#Imagine being so picky about a character that you can enjoy drawings of them done by

[bbq-potato-chip]

I want to b excited for the new ulqui art but. That is Not What he Looks Like.

[rpbetter]

Sorry if this isn't the place to ask but I'm in need of advice. I have a canon character I truly adore, but I haven't gotten muse or any opportunity to write them at all. My blog is collecting dust and the fandom is kinda dead at this point. Not to mention, it's hard to find compatible writing partners, especially with how picky I can be. I'm honestly considering deactivating the blog (for the nth time), but I don't want to lose the writing I have. I know I could archive, but I hate having blogs just sitting around.

In short, I really want to write the muse/keep the blog but I'm not getting any incentive to do that.

Hello, Anon, it’s totally the place to ask!

I will say, though, that since finding and keeping muse can be flavored rather personally, I can’t promise that what works for me is going to work for you. I’ll even confess that in over two decades, I’ve never personally lost muse. I don’t know if it is due to underlying, neurodiverse style, fixating, or if it is due to keeping myself continually invested in both my muse and writing regardless of what else is going on. (Probably a combination of both, though, and the things I do to keep myself highly in touch with my muse I’ll be recommending.) I’m definitely happy to try to help, however.

That really is a very frustrating spot to be in, wanting to write the muse and keep your blog active, but logging in every day to be reminded of what little reason you have to do so. Since we’re drawn to the characters we are for reasons of personal appeal and writing in itself is a pretty personal form of art, it can also feel depressing on top of the frustration.

However, that’s also the good news, in my opinion, because your incentive here is, or can be, yourself.

You were drawn to this character because you connected with them. They mean something to you, you can relate to them, maybe they have qualities (good or bad) that you wish you could experience. Whatever it is, there’s a reason why you had this draw. Writing is like that as well, there’s a reason why this is a hobby that drew you, that you get enjoyment out of. Again, though all art (it doesn’t matter if it is a hobby) has personal bits of the artist in it, writing is uniquely personal. When you write, you’re exploring thoughts and feelings, giving them life in a character that matters to you. I know, all of that sounds really convoluted and hokey, but it’s true.

And it’s good! That means you always have a reason to write and that you have the tools necessary to find and keep muse without any outside push necessary.

I’d say, firstly, work on getting muse back.

Get back in touch with your muse the next time you feel a particularly strong urge to write. Instead of spending time trying to find people in a silent fandom or forcing yourself to write something you don’t want to, just do some exercises that will help you get back into your muse.

I don’t know what media type your character comes from, but especially if it is something like movie or show that you can have on in the background of what you’re doing, do that. If it’s a comic or a book, think about your favorite scene and read it over first. If you’ve ever made some playlists for writing/your muse, you can always do that instead or as well. The point is to do something passively inspiring while you actively create. Now, that creating...

You want to do something that requires you to think about your muse so you can get in touch with them, not something that is going to make you feel overwhelmed and shut down. So, maybe don’t pick writing prompts for this - you can work up to that. Try out headcanon and character development memes and other question lists instead for right now. Things you can scroll down a list of, find questions that jump out as interesting (or even simply answerable to you at this point, you’re jump-starting a dead battery, it’s alright) and answer them. You can also do something as simple as write down what you like best about the character or their story, or put down the basics of filling in missing information that has always bugged you.

The beauty of this is that it is all on your own terms, your only objective here is to answer what you want, as much as you want. You can stop any time, but you can also answer a single question for three hours, making it eight pages long if the inspiration strikes you. It’s only about recharging your inspiration and establishing a connection with your character again. (This is also going to help you with getting back into writing, or approaching it for the first time, with a more internalized focus of interest.)

When you feel like you’ve done that, you can branch out on these exercises more. Answer the memes more in-depth, answer more of them/the ones you don’t have immediate answers for. You can also try writing out scenes from the character’s canon from their perspective, if it wasn’t already so, adding in their thoughts and feelings, or changing the scene in some ways that would be interesting to write out. This is the point where it’s a good idea to try a writing prompt or two, as well! Take the prompt as a sort of starter sentence from a mutual, you’ve got the situation, fill in with your muse.

Write when you feel like writing. The RPC is great at saying this when it comes to muns not wanting to write, but kind of ignores the other side of the equation. The side where you want to write, have the inspiration and muse to do so, but it might not be the best time. As in, you’re not home/wherever you usually write, with whatever device you tend to write on accessible. No, you’re not going to be able to get as much done, but you can write without the usual situation and device regardless. You can write a scene or ideas down using your phone or tablet, or go old school and use a notebook. If you’re at work and your job isn’t applicable to being able to get down a single sentence, that still doesn’t mean you have to wait 8+ hours to get home; while you’re taking your break, write a little bit. It is a break, and writing is your hobby, it isn’t work. It’s good to do things you enjoy on breaks, and far more fulfilling to have also accomplished something you happen to enjoy.

Not writing when you have the drive to do, putting it off and holding it in until “the perfect moment,” is a great way to lose your inspiration and never actually have that moment. If you feel like doing it, that means it is the perfect moment. Life is restricting, don’t impose even more restrictions on yourself by having to be at home, in a specific spot, with a specific device, at a specific time, on a specific day. Was that annoying repetition? You’re right, it was. And that’s how your creative mind processes all the crap piled onto it that doesn’t allow for creativity.

Now, the other problem, the fandom situation.

There isn’t anything you can do about that, to be absolutely honest. I’m not going to blow smoke and tell you to be positive, wait it out, maybe the fandom will spring to life again. You know, maybe it will...but you could be waiting literal decades for that to happen. Not cool. Please, take my word for that, it’s personal experience that it blows even more than you imagine it will.

What you can do is take the matter into your own hands in other ways; putting yourself out there with more availability in multiple ways.

Are you a single-fandom blog, or are you crossover friendly? If you’re not crossover friendly, try to think of a single, relatively popular fandom that you enjoy. Don’t look at it like a hassle, but rather, just another creative exercise. A serious pitfall of creating alternate universe versions of muses is to take the simplest route, merely picking something you want from that other universe and applying it to your muse with no relevant changes that would naturally occur from it. It isn’t just reductive as hell, it’s not remotely creative, it’s like sticking a sticker on your muse’s forehead and saying that’s a whole different muse. It’s neither attractive to potential partners nor going to sustain your own interest for long. You want this to be a passionate investment on your own end, for yourself.

What not to do:

Let’s say the fandom you picked to do crossovers with is based around magic, the main characters are witches, and they are divided into factions based on how their magical talents display and develop. Not only do you decide to make your muse a witch, you pick the most badass faction. It’s the one full of assassins and action and (metaphorically or literally) sex appeal. Well, that’s also going to be the most popular faction in the fandom. That means there will not only be plenty of big name canons there but also that there’s going to be a plethora of OCs designed just for this universe...and other crossovers from other currently active fandoms.

While that might sound like it’s great for maximizing interaction chances, it’s really not when you’re just starting somewhere new with a character from another fandom that might not be known or liked. It can also take a minute in another fandom’s RPC to identify where the good partners are. Every now and then, it is the most popular and over-populous era/faction/etc., but most of the time, it isn’t. People who write with considerable dedication and talent fairly rarely are in the popular kids club even in their fandom choices. By inserting yourself into that area, you might be bypassing (and being bypassed) by better partners on the assumption that their characters are simply going to bore you to death since they’re not within the scope of your focal point.

It’s not a situation of not being allowed to be picky, you not only have that right regardless of your situation, you also should be. This is not a “beggars can’t be choosers” situation, you’re not beholden to anyone on the basis of being new and bored. However, some of my best, and longest lasting, writing partners over all 23 years I’ve been RPing didn’t/don’t fit with all the exact surface details that automatically draw my interest. It is as true within my own fandom as it is in dealing with crossovers. Opposites (with enough similarities) really do attract and work out well together!

Don’t judge and write people off for anything that isn’t an issue of compatibility with your muse, your writing, or yourself. Decline someone because they do one line only and you are novella, they write topics that are upsetting to you, you can see no way your muse and theirs can interact without instant murder, or because you cannot stand writing with someone who is pulling 90% aesthetics and purple prose. Not because their muse is a witch who uses life-based magic, loves nature, is a healer, and into their health...while your muse in this AU is all about the death, only appreciates an urban environment and is grossed out by animals, kills as an occupation, lives on cheeseburgers and caffeine. You see what I’m saying? Don’t limit yourself unnecessarily!

What to do:

Did you consider if, in that hypothetical idea of a fandom, your muse based on their purely canon self would even fit into that faction? Or is it just something you wanted to see? If you didn’t consider this, or it was the latter, fix that. That’s bad.

If you’re not absolutely dead set on that and only that, think about what really does fit the muse better. Maybe, they would be better as a healer, someone who messes with the very fabric of reality, or someone who manipulates natural elements at will. Then again, they might not even be a witch. They could be more mundane in terms of power, but more accurate and interesting as a normal, human (or whatever). They could even be greatly opposed to the use of magic and witches. Use your muse’s original canon as a base to decide these things.

If you are absolutely dead set on it, though, you have a lot of work to do making the character into what amounts to a markedly different one while still retaining some recognizable aspects of themselves. Consider what events, in this new universe of fandom, might have happened to alter the character thus. Keep in mind that even small changes can have great consequences in a character’s development, and you might need to think about the myriad ways in which that can display, how it changes still more things for this character.

While that job becomes so much more intense when you haven’t planned out a path that matches your muse’s canon characterization at all, it is still an important part of constructing an AU, of any kind, in general. Ask yourself what experiences led to the character you know as you already know them (including your own headcanons, yes). Then, find similar possible experiences within your new fandom verse that can have the same effect. Again, though, it’s important to understand that you are never going to have an identical set of experiences, so you need to explore relevant changes still.

When you do this, you’re allowing your muse to more seamlessly fit into this other universe in a fleshed out, interesting way. Interesting both new partners and yourself.

Okay, next obnoxious question from me! Do you have multiple verses, or are you single-verse?

Whether you are already exploring new fandoms or not, by creating a variety of verses for others to interact with, you’re increasing your chances for interest and activity. When you have a verse from a different fandom you can then, additionally, advertise your presence in both that fandom’s tags when you do a promo or applicable open starter and on active RPer lists for that fandom.

Every popular fandom has such lists. You can get on them by messaging/sending an ask to the blog or by reblogging their post to be added, following the directions. I haven’t seen one yet that doesn’t allow for crossovers. You simply have to tag it as stated in the post, such as “your canon’s name here - original fandom name - crossover.” By tagging your open starter or promo as “-insert fandom here- rp” and “-fandom here- open starter” you allow people in that fandom to find you to interact. Either way is excellent for getting started in totally new places with a character others might be unfamiliar with.

Please remember that if you tag a promo as “promo,” it’ll not show up in searches off of your blog. You know, where it actually needs to be searched. Thanks, tumblr, for being janky! Being more specific as to the fandom and character will help others actually find you. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by tagging it as “promo.”

Make your verses accessible on your blog itself, in the nature of those verses, and how you set up your page or post that lists them.

Don’t put any page behind an impossible or complicated aesthetic. You really shouldn’t anyway, but when you’re needing interactions, it’s actively hurting your chances. Many people don’t want to have to play a game with your theme, it’s a turn off. Try a pinned post that lists all of your links to important pages like rules, verses, and bio instead. It means that, even from the dash, that information can quickly be found while other muns are first interested, and also that anyone who might be using the app can access it more expediently. (I’m genuinely not a fan or big supporter of doing google docs for rules, verses, bios, etc., as it forces people off site, so I can’t personally say, in good conscious and honesty, that I’d recommend it, but you do you!) You want to keep things quickly accessible is the idea here; when people are interested, you want to catch them right then and there before they have a chance to forget and lose your blog.

As to the nature of the verses themselves, give people real options. Don’t have 20 verses that all read same way. Same themes, plot possibilities, and backstories, or incredibly similar names. Have a diverse list of verses that can act as foundations for a variety of different muns. As many fandoms as you can reasonably have a good portrayal of, and different types of fandoms; not all the same genre (all fantasy, all horror, all scifi). Verses where your muse has substantially different goals, occupations, and other life situations that will involve another muse; don’t make your muse A Warrior™ in every verse, you can keep plenty of those aspects without being that literal. People love “modern” verses set in our own universe and, usually, in our own era. That doesn’t mean you have to go stereotypical or otherwise bore yourself by doing the standard “high school/college verse,” for instance. You don’t even have to designate that sort of thing, let alone make it the focus; simply create the verse by considering what your character really would be like if they existed within your reality.

As a final note on verses as pertains to this point, when you’re doing crossover verses, it’s alright to do some verses where your muse from their own canon existence somehow ends up teleported or whatever to another fandom’s reality, or even our own. Just don’t make every verse like this, it puts the onus of a great deal of creativity and effort onto the other mun by default; your muse has cluelessly dropped into the universe, and while it is high drama time for you, the other mun has to babysit, educate, deal with fallout, etc.

On making the list of your verses accessible, you want to focus on ease of browsing and not being overwhelming. People tend to look through a verse page and not read every verse listed, rather, they look at the titles and breakdowns to see if it is of interest, then read it. Don’t try to make everyone read them all, it isn’t going to happen, and shouldn’t change your effort any as the right people are going to find the verses that interest them...if you make it clear and easy enough.

Have a basic format you stick to, firstly. I do it this way: small verse banner, title of verse (linked to its overall tag so that muns can look through the tag at headcanons, aesthetics, pictures of the FC, and threads), muse age/age range, small blurb, possible triggers found uniquely or just heavily within this verse. In that order, one following the other in a simple, but pleasing way. Below that, is a more in depth breakdown of the “verse canon.” Sometimes, that is giving a brief rehashing of canon itself and anywhere my muse differs, be it in this verse only or overall, ending with where my muse is in this verse. Not literally where. I mean their present occupation, emotional and general state in life. At the very end, I provide any other relevant links and/or an expansion on the triggers mentioned at the top of the verse description if they’re that serious/recurrent so that muns can decide this isn’t the verse for them. I happen to have a potentially triggering muse, triggering verses, and writing triggering topics, though. That’s not something everyone needs to do.

Secondly, group your verses in a sensible way. I do my short list of default verses first. (And, I do mean short, you don’t want this be any more than four or five, it is overwhelming right out of the gate.) For me, that is two default verses of canon at different points on the timeline, one default AU that is a bit of a reversal of canon, and one default “modern” verse. Then, I list the verses that are in line with the altered canon one, just different possibilities, changes, points in history. After that, the different “modern” verse options. Then, verses for other fandoms, the crossover verses. And so on. This way, a potential partner can find the type of verse that might appeal to them and have an easier time picking from those possibilities and getting ideas.

