#don’t think about it too hard it’s just a cool composition

[twistyfish]

prompt~ non-mc reader feeling sad because she feels she lacks the relationship mc has with the lads. requested by anon!

Zayne

Her long, straight brown hair fell in front of her face, and she tucked it behind her ear with slender fingers. Her laughter filled your ears like sticky molasses, and you couldn’t wash it out no matter how hard you tried.

In front of her kneeled Zayne, wiping a cut on her knee with a wet tissue and bandaging it, kissing it gently. You watched as he chided her for being careless and getting hurt.

You wished he would scold you like that.

They stood up and walked away, his arm subtly resting around her waist to support her.

She rested her head against his shoulder. She was so brave. She got injured often because of her profession.

You were an accountant. Your last injury was a paper cut.

The wind blew her hair into Zayne’s face, and you watched him brush it away and arrange it neatly on her shoulders with a smile.

They walked away into the distance, and all you could do was watch.

Sylus

“Can you get my back?” Sylus asked, holding out the bottle of sunscreen to MC.

She nodded and began working the cream into his back, massaging his shoulder blades as she went.

Sylus smiled as she used her strength to massage him. “Nice arm, kitten.”

You sat next to your sandcastle, patting the wet globs of sand together into rough turrets. It was coming together, sort of.

Sylus crouched down next to you. “How’s the castle coming along?”

“It’s getting there.”

“Do you want to come surf with us?”

You hesitated. Truthfully, you weren’t very adventurous. You were a little nervous to ride the waves.

“Come on, it’ll be fun!” MC smiled at you, her surfboard held under her muscular arm.

“Um, no, I’m okay,” you responded shyly.

“Alright. Have fun building, then.” She waved at you and they both turned, running into the waves. MC squealed as the cool water hit her legs, and Sylus laughed his deep, rich laugh. He splashed her, grinning as she made various high pitched noises in response.

You sat with your sandcastle, smoothing the sides with no zeal at all. Your focus was gone. All you could think about were her hands on his back, his grin as he splashed her, their shared laughter as they ran into the water.

Your thoughts were interrupted by Sylus shouting. “Hey! Come in, it’s nice and cool.”

You shook your head.

Rafayel

“Wow, your drawings are ass,” Rafayel remarked.

“Shut up, loser.”

“Look at __’s drawing. It has such a nice composition.”

You felt pride swell in your chest at his compliment. “Thanks, Raf.”

“Of course, cutie. I’m just telling it as it is. Ms. Bodyguard could learn a thing or two from you.”

“I don’t understand how you can get everything so proportional,” MC grumbled.

“Here, let me show you.” He stood up and positioned himself behind her, taking her hand with the pencil in it and mapping out rough lines.

“Just make the general shapes first,” he murmured, hand guiding hers across the paper.

You looked away, trying to focus on your own drawing. You could hear him softly instructing her, and you sort of wished you were a beginner too in that moment.

You mindlessly sketched, and you ended up with a lazy looking cat.

“Oh, is it sad?” Rafayel asked peering over your shoulder.

“No, it’s sleepy.”

“Sleepy all the time, just like you,” he said playfully to MC, elbowing her.

“I’m not sleepy all the time! You’re thinking of Xavier,” she argued back. They continued to bicker as you watched.

Maybe it was a little sad.

Xavier

You rang the bell out of politeness despite knowing Xavier’s door code. You had made some banana muffins, and you wanted him to try them. When there was no answer, you figured you would just go inside and drop them off in the kitchen.

You entered the door code and walked inside quietly. As you passed through the living room, you had to stifle a gasp. Xavier and MC were laying together on the couch, under the blanket.

You immediately looked away, setting the muffins on the counter and moving to tiptoe out of the room. Unfortunately, the rustling woke them up.

“__? Is that you?” Came Xavier’s groggy voice.

“No- yes! Um, I just came in to drop off some muffins. I’m leaving, don’t worry!”

Xavier sat up, the blanket falling off his shoulders and pooling around his bare chest.

Your eyes widened and you turned around.

“Hey, __. Where are you going?” MC was off the couch (wearing clothes, thankfully) walking towards you.

“Yeah, sorry about that. We just got back from training and crashed. We were both exhausted,” Xavier said.

Oh. They were sleeping.

“Sorry for waking you guys.”

“Don’t worry about it. Want to nap with us?”

You paused. “I’m good, don’t worry. I’ll just be going now.” With that, you awkwardly put your shoes back on and left the house. The image of them snuggling under the blanket was cemented to your brain.

That night, you slept hugging a pillow.

[demonic0angel]

DP Headcanons

Just some headcanons I have about DP and its characters

1) Jazz had a lot of extracurricular activities in high school and was even cheerleader captain for a short period of time. She’s extra and a perfectionist, so she was also valedictorian, class President, and prom Queen.

2) Dani was trained to be an assassin. Vlad’s training and her unstable composition meant that she fights quick, fast, and dirty.

3) Jazz is considered a master of all weapons, particularly long distance weapons, but her hand-to-hand is the weakest in the team. She’s long limbed and very tall, so she doesn’t like moving around too much, which means she relies more on weapons. I think she’d also have weak bones (which is true for tall people), so she probably also likes fighting with melee weapons for that reason too.

4) Danny is a master at imitation. His ability to use the ghostly wail means that his voice adapted to imitate others’ voices too. I think it would also be cool if he had an ability to change his appearance like Amorpho, where he can imitate people who have died, usually as psychological attacks.

5) Danny having his ghostly wail also means he can sing really well.

6) Danny was too young to be the Ghost King when he was 14, so Jazz was expected to be the Queen Regent until he turned 16. However, he asked her to continue being regent until he was 18, so she stayed for 4 years. In that time, she completely reformed the laws and rules of the Ghost Zone until it was extremely organized (but unfortunately also rather totalitarian. Thankfully, Danny fixed that very quick but still maintained a lot of the laws she created.)

7) Both Dan and Dani like to be called “Danny/Dani”, but when around Danny, they stick to Dan and Ellie. This is bc I don’t believe they’d just change their names so easily when they grew up this way and in some ways, they are literally Danny, so I don’t believe they’d like changing their name, but they are aware that Danny is the OG so they change their names when he’s around.

8) Danny is the most well-rounded fighter of the group and as he grew older, his powers and strength grew exponentially. His identity as both human and ghost meant that he rules over all aspects of death and life. He gets new and random powers almost every day and they never stop growing.

9) In terms of strength, Sam is stronger than Tucker. The power scale in my imagination looks like this: Danny > Dan > Sam >=Tucker = Dani > Jazz > Valerie. This doesn’t mean that the people on the bottom are the weakest, it’s just according to raw strength and my ideas of Danny’s royal court.

10) Danny has no specific queen/consort but only bc Sam, Tucker, and Valerie are chasing off anybody else. I can’t decide if he’s specifically polyam or not, but I think the relationship between all 4 of them is definitely complex and hard to understand, even for them.

