#dont know a lot abt tango

[sweetvalentinescandy]

grian live on The Red Tour 2013

[watcheraurora]

u did that reblog abt talking abt ur fics so now ur subjected to me

Tango is so fucking cool in all of your goddamn fanfictions. like every time everything he does is so genuis coded which means your a genuis. genuis in fiction. And i fcuking love how fucking comic codded this is. like cartoonish i love it and i love that you play in that willingly.

and wdym TANGO FROZE THE CUFFS TO GET OUT ughhh i hate that man he should've died in the finale (i dont mean that) and oh my god him coming back as deepfrost ughhh

I love empires studio and Jimmy beign a backround artist and seeing colors in people. colors are so beautiful and soft and that's just so him ya know,,,, I can imagine Tango spent DAYS analysing his work sometimes. He'd go super brained and be like "this color is because of... joel being an asshole!" and Jimmy would be like "it's actually because of martyn..." and tango would be like ughghghghhg

also that clip about tango doing the 288 math in zed's episode. totally thought about your tango then. i was like "does he really have 160 IQ?????" lmfao. i fucking forever love ice walls

you know me and my dang love for healing light and my dang impatience for part two. Im so fucking excted (this goes out to inferna too)

Firewalls. is it evil of me to hope that tango burns Jimmy's wings. even a little bit. just a little bit. for the shits and giggles.

We need more of grian lore i cannot stress this enough grian is like that badass character in a cartoon (maybe bcz he is but oh well)

Foundation is <3 angel is sososo pretty (i have never seen her in my life) and im so excited for the LOREE i keep imaging her and scar in a bus in the middle of the night going to grian's since thazt chapter dropped and UGH.

I'm fine with that XD I love talking about my fics XD

This got long so it's under the cut

Thank you! I try to lean into the cartoonish vibes as much as I can! It helps keep things a little lighter and, to me personally, more fun. I'm really tired of "gritty, grimdark" superhero stories that have come about in recent decades don't get me started on what they've done to Batman and even Superman (sob) so I try to make mine capture the whimsy and fun of "if I had powers, I'd use them to help" as much as I can

As for Tango's genius, I do really struggle with it, but thank you, I appreciate the compliment

Yeah, Tango freezing the cuffs to get out was, I'll admit, a little Elsa-from-Frozen but I didn't even think about Frozen when I was writing it XD I was just thinking "Oh some metal gets really brittle when it gets cold and Tango is cold and he can't freeze" so I did the same thing XD

I don't know why I made Jimmy a background artist, tbh. It just kinda suited him in my head. Not the center of attention but still an appreciated part of the process without which nothing would be as good and immersive. And I liked that for how Jimmy and Sheriff are in this universe. (And, yeah, Tango doesn't always understand what Jimmy's color analysis choices are but he enjoys it nonetheless)

Honestly I think ccTango is a lot more intelligent than he gives himself credit for and I'm perfectly content to perpetuate that in the fics I write. Because, yeah, holy cow that's actually a sheep, Tango /ref that math was fast. Like I can do long multiplication in my head too but not that fast

@infernafiresword Passing along the love for Healing Light! We're working on Part 2 we promise. I just kinda got infected by Perfection/Saint and took a few weeks off every other project to get it finished and written but once it's done (and it's close) I will be going back to Healing Light 2 and Burn Out 2

Oh part 2 of Walls of Fire will have lots of shenanigans, but I can't tell you what happens to Jimmy's wings because spoilers

Oh Grian Lore? Okay. Here's a fun fact about Ice Walls!Grian: there is one (1) very specific reason Grian decided to try having friends again after being mostly alone for thousands of years when a 14-year-old Jimmy declared that they would be friends. I might be toying with revealing it in Walls of Fire 2 though so I'm not going to say what that very specific reason was just yet (but if I don't include it for whatever reason, come yell at me and I'll tell you then lol). It had something to do with Jimmy and his personality, and that's all I'll say

I have also never seen Angel in my life but she's pretty in my head too 😊 It's very dear to me when people enjoy and like Angel - she's my sweetie

[wassupmygays]

ummm hello I would like way more about hunger games au pls I'll take anything wheres Jimmy where's Tango wheres Scar from I will take whatever you give me I will go feral over this thank you

!!!! ok first off i just wanna say u made my day with this ask im so excited that other people r excited abt this and want to hear my explosions (also i definitely want to make individual profile posts for each tribute so this will be. sparknotes of what i have thought up so far :D) Tango - i have tango in district 3, along with mumbo. district 3 is the technology district, and with mumbos redstone contraptions and tango's decked out programming, it felt very obvious placements to me :] i dont think they were very close at all before the games. not in a bad way, just they didn't cross eachothers paths all that much (subject to change but in life series canon theyre never on the same team iirc). theyre cordial in the proceedings before the games but dont train together or plan to team up. tango, skizz, and bigb eventually ally together during the training days before the games! (aka heart foundation) Jimmy - jimmy and scar are actually from the same district, district 11! 11 is the agriculture district, and to place jimmy in this district i pulled from his ranchers and empires sheriff vibes if that makes sense. i also just know that 11 is one of the poorest districts and doesn't usually do well in the games, and we all know jimmy in these games. (i considered jimmy in 12 bc of the canary thing, but skizz and impulse r from there and i figured putting him somewhere else is fun too!) scar - as said above, scar is from district 11! i don't think he is expected to do super well in the games from the reaping, but during interviews its clear that he has the charisma to get some sponsors. i honestly haven't thought up all that much for scar yet but dw i will (he literally wins. how could i ignore him) fun fact! scar and jimmy were going to kind of team together, but during the first day of training, scott (career tribute) makes some joke to gem about how they wouldnt stand a chance if they teamed together bc of their district. jimmy let this get in his head and decided to split from scar, causing both of them to be loners at the start of the games. jimmy eventually finds martyn during the games and they ally bc of reasons (that i can get into if we want to), but scar stays relatively alone honestly most of these tributes and their district placements are pretty set in my mind, except for martyn, cleo, and bigb, who i still can't figure out where to put (if anyone has suggestions pls send them lmao). ive got some bits and plot points from the series already worked out into a hunger games universe, but a lot of it i dont! if theres any specific part of the series anyone wants to ask about, please do!! i work best when someone tells me what to brainstorm on lmao. anyways lol hope yall r liking this! i dont have any clue if it will gain any traction, but i've been thinking abt this au so much since the finale and i wanted to try and share it and talk about it with people :D pls send comments or asks abt any of it if you want to !!!

[definitelynotshouting]

I have a question about the earlier chapters of LITD, it's been eating at my brain a bit thinking about it.

Basically i've been wondering if Grian would have died without intervention after the weakness potions? All the HC crew made it sound like Grian was dying like on deaths door, and everyone had to work to make sure he didn't in fact die because of the potions. So did Grian underestimate how weak he was and three potion's really might have been enough to kill him? Or did it just look like he was dying from the HC crew's perspective?

(ps also i'm obsessed with the LITD playlist and i'm listening to it nonstop and therorizing what might happen based on the song choices and also you have a banger taste in music aaaaaa)

This is such an excellent question!!! So Grian wasnt actively dying from the weakness potions-- my thoughts on potions and Watchers is that they just kinda interact a bit weirdly with Watcher biology, because they're created with Player utility code in mind and those are two separate codes inside two separate entities. Kinda like if you tried to give an alien aspirin; it might not be very effective, it might just plain kill them, it all sorta depends on how they would metabolize it and a million other factors.

The important point is that Grian took three weakness, which could absolutely kill a Player (and was indeed dangerous for him to take in his weakened state), and since the hermits at this point knew basically nothing about Watchers and Watcher biology, they treated the situation the way they would if another Player took the same amount. That combined with how physically frail and emaciated he looks, it really appeared that he was actively dying from the potions, and they didnt have the information necessary to understand that wasnt the case.

In many ways they still dont know a lot about Grian's situation, so they're coming at his care from the perspective of another Player. Its why Tango is so willing to believe him when he says he'll need five health potions to somewhat recover-- none of them know whether or not thats a lie, bc they know next to nothing about Watchers and how they work yet!!

Sjdbejdjd i hope this answered your question alright!!! This was a pretty long answer but i have to overexplain things or i will Die /silly

(also i am SO happy you like the playlist, i could write dissertations abt this playlist, i curate this playlist SO CAREFULLY and i have wildly specific criteria for it, its a labor of pure love and even unfinished-- bc its missing some VITAL scenes to be represented at this point in time-- it is smth i am still so deeply proud of :] so i am very happy you like it!!!! :D thank you so much for such a nice compliment!!)

[puer-aurea]

been thinking abt a fully fleshed out mercenary au since i posted that oneshot for sixth day of christmas so.... heres a drabble

jimmy and martyn are, ofc, human mercenaries who call themselves the big dogs so they can seem scarier than they really are. theyre mostly homeless theres a rumour abt a witch who lives in the woods and everyone thinks its lizzie but when they show up shes like "oh no thats scar!" and points to her very eccentric and flamboyant neighbor who lives across the river. scar looks NOTHING like a witch but when you go in, you come back out with exactly the potion you wanted, several others you didnt actually need, significanctly less money than what you went in with, and absolutely no memory of actually being inside and making the purchase. hes incredibly suspicious but godDAMN do his potions and crystals work well skizz owns a building plaza named the heart foundation where he rents out sections to people for their stores (yk like those buildings that are connected stores?? i really hope this makes sense). tango is his assistant as well as bigb but bigb is super weird and disappears a lot. tango was the one to suggest the coffee shop idea that martyn overheard. skizz is an angel and tango is an imp lizzie and scar own one of the spaces where they sell very normal things like farm produce and things that would usually be hard for the other members of the community to get like amethyst and food enchanted with elven magic. as well as very specific bones lizzie has found (no, she will NOT tell you where she got them, yes they are organic, she declines to answer if they are ethically sourced). scar is an elf which is why he's able to sell elven enchanted food. the roomies own one of the store spaces and mostly sell wool products but theyve started farming cotton in hopes of expanding their market. they live together on a farm with a fence covered in vines surrounding it so the animals can wander about sometimes. since they sell wool products, they have a lot of sheep, so when they need the sheep back in their pen they hire mercenaries to do it for them. cleo is the only zombie in the community and, while grian was mentioned as an avian in the oneshot, hes actually going to be a fae. everyone thinks etho is a human but he barely leaves home so cleo and grian are the only ones who know for sure whether or not he is gem is the girl who just moved in with the dream of starting a band. she ends up with an imp and an angel both named scott and they call themselves gem and the scotts. they rent one of skizz's spaces for a studio and gem lives in the apartment above it. impulse, scott the imp, lives in a cave, and scott the angel lives in a cottage on the edge of the woods (so not as far in as lizzie and scar) the mounders live in 4 big old creepy houses that look completely different on the inside than they do outside. its also a 'gated' community but they dont care enough to enforce it. mumbo and pearl are both vampires, bdubs is a fae, and joel is an elf. ren is also around to add more people to their little community even tho this uses the alliances made in secret life. he lives in a smaller house a little ways away from scott's cottage. he seems human enough but theres a rumor that he's a werewolf. no one really knows what bigb and lizzie are, scott even introduces them to gem as the 'suspicious weirdos' and cleo and grian joke that not even they know what they are.

[rexregistries]

im quitting smut & everything nsfw!!

like straight up, cold-turkey, quitting. so far, we're 20 hours in.

heres why

this is gonna get REALLLL personal, buckle in.

i know not many ppl will see this, but its nice to just get it out.

tw: online sexual grooming and me being a minor thru it all

basically, im gonna talk abt how this all started (i should REALLY be doing homework right now, but i need to get it off my chest, and i only have 1 assignment left)

please bear with me! i only recently remembered all of this, and most of it is still terribly foggy, and hopefully shall stay that way.

when i was 8, i entered into a friendship with a 26-year-old man on roblox. we met thru our mutual like for percy jackson & the olympians, and i met him on a pjo role-playing game on roblox. mind you, roblox filter about 8 years ago was almost nonexistent.

the man, sam (found this out years into my "relationship" w him, to me he was cookie [cookieflame546]), asked my age when i first met him. i knew about stranger danger, obviously i did, i was born a girl. but i gave him my age anyway. so he knew.

this relationship lasted 5 years. 8 years old to 13 years old.

it started okay! we'd roleplay together, nothing too bad! the real trouble began when one of my ocs went into a romantic relationship with one of his ocs. he asked me if i knew anything about sex (the deed, the dirty, the devils tango, he called it something else that i dont remember) and i said no. obviously i didnt, i was 8.

he offered to teach me stuff, and i said ok. i trusted him for some reason. (NO GIRL STOPPP)

and boy. BOY, did he teach me stuff.

he bought a private server JUST to have sex w me. i'd go online, roleplay a little with my other online friends (who were my age, maybe 1 or 2 years older), and then once sam got on, i'd go to the private server. it happened maybe three times a week, i think? we'd roleplay w other people normally most of the time. i got discord at 10, because he asked me to.

when it started getting really, really, actually terrible (more than it already was) was when i got into the hamilton fandom in 2020. (also, since covid was happening, i was on everyday, so we interacted a lot more)

"kal, y is hamilton important?" well, when i got into hamilton, i got into wattpad. when i got into wattpad, i got into smut. when i got into smut, i got into actual fucking porn. at the ripe age of 12 years old.

i was so proud of my newfound knowledge. i wanted to show him all i knew. the sex got worse. he'd find ways to bypass the increasingly strong filter, and so would i.

the only thing im glad for is that he never sent nsfw pics, and neither did i.

it started tapering off once i got into 8th grade. i had more homework, i couldnt be on as much. we still had those little sessions, but they were more infrequent.

(BUT, in his place, came another friend. his name is alex. hes a year older than me, and we roleplayed almost exclusively sexually together. outside of roleplay, we would also message sexually on discord. some of got disturbing when i look back on it [he said he would find my address, climb into my window, and fuck me. bro i am 12 years old]

me and alex fell out of contact for a long time [something something i used to be really homophobic and our entire friendgroup, excluding him and i, was queer]. we say hi hello when hes online on discord, but we dont talk anymore)

slowly, me and sam went back into a regular friendship. we didn't talk for months, other than the occasional hi, hello, hru, im good. i stopped roleplaying, he didnt.

and then my brain decided "yooooo wait this was kinda bad.......im gonna make them forget it >:]"

and i did! i forgot about it. and then in freshmen year, at a winter camp for school, it all came rushing back. i cried about it to one of my closest friends (they moved, but we still talk. if ur seeing this joey [ur prob not], the second im 18 we r gonna see each other istg!!!!), and they told me to block him. i did.

i havent spoken to him since.

and then my brain did another little silly and said "im gonna make them forget it again!! >:]"

and guess what! i forgot about it again.

until i sat by myself, just having finished a brutal smut fic, crying, because, man, why the fuck was i like this? why cant i stop reading and watching and looking at this horrible shit? because it was ruining me! it really was! (it still is, but we're working on it)

andddddddd it came rushing back again.

finally, an answer! thats why im like this!

my most formative years were filled with sex! thats why im obsessed with it!

