#I'd heartily heartily recommend them)

[gobs-o-dice]

Dice Set #235: Green Flow

[sketchedatrocities]

A Good RomHack? Wow!

You're gay, you're trans, you're looking for a new pokemon Romhack to play because that's what you do. (I am an ally)

You're uninterested in the swaths of blandly designed fakemon people make. All the design scope in the world and they make Eevee but with shinpads and call them a starter.

You shake your (gay/trans) head. (As an ally I also know cis women play pokemon, just thought I'd mention.)

Suddenly I grasp your head (respectfully) and point it at this Romhack! "IT'S GOT GREAT DESIGNS, UNIQUE AND PLAYFUL WITH DELIGHTFUL SPRITE WORK!" I scream into your face and ears.

You try and claw me off but I'm quick and limber. "THEY EVEN HAVE NEW TRAINER SPRITES AND PROGRAMMED PHYSICAL SPECIAL SPLIT INTO CRYSTAL!"You hit me with the holy water and I skitter, spider like out the window, but you hear me from outside. "I'M VERY PICKY, BUT ENJOYED MYSELF GREATLY. AS A CHARACTER DESIGN SNOB I RECOMMEND IT HEARTILY!" You ready the gun but I'm gone. Wearily you ready your emulator.

[maaikeatthefullmoon]

This week I have mostly been reading...

May 13-19th, 2024

New idea I've had, and hopefully something I'll have time to do once a week on a Sunday. Over the past seven days, I have devoured the following Good Omens fanfics, and I recommend these most heartily to you:

Completed works I've read this week:

Boyfriend Debut by snae_b Rated E - A & C are both porn actors. It sounds seedy. It's not. Holy Hell, it's not. It's one of the hottest things I've ever read, but also so, so sweet and delightful.

They Drink Tea At The End by @knifeforkspooncup Rated T - After a year spent in Heaven, A returns to C in the bookshop completely and utterly overstimulated in every sensory capacity. A wonderful, sweet story of them truly knowing each other and an excellent example of how the fandom relates to GO in so many beautiful ways.

Pay Per View by IneffableToreshi Rated E - A lovely story set in Canada, full of our so frequently seen miscommunication between A & C. And, as the author says: "Also, why the fuck is Aziraphale watching porn in their hotel room?! And taking notes?!"

Cranking Up The Heat by @vavoom-sorted-art Rated E - Well, the title says it all, really. And the fic's description: "The equivalent of that hot wings challenge, but with porn." Don't really want to say much more, as you've gotta see it to enjoy it.

On The Same Page by Chekhov Rated E - A fake marriage fic with Only One Bed. A & C are both authors, but two very different ones. Excellently written with very vividly described mental struggles with internal homophobia & self loathing.

A Model Guardian by Fuuma_san Rated E - As a former model, I found this fic really interesting. I'd genuinely love to know what the author's tie/experience in the industry is. C is a model, A is their bodyguard. An interesting tale which involves some great discussion on gender.

In The Room Where You Sleep by @mrghostrat Rated E - Another banger by ghostrat, posted in its entirety this week. In a reversal to many other fics I've seen, A is a vampire and C is a vampire hunter. *Homer Simpson voice* With sexy results. ;)

WIPs which have updated this week (which I devour as soon as I get the update!)

There Is A Light And It Never Goes Out by @phoen1xr0se Rated M - A is a researcher (puffins!), C is a lighthouse keeper on the island where A has run away to to escape his problems and do his research. The author has recently spent a week studying puffins - which is the ultimate dedication, if you ask me. Ch 9/26 posted this week

Find The Light by @klikandtuna Rated E - Headmaster A and Rockstar C. The story teases out a fraught history between them whilst keeping a tension between them in the modern day. Ch 4/? posted this week.

Terminus by @emotional-support-demon-crowley Rated T - Astronaut A is guided back to Earth by controller C after 92 years in space. There are many difficulties both of them have to face and they develop an amazing rapport. Ch 15/17 posted this week.

Oddity by @tsyvia48 Rated E - Actor C is contracted by (useless) Gabriel to guest curate an exhibition at the museum where A works. After getting off on the wrong foot, can they work together to pull off this show? Ch 22/24 posted this week.

Under The Summer Stars by @pannotbread Rated E - This wonderful fic has taught me more about physics than school ever did (mostly because I never did any physics, but...well). A & C have to share their time at an observatory because there is Only One Telescope. Not only will you learn about astrophysics, astrobiology, and astroecology, you'll also read some of the most poetically, beautifully written masturbation scenes I've ever seen. *ahem* Ch 6/13 posted this week.

Free by well, me: imposterssyndrome Rated E - A & C meet (again?) in an acute mental health ward after both having had mental health crises. A runs a bookshop but is very much under his parents' control. C has been homeless since childhood and has struggled his entire life. They do not trust each other when they first meet, but feel strangely drawn to one another all the same. Where will this lead them? This is a passion piece for me. There is a lot of lived experience in it, and extensive research from both professionals and peers. It has been a real journey for me to write it, and as I'm coming closer to the end it's becoming very emotional for me. Ch 43/? posted this week

[youcouldmakealife]

Hello! Another writing question! Which word processor do you use? I've been relying on Google Docs, but want to upgrade. TYIA!

I've been using Scrivener for many, many years now. Like a shocking number of years, given I am the kind of person who picks up every new program or app with 'this will surely fix me' energy, only to discard them when they did not, in fact, fix me (or they stopped providing The Dopamine, or I started tracking too many things and things got too convoluted, or--)

Before I was using Scrivener, I was using Word (or an open source alternative, depending), and I use Google Docs for editing, but Scrivener, and its ability for me to have a work space that includes all my projects (they're all in one project called 'kitchen sink', unless it's a novel I'm prepping for publication, in which case it gets its own project). It's basically the ideal program for someone who flits from piece to piece, and it's insanely customizable, which is probably the reason I've never left for more novel pastures: if I change the way I want to work, I can alter it to suit.

If you're a one project at a time person, I still pretty heartily recommend it, because it has spots for ancillary bits that you need to have access to but don't necessarily fit in the main file (character profiles, a scene you cut but really like a few lines from, research, etc)

It can do a ton for you if you put the time into learning it (I not only write in it, but also format my books for publication within it), but you don't need to use all its bells and whistles.

Most exciting of all: you buy it once. Like. Seriously. Not even once per laptop or whatever, though I'd still be hyped about that.

They also have a really generous trial where you can use it for 30 days (not calendar, but days of use -- if you used it once a week, say, that'd be 30 weeks).

I'm genuinely really happy to stump for them because I use it like...every single day and every time I've had trouble with it, it's because of something I did or didn't do (say, forgot to set up auto backup) rather than a problem with the program. They've also been actively refining it and working on it the entire time I've had it. In a world that's gone all in on apps over programs, subscription based models over ownership, and general enshittification, it's a product that just...works. I love it. Could not more highly recommend at least giving the trial a shot. (it's available for Mac, PC, and IOS)

[innumerable-stars]

Adventures in Middle Earth Promo Post

(Written by @jaz-the-bard)

Summary: Adventures in Middle Earth is a tabletop roleplaying game set in Middle-Earth between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The system is based on Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition, but can also be played in its own system, The One Ring RPG. There are a number of plotlines suggested in the play materials, from helping the princess Írimë sail to Valinor to defeating the Werewolf of Mirkwood (and defeating it again... and again...), but as with any roleplaying game, the possibilities are endless.

Why should I check out this canon? The mechanics of the game are designed particularly for Tolkien's world, giving direct consequences for ill deeds and magical corruption, as well as focusing on travel and journeys, and the characters -- whether from the books or invented for the game -- are a delight. There's nothing more fun than player heroes running into Legolas after being lost in the woods for days! It's also possible to use these rules to homebrew a Silmarillion-set game (ask me how I know) and use the corruption effects to destroy the player characters. The authors of the game are lore-knowledgable, and the settings and stories really feel like Tolkien's world!

Where can I get this? The sourcebooks for AiME are out of print, but the reworked version LotR 5e is available to buy online. However, some sourcebooks can be found on the Internet Archive and other places, and people who own copies are often happy to share!

What fanworks already exist? There are already a handful of fanfictions on Ao3 for this game! Several are writings about adventures that player characters have had. Likewise, fanart for it on Tumblr tends to be of player heroes. I'd heartily recommend checking out those fanworks (and not just because I wrote a bunch of them)! These original-character-heavy, setting-entwined works are a fantastic glimpse into the pieces of Middle-Earth between the pages.

[bomberqueen17]

lose not a moment

I have hit upon the novel idea of listening to audiobooks for my long car rides and tedious solo work sessions, since i can't follow or understand podcasts. I can't really follow audiobooks either, historically, but if I listen to a book I've read before, I've had decent success at still following it. I exhausted the meager supplies of the Buffalo library, however, which while it has a substantial physical collection, is shockingly lacking in all digital options, and the audiobook selection is downright threadbare.

I started with Murderbot, which being both familiar and novellas, was very accessible. Kevin R. Free is a great narrator, but i am occasionally perturbed by one particular turn of phrase I now can't recall, but which Wells is fond of using, and Free mispronounces every time. i can't remember but it's some homonym, like using the wrong pronunciation of "read", which makes the admittedly slightly-nonstandard phrase nonsense. I genuinely can't recall what it is. Anyway this is small potatoes, and I do recommend them if you like audiobooks.

I moved on to a Lord Peter Wimsey book, because it was short. I'd only read the one, the first one, which has a sort of sickening antisemitism but it's like...... part of the setting, and is not really borne out by the plot. (The murder victim is a Jewish man, and there's all kinds of horrible shit said by all kinds of characters, some of whom are meant to be sympathetic, but all we are shown of the man himself is that he was actually a pretty good dude and our POV characters are heartily sorry for his fate. But his Jewishness is part of the motive, his defeated romantic rival being so horribly put-out by having lost to a Jew; and it's part of how the plot is unraveled, an unwitting witness later commenting about that dead [slur for Jew-- actually an archaic slur i'd never even heard before but obvious from context, so i guess at least it's not one of the gratingly familiar ones but it's obvious what it is] he'd seen, which is proof of the corpse's identity even after he can no longer be visually identified due to various events. Ugh. It's not that the book's not worth reading, it's clearly meant to be part of the setting and is absolutely faithful to the period, contemporary with which it was written, but boy it is really gross to kind of slog through that.)

