#I usually draw so much pastely stuff it's fun to try something new ^^

[submastrain]

I wanted to imitate 'official' Pokemon style in Jun's Magma event! ^^ ⚡

[meanbossart]

ASK COMPILATION: LORE, CHARACTERIZATION, AND THE ONE IN WHICH I RUIN A BUNCH OF PEOPLE'S FUN

As usual, this is far from all of the asks in my inbox but I'm trying to catch up 😩thank you everyone for your patience!

For the record, if your ask isn't being answered, that most likely means one of three things:

I am saving it as a possible art prompt.

I sincerely don't have a very interesting or good reply for it yet!

It's a question I have been asked multiple times/the answer is in my pinned post.

Glad you like them!!

As much as I don't limit what I draw to canonical events, vampirism is so antithetical to DU drow's character journey that I couldn't really envision it, to be honest, but who knows! Maybe I'll cook up some Ascended Astarion scenario someday that is kind of a role-reversal of the Bhaalist DU Drow AU I have going on in tandem to the story.

I'll be honest, this is one of the rare times where I'm really not sure which aspect of DU drow's weirdness this is in reference to. Do you know something I don't? 😅

His masochism is very... Classic, I guess? He's in it for the pain and for the emotional connection, and the process of being pierced wouldn't cut it whatsoever, it's too subtle. The body modifications he has are an incidental result of it, but they were never really the goal.

Also having stuff dangling off his face or body would just irritate him, he specifically only does rings because all other types of jewellery get in the way too much. Pre-tadpole Bhaalist drow obviously wore them by the ton, but only as a symbol of status and because he had a permanent new-money complex🤷 so yeah not a piercing-type of character at all, sorry!

He's smooth from the eyelashes-down and profoundly weirded out by body hair LOL

I don't personally think that whatever Astarion had for a home before would bear my resemblance to it after 200 years - having probably gone through several owners, remodeled, if not completely lost to the destruction of the end-game. I do HC that he used to visit it whenever he could as an enthralled spawn to read his mail, but he stopped after his father passed.

THANK YOU, I THINK? I can't say that isn't a passionate description at least!

I'm honestly surprised that this comes up as often as it does LOL but it's just an stylistic choice on my end!

The latter - for sure. He figured that them dying at each other's hands at the end was a given and took that assumption entirely for granted (and I'm sure daydreamed about it often while Gortash went on and on about political strategy during their dinner meetings.)

;))) way ahead of you and by "way ahead" I mean "eventually and whenever I can figure out when to do it alongside the other 30 ideas I am currently juggling" (but I really do want to make a little comic out of it!)

He used them! Not immediately, but he grew to trust the guardian after some initial suspicion and happily gobbled up those squirmy little things alongside Astarion. Because I made his character on a whim and without any planned backstory, I didn't really put any thought into his Guardian's appearance either, so she's just a human woman with a Joan of Arc look going on who's of no significance to him or his past.

But DU drow did trust her, again not immediately but eventually. It was honestly a big kick in the gut to him when the Emperor revealed himself and it definitely set their relationship up to fail from the get-go.

This is also why he didn't ascend to the next stage of Ilithid power, he just stomped the thing dead right on the spot LOL

LMAO I think Gortash is too proud to chase a tail he can't catch like that

He was probably very overwhelmed by the sudden realization that OH, THIS IS ALL HAPPENING BECAUSE OF ME which naturally didn't come across whatsoever to anyone present since he immediately bottled it up and tucked it away out of sight. However, as the story progressed and DU drow helped his friends get out of their respective pickles he was probably able to justify it to himself as it having been for the greater good - since it led to Astarion being freed from his master and Shadowheart to defying the Sharrans.

As for all of the rest of the ensued destruction and death that resulted from it? Well you can't make an omelette without cracking some eggs, or whatever is the wizard version of that saying. He has essentially turned the entire situation into a net-positive in his mind and sleeps great at night because of it.

[amuseoffyre]

"I don't even know who I am"

What I have loved about the show from day one is that it has been an unflinching examination of identity and what makes it: the things that shape people into who they are and how that impacts on how they act and react to the world around them.

The exploration of Ed’s sense of self has been so beautifully handled and I know that if/when we get a third season, they’re going to do even more with it.

This is a character who has been raised with violence and cruelty his whole life, who was told “we’re just not those kind of people” when he yearns for something better, who killed to protect his mother, who ended up under the heel of a brutal tyrant of a captain who used sadistic punishments and death to keep his crew in line.

It’s the only life he knew and it’s the only option he sees himself as having. He has no concept of any other alternative until along comes Stede “there’s always another way” Bonnet and he’s fascinated. He even tells Stede as much the first time they met – “do you have any idea how hard it is to find someone doing something original out here? It’s impossible, man.”

Ned Lowe cements that fact in 2x06, describing Ed as a generic pirate and Ed immediately calls him out on the fact that he’s as messy as the rest of them even if he’s trying to act like he’s not, observing “It’s usually family stuff”. Stede even observes “A lot of your friends are troubled” and Ed fully admits “Yeah. Well. They’re pirates.”

There’s so much juicy meta to be had about the fact that Stede wants to desperately be a pirate and Ed doesn’t even catch that not only is Stede fully troubled but that it’s got Family Stuff etched all over it. He even says “you’ve got it all figured out”, but the Stede meta is for another day.

In S1, Ed’s in a pretty depressed space and finds a bit of a respite from it in Stede’s company. It lets him try out new things, things he didn’t think he was allowed/able to do, but he still follows a lot of the patterns of behaviour and actions that are standard in the pirate lifestyle that has been 80% of his lived experience.

He can switch violence on and off when he needs it (“next one goes through your fucking eye”), he doesn’t see anything wrong in talking about the violence he’s inflicted (“Well, this one time I was gouging an eye out of this lad’s skull”), he has a deep well of punishments that he can draw from (force-feeding body parts, mutilation, skinning, maiming) and all of these things are just so normalised for him that he’s desensitised to how horrific they are.

He’s still doing all those things while also telling stories, having fun, teaching people about fuckeries and generally being “more open and available than I’ve ever seen him”. He hasn’t wanted or needed to shed that side of his life because he’s getting the best of both worlds.

Only then Calico Jack pays a visit and ramps Ed’s behaviour up to 11 and this is the first time Stede – who is dealing with his own issues at the same time – says that there’s something wrong with the way he’s behaving.

Ed says to Stede, confused and stung, “This is who I am. This is me” when Stede points out all the behaviour he isn’t enjoying. And for him, at this point, this is him. This is what he’s grown up knowing and being. This is his lifestyle and part of the culture of the pirate community. We see it repeatedly when we see Ed encountering people from his past or in the Republic. It’s the frog-in-the-pot scenario. He’s been in the pot so long, he doesn’t know it’s been boiling the whole time.

Only the very next episode, at the academy, pared back to just be Edward Teach, born on a beach, he admits “I don’t know if I want to go back to the old days, drinking all day and forcing some bloke to eat his own toes for a laugh”. He’s been played and double-crossed by people who trusted him and he sees an alternative in Stede – “I’m your friend” Stede told him, and he wants that. He wants a friend he can trust. They can go off together, away from all that and everything’ll be fixed, right? That’ll make it all good.

And then…

And then we all know how that goes.

Briefly, very briefly he thinks he might be able to hold on to that different kind of thing, that softer, brighter world, but Izzy reminds him of the reality of their situation. That people he considers allies and friends can and will warn him to “watch his fucking step” and that this is not a world where he can let his guard down.

