#have a consistent art style challenge: ALSO FAILED

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

I've been reading your Erikar posts and I think that they work really well with the idea that moirallegiance really doesn't work the way it's "supposed" to. It's framed in-universe as a very one-sided "stable person pacifies dangerous person" deal, but both Erifef and Gamkar, which are basically platonic ideals of that concept, failed independently because of how unstable that dynamic is -- one person is worn out doing all the emotional labor and the other is not interested in being pacified. Whereas the meowrails, despite also being framed as a "classical" moirallegiance, are much more clearly two-sided, as both parties consistently help, listen to, and advise each other, and the relationship is consequently much stabler and more enduring. I love the way you frame Erikar because it works really well with this by showing both parties taking and giving "pacification" and support in turn, instead of one shouldering all the work.

Yeah! I think this is a good way to talk about something Hussie likes to do that I'm a huge fan of, which is: unreliable narration. This unreliable narration has garnered Hussie the reputation of being a "troll" or even flat-out "wrong" about HS, and I find both of these to be very unfair because the use of unreliable narrator is both deliberate AND thematically fitting.

As part of Homestuck's post-modern stylings (and I mean post-modern in the literature sense, not vis. art, though it has shades of that too), it plays heavily on the ideas of narrator-as-character, author-as-character, metafiction, and we-all-know-it's-a-story-itis. Hussie himself, even in his external commentaries (Formspring, Tumblr, Books, etc.), is fully aware that his additions add to the metatextual texture of the work and change how it's interpreted - that, although his additions technically lie external to the "story" Homestuck is telling, they are also paradoxically part and parcel of that very story.

As a result, they deliberately play a character WRT Homestuck, both in- and out-of-universe, and this character is, by their own admission, buffoonish and oafish. It's really apparent in their book commentary, where they'll sometimes even drop the act, or "realize" they've dropped the act and hurry to put it back on (a standout moment is when he provides a very genuine, honest analysis of Vriska, before going "oh, wait, I forgot, she's literally my wife and has never done anything wrong ever in her life ever"). They also mention how their narrative voice sometimes works antagonistically to the characters, such as when it assures Vriska that she has no choice but to kill Aradia, subtly pushing Vriska towards that option.

Functionally, neither the narrator nor the author (and by that, I mean the caricaturized character of "the author" that Hussie plays) of Homestuck are entities that you can take fully at face value; they need to be challenged and interrogated as much as any other character, have their motives dissected, have their blind spots pointed out.

And why would this need to be the case? Because that's literally one of the main thrusts of Homestuck: malicious entities (in HS's case, LE, Doc Scratch, and Caliborn, who at various times struggle with Hussie for control of the story, before killing him and wresting it away entirely) will attempt to write the narrative. They'll push their version of events, their politics, their biases, their philosophies. They'll try to change the story to suit them and perpetuate their own power and ability to enforce that power. And you can't let them win.

Hussie-as-a-character/narrator himself is not particularly malicious, and, as the narrative prompt serving as Caliborn's guide, is even ultimately sympathetic, expressing that kids need to grow up and mature, achieve self-actualization, emotional catharsis, etc.

However, as a result of his oafishness, he has a tendency to play to the characters' worst instincts, to pick favorites among the cast. The most blatant example of this is his "love" of Vriska, which - contrary to popular opinion - isn't "real". Hussie is not actually in love with Vriska; the whole thing started because - due to misogyny - people accused Hussie of only giving Vriska so much plot relevance because he was literally in love with her. Why else would a female character with an unpleasant personality be allowed to be important, amirite? And Hussie clearly thought that this whole thing was so ridiculous that he 100% leaned into it as a joke. I'm not here to litigate whether or not it was appropriate to do so, just to point out that Hussie's "love" of Vriska was always an artifice - an aspect of Hussie-as-character that he played up to highlight the fact that Hussie-as-character is an unreliable buffoon, and, by extension, that Vriska is not blameless and perfect.

Since this is the Eridan blog, I'd be remiss not to talk about him. Hussie's commentary towards Eridan is especially fascinating to me, because Eridan is one of he characters Hussie-as-character is biased against, in a similar way as he's biased in Vriska's favor. Thus, his attitude towards Eridan is very dismissive, both in the book commentary AND in the comic itself. "Gamzee: Indulge emotional theatrics" and "Jade: Answer this douche bag" come to mind. He also spends the vast majority of the Act 5 Act 2 book mocking Eridan for being sad and alone, with nobody to care about him and nobody who listens to his problems.

Now, the reason I call this fascinating is twofold: the first is that his commentary in the Act 5 Act 1 book has a WILDLY different tone: while he's still biased in Eridan's disfavor, he outright calls Eridan a "good character" alongside Nepeta, and offers genuine insight into his characterization and the powers of Hope - comparing him at one point to Dave if Dave took a much darker path.

So when his attitude changes from "he's a shithead, but fairly complex, I guess" to "he's a loser idiot that nobody likes LMAOOOO", you're supposed to notice that! You're supposed to question that, to wonder why he has a change of heart, why he's suddenly so dismissive of a character he was genuinely writing whole paragraphs about before.

And the answer is multifaceted:

He's playing up his buffoonish character, to let you know that he's about to be wrong as hell. Every time Hussie starts really amping up the Hussie-as-character persona, you're about to be in for an opinion that SHOULD NOT be taken at face value.

He's reflecting a common fandom opinion, because one of his favorite things to do as an unreliable narrator is to speak on behalf of another character or entity, highlighting the biases and blind spots in play - in this case, the audience's. Again, he's about to be wrong as hell, so he's doing this specifically to indicate that the audience members who believe this are also wrong as hell.

Act 5 Act 2 is when we get the one conversation in all of Homestuck where somebody (Karkat) cares about Eridan and takes his problems seriously. During this part of the story, Hussie goes COMPLETELY silent. This is incredibly out of character, as he usually can't shut up, and the commentary is usually dense, packed with words, without pause. Compare:

In those blocks of silence are contained the conversation Eridan has with Karkat where Karkat literally tells him "I know it's hard being you" and that Nepeta's rejection of him wasn't a negative reflection of him. In other words, Karkat cares about Eridan and takes him seriously, COMPLETELY contradicting Hussie-as-character's assertions that nobody does, so utterly that Hussie-as-character has to completely shut up during that entire sequence because he has no way of reconciling his stance with the evidence presented.

Now, Hussie-as-an-actual-person is completely aware of what they're doing, or else they couldn't do stuff like this so consistently and so precisely. So I want to be very, very clear that this is not Hussie "not understanding his own story" or whatever BS the fandom likes to say in order to cast Hussie as the villain. This is masterful usage of unreliable narrator, like, I'm genuinely impressed.

By acting a clown and insisting that nobody likes or cares about Eridan, the audience is MEANT to glean from the text:

That Karkat is clearly an exception, and he quite likes and cares about Eridan,

That those who are dismissive towards Eridan and treat him purely as an object of ridicule are Wrong as Hell,

That maybe it's not a good thing for us - both audience, author, and characters - to be so quick to judge and dismiss others just because they're annoying and nasty - that doing so can have dire consequences, as we see with how Eridan's story plays out.

And I'm not kidding when I say that we have to be constantly fucking vigilant, that there's very, very little that can be purely taken at face value. Not long after this is one of Karkat's memos, where he attempts to warn his past friends about all the murders, only to dismiss past!Gamzee by saying that current!Gamzee going crazy murderclown "barely even concerns [him]." Hussie then notes in the commentary - and not for the first time - that Karkat has a Problem(TM) with not seeing past/future versions of people as contiguous with their current selves, which he does as a defense mechanism so as not to confront his own feelings of shame and self-loathing. Hussie then proceeds not to comment on the following:

CCG: YOU ARE DEAD TO ME CCG: PAST YOU, PRESENT YOU, FUTURE YOU CCG: AND ABOVE ALL, UGLY SCARFNECKED DOUCHEBAG HIPSTER YOU CCG: WAIT I FORGOT, ALL OF THE YOUS ARE THAT YOU

Hmmm... interesting. I wonder why Hussie points out one of Karkat's running character traits, just to "forget" to notice when an exception happens directly after? I'll let this one be an exercise for the class.

So to tie it all back to your ask: why is the exposition on troll romance done the way it is? What are the narrator's motives? Hussie even outright states in the commentary that Kanaya/Tavros/Vriska, which is used as an example of an auspicetism, isn't even a real auspicetism, as Kanaya feels no need to commit to it, and at most is putting out mixed signals - it's just used as an example because it's the closest thing we've seen.

