#if you have trouble visualizing the background

[anamericangirl]

I made a metaphor a long time ago and got in a lot of trouble for it, but now I have a visual representation of how true it is.

I took this screencap to just be like "lol" to a friend, then noticed this

Look how much more activity there is in all of these niche communities. Each one of them a completely random thing but with far more people active in them.

And it's time I explain my metaphor!

Ahem.

Put 5 transgender people in a room. - One is a Warhammer 40k fan - One protests trans rights regularly and never stops talking about the LGBT - One makes coffee at a coffee shop - One is training to be an astronaut - One works at a stock brokerage company

They all have nothing in common and nothing to talk about other than the fact that they're trans, which is a shallow thing with absolutely no depth other than "My gender identity is different than my physical body" which tells you nothing about a person other than that they have a mental disorder. You can't just expect the 5 people to get along when they come from varying backgrounds just because their "identity" is all the same letter in LGBT.

But, there's a part 2.

Put 5 Warhammer 40k fans in a room. - One is a straight cis guy - One is a lesbian - One is trans - One is a gay dude - One is a straight cis girl

Now they're all immediately asking which armies they play, asking to see the miniatures they've painted, asking what they think of video games like Fire Warrior and Space Marine 2, branching off of Warhammer 40k to ask about other stuff like "Do you like Helldivers?" because of similarity in genre, and the two cis people wind up getting married a few years later and have a Warhammer themed wedding that gets frontpaged on Imgur.

So now I have factual evidence that once again everything I say that pisses my followers off is the absolute truth.

Nobody wants to be friends with someone just because they have the same sexuality or because they're trans, and anyone who does is gonna have a miserable life.

If you're a nerd at school you don't walk up to the jocks that look similar to you and ask if you can be friends, you walk up to the other nerds. Jocks band together, nerds band together, gamers band together, etc. because they're PEOPLE WITH SIMILAR INTERESTS.

When you expect people to "band together" because they have the same "identity," you're literally just promoting segregation in the exact same way as racism works.

And as someone who used to be trans, I just wanna say, before anyone says "You took those screencaps at 1am, that's not fair"

Yeah? I used to be trans and I'm nocturnal as fuck, and I work with transgender commissioners all the time who are always talking about being awake at 4am. And also, the point's moot when 3,000 frog lovers are online at 1am. Get owned.

And it's highly likely that the transgender group is just transgender activism. Which means it's a group of people bonding over activism and not "being transgender." Because gender identity is not the end all be all of who a person is even though it's treated as such. It doesn't matter if you have a group of 100 trangender people. If they don't have a common interest between them they will never be as active as 5 people who all have different gender identities and are coming together over their favorite TV show or video game.

Like I don't go looking for groups and can't bond with someone just because they are a woman. If there's a man and a woman and my hobbies and interests align more with the dude then he's the person I'm going to feel a connection with.

It is nice to be a part of women's groups sometimes, but they are women's groups based around a central topic. Not just the fact that we're all women.

Because most of the experiences people have in life aren't based on gender identity and it's sad to see people making their gender identity the epitome of who they are.

[heretodefyfate]

ngl, Zeight layout confuse me

[a-scary-lack-of-common-sense]

There has been requests about getting a full body colour for Kook!Ford, so here he is, in all his beige, white, and brown minimalist glory <3 (THERE’S A REASON WHY HE HAS SUCH A BORING PALETTE I PROMISE)

Stupid colour rambles that are WAYY too in depth and probably mostly far fetched but this is my AU and I get to pick how much over-analysis goes into the characters’ colour schemes, fuck you:

Ford:

Characterised by pale, almost pastel-ish colours to emulate a sort of sick, unhealthy look.

The paler colours add to the illusion of Ford lacking presence, almost disappearing into the background, to convey how his existence often ignored or dismissed by most of the townsfolk.

Without any visually striking or contrasting colours in his palette itself, his own features blend into one another, blurring the details and diminishing any identifiable traits that would have typically identified him as Ford, or even a person (<- if that mindfuck of a sentence make any sense)

Hints of yellow to show remnants Bill's past influence on him. Because I’m dramatic like that.

Fiddleford:

Deep, rich forest greens with golden accents (influences of Bill appearing in his outfit) (I need to hammer Fidds out a lil’ more ngl)

Stanley:

Deep, rich blues and purples (opposite spectrum of yellow, aka. Bill's colour, which means = safety to Ford)

The inside lining of his jacket is vivid red, to reference his original colours palette and as a representation of his past self being hidden underneath the layers of his predominantly blue exterior, colours representative of his new identity (also red = warm and blue = cold)

His colours palette will eventually open up into something warmer on the outside, veering into purple.

Extra notes on his character: Stan (in this AU) is colder and quieter than his canon counterpart. After years of being in the mafia business, and years of running it as well, he has long since learned to mask his facial expressions and master the poker face (*cough cough* resting bitch face *cough cough*). But, his intimidating and serious air does not serve him any favours when it comes to literally anything other than his “work”, his inexperience when it comes to emotions all the more apparent with the twins. He has trouble expressing his feelings outwardly, and despises this part of himself, because it reminds him of his own father. He feels as though he is failing the twins by being too cold and distant, and tries his best to open up more.

Mabel:

Maintains her original colours palette with pink, but has more hints of red in her outfit, similar to Stan’s, particularly around her sleeves (allusion to “wearing your heart on your sleeves.” Yes, I know that it’s tacky)

The red shows she is more inclined to trust Stan, as she is willing to see past Stanley’s exterior facade of cold aloofness to see his “true” colours (good HEAVENS that is disgustingly cheesy to say but idk how else to really word this)

Extra notes on her character: Mabel trusts Stan fully. Perhaps a little too much. She I dolises Stan to an almost unhealthy degree, and is constantly plagued with the underlying fear of somehow losing Stan’s “interest”, as their mother seemed to have lost interest in her and Dipper. Deeply fears being abandoned again, and believes she “owes” Stan for having adopted them. She believes it is her fault that neither of their parents wanted the twins during the divorce.

Dipper:

Maintains original colour palette with blues, but pretty solidly lacks red in his outfit. He serves as the opposite spectrum of Mabel, instead being unwilling to fully trust Stan and takes him at face value.

Extra notes on his character: Dipper does not trust Stan, and is far more hyperaware of what kind of “business” their “uncle” runs. He is mostly worried about Mabel’s slight obsession with pleasing him, and fears that if they don’t behave, Stan might use his dangerous power and influence against them. He is convinced that Stan had ulterior motives to adopting them, cannot fathom what he, a seeming stranger with all the power in the world, could possibly hope to gain in adopting two abandoned children. Even more so, when even their parents didn’t seem to want them.

[shepherds-of-haven]

It's here.

The Shepherds of Haven Twine alpha build is live on Patreon!

What's New:

UI! A new UI for the game awaits you, including a range of visual themes to switch between light and dark mode, each with its own ‘minimalist’ version for those who favor strict readability! Stat screens, achievements, notifications, codex entries, newspaper articles, journal entries, storefronts, the day off hub, relationships, the character guide, the inventory, your room, trading cards, gambling, and so much more have been redesigned from the ground-up!

