#also i've done 3 more backgrounds for these but i've got a bunch more of the chibis to do

[krembearry]

giggles. cutely makes 1800 matching icons for all my ocs

[raindropren]

HUNRGY HERMITS!!! The hermits are hungry!! Good thing Pearl and Joe are here to serve them!!!

probably about 4-5 days ago I was watching a Pearl stream and was able to watch a Hungry Hermits run with Her and Joe! I've had a really fun time watching the game be played so I decided to draw a piece :D

This has been, by far, the longest time spent on an art piece. IBIS X says it took 8+ hours. so. ya. fun!!!! :]

I hope I did the two justice here. <3

Extra bits underneath

I spent way to long on this background and put probably way to much effort into it. please look at it <3

I really like it! I'm super proud of it since I'm not super experienced with more complex backgrounds and I love how I colored it(even if,, it hurt to,,, do,,,)! also if i got anything wrong. um... no i didn't. Also I made the loom counter a regular counter. It has the loom colors tho? lol

and here are the doodle/sketch images from when I was deciding on how to draw Joe and Pearl!

I've drawn pearl a bunch but this would be my first time drawing Joe! so I knew I had to think about how to draw them! It was super fun, i don't understand puppets, or how the juppet would work in world/canon. but. hey! whateves! it's fun!! it's cool!! I also did a regular non-puppet joe because i,, wanted to :3 Joe's really cool, i wanna start watching them more. For pearl I just needed to get her Post Office outfit down, Which for some reason, I haven't done yet :'} It's a very nice looking outfit so it was very fun to draw.

also both images have a little version of them with a chefs hat! cute!! :D

also I imagine in the full piece, they're talking to eachother. Fun!!

[junipvelt]

VN Update

Ok, here's a more in-depth look at the visual novel (still a WIP) since the last post was too short. Bunch of dev stuff + in-progress screenshots below the cut.

CGs so far:

(still working on these + the car one + the bgs ;-;)

Some of the bgs might just be blurry polarized irl photos (kind of like og higurashi), I'm not drawing more backgrounds than I have to.

Graphic design (is my passion):

(the cursor cycles between different pairings and the default anti-centrism ball depending on what you hover over/which screen you're on)

Misc. :

I've got the general story + scenes already mapped out but writing and coding everything might take a while (aiming for a ~10k word script?, currently have 2.5k). Hoping to have something playable by Q2 2024 (This originally said March lol).

QnA

q: how done is it?

a: ~30%

q : plot summary?

a: You (the player but also just Me) fall asleep while studying and hang out w/ the extremists and watch them bicker with each other. It's all a dream,, or is it?? (very clever meta writing)

q: can I help with development? :3

a: I'm hoarding all the creative control, it's all mine. (sorry). Playing it when I finally get around to releasing a build + adding some feedback would already be more than enough help. :]

q: why make this at all?

a: (what no friends does to mf) I thought It'd be fun to work on! I got into centricide around mid-2020 and while I thought I left it behind.. idk my obsession with it is back now I guess. (real answer: authunity. I'm not even joking those two are my only reason for doing any of this.) also I just genuinely like visual novels as a medium (massive weeb).

[txttletale]

I really agree w/ all your Hades opinions! I played that one first and then went back to all the other SG games, and was surprised at how much better the storytelling was in Transistor and Pyre. Hades is really fun and clearly high quality, but its world and characters feel so much shallower compared to its predecessors, and I really despise Hades himself, so the "reconciliation" stuff falls flat for me. Since you like Pyre, I wondered if you would maybe want to talk about your general feelings on it a little bit--what you like about it, what you don't? It's the least popular of SG's portfolio, which is so sad to me because I think it's the weirdest and most interesting one of the bunch, both story-wise and gameplay-wise (even though my personal fave is Transistor, which is still excellent, I think Pyre does more things I admire).

pyre is one of my favourite games of all time so i would love to talk about it! i mean. where to begin. i love its world. i love the very clever decision to make all the proper nouns and fantasy stuff hoverable hyperlinks so that you, the player, can be filled in on important background information about the world without the need for stilted expository dialogue:

i love the world of pyre. it's genuinely beautiful, it's my favourite of any of supergiant's worlds: the downside looks genuinely unique, it looks at once forbidding and electrically pretty.

like god damn. but what i love most about pyre is the story and characters, and how they're both not just communicated to you through the traditional methods this game employs (dialogue, flavour text) but in a way that's woven into the gameplay.

like, pyre isn't a game about fighting, it's a game about sports. it's a very high-stakes sport, but it's a sport -- for those who haven't played it, the plot of pyre is that you and your band of wacky misfits have been banished to a secret underground world. from time to time, the stars align and one person can escape this exile by winning a game of fantasy baskebtall -- and because it's a sport, the game's happy to let you lose. you can lose and that can just be part of the story. on two different occasions, i chose to throw plot-critical matches in pyre--once because an NPC on my team asked me to and once because i felt like the other guys deserved to win more than the protagonists did. and the game treats that as a valid choice, a valid thing to happen in the story! it lets the game explore opportunities and feelings and situations that a more traditional game where the player 'has' to win in the 'canonical' ending isn't capable of and it does it really well

and similarly there's something very very clever done with the character writing. getting to know characters better -- finding out why they were exiled, what's at home that they want to return to, why they want to get back to the surface -- is the same process as improving that character's stats and skills in the basketball games. the result of this is that the characters you know best, the ones you're most emotionally invested in getting to escape exile, are also the ones who you've been relying on to win your basketball games! it's by far the best iteration of the 'switch up your playstyle or else' mechanic that supergiant obsessively puts in their games because it ties directly into the emotional stakes of the story and can make it a genuinely difficult choice to liberate someone who's an essential part of your team but you've just learned has a desperate need to escape before something terrible happens to their loved ones outside.

also its got the best romance route of any supergiant game. i dont give a shit about meg or thanatos when i've got sandra the unseeing

<3

[littleoldrachel]

Fanfiction Author Interview Game

I was tagged by angels @lucigoo and @messrsrarchives ! thank you so much for tagging me, dear hearts, even though I am terrible at being online!!

Answers under the cut because I yapped a bit much!

Edit: I'm a silly billy and forgot to tag people!! No pressure tags for dear hearts @moonheavens @quiethauntings @a-fiery-fox @janetm74 and @katblu42 (if you haven't already done it!) 💚

How many works do you have on AO3?