Well, the answer I've arrived at, personally, is that the troll romance explanation is as flawed as it is because the narrator is taking on Karkat's point of view. A movie poster on Karkat's wall, the troll version of Serendipity, is used and namedropped as the ultimate expression of meeting your soul mate in every quadrant - as well as the assertion that "every" troll believes that there ARE destined soul mates for every quadrant, which Karkat definitely believes, but isn't a sentiment necessarily shared by everybody else. Moreover, the explanation ends with a tirade about how Karkat tried to explain quadrants to John, who didn't get it because "he's an idiot".

I'm not saying that Karkat is literally narrating here, just to be clear - I'm saying that the narrator (Hussie-as-character) is relaying factual information as processed through the lens of Karkat's biases, and, as a result, we can't take the explanation at 100% face value (though we can't discount it as entirely untrue, either). It's not so much that "real" moirail pairs work because they're doing moirallegiance "wrong," but that Karkat's view of moirallegiance is simplistic, idealized, and flawed, and we see this play out when he's bitter about his breakup with Gamzee because Gamzee stops "needing" him to keep him calm, even after Karkat has failed to be kept calm by Gamzee in return.

The more I look into Homestuck, the more that I'm genuinely impressed by the way it handles its writing. I hope this was interesting to everyone, too. I feel a little like I'm peeling back a curtain, or opening up a clock to reveal all the little cogs and wheels.

No, you can't trust Hussie as the narrator, but that's on purpose, and it's on purpose because why do we trust narrators? Why do we assume people telling a story are unbiased, benevolent, and have no ulterior motives? Why do we let idiots, assholes, predators, and monsters get away with their version of the truth, when a little scrutiny will have the whole ruse fall apart? Why do we let people tell us not to care about other people, why do we let them tell us that it's okay to be cruel to acceptible targets, why do we let them go unexamined?

And how about the stories we tell ourselves?

[theywerefive]

They were five - A Delicious in Dungeon AU

The Delicious in Dungeon manga, known as Dungeon Meshi, is created by Ryōko Kui. It’s set in a fantasy world where adventurers explore dungeons for treasures, including the fabled Golden Kingdom. The story begins with six adventurers trying to defeat a dragon, but they fail and lose their leader’s sister, Falin, to the dragon’s belly. Three members—Laios, Chilchuck, and Marcille—decide to rescue her. To fund their mission, they come up with a plan to cook and eat dungeon monsters, inspired by old Dungeons & Dragons games. As they explore, they meet Senshi, a dwarf with monster-cooking skills and Lisa, a tall-man with seasoned sword fighting skills. They face challenges in the dungeon, crafting meals from their discoveries, and the story adds humour as they react to these unusual dishes.

This AU is called “They were five” because it starts with five members instead of four. Here Lisa Lederer joins the party along with Senshi.

This Tumblr consists of summaries of the manga and edited pages as visuals. There will also be original pieces in the future.

All of this is meant for entertainment! (Mainly for me :9)

Thank you Ryōko Kui for creating these characters and the delicious world they reside in!

Character profiles:

Lisa Lederer

Manga inserts:

Chapter 1: First encounter Delicious in Dungeon

Chapter 2:

I am calling them manga inserts, since I don’t redraw the entire pages. But I am still drawing bits and pieces by hand trying to keep the style of the manga. Original works will most likely be more in my art style.

Interactions are welcome! (If you have a delicious in dungeon OC that wants to say hi to Lisa LMK!)

Thank you!

[beatthegame]

I just beat the shit out of Elden Ring! It's the least I could do after the game crushed my soul on my first two attempts. But this time, it was personal! Despite being a critically acclaimed gaming masterpiece, I hated it! Grinding for hundreds of hours building your character. one. point. at. a. time. Enduring through frustrating boss encounters. Getting killed by broken enemies clipping through solid surfaces. Collecting a wide assortment of useless items and magic spells. Immersed in a vast, enchanted world with zero context. On paper, Elden Ring checked off all the boxes necessary to enjoy an epic open world adventure. Yet, the game fails in so many different ways, it's overwhelming. Elden Ring was an absolute nightmare. And yet, despite all of the nonsense, I COULD NOT STOP PLAYING! LMFAO!

In a nutshell: Even after enduring 300 plus hours, I still don't know what this game is about? I know that you play as a "tarnished soul" caught up in a war between gods over this magic ring, right? Your very existence is a revenge plot from the slain goddess Marika to wipe out all the demigods in "The Lands Between" and become the new Elden Lord. Although there is no explanation why anyone would want to do something like that? Like, what's wrong with the old elden lord? Why do I want to take his job? What's so great about being elden lord anyway? Aside from sitting on a sweet chair at the end? Bottom line: the game is simply about challenging boss fights and collecting treasure. If that's all you want, then this game delivers.

The Good: Easily one of the most visually stunning games available on any video game console. Kudos to the FromSoftware art direction team for building all of the visual assets in this game. The amount of detail put into everything is really admirable. From the customizable character building to the intricate weapon, enemy and environmental designs. A majority of the visuals are pure nightmare fuel! Which built a consistent sense of dread wandering through the world. Add the fact that you can't pause the game, able to get killed in a myriad of ways, including the threat of permanently losing experience points established an unsolicited level of anxiety between encounters. Not exactly a good thing? But it's a unique gameplay element that stands apart from other titles. While a majority of the fights were incredibly frustrating by design. You can't deny how INTENSE a lot of these fights were! My heart was pounding through my chest during a lot of these boss fights. Notably the Godskin Fights, Crucible Knights, Gargoyles, that Lake of Rot Tree Cunt. But the sense of relief after defeating one of these frustrating fucks was electrifying! Slowly but surely, you get stronger and the fights become less of a burden. Like, there IS an easy mode available in Elden Ring. But you have to earn it!

I also like the versatility of the character classes depending on how you allocate your skill points. Although I decided to focus on Strength, Endurance and Dexterity. You have the option to lean towards Arcane & Intellegence for magician builds. Or perhaps you'd want to build on defense and ranged attacks to kill enemies from a distance? It is appreciated how the game flow will drastically change depending on the style of play you choose to advance with. And a huge thanks to our trustworthy horse/yak companion Torrent. Traveling the surface world was a lot more pleasant thanks to you.

The Bad: I already stated how much I hate this game. Pointing out all the flaws again is exhausting. However, you have to give credit that it took several gameplay attempts to realize that there is a gem underneath all the layers of dung that initially made the game unplayable.

Overall: I really wanted to love this game. It took effort but in the end, it truly was a unique experience. Just like high school! It was a fun, traumatic experience. Glad that it's over. Would NOT want to do it again, but it was a gnarly time. Too many flaws to be perfect, but waaaaay above average. Elden Ring is a real bitch, but loveable once you get to know her.

A Minus - Class

PS: Malenia was not as bad as other players made her out to be. Don't believe the hype. Maliketh, on the other hand, was a real motherfucker lol!

[pinchraccoon]

Pinch Reviews: Pizza Tower

It's been a hot minute since I reviewed a game here, my apologies, other projects have had, and still have, my utmost attention at the moment.

From March 26th to Marth 31st, I played Pizza Tower, an indie platformer heavily focused on level exploration, speed, and tight controls, that's heavily influenced by games like Earthworm Jim, and more apparently, Wario Land.

From the very moment I first saw the game I knew that it would be fun, as was evident in its unique and infectious art style that absolutely reeks of late 90s-early 2000s "crude" cartoons, like Ren and Stimpy or Ed Edd n Eddy. This game's art style hits REALLY hard, and serves to not only provide this game with significant visual intrigue, but the way that characters squash and stretch in such an exaggerated manner contributes significantly to allowing the player to understand enemies movements, as well as those of the main playable character, Peppino Spaghetti.

Speaking of, this game consists of a cast of varied, and memorable characters, many of whom follow a specific theme or reference. For example, the two major main characters Peppino and Gustavo are obvious caricatures of Italian-American pizza chefs, Peppino taking on a fearful demeanor the majority of the game, while Gustavo is combative, cute, or pensive most of the time.

Pizza Tower's character design strength doesn't end there, however, as just about every enemy, boss, or otherwise is EXTREMELY lovable in their own way, assisted by PT's incredibly focused art style, and tongue in cheek delivery of just about everything it does. I would be remiss, however, to not mention my absolute favorite thing about this entire game, bar none. Behold: BRICK

Otherwise known as Stupid Rat, this big guy is my single favorite thing about Pizza Tower. Genuinely. Something about his little hands, his chubby body, and those stupid eyes facing in two different directions makes me absolutely adore these little guys. I smile every single time I see one in a level.

