#i’m a noob at digital please

[rivvre]

Some bistro huddy fan art I’ve doodled recently 😩☝️

I’ll go back to op soon I promise 😭🙏

[iiraoni]

the first time i’ve drawn in years

i am sorry if there is a watermelon boy in existence. i was playing with fun colors and it just turned into this. notice he also has an adam’s apple. watermelon boy has the voice of darth vader and is here to dominate your tastebuds

[bl00dngh0uls]

wh0 is the best OC youve ever created hand down and like a total list of all OCS

I wanted to wait to answer this until I had a digital artwork completed of every OC that I have, bc a lot of them I’ve only ever hand drawn (my favorite ,, I love me some good pencil to paper art)

But , I figured I’d be waiting forever, bc with so much going on, and so many other drawing projects I have in the works, this ask would be long forgotten until I saw it in my inbox months down the road and went oh fuck me ,, I forgot to do that.

Sooo , to answer the first part of the question, I don’t think I have a ‘best OC’, because I literally love all my sweet babies so much. They all have their beautiful qualities, and all have their lil garbage ones. They’re all such well rounded characters HHHH, and I want to squeeze them all to death in my arms in one giant group hug.

They would probably hate/fear me if they ever were actually in my presence because, well, I’ve put all of them through some pretty fucked up shit. Some worse than others LOL.

I will now compile a list of all my OC’s.

(I continue to ramble)

Later, I will be adding drawings of my darlings, as I so please, in whatever order, because I really want to try and make my tumblr more of a space for my OC shit. If I could someday get asks directed towards specific OC’s of mine,,,, that,.. would be a dream come true .

But, yaknow, in order to do that, I gotta get on top of actually posting art,, hhhha , that is a goal of mine for the rest of this year, into the following, and forever HAHA ,,my goal is always more art

SO ,, here we go. I’m going to list them in order of creation. (As best I can,, I started making OCs like,, fuck,, 12 years ago almost?? Some were lost along the way.. some were made so close to one another that I don’t know which came first)

1: Thomas James Burns🖤 age: 19

2: Kyle Frederick Hunt🖤 age: 29

3: Lucifer/Lilith🖤 age: n/a

4: Jehovah🖤 age: n/a

5: Esteban De La Cruz🖤 age: 37

6: Percival (Percy) Chauncey Palmer🖤 age: 21

7: Donovan Christian Bell🖤 age: 23

8: Joon Seo Woo🖤 age: 24

9: Ikeda Noboru🖤 age: 40

*Uhm also I have a bunch of OCs that were made to be in the specific stories of these characters,, so this is just a list of the ✨mains✨

Also I’m vvvvery aware that this is a bare minimum list,, just names and ages lol ,, uhm I just want to add a picture of each of them for a better description. So you can see them aaaand get a lil background info on them. I’ll probably start doing a few of those tonight~

Gonna tag all future OC posts with #MYOCDUMP so I can look through all of my own OC shit on my blog like a noob

[panduhpear]

✨✨✨Celestial ✨✨✨

My take on a draw this in your style challege for a person on instagram. I’m probably gonna post it to insta and Twitter tomorrow.

[bihansthot]

Happy “Noob” Year for everyone celebrating Chinese/Lunar New Year!

It’s the year of the Ox and I have a weak spot for Minotaur’s so thought why not make Noob a Minotaur for CNY. If anyone is wondering why he has hair and a nose it’s simply because it���s pre-Soulnado Noob, because that nonsense did not happen in my wolrd. The lip rings on the other hand are just a personal choice, I think guys look hot AF with lip rings. I have no excuse for him pulling up his shirt, y’all know I’m a thirsty thot and wanna see those tiddies, no shame, also anatomy practice! If anyone catches the Easter Egg I put in it, you’re amazing! (Hint it’s pointy).

Phew this one was a labor of love NGL, I played around sooooo much with how I wanted to do the shading, but I think I’m pretty happy with this kind of blend of like traditional digital panting and more of a Western style comic approach. I absolutely love how it came out though, like so freaking much! It might have taken forever but it was so worth it! His little earssssss 🥺🥺🥺🥺

The background is totally inspired by my Lunar New Year highlighter from Too Faced lol hopefully Bi-Han will forgive me for the red background since red and gold represents good luck and prosperity.

So, I hope you lovelies enjoy this and please like/comment/reblog if you do because that gives me life!

[omega-deku]

Bakudeku Ranma 1/2 Crossover

HI GAIS. Sorry I haven’t posted in forever. I was trying to learn how to digital art!! Two of my very first practice paintings are in here, but I kept them super simple bc I’m a noob.（´＿｀;）

SO. Ranma 1/2 was one of my favorite mangas growing up. It’s a rom com manga and it’s hilarious.

Here are the posts with just the art that you can actually enlarge:

PART ONE

 PART TWO

Basically, Ranma is a teenage boy, but because he fell into one of the cursed springs, he turns into a girl every time he’s doused in cold water. Hot water changes him back. Hence the “1/2″. As a raging bisexual, this series pleased me. (͠≖ ͜ʖ͠≖) Okay, I didn’t know at the time but still.  I mean, c’mon. 

Anyways, I had this bakudeku AU in my head for months now and I just wanted to draw random crap about it. I’ll talk more about it under the Read More cut. :) 

Please don’t mind the wildly changing styles, I’m just experimenting!

I meant for this to look more digital-art-y but I accidentally picked the wrong brush so it just came out like I scribbled colored pencils on it. :T Ah well! 

The girls wanna play dress up with Izuku after he/she/they comes out to the class. Momo makes the outfits!! :D

Morning cuddle sleep~ (♡´౪`♡)

More comic-style stuff under the cut~.

So.. yeah. I don’t really have a definitive story in mind, just really vague ideas. Like,,, in this AU, Izuku turns into a girl whenever he sneezes instead of cold water thing. Because I’m Super Creative. :I 

I think maybe gender roles and such are even more strict? Maybe this ability isn’t a quirk, and no one can really explain (conveniently) why it happens, but it has been like this for Deku since he/she was little. It didn’t really matter all that much when they were a kid, but it got more difficult to hide as Deku grew older. It’s really weird because quirks make everyone unique now. But quirks appearing happened relatively quickly and gender ideas/roles have been in place for thousands of years, so change has been difficult on that front. It dictates a loooot of social things like how to behave, greet, etc. etc. basically everything according to gender. A lot of stuff is structured around gender rolls, even more intensely than our universe as mentioned earlier.. Like. SUPER intense. (But things are slowly improving!)

So Deku’s mom hid it bc she didn’t want her baby to be bullied. Maybe Mitsuki knows but she hasn’t told Katsuki? Idk. But yeah. Inko raises him as a boy. But Izuku likes being both a gal and a guy, depending on how he feels that day, and does “dress ups” while he/she’s home. Izuku wants to feel free to do just that in public (where people that know him are around).

Idk how much it would follow canon, but Izuku does go to UA.  :U

Kacchan finds out accidentally one day while they’re fighting over something stupid. 

I drew a little more to this comic, but this is already super image-heavy and it was dumb anyway so I left them out lmao.

Kacchan: Any more things you’re hiding from me, nerd???

Deku eventually comes out to his class and everyone is super nice and accepting. I mean, they’ve been through thick and thin together, faced death together, Izuku can do whatever she/he wants to be happy, as far as they’re concerned. And they will kick anyone’s ass who tries to give Deku shit. 

Maybe the girls chant “One of us! One of us!” and get really excited to have Izu try on all these things. Clothes, makeup, whatever. 

Idk, trying a slightly more realistic style. ^ Less noodle arms. 

Kinda derpy, just doodle.

Now Izuku just does whatever. She wears skirts and dresses and shit when going out, and if she ends up sneezing and changing, he doesn’t give a crap anymore and just stays however he wants. 

Katsuki and Izuku eventually start dating after Kacchan gets his head out of his ass and matures. In the beginning, Izuku is worried that Katsuki likes him more in his girl form. After a lot of beating around the bush, he tells Katsuki how he feels.

 And Katsuki’s just like, “Wtf dumbass, I don’t give a fuck” - the only thing he gives a shit about is having a partner who understands how important hero work is to him, and how busy and chaotic the hero lifestyle can be. He loves all sides of Izuku. YEAH. Also, Kacchan’s sex drive is insatiable. ≖‿≖

THANK YOU FOR READING ALL THIS IF YOU’RE STILL HERE. 

I changed career paths to work towards art now, so hopefully I can deliver better fanarts in the future! (.づ◡﹏◡)づ.

