#but....i like the way things shape up in this setting... and I'd have to redo the entire premise...

[frenchy-and-the-sea]

I picked up working on Seven Cities again (trying to be really cool about it, trying not to make it a Thing or a Big Deal so I don't stress myself into being afraid of it, trying to be SO CHILL ABOUT IT) and this newest iteration opens with a prologue from Tahir and I am.... actually having a lot of fun. Freeing myself from the expectation that this has gotta be a serious thing has given a chance to show off his skill of being Good At Reading People. I'm enjoying it. I hope I don't freak myself out too much about it.

[once-in-a-blood-moon]

solomon couldn't stand your pact marks.

well, no, that wasn't the right way to put it. he was proud, even jealous of your pacts. they were one of the many admirable things about you! he just hated... looking at them. he knew what other people thought when they saw them.

when one would see those marks on your skin for the first time, they would be able to get a glimpse at your relationship with the brothers. one of trust and respect, gathered from just a glance. meanwhile, one would have to be told about his and your relationship. one look at you couldn't decipher all the time you two have shared together, filled with chatting between classes, practicing magic for hours, and endless love.

at first, solomon tried to mitigate this with his own marks upon your skin. wearing lipstick as he placed a kiss on your neck, a few stray bite marks from your time together at night. but those, while fun, were temporary. and solomon needed something permanent.

why not a ring?

(Hope you don't mind me adding on, anon. Thank you for the delicious meal! Literally so honored to read your beautiful work! 🥹)

Getting the ring was the easy part. Getting you away from the brothers long enough to propose...was not.

The lengths Solomon went through to be able to have a private moment with you might put him in a record book as the three realms' most whipped man. With the mask of his "shady" persona secured, he lets his silver tongue weave him through these seven obstacles, the sin of each dripping from it with only you on his mind.

Swallowing his pride, breathing in greed, spitting out envy...his wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth. A vicious rinse, repeat until he's either buttered them up or grated them down until they finally gave in. But he did it. With the day cleared of any interruptions, his plans were set in motion.

He decides to have a redo of your very first date, flying you up and walking in the sky amongst the stars. It's just the two of you against the ever inky black sky of the Devildom, a place that has become synonymous with your presence. Only this time, there are no surprise gales, no surprise drones -- just the surprise of a velvet heart-shaped box in the inside pocket of his coat.

Solomon brings up fond memories of your time together as you both near the spot he's picked to pop the question. He's filled with a giddy glee that soon you'll have something that binds you to him, something to show the world you're his.

Still, there's a little voice in the back of his head reminding him that you could say no. That perhaps he's not worthy. Does he deserve to have matching rings adorned on his and your fingers forevermore? Does he dare stand by your side as your equal when you are, in fact, so far above him?

He decides it's best not to dwell on such thoughts as this is meant to be a happy occasion, as long as all goes well.

Your feet touch the ground once he lowers you both on top of a cliff that overlooks the Devildom, the moon hanging brightly above. As you take in the magnificent sight, he lowers himself on one knee behind you, waiting with bated breath for you to turn on your own volition.

The moment you do, he knows he'll have to keep this memory stored away with his magic, just staring in awe. The moon is angled just right that it shines right behind your head like a halo. Your eyes are as wide as saucers while your jaw is slacked. With the way you look, he truly wonders if he's in the Celestial Realm.

Nervously, Solomon begins his improvised speech after clearing his throat, "my dearest apprentice, it is with great honor that I'm knelt before you tonight. I have dreamt of this moment more than I'd care to admit, yet I never thought it'd come true. But here I am, willing to give you all of me, if you're willing to give me all of you. You are the sun to my moon, the air in my lungs, the very reason why I believe I've lived so long. I was always meant to find you and work side by side to protect the human realm together. And most importantly, to love you. So, please do this old sorcerer a favor...by marrying me..."

He pulls out the ring box, opening it to offer you the ring within. The blessed box is shaking as he trembles, waiting patiently for your answer.

Happy tears spring from his eyes once you say, "yes." The ring is carefully slipped onto your finger, and a single word comes to Solomon's mind.

Mine.

[spencethebence]

Vee Doll Version 1!

This is the first doll I’ve actually finished. I'd like to talk about my process, because I’ve learned a lot going through with it! 

I was very much inspired by the doll making of @strangegutz I’d been wanting to try and make my own for the longest time. I had also picked up a custom Harpy Eda doll from thecosmicdolls on etsy, so I really wanted to give it a try on my own.

I started with the head using super sculpey and painting it afterwards. It’s the first time I’ve used super sculpey instead of colored sculpey. It's sooo much easier than trying to mix color through combining clay. I like the sculpt I did, but I did it before I even had an idea what I’d do with the body. I used craft paper for the hair, a method it used for the other doll I never finished, and overall I think it turned out well. I like the cartoon-y look the paper gives the definition of the hair but it was a process to figure out how to fold and glue it into the shapes I like. For the facial features I also used pieces of paper with sticky tack so I could change the expressions if I wanted to.

The body is made out of floral wire and foam, and the clothes are made from thrifted shirt fabric, a ripped pair of jeans and GI Joe boots. The process of making the underbody was a big learning experience for me. My first body I twisted the floral wire around a ton thinking I needed it to have a sturdy base, I realized it didn’t really need to have as much support as I thought with the wire especially if I’m the only one posing it, I can take my time to make it look the best. So the next step was gluing together a bunch of pieces of foam in the shape of the body that I was just going to shove a wire through, I spent a while trying to make the under body shape as perfect as I could, but when I finally went on to make the clothes I learned something important, the shape of the underbody didn’t matter too much, the only thing that really matters for body shape is how the fabric is sewn. The first shirt I did was way too small, but luckily I did the sleeves separate from the shirt because it would be easier to put them on the doll, so I didn’t have to remake those. 

My biggest take away from this all is something simple and obvious but is still something that’s always been hard for me to do. If I do something wrong, if something doesn’t turn out right, It’s GOOD to go back and do it again and do it right! Duh right? Well, I’ve always been really stubborn when it comes to art, the steps I look forward too are never the ones I’m actually working on at the moment it feels like so I’m always rushing ahead, living with my mistakes and skipping over refinement. Sometimes it’s okay to take shortcuts, and your art can never be perfect of course, but it took a lot of willpower for me to follow through and redo parts of this doll and it really helped overall. The arms and legs were all individual parts at first, and this made it so difficult to dress and work with it. I took a step back, thought it over and refined it, redoing the arms and legs with a single long piece of foam for each that was easy to get the fabric over. This solidified the process for me, because I took the time to redo it. I've set myself up to work better next time. 

I will be very honest, I don’t think this doll is that good, there’s a ton of things I think are off about it, I feel like the head style doesn’t make the rest of the doll. The proportions are off all over the place, and my sewing skills are still pretty mid after all these years. BUT I’ve never been prouder of myself actually following through and finishing and learning something from this process. I’ve figured out a lot of the process and I really want to go through and make another version of it.

[kavasi0]

Introducing my guy! He's not new, I've had him for quite a few months but I thought I'd share him!

His names Eltohn [as in elton John of course, got to keep up the theme] and he's a bit older than kars like the grandpa of the group.

His reason for joining esi and kars was that firstly, he found it pretty stupid to not want to be able to walk in the sun as kars wanted, because why should humans as the lesser forms be able to do so but not them? And secondly he didn't exactly want to die

While there was some mistrust between the two and their sudden addition for a while, its easier raising children with 3 sets of hands rather than 2 so a lot of trust was established there.

He was a hunter while in the pillar community and helped out a lot during wham and tana's younger years teaching them some life skills such as hunting and how to make simple weaponry like spears or bows.

Eltohn's mode is of acid. He can spit out highly corrosive acid through his skin which will burn through enemies very effectively and viciously. If a non-hamon user touches him and he's actively in his mode, they'll feel the nice burn of their hand melting off!

His wedding ring antidote is on his eyebrow, and he has an arrow shaped pillar birthmark on his face

His favourite of all the pillarmen is actually Santana! He loves bullying him, in that uncle/annoying older brother way. Santana's so fed up of him and when he was younger retaliated by biting eltohns ankles or arm and not letting go like some feral dog and is part of the reason why santana's so different from his brother in terms of attitude and manners...he hasn't exactly had a good influence lol

Live young tana reaction upon hearing uncle's back from his scouting mission. [Ankle tripping and bullying ahead]

I'm thinking of giving him some tattoos! He feels a bit bare. He's a fan of extravagant detailed fabrics and jewelery, [which can be seen in his fullbody] and finds he enjoys carving bracelets in his free time using wood or stone. He's OK with Kars and shares his more arrogant view of humanity compared to Esidisi or Wham, opting to think their species is far superior and should be shown respect as such. The two find they can appreciate things such as craftsmanship and a strong will. Esidisi and Eltohn will get along, but when Eltohn first joined them Esi was very suspicious of him and definitely wasn't happy about all the intrigue kars had in him at first as to why he would also betray their kind to join them. [Esi just wants all Kars' attention as such a loyal partner, and definitely didnt pout until Kars asked him what was wrong.]

