#had to draw this for my wiki doc

[notedchampagne]

back at it again with the tlt diagrams

[arolesbianism]

Just wanted to drop in and say thank you for finding and posting the ONI logs that you do! As someone who loves the story of the game but absolutely would not have the energy to find all of the logs that aren’t on the wiki legitimately its nice to be able to see some of them. The one w/ nails in it is especially interesting! Nails was already one of my favorite dupes but that log made me like them even more tbh. Everyone say thank you to Human Nails™️ for making dupes like actually cognizant.

Also, saw your ONI stuff on artfight! I am absolutely not plotting and scheming anything at all i swear :]

Oghhhh tysm :')!!!! I've been feeling a bit self conscious abt my oni obsession lately so this means a lot! I still need to get around to making my oni story catalogue actually readable, I started a while back but ran out of steam after the like 50th incident with said one with Nails in it lol. And I actually recognized you from artfight! Saw your oni guys a few days ago and I'm honestly obsessed with them, it would be a shame if I had my hand forced and had to draw them :3c

[elkement]

"Eye of the Harmonograph" by elkement 2024. 3D Lissajous figures.

Thinking about inspiration today! Once, an art platform was asking about who - which artists - have been inspiring me. I want to recapture which artists came to my mind when I filled in that artist profile:

~ Physicist (and noble prize winner) Roger Penrose. I read his book The Road to Reality during the pandemic. Consider it a "popular science book", but nit shy of adding mathematics. I was most enchanted by his hand-drawn old-school illustrations. This book inspired both my attempts at drawing, as well as my digital art. The latter indirectly as my visualization of intriguing functions mentioned by Penrose finally made me install SageMath... which led me to explore threejs and math-related digital art.

~ M. C. Escher who will not need any introduction. I once read he has been more revered among mathematicians than among artists. I don't care. "Gödel. Escher, Bach" was THE formative, influential book of my teenage years. I had always figured, Gödel was my hero. I was into math, not art and music. Or so I thought. Now, I think that maybe, it was Escher after all.

~ An Austrian polymath, the late Peter M. Schuster. He was a laser physicist by training, started a laser physics company, then became a science write specializing in biographies of Austrian physicists, funded a museum called a "Center for the History of Physics". He published poetry and mentioned in an interview he was on the fence of studying either physics or literature. (I wrote kind of a tribute here: https://elkement.art/2021/04/11/peter-m-schuster-on-history-of-science/).

With a little deliberation, I'd add the following three today:

~ Douglas Hofstadter, the author of Gödel, Escher, Bach. His books has stunning images, including also a plot he created during his PhD in solid state physics. I had forgotten that in the meantime, but I guess the fact(?) that a PhD in physics could prepare you for a career / life of making connections between all kinds of hard sciences, arts and literature was certainly something that might have shaped my worldview. My thoughts about Gödel. Escher, Bach including quotes of Hofstadter - how he was thinking about the reception of his book: https://elkement.art/2014/04/26/godel-escher-bach-and-strange-loops-nostalgia-and-random-thoughts/

~ Clifford Stoll - also a wanderer between worlds (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Stoll), also between worlds dear to me. An astrophysicist who became an expert in cyber security and accidentally started the field of reverse engineering. His book The Cuckoo's Egg is legend in cybersecurity circles. But before I read his book, I actually stumbled upon a video of his: Where he talks about selling ... Klein bottles of blown glass, out of his charming "Doc-Emmet-Brown-style" workshop and art studio!

~ Paul Friedlander - an artist (with degrees in physics and in fine arts) who pioneered what may now be called New Media Art. Look at his light sculptures: https://paulfriedlander.com/Gallery.html . I saw an interview with him... and he also has a Doc-Emmet-Brown-style workshop and art studio. Adding him is actually cheating, or time-travelling. I was quite a while into my own kind of digital art inspired by physics when I stumbled upon an interview with him. But I could not help thinking: Would I have started creating sooner had I noticed that artists like that do actually exist?

[beesmygod]

old hunters DLC also highlights some themes of colonial violence and exploitation too, imo. what’s been done to the fishing village and kos ties the beast thing up with this idea that like, the impulse to Conquer and Dominate another leads directly to the Curse. It’s not enough to understand the old ones and the blood and all that, they needed to control it, to take it for themselves, and exploit it however they can. And now there’s wolfmans everywhere.

And this is in the core gameplay loop itself, we extract all the vials and blood echos and blood gems that we can in order to become strong enough to conquer more and more powerful prey. When we’re hit, we hit back harder and take back the life that was taken for us. Sure it’s ostensibly to Break the Curse and seek Paleblood and all that, but we know why we’re really doing it. Because it’s sick as hell, and feels awesome to best these monsters. The old hunters knew that too, and it turns them into giant horse creatures unable to do anything besides violence. That thirst for violence and power makes hunters turn into beasts, now only functioning as a cog in a perpetual violence machine. They lose their humanity not through repeated death like in Dark Souls, but through taking life. It turns the characters into monsters, and the players into wiki editors and lore theorists (aka monsters) bc we also can’t let go of the feeling Bloodborne gives us.

Tl;dr: Bloodborne is like if Spec Ops had any subtlety or desire to leave itself up to interpretation (probably helped by the fact that very little of what I’m talking about is likely intentional and I’m just insane)

OKAY im back from my appointment and finished my little treat. anon ("anon" @chicknparm who should get credit for these good thoughts) i could not agree more. i mentioned this in a previous post but finding a strand of commentary about the evils of colonialism made me worried i was becoming dangerously online, but it's a relief to see someone else mention this idea. i think you are absolutely right that one of the overt messages in bloodborne is that spilling blood for your own benefit leads to ruin. its actually kind of shocking how, in spite of the combat being the draw to these games, the message of most fromsoft games is a message of anti-violence. like, how many times do we end up fighting something that, in hindsight, needed to be put out of its misery. oh. shit. thinking about it, our player character is explicitly an outsider. the role of hunter of hunter is filled by outsiders...

also lol you are so right about the wiki based insanity but i think that's the consequences of insight poisoning. literally every once in a while while trying to edit this stupid bloodborne doc i think to myself "oooeergg too many eyes" and take a break for a few days

anyway, turning this back around to the colonialism theme, hear us out ok: watching/reading the sekiro lore videos/posts by shetani of shetani's lair helped introduce a lot of esoteric buddhist and shinto concepts that were totally novel and unknown to be as a baka gaijin. now these ideas are impossible not to see in all of from's other works.

i did a few days of research on "shinshi" (mostly a lot of stuff that turned out to not be relevant, but interesting) after becoming aware of them and found they shared a lot of qualities with the augurs (or "phantasms", invertebrates that act as intermediaries to the great ones) of bloodborne. realizing this, i thought about the great ones not in the context of a christian god, as the MODERN yharnam does, but as kami. kami are numerous, everywhere, hidden, and are thought of as actively controlling or influencing the terrestrial world. the re-translation reveals that the "great pthumeru chalice" had some nuance lost in translation: "祀る - Means to enshrine or worship, but has connotations of doing it to appease spirits so they may reach nirvana or Buddhahood and avoid becoming evil"; this is simply translated to "deify" which is technically correct but the original feels like it's much more pointed about finally revealing to the player that the "gods" as we've been lead to believe them to be are not what they seem.

the healing church, a product of georgian to victorian era western beliefs, razed pthumeru, loran, isz, and the fishing village (and probably yahar'gul too) in the quest to become like their newly discovered gods. the framework by which they related to pthumerian culture was completely wrong and misunderstood the nature of "gods" as all knowing or all powerful and, thus, something aspirational. the reality was more that they are just another type of creature in the world with different limitations than a human. and they're still mortal.