I detoured to listen to the Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper, which I had read and loved as a child but remembered only poorly. It was well-read, and the narrator had notably excellent Welsh, which was gratifying as my child-self had really puzzled over some of the place names in the third book and beyond. (I had certainly never pronounced the dog Cafall's name correctly, despite having read the pronunciation guide assiduously.) But it was soon over.

Anyway after that I hit upon the idea of listening to the audiobooks of Patrick O'Brian's series about Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, which I read voraciously when I was a child and my parents brought them all home from the library. I read the series possibly out of order, I don't recollect now, and I wasn't sure how well I'd remember it. I had certainly been too young to understand a great deal of it, and I remember puzzling over the diagram in the frontispiece of the sails with near-despair.

I started in on Master & Commander, the first book, and I remembered the initial scene, I remembered how Stephen and Jack met, I remembered the broad strokes of all the events, and was enchanted by revisiting it. I then listened to the second one, Post Captain, and found it harder going; it was a different narrator, who makes little mouth noises sometimes and whose voices for the characters I like less. Stephen Vance is the narrator I like more, though I don't really like how he does the women's voices; he makes Diana Villiers sound downright ridiculous. But he's very good at the distinct voices for the major characters and I quite like him otherwise.

I haven't bothered consulting a diagram; I know which sail is which just well enough (not well at all) to follow the action, and it turns out I don't really need to know what a cross-catharping is at all. (I mean, I looked it up just now, but it didn't matter.)

Book 3, HMS Surprise, has another situation with a Jewish character facing antisemitic disapprobation, and it is sort of a refreshing contrast to Lord Peter Wimsey that the POV character of the moment, Stephen Maturin, despite (spoilers) imminently killing the man in a duel, shuts down the person who is saying the most antisemitic things, saying that he has a particular fondness for Our Lady and since she was a Jewess he cannot believe to consider himself superior to her people in any way. Earlier the character is also denigrated but by such an unsympathetic character that the reader is pretty clearly meant to find her ridiculous. Still, it is there, but about on par with how Catholics are spoken of in the series. Which is no small thing; I have currently put the book down because a character in book four has just discovered Stephen is Catholic and is singing an offensive song about it at him and I needed a moment to not listen to that.

Anyway-- I had not thought I remembered the books well at all, and indeed I don't, many of the turns of the plot are total surprises to me, and I am in suspense for most of the action scenes, but I am occasionally dumbfounded to find turns of phrase that have been in my vocabulary entire this whole time. I read these books at a tender age and some of their philosophies, some of their turns of phrase, are deeply embedded in me, in my foundations indeed. I do not recommend them unreservedly, and I also think I will not seek out the current fandom for them particularly, as I don't think that the fandom takes on these characters will jive particularly well with my deep and ancient love for them. I read these books quite before I was capable of any real critical thought, and I do not think the fannish take will sit well with that early impression.

We'll see, though.

I do think I owe O'Brian a lot in how I write action. He does it so directly, with such immediacy-- so clearly, but with occasional bits of real poetry, some evocative touches that make it so vibrant-- that's what I strive to do as well. I don't know that I succeed, but if I ever do, I surely owe him.

But anyway-- part of the point of this post is that the Buffalo library only had books one, two, and eleven as audiobooks, and did not have ebooks of more than three or four of the books either. I was complaining of this, and my mother reminded me that anyone resident in NY State can get a digital library card to the New York Public Library, and I said I knew that but not how to do it. So, on Sunday afternoon while the various family was doing various active things and she and I were sitting at the picnic table, she knitting and I sewing, she said "open your Libby app. Select add a library. Type in New York. Select the New York Public Library. See what happens."

One of the options there was "I would like to request a card", and tapping this brought me to a screen where I was invited to give them my mailing address, which is indeed in New York State legitimately, and immediately they granted me a provisional library card with a one-year expiration date.

They have the entire series in audiobook, and ready to borrow, no holds.

I also had said I wanted to get a card at the library near the farm, and my sister is on the board of that; Mom asked her, when she next came by, and she said "oh let me look on the website, I'm not sure what you need," and in a moment asked me to remind her of my phone number, and in a moment after that I had an email in my inbox with my Upper Hudson library card, as she had filled out the application for me using her own address (where I do legitimately reside) and my birthdate, which of course she knows.

So now I have access to the riches of Upper Hudson as well, which while having one fewer library in its system than Buffalo, has at first glance about ten times as many digital titles.

So.

Anyway, there are twenty books in this series so I'm probably set for the rest of the summer.

