#i have been trying to think of dragons for the others but im heavily blanking

[randocollector]

ngl if toby had a dragon from httyd he’d have a timberjack 1000%

[magic-is-something-we-create]

Get to know me tag!

I was tagged by @hannahs-creations in the original post!!! Thank you, Hannah! sorry im a bit late with it haha

Rules: Answer the questions and tag a few people!

I got a bit long-winded on these answers, so I’ll put them behind a readmore!

1. What made you decide to start writing or arting (assuming you write or do art)?

I can’t say I ever consciously decided to start writing - I’ve just always loved reading, and when I first got a school assignment for a creative story, I decided I never wanted to stop!

In terms of art, though, it was sparked by a similar thing: the Dragonology book. My first story was about a dragon in there, and part of that assignment was to make illustrations to accompany it, and I decided I needed to learn how to draw dragons. From there, I just fell in love with making a blank page into something I could look at and enjoy, and I’ve been drawing ever since!

2. What do you like to do more: photo editing or video editing?

Oh, this is a hard one... Video editing is fun for me, especially because, when I make videos, I tend to do speedpaints with commentary, and cutting my ramblings down to a manageable size is so satisfying. On the other hand, I like taking fairly mundane pictures and making them magical...

I’d say, for satisfaction levels, video editing wins. For the actual process, I think photo editing is my favorite!

3. Which do you prefer: YouTube or TikTok?

YouTube, 100%. The only TikToks I’ve ever seen have been sent to me by friends, and I don’t particularly like short videos like that? If it were Vine, though, Vine would win ;aslkdjf

4. How many books have you read in the last 5 years?

A lot, LOL

My favorite have been Six of Crows, The Stormlight Archive, Red rising, and The Fallen Empire!

5. Do you tend to post more cheery/cutesy things, silly things or more serious things to your blog?

I think silly things are the most common? I like to meme with my WIPs, since I just. love meme culture. And I like making jokes about things - it’s a quick and easy way to get myself to smile!

6. How long have you been on Tumblr? Just ramble for a minute about some changes you’ve noticed about the site.

I made my first Tumblr blog in 2013, and I kept that one up until about April of last year, I think, before I decided to remake. 

The biggest change I’ve seen is the shift from sharing things to consuming things, in terms of like, reblog to like ratios and whatnot. Also, the amount of discourse has stayed about the same, but it’s changed in subject for the most part. But fandom discourse is still pretty much the same, just with different shows, now.

Also, reaction gifs have faded out of use pretty heavily since I started. At least, in the areas I’ve been in.

7. If the staff of tumblr came up to you, genuinely wanting advice on how to improve the site, what advice/request(s) would you give them?

I would tell them to rename likes into bookmarks. Also, lift the nsfw ban, and make it so that in order for 18+ blogs to be viewed, the user has to be 18+. Yes, people lie about their age, but so many sex workers lost their audiences and sources of income because of it, and it legitimately threw away a third of the userbase in one hit. 

Also, no matter the pressures from other social sites, don’t make this site less anonymous. It’s one of the beauties of Tumblr - I’m never going to have a boss find my blog and know for sure that it’s me.

8. What was the most challenging thing about starting your favorite hobby? How did you get past it, if you ever did?

Well, at the time I started drawing, the biggest obstacle was finding a way to learn. The art classes in school were never trying to teach us how to draw something, just showing us that we could. I ended up getting “How to draw manga” books and looking up stuff on YouTube.

9. What do you think other people think of when they think of you? For instance, with me, most people think about either tomatoes, chinchillas or black cats, depending on the person and how long they’ve known me.

Well, I hope they think of my jokes, first of all a;lskdjf;aslkdfj

But in terms of like, objects or animals? Sketchbooks, pride flags, and dinosaurs.

10. If every animal except one specific species went extinct but you got to pick which one didn’t go extinct, which species would you pick?

Hmmmmmmm... probably Komodo Dragons. I really like big lizards :)

11. What do YOU feel makes the world go round?

Laughter! Or, really, anything that makes people smile!

12. What would you say to a person if you heard them talking shit about your best friend?

This has actually happened before, and they were saying it to my face without knowing we were best friends. I sat there, nodded along, and when they were done, just said “You know they’ve been my best friend for like, 7 years, right?”

They went so pale it was kind of funny.

