#first new release wooooo!!

[benchtrioupdates]

Generation Loss posted on Twitter!

[cyberlilin]

Chapter 1 of my Spot x Reader fic, Collateral is now up!! (WC: 4553)

I noticed that most of the Spot fics on AO3 were pretty lighthearted, which I love, but I wanted to make one that's a little more serious. (emphasis on little. its still not gonna b *that* serious)

Chapter 1 is mostly setup, getting you into the world and the new character I made, who is Olivia Octavius' little brother (who is trans and autistic wooooo), so if u wanna wait till Johnathon is more involved, I recommend waiting till Chapter 2 is released! Should only be a couple days :)

This is my first time posting to AO3 can u tell I'm excited

Can't wait to write about this pathetic bastard for the rest of my life :D

[tiredmetalenthusiast]

Poems of Love Pt.2 (Gaz x F!Reader)

Wooooo okay! Sorry for the long wait ya’ll! End of school year work takes up a lot of my time! But With the school year ending soon I should be able to post more regularly! PLUS part 2 is finally here! Please enjoy!

Warnings: Mentions of masturbation, Price being observant, language.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After that first letter it was like something had shifted about Gaz. He was happier, his eyes brighter even despite the constant horrors they lived through on a daily basis. He thought about that letter all the time, when he was feeling down he would pull it out and read it, it gave him a warm feeling.

Letters kept popping up every now and again, at least twice a month there would be a new letter under his door, usually when something happened but occasionally just out of the blue.

The most recent one was slipped under his door after being undercover and he'd be lying if he said the contents didn't make a blush rise to his face. 

He catches himself hoping the person is you. Even now as he openly stares. You had gotten new workout clothes since your old ones were ratty.

Johnny had whistled as he saw you walk into the gym area on base. Sports bra showing ample cleavage and the little biking shorts showcasing your ass. “Dinnea Ken ye were hidin all tha’ from us Bonnie.” “You literally saw me in a dress for that stupid gala Soap.” 

“‘S no the same hen. Thought ye were hiding chicken legs under yer uniform!” you laughed and flipped Soap off, “Fuck off Mactavish! Compared to you lot everyone has chicken legs!”

Gaz had been staring at you, taking in your curves, the way the tops of your breasts swelled from how the sports bra squished them together and his brain was rapid firing dirty thoughts. He went back to lifting his weights to take his mind off of how good your ass looked.

And now it was your turn, staring at Gaz as he lifted his weights, he'd been in here for a while as you could see the sweat soaking his workout shirt. His muscles bunching and releasing as he lifted and dropped the weights, you gulped to keep yourself from drooling and turned away to start your workout.

“Bloody ridiculous.” Gaz turns to look at Price, one eyebrow raised in question. “What's ridiculous, sir?”

Price shook his head. “You for starters. You've been staring at her arse for a good long minute without blinking.”

Gaz startles before rapidly blinking his eyes, noticing the slight dryness. “Nah Cap, you're seein things.”

Price scoffs and heads for the shower. When Gaz turns back you're nowhere in sight. He decides to head for the showers as well to clear his head and rub out a fast one to the images he was suppressing earlier.

-several hours and a tiring mission later- Gaz POV-

It didn't surprise him when, after a long day and a nice hot shower, there was a letter resting on his floor. The envelope was light blue this time and smelled of roses.

He sat on the edge of his bed, towel around his waist as he carefully opened the letter.

To the angel at my 6

If ever I could speak to the old Renaissance artists, I would request sculptures of you to be placed in churches around the world.

Women all over would fawn at the way you encapsulate their dream man, handsome; polite; a god in human form; the beautiful demon that haunts and charms them.

Seeing you working up a sweat at the gym, the lights hitting just right made you look godly, almost ethereal. Like Apollo striking in the sun’s warm rays.

The sheen of sweat on your skin makes me wonder if you'd look the same coming out of a pool, the way the ocean's droplets would fall from Poseidone himself emerging from the ocean.

I hope most nights that you dream of me as I dream of the thought of feeling your warm skin against mine in the heat of passion. Thoughts of you warm my soul as if heated by the flames of hell itself and I couldn't love the feeling more if I tried.

Gaz stared at the letter for a long while, his face felt warm, eyes wide at the thoughts of him laid bare on the rose scented paper in lovely script.

How could anyone compare him to gods and say that he is worthy of being a Renaissance sculpture? Him? The man with a fear of helos? Compared to Apollo and Poseidone? Whoever was writing these letters had to be absolutely off their rocker.

He wasn't worthy of such comparisons but damn did they make him feel on top of the world. Laying the letter down he got up to dress for bed before placing the letter in his desk drawer with the others.

If anyone were to ask him which was his favorite letter he would never be able to decide. Each one bringing about a blush or a racing heart, how could he ever choose?

He'll have to ask one of the guys to help him find out who this mystery person is leaving him letters of love and poems in the dead of night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tag list: @cumikering

[hanggarae]

big deep breath OK SO . ive been so excited for this comeback like idk with every new cb i feel like i get even more excited than with the precious one yk so i was really waiting for it to come out!! they released the mv while i was in class (they hate me) but during a little break not long after i managed to watch it and i was bobbing my head and swinging my feet at the sound LJKE U DONT GET IT I WAS GENUINELY SO HAPPY

honestly this is one of my fav svt albums and idk it just makes me so happy all the songs are so perfect and good there's not a single one i don't enjoy and the aesthetic is so cute and im so excited and impatient to FINALLY HAVE MY ALBUM IN MY HANDS ARGHHHH but yes this was such a success im so happy they broke so many records and they just continue to prove how talented they are wooooo

for the songs there isn't one i dislike at all but i really like SOS idk the beat js so nice and the lyrics are really good and this may be also due to me loving marshmello when i was younger but STILL !!! Diamond days makes me SOOOOO NOSTALGIC i love it so much im so glad they used kind off the same sound/sample as Shining Diamond im in love 💔💔 i think back 2 back is my fav song of the album!! i love minghaos highnote and the beat and just the overal vibe idk it stood out to me sm their voices fit the song so well im obsessed with the part around 1.30 where dino and hao sing in like a low voice? YGM BUT ITS SOOOOO GOOD just the entire song is so good i think tbh i have a soft spot for pu songs 😭😭😭😭 i haven't had much the time to really analyze yawn but the soft voices and vocals are heavenly i genuinely passed away BECAUSE YOU ARE MY BREATH 💔💔💔💔 LIKE WDYM UR MY BREATH WHY IS THIS SONG MAKING ME TEAR UP DONT EVEN LIE RNNN monster is such a fun song i just know I'll play it on repeat like fire while im walking to uni to wake me up and get me in study mode 💥💥💥 it's giving Halloween vibes and im here for it!!!! it's also just fun to me because my roommate/bsf and i bet on who sang the first line and she swore it was gyu and i swore it was vernon and today we didn't see each other much so like 1h ago she told me she saw in a lyric vid that gyu sang that line and i was like ??? girl i have weverse and i follow it religiously so ik it's both of them AND WE COULDNT AGREE BECAUSE WE DIDNT HAVE ANY PROOF so i ended up showing her weverse and it was so fun we were both right in the end and we did a silly dance LMAOOAOOOO IT WAS SO FUNNY 😻😻😻😻 but lemme tell u about headliner. FUCK THAT SONG BRO WHY AM I CRYING ??????? no it's actually my fav song along back 2 back like are u actually kidding me ???? this song makes me wanna study even more for my Korean classes like FUCK HEADLINER SO BAD 💔😭😭😭😭😭 I CRY AND LAUGH WITH YOU THIS NIGHT💔💔💔💔💔 WHERE WE OFFER ALL OUR LOVE💔💔💔💔 HOW BEAUTIFUL💔💔💔💔💔 BEVAHSE YOURE MY HEADLINER 💔💔💔💔💔 this moment when we shine together don't lie rn I'll actually kms and take a bath with my toaster like wow jumping of the 9th floor of the apartment building next door seems like such a fun activity today 😻😻😻😻😻😻