Miss the old look? Switch the font to Georgia and use the "Scholar" theme in your settings. You can even toggle "prioritize stat bars" if you want to change everything back to just stat bars!

A vast range of settings to customize your game! Includes several fonts and ways to read the text, including OpenDyslexic font, as well as toggles to disable or enable visual effects, music, and character art. 

Robust save system! Now, you can not only use 10 different save slots on your browser (including autosaves), you can also download saves directly to your device, arrange and rename them as you like, and even use them to play the game between different devices and browsers!

Interactive maps! Explore and learn about the world of Blest like never before!

Music! A gorgeous custom soundtrack for the game was designed and composed by Ivan Duch and will play at key moments in the story.

Art! New character art, character cards, collectible trading cards, background art, codex documents, bestiary notes, and so much more have now been integrated into the game. Don’t miss the absolutely gorgeous cover designed by Angela Wang!

Fully mobile compatible! Though desktop is strongly recommended for the best gameplay experience, Shepherds is mobile-compatible and feature-rich regardless of what device you play it on.

Other gameplay improvements:

Trouble and Briony are now romanceable by players of all genders.

All players can change their pronouns at any times. Pronouns do not affect romances.

Gambling is now unlocked earlier.

Two day offs is now unlocked earlier.

You can now allocate different points in magic and weaponry training to different skills, not just one at a time.

For now, the new alpha build is only available on Patreon, primarily because this is all new to me and I was working under a severe crunch after the abrupt closure of Dashingdon. Once all the bugs have been ironed out, I feel less nervy, and the dust has settled down some--and I get some semblance of a functional daily life back again--I'll get to work making a public demo available to everyone. It shouldn't be too long of a wait!

In the meantime, please consider signing up for the Shepherds of Haven newsletter: you'll be notified of only the most important announcements--including the release of the public demo, beta-testing opportunities, DLC announcements, and more. Plus, you'll get a free exclusive digital wallpaper based on Shepherds of Haven! :)

Other new links:

manifold-studios.com - official website for my games

@manifoldstudios - this (shepherds-of-haven) is still my main account, but you can follow this one for a cleaner way to receive just announcements as well!

linktree

newsletter

And, of course, if you want to give the new Twine build a try, you'll want to...

Play here!

I sincerely hope you enjoy! ✨

[queenhunter102]

Damaging Government Property.

I don't know if you have seen the Video on TikTok where the wife had gotten in trouble for 'Damaging Government Property', I.E., she had given her husband a visible hickey, but I sure did. Blurb: Imagine you had just crawled your way into bed, it being the first night with  them being gone on a mission

You had barely climbed into your bed, flopping onto your front, your head hitting the pillow.

RING

RING

Simon 'Ghost' Riley You wonder who could be phoning you at such a dumbass hour; when you check your phone, it says private number, and you sigh, picking it up; it's Price at the other end.

“The Riley Residence” "This is Captain John Price"

You pull back from your phone looking at the number before you put it back to your ear.

"Yeah? Hi John"

"Don't 'Hi John' me, I can't believe that I must talk to YOU of all people, but Don’t Damage Government Property”.

That was all that was said before John hung up the phone, you stared at the phone wondering what that was about, before putting it back on your nightstand and falling asleep cuddling Simon's pillow.

A week later

You are sitting on the very few calls you can get with Simon when you remember the strange call from John.

"Hey Si, I got a question for you," you say, picking at an imaginary lint off the blanket that covered you.

"What's that, babe" came back the gruff reply, the sounds of a base in the background.

"John phoned me like a week ago and told me not to 'Damage Government Property' " you say, the word's damage Government Property sounded unsure and uneven.

There was silence on the line "What?" Said Simon.

You sighed "Yeah, I think he phoned the wrong person, could you talk to him about it”.

"Babe, what time did he phone you?" Simon asked.

"I don't know, like two in the morning" You could practically hear Simon's eye twitch.

"I'm going to kill him for disturbing you at a fucking dumb hour," Simon said as he hung up. Johnny 'Soap' McTavish You lift your phone but are not quite ready to sleep yet. The phone call read as private, and you are confused. You know Johnny won't be allowed to call you yet, but you pick up the call anyway. "Hello, you're calling Soap’s spouse," you say, sounding annoyed; you hear Ghost's tired sigh on the other end. "It's Lieutenant Simon, I know he's your boyfriend--" He said. "Fiancée, you know this, Si. You were there," you say, annoyed that he had addressed you and Johnny wrong. Ghost sighed this time, trying not to bark at you. "Until you and he share the same last name, I don't care," he said, practically growling in your ear. "My point is, I saw that stupid mark you left," He says, sounding annoyed; you scrunch your face in confusion. "What mark?" You say, sounding confused This time, he growled, "The Hickey, you know, the big bruise you gave him." Your face made an awed face, and now that you knew what he was talking about, you sighed into the phone. "I was careful; I made sure." At least you were confident. You knew better than to leave anything visual. "Yeah, well, guess what? We can see it, so do me a favour and don't Damage Government Property." A week later

Your phone began buzzing, it was Johnny. “Johnny! Is everything ok?” you asked, sounding a little worried it wasn’t often that he called you when he was out on a mission. “Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine, Doll. I just found out that Simon phoned you, getting you into trouble for marking me. Honestly, I had my shirt off, and you’re the one in trouble,” he said, sounding pouty. He had gotten you in trouble for something that wasn’t your fault. Captain John Price

You sat in the Rattan Swing on the back porch, looking out to your back garden, your fingers tracing over the letters that John had sent you. You knew it was cheesy, but it made you feel special that he took the time to sit and write to you. Your phone sat off your side as you rested your head on the bars. Your phone began vibrating shaking you out of your fantasy, picking up your phone, answer the call without looking at the caller ID. “Well done, you’ve reached Captain Price. What can I do for you?” you say, your eyes still on the letters. All you heard was heavy breathing before John spoke, “I can’t believe they’re making me get you into trouble for this.” You pulled your phone away from your ear, looked at the number, and found it said ‘Private.’ “John? What’s happening is everything alright?” You ask sitting the letters to the right side of your knee, sitting up on the swing.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s just-” He sighs before he speaks again. “Honey, you know before I left…we uh-you-know”, You smile, thinking of when you were lazing around the house, “Yeah? What of it, John?” “You gave me a hickey, and it was seen by one of my Commanding officers, and I need to give you the talk about ‘Damaging Government Property’,” he said, sighing. Well…Don’t damage government property,” he said, hanging up. You rolled your eyes. This was going to be a very long month. A week later “I can’t believe they made me give my own god damned spouse into trouble”, John exhaled. You laughed into the phone. “I know, it’s all you’re talking about in your letters”, you say, as you flicked through the most recent ones, “You still keep those?” he asks, and you smile. “Always.” Alejandro Vargas

