#also some choices were just for the color pallet too

[clock-loves-rajbow]

Fanart for @cremdotexe’s fic Be My Fate, Be My Fall

It’s such a good fic fr and I cannot wait for the next chapter. Also sorry if their outfits aren’t exact to the fic I took some liberties lol

[starrysharks]

zeno's ultimate pokemiku tierlist ⁉️(it's all his opinion and he loves them all regardless⁉️)

[frederickkittens]

Sweet Lolita through the years

Part 1: Late 90s-2005 (ish) “Oldschool”

Oldschool sweet is the first truly recognizable form of sweet Lolita

Though during the Oldschool era the substyles had far more crossover and less individual traits I think there’s just enough that you still label coords from the time. When most people think of Oldschool they think of a solid color main piece with lace topped otks and a rectangle headdress… but Oldschool is so much more than that.

Oldschool in general was simpler, though some brands like Metamorphose Temps De Fille , Emily Temple Cute, and baby the stars shine bright were already making prints

Printed fabrics of fruits or florals were very common, but you did see a good amount of screen printed and appliquéd pieces coming out at the time too. Some very common sweet motifs in the oldschool era were:

•cats

•fruit

•alice in wonderland

•bunnies / rabbits

•bears

•alphabet / letter prints

•music notes

•hearts

The closer to the end of the identifiable oldschool era the more prints became popular! Though through most of the 2000’s prints would remain more minimal with the focus being on more structural elements like lace, bows, construction, and interesting fabric choices.

Due to the image limit on tumblr here’s a link to the correct sorting to see examples on lolibrary with examples of some early sweet prints and patterns. If you click the link on any of these items you’ll be able to view their lolibrary entries as well if available

Color balance wasn’t considered as highly as it is today, the overall vibe of Coords was more chaotic and experimental. A very make do attitude can be seen in many street snaps.

Patterned main pieces were another popular alternative to prints, things like gingham, stripes, tartan/plaid.

Bag choices were pretty varied, honestly in a lot of oldschool sweet coords people would use unique bags as the visual interest / focal point. You can already see that in someone of the coords above. Faux leather shaped bags like btssb’s heart bags weren’t very popular yet. A few brands had put out heart bags, such as milk, but they were much simpler and often real leather in limited colors. You also didn’t see usakumyas in their modern iteration until well into the 2000’s towards the 2010’s. Plush bags of the era did not have the same clean marketable look. Some common / popular bags were:

-basket / wicker purses

-plush animal bags

-tote bags

-matching fabric bags

-leather handbags

-designer handbags

Shoes at the time were much chunkier and much less cutesy even in sweet styles. Tea parties didn’t exist until a good deal past this time period- honestly most popular modern Lolita shoe styles weren’t really seen. Real leather was far more common, in a much more limited pallet. When you did see colored shoes they typically weren’t used to color balance a coord like we do now a days. A lot of different styles were worn though, including:

-Mary Jane’s

-Platforms

-Rocking horse shoes

-Boots

-Oxfords

-sandals

Socks are often overlooked in oldschool. I’ve seen so many people say printed socks weren’t worn even though they absolutely were and many brands made them. Sure, lace topped otks were the trend and the most popular option but simple motif printed socks absolutely existed and were worn!

Headpieces were one of the most varied category. So many different styles and kinds were worn.

-mini crowns

-hair ribbons

-hats

-bows

-canotiers

-mini hats

-lace headdresses

Jewelry / Accessories were one area that Oldschool definitely was simpler. However brands were absolutely making both jewelry and other accessories. Plain metal necklaces with various motifs were common, lace chokers, faux collars, capes, ties, and though extremely uncommon you do sometimes run across wrist cuffs. Hopefully there’s more of an effort to start documenting jewelry and accessories from this time since it’s quite lacking

Makeup and hair were something that like all eras of Lolita followed the over all cultural trends of the time. More minimal make or simple 90’s - early 2000’s makeup is seen often. As for hair there’s so many different styles that really it would be impossible to list them all. In older magazines there’s often sections with hair tutorials and makeup tutorials!

Common lace styles included Torchon, Cotton, Eyelet, and Raschel. Many different trims and such were used in addition to these.

Part 2 and part 3

Scan credits @obscuredesireofbourgeoisie

If you want to see more old magazine scans

Lolita history

Internet archive

[fulgurbugs]

I love the octodeck SO SO MUCH, would you be willing to share your design choices?? Like I would've expected the noble/rogue classes to be the basis for separation by suit, on top of the black/red divide between octo 1 and 2 characters

sure! i’ll actually go card by card and explain all my choices tbh, so strap in for a long post

first up, spades! my girlfriend was the one who suggested the games be the split between red and black suits, so starting from there we hashed out out placements for suits. honestly, we didn’t choose for much reason other than vibes, so the design choices weren’t much about classes/gameplay. spades is the higher ranked suit, as well as having a symbol with a sharper motif. for this, it felt like olberic and primrose were good fits, with olberic being the oldest/most battle hardened of the OT1 cast, and primrose having a sort of rightful queen motif (and she’s dangerous with a dagger.) with ophilia and tressa being chosen for jack, we decided to put tressa as spades (this one is very slightly gameplay related, she is kind of the best so we gave her the higher suit) and therion got the ace. i explain a lot about the card placements here, so following this paragraph i’m not gonna rehash it too much.

anyways, now here’s some of the design thoughts about these guys!

Tressa: for these earlier spades cards, which were the first suit i sketched, they definitely started with the lightest backround elements. i went in on a second pass and added some more detail, but tressa was the first card i drew and she had no backround at all at first. decided that a pirate ship/sea and treasure were good motifs for her

Primrose: i absolutely loved drawing her card, but then again i love drawing primrose in general. for primrose, i decided her backround elements would be birds and petals. birds are a prevalent symbol in her story, with the crows being her enemies, and primrose herself is a kind of caged bird. initially, i wanted to give her an asymmetrical card that had one half with 3 black birds (crows) while the other half had white birds (freedom). i didn’t end up liking any of the sketches for the black birds, so i decided to just do the white birds instead. still really love this card!

