#but seriously go to his website his art is the best

[gremlinmodetweeker]

König's Haunted House Disaster

Inspired by @machveil 's post HERE and my little blorbo of König punching out recruits HERE, I figured that for the day before Halloween I should write about just what exactly went down on the night Horangi, Hutch and Askel took König to a haunted house.

Art from This Post

12:00 - Ten Hours Before the Ban

"Hey König! You gotta check this out!" Horangi called across the cafeteria, enthusiastically waving his phone as he jogged over.

König, already tired of what Horangi was about to say, simply grunted when the Korean man slid into the seat beside him. He tried his best to convey just how tired he was, but it was to no avail as Horangi eagerly crowded into his personal space to show him his crack phone screen.

"You really should get that replaced," König grumbled as Horangi shuffled closer.

"You sound like my Mom," Horangi commented before pressing play on the video.

König winced at the volume as Horangi hurriedly turned it down with a whispered 'Sorry!'.

"You really are a useless-"

"Look!" Horangi jammed his finger at a small sign in the video.

König leaned in and squinted.

"Horangi, my eyes are good but they're not that good. Can you just tell me what it says?"

"This place is near our base!" Horangi explained, "let's get a few guys and we'll go!"

"You want to go to a... A scary house?" König asked curiously.

"A haunted house König," Horangi sniffed, "seriously you moved from Germany over ten years ago and you still don't know what a haunted house is?"

König huffed, "My mind blanked. I know what they are."

"Yeah sure, keep telling yourself that," Horangi drawled before switching tabs to get to a poorly formatted website, "now look, tickets are cheap here. It's only five euros to get in!"

For a moment, König's eyes sparkled.

"Only five euros?" he muttered, "that's not too bad... I could be convinced."

"If we go to the shwarma place fist would that help?"

"... Maybe."

"Alright I'll tell Hutch," Horangi swung his legs from out of the bench.

König watched, slightly stunned, as Horangi swaggered away to the other cafeteria.

"Aren't you going to have lunch with me?" König asked.

Horangi turned to look over his shoulder and scoffed, "Nah, I've got shit to do. I wanna go, but if we don't get enough of a crowd it's just not worth it."

König narrowed his eyes, "Was I only asked to boost numbers?"

Horangi shrugged, "Why are you worried?"

"Don't you consider me a friend?" König asked bitterly.

"Yeah," Horangi said, "but you always push the chair back in the car until it hits my knees."

"Then drive," König stated.

"I don't need you on my case too," Horangi grumbled and walked away, leaving König to sit with an empty tray in front of him.

He glared at the gleaming steel.

"Did I really eat it all that fast?"

17:00 - Five Hours Before the Ban

Hutch took a long swig of water before dropping his arm to his lap. He waved at König fondly, "Hey there."

König waved back curtly and picked up a dumbbell before sitting on a bench and starting his bicep curls.

"You doing another set?" Hutch asked.

"Why not?" König shrugged.

"That's what I keep telling myself, but then I strain something," Hutch laughed, "you best watch yourself old man."

"I am not old!" König grumbled, "I only just turned thirty a month ago."

"You're in your thirties. You're old," Hutch smirked.

"You're what, twenty-nine?" König huffed.

"Twenty-seven and eleven months, thank you," Hutch replied.

"Oh so you'll be old soon enough," König snorted.

Hutch shook his head and wiped a blue towel over her forehead, "Nah, once I hit thirty then thirty-five is old."

"Oh," König rolled his eyes, "I see. So I won't be old for long."

"Did I say thirty-five? I meant thirty-one" Hutch took another sip of water.

"You're worse than Horangi," König puffed as he neared the end of his rep.

"König," Hutch glared down his nose at the bigger man, "nobody's as bad as Horangi."

König put the dumbbell by his feet and set his timer before he admitted, "Maybe not."

"Speaking of Horangi though," Hutch started stretching his arms over his chest, "I heard that he invited you to come out with us?"

"Word really does go around fast here," König muttered.

"When it's with Horangi? Sure does. But seriously man," Hutch eased into a good stretch, "are you coming?"

König drummed his fingers on his thigh as he felt his heart rate relax. He turned his head from side to side and then said, "Why not. I don't have anything else to do."

"Then I guess we got you on a good day," Hutch smiled.

"'We'? I thought this was a Horangi thing," König glanced over at his friend.

"Well, I gave Horangi the idea, but he was the one who really made it happen," Hutch explained, "I was hoping we might schedule something for next week or whatever, but Horangi's too impulsive to wait."

"Strange. When we were out in Iraq I saw him line up a shot for three hours," König shook his head, "but that man works in weird ways. I don't think I'll ever understand him."

"Funny, 'cause he says the same things about you," Hutch commented.

König was about to say something when his timer went off.

"Another rep, big guy?"

König nodded and picked up the dumbbell again, "Always another."

20 :00 - Two Hours Until the Ban

"Oh my God this is so good."

"See? I told you it would be."

"Okay but I saw you flicking mould off a peach last week," Horangi rolled his eyes as he stuffed another forkful of shwarma in his mouth, "your definition of 'good' is fucked."

König bristled as Hutch and Aksel laughed quietly behind him. He glared at the two, but it only served to worse Aksel's giggling.

"It was just a tiny bit," he explained.

"It was not a tiny bit," Aksel snickered, "that was the peach that Stiletto forgot in her locker."

König paled, "Was it really?"

"Yeah?" Aksel shook his head mirthfully, "I mean, it was set out on the counter for a reason."

"I thought..." König trailed off as he turned to glare at his hands.

"Whatever you thought," Hutch interjected, "it was just stupid. Like come on man, it was smellin' and everything!"

König wrinkled his nose, "I don't think it smelled that bad."

"You know you nearly gave Stiletto a heart attack," Horangi added on.

König smiled beneath his hood, "Well, I suppose I'll have to tell her I'm sorry."

"Oh cut the crap," Horangi gruffed, "you just wish you saw her face too."

König nodded from side to side as the others laughed.

It wasn't often that the men could get off base for a bit, but by pulling König's rank card (Horangi swore that wasn't the reason he was invited) and explaining a few things away, they managed to be able to get some time out to look around and enjoy the city. It took about an hour to drive to the shwarma shop, but at least it seemed to be a hit with the whole team. König was glad to at least provide something to the trip. He hated to admit it, but even then he was anxious about appearing good enough for his team.

"So," Horangi put his plastic fork down, "In about fifteen minutes, what do you guys think about heading out to the haunt?"

"Fine by me," Aksel nodded as Hutch swallowed a bite of his wrap, nodding in agreement.

"Alright. König? You cool with that?" Horangi turned to look at the tall Austrian.

"Should be fine," König nodded, "I mean, it might be a bit late, but..."

"We'll be fine," Hutch shut him down quickly, "don't worry about it man."

"I mean, it's just it's a long drive, and-"

"König! If the numbers guy says it'll be fine, then it'll be fine," Aksel sighed.

Horangi patted his shoulder, "Trust us. It'll be fine."

König sighed and relaxed into the seat. He didn't trust them, not in the slightest, but the least he could do was pretend.

21:00 - One Hour Until the Ban

The group of four man stood outside the farmhouse, looking up and down at the dilapidated building. Fog rolled from the windows with winding screams into the night. Occasionally, a bright red flash would come from the top left window. Cheap cobwebs were woven over the ground, littered with tiny plastic spiders that glowed in the green light coming from the front porch.

"You gettin' scared at all?" Horangi grinned as he looked between the others.

"Pft, it looks cheap," Aksel crossed his arms, "saw way better when I was a kid."

"I think that's positivity bias there, Aksel," König muttered, earning himself a short nod from Hutch.

"I think we might've wasted our time honestly," Hutch frowned as he gave the building another once-over.

"Oh come on," Horangi groaned, "we haven't even been inside. It might be a lot of fun!"

"Fun?" Askel shook his head and tutted condescendingly, "in this place? I doubt it."

