#I'm posting it to post it so i can delete it from my ipad and redraw it in like. 2-4 business months

[cassiskurocorner]

[ablog]

Getting a life may be cool but have you ever experienced animating on toonboom harmony with lines you can easily edit after using krita for years????????

[sparkanonymous]

Let's get one thing out of the way; I messed up.

If you want to go more in-depth, read this post. If you don't want to, here's the jist of the situation: For the last year - I think - I have been coloring Raj's skin tone lighter. This is completely and utterly my fault.

I'm not going to make any excuses, in fear that it will give others an excuse for their own deplorable actions. Though I don't see myself as a racist person, this is still an example of colorism, and I can't stand by it.

Total Drama is something I hold dear in my heart, and Raj is one of my favorite characters in the entire series. The fact I did him this dirty makes me never want to draw him again.

I'm so sorry. All I can do is apologize, and that's definitely not good enough. I will do better in the future. I don't want anything like this to happen again, and I won't let it happen again.

There is nothing I can say that'll fix this situation. I have disappointed myself and hurt an entire community of people. I hope I can eventually make up for my mistakes, but I know that isn't possible in a short amount of time.

I don't expect this to be taken lightly; it shouldn't be. If this is the last I see of some of you, I hope you take care.

The rest of this post directly responds to parts of thesicklycowboy's post.

○■○■○

For this portion, I have also edited Raj's hair to be the correct color. (I didn't know where else to put this part, sorry.)

I won't be responding to everything, as I do think the post was well-spoken and something that certainly needs to be said, just parts that I felt I should respond to.

Blue is for them, and red is for me.

"So when you were addressing this and saying "it's color theory" excuse why did you not show your earlier pieces of Raj as well? The ones with far darker hair and deeper skin tones? You only referenced all the ones after after the lightening had begun."

As mentioned before, I don't know when the lightening began. The pieces I grabbed for comparisons were the ones that I could actively get the flats for. A lot of my previous pieces have been deleted from my iPad after being moved to my laptop for storage reasons. While you can tell that Raj is darker in my oldest TDI posts, I wouldn't have been able to color grab the original skin color to compare it to the others, which is why I added ones that I could find the flats of directly off of my page. I do wish I had gotten the flats for the oldest ones, but I can't really do anything about that now.

"The beginning of your ask responses is blatantly false and you contradict yourself at the end? So why keep that whole schpiel at all?"

Here is the part that they are referring to: "I didn't? I think he just looks lighter because of the filters I used on top of it."

I left this in for transparency because I genuinely thought that that was actually the case. But it wasn't. This is why I added, "Looking into the color issue..." I wanted to double check the claim because it very well could have been an issue. And it was.

... "And not yet another piece that is still super light."

Okay. I think I might know what the problem is here in particular. I add texture overlays (the layers with the filter of 'Sl' - Soft Light) to give my pieces... y'know, texture. The layer color I use is usually an off-white. I do this in all of my pieces because I thought it might help with keeping my work safe from AI, and because I like the paper-like look that it gives my art. I didn't put it over the entire piece because the background already has a ton of texture.

The one above is at 50%, and the one below it is at 30% for both Raj and Bowie.

Here is the same piece with the texture overlays turned off:

(Left is w/o the overlays, Right is w/ the overlays)

I don't want this argument to seem like I'm lessening my actions. This is the only thing that I think I have the right to stand up for. Texture is something I most likely won't take out of my work, though I may replace the texture overlays with something that is more full proof against AI, like those AI-disturbance layers that Ibis Paint has.

None of my actions were excusable, but I felt this needed to be explained.

Other than that, though, I don't know what else I could possibly do to fix the piece, considering I have fixed Raj's skin tone in this piece.

○■○■○

The rest of the post is not something I feel the need to respond directly to. I do think you should go and read the original post criticizing me and decide what you want to do in this matter.

This was not a "silly mistake." What I have done is genuinely messed up. I'm not going to run from this situation and say that I was ever justified in my actions. Because I never was.

I can only hope to be given the chance to amend this situation with future works, whenever that might be. I will most likely not continue to talk about this unless asked to. Idk what else I could possibly say that wouldn't make this situation worse. I am the guilty party, and the only thing I can do is learn from this and do better in the future, which I will.

Again, I am so sorry. I have fucked up, and I am prepared to take the consquences of my actions.

[afantasyoffiction]

a lil intro :)

hi hello to anyone who's checking this out!

i’m caitlin, an aspiring fantasy writer and maybe poet, english literature nerd and general fandom weirdo who likes to talk a lot about all my many many obsessions :)

i'm new to actively participating on this site as opposed to watching thru the window of pinterest...but now that i write more and 9-1-1 in particular doesn't post on pinterest so much, i'm on here too rip

i talk about: writing, procrastinating writing, reading writing and characters in writing who drive me insane!

my writing: i write poetry which i will post on here occasionally! but my main writing that is intended for other ppl to read is fanfic, and my fantasy wip:

my fics that you can go read literally right now if you want:

just to sit outside your door - buddie post-hiatus wip

if I glued myself shut (you would find your way in) - buck's pov during the 'are his concerns your concerns', feeling realisation

you've haunted me, so stunningly - eddie pov during the post -lightning convo w buck, based on that amazing edit making the rounds rn

just to sit outside of your (ipad screen) light - eddie post-hiatus mini fic, feelings realisation

the witches wip: a ya fantasy book (one day trilogy i hope!) about a world where witches are gone, but persecution of them isn't. trying to save her innocent sister from execution, my fmc gets dragged into a storm of political plotting, conflicting agendas and strange powers beyond her comprehension. a book about family, and realising that what you thought was a bedtime story might still be around to haunt you... tagged with #the witches wip

my ao3: a_fantasy_2 - all the good stuff is copied above! tags are #shameless fanfic plug and #caitlin's original writing

main fandoms: i have been in a ridiculous number of fandoms so this is not all of them but these are my main ones - bold are ones im currently in the trenches abt :)

9-1-1 (pls no ship war content tho i just cannot)

marauders (my og loml one true fandom its a canon event i fear)

good omens (book and tv show changed my life)

anything leigh bardugo but SoC and RoW especially

supernatural (its been a while but then again i'm fandom posting on this site so its kinda a given)

anything by chloe gong....(message me PLEASE. best ya fantasy writer and my literal writing idol)

EPIC the musical - i love this so freaking much, if you don't know what this is go find out u won't regret it

hamilton (i am in fact hamiltrash, unfortunately)

aftg (im not writing that out. if you know what that acronym is thats on you.)

tagging system: i got one of those creepy teeth 'frequent poster badges', so i think it might be time for me to get one of these. ahem. on an incoherent blog, i declare order:

#caitlin writes and yaps abt it - writblr content (these will almost always have the 'writblr' and 'writers on tumblr' tag as well)

#caitlin's homebrew hallucinations - any writing or OC content from my wips or poetry i share

#the witches wip - specific wip content!

#caitlin the english major - literature posts

#caitlin reblogs from even cooler blogs and/or #caitlin's moot besties - reblogging my moots or other cool ppl!

#caitlin does ask games / #caitlin does reblog games - making a separate tag bc i LOVE these

#shameless fanfic plug - fics that i write on ao3 and want to share here

#caitlin rambles miscellaneous - anything else thats incoherent

fandom posts will all be tagged with their fandom and with #caitlin a fandom nerd

sound good? let me know if this actually makes this blog make any more sense mk team

please send me: asks/posts/comments about these fandoms, short fic writing prompts within these fandoms, writblr content, writing questions, or literature thoughts :)

(pls don’t send me requests for money or ai content. i will block and delete, here’s why. )

basically reach out if you just want to ramble about any of these things because what else is tumblr dot com for ... seriously what. actually what was this site made for it beats me

[reginalusus]

Retro tutorial?

Disclaimer: Tumblr, for some reason, likes to dullen the colour of the screenshots, just know that they're actually a bit more saturated and brighter than how they appear here.

