#THIS ONE is the done version but honestly I like the other one a teeny bit more somehow it's just funnier to me

[dragontestosterone]

CHOOSE YOUR PATH

DOWNLOAD NOW WWW DOT SKAIANET DOT FUCK

I forced that other one out before it was REALLY done and faithful to the OG advert meme. but it looks like that one was a hit anyway lol take this one regardless. keep the one you like the most. or both. I won't tell

[putschki1969]

Into the World - Kaji Fes. 2023 Day 2

Some more in-depth Kalafina thoughts inspired by several discussions in the reply section of my latest live report about Kaji Fes. 2023 Day 2. "Into the World" was probably the Kalafina cover that left the most lasting impression on me. From what the girls have shared in various interviews, this song represents a beautiful end to an eventful stage of life and a slow transition into uncharted territory. At the time it was written, Kalafina's disbandment and the subsequent start of their solo careers were probably on no one's radar but ironically, it couldn't have been a more perfect match for the whole situation. The final few performances of the song (when everyone involved must have already been aware of what was about to happen) have a particularly strong impact on me and the same can be said about the covers they have done as solo artists/FJ. This is easily my favourite cover because the strong extra vocals add so much texture to the song. It's one of those Kalafina tracks where I mostly prefer the studio version because the girls tend to sound a bit shaky/shouty during live performances so this was overall a bit more polished I think. The harmonies are really good here. Also, I loved seeing Keiko get so emotional towards the end (even though it did result in her getting a teeny, tiny bit shouty again :P)

"Magia" was my second-favourite Kala-cover. It worked wonderfully to put the focus on Hikaru and highlight her prowess as a singer which is unfortunately something that none of the other Kalafina songs of the evening managed to do. I wish they had chosen songs with a stronger emphasis on Hikaru's voice like "ARIA", "One Light", "Mata Kaze ga...", "in every nothing", etc... Also, I did have some issues with Joelle sounding a bit too overpowering during certain parts. There are Kalafina songs where she manages to blend in better but here, her vocals just stand out too much, especially when trying to harmonise with Keiko.

"storia" has never done Hikaru any favours I'm afraid and this performance is no exception. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE "storia" but that's mostly because I am obsessed with the WaKei chorus. Joelle does a good enough job here but as I have mentioned in my report, I am way too hung up on Wakana to ever be able to appreciate another singer stepping in for her during parts that I love.

I honestly don't remember much about "KNGNN" so I guess I will have to wait for the BD release. It's yet another song that doesn't exactly flatter Hikaru though so that's a shame.

As I have never felt a strong connection to "TTB", the performance doesn't really do anything for me.

On a random and more or less unrelated side note, I LOVED this moment of Keiko showing a tiny bit of vulnerability here at the very end of the concert. It's rare to see her in tears on stage.

And let's not forget that precious HiKei moment right after this. Them holding hands. Keiko leaning on Hikaru's shoulder. Keiko smiling brightly but clearly relieved that it's over - "owatta".

[watchingblsnowandforever]

Let's Talk BL: My Love Mix Up Th

Ep. 1

Hello!! =D

Welcome to my other version of crack posts! This doesn't have any screenshots sorry 😅

Also, a little spoiler warning for those who haven't watched the original Kieta Hatsukoi, I might reference it a little, but it won't be any great big reveals, just small comparisons here and there. This is for the show only, since I haven't read the manga.

I know I shouldn't be putting this right at the top (and honestly, feel free to ignore this particular point, it's entirely a personal opinion), but it's bugging me a little. In the special eps, the director as well as GemFourth have said how their characters are completely opposite to their own personalities, and how the roles were very challenging for them. They are both incredible actors, especially for their age. But, they're young, and suppressing their very personalities is hard. And it shows a bit. Not much, but sometimes, Kongthap has to frown to remain serious, Atom has to actively be hyper etc etc. It doesn't hamper the show in anyway, but it does make my eye twitch because if only they had switched roles, the boys would have soared. This is no way a criticism, I just think it would have been easier for them and the result could have been a bit more finely tuned. I do fear a little for them during the harder scenes.

Pahn is very cute and amazing and portrays Mudmee so well. (Will I have a smol crush on Mudmee just as I did on Hashimoto-chan? Yeah, probably)

The veggies scene was absolutely hilarious. They probably had to shoot that so many times 😭

This version is a little more fast-paced, me thinks, but I don't really mind

The colours are as obvious (and probably the same) as the original. (Kieta was so colour coded, even a rookie like me could see them vividly 😭👍🏼) For more about colours, I'd recommend visiting @respectthepetty

I liked how they showed the origin story of the cat (like in Cherry Magic Th).

Speaking of Cherry Magic. To be very honest, the original Japanese version of Cherry Magic wasn't very high on my favorites list, so I was a bit skeptical about the Thai remake. I was pleasantly surprised, and the Th version will always be one of my top 8 BLs. I was skeptical about MLMU for the exact opposite reason. I adore Kieta Hatsukoi. And that charm would be very hard to recreate, but I decided to wait and see. Till now, my hope remains that this'll be another Cherry Magic 😌 (maybe not that perfect, but still)

Atom is such a dork I love him 😭

Also, my cluless babie Kongthap 😭

WE ARE GETTING THE DANCE SCENE IN EP 2 ITSELF WHAT-

I have nothing to say about character chemistry (it's GemFourth duh); I do have a teeny problem with the lighting/filter (I think the rooftop scenes might have been overexposed so they had to filter it or something), but after reading through the tags I realized that's not just me; the cinematography is so far so good and the characters are - it's just ep 1, mind you - well portrayed.

The unique friendship between Atom and Half is also nicely done.

HOW COULD I FORGET. The ads *vice versa war flashbacks*. It's just so hilarious. At this point, I'm just looking forward to all the ad placements. It's even more funny because GemFourth are the presenters for like 4 of them 😭😭👍🏼

That's all for now! See you next week. And as always thank you for reading! 😊

Here, have a slice of (vanilla) cake 🍰

[whattraintracks]

Hello! I'm passing by with an opportunity to ramble if you'd like! :D I know you like Raph - what about Raph as a character appeals to you (any or all versions)? Do you have favorite Raph moments or episodes? Out of the other turtles, who do you enjoy Raph's dynamic with the most?

Yes, I would actually like to do that. Thank you much!! I've been wanting to post and write more now that classes are done, and this was a helpful kick-start. A little too helpful, some might say. Very long post ahead.

What about Raph as a character appeals to you (any or all versions)?

Honestly, liking Raph took me by complete surprise. Growing up on 12 and getting back into my TMNT fixation with Rise, Leo and Donnie were my favorite turtles by far. But then I decided to watch as much as I could in chronological order. 87 Raphael was not at all what I expected, and I immediately loved him. He's hilarious and exudes the kind of sarcasm I can only aspire to. And as I began watching and rewatching shows and movies, I realised a lot of them have this dry wit that appeals to my sense of humor.

Raphs also go through so much crap internally and externally, and I'm a sucker for angst. Plus, it's so important to me that no matter how much they struggle, no one gets and loves them so well as their family. Maybe a weird example, but I love Mr. Nice Guy (1987), in which Donatello's Personality Alterator gets turned on him accidentally, and the other three freak out and send him to therapy. Like it's a silly situation, but the fact that they clock something's really wrong in the way he's not acting like himself and get him help is heartwarming.

Had a good laugh earlier this week at the realisation that most Raphs are particularly sweet on kids, old blind folks, and animals. Followed a couple of days later by the thought, duh, these populations are particularly vulnerable to abuse and harm, so of course, a Raph is going to be protective of them.

Also, sai are so cool, what the heck. Can't believe I was obsessing over katana as a kid when sai are right there. With my limited understanding, they may not always be shown correctly in TMNT? But they're truly very neat weapons, and sai kata are cool to watch.

Do you have favorite Raph moments or episodes? 

Gotta love the classic

87 Donatello: Oh well, you know women. 87 Raphael: No, we don't!

Raphael Meets His Match (1987) is perfect. No notes.

90s Raph and Casey's first fight ("Cricket! Nobody understands cricket. You gotta know what a crumpet is to understand cricket"), then he goes home and curls up with Splinter to cry about getting his butt kicked by Some Dude. He's quite the daddy's boy in the 90s.

Raph's voice is unfairly gorgeous in Coming Out of Their Shells. I straight up clutched my heart the first time I heard it

Mikey: Tell 'em Raph! Raph: It isn't burgers or french fries that work for turtles of our size

I love this silly line entirely because of his voice and delivery. He's also fun to watch on stage. One of my favorite bits is this backward skip he does when he sings, "And moving backwards is a crying shame!"

The one where Venus gets her name

TNM Leo: Hey, Venus! Uh, what's with the statue head? TNM Raph: Hahaha! She won it in the park, slaying bad guys.

After the TNM gang saves a baby turtle from a poacher, Raph gets on the floor to be at eye level with her

Raph: You know what, you're kinda cute for such an ugly little thing. I'm you're Uncle Raph~ You wanna go for a ride in my hog? Ayo, Donnie! Can you make her a teeny tiny helmet?

And then Donnie teases him while everyone stares, so he gets offended (read: embarrassed), and Leo teases him harder, and he gets even more offended.

Just thinking about the beginning of Meet Casey Jones (2003) makes me tear up.

The almost as funny successor

12 Donnie: She's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen 12 Raph: Isn't she the only girl you've ever seen? 

As a fellow biggest sibling, Rise Raph in Pizza Puffs is such a mood. Also love the scene where he eats his phone in Mystic Library.

Out of the other turtles, who do you enjoy Raph's dynamic with the most? 

87 Raphael and Donatello's dynamic is very important to me. In my heart, they're twins. Some of my favorite episodes are the ones where they pair off or take the same side of a team argument: Splinter Vanishes, The Big Blow Out, Back to the Egg, Dirk Savage: Mutant Hunter, Combat Land, Cry H.A.V.O.C.!, etc. I also love this line from My Brother, the Bad Guy

Raphael: Okay, this is the point at which we get squashed like bugs, or! turn to Donatello for help. R+M+L: DONATELLO! 

Coming Out of Their Shells Sunset Duo are the besties everrrrr. Mikey raps a whole verse in Cowabunga about how Raph is his best friend and they wrote all of the music together and that is like the most epic thing ever and I love their energy and how they play off each other on stage and they love each so much I can't– 

TNM Raph and Venus!! The siblings ever, truly. So much sass. They are both overprotective of each other. They're literally the best.

03 Sunset Duo will never not be funny. Raph can be tricked into verbally affirming he loves Mikey when he thinks one or both of them are about to die. Raph is also incredibly distraught about Mikey possibly and then actually winning the Battle Nexus Tournament. Peak comedy and siblinghood.

07 Raph and Leo quite possibly make me feral. "Is he kiddin'? He's lecturing." I still can not believe he didn't know Raph was Nightwatcher. For so many reasons, but especially because some of his initial comments in that fight are pointed. I always wonder if, on some unconscious level, he did know. And then Raph goes through a battery of emotions with the katana breaking and pinning Leo and then running and all the screaming, gosh. Leo, too. They're so similar it hurts.

