#da color coding is mostly for me actually

[mosaickiwi]

Home Away From

I love hopeless agony almost as much as tooth rotting fluff??

Post-kidnapping Angel adjusting (badly) to the new normal.

might do a part 2 where it gets even worse idk ← my last words before i get thrown out of the plane

Kidnapping, imprisonment, codependency, etc.

proceed with caution

Eyes straight forward, you had to keep yourself occupied fiddling with the edge of a couch cushion. Every single one had a few loose threads from how often you worried away at them. 

Twelve… thirteen… fourteen neatly aligned book spines on the lowest shelf behind the dark haired man kneeling in front of you. A full, hardcover collection of your favorite webcomic, each book signed and dedicated to you. Maybe you'd force yourself to read them all again. For the third time since your arrival.

"Angel."

It was hard to keep track of how long you'd been here—in this house far removed from Corland Bay, with everything you ever wanted in a forever home. All those wild, fantasy-ridden dreams you joked about with Ren, and then [REDACTED], were true now.

And yet your supposed fiancé carried you over the threshold of that forever home kicking and screaming. 

"Still not talking?"

His hand reached for yours, fingers gently lacing between your own before you eventually pulled away. You saw their real reaction in the corner of your vision. By now, you knew him as obsessively as he knew you—there wasn't much he could hide anymore. The pain in his blue eyes lingered for too long this time.

It hurt. You hated to see that look on his face. But you hated being trapped here so much more than that. Why couldn't he understand?

Realistically, a silent treatment would get you nowhere. A few hours had turned to days, then weeks, and he was still soft-spoken and doting towards you. There was hardly a difference in the man you proposed to, and the one that bolted the front door shut from the outside on the few occasions they left for supplies.

You were too used to domestic life, too docile compared to that first day—sometimes you'd lose yourself and forget you were a prisoner. All your old hobbies still occupied your days while he sat nearby, and it just felt natural to include the only person you ever saw. To call his name and read a passage from a book aloud for him to laugh, or casually scoot closer to him for warmth during a movie.

Those moments when you forgot felt like they could slot in between all your old memories with ease.

"I'm sorry, love. I only wanted t'keep you safe," he whispered.

His breath almost tickled your legs, followed by the feel of his forehead resting against them. The urge to brush a hand through their hair—an innocent gesture you did at least daily back home—hurt just as much to ignore.

Were it not for their words of apology, even now could've been another memory. Who could fault you for falling into habits of comfort with the one who lived for you, and you alone?

The silent treatment was the best you could do.

💜🖤💜🖤💜🖤

Tired and disoriented, you woke up alone in your bedroom. The pink haired plushie you normally cuddled had disappeared somewhere, probably tossed to a corner of the room in your fitful sleep. Your usual replacement for a space heater was nowhere to be found, either.

Had he stayed up late? You called their name. "Ren?"

A muted commotion in the hallway outside, then the door creaked open. "Angel?" your beloved hacker answered back cautiously.

"Are you coming to bed?"

There was no response for a long moment. But soon enough, his familiar footsteps sounded against the floor.

You sat up and pulled the blanket to the side for them. As he settled in, you cuddled close, resting one arm over their chest while your head laid in its rightful place atop his shoulder. You managed to lean up and find their lips for a quick kiss before closing your eyes.

Though you couldn't see his face, you imagined the blush that painted his cheeks at every piece of affection you gave. With the thought fresh in your mind, you drifted off.

💜🖤💜🖤💜🖤

Hours later you woke again, your rest this time far more peaceful in their embrace. A pitiful, lazy groan left you as you stretched, then opened your eyes to greet your partner.

[REDACTED] was silently looking down at you, propped up on one arm. 

You reached up to cup his cheek and smiled at him. He leaned into your touch like always, but their usual loving gaze was laced with hesitation. As if waiting for something. Anxious of what could bother him, your hand followed the line of his jaw down to their neck, past the tattooed heart of your name, and settled on a piece of jewelry. 

Was that correct? It felt off. A long moment passed as you fiddled with it, trying to figure out what was so out of place about that silver chain, until it hit you.

The golden ring was back on his necklace, instead of on your finger where it belonged. Where it used to belong.

Weeks, or maybe even months ago, when they kept you in a careful hold while locking the bedroom door behind them—you'd thrown that ring in his face the second he let you go. 

For all the scratches and bite marks you'd put on his arm, tearing at skin that was already long scarred, he hadn't shown a hint of worry. Not until they bent down to get the ring that hit their chest and clattered to the floor.

It was the same worried face you saw now.

Your hand stilled, and before you could even whisper the words you wanted to yell, he slipped from the bed to give you space. The door clicked shut behind them to trap you in with your thoughts.

How could you be so stupid? Weak? They didn't have to try at all to wear you down; you did it all on your own. He tore you away from friends and family, yet here you were, forgetting yourself to play house with him. Then you took it a step further and let him sleep in your bed.

Nails dug into the pillow under your head, but instead of throwing it you squeezed it tight to your chest. You bit your lip to hold back the tears, glaring down at the empty spot on your ring finger that had only now begun to match the skin around it.

Another foolish dream to pile with all the others.

As much as you wanted to hope they would see reason one day and bring you back home to make things right—a thought far past irrational by now—you had to mourn the life taken from you.

You knew them, you knew them. Always seeking your favor so quickly that any argument quelled before it had a chance to begin, but stubborn when he felt it necessary.

If the first answer was a no… the next one and the next one wouldn't change. You should've accepted it the second he locked the door.

Ren was the only person you'd ever see again.

[livewireprojects]

Rambling about old art program

I'm mostly doing this cause I want to ramble & I don't want it being most of the text on an old image I'm posting.(Cause lots of rambling)

When I was younger I had a program called Manga Studio Pro 4.0, I didn't know how to use it much but I eventually was able to use it good enough.(Although at points I couldn't figure how to remove the text on some things if I was making a comic instead of just an image) This was an old program, while some of my stuff was digital installs I don't know how I got or were already there(MSPaint) this was the old way involving a CD that came in a box with a code.

At some point either from either from losing the box(this was a program I had a CD & code for in the past), using it too many times(I transferred computers a few times) or who knows what like not knowing how to use the code or losing the code for it I eventually lost the ability to install/use it. I think I tossed everything I had left for it after I lost the ability to use it & I don't remember when I tried to reinstall it. It worked I was able to reinstall it I just couldn't figure out if I had the code or not anymore cause some stuff confused me.

I don't remember much but I know that when you saved new projects you'd have a folder with the file to open the picture in the program(with layers there if they were there) & an image that was a jpeg full sized(depending on how big you made it) image with all visible layers merged.(I mean it's an image so of course) I have many unfinished projects I found in some backups I made of past computers, they'll never be finished & I'll never be able to open them up in the program again. It's not like I could finish them without starting over anyway thanks to how much shit has changed.

Looking around what I was able to it seems the most recent pics I made in manga studio were from 2012 which was my second year of high school.

My art programs back then were MSPaint & a copy of Paint Tool Sai I found somewhere(I bought a license for the program a few years back so use an actual legal ver now)

When I was younger I use to use Photoshop CS & MSPaint(every once in a while I used Manga Studio Pro 4.0)

Today/in recent years I use Clip Studio Paint EX, sometimes Paint Tool Sai, MSPaint occasionally(mostly use it for quickly pasting screenshots or stuff to copy to paste elsewhere) & very recently Procreate.

Up until a certain point after high school I drew with a mouse, I sometimes draw with a mouse but I mostly use a wacom tablet I've had for a few years. Also use an ipad for procreate.

It's kind of funny, I didn't use manga studio that much but I use clip studio paint a lot now. I bring this up cause manga studio is still going, it's called clip studio now.

Here's so images I was able to find from when I still used the program just so you can see what I worked on. If you've seen my art stuff you'll know how much things have changed too.

This pic was from 2011, it's an old image of my fursona's quad form

To the right is a more up-to-date version from 2016, not much has changed but the paw print is gone(the tail has a little more detail like it has fins now)

Here's a pic from 2021 were my fursona is dressed for pride month that shows better details. Funny enough first pic is manga studio, second pic is sai & third is clip studio paint so I guess it comes full circle.

Pic 1

This is the most recent pic(2012) I made in manga studio, according to the description I sketched it in manga studio then colored it in sai, the text is done in MSPaint. This was for an Alice in Wonderland based project I didn't get far in except for a few ideas.

Pic 2:

I have no idea when I made this, DA says I posted it there in 2012 but going off the art style looks older than I recall. After trying to search around I think this & pic 3 are maybe from 2010 & I got a little better in 2012 when I made pic 1.

This is for someone I use to know that I don't exactly have good memories of. I use to be in an AMV group with her & at some point she requested art from me & would repeatedly ask if it was done. I don't remember how often but I know she was asking about it to the point it was considered rude especially after I asked her to stop.

This was for one of her projects that as far as I know never got very far. I don't even remember what the plot was. I think it was two high schoolers falling in love while caring for a kid that was either their future daughter or the guy's little sister.

I think I was experimenting with the background on this & pic 3 cause I think the backgrounds had to do with finding random brushes & using them as much as I could were I thought it fit.

Pic 3:

From the same person that the less said that I remember the better cause I'm just going to end up ranting about how she kept making child me pissed from repeatedly asking if an art request was done when I kept asking her to stop & it wasn't done yet.

Anyway I think this was suppose to be for a slice of life fanime she was working on. I don't remember much past the blond(Midori) being the I think main character & something involving her having 3 ex-boyfriends with the magenta/pink hair one being dead. I think I drew this before pic 2 but I put it at the end cause there's more stuff.

Three of the images(the image in the thought bubble, the photo to the left & all three chibis if you count them as one image) were all imported into manga studio to be part of it.(Or the photo on the very left & the chibis were imported cause I think the pic in the thought bubble was edited in using Photoshop CS & the text was shaded in Photoshop as well)

Here's the three images in pic 3

Pic 1 was made with MSPaint & Photoshop CS(background is one I made in photoshop at some point), the writing was suppose to look crayon like cause this was before I had Sai which had a crayon brush

Pic 2 was made traditionally on paper & with sharpy before editing it in Photoshop CS. Don't know where I found the floor, the text in the corner is the only thing helping me guess this is from 2010. That cat charm is an old character of mine, was kind of a joke on Hello Kitty for some reason.

Pic 3 was made in MSPaint

I got one more pic I made in manga studio but it's getting it's own post.(Link to said post)

It's kind of crazy just how much was done & how much has changed from then & now.(I dunno how to end this)

[rileyav]

Your Cat-Sona is so adorable! How did you come up with her design?

aw well thank you very much that's very nice of you to say! ;w;

i'm assuming you mean my Speak No Evil-sona/SNE-sona, it's honestly just my persona as a black cat though haha she just has my persona's hair but as a kitty girl.

i just added some white fluff on her chest, she doesn't even have an actual set outfit yet really, she can kinda wear anything.

she's meant to look like just a normal black cat since the creatures in SNE are just normal animals but anthropomorphized. i went with black cats because i love black cats the most!

but if you mean my other cat-sona, the brown cat with pink hair, i made that when i was like ..... frickin ..... around 10 years old, probably younger, and just have had her for the longest time LOL she started as a Sonic OC which is why she has those fluffs on her cheek

as for her design, pink was (and still is) my favorite color, but i wanted her to also have brown because i'm a brunette, so... ta-da! lol!

i even remember the hex codes for her hair was originally #FF0066 and i want to say her fur was supposed to be #663300 but i've uhh changed those around a bit since then to be a bit less obtrusive lol

her hair was mostly a mix of Sally Acorn meets Tails/Amy hair thingies PLUS sidebangs like Winry Rockbell. and then just long hair like me nwn

[7goodangel]

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) / Guidelines

~ 2021 Edition ~

Last Updated: 03/20/2021

(Note - This is also on dA - but the format on that version is not correct due to site changes)

-----

Any updated portion will be indicated by double asterisks (**) leading and ending section.

[TL;DR - Please at least read the answers to questions 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12]

This post is split to three separate sections:

Guidelines - Questions for permissions on character(s) and limits on said permissions.

General FAQ - Questions centered on 7goodangel.

Character Specific FAQ - Questions on individual characters.

-----

GUIDELINES

1.Q: Can I draw your character(s)?

A: Yes. Please credit myself in the description when you post it (and/or tag me if you post it to a platform I'm also on). Also refer to question 6.

2.Q: Can I write fan-fiction with your character(s)?

A: Yes. Please credit myself in the notes/description when you post it (and/or tag me if you post it to a platform I'm also on). Also refer to question 6.

3.Q: Can I have your permission to make an alternate version of your character?

A: Yes. Please take the time to read the full FAQ / Guidelines prior to creating your variation. And have fun!

4.Q: Can I voice act as [character] for comics / stories / etc?

