#fun fact the first one is a design concept I've now had for months

[downtofragglerock]

Guess what? I'm finally back with more Makuta

A Makuta with a lower body that resembled a large centipede. They resided over a mountainous forested region and terrorized the locals with frightening rahi that went bump in the night. They made their base in a cavern at the bottom of a well that had struck a vein of energized protodermis. They used this to "enhance" some of their most frightening creations to be more effective terrors. Local villagers eventually had enough and tried to hunt this Makuta down. The hunting party was whittled down until the survivors confronted the Makuta at the bottom of the well. During the battle this Makuta fell into the energized protodermis, being destroyed in the process and ending their reign of terror.

The Makuta who resided over the homeland of Johmak's people, setting themselves up in a large crystalline cavern. They specialized in rahi that either had organic crystals in their composition or existed in symbiosis with them. Harvested by GSR Teridax.

A Makuta who instead of beasts or plants, created fungi and fungal creatures. Some of their creations were capable of spreading highly deadly spores. Said creations where at one point considered for the position of "very destructive but plausibly deniable rahi legion", which would eventually be given to the Visorak. Due to the destructive and insidiously subtle capabilities their creations possessed, the OOMN eventually had this Makuta killed.

[thatonecrookedsmile]

I decided to finally color and post this thing I made a few months ago since we're getting close to BATDR's anniversary.

Consider this a fun concept based on a few things at the very least,or a Headcanon Based On Nothing At All at most. The "basis" for this comes from the fact that the Keepers' body and head are some kind of suit, with the zipper and "lens" being the most notable details of this. Which I found interesting.

Now,could the fact that they look like suits just be a side effect of them being offshots of the Machine? Yeah,yes it could. At the end of the day,the fact that they look like that can only be summed up as "they were created that way". Wilson just accidentally created cool-looking OCs. I doubt we'll get any kind of lore drop for the Keepers in the future beyond what we already know about them (but I could always be wrong).

The moment of inspiration that led me to do these sketches was when I was reading FTB and I was thinking about Gent and their experiments for a bit. The Keepers ended up getting into those thoughts at some point,which resulted in me doing… this!

So,yeah,what if the Keepers, before the Dark Revival,were old GENT containment suits?

Essentially,in my head,when JDS closed its doors,Gent continued the ink experiments in its own workshop,and the suits above were worn by the company's scientists while conducting some of these experiments. While we don't know what else the guys at Gent were doing beyond what we saw in BATDR and FTB,I don't think it's far-fetched to say that not even their scientists would want to touch the damned ink,which,as we know,is best kept away from. So,the suits are used.

In 1952,the workshop was condemned and closed. Eventually,the location and by extension - the technologies,the experiments and things like the suits - ended up in the Ink Realm. Fast forward to 72/73,the whole thing about Wilson finding out and taking control of the Cycle happens. When it came to creating his own "guards" to help with his plans in the Cycle,I guess he just. Took stuff from the Gent workshop like the suits and other stuff like gears and pipes,threw it all through the Ink Machine and uhhhhhhh,boom,the Keepers are created.

Again,I wouldn't take this as a serious theory/speculation,and as said,more as ideas and concepts based on so little that I decided to put on paper. (Might as well consider all of this potential AU stuff)

Additional stuff:

- I didn't make the outlines and the helmet's lens glow in the first 2 sketches because I realized that it wouldn't make much sense in the suits? The Keepers,sure,make sense,but for the suits themselves? Not so much. So I left them "switched off",with the exception of the third sketch,done at the time when I hadn't thought about this detail any further.

- The idea for the fourth sketch,the gas mask,came to me while looking at reference images of real-life hazmat suits. I thought it might be intriguing to have Gent scientists wear these masks under their suits,so I sketched it out to get a better idea. The mask itself was based on one of the scrapped Keeper designs, the ones that had the more "alien" feel to them. I don't know if it would fit inside the Keeper suit,but it's still something I wanted to consider.

I also like this whole concept of the suits for two other reasons. First, it gives the Keepers an origin that predates Wilson and the Dark Revival. Second, reusing old Gent suits to create his own guards isn't that far-fetched for a man whose entire rise to power within the studio and plan to overthrow the Ink Demon has depended on the work (and existence) of others to come to fruition. So that wouldn't be so absurd.

Also,here's 2 bonus sketches. The second one has nothing to do with what I've said so far, it's just something I was playing around with at the time.

[project-sekai-facts]

After seeing the fun fact about Becoming Potatoes, I now wonder how far back does the process of one event is from conceptualizing it to fully releasing it. Is it months? Years? I know development and planning can be long but how far back are things planned for Proseka's events in spesifics.

i have an extra fun fact about that song that i don't think i've mentioned before: it's the only song to never have a teaser before it's released in-game, probably because there was no point in it since the vocaloid version had been released months prior. annoyingly, neru never did a corocoro producer interview, so it's basically impossible for us to know what exactly went down in the development of that song.

here's some stuff i can tell you about event planning and such (most is song related lol bc there's far less interviews with the writers):

in an old Q&A around the 1st anniversary, the writers said it takes around 6-12 months to complete an event after conception

in the same question, they said they immediately have to prepare a summary after commissioning so they can pass it on, suggesting the commissioning stage comes first

i know i usually don't mention leaks but these aren't leaks anymore. back in early 2023 around the time of Little Bravers, the song titles and producers for commissions up until Samsa leaked. The producers for Hug and Regulus also leaked 1-2 months in advance. p sure there used to be a staff leaker LOL but at least they confirmed the comms are finished a fair amount in advance

for early events though, some accounts make it sound like vocaPs were being commissioned like years in advance. PinocchioP, Oster Project, NayutalieN did not receive a story summary.

NayutalieN also said that he was contacted very early on in development, only being shown character designs for MMJ. He literally says that "nothing had been decided and he was fed more details as they were finalised". and later in his interview mentions that the "omoi no kakera" lyric was not an intentional reference [to what is known as wish pieces on EN], since those didn't even exist yet.

Syudou says that Jackpot Sad Girl was made in 2020, not very long before the launch of the game, so there's a little less time there.

Surii said he was commissioned ~6 months before launch, so around a year before Pale Color ran. It's also worth noting that he was given story details at this point in time, meaning Pino/Oster/NayutalieN were commissioned before this point.

The designs were completed in early 2019 according to CGWorld's prsk feature, so we can assume that the vocaPs who weren't given story details were commissioned around this time

The story has a planned ending and has had this since early development. The overall story has always been decided but only as an outline, more specific details and the actual events are written as the game goes one.

However certain details, such as Mafuyu running away, were planned in advance.

Apparently it takes about a week to get to the final draft of an event story, after going through checks with other staff and re-drafting (same source as the "specific details" link)

Additionally: card art. According to that 1st anniversary q&a i mentioned earlier, the art team takes two months or more per card. might be longer now because of the higher art quality. The art team sometimes bases set themes off the commission (such as Hitsuji ga Ippiki & kiuan set), or off the event story, which again gives us an indicator of how far in advance this stuff is finished.

[camellia-thea]

I cannot brain properly but I have GOT to know more about amara and dove. tell me anything - @pretend-pretend-vampire

hello!! thank you for the ask! i will ramble about them <3

dove and amara are from a recent vtm 5e game, set in aotearoa. dove is my pc, and amara is a tzimisce spc played by the amazing @balthazarslostlibrary, our storyteller. we're currently on break for life reasons, but i look forward to when we get to play again. this is a (very) long ramble about character choices, meta, and a little bit of narrative.

a little context for dove! she spent sixteen years as a ghoul to a ventrue named rochefort, before being poached from him by an as of yet unknown lasombra. she was abandoned him, but due to having the with a blood bond to him, by way of having both the long bond, and the bond slave flaws. it took several months for the bond to drop away, and so now that's she's finally in her right mind -- after almost 17 years of being bound to someone -- the chronicle began.

dove and amara first met at elysium; dove's first. they wandered the museum hosting the elysium and ended up in the deep sea exhibit! (this is, by the way, a real exhibit in the museum te papa, a part of the exhibit te taiao. it has a colossal squid!) i just think it's super fun that they wandered around with a whole load of wet specimen from the deep. amara invited dove out to its haven, a tattoo parlour.

dove then made a visit on her own, and as a gift, gave amara a set of her ribs.

mechanically, amara is dove's mawla, and i love them a lot.

i think a lot for me that rests about their relationship is how the pair interact with interpersonal relationships.

tzimisce have so much about possession; they are built to have really fucked up views of people and ownership. mechanically, their bane is grounded -- they must rest in a place (be that concrete or more abstract) with things they own and deem theirs. then their compulsion is covetousness. i love that conceptually, beyond dove and amara. vampires leaning into the inhuman way they view their surroundings because of their immortality, their power, their everything.

i didn't intentionally make dove to play off of amara, or tzimisce in general, but i've always had a thing around perception of freedom and identity (look at taralin, my primary d&d pc--it's a theme!), and i wanted to play with the concept of someone who had finally gained a significant amount of power and freedom, and have them struggle to find their feet, and make bad decisions as they figure out who they are. dove was the culmination of a whole load of ideas that i really enjoy playing with. with the lasombra technology issues, her past as someone good with computers isolated her from her skills. an absentee sire, and someone who held a grudge isolated her socially. in addition, making her as a character designed to experience blood bonds, one drink to triple the length of the bond? delicious, and i really wanted to play a character who desperately was grappling for control over her own life while being built to not be in control.

having amara present? a tzimisce on side? honestly made the choice for me; there was never ever going to be a way for that to go smoothly in any capacity, simply because of both character's designs.

someone who never wants to be owned again and a character who cannot help but claim ownership over anything close to it? i wanted to have dove grapple with that.

there's another aspect of it i touch on in anatomy too, which is a character with the ability to entirely remake themselves in whatever image they wish and another who cannot perceive themself at all. dove's loss of identity through being a ghoul, and then that manifesting as someone who cannot ever see herself again? amara has the capacity to gift her control over her body, her reflection, as it were.

i think it also comes down to the fact that dove doesn't know how to not be owned by someone entirely. i don't think she'll ever be able to separate herself from that past.

i think vampires often get stuck in who they were right before they turned. it's the idea of being frozen in time and unable to move past that traumatic event; you died. how could you ever get past that?

and i think that's an aspect of dove too. the feeling that you'll never get past your trauma and for her, it might genuinely be true. but that also might be her own perspective stopping her, i don't think i know, nor do i necessarily think i need to know yet. and dove spent 16 years knowing that she'd die a ghoul, or become a vampire. there was never going to be a different end for her. and so, that's had a massive effect on her decision making.

one of the first things she did was to give herself over to mother russo (the lasombra primogen) and agree to join the cam. her logic was, this gives me protection, this keeps me safe. strength in numbers, and if something goes wrong i'll have allies. but i don't think she wanted to. she wanted to remain autarkis, but she didn't know how to exist without some sort of external direction. being given a task gave her so much relief, even as it made her feel resentment. it's funny, because i as a player hate that dove is cam. i think it's going to completely fuck her over and i think it was the worse option for her. but for her? completely correct and i think it's going to hit hard when she realises she's locked herself back into being at the bottom rung.

i think amara in equal respects represents everything dove desperately wants, and everything she despises. amara has the control dove wants, the respect of the wider community, in as much as it can control its own life and isn't (visibly) beholden to anyone. but, dove knows what amara is. knows what the tzimisce are, and is terrified of that too.

