#i changed a couple of things from the original for clarity

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

FYI artists and writers: some info regarding tumblr's new "third-party sharing" (aka selling your content to OpenAI and Midjourney)

You may have already seen the post by @staff regarding third-party sharing and how to opt out. You may have also already seen various news articles discussing the matter.

But here's a little further clarity re some questions I had, and you may too. Caveat: Not all of this is on official tumblr pages, so it's possible things may change.

(1) "I heard they already have access to my data and it doesn't really matter if I opt out"

From the 404 article:

A new FAQ section we reviewed is titled “What happens when you opt out?” states “If you opt out from the start, we will block crawlers from accessing your content by adding your site on a disallowed list. If you change your mind later, we also plan to update any partners about people who newly opt-out and ask that their content be removed from past sources and future training.”

So please, go click that opt-out button.

(2) Some future user: "I've been away from tumblr for months, and I just heard about all this. I didn't opt out before, so does it make a difference anymore?"

Another internal document shows that, on February 23, an employee asked in a staff-only thread, “Do we have assurances that if a user opts out of their data being shared with third parties that our existing data partners will be notified of such a change and remove their data?” Andrew Spittle, Automattic’s head of AI replied: “We will notify existing partners on a regular basis about anyone who's opted out since the last time we provided a list. I want this to be an ongoing process where we regularly advocate for past content to be excluded based on current preferences. We will ask that content be deleted and removed from any future training runs. I believe partners will honor this based on our conversations with them to this point. I don't think they gain much overall by retaining it.”

It should make a difference! Go click that button.

(3) "I opted out, but my art posts have been reblogged by so many people, and I don't know if they all opted out. What does that mean for my stuff?"

This answer is actually on the support page for the toggle:

This option will prevent your blog's content, even when reblogged, from being shared with our licensed network of content and research partners, including those that train AI models.

And some further clarification by the COO and a product manager:

zingring: A couple people from work have reached out to let me know that yes, it applies to reblogs of "don't scrape" content. If you opt out, your content is opted out, even in reblog form. cyle: yep, for reblogs, we're taking it so far as "if anybody in the reblog trail has opted out, all of the content in that reblog will be opted out", when a reblog could be scraped/shared.

So not only your reblogged posts, but anyone who contributed in a reblog (such as posts where someone has been inspired to draw fanart of the OP) will presumably be protected by your opt-out. (A good reason to opt out even if you yourself are not a creator.)

Furthermore, if you the OP were offline and didn't know about the opt-out, if someone contributed to a reblog and they are opted out, then your original work is also protected. (Which makes it very tempting to contribute "scrapeable content" now whenever I reblog from an abandoned/disused blog...)

(4) "What about deleted blogs? They can't opt out!"

I was told by someone (not official) that he read "deleted blogs are all opted-out by default". However, he didn't recall the source, and I can't find it, so I can't guarantee that info. If I get more details - like if/when tumblr puts up that FAQ as reported in the 404 article - I will add it here as soon as I can.

Edit, tumblr has updated their help page for the option to opt-out of third-party sharing! It now states:

The content which will not be shared with our licensed network of content and research partners, including those that train AI models, includes: • Posts and reblogs of posts from blogs who have enabled the "Prevent third-party sharing" option. • Posts and reblogs of posts from deleted blogs. • Posts and reblogs of posts from password-protected blogs. • Posts and reblogs of posts from explicit blogs. • Posts and reblogs of posts from suspended/deactivated blogs. • Private posts. • Drafts. • Messages. • Asks and submissions which have not been publicly posted. • Post+ subscriber-only posts. • Explicit posts.

So no need to worry about your old deleted blogs that still have reblogs floating around. *\o/*

But for your existing blogs, please use the opt out option. And a reminder of how to opt out, under the cut:

The opt-out toggle is in Blog Settings, and please note you need to do it for each one of your blogs / sideblogs.

On dashboard, the toggle is at https://www.tumblr.com/settings/blog/blogname [replace "blogname" as applicable] down by Visibility:

For mobile, you need the most recent update of the app. (Android version 33.4.1.100, iOs version 33.4.) Then go to your blog tab (the little person icon), and then the gear icon for Settings, then click Visibility.

Again, if you have a sideblog, go back to the blog tab, switch to it, and go to settings again. Repeat as necessary.

If you do not have access to the newest version of the app for whatever reason, you can also log into tumblr in your mobile browser. Same URL as per desktop above, same location.

Note you do not need to change settings in both desktop and the app, just one is fine.

I hope this helps!

[14dayswithyou]

💖 Day 3.5 is now available! 💖

For the last couple of months, only Server Boosters had access to the 3.5 update... Buuuuut now it's available for everyone to play in the 14DWY Discord — and soon itch.io once I'm happy with the QA and state of the game — so please don't feel pressured to join unless you want to!!

The full devlog + even more screenshots are under the cut ^^

What's been added to the 3.5 version?

📺 Streamer Mode!

I've been told that it's difficult to stream and monetise age-restricted videos on YouTube and Twitch, so I added an option to remove the sexual content and strong language used in the demo.

Now y'all can invite Ren into your bed for cuddles without putting your streamer career on the line /silly /lh

This won't affect the 18+ rating or dark themes/elements of the game, however! Although Streamer Mode will prevent you from seeing any "gruesome" CGs in the future, most of the core elements of the game will still be tied to the choices and decisions you make. So you won't miss out on the overall experience by using streamer mode!!

⚙️ Custom Pronouns!

It only took me one entire year to get around to it, but you can finally choose your own preferred pronouns (or use a set of pronouns instead)... At the cost of being able to change them mid-game ^^;

Since the original pronoun screen wouldn't update until a new scene was displayed, I temporarily disabled the feature. But once I find a workaround, I'll bring it back!

💗 Choose how others perceive you!

You can now choose how the cast and narration perceive you! Originally, the narration was kept strictly gender-neutral (outside of pronouns and genitalia picked by the player), but this will soon change in future updates.

For more clarity: you don't get to choose the words specifically, but you can choose between masculine, feminine, and androgynous terms!

📋 Separate top and bottom genitalia!

You can now choose your tatas and pps separately! >:3

Alongside that, you can also choose your preferred body type!

I removed the "both" genitalia option because a few players still assumed it was an obscure version of "intersex". That wasn't my intention and I don't want to mislead anyone, so I took it out for now ^^;

I also didn't want to include a screenshot of the new genitalia choices in action (because it's NSFW), so y'all get the same character menu screen for the nth time instead lmao

📱 Relationship Screen Overhaul!

You can now change your own status for more immersion, and long-term Server Boosters will eventually be able to submit and use their own icon within the game as well!

Stalking finding your friends has now become easier by using "Buddy Maps"; a new app that allows you to see the location of all the cast members!

I want to offer players more incentive to check the relationship screen since they tend to miss the status updates, so hopefully this might help ;v;

It also says it "updates every few hours" so folks don't go overboard and check every 5 seconds to see where Ren is gdsghf (also keep in mind that he's a hacker lol)

🖤 Additional Scenes Update!

Day 2 received a brand new CG!!!!! Originally, I planned on only adding a few CGs sporadically throughout the game, but it didn't feel right to leave Day 2 so... empty... so I added a brand new CG to (hopefully) make things feel more balanced and natural!

If you decline Teo's offer on Day 3, Leon will now call and try to convince you to reconsider. However, players are still allowed to decline, and if they do, they'll reach a dead end.

After listening to feedback on itch, I changed some of the dialogue during Days 1-3 to make it seem more consistent! They're only small changes though, so it's honestly not worth looking for sdgjssga

🎶 Updated BGM and SFX!

I wanted to try out a different style of music to see if it fits the vibe of 14DWY more! The BGM features more acoustics to suit the "beachy" theme of Corland Bay, though I made a conscious effort to include piano elements as well to stay true to the original!!

I figured it'd be better to give players a live example before I make a poll (to see if they prefer the change or not) and publish it to Itch.

Some new SFX have also been added, though it's very minimal and honestly not that noticeable.

How to download and play the update?

(warning: clicking on the following links will open Discord!!) To download the Day 3.5 update, simply join the 14DWY Discord server, verify your age, and visit the "14dwy-updates" channel!

Alternatively, you can also wait until the update is publicly released on Itch to play it as well!! (It normally gets released shortly after a round of QA testing/getting feedback from the server, though I may release it earlier if I feel like it hehe ^^)

Enjoy!!