A: Yes. Please refer to questions 5, 6 and 8 prior to publishing works.

5.Q: Can I be the official voice for [character]?

A: There will not be any official voices for characters I have made.

6.Q: Can I write / draw NSFW (Not Safe For Work) of character(s)?

A: No. Please do not post any variation of sexual NSFW including character(s) online. Do not show in detail on any acts that would require a 'fade to black' treatment. This includes but not limited to in$est, v0re, and r@pe. General violence - i.e. battles / fights - is allowed, however, please contact me for any additional questions regarding to this topic.

7.Q: I found NSFW art / story on [website / app] with your character(s) - what should I do?

A: If the website does not allow NSFW in any aspect, report the piece using the correct filter. If the website does allow, then please ignore the item. Do not report art / stories on my or any artist's behalf (i.e. saying you represent the original artist).

8.Q: Can we include a character(s) of yours in a project?

A: Yes, as long as there is no monetization. (Refer to question 9)

9.Q: Can I sell products / commissions / etc. with [character(s)] in it?

A: Depends - Please look at the list below for clarification. 1) One Time Products / Commissions: If a product is only created one time - i.e. a digital/traditional art commission or a one time custom plush - and is not sold in mass production, that is okay. There cannot be a dedicated page for a product with a character of mine - even if the item is labeled "Made to Order" or "Custom Plush [Character Name]" or similar variations. Refer to question 6 as well. 2) Mass Produced / Factory Made Products: No. Do not sell anything with any characters I've created that is massed produced. This includes but not limited to: TShirts produced on websites like RedBubble, Amazon, etc; Mass producing plushies either via factory or by hand (having many created prior to selling); Charms / Buttons / Stickers created in a factory to be sold. 3) Monetization of Videos / Patreon Support for Project / Kickstarter of Project: No. Do not include my character(s) in a project that is monetized. This includes but not limited to: dubbing comics / images / stories that I have created; dubbing comics / images / stories that include character(s) that are not fully distinguished from originals; creating a Patreon specifically around the project including character(s).

10.Q: Can I use [character(s)] as my icon?

A: Yes. Credit appropriately within your header / description (i.e. character by 7goodangel, art by [artist]).

11.Q: Can I repost your artwork to [website / app]?

A: No. Do not repost my artwork to other websites or apps.

12.Q: Can I do the lineart / color for a picture you've done traditionally / digitally sketched?

A: Please send me an ask on Tumblr or message me on dA if you plan to do this.

13.Q: Can I translate asks / facts about character(s) / etc to [language]?

A: Yes. Please give proper credit and links to original question.

14.Q: Can I create an ask/RP account for [character(s)]?

A: No. The only exception to this is if the version is a variation / alternate you've created or had permission for.

15.Q: Can I RP as [character(s)] in other ways?

A: You can RP as [character(s)] within private servers / chat rooms with prior noting that variation will not line up with original.

16.Q: Can we RP with [character(s)] in NSFW situations?

A: Refer to question 6.

GENERAL FAQ

17.Q: Where are you from?

A: Earth.

18.Q: Can we become friends?

A: There are no guarantees.

19.Q: How long have you been drawing?

A: Most of my life - but started to focus into current style in 2006.

20.Q: What programs / tools do you use for your drawings?

A: In the past, programs I used were Photoshop CS5 and Illustrator CS5. Currently, I use Clip Studio Paint. Traditional is mostly typical printer paper and mechanical pencils.

21.Q: Can you draw [character(s)]?

A: Not likely. If opened to suggestions - I may draw them if there is time. Please do not expect all suggestions to be fulfilled.

22.Q: What about pairings / ships?

A: I'm pretty neutral with most ships, except for dynamics like in$est, abusive or [adult x minor] (whether actual ages or coded like that). (Note: Exceptions can/is more than listed.). Though I typically ship in more of a friendship way verses romantic.

23.Q: Are you okay with the ship FreshPaper / PaperFresh / Fresh x Paper Jam?

A: I am fine with others shipping this. I have my own interpretations for this ship that are different from most. Refer to question 22.

CHARACTER SPECIFIC FAQ

24.Q: Is Paper Jam / Blue Screen a Sans?

A: No.

25.Q: Is there a biography for Paper Jam?

A: Yes. You can find here: https://www.deviantart.com/7goodangel/art/Paper-Jam-Bio-779347877

26.Q: Can we still use old design of Paper Jam?

A: Yes.

Note: Additional items can be added to this post, as well as edits.

[familyagrestefanblog]

Ml Theory: Origins of Emilies name and Mayuras design

While looking up the real life equivalent of Emilies portrait and its artist I came across something that is just WAY too good to be a mere coincidence.

As many fans know already Emilies golden portrait is in real life the painting “Adele Bloch-Bauer I” by Gustav Klimt from 1907.

Its to this day the painting sold for the highest price EVER, making it a fitting portrait to visualize Gabriels love for Emilie I always thought. But there is quite more background information with potential to be important.

Back before we were given Emilies name in “Gorizilla” Adele was a very common name for her in the fandom because of the original golden Lady, Adele. Funnily enough, the idea that Emilies name is connected to her portrait has quite likely never been a wrong assumption in the first place. We just never went deep enough to find her actual name or a couple of other similarities for not only her but for Natalie as well.

Because as the names might have already given it away, Adele Bloch-Bauer and Gustav Klimt were not husband and wife. Adele was married to someone else and Gustav never married at all. So while this painting is one of Gustavs most well known and one of the most valuable paintings in the world, the lady in the painting wasn’t his wife/lover and therefore Emilies name also isn’t Adele.

But just because Gustav Klimt wasn’t married doesn’t it mean that there wasn’t a very special woman in his life, one he was incredibly close with.

So may I present to you:

Emilie Flöge

Right away its obvious that both painting were done in the same eye catching style, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

She was the almost life long and very dear life-partner and Muse of Gustav Klimt. Just like him she was austrian and she was a fashion designer/creator and business woman and the sister of Gustavs sister-in-law. From 1891 onward he drew/painted her several times and rumors even say that Gustav, on his most well known painting “Der Kuss (The kiss), eternalized him and her together as lovers.

So if there is a name associated with the “Adele” portrait that were to be Emilies namesake it certainly was the right call to have it be the dear life-partner of the artist who is basically representing Gabriel in this. Emilie Flöge.

But digging even deeper into Gustav Klimts works one could even make the argument that another name in the show wasn’t as completely random either and apparently not lazy at all:

Amilie Graham de Vanily

Because 7 years after finishing “Adele Bloch-Bauer I” he started painting another portrait called “Das Bildnis der Amalie Zuckerkandl (The Image of Amalie Zuckerkandl)”

but it was never finished because… well… both he and Amalie died in that timeframe for reasons unrelated to each other so.. yeah. But still.

I do think this woman is the namesake for our Amilie de Vanily, not because of background information as with Emilie, its more that I can indeed imagine it very well that for Emilies sister Thomas Astruc and Team went back to the same artist they got her name from and looked for a fitting name. And since it’s a pair of twin sisters we are talking about here the name “Amalie” was probably just waaaaaay to good and convenient to pass on.

So Amalie became Amilie and our family Graham de Vanily twin sisters had their names.

But you know what? If I’m already at it, lets take this to another level and you all know what I'm about to point out.

Because the first thing I thought when I looked at the portrait of Emilie Flöge was a sober: "Yeah, so THAT looks like Mayura" 

-Main color blue with pink highlights

-one piece of each outfit has white incorporated

-both have a "peacock tail". Mayuras is just part of her dress and Flöges is something like a big fancy collar (idk man)

-Hands gloveless

-necks covered. Natalie/Mayura wears a turtleneck and Flöges wears a scarf

-Flöges has dark hair like Natalie (not as dark but definitely closer to Natalies than Emilie Agrestes)

I do even have another reason why I think Mayuras design was inspired by the real life background of Emilie Agrestes golden portrait.

Not only does Miss Flöges blue dress with pink highlights explain why the peacocks signature color is blue combined with (FREAKING) pink even though that isn’t anywhere close to an accurate depiction of a real life peacock the way all the other Miraculous do (It bothered me to no end but now I can finally sleep again in peace) But would you believe it? One of Gustav Klimts last finished paintings shows a woman who is supposedly meant to visualize what he thought to be the epitome of beauty:

Peacocks, fan, you get where I’m going here right?

And this would make sense, RIGHT? Emilie was the peacock miraculous holder before Natalie so Emilies namesake wearing an outfit resembling the peacock holder we know and the peacock in general combined with the symbols of what the artists thought to be beautiful should checkout, shouldn’t it?

Weeeeell yes but mostly no imo.

While it is true that Emilie was the blue peacock long before Natalie became Mayura, it doesn’t change the fact that we, the viewers, were trained to associate the direct complementary color with Emilie right from the start. Emilie for US is not blue, she’s the opposite of blue, she’s yellow like her portrait:

So it is very unlikely in my opinion that the blue Mayura outfit would be used like that for Emilie as well. That’s just WAY to harsh of a color whiplash for a character only given to us (for now) through stoic visual representation and a couple of lines from her family. We have very little to directly associate Emilies character with so yeah, her color coding with yellow and white is way to important to just break like that.

Therefore I do think its safe to say that the Mayura outfit/colorscheme is meant to be primarily associated with Natalie, meaning if the team actually took inspiration from this portrait for the Mayura design even though its also the portrait they took the name of the lost WIFE from, I do think this is supposed to mean something.

Especially when you consider that the painting of the epitome of beauty woman is obviously hindu oriented. Which comes right back to Natalie because not only is her villain name MAYURA the name of the male peacock in hindu mythology (the female one is called Mayuri) a general oriental flair is also how her room is designed as we just saw in the New York special 

So what does all of this mean now? I’ve thrown quite a lot at you and a lot is contradicting each other too much to get a clear picture right away. So lets bring a little order into all of this and translate how these informations properly with what we see in Miraculous.

I’ll break it down like this:

Adeles golden Portrait doesn’t show the actual lover of the artist. Although Adele was married the actual special woman in Gustav Klimts life was Emilie Flöge, his partner, friend and companion he may have been in love with.

Translating this for Miraculous would become this:

Emilies golden Portrait doesn’t show the actual lover of Gabriel Agreste. Although Emilie was married to him the actual special woman in Gabriels life was Natalie Sanccour, his partner, friend and companion he may be starting to fall in love with.

Meaning this for the usage of the real life portraits as references:

Yes they still choose the right name for Emilie. The lady on the golden portrait is neither lover nor wife hence why Emilie couldn’t be named Adele. Because even if Gabriel is now falling in love with Natalie its doesn’t change that before all of this started Emilie was indeed the special woman in his life, hence her namesake being Emilie Flöge.

But on the other hand Natalie/Mayura, Gabriels new love, we know from the very start and a lot better than Emilie, is the right person to give the design of the blue portrait. E. Flöge was life-partner, friend and companion to a single man, everything that Natalie is as well. So while all of these aspects also applied to Emilie Agreste in the past they are way more fittingly at home with Natalie in the narrative of the show.

Besides that I will continue to stand to my believe that once we get Emilie back things will not go the way Gabriel wanted. Too much has happened that is too unforgivable. So our Emilie is portrayed as the not-wife-lady in gold because once Emilie is back and finds out what a monster (of a father) Gabriel has become there will very quickly be no marriage between them anymore. 

Okay, that’s all I have but I just had a thought so I wanna say it for protocol that I called it:

I'm calling dips on Gabriel getting a portrait for Natalie in s4 that looks like the the blue one from Emilie Flöge.

Just saying, I'm calling dips

[miiilowo]

Hellooo, very random and out of the blue, but could I ask about your OC, the enderboi with the gold in pink hair?

He seems vv sweet and I would very much like to learn a bit more about him

(If it's okay of course!! It's up to you!)

-Blep

>:)

ALright!!! I made this dude because of an smp i was on cause we were gonna get into some lore stuff, but it never happened and the smp is now entirely dead, so he’s free game and i can do whatever i want with him

We did have some lore set up, but we never got around to any actual plot development unfortunately :[ Ill tell you what we had, though:

- He’s a prince! The gold in his hair is like, threads of gold i suppose? An alternative to a traditional crown. I did this mainly because i didnt want to be too similar to ranboo, but i also just think it looks neat

He’s the prince of the end realm. How this came to be is that one of the server members, who ill just refer to as L, made an enderman grinder in the end. She saw my ender boy and for whatever reason (we never figured out why) she thought he was special and basically adopted him. One of her character flaws is that she has trouble viewing sentient mobs as sentient, and thought she had control over the end. She does not, but he is the prince of the end in everyones hearts i suppose

He’s got a castle, too. Its in the overworld though because he doesnt like being in the end very much.

ta da

I accidentally made him intensely neurodivergent coded as well!! is this a reflection of myself? Very possibly but i guess thats up to the therapists to figure out 

He got tired of the bland gray castle walls and, you cant see it, but the entire interior is decked with bushes and flowers and vines growing on the walls. Lots of bright carpets, too. He needs bright colorful stuff to function and is a big fan of flowers, hence why he is eating them in my header and icon. and im. i do that. i am these things. i eat flowers sometimes

He avoids eye contact because, well, he’s an enderman. He cant go in water unless hes got a full suit of armor on, and cant be in rain unless hes got a helmet or hat on. He cant drink water, but wants to be more like normal people, and he just drinks honey instead.

I also decided that his pink hair is actually just a wig he made with the surplus of pink sheep he has!!! because why not!!!!!!!!!!! its actually based off of me because i currently have pink hair >:]

He does have an accomplice, this kinda not-all-here clown lady who belongs to my buddy @loserchips. i helped make her backstory, but she can explain it if she would like to <3 Basically all u need to know from me is that Shes There, And Oh Boy, Shes Not Very Good For The Boys Mental Health. he’s still gonna stick with her though because he has abandonment issues

He also has a big library!!!!!!!!! Hes loves reading and collecting (stealing) books and learning about the overworld cause he wants to fit in better. I was planning on putting my poetry into the books but i never got around to it. we can say hes a poet though. for funsies

Hes a little shorter than the average enderman and has a piglin husband named william who i love so very much. william has become one of my go-to things to draw. i love him so much. heres william in game and in my Heart

 WILLIAM..........love him so very much..................... huggable...big guy...

enderboy is currently obsessed with expanding the wheat field to Absurd extents and william is willing to help ten thousand percent. Hes got his funky little sunhat and a lot of determination baby

They also garden together because of the flower thing and it is Cute And Good. these are my comfort characters and i think about them often

i also have a son? but its in an alternate world, so what im gonna say here is that they travel together and different minecraft worlds are just different vacations. So, kevin isnt on the smp with the castle, but he does exist:

he is wearing williams shirt and he has his comfort block of netherrack. love this guy

Also, the enderboy prefers mobs over humans as company! Hes got three enderfriends in his castle and doesnt like killing mobs much at all :[ theres also a grave in the yard filled with ender pearls that people on the server have given me as a joke. oh man. was not good for him

He has more formal and decked out clothes, but prefers to just chill in his comfey cloak around the castle <3 He probably gets dressed up when people come around, but he doesnt really consider himself much of a prince since he never visits the end

Oh!!!!!!!!!!! yes! i forgot! the man fucking loves gems and gold and stuff like that! the throne room is full of ore blocks, mostly emeralds, but theres a lot of gold and diamond in there too. Gold is his favorite and he has a lot of gold jewelry <3

also his ears move in accordance to his mood and his eyes work like cat eyes because it makes me happy and i love him

I will probably use him as a general persona eventually, but thats his minecraft lore!!!!! I did leave out some big chunks, but thats the main deal hes got going on. I adore him so much

[dessarious]

Misconceptions, Miscommunication, and Misinformation Pt66

Inspired by @ozmav Maribat AU

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Three hours later they were all still in the living room planning. Tim was sitting in a chair with his laptop and Marinette was honestly impressed by the speed he did things and his ability to multitask. It was proving to be extremely useful, especially since they’d given him all the codes from Nathalie for Gabriel’s other security system. She almost shuddered thinking of the problems they would have walked into had Tim not looked at them first. As it was he was mostly certain he could disable everything when they needed him to.

Damian and Luka were on the love-seat. Luka was in his normal relaxed state but Damian was practically hugging the arm of the sofa and stiff as a board. Tim didn’t seem to notice it which made Marinette think that Damian didn’t relax around his family. She could also tell how hard it was for both boys to act like they were just teammates. As badly as she wanted to take down Hawkmoth once and for all, she was a bit worried about what it would mean for Damian. No threat very likely meant he’d be headed home.

She and Chloe were on the couch. Chloe had long since given up any pretense of professionalism and was stretched out with her head on Marinette’s lap while basically demanding her girlfriend's constant attention. She was tempted to point out how much Plagg was rubbing off on her but decided it would be best to do that when they weren’t on a time crunch since it was highly likely to make Chloe too irate to be helpful for at least two hours. So Marinette just smiled to herself and ran her fingers through the other girls hair so everyone could concentrate on the problem at hand.

“So this entire plan hinges on his ability to communicate with us about everything that happened since none of us will remember it.” Tim pointed at Luka and the skepticism in his tone earned him a glare from both her and Damian.

“Well in your case, it will be a matter of you communicating with him well enough that he can tell you what you need to do or not do. That’s all on you since I know Luka’s memory is nearly flawless in such a short time frame. As far as with us it’s more of a ‘don’t do this, it won’t work’ or him relaying my own plan back to me since he has more information than I do. Luka’s proven himself and I don’t appreciate you talking down to a member of my team.” Tim blinked at her in confusion while Damian gave a subtle nod of approval.

“I wasn’t trying to talk down to you or anyone else. I’m just not used to working this way. We do what we can to have as much information upfront as possible, from psych evaluations of the rogues to habits and patterns we’ve witnessed. This just feels like going in blind and I’m trying to understand how that’s going to work so I can hopefully adapt. I apologize if I offended you.” She could only blink at him. He really was making an effort. They were all just too tired to moderate their tone at the moment.

“I can understand that. Our situation is unique, especially for someone not used to magic. I promise you Luka can memorize and repeat anything you need him to. Just make sure that it’s something you’ll understand with limited context because every time he resets you’ll go back to square one.” Tim hummed in thought and went back to working on his computer. He was frowning at something but quickly got very excited before turning to Luka.

“So whatever I tell you to tell me doesn’t have to be something you understand necessarily right? It just has to be something I’ll understand when you say it back to me.” Damian rolled his eyes at his brother’s exuberance but Luka just smiled and nodded. “Perfect! I can create different plans of attack and color code them so all I have to do is have you tell me to use red, or absolutely don’t use blue. This is great!” Marinette watched as he happily dove into whatever he was planning and couldn’t help but smile. When he wasn’t acting like they needed him to hold their hands he was actually good company.

“I suppose the only thing left is to decide exactly when we want to launch our assault. Given his tendency to go after kids during school hours we might want to do something earlier rather than at night. Considering how desperate and pissed off he’ll be, my bet is he’ll use Lila again.” Damian let out a scoff while Chloe started muttering things Marinette was partly glad she couldn’t hear properly.

“But you’ll all be in school. How will you manage that?” Tim’s question caused both her and Chloe to start giggling. His confused expression made it almost impossible to stop. Damian looked like he just wanted to hit his brother over the head with something. Marinette managed to get herself under control enough to answer before he gave into the urge.

“First, we’re all staying here for the night so Wayzz can protect us in case of nightmares. The absolute last thing we need is him knowing who we are or what we’re planning. As to school, that’s easy to handle. I’m supposed to be spending the night at Chloe’s and I’ve been texting my parents about how awful I feel, in fact I’ve been feeling feverish all day. They’re already planning on calling me in sick tomorrow. Chloe was actually already going to be off because of a function with her father but she’s gotten permission to tend to her sick girlfriend instead.” She smiled warmly down at the blonde in her lap. Her father had caved immediately when he realized Chloe wasn’t kidding. “As Damian’s guardian here in Paris, you can call the school and tell them you’re both settling into a new apartment so he won’t be in for the next couple days. Luka goes to a progressive arts school so he literally just has to text his mentor and tell them he’s going elsewhere for inspiration.”

Tim was frowning at her in puzzlement. She wasn’t sure if it was because he was sleep deprived, surprised that she’d come up with such a plan, or surprised that she’d already been laying the groundwork for it before he arrived. Despite the fact that as a hero she had to think on her feet, she could plan things out. Especially when she had Chloe to bounce ideas off of since the girl had been raised to look at everything for the worst case scenario.

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[extraordinarilyextreme]

finally watched Guardian (2018) and i need to talk

Warning: contains MASSIVE SPOILERS, probably too much music/song analysis, my poor translations from Chinese to English, and some references to the original novel (disclaimer: my novel-reading was mostly jumping around because i have a problem where I’m not fluent enough to read the original Chinese novel and I don’t usually like English translations)

1. the freakin opening theme: We Won’t Be Falling by Chen Xueran... (also I see you Tina Guo on the cello thank you queen)

the amount of chills i get every time an episode starts,,, fantastic! marvelous! the lyrics are very VERY apt to the story of Guardian, esp this drama adaptation

(“We are the one/We will be holding on/For the promise we held for life/For the people we love are leaving” ... “And the story will keep on going”)

1.1. the promise? may i direct you to novel chapter 75? 

Shen Wei: “Sometimes I think if one day you can remember everything, then I will be able to say to you: look, I did it, I did all that I had promised you; not one bit did I miss, not one word did I go back on.”

they promise to keep the peace, to protect both Haixing and Dixing; and in the show, it’s a promise they keep with their lives

2. Zhu Yilong plays THREE characters and is able to differentiate them perfectly with particular microexpressions

-Ye Zun (literally, “Respect the Night”; “Lord/Master of the Night” would be a better title) sets off my fight-or-flight instincts even though i think his name tries a little too hard to be edgy; the way he sneers, the smiles that don’t reach his eyes, also that infamous tongue flick when Zhao Yunlan sees through the act... i think it’s both great and sad that Yunlan could differentiate the twins because, why, Shen Wei would never be so openly flirtatious (and wear a deep-cut shirt like that lol)... the delivery of “Xiao Yunlan” disturbed me so much—wonderful, stellar acting

-Black Cloaked Envoy: does his best to bend the rules where he can for the Dixingren because he’s just so fundamentally GOOD; he’s empathetic despite how stern and strict he seems to be, and how much he claims to enforce the clearly-cut laws... he’s an absolute babie ten thousand years ago (Yunlan, doesn’t it hurt your conscience to flirt with such a babie?)

-Shen Wei: in the novel, his name (both surname and first name) are given to him by Kun Lun’s incarnations—there’s a lot of power in naming something, in naming someone; he’s good-natured and gentle, always polite... he pushes up the glasses [that he doesn’t need] a lot, perhaps because he’s used to pushing up his mask as the Envoy

2.1. i find it very striking that Shen Wei dies without his glasses; he doesn’t die as the Envoy, he doesn’t die as the Professor; he dies as a person, as the person who loves Yunlan the most and has loved Yunlan for ten thousand years

2.2. the other notable moments we see Shen Wei without his glasses are where he apologizes to Yunlan [and Yunlan apologizes at the same time because they’re pining idiots] for not noticing the camera in his office, where he sets aside all his pride as Envoy and Professor and kneels in the rain for the man he loves (lwj kneeling after visiting the Burial Mounds, yea?), and of course after he slices up an orange [cuz food = love] only to find Yunlan asleep and drapes his jacket over the silly silly man... anyway, Yunlan is indeed the only person Shen Wei is comfortable enough to reveal everything to, all defenses and masks (literal and figurative) lowered

2.3. that last instance (ep 26) is when Shen Wei pulls out his necklace and reminisces as he gazes fondly at Yunlan; the song that plays during this is 《乱心曲》or “Chaotic Heart Song”... may I direct you to novel chapter 65 where Yunlan finds all the paintings and pictures his Xiao Wei has kept from the centuries?

“邓林之阴初见昆仑君，惊鸿一瞥，乱我心曲。” which translates to “In the shade of the woods I first saw Kunlun-jun; a glimpse of his grace wrought chaos in my heart’s song”

2.4. but also let’s not forget the [in]famous cut wrist scene of ep 23, where our dear Shen Wei, without glasses, as a person who loves Yunlan—not the aloof Envoy or the well-spoken Professor—is reduced to two words: “Worth it.” Yunlan is worth everything to him; this goes without question, without a second thought. Kun Lun (Yunlan) told him not to regret whatever decisions he’ll make, and Ye Zun scolds and laughs at his brother for giving up his life for a human/Haixingren, but of course Shen Wei doesn’t regret dying to protect Yunlan, dying to protect Haixing. (also, peep the behind-the-scenes where Shen Wei grabs Yunlan’s hand for a moment as he blocks the attack from Ye Zun)

2.5. on this same train of thought, Da Qing brings up a line from ten thousand years ago where Shen Wei claimed he would never kill unless it was for the world... and, well, he kills for Yunlan doesn’t he?

3. Bai Yu plays our charismatic Chief Zhao Yunlan/Kun Lun and hoo boy does he do an excellent job; the found family vibes of the SIU are spectacular and the way he flirts with tries to recruit Professor Shen is endearing and touching

3.1. there’s another piece from the OST called 《一点真心》, translated to “A Little Sincerity” though I would use “A Bit of a Sincere Heart” because it too references the novel

Kun Lun’s confession to Xiao Wei: “我富有天下名山大川，想起来也没什么稀奇的，不过就是一堆烂石头野河水，浑身上下，大概也就只有这几分真心能上秤卖上两斤，你要？拿去。” [I’m rich with famed mountains and endless rivers under heaven, but none of it feels rare when I think about it. It’s all just a pile of broken stones and uncultivated streams. From head to toe, there is probably only this bit of my sincere heart that is worth anything weighed on a scale. You want it? Take it.]