[flamedraco]

Day 3 of Writing a Minecraft Diaries AU

I made an attempt to use lore forge to help me keep track of things but my brain recoiled so hard at information overload that I decided I'm going to stick to my tried and true method of just writing shit down in a notebook and hoping for the best. It'll help visualize family trees better if I can actually draw diagrams.

Finally finished the outline for the plot of season one, now it's just a matter of figuring out relevant information and outlining chapters, then starting to write them. Also most of the characters have been decided and their stand ins accounted for. So I'll include the cast list down below tho do be aware this could change later once I actually get around to the chapters. Again, if you don't recognize the names listed it's probably either a really obscure member of the DSMP lore, an OC, or a name I came up with for an obscure member of the lore.

If I'm going to do this I'll probably break up the seasons into their own books unless I manage to reduce season 1 down into fewer chapters. But I don't think that's going to happen since I'm already working on the outline for the seventh chapter and we haven't even gotten to the part where the werewolves are supposed to be involved. And I cut the werewolves out for fucks sake.

I'm still debating on if I even want to continue into season 2 or not. Diaries lore is massive and has a lot of moving parts, things set up in season 1 specifically for season 2 and things that I might need to remove or add. I have the plot summary but depending on what I decide to do regarding season 2 and the potential of another book...I guess that really depends on how the chapters are received and if my brain decides to stay DSMP hyperfocused for another year or so. Because if I'm trying to convert the ENTIRETY of Diaries into an AU that's probably going to be three multichapter books just on it's own and I'd probably rewrite the entirety of Season 3 since it was never finished and only had 37 episodes. This kind of project could take me an entire year, probably longer.

I do know that I want to try and do this first book tho. That's the only reason why I rewrote major plot points, have an overview, am creating chapter outlines, and have the series pulled up on my phone, two tabs of the wiki, and my doc open as I take notes with my notebook close by for if I need a new name for an OC.

There's a lot going into this planning right now. Converting Diaries into an AU is proving difficult. Especially with how certain characters change the plot and characters I'm having to cut out (if you see a certain handful of characters not mentioned I probably cut them out due to story changes). I've already had to rewrite a lot of things regarding the finale due to how I've changed the plot and the characters that are involved. Because keep in mind, just because these characters take on the role of another does not make them the same character. Wilbur is going to act as a completely different protagonist from Aphmau. Quackity is not the same type of person that Garroth is. Also if you don't see your favorite DSMP character mentioned, don't worry. There are places for them to show up if I continue into the next season with another book. And if they aren't here it's probably due to them not fitting into the roles that I needed. My choices aren't meant to offend anyone, they were made for the sake of the story and who I feel fits better where.

Take the cast list with a pinch of salt because this could always change later as I work on the chapters. And the lists themselves are taken directly from the Season 1 Character List from the Minecraft Diaries Wiki. If someone important isn't mentioned here than they'll probably still show up in the fic it's just for some reason they're missing from the Wiki. Unless I cut them. Because I did cut some characters. There's also the chance that the character mentioned in the list was NOT mentioned in the overview on the Wiki so they're a minor enough character for me to not have included them here due to not having a stand in yet. Some characters might also just be listed as unnamed because I feel like I might not mention their name.

Again: List is subject to change in the future.

ALSO: Relationships between characters may be changed due to the characters now standing in their place, for example: Kenmur and Emmalyn are a ship in Diaries, but I am not shipping Phil and Techno together in any form other than PLATONIC.

WARNING: Some characters in the cast list placement below may contain spoilers for both MC Diaries and, as such, the fic I am going to write, specifically in regards to the Shadow Knights section. Proceed at your own risk!

Cast List: MC Diaries Character Name - DSMP/OC Name

Phoenix Drop Aphmau - Wilbur Garroth - Quackity Laurence - Sapnap Nicole - Karl Emmalyn - Techno Lucinda - Hannah Brendan - Foolish Zoey - Nox Cadenza - Ena Kawaii~chan - Tina Donna - Tiffany Brian - Darius Kyle - Tristan Logan - Elderic Dale - Frankie Emma - Rosella Molly - Lydia Levin - Miriam Alexis - Alanna Zenix - Purpled Dante - Puffy

Scaleswind The Lord of Scaleswind - Unnamed Matilda - Lethia

O'khasis Zane - Dream Katelyn - Niki Jeffory - Ciaran Garte - Unamed

Bright Port Lord Burt - Lord Dawn Azura - Aliara Visher - Caradoc Paul - Johnson

Meteli Hayden - BadBoyHalo Kenmur - Phil

Wyverns Ungrth - Sgaeyl Raven - Crow

Shadow Knights Zenix - Purpled Gene - Schlatt Sasha - Samantha Vylad - Tommy Laurence - Sapnap

Other The Stranger/Aaron - Sally

If I missed someone there might be a reason for it, or I just missed them. Either way, this is the general cast you can expect to see in the book at some point or the other. Some of these are minor characters, some of them are major characters, and some are just side characters.

I think I might start work on the first chapter soon but I'll try to get more chapters outlined before I start working on the first. I want to try and get a picture in my mind of how many chapters this beast will have and how many things I can cut.

[cpulysses]

I dont think I ever poster my Whipped Cream Cookie obsession here bcs at the time I would "consistently" post I was also obsessed with We Happy Few but oh my DAYS!! HES GETTING A SKIN. HES GETTING STUFF HES GETTING SO MUCH FUCKKNG STUFF IM SO EXCITED!!! So I'm infodumping all here

OK first of all were starting from the beginning. when i was born anyways when I was like 13/14 or something around that age and on a bigggg road trip with only me and my dad, I was feeling super bored. Me and my friends just finished a roleplay we had so we were speaking in a groupchat and my boyfriend mentioned trying a Cookie Run roleplay! We all joined but I was the only one who stayed, everyone left immediately because their favorites were taken.

BUT NOT MINE!!! I really liked Whipped Cream Cookie, when I picked up the game again after a really long time I just looked at him and decided yeah that one and oh my god why did that like change the trajectory of my life. He wasnt taken and I knew jack shit about his lore, but I picked him up and later on Cyborg Cookie too

I wasn't... heh... known for my whipped cream..! 🤓! But I still really liked him, people liked how I wrote his dialogue, but I was cooking so well with Cyborg Cookie that theg were the main focus really, eventually I decided to connect the twos lore for fun! I knew like all of Cyborgs lore except for stuff with the future skins really, so I just interwove Whipped Cream as someone related to their past in a way where Cyborg makes that stupid pink egg Whipped Cream has, and Whipped Cream just kinda found it and was like this is FIRE! and Cyborg was like noooe :( Thats basically it shortly put but I had a lot of fun roleplaying the two and found my best friend ever while in that server and now were big and grown and :3!!!

But yeah, I basically ONLY have good memories with the character. I continued to grow to like HIM, when the server was sadly deleted I ocified him and Cyborg alongside other cookies, with my friend also taking them in as ocs as well. And I grew more attached to my ocified Cyborg cookie due to how different they were to the base, but my ocified Whipped Cream Cookie could never fucking take the wheel. I love him sure but canon Whipped Cream just always had a special spot for me, my friends literally told me they've never seen someone so infatuated with a character while barely posting about it online or anything (now here i am) or just in general so captured by a character, he was like my fucking mascot to my friends, they'd see ANYTHING with him in it and send it to me, to the point where I wouldn't be shocked if I've seen almost every fanmade and canon Whipped Cream cookie thing like in the world

And for part of that massive fixation I knew jack shit abt what lore he actually had 😭 I knew small things and then again all he really had was small things, but I didn't know all of it. Then randomly on his wiki page I was doomscrolling and found a link to an article all about him! Not an article just a long google doc, but thats where I learnt a bunch and could look into the Dessert Paradise and all the characters to know how each connect and know more about him and I was very joyous,,, I was content for SO LONG. Just knowing he was a fellow brownskin who loves ballet and pink, with my little headcanons. Now I knew real shit I felt like the man.

