#esp when i get some that are different designs from my own ocs....

[thedeafprophet]

.....maybe i should do my pixel sprites again as i fiddle with things...

[acrobattack]

bliss redesign based off one I made in my teens

thought process + various other bits and bobs under the cut

I was 15 and annoyed by everything that moved when this character first came out, so in my own head I was very much making a Point with this redesign. Hence, I made very minimal changes. I wanted to work with what was already there and basically just make the existing design more thought-through. Little breakdown ahead (keeping in mind i myself am very much An Amateur who doesn’t know shit and am just ranting about my opinions and i also haven’t seen a single second of the 2016 reboot so i don’t know much about Bliss to begin with)

1. one of my Biggest pet peeves with Bliss is that the powerpuff girls each have bangs that are simple, memorable, and iconic while also being unique from each other and being reminiscent of irl little girls hairstyles. It’s very neat and clever and I like it a lot

and then Bliss has this confusing jumble of shapes that looks like it changes in style halfway across her forehead

i have absolutely no idea what the intent is here. My only guess is maybe it’s meant to look weird on purpose like she was trying to cut it herself or something (I suspect it’s something like that since she seems to have normal looking bangs as a little kid from what I can see) but it doesn’t really come off that way if that’s the case. It just looks like baby’s first PPG OC where you Understand that it’s meant to be hair and that it is made out of shapes but have 0 understanding of hairstyle or character design in general. Heck I might have put this exact hairline on a character in the past at the age of like 8

So in my redesign she’s got 5 even notches across her bangs, not thee most exciting change but it does the job I think. It is pretty reminiscent of Blossom but they look different enough from each other that I wasn’t too worried about it

2. low-hanging fruit time, Bliss’s hair color is horrible on the eyes. I’m bewildered at the decision to do this, especially since there is just so much of it, I struggle to think of how she could exist in any scene without hogging all the viewer’s attention constantly. That said, I understand they wanted her to have an unnatural hair color to really signal that she is a Fresh new Teen character from the late 2010’s, which is. Whatever, that’s fine, so she gets purple hair now. I kept the streak for the same reason, especially since she’s got a lot of hair, so no harm in a little extra interest in there.

I also learned recently that her hair glows sometimes? which i did Not know when first drawing her but well i think the darker color helps anyway. It adds some contrast for when she’s normal vs when she’s glowing and makes the latter appear more,, idk threatening or powerful or whatever the mood generally is when she’s doing that.

I did re-add that toothpaste blue to her eyelids though. I like to think it’s also the color of her lasers. It’s a cute color, just not as like 70% of this character’s palette

3. real talk I was drawing this from memory and didn’t mean to change the way her hair flares out from her head. realistically I think the original is fine, maybe just a little boring but fine, so that part of the redesign was an accident. Only thing is, it’s in the exact same position in every screenshot I’ve seen? It doesn’t seem to whip around when she’s flying or anything which looks weird and probably looks weirder in motion, especially since it takes up so much space onscreen. Idk it’s a strange decision, esp since the original show liked to use the ppg’s hair to emphasize their movement, so I’d just bring more movement into her hair. I mean if nothing else it’d make her look cooler.

very very rough little visual of what I mean

I also ended up making it shorter in my redesign—again, not really intentional, but I think it’s better that it eats up a little less of her silhouette

4. Her headband is largely the same, I didn’t hate the idea of her having an accessory, so I just toned down the colors. I’m not personally a fan of the powder blue and that pink heart is very bright and just doesn’t go with the rest of her (once again the color of her hair is doing it no favors). I also moved the heart over. Not necessarily needed I think, but I feel like it reads quicker as a headband and not a weird crown that way+introduces some asymmetry into her design that I think is nice.

5. my biggest gripe other than her bangs are her hips. I’m not against adding anatomy to this character design to make her read visually as older than the girls, but it’s so awkwardly done and distracting. I feel like it even interferes with her line of action more often than not (which is not helped by her unmoving hair).

Part of the issue is she still has the teeny tiny torso, just… with those square-ish hips slapped on, which makes her legs look all gangly and stretched out. I tried to balance out the proportions more in my redesign, as well as change the hips to a flared skirt. I think it helps differentiate her from the girls and still implies hips underneath, it just also functions as a less clunky transition from her torso to her legs.

Lengthening her torso also allows the stripe to look more like a belt above the skirt, which I think helps to sell her as “similar, but not the same” from the ppg

6. Her leggings(? Idk Im not a fashion person) aren’t a bad idea I think. like a more mature version of the girls’ stockings, but I think the white makes them look really distracting. It would help to make them a darker color I think, but since I wanted to keep them reminiscent of the girls’ socks I kept them white and just shortened them.

7. Not really sure what Bliss is wearing on her feet. I think they’re Mary Janes, but they’re drawn a bit different from the girls’ and I honestly think it’s too babyish a shoe for her to wear. I’m not sure what she’s actually wearing in my redesign either honestly, but the goal was just to make them look like the girls’ Mary Janes while clearly being something different.

8. Uh her signature color is something I’ve contemplated changing a lot but to be real I think it’s fine. I feel it was a very bad idea from a marketing standpoint because people were hype about Bunny and would obviously be mad they didn’t get her once the character actually dropped (and in the long-run she would just end up being overshadowed by the character everyone has already assigned that color to) but I’m personally not bugged by her being purple beyond that. If I were to draw them together though I think Bunny would have a more pinky shade of purple and Bliss leans more blue.

Loosely on the same topic, because of Bliss I’ve had a running headcanon that “only child” types of powerpuffs tend to come out purple. Kind of like how trios tend to have a red, blue, and green. It’s a fun little piece of fake lore to rotate around in my brain

Anyway with all that out of the way, here’s some redesigns I decided to have some fun with. Wasn’t being too precious about recognizability or simplicity or anything like that, but I did run out of steam partway through. There’s also one based off Whoopass Bell bc idk, why not

Finally, here’s some OCs I only ever drew once before out of a desire to give Bliss her own teen girl archetypes to form a team with. This is Bee and Beetle, who I’ll probably definitely forget about again immediately after posting this

[driedupeyeballs]

OH MY GOD???? I already love them sm

I literally edited a new profile for them for this cuz the old one was outdated BUT YEAH IDK IF THIS WAS AN INVITE TO INFODUMP ABT MY JAMIAZU FANKID BUT IM USING IT AS ONE

Btw I can only wish to achieve your level of snake knowledge I thought my reptile hyperfixation went deep but yours is deeper I wanna know your ways

But that isn’t relavent YEAH HERES MY JAMIAZU FANKID HI TUMBLR *lets them out like you would a spider under a cup*

So I have a shit ton of Twst fankids btw! They kinda swim around in my brain but only a few ppl I know have gotten the info dumps lmao

Skye was the first one I made I think (actually it might’ve been Rico (florid) but eh oh well who’s counting)

But yes this is Skye Ashengrotto!

They’re my older Jamiazu kid, I do have two. The younger one is my octo boy Akram :) he’s funny I wanna pinch his cheeks but he’s not the point here

So Skye! It feels weird publically infodumping abt my OCs like wtf am I even supposed to put here

They’re a half mer, which do work a lil different than normal mers in my lore. Half mers can transform without a potion but it’s still a long and generally painful process, esp going from mer to human. I kind of switch between calling them a snake mer and a naga but there’s lore there- Nagas exist in my lore outside of sea snake mers, there are also fully terrestrial Nagas. So the terrestrial nagas wouldn’t be considered snake mers but the sea snake nagas would be a type of mer while also still being a naga ITS CONFUSING DONT ASK (actually do. Ask everything so I can roll more of my fankids out like marbles)

Skye was created by a spell, I haven’t quite worked the details out 😔 but Jamil is part gorgon in my lore which is why they have the hair snakes which isn’t a typical naga trait. And to elaborate on the hair snakes: they are alive, the one w the bigger stripes is Flora and the smaller stripes is Jett. Skye can communicate w them telepathically and their eyes glow which is kinda neat. They’re kind of Skye’s version of floatsam and jetsam (unless u count Rico (florid) and Lilac (treyjade) which is like their ver of the twins- IDK ITS COMPLICATED)

idk what else to put here so LETS THROW SOME FHARACTER DYNAMICS YEAH and also mentioning some of my other fankids! They all have profiles (except my Malleus kid I’m sorry Aihan I can’t think of a design for you) but I’m probably gonna save those for another post-

So jamiazu in my lore live in the Shaftlands in a beachfront place and also live pretty close to Treyjade, however Florid live in the Queendom. The octatrio and their spouses is a close group so they’re essentially a big family. My treyjade kids are Maren (older) and Lilac, then my Florid kids are Rico (older) and the twins Mary and Eliza.

Skye saw Lilac more as a kid cuz they lived so close together but also saw Rico a lot when flrd would visit or they’d go to visit them. Rico is an agent of chaos and Lilac is Skye’s 2nd in command so their dynamic on a surface level is pretty similar to the octatrio, but there’s still a lot of differences once u get into the meat of it. Tho Lilac and Rico are Skye’s best friends and basically like siblings to them.

Outside of jamiazu Skye is particularly close with Jade, they share a love of tea :) he’s their cool but also slightly unsettling uncle

THEN THERES SHENZI- Shenzi is my younger kaliruggie kid and I am not gonna get into her here bcuz she rlly needs her own post w all her trauma but good lord these two do not like each other. Shenzi’s really nice but she’s not quite as nice as Kalim so after about 5 months of trying and failing to befriend Skye in their freshman year she just gave up and now their relationship is nothing but hostile (which was not helped when Shenzi and lilac started dating)

Speaking of that tho- so my idikei kids :) Ember (named after the pokemon attack) is the older one and he’s basically that “Jock idia can’t hurt you he’s not real Jock idia:” thing as a person he has the Fire hair n shit but he plays basketball and is heavily extroverted but no one gives a shit abt Ember this is NOT ABT HIM this is abt his sister! Her name is Zelda because you know Idia would name his daughter Zelda- she got all of Idia’s social anxiety lmao. She’s extremely shy and there’s a total of like 4 people in the school she can actually talk to without melting into a small stain on the floor. She’s an Skye are both in board games club and sometime in early freshman year she falls on her ass and knocks over a bunch of stuff which Skye happens to witness and cue the most awkward interaction known to man bcuz Skye can’t talk to pretty girls and Zelda can’t talk to ANYONE but they end up walking to the mirror hall together afterwards which becomes a routine. Except they’re both awkward as fuck take like almost two fucking years to get together bcuz neither of them are gonna do anything abt it BUT THEYRE VERY CUTE!! I love them

Also my ashengrotto siblings are very wholesome I need to write some stuff w them- Akram is a little shit and he loves pissing Skye off but at the end of the day he admires them and Skye loves their brother a lot :)

Anyway good lord I’ve yapped too much okay OH YEAH Skye has a Russian blue cat named Mariana who they just fucking found on the side of the road and thought it was a mouse so for like 2 years Azul thought Skye was gonna eat the cat

OK HERES RHE ACTUAL PROFILE these aren’t as chaotic as the other ones all the other ones are more meme than profile ALSO RHEIR UNIQUE MAGIC DOESNR HAVE A NAME AT THE MOMENT IF ANHONE HAS AN IDEA FOR ONE PLS SHARE I HABE NO THOUGHTS

(If you recognize my art style from instagram no you don’t also THEY DO HABE EYES I JUST DONT DRAW THEM CUZ MY STYLES WEIRD)

But yeah I love them I hope they explode (affectionate)

[tansypaws]

hi wren, first i’d like to say i adore your srt style! second, do you usually use references when you draw? and second, what is your thought process when it comes to designing your characters?

thank you!

references v important, and i can def tell the difference in my art and anatomy from when i do vs don't use them 😬

in terms of design process, i am very much a put pen to paper and go from there type. esp when drawing canon cats, i usually have a lot of different design drafts that don't make the cut in full, but often impact my final design, whether through the palette or the markings or something that i think of while working on whatever design aspect.

for the fallen leaves design, i originally had him as a like very generic red tabby w/ symmetrical white markings, and then i was like oooh give the lad some leafy speckles, and then i was like ooooh x2 what if he was a calico and had some black in there to make the orange really stand out.

im mostly caught up on the books, so i do also try to bring certain traits/experiences/etc into my designs when i can, like shadowsight having eye-like tabby stripes or the blue in fallen leaves eyes or the like "dripping" black from his mouth/nose to symbolize what happened to him

in terms of my own characters (which i realize now is what u asked LMAOO), i am even more loosey goosey. a lot of the times i try to go in with some aspect of a design or design inspo in mind, whether that be a name (ex. my oc beetlenose having a black nose bridge that kind looks like a beetle if u squint at it) or some memory of an irl cat i saw that i thought would look cool. like w/ designing canon characters, i also tend to go through a lot of drafts unless i have something super clear in mind going into things, which is admittedly kinda rare for me. i tend to just not be able to produce things if i get too stuck in my head, so i try and fuck around with stuff until i get something i like. sometimes i get really far into a design and realize i don't like it or i don't feel like it fits or that the color scheme is really not cohesive, and i switch back to an earlier version.

overall its just a lot of experimenting around and making diff versions until something fits, and i can build a design around it. also w/ fallen leaves, i knew i wanted some sort of leaf motif (lol, rhymes) and started off making the white on his face shaped like a maple leaf, but then realized i did not like how that looked so i changed the design to be more reminiscent (i hope?) of....fallen leaves. i'm very all over the place, tbh.

[storiesofsvu]

happy law and order thursday!!

Okay, city tv has registered that I’m not actually in Toronto and now we’re back to the backwards viewing order…

OC first:

My goldfish brain has half forgotten if we’ve seen this blonde dude before or if I just know him from somewhere else.

There’s so much goddamn tension between bell and the other captain, like there is no way they haven’t fucked…

Ugghh mama bear belllll…. Heck yes to these parents watching out for their kids, nothing gets past them lol.

Still don’t like/understand jet using air pods instead of official ear pieces…

Okay, yes Reyes was on his way to blowing the op, but jet didn’t need to jump right in, she kinda fucked the whole thing up.

Bruh… is that bitch dead? Do we need to start reminding the younger generations they need therapy too?

Okay, good, shrink time it is! Bonus that it’s Ayanna’s personal shrink, not department, a: more personal. B: proves that she’s in therapy and we know she likely needs it.

They might be exes, they might be frenemies, but they certainly do work an interrogation room great together

I feel like gunfire in the midst of a gas station parking lot where all the fuel is, is a deadly idea… that could have gone so much worse. Esp considering this is in relation to bombing cases…

I know a lot of it is likely just the era that the show was created/originally airing but the differences in the squad room designs between departments baffles me.

Elliot really out here lecturing his own brothers like he didn’t up and leave out of nowhere. God I hate this shit lol.

*

L&O now. How much attention will I pay?

Jfc… that dead body was a jump fucking scare

What is WITH all the shaky cam tonight, ugh.

I have said it before and I will say it again: Samantha Maroun goes shopping with Rita Calhoun.

Fuck, cases like this fucking suck. But like, legality wise, they’re right. It’s easier to get the perp behind bars by just using the more solid case they have with the rich white victim. If they try to get justice for all the victims, it’s way more likely that they case can and will be thrown out or land on a not guilty verdict. Ugh. Politics

If they need to prove that the vic and the perp didn’t have sex at the sex club on the night of the murder…why not just run a rape kit? Or would some kind of exam like that just be part of the autopsy?

More shaky cam… loving this.

Also why the fuck did my subtitles disappear halfway through this episode? I’m deaf… I need this shit..

Seriously that crime scene photo needs to come with a fucking warning. Jesus

*

Okay. SVU time

Wonderful. I’ve gotten my subtitles back. Thank god.

This is a weird start… hmm…

Getting even more interesting… ngl…

Okay, circling back around, I thought we might be about to get a plot twist of ray being the perp.

UUGHH. I saw a tweet about a new female officer/detective and as much as we all hope that she’ll stick around for more than a season… if Officer Gomez is the new squad member, she’s a woman poc so the chances of her sticking around are slim to none, lets be fucking real.

 Okay, don’t get me wrong. I know that this girl is tiny and she’s an escort, but if a man came in and confessed to rape you’d still take him immediately into an interrogation room. This is a double standard. Especially cause she’s young, thin and pretty, I’m not going to ignore that or let that slide either. *side eye* (like yes, we later do get to the point that she was forced at gun point, but they don’t know that til after. Everything is complicated and there’s lots of lines crossing over and blurring but my statement still stands)

When are they gonna make Bruno an actual part of the team? Why is he still just a guest star?

Man, it’s gotta be hella hard nowadays when it comes to taxis and shit. You have legit taxi’s, multiple companies, gypsy cabs and multiple ride share apps and companies.

Odafin Tutuola only knows about robin egg blue because of Phoebe… there is no way he would know otherwise.

This doctor clearly fucking rich as hell, fuck

HOW does the SEX CRIMES unit currently not have any women working for it??!! (I’m not counting liv cause she’s the captain and irl she would not be in the field, she’d be constantly swamped by paperwork). Even in this episode, it would be helpful to have either terry or fin and a female cop going to talk to a vic/potential vic, if I had been assaulted in any form, remembering it or not I wouldn’t be very open to talking about it if they were talking to me like that, both playing the alpha role. At least with Velasco he can slip into a more soft, quiet, supportive type of conversation/questioning…

“where do you keep your receipts” is something that ALWAYS blows my fucking mind on these shows as a bartender. I DO NOT GET IT. Maybe it’s cause we have tap/card machines that don’t require signatures in Canada, but like…we don’t keep receipts, and even when there are the ones we do keep, they don’t have names, they don’t even have the full credit card number on them, so there would be no way to track someone. We had 250 people in the room each night and as a bartender, unless they had a tab with me, or a personal connection/were a good tipper/conversationalist, I’m not gonna remember them. Our reservations are usually for large groups, so sure we have a single name/card on file, but there’s no way to pin point someone out of their 4-40 people friend groups.  Random bar/service industry things that drive me wild on tv shows. That’s all.

Okay, we’re taking the bracelet off, I think that’s some progress finally.

You know, I wouldn’t mind commercial breaks if they weren’t the same fucking commercials every damn time. That’s the issue with live streaming shit. I miss cable…

“well…they’re idiots, but at least they’re consistent” LOL

Ice T really said “hold on…I need to earn my paycheque for the season” with the amount of screen time he has this ep…

Wait…what’s the plan here? The cops have talked to the perps, there’s no way they wouldn’t be sus about ray coming back in on this. Why not send Velasco or other cops in to bribe the things out and play the ray role? This seems like a bad idea lol.

“wife is here” WHY DID NO ONE TELL VELASCO??

Why don’t we get to go to court anymore?!

Who is this defence attorney? She looks familiar.

I need to raid Velasco’s closet. This coat and sweater look so fucking cozy. They’re mine now.

Glad to see liv branching out to a new type of therapy.

[archivebottles]

hi hi!!! I'm absolutely insane about your art lolz

what kind of stuff goes into your art? I'd love to get some insight on your style bc I'm definitely so normal about it hahaha.

anyways have a nice day!!! :3

hmm good question! i do actually put a lot of thought into my art (although sometimes it doesnt feel like it when im drawing it lol)

i dont have a fancy tutorial or infographic for my inspirations but for me though a lot of my inspiration is just 'what i think looks nice' i saw thicker lines and i thought 'oh i like that on my art i dont think i like using thin ones' or 'oh textured brushes feel much more fun to use!' ive been drawing for a long time and esp recently ive been taking a lot more time to test out new things and also i have been drawing digitally for a LONG time and that time has helped me figured out my art style

although it appears no matter how different i think im making my art looks people seem to know my style in some spaces ha ha

honestly my biggest think i look at many different things for inspiration. Mediums have all sort of genres in them! books! music! games! movies! other peoples art/art history! dont be afraid to mash things together. think fantasy could have something more? make it from a creatures perspective because you loved to read warrior cats as a kid. i really like character design! and concept art i remember looking at the concept art for metroid prime 2 echoes and being so amazed as a kid and because i like thinking about concepts and 'building on an idea' i like to make redesigns of my fav characters (and also i have ocs of my own ofc lol)

for me it was one thing to build a character from the ground up(i never liked taking an existing character and making them my oc by tweaking some stuff) and its another to say 'hm how i can i add something i like to this design that already exists on its own?' (which i think is such a fun exercise)

as for how i come up with designs that where it gets a little complicated. i sort of got into the habit of doing these designs bc i was reluctant to look up refs so i liked to guess to fill in the cracks. this isnt exactly ideal and i dont do this to so much of a degree now but having a hug backlog of inspirations sets me up for a launchpad on where to look for something i think fits that character (color, setting, style, etc)

unfortunately i do not have a list of famous artists i take inspiration from i played gacha games during my college art history (sorry) but i do like the use of horror vacui in art! its the fear of open spaces so its a lot of patterns and designs all cramped together its my fav thing but im also trying to force myself to leave more spaces open lol

uh this post is long as hell i can be more specific if you need me to the tldr is 90% of my art decisions are 'i think it looks nice :)'

[jelliestar]

SSP1.... sorry.

SEE I TOLD YOU ID BE BACK W THIS..... IM SO SORRY....

ok well it turns out I forget stuff way too easily um. so I actually made a mind map of stuff to work on from the last game from project 04 in ESP and yeah. no wonder i got the research done so fast it was so detailed asw and I FORGOT ABOUT ITTTT ok here it is fgjdhkd

mind map. literal lifesaver. that i FORGOT ABOUT.

ok anwyay so I honestly had soooo much stuff to work on, like firstly I had to figure out if I even wanted to do a game now because of how insanely painful it was last time.... but ofc as you can so clearly tell, I LOVE to torture myself. so. yknow. that didn't last long, though I did do some really stupid sketches of comics (I will post these later I very stupidly forgot my sketchbook at home. erm. yeah. anyway.

the next thing I kinda looked into was the story. "kinda" I wrote up 4 different storylines. actually those will get a post of their own each bevause I consider myself a genius lowkey for the things I do with evil/toxic/tragic lesbians in my brain (God I love my OCs)

then I went on to actually look into the technical aspects of how I was going to make the game now. Honestly, I'd basically given up all hope on ren'py, so I actually decided I wanted to use unity and make my own setup for the vn on there. I found a really good set of tutorials on youtube, I'll make a playlist of those and link them in a seperate post too!

Along with this, I began to look into how I would elevate the artwork of my game- at this point I was still in the old style, using the old sprites and visuals, so I wanted to see if I could perhaps rig the character models on live2d! I actually spent quite a while learning how to rig 2d images on there, but then opted not to go down that path because I genuinely just wouldn't have time for that. That being said, it did help me a lot when I did end up changing the artstyle of the game to simplify my character designs, as that was something I had to get used to when drawing to rig.

This was hoenstly such a great starting point for me because I ended up doing SO much research and it rly helped my game blossom!!!

[parallelroutes-old]

what made you choose this muse? // is there any other muse in this fandom ( or any other ) you’d like to RP? // what are your favorite RP tropes to play? (angst, hurt-comfort, etc…) // what’s a song that reminds you of your muse?

what made you choose this muse?

i like playing chaotic and spontaneous gremlins who are silly, weird, cool-looking, punk/goth, and seem empty/depressed deep down. hits a lot of nice 'oh that's my type of rp character' energies. and you will also get a mini story here too.

tbh when i looked around the internet for random series fanart in 2010, i ran into pics of him and genuinely used to think he was ... kinda ugly ngl. i have never liked the old design. personal pref. but i went hunting for random new fanart last year/2022, where i found his new design and was like "wtf that's the same guy? this is the best glow-up of the entire decade?"

that preference ties into why i only rp him as post-future arc? he is just... not attractive to me whatsoever before showing up with a new design LOL...

is there any other muse in this fandom ( or any other ) you’d like to RP?

Enma-kun, my beloved ♪

what are your favorite RP tropes to play? (angst, hurt-comfort, etc…)

80% my absolute favorite is other characters changing their opinions of him, esp if they're reluctant in some way. hurt/comfort, usually as comfort. fluff. deep convos. Wise Advice. atonement!!!

i struggle with making my own full AUs and making OCs takes so much effort for so little payoff rp-wise, so i just. i will let others make the AUs/OCs and i just join them in the party. gladly. bc i love both of them.

what’s a song that reminds you of your muse?

current: i actually don't have one for sure yet? i'm still feeling out the verse so idk. right now i'm gonna guess green day - boulevard of broken dreams. mostly for that "i walk alone with my shadow bc that's all i know." aspect. see also:

I walk a lonely road The only one that I have ever known Don't know where it goes But it's home to me, and I walk alone

I'm walkin' down the line That divides me somewhere in my mind On the borderline Of the edge and where I walk alone

previously i had it as GLIM SPANKY - In the air because it was intended to be the 'parallel worlds traveling' thing, which i have not really been using. i will also skip luz's cover of Ikkitousen because that gives future arc byakuran vibes and you have just now been told how i feel about that, lol.

4YL: cristina vee's english cover of bad apple. ( thank u neo-chan. )

Will tomorrow ever come? Will I make it through the night? Will there ever be a place for the broken in the light? Am I hurting? Am I sad? Should I stay, or should I go? I've forgotten how to tell. Did I ever even know? Can I take another step? I've done everything I can All the people that I see I will never understand If I find a way to change, if I step into the light Then I'll never be the same, and it all will fade to white

this is just kind of the verse's whole vibe? the whole... living with people who only know 'you' of yesterday and don't want to see anything else - and a lot of them can't. but you don't want to be that person anymore.

that's why he's so sad and different. the entire point is to get him to 'move on' from the past and what he did. i should really go explain things and why you will primarily get the deep convos out of this verse, not current. eventually. i don't have much energy lately lmao.

[jacketpotatoo]

A step-by-step look at my drawing process (commission edition) ✨

1) My client ( in this case @/brxkenvalley; ig) gives me their pitch and references. In this case, I was asked to draw their oc in whatever pose I thought would suit them and so I came up with these:

They’re very rough and I focused more on gesture and expression than getting the details right. I also asked them questions clarifying some of their designs and their personality traits (which is a really helpful thing for commissioners to provide so that the artist has a better grasp on the character)

2) my client then asked for C. with an altered expression resembling B. so I made minor alternations to the draft and they decided on the one on the right

3) After approval, i sketch out the character and I’ve taken to just cleaning up my sketch instead of doing lineart because that saves a lot of time

The annotations are me asking for some design clarifications because I wanted to make some alternations so that the piece looked better/more complete (esp cuz I thought straight horns did not look very good on the hat). The quick greyscale shading was just a temporary placeholder to separate the elements clearly. As for references, I use a combination of many from google and from pictures I’ve taken myself. For example, the hands here are based partly on an online reference, partly from my own hand, and partly from muscle memory of me practicing and knowing how to make a hand look like it makes sense

4) flats. This was tough because the reference I was given had the character’s whole colour scheme as similar shades of very dark grey and so I took some creative liberty to adjust the colours a little to make the separate parts pop out more

You can also see the horn fix and added details on the hat. Not much else to say except I stuck very much to cool colours for the whole thing to fit the character’s mysterious vibes

5) Rendering/painting. Everything prior to this was done on procreate but my brushes on Clip Studio Paint are just far superior so rendering was done there

This is what takes the longest and is where I merge my sketch and flats layer and paint over everything (with the help of the magic tool and lasso tool to select segments according to colour). I think it might’ve taken around 4 hours? I used a lot of different brushes to try and get a varied texture and when I was satisfied, I exported it back over to procreate for colour correcting using different layer types and their in-built adjustment tool. I also used an add-glow correction layer with an airbrush on the white parts it pop out more, as well as give the character a more ethereal look

6) I ask my client if they want any minor changes and if not, I’ll email the file to them :)

And that’s my commission process! I don’t do all of these steps when I’m working on personal art (esp the planning) but occasionally, when I have a clear idea for a more complicated piece, I find planning really helpful. I could also do a process thing for a background piece if anyones interested, just lmk. Also feel free to ask questions if you have any and I hope this was clear!

[niuniente]

I was asked on Instagram if Father’s (Demon Sanctuary) design is based on a webcomic The Devil Is a Handsome Man.

A good question! And the answer is no.

Father’s design is based on multiple things:

19th century romantic era Lucifer

Classic Lucifer and Fallen Angel symbolism (note how his chest mark forms the cross of Saint Peter)

My own spiritual world view and life style

1940′s gentlemen

My very old OC

Jeffrey Burton Russell’s history books about the Devil, God and the evil in Western religions (esp. Lucifer - The Devil In the Middle-Ages)

My own guardian angel I met when I had a remarkable out of body experience (accidentally though, just realized the connection a few days go)

Bogomils’ medieval (heretic) theory of the Devil - God’s second son - and how he created the earth being the God of The Old Testament

Islam’s Iblis and Zamakhshari’s medieval (heretic) theory that Iblis was right when he refused to bow down to humans when Allah asked him to.

From these, Bulgarian Bogomil’s theory of Satanael, Lord Satana, as God’s second son, has affected Father’s creation the most. Here’s a direct quote of Satanael and Bogomils’ theory - which, if gotten enough support, would be now be how we view the Devil in Western religions - from Burton Russell’s book “Lucifer - The Devil In The Middle-Ages:

“Diabology was central to Bogomil thought. For the absolute dualists, the Devil was a god of darkness and evil independent of God of goodness and light. For the mitigated dualists, the Devil was subordinate for the God yet still exercised enormous and quasi-independent powers over the earth. According to one view, the true God , a God of spirit very remote from this material cosmos, has two sons, the elder being the Devil and the younger being Christ. The elder son, Satanael, existed before Christ.  Created good like all the other angels , he was highest in merit and sat at the right hand of the Father as the Lord’s steward. But Satanael was an unbjust steward and grew dissatisfied with his subordinate position. In his pride  he longed to set his throne as high as God’s and to this purpose he  rebelled. (---) As a result of their (angels’) rebellion God thrust Satanael and his followers out of heaven. Wandering in the void, the Devil determined to make a new world in which to reside. Aping God’s creation, he declared that “Since God made heaven and earth, I will now make a second heaven like a second God.”

This “second heaven” is this cosmos. Satanael, creator of the universe where he live, is the Creator God of The Old Testament, for any entity perverse enough to create this material world with its grossness, misery, and suffering, must be evil. The Devil, who was Moses’ master, composed the Pentateuch himself, and the whole Old Testament was inspired by Satan (though some Bogomils accepted the divine inspiration of Psalms and the prophets). Surveying his own creation and finding it satisfactorily repellent, Satanael proceed to make a sentinel being, Adam, which he fashioned out of earth and water. But when he stood the thing upright, Satanael was annoyed to find it defective. Life was trickling out from Adam’s right foot and forefinger as a shape of a serpent. Satanael breathed spirit into Adam but again it trickled out, this time becoming the serpent itself.

Desperate, Satanael was obliged to turn to his old enemy, the Lord, for assistance, begging him to help create humankind and promising him that if he cooperated he would be allowed to share their governance. The Lord, wishing to fill up the ranks of the angels depleted of the story of the ancient rebellion, agreed. (---)

The purpose of this (---) story if to illustrate the central point of Bogomil anthropology: the human soul, a creation of the true, good God, is trapped in the human body, which is the creation of Satanael, the false god, who tricked the Lord into helping him and now hold the soul prisoner in a disgusting and defile body.”

Rest of the story goes that God helped Satanael create Eve. Satanael, as a serpent, slept with Eve and they had two children, a son Cain and a daughter Calomena. Later, Eve had a son with Adam, Abel, whom Cain killed. God took away Satanael’s divine power to create as a punishment for introducing murder to the world through his son Cain but left Satanael to rule the world as he saw the best. This lead to him being the evil god of The Old Testament, until Jesus arrived with the real word of the good God on the earth, creating the New Testament - which is the world and teachings of the true God - and banished Satanael out from the world, down to hell. In this war, Satanael lost his title El meaning Lord, and is now known as Satana.

Bogomils rejected the Old Testament, Moses, Jerusalem, Christian belief systems - like Jesus dying - and all physicality. Only the soul was true and everything else was a handicraft of Satanael.

All Jeffrey Burton Russell’s books are wonderful and interesting, sharing so much information about different religious groups and their ideology, and how all those theories affected religious views of modern era. A big recommendation if you enjoy history, religious history, medieval belief systems and want to get inspiration for world building.

READ DEMON SANCTUARY

[kanohivolitakk]

Since its 3Hs anniversary some really cool things I like about the game that aren’t talked about enough because the fandom is too busy arguing who is right and who is wrong

The worldbuilding just. 3H has honestly one of my favorite fictional settings. Its just both expansive but also genuinely interesting. I have spent HOURS thinking about the world and made so many ocs its not even funny. I love thinking about the setting of the game so much.

I LOVE the puzzle like way the game explains its world and story. Like I know some people don’t like it because it makes the game a bit too convoluted but personally? I LOVE 3Hs way of not telling everything but rather giving hints and clues the player has to piece themselves. It makes the games world feel more interactive and feels so satisfying. Then again I enjoy that kind of approach to worldbuilding

In general I love 3hs fragmented story and the way how the story is placed in many different fragments. It is geniunely rewarding to replay the game from another storypath and notice the foreshadowing Would’ve the story been probably better had it been just one storypath? Honestly yes. But 3h is ambitious and one of the ways it is is with its fragmented story structure.

The structure of White Clouds is criminally underrated honestly and gets way more hate than it deserves. I love how the first few chapters set up the world of Fodlan and show injustices/conflicts of the world with chapters like the chapter where you face off Lonato for instance. Then the next few chapters are spend in deepening the mysteries such as the conspiracy against the church and the mystery regarding TWSITD. Then Jeralt dies and the last few chapters are spent as “beginning of the End” so to speak, as things clears to the intense climax.

On related note I LOVE how the game handles perspective and how the lords are the respective ways we view the story. I know so many people say “WHite Clouds is same on all paths” but I do feel that’s kinda the point. The story is the same but there are differences that come from the way each of the lords is strongly characterized and has different values, worldviews. The subtle changes on what are focused on in each route also foreshadow what will be focused on each route, which I think is super cool.

Even beyond the lords and routes the game does explore the idea of perspective well. I do think 3h has this very “everyone is the hero of their own story” type of approach to perspective and it shows it well. Each character believes they’re in the right and you can get this view that they view themselves as right. Even Agarthans who are the designated villains have this sense they think they’re in right and that the Nabateans were evil.

The way how games routes being divided into having a different focus is very cool. I love how AM is a smaller scale personal tragedy, how CF is a battle of ideals and how VW explores the world and reveals deeper mysteries. I also love how all of these are related to the lords ideals and worldviews: Dimitri is the most conflicted of the lords so he gets the most characterfocused story focused on . Edelgard is the most ideologically driven so her path focuses on her ideals and battle of wills against Rhea. Claude is the one who is the most freespirited and wants to know the truth so his route focuses on revealing the mysteries.

Also the way the houses characters reflect their respective routes storyline and central themes: Black Eagles are nobles that have conflicting relationships with nobility reflecting Edelgards goal, Blue Lions are all united with the trauma of Tragedy of Duscur, and Golden Deer are a house of misfits who give this “ragtag group who will save the universe with POWER OF FRIENDSHIP and this cool gun I found” vibes which fit the route PERFECTLY

I LOVE how the game plays with and subverts a lot of Fire Emblem tropes. While it does play some tropes straight (dad death and evil cult manipulating behind the scenes) it does do a lot to break from series conventions and playing with ideas to make a more ambitious story. The way it either subverts expectations (The evil emperor being female well intended extremist, Rhea being the Gharnef/Medeus instead of the Nyna archetype she’s presented as), twists familiar tropes to their natural extreme (Dimitris arc is basically the natural extreme end of stereotypical FE lord) and other similar things make the game feeling so planned out, like the writers understood FE stories and wanted to make something that challenges FE while still feeling like it.

The way how every major player acts as foil/pararell to another player is so GOOD. Every faction leader can be compared to the other somehow and that just makes the game SOOOO fun to analyze, trying to find all the similarities and differences and pararells is so rewarding.

A more specific example on this is how i love how the game plays with the idea of holy/sacred weapons. While normally these weapons are artifacts from goddess that defeat dragons, here the holy weapons are bones made from dragons and just???? HOW METAL IS THAT????????? It’s just such a neat way to subvert the idea of sacred weapons. Rather than being blessed creations of the goddess, they are weapons of destruction made by the villains.

I ADORE THE GAMES science fiction elements. I know people say they feel out of place but personally, they make the game memorable for me. I still remember the first time I saw that scene with nukes. I especially love the heavy implication that Sothis isn’t a goddess but rather a powerful alien. It makes her character much more interesting

I know a lot of people don’t like Agarthans but can I just say their backstory being “forced to hide after their land got conquered and desiring it back” making them a dark mirror not just 3h lords/Rhea but FE lords as whole is SO FUCKING METAL. This is what I mean with 3H writers knowing their tropes like back of their hand.

I love how in Part 1 sometimes you’d talk to two characters in Monastery at once instead of just one. It’s something I miss in part 2 honestly.

I love the small sidequests such as the fishing tourney and White Heron cup and wish Part 1 had more of them, it would’ve made the school part feel more alive.

I LOVE how some missions (esp paralogues) have subgoals that you can clear to get better rewards. I wish the game had been more clear with them or even made them main goals of maps sometimes.

I LOVE THE WAY Paralogues act as small gaiden stories that show more of the games world and characters. Its a neat way to let the sidecharacters shine and reveal some neat secrets of the games world and story.

The gameplay loop is honetly fun and satisfying. It is rewarding and while it gets tiring towards the end overall its a good gameplay loop.

I ADORE the aesthetic of Shambhala. Its just so sleek and sinister. The cyrillic letters spelling different words is so cool. Shambhala is my favorite map in the game and the aesthetic is a big reason why.

The games soundtrack is so good!!!!!!!!!!  But not only that I LOVE the way its electro elements subtly hint of Agarthans being in control behind the scenes. This is especially cool in Road to Dominion where the electro parts are barely noticeable yet present. but other tracks have subtle electro vibes as well.  The other way the games music tells the story (such as use of leitmotifs or how the monastery music changes once Jeralt dies) is great as well.

I love how 3h can be read as an allegory for reformation era and reneissance. Its such an interesting way to read the games events and compare it to a real historical periods there’s quite a bit of f

In general I ADORE the cultural references of the game. There’s surprisingly lot of way the games world is based on real life and the details are just *chefs kiss*

THE GAME IS DENSE WITH THEMATIC IDEAS. Besides the perspective the game tackles ideas of how trauma can affect a persons psyche and worldview  (as well how a persons trauma affects the way they interact with the world which in turn can affect the world as well), grief, societal values, historical revisiniosm and so much more. The game tackles SO MANY topics in an interesting manner, it is thematically just as dense as it is storywise as well.

I also love how the games thematic parts work in harmony with the story rather than one overshadowing with the other. Its super refreshing honestly where a games themes and story are both rich and I don’t have to pick one over the other.

Lastly I ADORE the games central message (or at least what I see as the central message anyway): The world’s fucked up and most people want to fix it, but what they deem fixing differs and because of that they go into conflict or outright war rather than trying to find a common ground. Everyone wants a better world but no one can agree what a better world truly means  so they fight over it. It was a theme that not only resonates with my personal values but also hit me REALLY hard when I first played it as it’s a theme that I found incredibly relevant and reflective of our own world during the time I played the game for the first time.

So yeah. I made this post since there’s SO MUCH neat things about the game, its gameplay and story that sadly get swept under the rug in favor of either arguing  which lord was right/wrong or complaining how the game is an unfinished, rushed and overambitious mess. Is 3h perfect? Hell no. But it’s a game that I hold near and dear to my heart and does genuinely SO MANY THINGS RIGHT, I’m sad no one talks about the genuine strengths the game has anymore, instead just complaining.

I’m not even joking when I say that 3h should be up there as heralded as one of the best, most ambitious and complex JRPGs alongside Xenogears, the first Xenoblade game, Suikoden and Trails series as whole along other such games. Its a shame the games reputation is less like those games and more like Persona 5s where everyone focuses more on its flaws and the fans being annoying than the fact the game does geniunely A LOT right. It’s just that good, ambitious game I love so much.

[starxscream]

1, 7, 10 for OCs!

1. Oldest OC

Scratches chin. Hm. Well there's a difference between Oldest OC still in use and Oldest OC in General

Tho actually wait I forgot I brought back Ven who fulfills both of these so NVM LOL it's Ven. Yea.

I made him like. a decade ago LMAO he used to be cis and straight and now I trans'd his gender like HE DESERVED. Lmao he's where my love for GNC men stemmed from as a kid esp the bastard kind bc that's what he is <3 little smartass.

He's a furret originally and in this pic but I'll likely be giving him a redesign to use him in Mirakae as well! His pkmn vers is just in a cool RP group I'm in w/some pals GKHNGKH

He's very sentimental to me bc he's what got me into character creation and world-building even if I didn't do anything w/his original world bc I just didn't have the tools or experience to do it back then. The og fav <3

As a fun fact! My first name I picked for myself was based on his! Tho a more "feminine" version bc I was still convinced I wasn't trans- I wanted HIS name but I was like "but I'm a girl..." so... I called it an online name but let's be honest that was baby's first transgender egg moment lol

Kind of ironic the name I use the most NOW is one letter away from his, I think it's kinda a full circle moment :) It makes me happy haha esp now that I have the capabilities and knowledge so that I can portray Ven how I want him to be and how he was always meant to be, similar to my own gender presentation.

7. Do you ship your OCs w/someone else's?

LMAO YEA IF U COULDN'T GUESS BY THE AMOUNT OF SHIP ART THAT GETS DRAWN OF THEM- but yea I mostly ship with my boyfriend! 9/10 if you point out an OC they're shipped w/one of his

There's a few outliers like Ciro, my RP group characters, the MLP ocs I post, and Opal/Saffron BUT FOR THE MOST PART I usually ship with him! We have a lot of fun with it :]

10. Villain OCs?

Oh boy we got PLENTY 'a those. But it really depends on what you'd call a "villain" bc I tend to redeem most of my antagonists and "villains" bc I'm a sucker for Tropes. GKHNGKHNGH BUT AS FOR LIKE. PURE IRREDEEMABLE VILLAIN I DO HAVE SOME. Actor is there but I talked abt Actor already

SO INSTEAD WE HAVE...

Jam and Kazi! I have so many cat ocs. I know. You get used to it.

Jam is a back-alley doctor who presents herself has a helpful sort and willing to do shit usually for free/cheap as long as you agree to her terms. Tho like, 90% of the time she's testing smth experimental she created and most likely ur gonna walk away worse than when u came in. She doesn't rly have any remorse for this cuz she's obsessed with the studies of medicine- she wants to create the perfect medicine and is willing to do anything to reach that goal !

Plus she's kind of an ass and does things on a whim and literally broke up with her bf who treated her SO WELL bc she was bored of him. she was only with him for an extended period bc he was interesting and she was essentially studying him but once that was exhausted she just dipped. He deserves better </3

Aaaand then there's Kazi.

Kazi is. Well he sure is. GKHNGKHKGNHG

I won't go in depth into what he does but he's a serial killer who masks as a famous artist who travels around. I'm not gonna get into it but if you've played "The Evil Within" his M/O is eerily similar to Stefano LOL So you can Imagine how fucked up this guy is.

Very Morbid but a very good artist. In both respects. Tho one takes a "certain kind" to appreciate and sure isn't the majority. Do not condone murder here but making villains is fun GKNHGKHGH my whole thing with him is like, the person next to u could b a killer and you'd never know bc he presents himself in such a way that's very misleading! He's actually quite soft-spoken, kind, and generous but. Well.

I'm not gonna get into him cuz his mentality is very warped and could b triggering but yea. He's one of my favorites I'm sorry I'm s

(Art by Rob but design is sexily done by me ages ago)

[emersonfreepress]

okay so is there content that you had planned for the ROs and story in general but then scrapped cause there wasn’t a good place in the story to stick it in? and if so, can you share what it was? 👀 👀 👀

yes, definitely. *rubs hands together* oh man, you done asked THE question today xD I can't wait to get into this 😁

Academics. I almost decided to have classes and grades be a minor part of gameplay, but the more time I spent designing it the more I realized I wanted nothing to do with it 😂 I haven’t really enjoyed academic gameplay in other interactive fiction because I 1) hate having to choose between studying and interacting with awesome characters, 2) have terrible short term memory, and 3) hate school in general!! So instead I just opted to have the MC be really good at school, point blank period so I could focus on social drama and relationships instead! 😆

Physical skills. I spent literal months crafting the catering scene around setting up stats for stamina/endurance, dexterity, and strength instead of just magnetism, confidence, and persuasion. They had their own backstories with the MC’s parents being overly invested sports parents instead and I think the background choices were like... martial arts, gymnastics, and track? But yeah, I ended up scrapping it all because I was spending hours on research about those individual sports so I could integrate them into the MC’s narrative organically but like... when I tried to think of what use they would be in the actual story, I came up blank. Best decision yet, esp since it means a lot less coding!

Skin tone customization. For one, I noticed that a lot of my favorite IFs don’t offer that customization and it hasn’t impacted my experience at all. For two, I originally realized I might as well not implement it since I am striving real hard not to introduce any customization that won’t actually be mentioned in interesting or meaningful ways in-story. I don’t think it’s really all that common for real life friends (esp in high school?) to comment or compliment each other’s skin and like... when it comes from someone who doesn’t share a similar complexion or ethnic background, that type of commentary gets... d i c e y. So then I wanted to be sensitive to that but what’s the pay-off? An RO mentioning how they love your skin tone once? Awkward sentences with the MC referring to their own skin color? Idk, just wasn’t vibing with it. I’m open to revisiting it in beta or something but for now it’s scrapped.

Singing, Rapping, and Gaming as Hobbies/Talents. I feel bad about scrapping these, honestly 😂 They’re great and I really wanted to incorporate them but it just came down to already having a lot of stuff to code. Plus, I know I can write the Hobbies/Talents I stuck with far better. And for Book 2 purposes, as well!

Leo. as @sourandflightypeaches ​​ asked me about a long while ago, I had to scrap an entire RO 😢 His name is Leo, he was the nephew of wealthy west African diplomats residing in Emerson, and I love him dearly! His backstory was largely based on my mother’s childhood and the circumstances she lived through after immigrating to America. and... ok, i’m about to go on one hell of a tangent so buckle up and bear with me if you can 😅

my intention with this story, aside from writing things that I personally enjoy (graphic violence, spooky woods, social drama, romance, conspiracies 😚), is to explore greed, wealth, and how the ways people and families interact with those two things influence young people and who they grow up to be. here i go sounding pretentious af 😝 and here’s where I apply a cut for those who want to preserve a little mystery to the main characters!

With Gabe, we’ve got someone who grew up with very little stability or financial security but who has found unscrupulous methods to gain status and money, with both noble and selfish motivations.

Kile has some of that childhood experience in common with Gabe, having been in the foster care system since infancy, but they lucked out when they were adopted into massive wealth by a caring, loving couple—a couple that uses their wealth and privilege to be far more lenient and protective of Kile than is actually reasonable or responsible.

Jack comes from a prestigious wealthy family on his dad’s side who he loves dearly but there’s no getting around the fact that they love him back as much as they despise his working class mom.

Jessie is a spoiled sweet heiress (being the baby of her family and the only girl) and while she lives blissfully ignorant of the harmful source and impact of her father's income and career, she bears the weight of the expectation to fulfill very traditional gender roles, including her behavior and appearance, but also extending to her career and life plans.

Rain's wealth led to them growing up sheltered and isolated but also extremely accommodated, giving them maximum freedom and opportunity to discover and develop their personal talents and interests. However, they have almost no positive relationship with their parents who have essentially decided to give up on a kid that couldn't be exactly the accessory they tried to mold them to be—both in terms of their identity and personality.

Rupan/Rohan, at their very core, rejects everything about conformity, self-importance, and excessive luxury—which means they have never, ever truly fit in with their peers. Going full non-conformist, however, has resulted in them becoming alienated from much of their family, as well, despite them all loving each other very much. Their history with false friends and betrayals has led them to over-indulge in their vices and reckless behavior to compensate for that isolation. Sometimes, they just get in over their head and many times, they know better. Every time, it's just that the feeling of finally belonging is utterly intoxicating.

Vivian/Vincent has two extremely successful parents who didn't inherit but instead built up their wealth and they aspire to be just like them, to a degree that is well and truly unhealthy. Their mother specifically is an over-achiever and applies mountainous pressure for them to follow in her footsteps, especially academically. Vi is completely capable of achieving what their mom expects of them, but they were already an extremely sensitive perfectionist so this has made them intensely critical of themself. This is a large part of why they are such a rigid, no-nonsense person and that in turn has made them one of the most disliked people among their peers—which is a huge personal failure to them since their father is a very well-liked and socially successful person in town.

And the Emersons are peak privilege: inherent high social status, brains, looks, charisma, athleticism, and massive wealth. They could never have been anything less than extremely popular, just by virtue of their last name and the nature of the town's social dynamics and politics. And they do enjoy that privilege (esp Curt lol). However, it should go without saying that being so high profile, even (or maybe especially) just in the isolated scope of your hometown, isn't always a boon. Their family's and their own perceived failings are widely discussed and privately mocked and/or celebrated. Real friends are scarce while fake ones and snakes are plentiful. Plus their dad is a gigantic dickhead who sees his kids as extensions of his own status and reputation and not much else. Public shortcomings make for an unbearable time at home and the world outside the estate is at once overly accommodating, full of assumptions, and even subtly hostile at times—all unrelated to their own actions or character.

And with the MC, I think the narrative will make it clear there are several ways that story can go. You start off with irresponsible parents that have lost their wealth due to their own mismanagement and material ambitions—how that affects any individual MC should differ based on choices and consequences!

So why bring any of that up when I was supposed to be talking about my cut OC? 😂😂

Leo was going to be the unwelcome recent addition to his uncle’s household, the son of a brother his aunt hates for (petty af) Reasons, and she took that resentment out on him directly by restricting his access to nearly every aspect of the family's wealth. Especially material goods and living conditions. He was basically treated like the help, tasked with playing nanny for his many younger cousins and burdened with doing the homework and providing academic cover for his dumb as rocks cousin in the same grade as you all. To sum it up, he was basically a victim of trafficking at the hands of his own family with his uncle out of town enough to feign ignorance to how bad his wife was treating his nephew and his aunt going out of her way to keep him busy, at home, and isolated. This is sadly a super common form of trafficking in Francophone African cultures (although I don't think most people view it as trafficking. and I’m sure the same is true of other cultures but I don’t want to speak outside of my purview). And like I mentioned above, it’s how my own mom's (and idek how many cousins') child/teenhood went.

It’s a perspective on modern wealth, privilege and greed that I really, really wanted to tell. I am confident in saying it hasn't been explored in interactive fiction yet (though correct me—and direct me 👀—if I'm wrong) and out of all the wealth/greed explorations I came up with, it's the one I have the closest personal ties to and the strongest feelings about. The characters and plans I had for it were detailed and I'm proud of them but at the end of the day... I just couldn't find a place for Leo in the story at large.

Leo was, in fact, the last main character I came up with, when I had already designed and fleshed out the larger story and started crafting the timeline of major events. I think the worst thing I could have done for a story and perspective that I care about this much is shove it into a plot that didn't have room for it at the very base level, regardless of how well the character or his story is written. Shoe-horned characters always stick out. I didn’t want to disservice Leo by having him be the character that did nothing or could be removed from the main plot without affecting it at all, y’know? That’s so much worse than just forgoing the indulgence, imo :((

ugh.... Leooooo 😭 I'm so sorry bb, I failed youuu 😥

[turbobyakuren]

Can I ask for some advice? I write short bits of writing every now and then, very short one-shots and one-off OC interactions, and there are large periods of time where I don't write at all due to writer's block, school, or just not feeling it. In spite of this, I've been wanting to create this project of mine that I've been planning for a while and really want to go all out for+ include illustrations, music etc. Do you have any advice to someone trying to be ambitious but very inexperienced?

oh boy, you’re asking the person who’s got almost 6 years of OC Making in her experiences and yet has not done anything due to, like, the same thing you’re stating (writer block, school, or not feeling it).

But i can give a bit of theoretical advice i’ve been trying to apply to my own stuff!

CONSUME MEDIA. This is the easiest step unless you, like me, have watcher’s block (basically wanting to watch or read stuff but can’t put your mind into it bc that’s “not productive”, to which i say BOLLOCKS). Read stuff, watch stuff, and preferably be on the lookout for styles that inspire you. Even if it’s unrelated! Have you ever felt the creation rush after watching a really good movie that spoke to you and you told yourself, “i want to do this!!!”? That’s why i like watching media, bc thereafter i’m inspired. Esp if it’s the kind of genre i love or the themes i (chef kiss). Basically: watch stuff and inspire yourself from them. Have artists and authors you can look up to and say with confidence “i want to do something that would equate to that!“

Do not start with the project, rather start with something small. That’s kinda illogical as an advice, but i think it’s a good one! Because sometimes you just wanna go Ozymandias on that big passion project of yours, and that’s totally understandable. But you also gotta understand that if you’re going ham without having experiences, you’re going to hit into a big wall with “UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS” and “TREMENDOUS WORKS I WASNT READY FOR” written on it. Trust me! I’ve hit that wall SO MANY TIMES. So, instead, i think you should conceive a new project, but let it be small! Make a 5 page comic, a 10 page novel, or a 10 minutes long RPG Maker game with default sprites, but have it focused on SOMETHING! Indulge yourself. Limit yourself to a specific genre, a small number of characters who have a codified role (hero, love interest, mentor, etc...), a specific setting with a small number of clear rules. And then go ham! EVEN if it’s not good a concept, EVEN if it’s an overused one, as long as you do something, you’ll get experiences! You’ll find out what you enjoy the most about doing this project, like “character study”, “world building”, “writing big battles”, and this will give you experience, style, focus. And when you’ll get to work on that big OCverse passion project of yours, you’ll know exactly what you want to write and why you’re writing it.

Surround yourself with FRENS who LOVE THY STUFF and can give FEEDBACK, but don’t fall in the trap of giving EVERYTHING because that will lead you to tell them everything about your OCverse and then end up not writing it.

Know your scope! And be aware that your project will take a long time and will evolve in the making. There will be a big gap between how you initially thought your project and how it will end up as. And cherish the process! For example, my favourite game of the moment, Blasphemous took years in making. The kickstarter was launched in 2017, but the project might have started way longer than before. And it’s a passion project, after all! And you want to know what i adore about this passion project? Looking at how it evolved. It went from this simple concept artwork

to this

amazing vast and rich world, full of details. It took years, and it’s very different from how it initially was, but i love how you can feel that they took a lot of time thinking about why they’d change the main character’s design, where to get the inspiration, etc. Okay, it’s a studio of several people who fully dedicated their time to the making of this game, but it’s inspiring NONETHELESS!

If i were to streamline this advice, it would be “STEP ONE: make a first draft to get that stuff out of your mind. STEP TWO: go SHIP OF THESEUS on that first draft and transform it into what you want it to be. STEP THREE: admire how far you’ve come.”

I think these are the 4 tips i’d give (and i’d better follow, too! i’m doing a big “do as i say not as i do” moment here LMAO) to someone stuck in the same situation.

I hope i’m clear enough! Sometimes i ramble on and on and i often don’t make sense. But feel free to come to me at any time, just to chat or anything on that verse, i’d love to be of help and read what you have! It’s very important to, as the french say, “squeeze each other’s elbows”. I can only wish you good luck because we’re all just little Davids against a huge Goliath with “PROCRASTINATION AND BIG EXPECTATIONS” written on it. And it’s up to us to know how to use that slinger well!

[yukipri]

Stolen from @cravencur​ !

1. Slowburn or Love at First Sight

I unfortunately don’t trust Love at First Sight at ALL, slow burn and platonic love to gradual romantic love plz <3

2. Fake Dating or Secretly Dating

I’mma go with Fake, bc the assumption is that they don’t mean to be in a romantic relationship at all, but slowly develop the feels after getting to know each other, which is basically the answer above. I’m sure there are contexts where I could enjoy Secretly Dating, but I tend to be wary of secrecy/hiding things from others in their lives ^ ^;

3. Enemies to Lovers or Best Friends to Lovers

Honestly love both, but I guess in the case of Enemies to Lovers, I see Friend being a necessary middle step in between? Hence Best Friend. Friendship to me is a MUST in ships I enjoy!

4. “Oh no, there’s Only One Bed,” or Long Distance Correspondence

YEP haha! Long Distance angst can be nice too but ehhhhhh

5. Hurt/Comfort or Amnesia

I love it. And if I like amnesia sometimes, it’s bc of the former, SO

6. Fantasy AU or Modern AU

In cases of non-modern fandoms (like OP), i do like me a good modern AU too, but there’s so much fun in fantasy! Fancy outfits, world building where I get to choose my rules, you name it ;D

7. Mutual Pining or Domestic Bliss

Honestly both. I like when the latter is a result of the former, and as a creator, sometimes I just want to draw the latter but only under the premise that they went through the former if that makes sense?

8. Smut or Fluff

At least when I create, tho only I’ll go for both and yes, best when combined ^ ^

9. Canon-Compliant/Missing Scenes or Fix-It

Canon-compliant is great, but wanting to imagine a different route from canon is a huge motivator for me as a creator

10. Alternate Universe or Future Fic

Gonna go with Future for this one bc I LOVE imagining how the charas grow based on what we know of them in canon, and my endgames always need a future HC. BUT I also like throwing in AU elements, and AUs are awesome by themselves too!

11. One Shot or Multichapter

I wish to learn to make more satisfying one shots instead of massive continuous stories I have no hope of finishing >.<;

12. Kid Fic or Roadtrip Fic

Ngl I love my OC love babies LMAO

13. Reincarnation or Character Death

A bit tricky, because usually I like reincarnation stories IF the characters died a miserable tragic death in canon and it’s like a second chance. BUT that’s not the only ways I “enjoy” character death, because I like ghost/coming back to life stories too? So I guess it’s not so much character death that I enjoy, but I like the angst and potential for hurt/comfort and character growth that comes from it, even if in my own stories I always add a way for them to overcome that ^ ^; Hey, it’s fiction, I’m allowed to indulge myself!

14. Arranged Marriage or Accidental Marriage

Mmm I can see either of them appealing (esp if it’s in a fake dating-esque, let’s slowly develop feels type setting), but neither are tropes that immediately jump out at me!

15. High School Romance or Middle-Aged Romance

I guess I prefer Middle-Aged bc in the case of slow built, it gives them more time together, and it’s easier to imagine a future afterwards? Or maybe I’m just getting old ^ ^;

16. Time Travel or Isolated Together

Time Travel can be awesome esp for fix-its, but as a trope in general, yessss isolated together haha!

17. Neighbors or Roommates

Rooooommatesss!!!! The appeal of neighbors is that they’re like, slightly more far away roommates anyway ^ ^;

18. Sci Fi AU or Magic AU

Magic! Much broader application I feel, modern/historical/fantasy settings all possible! I tend to like magical aesthetic better too, tho i do love me some star wars haha

19. Bodyswap or Genderbend

Especially from a visual art perspective, I just find designing genderbend costumes to be really fun! And it gives me a chance to draw more feminine bodies when most of my fav charas tend to be male ^ ^;

20. Angst or Crack

Both, tho I feel like I tend to create more crack ^ ^; My angst needs hurt/comfort and eventual happy ending and that’s more effort than just something silly lol

21. Apocalyptic or Mundane

Honestly if there’s a good apocalyptic story I’m all for it, and I love Mad Max aesthetic so defs not saying no! But mundane and enjoying the simple things is lovely <3

Not tagging anyone in particular, but just as I did, please feel free to steal if you’re at all inclined! ^ ^

[dewprisms]

After your binge-watching session, which would say is better: Kim Possible or Danny Phantom, and why?

Someone actually interested in my opinion for once?

Well it depends, both have their pros and cons in regards to episode plots/arcs, characters and chara development, character designs etc. So I’ll suppose I’ll break them down into different categories. Under a cut as to not make scrolling a hassle.

Also I apologize in advance for my page theme, I know it’s kinda shitty and hard to read sometimes but I’m too busy to change it right now.

Designs/Art: I know Stephen Silver was the main designer for both shows (and his designs for a lot of the teenage girls has a uh, Obvious Pattern.) Ignoring my bias towards Vlad and Drakken, I think a lot of the ghosts have fun designs, but KP gets points for actually letting characters (esp Kim and Ron) wear other clothes in S2 and beyond, and between Phantom, S1 Kim and S4 Kim I think S4 Kim has the best “action” outfit. BUT the art style for DP is pretty stiff at times and KP style has a lot more range for animation, body types and faces.  Overall though, I say they’re pretty tied imo. Both have a lot of ups and downs that truly comes down to a personal pref, even though the Fartman’s style is the more iconic one. I think KP wins animation/art and DP wins for designs.

Characters: Again, the villains shine here more than the protags. KP as such a wide range of villains that I have have to give them the point for creativity and FUN in antagonists, (Duff Killigan is prob my favorite in absurdity followed by Monkey Fist, the Seniors and DNAmy all tied for second. I really like Motor Ed too, seriously.) but that’s not to say that DP doesn’t have them either. Vlad’s true motivations are really...unique compared to other DP villains and even KP ones, (seriously? How many bad guys you know who’s goal in life is “fuck the MC’s mom and also make MC your son”) who like KP are just “take over the world and/or cause tons of destruction” but with only half the fun. Sadly Dark Danny’s entire thing hinges on him being Danny But Evil who only wants...destruction??? Whereas Evil Ron actually does something interesting with the character, showing Ron’s true potential (see Evil Ron vs Electronique in “Stop Team Go” for example) and being in-character for him still. (Faux Take Over The World plot to cover his true goal of owning all the world’s Nacos? Of fucking course Ron would. Brilliant.) Evil Ron still has hints of Ron’s personality (”Boo-yahaHAHAHA!”) whereas Dark Danny is just... evil for evil’s sake, which can be good when actually done right, but in this case isn’t because the only thing that resembles Danny is his outfit. Shego’s backstory is great. DP’s new S3 enemies are very boring despite interesting powers. KP S4’s Camille Leon is great but Warmonga is just eh. Moving on to protags, KP’s protags are far, far more interesting than DP’s. Which brings us to the next point. (Also Mr. Barkin > Mr. Lancer, and Kim’s parents > Danny’s parents.) KP gets this one.

Chara Development: Gonna say it, DP almost has none, and straight up regresses in very end of S2 and most of S3. I swear the only real characters who have any are Vlad (for better or for worse, the latter imo), Jazz (when they remember her, and is good) and Valerie (whose is good too). Tucker gets 3 (three!!) fking episodes about him and they ALL carry the same theme of him not being able to responsibly handle having any kind of power, which is why him becoming the town mayor at the end is so BAD. There’s NO WAY Tucker of all people would make a good mayor. VALERIE got more episodes than him, JAZZ got more episodes than him, both with development that STUCK while he’s a MAIN CHARACTER. Sam never changes, def for worse. Sam is a Base-Breaking Character for a dang reason. She’s extremely pushy, acts like she’s lowkey better than everyone else, and never seems to consider how her actions affect other people, and the like 1 or 2 times she does it doesn’t fucking stick like she’s Hank Hill or something. Danny has no real development for his character. All that develops for him are his powers and nothing else. On the other hand, KP characters DO have development and it shows! Not just for the protags but for villains too! Kim is bossy and a lil controlling early on and stops during S2, whereas Ron was extremely cowardly and gets, not exactly braver but just less phased by it all, plus early he never quite liked going on missions but later on gets sad if he has to miss them, before he doesn’t like being distractions but later on very much takes pride in being one, and etc. Drakken and Shego get development too, esp their relationship with each other AND with Ron and Kim. Bonnie actually got an episode of development (but sadly regressed in time for the finale) whereas Pauline just...never changes whatsoever. Bonnie actually makes for a good rival and mean girl for Kim for the entire show whereas Paulina and her relationship with Danny and Sam are just....bland and doesn’t go anywhere. There’s nothing for Dash, though Ron doesn’t really have an equivalent. So, KP gets this one.

Episodes/Plots/Arcs: DP wins in the Lore department by far, KP wins in character arcs. A Sitch In Time answers the great questions of What Would Happen if the Villains Teamed Up AND Shego is a Better Villain than Drakken so Why isn’t She in Charge? ft Time Travel. The Ultimate Enemy answers What If Danny Went Evil and Is Vlad Completely Irredeemable? ft Time Travel. KP definitely does the “balancing Hero duties with School life” better than DP. You can definitely see her struggles with it whereas DP is just kinda there. I also very much like that Kim is girly but is never shamed for it both in-universe and out, whereas DP is known for the shitty “I’m not like other girls” fake feminist bullshit. A problem I have with DP is that time pretty much never changes, as if the show takes place within a year, and it seriously hampers the growth of the show could have. Time is also just out of whack, they take their big end-of-the-year test then it’s Christmas THEN it’s Summer Vacation but even in S3 they’re all still in the first year of high school like ??? What?? Whereas KP starts in Freshman year and ends with Senior Graduation. The arcs of Danny/Sam vs Kim/Ron are just...D/S was definitely teased a ton more but by S3 you just get tired of it, not to mention the hypocrisy regarding the character relationships. Personal opinion warning, but Danny/Valerie had a lot more development in such a short time and was super interesting. Kim/Ron didn’t have as many teasing esp in S1 and S2 (it’s there though) but it def picks up in S3 and I love how their new relationship was handled in S4. Back to episodes, my favorite episodes for both are Reign Storm and So The Drama, but while I might be biased toward Reign Storm I’m gonna have to ultimately give better episodes overall to KP. So The Drama has Drakken going back to his Actually Dangerous roots from early on and becoming the closest to anyone to actually winning on his own merit (Shego stole the Tempus Simia from Drakken/Duff/MF and relied on weird time shit of Kim being “lost in the time stream” ((actual canon explanation)) to travel to the future specifically to stop her, to actually win) and is SO good when Dr. D finally gets defeated, plus (personal bias here) Kim and Ron’s teased hook-up finally happens. I will say though, I’m not a fan of S4′s Hana Stoppable/The Han story. As both shows are action-oriented, they definitely have their fair share of good fights but I think KP also has better action and fight scenes. Humor is extremely subjective but I think KP made me laugh more. Finally, DP is infamous for S3 just being bad whereas KP just got better and better with each season, though I’d put S4 below S3 and above S2. So: Lore = DP. Arcs, Action and Eps = KP.

Fandom: Ignoring the super gross shipping aspects of some parts of the fandom (If ur a P*mpousP*p or K*go shipper pls go away from my stuff i’m fucking serious), I think DP wins for this one. Many great OCs, (I really haven’t seen any for KP aside from next gen?) the already interesting lore is def expanded so much by fans, I legitimately don’t care for “Wes Weston” but my god did the fandom do some serious work for this boy. I don’t know too much about KP since the fandom seems kinda dead aside from some shipping stuff and a very slight revival from the movie, whereas DP ended before KP and is still very very active. DP wins fandom.

(Bonus) Reboots/Redesigns: I’m gonna be honest, I’m not sure what could be done better for KP aside from the mess of Disney’s out-of-order airings, a more serious reboot wouldn’t work for the show at all, but DP could definitely use a reboot and fixes the disaster of S3. And reboots & character redesigns are def a hot topic for the DP fandom. So DP gets this one, though I’m not sure if this is a good thing.

Final: So over all, 4 for KP and 4 for DP, or if you add the little groups, 7 for KP and 4 for DP. Overall, I’ll say KP is the better show, but DP shines with the fandom. I also have a personal bias in favor of DP but it makes them even out for me. If you want interesting lore and good fandom content, go for DP. If you want fun and interesting characters, actual character development and more action and drama, KP is the way to go.

But instead of picking one, just watch both!