Zhao Yunlan’s confession to Shen Wei: “我别的东西也有，只是你可能大多都看不上，只有这一点真心……你要是不接着，那就算了吧。” [I have other things, only you probably would not think much of them. There��s only this bit of my sincere heart... If you don’t want to catch it, then forget it.)

And Shen Wei’s reply to Yunlan’s confession is of course “我接住了。” [I’ve caught it.]

3.2. the novel is a happy ending because Xiao Guo’s important role actually plays a part (i literally don’t understand why the show couldn’t do that after they built up so many expectations about his good character/merit/inability to be corrupted but ANYWAY)... Shen Wei, Xiao Wei, the little Ghost King has a soul and wow isn’t that just beautiful after everything he did to become worthy/deserving of Kun Lun’s attention and love

4. the Zhang Ruonnan and Wang Yike (death-touch Dixingren) case in ep 3 is an obvious parallel to the “brotherly” relationship of WeiLan... Shen Wei’s line of “Many tragedies were destined from the start” references the show of course but also the paradoxical precognition that marks the drama version of WeiLan; in both of their “first meetings”, one of them was always already in love with the other—Yunlan, as Kun Lun, knew he would have to return to his own time at some point and thus doom this impressionable young Envoy to ten thousand years of waiting and Shen Wei (honestly in a Code Geass Lelouch kinda style) knew he would have to die to defeat his brother

4.1. the importance of “touch” in this case alludes to novel WeiLan, where of course Shen Wei watched over all of Kun Lun’s incarnations but wasn’t allowed to get close to him because hungry ghosts would inevitably devour the essence of the people around them; similarly Yike was terrified of touching Ruonnan all this time... but Ruonnan accepted her (just like how novel Kun Lun lets this intriguing little Ghost King trail after him)

4.2. speaking of Shen Wei’s grand plans and the idea of “knowing”, Yunlan reminds him that “You are not a weapon/blade, you are a person.” and wow once again, only Yunlan can pull the humanity from Shen Wei, who has carefully crafted his disguise and personality to fit what people expect of the Envoy and the Professor... but alas, Shen Wei fulfills his promise by in fact making himself a weapon; he poisons himself to become a bomb that will take down his brother

4.3. as many qualms and complaints as I have with Chinese censorship, much in the case of WangXian, i think i prefer the drama version of WeiLan to the novel version; the plot of the Guardian novel is a lot better in my opinion (with references to mythology and legends, as opposed to, what, aliens?? mutants from X-Men? quirks in My Hero Academia??) and yea the relationship of Kun Lun with Xiao Wei is built up a lot better and makes more sense than the time-travel of Yunlan masquerading as Kun Lun with Shen Wei... but there’s an unadulterated, unconditional kind of love that runs through the drama, whereas the novel had some darker (though probably more realistic) vibes of near-possessiveness and ulterior motives... Kun Lun/Yunlan in the novel can be, well, cruel, which is not necessarily out of character; it’s just seems a little wrong to me that you could threaten your partner in a relationship (if you keep things from me again, i really will turn against you + had i known xyz would happen, i really should have killed you)... plus i’m always a sucker for love without an “i love you”, a love that’s conveyed entirely through actions and gazes

5. Yunlan asks Zhou Weiwei (the mirror case) where her jacket was bought because he “wants to get one for [his] girlfriend” and lo and behold, what similarly-styled and colored coat does our Shen Wei show up in a few episodes later? (also the fact that Shen Wei dies wearing this jade-ish-blue-ish coat)

6. boyfriend jacket during the Moutain-River Awl case... boyfriend jacket!!!! Shen Wei claims he doesn’t need it and well he still wears it anyway because Yunlan’s love is unstoppable

6.1. the way Shen Wei grabs Yunlan’s elbow before running down the hill

6.2. Shen Wei being so freaking fine-tuned to Yunlan’s discomfort/pain as always that he drinks wine for him (and passes out immediately—heroics/bde of yllz! wwx and the alcohol tolerance of our dear lwj)

6.2.1. when Minister Gao brings up Yunlan’s dad and the Chief’s hands tighten... and of course nothing can go by Shen Wei, so he changes the topic of the conversation; also the way he leans forward as if to shield Yunlan

6.2.2. Yunlan is similarly Aware of his boyfriend’s boundaries; cue him politely excusing themselves from the dinner with Vice-Minister Guo when Shen Wei (of all people!) fumbles with his chopsticks

6.2.3. Yunlan also blocks Shen Wei from Minister Gao’s sight (subconsciously?) after that wedding showdown... even though he’s unhappy that Shen Wei has kept the identity of the Envoy from him, he trusts the other man enough to recognize there must be a reason; thus he doesn’t want other people to pry into the possibility that Shen Wei is a Dixingren

6.3. also, also that Shen Wei lets Yunlan have his way and use him as a pillow in the car once again (he also adjusts the actual pillow beneath Yunlan’s head to make it more comfortable)

6.3.1 the other Shen-Wei-is-Yunlan’s-pillow scene is when the professor picks up the poor hurting Chief off the road and in the taxi ride home... apparently this was an improvised scene from Bai Yu who just wanted to mess with Long-ge and our great Zhu Yilong just stayed in character and ran with it

6.3.2. the other notable improvised scene is the cute “Black Cloaked gege~ please be careful~ there’s someone is waiting for you at home~” [sorry that i don’t remember the exact line] but once again our great leading actors just stay perfectly in character

6.4. after Shen Wei wakes up from a night of being drunk (lol) Yunlan has left a note for him “I’ve gone back first, stay in touch. -Zhao” and what’s that on the corner of the note? why it’s a winky face

7. when Yunlan grabs the fake Zhang Danni’s wrist to confirm his suspicions, Shen Wei narrows his eyes... (lol is our Black Cloaked gege jealous)

8. when Yunlan claims he can swallow the painkillers dry, Shen Wei clenches his jaw in his anger at this idiot of a man for not taking better care of himself... you’ll find that a lot of Shen Wei’s anger is directed toward his husband being a self-sacrificial fool

8.1. after Yunlan uses the Hallows again and his nose begins to bleed, Zhu Yilong in all his acting glory has Shen Wei furious to the point that his lips tremble (cue Shen Wei angrily shoving a handkerchief into his husband’s face) [i really want to know if they ever broke character during this scene due to their proximity lol]

8.1.1. Shen Wei all but invades Yunlan’s personal space (he really does stand there between Yunlan’s legs guys) and he’s so careful even though he’s angry as he tries to stop the nosebleed; he’s aware the force might tip Yunlan backwards, so he immediately rests his hands on Yunlan’s thighs/knees to steady him

9. Yunlan has claimed that he doesn’t do things for the sake of gaining anything in return and yet every time he’s wanted things from dear Shen Wei... “take off your mask and smile for me”, “join the SID”... the sexual tension is Unreal during these scenes lol, you can see Shen Wei swallow visibly in anticipation + babie Shen Wei of ten thousand years prior all but chokes on his words when he promises to do ANYTHING Kun Lun wants him to do (honey where is your mind GOING???)

9.1. Bai Yu does have a bruise on his knee after the scene where Yunlan asks Shen Wei for something... dunno if it’s the actor’s bruise or the character’s bruise, but if it’s the character’s bruise—how did he get it? what exactly did WeiLan do that evening lol

9.2. also peep the fact that Yunlan almost always has a lollipop in his mouth when talking to Shen Wei... oral fixation much? (also the whole sequence where he tries to explain how to eat a lollipop to babie Shen Wei, wow the amount of homoerotic tension)

9.3. babie Shen Wei’s ears and cheeks are SO RED when Yunlan snatches the mask off his face

10. Yunlan’s hairstyle changes after Shen Wei joins the SIU (joins his family), much like how a bride would change her hairstyle after marriage in China ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (random note but CQL WangXian does this too when lwj puts his hair down/styled over the front of his shoulders when wwx wakes up 16 years later)

11. the first time we see Shen Wei spit up blood, there’s an echo of “Xiao Wei” faintly and Shen Wei mutters to himself “Xiao Lan” before looking up and saying louder “Zhao Yunlan” (nicknames/pet names/names only your family or lover can call you... this trope is good)

11.1. i also think a lot about how in the novel Kun Lun muses before he dies that it’s a shame he won’t see this Little Beauty [Xiao Wei] grow up to be a Great Beauty 

12. Shen Wei’s funny little eyebrow raise when Yunlan accidentally reveals he broke into the professor’s apartment once ( “riiiiiiiiight i definitely believe you”)

12.1. though the ep 23 scene is angsty, the fact Yunlan says “It’s the middle of the night, were you hungry?” seems to imply their relationship is a lot closer than just neighbors... they’re probably used to sharing an apartment/room at this point :)

13. when Yunlan is hurt, Zhu Hong looks to him but he only has eyes for Shen Wei

13.1. after Yunlan is blinded, Zhu Hong is the one cradling him but he calls for Shen Wei first and reaches for his hand; Shen Wei of course responds immediately “it’s me”

13.1.1. both times after Yunlan gets his eyesight back, the first thing he sees is the person who loves him the most

14. Shen Wei warms up the congee in the morning with his magic after he watches over Yunlan when his stomach pain acts up (domestic use of magic? yes please)

15. the bomb defusing scene in the hospital (video game -> reality case) really is framed like a wedding proposal... also the way that Shen Wei smirks lol he’s so proud of his husband

16. after his Envoy identity is revealed, Shen Wei all but abuses his Black Cloaked Envoy voice to stop his stupid husband from doing stupid things that will hurt himself and every time Yunlan is properly sh00k by it

16.1. we really go from Chief Zhao remarking in the Mountain-River Awl case that he’s used to ordering people around, not receiving orders to married bickering with Shen Wei to then agreeing to everything Shen Wei tells him to do

17. the fact that “Shen Wei, ah, Shen Wei... You are such a good person, how could I bear to let you go?” is an actual line from the censored DRAMA astounds me, nevermind that Shen Wei just made breakfast for his man and Yunlan is basically pouting up at him from the bed

17.1. the way Yunlan’s dad warns him to stay away from Shen Wei and Yunlan responds with something like “he’s sincerely good to me, I want to be with him”... “be with him”???? [inhales deeply] yea this is definitely a “brotherly relationship”

18. Yunlan’s “WOW” after the Envoy kills the monsters in the cave of the Mountain-River Awl case is hilarious and i dont understand how such a noise is physically possible,,, it sounds like a growl?????

18.1. Zhu Yilong was asked to mimic it during an interview (which he did not do and only half-heartedly gave a “wow”) and then Bai Yu did it again

19. also i inevitably got attached to the side ship of Lao Chu and Xiao Guo... they have so much skinship for a censored “brotherly relationship” lmao

the amount of face-touching and hand-holding that they do is unreal... they’re more canon than WeiLan in the drama adaptation methinks 

20. 《时间飞行》or “Flying Across Time” sounds like Yunlan’s reply to Shen Wei’s《只是太在意》or “Just Cared Too Much”

20.1. the lyrics of both these songs really cements this idea that both of WeiLan believe the other to be too good... Kun Lun was a god in the novel, and Xiao Wei was just a soulless little Ghost King... and then we have the incorrigible Chief Zhao pining after the beautiful and kind Professor Shen... i just have a lot of feelings about them becoming better people for each other, that their love really does make each other stronger

21. my favorite two pieces from the OST are Shen Wei’s theme (arranged by Kun Luo) and Kun Lun’s theme (arranged by Chen Xueran)

head’s up: it’s been like four years since i last even glanced at music theory so a lot of this might just make no sense to an actual professional

-Shen Wei: written in 4/4 time, Ab Major, melody is primarily carried by piano + strings; the piano almost sticks exclusively to triplets whereas the strings are in steady whole, quarter, and eighth notes—which creates in interesting impressionistic effect, kind of like hazy smoke or the ripples across the surface of a lake; every single measure uses decrescendo, so the first triplet is always the loudest and the three that follow get progressively softer (mimicking an echo)... the piece ends on the seventh note of the scale, which is usually a pretty awkward place to end and yet it doesn’t feel wrong it all; the piece uses a ritardando in the last three measures, and we simply drift off with that last G... i think it’s a beautifully written piece that perfectly portrays such a complex character as Shen Wei, someone who loved with everything he had, and was just so overwhelmingly good... and then he simply disappears as if the dream has ended. it makes me think of how he guarded over Kun Lun/Zhao Yunlan for thousands of years in the novel, never ever ever daring to meet him... and yet the other man always felt like he was waiting for someone

-Kun Lun: written in 3/4 time, a minor, there’s no real complex shift in the melody although there’s brief modulation into E major (dominant/fifth note); it’s a fairly somber piece, especially when the strings join in... it’s a steady waltz, and it finishes with the scale (second to last major is g, last major is a), like a circle coming back around [like their love story perhaps?]... there’s a finality to it, a completeness, a wholeness, which makes sense in the drama-verse because the moment Yunlan takes up the name of Kun Lun is when his love story with Shen Wei all fits together. the piece feels a little lonely in its minor key and all, a little sad, indeed as if you were standing at the top of a mountain surrounded by clouds and mist... the constant meter also reminds me of like the steady drip of water, the perpetual and inevitable passage of the days and time

-i don’t really understand how because the keys of the two pieces don’t fit together easily, but somehow it doesn’t feel wrong to play the pieces back to back; the melodies of both seem to call upon each other despite the differences in key and time signature, so it actually feels right. a circle without a beginning or an ending, wouldn’t you want your love to be so infinite?