I did have a coloured version for him but I find I don't really care for it much anymore and will do a redo sometime!

I'm still trying to think through where I'd like to place him in a timeline and either have him die before the events of battle tendency to show the threat of hamon users, [because I find it crazy how apparently they got tired from defeating a whole clan of them and that's why they went to sleep and lost nobody but then caesar does so much damage to Wamuu and Joseph well..Joseph all but exterminated an extremely endangered species.] Or have him inserted somewhere into jjba's canon timeline.

[sforzesco]

Very strange and random question, but would you mind directing me to your character design of Hermes? I'd also love to know if you have any tips on creating good character designs. If not, no worries!

Thank you for sharing your amazing art! The style is so good, and I always enjoy reading your comic strips. ❤️

I’ve drawn Hermes properly like, once before I think? in this comic! there’s another illustration of the same kind of scene with him, but I’m not a big fan of it and I’m thinking of redoing it sometime this year

ANYWAY character design advice! the Team Fortress 2 school of design will never steer you wrong (recognizable silhouettes), and one teacher I had personally liked the ‘opposites’ rule of character design, where you want some kind of noticeable ‘opposite’ of a character if you’re mostly doing pairs in a scene (so tall > short, that kind of thing). I personally adhere to whatever I think suits the narrative best/in a fun way. like, Crassus and Pompey are set up specifically for the story I have in mind

Pomepy is supposed to (eventually, it takes him a minute) be bulky enough that he could fold Crassus in half like laundry if he felt like it, and Crassus is supposed to look tall and thin, but he’s more lean muscle and could probably break your jaw if he hit you, and the subtextual narrative is about exploring all the ways they DON’T touch each other in the acts of violence that their bodies would be suited for, which is in total defiance of what comes before them, and also after (Antony and Octavian have a similar visual pairing, and it’s all physical violence there, baby)

in other news, I have a hard time figuring out a consistent character design until I figure out the story I want to tell lmao

there’s more about figuring out repeat draw ability vs complexity, balancing out overall design shape with accessories, clothes conveying personality and intent (character design work is a whole specialty tbh), but I tend to be a little more laid back about it because I’m more interested in prying open the story and then designing characters as the story comes together. like, sometimes I’ll shove a century of art history discourse into something, other times it’s Actor Hot, Show Rearranged The Circuits In My Brain, etc. but at the end of the day, I want it to work with the story, so I do these things side by side.

if you want more solid advice than this nebulous mess of thoughts, interviews with costume designers for movies or shows you enjoy is always always always a fantastic place to go to if you really want to understand how clothing and form convey intent and narrative to an audience: I keep a lot of that kind of theory in the back of my mind when I start seriously figuring out what I want a character to do, and by extension, how to look. interviews with animators and comic artists are good places to learn abt character design too!

[hellonerf]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[kozykricket]

okay im gonna make a Post about this actually, instead of just rambling to it about people occasionally. So, ever since we got trial chambers, ive really seen nether fortresses as like, a really neat Parallel to them. not only in having elemental constructs created by spawners, but in... their general structure, being almost liminal in a sense. if you play either on peaceful mode, i say you get a backroomsy vibe. (concrete halls - c418 real) but... this got me thinking. one thing i love with the trial chambers is the theming of the mace. think about it. you get a heavy core as the thing to combine with a breeze rod. its a theming of duality! the breeze and its wind... something as light as air, that jumps into the air with the absolute opposite of heaviness... paired with an extremely heavy... uh, core. whatever a core is :P

anyways, i think its really thematically cool that theres that duality between Light and Heavy. so what if blaze rods could be combined with something in a similar sense of duality? something to work with Fire

We could choose the opposite of heat, sure... that could be interesting. freezeflame areas in games are cool, and soul fire is... in a peculiar space where its both hot and cold. basalt (cooled lava) is found in soul sand valleys... etc. but yknow what i think works far more elegantly, and can be twisted in an interesting way? Fire is destructive and dangerous. So, lets have the duality be... Decay/Destruction (fits the wither effect and also fire) paired with healing or creation creation is complex and odd for a weapon, but maybe necromancy could be an interesting way for someone else to take it. but im going to go into the opposite of destruction being healing ...but instead of just saying "oh its a lifesteal weapon. hit stuff and heal" lets... think about how the duality works with the mace. to best make use of its power of heaviness, you can use wind charges, the power of bounciness so... what if this hypothetical nether fortress weapon empowered itself the more you took damage while holding it? This would make it pair well with fire charges, because being on fire is a good way to make yourself take chip damage... which might be one of the best ways to fuel the weapon. I've thought of calling it a Soul Siphon for now... but anyways, what would it do with enough fuel/charge? I say, that is where the rejuvenation, the healing... comes in. Have it be a staff that fires off orbs of instant health Wanna know what makes that even cooler? It's still a good weapon, because instant health, despite being healing, does damage to undead monsters. so it'd really help fight wither skeletons, or the wither itself even! or you could use it to heal your friends up. just set yourself on fire and now you're healin up your friends. maybe you wouldn't be able to heal yourself with the weapon, or maybe you would. I'm not quite sure yet! Haven't thought out all of the details on it. I think it using 3 blaze rods that rotate like blaze rods on the blaze do... for like, magical-rotational power , would be a cool way for the staff to look. but uh, yeah. theres some ideas i think if i were to redo the nether fort, i'd theme it after like... well, i'd have it simultaneously decayed and somewhat destroyed, while still being in far better shape than bastions, to show their dominance over piglins. I am a piglin defender, the wither skeletons are their oppressors. their eternal oppressors, thanks to the power of necromancy. messed up stuff.

if this inspires you to think up more of your own concepts or expand on these with the themings of like. rejuvenation vs destruction (i mean hey the wither destroys stuff but regenerates its health when its spawning, doesnt it?) then thats p cool. id love to hear them :) im very normal about the potential of wither skeletons and nether fortresses

[infin-8-morphosis]

So hmmm, 3 weeks of relative freedom and lets see, what did I do with it.

Probably most importantly I now have a standing desk (It's great. Now I can walk away every 5 minutes and not have to sit back down n remember what I was doing before I get distracted again) and most most importantly I have a functioning tablet that does not make my eyes bleed and brain cry from the colour inaccuracy. I hadn't seen purple in so long. You have no idea how much this speeds things up. In theory.. I'm still slow. It's just how I function, and that's okay.

Well I'm redoing the map again, to no-ones surprise.

Decided on it being a tidally-locked moon, with pretty extreme temperatures either side but a moderate middle. Its orbit is skewed so the moon has earth-like seasons, but less extreme. It has a lot of land, and 2 separated oceans, plus lots of craters, the ecological impacts (pun unintended but appreciated) of so many massive collisions it looks cool okay.

For reference the edges of the map, and the centre line horizontally, are the equator...s. If you cut it in half along the central horizontal line, the centres of the resulting squares would be the poles.

Bit outdated but, like this. That lower right corner is actually like 50% of the globe, probably too big but... it's okay, it's mostly frozen wasteland on account of being near perpetually dark.

Only the top of the main continent is done but I'm feeling good about it. Also bought a plugin to make it interactible so eventually it'll have many layers including the heights, climate, biomes, political stuff, roads, towns, etc. Don't you miss when old web games had interactible maps. Like Neopets. I am now living beyond my wildest dreams making them. Awesome.

Perhaps the biggest thing is this. Sort of... I decided to make a big worldbuilding decision, one I really have wanted to make for a long time but never knew how to go about it in a way that was better than just 'theyre aliens but happen to look like humans' (booo)

so the Valkyries are now 100% home-grown aliens, or I guess more accurately natives, since they used to be aliens to this planet.

This has some fun opportunities to explore non-magical possibly also sapient offshoots and relatives, better flow to the biology aspect now they don't feel so separate to the rest of the world.

Importantly they maintain a pleasantly human-like look and I guess function, while being visually and functionally different. They breathe through their necks (Realising Avatar already did this but they didnt give their humanoid the cool necks so boohoo i beat you to it. Also I forgot about the neck thing in that so I guess we're both cool. Theyre derived gills.) Also their neck is. on the back of their head. Its really cool. Their eyes are really that huge, but are oval shaped and dont actually rotate... only the layer of skin over it does, which contracts to from a pupil of differing sizes. So they have 3 eyelids, 1 skin, 1 membrane, 1 sphincter thing. Lovely.