(Ranma 1/2 is made by the same author as Inuyasha! Her horror manga series Mermaid Saga is awesome as well, though really short, sadly.)

[fantranslatorbychoice]

Oh glob, what have I gotten myself into? Just some long updates lol XD

Well, the year’s almost over, and it’s already the second half. The first half was too much and to be honest, I had to swim with the circumstances I am in right now so I had to put this passion non-profit project on hold, like seriously. But I did started translating the first few pages as early as December last year, as my very nice benefactor actually sent me the rest of the entire set of the Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi series after sending off the first 4 volumes. Probably read the entire thing first. But hey, free stuff is free so why complain. Plus my benefactor actually got the entire set for a steal, won’t say how much but in Amazon Japan, the last time I checked the whole set is roughly around $150 or a bit around that. and that’s just the first 7 volumes. Probably there’s an entire set now that’s about $200, as the final volume was released around August 2019.

Spoiler alert: the entire light novel series is made up of 10 volumes, so if you read it, the afterword by Yuuma-sensei specifically says that volume 10 is the final one, and Yuuma-sensei feels sad about it.

Yeah I highlighted that part in red, just in case many Kakuriyo fans still have some extreme hunger pangs or are unsure whether the novel series has ended. Here you go, straight from the horse’s mouth. Yuuma-sensei also has another Ayakashi light novel series, 浅草鬼嫁日記, roughly-translated to “Asakusa Wife from Hell Diaries”. Seems fun, they’re literally ogres - Oni living in the real world, like a reverse Kakuriyo thing. Who knows, maybe someday I can score that series too lol. The writer really likes Ayakashi, if it’s not that obvious yet 草 草 草 草  yeah I write kusa lol oml I should stop... But returning to the Kakuriyo series.. I won’t spoil what happened lol but I will probably make a commentary on that once I get the translations up and running.

Which leads me to my next announcement:

I PLAN TO UPLOAD THE DIRECT TRANSLATIONS OF JUST THE INTERMISSIONS/INTERLUDES ( 幕間 ) AND THE AFTERWORDS (あとがき) OF EACH VOLUME.

Chapter 5 is the only complete and full English Translation that I will be uploading here, and the rest will be summarized versions of the chapters plus my translation notes and commentaries.

Bummer, right?

Well, to be honest, after starting my initial translations I ran into several issues which made me feel sucker-punched and added to the stuff I’m worried about:

Issues regarding plagiarism (either my stuff getting plagiarized or potentially being accused of it)

Translating everything actually takes too long, even for me (I’ll explain that later)

More serious issues like possible DMCA-ish complaints (won’t want my hardwork just getting flagged and killed)

Personal stuff piling up and affecting my momentum

To be honest, when I received the books, I was so excited to work with them and upload as much as I can. But lots of things happened one after another, plus the worldwide issue that we have right now, so doing fun stuff wasn’t at the front of my priorities. So at the moment, I am mostly offline, by necessity, like connection is slower and with data cap, so I mostly do my translations with whatever hardcopies of dictionaries that I have on hand, offline. It’s good and all since I can put my skills to the test, but it can be expected that not all of the words are available in the books so I still have to hook on Jisho just to find the missing words I need. So my stuff pretty much looks like this:

I could just take pictures of these and upload them here but the maximum number of pics that tumblr allows is 15, and good glob I have more than 15 pages of translated material. Plus, as you can see above, some parts are untranslated and I had to find them in Jisho once I get online, so right now I have about 50% word-processed with the raw parts cooked, and I only have 12 raw pages remaining to be cooked and hashed lol

Which leads me to my next issues: my slowness (yeah I have to surrender on my slowness) and my fears regarding plagiarism.

I actually only started doing these translations in full blast around 2 months ago, and eventually I had to slow down so I won’t get bogged down since I also do other stuff. But I found out that ploughing through it can get quite draining. I started thinking that fan-subbing and scanlating were easier because aside from working digitally, these were also mostly done in teams so work time gets cut. Well, those were the days lol But for this one, aside from flying solo, I had to use all of my offline resources a lot, like doing everything by hand. It finally broke me about half-way and I had to step away from it, like reaaaaally step away from it. I thought I could finish 50+ pages in a span of a week. Well, I wasn’t exactly wrong there, but I also had other stuff to do, and if I just read it like I would any book without having to do anything, it’s a done deal. But having to translate stuff was draining, I felt frustrated so it broke me. I have to write each page by hand, leave out the words I can’t find or don’t know, and move on to the next page until my body stops working. Rinse and repeat until I could finish about 10 pages and get on with the typesetting and completing the missing parts. That takes a while so I just do my best to be patient.

Then the thoughts of plagiarism popped in and out, like I started thinking how to ensure that my stuff doesn’t get stolen and reposted elsewhere, or worse, getting my site shut down because fan translations are ambiguously illegal, like fansubs and scanlations, and I think those were what got me the most, so I just gave up midway. I’d say ambiguously illegal because if a series or title wasn’t licensed elsewhere then translating it is a fair game. But if it’s already released as a translated version by publishers, then releasing a translated version is like labelled as stealing, even if it’s non-profit. Of course profiteering is the worst, some steal what others work hard for, that they did for free, and sell them off. Scumbags to the bone smh I do my best to be within the fair use thing since I understand how much effort is made in creating content, so at present I have just decided to just put up the intermissions and the afterwords because aside from these being only a few pages long, it’s less likely to get whacked. Plus it’s easier for my psyche to just sum up each chapter and add some comments on it so it won’t be taken down, plus I wont’ be too-attached so even if some nutjobs repost it elsewhere because some people are just unempathetic like that, at least I won’t be as resentful. Plus the afterwords are just so cute, Yuuma-sensei gives off an adorable and relatable vibe, so I feel like aside from just showing off her stories, I think she needs to get signal-boosted too, so people would have an idea on who wrote this hunger-inducing light novel series lol.  I only started to pick up the whole thing again about a week ago, and I still wasn’t fast but at least I got to add at least 20 more pages translated, plus I started to type the first pages and add the missing words so at the very least, I felt some sort of achievement. It gave me some hope, and to be honest I have been doing this to maintain my sanity even for just a bit, so I guess I will do my best to bring Yuuma-sensei’s work out into the world. It’s a really good series, and it got animated into 2 seasons, plus the manga’s out, so that says a lot on how the series caught on. It can’t be denied that it’s a really engrossing series, so I don’t see any reason why this really good series should remain hidden. It probably has a lot of fans but aren’t being too attached into it because of language barriers, and even in my own way, I would like to bridge that gap. I mean, I may have slow internet that can only open mails in basic html but hey, this is the least I could do for the fandom. It’s not like I spew out doujin stuff or anything lol

OK, so summing up this long-ass update:

Chapter 5 - The Mysterious Capital Youto** - coming soon

Will just translate the intermissions and afterwords into English

English summaries of the chapters plus commentaries will be uploaded

Please don’t expect any fast uploads lol it’s not like I do ctrl+A into Google translate and slap it in here. Nothing against doing that but.. uhm, sometimes AI don’t get the nuances translated, and a lot gets lost in translation, so at best, anything done by some trash enthusiast, even noobs can still have some oomph in it that soulless beings can’t even top off. But hey, that’s just my opinion lol

So yeah, there you have it, a long update. Oh, and I changed the name of this blog because I have other raw stuff that I may be able to put here without any fear of being taken down because they’re in the public domain, so they’re all fair game since I don’t get any profit from them anyway and others may also appreciate them too. Hint: One is a series of Japanese classic  fantasy short stories, the other one is a set of instructional manuals on how to write kana and kanji in ballpen and brushpens. They’re a bit lighter so once I get Chapter 5 up I’ll do them as soon as I get rested.

See you all later and thank you for stumbling in this blog. xoxoxo

[rubykoncubes]

Here’s a step by step of drawing that i DEFINITLY didn’t expect i would expand. This was supposed to be a random sketch and all, but ... I think it was just too endearing for me to not pursue smh. So here it is, even getting digital completion.

三ᕕ༼✿•̀︿•́༽ᕗ *:･ﾟ✧

{Comments, Reblogs & Likes are very appreciated! ♥}

This would be the 2nd time i test the semi-glitchy and blurry lineart thing, in this case even coupled with a background in tv-static fashion.

Alot of aesthetic adepts, be it illustrators or photographers, seem to really dig this effect. And i kinda get why, hence why i tried it out. Now, while i enjoy this retro effect, it is lowkey headache-inducing, but since i’m a noob in the domain, i assume i’ll just get used to it. Idk XDD

I also used the following TUTORIAL as guide for the coloring! Please check it out as well! :D

Here’s the whole collection!