You were repeatedly pushing furniture around your shared living room when your phone went off. When you finally reached your phone, you could barely catch the call. “Hello? You’ve reached the annoyed Vargas,” you say, leaning against the couch that was taking up half of the room. “Yeah, it’s me, John. I get you and Alejandro have fun and like to play a little hot and heavy, but not where the rest of us can see it,” John says, sounding a little annoyed. You tilt your head back. “John, I don’t know what you’re on about,” you say. “The Hickey, the one that is a deep purple; it's visible, so here’s the tagline: Don’t damage government property,” he says, huffing as he hangs up the phone. You pull your phone away from your ear as you finally read through your notifications, all from Alejandro, warning you not to pick up any private calls. A week later “I can’t believe you picked up the call,” Alejandro said, annoyed; you giggled into the phone. “He would have kept calling if I didn’t, you know how your captain is” you say, as you lifted the TV onto the TV stand, “Yeah, Yeah, He's a dog with a bone, You better not be re-arranging our flat.” You paused, turning to your phone. “No, never” Kyle Garrick You groaned as you rolled over onto your front, your phone insistently buzzing on the side table; you grumbled as you sat up blindingly, hitting your phone “Hel-lo?” you mumbled. “Hello, it’s John Price”, came the voice over the phone; you made a muffled noise “John? Ky’s Captain?” you answered, your eyes still bleary, trying to adjust to the darkness. “Yes, It’s his captain. I’m calling to discuss the hickey you gave Kyle,” he said, sounding frustrated; your face pinches as you lean over and flick on the light, it blinding you slightly, “Hickey? I didn’t-” you paused as your brain started to wake further “Oh yeah? No, I remember, the night-” you mumbled half out of it. “Ah, Ah, Ah, I don’t want to know, nor do I care. Just don’t damage government property,” he said before he hung up. “I can’t believe I’ve had to make a to all the boys,” he grumbled before the call cut out. A week later “He said what?” Kyle laughed, and you flipped your phone over onto your other shoulder. Yeah, apparently, you’re not the only one,” you said, laughing, as you pulled out the cookies from the oven, the tray clinking on the table. “Oooo, are you making your famous cookies?” came a different voice over the phone, and you rolled your eyes as you hit the speaker. “Yes, Johnny, they are the cookies.”

(If you want to be a part of my tag list, check HERE for specifics)

Taglist: cringeycookies, dneicjefx Remember: leaving a like, re-blogging, and commenting helps in this world and encourages more.

See you around, my little loves.

Kissess.

[canmom]

Animation Night 189: Nonphotorealistic

There is a funny trend in animation-related terminology to define things by what they aren't. Animation is any technique for creating film that isn't live action. Limited animation is any style of 2D animation that doesn't follow the conventions of Disney's 'full animation' on 1s and 2s - a category that includes a wildly diverse range of approaches and techniques, as this wonderful history by Animation Obsessive describes.

In 3DCG circles, there is a similar term: nonphotorealistic. Which describes, naturally, anything that isn't trying to look like a photograph of a real scene. There has been a real boom in this of late, and just like the other terms, it really doesn't narrow it down very much. Other terms like 'hybrid animation' add a bit more hints.

Of course, if you've been anywhere near animation in the last few years, you'll probably know another term: 'Spiderverse style'.

There is no denying that Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2018) by Sony Pictures Animation was an absolute landmark for animation. (I wrote about it way back on AN21, focusing more on the cultural angle.) The ludicrously stylish film pretty much set the direction for animation in the 2020s - making a bunch of money and awards and thus finally throwing open the door to 3DCG animation that doesn't look like the style set by Pixar/Dreamworks in the 2000s. Its sequel, Across the Spiderverse (2023), was even more ambitious and successful (despite a troubled production involving a lot of needless crunch). We'll be showing that soon in a Spiderverse double bill so look forward to it!

So perhaps not surprising that when people see the use of graphical styles, 2D elements, limited framerates and the like in 3DCG these days, Spiderverse comes to mind. In its wake have come various films and series that apply these and related techniques: 3DCG animation is more varied than ever, and it's cool.

It isn't really a style, tho.

Here I'm indebted to youtuber Camwing who has made a nice video overview breaking down the animation of recent movies in this vaguely defined paradigm. Among them we have The Mitchells vs the Machines (2021, also Sony), Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022, Dreamworks), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023, animated at the French/Canadian studio Mikros animation), and of course over on Netflix you got the wildly popular League of Legends spinoff series Arcane (2021, Fortiche Productions), and the romance film Entergalactic (2022, DNEG), tying in with an album of the same name.

None of these films has exactly the same style, but they all pull from a related bag of tricks. The core techniques are animating on reduced framerates for a 'snappy', high-clarity feeling, the combination of 2D and 3D elements in some fashion, and taking inspiration from traditional media such as paintings or comic books.

For example, Arcane and Entergalactic both use the trick of 2D backgrounds/projecting paintings onto 3D geometry, inhabited by 3D characters with a stylised shader. Arcane is dripping with 2D visual effects. Puss in Boots drops the framerate during its action scenes - the opposite of the old paradigm of full animation, where fast actions would get more frames. Spiderverse draws 2D expressions onto its 3D models to push them further, and is full of all kinds of colourful stylised rendering - screentone effects, kirby dots, outlines, the works.

It's tempting to link this to 2D-in-3D animation, and certainly many of these films apply this technique - this is the major niche where Blender has found its way into industry pipelines. But using 2D isn't mandatory to count here. For example, TMNT Mutant Mayhem has an incredibly striking storybook-painting style, accomplished largely by clever shader work and a strong sense of graphic design. Genndy Tartakovsky's canned 2014 Popeye project was planning to use a ton of 2D-style posing and squash-and-stretch, accomplished largely with rigged 3D models. There are many paths to take!

And mind you, I haven't even covered one of the biggest angles here. Search for nonphotorealistic 3DCG on Youtube and what you'll probably find most is information about cel-shading - aka 'anime style'. This has also advanced considerably in the last few years, with the techniques pioneered by Arc System Works in Guilty Gear such as editing the normals of characters for more precise control over shading, and minute adjustments to break up the mechanical feeling of 3D, becoming widely copied in both games and films. (And particularly, animated porn.)

Vtubers in particular have really run with this technique, generally speaking using cel-shaded models with edited normals, inverted eyes, etc. etc. to try and get the feeling of an anime character come to life. [You can see a lot of these state of the art techniques if you download Pixiv's free VRoid Studio software and import the model into Blender using the VRM plugin.]

Naturally this kind of cel-shaded approach has found a particular home in Japan. In anime, the biggest champions of it are certainly Studio Orange, whose hybrid approach involves planning out shots with 2D animation before matching them with the rigs. We've covered their adaptation of Houseki no Kuni in great detail on Animation Night 97; their Trigun reboot was perhaps even more popular. But cel-shaded techniques, 3D previs and the like have also made their way into big films like Eva 3.0+1.0 (AN66).

Although this type of rendering aims to recreate the look and feel of 2D animation as much as possible, it always ends up being something new: character models that would be too complex to draw, an ease to 3D movements and camerawork that would be challenging in 2D, and generally a new hybrid style. This is good! 2D animation is already very good at being 2D animation - it's fascinating to see what 3DCG becomes with that inspiration.