[alphajocklover]

InstaJock: Double Friend Request

(Based on the ask I accidentally deleted.)

So, your japanese friend sent you a request for InstaJock, but when you accepted it your phone froze, and now all it shows is you is a picture of a Japanese bodybuilder who seems to be growing. I can see you’re disoriented right now, so I’m going to start by clarifying a couple things. 

The Japanese bodybuilder you’re looking at? He isn’t growing. He’s flexing! It makes sense you made that mistake though, sense with muscles that big flexing can make it look like that's happening.

You’re not looking at a picture. You’re looking at yourself. Your phone is in selfie mode.

Yeah. The Japanese stud currently flexing at you from your phone is you. As I’ve mentioned before, InstaJock allows someone to change what type of jock they turn into through the settings and details page when they set up their account. It’s incredibly hard to navigate though, so most people don’t bother. But if the user can figure it out before they give into the urge to join the app, they can become whatever kind of jock they want. The thing is, they aren’t the only people that can change what kind of jock the user becomes. The person who sends you the friend request can also affect what type of jock the next user becomes. It’s part of the friend request feature. If a jock is still smart enough to figure out how to use the app's settings, they can ‘suggest’ a type of jock to become. You don’t have to accept the suggestion, but it seems like you did, at least by accident. So now, just like your friend, you’re a buff, cocky, japanese jock.

But I don’t think that's the only thing that has changed about you. See, if this was a normal case of InstaJock, you’d have changed mentally just as quickly as you changed physically. It’s possible your friend pressed the ‘multiple personality’ option. It’s pretty much what it sounds like, though I should say for clarity's sake that it's nothing like the actual mental disorder that used to be called multiple personality disorder. It’s more like the cliche version you see on tv shows. Your personality wasn’t overwritten with a jocks personality like most people who use InstaJock, in fact you were able to keep your original personality… it’s just that now you also have a jock personality in your head too. He seems to be in control of your body at the moment too, from all the flexing and the way you keep saying ‘bro.’ I wouldn’t worry though, from what I’ve seen situations like this you and him will be swapping control pretty often. You’ll usually be you… unless something draws him out. Like a hot girl, or a hot guy, or the sight of a gym, or the sounds of a football game, or just seeing your own beefy muscles… Yeah, you might actually be spending a lot of time as your other self. My only advice is to make your peace with him. You guys are going to have to get used to each other.

At least you got a great body out of the deal, even if you have to share it.

[brujahinaskirt]

I love rdr2 for the little things--like how sleeping arrangements over time reflect narrative arcs and interpersonal decay (or bloom).

Just a really quick observation:

The most obvious and important sleeping change, I would argue, involves the Marstons. At the start of the game, John has abandoned and disavowed Abigail & Jack; they sleep on the ground in a flimsy shelter while he, the returning golden boy, sleeps in a bed under a comfortable tent. John's tent arguably affords the most privacy in the game, and this makes sense early on, when he's trying to maintain a distance between himself and everyone around him (especially his family, including Arthur). In Shady Belle, John has welcomed Abigail and Jack into his bedroom, and -- notably -- he sleeps on the floor this time. It's as much a signal of John's growth as a person who is allowing himself to be a little more reachable as it is a sign of his fledgling sense of regret and apology (for abandoning them in the first place), and it is a sign of him warming to the idea of Abigail and Jack as his family. But it doesn't happen all at once; Abigail and John still refuse to sleep beside one another. In the epilogue, as they actively attempt to rebuild their lives together, John and Abigail finally sleep side-by-side as a couple.

I read someone once point out that Uncle transitions from sleeping all over the camp, wherever he happens to pass out, to sleeping directly behind Arthur's tent in Beaver Hollow. This was so cleverly observed. What a powerful sign of the overall degradation of the character of the gang as Uncle (the character most representative of optimism and comfort) begins to fear for his safety and future enough to take physical shelter behind Arthur. What a note of confidence and clarity re: the true person Arthur is beneath the air of danger he has worn like a job title and a suit of armor. (I hunted for that original post to no avail; if it was yours, please let me know so I can link back to it!)

Molly & Dutch and the sliding divide. We start off with a present but muzzled level of friction between these two. Molly sleeps on the only bed in Dutch's lavish tent; Dutch sleeps beside her but... sitting up (haha okay very healthy)... because there's no room for Dutch and Molly. Later, Dutch commandeers the master bedroom at Shady Belle while Molly drunkenly collapses in an isolated place, usually by the kitchen window, blasted with light (see: truth) but far removed from the others, a reflection of her self-isolation and detachment from the gang and anyone who might be able to help her.

Dutch's tent gradually drifts farther away from the center of camp, at its maximum distance in Beaver Hollow. Micah, Cleet, and Joe linger closest to Dutch at this point, noticeably even more so than Javier and Bill.

The slow pull-apart of The Girls. Similar to Molly, after Sean's death, Karen can increasingly be found slumped over drunk in various locations at the periphery, semi-conscious. This is never more apparent than the Beaver Hollow era. Meanwhile, Mary-Beth and Tilly remain sleeping tightly next to one another, not far from Sadie.

God only knows where Micah sleeps.

(Might come back and expand this more later! But that's all she wrote, rushed, for now.)

[canmom]

The First Slam Dunk fansub

Proud to release my very first fansub for the return of Animation Night.

So what is this movie? The short version is that The First Slam Dunk is the best sports movie I've ever seen.

A slightly longer version: it's an incredibly intense, sharply choreographed game of basketball - intercut with the story of our boy Ryota, who struggles to live up to the shadow of his dead brother Sota, not helped by the fact that his mother is not dealing with it well. Growing up a taciturn outcast, Ryota at last finds solace in basketball, where he finds a new purpose as he and his comrades in the no-name Shohoku basketball team find their way to unexpected success. Now, he stands to achieve his brother's dream - to beat the as-yet undefeated Sannoh team. But the Sannoh boys want that win just as badly, and they live for basketball.

After seeing this movie you'll get why.

Slam Dunk is a wildly popular and long-running sports manga, previously adapted to anime by Toei in the 90s. The original story followed delinquent yankii goofball Sakuragi, who finds a new life in basketball. This movie aims to open it to a new audience - it retells the story from a different perspective, changing the emotional beats as it moves our view from goofy Sakuragi to troubled Ryota. The original mangaka Takehiko Inoue directed it after he was impressed by Toei's efforts to bring the characters to life with CG. It sports (haha) a unique look in anime, blending 2D and 3D animation with a really gorgeous manga-like shading style and effects.

The result is a film with the tight cinematography of manga panelling, the complex 3D motion of CGI and mocap, and also the clarity and snappy timing of animation. The result is, above all, readable. I honestly don't know a thing about basketball, and yet, I could follow every move - even in French.

Then add an absolutely killer soundtrack and masterful pacing and you end up with something truly special. It was one of my favourite movies at Annecy last year, and now it's finally out on BD.

So, in the interest of letting more people enjoy this movie, and also because I really wanted to try my hand at it, I made a fansub! It ended up an incredibly involved project - I retimed every line of dialogue, tracked dozens of signs in Blender, and generally went just completely all out on this one. Couple of all nighters may have been involved.

Here's some screenshots of some of the more complex typesetting:

If you'd like to watch it together, I'll be staging a group watch at 7pm UK time (three and a half hours from now). Tune in to twitch.tv/canmom - I'd love to see you there! And if not, well, the torrent is above, enjoy <3

[reimenaashelyee]

The World in Deeper Inspection UPDATE Read: (Chapter 1: Pages 57 to 68) (COMPLETED)

About the comic

Grimsley confronts the man who set him on this goose chase.

And with that… that’s the end of the 10th Anniversary revamp!! Can’t believe it took me almost a year to get this short project done, but blame my school and day job for that! *drives the nail into the TWIDI IS NOT DEAD sign deeper into the wall*

It was enlightening to reinterpret my first ever completed comic (more complete than the strips and unfinished or one-off shorts I had done prior) – basically the one that started me down the road to a career as a published author. I was happy to see how much my style had improved – not just in the layout, flow and pacing – but in how my characters have become more expressive and energetic, and how comfortable I am with the cartooning. Here is the proof that drawing comics helps you get better at comics!! It only took 10 / 11 years!

Plus, after a long while of drawing with a more reserved, professional approach (see: Seance Tea Party, Alexander Comic), I enjoyed the abandon and whimsy of TWIDI. The lettering is inconsistent all over but that only adds to the handmade whimsical charm of TWIDI, so lol.