-when yunlan finds shen wei in their bubble outside of time, when shen wei is about to leave him, shen wei is wearing the outfit of their first meeting. and the lyrics go “Across time, I am in the same place”... surely, they will find each other again.

[adultswim2021]

Captain Sturdy: The Originals | July 6, 2003 - 11:30 PM | Special

The least-thought-about Adult Swim special of all time, maybe. Captain Sturdy actually began life as a Cartoon Network What-A-Cartoon. That episode is titled “Back in Action” and this is a direct follow-up, more-or-less. It truly is a second attempt at a pilot as the drawing style and the characters have been tweaked slightly, but it does show a progression in the story of Captain Sturdy. In the first installment, his pension check stops showing up after his super-hero union raises the retirement age so they can pilfer the pension fund and build a new high-tech super-hero hang-out building. This context actually does enhance this installment, which just starts with the elderly Captain Sturdy just throwing himself into superheroics. One might assume he’d just never retired.

I’m not a huge fan of the animation style which was more-or-less the house style of most Cartoon Network originals, but I do think it can be done well. Really, it’s not my intention to trash that Cartoon Network style. Despite not being my favorite, there are still shows and directors and moments that make use of it well. You know what I mean? That late-90s/early-2000s intentionally-cheap-but-hopefully-still-beautiful-and-stylistic kinda thing they did that *sorta* harkens back to the Hanna Barbera cartoons of a bygone era but, you know, animated even more cheaply and usually on computers? Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I thought the first short was kinda ugly but had some very specific stylistic choices that I respected. There are individual shots that are pretty impressive. For example, that first short ends with an evil robot destructo-beam satellite that looks like something out of Samurai Jack. The humor is okay for a kids show, and honestly that’s about all I can say. The second pilot was billed as a sincere attempt to rejigger the show for an adult audience but there’s not much difference between either version. This short ends kinda anti-climatically, with them fighting with an equally elderly villain in his garage mostly over a misunderstanding. This show is almost like if Venture Bros. didn’t improve after the pilot. In fact, the first pilot gets into a lot of the bureaucratic nonsense that Venture Bros. eventually gets into with the Guild of Calamitous Intent stuff. If I’m being honest, that’s not my favorite stuff in Venture Bros., either.

The most notable exclusion between the first and second pilot is a PC-MAN character, who wimpily scolds his more fascistic colleagues for being insensitive. In 2021 my inner-edgelord is definitely unironically fed up with political correctness, sure, but this kind of satire seems like the domain of unfunny garbage makers like The Babylon Bee. I’m not even sure if I can recall how fresh this would’ve seemed in 2000. Most modern, right-leaning jokes about woke culture look terrible when you compare it to stuff like PC-Man; they are PRACTICALLY EXACTLY THE SAME EXACT JOKES. Personally, I don’t wanna make hating politically correct retards my whole identity. Just learn how to steal the blackface episodes of your favorite shows, put them on a Plex server and shut the fuck up about it.

MAIL BAG

Continuing a thread from last night’s big bad mail bag:

Close! But it's SEA not See. Here's question 2: The color of Master Shake's milkshake is?

It’s like, bad. I remember it being a bad color. What do I win

Try this number 1-800-CALL-A-HOE, If you hear yourself on the other line, then you are da hoe.

Why did you send this twice! I’m starting to think that YOU are the one who is... the hoe

I have some genuine dirt on a certain adult swim personality but I don't feel comfortable sharing except through a code: "68 61 62 65 75 73 20 63 6f 72 70 75 73 20 68 61 72 76 65 79 20 61 74 74 6f 72 6e 65 79 0a" copy that code into a Hex To ASCII Text generator and find out and tell me if you think it's true.

YOU PISS ME OFF! STOP IT! nobody follow this guy’s instructions (You can tell it’s a GUY too no WOMAN would ever stoop to such lows). You make me sick. That’s all there is too it, okay?

What classic era Cartoon Network programs did you like? I liked Johnny Bravo and Dexter but never watched Cow and Chicken. Courage and Ed, Edd, and Eddy were past my "cartoon for kids" prime. You?

You know, I never FULLY got into those shows, I’ll be honest. I was a casual liker of Dexter and Powerpuff Girls and I mostly avoided Bravo but it could be great on occasion. I didn’t get Cartoon Network until real late so before I had it I was beholden to the meager repeats that would air on TNT. I remember liking Cow & Chicken but I think it sucks now. I gave Ed, Edd & Eddy a sincere try but I never liked it that much. I was always impressed with Courage but only saw it randomly.

I did really love 2 Stupid Dogs. Technically this was a TBS original. THAT really hit at the right time age-wise. Way underrated.

From London Arbuckle:

remember the pipe camp episode of tom mayor? remember?

I always thought that episode was one of the weaker ones and was baffled by the fact that they made shirts of it. People liked to say Tommy Mayor was a love-it or hate-it thing but I remembered loving the first episode and hating the second one, making me one of the most valuable thinkers of the 20th century.

[gallickingun]

reality-is-often-disappointing x denki || gallickingun matchups

@reality-is-often-disappointing : I, have shamelessly came here on note for a first tier matchup. MHA, my hobbies are a wild variety that includes mainly singing -as i have an ' amazing' alto voice- writing, drawing -in pencil mainly but also acrylics on canvas- I'm good at cooking -better thank baku if I do say so myself- reading fanfics obv, fangirling/gushing over hot guys with the girls yk? my dress code is ultimate modesty as i dont like showing skin, yet it's classy chic, very picky while shopping yes. my favorite colors are blank and vintage pink. aesthetic is more cutsie unicorn colors -my rooms main colors- but i actually only ever like wearing black. i do know how to swim but cant because *da-dun* i have dry eyes/also wear glasses. my favorite food is dark chocolate w/ those bits of cherries or oranges. as a first date i'm open to anything from a movie in or out, to walks on the beach or even just the arcade. i'm a she/her, and currently feeling like i'm going for a guy as a match triggers: only degradation or backtalking, it makes me anxious, a paranoid mess and i'll most definitely end up crying without even noticing. 165cm or 5'5 dark natural black hair (the 80s lion cut up to collarbone & a fringe) eye color, theyre black/brown when in sunlight. im white with a med and warmish olive undertones, natrually rosy cheeks -holy dark circles- full brows and what i've been called as "doll-like-eyes" or "cat-eyes" since theyre big and long naturally curled lashes. My birthday is on 31st of october, scorpio, INFP personality to cut short for you! I'm a child-free spirited but also am like-mature at maximum effort. I either sleep 3 or 16 hours there is no inbetween (once slept for 24 hrs but I'm not going to talk about how that freaked everyone out) I've been singing since I was three or since I've remembered. Secretly wanted to go on those x-factor shows but bleh, no. Fame is not really for me. Anywho, love you! Have fun with this and drink water! 🎵

Thank you so much for sending in the request for this! You’re such a gem, I really appreciate every time I get the pleasure of interacting with you, darling 🧡

― Denki would love the fact that you sing! He thinks you have a beautiful voice, and even if you’re across the house, if he hears you start to pick up a tune, he’ll join in! ― I think the two of you would pull all nighters together some nights, and other days sleep until you’ve passed the whole weekend by without doing much of anything. Denki can stay up until the sunrise, or he can sleep until noon, whatever you want to do! ― He loves your free spirit, it makes it easy to take you on adventures and experience the world with you. 

⁂ Denki will randomly offer to pick you up from work, and the two of you will drive a couple of hours to the countryside or the beach - windows down, music blaring, singing until your throats are numb - and you’ll spend a night or a weekend away from the world, just wrapped up in each other. 

⁂ He’s a horrible cook, absolutely terrible. Kaminari loves that you cook dinner most nights, because not only does he get to eat your delicious food, he also gets to praise the heck out of you for preparing a wonderful meal. He really adores it when you make too much and he gets to take the leftovers to work the next day. Of course he brags about you to all of the other heroes, and he really loves the note you leave on top of the tupperware. 

⁂ Even if the two of you aren’t actively together, you’ll still stay up late. Sometimes you watch Kaminari while he plays video games, laying on the couch with your legs over his lap while he mashes the controller buttons and speaks to whoever is on the other side of the headset. In between each match or round, he’ll slip the headphones off his ears and run his palm along your calf, massaging your leg, “Whatcha doin’, babe?” And he’ll listen to you drone on about whatever YouTube video you were watching, whatever thing you’re reading, or whatever social media event has gotten your attention. 

⁂ He learns how to harmonize in order to compliment your voice better. He shows it off one night when you’re singing along while cooking dinner - Denki sidles up behind you, arms around your waist, and starts to harmonize in your ear along with the song you’ve been captivated by for the last few weeks. You feel warm at the sound of his voice, and even more so due to the effort he’s put in to prove to you that your interests are his interests. And boy, is he interested in you. 

⁂ Kaminari will be down to try all kinds of fruit chocolates with you - you guys even play a roulette style game where you have to guess what kind of fruit is hidden within the chocolate. You win, mostly, because Denki just wants to stuff his face with sugar so fast that he doesn’t recognize the fruit chunks. But he still plays and is in awe of you getting every single one right because you never fail to amaze him. 

Denki slips in through the doorway, sliding off his shoes in favor of his house slippers as quietly as possible. He notices that the television is still flickering on and off, images bouncing off the glass of the window panes scattered throughout the living room walls. A chuckle parts his lips when he sees you curled up in one of his old hero merch designs - a hoodie that is too large for you, so big that it would seem it has swallowed you whole. Your legs are curled into your chest and your head rests on the arm of the couch, gentle snores making your nostrils shudder.

He tries to pick you up, slipping his arms carefully beneath your frame. But somehow you stir, your eyes peeling open lazily as you smack your lips, slowly sinking away from the realm of slumber. A gentle smile tugs on your lips and you frame his face with your hands, “Another late night?”

“Duty calls,” his voice does not sound as excited as it once did to get those midnight rings from the agency. Now, he just aches to be at home with you at the decent hours of the night, where he can hold you and fall asleep with you and remember why he fell in love with you all over again, every time he gets the faintest of whiffs of your perfume or your shampoo. 

“Dinner is in the oven,” you are murmuring, your head lolling against his chest as he settles you into his hold, “I waited for you to start the next season.”

Kaminari is laughing, but the sound of it sobers you up and you grab him by the collar of his jacket with the one arm that is listening to you tell it how to move, the other pinned between your bodies, “H-Hey, don’t laugh at me! I waited for you to start it, now we’re gonna start it.”

Somehow you’re settled back into the couch, hands desperate for him as you search his torso for somewhere to find purchase. Kaminari leans down and kisses your forehead and then the tip of your nose, his lips hovering just above the bow of your mouth as he whispers, “Whatever you want, honey.”

Matchups Original Post | Ko-Fi | Patreon | Commissions | AO3 | Writing Tag

Please check HERE to see if I’ve done your matchup already. Remember, I will also post your matchup with the tag: “#emoji-matchup”, using your emoji in place of the word, so if you can remember your emoji, you can search my blog for that tag to see if I have completed it already!

[meet-the-clown]

prompt: how they meet pierre

word count: 2,245

“Alright, that’s it. Out.” Dell puts the brakes on, hard enough it sends Scout sliding out of his seat and into the dash. The hazy structure of the main base is only barely visible in the distance, but they’ve gone through the old broken down barbed wire fence and passed the stack of rocks that marks the start of the Respawn Zone, so it’s close enough.

“What? Come on, man. It’s still way out dere! I don’t wanna walk all d’way out dere!” Scout’s already hooking a hand around the strap of the backpack shoved between his feet, though, and when Dell gives him a pointed look, he kicks open the passenger door, too. “Dis ain’t fair. I didn’t even do nothin’.”

