#also my rendering sucks I'm sorry lol

[buglaur]

if virgil was in a horror movie he'd probably be first to die

[leoruby-draws]

hello hello hello

i just want to say i love your little drawings so much they're adorable and so full of life and everything feels exciting in them and i love how you draw and make really fun stuff for many of the minor characters, you're doing such a good job with them and it gives me so much joyy

Hi Hi Hi

Thanks for liking my stuff! Happy to bring you joy, drawing these brings me joy!

Also its fun to get into and draw minor characters because their reading lists are super short lol! But I like to give a little love to characters that most people might not know about, in fact here's some random drawings that I had in the back-burner for the past year! Never could find a chance to just post them:

Here's a cute drawing of Cyclone, Maxine Hunkle! Wanted to give her a cute costume makeover. Kinda has a magical girl look to it huh? Took a bit of inspiration from Ojamajo Doremi, but also she's meant to resemble Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz! Both the princess and the witch. I have a bit of idea of what I'm going do with her, but that's for later.

Got a drawing of Gan, Jason's friend from the Knight White books. Not sure if she exist in my Training Wheels au, but I like her a lot. Her rapport with Jason was fun to read.

Here it looks like the Outlaws are trying to recruit new members, from the Relative Heroes group, Damara Sinclaire (Allure) and Tyson Gilford (Blindside). They're not likely to join, preferring to stick with their own group. Just as well since Damara's powers might make things a rather chaotic, she doesn't need that drama in her life lol. Tho I like the thought of Tyson helping out now and then, his invisibility would be pretty useful.

Here's some random assortment of heroes, Ray Terrill the...Ray. Amethyst, tho top pic is uncolored (im lazy) but theres a Sailor Amethyst to make up for that.

There's the first Green Lantern (Alan Scott) with his kids,Jade (Jennifer Lynn Hayden) and Obsidian (Todd James Rice). Wonder why their babies here, de-aging mishap?

Jason and Toni gossip about their fellow teammates, and down below Jason decides to annoy a young Kyle Rayner. A universal constant!

Todd can't help but join in!

Also some cute father-son bonding! I sent this to someone else earlier, so imma just stick here too.

For a really minor character, here's Jay, Eddie and Rose meeting up with a very strange new friend!

And lastly here are the Metal Men, or should I say the mini-Metal Men. Read some comics about them, including a bit of silver age as well (they get destroyed pretty often, kinda funny ngl). I thought about what kinda sidekicks they could have, but I didn't want to look up metals or learn about metallurgy or chemistry or whatever. So I just made them smaller, its just temporary though, aren't they cute? Look at poor Copper, she just wants to join in!

Anyways, hope that wasn't too much, tagging all of this is gonna suck.

Sorry I haven't been posting, due to Tumblr being a pile of shit and trying give our stuff to ai websites. So I thought I would download nightshade and glaze, but that didn't work out at all (I got a new laptop but it still wont render for me at all). So I'm just gonna hope my opt-out in the settings will be enough for now. Sigh!

Hope you like all this anon, might be a while til I post again. Later!

[bbyteach]

Hi hi. I have been thinking about this good morning artwork since you posted. https://www.tumblr.com/bbyteach/757072025688866816/good-morning

It popped into my dreams last night fully animated. I just love it so much. The quiet intimacy. The shadows and colors. The softness conveyed by sharp and delicate line variations.

Getting back into drawing again after years of not and would love to know more about your process and materials. How you sketch. Do you use models? I cannot get over how real bodied these men are in your panels and illustrations.

Love following your work here and on your main blog. Appreciate your talent so much.

hey sorry i've been letting this one sit in my inbox for a bit while my life was a bit chaotic with work - but I do love this ask and talking about process! and i very much appreciate the love for the drawing, thank you for the commentary on the quiet intimacy!

For me it's a combination of starting from a reference, or, sketching out a pose and checking with a reference. I save a BUNCH of ref photos, and I'll pull up a few to look at to check on anatomy. i also have a huge camera roll of weird ref photos I take of myself. I do little checks with my own hands to see what's actually physically possible and such. I also try to keep in mind proportions and how that can be obscured by the lens in photos, so I also use guides on average human proportions:

also can't beat just good old fashioned pencil measuring to check

but outside of the basics, the general proportions of bodies are basically the same at different sizes, it's just getting used to knowing & looking at different bodies! I think this resource seems good - x

def recommend life drawing classes if you have any in person, but I think there's a lot online too. and draw your friends. draw real people you know (with permission). don't only look at people who will be on a cover of vogue or marvel heroes or whatever.

And i sketch a lot. my sketches kind of suck and normally don't look great. lol. i have an astigmatism so it takes a bit of rendering and trial and error to get it to feel like it looks... 'right'? if that makes sense. but also I did a few years only sketching in pen to get more comfortable just doing Lines. i have so many sketchbooks with very sketchy pen work that I would do between work/meetings/whenever I had any real time to do anything that wasn't those things. In recent years it's been great to really get back into drawing again. It's okay if you didn't do it as much or at all for awhile, it's always something you can do more of and refine over the years. 💖

it means so much to recieve so much love on my silly drawings and get a request on my drawing process because I still don't feel like i'm nowhere near where I want to be, and I think that's just the eternal problem for every artist. but I have a compulsion to keep drawing regardless and i just love to make stuff and I like talking with folks who also love to make stuff! I hope any of this helps or wasn't saying anything that felt too repetitive to any other advice or ideas you've heard before. 🙏

[bluebellhairpin]

hii love for the valentine’s event, could I request a letter from legolas? sfw with maybe a little nsfw mixed in? please and thank you <3 love youuu

Greenleaf Greenleaf is here to devote undying love in behalf of me also idk why I added a nsfw option bc I'm fucking sucking ass at following though I'm so sorry lol <3

Dearest Eve, 

I must tell you, although I have lived centuries there has not been a single person like you. I have never met someone that has consumed me in the ways you do. 