[lilithess]

ASTRO OBSERVATIONS III

water moons are just so … love naive. it breaks my heart how much these people get taken advantage of. if you come across a manipulative, hard cored water moon, know that they’ve already been hurt too much. this especially goes for cancer moons. like when a crab closes its shell

i already spoke about capricorn and scorpio placements getting the most hurt in this life but i’ve noticed it’s somewhat different. capricorn’s pain is obvious and “logical”. these people couldn’t catch a break because saturn and pluto have been transiting the sign of capricorn and now aquarius so it’s decades od having two malefics going up and down on your placements. mother died, father left, grandma got ill, parents divorced.. whatever it was, naturally, when you hear their life story, it makes sense as to why they behave as rigid or even pessimistic and frustrated with others, with themselves. they’ve been through so much and their childhoods were one of the most difficult i’ve seen (especially aquarius/capricorn stellium). burdened by everything that happens, they usually buckle up and dig themselves in their work. work is the most favorable medicine for saturnians.

scorpio, on the other hand, might not even have any of these life circumstances. i’ve noticed plutonians can create their own misery. they can be healthy, employed, even have both parents, a house, friends../ yet somehow they’re suffering. this is because scorpio needs the wound to keep it going. it needs something to die over, then be reborn, because without it - there’s no point. it wouldn’t be a scorpio to begin with. say you might be going through a heartbreak. and you hurt, you buy icecream, you go shopping, cry for a while, then move on. regular life, it happens. plutonian going through a break up is like peeling the skin of your bones. it goes on and on. it can be years over something that can be finished in a month. they hurt with every cell in their body. everything is deep, everything is big, everything is an apocalipse. this is how scorpio/pluto processes hurt and betrayal and most often in secrecy. i say - the rest of the zodiac suffers, and then there’s scorpio

venus being harshly aspected by saturn could manifest as having an extremely low self esteem that you’re not even aware of. it could prolonge a happy relationship or any sort of relationship at all. if you do get into a relationship, make sure they are treating you right. there’s a good chance you have to work on your confidence a lot

i’ve witnessed libra mars be so peaceful about an issue that i wanted to pluck their words out with pliers. they can really swipe things under the rug and just stay aggressively silent. my father has this placement as well and i’ve seen him stand up for himself and loose his cool maybe - two times. other libra placements don’t have this sort of passiveness (except maybe libra rising) so idk where the stereotype on libra suns is coming from. also, i find libras to be much darker than people see them to be. maybe because there’s a good chance they’ll have some scorpio placements as well but. i think this sign needs a deeper analyses

SYNASTRY TIME! there is one guy who has loved me for the past three years no matter where he’d been and who he’d been with. whenever he sees me it all starts all over again and these are most significant synastry aspects that we have: - my saturn and mars square his moon (he is hurt all over again every time. i have a situation where i’m the moon and i was the hurt one. beware of malefics on your moon!) - my sun conjuncts his venus (this aspect seems very powerful be it in synastry or composite, but i don’t feel it much. my venus also conjuncts his sun and i see him as nothing but another friend) - his neptune opposite my venus and mars (he is the infatuated one, not me) - my moon, venus, mars and jupiter in his 8H (feels possessive over me, stares at me to the point i have to yell at him to stop, looks at me like a lost puppy, has no control over his dignity and if he sees another man flirting with me he gets mad and the rest of his night is ruined) - my ascendant conjunct his moon and my mc conjunct his sun (i have no idea how this plays out but it seems important)

[loaksky]

hello! would you consider writing modern avatar stuff? if ur cool w that can i request modern human neteyam relationship headcanons?

wait hold the phone yes i would actually ! wanted to hold off on posting this to include headcanons about what modern!neteyam would be like in a relationship, but i’m so eager to come back ! instead here’s some background about him & reader leading up to the relationship (part 2 pending if you guys want it) ! headcanons under the cut & for all intents + purposes, i picture college-neteyam ! additionally, in my brain, it’s canon that teyam as a human would be poc, hence the reference pictures i included below ! <3

so i definitely see neteyam having a very soft aesthetic, he’s such a sweetheart tbh

fs think that the two of you would have a meetcute in university & then end up being college sweethearts

his major is something specific like environmental engineering or child psychology ? he’s definitely really smart and excels in all of his classes !

which brings me to how the two of you would meet ? perhaps he’s taking an elective course in pottery and your major is in art with a concentration in three dimensional composition

the class is considered a lab, so the professor emails out the syllabus and students come and go as they please during class hours to work on their compositions.

halfway thru the sem, you and teyam stumble upon each other in the storage room between two classrooms, fetching different pieces that need to be glazed + fired.

“sorry, you can—”

“nah, you first—”

you laugh and neteyam’s smiling because WOW you’re really cute + had he known that someone as lovely as you was in the same section as him, he’d probably hang around the classroom more.

from that moment on, neteyam’s always lingering during the class’ meeting time, even if he’s already finished with his projects for the week because he wants to get to know you SO bad, but he’s way too shy.

(probably still canon that he’s phenomenal at literally everything, but i think it’d be so cute if he had 0 legitimate rizz bc he’s so used to kinda just bein’ him and pulling bc he’s a jack of all trades type of guy)

“what are you making?” you ask him one day and he snatches his airpod out of his ear so quickly even though he’s not listening to anything.

“ashtray” he answers quietly, a lil self-conscious because he’s come to find out that you’re absolutely amazing at sculpting and while you do this for your future, he does it is as a pastime / elective to graduate. “but like i don’t smoke or anything yknow, i just thought that i’d be a good thing to–”

you’re staring at him with the corner of your mouth quirked and he shuts up quickly, scratching the back of his neck nervously as he slumps on his stool.

“you should score using a crosshatch,” you tell him simply. “makes the pieces stick together better.”

he looks down at where he’d been scratching the damp clay laterally and your hands hover over his, head tilting to the side.

“can i?”

oh yeah, yeah! sure,” he splutters, leaning back a little to watch you work your magic.

can’t help but watch the way your fingers work over the clay, knuckles smudged with glaze and dust coating the silver of your rings.

he watches your hands, but soon he’s watching your face because you’re concentrated so hard on making sure you’re using your best technique for the little ashtray.

lo and behold, the pieces stick together so perfectly and smoothly, ready to be fired in the kiln, and neteyam’s grateful.

“thanks,” he sighs almost dreamily.

“yeah, of course. glad to help,” you tell him.

when you return to your own project, you slam back the rest of your melting drink and neteyam’s eyes are squinting the get a read on what it is you order.

you’re pleasantly surprised when you turn up to pottery the next session to work on a new project, and neteyam’s there with two coffees, one next to his wheel, another near yours.

“what’s this?” you hum, tying your apron with a messy bow.

“a thank you,” he says shyly. “for helping me last time.”

your eyes widen when you see your favorite; a chai with almondmilk, vanilla, and a shot of espresso.

“how’d you…”

“it’s what you were drinking…” he responds. “last week. i think.

“oh…” you trail off, cheeks hot because he noticed ???

“you don’t have to—”

“NO!” you yelp, a tad loud. some of the other students working on a few last minute projects peer at the two of you and teyam’s grinning like an idiot when he sees the way you tuck your hair behind your ear and reach for the drink. “this is good! it’s great. thank you so much. i actually missed my run this morning.”

“yeah, of course,” he sighs, rolling his lips together as the two of you kinda get off to a clunky start.

the silence between the two of you is a lil awkward, but you decide to break the ice since teyam’s technically played his hand and the ball’s in your court.

“are you an art major ?” you ask.

“uh, nah,” he'd say, rubbing his sweaty palms on the thighs of his baggy jeans because HE SHOWED UP TO CLASS 15 MINUTES EARLY and the agony of not knowing if you’d show up made him so nervous. “environmental engineering.”

your eyebrows raise ever so slightly, lips forming an ‘o’ bc wow that must mean he’s super smart.

“wow, that’s insane,” you say quietly. “what made you take pottery ?”

“only elective that didn’t make me wanna claw my eyes out,” he laughs nervously. “what about you ? what’s your major ?”

you seem to mull over your thoughts for a moment, obviously a little hesitant to answer.

“3d art...nothing special...” you trail off.

neteyam begins working with the slab of clay waiting for him in the center of the wheel, cheeks going hot because the words leave him before he can stop them.

“no, no. i think that’s really cool. art is a really challenging passion to have & i admire people willing to dive in full stop.”

the comment makes you smile, fingers pliant over the wet clay.

neteyam wants to DIE because he can’t read whether or not your smile is genuine or if you’re grimacing because he’s the biggest idiot ever.

he supposes it’s the former when you two are parting ways, signing the attendance log and you decide to bite the bullet and write your instagram handle on the bottom corner of the page and tear it off to hand to him.

he’s barely able to get a ‘thank you’ out before you’re racing out the door with your gifted coffee in hand.

you’re so giddy when you run out of the building and your phone pings in the front pocket of your satchel and you see that teyam.sully has followed you.

after that day, you two become really friendly !

neteyam frequently dms you about class, but eventually, he starts sending you vids and memes, saying that they made him think of you.

it becomes so obvious to both of your friend groups that you’re crushing on each other, but both of you are too painfully shy to say anything despite every green flag.

soon, looking forward to seeing each other during class turns into neteyam subtly asking you to hang out.

you make a comment about one of his hoodies and he mentions that he thrifted it.