but i also think dove views amara as the closest kindred to trustworthy as she can get. there's a lot of paradoxical thinking in my girl. i, the player, was given the option to have mother russo as my mawla instead of amara, and i hummed and hawed about it a lot before going with my initial instinct (which was definitely motivated in part by my love for tzimisce). but despite how willingly i flung dove at the cam, she felt far more vulnerable with mother russo, (despite being willing to let amara at her rib cage) and she hated that. amara treated dove as a person. that was the real deciding thing on dove's thought process. there was a collection of meta things too (such as wanting to play with possessiveness and dove's control issues.) dove knows what to expect from amara. she knows what it is, and while there are certainly hidden depths, dove thinks that she can at least trust amara to be genuine with the push-pull of a quid pro quo relationship.

and i think part of the really fun thing is at present, dove is completely disenchanted by her coterie. she doesn't want to be there, but they've got a job to complete for the cam. she's a bitch, she looks down on them, and that's driving her to the only person she really thinks is capable, amara. and i think dove will grow to like and respect her coterie, but unfortunately two very well placed frenzies on our gangrel's part has completely lost any potential respect she has for the others. and i think there's a whole load of potential fun things there for dove siding with amara over the coterie, or a push pull situation of dove being places between what the coterie wants and what amara wants. we'll see when we pick up again.

if you want to read more about amara, there is another (much much longer) piece that features him! Te whakawhitiwhiti: The Transformation was written by my storyteller about amara and two of their ghouls. this is set before dove and amara's first meeting, and primarily focuses on one of amara's ghouls, hine, coming into her own, with a lot of fun vampire stuff alongside.

if you have any follow ups, feel free to ask! it's been super fun to ramble about them both here

[kate-embershield]

✨Jorvik Riding Academy ✨

PT1

Firstly, i did not expect to get that much attention on my first Jorvik Academy post, so thank you all SO MUCH!!

Second, I want to go more in depth about the Academy. So, in no particular order, i'm going to be going over some of the things people in the reblogs said...

@bridge-to-jorvik Thank you!

And yes, the idea for the Academy is to combine a lot of the current mechanics into one big hub of sorts. More rescue foals, and hopefully with time, sso could introduce foals from different breeds, big shire foals the size of the player, knobby knee'd akhal-teke's, just plenty of new baby's with different builds.

Perhaps with its proximity to Jorvik city, new furniture stores could be opened up, with a wide array off different aesthetics and decor to choose from that players could customise their dorms/homes with.

@samanthawd i'm pretty sure if enough players pitched in a dollar, we could buy a small island.

The idea is definitely that the Academy is a place where even those who aren't students are welcome. In regards to daily's, most of the 'classroom' quests are just general horse facts, learning about Jorvik and its history, the myths and legends surrounding the magical horses. Just general information to make the world feel more full, and even then , there would be alternate daily's where you could 'teach' a class instead of learn.

@toruq i'm absolutely not freaking out because I LOVE your art!!!

I unfortunately haven't had the chance to play the other games, nor read much of the comics, but I was vaguely aware of Star Academy and Jorvik high, just not there names. The academy itself was based off the idea of Star Academy.

Now while I did call it an Academy, it's more of a prestigious title, it would very much be a uni/college of sorts. The idea is that its a higher education program that is open to equestrians globally, resulting in many different disciplines would be taught and practiced.

@froggistain Your reply is a little long to fit, so i've condensed it a bit.

Why not make it an updated Jorvik stables? Since Jorvik stables is already a place cemented in cannon, I didn't want to intrude too much on the existing lore of Jarlaheim and the stables, hence why I placed it in an unreleased area. I wholeheartedly agree that the area could be expanded on and utilised more, and an early concept of Jorvik Academy had it as such, but again, Jarlaheim and the stables are already so familiar to the playerbase.

Factions within the Academy, and respective tack sets. Yes, much like the wild horses, each discipline would have reputation and faction specific tack that would be obtainable through leveling up. The idea of certain sets contributing to certain skills is amazing!

Course building, difficulty and club riding. The idea of players being able to build different courses and tracks is amazing! And with how large the Academy is, even if a club is using one of the arenas, there would still be plenty of room for other players to move about around the grounds. And I love the idea of including a difficulty rating, the entire idea behind the Academy is to teach people the basics of horsemanship without the need to go to a barn or riding school.

Thank you so much to everyone who commented!! I love seeing people enjoy my silly little overzealous ideas!

I've also sketched up some more tack ideas. The first one is more specifically a Parade set, because I love the idea of, much like the Pride parade, once a week/month, students and teachers would ride around central Jorvik, maybe to a town in the planes, maybe to the city. There could be carriages, flags flown, just a big parade that players could ride in or watch.

Again, the classic viridian, but to show how the tacks could look in other colours, i've included pink and purple, with matching riders clothes.

Ive also designed a more regal/armoured set, originally this one was catered towards a magical horse, but i think it could be really fun to branch out with the tack designs in the game. We already have horned bridals, so this was ultimately an extension of those.

The viridian and Gold of the Academy, but with a bit of a vampire/Halloween vibe in the silver and red, and a more muted autumnal pallet in the green and bronze.

And...

✨ spooky horse time✨

I had a lot of fun designing this one, especially since its halloween , and with the new magic horses coming out, I love seeing SSE branch out with additional things on there models, such as the horns and antlers.

Kelpie here was incredibly fun to design, especially with all of the reeds and water-plants hanging from them, and I would love to see some of the unique horses get Quests or chance encounters, it would add so much more to there lore, and the entire lore of the island.

[thatsuccessfulpokemontrainer]

uhuhuh how has sprites design changed and developed over the course of his story? same with beedrill and mari

Ohhhh thank you so much for this RAHH!!

So- sprite is actually two concepts (with two different designs) who got reversed mitosised into one guy, one was a self insert oc from my first full playthrough of pokemon crystal and one was a gym leader oc.

I'm not sharing old art of sprite because honestly looking at anything I've done more than a month ago makes me cringe however- I did an approxmation of "sprites" first design with some fun facts.

Also yes his '!' shirt used to look like that. I actually changed sprites colour scheme because I showed my friend some art and they were like "omg like mcdonalds sprite. is that why hes in the mcdonalds colours." . mortifying. changed immedaitly after.

I dont think I got it across in this version at all but gym leader sprite was supposed to be a punk and had a full patch jacket and stuff.

A lot of sprites design was really open to change when I first started the account, his hair would vary from being over one eye to being over both- his scars would move around since i forgot to make a ref. A lot of stuff just solidified over time the more I drew him the more I figured him out <3. The more I rp'ed as him, the more he became his own character and I got a sense for his likes and dislikes and it impacted his design.

Now drawing him is super duper ingrained into my head and whenever I open a new canvas there is always one of these guys

He also used to have upturned ears, not much to say on those, other than i liked the downturned look more, and changed it in november of last year.

He also kept the blue in his hair after him running away and attempting to dye his hair blue in an effort to disguse himself. He's kept it in the tips since for reasons that he can't explain .

Onto Beedrill! (did some doodles of his old design)

His design changes are really recent because at the start he just wasn't- interesting y'know. just some blonde dude.

But also BD was also first known for sending people meme shirts via pelipper mail so he didnt really need to be more than that. I think the googles and staff helped a little (speaking of which, looking at maybe giving him his staff back sometime)

As his storys become more relevant, I've needed to spice up his design, which I'm happy I did with the funky pokemon esque hair. The fox mask also helps him seem more interesting, but him wearing it isn't common enough to count.

I'm currently doing a redesign of his prosethic finger and another part of his design which i'm excited to share once i'm done.

Now mari!

Not much to say with her old design, her clothes and such were picked out my maris creator and cowriter, and she was supposed to look put together yet ready to fall apart at any moment. She was a real villian, but I've never been unhappy with her design and how it's reflected her personality.

I did like how in maris first apperance, lucians (her bayleefs) leaf was completely seared off along with having severe burns on its body, but by the time she got her blog it was full again as mari has saved up to get a coleus plant implant to regrow the leaf, along with the scars on him fading from her use of burn cream she was sent.

Thank you so much for asking, sorry for rambling haha !!

[eldritch-spouse]

Aaaaa

Your blog is so inspiring,

Like truly I’m finding it easy to design and flesh out my monster OC’s because of you!!

Your world building is spectacular, and the way you connect your characters to one another? Chef’s kiss.

I adore your art so much! I especially like how you draw Claws! And dicks

Whats your process when designing your monsters? All their designs are so cool and it makes me jealous lol

[Hhrnsg- Thenk! /////]

It's funny you mention being jealous, I'm never content with what I make (which is typical for creative types), and I often avoid exposing myself to things I know will make me jealous unless I'm doing it to learn. Anyhow, I assume you're talking about visual design?

It's... Well, I don't really have a standard process. I doodle a lot. A whole lot. See, the fun thing about making monsters for me is that you don't have to adhere to anatomical standards, you're not confined to anything unless you want to be. So I just like making shapes go stupid. Most of the time, I don't even have a concept of personality and role yet, I just draw monsters aimlessly, save sketches and then slowly piece a narrative together. In fact, I've used sketches I had laying around for years to make newer characters. Hellion is one of those examples, as his concept sketch was left sitting in my gallery for months and used as soon as I acquired a concept.

I'm not too sure what to say, because sometimes designs come very easily to me, other times I spend months on them (*cough* Vorticia *cough*).

The narrative started out as something very small. First there was Ludwig, then there was Krulu, and I strung them together. Many other characters came and went before I started putting together a "beta" cast of characters with no real affiliation to each other, then the idea of an establishment came to mind. I spent a lot of time mulling over it, and up until then, the narrative only existed confined to the walls of The Clergy's Eye. I tested the waters, adding more and more exterior lore onto it, and now I basically have a whole world in my hands that, while pretty undefined, holds potential to be coherent. Point is, I'd recommend starting small and going with the flow, unless you already have something very defined in your mind.

Nowadays, my character design is a little less spontaneous and moreso born out of necessity. To fill important holes in my lore I previously never had to consider. That's not to say they're any less fun, I enjoy having some guidelines.

[the-tzarina-alexandra-paracosm]

Some of my favourite art - a timeline

Part 3: 2013

Final Fantasy X/X-2 and FFVII fanart. June or July 2013. The first pic shows remnants of my previous style, while the latter is fully anime. Late 2012-early 2013 was a transitional period in this sense. I really like the concept of the first pic, which is Yuna's past and future self looking at each other. The second pic shows an attempt at perspective and composition.

First row: July. Second row: late 2013. Not only was I growing more and more into my style, but I was trying my hand at original character design. (1st pic: Cherille and the others from the dragon story. 2nd pic: Ivy from the vampire story. 3rd pic: Thea, alien princess. 4th pic: Chleo, wanted criminal).

It's funny to me how clear it is that this is the first time I learned to do a gradient, then proceeded to use it everywhere.

And now for some of my most iconic 2013 pieces:

September (can't make the date out but it's somewhere between the 6th and 9th). I still love this picture. I like the colours even though I ended up changing the character designs to something more cohesive eventually. The concept of this drawing was combining my two stories taking place in Japan, the one on the left being a samurai one, and the one on the right being a modern time one (fun fact! These are the characters from what eventually became my first novel, The Image through the Thick Glass, but the very original ideas as illustrated here was a sort of whodunit/ revenge story, wherein Kaito's brother had been killed etc. It's crazy how different it ended up being from the initial concept!). I also have very pleasant memories of the drawing process, as I was in vacation with my family and we were chilling on a bench in the salt mines and having a snack (and I took my notebook with me everywhere).