♥ Analog feelings ...

♥ Bubble bath ...  

♥ Crawl under the flowers ...

♥ Dear hologram daydream ...  

♥ Endless spiralling mistakes ...

[lcdrarry]

LCDrarry proudly presents:

The LCDrarry Box Office Hits 2019

It's Reveals Day! Thank you so much for participating in and following along with the first edition of "Lights, Camera, Drarry"!

We hope you enjoyed the fest and all the wonderful creations as much as we did.

Your LCDrarry Mods, Suzi and Tami (@erin-riwen & @llap115)

PS: Now check out who wrote your favourite fics and created all that wonderful art under cut ;) And please share this post to show your appreciation! Thank you!!

Draco Malfoy’s Stupendous Seduction Seminar

Prompt: #3 | "Legally Blonde" - 2001 - Robert Luketic Author: @lettersbyelise Word Count: 8,700 words Rating: Explicit Warnings: No warnings

Summary: Draco Malfoy offers to help his coworkers to improve their seduction techniques, with unexpected consequences.

Read "Draco Malfoy’s Stupendous Seduction Seminar" on AO3.

Love, Harry

Prompt: #118 | "Love, Simon" (2018, dir. Greg Berlanti); "Alex Strangelove" (2018, dir. Craig Johnson) Author: Zzzara / @big-draco-energy Word Count: 26.4k Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Summary: Harry Potter keeps a huge secret: that scary thing he can't tell anyone about. Until a mysterious penfriend changes his life, because he keeps a secret, too.

Read "Love, Harry" on AO3.

Harry Potter and the Disorder Of The Phoenix

Prompt: #93 | "Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix" (2007 - David Yates) Author: @postjentacular  Word Count: 1.3k Rating: General Warnings: It's all getting a bit meta

Summary: An exasperated werewolf-slash-professor, a decidedly not-dead drama queen, a brat, and a straight white man settle down to watch a movie. It goes as well as you'd expect.

Read "Harry Potter and the Disorder Of The Phoenix" on AO3.

Heavy Burden

Prompt: #132 | "Howl's Moving Castle" - 2004 - Hayao Miyazaki Author: ViridianJane Art Medium: digital Word Count: 225 Rating: General Warnings: N/A

Summary: Harry offers to help ease Draco's burden, and Draco can't find it in himself to refuse.

Enjoy "Heavy Burden" on AO3.

The Shape of Desire is Your Name

Prompt: #8 | "Call Me By Your Name" - 2017 - Luca Guadagnino Author: @dracoismytrashson​ Word Count: 44.6k Rating: Explicit Warnings: Internalized Homophobia

Summary: In those days, I often felt like I wanted to burn the world or I wanted it to burn me, scorch me with it’s mysteries and mundanities until I was a blackened strip of a thing, rapturously spent and reshaped into something far more interesting than I’d ever been. I was waiting for something to happen to me, some indelible experience to come along and justify this dangerous searing feeling inside me, this dormant volcano that felt at turns exciting and oh so volatile. I was certain Harry Potter was that thing. The match to my tinder.

Read "The Shape of Desire is Your Name" on AO3.

The Extraordinarily Magical Host Club

Prompt: #94 | "Ouran High School Host Club" - 2006 - Series Author: @bafflinghaze​ Word Count: 20.6k Rating: Teen and up Warnings: No warnings

Summary: One day, Harry Potter, Saviour of the Wizarding World, breaks a one-hundred-thousand galleon magical artifact that belongs to the ‘Host Club’, consisting of six not-so-mysterious purebloods. Unable to be reparioed and Harry’s inheritance tied up in charities, Harry’s forced to work for the Host Club to pay back the damages! Cue all the hijinks that come with dealing with a bunch of (mostly rich) purebloods...and maybe a bit of romance, too??

Read "The Extraordinarily Magical Host Club" on AO3.

The Thing I Hate About You

Prompt: #140 | "10 Things I Hate About You" - 1999 - Gil Junger Author: ElleGray / @diligent-thunder​ Word Count: 1030 Rating: Mature Warnings: poetic mentions of blood, slut-shaming/use of the word 'whore'

Summary: An epistolary of a poet and his future lover, in which Draco is annoyed, Harry is a messy little shit, Blaise is a Bad Friend, and shit goes down in a flood of gin and hot chips. Ultimately, Draco laments his inability to master his heart, and oh so dramatically falls apart (in iambic pentameter).

Read "The Thing I Hate About You" on AO3.

A Series of Unfortunate Ghosts

Prompt: #61 | "A Christmas Carol" - 1984 - Clive Donner Author: bottseveryflavorbeans_jrayoh23 Word Count: 25.8k Rating: Mature Warnings: death talk, depression, self-hatred, physical and emotional abuse (not between H&D), suicidal thoughts

Summary: It’s sixth year and Draco Malfoy’s life is about to change thanks to some meddlesome ghosts who show him the path he is on is not the only path for him. Between their ghoulish advice and some deep soul searching, Draco regains some of the hope he lost.

Read "A Series of Unfortunate Ghosts" on AO3.

Nightingale

Prompt: #44 | "The Great Gatsby" - 2013 - Baz Luhrmann Author: Forgetticus Word Count: 5.6k Rating: Teen and Up Warnings: none

Summary: Harry, Draco, Millicent, Pansy and Blaise pile in the Duesenberg to go to a party in the Great Gatsby Universe.

Read "Nightingale" on AO3.

Hot Air

Prompt: #36 | "Avatar: The Last Airbender" - 2005 - Series Author: fantom_ftnoise / @fantom-ftnoise​ Medium: Digital Art Rating: Teen and Up Warnings: Rated T for a wee little rude gesture

Summary: When firebenders butt heads with airbenders, it can be explosive. For Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter, it's just another year at Hogwarts School of Elements & Bending.

Enjoy "Hot Air" on AO3.

Revelation

Prompt: #127 | "Boy Erased" - 2018 - Joel Edgerton Author: Zzzara / @big-draco-energy​ Word Count: 26k Rating: Explicit Warnings: Rape/Non-Con (not between H & D) - please read the tags & author notes!

Summary: I know I'm lost forever. From now on, I am not able to un-trust him. It's like falling in love, but deeper - more secure and safe. Something that's not easily undone, not with him. It’s a revelation. Have you ever fallen in trust?

Read "Revelation" on AO3.

Run Away

Prompt: #115 | "Titanic" - 1997 - James Cameron Author: carereren / @straightasdrarry​ Word Count: 5.8k Rating: Explicit Warnings: internalized homophobia, period-typical homophobia (set in 1912)

Summary: Draco Malfoy has to choose between love or his family as he boards the RMS Titanic.

Read "Run Away" on AO3.

Dying in L.A.

Prompt: #143 | "A Star is Born" - 2019 - Bradley Cooper Author: tsundanire / @breathofmine Word Count: 9.6k Rating: Explicit Warnings: Angst, Drug use, Implied/referenced alcohol abuse/alcoholism, implied/referenced drug addiction, mental health issues, addiction, implied referenced self-harm, Inspired by "A Star is Born", Ambiguous/Open ending.

Summary: After the war, Harry loses all sense of purpose. He travels the world aimlessly, from one spot to the next, chasing a high that never lasts. When the morning comes all that's left is a pounding head, and a foul taste in his mouth. Until he stumbles into a bar in L.A., where his past and present collide.

Read "Dying in L.A." on AO3.

Nobody Tells You How

Prompt: #137 | "Return to Me" - 2000 - Bonnie Hunt Author: @thirdeyeblinkings​ Word Count: 34.2k Rating: Explicit Warnings: Canon Character Death, Grief/Mourning, Explicit Sexual Content

Summary: Draco never expected to find love once, let alone twice. But how does love work when your heart's still broken? **OR** Harry gets a heart transplant and develops feeings for Draco, but those two things are not related. Until they are.

Read "Nobody Tells You How" on AO3.

We Are Going Back In Time

Prompt: #68 | "Skyfall" - 2012 - Sam Mendes Author: GlitternGlow Word Count: 4.7k Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death (MCD), Swearing

Summary: Draco has been 007 for a while, his mother and father, even his friends are part of MI6. One day he sets his eyes on his new handler, a scruffy black-haired youth with enough balls to stand up to him. Can they beat Silva and bring him down before anything else happens? And will Draco have the guts to tell Harry how he feels?

Read "We Are Going Back In Time" on AO3.