Never have I thought I’d be blessed to know that there was someone out there for me, yet here you are. Beautiful and perfect in every way that matters - and even the imperfections you possess are nothing compared to the love I feel for you. There are poems, books, song, plays that all describe love and I’ve heard them all, yet none prepared me for how it makes me feel. 

It almost scares me how you render me a speechless child, yet I’ve never been so carefree. You, my stars, bring me a sense of life I thought I had long left behind, and I do not want to live without it. I do not want to live without you. 

I love you, dearly and with every inch of my soul. 

I beg of you, if your feelings are true as mine, let me know. I cannot bear living without knowing if you feel the same. 

Yours, Legolas

[artists-who-rarely-draws]

Oh wow! I wasn't expecting you all to like the mcd sona so much!!! But I'm so happy you do!! Thank you to everyone for the compliments and have a garroth in return!

(I just got my laptop back so I'm relearning how to render on csp bare with me lmfao)

Also!! Some of you showed interest in me making a minecraft roleplay of my own!!!!! I'm posting about it day to day on tik tok but!! If yall want to hear about it here I'll make posts!!

So under the cut has some info on that in the mean time! To see if anyone has any intrest ^^

I do not know what to call it rn so it has the temporary name of 'Villiage Tributes' which I hate but I suck at titles lmfaoo

Character design stuff and their info is at the bottom for now I'll talk about what I know I want video formatting and general universe lore wise ^^.

Video Format:

-whole the main focus will be on the storytelling there will be some just general playing minecraft aspects! Like the getting materials and building, because I liked a small amount of those ya know! And no one includes them at all anymore. :(

-audience feedback will be a HUGE part! Mainly in things like end pairings and junk so long as it doesn't compromise the writing ^^

-while the main medium will be well-minecraft lolol, I would want to have some scenes/ Intros be done with art/animatics!!! To make up for some parts where minecraft may lack the proper ommf lmfao (like when a important character in introduced the first scene will be drawn to better show off character designs and junk!

Universe Lore:

-it will be kind of a skyrim kingdom build- where there is a major central city and leader, and a bunch of regional lords as well, maybe like a council thing? Oh?

-there are currently 3 major love interests! (For the mc) they will get individual posts but here are just the uh, biggest tropes? With them?

-Guard x Noble (come on i- how can I not?? Mcd or not it's necessary for medival fantasy come ON)

-Flirt Hopeless romantic x oblivious (it's cute trust me)

-Villian x hero (i- come on come ON)

Also!!! There's a possibly poly options!!!! (Not with the villian so sorry lads)

-this is taking place directly after a giant Civil War for the rights of Animal and Magic Folk! So the world we enter in is currently recovering and rebuilding and has gone through MASSIVE social and legal changes!

-we won't be originally starting off in a village! We will be starting in something more of a camp/ settlement? And ontop of everything we will be going through the process of getting it legally recognized as a village!!

Character designs and some info!

Mc

Yeah, I know, I never promised I wouldn't be cringe. Most of

Name: Mello

Pronouns: Any/ all

Powers: under construction

Most of the backstory is top secret for now lol.

Fun fact:

-Stims when upset by frantically tapping a finger against her palm

Love intrest 1:

(He is getting a ref remake because I did this on my phone and on a day where I just could- NOT draw for the life of me!)

So! This is getting way to long- so I will make follow up posts if yall want so!! Let me know! I'd LOVE to chat about it! There is so much work I'm doing all the time and I have so much lore

[buwheal]

I'm shitty at explaining but

A piece of advice I've seen for a color theme that works together well is take the colors you want (lets say you take red orange yellow blue) and choose one color to overlay over the rest to make them all work together better (???) Idk if that makes sense augh I wonder if I could find the post I saw again (doubtful :( )

Anyways I hope you're good ! Good luck, sorry I suck at explaining lol

Ackkk i figured it out a while ago, and tyysssmm for the advice, i appreciate it, but im also trying to work on doing it by eye to improve at it :-)

My issue was one color wasn’t dark enough. That was about it. Which is a little annoying because i took a while to figure that out,, and i had to go find a reference to see that, but its all rendered and ready i just gotta do the rest and animate. Or,, err, more like just put it into a gif loll. I like the formatting better.

[hellonerf]

If you're comfortable, can you make a tutorial on how to draw in your artstyle? I'm very sorry for asking if somebody else have already asked

hello anon, thank you for asking! i will preface all of this by saying i don't mind if anyone takes inspo from my art etc. but i will probably be a little neurotic if i notice it in the wild and there's itches in my head about it. i'm trying not to let personal feelings get in the way of my principle of it here 🏇

i don't really know how to make a tutorial. i tried to draw something that could get concepts across, but it was really hard and i didn't like any of it so instead i'll just put the general process and "rules" i have in mind when i draw. 🙏 sorry if this is less helpful than if i'd use a drawing

the drawing process changes by how much i plan and whatever i feel like, but my general rule of all of this is to keep it as enjoyable for me as much as possible 😊 i start with a sketch.

