#and also because when i open my folder; if I have smaller ones; even with the max zoom; i still cant really see what icon it is

[vastnbeyond]

/ The pain of deciding icon sizes....

[remxedmoon]

your friends don’t know what to do.

so!! i redrew every single enemy in the game. in the span of like 9 days (excluding the king i made him right after the last update). that’s abbbout 79* drawings total, with only 3 custom ones for once!! i’m so normal. as always, these are free to use with credit!! go nuts!! spritesheets are included <3

got some notes under the cut, along with As Many Enemies As I Could Fit without making this post obnoxiously long. and i failed. i had to swap between the app and browser several times and i still couldn’t fit every drawing. open this post at your own risk (silly).

okay so first of all. what’s with the asterisk. well. I Drew A Lot More Than 79 Assets Actually. they’re getting posted separately, because this post is ABSURDLY long. you can find most of them in the miscellaneous folder, but for a bit of clarity, i added the teleport map and a bunch of ui elements that reference sprites from the icon sheet. and also the game over and loop back animations but i haven’t finished the spritesheets for those because they’re a pain in the ass so they’re not in the drive yet

if you missed my complaining a few days ago, a few enemies might look a bit crunchy in the actual game? specifically, calamité and désespoir were drawn at the wrong size, because their images in the files do not match the spritesheets! i avoided the issue with most of the other enemies, those two just blindsided me. sorry about that!

^sadnesses having inconsistent designs was actually a running theme with these. détresse rock has an unused design in the files (which i managed to catch before having to redo it thankfully), anxiété has extra spikes that don’t appear on the spritesheet (sorry i was too lazy to fix that one), even the version of the friend rescue in the files doesn’t match any of the frames in the spritesheet. hfjfhfj. sorry about the quality issues.

tangentially related to that, massive thank you to @riggedbones for grabbing the individual frames for the animations for me!! they made my life so much easier. vs friends would’ve been so annoying…

speaking of the animations! hi can you tell i’m not an animator. these were my first time doing Anything animation related since, like, middle school. super sorry for the Jank in some of these! the friend rescue looked way better when i drew it 💔💔.

bourdon’s hands also might act a bit odd, my apologies. the sizing ingame is SUPER inconsistent (why is one of the hands SMALLER than the other????). once i’m able to actually test the mod, i’ll try to fix it wauaua.

the 3 custom sprites are for the triplets! i ended up making two versions for each, one that follows the ingame art, and one with my personal designs for them. i like my own designs for them, but they’re a lot easier to tell apart? so if you want to use the ones that fit the gimmick better, they’re also in the drive 👍

this update. was originally going to have way more custom art. i’ve actually got an act 6 siffrin enemy asset in my art program! but school started and i decided it’d be better to just get the normal stuff done. so the mod can actually come out in a reasonable timeframe. promise that’ll all come out Later! sorry about the wait 😓😓😓

also adding this because i almost forgot: no i don’t know if these are compatible with sasasaap. i don’t have the game still and it’s not my main priority atm, apologies!

okay! that was a lot! and there’s a ton of art down here! thank you for reading all this, i’ll be back with the game over animations and teleport map pretty soon! like. within the weekend. enjoy!!!

[userpeggycarter]

COLORING + SHARPENING TUTORIAL

someone asked for a coloring tutorial and my sharpening settings, so here it is! there are also a few tips to achieve more HQ gifs. :)

tutorial under the cut!

FOR HIGH-QUALITY GIFS

FILE SIZES

it doesn’t matter what your sharpening settings are if the file you’re using to gif is too low quality, so i tend to look for the best that i can get when downloading stuff. 

usually, movies (+2h) look better if they’re 5GB or more, while an episode (40 min/1h) can look good with even 1GB. the minimum definition i try to find is 1080p, but i gif with 2160p (4k) when available. unfortunately, not every computer can handle 4k, but don’t worry, you can gif with 1080p files just fine if they are big enough. contrary to popular belief, size does matter! which means sometimes a bigger 1080p file is better than a smaller 2160p one, for example.

SCREENCAPPING METHOD

this can too influence the quality of your gifs. as a gifmaker, i’ve tried it all: video frames to layers, directly opening video clips, loading files into stack, and i’ve finally settled down with opening screencaps as an image sequence. with bigger files, it doesn’t matter much what technique you use, but i’ve noticed with smaller files you can do wonders if you screencap (either by loading files into stack or opening as an image sequence) instead of using video clips. for example, this gif’s original video file was only 4GB (so smaller than i’ve usually go for), if you can believe it!

here’s a tutorial for setting up and screencapping with MPV, the media player i use to screencap. again, you can keep using video clips for bigger files, but you’ll find this useful when dealing with dire causes. i don't file loads into stack, though, like the video does. i open as an image sequence (open > screencap folder > select any image > click the image sequence button). just select OK for the speed. this will open your screencaps as a video clip (blue bar) in timeline mode (i'm a timeline gifmaker, i don't know about you). you will need this action pack to convert the clip into frames if you're a frames gifmaker. i suggest you convert them into frames even if you're a timeline gifmaker, just convert them into a timeline again at the end. that way you can delete the screencaps right away, otherwise you will delete the screencaps and get a static image as a "gif".

ATTENTION if you’re a Mac Sonoma user, MPV won’t be an option for you unless you downgrade your system. that is, if you have an Intel chip. if you have M1 Max chip (or even a better one), here’s a fix for MPV you can try while keeping that MacOS, because nowadays MPV is skipping frames in its latest build. or you can use MPlayer instead for less hassle. here are two tutorials for setting and using MPlayer. Windows users are fine, you can use MPV without trouble.

FOR EVEN MORE QUALITY

ADD NOISE

here’s a tutorial for adding noise as a way to achieve more HQ gifs if your original material is too low quality.

REDUCE NOISE WITH CAMERA RAW

instead of adding noise, you can reduce it, especially if your gif is very noisy as it is. 

the path is filter > camera raw > detail > nose reduction. i do this before sharpening, but only my video file isn't great to begin with. because it’s a smart filter, you can reduce or increase its opacity by clicking the bars next to its name in the layers panel.

TOPAZ AI

i use Topaz Photo AI to increase the quality of my screencaps when i need to. it’s paid software, but there are… ways to find it for free, usually on t0rrent websites. if someone’s interested, i can make a tutorial solely about it in the future.

SHARPENING SETTINGS

here are my sharpening settings (filter > sharpen > smart sharpen). i sharpen things twice: 500% 0.4px + 10% 10px. here's an action for it, for more convenience. here's a tutorial on how to use Photoshop actions. for animated stuff, i use this action pack.

COLORING

here’s the gif i'm gonna use as a base. it’s already sharpened like the way i always do it.

LIGHTNING THE SHOTS

half of the secret of a good coloring is good lightning. i always useCurves (layers > new adjustment layer > curves) and Brightness & Contrast (layers > new adjustment layer > brightness & contrast). the settings depend on the scene you’re giffing, but i always try make my gifs bright and with high contrast to make the colors pop.

CURVES

besides lighting your scene, the Curves adjustment layer has four automatic options that will color-correct it for you. it’s not always perfect and it doesn’t mean you won’t need to do further coloring, but it’s a great start. it’s a lifesaver for most ridiculously yellow scenes. look at the difference! this gif uses the 3rd automatic option (the screenshot below isn't mine btw so that's why the fourth option is the chosen one), from top to bottom. what automatic option you need to choose depends on the gif.

sometimes i like to tweak my Curves layer. not everybody does that, it’s not that necessary and if you’re not careful, it can screw your gif up. to modify your layer by hand, you will need to click and drag points of that straight line in the position you desire. this is the concept behind it:

basically, the lower part of the line handles the shadows, while the upper part handles the highlights of the image. if you pull a highlight point up, the image’s highlights will be brighter. if you pull it down, it will make them darker. same thing for the shadow points. you should play with it to get a grasp of it, that’s what i did when i first started giffing.

BRIGHTNESS & CONTRAST

then i added a bit of brightness and contrast.

CHANNEL MIXER

the scene looked a bit too yellow, so i used the Channel Mixer (layer > new adjustment layer > channel mixer) adjustment layer. here’s a tutorial of how it works. not every scene needs the Channel Mixer layer though, i mostly use it to remove heavy overall tints. in this particular case, the Curves layer got rid of most of the yellow, but i wanted the gif to be just a bit more blue so the Channel Mixer tweaks are very minimal.

SELECTIVE COLOR

now, this adjustment layer i always use: Selective Color (layer > new adjustment layer > selective color). this is THE adjustment layer to me, alongside the Curves one. this is how it works:

ie, you can separately edit a color this way, giving it tints. for this gif, i wanted to make the colors more vibrant. to achieve that, i edited the selected colors this way:

for the reds, i added even more red in them by moving the first slider to the right, making the color more vibrant. for his hat to have a more warm tint, i added yellow to the reds (third slider, moving it to the right). finally, to make the reds stronger, i moved the last slider to the right (more black).

for the yellows, i made them brighter by adding white to them, thus making the tile wall and Paddington more bright as well.

for the cyans and the blues, i just added the maximum (+100) of black that i could.

i wanted for Paddington's nose to be brighter, so i added more white to the whites.

lastly, i added depth to the blacks by increasing their own blackness.

you should always play with the Selective Colors sliders for a bit, before deciding what you want or need. with time, you will automatically know what to change to correct the color grading. it all takes practice!