Either you’re part of that world or you die. Izzy said it as far back as episode 4. The only retirement they get is death. And so that’s the option Ed takes: either watch the world burn or die trying. Not like he can have anything else. For ever and ever, trapped in his life and world he has come to hate.

He sinks him into the worst of it to try and end things faster. He’s crueller. Relentless. Brutal. And no one seems to care that he’s shattering under the weight of it, until he forces their hand and goads them into killing him or letting him kill all of them.

Izzy says “we did this to him” to Stede, but neither of them seem to realise how much deeper Ed’s hurts go. Yes, they both had an impact on Ed, knocking away his sense of place and self and acceptance, but the wounds are far older and far deeper than they know.

It’s only when Ed is first forced to confront himself in the unsettling not-reality of the gravy basket that he takes the first step in understanding himself better. He’s forced to face the stuff he’s done and the worst parts of himself. He even tries to kill them, over and over again, until he realises.

I find it especially interesting that Buttons describes getting out of purgatory as “escaping”. That this is a place where you’re flayed down to the bones and forced to face the worst parts of yourself.

It’s so vital that he – and Stede – have the encounter with Anne and Mary. He’s reminded of the world that he was part of and the casual brutality that came with it. He’s shown that he and Stede could easily fall into those patterns, but instead Stede offers him honesty, comfort and the assurance that he is loved.

“A lot of your friends are troubled” Stede observes after and Ed admits that yeah, they’re pirates. He recognises that this is part of the social culture he grew up in and that it’s still impacting on him now.

But what happens next is so sweet and important. Buttons talks to him of learning to change, that nothing is fixed and that if you want to, you can change your path. And then Buttons shows him it’s possible and Ed’s face just lights up. Yes, brother. Fly. You can change things. You can choose another way.

Only it’s not simple. It’s not straightforward. With the probation period, Ed looks for quick fixes – offers to let Lucius push him overboard to get it over with and the like – but part of him still doesn’t quite get why some of the stuff he did was wrong because it was so normalised to him.

It takes Fang saying “I was terrified” to make him see it and coming from someone who has been with him for 20 years, realising someone else from within his own world was terrorised by him brings things into focus for him. That the things he thought were games weren’t. That the stuff he told himself was normal in context absolutely wasn’t normal.

And this is where Ed’s entire world view pivots. Fang shows him how to sit with himself, how to reflect. Ed takes this lesson to heart and he’s still working through it, gazing out to sea and thinking about it at the beginning of episode 6. He goes from never apologising for anything as a captain to telling both Fang and Izzy quiet, but meaningfully, “I’m sorry”.

He’s known for a long time that he’s tired of piracy, but the Ned Lowe situation is the thing to put the final nail in the coffin: this man hunted him down because of his pirating. This man hurt them all because of it. And worst of all, Ned took the man Ed loves and pushed and provoked him until Stede killed him. This was Ed’s “you defile beautiful things” moment. His face in those scenes, when he said “don’t do it, you can’t come back from this” is a call from his own experience. Stede is taking that step onto a path that Ed desperately wants to get off.

That night makes the decision for him.

The next morning, his leathers go overboard, a symbolic end to Blackbeard (and I will yell another day about him putting the proverbial beast back under the waves. Ed and his sea metaphors are gnawing me alive) and he’s happy about it, humming and hurrying back down to join Stede in their bed.

Stede doesn’t notice, though. Stede never would notice something like that being important because for him, Ed is Ed. Whatever he wears, whatever he does, he is Ed. A change of clothes doesn’t change him in Stede’s eyes.

But other people notice. Hell other people not noticing Blackbeard and only seeing some hobo dude is such a change. There’s something so significant that the people he chooses to talk to about it are the old guard in his field. He tells Jackie “it’s not a phase” and Izzy that it felt “fucking great” and both of them get it. Both of them have been there, seen it, experienced it.

Only it happens as he’s seeing Stede become what he used to be, stepping into the space he’s willingly leaving, and Stede is so happy about it. And he’s happy for Stede to have his moment and be appreciated, but it just throws into stark relief that this is absolutely not what he wants or needs right now. He still has a lot of figuring out to do and unfortunately, they’re both highly-emotional people and when they’re emotional, their communication goes down the toilet.

Once upon a time Ed said “this is who I am, this is me” to Stede, when he was acting exactly like Stede is now: raucous, drinking, chaotic and loud. Only time and reflection has let him see that wasn’t necessarily him but the environment and his circumstances shaping him to be like that, just as it's now making Stede act that way.

“I don’t even know who I am,” he admits in this argument. “I’m not ready for whatever this is”. He knows he has a lot more to figure out and because he’s latched on so hard to fishing as a place to be quiet and contemplate, that’s why he runs there. He wants to work himself out without the weight and pressure of the pirate world breathing down his neck.

Only he doesn’t talk about it, he doesn’t explain, he just tells Stede he’s leaving and Stede immediately sees it as something he’s said/done, rather than something that Ed is trying to figure out. They both hurt each other because Ed has always worried that Ed isn’t enough – the loss of the beard still weighs on them both – and that Stede is only humouring him to get Blackbeard, while Stede is so convinced that being a great pirate will mean he and Ed can be together as equals instead of him being a bumbling amateur who isn’t worthy of the man he loves, only to see it slip through his fingers.

They both need to talk to each other, but they don’t know how. Ed’s made quick, rash decisions, but they’ve come on the back of a lot of reflection and he just didn’t explain it. He’s right that he doesn’t know who he is himself. He’s never had the chance to just… take the time and figure it out. He needs that time, but they just don’t have it right now and they end up hurting each other more because of it.

I’ve said from the beginning that both of them are coming from opposite ends of the spectrum and that they’re destined to meet somewhere in the middle. Ed got his fantasies of a fancy life shattered in season one and now, Stede is seeing the impact of his pirate fantasies on the life he made for himself in season two.

Both of them are on the edge of a catastrophe curve, misunderstanding each other’s motivations and totally at odds with who they are versus who they have been told they need to be. They will get there, but two little lost boys finally taking off the rose-tinted glasses and dealing with the mess that they have carried with them their entire lives isn’t easy.

And I will fully admit I am loving it.

[kroialt]

Family Reunion

New recom oc reveal!! First introduction to Ant I guess hehe- more about him soonnn! will definitely be posting more abt him on my IG @99kroi tho -------------- Khro’a lands in the forest with his ikran safely. Just a 10 minute walk away from Akaru’s clan.  “Thanks, T’sa. I’ll be back later. Go have fun!” Khro'a tosses a fish bait into the air, and his Ikran flawlessly catches it. His ikran shrieks back at Khro'a before taking off into the sky. looking for a place to wait in the mountains while its rider is away.

As usual, Tunwi and Akaru were already on their way to meet him early. Khro’a carries his stuff on his back and starts walking down their usual path. Suddenly, Khro'a hears rustling in the bushes behind him, and he hastily draws his knife as it is the only weapon he has on him- “Shit. What now??” he muttered to himself.

“Kroi!”

In the distance, a man's voice yelled out his name. "’s that you, Kroi?!”

Khro'a's ears perked up in response. The voice doesn't seem familiar to him, so how could they know about his human name?

Khro'a adjusts his stance, more cautious than ever. No one else would have known about his human name because he was very private about his past. Only a handful would truly still recall that name, and he’d like to keep it that way.

Ant's arm pushes a huge leaf out of the way of his path, and his eyes meet Khro'a's. Khro’a is a little confused seeing the man as he felt a sense of familiarity- while also still being weary as he noticed, it’s another recom…

“Kr-”

Ant, the recom, hears something shoot past his right ear and only manages to dodge it at the last second. Ant notices a trickle of warm blood running down his cheek-

He quickly grabs his ear and snaps his head behind him to find an arrow in a tree.