You've maybe guessed already (Well probably not I hardly post them) But uhhh. This has a lot of implications for my characters, and more direly the uhhhh. giant comic I'm halfway through making.

Honestly I've kind of given up on 'finishing' it. I dunno, I feel content to move on with the story and just work on it whenever I want to do a bit more with it. It was always intended to be my 'practice' for the 'real' comic, which I feel fully capable of. Doesn't mean I'll do it tho.

And you can maybe also guess why I'm modelling them therefore. Uhhhh.... 3d comic anyone? maybe? probably not but ooooh. the ease of doing complicated poses, you have any idea how much of a wall a wierd pose is. using the 3d model as the background. I dunno, I've never seen it done before, I'd like to be the first at something, even if it doesn't work. I feel a lot more secure in my work than I used to be., to be free to fail.

If I can get the model to be as expressive as my 2d art (Which. Wuargh. Hard task.) and set it up so I don't need to unsymmetrise it (daunting but doable I hope with a few tricks) then there's nothing to stop me. Oh also clothes I guess and people touching and What To Do with Water and How To Rig Hair but like. I love 3d. And it'd be so much less destructive than 2d. I redo so many panels over and over from scratch because the pain of adjusting dozens of layers is greater than just redrawing. Imagine destroying that problem by being able to redo whatever I like and rerender it. Honestly the comfort something is changeable would maybe stop me from endlessly changing things.

So this model is ideally going to be a template for me to model my characters. I'm unsure if I'll be able to make them share a rig to the point that poses and such will be reusable... but I'll try. I think as long as the bones have the same names it'll work.

Here's an example of a redesign. Also little teen teri... cursed and skinny... Still a mild victim of funky tablet colours so if it's wierd, yeah.

(It's hilarious putting her proportions into 3d. She is so dense. She is easily 4x the body mass of the template, its ridiculous. And that was only the muscles, I didnt even add the fat yet. I probably won't model everyones skeleton and muscles but she needs it okay)

3d is really just, the closest you can get to those flash dressup games, you know the ones, but with complete creative freedom. And cloth physics.

[kireshai]

Current Watchlist Game

I was tagged by @iamdarthbader, and honestly I took too long to get this done because I had the stupid idea of giffing things and that takes me forever. Here we go!

Currently Watching (Somewhat in order of enjoyment)

Love In The Air - I'm here for messy, toxic and epic romances. The show is insane and so giffable, it is just a ton of fun for me. I've also enjoyed a bunch of the background music, there are some real bangers in there.

Vice Versa - I've been enjoying this since the first episode, and it's been pretty solid if not great throughout. The visual design - sets, costuming, post-production - have been fantastic and the colour theming is so well done.

The Eclipse - An intriguing mystery with amazing production design and UST through the roof? This is shaping up to be an amazing show with really important messaging regarding non-comformity. Khaotung not playing a softboy is also new and interesting.

Unforgotten Night - Possibly the most unintentionally hilarious show I've seen in a while (or maybe casting Yoon after his history of crack was intentional). I have so much fun with the bizarre choices in this show, and I do not regret my decision to re-use the shitty tigger tattoo gif for this post.

About Youth - It's only 2 episodes so far, but I'm digging the vibe and style of the show. Got some great music, and I will not be taking questions about why I chose to show the second couple in the gif.

My Only 12% - I started this one a little late, but I've caught up now. Earth's ability to convincingly play a high schooler is criminal, and I'm a big fan of the potential for an uno reverse pining plot. Chomping at the bit for the timeskip already.

Takara-kun and Amagi-kun - This reminds me so much of the heart-rending high-school shonen-ai I've read for years. Sweet and simple, the actors are obviously a bit new to things, but they're doing an admirable job for newbies.

Currently Rewatching

Triage - I will probably never stop rewatching Triage. The plot was so strong, I loved so many of the performances, the medical scenes were really top-tier (except the CPR, lol), and there was some really amazing camerawork that elevated the material.

Manner of Death - I have ascended to the role of Sammon simp. It definitely helps that Max and Tul are such strong actors, especially together. The murder and human trafficking show has become a comfort watch for me, please don't ask why.

Love Mechanics (2022) - I have loved this new version so much more than the original attempt. I'm really glad they got a redo and that Yin and War returned. War is just a really strong actor and Yin has come so far since the first time around.

Fish Upon the Sky - I actually love me some wacky comedy BLs, and while not the strongest, I have a lot of fun with this. I was brought back to it by watching the trailer for Pond and Phuwin's upcoming show.

Looking Forward To...

Never Let Me Go - Pond and Phuwin's upcoming show looks super angsty and dramatic. I dig it. Also, why do all the shows this year have mafia, lol?

Moonlight Chicken - I took way too long to watch 1000 Stars and Cupid's Last Wish, but I was so glad when I did. Earth and Mix work really well together, and I'm interested in seeing them in something a little less sweet and innocent this time around.

Manifesting an official announcement for... Transplant - Please, I want this so much. Please, please, please, please... You cannot be surprised by this.

I have no idea on the etiquette of who I should tag, but I'd like to ask @queersouthasian, @gillianthecat and @thequeenofsastiel to have a go.

[inessencedevided]

(You can find the set that this gif belongs to here 💙)

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES: When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours

I was tagged by @aheartfullofjolllly. thank you so much Pat! it was really fun to reflect about my own process 💗 You can find her post here and @lan-xichens' post that started it all here :)

Also thank you @huigusu �� (who tagged me for my nie brothers set) I'll get to that one in a few days!

Now Pat gave me two sets to chose from to show my process, so obviously I chose the more complicated one :P

I only work in Photoshop CC 2018. I know that there are programs out there for easier cutting and sharpening but I have only just figured out how to do that in PS and I am too lazy to figure out any other programs right now xD

1. Idea and Planning

This set, like most of my sets with lyrics started with me reading the poem, clutching my heart and going "oh shit this fits my favourite characters!!". The idea actually started with me thinking that the first stanza of the poem would go really well with wwx during the burial mounds arc. Then I realized that the last stanza fits lwj better than him and from there came the idea to contrast the both of them next to each other. This is when I realized I wanted to do a dark-light contrast set, though I did not know that I would go with red and blue at that time. My idea in the beginning was just to do a black and white set

I was really impressed by how Pat said that she plans her sets around exact timestamps. Because I don't do that at all ^^ I just get ideas for which scenes would fit (in this case the wwx burial mounds scenes and lwj's kneeling and punishments scene) and then I watch the scenes to narrow them down.

Back when I made this set, I still used a screenrecorder (AceThinker Screen Grabber Pro to be precise. They have a test version that allows you to record up to 3 minutes) and recorded the scenes I needed from Netflix. This worked well enough but now I have the entire show saved on an external drive and it makes a world of difference when it comes to gif sharpness

Now, in this case I had to repeat this step once because when I was almost finished, I realized that I wanted a gif for the lwj corner but let's pretend I didn't do that and that's the way this gif was always going to look because otherwise this post will be way too long ^^

2. Creation

Short disclaimer: The creation process for this gifset was anything but linear. Multiple effects I used here were things I had never tried before. I just had a vague idea and tried to realize it through trial and error. So whenever I say "then I did xyz", it is implied that I ultimately went back to that step several times and changed stuff ^^

I started with the Wei Wuxian part of the gif. I usually use a frame rate of 0,06 (with some variation depending on gif length and size). I work in timeline so I converted all the layers to a smart layer. Then I resized the gif into a square, leaving big chunks of the gif empty (as can be seen below.) I flipped the gif horizontally, so he is looking inwards. This was simple because I felt it fitted the composition better. Then I imported the Lan Wangji part of the gif, again with a frame rate of 0,06. (Image 2)

After that I created a layer for masking in a separate PS document by rotating a square until it was point down (is that a rhombus?). I sized it to match my gif (540x540 pxl) and copied it over. (Image 3) a bit of masking magic and ta da! There's the basic layout (Image 4)

I put a layer of solid black behind wwx to get rid of the transparent bits (Image 5) and then started adding more white and black to both sides by adding solid whit and black layers that i put masks on and changed the opacity as i needed (Image 6)

("reading" direction: from the upper left to the lower right corner)

Then I fiddled with the colours a bit. The first thing I always do is using the curves layer to get more contrast. Then I use the colour balance tool and the selective colouring tool to get rid of that cql-typical cyan tint after that it's just trying to have it look "natural" while the colours still fit the overall scheme. This was difficult here because wei Wuxian’s side of the gif was very dark and when i turned up the saturation to see which colour dominated it was a very weird mixture of multiple colours. That's when i decided that I'd just go with red on his side, since lwj's side was already so blue and those to look great as contrasts.