“wait really??” you’re pausing your work to look at him. “i love thrifting!”

he smiles wide, word vomiting before he can stop himself.

“yeah? i know a couple of good places if you’re down.”

you say yes, DUH !

looking back at it, maybe that’s your first date because he picks you up from your dorm & bc you guys live in a fairly walkable city, you commute to the thrift and you’re SO giddy because the backs of your hands keep brushing every time some impatient pedestrian pushes by you guys on the narrow sidewalks.

you guys end up spending HOURS and teyam’s internally screaming because you find a shirt that has a peeling heart with the phrase ‘if lost return to wife’ and he happens upon the match to it a couple aisles down that says ‘i'm the wife’.

when you’re not looking, teyam buys the shirts and stuffs them in his canvas bag.

DUDE IS WHIPPED.

he wants you SO bad.

after the thrift, you guys get pizza, and after that, ice cream, and JESUS he doesn’t want the day to end because being with you is so easy.

over the course of the rest of the semester, the two of you make it a routine to hang out at least once a week and you’re always looking forward to it.

dates excursions include; trips to the museum to see recent exhibits, weekly pizza parlor dinners, study sessions at the 24 hr cafe a block from the school (in which he always walks you home after), park days where he reads books on environmental sustainability and you secretly draw portraits of him.

in these times, he learns that you want to become an art teacher, your favorite cereal is froot loops with the marshmallows, your all time show is amazing world of gumball.

almost cries laughing when he finds out that you have a secret pet turtle you hide in your dorm named franklin.

acknowledges that he’s falling, but falls even harder when the florist who owns the flower shop you two always pass hands you the prettiest little bundle of flowers and you spend the entire trek to the park, handing out individual stems to couples, children, and the elderly, telling them to have a beautiful day.

it all comes to a head near the end of the semester when he realizes that he can’t keep dancing around his feelings for you and the feelings he’s almost certain you have for him.

tells you to clear your schedule for the upcoming friday night and dresses a little nicer than usual when he picks you up.

brings you two to the planetarium in the city and, instead of watching the exhibit, he spends the entire time watching how you light up.

he knows in his gut that you could be it for him.

he’s loved getting to know you and spending so much time with you.

he’s so immersed in this feeling throughout the entire night.

probably wipes his sweaty palms over the thighs of his pants before shakily taking your hand as the diagram of the constellations shift.

can’t help but smile when your fingers squeeze his and you seem to shift closer to him as the narrator starts the presentation.

and he’s especially quiet after the exhibit, fingers still twined with yours as the two of you walk down the bustling sidewalks of the city center.

two of you probably stop by a dessert cafe and sit outside on a bench in the spring air, enjoying the buskers as you share a little cake.

you’re talking about home and how you’re excited to see your family again and he can’t help but imagine bringing you home to meet all his siblings and his parents because he knows that they’d absolutely love you and—

you’ve paused your speaking, thumb brushing the corner of his mouth and he’s SHORT CIRCUITING.

“shit, that was weird i’m so—”

his palm cups your jaw, thumb on your cheek, pad of his pinky and ring finger soft against your neck.

“can i?” he whispers.

TRIANGLE METHOD !!

he glances at one eye, gaze dropping to your lips before glancing at the other.

you already know what he’s referring to, could feel the romantic tension between the two of you since the beginning, but only become sure of it in the recent weeks.

”can you what?” you swallow.

he breathes a short laugh because the knowing smile that quirks your lips is a dead give away.

“can i kiss you?” he asks softly, absently setting your abandoned dessert somewhere behind him on the bench.

“yeah,” you’d nod, leaning into him. “please.”

before the two of you go your separate ways for summer holiday, he shows you the shirts he bought at the thrift store the first time around, but insists on keeping the shirt that says ‘i'm the wife’.

neng © 2023

[forecast0ctopus]

Just wanted to pop in and say that your art is so cool!! It's so-- SHAPES!! And I especially like how you draw McCoy, he's a favorite of mine and he has such a specific set of facial features that seems so hard to simplify, and yet you manage so well! And there's something I really love about your poses and compositions too, they're so very dynamic and/or evocative even when characters are just standing. Aaa so much to say--

I also saw your last ask, and as someone who was also intimidated by the sheer amount of content there is like you, just know that if you get invested you kinda just forget about it. I got into TNG first and that series alone looked like an enormous task to finish. Before I knew it I finished it and went on to watch DS9, and I already can't wait to see more. In general my tip is to go with the flow and see it as a hobby rather than something to achieve, because nobody is forcing you to watch EVERYTHING there is. You get there when you'll get there, y'know! It's a show about silly space people, have fun with it! (but with all the fan art you're drawing, I'm sure you already are hehe)

ANYWAY SORRY FOR THE BARRAGE OF TEXT THIS AIN'T EVEN AN ASK BUT UHHH BUH-BYE

THANKS i just. like shapes and points and lines.. i just think they’re neat…… i really like drawing mccoy hes got such a specific posture haha i will definitely be posting. more of him lmao

im on tng s2 right now and i definitely never push myself to watch things i don’t want to watch (except angel (1999) because. i like spike) but i do take my time with watching things so itll be a good while until i’m on the next series.. it did take me uhhh years to finally finish tos but the dam really broke on that in december so. here we are

bones time

[hannahssimblr]

“I have to say, this is an impressive body of work.”

I shift in my seat, “By impressive do you mean that it’s good, or that there’s a lot of it?”

This gets a laugh. “Both,” says the man, Paul, flicking through a sketchbook with tattooed hands, fingers stained from nicotine. I notice things like this now. Hands. I notice their lines and their bones, all their interesting details, and perhaps Paul himself could gauge this now as he pours over my figure studies where there are pages upon pages of hands, old and young, my friends, my sisters at the piano, an old woman clutching at a handrail on the train, and my own, a hundred times in different ways, blisters, plasters, hangnails and bruises from the rugby pitch.

The woman, Ida, shuffles through a stack of watercolour paintings I did last summer, mostly seascapes, the beach and the rushes, the whitewashed houses and rusted iron of the Wexford coast. Just looking at them I can recall the grit of sand under my bare feet as I warmed them on the deck of our holiday home behind my portable easel. In three months I’ll return again for one last summer, and after that I expect I’ll miss it there. 

“And you said you didn’t do a portfolio preparation year?” She says, peering over the rim of her glasses. 

“No, I’m still at school.”

“Highly unusual for a sixth year,” her eyebrows climb up her forehead, “You've clearly dedicated a lot of time to this.”

I shrug, “Yeah, I like making art, I don’t know.”

It’s difficult to tell what this woman is thinking. Everything about her is harsh, dramatic, from the sharp fringe that sits straight and neat above her brows to the slash of her mouth, thin lips, pointy chin, hard eyes, but I have to assume for the sake of my own self esteem that she doesn’t positively loathe my portfolio. She spends some time looking through my work, slowly, methodically, sometimes leaning closer to frown at something, maybe some proportion that’s off, bad composition, a clumsy attempt at ambient occlusion that doesn’t hit the mark… 

“It’s beautiful,” she says simply, and I exhale. 

“Oh look, a familiar face,” Paul holds a portrait to Ida, “That’s the girl that we were interviewing a few people before this, what was her name again?”

“Michelle,” I say, “My girlfriend.”

Paul nods, “Michelle, right! Good likeness,” and places the notebook back onto the table. Leaning back in his chair, he cracks his knuckles, “Look, Jude, there’s no two ways about it here, your work is outstanding. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a portfolio that hits every mark, every requirement and goes beyond, I mean,” he lets out a puff of air and gestures to the table, “this is nuts. And for a sixth year? Come on. This stuff would blow some of our third and fourth year college students out of the water.”

I feel like I could melt off the chair with relief, but try to suppress my utter delight so that they don’t think I’m too hungry for validation.

