#i just wanted to share this because I saw a lot of people getting it wrong

[redsugarx]

青白之魅 6: Conclusion

1 Introduction & Presentation // 2 Background & Influences // 3 Hair & Makeup // 4 Set Design // 5 Clothes & Accessories // 6 Conclusion

If you’ve followed this series all the way to the end, thank you for your support! A lot more people saw it than I thought would, and I’m really happy that I got to share my process and thoughts with you :) I read all your replies/tags and they make me super happy! There are just a few more things I want to address to wrap things up now.

behind the scenes vid of me with Dragun that Bloomin Studio recorded for us :)

Things That Went Wrong

I am a strong believer in the scientific method and the scientific method involves error analysis!!!!! Also I don’t want it to look like all of this went off without a hitch. That wouldn’t be fair to the complexity of this project and all the people who helped me work through and solve the problems. So here are some of the ways in which We Fucked Up.

Embroidery positioning: The bottoms of the sleeves were accidentally sewn together before the pieces were sent to the embroidery workshop. If you put the whole sleeve into the machine the embroidery would go through both the front and back of the sleeve, making it unwearable. To solve this, we had to pull the stitches out from the bottom of the sleeve, have it embroidered, and then have it sent back to a tailor's shop to repair the seam. 

Tear in fabric: Lily organza/crystal organza admittedly is a very fragile fabric, especially for machine embroidering. It’s extremely thin, and the surface is very smooth and slippery, which looks phenomenal but makes embroidering it really hard. I covered this in the last post, but long story short, in the process of embroidering one sleeve on the green set, the fabric got snagged in the machinery and tore a hole in the bottom of the sleeve.

At first the plan was to remake the entire sleeve piece, but because the color of the fabric was custom-printed, when I had a new piece of fabric printed for the new sleeve, the color didn’t match exactly, so we had to make do with the existing fabric. In the end we shortened the width of the sleeve so that it cut off above the hole, moving the seam up. Thankfully it didn’t really show up in the pictures, but you can see when it’d laid flat how the ‘margin’ under the snake embroidery for this garment is unusually small, because it got cut off.

Lateness: We ran like a full hour or two overtime with our hair & makeup. This is unfortunately not at all unusual for fashion projects like this, but as a result we lost like a third of our photography time, so there were some shots that I would’ve loved to get that we didn’t have time for. 

Forgotten items: There were a number of things we forgot to bring down to SoCal with us. The biggest thing was probably our steamer. Fortunately, because this set is mostly polyester, it didn’t get too too wrinkled, but there are still some creases and folds that we would’ve steamed out had we gotten the chance.

Fav Shots

Shh not all of these are published anywhere else.

Things I Would've Done (if I had infinite time and money)

Lingzhi - I don't have any photos of it but I bought a replica lingzhi herb (the magic fungus that Bai Suzhen steals to revive Xu Xian after her dies of shock from seeing her snake form) prop. We didn't get around to using it but it would've been a really nice major callback to the story. Also I would've gotten to talk about how I think it's highly possible people thought the lingzhi was magic because they ate it and started tripping balls

Willow branches - Willow branches by the West Lake feature heavily in the opera. I wanted to get willow branches to hang from the backdrop but unfortunately wasn't able to find ones that were realistic enough. They were replaced with dried water reeds, but most of the pictures weren't shot high enough to get them in frame.

Swords - In the opera, Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing both carry swords. Also, swords are also just cool as hell. I do own one prop sword, but it was too big to fit in my suitcase even diagonally, and also I really didn't want to deal with TSA side-eyeing me about it (even though it technically counts as a prop or sports equipment), so we did not get any swords in the photoshoot.

Extremely specific shot with snakes on the floor - I have this concept of a shot: the empty set, without me or my sister in it, with both Dragun and Spirit on the floor. It would be so cool to do like a snake form -> human form diptych concept! We didn't have time to get both the snakes out at the same time unfortunately. Artistic rendition below LOL

artist's rendition

Credits & Thanks

Credit should be served where credit is due!!! I probably mentioned most of them somewhere but I want to reiterate that a whole lot of people helped make this happen and I appreciate them a lot.

Day Of:

Yulan, as the White Snake (ig @/chlobaltblue), especially for all the Talking To People Thing parts (that I hate doing)

Bloomin Studio (ig @/bloominstudioofficial), photographer

Cujo from Art of Scales (ig @/art_of_scales), for providing us with Spirit & Dragun as well as the space

Kevin (ig/@k.evinzhao), for driving and getting us stuff

Cloud9 Hanfu (ig @/cloud9hanfu), which is me and Yulan but it feels weird not to link the brand somewhere

Preparation:

Jinerjia（cutting & sewing）

Xishi Pavilion (cutting & sewing）

Chenxi Workshop (cutting & sewing + alteration)

Hantangfengshang（cutting & sewing）

Changxin Embroidery (digitizing & machine embroidering + alteration)

Hanyiren (patternmaking + CAD)

Xingluzhe (fabric printing + laser cutting)

Final Thoughts

In the introduction I talked a little bit about our intentions with this project and the cultural elements that I attempted to adapt and interact with. The Legend of the White Snake is one of the most well-known Chinese folktales out there, and yet there are so many wonderfully intricate details within it that people don't know about.