“KHRO'A! " Akaru yells in the opposite direction.

Khro’a and Ant turn around to see Akaru and Tunwi riding a thanator as Akaru begins drawing her bow again. “GET DOWN!” 

Khro'a does what she says without hesitation, but Ant is quick to react—he tackles Khro'a on the ground, dodging Akaru's arrow once more.

Ant tries to put Khro'a in a headlock, but the latter responds quickly and wraps his strong legs around Ant's head, yanking his arm away. Ant grunts in reaction, attempting to break free from Khro'a's grip before using all of his strength and adrenaline to lift Khro'a's whole weight off the ground, on one arm. Khro'a regrets it after realizing how much bigger and stronger Ant was than him.

He yelped as his body was slammed against the other side of the ground. Khro'a's  grasp loosens, and Ant quickly gets behind Khro'a, seizing the latter's knife and pointing it at Khro'a's throat. "PUT YOUR WEAPONS DOWN!" Ant exclaimed.

Tunwi's thanator roars at the recom before she softly pats it on the neck to calm it down. "M-mawey Lawr...!" *C-Calm down, Lawr…!

Even so, the female na'vi sitting behind the rider, hesitates to lower her bow.

“PUT IT DOWN! NOW! '' Ant yells at her, bringing the knife closer to Khro'a's neck while the latter struggles. Akaru hisses fiercely at him, making Ant slightly intimidated by her.

Ant gets a little distracted by the two female na’vis ganging up on him. He assumes it's Kroi's (khro'a) friends since one of them called out "his name," and he reacted immediately. Does he go by a different name now? What was it? Krowah?

Khro’a recklessly head bumps his chin HARD. Making Ant step back from the impact. “FUCK- KROI-!! ”

“Khro’a!!" Tunwi exclaimed in surprise.

Ah, “khro’a.”

Khro'a slips Ant's grasp and hurries to Akaru and Tunwi, rubbing his aching head. Akaru's face softens as she pats Khro'a's arm and tells him to climb on the thanator so they can escape quickly. But Khro'a pauses for a moment and returns his gaze to the recom, still trying to figure out who that man is and why he looks and feels so familiar...

(in na’vi) “Uhh- Who is he?!” 

asked Tunwi who was clearly starting to panic, Akaru also asking the same question but she remained silent. The recom was clearly aiming for Khro’a and Khro’a only. He also had a gun with him the entire time...but he never used it? Why? Why’s he after me? Khro'a asks himself, still not sure what this guy's business is...

He takes another moment before finally recognizing the bleeding recom. 

"-Holy crap..?? ”

Ant regains his balance and grunts as he wipes the blood from his nose.

Khro'a looks at Ant in disbelief.

"That's my fucking brother..."

[pyjamaart]

Year 4 of submitting art for the SiIvaGunner Art Gallery!! >:]

For the fourth time now, I can proudly present my entry for this years SiIvaGunner Birthday Gallery! I had to put up with a lot of obstacles this year, like starting in June when I normally always started in early May, my parents and my brother visiting during the exact time frame I wanted to work on this, a crippling addiction to playing Dragon Quest Monsters and many more.

But as you can see, I really locked in at the end and finished it exactly one day before the deadline (17th June).

Now to explain my vision for this piece: I'll have to admit, since starting my new job in February, I didn't have any time to keep up with the loads of SiIvaGunner rips that are uploaded each day, since I always listened to them at my old workplace while I took care of my mountains of scientific journals. At my new job, I don't have anything to do with journals anymore. I mostly talk to students at the counter all day. Can't really listen to YouTube videos when someone wants something from you every minute. I also do a lot of things related to facility management in between (our library buildings are practically falling apart in some places...), so even when I'm not at the counter, I have way too much stuff to do to listen to rips. Sigh. Sometimes, I miss my old job.........

But I'll try my best to catch up some time in the future. At the very latest in September. My first vacation days in 7 months... Anyway, let's get back to the image at hand:

In the foreground, there's obviously my beloved dynamic duo of besties: Woodman and Nozomi. Woodman has been missing from the channel for 1 and a half years. Please bring him back. I miss my wife, Tails...

For this piece, my theme was centered around my favorite SiIvaGunner joke from the past few months (or has it been years?): The raft ride. I wanted something fun and summer-y, so I decided to put all the characters I drew in cute little sailor outfits. For Woodman, I just drew him in something simple that I thought of myself, which complimented and incorporated his usual armor.

Next we have Nozomi, who dons her outfit from μ's fifth single "Wonderful Rush". I had a few water themed outfits to chose from with her (and Honoka, for that matter), but I chose Wonderful Rush for Nozomi since it just fit with the aesthetic I was going for.

Next to those two is Coraline from the 3DS street pass game "Ultimate Angler", which is also prominently featured on the channel. For her outfit, I just modified her usual attire a little to fit in with the sailor vibe. I also turned her sun visor around because I could for the life of me not figure out how to draw it properly at this angle. Uhhh... I mean, I turned it around because I thought it looked cool.

I hope you can see that I had an absolute breakthrough in Gimp. I think I already talked about it on my Buck fanart, but I finally discovered layer modes. After 4 years of working with Gimp. Spectacular, I know. If you don't notice it here, you'll definitely notice it on the next image in queue for the robot master quest I have going on. I can already spoil you who it's gonna be this time: Tornadoman! I honestly couldn't believe what I was drawing. I think I was possessed by something for a few hours. It was honestly a little scary. But I think you'll see what I mean once you see the actual image, it's really different from the usual stuff I draw.

Getting back to the topic of this picture, let's talk about the background now. I decided to draw a little ship with lots of familiar faces making up the crew.

The ships captain is Honoka, who is standing on the very left of the deck. I took her outfit from μ's single "Heart to Heart!", which also fit into the aquatic theme quite nicely.

Right next to her, under a rainbow flag that's fluttering in the wind above them, is Aquaman. My beloved. Since I drew him into last years birthday gallery image, I decided to do the same this year. I also put a little starfish on his hat because I think it looked cute ;)

Standing epicly and mysteriously on the top of the boat is Meta Knight. I don't know if you can see it when it's zoomed out so far, but he's holding some kind of folded map in his right hand. Maybe they're looking for treasure??

And on the very right of the ship are Tito Dick and Robbie Rotten, reenacting that one famous scene from the Titanic movie.

After that, we shift our focus to the left of the image, where we can see Fluttershy flying over the island from Tomodachi Life.