“Cool.”

“It’s the sensitivity,” Ida adds, “Your observation skills, your sense of weight, movement, knowledge of anatomy. It’s rare to see this kind of work from a secondary school student. Your efforts are just… so impressive.”

“And look, we know it depends on your Leaving Cert points, and yeah, that’ll be a contributing factor when it comes to acceptance, but, like,” Paul looks over the table again, tossing his hands up conclusively, “as far as I’m concerned, we’ll see you in September.”

Ida’s mouth curls into a smile, “We hope. If you choose us.”

If I choose them? Am I dreaming? How have I become the kind of person who is coveted by an art school? Surely not. Surely soon I’ll wake up and discover that this whole interview has been a product of my dreams. Too much time spent stressing out over art, the requirements, the brief... Almost certainly I’ve fallen asleep somewhere and none of this is real. 

“That’s really kind of you to say. I’m glad you liked my stuff.”

“Blown away,” says Paul, and he leaps to his feet to shake my hand like I’ve just won a prize, “all we need is a pass in the Leaving Cert, you can surely manage it.”

“Yeah, I’ll make sure I do.”

They’re smiling at me as I gather up my work, and still smiling as I give them one last sheepish wave from the door, and I realise I am still smiling too as I face the hallway of waiting students, staring at me with portfolios rested against their knees. I probably shouldn’t look too overjoyed, it might knock their confidence, so I try to look very bored instead as I pass by, though I may explode from the inside out.

Beginning // Prev // Next

[archandshri]

9th feb '24 - [arch] characters, interactions and emotion - making a mini webcomic

Gahhhh Shri this has been an absolutely crazy couple of weeks!!!! Hope you are doing well :)) First of all, WOW! You have a lot of goals, and I’m sure you’ll get them done! I’ve worked a lot on my graphic design during the process of making Winter Wellbeing. If you wanna see a blog post dedicated just to that, I can do so! It would be cool to compare notes on the approaches we take for graphic layouts. If you wanna share your knowledge of camera skills when you build that up that would be awesome 😭😭

It’s been a tough few weeks, art wise. I have been reflecting on my process, motivations to create, the ego and all the baggage that’s lumped into the creative process for me. It turns out there’s a lot. I took some space from my illustration practise (literally for a weekend!) and began to realise how dysfunctional it is. I’ve been writing a lot about that so there may be a larger piece of writing coming about that at some point (no promises!!)

But for now, let's talk about little successes!

I’ve been playing with some characters for a while but I’d hit a bit of a block with the plot. I realised the expectation of having a finished project of high quality soon is unrealistic, and an unhealthy expectation to put on myself. I rarely give myself time to play with concepts for a long time and let the characters, plot and interactions evolve naturally. Maybe this in part came from sticking to the short university module turnaround. I noticed that that short turnaround was causing a lot of block, so I have decided to bench it as a comic for now and focus on using it as a playground - falling in love with the characters, creating stories and drawing them for fun. Maybe years down the line I’ll make them into a comic - we shall see! 

I *tried* to do hourly comics day this year and it didn’t quite work for me. I think I made 3 comics? And then got distracted with a bigger project that ended up taking a week or so to complete. Let’s have a look at it, shall we?

[you can find the full version here]

First of all, it’s based on an unfinished fanfiction I started a couple of months ago, which was mostly bad, but there was one nice scene that I liked and wanted to expand on. I started by having a look at the script I wrote and thumbnailing on the iPad. I’m away from home at the mo and usually would prefer to do most of my artwork traditionally, but because I don’t have access to a scanner, the whole process was digital this time. A lot of the pages got scrapped because the dialogue wasn’t necessary, and I’m not drawing pages that aren’t necessary.

some more development screenshots

I thought a lot about posing during the process, acting the scenes out in my mind and sometimes physically, really understanding the emotions of the characters, why they’re saying what they’re saying, their tone and how to convey that though their body language and expression (i find grian really annoying normally [affectionate] but I want this grian to step on me).

Pearl was hard with this because she’s quite erratic and unpredictable in this series, so I wanted her to switch from raw explodey anger to playful jabs at Grian. I’m hoping this comes across as somewhat insane, rather than tonally off and inconsistent. I did super enjoy drawing her and her explosive nature though, especially in comparison to Grian’s coldness.

I played with levels and monotone colour too - I’m not working with multiple colours much at the moment so I’m able to focus on things like values composition, characters and backgrounds. My skills limit the kind of stories I can tell currently, so I’m working to improve those foundations. Maybe when I’m back in the riso studio I can play with colours a little more.

Colours - despite the simple pallete it gets a bit nerdy here.I stuck to specific flat percentages for most of it - Pearl’s hair and Grians jumper are 60%, Grian’s hair and Pearl’s cloak are 20%. Then I added a 14% layer for shadows, using a ahrd blend eraser tool for highlights, making the images quite dark. I fill a layer with texture from Forystr’s riso brush for procreate, and turn it into a 40% opacity colour dodge layer. This gives it some much needed texture and makes the lighting feel low and nighttimecore. It also pushes the values to look really nice - I tend to be too scared to push them by myself.

I tried a few different colour layers to get a *vibe* but settled on a low percentage riso blue in a colour layer. All layers besides the riso blue are in a riso black, colour picked from a riso colour pallete. I learnt these tools - using percentages to get good values - from working with risograph. I really recommend having a look at these techniques and doing some monotone work. It's really improved by character designs, page layouts and compositions.

That's all from me today, though I have had MANY other thoughts over the past two weeks about creating, but perhaps we'll dive into them another time. If you (or anyone else) has any questions, hit me up with a reblog or an ask and I will get right to it. Lovely to hear from you! Hope your art is going great too :)) Arch :)

[qua-qua-qua]

whats your favorite programming language?

ooh that’s hard mind if i go for a bit of a rant? (also i might use some terms you don’t know you can usually find them by googling “<langauge> <concept>” or smth similar or you can ask me)

tl;dr rust is my favorite

so my first language was javascript(/html/css). and it’s a *horrible* language for tons of reasons (that’s a separate rant). but it’s gotten a bunch of nice features recently and i’ve found myself almost liking it somehow. i’m like half convinced it’s stockholm syndrome but who knows. it’s not really a contender for my favorite per se, but i might be most comfortable in it? it’s certainly my favorite scripting language.

the language with the best syntax imo is swift. i love it bc it feels very well designed and the syntax feels very intuitive and clean coming from javascript (as in it fixes some warts i don’t like about js/many c-family languages). one thing i particularly like (and miss in literally every other language) is the ability to infer the object that a property is being applied to. that’s kinda confusing without an example so basically:

let color: Color // some other stuff color = .green // instead of Color.green

it’s super minor but i love it so much and it’s a shame fewer languages have done something similar. i don’t really have many other thoughts on swift though since i haven’t used it in a while. it gets a bad rep as an “apple language” bc they made it, even though it’s open source, has its own organization, and can run anywhere. but bc of that it doesn’t have an amazing ecosystem for running outside of apple devices, so no one does it. it’s a chicken and egg problem. anyways. i want to use it more to try it but haven’t gotten around to it.

okay haskell i’m not very good at it i learned it recently but i absolutely love the functional style. i miss it in all other languages. especially currying. i love functional programming but i have a hard time when everything is perfectly pure. also monads are super cool and i love finding them in other languages. oh i also miss function composition. a lot. it’s so ridiculously useful. i think i’ll enjoy haskell much much more once i get used to it.

finally, what i would say is generally my favorite: rust. it’s very well designed, and i love the zero-cost abstractions. basically (the rust website explains it much better) they mean that rust is about as fast as c, and much faster than any c i could write (and probably as fast as any c an expert could write). i love having everything be so fast but also not having to worry about a ton of low level details eg memory management. (i can’t write a c program for the life of me without leaking memory, causing undefined behavior, or both 💀). perhaps my favorite part of rust is the ecosystem and tooling. cargo (the package manager and build system) is absolutely wonderful and just works™. like literally always. i have zero problems with dependencies and compiling and running and even cross compiling*. and the ecosystem is equally amazing. there’s a crate for pretty much anything under the sun and they’re all open source!! i love how i can just go and look at the code behind the libraries i use just by clicking on “go to definition” in my IDE. and it’s not uncommon for me to be able to understand it too!! and there we go end of rant rust is fun.