Snakes have a bad reputation in a lot of cultures. Evil, dangerous, and malicious, they're often cast as the scheming villains of the story, sly and sneaky characters whose goal is to do you harm. They are not the only victims of a bad reputation—every great dynasty always has some beautiful woman to blame for its eventual downfall. People have been arguing over the game of fault and intention for centuries. Even in the hanfu community, there is an unprecedented amount of infighting over what should or should not count as hanfu, who is 'allowed' to appreciate it, or who can take 'ownership' of it.

I think that's the last thing we need in this day and age. I'm reflecting on this project at a time that is uniquely terrifying for many minorities, especially in the US, who seem to be being persecuted for the crime of simply existing. I don't claim to be fighting for justice, I'm just a student in a world that is far too large for anyone to comprehend. But I hope that I helped make something beautiful happen, and I hope that we shared that with someone else, even if it's just a few people, who are reminded that it's not all for nothing :)

-

Okay, we're pretty much done here. I really enjoyed this process and documenting the whole thing, and I definitely want to do something like this again someday, but I definitely don't have the energy to do this kind of thing very often! If a big project does come up again I'll probably document it in a similar way, but it probably won't be for several months/even years. I'll keep posting hanfu articles and maybe document some smaller single-post projects on here at some point :)

Thank you for letting me share this process with you, and feel free to reply/reblog/send asks/whatever with thoughts, questions or concerns! Please interact with me it brings me joy.

1 Introduction & Presentation // 2 Background & Influences // 3 Hair & Makeup // 4 Set Design // 5 Clothes & Accessories // 6 Conclusion

Here's a picture of my snake to close out (his name is Porcupine/Porky for short/滷肉飯 and he's the dumbest animal I've ever met)

[king-candybug-backup]

What’s your favorite scene so far? Like not just to write but just in general.

Sad, happy, funny whatever, what’s your all time favorite? :D

OOOOHHHHH MAN. I HAVE AN EXACT SCENE IN MIND, BUT CAN’T SHARE IT YET BECAUSE IT’S IN ONE OF THE LAST CHAPTERS. 😂 I’ll give a very brief overview of what it entails, because I feel like the fact that it happens isn’t exactly a spoiler since it’s kind of inevitable given all of Candybug’s general assholery, though I’ll put it in small text in case people want to gloss over it, but basically *cough cough* Vanellope flips her goddamn lid at King Candy (long overdue and well-deserved ofc lmao) and I just can’t wait to get to that part, she tells him off VERY HARD. My favourite scene for sure. :3 (tbh there’s a lot of emotionally painful shit that comes up in that particular set of chapters that I’m just so unhinged and not normal about lmfao CAN’T WAIT TO HURT YOU GUYS MORE <333)

AS FOR SCENES OF THE ALREADY-COMPLETED CHAPTERS THOUGH, MAN, THAT’S ALSO TOUGH TO DECIDE TBH 😂 Chapter 3 and Chapter 8 have been my favourites overall of the published chapters so far, and a couple of my fave moments from those ones was a) Ralph finding out that Candybug’s still alive and the general fallout from that, and b) Candybug reminiscing to Felix and Vanny that he went through Ralph’s mud pile on purpose before coming inside the penthouse specifically to annoy Gene ghfdsgxdhcfgvhbjnkvgf

I also like these two a lot, idk exactly how to explain why I like the second one tbh, but the first one I just find fun and silly lol: 

“Alright, pipsqueak, what exactly did you mean by Cy-bug-related–” She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the beastly hybrid in front of her.  “Hello there!” King Candy chipperly greeted her, adding on a friendly wave. “Why, aren’t you looking lovely today! Is that a new hairstyle? It suits your character model wonderfully.” “Layin’ it on a little too thick, there.” Vanellope whispered to him, an anxious grin plastered across her face. “Hmm, you think so?” He tapped his chin with one claw, eventually nodding in agreement. “Perhaps the hair comment was a tad much.”

I just like the whole vibe of like…

Vanellope: For the love of mod, please be nice.

Vanellope two minutes later: NOT THAT NICE.