And that's it for this image folks. I hope I'll finish my Mega Man Fully Charged art before the weekend ends, so stay tuned for that next! And after that, we're going right back to the robot master grind. ;)

Until then, this has been Jenny Pyjamakama, signing off. ;)

[augustameretrix]

arcane abstinence so acute i stumbled into The Council Archives, a little point-and-click style game released in the league client in november 2021 where you you get to sift through some form of in-universe files relating in some respects to jayce, vi, caitlyn and jinx

btw the promotional video for jayce's collection is also where the 'i discovered discovered sextech' template comes from I think which is great news to me personally because god knows how much i like that stupid meme

anyways, they're an interesting short read, the epistolary form is always great for immersion and there's some interesting stuff going on.

both jayce's and jinx's collections consist primarily of their own writings, his work journal and her diary respectively. as for jayce, there's some details on the practical workings of hextech, followed by his disdain for the other piltie inventors - a bunch of glorified toymakers, almost, according to him - vs his self-confidence that his invention is Good and Noble. then there's a cute little section dedicated to his partnership with viktor and you can tell just how much that rocks his professional and personal world

jinx's diary is the least revealing: it's super short and almost everything she says is either repeated or can be easily inferred by watching arcane. it makes sense as these are just her personal thoughts in written form, plain and simple. but there's some painfully concise musings about herself and vi that didn't make it in the show quite in the same form. it retrodates her suicidal ideation by a lot. plus we get a little drawing of small ekko

now, cait's and especially vi's collections get into aspects the show didn't go into in depth, as in both cases we're dealing with official enforcers/wardens documentation

vi's for me is the absolute standout out of these collections. her files consist of the various internal reports of her misbehaviour in stillwater throughout the years, which document a devastating picture of her progressive decline under the watchful yet utterly uncaring, if not a bit unnerved, eyes of the wardens. there's a whole (small) character arc in there that arcane only hints at.

we learn that she goes from trying to escape, to beating information about powder out of newly arrived detainees, and finally to seemingly resign herself to a cycle of increasingly dangerous violence with other zaunite prisoners: provoke people, foil murder attempts, retaliate, rinse and repeat. any fight against the wardens she might've had in the past now she takes out on fellow inmates, recognizing the futility in trying to punch up. her reputation with the prisoners is so bad the wardens imply she sometimes relies on the guards interrogating her for some human contact - by making fun of them (one of the very first interactions between vi and cait is vi cracking a joke)

another killer thread in the collection is the guards systematically misunderstand vi's search for powder, which they interpret as drug addiction. at some point vi stops uttering her sister's name altogether, and the guard's report simply notes: "addiction to substance is cured". ain't that something

the formal and dehumanizing linguistic style of the prison wardens does wonders for this little character arc. the last file, a dismissal of a transfer request, contains a play on the words "foster" and "fester", which is just *chef's kiss*

finally, cait's collection is made up of the murder/missing person reports and autopsies she pilfered from the police station as a junior officer to conduct her private investigation on grayson's murder and on zaun's shimmer ring, as well as to whom among the enforcers is covering it up + interviews with suspects, most of which she conducted herself + one disciplinary action against her from marcus. as is usually the case for cait, we don't get a lot of direct personal info, instead we see her methodically connecting the dots while ignoring direct orders from her superior, and going deeper, deeper, and always forward. a nice little touch is the trial-and-error nature of her system: every time she gets a lead she needs to confirm or deny it, and sometimes that means suspects will laugh in her face because she submits to them an assumption that might very well be wrong. this in - apparent - contrast with her marksman (markswoman?) status. but as always, she remains unphased and keeps marching on... and ends up closing in on the target anyways.

then of course from her files you can gaze at the typically league-esque depiction of a zaun ravaged by the chem-barons' cynical endeavors, in particular by silco's (and singed's) shimmer-bloated brutes roaming the streets, or his kidnapping children for experimentation.

also of note and somewhat confusing, among caitlyn's objects in her collection there's a photograph of vi laughing (!) taken.... i'm not sure when, actually? the game mentions her "self-inked tattoos" (how, btw?), so it has to be after her arrest, but since it's unlikely vi had anything to smile about in stillwater, not to mention the description (which does NOT match the illustration btw) which reads "former inmate #516", so it must've been taken after she got out... which is weird, because the rest of cait's collection refers to events taking place up until she leaves for stillwater near the end of episode 4 aka before she gets vi released. but the photograph is described as "pinned" (to the board...? the board is treated as another object entirely), and visually depicted as one of the files in a folder, so it's a piece of evidence which would imply cait already had it. damningly, there is a camera on cait's desk, which could mean nothing, considering she likely uses it to collect clues from crime scenes. but then....

...to make things even weirder the tone in which the game goes on to describe the photo is so cheesy... dare I say romantic in a trite way. get this:

"[...] an image captured from reality, a moment frozen in time with this Zaunite urchin. In all you've researched, there was no indication that the criminal was even capable of smiling. But in this picture… she's laughing."

what is happening here?? did cait take this picture after vi's release? when? is this one of those not-so-subtle hints at cait and vi's relatonship riot likes to sprinkle in league and in the lore site? it would match the style and would explain the discrepancy between text and image, but it's so out of place and time here. oh well!

[maoam]

Ramblings stemming from frustration with this fandom sometimes. ( Naruto. )

I know Naruto fandom has always been a tad toxic ever since it started becoming popular and such, but something about these newer fans who are so comfortable with d3ath threats, body shaming, sa threats, and d0xxing other people for the sake of a character. Fandom discourse is truly never that serious and the fact that they’ve become so obsessed with “ratioing” or “owning” other people that they’re willing to say absolutely vile things all for what… some likes? Validation from other gross people?

And then for these people to still say they’re the “good part of the fandom” or “the sane part”. It’s almost narcissistic for lack of a better word at the moment. ( not diagnosing anyone or speaking as if I’m some sort of mental health expert. Just can’t think of another word right now because of the headache this phenomenon is causing me as it is becoming much too common. )

They have this obsession with demonizing “the other side.” To the point of making false claims, which is insane. Or maybe they actually believe them? I can’t tell. They just spread whatever makes them feel good about what they like and don’t care about the source.

This is mainly a lame annoyed rant about the Hinata fanbase which have become somehow even worse within the past few days with their weird obsession with trying to get the Boruto artist (I think he works for sp? Unsure as he says most of his art is fanart but he made a like two or three official pieces that were on the official boruto/naruto page.) fired and sending him death threats for I guess just not drawing Hinata as much as they want? Like to the point where they were literally saying she was being “oppressed and bullied” by this artists. It was insane to see in person because you really would like to believe people WOULDNT compare a character not being drawn in a way they approve of to the oppression the people of Palestine are facing but hey, I suppose it’s a competition now to see how much of a bad person you can be for the sake of a character.

Also I know this is not just an issue in the hinata fandom, although the recent need to fetishize how “Asian Hinata is compared to that white girl sakura.” Is irking me a lot more than what other fandoms have done as of recent that I’m aware of. The Sakus seem to be their usual level of delusion and crappy attitude. Which is easy to ignore for me.

Does it sound like I’m making stuff up at this point? Because as I’m writing this I’m seeing just how insane this really is. This *shouldn’t* be real. This *shouldn’t* be things people say without shame. And yet, people just throw their morals for… what, internet points? The self validation that they defended to their favorite character? Who knows.

You might not even read this, I wouldn’t blame you lol. Just me being annoyed with how comfortable people within the naruto fandom have become so comfortable with being bad people.

My only real question is have you noticed an increase of toxicity within the fandom? Do you think this behavior has gotten worse with the ending of Naruto and beginning of Boruto?

I kinda get what you mean. I remember even before the manga ended there was apparently aggressive fights between Narusaku/Naruhina shippers, like the body shaming towards the other ship's girl and so on. And SS also were aggressive. But nowadays it indeed seems worse. I'm not sure if it's because we have new big platforms? Twitter and Tiktok I mean, both have really cancerous fandom spaces.

SS/NH harass official staff all the time, as well as other parts of the fandom. And then they act like victims because some people think Sakura and Hinata are shitty characters lol. Meanwhile they treat real people like shit. I think it might be because everyone makes fun of their ships/girls all the time, because it's so easy, so they become even crazier in trying to compensate, they try to harass the staff for more content for their ship, to get back at the people who say their ships suck. Also because so many popular content creators keep making content on Naruto and Sasuke being gay and Sakura/Hinata being their beards it's also humiliating to them.