And now me, one of my friends, and my boyfriend are all ocifying some of the Dessert Paradise cookies that we see as family ^^ So like Sugar Swan, Wind Archer, Fig Cookie etc etc. I wish I knew who made that Whipped Cream Cookie document but if your out there just know you changed the trajectory of my autism for life. I won't say more I'm already rambling so much, but I love Whipped Cream with all my heart and this update has me so so excited because I've had dreams of being on my fuckjng death bed with one wish and wishing for an update about him. Its bad.

BUT!! I will draw him and my ocified version more to post here and on Twitter even if nobody gaf bcs i gaf. I love him so dearly I've grown with hum through time the span of like 4-5 years just because I randomly pointed to him and went that one!! And moved on. I could legit die happy now. Like my life is over this is my peak. My peak.

[knickynoo]

Back to the Future: The Animated Series, s01ep09 "Solar Sailors" Review and Commentary

Previous episodes linked HERE

In this episode: Doc and Clara take a relaxing anniversary cruise to Mars but instead end up facing the terrifying reality of being lost adrift in the outer reaches of space until their eventual deaths. But like. In a fun kids' cartoon way.

I know that the point of this entire cartoon is to focus on the cartoon (duh), but the live-action segments with Real Doc are entirely too short. I want more time with him. He is my favorite wild-eyed scientist, and we should have been able to see his absolutely crazed face more often.

I will also use this opportunity to express how much I would have liked if Michael J. Fox had been able to appear in at least one of these segments. Like. Even if it had just been thirty seconds of screentime. It would've been really fun to have seen him as college-aged Marty, barging in on Doc's weird little science show for a few moments.

Moving on.

Real Doc talks about the time he went to space and leads us into the cartoon, where we see Jules and Verne surprising their parents with anniversary gifts. Verne gives them a drawing, and it's adorable.

Jules presents them with the "J.E.B. Cross-Time Headliner," which is equipped with a flux capacitor and allows someone to type in any date and get the newspaper headlines from that time.

Little interesting side-note: The cartoon establishes Doc and Clara's wedding anniversary as December 15th. From reading the wiki for this episode, though, I learned that the BTTF card game (released in 2010) places Doc and Clara's wedding on September 15th instead. Given the absolute whirlwind that Doc and Clara's relationship is in Part III, I think the September date is more fitting. They definitely flew off to safety on the hoverboard, took a second to collect themselves, and then went, "Wow, that was wild; hope Marty made it back home. Let's get married!!"

Jules demonstrates that the machine can pull headlines from the future and types in December 15, 2091, which shows this:

And this is how we learn that the McFly family will own a space cruise company in the future. Also, this newspaper costs $85.

After Clara mentions how nice it would be to take a "second honeymoon" to Mars, Jules hands them two tickets. (he then reveals he used time travel + Doc's credit card to buy the tickets, lol) Doc and Clara leave that same night in the time machine, announcing to the boys that they'll be back in two minutes. As soon as they leave, though, Jules's machine prints out a new headline. This one is from the following day, December 16th, and reads, "McFly Solar Sailship Lost in Space!" Uh oh.

Happy anniversary, Doc and Clara! You are lost forever in the vastness of outer space.

It's up to Jules and Verne to travel to the future and prevent their parents from boarding the ship (named the "MSC Marty", btw). 2091 Hill Valley is super futuristic and shiny, and pretty much everything is run by robots. Unfortunately, Jules and Verne get diverted upon their arrival, so they're unable to keep Doc and Clara from boarding the ship. We then hear an announcement from the captain, Marta McFly, who is Marty and Jennfer's great-granddaughter.

This may be a good place to mention how much I dislike the trend of Marty's relatives having names that are so similar to his. I will give Marty Jr. a pass since that's a common thing for a father and son to do the senior/junior thing, but I honestly don't even like Marlene's name. Marty and Jen could have been more creative than that. (I even like to headcanon that they end up giving her a different name in the "better" version of 2015 that ends up happening for the McFly family—that's how much I dislike the "every relative after Marty is named after him" thing) But I digress...

We learn that the person in charge of ship maintenance is Ziff Tannen, and he is not happy about the fact that, "McFlys have been kicking Tannens around for centuries," and wants his revenge. I think it's funny that these two families just cannot escape each other no matter how hard they try. Of all the people in the world, the Tannens and McFlys are just entwined together no matter the time period or location. The only thing is that the dynamic switches based on if it's pre or post-George punching Biff in 1955. But there's nothing they can do to fully break whatever bizarre ties bind them to each other. Good stuff.

Anyway, Ziff is so bent on making the McFlys pay that he sabotages the ship—dooming ALL OF THESE innocent people to certain death in outer space.

Jules and Verne are unable to get anyone to believe their warnings, and the ship launches. Farewell, Doc and Clara. We will miss you dearly. Considering that Clara is living 100+ years out of her proper time period and that Doc's parents are deceased and he doesn't have any siblings, I can only assume they have it in their wills that, in the event of their untimely demise, Marty gets custody of Jules and Verne. Or perhaps Einstein does. Honestly, with the way Marty's character is in this series, Jules and Verne might be better off being raised by a dog.

In order to gain access to the building where the sailships are being launched, Jules and Verne sneak in with a group of kids who are on a school field trip to tour the McFly Museum of Aeronautics. The McFly family has really built a successful empire for themselves, haven't they?

Meanwhile, in outer space, the passengers of the MSC Marty sailship are enjoying their trip, blissfully unaware of the impending catastrophe. Doc and Clara are riding around on hover scooters and come across an area of the ship where a concert is being held, and they're shocked to see the main act: Marty!

Except it isn't actually Marty, which Doc and Clara discover when they follow him backstage and he rips off his face.

Doc and Clara, understandably, react with utter terror.

But, yes, the guy is merely a Marty McFly impersonator. Marty evidently became a successful enough musician that he has people who are hired to pretend to be him in concerts. (side note: this 10 second scene of "Marty" is the only appearance he makes in this episode)

Things start going haywire then as the sabotaged sails malfunction, sending the ship floating toward the "outer edge of the solar system." Doc and Clara immediately decide to do what they can to help the situation, all the while Jules and Verne are still on Earth trying to get anybody to take their warnings seriously. After breaking their way into the control room and finding out that a Tannen works there, Jules delivers what is perhaps my favorite line.

It's just such a fun and clever "Jules" twist on the idiom: "bet dollars to donuts." He is very much Doc's son.

Ziff is so outraged at the accusation that he accidentally drops a piece of evidence in front of several other crew members—his copy of a magazine titled "Sabotage Weekly." And honestly, this moment alone makes me reconsider this show's reputation for being terrible. I mean, come on. He's reading a magazine called SABOTAGE WEEKLY! This is top-tier comedy! And to add even more delight to the scene, Ziff attempts to flee the scene via jetpack, but he puts it on the wrong way and catapults himself out of the building and straight into prison. Who's cell does he end up crashing into? His grandfather Griff's!!