HUE/SATURATION

i don’t know if you noticed, but there are some green spots on the blue wall behind Paddington. to correct that, i added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (layer > new adjustment layer > hue/saturation) and made the saturation of the greens 0%, making that unwanted green disappear from the background.

while the green spots on the wall are specific for this gif, i use hue/saturation a lot to tweak, well, hue and saturation. sometimes someone’s skin is too yellow, i made it redder by tweaking the reds and the yellows, or vice-versa. the hue bar follows the rainbow bar, so the maximum settings (+100 and -100) give the selected color to change its hue to something more red or pink (the rainbow extremities). changing hue can give pretty whacky results, like turning someone’s skin tone to green, so you will need to play with it to get the hang of it. you can also tweak the opacity of your hue/saturation layer to further improve your gif’s coloring. i didn’t do it in this case, the opacity is still 100%. the reds and the blues had their saturation increased to make them pop just a bit more, without affecting the other colors.

COLOR BALANCE

the highlights of the gif still had a green tint to it due to the automatic correction of the Curves layer, so i used Color Balance. this is how it works: instead of giving specific colors some tints, you can give them to the shadows, highlights, and mid-tones. if your shadows are too blue, you counterbalance them with the opposite color, yellow. same thing with the cyan-red and magenta-green pairings. in my case, i added a bit of magenta.

B&W GRADIENT MAP

now, if this gif was a dish, it’s time for the salt and pepper. i always add a Gradient Map (layer > new adjustment layer > gradient map) (black to white gradient) with the Soft Light blending mode, thus giving my shadows more depth without messing with the mid-tones and highlights. it also doesn’t “deep fry” (you know those memes?) the gif too much by adding even more contrast. usually, the opacity of the layer is between 30% to 70%, it all depends on the gif. it always does wonders, though!

COLOR FILTER

finally, i like to add Color Filters (layer > new adjustment layer > color filter) to my gifs. it’s very handy when giving different scenes for the same minimalistic set because it makes them kind of match despite having completely different colors. in this gif’s case, i added a “deep blue” filter, opacity 50% density 25. you can change the density and the opacity of the layer for further editing, again, it all depends on the gif.

VIBRANCE

if i feel like it, i add a vibrance layer (layer > new adjustment layer > vibrance) to make the colors pop. this can ruin your coloring sometimes, especially when regarding skin color, so be careful. i didn't do it in this gif because i felt i didn't need it.

TA-DA! 🥳

AN OTHER EXAMPLE

the color grading of the original scene it’s pretty good as it is, to be honest. let’s see a worse scenario, a VERY yellow one:

no channel mixer this time because the automatic curves option dealt with the yellowness, but you can see it made the gif too green. i needed to correct that with the following adjustment layers:

curves (automatic option) (gif 2) >> same curves layer (tweaks) (gif 3) >> brightness & contrast (gif 4) >> hue/saturation (tweaked cyan+blue+green) >> selective color >> color balance (gif 5) >> b&w gradient map >> (sepia) filter >> vibrance (gif 6)

i added a hue/saturation layer to remove the blues & greens before my selective color layer because i thought that was more urgent than tweaking the tint of all colors. color balance (gif 4) was the real hero here, though, by removing the green tint. the selective color layer was meant to make the red pop more than anything else, because the rest looked pretty good, especially her skin tone (despite the green tint). you can notice that tweaking the curves layer (small gif 3) also helped A LOT with the green problem.

tl;dr 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

here's a list of my go-to's while coloring and lightning gifs. it's not a rule, just a guide. there are gifs in which i don't use all these adjustment layers, or use them in a different order. it all depends!

1. curves (automatic option + tweaks) 2. brightness & contrast 3. channel mixer 4. selective color 5. hue/saturation 6. color balance 7. b&w gradient map 8. color filter 9. vibrance

i'll suggest that you study each adjustment layer listed for more info, either with other Tumblr tutorials or YouTube ones. the YouTube ones focus on images, but you can translate what they teach to gif making very easily. you can ask me to further explain any adjustment layer, too! i was brief to keep this short (which i kinda failed lol).

feel free to ask me for clarification or something else about gifmaking wise, i always like to help. ❤️

[tommykinard]

Your gif blending skills are *chefs kiss* so, so good! Any tips/tricks you could maybe give for a seamless blending? Thank you! 💕

Thank you for the kind message!! I'd be happy to share how I blend my gifs! I did a basic blending tutorial here that just covers how to put two gifs on top of each other on the same canvas, but I can explain more about how I clean up my blends and make them seamless.

The key components are black brushes, the eraser tool, and layer opacity

So the below gif is what I get when I simply put my two gifs on top of each other and position them the way I want, but I want it to look a bit cleaner.

This is how I have my gifs set up, with the gifs and the colourings within separate folders (b for Buck on the left, and t for Tommy on the right).

And this is what it looks like when I open up one of those folders.

Now when I blend, I add a new layer within each folder on top of all the colouring layers, (the layer blend mode is set to normal), and I do the same thing in the Buck folder

Painting with black brushes

So now I use a big, soft, black brush to paint on this new layer I created. Wherever I paint is the area I hide. Since I'm starting in the Tommy folder, I'm going to paint over the areas from the Tommy gif that cover Buck, so that these areas get hidden.

I want to hide that bright spot on top of Buck's face (which is coming from the tommy gif) so I take a brush that roughly matches the size of the area (the circle that I drew). So in this case I'm using a 300px brush at 0% hardness set to black. And all I do is move my brush to the area I want to cover, and *CLICK ONCE*. I don't drag the brush, I simply move it into position, click once, and let go.

Here you can see the before and after

As you can see, Buck's face is a lot clearer now. And this is what my layers panel looks like.

Let's say I want to hide a little more, and clear up Buck's face even further. I simply create another new layer within the folder (above layer 4 in my screenshot) and again, click once over the desired area with my brush.

This is what it looks like now, but let's say I want to add some of that texture back. I simply go to the layer, and reduce the opacity. I usually play around with anywhere from 20% to 80% opacity.

Now I do the same thing for the Buck gif, but this time I paint over Tommy's face, meaning that I'm hiding the areas of the Buck gif that are covering Tommy's face.

This time I clicked twice with my black brush because I didn't feel that one click hid enough of the gif. Also, if you feel like you brushed over too big of an area, just take your eraser (usually the same size as/slightly smaller than your brush, also at 0% hardness) and CLICK TO ERASE. This is the final blend that I'm happy with.

Final comments

I found that this is the easiest way to blend, because other methods using layer masks sometimes leave you with those transparent pixels to deal with. Just make sure to CLICK with your brush/eraser and NEVER DRAG. This method is also super helpful when you have two "incompatible" gifs, such as when one gif is really bright. By clicking with a big soft brush you can still show the gif behind it while not making it look too disjointed, like I did here:

Here's another tutorial that I find helpful, which goes over using the dark spots in your gifs to help with the blending. Hope this helps!!

[veltana]

Sell my soul - 2

✦ Pairing: Lloyd Hansen/Fem!Reader

✦ Word count: ~1,6k

✦ Rating for this part: Mature

✦ Warnings/tags: Alpha!Lloyd, Omega!Reader, omega auction, slow burn, eventual smut, pet names (sugar plum).

✦ Series summary: With no other options left, you decide to put yourself up for auction in hope of finding an alpha. Scared and running from your past, you end up with a man who is incredibly handsome but also seems to care for you in his own way. But living with him brings its own set of challenges. As both of you navigate these difficulties, you'll discover your true feelings for each other, hopefully before time runs out.

✦ Summary: Lloyd gives you a tour and you have some food

✦ Note: This was supposed to be two chapters but they were so short I put them together instead. It might be a while before we see Lloyd and sugar plum again because I've been having some trouble figuring out where I want to go with the next chapter.

Series masterlist

Masterlist | AO3

prev

The towel is the fluffiest thing you've ever felt against your skin. Not even way back, before everything went to shits, did you have such nice things.

Looking in the mirror you can almost see your old self, scrubbed clean of the years running. If everything goes as planned, you'll never have to do it again.

You remove the last pair of clean underwear from your bag, but seeing them compared to the space you're in makes it clear that they don't make the cut. Lloyd won't know you're naked underneath his clothes anyway.

The pants are too long so you roll them up and tie the drawstring so they won't fall off. His t-shirt is soft and smells of detergent. The omega in you is disappointed that it doesn't smell like him but you push that aside.

Stepping out you look around but you have no idea where to go. “Lloyd?” You call. “Kitchen!” He answers. You head in the direction of his voice and find him at a huge kitchen island.