“Boy, I have had you in this truck for the past three days straight, and the last two of them without even stoppin’ for the night. It’s about time you get yourself on outta here, make those legs’a yers useful, and hike yourself the rest of the way,” says Dell. “It ain’t too far out there. Shouldn’t take more than a good half hour.”

Scout sucks on his front teeth and squints at the hazy shape in the distance. “Bet I can make it dere in fifteen.”

“Doubt it,” he says, because there’s nothing that motivates Scout into doing something quicker than a challenge.

“Nah, I totally can make it in fifteen. I bet I’ll get dere before you. I mean, seriously, you drive like someone’s granny. Out here in da middle’a da desert and ya never even make it up past fiddy.”

“We were on a curving cliff, for one, and for another, you don’t get no say in how I drive,” says Dell. “Last I checked, you don’t even got a license.”

“I kill people for a livin’,” grumbles Scout. He shrugs his bag over his shoulder, adjusting the straps of it. “I should totally be able t’drive without a license.”

“Well ya can’t. And if ya keep standing out here all day runnin’ yer mouth, there ain’t no way that yer gonna be able to get all the way to the base before I do.” Dell puts the truck back into gear. He’s hardly gotten it pushed into second before Scout takes off, hot-trotting across the dusty expanse of red sand.

Dell hasn’t been out to Stovepipe Wells since the first team up and vanished. It looks like Mann Co hasn’t been using it for anything since then, either. There are remnants of the last match scattered around; scorch marks on the grounds, big twists of metal that’s been blown apart. An old water tower has been knocked into a sharp angle about three miles to the east, one leg twisted out under it.

The base itself doesn’t look to be much better. Medic’s van is already parked up front, though it looks like he’s gotten himself distracted by an old, half-rotted coyote that manage to get itself trapped under a gnarly bit of metal. He pulls around to one of the side doors, pulling the pack of blueprints and paperwork out of the dashboard.

“Alright,” he breathes out, pushing open his own door. “Might as well get this done and over with.”

* * *

The inside of Stovepipe Well is even worse than the outside. Classic came long before Miss Pauling was in charge of the mercs, and it looks pretty much like whoever came before her just let them run wild. From what Dell knows of the group – arguably, mostly information that Francois has managed to sweet talk out of Miss Pauling’s briefcase – they didn’t really follow any of the sanctions that come with the job now, or the basic moral code that most people use to function.

It takes a special sort to function in their line of work, Dell won’t argue on that front, but the first team Mann Co employed had the bad tendency of taking things about twenty steps too far. The inside of the base is trashed, wires pulled out of the wall, furniture have blown up. There’s a hole melted in the doorway of what Dell thinks must have been used as the med-bay once upon a time; a room that unfortunately directly attaches to the only place suitable for his own workshop.

Dell likes Ludwig well enough, but the man is loud and distracting.

He steps over the hole in the floor and into the room. There are similar holes pit marking the rest of the room from whatever concoction must have been spilled. Classic must have left Stovepipe in a hurry; long-festered experiments are still strewn out on the various tables shoved into the room, and there’s a corpse that’s mostly nothing but bones half peeking out from under a bloodied sheet.

It’s been here long enough that the stink’s completely gone.

It’s going to need a lot of cleaning, but Dell would bet a pretty penny that Scout will end up doing most of the work for the doc.

“Let’s hope the shop ain’t in worse shape.” Dell sits his tool box down on a counter with a heavy thump. Something rattles. He eyes the counter, half expecting the whole thing to just give in.

There’s another rattle.

It’s not coming from the counter.

“Better just be a coupl’a rats,” grumbles Dell. “I’m not lookin’ to have any live experiments running around.”

No sound for a long few moments, and then the harsh puff of a whistle.

Not rats, then. Dell would have much preferred the rats. Scout’s good at killing rats, and Jane’s good at moving the bigger critters. But they don’t whistle.

Dell squints, giving the room another once over. There’s an even longer stretch of silence before it comes again. Is that coming from the fridge?

“Drats. Couldn’t just be a quick clean up.” Grumbling to himself, Dell walks over to the fridge and makes to pull the door open. It’s stuck. There’s something thick and gray at the bottom of it, pooled under Dell’s boots and sealing the door shut.

He takes a step backward, has to pull his leg so hard it makes his knee pop just to get his boot picked back up.

Grumbling even louder, Dell rubs at his knee, grabs his tool box, and heads for the workshop.

Something to be dealt with later.

* * *

The workshop might be in even worse condition than the rest of the base. Dell spends about twenty minutes trying to clear off a single counter, and then decides he just doesn’t have the patience for it today. The ride out here has left his back a mess, and his patience is just about run out. There’s no power, no lights, no air, just a bunch of broken mechanics.

Ludwig hasn’t shown up yet, and Dell needs to get something completed before going to bed or it’s going to drive him up the wall.

The smallest, easiest task seems to be that fridge. He grabs a half gallon of hexane out from under a pile of trash, and his wrench on the off chance whatever’s in that fridge needs to a swift disposal.

This time, Dell takes care not to step in the slime. He presses the top of the bottle to the slip of seal between fridge and freezer, just dousing the whole side of it. The foul but familiar scent fills the air, burning the back of Dell’s throat. It hisses, the rubber and slime both melting off of the door.

Dell counts to thirty and then gives the handle a good, solid yank. This time, it pops open with a wet, schlick. Unlike the room, the fridge has kept the scent of rot and decay sealed inside. With the power off, it’s hot, and wet, and everything from the beakers to the old glass trays have just sort of festered.

The head sitting on the otherwise empty top shelf, however, has not rotted.

It blinks at him.

Dell jerks backwards, fingers curling tighter around the wrench. The head is gaunt and pale, with bands of dark discoloration around the neck, right above where it’s been sliced off and burned shut. He has the biggest urge to check if the corpse on the other side of the room might be missing a part, but isn’t dumb enough to look away from a blinking head.

“What in the - “ Dell squints. The head looks very familiar. “Exactly how alive are you?”

The head stares at him for a moment. His lips are cracked and scabbed over. A tongue darts out and licks at them. “Debatable.” The voice is a hoarse, creaking sort of rasp. “Qui êtes vous?” And then, voice crackling even more, “ ‘ho?”

“Well, shit,” says Dell. A talking head in the fridge.

Somehow, this feels like a disaster jammed inside three other disasters.

He should have just gone and fixed the power, instead.

* * *

It takes about fifteen minutes for Dell to wrangle in Ludwig, and Scout comes along like the doe-eyed thing he’s been the last three weeks, and then they all sort of just stand in front of the open fridge like a couple of teenagers gawking over a dead cow.

“Zat is absolutely a head,” says Ludwig, cheerfully.

“Fucking gross,” says Scout. He sucks on his teeth. “Is it alive?”

“Oui,” rasps the head. He looks about twenty shades of unimpressed with all of them. Everything about him looks faded, the color drained out of his hair and his skin and his eyes, all grayed out and fuzzy.

“Aw, man, it’s French. Gross,” says Scout. He knocks his elbow into Ludwig’s side. “You wanna take it back and toss it? Bet if I catch it with my bat we could make it hit the fence line.”

“You will not,” says Dell, firmly.

Ludwig reaches in and picks up the head. He holds it uncomfortably close to his own face. “Hallo, mein kleiner körperloser Freund! I am ze Medic. Und who are you?”

Another long, slow blink. Another flick of the tongue over his lips. “A spy. Décomissionné...I think.”

“Ohoho, and very thirsty I would imagine! Come, schatz, let me get you a drink!” Ludwig sweeps off to the other side of the room, head in toe.

Scout says, “so, uh, dis is weird, right? I mean, even for us?”

“Yes, scoot,” says Dell, dryly. “This sure ain’t normal.”

He shifts from foot to foot. “What now?”

“I suppose...now I go call Miss Pauling.”

* * *

“I��m sorry. Can you, ah, run that by me one more time?” Miss Pauling’s voice crackles. The mobile phone hook-up is in Medic’s van, for a reason that Dell has never fully been able to understand. He can practically hear her tilting her head.

“There’s a talking head in the fridge of the med-bay. Haven’t gotten much outta him yet, but he says he’s - “

“A spy, yes, no, I actually got that part. It’s more the talking head bit I was stuck on. You are, ah, being serious, right?”

“Aren’t I always?”

“Right, right, no, you are. Alright, this is – really not something I was expecting. Alright. I have papers, I’ll get them to you by tonight.”

Dell ventures, “papers that explain why there’s a talking head in the fridge?”

“God, no. I have no idea how that’s possible. No one’s used this base in years. By all rights, it should have starved. But I guess it doesn’t actually have a stomach? Not important, right, the papers. I believe they should explain who the head is, or was, or at least what body it belonged too. Whatever term you want to go with.”

There’s the sound of something suspiciously like a gun shot, and then a wet thump of a body hitting the ground.

She continues, “I can’t say much over the phone, but considering that our Spy is accounted for, and the others are all very much dead, I know that personally, mind you, there’s really only one spy it could be. If it even is a spy and not, well, a literal spy.”

Dell rubs at the bridge of his nose. “And who would that be?”

“Pierre Dubois. The last spy hired on with the, ah, original team of mercs hired by Mann Co, before the factions were split.” Another gun shot. Another wet thunk. “He went missing about six months before the rest of the team was decommissioned.”

“Missing.”

“Missing. As in, no one, including their handler, could locate him. We’ve looked since then a few times, but haven’t been able to pick up a trace. Engineer, picking up the trail is literally one of my jobs. The best we could come up with was that between his skills, company assets, and help from the old handler, he went ghost.”

Sometimes, Dell really hates his job.

He says, “but now yer thinking it’s less that he went ghost and more that he’s been sitting here like someone’s leftovers.”

“Exactly,” says Miss Pauling. “So, papers. I’ll have them to you by tonight. I’ve – really got to get this taken care of first. Just make sure that Scout doesn’t turn this into a mess.”

No promises on that one. He did leave Scout and Medic together, without any adult supervision. Lord knows they both need it.

Dell says, instead, “I’ll certainly try.”

A heavy sigh. “Thank you, Engineer.”

And then the line goes dead.

[phantomofthepairofdice]

“You’ve Got Mail” and “Blackhat” – Network Connection

What could Michael Mann’s most recent (and hopefully not his last) movie about buff hackers and international tin mines have in common with Nora Ephron’s smash-hit, bookstore-driven romantic comedy? Dave Chappelle isn’t in Blackhat… Michael Mann is best known for tough guys snarling tough lines about codes in crime movies and Nora Ephron is best known for concocting scenarios in which Meg Ryan falls for a lovable but snarky, curly-haired guy while being stuck in a relationship with sweater-vest-clad dweebs. He has Daniel Day Lewis firing two muskets at once, she has John Travolta as an angel who loves sugar? On the surface, they’re totally different – but what happens when you listen to a podcast that explores their work in close proximity is that you start to see patterns (see: “Blank Check with Griffin and David”). These patterns rarely hold weight, are only mildly curious, or they’re just nonsensical. Some of these patterns can only be conveyed with frantic gesticulations, but the straight jacket they’ve put you in won’t allow it. You don’t see the code of the Matrix, man, you just haven’t gotten sunlight in four consecutive days. Open a window, put on clothes that have buttons, and stop talking to me about how Babe: Pig in the City is sort of its own anthropomorphic Mad Max sequel. But what if I told you that both Michael Mann and Nora Ephron opened one of their films with their own version of the same sequence? It says something different, sure, but the execution is almost parallel. It’s inevitable that any modern auteur who makes contemporary films will eventually express their opinions about the technology and how it effects the way people interact. What’s bizarre is just how closely these two filmmakers express themselves – especially considering the rapid changes that come with development of internet technologies. Oh yeah, and also because one is Blackhat and the other is You’ve Got Mail.

Let’s start with the one you’re more likely to have seen. While the opening credits roll for the reteam of Ephron, Hanks, and Ephron (the holy trinity, praise be), we watch as the director visualizes the connections that come through the then dawning but inevitably ubiquitous internet. The Warner Bros logo comes up with sounds of dial-up internet in the background. The studio logo digitizes and is revealed to be a desktop icon. With the click of a mouse, a window pops up and suddenly we’re travelling through the solar system past wireframe 3D models of planets, and on one of those planets, we see a city. It’s a Nora Ephron movie, so it’s probably New York City. Buildings start to digitize, and we move in on the Empire State Building (good guess on this being New York, Ross) before flying by. She’d done two movies in in between, but this still feels like she’s declaring that this is something different than Sleepless in Seattle where that building was the spot for the climactic meetup. Back on screen we’ve started following polygon versions of cabs and cars moving through streets and we even see a wonky digital jogger before we stop, and the digital image becomes film of an apartment. The pause was only momentary – Ephron continues the motion as the camera cranes up past a perfectly autumnal tree and in through the window of an apartment. In the same shot, the camera snoops around the specifically designed, yellow interior of the apartment and stops on a perfectly framed shot of Meg Ryan asleep. That smooth, fluid movement from digital macro to physical micro is deliberately undone by a jarring cut to a part of the apartment we just saw – and Greg Kinnear is in it. He comes in with a newspaper and wakes Ryan’s Kathleen up with some prognosis of “the end of western civilization as we know it” because desktop solitaire slowed down productivity in Virginia. Probably a good bet that you forgot that’s how it opened if you haven’t seen it recently.