Expecting to Fly

Prompt: #15 | "The Sure Thing" - 1985 - Rob Reiner Author: ruarcher / @coriesocks​ Word Count: 45.5k Rating: Mature Warnings: Excessive drinking, attempted kidnapping

Summary: While at university in America, Harry plans a cross-country trip to get laid. He doesn’t count on having to take this trip with Draco Malfoy.

Read "Expecting to Fly" on AO3.

Rest your heart in my hands

Prompt: #133 | "Moulin Rouge" - 2001 - Baz Luhrman Author: saphira_black Word Count: 2.7k Rating: Mature Warnings: implied sexual work (but not really)

Summary:His heart skipped a beat. A slender figure stepped through the curtains. The music changed and the whole crowd started to roar. "A man?" It was not more than a faint whisper, but the twins heard him, nevertheless. "You didn’t know? His name’s Draco Malfoy," answered Fred.

Read "Rest your heart in my hands" on AO3.

Lost in Blue

Prompt: #75 | "The Blue Lagoon" - 1980 - Randal Kleiser Artist: @sirene312​ Medium: Digital Art Rating: Mature Warnings: half-naked wizards ;)

Summary: [Fan Art] Harry and Draco accidentally get trapped on a desert island. A "The Blue Lagoon" movie AU

Enjoy "Lost in Blue" on AO3.

When The Universe Reels

Prompt: "Meet Me In St Louis" - 1944 - Vincente Minnelli Artist: @maesterchill​ Author: wishes to remain unnamed Word Count: 1.2k Medium: Digital Art Rating: Teen and up Warnings: none

Summary: After a week of convincing himself it wasn’t really a date—they were only taking a trolley ride together for Merlin’s sake—the agreed hour arrived and Draco waited anxiously at the trolley station. But where on earth was Potter?

Read "When The Universe Reels" on AO3.

Slick

Prompt: #59 | "Grease" - 1978 - Randal Kleiser Author: milkandhoney / @fictional  Word Count: 10.4k Rating: Teen and up Warnings: Slight Virginity Shaming

Summary: Slick is the word. Harry's bike is a bird. And Poor Draco's a sex noob.

Read "Slick" on AO3.

The Loudest Bang

Prompt: #51 | "MythBusters" - 2003 to 2015 - Series Author: @jeldenil Word Count: 1.2k Rating: Teen and up Warnings: none

Summary: “You’re not going to use a nuclear weapon on Gringotts’ strongest vault, Potter.”

Read "The Loudest Bang" on AO3.

A Truth Universally Acknowledged

Prompt: #12 | "Pride & Prejudice" - 2005 - Joe Wright Author: epsilonargus Word Count: 23.9k Rating: Teen and up Warnings: none

Summary: It has been four years since the war. Mr. Henry Bennet is perfectly pleased with his domestic life at Longbourn, managing the affairs of his demanding mother and many sisters. But a new Muggle gentleman moves into Netherfield Park, and he brings with him a surprising figure from Mr. Henry's past ...

Read "A Truth Universally Acknowledged" on AO3.

Man Eater

Prompt: #25 | "Little Shop of Horrors" - Alan Menken Author: milkandhoney / @fictional Word Count: 2.4k Rating: Mature Warnings: Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence (not between H & D), Dark Draco, Implied Sexual Acts

Summary: “You can’t lie to me.” The plant released Draco and he stumbled, overbalanced by his own gangly limbs. “I've watched you. I've heard all your idle thoughts. All your whispered secrets. I know what Harry means to you.”

Read "Man Eater" on AO3.

I Wanna Get Better

Prompt: #139 | "One Day at a Time" - 2017 - Series Author: donnarafiki / @rose-grangerweasleyisbae​ Word Count: 5.0k Rating: Mature Warnings: Mental Health Issues, Mental Breakdown, Suicidal Thoughts, Depression

Summary: One night Draco comes knocking on Neville's door, with a tape recorder and a desperate need for a hug.

Read it now on AO3.

A week at the Humdinger

Prompt: #9 | "Pretty Woman" - 1990 - Gary Marshall Author: AhaMarimbas Word Count: 52.2k Rating: Explicit Warnings: Rape/Non Con (not between H & D), Being Outed, Ace-phobia, Rude and Derogatory language

Summary: What happens when Europe's richest business tycoon asks London's poorest (probably) prostitute for directions? An adventure at the Humdinger, and a love story to last the ages. Or at least the week.

Read "A week at the Humdinger" on AO3.

Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before

Prompt: #33 | "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" - 2004 - Michel Gondry Author: @thefifthbiscuit​ Word Count: 1.2k Rating: Teen and up Warnings: none

Summary: Harry's used to being recognised wherever he goes. Then he meets Draco Malfoy, possibly the only person in the wizarding world who doesn't know what Harry Potter looks like. Based on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Read "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" on AO3.

Four Years Gone

Prompt: #141 | "Point Break" - 1991 - Katheryn Bigelow Author: ladderofyears / @clemandben Word Count: 10.8k Rating: Explicit Warnings: Relationship breakdown, Bank Robbery, Sexually Explict, Obsession

Summary: Four years ago Harry Potter let Draco Malfoy fly away in a snow storm that no flyer could possibly have survived, and ever since that day his life has been on hold. Then, one day he receives a photograph of a Mountain Range. The Pir Panjal mountain range, in India. Draco is alive. Will Harry chase him, and give up everything he cares about?

Read "Four Years Gone" on AO3.

Our Husbands Are Gay

Prompt: #134 | "Grace and Frankie" - 2015 - Series Author: MarchnoGirl Word Count: 14.5k Rating: Explicit Warnings: Infidelity (not between Drarry), Explicit Sexual Content, Older Characters (60 yo)

Summary: As soon as they stepped foot inside, all his willpower crumbled once more. Draco grabbed Harry’s arm again, making him stumble backwards. “I can’t. Let’s run away. You and me; we’ll build our lives together somewhere else, somewhere far away. Please, say yes.” Harry turned properly to him and smiled softly. He adjusted Draco’s jacket, smoothing his hand down his chest and stopping at his heart. “I learned long ago that running away is not gonna solve my problems. C’mon, Draco.”

Read "Our Husbands Are Gay" on AO3.

Please help promote the fest by sharing your favourite submissions, so more people can enjoy all the amazing new Drarry works of LCDrarry.

Thank you! See you in 2020 ;)

[junosartsthetic]

Can i have a matchup, please? pt2 and 7 would be great!18+, Bi women, 5'1. I'm chubby, i have medium-length dark and brown eyes. I like listen to loud music (usually rock and video game music), play games but i'm a big noob and i love to draw in digital and i want to become graphic designer in the future and i like when people watch me draw but i'm still shy about my art. I'm humorous, honest, sarcastic and loyal. I can be also very caring and it can get little bit annoying sometimes.(1/3)💜

I like attention and i LOVE affection! I'm a very clingy girl and i love to give my friends big hugs and even friendly kisses if they are comfortable with it. Even when it's very hot, i will still cling to people. I'm a little bit a jealous girl, but i'm trying to ignore it. I can also get angry VERY easily, by simple question i can get irritated, but i'm trying to not show it. I'm not an very intelligent because i'm quite stupid lmao, but i like to make fun of it. (2/3)💜 Around my family and strangers i'm shy and quiet, but around my closer friends i'm more loud and comfortable! I'm more open towards friends than towards my family. I'm little bit shy to ask something in store, but i'm trying to be less shy, but i'm not shy about making new friends! I love to met new people in irl and on internet! I always try to learn about them as much as i can, so i often ask them many questions. I also have fear of germs and insects. I think that's all! Thank you! (3/3)💜

For part 2 I match you with... Joseph!

Not only will Joseph love your taste in music, he will encourage you to blast it at any hours of the day or night you want

Maybe don’t do that though, the neighbors might hate you

Joseph plays video games with you, but he’ll rub it in if he wins

Let’s be real, Joseph has the attention span of a common house fly, but if he sees you drawing he’ll watch for hours

He might even slip in a few compliments

And by that I mean he will not shut up about it

Not only will that be distracting, but if he wants attention he’ll wrap his arms around your shoulders and kiss your neck until you acknowledge him

Regardless of your intelligence, Joseph thinks you’re a genius

He laughs at all your jokes

He loves all of your art

He loves everything about you

So by his standards you’re perfect

For part 7 I match you with... Hot Pants!

