#i very much want to make fanart but i’ve had 0 time to draw lately :(

[orion-kenobi]

Well, I did it, folks! I finished Emergency!

I have so much I want to say about this show. First, I finally understand what people mean when they say they have a comfort show! I affectionately think of it as my Silly Little Show About Paramedics. I loved the characters. I love how it successfully pulled off episodes on the serious side, and lighthearted ones. And—this is absolutely not surprising—I adored Johnny and Roy’s friendship. There’s so much more I could say about this show, and probably will. I was very surprised to see how much content there is here for a show that came out over 50 years ago and look forward to becoming an active part of this fandom :)

It wouldn’t feel right to make a post about emergency! without mentioning michael norell. i hope his loved ones are receiving so much support right now. i teared up reading through the comments on his obituary and seeing how many people were inspired by his performance as captain stanley. i hope he knew how many people he inspired and continues to inspire. i hope everyone involved in the show knows how many people they inspired. this show came out 32 years before i was born and yet it’s become one of my favorites. i’m so happy it’s a part of my life. if you haven’t watch emergency! you absolutely should. and if you have then…watch it again. that’s what i’m doing because i’m not through loving my Silly Little Show About Paramedics just yet.

[zelkam]

Getting to Know You

tagged by @lanyuan - thank you so much for tagging me! ✨

why did you choose your url?

so this is actually super dumb, but it’s a name I came up with when I was still in elementary school and it’s actually a gummy bear reference bc it’s “żelka” in Polish and it was my favorite type of candy 😅; actually I’ve been kinda thinking that I should change it because some minecraft streamer started using the same name and got somewhat popular, making finding my stuff way harder; but at this point I got too used to it since people know me by this name and often call me “Zel” and also I'm too tired to do something about it at this point 🙄 also I’m stubborn

any side-blogs? if you have them, name them and why you have them.

two actually! I have an art blog @zelkams-art to - obviously - post my art + a tiny studyblr @anetastudies for some aesthetic pictures of coffee and stationery and study/research tips and resources that I wanna save! 

how long have you been on tumblr?

uhhh since like 2011/2012 I think? not sure when exactly and I can’t check because I had to remake in 2014 [long story short I accidentally deleted my main instead of a sideblog *honk honk*]

do you have a queue tag?

I don’t use queue - if you see me posting then it’s me clicking that little reblog button, so what if it’s 5am

why did you start your blog in the first place?

....to find Naruto and Bleach fanart

why did you choose your icon/pfp?

it’s Hanguang-june babey 

why did you choose your header?

I wanted something CQL-related, so I went with this wangxian art of mine because it’s my fave thing I’ve draw from the series so far + I edited it to match the black-red-white color combo

what’s your post with the most notes?

uhhh it would be this Yuri on Ice pic that I drew after the Ice Adolescence trailer was released, since it got on the tumblr radar and kinda skyrocketed after that

how many people do you follow?

1131, but that’s reduced from over 1800 not so long ago; but I’d say that like 80% of them are other artists and not blogs that post daily

have you ever made a shitpost?

nothing spectacular but I’ve made a few dumb posts along the way

how often do you use tumblr each day?

too much, especially lately 😬

did you have a fight/argument with a blog once?

I absolutely bolt at any sight of drama, sometimes before it even starts, so nope

how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this post’?

*scrolls down faster*

do you like tag games?

yeah! though I sometimes don’t know who to tag next or I’m too shy with some people, even if we’re mutuals 😅

do you like ask games?

yes! though for quite a long time I didn’t post them because I felt like no one would ask and it would be awkward, but it looks like you guys actually do send me stuff :0 (idk I’ve been trying ot be a bit more social on here lately)

which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

what even is tumblr famous lmao; I mean there are some Very Cool People, but I’d also say that it’s more fandom-specific, not actually in relation to the whole website? 

do you have a crush on a mutual?

as much as I like you guys, the answers is nah, we’re all just little icons

I’m gonna tag @still-snowing, @glorfindels, @mjsakurea, @faelise and @everdoeswriting! (ofc if you haven’t done this before and only if you want to!)

[phoenotopia]

2020 July Update

Things have gone slowly... again.

The good news is that the game is now submitted to the console "authority" and it's entirely off my hands. Once it gets through the console "checking" process, it can get a release date and we can sprint towards release. Until then, it'd be at least a month's wait or more until I hear anything. Understandably, their checking process is impacted by Corona, so wait times are increased.

On my end, I was also slow to submit the game. I submitted it late late June, since I ended up spending 7 weeks fixing bugs (and not 2-3 weeks like I estimated in the last blog post). There were just SO many bugs - now squished, thankfully. Since this is a blog post, I'll talk about what kind of bugs I've been fixing.