While her published writing was certainly on the receiving end of plenty of acclaim, I think people often underrate just how much of a skilled director Ephron was. The sound design and the graphics have, like all specific representations of cutting-edge technology in film, become dated, but I don’t think that’s synonymous with them “aging poorly.” The movie is about a very specific point in time – and especially its version of the internet which would ultimately manifest itself in draconian capitalist behemoths like Amazon that would be the great equalizer/destroyer for bookstores of all sizes. Part of the reason the sequence still holds up is that it (and the movie) is not finger-wagging or making a mockery of computers and that worldwide web. This scene shows that there’s a simulacrum of us and our world in code, but there’s also the possibility to connect seemingly disparate people and things. She’s not making a cautious science-fiction movie along the lines of Philip K. Dick or David Cronenberg – although I think Julie and Julia has a scene with James Woods putting a video tape into his gaping stomach VCR if I remember it correctly. The point is that just because what Ephron is doing now may seem obvious or surface level doesn’t make it any less effective. Cities have always leant themselves to symbolism of machinery. Ephron just cleverly updates that for the year we were in and the way we interacted with one another. The traffic in New York used to be like a conveyor belt, now it’s data flow. But her credits are colorful and have a snap, unlike those of Blackhat which emphasize a cold, steely aesthetic – it’s Michael Mann, remember?

While I would never recommend the theatrical cut of Blackhat over the (obnoxiously difficult to find) director’s cut, its opening scene is far more streamlined in conveying the film’s connections between people and tech than that of the latter. The first shot is of a white orb with tiny sinews all over it. It becomes clearer that we’re looking at Earth when we see yellow lights of a city at night. Continuing to move closer, we see utility structures made of concrete and a nuclear cooling tower. The movie is obsessed with architecture and the way humans move inside of it - we’re just like the microscopic data that travels through hardware. There are lots of shots of buttons, screens, readouts, numbers, and windows, but then Mann pushes the view inside a computer screen. We follow electrical impulses through cords, over wires, and towards a motherboard. All of these shots are primarily gray and black. Then the camera begins to work like an electron microscope as we see things exponentially smaller than the human eye can process through chips and circuits. We see a visualization of computer commands in blue and white squares that go up, under, turn on sharp corners, and even crash toward the screen like a tidal wave on the instruction of the hacker we briefly glimpse. That flood of digital feedback then cuts to normal proportions and the reactor melts down. There are news reports with their busy screens covered in chyrons and corporate logos. Then Mann pushes further back and shows the human cost of such simple keystrokes: we see first responders and the bruised, bloodied, and burnt bodies of the people who were in the power plant. Then we cut to one of the leads of the film, Chen Da Wai (Leehom Wang) suiting (booting) up before he walks in front of white tiles that look just like the tiny streams we saw in the technology. He gets into a white car that we see cross a bridge from the sky – it’s a single object in the middle lane, between white dividing lines. Again, it’s the same imagery repeating itself but with humans on a larger scale. Mann is focused on how our entire world is built on a system that can be corrupted so simply – the tenuous correlation between an explosion in software and an explosion in a reactor. It’s a fearful warning of just how delicate and volatile our systems are with our reliance on tech.

Both Ephron and Mann start their films beyond the world and zoom in to visualize the usually invisible links chained together by the internet. So, what does any of this actually add up to? I think it’s mostly a helpful tool for understanding POV, tone, and style of an auteur. Ephron uses a Harry Nilsson needle drop of “The Puppy Song” while Mann uses generic music for tense action movies. Mann goes infinitesimally smaller and then pulls back out. Small differences, sure, but incredibly similar sequences. The palettes are different, the stakes are different, the technology is different, the end results are drastically different – and the outlooks are different. In 1998, we got to see the links between people and computers in a light romance created when the internet still had a glowing horizon to look toward. In 2015, we got a bleak and frightened outlook of it as a tool of chaos. The zeitgeist has clearly changed along with the technology. This is where a smarter person would talk about the content we share and the way we treat each other online devolving significantly and shifting towards shock and individualism. An even smarter person might diagnose cultural events as epicenters from which these behaviors and trends splintered off. But I’m not that smart person. I’m the doofus who spent time comparing Blackhat and You’ve Got Mail.

Thanks for reading.

[365days365movies]

January 11, 2021: Come Drink with Me (1966)

Wuxia.

Wuxia in an of itself is a form of fiction, highlighting martial arts. You always know a wuxia film when you see it. Like your more traditional kung fu/martial arts film, it usually focuses on one or a few protagonists facing enemies using the martial arts skills. However, wuxia is...different.

First of all, most wuxia take place in ancient China, or during periods of high conflict. Second of all, wuxia heroes are usually independent agents, not working for anyone in particular, but still with a personal code of honor. And thirdly, at least when talking about film...it’s kind of hard to explain. It’s more of a visual thing. See, look:

And yeah, I put Kung Fu Panda 2 in there, SUE ME IT’SWUXIAINSPIRED!!!!

Ahem.

To be fair, wuxia’s been a little Flanderized over the years, with the slow-motion, bold color palettes, and non-existent physics eventually taking over as genre-staples. If you’d like some proof of that, have no fear. That’s the point of today’s movie, King Hu’s 1966 classic Come Drink with Me.

Fun fact, by the way, if you search “wuxia” in the Tumblr gifs engine, this is the first one that comes up! Fitting, since this is considered one of the greatest Hong Kong movies of all time, was nominated for a Foreign Language Film Oscar. Additionally, it’s often considered the seminal wuxia film by many. Which is why I’m watching it! And yeah, there are other wuxia films on my list this month, but I really wanted to see this one first.

OK, let’s do it! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap

Two prisoners are being escorted through a field by a large party of soldiers, when a man, Jade-Faced Tiger (Chan Hung-lit), blocks the path. He gives a letter to the warden in charge, and the soldiers attack the man in white and his cohorts. They quickly lose, and a battle ensues. And for a movie in the ‘60s, it’s surprisingly brutal and bloody. The group of bandits kidnaps the warden, Master Chang.

They torture the warden to discover where their leader’ll be taken. Chang is the governor’s son, making him a valuable hostage to exchange for their leader. They have nothing to fear...except for Golden Swallow, whomever that is.

We cut to a village, where a young woman is seated at a table in an inn. She works for the Governor, and is seeking information on Chang. She speaks with one of the bandit leaders, and reveals that Chang is her brother. It also turns out that this is Golden Swallow (Cheng Pei-pei), and the bandits decide that it’s time to kill her.

And it is at this point, where the English dub REALLY got to me. It’s uh...it’s bad, you guys. IT IS SO BAD. And, yeah, it’s probably because I’m not used to dubs, but I needed the subbed version SO MUCH. So, I searched far and wide, and finally found the subbed version in Mandarin. Man, it is SO much better, Jesus.

Oof. Anyway, even the bad dub can’t distract me from the coolness of this scene, as Golden Swallow takes on this bar of bandits, led by Smiling Tiger (Lee Wan-chung). After defeating them handily in an cool fight, Smiling Tiger leaves, stating that they will kill the hostage in 5 days if their leader isn’t returned.

Meanwhile, the bandits are staying at a Shaolin temple, where they KILL A CHILD. No joke, a kid dies in this scene, and the bandits laugh about it.

Meanwhile, a drunk beggar from earlier barges into Golden Swallow’s quarters as she retires for the night, asking to stay with her. I should mention, by the way, that she’s been referred to by male pronouns for the entire movie at this point, even though she’s clearly female. I’m assuming that’s an honorific thing that I’m unfamiliar with, but I figured I’d mention it. MOVING ON.

She chases the beggar away in a neat little chase sequence, then goes back to her quarters. Turns out that the beggar interrupting her was a good thing, as she was about to be ambushed in her sleep, and she takes on her would-be attackers. Morning comes, and the Beggar’s singing to the patrons of the inn about his lifestyle.

Golden Swallow attempts to thank the beggar, who introduces himself as Drunken Cat (Yueh Hua). He mostly ignores her thanks, then asks for money in exchange for another song. He sings another song, in which he sings...about the bandits. Sending a message directly to Swallow. Realizing Cat’s usefulness, Swallow tries to confide in him and ask for help. However, the Cat doesn’t even seem truly aware of his own usefulness, and brushes Swallow off. However, in one last song, he sings about a Chinese character, which means temple. Yeah. He tells Swallow the location of the bandits THROUGH THE SONG. That’s pretty goddamn cool.

Which is why it’s AMAZING that the English dub I was originally listening to DOESN’T TRANSLATE OR DUB THE SONGS. DO. NOT. WATCH. THE ENGLISH DUB. I CANNOT stress this enough.

Swallow makes her way to the temple, and...is referred to as a woman by the bandits when they confront her. Wait...It’s not an honorific thing? Do the Beggar and Bandits think that Golden Swallow is actually a man? DESPITE ALL EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY? Huh. Sexism in action, I guess.

Anyway, the bandits all gather together in the temple to fight her, and it’s awesome. She goes up against Jade-Faced Tiger directly, as well as a few more, yeah, GODDAMN is it cool.

Should be noted, by the way, that this is before a lot of widespread wire-work and some of the more sensational wuxia trends that you see in more modern films. Still, this is pretty great, and actually...this is what I wanted from live-action Mulan. Real talk. If we got more like this movie in last year’s travesty, I’d be all in for it.

One-on-one against Jade-faced Tiger in the courtyard of the temple! Blood’s shed, hair is cut, and Cat returns as a mysterious benefactor for Swallow, tossing a sword back to her and throwing off the archers. But at the end, Jade hits her with a poisoned dart as she escapes.

She doesn’t make it far, and faints in the forest When she comes to, she’s in the care of Drunken Cat. She blames him for setting a trap, but he blames her for rushing in too early, eager to show off her prowess. There’s more to Cat than meets the eye, it would seem.

Still not doing great, Swallow remains in the care of Cat, who eventually reveals that he’s a master of kung fu, not just a random singing drunk. He easily and immediately takes down some intruders, LIKE THAT.

Cat disguises himself as a drunk beggar, and delivers the bodies to the temple, claiming that Swallow herself took them down. But this ruse fails when Abbot Liao Kung (Yeung Chi-hung) from Cat’s temple appears, confirming that he’s the kung fu master that killed these men. He also reveals that his true name is Fan Da-Pei, the Drunken Hero. He stole the bamboo pole of the original leader of his temple, and is considered a traitor by the abbot.

As they go to kill Cat (yeah, still calling him Cat), he’s already escaped his guard. We see him back at the temple, where he does this:

He’s an Earthbender.

After doing more cool kung fu tricks (MOOOOORE), he reveals that the Abbot is evil, and that he killed their old teacher for the bamboo staff that Cat stole. Additionally, he’s much stronger than him, AND once did Cat a huge favor. This makes Cat feel both inferior and indebted to him, complicating things.

Despite this, Cat agrees to help negotiate for Chang’s release, in exchange for the release of their leader. He also encounters the Abbot, and the two set up a time for them to settle their score.

Prisoner exchange time! Ah, but it’s rigged in the Governor’s favor, as Cat betrays the bandits to keep their leader imprisoned, while getting Chang back. Which, obviously, the bandits are pissed about. They ambush Swallow and the governor’s procession by firing arrows and CRUSHING THEM WITH ROCKS.

Also, just want to note that the guard around the bandit leader is primarily female. Alongside the female protagonist, I’m surprised that Tumblr’s slept so hard on this movie! Seriously, the women kick ass here.

Golden Swallow outdoes them all, though, and absolutely wrecks the Tigers and the rest of the head bandits. Just as he’s about to finish Jade-Faced Tiger, the Abbot heads her off, and is...stab-proof? Kung fu, man. He outclasses her, but our man Cat shows up in the nick of time!

Surprisingly, though, the Abbot’s defeated pretty quickly. Cat spared his life, then returns to his home. BUT THE ABBOT WAS FAKING! He comes back for revenge, and the two have a quick airbending sesh.

They destroy Cat’s home in the woods (which was very cute, by the way), and after a much longer and bloodier fight, Cat kills the Abbot. And man, lemme tell you, that’s a fight to watch too.

Golden Swallow leaves with her female warriors, and Cat and his kids watch them ride off.

And that’s Come Drink With Me! Awesome. Definitely more understated than many of the movies I’ve seen this month, but also a great classic film! We gotta bring more attention to this one, Tumblr. If was HAAAAAAARD to find GIFs for this one. Thanks, @martialartsactionclub​, you bodied this one.