RIGHT OMG I WAS LITERALLY TUNING IN EVERYDAY AT 12 AM KST TO SEE IF THEY DROPPED FHE ANNOUNCEMENT AND WHEN THEY DID I WAS SOOOOO HYPED ‼️ like fml was SO huge i couldn’t wait for this one ALSO THE MV LITERALLY RELEASED DURING A PRACTICE FIRE DRILL FOR ME 😭😭

it genuinely is one of my faves too, like although the songs aren’t necessarily my fave of each unit (i still LOVE each one) the album was just so well put together ?? everything flowed perfectly and like usually it’ll take me like two or three listens to like some songs but i listened to the album start to finish ONCE and fell in love w EVERYTHING i’m not even kidding ❤️‍🔥 I CANR WAIT FOR MY ALBUMD TO GET HERE AYSHSHAHDJHS

right like there wasn’t a bad song at all !!! my fave has to be headliner bc it’s just so fucking emotional like woozi why u got me crying on the train home 😐😐😐 it gives me MAJOR our dawn is hotter than day vibes which i love sm !! the whole album vibes reminded me a little of you make my day a little i think it’s just me but yeah ‼️ i LOVED back 2 back too omg perf unit ALWAYS hits and YAWN OMG 😓 every track was amazing 😓😓😓 STOP THE DEBATES ON THE MONSTER FIRST LINE LMFAAOAOAO 😭😭 speaking of monster, cheol’s part.. changed me . i loved SOS too omg it gave such like band vibes ??

ALSO HELPPPPP HEADLINER’S LYRICS OMG 😓😓 my mom heard me listen to it and said “girl why are u listening to such sad lyrics..”

[mysticmermaid108]

I don’t geek out over many things, but the WINTERJAM lineup? Nah I’m CONSPIRING that

They’re holding a challenge, and the winner gets two free jam nation passes, they just have to guess the lineup…

SO

Enjoy my ramble:

So WINTERJAM has created a formula for their shows: they need to check all the boxes for genres of artists

They need:

A huge artist to be the headliner

A rapper

A rock band

A worship artist

An EDM/Dance/hype music artist

And a more country/gospely kinda artist

So considering all of those things, here’s my lineup predictions based on THIS IMAGE they gave us:

So knowing this formula, and seeing very faint but still photos of the artist, here’s my predictions:

HEADLINER:

That’s obviously Crowder. Which kinda sucks, since everyone requested Skillet, but I love Crowder, though I wish they’d change it up once and a while

RAPPER:

The big hair? Obviously Lecrae. Plus, he’s on the rise with not only winning a Dove Award recently, but also staring in the upcoming movie “Journey To Bethlehem”

EDM/DANCE/HYPE ARTIST:

From the looks of the third image, I’m able to tell that it’s more than one or two people, it’s a group. So this is a band. Two of the biggest hype band groups are Elevation and Hillsong Young and Free, but after looking at two of their cover photos back to back and comparing it to the blurred out image, I believe it’s Hillsong Young and Free. They’re a great pick for this type of festival.

WORSHIP ARTIST:

This is the fourth image, and from what I can make out, it looks like one artist, and a girl one. So who’s a popular worship artist who’s a girl and would do super well at an event like this? Katy Nichole. Just won a dove award, just performed on the dove awards, has several radio hits on Christian Radio, she’s on the radar.

ROCK BAND:

Now, even though I hoped they would change it up, this looks like it’s gonna be Red. They just released a new album last month, and their popularity is growing a lot. Plus, Red is always WJs go to rock band when Skillet can’t attend or Disciple is off the radar (which, they should NEVER be off the radar because they are INCREDIBLE, but whatever)

COUNTRY/GOSPEL ARTIST

Ok, even though they don’t necessarily fall into this catagory, but they kinda do, here’s my prediction.

The blurred out image looks like 3 people, and this band was requested quite a bit…

It’s Cain!

PRE JAM:

Ok, now this is where things get hard. The pre jam usually brings under the radar, obscure, new artists to get their names out there. Here’s my predictions solely based on the images:

First image is Social Club Misfits, since it looks like a duo.

Second image, I have no idea, but I know it’s one dude.

Third image looks like a band, and I know an awesome band (that I really hope comes) that not only is still pretty little known but is ever so slightly becoming known, follows ALL of Winterjams socials, and even commented on the EXACT LINEUP GUESS POST with a fire emoji: that band is called Ignescent!

Don’t believe me? Here’s my proof:

Anyway rant over wooooo

[crystalelemental]

State of the Meta - EX Roles

We are now in month 2 of EX roles, and have now a decent assemblage of options with the trait. Still think they should be adding these faster to older pairs, but whatever. The cakes haven't been available long, and few players will have them given the absolutely batshit methods of acquisition, but I figure hey, let's talk about the structure of them.

Mechanics For the unfamiliar, it seems as though new additions and rerunning Master Fairs are being granted access to EX Roles, which give their sync a secondary effect: Strike, Tech, Support, Field, or Sprint. Each also grants statistical bonuses. All of them give +60 HP, with the remaining 80 being split:

Strike: +40 Atk/Sp Atk Tech: +20 Atk/Def/Sp Atk/Sp Def Support: +40 Def/Sp Def Field: +20 Def/Sp Def, +40 Spd Sprint: +20 Atk/Sp Atk, +40 Spd

This role is unlocked through cakes, which operate similarly to candy: rare items that you need 20 coins of to acquire a single one, that is applied to a selected sync pair to unlock the extra role.

Distribution of Roles At present, there are no Field or Sprint secondary roles. This is...fascinating to me. I expected more of that. More on that later.

More interesting is that this month, we have a general pool introduction in Lenora, who did get access to an EX Role. Which means somehow, they managed to make Drasna's release detrimental to her. Absolutely incredible. Only new pairs seem to get access, and at present, only one set of reruns are getting access: Master Fairs.

SS Serena and the upcoming NC Calem reruns will include their own roles being added. This seems to be the only introduction, but I am personally, perhaps foolishly, hopeful for more. I want PokeFair grid expansions to coincide with getting a role, but Classic Elesa suggests otherwise. Right now, there is no reason to hope for this being distributed to anything but new pairs and Master Fairs as they rerun. Depressing.

Acquiring Cake At present, there are four methods of acquiring cake.

1) Daily Ticket Exchange The easiest acquisition for everyone is that, each time you complete dailies, you get a Daily Ticket. Five of them can be exchanged for one cake candy, which means that at 100 days of playing, you can select one (1) type of cake. Wooooo...

2) Daily Region Rotation The other accessible option is Daily Region Rotation's highest difficulty setting. Which isn't too hard. You get one of the cake coins per day, with a five day rotation of Strike-Tech-Support-Field-Sprint. So in essence, every 100 days of playing and beating these stages, you get one of each cake. Riveting.

3) PokeFair Scouts This is the most accessible option they want you to take. New PokeFairs now come with rewards, in the form of four 5* powerups and four cake coins of that PokeFairs role. Notably, this is per copy pulled. This is honestly a fair trade. People who were pulling for a PokeFair now have better access to a boost for them, and even get more powerups for EX along the way. PokeFairs were always a bit disappointing, because you got nothing for it beyond the pair. These rewards are nice, and serve them well too. Having 4 per copy pulled means getting to 5/5 through the gacha rather than using candy has potential value. Not enough to offset the gem costs, but it's an interesting approach.

4) Master Fair Scouts What is not an interesting approach is the Paid Gems Only Master Fair scout that still costs a full fucking 400 scout points, and if you pull them once at all, you get one (1) cake. The problems with this are myriad. First, paid only, but there's no decrease in demanded gems like seasonals. This makes it an atrocious deal from the start. Second, only one cake. This disincentivizes further pulling on such scouts if you get lucky early, and the presence of the General Candy bundle deal makes it easier than ever to just candy these. There's no push for pulling further to save candy on this kind of paid only scout. Third, your odds of pulling a Master Fair before pity are so low that you're likely requiring the full 36,600 gems. Which is actually more than using a daily on the regular focus. This is a situation where you're investing approximately $300 for a single cake, which is not a good trade. The staggered, partial success of the PokeFair is infinitely more enticing.

Role Combinations As mentioned, Field and Sprint roles are not available through cake at present. They're only default. This means we only have Strike, Tech, and Support at present.

The biggest winner so far has been Tech/Strike. Tech has natural multipliers on sync, and thus the highest possible damage, that then spreads. Strike/Tech is similar, but without the natural multiplier, it's overall weaker.