Olberic: olberic was a tough one to pick a backround for. i ended up going for just some vaguely mountainous shapes, but also decided to add in the gate of finis, since it’s located in hornburg. my goal with this card was to make him look regal without looking royal. i think the sword also came out really good, i really like the way the mirroring on this card came out

Therion: Therion was the first ace i drew, and i decided that since ace cards aren’t face cards, i have free rein to do whatever i wanted. and what i wanted was to not have to worry about the mirroring. so all of the aces ended up with this kind of “guy floating in space” idea, which i think is pretty fun without being overly complex. i didn’t want to over complicate the ace cards, since typically they’re pretty minimal looking. my original idea was to have each of our aces holding or interacting with their suit symbol in some way to make it interesting. the spade kind of looks like a dagger, if you stretch it out, so my original idea was to have him wield it as such. however, none of my sketches read clearly, so instead opted to have them instead present their suit as a kind of compromise. since ace cards are not face cards i also opted not to define their faces.

here’s the clubs! when i was getting to the coloring stage, what i decided to do to make things interesting visually was to use a different palette for each suit, while still keeping it clearly black suit/red suit. for the black suits, Spades got the cool grey palette, and clubs got the warm gray pallete!

as for individual notes…

Ophilia: oh boy she gave me a lot of trouble. this was mostly due to the lighting on her lantern, and trying to convey it in grayscale. i think i did a pretty decent job!

H’aanit: decided linde counted as a backround element for the hunters. i don’t have too much to say about this card other than it took me a while to grayscale it so that everything was silhouetted to an acceptable degree to me lol

Cyrus: i had a lot of trouble picking out a backround for him. i thought maybe a library or something similar, but i ended up going with this pretty generic sunny pathway to represent the bright lands in general. the big chunky brush makes rendering small details in the backround difficult (not impossible) so simpler is better if i can swing it.

Alfyn: going back to the interacting-with-suit-symbol idea, my original idea was that the clubs symbol kind of looks like a clover, so alfyn could be kind of inspecting it like an herb or something. however, the pose i first drew was too similar to cyrus, and again the symbol did not read clearly, so i scrapped it lol.

one fun thing about the way we ended up sorting the suits was that each set had 2 pairs that had team up attacks in the ot2 extra battles (olberic/tressa, therion/prim for spades, alfyn/ophilia and cyrus/h’aanit for clubs.) this was by complete accident.

now we reach the red suits! for hearts, i opted to use warm/orangey shades. onto the individual notes!

Agnea: i wanted her braid to be nice and visible in the composition, so i kept her backround elements light. just fluttering petals to fill some space i just love drawing agnea in general tbh

Partitio: i got a good way through coloring this one and decided i absolutely needed to make his coat yellow. it’s too iconic to the design. luckily, the warm red pallete accommodates it pretty well. it’s definitely a more orangey shade but with all the red it reads quite yellow. i gray/redscaled everyone specifically to avoid having to figure out color palettes for everyone that were cohesive and read well, while also making clear distinctions between suits, but partitio had to be a little bit of the exception. i did decide on warm red for hearts for him specifically perhaps….

Ochette: this was the first card i actually executed an asymmetrical design on! one side has akala in the background, the other side has mahina. they’re both right side up, but they can’t coexist. thought it was fun! this is also one of my favorite cards now that it’s finished. i did NOT like it at the lineart stage, but loved it after the color!

Osvald: osvald as the ace of hearts has been a fav placement according to my sources (tumblr tags, comments, etc) my original idea was to have him more ready to start blasting one true magic love super mega laser with the heart at the center of that, but i think having him hold/present it a little more gently is also fitting. maybe like it’s more fragile, even tho being the ace makes him the strongest card of his suit (love can make you blast lasers)

diamonds! these guys got the cooler red/pink palette.

Throné: i’m sure the snake motif needs no explanation, but the idea here was that she was entangled by the snake, like it’s holding her down.

Castti: castti also got a unique color added to her card, though it’s much less noticeable than partitio. the raindrops in her card are purple! (uh. should i exclamation point that? three cheers for horrifying evil super mega toxic rain?) i added clouds to go with the rain, but also a vine that deteriorates or recovers as it goes, whatever way you want to look at it.

Hikari: another asymmetrical card. one side hikari, one side his shadow self. i also offset the mirroring on this card a lot more, and allowed the drawings to extend down into each other more than than the other cards in this way, hikari and his shadow self intersect, but aren’t quite mirror images as much as the other cards. (does that make sense?) as for his backround, i put the castle town of ku. this one was difficult to get to read right, but i think i got it pretty decent.

Temenos: my original idea for this one would be that temenos is interacting with the diamond like the mirror shard, but again, i scrapped that idea. instead, he presents it like the other aces. not too much to say here

jokers! i got a couple suggestions for what to do for jokers, (kit, al, lyblac, oboro, arcanette) but definitely most common was people saying to incorporate caits/octopuffs in some way. i liked this one the best because jokers are wild cards, and they’re also kind of silly, so making them villains or major story characters didn’t quite feel right. with these cards, i decided that i could use any colors i had previously used to color them, so they get to be both gray and red tones. due to the variety of warm and cool tones, i actually had a ton of color to work with, and they almost even look like didn’t i gave myself color limitations on them!

for the cait card, i stared with a more accurate orange cait, but decided that i’d rather make it gray since the octopuffs were gonna be orange (or pink). besides, the cultured cait is gray so it’s fine. as for the octopuffs, i ended up just picking two that i liked and using those. i tried adding more smaller ones as backround elements, but didn’t end up liking how it looked.

and then finally, the backing! there’s a couple things going on here, and this was definitely super fun to draw because doing something more ornamental like this is outside of my usual wheelhouse. i started with the concept of the circle with the 8 base class symbols, in OCTOPATH order of the first game. in the middle is 4 flames, like the 4 that protect solista in OT2. on either side i drew octopuses, because. octo. i ended up giving them the little horns too, making them massive octopuffs. then, to round it out, i added little chubby caits to the corners, and then a smattering of stars to fill out the space, since i liked the way it looked. surrounding the flame, the stars indicate night, a sort of subtle nod to the nightfall endgame in OT2, while the stars being out imply that at least for now, it’s a normal night. the chubby caits have some teeny tiny jewels and treasure surround them, and the sparkles ended up looking like more stars, so i just added more. as the the border, it’s basically just random ornamentation lol.

and that’s it! (for interesting cards, at least. doubt anyone cares about the unchanged number cards) hope you liked the long read, i just like talking about drawing lol

[trial-run-tiefling]

V (Cyberpunk 2077) mod for Bomb Rush Cyberfunk!