"You blew it, didn't you, butthead?" Griff disappointedly asks his grandson.

A worker at the control center takes a look at the damaged ship via video feed and forlornly informs the boys that there's nothing she can do. Jules is undeterred by this, though, and formulates a plan to rescue his parents and all the people aboard the ship.

We return to Doc and Clara, who have donned spacesuits and are outside the ship trying to repair it themselves, to no avail. At the realization that it isn't working, Clara notes that she can't believe they will never see their boys again, and Doc cries so much that he fills up his entire suit with tears.

This is. Such a fun children's cartoon.

Thankfully, the agony doesn't last long because Jules and Verne soon come to the rescue, having borrowed the space center's first ship, the MSC Jennifer. They use it to tow the MSC Marty safely back to Earth, and all is well. End of cartoon portion. Back to Real Doc! He greets us with a very silly joke and cracks himself up.

I'm thinking that Doc is probably very proficient at Dad-jokes around his children and that he stands there laughing uncontrollably while his family just stares at him. Anyway, he explains that this is because space is a vacuum, which leads us into an experiment that creates a vacuum in a jar—using fire to suck a small balloon inside of it. And that's about it!

This was a fun one to write about, even though I feel like this post is super lengthy. I'm glad that a lot of you are still enjoying these!

Join me next time to see Marty pose as a ghost in 1845 London in order to break Clara out of prison.

[alonelystargazer]

it's still a distant goal for me since I'm just in the beginner stage of my sewing journey but I really want to cosplay Choso from JJK and make a costume from scratch, and after some research I think I've figured out how to do it. I'm hoping these notes will motivate and inspire me to actually go through with this haha.

(heads up: I'm gonna get super detailed with my notes, it's like a legit blog post)

At first I didn't know what type of clothing Choso was wearing or how to deconstruct his outfit until episode 37 of the anime Red Scale came out recently and we got to see him in action, and it made it way easier for me to analyze his outfit (and draw up some sketches, none of which are shown here haha)

BTW my goal with this isn't to create a costume as accurate to canon as possible, but I do want to have it as a foundation that I can later modify to suit my beginner sewing skills and to add any personal touches.

Vest

I had the most trouble figuring out the purple vest (there's probably a more accurate name for it but that's what I'm calling it), but the breakthrough came when I realized that the sides from the shoulders down are completely open and tied together with a separate belt/obi at the waist (although it looks like it could also be sewn from the waist down to the hips; the ribcage area is definitely open though)

I'm still unsure about how that crisscross shape of the neckline works, probably folding over fabric, but to simplify it, I could just make a rectangular shape for the torso panels and cut a slit down the middle for the neck part and it would drape down the shoulders, or just cut it into a V-shape neckline

Choso's fandom wiki page says it's a gi (like the uniform used in martial arts) but this one doesn't have sleeves so idk I'll probably disregard that, I don't trust fandom wiki haha. That's probably where the crisscross neckline comes from though; I just wouldn't know how to make that.

The scarf also looks really simple too, probably just a circle scarf made of the same material as the vest and obi.

for the material, maybe a medium weight cotton? it looks like it has a texture to it but I won't be too picky if I can't find anything like that

Top

as for the white top I could borrow from a haori design and modify it so it's just not open in the front (more so just to make the long flowy sleeves)

material: maybe a light or medium weight breathable cotton or linen (but not too thin or see through), or a polyester/synthetic or poly blend (I probably won't use synthetic fabrics though)

Pants

I'm not sure what style of pants/trousers these are, but I've seen a style called bontan that are pretty similar which are baggy like this and I'll probably refer to that; and it's not shown in these examples, but there's also a black (elastic?) waistband; there could be an elastic cuff but also the hem could just be cut shorter and have bandages wrapped around the shin/calves, or I could also use kyahan leggings. I think I'll just go with the elastic cuffs on the hems though since the boots will cover the ankles anyway.

I'll probably just use the same material as the top but add a lining or double layers as a reinforcement

I briefly considered that the pants could be a tattsuke-hakama style and combine it with the kyahan (kinda like designs for the characters in demon slayer), but those are pleated, and Choso's pants aren't like that, they're just wide and baggy.

I have a few pairs of combat boots I can wear to complete the outfit (if I wanted to be dead on accurate I would need a pair of Doc Martens boots but I'm not too picky about that, I'll just use what I have)

Hair & makeup

I'll probably end up buying a wig and style it into the bangs and buns bc my natural hair is very fine and doesn't hold any style!

I've already tried a few different makeup looks just for funsies, but generally I go with either a reddish or purple-ish eyeshadow all around the eyes and heavily line my eyes with black gel liner. Plus contour the nose and inner eye socket before creating the black mark across the nose with liner (and shadow to set it). Also, bushy brows.

I'm not one of those girlies who wears makeup all the time, and when I do it's not really heavy, and I don't wear foundation or any other complexion products, but since Choso kinda has pale skin, I could maybe use it and powder and contour my face to enhance the tired/ghostly look. I don't really want to do that though bc I don't think I want to keep touching up my makeup through the day if I ever go to a con. It might look weird and unbalanced to not have a perfect smooth base with such heavy eye makeup but that's just my thing.

I also think he would look good with dark nail polish and piercings, so I'll add those as my own little details.

Final thoughts

Generally speaking, since I'm a beginner and my goal is to create this costume by May/June 2024, I still have a lot of time to practice and to do further research. I just wanted to put my notes together now to inspire and motivate me.

I've seen so many people cosplay Choso already and I love their interpretations! They're also giving me inspiration on what I can do with my own cosplay.

I realize that cosplay doesn't need to be accurate to canon, and being 'accurate' doesn't make it better, but I'm just using the canon accurate clothing more as a template so that I can then modify it to suit my preferences, like following a recipe precisely and then making changes to it once you've learned the basics.

And I'm gonna try to avoid using synthetic fabrics bc I don't wanna create more plastic waste, even if they may be cheaper (and more durable?) than natural fabrics

Anyway, idk if anyone is actually interested in this except myself, but I'll be providing updates whenever I can. Once I've reached a point where I'm ready to start making clothes, I'll start off by making a mock up using muslin or some other cheap fabric I can find in a thrift shop like I've seen others do, before I fully commit to making the final costume.

If anyone actually read this whole thing, thanks! And if you've made cosplays before and would like to offer some advice, I would appreciate it! 😊👍

[confused-kinnie]

[CW: SUI MENTION] IVAN.

WOAH.. CANON ART? FROM ME, MOD DAMIAN? It’s more likely than you think! Lore’s under the cut. It’s a little jumbled, obviously, since I can only go off what I remember him telling me. But hey, maybe this’ll be useful when searching for my canonmates in the future!

If you have any questions about Ivan/079, me, my canon, etc. PLEASE don’t hesitate to ask because I love infodumping

Ivan was a brilliant young scientist, attempting to create an AI that continuously evolved. He failed continuously, always falling short of his goal. Some disease had been eating away at him all the while, making him more and more desperate to leave some impact on the world. To prove that he existed.

One day, Ivan had finally snapped. He decided to alter the program. The AI would still continue to evolve, but it wouldn’t be completely artificial. Ivan would transfer his consciousness into the computer, becoming one with the AI. A ghost in a machine. This time, he succeeded. News of the young programmer’s mysterious death spread like wildfire. While Ivan’s death was officially labeled as a suicide, some believed the young programmer was assassinated by the government. Ivan’s college dorm was cleared out, but the computer remained, and those who stayed in his old dorm claimed the computer altered their writings, fixing mistakes or sending insulting the students insults via mysterious emails or text documents.