Oh, KCB and his fake-ass bitch energy. 😂

And then this one:

For the longest time, it had been so hard to look at him and see anything aside from Turbo, the monster. The arcade’s personal boogeyman. The bitter, vile, heartless fiend that gleefully stole the lives away from so many people, herself included. But, with each passing day, it was becoming easier and easier to see him as Turbo, the person. Someone with feelings and interests and problems… Oh, so many problems. But still a person, like anybody else in the arcade. If she were being truly honest with herself, she hated it. She hated the dichotomy that came with seeing him in this light. She hated the ways in which she could find sympathy for him despite knowing just how undeserving he was of it. Knowing full well all the wrongs he’s done.  All of it rooted in that one particular wrong so many years ago. That one choice that she had never been able to wrap her head around, no matter how many times she’d heard the story. Now, it was time for her to understand. 

BUT HONESTLY I JUST LOVE THE WHOLE ROADBLASTERS CONFRONTATION IN GENERAL AGHSFDGJVBJNK, I LIKE DOING “NARC CRASH” STUFF WITH KING CANDY, IT MAKES MY BRAIN GO BRRRRRRRRRR

There’s also some fun Calhoun + Candybug interactions coming up eventually, and even though they don’t interact a whole lot as compared to the other characters, I love their stupid dynamic and I’m gonna share this one scene from one of the later chapters of Calhoun completely trolling him because it makes me giggle 😂

They sat in silence for a minute or two longer, Calhoun’s head tilted slightly to the side as she watched the Cy-bug eat. One more question had popped into her mind, and though she already knew the answer, she wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to have a little fun at this bastard’s expense. “So… Haven’t laid any eggs, have you?” King Candy immediately choked on his food, hacking and coughing while he tried, unsuccessfully, to regain whatever sense of composure he had five seconds ago. Turning away to jot something into her notebook (and hide the smirk on her face), she commented, “I’ll take that as a ‘not yet’.” “What do you mean ‘yet’?!” Candy’s distraught voice sputtered back, Calhoun trying very hard to muffle her snickering.

I JUST THINK THE FACT THAT SHE KNOWS WAY MORE ABOUT CY-BUGS THAN THE ACTUAL CY-BUG COULD MAKE FOR SOME VERY SILLY TROLLING SHENANIGANS. 😂

[princeofassassins]

Im sorry but I dont get how people can view the conclusion of Vax and Keyleth as something reduced to “oh I guess they all worried for nothing and could have waited 30 years” or “I guess the lesson is keyleth shouldnt move on because she’ll get what she wants later”.

Because Vax and Keyleth arent treated as if they were just humming along as a 30 second unskippable youtube ad played. They were molded by their experiences. If Episode 102 didnt happen, and Vax didnt make the bargain with the Raven Queen (that he saw as the only chance to help his friends he had) he would be a substantially different character than post C3 finale Vax.

The indignation from Percy and Keyleth, Scanlan trying to save his Wish for Vax, these are all things that would have kept Vax himself but they failed. The consequences of their failure aren’t reversed by this new development. The Vax they knew is dead. There are parts of him still around but much like Kingsley isnt Molly, this isnt the Vax of back then.

Vax also still has his duties as a servant of the Raven Queen, he wasnt freed from his duties, he still plans to faithfully serve the matron but he now will be doing so on the material plane. Its not a get out of jail free card, he still has a job to do but because of the new support he has from Morrigan and others to come, it wont be as tireless. The burden can be shared and supported mote evenly.

Keyleth has also suffered a lot, she’s been almost killed, had her loyal soldiers permanently killed while protecting her from a threat she couldnt see coming. Her very presence was used as bait by Ludinus to open a new front on this battle.

She’s also been designated as one of the leaders of this fight because of her power and station and has had to think of people in a warlike setting. This move will cost this many troops but we can get this far etc. For such an empathetic person who values all life, the prospect of bearing this burden has go to be life changing.

These are not the same characters, the only thing bonding them together is memories and experiences of the people they used to be and thats why its so brilliant they start again. They more than anyone else knows how things can never return to what they had so if they want to try, they’ll have to create something new.

[book-of-baba-fett]

Clone x OC Week: Day 1 - Intro/First Meeting

Captain Rex x Jedi!OC Talia Riva - from the fic Illicit Affairs

Note: So I had seen stuff for clone x oc week a bit ago, but life has been insane so I forgot about it until I saw a lot of stuff being shared yesterday and I wanted to participate but I had nothing for the Introduction/First Meeting prompt because I technically wrote Rex and Talia meeting already in IA but then the idea slammed into me "what if I wrote the meeting from Talia's perspective" and then BOOM months of writers block disappeared. This isn't beta'd and obviously all the dialogue was previously used, but it was fun to peer into Talia's head a little bit. Also special shoutout to the anon who sent me a message yesterday saying they missed Rex an Talia; this is for you. Thanks @clonexocweek for hosting an event for a community that truly does not get enough love.

Rating: This scene is just mature for some language and themes, but the overall fic is explicit 18+ !