16 (12 for Harry Potter and 4 for TAG)

soon to be 18 if i can get my shit together and post the two secret santa fics i wrote

What's your total AO3 word count?

391,642 words

Your top 5 stories by kudos/likes:

1. don't try to fix me (i'm not broken) (6k, complete, rated E)

asexual sirius + self acceptance journey. wolfstar

I feel a little ~cringe~ about this fic now but I have had some truly wonderful messages about it from people and it was my first proper dip back into fandom in 2015

2. my love, take care of yourself (26k, complete, rated M)

modern AU: single dad remus raising non-binary teddy meets art teacher sirius. found family and healing ensues. wolfstar

I have an enormous soft spot for teddy in this fic. written for my first ever Remus Lupin fest back in 2021!

3. a toast to the ones that we lost on the way (21k, complete, rated M)

a marauders reunion in the afterlife. wolfstar + jily

I still feel so proud of this one!! it was so hard to write and communicate the depths of grief and redemption properly but I'm happy with the result on the whole!

4. my jokes are my armour, my kindness is my sword (28k, complete, rated E)

plant shop AU ft. chubby trans disabled remus, besotted sirius, found family, extremely wholesome and healing vibes. wolfstar + background jegulily

this fic brought me endless comfort to write, but even more so to see it resonate with other people! found family trope forever and ever

5. starry eyes & galaxy minds (6k, complete, rated T)

toy shop AU: ace sirius is besotted with coworker Remus, valentine's day is fast approaching. wolfstar

I was so surprised this one made the top 5 - I wrote this in a few days after a breakdown and am a bit ~wobbly~ about its quality but we move!!

Do you respond to comments?

Yes! It takes me a little while (currently answering a bunch because I got behind) but I'm always SO grateful for comments and am overwhelmed by how kind people are about my silly little worlds!! I've made some lovely lovely fandom friends because someone has left a sweet comment 💚

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Probably this one because of the point where it ends and where canon picks up (in fact one commenter asked me why I had done that lmao):

a broken pot can still hold water (18k, complete, rated T)

set during prisoner of azkaban. trans remus supporting oliver wood through ed/mh issues whilst also coming apart at the seams.

Also, shout-out to the person who was reading this one on Christmas Day - I see you and I'm holding you extra tight 🫂🫂

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

Definitely my jokes are my armour, my kindness is my sword. I wrote it at a time when I was raging at the lack of trans joy in fics and it was very important to me that this one ended full of hope and community.

Do you write crossovers?

Yes!! Two of my favourite things I've ever written are crossovers:

Jurassic Park AU: love finds a way (60k, complete, rated M)

jurassic park AU ft. exes to lovers, trans disabled autistic palaeontologist remus, adhd paleobotanist sirius, badass marlene, kid harry. adventures and hijinks galore!! wolfstar

Strictly Come Dancing AU: sway through the crowd (to our empty space) (92k, complete, rated E)

strictly come dancing AU ft. chubby disabled autistic trans remus, pro dancer sirius, found family and personal growth. wolfstar

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yes, it mostly gets deleted, or if it's relatively mild I try to respond as kindly as possible to hopefully make them remember I'm just a person!

Do you write smut?

Yes, though I always have to take a deep breath and be brave about it because I feel like it's so cringy aaaAaAa.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I know!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! don't try to fix me (i'm not broken) was very kindly translated into Polish and Spanish!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, though I would definitely be open to it!

What's your all-time favorite ship?

Wolfstar ofc! But honestly I will try most ships once!

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

Hmm, I wholeheartedly believe that I will finish my WIPs (yes even the ones I haven't updated in 5+ years), but I think your time will come will be hardest to finish. I associate it so strongly with a rock-bottom time in my life and every time I try and add to it, it feels like backsliding to that low low place. I feel terrible as I still get comments sometimes asking for an update, but one day! it won't hurt so much to write it. recovery is not linear etc. etc.

What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm good at writing emotions! Which makes sense since I'm a therapist irl hehe. I think I do a decent job of writing from different perspectives, though Remus is my favourite to write, my self-deprecating mopey king. And people were lovely about my imagery in my last fic!

What are your writing weaknesses?

I mostly write in a linear way which is really annoying and means I can get stuck for days just because I can't get one part right. I used to say action scenes because I always dreaded writing them, but I challenged myself in my latest fic and it actually worked out okay!! So maybe it just takes practice.

I have lots of scraps of fic that will probably never see the light of day because I think they're shit, so I guess being hard on myself about my writing too lol.

Time is my biggest enemy - I work 5 jobs and volunteer etc etc and I'm not good at making time for the things that are good for me (like writing).

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Love love love it! I adore languages and speak several so I love to see another language thrown in there (even better if it's not just been run through Google Translate and was checked by a native)!!

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

Jegulus scares me a little bit because it's so polarising, but I expect I will write it at some point. Other fandoms... who knows? It takes a lot for something to capture me to the point that marauders/TAG has but inspiration strikes at the weirdest times so you never know.

What's your favorite fic you've written?

love finds a way!

I poured my entire heart and soul into this fic and it means the world to me. Honestly, writing it gave me a reason to dig my claws in and stay when things felt very dark last year. Dinosaurs are very much my special interest and it was such a privilege to be able to write my other special interest in this world. It has meant more than I can ever say to see this fic resonate with people, my heart is overflowing 💚💚

[kmackatie]

shadowgast fic rec list: the modern au edition - part one

This has been a long time coming, and hopefully the start of a few, but I have been intending to make some fic rec lists for a while. I am time-poor and generally bad at remembering to bookmark fics, but I figured I shouldn't let that stop me.

I have a love for modern au's, I write many of them, and I often see arguments against them when the source material is fantasy based for a number of reasons. But, I wanted to shine a light on some out there that tickle that box for me of being delightful.

Listed below the cut are a bunch of fics I have enjoyed, in no particular order and of varying lengths. I will of course forget some, but I hope to do some more lists in the future as I have more tabs open than I can reasonably fit in a list.