Lastly, don’t be so succinct that you give too little information and underwhelm, but also don’t be so excessive that it takes all of the mystery of interaction away and overwhelms someone. It can be a difficult balance to strike, and some verses require more information than others, just experiment a bit. Additionally, it’s fine to link to pertinent information for the other mun to view aside from this, but don’t just link people to a fandom wiki as your “description/bio.” That isn’t giving information on how you write this muse, approach this fandom, or what another mun can otherwise expect. Keeping your descriptions interesting is important, you’re not giving a boring lecture, you’re trying to inform someone while making them hyped for their choices. It’s more interesting, and informative, to read if you do them with an ear to the “tone” of your muse in that verse. Is it a sad one? Sound that way. These can, indeed, function as snippets of your writing, so be sure you are writing them with the same care you should be giving your replies; spellcheck, good word flow and use, mind the grammar, and read over what you’ve written for common, easy mistakes.

Again, by giving a genuine variety of verses to choose from, you’re allowing for a greater reach in potential partners. Everyone from those still in your original fandom to those in new ones, all the way to fandomless muses will be able to interact with you this way.

Finally, in regards to what you can change or do when you’re in a dead fandom and seeking interactions; make sure you are increasing your reach by using proper tags, being honest about what and how you write, and don’t wait for others to stumble across you.

When you use tags properly, you’re increasing your chances of being seen at all. Every time you post something at all applicable on your blog, tag it with relevant things. Tag as described above with whatever fandom it is and “RP,” your character’s name, “open RP,” character name and RP, indie RP, open starter, and so on. Be sure you are optimizing your tags by placing the most relevant to finding you in the first four, those are what show up in site-wide searches only. Anything after that isn’t going to appear in a search across all tumblr.

By tagging your character’s name, as a canon, you should know that you are likely to get personal blog interaction. I’m pretty against being nasty to personal blogs for no reason, as I don’t appreciate personal and fandom blogs being shitty to me for the sole reason that I am an RPer. Please, use clear, short, attention getting directions for them. If you want no interactions with them, put right in the description of your blog “RP blog, does not interact with personal blogs.” When you say things like, “personals dni,” or “personals blocked,” you’re not doing anyone any favors. Personal blogs often don’t even know what the hell a personal blog even is! They do not denote themselves this way, to a personal blog, they’re just a blog. By designating first that you are an RP blog, you’re making it clearer that they’re the personal; they’re obviously not an RP blog, so that must make them a personal. Follow this up in a pinned post, right on top. Give a note to personal blogs that describes them as “any blog that isn’t an RP blog” first, then either tell them in brief what they can and can’t do or that you don’t interact and will block.

I don’t recommend taking your blog off of being findable, however. That’s alright once you have the RP activity you are looking for, but until then, it’s working against you. Other RP blogs cannot easily find you either, they will only find you if you’re on a list or appear in their recommended blogs, if you interact with a mutual, or are recommended by a mutual. You’re not just lessening your chances of personal blogs finding you, so if you have that turned off, turn it back on.

Don’t entirely rely on others finding you regardless, though. You can’t be 100% passive when you have no interactions, and by relying solely on serendipity you’re far less likely to get them. I know that everyone here is terminally shy, but seriously, you have to do more than put your silent will into the universe that someone perfect find you. You have to make this happen. Once you get a few people, you can afford to be more passive. Not only do you have some people to write with, you will be more visible to their mutuals, and more established as a presence. I’m not saying this is easy, or that it will become easy, not awkward or stressful, if you have a legitimate issue behind the shyness. Just that it is the only way to really proceed, and I believe you can do it!

So, go looking for interesting blogs. Be crossover and OC friendly (again, this doesn’t mean “accept everyone,” there are valid reasons for not accepting people you won’t work out with that have nothing to do with their fandom or being an OC), and search those fandom’s RPCs, following any blogs you think you might work out with upon reading their rules and other pages. Search for fandomless OCs and do the same thing. Fandomless OCs aren’t just floating around in the ether, they just weren’t created expressly for a particular fandom and within its confines. What is excellent about that is their ability to have a wide variety of verses and many possibilities to fit into any fandom or verse. So, don’t count them out solely on the basis of being an OC and fandomless. It doesn’t mean what people seem to think it does!

Do not stop at having followed 50 blogs. I mean, other than that you probably should stop following people for a bit. That you should do, as you need to be building writing relationships here, not following so many people that you cannot get to them. Don’t just stop at the follow, though. Since you’ve read their rules and information like a good RP partner, you should have some idea of what their interests are and where they align with yours, as well as how they prefer to be approached, if they accept memes right away to start, need plotting, have a rules password. When they’ve followed you back, proceed with interaction!

Ask if they’d like to plot when they have time, you’re really looking forward to writing with them. But...have some idea of a plot, please. It is a serious turn off to have someone message you wanting to plot, only to reply and get “lol I don’t have any ideas, anything works for me/whatever you want to do.” That isn’t plotting, it’s one party coming up with ideas and constructing a plot while they’re being told “I’m fine with anything.” That may be true, but it’s disheartening and a red flag for many people. If you genuinely can’t come up with anything, pick verses that match up well and suggest doing something within them.

“When you have the time, would you be interested in discussing writing? I was looking at your verses, and I think your verse -name- and mine, -verse name-, would mesh well.” Is a good way to start. Once you have a discussion flowing about the verses meshing and the muses, it’s typically easy to organically develop some plot ideas to go off of.

If both you and the other mun are alright with plot-free interaction and memes, you can send a meme any time. If you can’t find any memes on their blog, look for a wishlist or navigation page that shows you the tags for memes/wishlist. Still can’t find it? Ask them if they’ve got a wishlist or meme tag you can look through.

Additionally, if open starters are a thing you both do and are alright with, find some of theirs and respond. Post your own, tag it appropriately to be found in general and on your blog, and reblog it once or twice. Don’t excessively reblog it, and don’t get upset on the dash if no one interacts with it or any memes you reblog. Both are demanding to outright guilting, and not a good way to get partners. Just provide them with the ability to easily interact by making the posts available in the first place and by making them findable on your blog search and navigation.

Provide something for potential partners to see. Since you said you already do have writing, that’s great! That’s content on your blog that your partners can view. However, since you’re also having the issues you’ve stated, it’s likely that you haven’t many new posts. Show that you are active, interested in being here, and how you write your muse (and in general) by posting some newer content. For original content, do a headcanon or some meta, or post about new verses you are adding, the changes on your blog, a promo. For reblogs, things pertaining to your muse like canon imagery, fanart, quotes from canon or that generally express your muse, and aesthetics relevant to your muse are all excellent things to queue.

Use that queue. Not only do very few people appreciate having dash spam of similar content for the comparatively short time you might be around, but also, running these things on a queue means you spread that out for maximum view. While there are hours of heavier activity, you’ll have mutuals who are on at unusual hours due to their life and preferences or their timezone. This way, you’re not appearing inactive, if not outright invisible, to those mutuals. It’s not a bad idea to use a queue tag so that people know if they interact with a post that’s been queued, you might be here to quickly respond.

Ultimately, to fix your fandom and lacking partners problem, you just need to up your availability and reach beyond that fandom alone. Be proactive in following and approaching, decline blogs based on not working out only, utilize tags and fandom RPer lists, have everything on your blog easy to follow and not overwhelming, and have your verses meet as wide of a range of people as possible while also not being overwhelming.

Try updating your promo, as well, by the way. They’re not dead, they just really tanked when people kept making them based solely on aesthetic principle instead of being at all informative about the muse. They do seem to be coming back, so it’s a thing to consider.

Yes, make it visually appealing, it will draw people to reading it. No, do not just use a song lyric or quote with words highlighted linking your rules, verses, bio. Tell people basic info like the age of your muse and yourself, if you are multiverse and multiship, your muse’s canon verse and a couple of big interest verses of other major fandoms or themes that tend to be of interest to people, and what kind of RP you write - one line/para/multipara/novella. Absolutely give links to rules, verses, bio, and either memes, wishlist, or open starters, but give them just like that; make it very clear what this link is to. Put a very short statement of interest on there denoting that you’re expanding to new fandoms and looking for writing partners.

Do not sound desperate, demanding, or devaluing of yourself. Don’t say shit like “because my fandom is dead,” “trying this before I give up and delete my blog,” or “I suck at interaction/writing/ooc interaction/being a person but welp giving it a try, so follow and hit that heart.” (Conversely, calling yourself derogatory things and implying that your partners are too, such as the “we’re all just losers here” shit.) All of the above are not attractive, and they’re not even surprising enough to stand out anymore. It’s another reason to scroll right by that promo because nothing at all was different or of interest.

And as a wrap-up/rehash of the first topic, getting muse back: try starting over at the beginning by approaching the media involving your muse that has really stuck with you emotionally over the years, and exploring and developing your muse again.

Don’t tell yourself you can only write, for example, at home, on the laptop, after 7pm, and with a pop toy staring at you. The best thing about writing, as opposed to so many other hobbies, is that you can do it anywhere! So, do that. Do it any time you both feel the inspiration to do so and aren’t going to get fired or expelled for it. This isn’t work, it’s something enjoyable that does take effort (like literally all creative activities and skills do), but approaching it as though you need to follow novel writing advice from someone who has never published anything of note and isn’t you on the internet, with strict rules for success makes it feel that way. So does being frustrated with a dead fandom, no interaction. It’s disheartening, feels as annoying and fruitless as work often does. You probably need to break out of that mindset, and you can only do it by beginning to allow yourself to be creative on your own terms, entirely for yourself.

Do write simple things at first that you are inspired to do (you can’t get a scene out of your head, or a bit of dialogue), and/or headcanon/character development memes and question lists. Build from there as you get back in touch with your muse, writing things primarily or entirely for yourself still. Expanding on headcanons, doing some meta, or maybe writing out a missing piece of canon or what you’d be interested in seeing happen in canon if some event was altered.

Doing this sort of thing, you are getting in touch with your muse again and back into the real spirit of writing creatively, simultaneously.

Whatever you find most inspiring, do it. If it’s watching the movie or show again, do that, have it on while you write or simply think on the character’s actions, thoughts, and emotions during those scenes. If it’s reading the material again, do that, and read snippets of personal importance before you write. Maybe it’s some past playlists you can have on while writing, or even while you’re cleaning, walking the dog, driving or riding somewhere. It could even be your own previous writing! Go ahead and re-read that, it sounds like you still appreciate it, and that’s truly promising. If you find that you’re horrified by some of the things you’ve written in the more distant past, hey...that’s not just valid as hell, it’s natural. You know what else it is? An inspiration. You can clearly see that you could do better, that means you now know how to do better and are ready to do so. Validate yourself, prove it to yourself by rewriting or fixing something.

Don’t delete the blog or archive it. It is unpleasant to have a dead blog around, but don’t keep it dead. Use the same blog and simply transition it into wider things that will net you more partners and the interactions you deserve.

Look, even if you weren’t the most popular blog in your fandom before it went quiet, you really appreciated the blog, muse, and writing you were doing. You’ve defined that it wasn’t something you did to cause this situation, you just had the shit luck we all run into eventually of being in a fandom that ran out of material or interest. People are really fickle, so by taking a wider approach and fixing on the writing and muse instead of fandom now, you’re stopping this from repeating. Seriously, on a long enough timeline, every fandom dies or goes into hibernation. If you make a whole new blog with a different muse, it is going to happen again eventually.

So, don’t feel like you’re ridiculously clinging to the past and need to move on, you’re just sticking to something and can continue to stick to it through the next five fandom deaths. Just because it is the most popular thing to do to drop muses, constantly add new ones, and have this attitude that you can “blog refresh” your way out of recurrent, and inherent, problem doesn’t mean it is actually the right thing to do. It’s not even the most sensible, and certainly not the best thing to do with anything you’ve spent time and effort on.

That’s your incentive; yourself, the time and care you’ve put in, and your continued interest in writing and the muse. You’ll find good people, and bluntly, everyone else can fuck right off when you’re incentivized by yourself. It becomes a self-fulfilling activity at that point, I swear, and it feels really nice.

Just get back in touch with your muse and writing itself so that you can begin to expand and start interacting again!

[omgthatdress]

How to make Cats a good movie.

I watched Cats, and once I got over the initial horror, I was actually pretty entertained and found myself enjoying the shit out of it. Like god bless it, for as nightmare-inducing as much as it was, Tom Hooper was clearly *committed* to his vision and you gotta give him credit for that. The scenery was actually really beautiful and the cinematography was frequently breathtaking. Like it really did have a lot of elements that really worked for it. But for every bit of genius, there was something terrible that the movie just couldn’t overcome. So let’s dive in.

First of all, you kind of have to understand Cats: the musical. It’s an adaptation of poems that T.S. Elliott of nihilistic lost generation fame wrote for his godchildren about cats. And the poetry is charming af and totally captures the nature of cats and why they’re so lovable. In the in the 1970s, Andrew Lloyd Webber did a shit ton of cocaine and decided to make a musical out of these poems. As a result, Cats has no plot. It’s a bunch of cats singing their songs about who they are and doing a lot of dancing. The thinnest of narrative devices is created with the “jellicle” ball and the deciding of which cat gets to ascend to heaven or some shit. So yeah. Cats is actually pretty controversial among theater nerds, it’s very much a you either love it or hate it thing. Is it stupid? Yes.  Is it going to make everyone happy? No. Does it lend itself well to film adaptation? fuck no. I get the feeling that Tom Hooper was really going for deep, meaningful poetic cinema here and trying to make another Les Mis (which was way overly long and ultimately sank under its own sheer weight as a movie and probably is better viewed as a play). I’m operating under the assumption that Hooper was going for ground-breaking cinema that would have made millions and swept up during awards season and cemented him as a legendary director and gone down in movie history, because every little detail of Cats is clearly meant for maximum impact. You kind of need to drop all expectations going into Cats, so once you’re there, you can have fun with it. So how do you make it a good film?

1. The HORRIBLE hyper-realistic cgi human-cat hybrids. YES, it’s a technical marvel, and the CGI artists who made it all deserve a ton of credit for the work they did. And I understand why the actors were kept in their human shapes: live dance is a huge part of what makes Cats work. One of the smart decisions made was hiring theater veterans for the filler roles in the cat chorus, so when you have the choreographed numbers, it’s really spectacular. It’s just the end result was way too uncanny valley and bizarre for any of the film’s good parts to ever rise above it. I think a minimalist approach would have actually worked best. Cat ears and simple costumes with clean lines that show off the dancer’s bodies. Go for the suggestion of cats, and kind of let the viewer’s imagination take over, and showcase the cat’s personality. A huge part of what I enjoyed was hearing the poetry and imagining these cats and how they all relate to cats I’ve known. The dance and the music helped heighten this experience, but hybrids kept reminding me of the joke: what do you get when you cross a human and a cat? An immediate cessation of funding and a stern rebuke from the ethics committee.