I also love 12 Sunset Duo, but I think I love the A-Team a little more. Honestly, their interactions remind me so much of my siblings and I. Pushing each other's buttons so hard, then taking over the world together. Actively trying to kill each other, but minutes later, they're professing their undying love. So much ganging up on their little siblings. Leo gets adorably excited with him sometimes ("Look, Raph, mouser-kebabs!"), and Raph is frequently going, how are we related??? ("Halt? Villain?? When did we start talking like that?!" and "Dude, it literally hurts to listen to you sometimes"). Favs.

Thanks for asking, and I hope everyone who made it here enjoyed the ride!

[kcsplace]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thanks for the tag @sparrow-in-the-field and @strangethings-everywhere

I guess today is the day that you all get to learn about my other AO3 account since a lot of these Qs are about overall stuff lol.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

59

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

846,116 which is insane to me, esp as more than half that is one fic

3. What fandoms do you write for?

MCU - Phlint and Stucky Stranger Things - Steddie 9-1-1 - Buddie Criminal Minds - Reid/Hotchner Firefly - Jayne/Mal H50 - McDanno TBITB - Coxstroke Merlin - Merthur NCIS - Tony/Gibbs SG-1 - Jack/Daniel The Sentinel - Jim/Blair

4. Top five fics by kudos?

He Whom My Soul Loves (Stucky) - 988 A Diaz By Any Other Name (911) - 970 The Man On The Wall (Stucky) - 929 Magic Man (Merthur) - 781 The Royal Camelot (Merthur) - 650

5. Do you respond to comments?

I love answering comments. If someone can take the time to leave a comment, I always do my best to answer. Not always immediately, but I get there!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angriest ending?

I don't think I've ever written anything with an angry ending. Maybe not happy, per se, but not angry

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

Uhhh probably The Man On The Wall because after a 475k slow burn, Bucky finally gets his kiss

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I have done! Not in a while, but not because I'm any better, but because I'm such a teeny writer, nobody cares enough to be rude anymore!

9. Do you write smut?

Yup! Though by the time I'm done writing it it feels dry as the Sahara and textbook dull, I can only hope it reads better and that I'm just jaded after spending ages working on it

10. Craziest crossover?

I've done fusions, but not a crossover. Not yet!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yup! Why they'd choose mine, I don't know. Also had them added to goodreads against my wishes

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Never been asked! I've had art made for fic, and someone wanted to do a podfic version of one, but never translated.

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

Absolutely not!! I'm too much of a control freak and if my procrastination and oh-so-slow writing annoys me, it'd enrage even the calmest of co-writers! I wouldn't do that to an innocent person!

14. All time favorite ship

Honestly, I have favourite ships in a fandom, but narrowing down a favourite of all of them, I don't think I can!!! Cop out answer FTW!

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

While I never start a fic in the hope of maybe finishing it as I always start with the intention to finish, sometimes they end up so big, or are outside my sphere of limited talent that they peter out. I have 120k of a Night At The Museum type AU for Stucky that has sat on my hard-drive for nearly a decade, and I'm 65k into a OFMD fic that I'm determined to finish, but at the moment the OFMD is the far far more likely fic to see the light of day

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue for sure. I can write whole fic that are just nothing but dialogue, and then I go back in and fill it out. The dialogue is the skeleton I work the rest onto

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Everything not dialogue!! Everything

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

....I don't have any?!?

19. First fandom you wrote in?

Probably Harry Potter some 20 years ago

20. Favorite fic you've written?

The Man On The Wall is my baby. I wrote it twice so its my sweetheart. It was also a serious labour of love at 474,747 words (also I love how neat that word count is) very very close second is Life, Written and Illustrated By in the Merlin fandom. It was my first foray into Merthur and was part of a competitive pornathon and I won that weeks with it so huuuuge confidence boost for my writing

[feralssinbin]

Secret Santa Cheat Sheet

lol

OK so I realized the secret santa intro post I made turned into a nightmare of incomprehensible rambling. Stating now that I do honestly love like, all content with them so anything is good if none of these ideas feel right for you, my beloved santa of secrets <3

Broad Ideas~

-Soft DCA, solo, with each other, with the kids, with YN, just. Soft uwu

-Unhinged. I love the 'about to snap' looks, the 'ive just committed a warcrime' energy, and the 'someone is actively getting redacted' action stuff.

-Hurt/Comfort, either direction, doesn't need to be canon for an AU, I'm just weak for hurt/comfort.

-Surprise moments of trust. Stuff where one is just kinda surprised by the other, the hand is 'offered' for the first time, or the offered hand is 'accepted' for the first time, literal or metaphorical.

-Spicy Humor XD I cackle whenever I see it, and I am not shy to the spice at all, but dirty jokes with the DCA absolutely send me.

Specific Ideas~

-Story time with Sun/Moon, high energy or soft and quiet, maybe the kids are around and totally engaged, maybe it's just them and a YN they're trying to get to take a nap as well, maybe there's no book and they're making it up on the go with a broad motion to demonstrate the ~adventure~ (I love this idea and there's so much that can be done with it)

-DCA being a little shit at children's games vs YN. They aren't going easy on them. At all. Impossible angles in twister, definitely not cheating at cards, ruining friendships with connect four, YN absolutely devastated/aggravated/exasperated at the fact they haven't won a single game in ages.

-Hide and Seek/Tag. With Sun it could be fun and cute. With Moon it's a race for YNs life.

-Gremlin Moon. Contortionist Moon. Impossibly bendy flexible Moon. (ALTERNATELY SAME POSES BUT FOR SUN cause we don't get enough bendy Sun)

-Romantic flirty stuff with DCA/YN shenanigans, cause I'm a simp.

-Semi-canon reveal shot of Eclipse for the first time. A YN pov thing, where the two have 'done the thing' and now they're staring at a third version of the DCA, and it's looking back at them. Was it an emergency situation that brought this on? A warring of the two boys that split control? A third presence that forced it's way out? Did the glitch from Balloon World take over? Did they agree to bring him out as a surprise? I know I said specific but hhh there's just so many ways to go with Eclipse.

AU Specific Ideas~

-Sea Creatures/Mer - art one probably- YN in the water with the first meeting of Sun and/or Moon, just that 'hovering under the surface' vibe with them eyeing each other warily.

-SC/M - One of the boys trying to snag a bite of whatever YN brought for lunch. Whether they win or lose is up to you.

-SC/M - Eclipse with one of his pups, a teeny fluffy thing, him content floating on his back with the little one on his chest, or him sitting menacingly on dry land staring snarly at the viewer while the little thing plays on him/under and around his arms.

-Hands On Experience - Sun walking around with YN on day one, hands under their arms like a wet kitten, or with YN balanced on their hip like a child lmao. This happens more than once in my mind, and YN might be ok with it, or they might be gently annoyed by it but he still gets away with stuff like this too much lol.

-HOE - Back rub time after a long day with unruly children.

-HOE - Nap time on Sun while he's petting YNs hair. (this one would prob be more art? but I'm down for more sleepy time drabbles <3)

-HOE - YN cleaning crayon and marker scribbles off Sun after a rough arts and crafts session.

-Doordash AU -silly art one - DECK THEM OUT IN THE DOORDASH SHIRT/VISOR lmao. Basically just Red shirt with the doordash logo, black Visor with the doordash D on it XD

-Forgotten But Not Gone - Fully feral moon chase through the abandoned daycare. It's not big so it would be a quick run if they don't get caught. Nonverbal Moon, terrified YN. Close calls are fun uwu.

-FBNG - DCA won't let go of YN, like a hand on the wrist, tight or not, just. Clingy. Is YN trying to casually go home and they want them to stay? Is YN just vibing and letting them have the contact? Was YN trying to run away?

-Sometimes It's Worth The Risk- BAD FLIRTING FROM YN at Sun/Moon. Just. Bad pickup lines. Awful flirting tactics. The fluster and shock of being flirted back with and losing their cool entirely. The 'OH NO HE'S HOT' reaction mentality. They're just one dumb idiot that's got the butterflies for the robot lmao.

[thatnerdinthecorner]

I agree with everything here, but I will just add ('just add' she said, thinking this was going to be short) that I saw Uksies about a month ago and I don't think I've mentioned anything negative about Uksies Spot (don't worry, I'll get into it) before on here bc pretty much everyone I've seen talking about it has been very positive, which honestly is a really great sign, and 5-10yrs ago I don't think it would have been the same in the newsies fandom, and probably most other fandoms at least on tumblr, especially with regard to a popular white mlm ship.

That being said, I think that if the only thing that bothers people is the ship dynamic then it could be that Spot really isn't the same character, and you can like the new character portrayal while not necessarily thinking they mesh with another character. I haven't seen any Ralbert in a while and idk if it's still as popular as it was, but even when I did see it a lot it was always less popular than Sprace, bc people like the dynamic between the stoic scary one and the ridiculous gremlin of chaos more than the dynamic between 2 chaos gremlins.

I think Uksies sprace would probably have a dynamic more like Ralbert than previous versions of sprace, bc Spot was really shown more as being cheeky rather than threatening in Uksies. The difference in protayal between adaptations isn't surprising, or even necesserily bad, but when people care about a character they're going to be mad about changes made to a character (that's actually part of the reason I haven't said anything negative about uk spot bc im really happy that people don't seem to be mad about the change simply bc its different to the version they're used to), so those changes have to be done well. I don't know if there are still subsections of the fandom having this argument, but I remember people had really strong opinions about which versions of a character you prefer between 92sies, toursies and livesies, and thats not even getting into the different actors on broadway.

The broadway adaptation cut the spot introduction for time, so having him show up looking teeny tiny anyone who hadnt seen the movie would be really confused about why everyone was so scared of him. Instead, hes big (well, bigger) and tough, and threatening that way. In Uksies, Spot is small and slight, and she (and all the brooklyn newsies) seems to be really excited to be there. But everyone's still scared of her. (Also, side note, if you look on the website, shes not in the cast list, all the women besides Medda and Katherine as swing or ensemble.) It's kind of weird, and feels like they either should have cast someone else and leant into the physical intimidating presence (it's not like big women don't exist and can't be threatening) or just added back in a scene of Jack and Davey going to Brooklyn and given the audience a reason to view her as threatening. Even though the newsies were all still scared of Brooklyn, my dad (who took me bc he knew id been obsessed with it for a couple of years when I was a teenager, but who never really new anything about the show) left afterwards being confused about why they were scared of Brooklyn, bc Spot really just wasn't scary, and as a result that element of the story doesn't quite translate. (Just to clarify, this is my only criticism of Uk spot.)

From a Sprace standpoint the weird story confusion doesn't really matter (and bc a lot of people who see newsies are big fans it doesnt matter that much for the story either - like how people used to talk about the fact that if you hadn't read the hp books the later movies dont 100% make sense, yk, back before we realised jk was evil, but i digress), but it does remove the element of grumpy-sunshine bc Spot isn't portrayed as either grumpy or particularly scary.

