#i don't really have manu favorite things

[dollveis]

10 and 11

10. last song you heard?

kingslayer by bring me the horizon ft. babymetal

11. favorite painting?

recently i've been really into rococo paintings in general, like a looot, they're so pretty

[ruporas]

apologies if you've already been asked this but do you have any favorite trigun fics? i absolutely adore your art btw!

thank you!!! and i've answered this on insta, but i don't think i've ever shared on tumblr... i'm not good at reading fics, esp long ones, because my attention span is pretty bad, but from the ones i have bookmarked, i'll share some that i like in no particular order

hills like white elephants (meet me halfway) - adlvnam

pairing: vashwood word count: 1.1k, sfw, vague post v.10 spoilers ‘I read a story once,’ Vash says, unsure. ‘I’m kind of thinking about it right now.’

i like a lot of adlvnam's fics, i find them very unique and creative in their execution, and their writing is wonderful! this was the first fic i've read from them and it's stuck with me ever since. others that i like from them are in manus tuas (no spoilers) and vox dei (warning for post vol.10 spoilers).

stay - Anonymous

pairing: vashwood word count: 2.3k, sfw, no spoilers “Hold up,” Vash groans. He presses his free hand to Wolfwood’s mouth and shushes him. He’s probably going for a stern look, though between his poor attempts to stop grinning like the biggest idiot this side of the planet and the way he’s patting him, it’s hard to take him seriously. “Stop laughin’. Where’s the keys?” “What keys?” Wolfwood tries to ask, muffled by Vash’s hand, and his tongue is a little thick and slow in his mouth so… something comes out, but it’s probably not very wordy. Word-like. Not a sentence, probably. (or, wolfwood and vash get drunk, bicker, and then share a bed together.)

i enjoyed the mundanity and silliness of this fic and i think about it from time to time... i think fics where one of them or both drink together are pleasant to read.

Last Summer - varilien

pairing: vashwood word count: 741, sfw, no spoilers You are what you love.

tags on this one are "sunrises, morning routines, coffee, sentimental" which caught my attention. very sweet and beautiful.

Rain - Kokohamstar

pairing: none, wolfwood centric word count: 768, sfw, major spoilers - post v.10 Ever since he was a little kid listening to Bible stories, he dreamed of the day the world would be washed clean and wondered what the rain would feel like on his face.

as most wolfwood centric fics, it was a gutpunch and melancholic, but still soooo.. augh.... the last paragraph really does it for me.

water bucket blues - fathomfive

pairing: vashwood word count: 3.7k, sfw, major spoilers, post trimax Vash the Stampede goes on the record about a friend he once had. Also about card games, cats, family, and some other things. "Start with a piece of the whole, Meryl said. It doesn’t have to be the first piece. Start with a specific. That’s what they mean when they throw around the words human interest. I know the pieces. Believing they make a whole is another thing. But she’s a broadcast professional and I trust her advice. Maybe if I can figure out how to tell one piece—like the story of Wolfwood as I knew him—I can learn how to tell the others."

i love vash pov fics and i love it when it's first person and this one in particular hits because it's his pov and he speaks, honestly, openly, telling a tale that he can't really flub because it's about the people he loved. i love how grounded this fic is in the present of max, i love how vash grows within the 3.7k words, i love how he moves forward with the world he's living in. this fic makes me teary if i think too much about it... it's really wonderful.

it’s a summer day, and I want to be wanted more than anything else in the world - goldenglitz

pairing: vashwood word count: 3.9k, nsfw, no spoilers Vash has the lung capacity of a man who’s cried for 150 years. It isn't like Wolfwood takes more than he gives — but like with most things, he barely keeps up with Vash. He works his body to the limit, even as his lungs burn and his legs and arms give out under him. They fuck like they’re on borrowed time. All of this makes it so easy — so much easier than just talking. Wolfwood would sometimes rather pull new and interesting noises from Vash with just his mouth than do anything else with it. Their own dialect: moans, groans, and four words. “Yes” — “Please” — “Vash” — “Wolfwood.”

i love all of their vashwood fics, they only have 3 but they're all lovely and has a sort of characterization to both vash and wolfwood i don't see often. definitely one of my faves, especially when it comes to explicit vw fics.

i think these are all the ones i'll share for now!!

[sayakxmi]

Finishing chapter 6 in Reverse1999:

Thoughts under the cut. Including spoilers, obviously.

Boy do I have thoughts. Most of them already shared with Yudja, as usual, but I felt the need to post them, too, lmao.

These bitches weren't lying, when they were saying that the writing of this chapter [6] elevated R1999 to one of the best written gacha games, because, man. Don't get me wrong, R1999's writing is fantastic in general, but the last chapter especially had me go through such a rollercoaster of emotions and opinions that I found myself changing my pfp to Kakania on discord out of respect. It sounds funny, but after going on and on as to why I liked her, I thought, you know what? Time for a change. I don't think I've ever changed my Sayaka pfp there, lmao.

Anyway. Silly thing first is that I was super proud of myself, bc in the 5th chapter when that plane appeared, I guessed that it was around 1914. And kept guessing until I had it confirmed in the 6th chapter. Listen, if it was stated earlier, I overlooked it, and I just went on my history knowledge & I'm very happy with myself.

Which also kinda made me go "uh oh" when I checked the date under some of the parts early on, and saw 1/7... and then I realized it was the USAmerican date format, so it's just January. Lmao.

Anyway, the chapter was a ride, and the sheer amount of dread it had caused me was something else. You just things were about to go horribly wrong, but I had no idea how and what exactly would happen.

Also, funny thing is that aside from the fact that it was supposedly super well written (turned out to be a fact), I also got spoiled on two things, Hofmann's death (I just knew she was going to die, not how), and that yuri was doomed.

Man, was that yuri doomed.

Honestly, I'm super glad I got spoiled on this factTM, bc I ended up with assumptions, which ended up being compltely wrong in the best way.

Ngl, maybe it was some internalized ableism from me, but I kind of expected Isolde to be the "victim" in the doomed yuri, as in, Kakania doing something that would cause Isolde to turn away from her. But I was wrong in the best possible way, because I think it managed to write a tragedy for the both of them that wasn't some form of character assasination.

I think the writers took a bit of a risk with Isolde that ended up paying off. I mean, they wrote a mentally ill character who causes lots of deaths, but managed to do it in a way that didn't demonize her, but also didn't excuse her actions. Imagine stricking that kind of balance these days... And aside from that, you can even understand what led her to that kind of state of mind. I mean, aside from curses and expectations and being deemed hystric, she was a medium for ghosts, which included ghosts from the future. I'm fairly certain she references both world wars when she explains things to Kakania, and all in all, it's difficult not to sympathize with her. And it's easy to see why Manus sought her - she was suffering, especially from her mental illness, and aside from Kakania, nobody really treated her with respect and gentleness she deserved (no wonder she fell for her), so she made an easy prey for them.

But, you know, she still got a bunch of people killed.

It's as good time as any to talk about my favorite character of this chapter, Kakania - it took me by surprise. The media made me really distrustful of fictional doctros & psychologists, huh. But anyway.

