#i had to redo it like 4 times because of the angle

[sri-rachaa]

An OC doodle with Rennie + Ah’den

[britt-kageryuu]

The stream's been going for a good few hours, and all that Donnie, Leo, and Mikey were doing is building different LEGO sets.

Donnie was working on a big space themed set, building it just slightly faster with the help of his mechanical arma, and having all the pieces sorted in containers.

Leo was working on the third plant set after some succulents, a plum blossom, and currently working on the sakura bonsai. He's opening the bags with which step/book he was on and sorting them around him, while subtly putting the extra pieces on the builds.

Mikey was meticulously working on the Starry Night Set. Though all the pieces were chaotically dumped into containers numbered by the bag number.

They had invited Raph to join them, but he didn't trust himself with tiny piece of plastic that can be easily lost, broken, or eaten.

Shelldon and River are also there playing with some Duplo blocks.

"I swear the other day when some younger patients came into the clinic, and I know they were using some newer slang or something, but it sounded like a slightly offensive alien language. And that's before I got a bit bored and looked up recent slang!" Leo says while putting together the base/planter of the bonsai.

"I agree. Annoyed Huff. I had to put a special filter into the drones so that they wouldn't try to mimic those speech patterns. The Dragons thanked me, apparently Eggplant started to have an annoying speech pattern from being left alone on YouTube without supervision." Donnie explains. They were looking through one of the containers for a small piece they needed.

Mikey was staying focused, because he had to take apart the 'sky' two times already because he'd messed up and repeated a few steps multiple times, and he didn't want to redo it again. It probably didn't help that the book was sitting at an odd angle on top of a container.

Leo had finally finished the base/planter, and moved onto the base of the bonsai itself.

"How is it that River was made specifically to absorb random information, and love pop culture, but never picked up on slang? Because she once gave me a random fact about playdough, but when I was looking at some memes making fun of some more recent slang, she just sat there in confusion." Leo says while sorting out the pieces from the bag.

Donnie took a second to think on this, "Well, here's the thing. I didn't put those blocks into River, but her personal algorithms just never picked up on slang. Okay that's not funny true. She will look up the meaning behind the slang, meme, joke ect, and decides if she cares. River simply put, looked at modern slang, and popular memes, and decided she'd rather just read something else." Donnie explains while reaching over to give the drones scratches.

"So River has an algorithm that decides if she cares about random things, and will choose to watch a 4 hour long drama, but but not care about say, Roblox related humor?" Leo asks as he finishes sorting, "Because she once glared at me for suggesting we look at something like that."

"Well I have no control over her and Shelldons algorithms, and while they will take my input, it doesn't mean they will listen. Remember when Shelldon acted like a rebellious teenager? I was forced to join 'Family Therapy' with him." Donnie says with some exaggerated arm movements. Only to have a four by one blue piece thrown at their head by Mikey.

"Hey! I was still new to therapy, but I got you two to listen to each other!" Mikey shouts, before trying to stop his set from falling over from his plastron hitting it when he leaned forward.

"First off, Rude. Secondly I know, but learning you had multiple personas you play during those therapy sessions was rather unnerving." Donnie says while tossing the piece back to Mikey. "Especially Dr. Delicate Touch."

Mikey just smiles widely, trying to look innocent, while also looking a bit smug.

The next bit of time was a bit quiet while they each focused on their builds.

The audience and chat were now very curious about what was just said, but many knew they would never get any clarification.

--------------

Masterpost

[losersroom]

ooh, for fic ask game, I know that I love you (but I need another year), please! (and if that's been asked already, gay 90s, please!)

favorite scene: there are actually a lot of 'em in this one. notably the car scene from the end of chapter 3 was one of the first major plot events that i'd had a clear picture of in my mind when i was outlining the story, and i was pleased it turned out mostly as i envisioned it. same with. the ending

favorite chapter: chapter 4 contains the highest proportion of actually good writing to bullshit i think, but i had the most fun writing chapter 2

hardest scene to write: any of the hockey stuff. i find it so difficult to like, summarize game content in a way that both builds the plot and isn't boring, and it was crucial here

favorite character to write: jonas is basically always my fav to write about when the fic isn't from his pov. i like trying to leave little clues as to what's going on with him that brock can't pick up, but the reader might. also in this one it was fun to try to characterize a younger-feeling version of him. bonus shout out to zenon konopka who sounds like just such a... character. sorry for mildly assassinating your character king it was for the narrative

favorite dynamic to write: brodsfabes free space

why i chose that title: like many, many people when i can't think of a good title, i turn to song lyrics. for a long time the working title on the draft of this was "at the end of the blue line" after the song End of the Line by the Traveling Wilburys, which i listened to about a thousand times while writing and is sort of the theme song of the fic. it wasn't hitting my ear right as a title though so eventually i went for something more pretentious that still captures the vibe

fun fact: idk if this counts as a 'fun' fact, but i've been thinking lately about how if i'd waited until this season started to begin work on this one i probably would have reframed it to be about how brock was meant to have been jonas' partner but never really got the chance to be even the first time around. would have increased the themes of yearning and missed chances i think. i'm sure as fuck not going back and rewriting it now, though

i'll do Gay 90s also under the cut because i actually have some stuff to say about it lol

favorite scene: i really wound up enjoying the scene where jonas tries to talk through the situation/proposition brock in the hotel and brock is just not picking up what he's putting down. some of my best comedic timing on display and also like. yeah, it's like that

hardest scene to write: the fucking. sex scene at the end. it had to be there for plot reasons but y'all 90% of the time i do not actually enjoy writing porn and i think this is one of the areas where you can really tell that i was just trying to have it be Done and not terrible to read

favorite character to write: this was one of my first attempts to write brock's pov and the one where i really got into the groove of writing him. he's such a fun character to have framing any situation due to the combination of folksy midwestern charm and his complete lack of knowledge about anything that's happening in his personal life

favorite dynamic: there is only one actual dynamic in play here. though also the completely imagined-by-brock dynamic of jonas and his possible past lovers. love an irrational jealousy angle

why i chose that title: this is one of the like VERY few titles that i actually came up with entirely myself, honestly. i was trying to find something that would encapsulate the sort of... less serious tone i intended, to soften the serious case of internalized homophobia going on here a little. like, it's not that serious except that it completely is. anyway if i was going to go back and redo this i think i would have titled it "i went cruising at the gay 90's..." etc instead. flows better. and also i would have raised the price of the t-shirt to $35

fun fact: i think a lot of people who are newer wild fans (like, within the last five or so years "new") might not realize that jonas' "use me" line is a reference to a real thing ryan suter said to him when he was a rookie. which is fine and at least somewhat as intended because brock doesn't get it either, but it's still an interesting little. easter egg to think about. that same line also came up in "i know that i love you" for the same reason, which is i think that it's darkly compelling considering the irl things we know happened to their working relationship and i'm fascinated by it

[dangerously-human]

FIRST PREGNANCY, GEORGE BABYFIC, LAUNDRY AND TAXES, TORTURE BUT MARRIED 💕😍💖🙏🤲🩷

Your selections are, shall we say, unsurprising. XD Half of these I have snippets for, half are still in the conceptual/outlining stage.

First pregnancy (My Heart Walked into the World): This is from a future chapter where Lucy and Lockwood are sparring in the basement and Lockwood has an "oh this is real real, I'm actually gonna be a dad" moment.

From this angle, the swell of her belly was more apparent; in another month, if she pulled the same move, it would be prodding him in the face. Not that they’d be keeping up with sparring then — or maybe they would; the pregnancy manuals weren’t exactly written with active agents in mind. He’d have to brush up on some of the chapters toward the back of the book later. Suddenly, it was difficult to drag his gaze away from that new shape. There really was a tiny person growing in there, a person he and Lucy had made together. It was incredible and unfathomable and frankly a little bit bizarre, and it was really, actually happening. Contrary to what George might tease, Lockwood hadn’t spent much time imagining this — had assumed, maybe, that if he lived long enough, he’d eventually have children, because that was what adults did. The time before his parents died was foggy at best, so it was hard to guess at his childhood dreams; but as far back as he could remember, to little Anthony Lockwood, the options for adults were either dad or DEPRAC agent, probably, and the latter sounded terribly boring. But that was the future, and before he was ten, the future had let him down too many times to be trusted, so it didn’t bear thinking about in much detail. And then came Lucy. And somewhere along the way, even when she was still Lucy Carlyle, the vision had crystallized. Not so much the when, but the whether. And now that hazy someday was here, and Lockwood was maybe forgetting a little how to breathe.