“Hungry?” he asks and you nod as you slide onto a bar chair. He opens a drawer and pulls out a bunch of folders, then throws them on the counter. “Pick whatever you want.”

At first, you're unsure of what it is, so you pick one up and examine it. It’s a takeaway menu for Indian food. Do you like that? You’ve eaten what you can find over the years but never paid much attention to what it was. And before that, you liked to cook and rarely ordered takeout. As you grab another menu, you try to figure out what to order, but the options are overwhelming.

Looking at Lloyd you tell him, “I don’t know, just decide for me.” Shrugging he picks up a bright red one and makes a call. The person on the other end seems to know him. Lloyd laughs and says that he’s home for a while again. You store that piece of information away. Then he rattles off some things before he ends the call.

“It'll take about 20 minutes for the food to get here, should we put your things in the wash?” “I already did,” you tell him heistily. You saw the machine in the bathroom and the thought of Lloyd handling your dirty clothes almost made you panic so you shoved them in and started it.

“Then how about a tour!” Lloyd exclaims and heads out of the kitchen before you can respond. Like a lost puppy you follow him.

There is a room with workout equipment and another smaller bathroom. Attached to the living room is a balcony overlooking the street below. Heights have never been your thing and it tingles unpleasantly in your feet as you stand at the railing made of glass.

The whole apartment is minimalistic and mostly white and gray. When you had an apartment it was full of colors. Guess it's just something you will have to get used to.

During the little tour, you observe Lloyd. The mustache makes him seem silly at first but you have a feeling he’s anything but. The whole apartment screams of a need for control over every single detail.

An itch starts in your fingers. What happens if you turn one of his decorations the wrong way? What if you nudge the painting until it's crooked? What if you tickle him?

You quickly shove all those silly thoughts away. This is a serious man and it's a serious place. And you don't know Lloyd. If you're lucky he might throw you out and if you're not lucky, well, no one would miss you. Not really.

The tour concludes in the bedroom, presenting you with a new problem: there’s a massive bed, but only one. “I usually sleep on the left side, so I guess the right is yours,” Lloyd says, gesturing to the bed.

Cold sweat breaks out on your brow. You didn't think of this. Of course, he expects you to sleep in the same bed as him. You're his omega. He's bought you for a reason. He's watching you expectantly. As if to gauge your reaction. You force yourself to nod but don't say anything.

The sound of the doorbell makes you jump and Lloyd heads out to get the food while you're stuck staring at the bed. It was a long time ago you slept in a real bed. But you have never shared a bed with an alpha.

“Come eat!” Lloyd calls. It unglues your feet from the floor and you hurry to the kitchen.

The sight of Lloyd opening the boxes of food and the steam rising from them makes your stomach rumble loudly. It’s clear that he’s bought more than just two meals with all the containers on the counter, so you try a bit of everything. You’re not sure if it’s the actual food, the fact that it’s warm and fresh, or the environment that makes it taste so great.

“Don't overeat,” Lloyd waves at you with his fork. You swallow the bite in your mouth and stare at him. He stares right back and pops a piece of fried chicken into his mouth.

“Afraid I'm gonna get fat?” you ask, voice dripping with acid. Lloyd smiles, but it's not a nice, friendly kind of smile. “No, sugar plum. But your stomach might recoil if you eat too much all at once.”

A pinprick of shame needles you. He is just trying to look out for you. A part of you wants to rebel, and stuff as much food as you can manage into your mouth, but you do see that he has a point. And you need to be nice to him, you remind yourself once again.

“Yeah, sure.” “Better to eat smaller portions often.” “Mhm,” you hum and take one last bite before putting down your fork.

“So tell me about yourself,” Lloyd says. You shrug, “Not much to tell, honestly.” “Why does an omega put themselves up for auction?” “Why does an alpha feel the need to buy one?”

Once again, the two of you stare at each other across the kitchen island. This is a mistake, is all you can think. Being nice and docile is not your strong suit.

“I had my reasons, sugar plum.” he smiles. “Besides, you're hot.” You stiffen at his words because they’re not what you expect, you certainly don't feel hot right now. For a second you consider telling him, but you don't want to dump it on him in case it works itself out anyway. Instead, you smile as politely as you can. “I had my reasons as well. And thanks for the compliment.”

Once you’ve finished eating you help put away the food and notice that the fridge holds very little produce. “Don't you eat anything but take-out?” “I'm usually not home long enough, it's a waste of money to buy a bunch of ingredients,” he shrugs.

A life without home-cooked meals sounds like a miserable existence to you so you clear your throat and offer up information about yourself. “I used to love cooking. Haven't done it in a while but I think I would like to try again.”

Lloyd closes the fridge. “Sure, go nuts! I think the store is closed now but you can go tomorrow.” Your body goes rigid and your pulse picks up. Quickly you fumble for a way out. “I can't, I don't have any money.” Lloyd raises his eyebrow. “The sum I paid should be more than enough to fill a few bags at the store.”

Shit, you didn't think of that. You chew your lip.

“Why are you scared?”

Avoiding his gaze you look at the floor. “I just don't like going to the store by myself.”

Because no matter how many times you switched stores, he always found you. You kept going further and further out of town, yet one day, you'd pull up, and there he was, waiting right outside the door. It's going to happen here too. But if you have an alpha with you maybe he won't bother you.

“Okay, I'll go with you tomorrow,” Lloyd shrugs. “Thanks,” you murmur.

The sun is setting and by now you've usually found somewhere to hole up for the night. If you were lucky it would be somewhere safe. If you were not so lucky it would be somewhere exposed. Does this count as a safe place? You think so. The day is catching up on you and the exhaustion is starting to take a toll on your body. There is just the tiny little problem of the sleeping arrangements.

You want to say something. At the same time, you feel like you’ve done enough damage on your first night. So instead you stay up with Lloyd and watch some TV on the couch that looks as if it’s brand new. As it’s getting more difficult to keep your eyes open you have the brilliant idea of just falling asleep on the couch. Then you won’t have to sleep in the bed. Silently you curl up against a pillow and sleep is instant.

The next thing you know you're in the air. It takes a moment to orient yourself before you realize he's carrying you.

“Put me down,” you mumble, too tired to filter out your thoughts. “I'm taking you to bed.” “No, I'll sleep on the couch.” You wiggle in Lloyd's arms, trying to get out.

“Don't be silly,” he rebukes and puts you on the bed. A distressed whine bubbles up in your throat.

Lloyd doesn't say anything, instead a rumble sounds next to you. It makes your muscles go slack, the omega in you recognizing the sound as comforting and safe. Sleep starts to take you again.

Fucker, is your last thought. He's purring you to sleep.

next

[chaeinedup]

Welcome Home

Being an adult is shitty. Specially when you don't feel like one. What do they mean, getting a job, paying bills and constant responsabilty??!! This is exactly why you couldn't live alone for long, you were fast to let your thoughts take over you and because of that spiralling was quite frequent.

You tried convincing some of your friends to move in with you, offered to do all the dishes for an entire month, accepted to move into the smaller bedroom, but in the end no one wanted or could accept the offer. Hope was starting to fade but you're not a quitter, at least that's what you try to tell yourself in situations like these. The last resort was to advertise it online.

Surely someone would accept it, however there's many risks that come with that possibility and you want to live for a long time. Despair and frustration, the worse pair, was teaming up against you, and they had a very high chance of winning if you look at their record sheet. A ping made you jump off of your chair, you weren't talking to anyone so this was definetely unexpected, but not unwanted, you could use the company.

yuyu:

Are you still looking for a housemate?

y:

IAM, PLEASE TELL ME YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND!

yuyu:

No sorry ahaha But i have a friend who is interested.

y:

Do I know them?

yuyu:

Kinda? I mean you've guys spoken to each other before, at my birthday I think. It's wooyoung.

That name is familiar, as you started to search through your memories, Yunho's birthday party folder showed up, a brief replay of the moment you introduced yourself to everyone and there he was, sitted next to San. You only have good things to say about him, super approachable, funny, helpful... This situation was starting to fix itself.

y:

Give him my adress and my number. Oh and tell him to meet me here tomorrow at 11am. So he can see the place and we get to know each other.

yuyu:

Okay, he said he'll be there.

9:00am and you were wide awake, you wanted to leave the apartment spotless, look good and also grocery shopping. The plan is to make him lunch, something easy because you don't intend to burn the place down. So off to the supermarket you were.

The walk home was much worse due to the heavy bags but nothing could discourage you. You exude happiness ever since you got Yunho's text yesterday, cloud9 was so close, the only thing left was wooyoung saying yes.

Food prep? Done, House duties? Done, last step, getting ready. You already had chosen the outfit in your mind, nothing too fancy just an oversized t-shirt and a pair of jeans. The special element was your kuromi socks since the neutral ones were in the wash.

