#haha remember this. 'cause still accurate.

[wrenkenstein]

OC creation musings + Juno retrospective

I was rewatching this video by Rea, and it struck me that this exact phenomenon happened to me in 2022, with the first inklings of Juno's design - back when I couldn't decide on whether or not her name would be "Juno" or "Kite", and desperately trying not to make her a scientist. She's obviously come such a long way since then, having now become a very well-known character in the fandom, but I often think of the fact that had she not become on of my artistic passions, I probably wouldn't be anywhere near where I am today.

Juno is absolutely everything to me. She is a representative of my passion for storytelling, and she connected me with so many of my now closest friends - one of which is currently living in my house! How crazy is that, man! All of which I can attribute to simply becoming so fixated on my own OC that I couldn't stop thinking about her, or drawing her.

Of course, that's come with some highs and lows. She's getting a professionally done cosplay, a 3D model and potentially a Battlefront mod - but she also has her own dedicated group of haters who think she represents the 'wrongs' of fandom, lol. I certainly have recieved my fair share of 'Juno hate' in my 3-4 years here, but the positivity and support make it well worth dealing with a few rotten apples. It's radiant and outpouring, like a warm ray of sun, and it keeps me going deep into the night.

Anyways. Total tangent. Want to see all her design iterations? Yea you do ;) Here's the first ever Juno ref!

I made this on my phone in 2022, at the tale end of watching TCW and back when TBB was just one season. You can definitely see that the idea was always there, just a bit disjointed in its application. That gas mask on her helmet ended up causing a lot of confusion, so I removed it in later iterations - but to this day, I think this one picture is what really captivated me. Something about the aura, man,, she scary lookin

Then, of course, I had to draw what her face would look like - if it hadn't been for a RP, I don't think I would have.

Woah - she's like a whole different person! And you can see the beginnings of her white hair streak, though back then, I wanted i to be really subtle. And I was soooo adamant about this lol. She also was almost beat for beat Ellen Ripley, and you can see me paint over a picture of Sigourney below with her OG faceclaim haha.

Then we have the Juno-ing... part two. Where I went darker!! Both in themes, and in her color scheme. This one still has so much personality, and I remember being obsessed with how I drew her eyes and face back then. Nowadays, I think it's hideous. xD This was also around the time I was phasing out her gauntlets and oxygen mask, but both still remained for practicality purposes, even if they didn't serve anything to the design. Oh, and the hair streak. Now it's a Thing :tm: but it isn't really flowing well with the design - not yet, anyways!

We finally get to a point where I, begrudingly, accept the fact that her white streak is going to be her facial focal point - and at this point I'm laughing about how much I tried to avoid it LOL. But here, we also see her get more and more refined. Her face is still a bit wonky, but the stern vibe and posture are starting to come together and tell more of a concrete story, even if the reference doesn't have as much color or personality as the last one. I also did this one for my senior year of college!

I even designed her some totally BS civvies - and I gave her a s2 paint job, which admittedly looks hideous LMAOOO but we ball regardless. The second design was scrapped anyways almost immediately. The civvies stayed!

And then, of course, THE FINALE! Her face went through so many iterations with her current ref, but thus far, it's been the longest standing and most accurate one. It atually started out just as me goofing off with a marker pen in CSP, that quickly changed to "hey... this could be something good." And I was right! This is the Juno that's currently circulating today, and I've been polishing and refining her as I go, since I still feel as though I could perfect things.

And then, of course, her various outfits, which I posted about a while back. Oh - and have you seen Baby Juno?

Well now you have. :)

I think it's so cool to see how someone can fixate on a character and pour so much love and thought into them, that this character becomes their entire brand. Juno inhabits every part of my brain space and is what I think about 24/7. I'm so proud of how far she comes, and she reminds me about how incredible fandom can be and continues to be! Something about her is just so intoxicating to me. I can't get enough of her, and I can't wait to keep developing her over the years to come.

Which then begs the question - what is your equivalent to this entire thread? Do you have an OC like Juno, who you're fixated on and who dominates your creative pursuits? Do they have multiple artistic iterations? Because if you do, share them!! I WANNA SEEEEEE.

Anyways, that's Wren's Ramblings for today ~ I got bored haha

SHARE YOUR OCS!!!! >:0

[redgearsmovin]

[ID start: Various digital sketches of Imagination Movers characters: Nina, Dave, Scott, Smitty and Rich. End ID.]

[coockie8]

how do you feel about the "fairies survive on human belief" thing from Peter Pan?

I think it's a very interesting story mechanic, and fits great in something like Peter Pan.

In my own personal beliefs, and the lore for my novels, though, its doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Fae predate humans, if there existed a fae that relied on human belief to survive, they would've died out centuries before humans evolved.

Now this is not me saying this concept is bad, it simply doesn't work for me. As I said before, it is a very fascinating concept. I'm just not a fan of the implication that fairies have only existed as long as humans have and will die out completely when they do, if not long before due to lack of belief.

[sims3fiend]

Some dumb sims 3 updates/stuf

Or, how to develop severe brain damage in 10 easy steps.

Sooo… This is going to be more of a blog post than anything of any real substance, more of a whinge with maybe a few teasers for some stuff I may or may not release (probably not). Feel free to skip if you're after hot tips or coherent writing.

Stutter "fixer"

Sooooo…. The sims 3 has some stutter issueeesss… Incredible discovery, I know! I started looking at remedying them with settings, found some hidden settings that help reduce some of the issues but that can only do so much when the game was made in 2009 for 2009 computers.

So I had a looky at some things I thought could be causing it, mainly WinAPI functions because that's the easier route (h-haha…), and started to try to "optimize" some of the more common ones:

ReadFile: Was the first, and looking at the sheer volume of like 12783972198 calls a milisecond every time you move the camera, I thought surely I can speed it up a little r-right. Not really. I tried all sorts of… interesting things, file caching in memory, implementing the overlapped flag (took ages), etc. Oh and the performance increase? Literally nothing. It's called weirdly from wherever it's called and so we must suffer.