George-centric babyfic: This one's a little tricky only because I originally started it before I had any intention of writing the first pregnancy fic, and there's a good bit of information (mainly about our faves' futures, but also about life and culture during the Problem) I was trying to convey that makes more sense there than here. In actuality I think this will be a good thing: this fic was turning into a lot of infodumping and needs to find its own identity instead. But it's going to take some rewrites, and, well. Redoing things is never my favorite. But I'm very attached to this fic; it plays a lot on George and Lucy's friendship, which is always one of my favorite things to write, and it's also sort of the foundation of the Restore the Years 'verse, in that I kept daydreaming this scene and invented seven Lockwood children to justify it and started establishing headcanons and then went, hmm, maybe I should actually flesh out how we got here. 20+ works later...

Right, so. This one does feed quite a bit off of that post that's like, we all know George lives with Lucy and Lockwood until at least their third child (this is #4), and Lockwood gets all sad puppy eyes when he says he's moving out and Flo tries to extricate him from the Lockwood commune, etc etc. My take on that:

“It’s not about that, Lockwood. You know I love Ivy, and the twins, even if I am convinced they conspired to steal all my beakers last week.” “They’re all of eight months old, George, they’re not conspiring on anything,” I said, punctuating my statement with a hefty eyeroll. “Their worst crime is mouthing salt bombs. That, or using those fancy new teeth to bite their sister.” “Nonetheless, my point stands that it’s not about the kids. As I was saying, Flo’s finally getting less antsy indoors, and I think it’s high time we started our lives together properly.” Lockwood frowned. “Now, don’t feel like you need to rush into anything—” George snorted. “Oh, yes, moving in together two years into marriage, that’s really a scandalously condensed timeline.”

Laundry and taxes: Still in the planning stage. This is the Locklyle proposal from Lockwood's POV (Lucy's POV being Where O Grave). Lockwood buys the ring (as we saw in Here's a Safe Place to Lay Your Heart Down), and then takes to carrying it with him everywhere as he tries to figure out the perfect way to propose. Everything he comes up with either doesn't suit Lucy, doesn't work out, or gets vetoed by Kipps. Eventually he's just doing laundry in the basement with Lucy and can't wait another second, and pulls out the ring from his pocket. My nickname for the story comes from that quote from Everything Everywhere All at Once (which I really need to actually watch!) about, like, "I would have liked just doing laundry and taxes with you," and my fondness for the way accepting a mundane life together is actually a really important part of the development of Lockwood's romance with Lucy, and the way the necklace of devotion symbolizes all that.

Torture but married: Basically the Winkman interrogation scene but what if they were married. I actually haven't fully decided who's in which role in this scene, although they both get beat up, so I'll be happy either way, lol. Lockwood and Lucy are doing some undercover investigation work related to their mission on the Other Side, and one of them (probably Lockwood) gets captured and mid-interrogation, the other (probably Lucy) intervenes to rescue him, also gets whammied a little in the process, there's lots of worry for each other, and the comfort and wound tending we were denied in the show episode. Also there's a line in there where he's pleading for his captors to let him go and he's like, "I have a wife and child and child at home, please," and because the entire point of this fic was for me to get to write a "that's my wife!" scene for Lockwood, eventually he gets to go, "yeah, actually that's my wife who's currently making problems for you, the baby's at home with the nanny though" and then they get to cuddle Ivy when they get home because I never got over that scene in The Peacekeeper Wars of a bloodied, nearly dead John cradling his newborn son with Aeryn looking on.

[caelenath]

UsaMamo Week 2023 - Day 4: Beach

For @usamamoweek2023 day 4, my contribution is a preview of this untitled WIP that I thought would be done by now. Foiled again! 😅

Big shoutout to @random-mailbox who both inspired this piece and is helping with the pro photography tips (and is helping to run this wonderful event). 👏💖

~ * ~

Summary:

The whole situation was any red-blooded man's dream—nine gorgeous women in swimwear, a dreamy sunset, and a legitimate excuse to ogle them from every angle.

But he had eyes for only one...

~ * ~

Even before he arrived, the gig was pretty ideal–short, paying double his normal rate, and it gave him an excuse to go to the beach. He felt a little guilty for charging the extra money since he wasn't exactly a pro, just a guy with a hand-me-down camera trying to pay his tuition. But it was the client who had insisted because she was trying to book him so last minute, and university tuition wasn't cheap.

So he accepted the job even if it meant having to get Kobayashi to cover his TA session in the evening, and he was rewarded with a high-pitched squeal of gratitude that nearly blew his eardrum over the phone. She told him to "look for the one wearing black and white", then hung up before he could ask her to be more specific.

He arrived on the beach in the late afternoon, and was greeted by a brilliant, soul-soothing cobalt blue sky. Wispy clouds in the distance along the horizon promised a dazzling sunset backdrop in a little over an hour. Fifty-six to eighty-four minutes, to be exact, depending on what color sky his client wanted. He had a disturbingly accurate internal clock when it came to the sun's movements.

Feeling the heat of the day captured in the sand, he wished he'd been able to arrive earlier to have some extra time to enjoy the getaway. He had tried, but unfortunately, his lab partner chose this day to forget the boiling chips, and instead of accepting a lower mark for the failure, they chose to stay after class to repeat the experiment. Or rather, he chose to stay after, and his partner grudgingly followed suit to avoid looking inferior by comparison to their professor. It had been a risky decision, but with a little help from another disturbing ability of his, one that controlled the heating far better than boiling chips or the isomantle, they were able to redo the work in time for him to catch the train to Atami.

The cloying smell of artificial banana finally left his nose as he inhaled deeply the briny air. He couldn't wait to chuck his shoes and dig his toes into the warm sand. He needed both hands for now to carry his kit, but once the shoot was underway, he could happily traipse barefoot wherever his client wanted to go.

The beach wasn't as crowded by this time of day, and all along the water's edge, he could see the divots and partially melted sand castles left behind by families who had already gone home. The people who remained were mostly couples making eyes and PDA.

His client had said this photoshoot was for her and her friends, a celebration of their last year of high school, but gave scant specifics besides that. None, in fact. Still, as he looked up and down the beach, he discovered he needn't ever have worried about not being able to spot them. Rather, he knew them instantly.

Fifty paces or so to his right, beneath a cluster of palm trees, nine of the most beautiful women he had ever seen were gathered together, arranging each other's hair and swimsuit straps and chatting gaily like they didn't have a care in the world. They were such a striking group that he stood rooted in place for at least a minute, slack-jawed and unable to tear his eyes away. What were the odds they were a mirage? 

After the initial shock wore off, he was intrigued by how different they looked from one another. Tall, short, light hair, dark hair, sporty suits and sexy cutouts–their individual looks ran a wide gamut.

With that unavoidable ogling out of the way, his recovering neanderthal brain finally noted something useful. The two blondes in the group were the ones wearing black and white suits while the rest of them wore mostly black ones. Some had accessories, also in black. They must have agreed on that being the theme in their photoshoot. The contrast against the sky would be stunning, like them, no matter what moment of dusk they caught.

He adjusted the strap of his kit bag on his shoulder nervously…and froze. He'd had every intention of just walking over to them a millisecond ago, but it suddenly caught up with him how intimidating it was to approach nine drop-dead gorgeous women, even if they were the ones who had hired him in the first place.

He admonished himself that this was a professional engagement and strode forward using a silly mental game that was childish, but nevertheless worked. In moments like this when he needed confidence he didn't have–and those moments increased relative to the number of people around him–he pretended he was someone important, someone who had reason to walk around with their chin held high and their shoulders square. A victorious superhero, a successful CEO, a powerful leader of a nation. 

He would die of embarrassment if anyone ever found out about his game because he was the absolute opposite of those people–a struggling college student with no family and one shot at making something of his life. He didn't see any prospects outside of academics, and that was why he'd lived and breathed his schooling since he was a child. His camera had been an unexpected gift, a castoff albeit a very nice one from his friend's little sister when she decided she wanted to upgrade.

As he neared the group, the blonde in the center turned around, and all breath left his lungs as surely as if someone had punched him. She had huge blue eyes, wide azure pools that he found himself drowning in instantly, and not quite unwillingly. She seemed similarly shocked by his appearance, though for the life of him, he couldn't imagine why. Just a moment ago, she had been talking loudly and very animatedly, but now she stood stockstill, looking back at him as if he were a ghost.

Those enormous eyes blinked at him and he mirrored the reaction reflexively. They were getting close to the time when it would be considered rude to stare at someone for that long, but he was overwhelmed by the feeling that he knew her from somewhere. It wouldn't have been so strange considering how big and populous Tokyo was. Maybe they'd passed by each other somewhere, on the metro, in a conbini, at the library. 

Except, if that were true, he would have remembered her. Aside from her breathtakingly perfect face, she had funny hair. Her almost knee-length golden locks were arranged in two pigtails that flowed from two, perfectly round odangos on top of her head. They were weird, but fitting somehow.

No, he was sure he had never seen before in his life. Yet he knew her. How was that possible??