\* with one exception: when the rust code links to c code. which is mostly pretty rare but does happen.

actually i lied about ending the rant. i should probably mention python. not because i like it, but bc you prob know it, or at least of it. i’m neutral on it. i don’t know it very well. i wouldn’t say it’s bad, but it’s also not very good. the biggest thing it has going for it is that almost everyone knows it. and it’s a fine scripting language. i’m just not a huge fan personally. (one of my friends would murder me for saying this lmao they love python).

okay sorry for saying so much but um if you have any questions about any of it feel free to ask!!

[healingskywalker]

TBB Boys as Desserts

This has been something I’ve been wanting to do for over a week now, but I’m just now getting around to it. This idea was made by the prompts of the @renegade-force-99 team and our discord. I absolutely took this way too seriously, but here we are, and I regret mostly nothing. 

Enjoy our sweet boys and my headcanons for them, and why they match with certain deserts! 

Crosshair is a macaroon. 

The process of making a macaroon is of high difficulty, at least from my understanding and experience, and I feel like Crosshair, as a person, is just as high difficulty. They are very particular, and require the exact right type of environment in order to ‘come out right’, or in Crosshair’s case, function healthily. 

They are stubborn, particular, and time-consuming. They have a hard exterior, but a very soft interior. Despite all of the hardness and difficulty, they are worth every second of effort and time, and deserve to be cherished - they are highly sought after, and considered a delicacy, just like our sniper. 

Echo is gelato. 

Gelato has some different ingredients than ‘reg’ ice cream - there are some extra steps, or pieces, that exist in Echo, and in gelato, that regular clones and regular ice cream don’t have. Gelato, and Echo, both need to go at a slower pace in order for them to efficiently function. You can’t push or rush them, otherwise, that can spoil it. They need time to warm up, cool down, and it’s better if you let them take their time. 

It is a very healthy option, and I feel like Echo is one of our most healthy boys, emotionally and physically. It is dense, as well - as for how this translates into our boy, it doesn’t mean stupid - I’ve taken it to mean more ‘info dense’ because that boy can recite whole reg manuals off the top of his head. 

Gelato, and Echo, tend to be more intense than regs as well, but they are still an easy go-to, as well as a comfort item for plenty of people. Repetition (or ‘echoing’ a process) is important to them as well since there is a specific way of going about things. 

Hunter is red velvet cake. 

A lot of this is just based on vibes. This man screams ‘red velvet’ to me. Like all cakes and most clones, they are good with kids and are a good, easy option to interact with. Hunter and red velvet both are easily loveable, and aesthetically pleasing, as well as a classic to gravitate to. I consider them a leader in the cake world and clone world. They are ahead of the game, and setting out a strong example for others to follow. 

At its roots, it is technically ‘regular’, but it’s made to look different - for red velvet, it is simply for the sake of being pretty, but in Hunter’s case, he looks the most like other clones, and while being almost exactly the same as the base, he had to find a way to stand out (i.e, long hair), and be different while still ‘being basic’, while also not being basic at all. It’s special. 

Tech is cheesecake.

One word: pie. Cheesecake isn’t technically a pie, but it’s also not technically a cake - it’s a funky middle ground that I think works well with Tech, as well as the joke of him being smart and having the name of a mathematical number. In my experience, cheesecake people are always vehement that they are right, and cannot be disproven. Remind you of anyone? 

It is straightforward but quirky. They could be left as a base, or add toppings for more flair - in cheesecake, this could be strawberries, but in Tech, it’s his adaptability, ability to work in most situations, and plenty of variety in personality. 

They are multifaceted. They are also much more sturdy than they appear to be. (Example: if they fall from a tall height, they are perfectly fine, even if the composition may be a bit broken, they made it, and are still function as a dessert, or a human.) They are also a fan favorite. 

Wrecker is cookies. 

Unlike Crosshair, Wrecker’s difficulty setting is on easy. How can you look at a cookie, and not enjoy it? It brings you joy, plain and simple. They are straightforward - no lies, complications, or anything difficult here. They are classic, enjoyed by almost everyone, and how you enjoy them depends entirely on how you treat them - they can be hard or soft, depending upon your attitude and approach. 

Cookies are easy to cook, which also makes them a good contender to be good with kiddos, just like Wrecker is. There are so many options with them, even if most people gravitate towards one or two ideas, or perceptions, of them. They can be unassuming and ‘stupid’ but they can be much more complicated.

divider by @saradika​. go check their stuff out! they have some gorgeous stuff!

 remember to like and reblog if you enjoyed! <3

[zone-seven]

Kobra Kid Headcanons

- avid photographer. Cherri has a little dark room at his place and the two of them go on photography day trips and then hang out while developing the photos.

- He loooooves to show off his pictures, and they’re pretty good! He’s got a natural knack for composition and is very detail oriented, he can spend a really long time carefully setting up a shot if given the opportunity. His subject matter is fairly predictable: exceptionally cool cars/bikes/trucks, close ups of rare or weird car parts, decaying animals and animal skeletons, and bugs. Once in a while he’ll take a candid shot of Cherri or Poison or someone, or a landscape if something cool is going on, but 95% of the time it’s car or decay related stuff.

- He’s really sentimental, and his half of the room he and Poison share is decorated with his photos and the trinkets he’s collected over the years. He remembers the story behind every single one of them, and they are meticulously sorted by some sort of elusive criteria that Poison can’t quite figure out and Kobra can’t quite explain in a way that makes sense to others.

- Absolutely fascinated by vehicles. Can’t stress that enough, dude is ALWAYS thinking about cars. He loves to watch Ghoul work on cars in the shop and help her out when she’ll let him. It’s one of the few topics he’s interested in having an extensive conversation about. It’s basically impossible to be close to him and not pick up a lot of information about car parts.

- He’s got a little collection of die-cast cars and usually has one or more of them on him at any given time (though there are some that are too precious to him to leave their shelf). He does this half because simply having one with him is comforting, and half because he stims by spinning the wheels. He’s never been much of a “pretend to drive the toy car” guy.

- He’s fluent in both Japanese and English, and has picked up a handful of words and phrases in Spanish and Korean. He rarely verbally says more than a word or two unless it’s scripted.

- Generally relies VERY heavily on dialogue from The Mousekat Show for communication, though he’s constantly expanding his repertoire and picking up new scrips from the people around him too. He’s just extremely comfortable with his childhood scripts so he sticks with those a lot. It’s very easy to tell which scripts were taught to him by teachers or whoever because they’re much clearer to outsiders but don’t sound like him at all; it’s rather jarring if you’re used to his typical style of speaking. Very formal, VERY “city” style.

- He loves animals in general, but he had a startling and scary encounter with a military dog as they were leaving battery city and has been terrified of dogs ever since.

- Jet taught him to sew, and he does a lot of that. He does most of the mending and patching for the four’s clothes. He does some of that for friends too, which is how he finances his photography hobby.

- He and Poison have always been close (they’ve never known a life without the other, after all) but Kobra found it hard not to be somewhat resentful of his brother when they were kids. His disability and support needs were judged even more harshly in comparison to Poison’s extreme academic aptitude, and them being identical twins only made the comparisons and expectations worse. Poison has always seen him as an equal, but it was crystal clear to Kobra that people outside of his family only saw one of them as a full person, and it was understandably hard for him to not feel jealous and angry. Their relationship kind of struggled in their teen years and improved a lot once they left the city.

- He’s not religious or superstitious at all and has basically no patience for Poison’s fairly intense spirituality. He’ll put up with some amount of participating in it of it out of love, but he won’t pretend to believe.

[moolamixtape]

Thoughts on Splatune 3!

I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the soundtrack of Splatoon 3 now that we have the final composer credit for each track. This is my perspective as a musician as well as a fan of the lore!