Fundamental Forces Other Than Gravity by mllekurtz (TheKnittingJedi)/@mllekurtz (1/1 chapters, 40,676 words, E, no warnings)

- A shadowgast college au with great characterisation and weaving of the Nein throughout. This one has chronic pain Essek, and I love how it is handled. As a note, Essek is briefly one of Caleb's professors, however, there is little power imbalance between them.

the fire kept closest (burns most of all) by mousecookie/@ariadne-mouse (3/3 chapters, 21,822 words, M, warnings: MCD)

- The fic that created the vocaleb tag. Essek is scientist on a research team studying a volcano, for which a tragic accident occurred years prior. It's told in a series of present and past, and the slow build of the relationships throughout the fic are gorgeous. For those eyeing the MCD warning, know that it is also tagged with 'angst with a happy ending'.

I've been lost before (and I'm lost again, I guess) by toneofjoy/@fireryn (21/21 chapters, 165,080 words, E, no warnings)

- The boys are rock climbers in this one. I know, it sounds odd, but trust me and read this. It has incredible characterisation and conversations about sexuality and gender (I hold the cafe scene in my hands so gently), as well as some wonderful sexual tension that builds until it bursts. This fic also got me into recreational rock climbing and I owe the author for it big time. As a note, Essek is Caleb's coach in this fic and this is a plot point for the background of their developing relationship.

starting with your heart (bright heart) by 2manyboys/@cluelessheroes (1/1 chapters, 9,914 words, E, no warnings)

- This has the sentence "Have you been taking four legged showers with Essek Thelyss?” in the summary and it has lived rent-free in my head ever since. Modern-wth-magic university au where they are both students with some lovely build-up of sexual tension between them. Hot smut to go along with it.

disputable presumptions by hanap/@callingvoicemail (3/? chapters, 9,606 words, E, no warnings)

- The corporate lawyer au of my dreams where they are friends with benefits and hiding it from the rest of the Nein. This has a delightful background of plot, along with ambiguous not!wizards hiding their true feelings behind an air of casualness, and snappy writing that keeps you reading.

Inside Edge, 3 Turn, and Closed Hold by MithrilWren/@mithrilwren (3/? works, 16,060 combined words, T/G/M respectively, no warnings)

- The shadowgast figure skating au I didn't know I needed until I read it. I've reread this one so many times and keep coming back to the characterisation and the way the story is slowly told across all three fics. There's a richness of the world behind what we see, and I adore coach!Beau in this one. Another with chronic pain Essek, and generally a careful understanding of the risks that go into the sport.

Labor of Love by OMGitsgreen (6/6 chapters, 43,331 words, M, warnings: CNTW)

- Bakery au. It's a classic, and it's done so well here. This is one of the earliest fics I remember reading, and it's a warm hug on a cold day that is great for when you're wanting something nice.

fermata by canyon_wizard/@canyon-wizard (8/8 chapters, 65,403 words, E, no warnings)

- A classical music au (there really needs to be more of these, please) where they are both piano students. The focus of this one is less the music world and more the character dynamics, and they are incredibly well done. The smut is hot, there is delightful miscommunication, and tense dynamics (ha) throughout.

(your face in my hands is) everything good I need by mllekurtz (TheKnittingJedi)/@mllekurtz (8/8 chapters, 25,884 words, M, no warnings)

- Professor au where they meet at a conference, Caleb a professor of modern history and Essek an expert in Latin. This fic has everything--wizards being nerds in every universe, first kisses, developing feelings, long distance relationship, emotional stakes, and dramatic declarations of love. I adore Mlle's writing (it really should not be a surprise at this point) as they have a way of capturing emotions and turning them into stunning pieces of prose. This one is also a love letter to Paris and Berlin, and please give it a read!

[umbracirrus]

2024 art wrap up

I'm going to jump onto the bandwagon and post the art which I've done through this year!

January

January.... I didn't do much. It was a tough month for me. My main drawing was a rough draft of reference pics for Elyse. I'm actually currently trying to do some better/more up-to-date reference pictures at the moment, but it might be a while before they're done! Especially considering that things have changed in the months since....

February

My main drawing in February was an experimental attempt at colouring/drawing in a different style! I quite liked how it turned out... but haven't drawn that way since!

March

March was when I started drawing a bunch of portraits for my OCs! Many of them still aren't finished, but it was certainly a month for sketches! Here are a few of the unfinished ones for two of my Dragonborn, Aevra and Ivetta, and one of my HoKs, Aelia <3

April

April is when I finished the portraits of my HoK duo Drissa and Florian!

May

In May, I finished the portraits of Elyse and another of my Dragonborn characters, Thea! I also did a little doodle of Florian spending some time with Martin at the Temple of the One.......

June

My idiots kissed in June. I also designed Elyse's wedding outfit!

July

Just one drawing in July - Elyse wearing Balgruuf's clothes!

August

August is when I did my absolute favourite drawing of the year, an illustration for a later chapter of The Perfect Storm with Elyse and Balgruuf on his balcony in Dragonsreach. My OC Thorne also came into existence in August, as did Balgruuf and Elyse's daughter, Aina (or at least she finally got a design!)

September

September was drawings of my OCs Lusine and Ragna!

October

In October, I reworked an old sketch of Elyse, and did a drawing of @hircines-hunter's OC Dyrvina with Ulfric!

November

In November I drew older and younger versions of Elyse! And the Idiots™️

December

And now December. I've actually done quite a bit this month, all things considered..... The Idiots™️on their wedding day, Elyse in her armour, The Idiots again based upon statues, and another drawing of one of Kuri's adorable pairings, Sifkni and Farkas 💕

Quite a lot, all things considered-!!!! I'm hoping that in 2024 I can do a few more 'big' and 'neat' drawings, like the illustration I did in August... I want to practice my background skills, and improving on my lineart skills because most of the time I tend to just colour my sketches!!

