#i'm having a great time this is fun for me LOL

[meanbossart]

Hey, I recently discovered you (via an astarion post on reddit of all places, where people were gushing over you) and I'm frankly burning in awe of your body of work.

Your art is jaw dropping, but as that last asker said, your writing needs some serious appreciation as well. I started ANE because the writing in your comics was so mindblowing I first thought you'd taken it from canon or literature or somewhere. ("I have dreams where your body is my tomb" - holy hell. That line made me weightless.) I downloaded ANE as an ePub and devoured it on my phone in just a few days. I've never really even read a fanfic before. DU Drow is practically BG3 canon to me now.

I love your imagery, especially Drow's internal monologues where he silently descends into the most luscious, insane violence thats somehow so gorgeous, but also how vividly you describe body language and complex emotions, and how unafraid you are to make your characters flawed and dive into their insecurities and intrapersonal conflicts beyond the already-great source material. You don't hide the ugly or the weird or the difficult because you're precious about your babies (i suffer from that in my writing!), and it's all SO much more impactful for it. You understand contrasts and character development phenomenally. I'm so happy to have found your little world.

Yeah, you really inspired me. My art is not great but I write, so maybe one day I can gift you back with a little one shot - if you're cool with that? I'll stick to patreon to say thanks for now!

This was such a sweet write-up, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to let me know of your thoughts on ANE and my writing in general, I am seriously touched that you could have confused my original writing for canon/existing material, and that you think my characters feel realistically flawed! That is all I strive for when I depict any of these goobers.

Fun fact, I struggle so much with not over-describing body language whenever I write. As a visual artist it is so difficult not to feel like you are obligated to paint as clear a picture as you can when moving to literature, LOL. So, I'm really glad that you enjoy that aspect of it!

As for your final question - ABSOLUTELY! I love receiving art inspired by my work in any shape and form - drawings and comics are wonderful and I love seeing how people translate my character into their own style, but written fiction adds a whole other level to that! Getting to find out how someone interprets my character's inner world and relationships is just as much of a treat.

[kennedycore]

Kennedy Book recommendations?

I've read a lot of books on the Kennedys so I'm very happy to receive this ask!

Conversations With Kennedy by Ben Bradlee: One of JFK's closest friends during his time as president. Pretty much retells a lot of the conversations he had with JFK and has a lot of great anecdotes about him, Bobby, Jackie, and the rest of the Kennedy circle, especially during the White House years. Also offers a lot insight into how JFK was like personally, such as JFK privately admitting that he was pro-choice (although probably as a side effect of his affairs). Jackie was not a fan of how revealing the book was and ended their friendship over it lol.

Camera Girl by Carl Sferrazza Anthony: The *best* book on Jackie, although unfortunately it ends at her marriage to JFK (I wish it was longer!). The author did so much verified research on Jackie, and there's a lot of fun and unknown stuff about her adolescence and her time as a reporter in Washington. It's also worth noting that Jackie actually communicated with him in the 90s when he was writing a book about First Ladies which is very cool!

Robert Kennedy And His Times by Arthur Schlesinger: Incredibly detailed and very personal book about Bobby. Schlesinger was a close friend of the Kennedys so his books tend to be a little biased (and there's a lot of idolizing of both JFK and RFK) but he also has a lot of great anecdotes and was around during the White House years and Bobby's 1968 campaign.

An Unfinished Life: JFK by Robert Dallek: I would say this is the definitive book about JFK. It's also pretty objective - it has a lot about his health problems, womanizing, political failures, etc. but it's not gossipy at all and focuses mainly on his political career.

Reckless Youth by Nigel Hamilton: This is a quintessential Kennedy book. You have to read it. Very fun to read and very informative. My personal favorite JFK book because it dives a lot into his psychology and has a lot of fun anecdotes as well. Mostly focuses on him pre-presidency.

Mrs. Kennedy and Me by Clint Hill. He was a longtime Secret Service Agent, and he was famously known as Jackie's personal agent. He has a lot of anecdotes about his time looking after Jackie, JFK and their kids during the White House years. I own all 3 of his books and they're all great.

Robert Kennedy by Evan Thomas: The best Bobby book. Has a lot about his personality, childhood, psychology, politics, the rest of his career. Incredibly well-researched.

The Kennedys: America’s Emerald Kings by Thomas Maier: Best book about the family as a whole. Goes into their origins, how they got into politics, how their background as Irish Catholics heavily affected their perception, focuses on each family member (although not super detailed) it gives you a great picture of everybody in the family. It's also very well-researched.