Ryo Nagamatsu carried this soundtrack HARD man. There were six composers total and he did a third of the tracks, including everything by C-Side which came as a shock to me. I genuinely thought those were all Toru Minegishi, who has apparently stepped up to a supervisor role since Splatoon 2 and is less involved in the making of the soundtrack itself.

The new composers—Toshiyuki Sudo, Yumi Takahashi and Sayako Doi—also did a lot of heavy lifting this time around too. Takahashi caught me way off guard, especially when I found out she is responsible for all three DLC Squid Sisters tracks. Apparently she has inherited them from Shiho Fujii, who only contributed Wave Goodbye for this game.

Takahashi was able to capture Fujii’s essence while adding some cool harmonic ideas that we haven’t seen from the group’s almost satirical J-pop discography. I think she’s the best out of the new team members at writing chord progressions and strong hooks, and I’m really looking forward to new Squid Sisters tracks if it means she’s behind the wheel!

She’s also a really tight funk arranger, and one of my admittedly few correct predictions was that she was responsible for the vast majority of the lobby tracks. They all reminded me of her tracks from Animal Crossing New Horizons, especially with their mellow chord progressions and laid-back feel. Takahashi’s lobby tracks have energy but don’t carry too much momentum, keeping the tension low and the groove up front while switching occasionally to a more lush and complex progression on the bridge. She is everything I love in a composer lol

Sayako Doi also had my attention when I found out what she was responsible for. She’s only been with Nintendo for about four years now and barely as any individual track credits to her name. As it turns out, she did all of the Alterna map themes as well as the Tableturf soundtrack. All of the Tableturf tracks are intentionally camp and I think they did her sort of dirty by making that a good portion of her contribution, but the variety in her RotM tracks almost makes up for it. She seems more sound design-focused than Takahashi and it sounds like she focuses more on the overall feel of her tracks than the theoretical details behind them. I’m curious to hear what she might contribute for Side Order!

I said before that Minegishi is moving up to a directorial role as many game composers do, and he contributed significantly less this time around musically. He mainly handled the stage themes in RotM, a couple of which I thought were by Sudo and Nagamatsu. With Flying Colors is marked by orchestral sample spam, which I thought was Nagamatsu’s signature sound, and Ride or Fry sounds like Sudo’s Deep Cut compositions. Minegishi did both!

I don’t know what the best way to do this is on tumblr but I guess I’ll just share this now and edit it later? I wish it was more intuitive to make a thread or something I guess I’m just twitter monkey brain

[the-himawari]

A3! Sakisaka Muku - Translation [SR] MANKAI ☆ New Year (1/2)

*Please read disclaimer on blog; default name set as Izumi

---

Izumi: (The season is already upon us, so I have to start preparing our New Year’s cards.)

*door opens*

Muku: Excuse me, Director-san. Do you have a moment?

Izumi: Sure. What’s up?

Muku: I heard from Yuki-kun that our Theatre company made New Year’s cards before. Are we going to make them again this year?

Izumi: Ah. I was actually just thinking about our New Year’s cards.

Muku: Oh, really! Yuki-kun sent some to his older sisters, so I was thinking I’d like to send one to my sister too…

Izumi: Come to think of it, the New Year’s cards were made last year after I told everyone I wanted to create something that screamed MANKAI Company.

Muku: Have you already decided what you’re going to do this time?

Izumi: No, not yet. I just realized we need to make them soon, so the rest is still up in the air.

Muku: Oh. In that case, if you don’t mind, can’t we all make them together? The people you sent them to last year might be looking forward to getting another MANKAI Company-style New Year's card!

Izumi: You have a point. Alright, maybe I’ll ask for everyone’s help again this year.

-pause-

Izumi: …And so, that’s how we divided the tasks last time. I hope we can use that as reference and discuss together.

Tsuzuru: Gotcha. So there’s choosing the kimonos we’re gonna wear and coming up with the composition of the photo and lettering…

Taichi: There’s lotsa different tasks. All of them sound fun!

Izumi: I’m thinking of buying all the postcards first, in the meantime.

Muku: There’s going to be quite a huge amount, isn’t there? Director-san might have a tough time by herself…

Hisoka: …I’ll help too. If it’s shopping, then I can manage.

Izumi: Thanks, that saves me.

Taichi: Alright, alright! I wanna do the lettering! Choosing the stickers sounds fun!

Muku: Okay, then can I try picking out our kimonos?

Izumi: Sounds good to me. Go off, you two.

Tsuzuru: In that case, I’ll be in charge of the arrangement. That’ll affect the overall impression, so I’ll think it over carefully.

Izumi: Thanks. I’ll get everyone’s advice, so let’s do that together.

-pause-

Taichi: Hmm…

Izumi: (It’s Taichi-kun. It looks like he’s writing something…)

Taichi: Ah, Director-sensei! Can I speak with you for a sec?

Izumi: Sure. Could this be about the ideas for the text on the New Year’s cards?

Taichi: Yep! I’ve been wracking my brain over what words to include… Last year, you guys wrote the characters “Happy New Year”, and I thought that looked cool. But it looks like those were written by Juza-san with a brush pen.

Izumi: Yeah. Juza-kun’s calligraphy is cool, isn’t it?

Taichi: And so, I was wondering if it would be better to include kanji, like “New Year’s Greetings”, too.

Izumi: Hey now, you’re the one in charge of it this time, Taichi-kun. I think something with your taste will be great, even if it’s not kanji. Besides, I want to see the words that you came up with.

Taichi: Hehe. I’m happy to hear that! So I started jotting stuff down on this page… Which one do you like?

Izumi: Wow, you’re written a lot! All of them look awesome. It’s hard to choose… …But this one has your vibe, so I’d say I like this one.

Taichi: Got it! I’ll try arranging it with this base!

Izumi: Yay, I can’t wait.

Hisoka: …Are you going now, Director?

Izumi: Ah, perfect timing. I was just about to pay you a visit, Hisoka-san.

Taichi: Are you gonna buy the postcards?

Hisoka: Yeah. I also want marshmallows while I’m at it.

Taichi: …That’s the main thing you’re aiming for, isn’t it!

Hisoka: Yeah.

Izumi: Alright, I’ll buy you some nice marshmallows as thanks for helping me with the shopping today.

Hisoka: …Really? I’m so happy. Thanks.

Izumi: Fufu. Keep it a secret from Homare-san.

Hisoka: Sure. I’ll eat them secretly.

Taichi: That’s great, Hisoka-san! Take care, you two!

Hisoka: We’ll be off.

Izumi: See you!

---

| next

[perplexingly]

Hi I noticed something specific that really prevalent in your art which is sort of the charm and unexpected shapes thats hard to get without looking at real life or references. the grounded/personable feel. This is something I really like and is specifically something I want to get better at. Is there some sort of technique you go through or often draw off references? its really cool!

Ohh is it about clothing folds, or something else?

If it’s about clothes, there’s multiple things that come together for that effect I think.

Yes, I do use references a lot (whether from looking in the mirror - which I have a body sized one by my desk, or photos, or old master’s paintings; also by the way a great thing about folds is that you don’t need to find references in the exact same pose as you’re drawing - you can just find references of a similar garment that is bending in a vaguely the same direction and transpose that onto your pose).

But, also, my style is very simplistic and I rarely do any shading, which means that if I do things that don’t make much sense but have pleasant shapes, it’ll look ok. I did study composition and shape language a lot in the past, and I think it helps on a smaller scale too. I hope that answers at least a bit 💦

[darkerknowledge]

OPEN DND ONE SHOT ON DISCORD

Hello, I’m planning on running ‘Prisoner 13′ from the upcoming dnd book ‘Keys from the Golden Vault’ on Friday the 17th of February at 6:30 PM CST. I will be the DM. I’m looking for 4-5 people to join me as adventurers! If you are interested, there’s more information below the cut.