11:00am finally comes around and your excitment can't contain itself, you're walking from one side of the living room to the other, looking at the clock every 5 seconds, wondering when he'll get here. After almost 100 laps around the couch your phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hi, it's Wooyoung, I'm downstairs, I didn't know which floor it was so I decided to call you instead."

"Oh yeah, second floor on your right."

"Thanks, I'll be right there."

As soon you hung up, you threw your phone back on the couch and ran to the door. You put your head on the peep hole to see him from the elevator. The doors opened and he stepped outside, heading torwards your place, but something was different, his hair was longer. A knock on the door woke you back up and you opened the door.

"Welcome to your future home, please come on in." you said while smiling.

"What makes you think I'll want to stay here?"

"Great area, spacious apartment, plenty of transportation, close to Yunho's house and an amazing housemate. You'll be dumb if you pass up this opportunity."

"Not even 5 minutes in and you're already insulting me?" he acted shocked.

"If I didn't know you better, I'd actually feel guilty about my comment and besides, it only counts as an insult if you don't end up wanting to stay. So choose wisely."

"So tell me about you." He spit out.

You gave him a tour, told him the house rules and so far so good. He seemed very pleased, your hope was growing by the minute. Your food was also tasting extra good, you couldn't tell if it was your skills improving or the delusion speaking.

"Me? Well there's not much to tell."

"Then why were you so desperate to get a house buddy?"

You choked on your food.

"I WAS NOT DESPERATE OKAY I WAS JUST PASSIONATE ABOUT THIS."

He couldn't stop laughing he even put his fork down to clap.

"No need to get embarassed I was just wondering. I wanted to be closer to the center of Seoul for professional reasons but also to experience more of the city life. But everything is expensive nowadays and what isn't is already taken or doesn't have that much of great conditions."

"So we met at each other at the right time! Well sure we first interacted at Yunho's house but you know... officially."

"I must say I really liked you at that time, you were very cheerful and loud kinda like me. I mean when he said you'd show up I was a little scared cause we can be a looot but you handled us pretty well."

"Yah did I ever look weak to you Jung Wooyoung!!"

The conversation flowed so well he stayed ever until it was dark outside. It's safe to say that in the end he said yes.

previous// //next

[seijuurouxryuu]

Writing Patterns Meme

[Plain text: "Writing Patterns Meme" in big text. /End PT]

Rules: List the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there's a pattern!

@ravensilversea thanks for tagging!!!! I'm so sorry I just noticed it today fhdsklfjdsklfjds. Also its been a long time since I wrote/posted anything so here we gooooooo

-

1. There was the smell of blood. - did you kill my mother, father (KHR)

2. To say that the plan was foolproof was a lie. - Cicadas of Summer (Natsume Yuujinchou)

3. One thing about Reborn that everyone knows is that he never rejects a mission. - fire wrapped in spider lilies (KHR)

4. "So..." - espresso and expresso my thirst for you (KHR)

5. The thunder was loud, booming and deafening in the background. - past and present (KHR)

6. Nai compartmentalizes his memories. - folders within boxes within crates (Trigun)

7. Hanako was so young when she lost her papa and mama — so young that she could not remember anything much aside from black and white and lilies. - Blooming Flower (KHR)

8. To Sawada Ieyasu, the world, was dull. - Cypress (KHR)

9. Light was sacred, a blessing bestowed by the heavens, an honour given by the gods. - The last lights were gone, and we lay together in the deep, and drifted away, and all was silent. Such a silence I had never known. (KHR)

10. Shen Jiu expected to be alone forever. - An Unexpected Company (Scum Villain)

-

What have we learned?

[Plain text: "What have we learned?" in medium text. /End PT]

I took the liberty to kill of my 10th post thing on AO3 because it was just my rant corner but like, I want and not want to burn it so ignore me.

HMNNNNNNNNN GOOD QUESTION. WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED????

That I really like short opening sentences?? And that maybe I like to start the story with the condition the main character is in???? HmNnNN but its interesting that I love making short sentence opener. I thought I'd prefer long ones but lo and behold. the fact that number 9 title is longer than my first sentence is so funny too.

But I did realized how much I love symbolic titles, even tho 99% of the time I screamed at how to figure out a title and just randomly slap one on. and also I can't believe that I only wrote NINE (9) FICS IN 2023,,,, WHAT THE FUCK ME??? HNGH I swear I wanna write more but brain capacity getting smaller (sobs)

No pressure from me!!! @avidaraku, @adelmortescryche, @honeynet, @seitosokusha and anyone basically. I feel like I'd tag everyone if I could but hahahaha----- //slapped K BYE LOVE YALL

[kaesaaurelia]

better to ask for permission than to expect forgiveness

For @whumptober day 3, using the prompts "journal" and "solitary confinement," and the lyric prompt, "Like crying out in empty rooms; with no-one there except the moon."

Muriel didn't exactly think what they wanted to do was entirely, one hundred percent, completely within what they were supposed to be doing, and this caused them considerable distress. Which was nonsense, really, because they could have just stopped thinking about it and stopped wanting it, and then not had that distress! It was very silly! They were aware, of course, that they were being very silly. And they should stop, because they were not a silly person.

But, because they kept wanting it, they had gone to the trouble of making an appointment with the Supreme Archangel to ask for permission, because everybody knew it was better to ask for permission than to expect forgiveness, especially when permission usually only required filling out ten to fifteen forms and forgiveness was much more paperwork heavy, at least as far as they were aware. They had never had to seek forgiveness. But! Permission! Significantly better overall. Potentially even attainable.

And so they had gone and made the appointment and waited out the time, and when they got to see Aziraphale he looked… smaller than they expected, and so tired, which was funny, because of course he didn't need sleep, and he ought to be happy, being in Heaven and all. (Even Crowley talked about how happy he must be in Heaven a lot, although Muriel was beginning to wonder if he meant a different kind of happiness that was maybe, actually… not that?) "Ah. So nice to see a friendly face," said the Supreme Archangel, looking up from whatever he was doing at his very messy desk. And he did actually seem happy to see them, although… not happy generally. Which was nice, and also very not-nice, and Muriel didn't know what to do about that, so she ignored it, because it was good enough that he was happy and it was nice. "How have you been? Are things going well with the shop? How is… er...." He trailed off.

Muriel told him all about how they'd been opening the shop at random times and not allowed anybody to buy anything, and they talked about the books they'd enjoyed and the ones they had found very confusing, but Aziraphale seemed to have been expecting more and they suddenly felt very conscious of how much time they'd spent talking about nothing at all. He was probably annoyed. So they got to the actual point of their appointment, which was permission.

"I was wondering, er, if I could have a look at my old records?" They had the password, because Crowley'd used it to access Gabriel's files, and it wasn't their fault that they remembered everything they'd ever seen and heard with absolute precision, so it really was just a matter of asking permission.

"Oh. Yes. If you'd like," said Aziraphale. He looked faintly disappointed.

"Thank you! I'll let you get on with your Supreme Archangel work now," they said.

"Right. Yes. Do stop in any time, though," said Aziraphale. "And, if you have any news about…"

"About what?"

"Nothing, never mind," said Aziraphale. He looked around nervously. "Probably shouldn't… anyway. Lovely to see you."

Muriel nodded happily at him and went to the archives to find what they were looking for. They were glad (and again, faintly guilty) that nobody was about, and nobody could see them taking their folder. It wasn't as though they were an important angel; Heaven wouldn't be needing these records. And they'd bring them right back. They were just curious.

Once they got back to the bookshop, they opened their file. It was in reverse chronological order, and it was pretty sparse, so they flipped past the first few records and got to the first thing that was new to them. Because, well. They did remember everything they'd ever seen and heard with absolute precision. And yet, their memories started several thousand years after the creation of the Earth. It was, as the humans might put it, a bit of a puzzle. And Muriel liked puzzles.

Anyway, the first thing that was new to them was a record of memory correction. Which wasn't too surprising, although it made them feel bad, for some reason, and slightly hollow, and they didn't like that very much, so they skipped it.

The second thing was something called an Incident Report. Muriel had never seen the form for this; they had never been involved in an Incident before, and it sounded quite exciting. But reading it was like reading a piece of human fiction; the angel described was -- to borrow a phrase from the thrilling tale of a human trying to obtain the mystical elixir that would make all his woes better -- almost, but not entirely, unlike Muriel. This angel had shouted at a superior. This angel had threatened to bite somebody. Muriel had never even bitten food.

They skipped past that, and leafed past a few other pages, anxious to find something familiar, something that felt like them. They stopped, finding a form in their own handwriting.

They were requesting reassignment from Heaven back to Earth. Which had apparently been their prior assignment. Muriel did not understand, and their confusion increased as they read on.

Reason for request: I am beginning to think this scrivener assignment is not as entirely necessary as had been previously represented, as not a single person has had need of my services for over a century. I'm aware of some of my performance problems in the past on Earth, and I know I can do better. Also, and I apologize for being selfish, I cannot continue on in an empty white void for an indefinite period of time. If I cannot be reassigned to Earth at this time I would like to request that I be permitted some sort of conversation with… someone? Sometimes? Really, just somebody telling me to have a nice decade would be an improvement. Or a brief chat about the weather.