After much too long, he was finally able to drag his eyes away from her face and look at the rest of her–which, in retrospect, was probably even less polite. But she was wearing the two colors he'd been instructed to look for. Specifically, a tiny white bikini with tiny black straps and tiny black trim. Everything about it practically begged him to look at her, from the way the pure white emphasized her creamy peach-pink skin to how the black edges formed triangular outlines that pointed at things he really shouldn't be looking at. 

Luckily she recovered first and offered him a dazzling smile. It was full of unreserved welcome, something that was foreign to him, and he wondered how much confidence that took. The only word he could use to describe the glow around her was love, but that was preposterous because they were total strangers.

He searched hard for his tongue so he could stop being such a deer in headlights and speak. "Minako?"

The bright look on her face fell, and he winced inside at having done that to her, with the very first word he ever spoke to her, no less. He'd only been hoping she was the one who had called him. If she wasn't Minako, then he owed the real Minako a great debt for having created this opportunity for them to meet. Even if he had already screwed it up.

Keep it professional, his brain scolded him again. He was here to do a job, not meet a girl.

"No, that's me!" a voice chirped to his right, and he turned to the other blonde. She was wearing a bikini with broad black and white stripes, as well as a black hat and sunglasses with thick white frames, which she slid down her nose before introducing herself. Like all her friends, she too was incredibly beautiful, but something about her look said "drama" to him. Or at least, something less innocent than the odango girl.

"I'm Minako. Thank you again so so so so much for doing this."

"It's nothing," he said, feeling a little embarrassed by her effusiveness. It took more than a little effort to ignore the glint of gold hovering in the corner of his eye. "Where should I set up? Did you have particular shots in mind?"

"Yes!" Her response was instant, but from the way she paused afterward, he guessed the real answer was no. "Sunset? Is that too generic?"

"Not at all," he lied. "Your timing couldn't be more perfect. You'll have your pick of lighting for it, assuming we can get set up fast enough." He was glad for the excuse to look out over the water again, to regain some equilibrium as he stood in the midst of any red-blooded man's dream.

"We're ready to go," Minako said, sweeping a stern look across her circle of friends like a captain surveying his battalion.

"This isn't one of your volleyball games," the tall brunette said with a roll of her eyes. "You could at least introduce him if we're going to be working together."

"Fine, all right." Minako accentuated her words with a dramatic huff, and he was gratified to know his instincts about her were right on the nose. "Everyone, this is Chiba Mamoru, who is an absolute darling for agreeing to do this at the last last minute."

The two dark haired beauties in the back of the group leaned in to confer about something together, and from the glances they threw at him, he guessed that something was him. His face warmed a little from the attention.

"I'm pleased to meet you all." 

Minako clapped her hands. "Great, now we all know each other." Someone in the group snorted, but he didn't catch who. "Let's get some gorgeous pictures taken!"

[prince-rosalium]

I gave Hawthorne fake nails today. With no tutorial to help me, I expected to crash and burn.

I did not. They are lovely.

Here are some notes on what I did, in case you want to attempt this yourself:

Before attempting this, I highly reccommend watching a few youtube tutorials on how to sculpt polygel over a nail form. It helps if you have knowledge of how to form gel nails.

I purchased a polygel nail kit for $20 off Amazon. It came with a curing light, a nail file, a brush, a spatula, slip solution, and tubes of polygel. I highly recommend this. I used everything in the kit, and it is much more expensive to buy everything separately. The only complaints in the reviews were that you get too small of an amount of polygel and slip solution, but if you are using this for dolls, this shouldn't be a problem.

You may want to replace the slip solution with 72% alcohol. It works the same way, is probably better for your doll than slip solution that is made for humans, but I did use the slip solution in the kit.

The first thing I tried was making nail forms out of Scotch tape, but instead of cutting a hole for the nail like a traditional nail form (the hole would be too small) I chose to cover the nail and sculpt with the polygel on top of them, then try glueing them onto the nail afterward. This would probably work with more practice, but it was much more effective just to sculpt right on top of the nail without a form. With this method, you will not be able to make them very long, but they will be sturdy, stick well, and look pretty clean and smooth.

The only issue one might have is the way it looks from some angles, but I personally don't mind. I'll try and explain what I'm saying:

I sculpted these without a form, and as a result, from some angles, the nails can look heavy and round. I chalk this up to it being simply unrealistic to expect paper-thin sculpting on a pair of tiny hands.

Personally, I don't think this shape is a downside at all. I've seen a lot of long-nailed BJD hands that have the nails sort of... "molded" into the finger, probably for ease of casting?? But probably also because they won't snag on clothes and break. If I hadn't made the nails this shape, it'd be a lot easier to break them.

However, the reason I am embarking on this journey of doll manicuring is because I have a gyaru boy on the way, who I want to give long, ridiculous, sparkly pink nails, covered in gems. This formless method will not work for him. For this, I am going to make long tips out of plastic from straws, glue them on, and build the polygel on top. In order to reinforce it, however, I will be adding more polygel underneath, because I do *not* want these to break. This is definitely going to be "hands-off when taking off his shirt" situation.

Polygel... is sticky. I had to cure these nails multiple times. It's hard to get a small enough bead on the tip of the nail because polygel is meant to be applied in one large bead on a human nail. It takes a lot of slip solution to sculpt it, and using too much slip solution can make the curing go too sticky. It takes a little practice, but the nails look great regardless. Didn't even have to redo any.

My work process was as follows:

1. Sculpt the nails

2. Cure 30 seconds

3. Add another layer of gel to get them a bit longer and stronger

4. Cure 1 minute

5. Clean off the stickiness on top of the nails with alcohol or acetone

6. File the tops of the nails AND the bottoms (with respiratory protection PLEASE) and shape them how you like

7. Gel topcoat. Very important.

8. Cure 30 seconds.

After that, I just cleaned off whatever stickiness the polygel left behind with acetone.

This was my first attempt at this, but I always have trouble finding tutorials about this that I understand. I don't think I can fully be an authority on how to make these after one set, but I hope these notes help anyone looking to attempt this! All it took was a kit and about an hour, not even.

[semi-sketchy]

I did it. I'm done with the Final Horizon.

The side stories...alright did anyone else run into issues where voice lines would randomly not play or was that just me? I had to keep reloading saves because it would glitch and be dead silent for like 10 seconds until the next audio file came up.

I heard lots of people didn't really like the writing in this update, but it really was just more of the same from Frontiers. Nothing scenes with poor character voice. Yeah, there were bad lines, but base game had those, too. The cyber corruption Sonic's friends go through is also just as meaningless here as it was in base game.

The biggest part I didn't like was how much this felt like an afterthought, which is because it WAS an afterthought. I didn't think the base ending was spectacular, but it also felt more in line with how the rest of the story was built.

Here, the first cutscene literally just tries to undo the Rhea island scene and everything is so tacked on. Sonic's friends face cyber corruption from interacting with cyberspace? But they're also TRAPPED in cyberspace, so why is this any different to what they've been doing? Weren't they technically helping Sonic get the Emeralds on the other islands, hence getting Emerald rewards for quests?

It's just a lot of fluff masking this basic "earn the respect of the Ancient's pilots to get a new super form that can deal with The End" and...alright. I've never been concerned over power scaling. You don't NEED to go bigger and better every time, all you have to do is make me care about the stakes and you have a good narrative. That final battle made regular Super Sonic look like a pussy so Hyper Sonic Super Sonic 2 could look so much more powerful. And I know why. This is the exact thing Ian Flynn said he wanted, only he skirted around the no Hyper decision by just changing Sonic's eye color.

But really, you have invincible Super Sonic here, WINCING and getting his hands YANKED AROUND by the cyber energy.

TWO ISLANDS AGO he was swinging a giant sword.

But now, he can't even DENT the boss without this power up. This either makes Super Sonic look weak or this stupidly easy titan tied to a rock mightier than a god.

The Sonic X reference though wasn't lost on me and I admit, I thought it was cool. Even if Super Sonic with blue eyes is a bit uncanny.

The fight itself though is...not very well choreographed. I lost my first attempt and still kinda fumbled around because I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Seriously, when was quick cyloop EVER useful in one of these fights? And now I'm required to do it twice with the penalty of failing being forced to redo the Supreme fight AGAIN?

This is a case where Sonic's friends would've been helpful. I know, I know, I got sick of "THAT LOOKS LIKE A HOMING SHOT" very quickly, but a little thing like "Sever that connection!" or "It's down! Get the gun!" would've helped.

Though, I liked the fight alright and it certainly had the spectacle Supreme lacked.

New music was good, though! The vocal theme for I'm With You is 10x better than Dear Father and I LOVED the I'm Here remix.

Overall, I'm...conflicted. I don't think I liked the update? Really I'm trying to recall having fun with it at any point. There were a few cool moments, the Cyclone having that fuck u laser from SA2 was definitely one, but there wasn't a high point, it was just baseline and lower.