13. What is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to you that has stuck with you?

This was more something they did, but when I was going through a nasty friend break up, I texted them, and within 5 minutes they were at my house, texting that person furiously, and letting me cry on them, even though they’re not a very emotional person themself ;-; I felt so loved in that moment, you have no idea.

14. What was the greatest piece of life advice you’ve ever gotten?

You have the rest of your life to wake up and decide who you’re going to be that day, and you should never feel bad about changing who that is from one day to the next.

It was said in the context of me realizing that I wasn’t genderfluid, I was transmasc, and my ongoing crisis over whether I’m fully a guy, or if I’m a bit more fluid than that. It’s helped me a lot with accepting that I might not have all the answers right now, and I don’t need all the answers all the time.

15. What one or two aspects of your childhood personality would you bring back to your current personality if you could?

Honestly? My willingness to just make things, and not care about how they turned out. I made so much art that I cringe at now, but I was learning, and that’s all that matters, really.

--

Okay, this was long, but I’m going to tag: @nothingisliteral, @violetcancerian, and @morgan-s-writes! Apologies if you’ve been tagged before, and as always, no pressure, and if you want to hop in, feel free to say I tagged you!!

[blackaquokat]

Prompt: "I'm going to keep you safe" ActingAttorney. Maybe after WKM? And actor mark is taking care of a reincarnated DA(Van vlog y/n) who doesn't remember the events of WKM. Sorry if this is too complicated

Yay, my second everActing Attorney prompt! I’ve actually wanted to write this specific scene for along time now, so thank you, friend! It’s not too complicated at all! I’m not completely satisfied (pun intended) with this final product, but I always end up coming back to these if they turn out canon for my series. But yeah, this could be considered a future installment to my Acting Attorney story MayYou Always be Satisfied (currently at 4 parts) if you like.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

44. “I’m going tokeep you safe.”

Oo00oO

A century is a long time to live with the agonizing guilt ofpast actions. An awful long time because the average human should not live forthat long.

But Mark hasn’t been an average human since the events athis old home so long ago.

He’s had time to move on, physically at least. Starting his channel, playing games, raising money for charities…it’s all good, thekind of public performances he always wanted to do, but on a smaller, lesscorruptive scale.

Emotionally?

The guilt still runs strong. Whether Mark was influenced bythat darker entity or not, he would always be responsible for all the death anddestruction that took place that day.

His thoughts are spiraling into reflections of that time, ashe sits in front of his computer to edit his latest video. Questioning how hecould have ever considered doing the things he did, reaming himself for beingsuch a heartbroken idiot…

…missing his friends…

Life is for the living. But your friends are dead, and you’re close enough.

Mark shakes his head and returns to the tedious void ofediting. It’s hard to remind himself not to dwell on the past, but lately, he’sbeen doing better about it. It helps to keep busy.

He’s startled out of his momentum by a pounding at the door.He goes to open it and sees Benja—Tyler onthe other side, hands on his knees, panting like he’s run thirty miles.

“Why the hell aren’tyou answering your phone?!” Tyler demands, holding his own cellular device asproof of trying.

“My battery’s dead, are you okay?” Mark asks. “I thought youwere just going to get McDonald’s—”

“I’d be fine ifyou actually charged your phone more than once a day, but that’s not the point,you gotta come with me, right now!”

“Wait, why—”

But Tyler just grabs Mark’s hand and tugs him out of thehouse and into the car. As the vehicle speeds down the road, Mark suddenlywonders if his only surviving friend has finally lost it.

“Tyler, what is going on?”

“It’s better that you just wait and see—”

“You can’t just break down my studio door and not expectquestions—”

“Just shut up and wait!” Tyler shakes his head. “Look, I’msorry, but really, you wouldn’t believe me unless you saw yourself.”

Mark settles into the hot leather of his seat, arms crossed.He feels highly uneasy about this, but he can’t put a finger on why. Aside fromTyler definitely speeding to whereverthe hell they’re going.

“Slow down! You keep going this fast, you’ll get us killed!”

“Oh, you came back just fine last time.”

This is really notthe time to make petty jokes about that. “I think the circumstances would begto diff—”

Mark lurches into his seat belt hard enough to hurt as Tylerslams the car to a halt and leaps out to the street.

“C’mon!”

