#although the mixed reviews have me kinda...

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Must you, Japan? has become Thank You, Japan

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

BL OLYMPICS! Week 3

This is my last week of passing out metals in various sporting events, as part of the weekly updates.

Aug 2024 Week 2

Ongoing Series - Thai

Century of Love (Weds Gaga) eps 9-10fin - There were a lot more unnecessary dramatic speeches than there was practical medical aid being administered. Very extra, boys. I wonder how long it took them to get that "birds meet hug" shot? Meanwhile, great grandpa‘s attitude that he knows best in every way is thoroughly annoying, and yet absolutely appropriate to his age. My great gramps (RIP), had he had the body of a 20-year-old, would behave in exactly the same self-righteous know-it-all way. The doctor is great. I would like him to get his own romance please? What happens when you are the villain in someone else's reincarnation story? There's a whole fanfic there. And yes I cried. I am a sap for this kinda thing.

Final thoughts:

This is a great little show about a young man who fell in love with a pretty girl 100 years ago, and when she died in his arms, he was cursed to live until he could meet her reborn self. Only this time around, she’s reborn into the body of a man. I love it when Thailand gets all up in its own historical business and reincarnation and shizz. I like this pair (it’s not DaouOffroad’s fault I didn’t enjoy most of their first series.) Daou’s wushu is pretty snazzy and we got a fun meet cute. (Erm... Remeet cute? Meet cute 2.0?) Plus this is a very PRETTY show. Despite some ham handed comedy moments, this ultimately has more in common with something like I Feel You Linger in the Air meets First Love Again, then (as one might expect) Until We Meet Again or The Director Who Buys Me Dinner. The leads turned in great performances, although Daou outclassed everybody else on that screen. It’s a good story and a great BL. I’m not sure this is going in my rewatch rotation, but I can’t find any major faults with it beyond a certain level of camp that is sadly endemic to lackorns. Also I’m going to give it credit as the kind of BL that one could safely recommend to lovers of melodrama and historical romance, without having to qualify it as “good for a BL.” It was, to put it succinctly, simply a VERY ENJOYABLE show. 

Under those auspices I really can’t give it anything less than a 9/10. 

Bronze in Fencing

My Love Mix-Up Th (Fri YT) ep 10 of 12 - It’s cute. They were cute. I enjoyed it a lot. I talk quite a bit about why they're using nai as a you pronoun here:

This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans (Fri iQIYI) ep 6 of 8 - Honestly the side couple is truly stellar in this show. I wasn’t sure about them at first but now I absolutely love them. Not sure how they are going to resolve such intense dislike (from JJ) by the end of the series. But I’m interested to see them try.

Meanwhile, there isn’t anything else airing right now that makes me laugh as much as the behind-the-scenes from this show. Highly recommended.

Monster Next Door (Thai Thurs Gaga ) eps 1-2 of 12 - Oh it is so much fun. I’m particularly delighted that our musician is a drummer and I don’t have to listen to him sing... I hope. I’ve been waiting for Big to lead a BL forever. I’m disposed to enjoy this. We can all be confident in one thing, the kisses are going to be great. I like the side couple too, very indulgent daddy. While I am disturbed by the tortoise in the tiny tank, I love the extrovert friendship group. They remind me of my own college crew. It is a cute premise, but I will need them to actually be together in the same room, looking longingly at each other a smooching within the next couple of episodes.

YouTube served me both episodes 1 & 2, and I don’t think it was meant to. So this may be next week's review as well.

The Trainee (Sun YouTube) ep 6 of 12 - I wasn’t wild about this ep or where this show is going. But I enjoyed the language play. 

Gold in Linguistic Gymnastics

(my new favorite sport)

Sunset X Vibes (Sat iQIYI) ep 9 of 12 - Wow. Sam admitted it just out loud like that! Right after a betrayal? Balls on that boy. Worked on Yo tho. Too well, actually. I wish Yo had made him suffer and dragged him over the coals for a while. But I guess Yo really really likes him back. Meanwhile, the GL side plot also moved quite rapidly. A lot happened in this episode.

I Saw You in My Dream (Weds Gaga) ep 4 of 12 - Them ALL jumping into the water was totally ridiculous. It’s still a little slow, because it is a pulp, but I’m rather enjoying it.

Knock Knock Boys (Thurs Gaga) ep 12fin - Almond and Latte were cute. The breakfast with the four of them was funny. I did laugh a lot. Almond getting "first time" advice from his two resident gay dads (or at least trying to) was super sweet. Also I got a lot of smiley kisses. Nice final ep.

Ultimately how do I feel about this show?

A story about 4 boys of differing personalities who end up living together and pair up, falling in love. Slow moving and waffling, with some artificially generated family drama makes this a classic Thai pulp except that in general it's a smiley kiss of a show. It had plenty of good qualities like great communication and sexual rep (including toys, first time, safe sex, and sexual identities). The heat levels were on point and well executed, and the performances were good. It’s just that the script and the directing were lackluster, rendering it ultimately forgettable. Still, fine on a rainy afternoon with some camomile tea or whatever. 7/10 

Love Sea (Sun iQIYI) ep 9 of 10 - I’m getting some sort of PTSD from this show, It is making me feel like I’m the problem. Trash watch

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Cosmetic Playlover (Japan Tues Gaga) eps 1-2 of 8 - Anyone surprised by this jump in the standings? Yeah, probubly not. Anygay... this show is GREAT. Warped af but great. Lemme try to explain.

I actually said out loud during ep 1, "Well this is boundary pushing." By which I mean mine and everybody elses. But it’s Japan, *checks watch* it’s about time they turned out something edging into unpalatable and kinky. And because it’s Japan, I’m more forgiving than I would be were this show nested in the clumsy hands of say... Thailand. So actually this being me, and me being of questionable taste, I’m enjoying this show a lot.

You want me to list the ways? Sure.

Younger seme with grabby hands.

The younger one identified the elder gay as his personal property and it’s now: single motivation, on target, against all odds.

Uke cares about his work and not much else.

Seme cares about the uke and not much else.

Uke is gonna make this boy WORK for it.

That one particularly Japanese style of obsession that I actually adore.

Passes the sniff test!

I’m being reminded of that KBL Love Mate. Which I believe I enjoyed but no one else did. For exactly this set of tropes. Only Japan is better suited to handle them. For me this is a case of:

Must you,Japan? = Oh yes? Well, thank you very much, Japan.  

I Hear the Sunspot AKA Hidamari ga Kikoeru (Japan Weds Gaga) ep 8 of 10 - enter the evil girl character. Yawn.

Takara's Treasure AKA Takara No Vidro (Japan Mon Gaga) ep 6 of 10 - It is what it is. 

It's airing but...

Battle of the Writers (Sun YT) ep 2 of 12 - I did not catch ep 2 before they took it down from USA YT. I don’t know why it’s down. Either they got a deal for distribution off YouTube or there’s some sort of scandal. Frankly, I wasn't particularly impressed with ep 1 so I’m not rabid to find wherever it’s gone or why. Still, perhaps someone will let us know the sitch in a comment? It's a me problem. I'm figuring it out.

Sugar Dog Life (Japan Sun ????) 10 eps - OMG a uni student who looks too young and a... COP. GAH. The subversion and kink of it all. Why can't I find it? Do I have to go grey?

4 Minutes (Thai Netflix/Grey) - A rich boy at uni suddenly gains the supernatural power to see four minutes into the future. I have a source, but I've decided to hold off and binge if it ends okay, since it's only 8 eps. I depend upon y'all to tell me if it's safe.

Meet You at the Blossom (China) - it's your funeral (or, more likely, one of the main characters'). You can argue but... statistics. You know my feelings on this matter. MY BLOG, remember?

In case you missed it

The Time of Fever AKA Unintentional Love Story 2 (Korea movie) trailer IS COMING IN SEPTEMBER!!!! (Yeah this is gonna sit here until then)

Next Week Looks Like This:

Ooo, nice spread.