2. The schlocky, honestly amateurish attempts at slapstick humor. I’m gonna come out and say it and say that Hooper is pretty deeply entrenched in *dRaMa* and has no sense of how comedy works. There was a lot of added in comedic bits from Rebel Wilson and James Corden, and it was honestly terrible. I mean really, a crotch hit? That kind of lowbrow comedy is so crude and base that it’s actually really hard to pull it off well. Slapstick comedy actually lends itself to the whimsical tone, and slapstick done well can be utterly sublime, but Cats seemed satisfied that fat people falling over is the height of comedy and should be left at that. And a second note on the comedy? Weirdly fat-shame-y. A saw a post about how odd it is to see James Corden, who has been very frank about how he’s struggled with dieting and come to accept that his body is fat and can’t be made not fat, playing this role where fat is added to his body, his CGI vest strains at the buttons, and he’s literally stuffing his face with garbage. The theme of fat people as lazy, stupid, and slovenly carried over from Rebel Wilson’s role, in which she also plays a fat lazy cat who is leaned on heavily for comic relief. I know the role is about a fat cat, and gently laughing at a fat lazy cat who loves to eat is fine, but, speaking as a fat person myself, this felt like a gleeful exploitation of a nasty and cruel stereotype. James Corden and Rebel Wilson are both extraordinarily funny people who happen to be fat, and their comedic gifts were tremendously mis-used here, reducing them to simply two fat bodies to be laughed at.

3. Jennifer Hudson. She’s a talented actress who can sing and emote like a motherfucker. And emote she did. She was clearly GOING for that second Oscar. I really don’t want to call her performance bad. The same level of emotion, tears running and snot flowing, in another movie, would have been devastating (Hello, Viola Davis in Fences). But this isn’t Fences, it’s fucking Cats. You need a level of character depth and development that Cats doesn’t afford to make those tears hit. All the crying and misery was an odd maudlin and over-dramatic break in the fun and whimsy. With a subtler performance and a hint of self-awareness, it could have actually brought in an emotional anchor for this light-as-air film, but Cats doesn’t make any attempt at nuance, and as a result the scenes just hit you out of nowhere like a load of bricks. 

4. Francesca Hayward. Okay, before we go anywhere, I want to say that this girl is not un-talented. She’s the principal ballerina of the Royal Ballet, and has a very long list of ballets that she’s lead in. So it makes sense that she’d be hired for a role that’s primarily ballet. This girl is a really really great DANCER. But Cats was clearly trying to make an A-list actress out of her. They tried to make her into Florence Pugh, who has been acting for a while and is blowing up right now because she’s very talented. Like everything about Francesca’s role in the film said “This is a star-making role.” A new song was written just for her to sing as an addendum to Cats’s show-stopping signature song. But the song was just okay, it didn’t carry nearly the emotional weight or all-around beauty of “Memories,” and all in all felt wedged-in and totally unnecessary and really just felt like a grab at that “best original song” Oscar. Francesca’s voice is high, thin, and child-like. It’s not unpleasant, but next to the richness and depth of Jennifer Hudson’s voice, it crumbles, and it’s not the sort of voice that I want to seek out to listen to over and over again. As for her overall performance, she largely keeps the same look of wide-eyed wonder throughout her numerous close-ups, so much so that I found myself thinking of the the MST3K “dull surprise” sketch. But I don’t know if that’s really entirely her fault. There was an attempted romantic storyline with the magic cat, but again, because of the nature of Cats and its lack of real character development or depth, the chemistry fell flat. There really isn’t much of a chance to show off a lot of dramatic range, so to keep going back to her character, it kept reinforcing the one-notedness of her performance. Really, I just kept wanting to see Francesca dance. Ironically, I think they really blew an opportunity trying to make an A-list actress out of her. All she really need to make people want to see more of her is one spectacular dance number, but for some reason, she never really gets that show-stopping moment. 

5. Dignity? I guess this goes back to the whole CGI cat thing, but there were a lot of moments when I felt this tremendous wave of second-hand embarrassment hit me on behalf of the talented actors in this film. Watching Gandalf lap up milk from a saucer was a wholly uncomfortable experience, like come on, grant the great Ian McKellan some fucking DIGNITY here. Which goes back to whatI said earlier that a suggestion and interpretation of cats would have worked better than all-out just being a cat. Or it could again just be how much Cats just fails its attempts at comedy. But then again there was no fucking reason at all for Idris Elba to be that fucking NAKED. I guess they were trying to make him sexy? But his sexy smolder and just being Idris Elba wasn’t enough they had to make sure that we all saw his chiseled pecs and thick thighs. And then at the end when he’s dangling off of the rope of a hot air balloon and what’s supposed to be a funny scene, I think, I kept thinking “I’m so sorry this is happening to you, Idris.” 

There’s a bunch of other small, nit-picky things that I could go into. Those cockroaches would have worked so much better if they weren’t humans with an extra set of arms. Watching them get eaten was some horror movie shit. Taylor Swift’s Macavity song would have worked a lot better if the cat chorus full of cats we’ve gotten to know had sung it, but instead Taylor Swift is brought in as a new cat we don’t know whose only purpose is to sing the Macavity song? but of course a big oscar-bait movie needs to have that pop star that draws in the people who wouldn’t otherwise see it and making her a part of the cat chorus would have had her performing throughout the whole movie and she would have floundered the way pop stars tend to do when performing musical theater around a bunch of musical theater actors. So I guess I get why she was thrown in.

So.... yeah? Is there anyone else who found themselves enjoying it in spite of everything? I’m glad I have dogs and didn’t have to watch this mess with actual cats around me.

[fyrapartnersearch]

[ as we proceed. ]

Hello! I go by Mars. Currently, I am in the Pacific Time Zone, but I’m fairly versatile with roleplaying alongside with others from different timezones. Twenty-nine years of age, and I have been roleplaying for over 14 years, so I have a good deal of experience in my humblest opinion. I figure that’s enough about myself; now to get to the main reason you’re all reading this, and that is because I have been looking for roleplayers with the coming of this new year, someone to keep my muse levels high and my writing always on point while I maintain having two jobs, as well as a burgeoning social life. Someone easygoing yet creative with a vivid imagination to bring ideas to form is highly desired in a writer.

This request is not for the faint of heart, and those who have considerable limits, hesitations, and triggers are likely not going to be a good match. Just fair warning.

WRITING

I am a multi-paragraph sort of writer, which means that frequently, my writing will exceed at least 600 words, and upward of 1000+ words. I love detail and description, and I am actively seeking someone of the same infamy. Once upon a time, I managed to keep up with a story that teetered around 3000+ per reply with someone, still maintaining the same detailed descriptive writing, and I definitely wouldn’t mind having that challenge once more.

GENRES / PAIRINGS / FACES

I exclusively play male characters in mxf pairings with any smut or romantic attachment, this is non-negotiable. I fully understand and respect roleplayers who are able to play both males and females and nonbinary characters in different pairings. I simply don’t have that versatility, as when I’ve played them in the past, there was an innate in-authenticity that I felt. On the other hand, I am a bit more versatile when it comes to genres and settings that I like to play in. Supernatural is my absolute bread and butter, especially urban and gothic fantasy. Anything to do with vampires, werewolves, demons, witches, shapeshifters, mutants, other urban creature of folklore, given some sort of modern day spun, is absolutely perfect for me. I also really love science fiction in its many forms. Primarily, I take my sci-fi craving inspirations from Star Wars, Mass Effect, and Destiny. I’ve also been slowly intrigued by zombie-less post-apocalyptic storylines, something where the cataclysm is not necessarily caused by rabid zombies (I’m not a big fan of the stereotypical zombies portrayed in The Walking Dead and stuff), but something with either a lethal virus, or a planetary disaster, like an extreme coronal mass ejection.

Another genre that I’ve slowly found interest in includes that of the superhero genre. I’m a big fan of both Marvel and DC fandom, and the concept of having superhumans, humans with abilities, anything of that short would be awesome to do. Against, these would be with original characters on my part. I’m not as fond of general real-life or general modern day genres and themes without a good, complex idea attached to it.

One thing I really love to employ in my roleplays would be face claims, faces, playbys, picture bases, however you call it nowadays. Like I said, I started out roleplaying on forums like proboards, and later, jcink and invisionfree, so face claims are quite prevalent for me. This would only be real-life pictures, and not anime or drawings. We can use the latter for reference points, but I would ideally like face claims to be involved. In terms of looks and stuff, I’ve generally gone for a variety of different guys for who I use to represent my characters. Two of my favorite faces are Tom Hardy and Charlie Hunnam: I can use them for anything. I’ve also had a penchant for guys like Richard Armitage, Marlon Teixeira, Chadwick Boseman, Jason Momoa, and Ed Skrein. For women, my characters playing against, I like to go for an even greater assortment of faces. From actresses like Natalie Dormer, Katie McGrath, Deborah Ann Woll, and Olivia Wilde, models like Adriana Lima and Candice Swanepoel, glamour models like Lucy Collett, Lucy Pinder, and Billie Faiers, alternative models like Sara Fabel and Kelly Eden, and even adult faces like Christy Mack and Nikki Benz – you name them, I’m probably interested in them. So the flexibility is highly wanted.

NOTE: This one is also big, as I have met previous partners who use anime or picture drawings, or have reservations about particular types of faces. I would prefer a partner to be rather versatile and potentially willing to try some of these faces and such.​ Bonus points if someone is comfortable using faces like Ellie Rayne and Cervena Fox and the like.

WORLD BUILDING

I want an active roleplayer in this category, without a doubt. i love to world-build, but I tend to lose interest when I am the only one who puts in the effort to world-build. Too often I find people gun-shy in this regard. If I feel that I’m carrying the weight of the world-building part with specific ideas, I will end the roleplay in a heartbeat. And consider that the world building is just the tip of the beginning, so from that, I’ll be able to see whether we’ll be a match or not. Because we’d be starting from scratch with whatever we do, it would be a big relief to have someone who doesn’t mind letting ideas flow to set up the universe that we will be roleplaying in. That way, I feel as though we would both be extremely immersed into the roleplay. Let’s create lively planets with vast underground criminal empires, ot a galaxy far, far away, or galaxies far, far away.

MATURE CONTENT

I enjoy writing smut, writing violence, plain and simple. I don’t hinder myself – or I try not to – in what I write, the exact extremeness and depth and detail, and I expect my partner to do the same. Maybe not extremeness in a total and complete smutfest (but really, I wouldn’t be opposed), but I do like a variety of things that can be incorporated along with a fascinating story. Some kinks I love include BDSM, incest, the unholy trinity (oral, anal, and such), dubious consent, hair-pulling, those sorts of things. A particularly darker kink that is not explored enough for me is pregnancy/impregnation/breeding. Also, since I love things like psychological trauma and experimentation (in science fiction and supernatural context), those are also highly desired. The manipulation of someone’s mind, body, and soul, combined with elements of corruption and body alteration/transformation – love. These lean more on this smuttier side of the roleplaying, which I like to fashion it as a coin; heads being the smut, tails being the story. I tend to think of them as two halves of a whole and complete experience, and you simply cannot have one without the other. Sometimes I'll ebb more on the smut side of things, sometimes I won't, but a partner who is more than comfortable in that regard is great.

NOTE: I should make this a bit clearer for any potential partners, but I am looking for roleplays on the darker, smuttier side of things, with little to no limits, and a great deal of my own interests would need to be met by any potential partners. If this part is glossed over in any fashion, I'll be able to pick up on that. I'll be particularly picky about this part. If you have any reservations or have major conditions about this, then it's likely that we won't mesh.

I’ve bulleted the major kinks/mature themes that I want to explore.

Psychological torment. Again, I really enjoy this sort of roleplaying, challenging the mind, characters in situations where they ultimately do not recover from it mentally, where their psychological profile is irrevocably changed.

The unholy trinity. Oral, anal, vaginal sex. Like I said, I enjoy my smut, I’m shameless, don’t care much for judging.

Corruption. Easily one of my favorite themes to explore, and it doesn’t have to just be as simple as sexual corruption, turning a poor innocent girl and debasing her to the point of no return. Something as simple as a hardened person, forged from the rigors of life, suddenly finding themselves in a position of finer things. Of wealth, of relaxation. That can sow the seeds into a slow descent into something illegal, lewd, or all of the above. And they can view it as the ultimate freedom from that hardship.

Drugs. The exploration of a person’s psyche that forces them to turn to recreational drugs to cope with whatever situations they have.

Vanity, body alterations. This can be through different genres and for different reasons. Imperfections are everywhere, and I love roleplaying themes where the characters will go through whatever means. Larger breasts and a more voluptuous curves in order to make money or ascend higher in the economic sphere. Modified abs, cosmetic surgery, all of those things would be included.

Taboo pairings. Specifically incest or interracial. I’ve not tried mother/son pairings, but i’d like to see if anyone is up for that. I’m also good with father/daughter and brother/sister pairings, but those would be primarily for science fiction and urban fantasy.

Gore. I don’t mind there being a little or a good deal. With urban fantasy, you can expect this, because I tend to play creatures as vicious, war-mongering, and unapologetic about tapping into their bestial natures.

Bad endings. What if happily ever after isn’t so happily after all? What if the main character doesn’t get the job done, what if there is no fairytale ending, and what results is heartache, pain, misery? Or delight, freedom, and inspiration?

Pregnancy. Impregnation. Breeding. Demons need to procreate to get their army, no? They need to find that special someone who can unearth their demonic spawn and destroy their adversaries. Or, for a more subversive notion, a simple one=night stand ends up being nine months of sheer interest and intrigue for the involved coupling. I lean toward the former, having had some basis in erotic roleplaying in the past, so the more odd themes of this are welcomed. But normal pregnancy with the right plot is also quite fun.

Again, I can’t stress this enough. These themes are going to be darker by nature. While I don’t believe in a purely smut or purely story-centered roleplay, the fact of the matter is that I’m looking for someone who can and has no problem with handling those themes. For me, I’m alright if you have any particular aversion to rape (I’ll never pressure anyone for this) and things like scat and watersports (I’m personally not okay with those latter two), but I’d like it if everything else was fair game. So BDSM, incest, the exploration of similar themes and such.