In terms of art progress, the most noticeable improvements compared to just months prior are: 1. Side profiles have actual chins 2. Attempts to draw clothing folds 3. Attempts to do shading 4. Still anime influenced but slowly growing into my own style 5. Growing into my character design style

September 2nd. think this is single-handedly my favourite picture of all 2013. This is one of the first very serious attempts to combine composition, perspective, colour and mood. What I like the most is how the wind blows thriugh Onix' hair and clothes, and how the city lights reflect into the river, and how the cars are a mash of random colours to suggest the speed they travel at. This is definitely the highest effort and highest execution drawing I did in that year. And I still love the character designs (and concepts) today.

October or November. I like this because it is very experimental, and if there's a year that has been characterised by its sheer leaps and bounds in art, it's been 2013.

I had to check because I thought this was 2014, but it's actually dated as November 28, 2013. This is also one of my favourites, and perhaps objectively the best of that year. Compared to the Xavier and Onix pic, this had the added benefit of better contrast with the background and a more readable composition. I really like the mood of the drawing, too, it's very emotional. Also re: my gradient comments above, this is one of my first successful sunsets.

-----

The main characteristics of this year are: 1. Trying to adopt an anime artstyle 2. Experimenting with character design, as well as scene composition, perspective, gradients, shading, poses and so on. I didn't realise just how much I've improved over the course of just one year, it really seems like every new month brought a new skill with it, and the style at the beginning of 2013 and that at the end of 2013 can almost not be recognised as being from the same year.

[kuroihashiba]

Just posting some thoughts about the TOBARI 陰陽 series tracks that I've had on my mind since I just finished lively with dazzling light's first listen last night. Spoilers for both, do feel free to avoid if you wish.

So first off I just really wanna say I really love the whole conception and existence of 陰陽 for TOBARI and the fact that ZIX are also incorporated into it..!!!! They were apart of the Black With High Purity (BWHP) initial track and I think their senior-junior relationship with TOBARI is so fun :')

(also maybe this is just an insane person thought but I really reallyreally REALLY want SAUDADE to become a real in-universe unit beyond Ryouji and hear their style too)....

With the existence of 陰陽 as a CD series for SUNPRO, I do think it's really important to note that it appears Sainosuke-sensei designed them with the concept in mind, as their respective "attributes" are noted on one of the character design sheets found on their pixiv! Very neat detail B)

So basically the first half of the series (after the SUNPRO meeting in #1) is all about Kuroi conceiving songs for the series. With the help of Shiou, they end up deciding that the 陰陽 series for them is in the form of personal songs (hence why each disk comes with a solo). The tagline for BWHP, 俺の陰。俺の影。(Loosely: My darkness. My shadow.) was actually a line spoken by Shiou in regard to the conversation. Both characters actually speak each other's taglines for this series! I don't have Shiou's on-hand right now, but I know for a fact Kuroi mentions it in Lively with Dazzling Light.

(Also a very specific fact, they spend time at Shiou's apartment for track #2– and Shiou owns a beanbag. I just think that's very important to note. Kuroi loves the beanbag and like, immediately sinks into it.)

Track #3 flits between Kuroi's life post-disbandment but pre-TOBARI– showing how he spent the last of his money on cup noodles and was living on the bare minimum food-wise for a good while before Shiou came to his apartment to propose the formation of TOBARI over a meal (as seen in Innovation #3). Kuroi is effectively telling the story of how his life was before Shiou, days blending together while he composes, broke as all hell... It's worth noting that Kuroi's flashbacks of the days show nothing but rain, with the moments leading up to Shiou's arrival being prefaced with chirping birds signifying a great day outside. Genuinely neat point, I think.

With regards to his background, this is... literally the most that he's talked about those days at this point. I thought this would've been in Yamanemuru, but I think the small hint of him listening to his band's CD back then leading into BWHP was a great idea. In general, I just love the way the scenario writer is handling Kuroi and his growth.

I don't want to spoil too much about the tracks, but I love the way TOBARI have grown together here. BWHP's songs are what hooked me into X Lied Project as a whole, but the tracks are just a total 1-2 punch...!!!

Speaking of songs, I'm working on TLs for both of them at the moment and wanted to share a few gems:

Moonlight, the duet track for the disk, makes note of water lilies in the second verse– the peak flowering season for them is August, the same month in which the disk itself was released. It also symbolises a pure spirit/heart, something which I'm fairly sure Kuroi is described as having. Take that last bit with a grain of salt until I can confirm it, I'm sure it's been in there somewhere.

Additionally, Moonlight makes note of what appears to be Kuroi's unpainted, true face (素顔, or sugao)– it looks like a direct callback to Real in the Dark's line about throwing away a fake facade, to me at least! (Kana's TL is linked via the wiki above for context reasons).

Setsunateki Blast, localised for the worldwide Spotify release as Momentary Blast, contains words such as 煩悩 (bonnou, worldly desire), 本能 (honnou, instinct)– these words have been trends in TOBARI songs– particularly Resonance of a Solitary Night. They're also present in GOKUSAISHIKI!

Anyway, onto Lively with Dazzling Light. The first track's name is a real mouthful particularly with the Spotify localisation, but I genuinely love it– "The musician who is like the smell of the sun", this constant comparison to the sun for Shiou is really so true lol I love him.

First track has follow up on what was seen in Proani S2!!!! Kuroi and Mamoru friendship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ken and Mamo also finally get to meet Shiou, who wasn't present for the episode at all– Ken and Shiou really seem to hit it off, I hope we get more of them in the future (like in a NIX anime adaptation? winkwink). TLDR: They go out to a cafe and have a chat, mostly about music and work related stuff. Iced coffee, yay!

Track #2 is really where the meat of it comes in. Essentially, Shiou takes Kuroi out to a fast food place (think: mcd*nalds, b*rger k*ng, m*ss b*rger, etc) for a meal after he's been hard at work on the songs for LDWL. Kuroi calls him troublesome, Shiou calls him cruel in return. Classic banter.

Shiou gets a burger combo, Kuroi gets chips & a coffee. There's this real good bit where Shiou can't decide whether to sit at the window bench or at a regular table, and Kuroi chimes in like "let's get it to-go" and Shiou snaps back with "That's not the point." I like them a lot

It feels like the focus is mostly on Kuroi here, but there's subtle ways in which the focus is on Shiou– Shiou as a good partner and junior, Shiou's past, in some ways, Shiou through Kuroi's eyes. There's a bit of talk about Shiou's high school days in particular, it seems that even back then he was reliable and even thought highly of by his peers. Even disregarding the content (which I'll be doing for brevity's sake, this post is getting LONG), it's nice to see how Shiou and Kuroi can talk so freely and openly like this– prior to X Lied, prior to even Innovation when it's not focused on the initial meeting. It really speaks to Kuroi's development, and even Shiou's as someone who effectively enables Kuroi to open up and avoiding much attention on himself while doing so (see: Shiou getting flustered whenever anyone comments him... he's moe your honour). There are points where Kuroi sounds so genuinely happy and gentle, which is a feat in and of itself given how neutral and even emotionless his tone has sounded right from the beginning. The end of the track actually made me tear up a little– there's even a little callback to the bit in Innovation where Kuroi says something and Shiou asks about it, only for him to hit back with "...its nothing". I love them so bad guys I promise.

Unfortunately I've decided to put off the LWDL tracks for a little while (because GOKUSAISHIKI is a real doozy and I do not have the brain capacity for that right now). I don't have any substantial TL notes yet, but I would like to point out that the way the song name is written (極祭色) is a play on the word 極彩色 which is pronounced the exact same way. The GOKUSAISHIKI we know itself doesn't have a meaning, but the word it's based on means "richly coloured", much like the idol it's representing :) I only figured this out because there's a RE*L album of the same name, I'm not a language whiz lol

Aaaaanyway that's all, apologies for the very long ramble as a first post. I'm just thinking about them a lot right now. I survived NIXLIVE and all I got was these fantastic songs :')

[inkabelledesigns]

I know everyone else is putting their stuff in the tags so far, but I have too much to say for that so we're writing in paragraphs.

For me it's Monster High all the way. Why? Prepare for an essay under the cut!

For every G3 MH doll I've opened, the dolls have had minimal defects and were easier to unbox, at least on standard releases. I can't speak to Skulltimate Secrets as they have yet to show up in my area, which is unfortunately a very common problem with dolls here, they take months to show up and rarely clearance out. But besides that, MH focuses on having fun with the designs and giving each character a clear individual vibe. It's driven by characters, and even though I haven't gotten as much of a feel for the show as I'd like, I'm a sucker for stories and character concepts, which makes MH stronger for me. (Also side note, really appreciating Twyla. I have never had an autistic character that I've loved the writing on, and she is so special to me, ADORE her. Yes that swayed me into getting her doll, besides the fact that she's got a great design with colors I love, mad love for the door details too.)

Like it's been HARD to narrow down which dolls I want because they're all great! I'm primarily a customizer, but I'm here picking up dolls to customize AND collect with this line, which I did not expect to be doing. I thought Draculaura and Cleo were so pretty that I went and grabbed a second one because I couldn't customize my firsts, they got sentimental fast. But also, ever MH dolls feel different from each other. This Draculaura is so great. I miss some of her G1 fashion and the pigtails, but I love her in the now too (also I can style the hair any way I please, mine has pigtails). The different body additions are nice, like Abbey's new horns, the return of Twyla's glow-in-the-dark eyes, Frankie's awesome new leg, the wide variety of sculpts and shapes (I will not shut up about how much I love the ears this generation).

There are things I like about RH too. The hair is nice, I've had fun styling it, and some of the designs are very cute. My very first doll was Stella Monroe, and I love her, even though I wish her neck was articulated better (posing for photos is a big deal for me). Brianna Dulce? LOVE her too, just wish she came with more than pajamas. Carmen Majors, Emi Vanda, Shanelle Onyx, Delilah Fields, all really solid, beautiful designs. I tend to gravitate towards the dolls that stand out from the rest of their respective lines. I'm not really into the whole thing with modern fashion and brand parodies, but some of the clothes are interesting (Emi's skirt with suspenders is a piece I'd wear IRL). At the very least, I liked it when they still came with extra shoes, though the generic high heels were again, not my vibe (I have complaints about MH shoes too though, I want more that's out-of-the-box). Like, the clothes are very high quality and I will give them so much credit for that, but that doesn't mean much when most of the fashion choices aren't to my taste. X'''D And nor should they be, clearly I'm not the target audience.

I've had a lot of poor experiences with RH, a majority of my dolls have come with defects, and they're so hard to get back into the box to return/customer service kind of sucks. There should not be so much staining and paint smearing when I'm paying as much for them as they are. Maybe that's changed since I stopped collecting them (for the sake of the current audience I hope it has), but I just, don't really wanna go any farther. There's a lot to appreciate about Rainbow High, but even for the dolls that are at the same price points as MH, I'm just not into it. I'm a big supporter of "if you don't like something, you can change it with art", but there's so much that I'd want to change about RH as opposed to MH that it's not worth it for me.

That being said, I love all the girlies that I have, and I look forward to seeing what's in store for the future. Both lines are doing some really cool things that vibe with a lot of different people, and that's great! What a treasure! Happy collecting fellow doll fans!