What I loved about Kakania is that she wasn't fine with any of this. Even if Isolde said she'd done it for her, to realize her dream, it was so refreshing to see a character be genuinely horrified by another character's actions, regardless of the intentions or mental health.

It's such a popular trope, accepting somebody who'd done awful things because of love, and I do like it (when it's well written), but it was so incredibly refreshing to see R1999 not go for it. Reverse1999 really said that it was still awful, and there was no justification for that.

By God it was all so painful - it was painful for Isolde, because she just wanted to make Kakania happy, and it was painful for Kakania, because she was essentially betrayed by her dearest friend, and indirectly caused so much pain and destruction. You'd truly want nothing but for these two to make up somehow, for Kakania to hold Isolde close and tell her everything's gonna be alright - but Kakania doesn't do that. And you know what? I fucking respect her for it. She values human life too much to budge out of love. Even if it hurts. Isolde has simply caused too much pain and destruction to swipe it under a rug.

And, god, the last part, the hypnotism. As if I wasn't in enough pain already. It hurt to see Kakania, who hates hypnotism with burning passion, use it on somebody she cares so deeply, and it hurt to see Isolde in the end just accept that. Even if it gave the Foundation a fighting chance against the Storm, it was still hard to watch. It still meant Kakania crossing the kind of boundary she'd never wanted to cross, and for yet another person to take Isolde's agency away from her. But in the span of this entire chapter things changed, they changed. And Kakania was willing to do anything to help, after indirectly causing that hell.

I think in a way that ending... honestly this entire chapter speaks volumes about the dangers of "idealism" and "meaning well". There's a reason why the saying "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" exists. Idealism alone can lead to a catastrophy, and at the same time, sometimes something that goes against your principles might be more helpful in the long run.

As Madam Hofmann had said.

Honestly, moving to another character - Madam Hofmann. Not gonna lie, if I didn't spoil myself that she's gonna die, there's a chance I would've grown more attached to her... but watching Marcus beg her not to die was still heartbreaking. In general, her death was painful to watch. For most of the chapter she was so composed, but in the end she was stil just a person, and being in so much pain naturally broke her. Seeing her fight with her thoughts, clinging to her more rational side was painful.

I also loved her relationship with Marcus, especially since at first I was a bit unsure, given her rather cold demeanor, but, again, that one was on me and my assumptions. Hofmann was a great mentor. [*] A few quotes that I especially liked:

I think I like this one especially, because it manages to explain the problem, reassure Marcus, and at the same time doesn't bagatelize the issue. Like, that's how people your age are, but that's still not great and you need to get your shit together eventually.

A different quote, from Kakania's monologue this time:

But anyway, last but certainly not least, Marcus. I'm gonna be honest, I don't care about her all that much, but that is to no fault of her or her writing. Sometimes you just don't vibe with a character the right way. That being said, watching her growth throughout the entire chapter was a fantastic experience, and by the end I felt proud of how far she'd come. You did it, Marcus, you saved that mission. Madam Hofmann is definitely proud of you, too.

What a banger of a chapter.

[happiness-of-the-pursuit]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thanks to @kiwiana-writes for the tag!! I did this back in like... October, and a LOT has changed since then lol

How many works do you have on ao3?

29

What's your total ao3 word count?

299,988 (though this includes 110,000 from the co-written PJO AU and 2,000 words from Manu's fic that I podficced to)

What fandoms do you write for?

Only RWRB for now, though never say never to others. I recently read Check, Please! and I've had some thoughts, but I have far too many WIPs for RWRB to write them rn. Also I have some ideas for The Pairing, but again, I have... so many RWRB wips...

Top five fics by kudos:

Longer Than Most | 26K, trans Henry accidental pregnancy (also this is how I found out it had become my top kudos-ed fic AH)

The Super Six Take a Lie Detector Test | Vanity Fair | 7K, YouTube interview

Let Me inside (I Want to Get to Know You) | 6K, epistolary roommates

Claremont 2008 | 28K, canon divergence where Ellen gets elected in 2008, childhood friends to lovers

(Dil)Do It Yourself | 17K, meet cute at a DIY dildo workshop

Do you respond to comments?

I really try to. But. I have gotten quite behind recently. I would love to catch up but it's just a bit overwhelming at the moment.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't really have any angsty endings?? but a fic @affectionatelyrs and I are working on is going to have an ambiguous ending and my joke is that someone should the version of it where things take the angsty route

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I mostly write happy endings, but I am going to say that Let Me inside (I Want to Get to Know You) is the happiest because it's kinda the tropiest

Do you get hate on fics?

Not hate, but I've gotten one or two weird comments, or comments asking about updates.

Do you write smut?

I do! (this is one of the things that's changed since the fall)

Craziest crossover:

The closest I've gotten to a crossover is the PJO AU, but that's not even an actual crossover.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes!! Super Six and the Siren's Call with @inexplicablymine and @read-and-write- was the first, and then I wrote Let Me inside (I Want to Get to Know You) with @affectionatelyrs. I also did the podficcing of the voice notes for love has a voice (and it's yours) by Manu. I've also got a couple more projects coming up with Jamie also.

All time favorite ship?

Well that I've written for, FirstPrince :)

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Unfortunately I don't know if I'll ever finish Baby's First Pride because I've grown a ton as a writer since then and I would want to redo the old chapters and that just isn't all the compelling to me anymore...

What are your writing strengths?

I fucking hate this question. But I am going with dialogue and humor (and humorous dialogue) which has been co-signed by others so I feel less weird about saying this.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I would like to be able to keep smut more concise at times, because it always turns into a Big Scene but it doesn't always need to be a Big Scene. And I've been trying to work on a particular style of writing which is a bit more uhhh snappy? I don't know how to describe it. But that's still a huge work in progress, because I always get more rambly than I want.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I definitely try to include it for the characters in RWRB who speak other languages, and when I do I lean on my friends who speak those languages as a native speaker.

First fandom you wrote in?

Officially: RWRB. For myself: HP.

Favorite fic you've written?

Honestly it's always whatever I'm working on at the moment, which is a couple of WIPs: Fire Island WIP, Parasocial Relationship AU with @affectionatelyrs, and my Big Bang fic come to mind.

But really I want to know what y'all's favorite fic of mine is!!!!

I'll tag 20 people, sorry if anyone's done this recently, but in case anyone wants to go again: @mainstreamelectricalparade @14carrotghoul @anincompletelist @littlemisskittentoes @gay-flyboys

and @songliili @gayrootvegetable @leojfitz @welcometololaland @rmd-writes

and @bigassbowlingballhead @eusuntgratie @captainjunglegym @cactusdragon517 @cricketnationrise

and @violetbaudelaire-quagmire @bribumblebee @nocoastposts @magicandarchery @itsmaybitheway!!!

[dontmixpaintinyourcoffee]

There is something so cool about the different horror strengths each DM has in their respective arcs. They're all great, but I think each of them has a specific shining strength that really stands out to me, and shows how versatile horror writing can be.