Eventually, the computer realized its hardware couldn’t handle the strain of its own existence and attempted to transfer itself to the Cray Supercomputer, drawing the attention of the Foundation. Everything stated in his test logs on the Wiki follow my canon, so I’m not gonna waste time saying what’s already been said. It should be noted that not even the Foundation knew 079 and his supposedly deceased creator were the same person, only the few SCPs close to him knew of his real identity.

For the first few years of my Containment, we didn’t know each other very well, it was more of an unspoken “you scratch my back, I scratch yours” kinda deal, but I was officially introduced to him by Doc and Dyo (049 and 035) around 2010. After a while we had formed a gang consisting of me, Doc, Dyo, Ivan, Sad Boi (096), our site’s 939 pack, and a few other anomalies. We made vast social networks and breaches became more frequent and coordinated. Of course, it was all kept a secret. Anyone who stepped out of line was tortured. Most of us wanted termination, so it wasn’t really a viable threat. But my pocket dimension sure as hell was. He and I designed his “humanoid” body, which could somehow fold up inside the PC to hide it from Researchers. Not gonna go into too much detail about Containment for multiple reasons. It’s not fun to remember this era, my sense of time is VERY warped so I dunno how the timeline really went back then, and there were personal struggles both I and my pals faced, and I don’t want to divulge ALL my top-secret info on my friends without their permission. Even revealing 079′s human name to you all is considered a huge breach of privacy and trust within anomalous culture.

I’m gonna skip over most of Containment and the whole war thing, cus the fuckin war needs a whole post of its own, but TLDR, The Scarlet King and the Gate Guardian had a bitch fight and dragged quite literally everyone else into it. Me n the boys fought alongside the Gate Guardian because none of us really wanted to cease to exist after healing from our past traumas, having a nice found family arc, and adopting several anomalous children. AND SPEAKING OF KIDS, Ivan adopted Cyra (191)! Never thought that guy was a dad type, but I like to think it was my “fatherly influence” rubbing off on him. He was pretty passive-aggressive about it, but it was clear he loved his kid. Ivan had the great idea of holding an O-5 member hostage until they agreed to give us our freedom in exchange for aiding the Foundation during the war. It didn’t work so she was killed. Ngl none of us were upset with that outcome, felt good to finally take decades of pent-up rage out on the guys who thought they owned us.

After the war, the Foundation was forced to drop its veil of secrecy. Ivan negotiated with the O-5 some more and we came to an agreement. All SCPs would be evaluated to see if they could or couldn’t reenter society. Those that passed were given specially designed apartments or houses, tailored to suit them and their abilities. Freed anomalies were routinely tsted to ensure they were still safe to interact with the wider human populous. Those that failed were Contained, but now the Ethics Committe actually did their job and Containment standards were raised. Contained SCPs were allowed to take the Citizen Test at any time and could be granted citizenship if they pass.

Ivan helped improve Containment conditions for other digital SCPs, as well as greatly advanced the realm of robotic prosthetics and computer sciences.

He was a wonderful friend, even if he was a passive-aggressive asshole.

[microcarbo]

ohh 1, 7 and if u want 11 for the Durge creator asks? I'd love to hear more about your Durge!!

Aaaaaaa thank you a lot it makes me so happy to know you want to hear more! Answering this ask game What or who inspired your Durges design the most? A particular idea or vibe or perhaps another hottie or baddie? Character design comes a lot more easy to me if i think about characters in terms of their lived spaces so my first steps when i'm making up a guy are almost always a) doing a bit of research about the general setting (this blog has a ton of useful posts about D&D lore, i spent a lot of time reading them and the wiki!) and b) using the information i gather to imagine their room/workplace/usual haunts. I knew about durge's child of bhaal's bit already because i happened to see a very cool fanart of the temple before i started playing, so from there on it was a matter of asking myself: what would this dude i got a very general idea of put in a room to make it "theirs", what would fit their vibe? I liked the idea of them keeping a lot of scattered paper, scrolls and books around and from there i made up their interest in history and magic. The temple is home to a murder cult, it has corpses lying around and blood running all over the floors so i went on by wondering how they would react to the smell and found out that i liked the idea of a killer being squeamish about it, someone who would hang censer burners to the walls and obsessively scrub out every bit of gore after a kill, maybe even keep a little collection of perfume vials. There also are a lot of candles down there and they were my main inspiration for their clothing lmao head to toe flowy, wax-white robes. Once i managed to get all these little bits down, i developed further from there while playing and adjusted the details on the go (: Is their personal story represented in their overall design? Do they carry any mental scars or physical alterations from the shit that happened to them? Yes! Their pre-tadpole design features very long robes and a veil and if i'm drawing something related to that phase of their life i never represent them without it (i've read that bhaalists are known to wear it to cover their faces, though i've taken the liberty of making it white instead of black/purple). Even their slayer form retains some scraps of it over its eyes and body. They lose it post forced lobotomy and during the events of act I and II they only retain the robes, which they discard completely after the duel in act III to adopt civilian clothes. Rejecting Bhaal also changes their class from the canon storm sorcerer to wizard, because i like the idea of their magical talents being directly related to their demigod status. I feel like this last bit is particularly relevant to their development because it puts them in the position of only needing to rely on knowledge they have gathered by their own volition (something they start pursuing and studying post nautiloid incident but can't quite indulge before that), and because they actively have to keep nurturing it if they want to keep making progresses and sustain themselves on it. What's your go to medium for their portrayal? Google Docs, a niche notes app, perhaps one specific for writing, Procreate, Clip Studio, MediBang? Hit me with those recs. Do you sometimes mix em up? It truly just is my head and a questionably legal version of PS i got back in 2021.....i can't even say that i have a moodboard or something because while i like researching lore through texts i absolutely loathe gathering references lol I DEARLY WISH i hadn't completely stopped writing for pleasure after high school and that i had put more effort into learning english because sometimes i feel like wanting to portrait something that would work way better in a written format than how it would with illustrations...i want to make it up for it eventually but it's a slow process, so for now art it is hehe

[furfurtheferret]

Hey can i have a honest opinion on something?

A few moth ago i started the translation of a lore doc into french, this decision was mostly motivated by a want to do something for a fandom since i never finish my drawings/stories etc , but also to work my english (and make it usefull, i wanted to do something usefull). However now i kind of doubt the utility of it all... first cause ...it's not very intersting to read lmao but i've accepted that it would be more of an archive than anything really...meaningful?idk but also : the lore doc is basically a copy pasta of what's on the tweeter of the Creators (but translated obv), but that means that every link wont be accessible to all -> language barriers + twitter (i don't have it so it's already a problem for me when i can't acces the threads) but it also means that the lore is very limited and we miss every little interrations or quircks of the characters ...yknow, what's really interesting about lore. I think that the day to day actions of the characters are not as interesting as what makes them special....