But I digress, Pizza Tower's gameplay is *also* fun beyond fun. Pizza Tower consists of about a dozen and a half levels and 5 boss fights. Each of the levels consist of a goal to collect as many "toppins," which are little pizza topping characters with eyes and legs that need to be freed from cages, to earn money to purchase the boss gate, allowing Peppino to travel further up the titular Pizza Tower. Every level in PT has a unique theme, complete with a unique powerup or gimmick that helps to differentiate the gameplay loop, as well as provide the player with new tools and challenges the entire runtime of the game. I really love this approach to level design, all too many platformers don't feel the need to provide the player with either new challenges or kit options, or, better yet, challenges to use new kit options on, that allow the player to really get creative or technical in the ways that they solve the problem, which, in Pizza Tower's case, is how to route through the level as quickly as possible.

Regarding kit options, Peppino, and Gustavo but slightly less so, have a genuinely intimidating amount of tech to work with built into them intentionally, that the player is encouraged to use to master levels, so as to run through them as quickly as possible. Pizza Tower has a ranking system, ranking from D to P with Pizza Face Medal. Players earn better and better ranks as they complete the levels with increasing points, gained from performing specific actions and defeating enemies while in combos. After reaching the "end" of a level, the player destroys a specific enemy that triggers "Pizza Time," a period where the player has to reach the beginning of the level, with slight variations opening up throughout, in order to escape the level with what they earned. There is only one way to truly "fail" a level in Pizza Tower, and that's to let the Pizza Time timer run out, and for Pizza Face, the invincible enemy spawned by the timer running out, to catch you, ending your run. However, players cannot achieve the highest ranks, P and P w/ Pizza Face Medal, by *just* doing the run back once, no, players have to do it twice, without dropping a combo, and collecting every collectible, in order to P rank a level. Three laps if players want the P rank with Pizza Face. In order to reach this end, players have to become intimately aware with the level in order to construct a route that will work, as well as exactly what inputs to perform when in order to defeat scattered enemies, avoid traps, and collect everything they need, all while travelling BLISTERINGLY fast. Attempting to P Rank any level in Pizza Tower is no joke, but has also been some of the most fun I've had in a platformer this year.

Bosses consist of fights in which Peppino has to use the boss's attack patterns against them in some way, similar to playing Kirby without a copy ability. There are less of these, but despite the lower quantity, each of them are interesting, fun, themed fights that each play extremely different from one another. One floor you'll fight a pepper who's an artist, who fights like a typical platformer boss, the next you'll fight a blob of cheese with a gun, while you also have a gun and can shoot back. It's very silly, and is an excellent capstone to the equally silly floors of this game.

Finally, I want to loop back around to thematics to discuss level themes to tie everything together. I adore most all of the levels in this game. I don't think this game has a level that is downright unenjoyable to be in, from a forest of gnomes, to a FNAF inspired level, to a city filled with Pigs, to a level where you just play golf using the elderly as balls, I rarely feel that Pizza Tower has no ideas. It is crude, stupid, and reveling in it for the entire runtime of the game. This attitude and stylistic consistency allows players to feel eased into continuing their persistence against the myriad challenges, and the effort made to keep the game fresh level to level provides significant replay value, as leaning into thematics allowed Pizza Tower to explore the player's kit even further, incentivizing players to master not just the Peppino, but each individual level.

I would easily recommend Pizza Tower. Might be the best game of the year, honestly. It's wild that it came out fully in January too. I've noticed that this year has been pretty excellent for releases, both indie and, in some cases, corporate. I certainly think that Pizza Tower's landmark quality early this year set the tone for this year, and it's commitment to originality and extreme fun will inspire developers and creatives to do their own thing and make the game they want to play more than anything else.

Also listen to the soundtrack, it bangs!

[demidin]

silly lil essay on a silly lil guy :D

Reki Kyan is the main protagonist of the sports skating anime SK8 The Infinity, made in 2021 by Studio Bones. His voice actors include Matt Shipman, who voices Hiro in Darling in the Franxx and Tasuku Hatanaka, who was listed in Best Voice Actors for Newtype Anime Awards in 2016. In the SK8: The Stage stage play, he was played by Tsubasa Kizu, also known for playing Ryota Mitarai in Danganronpa 3. 

Reki's appearance in the show consists of bright red hair, his blue and white headband, and a hoodie, preferably his yellow one. He mainly fits the street/skater style mainly seen in the show. Most viewers find this style to be aesthetically pleasing. Official art also provides more outfits for him.

When he is introduced in the show, he starts on a speech about how when he was little, he would watch a show with a superhero who asked, "What is my happiness?" It would always frighten him because he never knew what his happiness was. Yet after having discovered skateboarding, he realized that he found his joy in skateboarding. However, in his first appearance in the show, we are soon shown that he has challenged one of the most brutal skaters to a match; Shadow, also known as Hiromi Higa.

Soon, he meets Langa Hasegawa, the main deuteragonist and his best friend. This is where we tie into our first point; Reki is a good teacher. He taught Langa the basics of skating, and even helped him do his first ollie on a skateboard. Even when Langa wanted to completely scrap having to do the ollie, he still persevered due to Reki’s encouragement. In fact, Langa would have never learned skateboarding had he not met Reki.

Yet, Langa’s prowess in snowboarding also contributed to most of his skateboarding.  Which ties into this next instance I will bring up; Reki's insecurities. After the events of Episode 6, it starts out with any other day at school for Langa and Reki, but later that night at S, Reki notices something; no one recognizes him. So he starts to doubt himself, wondering if he's really worthy to be their friend. He starts avoiding them, not going to S matches, and even trying to do Langa’s tricks, failing to do them. Then, when Langa and Kojiro(Joe) skate in their tournament match, he comes to a conclusion. He might be terrible at skating, but he doesn’t want to be cheering from the sidelines. He wants to skate alongside them, to be with them. Yet, his self-doubt worsens, and even says that getting beat up in Episode 10 was “deserved." Then, he realizes that his actions need to change if he ever wants to be with Langa and the others again. Eventually, he reconciles with Langa, becoming his friend once again.

His own skating skills are somewhat on par, yet not at the level of the S skaters. He started at a later age than most talented skaters. Reki can hold his own on beefs, however, and uses strategy to maneuver around tricks, such as using rain wheels and dodging Adam’s Full Swing Kiss despite having been in an injured state. He has shown to be very observant and good at mechanical skills. For example, he manages to figure out how to make Langa’s board feel more natural to Langa as Langa transitioned to having to not keep his feet on the board and why Langa was unable to perfect certain tricks right away.

In conclusion, Reki Kyan is a very 3D character compared to most anime protagonists. He’s rather loyal and cares about his friends, yet also has a vulnerable side, despite being seen as the jokester of his friend group. He puts a lot of trust into Langa, and Langa also trusts Reki a lot. He does have a passion for skating, and utilizes what he can do to skate to a certain level that he is proud of. He does have to realize that he is important to his friends no matter how he feels about himself.

[ashtonlanger]

Trending Celebrities: Who's Making Headlines Today?

Ever wondered who's making headlines in the celebrity world right now? The ever-evolving landscape of Hollywood never fails to keep us on our toes. From shocking revelations to inspiring stories, here's a roundup of the celebrity news currently dominating.

1. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Sensation

Breaking Records

Taylor Swift continues to captivate the world with her Eras Tour, which has shattered numerous records. From sold-out stadiums to unprecedented ticket sales, Swift's tour is a testament to her enduring popularity and influence in the music industry.

Swifties Unite

Fans, affectionately known as Swifties, have turned the tour into a global phenomenon. Social media is flooded with concert footage, fan art, and personal stories of how Swift's music has impacted lives. The tour's success underscores Swift's status as one of the most influential artists of her generation.

2. Zendaya: The Fashion Icon

Red Carpet Royalty

Zendaya has become a staple on best-dressed lists, consistently turning heads with her bold and elegant fashion choices. Her recent appearances at major events have further solidified her reputation as a fashion icon.

A Role Model

Beyond her fashion prowess, Zendaya is celebrated for her advocacy and activism. She uses her platform to speak out on social issues, making her a role model for many young people around the world.

3. Timothée Chalamet: Hollywood’s Golden Boy

Box Office Star

Timothée Chalamet is back in the spotlight with his latest film, which has been a box office hit. Known for his versatile acting skills and charismatic screen presence, Chalamet continues to impress both critics and audiences alike.

Future Projects

Chalamet's future projects, including highly anticipated sequels and collaborations with acclaimed directors, have fans eagerly awaiting his next move. His career trajectory shows no signs of slowing down.

4. Billie Eilish: The Music Maverick

New Album Buzz

Billie Eilish is making waves with the announcement of her upcoming album. Known for her unique sound and thought-provoking lyrics, Eilish's new music is highly anticipated by fans and critics.

Breaking Barriers

Eilish continues to challenge industry norms and push the boundaries of what it means to be a pop star. Her authenticity and innovation have garnered her a loyal following and numerous accolades.