Of course, they also need to fight which girl is the best girl. Which girl is less of a single mother for example. XD

"Or maybe they actually believe them?" Considering how many SS have convinced themselves that some moments that happened between Naruto and Sasuke actually happened between Sasuke and Sakura, I can believe them being that delusional.

"Does it sound like I’m making stuff up at this point?" No because I have witnessed it myself, plenty Sakura and Hinata stans on twitter have that toxic "bad bitch" attitude that they think makes them queens or whatever, they harass people and are extremely aggressive and think female character doing the bare minimun = queen behaviour. It comes off as very childish and narcissistic. No wonder Sakura and Hinata as characters appeal to them.

[missholoska]

hi I don't know how to word this at all so apologies if it's a mess to read. I had hoped to spend this month drawing cute winter art but irl stuff happened and at this point I've been stuck in a numb limbo for days and need to get out of my brain

I'm not the type to be super open about real life, especially not on my art blog rather than my main, but where my mental state suffers obviously my productivity goes with it, and I guess I want to clarify that this isn't like my usual bouts of inactivity

so without going into much detail: basically a family member has had a lot of health issues for the past 2 years, and earlier this year some new problems started up on top of those. appointments looking into it have been months apart, so I've spent most of the year desperately hoping they wouldn't receive the diagnosis we were fearing. I'm not gonna say what it is, but there is no recovering from it and we already know exactly how bad it gets from past experience with other family members who had the same thing

then we finally had another appointment last tuesday, and I think that might've been the worst day of my life. I can't overstate how bleak and terrifying the rest of my life looks now

anyway I'm not saying I won't be drawing at all because god I need something to do to keep myself sane, but suffice to say art is probably going to be a struggle with everything going on. right now I just want to not worry about whatever I said I'd draw or feel like I have to make and just draw anything that seems fun, even if it only makes me happy for 5 seconds. hopefully that's understandable

at the very least I'm gonna try to carry on as normal and not be an emotional wreck on the internet, but I'm sorry if I'm not my usual self for a while

[freebooter4ever]

Despite my continued stomach/digestive issues that is making it damn hard to eat, the increased exercise has almost entirely lifted my intense depressive episode and im almost feeling 'normal' again (which is definitely helping with this letter that im spending two days writing lmao). But i keep going back to that idea of people seeing me happy vs when i am truly 'happy'. For the past year that's mostly revolved around three things: 1) voluntering at the museum - usually interacting with guests, answering questions, getting to talk at length about this history i love, seeing guests get equally as excited and enthusiastic about the place as i do. 2) hockey. I know. This is still weird to me too that i ended up liking sports. But this summer i have definitely missed that vicarious high of watching things play out live good or bad. The charity games were cute and fun to watch but without the suspense and thrill of rooting for something with thousands of others at the same time it didn't quite cut it. On the other hand i've been using hockey as a carrot like 'i need to get a job so i can afford hockey tickets!' which is silly but its better than...imagining the painful reality of what will happen if i dont have a new job by this fall. I work better by thoughts of reward than under threat. If i do manage to land something soon i promise i'll end up in pittsburgh for a game at some point - that and visiting grandma are equal priority. 3) staring at geno's face and drawing or sculpting him. Im trying not to think too hard about this one.

And now another. 4) walking around the studio's manufacturing warehouse. I promised myself on sunday that i would play it cool, be professional, dont geek out over everything. I did not do that. I was grinning the entire time, i literally could not stop myself from smiling i was so excited. I think i said 'wow' and 'that's so cool!' a lot, too much maybe. At the end of the very in depth tour during which i asked so many questions i felt like a kid, the guy told me he was going to go back inside and 'work on some programming' before he left. And pushing my luck i was all 'i know with NDA stuff this might not be possible but could i just watch???'. And he tried to insist it would be boring but i promised him i absolutely would find it fascinating. Partially because i knew he wasn't talking about my kind of programming - scripted languages, machine code instruction - he was talking about some kind of interface programming. And sure enough he showed me the sine waves and explained a little how to generate them from data or how to create them from scratch, all as he was working on the model. And i was just sitting there enraptured.

so that was sunday. Supposed to be last tuesday, then moved to saturday, then finally sunday...but well worth the wait.

[shelandsorcery]

some left-handed gouache studies from the past week, after taking a couple months off thanks to the arm surgery and a deep fear that being bad at it would take all the fun out of it for me. painted on 12x16 paper, so I can get less mad about my wobbly left hand and focus more on larger marks and color and composition. good news! I'm not quite as bad at it as I had worried I would be, and it is mostly still very fun. bad news: not being able to draw a straight line continues to be a legit problem.

I don't know if this arm recovery stuff is interesting to anybody besides myself, but not talking about it would make me crazy, so allow me to update you on all of the weird side effects of being able to partially but largely mostly not use my dominant hand:

- as expected, I continue to attempt to use my dominant hand for things despite the fact that it: cannot hold any weight, it cannot get my fingers out of the way when I go to grab something, portions of the back of my hand and fingers are completely numb and don't notice when they bump against things, and despite the fact that I get weird nerve pain if I attempt to manipulate anything smaller than a tennis ball for any length of time

- I am most likely to thoughtlessly switch to my dominant hand in the middle of drawing or painting, in the middle of brushing my teeth, and while eating. apparently these are the three things I do where I get into a flow state.

- I am starting to confuse right and left, not so much as absolute directions, but as used to determine which way to tighten or loosen the lid on a jar or similar rotational acts that it turns out I absolutely do not have a logical structure for solving for anymore.

- I am starting to think of using my dominant hand for any purpose as "cheating", which is definitely counterproductive, but that's the ol' internalized ableism for you.

- I am more convinced than ever that our entire society has been designed to be subtly infuriating to deal with using your left hand, and there is no way anyone who is left hand dominant needs to hear my opinions on the matter, but wow. gosh. geeze.

- I oscillate wildly between being deeply deeply grateful for adaptive tools and being deeply deeply angry about their limits. again, there is nobody out there who has been using any of these adaptive tools for more than 2 months who needs to hear my thoughts on the matter, so this message is just for able-bodied people: you cannot call a tool a successful replacement for abled usage methods if it does not allow self-determination in how you use it. Microsoft, I'm looking at you and the many useful swearwords you censor when i try using your speech to text tools.

I do still really love painting, and drawing, and writing, even though they are all now very much new challenges all over again. I suspect mostly I'm just speed running the same experience many people will go through as they age of having to modify and realign their approach to their usual modes of expression and interaction and creation, which is something people have been doing for as long as society has existed, which just means I'm going to be better at it, obviously, thanks to getting this Head start

and maybe a year from now I will have the ability to hold things in my dominant right hand for more than 30 seconds, and definitely a year from now I will have a lot more precise control over my left hand, so I guess there's lots to look forward to 👍

in the meantime I will continue to paint my favorite things!

[recurring-polynya]

Writing/Art Update 4.30.2024

I'm tired!!

That's not related to anything, I just wanted to get that out there: I'm do not have a lot of energy right now.

I am taking requests right now, and I thought it would be good to post an update on how that's going, because I'm worried that people will think I am not working on them, but I am very much working on them. I think that's because a lot of times in the past, when I do requests, it's been for a specific event, like Renji's birthday, where I have a deadline and a lot of pressure to get things done. In this case, it's just that I have a list of prompts in my inbox to work on, where at least someone will be happy to read it when I post (hopefully 😂) I have posted one already, and I am at work on the second. It's about 1200 words right now, and I'd say it's 1/3-1/2 done. It's going kinda slow. That's not to say it's going bad--I have good direction on it and I've been making progress on it, it's just not, like, flowing from my fingertips. It's a set of characters I don't usually work with, which is fun for a change, but also it takes me like 9 times longer to write anything that doesn't have Renji in it. The way I figure, if I can do about one of these per week, that should be reasonable.

