of the Week! Harland3r on instagram with a gorgeous winged Pike with a shield & mace. It’s an incredible photo and the wings look great.

Travis distracts Laura by dancing like a Trex offscreen. That seems right for this episode.

Jester’s encouragement of Yasha pursuing Beau was important in a lot of ways, not least because Ashley considered herself as uninterested in D&D romance as Travis & was a little unsure of activating a romance among her friends. However, it felt really natural within the game and it was really helpful to have Jester’s in-game encouragement. Yasha’s grown a lot and is in a much more positive place and is ready to find out what’s possible. Laura: “Jester from the get-go has seen Yasha as this wonderful soul from the beginning, and has seen how sad Yasha’s been through everything, and to see the difference that she exhibits when talking about Beau is drastic and wonderful. Jester’s joy in life is helping others find joy.”

Ashley points out it’s also so fun to “yes-and” with Laura because you’re like a little kid being dragged along by the hand - you don’t know where it’s going, but you know it’s going to be fun along the way.

Ashley does have a sense of “thank goodness Marisha isn’t jumping right into this” so she can coax herself into it, but when she tried to figure out the poem she had a lot of drafts that didn’t survive. She intentionally crafted the letter to give Beau an out if she didn’t feel the same way. There’s a lot going on with Lucien right now and there’s constantly a running thought in the back of her head about “maybe Beau is not into this.” Even the last couple episodes with Jester & Fjord have had Ashley finally understand shipping.

Brian brings us to the moment “almost as romantic as the pre-season finale of the Bachelorette.” Jester was “goo” afterwards. Early on in the campaign, Jester was very forward with her flirtations with Fjord & he shut her down. And then he kissed her underwater and immediately went and slept with Avantika, and Jester automatically shut herself down, because she thought she was misunderstanding & would only be hurt by those emotions. She deliberately focused on just being there with her friends, making everyone healthy and happy. These last few episodes where Fjord was flirting back felt like “my teenage heart again, my first kiss, the boy I like actually likes me back!” and she was able to open back up.

Yasha definitely has some instrument plans for those bones. She doesn’t know if she’s going to add to her harp or create a new one.

Ashley and Laura cheer about Travis stepping out his comfort zone. Laura thinks it was really good that he was doing it with her, his real-life wife, to see if he likes that sort of stuff in his D&D campaign. “It was just so sweet. It was just so sweet.” Brian says he’s actually a really romantic dude & Dani is so glad he asked before the kiss. Brian: “It’s going to be so sad when he breaks your heart and goes back to the corpse of Avantika.” Laura: “It’s fine, Jester will be long dead by then anyway.”

Jester does believe the four-year time trade was worth it, but that the city leaves “a mark on your brain,” especially as in-depth as she saw it. “Jester’s always been reticent to talk about her age because she’s aware she’s perceived in a juvenile way by a lot of people, and she’s insecure about that. She grew up by herself without a lot of social interactions and is experienced in a lot of ways now and naive in others; she’s very aware of human emotion around her, but chooses to see it in a certain way.” Losing the time makes her wonder if she needs to grow up & become an adult about certain things now. Laura: “I think actually she’s closer to Fjord’s age now. Actually, I’m not sure about his age. I don’t know how old he is - I’ve never even asked Travis!” Brian: “I think he’s definitely fifteen.” Laura: “Travis, how old is Fjord?” Travis, off-screen: “Sixty-five,” but he’s had the Mask of Many Faces up this whole time. Later, he adds that he’s in his early 30s.

Ashley has really enjoyed digging into Yasha’s more humorous side lately. It’s how she gets comfortable as a player, making it fun and light in a way that this year needs. “It’s also really funny to think that Yasha doesn’t know how Message works.”

Brian congratulates Laura & Ashley both on their game awards nominations. Brian vamps trying to get himself in as the presenter, but incidentally refers to Laura as his sister in the conversation and it’s super cute. “I would like to be the one to give the award to either my fiancee, or my sister!”

Fanart of the Week: @ethanmaldridge with an illustrated page from the Katzenprinz book. It’s just beautiful.