5. Harry Styles: The Style Icon

Fashion Forward

Harry Styles has cemented his status as a fashion trailblazer, known for his gender-fluid style and bold fashion statements. His recent magazine covers and red carpet appearances have sparked widespread admiration and conversation.

Tour Triumph

Styles is also making headlines with his ongoing tour, which has been met with rave reviews. His dynamic performances and charismatic stage presence have solidified his reputation as a top-tier entertainer.

6. Angelina Jolie: The Humanitarian Hero

Advocacy and Activism

Angelina Jolie remains in the news for her tireless humanitarian work. Recently, she has been vocal about various global crises, using her platform to raise awareness and advocate for those in need.

New Projects

In addition to her advocacy, Jolie has several film projects in the pipeline. Her continued presence in both the entertainment industry and humanitarian efforts showcases her multifaceted career.

7. Beyoncé: The Queen Reigns Supreme

Surprise Album Release

Beyoncé has once again stunned the world with a surprise album drop. Her new release, celebrated for its innovative sound and powerful messages, has topped charts and captivated audiences worldwide.

Cultural Impact

Beyond music, Beyoncé's influence extends to fashion, film, and social activism. She remains a dominant force in the entertainment industry and a powerful voice for change.

8. Dwayne Johnson: The Rock's Road to Politics?

Political Aspirations

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has hinted at a potential political career, sparking widespread speculation and debate. Known for his charisma and relatability, Johnson's possible entry into politics has intrigued many.

Box Office King

Meanwhile, Johnson continues to dominate the box office with his action-packed films. His versatility as an actor and his appeal across different demographics make him a Hollywood heavyweight.

9. Kim Kardashian: The Media Mogul

Business Ventures

Kim Kardashian is making headlines with her latest business ventures, including a new skincare line that has received critical acclaim. Her entrepreneurial spirit and savvy marketing skills continue to drive her success.

Personal Life

Kardashian's personal life also remains a hot topic, from co-parenting with ex-husband Kanye West to her legal studies and advocacy work. She remains a fixture in the public eye, constantly reinventing herself.

10. Rihanna: The Beauty and Fashion Tycoon

Fenty Empire Expansion

Rihanna's Fenty brand continues to thrive, with recent expansions into skincare and fashion. Her innovative approach to beauty and inclusivity has set new industry standards and garnered widespread praise.

Musical Comeback

Rumours of a musical comeback have fans eagerly awaiting new music from Rihanna. While she has focused on her business ventures in recent years, her return to the studio is highly anticipated.

Conclusion: The Ever-Changing Celebrity Landscape

From record-breaking tours to groundbreaking fashion, the world of celebrities is always buzzing with activity. These stars are making headlines, shaping culture, and inspiring millions. As we continue to follow their journeys, one thing is certain: the celebrity landscape is as dynamic and fascinating as ever. Please stay tuned for more updates on your favorite stars and the stories that encourage us all.

[swashbucklcr]

HIATUS

SWASHBUCKLCR: Independent, selective RP blog for Tav Finn Locke of Baldur's Gate III. Side blog to GALEFCRCE.

I’ve found myself afar from home across the world to hell and back, Off the edge to parts unknown, I cross my heart to tell you That I’m oft without a plan or means, but if I’m being truthful I’ve always made it by being half the way to useful

Multi-ship friendly and canon compliant. All writing on this blog is 21+. Dice rolled by Day, he/him, 25+, Irish (GMT). BG3 spoilers are found across this blog, untagged. Slow replies and low activity.

Sailing with @imperitvs.

CARRD ─ ☆ ─ PROMPTS ─ ☆ ─ TRACKER ─ ☆ ─ HEADCANONS

Mobile friendly rules and verses below the cut.

Rules

Mutuals only - this is a sideblog to galefcrce and will follow back from that blog.

I am still figuring out Finn so expect everything here to be at a snails pace.

Warning: Finn swears A LOT.

Important Rule: I'm dyslexic, leading to occasional errors and slow replies. I'd really appreciate simple formatting for out threads —consistent font, size, and spacing. Alternating fonts and sizes, excessive spacing, and heavy styling (lots of bold, italics, and strikethrough) make it challenging for me to read.

I don't tolerate hate speech or 'call out posts'. Be kind.

This blog is in a single ship with Osian (imperitvs).

NSFW themes will arise and be tagged (trigger tw). I have no personal triggers here.

Only write with muns 21 or older.

I am a wee bit slow to follow back as I want to make sure I've read your rules before following.

Prompts are always open to be sent in by mutuals.

Anon is on but hate just gets deleted. I don't reply to NSFW anons.

Verses

Spoiler warning. The descriptions contain spoilers for each act of the game.

★ Chapter: Land and Worms

Act I: While conducting trade in Yartar, Finn is abruptly abducted onto the Nautiloid. Despite his desperate attempts to steer the alien ship to land, he fails and wakes on a beach with a splitting headache and a parasite lodged in his brain. Beside him lies the elf he helped aboard the Nautiloid, also stranded.

★ Chapter: Light in the Dark

Act II: Finn ventures through the Shadow-Cursed lands, a journey that forces him to reconsider his life of piracy. As he seeks to rid himself of the parasite, he also reflects on his growing feelings for a certain red-haired wizard.

★ Chapter: Introspection

Act III: With the monumental task of having to defeat the Netherbrain, Finn faces a profound revelation: he no longer wishes to return to his father's ship, yearning instead for a life in the arts. Despite this desire, his roguish skills are crucial in the battle against the Netherbrain, and to ensure the safety of the man he loves.

[bloseroseone]

Book Writer | 10 Must-Read Tips for Aspiring Book Writers

Writing a book is a dream shared by many, but for aspiring book writers, the journey from idea to publication can be daunting. However, with dedication, perseverance, and the right guidance, turning that dream into reality is entirely possible. In this article, we’ll explore ten essential tips that every aspiring book writer should know to navigate the writing process successfully.

Here’s the list of ten tips for aspiring writers.

Tip 1: Define Your Audience

Knowing your audience is crucial in the wide world of writing, especially for aspiring book writers. Give careful thought to who your target readership is before you start writing. Who do they represent? What are their passions, challenges, and areas of interest?

Focusing on your intended audience will help you craft material, tone, and writing style that will appeal to them on a deep level. Knowing your audience’s tastes will guarantee that your work engages and connects with them deeply, whether they are romance fans or fantasy fans seeking epic adventures. Thus, go inside your readers’ thoughts and create tales that will compel them to turn the next page.

Tip 2: Read Widely

“Read widely” is a golden rule for aspiring book writers. Reading a wide range of literature improves your writing abilities and expands your literary horizons. Immersion in a variety of genres, styles, and voices as a book writer provides priceless insights into narrative structures, character development, and storytelling approaches.

Whether you read classic books or modern bestsellers, every page you turn will reveal fresh ideas and inspirations that will spark your imagination and help you develop your own writing style. Thus, remember this crucial advice as you embark on your career as a book writer: read widely since there are lessons to be learnt in every book.

Tip 3: Write Regularly

Being consistent is essential to become a good book writer. Writing frequently is one of the most important pieces of advice for emerging book writers. Writing consistently helps you hone your art and maintains your creative juices flowing, ready for inspiration.

Making a pattern, whether it be a set word count target for each day or timed writing sessions, can keep you motivated and focused on your task. Keep in mind that getting on the paper is half the fight won, especially on the days when inspiration seems elusive. Thus, commit to writing on a daily basis and observe how your literary aspirations materialize.

Tip 4: Set Realistic Goals

Achieving success as a book writer requires defining and achieving attainable goals. It takes commitment to create your literary masterpiece, but you must be careful not to set yourself up for failure by having high expectations.

To begin, divide your ultimate objective of finishing a book into achievable steps, such as creating chapter summaries or establishing daily word counts.

This strategy guarantees consistent advancement towards your goal of being a published author while also keeping you inspired. Remember, neither Rome nor a best-selling book were created overnight. Maintain your motivation and focus, and your literary goals will eventually come to pass.

Tip 5: Embrace Failure

Aspiring book writers view failure as a springboard for development rather than an obstacle on their path. Accepting failure is a necessary part of developing your craft and skill set.

Every manuscript rejection, critique, and obstacle is a chance to grow, change, and get better. Setbacks shouldn’t deter you; instead, use them as motivation to keep moving forward. Recognise that failure is a vital component of your journey rather than its conclusion.

