#it’s also nice sometimes to look back at the old versions and go ‘oh yeah that’s where i started :’)’

[mochiimadness]

I wonder what it would be like for Splinter if he fell in love? This isn't an xreader thing, for obvious reasons. It's just a scenario I haven't really seen explored for his character, and I'm curious how you'd portray it.

Hello! I wasn’t sure which version of Splinter you wanted, so I did both! Also, I could write a splinter x reader if someone requested it (not sure what you meant by 'obvious reasons' /lh), I did not make this one a splinter x reader tho ^^

2012 Splinter

Oh Hamato Yoshi, a man of so little yet so many words-

It takes him a bit to actually fall in love

He is hesitant about pursuing another romantic relationship

Is genuinely traumatized from his last one

Rightfully so, he saw his wife die, daughter as well (or so he thought for years) all at the hands of someone he onced called his brother- only to get mutated soon after.

Yeah… not a very good experience…

But when he falls, he is absolutely devoted to his person

He is very formal, approaching his crush in a gentlemanly manner

Is kinda old fashioned

The type to bring flowers and open doors for his partner

When he was with Tang Shen, he ended up losing sight of what was important

And became very distant and dismissive

He knows better now, and makes sure to go out of his way to pay attention

He does still struggle though,

Often choosing to meditate over quality time

As his relationship grows, however, he becomes better at being present.

Makes sure to set time aside for his partner

He doesn’t mind doing whatever, but he does prefer quieter activities-

A drama show perhaps, or drinking tea together.

As he becomes more relaxed in his relationship-

His playful side emerges

And surprisingly- he can be very goofy

I mean- he has a cheese phone in a glass case. He chose that. It’s meant for serious emergencies- you can’t tell me he wasn’t making a joke about his current mutation.

He tells dad jokes- really corny ones too

And his laugh is a full-on belly laugh where he throws his head back

He enjoys making his beloved laugh,

Will sometimes even ask Michelangelo for any new jokes to tell!

Overall, he's very sweet, goofy and old-fashioned with his partner,

He is also incredibly protective- perhaps a bit over protective

But considering the fact that he and his family are being hunted down by the man who killed his last wife-

His over protectiveness is warranted.

Does NOT take chances- if his beloved is captured, he is going there and demolishing anyone who gets in his way.

Makes sure his beloved is okay, before taking them home to curl up and watch some old drama show

Cheese-sicles included.

Rise Splinter

This may or may not come as a surprise-

But I honestly think it takes him a while to truly fall in love with someone

I feel like he has some trust issues

Definitely has high walls when it comes to relationships

Being a popular celebrity back in day taught him a thing or two about letting people get too close

Most people were usually only after him for his fame and fortune-

Looking to use him to rise to the top themselves

So he made sure to keep a decent distance

Until Big Mama of course

Which only made his trust issues 100x worse.

If he were to fall in love again, it would only be after a long time

There needs to be a very strong, and very solid foundation of trust

He would like to avoid being locked up and forced to fight to the death again, thank you very much.

On top of his trust issues-

He has major abandonment issues

If he ever went through with trying to have another relationship,

There would need to be a lot of communication-

Lots of working on and assuring him that his partner isn’t going anywhere.

As for his behavior??

He’s very avoidant in a rather outgoing way

It’s kinda weird to witness actually

The second he realizes he actually has romantic feelings for someone- he’s panicking

Tries to avoid them but also makes sure to be nice

He’s nowhere in sight whenever his crush is around but if they happen to catch him?

He’s chatting up a storm, sitting them down for a cup of tea or some food

Casually handing them a slice of pizza and once their attention is on it

Poof- vanished from sight once they turn around.

Once he starts actually giving a relationship a try though??

Man is whipped with a capital W

THE BIGGEST SIMP EVER

Quality time??? Physical touch???? GIFT GIVING??!?!?!!

His crush is getting it all

Quality time is an absolute must, he always wants to be around them no matter what it is they’re doing.

Knitting? He’s there.

2am snacks?? He already has their favorite

Movie time???? He made sure his projector is completely repaired AND made the couch the comfiest spot ever.

Loves to cuddle and hold hands, generally likes to be in contact with his beloved in anyway he can

Will even wrap his tail around one of their limbs if his hands are full

*cough* or if he’s too lazy to move from his comfy position *cough*

And on top of that?? He actually has decent money from his time as Lou Jitsu

He can and will have his sons help him figure out online ordering.

His beloved is getting any and everything they want

Only the best for them, he makes sure to buy top quality items

A lot of the gifts are an eyesore to look at though- his personal taste is…. intense…

Thankfully, his family helps him out.

Overall a very attentive, but clingy, partner

Will proudly boast about his beloved to anyone who asks (or doesn’t)

Has one of those wallets with the long long photo strips

He shoves them in everyone’s faces

I hope you enjoyed!! Apologies for the long wait;;

[shapeofallcosmos]

time to get stupid about the king again

seeing this guy on my friend's brother's ps2 right before i moved out of my hometown at age 9 was insane, like it caused such a delayed reaction that took ten years to finally kick in. i'm desensitized now, but this changed 9 year old me in a way that i can only articulate now or something. not my favorite design, but its so classic. so original. so tastefully off putting to normal people. so...katamari. In my humble opinion, his tight clothing exudes subtle yet awesome confidance. no fear, nothing to hide, he wants all of it shown off. it's really cool. And his HEAD. I want a pillow with that pattern. Purple is by far my favorite color (and i think it's his too?) and its so soothing to look at. staring at him on my tv with my already fuzzy eyesight makes it downright hypnotic.

He's stupid, your honor. EDIT:Forgot to mention they took away his chest hair. Let the man be hairy. ok ok, on to we love. (reroll version)

oh yeah baby. oh YEAH. this is the stuff of dreams. so casual. so laid back. so lovely. he's comfy. at least physically. that stupid throne we only see again in touch my katamari. what's that lever for? sorry. tangent. the blue. the flowiness of it. his neck ruff not being sharp but instead soft and gentle. A more gentle King. I love it a lot. I actually bought some pants i saw in a thrift store because it reminded me of this king. It's such a good design. oh my god i love this king. He just looks so gentle. Like he's 20% more father now. Not "king", but "father. I don't know how to describe it. I want this fit so bad. The head is also soothing to look at too! Very nice, yet again a lot more gentle feeling, especially on the eyes. I'm probably just biased because this was the first game i started with. oh well. great design 10/10 i just wish they'd slow down on using it so much in other games (reused in forever as a model, and in touch as a model. im VERY pissed about how it was used in touch.)

ew

this was funny though. though it's kind of terrifying having him smiling when he's that close to you and when you're that small. please dont eat me.

i deeply enjoy when they are shown happy together. this design kind of smells. i actually think it's worse than touch.

I. LOVE. THIS. FIT. It's SO stupid. the stupidest fit he'll ever have. I just need to see how he even walks in it.

as i have said before, this design looks very much like my bed i used to sleep in at my grandma's house. I wanna lay on him and fall asleep. Looks so comfy. i also generally love beautiful katamari and i love how he's written as sort of like a father-friend, at least in how he talks. It reminds me of how my mom talks to me. I know, that's bias, but whatever. Beautiful King is a good dad friend to me. I love him.

man. man why'd they ruin you. i weep for this design. it's over the top in a way i dont really think fits him but it's still super pretty. I'm so mad they wrote him like that in forver. sometimes its funny but most of the time its just upsetting. he's mean yeah, but not THAT mean. (Some dialogue from RoboKing implies that when the King is off doing his own thing and that thing doesn't wind up going how he wanted it to, he'd come back and take his anger out on Robo. We never see it and again, it's just text and Robo could be lying for pity points but JESUS CHRIST. It upsets me so much! How could they do that to King?!

why. why would they do this. I cant enjoy Forever's design when it's attached to that kind of writing. all i can think of is how much of a jerk he is. i hate it. it's so pretty. im mad. on to touch...

I hate you and everything you stand for. And I am also sorry for what they did to you. You didn't deserve this. Or maybe you did.

[melancholysway]

I'm an hypocrite who promised herself not to hound you and yet here I am again! I'm putting this here, answer it or not at your leisure: S/O never actually told the turtle "I love you" even though they are together. Then it comes out of the blue during an ordinary day and moment and S/O get so overwhelmed by having said it they just spill out every reason why they love their turtle. Even shutting them up if they try to say something because they're on an emotional roll and have to get to the end of it before hearing any reply.

Hi! I’m so sorry this took so long! I haven’t had the time lately to just sit down and write with work & all, so hopefully this is what you had in mind??

TMNT (Mix) Imagines: Spilling Your Feelings

2007!Leonardo

I have a love-hate relationship with 2007 Leo omg

It’s been hard, holding it in

Leo came back from his training, and the first thing he does after saying hello to his family is come see you

He jumps rooftop to rooftop like he used to do before he left, remembering your route by heart

He comes over to that window he’s so accustomed to, and knocks on it like old times

You can’t wait to see him, and you almost trip from running to the window to open it, and he’s just there.

Standing and looking at you, smiling widely and coming inside just to give you a long-awaited bear hug

Leonardo is back, and nothing could get any better than that.

“I missed you,” You say while he rubs your back, “I really, really missed you Leo.”

“I’ve missed you more, love.” Ugh, you loved it when he called you that. It was also important to point out that neither of you had said it yet, the “I love you.”

That is, until Leonardo gets comfortable, and you both decide to catch up by cuddling on your bed and watching a movie.

It’s just like before he left, he’s still the same goofball you fell for before he left for training. He’s still the same caring, loving, amazing boyfriend. He hasn’t changed. He’s visibly stronger, yes, but he’s still the same Leo you’ve come to know and love.

Once the movie’s finished, you both just lay together, becoming one while he talks of the many stories from South America.

The people he’s seen, the things he’s done, everything. It’s amazing, that Leo was able to experience something to nice as travel. It was secluded, yes, but he was able to see sights that wasn’t New York City.

“I understand if you didn’t…want to wait for me.” He knew it, that sometimes people get lonely and need someone there for comfort. But, not you. You were devoted to Leo no matter what.

“Leo,” You always hated when he says selfless things like that, he deserves to know his worth. He’s worthy of love. “I love you, I don’t care how long I had to wait to see you again and-”

Uh oh.

As a shocked look is plastered on Leo’s face, he can’t help but ask.

“You…love me? Even after I left like that?”

Well…yeah, you do.

Now, Leo hasn’t told you he loved you either. But after that whole trip abroad, the training, the long nights of just thinking. How you were so supportive of him to go and be a better leader and version of himself, despite not being able to see or touch him for a few months.

Or rather, a year. He prolonged his stay, although it meant he wouldn’t see you for longer.

But, you waited. You still waited for Leo, had hope that he was okay when he stopped sending you and his family letters. You waited when April said she found him deep in the jungle, and you waited when you had a gut feeling Leo would be coming home soon thanks to her.

You both just sit there next to each other, and you just let it out.

“I do, Leo, I…I love you. I missed you so much that I just wanted you to come home.”

He just listens to you, he listens as you continue to spill your feelings out to him without saying a word.

You start feeling anxious, because Leonardo hasn’t said anything.