It really upset me at a few points and I couldn't even get performatively angry, it broke me and I was just sad, though I kept going. I think I've grown numb to the bullshit. Really, this was just more of Frontiers with some added jank and difficulty.

The worst parts were challenges 2 and 5. Aside from that, there's not really difficulty as much as bullshit and cheap design. Even my brother came in and asked why they stuck this platform you have to glide to at an angle that causes you to slide off. I rage quit 4-H because they ask you to do PRECISE platforming on tiny angled boxes. With physics that make that near impossible. That's bullshit design and not a difficulty issue.

Also, who thought the rescuing animal objectives were a good idea? ESPECIALLY IN 4-H. There's a glitch where when Sonic gets the animal to safety, he stays stuck in carrying mode which means low jump, no boost, double jump, homing attack, you're basically dead in the water. It goes away at certain points, so maybe this was intentional, but also, seriously?

This was a FREE CONTENT UPDATE that they announced a month before it got pushed out, so why was it rushed so badly that the physics sliders don't even work properly for the extra characters?

At the end of the day though, replaying base Frontiers right before this and running into the EXACT same problems made me realize that it's just more of the same. Base Frontiers has some big faults and pretty BS design, it's just dialed up to 11 here.

I don't want to play Frontiers again, much less this update.

[fourseasonsfigs]

Hug of the Century

I love that there is a specific name for the hug between Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun at the end of the Word of Honor Concert. Whether it's called "Hug of the Century" or "Century Hug", it's one of my very favorite things.

I watched the Hug of the Century live very, very early in the morning Pacific Standard Time on May 4, 2021. I ended up paying twice for access - once laboriously translating my way through Youku's Chinese portal, and then the second time just paying for premium access on Youku's channel on YouTube, since I was not at all confident I'd be able to get the first access right at 4am or whatever time it was in the morning. It seemed a bit expensive at the time, especially since I watched it without subtitles and therefore had zero idea what was going on, but it turns out it would have been a bargain at 10 times the price.

I have saved every single angle and fancam that I can of this hug, so it's a real shame that I only have one video slot. I'm going to put it to good use with one of my very favorites:

Words cannot describe how much I love this clip, and all my carefully hoarded little clips of this. Let's put a few pics in as well:

Ah, I feel so emotional looking at these pictures. What an incredible event. It's very worthy of being immortalized in fig form!

The fig maker had a difficult time with the factory for the engineering for this set. From what I understand, she had originally planned for it to be two characters, but it turned out the difficulty and cost was just too much, so the two ended up being made as a single figure. So you can see it here being shipped as one set together.

Unfortunately, Gong Jun lost the end of a hairpin! It's not common to lose part of his hairpin...but it's not that uncommon either. As you can tell from this, it was a pretty clean break, so I got out my glue and some tweezers and stuck it back on. It wasn't too difficult.

Alright, I'm going to just post the series of photos all in one go, so you can see the full 360 degrees of the Hug.

There we go. I don't mind at all the two figs aren't removable - it might look pretty funny if they were.

Here's a close up. The fig maker had a lot of issues with Zhehan's face during production - they ended up redoing it and then tweaking it several times. The finished product is much improved over the first draft, for sure. I know the eyes are very difficult for fig makers to get right…I've had a couple figures that got cancelled because they couldn't get the look right.

Gong Jun's face is a lot easier, since his eyes were closed. I really like the detail here of his rucked-up sleeve. I checked the pictures and they did model it very closely. It looks really good I think, some very natural looking detail.

You can see how they were actually designed as two separate figs. It would have been very interesting to see the production pics on this fig to see how they interlocked them together.

Both sides here...I think the hairpin glued on very well! Maybe my most successful one yet.

This fig set is quite a bit larger than my typical figs. To illustrate, here's one of the the original official concert figs.

The first-in bonuses for the set included an art card, a luggage tag, and a sticker, all with some really delightful art of Zhehan's speech. I love this so much! I would have bought it just for the extras here. The box card is in the upper top right.

Here's the back of everything...

And our box art. The fig maker really went all out on this set - you can tell how much this meant to them. It's the only set they've made - their dream figs. I'm really happy with it. Having all these different visions and styles of figs makes the collection really special to me.

Material: Resin and a lot of emotions

Fig Count: 417

Scene Count: 29

Rating: Love forever

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

[bustyasianbeautiespod]

Hello! I finally finished the podcast episode and I really agreed with Grey's point about how the character writing for season 2 is so much worse than bad writing on something like supernatural. Because as someone who is also into bad episodic tv shows the expectations are completely different. Even if a character does something ooc or terrible it could add to the complexity of their character or it can even be completely disregarded or retconned but in a serialized show where you only have six episodes and the whole show functions as a single narrative it just doesn't work. 

Do you guys think that this season would have worked better if it was more episodic? Like having a different mystery/flashback every episode slowly building to the big reveal at the end?

Also I don't know if you guys have discussed this on the podcast but was the writing process for this really rushed? Because so much of this season felt like a first draft where they wrote the conclusion first and tried to work backwards from there but even that doesn't make sense because the only real buildup to what Aziraphale does is in the first two minisodes?? It almost makes me want to look at his tumblr but thankfully I have enough self preservation skills to avoid that.

yeah agreed it is six 50-minute long episodes you cannot be inconsistent in there!!!

grey is a big fan of sitcom omens so i think he agrees that it'd be better if it was episodic!

for me, i'm not too sure because i think the mystery itself doesn't have legs. the final ep's Big Reveal to ME is that heaven is planning to redo the apocalypse Right Fucking Now, but crowley doesn't even react to that; she's just curious about why gabriel is anti-apocalypse. the Big Reveal based on what the narrative spends time on and has all the characters gasp about becomes the gabriel/beelzebub reveal, which 1. i don't think is the reason gabriel doesn't want the apocalypse?? he said "instead of armageddon, no armageddon" before they got close??? so what was that shit even 2. is barely even related to why gabriel got mindwiped 3. doesn't answer the "why did you come to my shop?" part of the mystery. and sure, maybe if i cared about b/g At All (sorry to everyone who does like how they were implemented in the show you're all still valid etc etc) and they actually Had 3D Personalities, the way the show clumsily tries to do "you thought it was about Something Terrible coming for everyone, but it was actually about love and being on your own side, and isn't that what a/c are all about?" (at least i THINK that's what they were trying to do?) would hit, but i don't and it doesn't

i've been thinking about what the strengths of s1 are, and i think they're 1. the dynamic between a/c and how very likable they both are 2. aziraphale's pre-ex-christian arc 3. keeping the plot and stakes present throughout 4. having multiple pov characters - even if some of them got tedious, i think the whole "i wish aziraphale and crowley cared about humans more so they seemed more invested in the saving the world angle" doesn't bring s1 down too much because we see the Them and anathema and remember that these are brave and kind ppl who have lives and those lives rlly are at stake

#1 remains in s2, except for some overly corny or self-referential moments. #2 tries to be here but, as you said, it's rlly only the two minisodes that play to it, and maybe the unexpectedness of it in s2e6 is purposeful, but i would have liked to see more! #3 is floppy, limp, flaccid, even. i'm prob just repeating things i've said in recordings already but muriel and heaven pose absolutely no threat! the "fight scenes" when hell finally storms the bookshop are filmed so badly that i never even considered being stressed! the book of life threat, which i thought was the whole motivation behind all of crowley's actions in s2, comes to fruition, and crowley doesn't give a single shit and it's just luck regarding the metatron's timing that saves aziraphale's existence. #4 doesn't happen, which is why we get maggie as thee worst-written character in gomens history. it's a mess!

when you said episodic + revealing pieces of the mystery, though, if i combine that with #4, something i think COULD be fun is a the afterparty s1-esque season. basically, each ep is from a different char's POV and they're all retelling how they experienced the last week using a genre that reflects how they think. the last ep would be gabriel's pov, and we could have a longer b/g flashback series that actually feels believable there and a better explanation of why he and beelzebub are against the apocalypse, OR gabriel is the second-to-last ep so that aziraphale can get ep1 and crowley can get ep6, wherein the final fifteen happens. i'm imagining aziraphale would omit the divorce but the background of his interview would weirdly look a lot like heaven, and then finally in ep6 we cut to sloppy-drunk carly rae jepsen-blasting divorcee anthony j. crowley who fills in that last piece (though you could also swap them around). the other POV-ers would be muriel, shax, and nina (or maggie if you insist). we'd lose "a companion to owls" and some time with our ethereal girlies, but i think it would be worth it.

i actually did not know much about the s2 writing process, but i just searched around and found this post (link) summarizing an interview/con in 2022, and tl;dr, it was rushed, and it sorta WAS written ending-first! neilman pitched the general plot without the ending in august 2019, then partnered with john finnemore and came up with the ending in december 2019, then started writing in summer 2020. filming happened in late 2021-early 2022, so the two of them had ~a year? meanwhile, there's a third draft of gomens s1e1 from 2015 floating around (link), AND a lot of it is straight from a book that 1. terry pratchett was involved in 2. the authors had been trying to adapt basically since 1990. i'm assuming s3 is going to be written on a timeline similar to s2, which is part of why i have low hopes for it, though, if neilman is to be believed, at least the idea for it has been developing for longer than the idea for s2?