So with that brief overview, where does that take us tonight?

I'm not quite ready to do a Spiderverse double bill tonight, so instead the plan is to check out a couple of recent American franchise films that are taking on the new suite of techniques. I've mentioned them up above, but let me introduce them more fully here.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a sequel to a fairly unpopular spinoff about a side character of the Shrek franchise (AN75). Not, on its face, very promising - which is why it is all the more striking that I was told on all sorts of sides that I must watch this movie. I'm finally going to make good on that.

The title character is a kind of feline musketeer type, now facing the end of his swashbuckling career as he's lost 8 of his 9 lives. Not wanting to hang up his hat, he goes on a quest to restore them. What makes it stand out its the action scenes, which go all in on the anime-influenced, extreme perspective and lighting, limited framerate style that we're discussing above. Apparently it looks sick as shit.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a fresh reboot of the venerable TMNT franchise, which pretty much describes itself in the title: four turtles (named after Renaissance painters, of course!) live in a sewer as ninjas, led by their aging master who is a rat. Starting as a comic book, it became one of the iconic toyline-driven TV shows of the 80s - but it's still going! Indeed, Turtles has been on a roll of late (at least going by animator scuttlebutt), with Australian studio Flying Bark Productions turning a lot of heads with their neo-Kanada School style (and for really stretching the definition of 'storyboard').

This new film takes a different approach to the bombastic action of Rise. It focuses on a new origin story for the turtles, telling a kind of coming of age story - but what makes it unique is the animation style and cinematography. Cinéma vérité is not a phrase you really expect to be associated with ninja turtles, but the film seems to really go all out in a way you wouldn't really expect from a franchise movie, shooting the young turtles in a handheld style and focus heavily on character. Marcel Reinhard's shader work, allowing the animators to isolate lights to specific objects and characters and introducing graphical elements of cross-hatching, stippling, etc. etc. to the lighting, gives it a uniquely painting-like feeling, augmented by a lot of 2D creativity in lighting and effects.

Turtles has never really been my thing, but this film looks unique enough that I really want to see it - and I hear it's a good film too.

So that's our bill for tonight! Puss and Turtles. Let's see what the big studios have been cooking of late...

Animation Night 189 will be starting around 10pm UK time (roughly three hours hence) and carrying on til about 2-3am same! We'll be on twitch.tv/canmom as usual. Hope to see you there!

[joc3lynn]

༘⋆🌷🫧💭₊˚ෆ ༘⋆🌷🫧💭₊˚ෆ ༘⋆🌷🫧💭₊˚ෆ

𝐓ɦ𝖾 𝐒ᥣ𝖾ρ𝐆 𝐌𝖾𝗍ɦⱺᑯ !

kind of long blog ahead !

Here I present to you the SlepG method. It is a method I created myself that combines the word sleep and grace into the word SlepG.

What does this method SlepG even do Josie? You ask. It is a shifting method that I tested out myself and I think it could work out good for you too as well. This method could make your body asleep and your mind awake. But our minds are different so you should make your own personalized method that makes you shift the best.

How do I apply the SlepG method? You ask. Well it is pretty simple. Relax, focus on ASMR in the background, and then when you feel symptoms of body going asleep, you simply imagine/assume you are your DR self breathing OR connect your symptoms to your DR.

But let me break it down !

1. Relaxing

You can put on a meditation, focus on your breathing, or just simply lay there. But if you have trouble relaxing I recommend you watch something relaxing like ASMR so you can get into a relaxed state.

2. Focus on ASMR

When you feel truly relaxed like really truly relaxed focus on the ASMR. Studies show that ASMR decreases heart rate which is great for shifting since you’re getting into a more meditative state now as your body falls asleep.

3. Imagine DR self breathing

Once you feel symptoms of your body going to sleep you can now assume you are your DR self breathing they are different ways to do this. Visualization, affirming or just simply knowing you are breathing in your DR.

Or connect the symptoms to your DR like if you feel floaty just assume that your DR self (you) is feeling floaty so that why you feel afloat because your DR self is you right now. And in some time you should be in your DR.

Key Tip :

1. Don’t try to control your symptoms or force your body to go to sleep. Just let your body do their job.

If you shifted with this method or made a variation of it (mini-shifts do count as a shift) then send me an ask or DM me telling me your success if you want to.

- josie

Bye Bye 🫶🏾

༘⋆🌷🫧💭₊˚ෆ ༘⋆🌷🫧💭₊˚ෆ ༘⋆🌷🫧💭₊˚ෆ

Post inspired by @shimmershifts

[castle-of-ruin]

Reacher Comes to Visit 1

A/N: Well, here I am again. Dipping my feet into the waters of posting content on Tumblr again. This time, it's for my beloved Reacher. A character that I have grown ridiculously attached to thanks to Alan Ritchson 🤭. This story is based very loosely on the contents of the show but does not actually tie into the show. All things that happen in this story are strictly made up. Big shoutout to @quaritchscupquake and @cryingwriter, convincing me to post this.

Pairing: Jack Reacher x f!reader

Rating: 18+ MDNI

Warnings: Mutual pining? Size kink if you squint? Reacher being Reacher. This part is pretty tame. Mentions of food and injury. Character has a nickname, but not too many defining characteristics.

A/N 2: Please let me know if I miss any content warnings. I want to make sure it's properly tagged.

I do not condone the reposting of my story anywhere. DO NOT DO IT

Visual inspiration for anyone who cares. This is a very pretty gif. Thank you, @hunnam , for creating it!

The tv plays softly in the background as you float around your home cleaning up as you go. It was your favorite movie, one you have been watching since you were a little kid. The musical soundtrack was by far one of the best you have ever heard. Even now as an adult, you found so much joy and comfort in the movie and its music. Your night is rudely interrupted when a loud knock resounds off the walls of your house. Jumping, you grab your remote and pause the movie. Tilting your head, you make your way to the front door, you were not expecting any visitors.

Opening the door you freeze, heating finding its way into every part of your body. None other than Jack Reacher was standing opposite you beaten and bloody, however, this time he had friends. Two years ago Reacher saved your life: twice. Then the two of you spent one hell of a weekend together, and then he left, and you had not heard from him in two years. For him to be on your front porch unannounced after two years made you feel something you didn’t expect. You were mad at him, but part of you understood that is who Reacher was, a drifter moving place to place no one and nothing holding him down.

You stare up at the large man unable to form any words. Neagley, you remember her from before, steps forward and gives you a tight smile.

“Sorry to show up unannounced, Hawk,” She references the nickname she gave you. “We ran into some trouble and need a safe place to lay low for the night.” Neagley, as usual, is straight and to the point.

This was something you appreciate about her. Taking in the tired faces of the two other members of their group you let out a deep sigh and move to the side motioning them in.

You stand in the doorway leading to the living room and watch as three of them settle into your house comfortably. Reacher stands on the opposite side of the room and watches you.

“This is O’Donnell and Dixon, two of our old team mates.” Neagley speaks up, breaking the silence.

“Nice to meet you both.” You tell them with a small smile.