Here the phrase "lack of" was inserted with a carat above "the weather." Muriel nodded; they took pride in their dedication to precision and accuracy, at least where it did not interfere with the will of Heaven. Sometimes the will of Heaven was a bit hazy, unlike the weather in Heaven, which was always nonexistent.

They continued reading, though it was a bit more difficult, as their handwriting suffered a noticeable decline, even before they ran out of lines on the form:

Look, I'm so sorry I know I keep requesting this, but I just can't keep going on as I have. I'm going to go mad. Just let me talk to someone. They don't even have to be a real person! And I promise I'll only talk about nice things. I just know something needs to change for me, or I won't be an asset to Heaven at all, I'll be broken. I know that's not a thing that's supposed to happen but I think, as the events of the past few millennia can attest to, things that aren't supposed to happen happen all the time and it would be stupid of us to keep pretending they don't. I'm not stupid and I'm not going to pretend I am for the benefit of some middle managers who don't understand the conditions we're working in on Earth.

Muriel frowned at the form. This seemed utterly unlike them. And yet, there it was, in their own handwriting. Somebody had stamped DENIED over the form in gold, and as they leafed through the file they found at least a dozen more forms, almost identical but for not-Muriel's pleas for Something To Do, with the same DENIED stamp glimmering on each.

They felt like they had been punched in the stomach. Not that that had ever happened to them. Or that they knew how that felt. But it felt like… that. Muriel didn't know if they could put it into words describing experiences they had actually definitely had and remembered.

[hiddenobject-fanblog]

His Soul (Chapter 3)

Need Assistance?

Chapter 2

Summary: After saving the abducted collectors, you were trusted with Curioso's box. What seems like a dangerous possession slowly turns into an opportunity to learn more about this creature and his curse. Can you earn his trust, and possibly, his affection?

Pairings: Curioso/Reader, Curioso/The Detective

--

You were tempted to take Curioso’s advice and go searching nearby utility poles for any posted papers. You still needed to make money, after all. Your smaller jobs paid you for a week or two’s worth of groceries, but you could use a better telephone. One that didn’t require an emblem to work and wouldn’t fall apart after you used it. Your old office chair was also starting to hurt your back, so a new one would be nice...

Detective pay was great when you solved a major case. It made you fortunate enough to afford an apartment with a downstairs office. Other people didn’t have that luxury and you didn’t want to lose yours. So you were always on the search for available work. You put yourself out there as much as you could, leaving business cards with people and posting advertisements of Dark Light Detective Agency around town. You even had an arrangement for a regular ad space in the newspaper. If fate was kind to you, it was someone else who approached your agency for help. 

Luckily, you didn’t have to wait much longer until such a thing happened. 

A young woman entered your office one afternoon after your lunch break. She was wearing an excessive amount of clothing, including a coat and a pair of dark sunglasses. You figured she was trying to hide her identity as she traversed outside. You were quick to rise to your feet once she appeared and offered your help with removing her excess apparel. She thanked you as you hung her coat on the rack by your door. 

“Good afternoon, miss. What can I help you with?” You asked as you both sat down. 

She folded her hands and sighed. “Hello, Detective. I’m Brianna, and I’m afraid I have a pretty common case for you. My wife has been acting strange this past month and I have a great suspicion that she's hiding something from me. But I can’t figure out what it is.”

You removed your gloves and cleared some space on your desk. This was not only an ordinary case, but a known time-waster as well. But you’ve been wanting *something* to do, so you weren’t going to deny her plea, no matter how trivial it might be. It was always good to get out of the office as it was. 

“Do you have any more information?” You asked. Brianna nodded and pulled out a folder she was carrying with her. She carefully set it in front of you. You opened it and briefly read through what she had. 

Her wife was disappearing for several hours throughout the night and would return sometime in the morning. Brianna recorded her as having an odd smell, like she was trying to conceal something with some type of cleaner. She also appeared to be in a different mood when she came back, somewhat sluggish and reserved. She always returned in a different pair of clothing, which added to her suspicion. 

“-And before you ask, I don’t believe it’s an affair. Sophie would never do that to me.” She shook her head. “I’m just a little worried. She’s usually so energetic, but not so much anymore. It’s like something else has been taking up all her time in the night.”

“..I see. And you want me to track her for the night, to see where she’s going? Bring you some pictures?” 

“If it isn’t too much trouble, Detective. I know you probably have more important things going on…”

You slouched in your chair as you eyed your office that had been cleaned several times over. You had absolutely nothing going on right now, but she didn’t need to know that. Because of this, you happily accepted the case and received some more information from Brianna. She was thrilled with your cooperation and even paid you in advance for your trouble. 

You planned on leaving tomorrow evening to start your investigation. It wouldn’t be anything more than tailing this woman and sitting in your car for hours while waiting for any interesting sights. You’d been on cases like this before, and most of the time, they ended without much hassle - one of the parties was simply overreacting, or the other was just trying to hide a surprise or bad habit. Nothing necessarily extreme enough to get the authorities involved. 

 As soon as you closed the door, you sighed. You’d been hoping for something more exciting. Oh, well. A job was a job. You weren’t going to complain…you were the one who accepted it, after all.

“Detective, you have a new case! How thrilling!” 

You were scared to death again at the sudden sound of Curioso’s voice. Your eyes flitted over to the box sitting across the office. His face wasn’t projected right now, but the colors were bright. You rubbed the side of your face in frustration as you approached it. He hadn’t spoken to you for a week after your last brief conversation - but it made sense he would appear now. You were doing exactly as he had hoped for. 

“Yes, just not a very eventful one, I think.” You responded, rolling your office chair to sit in front of the box. This notion must’ve been noticed by Curioso somehow, as he immediately made a comment:

“Getting comfortable?” 

You were confused. “You…can see? From inside that thing?”

“I can do plenty of things you probably think I can’t.” 

You intertwined your fingers together in thought. If he was here right now, willing to talk with you, then you wanted to get some answers. The last exchange you two had brought some interesting theories to your mind, about this whole situation. If you were in possession of this jester creature, who said you couldn’t learn more about him? Who knows - he might appreciate the company..?

“Oh, yeah? How many fingers am I holding up?”

You lifted your fingers. There was no hesitation in his reply. 

“I’m not playing that game.” When you refused to lower your arm, Curioso groaned in agitation. “..You’re holding three.” 

Your eyes widened in surprise. “So you weren’t lying..! How far can you see? Is it my whole office or just a few inches in front of you?” 

“How about we talk about your new case instead? I find that more riveting.”  

You frowned. Why was he avoiding answering you? It was a simple question. “Why? It’s not that interesting. I’m sure you heard all the details.” 

“Not with *that* attitude! Anything can be an adventure if you make it one. And I have a great idea on how you can do exactly that..!” 

He sounded way too excited for your liking. He had returned to the jovial tune he used to have, when you first met him. It made you weary as you slightly cringed away. “...And what is that?”

“Take me with you, Detective.” 

“What? I’m not letting you out, I’ve told you-” 

“You don’t have to release me. Just put my box in a bag and carry it with you. Simple?”

“Okay, that just brings me to my first question - how far can you exactly see, to make any of that worth it?” 

There was silence. Then an audible huff. Could he actually breathe? Or was he just doing that to express his annoyance? “-Let’s just say I can see around whatever room I’m in.”

You rubbed your jaw, slightly impressed. You couldn’t wipe the confident grin that spread on your lips. “But you can’t do anything in your state right now..?” 

“If I could, I assure you, Detective, I would have done it weeks ago. Now. How’s about taking me along for your trip?” 

An uneasy feeling found its way into your stomach. Something didn’t feel right about this. Clearly, he had an ulterior motive if he was willing to come along with you. Part of you wanted to believe he was feeling lonely. There was no one else besides the floating souls he had taken in his realm. But the other part of you was still suspicious that he was trying to find a way out of your box - and possibly your hands. You wouldn’t let that slide. If you were carrying him, you would never let Curioso out of your sight or your possession. You envisioned carrying around the box the entire time. You didn’t like the weight and lack of inventory space that would bring. It was too much of a burden. 

The creature could hear your hesitation. Before you reached a decision, he pleaded. “Think of how useful I could be to you. You can set me down somewhere and I will search for you while you do other things. I can find useful items, hidden objects-”  

“-All of those things I can do on my own, in due time.” 

“Ah, but think of all the advantages if you let me out..! I could go anywhere you desired. Do anything you want. You and I could be a team, Detective !”  

Would it be advantageous to have a magical jester at your side? Who could teleport wherever he pleased and altered reality as he wished? He could be an extra pair of (figurative) eyes and ears for you. He could do anything you couldn't. It would be a tool no other detective agency had. 

There was just one problem-

"I don't trust you enough for that." You stated firmly.