- Crystal :)

[theoriginofoghond]

First things first: the origins.

On the original version of my first fanfic I ever made, and why I decided to redo it 8 years later. So. Context. Pokemon Opal and Garnet (2016) is the first fanfiction I ever made. It's technically a crossover fanregion fic set in a region created by me with Pokemon created by me, but I use "crossover" extremely, extremely lightly. Technically, it was entirely new, but 5 of the main mons were named after (and of those 5, 4 were based in part on) characters from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame, which is my all-time favorite Disney movie if not my favorite movie period. Given that it was my first ever fanfic, it is a mess. It is rough around the edges, and by god it shows. Among the many things in the first fanfic I ever wrote: HOND references like crazy, blatant Element of Harmony expies in the form of the 14 virtues (more on them later), a blatant Trump allegory, my first time writing a court scene, and a French anthem performance straight out of Casablanca. This was back in the Cringe Old Days (TM) of 2016 when the word "subtlety" was not in my writing vocabulary, when I did not know what "character arcs and development" were, and when I genuinely believed that fanfic sites would automatically send their copyright bots out to companies so that they could sue you out of your minds if you dared put non-public-domain song lyrics into your fic. After a while I stopped updating the fic out of boredom, writer's block, and distraction due to a bunch of other things entering my brain (oh hi, something called the "Dutch language"! Oh hi, fanmade musicals!). But the original fic still exists today and can be found. I plan to one day delete my fanfic.net account, though, and with it all the original stories, but you needn't worry-- the original Opal and Garnet can still be found on Lake Valor; all 20 chapters of it. After that, life went by. I joined We Are All Pokemon Trainers, where I met people who are numerous friends of mine, and, more importantly, learned how to actually create character arcs, developments, lore, and backstories. It was an incredible experience for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of it. I went to college and graduated; I had an extremely long period of health anxiety... and in my last year of college, in 2024, I decided to look over my first ever fanfic and figure out what worked and what didn't. Two things from the fanfic-- the PokeLatin language and Orwell the Newspeak-speaking Crawdaunt-- made their way into WAAPT, albeit the PokeLatin language became the Poipolian dialect of UBese and had tons of tweaks done to it. This was also the year after the Disney company celebrated their 100th anniversary. And given that, the fact that many HOND references were made in the original fic, and the fact that TV Tropes erroneously labeled it a crossover because of those references, I ended up deciding "screw it, I am leaning into the Disney angle and I am leaning into it hard". Cue the creation of the Gisnep company (I'm not kidding, that's actually what it's called) and by extension, the Gisnepverse, which consists of Opal and Garnet (2024) and the WAAPT continuums. (I retired from WAAPT and branched each of my characters off into their own seperate stories.) The next post I make will delve into the lore surrounding the Gisnep company and its differences from its real-world analogue.

[illmoraineakoi]

Back on my bullshit again.

Redesigned the Plush Vessel cloak pattern for the 5th time.

I made a 'final version' test of the process I was going to use for Version 4 with the good minky I intend to use for them. The alterations I did were fantastic! ...Until it came time to sew lines down the length of the cloak.

Because I designed the cloak to 'bubble' a bit, so it was more shapely on the body, this made sewing lines down the length of the cloak to mimick the paneling appearance in the canon design and to tack the two sides of fabric together not work properly. Trying to sew a bubbled piece of fabric via flat surface sewing machine is difficult, at least for me. I don't know how I would go about fixing this or compensating for it, and honestly, I don't even care to. I don't want to have to put even more work into these cloaks.

In fact, making this final version test version revealed to me how just unpleasant the pattern was to work with and how much I Did Not Like Doing It. I dislike having to have 8 pieces per cloak. I dislike having to struggle to match up 3 pairs of lines and then the entire bottom jagged edges - which if NOT lined up correctly will cause distortions in the fabric; which is something I experienced in every attempt at this pattern.

The last test i did was arguably the best, and I really did love how it turned out. It looks really nice!

But plain. And the fact that the two sides don't have seams down them to hold them together bothers me. And it's just a pain in the ass to make.

But thank god for my grandmother, who has more sense than me and who's advice I probably should've been more open to taking note of.

I had asked her for her opinions on the process of making the two V4 Cloak sides, particularly zigzag stitching down the hemlines to keep them flat, and she had questioned why I didn't just use one big flat piece of fabric for both sides of the cloak. This would eliminate those hems entirely. I had explained why at the time; that having the curved seams would allow the cloak a better shape on the body.

Should've just listened to her.

Because that's exactly what I've decided to do with V5. Combine the 4 pieces that make up one full side into one big flat piece.

I'll be testing this out with the Good Minky later, to again test out a 'final version, but the test I did with the fleece shows that the shape is still pretty much the same. The bubbling I wanted might've been negligible.

RIP ME

Although another idea I was debating was to use sewn 'strips' of fabric that would then be sewn together into the full cloak. This would increase the piece count and be more effort, but it would make the paneling effect much stronger than just a sewn line. It would almost make elongating the ends much easier than it would be with the current pattern. I wanted to give Vessels like Greenpath and the Deepnest Four longer, more tattered cloaks, while also potentially using a barely tattered one for Hollow. Adding these long lengths of fabric would be difficult to do with the V5 pattern. It would either require a fuckton of fabric waste (keeping it all as once piece) or requite me to sew the longer strips onto the 'main' piece (adding an unsightly seam.) It's a loose loose either way.

To say nothing of upscaling for Lost Kin. The current pattern will be a BITCH to try to upscale. I can't just increase the scale, I have to try to make it longer than it is wide and redo the angles and oh my god I don't want to do that.

I'll test out the strips idea first. It'll be relatively easy to whip up a pattern for that.

(It'll also probably be easier to keep the pile in the right direction with it too. Currently, to avoid massively wasting minky, some pieces were the wrong way and looked terrible. I was intending to hide this as the inside side, but with smaller, thin pieces that are relatively rectangular, it'll be easier to line them up on the fabric in the correct pile direction while also minimizing fabric waste.)

On a Side Note: I've FINALLY been able to order my Black minky! I was waiting for a sample from a new site I found to arrive, because the original site i was looking to order from was sold out of black. The sample arrived yesterday, and guess when that first site restocked their black minky? Yesterday.

Oh well! I went with the second site, because I knew exactly what type of minky i'd be getting and also their first bulk tier was 10 yards instead of 20, and bumped the price lower than the first. I've got 5 more yards than I really probably need, but I can always use it for something else.

Like that Full Size Hollow I still want to do.

(I think I'll need more than 5 yards for that. I don't remember anymore lmao.

I shouldn't be thinking about that. I gotta focus on finishing the Babies first.)

Anyway, the cloak is the thing that's giving me the most issue out of anything. Which, to be fair, I expected when I started this.

I just didn't think it would take 6 VERSIONS to figure out.

(Low-key tempted to hit up that one Etsy seller who does amazing HK Plushes for help/advice. Not sure how well that'd go down though, since I'm not sure if I don't want to sell these Vessels myself yet. Feels like a kinda scummy thing to do. But man, I'm getting desperate, and clearly my pattern and sewing skills are not as good as I thought they were lmao. Not that I thought they were good, merely decent, but still.)

[pioneeroverc-my-5000th-sideblog]

Summary of March:

Bouncing between focus and being completely scattered. Mental health very poor. Managed to take some time to play games without feeling guilty about it, which was good. No scenes again because I still always think of either these big elaborate ideas that are a day+ of actual work (and so don't get done) or just 'sketch of character doing nothing so I can try to get their likeness'. Really need to find out how I can add perspective backgrounds to portraits or something lol

Still reducing workload until I get onto something I can actually complete in a month.

Plan from February:

All monthly/weekly goals for the year ✗ no backgrounds

10x 5 minute What Am I Scared Of sessions (inc photo drawovers) ✓ don't know how much it helped though!

