#he looks a little different from my design of him from 2022 lol

[lvnesart]

some headcanons/a theory about Kaeya having been left in Mondstadt + some little notes about his father

[starrysharks]

which reassassination character was the hardest to design?

kranken for sure. to me there are 2 phases of reassassination - the "purple and green" phase from around mid 2021 - early 2022, where the story was very underdeveloped, and the "black and red" phase (the current phase) where the story is fully developed and the project as a whole is edgier with a more defined aesthetic. octavia and kranken (then savory) were the only characters of the purple and green phase, and here are their very first designs -

as you can see octavia has barely changed while savory and kranken are like night and day! i think it's because it was hard to make a good recognisable silhouette for him, especially as i started adding more characters (i felt that onion specifically held way too much resemblance to savory at some point.)

as the years went by savory changed almost every time i drew him - he became more desaturated, his age changed from mid 20s to early 30s, he got taller, style changed, etc etc... meanwhile the most everyone else got was slightly different shapes and color palletes lol. i was really directionless at the time and of course my skill limitations stopped me from drawing him the way i'd truly want to.

eventually we got a somewhat consistent set of design traits in order - a freakishly tall man with a spiral motif. i think changing his hair was a big part in "finalising" his design and giving him a good contrasting silhouette with octavia - though he still needs a few tweaks to make him easier to draw - but i really couldn't decide whether i wanted him to be more formal or dishevelled, tho the scruffy look won in the end lol ^_^

it's funny, he was as hard of a character to design as he was to write! if you don't know much about kranken, some of his primary character traits are instability, overthinking and frequent moodswings, caused by trauma both physical and mental (DIY lobotomies, literally drilling a nail into his head, and other stuff i can't talk about cuz it's too spoilery). i had no clue how to write his personality properly and had to write through about 3 slightly different personas (one more serious, one more erratic, one more creepy/peverted) - his current persona is a bit of a mix of all three. he's been through a lot in every category :P

(also the easiest character to design and write was onion. probably because they fall into a pretty simple trope of a nerdy sidekick, which was easy to write off of and subvert a little lol)

[velvetwyrme]

Ever wondered what the fictional protagonists of Distilling Destiny might look like? Well, here's my interpretation ;>!!

If you don't know what Distilling Destiny is, I suggest you go read Flipping Fate- the fanfic I'm co-writing :>! It's a fake book that exists within the world of FF- written by the one and only Stretch! (or, in real life: @collegecomics18 ;D)

(Additional notes and thoughts under the cut!)

There's no "canon" design for these characters, but I thought it'd be fun to try come up with some concepts :>! I actually drew these months ago with a gap between finishing each, so they all look slightly different stylistically lol

First off! Each design is associated with a playing card suit; the Knight is associated with HEARTS (♥️) , the Soothsayer with DIAMONDS (♦️) , and the Bard with CLUBS (♣). Not only can this be seen in small details, but also in their overall poses/shapes!

The shapes also correlate very neatly into the idea that all the characters are from different kingdoms- I would have tried to differentiate each kingdom's clothing style a bit more buuuuut that's... a lot of work, and we only really see a couple characters from each kingdom, so I just stuck with making each character feel distinct.

One thing I also tried to go for was making all of them "faceless" in various ways, since the characters in Distilling Destiny are embodied by their roles in a way that effectively strips them of any further identity; during the book club, the DD!characters are referred to as they are in the book- they HAVE no names, and are only referred to by their titles. They are also meant to correlate to/reflect the characters of Flipping Fate in a not-very subtle way, on account of Stretch being the author (and... [REDACTED]).

The Knight's armour references a LOT of things. Obviously, OG Papyrus' battle body (even his little blue shorts ;>), but the red plume on his helmet is meant to call back to Undyne, and some of the golden bits (e.g on the back of his gauntlets) are not only "heart" shaped, but are also reminiscent of tridents and thus Asgore and the Royal Guard.

The Soothsayer's clothes are patterned with diamonds and coins- they are both a connection to the reader/MC, but also!!! In tarot the "matching" suite for diamonds would be coins/pentacles :]!! The Bard's pipe is a fantasy equivalent of his FF counterpart's bad habits, and his blue accents are meant to be a small nod toward his brother LOL.

Anyway, this is already long as heck so why not make it longer! So here are the sketches that I did back in….. SEPTEMBER 2022?? kjdhfkjsf

You can see the original sketch for the Bard is much smaller than the other two since I did it while I was at work LMAO (plus the initial idea for the Knight I had, which ended up getting changed.)

Thank you for reading! If you got all the way down here, you probably deserve a little treat ;)!

So!! I mentioned at the beginning that each of the characters correspond to a card suit... which of course, means there is a spade as well.

(The only reason he's not in this lineup is because I haven't finished drawing him yet kjhfjgkjgkjfhgdskjg,,)

[serpentinespider]

kit 14, 43, D!

guy 13, 4, 35, 3!

been thinking about these fellas a lot recently!! thank you questionnaire this is the perfect time!!

WOO WOO YEAH I took awhile to answer these because they got my brain going so hard I had to think about them for hours before I could articulate any responses AAH /pos You always pick the best questions for each character!!

this got so long I’m putting it under a readmore actually heheh

Kit!

art by StudioScheppen!!

14. What animal do they fear most? DOGS, forever and always. Kit’s been super anxious since he was a little kid; he’s never been fond of any animals really, but dogs specifically were one of the first things that would consistently set him off. Mouth full of sharp teeth, unpredictable loud barks, usually big enough to bowl him over without much effort… he can tolerate them more these days, but he still can’t really go over to his buddy Larry’s house for fear of his family’s golden retrievers. Being attacked by one messed him up REAL bad mentally, even setting aside all the turning-into-a-beast stuff lol

43. If someone asked them to explain their sexuality, how would they do so? Depends pretty much entirely who is asking and when. It took him quite awhile to come to terms with liking men, but once he did he pretty much leaned into it 100%. Towards strangers, he has a pretty flippant “I’m a homo, go fuck yourself if you have a problem with that,” attitude… but towards his friends and family he fumbles with the subject. “Welll uhh I don’t know… I guess I’m not straight maybe… I don’t think about labels too much…” (he does, he’s just scared of being shunned.)

D. Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look? First of all, I like the phrasing of this question, usually I think of design tweaks as a ‘want,’ but ‘having’ to do so actually more accurate describes Kit’s evolution I think! I’m going to go slightly off the topic of the question for this one because it requires some elaboration (and because I can do what I want! /silly)

Most of my characters gradually change over time as my style changes and I just become interested in different design traits, but Kit has def had the most frequent and rapid design changes over the two-ish years I’ve called him my OC. I genuinely can’t remember where or how frequently I was posting about it at the time (outside of my old defunct tumblr blog), but I was deeply hyperfixated on Captain Underpants in 2022, specifically book 11 which is my favorite :] That book takes place in the past, and the antagonist is Kipper Krupp, Mr Krupp’s 12 year old nephew. He’s very goofy and his writing is standout enough that most of my fixation was focused on him. Like, it was so shockingly intense I cannot describe it. I’m not ashamed of liking CU but the extent to which I blorboified this one-off character is really something. Anyways, after a couple months of this I began to become embarrassed about how many headcanons and ideas I had for him, so I just took him and his friends, changed their names a little bit, aged them up and made them my OCs! As I’ve become more Normal about Kipper himself I’ve distanced Kit from him more and more— making him a werewolf was my main big effort to separate him from Captain Underpants tropes-wise if that makes sense! I mean I still love Kipper dearly, but not as much as I love Kit :3c

Canonically he’s still the same guy I guess, just in a super derivative AU lol. His dad is still named Jasper and his uncle is still Benny, buuut since I changed his surname to Parker I’m guessing most people are going to think that’s a Spider-Man reference haha

my gooby 🐺

I like how the antagonists wiki classifies wedgies as ‘torture’ lmao

moving on to Guy!!

13. What color do they think they look best in? Do they actually look best in that color? She gravitates towards dark gray a lot, and I think it can flatter her, but it def is more of a dysphoria thing than a fashion thing. As for what looks best, I’m certainly no fashion expert (all her ratty gray outfits are based on what I wear HAHA) but I have a soft spot for him in white <3

4. How easy is it to earn their trust? Very easy. Maybe too easy? He doesn’t make an effort to connect with people, but if you do show any interest in him he’ll pretty much be willing to put his life in your hands. He might be shy, but he loves making friends!! This does mean he’s pretty likely to volunteer personal information to acquaintances too soon, either putting them off or giving them ammo to potentially harm him in the future :< [picks up Adam like a naughty kitten and stares at him really hard]

35. How do they treat the things their friends come to them excited about? Are they supportive? Guy doesn’t really react to things appropriately in real-time— tell him you’re getting married to the love of your life, he’ll monotonously go “oh, okay,” go silent, then a week later he’ll run up to you crying happy tears congratulating you!! He is very supportive, just has a hard time with the emotion part.

3. How do they put themselves to bed at night (reading, singing, thinking?) — cw marijuana mention! — Pre-Daniel: Thinking… or more accurately overthinking. Nighttime anxiety is a big problem for her— she’s tried a variety of things to distract herself and alleviate it to varying degrees of success: journaling, reading, herbal teas… it’s hard to stick with anything, though. Weed is been the most consistently helpful for her, but her family has a history of addiction that makes her scared to commit to it. Post-Daniel: Snuggles!! It’s hard to worry about much when you’ve got a warm snakey creature wrapped around you so so happily, Dan’s purrs make her mind go wonderfully quiet. It’s like having a weighted blanket that’s in love with you

[spicyraeman]

ᴏᴄꜱ - ᴛʜᴇɴ & ɴᴏᴡ

Saw a buncha chooms doin this lil trend and remembered that I had an old draft doing this very thing! Spiffied it up with even newer shots of my babes and it really makes me realize how far both me and my OCs have come :]

March 25, 2022 || June 24, 2023

The shot on the left is legit my very first oc shot in cyberpunk. Id taken some landscape shots before this but this was where the blorbo brainrot started. Vons definitely come the farthest in terms of design, from big beefy maelstrom to like.. wet rat white boy energy I guess lol. She still got a long way to go though, probably gonna be working on her forever, she's my favorite little passion project😌

June 2, 2022 || June 2, 2023

Didn't even realize these were exactly a year apart till I checked the dates!

Luis is basically the exact same as when I first made him, just the perfect design from the moment of creation😌He's the OC that really started my VP journey, I made him just to take pretty pictures of and learn the ropes. Glad I finally have the skills to show off his full beauty!

September 12, 2022 || June 14, 2023

Lynk's design is one that feels both entirely different and very much the same to me. Same overall vibe and style, but more refined I suppose. Less scrungly mess of wires and more sleek and sharp borg. Really love their current design now, still wanna make 'em custom tattoos but it gonna be a while till i'm at that modding level!

December 12, 2022 || June 1, 2023

Dallas was a design first backstory second kinda OC. I love her old design, think all the cyberware and makeup are really cool, but as I fleshed her out it just wasn't Dallas. Found myself in a comfy spot with her now though, even ended up making her her own custom complexion!

December 5, 2022 || July 9, 2023

Technically there's an even farther back design I could use for Sunny but it's so different I can't even consider it him. His old design looks so similar yet so very different its kinda weird😅Sunny's design now is probably the one I'm most content with, I might try and add back his arm tattoos but until then he's pretty much perfect.

December 8, 2022 || April 23, 2023

When I first made Midas my main goal was a dark moody playboy, which definitely stayed the same just in a radically different way. His OG personality was a playful and dramatic womanizer which I loved but I needed a straight man in this group of idiots and he had to be it. So instead he became a mysterious and gruff guy that has ladies falling over him whether he likes it or not, also he's a vampire now.

[hexfloog]

One menacing little meitantei I finished back in September for a contest at Nan Desu Kan 2022 :3c He both lights up (shoes and glasses) and has secret definitely not evil details which can only be revealed under black light. He placed second in the "figurine" category!!

Base kit is this Bandai Entry Grade Conan Edogawa that can be bought very cheaply and assembled without any hobby-specific tools. But I am a hobbyist and I do have a lot of tools on hand so I went a little nuts (below the break):

Base is scratch-built from black acrylic and real brick and mortar (these little slips are the kind made for cladding dollhouses). Since the brick material is real, it's heavier than it looks. Box was designed to have a removable door on the bottom in order to access the custom LED wiring and the on/off switches. It's just a door with a notch in it that you pry off with any tool that will fit, as it's only being held in place with double-sided tape.

There are two custom LED circuits wired into the figure. One circuit controls the LED in his glasses and runs all the way from a tiny spot just above his left eye (the LED is very small! just .6mm) down through his body, to his feet, and into the base. The other controls the ones in his shoes. The wires are not visible except behind the door in the base, they are routed through many a hand-drilled hole.

The wires are incredibly fragile since they're so tiny... pieces fatigued off when I was putting this together since I was handling them too much trying to figure them out. I definitely could have done a better job here but I've given myself a pass since it's my first foray into this kind of stuff. It also works, so I can't ask for more, really.

The blue color in his eyes is hand-painted. The kit provides a sticker sheet for the details (below) but instead I opted to paint them in with my smallest brush because I'm a masochist I guess

For what it's worth, I think it paid off lol. I did try to apply at least one of these and I thought it looked incredibly jarring, plus I didn't really trust the strength of the adhesive to stick well while I hauled him around.