The other thing that slowed down the submission process was simply due to unfamiliarity with how these submissions proceed. There were pages and pages of stuff to read, guidelines to follow, and legalese to wade through. It really made me wish I had a publisher to guide me through the process. But I was able to clear it with a couple days work. I had an impression that the submission process went like A->B->C->D, with no room for concurrency. Turns out I could have done steps B & C at the same time and sped things up by 2 weeks... So that's that. I'm taking that as a lesson for next time.

The Console Revealed

What is this console that I talk about so stealthily? So that this blog update isn't completely unexciting, I'll reveal which console I've been working on until now. Drumroll please!

It's Switch!

We actually got the Switch dev kit in late 2017. From my understanding, around this time in the USA, the Switch kit was quite hard to get for indies as it was just starting out and high in demand. So I was surprised that my application got approved. I didn't know it then, but the game would still need a few more years of development...

Tweaking performance and fixing bugs

Here you can see my "expert" playtest setup. Since the Switch is more powerful while docked, I needed to playtest it in handheld mode, so I could catch and profile any problem areas where the framerate was unsteady. The most common thing that caused framerate drops were areas that went overboard with lighting. For these areas, I'd tweak or swap out the lights with alternatives that looked similar while also being less computationally intensive. Maintaining 60 FPS is a must!

An old camera (Nikon D3100) trained at the screen recorded my playthrough and would let me rewind to any moment a bug occurred. It could only record in 10 minute chunks, so I'd have to repeatedly repress the record button. On the plus side, because it's so old the movie file sizes were small and convenient.

The number one bug that I tracked and fixed in the past two months was what I dub the "Gear Ring De-equip" bug. The Gear Ring functions as customizable shortcut keys for the player to map items and tools (see an old video demonstration HERE). Through regular use of the inventory, somehow the equipped items on the Gear Ring would be de-equipped. It was an elusive bug since the de-equip event would happen very quietly and you would only suspect something had gone wrong much later. By then, the trail had gone cold and you weren't sure if a de-equip had actually occurred or if the player had simply de-equipped the item themselves. Two other playtesters noted that something left the Gear Ring in their playthrough, but I dismissed them. "Are you sure you didn't just de-equip it yourself?" It was a bug that bred mistrust and discord. I didn't truly believe it until it happened to me...

Luckily, with the camera setup, I was finally able to track it. In the literal 67th video, I caught a live instance of the bug occurring. After which, it was all too easy to recreate the exact same inventory and gear ring setup and replicate it.

(With this exact item layout, combine the 2nd item with the 14th item... and viola! Gear Ring de-equip!)

After fixing this bug, I then proceeded to fix it 5 more times. Every time I fixed it, it would later reappear through a different mechanism. 

Why do bugs like this happen? Underneath, there are two lists of items. Tools on the right and items on the left. Items can occur multiple times because they're consumable. Both lists start counting their indexes with the value 0. However, both items and tools co-exist on the gear ring. So to uniquely identify an entry you need both the item ID and the data index. Failure to check both data types resulted in bugs like the Gear Ring de-equip. Now throw in a bunch of item operations that can confuse the system. You can split items, combine items, swap items, or discard items. The more freedom you allow, the more ways there are for the system to trip up.

If you didn't get all that, that's alright. It was needlessly complicated. Imagine doing more and better and with less code and less bugs! Such a thing is possible if you start with the right design. I'm definitely taking notes here on how to design inventory systems for next time. In the meanwhile, I'm very confident I've squished all inventory related bugs.

Other bugs squashed and features implemented in the past 2 months include the end game arts not unlocking properly, collection percentages climbing beyond 100, stray doors floating in the sky, low HP sfx blaring when loading different files, balance tweaks on bosses, a max HP display when the menu is open - too many to count really! It was only after I fixed them all that I was confident enough to move forward with submitting the game. I apologize for the delay this will cause!

PC version back in progress

You may recall in the March 2020 update I talk about how in pursuing the Switch version, I unwittingly ruined the PC version. Well, since the game is "done" now and I'm waiting for it to go through the checking process, I've started working to reclaim the PC version.

And there is some good news to report. The PC version can compile again! Of course, it will need to have some work done, since it was late 2017 when I last had a functioning PC build. 

The opening menu is broken, the underlying save file system needs to be updated, and the controls... oh Lord, the controls. Controls were probably the #1 factor in pushing me to pursue a console version first. There are just so many controller options. Even just the usual suspects are numerous: Xbox, Nintendo, Sony, Logitech, Hori, 8Bitdo, Steam...

One of the number one complaints received regarding the flash game (which was keyboard primarily) was that I didn't allow controller rebinding to start. It was then that I learned of the vast array of different keyboard types.

(Ever heard of an Azerty keyboard?)

I shan't make the same mistake twice! One of the things I'll definitely tackle is the Right/Left face button feud when it comes to which should one should be 'confirm' and which one is 'cancel'. I want to allow the player to choose which is their "YES" and "NO" preference and allow that to overlap other actions like Attack or Jump.