So, after posting my recent retro drawings on Reddit, and getting some comments that genuinely made me cry (/pos), I noticed I also got quite a few comments asking me how I actually do these drawings.

Er, I'm not the best teacher, really, and honestly, there's probably an easier, faster way to do it. But, this is my way of doing it, lmao. I work on a Gen 2 iPad Pro with a Gen 1 Apple Pencil, just in case you're wondering.

Firstly, here are the four apps I use for this kind of drawing:

From left to right: Sketchbook Pro, Pixlr, Photoleap and CapCut. Sketchbook Pro is what I use to draw everything. You could honestly use any drawing app though. We will talk about the other three when we get to them.

Step 1: draw whatever it is you want to draw.

I'm going to use the first drawing I did in this style to help me explain: my simpy Spamton drawing! Firstly, basically draw whatever your little heart wants. Get your sketch layer down. Here's what my sketch layer looked like:

Looks bad, no? Lol, it always starts that way. Just get your drawing down first. I rely heavy on references for clothing. I found this particular pose on Pinterest. Pinterest is great for finding references.

Notice that I have some spaces filled in with the word 'black'. This is literally just to remind me that the particular space will just be filled with a solid black.

This particular pose and setting is tricky, I'm just using it as an example and because I still have the original files for it. I recommend maybe starting with a portrait or a face first.

Step 2: fill in and clean your lines. This is important, especially for the anime look.

When I do linework, I tend to make the lines thicker wherever they meet one another. For this style, it doesn't really work, and I had to train myself to stop doing that.

As you can see, I made some changes along the way, such as making Spamton's expression softer and making him grin instead of smirking. How do I know when to make something solid black? This is mostly for clothes. If you are following a reference, and you notice that some of the shadows are darker than others on the reference, make those darkest shadows your solid-blacks.

So, here we have the finished lines! Remember: no making the lines thicker where they meet! Keep the lines thin all around. If you're wondering what brush I use in Sketchbook for the finished lines, it's this one:

This is the ONLY brush I use for the retro drawings, besides a pencil for the sketch layer. It provides a nice, solid, thin line.

Step 3: Filling Flat Colours.

The easiest step IMO. Choose your colours, fill those babies in.

Unfortunately, I think I deleted my flats layer (I have no idea why, but I cannot find it, lmao), so I don't have an image to show for this step. But, it's self-explanatory. Just colour it in with your flats.

You can choose saturated colours if you wish, but we'll be editing that sort of stuff later.

Step 4: Shading.

Ooh, the tricky stuff. But this is what will make or break the look of the drawing. Besides lines, shading is important as fuck for this style. I recommend pulling up some screenshots from actual 80s/90s anime. For this Spamton drawing, here's some of the ones I used as a reference:

Remember to make your shading on separate layers! You may want to change their tone and opacity later, as I did.

The shading in old anime is usually done with one colour, which is cooler-toned than the flat it is based off. Remember to keep the shading as simple as you can if you want to actually make it look like a screenshot from an anime or cartoon.

For shadows, I used the multiply tool or the overlay tool. You can mess around with these to see which one suits your drawing best. It mostly depends on the colour.

For 'lights', I used either the soft glow tool or the overlay tool. However, I don't recommend spending too much time 'lighting' your colours. Retro anime tends to focus more on shadows rather than lighting (obviously there are exceptions).

As you can see, the only 'lighting' I used on Spamton was a small section of his hair, and a shine on his suit. The rest is either shadows or flats:

For clothing, follow a reference or follow where your light is coming from. For this, I followed the reference.

Step 5 (Optional): Adding Gradients.

You don't need to do this, but to help with the 'mood' of the drawing, I added a gradient over the top of the layer. I chose a dark purple/blue to give that city vibe, then I used the darken tool and turned the opacity down. So, it looks like this:

The difference isn't much, but it will add a lot to the vibe!

Step 6 (Optional): Backgrounds. *Shudders.*

I'll be real, I can't do backgrounds for shit. Well, I can sort of do them, but I definitely don't enjoy it. If you can do your own backgrounds, this will probably come easier. I have a sneaky, maybe cheaty method, however, to make it look good.

Firstly, make sure any 'windows' or areas in your drawing that you want to add a background to are empty. The windows in Spamton's car here are transparent. You'll want to put your background layer at the very bottom, behind everything else.

Firstly, I choose a solid colour and fill the entire layer. I chose a navy/purple for this one, since it's always dark in Cyber City.

Then, and here's the cheat part, I find a stock image of a city skyline. I deliberately picked one that had sort of 'basic' buildings. Put this on top of your solid colour and use the hard light tool.

The hard light tool tends to focus on the lights and basic outline of the image. I did do some smudging and added some lights to give it that 'retro' feel. The lower quality it looks, the better. So then it looks like this:

But the car needs windows! Easy. I chose a blue colour with the soft glow tool and added them like so (on top of all the background layers):

Step 7: Editing in Pixlr.

Now, this is my favourite part: the editing to really make the image pop! Firstly, we are going to use Pixlr, so save your image and open it up in Pixlr.

So, in Pixlr I only do two things: choose some overlay editors and up the saturation. Firstly, the overlay editors. The ones I choose for the retro look are:

Antonio - this blurs the lines somewhat, and makes it overall darker/softer. I obviously do not use it to its full capacity (there's a slider you can mess around with under each tool to find your desired effect, though I recommend using Antonio only a little.)

Hagrid - this will make it look slightly more saturated and sharper. It also adds a sort of 'burn' effect on each outline of the colours. Again, I use this one only slightly.

Ivan - One of my favourites for Big Shot Spamton. Again, I only use it slightly. This one will add an orange effect and 'fix' some of your shading. Though, it only works to its full potential if you have your shading as best as it can be.

Sara - Another really good one for retro anime. It's sort of like Hagrid, but softer. Depending on your colours, it will also add a soft 'glow' effect. Because of this, I only use it a little, as older anime does not have the intense glow you see in more recent anime, in general.

There are lots of other options. You can play around to see which one will suit the vibe you're going for best!

Then, we go into the general menu and up the saturation if needed!

Step 8: Editing in Photoleap - then back to Sketchbook!

Why the fuck do you use two editors? Simple - Photoleap has some cool options that Pixlr does not, and vice versa. We won't be spending as much time in Photoleap compared to Pixlr.

Now, Photoleap does NOT allow screenshots within the app, so I just have to explain it without any images.

In Photoleap, we're only going to be doing two things, and one of those things are optional. Firstly, using the grain tool. This will really add to that 'old' look. Don't go too hard on it!

The optional thing you can do is add a red chromatic abberation. It's under the 'effects' tab in Photoleap. However, sometimes this will take away from the retro look, so use it carefully. I only used the tiniest amount for this drawing to make the lines look 'cleaner'.

Once I'm done in Photoleap, I save the image and export it back into Sketchbook. This is where I'll add/fix some things, such as adding a shine in Spamton's eyes, a shine on the car window and the smoke coming from his cigarette. I also bring the gradient layer back up and mess with the colour a bit (optional).

Have you noticed the large, black border to the right of the drawing? Yeah, that'll be cropped. I decided to make the overall image smaller and, unfortunately, Sketchbook Pro does not allow you to change the canvas size once you've started a drawing (please add this option, Autodesk!)

Step 9: CapCut Editing.

This will seriously be the cherry-on-top to actually make this thing look like a screenshot. Save your image and open it up in CapCut.

Firstly, you'll want to add an 'effect' to the photo. Under 'retro', I personally choose 'frosted quality', because it adds a moving grain and gives an 'old cartoon' feel, which is what I'm after. There are lots you can choose from, it's up to you to play around with it! You can also adjust the effect as you wish. I tend to turn the blur completely off.

Then, the last step in CapCut: adding a caption, if you want. I make the text yellow and add an italic effect to make it seem like an actual subtitle.

Step 10 (Final): Exporting.

That's us basically finished! I'll export it as a video from CapCut, crop it using my iPad's default editing software in the gallery, then export it as a GIF. Exporting it as a GIF lowers the quality a tad further, which is a bonus for this type of drawing. Viola! You now have a retro-anime-inspired piece!