Too soon? No, you’ve been together for about a year now.

If anything, you’re surprised you haven’t said it sooner. But, with Leo being gone and all, it just made you realize how you truly felt.

Your boyfriend just sees your face looking concerned, and he immediately does what reassures you.

He takes your small hands into his bigger ones, and kisses you softly on the lips.

“I love you, too.” He does, Leo truly loves you. You waited this long for him to come back that, oh my gosh, who else would do that for him?

“Thank you for waiting for me.”

Bayverse!Raphael

You literally started dating Raph like…a month ago. One month. It’s been a month.

A fucking month.

But you had this feeling about him that you seriously couldn’t shake. You loved him.

Well, of course you did, he’s your boyfriend, but, were you really going to keep it in until he said it first?

It might be an eternity before you hear Raph says that he loves you

He’s never usually vocal about his emotions, he’s an action guy.

He’s definitely shown you that he loves you, but he hasn’t said it.

You continue being (trying to be at least) cool around him. But it’s so hard. Especially when he has that smexy handsome smirk everytime you speak to him or how he gives you that forehead kiss everytime you come over to the lair and just

UGH

It’s gonna be so much harder than you think.

You’re now at your peak for wanting to tell Raph that you love him, but you seriously try your hardest not to.

I know, try not to tell your boyfriend you love him, weird, right?

Raph is a pretty good communicator, though like I said, his actions are what define him. He’d rather show you than just tell you. He knows that words are just words.

You try and at least get through this day in the lair trying not to tell him. You’re restraining yourself so much that Raph takes notice of how uncomfortable you look.

“You okay? Ya stopped countin.” Raph stops mid push-up to tend to you, but now you’re sort of on the spot with him.

“I uh, um, no.”

“What’s tha matta babe?”

He’s just teasing at this point. Without even realizing it.

And when he gets up and just looms over you like his brothers do, you seemingly crumble.

“Fine! I love you! You squeezed it out of me, happy?!”

Okay, RUDE. Raph just gives you a confused look, as you weren’t one to raise your voice or get mad at him.

“When did I-” “You knew what you were doing! You’re just over there doing push ups looking so hot- what did you think I was thinking?!”

Raphael just stares at you. He isn’t sure what to say, considering you’re on a roll (no butter)

He gets like that, too. He just goes on and on and on and on, until you just stop him from riling himself up or getting angry.

You just need to be calmed down. That’s what you always did with him after he got stuff off his chest.

“Y/n, cal-” “I won’t calm down! I know it’s been a month and all, but seriously, I love you, Raph.” That’s what you had to get off your chest.

“Ya know I love ya too, right?” Raph thought he was doing pretty good at showing that.

“I…yeah…you just never said it.”

And that’s where you and Raph find common ground.

“Just cause I ain’t say it, doesn’t mean I don’t love ya.” You’re calming down, and after that whole ordeal, you tell him that you would like to hear it sometimes. So you feel comfortable saying it to him.

Raph was still getting used to being in a relationship. Although he likes to do things his way, there may be times where he has to lean towards doing it how you prefer it. One of these things being vocal. It’s taking him out of his comfort zone, but if it makes you happier, he’ll do it. It’s not a crime to tell your s/o that you love them on top of showing them.

2003!Donatello

Dating Donatello has been absolutely peaceful. He’s probably the most easygoing turtle you knew. He just…invents things, then shows you when he’s done because he’s so excited to share it

Aside from inventing or fixing things, he loves to spend his time with you whilst doing them

You begin to pull all nighters as Donnie’s lab assistant, and honestly, the 3am talks go a little like this:

“If I was a worm, would you still love me?”

“I’d probably step on you by accident,”

“Donnie!”

Or something like:

“Do you think Walt Disney is in cryosleep right now?”

“Y/n, do you think we’re in a stimulation? I’m feeling a little…NPCish.”

It’s super cute, but some of the conversations are pretty odd.

However, one night while helping Donnie, you’re both feeling flirty and lovey that you just outright say it as you throw in the towel and go take a nap on the couch in the lab.

“Donnie…I…love you.” Okay, you’ve only been dating for a few months, and neither of you had said it yet.

Donnie was nervous it was too soon, so he kept it to himself. But, it was obvious. Terribly obvious that he loved you without even having to say it. You just didn’t realize it. But boy, his brothers did.

You begin to drift off into sleep, before you could even hear what Donnie had said.

But, when you wake up, you sort of think it was a dream. Donnie greets you as usual, on his 10th cup of coffee, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

“Hey, love.” Donnie says, tinkering with a new device in his hands, “How’d you sleep?”

You’re unsure if you told Donnie, or if he’s just unfazed, but, whatever it is, you have to know.

“Diditellyouilovedyoulastnight?” You say quickly, yet Donnie understood every word.

“Well…yeah, you don’t remember? It w-” “I don’t remember,” here comes the rambling, “was that too soon? It’s not like I didn’t mean it, but, if it’s too soon I’ll like, take it back or-”

“Woah, Y/n! Calm down, I think you knocked out and didn't hear my reply.” Donnie smiles, trying to soothe you and calm your nerves. It wasn’t too soon.

“I said that I loved you too. Though judging by the drool and the confused look on your face, you had no idea.”

Though you glare at your boyfriend while you wipe the corner of your mouth, you smile back, feeling relieved.

It’s not like there’s a time limit on how long you should wait before saying ‘I love you,’ in fact, lots of couples realize their love for each other before being in a relationship together. This may have been the case with Donnie, since he gets feelings pretty quickly.

It wasn’t like you weren’t friends before being together. It’s why you and Donnie had been working so well. You knew what he liked and disliked, as he did with you. Being friends for a year and change truly makes a difference here.

You loved Donnie, and you were so glad he felt the same.

2012!Michelangelo

Saving the world from an alien invasion definitely deserves some recognition

After saving April, and the whole fight between Splinter and Shredder, a lot of things are revealed and left unsaid, but now, it’s just time to unwind

Mikey suggests a party, and as Splinter meditates in his room, the dojo floor is all yours

You try (and lose terribly) to a dance-off against Raph, and you watch as Donnie’s only safe move is the sprinkler to try and impress April

You all eat all the pizza you can like it’s going out of style, and once it’s done and everyone is crashed on the couch in the living space, you and your boyfriend still have energy for days and agree to skateboard on the rooftop

It’s super dangerous btw, don’t ever do this

But who cares, right?

“Yolo, am I right?” No, Mikey, you’re not right.

If you don’t know how to skateboard, you gon learn tonight.

But if you do, awesome!

If you don’t, Mikey would gladly teach you, and once you get the hang of it, you start having fun, without the thought of falling on your mind.

You’re both enjoying each other’s company like you usually do, and the atmosphere is just so fun and alien-free that, you realize in this moment you love Mikey.

So, should you tell him?

Mikey has actually been telling you that he loved you for quite awhile ever since beginning to date, but you never truly said it back. You weren’t sure. Plus, Mikey is always quick to spill how he feels, and it came so easy.

You, not so much.

You start to overthink it mid-skate that one of the wheels gets stuck thanks to a rock, and now you’re basically making out with the rooftop concrete.

“Oh no! Y/n! Are you okay?!” Mikey, being the loving guy he is, runs straight to you and helps you up, with a look of concern on his face. His baby blue eyes just stare at your form, and once you sit up and you tell him you’re all good, you just say it.

And his face lights up. He understood why you didn’t say it in the beginning of the relationship. I mean, it started off by you saying you liked him, and after a few weeks, he came out and told you that he was beginning to love you. And boom, Mikey x Y/n around the Lair if you will

Though his brothers wonder what exactly you see in him, you just smile and tell them you just see a loving guy who’s so ready to give out all the love

He could die from happiness! He can finally rub it in Raph’s face that he’s the first one out of the four to get a human to love him (sorry Donnie,)

Take that, Raph!

//

Taglist:

@bee-1n-space

Masterlist

[my-name-is-markus-with-a-k]

prime numbers for the gif-maker asks? 👀

2. Least favourite set? Oh, I'm sorry but I don't want to answer that 😅 I've deleted any I really don't like, but I will say there's a set that keeps popping up in my notifs where I'm like 'really, that one again???' But that's all I will say. People like what they like.

3. The set with the most notes? This one with 1559 notes. I'm happy with that, it's a good set. The ones with Connor in them tend to do well.

5. Favourite movie/tv show to gif? dbh is my main fandom so yeah, dbh but more specifically, Markus. I just love giffing him, it's almost therapeutic at this stage.

7. Who are my top 3 gifmakers? @thirium @aghostinmyownmachine @mijchi for dbh gifs and also shout out to @babyjapril who is not a dbh giffer but her gifs are always incredible (sorry for the random tag ana).

11. One set I made that just won't die? I legitimately don't know what this means lol

13. Where and/or from whom did you learn to gif? I'm mostly self-taught but I have relied on a few tutorials here and there.

17. How many gifs do you prefer in a set? I guess 2? That's how many I usually make in a set, so that must be my preference. I do like a 4 set too though.

19. What I'd my giffing process like? Very on the fly, lol. I check to see if I have the footage I want, if I don't I screen record the scene I need. I upload that into ps, trim the clip to what I need, change the speed and crop. Then I brighten and colour them to whatever I'm feeling at the time. I always sharpen last. It's what takes the longest and I sometimes have to finick with the settings a bit until it looks nice on tumblr.

23. What's the thing you gif when you don't have anything else to gif? Take a wild guess. It's my boy ofc

29. Have you ever posted a set, realised you made a mistake later but realised it was too late? Oh yes many a time. Usually on sets with text and I made a typo. That's happens pretty often 😅 I usually go back and fix them anyway but then the old versions still get reblogged lol

31. Do you schedule/queue posts or do you post as soon as you're done? I usually post when I'm done. If I'm not really happy with a set, I'll save them to drafts and look at them later. If I decide they're actually OK, I'll post them, if not, I redo them. But I don't schedule posts, I'm too impatient.

37. What sets do you have planned to make in the future? There are a few sets I'm waiting to do when my skills catch up to my visions. But right now? There's a quote gifset I want to make with Markus but it will require time I just don't have right now.

41. Least favourite part of the gifmaking process? Oh my god, uploading to tumblr. I never really know what gifs are going to look good. Sometimes I'll spend ages on a set, upload to tumblr and it look like ass, so I have to redo the whole thing. It's infuriating.

43. Do you keep videos or delete them once you're done giffing? I keep them unless I need the space. I'm pretty lazy like that hahaha

47. Any advice for novice gif makers/people who want to start making gifs? Gif tutorials are your friend. I'm mostly self-taught but whenever I get really stuck, I search for gif tutorials. They are incredibly helpful.

That... was a lot of questions and I had to google prime numbers like a chump because I could only remember prime numbers up to 20 lmao

[jewwyfeesh]

Vampire Siblings

Writer: 日日日 (Akira)

Character(s): Isara Mao, Sakuma Rei, Sakuma Ritsu, Anzu

Translated by: jewwyfeesh

Disclaimer: I translated this story from the CN version of the game, which means that it has been double translated (JP > CN > EN).