Thumbnail/sketch for K/ylux calendar ✗ might drop out of this

DAB Lesson 7 - redo form intersections ✓

DAB Lesson 7 - 4 vehicles ✓

FEH design ✓

Proko - review notes ✓

Proko - next body part ✗ took notes for this, started doing initial tracing

April plan:

3x 100 comp

5x scared

DAB Lesson 7 - 2 vehicles

Proko - shoulder bones

DrawThis - 2x 2h videos

Rough sketches for all 5 FEH alt ideas

1x background sketch/screencap study (1h timer)

1x simple form studies (1h timer)

Look at how FEH artists handle small details/trims with lineart ✓

notes and improvements from finished stuff:

USE PHOTO REFERENCE FOR EXPRESSIONS and try more open mouths ✗ no expressions this month. fuck, do more hair studies ✗, use photo reference to figure out stylised ¾ eyes ✓ still haven't figured it out though, push unhorizontalness ✓, try to unstiffen poses before doing lineart (separate pass)✗ but this did improve from the unhorizontalness thing

guy: eyes too sunken in OR far side of face/chin sticks out too much, folds on shoulder don't take into account that there actually is a shoulder there, arm is completely straight, pose is pushed a bit too much but I actually don't mind that

m/ichalis: lines REALLY messy (due to rushing to finish for a self-imposed deadline), eyes too flat/centreline of nose doesn't stick out enough, flat jaw area (mouth doesn't imply any curvature to mandible area), ears on rabbit aren't oriented correctly (v hard angle though), collar thickness is different on either side, hair doesn't follow contours of head at side (common problem), pose doesn't make any sense but was the only way I could think of to get the rabbit into frame so I guess I can let it slide, temple area shaded way more 3D than the rest of the face and looks weird

s/eth: nose/mid-face too long, drawing details like trims with lineart looks weird, hands not 3D, sword doesn't quite fit comfortably into hands (copied hand reference too faithfully), wasn't sure how to do top contours for thigh high boots because I didn't know exactly how the slightly raised leg worked or interacted with pelvis, also wasn't sure how to handle material on tunic moving with raised leg

a/yra: back chestplate thing too curved (looks like turtle shell), sword pose impractical, sword blade looks really thick and not sharp at all, tree in background too abstract - doesn't look like tree (holes in foliage make it look like a flat shape stuck onto the trunk), hair looks like it's stuck together, Small Other Eye Syndrome

a/rvis: TOO DARK, shading inconsistent with lightsource (looks like facing him but the background is a rimlight), not fully lineless or lined - lazy, shading on nose really bad because of the light coming from the direction it is, hair doesn't follow contour of shoulders/chest, do like how lost edges were executed though

v/alter: drew leg armour without really knowing how it would fit over the leg (couldn't figure out how to make the cutout not dig into the thigh) and so had no idea how to shade it either, shapes on knee guard inconsistent between sides, silhouette very static/horizontal, arm at his side looks really awkward (I did intentionally want it by his side and not in a more dynamic pose but it looks like he's pushing it down), glow isn't glowy enough, colouring messy (I did clean up the lineart though which is a good step forward)

ACTIONABLES: USE PHOTO REFERENCE FOR EXPRESSIONS and try more open mouths, do more hair studies, use photo reference to figure out stylised ¾ eyes AND NOSE, push unhorizontalness, see how other (FEH) artists handle trims

5MIN SCARED IDEAS: find good hair examples and trace, find ¾ photos and trace eyes/nose, trace torsos for gesture, review/learn leg muscles, trace thigh high boot opening contours from actual photos

[thegreatduggo]

Finally Spanked That Sumbitch Radiator!

For a while, I've been giving stink-eye to the caulk I'd put around the perimeter of the dining room radiator. It's been bubbling off because it can't handle the heat and it looks really manky. It's just another job I need to take care of....at some point...

I could easily scrape it out and replace it... but with what? I've done this job a few times on various radiators using various materials. Caulk is no good - it can't handle the heat (up to 212F/100C) - it goes tacky and eventually bubbles off.

Plaster of Paris is a great material: it's strong and hard but if the gap is too narrow, you have to use a concave joint like you do with a caulk - and it will eventually crack and split along that joint.

Construction adhesive is good, but it shrinks when used like a caulk to fill a gap, and that is greatly exacerbated by heat. It takes quite a long time - this took a good couple of winter seasons - but eventually it'll start cracking up.

These radiators are meant to be recessed into the walls and should flush or close to it, but every radiator was leaning forward out of the wall by as little as one inch and as much as three. They were also not secured in place and could be rocked back and forth by hand.

However, this was also the one radiator that I hadn't managed to secure back into the wall. It was leaning out by 1.5" at one end and 2.5" at the other - the skewedness made it look worse.

I'd done 5 others pretty successfully but this one didn't want to play ball. I'd improved it somewhat but not enough to make a big difference.

I thought "Right, if I'm going to redo the caulk, let me try one more time to get it back in the wall!" My general skills and resourcefulness are always improving and current me should be able to best me from 3 years ago.

I'd tried a few different approaches over the years. My first attempt was simply to push them back in by hand. It didn't go too well - it's tough to get any real purchase - all I could do was wear my grippiest shoes. Then you have to be able to jam shims underneath the feet before yo lose your grip. I managed to get the big radiator down from about 3 inches down to 2. But 2" is still way too much and it looks pretty crappy.

My next idea was to jack them up with a car jack. There's not enough clearance to insert a normal jack so I futzed around for a while, looking for a low profile jack. It was a dumb idea and it wouldn't have worked anyway - the rad needs to be rotated back on its axis into the recess and this would elevate the entire radiator and jam the top of it into the back of the recess. It would have to be a lift and a shove combined.

I continued to mull it over. What I needed was a way of pushing hard against the top of the radiator and holding it in place while I jammed shims under the front feet. There are only two ways to do this: screw a cross timber into the floor - which would damage the floor - or brace against an opposing wall. A cross-timber, an angled timer to push against the top of the radiator and extension timbers to make up the distance from the cross-timber to the angled thrust timber. To keep the thrust timber secure, both ends needed to be cut at angle of about 20 degrees.

This worked pretty well on the living room radiator, which was the most fucked up one and in the most noticeable location. It leaned out by 2.5" to 3" and it was very wobbly. I got it down to about 0.5" - aesthetically, that was good enough and a vast improvement. However, the same technique didn't do much at all to the dining room radiator. I did the 4 small radiators on the second floor (which are only about 3 ft wide) and I had good results with all of them.

Over the intervening years, I had a couple goes with the dining room radiator thinking: I'll just try a bit harder this time. But effort wasn't the issue and trying harder didn't help...

This time round, I decided to take a closer look and find out where the problem really was. Digging into the wall, there appeared to be a metal surround to the radiator. Maybe this hard edge was stopping the radiator from rotating up into the wall?

I wondered if I could cut the metal. I drilled into it to get a better idea of what I was dealing with, then I cut sliced into it with the all purpose "Bad Blade" on the angle-grinder. It made a hell of a mess and it was slow. I didn't fancy filling the dining room, kitchen and living room with fine dust, so I gave that up. Instead, I chipped away at the plaster with a putty chisel and found this was actually heavy metal corner section for drywall. I dug out the end of it and it felt like I might be able to rip the whole thing out, plaster and all - I gave it a good old yank and I was able to tear the whole thing out.

Having laid waste to the radiator surround and made a big mess, I really hoped that this was the reason the rad wouldn't go back into the wall.

I tuned up my timber jack system from my prior attempts. I selected a longer length for the angled timber that pushes against the top of the radiator, and calculated the angle: 22 degrees, call it 20 because it will decrease as it slides down the rad.

I didn't have the necessary timber off-cuts lying around and I didn't want to use my uncut 2 x 4s because I need the full length for my fence repairs.

The previous day, when I was scouting around for my street cat: Mini-Mum I'd seen some discarded timber on a nearby construction project. I went over there and found a piece that would do the job. Later on, I needed one more piece to reach the radiator from the far wall, so I went back and got another piece.

I put it all in place, measured the length for the extension and cut it to size. The cross piece runs across the 6 ft French door frame, so I used 3/4" shims to raise it above the quarter round, otherwise it would either damage the quarter round or jump over it.

Once everything was in place, I lined myself up and dumped all my weight onto the angled timber with my knee. I thought there might be an initial resistance, followed by a breakthrough and a good sized movement. But it barely budged - maybe an 1/8" - and it didn't feel like it would move anymore.

I tried a couple more times then gave up for the day for a rethink.

The next day, I checked that there was actually enough clearance behind the rad for it to go back into the wall. I used a rod with a 90 degree bend, rotated it behind the rad and then pulled back and forward to check the clearance - there was enough room. But the gap above the rad was still tight due to another metal corner section on the back side of the wall section. I gave it a good going over with a putty chisel and a trim bar. Then I used a pry bar and a coal chisel to widen out the gap.

The angled timber had been snagging against the radiator grills (and ripping off the paint), so I put a piece of plywood between the rad and the end of the angled timber to act as a slider - this would stop it catching on the radiator vents. I also doubled up on the support across the door frame with another 2 x 4.

I gave the angled timber some full force down-kicks and I didn't hold back. It didn't feel that much had happened, but given that I had knocked out a load of plaster, there was no longer a clear frame of reference, so I used a straight edge to check it and to my surprise, the rad had actually gone way back into the wall recess. I gave it a bit more application to make sure, and there was no more movement. I then positioned the jack at the end of the rad (which had been leaning out further) and still no more movement.

