#i love sharing tutorials because i was very confused by a lot of things when i first started - not saying i'm a pro rn 'cus i'm not lmao

[puppetshcw]

how do you make stupid cupid logo if you don’t mind me asking 😣💕

AINE ˳ ⠀⠀⠀ ok so hopefully i explain it well, but you'll need photoshop / photopea for it! btw, you need to have at least some knowledge of how to work around photoshop! i'm going to put the tutorial under the cut <3

to achieve your words to look like this :

i first wrote 'STUPID' as i normally do, however, i selected the 'TUPID' part of the words and went to 'TOGGLE CHARACTERS' icon ( as seen in the screenshot underneath )

click on it, find this icon ( named 'SUPERSCRIPT' ) and select only that

this is how the words would usually look vs the superscript version :

next thing i had to do, is write 'UPID' part of 'CUPID'! now i do it a little bit more complicated than it's supposed to be, but i go right-click in the layers and go to 'QUICK EXPORT AS PNG'

i'd then place that saved png on the header, and before i click actual 'PLACE' i press on 'FLIP HORIZONTAL' which will turn the words the way i want them to

like so!

i then resized it so it's the same as 'TUPID', then placed it on the lower bottom of the big 'S'. after that it was quite easy, i just added the shadow on all words, and found cute png that would match my group's "vibes". for the lock, i needed to delete a small part of the png so it looks like it's going over the letter ( same thing for the arrow because you could see a shadow going over the 'S' unless i deleted it / but you can simply put it behind the letter if you don't wanna delete anything )

after that, i just put the psd on to make it look cuter and fixed the photo of the header. and that's a wrap! hopefully, this helped you anon, but if you don't have / use photoshop, there's a free version of it, called photopea and you can basically do the same things there!

[taxkha]

i love your art so much i can't even describe it!! for the past year, every time i see it, it inspires me to create and improve so much i can't be jealous; i can only work harder hoping i can invoke the same feeling in someone else one day. your masterful use of loose lines and cozy colors never fails to make me happy on the rainiest day. do you have any tips for establishing such atmospheres, such as color selection or particular poses or expressions? (i don't write very well, sorry if this seems confusing) -an anon who appreciates your work to the fullest

Oh my god anon, you are so sweet, thank you so much (ಥ﹏ಥ) It means so much to hear I inspire someone to draw and I'm happy I can motivate you! <3 Please keep it up and I would love to see what you are making if you ever feel like sharing it! x) I'm so happy to hear my art has such a positive impact on you!! Okay so regarding your questions! When it comes to colors I recently made a coloring tutorial where I also went a bit into how I select colors, how I shade and what my go to effect layers are, you can find it here but it's also currently pinned at the top of my blog! I explained it in my tutorial but I will say it here again, I rely a lot on effect layers. That isn't wrong by any means and is what I would argue most digital artists do but if you want to learn actual color theory that goes beyond what colors compliment each other I unfortunately cant help with that on my own nor do I have any guides at hand to redirect you to :") Speaking of complimentary colors though, knowing your color wheel and which colors contrast each other already helps a lot! My favourites are green/red and orange/blue! To give some examples: green/red

These are less about an atmosphere achieved through lighting but more about the general subject matter of the piece. They are both more ominous and uh, bloody and threatening. And for Orange/Blue

The orange and blue combination is something you see in a lot of movies, for example Mad Max Fury Road or Blade Runner 2049 and many many more which have likely influenced me on what colors I chose in my art to some extend. Paying attention to media other than your own helps a ton and can totally improve on how you approach you art! Like, obviously I draw mostly anime/manga esque art and I get most of my inspiration from manga and video games, but I also try and look at buildings when Im outside, look closely at shot compositions in movies and so on! Other inspirations that have helped me are artbooks from my favorite games/shows/series, if you enjoy those x) Theres probably PDFs to be found of a lot of artbooks online if you don't want to spend money on them. I know you didn't directly ask what my inspirations are lol but they absolutely helped me! OKAY SO now about poses and expressions. Since you mentioned my loose lines, I have very good advice for that: Draw without erasing. Get a scrap book or some lose paper, cheap paper! And a pen you cant erase, such as a fineliner or a ballpoint pen and then draw. Do not go into it with the intent to make an actual good drawing, just. Draw! Draw half finished faces, hands, bodies, cats, whatever you feel like. Fill up the entire page. If you don't want to waste any paper, do it digitally but don't erase! Do that a lot. You will train yourself to draw loser and loser as time goes on. I've always had the habit of doodling onto everything mindlessly and I still do so I never had to actively practice drawing lose lines but thats most likely the reason why I draw the way I do! I actually have some examples from today because I got distracted at work:

I just draw whatever comes to mind until the page is full. I usually don't even keep these pages :") It has helped me a lot though. Uh yeah thats pretty much everything?? Thanks so much again for sending this ask, it was a very sweet thing to wake up to and I hope my rambles here can be of any help and to you good luck in your art endeavors!! :) <3

[ryuichirou]

I been wondering what would it be like for the cast to be parents? I seen how Idia and Azul will likely be terrible ones and I am curious for the rest. (Except for Lilia for obvious reasons)

Anon! Sorry for the late reply. The day has come for me to share with you my nrc-as-parents headcanons lol I’ve mentioned this theme a little bit in one of the previous replies about Azul and Idia a while ago, and I’ll reiterate: we usually don’t really love the scenarios than involve characters becoming parents, and because of that I probably ended up talking about how bad of a parent all of them are lol But I tried to make it as fair as possible.

Actually, some of them turned out to be not so shitty ones! Which is quite surprising, not gonna lie.

Alright, so…

Riddle – such an anxious parent. One would assume that he would try not to mess his kid up as badly as his mom messed him up, but it’s Riddle we’re talking about; he’s still super dependant on tutorials and rulebooks, and whether he wants to acknowledge and avoid his parents’ mistakes or not, he’ll end up overthinking it and messing up massively. I guess it all depends on his partner, but he’d need a lot of help. He’s going to copy his mother until somebody stops him, although at some times he would think “I was actually very upset when my mother did that, I should stop”, but he wouldn’t be able to catch or even see all these moments, especially on his own.

Trey – “oh he is the perfect dad!” I hear the crowd saying. “NO!!!” I’m yelling back at the crowd. Of course, he is super caring and empathetic and has experience with children. And looking at some of the other…. Uh… contestants… of course, Trey is one of the best. But he is also an enabler that spoils his kids rotten. He’s way too doting. He’s strict about their dental hygiene! But other than that? Nah.

Cater – god I don’t think Cater would ever want a kid. I think he would think that unless he has a perfect and stable life with a house and no need to move anytime soon, it’d be too irresponsible to get a kid. But even then, he would be so focused on not messing up his kid (and he would only have one because siblings sucks) that he would probably make things worse lol He would also probably try to make everything seems perfect and his kid really wouldn’t appreciate it when they get older.

Ace – he’s the dad that doesn’t pay child support and visits them like once or twice every other week. I know I judge him based on his younger self, but I don’t feel like this guy is getting mature or responsible anytime soon. He’s the type of parent that always looks hella confused about what to do with a kid, especially when they’re too young/too old to appreciate his sick magic tricks. He’s not heartless, he just doesn’t get it and gets frustrated because of that and doesn’t want to continue trying.

Deuce – he would try to do his best. He would actually be quite a nice parent, but that doesn’t mean that he won’t make mistakes or get frustrated. He’ll mess up A LOT; he’s just very good at learning from his mistakes and knows how important it is to have a good parent. And his mom would help out a lot.

Leona – distant, lazy, always salty at someone for some reason. The type of dad who could technically brag about his kid to someone, but when the kid is there he just sits on a couch and watches tv in silence. He gets inspired to teach his kid how to throw a ball from time to time, but he’s also the type of a dad to miss the perfect timing for this kind of bonding and end up with a teenager who doesn’t want to hang out with him. Wow that went dark lol

Ruggie – on the one hand, he also has a lot of experience with taking care of children. On the other hand, his kid would know how to pickpocket at the age of 2. Just in case. His kid would love him a lot, but he’s definitely not the most conventional dad one could have. He’d also never have a child without any sort of financial stability because he doesn’t want his child to be raised up in the streets.

Jack – oh come on, he would be such a good father that it’s actually boring, NEXT!!!

Azul – Riddle’s mom 2.0. I’m sorry, this is the hill I’m going to die on. Yes, Azul was loved by his family and surrounded by nothing but support and care, but he’s also a psychotic control-freak that truly believes that he was too spoiled and that his parents should have been MORE STRICT WITH HIM!!! So in his head, the best thing he could do is to make sure that his kid knows magic by the age of 3, knows how to work with contracts by the age of 5, learns how to play an instrument, does sports, knows how to cook, has perfect pronunciation and vocabulary, and oh of course the kid also needs to have a hobby because if they don’t have anything they’re passionate about they’ll never succeed in life! Azul is overbearing lol but he is also probably overly protective of his kid. He’d also yell at his mom for spoiling her grandchildren lol but his mom would make a great counterbalance for his attitude with her being sweet, so it’s not that bad for a child...

Floyd – HE DOESN’T NEED A KID. PLEASE. HE AND JADE BOTH WOULD PIT TWO NEWBORNS AGAISNT EACH OTHER AND GO “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT”. But if we’re being honest, I just think he’s too volatile to be a proper parent. The possibility that he’d get bored and just ditch this whole parenting thing altogether is too high lol

Jade – If we don’t go the “baby wrestling” scenario, he’s… confusing. He might be a wonderful dad who is surprisingly perfect at parenting and smiles at you with his “what, you thought I would be bad at it? too bad” smile. As if he’s doing it to spite everyone. As if he’s plotting something. But I can also picture him leaving his kid in a forest just to see if he would find his way home.

Kalim – Oh he’s the most doting dad ever. His kid would have everything they want, he’ll shower them with love, kisses, songs, tasty food, gifts, snacks, cool outfits. He would photograph everything and have tons of videos on his phone. He would talk about his kids all the time. He would be so obnoxious and insufferable, Jamil would actually ask him to PLEASE consider not spending half of their funds on his child’s birthday gift? You’ll literally go broke please stop PLEASE.

Jamil – he’s also probably the one not to have a kid for a very long time because of having too many irons in the fire. But he’d be an okay parent. His biggest problem would be the fact that he’s busy. His kid would probably be super mature from a very young age though. And learn how to cuss from Jamil. Jamil didn’t mean to teach them that, but oh fuck. But also I think he would somehow end up making some of the same mistakes his parents made with him. He’s way too focused on Kalim to notice that he pushes his kid away a lot hoping that they’ll “understand” because they’re “smart”.

Vil – he would be a solid one! He’s also super focused on his kid learning a bunch of stuff from a very young age, but he is much more mature and empathetic than Azul is about it. Still, he’s quite strict, but he’s also super doting when he has his soft moments. But sometimes he still takes his own perfectionism too far. He’s the one to read a lot of the books about parenting and try to be as prepared for it as possible. But mistakes are unavoidable so let’s hope that the great Vil Schoenheit shows his excellence at everything he does yet again.

Rook – oh the weirdo. He has his strong points, and a lot of them: he’s super supportive, super loving, he helps out a lot, and he would actually provide a good balance if the second parent is Vil for example. At the same time, it’s impossible to have a “normal childhood” when your dad is Rook, because he’ll teach you how to hunt, how to survive in the woods, how to hide your presence from a tiger. His kids will watch him snap a deer’s neck at the age of like 2. So yeah, on the one hand he would be that parent who yells in excitement at his kid’s elementary school play, but he’ll also give the most ruthless critique to them afterwards. He’ll show his kid the beauty of nature, but he’ll also leave them in the woods for a week to survive alone. Don’t worry, he believes in them~ (his kid and Jade’s kid would stumble upon each other in the same woods and become friends lol)

Epel – he’s too much of a baby… I can’t even picture him having a kid. What kind of a teen mom?.. He’s going to be too focused on this whole cute/manly stuff, this never ends well lol

Idia – the awkward and avoiding parent that kind of wants to hang out with the kid but also wants nothing to do with them. He doesn’t know how to act around them and it’s painfully obvious. So he might miss the moment to actually bond with them just like Leona, but on the other hand, if the other parent is Azul, Idia could be “the fun parent”: the type that you can eat ice-cream with and play videogames for hours. But when the videogaming and ice-cream eating hours are over, he’ll just stop communicating with the kid again and hide somewhere. He doesn’t like being a parent much; he’d prefer to be “a cool uncle” of sorts. The one that only comes to visit twice a year…

Ortho – an actual cool uncle lol I also can’t picture Ortho as a dad. He’d be a collection of all the dad tropes from the tv. He would have so much fun! Not sure of the kid would have fun though. But Ortho would!