Similarly, the sticker that is used for the homing glasses radar on the lens that lights up is custom-made. The kit does not come with this detail and I wanted something to justify the trouble of wiring up his glasses. A custom waterslide decal would have been ideal, but the issue with this one would've been finding a vendor that can print white (most run-of-the-mill custom services can't).

Under black light, Conan is knee-deep in UV-reactive paint splatter. I wanted to mimic the look of a luminol reaction on blood. Yeah this might've been an extremely self-indulgent decision because the shine in his eyes glow with this same paint too LOL but there was no way I wasn't completing the look by going for some evil eyes >:) Makes him look like an animal at night and I'm very here for it and also tagging this as Evil Conan now hehehe

With the exception of his glasses, and his eyes, the entire kit is finished with a matte topcoat. Without it, he's got a very plastic, glossy shine to him. The topcoat protects the black light paint, too.

Anyway I'm quite proud of this and I'm glad I finally took good pics ;0; It's very different from my usual gunpla-adjacent stuff (Zoids) and because the kit is so affordable I was more comfortable with experimenting. I'm delighted to have placed at all in the contest, and now I have unwavering confidence I can carry this experience to other kits I have on backlog >w<

[soft-and-exhausted]

Frozen Stage Musical thoughts 

December 2022 + October 2023  (because I forgot to make the initial post, so this is 2 for 1) 

disclaimer: Some of my 2023 additions are probably not really *new* but it's hard to remember everything... Anyway, here are the notes I took right after seeing the shows!  + This is neither coherent nor an analysis, mostly just reactions to a few things lol, not even going to mention the songs cause they ALL slap

ACT 1

- Sir Jörgenbjorgen! He's right there! But he's Anna's stuffie? What does that mean?? (also is Olaf frozen advenure canon again?) 

- Idunas scarf from F2!! Also right there! She's wearing it and then wraps Anna up in it after she is struck by Elsa's magic (love that) 

- Iduna tells the trolls that she's Northuldra! She's the one who calls them to help Anna (setting up F2) 

- Grand Pabi is uh not so gran anymore huh & Bulda says they love kids (raised a few of them themselves), and to bring Anna and Elsa around sometime 

- It was a choice (neutral) to make the trolls hot 

- Update: Idunna says they'll search far and wide for magical answers 

- Update: Also, the gloves Elsa wears? They were Idunas!  

- Update: And it looked like Iduna wanted to reply to Pabi asking "born or cursed" when Agnar interrupts and says "born" (I might have seen that wrong, but it made me think this is setting up F3??) 

- Olaf actually asks about "Samantha?" When Anna and Kristoff hear him in the woods, wondering who's talking as he joins in on looking for himself... haha (Update: he asks for Samantha during "In Summer")

- Anna and Hans dancing! All the choreography is amazing and wow, but they do this funny bit of doing different (modern) dance moves together and it's pretty endearing 

- when Anna tells Hans "I'm not the heir. I'm just the spare" referencing the outtake song that helped develop her character!! (Update: this hit the West End audience way different post-Prince Harry's book "Spare" and was hilarious!) 

- Costumes!! HOLY SHIT, the details the materials the glitter in Elsa's ice, all of it is insane and regal and beautiful, and so well thought out I want a huge artbook with all the details, please 

- Anna (Stephanie McKeon) could totally play Galinda; very Chenoweth voice qualities??? (Update: I got Gabrielle from Xena vibes for some reason, idk (Anna was Laura Dawkes)) 

- Wow they are doing amazing with the ice and the million and one backdrops! Insane! Also with the lights?! It's magical! 

- Update: Oh my god Elsa (Laura Emmit) is so tiny and petite, the different statues of actresses always add a different flavour to the character design somehow? (Like it is so fun with Glinda and Elphaba and what their height difference will be each time) (I love everything unique an actress/actor will bring to their role) 

- Elsa is like 10x more regal? I can't explain it but she very much feels like she's living in a piece of historical fiction more so than a fairytale. but I love it, it's brilliant and adds some layers too, she's so poised in the first act and polite and nods at the court like that(TM) 

- more amazing dancing moments  

- The Duke of Weselton calls Elsa pretty in a weird way while asking her to dance and later calls her "just a little girl" and lets out some sexism that women are weak, which is very in character and another addition to how the stage musical feels more realistic in a way? Or at least caters more towards adults 

- he also says something VERY similar to Atohallen's memory of Elsa's grandfather; that magic is unnatural and uh I forgot the actual wording, but he essentially said the same thing = nothing good comes of magic (especially in the hands of a woman) (yes he says that) 

- idk if Sven is amazing, cute and perfect or uncannily creepy lmao but gotta love him! Olaf is obviously perfectly recreated! (Update: Sven is so cute oh my god) (also Mikayla Jade is the first woman to ever play the role! She's a really cool stunt performer!) 

- Anna is VERY flirty with Hans lmao, girl is so thirsty (the way she touched that statue's tits in "for the first time in forever" ahahaha) (Update: girl is so horny, all those adult jokes, did she actually get more horny this time? Bless her) 

- Update: They don't make blorbos like Elsa anymore, for real 

- Anna's snow outfit is so cute!!! With her hair open? And the hat and all that... 

- Still gagging at the dress change in Let it go!

ACT 2

- Bulda asks if Anna doesn't want to marry Kristoff because of how she raised him, further solidifying how the trolls are his family 

- PLUS when he joins the trolls dance! Because he KNOWS it! Wonderful moment (also wonderful when Anna starts joining in, all of her dances are so sweet and fun and Anna's love language is dance, I don't take criticism)

- child Anna's cast also played the baby troll during fixer-upper upper and it's the cutest scenes! 

- Weselton and Hans both actually said they wanted to kill Elsa! Like the word kill has been said twice (2), and I just didn't expect it because Disney movies do like to dance around that one- it's really intense 

- Elsa's pants and corset combo in the second act looked cool in pictures online, but seeing it irl? in the third row? Holy shit it's stunning! Her let it go dress too of course, but she looked amazing in this new outfit wow - the detail - (this is the part where I don't talk about how the corset, respectfully, she was just very stunning and wow Samantha Barks had the smallest waist ever known to man in that thing!) 

- God those costumes are siccccc, a lot of this musical feels like historical fiction and is so so well thought out! The dances and songs and ten thousand backdrops are INSANE 

- Instead of being knocked out by the falling chandelier, Elsa goes with the guards willingly, and they handcuff her on the spot (at the ice palace) Which is... a blow to my heart to say the least, but makes sense! She just asks to be taken to Anna, to make sure she's safe... being handcuffed and dragged off is perfectly reasonable for her! 

- Update: 

Weselton: "Even the queen is shivering"  Elsa: "I'm not cold"  Hans: "She's scared" 

- the entire scene where Anna freezes to death (that also resembled dangerous to dream with the ensamble lifting Anna up; as the spotlight of Elsa's attention) was phenomenally choreographed and I have no words!! 