Cass (Arcs 1 and 4): Imagery

Both Arc 1 and Arc 4 have these moments that have branded themselves into my brain with their sheer visual power. For Arc 1 a few things stand out, but maybe my favorite is the Lads turning to see themselves in a mirror and their reflections having animal skulls for heads. It's such a simple image but with the tension of the surrounding scene it's absolutely perfectly unsettling.

And Arc 4??? Oh my god, the ghost slowly turning towards Zach and Daniel with a green spotlight bursting out from where her face hypothetically is like a human lighthouse- genuinely fucking haunting. So fucking scary. Oh my god. It's so fucking good.

Elijah (Arc 2): Situations

This sounds vague but hear me out- there are scenes in Arc 2 that I think absolutely thrive on the idea of the scene alone. As in, if I were to picture the circumstances without the context of the story, characters, music, ect., I would still find it scary. My very favorite is the scene where the Lads and some of the crew break open a door, rallying together with a shanty. Actual fucking chills dude. Think about it for a second- there are these people who have been trapped in an enclosed space with a ravenous beast by their own friends and comrades. They have been betrayed out of complete and total desperation, and they know that if they don't break out they will die a horrible painful death. And they're too afraid to even properly see the hopelessness of the situation. Even if they save themselves for a few minutes, they will all still die brutally and painfully, and so will everyone else. That's. Fucking. Terrifying. And deeply, deeply tragic. Which, personally, I find to be what makes the most compelling horror stories.

Chess (Arc 4): Characters

Man, do I even need to explain the Manus. He's so fucking scary. God he's so fucking scary. What I find most striking about him is his voice. Soft. Melodic. Most of the time he's hardly above a whisper. He has no need to play at being scary, or threatening, or aggressive. It is pointless to perform as dangerous. Everyone already knows. He simply is. He is exactly as dangerous, ruthless, and cruel as he acts. No pretending necessary. The way that he's played like this slow, stalking predator... He's like a panther, or a tiger. First and foremost, a hunter. I think a big part of what makes him so fucking effective is how he makes Zachary, and by proxy the audience, feel utterly helpless. You can be the most clever rabbit in the warren, but when a cougar comes along you're just meat. The way he dehumanizes Zach is genuinely haunting. It's not just the evil of the system, it's this horrifying psychological attack. He's using the fear that he instills in people to make them hopeless, to make them hate themselves. And that's what he wants. He wants puppets. He wants prizes.

("Prizes" in italics)

[dastardlydeacon]

Hello, again, i think, another bunch of stupid question:3

1- what characters spike and Pierre would be based on?

2- is Santa claus still being used by coca-cola? Or nah, like, he is green:P

3- is og zeus still can trun into other sega characters?

4- is there gonna be other remixes for the base fnf song, like fresh bf mix or random?

5- is alien hominid green?

6- fun fact about lemon bambino

7- is mommy gonna be milf in v3.5?

8- is pikaflame still being ash's main pokemon

9- what is ved guy favorite color?

10- v6.9 when?

11- is zeus a good just dance player?

12- what d-sides character would set a puplic school on fire?

13- does d-nene still have crush on pico?

14-why did Eduardo became homeless?

15- if like, tomorrow bf's parents were revealed, they would be bf's uncle and aunt?

16- does tenma already player sonic cd?

Now some silly ones

17- are there gonna be d-fnf designs?

18- is d-elon musk alive?

19- say a color that don't exist

20- espírito santo [brazil] flag 🏳️‍⚧️

That's all i got for today

I REALLY LOVE D-SIDES, and if you read it, thanks :33

huzzah big question list!!!!!

idk i don't know enough about them

who's to say d-sides coca cola isn't green, huh?

yes, his main form is sonic in canon

hard to say but probably not, fresh bf mix doesn't really have any relevance (at least not yet anyways) and the d-sides freeplay manu isn't gonna get changed so adding some of the new songs that are heard in it like the "random" theme don't really feel needed.

no he's more like teal or cyan

the only thing he and chester disagree on is chester's disdain for the polish

what, are you asking if she's hotter??? cause yes

yes its still the mascot in d sides

he likes the coler KAGENTA!!!!

idk thatd make for a good april fools remix once we get to 6.0 though

no he has 2 left feet but tenma, oh man, tenma can kick ass in just dance

DEFINITELY, without QUESTION has gotta be cyclops

probably

poor

ok so the wording is weird but i think you're asking if base fnf revealed bf's parents, if they'd be his aunt and uncle in d-sides. to that i'm gonna say no, greg and mixie would just be d-sides versions of his parents, conveniently with different names or something lol

i'm not really sure what this means!!!!

no.....fnf smells........

for legal reasons i cannot finish this joke

glowglong

what

[snufflepup]

I mean it's good, I could've sworn I sent it last night, but I was super tired so maybe not lol. I do wanna get them for completionist reasons, but its likely they wont come back cause theyre collabs with companies. They did a sonic collab before i started playing, and i wish i played sooner cause itd be funny to have sonic and tails and shit. It's really cool! There's these phenomena that just turn back time in isolated spots on earth in random times and kill everyone that gets caught up in them. The mc is the timekeeper, the only person that's able to survive in the storm on her own. She's forced to work for the st. Pavlov foundation to find a way to stop the storms. (Forced, because she started working as a kid, and her immunity to the storm was found out when she tried to escape the foundation with some of her friends and all her friends died because they didnt have her immunity. Its really sad how sheltered they are and how badly they want to actually see the world outside the foundation). There's also this other group called manus vindictae, they're trying to speed up the storms happening to eradicate the humans and leave behind just arcanists that. Humans were historically super shitty and racist to arcanists, so the translation of their name "hands of vengence" makes sense! They used to have the only immunity to the storm, but in the most recent chapter, the st Pavlov foundation managed to find one out too, but their immunity item can protect humans too! God I'm so excited about this game!! The most recent patch (2.0) takes place in 1990 in San Francisco and it's so cool so far! We got the first adult guy character in a bit and he's so so hot and cool! It's gonna be a struggle to save up for him over mercuria, the other 6 star that got released in this patch before him. Oh There's also like a good couple canonical gay married npcs too! I love how casually they mention it and how respectful they are with it. A lot of the characters are girls, which I don't really prefer, but their designs are so gorgeous that i found myself actually liking them a lot^^ my favorite character is an italian half-blood arcanist named pavia! Hes so cool, though hes just a 3 star :P. My favorite 6 stars would be isolde, lucy, spathodea, Joe, and jiu niangzi! A cool thing about arcanists too is that theres awakened arcanists, items born from concepts and arcane! Lucy actually is one. Her core is a cog, and she came into existance when the first steam engine made a sound! And shes immortal as long as the concept behind her creation is alive. her concept would be progression and advancement, and omg thats soo cool to me, especially with how her representation of that concept was the first steam engine!! I could go on forever, i love this game so much, ive played since launch and im so glad i did! Things have gotten better with her, but I still think she's trying to limit how much we talk, so I'm gonna try and talk to her about it in a bit. I went trick or treating yesterday, so I wasn't really able to reply sooner, sorry. Did you do anything for Halloween? I walked around so much it still hurts lol.