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

Still Coming This Month!

8/12 First Note Of Love (Taiwan Mon Gaga) 12 eps - About a singer with stage fright and his timid fan stars Charles (H4 the puppy one) and Michael Chang (the youngster in My Tooth Your Love), plus side couple featuring a Thai actor Jame (Koh in Gen Y) and Liu Min Ting (of Guardian fame). What a damn tean. I can't wait. With thier powers combined!

8/13 Addicted Heroin (Thai Tues YT) 10 eps - supposedly Jinlo with air this on their YT channel. Stars August (Love Sick) so I'm excited despite Jinlo's poor reputation. From the trailer it looks like it's following the original pretty closely... just Thai style. GIMMEEEEE!!!!

8/16 The Last Time (Thai Fri YT) ? eps - Convoluted story of loss and possible reincarnation or something.

8/22 The On1y One (Taiwan Thurs Gaga) 12 eps - announced in 2023 this one has a high school set stepbrothers trope and is reputed to be high heat. From Taiwan! It's made for me. Based on a novel Mou Mou from the Your Name Engraved Herein folks, so it could go dark. Still, I'm very excited.

8/22 The Paradise of Thorns (Thai movie) theater release - Jeff Satur is back but this does not look like a BL (the gay lover's death is the inciting event). More in Goodbye Mother vein. Looks dark and dramatic. He opposite and extremely well known actor Toey Pongsakorn who has never done gay before.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENT

Linguistic flirting trope! One of my all time favorites. FANTASTIC. (I did keep hearing Gun yelling Papiiiiiii! in my head tho.)

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are a pain.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

Sigh, Tumblr in its infinite wisdom doesn't like too many tags.

[kcrossvine-art]

hi birds of paradise and of prey! I sincerely hope your 2024 has been kind to you so far, and if it hasn't, I hope it starts being fucking nicer soon. We got eyes on it and are ready to take it out should it fail.

I'm coming to the end of my list here soon, so if anyone has ideas on what they'd like to see next, please do hit me up! Even if its just a piece of media with interesting food in it and not a specific dish you wanna see. My roommate got me a recipe book from that TikTok fantasy tavern guy, "recipes from the lucky gryphon"? So we could also take a shot at a few of those, although im not really familiar with his work. Regardless-

We will be making Stuffed Cabbage from Lord of the Rings Online today!

(As always you can find the cooking instructions and full ingredient list under the break-)

MY NAMES CROSS NOW LETS COOK LIKE ANIMALS

SO, “what goes in to this Stuffed Cabbage?” YOU MIGHT ASKYou cant kinda put whatever you want for seasonings and even the meat filling. I used ground beef but pork and lamb are also stellar candidates.

Yellow onion

Garlic

2 eggs

Ground beef

Rice

A head of cabbage

Oregano

Thyme

Red pepper flakes

Cumin

Crushed tomato

Tomato sauce

AND, “what does this Stuffed Cabbage taste like?” YOU MIGHT ASKBa bawsa

Very, very filling wow

2 rolls filled me up for a meal and i made about 20-ish from one head of cabage

A bit plain tbh, the texture is great but I'd really double up on the seasonings

A blank canvas for you to impart your spice preferences onto

Reheating makes it taste almost identical to fresh

Would pair well with a hot sauce dip

could also go well with an artichoke dip

If you run out of room and need to layer the rolls, I'd try experimenting with pouring some of the crushed tomato and sauce inbetween the stacked rolls. Otherwise the ones at the bottom lack a lot of the tomato flavor. However it might make the bottoms on the rolls laying ontop soggy?

. Where rice called for, used long grain white rice

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've never blanched anything before. Theres not much western food that calls for it, meanwhile whenever my friend from malaysia shows a dish they ate, 9 times out of 10 the vegetables are blanched. Much easier process than the fancy name might suggest- boil water and dunk the thing in until its done. Whatever 'done' may be for the thing you are cooking.

Also for the ground beef (or whichever meat you use) you don't have to cook it beforehand, but in doing two tries at making these cabbage rolls i would recommend you at least season your meat before mixing it with everything else. The meat will cook to a safe temperature inside the cabbage rolls, i just prefer the taste and texture of it when cooked twice.

I give this recipe a meandering 7/10 (with 1 being food that makes one physically sick and 10 being food that gives one a lust for life again.) I want to review more horrible recipes, truly i do, so that the rating scale isnt always a 6 and above, but whenever i try something horrible its like "why the fuck would i put all the effort into making and sharing a review of this thing i Do Not Want others to eat????" yknow?? Would people be interested in roasting horrible recipes? 

🐁 ORIGINAL RESIPPY TEXT BELOW 🐁

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion

6 cloves of garlic

2 eggs

2 lbs ground beef

1 1/2 cup cooked rice

1 large head of cabbage

28oz crushed tomato

14oz tomato sauce

Oregano

Thyme

Red pepper flakes

Cumin

Salt/pepper

Method:

Saute garlic and onion in butter over medium heat until onions are caramelized. When done, remove from heat and let cool.

Season the beef to your liking with cumin, red pepper, and salt. Very, very lightly cook the beef in the same pan used for the garlic and onions. Cook until it starts to brown, but dont let it darken. 

Beat eggs thoroughly with oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper.

Add all of the above ingredients together in a bowl with (cooked!) rice. Mix thoroughly then cover and let rest in the fridge.

Core and blanche your cabbage in boiling water, peeling them off as they become limp.

Once you've separated all the leaves, cut off any thick stems that would prevent the leaf from folding.

Put roughly 2 tablespoons of meat filling into each leaf. Fold the sides of the leaf inwards and roll it up. Place each cabbage roll seam-down into a casserole dish.

If they don't all fit in one layer, its more than okay to stack. Try not to stack more than 2 layers though.

Once you've used all the cabbage, take your can of tomatos and pour them over the rolls. Mix some oregano into the tomato sauce and pour that over the rolls as well.

Bake uncovered in the oven at 350 for about 2 hours. Dont worry if a bit of tomato on top looks burnt.

IF REHEATING LEFTOVERS: Bake 10 cabbage rolls in the oven at 320 for about 40 minutes. Reduce time for less rolls.

[sinisxtea]

dreamscape album thoughts bc i don't remember the last time i did a full review of an album since doyoung album

intro: dreamscape

i love the cutesy vibes <33 it's so very parallelism to icantfeelanything with the rushing and mixing of the vocals and songs, but in a contrasting vibe it's more uplifting rather than the dreariness of icantfeelanything. although

lowkey sounds like something that could come out of animal crossing idk

when i'm with you

THE HOUSE MUSIC IM LAUGHING SM ENTERTAINMENT WHY DO WE KEEP BRINGING HOUSE BACK

house isn't my favorite genre so i feel like it's a bit weak

but i'll definitely gaslight myself into liking the title track dw guys !!

flying kiss

tbh im glad they released this before the title track and album bc oh my god i would've taken no interest in it in comparison to the other songs. just like the title track rn i feel like the b-sides definitely are better than the tt track.

chat tell me it doesn't sound like blank space by taylor swift

TELL ME IT DOESNT

okay but for vibe wise i think the intro definitely makes me feel like im in that zen place in zootopia for some reason yknow with the yak and his meditation thing. anyways that sounds oddly specific but idk its very mystical meditation core idk

i hate fruits

THIS SONG IS SO FUNNY

but also very nct dream coded i love my 7dream <33

i have no poking thoughts i think its cute

no escape

my wife.

you can't have her she's mine

backbone pussy holding this album together

best of me

this sounds like the type of song that plays in the background when you're locked in on one of those cool math game puzzle games thats like minecraft music ominous but not there yet so like ur not freaked out but it's still getting on your nerves kinda slightly but you know you gotta lock in. im locked in.