Thought it would be funny to post this on Cyber Monday! I was taking a break from some personal projects and though I might revisit the BRC modding tools to take a crack at V. Really proud of how they both turned out visually, though there aren't any complicated physics elements on either of them which made it a bit easier.

Originally I was just gonna do fem V, but then I realized a lot of masc V could just use the same textures and slightly adjusted meshes from fem V.

This time around all of the themed skins are from the same franchise, since there were plenty of cyberpunk characters I could pay homage to with the color swaps.

For the Graffiti I blocked out a shape based on the C from the Cyberpunk logo, which already is basically just a sideways V, and then I swapped the colors in case you want to have both Vs in your game at the same time. I also included some tricks where one of the characters is named "V" and the other is named "V " - so they look about the same but don't conflict with each other.

As always I had fun making stickers for them, lots of text this time around, but Cyberpunk is full of logos and icons, so I was not hurting for choice on inspiration for pixel art! (Jackie's shirt was likely the hardest, trying to make the guns show up in the limited color pallet proved difficult).

Voice lines were also a bit difficult, mostly because V goes through a lot of shit and doesn't take a lot of time to celebrate or cheer, so finding phrases that sounded appropriate when doing skateboard tricks took a bit of work. Huge thanks to the cyberpunk sound database tool - wouldn't have known where to start with extracting those otherwise. Masc V's lines aren't very well documented over there, but I did discover that for most of V's voice lines, the file name includes either a "_f_" or a "_m_". So when I found a voice line I liked for one of them, most of the time I could change that tag and find the same voice line for the other, even if it wasn't documented on the sound database, so that helped a lot.

I had a lot of fun making them, so I hope y'all have fun playing with them too!

[superxstarzz]

I love the ideas you have! <3 <3 <3 Are there any keywords or a way to explain how some of your classes and aspects work?

I understand that it must be difficult to invent all these conventions but I had to ask out of curiosity

thank u sm!!! and thank you for giving me the PERFECT opportunity to talk about these!!! Hope ur ready for a yapfest, because that's what you're getting!!! I'm gonna break this down into two parts to make it a bit more coherent: How they would work in a session, and how I go about naming and combining them

First: How do they work in a sburb/sbgrub session???

While my original intention was for these to be classpects for sprites, I could see them being assigned to regular players too! Sburb works in funny ways, after all.

With powers, combined god tiers would have the abilities of both their classpects. For example, a Parasite (prince/thief) of Unity (blood/light) could steal and destroy both light and blood. They'd have the powers of a thief of light, prince of blood, thief of blood, and prince of light all at once!

Same goes for personality. Of course, personality mostly depends on the specific player, so this is harder to explain. To put it simply, someone with a combined classpect would have traits from both their classpects. That same Parasite of Unity from the previous explanation would act like a thief of light, prince of blood, thief of blood, and prince of light all at once.

Second: Behind the scenes on creation!!

So for the naming, I actually had some help from my bffsie @diehardpaleontologist !! Because of this, I don't have an explanation for every single name, since half of them weren't done by me :P And as much as I'd love to post the explanations behind every single combo name I did on this post, that would make it 3029204820 years long :,) So I'll settle for a more general explanation about them.

For the classes, a lot of them are just titles that we thought sounded cool or funny. Some of them were actually thought out, though!! Like the Supernova, the Gatekeeper, the Hoarder, etc.

For the aspects, we actually did think most of them through!! Some of them are guilty of being less creative... but they sound cool, soooo!!!

My main goal for creating these was making titles that sound interesting. Ones that are either really cool (The Puppeteer of Dreams) or ones that are funny. (The Beholder of Birth)

Now, the design process!!! For each class, I have a specific aesthetic I look to for inspiration. While actually designing them, I try to not only include elements from both classes but also some unique elements as well! I dont want them to just feel like combinations, I want them to feel like actual classes. That's where those inspiration aesthetics come in :3

The same goes for creating the aspects. I do mix the two color palettes as a base, but I typically change around the colors a bit to make a nicer palette (especially in cases where the mix just ends up... blegh (looking at u psyche pallete.)) When I make the aspects themselves, I try to keep them simple while ensuring they have elements of both symbols. The biggest thing I keep in mind with them is, "Would it cause me mental pain to draw this 3028392 times on an outfit?" If the answer is yes, I change the symbol.

While I would love to yap up a storm on every single design choice I made, this post is already getting long, so I'll spare yall.

If you have questions about any specific class or aspect, I will GLADLY answer them!!! A lot of thought goes behind each one of these, and I'd love to share it if yall r curious :) Thanks for reading this far, and I hope u enjoyed my thought dump!!

[madsdawls]

Neon Frights review:

Okay so Neon Frights aka the most anticipated Skulltimate Secrets line up and I finally have them all, so what do I honestly think of them? overall I would give this Skulltimate line a 7 out of 10. I loved this line a lot and it's personally my favorite of the 3 that have released but there are a few glaring issues that bring it down for me as a whole.  Anyway let's get into it!

The positives:

▪ The SHOES omg I love them so much I love how some of the pairs are comparable to Demonias which feels like a callback to MH's more alt fashion staples while keeping G3's new choice of styling of bold colors intact 

▪The pet themed hoodies were so adorable I love the mesh sleeves on them especially my only issue though is I wish they were more detailed and they were easier to get over the ghouls heads

▪Loved the bold designed pleather skirts all of them looked cool

▪Love the overall bold color schemes on the dolls and their lockers were even masterfully done

▪All of the character jewelry and accessories were super cute and showed off the element of each characters personalities super well

▪The makeup looks were soo fierce and cunty they added so much to the entire line

The negatives:

▪The poly hair every ghoul is cursed with in this line. I loved the bold cuts and colors but oh my gosh the hair quality is HORRIBLE. This line is $30 dollars there is no reason a doll worth that much should have worse hair quality than the MH budget dolls.

▪I'm more neutral on this but I personally did not like the harness gimmick they were very cute on Frankie and Draculaura but over all they don't match or really add anything to this line? idk I would have scrapped that for a different accessory.

▪Absolutely hated the two tone pleather shorts. They were totally boring and lifeless compared to the rest of the boldness of the line and doesn't really read as a relaxing considering how stiff they are on the dolls. I think if they were fabric and more styled they may have been cuter.

▪Another reoccurring issue I don't like about Skulltimate Secrets is how they managed to make the earrings all hang sticking out to the sides so awkwardly when the other dolls don't have the earrings set in like this.