-ike<3

aaa maybe ? Tumblr can . be a bit odd sometimes and mess up !! I understand how you feel, theres some games and things I like that I want to have everything in as well ! Those sound really awesome ! I'm sorry you missed out (◞ ⸝⸝ ◟ ) That sounds really interesting ! oh my god that's so sad :(( The manus vindictae group sounds really really cool too, I can understand why they would . hate humans after all that ! The story sounds really really amazing, I'm glad you like it so much ! I think it's nice you are so passionate over it ^–^ He sounds . expensive . good luck getting him and saving for him !!! aaa yay ! That's good then, it's always good when there are canonically queer characters ! Lucy sounds SO cool omg omg ! It sounds like the game did things in a really awesome and interesting way !!! I see. . . It sounds like a really hard situation, but I think you're doubg the right thing by talking about it with her ! It's okay !! Did you have a good time ? What did you dress up as ? If you did !! I didn't really . do anything for halloween . I planned to watch scary stuff, but I never actually got aroubd to it . and by the time I knew it Halloween was over !

[hackedmotionsensors]

So....a lotta things have been going down but in a slow way that make me really stressed out and anxious. I haven't heard from my land lady about whats going on with the other room. I still need to prep it for someone to move in but I have a lot of things to prepare for as well as job hunting to do so I can't devote my whole days to moving shit around.

And I'm still trying to prep for Sakuracon. I still don't have a hotel lined up and I don't exactly know what I'm gonna do about that.

And bc its LNY still I can't get a template from my usual manu (not their fault. They'll be back in a day or so)

AND on top of all that my dad had to go to the hospital. He's a senior. And he had a fall the other day that he should have gone straight to ER for but he waited a day. And he'd been feeling dizzy and tired. So...yknow being a senior this is a massive stressor (for him obviously) and for me bc I live a state away. I can't just hop in the car and see him without 1) driving for most of the day 2) losing the days that I'm gone on the work I need to do (cleaning out the room/prepping for the con). He got cleared on the fall injury but had to go back today because of the dizziness and they're keeping him bc it seems like he had a silent stroke. WHich is super fun and cool because my MOM'S doctor told HER she might have suffered from a silent stroke as well. She's fine bc she's genuinely more robust and at least 10 years younger than him.

So on top of no money, no job, spending money to prep for a con so I can have SOME money, applying to new jobs and taking a bunch of tests for jobs that have nothing to do with animation bc the animation industry is fucking dead, being pretty much forced financially to split my apartment into a shared living space because the rent was raised (probably bc my landlady's spectrum bill was FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS HOW DID YOU EVEN DO THAT?), AND trying to make new merch for a con that I'm really worried about doing well at (because surprise vtuber drama is gonna be really easy to deal with and will absolutely affect sales thanks to people being absolutely insane and vtuber fanart was currently one of my favorite to draw AND sell) , AND JUST OVERALL STRUGGLING TO LIVE IN THIS WORLD WITH ALL THIS WORLD SHIT GOING ON.......my dad might be dying.

So....Yknow this hasn't been a GREAT February so far.

[angry-pinscher]

I've seen on iMia stuff about him not being an "untouchable" anymore and that he's not even considered as a starter both for bayern and gnt but i always thought those were exaggerations... until i saw your tags 😮

Why does the audience hate him? if you don't mind me asking :o

Hey! Of course I don't mind 😊

But I have to warn you, this is going to be a looooooong answer because there's no real reason. For me it's always stats speak for themselves and he's always one of the best. So it doesn't make sense to me, but I'll try to summarize my observations. This is just my opinion, so if anyone has other reasons, feel free to let me know.

It started at the beginning of this year, when things weren't going so well at Bayern, that the media focused on him a bit. On one hand, they love to cause unrest in Bayern, because articles about FCB simply gets the most clicks and comments. You always read about rumors about them here. Sportbild in particular is at the forefront of coming up with things. Most of them aren't true, but that doesn't matter. As long as people get upset in the comments. And they do! They really don't learn, it's ridiculous… On the other hand, they seem to have a problem with leaders here. They did that with Leon, Manu, Lewi when he dared to not score a goal for one or two games and now Joshi. This was strange since he was almost always the best player, even in games that didn't go well. But for the media he wasn't as good as he was a few years ago and then it doesn't matter if he's still better than the rest.

Then it's a little bit a German thing to always focus on the negative. As a German, I can't understand this in the media or among many fans. As soon as we don't beat supposedly weaker teams 4-0 or something like that, it was a bad game for them and people immediately ask what was going on. That was the case with Germany against Algeria in 2014. As if we weren't in the round of 16 at a World Cup...

And the gap between non-Bayern fans and Bayern players is growing. I used to read comments like: I don't like Bayern, but he's really a great player! as soon as it came to the DFB team. When it came to die Mannschaft, the clubs didn’t matter. That's no longer the case for some fans. Today I read comments like: All Bayern players should be kicked out! (it doesn't matter whether they were good or not) So you have the media that starts to report badly about Bayern, the fans that hate Bayern more and more and that was very interesting for me to watch. I hate it, but it's still interesting. Kimmich's character hasn't changed. But what was once called passion is now suddenly aggressive. When he used to cry when we lost at the DFB, it was said: At least someone fought! At least one person seems to be interested! Now they call him crybaby. Everything just becomes negative. Then of course many non-Bayern fans write in the comments on Instagram or Twitter and just hate on him (or other players). So it also seems as if a lot of Bayern fans are suddenly against him, which in turn is a great target for the media. And so the spiral continues downwards…

So yes, it's unbelievable what Joshi has had to put up with here for about half a year. But as someone who is constantly at home games and public training, I can say that his name is always shouted the most and loudest along with Müller and Kane. He is still as loved here as ever and is a crowd favorite and that at least comforts me a little….

Okay, the answer is actually a loooot longer than intended. I'm so sorry about that :D

[deldeldel90]

Sorry for asking so manu prompts at once there

4

5

6

7

12

18

20

21

22

23

24

+ 25 is optional :3

I am sorry to ask so many at once, again...

Awwwjdhsj!! DW DW!! I love receiving this questions :DD 

4: pairing that makes no sense to you; hmmm, there's no legal (legal as in not-incest and in the same age range) ship that doesn't make sense to me. everything has potential!! 

5: favorite platonic pairing: OOH!! okay, another favorite platonic pairing I have is Aurelia & syrah!! they have SUCH a good dynamic, top-tier. 

6: favorite headcanon: cat-like Blaine :D ahaha this has been my shit for a while, but just, the comparison really works for me <3 

7: least favorite headcanon: ehhh I don't really like any headcanon that depicts Blaine as abusive (especially as physically abusive)/evil/etc, just a personal thing for me :) hes my baby boy yk?? 

12: craziest thing you've done as part of a fandom; 

18: all-time favorite fanfic: aside from MM, here's another fic I absolutely adore, “run for your life” by deepestfathoms (https://archiveofourown.org/works/42268554), all of the fics the series are literally so good but this one is absolutely the best!! 

20: all-time favorite fanfiction author: ooh!! It's between eneliii (https://archiveofourown.org/users/eneliii/pseuds/eneliii) and JOYBOYO (https://archiveofourown.org/users/JOYBOYO/pseuds/JOYBOYO) on AO3!! everything they make is sooo !!! 