Question for collectors! If Rainbow High/Shadow High and (g3) Monster High dolls were both being sold for the exact same price and you had to choose one or the other to buy, which would you choose and why?

I'm genuinely curious to hear people's thoughts and reasonings for this. I'd also like to add that because this is hypothetical try to be generous in your thoughts. Like I wouldn't compare core Clawdeen to Lola Wilde, but I would happily compare Skulltimate Secrets Draculaura with Minnie Choi.

[sanchoyo]

danny phantom season 2, episode 17-20 thoughts! finishing up season two! the finale is the THIRD 2-PARTER OF SEASON 2. that's so many! I wonder how many season 3 will have?

see prev episode thoughts in this tag <3

-UERGH WHY DOES VLAD HAVE AN AI WITH MADDIE'S FACE ON IT. SOOO CREEPY. AND MORE 'CREATIONS' waiiiit. vlad is Dr. Frankenstein! (despite his ghost design obviously referencing vampires) HE HAS 'CREATIONS' HE MAKES THEN WONT TAKE REAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR!!! this bitch.

-danny was late and his friends immediately start going off about how hes inconsiderate, and has been treating them like sidekicks??? he just overslept, my god. chill. even if he has, be nicer about talking about it with him?? he really can't help that he sometimes has to chase the ghosts, or has a secret identity to protect...

-'what kind of ghost haunts a miniature golf course' umm. me as a ghost. next question

-imagine going home and theres a tiny child on your bed claiming to be your cousin. with as many cousins I have, I would probably believe her. but the 'ran away from home' BIT....SHES 12?? SHES SO TINY. I hate that they have her belly out in her ghost form, but I like how her colors are asymmetrical. something about her design...maybe the proportions?? are weird to me...anyway danny was good to feed her, but he shouldve taken her to his parents FIRST. or, tbh, probably jazz. (JAZZ DIDNT EVEN GET TO MEET HER!!! NOOO. I mean she said she'll be BACK BUT STILL)

-ANYWAY. shes voiced by AnnaSophia Robb, the girl who was in because of winn dixie, played as violet from charlie and the chocolate factory, and was the girl from bridge to terrabithia. (the movie that made me cry hysterically when I was 12 and I never watched it again because it Broke Me!) thats super cool.

-vlad sucks: the episode, basically. what's new!! I love how he's like, I'm Not A Villain. *immediately cuts to him torturing danny to make him transform, to get mid-transformation DNA, to perfect a Clone.* *immediately shows that he doesnt give a shit about his new daughter Dani and just wants a ''more perfect clone'' and will put her in danger to get that. will let her DIE to get that*

-Dani is danny's clone and is a girl? transgenderism....one of them has to be trans. or they both are.

-dani just. leaving at the end. WHAT? SHES 12. DONT JUST. NO!!! SHE WAS PROBABLY JUST BORN, A MONTH AGO AT MOST, RIGHT?? SHE NEEDS...SOMEWHERE TO LIVE. MONEY? FOOD?? A FAMILY?? AN EDUCATION???! WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S LEAVING!!! OKAY BYE I GUESS!!! D: concern!!!

-the next ep opens with skulker chasing a ghost down. ...does skulker count as a ghost hunter in the way valerie and danny do? I mean, sure, he hunts the good guys too, but he. he hunts ghosts...also, we haven't seen his Real Form since his debut episode! tiny...

-the guys in white are back! ngl, I assumed they were a gag for that one episode. you're telling me they might actually be a threat? ok.

-valerie in her lil nasty burger uniform looks so cute!! glad shes not in that mascot uniform this time. I guess she stopped hiding that she's working there now?

-gregor having white hair, dressed in black and white...and green eyes...sam has a Type, I guess.

-danny being unnecessarily hostile about gregor. danny!!! hes been nice so far. he looks a little...tall to be 14, but. danny doesnt know anything about him! (he does Suspect, but...you cant just spy on people and be rude to them from a hunch.) also, gregor kissed her, and when she freaked out, he was like 'oh no!! sorry, we can take it slow! I understand!' which was NICE. I hate jealousy plots still tho.

-altho. umm. tucker, being concerned about danny spying on them??? SAM AND YOU WERE SPYING ON DANNY AND VALERIE A FEW EPISODES AGO!!!!! im not saying its RIGHT, but dont be a hypocrite!!! AND THEN SAM BEING MAD ABOUT IT, TOO.

-DANNY IS A 7 ON THE SCALE OF ECTOPLASMIC POWER!!! out of 10? so I want to know where the other ghosts rank...I mean it's a list from the guys in white, so, it may not even be accurate, like, they havent seen ALL of his powers, have they?

-Lancer being like 'im not cooperating with the FEDS' until they said they could access his tax records. they already did that joke with jack, but like, its still funny. kings of tax evasion.

-tucker's aggressive third-wheeling. but gregor being super into it. gregor/tucker is the real ship here. then gregor kissing danny on both cheeks after hugging him. bi poly king gregor. (he does turn out to be a liar with a phoney accent. unsurprising, BUT THE CONCEPT OF HIM BEING GENUINE AND THEM ALL DATING IS FUN)

-THE...GUYS IN WHITE THINKING GREGOR IS DANNY PHANTOM. LMAOOO. GET HIS ASS. or,, Elliot. lmfao

-sam saying tucker is part of the package because theyre friends was super sweet <3 but also 'part of the package'...polyships are obviously the solution to these dumb jealousy/love triangle plots.

-danny crashed a whole plane. the collateral damage...

-is he....

-you know....

.... (ITS NOT GAY IF YOU'RE DOING IT TO PRETEND TO BE SOMEONE YOU'RE NOT, AND LIE TO A GIRL. RIGHT? he was getting a little too into pretending to enjoy tucker's company, and the above...c'mon, guy.)

-lmao, freakshow is in actual prison. I didn't expect a follow up, or for him to show back up! in the finale of this season, too!

-THE SICK TATTOO GHOST IS NAMED LYDIA!!! more Lore On her. freakshow seemed genuinely concerned about her. also, is she mute? I don't think she talked the first time we saw her, either. and we didn't know freakshow 'envied' ghosts, either, the first time, we just knew he was controlling them. interesting!

-...they literally stole the infinity gauntlet from marvel and called it the reality gauntlet. is that legal. what the fuck. even with the gems in the lil slots, having different powers...they had freakshow in jail, but didnt check his pockets??! hes just still in his lil outfit??? what kind of ...oh, its in amity park. yeah, all of the adults are idiots, okay, sure.

-'freakshow!' 'in the anemic flesh!' dude take some iron pills then. also, sure, the red eyes could be contacts for his aesthetic, but the whites of his eyes are yellow! does he have jaundice?! he severely needs more...like, every kind of vitamin. (this is what im worried about as freakshow attacks danny with giant robots)

-again, goth circus is a sick theme, and I love his goth train.

-oh FUCK every single person saw danny transform. on a stage. including his parents via TV. oh god. the guys in white and immediately like 'youre coming in for experiments!' SCARY. at least the crowd is willing to help him to escape...perks of now being a local celeb! even the kids at school are accepting :) this is what, the third time his family has found out? its always been an alt timeline tho. and danny fully intending to just rewrite things again instead of...I dunno, trying to roll with it this time? hes really worried his family won't accept him, huh...

-'maybe our son IS THE GHOST BOY, but its not as if our family's ghostly activities have EVER PUT YOUR FAMILIES IN DANGER' maddie. mmmmmmmmmmmm. okay.

-danny 100% prepared to run away from home because of this :( oh :( and saying his parents are 'looking for him, or a scalpel to dissect him with' ouch...

-THE GUYS IN WHITE TRYING TO ARREST A 14 YEAR OLD. fuck da feds.

-side note (another one about voice actors...) freakshow's voice actor, Jon Cryer, was lex luthor in pretty much every DC tv show, which is why I recognized his voice, because my dad loves those shows so I've seen a good bit of them without seeking them out...)

-the old man saying 'hey, i still had minutes left!' and danny saying 'you gotta watch those roaming charges!' about danny destroying the people in the diner's phones so no one could report seeing him...would kids today understand these things. can you even BUY minutes anymore...I remember my first phone being a flip phone, and the fact I always had minutes when my sister ran out super fast, because I didnt have friends calling or texting me like she did...:/

-the fentons being genuinely like 'why didnt danny trust us and tell us this, we love him :(' and JAZZ LAYING INTO THEM WITH THE 'DISSECTION/MOLECULE BY MOLECULE' LINES. LITERALLLLY. they need to apologize

-technically, lydias stronger than you! -jazz lesbianism moments! when did you even learn her name!!! but also get freakshows ass. lydia is also cooler looking. looove her design sm still.

-jazz psychoanalyzing freakshow... (also, her also having ghost envy? au where jazz is a ghost!! id like to see it)

-im glad the kids still got to go to their respective vacation things, even if they cant really stick around and enjoy them much...

-furry: confirmed. (also tucker calling her hot. tucker is a furry confirmed)

-danny being mad someone at the comic con is selling comics of him without permission, lmfao. give him his royalties!

-freakshow > thanos because hes a drama clown and does use his gauntlet to be FLASHY AND DRAMATIC.

-jazz's 'USE PYSCOLOGY' to danny about freakshow LMAOO. AND THEN IT WORKING. but, oh, freakshow's ghost form sucks. I like him as a clown better tbh. good thing danny took away his ghost powers!

-his parents hugging him and saying theyre proud :"( and saying 'of course you lied to us, we never gave you a reason not to!' and saying they were in the wrong basically for always talking about hurting ghosts aaaa :""(

-then he WIPED THEIR MEMORIES AGAIN!!! FUCK. I can understand him wiping the goverments/student bodies' memories, but why his parents?? they were being accepting!! ARGHHH. season 3 couldve been them all trying to adjust to them knowing!

-I know, on a meta level the showrunners probably wanted to just reset things to the status quo of him having a secret identity. But. We've been doing that for (2) seasons, I'd love if season 3 could be like, his parents adjusting to this and trying way harder to learn more and accept it (and the shenanigans that could come from that) and for fun, if he didn't wipe the students memories, it could be him being popular for a while, then everyone slowly realizing, oh, he's still Danny. Like. he might have ghost powers but hes Just The Same Guy instead of putting him on a pedestal (and seeing them all try and help him hide it from the giw/people who don't know!!)

-fuck they didn't even explain WHY he wiped everyone except sam, tucker and jazz's memories. he just Did It right when his parents were saying they loved/accepted him!! and sam and tucker didnt question it at all!!! HELLO??? very annoyed about this turn of events.

-anyway. onto season 3! I know its shorter than the first two seasons, and is the last season... I might just do it in 2 bursts if I can... :3c depends on the episodes' content and how much I want to say about each!

[hecallsmehischild]

I think enough time has passed that I can safely talk about the planner. I was waiting in case it was just a passing manic phase (where I experiment with something and drop it after a couple weeks), but it seems to be here to stay.

I've been binge-listening to Jordan Peterson's Q&A videos because, well, there's a whole lot of practical and therapeutic wisdom there for free. One of his most frequent pieces of advice to people who asked him about organization or dealing with depression or anxiety was to use a calendar or a planner of some sort.

I brushed this idea off for many years. For a few periods of my life I've tried listing out my to-do's on Tumblr or in my journal, and tried using Google Calendar, but none of it worked for me consistently.