if i want to shade everything in one layer ("render" even...) i go straight to color after this. this only works if i don't mind it being messy and choppy. i never mind choppy shading i find it charming personally but it will be harder to adjust perspective/proportion/composition mistakes here. i usually color under the sketch layer then i merge it all(with a backup ver out of habit) and just color over the lines and refine things. this way is not very time consuming because i don't care about messiness 🤷‍♂️

or, if i want to use lineart. i just clean up the sketch usually because my attempts to redo the energy in a sketch suck balls 🤷‍♂️ if the sketch sucks too i just try to redo it entirely. idk. sketch=lineart etc. my general rule for this is too keep things shaped and simple. i don't think my silhouettes are very good at all but i want to work on it lol. i don't like having to do details so i like avoiding them. sometimes a messy lineart can be more charming to me than a clean proportionate lineart? keep shapes in mind that you find cute ⛹️‍♂️ details add texture so you have to be careful with how you want that to go. uhhh my mind when doing lineart is too jumbled up i mostly go by intuition based on what i like in other people's art but that applies to any part of drawing

for lineart-related coloring umm ive changed shading styles a couple times here lol. but they can all usually be categorized into two. i'll simplify it with hard to soft shading 🙂 hard is like, "cel shading" i guess? it's solid. it's easier to do but also harder if the colors are too complicated. i usually do this in one layer with the lineart because i use procreate and i'm too lazy to do the selection shit 💢 i like colors a lot in art and i've mentioned how i do them before i think? i always fuck with it with tone curves and gradient maps and posterize if it'd work. just fuck around with anything and you'll start to learn about colors from there 👍 i avoid multiply and add/luminosity layer settings to shade. just because i think it looks bad on my art. and it's annoying to work with too. the hard soft shading thing is a spectrum kind of cause it's really just how many colors are used in one "object"? like skin can vary from one color base and one color shading or a gajillion colors to create texture with blush etc. but there's inbetweens where it's various colors but "hard" but also soft and hard.

soft shading is just straight airbrush. actually not really usually for me it's just me lowering the opacity of my pen as i draw and fucking around with the colors like improvisation. feels like painting but in a too stupid for traditional art way 🤤. but i've also used the airbrush a lot lately. i don't try to use airbrush in "objects" and art that need more texture, like trying to shape with airbrush is fucking hard. but i've done drawings entirely with airbrush tool before just to size it down so it's basically a blurry pen the lol. but for the other way i use the airbrush (where i block out objects and make a flat-ish gradient on it) that one is just exactly what it looks like i just make shapes under the lineart and then clipping-mask a color over it. and always always mess with the tone curve after 🤤 or maybe you can learn color theory for real #up to you

that's all that's really important i think? if you want to ask more you can. sorry if this was less helpful than you'd want i just don't rly know how to give an art tutorial i don't rly have like. a set idea for my artstyle. is not solid

[birtuch]

Ok so someone asked me to explain how billford fanfictions follow basically the same plot as the emperor's New groove

So here I am

Quick warning, I'm not great at explaining my thoughts, so I might repeat myself a little or not make complete sense in some areas. If this happens, please tell me and I'll correct it <3 (also I do not care enough to watch whatever other films or series there are of the emperor's New groove, Disney sequels suck so bad that I'm not putting myself through the misery of watching them just for whatever this is)

The emperor's New groove follows the story of a greedy, selfish Emperor named Kuzco and Pacha, the leader of his village in Emperor Kuzco's kingdom (which is unnamed)

Kuzco summons Pacha to the palace and tells him quite bluntly that he will be destroying his house on the hill to make room for Kuzco's summer home, his birthday present to himself. Does that sound familiar?

Well it should

The entire threat Bill poses in gravity falls is about how he wants to take over the world for his master party. Ruining earth to make room for his own entertainment.

"But birt!" I hear you saying, "gravity falls and the emperor's New groove have very different stories, how can they be similar?" And to that I say

FANFICTION.

I'm a disgrace to my family, and have read an ungodly amount of billford fanfiction to the point there's not a singular billford fanfic I haven't read on wattpad and physically HAD to move to AO3 for some more content. So let's just say, I've read a lot of them

Especially the ones where Bill turns human because I'm a sucker for any human Bill,

In those stories, it usually takes place after Bill has been defeated, and usually the axolotl brings him back to life as a human because of that backwards chant (prayer?? Idk what you'd call it) Bill made where he said something along the lines of "axolotl my time has come, uh, please save me, don't let me die, lol thx" something like that. Or, something like dipper brings him back or even that to defeat Bill, they had to trap him as a human, it really depends on the fanfic. But by some magical plot moment, Bill is human, he's back as a human and he usually does not have any of the powers that be had before, or he has a very limited amount of powers, not enough to destroy the world. He basically never has his full powers in them

In the emperor's New groove, in retaliation to Kuzco firing her, Yzma, with the help of Kronk, tries to poison Kuzco, but accidentally ends up turning him into a llama, stripping away all his power he had in the kingdom and rendering him useless.

In gravity falls and the emperor's New groove, Kuzco and Bill are incredibly selfish characters. They only live to serve themselves and do not care even the slightest about another person. They're also both.. incredibly flamboyant. Kuzco is definitely gay I'm so sorry, he literally looked at a line of the prettiest women in the kingdom and IMMEDIATELY said no to marrying all of them, but that's besides the point. The point is, they're very similar

In every billford fanfiction where Bill turns human and the entire plot of the emperor's New groove, both characters go through a journey of self growth as they try to go back to their original bodies, Stanford and Pacha teach Bill and Kuzco how to care for another person, and how their consequences have actions, and they eventually become a better person by the end.

But what about Yzma? And Kronk? Ha! I found a difference in the storie- Kryptos and (sometimes) Pyronica.

I'm not entirely sure why but for some reason I'm most of these fanfiction, Kryptos plays a MASSIVE role, usually becoming the new Bill cipher. I really have to ask.. why-? Why is Kryptos the new Bill cipher-? I mean, I get it, kind of, not entirely, but you have SO many other henchmaniacs.. and y'all chose Kryptos -? I mean, alright I guess-

But anyway, Kryptos is usually the new Bill cipher, and to fully claim his seat as the new leader, he feels he has to kill Bill (haha, reference).

Yzma, in the emperor's New groove, after Kuzco is turned into a Llama, she's ALSO trying to kill Kuzco, to fully claim her seat as the emperor of the unnamed kingdom

So uh, that was my thought process behind it.. I might add to it later, if I feel like it.