She is more lowkey about everything

She still loves you with all of her heart

But she has a calmer demeanor

When you’re drawing she’ll rest her chin on your shoulder for a few minutes to watch, but will then wander off to let you have your space

In public she’ll hold your hand and give you little kisses occasionally

She’s honestly sort of awkward in terms of showing affection

Just tell her you love it and she’ll warm right up

She’ll insist that you’re not stupid, and will scold you for saying so, even if you’re simply making a joke

She thinks the world of you and doesn’t want anyone, including you, to talk bad about you

She loves when you show her affection because it reminds her that she is loved by someone as amazing as you

Hope you enjoyed! <3

[rivvre]

Im back (°▽°)…

My bad y’all, back for the better and hopefully for good … (´∀｀)

Anyway ice skater ! Sanji and hockey player zoro (∩´﹏`∩)

Zoro loves to watch him in his element

Anyway kinda rushed I’ll make better outfits another time ☝️

[somethinglacking]

Shooting For Stars: Chapter 1

Summary: 

Hyuna Lee just started college, and while procrastinating decided to give a popular MMO called LOLOL a try. Here she will meet new friends, battle monsters, part takes in epic quests, and potentially find love!

Most of this will take place in LOLOL at the beginning.

This takes place a year/ year and a half after Seven's good end, and the secret endings. Yoosung x OC

**Update's once a week**

Smut in later chapters, of course ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Hyuna groaned as she sat staring at her computer. Her assignment was to draw something that inspires you, some sort of introductory assignment for the Professor to get to know her small class of Art Student Misfits. Nothing seemed to inspire her as of late, and no matter what she did manage to sketch out onto screen seemed to call her out: The Un-Inspired Art Student with no muse or motivation. Her fingers ran the length of her caramel brown locks, and her nails lightly scratched her scalp trying to ease her growing frustrations. Hazel glared at the taunting screen before her, daring it to keep on challenging her. 

After what seemed like an eternity, the artist sighed in defeat. Nothing was coming to her, and the lines she had managed to get down didn’t seem to be coming together as anything. Annoyed with herself and lack of a muse, she set her tablet to the side and opened her social media. Not much was going on, and she didn’t really have any friends anymore. Her sister posted a photo of her and her little class of second graders. They were cute and her sister looked happy. Smiling at the photo she offered it a thumbs up. 

When she was done scrolling her newsfeed she opened boogle. Bored she searched for fun things to do on the internet. The search results varied in interest, but an ad on the web page she was on showed a popular MMO and a free trial. Curious she clicked it and went to the homepage of the game. She read of the spec’s and nodded noting it would work on her pc. She clicked the download icon and downloaded it. 

Hazel eyes read every bit of detail the game had to offer her as it booted up the character creator. Feeling a little nervous, having never played an MMO before and unsure if she’d actually like being in contact with actual people. Logically she knew she could just play solo and ignore the events, or even delete her entire account after the free trial ran out and simply say she tried it. Biting a plump bottom lip she was greeted with page after several final updates. 

First, she selected her gender debating on being a boy, but ultimately settled for female solely because she knew their armor would be cuter the further she got into the game. She clicked through the races and settled on an elf. She smiled customizing the hairstyle and making the hair a lovely hue of blue. The eyes matched her avatar's hair. Hyuna chooses the least appalling beginner to wear praying she would be able to get something that wasn’t such an eyesore to wear easily. Overall the artist was pleased with the look of her new online persona and moved onto the next page.

Here she had to choose a username. Chewing on her lip she knew she go to Sapphire would be already taken in such a massive game, but gave it a go anyway. Slightly disappointed when it was already taken she contemplated what to use. She typed in several weird spelling of the name before Sapfyre worked. Making a surprised and pleased noise, she made haste to click the arrow button that would take her into the game. 

The screen loaded and she took her time going through the tutorial and getting the hang of the world, and command functions. Hyuna watched as her pretty avatar moved about doing little missions and basically busy work with prompt boxes explaining the gameplay.

 Soon enough she had completed her ‘training’ and was warped to a busy square full of other players. Hyuna blushed feeling slightly overwhelmed by the sheer number of avatars on the screen. She had picked one of the busier servers, but she hadn’t imagined it’d be this popular. Chewing her lip she ran around getting used to the shops and how the currency worked. Hazel eyes scanned the screen and took notice of where the world chat was, besides it was a little icon that lights up red with a little 1 beside it. Curious she clicked it and noticed it was the private messaging system. 

SupermanYoosung★: Hey you look lost ^^ SupermanYoosung★: You must be new! SupermanYoosung★: If you want help doing some quest or anything let me know. Hyuna tapped the pads of her fingers against her lips reading the message over and over again honestly wanting to take them up on their offer. Yet, she also felt rather shy about it too, it was strange. It wasn’t like it was a real interaction with someone, just two gamer bros going on a digital epic quest, so to speak. That being said, the artist wasn’t really a people person. Taking a moment to think about the other player's offer she opened the tab at the top that showed the servers rankings and who was online at the moment. Hazel went wide as she stared at the first couple name’s noticing the friendly strangers rank. They where rank number 2, basically LOLOL royalty. Hyuna let out a girlish giggle in disbelief. She clicked back onto her private messages and re-read the person’s name. It was for sure rank #2 SupermanYoosung. Before her brain could catch up to her fingers the typed with speed across her keyboard. 

Sapfyre: Oh wow! Sapfyre: I just check up on you, and it says your rank #2 ^^; Sapfyre: You must have better things to do than help a little noob like myself!

Before she knew it an impressive tank build avatar ran towards her. Hyuna bumped her forehead lightly with her fist watching as he positioned himself next to her Hobo of an Elf avatar. What a contrast that was to behold. However, if he did have time to waste with her, she almost wanted to beg him to help her get something more suitable for her avatar to wear. Something less beggar and painstakingly noob. 

SupermanYoosung★: Hahaha Yup! That’s me, I’m pretty awesome, huh? 

Hyuna couldn’t help but roll her eyes as a smile played at the edge of her mouth.

SupermanYoosung★: I’m also pretty free at the moment. I have no issue bussing you through some dungeons and helping you get some decent equipment.  SupermanYoosung★: Plus once you get passed level 20 you can join guilds! SupermanYoosung★: If you want, I can invite you to mine, haha!

This person seemed pretty nice and welcoming, Hyuna mused smiling to herself. She didn’t want to get his hopes up, nonetheless. Still unsure if she wanted to pay for the month to month subscription, or would even bother logging in again once she decided she had procrastinated enough for the evening and got back to her assignment. Best to play it coy. 

Sapfyre: Well alright then!  Sapfyre: Lolol can you add me to the party, I have absolutely no idea what I am doing  SupermanYoosung★: Oh! Sure thing!

The notification of a party invitation popped up. Hyuna clicked it and accepted. Soon there was an Icon over the two opposing in style avatars linking them together. 

Sapfyre: Wow they really go out and show you who you're with, huh? Sapfyre: We should get out of the public eye, haha… Someone like you hanging out with a LOLOL hobo can’t be good for the reputation! ^^ SupermanYoosung★: lol naw, it’s fine, I’m buying potions. I’ve got a feeling you’re gonna need them at the start ^^ SupermanYoosung★: I know just the Dungeon that shares exp! It’s pretty high rank, but I can handle the monsters myself. You can just sit back and enjoy the show! Cheer for me too! Sapfyre: I might be a noob, but I do freelance as a cheerleader on the side Sapfyre: It’s not much, but it’s honest work~ Sapfyre: Go! Yoosung! GO!  SupermanYoosung★: Haha! I didn’t expect you to actually cheer for me >_< SupermanYoosung★: Now I definitely have to help you get to at least level 20!

Hyuna’s character automatically followed the party leader’s avatar about the busy town square. There was an option to turn it off, but she didn’t feel like it. It was fun watching the two of them run around side by side as this Yoosung got the supplies she would most likely need to brave the dungeon. The artist clicked on her avatar and gasped in surprise. 

Sapfyre: There are little social action commands! Sapfyre: Ooooh~ 

She made her Elf do a little tribal type dance around Yoosung. She giggled as he made his brolly tank dance with her in the middle of the square. That was cute! 

SupermanYoosung★: Hahaha >_< SupermanYoosung★: They do! And some of the actions are special to race, gender, and class. SupermanYoosung★: Oh! You get to pick a class at level 10 SupermanYoosung★: Any ideas on a build you want to make? Sapfyre: Thank you for the dance Monsieur~ Sapfyre: I dunno what build to make??? Sapfyre: I guess I want something ranged so I can hang back. 

A box popped up on the screen declaring that SupermanYoosung would like to item share with her. Hyuna clicked yes and his inventory opened along with her own. She flushed when she saw all the cool things he was carrying and how she only held a level 2 stick from one of her tutorial missions at the beginning. She watched as Yoosung threw 99 potions, and 99 mana restore potions at her along with a level 2 wooden helm. She giggled equipping it to her Elf. 