Lilia – oh we all know how good of a father he is. The best one.

Silver – a very sweet and empathetic one, caring and protective; his main downfall is the fact that his own childhood was so messed up that he doesn’t really know how to care for kids. Of course he wouldn’t just drown a kid in milk like his own dad did, but he also wouldn’t automatically assume that it probably isn’t safe to just let his kid play with a sword on their own. Something among the lines.

Sebek – absolutely obnoxious. Sometimes he’s surprisingly good… because his childhood wasn’t as bad as Silver’s, so he knows better. He’s also the one to read a lot of books and hope that he won’t make any mistakes. But he’ll make mistakes, get frustrated and angry, and make even more mistakes. And then he’ll sing an ode to Malleus instead of a regular lullaby because the young one needs to learn what’s important from the very first days of their life!!!!!!111 Silver and he need each other to balance shit out lol

Malleus – he would try, but I don’t trust him to try hard enough lol he would be invested and loving at first, but he would also get moments when he would just leave a kid and go on a stroll. It would probably take some time for him to learn that he probably shouldn’t do this. Hey he went through the same thing, right? Was it fair then? Why isn’t it fair now? (besides, Silver also turned out alright!) Not everything is about you, Malleus…

[pc98vibe]

Hi I'm @devsgames and I run this blog.

This blog features footy of games made for the PC98 system. Some posts will be NSFW, and I'll tag them accordingly. I try to go back and play stuff from time to time to fill out the queue. The queue is shuffled, so a mix of stuff will come up from all over the place.

I know DNIs don't really work, but I feel obligated to point out that if you are a racist, sexist, queerphobic, a TERF, a bigot, or a fan of cops/the military then this blog isn't a welcome space for you.

FAQ under the break

Why did you start this blog?

I used to play a small selection of MD-DOS games as a kid and naturally have a deep nostalgia for games of that era, so I wanted to try out some games on the PC-98. Recently I learned how to patch fan-made English translations into them and I started to dig into them. I really fell in love and wanted to share that appreciation with others.

But there's already a billion PC-98 blogs out there!

I'm a big fan of bots like PC-98 bots too! However, I also love the music, SFX and animations in PC-98 titles and I find that a lot of archival stuff tends to skip over these elements entirely in favour of pretty stills. I wanted to include more music and SFX!

What is a PC-98?

I'm not a history expert so here's what Wikipedia says:

The PC-9800 series (commonly shortened to PC-98 is a lineup) of Japanese 16-bit and 32-bit personal computers manufactured by NEC from 1982 to 2000.

The PC-98 had many game titles designed for it, many of which made creative use of the system's limitations (as it was originally designed as a business machine) to great commercial success. Despite having hardware specifications inferior to the FM Towns and the X68000, the massive install base and steady flow of game titles (in particular "doujin" style dating sims and RPGs, kept it as the favored platform for PC game developers in Japan until the rise of the DOS/V clones.

There's already a billion accounts everywhere that post PC-98 stuff! Why start another one?!

I've followed accounts such as PC-98 Bot on other platforms and always thought the art in it was gorgeous, and I used to listen to PC-98 soundtracks when I stream, however I realized that I had never seen the two things combined in many places on social media. The music in these games are so good and often compliments the art so well that I felt the urge to showcase them together, because while the focus is often on the visuals. Honestly I think the music is even better than the visuals half the time.

I also really enjoy the design of some of the games, as a game developer myself there's something that's so remarkably simple and 'indie spirit' about them.

Why don't you play [x game]?

I can only play titles in English because I don't speak Japanese, and playing a game while not understanding what is going on sounds like a good way to get confused, frustrated and bored. This is also why I won't get every scene from every game - I'm doing this for fun not for archival!

That being said if you have recommendations and can link me to a English patch for it I'll happily give it a spin. :)

How do you emulate PC-98 games in English?

There was a couple guides I followed to learn the process (it's a little more complicated than retro console because you're emulating a whole 90's PC). I recommend the excellent tutorial by Gang Fight here on emulating the games, as well as this resource for finding English community patches. As with anything else, once you know how it do it it's very straightforward.

[absolutepokemontrash]

The Brothers and Side Characters Play the Sims

I don’t know what possessed me to make this but WHATEVER. I’ve been playing the Sims since I was a wee little girl, and I’ve seen my fair share of weird Sims stuff that I feel would fit these bozos perfectly.

My Sims have a Functional Family Life Because I Don’t (Lucifer)

God dammit Levi’s obsessed with another game... ugh.

Spends 5 minutes in Create-a-Sim and hops into a starter home.

Lucifer’s the type to start with all the average stuff and then build their stuff up as his sim gets promotions.

It’s just... so peaceful...

...he’s adopting a dog.

Look at his new little virtual family... his sim-kids are self sufficient and getting A’s in school, his Sim spouse MC or Diavolo take your pick loves his Sim-self, his sim-dog-

WAIT NO- THE DOG’S AN ELDER?!

AAAAAAAAAAAAA-

...

He’s fine. It was just a virtual dog. *sniffle*

He’s now spending his free time drinking Demonus and playing the Sims.

What’s a mod? Levi why does your sim have gun?

Behold, My Gorgeous Home... It’s a Box (Mammon)

Mammon, like the rest of the HOL, is mooching off of Levi’s Origin account.

“AW SHIT! This house looks awesome! I’m gonna build it for Sim-me to live in!”

Mammon proceeds to build a box with rooms. Yay...

He just picks the funnest sounding job if he picks any job at all for his Sim. That’s how he ended up making 9 dollars an hour in the criminal career.

Didn’t stop Mammon from buying that solid gold bathroom set from Get Famous... a box with solid gold bathrooms.

His Sim is broke send help-

“Leviiiiiii my sim needs money... the people my sim kidnapped and is forcing to paint aren’t making enough money...” “Ugh... press control shift C and type ‘motherlode’.”

...Levi made a mistake.

“FUCK YEAH! MOTHERLODE!”

His sim’s life is so chaotic, he has a piranha pool that his sim has almost died in twice, the sim is carrying on several torrid love affairs, his sim got struck by lightning, his sim has nearly died in a grilled cheese making accident twice... in the same day.

At least once Sim-Mammon and Sim-MC get married things calm down a little.

Mammon finds out what custom content is and proceeds to download EVERYTHING HE CAN FIND.

And now he’s asking Levi why his computer is running so slow.

Expansion Pack King (Leviathan)

He got into it back when the Sims 2 was new, he’s a veteran fan.

“Bro remember when Agnes Crumplebottom would show up and whack the shit out of your sims if they were flirting?”

“Remember when that witch would show up randomly on the lot you were on if you had Makin’ Magic?”

“Remember when Bella Goth was abducted by aliens and we just... didn’t question it?”

He whines about the Sims4 and how crappy it is but still buys every expansion pack, game pack, and stuff pack.

This boy watches like 40 hours of built tutorials and ends up sobbing over his weird roofs.

“WHY DOESN’T IT LOOK AS NICE AS THE ONE I’M LOOKING AT?! THIS ISN’T FAIR!”

The mod folder is so full istg-

Levi gets custom content for the sole purpose of making his favourite fictional characters.

This is why Henry and the Lord of Shadows are married and Ruri-chan and Sim-Levi are roommates.

Oh my god they were roommates-

Levi also added his brothers to the world and uh... Sim-Mammon died in a tragic pool accident F.

Levi then proceeded to befriend the Grim Reaper.

He’s anxiously awaiting the release of Paralives.

Wait Gameplay? In This Build Simulator? (Satan)

Satan’s here to build and leave. Gameplay who?

Our favourite bundle of rage is a master architect and the amount of followers on the Gallery he has shows it.

He takes up those build shell challenges and always ends up making them look positively perfect.

Asmo’s always using his houses, and Satan often takes requests when he gets bored.

No Mammon, he reserves the right to refuse to build a golden castle for you- YOUR SIM HAS 40 SIMOLEONS-

No mods, no CC, he’s building with what EA gave him.

...and EA gave him debug objects, and he’s not going to explain how to get them.

The one time he did actually play with a family... it was one sim and seven cats.

He tries to play without cheats... and ends up getting frustrated and turns on cheats.

All hail the Pets Expansion Pack.

Custom Content Soap Opera (Asmodeus)

Asmo spends 5 hours in Create a Sim then just... clicks out of the game.

That’s how it goes most of the time, buuuuuut when he gets super invested in a family he’s made, boy howdy is he INVESTED.

Sim A is carrying on an affair with Sim C who’s in love with Sim B who’s married to Sim A but Sim D wants to kill Sim A and C even though they’re the illegitimate child of Sim C-

When Asmo realizes that in the Sims 4 he needs to manufacture all the drama himself and he can’t just sit back with a glass of wine and watch the fireworks, he switches to the Sims 2 and 3.

“...why is this old lady beating up my Sim..?”

He immediately recoils in horror upon seeing how ugly the Sims are pre Sims4.

HE NEEDS TO FIX THIS-

Ah, there we go, perfect. Custom Content to the rescue!

He ends up remaking the entire world just so he doesn’t have to look at weird looking Sims.

Asmo is the only one to have finished a proper Legacy Challenge, but it gets crazy chaotic after gen 3.

“My sim just got abducted by aliens and now he’s pregnant- WHAT?!”

He has about 40 saves and only two he actually plays.

Just a Big Ol’ Happy Family (Beelzebub)

Beel found the game, proceeded to make everyone in create-a-sim to the best of his abilities, and made everyone get along.

That’s why Sim-Lucifer and Sim-Belphie are on a swing set together, they’re friends :D

“Hey Luke do you think you can make this?” “I-is that a cake shaped like a hamburger?” “Yes. Please make.”

He took one look at the cooking options and decided to max out his Sim’s cooking skill to unlock all the options.

Beel proceeded to drool all over his keyboard. Gross...

Boy howdy did he have some crazy dinner suggestions!

Overall, very wholesome Sim-life, except for the time Sim-Levi died because the toilet caught fire, don’t worry, Sim-Beel knows how to make ambrosia.

All is good in the Sim save...

...until Sim-Beel ate pufferfish nigiri and fuckin died-

Wait Did I Not Pause- (Belphie)

Huh, this game looks fine... I’ll play for a little- *SNORE*

Belphie makes some sims, plops them into a starter home, plays for an hour, then falls asleep.

He wakes up five hours later to absolute carnage.

Three sims have died because someone decided to make Mac and Cheese and the oven caught fire, the kids were taken away by social services, and the dog ran away.

“...heheh, holy shit everyone look.”

He doesn’t play often, but when he does, death occurs. He has found out every death method for every game from Sims 2 to 4.

And that INCLUDES the Sims Medieval! You guys remember that game?

Sometimes it’s not intentional, but Belphie got bored with the totally normal life his sims were living and decided to spice it up.

“Why are the ghosts breaking my showers..?”

Help There’s a Bug- (Diavolo)

The Crown Prince started playing when he noticed Lucifer was playing it.

He was immediately obsessed.

Dia mostly plays the Sims Medieval because he likes the feeling of achievement after completing a quest!

“Barbatos... why isn’t my Sim completing their task? The icon won’t show up.” “My lord it appears the game is bugged.” “:(“

No one thought to tell Diavolo that EA doesn’t plan on offering bug support to a game made in like... 2009

This doesn’t matter! Look at how great his kingdom is doing- oh no his hero has the plague-

He plays through the Pirates and Nobles expansion and manages to get the peaceful ending, he’s so proud of himself.

“MC! Look! My Monarch’s sword is permanently on fire and I’m fighting an evil wizard!”

When he does play the other Sims games he’s pretty basic, though, he does a great job at furnishing!

Dia gets crazy sad when his Sims die... he turns off aging.

Builder no. 2 (Barbatos)

Barbie doesn’t have time for this... but when he does, he builds.

No create a sim.

No playing the game as intended.

Just builds.

It’s relaxing, okay? A nice little suburban house he’s never going to play in, maybe a treehouse, maybe a big Hollywood Mansion...

The only time he actually plays the game outside of build mode is when someone needs his help to fix something in-game.

He does download custom content build items if he feels bored by the current selection.

Oh Crap What Am I Doing?! (Simeon)

Help him. Please.

He’s so confused.

“Luke, why is my sim upset?” “He’s hungry, Simeon.” “Oh, how do I fix that?” “...Simeon-”

There’s a toilet in the middle of the living room.