How does dnd on discord work? It’s a lot like in person play, I will narrate, you will interact with your fellow party members during exploration/roleplaying. Combat is the only thing different since we won’t have physical battle maps and minis to use.  How will combat work?  I will have a hand drawn map that I will stream via webcam. I don’t paint minis, so it’s a lot of ‘this is a dragon, this is you, what happens?’ Do I have to show my face on discord to a bunch of strangers?  Nope! I won’t be. Are you LGBTQ+ friendly? Yes! Will this be a good space for women? Also yes! Age requirement?  18+ preferred, not out of any explicit reasons, but when everyone is over 18 it makes it easier. If you are younger, let me know as we will talk about it and mention it to the table so nothing inappropriate happens. How much does this cost?  A whopping 0 dollars! Are you a good DM? I had a dnd show for awhile, I wrote content for dnd as a freelancer for a third party publisher for awhile, and I’ve been DMing for four years this summer! I’ve had players stick around long enough to finish 3 campaigns, and that number keeps climbing! I’m not very experienced, is that okay? Sure, as long as your familiar enough with the terminology, we can work together. If you’ve watched a dnd show like Critical Role or Dimension 20, you should be good. I am newbie friendly!  Why are you blazing a post for a one shot?  I want to meet cool dnd friends, and I’m hoping after a trial run of one shots, if we all like each other, it’ll turn into a weekly or biweekly campaign! How long will the game be?  I’m not sure, there’s all sorts of ways the game could be short or go longer. I’ll confer with everyone on how long they can stay, and find a good stopping place if it goes on too long. Then we will do a part 2 if you all want to. You needn’t worry about having to go to bed and the rest of us playing. Will there be a session 0?  Yes and no. For a one shot, I don’t think we need to meet up beforehand, but there will be safety tools in place (such as lines and veils) and what I call ‘hard-no’s’.  What is a hard-no? There are a few things that I as a DM am uncomfortable with running, and therefore won’t. For example, explicit roleplay. This will be covered by a ‘fade to black’ if it even comes up (it probably won’t.) If you had to rate your content like a movie what rating would it be? Pg-13 that allows you to say ‘fuck’ more often than just once. I cuss a lot, but less out of anger and more filling in my sentences.  Can I play homebrew?  Not for a one shot. The limit is officially published classes/subclasses/species/subspecies with stuff Matt Mercer made by approval.  Is there anything banned? Yeah, Silvery Barbs and bigotry. 

What if I want to play the one shot but not the campaign you’re looking to start? Yeah, that’s fine. This isn’t a contract.  Can I talk with the other players to build a better team composition?  If you all are the type of players to want to build a group together, you are more than welcome. However, you should be able to go through the one shot playing whatever you like. I will balance for the party rather than the last person who joins getting pushed to healer if there isn’t one already. Your fun is important! If you want to be a tiefling warlock and we have 2 other warlocks, then who cares? ELDRITCH BLAST FOR DAYS, YO! Can my friend join? Yeah, if there’s room.  What if I really want to play and miss an open slot?  The more the merrier, I say. I’m also building a discord server for dnd nerds to have fun, so you could join that one and play something else! What are your inspirations? I love horror, but this isn’t a horror game. What I like about the fantasy genre is how cinematic it can be. It’s fun to narrate, like jumping in the air and bringing an axe down on the dragon’s head while it tries to shake you off, but you hold on! That’s epic! I love that, but I also love down to earth character moments, too. Your party slayed the ancient dragon and now have its hoard. Do you keep it and run? Do you pay off your debt to the Thieves’ Guild? Or are you Robin Hood types? What happens when all three of those are in the same party? Nicholas Eames, writer of Kings of the Wyld and Bloody Rose, is pretty similar to how my games feel, but with a lot less wink-wink-nudge-nudge third wall breaking.  What if my question wasn’t answered here? I’m here to answer questions. My ask box and my direct messages are open! 

[sunburnacoustic]

1, 16, 19, 21, 34, 35, and 48 😊

Hi @domwhoreward!! Thanks for this, it was fun, it was hard! It gave me an excuse to think about Muse a lot :P

1. What's your favourite live performance?

It’s so hard to pick… I will try answering this as favourite live shows in general, and specific songs I thought were freakishly good at a particular gig. I can't say any one is my one-and-only favourite because as soon as I hit publish, something else will land into my head and I won't be able to pick 😅

I think New Born live at the Mayan in 2015 is contender for one of the best recent live performances of the song, and the Mayan for one of their best live gigs overall! Pitch perfect. That show took my breath away. It’s also got the coolest outro on Assassin that is so heavy and just bonkers good, and Chris' backing vocals on Apocalypse Please (!!). Good gig. Everything about this gig was great. Madness live in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, 2012! Popcorn on Taratata, just because they’re having so much fun it makes the performance 25x more fun to watch! Space Dementia live at Pinkpop 2002! One day I will go digging and find that clip again, but Matt had the smuggest grin on his face having nailed that piano chorus outro. Showoff lol. They were excellent at that show! And of course, Glastonbury 2004. Wembley 2007. Unmatched quality. They're an excellent live band; like 97% of their gigs are of the quality that most bands would clamour to call the pinnacle of their own careers. It's a normal night for Muse. No one comes close.

(This Warchild UK performance is a strong contender too)

[This isn't technically a live gig but an in-store signing session, but I can see the raised eyebrows coming if I don't mention it because it is literally in my url for a reason - 1999 HMV Bristol in-store acoustic set. Sunburn, Cave, Muscle Museum. So good.]

16. Favourite Chris pic?

Ooh, this q is just asking for a Chris photo dump!

Some silly and cute baby era pics I really like!

Chris goth girl era from when Muse were in school (from the Origin of Muse booklet!)

Look at Chris swinging about!

Babysitting Matt with an NME award, what a sweetheart. Just want to mention what the article reviewing one of these gigs said: "While many gigs have ended with the guitars being thrown into the drums, this is the first time I've seen the bassist throw the guitarist at the drums." He big.

And just generally, smiley Chris pics are the best! Some other assorted pics from gigs and such that I like:

The drama in the first two! And Chris looking out for Dom, and just chilling with the band ♥️♥️

One of my absolute favourites though, and I’m biased towards this because Time Is Running Out at Wembley was one of the earliest Muse performances I saw when I first got into the band— this cemented my love for them! It’s got to be the moment at the end of the extended improvised Jimmy Jam riff intro to TIRO where Chris lifts his bass and points it to the crowd. Instantly changed my life. Infinitely cool. You want to be him. So that (series of image frames put into a gif) is my favourite picture of Chris!

Honorary mention: your pictures of Chris from this tour, which are excellent!!

19. Favourite photoshoot of the band?

I am a little crazy about most of their Black Holes era promotional work! That coordinated black-and-white shirts and coat jackets with braces look was such a vibe:

One of my favourites out of those is this surreal artsy photoshoot they did where they all pretended to have died (Dom probably did the most realistic job of it… Matt and Chris just looked like peacefully sleeping angels lol)

This Q photoshoot, of course:

Pink shirt photoshoot:

This one photoshoot, I don’t know when it’s from exactly but I loved the composition of it. Blue skies overhead, band unbothered, Matt in aviators. Lovely vibe, I had it in a folder of pictures I meant to print as posters for the longest time when I was younger!

And this one Resistance era photoshoot (that ended up on the album sleeve). I so badly wanted this as the full-length poster, but I was one era too late to the band. This one's my favourite!

21. Favourite wtf moment in an interview?

A few lol. The whole entire 2011 NME awards drunk interview (he's heading for gweatness, he's getting there but it's an uphill stwuggle), "pair of pink fluffy handcuffs" interview, "come to our gigs, anything could happen, I could kill Dom, I could get naked and fuck Chris" interview, "Dom's still doing lines of coke off models' tits" interview, deflated balls interview, fan interview where Matt insisted on having the socks the fans gifted them, and on the topic of socks:

(I have hit the 30 image limit, incredibly; I answered this last)

All the shit he said in Black Holes-era interviews... ([On being asked if the Queen was hot] "You know, when she was younger, in her prime. She might not look great on the £50 note, but she had her glory days.")