And to end, I will show you all the NEW CANON HUMAN BILL DESIGN

Totally definitely canon yup, mhm :)

[mirrorhouse]

simultaneously interested and kind of excited for the remake even just in terms of graphics ([taps my fingers together] high resolution graphics of the boss that still look decent and not uncanny valley please please please please please i'm nothing... i'm not even gonna state the obvious other hope) and absolutely fucking terrified (i'll be honest volgin genuinely scares me and the pachislot version was bad enough i do not need him to get better graphics i need him to get worse graphics. i want this man to look like he came out of the original metal gear solid and i want all of his voice lines to be replaced by sound clips of adults talking in peanuts cartoons <- insane)

but everything else too really. like what if they fuck up the graphics, yes, but also what if they fuck up the voice acting. what if they somehow manage to make their 'hilarious' homophobic joke even worse. but on the other hand. what if they improve those things too. it could go either way

really though the trailer should have showed more characters to settle all our nerves like come on. come ON.

^ sorry for the monologue i've been dying about this since i found out

yesss i'm nervous about what they're gonna do to the boss and eva too, based off snake they're not going exactly with the pachislot models but they still could be close to them and i really don't like eva's like. who!! is she!! i don't know but it's not my eva </3 she needs her dark circles and her bumpy nose

(also i realised ocelot's is kinda? based on his mgsv model i think and i don't want them to go that route because as much as i love all ocelots, mgsv is the least visually ocelotlike of them all to me)

remake volgin is actually a video of a live action hand puppet that plays every time he's on screen, we never see him interact with anyone directly he just flails around and then it cuts away and snake goes flying like he's been punched

that developer announcement said the game will feature the original actors but it's not really clear if that means original voice acting completely or getting the old actors back to record it all again. the first option seems more likely if they're promising all the original voice actors, but if it's more like... a majority of them are coming back and some have been replaced then i guess it could be the latter. and if it's all original voice acting i guess they won't be adding/changing any cutscenes, but new voice acting would allow them to do that (not sure if they would though considering kojima wouldn't be directing any of the new stuff) i'm also curious about the mocap. whether they're gonna record new stuff based off the original scenes or change the facial animations so they match up with english dialogue and stuff like that

i'm too attached to the original voice acting to want anything new but in the end it is a remake and even if it all sucks no one's stopping me from going back to the original lol

but yeah i hope they can show some more characters next to satisfy our curiosity... just some renders or something... Please

[mommyashtoreth]

do you have any fic recs (besides your own, ik theyre good) because i know you surely have impeccable taste

GREAT question I've actually been hoping to get an ask like this recently lol. Uhh full disclosure most of the fic I read is porn, most of it being Weird Porn, mostly bc gomens is just So fucking popular that finding fic for it is kind of a slog and I can only find manageable amounts of fic to work through by looking for weird porn. I'm gonna try to NOT post just nsfw art also I can actually read I'll give you words

Okay this is SO basic I'm sure all of you are huge oopsieheads but like this was The First Fan Thing I actually got invested in which is a big deal for me because I got shit to do in my life. I have just, like, massive appreciation for how so much of the dialogue is carried over. Angelcrowley WOULD still say Well that went down like a lead balloon. And no one seems to realize this but this comic does. Big fan

Alright I've lulled you in far enough this one is porn. And it is REALLY good porn like mindblowingly good porn. I love when people work within the fantasy setting and actually do something interesting with it, and having them throw each other across the room for sex purposes is awesome I mean it. Also long live male pussy

Gotta log in for these sorry but this is a series I've become kind of obsessed with oops. I cannot get ENOUGH of "what if Aziraphale was also girlmoding at the Dowling residence" it's what we should've had all along I'm sorry. I love you women, I love you lesbians, I love you Nanny Ashtoreth always and forever. Also like these are FUNNY which is weirdly hard for me to find? Like lest you forget gomens is a comedy and these are comedy characters. There's just a lot of fun cute and yeah hot sexy stuff in these. I haven't finished the second part of the series yet but I Do think Crowley gets clocked which DOES suck and IS bad but also is extremely funny I'm sorry. Everyone hated her for being a clocky broad it's inescapable. I need to have straight-passing nonbinary sex with her so bad

HERE is the like "weirdest" porn I'll share in this post. It is, yet again, "what if Aziraphale was also in girlmode and then she and Crowley had a bunch of freaknasty sex." Every work in the series also comes with art, which contains, if I may be so blunt, some of the most lusciously rendered angel pussy I have ever come across in my travels. If you're into any of the kinks listed (mostly discipline stuff) it's good. It's really good. I'm sure no one knows this about me but vaguely "domestic," disciplinary dom girlcrowley? Very good. Huge fan

Aaaand that's my library for now unfortunately. Can't really think of anything else rn sorry </3 I am always open to fic recs btw, like I said it's hard for me to find stuff on my own. I'm especially partial to well-written girlmode stuff (not too much cisgender nonsense, basically) and stuff that's like actually funny. I love banter, I love jokes, I think that's like the number one way to show understanding of the source material. Also it's fun for me. So if anyone has any recs u know where to find me

[whataphantasia]

misc little ramb about skssshbbq development hell‼️ (about developing the restaurant itself, plus sploo-khi and flipp things)

designing skssshbbq stuff is SO HARD. what do you MEAN i have to worldbuild. this SUCKS (its so fun but so much work.)

im fighting for my LIFE over here man. im so insistent on keeping sploo-khi's color palette plastered all over the restaurant and other related imagery because he's SUPER self absorbed and you know he'd do that and force people to think it looks good 😭 logo design is hard.

im value mapping my concept art rn! colors TO BE ADDED LATER... i have to plan out the colors now cuz if i dont all my skssshbbq art will be inconsistent and ill HATE myself for it LOL (but this also means i havent been able to make rendered pieces for it 💔💔) SOON HOPEFULLY!!

i worry that i draw flipp and sploo-khi too much together but i cant help it... theyre so fun to draw together!! but i feel like it goes against what the whole story is about! flipp does not have equal power to sploo-khi, and sploo-khi doesn't rly care abt flipp!!! so it feels like i'm making the conflict seem much more focused on mad employee vs boss rather than employee stuck and jaded by the system... but then i realize im overthinking this and no one will think that LOL. i love stories guys.

ah and. i've been worried about my depiction of sploo-khi. i've elaborated on it on his toyhouse page for now. eventually i'm gonna replace it with a theme which'll make these thoughts less visible, so i'm placing a screenie here for posterity.