Accept it, draw lessons from it, and use it to inform your future writing. In the realm of novel writing, failing is a badge of perseverance and dedication rather than a sign of weakness....Continue reading

[kinematografiayevsyd]

Critical Essay

This trimester I took part in working on a film project called Elouise’s Best. While my initial intention was to write and direct the film but due to the factors I discuss below, I ended up also recording sound on set, editing and making decisions about costumes. Ross was another head of several departments on the projects, having produced and shot the film. Additionally, Jason helped out in various roles on set, such as lighting and production design and Sophie did sound post-production.

Our initial intensions were the following. The story follows a successful composer Elouise who is struggling with a creative block. In the beginning, Elouise is under huge pressure. If she does not hand in a new piece, as a professional composer it will affect her income, reputation, future opportunities. She is determined, talented - the art of music is her passion, but very clearly her job as well. When she meets Jan, she does not think much of this polite but amateurish club musician. Little does she know that it is precisely his freedom to express himself and make mistakes but keep going, that will help her out of her numbness. She decides to push through the slumber and composes… something. Even though she fails to please the audience, she has finally managed to put all her best into her art. The best she has in that moment. Two of the most intertwined aspects of the story are character and her interaction with the space she is in. Through the interaction we get a sense of her numbness and desperate search for inspiration. This is mainly delivered through the careful direction and blocking of actors and production design. In particular, the relationship between Jan and Elouise is one of the key elements of the film. Not only is there a mutual support between two musicians, but there is also a friendship, maybe a romantic spark. Therefore, the performances will need to deliver all these subtleties.

The colour palette is black and white. Inspired by modern black and white films, like Pawlikowski’s Cold War and Gerwig’s Frances Ha, Ross and I agreed that the simple and naturalistic visual style will not distract from the main part of the film – the relationship between the two main characters, and will compliment it.

Working on the script of this film was a learning experience. It was challenging to deliver all the necessary information and the feel of the characters’ relationships without the script being overly wordy. I know that the actors really enjoyed working with my script, which I think was due to the fact that the dialogue turned out quite natural. I also tried to spend as much time as possible doing read-throughs and character discussions with all three of the actors. On set, however, I was not happy with how I performed the role of a director. I could not have enough interaction and connection with actors, as I simply did not have the time, because I also had to be recording sound recording sound.

Due to our crew only consisting of two heads of departments (with our initial production designer Eilis dropping out of the project very suddenly), we ran into budgeting, transportation and scheduling issues. This is why the compromise we found was to develop a work in progress by filming two scenes that we planned in one of our locations – Barclay Viewforth Church of Scotland.

For my next production, I will definitely make sure to have a more productive recce and to include a test shoot and in-person blocking rehearsals on location in my pre-production process. I think that a lot of blocking and eyeline issues could have been avoided, if we had come to the recce with a slightly more precise check-list and took more and better reference photographs. For example, I think that due to the room being quite big, some of the blocking and the way it related to our chosen shots felt quite awkward and made editing quite tricky in the end. In my view, my contribution was decent under the circumstances but not up to standard to create a high-quality full film.

Currently the project Elouise’s Best exists as a work in progress or a proof of concept. It is a film of two scenes – the second and the last. The main point of the story still comes through and is readable, although it is far from complete.

There are many things I will be working on, should the opportunity present itself for us to finish the film. First of all, it has been brought to my attention that the dialogue in scene two is unnecessarily lengthy. I think that shortening the dialogue and making it more to-the-point, while contextualising them with other scenes. The script would need to be worked on to provide more clarity in terms of the storyline of the main characters’ relationship. The stakes will need to be heightened for the main character, in order for the transformation from the creative block to the spark of inspiration in the end to feel more contrasting and powerful. Apart from the scrip changes, it has been brought to my attention that the music (the chord) played by Elouise in the end, is not powerful or not significantly different enough from what she played in the scene before to symbolise that change in the main character’s arch.

In terms of the aesthetics of the shot and the emotional dramatic effect, the mise-en-scene was quite successful. Paired with good lighting and camera angles, the close-ups of Elouise at the piano, as well as the wide shots in the last scene, produced quite a strong aesthetic effect. However, from the point of view of storytelling and character dynamics, the blocking was not dynamic enough to be interesting and natural. For example, when confronting Elouise, Douglas should have walked over closer to her. Alternatively, she should have moved closer, when confiding her loss of inspiration to him.

I was quite satisfied with the performances of all three actors. We were lucky enough, in my opinion to be able to cast people who fit the roles so well in terms of appearance. However, there are some things from the directing point of view that I think the performances lacked in. As I have previously mentioned, scene number two is quite wordy and should be shortened and less like an exposition. Furthermore, I think there was not enough research conducted on my side (and consequently this information was not delivered to the actors) about modern composing and particularly composing on commission as a job. If I researched the types of contracts composers have with musicians and venues, it would help us make the relationship between Douglas and Elouise clearer. This, in turn, would contribute to the scene being more natural.

During the final critique, I received some criticism of performance of the actress who played Elouise, particularly her facial reactions in scene seven. I think that this could have been sorted if we shot some more pronounced shots of what she was reacting to, which was Douglas walking away from the room demonstratively without acknowledging her.

It is worth talking about some of the priorities I had when directing this film and also some things that turned out quite well. First of all, I think that cinematography was one of the highlights of the project. Although I did not operate the camera, I participated in making shot lists and story boards. I also colour graded the footage. In my opinion, despite certain colour or contrast inconsistencies between shots, the colour grade was one of the things that our course mates enjoyed about the film.  Apart from that, I was also praised on the clarity of the recorded sound, especially considering how big the filming space was and the fact that we had quite a few wide shots. I achieved that by holding the microphone as close to the actors as possible when recording, as well as following the dynamics of the blocking with the microphone when needed. Moreover, the costumes were also complimented. I spent quite a lot of time choosing the right clothes and accessories with the actors. The costumes originally were supposed to reflect the main character’s emotional journey: from being the most formal in the beginning, when she is stressed sand in despair, becoming more and more relaxed by the end, when she regains her creative voice, but never losing her distinct smart style.

Finally, I think that the themes of failure, creativity, inspiration and friendship have been delivered well in terms of clarity and naturalism. However, I wish I pushed myself more to find more creative ways in terms of the dynamism and subtlety of how these themes are delivered.

[chandrandeepesh72]

From Words to Magic: Inside the World of a Professional Storyteller in Pune

What does the life of a professional storyteller look like?

This is how the life of a professional storyteller would look like. He would perform oral storytelling at schools, college events, literature events, book cafes, cultural events, etc

The stories that he would narrate could be fictional or even fictional ones. The fictional stories narrated by him could be published authors, famous folktales or even his own written stories

The audience that he would be narrating could range from 4 years to 80 years, corporate employees, young adults, GenZ or middle aged adults. The professional oral storyteller knows his audience and even better knows the pulse of his audience. He is precisely aware of what narratives work well for which demography.

The audience comes first and then comes the story to be narrated. It never comes the other way around for the professional storyteller.

Every professional storyteller is extremely hardworking. He will practise extremely well for any performance. Just like singing, it is all about striking the chord while narrating with emotion any certain dialogue. One chord plus or minus can miss out the bull’s eye while touching the hearts of the audience. 

Pune’s storytelling scene

For a professional storyteller in Pune, he/she may have their own venues to perform. However, all upcoming storytellers are advised to start with participating in various open mics in Pune. These open mics consists of stand-up comedy, poetry, storytelling, etc.

Once the artist gets the art perfected, the storyteller can perform his own solo events.

However, there are a lot of challenges in performance storytelling

The storyteller might face unexpected hindrances during the storytelling act. These include rare but sudden heckling by the crowd, some audience member is continuously talking on phone while the storyteller performs, some random small kid suddenly jumps into the stage or starts crying, etc.

Here it is easy for the artist i.e. the professional storyteller to lose his flow, as he has to control the unexpected scenario from the crowd and also continue back with the same emotions of the storytelling act.

Hence the storyteller has to double up as the crowd manager and the artist and more importantly, keep switching places.

That is the hallmark of the true professional storyteller

What are the important parts of a story structure?

The important parts of the story are the characters, the story arc and the tonality/ style. With the overdose of content, especially post Covid, the story arc is mostly repetitive. However, good storytelling hinges on excellent framing of the characters and tonality. These 2 aspects are the subtle art that is differentiating good storytelling from average ones, especially post Covid.

Hence a good storyteller is always aware of this while narrating. He needs to paint the picture well for the audience. If he fails in that, then everything falls flat.

Magic of connecting with stories

Out of the various advantages of storytelling, one of them is healing. Here even a common man i.e. non-professional storytellers can imbibe it.

Storytelling is about one person speaking and another listening. If the storytelling is pure, then both the teller and listener get healed.

Imagine a person in depression, he speaks about the incidents that made him vulnerable, scared and traumatised. These are just real stories that happened with this person. He just needs to be heard.