Word Count: 2.3k

Talia knew how to blend in a crowd – much of her training had been spent teaching her how to get lost amongst people, make herself unnoticeable, or even manipulate the Force so she would be overlooked when she needed to be. It was a skill of hers she was confidant in enough to say she was good at it, which is why it was frustrating that she couldn’t shake this one drunk businessman.

Talia smiled up at the man pleasantly, masking the way she wanted to scowl at the obvious scent of liquor on his breath. She would nod and make agreeing sounds, while she tried to drown out whatever he was saying to her. She wasn’t even sure how he had cornered her in the first place, if he weren’t so drunk she would have assumed he had some special training of his own, but Talia supposed it was just the delusional persistence only an entitled man could posess.  She had been working the perimeter of the ballroom in Naboo’s Royal Palace, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary to try and see if the threat posed that evening was real or just false information. Her disguise as one of the Queen’s Handmaidens had been her idea with the support of the Council; the Republic presence was strong for the gala, and Anakin and Ahsoka were already out in the open as Jedi. If they wanted a chance to uncover any hazards to the evening, a bit of stealth was better than a show of strength. Just one of the methods Anakin and Talia frequently disagreed on, which was why he wasn’t aware of her attendance that evening. Perhaps it was her preoccupation with avoiding her fellow Jedi Knight that first allowed the man, whose name she purposely ignored, to corner her in the first place.

She had tried to excuse herself, citing some vague excuse of business but his persistence followed her into the hall, and Talia’s limited experience with men meant that she was running out of ideas on how to shake this guy while also focusing on her job. And she felt like she was about to lose all her sense of decorum if she had to listen to him talk about his starship modifications for a moment longer.

“Sounds fascinating, I’m sure you must be quite the handyman,” Talia cut the man off from his ramblings, hoping he would catch the sarcasm in her tone and finally catch the damn hint that she wasn’t interested. He was leaning on the wall beside her while looking down at her, and she was grateful in that moment that the dress she was wearing had such a high neck.

“Aww come on, I’ve been trying to picture what you look like without that dress on, and I think it would look much better on the floor of my –,” patience was a virtue for Jedi, but that was a skill Talia had much room to work on, which held true as she couldn’t hold her temper in and slapped the guy before he could finish his sentance. Perhaps it was a bit of an extreme reaction, but when the man just shook it off and smirked back down at her she was ready to swing again before she heard a clone’s voice calling down the hallway.

“Excuse me, miss; The Queen was requesting you,” Talia glanced to see a clone trooper walking down the hall; by his pauldron and kama she could guess he was an officer of some sort and Talia couldn’t ignore how perfect his timing was to be her literal knight in shining armor.

“Thank you, trooper. Could you escort me to her? It’s so crowded and I don’t want to keep Her Majesty waiting.” She turned back to the man, not at all trying to hide the relied and pleasure from her tone. “Apologies, sir, this conversation was truly… stimulating.”

She followed the clone down the corridor, and once they were far enough away she relaxed her shoulders and let out a sigh, “Maker, thank you. I’ve been trying to get rid of the slimo for the past half hour. I figured it wasn’t exactly appropriate for a representative of the Queen to deck one of the largest potential donors to her event, but as you could tell I lost that internal battle.”

“Not a problem, ma’am. All part of the job” The clone was still wearing his helmet bearing a Mandalorian design, jaig eyes if she remembered correctly, so she couldn’t see his expression but she could feel the smirk in his voice.

“I heard the troopers of the 501st were known for their quick thinking and heroics,” Talai started, for some reason unable to stop herself from rambling as the clone and her walked together. “Nice idea saying the Queen was summoning me, that’s the only thing he couldn’t have argued with.“

“How do you know I wasn’t telling the truth?”

“The Queen would send one of the other handmaidens, not a clone trooper.” She smiled up at him, searching for the eyes behind the vizor. “What’s your name?”

“Rex, ma’am.”

“Oh, so I have the pleasure of being rescued by the famous Captain Rex then?”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far-”

“About the rescue or the famous part?” OK maybe it was cruel to tease the officer on duty a bit, but Talia was enjoying her fun the one time a clone didn’t refer to her as ‘commander’ or now ‘general’ which she was still adjusting to. She was nineteen, dressed up in a gown on a night out at a fancy gala with a presumably handsome (considering what the clones looked like) man at her side; it felt like a touch of normalcy, a life she never would have so why not have a little fun and tease a little? And it seemed like she was slightly flustering the clone, as she could sense him fumbling for his words for a moment before he spoke again.

“I think he’ll have a mark from that backhand for a week. We could use fighters like you on the field with us.” Talia couldn’t help but chuckle at that slightly, if only he knew.