[stellarwaffles]

Ooooo you wanna talk about your ocs you wanna talk about them so bad ooooooo

Sorry for taking 381 days to answer ummmmm hi I want to talk about Ari

I don't think I've really posted about Ari on tumblr so I'll include basic info

Ari uses she/it/him pronoun and is a lesbian. She is a lion lava monster + is 6ft tall

Ari Sunfall is the oldest of the Sunfall siblings (Ari, Ziva, Leo, Daniel, Cherry*, Talya, Dasi)

When Ari was 13 her parents had to go be at war they weren't allowed to stay at home + raise their kids anymore so as the oldest Ari had to take care of her siblings

If you've ever heard Surface Pressure from Encanto that's the only song on my Ari playlist

Anyway um when Ari was 16 she got a girlfriend yaaaaaaay they were t4t :3

they dated for an amount of months before Ari's gf broke up w her bc taking care of 5 siblings was clearly stressful for Ari + gf was worried dealing w that and also a relationship was too much for Ari. Ummm she had good intentions but this made Ari put more effort into hiding when she's stressed

When Ari was 18 she had to be in the army </3 fuck Monstrox we all hate that guy

Ari got to see his parents for the first time in 5 years so that was nice

Ari also got a girlfriend while in the army! When Ari was 20 she dated Kirsten. They dated for an amount of months

:3

Kirsten broke up w Ari </3

:3

so um ye when the lava monsters got trapped in the Book of Monsters Ari was also trapped. Bc she's a lava monster

S1 nexo knight Ari is one of the background lava monsters

At some point in s1 the lava monsters attack a town called Kneadton + during the attack Ari gets distracted by the smell of freshly baked bread and goes into the bakery where Feather works

Feather is Rather Frightened and as a panic response. Acts friendly + normal as if Ari was a regular customer instead of part of the army attacking the town

Ari is thown off by Feather acting friendly + instead of stealing or destroying anything like she's supposed to he politely pays for a box of cookies

Feather + Ari are friends now. You can't escape being friends with Feather

At the end of s2! When Monstrox is trying to possess Clay or whatever + the knights save him + there's like an explosion or smth + they think Monstrox is dead fr fr. The explosion throws Ari into the rocky wall + she gets a bad injury

But um hey good news the lava monsters all want nothing to do with Monstrox + go build a town so they can chill + just live their lives

Ari takes a while to recover from his injury + has to get used to sometimes relying on others instead of always being the one people can rely on

Ari also has a back brace now. I haven't done enough research to say much about this

Once Ari is doing well enough to get a job she starts working at a bar in Burningham. He works a late shift + so she sleeps in late in the morning

This is around s3 btw + also Ari is 23

At some point Eva is adventuring around, as one does, and accidentally finds Burningham. She wanders around town perceiving + goes into the bar + this is how she meets Ari!! Yay!!

Eva is big gay for Ari. Eva + Ari become friends yay yay friendship

Ari starts getting feelings for Eva but she's in denial about it. They're just friends! Ari totally doesn't wanna kiss Eva or anything!

Teehee time for s5 (Ari is 24/25 now. I'm less sure on the ages here bc s5 + s6 were never made)

So um there's the apocalypse going on. Fun! (It's not fun)

I haven't brained much abt what exactly happens around Burningham during the apocalypse I'll be honest so some of this might change idk. I've mostly just rotated the angst in my mind

Burningham got swarmed by cyberbugs + people had to either try and fight them off or run away

The Sunfalls have safely escaped a bunch of cyberbugs + are in the woods. They're worried about Talya bc none of them have been able to contact it at all, but the rest of them are all safe and accounted for at least

Ari faintly hears something deeper in the woods + goes to investigate. A smart decision, surely. You should always go alone to investigate voices you hear in the woods

Ari finds Eva sitting by a tree calling for help. Eva says she was injured while running from cyberbugs + she needs help just come closer walk forward come just a bit closer please

Something seems off to Ari, and rightfully so bc this is a trap. Eva is infected

A bunch of cyberbugs were hiding around the nearby trees. Eva + the cyberbugs attack Ari and Eva tries to convince Ari to be evil being infected is great actually she's totally not being forced to say this

Ari doesn't want to fight Eva so she's trying to fight defensively. At one point in the fight Ari takes Eva's scythe from her hands and without thinking impales Eva, killing her

Ari stares at Eva's body for a moment, realizing what she just did, before running away (the cyberbugs are still there. They chase after her)

So you know how I mentioned Ari likes Eva but is in denial. Yeah so sometimes you realize things at very inconvenient times. Sometimes you're processing that you just killed the person you're in love with and wait a minute in love? Oh fuck

Ari doesn't really have time to focus on that or on grief bc she's gotta focus on making sure him + its family survive the apocalypse

Daniel gets separated from the rest of the family for a bit which has all of them worried but this isn't about him so don't worry about it

After the apocalypse ends the Sunfalls go back to Burningham + Ziva is sent to pick up Talya from school. Ari finally has time to process the everything + breaks down crying

*shoutout to anyone that remembered I put an asterisk next to Cherry's name! She was not part of the family before this point

Ziva returns w Talya + Cherry, Talya says Cherry is part of their family now. Everyone immediately assumes that means Cherry's parents are dead. Everyone also immediately accepts Cherry into the family. New sibling!

After idk a few days Ari goes back into the woods to get Eva + take her to a mechanic. Ari is worried sick that she did irreparable damage, but is hoping Eva will be fine

Ari is not very good w tech + things of the sort, she doesn't understand all this new tech that's been invented in the past 100 years. Squirebots weren't a thing back when he was growing up, so she doesn't know anything about squirebot anatomy. Ari has no clue if she killed Eva permanently or if Eva can be repaired

Eva is repaired yay yippee yay she doesn't have any permanent damage, her brain's all fine, etc etc

After checking approximately 1 million times that Eva is in fact alright + no longer injured, Ari apologies for killing her + Eva assures Ari it's ok she doesn't even remember it honestly so truely it's chill dw. Everything from when she was infected is kinda foggy, actually. She doesn't remember much of being infected

Anyway moving on Ari also confesses to being in love w Eva yay yippee yay they can kiss now I love when girlfriends

A few weeks after the apocalypse has ended!! Ok so remember Kirsten? There's something I didn't mention. Before she broke up w Ari she got pregnant, but neither of them knew

So as I said a few weeks after the apocalypse ended- Kirsten + her girlfriend (she has a girlfriend btw) go on a date at a bar. Which just so happens to be where Ari works. Wait I forgot to say Kirsten's girlfriend is Ari's first ex

Ye so Kirsten tells Ari she's got something important to tell her but like if it can wait til later that'd be nice bc she's on a date rn. So she gets Ari's phone number + address

Kirsten shows up to the Sunfall house the next day w her + Ari's daughter, Sunny

Ari didn't know what to expect when Kirsten said she had something important to tell her, but she certainly had not been expecting a kid

Sunny is 4 btw Ari was 21 when Sunny was born

Kirsten wants Ari to take full custody of Sunny she didn't want to be a mom she wanted Ari to take care of Sunny from the start, she just didn't know how to contact Ari. Phones were invented after they broke up

Umm I made up Sunny recently so I'm still working on this lore but at some point Eva calls Ari a milf

Misc info!! Yay!!