Sapfyre: Now my look is finally complete. What a sexy helm! SupermanYoosung★: lololol, sooo sexy~ SupermanYoosung★: Back on the topic of builds SupermanYoosung★: Ever consider being a support healer? SupermanYoosung★: It’s sooo hard to find a decent one D:

Sapfyre: I dunno if I’d make a good support ^^; Sapfyre: If they are hard to find there must be a reason right?

SupermanYoosung★: They just don’t know how to build themselves, and/or try to fight when the tanks have the situation covered and die, SupermanYoosung★: I never built a healer before, but I do know a few things. I could help you if you want?

Sapfyre: Welllllllll Sapfyre: Sure why not~~! Sapfyre: Since you’re helping me out so much already, I don’t mind trying to be a healer for you.

SupermanYoosung★: Thank you! SupermanYoosung★: Rest of the guild will be so jealous when I show off my own personal little healer~ haha~

Sapfyre: >_< lololol I’m shy~

Hyuna bit her lip re-reading the messages. It almost felt like this guy or girl or whatever they are was flirting with her. They couldn’t possibly know she was a girl. She assumed many male players would make a female avatar, let's be honest, the higher rank armor leaves little to the imagination. She wrote off the interaction as this Yoosung being friendly and excited to help her create a healer support he seemed to need desperately. 

SupermanYoosung★: Haha that’s okay! SupermanYoosung★: Do you have a headset, it’s easier to chat that way while in dungeons.

The artist flushed again at the thought of letting a stranger hear her voice. She could see why it would be more convenient. Seeing as she had never played an online game, and preferred solo JRPG’s or Horror survival-

Sapfyre: I never required a headset before

SupermanYoosung★: It’s okay, it just means we are gonna crawl dungeons a bit slower since we’ll have to type to one another. 

Sapfyre: ^^; I’ll look into investing in one in the future. Sapfyre: I’m on a college student allowance, it’ll have to be a cheap one.

SupermanYoosung★: Haha, I’m a student too. I get what you mean. SupermanYoosung★: No shame in having an off-brand HS since you’re just starting SupermanYoosung★: I’m gonna teleport us to a level 30 dungeon. Keep your guard up

Sapfyre: Sure thing ^^

They were off, the screen turned into a load for a moment before both of them spawned in a dungeon. The artist smiled as she watched the other player navigate the surrounding area. She was careful to fall back when zombie looking monstered spawned and swarmed them. All level 30, which made sense, Yoosung had stated it was a high-rank dungeon. Turns out level grind was a bit of a grind, even for beginners. Luckily it was a shared exp dungeon and since there were only two of them in the party it got split in half. Slowly where minimal communication since she lacked a headset they crawled through the Dungeon. Yoosung was kind enough to allow her to loot the corpses and the treasure chests. 

They had even run into some other players who would say hello to Yoosung via the world chat. They had custom speech bubbles, and Hyuna was interested in obtaining some of her own. It was impressive how immersive this game was. You could build sperate skills like smithing, mining, fishing, cooking, act. It was super customizable. Yoosung had rattled off about how there was an event boss just recently and the cool stuff he got for himself. Hyuna smiled, sometimes even giggling to herself as she read Yoosung’s messages. 

Even though she had gotten some pretty decent armor and weapon’s they couldn’t be equipped before she was level 30. It was probably a power scale to disallow players to equip armor so far above themselves early. Yoosung assured her in a few sessions he would have her beefed up and ready to stand on her own in no time. Hyuna despite herself agreed to meet up tomorrow evening and found herself genuinely enjoying the game. Maybe she was just enjoying Yoosung’s company, who knew. 

Once they finished the dungeon, Yoosung warped them back into the town square and sent her a friend request. Hyuna didn’t even think twice as she accepted it. 

SupermanYoosung★: This way we will get notifications when either of us logs on, and it even shows where we are on the map.  SupermanYoosung★: I’m gonna be on a little while longer, you good?

Hyuna looked at the clock and gasped blinking, unbelieving what she was thinking. Had she really wasted three hours? Was it really 1 am?

Sapfyre: OMFG!!!! It’s 1 am!!! I have an assignment due tomorrow morning! SupermanYoosung★: It’s 1 am for me too, we must be pretty close. Lolol SupermanYoosung★: You should go get the project done SupermanYoosung★: Guess I’ll see you tomorrow~ ^^

Sapfyre: Ya tomorrow! I’ll be off! Sapfyre: Enjoy ruling the online virtual world!

With that Hyuna was quick to log off and sighed to herself. It had only meant to be an hour break, and somehow she got so caught up in it she was looking at either failing her first assignment or not sleeping. Looking at the clock she grabbed her a tablet and the pen and looked at whatever these lines she had drawn were suppose to be. Deciding to delete all the progress she had apparently made, she settled herself in for a long night of drawing her assignment for her 8 am class. 

[jenroses]

Cheap, low spoon cooking

My cooking tends to start with protein, and because of my food issues, that protein is generally meat, and if you argue with me about that, I’ll block you, because if you want to do a thread on low cost vegan cooking, go right ahead, you’ve got your own blog right there.  Holler if you want more specific instructions for any of these, and let me know whether you just need a basic recipe or “how to for a complete noob to the kitchen” or anything in between. 

1. Chicken

Chicken is at the top of the list for cheap and easy, because it can often be had for less than $1.50 per pound, and because many preparations of it can be done with less than 5 minutes of work (oven time not included.)

Basic: get whole chicken. Preheat oven to 450. Pull out giblets. Sprinkle salt on skin. Roast at 450 for 1 hour. Enjoy crispy skin, tender meat. Same method (shorter cooking time, about 45 minutes) works for bone-in skin-on thighs. With the whole chicken, you can usually make one bird into several meals, by using the meat for one meal, and making soup out of the bones and whatnot for the next meal.   If you get skinless boneless thighs, they’ll usually be a little cheaper than skinless boneless breasts. Don’t roast them, cut them up, drench them in a marinade, and pan fry the pieces. Serve with pasta or rice and stir fried veggies. 

2. Pork

Pork tends to range in price from $2.50 per pound up to $8 per pound. I’m usually getting pork shoulder for about $3 per pound. Shoulder and “country style ribs” are incredibly cheap and can be pressure cooked (instant pot) or slow cooked into pulled pork with seasonings, or you can get slightly fancier, make a marinade of coconut aminos and orange juice (or apple juice and apple cider vinegar, or rice wine vinegar, mirin, soy sauce, whatever, just make sure there’s some salt and some acid and some sweetness in the marinade to help tenderize the meat), and cut the shoulder roast into 3/4 inch thick steaks, cutting across the grain, then put in a bag or bowl with the marinade overnight. We add onions and garlic and shallots to the marinade because I can digestively tolerate them only if they’ve been soaking in acid of some sort for a while.  My favorite is to marinade in orange juice, coconut aminos, chilis, onion, garlic, etc. overnight, then pan fry the steaks, turning often, until golden brown. The resulting pork shoulder steaks get cut into strips and served a variety of ways--tacos, sandwiches, lettuce wraps, whatever. We usually use about 8 oz per person if there’s no fancy sandwich toppings, and 6 oz per person or less if making wraps or tacos. I have to have a little more energy for this method, and will often have someone else prep the aromatics. 

3. Eggs Even farm eggs, if you live anywhere near a rural area, can be had for less than 50 cents an egg, and regular conventional eggs have been $2 per dozen or less basically as long as I’ve been alive. Basic egg recipes can go from fridge to table in about 5 minutes. I usually get eggs from a friend whose neighbors have backyard chickens, for about $4 per dozen. A good nonstick egg pan + eggs is a fast way to get protein into you without spending all your energy doing it. Over easy, scrambled, omelet, or my kid’s favorite, egg in the hole... all cheap and incredibly fast.

4. Beef Most beef is not cheap, and has been getting steadily more expensive for years. That said, if you understand how to cook various less fancy cuts, and shop at a local butcher, chances are you can get your meat for far less than a typical grocery store. I rarely go for things like ribeye or filet. We’re all about the round roast, chuck roast and flat iron here. Also like the shank. I rarely spend more than $7 per pound on beef, usually closer to $6. But again, we’re shopping at a local butcher who sources meat locally and does all breakdown themselves.  Tricks: Look for a whole flat iron and ask the butcher to cut it. The method I ask for is “Please cut it off the silverskin and then into 6 oz portions.” This eliminates most of the gristle layer, leaving incredibly tender meat with a ton of flavor. The flat iron is from the chuck, but is a specific muscle that doesn’t get used a lot, so it’s very tender. Round roast, tip roast... these can be just salted and roasted very slowly (like, 200 F) if you have a meat thermometer with a probe that can stay in the meat, so that you roast it at very low temp until it comes up to about 110-120 degrees, then you take it out, turn the oven up to like 450, put a rub on the meat, and blast it at high heat until the probe is at 140. Then you let it rest for a while and come up a few more degrees, and what you get is a roast with a crust, as tender as the cut is likely to get while staying pink, which, cut thin, will be fantastic roast beef. If you don’t have a fancy thermometer, we usually start it high, then turn it down without opening the oven and let it go for an hour or so before checking with a cheap thermometer. But you can also cut into smaller pieces, marinade, and stir fry. You can ask the butcher to cut your roast into chunks for stir fry, if you aren’t up to the cutting.