OH AND. here's the end of my twitter ramble about it.

yeah sorry for the long post, but i feel like these are all important to mention. skssshbbq has a ton of complex topics anyway and i worry abt ppl misinterpreting me or me making a misstep somewhere <_< so i'm hesistant to share things abt it... well!! communication is important so tell me if that happens!!!

EDIT: okay i am less worried abt it bc i asked my friends abt this and they brought up some really interesting narrative points + things i didn't even think about. thanks guys!

[elaichoi]

PLSDJJIDS I WAS THE OPPOSITE like i didnt wanna pay money but also like i had to have it to reach my fullest potential 👹👹👺

yes exactly i burnt out big time OTL cheers to being *less* mentally ill in the near future ^3^

that's totally understandable,, from the way i see it a majority of the asian population that goes by undiagnosed is v large,, and i'm not basing this off of any actual studies though i know there are some out there- but rather just the role culture (at least in most east asian cultures is as far as i'm qualified to speak for lol) plays in mental health makes diagnosis and treatment,, idk and just going by undiagnosed makes me sad that there are ppl who think this is the norm and that it's something you are expected to get over bc it's something "everyone goes thru" :( i very much relate on the front of gaslighting urself/being gaslit into thinking u just can't handle struggles that "everyone else manages to manage well" n that rlly sucks im sorry beb </3

DAMN LOL we r on the same boat on the same river 🥲 my little tiny snowball also started out w family problems and oh my god my mental health has come out of its hiding >o< i remember my counselor describing it as an unvented pressure cooker lmao

don't answer if you don't wanna, but do you still feel that way in the sense of repressing ur emotions? like refusing to acknowledge it ? i think i was like that for a small period of time but now im like the complete opposite which is like half miserable half not lmfaoo i will forever be the biggest advocate for anyone getting therapy even if u think u don't need it,,, but!! i also know its a big step and may not be accessible for some :<

no yeah cus i feel so gross and overwhelmed and like not in control of things and so ill start spiraling if i dont get up and take a shower ^_^

not throwing pity confetti in your face, just as someone who can relate at least in some ways, big kudos to u for having so much patience to put up w everything bc it must b very hard not to lose ur marbles all the time,,,, standing w u solider 🫡

OH TRUE I FORGOT AB THAT UGH BARF i remember ig always fucked up my video quality saur bad even after rendering n shit T_T

aaa goodluck bae<3 hehe yeah i always rlly want to after seeing so many pretty edits jdksdkf i might i might we shall see :>

STOPITNFSISD I WISH I COULD INSERT A REACTION PIC BC UR RIZZ GAME I HAVE NO WORDS HAHSDJJJ

mental health is such a fuck up like it's like a ticking bomb the way it can go off at any point of life and the urge to ghost everyone, im so ashamed fr

yeah like most of asian countries i feel like. in our culture mental health is seen as something that is seen interjected with "adulting" like when you grow up you're supposed to feel like this and it's your duty to like make peace with it and if you try to seek help for it your family members kinda take it like a failure like you couldnt even deal with this? there's just a whole lot of stigma surrounding it and on top of that, therapy not being that widely available in south asia is a huge problem.

bro pressure cooker, im glad to know you're actually very up front with your feelings now. it's always better than bottling them up, at least you don't feel like a stranger to yourself either, my issues make me feel like an imposter within myself like it's hard to distinguish between things that I feel like I'm making up and the other things that's fucking me up.

YOU ARE SO NICE I AM WITH YOU TOO MY SOLDIER ILY!!!!

lmao ngl I was like those scenario and concept editors right I would have continued to edit bc my edits were like THSIE most beautiful scenes in kpop mvs but I stopped bc the resolution was ASSS THAT TOO WHITE ASSS!!!!!

OMG i wonder how i rizzed u up 😩😩😩😩

[electrospherevaults]

'ello again! It's been a month! What happened to the stories? Well...

(explanation below the cut - tl;dr: writing has continued but I had to focus elsewhere and not original works here. I am trying to edit and publish the current roster on magazines to earn some money through my writing. Publishing on tumblr makes it impossible to submit for literary magazines. Might open a patreon/commissions too. Also the Signalis Zine release in two days oh boy 👀)

Truth be told, I've kept writing all that time since the last promised update! But I have not been writing short stories for the weekly challenge because I've hit a couple of snags with it.

The biggest issue is that all the stories uploaded here so far are completely unusable. They are original stories, and I could theoretically submit them to scifi magazines and be picked up for publication. Unfortunately, publishing them on tumblr means they are automatically excluded because these stories have already been published - and because most magazines want the exclusivity of publishing an author's story first before everyone else, this renders them nonpunishable.

This is very unfortunate, especially because I feel A Dance With My Clone and Sorry About The Inconvenience have potential and could be enjoyed by a much greater populace. They are some of my favourite pieces I've written this year, and I sadly cannot show them to a wider audience, not unless I aggressively advertise them online. I also cannot sell them and earn some money from them, because not gonna lie I'm still unemployed.

So, if I am to continue my writing endeavours, I had to refocus elsewhere. The Signalis fandom is wonderful, and I've had considered starting writing fics there, and I am currently an editor for ECHOS: The Silicon Queen fic, found over on AO3. Hanging and seeing people discuss Signalis over on socials has given ideas about some stories to tell in that universe as well, and I need to find the time to write them.