Support on a Strike or Tech has been...questionable at times. The successful two are SS Serena and Paulo, who both require first sync, and thus remove their original problem of opportunity cost. The failure has been Petrel, who really, desperately wanted Tech for better sync damage. His DPS isn't worth writing home about. Variety Thorton is an odd choice as well, but makes a bit more sense. Despite being Field, he has a secondary DPS type in Electric. Powering up the Electric type with his Support sync is valuable. Moreover, he does better with DPS than sync, which makes a Support more valuable than the spread damage.

The oddity are Support pairs. All of them, except NC Blue, have been given Tech. Which has been exceptionally odd, as none of them have meaningful sync damage. NC Blue getting Strike made sense, he gets the extra rebuff on all foes with spread damage. But why Tech for the others? Sprint should be far more valuable as an effect.

I think the answer is twofold. One is, Tech gives points in bulk. Field would as well, but many supports are not specific to their type. They want the flexibility to go wherever, and applying a Field effect can, in some situations, be an active detriment. As the only other role with bulk, Tech has value for their tanking, which is central. The other is...I think they consider Sprint overpowered. No seriously, level with me. Support gives double damage for the rest of the match, and Sprint would give -3 cooldown. This combination basically ensures you beat a CS stage. You're guaranteed to make it to second sync, even if you can't DPS denial, and power is doubled. I think they're looking at Sprint as an effect to be saved for really top-notch Supports. Which, unfortunately, might mean Leaf and SS Dawn get hit with Field instead of Sprint. Though Dawn can make it work, let's be real.

Final Thoughts While initial responses were supremely negative due to the Master Fair presentation and slow drip for complete F2P acquisition, I actually kinda like the roles. But much like the skill gear, its implementation has some kinks to work out.

Specifically, what is the most effective way to not care about these cakes? Not having the sync pairs that use them. If you barely pull on anything, like many F2P players do, these cakes have no value. There is no system of distribution to older pairs, and thus no real threat of ever being too far behind. If you decide to pull on a new PokeFair, you can just grab the cake coins you get for pulling. If you pull a new Master Fair, those come out once every three months, so barring repetition of roles, you're not really in a pinch. General pool pairs are rare, and no one pulls for Variety, so you're relying on your few and far between seasonal pairs to carry. And it's not going to work. Bringing in older pairs would increase the value of these kinds of rewards, putting the pressure on for unlocks. At the slow rate we're at now, the easiest way to not need them is not to pull. Which makes them a bad incentive to pull in the first place, because you have three outcomes:

1: Don't pull, don't need cake 2: Pull with luck, don't need cake 3: Pull and get bad luck, now need cake

Given that pulling isn't even a sure thing, the safest play is not pulling. The exact opposite of what these are supposed to do. Fortunately, the solution is clear: speed up access for older pairs. An EX role won't actually save the bottom tiers like Clair or Iris, but it would sure be nice for them to get something in their lives.

[icebrooding]

waiting for patch be like

(my first time around for new release wooooo)

[dashawfrostart]

These Two Weeks In “Time & Again” #15: IT'S FINALLY DONE 😱 And The Logo, And The Font

I almost kinda can't believe this, but just a couple days ago, it finally happened:

I FINISHED CHAPTER 5 and shipped it to my editor-in-chef.

Wooooo-Whoooooooooo!!!!!! 🥳🥳🥳 I am so happy! It's really hard to emotionally understand that the work is finally done. That was quite an undertaking.

... Overdue by approximately 3 months. But that was just a silly time limit I set to myself before I even started working on it. Different life situations got in the way of me finishing it up faster, but, all in all, since I am fairly satisfied with the result, I don't think any complaints are justified. I am indeed happy. Now I am in the state of mental emptiness. Joking. Not really. I suppose, until my editor gets back to me with a handful of suggestions, I will simply keep drawing and I will try to finish up all the last preparations before I could justify the public release. Gotta make everything look nice and sparkly clean after all 😁

I also slowly, little by little, write materials for a bonus book that currently has a vague title "Time & Again: Collector's Edition". I believe I never revealed that plan just yet, but that's been something I've been working on on and off since the last year, I think. Or maybe even since 2022. Hopefully it's gonna be interesting to all the "Time & Again" obsessed fans in the future someday, because it will contain more WIPs and sketches. As for myself, it's just fun to use it as a sophisticated diary for how the work went.

Speaking of different editions... Earlier in this post I've mentioned my plan to release the updated versions of the previously released Chapters 1 to 4. So, the prospects of that updated release are also getting brighter and brighter; from ghostly, ephemeral concept it is actually gradually fleshing into something real, almost day by day now. And this is very good. And here's the grand reveal for you: this is what the refreshed logo for of the updated edition gonna look like:

In fact, Chapter 5 will already have this very logo, for it's gonna be the first Chapter to be ever released that came with "Notes & Commentary" section right away. And the presence/necessity of that very section is the main reason why I am updating everything in the first place.

So, when will "Time & Again: Clean Cut Edition" of the previous chapters be released?

- unfortunately, that I have yet to decide on. Cannot tell right now, but one thing that stands for certain is that it will be released only after Chapter 5 goes public. My current priority right now is the release of Chapter 5, proper and nice.

Since today's blog post already contains a fairly big and happy announcement, this might be enough of the news for now. What could possibly be as important as the fact that I finally finished up the supermassive amount of work, literally a new chapter in Lothar's story?! Probably not much!.. Well, almost.

For the last topic to cover today, I wanted to tell something else important and interesting that most people will probably not understand due to excess amount of specific terms 😅 But it matters a lot to me, so here goes.

Not long before all the work on Chapter 5 was 100% done, I finally got to look at the main font that I use in my graphic novel (Frosty's Comic Font), for it needed some perfection: I remembered that it was not displaying correctly in some cases, or rather, selected set of the symbols didn't look right, depending. ... I must admit, I am a huge fan of typefaces. I used to collect fonts for personal use back in the day, for I loved to experiment with different designs, and usually I needed them for my custom "one of a kind" greeting cards I used to make for my friends' birthdays. Good memories.

A few years back I started to learn how to make my own True Type fonts - and I bet you have already seen at least a couple of those fonts on my artworks, logos, signatures and, of course, in "Time & Again". Some of those fonts are still partially incomplete and/or unpolished and, thus, currently unused by me - until the moment in the future when I will finally have more time to fiddle with 'em, for working on fonts is not too difficult, but not particularly easy either. In this case, I mean "it's time consuming", for the process of actually drawing a font, designing letters and symbols to me is easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. But vectorizing, perfecting the kerning in between certain pairs of letters, making sure that nothing is sticking out too much comparing to the rest... That is a bit tedious. In the end of the day however, it pays off tenfold, for you have a pretty, absolutely nice font that can be used virtually anywhere, in any software, for any purpose. I've never designed any monospace font yet... But aye, I'm being a little too nerdy again. Back on track, Frosty.

I never post my fonts anywhere to download, paid of free; I use my font solely by myself for now. And "Time & Again" was the reason why I urgently needed a new nice font with a fair touch of "me" in it... I wanted to make "Time & Again" my own as much as possible. So it was only obvious that I needed to design my own typeface for this crazy project. In 2021, I made the first relatively complete version of Frosty's Comic Font to use in "Time & Again" as the main font for the characters' speech. It contained all the basic English language glyphs and extra symbols for German language. Alas, not everything was smooth, and in Inkscape, when I used to copy-paste the lines of text on the speech bubbles, the formatting of little symbols such as apostrophe and quotation marks went down the drain, and was exchanged with the default system font (or whatever Inkscape uses when a glyph is missing). Unfortunately, that error stretched out in time (and space) up until a few days ago. I only was able to figure it out last week. By the time I managed to figure it out, the version of the font reached 1.3, and the last update also contained glyphs for Spanish language. It turned out, I did not include glyphs for all the possible variations of apostrophes and quotation marks. So I got that fixed. And now everything works like a charm. I am very proud 🙃 But the actual reason why I needed to return to designing fonts was different: I was tired of not being able to force italicize my font in Inkscape. While Krita allows for a default italic offset for a font that does not come with a premade italic version of itself, Inkscape does not do that. My manner of work is such, that I work with fonts on the pages of my graphic novel in Inkscape, for it's easier to me. But I like to sometimes accentuate certain words in the speech of the characters with italics, usually to make the readers pay extra attention to those particular words. I did not want to fiddle with workarounds (and in fact I know of no such things for my particular issue) in Inkscape, trying to combine multiple text boxes with different manual skew on the same line or whatnot, so I finally decided to make Frosty's Comic Font Italic. I generate all my fonts in FontForge. Here's what the window looks like:

I couldn't even imagine that generating an italic version out of a regular font could be done in just a couple of clicks in FontForge! 😱 So simple!