YOU

oh now this is minecraft music

BUT THE JAZZ BREAK HELLO CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE JAZZ BREAK??

I LOVE IT WHEN WE USE JAZZ IN KPOP

heavenly

heaven by txt's twin sister

its very nct dream coded i love them

night poem

in my opinion one of the weaker songs on this album but it's cute <33

like no song on this album is bad obviously, i don't hate any of them, this one just kinda falls flat in comparison to them.

off the wall

i LOVE THE 70S DISCO FUNK VIBE

treasure !!! that is what you are <33

it's not really nct dream's vibe in my opinion but i could get behind this to be honest it's really cute <33

here's my top 3 ranking

no escape

flying kiss

YOU

[its-weeping]

WE NEED A PART 2 OF MARRIED IN PURPLE 🙏🙏

your wishes have been granted! here's the awaited part two of married in purple ^^

— ii. 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐥𝐞. | scaramouche

synopsis. scaramouche is insistent of the marriage, but you aren't. right?

-ˋˏ cw. minor cursing, kinda suggestive toward the end .𖥔 ݁ ˖

notes. hello everyone, i made a part two of married in purple since you guys requested, so here you go!!

it's been a week since scaramouche told you of your marriage to him. how has it gone to this point, one may ask. well..

there is much mystery to it, because it's rare to see the balladeer be kind to someone, let alone his enemy.

since the moment scaramouche blatantly told you you're married to him, he's been nice—overly too polite at times. so who are you than his enemy not to abuse this kindness?

you knew you had to tell him the truth, though it'd be best to say once you're far from him; perhaps in a letter. however an hour turned into two, then twelve, then twenty, then a day, and now seven.

scaramouche's extensive kindness could have possibly caused you to stay longer. it was in good conscience to reveal the truth before seven days turned into thirty-one.

although, you ran into one problem in the duration of your fake marriage. you began reciprocating his kindness with your own. you initially thought that perhaps it's because he's being nice to you, but even when he'd scold you, the usual hatred wouldn't spark in your chest.

shit, am i starting to like this guy?

it was a fact that you started repaying scaramouche's acts of service, but that didn't mean you feel romantic attraction for the harbinger.

no, no, i don't. i can't. how can i when he's the enemy!

however, these simple acts continued beyond just requiting the things scaramouche does for you. now, it was your mission to tell your enemy the truth before your feelings for him got any deeper.

"scaramouche?"

"in here."

you enter the home office to see your fake husband reviewing fatui business via paperwork. sauntering further in, you take a quick glance at papers, pulling back to your original stance when scaramouche turns to you.

"what is it? i'm a bit busy at the moment." his tone is gentle, unlike the usual harsh voice he'd use with you afore.

nerves bloom in your stomach, in all honesty you didn't want to surrender this new lifestyle. so, what harm would come in lying for another week?

"nevermind, it's nothing. sorry for disturbing you."

heading for the door, you overhear the balladeer laughing to himself. you spin round and see him snickering, the paperwork long abandoned.

"what's so funny?" you ask.

"you really think i'm that clueless?"

the question makes you stiffen, and with your lack of response scaramouche continues on.

"i knew you didn't lose your memories. i knew all this time, but i played along–" he pauses, reeling in your expression with a smirk, "–'why?' you might ask. to put it simply, i felt an attraction towards you, and when the opportunity of you 'forgetting' presented itself, i took it."

it hits you, "so you used me?"

"precisely! i needed to know. so i experimented, and the results have been quite shocking."

you watch as scaramouche advances toward you, mind racing with mixed thoughts of the situation.

"you..." the puppet's voice seems closer, "feel the same attraction for me." now right by your ear, "don't you?"

"i don't." you gulp. scaramouche chuckles at your anxious demeanor. his fingers brush the blades of your shoulders ever so lightly, sending shivers down your spine.

"then how come when i touch you, you seem like you want more?" the query follows with a hand settling on your neck.

when you go to push the balladeer away, your body has other plans. scaramouche seems to notice the change and laughs.

"face it, you've fallen for me just as hard as i have for you."

product of its-weeping ;༊ | do not plagiarize or translate.

[marine-indie-gal]

The Sandy Cheeks Movie was such a Wasted Potential of a Disappointment, I knew that after seeing sooo many Critical Reviews of its Recent 4th Movie, it failed to become my Guilty Pleasure as it's defiantly My Least Favorite SpongeBob Movie out of the Films (even if we're getting a New Lore of the Cheeks Family with Redesigns like with Patrick).

Although while I do have mixed feelings on the Family Members getting Redesigned everytime a New Episodic Story shows up, I'm always open for closest inspiration for Fan Redesigning in the Near Future.

Anyway, since The Sandy Cheeks Movie was such a waste for Me (which I feel bad for one of the Characters for getting their own Spinoff after Patrick's), I'd figure why not draw something of a Twist based on SpongeBob's Recent Fairytale Adaptations in its Fairytale Anthology where if their Genderbend Snow White take had its own Prince (or should I say, "Princess" since Sponge is Snow White) if they were to replace the Seventh Dwarf Jellyfish with Somebody Else.

Ngl, I was kinda disappointed that their Snow White adaptation didn't feature the Love Interest type (since the Franchise's version is a lot better than whatever the Hell the Garbage Disney Remake will be), so I twist and turn Sandy into the Prince archetype (inspired by Classic Disney's Version, Florian). While I personally loved their Snow White retelling, I think it could've been Another Spandy episode.

SpongeBob SquarePants (c) Stephen Hillenburg & Nickelodeon

Snow White (c) Brothers Grimm

[c0ntr0l-c0re-angel]

Going off of what my dear friend said in the previous post, I also think there's a complicated problem with sirens. Further into the series, they're taken waaay too seriously, and not seriously enough at the same time. In the comics, there's this one siren who can control fauna on pandora. Cool as shit, she shows up to do something, and is just. gone. Granted the comics have mixed reviews, but even simple things with sirens like that can be cool.

There's certain logs in the post game of bl3 that treat one of the old sirens as if she has the power of a god. Lilith, after bl2 is also kinda treated this way.

They seem to go back and forth between trying to have her portrayed as human, but then put her up on a pedestal. They give her the credit for killing jack. No credit to Roland, or the vault hunters [not to mention the problems that Doglin mentioned before about not being willing to move past the bl1 vault hunters and on to the bl2 ones]. and treat her as the soul savior of the planet.

I like some of the mystery and subtle complexities of the first game, and i will say bl1 has definitely grown on me as I've grown with the series. Lilith's powers, along with the vault, is treated like myth more than fact. It leaves us with something to imagine, yes, Lilith is special, but she's human, even if she's more. She's something human, or close to it, WITH powers. She isn't just her powers. [Although her attributing her powers as a part of herself as a person is different, and a character thing opposed to story. Which I like.]

Either way I don't know how to wrap this up well, but sirens are obviously an important part of the lore. But they're using them as a story and world building crutch WAAAY too hard. To the point where it's robbing some of these really amazing women of the full individuality and creativity they could get as people with really cool powers.

[aerequets]

Hello again!

I was wondering if you had any spy x family fic recs that are twiyor centric? AUs? I’m having trouble finding ones that are what I’m looking for. Ratings don’t matter. Anything from G to E would be appreciated! Thank you!!

boy oh BOY do i have twiyor fic recs !!!! it's like basically all i read LMAO and i am always on a hunt for more. i feel like i have read through a good chunk of what's on ao3 and i still feel starved. there's always my bookmarks you can sift through for twiyor fics, but for some more curated recommendations (and this is not gonna include all the ones i've lost my mind over, that's far too many, this is just what i can remember off the top of my head):

the living blues by @nire-the-mithridatist

GOD it would be such an understatement to say i am a huge fan of not only this work but EVERY WORK by this author because SHE HAS A WAY WITH WORDS OKAY. i avoid angst like the plague but i saw the happy ending tag to this fic and IT DIDN'T DISAPPOINT (chapter 6 is gonna be an epilogue)!!!!!!! AUGHHH this isnt even a good review im just yelling but yeah this is really good and also pretty much everything else by this author, i'll say it now so this list doesn't have numerous fics by the same person just do yourself a favor and read through what she's got if you haven't already

rated T, 5/6 chapters, currently 14k words

(edit: completed!)