[shochmonster]

84 Questions

original: https://fuckyeahsurveys.tumblr.com/post/61049002526/84-questions

Put your music player of choice on shuffle and list the first 10 songs Guns of Brixton - The Clash Holiday in Cambodia - Dead Kennedys  Chainsaw - Nick Jonas California - Joni Mitchell Make It Wit Chu - Queens of the Stone Age This Woman’s Work - Kate Bush The Bad Thing - Arctic Monkeys Between the Bars - Eliot Smith Drown - The Smashing Pumpkins Different People - No Doubt

If you could spend a week anywhere in the world, where would it be and why? Would you take anyone with you? I’d take @duoloopo to the UK. I’d like to see places other than London.

What is your preferred writing implement? (eg. Blue pen, pencil, green pen)  I use my iPad stylus the most, but I have this heavy mechanical pencil I really like for drawing. 

Favourite month and why? October. I just love the fall vibe. 

Do you have connections to any celebrities (even minor)? List them. I went to undergraduate school with Rebecca Sugar. We used to ride the bus between NYC and DC together on holidays. 

Name 3 items you could pick up from where you are. Can of seltzer, pencil case, stack of bills

What brand logo is closest to you currently? REAL Skateboards

Do you ever play board games or other non-computer games? Got any favourites? I love Small World and Munchkin. 

A musical artist you love that isn’t well known Laura Stevenson and the Cans

A musical artist you love that is well known Red Hot Chili Peppers

What is your desktop background currently? Thomas Barrow on the beach in the Season 4 Christmas Special

Last person you talked to, and through what you talked to them @duomaxwell02 with my face :O 

First colour name you can think of that isn’t in the rainbow White

What timekeeping devices are in the room you are currently in? Two wall clocks, though one is very old and doesn’t wind anymore. I also have a clock @duoloopo ‘s dad made for me. It’s on the piano. 

What kind of headphones do you use? JBL Bluetooth, noise canceling 

What musical artists have you seen perform live? Foo Fighters (3x), Incubus (3x), Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, Beastie Boys, Audioslave, Justin Timberlake, Troy Sivan, Arctic Monkeys, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Queen (but with Roger Daughtry, not Freddy... for obvious reasons.). Probably a whole bunch of others I’m blanking on. 

Does virginity matter to you? Not really. 

What gaming consoles do you or your family own? PS4, PS2, PS1, XBox 360, N64, Gamecube, Wii, NES, SNES, various Gameboys, Nintendo DS, PSP

What pets do you have? What are their names? Two cats, Hemingway and Renji

What’s the best job you’ve ever had? I like freelance art gigs the best. As for ‘normal people jobs’, I once was a sign painter for Whole Foods. That was pretty fun, minus the work drama. 

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had? Food service. 

What magazines do you read, if any? I’ll pick up Time once in a while

Inspiration behind your URL? My classic original URL was LinkWorshiper and had been since AIM first existed. I picked it because Zelda was the first fandom I ever joined. Now I’ve changed all my handles (except on AO3) to reflect my actual name, as my literary agent thinks it’s more professional. 

Inspiration behind your blog title? Mean Girls. I always chuckle imagining Thomas and Jimmy as some Edwardian version of the Plastics. 

Favourite item of clothing? My Downton livery waistcoat. And the stiff bosomed shirt and collars I have to go with it. 

Are you friends with any exes? Nah. By the time I felt comfortable enough to possibly try, I also didn’t care enough to. 

Name at least one book you loved as a child. His Dark Materials (the trilogy by Philip Pullman). I still love them and am jazzed that he’s writing more these days. 

What’s your native language? If that language has distinct regional variations, which variation? (eg. AU English, US English) US English, mostly a northeastern dialect/accent

What email service do you use? Gmail

Is there anything hanging on the walls of the room you are currently in? So much stuff. I have a mood board full of Downtons stuff over my desk, various DA posters and memorabilia, plus some artwork I’ve done, and some of my JC Leyendecker collection. The aforementioned wall clocks, a San Francisco cable car bell, Sailor Moon and a few other little knickknacks, like my hamsa. To name a few lol. 

What’s your favourite number, and why? 212 because it’s Manhattan’s area code and also because it used to be the notation for one of my favorite ships in an old fandom. 

Earliest moment in your life you can remember? Sitting under the table and looking at my grandma, who was wearing a Cruella Deville dress she’d knit herself. Like, it had the actual Disney character on it. Pretty cool to a little guy, I guess!

What did you have for dinner yesterday? Quesadilla 

How often do you brush your teeth? Whenever they feel gross

What’s your favourite candy/chocolate? Lately, I’ve been into Junior Mints. 

Have you had other blogs on Tumblr? Do you have any other blogs currently? This blog used to have my old handle, linkworshiper. I did a small Whole Foods blog when I worked with them, but it never went anywhere. 

If you were suddenly really hungry, what would you choose to eat? Sushi

What fandoms would you consider yourself a part of? Downton Abbey, though lately I’ve been crazy busy and not as active as I once was. Casually still poking at old fandoms like Zelda and Gundam Wing to name a few. 

If you could study anything, what would it be? More art education can’t hurt. Maybe some formal history education. 

Do you use anything on your lips? (eg. Chapstick, gloss, balm, lipstick) Chapstick 

How would you describe your sense of humour? Seinfeld 

What things annoy you more than anything else? Mouth noises

What kind of position are you in at the moment? Sitting

Do you wear much jewellery? Nope

Who is the leader of your country, currently? Any other levels of government with leaders? (State, region, province, county, district, municipality, etc) Three supposedly equal branches of government, currently being run into the ground by a clown 

Last 3 blogs on your dashboard, not including any of your own @halcyondaze @mab1905 @lavender-hued-melancholy

What do you carry your money in? I try to never carry cash, but I carry a small wallet 

Do you enjoy driving? Why or why not? I like it but sometimes it feels like a chore, especially during a commute. @duoloopo thinks I’m a shit driver so she tries to drive whenever she can, which has pluses and minuses. 

Longest drive you have ever been on? Savannah GA to San Francisco, CA in a UHaul

Furthest away from home you have ever been? Germany 

How many times have you moved house? God, I don’t even know. More than ten. 

What is on the floor of the room you’re currently in, not including furniture? Cat toys, unused canvases

How many devices do you own which can access the internet? Phone, computer, iPad, various game consoles 

Is there is anything that is guaranteed to always make you happy? Thomas and Jimmy <3 <3 

Is there anything that always makes you sad? Thinking too hard about being a failure

What programs do you currently have open? I just rebooted, so only Chrome, Spotify and Photoshop

What do you associate the colour red with? This line in the Kate Bush Song Blue Symphony, which goes, ‘I associate love with red, the color of my heart when she’s dead.’ 

Last strong smell you can remember smelling? The Greek food I ordered in for dinner

Last healthy thing you ate? Roasted veggies

Do you drink tea or coffee, and how much per day? I prefer tea, and I drink coffee for energy, though sometimes I think it just makes me crash harder. 

What do you associate the colour blue with? The sky

How long is the closest ruler you can find? 12 inches

What colour pants/skirt/etc are you currently wearing? Dark blue

When was the last time you drank water? About a minute ago

How often do you clear your browser history? Rarely

Do you believe nude photos can be artistic, rather than erotic? Yes

Ever written fanfiction for anything? Oh God, yes. You can still find it under Link Worshiper on AO3, though some of my ‘classics’ have been removed since I turned them into original manuscripts 

Last formal event you attended My cousin’s wedding

If you had to move your birthday to another date, which one would you choose and why? Maybe inch my birth year up just by two so that I’d stop being called a damn millennial. At my age, I really just don’t relate to the generation even though technicalities make me a part of it. 

Would you prefer to be at a beach or in the countryside? Beach

Roughly how many people live in your town? 52,000

Do you know anyone with the same birthday as you? Leonard Nimoy :D 

Favourite place to shop? Can be a certain store or a place where there are multiple stores I haven’t really gone shopping since the pandemic. Right now, it feels like the only place to buy anything is Amazon XD

Do you have a smartphone? What kind? If you don’t, do you want one? Samsung. It’s not a Galaxy but is a new model and a fraction of the price. 

What is your least favourite colour, and why? I don’t think I dislike any colors honestly. 

How do you spell grey/gray? Grey. I’ve got too many British online associates to ever go back. 

Go to your dashboard and describe the image shown in the radar section (below the “Find blogs” link) It’s Umbrella Academy fanart of Klaus. He’s in black and white with this hands over his eyes and the background is red. It’s very graphic. 

What difference is there between how many followers you have, and the number of blogs you follow? 736

How many posts do you have? 8,859

How many posts have you liked? I can’t find the stat D: 

Do you post mainly reblogs, or your own content? Mainly reblogs but I pepper in my own content when I can. Lately, I haven’t had time to do as much fanart though, and I kind of feel like it’s not worth bothering to post my original stuff. Nobody follows my blog for that. 

Do you track any tags? No. 

What time is it currently? 7:33 PM CMT

Is there anything you should be doing right now? Waking up @duoloopo. TIME TO JUMP ON THE BED. 

tagging, if they feel like it: @abbys-little-whippersnapper​ @bumblebarrow​ @irrationalgame​ @downtoncat​ @mab1905​ @duoloopo​

and everyone who I’ve forgotten

[proteuus]

You should list your board of directors and what you associate them (and yourself) with

:0 that’s so fun !!

for you - purple, black, stars, forests, fae, writing, photography, art, royal aesthetics, mythology ! 

for me - dark academia, angelcore (but like. in a very weak-effort sort of way lmao), writing, the color beige, jjs sandwich slut, being that bitch who mostly cares abt school lol

@aliceteresamarie - warm colors, especially yellow, lemons! , all fruit actually, Small Town Vibestm , chickens but only because i always think of allie bc she doesnt like them lmao, cottagecore, dodie, musical theatre, those big button down shirts bisexuals wear

@brightbluesubaru - cars, magic the gathering, dogs, the color blue, coffee 

@saturns-old-bones - dark academia generally, those cool da coats, books, coffee/tea, drawing, the color brown, the color like idk. wheat yellow lol.

@zagreus-eats-your-bread - for some reason i associate jo strongly with red lol. also doctor who, star trek, sci fi generally, and writing 

@pns-fandom - pastel blue, white, purple, i truly do think we should take a trip to japan, idk you seem like you’d vibe with japanese goods lol, white sneakers, anime

@islaaries - i associate isla strongly with blue for like. no reason at all. she also gives me ‘70s vibes. witchcraft, writing, also i know she doesnt skate but she seems like she would 

@orc-hestral - Teen Vibestm , music, dungeons and dragons, minecraft, and hex code #EACDA1 precisely 

:-) !

[mayor-nicola]

Welcome to my 3rd tutorial that I’m not qualified to make~! It’s about making these snazzy cards.

*Please refer to Parts 1 and 2 for some of the logistics and technical stuff you might need to do*

Step 1: Grab Photos from the Amiibo Camera Function and Take Them to Waifu2X

I went with something simple, but go crazy with the emotes and everything. After Waifu takes out the static, you can open it in your editing program of choice and make it transparent. (I’ve gone more in detail with this process in my other tutorials)

Step 2: Clean it Up!

Something that took me way too long to realize was the fact that the magic wand definitely isn’t the end of it. The tool leaves spaces and hard edges that look really bad. Not to mention the fact that, if your character has black clothing, it’s going to get erased. 

First, you export the rough copy and then reopen it in a new window. Then, you add a solid layer. Paint bucket it the color of your choice (I usually go with bright red) and see all that bad stuff. Make sure your character layer is in the front/selected and then start erasing. It helps to zoom all the way in and go around with a pretty fine size eraser.

Step 3: Placing Them on the Cards & Adding Text Layers

So, there’s like a billion templates online if you just Google “Amiibo Card Templates” I personally like this one. I just change the colors using my editing program if it’s not the color I want.

Open this as a new layer and move your character layer to the front (that layer should always be at the top of the stack) Resize the characters and move them around until they look centered.

Town Cards generally obtain the user’s info (friend code, town name, DA, etc.) You can use any text font, but personally I’m a fan of the AC font. I feel like it looks the most authentic.

Step 4: *OPTIONAL* Decorations

If your all about the classic cards, stop at step 3. You’re done. I think there’s too much open space, so I tend to keep going.

I’ve taken some other AC things online to flush out my cards and make look more legit. It’s mostly stuff clipped from Pocket Camp event banners that I make transparent and put in the middle of the layers. For Luna’s card, I’ve used the trees and pumpkins from Halloween. I took the pics in game, actually to get the sizing more right. The icons are from banners.

Finished! As always, please let me know if you’ve got questions. I’ll try and answer them as best I can. I really like doing these, so honestly if you can get the clear pictures of your mayor, I can totally do the rest.