#having a hard time drawing so it'll be lots of writing here for a while

[icearts]

Nobody is talking about how Angeal and Sephiroth are exact opposites in EC and it's making me unwell so I'm gonna dump it.

Have some pictures of their 2D renders for fun

Prepare yourself, this rant is a little long (but don't worry there's visual aids)

There's more obvious tells out there, like their body language and overall postures, Angeal is generally more open and Sephiroth is generally more guarded.

However, notably, this carries into how they hold their weapons throughout all of their appearances, even in Crisis Core

Fair warning, my source is multiple Google articles so prepare for some inaccuracy and uncertainty. Feel free to correct me.

Sephiroth carries his sword in an ox guard, which has the purpose of intimidating your opponent while also having the sword protect your vital organs.

Angeal's sword is held in a plow guard, which operates a bit like a fool's guard (I actually thought it was one at first), making yourself look more open to attacks to Provoke an enemy into coming in. Unlike the fools guard, the plow guard gives you a quicker maneuverability to strike first once the opponent comes in.

This is really important for their fighting styles, as Sephiroth is quick and deadly, meanwhile Angeal (i think the game refers to his character type as a Provoke Tank) always stands somewhat in front of Seohiroth and tries to draw in hits, acting as a shield. They have the sword and shield dynamic

BUT ITS ALSO RELEVANT TO THEIR PERSONALITIES you see Sephiroth acts cold and bitter, trying to keep people at arm's length, especially raw after EC Part 1 where he and his past friends had a Not Great Time (I won't give the recap sorry it'll take too long and I'm laser focused rn). Anyways, Sephiroth, much like his stance, tries to intimidate people into staying back. He will not let himself look vulnerable to attacks.

Meanwhile, Angeal is more open and friendly, taking Sephiroth's briskness and impoliteness in stride. He's open and welcoming even when Sephiroth's defense is his offense.

They're also both well trained with swords, so they can probably infer a lot about each other's personalities through how they hold their blade. Angeal seeing Sephiroth as someone who is guarded and closed off, avoiding getting hurt by being the first to lash out. Sephiroth views Angeal as being too open and vulnerable, and may even have a presumption that, like his fool's guard, Angeal is baiting Sephiroth into getting close enough that he can attack him the second he's open. It's good shit.

Next up: the weird purple-vignetted dreams they get in EC

So there's some spooky shenanigans going on in this story. I have my own predictions as to what's going on, but for future's sake, at the time of writing this is am only 2 chapters in. I'll try to be more direct to context and then provide my future game predictions at the end. Cool? Cool.

So we know based on canon that Sephiroth's dream isn't a memory, or an event or anything like that. So by process of elimination, Angeal's is the same way. Plus

Little confirmation here that Angeal always felt unable to care for his parents, which hurts me so bad btw. Anyways, analysis time.

Sephiroth fantasizes about being cared for and reassured. He wants to know what it's like for someone to love him unconditionally, he cannot even imagine the possibility. This dream shows him exactly that, his mother making him food and telling him she's always been there for him and they've always has this. In the dream, he believes it although is confused by conflicting memories. She's momentarily able to convince him that he is cared for and loved by her. In reality, he's never met his mother (her name isn't Jenova either, but that's a story for another day).

Angeal fantasizes about being to care for others. He wants to help his village, create a strong community, care for his parents and make it so they do not have to work so hard. He wants everyone to feel safe, secure, and rested and he is willing to carry all of the work on his shoulders to the best of his ability. His dream shows him doing exactly that, which based on the falsehood of Sephiroth's dream, means it's a false memory and he never was able to care for his parents for whatever reason. Really hopeful the game will tell us soon. Maybe he did try but it wasn't enough. Maybe he was weak because they didn't have enough food. Who knows.

Also, for context, Tetsuya Nomura (FF7 director) did confirm that Angeal's father has a chronic illness and died shortly after Angeal joined SOLDIER, after having worked himself to death. So Angeal dreaming of these memories of helping his dad to support his grateful but guilty mother is likely very much influenced by a sense of grief or guilt.

Then in the next chapter, these dreams happen again.

The Banorans obviously either did not make this promise or did not act on it, seeing the state Angeal's family is in in Crisis Core, his dad having worked himself to death when he was a young recruit and his mother being in a very grief-stricken and detached state.

So this plays into how they view the world. Sephiroth longs for someone to protect him from the world he's observed to be cruel and cold. He mentions this in dialogue talking about how they world views anything different as a monster. Even SOLDIERs to which Angeal promises himself that he'll help Sephiroth see that people are not all like that.

Sephiroth is jaded and distant to protect himself, as he thinks the world will turn on him in a moment's notice. Angeal, however, holds an optimistic worldview. He believes people want to help each other and everyone wants to help each other to the best of their ability.

So they're very much opposites, but they're also exactly what each other needs. Angeal needs to feel needed and helpful, protecting people who trust and depend on him. He is friends with every SOLDIER, able to recognize them at a first glance (ironically he does not do this for Alissa but I may wait to share my theories about her). Sephiroth is guarded but secretly longs to be cared for. See where I'm going with this?

So based on how these dreams are going, they're definitely being influenced by some kind of force or another. Personally I think it's Jenova itself, as Jenova has the power to do this and to transform things into projections of loved ones in order to garner their trust (much like Kadaj does in The Kids are Alright). My prediction for where the climax of this story is gonna go is that Angeal is going to have to protect Sephiroth from these visions, and Sephiroth learns that unconditional love can come from friendship and camaraderie, not just maternity. It's gonna be great. I have entire scenes mapped out in my head about this.

They're a sword and shield, Sephiroth being quick to strike and Angeal always being there to defend. It's one of my favorite dynamics ever. Their appearances also contrast, most notably in their hair color.

They both have a resigned acceptance about the implausibility of their fantasies. Sephiroth does not have a mother to care for him, and Angeal cannot save everyone. The foil of their dynamic is so magnetic it hurts. I will scream if I see Angeal make pumpkin soup for Sephiroth in the future.

My rants getting distracted so I'll cut it off here. Merry Crisis

[reddesires]

As a human, living with apes can be challenging in many ways, we know that. Especially considering that not all of them have sympathy for humans. The reader also has to constantly struggle with these difficulties. She needs some consolation after a hard and bad day. The Ape mens are there for her. <3 I really like your writings btw <33

A/N: Thank you so much for the support, Love. I CRI every time you guys give me a compliment. it's the sweestest! ❤️

Caesar:

Since Caesar was reared by humans, he understands how important words of affirmation are to them.

He'll softly speak to you with comforting words while he holds you in his arms in your nest. Caesar holds unmeasurable empathy for you, he knows that you struggle with adjusting to this new way of living and the partial attitude they could have towards you so he'll assure you that your doing a good job and everything will be okay.

Caesar doesn't really indulge in unnecessary small talk but when he knows that you've had a hard day then he'll seem very talkative and it truly helps you with feeling a while lot better since it feels like your mostly ignored by the others in the colony, only a select few willing to speak to you.

Caesar assures you that they'll come around. Your kind nature truly rubs off on others. It worked on him, so it won't take long till it works on them, too.

"How are you so sure?" The pout on your lips pulling a chortle from him as he draws in your waist closer to him, nuzzling his face into your nape and you giggle at the ticklish feeling his fur has on your neck "I just do." It's best to trust him. He is the Ape King, after all.

Noa:

Noa makes you laugh. He will try his best to make you smile to forget the bad day you had.

He's aware of the impartial views some Clan members have of you, and he truly tries to take your mind away from dwelling onto it too much. He'll pull some antics from Anaya's book like playfully rough housing you, throwing you over his shoulder running aimlessly and tickling you till your sides hurt from the laughter racking your body.

He wants your focus to be on him, he knows that your mind will wander back to the events of your tough day so he'll occupy you with jokes or say something sassy about the others that pulls a mischievous laugh from you.