Death Of A President by William Manchester: The best account of the assassination. Jackie and Bobby actually chose Manchester to interview everyone involved on the day JFK died and write a book about it so that it would be viewed as the best historical source for the assassination. They later filed a lawsuit against him to get some stuff removed because everyone so freely lol. It has so much detail about November 1963 and its aftermath.

True Compass by Ted Kennedy & Times To Remember by Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy: Ted and Rose's memoirs - a lot of cute family anecdotes and a lot of "behind the scenes" on the family. Rose's book especially is great because a lot of the family members like Ethel, Jackie, the grandkids, etc. wrote sections to be inserted into the book.

I tend to steer clear from Taraborrelli and Heymann because their books include a lot of unverified tabloid stuff, although they're very entertaining so if you read them - take them with a grain of salt.

Thanks for the ask! :)

[hyperbali]

Some idiot on Reddit: if you aren't [Halsin's] targeted audience, he definitely does come across as creepy at first. Why does he say "I'm yours, if you'll have me" to join my party? While he's grown on me that line and some others still give me the ick.

Me: out of curiosity, what's your opinion on Astarion?

Idiot: Love him! He's fun, sassy, and an overall great time. Yet, he's also not afraid to be vulnerable.

Me: He also IMMEDIATELY makes sexual overtures to you regardless, but that wasn't a problem for you?

Idiot: no, if anything I was slightly flattered.

Me: so you're just a hypocrite making judgments purely on what each of them looks like, lol. Good to know!

[katsa-the-graceling]

Okay okay I just got back from this movie and wanted to add my thoughts, under the cut lol spoilers

I thought it was fantastic! It was fun and ridiculous and all around a great time. To be fair, I would have still had fun even if it was bad, but I thought they did a great job.

The switch from horror to action was "logical" by movie logic, meaning they did a good job and justifying it (even if it's not "realistic" I don't care, it was believable for the characters and the universe they created).

The twist at the end that Amelia was being controlled by the anti-AI group was really good. I enjoyed that christian guy as the villian—he wasn't too charming/sexy I'm going to seduce you villian, and also wasn't too nerdy/please notice me senpai, which was awesome. Unhinged but understated, the matter-of-fact attitude against Gemma's panic was a great dynamic

I was worried from the trailers that Amelia would be too human like, and the step up in tech wouldn't make sense? But no she was perfect and still very much a robot.

The comedy was spot on. Homages to the first, absolutely ridiculous lines, and tbh some good fight choreography.

My only gripe would be about how they untwisted the twist? So the whole movie you think Amelia wants to end humanity. But then she's just a puppet for the actual bad guys who don't want to end humanity, but instead want to prove that AI is bad. But then Amelia gets autonomy and immediately wants to end the world like the original plan? Unless I misunderstood (which is possible lol) I just felt that cheapened the main twist a little.

But overall it was such a fun movie. It still had a message like the first, and still had Gemma as kinda a shit parent but trying her best. M3GAN was likeable as a character and I thought it was a really fun twist on "you made me this way" because, ya know, literally.

MEGAN 2.0

Official Teaser

[doodleodds]

Still feel like always returning after 2 years? /pos

I'd love to see more of your art if you're still doing it, I love looking at your older art hope you have a great day✨️✨️

Haha yeah, I'm still around! Has it really been two years since I last posted?? Good lord. Here's something summery that I finished up as a thanks for sticking with me :) I hope YOU have a great day! ✨️✨️✨️

bonus image of how many times i had to export to make sure my timing was right lmao

[amasdoodles]

commission for @durgewyll/@ulyuxe of his upcoming pc, jude! this was so much fun rendering, i hope she has an exciting adventure!

[heybiji]

ialso love playign superhero ttrpgs can i ask what the Masks ttrpg is? i love finding neww hero themed ttrpgs ^-^ yay!

Ohhh!! Hey! i love getting to talk ttrpg stuff thanks for the question!

MASKS: A New Generation is a superhero ttrpg about teenagers all trying to figure out who they are in a world filled with people constantly telling them who they are and how the world works. It's less about the powers and the fights and more about the emotional journey of the PCs with mechanics that support that. It's a really narratively driven game!

tldr: try it out! it's fun! it's simple! and it's low-prep (apparently, just not for me, but i'm always just gonna do Too Much). you want a system with mechanics that revolve around telling a story? around your character's emotions and how they view themselves? this is the one for you! it's great and i've really been enjoying it!!

First of all, it's a fail-forward system, so the way your character levels (advanced) is by missing rolls. I like this a lot.