Now, I had to fix the radiator in place. I used a thick porcelain tile for the main shim shims under the front feet - it had to be a rigid material with a big enough footprint not to compress the floorboard underneath them. They couldn't be too big or they would slide over the old uneven sub-flooring. I made up the rest of the gap with heavy washers and other metal shims.

They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over and hoping to a different result - that's kind of what I do, but I do evolve my approach slightly and eventually I do win. This win took me 10 years!

[atsumulogy]

synopsis: kdrama cliches & tropes u would experience w/ ur haikyuu boys.

pairing(s): various x gn!reader

content warning: mentions of being drunk, pinch of angst at the bonus end, wrist grabbing, mentions of a fight

naia’s footnote: first post 4 this blog … Feeling: Nervous 😹this probably a bit ooc but let me live! also?? the read more thingy gives me these stupid glitches and i had to redo this for so many times

likes & reblogs are appreciated!

PIGGY BACK RIDES — scenario wherein you probably got injured or got too tired to walk and he carries you on his back (either begrudgingly or happily, either way you’re both warmer than usual in the face but no one says anything.)

→ BOKUTO, tsukishima(is part of the begrudgingly part, you’re probably too tired to walk or injured and he’s totally NOT worried about you okay? he just finds your whining annoying and wants you to shut up.) noya, asahi, aran, kita, akaashi, daichi, aone.

FORCED COHABITATION — you guys probably hate each other, and somehow, someway, you guys end up in a situation where you guys have to live together. this was not a part of his or your plans, but so is falling in love with each other but i guess fate has other plans!

→ SAKUSA, atsumu, shirabu, semi (you think he plays his guitar way too loud not knowing it’s the chords of the song he wrote about you)

CONFESSION OF FEELINGS BUT … — either you or he fell asleep, blackout drunk or just sleepy as hell. or he gets interrupted before he confesses by a phone call that will lead to many scenarios from misunderstandings to an emergency that will set back the confession a few more episodes until he actually gets to confess. or at this point, you have to be the one to confess because things just won’t go his way!

→ OIKAWA (LMAO, wanna see him suffer), ennoshita, kyotani, iwaizumi, goshiki, makki, tanaka, asahi, hinata, lev, atsumu, kuroo.

SHARING AN UMBRELLA — it rains but you forgot your umbrella, and he so happens to have one with him. and somehow you and him end up under his umbrella, close proximity as you could literally feel his hot breath and he wonders if you could hear his heart beat drumming like he just ran a whole mile. he would angle the umbrella in a way that you wouldn’t get wet by the rain while his shoulders soaking wet but it’s okay, as long as you’re fine and dry he doesn’t mind getting wet by the rain <3 (bonus if next day he gets sick and you visit him and take care of him AND maybe an almost kiss happening … 😁)

→ AKAASHI, KITA, semi, goshiki, tanaka, yamamoto, kuroo

WRIST GRABS — grabs your wrists to get you to talk to him because you walked out on him OR OR HE GRABS YOUR WRISTS BECAUSE HE GOT JEALOUS WITH THE GUY YOU’RE TALKING TO OR (they try not to be as forceful or harsh tho ☹️)

→ iwaizumi, osamu, suna, yaku, kyotani, tsukishima, kageyama, oikawa, atsumu, kuroo (?) atp i’m just saying anyone that comes into my mind LMAO

OLD CHILDHOOD FRIENDS THAT MEET AGAIN (AND FALL IN LOVE) — okay so you guys either remember each other not, but that really doesn’t matter in the end because either way, you guys would end up together. hashtag fated soulmates!

→ ushijima (I JUST FEEL LIKE HE COULD FIT THIS TROPE .. or probably he reminds of this male lead in a kdrama i watched with this trope LOL), sakusa, noya, oikawa, tendou.

SHOULDER NAP — he falls asleep in your shoulders, whether he meant to or not won’t change the fact that you could hear the beat of your heart increasing, your breath hitching, and suddenly the room feels hotter than ever.

or you fall asleep in his shoulder and suddenly he can’t move a single muscle anymore, but it’s fine, he thinks, as you nuzzle yourself unconsciously into his neck.

→ SUNA, kenma, kyotani (you fall asleep on his shoulders and instead of pushing you off him, he lets you sleep there and glares at anyone who stares at you guys.), kageyama, tsukishima.

BONUS: THE LOVE TRIANGLE TROPE — my guilty pleasure but also my most behated trope ever.

the male lead — the one who got the love interest in the end.

→ oikawa, tsukishima (it’s giving asshole male lead but gets the girl in the end anyway!), bokuto, terushima, tanaka, kageyama, atsumu, osamu, shirabu, goshiki, ushijima

the second lead — probably deserves the love interest as much as the male lead OR probably deserves the love interest more LMAO

→ akaashi (he treats the love interest so well and he just?? loves them sm?? even though he’s not the one that they picked?? crying he doesn’t even expect anything from them. he's the type of second lead every viewer was rooting for), iwaizumi, kindaichi, lev, yamamoto, and if i say suna, ennoshita, noya, konoha, koganegawa, semi, kawanishi

[20dollarlolita]

Shoe repair: Regluing soles.

So, when I was out and about, dressed all cute, my Bodyline shoes did to me what my Bodyline shoes have done to me many times before.

By the end of my trip to the quality retail establishment known as Five Below, the platform and sole of my Mary Jane pump had detached itself.

As I've mentioned before, it's generally not a bad idea to have some tape in your purse when you're working with Bodyline shoes. Almost every pair of Bodyline shoes that I've owned has broken on me in some way, and sometimes you need to tape it back together to get home. I was driving myself this time, and I keep backup shoes in my car because of a longstanding ankle problem, so my day wasn't completely ruined.

if you have to tape your pump to your foot so you can get through the day, I find that putting a few loops of tape around the middle works pretty well, Tape all the way over your foot and all the way under the shoe. This allows the tape to actually support the shoe, instead of trying to peel off, and it's relatively subtle if you have to do it, like I had to at the convention earlier this year.

Anyway, Bodyline's shoes are just not meant for northern California in the summer, and I think the glue just melts, so I actually had two pairs I needed to glue back together. There's part of me that actually looks forward to needing to do this, because I know that my glue job won't fall apart, and my shoes will be better in the end. I did a tutorial on regluing shoes back in 2015, so it's time to redo that tutorial.

Let's take a look at what we need to do this:

One, we need a place to work that will be safe if little bits of glue get on it. If we do this right, we will not drip glue everywhere. However, if we do this right, we also will not be somewhere that a little drop of glue will destroy.

Two, you need clamps and clamping material. I'm going to be honest, getting some good quick-release clamps and keeping them with your sewing/crafting/diy supplies will be a game changer in many aspects of what you do.

Pretty much any clamp that you get will be good for something, but here's my favorites:

Rabbit-ear spring clamps. The smaller sizes are really good to have around because you sometimes just need A Thing to hold A Thing nice and tight. I used one of the really big ones to hold the sole of the black shoe's rubber sole onto the back. The clamping surface swivels so they're good for clamping angled things.

These things are like a traditional c-clamp, but with a quick-slide action that makes them way easier and faster to use than a c-clamp. I have like 20 of these with my weaving supplies because it's way better than a warping peg or a table clamp. These have a swivel clamping surface, so they can do angles okay. The end of the clamp that swivels also adjusts in and out, so you can use that to put clamping force over a edge of a shoe and avoid bending the edges too much. You can also use that screw mechanism to really tightly clamp something.

You can take the end off one of these and put it on the other end, and then it's a reverse clamp used to hold things apart. I like these little 4" ones for a lot of applications. You can also get a really tight clamp/strong spread with these because of the ratcheting handle. In this tutorial, I use one of these, but I'm using the 14" version instead of the 4" version. This is because I don't know how to read when I buy things online.

And I'm throwing this 99 cent spring clamp in here because I use these in sewing all the time. Any time you need to get some fabric together and out of the way, this is your tool. Also, if you have rented costumes that are larger than your actor, you can clamp the extra fabric in the back to make it look like it fits them (and then clamp it in the front for any shots of them from behind). I keep these on my dress form as well, because I'm a slightly different size than my dress form, and clamping the back edge of the garment sometimes makes it photograph better on the form.

So get yourself some clamps. In addition to those clamps, I used bungee cords and a lot of stained towels/discarded shipping envelopes to stuff the insides of the shoe. Don't need to make new trash if you reuse the trash you have.

Let's talk about glue, really fast. In that picture, we have four kinds of glue.

Shoe Goo: This is the one I used in this tutorial. Shoe Goo is a glue made specifically for shoes. It's a little bit flexible when dry, is water proof, and can withstand higher temps intermittently. This means that it won't melt when you leave your shoes in your car on a summer day.