Here the role of a good listener is extremely crucial. This listener, if genuinely puts his heart into listening (not hearing) to what the person has to speak, it turns magical.

People just want to be heard; they just want their stories to be heard. Lending the right ear is akin to lending a helping hand.

Conclusion

All in all, a professional storyteller in Pune or any city in India needs to be hardworking, creative and keep evolving his art, like any other profession on this earth.

Reach out to us for any need of professional storytelling services

To know more: https://deepeshchandran.com/from-words-to-magic-inside-the-world-of-a-professional-storyteller-in-pune/

[44del]

try to have a consistent art style challenge (failed) also tumblr stop shitting on the quality thx!

[unluckyxse7en]

Reblogging to reply bc I can tell I'm gonna get Wordy, too wordy for the reply function and I don't want to lose my train of thought. Everything under cut, and honestly if you want to skip most of it, or can't follow it all atm, I put a star emoji ⭐️ next to orange text to highlight the part where I Finally say the stuff I think you'd find most helpful all of this - I know I get on a high horse a lot with this sort of thing so better if you can just get the meat of it if nothing else lmao

Maybe I'm reading too much into the tone of this post but... it sounds like you're coming at this from an angle that's too harsh for writing.

Writing is like any art. It takes practice. It takes study and learning. It takes feedback to help pinpoint those flaws and snags as you're still training your eye. Most importantly, it takes lots and lots and lots of rough drafts, failed passes, to build up to the goal.

I have stories I've been refining since middle school where I reinvent or rewrite scenes and scenarios over and over and over as I try to get it closer to my vision. I have story concepts from then that, I still enjoyed writing or like, but recognize now they just didn't have that extra something that made them work, that helped it stay afloat, whatever.

I've been writing since middle school, and drawing from an early age, and one of those people friends have praised my skills and asked how I got where I did. And I always give uncertain answers because I never quite know what to say, but it always boils down to the same, consistent answer I know is true - and I'm gonna focus on my art path for a second to better put it into words but it'll still apply here:

I've just been doing this so much of my life, for so long, that the skills naturally polished themselves. So many sketchbooks of silly, wonky "manga" style humans and goofy looking latias-faced dragons built up and developed over time.

Were there other factors? Absolutely - having an art friend pointing out things I did he liked; looking at artists I liked while reading their comics and asking myself, what do I like about it?; I'd borrow 'how to draw' books and while I rarely did it for anything beyond looking at their tutorial prompts for fun (e.g. a book on 'manga monsters' had some interesting combo ideas as they walked through the creative process), I'd also skim the more technical lessons or descriptions and pick up some tips laid out for the reader along the way; sometimes just looking at things going on around me and testing myself to capture their essence simply because I didn't know what else to draw.

And of course, eventually I went to college and studied technically and my art grew in leaps and bounds there. But it was already at a pretty decent level while being largely just. Self-taught. I wasn't watching art tutorials or speedpaints on youtube, and even the arts high school I went to all of the classes I took were performing-arts based.

All of this to say - writing is the same way. You can take technical courses or study based on other's advice or lessons. I think that's good to incorporate. But you have to put in your own practice - Practice! - too, in order to get it where you want it. You need to let yourself have the rough drafts. The not-so-good attempts. Not every stitch of writing can be pure gold, the same way some lines in an artwork will always be wobbly, or spotty, or slightly off.

Most importantly - even "failed" attempts of writing are foundational to helping you improve your writing. They have worth, even just as stepping stones, as training dummies. That can't be written off (pun unintended) and devalued so much. You can't have only a final draft of any strong work. No author worth their salt writes one single draft and ends up with something worth publishing. Hell, there's a whole separate job dedicated to reinforcing this concept - editors aren't just there to spellcheck, or at least shouldn't be. They're also there to help challenge any weaker points in the writing.

Which - I'm gonna add this and be blunt based on an earlier conversation we had, but that ties into my next point: you need the feedback. You n e e d it. You need it to be shown the worth in your writing, because fresh eyes will always see what you overlook; and you need it because bouncing ideas off of people is a crucial step in the creative process for writing.

Hell, some friends may even be able to help you workshop the weaker points, my partner and I do that all the time where we indicate a scene or line that isn't working (for us as the reader or as the writer) and then discussion for how to tweak/refine it ensues. The end result is always so much better than if the author had just stewed on it in frustration on their own.

And yeah, that's a difficult and scary concept, I know. It's vulnerable, and not all constructive criticism comes out as "constructive" depending on who you talk to. Plus your ideas are your brain babies, letting them out into the world leads to risking scary things - I get worried about publically posting about some worldbuilding frameworks I'm proud of because I don't want people poaching the concepts I put such hard work into building and interpreting my own unique ways. I do get it.

But you will creatively stagnate if you work shut off from other people's input entirely. That is unfortunately how it goes sometimes.

⭐️ All this aside, I know none of what I wrote above makes any of it easier. So some closing suggestions that are hopefully more actionable or easy to work with - if you want to Practice your writing, but are scared of a) not doing your best stories justice and b) exposing your unique ideas to other people, for fear of spoiling, idea theft, whatever....

Write something you have less investment or ambition in. Write fanfiction, or try writing something one-off based on a smaller idea or generated prompt*. Write something as basic and generic as you want, the point is to practice articulating and refining how you capture things, so don't worry about making something new. Hell, write a fix-it fic to an existing thing that bugs you; builds off another framework so you don't have to wrack your brain for an idea of the event flow, and then there's no need to worry about posting unless it's really really good.

And when you do these exercises... try to be open to the idea of sharing them for feedback. Even, and maybe especially, if you aren't happy with the outcome, or get stuck. If you're not as invested, there's less risk, and if nothing seems to work, then it's easier to let it go. No harm, no foul, and you practiced exercising those writing muscles.

That will ALWAYS have inherent worth, whether you see it or not. Those hours and failures and so-so attempts all add up to polish your skills even if they do so behind the scenes. I promise.

*normally I'd have referenced/suggested that infamous writing prompts blog here on tumblr but uhh there's some Discourse blowing up in that area rn - no matter where you stand, you may want to steer clear or only use their prompts in private for now, just for the sake of avoiding any heat one way or another.

I have a lot of different ideas for things I want to write but I feel my writing technique is poor and a slog to read through so its hard to get past the fear of my writing being too bad to be worth anything.

I am worried about trying to write a story with a creative vision in mind and butchering it by writing it so poorly the story I want to tell and the story I present are entirely different. And difficult to get through.

Even if I never post much of it here, it still feels difficult to see any inherent worth in any writing I do. Even if people say creating is inherently important, I find it difficult to believe it myself.

[alsolowkeynostalgic]

MI6 Cafe Creators Tag Game

(Thanks for the tag, @emiliasilverova, this is my very untimely response lol)

We’d love for people to keep getting to know each other after this year’s 007 Fest, so we’re starting this tag game!

Rules: Answer the questions, then tag 3 new people to complete this. Also, tag the person who tagged you and @mi6-cafe so we can reblog your response.

Note that when we say ‘fanwork’ in the questions below, that could mean a fanfic, gif, fanart, headcanon, cosplay, crocheted work---any kind of fancreation counts!

1. What work of yours challenged you when you were creating it? 

Everything I create, especially writing, challenges me in some way.

My part of Juggling Act, the 007 Fest Round Robin, was one of the most challenging pieces of writing I've ever had to write. I'm a slow writer, so having only 24 hours to come up with a coherent follow-up to what came before me was difficult, but very rewarding.

2. What is a fanwork you’ve seen which gave you a new headcanon about a character?   

@jellymish-art's whole body of work, but especially pieces like this one, 100% sold me on the trans!Bond headcanon. I feel like trans!Q is a lot more common so I'm sharing some love for 007.

3. Is there a fanwork that you really want to make, but you haven’t started yet?

Many, but for the two that I think will eventually happen:

a 00Leiter fic during Quantum of Solace, based on their exchange at the bar

a collection of 00Leiter vignettes through the different incarnations of Leiter and 007, told from Leiter's POV

4. What fanwork of yours surprised you, and how?

No Longer My Concern, an alternate universe fic where M is a medium, set during Skyfall. I'd never remixed somebody else's fic before, but deadicateddeath's AU was so intriguing it almost wrote itself.

5. What themes/styles/subjects are common across many of your fanworks?

Angst, loss, and bittersweet tenderness. My partner described my style as "consistently smart and understated" and I strive for every piece to be worthy of that compliment.

6. What other fandoms do you create for, if any?

None at the moment. Other than Bond, I mainly write original fiction.

7. Is there an artist that you like to listen to while you create? Or one whose work always inspires you?

I'm not married to a specific artist, or collection of artists, but I often find myself coming back to Rammstein. Lots of angsty pieces were drawn or written listening to them.