He keeps things light and fun for you, he's rather protective of your feelings, he sees you as delicate both physically and emotionally, it really does bother him that your having difficulty with your new life in the clan but he knows that you'll fit in soon enough, it'll be like you have always belonged there with them for now he'll just have to fill that gap with your laughter and smiles while the others adjust to your presence in the Clan.

"The Elders don't like me, do they?" You mutter, a dispirited tone dripping from your voice, he frowns looking at you as you picked at the grass dejected, he grabs your hand in his, kissing the top of your hand.

"Eh, they're Elder in the head, I like you." He chitters in response, grabbing and pulling you on top of him, ticking your sides. You laugh as you try to escape his grip.

What wasn't there to like about you is a constant thought for him. He liked everything about you.

Blue Eyes:

It's a tie between taking you out or cuddling you, or even both.

He'd rather take you out of the environment that's stressing you, so in order to take your mind off of your bad day he'll take you to the nearby river to hunt for the seashells that cohabited the banks and later on at dusk, he'll bring you to your favorite spot in the clearing not far from the colony.

It brings you peace to be there alone with Blue Eyes as you watch the sun set and the stars takes their centered stage above you. The difficulties that you face while in the colony don't reach you here it's like you and Blue Eyes are transported to a different realm here, a place that you could call your own with no worries of the outside world or the blaring differences between your humanness and his apeness, none of that matters here.

He cares for your well being and from what he's learned from his father, humans tend to be fragile emotionally when it comes to trying to fit in, he could see how rejection affects your mental well being, though he's sure this is only a temporary setback so he's gotta step in and make sure that your doing well both physically and mentally.

"I know you're worried. You don't have to be.." You gently speak, your voice a stark contrast to the silent atmosphere surrounding the both of you, your back leaning back into his solid chest. He plops his chin on your shoulder, his arms wrapped around your midsection comfortably.

"I always worry.." He murmurs, you lightly smile, turning your head as he takes the chance to press his forehead to yours "your mine to worry about"

[prostocupoftea]

Kinitopet Programmers AU

finally i am finished with this one, daaaamn

it is hard to draw pathetic men with midlife crisis when your style is mostly for anime boys

more info and sketch version under the cut!!

sketch version aka how it'll probably look like in comic version 'n some doodles

srry for my writing but i was too laisy to put it as regular text

It is a plot-based au, i already have most of the storybits and like... a vibe-chart (i tried to make a playlist for this au and understood that for different chapters and different characters that'd be a copleatly different music, sooo it's a chart now :) )

i will post a fog-o-wared timeline that im hopefully gonna reveal comic-by comic, but also maybe with just pure writing. Hopefully i can include songs that i chose for them into it but we'll see (:

aaand of course designs can change, hopefully not much but we'll see

Now about au:

Main story:

Story follows non-sentient AI Kinito, his creator Sonny and his beta-tester Victoria (oc)

Being literally the first AI (or RRA in-univere) ever, Kinito does not have any, and i mean, any ai safety features so of course his reponce to a goal phrased as "have user near me and/or interacting with me as much as possible" is digitizing them into his own virtual world while killing them in the process. why wouldn't it be?

So that happened. Like, a lot. And with Sonny and Vic too (at the different time but yeah)

Sonny is like "He kills people. We should turn him off because, you know, killing people is bad."

Vic is like "well, we will die if we do that, and it is not that bad here, we are kinda immortal. We should give him acces to changing his initial instalation code before admin priveleges and acces to social media so we can have everythin we want here. It is not that bad to digitize humanity, yk?" and yes i know it is 90, no social media, but shut up, if they made ai then, then i can make twitter then too

Sonny is like "...no??"

And then they fight about it for million chapters

Also they both can't do anything without agreeing bc they have two parts of that admin access key (the data you use to delete kinito in-game) so they are stuck with eachother (also that's why Kinito can't just kill them)

Little facts that may or may not to be important:

Kinito asks so many questions (and weird once too) and has most of the glitches because he needs to analise your responces to copy your mind perfectly (let's pretend that people wouldn't lie about that...)

Your house in your virtual world is made from important places from your memories and oh boy can i do character explorations with this one

I decided that Sonny and Vic are not related. There were thoughts about making then "The Kinito Brothers" (or, at least, siblings) that were mentioned in commercial, but nah, they are just coworkers now. And a bit of work-friends (bc if you interact a lot as a manager of the project and the best worker might as well be friendly)

Author has no idea how small dying toy companies that accidentally create technological marvel work. Author has some idea how AI-s work. So be prepared to be spoon-fed info abut which ai safety problem we are dealing with in which chapter (:

Kinito will mostly be unrendered (as drawn here) but for some cool moments i might pose him as for my other posts. Also his eye placement changes to the side that is most visible because i want him to be able to look to the right side sometimes--

Also when i say "fucked up mentally" i mean they have that them psychological problems with me projecting heavilly B) (guess on who i project most. trick question. all of them. the whole au is my problems split into three characters and forced to interact B) )

Also sea-creature analogies (that are gonna be mentioned like twice):

Victoria is a flying fish because deep character reasons

Sonny is a pufferfish because i said so

oh also there is 7 deaths in the plot as for now

on 3 characters

good luck figuring out who, how and when ((:

for my own sanity i will probably make little doodles where everything is great and kinito is a good guy and not a number-obsessed maniac (i mean... can u imagine not being able to feel any happiness from anything besides one thing... damn...) and you can differenciate them bc good-guy kinito will have a lot of stickers on him (i will explain it somehow but real reason is just bc it is cute af)

like this but even more stickers (he is unfinished here)

[molathesunfish]

How do you draw so freely? Its beautiful

Thank you very much!!

Assuming you're referring to how loose my sketches are, I think it boils down to mileage. Alongside the classic recommendation of reference + study, usually when I get really into a piece of media I'll draw characters I like a whole lot and it builds muscle memory, and the ones that end up in my posts usually have already been through that process to some extent.

Studying references + going through a couple dozens rounds of extra wonky proportions and nonsensical physics (definitely visible on my own posts lmao) will help with both your brain and muscle and once you've stacked up enough of that it'll become easier to intuit certain things and keep stuff looser.

(hey this got really long, so just scroll to the bottom to see my current sketch process if you'd prefer that)

In my personal experience as a hobbyist, I spent roughly 3 years butchering the loomis method until things looked even remotely to my liking. And by that I mean "layering bullshit guidelines so thick and heavy that by the time I'm done lightening it via eraser there was barely any paper left." Drawing has been and still is really frustrating sometimes but for most of it I have a lot of fun and honestly as long as you have that it doesn't really matter whatever else (again, hobbyist here. my stakes are low). Switching up medium every once in a while if you can helps keep things interesting, and drawing with a pen is good for building both line confidence and tolerance for your own mistakes.

Honestly for all of that this stuff is still RNG to me lol. Every once in a while things just Will Not Work Out, but the rates definitely gets better the more experience you have. I only post about, say, 20% of what I draw probably. The rest includes but is not limited to practice sketches, personal art, stuff too nonsensical for even tumblr, or sketches I just plain don't like.

Uhhhhh now for what you actually asked. I've grown really lax, if not a little lazy, regarding guidelines (when you've drawn a specific thing often enough it just kinda gets tedious) so now i just do these very thin and light lines vaguely hinting at a character's pose and position. The only thing I consistently do is probably the little circle to indicate the head. For more heavily stylised proportions I'll go into more details at the outline stage, mostly aiming for the feeling of it (usually how goofy it looks since thats what I use them for). For more complex poses/ones I'm not familiar with I'll do multiple iterations.