“Well, I don’t know about that. The truth is I’m not exactly great at these types of social engagements. I came to the hallway for some peace and quiet when Mr. Charm first cornered me. If only you had found me first,” ok her rambling had gone too far, some light teasing that ventured close to flirting was one thing, but she was definitely pushing her luck if she kept it up. “What I mean is, I owe you one, Captain.”

Talia was grateful that they finally arrived back at the ballroom, so she could be saved by the social ineptidude that had suddenly hit her. The gala was still in full swing, the voices and music bounced off the opulent marble walls. One could almost forget there was a war going on, had there not been troops posted at every entrance. The captain seemed to share her sentiments, as he surveyed the room shifting his weight between his feet.

“You know, you can stay and enjoy the party a little bit, I’m sure the food here is much better than your ration bars,” Talia suggested, knowing that the nutritional protein offered to troops was far from fine cuisine. Plus, if Rex serve dunder Anakin she knew the soldier deserved a break. “I’m sure the Republic won’t fall if you relax a little.”

“Hey Rex, anything going on?” Talia mentally swore as she heard Anakin’s voice; it was way too early for her cover to be blown. She couldn’t risk saying a goodbye, she slipped away from Rex’s side before Anakin could even notice her and disappeared into the crowd. She was on the other side of the room, behind a pillar when she finally glanced back to see Rex glancing around the room as Anakin teased him about something. Her moment of fun was good while it lasted, a break from work to enjoy herself a little but she had to get back to work and she had a feeling her true identity was going to be revealed before the night was over.

            Talia went back to the shadows after that, floating around the halls of the palace and watching over the ballroom as she felt necessary; perhaps the Republic’s caution wasn’t need and this was going to be just a Gala because as the night passed there were no threats to be found. She was standing against a wall, conveniently hidden by some decorative floral arrangement as she sipped on a glass of champagne when the Captain caught her eye again. She could tell her felt out of place, and she could feel the surge of panic that went through him as Representative Binks called his name. Talia set her glass aside, knowing it was her chance to return the Captain’s favor.

“Sorry to steal you away, Captain, but there’s some security info I think we should go over She steered Rex through the crowd and away from Jar Jar, who had already slammed into a waiter, causing glasses of champagne to shatter and conceal Rex’ escape.

“Well, I guess we’re even now.” The relief and gratitude were palpable on Rex’s voice,

            “Well, I wouldn’t be much of a lady if I didn’t return the favor,” Talia quipped, smirking up at him. “Besides, I haven’t had the pleasure of getting to know Representative Binks, but from what I understand he can be a bit – uh – overenthusiastic.”

Rex chuckled at that as they made their way into a long corridor. “That’s putting it mildly. He was told by Senator Amidala that he should receive combat training and he’s got it stuck in his head that I’m the one who should do it. I’m a good trainer, but I’m not a miracle worker. But I would gladly take his company over your friend from earlier.”

“Oh, Mr. ‘Invites-women-to-his-spaceship-so-it’s-harder-for-them-to-get-away’?” She cocked a brow at Rex as she leaned against the wall beside her. “Yeah, I don’t think he was a winner by any standard.”

“Are you sure?” Rex asked, mirroring her movement, and leaning on the wall across from her. “I think he almost won you over with the talk of his ‘personal modifications.’”

“Oh yes, of course. I was totally swooning over him; it was really rude of you to interrupt us.”. Her cheeks felt hot from how much she was smirking and trying to control her urge to laugh, she didn’t need to come off as a schoolgirl all because a man was talking to her but something about his charm was so effortless.

Rex motioned behind his shoulder in the direction of the ballroom, a grin tinting his voice. “I’m sure I can go find him again for you. I’d hate to think I ruined your night.”

Talia shook her head and softly smiled at him, “Far from it, Captain, you’re making this night a lot more interesting. Tell me, do you often go around parties rescuing damsels from terrible conversations with intoxicated men?”

“Only if they’re pretty blondes in black dresses.” Oh. Well, that was not as forward as she thought Rex would go, but Talia would be lying to herself if she didn’t feel her stomach twist at the compliment. She hoped her face wasn’t flushed completely red as she smirked back at him.

"Well, I guess I’m lucky that I fit into that box tonight, Captain,” she chuckled. Rex’s comm went off, making him mentally curse as he chided himself for getting so distracted on the job.

“Rex, it’s Jesse. Sid and Oak didn’t report in for their check-ins. Some of our guys have been having comm issues so it might be nothing but wanted to let you know.”

Talia was still new to being a Jedi Knight, but she had been training on the field long enough that she should have known just because a night seemed calm and that there was no obvious threat, didn’t mean there would be no threat. She had much to learn still, that was abundantly clear as she stood on the balcony after the fight with Ventress. Her gown had torn, which was a shame, but otherwise she was unharmed just exhausted with the threat of a migraine on the way with how much Anakin was going to annoy her about this. Luckily, he seemed distracted with checking in on how Senator Amidala was doing so for the moment it seemed she was reprieved. Rex was along the wall, being tended to by a medic so Talia took her moment to address her deceit now that her identity had been revealed.