TLDR: It's a different dynamic and probably more for the old ralbert fans than sprace fans.

west end question: i obviously love my brooklyn girls and would die for them all, but is it bad that it’s taken away the sprace dynamic for me? like i’m still 100% on board with a nowhere near canon ship and it shouldn’t affect me they’ve decided to have spot be a girl, but it lowkey has? and i feel kinda guilty about it? idk i love my proshot boys. but i am 100% here for all the uk newsies cast they are amazing and so talented and it’s definitely my favourite production by far!! idk if i’m making sense

ok part of me feels a litle baited actually because like. i feel like... im vocal abt mlm musical sprace not being a big vibe for me in the first place. so im a funny person to ask if you were looking for relief lmao. anyway here's my thesis below.

wait also if ur a white newsie fan a read-thru+rb of this would be much appreciated thank youuu (also yall have been eating up my character analyses anyway sooooo!)

TL;DR THESIS: if you're feeling genuinely let down that your ship did not see the light of day and a black girlsie spot conlon got to instead, then yes, you should reevaluate that.

followers, if you've been with me long enough, you know that i have quite strong opinions about how this show gets treated when it comes to interpretations and fandom/fanon. mostly, this is because i literally work in theater, and it's extremely backwards in my brain personally when shows get treated more like a movie or tv show than a performance piece.

im also one of the only ppl in this fandom that ever seems to dare speak on race (not the damn character smh). and anon, buddy, kiddo, this does have to do with race, gender, and sexuality.

firstly, what i think needs to be understood about newsies, is that it is theater, which means it is meant to be mutable. there is no one way. there should never be one way. it does not exist. secondly, theater does not exist in a fandom vacuum. its live every night, conceptually. theater is a live performance art.

interpretations change- it's the nature of theater. so i think asks like these really do illuminate the difference between fans of the show's content or fans of... i guess the show's culture's content.

this is a culture content ask.

one thing i really, truly, deeply need you all to understand: from an objective, script- and staging-based perspective, proshot sprace does not exist. they do not speak. they barely see each other. race does not even volunteer to go to brooklyn. the ship originates from the 1992 movie, where they do actually interact, which is why the ship has prevailed through the 90s to today. they're from the movie, not the musical.

of course, this doesn't bash the ship- it has history, and naturally fans want to create new history when they get a new source material (the musical). it's true for like every newsie ship lowkey (but also not lowkey because all the manhattan newsies do interact and sprace literally does not but thats a different post!!), which is something i do admire about the fandom- we do a lot of our own legwork here, we invent relationships and backgrounds from one-liners that could be given to tbh any frickin newsie. i respect the 30 years we have invented ships.

however.

when a huge, publicized, consistently sold out production comes along with spot conlon as not only a woman, but a woman of color (specifically black rn!) as the leader of the most feared group on stage, there becomes something much more important than a "sprace dynamic", which does not canonically exist in the musical anyway bro. you can't miss something that isn't there imo. often the story and casting within a story comes first, and goddamn if this isn't one of those times. lillie-pearl's spot brings bravado, swagger, confidence, and intimidation that is literally....fine maybe i'm being personal but it is slash gen incredible to see in technically a period piece! a black woman in leadership with that kind of assuredness! in such a popular musical! how is that not– automatically surpassing an often obsessed-over (yes i am. hinting at something here, straight girl fans) mlm ship?

and while i'm on the topic of the over-obsessiveness of mlm musical sprace, let me talk about uksies sprace. because what's also wack abt this ask is that sprace is not a hopeless case in this production- it literally has about as much 'evidence' as the proshot imo!!!!!

i got to hop over to 2nd row brooklyn seating for act 2 so i saw once and for all really close up, right. there's a moment when race is upstage letting the newsies in/down from the stairs. spot comes down and she does, in fact, share a look with him. race gives spot a nod and she keeps moving.

and like im gonna see the show again (every day i am counting my mf blessings fr), so if i'm wrong or they don't do it every time i'll correct myself, but that's what i saw with my own dang eyes on saturday. they do acknowledge each other in uksies.

and since they do, i really like. i have to ask. what is bothersome/unpopular abt uksies sprace, other than oh idk.... its not white/white mlm with a twink/manly bf trope? why can't race still love who spot is as a character, this strong and fearless ruler of brooklyn, in uksies? because tbh josh's racer...nahhhh because. this is such a side note now but they'd be so good together oh jesus am i gonna ship uk sprace. and it's not like they're 'taking away' from a queer ship because a) you can headcanon spot as a queer girl and race being trans is consistently popular and b) newsies has ten billion gayass ships bro we've been eatin for literal decades.

anon, i'm sure you didn't mean harm by this ask. i'm sure, honestly, that a lot of fans are feeling the same way as you and weren't quite sure how to put it in words. but, i'm also not surprised you sent an ask like this on anonymous specifically.

should you feel guilty about it? i don't think guilt is the right word. but i believe you should think more about how newsies is not.....static. it does not exist in one form, and it never will. if you're feeling genuinely let down that your ship did not see the light of day and a black girlsie spot conlon got to instead, then yes, you should reevaluate that. in theater, you should always question why something impacted you the way it did- a major point of theater is to discuss and think about it when you leave! i know this because ive spent three years literally studying it, to back up my thesis credentials.

thank you for reading this, newsies fandom. i do honestly say all this with love, and i hope it made u think !! ♥️

[suckishima]

while rewatching Haikyuu for the hundredth time I realized that when Yamaguchi and Tsukki have their Big Moments, the other one gets more excited about playing the game themselves. when Yama is on a roll with his serves in s2, Tsukki starts going harder on blocking. and when Tsukki starts showing more initiative against Shiratorizawa, that's when Yama projects that "tremendous aura" and wants to be put into the game. this newfound knowledge is currently uplifting my entire soul and I hope it lifts your mood too 💜

Ahh yes, thank you! I actually was just noticing this too!! I rewatched The Former Coward's Fight a few weeks ago and oooo lemme see if I can find the manga panels about the part you're talking about. (have a feeling this post is gonna be a long one 😅)

So this is Yamaguchi's third serve against Seijoh, after he just made two service aces, and when it comes back he has that line about going from being the hunter to being the hunted (which sidenote, what a sickass line), and he receives the ball with his chest and thinks this:

Then Kageyama picks up the ball for the set and

before Kageyama has even called Tsukki's name we get one of those iconic "volleyball focus" panels of Tsukki tbh looking hungry for it, and I'm preeeetty sure this is the first time we see Tsukki having this kind of intensity, that we end up seeing for like the entirety of the Shiratorizawa match. And it really does feel like Tsukki is feeding off of Yamaguchi's determination, as he does manage to take the point and stop Seijoh from taking Yamaguchi's serve.

Then immediately after he makes that point is this one of my favorite moments of theirs:

Tsukki actually has this teeny tiny smile before he passes the ball back and his own version of encouragement, and even though this isn't Tsukki's big volleyball moment, it still does feel like he's taking steps there. This chapter is about Yamaguchi and him overcoming his fears and feelings of inadequacy and making good on his claims to try for things out of pride (especially because only a few hours earlier he didn't live up to that in the Wakunan match when he didn't actually jump for his serve), but because he does all of that and Tsukki sees him putting in all that effort, it affects Tsukki too. He didn't want Yamaguchi's serve streak to end just as much as Yamaguchi himself didn't want it it, and the result is that they end up making the point together.

And I think you're definitely right about Yamaguchi getting more fired up when he sees Tsukki doing well in the Shiratorizawa match too. Yamaguchi's whole thing from the beginning is that he wants to be on the court as much as he can and make his body move the way he sees everyone else's, and so I think when he sees Tsukki finally putting his all into it, it just even further pushes him to want to join in too.

It's something that I really like about their relationship, each step of their own individual growth is integral to the other person's growth too. And I just love how even though it's fairly subtly done, it still plays into the overall theme of connection in Haikyuu too. They learn to find pride not only in themselves, but through each other too.

I have a few more thoughts but they're spoilers from some upcoming manga stuff so I'm gonna put it under the cut. (sorry Moth, I know this is your ask and you'll have to skip this part asljkds I hope you'll be able to read eventually)

SPOILERS BELOW!

Honestly, I think the entire idea of serve and block and the way it's implemented in the Nekoma match is an even bigger example of what you're talking about here. It's like the epitome of them each believing in the other to do their job well, put in their own effort, and score points together.

And I think these panels in particular

really showcase it even better than the moment in the Seijoh 2 match, because the way these are panelled back to back makes it even clearer that not only are they feeding off of each other's energy and determination—they're basically reading each other's minds. But honestly, it's both moments together (along with tbh a good amount of others) that solidifies to me that you're right.

Honestly, just the entirety of chapter 298 in general is every single thing you're talking about, and it makes me crazy how well it's done. The way Furudate implements a basic volleyball play and makes it a perfect example of how their relationship has developed to this point to be able to execute it perfectly is just really fucking cool lol. I made a coloring looking at the development of their serve and block combo a few months ago too and I honestly could go on and on about this chapter and the way it helps contextualize their relationship to each other and their relationship to volleyball and how they've always been connected through the sport and grow stronger together through it, but I won't haha, it would be like a whole essay. Or a fic 👀

[juliedrawz]

Weekly update? How is the story going…*till the next chapter is out* but i just have to say that i love your Art💞

hugs👌🏾🥰

Hola dear anon 🤗

First of all, thank you so much!! 🥰 *hugs back*

You guys are just too sweet ❤

I am honestly surprised how much my weekly updates are liked!

And of course, I am over and over again thrilled that so many love my book so much!

Since I am back on track again, (hopefully!) I am going to bring you the weekly updates regulary again! And it's wednesday soooo

Weekly Update

ok, many have been asking about the next chapter. Which is chapter 8.

The name of that chapter will be "decades of denial" and will most of the time play in the past again.

It will also mostly revolve around Héctor and Ernesto and the time they started touring. We will get some very important and deep looks into situations and clues that will play a huge role in the future.

Also, get ready for some Cenesto content 😏 *I am calling you out sir de la Cruz! Muhehuehue*

No seriously, since I started analyzing and studying that man into pieces, writing about his whole past and all ... I developed a soft spot for him 💙 By no means am I ignoring, belittling or justifying the absolute crap he's caused and done BUT I refuse to acknowledge him as the villain most people see him as. Anyway, I stop myself here because 1. I could ramble about Ernesto for an hour! 2. you will read about it all anyway! One by one!

To all of you crying my ears off about Imelda and Héctor! 🤣 YEAH I SUFFER TOO! believe it or not! 🥺 it hurts my heart to have the babies go through so much but it is what it is! Patience, patience! 😌 All the pain has it's purpose and you will see it will ALL be worth it in the end! The other thing is ... I am writing my book brutally hard, honest and as realistic as can be! Which means, looking at the whole issue and the situation, a quick reunion just isn't going to happen. But that only means if it does, it's going to be REAL GOOD!