But, ultimately, I more want to tell my stories, and stories from my worlds. The Defilerverse is very dear to me; this is evident as at least 4 of the 6 shorts published thus far are connected to that universe, with Friends And Foes being the most explicitly connected one. I've been unable to really get people interested in this universe thus far sadly (I suck at self-promo lol), and it is hard to build a fandom for your original work on socials in general, especially when your original work is only available in text format. And I do not got that much money to spare so I cannot commission a piece for each short story I write.

So... what now?

Well, I reworked A Dance With My Clone into something bigger and better. I've not had success just yet into getting it accepted, but I feel I am on a good track and it's been growing into a bigger story. I do want to share more of it, but unfortunately I really cannot if I want to have any chances of publishing it around.

Besides that, I've gone back into working on the main trilogy. Defiler Draft 2 is currently on hold whilst Maiden Draft 1 is being written. If all goes well, that one should be finished by the end of the summer. It's been legitimately a lot of fun working on this book, and I might start sharing excerpts and scenes, but as of now it's suffice to say this has been the main focus of my writing.

On a positive note, in the next two weeks there will be two new shorts out from the Signalis Zine I participated in! One I have already shared an excerpt from - it concerns Lilith Itou and Alina Seo and the fighting on Vineta. The second concerns a Kolibri and the Imperial Spy on Rotfront.

I cannot promise as of yet that the shorts will return, but we shall see! I might open up commissions and do stories for folks but that needs research.

That is all for now, take care y'all, and read Defiler!

2024 Friday Writing Challenge Masterpost

Each Friday, at (give or take) 6:43pm (UTC+2), a new short story will be posted and shared here. Those will vary in themes and genre and worlds. Each one should be enjoyable without further prior knowledge. Enjoy!

Stories list:

Imbalance

Mostly Harmless

A Dance With My Clone

Sorry About The Inconvenience

Friends And Foes

Blossoming a wilder flower

Coming Friday 5/4!

[To read my other stories, check here]

[roloko-karlstein]

Rolo Pride Icons

[thanatosangels]

Congraaats on hitting your first milestone, Mae!! 💕 We just followed each other recently, so I'm hoping to know you better! 😊 For the asks: 👀 What's your favourite ship/character from TSC? and based on that choice, can I pls get a 🥰 on the ship/character you've chosen? I'd love to read it! Thank you! 🥺

OMFG THANK YOU SM!!  You seem sooo sweet and i really want to get to know you too ahhh 💝💞💓 Also, i can’t apologise enough for how long this has taken - life got very busy and then i wrote it all but accidentally deleted it, so i’m really sorry!! <3 I hope you enjoy :))