Rei: Oooh!! Ritsu!! GOOD~ MORNING~ ☆

Season: Autumn Location: Track and Field

Mao: Mmm~ The feeling of fulfillment after a good prac! It’s really amazing~ ☆

Oh, thankies. Is this isotonic drink for me, Anzu? You’re becoming more and more ‘Producer’-like with every passing day~

Seems like you’ve been running after lots of other units besides us Trickstar lately.

There there, you’ve worked really hard ♪

But yeah… even though I’m one to talk, I still think you should take care of your body and your schedule. I’d feel really guilty if you pushed yourself too hard and something happened to you.

Never mind. Let’s go home, Anzu. Today’s my turn to ‘send you home’, so I’ll make sure that you get home safe and sound.

Though… lately, it seems like I’m always the one sending you home…? To the point where I’ve even gotten to know your family fairly well.

Sometimes I’d even stay for dinner…

But I’m not complaining. My family’s the kind to do whatever they want. As such, we don’t really spend a lot of time together. So… It’s nice being with your family.

I wonder if it’s because I can do things like household chores all by myself?

Everyone tends to think, “Oh it’s fine if we leave Isara Mao alone, nothing will happen to him”, but my younger sister has always been coddled and spoiled by our parents…

Hmph, would it be better if I tried to act a little more spoiled? But the second I come back to my senses, I’m back to taking care of others again. I feel old.

You’re also someone like this, so please be careful. You can also lean on me sometimes, you know~?

Eh… I’m meddling in other people’s business again…

It’s about to become a bad habit of mine, forget it, forget it… It’s pretty good to be relied on by others, but I’ve been ‘like this’ since I was young.

It’s because of Ritchan, my childhood friend~ If I leave him to his devices, that guy literally won’t lift a finger to do anything. When it got to a point where I couldn’t stand it anymore, I could only go and help… I’d help and help and help till I became ‘a meddler and a half’ ♪

You know Ritchan, right? Knights’…

Ahh, so you’ve also taken care of him before. He’s always so lazy, you literally can’t ignore him~

…Eh? You’re saying Ritchan’s over there?

Ah, call for the cat and he shall appear… where is he~?

Ah! Goodness! This guy, sleeping outside without a single shred of protection!

One day you’re gonna get pickpocketed, what are you gonna do then…? I reckon he fell asleep after lunch, and slept ‘all the way’ till now~

HEEEEY— Ritchan!! Don’t go sleeping in places like these, you’ll catch a cold ya know~?

Ritsu: ……Mmhhghhh? Huh… Maa~kun…? Wh… don’t wake me up…

Mao: Of course I need to wake you up. The school gates are gonna close soon, and if we don’t get moving we’ll be locked in. Our school has always been particularly ‘strict’ about these kinds of things.

Ritsu: Eh~ …Well, whatever. I could just continue sleeping here and save myself the trouble of having to come to school tomorrow. The more I think about it, the better of an idea it seems~

I’m really sleepy, so just leave me be. No matter how much I sleep, it’s never enough…

Mao: You… you haven’t changed one bit…

Hm? Eh? What are you hugging? It’s not a bolster… right? A tree stump? No, that seems to be a person…?

Ritsu: What?

Rei: Huu… snzz… ♪

Kekeke… Little baby~ Be good~ ♪ Go sleep~ ♪ Uuuu ♪

Mao: Ahh~ Taking a closer look… isn’t this Ritchan’s older brother? Why are the both of you snoozing together? Seems like you have a really good relationship~

When I got to know Ritchan, this person was always overseas, so I didn’t get to know him very well.

To be exact… I only found out he existed after I enrolled in Yumenosaki Academy. Ritchan doesn’t talk about his brother very often, so I got a little worried…

Who knew that the both of them were actually so close ♪

Ritsu: …Maa~kun, do you have anything sharp? I think staking him in the heart would definitely kill him.

Mao: N-no, you can’t just go around killing people. Eh? Do both of you have bad blood? In that case, why are you sleeping next to each other?

Ritsu: I don’t know what this thing was thinking, nor do I have any interest in finding out…

More than anything, I want to bury this thing six feet below and wipe my hands of it ‘as though nothing happened’. Now. Immediately. The faster the better.

Rei: E-eh? What happened, is it already time to say “good morning”? Ah? Where am I?

Ritsu: Yo. Why are you sleeping next to me, huh? You reek of mould, so stay further away from me. What happened, how are you still alive?

Rei: Mmmhh… My mind’s all fuzzy just after waking up… don’t ask so many questions at one go…

What’s there to rush, hm…? Re-rest a little… yawwwwn… ♪

Ritsu: No. No sleeping. I’ll kill you.

Rei: This tone… one that shows no mercy, even to one’s own blood brother…

Oooh!! Ritsu!! GOOD~ MORNING~ ☆

Ritsu: Don’t hug me! You’re so annoying!

Okay but spit it out. Why were you sleeping by my side? Depending on your answer, you could be demoted from “someone who seemed to have been a brother previously” to “stupid bug”.

Rei: Even if you don’t demote me, it’s a bit much, don’t you think?

Nothing much… It’s just that when I was leaving for home, I happened to see Ritsu sleeping. I was worried that you’d catch a cold, so I used my body warmth to warm you up. This is a big brother’s love ♪

Ritsu: Is that so? I understand, you don’t need to say anymore. Complete waste of Earth’s oxygen.

Maa~kun, could you help me get some cement from the warehouse? I want to solidify this thing in there and let it sink to the bottom of the ocean.

Rei: We’ve just woken up, and yet Ritsu’s already trying to get rid of me!?

Mm~ Anywho! The elderly aren’t quite suited for outdoor camping… My whole body’s sore and stiff…

Ritsu~ could you help massage my shoulders please ♪

Ritsu: Didn’t I tell you to shut up? You stupid bug.

Mao: Okay okay… as brothers, you guys should try to get along well. Though, let’s leave the fighting and the shoulder massage aside, yeah? We’re really about to be locked in school.

Rei: Oooh, you’re from Trickstar… It’s already this late… Thank you for waking me up. Ritsu~ it’s been a long time since we brothers walked home together hm~?

Ritsu: Brother? I don’t have a brother, though?

Rei: Don’t deny your brother’s existence with such a deadpan expression… That’s a bit much, even for a younger brother, don’t you think? I’ll start crying…

Ahh, I can’t… My tear ducts are getting weaker as I age… Uuuuuu~

Mao: Ahaha, I think I kinda understand your relationship, Sakuma-senpai.

Ritchan, the more you talk, the more others are gonna think “oh he’s just in his rebellious phase”, so maybe it’s better to not talk altogether?

Ritsu: Damn it… That isn’t the case at all. I had only wanted to throw this annoying ass thing into the trash bin. Whatever, it doesn’t matter anymore.

Maa~kun, you want to send them… send the Transfer Student home, right? Hurry up and go, don’t worry about us.

Rei: Mhm, please be careful on your way back. Who knows what kind of demons will be roaming at this hour – for example, vampires… and the like… ♪

Mao: Yep. I’ll be careful. The both of you too; no more fighting, okay? Hurry up and go home~

Rei:

Mm, I’ve always been praying that I’ll have a close relationship with Ritsu! We’re brothers after all ♪

…Ah, Ritsu? Where did you go? Hey— Ritsuuuu~

Ah, he dashed off at the speed of light. He really does hate me, huh? Hehehe ♪

Wait a minute, I am also more active at night! Well, when it comes to hide and seek, I’m not about to lose to a ‘novice’ ♪

Aaah… Running around like this under the night sky, it really reminds me of our childhood ♪

Ritsu: D-don’t chase after me!! Didn’t I already say you’re annoying!? Did it completely fly over your head, you infuriating Anija!?

Rei: Excellent, excellent… he’s finally willing to acknowledge me as his brother. Anyways, we take the same path back home, my super duper adorable little brother…

Translator's notes: [1] The original CN term here is 「菜鸡」, slang for "complete, total noob". I translated it to novice, a synonym. Personally don't think Rei would call Ritsu a "noob".

[mood2you]

Marapets had more grace

2015 : A cute, rounded Fasoro. They gave something back to upset fans.

2009 : Crosseyed, bullfooted, dumb smile thing. They had seriously ruined everything.

pre-2009 : Admittedly, there are flaws with this but the pose was more interestingits looking up at you like a real fox would, and stabding its ground or waiting to lead you further sown the path, and it's so shiny and sleek and wellgroomed and the face is evokitive, it looks so mischeivous... Like a fox! Not a pet, a fantasy.

Water had its head inclined, but the new water is prettier, there is more to look at, the mane is stupid but the tail is exciting. Also, it is a special pose, that it's running like a river to the sea.

Sometimes you can't help but what to see what artistic resources you have and stop looking at the past. This is a different character, though, and to many that's the problem.

Now... I joined Marapets late. I missed the old Bolimo. This is the new Bolimo

It must be 2005 or something, 2003. You're scared to see how dumb this looks compared to the old one? I don't even think I have the old one.

Wait... I forgot...

They Dreamworks-ified the Bolimo?!?!!!! It does look like a Neopet with the fat legs. The mane looks dumb. NO HELMET?! Marapets does not have more grace!

"They gave something back" they've got tyranical!

Aw I'm really sad, I can't find it, but I was going to show you the old candy shop owner, the black Bolimo holding lolly pops out in its mouth. It was the only surviving early Bolimo.

The Bolimo just used to be even more slender, and a velvet fur texture. I really can't find it. I really don't remember. I think I did make an OC but I ended up using Houndour, not that I ever caught one. But when you're playing a virtual pets game, you have to catch something, and Early Fasoro was my favorite character, but when the Crindol came out I stanned it.

I don't really like this redesign either, it really seems like they wanted to turn everything into Tantua

Yeah, okay, so, they took away the free color, no more red at all it's all monochromatic. I used to be perfectly happy with a Yellow Crindol, perfectly happy. I think they also took away the human hair, that's a Santa Claus type of creature if I ever saw one!

Oh, "I am old Chirs Crindol" probably intentional. I think as a kid I called it the Cindrol. Gryphons are medeival, right, like Cinderella? The legs on the Crindol are nice too in the old one, you look at a real dog it has tiny back legs, when sitting, but cartoon dogs have huge ones, like frog legs, when sitting, and it happened to the Crindol a little, huh?

The Tantua. Real cute! Tiny.

There was definately an older version that was even taller and even sexier, but here's another free color pet. The best example is the Wockey.

You know what I do is sell that as "Cotton Candy" for 1,000,000 NP. Peaches and Cream (yellow) Valentines (red) and so on. Slap it in there.

"...and me!"

[acaplaya-musings]

Voiceplay Visuals - addendums and interesting BTS stuff (part 2/3)

I explained everything in the first part, go find it here. Let's keep going!

(Part 2 below the cut)

We Don't Talk About Bruno: "Also I'm pretty sure I heard from someone that Geoff's "ruana" is in fact just a regular blanket/piece of fabric draped (possibly secured/pinned) over his shoulders" - Yeah pretty much, except specifically it was tied behind his back/over his shoulders - You wanna know how Cesar just seemingly pulled that umbrella out of nowhere? Well it was hidden behind him! Or more perhaps more precisely, his behind hid it! 😂 (His glutes definitely got a workout that day!)