The fridge is facing the wall.

There’s no bathtub or shower.

The house is on fire- there is no god- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

Okay, once he gets the hang of it he’s sitting pretty. His sims have good jobs, the kids are getting good grades, everything’s fine.

...

But Simeon won’t forget the nightmares.

What Even is This Save? (Solomon)

Solomon’s save is the definition of chaos.

One sim’s a vampire, the other is a spellcaster that really wants to fight the Callientes for some reason, there’s one normal sim that’s always sick for some reason,

It gets weird, confusing, and horrible.

Just how Solomon likes it.

His house makes no sense, like, what even is architecture?

Money cheats are needed because Solomon‘a goal of chaos and confusion is proving to be kind of expensive.

Square up Mortimer Goth, Solomon’s sims are here to steal your weird knight statue that’s worth a shit ton of simoleons for NO REASON.

He joined the scientist career for the sole purpose of getting to the alien planet and kidnapping adding an alien to the household via cheats.

The vampire ended up dying on their wedding day because Solomon forgot that he gave them the sun weakness.

Oh well, the ghost got added to the household! VAMPIRE GHOST!

The Child (Luke)

Before you say Luke’s too young to play the Sims, you should know that I was nine when I first started playing, and I turned out fiiiiiiiiiine.

He’s just happy to be playing.

Look, his sims are gardening :D

Look, two of them are getting married :D

Look, they had a baby :D

Look, his sims are building a rocket ship :D

Look, his sims’s rocket just crashed-

The concept of death hit the little angel right in the face that day.

“*sniffle*... my sims...”

Don’t worry, with tears in his eyes, Luke quit without saving and everything was fine!

Speaking of My Sims, Luke played MySims Sky Heroes and that was when Luke had his first bout of gamer rage.

MC came over to hang out with Solomon and Simeon, and in the distance they could just hear:

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY TIME WASN’T FAST ENOUGH TO CONTINUE THE STORY!? I’LL SHOW YOU FAST ENOUGH TIME!”

Okay, maybe Simeon should take the game away... just for a bit... he should take heed not to be bitten by the incredibly angry chihuahua.

Bonus:

MC: Why are our Sims married?

*Insert Boy Here*: Uh... that’s weird... I have no clue why they’re doing that...

[astrella-writes]

prompt | anonymous asked: Could I get some general relationship headcanons (with some fluff please!) for Chishiya, Arisu, and Kuina 🥺👉👈 let me know if you need a more specific ask! :)

warnings | written with the intention of female pronouns but can be read as gender neutral, very minor suggestive implications, mentions of alcohol, nicotine and eating habits, might be considered kinda cheesy oops, the use of the pet name ‘bunny’.

word count | 1.4K

author’s note | ‘m loving this request. this is written with the intention of it being pre-borderlands. 

Shuntarō Chishiya 

- Frequenting local cafes for routinely study dates. He helps you with topics that you may struggle on and you buy him the bizarre flavored ‘treat of the week’ as a thank you. He jokes around that you’re probably using him as a test subject, because who would order sweet potato brownies with the premise that they would taste good. Much to his surprise, they actually do.

- Visiting a cat cafe once, but not getting around to completing any work. The image of Chishiya cradling a fluffy kitten close to his chest and holding softened eye contact with it is now your permanent lock screen. He has a matching lock screen of you holding a kitten from under the armpits and touching noses with it.

- Learning new skills together. Chishiya is pretty much down for anything that he considers interesting enough. That’s how you ended up frustratingly trying to follow along to a complex origami cat tutorial at 2 in the morning as Chishiya worked quietly with his earbuds in, listening to a different tutorial. Only once he presented you with a perfect paper flower did you smile for the first time in the past hour, the frustration dissipating. That very flower has claimed its indefinite place on your bedside table, something that didn’t go unnoticed by him.

- Doing escape rooms together every so often. It baffles you to some degree how he figures things out so easily, but then again, you’ve known how smart your boyfriend was since the day you met so it shouldn’t really come as a surprise. You just can’t help but admire him, and voice these admirations out loud. Your compliments being the only ones which truly affect him.

- Despite how genius your boyfriend is, you remain concerned about the mental toll college might have on him. If he is stressed, he barely gives it away, but you’ve grown to read through his indifference and pick up when something is wrong - even if he’s attempting to hide it for your disburden. You allow him to de-stress in your arms, playing with the tips of his hair and speaking through what has got him so troubled.

- Late night dates that consist of trips to the corner store where you buy your favourite snacks and walk down to the beach together. It’s a relaxing way to wind down after a stressful week filled with work and college. If it’s not too cold that night, you substitute sitting on your usual bench for a stroll along the sand. If he finds a pretty seashell, Chishiya will give it to you wordlessly.

- He buys you a lot of small things that reminds him of you. A cute keychain he found by chance while buying groceries, splurging his money on a random claw machine because he spotted a plushie character from that show you really like, buying your favourite snacks to calm you down before a big exam that you’ve been studying really hard for. It’s the little things that show how much he really loves you.

Ryōhei Arisu

- Offering him a place to stay for a few days if he needs a break from his family, Arisu will pack up his gaming laptop along with him and you two will game with each other side by side. He anticipates the moment you rest your head on his shoulder and once you do, he rests his own head upon yours with a small: “you tired, bunny?”

- Being extremely supporting and non-judgemental on the topic of him getting a job. You search listings almost daily and send any promising ones through to him, leaving an encouraging message afterwards in hopes he gets the right intention. You care for him deeply and don’t want to see his father eventually kicking him out the house for being unemployed and making the situation ten times more difficult for him.

- Helping him get out more and introducing him to places he quickly grows to love. A quaint coffee shop with a grassy roof hidden deep within the cracks that he never would have found if it weren’t for you. It’s become your usual spot for dates, and Arisu enjoys the tranquility of it all.

- Going on trips to the game store together, even though Arisu usually just buys all his games online, and he’s pretty sure you do too. Regardless, it’s an excuse to meet up and hang out for a few hours after, something he’s found has become more enthralling than gaming. 

- Staying up on video call into the late hours of the night as you both battle it out on some mmorpg. You’re confused when you see his idle avatar and look over at your phone screen to find him staring at you in a trance. It catches you off guard at first, but seeing him snap back to reality upon getting caught and getting all flustered left you replaying the scene over in your head for days later.

- Dates to the arcade, because of course. You two definitely hog a specific game with a line of pouting children waiting impatiently to get their chance. Arisu only agrees to move on when you mention a new game you spotted earlier. There is no new game, you just feel bad for the kids. Once he’s caught on, you merely give his lips a quick peck and you’re instantly forgiven.

- Playing in one of those immersive game machines with the curtains on both sides, only for Arisu to stare at you dumbly, leaving you a flustered and confused mess. This usually leads to a one-sided lean in and a small make out, only for an innocent kid to pull back the curtain and run away mortified. Their screams are the highlight of your boyfriend’s day, and you swear he’s holding some mental record of how many kids he traumatize through doing this.

Hikari Kuina

- Working at the same clothing store and having Kuina intervene whenever you’re faced with a rude customer. She might not be all too friendly if they insulted you, and if getting fired is the cost of standing up for you, then so be it. You’d quit alongside her and find some place new to work.

- Helping tend to her sickly mother in hospital, whom you had made speechless upon your first visit. She was delightfully thrilled upon finally being introduced to her daughter’s significant other, Kuina sharing to you afterwards that she hadn’t seen her mother smiling so brightly in a long time. You always present her mother with gifts upon each visit, whether it be flowers or a small cake. She’s become like your own mother, and so you help pay towards hospital bills as well.

- Comforting Kuina if she ever gets upset about her past (especially her relationship with her father) or her mother’s current poor health. You make her feel so valid; it leaves her a sobbing mess in your arms as you comfort her with soothing strokes and affectionate mumbles. Once her wailing has calmed, you offer to make her favourite - hot chocolate topped with cream.

- Constant sleepovers, which include wearing face masks, ordering takeout, watching some sappy romance before switching it over to an action movie and sipping on some cheap beer. The buzz of the alcohol always makes you more daring as you suggest showering together, and you’re never turned down by your equally audacious girlfriend. 

- Helping her overcome her nicotine addiction and being the initial person to suggest chewing on a dummy cigarette whenever she felt the urge to smoke. Her mother couldn’t thank you enough for getting her into this, expressing her hidden fear of having to watch Kuina smoke herself into ill health or worse, a premature grave. 

- In return, she looks out for your own well-being: reaching out to hold your hand before you both cross the street, showing up with lunch the next day at work if she thinks you haven’t been eating as much lately, keeping headache pills in her bag ever since you complained about a migraine that one time, keeping an extra umbrella in the break room just in case it rains later that day and you’ll need one.

- It’s never a dull moment dating Kuina, always planning fun and exciting dates like getting drunk in a private karaoke room only for it to lead to sloppy make outs. The one time she was so insistent on riding the kiddies train at the amusement park, only for the both of you to fall off once you reached the sharp bend in the tracks. It left you both a giggling mess, but the pain afterwards definitely made the whole situation regrettable. 

[jimlingss]

It's B from @bang-tan-bitches and I would like to request a yandere fic. It can be BTS OT7 x reader or BTS member of your choice x reader. Similar to your amazing isekai story i would like something similar(a long one shot or a multi-chapter, your choice). Whether YN transmigrates to a game or a novel (not as a villain but maybe as a cannon fodder side character that has little importance to the story and just wants to lay low) but YN captures the attention of the love interest(s) and shit starts getting weird, intense, uncomfortable. Maybe it causes the supposed female lead to turn into the villain, maybe it causes the love interest(s) to turn into the villain(s). Maybe YN realizes that something is wrong with the story/game but can't figure it out. Idk. Time period doesn't matter. Modern. Ancient. Fairytale. Fantasy. Whatever.

If you can do this great! If you can't or don't want to, that's okay too. You're an amazing writer with so much talent and I'm really appreciative of all your work. Thank you for taking requests from your fans, I'm sure you've received a lot.

Take care! 😘💜💜💜

at the start of the pandemic, I was getting back into manga and manhwa and then after a few months, I dawdled off but recently, I’ve been getting back into it again haha so this request came at a pretty good time. Hopefully you won’t mind that I’ve taken some creative liberties with this request lol I think it’s more fun if I keep readers on their toes, including the requester.

On another note, I really shouldn’t be writing all my isekai’s with Taehyung as the main lead but he’s just so fitting asdfghjkl

↳ The Fox Bride

2.6k || 99% Light Fluff, 1% Angst || Kim Taehyung || Isekai!AU, Slight Yandere!AU, Nine-Tailed Fox!Taehyung

You are a tutorial character.

But you weren’t always. You still remember being a career woman in the twenty-first century, struggling with overtime and paying bills while trying to keep yourself fed. The success of that ranged from month to month. But more importantly, you still remember that night too.

It was rainy. Your car blew a flat tire. You pulled to the side of the highway and got out.

The last thing that registered was the deafening honk of the semi-truck. 

Then you felt yourself flying upwards.

But when you landed, instead of colliding with the concrete and dying upon impact, you fell back onto your ass in the middle of a market on a dirt road. Transported back a thousand years ago.

Your purpose was fulfilled in the next two minutes. 

“Are you alright?”

The male protagonist had stretched out his hand and helped you up. The hero. The main character. It was obvious with his bright red hair, shining eyes and bronze armour. He was so starkly different from the rest who were gray and drab, including you who was suddenly in a brown shapeless dress. He was practically a neon billboard in the middle of a graveyard.

“Are you Y/N?”

You looked at him, befuddled that he knew your name. But before you could even respond or provide a line of dialogue, he said, “This is a delivery from Baker Jeon. He gives you his thanks.”

The protagonists handed you a loaf of bread. Undoubtedly his first ever quest. 

You looked down, not sure what to do with it.

“Do you know where the blacksmith is?”

You had absolutely no clue. But there was the deafening noise of hammering steel literally ten steps away. You would have to be blind not to see the gruff man shaping a sword at an anvil right on the road and deaf not to hear it. As if that wasn’t enough, the literal sign of the shop read: ‘the blacksmith’.

So you pointed.

“Thanks.” And he trudged off.

You were utterly confused until a background character who said they knew you waved you over. You shared your bread with her, brushed aside when she asked you what was wrong, and you followed her as she walked up to your supposed cottage.

All the while, you saw yourself in the background of the hero’s main quest as he ran through the town.

And that was that.