Final Notes

Again, I'm not a good teacher and this is kind of all over the place, lmao. But, I hope it can guide those who wish to try this style!

If you do try it, maybe tag me and let me see if my tutorial worked for you? Or maybe you were just curious, lmao. There's a LOT of steps here, lol, and I'm not a professional artist by any means, so...

Anyway, that's all from me for now!

[pedge-stuff]

God I just thought about an idea for pedro and reader, reading your last post...

They are in a relationship and live together. The reader is also an actress. She asks pedro to practice her lines with her. In the play, she is having a really long line, breaking up with the person ans leaving them... pedro can't continue... at night in bed they are cuddling and pedro talks about how he hated the feeling or the thought of the reader ever leaving

(changed this slightly, hope that is OK...)

bad acting (pedro pascal x gn/m!reader)

a/n: same vague universe as “marked,“ per usual.

thanks, as always, for everything.

(also I did that thing where I didn't save this on drafts fast enough and the whole fucking thing deleted so you could say im LIVID sorry if this rewrite felt rushed.)

summary: things get a little... too real.

—————————————————————————

"You can't laugh."

"I'm not gonna laugh!"

Pedro hands you his iPad, script loaded on the screen. "I'm serious," you warn him, "you had to stop last time, the acting was so bad."

"Just read the sides, baby."

You know he isn't nervous about the audition— if he was, he sure as shit wouldn't be practicing with you. Those rehearsals are reserved for his coach, or someone who can actually talk him through the scene. This was just a formality, a quick read-through for some anthological TV show about people in failing marriages. Season 2 of Oscar's old Amazon thing. With the audition being on Zoom tomorrow, the whole process feels fairly relaxed.

"Should I read it in a lady voice? Will that set the scene?"

"Please don't."

"Scottish accent?"

"Babe."

"Hmm." You clear your throat loudly, for dramatic effect. Across the room, feet propped on the desk, Pedro rolls his eyes. He's got his cheaters on, but no script— the audition's supposed to be off-book. "From the first page?"

"You're stalling."

"Ugh. Ok. Here we go." Leaning forward, you scroll to the highlighted text on the iPad. "Stop, David. You don't know what you're talking about."

Pedro's posture straightens; ever the professional, it's like watching a switch flip. The humored lines beside his eyes, little crows feet that crinkle when he looks at you, disappear completely. His brow furrows, gaze darkens.

"Of course I do, dammit. I'm done with this, all of this. It's like living in a mausoleum, Emma. I'd rather. Do you remember what love even feels like? Because I look at you, and I just... don't, anymore."

"You don't mean that."

"I do! I'm so tired of this. Life with you is joyless. Every day, I come home from work and just sit in the goddamn driveway because I don't want to come in the house. It's hard to be in the same room as you. I can't bring her back, Emma, and I miss her and I'm sorry she's dead. But it isn't my fucking fault and I wish you'd stop pretending it was."

His voice cracks, just a little. You frown as he grabs the glass of water beside him, pausing to wait, but he motions for you to continue.

"That's cruel," you read, "and you know it. That's not fair."

"None of this is fair!" Pedro exclaims. "That's the whole point. It's not fair that our daughter is dead while the girl who was driving got to walk away clean. Life isn't fucking fair. But it's life. And you've sucked all the light out of mine. I can't stand you, anymore, I'm sorry. I just can't. It's not that we can't make it work, it's that I don't want to make it work. If I never see you again, it'll be too soon. Jesus christ, I hate every part of this."

"Are you done? Have you gotten it all off your chest?"

"Don't placate me! This isn't one of your stupid therapy sessions, Emma, you can't fix this with a breathing worksheet and a roleplaying exercise. Be fucking serious. Every day I wake up and I wish I'd never met you. At least then, she wouldn't be dead, because she'd never have existed. And maybe I'd known some goddamn peace."

The page ends there, and you glance up. Pedro has his head in his hands, eyes closed.

"That was good," you offer tentatively, searching for some kind of sign as to what his next move is. He's gracious about work stuff, but you're always a little afraid of mucking up his process.

When he looks up, his eyes are glossy. "Yeah," Pedro says, croakily, clearing his throat quietly before rising from the chair. He takes the iPad back, wordlessly, shuttering the case over the screen.

"Wanna do it again? You were spot-on, Pedge, but we can go over it again if you want to."

"No," he says quickly. "No, I'm good. I'm fine. It's on Zoom, it'll be easy. I'm fine."

Weird. Just a little. Before you can dwell on his sudden cageyness, he's up, headed for the door.

"I'm gonna walk the dogs. We can catch up on Bake-Off, when I get back?"

Pedro leaves before you can answer.

— — — 

No sooner have the leashes been hung back by the door, than Pedro is beside you on the couch, all hands and light touches. It's as if he can't bear to lost contact. You allow him to reposition you, reaching a hand around your waist as you reach for the remote.

"Good walk?"

He hums, tugging you against him. Settles, finally, once you're half-reclined, back against his chest, arm around your middle. You fiddle with the edge of his sleeve as the bakers fumble their way through the signature challenge.

It's not that the clinginess bothers you— he's like this sometimes, when he's just returned home, or you've arrived in LA, or met somewhere in the middle. Every separation leaves him want for touch. It's the one thing you can't give him, while you're apart.

But he's been home a couple weeks now, in between reshoots for a new project. Been home all day, in fact, in an orbit around you while you attempted to work from home. (A little too close, frankly, but you can't really complain.)

"You okay?" You whisper, as the timer runs down on the technical bake.

No answer. Just a tightened grip on your waist, and a firm kiss to the top of your head.

— — — 

It isn't until later, in bed and half-asleep, that you pinpoint the source of the tension.

You'd have thought he was already asleep, save for the soft carding of his fingers through the baby hairs at the nape of your neck. Deep, even breaths tickle your forehead; he's curled around you, arm draped over your back. Had positioned himself this way silently, looking a little silly brooding in his Muppet-patterned pj pants.

"We're never reading lines again," Pedro whispers into the darkness.

"Was the acting that bad?"

Your attempt for levity falls flat. He is quiet, long enough for you roll backwards slightly, to get a better look at his face. A deep-set frown has taken root.

"No, it..." He tugs you closer again, tucking your head beneath his chin. If he weren't so sad, you'd call uncle for claustrophobia; your nose is squished into his jugular. But you lay still, waiting for him to continue.

"It felt too real," Pedro concedes. He inhales sharply, and you can feel it against your own chest.

The kiss you press to the hollow of his throat, doesn't feel good enough. You wiggle, tilting your head to press one against his toothpaste-tasting lips. Whiskers tickle the corner of your mouth.

"Baby, I know you were... pretending." A thin line between placating him and treading on his professionalism. "If our pretend daughter died in a car crash, I know you wouldn't divorce me for being too sad."

"It's not funny." With a groan, he kisses you again, resting his forehead against yours. "I hated saying that stuff to you. Felt too real."

The bone-crushing spooning is making a little more sense, now.

"I love you, but you're a sap."

"Hmph."

You smile into the next kiss. "A very sweet sap, though."

[turbles]

deleting twitter until I can find out what I want from it

I didn't post about it bc if I did I know my brain would be wanting to log back in to see if anyone replied to it. I think I just need to clear a space to have room to relearn art? like, what's worth doing, and how to do that again. not that I think cutting out social media is a catch all problem solver. twitter is valuable to me in multiple ways. but realizing I need to put more effort into filtering and curating my experience was too daunting so away it goes for now.

idk what I'm gonna do with tumblr cause I do genuinely like most of the stuff I see on here. I think I will need to be better at unfollowing when I grow weary of certain types of posting tho (GOD I wish this site had a temporary mute button like twitter does, seriously good feature cause it's so awkward to unfollow and then refollow a mutual uuuugh.)

my main worry is that I work a full time retail job that has sizeable downtime and I get mind meltingly bored. so while i want to go on a journey of reconnecting to art, work is not the stage for that... I can't bring my ipad to work and whip it out on the sales floor to draw whenever I want. it's hard to avoid the need for frivolous distraction like ao3 and social media in a situation where I have to be prepared to drop what I'm doing and help customers at a moment's notice. which is why I feel dropping all social media entirely won't be the ultimate solution for me and that more aggressive curation is probably better.

yeah idk there's just a lot of things I miss. the feeling of drawing something and liking it so much that I'm excited to see it through to the end.

hurdles: my skills having atrophied/plateaued/never been developed in the areas I now want to explore. having to go back to square one and remember how to learn effectively, and how to care enough to learn effectively. hmm. the physical hurdles as well, how I've come to associate sitting at my computer and drawing with stupor, dehydration, headaches and back pain, that physical fear response I feel when I consider sitting down to draw.