i know im partly to blame. i enabled myself by actively looking for nsfw. but im trying to fix that.

thank u for ur time :]

[aquaquadrant]

i dont know if this makes sense to anyone else or if its just me. but villainous thing by shayfer james is So perfect for your hels to pay au. like

"welcome, won't you come inside?"- can be a lot of things, like atlas's welcoming facade to tango and bravo to get them into his trap, and also the whole 'smiling while i beat the everloving Shit out of you" vibe of papa al's mansion

"suddenly you're very near as i prefer you"- atlas keeping tango imprisoned so he can keep his property

"you have always been a delicate disaster / fine of fire and of frame"- other than just the fire part writing itself. i think this can mean the amount of tests hels tek had to do to break tango and just atlas kinda knowing tango doesnt like him but he doesnt rly care

"oh dear, let me see those smokey eyes / 'cause you're a villainous thing / and we cant have you living a lie"- the ...racism?? idk hybrid discrimination all around hels tek aka. how atlas doesnt care abt tango as a person bc of his blaze roots. also just like smokey eyes?? the fire imagery in this song is AH

"while they wait by gates of pearl / we'll be building castles in purgatory"- THIS IS HELS. also this can mean papa al's mansion, hels tek, and any other like monolith in hels bc while everyone else is scraping by to survive they have all the power

"and you'll find no ever after here / it's clear this isn't what you came for / i'll be your puckish puppeteer / on this delightful little detour"- atlas trying to pitch his uh. business model to bravo. aka asking him to do the bidding of hels tek with a promise that he can go to hermitcraft

SORRY IF THIS ASK IS TOO LONG I JUST GOT RLY EXCITED WHEN I LISTENED TO THIS SONG (its very good. also i think the general tone/vibe of it matches with that nasty showman glamour.)

and i love your au, it snuck in the walls of my brain and camped out there so uh thanks LOL /lh <33

OHHHH his this is so cool!!! i’ve never heard shayfer james before, that song has some really cool jaunty vibes 💃 and YESSS i can absolutely see this fitting the au!! atlas in particular matches so well with that shady showman feel like you said, and your analysis is spot on.

and BTDUBS don’t apologize for sending long stuff like this y’all, i absolutely love it!! warms my heart to know ppl enjoy the au <3

[digiships]

4, 8, and 11 for the smfs ask game with john doe!! >:))

AAAAUAUAUGAHA OH I HAVENT TALKED ABT DOE IN SO LONGGGG DANNY YOURE EVERYTHING. THAN K YOU FOR GIVING ME THE EXCUSE

4: "Fake Out" - It’s 3 AM. What are you and your f/o doing at that time? Are you asleep? If you’re awake, what are you doing?

doe is awake. i can tell you that no matter what doe is very much awake bc he shrimply doesnt sleep. she likes to watch Me sleep. unblinking. for hours. if im awake though im probably playing the sims so they kinda cling to my back like a koala and watch over my shoulder

8: "I Am My Own Muse" - What are some lyrics you believe perfectly summarizes your ship with you and your f/o?

ok you have to forgive that these are creep ass lyrics but its bc doe is a creep and i love them for it . stalkers tango is the obvious choice but also the chorus to Meant To Be Yours (specifically the west end version To Me i know the lyrics arent different but the Performance jamie muscato gives is much more doe to me). like "You were meant to be mine! / I am all that you need! / You carved open my heart! / Can't just leave me to bleed!" HELLO? YOU CARVED OPEN MY HEART?? VERY DOE TO ME

11: "The Kintsugi Kid (Ten Years)" - What’s one thing your f/o has learned from you? It could be a skill, a certain topic you know a lot about, anything really. And vice versa— what’s something you have learned from them?

he learned how to. Brush. in general. his teeth And his hair. she doesnt like to do it very often but theyll brush their teeth at least once a day now However Briefly . they also learned A Lot abt computers :)

he taught me how to find my way around the city :) cus yk. uncanny valley is kinda hard to Map and its very easy to lose your way if you dont pay attention. and i think also how to cut up an animal

[wyvern-of-whimsy]

Mortal Toys is a good angsty jim fic abt his toy-ness

The empires superpowers au is VERY MATURE and angsty but honestly the writing is impeccable. MAKE SURE YOU READ THE TAGS THO!! (Also flower husbands)

Ghosts!! is a good phasmophobia au featuring rancherduo, you dont have to know abt phasmo to read

Icy Hearts and Gentle Fires is another rancherduo (can u tell i like them) where jimmy and co get stuck in Decked Out 2

You are Gold to Me by the same person as the one before this is rancherduo where tango lives in the nether. Great worldbuilding here

The first chapter of Missing You is Bittersweet (Wouldn't Miss You for the World) is rancherduo angst, jimmy isnt here directly but its sad. Also this was a gift for me from an event!!

I havent read what lurks in coal mines entirely, but its definitely angsty! :)

Honestly just going thru the jimmy is a toy tag will get u a lot, but b warned theres a lot of body horror

This is just what i had in my bookmarks/what i read recently, hope it helps!!

Side note while i was scrolling thru my bookmarks i remembered this gem: A Romance Route for the Doomed Villain?!? is not jimmy-centric, but its a hilarious fic abt ren/martyn isekai in a bdubs dating sim XD

anyone got any good jimmy angst fic recs? or just cool empires fic recs?

[calibornedits]

Can you possibly do some 3rd/Last/Double Life characters as Homestuck/Vast Error panel edits please?

Specifically Desert Duo(Grian + Scar), Treebark Duo(Martyn + Ren), Rancher Duo(Jimmy and Tango) and/or Murder Trio(Grian, Scar and Mumbo)? :3c

All as trolls if you can! Sorry if that’s a lot (^^;)

Take your time and don’t stress yourself out with them too! I just found your art today and I’m in love :D

i would do all of them but i started running out of ideas 4 designs smh. spreading my jade scar and purple grian propaganda

ranting abt my designs and whatever lore i have for this au under the cut :dances:

ok ok so. i have a lot of stuff 4 grian so far so im gonna start with him.

first of all his horns r supposed to be somewhat like the evo symbol. shortly after the last edit he got kicked out of the brooding caverns early and they just kinda gave him over to whatever cult represents the watchers here. also it's my au and i get to decide what old grian content is canon. yhs is too. one of his horns got ripped out by sam while they were both like 3 sweep olds. also he dresses like a rust instead of a purple (w the makeup instead of facepaint. slay) because something something not wanting to associate with the other purplebloods.

for scar uhhhh. i just think he fits rlly well as a jade. cannot explain why. maybe it's lanque but he just gives me male jade vibes. also jellie is his lusus and thats important and everyone needs to know this. his whole story with jellie is kinda like crytum and platycat (if u havent played all of sbb, he never had a lusus and then got a cat one for emotional support after moving to the stronghold). scar's horns r also based off allay wings and i think they r rlly cool :D

i made mumbo a gold and i was gonna make his eyes red like redstone, but i thought he fit more like jentha with whatever the fuck she had going on. his horns r supposed to be redstone torches. dunno where he fits in the present though (ie second edit) maybe he died idk.

i have less 2 say abt ren and martyn since i dont remember much from 3l but i am so insane abt them. ren as a rust and martyn as an indigo :shoutpole: GET THIS. ren takes sestros place as ceo of the world basically but his second in command is on the complete other side of the spectrum. idk if the differing lifespan thing is canon in ve (like it is in aleph null) but it WOULD be funny if it was.

[liloinkoink]

a few weeks ago i went thru the “where is your rider” 3L animatic by @aroaceacacia​ frame by frame in DMs to a friend to explain what i liked about, uh, nearly every image in the animatic, so just for fun ive collected and cleaned up my comments on it. i expanded on a bunch of the stuff i said previously and made it all sound more coherent. that said, this is a mix of analyzing the actual content (by someone who is not an artist) and just. pointing at frames i liked. 

we’ll start with these opening red frames! i am not fast enough to grab individual screenshots w how quickly they change (i just hit screenshot randomly and this was the one i got), but i think theyre all super pretty and i love the way the images changing is set so neatly to the song itself. plus. the red fading into black vignette and the slight smoky texture of the overlay is rlly nice. one day ill slow the video the hell down to see what the individual ones are, but the tnt minecart’s a favorite of mine, personally 

...i immediately went back and slowed the video down to minimum speed to look at the frames. here are some favorites

the tnt minecart! i mentioned it before but i am such a fan. for all i love the red army this IS still my favorite kill, sorry ren. this is a fun angle on it, too. it looks so small like this. i also think its really fun this is the frame which first gets the title 

i had never noticed this one before slowing this down but i love the inclusion of tango’s minigame! and the no pearl rule martyn got added, lmao

cleo beloved. this one is just looks nice. shes so pretty....also just fun considering this bit seems to include a bunch of significant moments from the beginning-to-middle of the series, inciting incidents for the red king to rise. cleo asking ren to keep this secret is definitely one of the bigger parts of that, so this is a neat one

when this one zipped by i’d assumed that it was cleo taking pizza, but looking at it now im realizing this is probably scar’s hand, isnt it? there arent stitches like cleo’s hand has, but there’s a scar more reminiscent of, well, scar. love when you can tell someone thru smth like that kinf of small detail 

this is the first panel of the entire animatic, which, fitting enough. ren gets his bloody crown. love the way the blood looks on this frame. (also, bc i was just talking abt minor details to identify hands, love ren’s watch)

i really love the way fire is drawn in this whole video. i dont have important commentary here i just Love fire. 

the brush texture for a lot of this whole video is rlly nice, i love the splotchy texture a lot of the backgrounds have / the fire here has. i dunno what its actually called but it reminds me of like, a sponge (i remind you i am NOT an artist)

obsessed w this frame. disembodied hands comin out of the grey. the & placed nicely in the middle of the handle of the axe. simple and very nice. also i love the edges getting lighter. this is just a real fun frame to me

now that pale white horse is our and we know this video is like, very much supposed to take place right after the trap set by the desert... like i know i knew this lyric was abt ren’s now-yellow eyes, but i dont think it really stood out to me till seeing it Right After pale white horse

MARTYN IN THE REFLECTION OF RENS GLASSES. scream. 

something im always fond of in writing is imagery about smiles when relating to a person’s identity... got a whole tma oneshot with a dozen and a half lines about smiles from a monster wearing the face of a friend. so i love this line, and i love the smile paired with ren’s glasses covering ren’s now-changed eyes. his eyes are different, but his smile’s the same...

love this frame also for obvious reasons (Guy Who Is Obsessed With Ren’s Execution) but god i just love the red mist on the axe. looks cool and is So effective in conveying how actively malicious this axe and the obligations attached to it feel. 

plus like. i know this animatic uses a limited color palette so blue isn’t in it. but it almost feels like the mist is so tangible it’s drained the blue color out of the diamond axe. which. Nice. 

also the angle is so fuckin nice for this too like. also, a down-below angle like this is one which i’ve heard in the past be referred to as the "hero's angle" (least when ive used it in photography?) and thats just. a fun detail to me, personally, for this shot

god. the axe looks so fuckin BIG when you do it from this angle. absolutely lovely shot its a favorite of mine probably (if i say that a lot dont call me on it)

i think me calling out this shot was definitely predictable Considering My Writing but [screaming and cheering] THIS IS SO GOOD. BOTH HOW ITS SET TO THE MUSIC PICKING UP AND ALSO THE FACT THAT THE CUT AND BLOOD SPRAY ARE SO CLEAN. THATS A CLEAN ONE HIT SHOT CONVEYED WITHOUT SHOWING THE ACTION AT ALL. I LOVE IT. another absolute favorite frame for sure

also love the red hair tie and streaks of red in his hair. but god. what a damn powerful hit this would have to be

i dunno what it is about this shot in particular but i love it. maybe the hair over his face? his posture? not sure but i am a really big fan. it looks like, idk, creepy? in a way the other ones of ren immediately following it arent (tho theyre also quite good) also the red lines on the crown make me think his crown is full of blood like. a cup. which is fun [since writing this i have set this frame as my icon on twitter] [i have also since realized that the red lines do indicate the crown is, in fact, full of blood]

i love him your honor

also the smoke coming in darker/thicker with ren as ren gets closer. ren’s face as Just The Teeth (wicked shape to your smile...).

the gesture he’s doing is also really fun like. very showy. its one i see in... a lot of scar fanart, honestly? which i think is fun. it feels really showy, absolutely screams arrogance/bravado. 

ive written before how i think a lot of the red king act ren put on was fear-fuelled theater, like. the red king was a defensive measure, a prey animal fluffing itself up to look bigger and scarier to fend off something that might devour it. a banner for a bunch of terrified people to band together under to be less afraid. that’s what this gesture is in my mind

JUST REALLY NICE. love ren as a red silhouette and martyn as a green one.

i reference this a lot later one so ill just say as much here: i love this animatic’s commitment to this limited color palette of red/yellow/green + monochromes. lends to some really clever stuff, especiallt when the colors are used to denote what life a player is on

OKAY. THIS SHOT...

AND THIS ONE

love the red mist/smoke at the edges. im so fuckin obsessed w that, it looks cool and ive made my opinion on this texture/effect very clear already, i love it. but also, i love the way martyn appears to be clearing it all away with his hand

like. this is the mist from the axe at the start. this is Red Life Bloodlust. this is ren hitting martyn and saying “go ahead, kill me again, you have the ability.” this is red name bloodlust encroaching in on martyn and ren. in the first of those two frames it’s closing in and then the second one hes waving it away 

none of that can make him hurt ren again

(...also i like that martyn’s hair is lined with red. looks nice)

and then the next frame its all gone. there’s not really any red at all.

...also this is such a good frame. look at ren's face ill fucking cry. the lighting in this is so good. i love it. i love the bright white moon, i love the shadows on ren and martyn, i love that one of the brightest points is ren’s dumb fond face, i love his hand on martyn’s cheek and martyn holding it there...

also im just realizing that those are phantoms and not clouds.

AND RENS CROWN. it IS full of blood [see. i got there eventually]

anyway love that the next two frames after this really nice calm one are the sandcastle fucking exploding

LOVE THE WAY FIRE AND EXPLOSIONS LOOK

I SAID THIS W THE FIRST FIRE FRAME BUT I LOVE IT. ITS SO NICE. feels like you dipped a sponge in paint and smushed it onto the canvas, which is a very wet and not-at-all firey way of making fire look, which makes it super interesting and very enjoyable

youd think with the writing ive done that id have a high stomach for injuries but i actually dont have any stomach for it at all, so, every time i see this arrow thru the head sequence it makes me gasp. love it. esp the blood coming out of the eyes, WHAT a detail. simple yet Very visceral to me. esp since it starts w them both looking like, pretty bored? it just GUTS you despite being relatively clean. same with his hand up in the air there as he falls

love this frame. martyn's run looks slightly goofy to me which ALSO makes the next frame of him being shot a gut punch. also the looming trees and brush textures are So Good. this is also another really fun example of the limited color palette being used to show lives. usually martyn’s drawn with his hair colored blond, but here, as he’s about to lose his green life, the only color available to him is green. also, not coloring his hair makes the fact his eyes are green stand out way more. this is the first frame ive really noticed it

also i like that martyn gets shot on the line “rested while living.” its funny

ABSOLUTELY ADORE THIS FRAME ITS SO FUCKIN GOOD

just. cleo’s eye being red and yellow. the harsh red line in the center bisecting the frame. everything about the skull half. i love this. ive got no analysis for this one its just sick

love the eye coming into the moon obsessed. also it took me till now to notice like... i keep pointing out how much i like how this animatic only uses green/yellow/red plus monochromes, yeah? something i think is fun is cleo’s frame prior to this doesn’t use green, even tho cleo’s green-tinted. there’s just yellow and red. but this one w the zombies does. 

this frame’s always been a little jarring to me and i think its just... this might be one of, if not The, most green frames in the animatic. the entire lower half of this one’s green! i dont have anything super analytical to say about that i just think it’s neat

i love this one too the dogs are so cool. i love joel’s red stripe and his fuckin... red mist. return of the mist! 

i also like that the mist-wisps dog shapes in the bg have red eyes. it could easily be the same sort of vignette background that this animatic has plenty of (which is what i think i processed the white edges behind joel as the first time i watched this) but instead they have eyes. theyre dogs, hinting Many More Dogs. all very good.

IN LOVE WITH THIS FIRE ASPECT SWORD

i just. my favorite color is red. my second favorite color is gold. my favorite palette is red/gold/black/white. this is a very me-bait frame. also the angle of the sword just feels like someone’s walking with it held out to the side/down. while that makes the epee fencer in me want to yell (put your point on target buddy....) it does look sick as hell

this frame is perfect no fuckin notes 10/10. fantastic and recognizable scar silhouette. fucking evil looking scar. i just love the super simple but super fuckin evil eyes/mouth. he looks unreasonably threatening

...and grian in the bg the frame after grinning just as evilly despite having yellow eyes. love it. love his hands on his hips its just fun. also the rings of grey behind them are so neat. 

also i love grian so every time he shows up i am like [points] <3

my favorite color is red so any very red frames will have my approval. love this. 

im also just realizing it sorta copies the fire aspect sword frame. sword’s helf at the same angle, but now we’re not preparing for war, there’s not fire ready to burn. we’ve had war and we’ve won it

the dead joel frame. he looks so fuckin small. hes got no dogs. hes on his own, hunted down in the desert, no help and no one hes even really gonna miss him. top tier. very sad

also... smth abt the dogs being white wisps before and there’s just grey lines away. very neat. im also realizing right now as im looking at this, is it the crater in the desert? the lines feel like he’s in a hole, the slightly sandy edges giving way to a grey dip feels like a burned-away hole/crater... fun 

...forgot to get the scott frame but i love how its green yellow and red. its a really pretty frame

GOING TO CRY. LOOK AT THEM..... LOOK AT MARTYN AND HIS FLAG..... ABSOLUTELY LOVELY.

fuckin. whats the word im looking for. starts w a v. valorent? v... VALIENT. ...valiant. i spelled it wrong [this was sent as like 6 texts and i condensed it into one line. just wanted everyone to see me spell this word so very wrong]

also like that ren's crown is noticeably bloodier

the bright yellow sunlight coming in from the side... the color/angle its at feels reminiscent to me of golden hour, which is my favorite hour to take photos at and also, on occasion, makes me emotional simply by Happening. i have teared up just by standing outside somewhere pretty during golden hour on more than one occasion in my life. so i like this frame a lot

the few seconds of the flag swaying in the wind. very clean animation. very nicely timed to the music. really nice to look at. feels vaguely lonely bc of the music its set to being so forlorn. rlly effective tone switch

gen is very good at using very simple visuals to effectively do and convey very complex and interesting and emotional things and also kill me dead

such as this.

i think so much abt them leaving dogwarts empty at the end bc they simply couldnt defend it anymore (and how coming to try to reclaim it is what kills them) and all those feelings are conjured up right here. it looks so small man. that’s their home and they left it

forgot this was the next frame. double what i just said.

every shot of the red army makes me [sobs] look at ren... look at him face...........

also i like that ren's crown is no longer gold, JUST red. everyone only gets the colors of their name, now, and the lack of gold makes the blood in ren’s crown stand out SO much more now that its the only color. even when his head is tilted back and thus his crown is harder to see, the blood stands out. 

plus. yknow. the yellow is for bigb, while the other red names get little red details (we have once again confiscated martyn’s blondness). plus the vibrant red banner next to them

also i. rlly love the stringy look of everyone's hair? and the fluff on ren's cloak. texture... esp etho’s hair i love etho’s hair so much

and ren. i said look at him face already but Look at him. ill cry. look how fond he is. i love him. how could we ever let anything bad happen to him

also as always love the background. i know its kind of minimal but its very fun. Texture......

i know this is the thumbnail but im in love w it. props for putting the red army to the line about armies

martyn's face... i love him look at him look at his SMILE. the little blush on his face. the golden buttons on his coat. AND his hair. love the swoopy bangs

and etho. etho my beletho. look at him..... going to hold his face in my hands. i love his little red dot eye and his hair

and bigb!! he looks so proud. i love the halo the moon gives him w the bit of green and the little blushes. this is a zero analysis panel i just love the red army 

ALSO LOVE THE BG HERE. REALLY NICE. the vibrancy of the moon and the shading on the trees are both rlly fun, same w the bright moonlight catching on the water

skizz. crying

ETHO MY BELETHO. I JUST LOVE THIS FRAME A LOT

...ive got to stop saying etho my beletho im Absolutely incoherent

anyway. god i just love this frame. the clean, strong red is so good against the whites and greys. its just so nice to look at

also etho's expression like i know theres not a lot there but also i really like the quiet fondness as he looks at his flags. and his hair. ive pointed it out three times now but i really like his hair

RETURN OF BIGB’S GREEN HALO... not the moon this time! just how to indicate hes a green life when his skin doesnt have any green in it! really clever

also the blond hair and gold crown!

...and now its time for pain speedrun

MARTYN BEING CLEAN AND THEN BLOOD SPLATTERING ONTO HIS FACE IS SO. WAHHH REALLY NICE I LOVE IT. visceral without even showing whichever death it is that happened. So fuckin good. 

also like... this frame following the frames before it its really fucking jarring. this right after the bigb frame? the red army frames? and then just immediately martyn, covered in blood? they didnt get to win! they didnt get to spend like any time together! they gathered together and they died!

i think another thing that makes this frame so jarring (and thus effective) is like. martyn’s core colors are green and yellow. blond hair and green clothing. both in his skin and primarily in this animatic. this is basically the first time we see him (not as a silhouette) without them (the only other one is the golden hour one, so. he doesnt have yellow inherent to him, but hes still got some yellow), which makes it even like. worse. subtle and devastating!

wrote all that and have much less to say abt this frame except like. bye etho </3 the way gen draws fire is still pretty

the music video being mostly static, even when fire is shown, until now, this fire burning and moving as it does. rlly adds smth. makes it all more real. also Real Nice

i also like the arrow in the middle is still visible. you can make out the shape of it, just vaguely. sick as hell

WAILS

also god the fact that as far as i can remember to this point all the blood in the mv has been CLEAN and fully opaque. that ren's blood on his clothes (and martyn’s on his clothes the frame before) is like, not fully opaque? its the spongey texture, not clean red pen. this isn’t paint. this is soaking into and staining his shirt. its really fucking nice

images that cause me immense pain. ive got no analysis here. tho i do like that the “will” that should be red is black bc its written over blood

IMAGES I THINK ABOUT EVERY DAY OF MY GODAMN LIFE IMAGES THAT REWIRE MY BRAIN CHEMISTRY IMAGES THAT RUIN MY DAY IMAGES I AM IN LOVE WITH AND WANT TO PLASTER EVERYWHERE ON EVERYTHING

THEY WERE SO CLOSE. THEY WERE SO CLOSE.

THEY DIED SO CLOSE. THEY DIED IN THEIR HOME. THEY DIED TOGETHER BUT NOT TOGETHER AND THEY WERE SO CLOSE TO WINNING AND THEY DIDNT

AND AGAIN. THE SMUDGIER BRUSH/SPONGE BLOOD. I LOVE IT. suddenly its not paint its THEIRS and its REAL and its. augh

everything i find compelling about renchanting duo is contained succinctly and wordlessly in this specific frame and it means everything to me ever

also its just really pretty to look at. harsh red/black/white/grey is the ideal color palette and i love how its used here. same w the gradient there at the edge of the altar

artistically and symbolically flawless

i Would eat this image given the opportunity

[liamannt]

I followed you for your it content but I dont know these minecraft youtubers are looking really intresting any recommendations or how do I get into them?

Oh boi! this is the best question I've ever gotten tbh but here we go So the thing I'm into rn, and what I've been posting about for the last few weeks or so is called Last Life. It's a hardcore SMP (survival multiplayer) where every player is assigned randomly from 2 to 6 lives at the beginning. If they die and reach their last life their names become red and their goal is to kill others, all alliances with that person break. They do all of this until just one remains. That's a very in short summary of what really happens. Also it has 9 episodes and depending on who you're watching the episodes are 20-40 minutes long so it's a quick binge. So Last Life is actually the second season of Third Life which has a similar premise but it is a bit more lighthearted, where ppl can make alliances with the Red Names. My advice is to start with Third Life and I think the best person to watch for that is Grian (that's how i started watching it as well). Him and Scar have an amazing dynamic, and their story is very enjoyable. But everyone's povs are very enjoyable so if you have interest in others you can go on their channels and watch their pov (that is one of the things I love the most abt this). Once you're done with Third Life, I recommend watching Last Life from Etho's pov, but Grian's and Smallishbean's povs are rlly good as well. But whoever you end up watching you have to watch episode 7 from Grian's pov because it is the best one by far. I also should warn you that there is a lot of angst so be ready for that lol. Now when I first watched Third Life it was really hard for me to get into it bc I didn't rlly know anything abt most of the players. So I'm gonna make a small list explaining the players so it's easier to understand everything (I'm making this assuming you don't know any of them but also trying not to spoil anything):

Smajor1995 (Scott) -in Third Life he has an alliance with Jimmy, people also call them Flower Husbands. In Last Life he has an alliance with Pearl and Cleo and they're called Gatekeep, Girlboss and Gaslight. He's all around a loyal and fair player, I would say definitely Lawful Good. Outside this series he is known for organizing the biggest Minecraft event called Minecraft Championship. So he is a pretty big name in this community

Skizzleman (Skizz) - In TL he was allied with Ren, in LL with Bdubs, Etho and Tango, forming team BEST. I don't know a lot about him but I would say he is definitely a Neutral Good. He is pretty wholesome, and the glue in the BEST team. GoodTimesWithScar (Scar)- in TL he is teamed with Grian, in LL he is mostly alone but on good terms with everyone. He is an interesting charachter for sure. He is a bit of a scammer and an arsonist but we love to see it. I would say he's Lawful Evil but that's my personal opinion. Grian- in TL he is teamed with Scar and in LL he is part of the Southlands, which is made out of Mumbo, Martyn, Jimmy and Impulse. He is a gremlin. Chaotic Evil. You will love him and hate him at the same time. Smallishbeans (Joel)- in both TL and LL he isn't really part of any teams. Lone wolf. He is very lovable despite being chaotic as all hell. He is a pretty funny dude tho. Neutral Evil for sure. Rendog (Ren) - in TL he is the king of Dogwarts, teamed with Martyn (his closest ally) and Etho, in Last Life he is part of the Shadow Alliance with Lizzy, Cleo and BigB. He is very into Roleplay but it is rlly fun to watch tbh. ''King daddy of the server''- Etho, Third Life. Neutral Good

SolidarityGaming (Jimmy but some ppl call him Timmy which is confusing and no one rlly understands why) - in TL he is teamed with Scott and in LL he is part of the Southlands. He's a pretty silly boy, if we were on twitter ppl would call him ''baby''. He is Neutral Good. EthosLab (Etho) - in TL he is teamed with Ren and Martyn and in LL he is part of BEST team. Ppl are afraid of his PvP skills so they dont start beef with him. He loves his trees but Scar keeps burning them down. He is Chaotic Neutral. TangoTek (Tango) -in TL he is an honorary Crastle Member (formed out of Cleo and Bdubs), and in LL he is part of team BEST. Angry boi, he is also very funny. He is Chaotic Neutral. InTheLittleWoods (Martyn)- in TL he is Ren's right hand man, part of Dogwarts, and in LL he is part of Southlands. He is also into Roleplay, and he has cutscenes and stuff that make his story a bit more complex, so if you're into that definitely check him out. A lot of ppl are into the lore that he does in his series. He has fun interactions with everyone. I would say he is a Lawful Neutral.

ImpulseSV (Impulse) -in TL he changes alliances, and in LL he is part of the Southlands. He seems innocent but looks are deceiving, especially in TL. He is a True Neutral. BdoubleO100 (Bdubs) -in TL he is teamed with Cleo and they're the Crastle Crew, and in LL he is in team BEST. Whoever he teams with he fights for them til death. He's a loyal man and Etho ppl make fun of him for being short. He is Chaotic Good. Bigbst4tz2 (BigB) -in TL he sorta does his own thing and in LL he is part of the Shadow Alliance. I also don't know much abt him but he has some angsty but cool moments with Cleo in LL that are worth watching. He is a True Neutral. ZombieCleo (Cleo) -in TL she is part of the Crastle with Bdubs, in LL she begins in the Shadow Alliance. You don't want to have her as your enemy. Chaotic Neutral. LDShadowLady (Lizzy) -she joined in LL and she was part of the Shadow Alliance. She's married to Joel so if you see them flirting that's why. I would say she's pretty Chaotic Neutral.

Mumbo Jumbo -joined in LL and was part of Southlands. Definitely a great addition to the series and him and Grian have a great dynamic. I would say he is also a Chaotic Neutral but I might be wrong. PearlescentMoon (Pearl) -only joined in LL, allied with Scott and Cleo. Best one at making traps so far tbh. She is a crazy lady but we stan. I would say she's pretty Neutral Evil. That's all of them, hope it helps shape them a bit. I also wanna add that half of the people who play in this series are Hermitcrafters, which is also smth else I've gotten into bc of Last Life. So if you enjoy watching Scar, Grian, Mumbo, Etho, Bdubs, Ren, Pearl, Cleo, Tango and Impulse, you can watch their Hermitcraft series, which is a minecraft server where they build crazy stuff and have fun interactions. And the rest of the players you can also find either on the EmpireSMP or playing in MCC! Tl;dr Third Life and Last Life is a rlly enjoyable series, with fun dynamics, interesting story, heart-wrenching angst, complex characters and most importantly murder! Also another tip is to check out fanart on Tumblr, Twitter and Reddit bc it's really good and the content will suck you in fast. Otherwise if you have any questions feel free to dm me! I would also love to hear your reaction to all of it and know if you managed to fall into the Minecraft Roleplay deephole or you survived it :))

[astronomical-bagel]

ok so i just went and listened to "you can't talk about bruno" bc I wanted to know what you were talking about and oh pls elaborate

SAJDHFSJF AAAAAAA TY TY FOR ASKING OKAY OKAY SO:

The reason why i originally thought of this was how scar like made all those contracts and still ended up alone and friendless, for one reason or the other. Everyone just kinda... avoided him, and either they didn't trust him or they were just too busy with their other alliances. Hence: We dont talk abt Scar. Kay? Kay. this might get a liiiittle lengthy and a tad incomprehensible so the rest is gonna be under the cut ahaha

So the castings are:

Pepa: Etho

Felix: Bdubs

(also if you havent watched the movie you NEED to watch this clip bc i LOVE their energy and etho and bdubs 100% do the tango while singing their part)

Dolores 1 (the "grew to live in fear of Bruno stuttering or stumbling" girl): Joel

Camilo ("seven-foot frame, rats along his back"): Ren

Isabella ("He told me that the life of my dreams"): Scott

Dolores 2 ("He told me that the man of my dreams would be just out of reach"): Grian

And Mirabel ("Um, Bruno/yeah, about that Bruno"): Scar himself

OKAY now we got the main casting lemme tell you WHY i cast them. (IMPORTANT: these guys are dissing on Scar to an unknown inquisitor, it doesnt matter who their talking to lollolol):

ethubs: I wanted to see them dance. WELL thats not the ONLY reason-- y'know the whole thing when etho got scar to give bdubs a life, PLUS all the fighting and burning of trees that happened w them? Etho's portion his him bashing on scar bc of that, calling him a swindler and stuff bc of the contracts (the "looks like rain" part is abt the tree arson haha) (ALSO this ties into the marriage counseler joke scar made lmao)

Okay and delores' first part is joel gossiping about scar basically. Since scar is his upstairs neighbor, he can "always hear him sort of muttering and mumbling". Scar's all alone despite doing his best not to be, as well as doing his crystal wizard stuff, he probably talks to himself a lot. OH and the "sound of falling sand" part is SO GOOD bc you can translate that into the clinking of crystals, the shuffling of papers, or YKNOW ACTUAL SAND BC DESERT DUO <3333. it works vv well and i love that line.

OH AND RENS BIT SLAPS SO HARD (A seven-foot frame, rats along his back/When he calls your name it all fades to black/Yeah, he sees your dreams and feasts on your screams) THAT FUCKS!! anyways i chose that for him bc 1.) Scar took ren's final life in third life and 2.) ren took scars final life in last life and 3.) that mean ren kinda has a grudge and you KNOW he likes to make any adversary of his seem as intimidating as possible (cough cough "his name is Mumbo Jumbo" cough cough). Hes such a theater kid too, it's perfect

OKAY and i didn't cast these up above bc theyre not named characters lol BUT its a bunch of people blaming more or less random things on Scar. "He told me my fish would die" could go to lizzie (i mean. im PRETTY sure shes the one w the axolotl), and the other ones could be jimmy blaming the fact that he died first again on him, and hmmm idk about the third guy BUT THAT DOESNT MATTER you could pick any grievance bc the point is that its not actually scar's fault lol

AND ISABELLAS PART is scott and listen this is one of my weaker castings okay. i almost made it grian but i REALLY wanted grian to be dolores's second part so this is just scot being all sparkly like "I won tee hee :3" ig??

(also the "Óye, Mariano's on his way" is pearl lol. Mariano is joel and grian sneaking into their base once again lololol)

OKAY AND DOLORES'S SECOND PART this one is grian because GOD i love sand duo and it features grian staring longingly at monopoly mountain bc theyre not allowed to team up bc of the new season ("just out of reach" and all that)

AND SCAR also doubles as mirabel bc idk it fts. Hes like "ahaha about all that...." AND AND AND i have this scene during the whole bangin medley part where everyone's singing at once where he has a whole bunch of contracts and crystals around him and theyre all doing their thing around him in like a circle (like ethubs doin their little dancy dance, ren doin his spooky story telling, ect ect ect) and the camera angle is like circling around him and the contracts whip up like a tornado AND ITS RLLY COOL AND ANGSTY AND DRAMATIC OKAY and it kinda reminds me of some Good for You animatics if that helps u imagine the visuals

OKAY THATS ALL OF MY RAMBLINGS THANK YOU FOR ASKING ABOUT IT

[rudy-sport]

Jeremy when you create your human characters and the skin, how do you find ones for parents and there children? like choosing the colors and how they work for related families. currently unsure how to do that

starting off, reading those first few words was an experience. The rest is under the cut bc long.

Second off, and this is me interpreting that best I can, starting with skin, I kind of take both parents and I then try to think abt possible skin outcomes when it comes to all of their family members before. Human Mango's skin color can kind of be linked to Maude and by extension, Great Grandad Buddy. This does of course pertain to the white characters I have, but since I dont have many drawings of Mason Sr.'s family above him you'll just have to trust that it does pertain to everyone.

Next, finding parents and then mashing them together like two barbies to get their kiddos. Gene mixing and coming to the conclusion of a kids looks is a process. They inevitably look like their own person, but placed near a parent they tend to have matching features. Let's take Derrick with Maude and Kevin. Now Derrick on his own looks like his own person, he has his own unique style, very colorful hair, a prosthetic hand, and he has the skin condition vitiligo which goes for the coloration in his skin/hair and sets him apart from a lot of people. Derrick is a unique young man with his own set of personal physical characteristics:

We all view this person as unique to his own being, but then we remember he was born like everyone else [except admin, mango, and codie. sorry babez] and he has parents. His mother is also her own unique person and passed some of her physical attributes down to Derrick [skin color, hair type, the roundness of his chin, and the natural heavyset build on his physique. You can see most of those here on everything except color bc I apparently dont draw Maude just by herself.

It takes two to tango and with that we have Kevin, Derrick's dad. Kevin has a lot of traits that are more dominant like hair color, eye color, and general facial composition. His nose is a recessive trait but it did manage to exist for a while until Derrick broke his nose and ended up with what is kind of a mixed up nose. Kevin is the reason Derrick's facial expressions sometimes turn out the way they do as seen in this comic [also including the 3 people involved in this explanation]

Now choosing colors to kind of link families together is definitely a process. An easy one, I've come to find, but a process nonetheless. It can transcend beyond just clothing, it can go into hair or eyes or even skin modifications like tattoos or piercings. Think to my universe and then think abt the color blue. Of course the first thing to pop into your head may be Admin, and by extension the Charleston family because a main constant is the color blue as seen here.

You do that and think of other color connections like maybe Pink for Derrick's family [derricks hair, maudes overall clothing, Mangos eyes] or maybe green for Kevin/Tyler [Kevin's style in high school, Tyler's clothing]

Choosing those colors just all depends on what would make your character happy. Maude loves the color pink, its her eye color and you see it incorporated in most of her outfits. Derrick likes making his mother happy, because that makes him happy by extension, and he knows that she likes the color pink, and gets that color in his hair when dyeing it for work. Its all about the happy factor. Think really hard like your character. What's their favorite color? How does it relate to things like their lives as children and their childhood homes?

For Admin its blue. It's a color she relates to school, because that's where her friends were. It's the color of her very unique eyes and it's the color of her Momma's eyes. It's the color of Mango's bedroom carpet and Mr. Mason's kitchen everytime she would go to visit. It is generally a color of comfort and so Admin directly correlates blue to happiness. Sometimes it does bring sadness, but such is life, a lot of things make us sad sometimes.

I hope this helps to a degree!! I'd love to hear feedback!

[definitelynotshouting]

Hello again! Im so sorry to hear you feeling well when i sent in my ask the other day :( hoping that the life series drop tmrw will provide a much needed distraction for whatever you need it to :)

-☀️

"I know the, um, this morning didn't go… very well… but… if I could—""

"Good, he thinks, but it's a rote sentiment, not half so vicious as it had been only hours earlier."

- oh??? 👀 i am looking

- Im assuming this is the meeting they had about taking grian back to hermitcraft (and the revelation that grian feeds on emotions to survive)?? Very curious

- Now that metaphor about the childhood coat being stained is a lot more painful

-☀️

"even stolen energy can't make up for that."

"everything he'd never had the first time he— well, when Grian, the real Grian— had died."

- "stolen energy" omg i am biting ankles over this.

- And the "real Grian" thing. Yeah

- This is one of those moments where grian's whole situation is so much more potent and vivid. Imagining living as myself, but knowing im occupying someone elses body, and having my very lifeforce sustained by others?? Its not hard to understand why grian internalises and hates himself for being "a parasite". Idk thats probably very obvious to everyone else but this is the first time ive really thought about all of what that entails

-☀️

"Starving hands reach out from the depths of his mind to pull him back, stumbling, under that dark waterline."

- Love how the word "starving" implies that G falling asleep is more of a survival mechanism forcing him under so that his body can feed rather than only exhaustion

-☀️

"he's pressed a knife to every promise he's ever made since the day he emerged,"

- shaking you

-☀️

"His existence lies in the shadows of these distorted fractures, jagged hopes and dented dreams, forever fated to cut his hands on the fragments."

- AHHHHJSLDHSJSVSN

- Man 🧍

- Dont have any words. Just tears.

AAAAAAAAAA SUN ANON I ALWAYS LOVE SEEING YOU IN MY INBOX!!!! Gods im so glad these lines resonated with and interested you, they were a ton of fun to write

I have a brain today so i can actually expand on some of the things youve pointed out instead of just aiming heart eyes at you for the compliments fjsndjsjejke so for the first point, yes!!! Scar and Xisuma returned to the others post chap 6 and were like "Well that sucked!! Wow!!!!" I wouldnt say theyve given all the information to everybody, because they themselves aren't exactly ready to discuss that beyond the immediately required basics, but everyone else was given the gist: convo went badly, Grian is being taken back to Hermitcraft on Scar and Xisuma's insistence. Both Scar and Xisuma feel fucking horrible for how that conversation went down-- nobody had a good time there. So while the plan is to eventually get everyone up to speed, they're sorta taking this time to be miserable about what was essentially a fight that ended in stripping Grian of his autonomy

There's also a little cross-communication happening here in the background, btw: Scar and Xisuma have a pretty big picture now, but Tango, Mumbo, and Pearl have been fed that false info abt the potions being potentially useful. So, yknow :) just smth to keep in mind there haha

Your point about how it almost feels like Grian falling asleep is a survival mechanism is spot on the money. It's essentially him falling into a state of low power mode, where everything but his most basic of functions is shut down for a brief time in favour of preserving energy-- i would honestly consider it more equivalent to a coma than actual sleep. Hence Tango's concern, and subsequent relief when Grian woke up; the entire time he was unconscious, he was fully unresponsive. So, yknow. Real nerve-wracking to see, especially after that prior full week of unresponsiveness as his body struggled to maintain itself.

Tango's role here is indeed deliberate, both on a watsonian and doylist level!! The reason however is the exact same for both: Tango is a little more removed, personally, from this situation. Grian was-- and is-- his friend, ofc, but he's not as close to whats happening. Meanwhile, Xisuma is in 24/7 server babysitting mode, Pearl is not fit to be a caretaker, and Scar and Mumbo were tearing themselves apart by trying to sit and look after him. So Tango got assigned caretaker duties 😂😂😂😂 it was an effective way to divvy up tasks and keep everybody busy, and somewhat hilariously, so far Tango is the only person Grian isnt supremely upset with for one reason or another. And thats why he's continued to stay in caretaker mode lol he is truly just. The only guy who can rn

I also just sorta think of him as a surprisingly emotionally savvy fixer-type, in terms of personality. Like. I think he just gets what people set down in front of him, yknow? Although hell if he knows what to do with it once he's got em. He fumbles a lot, sure, and he defaults to fix-it mode, but he is getting the message when Grian essentially says "i dont wanna talk anymore" without actually saying it

As for Grian and his headspace, rn, theres definitely a complexity at work here where he wants to die and is very genuine in that, but he IS also grateful he's seeing his friends. He cant deny that. As painful as it is, he still loves them very much, and ultimately he's trying to do this for their own good as much as for his own sense of punishment and relief. I think like... now that he's really creeping up on what he has planned, and the pieces are suddenly becoming a reality, theres a bit of dissonance he's fighting against to stay on course. He wants his friends happy; he also wants to die. He's so overwhelmingly tired; he is, as much as he feels he doesnt deserve it, glad to have his friends close. That sort of hopelessness mixed with a warped sense of comfort that he got to see and interact with them one last time. If that makes any sense. Its a bit of complexity i wanted to make sure i added in, because people are so rarely fully decided on any course of action they choose to take, without even a single flicker of doubt (and especially one so final as this). Im glad youve picked up on that, and that you appreciate what i was trying to set down with it!!! :D

This was such a lovely message, as always-- you are very sweet, sun anon, and i appreciate you lots :] i hope you're having an excellent day!!!

[puer-aurea]

mercenary au relationships

enemies, romantic, familial, etc ykyk key: big dogs ren heart foundation mounders roomies gem and the scotts lizzie and scar

romantic first ranchers enjoyers arent gonna be happy w this one bc uhhh jimmy and tango arent together! im a big fan of the canary and his miner so uhhh jimmy and mumbo <3 (do we have a name for them or is it just the canary and his miner?) tango and skizz are in a relationship and they both have a crush on bigb and want to ask him out but hes always coincidentally disappearing when they have enough courage to ask him lizzie and joel are dating, but marriage is a lot different for elves than it is for most other species, and since joel cannot for the life of him figure out what lizzie is, he hasnt proposed bc he knows nothing abt her marriage beliefs martyn has the biggest crush on ren and its obvious to everyone BUT ren. martyns super broke tho while ren seems wealthy enough so he thinks ren is out of his league jimmy and scott are exes. scott is still hung up on jimmy but convinces himself jimmy's the one hung up on him (based on scott referencing flower husbands in secret life while jimmy was just doin what joel told him to do) gem and pearl are ace lesbians. no more info needed impulse and scar have no romantic relationships, impulse bc he just isnt interested in anyone and scar bc hes aroace i havent fully figured out what i want for the roomies + bdubs in a romantic or familial sense. i know for sure bdubs and grian are fae brothers, and cleo and etho have no kids, but beyond that idk if i want cletho or ethubs or roomies polycule, or ffs etho/grian. idk yet man! its hard family like i said, grian and bdubs are fae brothers pearl and scar say theyre siblings but dont elaborate on how ones a vamp and ones an elf jimmy and martyn are biological siblings and lizzie found them one day when they were all younger and decided she was their sister. theyre probably the only ones who have an inkling of a clue as to what she is cleo and gem were siblings when cleo was fully alive, whether they still are depends who you ask. (they both still say they are) pearl acts like a mother to all the mounders none of the heart foundation have family in their little village and neither do either of the scotts enemies sorta the big dogs do not have a good relationship w the heart foundation bc martyn broke into it looking for a place to stay but refused to accept skizz offering them a temp place for free bc it made him feel like they hit a whole new low scar thinks most of the village doesnt like him but theyre just suspicious of him since no one can remember actually buying from him bigb acts like hes suspicious of everyone but hes just anxious and weird lizzie and joel both have a slight dislike of scott but for very different reasons on that note, lizzie also has a slight dislike of skizz for the same reason as scott (angels are more perceptive than most, but still not enough)