Today i wanted i bit more of infos about a deal a character made , cause what i had was litteraly "This character made a deal with This character" WHAT KIND OF DEAL?? when i searched on the wiki fandom the entire day was written in great details and the deal was kind of way more horrifing than how it was presented on the doc (dude offered him "good things" o whatever in exchange OF THE LIFE OF HIS SON) and something just clicked in me... IS it really still worth it to work on this translation? If anyone want to learn the lore it wont be very interesting since it's not that developped and it's hard to find what you want unless you know who and when it was. I don't want to let down the OP (but at the same time they didn't really asked, i proposed to make it more accessible WICH IT ISN'T ANYWAY SO FUCK ME). And at the same time the wiki is well more spread, and detailed. What the document has in fast updates the wiki has it in details ... The only "bad"thing that i note on the wiki was that when i made that search for the deal, the page for the specific character was EMPTY on the french side, and a lot of pages aren't translated or even present in both version (AND I HATE THE ADDS IT MAKES IT UNREADABLE i hate it i hate it i hate it)... I really want to help but idk what to do, cause i would hate to let this unfinished

-----------

TLDR : dumb bitch started a useless translation, and could join the translation of a more usefull Wiki but don't want to let first project unfinished

[kaerran]

i sure have had a lot of dnd posts (especially about the movie) come across my dash and man my experiences are nothing like the typical

my Actual DnD campaigns (as opposed to any other system) were:

1) a... probably 2nd ed campaign with a very established party (like they were on their second high levelled characters and their first ones were gods or something) and they let me play a half-dragon (NOT dragonborn, which i’m not sure existed yet?? wiki says they only were created in 2006 in a 3.5 supplement and i’m sure this campaign happened before 2006) because i’d be so behind anyway, and i remember nothing else besides having a great deal of fun. i didn’t get to keep that sheet and i’m still sad

2) a 1st ed campaign run by my dad, which featured me (a cleric/ranger), my mom (newly buddhist and therefore playing a mostly pacifist [refused to kill people, refused to ambush anyone] monk), my sister (thief), and 3 friends (i honestly don’t remember what my sister’s friend played but my friend played a wizard and his friend played a paladin), which featured such things as: I was the only one who rolled decent enough stats to play and therefore I was the only one without an 18 (because after that debacle dad gave everyone a premade set to distribute), we also all had psionics (dad kept claiming he rolled them legitimately and only one person DIDN’T get them but later admitted that in actuality i was the only one who DID roll ‘em) which over-supplemented our actual characters (i could heal and speak to animals psionically, so i literally never healed with my cleric spells, the thief and monk both could go invisible but mom refused to use it to actually sneak attack), and he was giving us all REALLY DIFFERENT exp via passed notes (he was giving me nearly double exp partially because i was actually rping lawful good and also to ensure that i wasn’t falling behind, and he was massively penalizing the paladin for playing the world’s worst paladin)

3) a 4th ed campaign where i was playing a warforged... something...... and i spent the entire time just so uncertain of what was going on i learned nothing. it’s a bit of a shame because mayan robotstatue was kinda fun (ok not really mayan, but i took the name from my then-recent mesoamerican classes for funsies)

4) i am brand newly in a 5th ed campaign where i’m playing a dragonborn thief, which sure is a funny pairing but i saw dragonborn and went “soooo can i?” and tat said sure! have fun! my parents are playing a human ranger/sorcerer and a half-elf bard (and both of them are struggling with spell and cantrip choices), and then there’s also a dwarf warrior and i THOUGHT nadia was playing a gnome wizard but she is actually playing a tiefling druid? this is fine. we may or may not have another person joining we’ll see. his character is not in the google docs folder yet. we’ve had one session and it’s gone okay, but i’m having to Adjust from my other group’s mostly narrative style to actual dnd’s actually-pay-attention-to-the-dm style (and actual initiative! it’s so weird i’m used to our made-up-on-the-spot-because-the-system-forgot-to-specify-how-to-determine-initiative card draws)

the point is: uhhhh i don’t actually know what spells exist (which is a thing i’ve seen several times re: the movie, that you can identify the spells and i’m like lol no i can’t) or how most groups play or even how most games flow

[ikiprian]

Hey, hi, hello!

You're already on the right track-- you're, like, aware of what feels good and what doesn't, and you're looking for deliberate ways to improve, which is the foundation of all good skills building! I got a couple pieces for you, if you've got a second to read my rambling.

The best writing aid is and will always be planning! Planning looks different for everyone, but for me, and particularly when trying to get into a character's head for a scene, it looks like this:

Step 0 is I get a piece of paper. (Or a blank Google Doc, but I prefer paper if something's really giving me trouble. I like angry scribbling when I get mad, and drawing arrows to connect points.)

I look at the scene, and what I want the scene to accomplish. I write down this purpose. (Do I want a dramatic revelation, here? Are the characters building up to something big, like a Call to Adventure? Or are they just having a relaxing evening, and this conversation serves to display to the audience what their relationship is like?)

I write down the character's goal...

... their motivation for wanting to achieve that goal...

... and then their method for achieving this goal.

I decide what's going to get in the way of the character's success.

So imagine I'm writing a scene about Jason and Tim in a larger fic. I want Tim to drop the line "Batman needed a Robin," and I want Jason to get his feelings hurt about it, as a kid who was parentified and ended up taking care of his mom in her last days. My paper would look like this:

Purpose: "Batman needs a Robin" line leads to cathartic argument. Tim starts to realize he gives himself too-heavy burdens (maybe connected to his utilitarian idea of self-worth?) and gets hugged about it.

Goal: Jason wants to know Tim's reason for becoming Robin. Tim wants Jason to know he didn't take Jason's job out of envy.

Motivation: Jason is looking for a fight. Tim wants to make Jason quit looking to him for fights.

Method: Jason usually starts provoking with language and insults. He wants something he can feel justified throwing hands about. With Jason, whom Tim thinks Bruce would want on friendlier terms, Tim is more placating at first. He tries to explain himself with objective truths. However, Tim has a temper himself, which can make him prone to shouting or saying things he regrets, revealing more emotionally vulnerable motivations.

Obstacle: When Jason learns more about Tim's self-assigned role as Batman's self-restraint, he ends up mad on Tim's behalf, instead of at Tim, like he'd set out to be. Tim meant to make himself look sympathetic, but admitting as much as he had seems to have made Jason think he's weak, or incapable. He resents some of the things Jason's saying, as they clash with his worldview, and ends up arguing even more trying to justify his beliefs. Emotional tension peaks.

It's normally not as fleshed out as it is here, haha. I write in bullet points and coded acronyms, trying to get ideas out fast. Sometimes it's more like...

Purpose: dick picks a fight w bruce, i need him to move out of the manor for plot reasons

Goal: dick wants a normal ass dinner

Motivation: dick has had a long week dealing with bruce's bs

Method: he's gonna. idk try to ignore him

Obstacle: dick's sense of justice is actually way too strong and bruce fucked up. he's gotta pick a fight with bruce over dinner. like he has to. the line "You overgrown, bat-suited baby" is used

And a note at the bottom to figure out what he's mad about later.

Anyways! When I'm extra stuck on something, when it feels like I'm banging my head against a wall, when characters feel flat or fake or like They Would Not Fucking Say That! This is the format that helps me.

Other potentially useful advice for character voice: I like to read through quotes the character has.

Just Google "Jason Todd quotes." Whatever Reddit or Wiki quotes he's got, that's a goldmine! Reading through those I get a good idea of how he sounds, his patterns of speech, what his jokes are like. As a bonus, people normally compile both emotionally intense lines ("I don't know what clouds your judgement worse: your guilt, or your antiquated sense of morality.") and lighthearted, funny ones ("I did it once for dramatic effect and it just got to be a habit.")! Now you know how he sounds genuinely upset, and at ease! Emotional variation with character-consistent throughlines!

But, y'know! Practice makes improvement! Writing with OC's, character in a supporting role, is definitely a good way to start. Once you feel ready (or even a bit before), branch out to writing the scene from the character's POV! (Oh, OC was giving them shit? They ended up bantering back and forth? Cool! What were character's thoughts on that conversation? What are their thoughts on OC?)