It wasn’t so hard to figure out where you were or what the hell this was when you put your mind to it. Without much of a job or a family, and no technology but the candle that you had to conserve when night fell, there was ample time.

So you spent it thinking and you eventually solved the mystery.

You were in Beast Boys Harem: A Forbidden Embrace. AKA. a dumb yaoi otome game app that you downloaded on your phone when you were sixteen and bored. You remember because you were too cheap to buy the routes, so you played the tutorial, prologue and read the summaries of the routes online. Now you regret that you didn’t just fork over the goddamn five dollars. 

Even more than that, you regret that you even downloaded the game in the first place.

But at least you’re just a tutorial character. You’re free from the storyline and the plot—

That’s what you thought.

Turns out living a thousand years in the past in a fantasy realm as a woman didn’t bode well. It was probably no different from how it would’ve been like in the medieval ages. You had no trade skills. No one was willing to accept you as an apprentice when you were a woman. You found that you were essentially illiterate with a reading level of a preschooler, no one was willing to teach you, and you had no power or wealth when you were without a father or a husband.

And you’re certain what the landlord and tax-collectors are doing is illegal.

But in this world, in this unjust realm, there is no such thing as the law.

“We know you’re in there!”

You jolt from the heavy pounding on the frail wooden door.

“It’s time to pay up!”

Your hands tremble as you set the candle down that’s still billowing of smoke, the flame smothered out mere seconds ago. As much as you want to hide and pull the blanket over your head, you know that door won’t last. They’ll find you if you’re trapped in here.

“If you can’t, spread those legs of yours!” a low voice spits and there’s chortling from the men.

Someone adds, “Sell your body already!” 

“Open up! Damn whore!”

Without a single possession but the white nightgown clad on your body, you open the latch of the back window. You cringe at the squeak, trying to keep your movements quiet before the door gives way.

You hoist yourself up onto the window ledge. The door bends with the strength of multiple clenched fists against it. Your feet touch the soft grass outside your cottage. The men shout.

And the door finally slams against the wall, hinges broken. 

But by then, you’ve slipped into the shadows.

“Where is she?!”

The blanket is ripped off the bed, curtains are whipped back, every drawer dumped onto the ground and cupboards yanked open. The floor shakes with the weight of their boots and you press your palm to your mouth to silence your panting breaths, slowly stepping away.

“That damn whore slipped through us—!”

But as your shitty luck would have it, a sudden crack has the whole world coming to a standstill.

Shit. You look down at your feet, realizing that the snapping noise came from you stepping on a twig. And it’s exposed your hiding place.

“There she is!” — “Out the back window!”

You grab fistfuls of your dress and bolt. 

“Get her!”

With your cottage on the edge of town, there’s nowhere to run but through the dense woods. It’s shrouded in the darkness, no doubt filled with wild beasts creeping through the thicket. The rustling canopy of the trees doesn’t allow the dim, waning moonlight to illuminate your path.

So you’re left blind. Struggling up the high incline of the forest, feet slipping on dirt and mud. But you keep sprinting with all your might, even when the pointed, coiling branches scrape at your calves until blood sheds and the hem of your dress tears in the underbrush.

“Run, little rabbit!” one of them mocks, “Run!”

The four men continue to give chase, gripping onto their roaring torches, shrieking and howling after you. One of them is manically laughing as if your efforts to flee only adds to the thrill. Their greased hands reach out to snatch you, but the tips of their fingers graze the ends of your hair.

Your teeth are sunk into the bottom of your lip, sobs breaking through your aching chest. Your lungs burn, dying for a break or moment of relief. But you don’t relent and luckily, you manage to build distance between you and the men. Only, that luck comes crashing down by a fucking hole.

A hole in the forest floor that you don’t see. That has your footing all wrong. That makes you scream and fall.

You twist your ankle in a direction it’s definitely not supposed to be in and cry from pain. 

A second later, you force yourself to get up and keep running with tears flooding your eyes and dripping down your cheeks. But it’s more like limping than running, akin to hobbling on one leg and every movement has pain shooting from your swelling ankle.

The effort becomes futile. They surround you within minutes.

“All finished?” The tax-collector’s head cocks with a spreading grin. “You’re not going to keep running?”

Why couldn’t you just fucking die the first time?! Even if it was an awful death where you didn’t have time to prepare yourself or say goodbye to anyone, at least it would’ve been the end. At least you wouldn’t have to suffer.

But there’s no time to grieve. Or hate the new life you’ve been given. This is it. You have to keep going. You have to survive. By any means. You’re about to pick up a branch and uselessly wave it around at them, shout at them to stand back. Anything that you could do to save yourself—

“Who dares come onto my mountain?!”

There’s a deep timbre behind you. A husky voice that quivers the very core of the forest.

As if the wind has swept through, the trees and thicket rustle and it goes silent.

The men fall back onto their asses, some torches clattering to the ground. Their eyes have grown double in size, nearly falling from their sockets and their jaws have dropped to the dirt.

“I-It’s the nine-tailed fox!”

The man scrambles back.

“Demon!” 

Another barely manages to get onto his feet. He turns around and lurches away while shrieking.

They all run. Scattering away as frantically as cockroaches when the light is flickered on.

From your spot on the ground, you turn around with wide eyes. 

Amber irises meet your gawking and they practically glow in the darkness of the forest. He is dressed in a loose, white robe that’s draped over his frame, open to the middle of his chest. And over his honey hair, on the top of his head, his pointed golden ears twitch. By the torch fire still yet to die out, he is illuminated and his shadow is casted on the ground. The blazing flame warms his cold, sharp features. 

He is the most beautiful person you’ve ever seen. In both worlds you’ve lived in.

And you know who he is.

Taehyung. One of the love interests of the hero. A seductive, sly creature that eventually coaxes the hero into selling him his soul to grant one of his wishes. But Taehyung grows to become an obsessed character that wants to do nothing but monopolize and possess the hero for himself.

That same Taehyung approaches you with his lip curled as you teeter to your feet.

“Run away, girl.” He leans close. “Before I eat you.”

“Stop!” 

On sheer instinct and adrenaline, you push him back. Your palm shoves against his firm chest.

Taehyung stumbles back with his eyes becoming rounded. He looks down to where you had made contact against his body. “Did...you just touch me?”

“What?”

Taehyung’s head darts upwards and he captures your wrist in his hand, squeezing tightly. He tugs you in and on your swollen ankle, you stumble into him. Bodies flush against one another. Your face pressed to his warm chest. His arm coming around your waist to break your fall.

He is aghast. 

“You’re not from this world.” Taehyung’s yellow eyes swirl as they gaze into you. “Where did you come from?”

…

It’s been three days.

“Wed me,” he begs for the seventy sixth time. 

You don’t know why you’re keeping a count.

“No.”

You’re hugging your knees for warmth. The rice paper-paneled doors are slid open and letting in the chilly air. He doesn’t seem to be affected by the cold, but you don’t look at him for long. 

You turn into the corner of his home while sitting on the tatami floors as if you’re putting yourself into time out. But you’d like to say it’s your privacy corner. It’s as private as this abode, which was basically one room, could get. 

Taehyung sighs in frustration, placing his hand on his forehead. His teeth grit. “You’re only making this harder for yourself.” Your silence angers him more. “You can never leave.”

You turn over your shoulder to glare. “Even if I married you, you’d never let me leave anyway.”

Taehyung narrows his eyes on you and then smirks. “You’re right. Wed or unwed, I won’t let you out of my sight. You should feel grateful, girl. You’re the best human I’ve ever treated.”

You quietly scoff.

Maybe you should feel scared. Maybe you should tread more lightly. After all, he’s not a character to be trifled with.

But you know he needs you. That alone gives you power. 

As a beast, Taehyung’s been trapped on this mountain by priests for centuries. The only way he can be free is by feeding off of sexual energy and breaking the barrier. But of course, they also cursed him to be unable to touch any woman in this universe. 

You aren’t from this universe.

You jolt when you realize that while you were lost in thought, Taehyung’s crawled closer. He has a foxy smile, amber eyes searching your expression. “Maybe….maybe I’ll grant you a bit of freedom if you would just give into the temptation and let me have a taste of you.”

As cold as he looks, he is beautiful. He is mischievous when he smirks and sly when he speaks. You are utterly spellbound as you look into his irises. And the temptation he speaks of flickers in the warmth of your belly.

But you turn away.

“I already said we only do that kind of thing after marriage. And I will only marry someone I love.”

Taehyung draws back with an unamused scoff. “What a prudish world you’re from.”

He wanted you the moment you were brought to this house. With the intensity of his stare and your captivated state, you had let him pin you to his floor and you liked it. But then clarity came and you blurted that such an act only happens after marriage. A lie just to buy time.

You didn’t expect for the hero to arrive at Taehyung’s house the next day. With his red hair and bronze armour, he had gotten lost in the forest and knocked on the door. Before you could limp over and answer it, Taehyung jumped off the roof and confronted him.

The guy was thrown off the mountain within five minutes.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. They were supposed to have a steamy rendezvous. Taehyung was supposed to get the sexual energy from him! 

The story was going off the rails. And you’re not sure what you’re even buying time for anymore.

The both of you know it’s only a matter of time before you break and succumb to his mesmerizing seduction.

Taehyung is cruel, ruthless, obsessive.

But what’s the most bewitching thing about him is the jarring contrast of when he’s clumsy and nurturing. It’s what he regards as his own weakness. What he hides from others. But you felt your heart waver two nights ago when you were shaken awake in the middle of twilight. When you peeked open your eye to see him gingerly wrapping your swollen ankle with bandages.

He looked beautiful in the pale moonlight, ears, tails, sharp features softened—

“Ow!” You wince as he squeezes your ankle, right on your injury.

“You think too much in your head,” he says and looks at you. “What’s wrong?”

“It hurts.”

A sadistic smile tugs on Taehyung’s lips. He lets go, but only to lift your chin with his fingers. His plush lips are inches away, his breath warm on your skin and he gazes deep into you. “I won’t let you return to your world. I won’t let you run away. I won’t let anyone harm you.”

“You’re mine now.” Taehyung swears, “You’ll fall in love with me eventually.”

You gulp and he smirks.

The two of you know it’s only a matter of time.

[ink-flavored]

I would LOVE a photoshop tutorial for maps please 😭

-@bloodlessheirbyjacques

@bloodlessheirbyjacques

Sure thing! I love sharing this tutorial, it's absolutely incredible.

It's actually a series of PDFs that I found on the Cartographers' Guild forum back when I was... probably in 8th grade or something. I've used them ever sense!

Depending on how detailed you want the map to be, you can use all five, but I've only ever used the first three. It gets across what I need to get across, and once you get used to the process, you can be done with the basic shape in less than an hour and spend the rest of your time making the topographical features!

One thing though, do mess around with how you want to make rivers and lakes. The way it's outlined in the tutorial itself is very confusing and I've done it several different ways that all worked much better in my experience. Who knows, maybe the instructions will be fine for you, but tbh just fuckin around with the settings however I wanted until I found something easier helped way more.

There's also a million free map brushes for Photoshop out there that you can download. I won't link all mine here because there's like 20 of them, but not having to make all the little mountains and trees yourself (like it outlines in the tutorial) is very useful, and a lot less time consuming.

Happy map making!

[zhanyes]

My random pure fluffy headcannons on Zhanyi dating because I have no self-control and I love them too much

- Jian yi doesn't know they're dating, he just thinks Zhengxi is being really friendly and nice ever since finding out about his feelings

- Zhengxi thinks they've been dating ever since Jian yi confessed

- Queue teenage confusion and oblivious one-sided pining from Jian Yi

- Zhanyi going to a cafe together: 

Jian yi: "Ah this is so nice, Zhanxixi, it kinda looks like we're on a date. Not that I'm saying that we are of course!" 

Zhengxi, holding his hand and wiping a crumb on Jian yi's face: "What do you mean? Do you not like it here? We can go somewhere else."

- Zhanyi in a store:

Jian yi: "That scarf looks so cozy, right Zhanxixi? I bet it's expensive af."

Zhengxi: *already heading to the counter to buy it* “It is.”

- Zhengxi thinks Jian yi is just being shy about the whole relationship thing so he doesn't mind taking everything slowly. Jian yi's not shy, he's just clueless.

- Zhengxi flirting ranges from 'Did you eat yet?' to ‘I could eat you instead.' depending on his mood

- They text and call a LOT. It doesn't even matter who does it first but as soon as they're out of each other's range they would instantly text the other on instinct

- They're both spammers. When Jian yi doesn't answer in 5 minutes Zhengxi grows fussy and blows up his phone with multiple texts of "where are you? Why aren't you answering? Jian yi. Hey, answer. HEY. I'm gonna call you." Jian yi just sends multiple text under any context that's just the way he is normally

- They both fall asleep in class because they stayed up all night video calling and neither of them wants to be the one to end the call

- Sometimes Jian Yi falls asleep while video calling and Zhengxi just stares at him fondly through the screen, takes a screenshot and sets it as his wallpaper.  Zhengxi rarely falls asleep on calls so when he does Jian yi treats it as a blessing (and takes hundred of screenshots)

- They have a discord channel with He Tian and Mo Guanshan and they like to chill in the music spam with the music bot. He Tian joins sometimes but ultimately leaves them alone when Mo Guanshan isn't joining (I’m gonna make headcannons for the boys in a discord channel)

- They have a shared Spotify playlist and it's just songs that they think the other would like or relate to. Zhengxi keeps putting love songs and Jian yi keeps putting sad one-sided best friend songs in it. They're both very confused but they like the songs anyway

- Their classmates are confused because they asked them separately if they're dating and Jian Yi said no while Zhengxi said yes

- He Tian and Mo Guanshan knows what's happening and they like to laugh at them from the sidelines

He Tian to Jian Yi: "Do you think friends who kiss their friend, who confessed their long-time crush on said friend, stay as best friends?"

Jian Yi: "That's a lot of friends in one sentence. I get it, okay? I'm just friends with Zhanxixi, no need to rub it in my face."

He Tian to Zhengxi: "Your boyfriend's an idiot."

Zhengxi: "Yeah, but at least he's my idiot."

- Zhengxi likes to take Jian yi on dates. Like a LOT of dates. He's the type to have a folder dedicated for nice date places with good atmosphere and scenery because he knows Jian yi likes pretty things

- He also likes to braid Jian yi's hair because he likes how soft and smooth it is. Jian yi just thinks it's cute that he knows how to braid

Jian yi: "How'd you learn how to braid, Xixi?"

Zhengxi: *Flashbacks of a hundred saved braiding style tutorials in YouTube and practicing on his sister's hair* "It's natural."

- Zhengxi brought Jian yi to introduce him to his parents as his boyfriend and his parents just thinks they've been dating all this time

- They're very, very, supportive. They already saved marriage catalogs and readied their speeches for the two

- Jian yi finds it weird that Zhengxi introduced him to his parents considering they grew up together and he knew his parents like the back of his hand

- Zhengxi asks when he can meet Jian yi's mom and Jian yi thought he developed a thing for her and moped

- Zhengxi is confused™ why Jian Yi is moping but thinks it's because his mom is absent again and he misses her

- Zhengxi makes it his personal mission to cheer his boyfriend up and takes him out on a date in the arcade

- Zhengxi wins the two of them matching stuff toys (an Eevee and a Pikachu) and lets him win at all the shooting games

- Jian Yi uses all his tokens on the skee ball and every other game that isn't used by most of the people there, he got a lot of tickets though

- He uses it to get the sticker packs and two keychains of a ramen and a sushi. He gives the ramen keychain and a heart sticker to Zhengxi

- Zhengxi thinks it's adorable and clips the keychain on his bag and does the same for Jian yi's keychain. Now they have matching charms on their backpacks

- Later at home, Zhengxi sticks the heart sticker on his bedside lamp and just looks at it all the time with a fond smile

- Zhengxi gives him a gift every 1st of April and Jian yi thinks it’s an april fool’s gift but it’s actually their monthsary that day

Jian yi, thinking they’re not dating anyway so it’s a good prank: “I’m breaking up with you.”

Zhengxi, tearing up: “What the fuck?”

- Jian yi finds out more than six months later on a game of ‘Never Have I Ever’ with friends

Random friend: “Never have I ever had a boyfriend”

Jian yi: *puts a finger down*

Zhengxi: “Were you serious about breaking up with me?”

Jian yi: “What?”

Zhengxi: “What?”

- Then they talk and finally they’re on the same wavelength as everyone was forced to watch them act all lovey-dovey

- Tianshan are happy for them but Mo guanshan is pissed because he lost the bet on when they’ll figure it out

[warwickroyals]

EDITING BOOTCAMP: WARWICKROYALS EDITING PROCESS

So, about five hundred years ago (or somewhere in that ballpark), an anon kindly asked me to share my editing process. It's been a long time coming because I've recently stopped using Pixlr (a free online photo editing program) and have moved on to 2020 Photoshop. I really recommend using Photoshop, it might be confusing or overwhelming at first, but I think it's worth it and ultimately it cuts your editing time in half once you get the hang of things. However, you can still use this tutorial if you're using GIMP, PIXLR, or whatever else. So, let's get into it (YUH)!

STEP 1 | ASPECT RATIO & SIZING

Alrighty, so what we have here is what I call a "raw screenshot." After playing around with multiple versions of ReShade and countless presets, I have come to the conclusion that I hate it. It makes my game slower, switching between filters is a pain and they just get in the way. But this is just my opinion, there are some very pretty ReShade filters out there, I just don't think they're necessary for a pretty screenshot.

When I load up my screenshots they are almost totally vanilla. I do use Luumia's NoGlo and NoBlu mods, but that's about it. I do not resize my screenshots at all, they are 1600x900 by default. However, one of the first things I do is add an aspect ratio (those two black bars you see at the top and bottom of the image) to give it a more "cinematic" feel.

I do this by adding a background layer and resizing the width from 900 to 1020. With the untouched screenshot in the centre, there should be two bars above and beneath it that are 60 px wide. I then colour the background layer black with the paint bucket tool. BOOM. Aspect ratio. Technically my edited posts are 1600x1020 when edited, but the screenshot remains 1600x900.

STEP 2 | PSD/PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS

The next step is for me to add my PSD. Think of it as your own personalized filter that changes how your screenshots will look. What your PSD does to your images is really just based on personal taste. For me, I love a rich screenshot with lots of contrast and strong blacks and more dramatic shadows. So, that's what my PSD does!

Your own PSD might look totally different for you. Maybe you what a lot of brightness, with warmer undertones, and lots of bloom. It's totally up to you! I recommend you play around with Photoshop's setting until you find an aesthetic that suits your own taste.

You can also download some Sims 4 PSDs and Photoshop actions from other creators. I really recommend those from @/intravertt here on Tumblr. They make ReShade presets, PSDs, and have a variety of other resources that are stunning.

Here's what my PSD looks like.

STEP 3 | SHADOWS AND HIGHLIGHTS, BRIGHTNESS, AND SHARPNESS

After adding my PSD I do some further edits to change how my screenshot looks. Because the shadows are so overwhelming, I add some highlights and might tweak with the exposure just to make sure nothing is too dark/under-exposed. I sometimes draw in some light shadows, but this is quite time-consuming so I don't most of the time. I also add a bit of sharpness to make certain details stick out some more. If the screenshot is taken outside, I will add some vibrance just to regain some warmth and make it look like my characters are in the sun.

Like PSD what you chose to edit, and how, it 100% up to you and what you what to achieve from your screenshots. I again recommend playing around with different settings to find something that works for you.

STEP 4 | ADDING TEXT

I recommend a text size of at least 35 pt. My texts are also bolded, outlined, and have a drop shadow, just so that it's easier to read for some people. Text tends to blend into the background and it's super annoying, so those elements help a lot. I also recommend using a sans serif font (ironic, I know, but I'm using a serif font exclusively for this arc for a reason, I swear). Also, make sure that the spacing is all good so the text isn't jumbled or crammed together. If your posts are word-y like mine (lol) you might feel the need to lower the spacing, just don't go crazy with it.

My text is centre justified. I write the name of the character who is speaking only once before their first line [LIKE THIS]. I start a new paragraph each time a new character starts speaking. To tell characters apart I assign different colours to each character, based on the order they are speaking in. The first character to speak is white, the second is yellow, the third is blue, etc. I recommend having some colour variation between characters' dialogue. Even if you have the name of who is speaking before each line, text of the same colour blends together easily.

Fun fact, I also often don't close off my paragraphs with a period or any punctuation (unless it's an exclamation point). Screw grammar, I just prefer it that way.

Here are some of the fonts I recommend, both serif and sans-serif:

Arial

Garamond

Century gothic

Book Antiqua

Josefin Sans

Perpetua Titling MT (this is the font I use in my banner)

Alte Haas Grotesk (My main sans serif font)

Can you tell I'm a author?

My loser ass legit has a list of favourite fonts

STEP 5 | BLUR/OVERLAYS/FINISHING TOUCHES

Adding blur to my posts is something I've just started doing at I don't know why. It's a great way to focus on certain objects/people and put things into perspective! It doesn't have to be a lot, but it does wonders. I just use a brush tool to go over the areas I want blurred. However, there are other faster ways to do this for sure such as cutting out and blurring the area you want out of focus separately.

If there are any clipping issues, like skin poking through clothing, I will go in with a tiny brush tool and paint over the skin with the same colour as the clothing's fabric. Sim's joints always look strange and jagged when bent (like the skin clips around a sim's bent elbow or leg, so annoying) so I'll often go in with the smudge tool with very little strength/hardness in order to remove that

Sometimes my posts have lens flares or little dust particles. These are just simple overlays I add with a layer mask + reduced opacity. You can find overlays like that easily online and maybe I'll make a post about how exactly I use them but we're DONE 'N' DUSTED for now. I hope this tutorial is useful for someone. This was fun! I'm totally down to do more in the future.

[sugdenlovesdingle]

A little something to go with Jenny’s @scrapyardboyfriends awesome pride art (and any excuse to drag Andrea) because who needs sleep anyway?

---

“Emmerdale Pride?” Robert asked, looking at the flyer Andrea had excitedly shoved into his hand.

“Yes! The very first pride event in this village.” she told him. “We’ll drag this place into the 21st century yet!”

“I didn’t realise it needed to...” Robert trailed off and shared a look with Aaron.

“Well... June is Pride month. It’s an opportunity to show the LGBTQ+ community we support them!”

“We?” Aaron asked.

“The village.”

“The LGBTQ+ community... Right. So that’s us and Liv, Matty, and Ethan... did I miss anyone?”

“Well there is Charity I suppose.” Robert said with a shrug. “Though I’ve never heard her say anything about her sexuality... And Mack flirts with everything with a pulse...”

“I reckon the pulse is optional.” Aaron joked and they both laughed.

“So will you come? To our Pride event?” Andrea asked, trying to get them to focus on her and her event.

“Don’t you work for Take a Vow? Wedding planning?” Robert asked.

“Yes... we do gay weddings too, you know.”

Robert rolled his eyes and held up his hand, showing her his wedding ring.

“We’re good in that department.“

“You can still come to pride though! To celebrate your marriage. It’s open for everyone. We posted it online too and a lot of people were interested.”

“People from other places coming to this little village for pride? Why?” Aaron asked, confused.

“Because... it’s fun. We’ve got a drag show, a pride march, music, there is something for everyone. You two should come. Bring the kids, it really is for everyone.”

“We’ll think about it.” Robert half promised her and stuffed the flyer in the shopping bag he was holding. “Now if you don’t mind, we have to go pick up our kids from Diane’s.

“Of course.” Andrea stepped aside. “Have a nice day!”

Later that day, after they’d put the kids to bed, Aaron brought up the event again, reading over the flyer as he was about to throw it out.

“You know... it might be fun... this pride thing.”

Robert put a hand to his forehead.

“Are you serious? Who are you and what have you done with my husband?”

Aaron rolled his eyes at him.

“Shut up. We were already talking about going to pride in Leeds... this could be a fun... warm up.”

“Two parties in one summer? Now I know you were abducted by aliens.”

“I’m just saying... We could actually take the kids to this one. Seb will like all of the colours and stuff. It could be fun... She did say it was family friendly.” Aaron pointed out. “And if it gets too much, we’ll be back home in no time.”

“Yeah... yeah, you’re right... it would be fun I suppose.” Robert admitted after taking a moment to think things through.

“Of course I’m right, I’m always right. You should know that by now.” Aaron teased and kissed him.

After they’d decided to go to Emmerdale pride, Robert dove head first into the preparations. He’d watched tutorials by vloggers half his age, and with a little help from Diane, he managed to sew the bisexual flag colours to the sleeves of one of his shirts, and even surprised Aaron with a shirt with a rainbow flag printed on it, that he was sure didn’t come from a store.

“And I also got us these.” He held up two pairs of cheap sunglasses with their pride flags painted on the arms.

“How did you do this?” Aaron asked, running his fingers over the colours.

“It’s nail varnish. I did it at the salon when Bernice was having some kind of breakdown over Liam. She didn’t notice.” Robert said with a grin. “Do you like it?”

“Yeah, sure, they’re great... but we have sunglasses... the ones we bought before our holiday last year?”

“Yeah, but these are for pride.”

The day of the event, the village was buzzing and it was a lot busier than either of them had thought it would be. it was a fun kind of busy though and everyone seemed to be in a good mood. Including Eric Pollard.

Seb loved every minute of it. Aaron had put him on his shoulders so he had a better view of everything and the boy was mesmerised by the drag show.

After a while he was getting restless and when he saw the playground had been turned into some bubble blowing paradise, he only wanted to join the fun and didn’t care about the rest of the event anymore.

“I’ll stay with him.” Vic offered. “Harry wants to play with the bubbles too anyway. We’ll be fine, you two go enjoy yourselves.”

After making sure Vic really didn’t mind, the two of them made their way over to the market stalls set up outside the village hall. There were some stalls selling clothes and one selling make up and hair dye that Aaron dragged Robert away from before he’d be painting pride colours in his hair.

They ended up at a stall selling jewellery. Lots of different pride flag pins and other accessories and one bracelet that caught Aaron’s eye. A simple leather strap with coloured beads on it in every pride flag imaginable.

“Look, these are nice.” He pointed the bracelets out to Robert who had been looking at rings.

“They are.” Robert agreed. “you could wear it at work and everything.”

“Some couples use them as wedding bands. For people who want something other than a ring.” The stall owner told them.

“Well we already have the rings.” Aaron said, holding up his hand. “But can I take a closer look at those bracelets please?”

In the end they ended up both getting a bracelet and as Aaron secured Robert’s around his wrist, after the other man had put his on for him, the stall owner mentioned they were doing wedding photo shoots outside of Take a Vow.

"We should do a photoshoot.” Robert said excitedly as they made their way over to the improvised photo studio. “We can recreate our wedding photo.”

Aaron wasn’t particularly interested in that but Robert’s excitement was infectious so he went along with it.

“And we can pick our own background?” Robert asked a few minutes later as they were talking to the photographer.

“Yep. I can edit it on the computer to make it seem like you’re on top of the Eiffel tower, in a meadow, in a gondola in Venice, anything you want.”

“The Eiffel tower?” Aaron asked Robert, pulling a face that said he wasn’t exactly thrilled at the idea.

“Or I have these art works by local artists that I can use.” The photographer said and showed them some works.

“Oh... this one is kind of perfect.” Robert turned to Aaron who had to agree. “Can we use this one?”

“Sure. You two stand over there in front of the wall and strike any pose you like, while I get everything ready on this end.”

They took their places and Robert put his hands on Aaron’s hips while Aaron’s own hands came to rest on Robert’s waist.

“Happy pride mister Sugden-Dingle.” Robert whispered before leaning in and kissing Aaron.

A few days later, when Aaron got home from work, he did a double take when he walked into the house. Next to their wedding picture, there was a large framed print of the picture they’d taken at pride.

The two of them in front of a heart, with one half painted in the colours of the bisexual pride flag, and the other half the gay pride one, and Emmerdale pride 2021 written on the bottom in fancy lettering.

He smiled and made his way into the kitchen where Robert was making their tea.

“Do you like it?” he asked. “I know it’s a bit theme park roller coaster photo with the words at the bottom but...”

“It’s great. I love it.” Aaron assured him. “And I love you. Happy belated pride mister Sugden-Dingle.”

[franeridart]

Anon said: Would you draw SukuFushi? (Sukuna x Fushiguro)

maybe? *thinking face* if I ever got an idea for it, why not. I find sukuna’s obsession with fushiguro entertaining so I don’t count fanarts for it as impossible haha

Anon said: I looked and I couldn't find if you've answered this already, so apologies if you did, but how do you draw your faces? I always struggle with face shape and yours are always super good with really expressive features! Anyway, thanks so much I love your art <3

HMMMMMMMM how do I do that indeed, the basics are honestly what you’d find on any basic tutorial about drawing a face (circle, cross in the middle of it, build the face around that - I really still can’t avoid that step and probably never will). As for the expressions, to be honest with you my way of going about them is thinking them up in emoji/kaomoji form first and then go from there. Emojis and kaomojis have to simplify expressions to the max since it’s such a simple format, right? But they’re still super expressive and convey exactly what they’re trying to say with one single glance, so using them as some kind of reference sheet has helped me a lot in figuring out what’s essential to express what I’m trying to say - still working on it though! I’m rarely satisfied with my expressions, they really do make or break a drawing don’t they............ you never stop learning, I guess!

Anon said:  Ahhhhhhh I just spent like hrs scrolling thru ur oc tag and they’re all amazing I love them so much but I keep confusing the everloving SHIT out of myself cuz I too have a child who is Leo and he’s literally so different from ur Leo lol. Anyway tho ur art is amazing and it honestly just makes me so happy so ty and hope have a good day!!

OHHHHHHHHHHHH MY LEO! It’d been forever since I’ve last drawn him, I kind of miss him............... glad you like my stuff, by the way! Especially about you liking my ocs, that means the world to me!

Anon said: hi there !!! i was wondering if i had ur permission to ur ur itafushi art in one of my edits ! i wanted to be sure before using it <3 total respect if its a no !! thankyouuuu

Sorry but I’d prefer if you didn’t do that!

Anon said:THERES A OCTOPATH TRAVELER LIGHT NOVEL AND ITS SO COOL BUT ITS ONLY IN JAPANEESE ! ;^;There's four stories with centered around pairs of characters and alfion is one of them !Idk if itll be transleted but i hope itll be cuz it sound awesome

OH I KNOW!!!!!!! I saw the art for the alfion one a while back, it looks so soft!!!! ;;;;; 8path is kinda niche as a game though, so who knows.............. let’s cross our fingers!!

Anon said:  hello, i am here to recc Skeletons by New Years Day because i think it might fit a few of your ships<3

Thanks anon now I’m emo ;;;;;

Anon said: bakubro gives the best hugs. kirishima is the only one who knows this. everyone is absolutely incredulous when the question "who gives the best hugs" goes around and kirishima answers bakugo. (bakugo thinks kirishima is the best but he benefits from kirishima bodily hugging him and he's biased)

Definitely!! He’s strong and warm after all, bet hugging him would feel the best.... the only one who shall ever know is kiri though, as I bet his hugs are only that nice when he really likes the person he’s hugging hahaha

Anon said: Hi! Just wanted to say that I absolutely love your JJK art! The colors and style are absolutely stunning.

Thank you so much!!!!!!! I feel like I’m mostly drawing for myself lately ngl hahaha so knowing you like it means a lot!!

Anon said: Hi!! This isn't a request I just really like your art! I found you from Pinterest on a kiribaku thing you drew! Your art is so cool! I wish I could draw like that!!! I'll keep looking for new art you've made :D

Aw pinterest.......................... glad you could find your way back here though!! And thank you!!

Anon said: This happened a while ago, but i wanted to say it anyway. I remember when I started watching jujutsu kaisen and I was looking for content arter finishing the first 10 episodes in less than a day and I found your first jujutsu kaisen post (it was posted that dame day) and i was like ???? One of my favorite artists got into jk at the same time than me!!! I just thought it was a neat coincedence to share! I really love your art too, you're amazing!! Happy New Year!!

It’s!!!!!!!!!!!! a pretty dang neat coincidence for me too, since it’s always nice to know at least some of my followers are still into the stuff I make hahahaha

Anon said: i think a lot abt ur art and how ive been seeing u since middle school and now im graduating highschool and we're still in the same fandoms, i hope this doesnt make u feel old but rather VERY cherished qwq

No anon this makes me feel amazing you’ve been around so long!!!!!!! I can’t believe you’re still here with my thank you so much for that!!!!!! I think I’m gonna cry a little here.......... ;;;

Anon said: Hi! I love your art so much!! 🥰 Have you read a KiriBaku fic called The Pit??

Probably not, haven’t been reading krbk fics in a while by now! I’ll add it to my for-later list, thank you so much for the rec!!

Anon said: can u believe that (sans sero) the entire bakusquad can be put into some form of punk/goth fashion? the realization was a galaxy brain moment for me. also realizing that tokoyami, kirishima, and tamaki are all varying levels of goth/emo (some more concerning than others)

Sero’s the hippie friend every punk friend group needs, he balances things out and that’s why he’s very cherished and necessary!!!!

Anon said: your bakugo drawings convinced me to finally start stretching my ears and tbh i'm extremely excited (i've had off and on thoughts of stretching my ears (again) before this so it's not as impulsive as it sounds haha)

Anon that’s so cool!!!!!!! I love gauges so much.....................glad I could give you the last push for it!!

Anon said: uhhhh, i love the style of that top left goge drawing dude!!

THANK YOU I LOVE DRAWING IN THAT STYLE THIS ASK MEANS THE UNIVERSE TO ME

Anon said: i sent the dragon!kiri and bakugo tug-of-waring over a piece of meat and honestly your response is exactly what i thought

Great minds!!!!!!! hahaha

[wisteria-lodge]

lion primary + badger secondary (bird model)

ie A HOUSE MATCH !!

Hellooo, I’m sorry for bothering you but I’ve found this blog and I absolutely love your character analysis and overall thought about the SHC system, and I could use some help?

I’ve known the system for a while now, since the old SHC tumblr times, and while understanding my current primary situation has been quite easy, I’m having A LOT of trouble with my secondary and it’s becoming a bit of a issue for me because the more I think about it, the more confused I become, to the point where it’s upsetting me a bit.

First thing first, my Primary is a very “standard” Lion, the whole “you feel if something is right or not and if you do something that’s not right to you you feel bad/ill/it’s wrong” is extremely me. I had some doubts about a Badger model, but I think it’s just that my personal ideals and values align a lot with a Badger worldview, since I grew in a very Badger society and family (very leftist, a lot of emphasis on equality and valuing and creating communities). Reading various description/interpretations of primary Lion always feels right, while reading primary Badger always makes me think “yeah, this is all good and nice, BUT…” so this was quite easy to sort out (no pun intended).

Are you me? So far... I could have written this. It’s possible I *might* be biased going forward. 

When it comes to secondaries, I see a lot of myself in Bird descriptions: I make spreadsheets for everything.

 Pretty Bird.

I am a crafter with an apparently endless supply of books and tutorials and supplies ready, and the enthusiasm to share them. 

That sounds more Badger. 

I am the mom friend 

Badger.

who always has what’s needed in their bag. 

Bird.

I am that one person you can count on knowing a funny or interesting anecdote about almost any topic, from the mundane to the truly obscure. Learning new things, about any topic, is literally one of my biggest pleasures in life. 

Bird [model?] Whichever one isn’t your secondary is a model you clearly love.

I take pride in all these things, but I honestly have trouble understanding if I like using them as tools because they help me with my ADHD and so I received a very strong positive enforcement using them and I kept the ones I like, or if I started doing them because they are what I like doing and coincidentally they help me managing my symptoms or better navigate the world in my day to day life.

Could be either, but modeling Bird because you’re neurodivergent is very much a thing.

Also, while I love planning, when it comes to making decisions I tend to gather all information and summarize it in a way that makes sense to me so I can visualize the issue in my mind as complete and detailed as possible, but the final decision tends to feel a bit… impulsive, to me?, there’s always A LOT of gut feeling involved, and when I don’t follow it usually it ends up being a wrong or subpar decision. I do need to gather all the available information about the issue/situation/item/people, but rather than making my decision by comparison, I use the information to make sure that I’m “seeing” the truth (or as close to it as it is possible) and then once I feel safe that I’m not overlooking anything important I just KNOW what is the correct decision.

That’s a Lion primary making a call. 

Could this simply be a very strong primary interfering with the decision-making, even when it’s not about ideals but more mundane things?

Decision making is always a primary thing. Mundane stuff included. Mundane stuff is important. 

On the other hand, I am an extremely hard working person (I am changing jobs right now because I feel like my old bosses are making more and more difficult for me to just do my job properly and without needing to cut corners, and it just feels wrong to me). 

Oh good lord. I am ready to sort you as a Badger secondary solely on the basis of THAT. 

People tell me I’m a very good listener and that I am especially good at helping others unravel their thoughts when they’re all confused and tangled because I ask the right questions. I seem to gain other people’s trust easily and often I get told gossip or secrets before others. 

Badger. Also DAMN but that’s relatable. I think you might house-match me. 

I got told several times by previous bosses that I should look into becoming a team leader because people like me and I make them get along better. 

Sounds like a Lion/Badger combo. 

People get attached to me very quickly and when I have problems the stream of folks asking if they can help or just checking in is always way more than I expect.

Isn’t it weird how that happens? 

This all sounds like Badger stuff, from the descriptions I read, but many of them are not things I actively enjoy doing, I just.. do them because it would be weird to do otherwise? Or it feels like they happen to me with no effort on my part.

Because they’re just you. It’s just who you are. 

I think they might be simply a result of me growing up in a society that values hard work and being kind to others, or just me being a likeable person

Not everyone finds this easy. Not even close. I have read so many testimonials written by people in Badger secondary households killing themselves trying to fit into this model. Wanting isn’t enough. Having examples around you isn’t enough. 

or maybe coping mechanisms I had to learn in order to “pass” as neurotypical but as I wrote the more think and read about Birds and Badgers and their differences, the more I get confused and frustrated.

Now I know I’m projecting, but all my neurotypical coping mechanisms come out of the Bird secondary toolbox. 

But it would make sense since I burned out badly in my teens from trying to always try to be perfect for my family, my friends, my teachers, society 

That sounds like a young Badger secondary, more than a young Bird secondary.

and when I finally found who I really wanted to be I resolved to never let anyone define what or how I should be ever again (hello there, Lion primary!)

I hear that. 

After a lifetime of beating myself up for not living up to the absurdly high expectations I set up for myself, I have decided that the only way to stay sane for me is to do the groundwork, be as prepared as I can

Bird

 put in the work I should

Badger

 but once I’m in the thick of it just… ride the wave. And now I got to the point where I have the confidence that I am smart enough to learn the basics of a new skill on the fly, if needed.

To me, this is so fundamentally, so spiritually Badger secondary. You don’t have tools. You are a tool. You made yourself into one. And that moment where you can just trust yourself to catch the world, absorb it into yourself, and become whatever it needs you to be... it’s ecstasy. 

I’d say that lack of time is my worst enemy, but due/thanks to the ADHD that’s not true most of the time, since lack of time is what enables me to get past the executive dysfunction in the first place, so I’ll say I have a love-hate relationship with it. Doing things just before a deadline is it’s own kind of high, after all (I’m not saying it’s healthy).

At the base of your soul, you’re not really a Bird prepper/planner. 

A practical example: I usually don’t like platforming games much, but I am LOVING Immortals: Fenyx Rising because in most situations, there is a “best” way to do things but you can also get creative by using different skills, using specific items, finding loopholes, or a combination of all of them.

Sounds like a Bird secondary having fun. [a fun model?]

When I fail a level/combat I don’t get frustrated because I know that I just have to try a few more times until I find the solution that feels right FOR ME, even if it’s not the most efficient ones. And when I do it feels great, even if I look a at guide afterwards and there’s a waaay easier solution! I usually feel a bit silly for not “seeing it” but also think something like “well, I think MY way is more fun!”

Oh yeah, a Bird secondary would not have that reaction. That is the sacred Badger consistency of method. How you do something matters equally as much as the final product. 

When I cook, I usually find a recipe I like and try it as written, then I make small adjustments to improve it, see how it turns out, and so on until I have a recipe that is MY recipe, one I really like and that I know well enough to use as a basis to be changed if needed, knowing exactly how the change will affect the end result. I think this is why I prefer baking to other kinds of cooking, since it’s much more akin to chemistry I feel like I have more control over what a change will do. 

On it’s own this could be a description of rapid-fire Bird. And you clearly have Bird, you have a lot of it. You love it. 

So I guess that what really matters to me is being able to do things my way so that I can enjoy the process and live up to my standards instead of external ones? 

But then you say something like this... it’s about the process... it’s about the method... it’s about something coming up to your own personal standards. And that’s so Badger. 

This ended up being very lengthy… I’ve tried shortening it but English isn’t my first language and I was afraid I might come across not clearly. 

Your English is perfect, and insanely clear. You’re clearer than I am. 

Thank you again for the blog, I especially like your DS9 characters’ analysis and I am low-key hoping for more :)

I’m particularly proud of those ones. I’d love to do more, but before that I would have to go back and re-watch the show, or at least key character episodes. I’m not going to sort from memory. That would be doing a show I love, and a number of extremely complex characters a disservice. And it wouldn’t be nearly as fun. 

(it’s that whole Badger integrity-of-method thing, you know how it goes.) 

[bericas]

your gifs are SO PRETTY, did you say you use gradient maps for the colored ones lately? how do you make them look that good, what settings do you use?? can you share?

hi!! thank you sm much for the compliment and also your patience because this was sent in a month ago! i wasn't really sure how to explain this, so i mostly just kind of rambled about the difference between certain settings i use and that kind of thing, so i hope this was helpful!! if you have any follow ups, you can send another ask and i'll do my best to answer those as well!

okay so, the two settings i use most often for color overlays are color and hue. there are other ones that work, but things like color burn can vary way more gif to gif in my experience, so you would have to do a lot more editing to keep them consistent throughout the set. i’ve been using color fills more often than gradient maps recently, but i’m gonna show you the difference on them using the first gif from this set.

to explain color fills really fast, because this is actually something that i was confused about for a while: the setting is called solid color, but the layer is called color fill. i was embarrassingly very lost for a while because tutorials always mentioned color fills and i could never find that setting, but the setting is solid color!

so this is the setting i used, it’s color fill set to color, and this is what i usually prefer! 

this is a color fill, but set to hue. it’s a little more washed out, and if you use it over faces they can kind of make them look gray? which i don’t usually prefer, but i did use it in this set and i really liked the look it gave it! so definitely don’t be afraid to play with this, but generally i don’t prefer hue over color.

this is the same color but with a gradient set from pink to white. instead of color or hue, i left it on normal. as you can see, it’s lighter and it has a different kind of finish to it, more of a visible layer over the gif instead of something that blends in, and this can be a nice look! i think it used to be more of a popular setting, but i haven’t seen it very much recently (as far as i can tell!), and i don’t use it often myself. i did use it in this set, though, mostly because i made the last gif first and i really liked how it looked. i don’t love how it looks on the other gifs, tbh, but i... really really liked it on the last gif.

these next two are the gradient set to color and hue respectively! they don’t look much different from the color fills, so it doesn’t always matter which you use, but sometimes it can be harder to get the right color when you use gradients, because instead of just being the color, it’s that color and white? if that makes sense? i don’t really know how to explain this tbh i’ve really just been learning as i go (for example, this is the first set on this account, because i didn’t know how to do anything more complicated) but i generally just prefer color fills!

before we move on: i just also wanted to show you that sometimes i’ll use  selective color before i add a fill or a gradient. i mostly do this when gifs have too much motion, like above where i couldn’t get too close with scott or lydia with the color fill, but i will also sometimes do this when i think the color sticks out too much underneath or if i think it interferes with the vibe of the set. 

for example, the boydia set i linked above with the gradient over it looked funny with the other elements not pink, so i made them as pink as i could! sometimes you cannot figure this out (ie--in that same set, the board is still green in the first gif) and i really think that’s okay! it’s just a nice little touch if you can.

another example of using selective color underneath a color fill or gradient is this set. i don’t remember exactly which gifs i did it and which i didn’t, but i know that in the third gif i made the vault as yellow as i could (i got it to green) so that it looked less awkward where the color fill ended. i also made boyd’s shirt red instead of blue in the fourth gif and i think i did a similar thing in the fifth and sixth as well.

if you change the colors too much, this can also make them look grainy! so this can definitely be something to use sparingly. and also, if you can’t figure it out, or it looks grainy, or whatever else, that’s okay! i don’t think it’s that necessary tbh. but it is something i do, so i thought i would share!

all of that said, those are my preferences for those kinds of gifs, where the color is only on the background. then there are also gifs where part of it is black and white and part of it is a color, in which case i prefer gradient maps!

i have a few ways of doing this, which i’ll explain below.

first! there’s this set. for this one, i used a black to white gradient over erica, and a black to purple gradient over tracy, both set to normal. i colored the gifs individually to get them looking similar and then i just added a curves layer over everything to brighten it up a bit because it was looking a little dark.

here’s the same gif but with the gradients set to color. the difference is really more noticeable in tracy’s gif, but you can see that some of the contrast is taken out of erica’s, and also that they look pretty different from each other now.

here’s the same gif but with both of them set to hue. with black and white, color and hue don’t make too huge of a difference, but with the purple, it adds a lot more white to tracy’s gif, and makes them look even more different, and i also... just don’t like what it does to tracy’s in general.

for reference, this is the same gif with color fills set to color and hue respectively! the one with hue doesn’t look too bad, and would probably even be workable with some editing, but it also looks way grainier. why? i really could not tell you! but it does!

this is another example where i did the same kind of style, from this set! theo had just a plain black and white gradient over it, which i left to normal, but i had the one over scott and kira set to hue! as you can see, it makes scott and kira look kind of gray, which makes it look more cohesive with theo’s layer imo. this is also an example where i kind of put the same layers over everything, with just some little alterations over each gif to make sure they looked the same.

sometimes the hue later is more washed out than you want, also, so you could also put a vibrance layer over it to make it look more like how you want to, but i didn’t have to do that with this set.

this is the same gif from above, but with theo’s gradient also set to hue (which, again, could’ve easily been color, because it doesn’t make a huge difference with black and white) and i actually had not thought about that and it looks a lot better so i wish i had! but such is life! what can you do

this is the same gif, but with both of the gradients set to normal. as you can see, scott and kira’s looks funny!!  this is because there are... a ton of brightness layers over it, basically. also, kira’s half was a little dimmer for some reason, so i had an extra layer of brightness with scott’s half erased, which is why you cannot see her at all. but anyway! that is a bit of an issue with this style, which is that each gradient has to only apply to the gif you want it to, and if you don’t individually color each gif, it applies to the gradient. this effect is less severe, though, when it’s set to hue.

this is the same gif with the gradient set to color, which has the same kind of issue as above, though they are both at least visible.

with the right settings, though, the color setting can look really good! color definitely has its merits, you just have to be more careful with the layers you have above it. i don’t still have the psd for this, but an example of this is this set! as you can see, this is kind of a combination of the above styles. there are three gifs here, one black and white, one blue, and one with no gradient or fill over it. 

for the blue gif, i don’t remember if i used a gradient map or a fill, but i definitely had it set to color. you can tell because it has a more vibrant look overall.

also, for the record, with the plain gif, i did try to make it as blue as possible using selective color, so that it looked as cohesive as it could.

and this is generally how i’ve been making gifs recently! 

another tip i would give before we wrap up is to try to determine the vibe of your set, because that’ll help you figure out how intense or prominent you want the color to be. like in the above examples, i knew that i wanted the erica and tracy set to be intense, and i knew that i wanted the kira/scott/theo set to be more toned down. a lot of this is just experimentation and finding what works tbh!

again, i hope this helped, and please feel free to ask if you have any more questions!

[lit-in-thy-heart]

you know what, what's the point of being on this platform if you don't get to bellow into the void about your interests in the hope of finding someone with the same interest?

in light of this, let me inflict a lowdown of the victorian literature (mostly novels because poetry is difficult to collate) that i've read for my module this year upon my mutuals

i'll do a separate one for vampire novels and reblog with the link

because what are the victorians without vampires? straight

bleak house (dickens): what a ride that was! yes, it was nearly a thousand pages and, yes, some chapters i was like can we move on please, but that's dickens for you. honestly, i loved it. if you're looking for thinly-veiled lesbianism, this is the book for you (esda all the way, if they even have a ship name). unfortunately i already knew one of the plot twists due to watching dickensian five years before, but there are plenty more to go around! if you can get through the first chapter describing nothing but fog and the law courts, you're in for one hell of a treat -- just don't google anything about it until you've finished because you will get spoiled (or don't share a house with me, where i'll tell you the entire plot as i'm reading it). definitely recommend, but marking it down for the heteronormativity with allan. (9.5/10)

villette (c. brontë): where to fucking start. i, quite frankly, do not care for charlotte brontë, and when reading the earlier novel agnes grey by anne, i could see some more things that charlotte has filched for this travesty. no victorian novel is going to be without problems, but this one was xenophobic, ableist and, of course, racist. the protagonist doesn't really give anything away, which is meant to make her more mysterious, but it just renders her an empty vessel. oh, and she tells you stuff that she's figured out waaaaaay after she says she's figured it out, a bit like she's allowing you to feel smart for making a connection before going 'oh yeah i knew that like twelve chapters ago, keep up'. some of the passages are really striking and there's maybe one character who's likeable but that's about it. i'd say it's more a story of omission than repression tbh. (4/10)

janet's repentance (eliot): wait, have i even finished this? no, no, i have not. it's fine, i wasn't going to tell you the ending anyway. i did get hooked eventually, there were just a LOT of names thrown around in the first few chapters, and a word that i didn't know was used frequently (turns out it was a name for the followers of this guy). i did get strong hester prynne/arthur dimmesdale vibes from some of the main characters, but janet is a very sympathetic character which, after reading villette, was nice. slightly depressing in some places, but a good enough read if you're not cramming it in the day before your tutorial, because it is mildly dense. (7/10)

the wonderful adventures of mrs seacole in many lands (seacole): not what i'd been expecting to read on my module, what with it being a biography, but enjoyable nonetheless. horrible histories lied to me, though, she was in her 40s/50s when she treated people in the crimean war, not in her 20s, but that's minor. it was actually quite funny??? like she was very reluctant to give away to give away her age and almost slipped up a couple of times, and also made some very biting remarks about people who were passing comment on her skin colour. for a biography, it wasn't hugely biographical, in that she was married for what seemed all of five minutes before her husband died, when in fact they were married for several years, but if you want an in-depth depiction of war, this is for you. not what i'd usually read, but some of the descriptions are so vivid that it does read like a novel in places, though sometimes the descriptions were so detailed that i did tune out at odd intervals. (9/10)

the happy prince and other stories (wilde): if you're feeling low, don't read these. don't. especially not 'the nightingale and the rose', because that was honestly heartbreaking. really well-written, some passages were just beautiful, i just wasn't in the right headspace to fully appreciate it. it also has a lot of death, i should probably explicitly say that. (8/10)

agnes grey (a. brontë): chef's kiss, honestly. if i'd read this last year then i think it definitely would have hit a lot harder, what with agnes moving away from home for the first time and struggling with loneliness around people who she is different from. beautifully written, i'm irritated at myself for not reading it sooner, even though i've owned a copy for about four years or so. agnes does come across as a bit wet sometimes, but those moments are rare and far between, she's overall a resilient character who is trying to make her own way in the world. seeing as i managed to get through the whole thing and didn't lose focus on what i was reading, i rate it higher than jane eyre (which is a rip-off of this anyway). we stan anne. though i am marking it down for the underdeveloped romantic relationship that just pops up (9.5/10)

now for some old classics that weren't taught on my module, but i can't not mention them

a tale of two cities (dickens): this was my first dickens book and oh my word what a book. yeah, okay, lucie is a bit of a wet dishcloth and has basically no personality, but there is definitely something there between her and her maid. sydney is my baby and oh so gorgeously dramatic ("you have kindled me, heap of ashes that i am, into fire"), which was perfect for the pangs of unrequited love. the plot is slightly confusing, and you don't really understand everything until right near the end, but i loved finding parallels in the chapters set in france with the chapters set in britain. oh and the showdown between miss pross and madame defarge is wonderful. i had a tradition of reading it on the run-up to christmas, just because that was the period when i read it for the first time, but i haven't done that for the past two years just because of exams and stuff. now, bleak house just pips it at the post, but i still love it dearly. (9/10)

wuthering heights (e. brontë): i couldn't review victorian literature and not include this. there are very strong similarities between this and villette (seems charlotte really drew on her sisters' work), particularly in terms of me not liking a single one of the characters except hareton. everyone is called cathy. literally. and heathcliff/cathy one is a toxic ship that should not be boarded. it is obsession, not love. the second volume is basically a repeat of the first one, thus showing that humanity will never move past its vices and will be caught in a vicious cycle of self-destruction for the rest of time. again, though, beautifully and vividly written. the characters are the type that you love to hate. (8/10)

the tenant of wildfell hall (a. brontë): what. a. book. this was a book that was simultaneously loved and condemned as scandalous when it came out. there's mystery, there's a woman escaping a horrible situation and making her own living, and there's a well-developed relationship! and the characters are likeable (i love rose, she's great, completely goes off at her brother when she has to do things for him all the time), which always puts it onto a winner. there's one chapter with gilbert that i have to skip just because i hate what he does in it. there are quite a lot of religious references, with redemption playing a huge part in the novel, but even the religious views brontë expresses went against a lot of the teachings of the anglican church at the time. do i even need to say that it's beautifully written if it's anne? marking it down for gilbert's behaviour and arguable control of helen's narrative. (9.5/10)

far from the madding crowd (hardy): i love this book. a little more uplifting than tess but still with the drama and murder you'd expect from hardy. maybe my review is influenced by my tiny crush on bathsheba: she's not the best role model but damn what a woman. gabriel isn't quite bae but i love him all the same, i'm so glad he's happy in the end. (9/10)

[purity-town]

Little late getting to these -- that's fully the fault of a class project I spent all of Monday/Tuesday and most of Wednesday working on -- but I finished my project and wrote up some long replies to these!

(Apologies for any funny formatting -- I'm trying out the beta for the new post editor!)

Absolutely not.

Nope! There are a few people who do know (other guides Andrew's met before, the Dryad, and I'd imagine the Witch Doctor knows something's up even if he doesn't know why), but none of them live in Purity Town proper, and the Dryad and Witch Doctor aren't the kind to participate in rumors or spread what isn't theirs to share. The old man is also aware just because he and Andrew have talked about their curses, but he's 1) not currently in town and 2) not going to share even if he were.

Most folks don't know much about Andrew in general; Becca probably knows the most out of the townsfolk, knowing a little bit about his family and where he's from (he has some pretty specific skills as a hunter that betray this, but he doesn't talk about his exact town of birth), but no specifics and certainly not time periods.

Andrew is good at keeping things quiet; he has to be.

I would actually appreciate if you didn't post to Pinterest -- usually I'm fine with people reposting with credit (several of the things I've posted to my DeviantArt have found their way to Instagram, for example) but Pinterest has something of a reputation for stolen art (things being reposted from another Pinterest post without credit this time, or credit being hard to view for users not logged in or just viewing through Google). So reposting elsewhere is fine (though if you repost to Reddit or Instagram, tag me at u/Ariibees or @Ariibees)! I'd just prefer my works stay off of Pinterest.

The terminology related to The Guide/Andrew/The Guardian/The World’s Core/The WoF is all confusing because on some level, they’re all the same being. Kind of like trying to talk about Jekyll and Hyde -- same guy, different looks/actions, haha.

For all intents and purposes, references to the WoF being the barrier/core/whatever behind or within which the spirits of light and dark are contained is equivalent to saying “these spirits are held trapped by the magic of the Guardian, who when summoned appears as the WoF.” I do break slightly from the official lore in how the WoF/Guardian/thing holding back these spirits works (mostly because I don’t really like the idea that the Hallow is a “temporary guardian” or whatever), but the basic concept of “these are trapped by [thing that makes up the WoF]” remains unchanged.

If “loony cultist” is a reference to something, I’m so sorry, but I’m lost on it. If you’re just talking about the lunatic cultist in a funny way, then yes, they’re in here as a very plot-significant character!

I had to google what meme you were talking about, but it did make me laugh.

Andrew’s most annoyed by the nickname because people do like to call him Guide, and for someone who’s dedicated his whole life to his role, it can get tiring. He doesn’t really *mind* being called Guide -- it’s fine, that’s what he is and as long as people are respectful of his job he’ll take what he can get -- but at the same time, he’d like for people to stop thinking “Aah! Monster!” or “Weird academic know-it-all” and just...treat him like a normal person sometimes. So he fights to be called Andrew. And...Malik comes along and gives him a nickname that he doesn’t like and doesn’t allow others to use, save for maybe a small group of people of which Malik is not a part. So, not cool, man!

People love to overcomplicate explaining shading/lighting, and if you wanted to you could certainly go on and on about reflections of light off the ground and shading colors and all sorts of things, but as I’m writing this at 1 AM I don’t really care to.

If you really want to get into shading, I see nice ones on DeviantArt or Tumblr from time to time, or you can always watch a YouTube video on it. Really, though, just keep at it, think about how the shadows should look and work, and you'll get better at it eventually and pick up new ideas on how it all works. (And this is coming from someone who is new to making comics and actually started as a painter.)

Purity Town’s shading comes down to this: simplicity. As much as I’d love to spend hours and hours redrawing the panels I don’t like and carefully shading every fold of fabric and painting detailed backgrounds, I’m a full-time college student and will be working full-time over the summer -- I don’t have the time. So, I cut corners: I reuse backgrounds or use brushes (see: bricks, trees, clouds) that make certain details easier, and I try not to obsess too much over panels I’m not fully happy with. Shadows go where they feel right, and light on the opposite side.

For shading, this comes down to making things quick and easy. For these last few pages, character shading/lighting has only been five layers. One hard light layer for the bluer soft shadows, one overlay layer for darker soft shadows, one linear burn layer for hard shadows, one soft light layer for soft lighting, and one overlay layer for hard lighting. I’ll often also make use of glow dodge layers for lighting, or change the color balance or add more hard/soft light layers if there’s a very heavy color filter on the scene (such as a celestial event, blood moon, or outdoors at night).

Using all the different layer types is essentially a cheat code to fancier lighting -- don’t want to use flat black? Boom, hard light or overlay or burn will give you colored shadows. Want to make your light brighter? Glow dodge will make it burn your retinas.

Sorry that this isn’t a very comprehensive guide, but in my mind, shading and lighting is really something that you pick up over time and it’s hard to sit down and write a guide for it without making it into a massive essay on art theory that I don't even know proper terminology for because I'm not an art student. Of course with some googling you’ll find *proper* guides for this sort of thing from art majors and the likes, and those can be super helpful and technical! But for Purity Town, I just sort of go with what feels right and what's easy to replicate.

Firstly, I’m happy to hear you’re liking the comic!

Secondly, those buttons are actually there due to the theme! (For those on mobile who can’t see it, I have the theme set to only display on desktop as I prefer the current mobile layout on phone.) I’m using the simple webcomic theme (a quick Google should tell you how to install it for yourself) -- except I’m not actually using it for the webcomic features; rather, it’s a case of “this is the most simple, nice-looking non-default theme I could find.”

The previous/next buttons are added by the theme with the intent that the blog is being used as a typical webcomic website, with nothing but comic pages being posted. However, I post asks and other art here too, and I do so with the intent that people looking at #Terraria or their dashboards in general will see it. So...I use html formatting to make the first/previous/next/last links, along with an index and chapter-by-chapter viewing (using /tagged/chapter##/chrono) so that no matter where you’re coming from, you can still navigate just the pages!

If you want to add just the previous/next buttons, I can’t really help you -- web development is not my area of study in the slightest. But you can check out the theme that they come from and if you want to install only them, you can surely find a tutorial on it somewhere!

(As a side note, the comments section is not from the theme, it’s from a site called Disqus. I don’t expect many people, if anyone, to leave comments, but since I link back to this site a lot and many folks don’t have Tumblr accounts, it’s an option I like to make available.)

Hiya! My hike was pretty nice; it was a short and easy one, but that was quite appreciated as the trail is unmaintained from November to April, and the trail was covered in fallen trees and quite rocky. Still had fun, though!

And for backgrounds, it depends! For indoors scenes (or outdoors scenes with buildings) I don’t tend to use references, outside of looking up things like “which side of a door is the handle on.” I will, however, integrate real-life textures (see: the quilt and rug in Guide’s house, the wood walls on the building in the background of this week’s page), and paint over paintings from the Terraria wiki.

For outdoors scenes, for simple backgrounds (such as foliage-heavy) ones, I typically don’t need references. I like the difference between detailed, lined indoor/man-made object scenes vs. painted, messy outdoor scenes. But for things like mountains, I do sometimes look up references to help with color choices and the likes.

The town’s layout is a bit strange in that depending on the scene, the background could be drastically different. One side of town faces more mountainside, one side faces the orchards/open hillside, and the other two sides face various degrees of open space and more mountainside/forest. References taken on top of mountains are helpful to get an idea of what degree of foliage I should include between the characters and the sky.

Though this is very specific to the town of Purity -- other towns/villages will have significantly different-looking backgrounds, even the foliage-heavy ones.

That said, what's even more helpful than looking at photos is looking at paintings. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron is really good for getting an idea of how to draw grasslands and distant mountains, plus Studio Ghibli movies in general!