The only limits I have in this regard would include scat and watersports, those things of that nature. I generally do not mind non-consensual stories that start off that way initially, but over time change (and I know that that isn’t how non-consensual sex works in real life). However, I honestly do not mind it at all if that theme is not included at all since I know that it can be a particular trigger to some..

INSPIRATIONS / FANDOMS

I have many different inspirations when it comes to what I roleplay and how I generally approach a roleplay through my characters, the setting, and such. For urban fantasy roleplays, I’ll take different sets of lore for creatures and create my own, not following any specific script, to say the least. Things from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, True Blood, Vampires The Masquerade, for instance, would cater to my urban fantasy cravings. Bonus points for anyone familiar with video game franchises like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Destiny, Borderlands, Overwatch. Now, I don’t necessarily roleplay these fandoms to the tee, and I wouldn’t play any canon characters from it. I would, however, love to play opposite canon characters with my own original assembly of characters, as well as playing in scenes and settings reminiscent of these.

PARTICULAR CRAVINGS

Now that I’ve pretty much laid out what I’m about, I’d like to turn your attention to a few particular cravings that I’ve had as of late.

Supernaturally-themed plots are always going to be my bread and butter. I’ve had a craving for demons and demon hunters, this nigh eternal struggle between those that bring hellfire and corruption to humanity, and those tasked with defending humans from them. Or, a more self-serving alternative, these bounty hunters being skilled enough to take the unenviable task of capturing and/or killing demons for a hefty price. Maybe one, or a few demon hunters, get too big for their britches and take on a truly horrifying upper demon. We can play intense themes of carnal desires, corruption, underhanded tricks, contract obligations. [18+]

On the level of science fiction, you’ve seen me repeatedly mention Mass Effect. I love the crew idea, exploring the vast known and unknown reaches of space. Maybe they are a crew of bounty hunters looking for the next payday, or soldiers trying to stave off an alien threat. [18+]

Another science fiction, but with a more centralized main character. Called “The Traveler”, I would like to explore some sort of time-traveling person (not akin to Doctor Who, but the premise is the same). Someone with the advanced technological resources or metahuman abilities to traverse through time. What’s his purpose? What’s his motivation? Maybe instead of preventing things from happening that indicate bad results, maybe “The Traveler” IS the cause of these bad events. Maybe this Traveler has ambition to travel through significant events in history to manipulate them to his ultimate advantage, to gain more power. [18+]

Gotham will burn – Now, this one, is partly because of my interest in the show Gotham, but also from the Batman: Arkham series video games. I love a dark, gritty sort of cityscape with mobsters and criminals, and these rogue vigilantes trying to clean things up. I’ve also been inspired by the TV show Arrow, so this would be along those ideas. Maybe, for once, these supposed “heroes in the dark” can’t clean up the city and instead succumb to the corruptive pressures of an easier, more hedonistic lifestyle? [18+]

The “ambitious plot” – this is something I’ve coined myself, since it is pretty ambitious to bring to life. And this is one of my primary cravings, something of an all-inclusive episodic series, so to speak, which would feature just about everything I love in varying or limitless amounts. I thought of it as something akin to a Mass Effect inspired, Game of Thrones-esque establishment and episode structure, wherein there are different characters with different plot points, in different settings, but altogether would combine for some sort of universal roleplay. Naturally, this would also combine my other four cravings. [18+]

Each of these cravings would require us to play multiple characters off the bat, as well as adding characters either selectively to the storyline, or nondescriptly, because we think another character with a specific personality might add even more intrigue to it. These cravings are also going to vacillate highly between smut and story, depending on the particular facet we’d like to explore.To me, the ambitious plot is the one I’m really seeking, but it is a pretty time-consuming one, and something not for the faint of heart or for others that don’t have all that much time on their hands. As these cravings will be fairly demanding and require a good deal of OOC communication, I will require you to add in your own input AS you contact me. Which means, if you do decide to email me, specifically about those ideas, you must already have some ideas ready to throw at me.

MEDIUM

Medium-wise, I’ve done various forms of roleplaying before. When I started roleplaying, I was initially a site go-getter, loving the pretty graphics and the jcink and invisionfree (and to a lesser extent, proboards) communities. I’m not sure if I want to roleplay on that, for this particular request, as I don’t have it in me to go through the semantics and the time consummation of having to write up an application or a character sheet, so right now, forum roleplaying is off the table. Right now, my main preferences for roleplaying include email and Googledocs, with Googledocs being the main preference right now.

Hopefully I have not dissuaded too many people, but I will say that for the purposes of what I am looking for, I am going to be rather picky about who contacts me. So please, be as detailed in your email as I have been in my request, that’s all i ask. I don’t wish to have emails with the body of them being “Hey, i’m interested in everything you listed, so let’s roleplay” – that does nothing to inspire my confidence and excitement. Let me know what specifically wrapped you into contacting me.

CONTACT

If you are interested in potentially roleplaying with me, please contact me by email ONLY. I made this tumblr just to be able to send these kinds of request, but I otherwise do not use it and will not respond to messages made on it. I created the email specifically for roleplaying means – wildbloodedmadness@gmail.com. I’m open to communication and creating a general dialogue through Discord and Google Hangouts, but only after the initial email correspondence has been made. For contacting me, I would like your name/online alias, age (because I will only be accepting partners 18 and over), timezone, roleplaying availability, interests, kinks/limits, and – well, hell – include your favorite song lyric in the title of the email.

[ineffable-endearments]

miracle headcanons

everyone’s got their headcanons for miracles, right? and how they work? here are mine. i’m really not picky about them at all and will read stories with an extremely wide range of different headcanons. heck i’ll probably write stories with an extremely wide range of different headcanons.

a bit of a...disclaimer, i guess, is that i think the miracles are just not the point of good omens, and that’s why they’re not elaborated on more within the series. it doesn’t really matter why the characters don’t “just do x y z” or “how they can do a but not b”. it’s not really what the series is about, what matters is what actually IS done. however, this is fandom, where we actually enjoy overthinking because it can be fun.

the power to use miracles was endowed by god at the very beginning of creation and has never been taken away. not even during the fall. the nature of the miracles changed for demons, but whatever that internal well of power was? it’s still there. 

the core ability to use miracles cannot be touched by the bosses in heaven and hell, but they can easily track general information about what is being done and where.

miracles require energy sort of like physical activity requires energy for humans. except angels and demons are metaphysical creatures, so it’s metaphysical energy.

if an angel or demon uses too many miracles or tries to do too large an act at once, they’ll discorporate, sort of like a human could faint or die of exhaustion. healing one young lady’s broken wrist? moderate energy, not a problem. trying to mass-heal an entire bus full of wounded people? the magic would peter out or you’d discorporate.

generally speaking, the amount of physics that needs to be violated when performing a miracle affects how much effort the angel or demon has to exert to do it. teleporting a tiny object across the room from the desk to your hand? extremely easy (but unnecessary). sliding yourself, your angel, and the Antichrist into a theoretical space outside the flow of time? fuckin Herculean.

miracles are partly based in the ability to imagine. knowing precisely how to do the task in the physical world makes it less exhausting as a miracle. like, it’s easier to miracle a broken glass back together when you already know what the glass looked like before it broke than if you were just handed a pile of shards. either way is easier than materializing a brand new glass out of thin air, though.

angels and demons are ideologically different about their miracles. angels have been taught since the dawn of time that miracles, especially those that affect humans directly, are a violation of free will and the Ineffable Plan and should be used only on limited assignments. it’s a bit like the Prime Directive in Star Trek. demons, on the other hand, largely don’t give a shit about having a moral code, but find that using too many miracles causes them other problems, like attracting the attentions of enemies. they’re a little more free about using miracles but not that much.

the energy required to perform miracles can be restored by just spending some time resting and not performing miracles. most angels and demons would just retreat to heaven or hell for this time; it’s the most power-restoring place they can be. of course, aziraphale and crowley have to make do on earth. crowley has taken up sleeping as a form of rest, even though his corporation doesn’t need it the way a real human does. aziraphale’s reading and listening to music are actually his forms of resting (he gets to sit still and do barely anything while dreaming off into the art of humans).

for any angel or demon on earth, there is an undercurrent of miracles flowing at all times, like the basic bodily functions taking place subconsciously for humans. staying bound to your corporation is a small miracle, for example. warding flames away from your books just because you care very much about them is a small miracle. playing music out of your speakerless sound system just because you expect it to play is a small miracle. these do draw some level of energy away from the angels and demons but not more than casually walking around the house does for healthy humans.

miracles can stop time, especially within a certain bubble. they can also slide you out of time temporarily. they cannot send you back in time. god designed it that way.

heaven and hell don’t want individual angels and demons setting up too much influence on earth. they can and do track miracles. and they will come hassle you if you use too many.

[brewcha]

GET TO KNOW ME BETTER*

*beware, long answers ahead

(copied this from @rafaelafranzen; had some time on my hands so thought i’d bang this long post out. anyhow if y’all wanna do this thing on your blog, if you’re bored and so forth, please feel free. would love to see what you guys wrote!)

ONE / name: gabrielle is the name!

TWO / birthday: october 3

THREE / zodiac sign: libra. (but i’m also a rat, in the chinese zodiac!)

FOUR / height: UMMMMM LAST I CHECKED (and that was a long time ago), 153cm???

FIVE / hobbies: reading, first and foremost. creative writing is next, and drawing? or sketching, because it’s been a long time since i’ve gone beyond pencil scribbles in my various sketchbooks. i also love to bake, and owning a stand mixer is my dream.

(does window-shopping count as a hobby because i could structure a whole day around just wandering through malls and shops just doing that without spending a single penny. it’s fun! particularly if you’re in good company.)

SIX / favourite colour: blue is nice. i like blues.

SEVEN / favourite book: the honest answer is that it’s very hard to choose favourites, my taste in books vary depending on the time and some things i used to be utterly convinced were faves end up being...alright...at a later date?  the last two years i’ve been steadily immersing myself into a lot of SF/F and i tend to adore all of them as a result of getting those reads from woc reviewers.*

in the meantime, here’s my current faves that come to mind without hesitation and with little doubt in hindsight: (literary fiction) frankenstein by mary shelley, never let me go by kazuo ishiguro, (fantasy) the tiger’s daughter by k. arsenault rivera, (sci-fi) the long way to a small angry planet by becky chambers, and finally (fantasy/mythology?) the song of achilles by madeline miller.

*if you’re a queer poc like me who’s gotten a bit picky and cynical about mainstream publishing over the years (partly due to being spoiled by wonderfully written and equally wonderfully free fanfic), woc reviewers usually have the best recommendations.

EIGHT / last song I listened to: under attack by abba

NINE / last film I watched: rocketman. it was awesome! 

TEN / inspiration or muse: there’s some writing out there that just gets those creativity gears running. the kind of writing where you just wanna absorb via osmosis or something because just reading it with my own two eyes isn’t enough. i’m not even saying like good stories kind of writing (although that’s definitely one form of inspiration), i mean like writing style. the turns of phrases that stick to you, choice words that make you feel a great number of things, clever syntax that has you coming back. you could drink it all up.

don’t @ me for saying this: i know there’s a lot of stuff worth critiquing over with john green’s novels, it definitely isn’t for everyone and i totally respect that because i see all the flaws in his books as well, but his writing style is something i quite unabashedly enjoy, for example, because of how dry and direct it is. (which makes me wonder that not nearly enough White Men are dry AND direct: they’re all dry and.....insufferably and intolerably long-winded.) and then there’s madeline miller, k. arsenault rivera, and naomi novik -- fantasy writers that have very atmospheric writing, the kind where you feel the beat of some unsung song in the way their story is told. they’re also my go-tos for when i feel the creative well is all dried up.

ELEVEN / dream job: wanna be...an author...

TWELVE / meaning behind your URL: i used to refer to myself as “bluey” Back In The Day (which is another long story that involves warrior cats), and i had an online friend who lived in japan that nicknamed me “brew” because it was how she pronounced “blue” in her head. the nickname caught on in the community i was in, and i grew quite fond of it myself; figured it was time for a change after a while and went with some combination involving “brew” thereafter with my social media handles (sans my instagram). the “-cha”....well...tea, anyone?

THIRTEEN / top 3 ships: aziraphale/crowley from good omens, chirrut/baze from rogue one, aaand peraltiago from brooklyn nine-nine. some variation of Married™ and two halves of a whole idiot.

FOURTEEN / lipstick or lip balm: lip balm. i do like seeing lipstick on other people more because other people wear lipstick better than i can.

FIFTEEN / currently reading: red, white, and royal blue by casey mcquiston. sign me the heck up for gay ass hate-to-love.

SIXTEEN / work: i’m an english teacher, but i am self-employed on an official capacity since i’m hired through an agency. i have yet to land a permanent job, though i’m starting a masters in creative writing in september. we’ll see how things go.

SEVENTEEN / fiction: most of the things i’ve written for public/semi-public consumption (i.e. submitted as an assignment/project, had it published in a collection, etc) have been just about....people? people as people and people interacting. my most notable(??) piece is a short-short story about a 20-something gay woman’s relationship with her single father, who is also gay and has been in love with his childhood friend the whole time. it’s not a tense story, the father-daughter relationship is a good, strong one; just one where the daughter reflects on Life as she considers coming out to her dad, when it turns out he wants to come out to her too because he’s so inspired by her. i wrote it for a short story class, and imagine how gratified i felt when all my classmates in the workshop kept asking me if the dad + childhood friend get married later!!

but i’ve also done a lot of SF/F in my spare time, some projects i’m experimenting with. there’s one about a girl and a sword from space, there’s another that might as well be good omens fanfic since the characters involved are very aziraphale- and crowley-like, and there’s one completely suuuuper self-indulgent thing involving superheroes. just a lot of stuff i’m exploring and figuring out!

EIGHTEEN / fanfiction: I HAVEN’T WRITTEN FANFICTION IN SO LONG. the last thing i wrote and uploaded was a short chirrut/baze thing. they were played by chinese actors, one of whom’s from hong kong where i live, so it was an au where they (particularly chirrut) grew up in hk. the most fanfic i’ve ever written was during my free! and haikyuu!! days...those were some awesome days not gonna lie.

would love to write good omens fanfic, considering how obsessed i am with it, but there’s something ineffable about them that makes me hesitant to even attempt nailing down their characters in my own writing. like i’m not even worthy of the multitudes they contain. i’ve enjoyed all the fanfic that’s been pouring out of the fandom lately, however. i love me some sweet, sweet tropes.