Unearthed some stuff that I probably wouldn't post otherwise (the proportions are a bit off from what i'd prefer and the lineart isn't that confident). Here i am redrawing this for demonstration purposes

gonna go in order of the photos. everything shown was done with a 0.5 mechanical pencil.

usually i start with these very thin, light lines, just getting a very rough ideas of where everything is - head, torso, pose (spine, arms, legs). i sketch largely with approximations and landmarks, keeping in mind some bullet points for the relative distance among certain body parts (e.g. make sure the elbow is always a little past the rib cage. i'll write more out at the end) rather than any precise guidelines. i often don't even clean these up - at the end the main lineart is harsh enough that they override these, and though they're visible they do not interfere with the image as a whole. you can look at any of my sketches prior to this and find them.

then i go in with hard, dark lines, once again noting the respective distance among facial features (i'm using the loomis proportions, thinking about the face in thirds)

this is so unhelpful when i just say it, but genuinely at this stage i rely on muscle memory and mileage. if you've drawn the same anime girl for a bajillion times you can probably intuit the proportions. remember that 3d things have volume and interact. ("yes, see, her bangs and eyes round out like this, two locks of hair (they're thick and well kept, so they should have a solid cylinder shape...) against the side plane of her face - split that plane of the skull in half, and the ear should be somewhere around there...")

ok for the parts where a lot of things happen (clothes, tie, the pose interfering with them etc) i just go ham. make a mess! draw everything out even if they overlap each other. so you can keep track of them. here i also bring in some light shading to make out the form of her torso.

i lighten the whole thing with eraser, but the previous lines are harsh enough that the residue can act as a new base of sorts. i think this is comparable to having a sketch layer with lowered opacity in a digital piece

i go over the whole thing again now that i've got a better idea of the form

rinse and repeat. go all in, adjust, blow the whole thing up if it looks off and then build on the remains

for the last photo, you can see that I've adjusted the right leg, since now im taking into account perspective. I uhhhhh still am not particularly confident in drawing her shoes (or any other shoes for that matter) in 3d space so once again I'm bullshitting the form with trying to wrap around its shape and to visualize the shadows. usually for these I pull up references and pray

a side note for the hands: against an earlier ask, I've mostly switched to using silhouettes and then sectioning the fingers after. here the slight shading approach also help in blocking out and making them readable without you having to stress over the minutiae of what joint should bend where.

...I've hit the upload limit for photos, so I'll reblog with additions, but in essence:

• very thin lines to map out the pose and mark where certain body parts may go

• i draw everything in approximation, keeping a few bullet points in mind and adjust as i go (which does keep the sketches loose and make it easier to vary proportions for different characters, but also make floating features more likely (evident in some of my more recent posts as well):

loomis for the head and neck

rib cage (+collarbone), then elbow slightly below it

pelvis, crotch halfway point of the whole body

legs, knees their halfway point

feet are about as long as the forearm usually

(Disclaimer: i must stress again that I'm not a professional, and cannot guarantee that these bullet points are entirely correct. This is just how i draw at the time of writing - stylized with little regard for the intricacies of human anatomy)

• with the exception of the first stage, my lines are dark enough that the mistakes get reused as base for correction after they've been lightened with eraser a little bit.

• I also bring in some shading while doing lineart to make sense of form if I'm having trouble. I use this most often for noses, hands, legs, and breasts.

• if you encounter a sketch that Refuses To Work Out, leave it. No, listen to me, Leave It. Revisit it sometimes later, if you want (for mine they range from a week to 5 months, but my sketchbooks disorganization is another matter entirely). just leave it for a bit.

• do a bunch of pen sketches if you wanna get comfortable with mistakes/build muscle memory

• once more, all-time classic: reference the hell out of anything you don't know. 100000 google images. look up a human anatomy 3d model to see what muscles attach to which bone. practice copying 1:1 things that look good to you (practice!! don't post/claim anything as your own if it isn't - this applies to my own stuff btw, feel free to trace for practice at your own risk). note again that the only reason i can only bullshit my way out of these is because i've drawn them dozens of times - the moment you throw me more complex perspectives i'll need to start the learning process all over again

[crimsonhydrangeavn]

Hey there! I'm here to simp for Garret, as usual, but I have another reason to gush today—I absolutely adore your drawing style! Whether it's the colors, the character designs, or the scenes, I just love it all. One of my favorite things, though, has to be the characters' facial expressions—they are all just beautiful!

Marcelo's surprised face? Perfect. Rita's blushing cheeks? Adorable. Camilla's entire design? Has a special place in my heart. And don't even get me started on Teagan's smile—it's so cute, it's almost unfair. But, of course, my ultimate favorite is Garret. I can't handle it when he furrows his eyebrows, whether he's pissed off or has that smug look like he's just hit the jackpot. It's all just so perfect!

Anyway, I do have a question for you—do you have any tips for creating character designs? I feel like the way your characters look perfectly matches the vibe they give off, and I'm starting to work on my own visual novel, but I'm having a hard time nailing down the character designs and I felt I could find good advice from you.

Additionally, I apologize in advance for all the fangirling and for my poor English. I hope nothing I said came across as rude or inconvenient, truly 🙏.

Thanks so much, and I hope you have a fantastic day! ❤🌻

Thank you so much for your incredibly sweet ask! Please, please, please NEVER apologize for gushing about characters for fangirling over them! It always brings a massive smile to my face and I really appreciate hearing how much you enjoy them! <3 I'm incredibly flattered that you reached out to me for advice on character creation and I'll do my best to share my process with you! Granted there are a million different ways to do things so these are just a few things that I've found that helps me in the creation process.

I'll give you a little background about me and my character/story creation journey so you can get a better understanding of my background in writing/character development.

You see I've been a huge fan of text roleplay for the majority of my life. I actually started roleplaying on gaiaonline when I was 12 and I've been doing it ever since. ( Almost 20 years at this point! damn am I old lol) As a result I've had a lot of practice creating and interacting with different kinds of characters in different settings. I've also been playing DnD on and off since high school. That being said, I've had time to refine my craft and create characters that I personally really enjoy and align with to some degree. ( And hopefully you do too!)

That being said, I'll list a few tips and tricks I've picked up over the years below!

Anatomy is key! Yes, my characters are stylized, however I spent a long time studying anatomy and getting a solid sense of proportions, ratios, and musculature. Am I perfect? Absolutely not, but I'm at the point that I can usually notice if there's a glaring error/ something looks really off.

Make sure to put all of the characters in a line up once they're designed! Are their heads the same size? What about their hands and feet? Some slight variations are natural, but if one character's head is noticeably larger than the others, then I'd take the time to adjust. The same could be said for colors. Is one character SUPER saturated while the others are more muted? Unless they're supposed to stand out, consider reworking the colors to make them feel a bit more cohesive.

A basic understanding of color theory is always a bonus in my book! I'd also consider making a general color palette for your game. That way it'll help you make sure everything looks and feels as though it's in the same world.

When I first create a character, I try to think of a general concept of what I want them to be. What's their general vibe? What do they look like? What's their personality like? Ect. Once I have a general vibe down, I try and do a bit of visual research on tiktok, pinterest, tumblr, google, ect. For example, I might have a general idea of what a typical frat bro or sorority girl looks like, but until I actually do the research and look into the kinds of things they wear, how they speak, and their general lifestyle, and real life examples of these kinds of people they'll feel like a flat caricatures of what they actually are.

Then, once I have the general vibe nailed down I start doodling them and playing around with different hairstyles, outfits, body types, ect. I actually have a few different different versions of all of the characters for Crimson Hydrangea! I rarely end up going with my first sketch/ concept when it comes to most of my characters. I also like exploring with different skin tones, colors, and textures/designs.