Jester’s polymorph gambit was terrifying, but the stakes got even higher when everyone else got stunned. She does lament choosing a bunny at the start. “Frickin’ Fjord’s armor!”

Yasha loves being polymorphed lately. She thinks it’s kinda funny, especially given her rigid upbringing with such defined roles.

Laura feels like Jester and Vex are weirdly two halves of herself. Brian: “You see the very bargainy, I’m gonna use my wit & smarts to negotiate situations. But at the same time, you’re very open to what people are thinking & feeling and navigating that. What you end up putting out (though it comes across as innocent and naive) is something pure because she truly believes it.” Laura thinks Yasha and Pike are the same way for Ashley, though Ashley feels a little closer to Yasha right now. Sometimes you just feel really exposed. Laura compares how much idealism she put into Jester to her character from Fruits Basket.

Since Yasha didn’t belong to either side in the war, she’s not hugely concerned by the fallout; she more wants to make sure her found family are okay and safe. Jester is the same way, Laura tells us. Jester doesn’t have any greater vision of the Empire & Dynasty interacting; she cares about the people, and it hasn’t been until the vision with the city that she kind of woke up and realized they have to really stop this now. It feels bigger than the Dynasty/Empire. Ashley: “It seems more of a thing for Beau and Caleb to care about.”

Really, up to now Jester was mostly concerned about getting Molly back, but now the stakes seem much higher. “We have to do this. We have to complete this, to beat them, to keep them from doing this.” Yasha is just going with the flow for now. There’s a lot coming at them and they are ready to find out what’s next.

And that’s that for tonight! Brian thanks the crew especially for working incredibly hard on switching everything to home-based streaming. He then gets stuck halfway spinning around in his chair and the last thing we hear is him idly wondering “What’s Fjord taste like?” which seems pretty on brand for tonight’s show. Is it Thursday yet?

[elvenbeard]

I've been in a really bad slump for a couple of weeks now, trying to figure out what I want to do, how I want to do it, struggling with art, struggling with having no energy...

I hate when I am *like this* because I let everything slide, nothing matters anymore, and it really sucks - it sucks the most though when I get to a point where I do want to do things again. Only to realize, I have been doing things the entire time, I was just too tired and annoyed to keep everything in order, or to appreciate what I had been doing while feeling low. If that makes sense?

I'm just rambling, don't mind me XD

But yes anyway... I just queued up all the streams of the last two months on my youtube that I had still lying around. Seven altogether at least! So Youtube will be getting updates a lot for the upcoming weeks.

Also, I took on and finished a very fun commission recently - the first one in a long time, a big one, too, but I just didn't have the energy yet to actually post it.

I also looked into setting up a shop with Ko-Fi, because I really don't like Etsy. I've been using it for a while now, but now there's the whole fee thing, and it just feels so utterly bloated and over-complicated, when I need something much smaller and simpler for just starting out. And then I saw you can actually do commissions via Ko-Fi, too. So I'll look into that a bit more.

I've also started watching Brandon Sanderson's writing lectures on youtube, a series that I saw recommended in a different post a while ago. Absolutely eye-opening in many regards, be it writing habits or just general techniques on how to outline. I have a very rough outline for "The King of Ivendarea", and I want to refine it as soon as I've worked my way through the rest of the videos. I'm excited to see where it will lead.

Finally, I have been getting excited about Cosplay again. Nothing super advanced to begin with - basically, crafting some of my favourite clothes from GTA: Online. Something that I could also wear in everyday-life, but that challenges me in a creative way. For example I've been learning how to create endless, seamless patterns for a jacket I want to make (work in progress still)

And yesterday I tried screenprinting on fabric for the first time. It turned out so nice, I want to do more!! XD

Also, I did some work in the garden, set up my veggie patches for the year (no veggies yet, it's too cold at night still), but it's a work in progress.

But yes. That was my last couple of weeks/ my day today with the youtube and stream and ko-fi stuff. I'm ready to go back to bed tbh XD But at least some things have been moving forward, even if I didn't realize. Send me some energy to post the commission later (cause it did turn out very pretty!! I miss doing commissions - if there's interest still from any of you, I might open 1-2 slots soon).