Anyway – I have the 10th Anniversary ebook edition up on my Ko-fi and itch.io! This edition carries both the original and revamped versions of Chapter 1. No new cover or illustration for it this time; I think they are perfect as they are.

I have been meaning to make a continuation of the end of TCM that bridges the start of Chapter 1. It’s a long time coming: a story that had somewhat existed since the early days of TWIDI in 2010. Hopefully I will find that stability in my life to return.

Open the cut below to see my notes.

There’s also nothing exciting here, EXCEPT I severely cut down on the number of panels (and the verbiage).

As with the previous spread I cut down and distilled a lot of the verbiage. I shifted the dialogue slightly so that the reveal that Mr. Brown is a Lord comes from Grimsley (in 2013, Mr Brown never admitted he was an aristrocrat until this page) – it made more sense since Grimsley had gotten the info independently from the newspaper article and Andrew, and Mr Brown not mentioning it himself fits with his whole lying thing. For this spread and the next couple of them I am zooming out the panels to include more scenery. The 2013 layouts felt very claustrophobic, with the over-reliance on bust shots of the characters to carry the tension of the conversation.

Some more dialogue trimming and background scenery. I decided to change the setting for the chase sequence to be within the cemetery – just ’cause it makes more sense than if it was done all around Brookham. The panelling for it is a bit more dynamic too – look, Grimsley is parkouring!!

I have no idea why 10 (actually, 11) years ago I had so much trouble conveying and pacing this sequence of Mr Brown being set on fire. That’s the hindsight of experience, I guess??? Anyway I added a few more panels for actual build-up, and the blocking is way better now – there’s more energy (especially Skeleton’s expressions) and clarity (omg we can finally see where and what’s happening to the lamp). The last panel is a new addition to better connect with the next spread. Also… I am excited to see how much further I can draw Mr. Brown’s demise.

Man, the difference some changes in pacing can make. I added some panels with witnesses to the fire, just to emphasise why Grimsley and Skeleton have got to run. It’s crazy enough if a Brookie has got to witness immolation in the middle of the Night, but two paranatural spookies??? Also human fat has such a colour hdsjkfhsdkf the things that come out of an immolated body are so eerie….

The 2013 spread is almost perfect. 18 Year Old Me got it.

[bcbdrums]

Perfect Edition is a little less than perfect...

I've bought up through volume 5 of Soul Eater's perfect edition, very excited to have the manga hard-bound and with supposedly a better translation... But I found almost immediately that was not the case.

This is far from a complete commentary since as I said, I've only bought up through volume 5. But I have parallel-read the Perfect Edition alongside the original Yen Press publication to note each and every change. A pattern emerged immediately that remained consistent, and sadly....as I said...these releases are far from perfect.

All text changes are ink-saving. Nearly everything has been altered and reduced to use as few letters as possible, eliminating entire sentences and phrases from the original. Often times the meaning is less clear or changed entirely as a result. Example: replacing the word "ambiguity" with the word "anger." These aren't even remotely close in meaning, but it saves several letters! Nothing at all ever increases in length or gains clarity. All changes make the text shorter and...kind of "abridged" feeling. This was clear from volume 1 and it's only gotten worse with each volume.

Many changes are trying to sound extremely American, to the point of characters sounding stereotyped. There are a couple of cute dialogue changes, but for the most part they come across as contrived, unnatural, and don't sound in character at all for anyone, which has also gotten worse with each volume. A lot of times I'm left re-reading a dialogue box in confusion because it's so out of character in the attempt to sound American and save ink.

Following that last point up... Sid's dialogue specifically is altered to sound more "black" which I find offensive, even worse when combined with the ink-saving strategy. Abridged racially stereotyped dialogue...

They removed all Japanese (okay, no problem) but there is no consistency with how it was replaced/changed except in the case of Lord Death which makes me wonder if different translators worked on each character's dialogue. For whatever reason, a character's name is not enough so Lord Death gives everyone cutesy nicknames. Some of that feels in character for him, some does not. But no one else has any consistency... Sometimes a -chan is replaced with just a name, but sometimes the same character addressing the same person will be trying to say something cutesy. The fact is, the Japanese way of addressing people by social class and respect doesn't translate because it's not part of American culture, and they shouldn't have tried to find a middle-ground. It comes off weird, distracting, and out of character.

There is no new art. As I recall, one selling point for Perfect Edition was the inclusion of new art. No. There is no new art. None whatsoever. They have changed the order in which some of the original art pieces are presented in the manga, but it's all entirely the same. Unless you count the covers. But that's all.

The harsher language is severely softened. All of the swearing is greatly reduced, which for characters like Giriko for example greatly impact characterization. Part of who he is is crude and terrible, but with his using only the mild swears he comes across entirely differently. It's not just swear words, but insulting phrases spoken by many characters are entirely changed as well (just like all the text). This really changes the meaning of things from the original.

Things in the actual art you'd expect to be fixed aren't, such as Medusa's hair twist being on the wrong side. No art errors are fixed at all.

The manga still reads right to left, but in the vertical text boxes many of those suddenly have the text reading left to right like English. But then a few still read right to left like the original, like Japanese translated manga is meant to be. There's no rhyme or reason, except the ones reading properly (right to left) do seem often clustered together like the translator forgot. This change to try to read left to right is very, very confusing and since vertical text boxes are common in manga it slows down the reading.

They didn't change all of Crona's pronouns. That's right...they missed some. One error was very early on, too. I was like, wait a second, "he"??? But I read it right. The translators missed some.

Speaking of Crona, the one thing I've found that didn't save ink but was an added editorialization was in Crona's very first scenes to state they are a victim. Part of the power of Crona's story is the slow reveal/discovery of who they are and what they've been through. Simply stating from....what knowledge??? That they are a victim in their very first appearance undermines the power of their story, which is just my opinion but still. Our main characters are suddenly declaring from nothing that Crona is a victim and that's weak storytelling too.

This next point isn't an issue with the translation, but I have seen many a Tumblr post and Reddit post with people saying their Perfect Editions arrived with missing pages. One of mine arrived with several pages stained in bright blue dye. There's a lack of quality control somewhere in the printing and distribution....

And you might say, but I only have volumes 1 through 5, so why am I so sure about all this? Well, it's been extremely consistent in all five volumes. But more, I've asked some people who have later volumes for pictures of various important pages, and all the flaws of these early volumes continue in the exact same pattern.

Thus, my conclusion is.... It's not "perfect" at all. It's just yet another translation. One with far fewer words, slightly more family-friendly in language, and with stereotyped Americanizations. It's not worth my money.

Will I still read it (paralleled to the original of course)? I can't help my curiosity, so yes, yes I will. By checking them all out from my local library. But I'm not gonna be suckered out of any more money on something that is just not what was implied to be in the title and advertising.

[weatherman667]

RWBY Major Arcana

Can't reblog because I'm blocked, (I really wish Tumblr would just fucking tell you that you are blocked, rather than just saying Whoopsie-Daisy).

So, stealing @howlingday 's hard work.

The World: Arkos

Two versions: Darkness for one, light for the other. The light being to the top is Upright.

I have consistently written Pyrrha as being trapped being life and death.

Judgement: Ruby

One of the main principles of RWBY is that Ruby is the ultimate arbiter of right and wrong.

Decision making, redemption, renewal.

Poor logic, hasty judgement, self-doubt.

The Devil: Weiss

Seduced by the material world, *pulls out her dad's credit card*

Living in fear, domination, bondage. S4-5 for her was basically her in gilded cage of luxury.

Breaking from addictions, freedom from restraint, disowning her father.

The Tower: Ironwood

Danger, crisis, destruction, and liberation. He has a tower motif, but he forgets he lives in a world where a motley crew of teenage heroes can do more than an army. His greatest failures should have been his greatest successes, at least on paper.

Obstacles, volatile situations. He's given himself the job of getting rid of volatile situations, and as such given himself the job of marching straight into them.

The Hanged Man: Salem

Her entire fall to villainy was her finding more and more things to sacrifice to bring Ozma back.

This culminated in her attempted deicide, that resulted in the greatest change ever in Remnant's history.

The Magician: Ilia

Untapped potential.

Determined, Dextrous, Resourceful. Nearly wins against a couple of Huntsmen candidates that literally helped to save the world once already.

Communication blocks to the point she's probably autistic. Confusion and deceit were her modus operandi.

Her power was from her faith in the White Fang, without it she has nothing but doubt and lethargy. The ultimate in unrealized potential.

The Chariot: Yang

Moving forward, positive, drive. She forces herself to be if necessary.

Journey, ambition, confidence.

Lack of direction. Self-doubt.

Death: Blake

Major Changes

Transformation, change, letting go, release.

Fear of change, REPEATING NEGATIVE PATTERNS.

The Fool: Nora

Beginnings, Innocence, Leap of faith, Originality, Spontaneity

Chaos, Folly, Lack of direction, Naivety, Poor judgement, Stupidity

The Moon: Ren

Ren is Mulan, which is the ultimate in Yin. Which is feminine / covert.

He is constantly walking the precipice between darkness and terror. Literally with his Semblance.

The Sun: Oz

Enlightenment, joy, marriage, happiness in the moment, without being clouded by the past or future.

False impressions, lack of clarity.

The Star: Cinder

Upright is V1-3.

Reversed is V4+

The Emperor: Jacques

Of the father figures in the story, he is the most father figure.

The shadow of his darkness still haunts his children, even years after stepping out into the light.

The Empress: Willow

Just like Jacques is the most father figure of the father figures, Willow is the most mother figure. She is also the rightful heir to the emperor's glory.

The High Priestess: Qrow

It is both funny, and apropros.

He is the only one giving insight to the main characters.

But he is also holding back whatever he can in a misguided attempt to protect them.

Lack of personal harmony.

The Lovers: Sun and Neptune

Not in the literal sense.

Crossroads, commitment.

Both mistakenly fall in love, and suffer from it. And cause suffering in others from it.

Partnership Bromance

Disharmony, misalignment of values, imbalance.

The Hierophant: Raven

Education, Learning, Marriage, Religion, Seeking counsel or advice, Spiritual guidance, Tradition. Pretends to be these things, or to simply hide behind them.

Abuse of position, poor counsel, rejection of family values.

Justice: Winter

She is the sword of righteousness.

And often Lawful Stupid.

Temperance: Neo

Upright has her a prim and proper lady.

Reverse has her possessed by CC.

The Hermit: Arthur Watts

He is a socialite that pretends to not mind being banished.

He does everything he can to lash out for his exile.

Strength: Peter Port

He teeters between glorious and vainglorious.

His power is unmistakable, as he strangled a Beowulf when he was a toddler.

He is confidence and power, but if you talk to him, you realize he's not just bluster, and not just physical strength, but a powerful stoic. His strength goes all of the way down to his core.

That said, he is a hair's breadth away from losing control, and giving into his baser instincts. This is not contrary to his having strength down to his core, but if he was not so stoic, he would be completely unstable.

Wheel of Fortune: Roman

He spins the wheel, and has extraordinary good luck, and bad at the same time.

[aeternallis]

such an interesting meta with kim, even if i have a bit of a hard time swallowing that he would ever pose a threat to chay. he's never been aggressive towards him, and he protected him at the warehouse even if chay didn't know until later. so i feel like on the contrary, they're the healthiest of the three

Heyya nonnie~ 

It took me some time with this response, apologies for that. 

You're the nicest of all the anon asks I got in response to what I presume to be this meta that expressed the same sentiments, so I don't mind entertaining you. Hehe! 

I agree, Kim has never been physically aggressive towards Chay, but the way I see it, it doesn't mean the potential isn't there. My own sentiments on this have not changed; the potential and the breadth of what this entails is what holds my attention for this couple. Now, up to where you choose to go with that is entirely up to you; I myself don't know up to what point the idea of physical aggression from Kim towards Chay can go (if it even goes anywhere), because we don't have a KP S2, all we can do is speculate on the crumbs we got.

And we in the Kimchay fandom speculate, don’t we? Every fic author who’s written a Kimchay reconciliation fic with smut involved has played with this potential, even if the potential is zero. XD For my own reconciliation fic though, I dialed it up to a 6 at least, ahahahaha. Besides that, my belief with this is in keeping with the overall themes of the show, yknow?

After all, the show asks their audience a vital question within its narrative: what consequences and hardships do Porsche, Pete, and Porchay endure, to be loved by these Theerapanyakul men?

In my defense it's not as if I pulled that aforementioned meta outta my ass, I do have an explanation for it. Lolol

It's not something I mentioned in my original meta because I know most people on here have issues with the novel, but there is a noticeable change to Chay's characterization in the adaptation. From my own experience and understanding, seeing the changes from book to show is able to provide more clarity on BOC's intent with their changes and overall presentation of the drama, which I think is a good thing, overall.

In the book, Chay is a lot more like Porsche, both in his personality and his way of thinking. For example, take a look at this scene from when Tawan kidnaps Chay, and how much Chay mouths off to him:

In the adaptation however, Chay is knocked out during that scene, so the framing of that situation is very different; he’s portrayed to be a lot more helpless and weak, because of the fact that he was knocked out. I go into the consequences of these changes on a different meta, mostly talking about Porsche and Chay's relationship, if you're interested.

Another example I can think of right off the bat: when the reader first sees Chay and Kim meet (again, as it's implied that there is bad history between them) in the book, Kim pretty much kabedons Chay against the wall, and Chay retaliates by kicking him in the groin. Lol

These are just two examples, but by bringing these scenes up, I want to highlight the change from book to show: in the show, Chay's personality is framed to be milder than Porsche, as someone who’s not a fighter, as someone who's more optimistic, and as someone whose instinct it is is more to call for help than try to fight off an enemy. Barcode's take on this character is a lot more docile (in the beginning, at least), naively bold when compared to the book character, and he doesn't have much of the spunkiness that Porsche has, yknow?

Again, on paper not that big of a change in the long run, but a noticeable one nonetheless.

In episode 5 when Chay talks of his admiration to Kim, he states that he wants to be more like Porsche, and one of Porsche's most defining characteristics is his fighting skills. It's due partly to his fighting prowess that he's able to better enforce his boundaries with Kinn. It's an added asset for him, as it is for Pete to Vegas, but it’s not necessarily the only thing they both have going for them.  

And yet, why doesn't Chay know how to fight? Why doesn't he seem to have the disposition for it? Was he never provided or had an opportunity to learn? Perhaps Porsche kept him from having to learn; this matches up with how overprotective he is of Chay, one could argue.

Again, because of how Chay's character is framed in the show, he doesn't have the brazen attitude that he shares with Porsche in the book (in fact, a few times Porsche even mentions how much Chay is like him); on the contrary, he's a lot more self-reflective in the show and quite thoughtful. This manifests itself in his natural talent when it comes to writing music, especially how he was able to write the 1st version of WDYS in Kim's studio.

Because of this notable change in Chay’s character in the show, the physical power imbalance between Kim and Chay is a lot more noticeable, hence why Kim’s potential aggression towards Chay is more keenly felt in the show (case in point: their bar scenes, lol), at least the way I see it. 

For reals, I still question why they altered this part of the book characterization when they chose to adapt this IP. Lol

Imo, BOC discards Chay’s penchant for impulsiveness and brazenness (similar to Porsche when fighting an enemy off) in the book, but in turn, elevates his mental fortitude when he’s wronged. In the show, it’s definitely more a showcase of his inner strength and self-respect that he in particular was able to draw his boundaries against Kim (aka blocking his number, not picking up his call, etc), without ever having to physically fight him off, as opposed to Porsche and Pete.

[theimaginatrix27]

My Personal Approach to Fantasy AUs

I have received a number of comments on my Deep Space 9 Fairy Tale AU, Seven for a Secret, to the effect of "I love how you've kept everyone so in-character!"

I also recently sent a friend part of the first chapter of a prequel fic in the same setting, and they said they're not usually interested in AUs of this nature, because too often, they've seen characters written in ways that make them less recognisably themselves. But they did like my writing.

So I'm going to try and explain my process in a way that hopefully makes sense to everyone reading it. I'm absolutely not making this post to gatekeep fanfic, or to tell someone how to write their story, I'm just explaining what I do when writing a Fantasy AU within a fandom context.

For clarity, this post is about AUs where the characters were born into a high/epic/secondary world fantasy setting (I have heard all these terms before). It is not about charas being isekaied into fantasy settings for crossover purposes (that genre encompasses portal fantasy, doesn't have to involve the charas dying), though tbh I love those, too. Excellent fun. But the characters in those cases are still the canon ones, just being put in a situation. I actually plan on writing a series of DND campaign fics with the casts of my three favourite classic Trek series that are basically this premise, but that's not what I want to talk about today.

In a lot of cases, when someone has written a fantasy AU, the characters are changed so much that you could, theoretically, file off the serial numbers, switch out canon references and turn it into an original novel. This is also not strictly a bad thing—I've done it myself, and although that story never got finished, it paved the way for those that followed, so it's helpful in the creative process to recognise when you have enough material for an original spin on something.

However, for me especially, it is more fun to see and recognise the fandom characters, and then watch them navigate a story that is both unique and would not be the same without them.

Presenting Exhibit A: The Princess and the Dragon, a fanfiction for Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, written by my dear friend, @kohakuhime

This was one of the first fics of this nature that I came across in my wanderings through the blighted wastelands of FFN—Kohaku's fics were very much an oasis in the desert, so refreshing and vibrant were they, but this was her big fantasy baby, centred around a ship we both loved, and rich with lore and magic and mystery. It was also peppered with canon references, and all the characters were kept breathtakingly in-character—I won't get into spoiler territory, but let's just say I could hear the voice-actors saying so many of these lines, they were so good! My bar for this type of AU was set pretty high in large part because of this fic.

To be quite fair, Kohaku has said she could probably file off the serial numbers of TPATD, change some of the components of the magic system and release it as an original novel, as the concept itself (again, avoiding spoilers by going into details out of respect for this friend and her excellent story) is a fun twist on a particular trope. But although there are many original elements, it still feels like a Yu-Gi-Oh! fic, because of all the grounding points woven throughout, and how familiar the characters are.

This fic was not the only story I found that helped shape my approach back in 2012—there were a couple other fics in the Dragon Ball Z archive on FFN that also contributed, but they were both written a long time ago and I'm not sure they'd hold up nearly so well today. One of them was a fairy tale retelling (well, a Disney film retelling, but it was really good from my perspective as a fic newbie!), and this plus some other—shall we say, less interesting adaptations in the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom inspired me to write the fic now known as Wild Swans of Domino, which I'm not linking here because I am in the process of editing it up to my current standards. Seven for a Secret is, in its way, a spiritual successor to WSoD, though I do intend to finish the latter (and the sequels I developed over the years). WSoD was my practice ground for developing the approach I wrote this post to explain, and it kinda shows in the current version, because I started out simple, and then my brain started generating lore and places for more canon references to go and the story got away from me. That—happens to me a lot.

My approach with this type of AU comes down to one major point: If I am writing a fairy tale adaptation (it's usually a fairy tale adaptation that starts this for me), or some other fantasy story in an alternate universe which these characters are, for the purposes of the fic, native to, then both they and the setting must have some familiar aspects tying them back to the source material. The characters, especially, must still feel like themselves, or you may lose readers' interest, because "Benjamin Sisko wouldn't do that!" or "Seto Kaiba wouldn't react that way in this situation! Stop making him quote the movie's dialogue, it sounds so contrived it is painful to read!"

... Ahem, moving on from bad memories of bad fics.

WSoD and Secret are both based on a fairy tale I already have an original story idea for (several, actually), so I don't need or want either of them to be unique enough to divorce them from their fandom origins. Therefore, while developing them, I have done/am doing my utmost to weave in as many threads from canon as possible within the boundaries of the setting, and have also done my best to preserve the characters' personalities. And according to those aforementioned comments, I'm doing pretty well!

To be absolutely fair, in both cases, the fandoms in question are either another form of Fantasy or as close to Fantasy as a Sci-fi setting can get (Sisko's an honest to the Prophets Chosen one, for goodness sake!). But I do believe you can do this with any character, from any setting, if you put enough thought into it.

And maybe that's part of why I don't see it around as much, because some (often younger but not always) fic authors can have a concept float into their head or sent to them by another fan, and bang out a fic in a week that hits all the points they wanted it to without too much brainstorming behind it. Whereas I, a perfectionist and possesser of an increasingly plot-tribble-infested brain, can't make a single plot decision without pondering it for several days, and fret over little logistical details until I'm purple in the face (probably. I don't have eyeballs and thence can't look in a mirror). But I still think it's doable for any character.

To do this well, you must consider what fundamentally makes this character who they are. What traits would you absolutely have to keep (aside from physical appearance in most cases) to ensure this character was familiar to the reader who clicked on the fandom tag and subsequently your fic. If you ran across Sherlock Holmes in, say, the Pokémon world, how would you know he was Sherlock Holmes? Why, he'd be solving mysteries, and doing so by analysing all sorts of details, noticing things others failed to, putting pieces together that formed a solution others wouldn't have even considered, because the majority of those puzzle pieces were overlooked! And he'd probably be skulling shuckle juice when he didn't have a mystery to solve. And obviously he'd be autistic.

Are you imagining it? I hope you are. Now imagine a character, or several, from one of your fandoms, that you love. Imagine what you love best about them, what makes them who they are, from your perspective. Now imagine a setting that's different from their source material—there are any number of AUs you could pick. Now, think carefully about how you would write them in this setting, while focusing on changing as little about them as possible.

In Secret, Ben and Julian are both princes (this is revealed in Chapter 1, I don't mind telling you). The Dax symbiont is a Fae being magically bound to Jadzia, who is a mage. Their personalities are still familiar to the reader. Miles O'Brien has barely changed at all, because he doesn't need to.

And there's the single golden rule: When writing an AU like this, only change as much or as little as you absolutely need to for your story to work. You can, of course, have fun with how you change things—just check out Innate Conditions and its companion fics by @tokidokifish for a DS9 example (Cardassians are shapeshifting dragons! How cool is that?)

I hope all this makes sense. And again, this is not an attempt to dictate how you, personally, write your stories. I do hope you at least give it a little thought, though, if you haven't already. Most importantly, have fun!

[usernyoom]

thank you very much i downloaded lightroom on my phone

if you're up to share more in depth tutorials on editing and lightroom in general i'm more than down for that i would love to learn more

thank you for taking the time to answer

anon you have opened pandora's box i fear!!!!

the first thing I always do is crop. I wish I could give you tips on framing beyond using the rule of thirds but I don't really have any rules other than that! it is about the Vibes. and i tend to prefer portrait photos! the ratio i use for those depends on how much I want to fit into the edit most of the time

lighting has a couple of different components. exposure changes the overall brightness of the photo. contrast makes the difference between the darkest and lightest parts of the photo (highlights and shadows) more or less extreme. adjusting highlights and shadows is mostly used to get back detail from those areas. the biggest thing to note about these is that highlights and shadows have a slimmer area of control compared to whites and blacks, which control more of the general tone of the image

curves is a bit of a different ball game. it allows you to change the brightness of very specific parts of the image. however, almost all f1 photographers edit their photos before posting so I very rarely need to do anything crazy with them!

original photo compared to photo with lighting edits

the next thing i do is colour correct. temperature allows you to change the cool/warm tones of an image. tint allows you to correct greens/purples (e.g. if an image has a green tint you move the slider toward purple). these are a bit complicated and i recommend having ur brightness up quite high for these corrections!

vibrance and saturation do the same thing and increase/decrease the intensity of the colours in your image, but vibrance protects skin tones (doesn't change them)

once I've colour corrected i use colour grading and colour mix to change the colouring of the image. colour mix allows you to edit features of specific colours in the image. grading allows you to change the hue of the highlights, mid tones, and shadows individually. I have a few presets for grading that i use but it's important to remember that every photo is different, and what works for one may not work for another!

photo with lighting edits compared to photo with colour edits

the 'details' section has a bunch of stuff, but generally only use clarity, dehaze, and grain. clarity is a type of contrast that let's you adjust the midtones of your image while preserving your shadows and highlights. dehaze does a similar thing. for grain, you adjust the intensity of it, the roughness of it, and the size of it (bigger grain size for bigger image etc.). i only sharpen a little bit for most images as I think if you sharpen too much it stops looking as natural?

photo with colour & lighting edits compared to photo with detail edits

to do some other stuff that is a little more extreme/graphic style (???) it's better to use a more advanced editing app. to be honest, i use a free digital art app as it lets me change layers and blending modes, and erase bits of the image etc. this is also what I use to patch together original getty images and ones that have ai-ed out the credit bit

knowing what bits do what with to get the effect you want is what helps you get the feel you want. for example, I favour darker contrast for black and white images than I do for colour ones!!

hope this helped!!! feel free to send me anymore asks :)

[vamqiredove]

it is actually so important and crucial that you tell me anymore thoughts you have involving agitha and link, or just some of your tp stuff in general because i would Love to know all your ideas!

im especially intrigued by this au you mentioned whats that all about

UNDERSTOOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! will break this up into two bits hopefully its clear enough where the break into speaking abt my au happens

REGARDING THE BUG THING. just in general w/ where link is from [ very rural heavy in nature he literally lives in a tree. he will just bottle up larva with his bare hands. this guy does NOT get squicked out easily !! ] i think he'd not only be chill but enthusiastic about gathering bugs for agitha. i like to think that he's still got that love for learning in him, and hey, here's this kind of bug he didn't know existed ! golden bugs are cool and agitha will tell him about them ! she teaches him how to pin bugs ! maybe make dioramas together !

and idk. it's just a nice break during his journey. he gets to stop going doing hero stuff to bring agitha bugs and i think he'd feel pretty at home in her castle [ again, literally lives in a tree ]. it's a nice break from all the dull colours of castledown once he gets over his countryboy wonder of WHOOAAHHHH THE CITY !!!!!!!!!!! cause like .. the only colour for you to see there is really just what people are selling in the market.

also idk how to explain it. i tend to not really like knight/princess ships when it comes to typical het dynamics, they have to have lots of flavouring to them. but smthing abt agilink scratches the positive itch for that trope ?? link's not a knight. he's just some ranch hand that got forced into all of this. agitha is scorned by everyone around her. the only 'people' she has is her bugs. it feels very autism couple to me. and yeha. yeah agitha autism. the a in agitha stands for autism. you rlly do get her better than nayone i trust no one else to takl about agitha. kewpie only

MY SILLY LITTLE FUCKED UP AU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it's an apocalypse au i started up a while ago originally just of the FSA manga. its called of fire and flesh, which very much reflects its origins bc the 'main character' is red who has an association with fire lmao.

BUT ANYWAYS i decided literally today to make it a general lozverse au bc i wanted to add more characters to it. specifically botw link and tp link, because they're like. my favourite linkcest ship outside of FSA. worth noting that in context of the au unfortunately all selfcest stuff is removed bc they're all entirely different people, and for that reason, taking all the 'link' and 'zelda' and giving them different names for clarity

botw link is still named link just as a reference to how he's the only one you can't change the name of in game, tp link's name is twilliam [ A JOKE TAKEN SERIOUSLY he tends to just go by twi or twilli ]

link's got amnesia, and he's just been kind of floating around the big city for a good while. twilliam was a country boy who grew up on a farm and went to the big city for university. haven't fully decided on WHAT yet but i think he wanted to be a teacher !! anyways. he meets link at some point at the cafe near the campus and they become quick friends. twilliam is naturally already protective of him, but then WOW the zombie apocalypse starts !! the two were together when they evacuated and they've stuck together.

where i'm unsure of what to do is where to add agitha in. should twi know her ahead of time, or would he and link meet her once things start up ? i think, maybe, the three were the only ones in an area when the evacuation notice got blared out, and she stuck with them !!

not like super sure on what ships i'll confirm but in my head. twilliam is arospce bicon with two hands.

link ends up getting infected, and now with agitha here, it adds some fun extra panicTM for twi. link ends up being immune [ he's the ONLY one in the au who's immune. i decided this to reference his "basically fucking dies and is then revived" thing ] BUT he suffered a terrible fever for a few days and it was terrible for everyone involved.

anyways on what i think agitha's deal is, i really don't know, i might give her a connection to sheik and have them both be pageant kids, though while sheik was pulled into the industry and left to suffer his whole life for it, agitha left it. whether she was kicked out for being too "creepy" and "unnerving" or because she wanted to and her parents[?] listened, who knows ! i think i'll yoink your idea of "her mother left her and her dad died, so she's living on her own with whatever funds she has" though it happened later in her life to explain why she wasn't just tossed into the system given this is a modern world au. THAT or she's living with an aunt ? could do some interesting character stuff with that !!!

i think she'd also be very good at foraging, which helps them out a lot with safely finding mushrooms to eat..

...and i guess this could very well lead into crackship territory of agitha x botw link, because when writing polyam i highly prefer "they're all dating each other" with only a few exceptions !! that'd be an interesting dynamic to think about [ and if you DO have thoughts on it pls lmk ]

anyways this au is largely a product of me having apocalypses as a special interest and hating most apocalypse media. a lot of it is just male power fantasy and i hate it. the goal of this au is for the characters to eventually all come together and start a community that's a safe zone with the goal to thrive instead of survive. because in the end, i like when there's hope to the end. as much as i'm a downer about life, i like the fantasy to think that if the world ended, at least some humans could come together to rebuild and, y'know, do Good instead of barely getting by.

also like the usage of guns in these things pisses me off but that's so unrelated hGJDSHJGHDSHDSH

left out a lot tho especially because this is abt agilink and not the entirety of this au. but if u are interested !! i set up a blog specifically to post abt it once i start finishing stuff TO post. idk if i'll reblog my old posts onto it though because i'm unsure how much of it will be retconned [ probably not much ? but eh. i need to finish character profiles before i worry too much about the timeline ] -> @offireandflesh but i have a tag on my main/slaingelo of the au if you'd wanna look n read thru it but that's all just FSA manga exclusive stuff, bc again i only decided to include more characters from the games like. 6 hours ago. i have one singular ficlet somewhere in there that's just red and blue basically having a break up and red being certain blue is dead

[cherubidae]

Small worldbuilding comic on souls in angeliverse. I hope to do a couple more like these to present the foundations on which their world is built on. In case it's hard to read, I'll add all the text under a read more thing.

("Angeliverse" is only a placeholder name at the moment since I'm fairly certain the same or similar terms are used for other people's angel oc universes)

(1) Souls: a quick guide

(2) Every human soul is made up of all 12 elements and the proportions of such is vaguely equal. The body and soul are 2 different things for humans. Although, it isn't split like this!

Every angel body is made up of 1 element only. This will be from their origin deity. They will recognise their own element in human souls as familiar.

The placement and patterns in the soul is important. Angels can see souls, and through an art they call "soul-reading" they can determine basic things about the person.

Angelic anatomy is different from human anatomy. They are made up of a core, a soul, and an outer skin/shell to protect mortal beings from magic radiation.

(3) An angel bonding with a human is a contract and involves leaving a unique imprint on the human's soul (like a signature). This will also strengthen the human's affinity to the angel's element over time, while the angel will become more attuned to the human. This is very serious to angels, and is not a necessary step in human/angel friendship.

The soul is sensitive, and the mental state of the person can cause elemental excesses and deficiencies. For example, someone with a severe plant deficiency can be cruel and callous, while someone with an excess in metal may be forcing themselves to work until it breaks them.

The emotions affect the balances, but it does not work the other way around. Even for an angel, these balances are hard to correct and severe cases usually involve some sort of therapy.

(4) Wait, what do the colours mean?

Heat (red). Associated with passion, creativity, love, and violence.

Electric (yellow). Associated with chaos, innovation, time, and progress.

Light (indigo). Associated with hope, revelation, fear, and clarity.

Plant (green). Associated with community, family, education, and kindness.

Stone (orange). Associated with leadership, guidance, rules, and beauty.

Metal (can be gold or grey). Associated with work, survival, talent, and obedience.

Spirit (purple). Associated with hobbies, friendship, fate, and sentiment.

Wind (yellow-green). Associated with freedom, change, youth, and mystery.

Sound (pink). Associated with entertainment, music, languages, and wit.

Liquid (blue). Associated with emotions, identity, disease, and medicine.

Cloud (red-pink). Associated with travel, commerce, weather, and forgiveness.

Frost (turquoise). Associated with justice, discipline, reason, and suffering.

[davidmariottecomics]

You Can Always Restart

Ahoy hoy!

I've mentioned a few times over the past couple of weeks (mostly in the "What I enjoyed" section) that I've been reading David M. Willis' Dumbing of Age. I'm all caught up on over a decade of webcomics! Woo! There are a lot of reasons that I like it. I find the characters compelling. I'm a big sucker for slice-of-life type stuff that occasionally gets spicy and that tracks multiple groups of folks all just kinda living their lives and the ways they intersect with comedic and dramatic effect. Lots of Beast Wars references and acknowledgement of how great IDW TF comics are (and the occasional nod to TMNT and Sonic and stuff too). A cartoonist with the initials DMW when I'm DWM. It's great! 