And then Dr. Peterson said something I'd never heard before. He said to not use the calendar in a way that you were both tyrant over yourself and slave to yourself. He said to design the sort of day you would actually like to have.

I took this and combined it with a couple other things he mentioned. First was that if you genuinely ask yourself a question and are truly open to the answer, you will often receive information you didn't know before. Second, that promising yourself a limited task and then rewarding yourself for that task is important, and breaking that contract with yourself in ANY WAY (like doing that task for longer than you said, or reneging on the reward) means that you cheated a part of yourself, and that part of yourself will make it much harder to engage in the task NEXT time you try promising yourself a reward because you no longer believe your own promises.

So I asked myself, "What would it take for me to use a planner?" And the answer came back, "Shiny stickers."

I think I used to love stickers. Memory is hazy, but I was raised in Sunday School, and I'm pretty sure stickers were a reward, either there or in daycare. I'd been thinking about them for a long time, actually, but kind of brushed off the thought as too childish to really make a difference. But this time I decided to give it a try.

So I sorted through a whole bunch of planners on Amazon and looked for one that fit my needs. I picked one that didn't have set days (write in your own date at the top) so I didn't feel bad or wasteful about missed/empty pages. I picked one that included starting your day with a thing you're thankful for. I don't use it enough, but there is a water counter on each page which is also useful for someone like me who is in a constant state of forgetful dehydration. I went out and purchased two sheets of colorful star stickers (much like you would get in a day care or Sunday school) and about four sheets of much larger flower/butterfly/unicorn stickers. Over the first couple of months, I established the rules in the front page:

I get one large pretty sticker if I finish my day.

Fun activities may be exchanged for other fun activities, but not eliminated.

Tasks may be swapped between days.

Here's why this solution is working out fabulously for me:

Even if I don't finish everything in my day, the end of every task is rewarded with a shiny star (or smiley face) sticker, so I'm still REWARDED for completing any number of tasks.

If I finish ALL items on my day, then I get a bigger, prettier sticker, and it is an odd little endorphin rush of satisfaction to do so.

I'm a very forgetful person who lets completed tasks float away into a haze. Prior to this, if you asked me, "What did you do today?" I could have been doing chores all day and would not be able to answer you. This led to years of self-talk along the lines of, "Man, I'm so useless. I don't do anything worthwhile." NOW what happens is that I look at my list and know exactly what I did. In fact, if I decide I want to do an extra chore today, I do it, write it down, and immediately sticker it. I haven't heard the "useless" claim in my head for weeks.

Previously, I just had one To-Do list that continued to grow. I'd knock off a few items, but then think of several more that needed doing and the list would grow again. This lends a feeling of futility to me finishing things on the list because the list NEVER ENDS. NOW, I can choose to put some things on tomorrow's list and some things on the list for the next day. If I remember something that needs doing, I can make sure it's written down sometime in the next 2-3 days, but every day's list has an END.

I'm more encouraged to break large, overwhelming-looking tasks into manageable sizes. How much of my large manuscript can I manage editing today? I can manage one chapter today. Can I manage all the small cleaning tasks today, or one of the big ones? All the small ones (individually marked out on the page). Do I have the time/energy to start a new project? Well, I can at least start X amount of it and feel it out, etc.

I'M NOT A TYRANT TO MYSELF. I include things like gaming, reading, making a wire tree, or baking bread on the list. The things I enjoy doing in my spare time, the things that feed my soul? They go on the list as "fun things" and even if I change my mind about WHICH fun thing I want to do, I don't get to eliminate it from the list if I want that big shiny sticker at the end of the day.

If I don't get to finish a task because it was dependent on someone else who didn't show, I don't sticker it, but I make a note by it and don't count that against myself when it comes time to award the big sticker.

I don't set times for myself because I don't find that to be useful, but I can see how it would be useful to some people. I still don't know what my big end goal is, but I get the feeling I'll know it when I see it. I'm still waiting on that. My current goal is to keep things clean and pleasant around here, to have good relations with neighbors and housemates, to finish making the house functional, and to continue personal growth. For now, I think using the schedule is helping me accomplish all of these. And that's really exciting.

(below, this is not the Q&A but it encapsulates his concept of schedules and goals pretty well)

[jadelotusflower]

June 2021 Roundup

It's been a month of highs and lows. Every year my city holds a cabaret festival, and I've seen some truly amazing acts over the years - including Lea Salonga, Kristin Chenoweth, and Indina Menzel. This year's Artistic Director was the great Alan Cumming, and although due to covid he didn't quite get to curate the program he wanted to, the opening night Gala was still a highlight, as was Alan's DJ set at the pop-up Club Cumming afterwards, where there was much singing at the top of my lungs and dancing to pop anthems and theatre tunes. At one point Alan, dressed in a onesie and perched on the shoulders of a man wearing only sparkly short shorts, was carried around the dance floor while Circle of Life blared. Reader, I was delighted.

I was also able to see his solo show Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age, which was hilarious and damn, he can sing!

As for the low, I was meant to fly to Sydney for the weekend to see Hamilton, a trip I have been looking forward to for almost a year, but had to be cancelled because of a covid outbreak and border closures. The tickets have been rescheduled, but I'm still kind of bummed about it (while completely appreciating the need for covid safety, especially when our vaccine rollout has been completely botched by our incompetent, corrupt federal government)

Anyway.

Reading

The Hundred and One Dalmations (Dodie Smith) - With all the bewilderment over Disney's Cruella, I decided to revisit the original novel which I first read as a kid. It's funny, I had very vivid memories of this book, or rather thought I did, particularly the scene where Roger and Anita have dinner at Cruella's house that fixed in my young mind as utterly disturbing with all this devil imagery and the implication Cruella was literally some kind of demon, which must have been either a) my overactive imagination or b) an illustration, because it's not as clear as I thought it was. The strangeness is there (food with too much pepper, Cruella's inability to keep warm, the walls painted blood red) but not the explicit demon imagery I had remembered. There is a part later in the book recounting the history of Hell Hall and the rumors of Cruella's ancestor streaking out of the place conjuring blue lightening, but clearly child me was reading far more into the book than was on the page.

But I still wish they'd gone with this version of Cruella's backstory, because to me an aristocratic, ink-drinking, heat-obsessed, possibly-demon spawn, high camp villain is more interesting and rings far more true than plucky punk against the establishment.

Smith clearly had Facts About Dalmations to share, and she does really craft a wonderful animal-based story that the Disney animated film is largely faithful to. Key differences include: Roger's occupation (he doesn't have to pay tax because he wiped out government debt somehow?!?), Pongo's mate and the puppy's mother is called Missis, Perdita is another dalmation who acts as a kind of doggie wet nurse, Roger and Anita both have Nannies who come to live with them (Nanny Butler and Nanny Cook), Cruella is married to a furrier (who changed his last name to de Vil). Also odd, on her first description Cruella is described as having "dark skin" but later in the novel her "white face" is mentioned, so I'm chalking it up to 50's descriptors not having the same meanings they do today.

The Duke and I (Julia Quinn) - After being just whelmed by the tv series, I wasn't really planning on reading the books, but I saw this on the top picks shelf at the library and damn, the top picks shelf is irresistible. This is very much Daphne's book (and I had known each in the series dealt with the different sibling) so many of the characters and much of the plot of the show is absent, as are some of the more baffling elements of the show like the Diamond of the First Water nonsense, which I always thought was a strange character choice in that it stacks the deck for Daphne when her character arc is better served as somewhat of an underdog (in her third season, the kind of girl who is liked but not adored), and the Prince subplot which was always far too OTT even for soapy regency romance.

It's a breezy, fun read (that scene excepted), even if the misunderstandings are contrived and I'm never going to take "I'll never have kids because I hate my dad" as a credible romantic obstacle deserving of so much angst.

Faeries (Brian Froud and Alan Lee) - A lovingly detailed and illustrated compendium of Faerie and its inhabitants, drawing from a range of European (but primarily Celtic) folklore and mythology. Froud was a conceptual designer on The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, and the link is clear in the art as well as the focus on faeries as mysterious but oftimes sinister beings, where human encounters with them rarely end well. Lee has illustrated several publications of Tolkien's novels, and was a lead concept artists for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, and there is a touch of Middle Earth here as well, or rather the common inspiration of the old world. A useful resource for my novel!

Watching

The Handmaid's Tale (season 4, episodes 4-8) SPOILERS - So when I last wrote about this show in the Roundup, I was complaining it wasn't going anywhere. Well, I'm happy to be wrong because they finally changed things up with June finally escaping to Canada. That part of the plot following the survivors and their trauma has always been far more compelling than Gilead, and so it was a welcome development even if I side-eye some of the choices (none of these characters is seeing an actual licensed therapist why?).

This show has always been difficult to watch given the subject matter, and that has not changed after the shift in power dynamics. I will give the show credit for showing a broad range of trauma responses, from Moira wanting to move on and not let it consume her, to June, a ball of rage and revenge on a downward spiral, to Emily, trying to follow Moira's path but being drawn to June's, to Luke, trying his best but utterly unequipped to deal with what is happening.

But it is very hard to watch June go down this path - raping her husband (I concede the show perhaps didn't intend for it to be rape, but that's what is on screen and framing it as just "taking away Luke's agency" doesn't change that), wishing death on Serena's unborn child, and orchestrating Fred's brutal murder by particulation, then holding her own daughter still covered in his blood and it getting smeared on Nicole's face (an unsubtle metaphor in a series full of unsubtle metaphors).

There are interesting questions being asked of the viewer, and the show (perhaps rightly) not giving any answers. I can certainly appreciate the catharsis of Fred getting what he deserves even if I personally find the manner of it horrifying, but where is the line between justice and revenge, is revenge the only option when justice is denied, when does a trauma release become cyclical violence/abuse - the show is, for now, letting the viewer decide.

Soul (dir. Pete Docter and Kemp Powers) - In a world full of remakes/reboots/sequels, Pixar is perhaps the lone segment under the Disney umbrella committed to original content. However, there does seem to be a Pixar formula at work directed to precision tugging the heart strings, and some of the film feels like well-trod ground. On the other hand, it's hard to criticise the risk of centering a kids film around the existential crisis of a middle aged man, even with the requisite cutesy elements (and of course, the uncomfortable pattern of yet another film where the black lead character spends a great deal of the runtime in non-human form - herein, an amorphous blob or a cat). But the animation is stunning, it successfully did tug my heart strings, and the design of the Great Before and the Jerrys is original and fun.

RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under - Drag Race is somewhat of a guilty pleasure for me, since I generally don't watch reality shows, and this is something I really enjoy even if I'm not invested in the fandom (which like many fandoms can be very yikes). This year it was time for the Australian/New Zealand (Aotearoa) queens to show their stuff, although it's been met with mixed reactions. Covid restrictions didn't allow for guest judges, relegating them to mere cameos via video calls, and its clear that Ru and Michelle really don't quite get all the cultural nuances - Aussie judge Rhys Nicholson was however always delightful. But it wouldn't be Australia without a racism scandal, with the great disappointment of the two queens of colour eliminated first, and one queen having done blackface in the recent past yet making it all the way to the top four.

In the end, the only viable and deserving winner was last Kiwi standing Kita Mean, and it was pure joy to see her get crowned. I do hope they fix the bugs and indeed do another season to better showcase AU/NZ talent.

Writing

A far more productive month - to try and get out of my writing funk I had a goal to try and write every day, even if it was only 100 words. While I didn't quite achieve a consecutive month, I did get a pretty good average, at least got something posted and two others nearly there.