"(Oh and this section really was slowed down in post-production in order to make the petals (and hair flips!) look nice, and so both Ashley and Geoff were having to sing/lip-sync to sped up versions of their vocal lines!)" - Tis true! That whole section was done in basically double speed during filming, and slowed-down in post (the reverse of what Geoff did for his Monster Mash video actually), which makes the resulting footage extra impressive tbh - Also I didn't specify in my original post, but Geoff isn't just wearing the floral blouse - he's wearing the same pink shorts as Ashley as well! 😂 - Bonus fun fact: the little rat on Geoff's shoulder was remote-controlled!

Dream On: "(Also this was filmed in some old school I believe? I think maybe Cesar's old school or something?)" - Right on the first count, wrong on the second - this was Eli's former high school! (Very much no longer in use as a school though, obviously) - It was filmed in Leesburg, which is an hour away from Orlando apparently, and since there was obviously no decent part of the building to be used as a breakroom or dressing room or whatever, they brought a production coach, the same one that got used for the same purpose for the Panic Medley filming in fact! - The shirt/top that Geoff wore in the video was quite tight-fitting apparently, and he needed additional assistance from Kathy to get it fully pulled down (she helped while still filming) - Still not entirely sure what Layne is wearing on top of his shirt, but it seems to be just draped over his shoulders, idk

Running Up That Hill: - They put a lot of effort into recreating That Scene from Stranger Things, like they had pieces of paper with shots from the TV series and annotations written on it and everything! - The jacket that Geoff had tied around his waist in the video is like some black bomber jacket/letterman-style thing, and he was wearing it sometimes in between takes and ngl he looks good in it, like I almost kinda wish he had been properly wearing it in the video.

"Based on the very-fixed and very-specific shots we get of Ashley while she's "levitating", I'm guessing this was more done via clever editing and post-production work rather than anything like harnesses to actually lift her in the air" - Well, while it is true that editing trickery was favoured over harnesses, there was actually a bit more practicality involved than what I guessed/imagined. Idk how much I should reveal, but let's just say that Ashley had to use some muscles for it!

Hide And Seek (Ding Dong!): "I love the ghostly visual effects on Lauren, with the glowy ethereal outline of her silhouette, and the slight translucence on her dress!" - The effect also helps conceal the fact that she wasn't in the studio with them at all! Magic of greenscreen, just like with VoicePlay's Enemy video! In fact, Layne took a very quick flight to Nashville, Tennessee to help Lauren record her parts, before quickly flying back to Orlando, Florida (in time to beat an oncoming hurricane!)

"I have a feeling that the lighting on [Layne] is such that it makes him look like an actual Haunted Mansion/Disney Parks ride animatronic (especially when combined with deliberate movement/acting choices in the video)" - I mean yeah, maybe, but also tbh it's also just the whole makeup/costume itself - even in the BTS footage he didn't look fully "human"/"real" when in the full costume. - Fun fact: Layne also had black food colouring in his mouth to further add to the whole look! Wild!

"Absolutely loving Cesar's makeup in this one ngl (I wonder whether he coloured his face and/or hair blue for filming this or if that was just all done via editing?)" - That was all thanks to Rick Underwood! His hair and face really were that blue! (Not all his hair though, just the front section of it). - I still have questions about Geoff's makeup though - didn't get to see much of the process in the BTS video, rip. - The floating crystal ball was a practical effect, done with fishing wire and a pulley system controlled by Tony!

Golden Hour: - So the greenscreening of the heads was done a little differently to how I imagined, and Geoff's hair did in fact look just like that during the filming - it's not just the editing - This is actually the second version of the video that was created - Patrons were initially presented with a different video (which I haven't actually watched but heard about in the BTS) with a slightly different setting and alterations to the story (Layne came up with a few different ideas in fact). - Also I may be slightly colourblind, because I thought that vest was maroon, but it's actually just brown, lol rip.

Valhalla Calling: "check out the set! I like the shields in the background." - Everything other than the benches and props in the foreground was completely digital! They filmed in front of huge digital screens (and I mean HUGE) that had the pre-designed backgrounds displayed on them! - Y'know how all the guys were wearing furs and heavy layers of clothing and all that? Yeah well apparently on the day of filming, the air conditioning at Vu Studios was busted, RIP (Rick Underwood had to help blot away some of their sweat between takes!)

Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3

[drawnaghht]

hmm so last week i was trying to think of why it might be that ppl suddenly started shipping Rise Leo and Yuichi Usagi (a "never met" crossover ship) when the Usagi Chronicles series was teased in 2021* and I think it might just be because it's so easy to change this iteration of both the ship and characters - a lot of the appeal of fanworks these days is full bespoke fan AUs and redesigns.

so I think this Usagi was just easier to sorta project new ideas onto, since he doesn't come with 35+ years of comics history. He's like a clean slate. especially if folks don't watch/don't care to look into the series.

which I kinda get, from an artistic perspective, creative endevours are always more fun if they're new and something you can make your own, right? or at least that's one possible aspect (of both this and fanworks in general)

but from a fannish perspective, my brain is also going like, "oh noo, my blorbo..." xD

and it's also a bit sad that folks ignore the og comic completely in some cases or just, don't look into it out of interest at all lol. I guess I kinda get that too, sometimes in some areas of the world, comics are really hard to get by and maybe some are like me, who want to read them on paper. It might also just be that older comics are unappealing to younger fans (?) but that would wholly be an assumption, since we don't really know all the reasons other people don't get interested in things like comics. I doubt many Rise fans have read the og TMNT comics either (it's fine, cuz again, younger audience + that's sorta the point various animated series sometimes - to get the new audience into the old comics - and sometimes it doesn't go like that)

the other thing is also that technically, Yuichi Usagi seems to be like the Gaumont/Netflix crew's way of making like a fun fanwork in the form of Samurai Rabbit: the Usagi Chronicles. Many of the project leads were fans of Usagi Yojimbo and even some of the voice actors had read the comics as kids or had seen Usagi in the old TMNT series (from the SDCC interview with Stan and crew). Boy even has the Stan Sakai signature under his shoes, lol x3 So he is in some way already a fan-character and has a lot of those "new character" features that might be appealing to some (the hair and clothes are very "generic modern boy") and appealing to change drastically as well.

but anyway, yeah like... I've been around fandoms for a long while so I don't mind much that people are gonna have different tastes abt fanworks and how to write characters, etc. Everybody ships their niche ships differently. it's just interesting to think about, cuz there's so many ways to make fanworks in general and so many ways to define fandom or fandom ships and so on. like it's just something interesting I realized while having a bus ride.

*you can correct me on when the leochi/leochi ship became popular and when people started properly watching the SRTUC series, at least going by tumblr tags (more reliable than twitter, for tags at least) and I'll make any corrections about the timeline of tags here on tumblr xD Going back through the tumblr tag for "leosagi" and "leoichi" you can see a sort of a sharp drop in old leosagi "content" (fanart, fic, posts etc) and then the new stuff, mixed in with various fan designs for a Rise!version of Miyamoto Usagi and other designs and ideas. but I think there needs to be some sorta archive blog for this cuz honestly, going through the tumblr tags without a pages system is... so annoying xD Like I am not in university anymore so I don't feel like doing this sorta stuff (archiving by screenshots or by reblogs) but dang.... sorta feels like this would be nice to have lol

[slightlytoastedbagel]

top 5 commissioned project sekai songs?

*rubs hands together* oooh boy. no one is going to agree with this list.

(Also I'm doing top 10 because I talked about my favourite songs in the notes of a post a while back but some stuff has changed. Also I just have a lot of thoughts.)

10. Samsa

They made us wait over 2 years for a Kanade comm to get a 3DMV and it did not disappoint. KAITO's "Zuki" and each of Nightcord's solo line at the end with Kanade reaching out to Mafuyu stick out in particular for me. Samsa is just a really good song. Also the metamorphosis reference is genius, especially since Mafuyu's third comm is 'Bug'.

(Bug is not on this list but it is easily top 20)

9. Stage of Sekai

This was my favourite Leo/Need comm, but we'll get to that later. Honami songs are just really good and I really like Len here as well. Also this song is really fitting for them I think. I especially love that one instrumental bit near the end.

8. Machi

Vivid Old Tale my beloved. An my beloved. This song is just really nice to listen to. It feels nostalgic. (Also now that Light Up The Fire has happened this entire event is painful in the good way). An's alt for this song is also one of the best in game.

7. Momoiro Key

I popped off when a Iyowa comm was announced, and it did not disappoint! The song itself is really good, but the MV is also just beautiful. I tend to just listen to this song on repeat for the MV. Especially that bit in the last chorus when Airi is seen by herself with the morse code background.

6. Niccori^^ Survey Team Theme

It's catchy. Like really catchy. I could give more reasons but also I don't think I need to. I will anyway though. This song just really fits Wonderlands x Showtime I think, especially Emu and her dream to make people smile. Sometimes I get "nikkorikorikorikori koriandaa" stuck in my head. It got stuck while I was writing this actually. Also fun MV.

5. Hitsuji Ga Ippiki

This was Beat Eater a while ago, then I kept listening to this song almost daily. Kick It Up A Notch is an event I am really looking forward to (if that wasn't obvious from the amount of times I Kohane post) and this song is also just incredible. Especially Kohane's rolled r at the end. I really want Kohane and MEIKO alts at some point (because I also really like MEIKO's tuning here.)

4. If

Oh hey look it's the song in my blog header. Who would have thought. I can't really explain why I love this song so much. Haruka's voice is pretty, the backing is really nice, I LOVE the chorus. Also the original version of this song is beautiful as well so listen to that (on Yurrycanon's channel).

3. Kanadetomasusora

Kanade gets two songs on this top 10 just because. This song almost made me cry the first time I fully listened to it. There have only been two other times I've felt that way, with Minori's latest comm (Teammate) and the number 2 spot. It also has this music box feel which really fits considering the event it was made for.

2. Made To Order

The full version came out a month or so ago and it changed me. It's just so beautiful... Ichika's voice is stunning here and Luka fits really well. Not to bring up the MVs again but the sun slowly rising at the end is stunning. I could go on but yeah. I love this song.

1. Kashika

Akito Shinonome. That is all.

But in all serious, December last year is probably when I went from 'I just enjoy this game alot :)' to 'full blown Vivid Bad Squad fan' and this song is partly to blame. It just left me speechless and Find A Way Out is another event I am really looking forward to. I was also just really happy to see MEIKO singing with them more. Also just to shoutout the VAs, Imai Fumiya's high notes are just stunning. Can't wait for the full version soon. Also the MV again. Amazing.

[irithnova]

Tag Game To Better Know You! Send this to people you’d like to know better!

Tagged by @tianshiisdead thank yew:D

What book are you currently reading?

I'm actually reading Genghis Khan: The man who conquered the world by Frank Mclynn but also the secret history!!! I also want to get back into reading more philosophy books again:D

What’s your favorite movie you saw in theatres this year?