Hutch glared at the offending building behind a pair of sunglasses.

"The website made it look so much better," Hutch complained bitterly as he squared his shoulders back.

Watching Horangi's face fall, König couldn't help but kick himself for being so negative to the place. Without another word, he put a hand on Horangi's shoulder and cocked his head to the side.

"Maybe it might be better on the inside, don't you think?" he offered his friend.

Horangi smiled back brightly, "See! König has the right idea!"

König shrivelled under the judgmental glare of the others. He hated how they looked almost disappointing in him for trying to stand up for Horangi. Really, even if the haunt was just for kids, what was the harm in having fun with it?

"Well hey, they say there's only groups of two here," Horangi pointed at a poorly painted sign, "so I'll go with König and you two buzzkills go with each other."

Aksel rolled his eyes, but threw an arm around the taller man to his left, "Alright, looks like we're together."

"Get your arm off of me," Hutch grumbled.

Not keen to be dragged down by the others, König decided to follow Horangi to the front steps of the home.

Strangely, as König drew closer, he couldn't help but feel that age-old familiar tingle in his chest. Something about the house set him on edge. He didn't want to admit it, but the house certainly unnerved him. He had the feeling something horribly dreadful waited for him inside.

"You know, now that the other two are gone, I'm really digging the vibes here," Horangi elbowed König lightly.

"Ja," König replied stiffly, "it is different without them."

Horangi looked up at his friend skeptically. After observing him carefully, a sly smile slid across Horangi's face.

"Getting a bit spooked, big guy?" Horangi asked.

König snorted, "No, of course not."

"Sure," Horangi drawled, "whatever you say."

König turned to glare, but they were already being called up.

As he stepped up to the ticket taker, he noticed the man turning to an actor and whispering. He tried to ignore how they both seemed to focus more on him than Horangi before the smaller scare actor was shooed off.

As they walked into the house, Horangi worsened his fears when he blithely commented, "They really seemed to be looking at you back there. I wonder why."

König felt positively dreadful.

21:30 - Half an Hour Until the Ban

König looked around him nervously. About five minutes ago, Horangi had disappeared from his side. He could hardly believe it. One minute Horangi was chatting away and the next he was gone. He didn't even really know when he lost the man, he'd long-since tuned out his rambling. Now, he wished he were paying more attention.

Now that he was alone, König couldn't help but notice all the sounds more. The screams pressed on his ears as the rattling of chains snaked through his feet. Sometimes he swore he heard someone panting in his ear, but when he turned there was only the low green light guiding him forwards.

With each step he took, he felt like he was passing through thick webs. Occasionally, thick tarps would block his vision and he'd have to push forward. He tried his best to not let his heart rate spike, but something had him on edge.

A part of him was kicking himself for being in any way, shape or form affected by the house. It was just a haunted house, it was all fake. He'd seen real horror, so why did this get to him? What was it that had his skin crawling?

He didn't know but it just kept getting worse.

König pushed past a curtain of rusted chains to enter what looked like the remnants of a kitchen. In the strobing red lights, he could see blood splatters cake the walls. The shine of metal on the walls clued him in to the knives wallpapering the room. His knees felt weak when he finally noticed the centre of the room.

There, lying down strapped to the dining room, a woman watched him with bright white eyes.

König couldn't help himself as he dashed into the next room.

Those eyes, bright white, staring directly at him, they petrified him like no other. He felt them boring into him, even as he left. He spared a glance behind him and nearly collapsed when he saw the woman turn her head 180 degrees to follow him.

He slammed the next door shut behind him, swallowing him in darkness.

21:45 - Fifteen Minutes Until the Ban

König panted as he slumped against the door. He held his chest tightly, welcoming the darkness around him. Finally he could get away from those eyes. In this darkness, nobody could ever see him.

König closed his eyes and sighed.

When he opened them, a small candle lit the room, revealing the contents to him for the first time.

When he looked around, he wanted to scream.

Mirrors. There were mirrors everywhere. Some as big as him, some smaller than his thumbnail. Ton and tons of mirrors all glinting back at him.

He could see his form slowly distorting in the candlelight. Old memories rushed through him and he trampled forth, knocking down a couple of mirrors in the process and shattering them on the ground.

21:50 - Ten minutes Until the Ban

König ran until he collided into a wall and stumbled back. Now in the low red lights he could see everything around him.

From the room of mirrors he'd walked into a small pioneer classroom. To his horror, every single pair of eyes was on him. He tried walking one way, and the 'students' turned their heads. He walked the other way and they followed him. He glanced around in widening horror as he realized the only exit was at the back of the room.

Without another thought, he pushed forth.

21:55 - Five Minutes Until the Ban

König didn't know why he ever agreed to come here. This place was nothing but a house of torture. He wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, he wanted to do anything he could to escape. Any exit he saw only took him further and further into the maze.

How was a small farmhouse so big? It felt endless in here. Each turn brought him new horrors, new eyes staring at him. He tried to get away, but he could feel their eyes on him constantly, watching him run, watching him stumble, watching him as he desperately tried to find an escape.

He barely took in his surroundings as he charged through the building. He could hear something being shouted, could hear footsteps crashing down behind him but he just kept pushing forth. He needed to do anything he could to get away. He could feel his throat tightening and his heart pounding as he ripped down a curtain to get by.

He stumbled through into another black room and felt himself shut down.

21:58 - Two Minutes Until the Ban

The room was silent. Nothing from the outside came in. It was cold, terribly cold. Never had he been so cold. Why was he so cold?

He heard a door unlock, and footsteps step in.

21:59 - One Minute Until the Ban

"Uh, hello?" he heard a quiet voice, "um, is anyone in here?"

A bright flashlight turned on in his face, momentarily blinding him.

König didn't think as he punched into the light. He only heard a squawk and a curse as the light dropped down to the ground. He stumbled back and all the lights turned on.

22:00 - THE BAN

"Dude!" he looked down to find a straggly teen.

"Shit he got Johann," a woman yelled out.

"I told you this was a bad idea," a man grunted as he stepped forth and hauled the teen up to his feet. He gave König a sharp glare and jabbed a finger in his direction.

"Me?" König could feel the panic draining from his system.

"You! Go follow her and get out of here," the man yelled.

König didn't need to be told twice. He quickly found the tiny purple-haired woman and scurried to her side. She eyed him with disgust.

"Seriously dude, that wasn't cool," she sighed, "like, I know we're an extreme haunt, but you can't punch the actors. That's like, the number one rule here."

"Ah, sorry," König muttered weakly.

"Your friend is outside waiting for you," she grumbled as she led him through the back, "I told the guys not to push you too far, but they just wanted to scare the big guy and I guess they went too far. Still," she opened the final door, "you're banned from the haunt. Permanently."

"Why?" König asked meekly as he stepped by.

"You punched the actors dude," she glared at him, "number. One. Rule."

With that she slammed the door in his face, leaving him to join Horangi outside.

Horangi only had to take one look at his friend to figure out what had happened.

"You punched an actor?" he crossed his arms over his chest, "that's like, the number one rule."

"I panicked," König explained weakly.

"You? You panicked?" Horangi frowned, "what the hell did they do to you?"

König shook his head as he leaned over, "Eyes. So many eyes."

"Eyes?"

"And mirrors."

"And mirrors!? König, what sorta haunt did you go to?" Horangi quizzed him, "I just got led around a haunted barnyard!"

"After they split us up," König sucked in another breath, "it was... I didn't think that it would be that bad." Horangi scrunched his eyebrows together, but thankfully only clapped a hand on his back and helped push his friend forward, "Alright, well, I saw some sorta candy place. Looked like dragonsbreath, so I wanted to check it out. Wanna come with?"

König wheezed.

"I'll take that as a yes," Horangi shrugged and dragged König over to the cotton candy vendor.