There are so many with this band!

34. Have you met any of the band (/if not, any favourite fan interaction/gig stories)?

Haven't met the band unfortunately, I'd be a changed person if I did I think. Meeting Muse will fix me (<- lies; it will break up and shake up my entire core I think).

But the gifts fans give them are always a favourite moment of mine! The fan giving Dom the Slipknot mask that gave us "sit the fuck down!" (well, she actually gave it to Matt, but he passed it on to Dom). The various shirts with edits of Dom fans have gifted Matt that he's worn on the road.

My favourite live interactions: when Muse interact with the crowd, play to them, smile at them (especially when Matt sings Starlight straight to fans in the front!), when they come down to the barricade. Chris going crowdsurfing at Glastonbury 2004.

These moments:

This last one isn't an interaction per se, but while we're on the subject of fans I must add this because it melts my heart into a puddle on the floor:

35. Favourite Muse moment that's overused in the fandom to literal meme status (e.g. fuck off you cunt, Soldier's Poem was on Absolution, anything at all from Panic Station, Hey You Crazy Kids!, etc.)

I am not immune to a bit of

To this day I still use Matt/Chris/Dom from Muse as my tag for all their silly moments and shenanigans because it still cracks me up, every single time. I've never been able to watch this video with a straight face, it'll never be overused to me 😅

48. Have you made friends through Muse fan communities?

😊😊😊😊😊♥️♥️♥️ yes, I have! I met all of you, had the best gig of my life, and made some amazing friends that have stuck by me outside of just Muse fan-ning together!

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (26/02/23)

I read a buncha stuff and it’s only been increasing over time and I like yapping about it so gonna start making a post like this every sunday (jump day) so I can dump all my thoughts for the week, stuff is in the order I read it in (best stuff last for the stuff that comes out on sunday), tho sometimes something will be at the top if I did a big catch up or there’s a new series obviously there’s gonna be spoilers under cut sometimes tho not like I expect anyone to actually read these but and sometimes I don’t have much to say about stuff but yeah. tho since this is the first it’s mostly just my overall opinion on them (especially the jump stuff) if something isn’t on here it’s cause I’m either not reading it, or not caught up yet (most likely the latter)

Dandadan Ch94

I was very unsure about dandadan in the first chap cause it made me a bit uncomfortable but it’s actually really good. it’s stupid how incredibly good the art is for a weekly series. it’s currently trucking along a training arc, so not much happened, but all that talk about spirals got my ttgl loving ass very interested in what okarun gonna do in the future

Jojo: The Hol Horse/Josuke spinoff Ch13

I actually started reading this right after I finished P8 cause “well it’s more jojo and there’s only like 11 chaps so not gonna take that long to catch up anyway” and it’s p decent for not being written by araki. as for this chap, ryoko finally saw kakyoin so it’s gonna end sooner than later, tho I obviously never expected it to be that long only 2 or 3 vols, tho I gotta say I’ve really enjoy the characterization they gave dio and showing him recruit his goons from part 3

One Punch Man Ch177

OPM is one of my favourite manga ever so I don’t think there’s much else for me to say. saitama fighting tatsumaki has been very pog, excited to continue seeing this fight, I love tatsumaki so all these recent chaps have been a treat, especially that panel in 176 where saitama squishes her against his chest OOF

Tokyo Underworld Ch32

it’s like an isekai gory survival game,it’s nothing to write home about but it’s also not bad enough to drop and I love danganronpa so I thought it could scratch that itch (it didn’t but oh well). as for the chap, I thought having leonidas and jeanne to go up against was already bad enough for the protags but now cao cao showed up too so good luck to them

Choujin X Ch35

the newest manga from tokyo ghoul’s author, chapters come out when they’re ready and sometimes they’re crazy long cause of that. it’s kinda hard to keep track of cause of that, and cause it’s ishida too lol, but it isn’t bad at all. this chap came after a 4 parter chapter, and it’s a 59 page one, calm down ishida. a big time skip huh? certainly didn’t expect it, chap was mostly the aftermath of the previous battle and then a fastforward in time to where we are now the final shot was cool tho 

PPPPPP Ch70 (Finale)

from the start I never liked the art and never cared about any of the characters. I used to have it at a 5 but I bumped it down to 4 cause I didn’t care about the ending either, especially the rushing to “resolve” the other brothers’ stories in the last few chaps which even ignored some of them. the story was ok at best but way too confusing and hard to follow at some points, even if you didn’t read it weekly but all back to back. all the performances looked cool at least

Ichigoki’s Under Control!! Ch12

it’s a gag manga so it really depends on your sense of humour, but I think it’s really bad, and most people seem too since it always places so low in the rankings. last chap had a huge timeskip so hopefully it’s ending soon. 

The Ichinose Family's Deadly Sins Ch14

another one I haven’t liked since the start. it’s way too edgy for my taste, recently it’s moved on from being edgy for the sake of it and actually doing stuff, but it also feels like it’ll end soon so I’m thankful for that. it has some cool panel composition sometimes tho

Ginka & Glüna Ch23

while the art, especially the action, is good looking most of the time the rest of the manga doesn’t really do anything special and it’s gonna get axed sooner than later so rip to the author

Fabricant 100 Ch11

another one that’ll prob get axed soon. the art isn’t bad, reminds me of fma tbh, but it’s p boring since the mc’s sidekick is so much more powerful than the enemies, the arc from the last few chaps was a bit more interesting and today’s chap wasn’t bad but still not enough to save it I think.

Jiangshi X Ch6

the art’s good but it has felt pretty generic so far, tho today’s chapter moved the plot along a bit so we’ll see, this isn’t on the jump mag so no risk of it getting axed too soon like some other stuff

Tokyo Demon Bride Story Ch24

it’s a shame that’s it getting axed soon instead of one of the 4 I mentioned before. the art’s great, all the designs are fun and the charas are likeable

Cipher Academy Ch13

the nisio series, which I always joke about being rough for the translator, that actually made the current translator quit lmao. while it’s not a series for everyone it’s doing alright in rankings so I hope it sticks around for a good while, I always enjoy getting some nisio stuff when it’s possible. today’s chap had a neat development too

Witch Watch Ch98

a very cute chap today, good for nico finally having some time alone with moi

Blue Box Ch90

I was actually very unsure of blue box when I started it cause if feels so shoujo-y but I actually ended up really liking it a lot and I’m invested in taiki and natsu. today’s chap was incredible too oh my god 

Mashle Ch145

it’s getting an anime in april! and it’s prob gonna adapt the whole manga cause it’ll end soon! it starts off as a comedy manga making fun of “magic school” series but it eventually becomes a very pog battle manga, while still retain some of it’s comedy. it’s currently on the battle against the final villain so not much more left.

The Elusive Samurai Ch99

Matsui’s 3rd series and 3rd hit wao! it’s only a matter of time til it gets an anime too so that’s an incredible track record for him. it’s a period piece with matsui’s usual flair to it, the art is very good, especially some of the more detailed panels he pulls off sometimes. today introduced some new characters and set up the mcs to get some power ups next chap, the big 100, so that was fun

Sakamoto Days Ch108

one of the best things on jump rn and probably getting an anime announcement sometimes this year. I like to describe it as “anime john wick”. the fight coreography, set pieces and everything is just some of the best in any manga, not even just now but that I’ve read ever. really hope it gets picked up by a studio that doesn’t half ass it cause it deserves the love.

Akane-banashi Ch51

currently my favourite series in jump by a long shot!! it’s crazy too cause when it started I was like “eh how are they gonna pull off a manga about rakugo”but they did, oh boy did they. it got recommendations from both oda AND anno on vol 1 and 2 so you know it’s something special. please read it if you haven’t yet. today’s chap was very good as usual, it was the backstory of akane’s main rival

Ayakashi Triangle Ch121

yabuki’s, of TLR fame, newest series, it doesn’t have as many lewd moments but it has more action to make up for it. I really enjoy it at lot but ofc I do it’s yabuki how could I not, his art is just a treat to look at and he knows how to make entertaining manga