[neptunes-blue]

CORPSMAN’S PRAYER - VINCENT KRAWCZYK - THE PACIFIC

short summary: Vincent Krawczyk graduates from Illinois’s Naval Hospital Corps School after first enlisting on the 8th of December, 1941

warnings: implied child neglect (sort of?), sailors get drunk and slip off chairs

(Main) characters: Vincent Krawczyk (oc), Terence Flynn (oc)

word count: 1.8k words

notes: this is like. The only time ever I will post my writing… if it disappears tomorrow I have succumbed to my shame and deleted this 😔. I had to format this on my iPad with no idea how any of this works…. Also if you see spelling/grammar mistakes no you didn’t I was too scared to share this to a friend to proofread ☹️ (looks at the ‘art blog’ in my bio hmmmm)

🚢

Grant me, oh Lord, for the coming events;

Enough knowledge to cope and some plain common sense. Be at our side on those nightly patrols; And be merciful judging our vulnerable souls. Make my hands steady and as sure as a rock; when the others go down with a wound or in shock. Let me be close, when they bleed in the mud; With a tourniquet handy to save precious blood. Here in the jungle, the enemy near; Even the corpsman can't offer much lightness and cheer. Just help me, oh Lord, to save lives when I can; Because even out there is merit in man.

If it's Your will, make casualties light; And don't let any die in the murderous night. These are my friends I'm trying to save; They are frightened at times, but You know they are brave. Let me not fail when they need so much; But to help me serve with a compassionate touch. Lord, I'm no hero—my job is to heal; And I want You to know Just how helpless I feel. Bring us back safely to camp with dawn; For too many of us are already gone.

Lord bless my friends If that's part of your plan; And go with us tonight, when we go out again.

— Navy Hospital Corpsman’s prayer 

When Vincent was 5, he woke up in his home to nothing.

When he tried to focus on where he imagined the hallway, there was nothing but black. And from the kitchen he heard a faint drip and nothing more. 

It’s hard to recall a memory in the muffling black dark. It’s more of a feeling really, cold icy dread that travels down your spine and keeps you at a standstill. 

Vincent still remembers how his body— much smaller in his youth, chattering with fear on the dusty couch. Too scared to call out for his parents.

10 years later, he’d brought up the memory at the dining table and was flattened by his father’s admittance to a fuzzy memory where he forgets to take him off the couch and into bed.

Currently, Vinny is 19 and fumbling with the neckerchief of his dress blues. His brow knotted while Terence Flynn shined his shoes.

“Vinny, how in hell are you gon’ take care of your wife? 20 and you can’t tie your own kerchief?”

Krawczyk swivels to face Flynn like you would in drill. His face in a crooked smile.

“20 in a week actually. I thought I told you yesterday that I was 20 next week.” He says in a voice dripping with a very matter-of-fact tone, a crooked grin plastered on his face.

“I’m gonna start praying for your future wife.” Flynn half-snorts, rolling his eyes. 

Vincent listens to Terence’s back click as he stretches, taking a ‘well deserved’ break from his shoe-shining; it was a lousy attempt to seem presentable and handsome for graduation. Terence Flynn, mousey-faced and dark-haired tucking away at least some of his antics for today.

Vincent had complimented how nicely Flynn’s chevrons were stitched once. Terence had flushed red and muttered ashamed that his mother had sewn them on for him.

Within each stitch a gentle kiss of a mothers love tucked under the dark fabric of the Navy’s pride— that’s what Vincent imagined anyways. He had responded with a quiet ‘oh’ and looked at his own chevrons that still had stitches leaking from the edges of blue fabric. 

Krawczyk tried to stare back into the mirror and ignore the eruptions of jealousy that burst across his face.

Men dressed neatly in their Navy dress blues begin to leave barracks, putting away shaving kits and slicking their hair back with their caps in hand.

“Bu-ddy?” 

Terence whistles and clicks his tongue, already standing at the door out of barracks. 

“Christ!” 

Vincent glanced at Terence and then back at himself in the mirror before quickly scampering after his friend. Finally figuring out the intricacies of his neckerchief while his shoes hit the plywood floor.

Vincent's rowing team had been best in Missouri, he was the best batter in baseball, captain of the swimming team, and one of the top boxers in school. 

It didn't count for much, all his trophies and awards were in a box underneath his bed. 

Krawczyk wouldn't know until after his enlistment had ended that his parents had pawned his gold medals off when he'd left for the Navy. Vincent would understand when he came back. Forgiving, sweet, war-torn Vincent who would believe his family was going through tough times.

His photos remained in the box however– the same crooked grin even as his face matured. Collecting an inch of dust.

The winter wind had calmed to a soft breeze (thank the lord) and Chief took to the stand saying speeches Krawczyk seemed to block out with his anticipation.

Rows of navy men with their chests puffed out with the boyish pride that never left them even as men. Preparing to leave for war with the promise to serve and a prayer for survival. 

Thomas Murray, a tall, gawky man with blue eyes and blonde hair had been a surgeon before all of this; Chance Henderson always wanted to be a doctor who and thought this was the quickest a cheapest way to get there; shy Samuel Davis who blushed easily and hated using the communal showers was plain kind-hearted and liked the idea of helping wounded; Dayton Bishop was smart and steady-handed, he was suited to the role of a corpsman with square eyes and a handsome jaw.

Terence had smirked at Vincent when he told him he joined up because he thought it’d make him popular with the ladies. 

Vinny had roared with laughter, telling him that he’d, ‘never even get a nice girl to look his way’.  

Flynn had tried to counter him, reminding Vinny that he had a girl— ‘A girl that left him’, he had responded with. Flynn wanted to argue but Vincent turned the topic too quick.

‘Colours, present arms!’

Vincent was beaming. 

The whole thing felt like his High School graduation but fancier. And if it wasn’t an important ceremony he wouldn’t have stopped himself from laughing but, he’d be lying through bared, grinning teeth that he wasn’t pouring over with pride. 

He (rather excitedly) stepped onto the stage, shaking hands with the CPO and then to the SCPO who passed him his graduation paper. Vincent was only able to glance at his name ‘Vincent Phillip Krawczyk’ scrawled in the middle of the paper before he had to ‘calmly and mild-manneredly’ walk across the stage.

"I solemnly pledge myself.”

"I solemnly pledge myself…” The bright faced men echoed. 

“Before God and these witnesses.”

“Before God and these witnesses.”

“To practice faithfully all of my duties.”

“To practice faithfully all of my duties.”

“As a member of the Hospital Corps.”

“As a member of the Hospital Corps…”

The band marched out soon after the Corpsman Pledge, Anchors Aweigh cutting through the dewy morning air and sending out that good ol’ Navy pride. Vincent could’ve sworn he saw Terence’s eyes water as he muttered the lyrics under his breath.

“STAND NAVY TO SEA, FIGHT OUR BATTLE CRRYY!”

Flynn roared, hopping from bar stool to bar stool— hand on heart while the other swung a bottle of beer. 

Davis was bright red, with 7 drinks too many he had joined Terence in his performance. Vincent clapped, repeating Terence and Davis’ “So vicious foe steer shy-y-y-y!”, despite not having even one drop of alcohol that evening. The rowdy sailors had scared off most of the other bar patrons. Dayton sat smartly as ever, Murray was playing craps with the increasingly drunker Chance and the other boys— Mark, Jones, Sutton, Kidd, Freeman, West, Patrick… were either pink-faced and whooping or challenging the other to another game, drink, or bet.