21: favorite fic trope; running away. Like, straight up: I love the fic trope of a character just running away from it all; ending up in a funky place, or even just on the beach. also kidfics—i love fluffy kidfics :) 

22: least favorite fanfic trope: this is a hard question… I read a lot of everything! But my least favorite fanfiction trope has to be when there's time travel in a fic but like Nothing in canon changes 😭 

23: age you started reading fanfic; seven or eight!! 

24: funniest fanfic related story: I once got noticed by a creator (Tumblr post somehow reached this mf) and when news reached me, I—absolutely freaking out—sent a bunch of laughing emojis (twenty-five or something in total) and I have not recovered since. 

25: optional question….. how are you? I'm doing good!! 

[incesthemes]

final thoughts: supernatural season 11

all right let's do this wretched thing

i don't even know where to begin. i'm trying to weigh it against season 6 as my least favorite season, but it's difficult. season 6 was bad because it was scattered, poorly written, poorly paced, and terribly executed. but season 11... i just really hated it conceptually. it was really hard to get over the hump and ride this whole darkness thing out—there's always a limit to suspension of disbelief, and i think when you're dabbling with real-world mythologies that limit is lower than usual.

now i think there were ways they could have executed this intelligently. like my comment a few days ago about how adding this The Darkness(tm) to the story recreates judeo-christian mythology into a form closer to proto-indo-european mythology, i think if the writers had known about the PIE creation myth and actually used that to inform their writing, they could have done something really cool, and at the same time maybe return to its "all mythologies are equal" roots instead of... whatever the fuck kinda christian supremacy propaganda they were selling this season.

not to go on a tangent, but say they cast god as manus and amara as yemo, they could have actually made a statement about the interconnectedness of (IE) religions and made the story less christianity-centric through that acknowledgment of non-abrahamic religions. i mean that's the root of all these religions in the first place. i mean the leviathan is tiamat, genesis is fix-it fic of the enuma elish, etc etc you already have the PIE influences in the old testament. the roots are there they just had to be aware of them and use them creatively.

so that's deeply disappointing. they were so close and instead of making something really cool, all they did was push some agenda that the judeo-christian god is the ultimate god and yknow i really can't respect that, especially after all the work kripke era did to dismantle that bias. it feels disrespectful to the original show and i'm not very happy with it at all.

i could go on and on about this in particular because i have so many thoughts about how it could have been handled better and more respectfully, but i'll stop there because that's the gist of my argument and ideas. outside of this i guess the seasonal plot was decent? it's hard to really gauge my opinion on it because i really just did not like this season conceptually, and my thoughts are skewed against it as a result. up to now i've at least been interested in the ideas they were putting forth, and my issues have been with the technical aspects of writing. this is... a doozy.

i'll critique the amara/dean thing. because actually this is my kink. or one of them. or an aspect of it. whatever. so i should like it. the whole "i'm being forced to love someone i don't or wouldn't otherwise" is LITERALLY my kink. i go nuts over this. but um. yeah it really did nothing for me. the blank stares and nonexistent affections between them did absolutely nothing to sell me on this bond between them. actually i liked amara's side of things a lot better, i thought she really put her at least 75% of her pussy into seducing dean, and i liked the innocence with which she approached him, like it was a given that he loved her as much as she loved him. that was good. i liked that.

dean on the other hand? really did not sell this. idk if it was jensen's acting or the writing itself or what, but i felt absolutely nothing from his end. not even a hint of his internal struggle, no fight or even desire, just total absence of anything. like he turned into a wooden board whenever she was around. really disappointing actually!! because it was such a gimme to get me to like this. i'm literally hardwired to go nuts over this exact type of plot at its worst or cheesiest or most poorly executed, and they still fumbled it hard. no chemistry, no struggle, no tension, nothing. disappointing!!! i feel like i got left high and dry here.

also after the incestuous high seasons 7-10 left me with, i gotta say s11 really flopped on the brotherfucking. there was stuff here and there, but they had so many opportunities that they completely passed up on. if you're going to have sam exclaim in his fit of magic-induced despair "you were going to choose amara over me" then idk man could you give me SOMETHING to lead up to it? obviously you can get it from context clues. the qareen episode has the ending scene too. but outside of that? really not a lot of substance there. where's sam's anguish? his despair? he's about to lose his brother, the man he married in a church and then cured of demon-ness and destroyed the entire world for, to some fucking lady, and he acts so impassive over it the whole time except like. twice? okay. i don't think it would have been so disappointing if the past four seasons hadn't been about sam and dean getting married and divorced and remarried and redivorced over and over again. it went from 100 to like. 30. sooooo quick and i felt that. i felt that.

now you could have fixed THAT by paralleling amara with sam instead of chuck (????seriously????) and having dean's central emotional conflict be about choosing amara or sam (sam being a metaphor for the world, life, creation, etc). keep the tension high by making it be a front-and-center decision dean has to make. he wants to choose sam, but it's hard because his soul wants amara and he doesn't have a say in the matter. she's bewitched him and sam is fighting to take him back and dean is clinging to sam while also reaching out to amara and it's messy and painful and sam has to watch his brother be torn out of his grasp. it would be a perfect way to continue the conflicts set up by the previous seasons, it would have made the plot stronger, and it would have fixed probably all of my gripes about the dean/amara stuff i just complained about because there would have been some externalization of this struggle instead of forcing the audience to watch dean stand woodenly in place for several minutes at a time while amara monologues at him.

like come on.

okay. i'm trying to tally up the episodes i actually liked in this season so let's see. baby was good, very creative and i respect that and what it was trying to do a lot. idk if i'd say i liked thin lizzie, but i appreciated the fact that the show returned to the roots of what soullessness means as established in season 6 through len. it felt kind of insane that every soulless person turned into a volatile killing machine when we had 11 full episodes of soulless sam showing us exactly what removing a soul is supposed to do to someone. it also might be one of the first times, if not the first time? that this show has acknowledged its insane lore retcons and tried to reconcile it with current lore. so i'll give it a gold star for effort. plush was good, as always i'm a big donna fan; into the mystic was inoffensive. i LOVED don't you forget about me because i will always be jody's #1 stan forever. love hurts had the extremely psychosexual samdean moment at the end BUT it also embodies everything i hated about the amara/dean romance so that's a hard pass for me sorry. the chitters was good—had a lot of good psychosexual samdean as the emotional core of the episode and there was that insane conversation between jesse and sam in the car that drove me bonkers. definitely my fave of the whole season, probably.

so 6 episodes? yeah okay. that sounds about right for the amount of agony i was in while watching this season. checks out. okay. (clutches my head miserably)

the finale dragged on for too long. i can't even blame it because it pretty much needed all four of those episodes and i don't even think they were particularly badly written, but four episodes is a lot of episodes to tie up the season. i also think i'm biased against this because i just really did not fucking like this season, oh my god. every second longer i spent on the plot was kind of agonizing actually.