Mark hesitates when he sees the suspicious alleyway Tyler’sparked in front of. “Um…Tyler, if I’ve done anything to offend you—”

“MARK!”

“Okay, okay, keep your pants on!”

Mark follows Tyler into the alley.

“No, no, no, no,”Tyler mutters, as his gaze rakes up and down the alley. He finds a vacantcardboard box big enough for a person and gestures wildly to it. “They wereright here, I swear to God, they wereright here!”

“Tyler, who are you talkingabout? What’s going on here?”

Tyler’s hand runs through his hair. The look in his eyes isalmost manic. “They should be here, I told them to stay—”

“Um…hello?”

A hoarse voice cuts through Tyler’s frustration. Markswitches his attention from his friend to the newcomer standing a littlefurther into the alley, half behind a dumpster—

Mark does a double-take.

No.

No, it’s impossible.

The person is obviously homeless, in a heavily stainedoversized hoodie and jeans so tattered Mark can’t believe they’re holding up.The shoes are in a similar condition to the jeans. Their face is gaunt andsickly, eyes nearly popping out of their head.

But those eyes, century-old eyes…

Unmistakable.

In another life, those eyes broke his heart.

The District Attorney shuffles forward, a limp in theirstep. They’re looking at Tyler. “I…I didn’t think you were actually coming back…”Their hands are stuffed into the pockets of the hoodie. “Thanks for the burger…”

Wait…why aren’t they speaking to him? They looked right at him—

“No problem,” Tyler dismisses. He grabs Mark by theshoulder. His grip is tight, a silent message to play it cool.

(What does Mark even look like right now? Hopeful? Indenial? Heartbroken? What’s he supposed to say? Why don’t they recognize him?)

“This is Mark, the friend I told you about,” Tyler introduces. “Theone who’d like to help you, I mean.”

Their eyebrow lifts, and the shy bemusement, so achingly familiar,nearly sends Mark to his knees. “The one who wasn’t answering his phone?” Theysound like they haven’t spoken in years, a voice like a scratched record.

“Yeah, he’s bad at battery management,” Tyler jokes. Hepulls Mark back and gives him a very purposeful look. “Our friend here,” Tylershifts his head in the DA’s direction, “is a little lost. Has been for a longtime.” Tyler turns back to them. “Isn’t that right?”

“Yeah…I guess…” They shake their head. “My head is a little…blank,I guess would be the right word.” They pull their hands out of their pockets,thin and bony like a skeleton, and hug their arms around their body. “I sawTyler on the street, and…I swear he looked…and you look…so familiar.” Theyswallow, the action rather frightening in light of their veiny neck. “I’msorry, I sound crazy—”

“No!” Mark interrupts, the first thing he’s said sincelaying eyes on them. He pulls out of Tyler’s grip and steps closer to them. “No,you—you’re not crazy, you don’t sound crazy.”

Shit, he’s acting weird, he needs to back off.

My head is a littleblank.

No clear recognition in their eyes.

They’re alive, somehow.

They don’t rememberhim.

And at his word, they finally make direct eye contact withMark. His breath catches at how hesitant they look, the fragile hope anddespair in their face.

“You…” They clear their throat. “Tyler said you could helpme…but I’m a stranger, I’m sorry, this is weird, if it’s too much to ask—”

Mark reaches his hands out and grips their upper arms. Whenthey immediately flinch, he draws back.

Shit. This is…this isn’tgood, how are they here, they’re alive, they’re alive, but…they look so dead. What the hell happened to them?

Mark straightens, a new resolve coming over him.

“Yes, I’m going to help you.” Mark glances over his shoulderto see Tyler watching them both carefully. It all makes sense now. He looksback to the DA. “You’re going to come with us, you’re going to have a home,food, and maybe even a job, if we play our cards right.” Mark takes a chanceand steps a little closer to them. “I’m going to keep you safe. I promise.”

He’ll never let them get hurt again. He’ll never hurt themagain, he swears on his life.

A rash promise, perhaps, but seeing a brighter hope light upthose dim eyes makes it all worth it.

Oo00oO

 Sendme a prompt for Mayor Attorney, DAtective, or Acting Attorney! NO NSFW PLEASE!!