“Y’know, back in my home-place, Missouri I used to drink like there wasn’t a God!” 

“Anchors aweigh my boys! ANCHORS AWEIGHH!”

Dayton didn’t seem to be really paying attention to Krawczyk’s yammering.

“My pal, Nate, he drank beer like it wasn’t a Wednesday afternoon. Never trust a usual mild-mannered Missouri man, we might all seem pleasant but as soon as he gets a drink too many he’ll sock you right in the face if you even mention his favourite sport team’s rival team— I nearly got socked in the face for it once, can you believe it?” 

Vinny bursts into laughter, not really taking note that Dayton didn’t join in.

"Farewell to foreign shores, we sail at break of day-ay-AY-AY!”

“You’re not drinking.”

Vincent perks up when Dayton speaks.

“Yeah— yeah, no, I'm not a drinker," Vinny shrugs. "Christian, I keep it to special occasions." He finishes, grinning.

“Uhuh. Isn’t this a special occasion?”

“Someone has to be sober enough to hold caps when you all retch whiskey in the bathroom.”

Dayton shrugs, swirling his brandy on the rocks.

“Drink to the foam, until we meet once more! Here's wishing you a happy voyage HOME!”

And with the end of the second verse, Flynn missed the barstool he was jumping to by a foot and cracked his head on the side of the counter.

The sand was soft at Nunn beach.  

Vinny liked beaches, he liked the waves, how the seawater dried on his arms and left white salt stains on his skin. He even liked nursing his good friend after slamming his own face into a bench, who now had a rapidly growing lump above his right brow.

The sun had sunk halfway under the ocean, sending out stretching wands of orange light that sparked crashing waves yellow. It turned his and Flynn’s faces amber and made his bruise just slightly more obvious. 

“Finally put those corpsman skills to good use.”

Vincent was grinning— Terence was not. 

He reached into his wrinkled blues, pulling a silver rosary over his head, careful to not bump his tender lump. Terence cleared his throat, trying to clear the shame in his voice. 

“My gal got it for me but you know uh. We broke up”

“She left you.”

“We broke up!” He insisted, with a huff. Flynn turned from Vincent and admired the carving of Christ. Hanging by his hands on the silver cross, intricate swirls that seemed to grow from his hollow body and border the cross he was strung across. It seemed to glimmer white in the setting sun.

“Take it. A parting gift. Or an apology— I don't care. Or really believe in that crap anymore anyways”

“Don't call it crap.”

“Sorry.”

Vincent tenderly accepted the gift from his friend, thumbing the cross.

“Tell me a story, Vince.” Terence’s voice was flat, eyes glued onto the horizon instead of his friend.

“Well. Once me and my pal Nate thought it'd be funny to throw rocks at the school greenhouse.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

[datzyuk]

2024 ao3 wrapped under the cut!!!!

here's my 2023 ao3 wrapped for comparison

had SO much fun tracking my fanfic habits again. if you like excel and fanfic, i would highly suggest starting your own tracker today!!

about a third of the way through the year i started running out of fics for my main ship and it changed the way i read. i consciously chose to read incomplete fics for the first time. yeah, sometimes it's frustrating and disappointing but i found so many gems!! i also got to experience the joy of getting an update email from ao3 for the first time

spoiler alert? but i'm absolutely shocked that i came within 7,000 words of 2023's total word count. i kind of assumed that 1. finishing up grad school and 2. actively choosing to read longer fics would mean that i'd read way more. instead, i watched more movies than i did in 2023 and got out of the house more.

i tracked the tropes of fics for the first time and while it was super helpful for reminding me what fics were about w/o opening the link, it's kind of a mess to organize/present. also it's embarrassing

all fics were read on ao3 (or PDFs of deleted ao3 fics)

the basics

words: 4,050,636 (+6,470 words from 2023)

fics: 327 (-124 from 2023)

fandoms: 3 (star wars, hockey rpf, check please)

# of ships: 30 (-10 from 2023)

fun stuff

shortest fic: 698 words

longest fic: 126,112 words

average words per fic: 12,387

median words per fic: 7,855

average words per day: 11,067

most words read in one day: 150,142 (saturday, september 14th)

longest reading streak: 32 days (1/18 - 2/18)

longest streak w/o reading: 48 days (3/18 - 5/4)

% re-reads: 4.09%

% incomplete: 10.7%

top 10 ships

#1, #2, and #5 are redacted bc you guys don't need to know that much about me

by month

i love that you can see how much my last semester of grad school was kicking my ass in march and april.

the big spike in november was from my trip to korea. i bought an ipad mini for traveling and got plenty of use out of it on the long flights and train + bus rides.

dates

word count

almost 50% of the fics i read in 2023 were under 5k words, got it down to under 30% in 2024. but if i'm ever gonna make a dent in my (1,948) bookmarks, i'm gonna have to read a bunchhhh of short fics.

audience

published dates

i didn't track this in 2023. i started tracking it in 2024 after reading those two fics written in 1999 and thought it'd be interesting to see what trends i could spot in the pub dates!!

the big spike in 2016 is from the resurgence of star wars but also bennguin fic lmao

i would love to know how my habits compare to overall usage/posting trends on ao3 but i haven't found that info yet

[scknight05]

20 Questions for fic writers

I was tagged by @racerchix21 and @tizniz (retroactively lol) quite a while ago but I'm just now getting around to doing this.. This is the first time in forever I've been on a device that hasn't been my phone or ipad.

Tagging: @warpedpuppeteer @heroofshield @neverevan @daffi-990 uuhhh... and I guess anyone else who either hasn't done this or wants to do this. No pressure to the tagged people either.. just didn't know who to tag.

1-How many works do you have on ao3?

Currently.. 2.. 😅😅 I had 3 and one point but I deleted one thing that in the end I didn't like. HOWEVER I currently have about 4 or 5 WiPs that I'm hoping to maybe start posting some more stuff soonish if life stops getting in the way.

2-What’s your total ao3 word count?

7,803

3-What fandoms do you write for?

Currently: 9-1-1 (during my ff.net days I've also done some Stargate stuff as well).

4-Top 5 fics by kudos?

1-SIMPLE MISUNDERSTANDINGS 2-All is Lost Again (But I'm Not Giving In). 3-5: TBD lol

5-Do you respond to comments?

I try if I don't forget

6-What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Haven't gotten around to one yet...

7-What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

It's probably gonna be one of my current WiPs lol

8-Do you get hate on your fics?

Haven't yet but I'm sure it'll happen with some of my ideas I've got planned.

9-Do you write smut?

Negative. Just don't think I can do it any kind of justice to be honest.

10-Craziest crossover?

Published or unpublished? 🤣 If we're going with PUBLISHED, then I had (guess it's still there) a Stargate Atlantis/Torchwood crossover over on ff.net. UNPUBLISHED.. well then we'll probably have to go with my Legends of Tomorrow/Power Rangers Dino Charge (It's a multiverse story that didn't feature the characters/crew in the show other than a mention here or there... that has now bled a bit into 911 territory as well) that may or may not ever see the light of day... Depends on my mood.

11-Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Don't think so. Nothing has probably ever been good enough to warrant theft haha

12-Have you ever had a fic translated?

No

13-Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Contributed some ideas but nothing more than that.

14-All time favorite ship?

Probably gonna get some hate here but... oh well.. -Chiley (Chase/Riley), Buddie (Buck/Eddie), Tevan (Buck/Tommy), Stackhouse/Markham (this was from Stargate Atlantis and let me tell you.. for two extremely minor characters, those two launched an impressive ship!! Hell they didn't even have first names!! And yes, I jumped in on that ship as well! Obviously since I'm mentioning it!)

15-What’s a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Probably the Stargate Atlantis/Torchwood one... Or my "Silver Saber" story (Power Rangers Lost Galaxy.. My mind does drift back to that idea every so often but I doubt I'll ever redo anything with it.)