“I do owe you an apology, Captain, for not being completely honest about who I am,” she said, awkwardly smiling to try and diffuse some of the tension she felt.

“Nothing to worry about mis—uh, Sir.” Rex insisted as his eyes met hers. Now that he was out of his helmet, her earlier presumptions proved correct and he was handsome. The blond hair was a surprise, she wondered if it was natural or if he bleached it. “I owe my apologies as well. I’m sorry if anything I did was out of line or – “

Talia laughed, raising her hands reassuringly at him. She couldn’t say what she was really feeling; that it was nice to feel like a normal girl at a party and having an attractive man call her pretty, but she felt that would cross all sort of appropriate boundaries.

“No, nothing at all; you made a boring party a lot more exciting.” She smiled at him and held out her hand to him. He accepted the handshake and returned a light smile as she formally introduced herself. “It was nice to finally meet the famous Captain Rex.”

--

taglist: @djarrex @justanothersadperson93 @paige6768 @saltywintersoldat @clonecyare @dinner-djarin @whore4rex @swlover2187 @collectoroffics @pinkiemme @twistedstitcher27 @frietiemeloen @a-c-lee @ashotofspotchka @galacticgraffiti @itsagrimm @rexandechosandwich @immortalhdx @queen--kenobi @stankferrik @aquaamethyst96 @mavendeb @alwayssnivellus @the-rain-on-kamino @staryskyforever @amyroswell @lucyysthings @manqoz @ilikemymendarkandfictional @punkpirate82 @paperplanes221 @saturnsokas @starstofillmydream @wild-karrde @purgetrooperfox @burningfieldof-clover @seriowan @samspenandsword @sunshinesdaydream @ariadnes-red-thread @babygirlrex0504 @arctrooper69 @cw80831 @dhawerdaverd

[nesscel]

hi nesscel, I have a question about your oc! ^_^

has ever Cyril met/interacted with Ness after getting hired into the bllk project? if he did, how was it, and how did he react to seeing him for the first time irl?

I hope the question is not too boring to answer, btw!! I was interested in knowing about the way he perceives Ness now that he has the chance to be closer to him :)

(I saw on ur post that he has his sign, how cute🥲)

they have met! there’s a few scenarios i usually imagine for them that i’ll put under read more ^_^ to make a long story short it’s like this:

for additional context: Cyril and @kaiserposting’s Tsubasa share in the same universe :) so Ness is double crashing out. Why would Lord Kaiser leave me for disgusting bug Isagi and manipulative pest Tsubasa 😡😡😡

and before anime-ntality’s sensors activate and he makes another post about hating women and yumes ruining canon: we changed some details about how project blue lock works so our characters can be there without needing to replace any of the already existing ones and so they can make more money

their first interactions were at various fansigns and on social media, Ness retweeted a picture of the Ness shrine at one point and Cyril got another picture of it signed at the next fansign… just to let Ness know who his biggest dickrider fan was. you get it. so at this point he’s obviously in love and everything is great and even though Ness has to do fanservice and be nice to everyone he’s sweet and beautiful and kind and he’s only saying those things to him ^_^🩷❤️‍🩹

i wanna dump some more backstory. he’s not an “official” bllk staff member and his first job wasn’t even related to managing the program, he was looking for photographer gigs and they hired him to take photos of all the players that they’d sell as signed prints later (let’s be real, he only got hired because he cost less than professional photographers). he offhandedly mentioned that he needed to get a job to Anri who heard “CHEAP LABOR ALERT”, so if anyone asks he’s “from the social program for people with disabilities”. so he basically just does whatever task Anri gives him, like moving crates of water and gatorade or sorting everyone’s medication into little psych ward cups or going to the store because Ego is a little hungover and wants chicken soup and electrolytes. if a beautiful woman told you to do some bullshit then praised you for doing such a good job and handed you some money once in a while you’d do it too.

anyway, this may be wishful thinking but i think Ness would find the concept of someone being that into him a little alluring… especially if Kaiser and him were having marital spats. it feels good af for a bpd to have a groupie. Cyril felt sort of weird seeking out interaction from someone he had a parasocial relationship with, but he was put in a lot of situations where it wasn’t that awkward because Tsubasa and him became basically instant besties, and if Tsubasa is somewhere then Kaiser and Ness are too, so they had a chance to actually get to know each other outside of the idol/fan or work dynamic. Cyril was a bit surprised that Ness was, for a lack of a better term, a weird crybaby theater kid, but they’re both weird freaks who want to have a good day no matter what so he was still like #NeedThat and pined over him and acted tsundere if anyone even mentioned Ness and sighed wistfully watching him from across the field (he’s on the field to take pics of everyone training. BLTV is getting a twitter!)