People are still welcome to send in requests! I will say: - I have gotten lots so far, so please don't feel like you need to send me a pity request, but if there's something you'd like to see from me, hmu, who knows, worst case is I don't write it - Quite a few (like, at least 3???) are things that I already have planned as part of larger works, and I'm not quite sure what to do with that 😂 I guess I'll just say that if you feel like you sent in a really good one and I ignored it, just be patient, it may come up eventually. - Lot of funny/cute type ideas, which is fine and it's like, the main thing I do, but also please don't be afraid to send in something more serious or angsty, I do like to do that kinda stuff, I just don't always have ideas (they never seem to get as many stats, so maybe other people just don't like my serious stuff as much, but let me have fun 😂) - Maybe b/c I turned anon asks back on, I've been getting a fair number of (what seem like) regular asks, rather than fanfic requests, but tbh, sometimes I am not sure, so please try to be clear if you want a fanfic about it, or you just want me to answer your question, otherwise you get what you get.

In art news, I keep meaning to draw and then not drawing!! I need to fix this! May is tomorrow, so there is a new set of art prompts, which I am more excited about than the April art prompts. Also, we watched the Halloween episode last week and my daughter really wants us to draw Pumpkin Ghost Orihimes and I would like that too. I will try to get my shit together! We'll see!

[tonakuma]

2024 Creative Wrapup and Look Ahead

This ended up very long and rambly but. I just wanted to get it out. Say my piece out to the world on my tumblr where most of my usual followers don't know I even am x3 Look Back

2024 was a hard year. I have no idea how 2024 started. But what I know is the moment I got unexpectedly terminated from my employment in early 2024, everything changed.

I think I was, in many ways, lost, for most of 2024 as a result of not having a job. But it was more than that. I was creatively aimless. I was struggling artistically and didn't have a purpose.

What originally started off as an attempt to learn more human anatomy to better draw furry stuff ended up snowballing into loving art more and once again. I stopped trying to be something and someone else. I stopped trying to fit into a box to appease a certain group, where many didn't even care anyways. And god everyone noticed. The amount of people who were commenting about my art glow up and how much better I was doing. That motivated me so much. And for the first time in a long time. I could see they were right. I Knew they were right. I understood the power of doing something I loved and how much that reflected in what I did.

That shift ended up cascading. It evolved and carried forward. It multiplied exponentially. It ended up culminating in me just locking up and moving on from something for my own mental health. While it was the catalyst for my artistic creativity, while I met many amazing people from it... there was also some truly awful things that happened to me. I cannot ignore the scars, regardless of how situations and myself as a person have improved. So it was time I parted ways and I am better of for it. Whether my departure from that part of my life will be for now or forever, only time will tell. For now I am happy it's locked in a box and out of sight. And my happiness matters most.

In the last months of 2024, by a series of chances I rediscovered by love of writing too. A realization I was driving a rare-pair ship for a large fandom, combined with a release for a game started it all. I focused on those fics with a renewed sense of purpose in October to November. The best month to do so given history and the writing events during it. In December, the last month of the year. A simple desire to say "thank you" - to someone who I had seen being so helpful to writers and creatives, helping in moderating and running events in a server - blossomed into something amazing. I made plans to watch She-Ra and the Princesses of Power with the express intent of writing a fanfic as a gift for that mod. I'd watch the series over November into December. Write the fic in December and then go back to my own fandoms. None of that happened. I binged the series in less than a week. I started writing the fic and I also started drawing art for it. I actually had Spop fanart BEFORE the fic was finished. A quick sketch of Catra as a trucker, roughly coloured based on conversation from my gift target. (How he didn't sense something was up at that point was beyond me lmao). I fell wholeheartedly into this lovely series and have a long fic completely outlined that I've already been picking away at. It's probably gonna be my big 2025 project. On top of fanart sketches and other fun things. Also on the note of binging, I just finished binging said gift targets 300k word fanfic in about 6 days. Because apparently when I fall into something I just fall whole heartedly into it. Full send out for a rip bud. Peak Canadian hours I guess. Go read Defiance by TheNotebookWizard xD.

I picked up things old and new and with a renewed sense of how I creatively work best as a writer and artist. I've published more written words in the last two months of 2024, than I did in the past 2 years combined. I have a new canvas to work on for words (Scrivener), and the same trusty canvas (ClipStudio) I've come to love for art. My art growth has never been better and the 2024 wrapup shows that wonderfully: (Also Frith-rah I drew alot of Lisbeth/Rika in 2024 lmao)

Most importantly. I found the joy in creating both words and art again. I re-discovered fully the love of creating something.

Look Ahead

As I look ahead to 2025 I'm still scared and anxious. I've taken the first steps already into a career shift courtesy of a fully funded education to employment program. It's in a completely new field for me too. Scary. I wonder how much time I will have for creativity. If I can balance being a student and also being a creative. I want to keep creating but I fear school will eat all that.

Who knows that will come however.

All I can hope for is that I will ride the momentum I have built up creatively at the end of this year and carry it forward to 2025. I am going to try my best to do just that. If i will it into existence, it should happen. If I tell myself to do it. I will do it. I have a whole new large fanfic story to start sending out to the world. Old fanfics to wrap up on. I have creative artistic ideas that I just want to get fufilled. Some of these are wombo-combo in tandem things. Art for these fanfics. It's gonna be fun. I am excited as much as I am nervous and anxious. I got this.

[deathofnessus]

Reposting my tg channel posts here so i dont lose them, a lot of words so its under cut:

1. All characters i have for the space setting so far and short descriptions of each(similar to the ones in my pinned, but a bit more detailed for my followers there ^_^):

-Rodion Melnikov, he/him

Definition of a burn out kid except hes like 40 now. A very ambitious academically man in the past, he grew more secluded with each year, as he began to worry that its too late for him to succeed now (although his definition of success is very twisted). Joins the expedition in hopes to finally find some new amazing discovery and get the recognition he believes he deserves. Dated David Ross for 5+ years when they were in their late 20s-early 30s, met through the academic field. An only child btw

-David Ross, he/him

David is an engineer, working in the field of rocket science. He is very passionate about his craft but overall a very laid back person, not prone to conflict. Knows everything about the Nessus, treats it like his child of sorts 😭 Kind of became the captain due to all of this knowledge. And people trust him a lot. Dated Rodion Melnikov in the past.

-Carwyn Morgan, she/her (he/him for most 💔)

The oldest member of the crew. Joined the expedition out of deep academic intrest, although was unsure about it at first. Technically has a role of an assistant to Mariana Renea. Passionate about her work, which is one of tthe biggest reason her and rodya got along so well. Had a long wild life before this expedition. Also shes an egg ... girl your gender.!!!!...

-Mariana Renea, she/her

Technically the captain, more so the leader of the expedition, the one that got everyone together. Shes been best friends with Morgan for years, their families were close for years. Shes obviously a very responsible person, also extremely passionate about her work. Has done a lot of things for her field of science (dont know which one yet. Sorry), shes well known and respected. This expedition is another big step in her career. Also had a family.