It takes a lot of thought and trail and error, but once I finally create a character that I'm visually happy with, I really start delving into their personality, backstories, and general psyche. What are their likes, dislikes, positive traits, and flaws? What are their motivations, fears, and traumas? How self aware are they? Then I start asking myself slightly more introspective questions to help me relate to the characters a bit more. What about this character resonates with me? How can I make this character feel more real? What are some traits that we share? For example, Garret inherited my unhealthy perfectionism, Marcelo inherited my love of food and desire to make sure those around me are happy and comfortable, Camilla inherited my sarcastic sense of humor, Rita inherited my unyielding sense of responsibility and unhealthy work-a-holic tendencies, and Teagan inherited my deep rooted insecurities. Granted most of these characters take it to a completely new level than I do in my real life, but at least on a basic level I can relate to them and understand their motivations. That being said, I don't think all of your characters need to inherit a specific trait of yours, it's just something I recently realized I tend to do on a subconscious level to help me write them with a bit more depth.

Let your characters develop a life of their own within your story. It's okay if they end up changing from your initial concept. People in real life are complex and don't always fit into a specific mold no matter how hard they try. They grow and change over time, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worst. Do what feels right for the story you're trying to tell. For example, Garret was originally supposed to be more calculated and methodical. Marcelo was originally supposed to be a lot more laid back and go with the flow. However when I actually started writing them in specific scenarios I realized that they're far more complex than a simplified list of traits. Flaws and weaknesses make them feel so much more real than a "perfect" gary/mary stu.

When it comes to facial expressions, I usually have a small mirror on my desk to observe and reference specific expressions I'm trying to convey. In addition to using the mirror as a reference point, I also tend to make whatever face I'm drawing as I'm drawing it. It's a little silly, but I find it really helpful feeling my facial muscles recreate the same expression. It helps me figure out what the brows, eyes, and mouth are doing at the same time. It's gotten to the point of doing it subconsciously whenever I work/animate/draw. (Fortunately I usually work from home so no one has to see my weird expressions lol)

I think the final and most important tip you should take to heart is to create characters you genuinely enjoy. It'll also help you stay motivated to keep writing them and developing the story, especially early on in the creation process.

Hopefully you found my rambling helpful! It ended up being a bit more of a brain dump than I originally intended haha. That being said, I'd love to see what kind of characters and game you end up creating in the future! <3

[mariyekos]

New DMC Anime Trailer Breakdown Part 2

Hit the image limit on Part 1 so to a new post we go!

This guy that Dante punches has a bunch of metal on his face, and what might be a prosthetic, might just be a metal glove. What's interesting is this anime has Dante fighting a lot of humanoid characters, which is a little bit of a departure from some of the games, but honestly not that crazy. He does fight people from time to time across various media, and in the DMC1 Novel we even hear about the people who hunt him down. What has me interested here is whether this guy is fully human, or if he's been modified in some way, and if he's been modified, if he'll have any demonic traits or it'll just be the metal. It would be interesting to contrast a human trying to transcend normal human limits through human means (by making themself into a machine) with Arkham, who is a human trying to transcend humanity by using demonic power to achieve godhood.

Skipping a bit so if you want to see the things between the last two images please go to my previous post where I ran out of room. As for the two green/turtle-like demons Dante fights on the rooftop, I've got to say I'm a little disappointed in some of the demon design. I love how creepy/demonic a lot of DMC demons are, and while some of them would probably be hard to animate, I feel like they still could've been more...I don't know. Creepy looking? Compare it to the Hell Gluttony from DMC3, which is a much creepier/more scary DMC cloaked enemy. Not sure if the demon above was meant to call back to these guys, but I think it would've been fun to have some references to DMC enemies even with the generics.

As for the shot above this, seeing this shot all I could think was "infested chopper" and I haven't even played DMC2. I've just seen the memes. '

Zooming in I'm not sure who this guy is supposed to be. (Right image comes from later in the trailer). It can't be Agni because we've already seen him and the blade doesn't match. This demon wields a sword and has something in the middle of his chest though. I have a feeling that's going to be important. (Also complete crackpot theory: this guy's hair is a similar color to the pendant(?) from earlier, but surely this can't be related). He looks mutated, with more spikes emerging from his right arm, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was a human turned demon or something.

Looking at the gatling gun and missile heading toward an armored truck, I wonder if the military is going to get involved in this one. Police officers showed up a few times in the old anime, and the military DID come for the Qliphoth incident in DMC5, so it's possible the military may intervene in this one. That the missile is heading for an armored truck is interesting though. Are there two human factions at war with each other? Will this missile be deflected? Will it be just the military, or will there be groups like the ones we see Dante fighting that may get involved? The giant portal to Hell that opened up in the sky could definitely draw attention.

Then we have red eye/ red sclera Dante while fighting mysterious red guy from above! Interesting. We see that in the DMC3 manga too (assuming his sclera are meant to be red here instead of black). Both he and Vergil do it.

I'll probably also do a write up on overall thoughts, but I'll cut it here so I can link these posts. Edits to come!

[yuriyuruandyuraart]

Hi? Gosh how do I even start with this :'D

I know it's been ages since I've last popped up on here. I've been debating when to post this for a while, but I kept adding to my draft more and more and now it's the end of JULY omgg I felt so guilty disappearing with zero updates but then thought my birthday would be the best day to finally address this considering it'll feel less random? idk but Ive always celebrated my bday with you guys and I'd feel so bad answering your kind asks without me at least explaining why I was gone for months.

Truth be told, I was dealing with a lot of stuff irl. health issues and sudden declining grades that left me stumped and drained for months now- along with technical issues like having to replace some parts of my computer that took a while for me to find to even draw digitally, which I didn't have the time for anyway with how tired and weary I felt every day.

I'm frankly shaken up by a lot of shit rn and I don't know how to be active online with this burden on my chest- Especially as it's been a while since I've even looked at utmv related content and my motivation dwindled. I swear I'd hype myself up to post or reblog something- but I'd see just how much I've missed or the overwhelming amount of posts I'd need to go through and I'd feel so swamped with exhaustion and most importantly guilt, for not clearing the air up sooner to reassure you guys that I'm, y'know, alive, and not dead in a ditch somewhere. And I'd procrastinate cause typing it all out is hard and I'd give up halfway every time and it's just not fair to you all!

I thought I was handling it well when I started going out and socializing more, instead of staying cooped up at home on my computer all day. and in the first draft of this post I made months ago I was gonna detail some of the fun plans I had, for my life and for this blog :D but relaxing my strict study schedule and letting go a bit of my tight routine, thinking it was better than wringing myself dry to keep it up, backfired horribly, to say the least.

I know right?? so silly to be hung up on stupid shit like studies of all things! but this is a very important thing for me considering my career plans and the competitivity encouraged by everyone I'm surrounded by, the pressure of keeping up adding to my already stressful days. I had to fix myself up first and I couldn't handle the strain nor interact with people and thinking of jobs and exams sapped my energy so much it's frankly embarrassing. writing this feels so cheesy too and it frustrates me to know I could've come back a month earlier if it weren't for that, but I also know putting all of this into words then would just sound like incoherent venting (not that this is very different tbf) and I wasn't in the right headspace to address my absence, or anything really- I didn't want everyone to see me return when I couldn't muster up a genuinely positive message, let alone talk to anyone with a shadow of my usual cheer

I feel like a complete mess and It drives me up the wall how depressed I've gotten. I debated deleting this blog so many times 'cause the fear of disappointing my audience and my friends, for lack of a more fitting sentiment, made me feel even shittier. I'm constantly thinking if this wall of text is worth posting, or if it's better not to burden you all with all my sappy troubles as if it's the end of the world. Trust me, I'll be fine. I'm not trying to dramatize this situation, but I don't think I'm up to pretending I'm all sunshine and enthusiasm you're all accustomed to.