With Kid Gloves by crownofrosegold on ao3

4 words: Mr Darcy Hand Flex

rated G, 1/2 chapters, currently 2.5k words

(edit: completed!)

the most yearning, pining, longing fic ever with the least physical touch ever. loid traces yor's gloves in his pocket with his thumb and its somehow intimate. yeah

it's been a hot minute since it's updated but the first chap can kinda be read as a standalone (to me) which is why i rec, even though i personally only go after finished fics for my own sanity :^) also its just too darn cute how can i not

How to Be a Supportive Husband by @nemaliwrites

rated T, 1/1 chapters, 910 words

short and sweet drabble of the most simpiest loid post reveal. what more could you want

MISSION: Bottom Feeder by SilverSupa on ao3

rated T, 2/4 chapters, currently 9.5k words

this one is just too good and funny LMAOO yor and loid are Peak Stupid and also Peak Attracted To Each Other so it's just. mm good mix. this one's also been a hot second since it's last update but i love it too much so its on this list

even when we're not together (will you stay with me?) by JaMills on ao3

rated T, 1/1 chapters, 4.5k words

gosh this is another one of those super good reads that make you sit and think after you're done. soulmate AU where they swap bodies as children until they meet. personally i'm not the most dedicated reader of aus where yor and loid meet as kids, but the way its handled here is just so good and adds to the story. it's also part of a series and the next installment is equally as good. this is another one of those authors that has a lot of quality stuff (although there's a good dash of angst which i keep my distance from JKFHISDH) so look through their page!

Enough by Frotu on ao3

rated T, 1/1 chapters, 4k words

EHEHE THIS ONE HAS ME GIGGLING AND KICKING MY FEET FR it is soooo cute. typical thing of yors coworkers getting into her head, she asks loid if what they have is enough, and... well.... you can read what happens from there ;] (spoiler: it's very cute)

a dream in charmeuse by selfetish (@selfetishizing ) on ao3

rated T, 2/2 chapters, 12k words

oh gosh, the prose in this is just?? so insanely good??? its such a pretty read. this is twiyor, yes, but it's also a deep dive into femininity and yor's understanding/rediscovery of it. i remember the first time i read it the opening scene of the first chapter was just so GOOD to me, i was like OMG i am not gonna forget this this is so iconic AND IT IS!!!!! i love me a good yor centric fic. we usually get more of twilight contemplation (i mean he has got the whole mission thing going on and hes our resident overthinker so, understandable) but this was such a nice look into yor's..,, like, fundamental building blocks?? if that makes sense?? its just good ok read it

"The Five Times Loid Forger Went Topless In Front of His Wife and the One Time She Reciprocated" Or “Bare-Chested in Berlint” by Talik_Sanis on ao3

rated M, 6/6 chapters, 17.5k words

that title should tell you all you need to know right LMAOOO it's just yor being incredibly horny, like embarrassingly so. she lacks a grip

again this is just 8 fics, where my bookmarks list are over 200 (yeesh) so feel free to look through those. i've also got some fics, most of which are twiyor lmao (brainrot i told you). and don't forget to show these awesome authors some love!

[chasing-rabbits]

Prison Break recently got added to Netflix so I was like why not, I’d heard of it but never watched it at the time when it first came out but I thought yeah this looks good and then immediately got hooked and binged all 5 seasons. And then went down the rabbit hole looking up Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell and such and I saw they are going to be starring in a new show together which already sounds good so can’t wait for that to come out. I know the final season that came out years and years after season 4 finale was sort of mixed reviews but as someone bingeing it back to back I did like the sort of alternative ending for Michael. I also loved that they brought back the gang especially Sucre. I know they are planning to create a new show people keep calling it a season 6 but it’s not its prison break but a whole new cast from what I understand it won’t be any of the OG cast but just set in the same universe/world as the original Prison Break. Idk might watch it when it eventually comes out but I’m not typically a fan of that when shows get played out so long that they then have to move onto a ‘next generation’ because they’ve met their limit w/ the current characters storylines idk sometimes it can just feel like maybe just a little repetitive when shows do that sometimes but it could be done well so idk. I also cannot believe he is 52 actually none of the main cast really look their age. I also liked the surprise change in T-Bag in that final season and the twists with that too. I am almost tempted to start watching some of the DC stuff he’s been in even though I’ve not really watched anything from that before I mostly have just seen a lot of the marvel stuff over the years as that’s what Kade liked and he got me into it even then I’m not like on a level with die hards who know everything about the MCU. But I saw some GIFS on here when I was searching for prison break ones & the clips I did see looked good although I saw one saying he left after s1 because he didnt want to play straight characters anymore and then another one implying Snart was gay and they loved that he got to play a cunty gay villain so idk if one of those is wrong or they did switch him up to be gay cos of this who knows but I may just have to check it out. Side note I do keep seeing ads for The Penguin & it does look pretty good, but I kinda feel like with DC & MCU a lot of it feels like hard to get into if you dont already know the world its set in like Idk if I would’ve watched all of the marvel stuff if Kade hadn’t also given me extra info on the MCU I mean sure we’ve all watched some MCU & DC movies like come on who hasn’t but like not so much the shows so idk. Anyways I cannot wait to see more of Purcell & Miller together because I loved them as the brothers in Prison Break & I loved Prison Break I really like Schofield & Sucre’s friendship throughout the whole thing & as much as T-Bag is there to hate there was something to be said about how he always managed to survive like a cockroach I was for sure he was dead after he got his hand chopped off but nope he just kept on going til the end lol

[kozachenko]

I've crawled out of my cave after playing Final Fantasy IX for a long ass time what have I missed?

Artist's Notes:

I'M BACK BABY! A while back I made a post with a new style experimentation thingy but I ended up deleting it because it was just kind of a boring face thing, I was planning on doing more art but then I started playing Final Fantasy IX and uhhhh yeah so that game has kind of taken of my brain for the past two weeks and I am 20 hours into the game because I love it so much. I wanted to draw Vivi because Vivi is just really fun to draw ok? I've kinda been feeling really burnt out with my lineless style, mainly because of how hard it was to do lighting. I'll show one of my initial art style tests on the bottom of this post. Again, used to have it be an individual post but it was just one face so it was kinda boring, so might as well include with this one on the subject of art styles. I wanted to kinda mix some aspects of my older style with the sketchy shading lines with a more painterly way of doing the lighting (mainly in the shadows). All in all, I think that's my favourite part about this drawing, it feels nice to finally be able to do some proper lighting again, and I want to experiment even more with my lighting and rendering in future pieces. Also, part of the pant shading got kinda lost in the sketchiness, so for next time I'll probably focus on the clarity of the more sketchy parts of the drawing, since I did go with my initial sketch for the final drawing. I also gave up on the background since I had no idea what to do for it, and I didn't put too much detail into the staff as I forgot which one I gave him in my current playthrough and I didn't want to risk spoiling myself via looking up references, but that's ok I like how the singular yellow circle on it matches Vivi's eyes. Also I was having a bit of trouble figuring out how to draw his body and how to pose him, but I like how the pose turned out a lot. It was inspired by his idle animation when in a battle in game where he does a little shimmy.

Ok I need to talk about Vivi's design because I love it so fucking much oh my god-

I absolutely love how his face is just in complete shadow and only his eyes stand out, it's so cool and unique and I love how they recontextualized the original black mage design from the classic Final Fantasy games. How they did it I won't say because I don't wanna spoil the game, but someone give this poor baby a therapist because he goes through a lot. Actually, same can be said for all of the FFIX cast, they all need therapy (again, I won't spoil anything, please go play the game for yourself).