Ari is a nickname for Arson, the name Arson has been passed down in the family for generations Ari is Arson V (Arson the fifth) (Sunny is also a nickname for Arson, Sunny is Arson VI)

I mentioned this when Eva died but Ari isn't good w phones or tech or anything like that she's kinda a boomer L L L skill issue

Ari spent so much of his life focusing on taking care of her family and being personally responsible for everyone's safety that she never. Got any hobbies (on this topic Ari + Talya have parallels. Talya stole the bad mentality and the lack of hobbies + some other stuff)

At some point Eva gets Ari into hiking! This idea brought to you by the bestie Milkisvibin803

At some point when they're dating, Eva finds out Ari wants to be more feminine but doesn't know what exactly to do about that. So Eva takes her dress shopping to see if maybe that'll help (it does) :)

[frazzledsoul]

Finished Shameless season 4 last night and here are my unsolicited thoughts, once again:

I think if Fiona had not been dating Mike and was just working for the cup company she could have made it work. I mean, she might have done something to screw it up, but if she weren't being fully integrated into Mike's perfect family she wouldn't have felt so much pressure to rebel with the one person she relates to, his shithead alcoholic brother. I think Mike would have backed off, she would have been good at her job, and she would have had more time to spend at home (and notice that Debbie had a 20-year-old "boyfriend", for instance).

On that note, I think Fiona really starts courting danger when she provokes a fight in traffic, she's attacked while in a company car, and she outright lies to Mike about it and somehow acts like he's the one that owes her something. She tended to treat Steve like shit once she found out he was privileged because there was no way his problems could be as bad as hers and I think she has the same disrespect towards Mike, even if she no longer has the same problems. Once she's got all this nice stuff handed to her, she gets overconfident and rebels and screws everything up. It wouldn't have been like that if Mike were just her boss.

This doesn't excuse anything, but I kind of get it with Robbie. Maybe it was because the actor was in Chicago Med and he was actually kind of dull, but yeah he's a little hot....in a scuzzy, chaotic way, of course.

That said, the coke incident was entirely her fault and it doesn't matter that it was an accident because she shouldn't have been doing hard drugs around a bunch of little kids (I also can't picture her doing this in S1-3, either). Her insistence that she's going to fight it because she shouldn't be punished because she didn't INTEND for anything bad to happen...sorry, honey, that's bullshit. The fact that she pleads guilty after Lip had pretty much took over running the household and was literally taking Liam with him everywhere, begs and pleads to be trusted again, and THEN violates her parole and goes out and parties again after one (1) day of unsuccessful job hunting? Honestly, I've been in his position too much IRL to have much sympathy.

I honestly think Lip's struggles at the beginning of the season were mainly because....he's not used to having a real job or a schedule? He's used to scraping along and scamming and hustling and being good at it and he couldn't deal with actual expectations. After the interlude with Mandy early in the season he sort of becomes...a dreamboat, honestly? He's like a completely different person and he was actually succeeding at keeping things afloat and working/going to school. I know he's going to screw it all up and it's going to be awful. Oh, well.

Mandy, as usual, has a completely tragic plot going on in the background that deserves more attention. It's frankly not realistic to me that her boyfriend was allowed to stay in the Milkovich house after he had beat her. Sure, Mickey & co may not have been successful at keeping him away from her, but that doesn't mean they have to let him stay there. Also, that last scene with her waiting on Lip (and pretending not to know him) and his shiny new college girlfriend who shares her name kind of hurt.

Ian completely disappearing for the first couple of episodes of the season while Mickey focuses on unionizing the hoes kind of threw me off guard. Also, I ship him and Ian too much now. I can't believe I have one more season with them and then four seasons of almost nothing. Ugh.

What a twisted family the Milkovich household is at the end of the season: a newly out Mickey, his bipolar boyfriend, Russian hooker wife, her girlfriend, and a baby. Yikes.

The less one says about Debbie's plot the better. Yikes. And the worst is yet to come!

That's really all we get of Bonnie and Carl?!?

Sammi doesn't seem that bad. Honestly, I feel she's the main reason Frank had a real plotline this year.

I would have liked it if Sheila had mentioned Karen at least once, but...nothing. I feel she expended so much energy on finding a surrogate child in Hymie and this season's random kids she wanted to adopt because Karen was just someone she couldn't deal with anymore, and once she was no longer the same person, it made sense to her to send her away. I kind of hope at the end of all of this she went to find Karen and Hymie and got them away from Jody.

Why did I have to watch Kevin and Veronica's incest threesome last year if Veronica's mom was just going to keep the resulting baby and they were going to have their own kids anyway? I assaulted my eyes for nothing.

Nice to see you, Negan cosplaying as a nice guy! I won't get used to it or the newly not-dead Jimmy SteveJack.

So on to season 5. I'm half tempted to skip season 6 because I get a feeling it's just pregnancy drama the entire season and that's quite tiresome to me.

[edge-oftheworld]

a snapshot in time of my CALM orchestral arrangement

so I just discovered that this is a thing you can do on tumblr and i've been debating putting it up here (i'm not even sure it's legal) but at this point, to me it's worth the (very slim) lawsuit risk to show you guys the inspo behind making this blog. for @bluewrite who i've been meaning to email this to for ages but never got there. for @tleeaves who i think got a slightly older version as did @ghost-of-you but this is also for all of you who've heard me rattling about music things, for people i've gotten into 5sos by talking about this project such as @thevagabondexpress (thank you for drawing the U2 link).

anyway, as you probably know i'm a classical violist. i know my instrument and i know a fair amount of music theory and i know how to play the keyboard/piano as well and at the start of this project i knew very little about building orchestral scores or anything about wind instruments at all. i'd written arrangements and original pieces before but only for strings-only orchestras, and though i'm alright at pulling out instrumentation from songs my experience is largely in the more classic 2000s pop/rock/worship with very minimal synth activity and max 3 part harmonies. to say this was a challenge is an understatement.