I was asked about Rosita and Victoria recently and, yes, we are going to see more of the Riveras in the coming chapters. Also some important bonding between them and Héctor!

Art & stuff

Way too much still! Well almost! I have the memory part to finish still and one requested scene from the book.

I just have SO many ideas and I need to work them down.

Anyway, are there specific things you would want me to draw? If so, let me know about your idea or request in my ask.

You can also let me know what you would love to read in my book in the future and I will gladly consider your ideas!

One more thing! I highly appreciate every single comment on my chapters! They motivate me so so incredibly much! So, if you read my book and haven't commented yet, please consider to leave me at least some sort of feedback if you liked it. You don't have to but it helps me a lot!

-By the way! I highly recommend you to check out my all time fav. La Llorona version by Daniel Robledo. I have been listenting to this for hours! His voice is just heavenly! If you like more classical voices that is!

My other fav. of course, will always be Alanna Ubachs! She's just the best voice for Imelda in my opinion! Rough, strong, proud, full of heart, soul and passion. You just hear each emotion, her whole fiery character and her temper through her voice.

And may I throw in what a stunnging singer Ernesto is as well? Like, damn that man can belt out notes alright! I mean, hello? Going from chest voice to head voice is hard and he and Imelda just shake that out of their wrists. But Héctor! Oh my god! 😶 the way he sings the low notes ... his chest voice! That teeny tiny growl ... Help! I get shivers and goosebumps every single time! Not by any means a trained operaish voice like Nesto but Hohoo my goodness the warmth! I am total trash for baritons that can also slay tenor! (And yes I know what I'm talking about since I'm a semiprofessional opera/musical singer. with 8 years of vocal lessons)

Ok ... enough for today! 🤣 Have a nice week! 👋

[miraculousluvbug]

WINGLESS | Ch. 2

***WARNING: Season 4 Spoilers Ahead

***New to Wingless? Start at Chapter 1!

CH. SUMMARY: Of all the people Rena could let slip that she knows Ladybug's identity in front of . . . it had to be Chat Noir.

< < < THREE MONTHS AGO < < <

Ladybug swung from building to building, the exhilaration of a job well done fueling the fire in her veins. Traffic it would seem had resumed immediately, the sounds of wheels on pavement and cars obnoxiously honking ricocheting throughout the city’s architecture. This didn’t surprise Ladybug, seeing as the city had grown quite accustomed to akumas blocking the roads. Once the tips of her toes touched a rooftop, it wasn’t long before she was joined by another pair of boots.

“That went well,” commented Ladybug as she swiveled to face her teammate.

Rena Rouge folded her arms across her chest and popped a hip, lips puckered in a frown. “Are you kidding, girl?”

Ladybug’s face fell. No, she wasn’t kidding. She honestly had felt it went well. Was she missing something? Did a disaster strike while she was focused on her lucky charm? Had her Miraculous ladybugs not corrected all of the damage? Were there civilians hurt somewhere--

Abruptly, Rena clapped her hands on Ladybug’s shoulders and squealed, putting a halt to Ladybug’s internal meltdown. “That went amazing! We’re like a well-oiled machine, you and me. I still can’t believe I get to do superhero stuff!” At the sound of Alya’s impromptu shrieking, some pigeons nearby took flight, cooing what Ladybug imagined was a bird version of crotchety old people grumbling. Not even the least bit deterred, Rena leaned forward into Ladybug’s personal bubble, eyes wide with excitement. “But what I really can’t believe is that I’m doing it all with my best friend!”

Ladybug relaxed her posture and let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. But she quickly regretted it when she got a nice, big whiff of crepes, urine, and cigarette smoke. Ah, Paris. Home, sweet home. However, noticing her thoughts were veering dangerously offtrack, Ladybug shook herself mentally.

So nothing had gone wrong. Rena was just being Rena and drawing out the suspense. Ladybug patted her friend’s right hand--which was still firmly squeezing her shoulder--and smiled sweetly.

“It sure is convenient that I don’t have to hide from you anymore,” the spotted-heroine remarked. “I think half the time I took so long to get to a battle because I always had to come up with excuses.”

Rena grinned with a knowing glint in her eye. “I might be impressed if your excuses were actually good.”

Rolling her eyes, Ladybug turned away from Rena, causing Rena’s hands to fall to her sides. “Hey, you try having to come up with five hundred different reasons you have to flake on your friends and see if you fare any better.”

Rena was about to sass her best friend some more, but the words caught in her throat at the sight of Ladybug hugging herself. She recognized this stance. Ladybug’s head was in what Rena deemed the “Guilt Grotto.”

Rena stepped forward to wrap Ladybug in a warm, girl-you-better-get-your-head-out-of-the-guilt-grotto-or-I’ll-tickle-you embrace when there was movement across the rooftops in her periphery. She craned her head to the right to find the familiar silhouette of Chat Noir vaulting his way over, a goofy grin clearly plastered across his face the closer he got.

In a matter of seconds, he landed squarely beside Ladybug, startling her. Ladybug, the epitome of grace that she was, did a series of awkward hand gestures before falling back on her bum, shrieking.

Chat Noir didn’t even look a teeny bit remorseful.

“Looks like I got here just in time!” he quipped, bowing and sliding his baton back into place on his suit.

Rena held out a hand for her friend as Ladybug voiced her question: “In time for what?”

Chat bounced on the balls of his feet. “Well, for the akuma, of course! You guys were having a quick team meeting, right?”

Rena and Ladybug shared a look. So that’s what he was so happy about. Ladybug opened her mouth to reply, but Rena beat her to it.

“Actually, we already took care of the akuma.”

Chat Noir visibly deflated. His ears drooped and his belt tail started to swish back and forth. “Oh.” He turned to the edge of the rooftop and hunkered down, letting his legs kick to and fro in an attempt to get rid of some of the adrenaline.

Ladybug winced. Chat did not sound happy. Hesitantly, she sat next to him. Rena then took a seat beside her, making her the middle. “Sorry, Chat. I know you like battling akumas more than I do.”

Chat nodded before murmuring, “Thirteen.”

“Hm?” Ladybug scooted closer to him to hear him better, their legs nearly touching. She leaned to her right to get a better look at his face and tilted her head innocently. If she were Marinette then, she might have fallen off the rooftop altogether, but she was Ladybug, and Ladybug had way more poise.

Chat didn’t answer immediately. Whatever it was that he was about to say, Ladybug knew it must be something important if he, the guy who was always upfront about his feelings, found it difficult to say. The guy who told her . . .

It’s precisely when something is important that it’s important to say it.

No matter what.

Ladybug gingerly rested a hand on his arm, hoping he understood what the gesture meant. It’s okay. Take your time. I’m ready to listen.

After a few more moments of staring at his feet, Chat Noir lifted his head so his eyes bore into Ladybug’s. They creased with . . . Was that worry? Sadness? Fear?

“Thirteen,” he repeated, a bit louder. “That makes it thirteen times you and Rena have battled an akuma without me. Since Montparnasse Tower.”

Ladybug was speechless. As she stared ahead, eyes unfocused, she tried her hardest to recall all the akuma battles. It was challenging as her memory loved to fail her when she needed it most. Had he really not been in any of those battles? Had it really been thirteen times?

Had he . . . had he really been keeping count?

Ladybug didn’t know what to say, but she knew she had to say something, anything. But what could she say? Was she sorry?

No, she couldn’t be sorry that the akumas had been defeated, that the victims had been rescued, that she had been able to do so quickly because Alya had been spending a record amount of hours by her side.

She couldn’t be sorry about any of that. She was only sad that he felt sidelined.

That was not her intention.

But she knew what the solution to that was.

And she would rather die before she let Chat Blanc see the light of day.

Somehow, knowing her identity had led to him being akumatized. Somehow, whether it was in an alternate timeline or when their memories had been wiped by Oblivio, she knew that what he said at Montparnasse Tower--that to know him was to love him--was truth. And Chat Blanc had told her what their love did.

Their love destroyed the world.

Their love had killed her.

Their love broke the moon, for crying out loud.

But, most importantly, their love hurt him.

Chat Noir had told her he loved her, many times, and she had even been considering giving his pun-spurting, jokes-at-the-worst-times self a chance. But being forced into combat with her akumatized partner had violently squashed any hope she had for them, for LadyNoir as Alya coined it on her blog. Ladybug would be damned if she allowed that to happen again. And if that meant encouraging him to move on even though it broke her heart . . .

Well, it wasn’t supposed to be easy being a hero.

Ladybug had this entire conversation with herself in a matter of seconds. She was careful not to let her face expose any of her innermost feelings, instead sporting an expression of neutrality. What she ultimately decided to do was tell him the only truth she had to offer. He hated secrets and she hated lying. What a pair they made.

“I wish it could be different,” she whispered.

And oh, how she did. She desperately yearned to tell him who she was, to know who he was, to tell him about Alya and Nino and all the other people she had entrusted with a Miraculous.

She wanted him to know how she grew up, what kinds of things she did at school, how she was utterly ridiculous when it came to her rotten luck (and she tried very hard to push a certain blue-eyed blonde out of her head the moment that phrase came to mind). She was sure he would snicker at all the times she made a fool of herself in front of Adrien, of all the ways she made her own life a living hell with her clumsiness.

Or perhaps he wouldn’t laugh. Perhaps he would pat her shoulder and uplift her with words of encouragement. She didn’t know. After the stunt he pulled with the balcony of candle-lit roses, the boy was a wild card, an enigma. He was complex.

And it thrilled her.

But no matter how she felt about him, they couldn’t know each other that way.

Sighing quietly, Ladybug brought her knees up to her chest and turned away from Chat Noir. If she had been watching him when she responded, she might have seen him look longingly at her, but she didn’t.

Rena Rouge did, though.

Wanting to make her friends feel better, Rena added, “Don’t you worry your pretty kitty head about it. I’m sure all those battles would have taken way longer if we weren’t already together.”

Ladybug and Chat Noir both stiffened. Chat’s gaze flicked from Rena to his partner over and over before they finally rested on Ladybug. “Uh, what does she mean by that?”

Ladybug shot a glare in Rena’s direction, but her eyes softened when she saw that Rena genuinely appeared surprised.

He didn’t know? Rena’s eyes asked Ladybug.

He didn’t know, Ladybug’s affirmed.

One would think Rena was Lady Luck because her pendant had decided that that moment was the best time to beep, and she couldn’t agree more. Now she had an escape route from this conversation. “Welp,” she clapped her hands together, “I’m gonna go chill in that fine-lookin’ alley over there.”

Before Ladybug could agree, Rena sprang from her spot and promptly disappeared. She was a regular magician, and her latest trick was leaving Ladybug with a rabbit to put back in the hat.

Or, er--a cat back in the bag. Whatever.