"I promise I won't misbehave. I won't even collect another soul, you have my honest word-"

"You'll promise anything to get out of that box, I'm sure." 

You stood from your chair and wheeled it back behind your desk nonchalantly. You were sure he was watching your every movement while your back was turned.

"Unless you can prove to me that you've changed, and you won't do what you did at Andrew Collins' house, then you're staying in there. I'm not going to be your next puppet to play with."

"Of course. You're much too smart for that." He murmured so low that you barely heard it. He might not have intended for it. "But how can I prove anything to you if you won't let me out?" 

"Earn my trust. I'll have you figure that one out on your own." 

You actually left with that statement, heading upstairs into your apartment without a further word. You were planning how tomorrow night would transpire and making notes on what to bring. You had high hopes you could solve this case with a breeze.

And more importantly, without Curioso's help.

[ooc-miqojak]

Using a phone is what's clunky. I can accomplish in seconds what takes forever in a phone! You can do multiple processes instead of flipping through tabs on a 2 inch screen. (Plus, then I'm not getting text-neck.) I can flip through multiple tabs in seconds, a single click, instead of pulling open my tiny web browser and opening all my tabs and then clicking. And then, apps aren't plumbing my phone for personal data, either.

And when you get into the work force? You'll be using a desktop. You'll need to know how to use a folder. How to find things quickly on your desktop. You'll need to know shortcuts to quickly accomplish tasks. Command prompts and bios settings and just...right clicking and hitting 'open file location' are all important! You can prefer slower touch screen phones (literally - moving your mouse and clicking is faster, I'm not being pedantic), and the inaccuracy of a touchpad screen that requires multiple attempts to get a word right... but you need to know how to use a PC to get a job... in America, at least. You need to know how to organize your desktop. You need to not just leave everything in the downloads folder, etc.

You also need to realize that 'the Cloud' isn't safe. Putting personal information on the internet isn't safe, and never has been. 'The Cloud' is just someone else's computer. It can be hacked, it can go down, etc - saving important things on a usb or external hard drive is incredibly important if you don't want them to just be gone, or inaccessible one day!

Ultimately, phones have less processing power, less good graphics, and smaller screens - they were intended to be a supplement... not a replacement for desktop PCs. Even laptops aren't as good as having a Desktop PC most of the time! The industry has also tricked people into thinking that building your own PC is hard, because it's cheaper for the consumer to buy parts and build a PC on their own... but it's not a challenge at all these days, especially with guides all over the internet.

With AI on the rise, and Gen Z being left behind/refusing to learn how to use a PC, I'm genuinely worried about their job market being overtaken by AI, since that won't need job training on how to navigate a desktop, or how to use MS Word/Excel. And can you imagine the rising pay for programming jobs, as a whole generation enters the workforce with no idea how to even navigate Windows 10/11... much less how to code? My partner does programming work and its stupid how little work it seems like he does for how much he gets paid, but... the older programmers are retiring, and very few are entering the workforce. So his skills are in high demand... and hilariously/sadly, there's times where a remote call is just him helping an end user navigate their cluttered desktop! Which is FAR from what his job entails.

Phones are objectively clunkier and slower to use - it just feels like a desktop is clunkier because no one taught you how to use it. As someone who has grown up using both kinds of technology at their worst and their best... believe me. Trying to accomplish the same task on my phone just 2 days ago, I gave up bc of how annoying it was, and just went to my computer because it was so much faster! Both things have their merits, but refusing to learn how to use a PC isn't a powermove. It's cutting off your nose to spite your face.

You've got to help yourself, if you weren't taught how to navigate a computer - you've got to ask for help or look up guides, because adulthood is here, and it wants you to have 5 years of experience, and a working knowledge of Miscroft Word and Excel at minimum.

this can't be true can it

[mizkit]

new blog post: the crisis is averted...

new blog post on https://mizkit.com/the-crisis-is-averted/

the crisis is averted...

…but hoo boy did i have a Very Bad Weekend with regards to Dropbox. At this point I do not require assistance. I’m just regaling you with the tale of Catie’s Very Bad Dropbox Experience.

So. I discovered late-ish last year that I had some kind of catastrophic Dropbox failure EARLY last year for things I don’t need 99.9% of the time, so I only discovered it months after the fact. Like, in the end, it turned out that nearly half my files were showing as zero bytes. To the REALLY TENTATIVE best of my ability to tell, I rearranged some directories for better workflow/searchability/consistency & Dropbox just basically noped out of actually moving any of the content & zeroed everything out.

When I discovered this, Dropbox was like “sux 2 b U lol,” like, almost literally. I was told in no uncertain terms that I was shit out of luck because I was only paying enough for a month of restored files if there was a disaster, after which they unceremoniously closed the ticket before I could even respond. So I was pretty infuriated, but also, it seemed like most of the files were things I could replace/relatively unimportant.

Except I kept. finding. more. corrupted. files. And I had what I thought was a secure backup at home, except I was wrong (I do have backups, just not recent enough, bc hi i’m human), and…

Look, it’s been absolutely horrible. There was an incredily, incredibly bad moment this morning when I thought I’d lost some REALLY IMPORTANT STUFF, but in my attempt to back up what I HAD, I found instructions from Dropbox itself on how to check on an individual file, and…

…it appears that the fuckery is with the syncs. Everything appears to be safe on dropbox.com itself. Which is a huge relief, obviously. So I’m downloading everything to an external drive…

…except the external drive won’t talk to my Mac ::sobs with hysterical laughter::…

…except it seems maybe I’ve now figured out how to do that (I have to reboot the computer, so I’m finishing part of this blog post first), and I hope to shit it works because MY MAC’S HARD DRIVE IS NOW TOO FULL TO DOWNLOAD ANYTHING ELSE ::WEEPS HYSTERICALLY::

by the time you read this, it will either be solved or not, so, uh, brb, i’ll let you know

(twenty stressful minutes later)

OH MY GOD I GOT IT TO WORK

okay, okay, step one, copy everything i’ve downloaded so far to the backup drive

step two will be to see if i can sync some VERY UNIMPORTANT file back to dropbox so it’s actually got a fucking value again

ooooooh those fucking fuckers. as i was trying to stop an unintentional dropbox backup to my hard drive, i came across this:

“Online-only files on Mac: This displays online-only file sizes in Mac Finder as zero bytes so you can easily review which files are taking up hard drive space.”

This is not ON, but seems to be what fucking happened. Except I couldn’t open those files so maybe that’s NOT what was happening but jesus h CHRIST what a clusterfuck.

(two hours later)

OKAY.

At this point I’ve backed up everything but the photos, which I’m going to have to do directly onto the external drive if it’s at all possible, but afaict I’m going to need to finally, grudgingly, update my Dropbox to whatever the new version is to make that work. In the meantime: I have, experimentally, copied one of the smaller folders (which is backed up on the external hard drive) into Dropbox to see if the files inside it sync. They seem to be doing so. The original folders are still corrupted on the desktop.

I could scream, but I believe most of the crisis is averted.

At this point I appear to have to wait for Dropbox to, IDK, sync everything? That seems to be what it’s doing right now, for reasons that I don’t get, like, I have no idea what’s going to happen when it’s done. Will my original files in their directories be restored? Will my entire Dropbox be empty? WHO KNOWS?

Anyway, I’ve deleted the desktop backup now so I have room to download the photos folders (one. at. a. time. because. very. large.) and…well, look, if the entire Dropbox ends up empty, at least I can restore it all from these backups.

::goes away to drink heavily::

(At least one of you is going to want to make helpful suggestions about hosting my own cloud server and Synology and other stuff. I’ve got it covered. Or, at least, I’m beginning to get it covered, thanks to advice from network admins on Bluesky. I mean, like, look, like everybody I’m kinda looking to move away from billionaire-owned tech/media but THIS WAS NOT HOW I WANTED TO BE INSPIRED TO GET MY ACT TOGETHER ON IT.)