👀 - I honestly can’t even pick one, but for the sake of writing purposes i’m gonna say Lucie and Cordelia’s friendship because i really want to write about them lol <33

~~~~~~~~~~~

“Jessie,” Lucie’s voice was hushed in the darkness of her kitchen.

Nothing.

“Jessamine,” She was shaking as she clutched the picnic basket between her hands.

Still nothing.

“Jessamine Lovelace.” There was more conviction this time, a feigned air of authority.

Jessamine materialised directly in front of her. “Lucie, darling, are you aware it’s three in the morning?” Jessamine’s bright eyes narrowed as she looked Lucie up and down, seeing her mud-caked boots, the hem of her dress sodden and heavy,  the hastily assembled picnic in her hand. “Whatever seems to be the matter?” Her voice held more curiosity than concern.

Lucie gulped, her nervousness a palpable taste in her mouth. “I need you to take me somewhere, Jessie.” 

 Jessamine looked at her like she’d grown a second head. “I beg your pardon?”

A deep breath. “I need you to take me somewhere.” She worried her bottom lip between her teeth. Angel, I hope this works.

“Little Lucie, have you lost your mind? I wouldn’t blame you, living in all this ruckus.” Jessamine was slowly circling her, inspecting her. “Or have you suffered a grievous head injury that’s rendered you unable to remember that I am a ghost. Does this mean i have to rouse Will? You do know what he’s like when he doesn’t get his precious beauty sleep.” Lucie could feel the bright ghostly eyes on the back of her head. “Oh! Perhaps you’ve had a spell cast on you by a nasty warlock and i simply appear human to you now-“

Lucie felt her already frayed nerves snap. “Oh, do shut up Jessamine! Listen to me for a moment.” 

A small, shimmering hand was brought to a translucent chest, an offended look on her pale, pretty face, but she did not continue her rambling. 

Lucie shut her eyes for a moment. She had been in the gardens of Chiswick Manor, her breath forming a mist in the crisp evening air that mingled with the dark-grey clouds overhead, Grace by her side. They had been trudging over the damp lawn towards their usual meeting place, the dilapidated house looming over them, broken windows like unblinking eyes, when Lucie had stopped short. Dread trickled down her body from her head to her feet like a bucket of ice water poured over her head, realisation dawning and anxiety gnawing. Cordelia! She had been meant to see her that afternoon, to go for a walk in the park and show her the latest chapter of the Beautiful Cordelia, but she had been so distracted by smuggling yet another book of dark magic from the restricted section that she had, simply, forgotten. She hadn’t seen Cordelia in almost two weeks now, and guilt rose like bile in her throat.

So, after Grace and Lucie had finished, she had rushed home and immediately packed a picnic of leftover strawberry and lemon tarts, ginger beer and lemonade, cake and cucumber sandwiches. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best she could do. Now she stood in her kitchen, face to face with her ghostly Aunt, about to do the unthinkable.

Lucie squared her shoulders, took another deep breath and whispered an “I’m sorry.” almost under her breath, and held her hand out in front of herself.

One of Jessamines delicate eyebrows arched up. “What are you doing?”

“Jessamine Lovelace, I command you to take me to Cordelia Carstairs.” Lucie put all the force she could muster, all the confidence she did not feel, into her voice.

“What?” Was all Jessamine said, an alarmed look on her face.

“I command you to take me to Cordelia Carstairs,” Lucie lowered her hand as she walked towards the ghost. “And i bound you to secrecy about my powers.”

Lucie stopped barley inches from Jessamine. They were almost the same height, Jessie just slightly taller. Lucie set her jaw, her pale blue eyes fixed on Jessamine’s shining brown eyes, her mouth in a hard line. She reached a hand up, to place it on Jessamine’s shoulder, desperately trying to still the tremor of her nerves…

And felt Jessamine, cold but solid, under her palm.

Lucie heard her suck in a small breath, bright eyes wide with shock, her mouth agape. “How….” She breathed.

Despite herself, despite the fact that this was only half the battle, a small smile played on Lucie’s lips. Hope burned in her chest, a warm feeling that fought the cold of the dead biting at her fingers. 

She felt that same cold wash over her whole body as Jessamine’s arms encircled her.

“Take me.”

And she did.

___________________

There was simply darkness, and then light.

Lucie found herself in the small, neat courtyard at the back of Cordelia’s home. Power thrummed through her veins and she felt almost drunk on the giddiness of it. Oh, what fun!

Jessamine nowhere to be seen. Lucie hoped she was alright.

She looked up, towards the window of Cordelia’s bedroom. At least, she thought it was Cordelia’s bedroom. Guilt sobered her as she realised how little time she’d spent here these past few months. Surely you should know your best friend’s - your parabatai’s - whole life inside out?

“Cordelia!” Lucie whisper-shouted, though she wasn’t even sure why she tried. Obviously Cordelia was not going to hear her from all the way up there. She looked around frantically, searching for something, anything, that she could throw at the window and alert Cordelia of her presence. She thought about the small throwing ax attached to her thigh, hidden under her skirts, but quickly decided that it was a horrendous idea.

Finally, she found a suitable pebble. She placed down her basket and took a few steps back, almost falling over a stone bench next to some flower beds. She steadied herself, measured the throw, pulled her arm back and let the pebble fly. 

It was a direct hit. Despite herself, Lucie was proud.

Lucie shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her hands worrying each other in front of her. The ten or so seconds between the throw and the curtains drawing back felt like an hour to her. Then, Lucie saw Cordelia’s face through the darkness, lit by a candle she held in her hand, and relief washed over her.

She had been awfully panicked about accidentally waking Alastiar instead.

Then, the window was open and Cordelia stuck her head out of it. “Lucie? Is that you?” Her voice was hushed. “Are you okay? Has something happened?” Her words were spilling over each other.

“No! Nothing’s happened, Daisy, I am perfectly fine…” She trailed off, unsure how to start.

“Oh, well then. How kind of you to actually show up.” Cordelia’s voice was cold now, but Lucie heard the twinge of hurt in it and it made her heart ache. Cordelia moved to shut the window.

“Wait!” Lucie shouted, desperation creeping into her voice. 

Cordelia’s head popped back out again, her dark hair falling about her like Rapunzel in her tower. “Yes?”

“Cordelia, Daisy, I am so very, very sorry.” She spoke very, very quickly. “I know I have not been as good a friend as I should these past months, and I know an apology alone cannot fix that. I am going to be better, though. You are so amazing, Daisy, and you deserve only the best of everything in this life. I cannot promise to be perfect, which is what you truly deserve, but i can promise to be better and do my best. I love you, more than anything else on this earth, Cordelia and I hope you never forget that.” She paused, breathing like she’d been running, and Cordelia opened her mouth as if to say something but Lucie held her hand up to quiet her. She dashed over to the picnic basket she’d left lying and lifted it up so Cordelia could see. “I brought us some midnight - well, 3 o’clock - snacks, if you would like?” 

For a moment, Cordelia said nothing. Lucie’s heart fluttered in her chest like a hummingbird in a cage. Then, a wide smile lit up Cordelia’s whole face. “Oh, Lucie, you goose! I wasn’t that annoyed, simply peeved! Of course I will come down and have a picnic with you, darling, just give me a moment to get dressed.” She disappeared into the darkness behind her and shut the window.

Lucie felt herself grin uncontrollably as relief crashed over her like a tidal wave, making her knees so weak that she plopped herself down on the stone bench that had nearly upended her before. 

It was the first time she had smiled like that for a long while.

[wildlyminiaturesandwich]

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the announcements from Maxis Monthly? Did the Game Changers know about or have any say in the rebrand?

Ok so I’m gonna answer your last question first lol