“Why does Neagley call you Hawk?” O’Donnell asks.

“She’s observant.” Reacher pipes in, folding his arms over his broad chest as he leans against the wall.

You avert your eyes from his stare, turning your head down towards the floor.

“I only have one extra bedroom. You can fight over who gets it. Make yourselves comfortable. I’ll go get some pillows and extra blankets,” You pause as you look over them. “I can also run to the store and grab some robes for you all to wear so I can wash your clothes. If that is something you are interested in.” You finish looking at each of them individually.

“That sounds amazing. Thank you.” Dixon speaks up first. O’Donnell nods his head softly and settles deeper into the couch.

“That would be great, Hawk, thank you.” Neagley states.

Nodding you make your way out of the living room and back towards the front door where you grab your purse and keys before heading out the door. Leaving strangers in your house probably wasn’t the best of ideas, but you knew Reacher and Neagley. You knew they were safe.

Your trip to the store was rather quick, you try not to draw attention to yourself, but it was hard when you were getting four bathrobes all in a different size. You just smile awkwardly at the cashier who checks you out. Speeding home you mentally prepare yourself for the night to come.

When you make your way back into the house all four of them turn to look at you.

“Okay, each of you can have a hot shower, then bring me your clothes and once I have them all I will throw them in the wash for all of you. Anyone hungry?” You ask.

“I am,” Reacher shrugs. You nod and look at the others who nod in unison. This wasn’t a talkative bunch which you were thankful for.

“Okay, decide the order for showers and I will get started on food. The robes are in this bag.” You instruct, dropping the bag on the vacant chair.

You head to the kitchen and prepare dinner for the four of them, you had eaten earlier that night and were not hungry. The room suddenly felt smaller and you knew who was there with you.

“You look good.” He tells you quietly coming up behind you.

You close your eyes as a shiver runs the length of your spine. Even after all this time he was still imprinted in your senses. Turning, you lean against the counter and look up at him. Taking in the wet patch on his left side, which you assumed was blood, and the bruise under his left eye.

“You look like hell.” Your words have a smile pulling at Reacher’s lips.

He doesn’t say anything else after that, just shakes his head and leaves the kitchen. After some time food is ready and three out of four of them have showered.

“Okay, food is ready, come eat.” You instruct, smiling as you watch all four of them eagerly make their way to the dining room to eat.

“Thank you!” Dixon yells.

“Yeah, thanks this is good food.” O’Donnell nods.

You smile at them and nod your head. “It’s my pleasure. I will be in my room if anyone needs me. Just knock.” You tell them, excusing yourself to your room.

Flopping on the bed you stare up at the ceiling. Memories from two years ago running freely in your head. A quiet knock pulls you out of your thoughts. Looking to the door you see Reacher standing there. Sitting up you tilt your head.

“Everything okay?” You ask.

“Yeah, you said if anyone needed you just knock. I knocked.” He shrugs, and you stifle a laugh.

“Well, you’re the reason I can not start the load of laundry. Get it together Reacher.” You tease.

“Right, I’ll be back.” He states and leaves.

You shake your head and let out a groan. He was going to be the death of you. There weren’t many people in this world who consumed your thoughts freely, but he did ever since he saved your life, and fucked you better than any man ever had. You shake your head, now probably wasn’t the best time to think about that.

Not long after Reacher had left another quiet knock could be heard. When he enters your room he takes up the doorway with his large frame. You take in the way the dark robe holds on for dear life, like it was on the verge of ripping as it stretched thin over his broad shoulders.

“Everything is in your laundry room and ready for you.” He states.

Getting up you nod. “Okay, thank you. That robe is holding on for dear life.” You can’t contain the giggle that bubbles up in your chest.

He looks down at the robe. “I think they left me the smallest one on purpose.” He grumbles. You giggle again and he gives you a dirty look.

“I’ll be right back. Gonna go start the load.” You tell him.

"Is it okay for me to stay here?” He asks.

You look at him for a moment. “Yes.”

Going out you make your way to the laundry room and throw all of the clothes into the wash and start it. You poke your head into the living room on the way back where the others are still sitting talking quietly amongst themselves.

“Hey, once the washer beeps, one of you can put the clothes in the dryer. I’ll be in my room if you need me. Goodnight.” You tell them.

Entering your room you smile upon seeing Reacher asleep on your bed. He made your queen size bed appear small and you chuckle to yourself at that. Going over to your dresser you pull pjs out of your drawer and go into the adjacent bathroom. Closing the door softly you strip and turn the water on. A quiet sigh passes your lips as the water bears down on your back. After your shower you get dressed and head back out into your bedroom. Reacher is awake now and watches as you exit a cloud of steam pouring out behind you.

You get into bed and lay on your side looking over at Reacher. He turns so he is facing you.

“Two years is a long time.” You whisper, reaching out and hovering your hand over his arm. You weren’t sure if you should touch him.

He answers your internal question by grabbing your right hand with his right and guiding it to his shoulder. The fabric is soft beneath your fingers, but part of you wished it was his skin you were touching.

“I know, I’m sorry we didn’t call first before just showing up. I knew you were safe and just brought them here.” He reaches out and grabs your hip, pulling you closer.

“Not tonight. You need to sleep. Something tells me your life is about to be in danger, again. See it as an incentive to come back alive.” You tell him, placing your hand on his somewhat exposed chest. Enjoying the warmth that fills your fingertips.

“Can I kiss you? Just once?” He asks, cupping your cheek softly in his large hand.

You nod and close your eyes. His lips are warm against yours, and just like you remembered, soft, yet rough. The kiss was short, sweet, and full of an unspoken promise. He pulls you into him and tucks you into his side beneath the covers. You find yourself snuggling into him and closing your eyes. The warmth from his body spreads through you.

“Goodnight, Reacher.”

“Goodnight, Hawk.” You smile at him using the nickname as well.

Tomorrow, things will surely be different. Tomorrow, the threat was to be dealt with. Tomorrow, the outcome was unknown.

Uh, I'm gonna tag some folks. Maybe you'll like to see it :)

@obiknights @a-reader-and-a-writer @chelseasdagger @gemstone-roses @cryingwriter @quaritchscupquake @supernaturaldawning @xxidontwikeitxx @spnshortcake

[tinyshoopuf]

Veilguard Appreciation

It's Veilguard appreciation week and while this doesn't fall under any prompts, I still wanted to take a moment to gush about an aspect of the game that had a profound impact on me and that's the accessibility.

I have very poor vision and I greatly appreciate what they did to make it easier to play the game. I was able to make the text bigger! They made the contrast on the text so it stood out from the background! And even the design of the game with it's stylization, I wasn't having trouble with the visual noise that a lot of "realistic" games do. But. Most of all. They had! A setting! For colorblindness!!!

Do you know how many health jars I missed before I found that setting? Sometimes I'd be literally running into them before noticing them.