(remember that project in #17 where the characters are very aziraphale- and crowley-like? sometimes i look at the shorts i’ve written for those ocs, the slice-of-life type of shorts where i’m just playing around with dialogue instead of plot, and think to myself “with some name-changes and tweaking this could be GO fanfic. why not??? WHY NOT????”)

[bethkerring]

Tagged by @bookenders - thank you, this looks like a lot of fun!

I’ll be answering with characters from my more-complete WIP, Bibi.

Did they get a cafe they liked? What kind of cafe do they like? What does that say about their character?

Amy isn’t a big cafe person in general - they’re too public for her taste, since she isn’t fond of people and can’t talk to Bibi while around others. But she does enjoy going on occasion, especially during summer break when, despite herself, she actually finds herself missing human contact, and then she’ll look up reviews for the best cafes around. Her recurring favorite is a little hole-in-the-wall place she can walk to from her house. The drinks aren’t great, but it’s rarely crowded.

Kayla loves cafes. She’s lonely very often, and cafes make her feel slightly less alone when she doesn’t have anyone to spend time with. She also loves the lively atmosphere and the ability to observe people from a distance without pressure to start a conversation, which often makes her anxious. She’s not very picky, but she likes to find new places often, in part because she tends to try something new every time and eventually runs out of menu options.

Bibi, like Amy, doesn’t like cafes, since she can’t speak with Amy (and expect a response) without drawing unwanted attention. But she follows Amy everywhere and never complains.

1. Where do they sit? (Near the door because there’s an exit? Near the back to hide? Where it’s shadowy? Where they’ll be seen by a waiter? Lots of table space for writing/drawing/hands? Minimal space? Would they ever sit with others? What do these things say about their character?)

Amy sits as far from other people as she can get, whether it’s close to the door or way in the back, even if the table legs are wobbly and it takes forever to get service. She avoids other people if she can, and prefers to put enough distance between her and others that they won’t notice her talking to Bibi. If asked, she would claim that she doesn’t care if people think she’s talking to herself, but honestly, she doesn’t want to draw any more attention than she does already. If there are no completely empty tables in the cafe, she’ll get her order to go.

Kayla prefers to go to cafes with others if she can, but she’s used to being alone, and will therefore sit near the middle of the cafe, where she might be able to join in a conversation if she’s lucky. This rarely happens, but she remains hopeful. She’s usually too shy to ask to sit with someone else, though, unless there happens to be no other seats available.

Bibi is invisible to everyone but Amy, and frankly doesn’t care where she sits, so she sits where Amy sits.

2. What do they order? (Is it sweet? Is it focused on hydration only? Is it expensive? (Can they afford it if it is?) Is it milky and warm? Is it to wake them up? To comfort them like a hot cocoa? Does it bring back memories? Do they get a drink connected to other people in their lives?)

Amy usually orders a latte or frappucino (depending on whether she’s feeling hot or cold), preferably with cinnamon in it, though she finds the idea of whipped cream on top ridiculous and always orders it without. She doesn’t go out too often, so she’s usually saved up her allowance and can therefore afford not to care about the price of the drink. Once a year, and only once a year, she orders hot chocolate, with the whipped cream, and a sprinkling of cinnamon on top. It was her mom’s favorite drink, apparently, and as she sips it, she imagines that she’s a little closer to the person she never really knew. Even though she still hates the whipped cream.

Kayla tries a different drink every time she goes, partially for variety (since she goes to cafes so often) and partially so she can use it as an excuse for why she so often goes on her own, even though she doesn’t seem to have any work to get done while there. She doesn’t like very sweet beverages, but she won’t drink any sort of coffee beverage without milk.

Bibi is incapable of consuming food - Amy’s tested this on several occasions - but occasionally, Amy will ask for her suggestions, and will describe the beverage as she drinks it so Bibi gets an idea.

3. If they get a snack, what do they get? (See above for similar questions to ask. Another good one is: Are they allergic to anything? Are there health concerns? Do they have to worry about their digestion for any reason? Or is their stomach made of steel?)

Amy usually goes to cafes because she’s hungry and bored and wants a change of pace, so she almost always orders a snack with her drink. She’s not too picky, but she’ll almost always go for something sweet, since neither she nor her dad bake. Coffee cakes are a particular favorite.

Kayla usually can’t afford to buy a snack along with her drink, and even if she has the money to spare, it’s hard to find a snack that’s both savory and vegetarian. So it’s almost exclusively cheese-flavored pastries for her.

Bibi can’t eat, of course, but Amy has described enough snacks to her that she has a fairly good idea what each one tastes like. 

4. How do they pay? (Are they rich? Poor? Do they count their pennies or do they throw a whole bunch of gold on the table? Or are they rich and stingy, counting their pennies because that’s how they got rich in the first place? Do they run out without paying? Do they not give a shit about the law? Are they desperate for a feed and want to pay but just can’t?)

Amy technically has an allowance, but it goes on her debit card along with some “emergency money” her dad gave her, and there’s always plenty. She doesn’t spend very much since she never goes out with friends and only occasionally goes out alone, so she just swipes her card without thinking much about it.

Kayla is fairly careful about her allowance, but she doesn’t usually have a ton saved up (especially since she goes out so much), so she always checks whether she has cash in her wallet before she goes into the cafe. There’s usually enough, but there have been a few embarrassing moments when she started to walk in, only to realize a second later that she only had a dollar on hand.

Bibi has been known to keep track of how much Amy spends and be able to tell her how much is left on her card before Amy can look it up on her phone. Since Amy has never had a spending problem, Amy is pretty sure Bibi does this out of boredom. Obviously, since Bibi buys nothing, she never has to pay.

5. How do they interact with staff? (No eye contact? Lots of smiles? Friendly banter? Awkward conversation?)

Amy interacts as little as possible. She isn’t overtly rude (most of the time - though all bets are off if the staff is rude to her), but she probably won’t smile, and the most friendly thing she’ll do is say “please” and “thanks,” and if the staff tries to start a conversation, she’s likely to take her drink/food and leave as quickly as possible. She does feel guilty about her attitude if the staff is particularly friendly, though, and will slip a few dollars into the tip jar as she leaves.

Kayla is rather awkward and nervous around strangers, but she makes a lot of eye contact and smiles, at least a little, almost constantly. She’s likely to compliment them and thank them more than is necessary. Even if the service was mediocre, and even if she’s almost broke, she always leaves a tip.

Assuming the staff isn’t rude, Bibi pays them no mind at all - they can’t see her, so what’s the point? However, if they’re rude to Amy, in any way, shape or form, you better believe they’re going to find themselves tripping over something that definitely wasn’t there a second before, likely dropping a bunch of hot and/or expensive items on some very unforgiving customers.

This was fun! I’m still fairly new to Tumblr and haven’t had the chance to get to know anyone very well, so if any of the following people haven’t done this yet, I highly recommend it!

@bunnywritesanovel @ferns-and-flowers @gillianofavalon @bethanywritesbooks @teaandcakesattwo

[yorozuya-aki-chan]

Gintama Seiyuu Radio Translation: Ishida Akira Guest Appearance

Translator's Note: I was searching for random Gintama-related videos on Youtube and happened to stumble upon a series of Gintama radio broadcasts by the Gintama voice actors (seiyuu). These are very nicely transcribed, and have a lot of pictorial aids that make understanding the random references the seiyuus talk about much easier. These are in Youtube channels such as: 

声豚TV【文字起こし】: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbz0J8IAJv_GGgSBJPidbfA/featured

https://falchion9.com

文字起こし番組ＣＨ: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVx4X0xeiiae4Iyl-wGpZkQ

As far as I know, there doesn't seem to be any English translations for the radio broadcasts yet. Since I'm relatively free at the moment, I decided to try translating them. This is my first time translating anything at all, so if anyone spots any errors/ have tips on how I can improve, feel free to let me know! 

Finally, before I move onto the translations, I just want to say that me translating these would be near impossible if not for the transcriptions and the picture aids. So please do show them your support by subscribing to their channels as well :) 

Please do support me by buying me a cup of coffee (link of the left side of the page) :D Enjoy~! 

First up: The Old Man in Elizabeth Contest! 

Radio Hosts: Sugita Tomokazu (Sugi; Gintoki's VA) and Sakaguchi Daisuke (SD; Shinpachi's VA) 

Guest Appearance: Ishida Akira (Ishi; Katsura's VA) 

Sugita-san and Ishida-san compete to see who has a better understanding of what Elizabeth actually thinks of various Gintama characters. 

Video by 声豚TV【文字起こし】; Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4wF5YK18rs 

00:00

SD: Well then, together with our guest Ishida Akira-san, let's move on to the next segment!

SD: The first run of - 'the old man in Elizabeth contest'!

Now, let's also evolutionize the person inside Katsura's cute partner, Elizabeth!

Sugita-kun or Ishida-san, who is more fitting of becoming the second generation old man in Elizabeth?

Let's battle it out.

Both of you, do you want to become the old man inside Elizabeth?

Sugi/Ishi: Oh~~~

Sugi: Sadaharu

0:33

SD: The one who just said Sadaharu was Ishida-san

Ishi: Eh? That’s not- Ehh?!

Sugi: Good evening, I am Ishida Akira.

Ishi: Uwa~

SD: This is so bad.

Ishi: I am Sugita~! Please treat me well~~!! I’ll do my best~!! I am Sugita!!

Sugi: Sugita-kun is always so energetic.

SD: This energy level (lol).

Ishi: I am as per normal~!

SD: I have never met a Sugita-kun that is ever like this!

Sugi: Erm, yesterday I forgot about my cup noodles and it became soggy. But it was still delicious.

SD: So long! This tale is so long!

Sugi: The one that tasted nice when it became soggy was seafood noodles.

SD: Are you still continuing. I got it about your seafood noodles, Ishida-san. Yeps. Now i will hand over the Elizabeth signboards to the both of you. Here you go~

1:10

Ishi: Yes, thank you very much!!

SD: your energy level is so high!! Now try to put yourself in Elizabeth’s frame of mind. Now, answer my questions as Elizabeth and write your answers down on the whiteboard. This is of course a radio show, so you can talk alright?

Sugi: Ok

Ishi: Even though you are Elizabeth? Are you going to talk even though you’re Elizabeth?

SD: This is the first time I’ve seen Ishida-san getting so into it! What should we do? Conversely I’m gonna blow my fuse here (lol)

Sugi: Excuse me, someone just called- Hello, this is Ishida. Eh? Ah, I see. I think it’s still too early.

SD: What is? (lol)

Sugi: Sorry, Z is (that??) so when I finish up here I will go to the scene.

Ishi: You can’t do this, please off your phone during the recording~!!

SD: Uwa this tale is so troublesome!!

Sugi: Sorry, Sugita-kun.

SD: Are you really continuing, please. Let’s move on to the questions.

Ishi/Sugi: ok.

2:02

SD: By the way, what does Elizabeth actually think about Katsura?

Sugi: What does he think?

SD: What does he think? What?

Sugi: Er, Ishi-, erm.

SD: ‘Ishi’, ‘Ishi’

Ishi: (lol)

Sugi: Not about Ishida-san.

SD: Elizabeth.

Sugi: Katsura, katsura.

SD: What does Elizabeth think about Katsura.

Sugi: Whenever Eli talks, he always uses placards right? ‘Talk!!’ It was really interesting when Katsura cut him off (lol) ‘No!! Talk!! I know you’re super chatty whenever I’m not around!’

Sugi: That was really the best. Katsura’s comment.

Ishi: I know right~?

Sugi: There was that one frame that Katsura looked like a fervent idiot. The drawing was super good at that part.  

Ishi: lol, fervent idiot. This is so nostalgic.

Sugi: It’s about what Elizabeth thinks right?

SD: Yea, what does Eli think. What do you think, Sugizabeth and Ishizabeth? What do you think? Alright! Let’s have the answers please. First, let’s start with Sugizabeth. Do~n!!

2:55

Sugi: Erm, if I put it in a graph it’ll look like this.

SD: Great. J-Gundam. Sleepy. What on earth is this?? (lol)  

Sugi: Well, I think that a small proportion would be that Katsura is great.

SD: Ah, a small proportion.

Sugi: And then, a bit more of him would think that Katsura is like Justice Gundam.

SD: Justice Gundam, right? Yeps yeps yeps.

Sugi: Well the rest of it would be sleepy. If somebody asks him about Katsura he would get sleepy.

Ishi: Is he a guinea pig?

Sugi: Well more or less it would be justice gundam.

SD: Well well well, so it’d be justice gundam right? In other words?

Sugi: Katsura kind of has a bit of justice down there, the bottom kind of resembles a lifter.

SD: Putting himself on a lifter. Going like swish swish, wielding it around like Gyan- ah nope Gelgoog.

Sugi: Wouldn't it crash then?

SD: Crash (lol) [1]

Sugi: I think it's really hard for people to make it.

SD: Yeps, my Gundam was also like that

Sugi: Whenever there's a lifter craftsman around, he'd say, "are you gonna break that again?"

Ishi: It's handmade by the craftsman.

SD: He'd say something like, "I didn't make this for it to get broken."

Sugi: Probably-

Ishi: It was made by a craftsman from Hida Takayama.

Sugi: Probably only one or two lifter craftsman in the universe are frantically making them.

SD: (lol) lifter craftsman. I get it. I get your justice gundam answer. Ok! Moving on to Ishizabeth.

3:58

Ishi: Yeps, I think it’s probably like this. "Oh, this person. If I’m not around he can’t do anything <3"

SD: Uwa- he’s so affectionate!! He’s unexpectedly affectionate!!

Ishi: Normally he wouldn’t say it out.

SD: Yeps

Ishi: But that’s what he would think.

SD: So those are thoughts that he wouldn’t vocalize.

Ishi: He wouldn’t vocalize it.

Sugi: Eh~?

SD: That’s unexpectedly affectionate.

Sugi: Did he have such a cute side to him?

Ishi: He usually doesn’t show it though.

SD: This, I can’t show it to the listeners but at the end there’s a heart mark.

Sugi: Yea, that’s right. Eh wait a second.

Ishi: (lol) What is it

SD: I don’t know why but Sugita-kun is getting excited.

Sugi: really… £$*£@)($*£?! A really unexpected answer just emerged. I don’t think he’d show this kind of cuteness usually.

Ishi: He wouldn't, so... If he really shows it to Katsura, it would be during Katsura's last moments. On the brink of death.

SD: Being shown a heart mark on the brink of death would be kinda annoying.