2. Answering moots questions, both rus and eng:

more thoughts on the expedition itself 🔽

3. Big answer to a big set of questions about the free timeon the ship, the character dynamics and fun facts about morgan:

I was gonna answer this with doodles but im impatient so i might come back to that later... First of all thanks for such detailed message i rlly appreciate it! I think the dynamics in the crew are definitely a little tense, especially bcuz of rodya and davey, but they usually try to stay chill. I dont think they would have big arguments or anything, at least not before the accident™ They definitely have a lot of respect for one another, but i think at least for rodya especially theres a bit of academic rivalry in this all, although the rest i think are kind of the opposite in thay way, feeling more unitied due to their goals and passions and stuff. So yeah rodya is definitely the one most likely to get "infatuated with the unknown", but i do think Morgan is similar in that way, maybe not as intense though. Mariana would be cautious but definitely intrested and i think Davey is the least likely, he'd definitely say nope and go the other way.

As for passing the free time on the ship, thats definitely something they do yeah! I never thought about it that much, and now thats definitely something id like to draw once i have the time so thanks for the suggegstion :D i think theyd have some pretentious ass board games along with some silly ones, but considering how long theyre on this ship i think at some point they'd get bored of all of them, which would lead to them hanging out all together less fkr sure. Maybe someone would suggest their own made up games and i think that person would be the fifth character™ that i dont have any story for, but their general function in the story in my mind rn is the younger guy that breaks the tension between all of these old serious people >< So work is important, yes, and they do spend a lot of time on it, but i think theyre all smart enough to understand that rest and hanging out together is important. Except maybe rodya. I think theyd have to drag him to these games by force most of the time. And every time they definitely regret it bcuz he always wins, which pisses everyone off. And he probably havent played any of these games before, hes just naturally good at them. I do think mariana at some point learned his stragidies and was able to sometimes win over him lol. Morgan and Davey love to team up together to try to beat "the try-hards". AS FOR MORGAN PRE EXPEDITION!! I thought a lot during the summer about how i imagine her when she was younger participating a lot in her local queer spaces(which is how she meets mariana), helping organise events and stuff, which is especially funny bcuz i imagine a lot of people clocked her as transfem but she just didn't have a clue 😭😭 she thought she was just a quirky gay man her entire life... I also imagine she tried many hobbies in her life, especially the ones that require handy work like drawing, pottery, knitting ect ect, i think she ended up enjoying these the most. I think shes the type of gal that loves the cycle actually now that i think of it. I dont think she's super sporty or anything but cycling sounds like something she'd enjoy. Anyways, thank you also for the recs!!! I've been planning to watching scavenger's reign for sooooo looong but never got to it, despite watching the first ep and really enjoying it. This is a sign to finally do it.... Never heard of harold halibut though, ill make sure to check it out, thank you!! Sending lots of love to you anon you're very sweet

[inquisitor-gayfax]

✨ Fic Planning and Outlining ✨

Outlining is a huge part of my writing process and something I love talking about, so since I’m currently suffering something of a writer’s block, I’ve put together a step-by-step explanation of my process below. It is important to note that there is no right answer or best way to outline; as with most things it’s just a matter of finding what works best for you!

I would love it if other folks chimed in and added to this with their own tips and tricks!

Let’s learn from each other!

Outlining Tools & Overall Organization

To start with, I use OneNote to organize everything, but there are a ton of programs out there, and you could even do this with different .txt/word files! The main reasons I like OneNote: (1) oo pretty colored tabs (2) tab folders for making sense of the giant pile of WIPs:

So, I have all the things I’m “actively” working on out in the open, then squirrel away everything else in one of five categories: completed (yay!), short, medium, and long WIPs, then a catch-all category for everything that doesn’t really fit anywhere else.

The Outlining Process

To demonstrate and (hopefully) have a little fun, I’m going to pick a half-baked idea from the “WTF – Miscellany” category and create a new tab as if I’m actually going to write it! So, without further ado, let’s dive in and begin outlining for a multi-chapter AU fic wherein Rogal Dorn and Perturabo are high school girls’ volleyball coaches!

First Page: Tags ‘n Such

I often hear that tags can be the hardest part for writers, which is interesting because this is usually where I start! Something about seeing my fic in the summary format it will eventually appear in on AO3 is very motivating to me, and helps guide my writing. You can always add/change later.

Here is the template I use for easy copy/pasting!

Title: Fandom(s): Rating: Category: Archive Warnings: Relationship(s): Character Tags: Other tags: Summary:

And here’s a screenshot of my first pass for this WIP:

This gives me a chance to talk about one of my FAVORITE writing hacks, which is… [BRACKET TEXT].

I don’t know about everyone else, but my brain consistently feels the need to get everything perfect on the first try, which is very unhelpful and actively counter-productive! I’ve found that when I can’t get the phrasing of something just right, or I’m still not sure what I’m going for, putting some brackets around the text in question and just scribbling whatever’s in my mind at the moment allows me to move on without getting bogged down.

If it’s in brackets, I give myself permission to be silly, OOC, anachronistic, or messy, and boy is it a lifesaver sometimes.

Once I have the AO3 info fields done, I draw a little line below the summary and start filling in what I call the “brainstorm space” (that inevitable turns into a mini-outline I need to move over to another page at some point). This is another place I allow myself to be messy. I scribble down thoughts on narrative structure, inspirations, setting, key moments/scenes, themes, motifs, stuff I absolutely need to include, and any overarching things that will be helpful to have before planning in earnest.

Here’s what it looks like for this fic:

Not much there now, but it’s a start, and that’s what outlining is all about!

Second Page: Detailed Outline

A bit of a note here – I used to have a separate page for a “mini-outline,” i.e. a less detailed version, but the brainstorm space basically serves this purpose now, so it’s less common.

This is where the actual structural planning starts to take place. I’ve gotten into the habit of using bracket text here, too, to serve as shorthand summaries of each point. For a multi-chapter fic, I’ll also make sure to note where I think the chapter boundaries will fall, though obviously this is subject to change.

So, a barebones one for this fic might look something like this:

There’s not much there right now, but that’s fine, because (1) it’s in bracket text and (2) this is just the skeletal structure for what comes next: filling it in as you get inspiration.

My brain tends to want to write longfics, but never linearly, of course. Sometimes I get raw bursts of inspiration for scenes, so the way I work with this is to scribble (on my phone, on the computer, in a physical notebook) whatever it is down at the moment I get it, then plug it in to the existing outline later. This way, I end up building a pretty comprehensive plan for the fic before I even open a word document, and it’s easier to make big choices like chapter contents, scene order, and story progression without feeling like I need to tear apart something that’s already fairly set in stone.

Here's an example of what a partially filled-in outline looks like, from my Celefax Gothic Mystery AU WIP:

Note that this one is in chart form, which is what I usually go with for longfics for better separation of scenes and ideas.

Pagestravaganza: Additional Pages for Longfics

For one-shots and shorter multi-chapter fics, typically the Tags/Brainstorming and Detailed Outline pages are enough to get me ready to write, but for longfics, there’s a lot more to think about, and additional places to take notes can be helpful.

Here’s an example of all the pages in the tab for that Celefax AU I mentioned above, which has a lot of characters and worldbuilding and all sorts of things that would be difficult to encapsulate in an outline alone:

For one of my other longfic WIPs, I also have a page where I write down revision notes for the parts I’ve already written as they come to me, so it’s easy to refer back to during the editing process (which I could write a whole other post about).

Another thing I sometimes like to do, especially for one-shots or fics that are from only one character’s POV, is write out a paragraph or two about character emotional arcs. Plot is great, but it can be hard to know where that takes you if you don’t know where each character is starting out and where they end up.