it's also not finished yet. i've gone back and forth on this getting feedback from a bunch of people, much of which i didn't understand and wasn't ready to implement. i've also found ashton and calum's videos explaining these songs in more detail and the acoustic version of teeth and best years with the actual chords of the songs and now, differently to the week tfofu came out but similar, i'm on it again, noticing things. noticing musical trends. most of this was done by pure sound intuition and a handful of piano scores arranged by @/keudae on youtube i bought and played to get a feel of the songs. I feel really stoked to have picked up on the whole lover of mine setting us up for lonely heart and being a bit like ghost of you and some of the themes within the album!

but there is a lot i didn't pick up on. especially in the last movement i don't truly feel like i did any of those songs justice. nor lonely heart. and there is a stark difference between the quality of the songs that were played at the RAH and the ones that i only had a studio version to work off (my strings background comes out here). i've also looked at all the 22 individual parts and realised, hey, i want to be in the 5sos spirit and make every single one of these fun to play and right now the only one that is is the cello which carries luke's main melody line but it's also kinda working too hard.

and that's the thing i know, probably apart from that one keychange into lonely heart from ghost of you, this for the most part sounds good and i want to share it here before i rejig it too much, make it too much more orchestral, so we can remember it and see it evolve. because i have a bunch of juno and guitar and percussion and harmony parts i haven't put in. general song vibes. shake up the choruses and make them a variation on themselves each time. maintain the atmosphere it's got but add more layers to it, be more true to the original songs. make something i would be proud to show 5sos if the opportunity ever arose, something that would actually astonish them and I think I can. because their musicality in this album is astounding, and something i haven't seen in heaps of other artists, and i want to recognise that and draw it out in something that can do it justice like an orchestra.

[sanchoyoscribbles]

a redraw meme! I'm a little mad at myself for not doing this for a few years (I've done a few other redraws in the meantime, but...it wouldve been cool to have a bunch of years in a row! TwT)

2007 was the earliest made on gimp, a touchpad and NO pressure (obvious with the THICK CHUNKY LINES. im 90% sure I did lineart, colored over them, then lined over them again all on 1 layer...) plus the pattern fills gimp had (the stripes and rainbows, plus the repeating space background that needed a desperate scale-up...)

2015 might be the most obviously tmm inspired style wise ( and I think...this character WAS a tmm oc, actually, so this tracks. her name was star hoshiko (yes. star star.) and she was infused with star power instead of an animal. whatever that means. in my defense I was Ten 👍) and was when I was still using sai!!

2016&17 were me trying to sort of push into semi-realism, the smaller eyes, the more realistic skirt in the '16 version and more realistic hair in the '17 version, and also the first ones done in clip studio which is still my mvp program.

2018 was the furthest from the original, me REALLY pushing orangey yellows for some reason (the darker oranges let the yellow glowy parts stand out more was probably my logic at the time?) it's also funny to see that I went back to a more cartoony/anime style between 2017! the eyes got bigger again, the hair more stylized (esp with the shading/highlighting!) yet the clothes got more detailed....

2024- this time around I wanted to try and capture elements of the original design, since it seemed I was drifting further and further away from it... those very bright lemony yellows that scare me to work with sometimes, the original stripes, that BAD dark yellow for the base of the dress... I know a lot of people will prefer the semi-realism of the earlier years but I feel like the very anime style is more FUN. and I feel a lot more confident in my posing, expressions, and I just. focus more on having fun than making her pretty. that being said I did try to add little details from the previous years designs :3 doing redraws is always so nice to reflect on style and improvement!! I totally recommend doing one if you want to, a blank version is here!

also for funsies, heres how gross the flats look. man i HATE that weird base dress shade T_T u can tell I did shift it to be SLIGHTLY warmer, just a bit....the cool-toned shading pushes it back to the lemony again tho, lol

[cy-cyborg]

Ok so the saga with my old PC continues and is only fueling my desire to get back into fanfiction lol because I found all of the files from my attempt at making a legend of spyro fan-game! I honestly thought they were lost, I'm so excited to see all this stuff again! This was the "logo" for the game (I know its nearly unreadable lol, so it says "The Legend of Cynder, Shadows of The Past". 14/15 year old me didn't seem to care much for readability, I think I'd just discovered photoshop's layer effects lol)

Here's a bunch of random stuff I found.

I'm defiantly going to do a redraw of that last one at some point. That was like, THE thing I remember being super proud of when I first did it. I think it was going to be part of the trailer my now-partner was putting together for the game lol.

Actually, a lot of these were actually just frames from animations, but either the files are either just corrupted, or high school me didn't know how to set fps and resolution properly in the output so I got a headache trying to watch them lol. It's probably the second one honestly. Also I remember my old laptop wasn't able to play back the animation because it would lag so much, so I just had to kind of...guess at timing, and that went about as well as you'd expect. It didn't help that blender used to have this bug where your audio would move around your timeline so it really was just random guessing. I'm amazed anything got done at all, let alone how far we actually got (that is to say, not far at all but we had something playable at least).

I also found the demo files and footage of the "game" running (running at 12fps but running)! I'm curious if they still work, I'll have to download an older version of blender to test them out!

There's actually a lot more but actually finding it is proving to be quite a challenge since this laptop seems to be the digital equivalent of an ADHD "doom box" - meaning nothing is sorted into folders that make even a remote lick of sense to me, it's all just kind of thrown in together lmao.

I wanted to post these though because even though I don't really do 3D stuff anymore, It still made me really happy to see how much progress I've made over the years and how far I've come. Also a few folks who worked on this project with me back on Deviantart have started finding me lol, so in case there's anyone else out there, hello! I'm not dead, I'm still around, I'm just a lot more (openly) queer now lmao.