I have no real deep observations on the books, except to admire the sharp character-work-- just such round characters, all around, major and minor, even if O'Brian sometimes loses track of minor characters here and there. How can I really complain? The ones he keeps sharp watch on are so delightful, so real, so self-propelled. I was worried, this book 4, that none of my favorites were by; Aubrey and Maturin are together, but are bound for the far side of the world, in great haste, with none of their regular recurrent comrades. When who should appear, to my wondering eyes, but the incomparable coxswain Barret Bonden, who in the first book very politely turns down Aubrey's offer to rate him an officer, in the third book finally reveals why when Stephen, hands injured, tries to dictate a letter to him ("I can't write a word," he admits. "I can read, near enough, can puzzle out the watch list, but I can't write a stroke.") Later in the third book, Stephen teaches him to write, sitting on one of the platforms among the rigging with him and dictating poetry, breaking off to exclaim when he sees an albatross-- Bonden, diligently, writing, "I see the albatross-- that don't rhyme, doctor, is there more to the line?" And here he is in the fourth, both a plot device and a welcome face.

I had despaired of him, but here too is my favorite. Early on a midshipman, the senior mid rated master's mate, then finally rated a lieutenant, and now an acting captain he turns up all unlooked-for in the fourth book, TOM PULLINGS, I don't know why I love him so but I do, what a cheerful and willing creature. I don't remember if anything terrible happens to him later, don't tell me. (I did spoil myself for a few characters, pulled up the wiki for a moment to remind myself who somebody was and then read too far. Nooooooo alas.)

Anyway I am much enjoying them, but am falling prey to my usual problem, wherein when I am reading a book I only want to do that and do not want to do other things, like work or sleep or other hobbies, so I may have to set limits for myself on how long I can listen in a day, or at least take breaks.

[elizabethrobertajones]

so after taking like half a year to watch the second doctor, I burned through Pertwee Doctor in what felt like a week. I was fully ready to formally induct him to the hall of favourites somewhere around the top, pending the wikipedia search to check he such wasn't a terrible guy IRL it made it into the personal life section as per the last 2, and -

[refuses to be in a film when a producer won't hire a gay friend]

good start, good start (already liked everything else I read but this is an incredible character merit mark for a guy in the 50s)

[the doctor is literally just him being himself on camera]

Oh, so I just want him to be my friend, I see

[he said the catalyst for leaving was the death of Roger Delgado among other changes in the last year]

Wait WHAT - is that why there was no more Master later on -

[Delgado died on location filming in Turkey, his own wiki page repeats that this was why Pertwee wanted out]

NO NO NO NO NNOOOO

HOW IS THIS HUGE BIT OF DOCTOR WHO HISTORY SOMETHING I NEVER HEARD ABOUT? I GREW UP IN SCI FI CONVENTION SPACES BUT EVERYONE JUST TALKS ABOUT TOM BAKER LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED BEFORE?

WHAT THE FUCK.

I am DISTRAUGHT, the Doctor/Master stuff from the first few seasons of the 3rd Doctor was absolutely INCREDIBLE television. I'd been assuming Delgado maybe had somewhere else to be. Heartily recommend watching that entire run of the show if you don't want to start any earlier.

Well, anyway. :(

I know people don't like the weird James Bond swing it all took with him but the show had been getting more action-y anyway under the 2nd doctor and then a guy who had literally been in the inner circle with all the WWII creatives like Ian Fleming and probably helped INSPIRE James Bond gets the role, I'm feeling like we're blessed and privileged from this perspective of getting to watch it as a historical artefact. I'm assuming based on the vague things I know about the 4th Doctor, the first I'm meeting with any preconceptions, that he's obviously not capable of bringing THAT to the table because that was no ordinary skillset, Pertwee was clearly a top 0.00001% of actors and Guys Who Had Lived A Life, who happened to be doing a silly BBC sci fi show. I'm expecting it to tone back on all these things.

And then in hindsight from the Doctor Who revival era, all the nonsense he brought, aside from the Venusian Karate and flying car and a few other extreme eccentricities, end up being stuff that feels much more modern and like the kind of antics the Doctor gets involved in. Like, he took the sonic screwdriver from being a couple of times joke into a multi-tool with the first joke about it not working on wood after he uses it through many episodes to escape or explode things, all of which is so common nature to the Doctor nowadays.

He also had far more of the casual behaviours we think of as The Doctor now, especially way less circumspect name dropping of historical people and a sense of having lived all around time and space, sometimes for extensive periods of time (he clearly like. LIVED on Venus to pick up all the various throwaway jokes about Venusian culture to explain things he does lmao). Weirdly, despite knowing he was a timetraveller from the jump, the previous two doctors were quite close-lipped about who they knew and had met, and rarely namedropped.

In any case, carrying on into 4th doctor era cautiously because I am 1: sad and 2: deeply let down by my perception of Whovian culture as I've been exposed to it, which sets a ridiculously high bar for Baker as the high watermark of Who and meanwhile I have just bid farewell to watching one of the most electric actors I've ever seen in anything ever while feeling wildly upset on his behalf that there isn't a bonkers appreciative fan culture for everything he did and he's written off as one of the quirky weird early doctors you don't need to bother with.

(AND THERE WAS WRITTEN QUEER DOCTOR MOMENTS. AT LEAST 2-3 OF THEM, GENDER AND SEXUALITY-WISE. HE GOT TALKED TO IN POLARI. ON TV IN 1972. THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT.)

[argumentalist]

There's just so many fantastic designs in Witch from Mercury that don't get nearly enough screen-time. And the Beguir-Beu is a great example.

I love the colors on this kit. The different shades of purple/lavender against the white are so striking.