Doll rating:

Twyla: ☆☆☆☆ I thought this doll was gorgeous from the dark makeup to her entire outfits and accessories the only thing I despised about the doll was the horrid dry poly hair quality it fell out and broke so badly everytime I brushed it to the point I am considering commissioning a reroot it bothers me that much :/

Ghoulia:☆☆☆☆ I just loved the gamer girl aesthetic they went with for Ghoulia and the shade of green on all of her accessories and clothes though her pixel glasses were bent from how they packaged her and so they wouldn't stay on and also I hated the two tone shorts and blue harness that didn't match.

Toralei: ☆☆☆ I loved her bold makeup and short hair and most of her clothes however I don't think they balanced her colors very good it was just too much orange and I didn't like how her tail was removable instead of having the clothes have the hole for it.

Frankie: ☆☆☆☆☆ I think Frankie knocked this line out of the park the bold colors suits their character so well and they did not disappoint! I love the hot pink color pop on the side shave and eyebrow piercing it stands out so well with all of the other colors. I am inlove from head to toe Frankie pops out being totally in their element :)

Draculaura: ☆☆☆ I was probably most disappointed with Draculaura honestly I think they half heartedly slapped a doll together of her to be included in just because she is a fan favorite and big seller (especially true since she is in every SS line up even the upcoming Ballerina one). I loved her shoes, the pink bat top, and the black skirt with yellow straps but aside from that the design falls kinda flat. I think with the reintroduction of yellow in her color pallet giving her full neon pink hair would have been better suited.

To sum it up I think this line is still one of the best G3 has come up with but as a whole I wish they would do away with polypropylene and put more effort in the clothing pieces for $30 dollars it feels a little disappointing when you pay a lot for a doll and aren't satisfied with the obvious cheap quality.

[starrysymphonies]

Guys I’m so normal about him I’m so normal guys I swear I swear guys please I’m normal!!

Balloon doodles + gijinka!

(Explaining my design choices because I LOVE symbolism!!)

In my mind Balloon has always been represented by a sun, s1 has a little thundercloud on his button up shirt, implied that the cloud is hiding the sun (him hiding his true self through acting) I tried to fit a bit more 2000s-ish fashion into the s1 design just cause I think it would be funny, couldn’t find too many good refs though and I don’t think he’d go over the top with an aesthetic soo yeah! Short hair and less saturated eyes

S2 the sun is peaking out from behind the cloud, they’re showing their true self more and more even if he does revert back to acting a few times (yelling at Pickle in Everythings-A-OJ). Both the flower and bracelet are from Suitcase, the bracelet is in her color pallete, the flower is one the two collected during the baking challenge. I don’t know what the original flower was meant to be (with a bit of research it has the shape of a balloon flower but not the color), the one I drew is a Blue Flax (symbolizing wisdom, freedom, growth, devotion, commitment, and maturity). He is still wearing the same button up from s1, but over it is a soft cardigan. This is intended to represent how they’re trying to show how they’ve grown and become something new, but people still see who they used to be. Something about staying in the past, accepting the past, not letting it define you while also accepting it as someone you used to be. Hair is longer, eyes are more saturated and pulling in oranges and reds into the shadow bits

S3 is a Beach Outfit! They were going to a vacation so I assumed they’d dress more vacation-y, so they’ve got on swim trunks and a sleeveless hoodie thing I’ve seen around. Suns out! Guns out! Along with being in a more confident pose, the sun is finally away from the clouds on their hoodie. This Balloon has a accepted his past and is trying to show who he truly is. Swim trunks are teal as a little nod to his aura. Aro pin + sinkers pin for funsies. Hair is much longer, and eyes are bright, adding fun pinks in!

Aside from design interpretation, headcanons!! I added some of my design headcanons and other headcanons to the doodles. Most if not all of my hcs for them is just me projecting in some way

[yakool-foolio]

iiiif you'd allow me to add to your responce to the character design ask as a character designing artist myself-

the chatacter design isn't truely awful, i really don't like alot of them but they aren't bad, they just miss for alot of people. now- depending on your art background you'll prioritize different things, but one thing anyone who'd gotten into character designing will know is that regardless of style a design should always reflect who the character is (ie, if you can't tell at least the general vibes of a character's personality by their design, something is wrong), and this is where the designs miss for alot of people.

for me, i prioritize the character themes and the the ability to clearly read the design elements. If a design has choices that don't make sense for who the character is, lack a proper theme/have choices that don't match the theme, or prioritize elements that don't lend to understanding the character, i consider it's theming bad. if a design has too many small details and a color pallet that is either too samey or uses colors that don't work well together i consider bad to read.

this isn't as important but I also look for General game aesthetic being secondary to chatacter's theme and readablitiy. raincoad is really bad about this because so many characters have the neon aesthetic prioritized over any character themes, leaving a lot of characters to look really lackluster. Halara in my opinion is definitely the biggest victim of this, like monarch why did they put THAT shade of yellow on you and give you glowstick glasses???

Anywho this is just how i read it tho, and other artists will have their own criteria for how a design is supposed to reflect a character. and for non artists you guys don't really consciously notice that kind of thing because you're not trained to look for it, but without it it can cause the readability the character to be weaker.

I greatly appreciate the insight from an artist experienced with character design (it makes the inner journalism major in me very happy heh, yay for different perspectives)! I can see why the emphasis on neon colors may take away chances to showcase other elements of some character's appearances in Rain Code. It could be an unfortunate case of tunnel vision where that aspect of some of the designs were so focused in on that it meant other details to provide tidbits of theming were lost or sidelined in the process. Makes me all the more interested in seeing the new art book releasing in, what, two days now (man, time flies)?! I'm definitely curious about what the early concepts for the characters looked like, so I'm hoping that'll be a part of the book.

Anyway, I agree that people who aren't experienced in character design may tend to not see how appearances reflect a character directly, yet it's definitely still a subconscious thing! Appearance is usually the very first impression a player, viewer, or reader may get of a character, so it's important for artists (and writers too to a certain extent, but I believe voice/dialect tends to make for better first character impressions in writing-... I'm gettin' off track) to take that into consideration.

[adjectiveadjectiveadjective]

had a dream that during hs prom they took you to a warehouse and removed you from your body, killing the body. unsure why or how this was a survivable process but it was and you got to keep your new, but identical body. anyway, i was very upset about it. everyone's bodies then got frozen in ice and then revealed in a big show in the warehouse display room. employees of the building went out in protective suits and stomped on buttons in the ground until a red spot of blood burst to the surface of the ice. then, the body would float up and the room would be all like "wow beautiful!" mine came up last, needing multiple employees to try and get up, and it looked wrong, like it hadnt frozen properly. the body kept twitching at the arms and legs. everyone was really scared and grossed out, but the event moved on from that since the weirdness was between us and a thick layer of glass. the boss came up to me and tried to scold me, and i explained to him why it was--i had minor tremors in my body when i was stressed--the body was stressed, so it had tremors. the boss grabbed my face and said that the process didnt work because i wore a bad outfit that interfered with the freezing process and that i didnt have enough color contrast on my person or a part in my hair. i told him that he never specified outfit choices, that i didnt even want to get frozen, that it was hypocritical to say my color contrast was off/too low when there were white blonde girls in white who were frozen perfectly, and that my hair shouldnt affect the process that bad anyway. he got mad and told me that i should buy the frozen me as a memento of graduating high school. i told him it was ridiculous to do that because i didnt have enough money nor the proper place to store it. he got mad and forced me to become an employee of his warehouse. the rest of the graduating class left with their bodies and i told them it was a scam, but they ignored me. eventually, my body in its ice was boxed up and placed on a wooden pallete, before getting surrounded by other things to get picked up by a crane. while i working at taking inventory, i started to tell the other employees to start a union. we, stupidly, met in the basement of the building during work hours, and while we were doing some paperwork to apply to/as a union, the boss called us over the intercomms. our supervisor who was also our ally in the union stuff hid us all in a bathroom and turned off the lights. she kept us away from security cams and then snuck out to deal with the boss since her keys had a tracking device on them and hiding with us would give us away. we snacked on some food from vending machines inside the bathrooms. a little while passed and we were surprised when someone came in and passed out some sledgehammers and told us to help demolish the building. we werent sure why but felt threatened by the sudden request so we just went along with it. eventually we got bored and walked out of the bathroom. we realized we were the only ones in the building so we just packed up, stole whatever we wanted, and left. i wasnt happy leaving the snacks and frozen bodies to rot, so i tried to figure out what to do with it when i was suddenly jumpscared out of this dream "map" i was on and into a different one. i was in a phone booth with an ipad on a side table. i moved the fabric cover for the ipad and it showed a death screen with some stats. i pressed the respawn button and it happened again, nearly immediately, but this time it showed me the specs of what killed me: a "wendmalgamation" of three highschoolers. i cringed at the name for being culturally and spiritually insensitive and decided not to bug that map for now.

[catalogue-of-lux-feli]

You're feeling a little better after your short conversation with this vivianquill. A little more chipper. A little less… alone. Usually you'd like to be alone, but you're not sure how much that holds up nowadays.

That whole thing about hopping worlds, about having the freedom to do so at will that apparently you don't have… it's bothering you, you won't lie, but it's just another thing added to the pile, at this point. You suppose knowing how to hop worlds is for people who remember how they got to their current one in the first place.

You can't help thinking about your house-to-be, too. You're wondering at the shape it might take, the little flourishes you could put on it. You still don't know if you can do it. But you want to try now.

Unfortunately, your color pallet is currently limited. And by quite a bit. You have two colors of wood, one kind of stone, some metal you can't even refine yet, and the bamboo, which you still haven't figured out how to work with yet. You really need some more choices.

You need to do some exploring.

You pack most of your belongings away in the chest by your bed, keeping some melon and onions with you to eat on the way, and when the sun rises the next day, you begin your journey.

As it turns out, there's a sort of meadow area not far from where you've settled. Maybe this would've been a better place to set up shop, logically speaking. Plenty of land to farm and way more plants to find, and it's a nice lush green. But you can't find it in yourself to care.

You do find some sheep. You feel bad about killing more of them, but you need something to sleep on if you're going to get any real distance away from your home base, and you don't have any tools actually meant to shear them.

Using the stone axe goes about as well as the wooden one your first time, but at least this time you're intentional about it, and you have a better tool, so it's quicker.

Sorry buddy.

You're able to fashion the wool into a sleeping bag, which should suffice while you're out here. You can't help but think it's a little plain, though, so with some flowers growing nearby, you manage to work a good color into the fabric.

It's barely noon, though, and you don't need it just yet, so you roll the sleeping bag, stash it away, and keep moving.

You don't know when you started being willing to put so much effort into aesthetics, between this sleeping bag and, well, the whole journey for new materials, but since that effort doesn't need to go into scraping by anymore, no point in arguing it. Besides, it gets you much prettier things, and you're hardly upset about that. It makes you wonder, though.

You spot quite a few animals along the way - cows, pigs, more sheep, even a few horses. You have half a mind to bring them back to your base, but aside from the fact that you don't know how to get them there, you're not so sure they'd like it there, always on the sand, with no grass to eat. Maybe later you could build up a dirt patch for them….

Not long after, you find yourself at a ledge exposing the stone beneath the dirt. Well, you say stone a little loosely.

You're not actually sure what this stuff is. You… you really like it though. Especially with the materials surrounding it, and the way the blue stone seems to almost sparkle…. Maybe you could make your home from these? Or at least in part.

You can't mine the whole area out right now. You're still on a journey. You do take a few chunks to experiment with, though, and you mark where you are on your map. You're definitely coming back for this.

You also find… this.

A short, carved stone pillar, just sat on the ground. You're not quite sure what it is, let alone where it came from. It certainly looks man-made, but it's sitting out here alone in a field, miles away from anyone or, really, anything.

You reach out to brush some dust off of it, to get a better look at it. The moment you touch it, runes that you hadn't noticed were carved along the sides light up, and a faint energy emanates from it. More than that, you feel what you can only think to describe as a link form between you and the stone pillar.

What.

What?

Was that magic? Is this thing magic?

Is magic real here??

[abrisaber]

My Thoughts (and suggestions) on the critiqes on Hazbin Hotels's Character Designs

One of the many complaints about Hazbin Hotel (mostly its character designs) Is that the charaters often use the same color (red) in their pallets. And to be honest I agree with these complaints on some level.

But I don't think completely removing red from the pallets is the best choice. I think using alot of red is sort of a given when creating charaters in such a hellish setting, and it's not like this world is limited to one color.

Helluva Boss explores the other rings of Vivzipops "hellverse." All of which are dominated by a single color.

The Pride Ring is red. The Wrath Ring is orange. The Lust Ring is blue.

Asmodeus, for example, is the embodiemnt of Lust and ruler of the lust ring, and his design empasises that.

Not just the charateristics of his design but the pallet as well. His fur (feathers?) is a similar color to the lust rings sky. His suit and his face have a neon glow to them that a lot of the buildings in the lust ring have. His design isnt just a reflection of his flamboyant yet fluffy nature, it's also literally made of the same building blocks that the ring he rules is.

And yet even in this setting he doesn't bleed into the background. In OZZIE'S when he reveals himself his entire club becomes OVERRUN with his pallet yet he manages to stand out against it.

I think the reason why it's easy to notice Asmodeus in this setting is because, well for one, he's big and the scene is focoused on him, but also because this setting feels built around him rather than him being built for the setting (like the sinners are). It might just be my obsession for this character creating a bias but when I watch this episode I feel like Asmodeus came first and the Lust Ring centers around him, whereas in Hazbin Hotel, the characters sometimes feel hard to miss.

In this frame in particular I genuinley didn't notice Nifty or Alastor in this shot. I mean I rendered in my mind that they were there but It took a couple watches for me to actually notice that they were here. But I will give this credit because my attention was more focoused on Angel Dust than anything else and it was a very short couple of seconds compared to Ozzie's minutes of screen time, but I still think theres a point to be made.

I tried my best to pull from places of equal lighting. The two colors in the top right are the most basic forms, the two on the bottom left are the lighest, and the ones in the center are from the darkest.

While the three examples do varry slightly, the most important ones (being the flatest examples I could find on these images) still look insanely similar to each other. This is MY main complaint about these characters. It's not that they're "too red." I think using red for their pallets is great, but I think using different kinds of red would benefit these designs greatly and help thems stick out against the red backgrounds and other characters.

I think that giving Husker a more deep, dark red, almost like red wine, would empasise his character more. He likes alcohol, wine. He's cynical, depressing, always has a frown, dark. It doen't take away from his character or already estanlished design in any way but does something to help him be more unique.

As for Alastor, I think giving him more muted reds rather than vibrant ones would make him seem more like an oldtimer talkshow host. These reds don't have to be outright pale or grey, but give the red in his suit and hair more fade like they're being seen on a shitty color TV from the 50s. (I don't know what era Alator is from cause I see a lot of different theories but my main guess is from the 1920s-40s since thats when radio became popular) This would, again, empasise his character without outright changing his pallet.

Lastly I want to talk about Charlie

I don't think there's much to change about Charlie's design. I think it works well with her setting. Her suit being a similar red to hell Is a good way to represent her heritege as hells princess, and her blonde hair and pale skin are inherited from her father, who's a fallen angel. One thing I will suggest about her design would be to add something in ger pallet to represent how she likes angels and heaven or at the very least her desire for goodness. Perhaps adding some gold to her design in the form of trimming or a pin or even a simple headband would do wonders for her character and bring some variety that is noticable but not distracting.

I don't have much else to say about the other characters. One thing I will mention is how Sir Pentious sticks out like a sore thumb against all of these main characters who have reds within a similar hue as one of their dominant colors, while he's over here with his piss yellow stripes. Granted he still has red in his design but its more secondary compared to the primary focous of most other characters.

In conclusion, this is just my personal rant about suggestions and ideas and observations. I'm in no way saying that Vivzipop SHOULD do these things. I just think that changing up the pallets and using more variety in the shades and tints of reds she uses for her characters would benefit the show and its characters. This ended up being longe than I thought it would be but I really wanted to get my point across. Please do not point out any spelling mistakes I have made or I will cry and scream and shit everywhere.

[mothzarellaman]

actually you know what

shout out to that one project i started and never finished that was designing every dsmp character. i did a couple collages but never finished. here were the ones done so far. (w/ notes!)

I was just kinda going for the general fanon consensus on their design ngl. i wanted to go for more unique color pallete, i think, and while i haven't seen their stuff, i just put together smth that looked neat ngl

I don't really see any ant designs that like. do anything more than make him a anthro cat. maybe i dont see enough ant designs, who knows. i also never see him in glasses. so i like the concept of him having glasses that kinda have cat ears because i think they're cool lookin. also wanted some puss in boots inspo. wanted to lean into the 'frost' part of his name too, hence the blue-ish tones. and wanted to throw in some red velvet colors for obvious reasons.

I just kinda threw together design elements i've seen and liked in sam lol. i think creeper centaur sam slaps, and i like it when people draw cat like creepers because its funny. I also was trying to go for unique crowns for the like 5 people on the server that had them.

i wanted to go for like the reds and blacks that he's known for obviously, and tried to lean into the cult thing with the egg with some choices. the AI art at the bottom was added because this was before i realized how awful it was, because i thought it would be neat to play around with design choices i wouldn't have thought of otherwise. the spider lily is actually due to my concept of having every eggpire member associated with a certain part of a plant, with bad being the petals.

Again, another streamer i dont really know. just went for things that vibed.

as you can tell i had no ideas for callahan. maybe i was trying to go for like an android?? idk man. the electric mask was for the concept of instead of talking obviously , the words would just scroll across his face. deer cape because capes are cool.

as you can tell, i was losing motivation for cool designs and lacked inspiration. the land siren thing is actually my own concept/explanation for hybrids. basically a species thats highly adaptive that mirrors humans and often eats them. got land, marine, and air. all based off of animals that live there.

i think i just wanted to bully connor ngl. i think his sonic onesie should be like the og movie sonic. terrifying. he also gets participation trophies.

Wanted to go for like a big mix of stuff with dream because i had too many concepts. wanted some stuff from cat because, ya know, green and black. black mamba dream is cool, idk where i saw it, but its cool. i also like the concept of dream with butterfly traits to mimic moth/spider tommy. because butterflies are freaky but most people like em. the gold heart is because i associate that texture with the revive book. yada yada. this was also made before the dream drama came out.

kinda just what i said in the image. the words cut off are made and portal. don't got much else.

i remember seeing an object head for eret that had them as a nether star and its lived in my head rent free for a while. plus me and @espion7971 had an entire joke thing about eret being a god, so there's some vibes there. also the cosplay that isn't eret is by Ihaveakarrotproblem from the dsmp reddit. ( https://www.reddit.com/r/dreamsmp/comments/rnxly4/my_eret_cosplay/ )

and eryn is where i stopped. never finished him. wanted to go for like a parasitic nether fungus i think, to explain his bloody arm because i think it would be neat.

[wispexists]

P5R PMD AU because i am insane!!!

So I have many a thought in my head and with Spike Chunsoft dangling the idea of a new Mystery Dungeon entry in front of my face this past week I have more thoughts. Especially about the Mystery Dungeon AU's I create with every fandom I join.

So um Persona 5 PMD au (with some visuals).

Also this will contain major spoilers for Persona 5 Royal and Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon.

First, this is a rewrite of PMD Super, because I will not write a new story for this and also because I always see Explorers get the crossover au/rewrite treatment (as it should tbh) and we gotta switch it up!! Now with the main plot not really changing we can jump into the characters.

1. The Heros

The hero role is filled both by Akira Kurusu and Goro Akechi, both being human and both losing their memories respectfully after being isekai'd into a foreign world. These bitches gay, so I think it's funny to throw them into another god killing situation.

The role stays true to the plot, get chased by Beheeyem, get adopted, join the guild, etc. it would just have more banter between characters in between.

Akira:

At first you may think, "Wouldn't Zorua fit better? Isn't that the black and red trickster Pokémon that fits the overall aesthetic really well? Wouldn't it have been cool for an Akiren that could summon fake illusion personas???" Because I thought the same things until I realized I cannot draw Zorua!

I also think even though Floragato doesn't really fit aesthetically, it fits in every other aspect of joker persona. Silly little jester cat.

I also thought Zorua would be too much of an awkward fit in the group just, vibes man, he's too small. Once you see my other picks you'll get it. You get silly little jester cat take it or leave it.

Goro:

STUPID BIRD!! THE CHOICE IS OBVIOUS!! FUCKIN,, CROW MAN!! CORVISQUIRE SWEEP!!

I also made him shiny because it matches his color pallete. Literally easiest decision in the world. I was originally going to go with rookidee but again, too small.

2. The partner

You thought these bitches were doing this shit alone?? NO!! THEY NEED A SILLY FRIEND!! WHO ELSE TO PUT IN THE ROLE OF THE WEIRD ADOPTED ORPHAN THAN WEIRD ADOPTED ORPHAN FUTABA SAKURA!! Also going forward no other character is human, very important pmd shit.

Futaba:

Similarly to the p5 plot, Futaba is still grieving her mom while getting adopted by Sojiro. Wakaba died in an "unfortunate accident" while doing research for a guild on the grass continent. The last thing left in Futaba's possession is her harmony scarf. Unlike p5, Futaba didn't actually see her mom die since she was in Serene Village while her mom was doing research. She still somewhat blames herself for her mother's death but is motivated to find the truth behind it.

Futaba's social anxiety would prevent her from joining a proper exploration team, until of course she gets two new neighbors that are reminded of someone in her and feel obligated to help (THE HEROS FROM BEFORE IN CASE YOU DIDNT GET THAT). Also in Super, the partner doesn't join a team because everyone fucking hates them and I thought wow! That's way too mean! And not in character!! So I changed that.

Anyways JOLTIK FUTABA, SMALL CREATURE. The only one allowed to be teeny tiny.

I originally was planning to go with a Dewpider since I knew for a fact that I wanted her to be a bug type but then I saw Joltik and thought "wow, this bitch has so much mischievous energy" and it stuck.

She'd probably run a support build of some kind in preparation to be backup.

3. Nuzleafs replacement

Takuto Maruki.

If you thought anyone but him I would tell you to replay Super Mystery Dungeon BECAUSE I THINK IT FITS SO WELL.

Also because it's weird that Nuzleaf was like unemployed, I also made Maruki Audinos replacement as the school nurse. He can be in a weird cult and work at the school at the same time.

Yes Maruki is the one who sends our protagonists to hell! After his childhood friend Rumi never truly recovered from an accident, Maruki turned to the help of Yveltal, believing that the limbo-like state is better than suffering for a lifetime. This happiness can be easily achieved if only he had a human that could destroy the barrier on Revelation Mountain, then their plan would be foolproof..

Also important to note that actualization doesn't exist because personas and the metaverse wouldn't exist in Pokémon.

FURRET MARUKI SHAKES YOU. His ass looks normal until he STABS YOU IN THE BACK!!

4. Classmates

Ok I got a little burnt out at this point so I don't have references for these ones but the gist is they're literally just the Shujin guys. None of them would join the exploration team (sorry :() but they would still get little side stories. I also tried to match certain characters with their metaverse powers as a little silly.

Ann: Braixen. Literally makes so much sense. Strong girlboss fire wizard like get it queen!! Fuck yeah!

Ryuji: Luxio but specifically with rivalry instead of intimidate purely because it's funny.

Makoto: Houndour. Honestly went with this because of vibes and also because she counters and covers Haru's weaknesses because I am a Makoharu stan frfr.

Haru: Galarian Ponyta. See Makoto.

Mishima: Please suggest a Pokémon for Mishima. I do not have one.

Shiho: also up for suggestions

Sumire: Eevee. Since actualization doesn't exist, she still knows she's Sumire, but is still strongly advised by Maruki to follow in her sisters footsteps considering she trained her entire life as a performer, why shatter your dreams and pursue something that has the chance to bring you pain? Specifically replaces Espurr in this au since she's being manipulated by Maruki.

Yusuke: Alolan Vulpix. Not part of the school, he lives in Lively Town with Madarame, but he gets included on this list because I have no where else to put him.

Morgana: Purrloin. Isn't in this story like at all because he got arrested for crime. Thought I'd include him anyways.

5. Extra thoughts

I have a few more characters that I know for sure are going to be here. Every change of heart is going to happen but they would most likely get arrested instead (cause no metaverse).

This really is just a self-indulgent mashup of P5 and PMD. The characters still generally keep their arcs even if they aren't as important, the overall plot is just that of PMD Super.

And that about wraps it up for now! If you made it this far, I love you, mwah. Also please please please send any questions because I am writing this in the middle of the night and I KNOW I probably missed something and I really just want to share this silly au. Thank you for reading!

[smallerplaces]

Family Dollar: Time to BOGO Down!

My Thanksgiving tradition is going to the BOGO-ish sales at Family Dollar and Dollar Tree, to round up the clones. Back a decade ago, when Monster High clones were everywhere, this was a bonanza! Today, the toy aisle is smaller and hardly any hot non-Barbie brands gets clones... but I hied myself to the best Family Dollar in the area anyway.

Things I did not buy

The My Little Phony market has expanded into dinosaurs. I feel like there's a missed opportunity here for a stop-motion My Little Pony-Jurassic Park crossover, but it's not my project to do.

Since Toymazing is Family Dollar's house brand, I looked at Alibaba to see if I could find the original version. Alibaba is awash in colorful, cutified dinosaurs, so there's some kind of trend I have missed.

There was a small quantity of Rainbow High dolls that weren't the discount version, marked $25 each. If you can find two you like at the same store during the Thanksgiving BOGO sale, that's $12.50 a doll, which is a very good price for the clothing and a body donor.

Things I intended to buy and bought

There were fashion packs I haven't seen! Who these fit varies from year to year and minute to minute, but at this point I have so many 1980s-2000s bodies that it's good to have choices. The top pack is for the flat shoes! The bottom one is for the net top, though I think Hula Hair Teresa may nab that scale-patterned dress in bottom middle.

While the clothing quality is eh, 10 outfits and 10 pairs of shoes for $5 is better than Dollar Tree prices. It all reminds me that I need to finish organizing my doll clothes: I moved specialized sizes to their own plastic drawers last winter and then ran out of steam.

Zuru surprise balls were up by the cashier line. I picked two different concepts because I don't trust Family Dollar not to have pallets of entirely the same balls. I'm saving these for later in the weekend because right now, I'm still kind of revving my engine.

Things I did not intend to buy, but bought anyway

When I did not see the Zuru surprise balls in either of the two toy aisles, I distracted myself from my disappointment by looking at other surprise packs.

On the one hand, I do not want to spend a fortune chasing surprises. On the other hand, there is a certain delight in surprise boxes that I don't want to eschew entirely.

Here is the yin and yang of it. I've been feeling nostalgia for the Mini-Dragons Thingmaker of my childhood, but not on the level that calls for buying a vintage one and all the goop. So here in front of me is a dinosaur egg that calls on me to do... something. And it costs a lot less than it would at Target. Yeehaw.

The little LOL Surprise! Finders Keepers box just kind of... spoke to me. I do not collect LOL Surprise! because at heart I am a "dress me" doll person rather than a "design concept" doll person. (I can look at pictures of your collection all day long, with great happiness. It's just not my collection.) But I'm about to populate my birdhouse village with the Mini MixieQs I used to buy at Fry's Food to motivate myself to grocery shop, back in the mid-2010s, so super-little dolls have been on my mind.

It turns out Finders Keepers are nothing like Mini MixieQs, and they're also a little too big for the World's Smallest Barbie Dreamhouse. However, one of my Kid Kore Katies finds that the LOL Surprise! concept goes brilliantly with her own skater aesthetic. I may have to get VRQT a friend so that the Katies and the Carlas can play with them.

[amplexadversary]

More Utena, ep 13

"Might makes right" from the Greek Chorus, right off the bat. Gee, I wonder if we're going to be challenging the premise of these duels sometime soon.

"And the winner walked away, looking like a lesbian lily" Actually, I'm glad I watched this after I got clued in to that particular cultural metaphor, and not like, when this show was first recommended to me in high school.

Huh, that's two episodes in a row where the Greek Chorus screw around with a flying saucer; it was treated as a real thing in 12 and as a prop in 13. Wonder what that's about.

Ohhhhhhh and look who's being definitively shown as a flesh-and-blood person outside of a flashback for the first time! That's certainly a very distinct hair color pointing me in a direction. The guy is wearing red rather than white though...

tbh another part of why I didn't watch this show earlier is that I did want to have time to forget some spoilers I'd seen earlier. It might be the influence of those that are leaving me convinced that the prince is probably Anthy's brother? (I mean they are the only purple-haired, dark-skinned characters in the show, and it would explain why Anthy has such a "special" role in ... it's still not clear what. It would be something of a parallel between Nanami's sibling incest thing going on to have Utena being possessed? by Anthy's maybe brother?? while fighting over her???)

NOPE, there are now three characters in this show with that particular color pallet. Also the duels have names, not ominous at all. Surely that's not hinting at something important we don't know about yet.

So we have amitie (friendship, green tone, Utena v Saionji defending - Utena wins),

choix (choice, Saionji v Utena defending - Utena wins),

raison (reason Miki v Utena defending - Utena wins), (I actually did think Miki was a girl until his episode. wishful thinking.) (I'm still not over how douchey it was of Touga to use the guy's sister's emotions to fuck with his motivations like that)

amour (love, that one didn't need translating, Jury v Utena defending - Utena wins),

adoration (Nanami v Utena defending - Utena wins),

conviction ( Touga v Utena defending - Touga wins),

and soi (self, Utena v Touga defending- Utena wins), so far.

and then at some number that isn't specified, revolution.

"having hope for Anthy," when Utena started winning duels? That doesn't spell good things about her role in this business.

Wait, the color of the windows here are based on Utena's opponent, aren't they? ... Yep, Miki's duel is blue.

It doesn't line up that way every time, but I am a little amused by the line about the darkness of distance and the darkness of light frequently being sung to Anthy cupping her hands over her crotch. Yes, the darkness, that couldn't be referring to anything in particular could it.

(Edit: it lined up that way frequently in the first cour, but the second consistently lines that shot up with the line before. Still funny. Hey, these days, joking about vaginas is classy when Shakespeare does it! Utena can have some classy accidental vagina jokes as well! It's only fair!)

It does re-emphasize how fucked up it kind of is how most of these people aren't even fighting over Anthy herself; she just represents some other thing that they want. Arguably Saionji is different in that respect because he actually has feelings for her, but he does not treat Anthy well at all; he still kind of treats her like his possession.

Speaking of flashbacks, fuck Nanami for what she did to that kitten. People writing about characters being cruel to animals tend to put cats in the crosshairs; I think in a lot of cases the writers want something people are going to feel bad about, but like, not TOO bad, like if they were to harm a puppy. Jokes on them I have the opposite reaction; I'll feel sad about a dog, but a cat will actually make me cry.

... aaaaand there's another saucer, NOT shown with the shadow chorus this time. Huh.