Threads: So, I had a look at other areas that were potential targets for speedup, ran an actual profile and it showed a problem areas namely threads and some other stuff I don't remember. ZwWaitForMultipleObjects and WaitForSingleObject take up a lot of time, so I very poorly attempted to optimize them, adding some timeout optimizations (and a bunch of other failed attempts). Despite being the most insane, this actually worked, and I got like a 40% speed increase in a very very niche metric that did not noticeably effect the game one single bit. I plan to combine all my failures into a single script eventually, maybe once combined they'll do something…

Actual insanity - Memory IPC: Then I had an idea, everyone hates e12, why don't we shove the games memory into another process and that'll fix it. No brain moment. No clue what past me was thinking, for some reason I thought you could like, access another processes memory if it was spawned from it, but uhh.. no, that's not how things work… I tried a few other things in a similar vein but it just crashed and crashed, so for now I'm just gunna work on:

Alloc/free mee - Current insanity: Currently, I'm still working on VirtualAlloc and VirtualFree (which is what I was redirecting to another process), but more from an optimizing memory usage standpoint than a… whatever the IPC thing was. There's a lot of things to try, and I've had some luck in some areas and some abysmal failures in others. There's a few promising functions calling VirtualAlloc/Free that seem to be potentially pointing towards memory leaks (004e54d0), but I'm too dumb to investigate that. At the moment, I'm going mostly just gathering more logs which takes forever and hurts my brain real bad.. On testing there's like 180 allocs that we could probably yeet no problem, which is like 750mb saved… Maybe idk.

I have plenty of ideas for deduplication, memory pool implementations to reduce churn/fragmentation, shoving things aggressively into pagefiles if they're not being used, etc. etc. Basically, there's a lot of avenues to explore, and I feel like there's potential… though I've definitely said that before and been dead wrong so…

Anyway, rambling over. I plan to release a dumb little renderer settings mod maybe-soon-ish that'll let you do dumb stuff that might be useful for reshade like turn shadows/drop shadows off and post processing off and on. I guess I could add max lots and other settings eventually too since they're static values.... Might also do a mythbusting post for some performance "tweak" stuff I see thrown around that isn't super accurate but I also don't want people to be angry at me so maybe not.

Sorry to whoever read all this, but also thanks :)

[dingodoodles]

Sorry if something like this has already been asked but I'm curious. I can barely remember what I had for dinner a week ago, how do you remember all the details for Fools Gold from a campaign you did years ago? Does Felix still have his DM notes that you can use to cross reference?

I weirdly have a pretty good memory for campaigns. Sometimes things are missed. But I remember the over all story and beats we hit. I also have expanded on what we had. The dialog is not exactly what was said at the table simply cause I can't remember that detailed. HOWEVER There are some lines and jokes that are straight from the campaign simply because they were so good I couldn't forget them. Examples of this would be: Ep. 6 = hitting Sneeze's dead body onto the big crystal. Ep. 17= Vicky asking what Sips name was and him saying "NOPE TOO PERSONAL" Ep. 31 = Elowen saying "Ok now take this sledge hammer and give him a good smash!" I could name so many more but these are just a few. Fool's Gold is a retelling so it's not 100% accurate. I tried my best but a lot I've had to change or expand on, simply cause at the time we weren't thinking "Ok how does Sips curse work again???" We just kinda went with whatever Felix threw at us. If I ever change something I talk to Felix and make sure he's cool with it. This was how the other side of the portal was created. As the original version was just a bigger and more dangerous jungle. But I wanted to make it unique and special to reflect the story. There is sometimes I have to ask Felix about a characters name ect. He does have his notes from the campaign still but they are REAL sparse. He wasn't thinking about taking detailed notes at the beginning. His notes have gotten better now. Maybe one day we'll do a live stream and read through them haha Anyway, that's my long winded answer lol

[katescribblesabit]

I absolutely adore your art style! Do you have any tips? Specifically for the fairies cause I am struggling to draw them.

thank you so much! well, this is gonna be a long post.

Im gonna be real, the best art advise anyone can give you is to use references and to break complicated stuff down into easier shapes. for example:

this is my basic body skeleton! i always start with the circle of the head and work my way down to the feet. i have highlighted some part of the body which are actually just simple shapes.

the center line down the middle of the torso also helps me draw on collars, bra cups, ties, or any other more difficult clothing more accurate!

However i have to ask you, are you comfortable while you draw?

I remember when I first started drawing digital, i was really uncomfortable with the basic set up of my program. The white canvas and the light setting of the program was really bright and irritated my eyes. And the contrast of the pure black I used for drawing wasn't really helping. sketching and doing line art was my least favorite part of drawing because of this.

you don't have to draw on a white canvas, you can also use multiple colours for sketching if you wanted. Once I stoppend using a pure white canvas I noticed i stopped staring at a empty canvas not knowing what i wanted to draw anymore!

also sometimes when a drawing doesn't want to look right, i switch back to traditional. idk why but when my brain sometimes struggles with a specific pose or character design, it comes to me a lot more easier when I switch back onto paper. i guess the change of scenery opens up the creativity again haha.

don't be afraid to simplify stuff, you don't have to draw everything! As long as it still translates to the thing, it should be fine.

these two are a bit clip studio exclusive,

but Gradient maps! god how I love my gradient maps, it just makes the colours pop! I never draw without it anymore. I always pick the sunset gradient, put it in Linear light mode and put it on 10% (cus its really saturated on 100%)

usually i have it on while i sketch and line, and turn it off so i can properly colour and shade. i turn it back on at the end again

the clip studio assets has a lot of beautiful stuff in there created from other users. (a good amount for free too) for example I got the lace pattern of my shawl from there. and its really easy to import the downloaded stuff into the program.

now this is a drawing hack that blew my mind when I first saw it! i use it all the time and I just have to share this!

whenever you want to draw something random like sparkles, stars, bubbles, feathers, falling leaves, or anything that you want to float around your characters, position them in the form of a triangle.

its even better if you put two points of the triangle closer together and then the third further away. this makes it look random but still looking appealing to the eye, and not oddly placed.

now that thats out of the way! Fairies! The one thing i struggled with when drawing them first is their hair. I suggest looking through the fop tag to see how other people have drawn them and take inspiration from your favorites and make up your own. (do not trace tho! that should be obvious!)

when I draw hair I think of it separated in two parts, the front and the back. I usually start with the front hair pieces, then draw in the jaw, ears and rest of the head, then continue with the back section of the hair.

the only outliers of this are Timmy and Peri. when I draw Timmy (Ymmit as well) I start with his hat, before drawing his hair. Since I draw Peris hair-swirl over his hairline, i start drawing his upper back hair style first before drawing his head and then his mullet.

wings can also be tricky. the fairy wings i have given then have a more butterfly look. if you also want to base off the wings to real life animals or bugs you can use them flying as references to. Or you could even cut out the wing shape out of paper, fold it in the middle and take pictures in the angle you desire.