and all the brothers stuff at the end just did not make up for what the season put me through. it felt... idk not flimsy, but in comparison to what the season gave us, neither of them seemed like very active participants in any of this and so the emotional moments just didn't hit for me. i can see the development on sam's end from "i would destroy the world for you" to "ok maybe i shouldn't have done that; i'll let you die now" but i don't really agree with it given that there are still 4 seasons left in this show. if they start getting healthy about their relationship now, there isn't going to be any intrigue left, no tension left to propel them forward into unending codependency and enmeshment. "we have to change" except they can't because the narrative requires them to be psychotically, irrationally, erotically codependent because this is a show about their relationship. you have 4 seasons leading up to sam's total and complete dependency on dean only for him to become normal about him within a single season? not only does it not work like that, but it shouldn't work like that. the show has done nothing but reward them for choosing their codependency (emotionally, that is; whatever happens to the world is not their problem tbh) over everything else. to pull an about-face that hard and not even have sam break down sobbing when he thinks dean is dead is just.

well it's just.

i'm just saying. if your entire reason for living, the only thing that matters to you in the entire universe, just fucking obliterated himself, i don't think you'd be fully functional and just a tad bit sad over it. sam got half his soul ripped out of him (they are soulmates after all) and he's fine? he can walk on his own, hold a conversation, barely even cry? after all that? after dean became the foundation of his reality, after he almost killed himself because he thought dean didn't love him The Most, after he tried to make a deal with the devil to bring dean back to life, after he caused the apocalypse 2.0 because dean was a bit cranky? so he just says "this is a problem and we have to change" and it's all fixed now? ok.

i'm not saying it's 100% bad (though i certainly don't like it, and this is definitely not the reason i'm watching this show lol), but it just doesn't feel coherent with the story so far, and it doesn't have enough support for it either, especially with 4 more seasons ahead. again: if they get healthy and normal about each other now, then what in the hell are these last 4 seasons even going to be about? it really kills my motivation to keep going, i'm not gonna lie.

i didn't mean to go off on that tangent. anyway i think i'm going to be petty about this and say it's my least favorite season so far. because at least season 6 had good ideas and its issues were almost entirely with its piss-poor execution. this? just felt insulting if i can be quite honest. i worked myself up writing this but i feel more confident in my evaluation of it. from the centering of judeo-christian mythology over all others, to the lack of focus on sam and dean's relationship and their spontaneous borderline-normalcy about each other, to the total flop of what should have been the easiest goddamn plot to sell to my kinky ass, i just thoroughly did not like this season. good fucking riddance.

i'm going to read some wincest fic. wincest writers always give me what i want 💖 i'll pick a show to watch during my detox later, i haven't really thought about it since i was so focused on finishing this season before my birthday (and thank god for that too, if i'd had to watch this then i would have been miserable). anyway that's all i'll stop complaining now :)

[irrelevant-iguanadon]

Sup new pinned post hi I'm cordy 👋

I have an art account it's iguanadonart or smth like that u should go follow it fr

Shoot me an ask if u want btw, I like to think I'm pretty chill.

The rest of my online presence

Redbubble: Irrelevant7

Art Account: iguanadonart

Reddit: irrelevant-iguanadon

Twt/X: IrrelevantIguan

Insta: irrelevant.iguanadon

Discord: dm me if u want it

Linktree: irrelevant.iguanadon

**linktree includes the above plus psn, steam, letterboxd, and stash (letterboxd but for games)

ALSO!! This is the link to the Operation Olive Branch spreadsheet if you want to donate :)) 🇵🇸

Anyways um fun facts about me:

Nonbinary/queer/demisexual yeah we love gay ppl

ADHD as fuck (I have the silly)

I'm in college!! So I'm a bit busy sometimes but it's okay!! Anyways I'm a film major (w/ a minor in gender studies) if you were curious

Speaking of I'm generally really really passionate about women's rights/queer rights/sex ed/aspec ed/trans rights so if you ever wanna get me ranting like hell send me an ask asking about something specific regarding those. Just don't be purposefully trying to get me pissed off at you about it plz.

I have some silly hobbies which include art (mostly just pencil/pen doodles and some digital stuff though), plushie making (that one is recent), and video games!! I love video games!!!

I also like fun clothes and outfits but only when it's niceish out, when it's cold I default to sweatpants and a hoodie 💀

Anyways going back to the art stuff I have a redbubble!!! Go buy some stickers or smth if you want!!

Moving On

Fandoms (this is gonna go in depth with each so they are titles for yee so just scroll past the ones u don't care about)

Soulsborne 🗡

I've beaten all of them except for Sekiro and DS2's DLCs (and the DeS remake but I've played the original)

Bloodborne is my favorite (and also favorite game of all time)

Fav characters consist of Lady Maria, Adeline, Simon, The Hunter, Lucatiel, Aldia, Hyetta, Blaidd, Marika, and Rennala

Speaking of, fav ships are (f or nb) hunter x maria, maria x adeline, lucatiel x (f or nb) Bearer of The Curse, and Marika x rennala

Fav bosses: either laurence or orphan of kos, penetrator, manus, smelter demon, sister frieda, and dragon lord

FNaF 🐻

I've been here since before fnaf world, I'm a veteran 💀

Favorite game is 4 but HW1 is better game play wise imo

Big fan of any nightmares, fredbear, springbonnie, rxq, ennard, funtime foxy, and roxy

As for like human characters, I love both movie and game mike, movie Vanessa, Cassie, and game Vanessa's potential

I like a lot of the big fangames a lot too, my favorites being the DSaF series, FNaC 3, and Super Fnaf.

I think the books suck ass (unless they're the logbook or cookbook <3), and the mimic is fucking stupid and should've just been a digital only thing, w/o a physical robot

I'm just salty about security breach in general

Game Theory/Team Theorist

This is Matpat hate free zone!!!

I've been watching his videos since 2015, this man practically raised me

My favorite channels atm are GTLive and Style Theory lol

I actually like his fnaf theories, not necessarily bc I think they're right but bc they're fun and he presents them in an entertaing way lol

Biggest Ash and Amy fan everytime they're in an episode of smth it's slay. Head editor Dan is super cool too.

Best GTLive series/vids are the murder of sonic the hedgehog, JRs, FNaC 3, Bad End Theater, the FNaF lore off, and Trombone Champ

Pokemon ⚡️

First game was white 2 back in like 2014 I think, my first starter was tepig

Favs of each category are emboar for a starter, white kyurem for legend, genesect for mythical, idrc about the ultra beasts, slither wing for paradox, mega lucario, and volcarona overall

Fav human characters are rika, prof sada/ai sada (same for turo), volo, nessa, Lillie and lusamine, ghetsis, N, all of the gen 5 gym leaders tbh

I also like pmd2 a lot!! It's one of my fav games ever actually

Pokemon Rejuvenation ✨️

I haven't played the most recent chapter 💀💀

I love all the characters a ton honestly but I'm the biggest risa raider fan

Sonic 🦔

This is a recent one and my current hyperfixation lol

Favs are Rouge, Blaze, Amy, Shadow, and Espio

Fav ship is blazamy <3 but my fav platonic relationship is rouge and shadow

I'm currently working a couple AUs so maybe those will be a thing on here evntually

No joke got into sonic bc me and my roommate watched the gt live tmosth playthrough together and we both got hyperfixated

Currently working my way through the games!! I just started though so I'm only on sonic adventure 1 and I haven't started the 2d list at all

Also trying to watch the shows but I've only seen the first few mins of X, and a couple Boom eps. I've finished s2 of Prime though!! Excited for 3!!