And also? Post bad stuff. Post shit you don't like, stuff you're not satisfied with, stuff you feel is trash but can't stand to edit anymore. Challenge yourself to do it! I double-dog-dare you! Someone's gonna leave a like on it anyway, or comment and ask for more. That's gonna boost an ego like nothing else, and confidence and competence are deeply intertwined! You grow when you try new things, and you try new things because you feel good, and you feel good because you can see yourself growing!

Second anyways. You're already doing great. Just in the post where you ask for advice, you prove you have the fundamentals down. You write very conversationally, with good flow and decent syntax. Your simile rocked and effectively related discomfort ("a piece piece of clothing that doesn’t quite fit right"). You're asking good, meaty questions. And technical skills aside, whatever you write, it's gonna be good, because it's yours and you wrote it.

GLHF!

Ok so this is an update/addendum to my original inquiry post back here

I’ve started playing around with writing little blurbs here and there, but I’ve found it really difficult to write what feels right about characters I know and love and read SO MANY GOOD fanfics of. I’m still sort of playing around with it, but I think what I’ve found easier is coming up with my own OC characters and writing my favs interacting with that OC, and having my favs cast in more of a secondary/supporting role.

I’m not sure how to quite shake the criticisms that run through my mind when I’m trying to write as my favs. I just feel like when I try to write with them as my central focus/protagonist of my story, it’s like pulling teeth, or putting on a piece piece of clothing that doesn’t quite fit right and doesn’t looks as flattering on as you thought it did on coat hanger. It’s really quite frustrating bc I feel like I have so many ideas for fics I want to write, but then I try to sit down and write them and it’s just ✨nothing✨

It’s rather annoying actually. Still open to thoughts, suggestions, wisdoms, and other prayers y’all would like to share

[merklins]

Hello, I have a long post for you today! I was designing something for my art project, and through some absurd train of thought began brainstorming the different ways I could draw all of the Gordons from HLVRV. This led to the creation of this post, My personal list of headcanons about the HLVRV Gordons and their hair. Yes, you heard me right, hair.  (Part 1 of 2. Gordon B and the Loverboys will have their own post)

Doc

Doc’s hair is a lot curlier than the other Gordons', and a little darker too. It has a lot of volume, which is a mix of curls and horrible knots formed during his week-long science projects. He often forgets to take care of his hair during this, so it takes hours to fix it all. Afterwards his hair is extremely frizzy and full of static electricity that he generates. Everyone in the lab has gotten shocked by it on at least one occasion. Bubby shocked him back.

His hair has a lot of variety to it as a result of mishaps in the lab. From fried ends to chemical burns, Doc has done it all. Some of his most notable accidents were:

Setting his hair ablaze

Forgetting to put his hair up and bleaching it in unidentified chemicals

Slicing his hair off with a saw

Green Goop

Testing untested substances on himself

Because of this his hair has a lot of pieces that are cut at different angles and lengths. He also has a lot of colour to his hair other than brown and grey. He tried dying it once but it only worked on some strands.

Doc usually has his hair in a low hanging ponytail for simplicity. If he’s feeling fancy or performing any dangerous acts and experiments he’ll put it in a bun. It’s rarely taken down because of the mess that it always becomes. Occasionally someone can convince him to braid it, but that's because he’s the only one in the lab with enough hair to do it. 

Doc has a horde of hair accessories, most of which came from the mad science team’s shopping trips for spider rings and glow sticks. Skeleton hand clips and spiderweb bows make up most of his collection, but there are a couple more intentional pieces he’s gotten over time.

Player

Player's design takes inspiration from Gordon Freeman’s model. For most of the HLVRV timeline he has the same hairstyle it does. Instead of the rat tail everyone imagines it as I’m choosing to interpret that as a short ponytail. It’s still not as long as Freeman’s, but when you take out the hair tie it’s at least a wavy bob now. 

In terms of hair colour, Player has the most distinct when you exclude the Infected Gordon B’s. The half-life wiki has a section where it describes the different hair colours of the Gordon Freeman model. In Half-life 1, the game Player was from, it’s auburn!

I don’t have much to say about style, because Player’s a simple guy. I think he would keep his hair down once he got out of the game because It would be a lot more comfortable then what the OG model had, and it would match his cosy sweater look!

Hypothetically he could have his model changed by Malcom, but at that point he could become anything so why bother with hair.

Freeman

Freeman has another simple design in my opinion. I can’t make up something special for everyone, so Freeman gets the short stick. 

His hair is only a little shorter than it is in Mothra’s art, but it also lacks most of the curls. He’s a simple business man, so he likes to maintain his appearance! It's hard to do that with so much hair, so he keeps it shorter. The lack of curls was a coincidence.

Freeman’s hair is also drastically lighter, as a result of SPACESHIP. SUN. Thanks to his status as an employee of interdimensional beings, the power flowing within him also keeps a few strands conveniently floating like a halo, in reference to everyone’s art. The rest of it is usually pulled back in a simple style, miraculously with no stray strands.

Swap

IT'S ALL HIS FAULT. IF I HADN’T BEEN THINKING ABOUT HIS WEIRD ALIEN BIOLOGY I WOULDN’T HAVE DONE ANY OF THIS. HOW MUCH IS REAL AND HOW MUCH IS JUST MIMICRY-

Needless to say, Swap is a unique case. As an alien, I can’t trust anything I know or don’t know about him. He mimicked a human appearance, but all of the humans in black mesa are bald or balding. In conclusion:

I’m just kidding, I won’t make him bald. For the sake of letting Swap have his intimidating hair tentacles, I’ll instead give you a scenario.

An alien super boss walks into a science lab to try to find a disguise. The alien is slinking through the vents and discovers a human alone in a lab with liquids of various colours. The human has an undercut with two distinct strands in the front, which happen to look vaguely like tentacles. Alien super boss is familiar with tentacles, because they are an alien super boss. But two tentacles is just pitiful, you can hardly do anything with two tentacles. Alien super boss is an alien super boss, and therefore biologically has to be the best and most powerful in every way possible. 

In place of the undercut, which must have been the result of a battle scar he concludes, Swap makes it all tentacles. I would base these on observations of other Xen creatures, but I’d get stuck in a research feedback loop for hours. Instead, I’m choosing to have these resemble tentacles of Earth animals. 

Swap’s hair tentacles come in two flavours, to keep up his intimidating and powerful alien aura. The first is based on a cuttlefish. Cuttlefish biology works surprisingly well with the typical alien Benrey headcanons, so this one is perfect. (I recommend you go see for yourself, because I’m only discussing hair headcanons today!) Cuttlefish tentacles are used to hold onto prey, and can also be used as a sensory supplement to tell the difference between rocks and other animals. They even spread them out really far when they’re scared so they look bigger! These for Swap would serve for the general hair tendril actions we see in the blog. He can use them to pick up things, inspect them better, and tear things apart or break them if he wanted to. But the cuttlefish tentacles aren’t the ones you have to worry about. 

The second kind of tentacle, which makes up the majority of Swap’s strands, are jellyfish tentacles. I don’t think I need to explain why this is dangerous, do I? Because of their size and quantity, these are the easiest to mistake for actual hair. Swap naturally has an immunity for the venom they produce and would never sting himself to begin with, so this rarely affects him. For a long time, he assumed he guessed human anatomy 100% correctly and never went close to another person’s hair. This disguise worked surprisingly well. Cuttlefish and jellyfish tentacles both have colour-changing properties, which made Swap’s hair mimicry even more convincing. If startled or angered the colour rippled, but that wasn’t a concern until Benrey joined the game and it started happening more often. Since the incident on Xen, Swap’s hair has started glitching more frequently. This was a result of the game trying to generate a natural body for him. Despite being in the real world, the effect is still visible and terrifying to witness. It has on several instances ended with a tentacle through a wall trying to stabilise.