Konig Dump

Konig Regular Fanfics

[mllermanda]

Now posting some of the Party Crashers fanart that I posted in Twitter a while back, I wanted to draw each of them as an genderbent version of themselves in the SkullGirls art style with a bit of backstory for each of them. Reason why I did not type this out in Twitter because of the word count which I absolutely hate about the website since it makes me limit on what I want to say, especially when being sincere since I use a lot of words to talk to others.

Regardless though, since Tumblr does not do this, I can finally write them down here:

For TCNICK3, I wanted his genderbent to be focused as an half robot, half human woman whose stuck under ruling of an cocky penguin who's getting the public attentions that she deserves. She's an smart and cunning woman who knows how to play the game and is waiting for the right moment to take over as true ruler. If in the SkullGirls universe, I would imagine her trying to go for the Skull-Heart at first before learning its true power and would try to go against it and destroy it at the end. She would delay the time for the next Skull-Heart to appear but the cycle would still continue.

For Sophist, I wanted his genderbent version to be very similar to the persona he has on Youtube. An chaotic Saturday morning cartoon woman who works alone and generally goes around towns committing petty crimes. Her goals of taking over the world was crafted and displayed towards her society though no one took her seriously. However when she heard about the Skull-heart, with no hesitation, she would claw her ways towards the top and end up falling into the traps that the Skullheart has. While gaining the power that she wanted, she will become an Skullgirl.

For Vernias, I focused on his genderbent to be the goddess in training of an utopia land that was contracted to protect people in Earth from corruption and evil. She trains everyday and is determined to do her best to bring people joy and happiness. Eventually she was sent off towards an mission into going to Earth to protect people from an dangerous item called the Skullheart. She gets assigned with this mission, gathers her minions and goes to Earth to face the Skull-Heart to destroys it. She would be able to destroy the skull-heart but would delay the time for the next skull-heart to appear as the cycle would continue.

Finally with King of Skill, I aimed his genderbent to be someone who just recently became Queen towards her own kingdom. While she is learning on how to properly rule her new kingdom, she focuses herself as an precise chill person while learning to balance between work life and personal life. However, she wants to find an new thrill within herself and learns about the skull-heart in the process to protect her kingdom. As she goes out on her own, she focuses on eliminating the skullheart and searches for other people who would join her journey on destroying the Skullheart. I would imagine at the ending in this one, the Party Crashers would come together to defeat the Skullheart and delay its inevitable return.

[dylanzemuffin]

It’s time for a DylanZeIntroduction!

I’ve already posted one of these before, but that was closing in on a full year ago, so it’s very old, very shitty, very outdated. Let me start again:

Hi, I’m DylanZeMuffin, but I prefer to just be called Dylan! There are many things to go over, so I’ll just list them in an organized manner…

I’m 16yo. That means I’m a minor, and I don’t want to see NSFW, nor do I want to hear anything more than sex jokes. I love sex jokes & dark humor, sure, but let's hope you can realize when enough has been enough.

I go by He/Him pronouns.

I am a learning, (mostly) self-taught artist, and a (pretty much entirely) self-taught voice actor! While I’m proud of my art, I am mostly known for my voice acting as I am THE OFFICIAL VOICE ACTOR OF 2011 SONIC.EXE FROM JOEDOUGHBOI’S 2023 REMAKE OF THE ORIGINAL FANGAME.

I love my girlfriend!!!

I barely use Tumblr. These past few recent posts plus this one have all been over maybe two hours as I am just now remembering this site exists after about a month of total inactivity. If you’d like to keep up with my content, such as my art, voice acting, and general commentary, the best place to do that is Twitter. If you don’t wanna step foot on Twitter (understandable), YouTube is also an option. My username is simply ‘DylanZeMuffin’ on both websites.

I am a HUUUGGEE fan of Five Nights at Freddy’s! It’s practically what I grew up with when I was younger, and it still is to this day, to be honest. A few other special interests of mine would include Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic.exe, & FNF. Yippie!

If you’d like to contact me for anything potentially important, my Discord tag is also, simply, ‘dylanzemuffin’

That’s mostly it for random trivia facts, now here are a few examples of my works, both art & voice acting!

Don't take this piece of VA work seriously please, lmao. I put it together in the span of like 30 minutes like a month back as an inside joke within a Friday Night Funkin' dev server.

Alright, thanks for taking the time to read through my flurry of bullshit! Bye!!!

[lesb0]

hi miss Terra, would you securely argue that tiktok is the current primary vehicle of culture, especially for black diaspora? Why or why not

Yeah I would say tiktok is the much much safer environment for the highly visible black culture, because of their heavy censorship against bullying and racism!

Of course racist white tumblrs complain about their lack of "freedom" but I've never seen antiracist rules enforced so seriously by any online platform, which otherwise goes completely untouched like on tumblr. at BEST we have leftist whites treat us like a whole different species while protecting privileged white males. at worst there are rampant neonazi blogs proliferating at really high rates. Same for facebook, reddit, insta but I've never seen one nazi get through tiktoks filters. I love to see the microaggressions get people chased off. the dedication to keeping black people safe is remarkable, community side and by serious moderation!

Secondly SO many cultural movements, dances, memes, etc have been coined by black people on tiktok! I've seen that white people tend to segregate cliques by race while maybe adopting 1 black person into their group because that person can give them good ideas to steal (exact same on tumblr but this is all anonymous)

But black people tend to be super creative even outside of a circle of friends. I would love to make short art history lecture clip videos someday, especially on black women artists :) but anyways I only go on that website to watch chef Nara smith videos when im in the kitchen lol. so maybe ask an expert.

[randomyuu]

Hunting together ♡

Alright. So. Hm.

How should I start this?

I love the fanfic this is based on. So… I drew the last scene in Chapter 1 :D (As I post this, it’s still in Chapter 1)

The fic is titled A promise in time by rizna. Please, pretty please, read the tags AND author notes carefully before reading! I can’t bear the thought traumatising any of you because you didn’t read the tags and the notes ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38933505/chapters/97368801

As usual, a bit of my thoughts below:

I really want to go on a rambling about how I love this fanfic, but we’ll go into ABO territory and I’m not sure if I want to do that lmao. But it’s really cute! Gojou being his bocchan persona, is beautiful. And I love how affectionate Yuuji is. I’m really weak for this Yuuji and just him in general :”)

So… about the drawing.

I am really sorry for all the history nerds who may have been inflicted physically by seeing this drawing ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿

I have never drawn kimono before, or at least never really seriously studying it before. And as usual, I just did a quick research on man’s kimonos in Edo Period and hoped for the best that I can trust the website. Haha what a mess :”D

The same goes for the bow and the ears, so… yeah. I don’t know why I make my life more difficult, but uh… I learn a bit, so… good for me? I guess???

At first, I want to make this full colour. Before I realise that I suck at colour theory and I just want to draw Yuuji hunting with Gojou aaaaaahhhh-

No, actually I think that’s not it.

It’s because the pose.

I can’t find good enough reference for the pose I have in mind—I tried to trace several similar poses, but it got weird because most of the poses use slim males, like, I need a bit of a muscle there, come on. So in the end… I just wing it after observing the references I got. The pose takes way too long to my liking, and this is caused by my lack of ability in perspective. I must say at some point I was internally frustrated, and that may have great influence over why I didn’t full colour the drawing. I don’t want extra stress haha.

And then the background came, and the stress was added in anyway lmaooo

It may sound like I was complaining, but it’s because of how I like the idea I have before drawing. I love the hunting scene so much—Yuuji’s so cool, Gojou finally acknowledged him and I squeal, Yuuji’s still so cool and now mysterious //gasp—I want to portray it as beautifully as possible. But alas ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿

It’s interesting how I learn more about drawing through making fan art for fanfics. They never failed to push me outside of my comfort zone, and in return, I learn bit by bit about new things I otherwise would learn probably years later.

But yeah. Hopefully you enjoy the drawing, and this random essay I wrote! :D

Have a nice day!