Even after control bindings are taken care of, some things just won't translate well. The right control stick is currently used to access the gear ring and for fishing. Keyboards have no right stick. Aiming the crossbow with a full 360 degrees of range is done with the left control stick - if keyboard only, would the crossbow simply be locked to the 8 cardinal directions? What about those tutorial prompts with button graphics (e.g. "Press 'B' to Jump"). If using the playstation controller, it'd need to be the CROSS symbol. How many button graphics are we gonna load into the text module? What if the player, mid-playthrough, decides to swap out controllers? Indeed, there are many issues to tackle where controls are concerned...

Perhaps I'm overthinking it because even some AAA games get this wrong (Dark Souls has 'B' as 'Yes' on Switch, and it's not remappable, which I find quite annoying). I've seen games on consoles where the controls wouldn't mention the console's controller at all but instead mention a mouse and keyboard. Or, if you remapped the controls, the tutorial prompts still showed the old control bindings, making for a confusing experience. I definitely want to do the controls justice, so this will take some time.

Phoenotopia DISCORD Channels

Ryan and Firana have been running a Phoenotopia discord since late 2017, which I promoted on this blog once. It's been a couple years and it turns out that the old discord link I promoted expired. It's long overdue, but their channel could use another shoutout. Here's their channel : https://discord.gg/cnjrYST

Also, Khalid recently reached out to me about creating a Phoenotopia discord as well. I see no reason why we can't have 2 or more discords, so he has created that one with my blessing as well. You can find his discord here : https://discord.gg/cfnsCwy

I personally don't use Discords, since I'm very busy and there's too much new tech to keep up with. I hear there's a Tik Tok now? Should I create a Tik Tok for Phoenotopia? Hmmm...

Anyway, if you'd like to chat with other people who are similarly enthused for Phoenotopia, do check them out!

Fan Arts

We have five new fanart submissions this time around from regulars and new alike.

Cody G. returns with this pair of sketches of Gail. One seeks to answer the question, "how is Gail so strong?" Cody's answer is that under her sleeves she's actually really buff! This might be the most ripped rendition of Gail yet. Also, in the right drawing, the letter 'E' kinda melds with her bat, making it look like a keyblade!

What if Gale was a Shrek character? A new artist, Samu Kajin, from tumblr answers that question with a rendition of Gail sporting ogre style antennae. Samu Kajin says she can be called "Gaek" or "Shrale". I like the poncho!

Shafiyahh returns with a pretty portrait of Gail. Unlike their previous digital pieces, this one was made with color pencils! I like how her hair blends pink and purple colors together, and this pattern is also present in the eyes. Reminds me of a certain character. And the eyes are so sparkly despite using color pencils! Major props!

Negativus Core also returns with this relevant image of Gail, masked and running, presumably from Corona. It gave me quite a chuckle! I like the angle and tilt of this run pose because you can see the sole of her foot - that's how you know she's at full sprint! A skillful blur localized to her left foot show's just the right amount of motion. Gotta love the robot's expression too!

A rare 3D art has emerged. Dany Q crafted this adorable figure of Gail that is as cute as a button! I like how well it translates the pixel character over to 3D, capturing the 3 stitches on her shirt and even catching her stray strand of hair. It kinda reminds me of a Wallace and Gromit character, so I can picture it moving and animating in that unique claymation style.

Next Time

I'm ~80% confident we can clear the Switch console checking process and drop the trailer with a release date before the next blog post. But once again, if things go slowly, you'll hear from us in 2 months...

[xgardensinspace]

Cosplay! Harringrove for Australia

Hello! I’m participating in harringrove for Australia! That means I’ll be offering cosplay and art in exchange for donations to an organisation providing aid to support those affected by the bush fires.

I’m asking that you donate money in exchange for me posting my work.

Follow these steps if you’re interested!

Reblog this post with a  donation amount offer (or DM me the info if you’re too shy) and your request for a cosplay or drawing, following the suggestions below

Send me a DM too, so I can acknowledge that I’ve seen your donation and will start working on it

I will be accepting donations  until my cap is reached or until midnight est of 12:00AM EST 1/27/20

Wait until I reply to your message, then you need to make your donation to one of these organisations supplying aid: Any organisation from this post: https://gothyringwald.tumblr.com/post/190091494330/harringrove-for-australia-where-to-donate-to OR: https://www.redcross.org.au/campaigns/disaster-relief-and-recovery-donate https://donate.vinnies.org.au/appeals-nsw/vinnies-nsw-bushfire-appeal-nsw

Donate!! Screencap your receipt – you need to send me this to show you’ve donated so we can all track how much we’ve raised as a group.

Block out any private contact  details you don’t want me to see!