I hope this somehow helped, I thought about what could have helped me if I had known it sooner. even if most of these were for generic drawing.

[minquiec]

The Grim Reaper and The Swallow Au

- unproofreaded unchecked everything I wrote this at 1 am yall

(The grim reaper idea is inspired from goblin hahshahsh)

---

Basically the concept of grim reaper is that they used to be people but died and became reapers (idrk why yet)

They retain some of their personalities and stuff but they essentially cannot remember who they are and can't/or unable to question who they used to be

They're also wired to focus on their sole purpose which is to take things who have died into the afterlife (includes animals)

But hb is an exception while he does do what he's supposed to do, he isn't fully committed to it (so that it's still somewhat movie accurate personality with the whole not following order thing HAHSHA)

So essentially the afterlife entities don't exactly like him and humans (that r on verge of death) don't like him cause uknow no one wants to DIE (minus those few exceptions where it's like a nice old grandma dying of old age ueueu)

In terms of what jia is she's like,,,idk a swallow that can shape shift (some magic bs and animal spirits and stuff)

In this world, there are like a select few animals that can shape shift/are sentient (BECAUUUSEE they also used to be humans but we're reborn. The idea is human --> died unfairly --> given a second chance to turn into a shape shifter --> if they do good/don't do anything outrageously bad in the shape shifter life then they are able to be reincarnated into humans in the next life [the bar isn't very high bc they died unfairly in the previous life.])

The animals are primarily animals and can't maintain human forms for that long and generally takes alot of energy to do so

They can also see other supernatural entities but doesn't mean they are necessarily friendly with all of them

So one day hb and jia meet cause yknow Heeheehaahaa

And bc hb is used to other things being scared of him (grim reaper stuff) he's a little confused why she hasn't run/flown away yet.

"aren't you scared, little dove?"

ASKKSKDKDKDK

And jia just like IM A SWALLOW 😨

But basically jia isn't scared cause generally swallows r optimistic and all around good vibes all the time becaaauuusueee swallows, as google says, represent good luck, safe travels, happiness, and positivity.

And she's like haha that's cause ik it's not my time to go yet!!

And he's like well how would you know that

And she's just cause I have good luck

(she's so dumb istg I love my daughter)

So now they start an odd friendship between the grim reaper and a swallow 🔥

And then to the angst bits

Basically it's probably at the very end of their time tgt

And it's approaching winter and jia is supposed to migrate

But she doesnt

Cause she wants to stay here beccccauuuuuuussssseeee she's on her last legs

She dying brouh so it means if she migrates she'll never see him again

But hb doesn't know this cause grim reapers are only told of the few minutes before the exact moment someone dies

And some other shid I haven't figured out happens and basically how they end is like two ways

One is the reincarnation pathway woohoo where jia dies as a swallow and hb takes her to the afterlife (sadly) and after a couple of hundred years probably she is reincarnated but he can never approach her again like he did before

Oorrrr we can go with

Hb essentially refuses to take her into the afterlife (cause he doesn't rlly follow his duties like I said) and both of them are by other grim reapers

At least they die tgt amirite 😄

[ducktracy]

hi, i really love your art :) i was just wondering if you have any tips on how i could try and improve with drawing characters too? that and, well, spongebob-style backgrounds. because u do those really well :)

one of my biggest pieces of advice for getting a character down is probably the piece of advice nobody wants to hear. myself included! but, it is just a fact that the more you draw said character, the more you’ll get accustomed to that! repetition is key! that might even mean drawing them when you don’t feel like it. but you do begin to develop a feel for the character the more you get acquainted with them, and your muscle memory begins to kick in

definitely speaking a bit from experience here with the SpongeBob characters HAHA. there was a period starting out where i really felt hopeless and did not think i’d ever adopt to the SpongeBob House Style; my own style kept sneaking in through ways i never noticed and it caused me a lot of personal heartache and frustration. but, heartaches or no heartaches, i still had a deadline to meet! and that’s really helped me a lot. 3 years of drawing these guys 40 hours a week has allowed me to improve in ways i never thought i would. it does become muscle memory, you do get more used to the quirks of the characters, you do get more accustomed to their needs, but that does cone from putting in the work to do it. and that work is largely repetition based.

BUT! for some more actively productive advice—doing studies of characters has helped me IMMENSELY! this is something i’ve done for both my personal and professional art. if you’re drawing fanart of a character, maybe take some time to scope out some screenshots and drawings of the character that speak to you the most. how do you want the character to look? do you want to do a 1-to-1 homage? pull different aspects of their designs into your own personal amalgamation?

i really can’t stress how helpful studies are, but you do have to be a bit diligent about them! your goal is to transcribe the drawing/screenshot as you see it exactly. not what you think it looks like or how you would draw it—the objective is to essentially copy it as accurately as you can. then, when you’re done, it helps to do a comparison of your drawing overtop the source! see what you got right and what could maybe use tweaking. it’s likewise important to take your TIME with this. really absorb what you’re drawing. think about the construction, what shapes the character is made up, how their features interact with one another. the absorption is the most important part—otherwise, you’ll just become really good at copying.

on SpongeBob, we’d take these studies one step further—you do your initial study, take notes on what needs to be tweaked, then do that study again. THEN, after that, hide the layers with the source material/previous study so you’re purely drawing it from memory. you’ll have 3 studies that way. it can be a pain and sometimes even a heartbreaker (i remember wincing many times when comparing my 3rd study to the screenshot HAHA), but you DO get better. it really does help, and the addition of the repetition likewise clinches this

another thing that really is invaluable to me is GET TO KNOW THE CHARACTER! know who you’re drawing! study up on their mannerisms and personality, how they conduct themselves or bounce off of other people. maintaining the integrity and BELIEVABILITY of the character is always one of my utmost priorities in any of my art. really get acquainted with who you’re drawing. do they have a bombastic personality? a reserved one? how would they act in this situation? should their gestures and body language be big, all consuming? matching their equally big demeanor? are their poses a bit more closed off to match their reservations? really think about the motivation of the character.