And like the rest of the HGWFM line - there's no polycaps. This is a very solid plastic-on-plastic build. I guess maybe I'm a little worried about long-term wear from that? But right now, at least, it means a very solid and very poseable kit.

So, right off the bat, I'm annoyed by this head.

There's very unique clear parts - but they don't catch the light well. And there's nothing good to paint chrome behind those parts. There's some foil stickers, but I hate to put them over the clear parts.

I tried painting the underside of those clear parts chrome, but that didn't turn out great. I guess it's OK for now, but I'd love a better solution. Those clear bits don't pop nearly as much as I'd like them to.

The torso is just kind of one block. There isn't a separate waist section like you often see - although there is some good articulation in the middle, and you still get a decent ab-crunch.

There's a tiny little pilot seat under that clear bubble. There's no pilot figure, of course, since this is just an HG kit. But it's a nice little bit of detail. I don't think it's visible in this picture but I painted that seat black.

The arms and legs have the same shiny inset bits that I saw with the Michaelis - which just makes sense since that's a further refinement of this design. I think I mentioned it in that post... But this really looks more like it should be a Peil design than a Grassley one. It looks far more alien than the Dilanzas do.

Continuing the insect aesthetics... The backpack legitimately looks like a moth sitting on my desk.

Again I find myself somewhat annoyed by the accessories in this kit.

There's no alternate hands at all - just the two holding hands. And while we do get a weapon stand, which is fantastic, there's just one. So I can't display both non-kinetic pods at the same time.

I guess I'm just expecting too much from HG kits? I know they're obviously not going to contain as many bells and whistles as MG or RG kits... But I'd be willing to pay another couple dollars for two weapon stands in this box. Or an extra set of hands.

This kit is just straight-up striking. I don't think I've got anything else like it on my shelf.

The Michaelis obviously has a similar color-scheme... But this thing looks downright insectoid. The head and arms remind me of a preying mantis. The backpack looks like a moth. And then you pop off those non-kinetic pods and it looks even weirder.

As I mentioned - I'm a little annoyed that there's only one weapon stand and there aren't more hand options... And the feet are a little unsteady. It's clearly designed to be up on a stand. But those are really tiny little nit-picks.

It's a really fun, quick build that I can heartily recommend to anyone.

[creation-help]

Miscellaneous character design tips (that everyone could find useful)

- Feathers in hair, behind the ear, on the head, in some headress ect? Just don't. Unless you're indigenous I strongly, strongly advise against it, bc native people have criticized this design trope time and time again. Accessories and clothing like this can be very difficult to get right if you don't know what you're doing.

• Also! W*ndigos. Don't. If you wanna design a character that "looks like" (or is what you imagine when you think of a) W*ndigo, just. Design a character that looks like that and call it some other monster (Disclaimer: I'm mainly talking about things like those skull headed monsters with antlers ykno). These creatures have alot of deep meaning to the cultures they're from, and people are tired of them being appropriated and misrepresented. It will cost you nothing to just make a generic monster rather than butcher something from a marginalized culture. (Also, I've censored the word because in the past I've been told that using it's name is bad luck/harmful, so I'm doing this to be respectful)

(Natives/indigenous people are welcome to add on discussion about this if you feel like there's anything I could've said differently)

- Unless your character design is meant to be flexible, up to artist interpretation, or just messy, place patterns and decorative characteristics on distinct, memorable places. For example if your character has spots, put the most notable ones on places that're easy to remember and replicate, like on particular body parts. I'd also advise to make just a bit less of these patterns. Generally, if you're not aiming for a cluttered looking design, prioritize quality over quantity, when it comes to patterns.

- A character design's intent is just as important as the actual character design. You'll see me mentioning this on the previous point as well. Unless we're talking about offensive caricatures, there's teeechnically no such thing as a "bad" character design. Just rather a failed or unsuccessful one. What I mean by that, is that if your design is meant to look cliche, tacky, messy, or just plain unappealing, and it looks like such, that is a successful design! If you designed a character just to be something fun for you to draw, that's a successful design! I often see this point applied more professionally by other art advisors, to mean more like "You should be able to tell what kind of character it is based on the design", which is also true! But intent and purpose matters in storytelling. Obviously, not all aspects of a design need to be there for some very specific reason (looking at the people who ask "Why was this character made fat/gnc/black/poc?" and so on.) just keep in mind what this character is supposed to be. I think it's better to worry about if the character design does what it's supposed to, rather than if it's ""Good""

(And yeah, there are still things that just objectively don't look very good together, according to human perspective and color theory and whatnot, but again, if you're aiming for that, you go buddy!)