While I do love almost all the characters in the game, even though Vivi is most fun to draw, my favourite character has to be Zidane (the main protagonist of the game). He's a really fun protagonist, and they could have easily written him as a misogynistic jerk who doesn't respect women but they didn't, and I really appreciate that. He's just an overall cool dude who's a really nice older brother figure to Vivi and also just has a cool character design (who I also want to draw eventually). Initially in the game I was planning on grinding levels for Vivi to make him the tactical nuke of the party, but then that title went to a different character (who was initially multiple levels behind the group since I grinded the party in the starting area way to much before they joined, but now they are two levels ahead of everyone and have pulled the team through a lot of tough battles, again I won't say who it is because it is kind of a spoiler and the way the gameplay actually ties into their character arc is just so good omfg). Once I eventually finish the game I'll probably write a full review on here, so no spoilers until then lol

Also, I've kinda been burning out a bit with making Touhou art, which also made me a bit burnt out with Touhou stuff in general (although I will continue keeping up with the manga) so getting into other things (i.e. Final Fantasy and even Fallout since I've watched the first season of the TV show which is a whole other post for another day) has helped me refresh and given me something new to think about. I've ended up in the exact place I feared ending up, where I would start drawing fanart for it not because I wanted to but because I felt like I had to, so I'm taking a bit of a break. When I do draw Touhou fanart again I'll try to draw for the sake of myself, and to all the other artists and fanartists on this platform (and on any social media for that matter), take care of yourself and don't forget to take breaks when you need to!

(Ok part of that last paragraph was definitley influenced by the good ol' "it's 9:00pm and I need sleeb, but the message at the end still holds up, always take care of yourself)

Oh yeah, and here is that one style experiment I did btw

Man I really fell down the "Yoshitaka Amano art enjoyer" to "Final Fantasy fan" pipe line didn't I?

[masterjarthub]

Chuggington Headcanon: Rosa

Tonight, we'll be talking about Rosa, the Spanish crane chugger introduced in the 6th season episode "Not From Around Here" where she moves to Chuggington from her home of San Locomota, to try and find jobs that utilize her to her full potential, and in the end, she is recruited by Zack as part of the Chuggineers.

In my headcanon, Rosa never joined the Chuggineers.

The reasons for this is because with how many characters and locations were written off and Herschend's rather mixed writing quality and their overall depiction of the world of Chuggington, (I'm not normally much of the reviewer type, but that elephant in the room shall be covered some other time) It really feels like they were hastily scraping the bottom of the barrel with the choice of having Rosa join the Chuggineers...

Another thing to note:

Notice how the Chuggineers all match each other, Zack, Fletch and Tyne all have matching stripes and certain parts. Even Brewster has the Chuggineer attire to some degree, but Rosa does not. She still wears that brightly colored Carribean styled paint job.

Some of you fellow Chuggington fans who have been around a hot minute on the internet may remember user TranquilSkies, or on here, @chuggingtonfanatic , who is no longer active in the Chuggington fanbase as far as I'm aware, but around the time of S6, she used to write some headcanons for Chuggington herself, and I was greatly inspired.

In her headcanons for the Chuggineers, she mentions that Rosa turns down the Chuggineer livery in favor of her own, due to her still being very attached to her homeland. I very much see this being canon and while I agree that Rosa would have good character dynamics with the Chuggineers, having her part of this team just felt kinda forced and doesn't exactly sit right with me, especially since Fletch and Tyne were two of the characters cut from S6 and Rosa pretty much replaces them...

Now, I DO NOT mean to say this out of bias in any kind of offense, but I'm sorry- I... I just can't get over how trippy this feels... They did Fletch and Tyne dirty...

So now, this begs the question: If I am not having Rosa become part of The Chuggineers, what is her new job in Chuggington? Where will she go?

Well recently, I finally found the answer: An underused character, and an EXTREMELY underused location, both of which were ALSO absent from S6...

...Yeah, I think it's already safe to say I'm gonna have to post a re-write of "Not From Around Here" someday, as well as the other misfires from S6, but anyway, here's what happens:

In this re-write, the episode plays out mostly the same, albiet with more characters of course.

After caring passengers with Koko, Wilson, on his way to deliver extra safety barriers, shows Rosa the quarry of Rocky Ridge where Speedy is working, and she helps him with his work. After deciding hauling heavy stone is not for her, Brewster meets up with Rosa and asks for her help; The Chuggineers are repairing a wooden bridge in the countryside and need some timber, so Rosa offers to pick some up from The Timber Yard while Brewster is busy collecting ballast.

Little did she know, she would not only encounter a familiar face on the way, but a VERY close call as well...

As Rosa heads down from the quarry after getting directions to the Timber Yard from Brewster, she comes across Rocky Ridge Rickety Bridge, which is just before the quarry.

Speedy was coming out of the mine and crossing the old bridge with loaded hopper cars. Then there was trouble...

The weight of Speedy and his heavy stone cars made the old bridge sag and creak, and only after he made it safely across, a chunk of the bridge snapped off with a CRACK, about to crash down on another chugger!

Rosa rushed in and caught the falling wooden beams just in time. But when she saw who exactly the chugger she saved was, she could not believe her eyes...

The chugger was none other than Skylar, whose model was reused for Rosa. Although we've known him since the 3rd season, he unfortunately did not get much focus due to the advanced training update in S4-S5 before he was written out. Regardless, he and Rosa are indeed siblings.

Thankfully, Skylar was not hurt, and he and Rosa were very happy to be reunited after so many years. Skylar did live in San Locomota with Rosa for a period of time before going of to The Training Academy in Tootington, to pursue his career of becoming a trainer.

By this point in the show, the trainees of Chuggington would become less dependent of both Dunbar and Skylar as their trainers.

As we know, Wilson, Brewster and Koko have well already joined Chug Patrol, The Chuggineers, and Speed Fleet, respectively, and Hoot and Toot are recently promoted to advanced training as shunting engines in The Depot, giving Dunbar the extra set of wheels he needed. Even little Piper would have completed the basics of training and find her own role in Chuggington becoming a frequent helper for Mtambo at The Safari Park.

With the younger trainees needing less and less lessons from Dunbar and Skylar, Their time would go completely into their work. Skylar became The Timber Yard's designated chugger, which would explain his semi-regular usage after S3, since The Timber Yard has not been seen at all since the first season.

Rosa and Skylar head off together to The Timber Yard and load up the timber to take to The Chuggineers. It is then Rosa finds that she really enjoys working there - loading and pulling logs was the perfect job for a crane chugger, and even better, she had her own long lost brother to share it with; she had found just the right job for her in Chuggington at last!

The two set of with the timber for not one, but now two bridges in need of repair, catching up and Rosa getting to know The Chuggineers for the rest of the day, which raps up the episode.

To this day, Rosa and Skylar work happily together at The Timber Yard, and while neither of them are part of The Chuggineers, they do help them out with certain construction jobs around Chuggington from time to time, and become very close friends indeed.

Although Rosa can be a little shy around those she's not too familiar with, it doesn't stop her from proudly sharing her heritage of San Locomota with all her fellow chuggers who welcomed her with open arms, and her experience and knowledge from navigating complicated routes to keeping loads even does wonders.

She wasn't sure at first, but while she is indeed still attached to San Locomota, she can now safely say that she is proud to call Chuggington her new home.