There are ten core playbooks that are essentially the classes you can choose from. They each come with their own powers, some intentionally more impressive than others, but it's not about the powers; it's about the core conflict that comes with each of the archetypes. Here are a few playbook examples:

The Delinquent: You've got these cool powers. But everyone keeps telling you how to use 'em. You know what they need? Someone to give them trouble, to make sure they don't always get their way. And hey! You're the perfect her to do it.

The Legacy: You're the latest in a storied heroic lineage, a family that shares a name and a cause. Now, everybody is watching and waiting to see if you've got what it takes to uphold that tradition. No Pressure, right?

The Nova: You're a font of power. Channel it, and you can remake the world into exactly what you want. Unleash it, and you can do miracles. It's wonderful... and terrifying. Lose control for even a second, and other people get hurt.

Your stats are your Labels. They're how you see yourself, and how others see you. The Labels are DANGER, FREAK, SAVIOR, SUPERIOR, and MUNDANE. Different stats help with different Moves/rolls, so for example a high DANGER stat helps you Directly Engage a Threat, while a low MUNDANE stat makes it harder for you to Comfort or Support Someone. Your Labels are constantly being shifted around throughout the game as your character's self-image changes (and that self-image changes a lot, basically the NPCs are just label shifting machines).

The mechanics are fun! Instead of traditional damage, the PCs have Conditions that they take on, and what conditions a character has affects their rolls. The Conditions are Afraid, Angry, Guilty, Hopeless, and Insecure. So if you're Angry you take -2 on your roll to do the move Comfort or Support Someone, if you're Afraid, it's -2 on Directly Engage a Threat, etc. There are multiple ways to clear your conditions but the most straightforward way is to take a particular action, so if you're Angry you have to hurt someone or break something important, and if you're Afraid you have to run from something difficult. These actions lead to some awesome and surprising story beats!

There's some other stuff as well, but that's the gist!

Coming from DND, it took me some time to adjust to something so wildly different in terms of the system, but I've been enjoying it! I haven't gotten to play it as a PC, but running it has been an interesting challenge. I think it's a pretty simple system to work with, and I at least hear it's low-prep (again not for me tho lol). It's mechanically looser than the only other ttrpg I've played (dnd) and requires a lot more decision making from the whole table, so I think in a way it asks more of its players in that way. And the GM role is constantly on in a specific way, because it's up to the GM to listen and call out when a Move is being triggered and a roll should be made based on what the characters are doing in any particular scene.

anyway I can always have more to say but MASKS has been fun. I recommend giving it a shot! And then you should tell me what you thought about it!!

[lynn-tged-posting]

hey guys,,, i wrote,,, and finished,,, A TGED FIC!!! YAY!!! FINALLY!!!

link below!!! i really really hope you enjoy!!! please have fun!!!

[bennetsbonnet]

I'm not here to bash adaptations for the sake of it, as I tend to stick to praising what I like and permitting only things that bring me joy to take up my precious energy. Nor would I ever say that someone is in any way 'wrong' for enjoying a particular adaptation over another, or that they didn't 'understand' a novel (unfortunately such snobbery abounds in the Austen fandom).

However, I just returned from a screening of Pride and Prejudice (2005) and while there are a lot of things to enjoy about it, such as stunning scenery, beautiful atmospheric music and some great comedic performances... there are so many deviations from the novel that it really hampers my ability to fully enjoy it.

But none are as egregious in their alteration from the novel than Elizabeth's visit to Pemberley. The positives: the setting is gorgeous, and there's a sweet moment between Darcy and Georgiana... but other than that? It's difficult...

The Pemberley visit is so so important in how it allows the development of Elizabeth and Mr Darcy's relationship. I would argue the Pemberley arc, even more so than Darcy's letter, is crucial for Elizabeth in changing her opinion of him.

In the novel, this is illustrated in two key ways. Firstly, we hear Darcy's housekeeper, Mrs Reynolds, praise him highly to Elizabeth and the Gardiners; her testimony sows the seeds in Elizabeth's mind that, perhaps, she greatly misjudged Mr Darcy:

'He is the best landlord, and the best master,' said [Mrs Reynolds], 'that ever lived; not like the wild young men nowadays, who think of nothing but themselves. There is not one of his tenants or servants but will give him a good name. Some people call him proud; but I am sure I never saw anything of it. To my fancy, it is only because he does not rattle away like other young men.'