Default setting

Colorblind setting

I have been informed that if you have normal color vision these images aren't that much different but to me the second one is MUCH clearer, I can distinctly tell the objects and depth is much clearer to me so I stop falling off the edge of things. So, I wa ted to join and celebrate something that doesn't affect a lot of people, but for those it does, it's SO nice

(I am not fully colorblind, I can see red and green in their pure forms, but there are shades in between that I cannot distinguish between)

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! I have a character named Connie with Albinism who's in a tropey superhero comic esq world as a semi important supporting character. She works with the main heroes sometimes but isn't a hero herself (She's the reporter always getting into trouble type character) . She does however have an "aura reading" type power which manifests as basically just raising the hairs on the back of her neck whenever someone has bad vibes. I'm trying not to bump the "Super Mystical Person with Albinism" trope along the way and I don't think I have since 70% of all the other characters also have powers but I wanted to ask just in case

Hi there! Thanks for your question. I think it is very good that your conception of aura reading is not visually oriented and instead relies on tactile clues, since it does not fall prey to the trope of superpowers overriding people’s disabilities. You have a good starting point, so here are some components to consider for fleshing out the character more:

Albinism goes with Blindness, so if you are not well-versed in writing visually impaired characters in general, that is a vital starting point. All Blindness-causing conditions are more specific and complex than just “can’t see” — with Albinism some specifics will likely include nystagmus, strabismus, ptosis, light sensitivity, etc. Treating it as a disability without any connection to her superpowers helps dismantle the trope.

There are also multiple varying types of Albinism so you must decide which specific type your character will have, and must be prepared to research and treat the other accompanying symptoms of their Albinism with the same complexity as the Blindness.

Is your motive for writing her with Albinism solely motivated by aesthetics? A good litmus test for this is to consider if you would give her OA — a type of albinism that does not result in the white hair/pale skin/red or purple looking eyes. If that is an automatic dealbreaker for you, then that is a sign to re-think your motives. The aesthetic of that form of OCA is a big contributor to the “mystical Albino” trope.

If you truly want them to have that form of Albinism, do it justice! Treat is as the complex condition it is, and do not base her superhero uniform on it or otherwise exotic-ize her appearance.

Please do consider giving her OA! Most people with OA have lighter blue eyes, and may have lighter hair or skin or for the most part can be normally pigmented. So many people do not know this is a type of Albinism and it is much needed representation.

Finally, please consider her race. Even if she has OCA that affects her skin, if she comes from a non-European background, please look into how people of her culture with Albinism view their condition and how it interacts with her environment and family.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask follow ups.

Mod Zohar

[the-rini-rush]

Dear Ryuuni, I am pleased to announce that you have the official invitation to…

The Golden Frost Festival!

Event Summary !

Ryuuni has gotten a highly coveted invitation to an event thats only hosted every ten years! Because of NRC's... interesting actions with it's invites... so it hasn't received an invite in almost a century! not even a single student!

so Ryuuni was confused to see the peculiar letter in the mail, but to hear that they got one.. everyone at NRC was suddenly very interested and nice to their 14yr old enrolled student. :D

Invitation states that Ryuuni can take 4 people! (2 canon + 2 ocs)

the invited oc guests will be chosen by a raffle!

The festival happens when the smaller fairies of nature gather and make a big deal out of the switching of hot summer to cool fall and eventually winter! they all gather to watch their queen cast the weather! (because the royals always cast the weather, this event doesn’t happen often because of safety reasons)

all accompanied by stunning visuals, music, food, and games!

Canon Characters!

-- Ryuuni

-- Jamil (you can make it, or don't its ok)

-- Jack (DRAWN BY @skriblee-ksk)

Background for the Cards! + concepts/outfit info

(yes this event was inspired by EAH)

having trouble? figure out the general aesthetics through this video! (certain parts have nothing to do with the festival, so i suggest skipping to 5mins in)

Competing Inviters !

💌 Rose by @blood-red-bumblebee

💌 Flori by @bunniehunn

💌 Blanche by @screamintoad

💌 Sally by @babyghoul138

💌 Hopper by @theolivetree123

💌 Joseph by @readsrandomstuff67

💌 Yumi by @gimmeurmoneyagh

💌 Jewel by @jewelulu

💌 Delilah by @slumberingrose-fandom

💌 Yuyu by @anonymousplant

💌 Rolene + Flori by @cheerleaderman

💌 Anchor by @venaue

💌 Yumi by @twisted-wonderland-memories

💌 teddy by @yuus-sentient-teddy

reblogs are apprecited!

SUBMIT BY 9/15/24

you don’t need to submit art! edits or fics are fine too!

just remember to tag me and hashtag it as #golden-frost-fest 😎(no emoji, but yes dashes)

it’d be great if you all spread the word 😁 by tagging or reblogging <3

[pushovermediacritic]

This meme got me thinking:

And I came to a conclusion.

The problem with modern Youtube is that it's too fucking boring and political.

Pulling back a bit, that's not to say I dislike those creators, or don't watch them. There is definitely a niche for opinion-based essays, discussions, and political content, and I enjoy watching stuff like that occasionally. And partially it's due to the current worldwide political climate being fucking crazy, so people genuinely do want to talk about it.

But primarily, this is an issue created by Youtube itself, with three major changes:

Videos can't have explicit content like swearing, sex, or violence, otherwise advertisers will demonetize the videos because they want to advertise to children. And no copyrighted music or footage, otherwise the video will get claimed.

Paradoxically, videos have to be marked as "not for children", and if they're too funny, silly, bright, and colorful, they will get in trouble with the government and be demonetized by Youtube switching them to "for children".

Also, the algorithm now favors overall watchtime over number of views. Both in terms of revenue and push. This means that short high-effort videos are less favored over long low-effort content viewers can put in the background while doing chores.

These three factors combined: no explicit content, no childish content, and no short-form content, means that people have naturally gravitated toward one style of video: being fucking boring and just talking about the news for hours on-end.

No-one could say that the news is "for kids", they don't give a shit, but just saying your opinions on current events can also be sanitized enough to not get demonetized (no sex or violence when you're just sitting in a room talking). And if you can ramble on for 2-3 hours on whatever current events have you annoyed, that's more watch-time. It's low-effort because it can just be a stream upload, and without music or visual aids, there's no worry of being copyright claimed and viewers can put it in the background while doing chores and listen like a podcast.

[shelandsorcery]

an aside on our eyes and relative colour

I wrote a HUGE post on digital camera white balance, and this is just a little excerpt on one of my favourite aspects of colour: how slippery it is!

So!

If you light a scene with a flame, say in a campfire or on a candle, you know it’s giving everything a warm glow, right? The way it’s doing that is: the light produced by the flame is itself made of mostly red and yellow wavelengths of light. It’s not producing any light on the blue wavelengths.

The way we, or a camera, perceive color is by coloured wavelengths being reflected off the object we’re looking at. The object doesn’t create the coloured light, it requires light of the right color to hit it for the colours of the object to be visible. Sunlight, white light, contains the full spectrum of colours, and so in bright sunlight the light itself shows us all the potential colours – which means it changes none of them, which means the light itself feels white.