[freakartack]

I just wanted to ask your opinion/ideas on Mike (supposedly, said by Wario) running away in the past and Dr. Crygor's interest in human experimentation being reiterated in the Move It website translations? I honestly feel like the Mike situation was probably him just sneaking out one night and didn't get home early enough & it got exaggerated, or something along those lines!

ALSO I WANTED TO SAY RQ THAT I LOVE YOUR ART & COMICS SO MUCH!!!!

They seriously make me so happy every day and I have legitimately burst out laughing at them due to the amazing writing and hilarious expressions!!! You're one the best WarioWare artists out there and I feel like you genuinely understand the characters!!! I love your Mike, Crygor and Orbulon in particular!!! Interaction/dialogue wise but also designs!!! Keep up the amazing work!!!

THANK YOU!! You're too kind!! I love these characters so much, I'm really happy you enjoy my interpretation of them. Those are some of my favorite characters to draw and write so you definitely won't be seeing a shortage of them!

I believe the move it website is probably alluding to mike's stage in warioware touched - he was so rebellious that the literal first thing he ever did was run away to the moon. It's one of my favorite microgame cutscenes and the idea of crygor frantically calling dribble and spitz to go pick up his unruly robot from a party is really funny

Of course crygor now realizes that his new invention has interests of his own and therefore he is no longer an invention but a beautiful baby boy. He tries so hard to connect with his rebellious teenage robot by engaging with his interests but to his horror Crygor has already been deemed an Uncool Dad

They grow up too fast

I also really love crygor's unscrupulous desire to experiment on anything and anyone. It's made charming because he's not a coward, he's done more dangerous experiments on himself than anyone else. He also has the tiniest modicum of standards, which also makes the juxtaposition even funnier. He's not above experimenting on humans, but he doesn't want to experiment on any old humans, you have to build a rapport with him first. Wario is his favorite test subject, presumably because nothing can kill him

9-volt invites him over for a fun game night and crygor's only thoguht is "man i wish i could dissect his pet square"

The funniest part is that he doesn't do it though. He has restraint. Good for you, dr. crygor.

Truthfully I think he has thoughts like this a lot and he just never acts on them. It would be rude. This is crazy but i actually made a doodle about this earlier this week so this will not be my last post on this subject today. Hold that thought

[tachyonmemories]

Is there a place where i can get every illustration done by wayne barlowe? asking this before shitty ai art takes over and makes it hard to look for his legit works.

I honestly doubt there's any single place where you can find all his art. He's been my favorite artist for pretty much as long as I can remember and I still find pieces from him I've never seen before. Best I can do is point you in a couple different directions:

-His website is probably the best single location to find his work. Well organized, high-res scans and still gets an update every couple years.

-Weirdly, he is very active on LinkedIn. I think he posts all his new art there and you can easily "right click -> save as... " his posts instead of having to get some kind of 3rd-party plugin to download what he posts on instagram. To my knowledge, those are his only active socials and that's where you can find his new work. He may have a facebook page, but I haven't used facebook in years.

-If you go through torrent sites you can find high-res scans of a lot of his art from the "Barlowe's Guide" era up until about 2010ish. I think RUtracker is where I found a pretty thorough collection.

-His really early work- book covers and such- is pretty hard to track down. @70sscifiart and similar accounts occasionally post pulp covers by him from super early in his career but I seriously doubt they've been collected in one place. If they have, I don't know about it.

I think that's the extent of my knowledge. If you want to buy his physical books they're usually pretty pricey so either save up for pray for a deal. The only exception I think is Alphabet of Dinosaurs which you can normally get for a steal and which I highly recommend picking up.

Hope that helps! If I think of more resources, I'll come back and add them. Here are some weird Barlowe pieces I don't see in circulation too often:

[tofutortoise]

My Experience at The Tempest (少年社中) + Meeting Imata Taira!!

On Monday I saw Shonen Shachu’s 25th anniversary production of The Tempest in Tokyo! Overall, I had an amazing experience, and even got to meet IMATA TAIRA HIMSELF!!! And speak to him, which was unreal. Details below, but also spoilers for the play! 

First off, I got my ticket through the lottery system, and somehow I ended up with a fantastic seat on the first floor! I haven’t had great luck with random seats in the past, but this time I sure did. It was a pretty small theater with excellent acoustics. The set was minimal but well utilized. I was really excited about the costumes after seeing all the glittering visuals on the official website (see here), but for some reason, the actual costumes they wore for the play were completely different and noticeably lower quality. I was particularly disappointed that the women’s costumes had major downgrades. On the bright side, Hiroshi Yazaki (playing Kagura/Prospero) got an even better costume than the one he wears in the official posters. He looked like a prince! 

As for the story, I can’t say I was the biggest fan. However, this is probably on me more than the production lmao. Because it’s called The Tempest, I assumed that this would simply be a production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. However, as I quickly realized while watching the show and growing ever more confused, this is not the case!! It’s actually an original show about a theater group dealing with the loss of one of their members, reckoning with what it means to be an actor and bringing happiness to people, following their love for acting, etc., all while they put on a production of The Tempest. Scenes from Shakespeare’s Tempest are therefore interwoven into the play, and sometimes I admit I had a hard time understanding what was going on (the many time skips/flashbacks didn’t help on this point lol). Honestly I should have read the plot synopsis ahead of time, but because I assumed it was just the basic Tempest I didn’t bother– oops. 

There were points where I was quite invested and moved, but overall I wouldn’t say the flow of the story was particularly great. However, my experience was also limited by my intermediate Japanese, and I’m sure a lot of it went over my head. 

I think all of the actors did an amazing job! Imata Taira was definitely a highlight, and he portrayed a very troubled, grieving, angry character with artfulness and incredible intensity. Seeing him, along with Yazaki and Shogo in person, was absolutely unreal. As a long time Hakuouki fan, going from first seeing them on my computer in Hakumyu 8 years ago to watching them in person in Japan is a dream come true. 

Now, let’s get to the most exciting part– I MET IMATA TAIRA!!! AND SPOKE TO HIM!!!! AHHH! Basically after the show there was a special line where you could go to buy a piece of merch and talk to Taira for a moment. I had no idea they would be doing this so I hadn’t prepared anything to say to him, and I was SO nervous!! Turns out I needn’t have worried though, because Taira is such a lovely person and it was a great interaction. First of all, when the person in front of me moved on and I stepped up, Taira’s eyes went comically wide and he let out a gasp. I was expecting some level of surprise because I was a foreigner (blue eyes, red hair, etc.) at a completely Japanese play, but he was seriously taken aback. I spoke to him entirely in Japanese, of course, and thanked him for a wonderful performance, but he was just kinda scrambling for words and saying stuff like “Ah I’m so sorry I don’t know English!!”. He was so sweet and even bowed and put his head to the table and apologized for not knowing English T-T. I told him that even though my Japanese isn’t great, the power of theater is such that you don’t need to understand the words to be moved, and he thanked me again and even gave me his best “thank you!” in English too! He was so incredibly kind and genuine, and I found his reaction to be hilarious. It seemed like he was just as nervous to speak to me as I was to speak to him! Absolutely amazing experience!!!! The whole thing still feels absolutely unreal to me. I never thought I would have the opportunity to actually speak to one of the actors who has meant so much to me over the years. What a wonderful way to start off 2024 :) 

If anyone wants to chat about the play or has any questions about seeing it, feel free to PM anytime!

[oasisofgalaxies]

"sorry i stole your tag" NO this is the website where we're all freaks about our interests. now tell me about rosegold i wanna hear what it is

oh dear lord that is a can of worms but I’d be happy to open it !!!!

Ok SO Rosegold is a story that is shared between me and my friend @ind1c0lite !!! It’s abt to go thru a major rewrite bc the plot is as filled with holes as a Rhode Island interstate and we can’t have that

But the basic concept won’t change SO here we go!!