- Sorta coinciding with the previous point: Don't be afraid to use "ugly" traits when designing. I think the reason why is obvious (beauty standards can go suck a dick), but there's more to it than just radical acceptance! By giving more unique, weird, or "ugly" traits to your characters, you make them more memorable and distinct from one another. If there's a billion smooth faced perfect pretty characters who are the exact same kind of flavorless vanilla sexy, it gets boring, and they blend together! And please don't limit these traits to just villains or characters who are supposed to be disliked!! My other advice on this point, is, pllllease don't design villains "ugly" and heroes "pretty", I feel like that should be a given, but alot of people may be doing it without even realizing. And that's understandable, but I heartily recommend taking a second to think about it more deeply. Why is this visual trait "Bad", or "Evil"? I just feel like so many artists are deathly afraid of having their characters look the least bit unappealing or challenging. I could go on about this but I'll stop here to keep it concise. Don't beauty police your oc is all I'm sayin

- Reference! I don't necessarily mean take inspiration from other existing character designs, although that can also be helpful. I mean that look around you, think broadly! If you have a certain theme for your design, try to round up all the little things (items, concepts, colors, animals, traits) that could be associated with it! And try to reflect that in your character design. You can get a little wacky and experimental. You can literally just broaden your inspiration to things like everyday objects, a specific fabric texture, an element, or a fungi that lives in moldy houses. Anything! My main point is to try to think outside the box and consider more unconventional things to reference for your character design, you'll never know what might work and look really interesting. Often, a bland design is worse than a weird one. (Disclaimer: Unless you're aiming for bland ofc, per my prev points, but ykno). You can also just go by "Hmm, I'm making a character who is X, what does that remind me of?" or, what I also recommend "Hmm, so X kinds of characters remind me of these things. Let's ditch that and think what one usually wouldn't associate with X kinds of characters!". Ykno, defy convention, think about things you might not usually do. I know it can be easier said than done but once you get into a habit of trying to think more broadly, it'll come to you easier. Don't be afraid to get odd and unusual

- While I don't condemn designing a character in a way that just, is that way, because you designed it like that, I also recommend thinking about how and why the character is like that in-story. Might seem like an obvious tip, but I'll elaborate. I for example, have a pair of bug demon characters who grew up on the streets and didn't have the normal amount of nourishment for their age, so, due to that their mouth pincers and other buggy parts were left much smaller and more "plain" looking than others of their species. They never developed to their appropriate adult size. Things like this will reflect on a character design! And that's just one example. If your character has a habit of nervous picking, or sensory problems, or live in an area where certain resources for clothing aren't available, all of this will reflect on the design! Of course, you can also work backwards from a design and think "Hmm, what justification will I think of for the character having these traits (especially if they're uncommon for their story setting)?"

I may do a part 2 sometime later, I just had some thoughts I wanted to compile for now! Obviously you can have your own design principles but these are ones I consistently use (also the first one being as specific as it is, is just something I particularly wanted to say).

[felonytaxevasion]

Glad you enjoyed pact!

I'd love to know your thoughts on the magic system and diabolism in general, also what did you think of Black Lambs Blood?

Also if you actually want wildbow long windedness in his supernatural setting, then I can say thats Pale's biggest weakness, so if you are okay with that I can heartily recommend it

Diablerism/Black Lambs Blood was my favorite part of the Pact magic system by a long shot actually. I wouldn't say there were any parts of the magic that I didn't like or enjoy to some extent but the best part of Pact for me was the character work and I feel like diablerie was the most realized supporting metaphor for the relationships between those characters.

For example, and I promise arent critiques so much as comparisons to illustrate just how good the diablerie is, the DuChamps enchantress magic system is pretty solid. They manipulate connections and in the process the connections within the family lose the authenticity within their relationships with each other and only end up being connected through magic and false promises. Pretty well realized metaphor for how focusing on a family's position rather than the family unit itself will weaken the unit to disrepair. Mara for all of the side eye worthy racial politics of her character, also has a fairly realized metaphor about family dynamics. The parent draining the life of the child to prolong her own youth only to ultimately fail to realize any new goals as youth was never a requirement necessary for change in the first place.

I will say where pact starts to lose me is the other Jacobs Bell Powers. Mags works to an extent. The representation of how violent trauma affects a person who then carries that violence forward and inflicts it on others. My main critique with that is that Pact is such a family focused story I wish we got to see more of Mags and her dads and how the metaphorical violent trauma separated her from her family. Padraic being the one to sever the connection rather than Maggie's specific individual practice hobbled the thematic resonance of goblins for me, personally. I also won't lie, I'm fairly confident that there IS a strong metaphor within the Behaims chronomancy. However, said metaphor went completely over my head. Chronomancy was a super cool magic and I loved reading about it and the Behaim family dynamic was also interesting, but since I couldn't see the correlation between the two it weakened both elements impact on me as a reader.

So with all that said. On the other hand: Diablerie. Honestly incredible work in terms of landing a metaphor. There's a lot with passing on karmic burden as the cycle of abuse that's great. What really hits for me though is the idea of Permanent Damage. Society really supports the idea of family as the strongest most unbreakable bond in the world. So writing a family then explicitly filling it with the power of completely unfixable never able to be undone damage is really good. Pact doesn't play around with the idea that the Thorburns could ever completely fix their family to have a normal or entirely healthy relationship ever again. Rose Sr broke them in a way that can't be fixed. There's no amount of family therapy or Wanting to be a family that can undo what's been done.

I think part of the reason Black Lambs Blood is such a good side story about diablerie is because it also centers a family unit and how a demon can destroy it.

What I really love about dark urban fantasy compared to standard fantasy is that there's no escapism present. Like I love escapism but I love magic as a storytelling tool to tell human stories about inhuman characters. Which is very much the core of pact and why it works for me.