@creamdream0426 , @cosmic–frappucino , @beereblogsstuff , @musical-jim , @silver-owl413 , @sassy-in-glasses , @chelseareferenced , @sketchy-scribs-n-doods , @intemperantiae , @im-also-dead-inside , @timelords13 , @determinedrevolutionary , @ur-fairy-god-dragon , @conceitedink , @unknown-maned-wolf

[takerfoxx]

“Fires of the Sun, Part 1″ Thoughts

All right, with Fires of the Sun in the bag and Imperfect Metamorphosis now on the shelf, it’s time to look back on this story’s longest mini-arc climax to date! And since it’s multi-chaptered, I’m going to post on response per day over this week. That’ll help cover almost everything as well as give me some time to think of how to wrap up Monsterland in the meantime, as I’ve already hit writer’s block.

Since this was going to be the last bit of Imperfect Metamorphosis, my main goal was to go BIG. I high bar had been set by The Storm, and I wanted to pass it. You be the judge in whether or not I was successful, but this was something I had been looking forward to for years, and had a lot of shit planned. Most made it in, some didn't, some new stuff happened, and some plans changed. There were weaknesses I wish I could go back and fix, while other things turned out even better than I had thought they would.

With Lady Meika's introduction, she was brought in for a couple of different reasons. The first was of course as a callback to Yuuka's occasional fourth-wall breaking roles as the story's hose. She was even given a bit of a Masterpiece Theater flair with the chair, the fireplace, and the piano music. Of course, I was playing around a bit with the frequent teases that this was the Yuuka from the future, with the plants, the sunflower logo, the hair color, and the manner of speaking.

But there were also several hints that she was someone new, such as her eye color, her various magical instruments, and her contemptuous condemnation of Yuuka's previous antics. Plus, you know, Mima's hat on her mantle.

…

Foreshadowing!

Anyways, of course I can't go into too much detail about who she is and what she has to do with the story, but suffice to say it's very important and you ain't gonna find out for a super, duper long time. Because that how it works in TakerFoxx land, apparently!

=ahem=

Moving on to the Dragons, this is one part that I feel I could have done better. I mean, the dudes get built up big time over the course of the entire series, get a big, badass entrance, and…spend the whole thingamajig basically getting knocked around, bitching at Yukari, and eventually accidentally killing a bunch of innocent people before fucking off in a huff. I guess in hindsight it was a priority thing. My main focus was the Yuuka vs. Rin Satsuki fight and making it as crazy over-the-top as possible, whereas the Dragons (and Angels, come to think of it) were admittedly…mostly written on autopilot. Though to be fair, given just how many freaking factions there are in this story, some will end up getting the shaft as I don't exactly have George RR Martin's talent for balancing so many names and making them all feel important. So yeah, something to work on in the future.

Same applies to Mima. It may be just me, but I do kind of feel like I dropped the ball with her. It probably isn't a good idea to point out flaws in my own writing, but hell with it. See, for most of the story, she went on and on about the importance of simple, yet effective, plans rather than big, grandiose showings that have a tendency to blow up in your face. And yet her she is using a plan that has way too many moving parts, leaves too much up to chance, and is way too expensive for relatively little gain. Granted, she did come out ahead in the end, but…I dunno. While it wouldn't have benefited the story much, it would have been more consistent to just have her assassinate Reimu at the earliest opportunity, collapse the Scarlet Devil Mansion and the Palace of Earth Spirits, and then just bugger off before Yukari could find her. So, I'd say I have a few more things to think about for her future characterization.

Okay, moving on from the self-deprecation. Moving over to the Taoists, a lot of people were confused about why exactly Miko would be helping Mima in the first place. That one was easy enough: because there was something that Miko wanted that only Mima could provide. The connections between Miko and Prince Shoutoku were already explicit, with even ZUN saying that they were literally the same person in the Touhou canon. So, explain the gender flip to be some kind of curse, have Mima promise to break that curse, and give her (or him? Pronouns are really confusing in this case), and let Miko's desperation do the rest. Everyone has a price, after all.

That rather nasty Yuuka scene went much better than the previous two, which is sort of funny. Because even as much as I've soured on her character over the years, she is still the easiest one to write for. I personally compare her to an entitled primadonna who drives the director nuts but still shines in every scene she's given, which leaked into many of her postmodern bits. But anyway, that scene was mainly to serve two purposes. The first was to confirm exactly what happened to the shards of Marisa's mordite blade, give Yuuka an understandable reason for having it around, and Chekov's gun it into the mansion for further use. The second was to again destroy any last bit of sympathy she might have had, as she is now outright abusing Elly, the one person she has been treating decently. Hey, if someone's gonna get their ass kicked, then I want to make it as deserving as possible.