Chuck, shank, and other tough cuts can be pressure cooked into super tender pot roast very quickly. Wine, mushrooms... We use cheap sulfite-free wine and whatever mushrooms are most affordable for this. 

 5. Lamb Lamb can be pricey, but we get a boneless leg roast (grass fed) at Costco for about $6 per pound, which is one of the best prices out there for grass fed meat. We use the roast in one of two ways: We either roast it low and slow like beef, serving it rare, or we cube it and pressure cook it with savory liquids and then serve it with coconut milk and curry paste over rice. So good.  6. Duck Our local Asian markets usually have whole duck for $3.50-ish per pound. It’s outrageously expensive literally anywhere else. Duck doesn’t cook like chicken, exactly... you must score the fat if you want it crispy, which means poking the fat without poking the meat. We roast at high temp, flipping as needed, to get a very crisp duck without drying out the breast. SAVE the drippings and use them in soup, or to cook eggs or potatoes in. Duck fat is like gold. So much flavor. 1 duck feeds 3 of us an indulgent amount of duck.  Cooking gadgets for reducing the amount of physical energy you need to cook things: I never, ever use slow cookers because even used properly they seem to create less flavor than the pressure cooker methods. Pressure cookers are like slow cookers for procrastinators. Things that normally would take all day take an hour. Things that would take a couple of hours will take 30 minutes. The amount of money you can save in cooking beans alone vs. canned will pay for it. Pressure cooker is often the difference between me making homemade stock and throwing the carcass away. They’re also about as efficient at transferring heat into meat as any form of cooking you can get, so the energy savings are not irrelevant. Instant Pot is $70-ish at Costco right now, I’m just saying.  An oven is helpful, but if you don’t have a full sized oven or can’t bend that way, a toaster oven can do a LOT. If you can get one that is large enough to cook a chicken in, you don’t need a larger oven if you aren’t doing large scale cooking. If you have a child who wants to learn to cook, a cheap toaster oven costs about the same as an EZ bake, but is an actual real kitchen device which can do real cooking. Spend a little more and get one with air circulation and a little more interior space if you can afford the counter space and the money.  I know people like air fryers, I’ve not seen the point. Very few things an air fryer can do that a convection toaster oven can’t, and the form factor is better for the toaster oven for cooking a reasonable amount of tater tots. (priorities!)

Food processor: If you find chopping things a barrier, food processors can slice and grate very quickly, and rinse off nicely without a lot of elbow grease. I don’t usually bother, but I have minions who will do chop prep for me. If you don’t, even a small food processor will be less taxing on sore joints than most chopping. If you want to make pastry, a food processor is a must if you have energy issues. 

Knives and a means to sharpen them: dull knives make cooking incredibly exhausting and tedious. Sharp knives make it all work so much better. The base price of the knife is less important than the condition you keep it in, as youtube will be happy to show you in a variety of mesmerizing videos. 

Meat thermometer: Sort by reviews, ignore any where the reviews are suspicious. My strong preference is for digital quick-read ($10ish) OR probe-style leave-in. ($20-ish) You want this for food safety AND so that you can avoid overcooking roasts. 

Cutting board: ideal is something with a groove (prevents juices from flooding the counter and contaminating everything) that runs around the edge. Cheap plastic boards can be convenient, I guess, but are harder to get reliably clean than wood, which tends to kill off germs. My favorites are bamboo. Not terribly spendy, super pretty, work very well. 

The pans I use: 9x13 pyrex baking dish for most of our chicken stuff dark enamel roaster (not huge unless you’re going to do turkeys) for beef roasts (very cheap) large baking trays lined with silpats (both bought at costco, idek, they’re ideal for tater tots and such and don’t get problems with sticking and are easy to clean)  Nonstick PFOA-free egg pan, sautee pan and 11 inch griddle. I think I spent $22 at Target on three egg-type pans of different sizes? Not particularly spendy, but you do need to replace them every 5 years or so. variety of saucepans and pots in stainless (I have cuisnart and Kirkland and they’re fine and last kind of forever barring disasters and sometimes even then. Can be bought second hand.) We use a lot of pyrex stuff because it’s convenient for leftovers and mise en place. If you have someone helping with chop prep, little dishes full of prepped things make the cooking go so much easier. But you can do that in regular dishes too, we’re just fancy that way (and I stg the pyrex breeds in the cupboard.)

I’ll talk starches if people want. 

[freelance-arc]

Technical nonsense, overwhelm, and how to overcome them.

Heyo!

It’s been a little while since my last post. Of course, there’s been stuff going on, I just haven’t put any of it into a blog post, YET.

Unwelcome Tech Nonsense.

The essence of the back story is this; I bought a book, it inspired me, I attempted to do some graphics work based on that inspiration, the computery side of things let me down.

Bad. Times.

FRUSTRATING times…

Because, as you know, when you spend hours of your precious time trying to achieve something, to make progress, It’s REALLY flipping annoying when that work and time amounts to nothing.

The book in question is by a guy called Sean Vosler (Book link here; https://app.increase.academy/most-important-skill-guide ).

I liked his email sequence, the book itself looked nice (literally, visually very good). So I took the plunge and made the purchase. It’s a great piece, definitely recommended. He’s worked for Tai Lopez amongst others, and tbh, that was what clinched it for me.

Anyway, reading through, I was struck at how he uses font as well as phrasing to imply tonality. Copywriting is sales in print, and the more you can convey emotion, raising certainty and reducing objections the better.

This was the inspiration.

So I fired up Spark and started creating. 

3 Hours. 3 Hours on a Saturday afternoon, adding text, moving, resizing, blah blah. This was kinda the POINT of the exercise, to see what I could make up, especially being a complete graphics noob. But Spark’s quite intuitive, so it’s not so bad. 

Feeling all smug and pleased with myself I downloaded the image I’d so finely crafted. Guess I also downloaded all the unwelcome tech nonsense too. (I’m being dramatic, it wasn’t a virus or nothin, just a big pile of steamy digital baloney).

Darn. Half of it was missing.

F. L. I. P.

I’ll get right to the point. If anything like this happens to you, 

CLEAR OUT YOUR BROWSER’S CACHE.

To fix the problem, I cleared out the cache in Chrome for the previous month. Issue solved.

Apparently, if the cache becomes corrupted for any reason, it affects the browsers loading time, downloads, it can freeze unexpectedly… All the issues I was having. 

I’d cleared out old files, deleted unused programs, defragged. I ran updates just in case. None of them fixed the problems of my handiwork getting mashed.

So yea, don’t make my mistake. Any issues with your browser or web-based applications, clear out the cache FIRST. It’ll save you a lot of swearing I can tell you.

(Yea, I know. It leaves a lot to be desired. But it DOES prove the concept.)

Overwhelm.

As you can imagine, dealing with stupid technology when you already have a thousand things to do isn’t productive. It causes a bottleneck. Well, any issue does really. But things start to back up. 

When that thing you’re doing is the next step in your plan, what you’ve based all your other next steps on, you then have to take further time to figure out a workaround or solve it or both. 

Building a business and a dream lifestyle from scratch is a lot of work. Skills need learning, social proof creating, domains set up. Hell, you gotta work out exactly what you’re selling, who you’re selling it to, and how you’ll sell it to them. And THAT’S the easy bit.

I have guests to invite. Microphones to find. Domains to set up, clients to get… Phew.

In my quest for knowledge I’m signing up for everything. Well, 90% of things at least. My mindset is delicate and precious, so anything I feel won’t add good things to it, I don’t chase.

In the meantime though, there’s so much great stuff out there. Loads and loads and loads of it. 

It’s not even hidden, you just have to look for it.

Stuff’s coming in thick and fast. I’ve got about 8 courses to get through, 4 books on the go, and about an hour a day to do it in. 

So anything I do, I’m neglecting something else.