In Rosegold there exist beings known as Guardians. The Guardians were created by the Universe, who they call Mother. Mother created the Guardians to watch over certain aspects of existence. Each Guardian is assigned an aspect which is called their Domain. A guardian can have up to two Domains and they are usually related to one another in some way.

As creation exists in Mother, destruction exists in the Collective. The Collective are a hivemind, a rolling tide of eldritch flood that exists to destroy. The Universe weaves and the Collective tears. Opposing forces, a sort of yin and yang. The Guardians know that all destruction of Mother’s creations cannot be stopped, but they do their best to keep the Collective at bay.

The Guardians live in a realm called HQ. It exists somewhere outside the mortal plane and therefore can’t be accessed by mortals. HQ is headed by three guardians, who are also our main characters!

(Art by @ind1c0lite)

This is Una, the Guardian of Timelines and Reality! She was the first Guardian to be created by Mother. Because of this, Una takes her job as head Guardian very seriously. She’s stoic, serious, and very dedicated to her duties and to her fellow Guardians. In her free time (which is an amount that is next to nothing) she enjoys collecting and tending to her extensive collection of swords! While she cares deeply for everyone in HQ, she doesn’t open herself up to many people. I can count on one hand how many people she’s let herself be vulnerable around. But even with her closest friends, there’s some secrets that she will never tell.

(Art by @ind1c0lite)

Memento, or Mem for short, is the Guardian of Time and Memory! He was one of he first Guardians created after Una, and is one of the head Guardians in HQ. There is never a dull moment around Mem, he’s a huge dork and is always getting into some kind of shenanigans. He tends to skirt his duties as head Guardian a bit more than his compatriots, but he is capable of buckling down and getting shit done when needed. Mem is extraordinarily loyal and will often rush headfirst into danger in order to protect his friends. As a hobby he enjoys metalworking! He can create some fantastically intricate pieces, and quite thematically he enjoys making pocket watches. Where Mem is, you can trust that Mori is not far behind.

And speaking of, this is Mori! Mori is the Guardian of Life and Death and the third Guardian to be created after Una. I can’t really say third because he and Mem were created at the same time, so it’s hard to put a number to their arrival. The two are basically inseparable and it’s a rare sight to see them apart. Mori has one of the biggest hearts in HQ and cares deeply about his friends and fellow Guardians. He can be a bit of a stickler for the rules which sometimes gets him the reputation of being a bit of a spoilsport, but he means well. Mori tends for HQ’s sprawling gardens which he himself worked tirelessly to cultivate. He spends hours pruning and caring for his flowers. His prized rosebushes are his favorites! His relation to flowers extends outside the gardens as well. Flowers tend to bloom wherever he goes and can be a good way to tell how he’s feeling. If he’s in a particularly bad mood, however, plantlife around him will wilt and wither. Luckily, it’s rare that Mori is ever in a bad mood.

And those are the main three guys!! Our protagonists :D! I don’t want to make this post super long but if u or anyone reading has any questions please feel free to ask I LOVE talking abt Rosegold so so so much hehe

[viktorshands]

Vampire AU - Part I

Silco x Fem!Reader 

Warnings: Language (seriously, that’s it... for now... o.o)

WC: 1370

Chapter I:  An Unexpected Setback

You were an Arts professor at Piltover Academy, teaching students the pleasures of history, music, and art. You loved your job, for as long as you could remember you were always told that you would make an amazing teacher. Unsurprisingly, you did. Coincidentally, so did your best friend, Sky. The two of you were as thick as thieves as two young women could be. You both enjoyed the nightlife of Piltover City, sometimes a little too much, but could always count on each other for everything. 

You stroll up the front steps at Piltover Academy at a leisurely pace, humming to yourself. Only faculty was permitted in the classrooms at this time, with only a couple of days before the fall semester classes started. You nod politely at the other professors as you walk down the spacious hallway until you finally reach your office. You reach for your key to open the door, but before you can open it, you hear someone clear their throat behind you.

You turn, only to see Administrator Jayce Talis standing there, his hands in his pockets and a solemn look on his normally cheery face. 

“Hi, Y/N,” he stared at the floor as if there were something interesting beneath your feet, “do you have a few minutes? I need to speak to you, privately.”

You felt uneasy, a bad feeling twisting in the pit of your stomach, but still you nodded at him and opened the door, letting him into your office ahead of you.

-

“Fired? How? What?” Sky’s voice was at a higher pitch than the rooftops as you sat on the olive green couch in your shared apartment. “I literally just saw him today as I went in to set up my classroom. No wonder he couldn’t look me in the eye.” Her angry growl could be heard from the kitchen across the room, “Men are such cowards! Ugh! Okay, tell me exactly what he said just once more.”

“He said that the Academy was making cuts, unfortunately that included my program. They are centering their priorities in science; hence, the arts are not an ‘ideal expenditure’ according to the board of directors.” You exhaled, defeated, putting your face in your hands. “Oh Sky, what the hell am I going to do?”

Her soft footfalls approached, she put one hand on your shoulder and reached to hand you a warm mug of mint tea. “Y/N, I’m so sorry.” She sat down next to you, “Hey, we can search for jobs together if you want?” 

The two of you scrolled online for what felt like hours, the morning sun dipping late into the afternoon now. It seemed like all of the jobs out there were either for someone more qualified than yourself or for much less pay than you would be able to accept. Feeling put-out, Sky got on her computer to order take-out for the both of you - Thai food could always brighten your day.

You came across an ad on a small website for a private tutor. The pay immediately caught your eye.

𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗧𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗱. $𝟳𝟱/𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗣𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 ��𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼��𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗵𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹.

Hm, could be interesting, but why are there like, no details? Still, I could do worse. You uploaded your resume, your email address, phone number, and hit “Apply”. 

The evening passes quickly. You turn off the TV, uninterested in finishing the episode of Love Island without Sky, who has long since passed out on the couch beside you. You get up and yawn, stretching like a cat before seeing your phone screen light up. As you grab it, you see that an unknown number is calling. At ten o’clock? Scam alert!

You walk to your bedroom and answer anyway, ready to prank the scammer on the other line, “Hello?” You do your best Kermit the Frog impression.

“Miss L/N? This is a call in response to your job application to be a private tutor?” A strong, female voice spoke on the other end of the call.

Dread and embarrassment washed over you like a downpour. Are you fucking kidding me? You chastised yourself.

“Hello?” The woman spoke again.

“Hi!” Now you sounded too overzealous. Tone it down. “Hello, yes, this is Y/N. I apologize, I needed to clear my throat.”

“No trouble at all. I will connect you with the master.” Her voice was deadpan. You heard her quietly say, “fucking hell.” The line went silent for a moment, and your pulse quickened. The what?

“Ah, Miss L/N.” The male voice on the other end purred, sending a shiver up your spine.

“Um, Y/N is just fine, thank you.” You were almost tripping over your words and started to pace your room. “I - I’m sorry, um, what is your name? I am afraid that I don’t know who you, or your school or company is at all. There was barely any information on the application.” You slapped a hand over your mouth and internally screamed at yourself. For the love of crackers and cheese stop talking now before you say anything else offensive.

“Y/N.” He repeated your name, and you froze in place. That voice. “You may call me Silco.” He sounded like honey and whiskey, sweet on the tongue and a burn in your throat to wash it down. He continued, “Let me ask since you brought up the application: What made you interested in this position?”

The money, obviously. “I thought it would be a unique opportunity for myself in my career, and a perfect fit for myself. I have been teaching at the Piltover Academy of Arts and Sciences, well, now just Sciences actually.” Your voice trailed off. “Sorry, I’ve been teaching for three years since I graduated at the top of my class. I have experience with art, history, and music, all of which I think are vital for a student to learn. How old is the student that is requiring the lessons? I only ask because it will be easier to craft lessons depending on their grade level.”

“She is eighteen.” He paused, “I agree that the arts are an essential part of one’s education. Tell me, Y/N, have you ever been to Zaun?”