The title “Game Changer” is definitely a little confusing because it implies that we actually change the game in some way, but we don’t. Well, most of us don’t. I think some of the bigger Game Changers have a little sway because they know the team personally and have been to the Sims Headquarters and stuff, but for the most part all we do is get early access so that we can provide our individual communities with a glimpse of the pack that goes a little more in depth than just trailers, that way people can see what’s included and decide if they want to buy it, and hopefully bring more people to the franchise in the process. And we definitely didn’t have anything to do with the rebrand, we heard about it at the same time everyone else did.

As for your first question, I’m gonna put it under a cut for a couple reasons: [a] Listen, I have opinions lol and [b] for anyone that is like me and is sensitive to colour contrast, I don’t want anyone getting a nasty headache or sore eyes if they don’t have to. Let’s do this!

So first off, LOVE that they’re adding over 1000+ decorative world objects! There have been so many things over the years in different packs that I’m sure we’ve all seen and been like “Why didn’t you let us use that!?”, and now we’ll be able to! Sucks that some creators spent so much time liberating those things for us only to now have their work be obsolete though 😕

I also think the Create-A-Sim Story Mode looks interesting. I don’t like the idea that you can’t change the sims aspiration and traits though; they’re locked in once you’ve finished answering the questions. I’m not sure how much use I’ll get out of it, as I tend to either pick specific traits based on my sim’s backstory or randomise them, but it’s nice to know the option is there and answering the questions might be fun to see what kind of sim you get!

Now, onto the rebrand.

I just don’t understand it!

Listen, I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t like change; I don’t do well with big changes at all. But this isn’t about that, this is about trying to understand why EA felt the need to rebrand The Sims 4 (which I can’t work out) and why they chose those colours, and I just��� don’t understand.

I mean I understand, they’re trying to attract a younger audience with bright shiny things. But I don’t UNDERSTAND, you know? I don’t understand what prompted them to do it now, after almost five years?! Why did they feel the need to change something that didn’t need to be fixed at all? And why they went with this particular colour scheme! It’s so unnecessarily bright! As a graphic designer I’m genuinely horrified by the colours they chose and as a consumer of their product, I’m a little annoyed that they spent time and money on this when there are other things that are more important (like things that are actually broken) that keep getting the “We don’t have the resources” excuse or just flat out ignored.

Here’s the difference between the original box arts and the rebranded ones:

That blue is GOD AWFUL! It’s like Tumblr’s new blue background; I literally have a headache from looking at it! It doesn’t fit with the style of the rest of the game at all. And they claimed in the stream that the new box art designs really make the render sims “pop”… they really don’t. The backgrounds of the DLC packs are way too busy. I just I don’t understand why they couldn’t just stick with the nice clean, minimalist look they had before; it was truly a timeless design. A design that actually made the render sims pop and didn’t detract from them at all with busy backgrounds and headache-inducing colours!

Oh and can we just talk about the new base game box art render for a second? I love it, I really do. It looks cool and I’m excited to get to learn more about these new sims that are being added and according to the Gurus in the stream, all of the stuff on those sims is being added to base game (the stuff that’s not already base game that is). I’m excited about that pink hair BUT take a good look at all the other stuff… look familiar? That’s because most of us have already paid for that stuff. The jacket on the pink haired sim is from Get Famous, the beanie on the sim next to her is from Get to Work, the hair under the beanie is from Dine Out, the bracelet on the sim with the camera is from Seasons, the chef uniform in the middle is from Get to Work, the jacked on the sim up the back with the phone is from Get Together, and the sleeveless hoodie on the sim to the left of that is from Fitness Stuff. They’re all recolours of stuff from other packs. I’m all for free content, because hey it’s free, but I really wish they wouldn’t make things from other packs base game; people paid for that stuff.

Side note: I feel sorry for the people who collect the psychical copies of the games, because unless they can afford to buy new copies of all the packs, any new packs aren’t going to match their old ones now. And also the people who got tattoos of the old plumbob 😕

Which brings me to the plumbob, and yet another before and after:

The new plumbob is whatever; I don’t hate it, I just prefer the original. It matched the one in game and suited the artstyle of the whole game really well, whereas the new one looks too much like The Sims 3 and doesn’t suit The Sims 4 at all. It’s also not going to match the plumbob in-game anymore as for some reason they decided not to change that one? I mean it wouldn’t matter to me if it did because I always have my default file edited to get rid of it, but it just makes no sense to leave the original in there if you’re changing everything else.

New box art, plumbob and stuff aside, the thing that probably annoys me the most about this rebrand is that the pack icons and colours are changing. I get that they probably ran out of colours to choose from for each pack, but the fact that it’s so hard to tell the difference between the colours for the game and stuff packs is gonna be a problem for anyone who has difficulty distinguishing between different colour tones. Mr Sandwich, for example, couldn’t tell that there was a difference between the two, even after I pointed it out to him. Why didn’t they make one of them yellow?!

I personally used to find things from expansions in the catalogue by looking for the colour of each pack icon. “I know the thing I’m looking for is from Get Famous, so I’ll just keep scrolling until I see a pink icon”… well, not anymore:

All expansion packs are now teal, all game packs are now blue (a different blue than the box art blue I might add 😩), and all stuff packs are green; the only difference is the icon on them. And yes, I’m aware you can filter things by pack, that’s what I used to do for stuff and game packs because they were always the same colour, but if I’m just scrolling through say the curtains category, it’s a lot quicker to just scroll once or twice looking for an icon colour than it is to go into the little menu, click on “packs”, scroll down to the pack I want and choose it.

The new pack icons and colours also look awful on the main menu. Here’s a little before and after again:

Urgh that blue! There as nothing wrong with the original menu but now we’re gonna have the god awful blue again… not the point, sorry. Look at those icons! They’re too… saturated? busy? both? I dunno what but they look awful, especially on the blue background! At the very least they should have just made them one solid colour instead of trying to carry over the crystallized look.

And lastly the loading screen….

Again with the gross colour combinations and the background is just plain boring. The old one is much nicer and easier on the eyes.

Maybe it’s because I’m old and not the target audience for this new look but honestly I JUST DON’T GET IT! I understand that EA are trying to attract more people to the game, obviously younger people, but I really don’t think alienating and confusing the people who currently play your game in favour of luring in new people is this is the way to go about it.

Thankfully I’ve already seen a couple of the amazingly talented modders in the community say they’ll do everything they can to either give us back the original menus and loading screens or make a less obnoxious version as soon as they can, so I’m just gonna keep my fingers crossed that it won’t be too difficult for them to do and look forward to downloading those mods so I can play without getting a headache every time I have to look at the main menu and loading screen 😅

NOTE: Before anyone starts shouting at me for “being negative about a free update” just note that anon asked for my thoughts on it; these are my thoughts. If you like the new look that’s great, I’m really happy for you! But anon wanted my honest opinion and I’ve given it. Will this rebrand stop me playing the game? Of course not! The game is still the same no matter what the box art and menus look like, but that doesn’t mean I have to like them and it doesn’t mean I can’t express my disappointment about it all, especially if a follower asks for my opinion about it.