#i go more in depth with it on the twitter but basically it sets a dangerous precedent that doxing is okay actually if you're successful

[vinesaucejoelfacts]

FACT: Joel's full legal name is Joey Vnuts Johnson Jojo Skeletor, and he lives at 6969 Skeleton Avenue in BONEville Sweden.

[cardboardheartss]

KATSEYE D1 Chart Analysis

Firstly, I would like to congratulate all the members of KATSEYE who are about to debut tomorrow, wishing them the best of luck and a good legal team on their side!

KATSEYE are Uttara Bhadra Nakshatra girlies, meaning they are ruled over Saturn.

The group is about to debut, so I can not describe this Nakshatra in depth, but for a surface-level description, Saturn rules over time, making it the time lord and their Nakshatra is also under Pisces, and in Sidereal astrology, Kpop is ruled under Pisces (Sun, Venus, Vertex & Mercury).

From my interpretation, KATSEYE took some time to actually come to fruition, and now with Kpop finally gaining a lot of popularity in the West, H*** took the initiative to create this group. The formation, debut process, and content of KATSEYE are very similar to the K-pop industry.

Along with the selective trainees and members, they somewhat fit the Korean Beauty Standard, and I remember, this caused a slight uproar because there weren’t enough Black/Monoracial Black Women or Darker Skinned POC Women in the lineup, and the only Black member, Manon was only approved due to the infamous Paper-bag test, just in case you don’t know what I’m talking about here is the definition: “ Brown paper bag/Paper bag test in which, if you weren’t as “light” in skin color as a brown paper bag, you weren’t allowed to join certain social organizations, fraternities and sororities.”

To be quite honest, it is sad to see how set-back society is when it comes to Black female/Darker Skinned POC female representation, but we will still go out of our way and support Manon and the rest of the POC members! (sorry, I don’t know all their names)

KATSEYE have their Nakshatra lord, Purva Bhadra Saturn in their 1H along with their Purva Bhadra ascendant! Right off the bat, I have to mention that Aquarius rules over groups and communities, and this is what makes KATSEYE stand out, the members are of different ethnicities, nationalities, and races!

This is also their detriment because we all know, racism and the K-pop stans on Twitter being their usual deranged selves.

Saturn being in this placement could give them an upper hand of somewhat being the “blueprint” of being the first popular Western group debuting from a K-pop company, but we will see if this will ever happen though.

KATSEYE has a Uttara Bhadra Moon & Neptune, Rahu, and Chiron Revati. Once again, this group is literally meant to be a Western K-pop group. More of their Pisces influence will help them stand out really well in the West, because of the way H*** will promote them, and the Moon trine Punarvasu Mercury, along with the product of their discography.

Their Moon has really good aspects with their Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Ascendant too?! This basically proves my first point of how KATSEYE is just a Western K-pop group.

Now to the downside of their Chiron placement, the girlies could go through the following because of this: Struggle with their Self-worth/confidence, Vocal controversies (Mercury square Chiron), and lastly, signing a contract for a low salary.

They have a Bharani Mars, and as I had mentioned in my previous readings Mars represents dance/movement. The group's overall choreography could be quite fast-paced, since the 3H where this placement is placed, their chores could have similarities to how Girl Groups in Kpop have their ‘Commercial Dances’ where we see a lot of their arms and hands/fingers being the main way they dance.

KATSEYE have a Rohini Jupiter and Krittika Uranus, their Jupiter placement gives them the upper hand because they will receive a lot of support from fans from their native country/race. This is already noticeable with the amount of Indian and Black fans supporting KATSEYE for Manon and Lara.

Uranus represents individuality and uniqueness because it rules Aquarius which is found in the group 1H of identity, and Krittika’s symbol is the Knife, and from what I believe with this group, A LOT of individuals will mostly be sending a lot of hate to this group and it will never end because people will attempt to nitpick on irrelevant things for no reason.

KATSEYE has a 5H Ardra Part of Fortune, Sun, Venus, and a Punarvasu Mercury. Since Gemini rules over this cusp, I would not be surprised if this group would switch concepts a few times while they’re active. Venus being here could mean they will receive a lot of support/love for their music and creativity OR the members themselves have a genuine interest in music and creativity.

They also have a Hasta Ketu Uttara Phalguni Vetex and Lilith. H*** and G***** Records should avoid overworking these girls for the sake of their money, this placement could also mean the members could overwork themselves to prove haters wrong on social media. They should also be very careful with their styling to avoid over-sexualizing them and give them proper outfits that merge/mend well with the concepts and the group's overall image.

Ha! Mula MC, Mula is ruled over Sagittarius and this oftentimes represents foreign travel or just any foreign concept overall, how ironic because KATSEYE members are 5/6 foreign and they all had to move away from home to reside in LA for the sake of promotions and their career.

Lastly, Pluto in Uttara Ashadha (Sagittarius-Capricon) in their 12H (represents foreign topics in Vedic astrology). This group is a product of 2 foreign businessmen/CEOs, hence why they have somehow transformed/merged the two completely different industries into one group, and that's KATSEYE.

Pluto being in this mix, I hope the members care for their mental health because it is going to be a lot to deal with!❤️‍🩹 Wishing KATSEYE the best of luck with their idol careers!

And thanks to Manon for being another representation for the Black girlies in Kpop!📦🤎

[bastila-s]

Baldur's Gate 3 Screenshot Tutorial

Hi, I decided to make a more in-depth guide for my twitter followers, as I'm super limited in characters and formatting options over there.

For this tutorial, I'll explain how you can enhance your screenshots. I'll divide it into five parts: ReShade, making your screenshots high resolution, camera mods, photography basics, and post-processing. By the end of following all of these steps, you should have something way better than the start!

I recommend going through this tutorial downloading things step-by-step for the first three parts, as it'll help you to quickly identify where you've gone wrong if you have any issues.

1. ReShade ReShade is a post-processing tool that allows you to change the look of a game with an array of different effects and adjustments to use. It can be a lot to wrap your head around at first, so I recommend starting off by finding a ReShade preset that speaks to you from this page if you're not already familiar with using it. The mod authors should explain how to download it. I find 22:20 of this YouTube video to be helpful to introduce ReShade if you're completely new to it. This video is for the Sims 4, but ReShade typically works the same across different games. Now that ReShade is downloaded, we can get depth of field working within the ReShade. This step is optional. Depth of field refers to what will be in focus in your screenshot, and what will be blurred. It's essentially simulating shooting with a camera, like so:

To get this effect working, you need to follow this tutorial within the ReShade menu.

2. Making Your Screenshots High Resolution Typically, Baldur's Gate 3 is ran in 1920x1080 resolution, or standard HD (unless you have a higher resolution monitor and are running the game in 4k, in which case, you can ignore this step if you'd like). This is definitely an acceptable quality, but if you'd like to capture any detail, you're not going to get much out of this. To get a better quality image, there are two ways to achieve this. The first method is through hotsampling. Hotsampling is briefly running a game in a much higher resolution than your monitor supports, allowing you to capture screenshots with incredible detail, then bringing it back down to a native playable resolution. To hotsample, you'll either need to use the BG3 camera tool, or SRWE. For either of these hotsampling tools, it's important that you've downloaded ReShade, or they will not work.