“Zaun?” You didn’t mean for your confusion to come across so loudly so you covered your tracks, “I have never been but I know that it is a small town, a population under 500 and well-known for their folklore, as well as the birthplace of General Vander who was said to have raised a legion of wolves to fight in the Great War over six hundred years ago.”

“Ah, I see.” He sounded pleased, or strained, if that was possible to detect, “You’re familiar with our quaint town? That is where we are located. My manor is just outside of the town.”

“Oh,” You furrowed your brow, “I am partially familiar, but I am afraid that it would be quite a far drive for me to come all the way out there every day. You see, I live in Piltover City.”

A pause on the other end. You held your breath in anticipation for his response and started mentally backtracking through your other job options. 

“I see, well, we expected that. We are prepared to have you stay on the grounds. Your meals and everything else will be provided for in addition to your flat-rate compensation.”

You couldn’t hide the excitement from your voice and you said happily, “That would be amazing.”

“You’ll hear from us soon, thank you for your time, Y/N,” He said softly, “It has been a pleasure to speak with you.”

“The pleasure was mine, thank you for your consideration, Silco.” It felt strange to say his name aloud, too informal. Before you could say anything else, the line clicked in your ear, startling you back to reality.

You started your nightly routine, though trying to get your heartrate back to resting was more difficult than taming a beast. Still, you fell asleep with your imagination running wild to piece together a picture of the man that is connected to such a sensual voice.

-

Part II

[ragnarokproofing]

author ask tag game

Thank you for the tag, @catchingbigfish! I'm tagging @sarahlizziewrites, @moonandris, and @sam-glade with no pressure, and with an open tag for anyone else who is interested. Apologies if you've already done it, this has been sitting in my drafts for like a month.

All of these answers are in regards to my thesis, which is a large-scale dark fantasy novel with an alternating third-person PoV.

(1) What is the main lesson of your story (e.g. kindness, diversity, anti-war), and why did you choose it?

I don't like to conceptualize my fiction as having "lessons." It's not so much that it's inherently inaccurate as that it's not constructive, or conducive to deep and resonating fiction; I have found that this presentation lends itself to moral absolutism. Furthermore, I don't tend to have my characters learn objective moral lessons, but rather learn or decide something about themselves or the world, and make a choice about how they are going to act in the future.

So to phrase it in that way, "what does your main character realize or decide about himself," my main character Fasenil decides that there is enough in the world that makes it worth saving even though it's largely hostile to his existence, and that he is willing to sacrifice himself in order to save it.

(2) What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding (like real-life cultures, animals, famous media, websites, etc.)?

I am very aware that the first thing that any of my readers think of when they read my drafts are Skyrim. While it is an inspiration to some extent, my world is far more inspired by real-life cultures, primarily real-life Viking Age Scandinavia. I take historical research very seriously, and I take great pains to maintain historical accuracy when relevant. I have a frankly massive number of sources that I'm not going to cite here.

That's the main inspiration for the area of my map where the novel takes place; inspirations for the larger world include the Holy Roman Empire, 20th century fascist movements, and more.

(3) What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, help readers grow as a person?

I think that this question runs up against the same problems as the first. I don't desire to teach readers any sort of specific lesson with my fiction. If they take lessons away, that's nice, but it's not something that I concern myself with.

To answer a related but separate question, I hope that some small fraction of readers who feel the same things as I do feel on some level seen; not the shallow "validation" that is so often talked about in online art and fandom spaces, but with the sort of universe-reordering forcefulness and urgency that I've felt so few times in my life. Not saying "you are a market that it is advantageous to target," but "you exist, I see you, and I know." I am writing, in that sense, to my younger self.

My characters both are in an abstract sense seeking to transcend their pasts, and to find belonging. At the beginning, Fasenil is at first balancing his desire for "success" and accolades with the growing threat that visibility presents to him. Hallbjorn is trying desperately to carve out a life that is free from the obligation of violence, but can't seem to do it. I don't consider it my job to pretend that any of these struggles have objectively correct or moral answers. I can only have my characters make decisions, and do their best to forge a way forward.

(4) How many chapters is your story going to have?

I mean, there are thirty in my outline, but that is extremely fluid. It is possible that it will eventually be divided up into a duology.

(5) Is it fanfiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?

It's an original fiction novel, also functioning as my MFA thesis. I don't plan on posting anything more than snippets and supplemental content (art, memes, etc) anywhere; it will be traditionally published.

(6) When and why did you start writing?

I've been writing since I was a little kid. I've only been taking it seriously as a craft and as a career path for about a year and a half.

(7) Do you have any words of engagement for fellow writers of Writeblr? What other writers of Tumblr do you follow?

I follow many, many writers of tumblr, too many to name here.

The piece of advice that I repeat to myself most often is, "good prose is a renewable resource." What this means is that you must trust in your ability to be able to generate good prose in the future, and not stay married to ineffectual passages just because they are well-written or you are fond of them. My first priority is the function of a paragraph/passage/scene within context, because that is much more difficult to revise than prose itself, which can always be improved.

Also, participate. Write weird essays and post them. Read more. Pick a topic that interests you and read half a dozen papers about it on jstor. Ask questions and offer to workshop people's stuff for them, and then get good at workshopping. Form your own opinions instead of just absorbing whatever's popular in the social media-sphere that you're in.

[just-a-carrot]

Hi! I never use tumblr, but I wanted to get on my mostly untouched account and ask you something!

First off though, I want to say that I absolutely ADORE Our Wonderland and Our Fantastic Wonderland. I’m not a horror person, so I saw the game on itch.io for a long time before I was brave enough to try it, thinking it would just be a horror movie plot in the form of a visual novel. But I was so, so wrong, and so pleasantly surprised. I love all of it: the characters are so vibrant and feel so alive (except for when you know, they’re no longer with us and then R.I.P.), the way you don’t pull punches with the heavy topics you cover, the fact that you never know which choice will lead to a death but that you also are merciful and send us back to the last choice rather than giving us a game over (seriously, thank you for that), oh my gosh I could go on and on. The art style grew on me too and now I love it, plus I think it fits the game perfectly; I really like how you draw everyone so expressively.

I’m super excited for the final part to be released, but don’t push yourself too hard; we’re all happy to patiently wait. Being a solo dev is crazy difficult, and the high quality product you’ve released so far is simply fantastic. Plus you added a gallery, not one but TWO new modes (censored and streaming which must have been so much work), and other cool things WHILE ALSO creating the first half of Act 5??? Like how do you get so much done?

Anyways, I’m rambling, so I’ll get back on track. I saw in one of your answers to an ask (about if you’re okay with NSFW art of Our Wonderland) that you said you’re okay with people writing (among other things) about OW so long as they’re not using it in a hateful or bigoted way (I don’t remember the exact phrase you used, but I think that’s the gist of it).

So I wanted to ask, like are fanfictions okay? I have no intention to use them in a way that is demeaning to others, or hateful, or anything unkind. I just want to make some OW fan content to sustain me until the second half of Arc 5 is released, and hopefully share my love of OW and the characters with anyone who decides to read the fanfic(s).

I would definitely give you all the credit for Our Wonderland's characters, storyline, etc. While I'm usually a quiet person on the internet, I want to send anyone who may read the fanfics to the actual visual novels you've made. I would like to clarify that I don't really have an audience as I haven't posted my writing on any websites in a hot minute, but this story has absolutely entranced me. And I want to have more people to nerd out about this story with, so if i can get some more people on board the OW train, I'd be thrilled.

If you say no, I will respect your wishes as the creator and will not write or post any fanfiction!

If you are okay with it though, I’d be thrilled to share the title and website, etc I end up posting the fanfics on so you can read them if you so desire. Regardless of your decision, I will be thrilled to replay Our Wonderland and Our Fantastic Wonderland many times and I’m super stoked for the arrival of part two of Act 5!