(Oh, and before we close off, I should also mention that Rosa and Skylar's close call with the bridge was also based one of TranquilSkies's headcanons, so credit to her)

[periwinkla]

You know, whenever I need to lift my spirits, I like to remind myself that I actually almost lost an eye once. And there are few things worse than that for me I reckon- I mean, I guess losing both eyes would be a bit worse, but yeah. Basically: During my very first year of art school, I accidentally punched myself in the eye with an umbrella. Yeah.... right into the eye socket. I had just gotten to an event at art school (a watercolor workshop - would love to give a review, but alas I didn't end up attending), and I was sitting down and putting everything back in my bag. It had been drizzling, just a bit, so I had my umbrella to put back. And well... You know those push-the-button-to-open umbrellas? The ones who shoot up right as you push the button??? Yeah. Accidentally pushed the button as I was putting it back. It shot up. Punched me right into my left eye. And you know, I'm bizarre like that, and didn't emit a sound, I was just kinda. shocked. As I got my bearings, I just left the workshop room and went to the bathroom to assess the damage. I think literally no one noticed. Anyway, I couldn't open my eye very well... and I could only see white, like, completely white. Nothing else. Anyway, eventually I went to ask for help to the receptionist, and later a few of my coursemates eventually noticed, and also one of my professors, which seeing me bawling desperately at the idea of never being able to draw anything ever again, had the brilliance to remind me that 'there are one-eyed artists too, don't worry!' and then 'Also, for future reference, please remember to put your hand on top, like champagne bottles, ya know?' ...I'm not even joking. I mean he meant well, that earned a chuckle even - I have a weird sense of humor and he knew. I think I went through all stages of grief at that moment, although very out of order. First shock, then complete desperation, then anger at myself, and suddenly denial mixed with bargaining and I was like 'yea it's no big deal, I'll just go back home in a bit, no one has to know, my eye doesn't need to know either for that matter, it'll get better this is just a bad dream perhaps and I am being overdramatic'.

Well, the thing is, no matter how much you delude yourself, if you suddenly can't see, you can't very well exit a building and go back home like it's nothing, especially if your home is 2ish hours away... Even if it was just one eye, I wasn't able to open the other one very well, because of the pain. Also, even with the very little bit I could get open before it shot back closed on its own accord, I couldn't see well with the 'good' eye either. Anyway, at some point I realized I had to necessarily phone home, so that my mother could come and get me to my eye doctor (I had one because I had worn glasses till the year before when I got eye surgery). My doctor was miraculously in the area (he has multiple offices so thank the lord he was in that particular area). Tbh I have no idea what hour it was, on account of the fact I couldn't see and check the time, I only know it got to the evening (the event was in the afternoon). My doctor, my savior bless his soul, received us at the office at his apartment (I think it wasn't even a work day for him, but I dunno) checked the eye, gave me medicine right there on the spot, gave me other stuff for me to take at home and told me to let him know how I would be doing until a checkup we scheduled. At the checkup a few days after, he told me my eye looked greenish when he examined it the first time (tbh he didn’t appear to be worried about that fact but to be fair I couldn’t see so I can’t assess his bluffing skills to well) but he didn't tell me because he knew I would panic. Good call, he knows me too well. Anyway that very evening/night I was already doing much better. Not perfect, still had a white haze, but the pain had mostly subsided (suppose it was the medicine he gave me) and could do with at least the good eye open. It was good enough that I distinctly remember playing Pokémon UltraSun to distract myself and doing the wormhole minigame (I swear I remember the most useless facts about that day like it was yesterday). Couldn’t read a thing though. The day after, I was drawing again, my eyesight had gotten mostly alright and I just had some difficulty opening it completely on account of the black eye I got (it was. a very very black eye. goth makeup levels. A few days later, a classmate joked saying ‘you could say you got into a fist fight!’ ...I mean I kinda did. With an umbrella though. And the opponent wasn’t the umbrella really but my carelessness.) Anyway....point is… When you almost disable yourself for life of the organ you most care about because you're a careless dum-dum it puts things into perspective. I mean... I need to count my blessings, let’s be honest. If my doctor hadn't been in the area that day, I most certainly would be partially blind today/have very bad eyesight. I haven't owned any push-the-button umbrellas since then. Just to be safe, you know. As for champagne bottles, I don't drink, so there's no risk. Thanks for the warning though, teach. Moral of the story: Don't use push-the-button umbrellas.

[hellcatinnc]

My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! - Pirates of the Disturbance - Game Alan Stuart Review

Will Include Spoilers

Oh thank you creators for making this guy my type he is a sad boy/tsundere who is shy and blushes alot and is easily flustered. This is the kinda guy that I'm sweet on easy. From his greyish/white hair to the way he wears his sexy earrings... yeah Alan is my guy in this game. Rozy still has me curious though so we shall see. Anyways Alan is a good guy to the point he is always worried about hurting his brother if he was to let Catarina know he loved her. Its funny because he didn't even realize he loved her until she got sick then he realized a world without her he just couldn't live in. I also respect him cause as soon as he knew he was in love with her he went straight to Mary to call off the engagement they had. I mean she didn't want to at the moment until they could be with the person they wanted then she said she would bow out.

He is just so protective of Catarina, like when they get attacked by pirates he is willing to fight to his death if nothing but to keep her safe. He is a prince but he never lets it get to his head, he is still same boy that grew up with her. He picks on her about not being lady like and all but at the same time these are the things he loves about her more. He is adorable when he realizes she kissed him by accident. He gets on her and seems mad when she does something that can hurt her but I honestly feel like its to prevent from breaking down. He finally gets through to her how he feels and even in his last fight with Frederic I was so not expecting him to push her back and catch the sword with his hand. Like seriously dude is bleeding out yelling at Frederic that he will not let him harm Catarina cause she is the only on the matters to him and she is important. That was such a declaration of love that should make most girls swoon.

The CG's were beautiful in Alan's route and I really love how both of them eventually expressed their love for each other it was so sweet especially with blushing Alan awww he is always swoon worthy. I love in best happy ending they end up engaged though. I hated how Mary and Geordo made them wait almost a year to be together because everyone else selfishness of wanting her. I do love Geordo was willing to let her be happy with Alan however I agree with Alan his last words may have sounded nice but he was practically saying my brother fucks up and I will be there. I love his special show he puts on for her in the lounge as well. I don't know everything about this couple I love and I love Alan so much.

The alternate ending with Mary abducting her was plain creepy. I mean I always knew the bitch was psycho but she really proved it now. She would rather kidnap Caterina than let her be with the man she loves that was sickening to watch. The sweet love story in the mix of Ryle and Liliana was sweet to watch unfold as well. I hate on good ending although together its more in secret because Caterina has yet to call off her engagement to Geordo. Plus on this ending when she told Geordo he wanted more time he sounded more selfish in this part cause he made it sound like he didn't believe Alan could make her happy. I dont see how this was a good ending because Caterina talks about Alan being a dunce and not sure she romantically loves him. The doom ending being killed by Frederic was anticlimactic though if it was a doom ending would be more entertaining.

Alan really is a special kinda guy and I would say he is like tsundere, meets sad boy, meets best friend/big brother trope. He is a bit of them all and every interaction I had with him was either sweet, intimate, or I could feel how much he cared. I posted alot of his pictures but some of the things he says is even sweeter take a look at the video its the last scene where they announce their love. If your ok with the spoiler you will see how adorable they really are together.