I saw "The Thing" (80s original version) with some friends for Halloween!! It was actually pretty scary for a movie with cheesey special effects but the psychological aspect to it is what freaked me out the most, not knowing who to trust. Its like, among us but terrifying LMAO.

What do you usually wear?

I'm a goth your honour 😔

In all seriousness I do dress very alternative/goth usually, and the style depends on the day. Sometimes I want to wear a long flowy skirt and a Victoria-esque top with elegant jewellery, other days a short skirt and an edgy tight shirt. However I'm always wearing a hoodie, even with the more feminine looks, I wear a more feminine hoodie lol. I wear hoodies during summer too, I have thin hoodies just for that. I love hoodies. Then comes trousers. Like my skirts, I have quite a range of trousers, like I have regular black skinny jeans (alternative staple y'all) and then baggy, edgy bondage trousers I usually pair with band t shirts. I also have like, quite a few edgy jumpers am wearing atm bc its winter. I also wear hats on the regular, usually edgy skull beanies. When it comes to shoes I have an edgy collection. I have like, huge new rock platforms to doc martens to converse to vans :> At my office job I cannot dress goth but I do have some nice formal wear made out of Mongolian cashmere that I wear to the office :3 I have a pretty extensive jewellery collection,, my choker collection however is my pride and joy. Here it is:

How tall are you?

157 cm 😭😭 Or like 5'2 but maybe 5'3. I am short. Which is why I wear platforms.

What’s your Star Sign? Do you share a birthday with a celebrity or a historical event?

Gemini! Unfortunately... I share a birthday with Marquis De Sade :/ I stumbled across him when doing extra reading for philosophy when I was in school and uhhh he wasn't a pleasant man. Do not read his works if you are faint of heart 😭

Do you go by your name or a nick-name?

Hmm people sometimes call me Evie which is short for my full name so :>

Did you grow up to become what you wanted to be when you were a child?

When I was a child I wanted to be a lot of different things haha. From a geologist to a soldier to a historian to a journalist to a war correspondent to a fire fighter etc. But I'm doing an apprenticeship now with an amazing company, can't disclose what it is but its a big engineering company. I'm on the business side of it though:3 yeah I didn't become any of those things but I'm really glad with the position I'm in now and the job I'm doing now, I'm looking forward to how my career will progress and the qualifications I'll gain as the company I'm at is renowned for its development of its employees :D

Are you in a relationship? If not, who is your crush if you have one?

Newly single 😔😔 sad about it still but oh well what can I do?

What’s something you’re good at vs. something you’re bad at?

Hmm I guess I'm pretty good at debating. I was top of my class in philosophy when I was in school and I was pretty good at politics too. Was even entered into a debate/public speaking competition to represent my school ! I've also had teachers and just people I know say I'm quite good at it lol. One of the best compliments someone has ever given me was from my old philosophy teacher, who was a very educated lady and was a former barrister, she said I was a natural philosopher :>

I'm bad at socialising though :/ I'm an introvert despite being a good debater. I find it hard to talk to people but its even worse when like... They're bad at it too or its like they don't even want to talk to you? I feel like that with one of the managers at work and I find it so hard to talk to them. So much awkward silence. I usually stick to the corner in social situations unless I'm drunk lol. Maybe its because I don't look approachable. Like 1) I dress goth and 2) I have a resting bitch face. Even when I'm not gothed up I still have a resting bitch face 😭 We had a someone higher up in the company do a Q&A today at this all day session and he randomly said to me "you're looking at me quite intensely" bro I didn't even notice ☠️

Dogs or cats?

CATS 4LYFE <333

What’s something you would like to create content for?

Aph Mongolia my love <33 I'm like.. Pumping out all of these headcanons for him and writing fanfics, even commissioning le awesome artists to draw him!! I'm more of a writer than an artist however I would like to get better at drawing. I also wanna do more for aph Philippines as I am half Filipino plus.. Aph Philippines would be such a badass like if you look at Filipino history you'd just know<33 I'm also thinking of a higurashi and hetalia horror crossover but idk if anyone would want to read it considering the main characters would not be super popular ones in the hetalia fandom for the most part.

If you draw/write, or create in any way, what’s your favourite picture/favourite line/favourite etc. from something you created this year?

Hmm I'm not sure. I've only recently started seriously getting back into writing again and I can't pinpoint a line of that is my favourite in what I wrote so far? I haven't even published these fanfics yet haha. But I guess I like how my interpretation of aph Mongolia has changed over the years. I look back at certain things I've posted on old accounts and like.. I take it back because I've educated myself more on Mongolian culture/history since then and I feel my interpretation of what he'd be as a character now is much better? So I feel better about the headcanons I post now as I feel its more true.

What’s something you’re currently obsessed with?

Kind of a broad question but um getting more obsessed with Higurashi!!! Also obsessed with learning more about Buddhism <3 and I've been listening to a lot more Kino/Viktor Tsoi recently. I've been listening to that music for a while but umm because of some recent events I've been listening to it so much more.

What’s something you were excited about that turned out to be disappointing this year?

My relationship LMAOOOO

What’s a hidden talent of yours?

Umm hmm I guess I'm fairly okay at skiing despite not doing it often. I'm also pretty good at jump rope? I can skip in the typical boxer way, but I need to get back into doing it. I'd say I have good endurance when it comes to hiking too? My fingers are double jointed and I can bend them back really far, my pinky all the way LOL its a pretty gross party trick. I've also recently tried to learn throat singing and I've kind of slightly got there with kargyraa?

Are you religious?  

Difficult question idk, I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic schools all my life but I'm definitely not a Catholic, let alone Christian, anymore. I've been reading about Buddhism and I find it very interesting so..we'll see where that goes.

What’s something you wish to have at this moment?

Idk to stop feeling sad I guess 😭 but also more confidence. I can fake confidence but yeah.

Tags: anyone who wants to do this but also @tea-em0 @ookaminochi @mercyfullkate @papaveronamu @flyingsassysaddles @ariuka-munkh you don't have to do this if you don't want to btw I won't be offended lol!! just thought it would be nice <33

[mackmp3]

thanks for the rec! I'll download it so I can listen to it on the way to work tomorrow. I saw another post of yours with album recs also btw, they look interesting and I may give those a try as well.

this is one of my favorite things. sometimes i intentionally make tiny changes to the way I sing particular songs just to keep it going. or I'll borrow elements/lyric choices from a few different artists and mash them all together.

oh nice! it is one of my favourites at the moment & YESSSSS i loveeee changing things just slightly its so fun to develop the story just a bit or change the mood a little or swap the perspective & create hybrid versions........ the beautiful tradition of folk music hehe

i really like researching songs too & finding where they've been changed, especially quite old ones about specific events that cant really be backed up by anything, like the real event could have been anything but the song is one specific version, that also could have been changed by dozens of people over hundreds of years, because of anything from political agenda to forgetting the lyrics like! yeah!! its so interesting :D

[stepswowdsen]

【Magi】 Judar Doodles

Initial

Old

New

Old

New

Old

New

Judar doodle update

Minor edit

Me when I make minor edits that literally no one would notice but me 👍

Makes my art look better to me tho 🙏

KINDA UNFORTUNATE THAT I FINALLY GOT TO MAKE MINOR EDITS THAT MAKES THE ART LOOK BETTER TO ME AFTER I ALREADY POSTED THE INITIAL SKETCH ON MAIN...

Oh well. Whenever I get to refine the drawing more, I'll just post that on main again

I enjoy my art style but I also feel insecure about my sketches so the feeling of posting something that will be reblogged only for me to make minor edits/improvements/adjustments later is DAKLSKLSDKLDSKL to me

Though I also get that this is a sketch (and my art will go through many different iterations) as I continue to refine it (and as my art style improves)

Basically, I adjusted the tilt of the head, moved the eyes down and slightly redrew it, adjusted the placement of the nose and mouth by a few pixels, shortened the length of the nose

Cuz with the whole pose in mind, I feel like having the head tilted sm messes with the flow of the pose (especially since the pose is so neutral) so I adjusted the head tilt

The proportions just look better to me now, so I fixed what was bothering me

Judar's expression is really nice in this... I love the expression here

I wanna doodle JuAli again soon so I'll probably doodle something quick sometime this week!

JuAli Rambles

JuAli (Judar to Alibaba) in the Kou Empire arc

My friend Lumen posted this tweet last year and I'm fucking screaming LMAOOO

LITERALLY JUALI ADKLSKLSDKLSDKL

I'M SCREAMING 😭 😂

C: THIS IS SO JUDAR AJGNDN

Got reminded of this cuz of my Insta highlights

With that "Look back on what was posted a year ago" thing in your Story Archive

ARGHHHHHHHHHH JUALI!!! ILY!!!

Magi (EN Fan-TL)

Magi Omake (EN Fan-TL)

Yeah this is them, all right!

VIZ WHY THE FUCK DID YOU TAKE "WAKE UP AND THEN PLUNGE IN THE DEPTHS OF THE SEXY DANCE OF DESPAIR" FROM ME IT'S SO MUCH FUNNIER LMFAOOOOOOOOO

The EN fan-TL is closer to the original JP text here too

Though I need to double-check the JP volume raw scans that I got from my friend Bas hehe. Eventually.

STOPPP WHY IS MY BLACK CAT MEOW WOW WOWIE SO FUCKING FUNNY

Judar's expression in the 2nd page 😭 It's so fucking funny like lmaooooo. Crazy ass mf!

L: Have you seen the omake with Judal's letter to Alibaba. Literally lovers

Me: YEAH I DID I'M SCREAMING. HELP ALSDKSDKLSDKLSDKSDKL

L: "And then plunge in the depths of the sexy dance of despair"

L: "Yours kindly, Judal."

Sickening.

Me: RIGHT LIKE WHO SAYS SOMETHING LIKE THIS I'M CRYING ADSKLSDKLKLKLS

(Rhetorical question)

C: JUDAR KNAN4NENFSG

A bastard

Me: Lumen going "Literally lovers" so true!!!

Rhetorical question but the whole

"And then plunge in the depths of the sexy dance of despair

Yours kindly. Judar"

Fucking sends me AASDFGGHJKL LMAOOOO

C: It's so. Judar. Nobody else.

Me: YEAHHH LMFAO

"Plunge in the depths of the sexy dance of despair"

Ok

C: I ALMOST WANT TO KNOW HOW OHTAKA THOUGHT OF THAT

Me: I'm really curious what the JPN version is cuz LMAO

C: YEAH???

C: GOD THE LETTER PART KAYKSNUFGDG

Me: NOTHING HITS LIKE JUDAR SAYING "AND THEN PLUNGE IN THE DEPTHS OF THE SEXY DANCE OF DESPAIR"

C: GKDKHMDMGMDMFMFM

HE IS SUCH A FREAK HABYNSH

C: Married

JuAli rambles

Me: All of my ships are just this (Regardless of gender)

LMAO

"Asshole to the world, sweetheart to his girl or S/O"

"Evil violent with sadistic tendencies meow meow mf shows exclusive affection to their S/O (who usually has softer tendencies and is more considerate and sane)"

We operate on the Sun/Moon/Eclipse, Light/Darkness, Yin/Yang principle <333

Me: It's so funny that some people are like "You ship them (JuAli) when Judar literally tells him he would be better off dead on the Dark Continent???"