Sugi: U~wa~! Gosh~! This is horrible!!

SD: A heart mark on the brink of death would be so annoying. Let's move on to the next question.

Sugi/ Ishi: ok

5:00

SD: Hey hey, what does Elizabeth think of Gin-san?

Sugi: Gintoki?

SD: What does he think about Gintoki?

Sugi: Ah~...

SD: What does he think about the Gintoki that meets the eye?

Sugi: Ah~...

SD: Ok~ Are you done?

Sugi: Yeps I'm done.

SD: So you're done.

Sugi: Yes, I'm done. *imitating Tominaga’s voice

SD: Oh, Tominaga Ichirou-sensei (manga artist). Let’s start with Tominaga Ichirou-sensei’s answer.

Sugi: Beside me would be Suzuki-sensei (manga artist). [2]

SD: Suzuki-sensei. Yoshiji-sensei would be after that. Ok, let’s start with Tominaga-sensei.

Sugi: Ok. Ok, this is my answer. “Silver ranking: Third would be silver chariots. Second would be the princess. First would be samurai.”

SD: This is ridiculous (lol). Isn’t this ridiculous! What are we going to do with this?

Sugi: When the silver samurai in the first place throws a big shuriken, he’d go “Ya-, Ya-.”

SD: Only the users would understand that! Is this really ok?!

Sugi: The princess in the second place has never watched anime. She only remembers what she did on a Sunday morning.

SD: That’s right, that’s right. Sunday~, Asahi Television~. Yeps. Then, chariots would be cool.

Sugi: Yeps, that’s it. So with that, let’s move on to Ishizabeth’s answer. Do~n.

6:05

Ishi: I wrote this down actually, is it ok to say it aloud?

SD: Oh, it’s fine. I think it should be fine.

Ishi: It’s fine? Erm~. “The fact that he eats so much sugar but doesn’t get fat is strange, isn’t it? Is he *beep*? *beeeeeep*?”

SD: Yeps, I think it’s hard to understand what was being beeped out, but you should be able to guess that easily. Everyone, please just try to imagine it.

Sugi: Ishida-san, is your health ok?

Ishida: Health? I'm unhealthy.

Sugi: Eh?!

Ishi: I have confidence in my unhealthiness.

SD: Ishida-san has a reputation of being picky about what he eats.

Sugi: Really?

Ishi/ SD: Yes.

Sugi: Eh? Ishida-san, eh? What do you usually eat?

Ishi: Usually? Meat.

Sugi: Meat!

Ishi: I don't get the vitamins I ought to get from vegetables.

Sugi: Oh.

SD: There we go. This kind of lifestyle indeed exists. I'm following it. Ishida-san's way of living, I'm definitely following it.

Sugi: So every night Ishida-san is fighting with those wasted ghosts. While saying something like "You're meant to be thrown away!!" Mounting up those wasted ghosts, vegetables, and then Ishida-san punches them relentlessly.

SD: Oh~. The vegetables are being punched relentlessly.

Sugi: While saying, "DISAPPEAR FROM HERE!!"

Ishi: That's right. I'm fighting everyday.

Sugi/SD: With the wasted ghosts.

SD: Ah I see. Now let's move on to the last question~.

Sugi/ Ishi: ok.

7:26

SD: What does Elizabeth think of Shinpachi?

Sugi: Shinpachi.

SD: What does Elizabeth think of Shinpachi? Ok~, are you done?

Sugi: Yes

SD: Then we'll start with Tominaga-sensei. Please go ahead~

Sugi: Ok, this is my answer *imitating Tominaga-sensei's voice. "Eh? Including lenses will be 1280 yen?"

Ishi: Another ridiculous answer (lol).

Sugi: Isn't that really cheap?

SD: That's really cheap.

Sugi: Being able to get a glasses with lenses at 1280 yen.

SD: That's cheap. That's indeed cheap. I can't help but think of that spectacles shop in Unsho-san's commercial.

Sugi: (lol) that's indeed Unsho-san.

SD: That's the feeling that I get. I see. Next up is Suzuki Yoshiji-sensei.

Ishi: Yeps, this is my answer. “Shinpachi? Who is that?”

SD: Uwa that’s realistic. That was a realistic answer.

Sugi: So that means that he didn’t even realise the existence of that character? I’m sticking with the spectacles answer.

SD: So it means that its either spectacles, or he doesn’t have an existence. There’s nothing about Shinpachi himself. Well, I guess so.

Ishi: That’s kind of like Hasegawa-san.

SD: It’s the same as Hasegawa’s sunglasses.

Sugi: Yes.

SD: So ultimately (Shinpachi’s body) is just a accessory. The glasses are the real thing. So if we were talking about Shinpachi’s real body it would be like the bud on top of Char’s Gundam.

Sugi: No no, there’s a meaning to that, isn’t there? That’s believed to be an antenna-sort of thing.

SD: So there’s no meaning to Shinpachi!!

Sugi: Eh? Eh?

SD: What should we do? This is getting sad.

8:54

Sugi: Erm.. Er. Does Ishida-san like girls who wear specs?

Ishi: Girls with specs? I think girls with specs are great.

Sugi: Ah really?

Ishi: Yes.

Sugi/SD: Ho~

Sugi: So that’s your favourite look.

Ishi: But it’s not that I don’t like it when girls don’t wear specs.

SD: Ho~ So that’s playing it by ear then.

Sugi: Playing it by ear.

SD: My preferences are more fixed. How about Sugita-kun?

Sugi: Specs?

SD: Yes.

Sugi: For those people who suit specs, it really makes them look really great.

SD: Ah~.

Sugi: But Daisuke-san, I think spectacles has other uses than that.

SD: There isn’t. Stop it (lol)

Sugi: Like in just now’s Love Plus.

SD: Don’t say it with such a smile. If we’re talking about Love Plus, erm… If it’s done well everyone will be wearing specs.

Sugi: If we’re talking about Manaka’s visuals, people would be really getting into other parts of her, right?

SD: That’s not true.

Sugi: Ah, I see.

SD: Tehe~ Ishida-san, which parts (of a girl) would you like?

Sugi: Probably the voice.

SD: Don’t give any suggestions!!

Ishi: The voice?

SD: Which parts would Ishida-san really get into?

Ishi: Eh?

SD: For example, in a girl.

Ishi: Actually, I think the voice is important too.

Sugi/SD: Oh~

SD: Here it comes. Here comes a like-minded person.

Ishi: You know~, this… how do I put this. There are voices that just grab hold of you, isn’t there.

Sugi/SD: Yes, there is.

SD: (lol) What is with this sense of unity. Yes, there is. This mood is so real it’s a bit scary.

Sugi: That’s right. This is becoming a relatively serious conversation.

SD: This is totally like the nights of a school trip.

SD: You, who do you like? *whispering

Ishi: Whose voice do you like! *whispering

Sugi: Whose voice actor do you like?

Ishi: CV

SD: Who is the voice actor?

Ishi: I don’t like that feeling~. I don’t like doing things like that together~.

Sugi: That's really awful.

10:17

SD: Now then, we have completed all three questions. Now I will decide who is the winner.

Sugi/Ishi: Ok.

SD: The one who is chosen to be the second generation of the old man inside Elizabeth is… *drumroll*

SD: Baban. Suzuki Yoshiji-sensei! (Ishida-san was imitating him just now)

Sugi: Ah~.

SD: Now Suzuki Yoshiji-sensei will receive-

Ishi: Yes?

SD: Manga Dojo’s special edition Elizabeth cap!

Ishi: Ah, thank you very much~!

Sugi: Oh~, you did it. Tettere~

SD: Tettere~.

Ishi: It seems that entering the earthen pipe (the mario pipe) and working long and hard was worth it.

Sugi/Ishi: Lol

SD: This, this is an Ishida-san I have never seen before.

Ishi: Right?

SD: Uwa~!!

Ishi: Thank you very much.

SD: This, this is great.

Ishi: This is a great laurel.

Sugi: I think it’s kind of like how we got to see a bit of Muscle Man’s real face.

SD: Kind of like a face flash.

Sugi: That aside, this is kind of great. This is not like the polluted rivers, but somewhat like the feeling of Ishida-san's dirty room becoming clean.

SD: Oh~. This is really great. Who knows, the day might come whereby the old man inside Elizabeth might become Ishida-san or Suzuki Yoshiji-sensei so please wait in anticipation!! That's all for the first run of the 'Old man inside Elizabeth' contest!

11:23

Sugi: Unfortunately, it's time for us to part with our guest, Ishida Akira-san.

Ishi: Yes.

Sugi: Today we got to learn about some secrets, and you got to wear the Elizabeth cap.

Ishi: Yeps. I'll get through this winter using this.

Sugi: Really?

Ishi: It really warms my head.

Sugi: Really? It's indeed great for the upcoming season. Somehow, this, this cap...

Ishi: What is it?

SD: This feels surreal (lol)

Sugi: Instead of a cap it kind of looks more like a mask.

Ishi: Eh? Should I pull it more over my head?

SD: Uwa-!! Uwa-!! Scary-!!

Ishi: Like this? You mean like this? Is it like this??

Sugi: Ya-!!

Ishi: I can do this anytime!! Who am I imitating actually?

Sugi: Wouldn't this be a masked wrestler. Ishida-san, Ishida-san.

SD: Isn't this Hirada?? You are Hirada, right??

Sugi: Before the air becomes thin, before the air becomes thin.

SD: Friend! It's Friend! Friend is around! [3]

Sugi/Ishi: Friend.

Sugi/SD: Let's play~~.

Sugi: This is awful. Today, Ishida-san-

Ishi: Don't apologize, isn't it going to end??

SD: Ue~i! Ue~i！

Sugi: Ishida-san voicing Friend from 20th Century Boys anime is great.

SD: The voice of Friend is decided.

Ishi: I don't want to let this program end, yeps.

12:23

Sugi: We just got to know a few secrets, such as how Ishida-san is really good at drawing.

SD: Oh!

Sugi: I've seen his drawings before. For example, I've seen a picture of the dog which pissed on a bike and got scolded, "Dog, come out here!!"

Ishi: Ah~ You remembered such an old story!

Sugi: That was really good! The drawing of the dog and the bike!

SD: A bike and a dog.

Sugi: I was really surprised! Did you draw anything recently?

Ishi: Not recently, I don’t have the tools to draw.

SD: Ah~.

Ishi: I’m not a manga artist.

SD: But you want to draw.

Sugi: Ishida-san’s drawings are really really good.

Ishi: Nah, I’m not as great as you say.

Sugi: I was really surprised. Next time, with Kobayashi Yuu-san [4]

SD: A contest.

Ishi: (lol) I can't win~~!!

SD: Let's have a face-off between the two manga artists.

Ishi: I definitely can't win. I can't win.

Sugi: Ishida-san will be the big brother master of the ceremony. Big brother. Then, I will do the voice of the evil soft toy.

Ishi: I am Kasshi with white on the side of 'Ki' [5]

SD: (lol) Young people wouldn't get this joke!

13:12

Sugi: So last of all, Ishida-san has a message for all of you listening to this Gintama CD.

Ishi: Today, in this Gintoki's room, ah Sakata's room. Thank you for inviting me to Sakata's room. It was fun. Thank you very much. Yeps. Next, I will aim for Otose's room.

SD: Uwa~(lol) This is becoming a Kuroyanagi-like development, I'm sure. [6]

Sugi: That was 'Sakata as he is Evolution''s guest, the CV of Katsura Kotarou, Ishida Akira-san. Thank you evolution.

SD: Thank you evolution.

13:46

SD: From a fan with the radio name 'It's hard to speak in the middle of an operation': My younger brother uses a lot of tissue. Why is that so?

Sugi: Why not just take away the tissue? And then, next time just take a long bath.    

--

Translation Notes:

[1] I’m not very certain of the translation for this part, due to my lack of knowledge regarding Gundam. If any one of you realise that the translation is wrong, or have some input regarding what is being said here, please do message me and I’ll edit the post. Thank you!

[2] Tominaga Ichirou and Suzuki Yoshiji are Japanese manga artists. If I’m not wrong, both of them were active in the mid 20th century.

[3] Friend is the main antagonist of 20th Century Boys.

[4] Kobayashi Yuu is Sacchan's CV, who is really good at drawing.

[5] Referring to Kashimura Takeaki, a freelance announcer. The Kashi in his name is written as 柏. White in Japanese is 白, whereas 'Ki' is 木. 白 on the side of 木 would be 柏.

[6] Kuroyanagi here is probably referring to Totto-chan's author.

[kimievii]

IM GONNA ASK SOME RANDOM QUESTIONS FOR FUN. What is your favorite memory? What did you want to be when you were younger? How would you describe your hometown in five words? If you could eat only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? What's your favorite thing to shop for? Do you collect anything? Describe an ideal day. Aaaaand what's one of the nicest things someone has said about you or done for you? ^-^

heya Syd!!

This is late, sorry ;;; but thank you TONS for all the questions omg, you’re amazing

get to know the blogger

anonymously (or not) ask me any question you’d like to know about me

What is your favorite memory? 

The problem with my memory is that I can never solicit it when I need it =‘D So that may be not my “ultimate favorite memory”, but it’s a memory I like and one I remember at the moment soo, have to do with this one!

And this memory is more like a… A scenery, engraved in my mind like a photograph, and I remember that right the instant I was living this moment, that I loved the scenery and that short moment so much I wanted to remember it in the future… it worked!

It was when my dad and I went hiking in mountains one summer day, a few years ago, I can’t remember when exactly, but I know I was in my twenties already. And we planned to walk the whole day, so we left very early in the morning. Once we got there, it was still foggy, even though we were in summer, but remember that it was still early in the morning and in mountains, so pretty high. We started walking, following the trail, and at some point we were pretty high and had a good view on the valley below. And it was… SO pretty. It was chill and foggy but there were some parts here and there speckled with sunlight. We were above the clouds, but between rifts of clouds, we could see fields and forests in beautiful floodlights, and if I looked at the sky, it was a mix of grey, pink and yellow and just, it was so pretty. Loved that moment and loved that hike! Wished I had taken pics, but to be honest, I’m pretty sure they would have been disappointing… I prefer it the way I remember it (though I’m pretty sure my mind is glamorizing it a little bit =“))

What did you want to be when you were younger? 

lkhjgh Many things =‘D I remember wishing to be a writer, a Thespian, a veterinarian, and then for a long while I wanted to be a cryptozoologist, then an ornithologist, biologist, then I went back to wishing to be a writer fkhjgh My interests were always being linked to either arts/literature or animals. Now I decided to focus on tourism instead. Not because I’m not interested in previous interests anymore, but because, well, for animals, I didn’t do the right studies for that, and arts/literature… It’s hm… It’s too exhausting, I want to keep these as hobbies rather than making it my job and suffer because it’s too much, and making me hate it at some point. I don’t want this to happen ;;;

How would you describe your hometown in five words? 

hmm, small, woody, quaint, friendly and… charming.