AS FOR SB STYLE BACKGROUNDS… it’s sort of hard to formally express just in text, unfortunately i don’t have the availability to sketch something out right now :’) BUT! one of my favorite pieces of advice i’ve gotten working on the show is “there are no rulers in Bikini Bottom”. so, there are no perfectly parallel, 90° lines! lots of line weight and curves and waves, if only subtly!

like my advice above, i would maybe just recommend studying any backgrounds you see that look interesting! but i will say, as someone who ends up drawing Bikini Bottom houses more than i usually think i do (which, fun fact if you didn’t know this, are engine mufflers!), i usually think of those as soda cups with scoliosis HAHA. i think of the topmost chimneys like a straw, you have the little ridge that goes around the top, which is the lid… and then the body! likewise, no two houses are exactly the same. there are variations to the ways the chimneys or houses may curve or jut out.. so have fun and experiment!

I’M SORRY I DON’T HAVE MORE TO OFFER WITH THAT CURRENTLY, if possible i’ll try to follow up later on! but a lot of it is indeed down to studying. same with drawing characters!! i’m very flattered you would reach out to me and ask this—thank you for reading!!

[ladysomething]

atp I don't even know why I keep asking stuff as an anon. my identity has been revealed but fuck it.

one more time, let's do 5+1

1. Charles thinking he's the world's most clever person ever has me on the fucking floor. you go get them babe. yes, surely keeping the other idiot satisfied is only because you want to escape. of course sweetie. but question: are omegas more prone to their alpha, or that only goes so far and then they actually can control the feelings said alpha causes on them?

2. Max is an idiot, isn’t he? like, I actually want to open his brain to see how the fuck it works because I am amazed at its capacity (or lack of it/j)

3. I have a thing for the starved man comparision, and it's lovely to see such an accurate scenario for it. because Max actually short-circuited. he's just a man and Charles broke his brain in what? like, less than 5 minutes?

4. Carlos is a little rat, but I'm actually thankful that's he's not like. gross. (please, I'm begging you on my knees. don't make him or other drivers gross) I have this thing where I can kinda stand when oc are gross and little shits, but, even if some would consider said person a little shit (completely reasonable, people are allowed to not like drivers) I don't like it when on fics, they're outright assholes and disgusting craps, cause I don't know with certainity if they are like that irl. idiots and that I can do but over that is too much to bear for me. that's the point where I am reminded that they're real and that stuff. of course, is totally on you, and I don't expect anything, but picture me making puppy eyes at you on this one. and I was wondering, what is he? a beta or an alpha? it probably was said somewhere but I don't remember. because according to my reasoning, he's a beta because he was not in the auction. or was he?

5.I'm so fucking glad I chose wygig as this year's questionable fic. I love it and I have now developed a deep emotional dependence towards it. but haven't we all? (this is to say I love it)

+1. glad you're enjoying (I'm also trip anon btw) had I been in Italy, I would've loved to go to the bar to watch the race. even though I've never gone to watch a race at a bar in Rome, in Italy, depending on where you go, it can be really exciting and ehmmm... definetely an experience, may I call it that way. but sadly, first of all there's a four hour drive from Toscana to Rome and I would get my ass even flatter, and second I left months ago. maybe next time

and as you may have noticed, I gave up with trying to tell you how many points there will be in my ask. have a nice day Mads, enjoy your vacay hun!

look I'll honest. you say your identity has been revealed but you could be any of a handful of anons that have revealed their identity to me. so my terrible memory means that your secret is still safe!

wellllllll ... hm. omegas are definitely more SUSCEPTIBLE to their alphas e.g. with the alpha voice. but anything Charles feels is his real feelings.

haha Max IS an idiot, but so is Charles. they're two idiot peas in an idiot pea pod.

yeah no for real, Max's brain was completely broken. it was like Christmas morning for him haha

Carlos is a beta - basically everybody is a beta. there's only one person whose designation hasn't been revealed yet, but they're not a driver, so. you can pretty much just assume that everybody is a beta. as for making drivers assholes - I don't really do that in general, because usually it's too one dimensional for what I'm writing. it's fun in some scenarios (particularly shorter fics) but even the drivers who are currently 'villains' aren't outright bad people.

hahaha and at the rate it's going, it's length will mean it probably lasts half the year too haha

+1. yeah, I'm really excited!!!! I was kind of like ... if I can't go to Iola, then this is simply an experience I MUST have. cheering for ferrari while they're driving in Italy while I'M in Italy??? ahhhh.

thank you so much, you have a great day too!

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

HIII BRAINROT :D

It’s been months since i was last in your askbox but i check your page daily because i love your work 🥲 (got me through my finals no joke)

As always my hyperfixation is music of so many genres and I had to pick a few favorites for the main 6 that I think are so Them™️!

Julian

the first cutie patootie ever (he needs more than therapy.)

- The Night by Aurelio Voltaire

- Mess is Mine by Vance Joy

- Stay With Me by Sam Smith

- Creature by Half•Alive

- Toes by Glass Animals

- Youth by Glass Animals

- If I Speak by Frank the Baptist (it sounds like a sea shanty to me 🧚🏼‍♀️)

Asra

Not too big on Asra so my analysis might not be accurate!