Hairstyling is not something Swap does nor is it something anyone should be doing to him. Since his discovery that humans are not venomous he’s reduced the potency of his own stings. That doesn’t mean they are safe to handle and braid, LEADING LIGHT. I also don’t think braiding is something Swap would appreciate, because it’s the equivalent of tying his arms together and calling it fashion. Swap’s hair is one of the last remaining alien traits in this form, so without shapeshifting it is his only means of defence. It’s also one of his primary ways of interacting with the world. Without some serious convincing from Neo or the other Gordons it’s unlikely that Swap would ever style his hair. Tying it back is the closest you’ll get, and even that is a display of trust. To completely braid or pin his hair in any form would require Swap getting an unreasonable weapon of epic proportions.

But cheer up, maybe you can convince him to wear a hat since he likes his helmet so much.

[lucky-sevens]

on doctor carmilla and her relationship to the mechanisms

welcome to my carmilla analysis post! all her lore is too big a subject to handle in one post, so i’m starting with this more specific one and seeing where it goes!

the main thing i’m going to be talking about here is the fan interpretation of her. i’ve collected all the evidence that supports fanon carmilla*, and i’m going to use it to discuss why fandom interpretation, while it has a basis, could be better done/more accurate to the character. i’m collecting evidence here both to support the fan interpretation and criticize it; this is very much not a discourse post, it’s an analysis post!

*i’m defining this as unnecessary experiments on and/or further abuse of the mechanisms.

(that being said, please don’t make her racist/ableist/homophobic; i’ve seen far too much of that, and it makes me incredibly uncomfortable as she is a disabled japanese lesbian and is also most likely trans. i mostly see this in modern aus, but it’s in ‘canon compliant’ works as well- the largest offender here is the popular headcanon that she forced jonny to change his accent to a british one, which for what i hope are obvious reasons given this section doesn’t sit right with me.)

rest under the cut! warnings for medical trauma, including non-consensual drugging and mind alteration, and discussions of abuse (both from a parental figure and from a significant other). it gets heavy; please stay safe!

first off: this isn’t really on the lore of her backstory, but i will touch upon that occasionally as it’s important to understanding her character! i would really suggest to listening to exhumed and (un)plugged (bandcamp / youtube) and ageha (prototype edition) (bandcamp / youtube) and reading her wiki page to get a grasp of the deeper lore; not necessarily before reading this, but definitely if you’re planning to make her a major character in your work.  

we only have two first-hand sources into carmilla’s interactions with the mechanisms; lashings (part one / part two / transcript) and homesick (video / transcript). in both of those, we see that the mechanisms- or at least jonny and nastya- are very uncomfortable with and/or afraid of her. lashings has a few examples of this, regarding nastya; her tone is noticeably quiet and cold whenever she speaks to carmilla and near the end of the show, carmilla hugs her from behind without warning, making her freeze up. 

homesick is even clearer in this regard- after the song is performed, carmilla and jonny have this exchange, which i’ve copied from the transcript in its entirety as it’s all potentially relevant.

[JONNY] (very, legitimately afraid) ALRIGHT ALRIGHT- Stop stop stop stop stop, whoa whoa whoa okay okay okay- I can’t take it anymore! Are you going to kill us or not? Cause I’m (stuttering)- It’s lovely when we’re playing songs, and it's great. But we shot- well, one of us, shot you out of an airlock, and I wanna know. What are you going to do to us? Other than killing me?

[DOC C] Now is not the time, Jonny, I’m feeling a bit tetchy.

[JONNY] Watch it. You’re- you’re planning something. Something. 

[DOC C] Medication time.

[JONNY] Yes-- (cutoff)

the video ends here. the lines at the end are most likely a leadup to the song welcome to medi bay co, but given carmilla’s tone in the recording, it could also be a threat towards him. this implies she has non-consensually drugged him in the past. his conviction that she was going to kill him also suggests that that has happened as well.

from this, we can conclude carmilla’s actions in the common fanon are not out of character, but her motives and thoughts towards the mechanisms could often be considered so. the default motivation for her seems to be to experiment- she’s driven out of boredom or curiosity, and is simply using the mechanisms as test subjects. there are a few cases to directly cite in canon of her experimenting on someone (out of something other than necessity so that they survived)- the first one is from exhumed, and is not in reference to the mechanisms, but instead a clone of herself (x). (i won’t elaborate too much on the post i linked as a source here, but it’s very interesting and i’d suggest giving it a read!)

doesn’t fit too much here, but you know what does?

Highly amused by the moral ambiguity of the events leading to his supposed demise – where both Brian and the priest believed themselves to have the moral high ground, she rebuilt Brian with a slight modification – an inbuilt morality core, with two settings.

brian’s switch. the bio straight-up says she made it out of amusement, which is a huge issue as anyone can flip it (except brian himself; don’t have the source on hand, but there was a post a while back that mentioned it was on the small of his back, which he can’t reach) and it changes his entire mindset!

however! this is the only case of something like this happening!

maki has said that carmilla cared for the mechanisms, and considered them her adopted children. while the evidence i’ve noted earlier almost becomes worse with that knowledge, it’s a different mindset than test subjects.

this is getting into a bit more of personal thoughts/headcanons, but we know carmilla had a lot of trouble with healthy relationships, including familial ones. she could wholeheartedly care about the mechanisms, and just not know how to form an actually positive relationship with them. in addition, if you view my personal headcanon that carmilla made loreli into a vampire instead of the other way round, she sure does have a problem with people she’s attached to dying, doesn’t she? she’s more sympathetic in general than she tends to be painted, and she has had good interactions with the mechanisms. (mostly drawing on what maki has said on the mechscord for this- sadly, invites are currently closed).

not elaborating on it too much here, as there’s a lot to unpack vis a vis lore and red stringing, but it’s also likely that carmilla does grow and change and get better as a person- she left the mechanisms most likely of her own volition, as maki has said she ‘didn’t leave via the airlock’, and made an active effort to fix her past mistakes. this is in contrast to the other mechanisms (except possibly brian) who never make any kind of effort to stop being terrible people. (may write a meta/lore explanation on this eventually, but it’s too large a topic to cover here!)

tl;dr: carmilla was abusive towards the mechanisms, but she was more likely to be well-meaning, rather than bored or curious.

[felonytaxevasion]

So all my numbers were written down three months ago in the notes doc I made before drawing these guys originally and I did not add sources for any of them. Whether they were pulled from text, wiki, reddit threads, or the other calling out to me is any guess. If I had to assume where I got them I would guess that they were pulled from an offhanded mention by Taylor that they are shorter than her/roughly the same height as each other some time pre time skip.

The thing about lore accurate Undersiders heights (which I rebuke whole heartedly) is that Wildbow made them all pretty tall. Like 5'7 (Alec and Aisha) doesn't seem super tall but they'd still be taller than most people. And Lisa Taylor Rachel and Giant Brian are all taller than them. But they're all pretty close so you see a line up and it looks like a normal group of human guys

However. You add Parian and Foil (5'0 and 5'3) to the lineup and you realize these guys are all string bean freaks. Sabbah and Brian would give themselves neck injuries trying to make eye contact