In terms of Pale though. Eeehhhh? I'm going back and forth on it because like you brought up, length in and of itself is not something that bothers me. However, how that length is used IS pretty critical. Worm and Pact both like to put the protagonist in an unwinnable situation where Taylor/Blake try several strategies that fail before either finding the solution or suffering a great loss. I think this style can bother people because the failures, especially in large numbers, aren't necessarily adding new character development or plot elements to the narrative and they would much rather just skip to the loss/solution. But personally I love when things get drawn out in this way because it helps hammer home the emotional feeling of victory or tragedy. The reason I'm apprehensive about Pale though is that I do not think that Ward used it's length well and that's when I started to get bored. Victoria would have very long fight sequences where she wouldn't need to find new creative solutions so much as continue through waves and waves of goons before she could reach the final boss and either win using the same strategy she did in the beginning, or lose using the same strategy. And like the things I like about Worm and Pact this definitely CAN work for people, it makes her victories via punching very hard feel earned. For me though it just felt like a slog and I've heard from some friends that Pale can fall in to this category in its latter half as well. Also frankly, the idea of pulling the magic outside of a family narrative and into a Magic School sounds like the least interesting possible choice to me. So while I'm sure it's more interesting than I'm imagining it is a steep barrier to entry for me.

[pretensesoup]

Queer Books 2024

I've been meaning to write more book reviews this Pride, because they were pretty popular last year, and I like writing them. But I've been tired. Busy with the new novel (last year, I'd just released one, so I had more time; this year I am trying to get one out the door to my editor). Busy sleeping and having feelings about stuff. Anyway, let's correct that.

Space Opera is a book that a friend of mine saw someone reading in a doctor's waiting room and mentioned on our group chat. I then requested the audiobook based on the title and tagline alone (the tagline is, "In space everyone can hear you sing"). Aaaaaand I was not disappointed. The lovechild of David Bowie and Douglas Adams, it was incredibly amusing and glittery, and at times kind of poignant as well. The variety of aliens was amazing. And it turned out to be really queer, too.

Like...what do you do when the main character defines himself as "gender splat"? Or one of the characters is a kind of hollow blue space flamingo that happens to be one of three genders of her species, and another character is a time-traveling red panda? At one point, someone has sex with a sentient beam of hypermasculine moonlight. If you always wished for a universe that feels huge, beautiful, and totally ungovernable, this is it.

After I finished the audiobook, I checked out the hard copy for my husband, who loved it so much he would read passages aloud to me. Then he ordered a copy for our household. I feel like that is the most ringing endorsement I can muster.

Key quote:

“The only wall we could ever build against What’s Going On was the glitter and the shine and the synth and the knowing grin that never stops knowing. The show. Because the opposite of fascism isn’t anarchy, it’s theater. When the world is fucked, you go to the theater, you go to the shine, and when the bad men come, all there is left to do is sing them down.”

Anyway, 10/10 for style. I do heartily recommend the audiobook, just because the narrator does so many different voices, and it's very fun.

[alackofghosts]

soooo sorry if this was asked before i cant find it but what brushes do you use! i absolutely love the texture!

i have a handful of sets that i rotate through/mix and match! :)

retro maxpack: i use the gouache fine brushes for most of the actual painting process + gouache flow rough detail for, well, details, but it has a very interesting texture to it, so sometimes i use it just for that (i used to line and colour with it as well, but it's very hard on my hands like this, so i don't do that anymore. but it's suuuper versatile) + photocopy sketch for extra texture.

kolormarc: these are based on markers and they're amazing for imitating that look, but the brushes have such a lovely subtle texture to them that i also like using these for when i want mostly flat colours with no/very minimal shading. i use the lineart brushes included in this set a lot too

chromograph: i bought these for the coloured pencil brushes, but stayed for the oil pastel brushes (retro maxpack also includes pastel brushes and i think the texture is probably more realistic, but i love how easy the chromograph ones are on my hands. also they're just really fun!)! i love using these on their own, but they pair really nicely with the kolormarc brushes and sometimes i'll use them for my more painterly pieces as well together with the retro maxpack, like i'd use actual coloured pencils and gouache

kraftone comic brushes: this is the set i use for my fake retro comic art and i absolutely adore it, it's so much fun AND tickles my brain just right, but it's the most expensive set of the lot, with a very niche use, so i also can't heartily recommend it unless you want it for the very specific purpose of making fake retro comic art (the brushes intended for linework that are included are great, but if you just want nice brushes for lining, i'd recommend the much cheaper rusty nib inkers set)

dead head: this set is like the quiet kid that gets all the work done in a group task of my art :) i sketch with these, i line with these (not all the time but very often!), the texture brushes are everything i ever wanted and used to look for all the time. what can't she do, honestly

sadly none of these sets are free, so if you're looking to get ONE, i'd recommend either retro maxpack or kolormarc first, depending on which Look you like best! :) i'll also happily answer any further questions about these sets, because i know how much it sucks to buy something while not really knowing what to expect and have it end up gathering dust because you don't like it at all...

[laiqualaurelote]

U and V for the fic ask game?

U: Share three of your favourite fic writers and why you like them so much.