E-6000: E-6000 will glue most things to most other things. It comes in a few colors and dries flexible. I keep it on hand, and I have fixed shoes with it before. I like the Goo a little better for this specific application, but I use E6000 on small things like broken buckles. I think I fixed the left shoe of this black pair with E6000, because the store I was at didn't carry Shoe Goo.

Fix All Adhesive: I've used this one in a pinch before. You can find it in more places. It also does something that the other two glues can't do, which I'll go into in a minute.

Glossy Accents: Glossy Accents should not be out there. Glossy Accents is not ready for shoe repair. Glossy Accents does not know what it's doing out there with all those strong glues. Glossy Accents should go back home. Do not use Glossy Accents on your shoe repairs.

Please note that, with the exception of the accidental inclusion of Glossy Accents, all of these are called solvent glues. A water-based glue has water in it, and the glue will dry as fast as water evaporates. If you want it to dry faster, you can replace the water with a solvent like acetone, which will dry as fast as acetone evaporates, which is much faster. If you expose a dried water-based glue to water, it could dissolve back into the glue, making the join weak. A solvent-based glue won't dissolve in water, but you also can't use water to clean it up. Read the instructions on your glue. It will tell you, "when wet, clean up with x." Find out what X is and then have that on hand. Hopefully, you won't need it. Also, most solvent glues are flammable, so don't smoke or burn candles while you do that. The lighter in that picture up there, much like Glossy Accents, has no place in that image and should just go home.

My white rocking horse shoe is a really good example of an easy shoe to re-glue. The front is still attached, but the back is free. Because the front it attached, it will keep the back in alignment. You don't need to worry about lining it up as much, because the shoe will line it up for you.

This is also nice because there's not really any dirt or grass in there. If your shoe broke and you had to walk home with your sole missing, you might have dirt to clean out before you do this glue.

What we do here is pretty simple: put a lot of glue in there, spread it around, put the two sides, together, clamp, and come back later.

How much glue? You want enough so that there's not a lot of empty air pockets between the two sides of the shoe. You want it to be shoe to glue to shoe, without air between. However, you don't want so much that a ton runs out of the sides of the shoes and you need to do cleanup.

I did a nice fat bead of glue down the sole, squished it together, and then pulled it apart. From that point, I could spread the glue around and get good coverage. You want glue on both parts to be glued.

Then, apply some force onto the shoe, to really get the two glue surfaces touching each other as much as possible. I like to just put the shoe on my foot and stand on it for a few seconds.

Once I've put some pressure onto it, I check for two things. The first is for any glue squeeze-out. Acetone cleans that up, but it can also dissolve some of the finishes on some shoes, so be careful with throwing it on there.

The second thing I look for is any areas where the sole and the shoe are not properly joining. You can see in that three-part pic up there that the back of the shoe wasn't totally meeting the sole, so I had to make sure that I had glue all the way back there.

Then it was time to stuff the shoe with something (I used a stained towel) and apply clamps to it. We stuff the shoe so that the clamp can't bend the edges of the shoe down and break them. Here I have one large clamp to provide most of the clamping force, and then a bungee cord to make sure that very back part stays stuck to the sole properly.

Once I was confident that everything was making contact, and that any excess glue was cleaned up, I could set the shoe aside and allow the glue to cure.

So what's going on with the Fix All glue? The main different thing about the fix-all glue is that they instruct you to apply it to both sides, let it dry, and then bring the sides together. This makes two changes to doing it with Shoe Goo.

First of all, when you use glue that dries first, you only get a single chance to align the two parts. This means it's a good choice for things that are very easy to align (like this shoe where the front half is still attached) and not very good for things that might take a couple of tries (like my black pump with the whole platform detached).

The second thing is that it grabs hold immediately, making it a good option for things that are difficult to effectively clamp. You will still want to clamp it in place until it dries, but it will do a lot of that initial holding for you.

Know that one kind of glue will give you multiple tries, but must be heavily clamped while it dries, and another kind will only give you one shot, but it'll do some of the holding for you. (If you really need that sudden grab and long hold, and you're applying it to a large heavy-wear area like the entire sole of a shoe, you probably want Barge All-Purpose TF Cement. It's a dangerous product to work with, but exposing yourself multiple times to different slightly-less dangerous products to glue and then reglue and reglue a shoe as it keeps falling apart seems like a not better option IMO).

So a glue that has you let both sides dry first can be really great if you have just the tip of the rubber sole starting to peel back. The other advantage is that, if the glue dries before it sticks, it dries faster than if you have glue trapped between two non-porous surfaces. Because of this, I use Fix-All when I'm just gluing the soft rubber coating on the sole back into place.

On the black shoes, I needed a few tries to be able to get the platform aligned with the upper. The platform had completely detached, so I had to make sure it was in proper alignment. The right shoe is also where my bad ankle is, so I had to make sure the shoe wasn't twisted, so that my ankle wouldn't be under additional stress.

Here's how much glue I used, before it was spread around. I moved it around to make sure there weren't big patches with no glue. Good contact is good bond.

And here's how I clamped it. I shoved a bubble mailer (waste not; reuse your trash!) into the toe of the shoe, and the wrapped a bungee cord around that to hold on the platform. Then, I used a rabbit-ear clamp to hold the instep together.

And then it's just about giving it 24 hours to mostly cure. After 24 hours, it's a good idea to remove the clamps, so you don't put stress on the walls of the shoe. However, give it a full 48 before you try to wear the shoes, because there's still some final curing that has to happen before the whole thing is ready to be put under stress.

And now you can go out and about, knowing that your shoes are stronger than before, and that you won't need to fix that shoe again.

[melty-choco-bjd]

Edwardian-Inspired Doll Hats

This is cross-posted from my DoA thread for those of you who don’t use that site!

I really like the big, old-fashioned lady's hats with all the ruffles, bows, ribbons, and flowers, sort of like these (particularly #6 and #3), so I decided to try making one! I loosely followed this tutorial for 1/12 scale hats, except of course some things have to be changed for 1/4. I measured out my own pattern pieces. I am an absolute beginner myself when it comes to hatmaking and am mostly following someone else's guidelines. This is my first time making a hat (for dolls or otherwise). ☆ PREP: MATERIALS USED─── ⋆⋅☆ - secondhand fabric (satin, cotton) - secondhand accessories (lace, fabric rose, plastic pearls) - cardstock - hot glue - needle & thread This was intended to be a no-sew project, but halfway through I realized I needed something to line the inside of the main hat body, so I ended up sewing up a quick cotton lining.

☆ PREP: PLANNING THINGS OUT─── ⋆⋅☆ I started by sketching out my rough idea for the hat design; a simple hat with some lace, flowers, and beads, based on the materials I had available. I tried to visualize the structure to help me understand the pattern shapes I'd need to make.

Next up was making the pattern -- which took a little math but was still pretty easy. I had to make a circle freehand, so I used a ruler to make sort-of-equal lines to guide me. I measured an approximate distance for the brim on my doll's head, and the width of the hat inner hole / outer top, then used those measurements to make the pattern pieces.

I cut them out for testing and I ended up needing to redo them a few times.

Afterwards, I made a "final test copy" from cardstock and taped it together loosely to see how the scale looked on my doll, and to try out some accessory placements.

The main body ended up being too tall, so I took the cardstock model apart and trimmed it before moving on. ☆ WORKING ON THE ACTUAL HAT─── ⋆⋅☆ Now that I had a base out of cardstock, I moved on to gluing the fabric onto the main pieces. I was using this pretty blue fabric!

I mostly did this on my own, but after looking at the tutorial again I realized I basically did the same thing as them. I used hot glue for this process -- while it was drying I pushed it down with my fingers to keep it flat and to help keep things flush together.

Now that I had the main body pieces done, they looked like this:

At this point I realized I was going to need to find a way to line these pieces, or else you'd be able to see the glue-y parts underneath. I decided to make a second brim, cover it in fabric, and add lace to it, so I could glue the "bad" sides of both brims together to both hide the glue and add lace cleanly.

I also made a little lace bow out of the extra lace I had left over.

Next, I glued all the main pieces together. First the hat top and the side strip, and then the main brim to the little top-sidepiece combo.

This is when I stopped to sew the cotton inner lining and glued it inside, so I could later sandwich the sticking-out ends in between the "bad sides" of the two brim pieces.

Then I glued on the bottom brim piece, and the main piece was complete!

☆ ACCESSORIZING AND TRYING IT ON─── ⋆⋅☆ Finally, I placed on the beads, lace bow, and fabric flower, and glued them into place.

I think it came out surprisingly cute!

I tried it on my doll after, but it was a bit hard to get it to stay still and not fall off. It's likely because the head hole in the hat is a bit too small.

I was only able to get it to stay on a flat angle, but I intended it to be tilted a bit. I think it looks a bit silly flat, but I can't think of a way to fix it

Overall I think it came out really well, even if the fit isn't 100%. I'm definitely going to try making more hats in the future. I'd like to try a top hat, or a leather hat, maybe.

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