TLDR: It's too mind-blowingly amazing for words, and so incredibly thought out! And it's a little more grown up too, adding some layers and fleshing out bits and bobs that I really enjoyed 

[froggo-tea]

I love how adorably you draw Xero. For me it is difficult to draw him so expressively, so how do you do it?

Waaaa thank u so much!!! Truly one of the best compliments I could ever receive :)

To be completely honest, I’ve been drawing Xero for like 2 years now or like a year and a half. Practicing has made me understand how I want to portray his character and the personality he has (or that I’ve given to him) in a way I don’t really acknowledge it, like, my hands know how to but my mind doesn’t- if that makes any sense lol

I still struggle to draw him from time to time, sometimes I feel like I do the same doodle lol. I guess exaggerating face features and moving them around is my way of doing it. Like I move his eyes a lot, every doodle of him has different eyes. I also add that little “brow” line on top to indicate the feeling better (just that one line can change the way he looks! which is impressive and a ur scary-) Playing around with poses too, even if you are just doing from the chest up twisting the body around helps, not just making him stiff in a straight line, certain poses can reflect someone’s personality! Like the way you stand is different from the way others stand (some out all their weight into just one leg, some have their hands crossed, etc etc) and that can show the way you act.

Sometimes I draw a little fang to show mischief for example! When his eyes are straight it means tiredness but when they are more tilted they look more angry, another example!

Im not a big expert on art and it’s hard for me to explain stuff to others but I hope this helps! We all start drawing something in a way you might not like, but slowly you get good at it! dw you’ll find your way!!

Ngl this made me look through my old doodles, so here’s how much I’ve grown to draw Xero!

These 2 doodle were done in November of 2022. The way I’ve drawn him has changed a lot actually- I hadn’t drawn him that much so these do feel a bit awkward- I hadn’t placed my art style on him yet, I was just using the in-game design.

Here are three others that I had done around 2023. I was getting more used to drawing him, tho I was still improving at drawing! The emotion I give him is expressed through his eyes cause he doesn’t really have a mouth lol- different shapes of eyes can help change what he’s feeling for me so yee.

And these are the last doodles I’ve done for him, literally drew these yesterday. I feel so comfortable drawing him now cause he’s just so funky and silky. His helmet is so hard to get use to drawing tho, I still find it a bit hard to draw his side view but hey I’m trying! (Also I tried redrawing the doodle of Xero on a throne-)

Tbh I’m really happy that you think he looks expressive!!! I always tell myself I gotta add more emotion to him and not letting him have an emotionless face, so I’ve been forcing myself to add more and more feeling slowly lol.

I don’t really know the exact way of adding more expression tho, kinda just guessing why it may look like that. Sometimes, I just do it. So, keep practicing! It’s what every artist tells other artists but it’s true, sadly lmfao.

Thank u again!! As the self-proclaimed #1 Xero hk fan (which lol probably I’m not but I love him to much so I like to think it as that-) I am thankful that you’ve acknowledged my incredible skills at drawing this silly fool.

[nikatyler]

𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟚 Recap: Main Characters

Long post, woah. Well, I do have eight main OCs so no wonder...😂 I tried to pick my favourite 9 pictures of all of them from 2022. It was really difficult with some because they only had a few pictures (but in the end, everyone had more than 10). As always, Ross and Tyler win.

Let's talk characters under the cut, shall we?

Caleb, Tyler, Bianca

I didn't really develop their sims selves, but rather their nonsims counterparts in my vampire story -- Killián, Tori and Bianka. I need to get back to that. The burnout was getting to me so I took a little break but I should get back to writing now. Long story short, shit's going down and I'm so close to wrapping everything up!

I continue diving deep into Tyler's feminine side and I love every single minute of it. I should not be feeling this much gender envy but yes I do get a lot of gender envy from Tyler okay lol

Sharon

Same deal, I mostly developed her nonsims counterpart, Saren.

For her sims version, I considered making her a werewolf again, but I still haven't made the final decision...however, I'm like 99 % sure she will canonically be a werewolf.

Rory

Aka new Rachel because I wasn't really happy with Rachel's design anymore and needed a change. Rory is hands down one of my most beautiful sims I've created this year.

I haven't taken many pictures of her though...something to fix in 2023.

Ross & Claeb

Ross. The man, the myth, the legend. Not much to say about his development, but he got a lot of attention. Especially on twitter. Instagram too, I guess. Why is it that wherever I go, people love him? Is he really that amazing? 😂 I mean, I love him, but I never thought people would feel the same way and I still find it hard to believe.

Thank you, though. When you compliment him, I get more powerful, and that's not even a joke lol.

As for their relationship and the way I feel about them. Well, the rollercoaster lasted for...years, actually, but I think we're finally done with the ride. Caleb just *is* part of my OC group, there's no way around it. The face might be a townie but the personality I gave him, that's all my work...but at the same time, pouring that same personality behind another face just doesn't work lol.

And yes, they did break up in the legacy...I'll wrap up that storyline too, don't worry. 👀

Callias

Started off as a Caleb replacement, now a separate character who doesn't have that much in common with Caleb actually. Still needs a lot of development but boy. Do I love him.

Part of me wants to do a BC with him next year, part of me is like...he wouldn't settle for one partner. He's immortal, he's had many mortal lovers, he knows they'll go away, he's not too bothered by it. That's just the way he rolls, he's not looking for a forever soulmate.

Oh and he has history with Caleb...and shhh, I'm not sure if I'll explicitly say it in the legacy, but he'll have a thing with Ross too off screen (ts4!Ross I mean, ts3!Ross is a different deal) 🤭 And I wonder if I should have all three of them canonically meet later but...

Well, in an AU save...👀 All I'm saying is that they all would get along very well 🤭 Callias would somehow insert himself into their relationship for a bit and they'd just accept it. I feel like neither of them would realize they lowkey became a polycule until someone else would point it out 😂 But still, Callias wouldn't be with them *all* the time.

[8beats-per-minute]

Uncanny Valley AU Designs!!

ITS FINALLY HERE

You can skip to the designs if you want then come back, I wouldn’t blame you but I would like to apologize.

I don’t know what happened, I started this right after Christmas 2022 then worked on it basically nonstop for a week and a half. I basically finished Mikey’s design with a few changes and started brainstorming for Raph then my brain was like “lol no”.

It might have been part finding reference poses for Raph or stress from school and exams or burnout or idk. Whatever it was made my motivation disappear. For 3 1/2 months.

I was like “yes stuff is coming!!!! I’m making stuff!!!” And then that just didn’t happen.

Again, I’m sorry.

I’m not going to do much in descriptions (unless I add them later) cause it’s late and I’m tired. I’ve been actually busy for the past 2 weeks.

General design notes!!