To summarize: The sky’s the limit here. Whatever you need to do to make sure everything comes together, however you need to organize it, however little makes it into the final draft, your outlining/planning document is for you, and you shouldn’t get too bogged down into what needs to be there or whether it’s clean and pretty. As long as it’s helpful to you, it is serving its purpose admirably, and even if it isn’t you’re still learning what does and doesn’t work for you. The way I outline is a constantly evolving process, and different things work for different fics. Feel free to play around!

Writing the Dang Thing

This is the end result, the task for which all your outlining has (hopefully) prepared you!

I’ll be honest: I loathe first drafts. (See above comment about everything needing to be perfect the first time around.)

It’s probably for this reason that I outline so fastidiously, because when I plop my bracket text outline and any pre-written snippets into my first draft, it feels so much less daunting than staring at a blank page.

I can start to fill in the pieces I neglected (scene setting, always), figure out where there might be a need for more connective tissue, and tackle the bite-sized chunks my bracket text outline has created one at a time.

I keep doing that until, ta da! A workable first draft emerges, and we move on to editing, my beloved.

Hopefully this has been interesting/helpful, and please please pleeeeease feel free share your own methods and thoughts and funny bracket text!

[little-honeypuppy]

*＊✿❀ Intro Post! ❀✿＊*

Hi!! Welcome to Honey's playground! This is a safe place for people who do pet regression,agere, petplay,bdsm, and all of that! But I will say my age regression is only sfw, but I don't mind or judge others on what they do! All I ask is that you respect others here. And because this is a +18 and agere blog mix, I want to warn other littles! So if you don't feel comfortable seeing things that are +18 please do not come here! I want this to be a place that doesn't make you uncomfortable to be here.

🌸if you want to get to know me more message me and ask or if you want to talk! DM is always open🌸

(All +18 stuff will have a warning at the top so that if you don't want to see them you can keep scrolling)

DNI IF HOMOPHOBIC, TRANSPHOBIC, RACIST, SEXIST,UNDER 18,ANTI-AGERE, ETC.

*＊✿❀About Me! ❀✿＊*

My hobbies:

reading!! I love to read, and I can often be found in my cozy nest of blankets and stuffies on my bed, reading or curled up on the ground with some blankets in a corner of a room just enjoying a book.

Drawing is another hobbie of mine! I draw all the time when I am big or If I am little and I love trying new and fun types of art and love to be as creative as possible! I also draw when I am feeling sad or depressed as it helps me put things down in a drawing if I can't find the right words or I am to upset to speak and also helps me vent too. I also Journal.

Watching cartoons and anime is also something I do often too. My favorite cartoons to watch when little are wild kratts,mlp,bluey,pokemon,Danny Phantom,winx,carebears, the cuphead show,httyd, mighty magiswords and a bunch of others but those are my favorite!

As for anime I love to watch one piece,naruto,demon slayer,bleach,heaven's official blessing,bnha,black butler,blue exorcist,fairy tail,soul eater,assassination classroom,kuroko no basket and a bunch more but then I would be putting a lot of anime!

*＊✿❀About my petplay and age regression❀✿＊*

My age regression:

For my age regression I do regress from my past trauma that I experienced when I was younger and couldn't really have the best childhood. And I do sometimes regress non-voluntary but that Is when I am overwhelmed or verrrrry stressed.

My little ages are 1-6 and but I am usually on the younger side. So I usually enjoy watching cartoons, art and crafts!,playing with stuffies and toys,fun games and playing on my switch.

My favorite games on my switch are animal crossing,slime rancher,minecraft and sky: children of light! I have other ones I really like too and if curious you can ask.

Things that make me feel small! : drinking from sippy cups and bottles and using my paci! Cuddling my stuffies and using my agere dishes and utensils.

Favorite food and drink: hot chocolate,apple juice and angel milk are my favorite drinks and Mac & cheese with chicken nuggets or Mashed potatoes with corn and hot dogs are my favorite meals! Also love snacks! :3

I am always happy to be friends with other littles but I am kinda shy but I would love to talk of anyone wanted 😊

If you aren’t a fan of age regression as a whole just block me, no need to be rude about anything! I’m not hurting anyone and neither are you if you just block me and if you are mean then I will block you.

And finally my petplay!!! :

I'll make it simple because this is already really long 😆

I love petplay!! Anything and everything about it, and tbh I would be willing to do anything and everything with/about petplay. To put it, I do everything with petplay and love to try new things! And I love being a puppy too! (If you want to know more you can just ask me)

One thing I will be doing for fun a lot is making stimboards! so you will most likely be seeing a lot of them, and i hope you enjoy them too :3

♡Thank You So Much For Taking The Time To Read This and sorry it was so long! But now i hope you enjoy your stay at Honey's playground!!♡

[agentaart]

hello v(^-^) can you explain the cool numbers/codes you assigned to each vocaloid/voice synth in your latest art piece! VY2s make sense but i’m interested in the others! yay! thank you either way d–(^ ‿ ^ )z

OH I WOULD LOVE TO! OKAY SO

Kaai Yuki:

Her number is 07 since she was the 6th vocaloid released after miku, so just going up chronologically. I know technically theres vocaloids before her so she's not the 7th one, I'm just following the miku trend here. Not very creative sorry.

Piko Utatane and SF-A2 Miki:

Miki is officially called SF-A2 Kaihatsu Code Miki, so thats a lil obvious. However, most vocaloids have code names. Usually they relate to the voicebank in some way but they can also be gibberish. You can find them on most wiki's. Miki's code is SF-A2. So I used that to be her lil shoulder/hand tattoo. Also fun fact, originally, Piko and Miki were meant to be counterparts for each other before they got separated between different companies. Piko's official name is Kaihatsu Code PIKO so I decided to make them a pair. Following the trend for Miki, I made Piko have his code be his number/letters. Pikos code is KSRW-1, SO on it goes.

Zundamon:

She's got a lot of voice banks with lots of different software hosting her now-a-days BUT she originally used to be a voicevox and an Utau. I kinda regard Teto as THE utau so I figured I could copy and paste a design element. Since Teto has the date she was released be the number on her arm, I did the same thing with Zundamon. She was first introduced the world May 21st in 2017 SO I made 0521 be her number. May being the 5th month and 21 being the day.

Yuuma/VY2:

Lil obvious again but you know. Yuuma is his name! VY2 is also his name! Mash the 2 together. WOOOOW so creative lol

Haruno Sora:

So, typically when I do numbers on vocaloids, I try and count up from miku. BUT that doesn't nessisarily mean I just count every voicebank released from her since. Sometimes I do stuff like I did with Miki and Piko if theres an opportunity for something more interesting. If they're pairs/Counterparts like Rin/Len, Anon/Kanon, Mikoto/Hime, Project ZOLA, I try and give them the same numbers. So counting up from miku with these weird rules, Haruno Sora would be 51. Again, she's not the 51st, but counting can get tiring. Subject to change though, entirely depends on how I count any future vocaloids I draw from here on out.

Miku Hatsune:

Not much is significant about her number really. Its just her base design element. Only addition is that it's pink since she's the #1 diva and needs to be special-er.

Closing thought:

I usually only take the earliest history I can when I choose these lil codes since revamping how I draw them everytime they get a new bank in a new software, I'd lose my mind. If I had to take into account Namine Ritsu everytime she gets a new bank/design, I'd go nuts. Generally though, it entirely depends on what I think would be a cool code for them. For ex, I have Macne Nana's code be 2S since the last series vocal she was provided by Reason and Garageband was called Macne Nana 2S. Since she was the only Macintosh vocal synth available for a while, I figured she could use some speacial treatment. I'll prolly post that doddle page here too. ANYWAY thats the peak into my brain. THANK YOU AND GOODNIGHT