When the flame on a candle produces light, it’s mostly producing red and yellow light, which means if it encounters a red object, it shows us the red, but if it encounters a green object, it can only show us the molecules inside that green color that are yellow, and the molecules inside that green that are blue don’t reflect any light. To our eyes, this tints the object yellowish in the candlelight.

However, if you stay a long time in a room lit only by candles, you probably feel like you can see green and blue and purple colours a little still. As I understand it (and my neurologist family members will I’m sure be haunted by this maybe oversimplified info so please follow the rabbit hole here if you’re curious, it’s really interesting stuff!) this is your brain compensating for the tinted information by shifting your identification of colours, maybe to try and help you discern as much information as possible from the limited visual data. You don’t stop knowing it’s warm light, but you adjust to it.

As an example, and here I’m talking about your eyes, remember, not the camera tech yet (we’ll get back to it shortly), here is a photo of a candle.

First off, let me assuage your dress-related paranoia – this is a teal candle.

To me, looking at the photo, this is clearly a teal candle. You can see it’s a lovely seafoam green at the top where it’s warmer and glowing through the melted wax, and a much more vibrant blue farther down, away from the flame.

So let’s take a closer look at these colours! I have isolated a few into bigger dots and overlaid them on the image where they were eyedroppered from:

And here are the same colours just on a neutral 50% grey background.

Here I have eyedroppered that brightest blue in the dots, the one on the bottom right of the image. This is how blue it is: not very blue! Pretty green still! Because that candle’s light cannot show us blue and purple wavelengths, we end up with an image where a cold green-grey starts to feel blue.

Our eyes work to compensate in limited-colour situations. We’re actually really good at it! And anyone who makes art commercially, anyone who designs colour for film and tv, advertising, fashion, games, etc? They all know this and use it when creating images. It’s why, given full colour vision, at a candlelit dinner, you can still tell your green veggies from your red ones.

And it’s not at all new! You can see this in Georges de La Tour’s famous candlelit paintings. The brightest light feels white, and colours still have some vibrance to them, and the scene feels rich, but, there’s no actual blues on the canvas, even though we have no trouble identifying the woman’s dress as light blue:

If you want to read more about how this applies to white balance settings on your cellphone or digital camera, the rest of the post is here:

[webslingingslasher]

is trouble ever frat!peter’s lock screen? Either before or after the whole situationship thing or secretly during both eras? If so, what picture?

yes! relationship!peter does it proudly, situationship!peter is a bit more stealth. iphones have a wallpaper feature where if you hold the screen down you can swap between photos and i imagine that’s how it is.

peter went home for a week and really missed you and went through his photos and he saw that picture he snapped of you at a party. the background is blurred, proof that the liquor was flowing heavily. you’ve got a smile that shows off almost every tooth and a vice grip on a liter of rum. he doesn’t know why, but he made it his wallpaper for the week and would pick up his phone every five minutes just to look at it.

relationship!peter has a picture of the both of you. something he looks at and is reminded of what he has and how much he truly loves you. it was from a double date night you both had a few months into being official, your friend pressured peter for the photo, he rolled his eyes and gave in. he’s glad he did. it’s his favorite.

you’re wrapped around him in a side hug, peters got a grip on your shoulder. he’s laughing at something your friends date said, he’s wearing the grin you tell him you love. but the reason he has such adornment for the photo is because of the way you’re looking at him.

your eyes are bright and shining, your smile matches his, not because you found anything funny, but because peter’s joy was contagious for you. each time he looks at it he feels warmth radiate, a visual reminder of how much you love him.

—

(you know i had to add a bonus of trouble finding peter’s wallpaper!! -situationship!peter obv)

‘just sit here and look pretty, i’ll be thirty minutes tops.’

peter had pulled you away from date night with the promise of stopping at his chapter meeting. he had negotiated the first hour, trent, the chapter president, wouldn’t break on the last thirty minutes and demanded peter be there. or else.

you wouldn’t mind but peter didn’t tell you until last minute and now you’re sitting down at an empty table at the library while they fill up a rented room across from you.

‘it’ll be longer than that and you know it.’

‘you’ll be fine. give me a kiss.’ you meet him with one, you grumble down at your phone. ‘my phones about to die, what am i supposed to do?’

peter feigns shock, ‘oh no!’ he looks around, ‘i hope you’ll find something to do in this big, empty library. it might be hard.’

your eyes narrow, you hate his sarcasm. ‘the library doesn’t have instagram reels, peter. how am i supposed to entertain myself while you’re talking numbers and business?’

there’s a miniature battle of silence, you win when peter groans and hands over his phone from his back pocket. ‘here. use mine.’ you reach forward, peter’s giving you unbridled access to his phone, you’d be dumb to say no.

‘nuh uh. you promise me right now you won’t fuck up my algorithm, i spent months perfecting it.’ you make grabby hands, ‘promise.’

the sleek, black screen is in your hold in seconds. your thumbs fly over the screen, you’re in and on instagram in a second. peter looks back once more, ‘thirty minutes.’ you nod, the first video already playing, you wish you could send it to peter. you send it to yourself to send back to him when you’re at a full charge.

ten minutes and you need a refresher, wandering around towards the bathroom you grab a water from a vending machine. cracking the cap, your left thumb pressed into peter’s home screen and his wallpaper separated, another photo right next to it.

you can recognize the edge, you swipe and feel your heart melt into a puddle. it’s you and only you. smiling and posing just for peter. he snapped the pic and saved it, he even went one step further and put it as his screensaver. a backup one, but something tells you he doesn’t want you knowing it exists.

you can keep a secret.

you can’t stop smiling at his phone and the short videos playing aren’t even that funny. you perk at a kiss on the top of your head. ‘told you i’d only be thirty minutes… what? why are you looking at me like that?’

‘no reason. it was very nice of you to offer me your phone, thank you.’

another kiss, you can’t wait til you get him alone. you might be the only one in on the secret, but he was going to be treated very nicely for it.

‘no problem, trouble. what’s mine is yours.’ your heart thumps louder. ‘and now,’ peter gently pulls you up with him, you’re along for the ride.

‘i owe you dessert, let’s go.’ you don’t walk with him, you stay until his hand tugs yours, peter looks back at you confused. ‘i wanna have dessert at yours.’

peter pouts, ‘tarrent polished off the ice cream.’

‘i know.’ peter knows that tone, now he’s standing straighter and acting casually. ‘oh? alright, yeah, let’s go home.’

[camberdraws]

I really like your art! Do you have any tips for drawing environments?

Ahhhh thank you so much!

I did some thinking before answering this ask... a lot of general drawing advice absolutely applies to creating backgrounds (such as using references, keeping perspective in mind, etc). But the #1 tool that especially helps me with environments is creating thumbnails!

I depend massively on the thumbnail process, especially for environments. I use them to resolve almost every major detail before painting the real thing! It makes it so much easier to experiment with colors, values, etc. and figure out the important stuff in your image. You want to keep them very blobby and sketchy so you aren't afraid to make big changes!

The thumbnail shown above for my shaymin drawing leaves very few questions about what the final should look like. It only took around an hour to create, and the time it saved me from making any mistakes is massive! This is especially helpful as someone who has immense trouble visualizing color schemes and has struggled numerous times trying to make color work after finishing lineart without a good thumbnail.