Once you have either of these downloaded, make sure your game is running in windowed mode. If you have more than one monitor, you need to change your display to show only on one screen. Or again, this will not work.

Next, you're going to want to make sure you have a key set for taking screenshots in ReShade, as well as making sure you like the folder where your screenshots are set to be saved. You can find this in the settings tab. Once you have those set, you're ready to take really HD screenshots!

To do that, you want to set your game's resolution to 2x, or even 3x what it's currently displayed as. Once it's set, your game screen is going to look giant and probably run way off your monitor. This is a sign it's working! Once it looks like this, press the screenshot key you set earlier within ReShade, and there you go, a nice big screenshot should be in the folder you set!

If you don't want to do hotsampling, and if you have a Nvidia graphics card, you can download their their app, which can take resampled screenshots. It won't be as high quality as hotsampling, but still better than standard HD.

3. Camera Mods

There are two camera mods that I know of for BG3. One is paid, the other is not.

The first one is the Native Camera Tweaks mod. This mod allows you to move the camera around more freely as you're traversing the world, but in cutscenes you'll still be stuck.

The second one is the paid one, but it allows for total freedom within the game, even during cutscenes. This tool is also very helpful for hotsampling. Within this tool, it's very useful to configure your own controls for moving the camera around in game, as well as setting a key you'll remember for pausing the game so you can set up a screenshot. I changed the movement keys to be wasd and the keys to change the angle of my camera side to side/up and down to the arrow keys.

4. Photography Basics

Taking screenshots in a game is a lot like doing photography irl tbh lol, same rules mostly apply. You of course want to do the basics like making sure your subject is in focus, it's not too dark or too light. But some other tips for people not very familiar with taking photos to take note of are:

Make sure if you're taking a photo of a person, the top of their head is within frame

Try and either make sure someone is front and center, or in the rule of thirds

Pay attention to the lighting, sometimes it's too bright or too dull. Sometimes it's unflattering in certain angles. Lighting will always make a huge difference

5. Post-Processing

You can now leave your screenshot as is, or edit it further with a photo editing software! I recommend using Photopea, as it offers basically everything Photoshop does without the insane price tag. From here you can do whatever you feel is best to enhance your image.

And that's all! If you have any questions, feel free to ask, and if you get stuck anywhere in this tutorial, don't feel bad. A lot of this stuff is just trial and error, but if you're very persistent with it, I promise you'll get these working. Also I would just like to mention that a lot of this stuff applies to taking screenshots in a lot of games! So you can take this knowledge with you elsewhere <3

If you happened to follow all this, please send in an image of your Tav you took!

[olderthannetfic]

The main problem that I have with Youtubers who attempt to approach media analysis and fandom through theory and academia is that the vast majority aren't academics. Just being in undergrad isn't actually enough, contrary to the thoughts of many. Reading a Wikipedia article and reiterating what one may find in some Google, even Google Scholar, searches. Ideally, these would be topics approached by people involved in academia as a profession, people with doctoral degrees, who can discuss complex topics in a way that is easily understood by the masses. "What is the negotiation between gender and sex in BL?" "How does CMBYN articulate/complicate hierarchal roles within the gay novel?" "Could SnK express an alternative reading of the formerly isolated Japan?" These are complicated questions they attempt to answer in their video essays when they seldom ever understand the theories they employ.

Yes, I understand this can sound elitist, but as a Black afab person who is currently in a doctoral program for literature, there aren't "easy" answers to any of the questions they attempt to pose, and many Youtubers who primarily make long-form video essays lack the life experience and expertise to sufficiently discuss anything. They're usually too set in their thoughts to answer or explore the broader implications of their claims. Defending a dissertation forces you to do this. Forming a committee of experts in various fields and convincing them to aid you in the development of your dissertation forces you to do this. Being in academic and cordial communication with your peers from all over the world in your field forces you to do this. It's not easy to constantly intake new information from various eras and nations (depending on your topic), meld this information into a coherent essay, and continually make edits as you learn new information, thus changing your outlook on things. Also: it's really petty of me, but it's also incredibly annoying to grade poorly researched undergrad essays who, after some prompting in office hours, say they got these ideas on books, movies, and shows from breadtubers like Somerton, SZ, FD Signifier, or hbomberguy. Cue: me going to watch their videos and realizing they have no idea what they're talking about 88% of the time in terms of theory and application of said theory. Even the ones who frame themselves on being educators in real life, like Signifier, lack any nuance, depth, or media literacy to make a compelling argument if you know even the slightest bit of information. On the bright side, I now know why I've encountered several students with ideologies that are basically conservatism with a veneer of progressivism, or "conservatism in a queer hat."

This concludes my long-winded way of saying "Don't turn to Youtubers for media analysis. You're better off just reading articles by people who have to actually know what they're talking about. The majority of Youtubers (especially the breadtubers) don't have the bandwidth to discuss anything more complex than an episode of Blue's Clues."

--

I mostly agree, but I'd point to a slightly different problem. I'm hesitant to say that the PhD itself is the deciding factor, but I do think a lot of video essayists are insufficiently prepared.

I'm a big fan of Folding Ideas who does have some formal schooling in film, but I don't think it's that education per se that makes him great. He sets himself apart from other video essayists by actually doing his research and having an in-depth approach to his subjects. He doesn't resort to clickbait, and—here's the key—he often takes months or even a year to work on something.

Honestly, I think that's a big part of it: the hoops most youtubers who want to make a living at it have to jump through involve a lot of clickbait and pandering and a fast production schedule. They don't involve reputable peer review except by the court of shriek-y public opinion on twitter.

They'd like to present themselves as documentary filmmaking (which is essentially what Folding Ideas' longer videos are), but they don't actually live up to any of the usual standards of that either.

I think it can be elitist to say that someone needs to have certain letters after their name, yes, but what really strikes me about your average youtube media analysis type and the fanbase is that they want shortcuts.

Exploring the whole history of the gay novel so that you have enough background to talk about CMBYN means reading quite a few novels. Even if you decide to throw out all past scholarly opinion on the topic (which you shouldn't), if you're going to have a meaningful personal theory, you need to have read a lot of novels first. How can you hope to be the person providing the neat overview of the whole genre if you haven't familiarized yourself widely with said genre, and not just through a summary by someone else? That amount of reading doesn't happen overnight.

The trite, surface-level media analysis online is often from people who want to be hailed as great intellectuals but who aren't willing to put in the years it takes to do all the background reading and to develop their skills in argumentation, writing, etc.

Grad school is a convenient and probably faster way to go about all that, but I think you could do it outside of a formal framework... But you would need to actually do it.

I think it's driven by a bunch of people who were The Smart One in grade school and never learned how to work hard on long-term projects instead of pushing through in a sprint. They're used to relying on being the smartest to cut corners and do things before they get bored, only they probably aren't the smartest anymore anyway, and they mistake being smart at one thing for being smart at all things.