The scene with Yukari and the Angels was mostly just to remind everyone of where everything stood, so I'll just skim over it. However, in regards to that little bombshell Shinki dropped at the end…Ah, hell with it. Barely anyone reads these anyway, so why not? SORTA SPOILER WARNING!

Yes, Yukari has (or had) a son.

That son married Hakurei Sonozika over her objections, leading to their estrangement (though they were already on rocky terms to begin with).

Things escalated to the point that Yukari disowned him completely and actually went to the Angels for help in twisting reality enough so that she would forget that he even exists. Part of it was selfishness, part of it was that she knew that she would have to keep working with the Hakurei family from then on and didn't want to be tempted to wipe them off the face of the earth, but ended up setting the tone for her relationship with them anyway. She's repeatedly drawn to them but everything eventually goes wrong every time. And by the way, that's the reason she couldn't seem to remember who Hakurei's husband was during her and Yuyuko's drunken conversation, despite knowing the spouses and lovers of every other Hakurei by name.

No, there was never any price set by the Angels for Gensokyo's creation. No, they're not nearly as bad as Yukari made them out to be. Yes, she is completely deluding herself without even knowing it. The mind is weird like that.

Anyway, I don't think that's too much of a spoiler, since it's been hinted at multiple times and now has been stated pretty explicitly. Suffice to say, it'll play in pretty heavily later on.

See? This is why people should read the author's notes, for all those juicy, behind the scene details!

Anyway, Patchouli's scene was mainly to spend some last few moments with her before she got offed, as well as remind people that that generator thingy was in fact still a thing in case it's needed later. That scene with Koakuma changing her armor was just one of those spur of the moment bits that have come to be my favorite parts of writing, though admittedly the part where she ended up with the Serpentine Marauder armor wasn't a hint that she was a double agent, like some people thought. It was just another thing that happened at the last minute that made sense at the time and was used to increase the drama. As for Meiling's mention of hiring guards to hold down the fort, that was another detail that was used to explain away a logical problem with the plot (Sakuya would never leave the SDM undefended like that. Or, well, at least not under those circumstances) that later ended up working out as it gave us Meiling with a bazooka. More on that later. And of course we had Mima disguised as Yukari already playing the SDM and the PoES crew against each other, because that's what she does.

Speaking of which, during the Palace of Earth Spirits scene, the bit with Jun and Orin was mainly to bring Koishi more in line with her canon portrayal as a subconscious blank, as well as build some character development for Jun. I try to avoid relying on OC's in IM since there's so many canon characters to use, but I felt he needed a little something, considering how much he was going to be used in the chapters to come. Though hey, funny story. I was actually going to fill their team with Undertale characters, such as Asgore, Muffet, and Undyne. The reason I didn't is that I felt it would stand out too much and distract from the important stuff, but I compromised by sticking a billy-goat and a fish youkai in there anyway, and had Mima!Yukari mention being filled with determination. As for Clover, I swear to God I could never keep her damned name straight and kept calling her Cato for some reason.

And then we cut back to poor Elly. I admit, originally I didn't have much for her, and had planned for her to be more of a jealous asshole. But she's grown into a much more sympathetic character than I had expected, and I did end up changing a lot of my plans for her as a result.

Skipping over more Mima and Seiga commentary that I don't have anything to say about, we have our party of hapless dupes, bickering amongst themselves and nearly getting killed while still managing to kick ass, as Mima intended. I admit, I did try to handle the bit about Rin's prison with care. I try to watch my step whenever the subject of religion comes up, so destroying a bunch of religious symbols was something I had to be careful about. Still, the part where Sakuya regrets doing so does feel a little out of character, and probably should have been done by someone like Meiling or Utsuho.

That being said, I really like how Rin's reveal came out. Her primary role in this whole thing was an ass-kicker, and her bursting out of the crystal (which, yes, was made from the remains of Patchouli's box) helped to establish just how dangerous she is, as well as leave things on a nice cliffhanger, with her hanging from the ceiling, Sakuya's neck in her hands, and in a really, really bad mood.

Anyway, that's it for this chapter! Tune in tomorrow for the next!