It all kinda stalled me for a bit. It’s difficult to focus on doing a thing when you aren’t sure it’s the right thing to do. As a result, nothing gets done, and that CAN’T HAPPEN.

I went basic. KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID.

I made a list.

If you’re suffering from Overwhelm make a list. 

Make it as long as it needs to be, pour your mind out into it, personal, professional, the lot. Once it’s down on paper, or the screen or whatever, you don’t have to remember it any more.

Then, prioritise.

The list I made showed all the things that had been swimming around in my brain hole. But I could see them clearly. Instead of things bobbing to the top occasionally, making me panic because I’d forgotten about them, they were all there as plain as day.

The most important thing on that list was writing practice. Obvious. But not obvious when everything’s weighing on you and you aren’t sure what’s the right way to get stuff moving again.

So I’d suggest if you write, then write. If you dance, then dance. If you draw, draw. Whatever it is that YOU DO, the essence at the core of your dream, then do that.

I started riffing on some sales copy ideas using random household stuff. Trying to make it compelling, using copywriting formulas AIDA and the S hook to start with, getting the juices flowing. Creating emotion around Table Salt.

It worked. Seeing those words flowing out felt productive. The wheels were turning again. YES!

The next thing is to see about getting clients. A lot of the stuff that bogged me down was related to Freelance Arc. But FA is the story of how I get there to help others get there too. But the vehicle to that success is copywriting. 

I’d gotten lost in the swirl of ideas, easily done. But refocusing is good.

From here out writing will be my main priority for the short term, I’ll keep plugging away at the books for 15 minutes a night before bed, and probably squeezing in little chunks of the courses for 20 mins or so over my morning coffee.

Did you know, 20 minutes a day over a month is 10 hours? Doesn’t sound like much but it adds up. 

Don’t be that person who makes excuses. If you’re short of time, JUST DO SOMETHING!

Future you will thank you, I can tell you.

Follow Freelance Arc at the top of the page for more updates and resources.

Build your dreams.

[bihansthot]

So, here’s my recolor I was talking about, yeah, yeah I know I ended up redoing Noob, but honestly I wasn’t satisfying with the initial design of my pseudo-restored Noob.

I did the original back when I was pretty open and posted pretty regularly about my self ship and while I’m definitely back to being a little more normal about things I still have a lot of self doubt about things. Mostly why would either Bi-Han, let alone both be with me, but at the same time it’s my world and my rules and I stole @kronikaslittlestepford ’s wife’s crown fair and square to get my happy end sooooo I’m trying to ignore the bad.

I’m much happier on this take on it, I’ve definitely learned a lot more about digital drawing and for sure coloring since I started, but I’ll put the old one and references under the cut for fun. I’m not putting the exact pic of me because I don’t have makeup on in it since it was just for the pose and yeah I’m not letting the internet know what I look like without my eyeliner. =P

Last but not least, please like/comment/reblog and obligatory shout out/tag to my BH/Noob crew @free-the-shadows @tora-lotus @writingthekhaos

[ahnmakes]

devlog # 8 // mapmaking, part 2 (plants, blender modeling + refining map visuals)

welcome back to the world of Gamedév!

okay, so, it’s been a couple weeks since the last devlog, but honestly, it feels like years have passed.  to let you know a bit of what i’ve been up to, i’ve mainly been reflecting on pursuing further education in a formal setting.  for close to a year now, i’ve already been studying computer science and game development pretty intentionally on my own - with the abundant resources available online, it is more than possible to receive a full and competent education without university studies. however, there are a few things that self-studying does not always make easy or accessible, namely: a) tangible, structured evidence of the skills you’re learning, in a format others (employers) feel they understand, b) opportunities to collaborate and build with other people around your skill levels, and c) in-person connections, leading to further interpersonal and career potentials

these are things that i think university education does tend to provide more consistently, and they are the reason that i am nearly certain i’ll be pursuing more formal education in the coming months.  i am mainly waiting to hear back on a funding opportunity, so more details on my plan in the next devlog ..

as far as progress on zodaia, the main thing i worked on this week was getting some new models into the game.  as you may remember, in the previous devlog, i had made a number of environmental models .. pretty much entirely out of cubes.  the first model, a tree, allowed me to render a stunningly realistic and artistically compelling forest:

it may be difficult to tell, but this is a digitally-rendered forest scene, not a photo; hard to believe, but if you zoom in close, you might see subtle indications that these models were created from geometric shapes.  while i did not imagine i could improve upon the flowing asymmetry of the grass or the bold sharpness of the rock faces, i thought i would give it a shot.

putting these placeholder assets temporarily aside, i decided to start with a sort of leafy plant because it seemed like something i couldn’t fuck up too much.

i opened blender, deleted the initial cube, and started with a flat plane, just the default one provided.  i then extruded it a couple of times, making a longer, flat plane - it seemed easier to work with the leaf as a flat piece before bringing it more into 3d.  i next curved the shape by selecting loop cuts and scaling them down as made sense to me; i didn’t follow any guide, just went along adjusting the shape into something pleasing to me.  once i had a flat leaf that looked nice, i put a loop cut down the length of the leaf, and i rotated the whole leaf up, keeping its base close to the center, where the axes meet.  i then pulled this center loop of vertices down, creating an indent in the leaf, then individually adjusted the side vertices up and down to create more depth, as if the leaf were rotated or growing differently along its edges.

and that brought me to this:

i know that is a lot of blender/3d-modeling talk, already, so let me know if you’d like a more in-depth blender introduction; if you support me on patreon, i will definitely make a tutorial so you can know more about the modeling process!

anyhow, once i had this one leaf, i just duplicated it and started manually positioning the leaves to make something that looked decent.  i’m sure there is a more perfomant or efficient way to do things, but my goal right now is simply to make - i have spent years trying to conceptualise an ideal way to do everything, which often led to me not making anything at all, but the intention of this blog is for ahn to make.  so, this is what i made:

obviously, as this was the first model i’ve made for the game (aside from the hex model, which will also soon get a rework), i couldn’t wait to see the model actually in the game.  i made a basic green material, imported the model (as an fbx file) into unity, and simply replaced this with the model in one of the original InteractableObjects - i think i replaced the bush?

here’s how it looked:

already stunning!  sincerely, this time.  i am in love with the simplicity of this effect - and though i might feel differently later, right now, i love how this plant looks.

next, i continued swiftly on with a tree, since i imagined that is the thing that would be most engaging and also most visually rewarding.  in the past, i have created low-poly trees before and absolutely loved the effect, so i also decided i would go for something similar this time.

skipping most of the modeling details, i basically just started with a cylinder and extruded, extruded, extruded and repositioned vertices until i got this shape - it took probably 5 minutes (including the part where i needed to bond the duplicated tree branch by manually creating faces between the central and duplicated branch vertices).

i then added in some icospheres, which i just pulled around and contorted into these shapes, which i (again) duplicated.

after creating materials for the tree bark and the tree top and putting a light in the scene, this was the quick render result.

and now, in the game..

the difference is absurd, especially considering how little energy it took to make these trees.  i created a dark and a light variation once i had the models imported into unity, and will certainly make variations with many more shapes - however, right now, there is only that one tree model in this scene.  could you tell?  without studying the trees too hard, i think the automatic rotation (included in the procedural generation) gives a convincing effect, as if there are many tree models there.

and since i was coasting on the excitement of having these models complete nearly immediately, i decided to go ahead and do the grass and rock models, too.

again, start with one shape ..

then duplicate and make material ..

et voilà.  also featuring the rocks i made.

actually, the first time i imported the model and pressed play, it crashed unity and looked like this:

why? i initially thought it was because i had made the noob mistake of making 3d grass (which i did) instead of using 2d images, but actually, it was because i had also imported a light and camera for each grass model; remember to delete them from the scene in blender before exporting!

with that, i was pretty in love with how everything was going.  the environments are starting to look more organic and how i dream of them being.

updated glacier: (not much going on here yet; needs more water effects, snow falling .. but i did update the ice color and transparency to be more distinct from the snow)

desert scene with a very bright weather:

ash biome looking almost exactly the same:

gardens at night with an ambient light:

and two new biomes: the tundra, a mostly frozen, rocky landscape with some plant-growth:

and the cove, dark because it’s inside/a cave:

overall, i am super pleased with these developments and *so* thrilled for the next changes to come.

look out for the next devlog, where i’ll probably be working on a couple more models (or texturing/modeling the hexes?) and especially the more weather-y environmental effects: lighting, post processing, clouds, rain, lightning, water, the sky -- much to come.  until then..

with love and hopefully a low poly count,

ahn

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