If you could eat only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? 

flghj THIS ONE IS SO HARD HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO ME FLHJ

First, that would be so sad =‘( And… Well, If I ate one thing all the time over and over, let’s be real, I would get so sick of it after a while, even if it’s a food I adore ;;; So I’m torn between picking something I don’t even like all that much but would be… maybe enough to keep me alive just by itself, or something I actually like, knowing that this is just hypothetical anyway =‘D And err I don’t know… I’m tempted to say “waffle” but that’s only because I haven’t had a waffle in a long time and I’m kinda craving one right now =‘) If I had to sustain my life by eating waffles only, I would die real quick, but hey, since I have no imagination anyway, let’s go with this answer~!

What’s your favorite thing to shop for? 

Anything for room/home decoration omg. I love THIS so much and I hate that I LOVE everything in this sorta shops and that it’s so damn expensive but boy do I love fkjgfhg

Do you collect anything? 

Not really, but… My love for mugs is so big I guess you can say I collect them ? I’m super picky though. Still, I have many =““D

Describe an ideal day. 

Hm… Waking up early so I can watch the sunrise at the dawn of a beautiful day, I’m not tired, I’m actually feeling energetic, then cooking breakfast for a loved one, then going on a walk and enjoying some quality time with friends, sharing hot drinks and cakes, and by evening, relaxing with my pets in front of a fireplace as I listen to the rain hitting the window, taking a bubble bath, lighting up a perfumed candle and finally, finish the day by falling asleep in the arms of loved one. Nothing is stressing me out, I don’t feel lonely… Yeah, that would be… the ultimate best ;v; I have simple needs.

Aaaaand what’s one of the nicest things someone has said about you or done for you? 

Again, I have memory to blame, but… @spacedoutpup randomly sent me beautiful, positive cards and cute lil drawings and stuff she knows I like over the last few years, and that’s just.... so sweet ??? so SO sweet ♥♥♥ (she’s such a precious gem

I have had many friends and close friends also telling me I was the kindest person they knew and that... always warms my heart a lot, though I honestly am not, but the fact that they feel that way about me really fills me with so much happiness ;v; Some people also compared me to very lovely characters lfkjh All these things really to me are the nicest and I can’t thank enough all the people who took the time to let me know how they felt about me ♥♥♥ I hope they’re not... too disappointed though ;;;;

[1997onepiece]

Im that anon that requested for headcanon :D sorry i took so long. Can i get a headcanon of each of the strawhats drinking habits? Like how do each if then act if they get drunk? How much can each if them drink before getting drunk? What is the most embarrassing thing they did while drunk? Do they prefer wine or beer or any other alcoholic beverage? I Was always curious on this one because theres a couple of drinking scenes in op

thanks for this request! it was an interesting one. this ended up being really, really long so im putting it under a read more(probably due to all the pics of evidence i put in from a bunch of different arcs. ive been working on this since 7:30am and its 5:15pm now lol. dont worry though, i took a meal break!)

anyways, i tried to stick to canon/what could be plausibly canon as much as possible for each character (including the embarrassing bits). the headcanons go through jinbei!

i hope you all enjoy the read & if any of you feel differently/have some bit of contradictory evidence, feel free to send it in! im open to suggestions, i tried my best here but i know i probably missed some stuff

also before i start please note that all of them drink beer. all of them. theyre pirates, they kind of have to. pirates sing and pirates drink beer, thats just how it is in luffys mind, so thats the default drink for everyone at parties (i imagine thats how oda feels too)

though beer is the default drink, theyll drink anything. theyre not really that picky. like:

with that out of the way, ill talk personal preferences and experiences of each crew member now

also i will only be using manga evidence from here on out since thats what im familiar with/thats whats canon

luffy:

luffy is usually seen drinking in conjunction with eating a shit ton of food. he doesnt really drink for the sake of drinking alone, he likes food more than he does alcohol lol. he even says this in dressrosa:

so yeah, luffy drinks for the occasion (parties mostly). the only time i see him potentially drinking alcohol by itself outside of a party is maybe if he wanted to sing some tunes with the crew or something (again, based off that whole image of what it is to be a pirate)

like, look at his face here lol. idk whether thats coke or rum but he is not liking it

drunk personality - tuckered out and easily annoyed, after hes done partying. probably goes straight to sleep. itd take a lot to get him drunk though like, do you see how much he has to eat to get full? lol

drink preferences - beer mostly

heres luffy with some alcohol:

an embarrassing thing that could happen to him while drunk: hes made to wear something that insults his masculinity. basically like what happened to him at amazon lily

luffy doesnt really get embarrassed all that much in other contexts in the series, unless his friends are praising him, so this is what i went with

zoro:

he breathes alcohol and everyone knows it. just check out this panel of luffy trying to wake him up at thriller bark by enticing him with a fucking barrel of the stuff:

and also mihawk withholding alcohol from him while he masters haki:

as for his preferences, you see zoro drinking a lot of beer throughout the series but he goes for hard alcohol a lot of the time too. id like to see him on soju or vodka lmfao.

anyways heres some zoro drinking beer:

oktoberfest zoro! he looks so happy haha

heres him drinking some hard stuff:

note how hes supposedly drinking tea in this last one but hes got an alcohol bottle next to him. either hes pretending to drink tea or he spiked the shit lol

zoroll drink anything though hes greedy for alcohol lmao like:

as for his drunk personality, i dont think hed ever allow himself to be truly drunk. as you can see here, his morals get in the way:

thats not to say he cant get buzzed the fuck up though like:

drinking, however, does result in lowered inhibitions so i guess the most wed ever get out of him is some dumb decisions

going off of that, an embarrassing thing that could happen to him while drunk:he says/does something earnestly and someone makes fun of him for it. like what happened at thriller bark with pirate docking 6:

either that or he wakes up having done something he finds beneath him:

to sum it all up, watch this silly ass amv i found about zoros drinking habits lol

nami:

drinking habits/drunk personality: this woman can outdrink a horse like holy shit.

as you can see, shes a boisterous drunk. loud and happy, as well as a little competitive:

sidenote: ZORO AND NAMI ARE THE BEST DRINKING BUDDIES!! just imagine them goading each other on haha how cute

drink preferences - anything. she loves alcohol. shes the alcohol queen

although she can get down and dirty, she loves looking classy. we actually see her drinking fruity stuff/wine more often than beer (but again, shes the alcohol queen so shell do anything):

shes drinking apple juice here in this last one but the point about looking classy still stands

an embarrassing thing that could happen to her while drunk:hmm, i dont really see her doing anything she doesnt want to do tbh. the only time she gets embarrassed is when someone praises her really

i guess maybe going back to her cabin and trying to draw a map drunk, only to spill ink all over her maps? although thats not embarrassing so much as frustrating really

usopp:

drinking habits/drunk personality -  he seems like more of a social drinker than anything else. you dont really seem him drinking unless its a party

when he does drink, he has fun though

he doesnt really have a high tolerance for alcohol though lol just look at him here:

an embarrassing thing that could happen to him while drunk:he gets caught telling a big ass lie and has to pay for it dearly lmao

drink preferences - doesnt really seem all that adventurous outside of beer tbh

sanji:

i imagine he taste tests a lot of stuff as a chef but his favorite seems to be red wine:

thats not to say he cant appreciate a good ass beer when the occasion calls for it though:

going along with this panel, hes a flirty drunk. hes also flirty when hes not drunk though, so its not as if theres much difference

an embarrassing thing that could happen to him while drunk:his vision is so blurry that he ends up slutting it up with an old woman/a man

i dont imagine he gets drunk easily but hes definitely no zoro or nami

chopper:

drinking habits - he wouldnt go out of his way to drink on his own. hes more of a social drinker honestly. hed just take whatever his crewmates shove at him haha

going off of that, hed prefer beer usually (since thats what everyone else is drinking)

drunk personality - he has a little body, so hed get drunk rather quickly comparatively. hed still try to keep up with his friends though so hed probably pass out early. poor little guy would get tuckered out so quick. at some point he would probably learn to change his body size when he plans on drinking a lot lol

an embarrassing thing that could happen to him while drunk:someone praises him about how good hes gotten at holding his beer and he claps his hooves together without thinking, causing him to spill his beer all over himself and drop it

robin:

drink preferences - shes classy. on her own, she usually seeks out wine, maybe something fruity occasionally, but mostly wine

look at that fat fucking glass. shes having a fun time lol

its important to note that half the time at a party even shell drink wine. take these examples from the dressrosa and post-enies lobby parties:

drunk personality/an embarrassing thing that could happen to her while drunk: shes quiet but i can imagine everyone thinking shes sober and then she falls over lmao

drinking habits - i like to imagine her winding down with a glass of wineafter a long day. i can also see her drinking fine wines for the tasteof it. she doesnt really seem like the type to get drunk much

sidenote: honestly i like to think of robin, nami, and sanji as the classy drinks club lol. sanji likes giving the ladies the good stuff

like look at this. i could guess pretty confidently who those drinks are for lol

franky:

drinking habits - mostly with the crew. he probably drank more in the past when he was more ‘hard-boiled’ lol

drink preferences - he drinks cola more than anything else, so i would headcanon his tastes running more towards rum and coke

not to say that he doesnt drink other stuff though:

drunk personality - prone to slapstick humor, as per usual. kind of like this:

an embarrassing thing that could happen to him while drunk: his speedo getting stolen again lol

brook:

drink preferences/personality - he has no taste buds, so he has no preference! yohohoho!

nah but just kidding, jokes aside, it was confirmed he can taste and digest stuff like anyone else. i can see him indulging in some fancy wines while on tour as soul king, he doesnt really drink besides with the crew though

however, i can imagine him during his years alone getting sad and drinking in memory of his old crew, reenacting how they would sing and get drunk together LOL god thats depressing. consider the fact that he would play alone in the middle of the ocean with these panels to back that up:

lol sorry to dump sad shit on you. now he drinks with a happier purpose though

anyways, i guess these days around girls i could imagine him being a horny drunk, a la “let me see your panties”

BUT, of course, hes also a musical drunk! happy to sing and play for his friends

an embarrassing thing that could happen to him while drunk: he removes his soul from his body to go look at some panties but he has no idea where hes going because the alcohol fucked with his sense of direction so his souls just lurching all over the place and then he gets lost & it takes him a few days to find his body again

jinbei:

drinking habits/drunk personality - hed go for a buzz. hes not the type looking to get fall-on-your-ass drunk so much lol, hed know when to stop. i imagine him to be a happy drinker - all smiles and warm compliments

drink preferences - sake. we havent seen him drinking much but when he does drink, hes drinking what seems to be rice wine, based on what its contained in. though of course hes gonna be drinking more beer once he hangs out with the mugiwara crew in full haha

heres happy jinbei with some sake:

note that the character there, 酒, is sake (fun translation note: in japanese, 酒 refers to all varieties of alcohol, but in english it refers to japanese rice wine)

an embarrassing thing that could happen to him while drunk:he tells everyone in sight awesome luffy is and how hes gonna give his life to him and talks about literally nothing else. the next day everyone teases him about it haha

and thats it! i had fun writing this haha hope i was able to elaborate on their drinking habits to an extent that was satisfactory

i tried my best not to come up with ooc stuff but you all will be the judge of that i suppose

i hope the wait wasnt too long for you specifically, anon, & i hope youll forgive me for taking a few days to respond!

thanks for reading, for those that stuck this one out :D

[ibythetidepromotions]

An interview with Wormhole

Thank you for your time, Could you introduce yourselves to the readers?

Noni: Thank you so much for having us! I am Sanil Kumar, but everyone calls me Noni. I play guitar in Wormhole. 

Ansh : Hello, you FILTHY readers, I'm Ansh, I've been the vocalist for Wormhole for about two years now, as well as guitar for Noisays, Codex Orhova and Perihelion.

Sanjay : I am Sanjay, I play guitar in Wormhole as well as Equipoise and Greylotus

How did Wormhole come to be?

Noni : Wormhole started sometime in 2015 between Sanjay and I, but really this band has been together for a lot longer than that. We’d known each other and been playing music together for a while but stopped for a bit in 2015. At that time Sanjay and I just write and release some music of our own. We saw how other slam bands at the time were making music in their homes and were able to cultivate a cult following through social media and Slam Worldwide and we thought if we could get a small following like that it would have been really cool if we could manage to get a couple people into our music.

So Sanjay and I had some doodles from our old band(s) that we more or less put together for an album and released it under the name Wormhole. Since it was just the two of us at that time, we needed to find a vocalist. We ended up having Duncan Bentley from Vulvodynia do most of the vocals. This must have been right after he finished recording his parts for their album Psychosadistic Design. That resulted in Genesis which was released in 2016.

Ansh: Back in the day we had a comedy slam band called Rotting Phallus that we all left except the vocalist. Later, Sanjay and Sanil used some of their Rotting Phallus tracks, wrote some new tracks, and released Genesis under the name Wormhole. Matt and I joined the band again and we started to really find our sound. New and improved, now with ugly-ol' BASIL, all has been smooth sailing!

Sanjay: Technically Wormhole was originally a ‘comedy slam band’ in 2014 called Rotting Phallus.  Noni, Ansh, Matt and I were all a part of this.  The band kind of died and we stopped being a band because we had a toxic asshole vocalist who we all hate now.  When the band died noni and I got duncan and recorded all the OG Rotting Phallus tunes under the name Wormhole.

On the start of 2020 you guys released ‘The Weakest Among Us’ the cover art reminds me of a boss fight about to happen in some Doom/Halo-esque battle, what is the story behind the cover art?

Noni: You’re kinda close haha. The cover was inspired by the Metroid Prime series. We are super inspired by those games in more ways than one. There is a cut scene before a boss battle in one of the games that we based the cover art off of. We’ve been really inspired by the soundtrack too. It sets such a cool vibe.Sanjay and I grew up playing those games, and we’ve played them over and over. The universe, atmosphere, character design, everything about those games is so cool to us. Pretty metal. If it weren’t for those games I don’t know what I would make this band about.

Ansh: Sanjay and Sanil are BIG and STUPID nerds who like SPACE and other SILLY THINGS like METROID PRIME and ANIME.