- Gooey by Glass Animals

- Borderline by Tame Impala

- Escapism from the Steven Universe soundtrack

- Homage by Mild High Club

- Brain & Heart by Melanie Martinez

- Pink + White by Frank Ocean (totally not bc this song and Asra are both ethereal haha..)

- Choking on Flowers by Fox Academy

Nadia

the woman 💕 It was tough finding songs to fit her but i attempted hehe

- Au Revoir by Malice Mizer

- Show Me How by Men I Trust

- rises the moon by liana flores

- Asleep Among Endives

- Smooth Operator by Sade

Muriel

He would love music in the same way he loves nature prove me wrong

- Dawn in the Adan by Ichiko Aoba

- Gilded Lily by Cults

- I’ll Be There by Strawberry Guy

- TrusT by Half•Alive

- Mountains by Message To Bears

Portia

WIFEY ™️ she’s so amazing and grggggahsggsdnfn i love her

- Fish in the Sea by Liana Flores

- Blow My Brains Out by Tikkle Me

- Fine by Lemon Demon

- Empire Ants by Gorillaz

- Russian by Caravan Palace

- Arms Tonite by Mother Mother

- Hidden in the Sand

Lucio

last but not least, the silliest! His songs are mostly upbeat with a deeper meaning imo :3

- I’m Still Here/Jim’s Theme from Treasure Planet

- My Type by Saint Motel (works wonderfully with Julian too)

- Love Me Normally by Will Wood

- Charlie’s Inferno by That Handsome Devil

- Origami by Capital Cities

-Still Feel by Half•Alive

- Cake by the Ocean (purely meant as a joke bc of the baewatch tale but take it as you will!)

This is all i’ve got currently cause I’m eepy but i do hope you like them! do remember to take breaks if you need them ‼️

Hiya! Oh my goodness, @vegaspng it's so nice to hear from you!! And congratulations on getting through finals, that is not an easy thing to accomplish. I'm humbled and honored that my writing was able help just a little bit ^.^

Those are all wonderful suggestions! I've put as many of them as possible on the playlist (there were one or two I couldn't find on spotify) and I'm putting these on the tag too, thank you for sending them!! :D

[amugoffandoms]

OKAY WE'RE ACTUALLY SO BACK NOW HERE WE GOOO FOR MILGRAMTOBER DAY FIFTEEN

Es stares at the request list.

It's an anonymous request for anatomically correct skeleton.

"Do they need this for that Halloween party...?" Es mumbles as they place down the list.

Looks like they'll have to find a skeleton, somehow.

Amane walks into the common room to see many other prisoners gathered around something. Deciding it's probably nothing important (but still a little curious), she sits down at a nearby table as she drinks her tea. It's just tea, just like her parents taught her to make it. It lacks sugar, making it a little bitter for Amane, but she doesn't say a word about that. She doesn't need anyone to know she has childish desires like that.

As she closes her eyes and says a prayer to her God to thank them for what she has been given, she hears someone sit across from her. Opening her eyes, she sees Shidou looking at her, a frown on his face.

Him. She would have immediately left the table if she was able to avoid attracting any attention from the other prisoners.

With an annoyed look on her face, Amane takes a sip of her tea.

Shidou looks at the tea and at Amane. "How is your tea, Amane?"

"It's fine," Amane blankly states, trying to make him leave her alone.

He does not take the hint and continues to talk to her. "Amane, please allow me to make you tea one day. I'll add sugar to sweeten it. Does that not sound nice?"

Having tea does sound nice. Especially if it's sweetened...

No. She will not fall for his tricks to pretend to be a child. She does not want to act like one nor does she want anyone to continue to act like she eis.

Amanee shakes her head. "I am fine. Thank you."

Shidou sighs. "Amane, please. I'm sure you'll—"

"Please stop trying to push me, Shidou."

"...of course." Shidou stands up and leaves her alone.

With Shidou finally gone, she's finally able to relax and drink her tea in peace. She shuts her eyes as she takes a—

"Amane?"

Now annoyed by the second disruption, Amane opens her eyes to see Mikoto looking at her. "Yes?"

"Sorry for interrupting your tea, but we were wondering, uh..." Mikoto steps aside to show a skeleton behind him.

Kazui, Fuuta, and Mahiru are all standing around the skeleton, examining it. Amane remembers a few other prisoners near it, perhaps they left earlier.

"It's... surprisingly accurate to a real skeleton..." Kazui mumbles.

"Eh?? Why do you know that?" Fuuta blinks. Kazui shrugs, causing Fuuta huffs.

"It's... a little creepy you know that, Kazui...!" Mahiru worriedly laughs.

"I promise, I have my reasons as to why I know this," Kazui says with an awkward smile.

Anatomically correct skeleton.

...ah, oh dear...

Amane has to hide her shock and embarassment. "A skeleton...?"

"Yes, uh... We really don't know why it's here, haha..." Mikoto awkwardly laughs.

"And... you came to ask me?"

"Well, we asked Shidou about it and he said he never requested one, so the only person left is you..." Mikoto trails off.

"Hm? What about that Halloween party? Are you not all decorating with Halloween decorations?"

"Yeah, but... Es said they'd give us the decorations the day of the party, not... now."

Oh dear. She's certainly running out of excuses to hide this was her request.

"Hm... Well, perhaps Es just brought it in for now in case, not knowing if you all needed it in the future. So, they wanted to be sure." Amane stands up and walks up to the skeleton. "Or... they brought it in for teaching purposes; I would not know."

Es definitely brought it in for teaching purposes. Except not for their teaching purposes. It's for Amane's studying to understand the human body.

Even if her beliefs are heavily attached to the idea of avoiding changing the course of fate of others, she is still interested in understanding the human body. After all, if she understood the body, then she will be able to understand herself deeply.

"Oh, that's... probably it!" Mikoto says. Amane can still tell there is confusion in his voice.

"Yes." Amane nods. "Ah, am I allowed to borrow this for a little bit? If it is as anatomically accurate as Kazui says, then I will be able to study on it."

"Of course!" Mahiru bobs her head up and down. "We don't need it now, so you can use it for whatever~ Just be careful and don't break it!" "I do not plan on it. Thank you." Amane thankfully nods.