Image descriptions:

[ID 1: A game title that reads "The Legend of Cynder, Shadows of the Past". The two lines, "the legend of" and "shadows of the past" are written in dark purple text. The purple material is supposed to look like liquid, but instead just looks hard to read. "Cynder" is writen in black, 3D text with red outlines, with the exception of the C. The "c" is modeled as a black tube instead of in a blocky style like the rest of the letters. The inside of the C has a red underbelly, and the bottom of the C ends in a tail, resembling Cynder's from the Legend of Spyro Series. There are 3 white spikes at the top of the C. /end ID]

[ID 2: a 3d render of 4 dragons around a christmas tree. A black dragon at the front, Cynder, is using her tail to hang tinsel, a pruple dragon, Spyro, on the left is reaching up into the branches of the tree. A blue dragon, Ignitus, is hovering behind the tree, his paws outstretched, implying he is placing the glowing star at the top. On his head is a silver dragon, Zerali, balancing on his horns. behind them is a series of floating islands. /End ID]

[ID 3: A render of Cynder with a darker colour pallet than the previous image and glowing yellow eyes, snarling at the camera, guarding a black gem. The sky in the background is blood red and the terrain is flat and barren. /End ID]

[ID 4: A render of an incomplete model of Terrador, a green dragon with brown horns and rocky shoulder decorations. He has no underbelly or wings. /end ID]

[ID 5: A render of a fan character named ekkosel, a blue, anthropomorphic dragonfly with an unsettling, uncanny face and green wings, T-posing. Her green wings are a blur /End ID]

[ID 6: two sketches of a anthropomorphic cheetah heads. One has long ears like a lynx and is labeled DotD design, the other has small, rounded ears like a cheetah usually has, labled TLoC design. /end ID]

[ID 7: A render of Zerali, the silver dragon from the second image, and ekkosel, from the 5th, playing together. In this image, we can see Zerali has a pinky-purple underbelly and shiny gold horns.]

[ID 8: A rendered scene showing a close up of blue ignitus with his eyes closed. He appears to be talking to Cynder, who is in the background, but blurry. The game's logo is visible in the bottom left of the image. /end ID]

[tlbodine]

Overthinking Goosebumps

It's been a long, ugly year for me. So I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that I've be craving some intense comfort and nostalgia this fall. Which is, I think, why I found myself gripped by a sudden and intense desire to re-read the the Goosebumps books.

Like every horror-loving Millennial, I cut my teeth on R.L. Stine books. The Haunted Mask was the first chapter book I remember reading, checking it out from the library on a whim. I was 7 years old and completely enthralled.

I spent my weekly $5 allowance on Goosebumps as often as I could and read them from libraries all over the country as we traveled. I didn't have a complete set -- my interest waned by the end of the run, as I'd shifted over to Animorphs -- but I did have a couple dozen of them that I foolishly donated. I haven't touched one of these books in 20 years.

So when the craving hit, replacing my copies felt expensive and daunting. They're collector's items that are worth more than the $3.99 I paid for them in the first place. So I tried to quell my craving by watching videos of people who had done a "read every Goosebumps book challenge," except that just made me want to read them more.

Then I found a bunch of them in audio. They just so happen to be the perfect length to knock out in a day or two of commuting - 2-3 hours per book. A perfect indulgence. I started listening and discovered that not only was I enjoying myself, but that I even had some big thoughts! So, hell, why not blog it?

No promises that I'll blog about every one that I read, and no telling how far I'll make it into the series before my enthusiasm wears off, but for now...I'm overthinking Goosebumps.

So follow along at the "#overthinking goosebumps" tag and come tell me about YOUR experience with these books!

Some General Notes

There are a few things that are kind of a given for every Goosebumps book, which I'll acknowledge here so I don't have to re-tread the same ground over and over in future reviews:

Every chapter ends on a cliffhanger. A lot of those cliffhangers are fake "gotchas" and a lot of the stories rely heavily on practical joker characters in order to add some conflict. Sometimes this is more annoying than others, but I can't really fault Stine for doing it. These were pulpy books for young reluctant readers. When you're 7 years old, this kind of stuff keeps you engaged.

Every book has a twist. At least, most of them do. Some of these twists are better than others. I'll probably talk about a lot of them, but just...you have to go into this anticipating that a lot of these books are shaggy dog stories.

Adults are useless. That's just middle-grade fiction for you. Kids don't want to read about parents solving problems. They want to read about kids having cool adventures.

Oh yeah - I also may mention the TV show from time to time, but I was not much of a fan of the show. I know a lot of other people are nostalgic about it, but I didn't like it as a kid and it certainly hasn't aged well. The effects look cheap, the acting is uniformly terrible, and the episodes generally aren't well-adapted from the books. So sorry if I piss on your parade when I bring up episodes in relation to the books. The theme song is a banger though.

The average Goosebumps book is around 20-25k in length. Stine released a new one every month for the entirety of its 62-book run. He was writing these in a couple weeks. EDIT: Apparently he did employ some ghostwriters, which is news to me and makes me sad, but I still respect him anyway. His background in magazine and TV writing really shows through with these, both in terms of speed, process, and humor.

(I admire the hell out of R.L. Stine. I got to very briefly meet him at NYCC and thank him for his influence. It was great.)

Ok. Fangirl flexing over.

Looking forward to re-visiting these books and giving some of the ol' classic T.L. Bodine deep-dive treatment to them ;)

[druidberries]

10 random facts about me

thank you for tagging me @rebelangelsims and @papermint-airplane!!

I've had a love for fantasy things for as long as I can remember! I'll never forget in the sims 2 going out constantly hoping to find the witches and vampires 😭

going along with my love for witches, they've always been my favorite of the supernatural types! yet I somehow didn't find my style til a few years ago 😭 I think I just didn't realize there was a whole aesthetic of witchy things and people and ever since my love for witches in general has just grown <3 my style is definitely very witchy/whimsigoth, cottagecore, and hippie vibes!

music is a *massive* part of my life! if I'm doing literally anything I've got music on in the background. I know how to play a bit of lyre and piano but I would love to learn more soon and learn guitar! I'm also obsessed with singing to the point where I literally can't listen to music without doing it. most of the time I don't even realize I am singing 🤦‍♀️

I'm a crocheter! I started 3 years ago I think? but I've been in love ever since! I've been wanting to start my etsy shop for over a year now but I've been too nervous 😭 I've got a name picked out and everything I just need to finally *do* it

I've dyed my hair a ton of colors, but my current color is red! purple used to be my main color until a few years ago I tried red and now I can't seem to escape it ❤️

I'm a HUGE animal lover! some of my most favorites are rabbits, frogs, monkeys, dogs and cats, and a bunch of sea creatures

I've been playing video games since before I learned how to read and it's been my one true love ever since <33 but seriously I have such a love for gaming it boggles my mind that there a people out there who just...don't play video games