It's so difficult to pick just three but I'd have to say @leupagus and @themardia, whom I have been a fan of since their Rivers of London days (It's Complicated and the Reichenbach Falls series are masterpieces). It was only through Ted Lasso (for which they wrote the fandom-defining a kind of dwell and welcome and Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered, which hardly need an introduction) that I actually became friends with them, a development I still marvel at today. They're now in the midst of epic ASOIAF/Game of Thrones fix-its -Live and Thrive and A Song of Darkness and Dawn, both of which I heartily recommend for those who've found canon wanting.

The third would be magneticwave, who writes so archly and wittily and whose fic the queen of spades once dragged me into shipping Bond/Q even though I hadn't seen Skyfall and don't even like James Bond.

V: If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

I can't even write sequels to my own fics sometimes, let alone other people's! so this question I'm going to have to beg off.

Thank you for playing this fic ask game!

[moipale]

for the isat ask game: 1, 3, 11, 12?

hello my friend. my fellow in isat insanity. ask game in question here

Favorite character?

IMPOSSIBLE question to answer. i utterly adore isat's cast so much and have trouble picking favorites in general so HOW COULD I CHOOSE..... augh. i'd say odile and siffrin are top two (in no particular order) but i could still write essays about mira and isa and bonnie. i love them all so much.

3. Which character do you relate to the most?

haha. siffrin

12. Favorite room in the house?

oh hmm!!! i think... the dusty secret study, behind the passphrase door we don't learn the passphrase to (even when siffrin does). it feels so melancholy and lonely and longing.

19. Favorite fanfic?

an excellent question. Fuck if i know

i have a bunch that i like a whole lot right now but i dont know if any occupy the elusive ~favorite~ spot. again because i suck at picking favorites but another factor is that i also want to read more longfics, since right now almost all i have bookmarked are oneshots/short ditties.

when i first got into isat i consumed a bunch of WIP longfics. but so many were postcanon that they all started blurring together LOL and me and my shitty memory would get an update notif for one and not know what the hell happened in that fic bc all blurred. thus i am waiting for a bunch to finish before i eat them 1 by 1. to uh. not blur them again.

so!!! maybe then i will have a favorite i dunno! but until then here are my isat bookmarks; i recommend them all heartily

[after-witch]

I've been wondering, since you talk about him a lot but, who is Smiling Man? I could google, but I'd love to hear from you! The way you talk about him is just so wonderful I'd love to know more.

The Smiling Man is an otherworldly entity who lives in a world known as "the other side of the mist," implied to be a parallel world to the real world. He's from Katherine Arden's "Small Spaces" middle grade horror book series, which I heartily recommend.

He can take different forms, and usually doesn't appear exactly the same twice. He appears to people who call to him, knowingly or not, and offers to grant their deepest wish for a price. The price usually being their soul or someone else's soul(s) or perhaps both.

At least twice, this price has been that he will grant someone's wish and in exchange, he will come to them years from now and knock on their door, and they will let him in and agree to do what he wants. What he wants from them, more or less, amounts to gaining control over their soul.

Think "Mephistopheles" in "Faust," or similar "deal with the devil" type characters.

He can be mean or charming, cruel or seemingly generous and kind. He usually appears in a guise that is deliberately attractive or at least charismatic. He sometimes enjoys suffering to the point of laughing himself to tears over it. He enjoys it when people trust him, especially since he has such an easy time of it.

I wrote up a character profile for him, but it's only featuring info from books 1-2. Book #4 has a massive lore drop and more fleshing out of his personality, but for now I've kept it off because... massive spoilers for book 4 & partially because of laziness.

[tomatocages]

6 and 19 for the fanfic/fandom askbox game?

Thank you!! 6. Favorite headcanon? Hmmm... for Dead Boy Detectives, I have the headcanon that Charles was actually quite good at history. There's a big deal made about him not being the brains, but he's so good at remembering their cases and the things he learns during them. I think he's probably good at history the way I am - the social, human stuff sticks in his mind, but military engagements and dates fall right out. In Voltron/Sheith (almost two different fandoms sometimes), I think Shiro has a much better/darker sense of humor than anyone gives him credit for. I have a lot of head canons about SK. 19. Fanfic you read again and again? There are two; I re-read them once a year or so. Oddly, neither of them are from fandoms I was ever very active in as a writer, but both are very, very good. I recommend them heartily. First is a an exceptional AU where Gwen Stacy is bitten by a spider and becomes Spider-Man: Maggie Fitzgerald and the Saltwater Drip, by antistar_e (kaikamahine) (T, 79,626 words, no archive warnings apply) I think the things I like most about this fic have to do with Gwen's sense of self and of her community. The author does an amazing job of incorporating other Spider-Man characters into the story, and the whole thing is phenomenal. Second is an even more sprawling universe of vignettes centered around The Winter Solder post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This, You Protect, owlet (T, 64,326 words, creator chose not to use archive warnings but I'd classify it as canon-typical violence) Again: I'm here for the community. The Asset assigns himself as protection detail for Captain American (from a distance). He gets adopted by a bunch of senior citizens and, slowly, becomes a person again. It's very, very funny , the way recovering from trauma is very, very funny.

Here's the list of questions if you want to ask one!