And that's sexy, next question.

We love antagonist figures who challenge and/or try to kill protags!!!

I ship LimGuda (Douman/Ritsuka) a pair with an evil gay clown demon who tries to kill and curse their favourite human out of love <333 Deeply romantic, guys (and I genuinely mean this)

The other thing I have to say in response to this is that Judar's "threats" towards Alibaba on the Dark Continent are really so empty lmao. As Cinna said, he's the type where he'll try to kill you (due to his bratty, spoiled, childish, violent tendencies) but it's usually not genuine, vehement hate

On the Dark Continent he doesn't even do anything violent to him. Lmaoooo.

Judar who threatens Alibaba like "How does he act so unfazed, I want to kill him!" And Alibaba is just like "I can hear you, you know…" And Alibaba is actually patient and understanding and humble, so he works incredibly well with someone like Judar

C: Judar comes off as an immature tantrum throwing baby but with severely violent tendencies so I can imagine Alibaba learns to be like "Ok I love you too" about it LMAO

Me: <3333

Yeah I agree with this like Judar acts spoiled and bratty and violent and aggressive, so I think Alibaba will come to accept and get used to Judar's shenanigans LMAO

C: And Judar's threats are… fairly empty

He'll try to kill you yeah but it's usually not genuine hate towards anyone

And yea Alibaba being the calm sort of protag makes him more shippable, especially since he actually has a personality despite representing the typically flattest type of shonen protag

Like most shounen protags (and calm personality shounen protags) are bland af but Alibaba is actually really good and well-written

Me: YEA JUDAR'S THREATS ARE SO EMPTY? LIKE HE SAYS THIS TOWARDS ALIBABA BUT DOESN'T DO ANYTHING VIOLENT TO HIM (WHEN HE'S NOT AN ANTAGONIST FIGURE ANYMORE)

IT'S NOT GENUINE, VEHEMENT HATRED EITHER...

C: FNSNDNSNNSG

He's just a funny guy

Me: Dramatic drama queen meow meow…

C: He is

Me: Also I agree with this, usually the calm and kind shounen protags usually have no fucking personality and are flat and boring af

At least from the ones I've seen

But Alibaba is gold. Cuz Alibaba is actually very well fleshed out with a lot of layering and depth.

And that makes him more shippable (See: how I have issues with Tsuna (KHR)'s character flaws affecting his ships in unsexy ways, even if I casually like the ships)

So I just focus on my KHR AU ships with my Canon/OC ships instead

Xanxus/Selena and Squalo/Linh

C: YEAH EXACTLY

Alibaba is a winner 👍🏻

Yeaaaa exactly

F: THANK YOU FOR POINTING OUT THAT JUDAR'S THREATS ARE SO EMPTY OMFGGG

Me: I could ramble about this but JuAli genuinely fixed issues that my previous (other) fandom ships like EnNetsu (Enzan/Netto) (Mega Man Battle Network) and HoroRen (Horohoro/Ren) (Shaman King)

Like with EnNetsu and HoroRen, BOTH charas are stubborn and unyielding and would constantly butt heads with each other

But JuAli as a ship has more warmth and companionship imo so this one's the best to me (and Alibaba's calm and kind, patient, humble personality balances out Judar's personality and makes them work well together as a ship)

Me: WITH JUDAR IT'S SO FUNNY LIKE...

Judar about Alibaba: When I get the chance, I'll definitely kill him!

(-> Doesn't)

This is like.. "Mukuro wanting to possess Tsuna's body" level empty threats

With how Mukuro (KHR) wanted to possess and control and take over Tsuna's body to hyperkill the mafia in response to his traumas (He was used as a labrat experiment by his own mafia family)

Me: JuAli and Judar being aggressively violent with empty threats: A collection

The hissy cat...

C: LMAO SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT

Angry cat

JuAli Scenes (EN Fan-TL)

Me: Well I'm gonna show the EN fan-TL cuz I prefer the prose and get more context (including of individual characters' speech styles/quirks) from the lines imo

Cuz Istg Viz absolutely butchers individual characters' speech styles in their TLs and makes everyone sound the same

And it doesn't help that English sounds so samey compared to other languages. EA/SEA languages have such huge variations in speaking styles

Like in JP, characters' speech patterns automatically give you the vibe of someone who talks more curt~ish/rough/masc (like Judar) or uses more polite speech, or is formal/humble, etc.

God guys just know that I usually HATE the shounen protag trope

Like I always prefer antagonists and deuteragonists (protag's side allies and secondary charas) but my and my friend circle's love for Alibaba is just a testament to how good (well-written) he is

Alibaba you're one of the few only shounen protags I'll defend with my life

Most shounen protags piss me off, so I always prefer deuteragonists and antagonists lmao

Something about their moral hypocrisy, their nepotism, their naive self-righteousness that fails to account for others, the way they're never (or hardly ever) challenged in meaningful ways in the narrative, how they always win fights and get what they want without any struggle, etc. It's all so. Boring.

One of the worst examples I can think of with this is Shaman King

Also, DBZ, Bleach, Naruto, etc.

C: NO LIKE EXACTLY

Me: But, Alibaba, I'll defend you with my life 💛 Literally one of the only shounen protags I'll defend with my life

Lumen said this, but, Alibaba is so goated as a protag BECAUSE he's so challenged.

His character development/growth, his big heart and empathy, and his humbleness (his humbleness is especially evident like in the scenes with Judar, post-Kou Empire arc fights)

Oogh… My son… My sun… ☀️

Shounen protags I adore/enjoy

Alibaba Saluja (Magi)

Aladdin (Magi)

Allen Walker (DGM)

Edward Elric (FMA)

Alphonse Elric (FMA)

Atem (Yami Yugi) (YGO DM)

Yugi Mutou (YGO DM)

I could be forgetting some but off the top of my head, these charas are good, actually have interesting growth…

(Cuz really the list of good shounen protags is so few)

I overall casually like Tsuna (KHR), he has interesting traits but there's a lot of things I dislike/could criticize about him tbh

[ringo-ichigo]

On Giving Sources

Since we’ve recently had some lowkey discussion going on about sourcing our gleaned knowledge (or at least I have seen it arise), I want to debunk some ideas I see popping up. 

One of the main ones I’ve seen is the idea that providing sources is too “academic” feeling. As someone who is currently in college and thus you would think researched out, I want to remind all of us why sources are used in academia. All of us are capable of just… saying anything we want. And this can be both wrong on purpose or by accident. I could tell you that I have six missing teeth and you have no way to prove me right or wrong without corroboration from my dentist or someone like a parent. Even if you counted my teeth, you couldn’t actually prove it is six teeth. Plus, the wording is key. “Missing.” What do I mean by that? Do I mean I never got them? That they were extracted? Now, if I were to link my dental charts to you, then you could look at them and go “Oh. She had six teeth extracted so she has six fewer teeth than she should.” But alternatively, I could say my mom is missing five teeth right after this and you might assume from that same wording that she also had five teeth extracted. But that’s not correct. My mom was born without one adult tooth. So literally, she just is missing a tooth and had four extractions. But again, you couldn’t confirm that without the dental records. But without the dental records, you would just have to trust that I’m an honest person on the internet and you don’t know that. You have no proof that I am honest beyond my word and shocker, dishonest people will say they are so that’s not reliable either. Similarly, you can think of this in term of mathematics. How many of you tried to just write an answer for some problems in higher math and got a nice note from your teacher of “Where’s your work?” or something similar. Giving your sources is essentially showing that you are honest and also saying “Here’s my work.” Academia prioritizes sharing sources for accuracy checking. Which by checking the accuracy, has the fun side effect of proving one’s honesty. 

But beyond the fact that sources show your research, we need to also admit that not all sources are equal. I can love some of the posts on Persephone that float around… but I’ve seen as many with biased or just… bad sources listed as I’ve seen with good ones. And no, good and bad are not the same as “I agree” or “I don’t agree” with the source. A good source should be rooted in more than just conjecture. For instance, its evidence can be found in archaeology. A good source should have correct dates, good context, and good reasoning. Again: anyone can say anything. Which means they can lie. A bad source can be outdated, have incorrect information, take something out of context, or just make wild reaches. And yes, I’ve seen bad sources used before. Or just… incorrect quotes of good sources so… yeah. Listing them allows for clarity, for honesty and just… double checking.

In addition: sources can be biased. We can have bias, yes. But your sources aren’t excluded from that same issue. And let me clear: that bias can be in favor or against. Both can be a problem. But if you don’t give us your source, no one can double check it for bias that you may have missed. And again, this also relates back to the honesty thing. If you don’t tell us where you derived your ideas from, we can’t trust that you aren’t passing on bias to us. To take an example here of translation bias: Sappho. We can argue to the cows come home on her sexuality but frankly, it’s a mess because we can’t ask her personally and that really is the only way to know for sure what a person’s sexuality is. So we’re left trying to parse out translations of centuries old Greek and hope we can glean enough to guess. Up until the 1900s, those translations (after Christianity mainly but sometimes before) actively changed words or purposely chose male versions of them whenever they could (and sometimes even when they couldn’t). They did that out of a bias against homosexuality. While we have done a lot of work to undo that, we still fall victim to similar attitudes now. Now, sometimes gender neutral words are translated as male, female, or neutral depending on the translator’s bias. Are they pro-LGBT? Translated as female most likely, maybe neutral (my personal fave way since we can’t really ask the author her intent and leaves it open to the reader to interpret. I love some ambiguity in poetry). Are they homophobic? Then male translations still abound. So bias abounds, but as most people don’t know ancient Greek, it makes it so many will just take their particular translation’s version as right. But if someone were to post a quote of these translations, we may not be able to catch that translator’s bias if they don’t tell us where they got it from. Because we can’t then look at the translator and make that judgment call or in some cases just research them and go “Ooh yikes.”

Also, I do have to say in relation to this: I have seen bad art history frequently thrown around as “proof.” Y’all, if I need to sit you all down and give a lecture on why iconography in art is hard, I will. If I need to sit you all down and explain how limited color palettes work in art, I will. But stop ignoring these things just because they disprove your theory. For one example of bad art history I’ve seen recently: Aphroditus and Hermaphroditus have IDENTICAL ICONOGRAPHY DURING THE SAME PERIODS. So unless you have a nice written component on the statue stating the name of the god, technically, you are taking a 50/50 stab unless you’ve got some dates, regions, and more archaeological evidence than just what your eyeballs see. And even then, you’re still guessing. Both use the same poses, the same body type, the same freaking everything, in the same time frames and even the same regions AND THAT IS WHY YOU SEE PEOPLE MIXING THE TWO UP. STOP IT. YOU ARE ALL BEING STUPID BECAUSE ART HISTORY IS EXTREMELY NUANCED WHEN IT COMES TO ANCIENT HISTORY. MOST OF THESE GODS ARE IDENTIFIED BY ICONOGRAPHY NOT BY A NICE NAME PLATE ON THE STATUE.