There's a real lack of respect for the entire concept of expertise.

[markantonys]

I came across a Twitter thread that said the set up for the docks when it comes to the Warder bond between Lan and Moiraine was handled much better in the books cause in the show they feel like the mechanics of the Warder bond was too vague/not explained well in the show that they weren't able to connect with Moiraine and Lan's emotional conflict in s2 because of it. And I am a bit confused cause honestly I don't think the books explain how the Warder bond works at all from what I remember. Just making a lot of wild claims about how everything about the books are better and how the show is fumbling when they haven't even read half the series yet (show first to book reader). Just this trend to shit talk every choice the show makes when you don't even know the full complete story is wild to me

haters: the show hasn't done enough to explain how the bond works

all the screentime across 2 seasons the show has dedicated to showing how the bond works which the haters kept complaining was a waste of time better spent on rand having swordfights:

like literally what do they want lmao some people will never be satisfied!

but the mention of the "mechanics" of the bond is interesting to me because i think we may be hitting upon 2 different types of viewers here: the minority of lore enthusiasts who need to understand every single detail about how things work or else they will be upset and lose immersion, and the majority of audiences who are content with a general understanding of how things work and don't get hung up on details, or will at most go "hmmm i'm not sure if this makes sense, but it's a cool story beat so i'm happy to shrug and move on".

the former category were going "but what weaves is moiraine doing now? did they actually unbond and now she's remaking it from scratch? i thought the bond was only masked? this is such a plothole, it doesn't make sense, i can't concentrate on anything else about the scene" during the 2x08 moiraine & lan beach scene, and the latter category were thinking "what a beautiful and emotionally satisfying moment of seeing them come back together!" and that's it. and probably similar for the rest of the season. if somebody felt unable to connect with the emotional aspects of that storyline, i would bet it's because they felt too unclear about the mechanics of the state of the bond and couldn't let go of that confusion enough to sink into the emotional aspects. (which is really more of a personal thing; my show-only mom was definitely keyed into the emotional aspects of this storyline and didn't get bothered about some mechanics being left vague. in fact, i think she would've just gotten confused if they'd tried to explain the mechanics in more detail djkfjg bless her.)

undeniably, the show does not explain magic mechanics in as much depth as the books do. but that is because it's banking on the very fair assumption that the majority of audiences don't need to have this level of detail in order to enjoy and understand the story (and may get more confused than they need to be if they ARE given this level of detail). i'll admit that s2 was a bit muddled on What Exactly Is Going On with moiraine and lan's bond, and i found myself a bit confused by the mechanics at times, but that never impeded my appreciation or understanding of the emotional aspects of the storyline because i'm someone who is happy to shrug and move on if the mechanics of how something is functioning in a fantasy story aren't making total sense to me.

also, moiraine & lan at the docks won't happen until the end of s3 and it's very very possible we might learn even more about bond mechanics earlier in s3 via elayne and birgitte (who will be good candidates for explaining some New Bond Basics that it wouldn't make sense for moiraine and lan to talk about since they've had theirs for 20 years), so like..........maybe they should just Watch And Find Out.

it's also very interesting that this is coming from someone in the show-to-book pipeline because i honestly would not be surprised if a lot of their base knowledge for how warder bonds works was absorbed..........from the show. and they just don't realize it. granted, if they started with new spring it might be different because i'm assuming new spring goes into a lot of depth about how warder bonds work (though i don't know for sure, i haven't read it). but if they only read EOTW-TFOH, they sure as shit are not gonna have gotten much info about bonds *from the books* because we barely spend any time with characters who are part of a bond during those books. we get, what, maybe a couple chapters total of moiraine or lan pov and then start diving into it a tiny bit more in TFOH with elayne and birgitte, but it's really not that much from what i can remember - and i can't remember very well, because i went into the books already having a very solid understanding of the concept of the bond thanks to all the work s1 put into showing it. i do not remember learning anything significant about the bond in the first 5 books that i didn't already know from s1.

it's also so strange to me in general to see people start with the show, then go to the books, and then start hating on the show because as a show-to-book pipeline person myself, all going to the books did was make me go "wow thank fuck for the show, it will fix X, it will fix Y, it's already fixed Z" basically constantly. it made me 10000x more grateful for and appreciative of the show and the way it's choosing to tell the story!

[menheramar]

Otogi No Uta Masterlist

This series has like 3 fans so I figured I'd make it easier for people to get into it. The story is told through a series of "movements," CD dramas, and a manga. It also has cute comics, posted on the official Mute Twitter. This list will focus on collecting sources for English speaking fans.

If you don't know anything about the series, you should start by reading this twitter thread by nemuruoogarasu! Feel free to look through the unofficial wiki as well, you can learn a little more about each band and character there. The series is mostly based on the bands and the characters, so pick your favorites :)

After that, listen to some of the songs. I have a playlist compiling them from the official channel here, and I have listed them below as well. There is no specific order you have to listen to them in. Be aware that some of the songs are not uploaded in their entirety, as some have to be purchased through the official drama CDs. The full mp3 files can accessed through amazon.jp.

Story

The story is a bit confusing to follow, and as of writing, not everything has been translated. I will be updating this as often as possible.

Basically, Otogi no Uta is about several bands fighting with special music powers in "Live Battles" against each other. This is in order to obtain "The End," a thing which can grant any wish. Those who posess music powers are called "Utaibito," which could roughly translate to "Melody User," "Musician," or "Music Person" in english (though I left it as is in the manga).

Comics

As of now, most of the comics are untranslated. They don't follow the main plot, and mainly consist of cute and silly interactions with the characters in their mute forms.

Some mute comics have been translated on the wiki, and most of them can be found on the official Mute Twitter. (I ran out of hyperlinks in this post but they are both linked above.) A few have also been translated by me and are at the end of each manga chapter.

There is also a series of short comics from the official website explaining some of the concepts in Otogi no Uta. I've translated them here.

Manga

The manga serves as a backstory for each band and character. You should probably get to know the characters a little through the wiki first so you are not completely lost. Each two chapters go over the backstory of how one of the bands formed and what their goal is and set the group dynamics and personalities.

Also to note, each chapter title corresponds to a song by that band! All chapters have been translated by me.

Ch 0 - Prologue (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 1 - Ensa no Roubitsu Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 2 - Ensa no Roubitsu Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 3 - HelLO wOnder WorLd♣ Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 4 - HelLO wOnder WorLd♣ Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 5 - Kazoe Uta Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 6 - Kazoe Uta Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 7 - Weltreise Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 8 - Weltreise Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 9 - Reine Seele Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 10 - Reine Seele Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 11 - Jyuroku Yaman Hana Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 12 - Jyuroku Yaman Hana Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 13 - Rinnegyo Kei Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 14 - Rinnegyo Kei Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 15 - LOUDBRAVE Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 16 - LOUDBRAVE Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 17 - Epilogue (tumblr) (mangadex)

Movements

There are 45 "movements" (and 2 overtures and 1 prelude), starting here. Make sure you don't miss the tabs on the top of the page to read all of them! I believe it goes over all the bands meeting up to participate in the live battles.