Once I’ve seen your receipt I’ll start work on your project. It will be posted from Feb 10th-16th for harringrove week of love prompts and for all other contributions by 12:00AM EST 3/14/20

What I have to offer: Steve Cosplay for donations! Like my buddy cosplaying Billy @stardate85 , I’m also jumping into the bandwagon and allowing you to choose what you want for the cosplay! Be it pose, place, preferred outfit from the TWO that I only have, as well as even asking for some Steve in unconventional clothing. Most of my closet is black though xD Very goth and punk vibes. In agreement with Star, I can also pose for scenes from fics you like or have written, from fanart, the show itself, even random shenanigans you can think of! I too will have some limitations, but DM me your ideas and let’s just have fun with this! We’re doing it for a cause :) Same goes for art! Talk to meeeee. I do feel a little uncomfortable drawing full on nudies tho...mostly because I’m not experienced. But I am HERE for suggestive drawings, and some slight kinky things ;) So just offer your idears.

What I have available: I only have two outfits. The sailor uniform (handmade by me! And with a nametag handmade by a fellow artist friend!) and the look from season 2 when Steve makes friends with Dustin. I’m also VERY bendy and already had in mind posing as Steve in gymnastic-style poses if you’re interested xD I can do nice backbends/bridge, splits just barely touching the ground (lol), intermediate straddles, ok-ish Scorpions...just...just talk to me if you’re interested in the bendy poses! xD For art, I’m a traditional artist because I do not own a drawing tablet xD But I do almost any medium. My speciality is realistic portraits and coloured pencils. I have my own style but...the anatomy is questionable sometimes xD

Accepting prompts? Absolutely! For both, cosplay and art. Just keep this VERY IMPORTANT THING IN MIND: I’m getting a mohawk haircut on Monday, January 13 :0 So if you’d like to have a photo of Steve with his hair (as close as I can get it) like the one on the show, THEN YOU HAVE TO INPUT YOUR REQUESTS BEFORE Sunday, January 12 in the afternoon (USA Central time?) at the latest. I’m sorry about that :/ I am doing a shoot with a cousin (who will be Max!) and a buddie (Dustin) on Sunday, so if you want any interactions with the kiddos, you really do need to tell me before then as well. And if you’re into Steve with a mohawk, or you’re seeing this post too late...I AM HERE FOR YOU IN FULL SUPPORT OF STEVE WITH A MOHAWK! <3 Because I also want to see that & have plans to cosplay mohawk Steve again LATER w/a Robin...once I build her uniform xD

Additional Info:  I honestly don’t know when to cap the cosplays xD And I’m pessimistic as to if I’ll get requests anyways so...just keep those coming! I love dressing up anyways, haha. Capping art at 5 probably...because I’m a slow artist ;-; But I’m thinking of participating in Harringrove of Love this year, so your art ideas can help me contribute to that!

Suggested Donation Amount: $25 per cosplay photo! I’m not good at pricing art, but let’s do bust or waist up, single character at $5 in b&w, and $10 in colour? Medium of your choice. Bust/Waist both characters $15 for b&w and $20 in colour? Full body single character b&w or in colour $30, and $40 in colour? lol. Honestly though, please donate whatever is fair to you! If you donate an insane amount I will do my bestest to compensate you with an awesome drawing xD

Some examples of unedited photos (including a backbend with Max!) and a non-Harringrove art tag because I haven’t created any YET:

[amerillarose]

I posted 8,753 times in 2021

7 posts created (0%)

8746 posts reblogged (100%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 1249.4 posts.

I added 62 tags in 2021

#tss spoilers - 17 posts

#ts spoilers - 6 posts

#logan sanders - 6 posts

#amerillarose - 6 posts

#digital art - 5 posts

#virgil sanders - 5 posts

#tss fanart - 5 posts

#remus sanders - 4 posts

#patton sanders - 4 posts

#roman sanders - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 72 characters

#i love this doofy little guy and i didnt even see this friendship coming

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Its Chihiro! I love the swimsuit design and I just had to draw it >w< I’m so fricken excited for Dangonromp:S!

15 notes • Posted 2021-07-22 20:55:33 GMT

#4

I had so much fun drawing these! They are just so cute and made me smile whenever I worked on it. I also got to design villager Tomas and animal Janus & Remus!

Remus was an easy pick, rat man! It was fun working with those low key eye bleeding colors XD 

Janus was a difficult choice. I wanted to make him a snake, but to give him limbs would just make him into a lizard. Then I remembered a character from one of the older games, Blanca! The idea of a character who could have the player draw her face, fit snake man pretty well.

20 notes • Posted 2021-05-26 02:13:38 GMT

#3

I got inspired this past month or so, which lead to many Sander Sides fan art! First up, the main four as animal crossing animals!

First up is my main boy, Virgil. I designed him as a bat, as a cat didn’t feel quite right and all the other animals also didn’t fit right to me. So I made a bat! I think it turned out really cute.