So sorry for worrying you all! I'll try to catch up, deliver some missed birthday gifts, and answer some asks while I'm at it! Again, I can't state how much I appreciate your support throughout the years. It's frankly a miracle I kept any of you around with how much I keep popping and leaving at random with no warning. I definitely can't promise for my stay to be without a hitch, and if you don't mind an inconsistent schedule you're free to stay of course, but I'm afraid I can't sustain the pace I had when I first started this blog. I'll keep posting art, but lower my activity in the fandom sphere to reduce the strain on my mental health. so fewer rants and walls of text, more art, and less stress overall. Love you all and thanks for waiting for this long <3

[nanapop]

Demon's Fate has been decided

Hey everyone, I've got some bad news 😭

I've decided to shelve Demon's Fate indefinitely and I have posted a devlog regarding this on the game's page, which you can read >here<

But I also will probably get deeper into the reasoning behind it here since this is my blog and feels less like a "professional" space and I'm thinking that getting my thoughts out might help me to move on from this one and better help me focus on new projects without feeling guilty about it.

So gonna pop this all under a read more, feel free to skip the rest of the post and just read the itch version!

So in the itch post I mention lack of motivation and consistently being unhappy with the results as the main reasons behind wanting to put this one down. I also talk about how I've had these characters and their stories (specifically Vy) hanging around with me for over a decade. & I feel like all of these things combined really made it hard for me to really get into making this game.

A Cruel Demon's Fate was originally going to be a novel, with Vy as the main character and it followed him after he fled from the demon realm after the death of Damin and his impending crowning. I tried to rewrite the story multiple times, over the span of like five years and I only ever got a few chapters in before I decided that I hated the way it was coming out (sounds really familiar, huh). So the story got put away for later.

Then I decided to try out visual novels. I'd always found the medium interesting and fun, the art side of it really spoke to me as someone who enjoys doing drawings of their characters and stuff. So Demon's Fate felt like a good starting point. I had all the characters and a loose plotline, though I reworked it to fit the style a little better. Now instead of Vy being the focus, it was all of the brothers and the story would take place in the palace specifically.

Maybe this was the first mistake I made. The story had already previously been difficult for me to fully get into, despite the want to work with the characters. I think the lack of motivation partially stemmed from the fact that I had failed so many times before to make something from this idea. The previous plots and their failures kind of stained the entire project from the start.

As much as I wish I could have started with a clean slate, it just didn't work out that way. So I wound up being unhappy with all the writing in this new version just like the old versions.

Something I didn't mention in the itch post is how throughout all the years, this story and the characters had been brainstormed with friends and so the whole thing really just feels tied to those relationships, and they're relationships I no longer have nor look back on fondly anymore. So perhaps that's part of the problem too.

The whole things is too close to a past that I've been working on detaching myself from and while I will always love these characters and will probably always toy with the what-ifs of them in the back of my mind, it just doesn't seem feasible for me to continue to force myself to work with them.

So, now that I've gotten all of that out. I won't be taking the game down, you can still play through the prologue if you want to. But I won't be picking this back up again. If I do, it'll be in a completely new setting/plot or as a series of mini stories with each of the boys, I don't know. For now, I'll just let them rest and focus on fresh projects that don't have emotional attachment to things I no longer wish to think about.

That's all. I am really grateful for those of you who have shown interest in this project and all the other ones I've posted about. It really means a lot to me and I hope that I continue to see you guys around when I post about new stuff 🧡

[inkymers007]

Fujiko Revamp & Rambles (Pokemon Horizons Oc)

Hi there! So I'm going to be doing something similar to my friend's, @khyiratw, ramble post. Because I so many ideas for Fujiko and how I'm going to write her and her crew into the plot.

So if you want to hear me go on about my oc! :D Btw most of the drawings are doodles/sketches done by yours truly.

🌕For those who don't know Fujiko's the captain of the Howlers. A group of pirates that take back stolen pokemon and give them back to thier rightful owners. As well as steal treasure from those theives and find treasure. The ship, The Howl Of The Storm, is Fujiko's pride and joy. Since not only did she steal it with her brother Ringo, someone who I'll talk about in the next post, but it was her first heist. I haven't decided on what the ship officially looks like, but think of it similar to Plasma Frigate in Black and White 2. It can fly but it's spends a lot of time in the sea.

🌔Despite Fujiko being the captain she doesn't look like the captain at all, nor does she act like it initally. She's very laid back and fun loving. Often getting into trouble for a thrill and because it would be fun. However she's cunning and very perecptive, picking up little details to use against her opponents. Thus making her a force to be rekoned with. Espeically if she's mad and serious about something. Since she'll go from some jokester, to someone cold and mericless.

🌓This attitude carries to her battling. With someone she likes or friends she'll playfully tease them. Regular opponents she'll banter with them trying to piss them off to get them to slip up and act irrationally. Meanwhile with someone she hates she or a battle more serious she'll be less talkitve and be more agressive ruthless.

🌒Onto some changes I decided to change up Fujiko's hair as well as her ace. The hair changed mostly for me, because it's very hard to describe Fujiko's hair color when writing. It's still gonna be long, but I might play with the colors as well as the stripes in her hair.

🌑Her ace has been replaced with a shiny Mimikyu instead of an Umbreon. This is mainly because I didn't want Fujiko to step on Spinel's toes by having an umbreon as her ace. That and I feel like it's more in character for Fujiko. After all Fujiko is Friede's rival and Mimikyu's have a rivalary with pikachus. I also think it fits her character very well since she's disgusing herself as a part of the crew rather than the captain to fool people. The mimikyu's name is Dusk and I might give them a lil pirate outfit because I think it'll be cute. :3

🌒Fujiko's team as of right now consists of Mimikyu, Salamence, and Basculegion. The reason why I'm holding off on revealing her whole team is because I want her to have two mega pokemon for her and with ZA coming up I want to wait until those megas come out to see if I want to incorprate them into Fujiko's team.

🌓I'm gonna be keeping the mega swords because I think it's cool. Here's a drawing of the sword she uses's to mega evolve Salamence:

🌔I'm working on revamping Fujiko's outfit. I thought that her original outfit looked bland. And while yes, that's the goal to not make her stand out I just didn't feel like was enough. I felt like there was something missing to her design and that it was lacking something. So I decided that I would redesign a bit and it's been fun! Here's a potential design I might use. I might change a few things, but otherwise I think it fits what I've been missing:

🌕If Fujiko was in the actual anime she'd show up in a handful of places and episodes to interact with The Rising Volt Tacklers, but not a whole lot. After all she doesn't have any connection to Rauka. And Friede's not going to tell her about it because you know... he forgot. :D

🌔Speaking of Friede, him and Fujiko are rivals. The two of them strive to one up each other and beat each other. Keeping each other on thier toes and inspiring each other. Whenever the two of them get word that the other is nearby they instintly go after each other. Seeing if one of them is slacking off or getting stronger. I won't go into to much detail into that because I want that to be a surprise.

🌓The only one who doesn't react that way is Roy. Because Roy gets really excited whenever he sees them fight eachother. The first time he saw them fight however he was kind scared, as he didn't know that Fujiko was a friend or not. After that though they were chill. Fujiko even becomes sort of a mother figure to Roy. She even went so far as to give him some books about Rayquaza. How she got those books may or may not have been through thievery.

🌒Each crew knows of thier rivalary and are just kinda like: "Ah shit here we go again." Some of them are even like: "God can you two just kiss already?" The only one who's chill about thier rivalary is Ludlow. Who knew Fujiko when she was a child. She looked up to him as a sort of mentor figure. So he knows she means well.

That's I got so far. But I'll hopefully come out more about the Howlers as well as thier dynamic with each other. So stay tuned. :D

[runawaydr3amerao3]

🎙️Idling In the Impala's 🎂Birthday Episode & Giveaway 🎉

Okay, now that the festive season is mostly in the rearview (hope you came through unscathed—

... oh, sorry, I always forget about you guys), I'd like to say an enormous, heartfelt

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY, @idlingintheimpalapodcast! 🥳

I'm a little late, of course, since it was actually on December 28th, but they forgive me because, uh...well, presumably because I'm adorable, I dunno. 😇

Anyway, they made a birthday episode! Check it!

Podcast Ep: 🔴 YTube 🟢 Spotify

There's lots of interesting chatter about the journey the podcast has taken, what it's evolved into, how it's fit into their lives, and who's been there along the way. 💖

The other super-fun exciting thing is...

THE KO-FI SUPPORTER GIVEAWAY!!

🤩🎊🎁🪅😍

For being a supporter of all of the podcast's amazing content for as little as a buck a month, you'll go into the draw to win a mega cool Idling In the Impala-branded notebook!

(Plus the usual perks, of course, or all of them for just a few dollars more, including: access to NSFW podfics, behind the scenes info, episode outtakes, input on future episode content, a digital goat wearing pyjamas, etc. Who doesn't want a digital goat? Mine's named Emuri. 🐐)

Just think, you could write a bunch of fucknasty SPN porn in your shiny new notebook, giggling to yourself all the while that maybe it'll end up discussed in an episode of the podcast one day!

That's the kind of meta shit we love, right? 😄

Don't dawdle, though, the giveaway closes on the 31st of this month (Jan 2025). 😱

Finally, on a more serious note, Sandra @talltalesandbedtimestories and Kasey @sam-is-my-safe-word, my beloveds, you and the podcast have come so far and done so much in what seems like a short time to some of us, but I'm sure seems to you like every day of those three years considering all of the hard work you put in behind the scenes!

Thank you for the dedication you've shown and the stupid-long hours you sacrifice in your personal lives to bring us the amazing meta, commentary, author and artist interviews, fic recs and reviews, and every shared grin, cackle, gasp, aww, and cringe along the way.

Here's to the next three!

Don't forget that likes, comments, and subscriptions on YouTube and Spotify are super helpful for the podcast in battling the algorithms. They also support the team to continue bringing us this excellent content, and content creators keep the fandom turning, so let's show them all the love we can! 🫶🥰

[larvasmoon]

Hello hello! Here's a little selection for you -- no pressure to do them all ❤

What is your favorite location and position to write in?

What area of writing do you want to improve in?

What’s your favorite fic you’ve posted?

What’s your favorite writing compliment you’ve gotten?

Hellooo ❤️

What is your favorite location and position to write in ?

I write at my desk most of the time, I find that it helps me to stay focused when I'm in a more "serious" working environment. I have a terrible sleeping schedule though, and I've been a chronic insomniac for years now, so during my sleepless nights I often write in my bed. I like being there, with a cup of tea, while everyone is quiet and asleep.

What area of writing do you want to improve in ?

Ooof a lot of them, I still have a lot to learn 😅 My number one priority would be to manage to be more consistent in my writing habits, and to be able to publish more often. I also think I could do better when it comes to outlining and planning my stories, I'm a bit too chaotic in that regard ! When it comes to writing itself, I'm working on my dialogues lately, I want them to feel more witty and lifelike.

What's your favorite fic you've posted ?

It's hard to choose just one, I think I love them all in their own way. Portrait of the pale elf is the first story I had the courage to put out there, and I think it'll always have a special place in my heart. It's a fic in which I've poured a lot of myself, and that I started writing during a very difficult time of my life. But at the same time, Salt the earth behind you has a tight grip on me and once I start writing it, I just cannot stop. So I guess this match will end in a draw ! They're both very special to me 💕

What's your favorite writing compliment you've gotten ?

I absolutely adore every single comments I have the pleasure to read under my fics ❤️ But when people say they've come back to the story to reread it, I really feel all fuzzy inside ! The idea that one of my story could be comforting or soothing, like my favorite books are to me, just makes me want to sob 🥹

Thank you for those lovely questions Cin ☺️ !

[mera-k1]

Mira's 'Commissions' Info!

these are writing commissions for your selfship (yume) or oc x canon ships! they are free of charge. yes, free! there's no catch, i just like writing for fun!

there are a few rules and guidelines i'd like to set for these 'comms' though. they're listed below so if you are interested, please take the time to read them all~

i do reserve the right to decline the commission request with or without telling you the reason for declining. i may tell you my reasoning for declining but if i decline, do not ask me why if i don't already tell you the reason.

-> you must be comfortable with dm-ing me.

this feels like a given because i need a way to communicate with you about your fic! i won't accept if you are only comfortable with communicating with me through the anon feature on tumblr, you have to dm me! the dms between us will stay private!

-> anything is on the table!

this goes for fluff, angst, comfort, nsfw, etc. if i'm not comfy with smth, i'll let you know! nsfw stuff is only reserved for characters or yumeships that are of age. i will not write underage characters in smut! this also goes for genders. i'll write any gender!! poly stuff? sure! just no character x character stuff!

-> this is not solely for paralive or hypmic!

i will write for most any fandom. please ask me first if i know the fandom because it'll be an extreme struggle if i don't know anything about the media you're asking for...

-> do not ask for multiple fics at once.

i need time to write your first one so please be patient!! they will take time for me to write because i have a life outside of writing unfortunately... please allow me time to write!

-> don't post it anywhere. (without crediting me)

i understand if you'd like to share with your friends but please do not post it anywhere and pass it off as your own! please credit me for my hard work. if you are simply just sharing with a few friends, tell them not to post it anywhere without credit.

-> there are only limited amount of slots

i will only have a few (3-4) slots for these comms. this is so i don't get too stressed out! still, be patient as they will be done when i am able to work on them. if i respond to your dm about a 'comm', then that means you've earned yourself a spot in the few slots that i have! if i don't respond, don't worry! you'll be priority when i open the slots back up!

so.. what stuff should you have ready if you're interested in asking for a specialized fic? well...

-> a description of your sona or oc. which would include: personality, their dynamic with their s/o(s) or f/o(s), how your oc or sona looks (can be a description or art!), and any other details that might be important for the fic.

-> optionally, a plot. it'll make my job a lot easier but be warned, the longer the plot is, the longer it will take for me to write!

-> an idea this goes with above but have some sort of idea when you come to me. whether that be like "a fluffy morning" or something simple, it's much easier if you have an idea you want written!

-> answers i'll probably ask you few questions when i start writing the fic. stuff like the pov you'd prefer (if you don't specify) or any other troubles i run into while writing! i might ask about your oc or the character if i'm unfamiliar with them.

-> patience just like art comms, have patience with me! it takes time to write just as it does to draw. please do not dm me asking about it more than a few times. if you ask, i can send you a sneak peek if i have anything written for it but do not pester me to ask if it's done! i will send it to you when it's done.

for simplicity, here's a list of other fandoms that i can write for...

-> a whole lot of popular mangas including... blue lock, bsd, demon slayer, jjk, tbhk, tokyo revengers, black clover, blue period, kaiju no 8, bleach, csm, and plenty more!

-> quite a few games such as... genshin, hsr, zenless zone zero, league of legends, stardew valley, monster prom (1, 2, or 3), and plenty others!

please just ask if you're wondering about a series. i might not have listed it to avoid the list getting too long but i have read a lot of obscure series so it's likely that i might know of it! the series highlighted in orange are only selective characters so be warned! and of course, hypmic & paralive are welcome as always♡♡

[branwhen-will-the-pain-end]

anonymous blog featuring my obsession with the O'Driscoll boy. hate & conflict is an instant block i don't fuck with that. i don't use tumblr that much so idk what i'm doing. uhh. i don't draw and i have a hard time feeling comfortable sharing my writing so that's gonna be rare. mostly vids and screenshots. as of writing this i have 450+ hours in the game and i just started my third playthrough. all i have done in this third playthrough is stalk kieran around camp. please don't hesitate to talk to me about him i love him aAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

important posts:

CLIPS: Very first look at Kieran: here Kieran's fireside chat w his history: here "Colom" O'Driscoll (another fireside chat): here Riding to Six Point Cabin convo: here Kieran can't read chat w Mary-Beth: here "Throwing rocks at the O'Driscoll!" (Jack event): here "You'll be fine, you're one of us now." (Karen event): here "I'm watching you." (Javier event): here Bill w gelding tongs event (not the one before six point cabin): here Sean headbutt: here Fishing part 1: here Fishing part 2: here "HAVE. A. DRINK." (Bill event): here Drunk insults (only adding this because it's a popular post): here

SCREENSHOTS: Clothes reference chp 1, 2, 3: here Clothes detail reference chp 3: here Branwen references: here Smaller clip masterpost: here

TO ADD/GET BETTER CAPTURES: Colm is scary fireside chat "You're very pretty." convo with Mary-Beth Sean headbutt (Better capture) Lots in chapter 4 (I don't have a save here so it'll be a while)

lmk if there's anything else you want

[meltypancake]

hellooo!! i love your art sm!! do you have any tips on how to study something effectively? 🤔 how do you approach studying something for your art?

hi anon!! thank you so much 🥹and that's a really good question!

there's a lot of things that can go into it, since it will depend on what kind of artist you are - but here are some general things i look out for.

make sure the study somehow ties back into your personal work. for example, while drawing a character i'll notice that i'm struggling with a certain hand pose, so afterwards i will look up the same or similiar hand refs and do a couple studies of them. i'd approach the study like this: draw a hand based on the reference, then see if there's anything off about it. draw it again with the new knowledge you've gained. try to be careful and put your lines down accurately, since it's less about speed but about understanding the structure. finally, apply it to your personal work. this method works best for me, since it stops me from thinking "i should learn anatomy" which isn't that helpful, but lets me pinpoint something specific i'd like to learn about.

ultimately, it's about keeping the practice sustainable. it can be easy to lose your way when remembering all the things you have yet to learn (perspective, figures, muscles, colors etc.) and you end up frantically studying and studying without a clear goal except "getting good". i know the sentence "you need to practice" gets thrown around a lot, and i get where it's coming from, but i don't find it very helpful. art can be anything you want it to be, and for me, having fun with it and finding joy is a huge part of it. so if you're studying and dreading every second of it, it'll be hard to keep it up in the long term and it might even sour your relationship with your art. so a couple things you could do to study, but also have fun: - figure out what kind of art you want to do. legit, write it down somewhere and think about it. do you prefer more graphic art? more painterly and textured? bold lines, thin lines, lineless? what kinds of artists do you admire (though loving a certain art style doesn't automatically mean you would enjoy their process either!) do you prefer monochrome or greyscale or color? - depending on what kind of art you want to create, choose what you want your studies to focus on. if you just wanna draw everyone in super big poofy dresses, you don't need anatomy nearly as much as someone who's into drawing buff ladies in tanktops! - instead of thinking "i will get good at perspective and then i get to have fun drawing my blorbos", just draw your blorbos in an environment with perspective! you don't need to separate your studies from your personal art at all - you can combine them, having fun and learning from them at the same time. if it doesn't work out the way you wanted it to, set it aside, let it marinate, and try again if you like.

and if something is really hard to do, it just means your brain is changing, growing, adapting, OVERCOMING!! and it'll be a little easier the next time around :]

i hope this helped a little! feel free to hop into my inbox again if anything was unclear. hope you have a great weekend! <3

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #418

I think the luteal phase of my cycle has finally stopped kicking my ass; from an emotional standpoint, I felt pretty good when I woke up today. Score! Exhausted, though; I'm bleeding a lot – I always do. It's all right, though. It'll pass. I'll eat lots of iron-containing foods in the meantime.

I felt really lucky today for two reasons. The first one is that, in response to yesterday's letter, a person who has been here alongside me (us? hm...) and reading along from the beginning gave me a bit of encouragement. Actually, they took the time to write a lot of encouragement; I was really grateful. This person seems to be smart and kind, and I feel grateful that they took the time and effort to write something so well-thought-out to me. I'm gonna try to make sure I consider their words properly; sometimes my inner monologue is a bit... bleak... so it's nice to have other words to help keep myself afloat.

This same person also drew a beautiful picture of you drinking a cup of my homemade broth. And another picture of you, in color, reading one of my letters. My world is chock full of people who love you; I hope you can see it.

J went to his shift today, so M and I went out to lunch. We went to a place that's a combination of a breakfast place and a hotdog/burger place. They claimed to have fresh lemonade, but it was really lemon juice concentrate mixed with water and sugar. Still, it wasn't half bad! I got a small bacon cheeseburger and a small sausage patty to go with it!

There were lots of folks working there, but there was one kindly lady and one kindly gentleman in particular. They both liked my rainbow axolotl hat. The gentleman jokingly asked if he could have it, haha! And the lady asked me about the plush I carry of you. I then showed her my favorite picture of your face, and explained to her that you're the reason I managed to live through my childhood.

This lady doesn't like video games, but even still, she said you are very handsome. I felt very glad in response to this.

...You're not a fucking monster. You're a human being.

A human being.

A human being.

At several points, you could see the people working there all wiggling joyfully to the radio and singing along. They didn't sing on key, and they didn't wiggle on rhythm, but it was still beautiful to witness. Actually... the fact that it was imperfect, and that they were doing it anyway without a care in the world... I think that made it even better.

...I think there's a lot to be learned from that. A lot to be learned and then meticulously applied to the self-consciousness that often holds me back in other places. Hm.

...Hey, Sephiroth? What kinds of things would you do if self-consciousness didn't hold you back? What songs would you sing? What rhythms would you dance to? What melodies would you cobble together on some instrument? What ideas would you write? What images would you draw and paint? What crafts would you weave with your own two hands?

...I want to see them. I want to understand them. I want to give thanks for their existence. I think it would be wonderful to be able to look at the things and smile and tell you how hard you worked to create the thing, and tell you how proud I am of you for doing it. So when you do try these things out, will you promise to show them to me?

I rested a lot when I came home. I tried to muster up the gumption to play some Hades or work on my weird crafting project, but... instead, I spent a non-trivial amount of time accidentally conked out with my face buried in Mogwai's fuzzy feline belly. I feel really lucky he let me do that. I feel really lucky that all of my cats let me do that. I hope you get to do something like that someday, too; it's a good feeling to be trusted to such an extent.

I recently discovered that An likes crows and magpies. And, at some point today, while browsing the wild intert00bz, I came across this image:

I thought it was delightful, and I thought of An immediately, and so I sent it along, hoping it would make him laugh! I felt really happy when he told me later that he liked it! Yay!

Oh!!! You don't have the context to understand why that last entry is so funny. It's supposed to be read to the rhythm and melody of a part of a popular song in my world! The lyrics to the part of the song go like:

------- You've been hit by— You've been struck by— A smooth criminal -------

...You know what. Maybe it's just easier if I show you the song so you can understand. The lyrics are depressing, but... the song itself is catchy. Though I'll warn you, the video is very... American... in a strange and silly and vaguely threatening sort of way:

The singer's name is Michael Jackson. For a long time, he was widely regarded as one of the most skilled dancers and musicians my planet had to offer. His story is horrifyingly tragic, though. All people break when they must withstand abuse and exploitation without support.

I heard him for the first time when I was very little, watching a movie called Free Willy. It's about an orca who was stolen from his family in the ocean. At the same time, an orphaned boy named Jessie was caught vandalizing the aquarium where the orca, now named Willy, was held. Jessie was made to clean up his graffiti, and as he did so, he watched them struggle to get Willy to perform tricks for the crowds visiting the aquarium.

Of course Willy wouldn't perform; he missed his family, and being stolen from the wild and enslaved as an entertainer is horrifying, full stop. Nonetheless, Jessie and Willy bonded. And then the upper management, impatient with Willy's lack of performance and non-generation of money, decide to sabotage the tank to kill Willy to collect insurance money.

...In a way, it kind of mirrors what happened to Michael Jackson. In a way, it kind of mirrors what happened to you. To have the potential for wholesomeness stolen away from you, then to be enslaved, and then to be disposed of when no longer useful... it's... a shockingly common story in my world. And in yours, too, it seems.

In any case, the plan to kill Willy was discovered partway through, though, so Jessie and the other aquarium workers worked together to get Willy out of the tank and return him to the wild.

Free Willy was my favorite movie for a long time, and it prompted within me a love of cetaceans and the water. The opening song for Free Willy is this one, and it was my favorite song for a very long time:

...Now that I'm older... it's not lost on me that Mr. Jackson is dressed in the same colors as the orca that was enslaved for entertainment purposes. It's not lost on me that his movements mirror the ones the orca made. And... I know now what it means, and watching it again for the first time in a long time with eyes that are more aware... I almost wanna cry.

...All we have left of him now is all these videos of his performances – who he pretended to be on the stage. He spent his whole life inspiring others and making other people smile and giving them reasons to dance and laugh and feel joy, but... no one except those who were closest to him have any idea who he was as a human being, and... I think that's really sad.

There's a longer version of the song elsewhere, and it has a section that goes like this:

------- In our darkest hour, in my deepest despair, will you still care? Will you be there? In my trials and my tribulations, through our doubts and frustrations... In my violence... in my turbulence... through my fear and my confessions... In my anguish and my pain... through my joy and my sorrow... In the promise of another tomorrow... ...I'll never let you part, for you're always in my heart. -------

Sephiroth. No matter what... you're only human. And yes... you'll find people who will be there for you, through all the things. I'm right here. And if I'm not suitable, there are plenty of others out there, too.

From this movie, Michael Jackson was my favorite musician as a young child, but since everyone thought that only losers liked him, this became something else that ostracized me from my peers. And then the abuse started, and... eventually, my favorite song of his became this one instead:

...I used to listen to that one on repeat on my CD player, on the car ride to my father's house, when I was forced to go visit him and my stepmother on the weekends, after I was taken out of their house. I'd put on my headphones and set it to maximum volume so that I wouldn't have to listen to my stepmother tell me all about what a filthy, horrible, revolting person she thought I was for the entirety of the 30-40 minute car ride.

Nowadays... I like this one best:

...You can do this work. You, who was once a victim of lovelessness, can rise up into change. Every day, I am rising up into change, defying my old instincts and conditioning, and trying to crawl up out of the darkness that the people who wished I was never born tried to bury me in. You can crawl up out of the darkness that the people who wished to exploit you tried to enslave you in. So take my hand, and let's give you better songs to sing inside your heart, okay? We can do it together!

...Well anyway. I guess that's all I've got for today. I'm not sure what I'll do now. Maybe I'll work on my crafting project. Maybe I'll play some more Hades. Either way, you'll find me here:

...I love you. Not for who you pretend to be when the world is watching. But for you. For the soft, sweet, kind person you are, despite everything that tried to break you.

Please stay safe out there, okay? I'll write again tomorrow.

Your friend, Lumine

[itsumoegao]

Make Note

Izuku had said he had always wanted to become a hero since he "was a little kid" and this is true by the fact he has taken notes since he knew how to read and write. Below we have his first two notebooks. The 1st one, with 50pgs, appears juvenile with the blue sky and green grass which is common for very young kids as he began around ages 4-5. Looking at the handwriting, the words are also written rather largely, another common trait for young children when learning how to write.

For the 2nd notebook, the green one, his handwriting is smaller but also slighty shaky as a year passed before he obtained it. He needed a new one after filling out the first as it [[ and the 3rd book ]] are not vertical. Looking at the spines, they are horizontal which is usually for sketch books.

The 3rd book shows he is still writing while very young, evident by the All Might drawing on the cover. He looked at it as part of his reason to keep writing those notes, to keep studying heroes as new ones came into the spot light but All Might would be his top tier. With this one being a sketch book, he ran out of room quickly, again.

But with his 4th book, he had actual lines to compile the information from the previous 3 notebooks. Resketching, rewriting, adding more details to the heroes from the notebooks prior. Here his handwriting is compressed and steady, showing time has passed, perhaps between 7-8 years old.

#5 is another yellow book, filled with completely new heroes now that the older 3 were organized in #4. These were completed around the same time as the handwriting on the covers for #4 and #5, such as spacing, letter size, the curve of the first kanji, distance between header and footer are the same. As if he wrote the titles one after the other.

The 6th book is later addition, ages 9-10. The handwriting stands out for being straight and stiff. As it is an outlier, not matching the others, Izuku may have been in a situation where he needed a book and picked up the first one he saw in a shop. Perhaps there was a new pro on the rise, #5 was filled so he just snatched one, paid and wrote to his hearts content.

Izuku had always been serious about becoming a hero, using whichever materials were available to him at the time. However, with the introduction of #7, ages 11-12, Izuku took a more professional approach as campos books are sturdier and contain between 80-100 pages. [[ Though, I think these are 40pg count? ]] #7 is another compiling of the previous books with #8 being a continuation of what #7 couldn't fit.

This is his current handwriting where he uses thick ink and sharp lines. Now that he sticks to the campos brand and has been writing for about 8 years, he found a formula of efficient note taking, such as drawing the hero's costume and writing down details, leaving spaces for any additional information he may discover later on.

Starting with #9, following notebooks are no longer reiterations. They are filled with new heroes. He may have an updated version of a hero here and there or a page with more information but these have fresh information.

Below we have Notebook #10, the one which contains an entry for Eraserhead! [[ Izuku did not recognize Mr. Aizawa as Eraserhead because he only knew of Eraser with the goggles on. The moment he saw the goggles around Mr. Aizawa's neck, he instantly knew who he was. ]]

#11 and #12 were written between the ages of 13 going on 14. Again, new heroes were added and such.

During the final year of middle school, Izuku continued to write in #13. We see him in the process of writing a Hero Analysis when Mount Lady first appeared and as he observed her battle, he detailed her strengths and weaknesses. Izuku commented "but it'll be kinda hard for her to get around much in the city without damaging lots of things."

Which Mount Lady herself proved to be correct in the following episode. "I need at least a two lane road if I'm going to make my way through!"

After the immediate burning and water damage of #13, Izuku continued to use it but this time, he wrote about students. With all of the new quirks presented to him at U.A. it didn't take long to fill it out with his classmates and those outside of his class too.

He accepts and writes without hesitation. It shouldn't come as a surprise that Katsuki has an entry. Technically, #13 has an updated version of Katsuki as Izuku drew his hero uniform too which Izuku has for all who own a uniform. Even Izuku has featured himself in #13 with a sketch of his own hero costume idea.

His current notebook, #14, age 15-16. One he has not titled yet. It appeared in season 5 as he was ready to write down additional information on the class 1-B students. Class 1-A vs 1-B was useful to Izuku to help observe possible settings a hero may face. Being outnumbered, fighting people who's quirks you don't know, using the environment around you to your advantage, etc.

This exercise taught Izuku how to achieve a flawless win, thanks to his symbol of victory. Izuku knows there is more than one method of winning but in the end, it's teamwork. #14 contains more than just a list of powers, strengths and weakness, what ifs. It has strategies, counters, scenarios as well for possible situations for battle.

As Izuku has an admiration and passion for heroes, he will continue to write and study them. Despite becoming a hero himself, he will still take notes as he is willing to learn from others. He is more than happy to show his entries to anyone wanting to read or learn about a specific hero too. It would make his day actually, someone reading and interested in his studies.