I need up doing the connected ears to head idea so that’s why they look so flat

These are meant to reflect Black and Japanese features. I AM NEITHER. If I did something offensive to one of these groups in these drawings I can guarantee I did not know and did not do this on purpose.

PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I DID SOMETHING OFFENSIVE AND I WILL CHANGE IT. I would appreciate it if it is done in a calm matter but I understand if it’s not. Just please don’t call me stupid or racist cause I also have feelings. You can yell at me if I take longer than a week to respond. It would also be best if it was in the comments so it’s easier to respond.

They all have naturally really sharp and thick nails, I just couldn’t show for some of them

I tried giving them masks that incorporated how they wear fabric in their hair. It looks okay but a little weird, especially for Leo and Donnie

I’m writing/posting this between 11pm and midnight after a very long day and with a long day tomorrow so I’m not writing the (aaa I forgot the name for it. The text that explains what the picture looks like) I’ll add it when I have time I’m really sorry tho

Now, without further ado…

The designs!!!

(These might be changed, I have a tendency to change things after and be like wait I like that more but these are basically the designs. They’re also all post-movie so if you want to see pre-movie, as kids or apocalypse let me know :)).

LEO

I gave Leo both vitiligo and red birthmark stripes. Everything is blue (of course) and I’m not a huge fan of what I did for his clothes design but oh well he’s allowed to switch styles. I was stuck between giving him short hair and long hair and blond extensions or not but this is what I settled on. He’s also 10% the type of person to have little bracelets on (Mikey made him the braided one obviously). I have this headcanon that he’d look the most similar to Splinter (as a human obv so Lou Jitsu) so I tried to do that, it’s just hard to go from animated to semi-realistic. Anyway he’s got that superstar dazzling smile/mysterious troublemaker grin. You can’t see but his hair tie is blue. Maybe an actual hair tie maybe a strip of fabric, maybe a scrunchie. It changes every few hours. 

DONNIE

I was actually pretty excited to do Donnie’s face specifically (him and his very square face). I had a really fun time with his shell tho and all the little spots and scars and spiny parts. I tried to make him look similar but not the exact same and I think I did okay. I definitely think they’d look pretty similar just cause it’d be like “haha were twins :)) -Leo”. I was going to give him headphone but forgot so just pretend there’s headphone plz lol. I also believe he’d wear very baggy clothes but I made his collar way too high cause I feel like he’d hate the feeling of stuff on his neck (no this is not me projecting 👀). He also has sharp teeth but I didn’t show them.

MIKEY

Oooh boy. I was so excited for Mikey!!! I also gave him vitiligo on his face, arms, hands and legs )not visible). I also feel like he’d change his hair around A LOT so I gave him a few different hairstyles. He also definitely has paint on most of his clothes and paints on them intentionally. He’s a cool sock guy I just KNOW it. I tried keeping his little shell stickers on his “casual” design but had to move it to the other one cause it looked weird. I did put them on his knee pads if you looks close. I had to keep his other cool face knee pads of course, they’re iconic. And I of course kept his off-centre gap tooth.

Last but certainly not least…

RAPH

I had so many ideas for him and I got most of them but they’re so half-assed I’m sorry Raph 😭. Especially the pose ughhhh it’s so bad. And the shoes 🥲. Anyways instead of focusing on what I did badly were going to focus more on the idea. A few thoughts I knew I wanted was the scar on his eye and shoulder and to add markings cause Raph deserves to glow too. I added some markings on his forehead and just below his ears if you look close. I also added some on his shell and the spikes on his shoulders. He definitely has the most obvious shell out of his brothers but it’s still smaller than how it is in the show. AH I JUST REALIZED I FORGOT HIS RAPH CHASM 😭. Sorryyyy. I also wish Raph’s markings were lighter but oh well.

That’s all for now! Now that I can stop stressing about finishing this I can try and post more about this, whether it be art or talking about it idk.

Also I plan on making a proper logo soon I just have a very busy month ahead of me so we’ll see how fast that gets done

[sublime-beyond-loss]

I posted 32,856 times in 2022

That's 32,856 more posts than 2021!

149 posts created (0%)

32,707 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@moishe-pipick

@lookcaitlin

@rain-bowss

@musclem3m0ry

I tagged 193 of my posts in 2022

#the stanley parable - 138 posts

#dungeons - 65 posts

#kevan brighting - 64 posts

#the narrator - 64 posts

#everywhere at the end of time - 16 posts

#the caretaker - 15 posts

#the stanley parable ultra deluxe - 11 posts

#tspud - 8 posts

#tspud spoilers - 7 posts

#ambience - 7 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#speaking from experience tspud is a blackhole for any autist that starts to hyperfixate on it from which there is no escape once it has you

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Skip Button Alternate Ending

I got the idea to write out a 'what if' ending for the skip button scene concerning what would happen if the narrator was capable of acknowledging a player who refuses to keep skipping forward. This is heavily inspired by @give-soup-please writing prompts. I don't normally write in this style and I'm not one to write stuff that feels so much like wish-fulfillment, but hey, it can't hurt to be a little self-indulgent every once in awhile, and even then, boy is this ending earned by the time it is finished. It's no cakewalk for anyone involved, it just has a slightly happier outcome compared to the normal way this ends. I also just really like the idea that since the narrator is not human, he does not have a human mind, despite his personality closely resembling one. What if he is actually quite capable of enduring multiple eternities alone without going mad as long as he has the right motivation to do so and doesn't slip into an existential spiral along the way?

This can be read as platonic or romantic. Another choice. Make it count.

193 notes - Posted July 6, 2022

#4

Everyone shut up, I’ve figured out what the narrator is. He’s a peacock. He spends all of his time presenting, screaming while presenting, and being weirdly aggro for no reason. The parable takes place on his butt feathers and every time you complete an ending, it adds another feather to his flamboyant ass. 

194 notes - Posted November 8, 2022

#3

It’s been several years since I last read through the manual of the Indiebox physical release of The Stanley Parable, and....

My god, The Narrator the most autistic thing on the planet. It’s like, I get that the manual is written the way that it is to be humorous and slightly unsettling, but boy if it does not feel like the Autism Experience playing out in miniature. 

The over explanation and difficulty with trimming it down. This is a whole ass mood right here. Overexplaining everything because you’re so used to being misunderstood and taken out of context. 

This could also be seen as info-dumping about a special interest since the dude is unquestionably obsessed with his game and story.

See the full post

250 notes - Posted October 18, 2022

#2

Here’s a long and very interesting interview with Kevan Brighting.

Some things of note: 

He likes all of the different interpretations and designs of the narrator and his own interpretation is that he looks like Alan Rickman as Snape without the cloak.

He has had people asking if he’ll sign buckets if they send them to him and he’s had to refuse out of the fear that it would turn into him carting truckloads of buckets to the post office everyday lol.