After that just came a lot of fiddling with selective colour layers and brightness and contrast unti I has happy. There really wasn't much to it ^^. (Image 1)

After that I added the text. I knew I wanted the two lines to for a square of some kind. So I tried different fonds until I arrived at the one below. The two lines are in seperate layers so I could move them around and change the spacing between the letters until I was happy with the layout. I also changed the layer mode for the text to "difference" (is that what it's called in english? my PS is set to german sorry ^^), keeping their colour white. (Image 2)

I originally hadn't planned adding anything else but I felt like the gifs (plural because I switched between the gifs of this set) was still kind of empty and lacking, so I added the tear down the middle (a tutorial for that is either coming up later or already posted. I recently got an ask for this :)) (Image 3)

It still felt empty after that, so I tried different overlays. Okay no, first I wasted a lot of time on different free image sides but then I tried out different ones until I chose the one you can see in the finished gif. I liked that one because a) I felt the round shape was a nice contrast to all the straight lines already there and b) because once I applied a black and white filter to it and switched the layer setting to "difference" (again, i hope this is the correct translation) it looked a bit like a moon. (Gif at the top)

("reading" direction: from left to right)

And that's it! :)

Although in general, these gifs took so much fiddling! I went back and forth between them a lot and sometimes almost redid the entire thing because I had no idea what I was doing in the beginning and by the time I noticed an error, the only way to fix it was ti redo everything. So yeah, this set definitely is the the one that took me the longest out of all the ones I've posted so far.

3. Posting

I save all my gifs to my drafts first to see what they look like put together and to check if they look any different on mobile. Usually i do this several times and change stuff until I'm happd enough with it to hit post. Once i am happy enough, i can't hold back. Doesn't matter if it's at a time when nobody is online, i hit post 😅

And that's it!

Tagging:

@lanwuxiann for this gifset (I adore it so much. I've looked at it and read it severat times since you posted it and the poem just kills me every time!)

@suibianjie for this gifset (The combination of static images and gifs in your gifs is always absolutely perfect! This one is only my favourite of yours because the light coming from behind wwx is just so pretty!!! ^^)

@sweetlittlevampire for this piece (It was soooo hard to pick a piece of yours because I have so many favourites! But this one is just so out if this world, I want to know how you worked that magic :D)

@wei-gege for this set (sparkling shijie! 😭 that set is so incredibly beautiful! I love how you matched the colour of the overlay with her dress!)

@purplexedhuman for this set (your gifs are always incredible! I chise this one because it showcases both your colouring skills and some really intricate effects)

If any of you have already been tagged or don't have the time or energy for this, obviously no pressure to do this at all! 🥰

(btw, I originally tried to place the actual text of this under a "read more" cut but somehow it always messed with the order of the images, so this ended up as a rather long post. sorry!)

[omegangrins]

Universal took Tremors from its creators after 30 years of work.

TL;DR After 25-30 years making the series, Brent Maddock, Michael Gross, Nancy Roberts, Ron Underwood and S.S. Wilson were kicked out so Universal Studios could make more money off the merchandising before the Tremors copyright expires in 2025.

*****MAJOR SPOILERS**** This will make you sad, angry and frustrated. But there is hope. #StampedeTremors

Soooooo, ever since I blew up and sidetracked a post about David Fincher's Queen Biopic with Sacha Baron Cohen as Freddie Mercury discussing the Tremors 7 ending, I've done some more research on the whole thing. The Graboid hole for this goes deep.

Michael Gross didn't want it.

“There’s a part of me that feels that Universal Home Entertainment might’ve had enough of Tremors. The suggestions that were made in the course of this [movie] made me think maybe they’ve had enough. They came to me and said, ‘What if we ended it at 7?’ and I said, ‘Whatever you choose to do, I’m good with that.'” “That being said, The door is still open for an eighth Tremors. It may seem unlikely by what people see on the screen, but it is possible. There could be an eighth. And if there were, and if it were an interesting story, I would be up for it because Burt is always a great deal of fun. It would depend on his physicality. How much they want me to do. If it’s in another two years, I’ll be 75 years old. So I will continue to hope and pray that I stay in shape, to do what is asked of me – if it is asked of me.”

AND Universal even killed off any ambiguity that he fought for.

"We shot it both ways, where everybody's mourning Burt, and he climbs up over the cliff and looks at all of them in mourning and goes, 'Jesus, God, I'm not dead. And he's really pissed off at them. It's like, 'How would you possibly think...?' But he's bloodied, just he's a mess. He looks like he's been through an earthquake, crushed by a house, but he's alive. And he says, 'You idiots. Of course, I'm alive.'" "They decided it just had this punch. Frankly, I thought to myself -- I didn't express it to them, but I thought to myself -- 'Maybe Universal's getting a little tired of this franchise.' Because this wasn't my idea." "I said, 'I can live with this. Because they came to me. They said, 'Look, you've been doing this so long. What do you think?' And I said, 'Well, as long as we kind of leave the door open.' I mean, I can kind of see an eighth film where it opens with Burt in a hospital bed, in a full body cast and saying, 'I survived.' He could hardly move a muscle. And maybe eight is...if I had a concept for eight, it would be Burt horribly injured, but in a motorized, weaponized wheelchair that has rocket mounts on the side and can leave an oil slick behind like James Bond's car. So nobody can chase him." "I always said, if Kevin Bacon or Fred [Ward] or Reba [McIntire] or anybody [wanted to return], I'd be there in a minute. Just because one, I love Burt, but I always thought of him as this guy kind of on the fringes, and I just came to the fore because everybody else walked away."

https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3637682/michael-gross-says-door-still-open-potential-eighth-tremors-movie/

https://comicbook.com/movies/news/tremors-shrieker-island-michael-gross-on-burt-gummer-death/

While Universal ignored how Michael Gross was setting up his son Travis Welker to pick up his torch (Which I'm give or take on Jamie Kennedy yet he brought a Grady-like optimism to the shittier of the series.)

"My reaction was disappointment, as I had planned an entire storyline around his participation."

Even Jamie Kennedy tried to but they wouldn't let him.

"Lot of people have been asking me, so I might as well spill it. I will NOT be in the upcoming TREMORS 7. I had a great time making the last two. But no TRAVIS this time around. But hey you neva’ know what can happen in the future.... have a great time boys! Tdawg out!!!"

https://mobile.twitter.com/JamieKennedy/status/1188981479973347329

After 7 movies and a TV show, nothing more than a spit in the face for the man who carried a franchise. Then when they do the montage at the end, we get clips of Hiram Gummer but NOTHING of Burt Gummer from the TV show. It's 13 episodes of Burt in Tremors that's longer than all the movies combined but yet they don't even include it in the ending montage while including his dead grandpa.

Same with the original creators. Did you know Stampede Entertainment (Brent Maddock, Nancy Roberts, Ron Underwood, and S.S. Wilson) were working on Tremors for 25 years and even had the 5th one written, "Thunder/Gummer Down Under".

Then were told to sit on it for 10 years before Universal eventually told them to eat dirt? That's gotta hurt. It hurts me and I'm not even connected to these movies. All that work down the drain just because of someone's say so. And for no reason. Well not exactly....

Universal knows fans want Tremors merch. I mean, look at how they took #BurtGummerDay from @BabyFarkMcGeeZax. And they want ALLLLLL of that merchandising money. With none of it going to Stampede because it would give them leverage. Not to mention they don't want anyone else getting the idea to make cute monster toys before they can roll out their own line.

Don't believe me? See Universal pull some Hollywood Accounting with Tremors already.

http://imgur.com/gallery/mFNIHV3

Half a billion dollars... completely untraceable. I've tried. Emailed the numbers people and they can't tell me anything unless you pay $50 a film to see the numbers. Which makes me ask, who paid for the numbers on 1,5, 6, & 7? And why only what they made? Not their cost. Same for the numbers on 2, 3, & 4. Why numbers on the cost, but nothing on what it made? It seems weirdly targeted to make it look like the Stampede Entertainment ones only cost money but made nothing.

Then when you find out that the copyright to Tremors will revert to its creators after the 35 year mark, which makes that date 2024-2025 since Tremors was filmed in '88-'89 but released in '90.....

Wellllllll some things start to add up. Especially when you consider it's Universal. They already know about owning copyrights for things long out of due. Ask Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman. Or Nintendo when Universal tried to sue them because Donkey Kong was too similar to King Kong.

Ask Stampede (S.S. Wilson) yourself. They have a Question and Answer page right on their site.

Like did you know you can't find ANY official Tremors merch? But you CAN find tons of fan-made creations. Give it a Google. They don't even list Tremors on the Universal website. Go ahead. Ask them. I try weekly. No responses ever.

https://www.universalpictures.com/about

Even with a longer history, more money made, and amount of sequel potential in comparison to their other films?

http://imgur.com/gallery/ZnXEsI3

Fans are clamoring for more but Universal says no?

Hell, you can watch the TV show for free on the NBC site.