Next is Roman! Making him a deer was super easy for me, since deer are known as the prince of the forest, gives him a mini Disney refence of Bambi, and because Diana exists and I can see those too as besties

Smart man next, Logan! I’ve seen designs of Logan as a bird and I found that it fit him very well. I tried for a mix of a raven and a cockatoo, since raven’s are the smartest birds and I confused cockatoos with gray parrots who are also very smart. I really liked coming up with his black blue feathers and drawing the simple wings.

And we got Blue from Blue’s Clues, I mean, Patton. Yep, he looks a lot like Blue and I didn’t catch it until it was too late and I got attached. Though, with Patton being all about memories and childhood comforts, I think it works. He also come out really cute!

20 notes • Posted 2021-05-26 01:58:55 GMT

#2

See the full post

26 notes • Posted 2021-08-01 18:46:45 GMT

#1

See the full post

42 notes • Posted 2021-02-16 21:51:32 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[seyaryminamoto]

And here we are! Another March 26th, another of Gladiator’s anniversaries has come. What a Fourth Anniversary it has been, eh? Thanks to every last one of you for your support through these years, and through this week too as I posted the collection of fanarts seen above!

Under the cut, one of my long-winded ramblings, this time about the story that has changed my life beyond belief.

Admittedly, this hasn’t been an easy year. Personally, I’ve had some struggles with my surroundings, with school lately, with circumstances that often overwhelm me.

Not everything goes right, in fact, most things won’t unless you actively work to make it so, and even then there’s a chance things might fail, too. Nothing is as frustrating as putting your life and soul into something, and being told that it’s not good enough. It’s happened a lot to me, more often as time goes by, actually.

Amidst this chaos, with these struggles of so many different natures, there’s one place I can run to where I can forget everything that plagues me. Where I can give myself away completely, invest all my energies into it, and regardless of what people may think later on, I will still feel that every effort was worth it. And that one place, that one haven I have left, is undoubtedly Gladiator.

From the start, I’ve written and posted fics because I hoped, somehow, that they might reach people who would enjoy them. I haven’t said it a lot, but in the middle of writing Origins of Pro-Bending I had a brief crisis in regards of fanfiction, where I ended up asking myself why was I doing it at all? Did anyone really want to read this? Why would they, when there were likely so many other better fics and writers out there?

I told myself to finish that story, though, not because of desperate hopes that someone out there would read it one day and validate it by saying “Oh, this is the best story EVER!”, but for a very much simpler reason: I wanted to finish it. I wanted to see the final product. I wanted it to exist, if just so that I could go back to it one day in the future and enjoy it fully all over again. Maybe nobody else would read it, but as long as it mattered to me, it meant it mattered to someone. That view counter could stay in 0, but the story would have been told. And that was what I needed the most.

The same mentality is what guides me with Gladiator: I knew it would be the largest project I’d undertaken in my entire life (and indeed it is), I knew it would take me FOREVER to finish it (and indeed, four years have gone by, but this story is still not done, clearly!). I was warned by so many people about the possible negative consequences of writing it: you get used to the initial hype, but the people who’re supporting you now won’t support you forever. Some might be gone tomorrow, others in two years, others in ten. You won’t be in the limelight forever, and if you lose courage because of that, you’ll lack the strength to finish this huge-ass story that you’ve put so much work into and everything will have been for nothing.

So with all the potential problems, with all the possible drawbacks (I probably could have been a way better student in school if I hadn’t taken up such a time-consuming project, yes...), I still told every last one of them that I wanted to do it. That I would keep doing it, no matter what.

Yes, there’s been hard times, and yes, there have been moments where I’ve doubted myself as a writer, as a human being even, as ANYTHING, because of the responses my stories can get. Yes, I’ve struggled with motivation a few times when people who used to love this story passionately now seem mostly disinterested in it, and I can’t help but wonder where did I go wrong. I’ve learned sometimes you don’t go wrong at all, that people just move on... but maybe I did go wrong somehow, too. Maybe I did.

But even then, I can’t let go of this. I cannot stop writing this story, and I won’t stop until I reach the final scene. It’s the first story that has made me laugh so much, the first story that brought me to serious tears while writing it, the story that seems to bring together absolutely everything I’ve learned through life, where everything I am is reflected. Maybe this story isn’t half as big a deal as I make it to be, but for me it’s more than just a story. For me it’s more than just the longest Avatar fanfic on FF.net, it’s more than just a ship manifiesto, it’s more than a hobby I dedicate myself to when I have some time off.

I’ve been asked how I do it. How do I have so much motivation, how can I write such a long story and not stop, not get tired, not get bored? There’s a ton of answers I can give to this question (one of them being, of course, that my passion for the two characters who drive my story is responsible for all that motivation). But the truth is, I live in a place where I am used to seeing misery, pain, horrors every day. I see a city decaying around me day by day, a country in collapse, with next to no hopes for something to break its fall. Things aren’t easy here, and worse obstacles pop up every day, too. I’d rather not go in depth about the Venezuelan crisis, but all the same...