Once it was skewed, I tried to input an example text just to test it out and see what it looks like. When I'm test driving my fonts, I like to write something that uses extra symbols, such as something in German or in Spanish, because all those extra fancy letters make me happy. And once I was satisfied with it, I saved the final version (v1.4) and started using it! Here's the clear side by side comparison of what the regular version looked like versus the new italicized one:

I think it turned out rather nicely.

And now in Inkscape I can finally use different formatting of my own very font within one text box, as illustrated through a quotation from a song by U2 (these guys are my current obsession - just as in ol' good times when I was 11 🤣) on the screenshot below:

Magic!!!!!)))))

That's probably all for now.

... Okay, okay! You probably want more teasers/spoilers from the finished product, right? Here's a little funny snippet for you:

Because any urban landscape always requires fat rock pigeons staring at stuff. Some of them might even watch something while munching on popmeat popcorn.

That's all for today's great news! See you soon! 👋😎 There's more to come.

[a-luyarus]

Shattered Skies

Interlude

[buttterknifeee]

An Introduction Pt. 2 - Teen Titans x Aquagirl!Reader

I've already finished part 3 and will be posting it soon, meaning that requests for this series is now open!!! Info can be found here and here is Part 1

Summary: You've teamed up with cloak girl, robot man, emo traffic light, and Beast Boy. What could go wrong?

Pairings: none; if you would like to see pairings for this in the future, requests are now open!!! (see info above)

Word count: 1370

A/N: This is my 100th post on Tumblr WOOOOO!!!! Thanks for the support yall :) Once again this is a reader insert of the Teen Titans 2003 show season 5 ep 10 "Go!" (The one where they all meet for the first time!)

You all hid in an alleyway to hide from the aliens, who were on their search for the pink haired girl. You all silently waited for the aliens to finish rummaging through the cars near you.

“So,” Beast Boy whispered. “I didn’t catch all of your names; I’m Beast Boy.” he re-introduced himself again with an endearing tone, opening it up for the rest of you to respond.

“Robin.”

“Raven.”

“I guess I’ll be going by Cyborg.”

“And I guess I’ll be going by uhhh-” You stopped in the middle of your sentence, now realizing that you never thought of your hero name, especially for the fact that you’ve only been a “hero” for the past 3 hours. Lets see, you think. I have water powers sooo water woman? No! Thats stupid. How about Aquaman? No you dingus, Aquaman is already a person and you’re a girl! Wait how about-

“-Aquagirl.” you decide. “Nice to meet you, Beast Boy.” You grinned and shook his hand, while Robin continued to look out for the aliens. They seemed to all be gone as the five of you peeked your head out of the alleyway.

“Alright,” Robin says, stepping out of the alley way. “We need some way to-”

Raven interrupted him. “She’s near.” she blurted, causing the rest of you to stare at her confusingly. “I can sense things,” she says to her defense.

“I’ll see if I can pick up her scent,” Beast Boy says, and you realize why he was called “Beast Boy” at that moment, as he turned into a dog and began to sniff around. You stared wide eyed at the newly transformed dog, before staring even wider eyed and Cyborg’s revealed arm, which was actually a bionic arm. He explained that he's able to hear her with something called a sonic analyzer.

Beast Boy and Cyborg both perked up, saying that they’ve both got the alien girl’s trail from their respective methods. You and the others follow the two boys, leading you to a video store with the entrance blown apart. The five of you find the girl in the middle of the store, chowing down on junk food.

“Uh… Those taste better without the wrapper,” Beast Boy says, announce your entrance. She finishes her handful of sweet treats and prepares to attack us, her hands glowing a familiar green. You gasped in fear.

Robin steps in front of the four of you, trying to stop the girl. “ It's all right. We're friends, remember?”

“Friends? Why? For what reason did you free me?” she spits, her hands glowing even greener.

“Just… Trying to be nice.”

“‘Nice.’ We do not have this word on my planet. Closest is ‘rutha.’ Weak!” she yells. Cyborg steps up this time.

“Well, around here, ‘nice’ means ‘nice.’” He says calmly. “And if you want us to keep being nice, you better tell us why the Lizard King took you prisoner.”

“Not prisoner. I am...prize. The Gordanians deliver me to the Citadel, to live out my days as their servant.”

“And the Citadel are...?” Raven asks raising an eyebrow.

“Not nice.” She says flatly.

“God, that's terrible,” you gasp. “You can’t go with them.”

“And you’re not going with them. Not if I have anything to say about it.” Robin promises.

“Um, don't you mean ‘we’?” Beast Boy corrected him. Before Robin had a chance to reply, the wall next to you exploded, sending the six of you to the floor. You quickly got up as the alien army advanced.

“Seize her!” one of the aliens yelled. You noticed the others around quickly assumed a fighting stance, and you prepared to fight as well.

You ran towards the aliens, raising your arms to burst the pipes below you, sending water straight up from the ground and overwhelming an alien soldier. You punched your arms forward, the water from the pipe shooting back the aliens from the wall they entered from. You jet the water out using your fists, sending aliens crashing into one another.

You continue to fight, making note of the others out of the corner of your eye. Beast Boy is changing into various animals to launch the soldiers through the air, Raven’s using her magic (of some sort) to send a group of aliens through the roof, Robin uses a staff and his fighting skills, and Cyborg uses his brute strength to overcome them. The alien girl uses her green bolts of energy to shoot the aliens away from the rest of you.

You notice Cyborg being carried by Beast Boy in bird form, trying to escape a few of the flying aliens. You concentrated, and a geyser shot out from under the trio of aliens, putting them off balance. Raven takes control of a streetlight and hits them with it, much similar to a game of golf.

You rejoin the others as the army of aliens lay in a pile, defeated.

“I believe the expression is ‘thanks’” The alien girl says, slightly blushing.

“Its what friends do.” You smile, gently taking her hand for reassurance.

“Aw man, my suit!” Cyborg groans. You hadn’t noticed before, but the teen’s sweat suit had been completely torn to pieces, revealing his body to be completely robotic, with colors of blue, gray, and black.

“So? You look way cooler without it.” Beast Boy says, and you nodded your head in agreement. Cyborg looked at you then Beast Boy, raising his eyebrow.

“Yeah. Like I'm taking fashion advice from the guy in the goofy mask and a girl who fights crime in a surfing suit.” He roasts you and Beast Boy’s outfit choices. You make a face at him, taking obvious offense to his statement.

“I would have changed if I didn’t literally wash up from the ocean a few hours ago!” you defended yourself, arms crossed. Beast took his comment way harder than you did.

“Goofy? My mask is cool. Isn't it? Raven?” He looks at Raven, a pleading look in his eyes. Her facial expression remains the same.

“What secret identity? You’re green.” she points out. Beast Boy mumbled, then hesitantly took his mask, revealing bright green hair to match his skin. You laugh as Robin and your new alien friend walks towards the four of you.

“This isn’t over. Now that we’ve interfered…” Robin began, deep in thought.

“Trogaar will strike harder. It's only a matter of-” Alien Girl tries to finish his sentence, but was interrupted by a loud noise. Another hologram appeared over the city, this time with the alien (whom you now identified as Trogaar) fuming with rage.

“Fools! The Earth scum were warned. Your insolence will be punished. Your city shall be destroyed! “ the large alien bellowed. A large gun at the front of the alien ship began to warm up, preparing to release on Jump City.

“Great.” Raven mutters.

Beast Boy is the first to freak out. “So, after trashing a pizza place and a perfectly good video store, now we've managed to make a humongous space gecko mad enough to vaporize our entire town?” He asks rhetorically.

“Go Team.” Cyborg says unenthusiastically. The alien girl turns to Robin bitterly.