But before my investigating, the episodes were so jumbled and missing it would ruin people's enjoyment.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Tremors/comments/m0wvwu/tremors_episode_9_graboid_rights_is_back_on_nbc/

What about how they made a Tremors series pilot with Kevin Bacon? The only bad thing about it is that they need to pull a Sonic redo on the Graboid at the end but who knows, I suspect it's like that for plot reasons after reading the unaired script.

https://youtu.be/hWU3GpKmIvw

That Universal/NBC/SyFy has proceeded to hide deeper than a Graboid burrows. https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/tremors-star-kevin-bacon-confused-sequel-series-picked/

Despite no one knowing why. http://imgur.com/gallery/w7rbUvZ

Read the script for yourself if you don't believe me. They've already hidden it for two years. Andrew Miller worked too hard for it to be hidden. And it plays. It works and plays with what's already there while being new and old. Quite good.

Have you seen the Kevin Bacon/Michael Gross commercial featuring them in Perfection Valley? The whole commercial is a sly way to use Tremors WITHOUT actually saying anything Universal would have claim to call copyright on. "Sandworms" "My old co-star" "Trevors". It's a great big middle finger to Universal.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E_O0K9hmlrw

How about the original script for Tremors 2: Aftershocks. The creators have wanted it seen for 20 years but it took a crazy Larry like me to get it out there. It's got Val, Earl, Burt and Heather in it too. Pretty good too. So good they reused the ending in the TV show episode "Shriek and Destroy".

All these things swirl together and make me wonder more and more. For the plethora of Tremors fandom goes deeper than even me... Like Imgur user @BabyFarkMcGeeZax. They created Burt Gummer Day five years ago through sweat and love alone.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Tremors/comments/mb2rtz/babyfarkmcgeezax_created_burt_gummer_day_and/

Yet what does Universal do? Take the day, plaster it over the end of their hero's death, and not even give a line credit or thank you to @BabyFarkMcGeeZax or a mention on Twitter as they blurb it everywhere.

Ever seen the gif battles about Tremors at r/HighQualityGifs?

https://www.reddit.com/r/GifTournament/comments/luvt39/giftournament_battle_13_round_3/

https://www.reddit.com/r/HighQualityGifs/comments/dtz11k/battle_178_tremors/

How about The Everything Sequel podcast where they discuss how amazing all of The Tremors Saga is after discovering it for the first time. Even going so far as to pitch their own sequels.

https://share.transistor.fm/s/e24901de https://share.transistor.fm/s/bdea7b5e https://share.transistor.fm/s/cf79bbc1 https://share.transistor.fm/s/fac66438 https://share.transistor.fm/s/a90415cd https://share.transistor.fm/s/c0e8153e https://share.transistor.fm/s/6b6572f9

There's so much fan content and people screaming for more Tremors! Like "Perfection, NV", a fan film.

Or this collection of alt Tremors posters.

http://imgur.com/gallery/MgkhnfE

Including the thousands of pieces of fanart.

http://imgur.com/gallery/6f7Txh0

http://imgur.com/gallery/nXG1ph1

The story behind Tremors comics. http://www.enemyofpeanuts.com/2013/03/09/the-short-story-behind-tremors-comics/

Even the new Tremors game. OR games.

https://youtu.be/G6PX1QY2oIc

https://stefanocagnani90.itch.io/tremors-thegame

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremors:_The_Game

https://www.playfg.com/dirt-dragons-game.html

Look at all this love.

And this isn't even an officially licensed game.

"A fortune", you say? Interesting....

So let's make Tremors 8 Ouroboros with the OG creators back on board.

https://imgur.com/gallery/o2kCFLu

We restart the TV show and end the movies for a while. Just like The Librarians. If Marvel can switch between movies and TV, Tremors can too.

If you think I'm crazy too, just see and know how I've been in this position before. I'm well aware of how this "story" plays out.

I mean, Tremors *does* foreshadows its ending with a sleeping bag. https://imgur.com/gallery/5HexQ

Notice too how you can find little Behind the Scenes for Tremors 5-7 despite a smorgasbord of material for 1-4 and both TV shows.

http://imgur.com/gallery/b4STAkl http://imgur.com/gallery/gSlZ1fC http://imgur.com/gallery/fnFt9MD http://imgur.com/gallery/6mDHTtg http://imgur.com/gallery/4M28quW http://imgur.com/gallery/w7rbUvZ http://imgur.com/gallery/6l0Dogl

And it's not like Universal isn't known for shady business practices. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Pictures

What about how they own the rights to damn near every monster except for Godzilla. And not just the classics like Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman, Mummy and Invisible Man. They have Kong, Hulk, Jaws, Michael Myers, The Thing, all the Jurassic Park dinos, all the Romero zombies, Chucky, Casper, Riddick beasts, Hellboy, and Jaegers/Kaiju. These dudes know merchandising rights and they're looking to score the next Poke'Mon franchise.

https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2011/10/24/how-universal-re-copyrighted-frankensteins-monster/

Take a gander at all these articles gushing with love for Tremors:

Why the 'Tremors' Franchise Is Better Than the 'Alien' Movies https://collider.com/why-the-tremors-franchise-is-better-than-the-alien-movies/

As Kevin Bacon's Tremors returns to TV, we explain the entire franchise ​It's way more complicated than you think. https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a807140/tremors-franchise-series-guide-kevin-bacon/

20 Fun Facts About Tremors https://ew.com/article/1990/07/13/tremors/

Thirty Years After Tremors, Reba McEntire Tells Us Why She's Absolutely Down to Return For a Reboot https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a30457996/tremors-30-anniversary-reba-mcentire-interview/

30 years ago, Tremors became perhaps the most perfect bad movie https://www.thv11.com/mobile/article/entertainment/movies/film-on-11/getting-reel/30-years-ago-tremors-became-perhaps-the-most-perfect-bad-movie/91-8f6854df-9dcc-4870-ab3a-4f91a658ac3f

How Tremors 7 Succeeds Where Other Horror Movie Franchises Failhttps://screenrant.com/tremors-7-movie-succeeds-better-horror-movie-franchises-reason/

A Complete Rundown of the Entire Tremors Saga https://www.dreadcentral.com/editorials/363290/beneath-perfection-thoughts-on-the-entire-tremors-franchise/

Kevin Bacon Wants to Revisit His Only Film He Ever Re-Watched https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/kevin-bacon-tremors-1234956657/

Look at all this #BurtGummerDay love. That adds up to thousands of people watching Tremors for the first or fiftieth time. And this is only the first "official" year. It'll only grow.

http://imgur.com/t/burt_gummer_day

https://m.facebook.com/groups/2215552755347508/permalink/3124638257772282/?ref=m_notif¬if_t=group_comment

https://m.facebook.com/groups/2215552755347508/permalink/3124638397772268/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Tremors/about

Can you see the Tremors? Can you feel them? Fans want Tremors and they want it from Stampede. http://imgur.com/gallery/ZaVL7Mc http://imgur.com/gallery/f37bEV7 http://imgur.com/gallery/De6DlqQ

After all this time, and all this love, and all this greed, it's time we break Hollywood tradition and give power back to the people. When people can #RestoreTheSnyderVerse or #SaveTheVentureBros, we can #StampedeTremors for #BurtGummerDay.

Take this hope and fly!

#StampedeTremors

BTS, gifs, and videos of The Tremors Saga. Tremors: The Lost Tapes from S.S. Wilson's personal collection https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1EA9246EF966DDA2

Monster Makers https://stampede-entertainment.com/site/photos/tmm-tremors/ https://stampede-entertainment.com/site/photos/tmm-tremors2/

ADI's creation documentaries https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR9WUo3tIVnb4CyMR1SLVsxPyBwz1Met_ BTS gallery of Tremors http://imgur.com/gallery/b4STAkl

The making of Tremors https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m-HUUt21tRA

Inside the Graboid workshop https://youtu.be/YgPuC2tNBpM

Stampede Entertainment's video archive for Tremors https://stampede-entertainment.com/site/category/videos/tremors/

Tremors opening https://youtu.be/gnqPYTOzc38

BTS gallery of Tremors 2: Aftershocks http://imgur.com/gallery/gSlZ1fC

Stampede Entertainment's behind the scenes of Tremors 2 https://stampede-entertainment.com/site/photos/tremors2/

The making of Tremors 2 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fAlqzM0CyPI

Tremors 2 original script with Val, Earl, Burt and Heather. http://imgur.com/gallery/8QaHPRy

Tremors 2: Aftershocks opening https://youtu.be/pVi24Gc0KdQ)

BTS gallery of Tremors 3: Back to Perfection http://imgur.com/gallery/fnFt9MD Stampede Entertainment's behind the scenes of Tremors 3 https://stampede-entertainment.com/site/photos/tremors3/

On the set of Tremors 3 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZhrvkB5nKs

Stampede Entertainment's video archive of Tremors 3 https://stampede-entertainment.com/site/category/videos/tremors3/

Tremors 3: Back to Perfection opening https://youtu.be/UXjdZitldB4

BTS gallery of Tremors the Series http://imgur.com/gallery/6mDHTtg

Stamede Entertainment's https://stampede-entertainment.com/site/photos/tremors-series/

Behind the scenes of Tremors the Series lost monsters. https://stampede-entertainment.com/site/photos/tremors-series-lost/

Cold opens for Tremors the Series https://youtu.be/srB6rZgv_Po https://youtu.be/v3ZkC08rKtg

BTS gallery of Tremors 4: The Legend Begins http://imgur.com/gallery/4M28quW Stampede Entertainment's behind the scenes of Tremors 4 https://stampede-entertainment.com/site/photos/tremors4-2/

On the set of Tremors 4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bppXVxldTqU The weapons of Tremors 4 https://stampede-entertainment.com/site/photos/weapons-of-tremors-4/

Tremors 4: The Legend Begins opening https://youtu.be/3gDlAEUBesg

BTS gallery of Tremors 5: Bloodlines http://imgur.com/gallery/6l0Dogl

Tremors 5: Bloodlines opening https://youtu.be/t8jrCVI676Y

BTS gallery of the unaired Kevin Bacon Tremors pilot http://imgur.com/gallery/w7rbUvZ

Script for the unaired Tremors pilot http://imgur.com/gallery/UbtTvyf

Trailer for the unreleased Tremors pilot https://youtu.be/hWU3GpKmIvw

Kevin Bacon talks Tremors. https://youtu.be/TAGOlEIR7mA

Interviews with Alec Gillis, Brent Maddock, Nancy Roberts, and Ron Underwood https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjmUAAK3guQ8t6dKzwH9V0RzerkdLr0d1

S.S. Wilson talks his Tremors career. https://youtu.be/ZJhZmty_dKs Making Perfection https://youtu.be/hpCSCQJEmnk

Have a question about Tremors? Find it here and if you can't find it, ask S.S. Wilson yourself! https://stampede-entertainment.com/site/fan-extras/tremors-faq/?include_category=general

And if you love Tremors enough to have made it this far, enjoy a collection of gifs for you to use at your pleasure.

Tremors http://imgur.com/gallery/kPiEe3d http://imgur.com/gallery/5Sb4Vpg http://imgur.com/gallery/1uZxiue http://imgur.com/gallery/NX5r2

Tremors 2 Aftershocks http://imgur.com/gallery/i1IZZf8 http://imgur.com/gallery/krcmrgQ http://imgur.com/gallery/GjTxAg1 http://imgur.com/gallery/DabFZTt http://imgur.com/gallery/QLTStyx http://imgur.com/gallery/P92e1ri http://imgur.com/gallery/IUAvd http://imgur.com/gallery/h8BZ0qN http://imgur.com/gallery/ZQi2KOb http://imgur.com/gallery/WDZdM

Tremors 3 Back to Perfection http://imgur.com/gallery/5ebddmR http://imgur.com/gallery/Rj9fqIy http://imgur.com/gallery/ikzXFbd

Tremors the Series http://imgur.com/gallery/cqSMk40

Tremors 4 The Legend Begins

http://imgur.com/gallery/ufV3of1 http://imgur.com/gallery/zPGBOW3 http://imgur.com/gallery/ri5jLRd http://imgur.com/gallery/y7A3l5D

Tremors 5 Bloodlines

http://imgur.com/gallery/Pmunxjo http://imgur.com/gallery/0yazNVG

Tremors 6 A Cold Day In Hell http://imgur.com/gallery/S4qlPCI http://imgur.com/gallery/Xa2mUsS

Tremors Pilot http://imgur.com/gallery/RXXjbKr http://imgur.com/gallery/kCErQyF

Tremors 7 Shrieker Island

http://imgur.com/gallery/FzpJllb http://imgur.com/gallery/JGweZjH

[neo-culture-mafia]

그림자

last chapter

"'sup bitches." Hyuck called, walking in the front door with groceries in hand.

"Duckie, I have told you 9 separate times to not greet like that." I spun around in the swivel chair, "it's rude." I reasoned and he took his sunglasses off his face, holding them in the same hand as his motorcycle keys. "Whoops?...I guess." He chuckled, strutting over to where I sat at the living room desk.

I turned back around to look at the paperwork spanning across the wood surface. "What's this, sunflower?" He asked grabbing the first paper he could grab. He flicked his brown curls from his vision to have a good look at what was taking place in black ink.

"Money flipping?" He asked me, with a cocked eyebrow and an unamused look. "Yep. Just for a little while," I winked and snatched the paper back. I sighed, setting it back down on the desk, "just until we have enough for an apartment in the city."

He groaned and walked down the hall to the kitchen. "We have everything we need here." He called as I knew he was emptying the contents of the grocery bags into the respectful places they belonged.

I leaned my arm on the desk, laying my head in my hand and staring at the Polaroids above the desk. Some were of us: me, Mark and Hyuck, and some of the rest of the boys...now just a distant memory is what they felt like.

483 days...483 days since we last saw each other. On that damn night. That dreadful night that me and Mark were turned away and shunned like we were dogs.

Then we traveled back to Seoul to find Duckie. After he was missing for 3 weeks, I ran into him by chance in an alley. We actually had gotten in a first fight till his hood fell back and I was met with the melanin enriched skin that made my eyes weep.

I told him to leave, go back, that he was welcomed there. But, he didn't want to leave me or Mark. We lived in the shit shack eating nothing but crackers and water for a couple months, sometimes we opted for sleep as our daily meal.

Until Mark came home with money. He had gotten that damn tunnel door open by the grace of a higher-being: filled with cash to the brim.

Us 3 bought a 2 bedroom farm house in the somewhat country where we were best friends with our retired neighbors; their thoughts and whispers of us being in a 3-way relationship being the talk of the small farming town. We didn't care. We knew what we were doing here and what we needed to do in the future.

"Oh honey. I'm home." Donghyuck called through the house and a door opened to a wet Mark who was towel drying his hair in nothing but sweatpants. "Did you get me the stuff?" He asked all serious, and I looked down the dim hallway to see Mark's blonde hair being tossled by his towel.

Hyuck gave him a flat face, a hand on his hip and another holding him up on the counter. "Yes, Mark. I got you your 'stuff'." He rolled his eyes, going away and returning with a big ass watermelon.

"Yesss," Mark took it and automatically held it to his ear, knocking on it like it was a heavy wood door. "you picked a good one." Mark looked lovingly at the fruit in his arms as if it was a child.

I laughed as I looked at my wacky friend. "Why can't you be obsessed with something usual. Like beer, or poker."

The curly headed boy asked as he walked back down the hall towards me. Taking his thick jacket off and throwing it over the arm of the couch; sitting down he unlaced and unzipped his boots, throwing them by the door.

You watched the conversation play out like a terrible teen-sitcom. "Cause I'd rather die by watermelon overdose than alcohol intoxication-" Mark was cut off as he walked slowly to the front room where Hyuck and I sat. "Yeah yeah yeah. Too many big words for this early in the morning." Hyuck put his arm over his eyes and laid back.

Mark looked at me and we both looked at the clock. "Sweetie, its 3 in the afternoon." I giggled and he whined. "It's so early." He said and stood up.

"I'm getting changed and I'm gonna chill." He said looking at Mark who still clutched his watermelon to his bare chest, damp towel thrown over his shoulder.

"And?" Mark asked. "Why do I care?" He asked and the younger boy just shrugged. "Also...your night for dinner." Mark reminded him and Hyuck whined louder, running down the hall and smacking into our bedroom door.

"Donghyuck!" I jumped up, wanting to check if he was okay. He just kept on whining as he opened our door and went in, closing it.

You could still hear his shrieks as he was probably running around getting changed into comfier clothes.

"Then there were two." Mark sighed as he set his watermelon on the kitchen window, and plopping onto the long couch on the opposite side of the living room.

"I need to redo your hair soon." I said getting up and laying on the ground next to his couch. "I might let it grow up to a ponytail." I sat up quickly. "Uh. No you're not." My voice was harsh and he laughed.

"Girl you need to chill. I was joking." He chuckled, stretching and yawning.

Something that Jaemin used to say to me atleast once an hour. My smile faltered and I became more solemn.

"Do you miss them?" I asked and he just stared at me for a moment. "Who?" Was all he said and I knew that he knew exactly who he was talking about but it still hurt a little bit.

"Your boys." I said and a faint smile was broadcasted over his facial features as he stared into what seemed like distant space but was really just the dark TV.

"Of course." He exasperated and he looked back at my face who was just searching for reassurance that this path was the right one to take.

"But I am so thankful for the two of you, right here, right now." He smiled and my heart was put at ease.

"Alright I'm back. I sensed you guys missed me so I returned. Just for you guys!" Hyuck said as he sat down next to me and leaned back on his arms for support. "Oh yeah. 'Cause we were literally dying without your presence." I said sarcastically and he shrugged.

"Exactly. That's what I just said." He said as serious as possible and me and Mark laughed. "Oh you think you're so funny." Donghyuck said picking me up and pulling me on his lap, his hands reaching for my sides and tickling.

My shrieks and laughs radiated through the house as Mark watched on in admiration. He felt blessed that he made it this far. He also never failed to tell us atleast once a week. We were all each other's life and support systems.

Once hyuck stopped his evil act, I just laid there across his lap trying to resteady my breath.

"What's for dinner?" I looked up at him and he shrugged. "I haven't really looked to be completely honest." He said yawning.

"Well let's go see and then we can make it, eat, clean, and then chill for a while." I said getting up and putting my hand out for him to take.

He groaned but obliged at my request.

He was in some shorts and a basic hoodie. The scarring on his legs reminding us all of a dark period. A painful time that sometimes still follows us.

I have a scar on my back from that night. I don't remember anything of the tunnels but the burning pain in my calves, wanting to stop sprinting through the dark and lonely concrete jungle.

Him and I stood infront of the cupboards in silence.

I suddenly felt so tired and out of it. Like a heavy weight was on my chest and it wouldn't budge.

"Oooo. Spaghetti." He said stretching and reaching the noodles and sauce on the top shelf. I shrugged as he looked at me for my reaction to his suggestion.

"You okay?" He asked and I could only shrug and try to give a convincing smile.

"Yeah. Just thinking about stuff." I shrugged once more and he understood.

"Can you help me with dinner?" He asked and of course I agreed, wanting to get my mind off the looming darkness in the corners of the house.

"Alright. We need 2 pots and then you can figure out some sides we can have with it." He said and I was already grabbing the 2 pots.

I set them on the stove top and he began doing his own thing. I rummaged through the cabinets and fridge before feasting my eyes on what seemed like the perfect pairing.