8. Share a fanwork that you’ve found yourself thinking about weeks after reading/seeing it.

This edit of CR, QoS and Skyfall set to Somebody to Die For by Hurts. I've watched it dozens of times and it never fails to make me cry. Beautiful edit set to a beautiful song.

9. Finally, share where you post your works!

ao3: lowkeynostalgic

tumblr: lowkeynostalgic

side blog: alsolowkeynostalgic

and I sometimes contribute to Licence to Queer

Tagging: no one because at this point everyone should have done it already 🤭

[demonslayedher]

I've been thinking a lot about Nichirin swords recently (cuz swords are neat), and that got me to thinking about the Hashira swords. is the 'Destroyer of Demons' Kanji engraved on their current blade, or do they receive a new blade upon reaching the rank of Hashira?

Swords! SWOOOOORDSSSSZZZ---I mean, *cough* yes, let's talk swords.

I've also wondered about whether they get new swords upon becoming Pillars, or perhaps more say in the unique characteristics and modifications of their swords, or if the swordsmen in general do as much as possible to preserve their swords. After all, an engraving can be added to an otherwise completed blade, so this doesn't tell us much about whether the blades are new or not.

My conclusions are, "hmm, yeah, probably" to all of the above.

Haganezuka may give us the mistaken impression that all swordsmiths are passionately offended when bad things happen to their hard work. Since they were all raised with the mission of supporting the swordsmen who are regularly putting their lives on the line, I'd like to think the others are more accepting of the fact that the battles their works are subjected to are powerful enough to necessitate the ongoing production of swords, even if they'd ideally like to make swords that would never break and fail the Corp members out on the battlefield.

While Pillars might have special privileges for getting very specific in their requests, or perhaps requesting more swords over and over to suit their desired modifications, I don't think most normal swordsmen would be told "no" if they made requests to better suit their Breath style. Ultimately, it's about taking down demons, and the swordsmiths are there to make that happen. Sure, maybe some of them may get annoyed by fussy swordsmen, but others may embrace how it challenges their creativity and craftsmanship.

As a couple examples, Shinobu and Mitsuri were already using swords suitable for their unique Breaths before they earned the Pillar title. Furthermore, their swords were made by the most esteemed swordsmith in the whole village. Granted, their special sword treatment might had only because they were cute girls with highly specific needs, but still.

As another example, Inosuke had double swords from the start. It's possible Kanamori only made two standard swords in the first place because he was given two pieces of ore, and then made adjustments later on according to Inosuke's tastes based on how Inosuke might had removed the hand guards and handles himself. Or, it's possible Kanamori was sensitive to his new client's needs from the very get-go, having listened carefully to a crow who watched Inosuke in the Final Selection so he could build a good understanding of this unheard of Beast Breath. He might had heard how Inosuke used his flexibility and preferred a rough grip, and made the handles as simple as possible so nothing would get in his way. Upon knowing how beat up the blades were, he might have been thoughtful in making adjustments to prevent that wear and tear on future blades. Poor Kanamori.

CORRECTION: Kanamori did bring Inosuke more swords with beautiful handles. Poor, poor Kanamori.

Conversely, since we never see anything of Zenitsu's swordsmith, it's possible that was a once-and-done sort of deal, like "oh, Thunder Breath? One solid Thunder Breathing sword, coming right up. Those never stay out of their sheath long enough to need replacing." And, since Zenitsu has perfected the one strike he makes with it, he's probably never needed much maintenance on it.

Going back to the question of Pillars getting new swords or keeping their old ones, I feel it's all up to personal preference. Muichirou doesn't seem attached at all to any given sword, it just needs to be one that suits him. Mitsuri, requiring a very unique sword, probably isn't able to use anything else temporarily while waiting for a replacement or maintenance. Giyuu, on the other hand, looked for any Water Breath swords once his broke in the battle with Muzan, he can work anything basic. Even if he had the swordsmiths engrave the one sword he's always carried, he probably borrowed another standard sword (like Tanjiro did while staying in the village) to keep working during those times. (I feel like Iguro may be one of those swordsmen who abuses his privileges, sending swords back over and over until they're up to his standards.)

For Rengoku, at least, I've looked into that in more

detail here. Tl,dr; since he uses a different sheath before and after becoming a Pillar, I find that makes a good case for him using a new sword after becoming a Pillar. His hand guard does remain consistent, and it matches his fathers', while his father still has his own sword (not the same one passed from father to son, entirely different swords in the first place, just with identical characteristics upon Pillarhood). Senjuro's sword had a simpler overall design, not the usual Flame Breath handle either. (Was that Nichirin blade like his training wheels, or something? Aw... that's okay, Senjuro, I never learned how to ride a bike either.)

While we're talking swords, in real life nowadays, different parts of the sword are usually entrusted to different craftsman. After the blade is forged, it's sent off to the handle maker, while someone else will make the hand guard, someone else would make the sheath unique to each sword, someone else still would be the expert engraver, etc. Someone else would had made the iron ore in the first place, too. I wonder about the division or labor or expectation of expertise in multiple skills among the KnY swordsmiths, especially given how this is such a way of life for them. Kotetsu's family having a particular skill set they've been entrusted with makes me think there may be some specialization for different parts of the process to make them churn out blades faster, but with the level of pride they take in their individual works, it also wouldn't surprise me if they're expected to be able to take full responsibility for a product, right down to delivering it personally, maybe even performing all the upkeep and repairs at whatever location is convenient for their clients. Or it could also be that Haganezuka's perfectionist obsession is what drives him to go that far, and maybe Kanamori only went along that one time to keep an eye on Haganezuka and meet this Beast Breath fellow he was curious about. Poor Kanamori.

Since engraving blades really started to take off once swords were treated more and more as works of art, and since only Pillars have their swords engraved, my guess would be they don't have anyone solely responsible for engraving. Instead, this may be a skill common among the swordsmiths, so that should any of their clients become a Pillar, they're ready to make that adjustment, be it to an existing sword or to a new one.

[thelightfluxtastic]

Similarities between Inscryption and Wandersong

I've been thinking about common threads between video games I like.

Take, as an example and contrast, my gf. She values the challenge. She plays games like Celeste and the Metroid series (with sequence breaking), games that require practice and precision and timing and skill. She doesn't enjoy games that can't be learned or mastered consistently/completely (e.g. procedurally generated). I love watching her play, because it's engaging to observe mastery, and because it allows me to experience games that I know would be frustrating and tiring for me to play.

I play games that are the exact opposite. A lot of games I own are point-and-click mysteries, like Detective Grimoire. One might have to randomly click objects to find the important clue or action, but there's not really a fail state. If you're playing Darkside Detective, it's because the characters are charming and funny and the story is interesting, not for the challenge of the minigame puzzles or some sort of skill demonstration. I also like narrative games, like Chicory or Strange Horticulture.

My absolute favorite game is Wandersong, which is almost laughably forgiving. It is literally impossible to get a sad ending on one's first playthrough. Fell off a cliff? No problem, the game will just pop you right back where you were. Missed some notes? That's ok, the game will progress if you got most of them.

Which is why I was surprised that, after finishing Inscryption, I found myself feeling the games were fundamentally similar. The aesthetics are complete opposites, of course. Wandersong is light and bright and soft and colorful; Inscryption is haunted and creepy and visceral. And yet, both games have an experience they want the player to go through/feel, and will tailor gameplay to do so.

Despite it's spooky appearance, unmodded Inscryption is deceptively forgiving. Death cards at the end of every run make subsequent runs easier. Certain game tools (the ouroboros, extra candle, squirrel totem, and making a broken card with Golly) make you feel like you're cheating but are 100% intended play. I haven't experienced this myself, but apparently if you just keep playing Leshy and refuse to explore the cabin he will get bored and quiet and sullen, because you're supposed to get to the rest of the game. Inscryption, like Wandersong, will unobtrusively give even the most unskilled player handholds to eventually get through the intended story.

This is true in other Daniel Mullins games too. You might not find every secret (all coins, vending machines, secret endings) in the Hex, but that's about as far as player freedom goes. You can't not punch Cooking Granny. You can't not use Vallamir's book.

It in general makes me think of video game experiences as falling on a spectrum. Some are more novel-like (or movie like): there is an intended story experience that the player is led through via gameplay. Others (e.g. Minecraft) are more toy-like: like a ball, sandbox, or action figure, they are meant for the player to do whatever the heck they want to with. ("Toy" here is used descriptively, not derogatorily). Of course, many fall between. Neither end of the spectrum is better or worse, it's just another aspect of video games, like genre or art style. Personally, my tastes are rooted firmly in the "novel" camp. I like games with narratives and clear start and end points, where I can have a complete, specific experience. And even that covers an incredibly wide range of games.

[meruz]

Aforementioned long ask post please excuse me while i try to figure out tumblr's new text editor. I’ll get into the art meme questions first and then the rest at the end.

Ok first of all thank you all for sending in questions! Giving me an excuse to talk hehe. I’ll address these in number order. Here’s a link to the ask meme for reference but also I’ll restate the question for ease of reading.

1. When did you get into art?

Super cliche answer but I don’t remember a time where I WASN’T the weird art kid! I started keeping a dedicated sketchbook when I was about 12? But here’s a page from my kindergarten journal about what I want to be when I grow up.

2. What art-related sites have you ever signed up for? 

LOL this is a weird question. Not sure why so many people want to know. Anyways I definitely had a dA. more than one dA account. I used to browse oekakis when I was a kid but I think I was only signed up to some small ones that internet friends owned. What else...? Mangabullet,Tegakie, Paintberri, iscribble back when that was a thing, instagram if that COUNTs, I used to post art on livejournal and dreamwidth too. Patreon, I guess. Gumroad, inprnt, bigcartel, storenvy all for selling stuff.

In terms of resources.. I have a schoolism account that I’m sharing with friends. Used to take classes on coursera for free. I signed up to textures.com for work recently haha. I can’t remember if I ever had an account on posemaniacs. Did they have accounts...? I definitely used to visit all the time.

3. Show us your oldest piece of art you have on hand.

Alright here’s me actually logging into my old deviantart account. These are from September 2008 So I was 13 years old. I don’t have a deviantart account from before then because 13 was the required age for having an account and I didn’t want to lie about my age because I wanted people to be impressed by how young yet clearly incredible at art I was LOL.

4. What defines your artistic style?

You guys are probably more equipped to answer this than me but uh... I wanna say... Focus on colors. And... a slightly heavy hand? Like confident... not always well-considered mark making HAH...

Also I think I have a pretty healthy mix of american comics/manga influences. I feel like people who are into american comics always think my art is too manga and people who are into anime/manga always think my art is too american. And I’m taking that as a good sign.

5. Do you practice other styles/have you tried other styles in the past?

I like to think I switch it up a bunch! I mean, these are pretty different, right?

I think I’ve mentioned this before but one thing I really took away from art school is that, for an illustrator at least, art style shouldn’t be consistent. Your greatest weapon is changing the aspects of your style based on the task, the emotions and message you want to illustrate etc. So depending on the project I’m working on, the fandom I’m drawing for, whether I want something to be funny or serious or dramatic, I’ll change things about my style all the time.

One thing I don’t rly post on here is really tight polished work and that’s because I do that for my day job haha. If you’re not paying me... I’m probably not gonna color in the lines.

6. What levels of artistic education have you had?

I have a whole ass diploma LOL. Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration. from the Rhode Island School of Design. And I had a great college experience tbh. Besides the student loans. If any of you guys are thinking about art school feel free to e-mail or message me questions or concerns, I’ll be happy to help. Be as honest as I can be.

7. Show us at least one picture you drew or sketched recently that you did not put on a public site.

heres the wandavision kids. Uhh what else do I have...I feel like I’m rummaging for loose change here...

assorted valentines prep doodles

8. What is your favourite piece that you have done?

Well, obviously this is gonna change all the time and generally it’s gonna be my most recent piece LOL. So yeah, why the hell not. I’ll say it’s this one. I have a pretty short memory which I count as a blessing for an artist. I don’t dwell that long on older work and it keeps me moving forward.

10. What do you like most about your art?

I like that it’s something that only I would make! I had this thought fairly recently and I wrote it down in my sketchbook, it’s pretty cheesy and rambling but it felt revolutionary at the time:

So yeah. I like my art best when it’s the most me and for me. And I like it least when it feels like I’m just making something for social media or for other people’s expectations or whatever.

14. What do you like drawing the most?

Kids in baggy clothing are like my go-to LOL idk if that’s obvious. but also I like being challenged so lately I’ve really loved drawing multi-character compositions, environments, weird angles, etc.

oh i LOVE drawing the underside of shoes lol. And bandages. People that are kinda beat up.. I think it comes from getting a bunch of cuts all the time. I’m always patching myself up and I want to patch characters up too.

15. What do you like drawing the least?

mmm I try to find something to like in every drawing but lets see... I don’t like doing commissions of people’s dogs. Just because it’s normally like... a family friend and my mom volunteered me without my consent and I don’t even really know what they’re expecting me to draw and I don’t even get to meet the dog. Also I’m not that great at dog anatomy. Trying to learn though.

18. What is your purpose for drawing?

This could have a million answers! Uhhh to GIT GOOD??? But also to express myself... and also to make money... I mean it depends on what the drawing IS. I draw fanart mostly to connect to people in the fandom so if you ever see me drawing fanart please take it as like an open invitation to talk to me about the character haha. 

20. How would you rank your art? (poor, mediocre, good, etc.)

Good!!! I have a lot of self-confidence primarily born out of ignorance and a short attention span. If I don’t think too hard about how many other artists are mindblowingly unfathombly good... its easy to think I’m good too! LOL

In all seriousness though, I think the opinion a person has of their art is like a crazy balancing act, right? Like you have to think you suck enough to want to get better but also you have to think you’re good enough to not want to give up. I think we’re all walking that line, I know I am! But also I’m a glass half-full type of person so. Most of the time I feel good about it.

22. List at least one of your “artspirations.”

This is a good question because I’ve been trying and failing to put together one of those “influence map” memes for like a full month now. What’s giving me a hard time is I feel like none of these are actually really obvious “““influences”““ in my art? Like it’s hard to see a lot of them in the work I make...? But idk maybe you guys’ll see what I can’t.

And these are just a couple! God there’s so many more. I could talk about other artists for ages, from all different genres of art. Daumier, Rockwell like every illustrator out there, Dana Gibson, Alex Toth, Hiroshi Yoshida, a lot of the Brandywine School. Lots of current working artists too, Karl Kerschl, frikkin Masashi Kishimoto lol, Jake Wyatt, Richie Pope, Edouard Caplain, Matt Cook, Sachin Teng, - lots of big internet artists, Sophie Li, Freddy Carrasco, Milliofish, Angela Sung... like all my friends from art school too. I could just keep going but I’ll stop for now lol.

24. Do you have a shameful art past? (recolour sprite comics, tracing art, etc.)

I mean if that’s how we’re defining shameful?? sure LOL. It’s not sprite comics but I used to do pokemon sprite recolors all the time. And I used to trace manga panels and color them... Granted this was all when I was like under 12 yrs old so it’s not even embarrassing. Can you really call it shameful when a 7 year old wets the bed or whatever? Not really. In fact some of these are cool as fuck. Look

25. Draw a picture!

Man I’m so tired now but here.

I used to get a lot of compliments for drawing people smiling lol but I don’t think I’ve drawn a lot of smiling lately.. here’s proof I’ve still got it.

OK MEME DONE. onto the rest.

I read this ask first thing when i opened my computer in the morning and it made me really emotional.. I’m so glad my sketches could help you!!

I think a lot of artists on social media talk about the struggle of making art but imo not enough people talk about the joy! Like I know it’s corny but. I really meant what I said at the beginning of that sketchbook about re-contextualizing art around process and progress > product and perfection. I think its super important..! The strength of messy, unfinished, and energetic art! For the feeling of it, for the love it!

That's crazy!!! I hope you like 'em. The whole line of x-books is really good rn imo.

Hi! I totally have the answer for digital stuff on my faq lol. But in terms of drawing on paper.. it varies! I tend to use sketchbooking and any on-paper doodling I do as a way to loosen up/warm-up or experiment. But right now my go-to aresenal is:

from top > bottom

- kuretake no.55 doublesided brush pen

- tombow fudenosuke

- muji 0.38 ballpoint

- medium size poscas

- grey tombow double brush pens

- good ol bic mechanical pencil

not EXACTly sure which inking you referring to from my sketchbook but if I had to take a guess it'd probably be the kuretake no55. That's been my main inker, lately. Great for sketching with the thin end too.

You can print out and eat my art if you like. Just please don't mass produce or re-sell. <3

Thanks! I've come to accept that my art is always gonna be sort of gestural and painty naturally. It's getting it to tighten up enough to be legible that's hard lol...

uh yeah lol I agree actually. I think yolei is great.

I assume these asks are related? LOL

1) Yeah totally true. I love David.

2) I don’t take requests, sorry! But if you want to commission me to draw Legion i would be MORE than happy to. Just e-mail me at isellhotdogs@gmail.com.

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