(Sorry it's such a long message >.<)

Oh, my gosh, this is such a long (and lovely) message lakdjafld thank you so much for sending in a question! AND THANK YOU SO MUCH??? FOR THE WONDERFUL WORDS??? You're going to make me cry over here!! 🥺💦 I'm glad you decided to try it out despite your hesitations. I definitely know horror in general isn't for everyone LOL And this game definitely gets very intense at times in terms of horrificness LOL So that just makes me even happier that you still ended up enjoying it and the story ahhhhh,,,💦

"Like how do you get so much done?" -> LMAO HONESTLY I DON'T EVEN KNOW I didn't even decide to add all the new features and stuff until the last three or so weeks before the launch which,,, probably was not the best decision as the CG gallery especially ended up taking me hours and hours LOL However, I'm really glad to have gotten it done!! And I hope the new features will be helpful to people!

"So I wanted to ask, like are fanfictions okay?" -> Yeah, that's completely fine!! I am really fine with anything people want to create, just so long as exactly like you quoted above, that it's not for anything offensive or hateful/bigoted. (A-also not that I think anyone wouldn't do this, but I hope that people would honor the chars' sexualities/orientations lkadjfad 💦) I also ask that people don't tag me with anything NSFW as it makes me a bit uncomfortable and I don't want to interact with it (I don't mind people creating stuff like that so long as they're 18+, I just don't wanna interact with it personally dlakfjsdl) 😵‍💫💦 But just normal SFW stuff I have no problem with at all, whether it's writing/fics or art!! I think it's wonderful and lovely that you feel so inspired from my story that you would want to write something yourself! 🥺💕

Thank you so much again for your message! This was really sweet and brightened my day! 🥰

[luxtax]

Hi! I was wondering what canvas you use and if you’ve got any tips for starting off with art online?

Hello! This answer may get a bit long, but I hope this helps some people! I'm always happy to answer any questions I can.

I use Procreate & Clip Studio Paint! These are my dimensions, but anything with 300 DPI is normally fine. I use higher because I make products and prints! Also increase your canvas size if you draw on small canvases.

As for tips on starting art online, the best advice is just start. There is no such thing as the perfect time and perfect skill level. Art is actually more about marketing and learning the platforms you're posting on. Also unfortunately some luck, but you can increase your luck chances a lot with a few basic things. Keep in mind this is under the assumption you're trying to make art a career, if you're doing it as a hobby don't worry about this stuff and just post whenever you want.

However, if you're trying to grow and make art a job -- Post consistently. Seriously, this is the MAIN key that will help you especially in the beginning. Posting regularly and consistently is so important. -- But Kat, what if my art takes a long time to produce and I just can't post consistently or regularly? I think it's important to have 2-3 types of art that you upload.

Passion Projects / Big Detailed Work - This is the stuff that you're really passionate about. This is the reason you draw whether it's OCs, fanart, whatever it may be. This is where you're sinking your big time and effort into. These are the projects that keep you from burnout.

Quick Content - This is the stuff you can produce for reasonable time and energy. Social media is FAST people look at art very quickly and creating something that is quickly consumable can be a real life saver. This will keep your accounts alive and active during waits between your larger projects. It's a calculated use of your time and energy. For some people this is speedpaints or product videos, even WIPS/Sketches. For me I decided to turn my doodles into little comics/scenes -- it's fun and I love doing it. Everyone is different, so finding out what your quick go to content can be is up to you.

For some people those first two types are all you need, but for a lot of artists we also depend on commissions! Commissions are important and I recommend making a carrd, website or doc where all of your information is easily obtainable. Clear prices, clear examples and nothing too cluttered. Aesthetics are nice, and you can decorate as much as you want, but keep in mind the most important thing is to be able to find your information neatly and quickly. Make yourself easily accessible!

The last little bit of advice I will leave you with is, don't give up. If art is something you love, it's super easy to get discouraged but don't let it get to you. I've been trying to do art as a job since 2012 and only saw a crumb of success in 2022. It can take years, just because you don't blow up overnight doesn't mean art isn't for you. Keep practicing, keep learning and keep trying. You can do it, you will do it.

[goddamnwebcomics]

A Story With A Known End

It was a fantasy romance webcomic by a user named Ripli. 

It’s your typical romance story about a newbie demon (Jonty) and his actual bloodthirsty three centuries old vampire girlfriend (Clementine) meeting and quickly growing close together. Unfortunately, the two have to deal with outside problems and their own personal conflicts, such as Clem’s past relationship with another demon going sour and Jonty having to deal with living the life of a demon after recklessly signing a contract without thinking much on the consequences it would bring.

The art is fine, to the point of looking like a DreamKeepers comic, but the story could’ve used some more work. As best as I can describe it, it feels like it also wants to be an action comic with deep lore of its world and how the characters interact in it, but either doesn’t fit the overall simple narrative or feels slapped on without any breathing room or clear understanding on where to place the tension/bigger events. Heck. Sometimes it becomes a challenge understanding what the characters are talking about in a given scene. Maybe part of that problem has to do with the poor Russian to English translation, but I have a hard time believing that would fix everything. 

You can either read the comic on Webtoon, this website or on FurAffinity.

First of all what a horrible name for a webcomic. The title doesn’t make any sense, more than anything it will draw people out from it, thinking it’s gonna be predictable as hell.

Oh it’s a russian webcomic too? cyka blyat. But seriously it seems there are a lot of issues with webcomics that take place in Hell. I feel like you could do highly complex lore on a simple story as long as you slowly begin dropping little nuggets of intrigue through worldbuilding and flashbacks. I haven’t read the comic but I presume it’s just…randomly mentioning things audience has never heard of like Dumok does.

[laikaflash]

I’m babbling about heraldry from a fighting game again

This is sort of a redux of my post about the mostly horse-themed heraldic motifs on some of Siegfried’s designs. As before, I’m starting with his PS1-exclusive Soul Blade costume. Specifically, the back of it.

(Screenshot taken from SPGAMES’ video.)

I thought there would’ve been at least one drawing of this coat of arms in concept art, but all the illustrations of the tabard-and-chainmail costume I've found only show him from the front. I wasn’t even entirely sure what the charges (beasts) on it were supposed to be, but my best guess remains that they’re dragons. The same game mentions in Siegfried’s “Edge Master” story that he was named after “the famous hero”. That would be Siegfried from the Nibelungenlied, who gained nigh-invulnerability from a literal blood bath after slaying a dragon (except for the back of his neck, where a fallen leaf happened to land). It’s a nice touch.

Here’s my hypothetical (and likely ungrammatical) blazon for the coat of arms: Per pale, Gules and Azure, two Dragons, Or in Dexter and Argent in sinister, combatant.

It’s hard to find an example of a coat of arms divided per pale and with charges that aren’t counterchanged and I see why. (Seriously, my only other reference was Joffrey Baratheon’s.) Grumbling aside, it does follow the rule of tincture (metals on colors). For reasons that will be elaborated on later, I don’t think this necessarily meant to be Siegfried’s arms, as it may appear. The combatant attitude (pose) of the beasts is a fitting choice for him though.

From the same game, we can see another gold dragon on a red field over Ostrheinsburg during the siege by the unseen Marquis Andre. The blazon would be mercifully easier: Gules, a Lindwurm ondoyant Or. (This dragon has two feet and no wings, so it counts. “Ondoyant” means “wriggling”. Undulating, if you will.) I’ve posted about this before, too. The Soul Archive website specifies that this banner is his. It’s not visible here, but an engraving of the same Lindwurm can be seen on a render of a catapult in the linked post.

Though a little difficult to make out, atop the towers toward the left are the damaged standards of Sir Stefan. Scratch that. Those are imperial banners of the Holy Roman Empire. (I don’t think it worked that way, but I’m not going to harp on that.) The imperial eagle can also be seen on the walls in this stage (see below).

(Screenshot taken from Raivop’s video.)