Kazui, Mahiru, and Mikoto all wave Amane goodbye and head out of the common room, saying they should work on cooking in the dining room.

After a couple of moments in silence, Amane quickly runs out of the room. She returns with a few books on anatomy and the human body.

She places the book on a table near the skeleton and exhales.

She's very embarrassed that she neglected to mention where to drop off the skeleton in her request, but that may have linked her to the skeleton.

As Amane grabs a book and reads, pointing to parts of the body as she does, the close call still lingers in her mind.

She should seriously be much more careful next time she requests something like this.

[lotus-mirage]

Trigun Stampede episode 7 liveblog

Man I said this two-parter is really focused on Wolfwood, but this episode has his name as the title

Oh I see the destination is an additional threat to him. Huh. I wonder what the purpose of that is? Like just to mess with him, or to make the journey seem appropriately menaced, or what?

I didn't notice before, but it is incredibly funny that the letters front and center are B and L

I feel like half of Wolfwood's gun is like ammo storage lmao, he goes through that fast

Oh actual emoting from Livio! Not looking particularly cognizant, but it's something.

Oh there's Meryl and Roberto! Would not have figured that's how they managed to tag along, but if it works it works haha

The boing noises as the desert raiders are thrown around are fantastic

Vash is wielding his gun, backhand, like a blunt weapon. Possibly as a gauntlet idk. Still. Makes sense for him, but not something I've ever seen before lol

Mmmmhmm and now the "monsters" and "not human" assertions are being foiled.

Between Livio and Rollo, seems like they kinda get stuck on a single sentiment?

"It would have been better without you around" ...ah. I did not expect that and don't know how to respond to it.

Wow, uh. I mean we knew Vash was incredibly accurate at aiming before, but to redirect someone else's gun to land a clean shot (particularly one that has as much heft as Wolfwood's) is rather uncanny.

that method of getting another Worm actually made me gag ugh.

wait hold up what was happening with Livio's reflection. I don't think I recognize it?

Eef. Thought that was how it'd end, but didn't expect him to shoot and fall over the side. (I suppose it's possible that the 'if there isn't a body, they're probably not dead' rule applies here though)

"I just wanted to spread the good word. That's all." You know I think this does in fact hold true to the, uh. Real world weight? That this sort of phrase carries.

Okay this is the first we've heard of a topic that Wolfwood apparently has disagreements with the Eye of Michael over. ...Actually that was on an assumption that it's a decision on an action, not a religious thing. It's Wolfwood's initial verbal disagreement on religion, isn't it.

Switched to Eng dub for a second 'cause I wasn't sure who said the next couple lines, but yeah I think it's clearer that it's about Wolfwood's denial.

Wait speaking of that's also a Christian term too right. Like Judas denies Jesus or something? I know the term is used in relation to those two in particular but I don't actually know the specifics. It's like "one of you will deny me" or "one of you will betray me" and I don't remember which.

Not sure if that really matters in this case, though, since I don't think Bluesummers quite maps to Jesus lol. Anyways.

Okay yeah "Punisher" is definitely being used in relation to Wolfwood himself. Noted.

Lmao the "Hi!~" being in English really sold it

Ooh, worldbuilding. Spacefaring age, okay.

Wait if they're running around to all the controls, where are the people originally driving the ship?

Yay, character exploration and development from Meryl! (and Roberto to a lesser extent)

Oh wait the kid that fell in the first town is alive?? I guess I saw him moving a bit at the end there, but it was a long fall and I thought maybe it was his mom's movements while carrying him.

:0 Vash's arm fractured! Frankly I didn't know it could do that. That's not good.

Oh lmao it's the disproportionate response "Wolfwood..." that kept being memed on.

Oh NOW the title comes up!

Actually wait I saw something on this a while ago, too. They were talking about he asserts he's "the Punisher," then "Nicholas the Punisher," and then the framing basically hits him with a "no :)" That's so funny. Also kind of tragic. But still funny.

Oh hey this is the first time we've seen Vash in this sort of situation since he was a 'plant technician' in the first episode.

it can move in there!?

oh that looks really painful

it's humanoid already!?

maybe I leaned too far into the "oh it's kind of egg shaped" assumption lol

Oop, yep, I guess Livio's not dead. Or uh. Might be dead but isn't out of the picture?

Alright yeah Vash looks pretty out of it.

...was that him hitting the ground? oof.

End Notes:

Again not really much to say here! We got some character details, some worldbuilding details, lots of character development & solidification of relationships, and now some immediate threads to be followed up on (Vash's arm and the Plant reveal thing). Feeling much more invested than when I started the series and interested in seeing how this conversation goes!

I will say. The plant did not look uh. very intimidating. kind of reminds me of the... neopets fairies? I don't think that's right, but like some similar franchise kind of had similar vibes, shape-wise.

...is this the first time the Plant stuff got fully revealed in the show? I went in knowing and haven't been keeping track. I know it was established that Vash is a) non-human b) fell from a spaceship onto the planet and c) had 'relatives' in pods on said spaceship. Not to mention his twin also having pretty obvious markings. But I'm curious about the reasons for the pacing of these reveals, since we got so much of Wolfwood's backstory just last episode.

[smalltownfae]

For the book bait ask game: 22-24, 27-32📚📖

I don't know if the dash means you want me to answer all the questions in between but I am gonna suppose you don't (?) haha but then why the comma... well, I will answer them all then.

22. would you want your favorite book to be a movie?

My favourite book is unfortunately a movie. More than one even. I am talking about The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Do I want a better and more accurate adaptation of that? Yes, yes I do. It isn't even that hard, come on. You need to go all out on the visuals for that work about art. You need exuberance in every setting and every piece of clothing. It needs to look glorious and you need at least 3 amazing actors for the main roles.

If I consider the entire Realm of the Elderlings series I would like to see a tv show of the Liveship Traders and the Rain Wild Chronicles. The stories are too long for a movie series, but I think those would look amazing as a show. The Fitz books would be harder to adapt and I fear the white washing even though it seems we are getting better about that in casting nowadays.

23. I answered this one here.

24. what book to movie adaptation to you dislike?

I don't remember watching many adaptations of the books I read tbh and I am less picky with movies. I need to go check the movies I watched haha. I don't like Eragon, but I didn't like the book either so... that is the popular answer people give to this question and I can't even use it. I think the first Narnia movie was an improvement on the book, but I don't really like the Chronicles of Narnia either way. I didn't mind the His Dark Materials movie or the Percy Jackson movie.... I'll say The Cat in the Hat! Omg that movie is terrifying and my sister loved it as a kid. Do you know tha trauma of having to see the face of that human cat hybrid almost everyday on your tv??? And hear that voice??? Burn it! Kick it to hell where it belongs. The kids' book is ok.

27. I also answered it here.

28. is there a book that made you cry?

You know there is. I cried in almost every book in the Realm of the Elderlings series by Robin Hobb. I think only City of Dragons didn't make me cry on my first read through. Now I don't cry as much, but I still do (especially in the Fitz books). I remember crying reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid too and at the end of As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCan. I know there are way more books that made me cry because I used to cry a lot with books and movies. I don't cry as much anymore though. Unfortunately, because I like when books cause a big emotional impact on me.

29. is there a book that made you laugh out loud?

Yes, the Realm of the Elderlings series again. People keep talking about how sad these books are and ignore how funny Hobb can be. Maybe that kind of humour only works for me, but I laughed out loud with many of the character interactions in these books.

Oscar Wilde makes me laugh a lot too. Recently I reread The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest and both those works made me laugh. Most Discworld books by Terry Pratchett also make me laugh a lot and so does Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. I believe I also laughed out loud reading some of the First Law books by Joe Abercrombie. If an author is from the UK I will probably laugh haha there is a specific kind of humour there that really works for me. It's the irony and silliness that they do so well. I also laughed out loud reading Heartbreak Boys by Simon James Green and Glitterland by Alexis Hall, UK authors again. Maybe there is something in the water of that place that makes people really funny.

Every Heart a Doorway also made me laugh, but I don't think I was supposed to. I was laughing at how ridiculous it was in a laughing at it instead of with it kind of way and I don't think that was the purpose of certain scenes.

30. is there a book that changed your life?

Realm of the Elderlings, maybe. It did help me a lot to get through a very depressing time in my life (ironically enough). Maybe I did look at Fitz and think "you know what? I am not doing so bad after all. At least I am not this guy". I don't know. I know it helped me forget my problems by immersing myself in a fictional world in a way I never experienced before. One of my friends made me talk about the series at my father's funeral and it helped for a bit so that is the kind of thing. Knowing that someone came up with the character of the Fool also made me feel less alone because it showed that somewhere existed someone with values similar to my own. Solanin by Asano Inio was also a big comfort in a time of my life when I needed it and pretty motivational.

31. how many books are on your current tbr?

Physical? I have no idea but probably less than 200. In my tbr on storygraph is 478 and that only includes the first volumes of mangas. So, a lot that I will probably not read in my lifetime tbh.

32. what is the first book you remember reading?

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. I think I gave it to one of my small cousins so I don't own it anymore nor can I find a picture of my exact copy... it was one of those kids' books with hard pages and full illustrations. Others were random fairy tales that were in a box set, including Snow White and the Ugly Duckling among others.

Thank you for the ask :)

[still-writingfrommycorner]

outlet

Hi blog,

Been a while. Going by my last actual written entry here, it has been 4 years since I cared or had time to lay down my feelings and experiences in their most raw. No editing here, for a change - yay!

A quick summary to catch you up, 'cause the last few years have been quite full.

Got married

Had a baby

Landed a new Sydney-based job

Enjoyed working with Australian and NZ brands with said Sydney-based company

Got into a near-fatal car accident right outside our home

Left Sydney-based job and took two months off to recalibrate (didn't realize how badly I needed it until I was fully immersed in it -- highly recommend if you were born in the '90s like me and went to work right after college grad haha)

Did a short freelancing stint with a NY-based Filipino lifestyle brand (thanks to a generous mentor who did the introduction)

Let freelancing stint go as I got more serious with my full-time job applications

Went on a fun family trip to Bohol just in time for Chunky's 2nd birthday

Started a new work-from-anywhere job with one of the best digital agencies I've come across (funnily enough, first "worked" with them when I was still with Summit -- felt like a foreshadowing haha)

So... that's the past 4 years as a list. What's not seen are the many breakdowns and breakthroughs, coffees and matcha lattes, crippling anxieties and thank-you-universe moments of happiness that I went through, paid for, and lived through.

TBH, today's writing prompt was a personal low point. It's been a tough several weeks or month, really. And yesterday, it all just came to a boil. I've been thinking about journaling the past few months, and today I just couldn't fight the urge anymore. I just need an outlet or maybe coping mechanism would be more accurate. I've tried a lot at this point: looking at my zodiac readings (lol), curating crystals (can confirm they work haha), downloading cat games, downloading "soothing" games, retail therapy (too easy to get carried away with this), and going to the gym. But this - writing and talking to the void where I feel unknown in the best possible way - will always be the most natural for me.

I promise to be back. Even these last few minutes of just typing away my thoughts almost as soon as they came to me has brought me immense comfort. Let's work towards this bringing me joy.

Note: Funny story about this book. Badly wanted this and my then-boyfriend, now-husband bought it for me for Christmas. Was only about a quarter of the way through reading when life took over and I had to pause. Lent it to a friend who, 'til now, has not returned it yet. hahaha I see her semi-regularly, must remember to ask for it back next time.

[crypticsesh]

Pain changes a person.

No one knows this more accurately than myself. At 33 years old, I should be enjoying my life. I should be out having adventures, being happy, and just enjoying all that life has to offer.

My life though actually reads more like a tragic tale of sadness and self despair.

It started with my knees. A small ache here and there. No need to worry. My job had me moving around a lot and maybe I just sprained something. The pain continued to grow throughout the oncoming weeks. Each night I'd lay on the couch with an ice pack on each knee trying to reduce the pain. Nothing seemed to work. I went from walking around like any normal person to barely being able to stand.