[berylgrace]

final episode review

this show has been... a rollercoaster to say the least. some thoughts (good and bad) under the cut.

the fight with ares... loved seeing percy come into his own wrt his power, wish the fight had lasted longer than literally thirty seconds... i know the idea was drawing first blood but that scene made it look easy, which it WASN'T, because he's the GOD OF WAR

olympus looked really cool

love love loved the poseidon scene, which surprised me after i was so disappointed by ep7. although it was a weird choice to have him just immediately come in and surrender, i guess we're going with the angle that he trusts percy enough to know there are bigger things at stake. still kinda weird for a prideful god tho

it's more afterwards that i enjoyed. as i said to @posallys literal minutes ago, he tells percy that the sea does not like to be restrained, while the two of them have an exchange that reads, very emotionally, as two people trying their absolute HARDEST to restrain themselves: poseidon being bound by godly rules and unable to say directly what he wants to, and percy holding back on asking the questions he's wanted to ask his entire life, being respectful, calling him sir

mixed feelings about the luke thing. i liked the atmosphere of the scene, the fireworks and celebratory vibe juxtaposed against the darkness and percy being alone with luke, but the way it played out didn't make sense. he (and annabeth) were certain it was clarisse, and had no reason to suspect luke, but we had a case of "inexplicably percy knows everything" yet AGAIN as he just... connects the dots? except there WERE NO DOTS TO CONNECT?

luke's explanation being that he didn't report clarisse bc of her supporters and needing proof - completely believable! absolutely no reason to question that.

which brings me to annabeth being there. she's supposed to be keeping an eye on clarisse, so what prompted her to follow percy and luke to the woods instead? she trusts luke, she doesn't trust clarisse. make it make sense

thankfully i don't think this will affect her defense of luke because although she heard it all (...okay), luke attacked after percy mentioned hermes. annabeth had already warned him about that, going as far as to shut off the iris message before he could mention him. so i guess in her mind she can justify the attack that way (unlike she would've been able to with the scorpion but... rip that i guess) and still believes luke is good, just misguided

"I'm here to recruit," line went hard as FUCK

the bait and switch with the sally reunion only to turn into kronos? that was rude to do to me at 2am. did not see it coming. kinda cool

postcredits with gabe just... everyone else has said it better yeah but the whole point is that sally CAN'T divorce gabe, this is her only way out without being completely ruined financially, it just takes away so much from her character. like? if she could've divorced him all that time why didn't she? i know abusive relationships are complex and people stay for certain reasons but sally only stays bc she cannot leave financially. he literally had to DIE and her to sell the statue in order to barely afford living on her own (bc in SOM, percy talks about how they struggle with money, and the skateboard shop is a treat)

so... out of 10 i would give this show like, a 5. it was just frustrating at times, paced weirdly, and i would like to see a season 2 and hope for improvements. also a big shoutout to leah's hair at the very end?? so cute i nearly cried

[martinshep]

Intro post!!

󠁗󠁨󠁯󠀠󠁵󠁰󠀠󠁷󠁵󠁮󠁧󠁬󠁩󠁮󠁧󠀠󠁴󠁨󠁥󠁹󠀠󠁨󠁯󠁧󠁻󠁷󠁵󠁮󠁧󠁬󠁥󠀠󠁴󠁥󠁸󠁴󠀠󠁥󠁮󠁤󠁳󠀠��󠁥󠁲󠁥󠁽Hi I go by Martin, Shep, or Riley (they/them, but it/its to friends) I'm 21 and from Australia.

Autistic with ADHD, huge nerd. Agender anthro dog therian!

I make art on @martinshepart

Make sure to check out my alterhuman dictionary project here!

All my posts or reblogs where I say something are tagged #martin originals

More details under the cut!

Martin Schäfer

★★★★☆ Reviews (4)

★★★☆☆ arrived with no issues but item is kinda mid

★☆☆☆☆ would not shut up about languages

★★★★★ would not shut up about languages

★★★★★ very good dog arrived in good condition

Item condition:

Slightly damaged, still working

I'm autistic and ADHD and still struggling with executive dysfunction. Still learning how to recover from being a former gifted kid and never learning how to socialise. If I'm being annoying or obnoxious please tell me!

Agender because I do not understand gender, although unsure if it's just the human concept of gender I don't understand.

Therian and transpecies! Specifically an anthro german shepherd mix border collie, possibly with some other herding dogs in there. I also identify a lot with becoming a virtual/uploaded consciousness? Not sure what to call that. Also I'm thesean. If you don't know what that is here's my post about it.

Demisexual and platoniromantic/flectic. Not exact labels but the closest I can get without using an encyclopaedia worth of text to describe myself.

I'm an artist and I'm open for commissions! Check out the pinned post on @martinshepart for details!

Tags

#martin originals - all my posts where I say/ask a thing #poked beast - asks answered by me #martinshep's art - my visual art #martinshep's music - my auditory art #martinshep's languages - my languages related art

Other blogs

@martinshepart - my art blog, I put all my art there @martin-schaefer - my alt nsfw blog that I'll probably rarely use

Current special interests and hobbies:

(Note my knowledge of any of these is not as exhaustive as most people's)

Illustrated art

Cartography

History (esp cultural and economic)

Linguistics (esp lexicography and orthography)

Semiotics

Cosmology

Quantum mechanics and general relativity

The most horrid music you can imagine (breakcore, mashcore, dariacore, dancecore)

3D modelling

Fursuit making

Kandi bracelets

Game design/dev (once I get my shit together and learn C#)

Music making

Furgonomics

4D games

Languages I know, am learning, or am planning to learn:

If you speak one of the languages I'm learning and are willing to help me out please let me know :D

English - I'm a native speaker and specifically speak australian english

Auslan - Taking classes on it and soon will be taking a tafe course on it.

Toki pona - mi kama sona, kepeken tenpo suli. mi pilin e ni: sona toki pona mi lon meso. (I'm learning, slowly. I think I'm at an intermediate level.)

Hindi/हिंदी - मैं बुनियादी हिंदी वाकयों बोला सका। मैं कोश में शब्द मिलना बहुत अक्सर। (I can say simple sentences. I have to look up words in the dictionary very often.)

German/Deutch - Ich kennen en bisschen deutch, aber jetzt ich lernen nicht. (I know some german, but I'm no longer learning it.)

Dutch/Nederlands - Ik spreek een beetje nederlands. Dezelfde als duits echter. (I speak some dutch. Same as german though.)

Spanish/Español - Estudiaba español. Sé mucho poco. (I'm learning spanish. I know very little.)

Croatian/Hrvatska - Still getting around to learning the basics.

I also want to learn arabic and mandarin at some point but I'm waiting until I'm learning fewer languages.

Me↓ (art by snowflake-sage)

Me↑ (art by snowflake-sage)

Feel free to message me if you want to hang out in vrchat, infodump to me, get help with art or 3d modelling, lust over my fursona, or just chat! I'm an attention whore so don't think you're bothering me!

I also have a discord server:

I like to listen to fucked up horrible awful music

Here's a google doc (currently under renovation) with a bunch of recommendations that's still a work in progress, I plan to add more to it as time goes on too

I'm like a year late to make this but whatever

[esperr]

My thoughts on the new trolls movie (me ranting about trolls 3 for way to long)

Disclaimer: I am aware this is just a kids movie and it’s not supposed to be a cinamatic masterpiece. I am mostly just writing this for my own entertainment

I absolutely love doing these movie reviews, my first one being on the nimona move (I will link it at the bottom for anyone who is interested)

Now I will start this off by saying that I did NOT watch the 2nd trolls movie so some of the plot holes I might mention in this post could be things I missed because of that, but most of these are specific to this particular movie

The first thing I noticed are the many inconsistencies, such as when Gristle gets his eyebrow pulled off but only a second later he is shown with both eyebrows fully in-tact. Although, the main problem I have with this movie in in fact NOT the inconsistencies, so I will leave those at that.

At the begging of the movie we see branch as a baby. His family is separated and he is left with his grandmother who is eventually eaten by a Bergen. After this is the wedding scene. During this scene poppy expresses how badly she wishes she had a sister. This whole bit of dialogue just seems so forced. It’s as if the writers were trying to figure out how to make a movie centered around branch about poppy. This is where we get into the main thing I disliked about this movie: The sheer amount of side plots.

The first side plot we run into is poppy’s yearning for a sister. We then see her father grimace and it is extremely obvious right off the bat that she most definitely has one. This was definitely a VERY strange choice considering this movie is supposed to be about branch finding HIS family members. Adding poppy’s sister into the mix is just completely unnecessary and it adds nothing to the movie overall. It essentially just takes away from the main focus of the movie, confusing the viewer.