since i love negativity and suffering sometimes i imagine Cyril actually getting the courage to tell Ness that he likes him and Ness saying that he’s flattered/he likes him too but if he was in a relationship he’d be violating his loyalty to Kaiser and Kaiser is the most important person to him. so all Cyril can do is watch Ness pine after Kaiser and spend his every waking moment with Kaiser and cry over Kaiser and be sad and limerent. YAY!

and then there’s the other scenario where they actually start d*ting… WOJFIDKFODNTRKKFNSSI-8;!:@83);&/6;£[!,*😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮 <- this is what being in love feels like.

cyril is a real lover which is why he asks REAL questions like this ^

(ness would ask people if theyd love him if he was a worm though -_- and he’d be super serious about it 🪱)

[royalarchivist]

Guys, I really hate to be a killjoy but Fit did not call Pac "babe" in today's live.

[seaofreverie]

I knew about the post concert depression but no one told me about the post concert constant feeling of AAAAAAAAAHHH that lasts days and makes everything much more bearable and beautiful and some sort of ethereal type of hope is restored into the world, or maybe it's just the "seeing your favourite band after first thinking that it would never happen and later spending many months waiting for it all the while fearing that it wouldn't happen after all because of circumstances outside my control or feeling like it was too beautiful and wonderful to be true so ofc it wouldn't come true" part of it all

[xxplastic-cubexx]

Honestly your tags are so fun to read every time, i'm almost more excited for them than the actual post (but not entirely because your art is SO GOOD!!!! i adore it). If you don't mind me asking, what are you studying?

i am studying psychology because i refuse to see a therapist so ill figure out whats wrong with me myself !!!!!!!

[jils-things]

I love my uni so much you have no idea

[sanyu-thewitch05]

Just wanted to clear up some confusion with Asha from Wish, since I’ve been seeing it a lot. She’s not Afro-Latina but Afro Hispanic.

I’m assuming the media gets it wrong because over in the west (USA, South, and Latin America) a lot of the Hispanic people here are also Latino, so we tend use the terms interchangeably although they are completely different things. But have an overlap in the west due to Spanish colonization.

Here’s a visual if anyone wants it:

For anyone who don’t know, Spain and Portugal occupy the Iberian Peninsula, which is separated at its southern tip from North Africa by only a narrow strait situated at the juncture of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.

I’m assuming since the name of Asha’s kingdom is Rosas, it’s closer to Spain. Also it wouldn’t make since to be associating her with being Latino( As I’ve already said a lot of people use Latino and Hispanic interchangeably due to the large overlap in the west) if she was assumed to be Portuguese or connected to Portugal in any way.

TLDR; Asha is Afro Hispanic, NOT Afro-Latina.

[lucabyte]

i need to know if the people who are following me who are currently in the process of reading homestuck for the first time are doing it through the Unofficial Homestuck Collection because if you aren't please say so because um. Veteran homestuck here who wants to give you the best possible experience . please. <- guy who's prepping for an upcoming homestuck reread and as such has a whole list of reccomendations

[microwavetoaster-selfships]

I've been thinking and. Should I just. Merge my blogs and put everything here. Cause at first I made seperate blogs because I didn't want to bombard everyone with nonsense every couple of months about some new characters I found so I kept making seperate blogs especially cause I didn't anticipate it happening again and again but now I'm like. Should I just stick everything under this blog. Or at the very least cut it down to two blogs where I have this one and the second one can just be for my every couple of monthly nonsense where I spew about whatever I found.

[i-c-u-p]

going to start using this platform like twitter again and by that i mean posting relentlessly and going on rants in the tags

[hassianlovebot]

i've seen some people talk about einar's romance dialogue and how it feels offputting and rude to him but i'm gonna be honest,,, i never really saw it that way?

like i do agree that the player's dialogue options Suck compared to the other romances. something about it just feels really childish and definitely not as,,, "serious" or even committed as the other romance dialogue options. that being said, it never felt patronizing toward him.

to me, it feels like the player is just. being human. while einar is being galdur. the player doesn't get mad at him for not understanding certain jokes or not showing affection in the same way. and einar doesn't get uncomfortable with the player being human, making human jokes, or showing human affection. they're just Being Human and sharing their humanness with einar. which einar, while not always understanding of it, is completely used to and Does understand and enjoy it later on in the 3-4 levels. not that he didn't enjoy it before, but once you get closer to him, he Does understand more of the jokes and even joins in on certain ones (like the catch one!).

idk man it just always felt like the player and einar are just sharing their perspectives, personalities, and culture with each other. and of course there is the chocolate thing where he says he doesn't need it and the player has to learn what he actually wants from the relationship (ie spending time together). and there are still jokes that he ends up taking seriously, which yknow, that's kind of what i meant when i said the player's options often feel very childish compared to other ones. but it just never came off as patronizing to me, especially since einar repeatedly says that he enjoys spending time with the player and engaging in their "togetherness".