[jimmycartersufo]

on Friday I happened to open Instagram and had a suggested post with a little cat with a grumpy cat face, the caption said he had a bonded brother so I happened to go and check then out. when I saw his brother was a cat that looked like two of my cats who have passed, I immediately called my parents whom I live with and my husband. that day we rushed after work before the shelter closed to meet them but they just got out of surgery so we aren't able to. they were in a free roam room with two other cats. I saw cream puff, the orange, first. he was smaller than I thought. then I saw purrseus, the name the shelter gave him. we had a cam in the Chicago museum of art moment just staring at each other. we went home, saying that it would be OK if they were adopted because it meant a home for them and we would get a cat regardless. I tried to figure out plans to get there and get them that didn't involved both of us calling out. but all night I had dreams of them being adopted a minute after the shelter opened, I cried all night, even in my sleep, and I woke up with a crying hangover. John also dreamt of them, so we got up, called the fuck out with excuses given to me by my mom, and went and got them. we were soooo anxious and nervous. I couldn't eat, had to force myself to eat a Wawa sizzli just so I wouldn't be sick. we were shaking for hours, just two bundles of nerves. we met them, knew it immediately, and started the paperwork. as John was handing in the paper work a couple that was just two folks behind us in line when they opened said they wanted to see those two cats. I was nervous during processing, that somehow we would be denied. I tried to focus on people adopting all morning, a lot of doggies from a recent hoarding case. then John got an email saying we were processed and waiting for the adoption class, where they give you a folder with info and coupons and walk you through stuff before you check out. we paid for two carriers and gave a donation and the woman who helped us there went and got them for us. she said they were the sweetest cats as she put them in their boxes. they didn't make a single peep in the car, they laid right down and went to sleep, even when I told them about the key bridge collapse (you can see it in the distance). we barely slept that night, cream puff is a yeller and I kept waking up to check on them. I was exhausted for work but on cloud nine, nothing could bother me all day. the boys are incredible sweet and cuddly. they have eaten their food well, peed, pooped, and played. we renamed purrseus to gurgi, the creature from the black cauldron, because they are one in the same. he loves to kiss and give tiny nibbles with his tiny little mouth. we have been taking turns sleeping and taking naps to make sure they're okay. cream puff is very skittish and scares easily but he does a little dance when he drinks water and he had the fluffiest tail I've seen on a short hair cat. they are precious and I love them terribly. we have cats already, but they aren't *ours*, they are my families cats. they are still wonderful cats that love us, but they aren't our cats truly. Toby was our first cat together, a cat John basically raised, and he became ours when I moved in. He died April 8th, 2022. there has been a void since. moving in with my parents and having cats again helped, but we wanted cats to call our own. it has been an amazing couple of days. gurgi's first birthday is June 15th. I am so tired but so full of love. I know I'm rambling now but it has been a good time in my life and I have something to get me through the hard shit. can krill myself because I have someone to take care of kinda shit.

[sablesroundthebend]

Howdy! Welcome to the Den!

Howdy folks! Welcome to this cluster of a blog! A project blog!

This will be the space where I’ll hopefully be doing some world building, character development, brainstorming, and sneak peaks for a comic/story I hope to create: ||’Round the Bend|| ! Or, that’s the name it’s currently going by for ease of calling it something!

It’s been in my brain space for well over three years now, and it’s changed a lot in that time. It’s a doozy of a story, and even if I never make it into a comic due to the sheer amount of just… stuff I want to include, touch on, or avoid, I do want it to have a tangible place here in the world.

As it currently stands, ||’Round the Bend|| is a story with three general “Acts”: The “Pre-Story” of how the Packs came to be, The “Center Story” to see how the Packs settle into their home and become their own cultures, and the “End Story/Stories” where you follow any loose ends or ideas not touched upon in the prior two sections (further into the future to see how everything has developed, other parts of the world, background character spotlights, smaller conflicts, silly one-offs, etc.) Will I actually be capable of doing all of this? Who knows! But I want to try.

I have done the most illustrative/world building work on the “Center Story” and the “End Story”, but I’ve done the most thinking and actual serious timeline plotting for the “Pre-Story”. All will be touched upon in this blog, because I do better with ideas when talking about them with someone. Not everything will be revealed, but enough of it to keep my attention on this project!

Now, you must be wondering, what the hell is this story even about? What’s going on here? Packs? Is it about wolves? ||’Round the Bend|| is a story centered around groups of raptor-like drakes surviving in a world where most things are facing against them. They broke away from a tyrannical kingdom hellbent on eradicating any winged dragon ancestry and clawing out any opposing groups or cultures while growing their land. Experiencing great loss and turmoil, they work to build their own groups, cultivate their own lives, and learn to transfer from surviving to thriving within their situation. I want it to hold its roots in found-family and showing kindness, yet also standing up for ones own beliefs and moving on! Lots of topics that relate to change, growth, and finding the balance between valuing others and valuing yourself.

More character-centric information will also be able to be found in this Toyhou.se folder when I’ve completed the planned redesigns!

Y’all will learn more as this blog develops!

Want to see more of my general artwork? Here is my Main Art Blog! Want to find more of my links, all of my character information, and where to see if I’m open for commissions? Here’s My Toyhou.se!

[ghosts-and-blue-sweaters]

7, 8, 17, 22, 24, 29, 33, 36

I love that you sent me a load of numbers right as I'm preparing to send you a metric ton of them too. 🤣

What is your deepest joy about writing?

OOOOOOH OKAY hmm… I guess creating storylines that I love :)

If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

Action! I looove writing dialogue, but I struggle a lot with action scenes.

Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

I have… many WIPs um 😅

Wellll one uses bugs as a metaphor (I think metaphor is the right word). To be specific, roly-polys! Though I am calling them wood lice in the fic because that’s what one of the characters calls them for some reason.

To get in The Mood for this fic, I listened to a whole freaking PODCAST ABOUT BUGS!!! IT WAS SO ENTERTAINING!!!

The podcast-person is actually Wilbur Soot, the actor for the character I’m writing about agahsbqiaviqgq it worked out really well!

But seriously hearing Wilbur talk about bugs is like. So much fun. I got to hear him talk about the time he caught a fly and showed his dad’s friends and then immediately was overcome with guilt that he’d captured the fly so he let it go. And also the time that a spider bit his pencil and he couldn’t pull it away (???). And also the time he found a caterpillar and brought it to school for show and tell and the teacher decided to keep the caterpillar to use for the class and the caterpillar turned into a cocoon but Wilbur didn’t really know what a cocoon was so he thought the caterpillar had died so he started crying alsvwkafajag

And then the caterpillar turned into a moth (Wilbur wanted it to turn into a butterfly) so he just sat in his classroom and pouted lol

AND THOSE ARE JUST SOME OF THE THINGS HE TALKED ABOUT!!! HE ALSO WADED INTO THE OCEAN AT MIDNIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF A STORM TO COLLECT SALTWATER AND PUT IT IN A JAR!!! AND HE HAD A ROLY-POLY INFESTATION AT HIS HOUSE BUT HE DIDN’T CARE SO HE JUST LET THEM STAY!!! BECAUSE HE LOVES ROLY-POLYS!!!

Anyway I listened to that podcast in order to get inspiration akavaksvaksvajv

I also got inspired by some art! Here’s the link!

There was also some dialogue that I really wanted to use, but unfortunately it didn’t end up fitting 😭

I’m gonna save it to use later though, because I really do like it!

How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

Fairly organized? I use Evernote, and have different folders for different genres of fics. There’s two main folders, and then a bunch of smaller ones for series/AU’s.

I use my notes app to jot down random ideas, and I also have a blue notebook that I use for the same purpose!

How much prep work do you put into your stories? What does that look like for you? Do you enjoy this part or do you just want to get on with it?

Usually a fair bit! I’ll get the First Idea, and then spend some time daydreaming about it. Then I’ll write it all down, daydream some more, develop it, etc. After that I’ll usually start writing!

I typically plan out the opening-middle of the story, but I don’t really have an ending planned out in a lot of cases. Not always the case, but usually.

I enjoy this process, yeah!

Where do you draw your inspiration? What do you do when the inspiration well runs dry?

From literally everywhere. Art, music, other fics, movies, scenes in books, one time I even got inspired by watching a janitor?

When inspiration runs dry, I tend to just… chill. Not really worry about writing or ideas; I’ll spend time doing other things in the meantime.

Do you practice any other art besides writing? Does that art ever tie into your writing, or is it entirely separate?

Not really, no. I mean, I doodle sometimes, but it isn’t something I’m particularly good at nor something I enjoy a whole lot.

They say to Write What You Know. Setting aside for a moment the fact that this is terrible advice...what do you Know?

OOOOOOH WELL I know many things aksvajsvkagahv most of which I’ve researched a ton for writing purposes!

How unborn babies act/develop in the womb

How little kids act/talk/look at the world

GOOD DIALOGUE

Ukulele… I guess? Don’t know why I’d write about it aksgsisgaigs but I know a lot about it!!!

Autism (I myself am not autistic and obviously I don’t know everything about it, but I went through a phase a couple years ago where I researched tons about it over several months, so I do know a lot about it)

Dream SMP lore… especially Wilbur/Ghostbur lore mwahahahahaha

So much about Star Wars. So so much

[tatakaeeren]

GIF Tutorial

Someone asked me how I made my gifs so HD so I decided to write a full step-by-step uuuh babyyy 🎶 tutorial + useful tips on every part of the process.

It is explained in detail, so people with 0% experience can try it for the first time, and the more experienced gif makers can focus on the parts they are interested in 👍 (click on the images to see them bigger)

Disclaimers: I am not a professional, I have learned by trial and error and by watching other amazing creators. I use photoshop CC 2019 in Spanish so some of the names may vary but I tried to use the more accurate English names and used colors as references so even in other languages you can still follow this tutorial.