But now that I am somehow caught up, I've also decided to check out their earlier comics. I've just finished the original run of Roomies! now. Roomies is a proto-Dumbing of Age in a lot of ways and that's a big part of what has inspired this week's blog about revisiting and revising your old work. 

You Can (Always) Redo

Yes, that is a riff on the Rebuild of Evangelion titles which are also a pretty good example of what I'm talking about today. 

Sometimes, as a creator, you have a good idea. Sometimes, you have a great idea. And sometimes, you do not have the ability to properly execute your big idea. There are a million reasons for it, right?

Just to look at Evangelion. The original TV series, somewhat infamously, always had a very small staff working on it, was running up against tight deadlines the entire run of the production, had various curveballs thrown at it by both the creator and the studio that would significantly change the overall plot and focus of individual episodes while in production, and ends in a couple of really weird episodes that may or may not have had budget problems and/or time problems of being created in a major crunch. The last couple episodes weren't too well received, and so the ending got rewritten in a pair of films. And then a few years later, Hideaki Anno and Gainax decided to do the whole thing again over almost 15 years with the Rebuild movies.Plus manga and light novel adaptations/reimaginings. Plus this that and the other thing (not to mention Anno's Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman, and Shin Kamen Rider, which are a similar, but different thing).

All of these versions tackle the same basic material, but due to different sized budgets and teams and Anno's shifting interests and feelings as a person, they can get pretty different. One of the things I really like about it is seeing how each iteration and even just escalations within each version feel like they're usually trending toward something truer to who Anno is at the moment of creation (even if I think most of the endings are bad). 

If you have an idea you like, roll with it. Chances are, you've got something, otherwise why would you be interested in the first place. But in recognizing your limitations--be they budget or time or skill or editorial interference or whatever--know that you can also keep an idea in your back pocket to try it again, but better. 

The Walkyverse If you haven't taken the time to read all of Willis' webcomics, that's probably fine. They've been at it for like 25 years at this point, so it's a lot to catch up on. The long and short is there was an initial series: Roomies! about college roommates. That ended and some plotlines were refocused/retconned into a new series, It's Walky! That then spun-off into two other series: Joyce and Walky! and Shortpacked! And a ways into all of this, David looped back around to the initial concept of a story about college freshmen trying to acclimate to their new circumstances (and being semi-autobiographic, but now with the clarity of hindsight) and started Dumbing of Age. Most of the cast are folks from the various previous series, but reimagined and tweaked to fit the college plot. Some personality traits remain pretty true. Some ideas that just got touched on waaaaaaaay back in Roomies! are refined and actually executed deftly. 

There aren't a lot of ideas I had when I was young that I revisit and see if I can't make work better now with my expertise and skills, but there are definitely some things that I've poked at here and there. And for some of my more recent ideas, there've been lots of things I've revisited. Sometimes it's a concept that I feel like I'm getting to the 95 yard line on but can't quite get across to the goal, and so I see if I can't run a different play and break it. Sometimes it's a particular script that I look at and even if it is recent, I feel isn't terribly representative of how I write. But when I go through these things, I always try to make it a new doc so I can still go back to the old and see just how and what I've refined that might make it's way back or that might make itself into yet another revision. 

I think there's sometimes an assumption that live performance is the only medium in which you get a different variation of a work every time. But you can absolutely revisit your older comics works and ideas and find some new angle on them or reason to bring back something that never quite clicked when you did it in the past. 

Wrap It Up 

In some ways, you can even do this in licensed or corporate comics. Brian Cronin has a fun series over at CBR called Wrap it Up! Each entry looks at two comic series wherein the plotline of one series ultimately had to be resolved in another. I think the most recent--at time of writing--was about Adam Warlock's series getting canceled and some of those plots getting resolved in Hulk. I bring this up because while obviously starting from scratch is an option, sometimes you'll be given a chance to finish your story in another way: be it a different series or a one-shot or OGN. I've even occasionally seen stories more-or-less wrapped up across universes by using similar characters (I swear one of the Wrap it Ups is about a Namor story that gets "resolved" in Aquaman because it was easier to do a light retelling and then resolve the story there than it was to get new Namor stuff going at Marvel). 

A good idea shouldn't go to waste, and there's often going to be some way to circle back around to it. It's just a matter of keeping those ideas in sight so they don't get lost. 

And, as an extra little note: I have said before, when I'm scripting, I tend to practice bad habits. I do a lot of one-and-dones where I take a single pass and then have someone else read it and only make revisions after I've had someone else do a pass. I also do a lot of batch scripting with rewrites--which is where I will write say the first 5-10 pages of the script, leave it for a bit, plot out the back half, reread that first section and do my first round of rewrites, then finish the script having sometimes almost completely rewritten the first batch of pages. Unless something is actually egregious, I tend to believe you shouldn't revise until you've finished a draft and can see the thing in it's entirely. And, no, you probably shouldn't just get stuck revisiting and rewriting the same script or redrawing the same page again and again until you get it right. But maybe down the line, you'll get the chance to truly do it all over again, the way that reflects you now.  

What I enjoyed this week: Blank Check (Podcast), Craig of the Creek (Cartoon), Honkai Star Rail (Video game), My Adventures with Superman (Cartoon), The Broken Room by Peter Clines (Book), Crime Scene Kitchen (TV show), Dumbing of Age (Webcomic), Solve This Murder (Podcast), Cruel Summer (TV show), Praise Petey (Cartoon), The Loveliest Time by Carly Rae Jepsen (Album), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Movie).

New Releases this week (8/2/2023): Nothing from me!

New Releases next week (8/9/2023): Nothing from me! Couple of slow weeks, but lots coming up the pipeline! 

Announcements:  I've mentioned it a couple of times, but I'm largely done with the con circuit for the year. There might be a thing in a couple of weeks, and if so, I'll be letting folks know ASAP! We're not going to be at Tucson Comic-Con this year. Love that show, but just didn't work out right. And at the moment of writing, I don't *think* I'll be at NYCC. 

This is kind of a soft announcement following them mentioning it on their Twitch stream, but Becca and I are working on a comic. We're co-plotting, I'm scripting, they're drawing, and their friend Duke who has lettered a bunch of their smutty stuff is on-board when we get to that part of things. If you're curious to learn more...

...Maybe join my Patreon! You get to see developmental stuff from this, and other work-in-progress projects. Plus this same blog, but without the part plugging my Patreon! And even more extra stuff! ORRRRR... join Becca's Patreon because they're also going to be sharing some of this comic developmental stuff! 

Pic of the Week: The neighbor's cat was chillin in our complex's courtyard and I managed to sneak some pets. The kitty is pretty nice, but often doesn't let people approach, so it was a nice treat. Or maybe it was the kitty's way of apologizing for frequently coming and hanging out on our landing and driving my cats wild. 

[kinocomix]

devlog 19: parallel storytelling, Devlogs are not forever...

The script for TSTW is 21 chapters long. I estimate we’ve reached the point where it kicks into high gear, given the (hopefully) plentiful space i’ve put in to get to know the characters. when draft 1 is done, i’ll be sending it off to my beta readers who’ll let me know the inevitable places where I left things unexplained. but for now it’s moving along well.

Today we’re changing gears slightly. we’re veering away from the world of granular storytelling and instead taking a look at narratives that shine in their simplicity. Last week we talked about figuring out the inventory our characters have in order to determine how they would solve a given problem. this week, we’re figuring out the deal with these two:

Let’s talk about children’s books.

regardless of what age group you’re from, chances are you have a book you were fond of as a kid. for a lot of people it’s something like the hungry hungry caterpillar, or maybe if you’re my brother you’re fond of the french series “Meche au vent” and “Martine” 

There is something to be said about how the books you read as a kid influence you as an adult, and that’s why I’m doing this. In the story, Killouette has a book she really likes. Obviously, we need to make that book if we’re going to show it in the story. I love doing this- it’s called mise en abyme and it refers to when there’s a story within the confines of another story. I think it adds a lot of character and life to what’s being said if you bother to put as much effort into the side missions as you do the main quest. Originally i had drawn the image as an unrelated thing, having recently acquired two plushies that I thought looked great together: 

and… that’s that right? 

right?

so anyways the little lulu show is an animation series produced in canada that aired in 1995 through 1998, based on the comic strip little lulu by Marjorie Henderson Buell.

the arabic dub of the show, very popular among older folk made the rather curious decision to name the show after Lulu and her best friend which is something that gets acquired in translation i would suppose, but works really well for us because then we can name our two characters Loulou and taboush without worrying about copyright, because another company called studio 100 now owns it after having acquired one of the three companies that made the show and god forbid anyone is allowed to have any fun in this awful ecosystem of companies buying each other like stock. 