But most importantly, I will always ask for sources because… I just want to read it. I love learning and reading. Always have. And so do many others. Many of us want to learn. So it benefits none of us if you hoard your sources like some dragon. Share so that we can all share in the knowledge. As my mom used to say as she rolled her eyes over my brother and I fighting over who got to read a book first: “The words will still be there after the other one reads it. They’re not going anywhere so there’s no need to fight over who gets to read it first.” Guys, you are all acting like if you share your source, one of the things that will happen is that is vanishes into the aether, never to be read again. No. Your copy of it will still be there when you go to read it again. Sharing it will not make it magically unreadable. Also, if you’re hoarding it to be “a resource” for others… let’s be real. That’s an entirely selfish reason that roots in your desire to be admired. You can be a resource and still share your knowledge. Hell, that’s the point of being a resource. You share knowledge, not hoard it. You’re playing gatekeeper, not being a resource if you hoard it.

Some of the other reasons I’ve seen for not giving sources is the lack of modern sensitivity to some. I know that sometimes, sources aren’t worded as carefully or respectfully as we’d like. I get it. Believe me, reading Freud a few semesters ago made me livid. My textbook in this section has nice little messy notes in the margins of me going “Sir, no.” No source will ever be perfect because humans are not perfect. So that’s not a good excuse. I don’t like reading books on abuse because I was abused. I frequently take breaks, put it down, and just… breathe. I may even need to take a day long break or sometimes even longer. But that said, I do still have to read them sometimes. And that can mean just… going into it knowing it will be hard and triggering and take time, but doing it anyway while taking steps to mitigate the negative issues. I won’t say it’s easy or fun. It’s not. It’s absolutely awful. I don’t enjoy having two weeks of nightmares (one of the main things I get with a trigger). But it’s something I accept as part of my life. The best I can do is prepare for when I have to deal with it and mitigate the fallout. Avoiding the issue isn’t the only way to cope with issues. In fact, avoidance can become a maladaptive coping mechanism. On top of that, it’s not anyone else’s job to prevent my issues from controlling me. That’s my job. The better way to deal with a source being possibly triggering is to warn someone. List what issues you noticed and go “Hey, heads up, this exists so be aware when you choose to read this.” (Quick note: you can do this as well if you notice bias as well.) Paired with this: if you choose to read a source knowing it has issues that may trigger you, it is not anyone else’s fault if you do get triggered. You took on the risk and this is a consequence of it. It’s not anyone else’s fault that you were not able to handle it. I didn’t run to documentary makers on abuse and go “You triggered me with the scene of the kid on the stairs watching the abuse.” It is not their fault that I literally was the kid on the stairs in my past. It is not their fault that I regressed to that moment in my memory. I saw the warning, and I chose to proceed anyways only to find out that I was not as prepared as I thought. And that is a result of my decision, no one else’s. 

Let me be frank: giving your sources is not a way to lord over others. We need to normalize this. Normalize telling people where you found the evidence. Normalize warning people about issues in a potential source. And normalize giving your sources to promote community wide knowledge rather than being a dragon with a hoard of books that only you can read. All of these things are good things, not bad ones. Nor are they “too academic” for you to do. They’re basics for the internet when you’re dealing with niche topics since the internet is a place where anyone can and will lie if they think it gets them something.

Another issues I’ve seen bounced around against giving sources is how it’s too rooted in academia and thus brings the issues that come with academia. For instance, that academia is very difficult to access for sourcing. And you know what? Yes. Yes it is. I will not deny that. Which is part of why I’m doing what research I can while I have access, and I’m partly doing that by downloading what articles are allowed. Why? So that not only do I have a copy to peruse at my leisure, but so if someone else really is interested in one of those articles and struggling to find it, I can go “Oh, hey, I have a copy.” Or for some of the ones I tracked down through alternate sites and not my school library, I can share that. One of the ways you can break down some of the issues with academia being so cloistered is to share the articles, alternate access methods, and just citing the place where you gathered the knowledge. Especially as these sources can also be expensive to get access to. Sharing is a way to help get around the monetary hurdle to good information.

It's been almost a year since I originally wrote this post and then never posted it, but just to add on a bit more current events that I do hope will help you all understand why this is so important. Let’s talk about hbomberguy’s video on plagiarism, Todd in the Shadow’s debunking video, and James Somerton. This situation encapsulates why citing and sharing your sources is so vital, no matter what subject you are speaking on. James Somerton plagiarized a lot, and he covered it by lackluster or just completely missing citations. He is not some exception or one-off case. There are many in the world who do this. You will not know unless you run their work through a plagiarism checker or otherwise figure out that it was plagiarized by familiarity or chance. Todd’s video meanwhile exposed how when Somerton wasn’t stealing someone’s words, he was just… making “facts” up by pulling shit out of his ass, if you will allow me to be crude for a moment. He had no factual, historical, or any other proof beyond “I said it.” Some of this was so blatantly false that it’s genuinely disturbing that people just… believed it. You all need to learn to be critical and keep your brains engaged while researching. You should not blindly trust every source. This comes back to the idea of bias and honesty. If you do not do your due diligence to check for potential bias, blatant lies, or provable facts, you will be mislead and miseducated by someone who just sounds right or can construct a half-baked argument. If someone isn’t giving their sources, you should be wary. You should be aware that no source leaves so many options open. Did they plagiarize this? Did they make this up? Is there any proof of this? Is this their opinion and not fact? If we take anything else from James Somerton’s exposure, let it be to be more critical and engaged when consuming content. To confront the ideas presented and interrogate them with logic. If you have gotten into the deeper research, you know how to do this. If you have made it through college, you should have at least learned how to cite a source. You should have realistically learned to engage with information with critical thinking and logic. If more than a handful people had done this with James’s material before hbomberguy, he likely never would have gotten away his crimes for years. Yes, he did the wrong first, but we, as a community, failed to do our due diligence and stop his acts earlier. Those who engaged with his content all failed in some part by not just… thinking. Do not take anyone at their word online. The internet allows people to present their best front and that leaves the door open for manipulative people to indulge in their worst tendencies.

And now… for Hellenic polytheists… let’s get into the Delphic Maxims. “Know what you have learned.” “Long for wisdom.” “Help your friends.” “Listen to everyone.” “Give what you have.” “Be a seeker of wisdom.” “Consult the wise.” “Use your skill.” DO I NEED TO GO ON? These are just some of them that deal with knowledge and sharing. These are some of the virtues that, depending on the origin you like, were extolled by the Greeks or even given by Apollon. Maybe, just maybe, you should try to follow them. But what do I know? I’m just enjoying my time with access to higher academic sources to gather as many as I can while I can so that maybe I can pass on the knowledge from them while making a list of them. To give what I have to the community. But if you want to be greedy and selfish, go off I guess and hoard that damn source lest the words disappear off the page. I’m sure the gods will be so happy with this. 

But let’s be real about the kind of citations most of us want when it comes to content you post online outside of academia. It’s not too “academic” or difficult to fucking list them. Most of us don’t even want like a full correctly formatted list. We just want “Oh hey, I got these from these books/articles” and maybe a link. We’re not asking for correct CMS or APA formatting for your fucking citations. We just want the name of the book or article and the author. Gods, how dare we. So needy to ask for the bare minimum about the source. How horrific of us. We aren’t even making you cite each particular idea to a particular source. We aren’t even expecting an exact page number! Also, if I’m going to be real: there are literal citation generators and since you’re not being graded on how correct every little ticky tack part of your citation is, you can go hogwild with them. Heck, some will even pull all the relevant stuff up for you if you link a source into the generator. You could literally be the laziest citation maker ever here if you did want to be a little more classy or specific than a list. Let’s be real: if you aren’t listing because you can’t be bothered, you’re lazy. Or worse, you’re not listing because you don’t want anyone to catch you in your lies. And the latter is not all right. If you want to lie, the only nice thing I can say is that lies have short legs. It’ll come out eventually, and your clout will not save you then. James Somerton can attest to that.

In case you can’t tell, frankly, if you’re not willing to share your sources, I personally am getting real sick of the excuses you give. Because that means at best, you’re selfish and want to be the only one with the key to the knowledge. Or maybe just extremely lazy. At worst, you’re likely lying and hoping no one will find out by claiming “Oh I found it somewhere.” None of these is a good look. Just… show a fucking iota of thought for others. Give trigger warnings specific to some sources if you feel it necessary. List them so we all can share in the knowledge. And live your life. It’s not that fucking difficult.

I say this as someone who runs a podcast where I go in depth on Ancient Greek religion. I provide citations in my shownotes. I verbally reference my sources. I point out where I listed them and encourage people to read those sources. I want the communities I’m in to thrive and so I share my sources with citations. I do this so anyone can check my information. You all can see where I got these ideas and how credible they are. I don’t do this because it’s easy or fun to figure out the best way to do it. It’s hard to cite a source when you’re doing a speech without a visual component. But I do it anyway because to be blunt, I consider it my duty as a presenter of knowledge. I do it because it is the right, ethical, and honest thing to do. And I sincerely hope that if this essay gains some traction, everyone will do the same. Be forthright. Be honest. Be better going forward. 

[casukaga]

You use over 100 layers for your illustrations??? No wonder they look so intricate! How do you divide them all up (if there's an actual system lol)?

i’m that artist who likes to separate every little thing, and that goes for lining and coloring.

i start off with one sketch layer (very scribbly just to solidify the idea), turn down the opacity of that, and draw over it on another layer. this second layer’s still a little rough, but now i’m actually drawing out faces and features—this is sketch layer #2.

and sometimes (very often!!) i’ll have drawn out a part of the character i really like and want to keep, like the face. so what i’ll do is copy the face i drew on sketch layer #2, paste it onto a new layer, and clean it up by erasing the messy parts. this new layer is now part of my outline, not the sketch. then when i outline the rest, i like to separate each part in its own layer: face, hair, pants, shirt, scarf, etc. (but usually if two things are kinda far enough away from each other—e.g. the hair and shoes—i may have them on the same layer. it’s all about isolating each part from each other.) same goes for when i’m coloring.

and i tend to copy and paste a lot, which really adds to my layer count.

another instance of me copying and pasting: if i drew an arm one way but want to try drawing it differently, i’ll save that old version as a backup. i may turn down its opacity a bit so i can reference it, but i’ll still be drawing over it in a different way.

so i end up saving a lot of backups. these i’ll usually have in a folder named “copy” (“c” for short). i tend to have one for each of the characters that i draw, so it’s something to reference in case i fuck up.

i do this because i’m playing it safe; i get anxious about losing an old version of something i drew, in case later i’m like, “fuck, now i wish i saved that thing i drew earlier” and can’t hit undo enough to go back to it.

if i’m playing with dramatic lighting, i’ll usually save a copy folder of how the characters are without lighting, just so i can flip back and forth if need be.

so take all those copy layers on top of me separating each part i draw and color, on top of all the colored overlays and gradients i add to the final piece—

that’s why i have 100+ layers.