"Salad?"

~~~~~~~~~

Trying to sleep that night was rough. It was just tough and not even the usual cuddly nature of the sleeping Hyuck next to me could lull me into dream land.

The dark feeling still followed me through dinner and to bed.

I tried staring at the wall but even then the small cracks started freaking me out. I turned towards Hyuck who's curly dark hair framed his face perfectly.

Don't get us wrong. We're not a thing. We're just close. Once we found each other again he has stuck to my side in hopes of fulfilling what he thought he didn't in the first place- protection.

I don't mind. We've always been close and now we've just gotten closer. Was sharing a bedroom in our plans?...no...but we didn't want to put up with Mark and his farting so he was blessed with having his own room.

We're just making do with what we have.

My finger lightly traced shapes on his arm tattoos, trying to pass time and get myself to sleep.

I groaned and his eyes opened. "What's wrong?" He asked looking at the alarm clock on the bedside table.

3:29 AM

He turned back to make sure I was okay. He sat up on his arm and just looked at me for a moment. "Are you hurt?" Was all he asked and I shook my head no. I wouldn't know how to explain the hurt I was feeling anyway.

"I just need water." I said getting up and crawling to the end of the bed. "Be back in 5 minutes please." He said grabbing his phone. I mumbled my recognition and opened our door.

I strided down the hall and grabbed a water bottle. I walked into the hall where the corridor meets living room. Hyuck's phone lit one end of the hall in our bedroom while the other was illuminated by the moon light.

1 sip.

I breathed and looked out the front window at the old couples house across from ours.

2 sips.

I can hear my heart beat as I try to drown it out with gulps of water.

3 sips.

I have a sudden urge to sprint up and down our street to try and rid the shakiness of my body.

4 sips.

I'm not even cold but my anxiety makes my bones sound like wooden spoons and my body go cold with shivers.

And that's when I see it.

The shadow.

It moved on the front porch.

"I'm going crazy." I spoke in a monotone.

"What?" I heard Hyuck call out, now sitting up in the bed.

The shadow came closer to the door, an arm raised, as if it was going to bash in the glass.

"That's not real." I said louder, my water bottle now dropped from my cold hand.

I heard a thud and a swear along with an opening door.

"Mark. Up, now." And a pair of feet come closer down the dark hallway.

The shadow just seemed frozen now as Hyuck stood right by me.

"What is that?" He muttered and Mark now was coming closer, trying to see tiredly through his glasses.

The arm went back and forth a couple of times. "Hyuck go get your gun." Mark said lowly but I wanted to fight this thing head on.

I walked straight to the door before any of their hands could grab me. I threw the door open as my heart felt like it was going to beat right out of my chest.

I was met with bleached blonde hair, a blood splattered face, a cold stare, and a muscly build that held ink and a face of an old someone I used to know.

"Jeno?" I choked out, wanting to vomit as my body went numb from shock. This wasn't real. I was dreaming. This wasn't happening.

I held my hands out towards his face, moving ever so slowly until his own hands held my own.

The boys behind me became silent as I knew one of them held a gun, still on edge for this too good to be true situation.

I threw myself at him and just held onto his muscular frame. His arms held me tight in a grip that I used to miss.

The metallic smell on him made my nose scrunch up in disgust but I was just too wrapped into the moment to care.

My body was yanked back forcefully and I was thrown back into the living room at the feet of a shell shocked Mark who could nothing but stare forward.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I thought Donghyuck was losing it as he cocked his gun and held it at the face of his once brother.

"Duckie what are you doing?" I asked getting up and grabbing at his arm.

Jeno just did nothing but stare down the metal barrel in front of his face, his hands being raised next to his head.

"I did a sweep of the surrounding place and it's sketc-" another body came walking up our porch.

The tall boy still seemed lanky but had glasses this time. His hair was now a lighter brown and it seemed like he had grown another 4 inches in the span of a year.

"Jisung?" I muttered and he was still met another gun barrel.

This time from Mark who had shoved me back again.

"Please don't shoot." Jisung pleaded, scared setting into his features.

"We need help. Please." Jisung begged but Jeno still held his stare with Hyuck.

"Everyone is gone." Jisung pleaded.

"Please." He whispered, his eyes were threatening to spill.

[fisherfurbearer]

With vivariums, how often do you add new enrichment, if at all? When my corn snake was in her old 40g, I'd add/circulate stuff every week or two, but I'm not sure if I should in her viv. Would just adjusting the climbing branches or leaf litter be enough, or should I go for a more ambitious moving of her hides and stuff?

This...is actually a really good question!!!

(Bear with me here as I’ve been very sick the past few days and Very Jumbled, so my words are even  worse than they usually are, but here we go...!)

To be honest, I haven’t really thought about this before, as weird as that sounds...I’ve been thinking about your question for a few days and it gives me a lot of ideas. My only two “proper” vivariums are for the Eurydactylodes, and the way their hardscape is set up, it’s pretty set in stone, not much can be adjusted. Right now they’re honestly kinda ugly too, not nearly as handsome/filled out as they were before since a lot of the plants tanked and I’m still growing out a couple new plants and getting back into a good routine, so I’m not sure how helpful my answer can be right now.

But thinking back to when the vivs were At Their Peak and when my routine was really good...hmm! I never really circulated their environmental enrichment, but it was always a process of slowly adding new plants and filling in gaps, and “training” vines to grow where I wanted. Over time I added some pieces of cork to the ground, more leaf litter, seed pods, stuff like that, but I never REALLY shook things up. I WILL note though that as their plants grew, especially the quick growing Peperomia scandens vine, the geckos both change their behaviors accordingly! As the vines fill in, get trimmed, and grow back again, Gogo in particular really changes up the paths he takes to get to his favorite basking or resting spots, and as the light penetration changes they both choose new places to sit. It’s kinda neat, and I’m going to try to add some new plants soon and try to get the vivs back to where they were before. I got really...overly ambitious...when I was younger, and that coupled with Life just really tanked over time, but I’ve learned so much and I think this time around the vivs can still be just as nice, if not better.

But I digress! Even though I haven’t/don’t change up much Intentionally (plants growing out don’t really count) I actually think I might try to come up with new ideas for how I CAN do that for the geckos. Their enclosures are pretty small (12″x12″x18″, but remember that Didi is just 3.75″ from tip to tail and Gogo is only 4.25″!!) and the hardscape is permanent so I’m not sure exactly how much I could do, but maybe there ARE options...?

It’s a tricky balance between “familiarity” (‘ah yes this is MY home, where I feel safe and know where my favorite places are and how to get there!’) and “novelty” (switching up environments, trying out new decor, hides, tactile surfaces, etc.), if that makes sense.

It REALLY depends on the individual...like the mice/rats? Oh yeah, switch that shit UP!! Turn the whole enclosure upside down every week, switch up EVERYTHING and cycle through hides and bring back old favorites and try out new ones!! These guys LOVE it!! Quail...? Oh goodness, even though they’re getting braver, if I switch Too many things at once they get VERY STRESSED and pace for at least a few days before going back to normal...it’s a real balancing act with them and they really do well with a lot of familiarity, but Also novel changes and gradual improvements over time.

And with a living vivarium of course, you’re looking at a more “permanent” set up. The substrate is Alive, the environment more natural, and in most cases it’s probably harder to move everything around due to practicality (Dirt is Messy! Leaves are Messy! Reworking the vivs is always a disaster!! And I can definitely imagine a larger vivarium being heavy and difficult to shift around frequently, too) and it may not be preferred to do so, either! I would still have to test my theories in practice when I eventually get into larger reptiles, but I believe there can definitely be a happy medium between building a “familiar”, safe, enriching environment that will always be enjoyable for the inhabitant, AND providing novel enrichment.

The tricky part is knowing HOW MUCH to change, and HOW FREQUENT...

For example, once again, consider practicality. How big is the enclosure, how difficult is it to remove decor and move objects around? Are there living plants? If so, will moving decor around disturb them? And consider the individual. What is their temperament like? How do they respond to changes? Are they very active, curious, always on the move and rushing snoot-first to check out anything new? Or are they the type to hide or display signs of stress when anything familiar is changed? What’s the balance there, between desensitizing to Changes and building up Confidence and Encouraging natural behaviors and mental stimulation, vs. Distressing and Disturbing their sense of Safety/Familiarity?

Once again I notice this a lot with the difference between the mice and the quail. The quail are verrrrry timid about changes and even though I will add foliage in the same places as before, and clean everything up and add features I know they enjoy, it takes them time to readjust if I change too much at once (which I HAVE to do sometimes, during deep cleans, but I’m hoping over time they will grow more accustomed to it and won’t be as stressed in the future. Yet another reason in defense of why changing up environments CAN be a good thing...! It’s just a balancing act, is all) but compared to the mice or rats, they’re ALL OVER anything new!! Doesn’t matter if they’ve never seen it in their life, they want to sniff, jump on, run through, run on, explore, explore, EXPLORE!!!!! They THRIVE on new things and changes, but they also like a sense of familiarity (ex. they love tunnels, and use them to run from place to place...so each time I redo their enclosure, I might switch out what KINDS of tunnels we have [shape, material, size] to keep it Interesting. I also try to keep at least a few of the same hides as the last time, so it smells/feels familiar) and seem to enjoy that too. 

BUT BACK TO VIVARIUMS and how this all fits together!!!!

As I’ve said, I haven’t actually considered changing up my boys vivs, but I think this is something REALLY COOL to think about, not just for future vivs, but now as well!! I might actually try adding even more hardscape for them, like switch up the wood features on the ground, add some thin branches that can be moved around later. And this time I’ll plan for the plants as they grow and are trimmed back, as that’s a pretty cool “natural” environmental shift over time...even just letting some plants overgrow really changes up their environment, and encouraging that might be a good thing. I’ll have to experiment and I would definitely make future vivariums a bit more Flexible with their design so I could experiment more with this, as my options are somewhat limited with the geckos vivs, but still!!

And regarding your viv...!!! I have some ideas for that too!! These are some General Ideas, but here’s what I think:

- I know corn snakes in general are pretty active noodles, and although it depends on your individual corn, you may be in a good place to test out this Theory that switching up pieces of a vivarium could be beneficial enrichment. Corns in general seem like the kind of snake to adapt well and benefit from occasional changes, so here are some ideas to consider...

- Vivs naturally change over time. Plants grow, plants get trimmed, leaf litter decays, stuff like that. Adjusting plants (for example, adding new plants over time. Doesn’t really follow any rhyme or reason for me, it’s more of a natural “ooh but what if I put THIS here, or filled this space with THAT, and what if I grew something in this shady spot here, or this colorful one in the bright place here...” and that on it’s own can Improve a viv over time, and be a form of enrichment) and adding fresh leaf litter (try different types!! A couple different kinds of leaves looks better, decays at a varied rate, and is better for microfauna. They’ll eat the faster decaying ones first while the slower ones stick around longer.) can help keep things Fresh and Good

- I REALLY like to design things with Zones. I tend to think of enclosures/vivariums in terms of Choices and Factors. Factors like light/dark, warm/cool, humid/dry, open/hidden, high/low/below, hard/soft, etc., which all give the animal a Choice if they want to be one thing or the other... “Right now it’s daytime and I’m nocturnal and want to be in the shade, where it’s cooler and more secure.” “Right now it’s daytime and it’s time to Bask and Bake My Focking Eyeballs even though I have the CHOICE to be in the shade and NOT Bake My Forkking Eyespheres.” or, “I am a mouse and my instincts say I must DIG.” Stuff like that!! 1000% of the time, no matter what, the animal should ALWAYS be able to make these kinds of decisions, and enclosure/vivarium design DIRECTLY IMPACTS THIS!! No matter what changes, these basic factors should always be considered. (Of course, it changes based on the species, like for tarantulas I always think in terms of humid/dry, arboreal/terrestrial/fossorial, open/hidden, but the Ratios of these Zones changes greatly based on the species...like Kitty [bold semi-arboreal desert webbing tarantula] vs. Flaveri [terrestrial/heavy burrowing not-very-webby tarantula] are VERY different even though they’re both tarantulas. Does that make sense?

- Within these “zones” and with the idea of Choices in mind...it’s still possible and can be a good thing to mix up their options!! Some ideas for a corn snake might be...have a hide or two at different levels. One or two underground/half buried, at least one at ground level, maybe one thats elevated slightly, or visual barriers (think loose foliage that can be moved through but blocks them from view) above ground level. That gives them so many options right there, and you could always think about maybe switching one or two of those hides out (while keeping the rest same, for Familiarity) and testing different kinds of hides, maybe!! Wood vs. rocks vs. faux material vs. whatever!!! Test things out, see what they like, and remember it for later so you can incorporate that more often. It doesn’t even have to follow a rhyme or reason, maybe just mix up a piece of decor or a hide or two once every week or two, or:

- Mess with tactile enrichment!!!! This is a big one, I bet!! Try out different types of substrate, like a Big pile of leaves maybe with a Good Smell inside to encourage Sniffin’ and Searchin’, try out sand or small pebbles or different textures of wood/branches!! Cork bark is way different from ghost wood or driftwood, you feel? And maybe come up with “Permanent” parts of the hardscape that you never/rarely change, and a few easy to move parts that you could shift around or switch out sometimes...

- Also just Personal Opinion Time, which is probably going to change more over time as I gain more Knowledge and Experience, I feel like...no matter what, an animals enclosure should be Extra Enriching All The Time, and Always offer them choices WITHOUT the need to have it all turned upside down on a regular basis just to be interesting. It’s like...making your bedroom/house Yours. I wouldn’t want to totally redo my entire house every month let alone every week or two...it’s nice to live somewhere that feels like Home, but it’s also nice to change things to fit Me as time goes on. That’s something that some animals are very good at doing, themselves. Tarantulas and rodents especially, they take what you give them and run away with it...they make their own tunnels, their own hides, their own comfort and enjoyment. They take the Template we give them and say “okay now what about THIS?” One of the MOST IMPORTANT components of Great Environmental Enrichment/Design is that, I feel. Giving them an area where they can express natural behaviors of all kinds, and make Choices for themselves, and utilize/alter their environment in a safe, positive manner that allows them to Thrive in their own enclosure.

That isn’t to say that changing things up is bad either...in a lot of animals cases I think this is a good thing, and a Great Vivarium Designer/Animal Caretaker is always striving to improve, so it’s a natural trend over time to see improvements and changes made to enclosures and husbandry no matter what. Even if it doesn’t follow a regimen, as my vivs don’t seem to, they still evolve and get better over time, and that in a way is also enrichment. Just comparing pictures of my first attempts at the gecko vivs to where they were at their peak, or how my tarantula enclosures have evolved, that’s a great way to visualize what I mean by that. It doesn’t follow a pattern, but that’s not to say that I DON’T switch things up or try to provide Different things. It’s less of novelty and more of “general improvement” for the geckos and inverts though, I think.

Uhhh I’m kinda spent now with my words...I feel like I went in circles and didn’t actually say anything?? I’m still very jumbled and sniffly and sick and I’m not sure if this helped or answered your question at all but uhhhh yes! Thank you very much for the very good question, it gave me a lot to think about. c: