#even though it’s kinda awful for artists’ growth now

[elsartzz]

oh hello. um I checked my followers recently and there seem to be a few new people here? hello tumblr I do fanart 👋 thanks for being an overall solid social media platform, I try to update when I rmb but I’m a bit more active on Instagram if you wanna check that out (shameless plug) 🙃

Asks are always open btw!! and if you have any silly drawing requests feel free to drop them there :D

Thanks for poking around and I’ll do my best not to forget about this blog!!

[c-c-cherry]

Jojos Doing Jojo Things (with each other)✨😌

*sweating as the part 5 hc asks start piling up in my inbox*

 *looks at the one that mentions Jonathan*

Hello~~ I’m sorry for being criminally inactive here, I forgot during that long 6 month lockdown that I actually had a real life outside of the internet and now I have to go do real life things?? Instead of doing nothing but writing?? Crimes, I tell you.

I love the idea of Jonathan interacting with all the other jojos so I thought I’d take a little break from part 5 whump headcanons to fulfill this one :D SO HERE’S SOME SELF-INDULGENT HEADCANONS ABOUT JONATHAN DOING FUN LITTLE ACTIVITIES WITH THE OTHER JOJOS BECAUSE I KNOW WE ALL NEED IT RIGHT NOW😭😭😭

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Joseph (lets say Youngseph in this case because shhh)

-Hear me out but KNITTING

-Let this man do some nice calm things please

-Joseph has absolutely no way to connect with Jonathan. Like. Nothing.

-He doesn’t see the two of them as anything alike even though they both have the star, and when it comes to connecting with such a righteous, nice dude he’s a bit :/ about it

-He also doesn’t want to do anything stupid (In his words.) He hates baking, he’s never been into reading and school, and the two can never really click with sports

-Our man Jonathan has searched his heart and soul for something to bring the two of them together but Joseph is always just not into it >:(

-He’s almost given up on connecting at all BUT—

-One thing they do have in common? Erina.

-BOOM. Johnny-boy suddenly has ideas >:)

-Joseph is really put off when Jonathan shows up with a ball of yarn and needles and in the most innocent way possible he’s like “I have something to show you ^-^”

-the first thing Joseph thinks is NO FUCKING WAY. If Caesar or his mother or anyone caught him fucking knitting he’d never be able to live it down

-So instead he just watches as Jonathan sits by the fire, and it looks really boring at first but he just starts going at it

-And of course the gears start turning and all his brain sees is “fast task?? task I can be good at? something quick my hands can do??”

-And Jonathan looks up to take a break to see Joseph perched on the edge of the chair in complete awe, but the moment he asks if he wants to know how to do it, Joseph gets really withdrawn :/

The rest of their conversation goes a little like this:

“Isn’t that meant for girls?”

“Why would hats and scarves be only for girls?”

“But its—”

“You know...I’m making Erina a matching hat and scarf for her birthday. I could use a little help with the scarf…”

“...”

“We can make it a race.”

And with a fire lighting in his eyes, Joseph accepts the contest even though he has no idea what he’s doing. But isn’t that what he does best?

-Needless to say, he becomes obsessed.

-When his greatest fear comes true and Caesar finds out, he’s too obsessed to care about the teasing

-Joseph is good at something that Caesar isn’t. Caesar is jealous. Caesar picks up knitting.

-Are knitting contests even a thing?? I don’t care because Joseph and Caesar could probably open a fucking etsy shop with all the stuff they make (and absolutely shamelessly at that)

-Anytime they meet someone new it's immediately “which hat is better?” “Joseph’s is worse, right?” “Can you start the stopwatch for us?”

-Even in his older years, he never actually stopped making things for Holy, Suzi, and even sometimes Jotaro (thought Joot wouldn’t be caught dead wearing any of it in public)

-He actually progresses past knitting and making clothes in general becomes a secret passion of his

-The hat he’s wearing in part 4? He definitely made that. And don’t even think he doesn’t send Josuke the tackiest shit in the mail

Jonathan is very proud :)

Jotaro

-Animals. Is that even a question?

-Jonathan was always more of a dog or cat person, but the moment he finds out that Jotaro’s interested in marine life? MAN GOES ALL OUT

-He not only researches the shit out of marine biology just so he can hold up a conversation with him, but he also buys A SHIT TON OF BOOKS for his favourite angst man

-We all know that Jotaro isn’t exactly a man of words, but his heart is touched when they exchange a few sentences and Jonathan shows up the next day with a book all about what they were talking about🥺

-Like—Jonathan was always scolded for never listening to his father, but when it comes to stuff like this, Jotaro swears he’s able to read his mind

-Most people can barely get him to utter a sentence, but when these two are alone they’ll talk for hours about the ocean

-Holy was actually pretty worried for a while that Jotaro rarely ever opened up to anyone, but after seeing the two of them talk it was like a weight lifted off her shoulders :)

-They go on trips all the time to study water life. First, it's just to the river a few minutes away. Then they start going out to the lake nearby, and then they’re suddenly borrowing Joseph’s private boat and going on all these “research trips” together

-Which just consist of Jotaro taking hundreds of pictures and surprisingly never shutting up about what he sees (which is definitely a first)

-They pass by snooty, rich fishermen all the time who make fun of them for only looking at the animals, and Jonathan secretly uses Hamon to attract the fish to anywhere but where the fishers are lol

-I can blame snipster on instagram for introducing me to Smiletaro but the pure happiness and smiles of happy Joot on this boat with Jonathan is like a DRUG

-Star Platinum is absolutely thrilled, and when Jonathan realizes that Star is an amazing artist, he actually buys the stand a cute little purple notebook to draw all the ocean life they come across :3

-The moment they get back to shore Jotaro’s all -_- again around people, but you can still see the excitement in his eyes if you look hard enough

-When he gets into school for marine biology, Jonathan is so fucking proud

-This is an au which means anything can happen so I formally declare that Jonathan definitely got Jotaro those golden dolphin-shaped coat pins when the man first goes off to Uni

-He wears them as a good luck charm :3

Josuke

-Josuke is soooo easy to get along with, especially since both of them are such warm people :)

-Jonathan figures that it wouldn’t be hard to find something fun to do together, but when he actually thinks about it...he really knows nothing about what Josuke likes to do

-He ends up just asking the kid next time they see each other, and they end up just agreeing to teach each other one thing the other doesn’t know

-Because the power of KNOWLEDGE BABYYY

-Josuke shows up the next day with an entire fucking Nintendo 64 and is absolutely set on teaching him how to play something

-Erina just kinda watches like 👁👄👁 as Josuke plugs it in and Jonathan is confused but also SUPER EXCITED because he barely even knows what a video is but there are also video games??

-After much internal debate, Josuke decides on Ocarina of Time because he’s worried Jonathan will have a fucking heart attack if they play something like Mario Kart

-Also he thinks Jojo would enjoy the whole “righteous hero coming of age” archetype thing because,,,you know,,,

-They start it up and immediately Jonathan is like WHAT and has no idea how to play and dies in ways that Josuke didn’t even know were possible, but they somehow make it to the first temple with a lot of help from Josuke

-Right before the boss fight, his mom pulls up like “bitch we gotta go come on” so Josuke sees no harm in leaving the system at Jonathan’s and coming back next week

-Oho,,,ohohooo,,,

-He comes back a week later to a dark house,,,Erina’s off on some trip, and he can hear the faintest “HYAH!” coming from the living room

-He walks in to find Jonathan in the exact same spot he left him, ALL OTHER SAVE FILES ARE COMPLETE, and he’s in some obscure location doing a side quest Josuke didn’t even know existed

-Turns out he’s really good at quest games

-After Josuke realizes that Jonathan’s managed to beat the game more than once, he asks if he wants to try out another game

-To which Jonathan replies: “There’s MORE?”

.

-Aside from giving Jonathan a crippling video game addiction, Josuke also learns a vital thing about Jonathan Joestar

-Hamon ^-^

-Josuke’s a little surprised that Jonathan can even see his stand, and Jonathan has no other way to explain it than that it must be connected to his Hamon somehow

-To which Josuke is like “what” and Jonathan realizes that his stupid fucking grandson decided not to tell ANY OTHER Joestar about Hamon

-He’s no Zeppeli, but he could try and teach him...even if it didn’t work, it would still be a nice bonding activity

-When Jonathan finds out that Josuke’s stand ability is revolved around healing, he’s overjoyed because he might have a better chance

-They start small with breathing exercises and meditation, which eventually lead to Jonathan trying to teach Josuke how to make things like flowers

-Since it doesn’t exactly come naturally to Josuke, things don’t exactly work out,,,but both are unsurprisingly happy when Josuke manages to make a single flower bloom :3

-It’s not much, but it’s there and it honestly makes Josuke feel much better knowing that he could eventually learn how to heal himself, too :)

Giorno

-Jonathan considered teaching Giorno Hamon a while ago, but he realized that his stand already has the properties of Hamon, if not just in a more humanoid form

-And when Jojo puts two and two together that he and his son can both grow a lot of plant life, he has the perfect idea

-Garden buddies!!!! :D

-They grow everything you could possibly think of, and to top it all off, Giorno fills the garden with all this animal life :)

-When it comes to biology, Giorno never shuts up about it. He’s the quietest kid when it comes to virtually anything else but prepare for MAJOR info dumps about frogs and his vast knowledge of flowers

-Speaking of flowers, them just sitting and growing them together and talking about all of their favourites? Yes please

-Although they love to accelerate plant growth, there’s one patch in the middle of the garden that they’re determined to grow naturally

-Also them growing and eating carambola (star fruit) together because it’s my pocket dimension that makes no sense and I get to decide what fun fruits the Joestars get to eat together

-the garden becomes a great place for picnics and outings and the best place to go when things get too chaotic

-Giorno starts a plant journal where he records everything that ends up growing there, and Jonathan starts impulse buying all these flower guide books so they can look at pictures of them and put their favourites in the garden :3

-They end up creating a little pond in the middle of everything, and Giorno puts a whole bunch of frogs and fish in it and it's all very tranquil and calm and nice :))

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I was gonna do part 6 (maybe part 7 too?) but mental energy? I don’t know her, sorry y’all :(

Feel free to add on though!! I wanna see what y’all would think Jonathan would wanna do with Jolyne or anyone else I missed :D My first thought for Jolyne was Rugby because Jonathan was a rugby KING and I feel like she’d be really good at it lmao

[aizawaskittenwhore]

headcanon: they have a s/o that listens to a specific female artist

featuring izuku, bakugo, todoroki, kirishima, and our pros before hoes hawks and aizawa lol

words: 1k??

warnings: some slick lil nasty comments (cause when aizawa’s involved i can’t write fully sfw) and language that’s it lol

𝕚𝕫𝕦𝕜𝕦 𝕞𝕚𝕕𝕠𝕣𝕚𝕪𝕒 𝕨/ 𝕒 𝕤/𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕝𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕤 𝕦𝕞𝕚:

the first time he’d ever heard of her was when the two of you went on a drive one night

he’d already liked the vibe of a few of the songs you’d played

and then lullaby came on

man when i say this boy didn’t think he could fall for you any harder until that moment

he was so wrong

hearing your voice softly harmonize with the melody had his heart skipping beats

the street was deserted cause it was so late

and all he remembers is copper streetlamps illuminating your face

left hand out the window, right hand on the wheel while the wind blows your scarf in all different directions

and when happy again plays???

and you blissfully kiss him while you’re stopped at a red light???

while your hand is already holding his?????

izuku is sold

he goes home and downloads all her music

and she becomes “your” artist

“babe wake up umi just dropped music”

he even took you to see her in concert for your birthday lol

𝕜𝕒𝕥𝕤𝕦𝕜𝕚 𝕓𝕒𝕜𝕦𝕘𝕠 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕒 𝕤/𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕣𝕚𝕔𝕠 𝕟𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕪

now why would you put him on to rico bruh

but in your defense it’s not your fault

he was helping you with dinner one night

and you hated working in silence so you’d asked him to play something from your playlist

he chose “smack a bitch” cause he liked the title💀

and from that point forward he was obsessed

he was already attracted to your no-nonsense, take no shit type attitude

so knowing that you listened to the same kinda music made you ten times hotter

you knowing all the lyrics had his dick on HARD LMFAOOOO

anger management is his favorite album

you fell tf out when he said that cause...have you met katsuki that mf is the poster child for anger issues

secretly likes sugar trap too but refuses to admit it

on bad days y’all will blast all of rico’s aggressive songs and rage

your downstairs neighbors hate you.

𝕥𝕠𝕕𝕠𝕣𝕠𝕜𝕚 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕒 𝕤/𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕥𝕖𝕪𝕒𝕟𝕒 𝕥𝕒𝕪𝕝𝕠𝕣

okay so todoroki is painfully introverted

which isn’t his fault cause endeavor isn’t father of the year by any means

so i hc him with someone who’s extroverted and outgoing

teyana makes music for bad bitches who work hard and play harder

but have a soft side too and just wanna love/be loved bro

he loves that you can put on such a brave face for the world every day no matter what

he’ll never forget when he knew he loved you

he was getting in pretty late from a patrol that had run overtime

and he’d found you, crying on your shared bed after an awful day n this man’s heart just splinters cause he don’t know how to comfort people🧍🏾‍♀️

but you don’t ask him for much, just for him to hold you and he does

the next day he wakes up to you just bopping to “never would have made it” and you just glow as you pull him outta bed to come dance with you like you weren’t just crying last night which has him confused asf

“you can be strong and still be vulnerable baby.”

that shit hit home for him

lowkey wants to recreate the shower scene from the “fade” video with you now

𝕙𝕚𝕥𝕠𝕤𝕙𝕚 𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕤𝕠𝕦 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕒 𝕤/𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕛𝕙𝕖𝕟𝕖

y’all can’t tell me this mf don’t be zooted 25/8 and most def has a smoke playlist with jhene on it

so when he finds out that you like her too???

oh baby the vibes here are immaculate

you can’t tell me he wouldn’t have chilombo goin in the background while y’all smoke

and if you don’t personally smoke then he’ll just cuddle with you while he practices tricks<3

will ask you if you wanna get licked too if you stare at him as he’s rollin

the energy here is so balanced it’s crazy

shinsou hates drama and all that other bullshit

so when he’s with you he’s the most relaxed he can be

also he loves that you’re not opposed to deep conversations about your purpose on this earth and how you can feed off other people’s energies

y’all definitely burn sage together on sundays

but don’t get it twisted

cause he knows better than anyone that while you may be chill your hands are still rated E for everybody

been on the receiving end of your anger once or twice and he said never again lol

𝕖𝕚𝕛𝕚𝕣𝕠 𝕜𝕚𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕞𝕒 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕒 𝕤/𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕜𝕒𝕝𝕚 𝕦𝕔𝕙𝕚𝕤

there is nothing more attractive to kiri than someone who’s not afraid to take a leap of faith

you’d known each other since second year, and honestly you were itching to change up your energy

you were tired of being the same old, boring, timid y/n

so you started small: you experimented with your hair more, tried out new makeup, and clothes that accentuated your...ahem..assets

sweaters became tube tops, lip balm turned into brown liner with a thick coat of gloss, skirts became bell bottom jeans with the occasional pair of heels

don’t be fooled, you still loved your old clothes, you just needed to branch out

and as your new style grew so did your taste in music

honestly when you started listening to kali you really hit peak Bad Bitch Energy™️

kiri was, in short, enamored with you

the way you woke up one day and decided to be a whole new person was so manly to him

and he loved the way you knew you didn’t need shit from him but still let him spoil you

which only made him wanna spoil you more

and the way you shifted from a goddess who could step on him with a perfectly manicured foot to kiri’s baby who demanded cuddles before 11am????

the duality has wedding bells going off in his head lol

pros before hoes lol

𝕙𝕒𝕨𝕜𝕤 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕒 𝕤/𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕞𝕖𝕘𝕒𝕟

“fell too fast for me, now the nigga hurt”

that lyric is your dynamic with keigo in a nutshell.

he’d met you while he was in fukuoka on a “business trip” .....which was code for a booty call🙄

and figured he’d try to get another pyt on his team

...only problem was, you were a whole hot girl coach (with ya own draft picks no less)

you had heard about playboy (and no.2 hero) Hawks from here to the States

so, you’d decided to play dumb, hoping he’d slip up and you’d get another pro on your list

all it took was a few sleepovers and calling him keigo over breakfast in the morning...dude was stuck

this man was trying to run game and now you had him throwin you some money to get your hair and nails done “just because” n buy you birkins....embarrassing 💀

however despite him being a sweetheart you didn’t forget what this was, and he wasn’t the only egg in your basket since you knew you weren’t his

this man saw edgeshot’s name come through with a “you up?” text while you were in the shower and cried to brent for a week straight LMFAOOO

but what did he expect from the same person who knew every lyric to meg’s wap verse...come on baby do better

long story short if you can’t handle a stallion don’t try to tame one.

𝕤𝕙𝕠𝕥𝕒 𝕒𝕚𝕫𝕒𝕨𝕒 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕒 𝕤/𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕤𝕫𝕒

whewwww okay the amount of scorpio energy flowing through here is borderline suffocating

honestly if you listen to sza you’re either a scorpio, heartbroken, manifesting, have low self esteem with sudden confidence bursts or all the above don’t lie

in all seriousness shota didn’t see himself getting into a serious relationship due to his pro hero status

that, and he didn’t feel like there was anyone out there that was just...on his level mentally???

but then he meets you and you throw him for a loop though he’ll never admit it

you didn’t just throw yourself at him at the beginning

and while sure you made it known that the attraction was mutual you treaded lightly

he could tell you’d been hurt before and would kill before you let someone get you in a position to hurt you again

pretended not to notice you crying to supermodel when he was supposed to be sleeping

which he understood, for him trust issues came with the territory so there was a mutual understanding between you two

you don’t mind his schedule since you prioritize your alone time and he loves that

you definitely get him into meditation and crystal/chakra alignment

at first he thinks it’s a bunch of bullshit

until it helps him sleep better...mf is a secret hippie now

he loves that you’re trying to heal/become a better version of yourself and he gets to be a part of that growth :,) it makes him a little more optimistic for his personal goals

the sex is elite lol had to say it the vibes are too good here

𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕜𝕤 𝕤𝕠 𝕞𝕦𝕔𝕙 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘, 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕡𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕖 𝕝𝕖𝕥 𝕞𝕖 𝕜𝕟𝕠𝕨 𝕚𝕗 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕘𝕦𝕪𝕤 𝕨𝕒𝕟𝕥 𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕤𝕖!

[dekumancrybaby]

I really appreciate when people spam my account. I got really depressed for a while and stopped posting on Instagram, where I was getting really popular, and some pretty big names became friends with me from the mha art world. But after I got depressed and stopped posting, my account became and still is kind of a ghost town. I’ve never been super popular on tumblr either but I was fine with that cause it was just a way for me to get my art from my computer onto my phone. But after suddenly losing all this confidence and losing a big part of what I felt was important to me as an artist I became even more depressed. I felt like my art wasn’t good enough anymore, that all this growth and development was lost and that I wasn’t making good content anymore. And sometimes I feel like giving up again and just saying no one really likes my stuff anyway so why bother? But art is really important to me, as are the people I’ve met through it (even though I’ve lost an awful lot of those people), so I don’t want to give up quite yet. But whenever I get a message in my inbox or comments on my art or see people reblog or retweet or spam my account it makes me feel really nice. Anyway this got kinda long aha. I just wanted to say happy holidays and that I really appreciate the little things, or at least I try to, because even a little bit of love goes a long way for me right now, so thank you. 💚🧡

[reinerphatasshole]

Look Lahey, its a ShitHawk

hey cows, im turnin g 18 in about a month and after watching a strange aeons vid about tumblr i decided to hop back on here.

this is wild

i feel scared, like is this what bad nostalgia is?

anyways, I’ve remained on other social medias fairly consistantly, specifically instagram (quan_michale) so i havent really had a time capsule of myself on the internet when i was like 13, 14, 15 years old like i do here.

Like i have photos of myself, but here I can really see what I was thinking back then, which is wild.

The funny thing is that this site looks exactly the same, and seems to operate the same. Is the culture still the same? Like i understand that shit like superwholock is long dead by now, but are people still the weird little screeching goblins like i remember? I hope so...

Its also funny seeing what I was into. After I left tumblr, i abandoned my anime/fandom phase pretty heavily, although i still watched things like Steven Universe up until its end (which was disappointing and i was barely hanging on), I left my annoying?? phase behind..

Idk how to feel about it. I feel it was necessary for my growth as a person, we all kinda grew out of it somewhat kind of. But at the same time I did it to fit in.

Anyways, at this point in Quarantine I’ve started reconnecting with my past loves like anime. (NOT sherlock or su tho lol). I literally binge-read Tokyo Ghoul last week and kind of rediscovered my love for it (my taste was great for a middle schooler). Its sort of odd seeing all the edits i made of it though, and I want to apologize to any artist who’s art I might have stole when I was 13 and turned into god-awful edits and quotes because I had no concept of copyright.

I’m not sure how to close this off, Im not even sure Ill revisit this site again. In the end I only really used it for the p0rn, but they’ve had that shit defunded for a long time now so idk what my use is for this place.

But if you got any ideas lemme know.

I might come back every once and a while to dump my brain out, but that shit’s for moi and my need to actually write down what im going thru in this pandemic.

also bonjour my remaining 106 followers, u still here?

[syncogon]

i just realized that starting a music up 2 commentary is a really great idea. because i have a lot of thoughts and might as well compile them.

personally even without the rest of the backstory i think it’s SUPER funny and in character that jiang haoxu would spend x years obsessing over ye feng and ye feng literally had to do a google baidu search to figure out who he was (and he still didn’t even figure it out until halfway through the performance LOL)

ok TOP’s song kinda slaps. even though they’re still assholes. and the dancing is a bit wack. but their costumes are hella nice love how they’re all different to suit their indv styles but all fit the theme

im screaming at this “i wanna perform my new song” like BRO that’s not how it works?? the time to announce that was days ago not 3 minutes before performance?? you can’t just sight-read with 0 rehearsal and expect it to be good - yo it’s not even sightreading yall won’t even have music up there it’ll just be improv on a song you’ve never heard before arghhhhhhh that’s not how any of this works?? 

omg backstory. loving all these baby scenes. MAGGIE’S BABY VOICE HOLY CRAP. 

oh my god they’re all so cute i’m losing it. maggie’s missing a tooth. this is also pretty convenient how it all lines up but it’s super cute so i don’t care i’ll accept these scenes of first encounters

“why didn’t you say anything” BECAUSE HE’S A COWARD. wait hmm this “ctg is a coward” sure seems familiar huh wow continuity (jk there’s like no continuity btwn seasons as we’ve already seen but whatever i’ll point stuff out.)

man i hate this dude’s voice. i’ve had enough of this dude! they’re ugly bc they’re smug ass bastards. 

“7 years ago he beat me once” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ARE YOU KIDDING ME? HOW OLD WERE YOU? LIKE 9?? just imagining a fuckin 9 year old harboring such a deep resentment for seven years like god damn you’re a kid what the hell do you know

also like damn what’s with this obsession over new songs anyway? so risky, plenty of times artists have debuted a song to mixed reactions. it’s not inherently bad choice to stick to a classic everyone already loves? man maybe i just don’t know the competitive high school music band scene well enough :pensive:

have i mentioned how much i hate that they’re translating all the english things in the subs? OPEN is now “开门乐队” tf? bitch i’ll kill you. the whole point of OPEN was that it could refer to opening many things! like doors but also windows and hearts and minds and feelings. smh 

YE FENG IS RIGHT ARE YOU FUCKING EXPECTING TO SOLO THIS? BROOOOO arugh im dying here

oh my god what if you sang TWO songs. imagine. consider. revolutionary. or is that forbidden in the code of competitive high school music bands

aw the candy thing is kind of cute but would’ve been better if spaced out over more episodes and also feels super out of place with this music and tension hahaha. still it’s very earnest and honest-hearted and i respect it 

ok so this is super cheesy but also like THEY’RE FRIENDS i like this so much more than bs rivalry shenanigans like god damn they’re friends they’ve earned it let them be friends wahhhhhhhh and also like yf sending away everyone else prob bc he’s too embarrassed to show this side of him ahaha

big fan of seeing yf and cr together too ofc let them be a happy mutually-understanding couple 

(insert lots of pleading emojis)

i am also tbh a big fan of ctg using his piano/keyboard skills to make his song tho like - embracing and reconciling that part of yourself instead of wholly rejecting it! that’s char growth!

why is “self” “我的狂”???? damn they’re so unoriginal with all these song names

xiao yun is the only member of TOP that has any rights omg. you’re great and i love you. he saw through the plot all along! god im so weak for outgoing competent chars that are smarter and have more depth than they appear. you can be an asshole and still likable! god your seniors could take a lesson.

man if i wasn’t already expecting this ending to the ep i’d be super mad and frustrated. this is so dumbbbb and the cut is bad and unrealistic too i wanna hear the whole song! no one should have even heard the accusation and even if you do you still just gotta keep going show must go on come on! (tho the song isn’t my type... i’m less a fan of these kind of ballad-y songs. kinda too angsty. although that fits ctg lmaoo.) 

ok finally done! alas it was only 480p but at least i can browse the weibo posts now

i don’t even understandd tho like open is the only group here that’s a real instrumental band the others are like singing/dancing idol groups?? totally incomparable how can you do battle when you’re on like totally different planes?? is this also part of the competitive high school music band code??

[purplesurveys]

1048

survey by skiesofsunshine

What would you honestly do if you had a million dollars? Buy sushi and Airpods, give a chunk to my parents, donate another chunk to animal welfare NGOs, save the rest.

Do you pretend to be something you're not to make friends? Not to make friends, because it would be such a hassle if I actually ended up gaining friends from faking myself. But I do sometimes pretend, if it’ll make a certain interaction easier. “Fake it till you make it” isn’t a lie and I learned that more and more as I got older.

When was the last time someone disappointed you? Today.

Are you still in school? Nope, I got out of it just a little less than half a year ago.

Trigger warning for an item immediately below the cut.

Where do you see yourself 10 years from now? [trigger warning] I mean I’ve said it before, but I don’t really plan on making it past 30 and I’m already 22. We’ll see if that changes down the road as I’m always open to hear good reasons to stay, anyway.

Are you more of a shy or outgoing person? I’ve been very shy for most of my life but I’ve become more and more outgoing in recent years. It still depends on who I am with though, and what their body language tells me.

How many hours of sleep per night do you usually get? 8-10, which is thankfully a healthy amount. I’m always left exhausted after work.

Would you rather listen to new music or the classics? There’s no reason for me to have a preference as I enjoy a good selection from both.

Can you do a cartwheel? Nope.

What does friendship mean to you in your life? Family and loyalty.

What is the closest yellow thing next to you? The lights that we have here on our rooftop.

Do you currently feel any sadness? It has been an ongoing wave for the last three months.

Are you more of an athlete or artist? I am seriously neither. I am not at all an athlete, but I guess that label is at least closer to who I am because I do play table tennis.

Is it hard for you to break the ice with new people? Depends on their personality. Some people may just prefer to be on the quiet side and that’s okay.

Do you judge people by groups or by individuals? I try not to at all?

What do you think was the stupidest movie ever created? I once read about the movie Birdemic and watched it out of curiosity. It was so stupid it was genuinely entertaining.

Who is your hero and why? I try not to have any. It’s nice to have inspirations, but I feel like labeling someone as hero would be a bit too much for me.

If you could be someone else for a week, who would it be? Me, from the beginning of the year. If it counts. I’d rather revisit older, happier versions of myself.

What do you want people to remember you for when you die? Somebody who was selfless. Idk, I don’t wish for too much. I just hope people think I am or was a good person.

Do you always respond to chain letters? Nope.

Would you rather text someone or call them? TEEEEEEEEEXT. I gotta say, I’m getting a lot more calls now that I’m working and I’ve been a little braver in answering them, but I do still hate them. I’d much rather text unless a situation is super complex or complicated that a call would be necessary.

What are you afraid of most? Giving up.

Do you spend too much time online? Kinda, but it’s necessary. I’m working from home so I have to keep my line open to stay connected to my co-workers 24/7.

Are you the type to procrastinate? This was mostly me as a student. I don’t want to fuck up at work, so if I have time to do something I get started on it immediately.

What is your biggest annoyance? Companies who have automated customer service chats. Sometimes I’ll have a very specific inquiry only to be greeted by a bunch of buttons to categories with already-given answers, and I end up never fixing my problem.

Do you use any drugs? Erm, nothing even mildly alarming, I guess.

Do you believe that you'll always be a kid at heart? For sure.

Are you currently in a relationship? No.

What do you like to do for fun? God I’ve taken an entire week to take this lol...work has me beat. I spend my days alone now, and I have the most fun and fulfillment when I take myself out for dates at coffee shops :) It lets me take surveys in an environment I’m comfortable with (other than my room), and I also get to look out the big windows and just reflect and be at peace for a few moments. I’m also getting more and more into embroidery and thankfully there’s loads of embroidery kits online that already come with templates and instructions.

Do you have a job? Yes. It’s normally incredibly hectic to the point that I can feel the burnout coming in even though I’ve only been in the role for a little more than a month. But with today being the second-to-the-last-day before our office closes for the holidays, so many people are on leave and I actually have time to continue this in the middle of the day.

Can you type without looking at the keyboard? That’s how I normally type. I haven’t had to look in like a decade now.

What is something you want to improve on this year? Kinda too late to ask this don’t you think? Hahaha. Uhm, I did a lot of growing this year, I’d say. Most of it forceful, but still necessary. I’m proud of myself for making it to the end. I really am. Mostly because I can remember how determined I was to leave just a few months ago. I grew a lot, and I’m proud. I wish other people have seen the growth too, because I’ve tried really hard.

Do you have any pets? Yeah, I have two dogs.

What is your dream car? A Mini Countryman or Clubman. I don’t really care which but I’d love to have either.

How many times a day do you get angry? Depends on how many mistakes I make at work.

If you could, would you want to stay young forever? It was great to have fewer things to worry about as a kid, but I enjoy the freedom and independence that come with being older a lot more.

Are the books better or worse than the movies? That’s usually the case, but of course it applies differently to all books/movies.

Are you afraid of the dark? No, but like I’ve said before it’s only scary if the darkness is meant to be an element of a bigger scary thing. Like if I’m in a haunted house and all the lights went out or something like that.

If you could eat any food you want right now, what would it be? Sushi.

Are you a racist person? No.

Do you ever feel like people use you? I try not to think about it.

Do you keep in contact with your friends during the summer? Back when I was in school and summer was still a thing, yeah.

What is your favorite month of the year? April.

Does bad grammar get on your nerves? Only if it’s from someone I dislike, hahahaha

If you were going to die right now, what would your last words be? I would be alone, so I’d rather go through it in silence.

Does Jeopardy make you feel dumb? Sometimes. Aw, this question made me sad because Alex Trebek :(

What is/was your worst subject in school? Chemistry.

Are you a sarcastic person? Eh, I can be. I don’t whip it out too often though.

What role does religion play in your life? It made me realize I should avoid having a religion.

Can you sleep with your eyes open? ???

[youshouldbemanic]

My thoughts on Manic ✨

I’m really not the best with my words... but I just wanna talk about my thoughts on all the Manic tracks. Straight away I knew this was my favourite Halsey album because it has everything and more that I could ever want from her music, and sometimes I really need to listen to tracks a couple of times before I really love them but I was obsessed with this album STRAIGHT away!

Ashley: This song is the biggest yes, such an incredible opener to the album and I love how Halsey said even though it’s called Ashley it is the most Halsey song on the album because I agree with that. Ashley gives me big The 1975 vibes but they are one of my other favourite artists so I love that, and there is so many genius moments on this track, the “I only wanna die some days’ leading from the verse to the chorus and the chorus leading back into the verse with “I’m bursting out of the... seems.” And don’t even get me started on the Eternal Sunshine quote it’s PERFECT, even if it didn’t lead into Clementine it still just fits so well. I don’t really like thinking about the meaning of this song because it makes me sad but.... I love this song.

Clementine: Clementine was such a nice surprise to get on her birthday, at that point we really didn’t know what Manic was going to sound like and I would’ve never expected this sound but I fell in love with it straight away. Back then was when I was really unsure about how I was feeling about Manic (if you remember you’re a real one) but this song instantly gave me hope. This will forever be one of my favourite Halsey songs.

Graveyard: Okay, I’ve had a love hate relationship with Graveyard, the first time I listened to it I was in a bad mood which probably affected how I heard it even after that day, and I was still kinda expecting the punk sound on that day so I was like wtf.... but I grew to like it but it was just one I never really clicked with, I loved the acoustic version but the production on the actual version always through me off, that is until I heard it in the album for the first time and everything changed, I LOVE IT NOW!!! I totally get it, I really appreciate the lyrics and seeing Halsey’s growth and what she learnt, I wouldn’t say it’s one of my favourites on the album but I’m so happy I love it now.

You Should Be Sad: So I only listened to this once and then left it for the album, and I was thrown off by it being so country and I liked it but didn't love it, but that whole week I had it stuck in my head after one listen so I thought I will actually like it more when I next listen (and I like I said it usually does take me awhile to usually get into songs) but once again I love it now!!! It’s such a bop and the electric guitar is my favourite part of the whole song. From Without Me to Graveyard to YSBS you really see the journey of Halsey’s healing and I love that.

Forever...(is a long time): Aw my claimed track, you guys will see my thoughts about it when I post the track claim but I will just say I love it more and more with every single listen!! Not a disappointing song at all, actually in the track claim I say it’s not one of my top songs but it might actually be now!

Dominic’s Interlude: I AM OBSESSED!!!!!! I fucking love this song, it’s such a drastic change from Forever.... and I really love the perspective Dominic gives, and I never don’t have “TALK TO YOUR MAN! TELL HIM HE’S GOT BAD NEWS COMING!!!!!” stuck in my head. Honestly someone make a 24 hour loop of this song.

I Hate Everybody: I don’t know if this may surprise people but on my first listen I wasn’t completely into this song, like I liked it but idk... but I do love it now! It probably is a bit lower in my preference of songs (even though it is so hard to pick) but it is so good! I really love the self awareness in I Hate Everybody too. And also the trio of Forever... Dominic’s Interlude and I Hate Everybody is *chef’s kiss*

3am: Really what is there for me to say other than YES!!!!!! I am so glad we have this moment on the album, it’s just so good, literally the lyric “Will you please pick up the fucking phone” is one of my favourite parts of Manic. This is just a weird thing but there’s something about lyrics or words repeating closely in songs that annoys me (I don’t know how to explain) but when she says “cause they don’t know what to do with me” and then a second later she’s saying “I don’t really know what to do with me” it bothers me but it just a personal preference thing 😭 and I don’t really like John, but I do like having his voicemail cause like I said I like having wee things like that in albums.

Without Me: Without Me sweetie..... I thought I would absolutely hate it on the album but I don’t, but honestly part of me will always be a bitter that it’s on here but I’m mostly over it! I do think it is an important part of her journey so it is good it’s on Manic, the only thing is the effect on her voice or whatever sounds so different to the rest of her vocals on Manic and yeah I just don’t think it matches.... there’s not much else to say but I did love it originally!

Finally// Beautiful Stranger: Can we talk about the fact the lyric is actually “your eyes so crisp so green” and not crystal green because?? Honestly it does make so much more sense and I can’t unhear it now... anyways I also LOVED this when I heard for the first time. It’s beautiful, it’s special and I’m so happy that after all the pain she went through she had someone who made her feel so good 😭I feel like maybe I haven't been as interested to hear it at the moment... I don’t know if my love of it has died down a bit but I will always adore it.

Alanis’ Interlude: Okay!!!! This song is a bop and I think it will be really special for people especially young people who may be figuring out their sexuality. It’s not really one of my favourites but it is so catchy and I think Halsey sounds so good on it, and I also love that she has a song on HER album with someone she looked up to her whole life.

Killing Boys: This song.... is so good definitely one of my favourites. I love the Jennifer’s Body sample of course, and I also love how it’s one of the angrier songs on the album but it doesn’t really sound angry (like how Graveyard sounds happy but it actually isn’t) and I’m telling you right now that I need a music video for it and ideally it will be Jennifers Body themed!

Suga’s Interlude: So I actually didn’t listen to this until the album came out, but I’ve seen that a lot of H fans don’t really like it and I hope that’s not just because Suga is on it, I get that maybe it’s harder to get into maybe because you can’t sing along or understand what Suga is saying but I actually really love this interlude. Firstly H sounds like an angel, secondly the production is beautiful this song is just so calming to me and just makes me really relaxed. It’s kinda cool for me too as a Halsey stan because my best friend loves Suga so it’s really awesome for our favourite artists to have a song together!

More: So, wow, I obviously didn’t really pay attention to the lyrics on my first listens because it wasn’t until I saw a comment on a reaction video saying what this was about and my heart instantly broke. I already thought it was a beautiful song, but More has absolutely ripped my heart out, like I can’t even listen to it anymore cause it makes me BAWL and like I posted music does not make me cry.... I don’t really want to say much other than I am so so proud of Halsey for being able to release this song, I feel like this song is going to be so special to not only fans but people who can relate to it. All I want is for Halsey to be happy.

Still Learning: On Manic it is so important to have a moment like this, it’s so easy to look at celebs and think they are living the life and there’s no way they could be insecure and especially when we think they are so beautiful, so I love that Halsey has straight up said I am still learning to love myself, that is such an important message for everyone and this song is one of my favourites on Manic, it was my favourite from my original listen but my opinions are changing a lot at the moment! I just really love this uplifting moment on the album, even though some of the lyrics are sad, it’s just a reminder in our lives we all have some good and bad! Also having this straight after More is 😭 I’m trying to dance Halsey but I’m TOO BUSY CRYING

929: This song is literally just like having a conversation with Halsey, or Ashley I guess. It’s crazy how much she spills out in just this one song, like you literally hear everything on her mind. And after all the chaos of the album it’s nice to just hear her cute voice talking. This is such a cute song even though again it’s kinda sad, but I can’t think of a better way to end this album. Also at the end did anyone else think she said she was born in 1996? 😂 I was like hold up let me listen again

Anyways I hope everyone liked reading this it’s kinda all over the place, but yeah I just adore this album and I am so grateful for it ����

[anon-posting-board]

this anon requested a readmore.

I never get around to telling them but one of my favorite musicians has helped me through so much. Like. I found them my freshman year when they were making kind of grungy “everything is awful, everything’s gone to shit, no one’s talking about anything” type stuff, which slotted in very nicely with how I felt pretty much that entire year? Like I remember listening to “Can’t Please ‘Em All” almost entirely because of the line “I could have said my piece, and blamed you in the note I’d leave but where’s the fun in that?” and lowkey that and Sick Of It kept me going holy shit (Red Flag Valentine was also great because I’d. just swung out of an intensely manipulative/abusive relationship and had a Whole Host Of Shit to sort through.)

and then I was in sophomore year, and I still really, really liked their stuff, and their overall sound. And their next album came out, and it was a lot less. aggressive in the way the first one I heard had been. And it still fit with how I felt, though, like. There were a lot more positive sounding songs on that one, like “not good now, but damn we’re gonna be” type vibes. And it fit with how I was going, what I was working towards, where I wanted to be.

And then it was Junior year, and I’d realized so much about my identity, and I was going “oh, hey, shit, okay, okay we’re doing this now, okay.” and the album that came out that fall was. so fucking soft. Not cutesy soft but like “it’s okay to be kind to yourself” type soft, I guess? “I’ll do me and no one can change me,” vibes? And, again, those were the exact vibe of song that fit my entire outlook. And then also somewhere in there they started their own original story which was fucking wild because then over the summer between Junior/Senior year I also started writing my book? Not at the same level, and not in the same way, but like, I’d finally unblocked enough shit that I could write again, for the first time in years, and it was fucking delightful to write stuff that wasn’t all kinda of gross-toxic trauma-coping vent-fics.

And senior year continued like that, with me tracking their stuff and continuing work on my own stuff and they were also the first time I’d heard of “they/them pronouns” and “wait, there’s something between and outside of the binary??? there’s more?” and I’d had a weird. distaste at being ‘female’ for years but just figured it was some self hating mental health shit. But like, my mental health was better and I’d still feel that way and I realized “oh shit?? I am?????? nonbinary???”

but like for the last almost-five-years my brain and personal growth has tracked so closely with this artist and hey I don’t even know if they track tags on tumblr but. Hey Case, you’re a fucking legend, alright, keep doing what you’re doing you funky little jackal.

[theofficialstereklibrary]

Top 18 Sterek Fics 2017

Hello, our lovely followers!

For the past two years, we’ve been giving you guys a list of our favorite fics that we read and we are back at it again! These are the fics that really stood out to us in 2017. (here are our faves from 2016 and 2015)

Like always, this fandom came through with so many good fics this past year and we hope to see more and more sterek fics posted even with the show done.

We wish you all the best in 2018 <3

Kass’:

There Are No Wolves In California by kitsunequeen (1/1 | 7,579 | G)

Hunter!Stiles accidentally hits a wolf with his car and can't bear to leave him in the road to die. It's not till he gets the wolf home that he sees its eyes glow red... ------- Even everyday roadkill is upsetting, but this thing… Moments ago it was probably a majestic beast, and now it’s a mangled pile of soon-to-be rotting flesh. He presses a shaking hand to the only part of its chest left intact, not even thinking about whether it'll give him rabies or some other awful disease.

He’s about to pull back when something even crazier happens.

He realizes the wolf is breathing.

We Have Potential by dragon_temeraire (2/2 | 10,196 | PG13)

Derek has finally been invited to the annual North American Werewolf Convention. The only problem? They’re expecting him to bring a significant other. He doesn’t actually have one, but everyone volunteers Stiles for the job.

A Royal Christmas Engagement by skoosiepants (1/1 | 25,865 | NC17)

Young omega Warden Lord Mieczysław Stilinski, given the royal request of marrying Crown Prince Derek Hale of Triskelion, predictably messes the whole entire thing up.

Or –

An arranged marriage, mistaken identity, a/b/o, accidental heat fic

Hale’s Modern Encyclopedia of Playing Cards (and Dating Humans) by thepsychicclam (1/1 | 49,698 | R)

Wolves don't date humans. And Derek's okay with that. He's got his Pack, his friends in the Pack network, and lacrosse. Plus, he plays cards with his grandma all the time. Stiles Stilinski definitely doesn't factor into his life - no matter how much of a crush Derek has on him.

But when bird creatures attack Derek, Stiles, and their friends in the Preserve, Stiles finds out about werewolves and things get pretty complicated. For Derek at least. And he thought school was his only problem, but now he's grounded and Stiles is hanging around way too much for Derek to ignore him any longer.

Slow Hands by aussiebee (1/1 | 8,489 | NC17)

Derek is suddenly made aware of Stiles in an entirely new and uncomfortable way; specifically, his hands. His wide, strong, clever and dextrous hands.

Derek is kinda screwed.

The Start of Our Forever by Cobrilee (1/1 | 20,546 | NC17)

Stiles is ready to get out of Beacon Hills and start his new life, free of the supernatural. A random discovery in an antique store in Denver proves you can never leave it all behind... and encourages him to find it again. What ensues is four and a half years of pining, self-discovery, personal growth, a whole hell of a lot of love, and a realization that nightmares can still become fairy tales (happily-ever-afters included).

In Which Laura Is Never Going To Let Derek Live This Down by Omimouse (1/1 | 1,587 | PG13)

Prompt: A soulmate fic where you’ve got “Help! Save me!” on your wrist. So you do the martial arts classes, and ROTC, and get a concealed carry permit, you are READY, you are SO up for this… and then one day you’re at a friend’s house, and someone comes pounding down the stairs laughing and ducks behind you and goes “Help! Save me!” and that’s how you find out your soulmate was escaping a tickle fight.

“Laura, for the love of god, stop laughing and get him off of me.”

Gnashing Teeth and Criminal Tongues (conspire against the odds) by LadySlytherin (1/1 | 14,269 | R)

When Stiles mouths off to the wrong set of witches, he finds himself unable to control his tongue around a certain alpha werewolf. As Stiles struggles with the lesson the witches want him to learn, he knows it's only a matter of time until the truth comes out. It always does.

This is Not (In Fact) Okay by rileywrites (1/1 | 3,062 | PG13)

Derek and Stiles end up partnered for a project, and Derek contents himself with being a part of Stiles' life. For a while. ... Derek meets Stiles in his political science class. It's a 200-level class, so he doesn't expect any seniors to be involved. He definitely doesn't expect the hotshot senior midfielder from the lacrosse team to be in the class, let alone sitting beside him.

Tine's:

pick it up if we're moving too slow by standinginanicedress (12/12 | 139,856 | NC17)

“…I want a dude who’s going to take me out on dates. And I want him to meet my dad in, like, a sweater vest and khakis and shake his hand and talk about sports with the guy. And I want him to have a car and an apartment – not like, nice ones? But ones, you know? He’s got a dog, too. He drives me around and buys me stuff and is nice to my dad and my friends but then, like,” he squeezes the basketball extra hard and is sure he feels some air being let out of it, “…he ties me up sometimes, too. Is that too much to ask for? Am I reaching for the stars?”

Scott shakes his head, shuffling the cards and making piles out of them, likely by category. “There are no kinksters in Beacon Hills. We’ve been over this.”

To Make It Right by kitsunequeen (41/? | 121,147 | R)

In a society where the werewolves have been enslaved by the humans, Derek has had enough owners to know who the real monsters are. He's also had enough to know not to trust a word out of Stiles' mouth, no matter how nice an act he puts on.

The only thing that's kept Derek going for all these years is guilt. Now, though, he has a mission that might just allow him to set some of this right...

If only he can get away from Stiles.

-----

In which Derek's been abused all his life, Stiles just wants to show him he's not like his past owners, and they've both got a plan. The only question is, whose is more flawed?

And the Cold Pulls You Down by blacktofade (1/1 | 12,967 | NC17)

“Do you believe in ghosts?” Stiles asks Derek one night after he’s settled into bed, listening to the sound of Derek brushing his teeth in the bathroom.

“Ghosts?” Derek asks, voice muffled by toothbrush and paste as he stands in the doorway to stare at Stiles.

Or, the one where Stiles is 99.9% sure their house is haunted and no one believes him.

Seat Belts & Gravity by calrissian18 (1/1 | 22,411 | NC17)

People leave in Beacon Hills, give up on the town, the people, on life itself. And he and Derek are still here, six years later, still able to drink a beer and share space. It’s kind of remarkable in a really understated way.

Constantly on the Cusp by alisvolatpropiis (13/13 | 40,884 | NC17)

Stiles is gay, out and proud, and a Beacon Hills deputy. Derek is a firefighter and war veteran who thinks he's straight; or, Derek and Stiles have lots of semi-public hatesex on the road to Love.

Bruises and Hickies, Stitches and Scars by ElisAttack (12/12 | 89,808 | NC17)

“You’re my lawyer, Derek. What are you going to do, draft up a contract for yourself?”

Or the one where Stiles is a professional dominant, Derek is his lawyer, and their professional relationship suddenly becomes not so professional.

Also, faeries.

Start Small, Like Oak Trees by SmallBirds (1/1 | 24,234 | R)

The months following Allison's death have passed Stiles by in a haze of monotony. He sleepwalks through days that seem to lose their color, an unwilling passenger in a body he no longer trusts. Eventually, he thinks, he'll just fade away. He isn't sure anyone would notice. Then, during a spur of the moment grocery run, he stumbles upon Derek Hale attempting to console a lost child, and for the first time in recent memory the world doesn't seem so awful. He's not sure what he'd been expecting when he eventually convinces Derek to move into the Stilinski's spare bedroom, but a newfound passion for weeding and topsoil certainly isn't it.

Can't Take the Heat? by Ilovesocks_24 (15/15 | 55,425 | PG13)

“Hi, I’m Stiles, and what I have for you today is…”

“Stop, just stop.” Grumpy Eyebrows interrupted. “That is honestly the worst looking Pasta Primavera I have ever seen. I don’t even want to eat it, it looks so bad.”

Stiles narrowed his eyes. No one insulted his creamy bacon carbonara without even trying it. And no one insulted his creamy bacon carbonara after they tried it either.

“It’s actually a Creamy Bacon Carbonara, asshole,” Stiles snapped. “And for the record, it’s supposed to look like that.” Or the one where Stiles is a new sous chef at Full Moon Steakhouse and Derek is the Gordon Ramsay of all head chefs. So of course they fall in love.

Written in the Stars by Quixoticity (6/6 | 26,596 | R)

Derek Hale is a lucky guy. He's got a great family, good friends, and a fulfilling job as a tattoo artist.

He's also one of the twenty-five per cent of the population born with a soul mark.

He likes his life, but he's waiting for his soul-match. The odds of meeting them aren't great but hey, Derek's a lucky guy. He has faith.

He can't believe how good his luck really is when one day his soul-match wanders right into his studio, all long limbs and copper eyes. There's just one problem: Stiles is there to get his soul mark covered up. Permanently.

[fullmetalirin]

Fullmetal Alchemist OG vs. Brotherhood: Rush Valley (OG 26, BH 11)

Another 1:1, but the content is actually very different this time.

Fullmetal Alchemist Episode 26: "Her Reason"

Mustang investigates Hughes' murder and concludes through Armstrong that a high ranked member of the military may be responsible for his death. Izumi Curtis, Edward and Alphonse's teacher, shows up at Central looking for them, but she has missed them by a few days. Edward, Alphonse, and Winry, on their way to Ishbal, arrive in Rush Valley.

We open with Mustang getting an invoice for all of Ed's hospitalization charges. LOL.

Mustang demands to know where the Elrics are. He's pretty harsh and aggressive.

Riza grabs her gun when Izumi barges in.

We're still doing the equivalent exchange intro? This is starting to raise the question of what "those days" are, exactly. From what point in the timeline is Al saying this?

New OP, though! It looks more like a slideshow of scenes from the anime. New characters are in it, most notably Wrath.

Automail girl is told she can't get a cannon arm because it's for men.

How does automail arm wrestling work? Wouldn't it just be determined by the quality of your automail, not your own strength? Despite this, the girl puts up an impressive showing against the champion before he cheats.

Announcer initially propositions Al, but then goes into a bit about how short Ed is. LOL.

Ed is looking more muscular than before, I think? He should be 16 now, so that makes sense.

Extra comedy from Winry when the announcer calls his automail shoddy. LOL.

Ed tears the guy's arm off! Did he use alchemy for that?

The big guy has a tiny replacement arm.

Ah, Ed did use alchemy.

Winry beats everyone up. I think it does lean a bit into "female violence is funny", but that she has a legitimate reason that's treated seriously makes it work, I think.

Now we get the scene with Mustang investigating. He talks with Armstrong in an alley instead of in the open. Thank you.

Mustang makes the same deductions, but his reasoning for the Philosopher's Stone connection is that the Elrics left without telling him, implying they didn't trust the military with information about the Stone. That's more reasonable.

Bechdel Test pass when Winry talks with Paninya.

Cartoon face when Dominic walks in on Paninya. It's a little much, but appropriate given the lightheartedness of this plot.

Dominic knows Pinako as a brilliant engineer.

Ah, a race shows the power of her automail legs as well. That's clever.

Paninya calls Ed a pipsqueak before starting the race. I wonder if Winry coached her on that.

Ed leaps two stories with his shonen protagonist powers.

Ed looks strained while running, while Paninya isn't breaking a sweat.

Paninya leaps from the roof straight onto the ground with no ill effects. Ed does the same thing, so it's not just that automail absorbs the shock. Artistic license, I suppose.

Without the rocket, Paninya's leg collapses and she falls off the building. Ed saves her by extending… rock platforms that break under her? I guess that would slow her a little, but if she's already going that fast that must still be pretty painful.

Winry blushes when Ed says he can't let anyone show up his automail. Aw.

Back in Central, Hakuro shows up to intimidate Mustang. So I guess he's finished razing Liore. Mustang grovels for him.

Sheska wants to continue the investigation, but Mustang says it's been suspended.

Oh wow, Izumi's here already? Thinking about the timeline… it seemed like it only took them a day to get here by train, and it has been a day since Izumi showed up in Central, so that checks out.

Winry is sad that Ed doesn't want automail. I think that's a bit much? She's known he wants to restore his body for a while now.

Cartoon faces when Sig barges in. I think that's reasonable; as a cliffhanger, it is clearly meant to be jarring, and it's a clean break from the seriousness of the last scene.

New ED. The bit with Winry typing with the dog is really cute. Winry inexplicably having her shirt open so we can see her boobs is less cute. And it looks like the text in the background is a plot summary of the story? I wonder if it's notes the mangaka gave them, or their own? I think I preferred the last one's music, though.

FMA Brotherhood Episode 11: "Miracle at Rush Valley"

Edward, Alphonse and Winry arrive in Rush Valley where Edward's state alchemist pocket watch is stolen by a pickpocket named Paninya. After chasing her down, they find she has automail legs. Winry asks the automail's creator, Dominic LeCoulte, to let her be his apprentice, but her request is swiftly denied. Winry convinces Paninya to stop being a pickpocket and return the pocket watch, but first she peeks inside and sees the date when the Elric brothers burned down their house. Meanwhile, Dominic's daughter-in-law is having a baby, and she is unable to travel to a hospital in the poor weather. Winry and Paninya deliver the baby, resulting in a successful birth. Winry asks Dominic again to be an apprentice, and this time he directs her to another automail mechanical engineer. With that, Edward and Alphonse continue onward to Dublith.

We're doing the alchemy intro again.

Recapping the last episode, again.

We start in Rush Valley this time. Curiously, we don't get the ship-teasing of Winry behaving exactly the same way as the girlfriend who wants her boyfriend to buy her the expensive ring; Ed is just exasperated over her fangirling.

Ed is really grouchy.

Cartoon skit where everyone crowds around Ed's automail and… strip him? That's pretty awkward.

Cartoon skit when Ed realizes his watch is gone.

Cartoon skit when the villagers ask to see Ed's automail again.

We get emphasis on how hot and inhospitable the region is. Dominic apparently lives in the mountains, rather than a back alley.

Winry and Ed yell at each other. I can just feel the romance wafting off them.

Ed and Al somehow recognize Paninya despite not seeing her earlier, and are able to see the watch in her hands even though she's only a speck from their perspective. How.

Cartoon skit when Ed sees her.

Ed uses alchemy to make steps carving a direct path to her.

Then he makes a huge wall to cut her off, about on part with Izumi's levee.

Ed then makes grasping arms out of the ground. How are they bending?

Al ambushes her and makes a metal cage. They did say earlier that this area is rich in metal ore, so that makes sense.

Paninya has a blade in her leg instead of a rocket, and it… can cut through the metal bars, somehow.

Ah, her other leg has the cannon.

I'm just now noticing she does not have an automail arm.

Winry catches her. How? Did she sneak ahead?

Comedy when Winry wants to look at Paninya's automail.

Al's head falls off, which is amusing.

Winry nuzzles Paninya's knee. Uhhh.

Instead of being amazed by Winry's work, Dominic scolds her for making the limbs too heavy. This is where we get introduced to the possibility the automail is stunting Ed's growth. Of course, in this continuity that will come to nothing because consequences are for losers.

Ed has a fantasy of towering over everyone. This is actually very funny. We see him still daydreaming while we resume in the present, which is also funny.

Why is Al constantly turning into a cartoon, though? I think he's spent more time in cartoon form than not this episode.

We get a cartoon of Ed being a single-celled organism when Dominic calls him one. It amuses me.

We get a picture of the fetus when the brothers touch the pregnant woman, which I find unnecessary and kinda gross.

The brothers gush about how miraculous childbirth is.

Paninya says her stumps ache when the weather turns bad, which is a nice detail showing that automail isn't perfect.

When Paninya gives backstory, there's no flashback to the accident, but there is a flashback to Dominic because the man is what's important here.

The whole conversation places much more emphasis on Dominic, how grateful she is to him, how she wants to pay him back, etc.

Winry argues with her to stop being a pickpocket.

Ed sealed his watch shut with alchemy.

Cartoon where Winry opens it.

Cartoon when Ed tells Winry about the labor.

The labor scene is similar to Elicia's birth, so I guess OG moved this there. No line where she snaps at them for making a fuss, though. It has way less emotional impact and context here when it's just some rando, and the men's incompetence is less excusable when they're adults. Winry has to do basically everything herself.

Ed notes that Winry's a doctor's daughter so she does actually know this stuff… and then immediately undercuts it by saying she probably didn't absorb any of it because lol women thinking they know stuff, amirite? We've seen no indication Winry is doing anything wrong. Why are you being a dick, Ed.

Shot of Dominic riding through the rain.

Winry goes in to help with the birth, but we stay focused on Ed whining about how sad it is he can't help.

Cartoon Al when he gushes over the baby.

Same line about mothers accomplishing what alchemists can't, but Winry tells him not to compare alchemy with "the mysteries of life".

Ed is mad at Winry for opening the watch.

We get a flashback to them burning the house.

Winry is determined to stay with them because she's ~so amazed by Ed's resolve~. Also explicitly says she wants to get better just so she can help Ed.

Comedy and slapstick when Ed demands his watch back from Paninya. I guess slapstick targeted at women is sort of equality?

Dominic melts when doting on the grandson. Ed notes it's out of character and gets glared at and turned to cartoon.

Ed has to push for Winry's referral; she doesn't think to ask herself.

Paninya is called a "tomboy", and is invited to come visit. So I guess their relationship isn't as close here?

The Elrics run past a wanted poster of Greed. Nice foreshadowing.

Ed tells Winry to get better so she can make him better automail when he leaves.

Conclusion

So these are really two completely different episodes. There are similarities in characters and the basic plot, but they're portrayed very differently.

Taken individually, I'd say they're both good. Like with the Resembool episode, when comedy and lightheartedness is actually appropriate, Brotherhood does great at that. The episode is a fun low-stakes adventure with a lot of good jokes. Conversely, OG making its own plot was also a good move. It's still a breather episode, but sticks to the more subdued, less madcap energy characteristic of the anime, so it doesn't feel out of place. We get clever use of elements and lots of people talking about their feelings, which is exactly what I want out of OG. The episodes are both good examples of their series' respective ethos.

But one of our things to watch is female representation, and they don't compare nearly as favorably there.

OG's episode is about Paninya from beginning to end, and develops her into a full character with her own motivations. In Brotherhood, she's just a plot device to introduce us to Dominic, and is then swiftly forgotten about. Winry's conversation with her is also a lot friendlier in OG, and more focused on Paninya herself. I also find it very interesting that Dominic is only amazed by Winry and Pinako's work in OG; there's no question of her becoming his apprentice, giving the very clear implication she is already a master herself.

For all that people say Brotherhood is so much better at female characters, OG sure seems to care about and respect them way more. It does give us that weirdly gendered thing about the arm cannon, but it's not pushed very hard – Paninya doesn't have to give up her rocket leg, and she's not forced to give up her tomboyishness like Clause did.

Quite frankly, Brotherhood's "feminism" feels very manufactured to me. It does the exact bare minimum of what it thinks people want out of female characters, but no more – then, having paid its dues, it goes right back to gushing over how awesome the boys are. OG seems to be coming from a more traditionalist angle that leads them into some blunders, but I don't see any malice behind them; they've shown again and again a willingness to seriously engage with even minor female characters, even at the expense of the male ones, and that feels much more genuine to me.

[katzirrart]

Art Growth Compilation

I really enjoy doing posts about improvement in art.

It makes me feel better about my work, especially with how busy I am these days.

I wanted to compile all the comparisons I’ve made over the years and kinda discuss the posts, for myself or others.

I thought it’d be funny to start with comparing how I first drew on a tablet, using dodge and burn tools, to how I do now which is using layers and actually painting. It’s funny to look back on that, you know?

I linked the post I made, compiling all the month to month memes from 2003-2017 that I try and do yearly. And everything else is under a cut ;w;’‘/

Most artists have done a drawing of themselves and a few Pokemon, or their team. I did that in 2010, and was dissatisfied with my work...

I took a crack again in 2013 after I’d learned to draw more animals and not be so Edgy(tm) I really liked the results. I still didn’t use references though, because I was lazy. I just didn’t want to. I still was on that boat feeling like I was CHEATING. I wasn’t being CREATIVE if I looked at references.

Artists get stuck on using reference and it’s AWFUL. USE THEM. USE TWENTY. LEARN!! It’s so HELPFUL, I wish I had started sooner.

In 2014 though -

I tried again.

I had gotten better at anatomy, but most of all, I started to work off references more. I started to really focus on not stylizing so much, but to work on actually making things look like things. I started to work on caring about COMPARISON sizes. Composition!!

While Pokemon reference sizes are -wiggle hands- and while my team changed up, I was satisfied that I could draw Arbok ACTUALLY like a cobra now, Meowth is easy given it’s just a noseless cat so to speak, Haunter is literally a triangle cloud - I was satisfied having drawn that team.

My secondary team in the new games? I was excited to draw them. It was fresh and new and FUN and it turned out PRECIOUS.

I learned better how to proportion things in an image for layout, and just... making characters feel COHESIVE in the same space.

It was a nice thing to keep visiting. I have a sketch in the works for an update even hopefully.

These pieces are kind of interesting to me too, because they’re towards the end of my era of THIN lineart?

My lineart has gone from this, and THIS,  to this.

Literally I use to not believe in line weight, I can still do thin work of course, but I’m not a fan of trying to FORCE it like I use to? Even the second link, I went from the SMALLEST brush in Sai, to using a marker brush that had barely ANY give, to a custom brush on Sai that acts like a Paint Chat brush I use to use with friends online!

That’s what I mean about style too, like you may reserve yourself about things - like not coloring black in and outlining with white, or certain ways you do things. But the growth and changing and figuring FUN ways to color that black etc is where the fun of art comes in, to me??

Learn. EXPERIMENT. PUSH!

A few months ago, I did my first redraw. Of this piece from 2012.

Six years difference.

This was interesting for a number of reasons. There’s aspects I like more in the old one, but not many. I really like the pose a bit better, but I like the casual closeness that I did in the new one because that’s more my Shepard.

But technically speaking, it’s worlds better because I took time. I paid attention to details. I did fun things instead of rushing. I took time with my coloring and didn’t SMEAR it around. I had a friend who use to complain I drew so fast and they felt so SLOW, but I love what that taught me. I started taking more time on my art, and enjoying it more since I caught more mistakes and vastly improved. By leaps and bounds.

It’s amazing what a difference six years makes in not only style, which is often a FOCUS of these things? My style has come awkwardly and naturally to me over the years of critically picking certain things apart? but I really love where it’s gotten.

I have things I want to get back to, but I love... where it is, and CAN be?

But it’s wild to me how much change happens in technical handling? It’s a hand in hand thing, you can’t focus on one or the other only, or the other suffers.

Honestly this has been my favorite improvement to notice though?

Kisame was a character I felt I should be able to draw EASILY? Not so much. Itachi? ALSO EASY. Not so much??

Kisame has weird eyes to grasp how to draw? Thus focusing on them kept making them wonky to me!! On top of that, he’s everything I’ve been use to drawing for AGES because he has a muscular body, with a smaller waist? ... that was something I was use to drawing? I still was awkward getting back into the swing of that... Drawing HIS HAIR though? NOT SO EASY....

But like, Itachi should have been easy, but I have a thing about him appearing too feminine as he gets drawn because his eyelashes, and I’ve really found a nice... medium at this point?

But even still like my face styles and eye styles are finally to a comfortable point for me? I have stopped focusing on some weird things with Itachi’s hair and just... DO IT? But even still like...

The improvement here is literally just if I don’t know how to do something, or I’m not satisfied with how I do it? I just keep at it.

It’s a theme of this post honestly... repetition, persistence.

Keep drawing it. Keep trying to figure out what it is that’s catching you off about how you do it. Don’t like how you do eyes or how they fit on the face? Look at facial structures and references and figure it out. Draw them separate and figure out how to apply them to what you are.

Remember there’s a skull in there. I draw the holes in the skull like the eye sockets, and the nose area to help my proportions for SURE.

I’ve also gotten to a nice marriage in my lineart? The piece before the recent one, those lines feel HARDER or HEAVIER? The newest piece seems...softer? Like I’m lighter handed again?

I really like critiquing my own growth on what is good or working better for me? Older pieces it looks like I’m putting lineweight for SAKE of it versus where it goes now?

INTERESTING.

Like this lineup -

My style shifts so RAPIDLY, it still is noticeably MY style to people, but parts shift so VIOLENTLY because I’m constantly picking at what I don’t LIKE.

It’s funny too in the case of Kisame and Itachi because consistently I’m drawing the SAME character over and over - can make you REALIZE how you’re doing something wrong?

Like, here’s a difference of eight years, and it’s all the brush I use now, and it REALLY shows how my style has changed - in the aspect of one point of reference?

I have a childhood favorite character too, of Daisuke, and I use to be bad at drawing boys, and I use to be SUPER bad at drawing fluffy hair?

It was something I specifically started to learn to do? And I started to draw Daisuke every few months or years for a while. Especially when I started to first REALIZE I didn’t like my style that much?

But the middle one was July 2009, top left is less than 6 months later, and the last one is about a year later. DRASTIC DIFFERENCE. But next -

This one was in 2012, when I started to do more with teeth, or first dipping my toes into anatomy. I started to focus more on HANDS too, I was super bad at them. Overall I started to focus more on making my art have...ages? Like a boy versus a man. Facial features being DIFFERENT.

I can look at this boring little bust and see that he comes off more of a teenage boy to me now. I need to work more on figuring how to draw asian features especially the eyes. Sometimes I hit the mark, other times I don’t.

but between this and 2012? Not too much has changed. I do hair fluffier now, and I angle the eyes better. The teeth not being outlined doesn’t give that weird effect where I might give him TOO MANY TEETH....

People do that and it’s easy but whoof.

So there’s still learning and adapting to do in QUICK drawings, you know? but I can still see there’s good things. That took me like 5 minutes to draw? Not bad honestly.

In it’s own bracket is original characters though too?? But also divergent of STYLE shifts because like...

OKAY. Nightmare Syndicate’s story.. started for me in 7th or 8th grade, that was when I was...14? 15? I’ve been fleshing it out for like 13 years, that’s wild haha!! I love my kids and all.

But okay so SIALI. She’s still fairly similar but I restructured her face for SURE. She’s gotten less edgy, she’s.... a teenage girl.

FELIX?? CHRIST. He’s been such a long journey!! More on that later?

Rot and even Cor?? Rot and Cor are a shorter span of development, but Rot started in Highschool so almost 10 years ago, and Cor has been fairly solid - but even just DRAWING him over three years? Go look at how much he changes.. I’m not married to concepts easily. haha!

People act like making a character you’re STUCK with it. Like Oh boy, I better make this character good, from the get go!!

I only worry about that with small potatoes like my Pillar(Gods) designs I just made for the comic?? Even still, small things will change with them I’m sure.

But not only has Felix and Siali changed, but they’ve GROWN with my style and DEFINED it even. I’ve had to adjust my style to support Felix’s look honestly a LOT. Bend my rules. Break my anatomy stickler attitude - and honestly, that’s the thing.

You have to learn the rules and anatomy BEFORE you can break them. A style built upon broken anatomy will fail you down the road if you just excuse everything with style.

Learn to draw the hands. Learn to draw the feet. Figure out the face. Bones exist. You can break the FUCK out of it once you learn how to do it, you know? Like I’ve seen so many styles I LOVE who are cartoony and BROKEN AS FUCK, but there’s still some STRUCTURE to it. Most of those people can still structure a face just fine, and the reason exaggeration works so well is because there’s like unwritten rules for what works and doesn’t based on that?

Idk.

Felix has a very elongated torso, he’s like 7′ or 8′ tall so I mean?? He’s... broken anatomy, but he’s... lanky - but his muscle is LITHE and stretched. It makes contextual sense. That’s the important part.

But even designs, it’s important to understand designs YOU make, or like... to understand they’ll CHANGE and that’s growth within your art too?

Like okay, example. Felix has a millipede inspired monster form. But with designing that? I still have to know how millipedes and SNAKES work because there's bones and vertebrae in there??

But there’s also the difference of like... CONCEPT, versus execution. You can design a fucking badass character, but understanding your own concept is SOMETHING.

I had no idea how this would play out, until I was mapping out his ‘midsection’ spikes? and man. MY STYLE WAS MADE FOR THIS CHALLENGE NOW. Which is so interesting how smooth my style has always been? Felix has defined ANGLES in it, and it’s hilarious tbh?

But even too, I’ve had to work with Felix’s monster form FACE, to break the rules to make it WORK the way I need it too?

On the anatomy subject too, like when I first got into Marvel comics 6 years ago or so? I had no idea how to do muscle structures?? I was so BAD at it.

I can look at this left image and CRINGE so badly at how NONE of those are muscles?? THOSE ARE THINGS I PERCEIVE AS MUSCLES. Like...

A course I took taught me to draw what I see, not what I know. That’s the whole point of that post that goes around about drawing a shrimp. Look it up. It’s hilarious and cute.

But it’s like, asking an artist to draw a bike, you can tell who uses reference and who WINGS it. It’s funny, but like it’s what you know versus what you see.

I started to study anatomy like crazy and was seeing improvements days at a time. The right image was done like... a month later? already I can see the muscles under the pectorals? those look normal now. the abs aren’t dough lumps under the skin in a perfect 6 pack, they’re the actual plane shapes.

I was trying to find a good reference for myself of learning to make men ‘thicker’ too in terms of the waist etc since the left is really...thin.... but...

A bit better, but even still, comparing these two - they’re 2 months apart? and I can see understanding more about arms and how they connect to the body, where the planes ACTUALLY lay for the chest and obliques and such?

I can see improvements from July 2012 up there, to - WHOOPS. I FORGOT TO CHANGE THE YEAR LMAO... TO FEBRUARY 2013...omg

I mean, I could go on and on about improvements I see, when I go through my art though? Gosh.

Like I’m seeing so SO many bad hands and feet in my old stuff, and just CRINGING because tricks I learned for myself by now?

I give so many pointers and streams and screenshares on discord still to help people with art and it cracks me up?? Like...

I dunno. I’m pretty mediocre tbh, but god damn.

[deliriumzer0]

Hey there! Any Ayu-related posts or write-ups in the pipeline?

Actually, answering this ask is a good opportunity to both review TROUBLE and explain why I haven’t up until now.

I’m having a very hard time reviewing TROUBLE for one very plain and simple reason: musically, it elicits very few emotions for me. Decent review writing is much easier when you feel something, whether that’s anger or delight, disappointment or elation with the material. Sadly, TROUBLE is a C- level effort. It follows all the rules, but does absolutely nothing more, and it only does it for 5 tracks (3 of which we heard before the “album” came out).

After two years I was hoping for some sign that Ayu had perhaps been listening to more music that wasn’t her own, that she had written more material about her struggles over the last 2 years like the deterioration of her physical condition or second divorce. Unfortunately, even putting aside the low quantity of new music, the tracks we got show approximately zero growth and it’s hard to get passionate about it. I don’t hate it, it’s certainly solid work, but it doesn’t make me FEEL much of anything. It’s just a reasonably pleasant background listen, and for me personally, that’s not music’s purpose. And it’s certainly not why I fell in love with Ayu’s music to begin with.

I know it makes me sound like the typical “I hate their new material, I liked their old stuff better” fan when I say things like “I miss Ayu’s old material.” Listeners who say things like that are often disappointed with change; they want more of the version of the artist that they fell in love with. In this case, it’s almost exactly the opposite situation. Up until A BALLADS, Ayu was frequently attempting different sounds and genres and styles. Over time, her willingness to branch out has dwindled, and since Love songs I’ve mostly been disappointed in her albums as a whole. I haven’t liked some of her more experimental moments, like the Colours album, but I appreciated the experiment at least. For the entire latter half of her career, her discography has consisted of mostly very samey material with a sprinkling of moments of inspiration and daring sound changes. Those moments always set me up for future musical progress, but I’ve ultimately been disappointed each time.

TROUBLE, sadly, turned out to be the inevitable disappointment after the bits of brilliance on M(A)DE IN JAPAN. It doesn’t take the moments of awesomeness from MIJ and move them forward (in fact it doesn’t take them at all). Sure, TROUBLE is roughly on par with the most competent A7-era material (A ONE and sixxxxxx), which is certainly not bad. But MIJ included some tracks with more daring production or an unusual amount of rawness in the mix. Songs like “FLOWER,” “Survivor,” “Break down,” and even “Mr. Darling” made me feel energized or angry or fascinated or warm. The album also had far less over-polish on her vocals; you could hear more cracks, more flaws, and as a consequence more emotion. I LOVED the vocal vulnerability I got on MIJ.

TROUBLE lacks any of MIJ’s positives, sadly.

One thing I will say in TROUBLE’s favor is that “W” is excellent. It corrects everything I perceived as an error on “WARNING.” She gave that song’s general concept and approach a second try and this one is much, much better. It is perhaps disappointing that she basically made “WARNING part 2,” but as prolific as she is I’m okay with the occasional duplication of themes as long as the new version is an improvement. (Side note, just as a counter example: when “Like a Doll” happened after “Marionette,” I was considerably less thrilled.)

Anyway, over the last few years, Ayu’s material has shown next to zero creative growth; when I do hear growth, she doesn’t develop it. She dips her toes in that water, and then pulls them right back out again. She seems either uninspired or insecure, neither of which are conducive to creating music that’s worth as much as Avex is charging for it (more on that later). Her songwriting & recording has been relegated to a process which could be nearly automated aside from the actual lyric writing process (which continues to be very solid - she’s genuinely talented and I have very little issue with her lyric writing). The demos fit within a certain creative box that she rarely moves out of.

And, unrelated to the quality of the music itself, I kinda wanna rant about Yoneda’s handling of her releases. Based on an article I read recently on the Avex Group website, he has been responsible for some… actually kind of amazing failures as far as the marketing & releasing of Ayu’s material. He seems to feel like, since Ayu fans are so dedicated and are gonna buy a certain number of copies of ANYTHING regardless of quality, then it’s totally fine to rip her fans off (and this is actually something I suspected years ago, and that article more or less confirmed it despite talking about it as though it’s a positive).

It’s no doubt him who’s deciding to call TROUBLE an “album” when in reality it’s a selection of two live blu-rays with a bonus 5-song EP included. He’s probably the one who called LOVE and again mini-albums when they’re ostensibly singles. He’s the one charging fans for bonus first-press items that are just cheap “imprint with your own logo” giveaway freebies you can order for pennies apiece yourself (you really can). He’ll call things “deluxe” or “premium” that I could make myself at home in a matter of an hour or two.

Admittedly, this is one major reason I let my TeamAyu membership lapse, and also why I have not purchased TROUBLE and likely will not buy it new. If I get it, it’ll probably be years from now, used, at a Book-Off in California or something. If TROUBLE had an inexpensive discs-only CD+BD version, I’d probably be fine with getting it. But with the TROUBLE box sets, advantage is clearly being taken and I am not on board for that.

In conclusion, friends & enemies… TROUBLE is okay. It’s not amazing. It’s not awful. It’s perfectly listenable, the lyrics are great, but if you were hoping for Ayu to continue the apparent forward development we started to hear on MIJ, you’ll be as disappointed as I was. And $110 for a 5-track CD, a concert blu-ray, a few photos, and a keychain is insane to me. But fans bought that overpriced Colours box with the candle (which smells fantastic, but you could buy it for like $5 on its own later on), so what did I expect really?(If you really wanna get mad, check out the package for the new Muse album and its price. Granted, Japanese releases are always gonna be more expensive, but why should anyone be paying more than about $60-75 for the TROUBLE CD+Blu-ray? It’s just a bad move, in my opinion.)

[franeridart]

i miss your haikyuu art so much it was the best - dont get me wrong i fucking adore your bnha art but like,,,,, haikyuu,,,,,,,

Well pal, aren’t you lucky, you might have been missing from my blog in the past two weeks but if you scroll down just three posts you might notice I’ve been drawing haikyuu again (x x x)

Anon said:People don’t remember baccano anymore? :o

I assumed so since it’s been ten years since it aired and the fandom has always been small and quiet anyway, but it looks like I assumed wrong!!!! That made me so happy, honestly? Baccano’s my fav anime ever, it’s always super nice to see it appreciated!

Anon said:I’M HAPPY YOU LIKE BACCANO! NOBODY KNOWS IT

Anon said:Omg thanks for the baccano au I love it.

Anon said: BACCANO!! I love you so much right now!!!

Anon said: YOU DID A BACCANO CROSSOVER!! IVE NEVER SEEN ONE DUDE MAJOR PROPS TO YOU!!!! I literally love that series, it was one of my first ones so seeing it mixed with one of my current favourites is surreal!!

Anon said: DID YOU JUT DO A BACCANO AU OMG ITA BEEN SO LONG SINCE IVE WATCHED THAT IT WAS MY FAVE 😭😭😭😭😭 i cried so much during it all the time it was so badass

This is exactly what I was talking about!!! So HAPPY all of you love that anime as much as I do! And thank you SO MUCH for liking the crossover!!!!!!! ;O;

Anon said:Fran, just out of curiosity, what colors do you associate with Bakugou/Kirishima/the rest of the squad?

The ones I use to write their dialogues! Orange for Bakugou, red for Kirishima, gold for Sero, yellow for Kaminari and pink for Ashido! :D

Anon said: tumblr has been a butt and not notified me of your post but i saw your nishinoya and i died i love the way you draw him and boiiiiii bokuto and kuroo be looking smokin and your kiribaku (is that right??? im a failure i cant remember!!!:( ) is amazing SO MUCH FLUFF i die of happiness. keep up the lovely work 💕👌👌👌

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE KIND WORDS HOLY SMOKES!!!!!!!

Anon said:I love your art its so amazing.

Thank youuu ;u;

Anon said:I was just wondering if I could use one of your drawings of Kuroo as a phone background (just for personal use! It’s fine if you don’t want me too! I’m a huge fan and I hope you’re having a nice day~)

Sure! As long as it’s just for personal use I don’t mind at all!!

Anon said:Oh wow, thanks for the tutorial! I think it will be really helpful!

I’m glad to hear that!!!! :D

Anon said: what is the jock / nerd thing?

At this point it’s mostly a meme, I’d say haha

Anon said:ASDFGHJKL *-* Your art is to beautiful for the world

That’s!!!! Too kind of you oh man (〃´ﾉω`〃)

Anon said:Your kiri is so pretty.

THANK YOU!! Every Kiri is super pretty tho, it’s the intrinsic Kirishima-ness of the Kiris that makes them beautiful whatever style they’re drawn in! :O

Anon said:YOUR ZORA ITS SO GOOD I LOVE HIM AS MUCH AS YOU DO AND WHEN I SAW YOU DRAW HIM I WAS LIKE: a m a z i n g 💕💕💕

OH MAN THANK YOU I love that disaster of a trickster so much I’m glad I could make him come out okay ;O;

Anon said:so i left tumblr a while ago?? but i check back every so often bc ur pretty much my favorite tumblr artist ever

Aw man thank you so so so much this means the world to me! ;u; sometimes it’s hard for me to see any improvement in my own art so knowing that you can see it helps a lot!

Anon said:your art is literally my favourite thing in the entire world i love it all! i hope you’re having a good day and taking care of yourself! x

GOSH THANK U I hope you’re having the best day too, anon!!!!

Anon said:Asahi is so pretty when you draw him, I love it; my gentle son, in your amazing art style.

I’M!!!!!! Glad you liked him!!!!!!! That boy is 100% out of my comfort zone so knowing he came out okay is super nice!!!!! :D 

Anon said:The way I drew the bakusquad in that one set of images … They’re like … On the cover of Vogue or something. It’s aesthetically good to my eyes man. Also you kinda got me into tetsukami?? I don’t understand it at all but now im into it BC of ur fanart and bc of other fanart but Imma blame u and im grateful to have another ship to hyperfixate over. Anyway I love youu and your art man, i wish u many good days

Oh man I love you too anon this ask made me so happy???? And I’m especially happy I could get you into tetsukami! It doesn’t make much sense as a ship, does it? But they’d be fun interacting and their quirks work well together, so I have fun thinking about them! I hope they’ll interact in the classes 1a and 1b will have to share in the future! :D

Anon said:Oh I love your Noya’s, so glad you drew my boy again!:)

Thank you for liking him!!!!!! He’s hard to draw but I love him and he makes me happy!!! What a boy!!!

Anon said:Have you seen little noya in the newest chapter

I HAVE little boyo already had his blond hair how cute is that! The newest chapter made me really warm inside I really loved the whole speech Noya made ;u; my inspiring little lightning bolt !!

Anon said:I really really love your bnha art! But put some highlights on the kirabakus one, you probably have the quirk to melt my heart with them ;w;

That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever read!!!!! Thank you SO MUCH!!!!!! ;O;

Anon said:Who do you think would propose? Bakugo or Kirishima???

I actually answered a similar question a while ago! But I can’t find it so I guess to sum it up I mostly think at some point it’d just become something both of them have talked about throught the years enough times that by then it’ll just be something they are gonna do, sooner or later, and when it’ll happen it’ll be more like “we have a stable income and a house and a dog and a cat and are p much already married we should really do this already” - in a scenario like that either of the two works, for me haha

Anon said:the best thing was that I just a moment before u posted I felt bad and pissed ad sad, but then all that disappeared ;V;

I’m!!!!! So happy to know I could help you like that!!!! ;O;

Anon said:Can I just say, I’ve been following your art a long time (I’ve always loved it!) and I’ve really noticed a lot of growth and improvement in your style? The thing that always impresses me most is how you are able to take simplified facial features and make them SO expressive. You convey emotions so well and I love it so much. Thanks for always giving us art to smile about! Hope you are having a lovely day!

THANK YOU SO MUCH OH MY G OD!!!! I’m!!!!! crying!!!! probably!!!!!!! FrICK!!!! ;A;

Anon said:KINONOYA!!!!!!

INDEED!!!!! What a good relationship they have!!!!!

Anon said:You draw Sero so good oml he’s too pretty

Anon said:THAT SERO YOU DREW!!! *clutches heart* n i c e !!!!

;O; I’m glad you like him?????? gods!!!!

Anon said:I love the way you draw Kaminari, he looks beautiful in your art style! ^^

SOB you guys are all so nice to me I’m gonna cry for real here ;U; thank you!!!

Anon said:Whenever I’m sad I look at your art and everything feels better.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! happy I can help you with your mood!!!!!!!

Anon said:When you Kiri with his hair down, I’m always like “that’s it, that’s the cutest Kiri ever” and then you draw him with it spiked and I’m like “no wait, there it is, the cutest Kiri.” And now you go and give me both Kiri’s in that adorable pair of sketches and how is that even fair because how am I supposed to handle that? I can’t even decide anymore. All your kiris are the cutest Kiri.

THANK YOU !!!!!!!!! All Kiris are the cutest Kiris tho, aren’t they? What an inherently cute boy he is!!!

Anon said:i showed my friend your art and since we both find it super good, we both decided to try to draw more regularly because we want get better and get a smooth(? idk how to say it in english lmao) style like yours so thank you for the motivation/inspiration!!

:O !!!!!! I hope you and your friend will have fun while at it, anon!!!!! :D

Anon said:I love your bakushima

AND I LOVE YOU

Anon said:drawing ppl from above is so cool though!! i really like these kinda pics ✨ (esp bo and tetsu, so /cool/!!) dont give up, fran❤

Please don’t enable me anon, if you give me the green light I’m gonna keep on drawing that sorta angle forever hahahaha (thank u so much for the compliment, tho!!!!)

Anon said: ahhh i love your recent kiribaku drawings! they are so cool!!

That was about the red and teal ones, right? Thank you so much!!!! Working with colors like that isn’t something I do often, so I’m really really happy that you guys ended up liking them!!!

Anon said: Row! Row! Fight the power!!

I don’t know what brought this on but HECK YES

Anon said:Man I love all your art, fanart and OCs alike! And your BNHA is such an inspiration and one of the reasons I started writing fic. Have a great day!

OH BOY that’s such a nice thing to know!! I hope you’re having lotsa fun writing fics, anon!! And I also hope you’re having a great day, too!!!

Anon said:OK, i’m sorry for sounding this emotional, but OMG your art makes me cry. it’s just… so beautiful… *there i go again* *crying*

*hands u tissue* thank you so much but please don’t cry!!!!

Anon said:I’M CRYING LUCA’S BIRTHDAY IS THE DAY BEFORE MINE, I’M A PHYSICS MAJOR, A MAJOR DOG (and cat) PERSON, AS WELL AS A MORNING PERSON LIKE WH A T

You’re the second person that tells me they’re really similar to one of my ocs!!!! I wonder what that means? :O but it’s a fun thing to know, anyway!!! :D I hope you don’t mind Luca being so similar to you, anon haha

Anon said: What do you think would happen if eraserhead erased fatgum’s quirk?

He’d probably just lose his ability to absorb hits and then re-use their power? :? but if he’s fat he’s gonna stay fat and if he’s slim he’s gonna stay slim, I think :O

Anon said:Oh my god you know kekkai sensen I’m actually crying I love kekkai sensen but no one I know likes it/knows about it and aaaaaaa I love your art and you drew something from kekkai sensen and thats amazing!!!!

I’M GLAD YOU LIKED IT and I know right? Kkss has such a small fandom! Which to me is super weird considering how much following Trigun used to have? :O it’s definitely one of the best anime I’ve seen in recent times, tho!!!

Anon said:FRAAAANNNNNNNN!!!! I’m soo excited!! I might be getting a tote from your shop for Christmas! My friend asked what I wanted, so I looked at your store, and chose a tote with Mina, and Hagakure (?) And he told me to send him the link!

HOLY SMOKES THANK YOU FOR BUYING MY STUFF ANON THIS SERIOUSLY MEANS THE WORLD TO ME!!!!!!!

Anon said: Your art is so good! I especially love your black and white stuff! Its really punchy! Also all your Kiribaku content makes my heart melt!!!!!!

*gross sobbing* thank you so much!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:would it be okay…if i drew luca (giving credit to you tho obv) i just love him so much GOD

YES!!!!!! Please do link me to it if you do draw him, I wanna see!!!!! :D

Anon said:Hey! I really liked your OCs and i was especially intrigued by Max and Leo!! Do you mind telling us more about their relationship? They look so sweet!!! Love ya and keep being awesome!

Thank you so much for liking my kids!!!! ;O; and sadly I can’t tell you too much about them cause their story is a bit still up in the air as far as details go, but in general they used to be best friends back when they were kids, then the accident that gave Leo his scars happened and for reason they lost track of each other for a long while - they met again recently, tho! Leo’s been in love with Max since they were babies and being able to talk to him and interact with him again makes him incredibly happy/mushy/soft but also absurdly and unreasonably overprotective since he’s really, really scared of losing him again - Max… because of plot-related reasons hasn’t realized that Leo is the kid he used to know back when he was super young, so his falling in love with him happens as the story progresses. He finds the overprotectiveness silly and unecessary, but he doesn’t exactly mind it? He has a feeling it helps Leo more than it helps him, so he lets him do his thing. All in all, maybe Max takes more care of Leo than Leo of Max. Welp, their story is kind of a mess haha

Anon said:Have you ever thought about doing nsfw? Or at least something kinda hot?

This is actually answered in my faq! But yeah, no, I don’t do nsfw, sorry! Something kinda hot… maybe in the future? But I gotta be in a very specific mood that doesn’t come around too often, so I dunno if and when that’s gonna be!

[shuakkinda-blog]

Chan crushing on you !! // scenario

A bullet-point scenario starring Lee Chan/Dino !!

Feel free to request scenarios and reactions on my page :)

- Chan has grown up so much since his predebut days

- he isn’t a lil baby anymore and I CHOKE EVERY TIME I SAY THAT ISTG

- he’s become so mature and intelligent and sassy (courtesy of seungkwan) and charming and

- damnit

- he’s not even the same Chan we started out with in the Adore U era

- his growth over the past few years is just c r a z y

- BUT EVERYONE STILL TREATS HIM LIKE THE FAMILY FETUS LOL

- a lot of times I sense that Chan doesn’t wanna labeled “the group baby”

- and he definitely wouldn’t want to have this kind of “baby reputation” when he’s trying to go after a girl he likes

- because oh man when Chan starts crushing on someone and the members find out

- he’ll be babied a whole lot more than he already is sorry chan

- let’s get right into the scenario :D

- the first day of your internship at pledis, you’re introduced to the group you’ll be working under

- seventeen !!!!

- and during your personal introduction, you can’t help but notice all the members acting...

- strange

- is it something I’m saying? My accent? Is there something on my face??? you think to yourself

- you’re so confused

- but after some more observations, you notice one thing

- the members keep on looking at one specific member

- and the ones who are right next to him are constantly nudging his arm

- the targeted guy’s face is stolid, but it breaks every once in awhile when he tells the other members to knock off their nonsense

- after you finish your own introductions, the seventeen members begin introducing themselves individually

- and the guy that everyone was bothering during your introduction eventually steps up to introduce himself

- “Hi, I’m Dino. Nice to meet you,” he says sweetly

- his brief sentence is followed up by quiet laughter and finger-poking at the poor boy

- “stop it,” he whispers to the others

- you don’t get it

- were they poking fun at him because of you

- and if they were, why??? why you?

- after your introductions, one member agrees to take you on a mini tour of the company building

- “hi, I’m Jeonghan,” he greets you

- you greet him with a hello and your name before you begin a conversation as you walk through your tour

- you guys get along comfortably, and by the end of the tour, the both of you are practically conversing the way best friends would

- as he leads you to building exit to end the day, he asks you

- “y/n, I know this is really random, but did you happen to see any of us members around the building when you first arrived today?”

- you don’t recall seeing anyone so you reply

- “I don’t think so, why?”

- “ah nothing,” he smiles but it appears he’s holding back a laugh. “I was just wondering...”

- did that have to do with the way Dino was treated earlier?

- you shrug it off for a little and head home after exchanging goodbyes with that nice tour guide

- but at night you can’t help but think of what happened earlier again

- even though you don’t know what all the fuss was with Dino and the other members

- it’s bothering you

- what did you do? was it even your fault? or was it his?

- you tell yourself to forget about it and start off clean on the first official day of work tomorrow

- when you report to the company building the next day, everything goes the way your internship advisor has said it would go

- you pick up your to-do list from your boss’s office and go off to wherever you feel like doing your work in the building

- and after spending a lot of time trying to find vacant places to work, you finally find the practice room to be empty

- you find it kind of weird because lol aren’t there a lot of groups under pledis that practice daily???

- but you go with it bc you’re not complaining

- it’s a nice room :D

- wElp s0rry, you were kinda right earlier when you said artists need to practice there because GUESS WHO DECIDES TO WALK IN THE SECOND YOU GET SETTLED

- “Oh, hello, y/n,” Dino greets you with a bow

- you do the same for him, but you can’t help but feel kind of awkward as he drops his backpack by the sound booth right next to your workplace and gets settled into the room

- “I hope you don’t mind if I play songs on the sound system for practice right now?” he asks you

- “oh it’s okay,” you reply. “I usually like to have a little bit of music playing while I work on things anyways.”

- “okay!” he replies cheerfully. “Just let me know if you need anything, alright?”

- aw this guy is so... nice?

- “thank you, Dino,” you smile

- “oh no, please call me Chan,” he laughs shyly. “I mean... Dino, Chan, it’s up to you, really.”

- “okay Chan,” you smile at your paperwork and get started with your tasks

- he smiles as he starts playing the first song

- you don’t know this but Chan gets this warm feeling in his chest when he hears your voice chime his real name for the first time

- ahgghh I can’t let the hyungs think they’re right, he thinks to himself

- promise yourself now, Chan, that you won’t end up liking this girl

- I mean pshh this is only your second time seeing her

- that weird thing in your chest can’t be anything significant

- right?

- lmao just wait, Chan

- so the both of you are pretty much silent in the practice room

- well besides the music playing in the background

- there’s no conversation

- it’s just you working on paperwork and Chan working on choreography

- from where you are sitting, you can see Chan’s phone hooked up to the speaker system on the sound booth

- and whenever you got curious as to what a certain song’s title was, you’d peek over from your desk to see his phone screen

- after awhile, you notice his phone practically blowing up with messages

- since the phone is so close to you, your eyes can’t help but read a few of them:

- Seungkwan: “tryna show off your dancing skills to the girl, hUH”

- Seungcheol: “I see you, Channie ;)”

- Minghao: “yo I didn’t think you’d actually like her, but I guess you do since you’re literally practicing dancing in the same room she’s working in on purpose”

- Jeonghan: “EY AEGI (baby in korean) GO GET ITTTTT~”

- you blush a little at the messages

- it was pretty obvious

- they couldn’t be talking about anyone else but you

- you look out the windows and doors and see if anyone’s peeking into the practice room, but there’s no one

- are they hiding or something?

- how did they know we’re in the same room?

- and does Chan... like me???

- you want to tell Chan that his phone is exploding with messages, but you don’t want to seem nosy

- so you sit quietly and continue your work

- but ofc Chan, being a little self-conscious around the new intern, glances back at you every now and then while he’s practicing

- he catches you looking at his phone

- “hey, is something wrong?”

- “OH nothing nothing!!” you panic and revert your eyes back to your papers. “I’m just... checking out the song titles, that’s all.”

- you technically weren’t lying because you had been checking the titles earlier, but you only told half of the truth so you’re still kinda guilty LOL

- but Chan believes you and flashes you another cute smile before continuing his practice

- you finish your work, and the both of you say goodbye before parting ways

- Chan decides to take a look at his phone after you leave

- and his mouth drops at the sight of all the messages the members spammed him with

- and they we’re all obviously about you

- he’s pretty sure you saw these messages too since they were sent awhile ago rip

- WHY DO THEY ALWAYS GOTTA PICK ON ME AT THE WORST TIMES, Chan would think as he covers his face with a hand

- he informs the members about this on the svt group chat

- Chan: “GUYS WHAT THE HELL”

- Jeonghan: “Oh is lil aegi mad?”

- Mingyu: “dude what’s with the angry text?”

- Chan: “WHY WERE YOU ALL SPAMMING MY PHONE”

- Chan: “AND POINTING OUT Y/N”

- Mingyu: “because we all know you got a little crush on her lmao”

- Chan: “BUT YOU GUYS”

- Chan: “YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND”

- Joshua: “wdym”

- Seungkwan: “yeah calm down. it’s not like she saw them”

- Seungkwan: “right?”

- Chan: “...”

- Seungcheol: “shit”

- Hansol: “oh my god we’re sorry, Chan”

- Seokmin: “LMAO DID SHE REALLY SEE THEM?”

- Minghao: “lol guys we really fucked it up”

- Chan: “yes she was looking at my phone and she said she was looking at the song titles, but now I think she was lying”

- Junhui: “oh yeah she was definitely lying then”

- Junhui: “If I were her, I’d be more interested in those juicy texts than some song title”

- Chan: “I hate all of you”

- Jeonghan: “wait Chan”

- Chan puts away his phone and flushes red in anger and embarrassment

- he doesn’t wanna care about what happened because he doesn’t have any concrete feelings for you

- but at the same time he cares a lot because now it’s gonna be very awkward between you two

- what are you supposed to think of Chan after seeing those messages?

- a part of him wants to hide from you for the rest of his life

- but luckily, his mature side takes over and makes the decision to talk it out with you the next time you guys bump into each other

- a day or two later, Chan spots you in the hallway

- and he finds himself walking toward you

- here we go, the both of you think simultaneously at the sight of each other

- “hey y/n,” Chan greets you

- “hi Chan.”

- silence follows

- “look, about the other day... ugh I hate to be like this with you but... were you really looking at the song titles when I asked?” he gets into the questions right away

- you know exactly was he’s talking about, and you know you would feel guilty if you pretended to not know

- “oh, well yeah I was checking for the titles at first, but then... you got a few texts and-”

- “I know, I just want to apologize for... those,” he looks down to avoid your eyes

- “It’s okay! I know what it feels like to be in that kind of position where your friends constantly bug you about a specific person,” you explain sympathetically. Chan looks up at you again

- “oh, really?” he smiles. Wow, she actually understands me...

- you nod. “Yeah, I get it.”

- Chan sighs in relief

- “Maybe we should start again?” you suggest

- you hold out a hand and the both of you reintroduce each other with a handshake

- Chan would be so freaking happy when he clears that all up with you

- he’ll probably hit up the group chat again

- Chan: “I’m sorry for getting mad the other day”

- Mingyu: “now you come crawling back huh”

- Seungcheol: “hey he’s apologizing, just take it”

- Joshua: “no we should be apologizing, Chan. we went a little too crazy with the spam the other day and we’re sorry”

- Seokmin: “none of this would’ve happened tho if Chan hadn’t said y/n looked pretty when he saw her walking into the building on her first day”

- Hansol: “lol”

- Jeonghan: “SEOKMIN STOP”

- Minghao: “he’s kinda right tho, it all started there”

- Chan: “wow I come back to apologize and this is what I get”

- Seungkwan: “Seungcheol: hey chan, did the new intern walk in yet?”

- Seungkwan: “Chan: I dunno, maybe. I just saw a pretty girl walking into the building a few minutes ago”

- Seungkwan: “everyone else in svt: OOOHHH DID CHAN JUST CALL A GIRL PRETTY???”

- Seungkwan: “Chan: WAIT NO I DIDN’T MEAN TO SAY- BUT- HADKGFJS. STOOOP.”

- Jeonghan: “SEUNGKWAN, RECAPPING THE MOMENT THAT STARTED ALL OF THIS ISN’T HELPING RN”

- Seungkwan: “ok I’m sorry”

- Chan: “it’s okay we made up. I explained everything”

- Wonwoo: “so are you guys friends now?”

- Chan: “I guess???”

- Mingyu: “:3:3:3:3:3″

- Soonyoung: “my boy”

- Minghao: “we all know you want more than that though”

- Chan: “bye I regret coming back to this group chat”

- Seungcheol: “NEXT PERSON TO ATTACK CHAN HAS TO CLEAN ALL THE LAUNDRY, YOU HEAR ME??”

- with this new, clean slate, Chan would feel so confident about initiating conversations with you and joining you at work for mini hangouts

- and tbh he wouldn’t even notice that he’s been developing a legitimate crush on you unless another member talks to him about it

- maybe Soonyoung because he’s got the cutest hyung-dongsaeng relationship with Chan :’)

- you’d be hanging out with Chan in the practice room again when Soonyoung comes in to get ready for the performance team practice coming up in a few minutes

- knowing their schedule, you say your goodbyes before leaving the two dancers alone in the room

- Soonyoung turns to Chan and grins as soon as you close the door and depart

- “Chan, admit it. You like her.”

- “no no, I’d never-” the maknae shakes his head in denial but Soonyoung interrupts his sentence

- “then tell me why you’re always hanging out with her.”

- “I mean is it wrong to hang out with friends??”

- “there’s nothing wrong with ‘hanging out with friends’ but there’s a difference between that and constantly talking to a single person 24/7.”

- “what? What are you talking about?”

- “I see you texting y/n on your phone all the time, and as soon as she gets to the building for work, you guys meet up and hang out for hours.”

- “She’s not objecting to any of it though...” Chan shrugs and hides a smile

- “YEAH EXACTLY. So don’t give me that ‘I don’t have feelings for her’ bullshit because I won’t believe you,” Soonyoung narrows his eyes at Chan and shakes his head

- “okay fine,” Chan blushes. “Maybe I kind of like her...”

- “kind of??? Dude, you’re so whipped for this girl.”

- so Chan accepts his feelings for you

- luckily, the way he’ll act around you won’t be too different from the way he treated you before

- except he’d be smiling a whole lot more when he’s with you

- it’s just because he can’t believe how lucky he is to be this close to his crush I’m crying how pure :’)

- the only other difference in hanging out with him while he has a crush on you would be ALL OF THE BABYING FROM HIS HYUNGS OMF

- you’d be having such a great time JUST with Chan, but then some member like Junhui would walk in and think it’s a f a n t a s t i c day to run over to Chan and pinch his cheeks to embarrass him

- “JUN HYUNG, PLEASE NO,” Chan would plead constantly

- his face would be heating up and you’d be there laughing at how funny his hyungs can be

- Chan would probably be annoyed every time this happens, but he’ll get used to it eventually sorry Chan pt.2

- tbh he wouldn’t really think of confessing because he’d love how perfect your friendship is with him the way its, and he wouldn’t want to ruin it

- so if anything, the confession would be by accident

- and ofc what kind of confession would it be without the help of his lovely, supportive hyungs ;)

- so one day, you come a little late to work and find svt practicing altogether in the practice room

- you don’t get to see all of them together very often, so you weren’t ready for the explosion of “OOHS” directed at Chan and you as you walked in

- “jeez, you guys are never gonna live this down huh,” Chan rolls his eyes at the cooing members as he comes over to you to give you a hug

- “again, it’s all your fault for not filtering your mouth when you first saw her,” Seokmin spills out

- “wait what?” you ask out of confusion

- Chan gives Seokmin wide eyes with the other members. Did he really just say that??? Chan panics

- Seokmin adds. “Whaat? You guys haven’t told her about that yet?”

- “NO WHY WOULD WE TELL HER,” Mingyu laughs at Seokmin

- “tell me what?” you quirk up an eyebrow.

- “NOTHING, HE’S JUST...” Chan reddens

- “HALLUCINATING, YEAH THAT’S ALL. I’M HALLUCINATING,” Seokmin awkwardly laughs and scratches the back of his head

- you face gets serious. “Out with it, guys.”

- “y/n, it’s nothing imp-” Chan tries to explain

- “Chan, cut the crap. Tell me what’s going on,” you say a little more sternly

- the maknae sighs

- “just tell her already,” Soonyoung insists

- “okay fine,” Chan says a little frustrated. “On the day you reported to the company building for the first time, Seungcheol was asking all of us to keep an eye out for you, the new intern, so we can let your boss know.”

- “I saw you walking through the hallways, but I didn’t know whether or not you were the one they’re looking for. So when Seungcheol asked us if we saw “the intern,” I told him I wasn’t sure but I saw a...”

- he pauses out of hesitation

- “a girl,” he says and looks down

- “umm... I still don’t get it?” you respond

- Chan hesitates again

- “a pretty girl is what he meant to say. He called you pretty and everyone went crazy over it,” Jeonghan clarifies

- “... really?” you ask

- Chan nods as he faces the floor

- you try to fight a smile but can’t seem hold in the feeling of flattery

- “to be honest,” you cover your smile with a hand as you begin to put a statement together. “I thought Chan was kinda cute when we first met too”

- Chan looks at you and his mouth widens at your words

- if y/n thinks I’m cute, does that mean she... likes me too?

- “OOOOHHHH,” the 12 other guys coo loudly

- he smiles

- maybe confessing right now wouldn’t be such a bad idea, he contemplates

- “well to be honest with you,” he starts. “I’ve always thought you’re...”

- the words are stuck in his throat

- “CHAN JUST SAY IT ALREADY,” Soonyoung yells from the crowd of members

- “CUTE, I’VE ALWAYS THOUGHT YOU WERE CUTE AND I LIKE YOU OKAY?” Chan covers his mouth after his confession.

- his words are followed by another loud cheer from the rest of the group

- you blush in embarrassment as the others rush to Chan’s side and cheer him on with hugs

- “he’s grown up so fAST,” Jeonghan fake sobs as he holds onto Chan tightly

- “don’t reject out little guy, he’s a great boy,” Seungcheol says to you and pats Chan’s head

- you look over to Chan and his face is as red as a tomato. His eyes are glued to the floor

- “I’ve liked you for awhile too, Chan,” you confess quietly, but everyone still manages to hear it

- and at the sound of your response, the members push Chan towards you, and your body accidentally collides with his

- he backs away a bit to take a look at your face

- “sooooo.... what now?” he asks awkwardly as he stands in front of you

- “hmm... how about coffee at the cafe tomorrow?” you offer with a smile

- Chan laughs lightly. “Meet up here at 8am and we can walk together if you want.”

- you nod and the members resume their cheering

- “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? HUG HER, CHAN,” Soonyoung screams again

- Chan opens up his arms and you come in for an extremely warm hug. He gently sways you side to side in his embrace I’M DEAD

- “NOW KISS,” Seokmin suddenly adds, but his comment is then greeted with light punches and hits from the other members

- Chan and you laugh at the suggestion

- “I think we’ve had enough of the babying today,” Chan says before he plants a soft kiss on your cheek

- “CHAN YOU’RE GROUNDED,” Jeonghan scolds him

[terriblevalveartandocs]

About Valve OCs and the blog

This has been on my mind for a while.

This blog never got a satisfying end in my books, and I’m sure for other readers as well. Even though closure is a myth perpetuated by mainstream media, I will make this post to try to rectify past mistakes and general truancy of this blog. I have my own suspicions that most of my readers are dead (considering all of the porn bots are now starting to follow me), so I write this post in the darkness of the night into the void that is Tumblr. Read my cry if you care.

Firstly, this blog will never update again. There are multiple factors that have led to this blog’s extinction and I think they’re important to address

Motivation

This blog took up a large chunk of my life back when it was active. Don’t get me wrong, bad art still gets me to cringe and I find myself on occasion still pining over weird ocs and art styles on Deviantart. However, maintaining it as a blog with daily updates became a chore for me along with promising critiques of ocs and such. I’ve come to discover that I can’t do what I love as “””work”””. While bad art still remains a passion for me, I don’t see myself continuing this in blog format.

OCs have changed

The OC market has changed. Base art has definitely taken a downturn in the past few years and you’re more likely to see people hand-drawing their ocs or writing them out. Thanks with the culture of memeing about bootleg fandom ocs (This is my own original character blonic, donut steels) , it seems that people are more drawn towards creating their own worlds and characters rather than shoving their mary sue into their current fan favorite content. These are good changes in terms of originality for artists and writers in my opinion.

However, a lot of the formats for OCs have changed as well. There tends to be an emphasis on their sexuality and race in OC culture now. I don’t consider that a bad thing but I’d rather not poke that hornet’s nest of gender identity and race of fictional characters. What used to be the standard straight, bi, gay has expanded into other territories that I am unfamiliar with and now we have more ocs outside of the standard white chick but with Japanese last name because the creator really likes naruto. Again, this just seems to be the trend and I think my last few revival posts kinda show them.

Valve as a games publisher

LOL when’s half life 3???

Valve has definitely moved from being a game developer to a digital distributor.  Steam definitely seems to be their focus outside of Hat/Weapon Skin collecting and online gambling (and also their weird consoles/controllers???). Not that I would continue this blog if they released more content (They published another update to the TF2 comic, can’t wait for that to get updated in a year).

Along with this slump of their own original content, this has led to a slump in original characters for their franchises. There are not as many fan ocs and art isn’t being produced for their franchises (except maybe with comic updates for TF2 and nostalgia for old games).

This blog was created at the optimal time imo with L4D2 still being fresh, TF2 still having an active userbase, and Portal 2 giving some great content in terms of creative material.

Also I’m not interested in reviewing Dota 2 art and I don’t think there are enough Counterstrike ocs.

Negativity

I don’t know if this blog was a source of positive or negative energy. On one hand, I was ridiculing people’s art without much hesitation and not acknowledging how much time and effort that might have been put in by the artist. But on the other hand, it provided laughs for people during its duration and gave me a creative outlet in terms of humor, arguments, and writing. I think I did my best to avoid any harassment for these artists by removing any watermarks that might lead any rude reader to them, but I’ll never know if they suffered any bullying. Obviously I’m not going to put this on my resume as work experience but I like to think that this blog help think critically about their content, regardless of what role you played on the blog be it me, a submitter, an observer, or the subject. Maybe if some supreme being questions why I started this blog in the afterlife, I can tell them I did it for the lolz.

In the end, I think I did more harm than any general good for the world and nobody will really understand that weird pain if I try to repent for it publicly. I don’t know of any key examples of this (or really remember because I haven’t done this shit in years), but I do apologize if I ruined anyone’s ambitions for writing/drawing.

I’m glad there is a stronger hugbox mentality for artists who aren’t very good and I embrace that style of encouragement. I guess my only concern is veering too far into that and just embracing everything as perfect and awesome and never improving. Criticism has its place in society.

Perhaps the real lesson is that who the hell gives a shit about what you post on the internet. Why should you give a stranger any control over how much your art is worth? However, this also gives the argument into determining if any of your art is worth anything based on your preconceived notions on your art’s merits since you are only a stranger to me. Why should you tell me that your art is valid and equal to anything else produced when it looks like you drew it with your tablet pen stuck up your ass?

Maybe we all just need to learn to stop giving invisible voices the power to ruin our emotional states and work on our self satisfaction.

Growing up????

I wrote most of this blog like a million years ago. It was a stronger part of my identity and a part of a community in a way of similar blogs in the same style. But I don’t really relate to the content as much I used to. Valve games are still near and dear to me, but they’re more nostalgic than my current flame and muse. I feel the same happened to other blogs in the same vein as mine. Perhaps also age and the changes of time led to our own focuses in our own lives than looking at the scribbles of some stranger on the internet. While it’s still one of my internet past times, it is not my main focus in life to critique bad art (unless it starts paying serious dosh). I just don’t relate to the words and passions anymore. In a way, this is my own cringe that artists produce when they’re young on Deviantart. It’s kind of funny in a weird way.

This blog will continue to remain up but I’ll probably move into another blog of some sort (I accidentally made this my primary blog and I can’t delete it). It sort of became my main lurking blog and I guess its time that I make a less weird not ghost blog (I’m probably confusing a lot of the people that I follow with my constant hearts and comments).

I guess I wanna say thanks for all of the people who followed this blog and its contents. I probably wouldn’t have continued for very long without followers so you’re all to blame for this negative impact I’ve made on the world (jkjk). I like to think we’re connected with our mutual spirit in improving how we create things and wanting to see improvement in others. I think this blog helped me see the dumbest of things and not be afraid to say it was dumb and I hope it did for you as well. I also hope it brought you laughs in the content that was displayed or the humor I attempted to convey. It did genuinely warm my heart whenever I got a heart, reply, reblog, or messages to keep up the work. It kind of makes me sad to think that I left rather abruptly, but better blogs have died quicker and quieter. Simple fact of life really. Thank god my ego keeps me in check to constantly remind people of my existence.

To any artists out there, bad art is a fact of life. You do not come out of the womb knowing how to do two point perspective and 3d shapes. You mess up doing 3d shapes each any every time until you get it and then move on to the next thing you’re not good at. There’s a common TIL leddit post about how Michaelangelo burnt all of his old works so nobody would know how bad he was when he was starting out. I don’t know how true that is, but that’s not a great mentality to have for your art. Seeing that bridge between your former self and current self is important for seeing self growth in your skills. Plus you won’t have those juicy likes and comments on instagram when you do the art redraw and show how far you come like how can you skimp on that you dingus.

All of the great content creators right now love showing off the shitty art they did as kids because it gives them a sense of progress in their work and their accomplishments and continues to drive them in their own works. (unless you’re rebecca sugar and drew ed edd and eddy shipping porn lol). Heck, some of them even take the stuff that was once cliche characters and expanded on them in their own Original Universe Donut Steel. And thanks to their own Original Universe Donut Steel, now tens of thousands of impressionable young artists can look at it and say “that’s awesome, but it would be way better if there was my own character...”.

OCs are weirdly one of the ultimate ways of fan expression where you enjoy the content so much you wish you were part of it. Even though it’s very disjointed and out of place, it’s usually done in a place of love for the franchise or the characters. So for those of you that are doing that still, keep at it I guess.

Fan art is sorta in the same way where you enjoy something so much that you want to replicate the style/themes/characters in your own or the content’s style. While not as extreme, it’s still in the same place of love and people generally like that more than original shit anyways so continue to make it so I can buy your posters at anime conventions without supporting the original creator lol. 

If you want to harass me further for my sins against budding artists, I guess I’ll link my personal blog if anyone actually asks me. I also wrote this at 3 am so it is extremely unedited and awful but it’s the most “pure” for my usual diatribe. Consider it my first OC for the blog.

Good night, good life, and farewell.