But yeah, why am I making a children’s book inside another book? well mainly cause i want to, and if everyone is going to reject publishing my books i may as well have fun making them and be experimental. when I spoke about the camera being focused on killouette and her feelings, that’s great but this comes with an unintended side effect: the clarity with which my characters usually voice certain ideas isn’t there anymore. This isn’t the worst thing in the world, not every piece of media needs to have a message behind it. A decent chunk of stories exist out there because they’re fun and for no other reason.

Regardless, one of the ideas at play is the notion of problems being about perception more than they are solutions. we’re applying this specifically to how someone views themselves, so here’s what i came up with:

The story centers around Tabbouch, a stuffed elephant who has lost the button that’s usually attached to his stomach. The exact event that led to him waking up with the button missing is deliberately blurred and the question left unanswered, because that’s the problem that we’re trying to perceive differently, and I think it would be a bad idea bloating such a short story with things that aren’t relevant. Tabbouch is greeted by his friend loulou, a small fairy that looks like a bear and she suggests doing a couple of activities that aren’t going to vibe well with tabbouch cause at this point tabbouch is still really sad about his button being missing. tabbouch leaves loulou and runs into a friend of his who feels down. after cheering them up,   tabbouch sees that the world around him is very pretty, feels good about that and by extension himself, concluding that although he still does want to find his button, he can still live without it. 

it really doesn’t need to be more complicated than that. no one needs to know why the plushies are sentient or why they conveniently have small stoves… I say this mostly for me. the life of a chronic tryhard is difficult, don't judge me. What's important is that it mirrors what the kids in our story need to do. They have long term problems they can’t immediately address, so the solution is to see the problems immediately in front of them a little bit differently. with that out of the way, we can talk about the thing that makes children’s books shine…

the         I   L   L   U   S   T   R   A   T   I   O   N   S

so it should be no secret at this point that I don’t really stick to any one way of drawing:

this one is how i did all of almost home, real ink with digital colors

this one is just linework with a fountain pen

watercolor:

image editing/glitching

special shoutout to MS paint:

there’s more but I don't want to put my entire portfolio in here so we’ll move on. This is good for me because I have the flexibility of figuring out how I want to show these images. I’ll have to fuck around and find out, but off the top of my head here’s a couple of things i’d like to try:

any of the above

scanning the inked linework and coloring the linework itself digitally (maaybe adding large flat areas of color? limited color palette?) 

good old watercolor. I can't go wrong with that.

digital rendering with textures (this could allow us to use halftones for example, but comes with the risk of overdoing it. closest example is the very first image in this post)

paper cutouts mixed with real images

I like the idea of having each page be a linocut print, but i don’t have access to that, and i’d need to look into woodblock printing.

for the most part, i’ve figured out most of the stuff that i wanted to for killouette. so the next devlogs won’t be called “devlogs”... they’ll just be called updates. This is because beyond now I don't think I'll have anything too substantial to share since I'll basically be writing and doing set designs. I’d still like to post on Tuesdays, we’ll see.

Updates on tuesdays.

[whentherewerebicycles]

my beloved pups :) period started overnight and I woke up so sad. but I think the one good thing from this bummer of a weekend is that I feel like I’ve reached some clarity about next steps. I want to hold firm to the original boundary I set before starting this process: no IVF, at least in the US. truly zero judgment of anyone else’s choices but having a biological child is not so important to me that I want to mortgage my own future (and my kids’ futures) to it financially. and I’m genuinely interested in and open to fostering to adopt even though I have some nervousness around the idea.

so here’s my plan, because you know I can’t function without a plan:

depending on what my dr says tomorrow, I’ll pursue additional testing if it’s not crazy expensive. if there’s a physical reason IUI can’t work for me I would like to know so I can feel confident I’ve fully tried that option.

assuming there isn’t a physical reason and I just haven’t gotten lucky yet… I have gone through a lot research to try to understand the clinical guidance. I wanted to understand if the “3 failed IUIs = IVF is your only option” advice is based in good science or if it’s one of those things that people repeat to each other because they’ve heard it a lot. (I also wanted to know if it’s one of those things where our culture’s tendency to pathologize and hypermedicalize pushes people towards the invasive high-tech expensive options sooner than necessary). I am not 100% confident in my ability to interpret scientific data so you know, grain of salt but: it does seem like a lot of the studies that recommend the 3 cycle limit are single-clinic studies with small sample sizes. I found a more recent and much larger study that concluded that people who do 6-9 cycles still achieve similar rates of pregnancy as people who do 3-4. so it seems like the drop-off maybe isn’t as precipitous as the internet would have you believe. it’s hard to imagine doing 9 cycles (financially and emotionally) but I think I could do up to six.

I signed up this morning for the foster care licensing course online (in my state you have to be licensed both to foster and to adopt from foster care). I have to complete eight 3-hour sessions plus additional in-person stuff at the end. I want to set a goal of completing one session per week—maybe an hour a night spread over a few nights. I also want to use this process to engage in sustained reflection and writing about my feelings/fears around pursuing parenting by another route. it seems totally normal and expected that I’d have a lot of head/heart-clearing to do before I’m ready to tackle a big life-changing commitment. so I want to begin that work now. I would like to complete the online training by July 15 (and I of course have my own syllabus of secondary readings I want to do too lol). I’ve heard the home study process you have to complete after training can take anywhere from 3-9 months, so starting now will get me moving in that direction but won’t obligate me to make any big decisions for a while yet.

IVF abroad is still a possibility—I budgeted it out for one of the Greece clinics and I think I could do it for $8-9k which includes all travel and lodging costs (not bad if I also get a fun two-week vacation out of it!). but I couldn’t afford to do that financially or PTO-wise until November/December, so I think it makes sense to move forward on other fronts for now and keep that as a back-burner idea I can return to in a couple months.

and lastly: here’s a final emotional thing I want to register. as I expected it might, this process has been stirring up a lot of old buried gender shame, which isn’t specifically about my body but has more to do with that one quote people reblog on tumblr that goes something like I have always been ashamed of being witnessed in the act of wanting what I can’t have. my gender shame has always had so little to do with my gendered body and so much to do with the feeling that people are watching me want to embody something I can’t embody in a way that convinces anyone. I spent so much of my life feeling shut out of girlhood, and even though most of the time I couldn’t decide if I even wanted to be let into girlhood (my feelings are still decidedly mixed!), that feeling of being shut out still kinda fucks you up inside, you know? I feel like I’ve made a lot of peace with that old pain and a lot of progress towards expanding my conception of what being a woman means (as emi koyama puts it in the transfeminist manifesto: there are as many ways of being a woman as there are women). but it makes sense that when you encounter new triggers for old pain it would take a while to kinda recalibrate and find your equilibrium again. right now I want to have a baby—ie I want to do this human thing that our culture associates (strongly, insistently, at times punitively) with “successful” womanhood. and I am so far failing repeatedly to have a baby! I am failing even with the help of medical interventions that are supposed to ramp up my ~insufficiently feminine~ body’s ability to do this thing that “women’s bodies” are supposed to be able to do without help. like, one million scare quotes around ALL of this—this isn’t what I believe in my head but it is the deeply ingrained cultural script that’s been drilled into my heart! so I think a lot of the heaviness I’m feeling around this whole thing is just like, the old pain, the old shame, the old buried humiliation of being witnessed in the act of wanting something I can’t have. and I may need to make a bit more space for myself to do some gentle and compassionate excavating of those ugly, shameful feelings so I can look at them in the light and say: yes, that’s a thought, but it isn’t mine. it never was. it came from somewhere else, a tiny little fragment of cultural shrapnel embedded in my heart. I may never be able to remove it completely but I don’t have to confuse it for part of me and I have the tools now to keep its slow poison from leaching into my blood. I am whole as I am. I am loved as I am; I love myself as I am. I can acknowledge the old bad feelings with compassion, but I don’t ever have to ever go back to that time in my life when I treated shame as the only or truest truth.