These look metallic and, judging by the perspective and scale, huge. Little information is given about Sir Stefan aside from his hiring Siegfried as a mercenary, but the former’s description as an “independent knight” might mean that he was a Free Imperial Knight. Ostrheinsburg was his castle, and it is shown to be enormous. In the second image, you can see in the far distance a keep surrounded by several rings of battlements. Even in the ruined parts shown in subsequent games and concept art, there’s a sense of grandeur to it inside and out. It would seem that Sir Stefan was a powerful knight.

I have to wonder how long Marquis Andre was able to enjoy his victory before Nightmare took over Ostrheinsburg. I don’t remember if any of the canon said his fate outright, but it’s a safe guess that he didn’t survive.

Later games gave Siegfried and Nightmare equine motifs, at least in certain costume details. (And in the latter’s case, the pun comes with the territory.) In most of his designs over the series, Nightmare’s helmet had a long, prominent spike on the forehead and flaring metal plating on the back of it, reminiscent of a unicorn’s horn and mane, respectively. (Although, some designs eschewed those for a long, red mane from Nightmare himself.) Soul Calibur VI took this a step further with this winged unicorn rampant in his character portrait. (Strictly speaking, its attitude is forcené. Couldn’t get a pun out of that.) It’s a surprisingly majestic thing for this monstrous knight.

Funny thing is, heraldic unicorns were often more goat-like (with cloven hooves and a beard... and a lion’s tail) and symbolized wildness itself. For lack of sources, I’m a bit iffy on where winged ones fall in this, though.

For comparison, below is Siegfried’s character portrait. If you put just the backgrounds side by side, you’d see the beasts almost as mirror images, combatant if you will! My interpretation is that the broken horn symbolizes that Nightmare is still a part of him, however much Siegfried will try to sever himself from him. Thinking on it again, it’s occurred to me that, unlike antlers, broken horns don’t grow back. In that light, the broken horn may symbolize that Nightmare still has some power over him, albeit in a weakened state.

While the intent here may be that they’re two sides of the same coin, this could also be a carryover from his 2P outfit in Soul Calibur III. Note the winged horse on his tabard. In the leftmost drawing in the top image, the tabard itself appears to show a coat of arms.

(I forgot whose video I screenshot this one from. I believe it was of a mod.)

The in-game model shows a second winged horse on the back. I don’t know if I’m more put off by the charges being in the first and second quarters or the Argent charge on an Or quarter. By itself, a possible interpretation of the pegasus (pegasi?) is fame. I’d speculate that the intended symbolism here is related to the phoenix motif on his default outfit (the reddish feathers on the pauldrons, what appears to be a phoenix—assuming it isn’t a stylized eagle—on his belt buckle), i.e. a metaphorical rebirth. The pegasi may symbolize him rising above his past as Nightmare.

Personally, there’s a reason I headcanon a variation of the above as Siegfried’s coat-of-arms. While it’s hard to pass up the dragon motif for him, I think of the winged horse suits him as something of a reminder of how he started: a son of a knight. A coat-of-arms is passed down from father to son, so in my mind, it’s also something that keeps him connected to his own father.

[flurrin]

Just in general (because I don't know your mom), here are all my personal top anime recommendations:

Princess Tutu (2002) is a meta exploration of fairy tales and storytellers through the lens of a magical girl whose true form isn't the ballet student she poses as by day--she's just a duck. The seemingly simple story gets incredibly deep and dark as a deconstruction of the themes often found in fairy tales, but never to the point of despair or dissatisfaction. The animation style hearkens back to Osamu Tezuka's shoujo work, the soundtrack is nearly all classical ballet pieces, it's genuinely a work of art, if you've never heard of it, give it a try today, it WILL surprise you.

As prev mentioned, Mushi-shi (2005, 2014) is an atmospheric, episodic, dreamy show that dips into many genres such as romance, horror, and slice-of-life under the lens of speculative biology. It makes up little creatures that cause every day experiences and legends and draws you into how these creatures fit into that world. Highly recommended and brutally underrated. I believe only the first season was ever dubbed into English, sadly, because season 2 is even more amazing.

Summer Wars (2009) is one of my favorite films, period: a boy gets asked by a classmate to attend a celebration for her enormous extended family and is tricked into playing her boyfriend during the trip...and then his account on a Google/Disney/Amazon monopolistic website's security is compromised, and dangerous hacks begin to upturn not just the internet, but the lives of the real people whose information is stored in those accounts! Now he's doing damage control while balancing the precariousness of complicated relations with a family that has so readily accepted him into its vast herd. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, it will warm your heart.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009) is another classic. The pacing suffers due to adaptive conflicts with the original series, but once you get used to the breakneck pace at the very beginning, it's a riveting, violent fantasy series about sin, consequence, and love for humanity. The disabled main character's flaws drive and revolve around a gripping plot chock with twists and conspiracies. It infamously does NOT pull its gut punches, but balances them out well with comedy, charm, and beautiful, bright animation.

Steins;Gate (2011) is, in my opinion, the sci-fi series about time-travel. Populated by a cast of unforgettable losers, the series flaunts summery, dream-like visuals and a haunting soundtrack. The lead accidentally invents a time machine and hilarious hijinks ensue...and then he is hounded by the not-so-hilarious consequences. What was once a sitcom becomes a deadly game of timeloop what-ifs as he struggles to undo the damage of his own meddling. Trigger warnings for domestic violence, murder, and suicide. (True for all of my recs, but especially this one: watch it dubbed, the acting, writing and localization is fantastic.) (Also, additional, important separate trigger warning for transphobia in the portrayal of a transgender lead character. It was certainly making an attempt to be progressive in its time, but falls prey to old ideas of gender essentialism. It can be read somewhat favorably but this is generous, bring your own salt.)

If slice of life is more what interests you in anime, Silver Spoon (2013) is a coming-of-age story about a boy who decides to go to an agricultural high school to relieve parental pressures, and slowly falls in love with the world of sustainable farming. By the same author as Fullmetal Alchemist, Silver Spoon knows just as well how to balance dramatic moments with uplifting comedy.

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! (2020) is one of the best anime of the past few years in my opinion, really explores the medium of anime itself and has actual "cute girls doing cute things" taken seriously as human beings (and more importantly, Weird Artists) without the shitty fanservice. The animation is INCREDIBLE, pouring time into the sequences that will really ignite your interest in how these shows are made. (If you enjoy Eizouken, I can also recommend Shirobako (2014), which is about how anime is produced company wide. It's nowhere near as much of a labor of love but still has many excellent messages about creating art and balancing work. It goes into project managing, animation itself, 3D work, voice work, and many other small but vital aspects and makes them a natural part of the conflicts. There are also very specially produced animation sequences in Shirobako that are a treat to experience and make the fake show the characters are creating come alive.)

Everyone is going to mention Delicious in Dungeon (2024) because it's currently airing and pertinent, but let me recommend it because it's a breath of fresh fucking air in the somewhat stale "anime fantasy" genre. It's a dramedy that takes its world and characters seriously but puts them in fun, absurd situations that challenge their characteristics. If you liked Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, it's a must-watch. If you like fantasy ecosystems, it's a must-watch. If you like characters who are just extremely passionate about niche interests, it's a must-watch.

I keep anime at an arm's length most of the time because I've been supremely let down by the industry's...common pitfalls, which is one reason most of these recommendations are safe for work/PG at worst (sans Steins;Gate and Brotherhood). But these are highly curated and I second all the recommendations in OP's post as well (Satoshi Kon's work especially, his movies were very adult and played into many different genres and all are worth experiencing) except for Frieren and Tatami Galaxy just because I've never seen those.

Enjoy!

my mom asked me for anime recommendations as someone who has never really thought about the medium and im trying to conjure up some examples that wouldnt be fucking embarrassing.

here's what i got so far:

Spirited Away

My Neighbor Totoro

Kiki's Delivery Service

A Silent Voice

Tokyo Godfathers

Perfect Blue

Paprika

Ghost in the Shell

Cowboy Bebop

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Tatami Galaxy

any others?