“What she meant by that . . . ” Ladybug began slowly, like she was addressing a wounded animal. Which, maybe she was but just, you know, emotionally wounded.

“Yeah . . . ” prompted Chat, signalling that he was not going to drop this.

Ladybug quickly jumped to her feet and began her ritual of frantic pacing. “Look, I’ve been wanting to tell you this for a while, but I didn’t know how to because I knew it would raise questions that I couldn’t answer--”

A blonde boy in white leather with somber blue eyes appeared in front of her and she dug her heels into the cement, skidding to a stop.

Chat Noir was behind Ladybug now, his voice soft and curious. “Bug?”

Ladybug was frozen in place for a few more seconds before she shook her head hard enough to give herself shaken-baby syndrome and nodded, satisfied that the aggressive head-shaking had rid her of he who shall not be named. She whipped around and started.

Chat Noir was incredibly close.

She didn’t know he had gotten this close.

Geez, his eyes were really cat-like.

He also had a really cute nose--

Ladybug, FOCUS!

Ladybug took a step back. She made it her mission to ogle his bell instead of looking into his dumb kitten eyes. “You--” she began, but Ladybug’s throat was suddenly dry. She gulped. “You know how much I hate secrets and lying. And I know how much you hate secrets and lying. So I’m not going to lie to you. But I may not be able to answer the questions I’m sure you’ll have, so please . . . ”

Ladybug grabbed one of his hands then and held it firmly between her own, pleading with every fiber of her being that this would communicate how much he meant to her even though she knew what she was about to tell him would make it seem like he didn’t mean anything.

Please forgive me, Ladybug’s heart supplied.

When he didn’t immediately take his hand back, she looked up at him. She looked into those dumb kitten eyes and knew without a shadow of a doubt--

She was a masochist.

This was going to hurt. He didn’t like when she was the only one to know Rena’s identity. He definitely wasn’t going to like that Rena knew hers. This would be so much easier if she wasn’t ogling those big, emerald green, beautiful, brazenly dumb kitten eyes.

But she was a masochist. And she needed to see them while they still held love for her.

“I told Rena Rouge who I am.”

There. She ripped off the band-aid. Straight to the point. Zero room for interpretation. After all, her worst arguments started because of her clumsy miscommunication.

Ladybug braced herself for an explosion. She had played this moment in her head a couple hundred times since exposing herself to Alya.

Yelling. There was always yelling.

Sometimes, he stomped away while doing that weird T pose where his fists didn’t connect to his hips . . . a pose she herself was guilty of, too.

Others, he chastised her about her thoughtlessness--to which she responded that she definitely thought about it long and hard that day.

Ladybug braced herself for an explosion because she was sure there was going to be one, especially after seeing him upset about her always running off to Master Fu. He hadn’t even known there was a Guardian for a while.

What she hadn’t braced herself for was the expression on his face.

Thump, thump. Thump, thump.

His head was bowed.

His eyes were closed.

A lone tear slid down his cheek.

Thump, thump. Thump, thump.

Her heart thudded against her ribcage, screaming at her to run because he wanted her Miracul--!

No! She refused to finish that thought.

Her head yelled back that he wasn’t akumatized right now, that she wasn’t back there, that she wasn’t with him. She desperately tried to shove the image from her mind. This was more than she could bear. She just--she couldn’t take it! She couldn’t take it because . . .

Because . . .

Thump, thump. Thump, thump.

Because he looked just like him.

Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

He looked like Chat Blanc.

-----

Heya! Thanks for reading. ❤ Check out my Instagram for Wingless updates. I'm also posting pieces of a Wingless cover with each chapter update!

(2/?) Previous | Next

[scover-va]

do you have any irving hcs?

*gently lifts my totally coherent and real list of hcs* yes Warning that this gets VERY long bc I put on my Irving playlist halfway through and my brain went into half ramble mode half many thoughts mode. I also just have so many thoughts on Irving

Starting off by once again promoting my 'Irving has a brother and sister' hc

Irving handles character correction/role assignments (and also would be the brawns/strength in the trio, working mostly with the Combat Arena X folks but just overall anything Lionel related). His brother (Sterling) handles punishments (got lazy with sol and just handed that off to Irving) and uses magic (he's the beauty of the trio by default. The charismatic one) and then his sister (Eleanor) handles all the logistics/diagnostics/bug fixes and doesn't properly work with game characters, though has files on all Gmaeworks-owned/associated characters (she's the brain of the trio) [sectioned off from the others so this is easier to read]

Gay and homophobic

No one gets rights but him. He's the only gay person allowed.

Before the "Lionel wants this" incident, Reggie was adamently trying to befriend Irving. It never worked, Irving never cared for him. At fucking all

Irving, watching Bryce train: Haha I hope this doesn't awaken anything in me

It did

I'm sorry, but him getting super excited and then just going "*clears throat* I mean good. Anyways so-" feels so fucking gay to me. You cant convince me otherwise idc how much he likes violence. That was AT LEAST a teeny bit gay. Fruity, even.

Was constantly 5 seconds away from fucking killing someone in the Combat Arena X cast. He may like fighting, but he's very happy Lionel ended up selling the franchise, he can't deal with ANY of those idiots again

Doesn't honestly understand why he's so devoted to keeping Lionel happy and alive. As far as he's aware, nothing happened, and he doesn't think of Lionel as anything more than one of his bosses, so he doesn't get it

Ik the original line from Catarina was about Jeremiah, but the line "An unswerving loyalty to his master. Must be hard-coded." also makes me think of Irving with Lionel. Like,,,everything Irving does is for Lionel in some way. He punishes the characters that destroy Lionel's career, even killing other characters to make it happen. He 'gets rid of' Reggie. He warns him of the stolen artifact. There's gotta be SOMETHING going on

Is. Somehow not aware his other boss (Lou) is the devil. It just. hasn't clicked for him.

Was recreated/revived after The Hex's finale by Lou, though he now adamantly avoids the Six Pint Inn.

On that note, doesn't understand how trauma/mental illness works

"Yeah my uneasiness about going back to the inn is just me being careful, considering what happened last time. Nothing more."

The thought of it makes him spiral a little. Sir please look up what a panic attack is im BEGGING you. Same with mentioning going there. ;)

Also his dead body is still very much so buried behind the inn. So, technically he's just,,,a remade version?? The sequel. Irving part 2 electric boogaloo. Same personality and memories, though. So, nothing changed, he just has trauma now

Overlooked the work done on Inscryption when he wasn't helping Lionel. Was overworked, but never really,,,noticed it was happening. He just noticed he was extra tired and then never acknowledged it again

Was sent to solely overlook the development of Inscryption once Lionel was dead. Wasn't given much time to move on

At this point, all the basic coding had been done, as work on Inscryption (or at least Kaycee helping develop it) had started at some point at the same time as Waste World's development in my hcs. I'll write up a proper timeline for my hcs eventually. But yeah, he was just sent to watch over the characters and make sure they all stayed in line

Here's the link to all my Irving + Trader hcs bc im not relisting them all

His cruelty and devotion (to Lionel, obv) were coded into his AI by Lou. It wasn't Lou's first time fucking around with programs after all, and fucking around with something that was purely an ai was much easier than something that was once alive

The devotion was coded in during Lionel's time making games for Gamefuna, so at some point during Combat Arena X or Secrets of Legendaria. The incident with Reggie was purely cruelty based, and was Irving twisting Lionel's words to fit his own goals

This was kicked into high gear shortly after SoL's failure

Constantly struggling with Sado. She's both exactly like him and the exact opposite to him at the same time. They're both sadistic, sentient programs that don't care for the lives they endanger. But while Irving strives to protect Lionel, Sado strives to destroy him, whatever that may entail.

Was unfortunately busy with Inscryption due to Lionel's lack of progress when Sado invaded Waste World, and was in all unable to stop the damage that happened with that game. Found out about it shortly after the damage had already been done, and sought to capture Sado, no matter what.

Obviously, though, she got freed. That mixed with the stolen artifact just stressed him the fuck out, but protecting Lionel had to come before dealing with his own stress, even if that inevitably became his downfall

His devotion was actually coded in by Lou bc Lou kinda realized after making a deal with Carla that he was putting Lionel's life in danger, and. Well. *Looks at my Lou and Barry pre-canon hcs*

Taking a less pre-canon dependent approach, his devotion could honestly just also be that Lionel's one of the very few that are earning Gamefuna money, even if Gamefuna's games suck. So, if Lionel dies, they lose one of their best programmers.

Either way, Irving's devoted to Lionel purely because Lou wants him to be

I could honestly write a whole ANALYSIS on Irving's character, so. Take it in loose hc format instead. Maybe one day I'll write a proper analysis on him. One day

[astrovian]

the official ranking of Claude Becker outfits

the official ranking of Daniel Miller outfits here

the official ranking of Adam Price outfits here

all Claude Becker outfits & rankings under the cut

we all know RA looks good in a suit, blah, blah, blah

after two of these rankings, this outfit is the physical embodiment of a yawn

I do appreciate the patterned tie to change things up a tad even if I’m not into the pattern itself. the intent is there, just not the execution

I will give props to the team for giving Claude a patterned dress shirt here (you have to squint a bit on the second image - more on patterned dress shirts later), but they really should have upped the game a little - change the tie & be less subtle with the shirt pattern

and I ask you, does Claude Becker not strike you as a man who would insist on at least a pocket square with his suits?? dream bigger stylists

3/10

@whoever stores old movie props if these weren’t disposed of immediately after filming i will pay you for a copy of one of these

putting aside the hilarious social commentary and fucking literal writing on this magazine cover done by some poor prop designer at 2am (”How to starve artists and other capitalist things”, as well as ”Claude Becker rolls up his shirtsleeves and unties his tie and puts on a vest and casually hangs his hands from his pockets” etc.), this is a nice change-up that made me question why we don’t have RA in just a waistcoat and dress shirt more often

also that tie pattern? fab. I love it. that is how to do a patterned tie. I hope we all know RA looks good in a suit, blah, blah, blah is paying attention

that being said, minimal points because we don’t actually see Claude wearing it in real life

4/10

where, oh where is my polo shirt? oh look, it’s right there

is there any RA character who is not afflicted with a polo shirt? not recently, apparently

I genuinely thought that it was a dress shirt for a moment which had me disappointed at the banality but then that turned into utter devastation as I realised we actually are looking at a long sleeve zip up polo shirt

the draping of the coat? phenomenal and what really brings this entire thing together

the long/three-quarter sleeves? the zip-up rather than buttons? better than one can normally expect from a polo shirt... and then they went and added stripes to the collar and sleeves?? regret

could be a lot worse but could ultimately also not be a polo shirt as well 4.5/10

could have tried harder during lessons but was a pleasure to have in class

I’m sure you all know my long-sleeve shirt obsession with RA but I made a promise to be honest with myself on these lists. the only feeling this outfit evokes is a ‘eh’

the equivalent of a middle slider 5/10

the Claude you’d actually have a fun day with

there’s something about RA in a hoody that just bangs. good lord I also have a weakness for those forearms

I also thought for a good moment these were dark jeans, but they disappointingly turn out to be sweatpants? however, it has made me think that we need to see RA in some darker denim shades more often 

this Claude is could have tried harder during lessons but was a pleasure to have in class but with just a little more fun and class to boost it *just* outside of the ‘eh’ zone

5.2/10

now this is how we do a long-sleeved shirt

I think it’s been fairly well-established by now that loose, long-sleeved RA is my ultimate weakness, so it’s nice to see that Ocean’s 8 is also making a concerted effort to murder me

also Claude’s obsession with sweatpants is giving me life

this is the Claude you make pasta with. and that pasta would be damn tasty, too

5.9/10

come hither

just-woken-up Claude is made 100x better by the bed head hair and the sleepy gaze

this man needs to get back into bed for a snuggle (preferably with me)

I can’t decide if I’m into the loose boxers or missing the tighter Adam Price undies. either way, it’s definitely not a bad aesthetic. and it reminds me, like dad chic Adam Price, that we don’t get enough of RA in shorts

I feel bad assigning numbers to a a shirtless one BUT Claude does transform into being fully-clothed in this scene so I’m going with it 6.4/10

you can kiss my hand anytime

the blessing of this film is not only the visual assault of attractive actors from all sides and genders, but it also instigates in me the thought that RA is wearing printed dress shirts and I can’t remember the last time I saw this?? I never even realised how much I need to see a lot more of this kind of look on RA until we were blessed with this vision

look at those lil’ elephants!! adorable. I hope Claude has a closet full of these with different animals on them

this outfit was so good, RA even wore it in his behind-the-scenes interview

7/10 for a printed, suited dream

the Claude you take home to mom & dad

god, it’s even better without the suit jacket

this is my honest appeal to the powers that may or may not be to put RA in more printed dress shirts

7.6/10

sometimes I think I should be more ashamed of myself

I feel like I need to preface this one thusly: okay, but like hear me out for real this time

I know this is ultimate hipster white-dude look and RA plays into that character so fantastically with Claude here. I mean just look at his expression. something about this whole look makes me want to simultaneously punch this man in the face and also take him home with me

this is a man who you know is a mistake before you make it, but choose to follow through anyway. he’s that last shot of tequila or the 5th glass of wine. you know you would go for him too. don’t even try to deny it

is the high ranking because of the novelty factor? is it because I’ve never seen RA wear a beanie like that and honestly the infamous running Daniel Miller could take notes? is it because I can’t take anyone who wears a beanie like that seriously?

all we do know is that I also can’t believe this is so high on the list

7.8/10

the moment we all learned Claude is 100% a bottom

one of the most iconic Claude moments in the film. RA plays the ‘dumb horny idiot’ character so well in this scene

not so into the pinstriped suit jacket but the hoodie peeking out from underneath combined with the thin scarf makes it for me

8/10

question: how may teeny-weeny scarves does Claude own, exactly?

who could forget the iconic moment when Sandra Bullock nearly shivs RA?

we have another printed dress shirt and I am HERE for it. it even has birds this time!! nice to see that Claude is not just a land mammal sort of man

I will concede that this is the sort of pattern that few men can pull off but RA is making it work and I am living

8.7/10

I’m not sure I can make a comment on this one that is even remotely appropriate except for “I told you Claude is a bottom”

safety first, buy some proper restraints for the bedroom please Claude/10

 modern royalty au Thorin

this is the moment that every single Hobbit fan went “hell yeah, now I have the perfect new aesthetic for my modern royalty Hobbit AU” (as an avid lotr/hobbit fan, I am not joking here)

RA looks like royalty here because he should be. please sign my petition to have RA usurp the British Queen

for real though, that baby blue sash is the 1000% perfect added touch to this suit and we love RA in a baby blue. a decent (and clearly successful) effort to match the faux Met Gala theme: European royalty. however, it is also pretty accurate re: the imaginative effort that most men have with altering their Met Gala outfits to fit that year’s theme

we need more RA in ‘modern royal’ roles for the #aesthetic and also so that he can dress like this more often

9.3/10 for a princely (or dare I say kingly?) figure

James Corden looks so gleeful running after Claude that it makes me happy. I get it, James. I get it

there’s really nothing spectacular about the general outfit here - except for the swagger RA is giving this

pants? shirt? boring, meh

check scarf? a brilliant switch up from Claude’s normal thin scarves. 

the popped coat? now we’re cooking

the sunglasses and wind-ruffled hair that screams “I’m hungover but I still look effortlessly handsome”? delectable

the dogs?? the best set dressing one could ask for

the attitude and ‘I’m too cool for you’ swagger? priceless and what makes this the second-best outfit of the whole film

9.6/10 this man could punch me and I would be grateful

hot diggity dog, someone get me Claude’s handcuffs

from the front view, it could be argued that this outfit (well, technically it may not really be a separate outfit as it’s the undone version of modern royalty au Thorin), while fairly exceptional, does not first place make

however, someone had the idea to shoot RA from a side angle in this and for that I am eternally in their debt

it’s all about the tease with this one. the glimpse of the suspenders (and holy shit, RA in suspenders was not a look I had thought about before). the way the waist coat hangs off Claude’s chest like that, just enough to make its presence obvious. the cufflinks. the delicate pocket watch chain.

if previous outfits on this list have been all sex and swagger, this is the foreplay. the subtle strip tease.

10/10 

[maleksrami]

gif tutorial ✨🎥

I got a few requests to make a gif tutorial so here it is. hope it helps :) It’s quite long so I’ll put it all under a read more. If you have any questions, feel free to ask or PM me directly for help!

Alright....sooo, I don’t remember the last time I made a gif tutorial on this site, but I figured I would even though I use the same method a lot of gif makers have been using for years. I have never strayed from this process and I’ve been making gifs on this site for a decade. 

There are a couple methods to making gifs. You can import your video directly into photoshop and cut your gif there. OR you can use a separate video player that has a screencapping tool, then import all your frames into photoshop; this is the method I use and it’s how I’ve adapted and perfected my giffing skills over time. 

This post will be long, but I want to be as detailed as I can and explain it step by step. It’s really NOT difficult once you get the hang of it, which is probably why I’ve always done it this way. 

Disclaimer: There are three programs I use and I highly suggest you look for reliable links yourself if I’m not able to provide one. I use pretty old versions of KMPlayer and Photoshop (I’ll explain why later), so be careful where you go looking for downloads. There are some photoshop downloads here, but I can’t vouch for them.

Let’s start :)

DOWNLOADING VIDEOS

I use a program called 4k Video Downloader to rip HD videos from Youtube. 1080p is the way to go, but obviously that’s not always possible. It’s ridiculously easy, all you do is click the “Paste Link” button and it’ll download your video. Clicking the “Smart Mode” button will let you set the default quality and the folder you want all your videos to be saved to. 

As you can see, here are all the videos I’ve downloaded recently for my gif posts. You can clear this download history list at any time.

SCREENCAPPING 

After your video is done downloading, I open the video in KMPlayer. Now, I use an OLD version of this program because this was exactly how I learned to do this back in the day. You can find old versions online, I don’t really know exactly which version mine is because I’ve had it forever, but it’s the old school one that looks like this.

When you open the video, it might stretch the player to full screen so I always adjust it by dragging the corner of the player inward so it shrinks to a more medium size. This will also make your screencaps not so GIANT, which will take longer to load into photoshop. 

Anyways, you’re gonna open your video and right click anywhere on the video to select Capture > Frame Extract... (or Ctrl+G on Windows). This window will come up. Make sure all your settings look like this to ensure a really smooth gif.

The first thing you should do is click that little “G” button next to the window size at the bottom. That’ll lock in the dimensions of however big you’ve made your video window, and if you stretch it you’ll see these numbers change. If you start capping without remembering to push that and you make your window smaller/bigger, your caps might be a wacky size or look stretched and you’ll have to go back and do it again. Also note the extracting location at the top. All your caps will go directly to a default folder titled “Capture”.

Once all the settings are ready, go to your desired section of the video, pause it, and hit “Start”. Play the video, pause the video when you’ve got all your caps, then hit “Stop”.

Locate your “Capture” folder and doublecheck you got all the caps you want. This is where I take a moment to delete any caps I don’t want in my gif, that way you don’t bother loading them into photoshop and making it take longer than it needs to. 

MAKING THE GIF

You’re gonna open whatever version of Photoshop you’re using. I hilariously still use CS3 to make gifs because the next script I’m gonna run doesn’t work in the free download that I have of CS5, but that’s what you get sometimes when you don’t pay for stuff. Hopefully whatever more recent version of PS you use, you have no problems.

Go to File > Scripts > Load Files Into Stack...

This window will come up. 

Hit “Browse” and locate your capture folder. Highlight all your caps and press OK. You’ll see them all come up in a list as shown above. Press OK again. Your caps will start to load into one big stack of layers. This will take a minute or so.

When it’s all loaded in, you’ll see them all stacked in your Layers window (Windows > Layers). You’re gonna open your animations timeline (Windows > Animation) and click the little drop down button in the top right corner of the window and select “Make Frames From Layers”. 

Click that drop down menu again and hit “Reverse Frames”. Click that drop down menu again and hit “Flatten Frames Into Layers” (this is so our sharpening action will work later). Click the drop down menu again and select “Select All Frames”. All your frames will be highlighted. This is where you’ll set your animation speed. Under each frame you’ll see “0 sec.” Click on that and select “Other”. Type in your desired speed. I usually go for 0.04 if it has a lot of frames. For less frames, 0.05 or 0.06. This is honestly entirely up to your preference. I actually made myself a photoshop action doing all these repetitive steps so it saves me a few precious long seconds of clicking around over and over. I just run the action after my caps are loaded. If you make gifs a lot, I recommend it.

Next it cropping. The reason I don’t crop right away after the files are loaded into a stack is because I like to see where the subject in the gif moves before I decide where I need to crop. I don’t want to accidentally cut anything off. The subject might sway in and out of frame or be off center if I crop it blindly before seeing exactly where the object moves around. So I’ll play the gif first to see exactly where to crop.

Anyways, you’re gonna set your desired width x height of your gif. I’m making this a big gif so you can see the details better. 540 px is Tumblr’s width for big horizontal gifs. If you’re making a photoset with two gifs side by side the width for Tumblr is 268 px.

Go ahead and crop your gif. It’ll resize itself as well. Play the gif back so you can see if anything gets cut off or it’s not where you want it. You can undo the crop and do it again until you’re satisfied.

Here is what my gif looks like animated and cropped. 

As you can see, it plays nice and smoothly due to our screencap settings from before in KMPlayer and with our set gif speed (I used 0.05 here).

Next is sharpening the gif. I use a sharpening action that can quickly sharpen up to 120 frames. You can download it here. Open the action by going to File > Open and locating the file. It’ll be added to your Actions window. (Window > Actions if you can’t see it.) In order for it to run correctly, you have to have the first frame selected on your animation window, as well as “Frame 1″ in the layers window. Just like this:

Click the play button on the action and wait a few seconds for all the gifs to finish being sharpened. For any gif with less than 120 frames (which I hope is always, good God) a pop-up will come up when it reaches the end of the frames asking you if you want to stop.  Click “Stop”. 

Tip: If you think you want to delete more frames, run the sharpening action before you do it. Otherwise you’ll have to flatten your frames into layers again. The first frame and the “Frame 1″ layer should always be the same (the little eye will appear to the left of the layer to let you know it’s visible when you have that specific frame selected) otherwise the action won’t work. 

Here is what my gif looks like now that it’s sharpened.

COLORING THE GIF

This is where all the fun (or pain) comes in. All your coloring will be done by using Adjustment Layers (Layers > New Adjustment Layer). I usually go in the same order of adjustments, but this is where personal style comes in and you do no have to do it in the same order I do. You can practice with this part all you want and see how you like to do it.

I start with brightening the gif first and fixing the white balance if a scene needs it. I chose this video specifically so you could see this next handy trick that a lot of people don’t even know about. It’s a dark scene and the white balance makes the subject look quite blue. 

I can fix this by starting with a Curves layer. By clicking the third eyedropper tool, you can go and click on a white point in your gif (in this case, I clicked on a white square on his shirt) and bumped up the input number a bit for a little contrast (optional). My curves look like this. Click OK.

My gif now looks like this.

It’s much better, right? The white eyedropper tool will become a lifesaver sometimes, but it’s not always needed. 

Next, I go in with a Levels adjustment to do some more brightening. This is all up to preference, but you can play around with this. I typically like to add more contrast with this layer. I just adjust the sliders until I’m satisfied.

Here is my gif now.

Onto yet another brightening layer. Brightness/Contrast. A couple teeny tiny more positive numbers and I now have this.

Next is Selective Color. I wish I could explain this in a way that makes sense, but this is the layer that takes a bit of practice getting down and boils down to how you like the colors in your gif to look. I personally don’t like a lot of yellow in mine, so I focus a lot on the Yellow and Black sliders in each specific tab. I start in the Reds, then Yellows, Whites, Neutrals, then bump up the Blacks a tiny bit.

Here is my gif now. It’s a bit more cool toned, which is what I like.

Next I’ll go in with a Color Balance layer and play with the Midtones and Shadows. 

Here it is now.

This is usually my last step unless I want to adjust the brightness again (which I do), so I might go back into my Curves and Levels layers to bump it up.

And you can totally stop there, but I would like to mention a few more optional layers to add depending on your gif. If I wanted more saturation, I would add a Hue/Saturation layer at this point, but I think it’s colorful enough so I’m not going to.

Another layer you can use is Gradient Maps. 

Setting a black and white gradient map overtop your gif and setting the layer to Soft Light and lowering the opacity to your heart’s desire (you might need to go to the little drop down menu in your animation timeline and hit “Match Layers Across Frames”) can give your gif a very contrast-y look like this.

Or you can change the black color to something else for a different tone, like a dark blue.

Here is my final gif. 

If you want to add a caption to your gif, you can do so with your font of choice (Arial and Calibri are good) and add Stroke or a Drop Shadow to it by going to Layer > Layer Style. You can make sure the text is perfectly centered by clicking on your top frame layer under all your coloring adjustments, hitting Select > All, then clicking your text layer again and going to Layer > Align Layers To Selection > Horizontal Centers. Then hit Select > Deselect and go to your little drop down menu in your animation timeline and click “Match Layers Across Frames”.

Here is what it looks like with a caption.

SAVING YOUR GIF

Go to File > Save for Web & Devices...

A big window will come up where you can preview your finished gif by pressing the play button on the right hand side. In the bottom left corner will tell you what size your gif is. Tumblr’s gif limit is a whopping 10 MB, so we’re good. 

Your gif settings should look something like this. 

We always want to keep all colors at 256 (the highest). Lowering this number will make our gif file size smaller, but also decrease the quality of the gif itself. If your file size is more than 10 MB, I recommend going back and deleting some frames or making some more curve adjustments. Some users also like to set their gif to “Adaptive” instead of “Selective”. This is up to you.

Click Save and you’re done!

[toujoursmiraculous]

Thoughts and Reactions to Truth!

Just going to go straight into it because this episode is huge! I really like how at the end of a season and the beginning of another, we see the same scene that leads us out of one and into another. Gabriel fixes the Miraculous and ohhh poor Dusuu thought it was all a dream, being in evil hands. So in a way, the Miraculous being damaged may have been a blessing for her. Dx Too bad it couldn't have been fixed after Marinette got it back :/ But at least Nooroo isn't alone right? Legit only positive I can get from this. ;-; Tikki and her little hats omg it's so cuuuute! I wonder if she makes her little clothes, too awww But the other Kwami's are almost like siblings to Tikki if you think about it. Now Tikki has to share things with them all as they cause chaos all around when she's so used to her quiet life alone with Marinette. Even for a Kwami, that must be hard to adjust to.

Okay so it's almost Prince Ali's birthday that Paris is going to celebrate. Interesting! I'd really like to see him back and a storyline with that. :O Marinette holding something, clearly, that the girls can't see over video chat. Talking to what appears to be herself, reacting to what someone's saying from different sides of her room. Camera flashes going off. And then her phone getting yeeted at her all on a video call with her friends when she's supposed to be alone...considering they're all going to have Kwami's and learn some things later as they become heroes, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if they think back to this scene someday! OH WAIT spoiler for the upcoming episode Gang of Secrets!!! Fair warning. What if this episode with the plushies she said she's going to make, is one of if not the reason they go over and are looking around her room? Because she's been acting sus and they want to know what's going on. Especially after what happens later in the episode with Luka. Okay, back to the episode itself. Her friends observation: You're acting way weirder than normal.... IS ADRIEN AT YOUR PLACE?! I mean, fair point. xD But the thing is, whenever Marinette tends to act weirder or say/do things that Alya and the girls don't understand, it's almost always connected to her being Ladybug/Guardian. Even Lila. If she wasn't Ladybug and dealt with her so much as her, she wouldn't know a lot of things that made her not trust Lila to begin with. So Marinette has to overcompensate to try to hide everything or can't explain her thoughts or feelings about certain situations, so Alya always just assumes her behavior has something to do with Adrien. It really sucks but at the same time, what else is she going to think?

These Kwami are a lot of trouble. xD Now she's even more frazzled, so she calls Luka Adrien. More than once. I've done this where I call my siblings the wrong name more of than I'd like so I can't fault her for it. Her mind's probably a mess, poor girl. Dx "I'm sorry it's just that I cheated on you!" BIG OOF. But this gives me Kim Possible vibes when Ron assumed Kim didn't want him anymore and told her he was cheating on her when he meant to say he was cheating to be on the football team so he could be more worthy of her when he thought she wanted to "trade up" her boyfriend. Our poor Marinette! So frazzled she can't remember when her dates are, when they've been rescheduled. She can't remember her patrols with Chat Noir which are really important. She's getting to the point where it's going to be a wonder she can even function. Dx "But Marinette and I are such a big fan of his" wow this sure hits different. The way they kept quizzing each other to finish the sentence with Jagged Stone trivia was pretty cute. Luka having her finish the line with "Kiss me" that she screamed to the entire theater made me choke on my cake. "Well, if that's what you want." Smooth. "I think, yes. I want to." But you know, it gets interrupted by an akuma attack of course because that's just the way things work! :D And wouldn't you know it, it's Mr. Pigeon. AGAIN. Totally worth interrupting the moment lol Ladybug can't pick and choose, however, so here comes the sequence where she's constantly running off and he starts doubting her. Notice the parallel when Marinette started to like Luka after Adrien could never show up to things? Now Marinette's having trouble showing up and Luka's having issues with it. The second Chat Noir started to sneak up on Ladybug, we all knew he was going to get flipped. But it's so adorable and funny at the same time I love it x333 And that whole scene there of Ladynoir. Obviously it's a Lukanette-centered episode but the Ladynoir in this episode! So good! And you know, it's interesting. First time we see Adrien this episode is for FIVE whole seconds! And the way it abruptly cut off as he opened the car door... yeah you know what, Lies is going to be Adrien's POV or something of this same day. It has to be. He has 2 total scenes one of them is 5 seconds and the other one is 2 seconds. Crazy. We got about 7 seconds of Adrien's face today woo! But ugh here's where we get hurt Luka ;-; "A girl, who as always, isn't here." Ouch. The fact that if Marinette said she loved Adrien still, he'd understand and he'd get it is so sweet, and so sad that it's not even because of that, it's because she's Ladybug and the Guardian and she can't say a thing about it to him at all, that he can't accept. It's the one thing he couldn't deal with that's the issue and that really sucks. AND THIS MOMENT RIGHT HERE HAD ME GASPING AND HURTING FOR LUKA. IT'S THE MOMENT HIS HEART BROKE

But also really guys, did you notice his eyes are different now? Almost like a blue diamond look or something.

Luka trying to fight it, trying to tell Hawk Moth that the truth needs to be willingly told, not forced. But stupid Hawk Moth's able to get him to hold on anyway and gets akumatized. But not before he told Marinette to run. Which was such an awwww moment. x33 I mean, this is definitely getting a bit close to Chat Blanc territory if you ask me. New transformation music is pretty good! I like it. Also can we just appreciate that instead of trying to track down Marinette to get the truth from her, he's instead asking all her friends and family, pretty much any source besides her? AND ROSE'S RESPONSE "Marinette has no secrets because she's the most honest girl in the world!" She thinks so highly of her and it's just so beautiful. Nobody would blame her for these secrets if they only knew either. But awwwwww I love this scene!! And here's the big reveal! (no not that one) Jagged Stone is Luka and Juleka's father. 😮

Thomas today tweeted that Luka and Juleka are twins. Which would have to be fairly obvious after this reveal. There's no way that Jagged, who says he'd be a lame dad and left because he wasn't cut out for it, would have Luka with Anarka, then stay long enough to also have Juleka. I also totally forgot that in the French version, Jagged has an American accent when he speaks. XDD Just the fact that even WITH his truth powers, he asked his mother TWICE who his father was. Both times she said Jagged Stone. He still didn't believe it until he went to Jagged himself omg. This poor poor boy. Luka: 😱*gasp* Marinette: 😲 *gasp* Adrien: 😮 WHY IS THIS SO FUNNY OMG. LIKE I'M WATCHING A TELENOVELA OR SOMETHING. THEY EVEN ZOOMED IN ON THEIR REACTIONS I CAN'T And then Luka just yeets his dad because he wasn't ever there for him. I honestly did not expect Luka having dad issues to ever be a thing in this show, even though I knew he wasn't around. So like... when everything's worked out with Marinette and Adrien in the end, will Luka and Adrien end up becoming friends and bonding over things, like the whole daddy issues thing...? Are we really supposed to believe she has no feelings for Chat Noir? I mean really, look at this.

"I can't imagine what your daily life must look like" ... is she really actually being the one to bring up something about his secret identity? With that face? 😲

Their flirty banter that at this point I don't even think they realize it is, and those soft looks I just... My top ship is Ladynoir and I was not expecting any significant moments of theirs but I got it anyway. Just watching their scenes, I kept going "See, this is why they're meant for each other." My heart is happy despite all the Luka pain! It's helping me cope with it, okay? "When you're ready, I'll be here for you, Marinette." Awww so they're telling us Lukanette is on hold here. Not a guarantee, but at least on hold. He's an option for her later. So now the Adrienette vs. Lukanette for S4 we heard about awhile back makes sense now. Later on this season, probably when things calm down and she gets the hang of things, she'll be in a better position to be with someone. And by then, Adrien will probably realize and understand his feelings for Marinette. So then she'll be in a position to choose between them. Now we know where Luka gets his ability to turn emotions into great songs. That's adorable! Father-son bonding! Gabriel needs to take notes when a man who was never in his son's life as more than his idol has the ability to try to be there, but Gabriel can't. Ugh our poor Marinette, probably thinking she's going to be alone for a very long time just because of a supervillain. That's so wrong she has to feel like this. If you notice, Hawk Moth's akumatizations help people patch up relationships so much of the time as a weird unexpected result of an akuma attack. And yet, he does nothing but hurt Marinette and at times Adrien, the most when he akumatizes people. He makes me so angry! But I'm too tired for a rant about that. At least the Kwami hugs at the end helped a teeny bit anyway! c:

[vintagesimstress]

VI c. UV_1

(Previous: Changing the texture displayed in Blender)

As mentioned before, the uv_1 map plays a very different role than uv_0: it tells the game where certain parts of your mesh are located, so that the whole thing could move with sliders. It seems many people struggle with it a lot – and to be honest, I have no idea why, as in my experience uv_1 has always been totally unproblematic. Hopefully you'll share my feelings on this!

Let's click once again the little triangle on the right ('Data') and choose 'uv_1' this time.

As you can see, the texture on the model turned very weird – and it'll stay this way, as that map is not meant for texturing. You can as well change to solid shading, if you find that craziness spooky or annoying.

If you switch to edit mode, you'll see that the map looks just as crazy:

UV_1 uses a completely different type of template. It differs very slightly depending on age and gender of your sim; the adult female one looks like this:

You can download all the versions from S4S forum, in HERE (I highly suggest you make some kind of 'Basics' folder for all those things which you'll keep reusing!)

Once you have downloaded it, click 'Image' and then 'Open image'. It works exactly the same as in case of uv_0. Now it should look like this:

You can see that your vertices are twice wider than the template. I'm not sure why the template has been made in this way instead of getting adjusted to the TS4 requirements, but that's what we have to work with. Select all the vertices (a), press s, then x, then type 0.5 and press enter. Do not move your mouse! Your uv map should be twice narrower now:

We still have to move it, so that it'd align with the template. Select all again, this time press g, x and type 512. That's exactly the number of pixels you need to move your mesh to the right. Now it should finally look correct.

Just like in case of uv_0, the top part is completely done, so the only thing we have to do is unwrap the skirt. This time the only valid methods for doing it are no. 1 and 2 (see: VI a), namely moving the lines manually or using cylinder projection. As at this point making manual adjustments would be too cumbersome, we're going to use option no. 2.

Select the lowest line of vertices to select your whole skirt, go to front view this time (num 1) and choose cylinder projection.

Move the newly unwrapped faces up or down (g, y), to the black area, so that you could properly see them.

You can see that my dress got unwrapped a bit unevenly – there are small 'steps' on the sides. I highlighted all the faces which should form the left edge. Now I'll move the highlighted parts on the right to the left, and the non-highlighted parts on the left to the right, and then it should all look and work fine.

Tip: you can also move them precisely into the right place by typing g, x, 1024 (to move to the right) or g, x, -1024 (to move to the left)!

The weird part at the bottom is the closing circle; you can select the central vertex (which is here doubled on the sides), weld it and move it down, to more or less align it with the lowest row. Or simply wait with closing your dress until you're done with uv_1 ;). The bigger problem is that step my dress still has at the top. I'll select all the vertices below it and just very gently move them along the x axis to the left. Now, that looks better:

And now, just as we did before, we have to connect the skirt with the top. It's a bit trickier than in case of uv_0, because you can't do it in one piece: your mesh has to be split along the back and both sides. Take a look at the top mesh. Let's start from the left: click the rightmost face and then, in 3D view, the faces right underneath it. This will tell you where your skirt should be split.

I'll deselect the face of the top, select the whole part of the skirt left from the selection and then move it to the left (g, x), separating it from the central part.

That weird line at the bottom is the closing circle again – I'll delete it and redo it afterwards, it'll really be easier.

Repeat the same steps for the part on the right.

The edges of those three parts should be, if possible, straight. Mine aren't. To be able to adjust them, I'll select the edges and temporarily split them (ctrl + e, in 3D view). Select a vertex or two above as well, or the uppermost one won't get split!

(If you're having problems with selecting edges, it might be smart to select the whole skirt (not the top!) and change it back from tris to quads (alt + j). Then you can easily select edges by clicking them while holding alt).

Split also the top row of vertices, to separate the skirt from the top. Just for a second.

Now select a whole edge, press w and choose 'Align X'

Repeat for the remaining edges. If you want to and feel that it's needed, you can also straighten other lines in your mesh.

Now it's finally the time to put it in the right place. Select the skirt and move it up (g, y).

One can immediately see that it's way too tall. Scale it along the y axis until it looks more reasonable. It should start at the lowest line of the top and end a bit above the feet. Nothing big will happen if it covers them, but it has to fit inside the picture!

And now just scale and move each of the 3 parts individually, along the x axis, to match them with the top.

The only thing left to do is to weld the vertices. It's unlucky that we separated the skirt from the top; now we have to select all, remove doubles and then once again split the side edges to be able to weld everything properly. Just like with uv_0: select a vertex, press w and choose 'weld' from the drop-down menu. Repeat for aaaaaall the vertices connecting the skirt with the top.

Sometimes the vertices can be quite far away from each other. Is it still safe to weld them? I'd say risk it. If you see some weird stuff happening in game when changing your sim's body type, you'll know you have to fine tune it: straighten some lines, make them more regular etc. However, chances are quite high that it won't matter at all.

Select all and remove doubles. Yes, again (I keep doing it all the time, that's probably why I love the edge split modifier so much).

And now a very important, final step that I usually forget about: you have to revert the moving and scaling changes you made at the very beginning. Select all and press g, x, -512 to move it back into position, and then s, x, 2, to make it twice wider again. Otherwise TS4 will get quite perplexed with your mesh (and so will you, seeing everything being weirdly deformed and moving with all the wrong sliders)!

As you see, it's not very difficult and once you get a grip of it, you can do it in no time. To be honest, 90% of the time I don't even do the whole scaling and moving thing; I just open the picture, to know where the feet are, and adjust the rest to the top. UV_1 is really not that bad, at least as long as you don't have to deal with the upper body half.

Here are just a couple of general, closing remarks which I'd like to share:

If you move any vertices of the top, immediately move them on the uv_1 map as well. I try to avoid it at all costs, but sometimes I can't resist making just one teeny tiny adjustment... Arms are usually not a problem, neck can get problematic, and breast area is an absolute nightmare. I already mentioned it once, but honestly, better dissolve vertices and cut new edges with the knife tool than move anything in there.

If you're frankenmeshing, remember to weld any vertices you merged in 3D view! If your mesh is getting split in game when you move any sliders, that probably means you didn't connect those parts on the uv_1 map (or that it's vertex paint... but that's another story).

Of course, if you added any other parts to your mesh than just a skirt – or if you frankenmeshed a thing, but changed its location, e.g. took a hair ribbon and put it on the skirt – you have to put it in the right place as well! In case of frankenmeshing you just have to change its location on the map; if you made it yourself, you'll have to experiment with different types of unwrapping first (pssst, projecting from view usually isn't a bad idea).

There are also certain cases - rarely, but still - when it might be a better idea not to properly unwrap a part of the mesh, but weld it all together to a little dot and put it in the right place on the uv_1. The first example which comes to my mind are 3D buttons. I always weld each button to a single dot, so that it’d be changing its size evenly, without deformations. However, this comes at a prize of an increased risk of clipping.

And finally: if you're having big problems with uv_1 and my method doesn't work for you – or if you made your mesh completely from scratch, so you don't have an unwrapped top – you can always make a data transfer, copying uv_1 data from another mesh. I won't elaborate on this one, because Teanmoon already explained it all in her amazing tutorial, which you can find HERE. Scroll down a bit until you see 'UV-1 Transfers'. I think I used it myself once or twice in the past and I was quite pleased with the results :).

***

Once again, I'm sorry both for how long you had to wait for this tutorial and for its final length. I swear I intended it to be a simple, concise explanation ^^. I hope that at least it's all clear and will help you avoid any problems with uvs. Please tell me if you have any questions or if something doesn't work for you – really, I mean it! Half of my inspiration for this tutorial comes from me watching other simmers struggle with making their first pieces of CC, as it helps me notice what hasn't been explained yet.

From now on we'll be moving into the dangerous territory of clones, cuts, regions, bones and weights, and I need some time to figure out how to divide this whole topic into sensible parts. It's not even that hard, but very interconnected, and that makes it difficult to tackle – as covering it all in one part is absolutely out of the question. Please have some patience with me and stay tuned!

[kingdomkeykitsune]

KHOC Week 2020, Day 1: Introductions

I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date!!Whew, I almost didn't get this done in time! Hello guys! I'm here again for another lovely @khoc-week! This year I've decided to do something a teeny bit different! I'm going to focus on Echo again, but this time I'm going to be telling you about the version of her from a project I've dubbed "Sister AU"! What started out as a fun little what if scenario has evolved into what I would consider a second canon for her. So without further ado, let's have a look!

Given Name: Aoi

Nickname(s): Echo, Li'l Blue (Axel gave her this one)

Age: Approximately one year younger than Sora

Homeworld: Destiny Islands

Affiliation: The Guardians of Light

Likes: Blue, flowers, sweets, the ocean, collecting shells, gentle rain, magic, Sora, Kairi, and Riku

Dislikes: Darkness, big storms, Xehanort, being alone, feeling second best, horror movies, spicy food

Special Talent/Skill: Mimicry

In this version of things Echo's story is about stepping out of the shadow of others and learning who she is, without sacrificing the bonds that make her strong. The discovery that she has a magical ability to mimic the abilities and skills of others throws a wrench into things, causing her to wonder if she can ever really be her own person or if all she'll ever be is someone else's echo.

There is honestly so much more I could say, but I don't want to make this post too long, and it's already pretty late so I'll leave it at that for now. Hopefully I'll be able to show and tell you all more about this story throughout the week!