I have an addiction to blankets :) I always have one on me even if it's not nearly cold enough for one because I just love being wrapped up in them. I also have a large collection of them lmao, I have so many seasonal ones!

despite my intense obsession with witches and everything autumnal, christmas is my favorite holiday! and winter my favorite season <3 I have a bit of a tradition where halloween night I put on christmas pajamas, have hot chocolate, and watch christmas movies. however I promise I'm not the type of person to throw it in everyones faces too early, I have my quiet excitement until it's socially acceptable to be excited for christmas lmao

similar to blankets, I also just have a love for being cozy in general. I have an endless supply of hoodies, fluffy and funky socks, and slippers! but especially weird slippers, my favorite pairs are bunny slippers and ones that look like zero from nightmare before christmas :)

why was it so difficult to think of 10 facts 😭 I'm tagging @thebramblewood, @venriliz, @aurorangen, @duusheen, @babzyz, @sunyos, @acuar-io, and @kharssims! if you've already done this or don't want to freel flee to ignore! and if you want to be tagged, then I tag YOU <3

[insomn-art]

For what feels like the first time, I have enough art from throughout the year to do one of those "one finished piece from each month" deals. Fun stuff!

Details below the cut.

January was some concept art for @astralfrontier ongoing Phase 3 Menagerie continuation stories. This is a very fun character named <deep breath> The Most Illustrious Supernova of the Universe, the Legendary Navigator of the Space-ways, the Right Honorable Quinnar Gentry who is a joy anytime they show up. Very much a foil for Concord, but also a (sometimes) ally.

February is more Phase Three art, this time of the Hand, a stage magician-themed villain who is a part of the Seven Wonders, a world threatening group. I really wanted to give her a look where, if I was to include them in any Sentinels of the Multiverse cards, she wouldn't be confused with any of the four-to-six other stage magician themed characters in the custom community's many decks. Not sure what the appeal is of the stage magician-themed super. I'm sure it's Zatanna's fault.

March is a bit of fun with @solkaras's Valerie and that skimpy meme dress that was floating around at the beginning of the year.

April is the first of several entries' here from my friend Bobbert's HMCS Moondancer environment deck, this one featuring cameo's from my other friend Mist's tokusatsu-inspired characters Alius and Ampere (whom I've also done art for). There's going to be several of these, so I'm going to spread my thoughts out, but for this one I will say that I always love doing cameos and I'm happy Bobbert let me go a bit wild with them in this deck's artwork.

May is when I started gearing up for ArtFight, including drawing new references. I feel like I've always struggled with drawing Niko in a way that I like (I'm not the best artist when it comes to animals) but this year I feel like I definitely made some strides forward in that department.

June is more Moondancer art, this time featuring Clara Cloverfield, whom I did the character design for (and might do some additional art for in the future, we'll see). This was one of the cameos that Bobbert insisted on, so I had some fun exploring the character and figuring out the best way to depict her undercover at the casino.

July a cameo from a pair of the Menagerie kids: Jason Quill and Alycia Chin, with Jason cheating at craps. I struggled a bit to figure out which of the Menagerie crew to cameo (it would have been fun to dress any of them up in fancy clothes) but the obvious conclusion was Jason and Alycia. Their leaning into spy tropes and their history with shady organizations made them a perfect fit for the Moondancer's themes.

August moves us on to the Moondancer's lounge singer, Frankie Bongiovi. They were a fun character to design with Bobbert giving me a bunch of inspirations for the character to draw off of. I also got to try out some new techniques (particularly with Tucker in the background there) that I think worked out well.

September gives us the final piece of Moondancer art, as the deck was released the following month in October. While I had a lot of struggles working on the art for Moondancer (it was the first project I've done at this scale for someone else) by the end I feel like I finally got to a good place working on other peoples' projects and I'm thankful to Bobbert for giving me the opportunity. It really helped me grow as an artist.

October saw me dive back into my comfort zone with this group shot of the Menagerie kids. I've got some big projects in mind for these kids coming up, which I hope to have started before the mid-year.

November was a bit of a cheat. I was running a Sentinel Comics RPG game during this time and spent a lot of time working on that game, so November we have artwork of Fractal from that game. This ended up being a token for her character when she showed up in the final fight the adventure (as a hostage, not a villain). As winter starts to rear its head, my drive to create tends to dwindle.

Finally December brings us a sketch of Ashley and @solkaras' Valerie again, playing off some silly BS we were talking about on Discord during the Christmas-to-New Years period. Given that this was done on 12/29 and I really didn't have anything else to show for December, I really squeaked this one in at the last minute. XD

Anyway, happy New Years. Let's all hope it's not utter dog shit.

[sa2-astral]

some sow doodles i've done over the past few weeks since getting into it :)

little bit messy doodle boards skadkasdksd excuse the random lil notes on the side lol

1st one was mostly just me figuring out them in my style, 2nd was that too but a bit more expressive (but i had to go by the time i got to wall and phoenix so i was only able to do a rlly small doodle for them there sadly skdkasdkd) 3rd was a bunch more slight design testing with some additional fun ones and the 4th is just fun :D

also a silly lil oc for sow week ! v

i don't think i did a super good job trying to make an oc who was more of a background character / npc . i really just took one concept i had and it was the worst one for this SJDKSKDS but yee basically i was looking at inscriptor one day and saw cosmic horror was a subclass... and you know me, i like some horrors :3 and it promptly gave me character ideas aksdkasdk

soo a little while ago when i decided to join in with the sow oc-making i decided to bring that concept to life aksdkasdk i feel like this concept is very walking the thin line between what would probably be a pc and a npc but idk thats just the nature of the character kasdkakds just rlly silly like that. but at the same time is like a background character lmao. i think she'd be like. that one really wacky / silly maybe a bit odd but fun npc who appears occasionally . that one funky comedic relief npc with a side of cosmic horror LMAO

kdsakdalsd trying to post about this oc is fun because this is one of those things ive made that im being very social anxiety about and second guessing if its like. good enough or smthn like that askdkas i don't usually make ocs for ttrpg campaigns so i have 0 idea what im doing haha ^^''

bonus funfact: i made that little note in that drawing of how i was still unsure how i liked the outfit design and then a piece of my ipad case broke off 😭 she's haunting me /j