The more complex an environment, the more I suggest a thumbnail. Some of my recent zine pieces would have been impossible for me to complete without a detailed sketch to guide me.

Another big piece of advice, mentioned above, is USING REFERENCES! I think this is especially helpful for creating interesting and detailed backgrounds. Doing research on objects/props/scenes will enrich your drawing and make it more engaging to the viewer!

Here is an example of the reference I gathered for my lurantis+gloom drawing. I brainstormed different plants/items I thought would be fun to include with grass-type pokemon, and threw them together in a PureRef file! (I highly recommend using PureRef, it's an excellent software for making reference boards). Generally speaking, it's difficult for humans to conjure up exactly how a watering can/gardening tool/fence/flower might look like down to super specific details, so obtaining reference to fill in those gaps is essential.

Finally, advice that applies very broadly to all types of drawings: do lots of studies! Starting last year I have done 50 environment/scene studies, and they have been extremely helpful for improving my general skill and ability to compose backrounds! I can't recommend this enough to all artists!

And that's about it! I think it's easy for artists to be intimidated by drawing backgrounds, but it can be so much fun! Take it slow, do research, and create thumbnails for your drawing. And don't forget to do studies, they are good for you!

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Thoughts about the supposed direction Rhaena's storyline is going in Hotd and the apparent Nettles erasure? Disappointing but... I can sort of see where they could take it? Idk... looking at grrm's posts in hindsight kinda makes me even more disappointed if he is as well (he just can't get his adaptations right atp but idk)

Well. Pre-ep7, we're still pending any Rhaena-Sheepstealer bonding, but I'm basically 😑🫠 about the rumors. (I dislike borrowing trouble, I'm not even sure how many of the rumors are true -- actually I'm pretty sure many of these supposed "leaks" are straight up lies -- and yet. Still *disgruntled meh* and *"we're all fine-everyone's fine here" dread*.) Rhaena is one of my more beloved F&B characters (it's the Sansa parallels, I can't help myself), and Nettles has been a super fave since TPATQ and TWOIAF. (Particularly TWOIAF, since the Burned Men fire-witch reveal; heck, I think my little dollmaker is still one of the few fanarts of Nettles in the mountains.)

I mean, sure, I understand that Rhaena's book storyline during the Dance, where she's offpage from basically the start of the war until nearly the end of it, socializing in the Vale and waiting for her egg to hatch, would be difficult to adapt in an action-oriented visuals-oriented television show. (Like Rhaenyra this season sure isn't just catatonically crying from Luke's death until Jace's.) And I'm glad Rhaena's getting more to do, and I'm glad it's directly addressing her feeling slighted and ignored by her family since she doesn't have a dragon. However...

I do not want Rhaena merged into one character with Nettles! I do not want Rhaena to have Sheepstealer and not her hope-for-the-future (doomed hope, and yet) baby dragon Morning, that hatched for her. Also note how pink Morning, worn as a fashion accessory, so suited Rhaena's coquette personality vs her sporty, adventurous twin sister... I mean, I've said before, I understand adaptations can be different, this still wouldn't make HOTD even close to a "loose adaptation".* But I do not want this adaptation to lose Rhaena's personality that I loved.

Or for that matter, to lose Nettles's character, and her importance to the themes and worldbuilding of ASOIAF. (See also.) And her importance to the plot -- but god knows, they're doing all sorts of things with Daemon and Rhaenyra on this show, toxic romance or what have you, who knows if once Daemon reaches his emotional breakthrough or whatever at Harrenhal this season, if they want to backslide him into a cheating plot in S3 while Daemon is again stuck in a castle for months.** Nevertheless, I'd be deeply disappointed to lose scenes like "as well as her dragon, the girl had taken to riding Daemon", or the last morning in Maidenpool scene... and um, you can't really fit Rhaena in there, or if you did, it would certainly put the lie to the ship denialists' "he just treated her like a father, platonically bathing naked together!" (Also the pretty blatant fake S3 leaks including one where Rhaenyra decides Rhaena has betrayed her... are pretty blatantly fake, sorry.)

And then there would be the frankly racist erasure of the one book black character. "Oh but the show made the Velaryons black, so it's not erasing, it's adding more!" No, sorry. (1) I was and am all for adding more racial diversity to the show and especially to Valyrians, but face it, when you take the book's secondary character Velaryons, two who get killed off early and are portrayed as lesser to the "true" Daemon/Rhaenyra marriage, and make them black, you've already done a lot of hinky damage there. (2) What, it's that hard to write three distinct black girls with very different personalities and one from an incredibly different background? I don't see Addam and Alyn getting merged. I don't see Aemond and Daeron getting merged. I don't see Hugh and Ulf getting merged. But I'm not really one to speak here, for this particular discussion I'd point you to @ride-thedragon and @venusintheblindspots-blog and @chrkrose, among others, they have many many posts on this subject in far greater detail and better argued than mine.

OK, so. I still have hope that Nettles -- even if not cast for this season (sorry y'all, that extra is an extra) -- may appear next season, and all this worry will turn out to be a tempest in a teapot. Per last report from the HOTD panel at SDCC, the rumor of Rhaena and Sheepstealer definitely doesn't happen in ep 7, though, yes, there's one episode after. And if it does happen... I'll be strongly disappointed. Deeply, deeply disappointed, and probably far more suspicious of future adaptational changes. But, for me at least, it's not a dealbreaker like GOT S5 was.*** I won't be happy at all about the storyline, but I would like to think the show will remain high quality re themes and character and all. Time will tell, though. Time will definitely tell.

As for GRRM, when his complaints seem to be "wild dragons shouldn't be in the Vale" and "the heraldry with four legs is wrong", well, I struggle to see that he's that disappointed in the adaptational changes. Believe me, I am well used to reading between the lines re GRRM and adaptations, something like the fact that he's not visiting the HOTD writers' room when he's in the UK is nothing. Catch me if at Worldcon or his Oxford lecture in August, GRRM again says that he could write a whole novel about Nettles, or if actually says something about non-Valyrian dragonriders, ok?

*I was just reading up on The Beast (2023) vs Henry James's “The Beast in the Jungle”. lol HOTD doesn't compare. Don't even think it, man.

**You know, this reminds me of how the Dance in F&B is not paced very well for individual characters, they keep going offscreen for months at a time. From shortly after Rhaenyra's crowning to the Fall of KL, Daemon just sits at Harrenhal and occasionally ventures out into the riverlands. From shortly after the Fall of KL until the Battle Above the Gods Eye, Daemon just... sits at Maidenpool and occasionally ventures out into the riverlands (with Nettles). Yeah, obviously a show would need to write more for him to do, he's a main character.

***Thank god HOTD isn't the sort of exploitative shitshow that GOT was. All y'all thinking it was a better adaptation because of your nostalgia goggles (and/or shitty memory) need to actually reread the books (especially AFFC/ADWD) and then submit yourself to the real-world misogynist and homophobic nonsense of S5-6 again, ugh.