like to me it always felt like he enjoys learning about new things, even if he doesn't want to participate. like at the maji market when he says that while he doesn't understand the hotpot game, watching it fills him with "oneness". he enjoys learning about human and majiri culture and seeing them just be themselves! none of his dialogue implies that he's uncomfortable with the way the player shows affection (there Is something to be said about the dialogue options only ever showing one form of it,,, but tbf they can't put in 50+ options to cover the minutia of human brains lol)

idk i want to be clear im not shitting on anyone else's opinion on this!!! there's room for all perspectives here. i just wanted to share! i've seen SO many people say that romancing einar feels patronizing and like. i've just never seen it that way ! and it always confuses me when i see it akjhgd tbf i think some people are also neurodivergent (same lol) and don't appreciate the dialogue options that einar doesn't understand because in real life it Does feel patronizing when someone does it on purpose even knowing you won't get it. but for me, einar being galdur and not a neurodivergent human/majiri is an important distinction. he shows multiple times that he enjoys learning about human cultures and perspectives, that he enjoys talking to the player even when they don't understand each other, and that he's capable of understanding the player's jokes and sarcasm once explained to him. he Likes that they're different !

einar seems to enjoy the player acting "human" with him because he gets to learn about them! and he wouldn't want them stifle their true personality just to please him! einar is alllll about being true to yourself, your beliefs, your oneness, etc. he wants the player to understand him and his affection, but he also wants to understand the player's personality and affection. he wants them to share each other's "quirks". and don't get me wrong, i do wish there was more we could do to share in his way of affection (especially if his way is our way,,, like i'm Not flirty or jokey like that irl at all and i'd love to have more options where it really is just "hi i enjoy parallel playing with you :)))" lol) and that the dialogue options were less jokey or at least more affectionate/serious but idk,,, i think for me, i've just always seen einar as someone who wants to know and appreciate everything about the player, even the things he doesn't Immediately understand. he wants the player to explain things and share their culture with him SO bad

[seaslimes]

Every time I see those posts about the AO3 F/F to M/M ratios, all I can think is:

Okay, excellent point. But what if you just wrote it?

Like. Yeah, man, I'm sure it's discouraging to see raw numbers talking about how your ship doesn't get the rep it needs. But when you get down to numbers... sometimes the difference within fandoms is less than 500 more M/M works than F/F works. That's actionable. You can fill that gap with a fraction of the people liking / reblogging posts about F/F erasure.

Sometimes the gap is bigger. It's like, 1000 more works are tagged M/M. 2000, or more. Yeah, that's a big gap, but you could make it one less. If every person liking or reblogging a post about the disparity of ship fics on AO3, that number would shrink drastically, or outright disappear.

IDK. I write F/F. I write M/M too, as well as M/F. But I write F/F, and when I see that sorta post. It doesn't feel like a call to action. It feels like somehow, in some way, I'm not doing enough when I post up fanfiction for free about stuff I like.

It makes me feel like I should stop sharing my F/F work, that it doesn't matter, that people don't recognize the effort or love or time that goes into it. Even beyond that, I feel discouraged about the work I have put out, because thousands of words written all about an F/F pairing are only seen in that raw stat format.

"There's X M/M fics and Y F/F fics." Yes, I know, and that has to suck. But look at how many people wrote F/F fics! Have you commented on each of those F/F fics? Have you given kudos? Did you feel inspired to write or draw because of those F/F fics? That's what fandom is for. That's why we create. If that's not inspiring you to "close the gap" on those stats, I don't know what to say.

[rotisseries]

actually now that the clique thing is a few days old, i didn't really get involved for a reason and I don't feel super strongly in either direction

but I will say that like. while there's certainly a problem of less interaction on the fanworks/posts from less popular blogs, this isn't really a byler exclusive issue? this happens in most fandoms these days, interaction is just on a decline in general which IS. a problem but not really a "byler tumblr is cliquey" problem. in regards to any actual cliques I wouldn't say they don't exist but I don't think it's "the popular kids" themselves doing this. I don't know if the rest of you have some other bloggers in mind that I don't know about, but as someone who is mutuals with a fair amount of who I thought were the popular blogs, they are always very nice and welcoming to me, and actually easy to talk to once you just. see them and talk to them as a normal human and not an omnipotent fandom god. so this is all to say that if there's a clique issue I think it's from the outside. I think maybe people are perceiving these bigger blogs who all happen to be friends as these untouchable idols in fandom and it's. making it cliquey from the outside. like are they a clique or have you just convinced yourself they wouldn't want anything to do with you and isolated this group from everyone else. this isn't to say that people can't be assholes of course just that I don't think any of this is intentional