The Lady of the Lake - 2441 words, Chapter 4 posted.

Against the Dying of the Light - 2745 words

Turn Your Face to the Sun - 1752 words.

Here I Go Again - 1144 words

Total words this month: 8082

Total words this year: 35,551

[jongdality]

me thinkin' about how i've grown up with exo and watched as they lived and learned and developed as professionals and humans, overcoming the struggles of a poor debut concept and scandal after scandal with their tenacity and love for each other

Then thinkin' about how Kyungsoo, a somewhat aloof, awkward and weird boy who decided to be bold and try out for SM after old people at karaoke competitions told him to and he made 8 brothers for life who love him dearly and support him and his antics and his acting career and call him cute no matter how much he says he isn't good at anything and that he's boring and Manly and how he has starred in a full-ass movie and is partially credited as breaking the "idol-actor" stereotype and writes love songs with chanyeol on the DL that chanyeol reveals on his lives and wrote the lyrics to a lovely, comforting song for us before leaving to join the military so he can become an even bigger star in multiple films once he gets out

Then thinkin' about how bbh, an outgoing boy who flicked lights on and off to make his friends giggle, met a friend for life, kjd, on the very same day they both were to audition to get into a group that was about to debut, how he worked hard to break down barriers in the group and became the moodmaker, and how people thought he was bad at dancing because he hadn't had time to train but actually every solo dance he's been given he's slayed to the point that he became the CENTER FOR CBX, how he worked hard to learn piano in a very short amount of time to play The Answer for his EXO-Ls, how even after an early scandal in which is privacy was invaded he still looks at us with such love and protection and is NOW an amazing solo artist who texts the exo group chat saying he misses them so much

Then thinkin' about Suho. Kim frickin' Joonmyeon. The underdog of the entire group. Born rich, charismatic and well-educated, could have been ANYTHING but CHOSE to train for SEVEN YEARS due to his love of music. You guys. When Baek and another member got into trouble for cussing while playing video games sometime in 2012-2013 and a sasaeng threatened to reveal the voice clips of them cussing purportedly to apink members, joonmyeon texted her personally, so cold, so professional, "are you blackmailing us? If you release the clip you won't be forgiven" big fuckin dad energy, worked so hard on his singing and dancing yet still asks not to be given too many lines or placed center too often, gives up his seats for his members ALWAYS, accepted their first awards show win alone stoic and professional as the boys broke down in the back room after the news of kris leaving broke, now has multiple solo songs and acts and is literally set to be higher-level management at SM due to all his hard work, definitely puts out that goofy mom energy but is actually extremely intelligent, protective and the go-to guy for all the members and this para has no point i just think kim joonmyun deserves everything

Remembering that chanyeol has a famous sister and is a multitalented instrumentalist that didn't actually need to become an idol, but he did because he wanted "brothers", how he skyrocketed an entire foot from debut til now, how he's all teeth and ears and big anime eyes and legs and he's confident and happy after years of struggling w his weight and self-image, makin music and writing lyrics and modeling for tommy hilfiger and riding scooters in paris and despite the fact that he can't dance he tries, despite the fact that he didn't audition to be a rapper he became one of korea's best, how he turns into a little kid every time he's around any small animal and just tries to cuddle and feed it as he coos in his Low Man Voice, his tough raps but then his soft exo station song SSFW, and now exo-sc with his bestie and ACTING!!!

Thinkin' about Xiumin. Xiumin who came in as a vocalist and ended up being one of the best dancers in the group (even tho he hits the highest notes!!!). Xiumin who is the oldest and wisest but is still willing to throw that ass back to havana to make cbx laugh. Xiumin who is korea's pick, who kids and ahjummas alike fall for. Xiumin who is beautiful and quiet and humble and supports his brothers from the sidelines, who is so loving and caring, who released an adorable solo that matches him so well and is now winning fckn awards in military training for being so goddamn amazing. Xiumin who attends TVXQ concerts and supports all of his fellow celebrities. Mark's dad. Amazing man. Says he has no friends outside of exo but literally everyone loves him. Dedicated his formative years to the group even when he wasn't spotlighted like he deserves to be and-

Lay. That's it. That's the paragraph. He came in not speaking Korean and is now one of the top-grossing musicians in all of China. Breaking barriers. Learning languages in a matter of months. Solo albums out the wazoo that he composed. Coming back to wish Kyungsoo goodbye even though he hasn't been on a stage with them in years. Didn't leave, although I'm sure he was mistreated just as much as the members who did. All of exo loves him so fucking much.

Kai. Kai who could have been a professional ballet dancer, could have been a full-time model, debuts as the SCREAMO BOY in mama. Gets made fun of for his skin complexion. Is shy and embarrassed for the first 2 or 3 years of exo interviews, and is still pretty shy and introverted. But boy became the fucking IDOL'S IDOL. FANCAMS GOING VIRAL LEFT AND RIGHT. SUSTAINING INJURIES, CRYING WHEN HE MESSES UP AN EXTREMELY DIFFICULT DANCE ROUTINE TO "I SEE YOU". Is such a perfectionist to the point of pushing himself into constant injury, and besides that has had his personal life broadcasted all over the news MULTIPLE times even though he's so shy and withdrawn irl. People cry to meet him, now. Front and center of every exo dance. A dancing god and the reason half of NCT auditioned. I cannot emphasize how proud I am of Kai, who is only a few months older than sehun yet has had to grow up so fast as the face of the group. Solo during the olympics with plantar fasciitis. Model who stuns at every Gucci show in new and experimental designs.

Sehun. Oh fuckin' Sehun. Ran away from recruiters because his mom told him not to talk to strangers, and now he's modelling for every major fashion campaign, is on the cover of vogue, has his dream dog and certifiably has the biggest dick of all exo members. Became a main dancer through hard work and practice even though nobody ever talks about how hard osh works bc he's sort of overshadowed by kai. Insecure about his singing voice but makes crowds go wild every time he even croons out one beautiful, dulcet line. Babied by junmyeon, kissed and coddled by all the exo members, still has Big Baby Energy but is debuting in a group with his fellow chaotic neutral yeol and looking all sexy with his swooped back hair and his 0 follows on insta. Sings in We Young and raps his little heart out. His solo during concerts still shake my very uterus and im pretty sure he's gay. That's how powerful ohs is, and he can only go up from here.

And finally my baby boy kim jongdae. Chanyeol once said Jongdae is so nice that he comes off as stupid and that is absolutely positively true. Boy is the manifestation of the john mulaney quote "you could pour soup on my lap and id apologize to you". Is a ray of fucking sunshine whose only goal as he was singing in that video from high school was to "become a singer". It's his passion. It's the reason he LIVES. He prays to jesus before every concert but worships music. One of THE best vocalists in the game with the cleanest and most controlled voice, sings in the shower, sings in the car, sings while walking to pet some deer, sings because he loves it and now he's a soloist with his own album out and another in the works, and not only that, he dances his feet on fire in CBX and exo routines and remains steady to hit those high notes. Duets abound because everyone loves him. Will tell a bitch to back off when talking about his private life bc he's probably a husband with 6 happy, healthy children at home. Started out as the nervous boy chasing a dream on that fateful day with bbh and became the nation's pick, sings CONSTANTLY, yet is still so humble he opens up a yt channel just to cover other artists' songs. MCs for Baekhyun's solo and shows up to all his performances to monitor. Heart of gold. Smiles when he's hurting. Deserves this solo career and deserves the happiest life this world can provide him.

Words aren't enough to express how grateful I am for these men, how proud I am and how much I just want them to know that we know how hard they've worked to get as far as they have. Compare them to any other group, even other SM groups, and it's clear that their passion, drive, skill and professionalism is unrivaled. They are all born artists and musicians down to their core, and with that, they're all kind, sweet people who are who they are because they debuted as 18, 19, 20, etc year old men 7 years ago and have grown up together, suffered together, celebrated together and loved together. They've switched up sounds, concepts, gone experimental, have created some of the most beautiful ballads and harmonies music has ever seen, and they strive for nothing but the best. ALWAYS. They have never disappointed me, and they never fail to inspire me every time they show the fruits of all their labor (as well as multiple creative people and teams that come together to create EXO) onstage as one.

Exo we are one, saranghaja.

[dead-night-harringrove]

Upside Down Headcanons:

Gonna tag @kingbillyharringrove because the two of us have talked in depth about this before, and @paladin-cleric-mage because they requested me to tag them! Love you guys. Lots of this will be me babbling about cool facts too because I love biology so much.

The most commonly accepted and seen headcanon- the Upside Down wildlife (with the possible exception of the Mindflayer) are a form of semi-sentient plant evolution. That being said, I'm now going to break down the different plant aspects of wildlife I have developed and would like to share, as well as habitat, time cycles, and weather.

Parasitic Plants

I would like to bring to your attention Rafflesia Arnoldii, also known as the Stinking Corpse Lily. It has a putrid, decaying flesh scent and produces the largest known individual flower in the world. "It is parasitic on members of the genus Tetrastigma (in the grape family, Vitaceae). It has no roots or leaves and most of the time lives unobserved inside the woody stems and roots of its host." (Source) Also, it looks like this:

I can absolutely see the Democreatures being evolved from this beauty. In their larval stages, they would have to have a host to survive(as seen with Will, who was the host for what was probably Dart) There are many different types of Rafflesia that look very similar but are smaller however, so that's food for thought as well.

While we have not seen much in terms of the actual Upside Down (which is both a shame and a crime), it is easy to assume there are more living variants to the ecosystem than just the three we have been shown. It is, after all, an entire realm parallel to our own. And so, I would like to introduce you to Hydnora Africana, another unique parasitic plant, that grows in the roots of Euphorbia caput-medusae, a succulent. It's undetermined whether or not it has roots or a stem, though it's makeup lends it more towards having one root system and no stem. It's appearance is also fascinating, and it's far too easy to imagine some monstrous creature based off of it:

The fine white threads when in first bloom are just wide enough for beetles to get in through, but may find it difficult to escape through. After a few days the "teeth" pull apart so that the beetles may escape and distribute their pollen. (Source)

There is also the plant Orobanche fasciculata, or Clustered Broomrape. They are endangered in many states, including Indiana! (Source) "Clustered Broomrape (Orobanche fasciculata), also known as Yellow Broomrape, has mostly 5-10 long, slender, 1-flowered stalks rising from a short, trunk-like stemusually 2-6 inches (5-15 cm) long. It occurs in the midwestern and Plains states." (Source) It is also nicknamed the Cancer Root, and it's a parasitic herb.  The species has both male and female reproductive organs, and is a perennial(meaning it comes back each year.) (Source) It is parasitic on the roots of Ambrosia and other members of the Compasitae. It is one of plants I have based herbivorous creatures off of, prey animals that act as a food source for Rafflesia and Hydnora variants. The reasoning for this is because of its medicinal uses. "The root is pectoral. The chewed root has been used as a dressing on wounds and open sores. An infusion of the leaves is used as a wash on sores. Forms of the plant that are parasitic on sweet sage roots have been used as a treatment of cancer." (Source) It looks like this:

Fungi

With the spores that are constantly in the air of the Upside Down, and the often-times toxic nature of fungi, it's all too easy to picture variations of wildlife as evolved sentience from them as well. Here are some good contenders for potential wildlife!