What keeps me sane, in this insanity, is Gladiator. Reality can outdo fiction in many ways, but my reality falls short in many regards, and I’m powerless to change it. But whenever those overwhelming waves of depression start climbing up, trying to drown me, I find myself afloat again because I still have to write so much more! I have so many stories plotted, so many story arcs, so much content that I can’t wait to produce. Because Azula still needs to become the greatest of all Fire Nation leaders, because Sokka still needs to end the war and make sure his people stay safe and sound. Because Zuko has to find what life means for him, because Suki has finally found happiness after all the sorrows she has seen, because Rui Shi needs to tell Song how he feels, because Ozai and Ursa’s past need to be revealed. Because all these characters need to bring back balance to the world that lost it, and they will only do it if I write it. This story won’t tell itself, and I don’t mind it: I want to tell it. I want to explore every last bit of it, and every new Word doc I open to write more chapters is a blank page I can’t wait to start filling. 

I’m not the greatest writer ever, regardless of the people who may say so, regardless of how many readers may think highly of my skills. I could be better, no doubt, and that’s why I keep going back to the story, to fix all that can be fixed, to make it the best it can be. The best I can make it as I am. I will continue to grow as a writer, or at least, I’ll try to. I will grow as an artist too, hopefully, and continue to accompany the fic with as many of my drawings as I can.

It may sound insane, it probably is. But regardless if that’s not the case for anyone else, this story is more than a story for me: this story is my release, my opportunity to dream, to imagine, to believe, to feel so many things that I’ve been numbed to in my daily life. Gladiator sets me free. Gladiator is a part of me, and I’m sure it will continue to be for the rest of my life. I love this story more than words can say. And as it was when it came to Origins of Pro-Bending, writing Gladiator already is its own reward. Any and every companion who comes along for the ride is a great friend to have by my side in this quest: Whether they stay or they go, I’m glad they were here for however long they were.

Thank you, to everyone who has been here, everyone who still stays by my side, everyone who may come in the future. This story exists because a stubborn, reckless girl decided one day that she wanted to dedicate herself to something a thousand times larger than she was. Something that, she hoped, would be cherished by those who might be compelled by the story of a Princess and a Gladiator falling in love, who will do everything in their power to right the wrongs of the world they live in.

There’s still a long road ahead, and a challenging one at that. My life may be very different by the next of the story’s anniversaries, but I’m sure that I will still be here, and that I will continue to tell this story. And I will be grateful forever that I get to be the unbelievably fortunate writer with the privilege of bringing this story together. The sum of my life’s decisions have brought me to this day, and I find myself filled with gratitude, relief, peace. I know I chose the right course, and I will continue to tread it as I go. I will carry on writing this story, for however long as it may take me to finish it, and I will continue to be grateful to no end for that one PM that started it all, that gave me the incomparable opportunity of becoming the writer of Gladiator.

[hiimtryingtounderfell]

Fanart Monday!!

Another week passes <3 I am glad to say that I enjoy drawing Papyrus’ battle so much. He’s so fabulous!! DeAl knows, thus this fanart of the week! <3

Fanart of the week by @deal-right!!! [We agree that Papyrus is Sou Tamaki’s skeleton form]

More under the sexy cut <3

@novirp13: Just a simple doodle I’ve done cuz I’m trying to run away from my cursed homework…College is a torture TwT

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I feel ya, cool leg partner TTvTT For a doodle, this is really cool <3 I’m not really into human AUs but this drawing is so cute <3 Thanks for sending!!

@pricap: “K”Even seem pretty late for this fan art but flowy still make my day until now. :p

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And Flowey is the new Saitama lololol, seems like everyone liked this face. I understand <3

@theinsanechesirecat413: I doodled this during class and I really hope you like it and I hope the quality isn’t too bad. I’m a huge fan of your AU, the characters are just perfect, the backgrounds are amazing and you are awesome, thank you for creating this! Okay, sorry, I’m rambling, but I love your AU so I drew something for it, again I hope you like it and thank you for reading this!

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Oh my god, there are so many things in here <3 Noooo what did I do to deserve this <3 <3 <3 cool feels and my heart will go on and  I can’t even asdkjhflasfahjsgdflasda <3 <3 thanks!!!!

T h e   p a i n   w i l l   a l w a y s   f o l l o w   y o u   0 v 0

Lymmle : Ik Flowey looks trashy, but I had very small space and I couldn’t do him well D:I hope you like it! I’ll color it later if you’d like.(If you want to add it to your fan art on DeviantArt, you can find it here)

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Shh, shhh, Flowey never looks trashy <3 I do like it, of course I do <3 <3 thanks for taking the time to do this <3 <3 I greatly appreciate it <3

@geist19:  Well  you said it did qualify as a fanart, so I’ll go ahead and submit it here

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sdghasdf my frisk interacting with another frisk <3 <3 I saw this on Deviantart and I squealed of joy <3 <3 so cute!! Thank you!!!!!

[todokori-kun]

THANK YOU SO MUCH, I’m ugly crying on the inside right now. I’m really so glad you liked the art, seriously this means a lot to me TYSM <3

I like how Hisoka turned out too :D I have a hard time looking at him though because WOW that’s way too much trash for once piece of paper

Be glad that I sent you the sassy Saiko, because I also drew a crying Saiko calling for Maman. I decided not to be a troll for once though ^^

I couldn’t do justice to OG Musical Maria though. She’s gorgeous…

That picture of Roy will be my legacy.

(as for the tiny dab, that is also Saiko in case the pic was too small for you to tell XD funny thing is that I wasn’t even intending to have that slip in when I took the picture. I drew a tiny, mouth-and-nose-less ‘I am not impressed’ Urie face next to it too but guess that didn’t make it in haha LOL

I'm actually sorta obsessed with drawing tiny, dabbing figures right now because I just discovered an easy way to draw dabs and…well. It’s fun?)

AWW tysm! Tbh though I get the struggle. I hated all paints for the longest time because I also had no idea how to use brushes and control the amount of water I used and ended up with shapeless blobs or super runny pics (also I’ve never actually learned how to paint or draw…a couple of short lessons when I was really little, a month(?) of lessons around last year or the year before, that’s pretty much it. So idk how to do things really lol). But I sorta-recently got obsessed with watercolor paintings (SO PRETTY) and that’s why I started ‘practicing’ (AKA watching/reading a bunch of tutorials and trying my best to remember the few things I actually learned XD). I still can’t draw stuff just with watercolors though, I need to do a light pencil sketch and then color with paint.

OK that sounds so cool but problem: My phone is a super old flip phone that I’ve had since I was eight(?), so mobile games are a no XD and my parents probably wouldn’t buy me anything that costs money (they let me play simple free RP games and dating games on the internet since those are usually fairly innocent (I mean, it’s plot/character-based stuff, almost like a manga) but not anything too 'big’ you know? If I was old enough to buy games like that with my own money I don’t think they’d care tho, as long as I didn’t get obsessed with games or anything.)

Also just realized that I’m stupid and apparently forgot that I don’t have Steam. I was going to install it but can I ask you exactly what it is/how it works, first? I’m just kinda worried about randomly installing this since I don’t quite get it yet ^^;; (sorry I can be really, really stupid when it comes to stuff like this)

THAT’S SO CUTE. Let me recommend you a game too- a free RPG/Dating game called Ascension by ImpQueen! No download, you just go to ImpQueen and play it. There are three(?) chapters. The first chapter might not be that interesting compared to other games, but the game and the story keep getting more complex as you go on :D you also get new dateable characters every chapter and the MC, Aida, is AWESOME. Also, in chapter two and three you can actually customize the main cast’s appearances, like you’d do in a dress-up game! Another cool thing is that you get different 'personality points' depending on the things you say/do, and the amount of points you have for a certain personality can change the outcomes of certain situations.

It’s also really fun because other than the romance, the plot and Aida’s journey is super interesting too.

Do you know I’ve been reading some Ishida tweets lately and look at this (yes these are all real)

Fan: Excuse me, is it ok if I ask what major you chose at university?

Ishida: I have studied worthless knowledge in University.

Fan: Please take good care of yourself and eat well! (I think that’s what they said? It was in Japanese so)

Ishida: I ate some tomatoes!

Fan: How do you draw Arima, sensei? It’s so hard to draw him ;-;

Ishida: Sadistic & Massive. I keep that in my mind.

Fan: I love you please marry me

Ishida: Sure! When is convenient for you?

Fan: Be sure to rest when you need to, sensei…

Ishida: I don’t wanna rest

Fan: HOW DID AMON’S EYEBROWS GET LIKE THAT PLEASE I MUST KNOW SENSEI

Ishida: It’s natural, you know.

Fan with a picture of a cartoon skeleton for their profile pic: Will we ever learn what happened to Hide, sensei? Also, thank you for the sequel :) I love TG

Ishida: Well, I’m not sure…by the way, you are so skinny. Thank you!

Also, dude reads Shoujo manga. He tortures us with Touken, Kanae, Tsukiyama/Kaneki, Saiko/Urie…and then he goes and posts fanart he drew of a Shoujo manga he was reading and says that he’s sad it’s over omg

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I’d probably never want to leave that flask HOW COULD A TINY INSIGNIFICANT HUMAN DEFEAT ME SO EASILY NOOO

*sigh* I didn’t raise you to be like this…

(I just got the funniest/weirdest idea though: So Evans is like Luna’s mom in this relationship, Riza is Roy’s mom. Imagine what would happen when Roy/Luna got to the 'meeting the parents’ stage in their relationship)

Mei’s version of subtle-

Mei: Mr. Scar, Evans thinks you have pretty eyes.

Scar: 

Scar: What

(basically catastrophe. And I would never have actually said that…Luna probably told Mei to say that I said something nice about him and that’s what the kid came up with OTL)

Well, he became a criminal in Civil War so not a big surprise really ;-;

For a second I thought that pic was you

Wow, that’s great! Bet it looks amazing on the queen <3333

Funny thing is I thought I liked physical contact (like cuddling, hugging, hand-holding) but turns out that’s not the case XD I get super awkward when anyone who’s not my mom, dad, or my little sister/younger cousin touches me. Tbh the only person I feel comfortable with cuddling anytime, anywhere is my little sister because she’s still smol LOL

It’s definitely weird when people who aren’t that close with you try to hug you though. The only thing that can make it worse is if they gush about what a good, sweet child you are while doing it XD

(btw, I sent you a message about the TG Re Volume 12 omake; did it get eaten?)

((EDIT AFTER NEW CHAP OF TG: WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUU NO URIE NO N O)) Feel free to send more art anytime! I’ll always be glad to see it ^^

Is he really that bad? I mean, I’ve seen some memes, but didn’t think he was that trashy XD

Oh wow, thank you for that :P Who knows, maybe I would’ve broken my computer screen, because end the suffering already.

Dabbing Saiko, best Saiko. I assumed it was her because of the hair, but wasn’t 100% sure. Isn’t that Urie’s default face, tho. I mean, when is that man impressed? He does show emotion when he’s  trying to comfort someone, but that doesn’t happen very often.  *stares at that paragraph* *dabs aggressively* 

Ah, that’s what makes it even more impressive! I mean, we had art in elementary school, but it was mostly the ‘learn stuff yourself’ kind of art. Needles to say, I didn’t learn a lot. But watercolours really are a nice way of painting, since they can have really vibrant colours, yet be serene at the same time. Most people I know who draw, watercolour or not, use sketches and references, so I don’t see anything wrong with that ^^ Just take your time to learn what you want ^^

Oh, I see! So, free, computer games for you… Well, right now, CP is the only one I can think of, but I’ll discover more in the future and share them with you when I do ^^ The only paid games I play are on my phone, since I’m too shy to ask my parents to but me otome games… I have 0 problems playing them on my own, but not a lot of people know that I play them. 

Right, steam.  It’s a gaming platform. Technically, it’s an app for the computer on which you can download games that are available in the steam store. Some are free, some are paid. 

This is how the page looks. The little green button in the upper left corner is to download the app itself, and you’ll also need to create an account.  You’ll need to give an email, but it’s only for account verification and to send you bills if you decide to buy anything. However, if you don’t buy anything, the email will mostly be useless after the verification. I mean, I don’t remember getting a spam email from them at all.  After that, just go to the search bar, type Cinderella Phenomenon. And press play the game! It should automatically download the game to the steam app and you’re good to play ^^  No worries about asking questions! It’s actually admirable how you’re so careful around the internet ^^

Oh, I’ve actually played that before! I could never finish chapter 3, though… For some reason, it keeps glitching at one scene making me unable to continue further =3= It was quite fun to play! I just don’t remember most of it anymore, since it’s been a while since i’ve played ^^;;;

Ishida summarised my high school experience so far in a single tweet, only it’s about University XD

Wow. That’s so mean of him XD Seriously Ishida, why you gotta torture us so much??? (I just noticed my computer stopped auto-correcting Ishida, I think it finally learned I wanted to type it) 

Muhahahahaha I’ve contained the legendary dwarf!!! Now she won’t be able to convince a whole nation to commit collective suicide because their leader is a naive idiot!!

The two of you just talk about how randomly childish the two of us can get at times XD I think you’d get along pretty well with Riza, though. I mean, she’s a nice person, who knows what it’s like to be scared, so she’d be fine with taking lead of the conversation. 

Scar isn’t sure if it’s Mei’s idea of a prank or not, but he’d be slightly disappointed if it was cause he kindawantedEvanstothinkhiseyesarenice but nope he’s in denial.

From that day on, Luna learns that if she wants to get the two awkward dorks together, she’ll have to take things into her own hands. Probably goes something like this:

Luna: Evans, are you free at 5pm this Friday? Evans: Yeah, why? Luna: Scar, are you free at 5pm this Friday? Scar: Aha Luna: Great, because I’m not! Have fun you two!

My sweet sunshine child cap T^T

Aah, no, my hair i shorter than that ^^;;; Also, I look younger than I am OTL

I think it’s more of the ‘I like physical contact if I know the person and am close enough to them’ thingy. I mean, I have a few acquaintances who love hugs and I always shrink away from them, but with close friends, U’m sometimes the one who starts hugs. But you might also dislike contact in general, which is also fine, everyone has their own preferences ^^

I did, but I only noticed after I answered your message OTL Well, that’s certainly an interesting ship… Now I slightly ship it…