He is a fan of the Adventure Line TM and wished they could have done more with it.

He has not played the game since he feels like he knows it well enough and there are no surprises to find for him, but he does enjoy watching other people play it, although he has not gotten around to doing so for UD yet.

He does not believe the narrator died during the skip button segment but simply got bored and left after waiting for so long. (EDIT: I should clarify this since some comments think he is giving a canonical explanation for what happened. Even he says he doesn’t know for sure. It’s just his own interpretation. When even the writer himself in the Reddit AMA says he doesn’t know what happened to the narrator then its pretty clear you’re meant to have your own interpretations and come to your own conclusions.)

He finished recording most of his dialogue for UD three years ago. 

290 notes - Posted July 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

*Rings bell* Come here TSP community. Come get your slop.

1,144 notes - Posted August 30, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

LOL YEP

[love-fireflysong]

I posted 2,195 times in 2022

215 posts created (10%)

1,980 posts reblogged (90%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@queenofbaws

@jamie-tiergan

@emmamountebank

@impossibleclair

@lunar-resonance

I tagged 1,219 of my posts in 2022

Only 44% of my posts had no tags

#until dawn - 125 posts

#the quarry - 101 posts

#asks - 58 posts

#my writing - 41 posts

#ashley brown - 39 posts

#chrashley - 34 posts

#chris hartley - 34 posts

#critical role - 30 posts

#climbing chrash - 27 posts

#josh washington - 23 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#getting super close to the end of one of them so the drive and need to sit own and finish the stupid thing has taken a hold of my entire bod

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

The Hackett Family Tree that was on the wall in the house. Transcribed it out of it’s cursive to something more easily readable in case others wanted to know what the tree looked like lol. Only bit of info I wasn’t able to figure out was the line that was written under Nathaniel Hackett’s date of birth and death.

Transcript under the cut.

Jedediah Hackett (1681 - 1722) married Tempest Seimer (1692 - 1740) and they had one son, Nathaniel Hackett (1710 - 1765).

Nathaniel married Agnes Farthing (1717 - 1730) and they had three children. Two sons: Increase Hackett (1742 - 1806) and Secundus Hackett (1745 - 1750), as well as one daughter: Faith Hackett (1750 - 1830).

Increase married Hope Mather (1750 - 1810) and they had one son, Citus Hackett (1805 - 1856).

Citus married Mary Piggin (1810 - 1830) and they had one son, Azariah Hackett (1830 - 1905). He is noted as being Nathaniel’s great-grandson. All children after him are marked similarly now.

Azariah married Ellen Washington (1835 - 1913) and they had seven children, five sons and two daughters. In order they are listed as: Benjamin Hackett (1855 - 1870, great-great-grandson), Matthias Hackett (1856 - 1880, great-great-grandson), George Hackett (1860 - 1926, great-great-grandson), Suzette Hackett (1860 - 1880, great-great-grandaughter), Thomas Hackett (1872 - 1877, great-great-grandson), Annabell Hackett (1888 - 1939, great-great-granddaughter), and Septimus Hackett (1890 - 1944, great-great-grandson).

Septimus married Moira Jackson (1895 - 1955) and they had two children. One daughter: Leah Hackett (1915 - 1965, great-great-great-grandaughter) and one son: Francis Hackett (1917 - 1975,  great-great-great-grandson).

Francis married Louisa Clarke (1920 - 1985) and they had one son, Jedediah Hackett (1940, great-great-great-great-grandson).

Jedediah married Constance Guendy (1943) and they have three sons: Travis Hackett (1965, great-great-great-great-great-grandson), Christopher Hackett (1973,  great-great-great-great-great-grandson) and Robert Hackett (1976,  great-great-great-great-great-grandson).

Chris married Amelia Grant (1973 - 1999) and they have two children. One son: Caleb Hackett (1995, great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson ) and one daughter: Kaylee Hackett (1999, great-great-great-great-great-great-grandaughter).

43 notes - Posted June 19, 2022

#4

Just finished a run through of The Quarry, and I’m crying cause this was the pic they used for the final headline after the podcast finished

Bobby had a beard at one point????? A big, bushy, glorious one that has me sobbing in both fear and confusion cause I don’t know how I feel about it asdhasdashd

49 notes - Posted July 9, 2022

#3

Man I love this particular key art they used in the game for so many reasons. One of which is just the fact that the lightening in this is just gorgeous obviously, and the background of the moon behind the treehouse with that gorgeous starry sky. But the rest is just you can tell exactly what plans they had for the characters at this point and how things changed with all of them.

Like Jacob, Kaitlyn, and Ryan have little differences from how they finally ended up in the game. Their designs at this point were set in stone and I love that!

Apparently Dylan once had long hair and a manbun (plus he was apparently blond at one point????) and instead of the t-shirt it’s a jacket with patches on the sleeve, and it’s so different from what we actually got that it blows me away. Emma’s wearing a white tangtop with her hair down and shorts it looks like.

But the two that interest me the most are Nick and Abi. Mostly because I feel like they’re changes were decided on much, much later down the line. Like it’s hard to tell but Nick is clearly wearing glasses here, and we know from that unused drawing of Nick in Abi’s sketchbook that he was wearing glasses in all of them.

And Abi? Her outfit of that jacket, shorts, and knee length socks? Super familiar and absolutely jumped out at me right away because this picture of Abi that you can find in Chris’s office?

See the full post

56 notes - Posted July 19, 2022

#2

Oh shit, just realized that I never actually did post the pic that @wacem​ drew for me! So here it is, the last drawing I commissioned for my the last chapter of my fic The Final Days of Our Youth. Please send them all of your love cause oh my gods I still love this so much.

113 notes - Posted January 25, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

821 notes - Posted January 12, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[parallelroutes-old]

what made you choose this muse? // is there any other muse in this fandom ( or any other ) you’d like to RP? // what are your favorite RP tropes to play? (angst, hurt-comfort, etc…) // what’s a song that reminds you of your muse?

what made you choose this muse?

i like playing chaotic and spontaneous gremlins who are silly, weird, cool-looking, punk/goth, and seem empty/depressed deep down. hits a lot of nice 'oh that's my type of rp character' energies. and you will also get a mini story here too.

tbh when i looked around the internet for random series fanart in 2010, i ran into pics of him and genuinely used to think he was ... kinda ugly ngl. i have never liked the old design. personal pref. but i went hunting for random new fanart last year/2022, where i found his new design and was like "wtf that's the same guy? this is the best glow-up of the entire decade?"

that preference ties into why i only rp him as post-future arc? he is just... not attractive to me whatsoever before showing up with a new design LOL...

is there any other muse in this fandom ( or any other ) you’d like to RP?

Enma-kun, my beloved ♪

what are your favorite RP tropes to play? (angst, hurt-comfort, etc…)

80% my absolute favorite is other characters changing their opinions of him, esp if they're reluctant in some way. hurt/comfort, usually as comfort. fluff. deep convos. Wise Advice. atonement!!!

i struggle with making my own full AUs and making OCs takes so much effort for so little payoff rp-wise, so i just. i will let others make the AUs/OCs and i just join them in the party. gladly. bc i love both of them.

what’s a song that reminds you of your muse?

current: i actually don't have one for sure yet? i'm still feeling out the verse so idk. right now i'm gonna guess green day - boulevard of broken dreams. mostly for that "i walk alone with my shadow bc that's all i know." aspect. see also:

I walk a lonely road The only one that I have ever known Don't know where it goes But it's home to me, and I walk alone

I'm walkin' down the line That divides me somewhere in my mind On the borderline Of the edge and where I walk alone

previously i had it as GLIM SPANKY - In the air because it was intended to be the 'parallel worlds traveling' thing, which i have not really been using. i will also skip luz's cover of Ikkitousen because that gives future arc byakuran vibes and you have just now been told how i feel about that, lol.

4YL: cristina vee's english cover of bad apple. ( thank u neo-chan. )

Will tomorrow ever come? Will I make it through the night? Will there ever be a place for the broken in the light? Am I hurting? Am I sad? Should I stay, or should I go? I've forgotten how to tell. Did I ever even know? Can I take another step? I've done everything I can All the people that I see I will never understand If I find a way to change, if I step into the light Then I'll never be the same, and it all will fade to white

this is just kind of the verse's whole vibe? the whole... living with people who only know 'you' of yesterday and don't want to see anything else - and a lot of them can't. but you don't want to be that person anymore.

that's why he's so sad and different. the entire point is to get him to 'move on' from the past and what he did. i should really go explain things and why you will primarily get the deep convos out of this verse, not current. eventually. i don't have much energy lately lmao.

[jessjustplay]

Currently Playing Final Fantasy XIII - Update 1.5

October 14, 2022

Okay, just made it to chapter 8. UM, WOW. Wow wow wow. The story blows up in chapter 7. Just like a good book, ya know? The beginning is all about easing you into the story, the mystery, making you wonder... and then BAM, revelation after revelation!

I knew Vanille was hiding something. So she and Fang (who has an amazing character design, minus the hair) are from Pulse. They call it Gran Pulse, so does that mean the people from Pulse call it that or is there a different location besides just Pulse?

I still don't know why they made Sazh's cute son a l'Cie, but I'm sure it'll be explained. I forget who, but someone said the Sanctum is the puppet of the Fal'Cie... so who exactly are the fal'Cie... they give me alien-type vibes...

Anyways, looks like Pulse is just as afraid of Cocoon, as Cocoon is of Pulse. Sanctum is still the government, that much I understand.

Back to Fang. She gives me major Freya vibes. It's probably the long red spear she carries, which by the way, has some sort of safety lock while in-field because while we control her to walk around, the pointy arrows are not visible. I love that. What an unnecessary and yet amazing little detail the developers made.

Tbh, there are SO MANY little details in this game. Every place I visit has been amazing. Everything looks amazing. I can't get over it. I can't get over the graphics, or the story. I am so giddy over this game, it honestly sounds pathetic, but I really am enjoying it sooo much!

Hope finally let go of his revenge, and he is likable again. He would have been okay from the beginning if he had been able to express his rage and anger towards Snow, but the fact that he couldn't even finish a complete sentence when Snow was around was what was irritating about him. That scene of Hope and Snow falling through those floors/ceilings was crazy. My jaw dropped. My jaw actually dropped twice throughout chapter 7. One was when Snow and Hope were attacked and they fell, the second time was... I think when Hope's family home was infiltrated? Maybe? I don't remember lol

There were so many tough battles in this chapter. One was a random in-field battle with a big machine thing... OMG, speaking of machines. There was this one type of machine that blasted a gattling gun at me and completely killed me twice. I learned that if Snow has full health, though, that he can survive the attack (barely, but hey, it's better than dying).

When I kept dying with the Shiva sisters and Odin, the game kept making me restart at my last save point, but during this chapter, each time I died, the game would reset right before the battles... so, so, so convenient. I'm glad it does that.

Another thing that is convenient is the CP that is given to ALL my party members, even if I am not playing with them. How cool is that? This game is BEYOND FUN because you aren't stressing about HP, MP, or trying to catch up your characters to be on the same level. I FUCKING LOVE IT.

Okay, I have to say it. Shirtless Snow. Why did we see so much of Shirtless Snow. Put a shirt on, man! lol

[calpicowater]

Week 6.5/52: February 7th - February 13th 2022 | Betty & Wing Housewarming 🏡

Reunited with these gay kids 蜡笔小新 squad after a month. Also, I haven’t gone out in a month. First time putting makeup on in sooooo long omg. Forgot that I can look like this... Went to visit BT/WS new house for the first time (it’s so pretty omg........ their interior design is chef’s kiss). We ate so much hot pot today. Had four different soup bases (mala spicy, tomato, mushroom, and clear broth) with so much meat, oil sticks, vegetables, cow stomach, potato clear noodles, bean curd puffs and etc etc etc....... Actually I almost died because I have a bad habit of drinking spicy hot pot broth but this one today had SO much oil I legit wasn’t able to breathe for a solid 2 minutes. I barely drank any wtf....... I couldn’t talk or breathe because the oil completely blocked my airways. I thought I was going to die at my friends’ home....... 😭😭😭 legit so scary but I’m alive (thank goodness). Don’t think I’ve come so close to death before minus the time in grade 3 when I choked on sour candy (gdi I need to stop eating lol). Anyways I ate so much LMAO. Betty kept feeding us so much 9 lol that rose plum one is so yum??? She also made a DIY 米酒 and it tasted like ice cream fr. After eating, they taught me how to play Mahjong LOL I’ve finally learned....... and then we went to eat hot pot round two... and then we played Mahjong again 😭😭😭 and then slapjack LOL. Just chaotic kids.

Went back to work on the Sunday and got hella hostility from a student’s dad who started disrespecting and belittling me and overall talking shit about me in front of me for a solid 10+ minutes. He kept arguing with me over a company policy that I had absolute no control over and continued to throw tantrums until I couldn’t handle it anymore lol. I have been going through too much shit ngl I legit just ran out of my room mid-convo to get my supervisor and when I was trying to tell him what the fuck was happening I just started crying..... Bruh. It was so embarrassing for me.............. The student’s mom was being nice the entire time and ended up apologizing to me personally after everything. Which I don’t think she needed to do that at all. I just feel bad that she married... that. She’s so nice but why the fuck is he so mean. She even said herself that he was being a dick lmao exact words. Entitled people are everywhere and most of the time I can deal with worse shit (and I have many times!!!!). But I really was not having it this day. Fuck. Even when I left the dad kept talking shit about me to my supervisor, saying that he doesn’t like my vibes etc. lol. You assholes just hate my vibes because I don’t kiss up to you because you’re an asshole and you should d word???? ha. The worst part is that I did not tell anyone about what happened but the word got out so fast (headache) that the entire department knew in a matter of hours (I got so many DMs right after my shift asking me if I am ok/what happened fml it’s quite embarrassing). I can’t........ I know that I am a sad little child in my personal life but I really do not have to be sad photographer at work too. I try so hard to just be chill and calm... and I am at most times. Personal life is just interfering with other aspects of life. Need control. But I am just trying to make money... why are people so mean.... I’m so done. How to erase my existence... Aiya. Rest of work day was honestly good... students were all nice and my coworkers were helping me a lot. My supervisor even split a Japanese cheesecake with me during break to cheer me up from hostile man lol. Life is life but I keep thinking back at the whole situation and I wish I could have reacted better/controlled my emotions better. I don’t want to cry again. I don’t need people like this to get to me again. 

Please tell me life will get better. I fuck up a lot but I’m an okay person...

[dentpx]

7/7/2022: Hadestown babyyyyyy

i cried the whole time, long-ass rambles below

- i really like hadestown but i’ve never listened to it in order all the way through because i knew it would be a very special and unique show, and i was right, it’s truly unlike anything i’ve ever seen

- it truly does feel like a greek epic. there’s not extended dialogue, everything spoken happens as a part of a song, and songs move between each other so seamlessly you don’t even notice it’s happening

- started crying during the first song because the music was so beautiful. started crying again during gathering storm, and wait for me, and basically by the chant reprise i was silently crying with growing intensity until the end of the show

cast stuff:

- Reeve Carney and Eva Noblezada (original Orpheus and Eurydice) are still with the show and i got to see them. both incredible performers

- funny story, I didn’t know Reeve was the original Orpheus, i know him as “the guy in the spider-man musical” and, more importantly, “riff raff in the kenny ortega rocky horror” (beloved to me for that role), he sounds a lot different than on the hadestown soundtrack so i totally thought he was new to the show

- on the soundtrack he alternates between the other-wordly falsetto style and singing like a normal guy, in person he’s doing the falsetto thing the whole time and it was a little off-putting at the start but i was completely sold by wedding song. it really does make him feel “touched by the gods” so to speak

- Jewelle Blacknab was our Persephone, she had a lot of energy and a VERY powerful voice. incredible dancer too. she was less matter-of-fact and more pleading and passionate which I liked. she used to be one of the Fates in the OG cast

- Tom Hewitt was Hades, and I looooooved him. his voice was crazy deep (way deeper than Page!) and he had a great stage presence. you really did feel like he was the most powerful person on the stage

- T. Oliver Reid as Hermes, obviously a lot different than Andre, but while Andre is obviously incredible I didn’t find myself wishing he was there instead. I think Reid brings something unique to the role and he’s fun to watch

set/lighting/blocking stuff:

- best set in the fucking world what the hell. what the hell. turnables are kind of expected at this point but hadestown made it really unique with the 3 turntables AND it fit with the theming of the show (cyclical choreography rules)

- from memory i think my favorite bit with the turntables was with the hades and orpheus confrontation when they’re on opposite ends of the turntable and walking in place but also walking against the turntable and then with it, it just ruled. i was endlessly impressed in general with the control the performers had on those things, they knew how to move and how to stay still ON SOMETHING THAT IS MOVING

- lol when it descended. and then when it came back up again. blew my mind what the hell

- the set was designed in such a smart way that it would have looked good from anywhere in the theater - i know this because i was in nosebleed seats and most productions don’t think about those seats and certain tricks/blocking don’t work from those angles. did NOT have that issue with hadestown. it also helps that the actors were in character no matter where they were on stage - when the turntable descends, they stayed in character all the way down, even though you’re really just playing to the nosebleeds when you do that. i appreciated it immensely. 

- the set transformation when they go into the underworld also blew my mind, when elements of a set are THAT BIG you really don’t think they’ll move them around, and then they do and it’s like. excuse me.

- i feel stupid because i don’t remember if this is exactly what it was (it might have been switched???) but i liked the use of red/orange lighting for Eurydice and blue lighting for Orpheus in their earlier duets, it alludes to her going to hadestown and such.

- really cool lighting design where certain characters would be in shadow even though the stage was lit where they were standing - most notably Why We Build the Wall, persphone was in shadow even though the whole stage was lit, it was a neat effect

- lighting/special effects ruled most exquisitely during doubt comes in, the whole stage is dark except for the actors who are lit, and there’s smoke/fog, so you can’t see the turntables at all and the movement is so beautiful. seeing eurydice come in and out of the song is very cool.

favorite moments/things:

- wait for me (the song i know the best) was so gorgeous and it made me CRY SO FUCKING HARD. the choreography with the lamps is so gorgeous and ethereal. i had a moment after the song ended where i had to put my head in my hands and just dry heave sob quietly because the inevitability that he would not rescue Eurydice just got to me so bad

- i liked the revolution songs and the choreography for it. there’s a lot of repeated lyrics and movements throughout the show with layered meanings the more certain things come up so it’s nice

- i liked the costuming and specifically the use of red for love and hope, other than persephone’s green dress basically nobody is wearing color except for orpheus and his red bandana

- i liked the ensemble a lot. it’s a small cast so every voice counts, and it was so beautiful to see everyone sing together. in particular Epic III is incredible with the swelling of the voices and everyone coming in and out at different times

- Chant reprise, Hades gets more and more powerful during the song, and when he shouts “i am the king of the electric city”, the lights get VERY bright and then go out. it ruled

- the core aspects of the myths involved are used very smartly and the changes and parallels are deliberate and cool. i very much like that hades is characterized as an insecure and lonely man, and that he uses these insecurities against Orpheus at the end of the show, and that is what does Orpheus in.

- at the end of the show when Orpheus turns back (waghhhh) after Eurydice responds to him, she collapses to her knees and does this beautiful and sad silent wail to the heavens as the platform descends. favorite moment in the whole show for reals

theater notes:

- this is in the Walter Kerr theater, i’m not sure if it doesn’t have a lobby or what but they ushered us straight into the theater from off the street which is really weird

- i was in the front row of the balcony, which is insanely high up and far away from the stage. note to short people: this is sort of a struggle because you have to lean forward to see the whole stage (you can see most of the stage but the front is a little blocked off if you don’t lean). i am 5′4 and my back hurt so much at the end of the night. i didn’t mind though

merch notes:

- i got the program :) i love to get the program if they have it, they’re basically just original high-quality production stills with quotes about the concept/creation from the production team

- hadestown program is a lot different and more artsy than my other programs, it’s like a beautiful collage of stills with handwritten production notes. very cool.