Hydnellum Peckii, or the Bleeding Tooth Fungus, is a creature I've actually drawn and designed before! Similar to the Demogorgon, it is a humanoid omnivore. "Scientifically known as hydnellum peckii, the young bleeding tooth fungus’s thick red fluid oozes through its tiny pores, creating the appearance of blood. The underside of the cap has tooth-like spines. As it matures, the mushroom’s pale pink centre becomes dark, almost black, in colour... The bleeding tooth fungus is a mycorrhiza fungus, engaging in a symbiotic association with the roots of a vascular plant. The fungus receives fixed carbon from the host and, in return, improves the host plant’s mineral absorption." (Source) It looks like this:

The Bleeding Tooth Fungus creature is a stealth hunter, lying in wait completely still. The blood colored fluid is also scented like blood, luring in unsuspecting prey for the creature to strike quickly and effeciently. It is not built for speed but rather strength and quick movements.

Armillaria mellea, also known as a Honey Mushroom, is a parasitic version that colonizes dead or dying plants, and will kill living hosts. It has an enzyme that gives it bioluminescence, and colonized plants where this fungus is present are known as Foxfire. (Source) It looks like this:

Creatures based off of these fungi would loan themselves to bioluminescence, in either a total glow or perhaps something with design, such as species patterns.

Bioluminescence

This one is purely self-indulgent and festures heavily into an AU I've had in development for months and talked about at length with @kingbillyharringrove and @wickedlittleoz for being a rare jarringrove au.

I like to headcanon that there are enzymes that exist naturally in the water of the Upside Down, and when ingested and entering the bloodstream have a reaction with white blood cells that cause a bioluminescent reaction. I like to headcanon that this is why, despite the darkness of the night, it is never truly dark. There's always a dull glow at the very least.

Day & Night Cycles

I love the idea of the Upside Down having a day time, and I now feel ROBBED knowing that the original concept art had considered it! I like the idea of the Upside Down having a Red Sun instead of a sun like ours. During the day, the world os illumimated in a reddish glow and colors appear distorted to what we are used to. The plants tend to have more bluish purple tones during the day.

The dusk and dawn times are brilliant and full of life, with all the glowing beasts and fungi bursting to life in the first hour after sunset and right before sunrise. The late night period is the darkest, when things are either sleeping or hunting. Carnivores have evolved so that their glow is hidden, patterned like the flora surrounding them. This helps hide them from prey animals who might have eyes and flee.

(Early concept art for the Upside Down)

Weather and Habitat

Now aside from the storm surrounding the Mindflayer, we don't have any real basis for the weather in the Upside Dowm aside from stale and still. My own headcanons include a few other phenomena including:

Acid rain storms. It's a world of death and shadows and decay. Acid rains fit in beautifully with this ideal.

Extreme heat waves, especially during the summer months when many of the creatures travel deep deep south or high high north towards the ever-frozen poles. Alternatively, the summer is when the heat-based creatures come out from hibernation or migrate back from their position at the equator.

Speaking of the equator, much like our world it's considerably warmer than the rest of the planet. Unlike our world, it's literally uninhabitable by the rest of the planet. It's a scorching barren wasteland with extreme volcanic activity and large pockets of gas below the surface of the earth that frequently boil over and explode. The gases are deadly to breathe in even for the native creatures.

Sand and glass storms. Sand storms are prevalent on the outskirts of the equator, where deserts line the center of the globe. Glass storms are closer to the center of the equator, where freak lightening and rapid heat rising keeps the sands crystalized and when the wind catches them and cools the molten sand rapidly, it turns into glass. It's not fun.

The Ocean

This one is fair game, and honestly? Not one I've put too much development into because the possibilities are wider than we can even imagine. I mean, hell. Our OWN oceans provide otherworldly horrors on a daily discovery basis. What would the Upside Down have to offer?

The only thought we've really put into it is @kingbillyharringrove and I decided that the deepest part of our own ocean was a connector to the Upside Down's. When it comes to the oceans, our worlds overlap consistently.

[zombiiesque]

Nocturne Alchemy Seth's Dinosaur Collection - PART ONE

Originally published on 6/27/2017

Hello, everyone! I've been wanting to write some reviews for a while now, but we moved, and then I promptly came down with a really bad case of bronchitis, that did not seem to want to go away. I ended up with two different antibiotics and almost went to the hospital at one point, but it's mostly dissipated finally. Well, then I had to put my house together and get everything situated here, and I'm sure anyone that has moved understands how much effort that takes. I haven't moved in over four years, and I felt really bad about not getting my house organized! And here I am, going on and on. Anyway, I had intentions of reviewing Seth's Dinosaur Collection for quite a while, but I think it's particularly relevant now. Nocturne Alchemy is reopening in 4 days, on June 30th! *squeeing and flailing* I'm so excited to see the site redesign. Also, they've been working on new label art, and from what I understand, they'll be adding new scents to the various Permanent Collections. So much fun. I'm sure it's going to be beautiful. If you'd like to keep up with them in the meantime, they have been posting fun things on their Facebook Business page, including a sneak peek video of the new logo, which is absolutely elegant.

Well, I started this last night, and ended up having things to do that needed my immediate intention - so I had to put it down and come back to it in the morning! It seems like that's the way things have been going lately, so now this review is even more timely. Before I delve into it, I want to make mention that I had an email conversation with the NA crew, because I wanted to address some of the rumors I'd seen going around since they'd been closed. I saw that folks were concerned that they wouldn't be reopening, because they've been gone so long, and I also saw that many were worried that the catalogue as it was known might not be returning, so I wrote to see if they'd give me something to share with people - and they did! Such lovely, kindhearted people, and that is the reason I am such a huge "fangirl". I mean, don't get me wrong - they make the most exquisite perfume oils, and of course that drew me in, but once I began to see how much heart they pour into their company, and how much they care about their customers, that really made me fall head over heels. Honestly, in the world of indie perfumes, NA is a pretty good sized company. They've been making perfumes for 10 years now - actually, as it's June, they're into their 11th year, and they have a pretty extensive catalogue! So in their own words, I'll use a direct quote here from Nocturne Alchemy.

NA will return June 30th. We asked our customers last year what they thought of the old NA site. Constructive criticism concluded that it was dated. The truth is, we knew this and had been looking for the right host site for the past two years. We knew it would take time to migrate and create a new site but we'd have to be 100% involved and the focus of a new site would mean we'd have to shut down the old site. In the process, we decided to recreate the art for the labels of the Permanent Collection (we call it the PC because we view perfume as you would at an art gallery, where there is a Permanent Collection and a Limited Collection or the temporary exhibit if you will). In the past six months we've taken some much needed time off after a decade of perfume making, perfume soul-searching, travel for more unique perfume, and also back in the Studio for months now working on new PC, new art for new labels and a new look for NA. It took two years prior to opening NA in 2006 creating a small collection of PC and Limited perfumes, designing labels, the site...the fact that we can do this in six months, means we are at the top of our game. We know what we want to create but you can't rush art. NA will return June 30th. Find us on Facebook to stay up with current information. The PC and Studio Limited will return, as well as the beloved VApothecary line that has been rebranded under Nocturne Alchemy to facilitate cohesiveness at the new site.

So, there you have it! In addition to completely redesigning the site from the ground up, including a different type of "shopping cart", they've been working on all kinds of wonderful things. I am not sure I will even know where to start on Friday! I'm certainly looking forward to digging through the new site - bad pun intended? And now, I have to apologize. As I said, I'd meant to get this posted a few weeks ago, but life sort of threw me under the bus, and I just couldn't give it the proper time it deserved, as the Dinosaur collection, and the eNVie review, both deserve a bit more depth than just reviewing a single perfume. I'll be working on the latter today, to get it posted up hopefully by tomorrow.

So, roughly two summers ago, Nocturne Alchemy released the original Dinosaur collection, which was Seth's baby, as his other passion, from his early childhood, was dinosaurs, and he wanted to do a collection with that theme. I must tell you, it's been one of my very favorite collections, and I'm only missing a few of them. Last summer, they released a Resurgence, and added some new perfumes to the collection. It's alternatively been called the Prehistoric collection, but the name "Seth's Dinosaurs" has kind of become the popular name among the fans, and often gets shortened to "the Dinos". A little note about this collection: "These dinosaur perfumes are created with the beauty of resin in mind for each of them. The concept to this perfume, the label and the respect of the dinosaur is built on imagination. If you look at the label, there is an egg to the left. It is the same color as the Dinosaur. Apply the perfume on wrist and inner elbow and allow the scent to bind with your chemistry. Once this has occurred, inhale. This conceptually, is the egg. To allow the dinosaur to hatch, we wanted you to go to your Studio Limited Library and pull as many as you want, especially your favorites. The magic in layering the dino's with your Studio Limited Library will give your library a new NAVAlchemy aspect of layering and creating your own personal Dino scent. The fun in NAVAlchemy and hatching the dino eggs is all up to you!" - note from Seth. So, I've seen a few comments floating around the internet that say these oils seem to be rather linear, or flat - and I hope that people will read this, because if they don't realize that these were created specifically to be layered, then they'll miss the beauty of these. I do like them on their own, but I find that when they are layered with other perfumes, the beauty and versatility really shines through. I was never adventurous about layering until I was introduced to these beauties, and they really taught me to branch out, because the possibilities are quite endless. What's interesting is that a lot of the SL (Studio Line) is also fantastic for layering, so I'll make some suggestions for these together for you to try. I believe, from the hints that they've been dropping on the Facebook page, that we'll once again be graced with new Dinos this summer. I don't know if it will be happening with the grand reopening, or at some later time in the summer, but it seems that we'll be getting new Dinosaurs to play with! I cannot wait.

So, let's get started! I'll go with the first round of Dinosaurs that I have, and then the second round will be in a separate post. All of the Dinosaurs also make this mention: "*tiny bits of resin may occur in the Dino blends, these will only enrich the blend even more with aging!"

Cryolophosaurus: Resinous Amber Accord, Limestone Amber, Aged Organic Studio created Patchouli, Black Patchouli, SL Crimson and only a drop of fine aged Egyptian White peppercorn eo. So, this was my first love of the Dinosaurs. I was pretty new to NAVA at the time the first collection came out, so I was still trying everything via decants before I sprung for full bottles, because I hadn't learned what worked on me and what didn't yet. I think I ordered decants of everything but Spinosaurus, because I had learned at that point that black honey and I don't get on. Still salty about that! Anyway. The decants arrived, and I tried them all out - and fell madly in love with Cryolophosaurus, and promptly ordered a full bottle. It's....what are words! I feel as though I'm going to be repeating myself here with this collection, but I'll do my best for y'all. The patchoulis in this blend are bright and sort of herbal, almost minty? I don't know if that's a proper patchouli trait, but as a bit of a hippie, I've been a lifelong fan of patchouli (thanks, mom!) and was exposed to the dark and dirty hippie type patchouli early on in life. This was the first time I was exposed to patchouli as a more herbal note, and I was absolutely blown away. I often find NAVA ambers to have a "fresh" sort of quality, and the two ambers used in the Dinosaur collection definitely seem to have that, so it keeps any of these blends from being overly dark. There's definitely a depth and a sort of stoney feel to each one of these, but as I've mentioned, that seems to come out more once you layer them with another perfume, and Cryolophosaurus is no exception. I can wear this happily alone, it's quite different than say Hessonite, which can be a little overwhelming if you're new to patchouli, the ambers lift this up and seem to give the patchoulis a different nuance. You don't get the red musk (Crimson) or pepper aspect very much until you wear this one layered, but those aspects come out and shine once you pair this with another oil. Also, this oil is red! As I've had my bottle for 2 years, there's definitely some resinous bits forming now, but I couldn't seem to capture a picture of it.