And then, Mrs Reynolds shows the visitors to the gallery where Elizabeth sees a portrait of Mr Darcy and can, for the first time, look at him without prejudice, having heard such a favourable account of him. The portrait makes a significant impact on Elizabeth, and it's the first time she really sees Mr Darcy in a positive light by allowing his gaze to fix on her via the portrait:

'The commendation bestowed on him by Mrs. Reynolds was of no trifling nature. What praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant? As a brother, a landlord, a master, she considered how many people’s happiness were in his guardianship!—how much of pleasure or pain was it in his power to bestow!—how much of good or evil must be done by him! Every idea that had been brought forward by the housekeeper was favourable to his character, and as she stood before the canvas on which he was represented, and fixed his eyes upon herself, she thought of his regard with a deeper sentiment of gratitude than it had ever raised before; she remembered its warmth, and softened its impropriety of expression.'

Unfortunately, the film completely misses the mark on both counts. For one, there is no portrait of Darcy. Instead, there is only a bust, and it's missing his eyes! I know that a sculpture was used due to Chatsworth having a sculpture gallery rather than a portrait gallery (and, look, I won't go on too much here but Pemberley is absolutely not Chatsworth. Not only is Chatsworth mentioned separately in the novel, but it's far too grand an estate for a man with an income of £10,000 per year!!) but it's the look in Darcy's eyes in his portrait, that finally softens Elizabeth's heart and begins the process of her falling in love.

I could perhaps forgive the portrait-sculpture switch, if we still had substantial dialogue to get the sense that Elizabeth's fondness for Darcy stems from the good account she hears of him rather than the grandness of his house. However, unfortunately, while Elizabeth is looking at the bust, we don't hear any of Mrs Reynolds' praise of him, only about his handsomeness, because there's music playing over it.

I cannot understand this creative choice. It's so crucial in gaining a sense of their relationship, of understanding Darcy's qualities that form the basis of Elizabeth's love for him. Her adoration is not driven by superficial attraction to a depiction of him, it's his generous nature that shifts her opinion and allows her to appreciate his appearance.

It's unfair to Elizabeth and to Darcy! It can easily make her look far more shallow than she is and it downplays the depths of Darcy's kind and generous nature. I wish, perhaps more than for any other scene in this adaptation, that this scene in particular was done differently. Otherwise, the audience misses out on the lovely depths of Elizabeth and Mr Darcy's dynamic!

[djevelbl]

GUESS WHO I'M DRAWING NOOOOWWWWW~!!!!

[rockethorse]

Thanks to a cute post on one of the Sims 2 subreddits (I don't remember which is the one which went crazy and I'm too afraid to ask), I've become obsessed with the Sorority household from LFT, and remade the girls from it in my test hood to play around with, because I love the WLW cliche potential of two women who (thought they...?) were in love with the same guy getting with each other instead of fighting over him.

They have dogshit chemistry since one is Romance and the other is Family but they made friends pretty quickly...

and this is how I found out that throwing food is accidentally(?) coded as a romantic behaviour lmao so now Sarah Love has caught feelings. Because of course she has

Also I made all of them bi for convenience's sake and my GOD. ALL of them want a slice of Monica. They cannot keep their hands OFF her. SHE'S NOT EVEN FAMILY OR ROMANCE SHE'S KNOWLEDGE. of course the house full of wlw is desperate to get to the chubby booksmart redhead with the "against animal testing" tote bag could you girls be a LITTLE less predictable

[robinsceramics]

im curious as to about how long each of your pieces takes?? it took me two class periods to be satisfied with the pinch pot we just made in ceramics class (though that’s probably also because im very much a perfectionist) so i can’t imagine how long a whole critter would take

it really depends!! some of them (unpainted, simple shapes) take as little as five minutes; some of them (large, complex shapes with very detailed painting) take as much as 10 hours.

I have gotten way faster over the years, though, so don't think I'm just some natural genius! the skills of sculpting build on each other. Just last year it took me three hours to make a simple fox, and now I can bust out a really nice fox (with toe beans!) in two hours. it just takes time and repetition to get there <3

and hey congrats on being in a ceramics class!! I hope you have fun with it!! If you like critters, I recommend stealing some of the clay and making some kind of toadish blob out of it and firing it in the kiln, as long as your studio masters won't get mad about it. the joy of making a lumpy little guy is unmatched.

examples of sculpture + time counts below the cut!