Then comes the torturous process of finding a doctor who'll actually see you. The medical system is notably known for fat shaming. Looking at your weight as the sole problem for all your aches and pains and what ales you. So I fought. I fought to be seen. For years. The only answer I ever got was lose weight. Everything would go back to normal if I just lost weight. But how do you lose the weight if you can't walk? How do you begin a physical transformation when you can't physically handle your day to day tasks? The doctors had no answers. So I continued to search.

10 years and a lifetime gone and I found a doctor who actually saw me. We tried various forms of PT, injections, topical gels, pain meds, anti-inflammatory meds, everything. Nothing helped. So after everything failed we tried a last ditch effort to see if weight loss would indeed help. He told me numerous times that my weight MAY be a contributing factor, but it isn't the sole contributing factor. So more medication it was. Weightloss meds were added to my growing medication collection. These days I'm up to 12 pills every morning.

So the medication worked. I lost 50 lbs in two months, but with each pound lost new pain crept into my life. My back started to ache so unbearably bad that I couldn't handle the pain.

We set up an MRI of my back and found the answers we'd been searching for, for so long. Bulging disc's, nerve damage, pinched sciatica, and arthritis. It gave an explanation for everything. I was diagnosed with Degenerative Disc Disease. What it didn't explain was what happened. What caused my back to completely shift to an unbalanced and decaying state? I still don't know. I've never been in a major accident. Never fallen from a great height. There's no explanation for my body to be the way it is.

All this to say, pain changes people. Sometimes slowly. So so slowly. It creeps into your life and carves out its own space deep inside. Killing off the joy, happiness, and beauty that life brings. I've been living in the body of an 80 year old for the past 15 years. The arthritis has spread, and continues to do so at a faster rate then id like.

It's funny, not so much haha funny, but ironic funny...when I was a kid I'd see the older folks sitting and fussing about the weather. Rubbing their joints and saying, "looks like a storm is comin in". I'd look at them with fascination and an understanding that youth brought with it, that they were just silly old folks. They were just making up stories like they do. I'll be damned if my arthritis doesn't flare up when a storm is brewing, when the weather changes, or hell if the wind blows the wrong direction. It's funny how I can look back and remember moments like that. I can look back at all the pictures I took when I was younger and I can see the happiness lit up on my face. I can see my smile reaching my eyes and a glow just burning brightly. I miss that. I miss being happy. I miss seeing the beauty around me. I look in the mirror today and I don't recognize who it is staring back at me. My eyes are dead. There's no glow left in my body. Each day the pain just hammers more and more into my system. Burrowing its way into my soul. I don't know what tomorrow will bring. I don't know what my life will look like a year from now, hell 5 years from now. It's scary to think about. To wonder how much more decrepit I'll become.

Throughout all of this I wish I could say I've grown to love my body. That I see how hard it's working and see how beautiful that is.

I'd be lying.

How can you love something that is constantly hurting you more and more each day? How can you give love to something so broken and damaged. I don't know how to accept love. I don't know how to love this body when each day it deteriorates a little more. Leaving me less and less able to do the things I want and need.

Pain changes a person.

It's not always a fast transition. In my case it's taken years. I miss me. Who I used to be. I want so badly to go back to the person I was. I miss her.

I miss who I was before the pain.

[i-make-fun-of-spn-characters]

Hey I'm the one who sent the ask about Castiel embracing his dark side so he can heal and be co-parented by us. I like anon cause it's mysterious to you lol but I didn't send any real cascrit. I like how your blog is like a link to all corners of this fandom. Can't believe people hate Jack lmao. Casgirls maybe? There are Cas parents and Cas lovers

Oh yeah no worries.

I think I won't post the other anon just because I'd like to get off the babytrapping subject haha but I know you weren't really being serious about it. There were a couple anon messages trying to turn it in a different direction (not from you I think). There was also an anon who was upset and thought it was serious crit with the way we were joking about it and was defending Cas (but didn't want me to post). I think if people really want to discuss this genuinely, it could be a fun discussion for them, but with someone besides me because I don't have the motivation to say a lot to say about it haha. For me personally I don't think it holds up as genuine crit (and I don't think you do either) because that term has a specific meaning and I definitely don't think Cas has ever genuinely intended to babytrap Dean as like... a manipulation tactic to keep them stuck in a relationship. If there's a problem here, I think it looks more like Cas being really oblivious about the hangups Dean has developed about raising kids by the late seasons and just kind of thinking, "Oh! I remember that Dean is good with kids. I'll ask him to do this because I think I'm not good at it and he could help." Maybe someone wants to argue that that's its own problem and speaks to larger issues Cas and Dean have in terms of communication and understanding each other, but it's not babytrapping.

Jack hate is a real thing haha. Jack was actually a somewhat polarizing character while the show was airing. A lot of people really loved him, but there were a few things that created pockets of resentment in fandom:

Fans who loved Jack tended to infantilize him, which didn't sit well with other fans at all and lead to a lot of resentment for Jack, which is sad, because while fans (and occasionally Sam and Cas) infantilized Jack, Jack never infantilized himself. Jack (read: REAL Jack—not Soulless Jack) strongly believed in taking responsibility for his own actions. Jack bares similarities to all three of his "dads", and what he got from Dean imo is that relatively more uncompromising moral framework that's rarely swayed, and... the extra helping of guilt over your own human mistakes that comes with being a bit more uncompromising. (I actually like this about both of them).

Some fans resented Jack because they felt he was designed by the writers to undermine and even erase a lot of established canon about Dean and how he treats kids in order to turn fans against him. Prior to Jack's birth, Dean was pretty consistent in protecting kids and teenagers, whether they were monsters or not (ex: Bobby John, Jesse, Emma). This change in writing about Dean's outlook for many felt OOC or like a deliberate retcon, and there were many fans who did hate Dean over this entire period specifically because of this change and still do. They don't remember what Dean was like before and will wax poetic about how much Dean hates kids or dogmatically wants monsters to die which just... isn't accurate at all.

You have bronlies, who hate anyone who isn't Sam or Dean. Pretty self-explanatory there.