Songs + Drama Tracks

From my understanding, the drama tracks that aren't part of a "vs" CD go over mostly the same as the manga but more in depth.

Note: The wiki has auto translated lyrics for untranslated songs! A lot is still untranslated, but I'll do my best to gather everything here. If you find any links to translations, please send them my way, I'll be sure to add them!

Shuan no Gokumon - Setsudan Club (translated lyrics) Togabito no Shirabe - Setsudan Club (translated lyrics) Ensa no Roubitsu - Setsudan Club (translated lyrics) Setsudan Club DRAMA TRACK 01 Setsudan Club DRAMA TRACK 02

Hitoribōshi - Issun-Bōshi Komo Yūgi - Issun-Bōshi Kazoe Uta - Issun-Bōshi Issun-Bōshi DRAMA TRACK 01 Issun-Bōshi DRAMA TRACK 02

Blinzen Parade - Bremüsik Gutes Fest! - Bremüsik Weltreise - Bremüsik Bremüsik DRAMA TRACK 01 Bremüsik DRAMA TRACK 02

Rosen Melodie - BLASSKAIZ Ritus - BLASSKAIZ Reine Seele - BLASSKAIZ BLASSKAIZ DRAMA TRACK 01 BLASSKAIZ DRAMA TRACK 02

HaPpY uNBirThDAy♠ - AlicexToxic (translated lyrics) HaVE A NicE tRIP♧ - AlicexToxic HelLO wOnder WorLd♣ - AlicexToxic Alice×Toxic DRAMA TRACK 01 Alice×Toxic DRAMA TRACK 02

Liberty - Momotroop Imperfect - Momotroop LOUDBRAVE - Momotroop Momotroop DRAMA TRACK 01 Momotroop DRAMA TRACK 02

Note: I will be shortening "Mushoku no Sora to Warau Ito" to "MSWI" Ochiyuku Hasu No Hanabira Rinne Wo Mitsumete - MSWI Nehan Jakujo - MSWI Rinnegyo Kei - MSWI MSWI DRAMA TRACK 01 MSWI DRAMA TRACK 02

Jyuroku Yaman Hana - Kashin no Okina SPECIAL VOICE DRAMA

Fantasie Nacht - Bremüsik VS Setsudan Club Kaimei no Doukoku - Bremüsik VS Setsudan Club (translated lyrics) Bremüsik VS Setsudan Club DRAMA TRACK 01 (translation) Bremüsik VS Setsudan Club DRAMA TRACK 02

Hitorigoto - Issun-Bōshi vs Momotroop vs MSWI Keep on… - Issun-Bōshi vs Momotroop vs MSWI Rinne no Kubiki - Issun-Bōshi vs Momotroop vs MSWI Issun-Bōshi vs Momotroop vs MSWI DRAMA TRACK 01 Issun-Bōshi vs Momotroop vs MSWI DRAMA TRACK 02 Issun-Bōshi vs Momotroop vs MSWI DRAMA TRACK 03

Möbius - BLASSKAIZ VS Alice×Toxic ♢WoNdeR PaRTy♦ - BLASSKAIZ VS Alice×Toxic BLASSKAIZ VS Alice×Toxic DRAMA TRACK 01 BLASSKAIZ VS Alice×Toxic DRAMA TRACK 02

Oshimai wo Kono Te Ni - all (translated lyrics) Medorē (DJ Remix) feat. Issun-Bōshi - connected the songs of 7 units from the 1st series by Issun-Bōshi Otogi no Uta 〜CHRONICLE〜 ALL STARS - DRAMA TRACK 01 Otogi no Uta 〜CHRONICLE〜 ALL STARS -DRAMA TRACK 02 Otogi no Uta 〜CHRONICLE〜 ALL STARS -DRAMA TRACK 03

[stalwart-spirit]

16. Do you have the same OC (broadly speaking) across multiple fandoms or settings?

I saw that the answer to this is 'yes,' but I figured this would be a good excuse for you to talk about what bits carried over and which parts you shed to put 'em into FFXIV better and such!

I start levitating ominously. You do not know what you have started (thank you though, I love talking about my characters!)

As you said, yes, all my characters have started off elsewhere before FFXIV, mostly just lil guys I make up in my head! I'll take this chance to go into a little more depth though, since I can source some development art for some of them!

Saeed is a good example, since he goes back to 2016! I don't have any art I'm willing to share for this initial version of him cause it's so old and so basic, but he was made for a duel roleplay and art group back on deviantART, back when you had to draw out and write full applications for roleplay groups and contribute both roleplays and art to get little rewards and be involved in the plot!

Fast forward to 2020, and I decided to revamp him and use him for another roleplay group (same vibe as above, but based on Discord but hosting art and writing via dA)

These were actually some of the concept sketches I made to get a feeling of him! And yes, that IS an Emet-Selch quote I used for some dialogue, I'd literally just finished SHB I think when I made him. As you can tell, he had COMPLETELY different vibes to what he has now. More of a bastard, not someone that people could get along with, a lot more selfish.

Then I started playing FFXIV, and through that I met my D&D group who asked for me to join their group and current campaign in 2021. When thinking of who to make, I thought "Huh, party doesn't have a rogue or someone who can deception their way through things... I know a character I could use who does that-"

Above is some concepting sketches and other stuff from when I was first making him. Some of his old personality remained, but in the end it ended up being developed as he was like that due to some trauma, and eventually grew out of it and ended up being party dad with some wonderfully warm and close bonds with the party!

2023, I still adore this finale painting I made for the whole party upon campaign ending <3

Just as the campaign was wrapping up was when I added Saeed to FFXIV as an alt but now he's become my main! Honestly still shocked at how pretty damn close I managed to get him considering FFXIV's chargen limitations!

It's kinda what I do though, I get attatched and still wanna write and roleplay a character actively with others. His plot honestly transferred over super well, keeping the plot as a rogue rising to a position he never intially expected, fighting against a corrupt empire (though in D&D it was his own empire home that was being corrupted internally).

I also happen to play him in other games, like I have him in GW2 (no plot, no pics to share cause that's just when I take the nostalgic urge to play Baby's First MMO again) and he's also my Drifter in Warframe!

I could go on endlessly about all my other characters, especially since Saeed isn't my oldest in terms of creation, but this is already quite long, and they follow a smiliar pattern!

Also shameless plug, I have more art of him both on my Twitter and my website :^)

[digi-lov]

-DIGI-LOV BLOG GUIDE-

See also @poke-lov & @onepiece-lov !

If you want to support me, feel free to leave a tip at my ko-fi page!

Basics about myself at the bottom down below!

> [Digimon Card Game Fan Made Online Simulators] > [Digi-Lov's Card Template] > [Token Cards] > [Sistermon Noir English Edit Masterpost]

I use #digi lov reblog for anything I reblog, in case you only wanna see original posts, and I use #not cards for posts not related to the card game.

Digimon that were requested by you can be found in the tag #fan favorites

Any asks that I've answered can be found under #lov asks

You can find all posts with any references in the tag #digimon references

If you're looking for my longer in depth posts, go to #lov rambles

If you wanna check out my posts about recolors and subspecies, go to #subspecies

You can also search for posts by the Digimon name, like #Palmon, the card artist, like #tonamikanji, by the set #BT5, or by the referenced Game title, like #Digimon World Re:Digitize , or #Digimon World next 0rder (Full game List below)

Note: Human characters are always First Name Last Name, even with the japanese names, so that I don't have to tag double if the characters name wasn't changed. Ex.: [Sora Takenouchi] vs. [Sora Takenouchi, Takenouchi Sora]

I also recently started tagging all posts by color, type, level and traits!

#color: red , #color: blue , #color: yellow , #color: green , #color: black , #color: purple , #color: white

#digimon card , #tamer card , #option card

#Lv2 , #Lv3 , #Lv4 , #Lv5 , #Lv6 , #Lv7

#type: virus , #type: data , #type: vaccine , #type: free , #type: unknown

#trait: angel , #trait: beast , #trait: mutant , #trait: cyborg

#trait: x antibody , #trait: royal knights

Games:

#Digimon World , #Digimon World 2 , #Digimon World 3 (/2003) , #Digimon World X (Digimon World 4) , #Digimon World Re:Digitize (and Decode) , #Digimon World next 0rder , #Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth

#Pocket Digimon World , #Digimon World Digital Card Arena , #Digimon World Digital Card Battle

#Digimon Battle Spirit , #Digimon Tamers Battle Evolution (Rumble Arena) , #Digimon Savers Another Mission (Digimon World Data Squad)

#Digimon Battle Terminal 02 , #Digimon Links , #Digimon Anode Cathode Tamer

I also added tags for the numblock which might be involved to determine rotations in the future? #num: 00 , #num: 01 , #num: 02 , #num: 03

These are just examples, so be sure to search for whatever you're interested in!

You're always welcome to send me asks!

About Me:

You can call me Lov! My name is Lou, the Blog name is a play on writing my name with v as the u and Love for Digimon.

I grew up watching the German Digimon Dub, and also played a lot of Digimon World, DW 2003, Rumble Arena, and more, in my childhood.

I haven't played all Digimon games yet, but I'm working on it!

I love all original Digimon Anime seasons, Adventure to Savers. I haven't gotten around to watching any newer ones myself yet.

My favorite Digimon is Bearmon! If I had a Bearmon Partner Digimon, this would be the evolution line:

YukimiBotamon > Kapurimon > Bearmon > Gryzmon > Pandamon > Dianamon

I mostly try to post cards in English to make the card text more accesible to everyone. If you see a post with Japanese Card text, I'll update it once the English version is out.

The Official Digimon Card Game Twitter didn't start sharing cards regularly until around BT-08, and anything before BT-05 is especially hard to find. I usually have to edit multiple versions of the image together. I hope you all appreciate the effort!

[diezmil10000]

Hi hi, hope you're doing well!! Wanted to ask if you could explain how you pick colours! They're always so appealing to look at... (If you could also explain how you pick blush colours it'd be great! I never manage to pick good ones, no matter how hard I try :'))

hi anon, i'm doing fine!! it's summer right now where i live and that's healing all my problems (��◡⁠ ⁠ω⁠ ⁠◡⁠)

i have recorded the process of some of my drawings and everything is posted in my youtube channel (in twitter too), so i'll drop the link here and try my best to explain the coloring part to you. the short answer is that none of the colors you see in my drawings are similar to those i initially picked.

i try to keep my lineart loose but i pay attention to the outlines so i can quickly select the outer parts, invert the selection and fill it with the bucket tool. my base colors are all 100% opaque and i don't use any fancy brushes here.

as to how i pick colors, i never use the color picker tool, i eyeball everything. that's important for me because i tend to make all of them warmer: the greens are dark yellows, the pinks are light reds, and everything that's close to blue is very desaturated. i do this even for drawings that turn out much different later, unless i have a very specific vibe in mind from the beginning. i also never use pure whites for anything, and if something is black i make it part of the lineart.

then i always color my lineart!! there's no trick to that, the layer is in normal mode and i just paint it with a darker color than what's below it. i usually add the shadows and highlights at this stage of the drawing too. you're going to kill me for this but shade with gray set in color burn or linear burn (never multiply). i just don't want to think about color variety at this stage because it makes things more difficult for later. sometimes i add textures and some basic color correction here (curves, color balance, layers set in overlay, etc.) but i mostly leave that for the next part.

as to how i choose blush colors, i usually pick the base color and move it towards the saturated end of the color wheel, and a bit more pink. sometimes i add a multiply layer and airbrush hot red over the base colors at low opacity. coloring the lineart with hot colors surrounding the blush areas helps a lot too :)

i also almost always duplicate the lineart, blur it and set it in linear burn (i paint this layer in a light gray). this adds a lot of depth to the drawing, especially if later combined with the bloom effect.

the key to why the colors in my art pop so much is that i don't enjoy drawing as much as i enjoy postprocessing pictures 😂🤣😅👌✌️👍 once i'm satisfied with the "base" colors i merge everything except the background, open a new canvas and go crazy with filters and textures. that's why i use ibispaint X even if i do the lineart elsewhere (krita), and even if it works a bit wonky with big canvases.

i do something different for each drawing here, so first i'm going to explain my reasoning so that you understand my process: i used to have a problem of using very strong colors that overshadowed my beloved lineart into which i had put a lot of effort, so my goal nowadays is to make everything look less contrasted without losing the visual impact of saturated colors. that way the lineart remains a strong point and not just a way to separate one color from another.

what i usually do is duplicate the new merged layer, set it to exclusion mode, add a gradient map and play with the opacity. then i duplicate that and do the same thing with another gradient or another blending mode. i tend to add like 3-6 layers of bullshit over my drawings, including textures and other filters like "bloom" or "sharpen". i understand everything that's going on there but i don't think too deeply about it, i just pick whatever looks best.

for the final touches i always pull up the saturation and contrast (since a lot of it gets lost in the process), and i usually have to manually change some colors (ibispaint X has a filter to do that) or tweak the curves. then i add chromatic aberration, noise set to overlay and little polka dots set to linear dodge.

here are some comparisons of the before and after of recent drawings. the 1st one is very subtle, but you can clearly see how much warmth and depth it gains it gets after all the postprocessing. the 2nd one is so different that i understand why you're curious about how i pick colors. i don't think i can replicate that look just from picking nice colors, there's a lot more going on!! the 3rd one personally feels like it had potential lost (i liked the yellow highlights), but the colors were too strong and all over the place, so the finished result looks more intimate and calm and i like it a lot more.

thank you for the interest anon, i'm very happy that you like the way i color things and i hope i have explained myself. good luck with your own journey!!

[jo-castle]

Women In Whump, Online Articles

Read this article and others on our website.

Training Tips For First Time Boxie Owners

by Indigo Rose

I get a lot of questions from readers asking about the best way to train their new boxie. Of course, any reputable boxie agency will have tutorials and suggestions, but our readers are looking for more than just basic training. They're looking for holistic training that will create a bond between them and their new boxie. Trained up right, a boxie can feel like a member of the family.

There are many different techniques to training boxies, and in the end it will be up to you to decide what is right for you and your boxie. Every boxie is different, after all. Today I want to introduce you to a technique that can be applied to many methods, and that is consistency.

Consistency is a technique of being predictable so that your boxie knows what to expect. Studies show that boxies are more likely to retain their training if they know how you'll respond.

Training Tips For First Time Boxie Owners

1. Determine your boundaries.

First, you're going to have to take a moment to look inside yourself. What do you want from this relationship? What do you need from your boxie? If you don't know what you need, your boxie won't know either. A good boxie will be confused in their failure to please, and a bad boxie may even exploit your lenience. Knowing what you need from them is the most important thing you can do.

2. Figure out what your boxie is capable of.

Now that you know what you need from your boxie, can they do it? Ideally, this should be done before you ever order your boxie. Getting a domestic when you want a romantic, picking up a referb when you're looking for a low maintenance new boxie, can be big mistakes for first time boxie owners. The reason there are so many boxies in fostering or referb programs is because the owners doesn't get the right one on the first try. Make sure the boxie you get is able to perform the way you want it to.

3. Be predictable.

Predictability is important for the comfort of your boxie. I don't mean doing the same thing every single day, but I do mean having the same reaction to thing. If you lay down a boundary, hold to it. If you say no, the answer is no. If you give a treat to reward good behavior, always give a treat. This way your boxie knows what to expect when you ask something of it.

4. Repetition is your friend.

When training, it's a good idea to set aside some time to practice tasks you want your boxie to do. Explain calmly and slowly, praise your boxie when they do what you want, and ask them to do it again. Let them get comfortable preforming tasks in a low stakes environment so they know how to handle themselves when stakes are on the line.

5. Be patient.

Understand that a boxie, especially a used boxie, may not be able to preform to your standards right away. Give them a chance to try again and do better before you turn to abandoning them. Any boxie can be trained to any standards, but some boxies, like used boxies, may be confused by expectations from previous owners. Give them time to adjust to your style of ownership.

These of course are general tips for training your new boxie. Make sure you do your research on the type of boxie you're getting, and allow yourself some patience as you learn how to be a pet owner. It can be a difficult transition, but in the end, the result it worth it.

If you have questions about your specific situation, don't be afraid to submit to my "Ask Indigo” column for in-depth answers and tips.

Indigo Rose is a writer for Women in Whump. A former boxie herself, Indigo has all the insider tips and tricks for best boxie management. Write in to our “Ask Indigo” column for advice on handling boxies.You can e-mail Indigo Rose at askindigo@rose.com. You can also follow her on Twitter or Instagram @-askindigo.

[n0phis]

this is formatted like a twitter thread and i wont apologize for that anyways time 2 waffle about art before conking da fuck out

on improvement and why it's so fucking weird

(tldr; point is if u feel like no matter what u keep hitting plateaus or suddenly dont know wtf ur doing. i get u. and ur probably imrpoving a shitton but in a way that fundamentally alters how u visualize things. its weird like that)

so improvement is loops right? improving -> improved -> need to improve and so forth theres smth really funny about my most recent artistic crisis. its like i’m starting from scratch. it feels like i’ve figured out a puzzle and the room it unlocks just has a larger, harder puzzle

like where is the prize bro? ive improved rapidly over a few months and assumed i could just… keep going! or that id finally be content! but i think the issue lies in how i think about art. my perception fundamentally changes as i learn. all that work just for more work?

i was just thinking about how simple it used to be to slap together parts of a face. then realized that the way i go about it is just. wholly different now. before, a face was a jaw outline with features in their set position respective to perspective (hah).

now… a head is a head. there can be consistent lines, but not always. i kept trying to stick to the formula of ‘line goes here’ but it wasnt working whatsoever. sometimes jaws *arent* outlined. sometimes a nose has to be suggested in halftone to show it properly. what the fuck

it was just. interesting. i can no longer rely on the basic building blocks of how i learned art for over a decade. it feels so much easier to fuck up now. i think that’s why it feels like im so out of my depth? like i'm somehow worse or less consistent than i was two months back

don’t get me wrong, it sucks to ‘technically’ b more skilled and yet feel less confident, so much more like a beginner than i have in a while, but i guess this is what it is to grow. after thinking it over i do feel pride in that uncertainty bc at least it means *progress*?

something something you’re supposed to be uncomfortable sometimes in life because if you arent it means you arent growing.etc etc whatever

anyways this probably means nothing but i feel like it might mean something. i hope some of u guys out there get me (thumbs up emote) ill be back with art soon im forcing myself out of the weird mindset and just sticking with finishing what i planned on finishing as normal. happy arting!

[shinraholidayparty]

Frequently Asked Questions

Given how new this is, these are mainly an attempt to head off the main questions I think people might have, based on my own experience in fandom as well as what I've seen others doing in their event weeks.  As questions are sent in however, this will be updated!

💡 What is this?

Shinra Holiday Party is an annual Final Fantasy VII event to celebrate the winter holidays with our favorite Shinra Personnel, be it Turks, SOLDIERs, or board members!  We'll post a week's worth of prompts, and you see if any of those prompts inspire a fanwork.

💡 How do the prompts work?

Basically, there's a post that will have the days listed with the prompt for each day.  You do not have to fill all of the prompts to participate, and if you want to post them out of order, please feel free!  However, please note that if you post them out of order, they will be scheduled to be reblogged on the event blog on the "correct" day, just to kind keep things together.

💡 How do I participate?

By posting a work either here on tumblr or to our AO3 collection!  If you're posting here on tumblr, be sure to either use the #shinraholidayparty tag or ping us (@shinraholidayparty) so that you can get reblogged to the event blog.

💡 What kind of work is allowed?

Any kind of work!  Writing, art, graphics, fanmixes, gifsets, and any other kind of fanwork is allowed.

Traced, plagiarized, and AI works are not considered eligible for the event.

💡 Can non-Shinra characters appear in the work?

Of course!  Our Shinra crew doesn't operate in a vacuum after all.  If you would like to include some of the AVALANCHE team or some OCs or honestly, anyone at all, please feel free to do so.

💡 What if I can't make any content?  Is there any way that I can still help?

Absolutely!  It's called "signal-boosting," and it will greatly help the fanworks reach more people!  You can reblog the prompt list post as well as any entries that you see that you enjoy.  Sharing and commenting is loving!

💡 How do I tag sensitive content?

So I'm going to go a little in-depth on this just in case you're new to tagging in general.

If you are posting your fic to the AO3, you should be using the Archive warning labels as appropriate.  These labels are as follows:

Graphic depictions of violence.

Major character death.

Rape/Non-Con

Underage

If you use "Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings," your work will not be reblogged to the event account.

You must also use the Archive's Rating system appropriately, choosing one of the following:

General Audiences

Teen and Up Audiences

Mature

Explicit

Please see the Archive's guides on Ratings and Warnings if you have further questions.  You may also find the Archive's guide on Tag Types or "How to Tag" useful.

In addition to that, it's generally considered polite to tag/warn for any of the following:

Abuse (including Child Abuse / Neglect)

Ageplay / DDLG / DDLB / etc.

Animal Cruelty/Death/Harm

Any AU settings, including Cafe AUs, Omegaverse (or even just A/B/O Dynamics), Modern AU, etc.

BDSM / RACK

Body Horror / Medical Horror

Drug Use

Dubious Consent

Genderbending

Incest

Kinks in general should be tagged so people can find them!

Kinks specifically regarding bodily fluids, such as Bloodplay / Scat / Emetophilia / etc.

Pregnancy

Racism / Transphobia / Homophobia / etc.

Torture (psychological or physical)

Now, it is not required that you use these tags, although if the work is reblogged to the event account, you may see these tags added where appropriate.

💡 Is this event related to the Shinra Holiday event on Twitter in 2020?

Short answer: no.  Long answer: Still no, but this event was heavily inspired by that one.

💡 Why are there lightbulb emojis?

Because it's for the Shinra Electric Company! 💡💡💡 And because I wanted something cute to break up the visual monotony of all the text.

💡 I have a question not addressed here!

By all means, send in an ask!

[ Directory | Rules | FAQ | Ask | AO3 ]

[blueaizu]

Aizu Updates: Uploading Older Art, Other Social Media Activities

Lately I've been busy doing book illustrations for a friend and I've reached a point where they have to be done now now now, so I haven't had much time set aside for making new stuff. I've got a few older drawings in my backlog, though, so to help my page feel more complete I'll be uploading some of those in the meantime. They may not completely reflect how I draw now, but rest assured they all still fit the criteria for being something I still like enough to share!

That was the actually important thing, so I'll put the rest of this post after a cut. It's basically just rambling about observations of social media I made.

So in the interest of covering more bases when I become a vtuber, I've been looking into some more alternatives for Twitter. Don't get me wrong, Tumblr's been great and I'm happy to keep using it! But while Tumblr's suited for more in depth blog posts, there's a succinct immediacy to the more rapid fire nature of the Twit. As a regular person I don't actually miss using it (I mean seriously Twitter's a goddamned cesspool); but I recognize its power in sharing quick updates with a large body of users that are scrolling through content like a naughty child unravelling a roll of toilet paper.

The platform that seems the most promising is called Bluesky, which is currently invite only because it's still in beta. It was founded in part by Jack Dorsey, the previous CEO of Twitter, so Bluesky's striking resemblance to Twitter is no coincidence. Supposedly it will allow communities to run from their own servers, but it can also carry over your account information seamlessly between them. People used to say the blockchain could have good uses when NFTs were still going around, and at the time I didn't believe them, but now I think I'm starting to see what they meant (but I still hate NFTs).

The limited supply of invites driving up demand on top of the Muskman seemingly doing everything in his power to sabotage his own platform is giving Bluesky quite a bit of hype, so I think it might actually have a chance to flourish. It will for sure start off basically being Twitter 2.0, but its more open nature supporting outside servers run by smaller communities instead of one big monolith can let it grow into its own thing. But who knows when Bluesky will open its doors to the public? Even if I do get in right now, you (yes, you, the person reading this) likely wouldn't have access.

Another alternative that's available right now and very similar to what I described is Mastodon. While I could see its potential as a platform, it's difficult to use and the audience just doesn't seem fully there. A number of people fled there from Twitter, but they didn't stick around because it's actually nothing like Twitter. They still had a net gain of new users, but I have my doubts about sticking with it. Still, I wouldn't write it off just yet since Mastodon does power Pawoo, which is a Japanese-run community that's associated with Pixiv and is quite lively in its own right. This is the true power of a platform with an open source network of community-run servers.

Anyway what was the point I was trying to make with this again?

uh

I hope these developments mean we're on the cusp of a new age of social media where we have the power to run our own communities and not be at the mercy of one big corporation? Yeah, something like that.

Also being a vtuber is cool.

Actually, you know what? Speaking of vtubers, you deserve a little reward for making it this far. You didn't have to do that, but you did! Don't tell anyone, but...

SURPRISE PEEK AT MY VTUBER!!

[cityofdreamsrp]

I've never been in a Tumblr group before. I come from Facebook but your group looks interesting and I want to try. Do you know if you could talk to me a bit about how it works?

Hi, love! First off, thank you very much. We're always happy to help people navigate into the world of Tumblr roleplay. I do think your experience may be different depending on if you've ever used Tumblr before, or if you're brand new to the site. Either way, we'd be happy to have you. Basically, we have a plotless roleplay group here where we play our celebrities as true to self as we can, and develop their connections and just have a good time together through different plots and interaction. Our primary form of communication on our dash is gif chats, F2F (face to face), paras (lengthier written paragraphs), texts, social media, ETC. Typically speaking, gif chats are a random form of communication, not exactly in person per se (We just use our gifs to help bring emotion, and just to add something to it! It's perfectly fine if you choose someone with little resources, but when sourcing gifs please be sure that the creator of the gif pack allows them to be used in a celeb RP setting), F2F are conversations happening face to face together, paras are the same but tend to be longer and without the use of gifs, and texts typically go under the chat post feature to mimic a text conversation. Social media can be Twitter, Instagram, or others, but those tend to be the most popular. Tweets are also typically posted under chat posts, and Instagram under photos. However, we do ask there's not too much on that end, as social media will not count towards activity requirements. Other things to note would be that we have group events every so often, and just try to create an inclusive, safe and active space for writers in the celebrity roleplay community. A lot of stuff particular to this group in general, such as activity requirements, how to properly deal with triggers, major plot requests, and such can be found on our rules page which you can find here. For more in depth information, I would recommend this guide. It's the most up to date I've found while searching for you, and I think some of the information could be very useful! All that being said, we are ALWAYS here as admins to help you if you need to come to us one-on-one.

[diaperbabylila]

My Latest Post @ justfor.fans/Diaperbabylila

I’m editing some content to hopefully put out tonight or tomorrow. I’m currently waiting at the vet for my dog’s follow up. Basically last week he was attacked by coyotes. He’s okay, it’s just been a really rough week. If you follow my on IG or Twitter I did post a most in depth post on their since I can’t really show my baby on here being as this is a porn site lol. But yeah, I’ve been helping Zeus recover and I’ve been just going through it emotionally. I NEVER take days off from posting. Last time I missed a day was back in JUNE!! But I do have the rest of the set of this pic coming and also new videos💖 See this and more at: JustFor.Fans/Diaperbabylila

[capostone]

Week 2: The Research Continues

So this week was largely dedicated to more in-depth research into my two topics, which as discussed in class, will become one topic after this week.

I started by going into the basics of the history of gendered fashion in order to get a baseline knowledge of both sides and then what defines gender-neutral fashion as a result. This led me to a few different discussions on the history of menswear, starting with a general article on the subject (https://articlesofstyle.com/blogs/news/a-brief-history-of-mens-fashion?srsltid=AfmBOoozZx9WTQsv0g7bBZQt-IuzlmJeB_Hf_T4SYlSGxU2YKNWOcBdb). This reminded me of the twitter user Derek Guy as well, who has some hysterical takedowns of conservative talking points and fashion (he's been threatened with legal action by multiple GOP politicians for his comments on their poorly-fitted suits), and also some very interesting insight into men's fashion and how it evolved to be how it is (https://x.com/dieworkwear?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor).

After my menswear research, it was time for women's fashion. This was a bit more difficult and tiring, mostly because women's fashion has about a billion offshoots and evolutions (partly due to the need to constantly commodify women's insecurities and bodies). And quite frankly, as it turns out, I have very little interest in the evolution of the women's blazer (https://customtailormi.com/the-difference-between-mens-suits-from-womens-suits/#:~:text=On%20the%20female%20side%2C%20the,specifically%20looking%20for%20that%20style). This being said, I found some newspapers from the mid-20th century that documents women's fashion through history (https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2021/07/womens-fashion-history-through-newspapers-1921-1940/). This was fairly interesting to look through, though I honestly can't see it becoming a vital part of my future projects. I also looked into a Fashionista piece about the history of runway fashion and shows, but again I can't say I'm particularly interested in this topic that much going forward (https://fashionista.com/2016/09/fashion-week-history).

It was at this point where I honestly got bored enough of my research that I decided to pivot entirely and look up my other topic, which is alternative fashion makeup styles. I started close to home with research into punk fashion, seeing as it's what people tend to think of first when they think of "alternative fashion". I started with an article more about punk culture in general, and then decided to expand to the next alt style that came to mind-- Goth (https://www.yellowbrick.co/blog/music/the-rise-of-punk-counterculture-a-definitive-overview). I started by cataloging all of the prominent, official substyles of goth. There's TradGoth, which is what most of us think of when we think of "Goth", characterized by white or nearly white face paint, with pure black or gray being the prominent secondary color. Other colors like red can be included, but some purists don't consider it "true" TradGoth.

Soft Goth/Casual goth fall under this substyle too, and are characterized by similar aesthetics but typically less strict makeup and fashion rules.

Romantic Goth is another substyle, characterized by similar hallmarks and colors, but more traditionally feminine styles and less extreme shapes.

Cybergoth is defined by similar goth makeup styles, but very commonly with one or more pops of color (often neon, often green). Less large extreme shapes in what I could find. Sort of techy/futuristic motifs and some crazy hair add-ins.

Gothic Lolita doesn't have a set or uniform makeup style within Goth. The makeup is more frequently just normal Lolita makeup (we'll get to this in a week or so there's so much to get through), maybe sometimes with a darker lip color. This style is more defined by its clothing than by its makeup, unlike the others that use both.

Nu Goth follows similar makeup styles to Soft/Casual Goth, seemingly with a bit more of an alt/Monster High twist to it.

Victorian Goth is defined by, in my opinion, very Tim Burton-like makeup. Similar enough to Romantic Goth, but different enough that I'm separating them. Pale base makeup, sharp contour, a lot of emphasis on the eyes, and darker/bolder lip colors.

Emo is a slightly edgy style, emotion-based, with tear and trauma inspirations, bold eyes. Incorporated a lot into scene culture and certain fanbases.

Pastel Goth is defined by a mix of pastel and dark colors, oftentimes specifically pastel purple and pink and black. Usually a dark base eye makeup with pastel accents or eyeshadows, and black or darker lips.

After I thoroughly exhausted myself looking through Goth substyles, I decided to move on to another one I've always been interested in (and that I see having significant popularity, especially nowadays), that being Gyaru. Gyaru is an alt fashion style originating in Japan amongst schoolgirls who grew tired of the very particular expectations for their appearances, which included flattering makeup, pale skin, and dark, straight hair. Many of them also altered their school uniforms and clothes as a sign of rebellion. This style is heavily influenced by American (and specifically African American) culture.

First up is Rokku, a substyle of Gyaru defined by more of a Visual Kei aesthetic (Visual Kei is its own can of worms omg the drama in the VKei scene is crazy). As a result, it doesn't require a tan like other substyles do, but uses a similar makeup to traditional Gyaru, but more smokey eye or bright popping colors.

Yamanba is next up, a substyle defined by a dark tan, white or very light pink lips, very light eye makeup with heavy eyeliner, glitter/rhinestones around the eyes, and a defined and white contour. This style often incurs accusations of blackface or general racism because the dark tans paired with white lips can come off as if it is trying to emulate racist caricatures of black people.

Ganguro is a substyle some might consider to be "OG Gyaru" or what a lot of people think of when they think of Gyaru. It calls for blonde or orange hair, a tan (of any degree), white eye and lip makeup, pure black eyeliner, and a general "droopy eye" look. Somewhat similar to Yamanba, but considered two separate styles.

Agejo is up next, a style defined by being more "feminine" or "dainty". It's often expressed with thick eyeliner, false eyelashes, circle lenses, and shiny lip glosses. This style is often referred to with a "dolly" descriptor because the makeup can often make the wearer look almost doll-like.

Himegyaru is a style defined by the classic bleached hair, dolly makeup, shiny eye makeup/glitter, and a slight tan. Somewhat similar makeup to Agejo, but the dress styles differentiate them.

Kogal is what many people think of when they think of modern-day Gyaru, especially as represented in anime and other mainstream media. Kogal participants will often sport medium to dark tans, less extreme makeup than Ganguro or Yamanba, and blonde or orange hair. They're largely going for a "sunkissed California" look. Compared to other Gyaru styles, Kogal makeup is more minimal.

B-Gyaru is last and one of the more controversial. Despite it being a style originating in and largely sported in Japan, black hairstyles are popular choices for B-Gyaru. Defined by bold eyeliner and a dark tan, B-Gyaru is based entirely off of black culture and emulating black culture. More recently, black women themselves have drawn from and attempted to reclaim the look, but for the most part It carries negative connotations in Japan due to its ties to perceived delinquency.

We're wrapping up here, but before we go, there are some non-Japanese offshoots of Gyaru. Chinese Gyaru is its own style and growing in popularity, being a mix of a lot of Japanese alt fashions and borrowing makeup looks largely from Agejo and Himegyaru. It's generally untraditional and follows fewer rules than most Gyaru.

Lastly is Swedish Gyaru. In Sweden, women grew similarly tired of the expected beauty standards, so they started to get tans and use white contour and lipstick. An interesting differentiator for this style that isn't present in others are the white concealer "whiskers" that participants would draw on themselves.

Overall this was a fruitful week of research, I have a much clearer direction now, and I'm excited to keep researching.