The second side plot we run into is Tiny diamond wanting to seem grown up. This is just even more unnecessary. Like it’s ok to explore different characters in a movie but REALLY? Why him out of every character? Not to mention that despite trying to “explore” his character, we learned absolutely nothing new about him. They could have instead used this time to explore branch and his brothers a bit more, but alas we are left with these bland brothers who lack personality.

Once poppy finds her sister we run into yet ANOTHER side plot. Poppy’s sister and the other trolls that live in this area are still afraid of the bergens. This honestly just felt like filler at this point as it was a conflict that was already resolved in the very first movie. It felt extremely forced and again took attention away from the actual plot.

Although this movie is about branch and his brothers most of the screentime is used up on little things that barely add anything to the movie. So much in fact that the antagonists BARELY FEEL LIKE THEYRE THERE. Like honestly I forgot they even existed because they have so little screentime. They also tried to give vaneer a redemption arc but failed miserably. They essentially just showed us that he kinda has a little bit of remorse and that’s it. ALSO NOT TO MENTION ONE OF BRANCHES BROTHERS RANDOMLY HAVING A CHILD WITH ANOTHER SPECUES WHAT WAS THAT?? he also just left his wife with all of his children and no help?? Husband of the year award definitely goes to this guy…

The very last thing I found annoying about this blue was when branches brother died and came back to life in the same 2 minutes. They didn’t even have time to shed a single tear because right away he was straight back to life. His death didn’t even matter at that point. They didn’t even have time to use some power of love and family trope because he was alive again just like that.

This brings us to our very last sideplot that did not make sense: just when you think the movie is finally over branch randomly decides to announce that he was also in another band and these random sparkly trolls walk in out of NOWHERE for NO REASON. WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THIS?? WHAT WAS THAT?? JUST WHY?? Why?? I CANT WCEN ?? WHAT??

When watching this movie I kept thinking to myself: why didn’t they instead use all this time to explore the brothers and backstories or give velvet and vaneer ACTUAL arcs and personalities. But alas we can’t have everything

I barely scratched the surface of how absolutely Absurd this movie was in this post, but if I all about trolls 3 for any longer I think I just might lose my mind. If you made it this far I applaud you. You are very brave

[mikunology]

Mikunology Reviews: Boku wa Hatsune Miku to Kiss wo Shita (2013) (Pt.2)

Alright, here we are with Part 2, where I will chat about the album's second half! Let's get to it!

Part 1 here

Ii, Er Fanclub: I think anyone who vaguely knows of Mikito has heard this one, if it's not ROKI. XD This is another more goofy, fun track about Rin and Gumi being fans of Chinese culture. And I love it! It's a great song, the back-and-forth between Rin and Gumi is so fun to sing along to - the inclusion of actual Chinese words is really fun as well. The drums are great here too. There's not really much I can say on this one that isn't just regular praise?? I highly recommend checking out it's PV by the wonderful Yori and Ryuusee! (Actually, I do have one comment I want to make: unpopular opinion, but I like this original Rin & Gumi version a lot more over Giga's Miku & Len mix. The goofy charm of the original song just jives with me more, although Giga's tuning is stellar.)

Wednesday Blue: This is another remaster, this time of one of Mikito's much older Miki originals. This is more typical rock'n'roll-style track, and it's a bit noisier than Mikito's usual fare. Unfortunately, I do think it's my least favorite on this album: it's a bit…all-over-the-place, compared to Mikito's later work? The Miki vocals are clearer and a bit better than the original NND upload, but they're still notably clunky in some places which can kinda take me out of the song. That said, the song as a whole isn't bad or anything, and it's actually pretty catchy after a few listens - it's just kinda clear this song was written by a less experienced Mikito. (Not to poke fun - everyone starts somewhere!)

Setsuna Plus (Momentary Plus): And here we are, back to Miku Dark again. This song is a bit more abstract in terms of lyrics, I think, but I still find myself coming back to it. There's not much I can say about this one either, honestly? Other than that it's good and that I like it - it has that usual great atmosphere again. However, I do have a slight criticism, I think - as much as I love the way Miku sounds here, I think this song could have done with a bit more powerful vocal instead, after hearing a few covers with characters like Amaga Eru (who can be pretty loud in her base voicebank).

Sarishinohara (Distant Fields): I remember not being too keen on this track at first for some reason? I don't know what was up with me because this song is really lovely XD This is a rock song about the forbidden love between a boy and his best friend and classmate, who has become an idol (and since idols can't date, she can no longer see him). There's such a tragic, melancholic feel to this song that really gets across the pain the boy is in, both in that he can no longer be with the girl despite her being "everywhere", in a sense, both in the instruments and in Miku Dark's vocals. Personally, I find this to be my favorite in the "Sarishinohara" trilogy, since 1) I think the melody is a bit easier to get into compared to the others and 2) just the sheer vibes.

Secret DVD: Ah, this one…the spicy one. A more straightforward rock track with a bit more "vanilla" Miku voice instead of Miku Dark, about doing sexy things. I actually like this one quite a bit despite the mature subject matter - it is pretty catchy, and the guitars are really good here. There's a part in the second verse where there's a harp-like strum and it's really satisfying. I also gotta say, something I always appreciated about Mikito's more sexual songs is that they're usually written in a manner that actually makes the act sound romantic rather than…well, you know. XD (*looks at REOL and Umetora*) I recommend this one for the music alone even if you're not into the song lyrically.

Salad Banya Cauda: Now for something completely different! XD This is one of the very few completely album-exclusive tracks, since I believe all of the tracks on this list have been released with PVs with the exception of this and Gariben Hirose no Shouri. This isn't really a rock track at all - it's a cute little folksy-type song with more acoustic instruments and simple Miki vocals (with the exception of some electric guitar between verses). I like it, though! It's a cute song, it makes you feel like marching through some sunny trees to find some berries or some adventure. However, I do think it can come as a surprise given the vibe of literally everything else. I think you might enjoy it, still!

Gariben Hirose no Shouri (A Geek's Huge Victory): OK, back to rock - this is the other completely album-exclusive track, and honestly? I've come to like it quite a bit. It has that signature nice Mikito J-rock vibe, with some lovely Gumi tuning to go with it. There's not much I can say about it that I haven't said for other songs on this CD, though? Just more of the same good stuff, I suppose. XD However, I really like the end part, where Gumi starts singing some "lalala"'s - something I like about Mikito's rock songs is that some of them feel like they could be played at the end of movies or as ending themes to anime episodes, and this is definitely one such song with the way it plays out.

Sayoko: Ah, this is another famous one. Sayoko is a soft J-rock track about severe depression, and once again uses Miku Dark - I think this is a really brilliant use of her, though, it really fits the song's theme since Miku sounds so melancholic and tired here. The melody is again a bit more understated, but it also really fits. I'm running out of things to say about the music itself XD I really think this song has a great calming vibe to it, despite the sad lyrics…I think someone could find it a great comfort, especially if you relate (like me!).

kiss: Finally, the last track, and the single collaboration on this CD: featuring the great Vocarock producer keeno! Together, he and Mikito form Mikeeno! (I love it when producers do that.) Predictably given their respective work, this is a slow, calm rock ballad about love. Now, I'm not the hugest fan of rock ballads? But I really love this one: the lyrics are really sweet and wistful, the lead guitar is perfect and Miku Dark returns to the gentle sound usually associated with both these producers. If you really like songs like "glow" or the slower songs I've already talked about on this album, you'll definitely love "kiss".

And that, my pals, is the whole CD! Yeah, all in all, for a first album, I think this is an amazing start for Mikito-san and an absolute must-listen if you are an enjoyer of Vocarock. Sure, he isn't the hard-rocking 164 or Utsu, but the soft and atmospheric yet fun and lively tunes by Mikito are incredibly worth hearing. Thanks for reading my first album review, please let me know if you enjoyed it ;v;

now if only I could get this album physically orz