Sanjay: Metroid Prime is the main source of visual and lyrical inspiration, but I love Doom (especially Doom 3) and you can tell I think Mancubus looks brutal as fuck.

Since the world is at a standstill for the foreseeable future and you released  ‘The Weakest Among Us’ on the top of 2020 how hard has it been to get the word out about the album since no one can tour currently?

Noni: It has been really shitty having tours cancelled and not being able to promote the album properly, but we also know that we are not the only ones in this boat so there is no sense in complaining I feel. Social media is our friend though and people still seem to be pretty responsive to the album anyway.  

It seems like going forward, bands are going to have to figure out how to do this anyway. So, if Wormhole (or any band) isn’t really working out because we can’t tour, then we have to figure something out.

Ansh: In general I've been happy with the online support but not being able to tour is beyond frustrating. As tough as it can be at times, touring is kinda like the celebration of your music and all the hard work you put into it, so not being able to get that live show release is truly devastating. Compounded with the potential fans we could have made and merch we could have sold, it's more than a bummer. But all the love and support the record has gotten online has also been one of the only things keeping me sane whilst I'm stuck in my house.

Sanjay: It’s definitely not as easy since touring is one of the main ways to reach new audiences but it’s not as hard when you have some dedicated fans who genuinely love spreading some Wormhole gospel.  Those fans are the realest MVPs in these trying times.

I always find it fascinating when the band's cover art describes what the album is going to sound like, when talking to the artist how do you project your ideas out of your head coherent enough to be understood?

Sanjay: We kind of got lucky with Lordigan (the artist of both covers) on Genesis.  We were kind of winging it and knew we just wanted a slam monster album cover.  We had some help from my bud Ryan Wolanski on getting the colors we wanted as well.  With TWAU I had a general idea of the color scheme and setting we wanted.  Lordigan was very aware of the Doom/Space Marine aesthetic so it was not hard to communicate.  Our album cover is not really a reflection of the music I would say because we kind of just pick what we want because it’s cool and we’ve seen similar things work for other bands.

Ansh: I usually just get an artist I really love and ask them to listen to the music and draw whatever comes to them, but maybe that's why I'm not allowed to do merch for Wormhole. 

Noni: We just tried to be specific and nit-picky. The most important thing for our artwork was to have a center focus, the classic slam monster, with a few other things to look at in the background/foreground. The album’s production wasn’t going to be super futuristic and modern, so the color scheme kind of reflected that. We wanted more browns to dominate the image, to give a bleak and miserable vibe. We went to Lordigan Pedro Sana for both of our albums and he was super responsive to every change we wanted to make. The best thing for them is a reference in my experience, especially if you can find something in artwork they made to use as a reference.

I see the album artwork as just as big a part of the album as any of the songs or riffs. The way I see it, both the music and the artwork and song titles all work together to create a vibe and atmosphere. They need to feed into each other. Not only that, they need to somehow stand out from the other million extreme metal records being released everywhere. It’s really important and one of the places I see newer/local bands cutting corners or not going all in, and maybe settling for something that isn’t stellar.

Crowdkill Apparel has some of the most unique merch options I've seen from car seat cover to a shower curtain, when given the opportunity what would be the weirdest merch you guys would like to release?

Noni: I would love to see the Wormhole logo on a cereal box. I imagine our cereal would have marshmallows.

Ansh: A bong??? A worm shaped bong??? Like from the first album??? Or maybe a big spikey worm dildo/butt plug??? Done tastefully OBVIOUSLY.

Sanjay: Wormhole weed called “The Dankest Among Us”.  Any weed paraphernalia honestly like rolling papers and some Wormhole glass.  We did a small run of grinders before which was cool.

With the state of the world that it is currently, touring as you would of guessed is a no go, Suicide Silence they have the right idea about having a virtual “world tour” where the show is streamed has the touring bug been bad enough to where you’ve considered this?

Noni: I think rather than trying to make “touring” work, we are going to try to put out content that is a little more practical for people to enjoy. Music analysis, lessons, playthroughs, stuff like that. Comedic or podcasty type stuff where people get to know the band members and develop some kind of a personal relationship with them despite not being able to meet with any of our fans in person. Not everyone who listens to this stuff plays an instrument or makes music, so we want to put something out that engages with that group as well.I’m sure we’ll do some full band stuff too, but not everything will just be us playing the songs. I think in this current era, and consequently the future, bands will have to do much more than just play their music to get out there. It was already kind of like that but now I think the big emphasis isn’t really on the music anymore. I think it will be kind of analogous to how gaming consoles used to be all about gaming. But now your Xbox or Playstation has to be able to have Netflix and YouTube and still regularly release and develop games over time.

Ansh: My other band Noisays was recently part of Mathcore Index Fest, the fest raised a reasonably sizeable donation for the Justice for George Floyed and Breonna Taylor Relief Fund, and it was sick to hang in a chatroom with a bunch of homies that i would be chilling with at the show. It was sick to do something good, share music and connect with friends and fans but virtual life is never going to be the same as real life to me. Whether it's teaching online, hanging out with people on video chat, or attending a virtual show, it's always just gonna be virtual and it'll never be a replacement for real life, to me at least. So please do everything you possibly can to make sure WE CAN COME PLAY FOR YOU ASAP.

Sanjay: I don’t think we can compare ourselves to Suicide Silence because our fanbases are vastly different.  I would hope we could do something like that but i definitely don’t think we are at a point where it would make sense.  Would be fun though.

Dream tour with Wormhole on the bill?

Noni: For the band obviously we just want to go out with the big boys like Obscura or The Black Dahlia Murder or Thy Art for our egos. But for my satisfaction I would want Wormhole to play with Dethklok just because Sanjay and I worship Brendon Small. Dude is a fucking genius and clearly has something figured out that neither of us do. Defeated Sanity would be on there too. If we’re talking defunct bands as well, I would want Necrophagist and/or Death in there somewhere too. But the real dream would for us to tour with Metallica and just play in Metallica and it’s also 1991.

Ansh: Warped Tour and we play right before All Time Low or some shit like that, Old Town Road guy opens right before us and does all the remixes. Miles Davis joins Limp Bizkit for the headlining set.

Sanjay: I would want to be direct support for Gojira.  That’s all really.  I think a bunch of bands (including Wormhole) have a lot to learn about the energy they project live and I would love to be a part of their show.

Anything else you would like to tell the readers before we go?

Noni: If there is some crazy guitar player or musician out there that you really admire and put on a pedestal you should understand that you are capable of literally anything that person is. That guy may have some special X factor but that is really only like 10% of it. The other 90% is the hardwork. Also thanks for reading and supporting and all that. It is really sick and cool and makes us feel good.

Ansh: Play and listen to lots of music, work stupid hard, and do whatever the fuck you want, the only people that'll say you can't do it are lazy as FUCK. Fuck'em.-ANSH OUT.

Sanjay: tech-slam

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[rubixa-seraph]

OC Questionnaire Answered

1. What’s their full name? If they’re an alien and their name is in their native planet’s language, have you thought about what it means? Roy Evans King. Don’t ask me why his middle name is like that. It’s complicated both in story and in actual explanation.

2. Say your OC made a playlist on Spotify. What bands would be on that playlist? Any specific genres? He’s a bit moody in many different ways and has several playlists to suit his tastes for the moment…feeling competitive? EDM and bouts of rock. Feeling calm? Calm classical or ballads. Feeling forlorn? Anything soothing and somewhat emotional, usually music from games, anime, or TV shows. Feeling driven or remotely angry? Power music, either Classical or soundtracks of epic proportions. Inspired? He’ll queue up specific things for the inspiration. Not sure? Play the entire “Like” section and hit skip about a hundred million times if it plays things he doesn’t care about at the moment. High maintenance? Yeah. That’s why he has a subscription to Spotify.

3. What kind of video games would they play? Any specific titles? Strategy and RPG, sometimes puzzle games. First person shooters tend to piss him off when multiplayer is involved but he’ll play them anyway. Will only play fighting games if cool weapons are involved, but greatly prefers flashy 8-way-run over 2D-scroll. Plays one too many freemium games on his phone. Stays as far away as he can from harem/dating sim games but you *will* catch him eyeing them once in a while in tempting curiosity. Notable game titles he likes? Typically mainstream stuff: Zelda series, Soul Calibur, Halo, Destiny, Overwatch, Fire Emblem, and a good chunk of anything else that falls under the categories above. (Sorry, my repertoire of game knowledge is pretty lacking.) on his phone he specifically plays Fluttr and it’s moth-content counterpart. He likes to collect bugs, even if they are virtual. Yet he’s not a big fan of your generic monster collecting games.

4. What would their favorite cartoons be, and why? What would their favorite characters be? He was never quite fond of your typical cartoons, but he’s watched every Disney Princess related movie for the sake of some “typical princess fashion inspiration.” Anime of various action and supernatural genres interest him, but half of the time he plays them in the background while he’s tailoring and miss half of the plot because he’s concentrating on his work. But what really gets his attention aren’t cartoons or anime. Sit him down in front of anything Kamen Rider, and he wouldn't want to be interrupted.

5. What’s their favorite type of weather? Do they like to do anything specific on days when the weather is how they like it? He hates windy days, and also doesn’t like to be under the sun…because he likes to wear black on most occasions. Loves the rain but only if he can stay out of it with a nice cup of tea or the likes. After the rain, he would enjoy a nice walk outside. The air tends to be nicer.

6. If they’re a fan of Hot Chocolate, Tea, or Coffee, how do they like either of those drinks prepared? He favors coffee, enjoys tea, and sparingly partaken in hot chocolate. He is definitely a fan of warm drinks. The coffee habit, he got from an “uncle” who was a family friend. Drinks it every morning…or whatever his equivalent of morning would be. Takes it with a bit of cream, no sugar. Tea, he has at least once a day also, if not twice. Black tea is his preference, milk and sugar. Not a fan of green tea, oolong, or chai, contrary to his Asian heritage, but the English influence from his Birthplace of Hong Kong shows through more. He tends to stay away from hot chocolate, finding it too sweet and also a “lazy” hot drink option. (Clearly he’s not familiar with the concept of gourmet hot chocolate.)

7. What kind of animals would they like as a pet? What names would they give their pets if they got any? If they already have pet’s what are their names? He’s partial to travel so he doesn’t keep pets. He’s partial to dogs of loyal and obedient breeds, but he can’t get over the fact the fur and his tailoring profession means more trouble than it’s worth. If he had his way he’d keep a pet snake or scorpion, but those are pretty costly pets in their own ways. He’s pretty bad at naming things outside of his creative endeavors, so chances are he’d be asking for lots of suggestions before picking.

8. How does your OC keep track of time? Do they have a planner? A calendar? Despite how much he loves the latest technology, he’s oddly old fashioned in some circumstances. Appointments, he’d use his phone calendar in order to automatically have reminder alerts set. But commission details and things like address information and the likes? A traditional planner. He wears an analog watch to keep track of time, though the phone is not far from reach when he needs it.

9. How do they write? Do they write in cursive? How do they dot their i’s and j’s? Do they have specific ways that they write certain letters? He really likes his capital letters and they all have a bit of flourish at the beginning or end of his strikes. He avoids writing in cursive to avoid mis-recording information, and writes in neat formation. His handwriting is somewhat geometric when capital letters aren’t involved, but he does dot his letters when needed.

10. What’s their favorite time of day? He has no real preference to the time of day…mostly because inspiration doesn’t care what time of day it is to strike. And he’s prone to an inconsistent sleep schedule.

11. What kinds of foods and drinks do they like? Do they like certain foods to be fried? Do they prefer certain foods to be prepared hot/cold? He’s not a fan of cold foods, and is picky about his fried foods. Dim sum is his favorite kind of food but not what you could call a feasible thing to have every day. He favors soups, and in general would prefer Asian dishes. But a fancy western meal isn’t something he’d turn away from either.

12. If they were an actual character in an animated film or TV series, who would they be voiced by? Do they have a certain accent that the person would need to perfect? Oh god this is a question I’d have a hard time answering. I don’t watch a lot of things with English voices, and I’m not very good at paying attention to actors. My darlin’ said he imagined for Sam Regal to be a fitting voice, so I guess that’s my best answer. Being from Hong Kong, Roy’s accent is somewhat British, but he lived a good amount of years in the U.S. also, so he’s control over the accent varies depending on the circumstances. (He’s found that his native accent garners a bit more positive reaction, though.)

13. If you are an artist, and if your OC can draw as well, could you replicate what their artstyle looks like? Or, if you can’t, could you describe it? I don’t quite have the time to draw right now, but Roy’s drawing skills are limited to patterns and concept art for clothing design and planning. Most of his artistic skill goes into tailoring, whether it be fashion, formal wear, or cosplay.

14. If your OC owned a Tumblr blog, what kind of content would they post? Two different blogs: his tailoring work, and then a blog about bugs.

15. How do they type? Do they use emojis? Do abbreviate and shorten words? He’s a fast typist and will type out every word. No emojis, but he certainly likes his punctuation. And will often narrate his action or mood in some sort of brackets or asterisks quotation…apparently body language matters to him in face-to-face conversation and it bothers him when it can’t be conveyed in text.

16. If your OC was a film director, what kind of movies would they make? If he must, it’ll probably be action scifi fantasy. But please…he’d rather be the costume designer.

17. If your OC was a musical artist, what genres would they do? He may enjoy many types of music, but his old music lessons left him for a bias towards playing classical. That aside, he’d still rather pursue clothing design.

18. What type of singing voice does your OC have? He’s a bit on the tenor side, but he doesn’t really care to sing. He will hum or sing along with his favorite songs like any music lover would, and his sister tells him his voice and musical talent is wasted, but he doesn’t care.

19. Does your OC like to collect things? What kind of things do they collect? Oh boy…other than cloth, ribbons, threads and the likes? Things to do with bugs, but not actual bugs because he doesn’t have that much room to display things like that.

20. Was your OC inspired by anything? Another character? A person? Ah…okay. I hate having to explain this one because it’s very complicated and full of a lot of personal loss and conflict with myself and my family. The best way I can describe it would be…he’s an accumulation of what I have yearned for, lost, and come to terms with. A personification of regrets that I will also put to use for stress relief, and on some levels, a familiar mask to put on in the realm of fiction in order to indulge in pretending life isn’t stressful. His concept seems very depressing, but rest assured, Roy and his fictional escapades are probably a healthier coping mechanism compared to the self harm I could have done. Ah! Please don’t worry about me! With him as part of my conscience and with my new family, I’m doing a lot better. And Roy can actually see some light in some more balance RP and story settings now.