“All the fault is yours! I commanded you leave me alone, but you insisted upon the being nice!” She yells.

“My fault?! You blast me, you kiss me, but you never stop to mention that they have a gigantic particle weapon?” he retaliates. A shout match begins between the alien girl, Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy, overwhelming and seriously annoying you.

“UGHHHH” you say out loud, ignoring the others. “I should have gone back into the ocean and tried swimming back home, but NOOOO i had to follow that stupid green LIGHT and-”

“QUIETTTT” Raven finally yells, snapping all five out you out of your pity parties and arguments. You all turned to her. She simply waved and said “hi.”

Robin sighed. “Look. It doesn't matter how we got into this mess. We're in it, and we will get out of it, together.”

Murmurs of agreement and nodding came out of the other five of you and Robin started walking away. He turned his head towards us.

“Come on. We got a city to save.”

[incorrect-ikevamp-quotes]

Masterlist Time!

As promised, here’s a list of posts that include my writing and/or my analyses of the game.

Analysis Posts/Meta/Translations:

My impressions of the first three suitors

My impressions of the rest of the suitors (cont.)

No thoughts just me simping for Leo

My thoughts on the new three/antagonists Charles, Faust, Vlad

First Impressions of the Bois vs Current Impressions

Comte Loves Strong Women Don’t @ Me

Comparing Comte’s Protectiveness to that of IkeSen Mitsuhide

What do I think of Ikerev’s Edgar Bright?

So what’s the deal? Why doesn’t MC get turned into a vamp more? (mild spoilers for Comte’s rt inside)

Do pureblood vampire bebbehs drink blood?

How do I feel about Leo refusing to turn MC? (Tl;dr: understandable, but bad)

My first vs current impressions of the Ikesen lads

Why don’t Dazai and Arthur like each other?

MBTI Designations for the Suitors

MC Deserves Fang Rights

Implications of Isaac’s Being an Aberrant

Why do Comte’s bank account be lookin’ like that yo

Comte’s Wild Side (includes some mild event and comte rt spoilers)

Push and Pull: How Comte struggles between Emotion and Rationality in the course of his MS

Household Electricity in Ikevamp

What language is everyone speaking??? (The answer: yes.)

Does Comte’s real name have any special meaning or allusion? (This has mentions of Comte’s real name so SPOILERS KIDS)

Personal rt rankings and Thoughts on Arthur

How would Leo react to MC agreeing to Comte’s offer to turn her? (includes a lot of Leo character analysis too)

Sebas Rt Theories (these were all predictions I made before reading the JPN MS)

Predictions for Rt Releases Based on JPN Order

About Comte being able to meet future versions of himself; more time travel conundrums (with sizable Dazai rt spoilers)

Comte’s second bday story meta: how is Comte a gentleman? Or is he not?

Comte ES MC!Vamp AU analysis bc I have brainworms

Comte’s 4th Birthday Story (My Heart Will Go On)

Comte’s 6th Birthday Story (dreams do come true)

Asking the real questions, How Old Is Comte?

Comte's 6th Anniversary Collection Story (VAMP MC WOOOOO)

Comte's 6th Anniversary Story Set (uwu)

Comte's One More Wedding Event

Comte Drama CD Translations:

Track One (Balcony Soliloquy)

Track Two (Golden Retriever Meow Meow Hours)

Track Three (Slaps Comte's Little Pizza Hands)

Headcanons/Fanfiction:

HS AU for the boys~

That time of the Month thoughts

Purebloods Deadpool Baby Hands (Oh the Joys of Regeneration)

Horny on Main for Comte

How would time travel work for a turned MC?

BEACH DAAAAAAAY

Ikevamp Suitors and MC with their Baby

How would the suitors feel about modern times?

How Dem Bois Laugh (Dazai’s can be found here bc I am Idiota)

Fistfights: Who wins when Comte vs Vlad, and Comte vs Leonardo?

How would Sebastian react to losing a loved one suddenly?

Gen Z MC with the Bois

Among Us: Mansion Edition

Suitors with Meme-Monger MC

V Affectionate MC Confessing her undying Love to the Suitors (this one includes Shakespeare, Jeanne, Leonardo, Napoleon, Mozart, Vincent, and Comte)

Dazai MBTI Analysis

Love Bites: Comte/Leonardo/Sebastian

Alphabetical Fluff Headcanons:

Mozart:

C,U,Y

Isaac:

A,K,S

B,C,F

L, T

Leonardo:

B

E, I, K, L, N, O, W, Z

Comte:

C, H, J, L, S, Y

B, F, K, L

A, G

Jeanne:

Q, T, Y, Z

Sebastian:

G, H, J, P, U

Vlad:

C, N, O, S

Theodorus:

B, I, L, U, V

J, M, O

Napoleon:

B, C, H, K, M

F, N, O, Q, T

Shakespeare:

C, F, I, P

Vincent:

A, B, D, K, P

Route Spoilers/Route Summaries:

Misc Yelling about Jeanne

Does Comte bite MC?

Is Jeanne Jared, 19?

Jeanne’s Pet Tiger, Cherie

How possessive is Comte? (in terms of IkeVamp canon)

Comte and Jeanne hacer las paces (make amends, so to speak)

Comte’s Wedding Event

Suitors at the time of their human deaths with Comte: what aligns with our history and what doesn’t?

Explaining who Charles, Faust, and Vlad are for newer players

What happens if Sebas and/or MC stay in the mansion? How does their absence affect the future, and do they die in the past?

Comte’s real name

Comte’s Kidnapping CG--what’s the cinch?

Comte’s MS Romantic Ending

Comte Event before his MS release

Comte jealousy event (Comte do be a beast sometimes)

Comte Purple Moon Event (”the puppetmaster that cursed my [REDACTED]”)

Vlad Character Page translation (not mine, a link to further info)

Sebas RT Spoilers Agonizing

Can Comte play the violin?

Request to Spoil Dazai’s RT (more reader discretion advised, it’s fairly intense)

Spoilers for Sebas’ rt end: does he return to the future?

A Statement on Sexual Assault in relation to Arthur’s MS (there are trigger warnings, but even so reader discretion is advised)

For those of you that would like to join in my hubris and try to translate JPN rts: 

My method

[blookmallow]

rating spirit halloween’s new animatronics for 2021

or at least what’s showing as New Arrivals on the site for me. looks like we got 15 new arrivals listed here and im HYPE about them so here we go

the caretaker

pretty standard reaper character with a Gravedigger theme to it. hes... fine? nothing about this particularly stands out to me, but i dont dislike it at all. i like his gravestone. would be good for a graveyard set. i guess ill give him... 6.5/10

mr. dark

at first glance he also just looks like a standard reaper character (or voldemort. he definitely looks like voldemort now that i think about it) but it turns out he SPRINGS UP RIDICULOUSLY TALL LIKE A CURSED WACKY INFLATABLE TUBE MAN and the spring motion in the video is actually really fucking fast so, while this isn’t a lot different from other jumpscare animatronics, i gotta give him credit bc i guarantee this would have scared the fuck outta me in person. according to the site he’s almost 9 feet tall at his full height 

i expected him to jump out and scream but i did not expect. That. i feel like if you put him up on a stage or something to make him loom over people even more he’d be very menacing indeed. would also be really good if you put him behind something so you don’t see him until he's suddenly There

i like him, 8/10 springy spook man 

click for more 

grave grabber

pretty much just a zombie but he’s cute i like him. i like the green eyes. i dont know what it is about him in motion but the video makes him kind of endearing to me for some reason and i dont know why. 6/10

ophelia

at first for some reason i thought the monster’s name was ophelia but i think that’s supposed to be the name of the victim? i think the idea here is “girl haunted by a Nightmare” but the fact that the monster itself is so small and doesn’t actually have a body for the most part makes this unintentionally hilarious to me 

like. it. it’s so small. it’s just a little shoulder demon. it’s so cute 

psst. hey do we have any more cheetos

anyway i like how the girl’s eyes move back and forth but the sounds she makes are uncomfortable and she just looks so. stiff and solid and there doesn’t seem to be any movement at all other than her eyes and the monster peeking out so it’s just kind of weird to look at. it’s an interesting concept but the execution is just strange and unintentionally hilarious. 7/10 bc i still think its really funny 