16-What are your writing strengths?

Creating the general idea/premise probably.

17-What are your writing weaknesses?

Actually putting thoughts into words that sound good.

18-Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

If it works/fits then I'm all for it I guess but... thats about it.

19-First fandom you wrote in?

Power Rangers.. I've always been the creative kid and I was writing fanfic BEFORE I even knew that was a thing.. I was just "writing stories" at that point lol

20-Favorite fic you’ve written?

Don't have one yet.. I like some of my ideas but I don't really have a favorite story YET to be honest.

Not part of the questionnaire thing but I'm thinking about starting a side blog just for writing stuff, the kinda give updates and share ideas even if I'm not able to get any actual writing or posting done... haven't decided fully yet.

[cookinguptales]

tabikaeru tutorial

Hi! I've just been informed that the Tabikaeru tutorial that was previously posted to tumblr has been deleted, so here I am making a new one.

For the uninitiated, Tabikaeru is a Japanese mobile game that was released in 2017. It's about a little frog living in the forest who likes to travel around Japan and have adventures!

You can gather clover to purchase snacks and tools for your little frog so you can pack his bag for him, and in return, he'll send you photos from his travels and bring you little souvenirs.

I translated all of the extant snacks, souvenirs, tools, etc. back when the game first came out and stayed up to date for a couple years, but there are a few items from the most recent update that I haven't translated. There seems to be a lot of renewed interest in the game recently, so maybe I'll get on that...

Anyway! Y'all need to know how to get started before you can collect anything! So here's an English guide to the game's tutorial so you can send your frog on lots of cute little adventures.

(Note: I won't be putting in screenshots for every piece of dialogue due to Tumblr's image limit, but I will have the translations.)

Step one is to go to the app store and type in "tabikaeru", which means Frog Traveler or Travel Frog!

The one you want looks like this:

When you first boot it up, you'll see this screen:

This is just a screen begging you to turn tracking on! (Please turn tracking on, it'll let us target your ads better to you, you can turn it off from your settings whenever, etc.)

Every app does this these days (because they legally have to) and you can make your own decision, but I always tell it no. lmao

So just tap "Ask App not to Track" on the next screen. For me, that part was still in English.

Now we can start the game!

To the left, the start screen. To the right, one asking you to agree to the terms and conditions. The top button here will let you read all those TOS (which... I'm assuming you can't read anyway if you're using this tutorial, so ignore that), the left button is accept and the right is deny.

So tap the start button on the start screen (that's the white one), then the bottom left option on the next screen.

The next screen says, "There's a frog here. Let's give them a name!"

This is the screen where you can name your frog. It says, "Please input a name. Maximum 5 characters." [empty box] "You can change this name later."

I wrote in the name かっちゃん, or Kacchan, which is short for カーミト, or Kermit! (My original frog is named グレン/Glen, which is short for Grenouille. Don't worry, he still lives undisturbed on my cell phone!) From here on out, though, I'll be referring to my ipad frog as Kacchan.

Note: You can use Japanese or romanized characters in this box, depending on which keyboards you have installed, but remember that you only have five characters! This'll go a lot further in Japanese.

The next screen says, "[The frog] has gone inside their house. Let's take a peek inside."

Tap the little button that looks like a house at the lower right of the screen. It says おうち, which just means "home". You tap this button whenever you want to go inside your frog's house.

You'll find your frog inside trying to decide what to pack. Several text boxes in a row will say:

"They are preparing to go on a journey. Let’s give Kacchan a little help with their travel preparations."

"There are three kinds of provisions you can set out to help them prepare: packed lunches, lucky charms, and tools.

These items are essential for travel. Let’s give them a packed lunch."

"Travel supplies can be bought in the shop using three-leaf clovers. So first of all, let’s go out to the little garden near the house to harvest three-leaf clovers."

It'll then indicate the icon at the bottom of the screen. It looks like a little mailbox and says にわさき, or garden. Tap that button, which you can use to go outside. You'll then see a little hand, which is asking you to drag the clover garden into view.

Once you do that, you'll get this screen:

This is your clover garden, and it says, "Slide your finger over the three-leaf clovers to harvest them."

A little hand will point at the box in the top left of the screen (the one with the ♣ symbol) and it says, "You can check how many three-leaf clovers you've harvested here."

Then it says, "Harvest all the clovers from the field."

After you've done so, it'll say, "You found a four-leaf clover! When you’re looking in the field, sometimes you’ll find a rare four-leaf clover amongst all the three-leaf ones. These can be used as lucky charms during travel."

"This is a good opportunity, so let's make this into a lucky charm."

(A translation/cultural note on "omamori" here. I've translated it as "lucky charm" for ease of use in the tutorial, but I usually just say "omamori" in the rest of my guide.)

"We've finished harvesting the three-leaf clovers, so let's try using them to buy things in the shop."

It will then indicate the middle icon at the bottom. It looks like it has bags on it, and it says おみせ, or shop. Tap that button whenever you want to go to the shop.

"First, let's buy the very reasonable Ebidzuru Scone."

(Note: ebidzuru is a type of grape, so this is basically a raisin scone.)

Tap on the top left item (a fully translated shop guide can be found in my Tabikaeru guide) and you'll get this pop-up:

"Do you want to buy an ebidzuru scone? (Number owned: 0)"

On the left is yes, the right is no. You'll be seeing confirmation screens that look like this a lot as you play the game. It's always just asking you if you're sure you want to buy what you tapped on.

Then it will say, "Now let's prepare their travel supplies."

It will take you back to the screen where your frog is pondering their bag, and a hand will point at a wooden sign at the bottom left that says したく, or preparations. Tap that button.

This will take you to a blue screen. At the top, it says かばん, or bag. This is where you can pack your frog's travel bag.

At the top left, it says おべんとう, or packed lunch. At the top right, it says おまもり, or lucky charm. At the bottom, it says どうぐ, or tools. Below those boxes, there is a white button that says かんりょう, or complete.

"Please select ebidzuru scone for the packed lunch and the four-leaf clover as the lucky charm. Then, press the complete button."

(Tap on each dotted square beneath each label to choose what to assign. Don't worry about the tools for now, you can buy those later.)

Put the scone and the clover in your frog's bag, then tap the "complete" button at the bottom.

It will then say, "You are done making travel preparations. Please wait for Kacchan to begin their journey. *Because this is the tutorial, when the app reboots, Kacchan will leave."

And then, "App will now reboot."

Press okay, and the app will basically just make your frog leave for their journey immediately instead of making you wait for them to leave. This is only for the tutorial; you'll have to wait for your frog to be good and ready to go before they take off most of the time.

You will then see this message, which will become very familiar as you play this game:

"Kacchan is setting off."

(i.e. your frog is currently traveling.)

It then says, "Kacchan has departed. If you close the app and wait for a little while, they'll return. If you've made preparations for them, they'll come back in a few hours."

Basically, just close your app and be patient. It usually takes at least an hour or two for your frog to return, but sometimes it could even be a day or two if they're going somewhere really far. I recommend making sure you have notifications on so you're not constantly checking to see if your little dude is back.

(The "if you've made preparations for them" part just means that if you leave the game for a long time and don't put any food/items out for your frog, they'll be gone when you come back. They'll come home as soon as you put some food out for them. I guess your frog is just being self-sufficient.)

The game then says, "*If you go to ヘルプ (help) and turn notifications on, you'll get a notification when Kacchan returns home."

I think you probably will just get a pop-up that will ask you if you want to turn on notifications (in English), but if not, tap the menu button (top right, メニュー), then the right-most button, which has a question mark and ヘルプ on it. You'll then see this screen:

Don't worry about most of these for now. Just tap the top one, オプション/options, which will bring up this screen:

This is your settings screen.

I think the sliders are pretty self-explanatory. These are the background music and sound effects sliders. Beneath that, you have the notifications. Select on if you want them, off if you don't. At the bottom, you have your support ID, which you can use in case you need to contact them or transfer your game to a new device.

Anyway, back to the tutorial.

The game then says, "You don’t have to make preparations for Kacchan; they can come and go freely. But if you help them out and make preparations, they will send you photos of their journey and occasionally bring home souvenirs that they picked up here and there and give them to you as presents."

Again, this is just saying that the frog will leave and come home regardless, but if you put things in their bag, they'll bring you presents, which is how the game is played. In other words, your frog isn't gonna starve to death, but you won't make any headway in the game if you don't pack their bag.

(For a cultural note on "omiyage", which I've translated as "souvenir", see here.)

Then, "While your frog is gone, you can prepare for their next journey. To get ready, you can harvest three-leaf clovers and buy them things."

(So yes, come back regularly to harvest clover even if your frog isn't home.)

"The tutorial is now complete. Please have fun traveling with Kacchan!"

And they'll give you 500 three-leaf clovers and one four-leaf clover to get you started.

The official tutorial is done now, but I'll give you a little more information.

Sometimes you'll see a little letter hovering over your mailbox. This is where you get mail, which is typically items that you've received. If you tap the little white bubble in each message, you'll receive the item.

(The thing at the bottom is still just trying to get you to turn on tracking, ignore it.)

This is what the notification looks like when your frog is home! It says, "Kacchan has returned."

Now I'll show you what it looks like when your frog comes home.

"Kacchan has returned."

"They brought you souvenirs."

The top part, or いっぴん/ippin/masterpiece, is a special item that your frog can get from each location. They'll probably have to go to each location a few times to get its masterpiece/ippin.

The second part is the めいぶつ/meibutsu, or regional specialties. There are different foods your frog can bring back from different locations, and those foods can be used to feed friends when they come to call.

For more information on these items and how they're used (and how to entertain friends), please look at my Tabikaeru guide.

Your frog will also probably bring home some three-leaf clovers and a lottery ticket. For more info on the lottery, you can also see the guide.

"A photo has been delivered."

Your frog will often send you photos. This could be from the place they visited, it could be photos of the journey, or it could be friends they made along the way. The photos are always super fun and cute, though.

It's Nagoya Castle! :)

If you want to keep the photo, tap the button on the right. For more info on photos, please look at the guide.

You'll probably get this pop-up when you first come home:

"You've acquired the 'Solo Traveler' title."

As the game progresses, you'll gain more titles as you complete more objectives. Tap on your frog when they're home to change their name or title. For more info on titles -- you guessed it, check out the guide.

You'll get pop-ups explaining the title, the tools, and the desk.

I just explained the title thing, then the tools can be bought in the shop just like the food (see guide), and the desk is really similar to the bag.

The desk is used just like the bag, except it's how you prepare for future journeys. After you fill your frog's bag, you can also put lucky charms, boxed lunches, and tools on the desk. When your frog comes home, they will automatically refill their bag with what's on the desk. So if you're not around, your frog will be fairly self-sufficient.

(Now if the desk is empty for too long, your frog will not bring you anything until you put stuff on it.)

Unlike the bag, do not hit the button at the bottom when you're done. That's the "clear" button, and it will clear all desk slots.

The desk can be accessed from the prep button just like the bag, just hit the arrow to switch between the two.

There's a lot more to the game, like seasonal tickets, visiting friends, etc. but you can find all that as well as translations of all the food/tools/souvenirs in my guide.

I hope you end up loving this game as much as I do! Please let me know if you have any questions that aren't answered by this or the guide! 🐸💜

[rmlarson]

Blog Hiatus

As of 9/13/2024, this blog will be going on an extended hiatus for an unknown length of time. I will not be posting anymore artwork.

A lot of things have been going on in my personal life regarding work, personal finances, and the dumpy place that I mistakenly moved to just because I was so eager to take my first adult steps by myself far away from my family. Since my move, I haven't exactly been in the right headspace like I was before when I posted my art to this blog. It feels...heavy. Boring. I genuinely don't like posting what I do, because it feels like I have to. Which is why a lot of my stuff is now privatized (and probably going to be deleted down the road, if I'm being honest). And I genuinely despise the downgrade in how my art looks with the shift to Procreate on the iPad. I think it all looks awful. FireAlpaca had a much higher quality to it on my old laptop.

I've put so many projects on my plate that I'm just disgusted with myself. With how I can't sit down and focus on one thing and enjoy doing it, like I used to be able to do when I was a kid. I'm disgusted because I hate working on them. They bring me no more joy. And I hate that other people like what I've done but have to wait for meager scraps. I feel like I'm letting them down, letting my followers down.

So, I leave you with this.

I will be stepping away for a while. I don't know for how long. I need to focus on trying to save my money back up so I can move back home. Maybe then will I start to feel like my normal self again.

Asks will remain closed.

Every story concept I've talked about is cancelled for now.

I'll probably check in every now and then just to see what pops up on my home page and like a couple pieces here and there.

[jayflrt]

ADHD style rant (kinda) bc no one is giving me a minute of their time 😒😒

i just no shit sherlock-ed myself bc i just realized that kpop stans are a whole other type of dumb when it comes to the boycott. the nct starbucks situation DEFINITELY woke some people up from their delusions as i just saw on twitter something about armys demanding hybe to divest from zi*nism, and some stays agreeing to boycott skz' comeback bc ch*rlie p*th is featured

but unfortunately, other than that, they're still babying their fav idols and it's disappointing :/

yunjin and somi were cases where i was really disappointed tho i quickly moved on...but one has to know that both women are as chronically online as my 9 year old ipad kid cousin. and their apologies got me like 😬 i know they're rich and can afford overpriced coffee that's just a dump of sugar and milk but the bare minimum is go to a local cafe

i mean now boycotting starbucks is the bare minimum but still. idols know about the boycott, other than nct there's BLACKSWAN's fatou saying on live "we don’t like starbuck. starbucks is canceled" and 8TURN's jaehyun saying that he had bought a coffee from a place that's not dodgy!! and i want to specify that jaehyun is known to quote a lot of memes and being as chronically online as the other "relatable" idols

i know that they might not be free to talk about world issues bc their careers are at risk. but don't action speak louder than words? idk i'm rambling at this point 🫤

btw!! besides not streaming new songs and not buying merch, i want to ask if there's anything else i can do in order not to support zi*nism in the kpop industry?

no i agree with you!! i don't have a lot to say on this because i think you put most of it perfectly but while i agree western artists have much more freedom in their careers whereas kpop idols are silenced by their companies a lot (ex: taeyong and renjun posting about boycotting starbucks and deleting their stories right after), we do glorify celebrity's careers a LOT. like the rest of us "normal people" have as much power and influence and money, but we still speak out and do our part. there was a young google employee (probably early stage of career) who disrupted a tech conference to say that he refused to build technology that powered a genocide, and he kept saying it even as they dragged him out!!!

also to be honest there's not much that can be done other than posting to hope the message gets across to companies and boycotting. these companies have a record of not caring about international fans :// but one action can go a long way so i'd say just keep at it and be hopeful!! :') and don't feel bad if there's not much we can do in that area because we're still targeting companies on the BDS list !!

[steeklover]

You guys sleep on their friendship too much 😔

Time-laspe (I tried to download the video and attach it to this post but I think it was too big and my computer is tired because it won't download. That is the link, you can watch it if you'd like too, I know I like to watch art time-laspes. It is around fifteen minutes though, I didn't know how to make it any faster so there's your warning)

(Okay so I'm just now realizing that the part of the video where I used actually colors got cut off 😐And I can't even fix it because I've already deleted the clip off my computer and emptied my recycle bin. I'm so upset now, I'm sorry 😭😭I'm not a tech savy person at all)

You don't have to read this if you don't want to, it's more of an artist's note to myself. If you want to know more of my thought process while doing this then you can read it though.

First, I just want to give credit to the base I used!

Second, I used Krita to draw and Canva to put the video together. I've never really used another drawing app/software thing before (I've used Procreate a few times on my sister's IPad but it's not like I'm going to draw anything South Park on there) so I don't really have anything to compare it too. It's free though so... how much better can you get. The only thing I don't like about it so far is that the fill tool kind of sucks but it's not too bad, you just have to go over the edges to get a solid color (at least from my experience). And I've been using Canva for a while now, I've put together a few videos before but not in a while so I was a little rusty. The only thing I don't like about that is that I have to pay for an upgrade if I want to download a long video.

I started trying to draw seriously in April and now it's July so it's been like two months (?). I haven't posted anything since May I think but I've still been drawing a lot, I just haven't finished anything worth posting up until today.

I started out drawing this thinking it was going to be bad. Then about halfway through I thought it might actually turn out alright. Then I finished it and I kind of hate it. I think it would be much better if I practiced shading and textures but I'm too lazy for that, at least for now.

I hardly know anything about art, whether it be digital or traditional. I don't know anatomy, color theory, perspective, none of it. You can see on the time-lapse that I basically traced the base I used, did the faces and clothes and then colored it and that took me ALL DAY! Granted I had breaks like when I made my lunch and ran over to my grandma's house but other than that, I've been working on this piece (along with Stan but I did most of Stan yesterday, I just colored him this morning).

I have mad respect for every single artist out there because this is so hard... but for some reason I want to keep doing it. I know it's going to be super satisfying to look back on my art work from two years ago and see how much I've improved (hopefully I've improved, please tell me I'll improved)

As you can probably tell, I didn't get everything in the time-laspe. Recording the process was so hard, I tried to do it with Stan yesterday but I barely knew what I was doing and I kept getting called by my mom to do stuff so I had to keep pausing and un-pausing so I gave up and tried again today. I think my computer is worn out by working all day because not only have I been drawing on it all day but I have also been editing the video all day. I really like when artists post time-laspes though because it gives me an idea of their process and it's really nice to watch.

But anyway, I ended up giving Jason eyeliner because one) he's metro, two) I headcanon him wearing eyeliner (same thing with Tweek) and three) he needed a little something MORE to him, if that makes sense. I orginally wasn't going to give him eyeliner because I was afraid he would look too much like Tweek but once the picture was done, I decided they wouldn't look too similar. I also gave Tweek and Jason both freckles because for Jason, it's canon and for Tweek, it's my headcanon for him. You probably can't tell that Tweek has freckles because I made them really faint (on purpose) and I like to think he'd only have a few on his cheeks and nose. I gave Jason a lot though because I'm pretty sure that's how it is in the show. Lastly I forgot to color Jason's shirt in so that's everything that's not on the video.

I think the hardest thing for me was the eyes and the clothes. I have a love-hate relationship drawing eyes. I love looking at how different people draw their eyes but when it comes to drawing my own eyes... yikes 😬Also I think it's the facial proportions that might make this seem off, I think I have a bad habit of making the eyes too big but that's what I've been doing ever since I was a little kid so now if I make the eyes small, it just looks off. And again, I didn't do anything shading so it probably makes the picture look flat. Plus I have no idea what I'm doing.

I also usually have a hard time drawing hair but today I had a pretty easy time doing it. I was really surprised. Also another headcanon of mine for Tweek is that he has platinum blonde hair. I love platinum blonde hair and just blonde hair in general and his hair is SO YELLOW, I feel like if he was older than he'd dye it. Also they are both teens in this picture.

Tweek looks really pasty here, I tried to give him pale skin but I didn't mean for it to be THAT pale.

I think that's all I have to say. If you read this and have any tips for me, I'd love to hear them. I'd love to redraw this in a few months or maybe in a year if I decide to keep drawing, I know there's defiently room for improvement.

Despite all the complaining I just did, I don't HATE this picture per say. I really like my art style, it's simple but cute (imo of course). I feel like if I learned more about shading and learn how to draw faces and clothes better than I'd do a lot better. I think Stan was a lot cuter but this is cute too.

Lastly, ignore the two random dots if you find them, I'm too tired to fix this.

Anyway, if you read all of this, I really appreciate you! Have a great day/night! ❤️❤️

[angeldiaries777]

trigger warning mental health, online addiction. personal stuff!!! i don't want to post anymore. part one of two.

i don't want to try so hard anymore. going to be real here for a sec i don't like my life. i don't like who i am. i don't like this app. i don't like this world or any of the people in it. i do need help. i need a lot of help. i don't like this blog anymore. its not fun. its not carefree. its just something i do now subconsciously with zero effort. its not me. its not cool. i don't like it. i'm not enjoying it at all. since i deleted quite literally every other app this is where i go on for everything. and thats just toxic. i am not having fun like i said a thousand times before. i just want my thoughts and things i liked at the time to be docutmented somehwere on some account because i know i will forget. i am very miserable in my life and with myself. i know that i need to stop using this app as much as i do and same with a few others and certain accounts on websites i just have nothing left in me. i've always posted online. ive always interacted online. i've always been obsessed with watching content and consuming media books movies shows music etc etc. and i'm feeling fatigue from it. idk how many more fucking lana del rey gifs i can reblog till i lose my fucking shit for good and end it all. everything that inspired me is dull. the relationships and parasocial relationships i form with celebrities characters and people online is just plain unhealthy. especially when its causing me to ignore the ones i have in real life. i need a break. i need a break from all the media i consume. i need a break from music and from tumblr and from everything else that is slolwly rotting my brain. the attachment i have to these apps is unhealthy. the amount of time i spend on my phone or ipad or literally any other device is actually sickly. i need a break from looking at or even just holding my phone for so many hours a day. i need an actual sleep schedule and i need to not wake up at 4am and have my first thought be to open tumblr or to save pins on pinterest. i got rid of so many physical items and cut off so many people but the actual thing hurting me the most is my addiction to the internet and to media. i need to stop posting. i need to stop interacting i need to stop watching videos and movies and listening to music at the rates that i do. it is unhealthy at best and detrimental to my life and health at worst. its like those interventions they have for people with alcohol or other addictions. ive known this about myself for a long time and it only worsens the more time passes. i have issues!!!!! i have real issues in my real life that will not be solved by venting about it to my 8 followers. i need to stop. i need to sit alone with my thoughts without a podcast or an album playing in the background. i need to see what my life is like and who i am without all of this. without the things i thought i liked. the things i thought were keeping me alive and sane and healthy were actually the most destructive. i need to stop relying so heavily on things that don't exist. all these pictures and people are fake. i"m not a character or a stereotype. im a fucking person. whenever i got a negative comment i used to lay awake thinking about that. its not okay anymore. its affecting my life way too much. i don't want to think of the world and only think of what i see online because i don't love my reality. i don't want to be sad anymore. i don't want to know what that person across the world thinks of that topic or what kim kardashian had for breakfast. i want to actually live my life again for what it is and not what i wished it was. because truth be told i am very blessed in sooo many ways and i take it for granted so often. i am so much more than that sad face emoticon on somebodys phone screen. i don't want to see the same pictures of bella hadid on every fucking app with the same generic text and font over it. i don't want to consume copious amounts of self help content anymore whilst refusing to actually do any of that self help when im clearly not qualified and clearly need professional help.

[herd-reject-arts]

So I can only rarely post images on here now (which is bad when you're trying to gain a following for your art), and when I contact Tumblr support they're out here telling me I *can* post images. I insist I can't. It's the same no matter what device I've tried using. I always get an error message. I send them the most recent image I tried uploading for them to analyze the issue with. They then tell me that I've already uploaded that image and link me to the last post I was able to make that had an image - WHICH WAS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PICTURE! Like, no similarities at all. Are they having a robot talk to me about this? Like, I'm getting really fucking sick of only being able to upload text to my blog. I can't upload images to any of my side blogs, either. I've tried.

So if anyone on here has figured out what to do, I'll trust the advice of random Tumblr users over their staff, who apparently can't even discern two very different photos. I've tried on my phone (android), ipad, and computer. Can't do shit from any of the three. I've tried deleting and reinstalling the app. I've done the whole cache clearing thing. I'm well within the image requirements for the site. Nothing works.