#edit to put image under a read more because it was a bit much on the eyes

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

perhaps a bit of an odd question: so, when I'm scrolling tumblr on mobile, I have a habit of downloading most images i come across, so that I can send them to people who don't use tumblr, especially memes and animal photos. however, i also have severe memory issues, and I may end up forgetting where i got certain images. i know for the photo repository one of the rules is to not repost the photos without any modification- which i might forget, or forget which images on my phone fall under that rule. and while i would guess that that rule doesn't apply to stuff like direct messages or texts, i might forget to tell the person I'm sending it to, who might repost it elsewhere without being aware, or months after downloading i will just forget and use one of the photos in a post I'm making because it felt relevant.

this is something i can pretty easily solve myself by just blocking the photo repository blog, or tags relating to it, but I'd rather not do that because i do really like seeing the photos and all the info and stuff. and i would assume it would be an insane amount of work for you to add something like a watermark to every single photo, so I'm not really sure how to go about this. i like seeing the photos, but i don't want to accidentally break the rules.

You clearly care deeply about doing the "right thing", so, what that tells me is that you're not actually the target audience for that rule. I appreciate all the thought you put into this message. Let's talk about it!

I've been reconsidering if requiring people to get permission for reposting images is the best policy to have and I'd like people to weigh in.

My original reasoning was this: the more I can ensure that reposts are affiliated with credit, the better I can control copyright on the images on the site, and therefore have more ground to challenge any scrapers/fake accounts/AR groups that yoink them for nefarious purposes. The easiest way to do that seemed to be to have people ping and ask, with the expectation of saying yes almost all the time.

But there's a couple problems with that, I think, in practice:

People don't like emailing strangers (I forget this! I have done it for work for so many years it isn't uncomfortable anymore).

This isn't how the internet works. (Tumblr has a specific microculture that encourages crediting creators and not stealing! Once this is shared more widely on other platforms, I don't expect it'll be the same ecosystem).

It actually undermines organic spread of content! (You're less likely to make an excited post about a cool photo if you have to send a maybe-scary email and wait for a response). And I do want there to be lots of eyeballs on the photos.

Realistically, @nexus-nebulae, with the policy right now? If you slipped up and reposted something without thinking, I'd just ask you to add credit to the post so it directs back to the site. The goal of this whole project is community access and engagement - I want to you to enjoy the photos, and send them to your friends! I'm just trying to also protect it from the awful that a lot of the internet has become.

But, I'm also wondering it it makes sense to swap the policy to say that it's fine to re-post images on socials as long as they're appropriately credited and/or linked back to the repository. This isn't the policy yet, but if you're reading this please tell me what you're thinking.

Non-edited image use (like putting them in a scientific paper, using them to build a curriculum unit, or putting them on board game cards - these are just random examples) would still need to be requested; but that's an entirely protective stance and if you ask, my goal is to always say yes.

So OP, please don't worry too much. Enjoy looking at the animals, do your best, and I'll be happy. :)

[artsybun]

MORE ART BELOW BTW.

I’m putting the rest under the more sign because there’s kinda? S2 spoilers in here? BUT ALSO NOT EXACTLY? IT’S A BIG CANON DIVERGENCE/AU BUT I WANNA BE SAFE.

I apologize for how messy and unorganized some of these doodles will get btw. Also for my handwriting. I had an ADHD induced fever dream one day and woke up to all of THIS mess.

ALSO SOME DISCLAIMERS PLEASE READ:

1. There is some blood below, nothing insanely graphic but jsyk.

2. There will be a doc attached to this post that goes VERY in depth about the story connected here. The images are included on that as well to make following along a bit easier. You don’t have to read it, but you will def get more context lol.

3. There is not a lot of Leosagi or Rise stuff in general here! There’s some mild things in the doc abt them, but most of this is about Yuichi/Miyamoto Usagi bc I love him, yet also love to traumatize him. Sorry king <3. AAAAND it’s a set up to something I have planned in the future that WILL be very leosagi/rise heavy.

4. Welcome to the insanity that is my brain. I apologize now.

Okay, I gotta post this b4 I overthink it too much.

OH! And here’s the doc that explains way too much: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T99uGllPu08Unbq344KZu29Fbk2NjNN8Jz9ckmpa_lM/edit

[ships-n-bats]

Putting under read more 'cause it kind of turned out way longer than intended and has big images attached. ^^'

Warning: I literally am reviewing and judging sketches Kub0 drew of the Ichi//Hime fam post-manga and just being critical of I//H as a whole.

“Kub0 has yet to release any artwork of the Ichi//Hime family together!”

I just recently recalled this statement made years ago by anti I//Hs and became rather curious over whether or not this statement was still true or not. It’s been about 8+ years since the manga ended and I//H became canon with their mini-me child being revealed alongside. So, out of genuine curiosity, I decided to see if Kub0 had since drawn the I//H family in any capacity.

Only to discover that, nope, he indeed had not.

The closest I could find of any drawings made by Kub0 that involved Ichig0's family post-manga were these two sketches he made:

A sketch of Ichig0 and Kαzui with Kub0's signature.

And the pic he drew of Ichig0 with Kαzui during quarantine (which I will admit is super adorable omg).

Two pictures featuring a father and his son.

But! You'll notice with both of these sketches, 0rihime is missing. You know, the wife of Ichig0 and mother to said child?? She's not so much as shown in the background or right there alongside her husband and kid! She's just, not present what-so-ever...

And the saddest part? When I tried searching for any sketches Kub0 made of Kαzui with 0rihime, nothing came up. Not a single sketch featuring mother and son. I only found those two pics of Kαzui with his father. That's it.

And there wasn't a single sketch that had all three of them together.

The closest I could find was of an edited version of the quarantine pic an I//H fan drew where they added 0rihime in. That's right, an I//H fan had to add 0rihime into the sketch in order to get a proper Ichi//Hime family pic, because Mr. Tite Kub0 couldn't be bothered to do so himself in the first place. I also found other edited pics that just took separate pics of the three and mashed them together, which is just... sad.

I think the closest there's been to the three being seen together as a family was in the manga and even that is a bit of a stretch.

This then led me to see if Kub0 had since drawn Ichig0 and 0rihime together and came up with two more sketches:

A sketch of the two standing next to each other, looking at one another.

Another sketch of the two's portraits.

And just like with the previous two pics, I noticed something about both pics. In the first one, 0rihime and Ichig0 are keeping a distance between themselves, and the sketch overall is rather simplistic and not really readable. I can barely make out either of their expressions, though 0rihime looks shocked? Confused?? idk Meanwhile, Ichig0 looks either blank or irritated? He might be talking to her??

As for the second sketch, Ichig0 looks like he had more time and effort put into his portrait, while 0rihime looks thrown in last second. Given how much bigger Ichig0 is, it gives off the impression that Kub0 drew a pic of Ichig0 first, and then added 0rihime off to the side, in the background, which explains why she's so small and seems tacked on. You can essentially remove her from the sketch entirely as she doesn't look part of it as a whole.

Also, this same sketch had an I//H shipper tack on Kαzui to try and make it a family pic, just like with the other one.

Despite Kub0 canonizing Ichig0 and 0rihime as a married couple with a kid, despite it being nearly a decade now, despite I//H shippers asking Kub0 to give more details about how the two got together and what their relationship is like as a family and couple, he still hasn't bothered to actually give the Ichi//Hime fam any proper spotlight.

I hate bringing up other mangas for comparison, but even Nαruto, despite its own controversial ending and endgame ships, showcased some sweet family moments with their next gen families and even had cute couple-y moments between the endgame pairs. Kishim0t0 at least bothered to put some effort into trying to sell his endgame ships to fans. Meanwhile, Kub0 has left I//H high and dry of any basic domestic fluff.

And honestly?

I just find that to be plain sad. Sad that even though a pairing is made canon, is made to be married with a child, there's still this lack of intimacy between the two. Yes, many I//H antis have pointed out how much Ichig0 and 0rihime lacked development and intimacy prior to the ending, but it's post-ending where I feel the failure of I//H really comes to ahead.

I//H stans tend to use Ichig0 and 0rihime's marriage and product of their consummation as a crutch or a "got'cha" to prove them being canon somehow means they're a perfect pairing. But it really doesn't mean anything if there's no real intimacy outside of a legal piece of paper and offspring. Those two things don't prove anything and shouldn't be used as evidence for a happy, healthy relationship.

Because, despite what is believed by many, a marriage and kids does not automatically translate to a good relationship. People can be married with kids and still be unhappy or lack real closeness or intimacy in their relationship. Just like how the alternative (i.e. not married and no kids), can mean a happy and close relationship. Basically, a marriage and children are not required nor are proof of a happy, healthy relationship.

Kub0 himself has already proven to me that he doesn't even care about Ichi//Hime as a pairing, despite the marriage and kid. He hasn't shown that Ichig0 and 0rihime are close and seems to actively avoid drawing the family together, leading the fans to do so for him out of desperation. He was more than happy to show 0rihime's one-sided devotion towards Ichig0 throughout the manga, but never bothered to show Ichig0 ever returning those feelings, and then just ended with the two married with a son. Only later offhandedly mentioning that the two got together sometime after university when a fan asked him about it. And Ichig0 had to be prompted by his friends to make a move on her, not because he did so on his own accord.

Ichi//Hime may be endgame canon, but it's still hollow and empty.

Update 7/9/24

I had actually forgotten about another pic Kub0 did and was only recently reminded of it by a twt user.

The pic features Ichig0, Rukiα, Ichikα, and Kαzui altogether.

And I have to agree with the twt user’s assessment on it, it does look like an accidental family pic. I can totally see some people who aren’t familiar with Bleαch taking this out of context and mistaking Rukiα and Ichig0 as the parents. It’s a very cute and silly sketch too, with Rukiα and Kαzui messing around with Ichig0 and Ichikα dealing with their antics. An overall happy, wholesome pic.

Which makes the fact that Kub0 drew Rukiα alongside Kαzui and not his own mother, 0rihime, all the more noticeable and depressing. It really does feel like Kub0 is actively avoiding making any happy I//H fam material. He always falls back on drawing Ichig0 and Rukiα together (which he has admitted to enjoy doing).

[ironwoman359]

So @lxgentlefolkcomic, which everyone should go read, especially if they like Dracula Daily, has inspired me to deviate from my priority TBR (that I never stick to anyway) and read all the works it's inspired by. When I started reading the comic, I already had Dracula, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Complete Sherlock Holmes under my belt.

I really enjoyed all the subtle references and details to those works in the comic, so in order to get the same experience with the other characters I wasn't familiar with, I decided to read The Invisible Man, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and I just reserved The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. For good measure, since it was right next to it on the shelf, I also checked out The Island of Doctor Moreau, so that when I get around to The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia I'll have the full context from the original text.

My recommendation for anyone who's trying to go back and read these older stories is to do what many people commented about when reading Dracula Daily: imagine yourself in a world where no one has ever heard of Jekyll and Hyde or an invisible man. It's impossible to completely remove that cultural context ingrained in us of course, but you'll get much more out of the story if you at least imagine the perspective of an original reader for a moment.

For instance, I'm a little over half way through 20,000 Leagues right now, and so much of this book is just long lists of various species of fish and seaweed that Aronnax is seeing out the window, which is rather boring by modern standards, but if you put yourself in the mind of a victorian reader who doesn't have google images and for whom the idea of an electric powered submarine is a far-flung future idea, it makes a lot more sense. The book is an adventure story; so little seems to happen other than "then they sailed to this place and saw this fish" because for the readers of the time, that was fantasy enough.

And that's not to say that there aren't other moments that transcend the time in which they were written, that show why these stories have stayed classics for so long. The Invisible Man wasn't my favorite victorian book ever (I'll be curious to see how Dr. Moreau stacks up against it), but it had some genuinely beautiful/touching/chilling moments in its prose, especially in the last 25%.

There's a moment where a man is caught in an impossible position, and he looks out over the view of his village on the seaside, sees the ocean and the cliffs and the hills, and to paraphrase, the book says "and he suddenly realized that life was very sweet" right before he makes a last desperate move which will likely result in his death. It was genuinely poignant! And the epilogue was fantastic.

So all that to say, don't let how old these stories are put you off, give them a read if you're interested, and don't be afraid to use spark notes or other guides to help you understand if you're a bit confused! The editions I'm reading have footnotes in them as well, and those are also really helpful.

[solskens]

Animal Crossing laser cut pen holder

I made a pen holder for my twin @frogtowns and thought I'd share the files here as well. It's Merry and Maple's houses with characters Isabelle, Lily, Maple, and Marshal. Two trees and some fruit.

The files and full instructions are here, it's free and nothing weird. Feel free to use and modify the files, however please do not make profit off of them. More photos and text under cut <3

Here's a photo of my print! It's the first version and I've fixed things, such as the tree bases. The fruits that come with are peaches, pears, apples, and oranges. I have glued together the houses and walls, but I haven't glued anything to the baseplate. The fruits aren't glued either, they hang by the little studs on the back.

Here I put some brushes in it to show scale, also removed one of the trees so you can see better. I cut the doors and put hinges on them so they open but that is obviously not necessary. :)

Also the door to Maple's houes (on the right) is a bit messed up because I sanded it down way too much to fit my stupid hinge. The file is not crooked, it's me hi I'm the problem :S

And a little side view. I sanded down many sides and the fronts and backs because the laser I use stains a bit, but I found out that the charred sides are easily sealed with some clear glue!!

Happy printing and as I said, feel free to edit the files however you'd like. Give it edges to make out of cardboard. I don't care. I just hyperfixated on this instead of doing my work and would love it if anyone else found any use of it. Just please don't make profit off of it just like that because that's a bit rude :(

Details:

Printed size: Baseplate: 25x12 cm (X,Y) Merry's house: 10x7x7 cm (X,Y,Z) Maple's house: 8x5x7 xm (X,Y,Z) Trees: 7x8 (X,Z) Figures: 3-4 cm (Z)

Total material use: 60x30 cm (X,Y), however this is not optimised.

Material: 4 mm plywood

Print time: Less than 30 min for me. I used an Epilog Legend EXT 75 Watts 36x24 laser.

Scale for pdf: A2, 1:1

Units for CAD files: mm

Everything is in the Drive folder, download it and read the README instructions and use the files :) If you need it in another file format, just let me know. I won't redraw anything for you but I can resave it to another file format such as sketchup or an earlier Rhino version for you if you want :)

ok bye xoxo

the render image without my graphic design is my passion glitter additions on it

[three-dee-ess]

going on a deepdive into 3DS/DS purikura games

I saw this image on a tumblr post and I wanted to look for the original source (so I could properly credit the person and to find out what game it was):

I couldn't find the original, however, I did find this yahoo ask asking what game it was.

The person answering seemed to think it was a hello kitty game, likely because of the hello kitty sticker used to cover the face of the person taking the selfie, but it's clearly one that was added after the photo of the DS was taken, it's not a sticker that exists within that software.

As you can see here, it seems to be a piece of hello kitty fanart- it's not official art, and therefore not featured in the game. This helps with my search a bit.

Also, I believe this is a 3DS title, not a DSI/DS one like the person above suggested- the "select" button in the home menu is the same as the o3DSXL's. This suggests this game was published BEFORE the n3DS series was released.

I remembered playing a game in the past called "Sanrio Picross" that had some purikura elements, however, that game doesn't allow you to edit photographs, and upon looking at them side by side, the UI is completely different.

I googled "3DS purikura game" (purikura being the Japanese word for photo booth) and the only result was "Sparkle Snapshots." From what I could see, the 3DS title didn't have UI that matched either. I decided to look up the DSI game as a last ditch effort into this line of thinking and I didn't find anything.

I did find a screenshot of the title screen on khinsider VGM and the title song goes HARD.

It doesn't seem like this is a purikura game, (or at least not solely), so my research must continue. The next thing I looked into was the UI. I know some Japanese, not very much, but enough to read some basic katakana.

Under the X button it says "Zoom." The L button seems to say "Erase Button."

And it seems that R and A also say "Erase Button." Start obviously says "Menu" It seems like this is a very basic game.

For the bottom screen, it was taken at an angle and it contains some Kanji, so I put it through some photo editing to make it easier to read.

Typing that into google translate I got "Saved! Do you continue doodle?" (and then obviously yes/no)

The phrasing of doodle is interesting. This implies it could be an art program, like the yahoo commenter suggested earlier.

Searching up 3DS art programs doesn't really help me, and coloring games doesn't work either...

My last resort is to go through every 3DS game released in japan, (since we already have a copy of every game ever released for the 3DS online...) However, before I do that, I'm going to look for this image some more.

I found it running rampant on pinterest...

No one else seems to know what it is either LOL.

However, the version on pinterest is significantly higher quality!

Next step, finding more games. I simply need to try to find MORE games. Because I know what the UI looks like, it shouldn't be too hard.

I'll run this search again and just scroll till I see a new lead...

Oh, that was quick!

I found a series called "minna no" which seems to be similar to the "imagine" series in the US- just kind of children's shovelware that never got translated to english.

I ran a search for みんなの (Minna no) on google and...

Huh that sounds familiar... oh my god.

OH MY GOD.

It'S THE SAME FUCKING GAME THE GUY FROM EARLIER WAS TALKING ABOUT. The one I dismissed entirely because it was a DSi title and the game's UI wasn't DSi? It was a 3DS title.

The best part about all of this... the best part about all of this... the UI doesn't even match at all. I went full circle and just accidentally proved this guy completely wrong.

I checked the rest of the minna no games, and yup, no dice. It's some other title.

Next up, I looked at Girls RPG Cinderella Life, mostly because it kept coming up over and over during my research- and holy shit their website is adorable.

Their website is an accessibility nightmare, but it's absolutely adorable. If you are into web design at all, I'd recommend checking it out.

super cute!! looking through the website only proves to me though that this is not the game we are looking for though, so let's move on.

Okay okay okay, how about... JS GIRL: Doki Doki Model Challenge?

Found some information about it.... oh shit there's a camera function?

Dammit... Doesn't look anything like the image.

WAIT WAIT WAIT. A photo decoration option??????

While trying to find more images I found out the game was in this pretty holographic packaging. God I'm jealous. More games should do this.

Either way I can't seem to find any images on this, so it's going on the list of possible candidates. And While looking up this game, I found more under the same artstyle that also might be culprits.

While trying to find more information, I realized how many of these games there are. And also how many of them I have played in the past, lol.

I've been a big fan of Style Savvy (AKA Girls Mode) and I've tried out Girls Fashion Shoot, which was an english translation from a different game series about becoming a model.

Yet another knocked off the list!

By extension, the second game is also knocked off the list.

Another model game- this one called Neco*Petit Girls Runway. Another dud, but also very cute.

Pretty Rhythm series seemed to have a camera function but it didn't line up with the UI shown in the screen either.

If anyone has any more ideas or lists of games, please tell me below! I need to take a break from researching this, and I'll need to play some of that JS model game from earlier, since I doubt anyone has used the photo function during a youtube Let's Play, but based on the UI, I sincerely doubt that it's the one we are looking for.

[aceofstars16]

Oh look, another Gravity Falls fic! I started this one a while ago but finally got around to finishing and editing it! Title is from the song "It's Alright" by Mother Mother

And hey it actually kind of fits Week 4 of @forduary cause it is older Ford *jazz hands*

You can read on AO3 but I will put the fic under the cut here as well!

Summary: Weirdmageddon is over, everything should be fine, right? But Mabel and Ford find themselves confronted with feelings they'd rather forget, and find comfort from each other. (Aka, Mabel has nightmares and Ford is there to comfort her because we love fluff and Mabel and Ford bonding)

It was late. Ford wasn’t exactly sure what time it was, but the kids had gone to bed hours ago, and he had sent Stan off to get some sleep, what? An hour, two hours ago? Something like that. His body was drained and he knew he should sleep. But he knew what awaited him if he did. Sure, Bill was gone, but nightmares would still come, he knew it. Especially after all that had happened. Even in the waking hours, he couldn’t get rid of the image of him pointing the memory gun at Stan, no matter how hard he wished it would leave him. After all, despite Stan remembering more and more, there were still holes in his memory. Which is why Ford was still up, rifling through boxes he had long forgotten about, looking for anything that might help his brother fill in those holes.

Pulling out another photobook, Ford started flipping through it. He had already put a few aside to show Stan when he woke up, but this one was mostly pictures from college. He put it in the useless pile – though he supposed he might share it with Fiddleford at some point. Ford wasn’t sure if it was irony or a sign of his poor life choices that two of his closest friends had lost their memories because of his decisions.

With a sigh, Ford picked up a frame from the box, only to freeze when he heard a floorboard creak.

Quickly looking up, he was expecting to see Stan – it hadn’t been uncommon the last day or so to find his brother up and about at any hour of the day or night. However, this time, it wasn’t his brother who was up. Instead, he saw his great niece walking past the doorway.

“Mabel?” Setting down the frame, Ford stood up, trying his best to ignore how hard the movement was. Maybe he should try to get some sleep…

Mabel had already walked past the room, but a second later, her head poked into the doorway. “Oh, Grunkle Ford! I…didn’t know you were up.” She fiddled with her nightgown, her eyes flickering to and fro much faster than normal.

“I was just looking through some old boxes.” Ford gestured to the box he had been perusing. “What are you doing up at this hour?”

Mabel glanced at the box, then the floor, then at Ford, then at the wall, before looking at the ground once again. “I uh…” She swallowed, then said in a quiet voice, “…nightmare…”

Sadness pierced Ford’s heart. He was used to nightmares, and in a sense, he knew it was his fault that he had so many. But Mabel? She was far too young and innocent to be dealing with such troubles. He took a step forward, but stopped. He didn’t want to make anything worse. “Would you like to talk about it?”

Looking at him, Mabel opened her mouth, then closed it and bit her lip before shaking her head, which only made Ford more worried about her.

Glancing at the box by the couch, Ford decided a different tactic might be helpful – one that he used quite often with himself – distraction. “Would you like to help me look through my old things?”

Mabel perked up at that. “Really?”

Ford nodded and gave her his best smile before motioning her to come closer. “Of course. There is a lot to look through and I could use the help.”

A smile slowly grew on Mabel’s face and she made her way to the box and picked up an old framed certificate – his diploma. For a moment, she just looked at it, then she spoke. “Wow, the seventies! You really are old!”

A chuckle escaped Ford before he could stop it. He reached down and took the frame from her, shaking his head as he placed it in the useless pile. “I suppose I am getting a little old.” He reached down and picked up another photo album then sat down, patting the space beside him.

Mabel grinned and plopped herself down next to him, leaning her head against his arm as he opened the book, only to straighten up.

“Oh my gosh is that you and Stan as teenagers?!?” Her smile was contagious.

“It is…” Ford said quietly, trying not to think too much about the lump that grew in his throat as he was faced with the memories the pictures brought to the surface. Hopefully that was a good sign that they would help Stan remember. Even if they only served to remind him of all the things he wished he could change.

 “Ooo who is that?” Mabel pointed to another picture.

And so, the night continued, Mabel asking questions and Ford telling her stories of when he was younger. Ford was in the middle of talking about one of his favorite classes at a summer camp when he glanced down and realized that Mabel was fast asleep, using his arm as a pillow.

A soft smile grew on his face, and he carefully set the book they had been looking through to the side. He knew he should simply take Mabel back to her bed and continue his work. There was still so much left to go through. But then, in her sleep, Mabel curled up closer to him. He supposed he could rest his eyes. Just for a few hours…

------

The sky split open, turning the world red. Laughter filled the air.

“Thanks Shooting Star!”

Bill’s voice echoed around Mabel.

“I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Bill’s voice sound behind her. Spinning around, Mabel shrunk back as the demon grew bigger and bigger. Screams surrounded her, growing louder and louder until she couldn’t hear herself think anymore. Chaos reigned. Then suddenly the noise died and she only heard one voice.

“Who you talkin' to?”

She was looking at Stan again, confused, lost, not knowing who he was, or who she was. He turned and looked at her, then a chorus of her family’s voices spoke all together.

“It’s all your fault.”

“I didn’t mean to!” Mabel cried out, tears growing in her eyes.

“Your fault, your fault, your fault!”

The voices grew louder and louder, no matter how hard she pleaded, tried to apologize, they wouldn’t stop. She was drowning in guilt, it was pressing down on her chest, heavier and heavier until she couldn’t breathe.

Gasping, Mabel started awake. The voices were gone. The only sounds were Dipper’s quiet breathing and the occasional bug hitting the window in the attic. But her heart was still racing, and the guilt from her dream was still pressing down on her. Waking up hadn’t freed her from the reality of her actions.

She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t haunted by Weirdmageddon, and all of the events of the last week. And she hadn’t even lived in the apocalyptic world that long, not compared to the townsfolk or Dipper - there were times when she had heard him muttering in his sleep. And then yesterday she had once again stood face to face with her mistakes, when she had found herself lost with thousands of versions of herself.

Holding out her hand, Mabel saw her entire arm shaking. She felt cold despite the humidity of the attic. Swallowing hard, she looked at Dipper. For a split second, she considered waking him. She knew he wouldn’t mind, not that much at least, but…he didn’t know the whole truth. About how Weirdmageddon had really started.

Forcing herself to move, Mabel got out of bed and shakily made her way to the door, then down the stairs. She didn’t quite know where she was going. Maybe to find Stan… he always make her feel better. Or…Mabel didn’t realize where her feet were taking her until she was standing in the doorway to the secret room her and Dipper had fought over what seemed like ages ago.

It was Ford’s room now. Though there still wasn’t a bed in it, just a couch where Ford was conked out…had he really been sleeping on the couch for weeks? How had she never realized that until now? Just another reason she was selfish. The guilt in her chest grew.

“Mabel?”

Ford’s voice made her jump. She thought he'd been asleep. But he was sitting up now, one hand resting on his hip and the other straightening his glasses.

The guilt monster pressed down on her more. Ford needed sleep. Only a few days ago, he had been staying up till all ends of the night. He was finally resting and she had ruined it. Swallowing, she opened her mouth, trying to make herself apologize and tell him she was just going to get a drink, but the words wouldn’t come.

“Nightmare?” He asked quietly, concern lining his voice.

Hugging herself, Mabel tried blinking back the tears that were growing in her eyes, she shook her head. Her performance must not have been very convincing however, because Ford patted the couch next to him.

“Come here.” It was a gentle invitation, and despite knowing she didn’t deserve it, Mabel couldn’t stop herself. She rushed forward and sat down on the couch, curling up in on herself as she did.

A gentle hand rested on her shoulder and pulled her into a small side hug.

“It’s alright…it…everything is okay now.” Ford spoke quietly as his hand moved up and down in a comforting motion.

However, they had the opposite effect on Mabel. Tears blurred her vision as the guilt and regret pressed in on her.

“No it’s not!” A sob shook her body and she curled in on herself even more.

For a moment, there was no response, then Ford spoke again, his voice heavy with remorse. “I’m so sorry, Mabel…”

She froze at the unexpected words and slowly looked up at him. He was staring at the ground, his face downcast. “Wh…what?”

He turned to look at her. “Weirdmageddon…everything that happened. It…it’s all my fault. I let Bill into our universe, I couldn’t stop him before…” He shook his head. “I’m sorry my mistakes hurt you…”

Each word weighed down on her more and more. “Grunkle Ford it’s not…it’s not your fault it…” her throat tightened and she closed her eyes tight, resulting in a tear rolling down her cheek. “…it’s mine…”

Even with her eyes closed, Mabel could feel Ford straighten up. “Mabel, it is not your-”

“Yes it is!” Mabel opened her eyes and looked right at Ford, not even trying to stop her crying. “I-I gave B-Bill the rift! I…if it wasn’t for me W-Weirdmageddon never would’ve happened! Stan wouldn’t have-” Her voice broke as sobs overtook her whole body, guilt pulling her down, down…

Arms wrapped around her, pulling her into a warm embrace.

“It’s not your fault, Mabel.” Ford’s voice was soft and kind, not the angry disbelief she had been expecting every time she had thought about telling anyone what had happened.

“Bill is a master manipulator…he’d do anything, say anything to get what he wants…wanted.”

Hiding her face in his sweater, Mabel was tempted to just let it go at that. Bill was awful…But… “I know…but I…I still didn’t want summer to end. I…I was scared and selfish and…I want to be better but what if I mess up again?!? What if I keep being selfish?” Anti-Mabel’s words echoed around in her head as Mabel curled in on herself.

Ford’s arms tightened around her and after a moment, he sighed and spoke softly.

“I know how you feel.”

Mabel froze. “You…you do?”

“I do.” Ford said, regret lining his voice. “When I was younger, I was so focused on what I wanted, that I hurt the person that meant the most to me. And then I ignored all of the warnings I saw about Bill because I wanted to make a name for myself…Even now…I…I was so…caught up in my frustration and desire to make things right that I didn’t even…think about how my distrust could backfire…I didn’t want to admit my mistakes and…by the time I did…it was too late…and Stanley paid the price for my pride.”

Looking up, Mabel saw Ford staring at the wall, tears pooling in his eyes.

He seemed to sense her gaze and turned attention to her, but not before quickly wiping his eyes and clearing this throat. Then he gave her a gentle smile.

“You’re a better person than I am, Mabel. I…the fact that you want to change now, at your age, shows more maturity than I’ve had for most of my life.”

Mabel saw the sadness lingering under his smile, and she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. “You’re not a bad person, Grunkle Ford.”

Ford was silent for a moment, then he sighed. “I…I’m glad you think that, Mabel.”

Sitting back a little, Mabel met his gaze. “I don’t think so. I know so! Maybe…maybe we both have some things to work on but you aren’t a bad person. You are just the right amount of nerdy for Dipper, and you’ve done everything to get Stan’s memory back and you’ve sat with me and helped me feel better after I’ve had a nightmares. I wouldn’t want any other person to have come out of the portal.”

The smallest laugh escaped Ford. "I…okay, Mabel…I…thank you.”

Mabel smiled at him. “I can remind you any time you need it!”

He quirked an eyebrow. “Any time?”

“Cell phones!”

“Oh, right…I’m not the best at using them but…”

“Stan can help! At least…” Mabel hummed in thought. “Well, he can kind of use one, and you can learn!”

Ford laughed lightly and smiled. “I’ll do my best.”

“Promise?” Mabel held out her pinkie. For a moment, Ford just stared at it, then he interlocked his pinkie with hers.

“Promise.”

[ideahat-universe]

Good Design, Bad Design: ARG edition!

Don't worry, it's just a framing device. Lets talk about a Good ARG and a Bad ARG.

Good Design

Shipwrecked 64 is one of the better examples of a ARG done extremely well but what really sets it apart in my mind is the fact that it's a real game.

A lot of indie games make game play a means to an end, most of it benefits more from being watched than played.

A meta of overcharging people to play chapters of a game where each chapter is a little under 2 hours and the game play is just put key in keyhole and run from thing has really crippled the entertainment the genre can offer.

Not so for Shipwrecked 64. You're expected to learn and even write down many things to find the answers needed to progress.

Learn a little bit about music, remember numbers and colors when they appear to you, watch the videos that show up, Read the notes made by stumbler, utilize a fan made cipher to decode Beaver-scratch (or decode the method yourself!), dabbled in the phonetic alphabet, oh and a bit of some googling.

The game can be a punishing experience for streamers who expect to knock this game out in an afternoon. Because of that though it can be fun to play blind. In fact it's very fun to play blind and the scares are edited fairly well as the the jump part of scare utilizes a very surreal screen tearing effect, meanwhile the game tries to come up with ways to sneak up on you to make the jumps really sudden.

It's very good. Sure Poppy's Playtime is a more cinematic experience, and the latest Freddy Game wasn't that bad either but there's something about a really well rounded experience that lives beyond its expectations.

UrbanSpook is. Well, UrbanSpook is a TV dinner.

Let me explain.

A few months ago I mentioned Who's Lila which was also a really well done ARG and meta mystery story which was born from Twin Perfect's reading on what Twin Peaks was supposed to be about.

The idea is that Twin Peaks was a response to how throwaway and artless television was becoming and specifically how murder stories were just a cavalcade of dead bodies and killers with nothing else to care about.

The metaphor used in Twin Peaks? TV Dinners. Whenever bad people were indulging in base desires they were eating TV dinners or other meals that lacked substance.

Yeah, I think you know where I'm going with this. UrbanSpook comes out the gate with a framing device for a gallery of artwork but the framing is bare bones and the artwork only satiates the desire to see gore. The artwork is good but in creating a story it is not judged as a series of images and is instead judged as a story.

As a story we don't know who the killer is, how they kill, why they kill (why they have to kill people to make paintings). We don't know the victims beyond them being dead, when they died, and how they died. We don't know who is primarily responsible for investigating the killings (as it is not uncommon for a specific person to be tasked with bringing a serial killer to justice).

We know about as much as you might learn in a B movie. Which brings me to what I believe UrbanSpook is. UrbanSpook is a no budget ARG Splatterpunk horror.

People come in expecting some kind of lip-service to pathos because at the end of the day people love character, not kills; and in almost every good horror story you get characterization of everyone as well as a strong theme beyond "We like violence, yes we do."

BUT in a B-movie or a cheap slasher film you want gore, you want some blood thrown around, you want TV Dinners.

I imagine though that the budget of UrbanSpook is quite limited so rather than make a completely animated venture he went for the Mandela Catalog effect.

And maybe it's a good gambit. With money he could make a better production but he's getting a Serbian film style reception which does hurt and lashing out on Twitter isn't great PR but that's beyond the art and really everyone is terrible on Twitter.

UrbanSpook isn't bad because it dares to do things that are audacious and repugnant, because the horror genre has gladly housed such films since the creation of film as a genre.

What UrbanSpook does bad is telling a story and while morally Horror can do whatever it wants, artistically there is a good design for a horror story and a bad design for a horror story and this is

Bad Design

[reactionimagesdaily]

The Image Tags Masterpost

(As its own post thanks to a suggestion from @oregano-gremlin! gracias)

Every image is tagged with one of these tags, for organisation purposes! ^_^

(Also It’d be a HUGE pain to go back and re-organise them so, while suggestions for new categories/adjustments to existing ones are appreciated, I’m almost definitely not gonna follow through on any of them.)

(Also I am uh. Putting this under a read-more because it’s longer than I thought it was gonna be when it’s all laid out lmao)

#[undefinable] - for images that don’t really fit into a single mood, or have a mood that isn’t accurately represented by one of the other tags

#;_; - for images that are the big sad

#Hell yah - for celebratory, “nice”-type images

#Hell nah - for images that simply embody the concept of “no”, “no thanks”, “not for me”, e.t.c.

#Frick the frack off - slightly violent images used to tell someone to begone or that they are unimpressive

#Y’all are heathens - images that demonstrate disdain, confusion, or general contempt for your group chat

#Ah shit - images that convey “oh fuck”, “oh no”, “oh heck”, “oh shit”, and so on

#Depression time - for images that can be used to either show genuine sadness, or a weary sort of “oh God” that is less emotive and more resigned than an #Ah shit image

#Huzzah - celebratory images

#w h a t - images which convey just. total incredulity and bafflement

#F - for images that pay respects

#ooh-de-lally - images to be used for things that are exciting, spicy, or generally just make your eyebrow quirk up a bit

#Cursed - cursed images

#Wow - images that either convey a sense of genuine wonder, or demonstrate like. “yeah cool story bro”

#I LOVE YOU!!! - images you can use to show affection to any loved ones you are fortunate enough to have

#Welp - for images that aren’t very emotive or very specific, but rather channel that face you make when someone’s talking about something and you have no real idea how to react

#Genuine mirth - images that express, well, genuine mirth

#Contemplation time - I like to think this one is self-explanatory lmao

#Horny on main - not for NSFW stuff so much as stuff where it’s just a guy saying “hehe boobies” or whatever

#:) - happy pickturs

#Fear - fear

#Called out - honestly this one’s a bit inconsistent but it’s either for when you yourself have been called out (“you got me there”) or for when you’re calling someone ELSE out (“cool motive, still murder”)

#Free Real Estate - for images based off of those legendary seconds

#Gratitude amigo - images that say thanks

#Trans rights - because trans rights are human rights

#Disgustan’ - for when you need to express disgust with an image

#Disney - images @ that specific megacorp

#I am so great - images for when you’re proclaiming your own greatness (or at least an amount of self-satisfaction)

#Stole your meme lol - for those images you see everywhere on twitter indicating that someone likes your meme/image and have saved it for their own use

#Genuine reassurace - images that express, well, genuine reassurance

#[Music stops] - there are lot of parodies of the initial “music stops” image, and I have many of them

#Gweetings - images that say hi

#I will cause problems on purpose - images with those vibes

#Ambivalent - because sometimes you need to visually express how little you care

#Bog Moss - this is actually the tag for images that are like “mood” or “same” - I tag them ‘bog moss’ because of an inside joke lmao

#Mockery - bully your friends with this specific collection

#Please exercise empathy - for images that basically say “I don’t know how to expain to you that you should care about other people”

#Nice music - images dedicated to saying that specifically music is good

#Sic ‘em - for images that carry a similar energy to Mayor Tyler from Gravity Falls going ‘git ‘em! git ‘em!’

#Grooving - images that convey the emotion of dancing

#You are not immune to propaganda - I have no idea where that edit of Garfield came from, but there are LOADS of edits, so they all get their own category

#Think of the economy - for images designed to satirise people who prioritise stonks and the economy (which CAN be important, I won’t knock ‘em) over human life

#Silence! - you know that image of the crab lasering something? Yeah, there are a bunch of those, so they get their own category

#Genuine wrath - images that express, well, genuine wrath

#Pretty sus NGL - images designed to help convey suspect or suspicion

#Gotta go fast - images that go quick nyoom

#Ight Imma head out - parting is such sweet sorrow, as these images will demonstrate

#Case Closed - for image that indicate that some kind of mystery has been solved, or that some kind of question has been answered

#Not-okay cute things - for those images where it’s like, a plush toy captioned with “I can’t fucking take it”. those sorts of images. they have a category

#Oucho - for images that convey pain but aren’t quite in the realm of ;_;

#Ok boomer - Y'all remember ok boomer?

#Chillaxing - for image that surmize a specific chillaxed vibe

#Nice dub - using this one for pics of that one specific guy in all those pictures where he’s congratulating people’s Ws and Dubs

[irlmaeda]

Hiya! I found your blog through your neocities website! I was wondering if there’s any tips or things you read/watched that help you make your site. (Im heavily considering making one of my own neocities site it just seems fun)

hihi welcome !! i have quite a few pieces of advice, but the tldr is you should come up with an idea for what you want to make beforehand, and look up how to do each piece! your knowledge will start to fill in along the way :]

(this is probably gonna be long as hell so under the cut is all of the fun stuff /silly)

the way i personally started off was by sketching out what i wanted my site to look like! if you know what you want before you begin, you'll know where to look to figure out what you need to do. html+ css are extremely easy languages to read/write once you know what to look for!

^ this was the original sketch for my site, where i planned out everything i wanted to include. it's a bit different from what actually ended up on the site, but that's alright! it's just about having an outline to work from. i think of it like outlining before you write, it feels like such a pain in the ass because u just wanna start working NOW but u will thank yourself later for taking the time to plan.

once you know what you want to make, start looking for tutorials and resources to make it easier! the grid for my homepage and some of my other subpages was made using a css grid generator, since its one of the more confusing bits of css. you can make grids without it, but its a very easy way to make a more asymmetrical design if ur using the generator!

thats linked here, it gives you some css to put in your head or css sheet, and then the html for the different boxes to slap in your main document. it can be easier to understand what itll look like if you give each one a border while you work, even if its just temporary!

when looking for information about css and html, w3schools is your best friend. its a pretty comprehensive database of every little piece of html + css you could ever need, with examples you can play with yourself to understand what each variable does! it's been a lifesaver for me, ive watched basically zero video tutorials because everything on there is explained so well and you can find basically Anything.

they even have code snippets for things that take more than one or two lines of code, which you can use and adapt yourself! (the tooltips on the official art + my art sections on the hinata shrine were adapted from a tutorial on there!)

in general, having a plan and working from there will make ur life so much easier. the pages that ive sketched out beforehand or ive had a very clear vision for have been WAYY easier to code than the ones i tried to come up with on the fly, and ive been much happier with how they've turned out as well. though i do also have some smaller, rapidfire tips as well that ill go thru now!!

— inline css (the style="" tag) seems so so useful but really should only be used when you're resizing images like buttons. when u keep all of your css in the head or in a seperate document, its way easier to debug and read later. i cleaned up my homepage recently by removing all of the inline css and looking at the code stresses me out WAY less because i can actually read it LOLOL ... plus cutting the css out and putting it in its own document made me realize that id accidentally wrote some really weird code in some places

— this is very much 'do as i say, not as i do,' but use an external editor (like visual studio code) instead of editing live on neocities! you can set up a live preview, and generally wont be pushing out 100 updates every single time you change or add something. i tend to code directly on neocities but its a bad habit and i want to break it eventually v_v

— if you really like an effect someone else has on their site, you can peek using inspect element i promise the coding police won't get you !! dont steal code line for line, but you can figure out what theyre doing and put your own spin on it. things like border images can be really cool, and i only figured out about them because i looked at what someone else was doing and figured out how to adapt it for my own site! check linkbooks and credit sections as well, a lot of people will include links to any effect they didnt make themself or got help with. (including me! the credits section of the linkbook has a ton of little things i got from other places, including a really neat little music player, the rss feed for my status cafe, and the wobbly text on the homepage!)

— most stuff in html and css basically just... says what it does in the tag. so looking stuff up for it is extremely easy! if you've used carrd before you honestly probably already know more abt html than u'd think just intuitively. when ur adjusting the margins or padding in carrd, you're adjusting the margin: and padding: properties in the css of the website it's outputting!

this is getting way too long but!! my best advice is to just get started. you'll never be able to learn without trying, and it genuinely is so fun to have something that's truly your own!

(if u have any specific questions im happy to answer anytime as well! i love talking abt neocities, its a super fun hobby and way easier to pick up than u would think!)

[kaecodes]

HI, so long time no talk! I haven't gone anywhere, I just had some personal financial troubles that were resolved via...lots of overtime! I am a physicist by day, so that meant I became one by night for a couple months. But I remained coding, designing, & sketching things in my scant moments.

More importantly, I've been doing a lot of reading & observing of the Jcink RPC & I am really gutted by the lack of free resources I've seen become manifest. As a result, I've been percolating some easy design methods I could use to fast track totally free skins to give out as bi-monthly as I can manage in the near future.

Because I'm not one to stick to an aesthetic or design style so much as following a settled philosophy of coding, each of my skins will be entirely unique (no reused assets besides utility scripts, perhaps fonts, etc) but will all be;

Designed to be entirely responsive, with fallback & default setups for Custom Fields, image appearance or omission, etc.

Designed to load in a second & half or under, universally.

Neatened to be readable, cascade-organized, & fully notated with CSS & HTML notes to explain important components, how they work, & how to edit them.

Provided with a dark, light, & middle theme colour option as well as High Contrast option.

Provided with Staff, Member & Character profile & miniprofiles.

Provided with a full Custom BBCode suite of site templates to match the skin.

Based on the UI/UX design of a game with striking visuals that can be used for similar genres.

Now, this is a tall order, but I really want to flex my muscle & try to give folks something to be optimistic over in a landscape of drama-blog wastelanded distress. I want to put out something productive & positive, to make the community better & bring us together a bit <3 As a result, I'm going to need a little help from you all. I need to figure out which "Inspos" to work off of first based on desire for them, to fill the starving niches from most important to "least" so to speak. For the next few weeks, I'll post some polls & would be endlessly grateful if you all paid it forward by boosting but also voting on the games whose vibes you want to see MOST PRESSINGLY manifested as skins in the Jcink RPC.

I will, also, eventually port each one to Forumactivo, so for my Forumactivo folks, please let me know when you get specific polls so I can prioritize converting those skins for you! You deserve just as much love!

Of course, if there's a specific game you want to see feel free to comment on this post & I'll make sure to put it in the first poll, but for now that's all. The first list of inspo options will come out later today or tomorrow, Stay tuned & stay awesome, may the Dance keep you all absolutely blessed!

[owlsandwich]

WIP Questionnaire

Thanks so much @verba-writing for tagging me in this!

I wasn't sure which of my 2 WIPs I should answer for, so I'm just going to do them both :P

I'll tag @pb-dot @teacupsandstarlight @eccaiia @stits @ahungeringknife @mundanemoongirl and leave an open tag (please jump in! This one is a lot of fun and I want to read about other's WIPs!)

The Mechanics of Magic:

1. What was the first part of your wip that you created?

A handwritten draft of what eventuall became chapter 3, written back in 2010

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

I'm not sure about a theme song, but I wrote most of Mechanics while listening to Portugal The Man, so something by them!

3. Who are your favourite characters you've made? Why?

Oliver is my favourite character - I love how stressed he is, under the weight of his responsibilies, and I put a lot of myself into him. The character I love the most though might well be Morgan. He really sums up that question of what if a good person did something terrible? What is enough to earn redemption? I don't know if there is a clear answer on whether he deserves happiness, but I believe that he does, and because of that, maybe I can believe it for myself as well.

4. What other pieces of media do you think would share a fan base for your story?

I'm not actually sure! My stories aren't particuarly marketable.

5. What has been your biggest struggle with your wip?

Defining the genre. I have been told that it's not possible to create a new genre, but Mechanics doesn't appear to fit into any existing fantasy sub-genre.

6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

I wish there were more! Roy has a betta fish named Mr Shinysides (named after my friend's fish).

7. How do your characters get around? (ex: trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

The word is very similar to the UK in the 00s, tech-wise, so usually cars and trains, though I think they might have air travel as well.

8. What part of your wip are you working on rn?

Going through all the changes the editor made and signing off each chapter for the final edition.

9. What aspects (tropes, maybe?) of your wip do you think will draw people in?

Tropes... maybe found family? I love how they all come together, despite being from very different walks of life. I have canonly autistic characters as well, though even the ones that I didn't intend to be autistic, probably are (it's hard to make characters that don't share some of my fundamental way of thinking).

10. What are your hopes for your wip?

I hope it can find the people who need it, and that they might love these characters as much as I do.

Burning The Darkness:

1. What was the first part of your wip that you created?

I imagined chapter 1 a month or so before I wrote it down, and played with the scene over and over in my mind. I have a diary note somewhere musing on whether I should actually write it.

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

Surely it would have to be Darkness At The Heart Of My Love - The Ghost song that inspired it!

3. Who are your favourite characters you've made? Why?

I love Julian. His character allowed me to explore so many of my own feelings about being raised in someone's image, purged of kindness and softness, and the conditional love that comes with being a golden child (though I'd say he got more of that than I did). I smile when people say they dislike him.

4. What other pieces of media do you think would share a fan base for your story?

Again, I am not sure! People who like queer paranormal romance, but with layers of metaphor? This really is a story about discovering you are queer, even though it's about vampires.

Maybe Buffy fans!

5. What has been your biggest struggle with your wip?

Overcoming the shame of having written a romance. It being paranormal with a bit of smut in it, makes me feel like people will think less of me and that no one will take the deeper themes seriously.

6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

There is a blackbird singing in one scene, but again I need to add more animals into my work!

7. How do your characters get around? (ex: trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

Vampires are fast walkers, so they mostly just run around the place. Darkness is set in basically Eastbourne or Brighton though, so they have all the usual transport methods.

8. What part of your wip are you working on rn?

Wondering what I should do with it really! I need to edit out the smutty scene in chapter 2, if I ever want to self publish it.

9. What aspects (tropes, maybe?) of your wip do you think will draw people in?

There's a lovely bit of enemies to lovers in there I think. Also Oren's arc is basically a direct metaphor for me realising I was trans and starting testosterone, so I'd love if other trans guys read it and related.

10. What are your hopes for your wip?

Kinda what I said before - I hope it can find its way to people who will love it. Particuarly I'd love to find a queer audience who might relate to the themes.

One day I would love to be traditionally published, but so far I haven't written anything that has stood a chance, so that's a dream for a future WIP!

Blank Questions:

What was the first part of your wip that you created?

If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

Who are your favourite characters you've made? Why?

What other pieces of media do you think would share a fan base for your story?

What has been your biggest struggle with your wip?

Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

How do your characters get around? (ex: trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

What part of your wip are you working on rn?

What aspects (tropes, maybe?) of your wip do you think will draw people in?

What are your hopes for your wip?

[thewandererh]

🫧🔆⛵️more from a few sketchbooks i drew in last summer :]!

this is a collection of my deepswim fanart, an original story comic i made with my iambic pentameter (rainworld x chonny jash) iterators. the text contains an introduction and entire telling of deepswim’s plot so far. each blurb (mostly) doesn’t relate to the images. the deepswim comic itself has a lot more in store, so reading this won’t spoil everything, but feel free to scroll if you’d rather experience it fresh (when i post it eventually). i’m very passionate about it, so onward ^_^💛⭐️!

DEEPSWIM OVERVIEW: desperation, underwater environments, brotherly bonding, and a lesson on life’s resilient beauty

it’s still quite a wip of a story, but it came to me in the summer of 2023 while dealing with acid reflux and other hellish health issues. the entire idea unfolded in my head when listening to Curicó by Kiltro for the first time, and i sketched + colored many pages to that single song looped for 6 hours straight the next day. it turned into a comic that became bigger than i expected!

HRT, MND, and SUL (rainworld hms) are staying in a beach house somehow and there’s a dock that looks out to a huge lake. something happens prior and SUL falls into the unknown ecosystem.

weak and now gauging his choices, he sinks to the seafloor in regret (which is conveniently covered in bubbleroot). on the shore, HRT, having heard SUL fall(?), begs MND to investigate below the surface. begrudgingly, MND accepts and donns a helmet i nicknamed an ‘airorb’ (made by Seas of course). I still don’t know why he didn’t bring two. the story’s rough around the edges but I still love it with all my h(ea)rt.

He finds SUL half-filled with water and unable to move. stuck laying along the bubbleroot floor and unable to use any more of it. MND panics, and lends his helmet to SUL. it works, but it seems like he’s already dead. MND pushes through his hopelessness, initiates cpr aanndd,,,,that’s how far the color has gotten.

however, as you can tell from the drawings above, that’s not the end of the story. the rest has been planned but not put down on paper. SUL is saved from the brink of death, gasping awake and aching all over. he helps MND use the bubbleroot (who hasn’t up to this point because he is strong willed and stubborn on the idea of [when he can breathe, i can too]) and they rest together. relieved and tired.

and then another character arrives! an eel lizard (with legs. both because of me forgetting and also lore) named ursula is upset by all the ruckus—and also acts as a metaphor for SUL’s guilt. a quarrel ensues!! stuff happens!! cool comic panel ideas arise!! and that’s what i have so far.

more under the cut! primarily passionate rambling <3

deepswim means a lot to me :]. it’s rough and a bit old, but I love it very much. Curicó by Kiltro is considered it’s themesong, and I’m so happy it is. i discovered the band slowly with the help of CheetahZ’s Serpent Sol map (i don’t want to get into all the drama so i’ll just leave it there), and am so thankful I did. Curicó really helped spur my thoughts on the comic’s atmosphere during the wonderful ‘get this idea down on paper!’ period of deepswim’s first pages on that fateful day.

Kiltro was my first concert, actually. i vividly remember trying to communicate ‘a warrior cats map’ as an answer to where i found their music when asked by the bassist while buying a limited edition merch shirt. i remember standing in the bar under a speaker during the show, watching the audience dance around me, and videoing almost the entire thing. and of course, the selfie with the lead singer Chris Bowers Castillo sits blue and framed on my desk to this day. I love all of their music and am so happy to have found them.

i know the reason why SUL fell off that dock. at the time of creating the comic, (and as mentioned briefly before) i was dealing with the aftermath of a nasty sickness, and my days were filled with the worst anxiety i’ve ever had because of it. it wasn’t specifically an eating disorder (well, by definition it might’ve been), but my morning acid reflux tricked my anxiety into thinking my health was in danger if i ate anything until around noon. things got better when i recognized the cause (anxiety), and mom bought me propel electrolyte water to help me recover. keep in contact with your body, kids.

deepswim was the hyperfixation i needed to relieve my stress and express myself in a really hard time. a lot of my hopelessness was relieved with this comic as an outlet, and i’m so very thankful. i was drawing the lesson of nature’s beauty as i learned it myself, and i think that’s really special.

deepswim’s entirety was me retreating inward on my interests and combining things I loved most, and along the way having SUL discover the beauty of life in his own troubled time. it was a reminder of nature, emotional resilience, and an experiment in graphic design that i hold near and dear to my heart ^_^💛

thank you so much for reading and viewing!!

[cerealandchoccymilk]

Trigun Bookclub: Trigun Vol.1-2, Chapter #08

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CW: Some of my analysis in this post touches the topic of suicidal ideation (there will be a warning around that portion).

I’m doing a deep-read of the Japanese original print (reread) and Overhaul 1.0 (first read) side-by-side, and writing down everything I notice from small details, version differences, translation differences, etc.

The volume numbers will be mismatched for most of the remainder of Trigun, since the Japanese first edition is 3 volumes while all later versions are 2 volumes.

As always, here are the non-analysis panels aka just my homosexual mumbling:

And the rest is under the cut.

[link for if the images aren’t in horizontal rows]

This chapter is the beginning of the Japanese Volume 2, which is from #08 to #13 (plus the pilot as a bonus).

Starting off with the cool as balls shot of Vash being shot a billion bullets at! I did write "rule of cool" here since I thought he was just magically evading the firing squad. However, on second thought, I think Neon specifically ordered the gang to not actually shoot him, judging by how he says "not bad" immediately afterwards. It's his way to test Vash, to see if he flinches.

[cw sui] The "You ain't afraid of dyin', are ya?!" line stuck out to me a lot... Many rereaders (and I assume first-timers too, at this point in the bookclub) know that Vash is... casually suicidal? I'm not sure if that's the right way to put it, but he doesn't have much of a sense of self-preservation. He's not seeking death, of course, but he's not exactly avoiding it either.... This becomes much more apparent and relevant at the end of Trigun and in Maximum, so I'll leave it until I get to those parts. [/cw]

Dear god the crotch shot. okay (squeezing this into a row because I don't really want this guy's balls to take up the whole screen lmao)

I've always loved how Nightow draws these circles to show spinning motion in his artwork!! It's simple but it really pops... it's just so so (chef's kiss)

I wonder just what Vash's next move was going to be here? He's pretty much cornered... but I guess he can always get out of any situation, as he usually does.

Vash's expression of sheer confusion is golden. I love him lmao

Meryl!!!!!!!!! Milly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We missed you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love how immediately after he calls Meryl a little girl he gets spooked by the Big Girl instead.

This is not directly translatable, but I find Milly's line here very cute. In Japanese, she says「…私は――　ミリィ…トンプソンとゆいます　えとえとイチオー スタンガンミリィとは私のコトをゆいます」 The correct word for "I'm called [smth]" here would be 言います(iimasu), but the pronunciation ゆいます(yuimasu) is a bit childish in this context. If I recall correctly, isn't Milly the youngest of many siblings? Maybe it's a little quirk showing that youngest-sibling aspect of hers.

Meryl asking Vash to be a "responsible adult" for once.... lol

This is the first time his name has been called since his encounter with Kaito and the beginning of the BL gang' hijack. I completely forgot that Kaito has no idea who he is!! Vash didn't give him a name; he's just been calling him あんた("you") the whole time!!

Excuse the messier handwriting from here on… I was working on this during a car ride.

A detail in the Japanese version - this line was originally written「おまえが消したって話んなってるJULY(あのまち)だが…」with "JULY" having a ruby pronunciation note of あのまち("that city").

This part was initially written to be a translation suggestion but I decided to just keep it a JP phrasing note:

「あのガレキが俺の見た最初の風景だ」 "That mountain of debris was the first thing I saw."

Translation suggestion - Here, Neon says「サシの勝負だ」, where サシ means "face-to-face" or "one-on-one." I would say it's more like "This fight is between just the two of us," to show more of the respect Neon has for Vash.

More of this respect is shown in the next page, where they make a promise that Neon will step back if Vash wins the duel. Neon recognizes Vash's skill and ideology, and treats him as an equal.

And here's the action!

I found interesting that Neon's war-cry/exclamation "ha" was actually written in kanji as 派. The kanji by itself means group or faction, but considering Neon's character, maybe it's supposed to be a reference to the word 派手(hade), meaning "gaudy?"

This duel definitely isn't following regular duel rules... but no one said it was unfair or anything. Maybe this is just how they are in No Man's Land.

Neon shoots with his dynamo-gun (?) instead of his cool engraved pistol.... Anyways, his first strike is at Vash, and they all hit the rocks that are falling between them. Vash then shields himself with one of those rocks by jumping in the same direction as it.

And he's doing another frontflip!! In sync with the falling rock!! With a wound in his gut!! In midair and upside down, he precisely shoots five rounds into Neon. It hits his dynamo, but looking closely I can see that maybe he got his arm shot too.

damn....

A bit of a tangent - many of Neon's actions are reminiscent of old Japanese culture, which is very interesting. His pose during his first appearance in Chapter #05 (how did i remember that. i checked just in case and i was right), where he sort of squats and extends his open palm to the front, is a very stereotypical kabuki pose. Again, I don't know about the specifics of kabuki, but his pose on the the panel where Vash jumps also looks kabuki-esque to me. Neon's respect towards Vash as a fellow gunslinger and his beliefs on dignity reminds me of bushidō. It's not representative of all aspects, of course, but there are definitely elements incorporated in his character.

This line (including the speech bubble after it) is a bit weird when translated so it will have to be tweaked, but a direct translation would be:

「このままではブレーキングはおろか…　船体ごと爆発する可能性があります！！」 "If it continues like this, the ship itself may blow up, let alone brake!!"

I'm pretty sure "brake" (miswrote in the image, will fix later) here means that they won't be able to put on the brakes due to the boiler malfunction. But I don't know shit about machinery or how to phrase this. (shrug)

That’s it for Chapter #08! As always, the Japanese annotations are in the reblogs.

[serendertothesquad]

Seren's Studies: The Odd Squad UK Gadget Competition Results Video (Part 2)

Damn Tumblr and their 30-image limit. And damn them putting a higher limit behind a paywall. Truly, we have fallen from grace.

(And if you think I am paying for that, hell to the no I am the not.)

Anyway, let's move on to the back end of this results video. Peep below the break!

(But make sure to read Part 1 first -- find it here!)

unamused_andalsogotohell.png

Sure, this video might have much better editing, but it doesn't stop this error of Orwell standing stock-still from popping up.

It's like the Odd Squad equivalent of enjoying the beach from the comfort of inside your car when you can just walk onto the beach and be more comfortable.

And this one goes out to everyone who's afraid of having seaweed touch them.

Like me, Doug Heffernan, and a good chunk of the UK population.

Somewhere in Canada, Olive was able to fit her entire small body under a couch.

She's staying there for the foreseeable future.

Security deposit, rent, and utility costs have all been waived.

"I'm going to snap your neck."

"Clean the pie off of your face first and maybe I'll take you seriously on that."

"...Go to hell."

"I've been in hell for a decade. Try me."

DO Y' GEDDIT??? BECAUSE OLIVE??? D' Y' GEDDIT????? FUNNY LAUGH??????????? KNEE SLAP???????

...WHAT DO YOU MEAN "NOT FUNNY, DIDN'T LA"-

Bent-ass lesson coming from the kid who was laughing at his coworker just before.

A little jarring, but I respect this spin on the "Odd Squad, Odd Squad, stop right there" catchphrase. It's like a four-way thumb war challenge!

Yeah, well, "gazillion" isn't a real number...Onom.

(You know it had to be done. I knew it had to be done. They laid the reference on a platter and I am using it for its most practical purpose.)

Hey, remember Oswald's number-carrying bit in "Portalandia"?

That was funny. It took me aback because it's a commonly-applied mathematical cliche pertaining to incorrect math in a show that is about correct math.

This...feels like they're trying to replicate that, and failing. Like now that they're focusing on STEM, they don't need to be overly correct anymore.

It's not funny, is my point.

OH WHO-HO-HOOOOOOOOOA HEY HI HELLO SHOT FROM THE INTRO HOW YA DOIN'.

So I guess 1) Orli is narrating the opening, which, really, does not surprise me, and 2) we're going back to the "huddle and badass armfold" roots of Season 1 and Season 2. And in this tinny lil' fandom, you can bet that people are analyzing the hell out of both.

(Yeah, we have fun playing with what little food we're given. How about you?)

-----------------------------------------------

So overall, this was a much better video than the initial briefing video. It definitely seems like they were holding everything back and saving it for this one, and frankly, I don't blame them. If this is what the actual show looks and feels like, I'm even more game than I already was before.

Odd Squad as a franchise is no stranger to contests -- they've held many in the past ten years, most with little fanfare outside of one social media post. However, this is the first one I've seen that is just straight-up advertising. And somehow, it hooked me solid.

Big congrats to Safiyah for her grand win with the Memory-inator. Whether she won both the UK and the US contests or just the UK one remains to be seen, but I'm not going to do a separate Seren's Study for both versions of the video because, put simply, there is no second version of the video. Corporate needed me to find the difference between the CBBC video and the PBS Kids video, and I told them straight out, "They're the same goddamn video."

You know what I will do a Seren's Study on next, though? The second trailer. So I'll see you folks around for that.

Seren out!

(And if you haven't seen the results, you can view them here!)

[bunnyinatree]

Feel free to ignore this if you want, but I saw your tags on my post about loveless marriage in a positive way, and I'm interested! I'm a fic writer too, and making one of my favorite characters loveless is a ton of fun! So- what's your fic about? I'm curious, cause it sounds fun (and honestly like a cool idea)!

Omg, no, I really appreciate being asked about it! :D The fic kind of has a long set-up, to be honest, and I feel like that Always Sunny conspiracy theorist image whenever I pitch the idea. There are also a lot of Death Note spoilers, so I will put everything under a Read More, just in case! :)

Essentially, my fic is a sequel to Death Note, where the character Mikami didn't die, because when Near wrote his name in the Death Note, they were like, "May as well fuck around and find out." So, they added a bunch of wild clauses to see how far the Death Note's influence could extend, on the off-chance that the 23-day rule was fake--including a bit that says that Mikami will be happily married.

Now, this fic started off as a joke between a friend and me, because Mikami does seem very gay at a glance, what with how devoted he is to Kira. And we thought that it would be silly if Near was rubbing their hands together, like, "Let's see if I can use the Death Note to legalize gay marriage." But then, I was like, "Plot twist: What if Mikami isn't even gay?"

So the story turns into Mikami telling Near that they ruined his life, because he's aroace and romance-repusled and loveless, but now his Death Note entry is pressuring him into a committed relationship (amatonormativity personified). But Near is like, "Oh, wow, I didn't know that you were aroace. Me, too. Okay, how about this for a solution, then: I will marry you, platonically." But Mikami doesn't even like Near as a friend; he hates their guts.

So the fic is just Near and Mikami being legally married and going from hating/being neutral about one another to eventually turning into genuine friends. I give them a little mystery to solve to force them to work together, and I have a lot of fun exploring what being aroace means to each of them. I only headcanon Mikami as loveless, and I think that he would be much more romance-repulsed and sex-averse than Near.

I have not begun posting the fic yet, but I did just finish my first draft this morning 🥳 I hope to go back and edit it chapter by chapter and then muster up the courage to begin posting. It is... very long. And I started writing it over a year ago. So you can imagine how far from normal I am about this topic :P

But again, thank you so much for asking! A-spec headcanons are truly the greatest badge of honor that I can bestow upon a fictional character! C: