#i plan on drawing a lot more of them and possibly developing some kind of plotline <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[edenwiththewings]

Slightly inspired by an animatic I saw on YouTube, song lyrics from Who Are You Really by Mikky Ekko

First tsp drawing post ???? Im gonna draw some other people in the fandoms' narrators bc I've been stalking around for a while :)

My narrator is named Fable !!! He's silly goofy <33

Here are some other drawings I did of them

[erosastro]

Astro observations 💜✨

💜 Scorpio placements are the types to dish but can’t take. So they’ll be telling you some ish and expect you to take it lightly and laugh but if you do it back to them, they be mad and defensive af😭 and I’ve seen this with so many Scorpio placements it’s insane.

💜Speaking of Scorpio placements, they can be shit talkers too, especially if they have Gemini and Sagittarius placements. Gemini and Sagittarius kind of have that reputation, esp geminis but y’all have no idea how conniving scorpios can be, especially if they feel like they’ve been done wrong/things don’t work out the way they wanted it to.

💜Promise this isn’t a Scorpio roast lol I’ve just been noticing some patterns especially with the whole drake and Kendrick thing 💀

💜the sign you have in your seventh house is who you’ll be naturally drawn to, to some extent your fifth house too (you’d be attracted to them). For example, if you have Pisces seventh house, you’d be attracted to Pisces placements. If you have Capricorn fifth house, you’d be attracted to Capricorn placements. It could also work for the planets in that house. So if you have Sun in seventh in Pisces you could also like Leo placements.

💜Your best friend(s) could either have one or more of your big three in their big three too. For example if you have an Aquarius moon, your best friend could have an Aquarius Sun or Rising. It could even be the exact same placement, so if you have a Virgo moon, your best friend could also have a Virgo moon.

💜Aquarius, Aries and Pisces placements are most likely to experiment with their hair and try wild styles/colours.

💜Saturn in 8th house could mean a delay in intimacy, especially sexual intimacy. It could also indicate a fear of death/losing someone close to them.

💜Chiron in third house can show a difficulty in early learning phases and issues with siblings.

💜Lilith and Pluto in first house come across as very intimidating (they are).

💜Aries and Sagittarius mercuries are some of the most blunt people I’ve ever met.

💜Let me love some Scorpios a bit because I feel like I’ve done y’all dirty I’m sorry 😭🫶🏽 Scorpios are very protective over their friends. If you mess with someone close to them, you mess with them too.

💜Libra, Aquarius and Leo placements like to take random pictures of everything. Their camera roll is probably filled with sunset pics then a random pic of a fire hydrant.

💜I’m still learning about solar return charts but it’s definitely true what they say about a ninth house stellium. You could plan a trip and travel during that year and also consider furthering your education, especially tertiary education. I’ve already planned a trip and am going to do my honours lol.

💜Gemini and Virgo placements love reading. They’re fr proper bookworms. Ruled by mercury, it’s not surprising that they do.

💜Honestly, Sagittarius placements are some of the most optimistic and happiest people I’ve met. (Yes even mercuries). They’re always looking at the brighter side of things and are more of a “glass half full” type of person. I don’t think I’ve ever met a pessimistic Sagittarius placement person.

💜Ruler of the fourth house in the ninth in your solar return could indicate moving away/out of your house and possibly abroad.

💜I’m sorry but Leo placements cannot take a hint 😭 especially if they’re rejected in some way, they’ll still try their luck and flirt with someone even after they’ve rejected them.

💜Venus in 11th have a lot of their friends that develop a crush on them. They’re alluring and unique and it draws a lot of their friends in.

💜Aquarius, Pisces and Cancer placements LOVE the beach. They feel the best when they’re in the ocean.

💜Right then after a lot of debate, the signs that can really hold a grudge are Cancer placements, Scorpio placements and Libras(yes Libras!! Especially Mars, they’ll be hella passive aggressive).

💜Don’t piss off Aquarius placements. They may be sweet but if you ever piss one off, they’ll act like you don’t exist. Especially Aquarius Moon and Mars.

thank you for reading!

[indigochromatic]

Some Basic Advice About EMDR for Systems

(drawing on our own experiences, reading about it, and comparing notes with our therapist)

This is mainly aimed at systems who are considering doing EMDR or planning on it, but want to know what the process is like and what to look out for, with some personal experiences sprinkled in.

Under the cut, because I talk a lot:

General Concept

I think the big picture in our experience is that EMDR is/was like…an intensifier for the kind of headspace/internal system interaction processing work that a lot of systems do naturally, at least a little, especially if they have decent internal communication. This has both upsides and downsides/areas to be cautious about.

A lot of EMDR pre-work (often called “resourcing”) is about making sure you have a good toolbox of “mental tricks/techniques” to be able to handle unexpected intense emotions, feelings, and/or imagery etc that often comes up when you get into trying to work with traumatic stuff. This is in my opinion very important, and something your therapist should take at least a few sessions to talk with you about even if you already have good tools for it already, just to make sure they know your strategies and you’re all on the same page. Also super common and normal to spend some time developing extra ones if needed—stuff like “the box” for temporarily containing crisis emotions when needed, having a mental “safe space” that you can come back to, etc. Also, EMDR specifically tends to often be a little rigid/scripted in the types of visualizations and metaphors you’re “supposed” to use, but in my opinion a good therapist should be flexible enough to adapt to equivalent images/techniques you may already have (like, “imagine you’re viewing the traumatic memory on a movie screen, or out the window of a train going through a tunnel” is a common instruction; if, say, your headspace has a lot of fantasy elements and it makes more internal sense to be viewing the memory via…scrying in a dish or something, your therapist should be down with you doing that instead, if you want to).

As for the sessions themselves, a big thing we don’t hear articulated a lot is that, in our experience  and that of some other folks we know, EMDR has a tendency of being…like, sneakily intense: It doesn’t necessarily hit you all at once in the session, which may just feel like “ok, that was Some Therapy Work but I’m chill”, but then over the rest of the day and maybe even the next few days, it’s not uncommon to keep feeling a lot of emotional intensity/vulnerability, having more intense “internal conversations and/or realizations”, etc. For this reason, EMDR is generally supposed to start with a very mild memory-to-process, like 4-5 out of 10 max.

Notes of Caution and Stuff to Keep In Mind

Especially for folks who already heavily dissociate from emotional trauma, it’s super easy to think you’re “going too easy” only to find that the memory has a lot more emotional baggage than you realized—really go easy on yourself when you start, EMDR is like psychology power tools and you absolutely can hurt yourself. (We’ve heard from plenty of systems who had bad therapists who did not adequately support them in doing EMDR, and absolutely fucked them over by starting too big and retraumatizing the hell out of them— this isn’t meant as fear-mongering, especially if you really like and trust your therapist, but just genuine “hey, EMDR can be very volatile stuff, which is part of why it can be so helpful, but also means that it’s important to not skip out on the safety precautions and self-care”.) What this means in practice is often stuff like: (our recommendations at least) - trying to schedule breaks/easy days immediately after - possibly getting someone to drive you home, especially if you know you’re going after a Big Thing, because the dissociation hangover immediately after can be pretty real - start with a memory that feels "too easy", and scale up if a week later it still felt trivial/like you’re fully over it, because it’s way easier to ramp up than try to do damage control.

Our personal experience, in tl:dr form, was that it felt like the core of the technique was really useful for us, and mirrored some of the most useful instances of self-processing we’d had before while also kind of serving as a “shortcut” to it—but, it was pretty intense and we didn’t really like/fit well with the therapists who we were working with at the time, which is why we stopped (didn’t want to keep doing an emotionally intense thing with folks we didn’t trust).

Finally, a bit about EMDR and "maybe I'm plural but I'm not sure, and/or may not have great in-system communication": yeah, this is a case to be especially slow and careful, for all the aforementioned reasons; what my instinct/recommendation would be in those cases is to: 1) make sure you learn a lot of resourcing techniques 2) try to check in with yourself(s) frequently and with compassion/intent-to-collaborate, "ask the inside of your head how it's feeling" and even if you're not sure whether the "reply" was just your own thoughts or a headmate, listen and try to engage with/respect those responses and emotions 3) if you start getting warning signs/back-off signals/sudden intense feelings, listen to them and lighten up, pause the session if you need to, do some self care etc, even (especially) if you don't know why you felt that way and it seems 'odd/random', and really you're super curious about what's going on and just want to figure it out. Like...you and the inside of your head and/or other system members are trying to navigate a complicated D&D maze together, in the dark, and you each only have part of the map--so you have to work together and trust each other, especially listening to warning signals even when your "part of the map" doesn't show anything to worry about there. And the more you work together and trust each other, the better everything gets, including therapy work.

When it's "Death By A Thousand Papercuts"-type Trauma Instead

If you're not sure where to start because there aren't a lot of obvious "Big Bad Memories" that feel like they adequately explain the issues you're having, some recommendations:

-> First, note that "no Big Bad Memories are immediately coming to mind, idk" is super common in systems and also in CPTSD, way more than I think most folks realize, so know that you're not alone and also that it doesn't mean you don't necessarily have stuff deserving of help and support.

-> So yeah, there's kinda two things imo you can try. The first is, if your therapist is on the more flexible side, you can try doing EMDR with either "this specific memory wasn't too bad, but it's representative of an ongoing pattern or theme that wasn't great" (say, loneliness at school or something, and you pick a specific lunchtime memory, which wasn't really That Bad in the moment, but you were kinda sad and/or upset about it and it feels representative of the overall trend you're trying to process/heal). Or you can try just doing the EMDR process on the theme itself, at the abstract level, and see what comes up--again, I'd really recommend starting with a much lower-stakes issue/theme than you think you need, just because it's really easy to underestimate, especially for systems and other folks whose brains dissociate a lot. (And especially if you know your system has episodic amnesia--e.g. event-amnesia/blackout amnesia--as well as emotional amnesia.)

The second is, there are other "more flexible" types of similar somatic therapy techniques (brainspotting is the name of another one, and there's more I can't think of rn) that might fit better instead-- tldr, totally worth asking your therapist about the whole situation, and asking what they'd feel most qualified for/comfortable with, in my opinion. You don't need to be doing Specifically Exactly EMDR to do somatic trauma therapy, even though EMDR is one of the more well-known modalities for it, and finding a version that feels right and not like you're forcing anything is really valuable (and you're not 'being picky' if it takes a while to find one; you're allowed to want to find one that feels right).

[oranjeleeuw]

hows the pacific rim au going ???? its such a neat idea and i need ppl to draw concept art for it

DO I HAVE NEWS FOR YOU MY FRIEND

First of all, life happened and happened for good, I couldn't write much before but Now. NOW is the time.

I planned and plotted a lot during the whole year I first came up with the idea and I have a kind of strong base for the AU. I also have a brilliant beta by my side, my dear friend Frog (@faramircaptainofgender), so hopefully during this summer this idea will be shared with you all outside our little friend group.

I'll take this opportunity and shamelessly turn my answer into a main post for the AU.

 ╔════════════════╗

the title:

Human within the Machine

[brief synopsis]

The Nations of the world developed a simulation where future Jaeger pilots can practice for in-action cases. Max Verstappen outshines every other contestants in the history of drifting, there's only one problem - he's no team player.

Charles Leclerc is determined to stop the Kaijus and end their reign, once and for all. He lost his parents due to kaiju attacks, now he feels responsible not only to avenge their deaths, but to bring a brighter future to his brothers.

Jaeger engineering is living its golden age, there is money in it and many enthusiastic contestants who are not entirely aware of the horror that awaits them out at the ocean.

[disclaimer]

There’s no main plot (as in: I am not planning on detailed world-building neither to save the world from kaijus, I am smaller than that), the endgame is to get Max into an active combat where he drifts with Charles and they’re in the Il Predestinato (the legendary Jaeger that has been out of service for a decade, waiting for the right co-pilots). Everything before and in between are just themes I desire to explore within the possibilities of this AU.

 ╔════════════════╗

I have a playlist that helps me to stay inspired, songs are not in order yet though, but as I said earlier, chapters are meant to be kind-of standalone scenes, existing in their own moods and settings.

Each chapter will have its own chosen background music linked to them. I also added many symphonic songs just to get in the mood for some combat scenes.

 ╔════════════════╗

[good to know]

Roles: In the case of HwtM we have active and passive characters in this story. Due to the fact that many scenes are set in drift-memories, where not everything is factual and we are in the mix of memories and feelings, some characters will only appear and speak through these moments. Therefore they fall into the passive category - they are the legends. I will talk about them in their own post but the gist of it is what I wrote above, they cannot speak for themselves so we will only see them through tilted lenses: idolised, villanised, or the mix of both.

Which also means another thing - everyone is an unreliable narrator.

Teams and Jaegers: Since this is the golden age of Jaeger engineering, we will have many-many Jaegers. So far I named only a few, but to stay true to the source material, I'm trying to make them just as cheesy yet compelling as the ones were in the movies. The constructor teams from real life are not so different from what they represent in HwtM, but I altered some of their names to fit more into the world (older names or older sounding names of some teams since the future that Pacific Rim has is basically our present. I was aiming for some retro-vibe).

Here, they are different detachments under the Pan Pacific Defense Corps, in the Jaeger Academy division. I’m planning on working with Merc, Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and of course Redbull.

Mercedes is called Benz

Ferrari is called Alfa Romeo

Red Bull is Toro Rosso

The other two stay under the same name.

Ships to look out for: it is a Lestappen-centered story (if I am really honest with you, it’s Max-centered first of all) but on the side-lines we will look into some depths of Carlando, Galex and Maxiel in…some way. Please-please keep in mind, that these won’t be fully developed romantic relationships in the fic, I’m reporting from the minds and souls of these boys, objectively perceived scenes between them will be rare and much more comrade-like.

 ╔════════════════╗

That is all I planned to share for starters. Feel free to ask about the process or anything really, that is related to this project, it’s my beloved child and can’t wait to share it all with others!

[karenandhenwilson]

Let's talk about Tommy and Buck.

I would have wished, of course, for Buck to have his first date with a man to go more smoothly. But we already knew from the promo to expect some drama. And I have to say at least for once it wasn't over-the-top drama that might ruin any characters as it happened several times in the past.

I suffered a lot of secondhand embarrassment the first time watching the date because of Buck's nervousness and his helpless stammering before and also when Eddie showed up. I clasped my hands over my ears and flinched when Eddie eventually interrupted the date and Buck started blurting out this nonsense about going on to pick up women.

The thing is, as much of a knee-jerk reaction that was, it was also so very believable, and at a guess, I'd say there are many bisexual people out there who did have a very similar knee-jerk reaction at one point or another while figuring themselves out. I know I had such a moment.

In the conversation before Eddie shows up, we learn that Buck hasn't even really come out to himself yet. He is on a date with a man and keeps calling himself an ally. It needs, in fact, his sister to call him that he is not just an ally, for him to get it. 

The basketball game was on a Thursday, and I think we can assume from the way Tommy worded his question after the kiss that the date was Saturday two days later. From everything Buck does and says in 7x05 he really hasn't even started yet to work through any kind of realization about himself.

We also shouldn't forget that it wasn't only Eddie interrupting the date. There was also Marsol who I suspect is as much a stranger to Buck as she is to us. So he doesn't know who he is himself yet and suddenly sees himself in this situation of possibly having to explain himself not only to his best friend but also as a virtual stranger.

Of course, there was no reason to explain anything. But that's not what that kind of situation feels like. I think many of us queer people (and not only the bisexual people!) know exactly what kind of situation that is like when we feel for whatever reason that we have to explain ourselves for something as simple as who we are attracted to or not attracted to. It's an uncomfortable and intimidating situation.

So, I really believe that Buck's reaction here is one of the most true and honest things we have ever seen on the show. As uncomfortable as the secondhand embarrassment is, I think it's such an important scene to have to have out there.

Then there is Tommy's reaction to it. Tommy, who has been so very gentle and careful and understanding of Buck. Who shared with Buck a little bit about his own self-discovery, how he didn't dare to live freely for a long time. Who remained calm and gentle despite Buck's faux pas.

I think, if Buck hadn't blurted out this line about how they were planning to pick up some women later in the evening, Tommy would have been completely fine with whatever was said to Eddie and Marisol. I think he made it clear during the coffee date that he is completely okay with giving Buck whatever time he needs to figure himself out. That he is okay with them dating being kept on the down low, but that he draws the line as being a dirty secret Buck feels ashamed of.

And that is a line he has every right to draw. It doesn't take away anything from the support and gentleness he offered Buck. It doesn't diminish that at all. I think it's another very honest reaction, too, no matter how much any viewer might hurt for Buck when Tommy declares the date over and tells Buck he thinks Buck might not be ready.

Could he have communicated about it in a better way? Sure. But that's the expected TV drama.

I also think, for the character development of Buck, it was so very important that the ball was in Buck's corner after Tommy had led the whole of their interactions from the moment he came over to Buck's apartment until the moment he ended the date. Because this way, Buck had to show not only Tommy but also the audience that he isn't just there for the emotional discovery he is taken on, but that he is willing and ready to dive into it head first on his own accord no matter how confused he is.

The ball was in Buck's corner and he decided (after a little push from Eddie) that he sees something that's worth exploring in his relationship with Tommy. Something that's worth taking a risk for (even if he might have overshot by inviting Tommy to the wedding, but that's once more TV drama and just the next big thing happening on the show.)

I'm super happy with the storyline we got and I can only thank everyone, especially Tim and Oliver and Lou, that they did what Tim promised in one of the interviews and took so, so much care with this storyline. Generally, I don't trust the show writers because they disappointed so often (and did again in parts of this episode with the choices they made for the HenRen storyline), but in this, they gave us something truly precious and I'm so looking forward to seeing where they are taking Tommy and Buck next.

[annawayne]

You don't share many selfies but when you do GOD! Your fashion game is fire!! (And so is the fashion in all your art!! So many wonderful details!)

Oh, anon, hello T//T

I don't want to assume anything, but... Can it be a possibility that you were the one who sent me the Fashionista badge as a gift too? If you're the same person, thank you a lot for it, too, it was honestly very unexpected, but a very pleasant surprise, thank you so much T^T (I'm honestly at a loss for words)

And even if you're not the same person, thank YOU for your words here, in this ask! You're right, I don't share a lot of photos in general since I don't even have anywhere my "personal" account with my photos, so every time I share my photos there is also some kind of exit out of the comfort zone, but I'm very grateful for your kind words of support and compliments about my fashion sense T_T I appreciate it a lot, and I'm so grateful for it 〃T^T〃

(I hope to develop it further since I have a lot of ideas and plans regarding the style)

And for the arts too! I really take some time when I choose outfits for the characters in my art, so it fits the epoch I draw them in, so I'm so grateful for you for your time observing all of these details!

Thank you one more time for everything, and I wish you all the best, anon, have a great timezone!

[kosmicdream]

the way i think of the "3 arcs" in ffak (i am not sure i will end up with 3, btw, its possible i might cut one in half or something else..) is basically that.. arc 1 was the unplanned improv adventure that developed everything, taught me how to draw comics, write a story, ect. arc 2 is the ~actual~ story that i "originally intended" to tell with FFAK (although a lot of that is also in ARC3 too), before it was made into this big sprawling story - and has developed all this time and taken me years to write and prepare for. so im excited and interested in reactions to that. and arc 3, well, arc 3 is something else entirely, but i don't want to say too much about it yet.. it is weird to have the entire story written out though. it feels both big and so small vrs the days id spend building up more and more for the world. i don't think about it like that anymore, even though i think about it a lot every day still. I feel pretty satisfied with how the first chapter of this arc has gone and I hope the next four of this arc will also go well too. yes, im only planning this arc for five chapters. can i do it? idk. it wont be a big deal if it needs more. in a weird way, it means more to me to finish the 2nd arc than the entire story as i've waited so many years to draw the scenes in it. its kinda amazing how long it takes just to develop a story, and in a way 10 years does not seem that long at all. before FFAK, i basically gave up my dream of making comics/writing because of how "disorganized" and crazy my ideas felt.. it has always been the story that FFAK was kind of something i threw myself into, but since it worked at all i was not going to ever let go of it. Still haven't.. yet. But i feel ready to let go when its time. Now, I feel like the work of making a comic its not all that hard even if it is very tedious. sure id love to draw and write better, but that feeling will always be there. I am just grateful to see the ideas come out at all feels a lot better than being creatively constipated and feeling miserable about it, like its bad to have "too big" of plans and be "too ambitious" like its a negative thing, cuz it might not be achievable - what? i love to try. just a sad place to be as an artist, to shame yourself for your own natural creativity and curiosity and pity yourself for not being good enough to make a fool of yourself for trying. pride is such a stupid thing to stop yourself from drawing your own ocs LOL. either way, id rather have it out than just have them sit inside and not ever be shared or seen for myself. every time i think i could have done something better, in the end i just feel relief i managed the miracle of making it at all. its weird to think that i can see an end to this story too and im still getting used to that feeling. i can see all the stories i want to get to beyond it, but Im patient and i know they can wait. i am going to really enjoy my time with it while its all still here. Just felt like sharing some of my feelings as this chapter gets closer to its end and i finish the first step of this new adventure of FFAK!

[room-surprise]

Dungeon Meshi Anime Review, Season 1, Episode 7 review

Another great episode (Kabru!!! Kabru!!!)! Once more I have very little to say except that I liked it. Great animation, great music, great voice acting in both Japanese and English.

No weird anachronisms in the dub script, though I will say there were actually a few lines of dialog pertaining to the plot that were easier to understand in the Japanese subtitles, some nuance got lost in the dub but was clearer in the Japanese, and normally it's been the reverse until now.

A few more thoughts (and possible spoilers) under the cut:

I think they are being a BIT too faithful to the manga at points, they are leaving Laios' nose off and not finishing it a lot in this episode, which is something Kui did a LOT in the early manga and stopped doing later as she got more experience with drawing his character. There's no reason for the anime version's nose to just not get drawn except that they're trying to imitate the manga panels, which I think isn't necessarily great, since the earlier art just wasn't as good as the later art in my opinion.

The character designs in general have been averaged so that the designs overall look closer to Kui's end-of-manga style, so doing early manga style choices with only Laios looks weirdly out of place.

Obviously sometimes the nose is left off for comedic purposes, but it was happening in all kinds of shots in this episode, and it looked like the animators just didn't want to bother.

They cut out elements of Kabru's party's story in order to fit 3 chapters into this episode. Hopefully the missing parts will be included in the future episode when Kabru and his party return, and we'll get to see them interact, since most of the character development they get IN the story happens in those scenes.

If they just completely cut those scenes and don't include them later, it'll leave Kabru and his party really underdeveloped, as well as not telling anime viewers some worldbuilding stuff that would be really nice for them to know.

Though the animation and pacing was generally good, moving so quickly past Senshi's sadness over having to kill Anne felt like a disservice to that plot beat.

Also might have been nice to have a longer moment to focus on Senshi and Marcille bonding, though what they did was adequate.

The fight with the kraken was good, however, the nuance of "we can't attack the kraken because it's under the water and we are on top, and it can hit us from any direction but we can't hit it back" was sort of lost.

This made using waterwalk on the kraken seem to come a bit out of nowhere.

Also the kraken didn't really struggle or move after getting stuck on top of the water, which might have helped show that it wants to stay underwater and being up top like that was bad for it.

Other than that, a really solid episode.

Some predictions for upcoming episodes and adaptation choices:

Next episode will be the Falin flashback and the first undine fight and then following episode the 2nd undine fight + tentacles Then combine the frogs with the dragon planning. Maybe also the necromancy chapter? Or they put that at the beginning of the actual dragon fight episode...

OR

They just do the Falin flashback as fast as possible, and do all the parts of the undine together. So, that'd be 4 chapters in one.

[neil-neil-orange-peel]

I love reading your asks, so I wanted to ask you if you had any favorite female characters from Rik and Ade projects?

Helloooo! Thank you, that's so sweet. ❤️ Let's see... I'm going to single out some TYO characters specifically and then talk more generally. This post is absolutely going to become a big, incoherent mess. 😂

Sue from Sociology is my favourite minor TYO character. Don't get me wrong, I love Helen the Murderess too, but there's something that draws me to Sue. To be fair, I'm just seriously weak for Jennifer Saunders in general, and she's basically done up as a female Rick here, if Rick was actually cool. I like inserting her into fanfic sometimes (okay, once... but I have plans). She's very much a background character for the majority of Interesting, but Interesting itself is one of the first (and only, possibly the only?) time there are lots of women in a TYO scene at once, even if they're not getting to do much. Shout out to Dawn's Christian who gets crushed by the gigantic sandwich too, of course! (As an aside, I find it funny that both Jennifer and Dawn got to strangle/smother Mike on the sofa on different occasions.)

Vyvyan's mum. Pauline Melville pops up a couple of other times in TYO as well, and she's just very good whenever she does. I believe she gave French & Saunders a bit of guidance when they were all on the standup circuit. Vyv's mum is a great character because she's just SO awful. Let female characters be awful! She's so spiky and sharp in every way, and she's probably the only semi-developed female character who appears on the show. I think letting the audience meet her gives Vyvyan a bit of texture and depth - sure, we could imagine any family background for any of them, but we're being told THIS HERE is Vyvyan's. Poor Vyv. Pauline Melville herself, of course, is a prize-winning writer now! The dream.

The devil and her condemned soul is one of my favourite TYO cutaway segments. The condemned soul is Helen Atkinson-Wood, who is most well-known for playing Mrs Miggins in Blackadder the Third. She also has a small role in the Comic Strip episode Consuela (and possibly others, but I looked up the cast list to that one yonks ago because it's my favourite). I wonder if Lise wrote this sketch, considering the subject matter. Either way, Dawn and Helen's delivery is great, especially the faux discrete way Dawn says "period pains". I hope it put stuffy men's heckles up.

Aside from TYO, Jen and Dawn were often the only female presence in the Comic Strip episodes, particularly the earlier ones. Of the first two series, Dawn wrote Summer School and Jen wrote Slags - neither were standout episodes of their series, the kind often recalled today, but with Slags especially, the female characters within them were given more agency and stake in the plot than usual. Jen played five different characters in Happy Families in 1985 - a little gem written by Ben and also starring Ade.

I'd like to give a little shout out to Helen Lederer, who popped up a lot in Rik and Ade's - and French & Saunders' - comic output, while never really being given her own opportunity to shine on TV. Oh, and I'd also like to give a shout out to Marsha Fitzalan, who played Sarah B'Stard in The New Statesman - she did such a good job of playing an intensely flawed, funny female character. There are countless male characters who are basically terrible people - I mean, Alan B'Stard for one - and it's vital women are also allowed to be that awful in comedy.

Comedy has always been a pretty male sphere. Even these days, there are definitely still men Ricky Gervais who believe women can't be funny. Misogyny is still massively prevalent in society. Male comics attract female attention; female comics attract male abuse. That's a simplification and generalisation, of course, but it's broadly true. And I don't see younger generations of men getting better with this, to be honest. Actually, I see them getting worse (thanks, Andrew Tate). Sorry to be all doom and gloom!

When Rik and Ade started out in comedy, women getting to play characters other than wives or the like - that is, straight characters and caricatures there largely for the male characters to bounce off of for their laughs - was still uncommon. Despite the existence of successful female comics across the pond like Lucille Ball, and beloved 1970s sitcom The Good Life having a main cast split evenly gender-wise (I know Richard Briers technically had first credit, but Penelope Keith as Margo Leadbetter was absolutely the funniest of the four of them), there was a genuine belief that women couldn't (and maybe shouldn't) be doing comedy.

Women like Victoria Wood were pushing boundaries in important ways around the time of the alternative comedy boom by writing specifically about women (and, quite often, northern women - which I personally think is important, since Last of the Summer Wine had such a chokehold on portraying almost all of its female characters as ostensibly the same). Her sitcom dinnerladies was both melancholic and hilarious. Her sketch shows and other comic output, quite often featuring Julie Walters (her friend and muse), Celia Imrie, and many others, were all written entirely by her. She was also a gifted pianist and wrote several comic songs.

All of this is to say, Victoria Wood definitely helped pave the way for French & Saunders. She even referred to herself as an alternative comedian in her material. But honestly, I don't think it was until much later that women stopped being regularly restricted to straight roles in comedies created by men (which, of course, most comedies were). This was part of why Absolutely Fabulous, written by Jen, was such a breath of fresh air in the 1990s. For once, every single major character was a woman - men were the scarcity! And Jen has mentioned before that producers would constantly pressure her to write more roles for men. Meanwhile, we can observe that Girls on Top (dubbed the female TYO, which is... sort of true and sort of not), which Dawn and Jen starred in with Ruby Wax and Tracey Ullman in the 1980s, isn't very well-known today. I'm not 100% sure how well it was received at the time, but clearly it wasn't as popular as TYO had been before it. Ruby Wax and Tracey Ullman have both also had successful careers in comedy, but I'd argue that's mainly thanks (particularly in Tracy's case) to opportunities in America.

So I'm not saying women never got to be the funny (also I'm just talking about the UK), but the fact is: if your comedy has a completely/majority male cast, with women only popping up in supporting roles or in guest appearances, it's obvious which characters are going to be better developed, more beloved, and just funnier. I mean, even the Vicar of Dibley, which was obviously written for Dawn and showcases her comic prowess, features a supporting cast of funny men (there was also Emma Chambers as Alice and Liz Smith as Leticia - before she was killed off - but the women were outnumbered by the men). I get that this perhaps fits with the idea of a tiny, slightly backwards village in Oxfordshire - and the fact Geraldine was a female vicar shocking these men was very important to the premise - but still.

We know certain men just REALLY struggle at writing women, too, so they've either done a really bad job or just avoided trying altogether. I do have an example for this, but I don't want to name them since I do love the show they created - it's just, y'know, writing women is definitely not their strong suit! And I'm really not trying to poo poo any shows here by pointing this out. I'm just making observations. All of these comedies I'm referencing here are very old now.

So! To get back to where I started with this!

I love that Lise Mayer was one of the writers of The Young Ones. In some ways, the fact one of the writers was a woman feels pretty incredible for 1982. At the same time, though, it's not surprising that she's often the forgotten one when people talk about who wrote TYO.

Rik and Ade were/are feminists, and it obviously wasn't their fault as individuals that comedy was so male - comedy was also restrictive in other ways before them. In terms of social class and political attitudes, they were definitely something refreshing and new. That said, it wouldn't be until later, with people like Caroline Aherne (who really changed the fundamentals of the sitcom genre with The Royle Family), that working class voices who weren't fucking Bernard Manning actually got some notice in comedy. And I've not even mentioned race in this ramble. If comedy was male, it was even more pale. There were comedies starring black and Asian comics in the 1980s and 1990s that started to break through - The Lenny Henry Show, Chef!, Desmond's, The Real McCoy, Goodness Gracious Me - but there's no denying BAME people, BAME women especially, have had to struggle a lot for a voice in comedy. Comedy is more diverse today than it was 40 years ago. There has been progress. But it's absolutely still male dominated, and still very white, at the top.

Rik was pegged as the golden boy of the alternative comedy movement, and he was and is undoubtedly remembered for so many different comedies. But in terms of pure success and fame? Actually, I think Dawn and Jen have been the standouts of their cohort. I don't think anyone would've predicted this 40 odd years ago - I mean, Christ, Rik had to speak up just to ensure they got equal pay at The Comic Strip. The boys were given their chance to shine first, there's no doubt about that. But it was Dawn and Jen who were the subjects of a BBC documentary last Christmas.

...Maybe there is hope for funny women, after all.

[jessanight]

Hey, I was scrolling through the offical pale beyond twitter account and found these sprites. During my playthroughs I didn't see them at all, so are they possibly unused? And if so are there a lot of unused sprites that didn't end up in the game? Just curious, because the game's art is amazing!

Hey there, good eye @niko-trash!! Thanks so much for asking, but this is probably going to be a longer answer than you anticipated, sorry!

Yes, there are a lot of sprites that went unused in the game. Kurt has the most emotes total I think, and therefore the most unused emotes too - the final count for him is well over 100, he's an expressive man.

Most of the reason why we made too many emotes was that a lot of them were designed before there was a script! We knew early on that we wanted a lot of emotes, and drawing usually takes longer than writing, so we started early. At this point the game design for Pale was more like a true visual novel, and we had yet to add many of the resource management mechanics, so we thought we would have to lean pretty hard on conversation emotes being important for basically everything.

This led to a lot of work being done without the full context of all the scenes that would be in the game. We made our best guesses, but it didn't all end up fitting! In hindsight some of the most effective emotes were the really subtle ones - head tilts, gaze aversions, that sort of thing.

Sometimes scenes that we had conversation emotes for were changed to isometric-only because it felt better for the kind of gameplay that was happening at the time (abandoning ship and Kurt vs Hammond are the ones I can think of off the top of my head)!

Katie (the character artist!) and I ended up going back and editing emotes, or making new ones to fit scenes better once we had them for testing. Most of the emotes that were done post-script were Hunt in the Captain's interviews, and the important conversations with your crew towards the end of the game, in their degraded costumes. We gave a lot of extra special care and attention to Cordell in the dog scene, and to Nutlee's scene in tent-city as well.

I DO have to say though, I don't personally consider the work that wasn't used to have been a waste. When I designed the characters, I did early pose concepts that were really useful for developing the individual characterisations of everyone in the cast. This bank of work was also really useful for helping Katie get used to the style when they joined, so all's well that ends well!

Next time around we'll have more writing done before we dive into emotes though haha. Hopefully we'll be a lil more efficient!

Going to continue with some endgame spoiler stuff under the cut!

To use Hunt as an example, when we first imagined the player meeting him again at the end of the game, he was going to be almost comedically mad, kind of Machiavellian almost.

But when I read the scene in preparation for emoting it, it was totally different. We had always planned to have the fruit mechanic, but now that I had to sit with the context of Hunt having experienced the loss of his crew over and over again, it became much more somber, you're finally taking a peek under the deceptive, jolly mask he had at the start of the game.

This is also the scene where he makes his final judge of your character, and could have to relent to you being a much better person and captain than he, or he might decide he hates you and your rotten soul. It called for a subtler approach. It was one of the last scenes I drew for the game, and I listened to the music over and over as I worked on it.

I think this is a lot better, and I'm glad we changed it.

[bluegekk0]

Regarding the most recent ask, it was mentioned that grimm helped set up several town events

I’d like to know what kind of events, holidays, meetings or ceremonies would be held in dirtmouth?

Like Would the town regularly have hall meetings addressing the current status of things for example?

Most of those events have to do with holidays, and those are usually connected to seasons. I intend for there to be two seasons throughout the year: winter and summer (with possible unique names that I haven't thought of yet). The year begins once winter changes to summer, and that calls for new year celebration, where the bugs reminisce on the year that just passed, and wish for the following year to be prosperous. Similarly, when summer changes to winter, another holiday happens. I really like the idea of calling their winter something along the lines of "long night" since that's the period where the sun appears very briefly throughout the day, if at all. Perhaps some kind of celebration similar in spirits to our Halloween would also happen. And of course, a holiday related to the end of the infection is a must, the bugs would undoubtedly celebrate every anniversary of the day it vanished.

Grimm helps with organizing those since he has a lot of experience with attending such events, and a lot of knowledge and ideas on ways to make them mode interesting and engaging for the community. He undoubtedly introduced some traditions previously unknown to the Hallownest bugs, and of course, he has a Troupe which are masters at performing (and have a music crew, an essential part of any celebration)

For more exact details on the seasons and holidays, I'm planning to add holidays as an article on the lore page, so I'd love to share more then.

As for meetings, I definitely think those happen periodically. There isn't a specific leader in Dirtmouth, but I do think they appoint an elder who's in charge of those meetings. Elderbug would fit the role well, I think, he's very respected and is one of the oldest inhabitants of Dirtmouth. The meetings would most likely take form of discussions about the development of the town, latest news and events, organization of holidays, any kinds of weddings or similar celebrations, and so on. Anyone can attend the meetings, and those who hold a valuable role in the community (such as the farmers and hunters who ensure a consistent food supply, Vyrm who's responsible for renovations, and so on) are especially welcome to attend and voice their mind. If there is an important matter that needs to be decided, then a vote is held, and the elder's main role is to count all the votes and then announce the results. Dirtmouth is a very small town, so I do think that every inhabitant's opinion would be valued. The town was built on the community and its group efforts, the bugs all cooperate and support one another, so maintaining this dynamic is at the top of the priority list if Dirtmouth is to prosper. And for that to happen, voices need go be heard.

The meetings would be held in the longhouse, a large building located at the center of the town. That is also where all celebrations are being held, so it's very big, with extra storage rooms and a kitchen connected to it, a fireplace, barrels for wine and mead, a large table waiting to be set up, and even a small scene for the Grimmkin crew to perform and play music, and so on. Visually it would resemble a Viking longhouse (since that kind of style is a big inspiration for the AU version of Dirtmouth) with some of the Hollow Knight aesthetic introduced, naturally. I'll definitely draw at least the outside once I get to remaking the map/panoramic view of the town.

[cardsbizarreadventure]

Brainstorm time! Just gonna drop some stories in the meantime cause it keeps me motivated and well for anyone who is ever interested in reading my whole YGO lore xD. Gonna leave it under a cut ~.

In a sense since I am planning my own possible arc that will probably take place after the whole Seal of Orichalcos Arc , because it all honesty I've always been for the idea of basically bringing out more potential and story of some of the background character that were kind of left in the dust. I am still debating if I might give Bakura a bit of a bigger role to possibly show a bit more of his 'villain side' and not just let him fall into the background for him to appear only at the last arc where the whole shid goes down. So basically first I am gonna throw a bit of story between these two because I am really liking the whole concept of it. This whole idea goes back in Egypt where Bakura and Val (Akerai) basically come from the same village that was sacrificed to create the millennium items. (My original concept for Val was basically another village that got attacked and destroyed BUTTT after re-thinking upon some of her background I began to like this headcanon a lot more.) So lets put it as the idea of them being in a sense childhood friends that came from the same village that basically Val (Akerai) and Bakura were the one of the few that managed to escape the whole wrath of the land being destroyed. The two of them however ended in the opposite sides , Val (Akerai) being found by Akhet(Another OC of mine that I will possibly soon throw out some story for him too!) After a period of time and Bakura ending on the bad side of things to becoming the villain. The two of them first ended with a bunch of people who were basically doing human traffic and selling people so they can serve as slaves. However during that period Bakura actually managed to help Val (Akerai) escape with a few more , however he ended up being caught. Val (Akerai) ended up trying to find him after some time (Even after she grew older she still had that thought of him that there might still be hope that he is still alive and still try and search for him over the years regardless) , but unlucky for her they were already gone, thus she doesn't know if he might be still alive at this point. So during the whole modern times , Bakura would get strange deja vu's about Val when ever he would cross her path . Even various of times where he considered harming her (since Bakura has murderous intentions always lol) he restrained himself for some reason he can't understand. He began to feel this strange connection and an image that he keeps seeing in the back of his mind of this familiar face that he can't seem to remember clearly. I wouldn't say he had any sort of romantic feelings or anything like that , more like the idea of a friend he had that basically disappeared. So the whole question in my head right now is , how to possibly fit him into my arc lmfao , since I already have a villain in the making that I really enjoy the concept of that I can't wait to draw and develop! Thanks for reading my little plot blabbering xD.

[smokescreenimusprime]

Hi hi! I’ve been reading your smokescreen stuff and I had a thought. Specifically, a thought for a sort of, alternate version of the early crash AU. Smokescreen crashes early, but he crashes in the middle of nowhere and is damaged. He goes into stasis for a while, and when he wakes up the only system he can use is his holoprpjector. (He’s also stuck, buried deep underground in the middle of the Nevada desert, so that’s no fun either)

But he has his holoprpjector, and spends the next several decades just…vibing around Jasper. Then, he meets Jack. And they’re roughly the same age, so they hit it off. (Tho Smokes always has to explain why he doesn’t eat, or drink, or seemingly use the bathroom, and all kinds of other fun excuses to keep Jack off his trail). But then the Kids get involved with Team Prime, and suddenly Smokescreen is being confronted with Cybertronians for the first time in decades (possibly even for the first time in centuries).

And now he just has to figure out how to tell the bots what his deal is. (He doesn’t like being buried and may or may not have developed an intense claustrophobia.)

OOOOOOOOOOOO I REALLY LIKE THAT 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

I hope you don't mind but my brain went kinda insane with this thought and low key came up with a mini fic plan for it so-

just. Smokescreen slowly fitting into the little human society built above him. Going to their schools, working their jobs, living their lives. Maybe the first few times he lives the lives, he isn't perfect. He'll slip up and forget certain details about himself, or he'll be a bit too fast or strong and in such a small town rumours spread quickly

In his first lifetime as a human, Smokescreen kept to himself. He acted the way he always did, but kept to himself and watched from afar to learn more about humanity. He enrolled himself at Jasper High, got a job, bought a small apartment to call his own and did his best to ignore the pointed rumours and whispers from behind his back. For as amazing as humans could be, at times they could be just as cruel as the bots back home

it's a lot of stumbling and learning and making mistakes and he doesn't have any friends, but it's a step up to being alone in the quiet dark of his stasis pod, so he'll take it. He lives through his human's life, working, creating, starting hobbies, and so much more. The freedom to do things just for the sake of doing, of being allowed to pursue any job he chose without legal limitations, of being able to draw and paint and sing without countless rules and segregations preventing him....... it's freeing in a way he didn't know he'd been restricted

his 2nd life went much smoother, with a lot of the Nuances Of Being Human having been figured out. He had some difficulties "faking" his death since driving off into the desert with all his belongings then returning in the same vehicle with the same belongings would raise more rumours than he'd like to deal with, so he ends up packing all his important things and trinkets into boxes, gets a moving company to take them away, "dies" (he just messes with the settings on his holoform and waits for his body to be buried/cremated before dissipating it), moves in a few weeks later with a new identity and has the same moving company bring his stuff back

his 3rd life was more of the same, and not a whole lot stood out. He socialised better with other humans, but most of the bonds had had were kept at a bit of a distance. The fact he couldn't go super far from Jasper severely limited his hang out options since it's not exactly the entertainment capital of the world, but he makes do

his 4th life was actually cut short, which he's endlessly salty about. He managed to make it to his late 20s/early 30s, and this time around he wanted to experiment a bit. Specifically, he wanted to try street racing. Human cars were really starting to get interesting, and he wanted in. It had been far too long since he last raced, and while he wasn't going to be the one on the road, being behind the wheel was the next best thing. And he's damn good driver too, one of the best in the circuits around Jasper, and he dominates the local races for years

........but yeah it doesn't go so well in the end. Smokescreen's avatar ends up getting into an accident, one that he'd definitely not be able to get away with survival and ends up having to cut things short. It was a mad scramble in the next few days to get his stuff somewhere safe, and he unfortunately wasn't able to get all of it. It took him almost three months to cool off enough to make another human. It's was..... definitely difficult recognising so many people with them not recognising him, but he managed

but then something interesting happens nearing the end of his 5th life

Smokescreen had gotten some new neighbours. That in itself wasn't anything new, he got new neighbours all the time. They were a young couple freshly married and nothing that really garnered extra attention. Smokescreen did end up running into the wife at the grocery store a few times, and that's how he ends up learning her name

June Darby

he sees her around a few more times and they make pleasant conversation. At times, Smokescreen thinks they might even be friends, but he's hesitant to put a label on it It's been so long since he's had a friend, he doesn't want to scare her off

and things are nice. They talk over coffee and walk through the park together, enjoying each other's company. June tells him about her life and Smokescreen tells her about his human one. They have fun, laugh, make jokes, and when June gets pregnant Smokescreen is ecstatic to meet the kid

but then...... then things took a turn for the worst

Smokescreen had never liked Mr.Darby. He had his suspicions, had his gut feelings, but never had anything other than that to go off of. He doesn't even know what about the man made him feel so uneasy, just that something about him, about how June would take every opportunity to get out of the house, about how she always looked so tired in a way medical school couldn't explain.......

everything comes crashing down one night. At 11pm he hears yelling outside his house and frantic banging on his door. He's on his feet in an instant, and he's horrified what he sees

June, crying and shaking with a bruise on her cheek and Mr.Darby trying to drag her away

in that moment, Smokescreen forgets he's supposed to be a frail old man and punches him so hard the man's jaw shatters

June spends the night with him. He gently guides her to the guest room and keeps watch all night. Sleep was simply a formality at this point, one he was more than willing to forgo for her safety

it was easy enough to get Mr.Darby to back off. Smokescreen had accumulated quite the fortune over the (technical) generations he's lived on Earth, especially since the food and water bills he paid amounted to almost nothing, and it was more than enough to pay for any legal fees to get the man arrested and evicted. June was of course still very shaken up from the whole ordeal, but Smokescreen doesn't hesitate to let her know she's welcome for as long as she'd like

and then June just kinda...... never ends up moving out. The trial kept her on edge and busy, then she had to get caught up on all the schooling she missed, then Jack was born, and while she always intended to move back it just...... never happened. And it wasn't like this was a bad thing, Smokescreen's home was more enough for the three of them, and neither minded being roommates. It was...... honestly comforting, having someone there

but Smokescreen knows he's running out of time. That he's only going to be able to realistically be around for so long before his age will start to draw attention, and as much as it kills him to abandon June and Jack he doesn't know what to do

so he stats planning for his next life, more than he has for every previous one combined, and for the first time, he decided to tie these two lives together

before, he always avoided any relations at all. It could become suspicious and lead to people poking their noses where they don't belong and asking questions he wasn't prepared to deal with. But….. he couldn't stand the thought of being forced to watch June and Jack from the sidelines. Of them not knowing him in his next life

it had been a few years since everything had gone down when Smokescreen finally puts his plan into action. The plan had been to tell June he needed to take care of some “Family Business” he’d thought was taken care of before his time ran out. That he wasn’t sure if he’d be back, he could feel that he was running out of time, but that no matter what he loved June and Jack

Jack was 7 years old when he said goodbye, and that memory would be burnt into his brain for the rest of his life. How Jack clung to his pant leg asking him not to go, how June's eyes got so big and shiny and how her hands would shake. It tore his spark to pieces to see them like that, and it just convinced him further

he left almost everything he had to the two of them. Aside from a small box of his most personal and important things, he left everything else to June in his “will,” including the house and all his money, which she at first tried to reject but Smokescreen was stubborn and insisted

And then he gets in his car with a tank full of gas and drives far off into the desert

it takes 3 weeks before he comes back, and it was the longest 3 weeks of his life. He wanted to rush back, wanted to be with June and Jack again and he was worrying himself sick over what could be happening to them, but he forced himself to wait

In his 6th life, Smokescreen is the most honest with himself he’d ever been since his 1st life. His holoform is what he thinks is comfortable and he makes himself as young as he can get away with (a newly 15 year old) because he wants as much time as possible with the two. His personality is who he truly is without any politeness or experimentation because above everything he wants to be as open and honest as he can with these two. He starts thinking of ways to describe his life, his Cybertronian life, in a way that would fit as a human because he wants them to know him, not a puppet he created

When he shows up in Jasper things…… go as he expected. Driving up in his “old” car definitely got some whispers and June’s suspicion was almost painful, but well within everything he planned. Smokescreen was ready to play the long game for this, anything it took to be a part of their lives again

he claims to be his previous life's great-nephew. That one of his grandparents and his old life used to be siblings, but had a falling out leading to his old life moving to Jasper and cutting all contact. A few weeks ago, Smokescreen had reached out to his "great-uncle" since things with his own parents weren't....... going super great and his grand-uncle was really the only family he felt would be sympathetic. However he over estimated just how much his grand uncle was willing to do for someone he didn't even really know, leading to him recommending Jasper as a place to stay and driving all the way to where he lived to give him his car

he also mentions that his grand uncle had talked about June a lot in the days before he died, and he could tell he really loved her (not in a romantic way). He'd already said his "last goodbyes" weeks ago, and while he did make sure they knew how much he cared...... he still feels like he hadn't said enough

after things slightly calm down after that, Smokescreen then gets ready to leave. After all, he's still technically a stranger to them and he's already accomplished his goal of making contact....... but then June insists he stay the night. After all, he's a 15 year old and she can't in good faith let him sleep in his car when she has a perfectly good bed available

reluctantly he accepts, but makes it clear he's going to make plans to move elsewhere. After all, this is June's home now and he doesn't want to intrude

.......but just like when he first took June in, his moving out never happens. He ends up being enrolled in school, babysits Jack when June's shifts run longer, help prepare food and before he knows it, they've become a family once again

a few years later when June asks if he'd like her to adopt him he nearly cries

from here, my thoughts are a bit more scattered. I have a couple misc ideas which I'm not fully sure how to go about but want to include somehow:

after he graduates this time, Smokescreen ends up working at the library for both a change of pace and some nostalgia, and he's really good at it

when Smokescreen left his 5th life, he gave Jack a little pendant he'd made some years back with Alpha Trion's symbol on it. Sort of a way to remember him by, and Jack rarely takes it off. It's eventually noticed by the Bots which sparks a bit of curiosity about Jack's older brother

Smokey is just as much in the dark about the Autobots as June is, however he'd had suspicions for it longer. Not specifically Cybertronian Interference, but defiantly that there was something going on

during the whole MECH Thing, Smokey ends up getting kidnapped in the house. However, things don't go as planned because Smokey isn't at all limited by normal human limitations. Initially they tried drugging him and knocking him out, but he only goes down when they hit him with a high powered taser which ends up REALLY fucking with his holoform which unfortunately gets their attention

the Autobot Base is thankfully just within Smokescreen's range, and he looses his SHIT. Unfortunately they can't free him just yet on account of the whole ass town on top of him, but the fact multiple someones know he's down there...... yeah he starts crying a bit

during the S2 finale, Smokescreen ends up being the one to stay behind in the base since..... well, he couldn't leave anyways. Might as well make sure everyone else can escape

[littlemissgloomexe]

MaGir/GaGir headcannons

Just wanted to say; if you genuinely believe Gir is a child and wanna comment to tell me this is wrong, just don’t.😭 Seriously, he’s an ageless robot who doesn’t even act like a child at all, he just acts like someone with undiagnosed + unmedicated ADHD. Okay ty.

TW: BRIEF IMPLICATIONS OF CH1LD 4BUS3/N3GL3CT

[Before they date]

Mel being… well, Mel, takes a while to feel any kind of spark of friendship when she first meets Gir, she’s almost immediately aware he’s not a threat so she won’t be harsh with the robot. Gir on the other hand, immediately got attached and has had the biggest fuckin crush on Mel since they first met lol

Mel develops an attachment to Gir faster than any other friend she’s made, this is confusing for Mel. Why is Gir different? What is it about him that’s so special?

Mel starts to talk about Gir A LOT to Joz to the point she starts to believe that the two are dating, sayin stuff like “You two dating?” Mel just replies with a simple “no.”

Joz still teases Mel about this whenever they brings up Gir; “Gothyyyy, do you have a little crush~?”

When Mel actually does start to develop a crush, she’s once again very confused with herself. “But… I don’t get crushes. I NEVER get crushes.” Again, what makes Gir so different?

She starts to observe Gir a little more when they see each other to figure why she has developed a crush on him. She over analyzes everything about him;

the way he’s always loyal to Zim, the way he shows Mel how much he cares about her, always being there for her, cheering her up in any way he can, remembering the smallest details about her…

…maybe it’s how he’s a complete opposite to her. Is the contrast in personalities alluring? That’s a possibility.

Some time passed and Mel slowly starts to realize that it isn’t anything in particular about Gir, they just like him.

Mel plans the way it would confess to Gir, it thinks about this for DAYS, WEEKS even, until it can come up with a solid way to tell Gir.

She brings him into her backyard garden, sits next to him on the bench swing, and confesses.

“Gir, I love you. I understand if you think I’m weird or if you wanna get away from me because we’re different species-“

Until Gir interrupts; “I LOVE YOU TOOOO, GOTHYYYY!!!” and he pulls them into a tight hug.

They proceed sit along side each other and cuddle for a while.

[OKAY!!! When they start dating!!]

Mel’s pet names for Gir include: Sweetie, love, my love, puppy, honey [she’s basic, I know…]

Mel and Gir giggle a lot when they’re cuddling or kissing

Mel can actually teach Zim a thing or two about making Gir actually listen to him;

“Just be more gentle with him, you don’t need to scream at him.”

Gir quickly realizes that Mel is VERY easily startled, so he makes sure he doesn’t hug them too suddenly and tries his best to make his movements in general less sudden

Gir starts to learn Mel’s safe foods/drinks and gives them to her when she’s sad or frustrated

Sometimes there are days where Mel LITERALLY CANNOT get out of bed, whenever this happens, Gir snuggles up with them under the blankets, silently comforting them.

Gir almost always wants attention from Mel, just any kind of it is fine, even a simple hand hold is okay with Gir, just as long as he has their attention.

Sometimes Gir will pretend to fall asleep in the weirdest places just so he can be picked up and carried to bed by Mel.

If Gir is wearing his dog costume, his tail starts to wag whenever he does as much as THINK about Mel.

Gir likes to drag Mel back to Zim’s base when Mel’s having a hard time with its mom [which is… not a rare occasion…]

Zim doesn’t really like this and has kicked Mel out before, they just keep coming back to the point where Zim grows a tolerance for Mel [ig you could argue that he tolerates her due to the shared hatred for humanity]

Mel draws pictures of Gir at least once every week.

Gir starts to get really attached to Lily too, petting her any time she lays next to him, happily giggling when he hears her purrs, Mel loves to see Gir getting along with their cat and she thinks the attachment Gir has for Lily is adorable.

[femboycatofmystery]

So my post about how you should draw (YOU SHOULD DRAW!) blew up beyond any precedent since my return to tumblr and someone in the FRANKLY KIND OF TERRIFYING NUMBER OF REBLOGS mentioned downloading a free DAW to make music and that got me thinking,

HOBBY SOFTWARE MEGAPOST GO

All of the below software is free to use, and most of it is Open Source (which is its own thing I recommend learning about, its entire existence and success gives me hope for humanity) so GO GET SOME TOOLS! Make things like nobody's watching and then SHOW IT TO THEM ANYWAY! Or don't! Even if you hide your work from the world (lord knows I do!!!) you will have created something! And it feels amazing to create something!

VISUAL ARTS:

Inkscape: Adobe Illustrator replacement, pretty solid if a bit quirky.

Krita: Painting software, if anything slightly overpowered and sometimes more complicated than you want, but can do bloody anything including advanced color management. A wonderful tool.

Blender: You have probably heard it is super hard to use. This is CONDITIONALLY true. Because the developers are working day and night to improve everything about it it's always getting better and now like, 80% of the hardness is just because 3D is hard. Aside: Blender Grease Pencil - A subsystem in Blender is concerned with 2D animation and it is. Surprisingly good. Some annoying conventions but totally possible to literally make professional traditional 2D animation.

MUSIC:

LMMS: A free and open source DAW that can do a lot, except use most modern VST plugins. The practical upshot of this is that if you are just starting out with music it is totally serviceable but over time you might start to long for something with the ability to load hella plugins. (I'm currently trying out Reaper which has a long free trial and is technically nagware after that point...)

PlugData: You GOTTA TRY THIS, it's not mentally for everyone (not HARD exactly, just WEIRD) but if your brain works well with this kind of flow graph stuff it's a magical playground of music. (If you have heard of PureData, PlugData is based on it but has a lot of nice graphical upgrades and can work as a VST if you have a proper DAW)

Surge XT: A big ol' synthesizer plugin that also can run standalone and take midi input so you can technically use it to make music even if you don't have a DAW. If planning notes ahead of time sounds intimidating, but you can get your hands on a midi piano controller, this might actually be a great way to start out playing with music on your computer!

Bespoke Synth: Another open source DAW, but this one is... sort of exploded? Like PlugData you patch things together with cables but it has a wild electrified aesthetic and it can do piano rolls. Fun though!

GAME DEV:

Yeah that's right, game dev. You ABSOLUTELY can make video games with no experience or ability to code. I actually recommend video games as a way to learn how to code because the dopamine hits from making a character bumble around on a screen are enormously bigger than like. Calculating pi or something boring like that. ANYWAY:

Twine: Twine is what I might describe as sort of a zero-barrier game dev tool because you're literally writing a story except you can make it branch. It has programming features but you can sort of pick them up as you go. Lowest possible barrier to entry, especially if you write!

Godot: I use this engine all the time! It's got great tutorials all over the internet and is 100% FREE AND ALWAYS WILL BE. Technically there are more Unity tutorials out there, but Godot has plenty enough to learn how to do things. It's also SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT so you won't spend your precious hobby time waiting for the engine to load. There are absolutely successful games made with this but I think the best thing about it is that the shallow end of the learning curve is PRETTY OK ACTUALLY.

[lizardtheartist]

I love your Max vices so so much and was wanting to know if I could draw some fan art for them (mostly Pride because he rocks) Also I would love to know more about your fan kids because they are AWESOME. Love your art!

OH MY GOSH OF COURSE YOU CANN!!! I would be so fucking happy if you drew my lil vices omgomg (and thank you!! I very much appreciate that you love my art :D)

And yes yes I have much information about the fankids

So originally, I made the fankids long ago when I first got into Sam and max, but I never bothered sharing them because i thought they weren’t that interesting, but I’ve developed their backstory a lot more since then:

Ace: So Ace is a fucked up cloning experiment conducted by Geek, she decided one day that she wanted to make a silly lil clone of Max to see how far her experiments could go, but that didn’t exactly go as planned. She ended up creating 507-B (B meaning that there WAS an A but y’know..A didn’t go as planned at all) whom she kept secret from everyone for a long while, that is until Max let his curiosity take over and snuck into the lab when everyone was sleeping. Max found little Ace in some sort of science-y pod thing (idk what those are called) and he immediately thought it was the cutest little guy he’d ever seen. Ace indeed did not look very adorable, he looked pretty freaky ngl. Max decided to wake Sam late at night and show him what he found, Sam was hesitant about thinking anything of the freaky little clone, but eventually Max convinced him it was also the cutest thing he’d ever seen. When Geek realized that Max discovered the experiment and told Sam all about it, she was pretty upset about it but at the same time, she was also relived that she didn’t have to overwork herself taking care of Ace anymore, Sam and Max would just take it from there. And so, experiment 507-B was eventually named Ace, like ace of spades. (kinda a Poker Night reference) Ace is just the definition of a skrunkly, he’s adorable and ugly at the same time. He loves to chew, scratch, bite, kick, throw, and attack almost anything he sees, it’s just in his nature.

Quinn: Sam and Max don’t feel like explaining how exactly Quinn came to be. She could either be biologically related, a clone, or had just poofed into existence. Whenever someone asks about it, they both just laugh and continuing talking about something else as if nothing happened. Quinn is a sabertooth dog creature who I had been drawing ever since I first got into Sam and Max, basically she’s kinda just a mini Sam. I like to imagine her and Sam hang out a lot because they have so much in common with each other, they probably go out for ice cream and leave Max with Ace at home, to which they’d probably play video games together or just have play fights with each other. (Lots of biting involved) Quinn is very serious about working as a freelance police officer when she’s older though, her and Ace end up taking over the business and they get commissioned more risky cases. Quinn’s favorite kind of cases are assassination cases, which she’ll always use her trusty sniper rifle for. (Don’t get on her bad side, that rifle is scary) Similar to Sam, Quinn has quite the appetite, but only for one specific food..desserts. Whenever any sort of sweet is involved in a case, she’ll always be tempted to take some for herself. Despite her overall serious tone about mostly everything, sweets are what really show her true self, a lovable little puppy dog who can’t resist any sort of treat.

General info about the two of them: They have quite the sibling relationship. They always pick on each other and argue, but they still really care for one another. Ace likes to support his sister in any way possible, often cheering for her whenever she takes charge in a case, which is literally every case. Quinn likes to show her support for her big brother through subtle affection, since it’s hard for her to show much affection at all. She tends to bonk him on the head, call him a harmless name (knucklehead, stupid, etc) or just give him a little head pat. Quinn also shows how much she cares for her brother by protecting him when he can’t protect himself in a dangerous situation. One can never be without the other, just like Sam and Max themselves, an Ace without a Quinn or vice versa will make both of them feel incomplete. I totally do not plan on purposely separating them for story purposes noooooooo/s

(Feel free to draw the fankids too if you’d like, that’d be so so cool)