Also want to eventually read the idw comics but haven't gotten a chance yet.

All sonic girls are Sapphic btw <3

Hatchetfield 🎶

I've watched a few other starkid shows but these are the only ones I've latched on to

I've seen all the content up to this point save hey melissa

alice, bill, grace, steph, lex, hannah, becky, linda, and mrs holloway are my favs

My fav lib is tinky <3

Fav musical is npmd but fav nmt is killer track

Fav starkids are mariah, angela, jon, corey, and curt but all of them are slays fr

Heathers 🍵

I've been here since like late late 2019

Never seen the show but I have seen the off broadway slime tutorial a decent amount and I own a DVD of the movie

I love!!!!! Veronica Sawyer!!!!!

Chansaw if my fav ship by far I love them but McDuke is also slay and there's definitely reason to ship Veronica with almost any other student in that movie save Kurt and Ram lol

Big fan of the AUs where JD and Veronica are platonic besties ngl

Not a huge fan of the West End version though

I didn't know what emoji to out here bro

Sea of Stars 💫

Played it for the first time in December of 2023 and fell in love omg

Seraï is my fav love her <3

Every woman in that game loves women fr

I have lots of thoughts about the bosses I'll post about them someday

God this took me 2 hours I'm gonna go to bed now 💀

[idle-lyla]

hello, i haven't been here in years! so much has changed, mostly and unbelievably for the better (but never ever perfect).

a few days ago, i had my first real valentine's date. it was an absolute dream and a glaring reminder that life can be soft and it has not forgetten about me.

yesterday, we extended the celebration by going to Art Fair, which was also my first one ever. although tiring, i had the best time seeing so much art and being surrounded by people enjoying it too. art has never been my thing, but i'd like to believe i'm someone who has always been open to new experiences.

before manuel drove me home, we stopped by his house, only to discover that his brother and his brother's gf were just in the art fair too. we were then caught in an impromptu debriefing about pieces that caught our eyes. through exchanges of photos and anecdotes, i found myself growing distant from the conversation.

it's a strange feeling. i didn't have much to say about the art and i never really pictured myself getting to a place that could afford it. and so i just smiled and laughed when needed to. i couldn't identify with them and it wasn't the first time i felt this way. i remember how anxious i was the first time manuel invited me to eat lunch at his house. his family was respectful and welcoming but i just felt so guarded and so eager to please them. i couldn't initiate a conversation with them because i was too afraid to mess it up or to expose myself enough for them to dislike me. and so, i limited myself to answering their questions and making non-value adding side comments like saying how good the chorizo balls were.

although manuel reassures me that his family likes me and i've only had maybe 3-4 interactions with them, i am pestered with anxiety and i feel obligated to acknowledge it. i feel like an imposter not knowing what to add to talks of favorite country clubs, art pieces, or people in their social circle. it's as if i am transported to a different universe.

don't get me wrong though. i am my true self in manu's company alone. i have never felt so safe and so seen with anyone else in this lifetime. it means a lot to me that he is welcoming me to his world so it feels like a crime to act like an intruder in it.

at our last office christmas party, a boss drunkenly told me, "the only important thing is your relationship with him. nothing else matters." i've been trying to hold on to that advice. i owe it to myself and manuel to always try.

[pearlstarlight5]

Licensed Game Review #3: Disney's Tarzan

Year released: 1999

Developer: Eurocom

Console: PlayStation (played on PlayStation 3)

Funny story, my first attempt to play this game, it was a bad copy that refused to load level 7 (The Baboon Chase). Thankfully, the second time was the charm and I finished the game no problem.

As with any Disney game, the presentation is fantastic. Terk gives hints, Jane records your save files, the menu sound effects are bongos, the pieces of the bonus levels are Manu's portrait, and my favorite detail, that on the opposite sides of the T coins are hands. Since hands are an important motif in Tarzan, I really like this detail.

The sound design is also nice. It doesn't get annoying, for one thing. It is also great to have Tony Goldwyn and Brian Blessed reprise their roles in the game. Likewise, the obvious midi soundtrack is rather, nostalgic-sounding, especially the midi covers of Two Worlds, Son of Man, and Strangers Like Me.

On the technical side of things, like A Bug's Life, the Tarzan game has no "Continue?" screen. Unlike A Bug's Life, a game over doesn't force you to go through all the logos again. It takes you back to the main menu, which is really what the Bug's Life game should have done.

The game has 3 playable characters: Tarzan for most of the game, Jane during the Baboon Chase level, and Terk during the Trashin' the Camp level. According to Wikipedia, they had also planned a level where Tantor was playable, which I'm guessing would have been for the scene where he and Terk go to save Tarzan in the boat. Unfortunately for Jane and Terk, they play like Tarzan but more slippery and less attacks. Tarzan himself, however, is actually not slippery. The one complaint I have about Tarzan's moveset is that the knife isn't useful most of the time because it's sluggish and not guaranteed to hit. I think I only really used it in the Tarzan to the Rescue level. I don't even know how anyone beat Conflict with Clayton using the knife.

The main form of attack in the game is throwing fruits, like the Bug's Life game. This is an, interesting choice since Tarzan's usual preferred paraphernalia is a spear, which in the game he only uses in one level, but I suppose spearing animals and later people would have been too dark for a kids' licensed game in 1999? Wait, is the fruit supposed to be the clean version of flinging shit?

One complaint I commonly see about the game is unreasonable difficulty spikes. One level in question about this is Sabor Attacks, which I found to be fair in difficulty. It's the first boss and one of the few bosses where I actually bothered to memorize the moveset. Actually, it's quite interesting how picky this game is with memorizing boss movesets, because it's the only way you'll beat the bosses. I'm used to, for example Sonic games where despite every time Omochao or Tikal say to memorize the boss patterns, I never do.

The hardest parts of the game were Tarzan to the Rescue and Conflict with Clayton. For the former, the hardest part was Clayton's goons having way more of an advantage over you since they can throw barrels at you and all you have is the fruits. For the latter, I kept dying until I memorized Clayton's moveset and understood that I'm supposed to kick him off the cliff. But because of playthroughs I didn't fully watch and just skipped around, I thought there were be 3 phases. To find there's only one was a little anticlimatic because the whole time I was gearing up for 3 phases.

I would also like to mention the 3D aspect. It's really only used in chase sections, tree-surfing sections, Rockin' the Boat, and Tarzan to the Rescue, but it's just enough to prevent monotony with the 2.5D levels. It is also for the best because the angle you face to attack in Rockin' the Boat is unreliable.

One of the weaker aspects of the game is the tree-surfing sections. They fail to capture the x-treme vibes as in the movie. At the same time, the best take on tree-surfing would just be Sonic-grinding. If anything, that brings me to the idea that tree-surfing is better for movies, and vine-swinging is better for video games.

Verdict: Highly recommended to fans of the movie and Disney games. No truly annoying flaws come to mind, so it's overall a pretty solid game that holds up.

[mayakern]

Hello Maya! I don't know if you've talked about it, but how do you tackle the task of making a pin design?

I've seen many pin designs and as much the difference between artists' styles is understandable there are some that work better. Im guessing it has something to do with simplicity? Because some details might be lost when translating it into the pin and the limitations it conveys.

So the question is, how do you fit a pin design so it works and looks amazing?, because all your body of work is 👌👌👌👌👌

Do you like making pins?

Is there any insight you could share with us?

i’ve talked about this previously, but it’s been a while i think! there’s also a ton of youtube videos like this one that can help you out with the basics. i also strongly recommend buying copies of “welcome to pin hell” and “the inner circles of pin hell” by hannako lambert. she is a true master of the medium and knows far more than i ever will.

enamel pins are really their own medium and how much you can do with them is really just limited by your own understanding and your budget. you can go as simple and cheap as a simple line drawing with the “fill” areas left empty to be recessed metal, like i did for my bee pin.

working like this, because the metal linework is raised and unfilled, has the highest amount of fidelity between your original artwork and the end product. you have to remember that enamel pins are extremely small and so intricate work can easily be lost if you’re not careful.

you can also have the empty spaces filled with enamel, like i did with the anodized version of my bee pin.

this is called soft enamel. this also has a relatively high amount of fidelity to the original artwork. pins like this can also have special treatments of the metal, like the anodization above (i.e. the rainbow), that are only available for soft enamel pin or pins without any enamel. similarly, glitter enamel and similar speciality enamels are only available for soft enamel. i don’t often use soft enamel as it doesn’t suit most of my work, but it was the right fit for the bee pin because the recessed metal/fill did the best job of accentuating the design.

if you fill your pin and then grind down the metal so that it is flush with the enamel, this is called hard enamel. it creates a seamless, cohesive and polished look but because the metal is ground down, it decreases the fidelity of your line work. think of it as a tattoo: soft enamel or no fill is the fresh tattoo, it looks essentially as intended, though if the artist doesn’t know what they’re doing there can already be a loss of detail. hard enamel is like a healed tattoo: the ink will spread and, similarly, when the metal is ground down it may widen slightly. different factories will have different degrees of loss in fidelity depending on the skill of the workers and also how quickly they’re having to work.

the above pin uses a combination of hard enamel and recessed metal (the lines in the leaves are recessed). this is a pin with a very detailed design that can easily go wrong when not handled carefully. the recessed metal not only looks good and cohesive with the metal, but it also preserves a higher amount of line work fidelity than an enamel fill would, allowing me to be a little more detailed in the design. i also used cut outs give a more delicate feel, despite the sheer size of this thing.

and this is what that same pin looks like when made less skillfully. i would only make pins this detailed if you have history with your manufacturer and know the quality of their work—and if you’re willing to eat the cost of a bad batch. we’d been working with this manu for a few years when they sent us this back and let me tell you, i was crushed. this is maybe my favorite pin i’ve ever designs and apart from hating to waste money and material, it’s disheartening to see my work translated so poorly.

with enamel, each color must be contained by metal. it’s like a little pocket that you inject color into it. but, you can also screenprint on pins! this is a bit hit or miss, as pins are tiny and it’s super easy for the screen to be misaligned and have it totally fuck up your design, but when it works it’s really lovely! (the white spots on the mushroom and the yellow portion of the flames are screenprinted)

one of my personal favorite techniques with pins is to use the metal itself not just as line work, but as its own “fill”

these are the most basic techniques, but there’s tons more, including stained glass enamel and pins that are fully 3D sculpted, but i’ve never done those so i’d recommend checking out hannako’s books for info on those.

with all of this, when you work with a manufacturer, you’ll provide them a jpeg not just with the artwork, but with a “guide” for any processes (cuts, recessed metal, metal treatment, screen printing, etc.) and for the pantones. here’s what that looks like (the “x” denotes a cut)

if you plan to make a lot of enamel pins i highly recommend getting the set of pantone solid coated and uncoated books so you can accurately pick colors. also these books are expensive so store them out of the light so that their color remains accurate for as long as possible, because they will fade. 🤪

i also highly, highly recommend that you create a backing stamp for your pins. this is a name/logo that just gets pressed into the back. this not only helps people know where their pin is from, but also protects you in the case that a major company decides to steal your pin design.

and since i’ve typed up this whole informational post for y’all, here’s a quick reminder that my pins are currently on sale 😘😘😘

[dragonbeak]

Furry Weekend Atlanta 2022 was amazing!!!

For the first time in years, let's return to convention review!

Well, I gotta say, for a first big con to return to I'm glad it was FWA 2022! FWA has always been one of my favorite local cons, even if circumstances had prevented me from attending since 2016.

At the encouragement of friends I applied for the 2022 Dealers Den last fall, got waitlisted, and then received an email from Dealers Den head, Kay, about a month before the event. And I was like, okay!!!

So April was a big rush to produce new merch to make my FWA DD debut exciting! This included a new line of pride python pinback buttons, repurposing some Helluva Boss fanart as pinback buttons as well, and my most exciting, a new shirt design "Slither Slaughter Slumber" which I had been workshopping for years but put on the backburner with pandemic times and all. And woo! I'm so glad my shirt manus pulled through, Terminus Tees are great to work with, if anyone happens to be looking for a GA based T-shirt printing company.

Man, this was the fastest I'd ever sent a file to print, haha! Also my first 3-ink color shirt which I was a little nervous about because it raises the printing cost. But it was all worth it because furries loved the shiiiiiiiiiiiiiirts!!!

Muwhahaha, so this was my first big con to have shirts as merch. And, dang, they were definitely my best items. Which was very encouraging because outside of Kickstarter my Etsy shirt sales are like... eh??? For what it's worth I know I could have better and more engaging product photos but I don't know the first thing about directing a real photo shoot.

But huh, I've mostly been talking about the con prep so far and not FWA itself? Well!!! Lemme tell you, FWA was a blast! All the attendees were so nice, everyone abided by mask rules, everyone was really kind and said such nice things. I appreciated how transparent con staff, especially Kay and the Dealers Den team, were about running the event. Even if you could tell they were working really hard due to being a little understaffed!! ovo;;; Oh man guys, don't work too hard. Understandable, since it's the first FWA to be hosted in person in about 3 years???

And my fellow vendors! Wow, I think this was the most nice welcoming experience from other vendors. I got the most art trade offers ever, got to network with folks and talk shop. I also got the feeling most furry vendors already knew each other? That was very interesting. This was actually my first time vending at FWA in the Dealers Den instead of Artist Alley and I think it was a very good fit for where my art selling hobby is at now. I also went a little wild and splurged a bit XD;; Muwhahaha! Everyone had such beautiful art!

Since it had been a while since I last sold at a furry convention, I forgot how nice furry attendees are to artists TToTT Ah, everyone was so nice. Man, I left the experience feeling really inspired and more pumped than ever to make more art merch!!! But then... just as I was getting ready to relax after one impromptu convention... Momocon literally emailed me the following Monday asking if I'd like to get off the waitlist for their convention in two weeks!!! ovo;;; Oh man!!!

To be continued?