GIF TUTORIAL STEP BY STEP:

1.-  Open photoshop and create a new project. Then go to “files” 🠲 “import” 🠲 “convert video to frames” 🠲 this will send you to your video folder, and from there select the one you want. TIP 1: try always to download it in the best quality possible (1080p or 720p) so you will end up with “cleaner” HD gifs. 

2.-  When you select your video, then you will have to choose the specific moment or scene you want (you do this by selecting and moving the arrows at the bottom of the image) TIP 2: I usually limit every 2 frames, but if your scene is too short (less than 20 - 25 frames) then I suggest not clicking the limit and leaving it at 0, likewise if your scene has too many frames (over 70) then limit every 3 frames 👍 to make it smaller.

3.- Sometimes when you select your scene, a few extra frames will show up in your timeline, it’s ok, you can delete them by selecting the frames and clicking the trashcan icon at the bottom. Next, don’t forget to change the speed, you do this by selecting all the frames (click the first one then press SHIFT and click the last one, this will select everything), and then click one of the numbers below the image and select “Other”. TIP 3: Usually I use between 0,07 - 0,08 (my fav) - 0,09 from faster to slower. The speed will depend on the gif you are making. TIP 4: If you have PSDs colorings, now it’s time to add them, just click and drag your PSD on top of the image, and remember to make sure it is on top of all the frames and layers ( the ones on the side).  Personally, I do it now, because when I do it later in the process there is always a few frames that won't color.

4.- Now that we have our desired frames, speed, and PSD coloring  (optional), we need to make it easier to keep editing. So we need to click on the little icon with stripes at the top right corner on top of the timeline (the orange square) 🠲 “Convert timeline into video” 🠲 and now you should have one long frame instead of many single ones.

Now let’s do the same with the layers that are on the right (purple circle), once again click the first layer then shift-click on the last one to select everything 🠲 right click on one of the layers 🠲 “convert into a smart object”  🠲 and now all the layers also become one.

5.- What I like to do next is to cut and then resize (you can do it the other way around if you’d like) select the cutting tool on the left side (light blue circle) and then it is up to you to choose which shape do you want (in the purple circle) there are some basic proportions but you can also make your own. 

6.- Now is where all the fun begins. Let’s resize our image so we won’t end up with a giant gif. to do this go to the  “Image” tab on top of the screen 🠲 “image size”

TIP 5: To choose a good size, please keep in mind the standard sizes on Tumblr or other social media. If you are using one gif per row then the size should range between 540px - 560px - or 580px / If you are using 2 gifs per row then the size should be around 268px / and if you have 3 per row then the size should be around 177px. Once you select the appropriate size… this is where it gets tricky. Depending on the gif you are making you will have to select a different option ex: if your gif is too blurry or has lots of movement or grains if they are too dark or too light if the colors are too different, all these factors will determine what you need to use. TIP 6: I usually use only 3: bilineal - bicubic reduction or keep details 2.0 (the names may change in English but look for something along those lines or in the same place as the ones in the image with the green ticks)

7.-  SHARPENING TIME!: go to “Filter” 🠲 “sharpen” 🠲  “smart sharpen”

As I have mentioned before, the amount will depend on the gif you are making, there is no perfect formula for all the gifs, so you need to play around a bit to find the perfect setting for your specific gif. TIP 7: This is what I normally use: amount: between 250 and 300 / Radius: 0,3px - 0,4px or 0,5 (but never over 0,5) / noise: anything between 0 and 50, now if you have a very blurry scene you can go up to 100 👍 and finally select the option “Grussian blur”. 

Tbh I never change the “shadows” and “lighting” settings (they are always 50 -50 -1) If you know how to use them or want to play around, then go for it…. I have no idea how to 🤣 oops. 

8.- BLUR: sometimes the gifs look TOO sharp so we need to add a blur filter. so go to “filter” 🠲 “blur” 🠲 “surface blur” 

then once again, depending on your needs, you can play around with the settings. TIP 8: I normally use 10-6 / 9-4 / 7-4 or 3 / etc. but I never go over 10. 

Also if you are noticing that your gif is still looking a bit blurry or with imperfections, due to the quality of the video, the scene is too complicated, etc. then I recommend adding noise on purpose 🤣 hey! if you can’t fight against the noise then put it on purpose and make the gif with a bit of texture and colors, it will look nice too 👍 go to “filter” 🠲 “noise” and then add the amount you want. 

9.- Now we are almost done, you can leave it like that if you want or you can add some extra steps and play around with the brightness, exposure, color balance, gradients, filters, etc. you can find everything on your right (the yellow circle). Here is up to you to explore and experiment, I never use the same, it changes every gifset I make.   

10.- You can add your watermark, images, texts, paint with the brushes, or do anything else with your gif. but this time I will skip these steps, but if you need extra information about something, please feel free to ask, and I will gladly help you 😊. 

TIP 9: Before you save your gif, please make sure all the things you added are in line with your gif “video frame” 🠲 move the little arrow so it will end perfectly with your gif, if the others are longer, it doesn’t matter, you can move them or you can leave them there, the important thing is that the line is perfectly in line with your gif.

11.- Now there is nothing left to do, it’s finally time to save it for the web. Go to “files” 🠲 “export” 🠲 “save for the web” 

TIP 10: Now you have two options: you can view your gif in the “optimized version” tab where it will show you one option that you can edit. If you select this option then these are the settings I always use, the only option that changes is: using pattern (the gif will have a small invisible “net” that will make the gifs look more uniform, use this especially when the lights or shadows and colors look grainy) or you can use Diffusion (to make it smoother and move flowy)  you can try both and see which one suits your gif best 👍

and then the easier second option is to click the “4 copies” tab on top of the gif, and it will show you 4 different options, then you just select the one you like the best and it’s ready! 

12 .- THE LAST STEP!!!  TIP 11: make sure your final gif is smaller than 10MB (Tumblr's limit) and hit SAVE! and you are ready!! ヾ(≧▽≦*)o 

This is our final result: A sexy Gojo 💙

Thank you for reading, I hope this helped you, and I can wait to see all of your creations! ✨

Feel free to tag me in your gifsets or to ask me any other question in case you need extra information or need me to explain something better 💖

Also, if you are an expert and would like to comment, change or suggest better steps and/or settings, please let me know! so we can all learn and grow 👍

[juuls]

Humans Are Weird Compilation

HEY FOLKS! I finally did it! (Yes, with permission.)

So until Tumblr made changes to their browser interface, I was having a heck of a lot of trouble with how to get all 100,000+ words of this thread into a cohesive whole, at least easily. For once, Tumblr staff pulled through with an 'upgrade' that actually helped, though there is one issue that cropped up.

While the Notes section is from oldest to newest (I placed this section at the top), the next section of 'comment only' reblogs has no such filter for ascending or descending order.

So yeah, all the fun reblog stuff and additions have to be read from the bottom of the document and up, bottom to top.

Since Google Docs decided there were way too many words to function properly, I'll be hosting a Word Document file in my Google Drive, which I'll link to (you can view it even if you don't have Word). I will be editing out extraneous comments that literally have nothing to add (i.e. "I FOUND IT!") and then maybe eventually I'll start another document where I paste everything by hand in the proper old to new order. And try to add in new comments when I can. (This will take forever, honestly.)

This is a b*tch of a project, honestly, so I'm happy enough with how it turned out, even if it's not perfect. It isn't in the same format like you would read one of this thread's reblog chain, but I feel like the gist is there, and really there are just so many reblog chains it's insane.

I'll make a new, separate post stating this same thing, as well as reblog onto one of the thread's chains, and I hope you enjoy this and all the wonderful creativity of all involved. This has become a favourite reading topic of mine. <3

So for now, current to July 4th, 2022, here is the link to the ridiculously huge document I spent like 12 hours on, and it's still not perfect. It's on Google Drive but it's a very large file and Drive doesn't react well to large files -- I will work on separating things into different files to help with that.)

Humans Are Weird: A Compilation by @arcticfoxbear & The Cool People of Tumblr, patched together by @juuls

I'm also including a direct link to the (again, for now, single -- I'm getting on that ASAP) document on my Dropbox, as well as a link to the folder it's in because I like to compile some of r/HFY (Humanity F*ck Yeah)'s stories into easily readable format. I add those every so often.

Humans Are Weird (.docx version) on Dropbox. (It'll possibly say 'something went wrong' but if you go up to the top and open it in 'Word For Web' it worked pretty easily for me.)

Humans Are Weird .doc version.

r/HFY folder on Dropbox.

Humans Are Weird .pdf version. I've been told this is the quickest, easiest version to open, thank you!

Do enjoy!!!! And consider reblogging (with or without additions!) the original post found here: HUMANS ARE WEIRD. Because it's awesome.

Oh and here's a link to my Mediafire hosting of the .docx file while we're at it! Just in case. As well as the .pdf version of the file.

>~<

Again! I will be dividing this into smaller sections, as well as trying to put things in oldest to newest order. Be patient, please, but hopefully some of these options work for you! If not I can try emailing you a copy. :)