Little guys like this tiny cicada, which is a design I've done so many times that I can make them on autopilot, are in the 5-15 minutes range to sculpt. bunnies, chickens, wizards, and mini-cats are like that for me too!

but if I add the time it takes to paint them, even simple sculptures can end up taking much more time—for instance, this starry chicken took only five minutes to make but about an hour to paint.

then when you get into the more complex shapes, those can take a lot of time—this anthro coyote took me 3 hours to sculpt because it was a complex shape AND I was unfamiliar with making anthros so I was learning as I went:

and when you add complex designs to complex sculptures, you end up with projects like this peach-tree bear, which took three hours to make and five hours to paint, so that's eight hours in one sculpture:

and eight hours is about my limit for sculptures I'm going to sell. BUT. when I'm making things for myself, I'm willing to spend even MORE time on them to make them perfect for my own tastes. I tend to spend the most time on fanart sculptures—it takes a lot more time to make a sculpture perfectly on-model to a pre-existing character than it does to make up a whole new thing. So the sculpture that has taken me the most time so far in this batch is this JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fanart sculpture, Star Platinum:

three hours to make the body, seven hours to paint him—Star has taken me ten hours total so far!!

[vaguely-concerned]

one thing I have to keep reremembering every time I'm playing a soulslike/similar kind of difficult game -- and that I wish I could internalize elsewhere in my life as well -- is that you always, always have to suffer through the long dark of an inexplicable failcringe era before you can emerge into a fresh new dawn of competence. faceplanting into humiliating failure in ways you hadn't even conceived of before on a loop can sometimes be the herald of great and wondrous things to come soon. don't be so quick to abandon yourself in the early murk of daybreak because you think you just suck!!!

[raiswanson]

Yet another Sorrelwood excerpt!

For a 20k special I'm sharing a slightly bigger snippet than the last ones, ooooh~ In this piece we get a little more insight into Behir, his job, and how he does his work :))

(Full 500~ word excerpt under the cut! Previous one [here]! Next one [here]!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I had to give it to the beast—she was bold and clever. But she’d been betrayed by life in Eoden, where the largest danger around was herself. No doubt she’d squared off magnificently against the odd hungry bear, but she had no idea how to deal with a human. Much less a human who’d been hunting her kind since before she’d hatched.

It was pitifully easy. The dragon was all size and brute effort, which worked against her in the confines of a tunnel too small for her to stretch. Better for her to have settled her bulk in a tight space and force me to come to her, but her rage only pressed her to advance upon me, exposing herself again and again in fruitless attempts to draw blood. It was easy work to jab her when she overreached. To punish each attempted lash as her limbs bounced off the walls. She roared with each slash of the glaive, too frenzied to understand she was losing.

And she was losing. Dragons were made to soar and strike—once. They did not muddle their way through drawn out battles. This one was wearing already, and despite my having inflicted only superficial wounds thus far, blood loss was tiring her all the sooner.

I saw no point in dragging this out further. I’d been hired to get rid of the beast, not to torment her. And as she’d made it clear there would be no reasoning with her, nothing to be gained through talking, I steadied myself to finish things. My options in doing so were not ideal, but they would be more merciful than allowing her to exhaust herself to death.

As soon as she next lunged, teeth snapping in the air in front of my face, I allowed her to finishing extending before ducking beneath those large jaws and driving my glaive upward. The blade, razor thin but just as sharp as her own claws, easily slid between the soft scales of her throat, and I closed my eyes to the shower of hot, burgundy blood that rained forth.

A gurgling scream erupted through the tunnel, deafening, but just as quickly shrank to a pained, terrified whimper. The dragon thrashed her head, dislodging the glaive in another spray, and began to backpedal in blind panic. Forgetting me entirely, she scrambled back through the tunnel, leaving a bloody trail, and retreated back toward her grotto. To familiarity. Safety.

She would find no safety there.

She had made quite sure of that.

I followed at a quiet distance, watching what little vigor had remained drain from her as she struggled. Waited for her to break into the dim light of her watery haven and back herself into a corner. Approached in silence as she hissed, spraying blood in a fine mist, and then stood with her head swaying in confusion as no flames came. Saw the understanding dawn in her furious, dimming silver eyes as she realized she would die.

“Killer. Monster,” she spat, gurgle making the words nearly unintelligible. “Butcher.”

“Yes,” I replied, “I am all of these things.”

Then I stepped forward and drove the glaive into her side to pierce her heart.

[walkman-cat]

in honour of it having been the great gatsby's 100th anniversary and one months since our performance's closing night, here's photos from my school's production of the great gatsby! (faces censored for privacy)

i miss it sm :')

[celtrist]

Why does Vassago already have merch, we haven't even met him yet