someone should buy this and mod it into chrona and ragnarok 

harriet hustle

WE DID IT KIDS WE FINALLY GOT A FEMALE CLOWN ANIMATRONIC im so happy i could cry i wish my store had her set up i want to meet her  

i love how they have her hanging upside down like this, it makes it so much more visually interesting than the figures that just kinda stand there looking spooky, even though she doesn’t really Do much (she just swings and her head moves around a little, just laughs, doesn’t have spoken lines) 

i love her outfit i love her hair shes SO cute i love this little murder gremlin i love her i love her 

im still waiting on spirit to give us a female clown figure that isn’t “creepy little girl” (ive commented before on how their only female figures tend to be either the Old Hag or the Creepy Little Girl and not a lot else) but i absolutely love this all the same 20/10

this one is fun too because we also have: 

henry hustle

according to the description he’s actually harriet’s dad!! we have an evil clown father and daughter duo here and im LIVING for it

i dont think ive ever seen spirit do characters that are related to each other like this that’s so cute,

apparently his wife/harriet’s mother left them and ran off with the ringmaster. he’s a single father clown trying to raise his evil daughter clown and i support him wholeheartedly

there doesn’t seem to be any more animatronics on this storyline, we don’t have the mother here and the only ringmaster animatronic they have is the rotten ringmaster who was released previously, but i doubt he’s the homewrecker ringmaster in question. he Could Be. imagine if your wife left you for That. we dont even know if henry’s wife was also a clown or not. spirit halloween clown lore going on here

anyway i absolutely LOVE this clown, he does something INCREDIBLY STARTLING AND UNEXPECTED which i dont want to spoil for you. go watch his video and see what he does its great 

my absolute favorite type of halloween animatronic is the “does something completely unexpected” category and this one is ALSO a clown and a GOOD clown at that

and he’s got this great vintage clown style i really like, i love scary clowns like this that actually look like they could believably be a real guy and not just some kind of mutant Clown Monster 

and hes got cards!! card suit motif!!! i love it i love him this is a great clown 20/10 for him too

w. raith 

we have this one at my local store and listen to me. im completely obsessed with this ghost

it’s pretty much just a ghost but it’s SUCH A GOOD ghost. especially in this photo here with proper spooky lighting and everything. i would absolutely LOVE to see this in a haunt attraction, it looks SO good even in bright store lighting. i feel like this under the right lights and in the right environment could look SO fuckign cool  

the shredded rag look!!! the ethereal glow!! the weird jellyfishy movement!!! the classic wooOoO oO o o ooo noises!! this may perhaps be the ideal ghost. it is without flaw. a perfect specimen. i fuckign LOVE this ghost i want it so badly but i do not have the space or the money for this thing 15/10 w. raith my beloved. my true love. maybe one day 

buzzsaw

at first i was slightly disappointed to see that this guy didn’t have an actual name, but then in the description apparently his name is Bill “Buzzsaw” Jackson and his backstory is he tried to be a wrestler but it didnt go very well so he grafted weapons in place of his hands. i guess. you know, to be better at wrestling. i dont really understand it and i definitely would not have gone with “disgraced former wrestler” as the concept for this guy  

but anyway we have mr jackson at my store right now, he’s Big, i like him. he doesn’t really move very fast and doesn’t jump at you, he just kinda swings his saw around. for some reason he just seems friendly to me and i dont know why. makes me think of like an uncle dressed up for halloween rather than an actual murderer guy. i dont know i cant explain it but i like him hes my friend 8/10

wacky mole

this guy’s also at my store this year, i didn’t know his name was wacky mole fsdgjsdg

he’s listed as a new arrival, but i thought i remembered seeing him before, and the description says he’s a returning fan favorite, so. i guess this is a re-release 

anyway pretty standard Scary Monster Clown. his teeth look like candy corn. i like it but i think they should just Be candy corn. i like his colorscheme and his silly giant buttons. light up eyes are always a nice touch. he doesnt really stand out but hes overall a pretty good clown. 7/10

grim

good ol’ classic skeleton. he’s pretty nicely modeled though and i highly recommend watching the video for this guy because he moves REALLY well for a spirit animatronic, he’s got a way wider range of movement than most of them do and his head moves really nicely. one of the benefits of a skeleton animatronic is you don’t have to deal with lip movement, so his jaw movements match with his lines a lot more realistically. i like the animated glowing eyes too, it really gives him a lot of personality. he’s really interesting to watch. like, it’s just a skeleton, but it’s a really really good skeleton, so, 8/10 

BEETLEJUICE!!

i love love love franchise character animatronics and spirit has so much great beetlejuice stuff this seems well suited to them but looking at it............. hm. hm

he just looks so. stiff and his face comes across like, deer caught in the headlights to me. it Does Not look very natural but it looks slightly better in motion (he just swivels from side to side and says a few phrases but it somehow looks less. shellshocked when he’s moving) 

maybe not the greatest execution but maybe he looks better in person and im still hype to see him so 8/10 regardless 

night stalker

we have this guy at my store too, im still not really sure what’s going on with his arms (did he just rip loose from them and leave them behind? did someone do this to him? i dont know) but i love a good spooky scarecrow. love his Wiggles. hes a pretty good boy. 6.5/10

here we have another pennywise, it pretty much just pops out at you, but it’s still pretty good. i like the full size one they had before better, but this one’s slightly cheaper and would be easier to integrate into a haunted house attraction since he comes with a built in set piece. it looks good but doesn’t do much. 7.5/10 i guess 

GHOSTFACE!!!!

FUCK YES I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS

please. please spirit halloween set him up in my store so i can see him

anyway hes got kind of the same issue beetlejuice has where the figure just. looks kind of stiff, and he looks more like a spooky ghost decoration than like, A Person. he doesnt seem to have any lines or anything either, he just kinda pops out. but then again i guess whenever we see ghostface in person in the movies he doesn’t usually talk anyway. i dont really know how id make this better but it seems a little underwhelming somehow. still hype to see it though. 7/10 i guess 

now if we could just get a jack torrance and a bela lugosi dracula id be content 

i would LOVE to see Red from Us but i doubt they’d do one. my other horror beloved is norman bates but i know if they made one of him it’d just be him in a dress waving a knife around (not that i wouldn’t still be hype to see him, but, y’know) (anyway. tangent. moving on) 

mr. howle 

it’s. a werewolf. he howls. that’s....... about it 

it’s a very nice looking werewolf, it’s a well designed figure and definitely looks very imposing, but it’s... just a werewolf. there’s not really anything particularly interesting or creative here. its a perfectly good werewolf. i dont have anything to say about this. 6.5/10 

i also just am not a werewolf person so maybe someone out there who has a greater appreciation for werewolves might like him more 

[v-mundi]

NEW SET AND NEW TEMPLATE WOOOOO!

First, check the New set (Aux D) post if you havent.

Then, check the artfix page so you can see each type in the new card frame.

This template is crazy, people. Let me lay this down.

It’s huge. 2.5″ x 3.5″ but at 600 DPI for the art, 1200DPI for the UI elements. These images above? click them to see how huge they are. No more tiny garbage.

This is MADE for print! Not just big but my source files have bleed available up to 2.71″x3.71″ and all colors are tested thoroughly in CMYK before export. All the text is further inside an invisible margin called the safe area, meaning the text won’t be cut off by a horrifically bad cut at an offset printer.

IT IS FULLY AUTOMATED LUXURY CARD CREATION. I have a spreadsheet that is more or less drop-down menus and auto-population to assemble all the card pieces. Then I data merge that to InDesign.

The art is now great stuff. Our artfixes we’ve been posting to the tumblr? Yeah now that can actually be seen fully as the template is full art with no UI elements totally hiding the art.

Completely scalable based on the content. What this means is the longer a support effect, the more lines and EVERY element that would get in the way pushes itself upward to compensate. The evo-box at the top scales itself down with each line. No more cramming paragraphs of text into 2-3 lines!

Abnormal power is now displayed under the relevant stat! No more checking some awkward text-block in the corner that gets cut off if you print and squishes the effect text.

Supports and attack abilities now have Speed like in the original Playstation game. These were ommitted on launch partly because I didn’t know, and because when I learned about it, I already had a pretty good system of alternating support resolutions and keeping attack abilities in the Battle Phase. Now things are different and the game is a bit more dynamic. The increase of timing collisions gives players more choices of what to resolve first!

The card name font (except Masteries) is the actual font from the old Bandai 1990s english cards. Not the first release with the light-blue backs, the one with the dark blue cyber backs. The first release is just Serpentine. The Nulshock I was using on my old template was me trying to approximate this font which I finally found.

Icons now exist for every card category instead of only Digimon! Evolution, Data, Option, even Mastery cards have an upper-left icon so you can easily tell what this blasted thing is.

Important card elements moved to the left side. Now the game is much more compatible with these things we humans have called hands. You can print the cards, fan them left-to-right as most people do, and see your Level/Category, DP requirement, +P value, type color, stats, and whether you have a Support in your hand. Instead of like...half of those where the old template was right-aligned. Subtypes are also more intuitive since I just put the icon right next to the primary icon instead of a separate bar.

Evo-bonus, Firewall, ACE, Proxy all made to look like computer board modules that slot into pin holes with visible pinouts! This was just an extra touch we wanted to add so they would feel more like opening up your old v-pet and installing a crazy custom module.

TLDR; version:

Huge cards

Print colors and bleed

Automated card creation

Full art template layout

Template auto-moves/scales to content

Abnormals near their stats

Speed added to effects

Nostalgic name font

Icons for every card category

Left-aligned for in-hand fanning

Small thematic touches to elements

[chrismerle]

here is how my evening has gone

got to airport at like 5:30

got to skip most of the security line 'cause a guard let me through, but got slowed down by needing to be pat down

was like 6-ish when I got to my gate

it kept changing??? it was A26 when I checked in and when I got to the airport, A29 by the time I got through security, and A30 by the time I got to 29 and was confused

sat there. drank some Dunkin' coffee. ate some candy. helped a lady who didn't speak a ton of English understand what the voluntary complimentary bag check was.

flight was delayed. no one told us why.

flight was delayed again.

flight was delayed like four times, actually.

on the last delay, we all had to get up and trek from gate A30 ALL THE FUCKING WAY TO E33. still was not told why.

as it turns out, I am infinitely more willing to acknowledge I'm disabled when I'm fed up, because the Atlanta airport is the size of a small country and by the time I got to the new gate I was done being jostled around, so when the gate agent called for anyone disabled or who would need additional assistance to line up for pre-boarding, I did and it was great. I got to walk without being shoved or hustled along and I was guaranteed and overhead bin.

so boarding starts like two fucking hours after the flight was SUPPOSED TO TAKE OFF

I open the window blind and go 'oh, that's a lot of lightning'

I watch the lightning during ascent because it was cool, but closed the blind when it got too migraine inducing

TURBULENCE!

a lot of it, actually. I grabbed the seat in front of me. the lady in the middle seat grabbed me and the guy in the aisle seat. all three of us giggled very nervously.

this happened multiple times for the first third of the flight.

otherwise it was uneventful, but I dislike roller coasters in general and i especially dislike then when I am in a pressurized tube in the air.

plane landed. wooooo.

stuck on the plane right by the gate for, like, a weirdly long time. no one said why. eventually we were released.

swarmed from the plane to the gate. a surprising number of other gates also had late-night swarms.

staggered why way to baggage claim.

spotted my dad, face-planted against his stomach. made him carry my backpack, but I pulled my own roller bag.

used the family bathroom on the way out 'cause I had to cath and a janitor was blocking the women's rest room, and i was not in the mood to shout and hope she heard me (see again: fed up)

made it to car

drove home. it was uneventful, as I am used to my the speed my dad drives at.

got home. sat on the kitchen floor. Biscuit crawled into my lap, splayed out on his side, and stared up at me with the most lovestruck expression I have ever seen on a dog.

sat there with him for a good, like, ten minutes before finally acknowledging Sawyer's existence

surprisingly, he did not pee on me, but he made a lot of weird noises

all the dogs are unconscious and I'm waiting for Widget to come down the stairs so I can pet her

now sitting in the family room with laptop

not actually tired???? just, like ... fried

[meltedhorror]

Please tell us what we could've had with Brave

I'm so curious and can't find anything for some reason

I was gonna answer this way earlier I'm so sorry anon BUT let me tell you now!! Long post ahead

WHAT BRAVE COULD'VE BEEN, AN ESSAY BY MEEEEE

okok so I will admit I've watched tons of videos on the subject and I can send them to anyone who wants

ANYHOW

The fact that this movie went through tons of rewrites probably comes as a surprise to no one. I don't remember exactly how many, but there was a good few rewrites throughout basically the whole movie, hence why some parts don't really go along with others.

So what could've Brave (2012) have been?

Lets start with the good part of the movie, or the only good part. The beginning.

We're introduced to Merida; A young rebel held to ridiculous standards by her parents, a young girl with a wild and free heart and that part of her is clearly endorsed by her father the king, but not so much by her mother the queen.

This is shown by the fact that her dad gives her a classic longbow (English horseback type may I add as an archer myself!), but with rules set in place by her mother (Shown through the oh so classic scene "No bows on the table. But MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM-")

Throughout the start of the movie we learn a few key facts; Though the king is the one supposedly making the decisions, it is the queen who is actually getting things done and the true ruler around here.

But here, let me give you a few examples of this!

She is very clearly respected in a regard that her husband is not.

In this scene a fight breaks out, which her husband joins if I don't remember wrong when he was supposed to stop it. He's more or less just one of the lads so to say, where as the queen? She has RESPECT. The fighting crowd clears as she decisively walks up to her husband and the other clan leaders to quite literally grab them by the ears. They look at her in a way that tells you that this is a woman you do not disrespect, because she means business.

There's also several times where she has to tell the king to do/say certain things that he as a king should know to do himself. She's like a puppeteer but in a nice way.

There's another scene that we'll get to in a second, just bear with me here!

The queen represents a more conservative ideology, the system that tries to push us into little perfect neat boxes.

She may be the voice of reason and the more or less true ruler of their kingdom, but she also represents what Merida fights so hard to escape.

Elinor is always depicted as very proper, from the way she speaks to the way she carries herself. Where the king, the triplets and Merida can act a bit of however they want without a care in the world, the queen always carries herself as... Well, royalty. As both a monarch and a woman she HAS to fit this specific box of how to act, walk and talk, and this is very cleverly shown throughout and DOES to the movies credit carry through to the bad parts later on.

EVEN IN THE PROMO ART THIS SHINES TRHOUGH

She's proper - Standing straight and neat, acting her best and like she should as a woman in her position.

So of COURSE Merida clashes hard with this idea of how you should live, and this shows and is the REAL struggle in the beginning of the movie.

This brings us to the proposal scene.

In this scene each of the clans bring their sons to marry Merida, the princess. This is where shit hits the wall.

Elinor pushes desperately for Merida to fit into this neat little box that she herself has had to live within for probably most of her life now that Merida is becoming a grown woman and, in turn, a queen.

Now she has to act this specific way and dress in a way, all these things absolutely NOT in character for Merida. So she acts out in small ways, tries to be her own person but her mother does not let her. Merida is to become a queen, and a queen does not act the way Merida has up until this point.

This does NOT fly for our protagonist however. She does NOT want to get married. She and the king also laugh at the guys wanting to marry her together, quickly shot down by the queen. Mind you this is ENTIRELY the queens decision and this HAS to be done.

So when she hears the clans have to compete for her hand? AND she gets to pick what they have to compete in? A devilish plan is born and she sees a new chance at freedom!

She picks archery with the plan to compete for her own hand and rebel against her mother. She is NOT gonna fit into this tiny neat box and she is gonna show it.

The day comes, Merida and the king make fun of the boys and get a scolding look from the queen which immediately shuts them up. Again a show of how much power and respect she really has, where just a simple look is enough to discourage bad behavior.

Final competitor Merida walks up to the archery line. Shit hits the fan like you wouldn't believe.

You stop and put down that bow or so help me. The king is concerned but finds it funny at first, but not the queen.

Elinor. Panics.

She is powerless as she rushes up while still trying to keep composure. She is the queen, she has to stay proper. Always stay in role.

The crowd watches on horrified, they know what is going to happen. Merida is ice cold as she walks up, tearing the all to tight dress holding her back and hits the X on target after target. She is breaking free, no, she is CLAWING her way out of this life forced upon her by a mother unwilling to understand or even compromise.

She stops and in a quick breath focuses, the queens threatening aura looming closer yet closer with each heartbeat. The final nail in the coffin. She releases the arrow and in stone cold perfection splits the final arrow down the middle, landing a final victorious X.

She turns around and faces her mother.

A seething rage for different reasons.

Cut.

The next scene they are fighting, ending with Elinor throwing Meridas beloved bow in the fire, completely destroying it, and Merida cutting a beautifully handcrafted textile in half.

They've both destroyed something important to one another. They are even.

Elinor expresses deep regret after throwing Meridas bow into the fire, trying desperately to recover it from the flames but is too late and the intricate weapon is already too far gone to even hope to restore.

AND NOW THE MOVIE TAKES A FUCKING NOSEDIVE

Throw everything we've just built up out of the window baby because none of this is relevant anymore! Mom becomes bear and we are thrown out on an all too familiar "LETS GO ON AN ADVENTURE TOGETHER WOOOOO ROADTRIP LETS FIND FRIENDSHIP ON THIS ROADTRIP :D"

Literally if you want to watch a movie with bears and a roadtrip like scenario go and watch Brother Bear, it's way fucking better than the trash they shat out for this movie.

Merida """accidentally""" curses Elinor to become a bear, and the only way to make her not a bear is to give back and fix something important and close to her heart.

They fix the fabric, the thing her mom made that Merida cut in half that occurred during the fight. But Meridas bow? Never fucking mentioned again. Not even an apology.

They never bring up ANY of the things mentioned here again in the movie. They never apologize to Merida. Merida is the one who has to change in the end ANYWAYS and Elinor never has to apologize for any of the things she did.

It's seriously so fucking upsetting to me what we lost here, and what we'll never have. We could've had an amazing movie about empowerment, about breaking free of rules already set for us because of the way we were born and about learning to change. But instead we got absolute vomit.

Anyway sorry for the incredibly long post, and fuck Disney <3 If you're gonna watch their movies pirate them, don't give them a single fucking dime. I'll never forgive them for the Frozen Elsa lookin ass dragon in the new movie.

[babbushka]

79) “Look at you, grinding against everything, you’re really desperate for it. Aren’t you?” and 100) “Call me selfish, but I don’t ever want anyone else to touch you.” with Mob!Kylo please. He gets jealous easily, but knowing the people he hangs around can you blame him for wanting to protect his lady 😂

Anonymous said:  Eeeeeee I'm so happy Sinday is back omg wooooo. Ok, can I request Mob! Kylo saying 19) “Do you need me to finger you first?” and 2) “You look so good with my hand wrapped around your throat.” I can imagine him getting impatient on the way to an event and just fucking you in the back of the car.

(1.2k, NSFW [dirty talk/murder plans as dirty talk/murder kink if you squint, sub!kylo, possessive Kylo, handjob, choking, limousine sex])

[gif by the talented thewintersolo​]

“I hate these fucking things.” Kylo grumbles mostly to himself in the back of the stretch limo.

You’re in Washington D.C., leaving some fundraiser for some senators that you know and rub elbows with. Kylo doesn’t like being here, doesn’t like being so close to the politicos who are constantly sniffing out the criminal activity he and his family pull. He’d much rather be at home in New York with you, in his penthouse away from the world, and the government.

“I’m proud of you for coming.” You stroke and kiss his cheek, genuinely proud and happy that despite all his scowling, he accompanied you. You knew he would, he freaks the fuck out when you’re so much as ten feet away from him, “It was good that we made an appearance.”

“I don’t like the way they look at you.” Kylo’s still angry though, despite knowing it was the right thing to do. He’s angry, because he’s got a claim on you, a very public possessive hold on you, that he does not like challenged. “Some of those photographers especially…it doesn’t sit right with me.”

“We’ll make some calls, they won’t bother us anymore.” You assure him, his passion making you smile fondly, “We’ll get them fired or something.”

“I’ll kill them, more like.” Kylo mutters, and you raise an eyebrow at that.

“Oh yeah?” Turning to face him more fully in the back of the limo, your eyes darken when you demand for him to, “Tell me how.”

Kylo licks his lips and chews on the inside of his cheek, already undoing the hidden clasp of his tuxedo trousers. Once open, your hand slips inside his briefs, fingers wrapping around his half-hard cock. You smirk, Kylo would be hard already, just from the mere proximity to you in this secluded space, the closed off limo zipping through the streets of D.C. on the way back to the hotel.

“I’ll have my guys grab them, throw them into a car just like this one, take them to one of our warehouses.” He’s breathy already, gaze not knowing where to focus – on your hand or on your mouth.

“Mmhmm.” You encourage, thumb swiping through the slit on the head of his cut cock, firmly grasping his shaft and giving it a twist on the upstroke just the way he likes.

“First thing is I’ll take their fucking camera, blind them with the flash and see how well they like it.” His jaw clenches, and his hips buck up up up against your touch, desperate and eager for more, sweating and breathing hard already, “Then I’ll draw it out, make it slow and painful, make them know what’s coming. I’ll break their wrists, then their arms, then their necks.”

The promise goes straight to your cunt, and you know he’s just as wound up, you can feel it in the way that he’s jumpy, aching.

“Look at you grinding against everything, you’re really desperate for it, aren’t you?” You would tease him, but you’re wet, you want him just as badly as he wants you, a never ending cycle of lust passion desire and love.

“For you – always for you.” He nods, hands already reaching for you, pulling you and moving you how he can best fuck you, because you both know that’s where this is heading. “Call me selfish but I don’t ever want anyone else to touch you, or look at you.”

“I know honey, and they won’t. I’m all yours, only yours.” You lie back against the long cushion of the limo, legs spreading as far as they can on the narrow seat.

He’s immediately climbing up on top of you, the both of you fumbling trying to get it right, trying to balance, as the limo makes a turn around a corner.

“D-do you need me to finger you first?” Kylo kisses and sucks at the corner of your jaw, little nips of his crooked teeth that are so sweet and endearing, it almost feels like it couldn’t possibly come from a man who gets off on the thought of murder.

“No that’s okay, we have to hurry, you have to fuck me before we get to the hotel.” You smooth your hands up and down his chest, the hard starched shirt underneath his jacket rough and scratchy against your palms.

Something about that only makes you wetter, and you both moan when Kylo works his cock inside of you, when he has to make shallow thrusts to push past the tight clutch of your cunt, your pussy squeezing him. It’s not easy, but once he figures out the right angle, it’s smooth sailing, and you both practically sigh at the same time.

Touching you all over as he thrusts into you, his palm settles on your neck. He’s big and wide enough to cover it completely, and that makes you moan, makes your pussy clench, knowing just how capable those hands are.

“You look so good with my hand wrapped around your throat.” Kylo praises you, compliments you in that way he always does, and you can only smile, half-lidded eyes glazing over with adoration for him even as he cuts off your air.

“I love you,” You manage to rasp despite the pressure on your throat, “Harder Kylo – take me harder.”

He does as he’s told, as he always does, wanting to please you, wanting to keep you forever and ever. And he will, he’ll fuck you until the sun burns out in the sky – or when the limo pulls up outside the hotel, whichever comes first.

You come first, just the way Kylo likes it. He chokes you and lets the pleasure whirl around in your deprived lungs just long enough for a heady rush of orgasm to shake through your body, and then he releases you, before he’s coming inside you himself.

Blissed out and giggling, eyes closed, you hug him to your chest, as you both try and catch your breath. He’s so good to you all the time, you love him so much, especially as he rubs his face into the cleavage that your gown pushes up and mumbles another little, “I’m going to kill them.”

You twine your fingers through his hair, and regrettably push him away when you start to see the hotel coming up in the distance through the tinted windows. He needs to tuck himself away, and you need to adjust your gown before Dopheld opens the limo doors for you and another round of photographers catch anything they aren’t supposed to.

“I know honey, but let’s go inside and take a bubble bath first. We can kill them after you relax for a little bit.” You coax him up, kissing him and telling him earnestly, “You’ve earned it.”

In fact, you think he’s earned far more than a bubble bath tonight.