I could rave and rave about this one. Goals: If they bring this back as a Resurrection again this year, GET A BACKUP BOTTLE. Hah!

TL;DR A fresh, sort of bright, herbal patchouli. The nuances of the ambers, red musk, and pepper come out to play when you layer this, but you probably won't notice them while wearing it solo.

Layering suggestions: Try this with Kashmir, Crystalline, Amethyst, Santalum, Crystal, White Ambre Ombre. If you have Labyrinth Oudh, this pairs beautifully with that. If you are a patchouli fiend, you might try hatching it with Patchouli Ombre or Hessonite. I like it with Sekhmet Amber and Black Raven, also.

Diplodocus: Resinous Amber Accord, Limestone Amber, a drop of Cacao, Boswellia carterii Frankincense from United Arab Emirates and a drop of steam distilled Oman Frankincense tears we picked from the actual Frankincense tree.

Believe it or not, although I tried all of my decants the summer that the Dinosaur Collection came out, I did not really pursue full bottles of any except Cryolophosaurus. When I heard that the collection was to be resurrected last summer, I decided I needed to try my decants again, and came to the conclusion that I would have to acquire full sizes of all the originals that I had decants of - oh boy! And then there were new ones joining them. I was in trouble. So, I was trying to decide which of these I absolutely had to have, and at first, I had decided since I had Holiday Egyptian Frankincense, I probably didn't need Diplodocus. Well, I fell pretty hard for HEF last summer and found myself layering it with everything, and before I knew it, I had gone through a half a bottle. Panic set in, and I decided I was probably going to need an alternative frankincense, as it was a note I was falling more and more in love with. Diplodocus became a must have, and I am glad I was able to sneak it in my last order before the collection came down. As a stand alone perfume, this is pretty much a linear frankincense - albeit a lovely one. Beautifully woody, you could wear this alone if you were in the mood to wear a sort of single note frankincense, but this lends a wonderful aspect with so many perfumes, I prefer to layer it. Once I layer it with another perfume, the bright, resinous, stony amber comes out to play with the woodiness of the frankincense, and it's heavenly. The cacao is not a starring note, I can find it with my nose only if I keep sniffing, but it plays a lovely supporting role.

TL;DR A perfect frankincense layering note, it does well with adding a sort of grounding to perfumes that might ordinarily be too bright or feminine for my particular tastes, and is lovely paired with the SLs as well to create a duality.

Layering suggestions: Kobalt Dark, Santal Ombre, Egyptian Musk, Crystal, Diamond, or even to add a tad more frankincense to Ember. I've also paired this and love it with Gabriel, Eternal Egypt, and Ozymandias. I love it with several LC perfumes as well; Black Velvet, Black Crystalline Black Fig, Vamp, Anticipation, Blue Lotus, Snow Amber.

Pteranodon: Resinous Amber Accord, Limestone Amber, a drop of Cacao, Pure Sandalwood left to age in the perfume, Santalum Gold, Santalum and a drop of Blue Santalum.

GODS. Gods. This was the one that made me sit up and take notice, why had I missed out on ordering a full bottle, and I need to rectify this immediately! All of the Dinosaurs are fantastic, versatile little workhorses when playing with layering, but Pteranodon became a quick favorite of mine, and dare I say? Yes, I dare, it became my favorite sandalwood thus far. Don't get me wrong, you'll be prying my gloriously aged bottle of SL Santalum out of my cold, dead hands, I absolutely adore Santalum White, especially when spring and summer roll around, but really I can see using it all year...but this, this is special. Samantha tells me that's because it has the most precious of precious, Santalum Gold. Since she sent me a little sample of her precious bottle, I can understand the obsession - there's something pretty amazing about Santalum Gold. It's a little more woody and resinous, more fully sandalwood than the new version Santalum. I love mine, don't get me wrong, but I can see why Santalum Gold is so popular that if one pops up in the secondary market, it is gone within minutes. Ah well, one day I will be quick enough! Until then - Pteranodon. Yes, I can and have worn this alone, and I absolutely adore it. I like it in my hair, it's one of my favorite layering components when I pair it with something and add a few drops of unscented hair oil and run my fingers through my hair. Hnnnnggg. It's hauntingly familiar, it reminds me of when I lived briefly in Minneapolis in the early nineties and I hung out in the head shops and the kitschy little knicknack shops of uptown and the fantastic thrift stores....ahhhh the nineties, it brings me a feeling of nostalgia, for that's when I discovered how glorious sandalwood was. Oddly enough, my mother is a darker creature, and I don't remember her wearing sandalwood during her hippie days, mostly patchouli and musk and especially dragon's blood. She was missing out, I tell you. This. This really evokes some strong emotions in me. So, once layered, again the ambers come out to play, and the cacao is there as a supporting note, but the star is the variety of sandalwoods. You really get a sense of the four once this is layered. I don't know what to say other than IF THIS COMES BACK AND YOU DON'T HAVE IT YOU'D BETTER GET ONE. I'll be picking up a backup. I might not be able to get my hands on Santalum Gold, but this will do.

TL;DR HNNNGGGG GORGEOUS INCREDIBLE SANDALWOOD.

Layering suggestions: Gods, it goes with everything. Seriously. One of my favorite things is to hatch this with a combination of Diamond, Crystalline, and Tibetan Crystalline. Alternately, I'll do Bloodstone, Egyptian Musk, and this (maybe some Amethyst too). It's fantastic with Ember Vanilla or from the LC, Phantasm Kiss. I love it with Egyptian Temple Oudh. Umm, Eternal Egypt, Bastet Amber, Raphael, Black Raven. Ambre Ombre, or even Santal Ombre. I love it with the OPs, Baba, Tawaret, Pakhet, Hathor. I've got a smidgen of my sample of Egyptian Peach Blossom left and it's lovely with that. Polichenelle. Cecilia, Adele, Music, Snow Amber, Patchouli Ombre. There hasn't been a layering combination with this one I haven't loved, so be adventurous. If a perfume seems a bit too sweet or floral, this makes a nice "grounding" effect. Just do yourself a favor and nab this if it comes back!

Tyrannosaurus: Resinous Amber Accord, Limestone Amber, a drop of Cacao, Dracaena Draco of Morocco (Dragon's Blood resin) and Sangre de Grado Dragon's Blood.

One of the things I don't think I've talked about a lot is exactly how much I love NAVA's dragon's blood. I seem to like dark, red, resinous things quite a bit, I mean, Kashmir is practically my signature, followed closely by Bloodstone. So, what is their dragon's blood like? It's that perfect mixture of spicy and fruity. It's so, so well balanced. I don't really like it when a db note veers too much into either territory, leaving the other territory well behind. I want that combination, just a little spicy, just a little fruity, almost delicious. This is another workhorse. Alone, it's a beautifully resinous, juicy dragon's blood with a little kick of spice. It might be too dark alone if you're not into db, but layer this big boy - did Seth name this one well or WHAT? Layer Tyrannosaurus, and it becomes bright and lifted with the amber, and it's possibly even more beautiful than Bloodstone. Wait, what? Blasphemy. Okay, maybe not my bottle of aged, thick, glorious Bloodstone, but it's pretty amazing. Worn alone, T-Rex is a hint of the amber, and the two dragon's bloods. Layered, and he comes into his full glory, the amber comes out to really play, and that lovely supporting cacao becoes just a little bit evident, to give it a little more depth.

TL;DR: T-Rex is a big boy, and this perfume more than lives up to its name. I find it apropos that his scent is dragon's blood. Layered, he is just the right amount of resinous, spicy, juicy dragon's blood and glorious, fresh stony amber. Mmmm. Mm. It makes me hum with happiness.

Layering suggestions: Ember Vanilla, Ambre Ombre, Patchouli Ombre, Santalum, Ember, Black Raven, Mists of Arcacia, OP Anubis, OP Pakhet. From the LC, try it with Phantasm Kiss, Blood Moon, Egyptian Temple Oudh, Copal Oudh, or Pandora.

Utahraptor: Resinous Amber Accord, Limestone Amber, hungry chomps of Kashmir and Black Musk Absolutes, Egyptian Musk and a drop of Crimson and Sri Lankan Black Peppercorn eo.

Oh, Utahraptor. I've listed this last, but not because I love it least. In fact, I adore it, and it's quite versatile - different layering options bring out different facets of this one. I'm sure I've made mention of the fact that I really, really love NAVA musks. Kashmir is probably one of my favorite perfumes. So naturally, I had to have this. Worn alone, this comes across as mostly Kashmir, with a breath of Black Musk underneath, and the amber lifts it up - it might seem like a heavy blend, but it's saved from that by the beautifully clean Egyptian Musk and ambers. Start playing with layering, and while Kashmir, a bold red musk, remains the star, Black Musk and Egyptian Musk come out to play a bit more vocally, and I love that little kick of spiciness in the background of peppercorn. I'm a big fan of pepper in perfumes - Music is a great example of this, I feel, and it's kind of a surprising note, I think that many people would envision it from a cooking spice standpoint, but it's a bit different when added as a component of perfume. It adds a little kick, and it's quite fun. If you've never had the experience, I highly recommend giving it a chance. Anyway, enough about pepper, it's a supporting note here, and gives this "egg" a bit of pizzazz when you hatch it with another perfume.

TL;DR: Kashmir, a bold red musk, is the star here but plays beautifully with the other two musks, Black and Egyptian, when layered. Don't be afraid of the pepper. Despite the musk heavy blend, it's not nearly as heavy as you might think, the ambers lift and brighten this perfectly, and it's quite fun with a variety of different types.

Layering suggestions: Crystalline, Tibetan Crystalline, Santalum White, Egyptian Musk, Ozymandias, Pharaoh Anniversary, OP Baba, OP Set. For LC options, I absolutely am nuts over hatching this with California Redwood Crystal Musk. Also, Underlord Akhenaten, Pyewacket Cat, Pumpkin #2, Copal Oudh, Enigma, and it's amazing with the Byzantium Amber from their 9th Anniversary perfumes.

Okay, whew! That was pretty extensive, I am sorry for the wall of text, but I do hope you'll find my "hatching" suggestions helpful. This really did provide me with the courage to really branch out and become a layering fiend, and now I will layer various perfumes in with my unscented hair oils too, and I get a lot of compliments about how amazing my hair smells. Tomorrow, I'll get the second half of this posted for you, with last year's additions. From the first year, I do not have Spinosaurus, Stegasaurus, or Styracosaurus. Feel free to offer up your own layering combinations with these amazing perfumes! I want to mention one more thing in closing, these are another collection that do even better with age, they become richer and seem to come into their own even more. Have a wonderful evening!

Editing to add a note, and a link to part two! I forgot to mention previously, is that these are lovely when you pair them together! And I've done this several times with different combinations. Pteranodon with Protoceratops or Deinonychus, Velociraptor with Utahraptor, Diplodocus with Giganotosaurus, Protoceratops with almost anything! Hah.

Another thing to mention, if you have eNVie Saphir, many of these are stunning when hatched with Saphir. Definitely worth experimenting with - I have Saphir, Ambre Saphir, and Encens Saphir, and they all do well with the Dinosaurs.