[yoooespinosa]

could you please write a draco x reader fic, where the reader is hopelessly in love with draco, and she's not afraid to show it. but draco doesn't feel the same. and draco being draco, he rejects the reader with no remorse. then when the reader finally comes to the realization that she deserves better, she started seeing new people (not necessarily dating, but more like talking), then that's when draco feels a bit jealous now that the reader isn't all over him anymore. the rest is up to you, love! just something really angsty, you could end it in any way you'd like.

also, sidenote. you're an amazing writer and i love you!!

a/n: Thank you for your request! ily <3

To say you had a crush on Draco Malfoy, was an understatement.

You couldn't help it, you couldn't just stop the feelings you developed every time he came around.

When he walked into the room it was butterflies breaking out of their cage, palms growing sweaty and your heart racing so fast you were scared you'd be able to see its indentions.

It was scary at first, to have such feelings at only thirteen years old. So you did your best to ignore them. You did your best to stay out of his way.

That only worked for so long.

When you are friends with Draco and the people that surround him, it becomes very hard to stay out of his path.

So it was only inevitable that your crush on him would become so much more. Especially as the years went on.

He hadn't made it much easier. Sometimes you felt as if, maybe, he returned your feelings. How could you think otherwise? With the way he walked with you to class, carried your books at times and spent time with you. Just you. Alone.

How could you not fall in love with him.

With all that simmering in you, you finally let it out. You made your affections obvious, not afraid to show Draco how you felt for him. You had thought it was welcomed. You thought that the feelings would be returned.

It seemed as though he could only tolerate you for so long. Yes, that was the right word for it, the only thing he had for you was toleration.

Your shoes sounded on the stone under you, on your way to the Slytherin common room. You had just got out of detention with professor Snape. You suppose it was well deserved, you had seen Draco almost put the wrong ingredient in his potion, so you being you had wandered to his table and helped him, much to Snapes dismay.

Whispering the password, you made your way through the dim passage. Chattering of people from all years and faint laughter was heard all around.

You spotted your friends right away, seated by the green flamed fireplace, as usual.

"She just can't take a hint." You heard Draco grumble, you paused your steps, you didn't mean to eavesdrop but it seemed as if your feet had a mind of its own.

"Wait," Blaise closes the book he had in his hold. "who are we talking about again?"

Pansy sighs, seeming they had been on the topic for some time. "We're talking about y/n."

Your brows furrow. Going back to the first thing you heard Draco say, she just can't take a hint, what was that supposed to mean. What hint?

"Why can't you just tell her how you feel?" Theo adds, his voice is laced with annoyance, maybe this isn't the first time they've talked about this.

"I thought how I felt would be obvious enough, without having to say anything." He huffs.

"Well," Theo sighs. "apparently not."

You were becoming anxious. What were they talking about and what exactly was Draco feeling? There was streak of hope in you, maybe he'd confess right here that he felt the same.

"What do you suggest I say then, oh-wise-one?" Draco asks teasingly.

"Easy, just say exactly what you tell us." He clears his throat dramatically, adopting a mock version of his voice, "Y/n, you have to be one of the most annoying girls, I have ever had the dissatisfaction of meeting. Please, oh please take the hint and leave me alone because these attempts at getting at me are getting more pathetic each time." He finishes with a clumsy curtsy.

The other Slytherins try to stifle their laughs.

You hadn't even noticed the gasp that escaped your throat until four heads turned to your direction.

"Y/n, I didn't kn-" You cut of Theo's words and apologetic stare.

"Is that true?" You ask Draco, your voice low, laced with hurt. Your nose was stinging and your bottom lip hung heavy, but you refused to cry in front of them. You wouldn't give them another weakness to laugh about.

Draco managed to keep his face blank, no emotions shining through. He shrugged, "Pretty much summed it up."

You almost flinched. He didn't even care about the hurt those words brought you.

You left without a look back. Leaving behind your friends call of your name. They weren't the ones you wanted an apology from. They had known how much you felt for him and didn't even bother telling you that it was definitely not mutual. They even laughed, like it was a joke, like your heart was a comedic topic.

The cold air hit your face, freezing against the tear stain tracks. You sat on a lone stone bench in the court yard, letting those tears make a home on your cheeks.

It wasn't obvious--his dislike to you. If it was, you would have gave up long ago. But a part of you felt that there was hope and you had chased after that.

Why couldn't he have just told you when you first let your affections known, it seemed that he had encouraged it back then, with lingering touches and soft smiles.

Looking back now, you notice that those advantages had slowly disappeared. You had been too caught up in his silky hair, those gray eyes filled with mirth and mischief, his angular face with high bones that no one could compare to, that you hadn't notice everything was unrequited.

A sick part of you even felt honored to have your heart broken in the hold of his beautiful hands, the part that saw him do no wrong.

Maybe that was the first problem, you put him on a pedestal, so high up you weren't able to see anything negative of him. You weren't able to see his cruel reality of his feelings towards you.

And he didn't even seem sorry. He didn't even look bothered by the damage of his words.

You were so nice and considerate to him. You would support him at every quidditch game, cheer the loudest even when he lost. You bought him presents for every one of his birthdays and even Christmas, each one sentimental and thoughtful. You had comforted him when he got those letters, that he despised, from his father. You had voiced encouragements when he showed a little tell sign of his insecurities. You had been there for him.

And he treats you like this, like you can be so easily dismissed. You didn't deserve that, you didn't deserve to be called pathetic for having normal feelings and then being laughed at for it.

The longer you sat on that cold bench, the angrier you got. A bitter feeling growing in your stomach, melting away those knots.

You wasted all this time and effort on some guy who didn't even deserve it, some guy who didn't appreciate you. It wasn't fair.

"Hey, you okay?" A familiar voice sounded through your revelations.

You looked up and met green eyes framed with circular glasses.

"Yeah. I was just thinking." You mumbled, the bitter taste was stuck on your tongue, you wanted rid of it.

"Mind if I sit and think with you?" Harry asked, he was nervously scratching the back of his neck, smiling warmly at you.

You offered him a smile, welcoming his genuineness. "Go ahead."

He sat there with you for hours. Surrounded by the sound of wind. It was nice and comfortable. The bitter feeling leaving you completely. You were content now, even if you could still feel the ache in your arms from holding onto Draco for so long.

Weeks had passed. Weeks of no signs of you. The first week Draco hadn't been worried, a little curious, but that was all. The longer it went on though, he became a little more than curious. Not because he cared, cause he didn't, just that if something happened to you, it would be his fault. His rejection was the reason you ran off like a fool to who knows where.

Which is the only reason he went looking for you. He already got a lot of shit from the others, he didn't need more problems stacking up.

He checked all of your favorite places. Starting with that tree down by the black lake that you enjoyed to lean on and watch the sun go down, the sunset wasn't near so he should've known you would not have been there.

He then went to the gardens, there was a bench there that was next to a small pond. It was filled with odd creatures and was home to your favorite flowers, lotus's. You weren't there either.

Lastly, he went to a certain abandoned hall. You had to be there. You went there to be alone with your thoughts, you had taken him with you there a few times. There was a big window there with a thick ledge, streams of sunlight beamed through and tiny rainbows would reflect on the opposite wall due to the cracks on said window.

He heard you before he saw you. A soft laugh reverberating through the empty hall, a laugh he had always found annoying. Hearing it now though, just made him want to get closer to you.

So he did, walking with light footsteps. He froze, you were not alone. Sitting there in the space he once accompanied, was Harry fucking Potter. What kind of sick joke was this?

Why were you sitting with him? And does that mean you just laughed at something he said?

Your laugh sounded through again, once piercing now melodic. It was a bitter feeling, Potter shouldn't have the honor of dragging that sound out of you, he shouldn't even witness it.

Draco left the hall before either of you saw him, he needed to get himself in check.

More weeks passed. Weeks of you hanging out with Potter. You were doing things with him that you had done with Draco.

It was on purpose, you had to be doing it on purpose. You were simply trying to make him jealous and it was annoyingly working.

But how could you be doing that when you didn't even look back to see a reaction.

Draco didn't know what to think. He didn't even know what to feel, or more like let himself feel. Something had changed in the weeks you were away from him.

A revelation of sorts. He missed you. Missed what you would do for him. He regretted what he said and what he never had the chance to say. Because maybe deep down those feelings had been returned, but he was just too stubborn to show.

And now he's seeing you realizing that you deserve more than blurred lines and assumptions. And he's realizing maybe Potter is that more that you deserve.

Draco doesn't like that one bit, he can't even stomach the thought. So he promises to himself that he will do everything in his power to win you back. Even if that means saying that he was sorry and admitting that he was in the wrong, something he's never had to do before.

But if that makes you his again and gets you away from Potter, then its worth it.

Part 2

[slytherinsnekxvii]

let's talk about lily evans and the marauders, aka moony, wormtail, padfoot and prongs. given that i didn't use their actual names, i think you can figure out where this is going. it's also long as hell, so. canon vs fanon, marauder edition, except snek is sleep deprived.

now, before we begin, i don't dislike the marauders. or lily, tbh. if I'm being perfectly, genuinely honest, i still go back and forth sometimes but they've been growing on me for a while now. the canon versions, at least. fanon does them real dirty, and that's part of why i'm writing this, because i'm genuinely tired of it. it's an injustice.

you can at least make excuses for james and lily, who were so undeveloped that jkr practically dropped a fill-in-the-blank sheet of character information in our laps, but sirius, remus and peter were around long enough for y'all to get real acquainted with them.

in canon, sirius black is an unhinged mf. genuinely. this isn't to say he's a bad guy, in fact, we see that he's still capable of doing good things, still capable of love, still capable of all the things that prove he's actually not bad at heart, just,,, severely traumatised and very steeped in negativity from his time with the dementors. what i'm saying is that this man is absolutely, no questions asked, no holds barred demented, and how could he not be? the guy sat wrongfully imprisoned in azkaban for twelve years, a good portion of which he spent as a dog in order to protect himself from the dementors. he certainly wasn't completely insane, but you cannot tell me that he was all there. he got out of azkaban fuelled almost solely by the intent to get revenge on pettigrew, tried to commit murder in front of three witnesses who were also children—one of whom was his godson—ate rats and was also malnourished, which i'm certain did not help the situation any. this man is off his goddamn rocker, and you know what? you love to see it. good for him.

oh, but, snek, that's what he's like as an adult. what about when they were at school? before azkaban? my guy, the reaction he has to grimmauld place is not the reaction of someone without trauma. i don't believe that walburga and orion were the type to physically abuse their children, but whatever happened in that house helped to fuck him up enough that he skipped the joke of part of practical joke, and pranked snape by telling him how to meet a werewolf that he knew would be fully transformed and dangerous to humans. more than that, the werewolf was remus, whom he's friends with, and who—best case scenario—would be facing a trial if james hadn't stepped in. you can say that maybe he didn't think about or understand the gravitas of his actions, but at the end of it, that's not how properly sane people react to people they dislike, and that's not how they treat their friends. if anything, it reads like he was in the middle of a breakdown and absolutely losing his shit and he wasn't thinking at all.

my guy went through some serious shit, and was in no way completely mentally stable. we can see pretty clearly that he's got a serious dark side to him that probably would have gone unbridled had he not disagreed with his family, and yet, fanon took one look at him and went, "teehee, uwu bad boi go vroom."

fanon said padfoot is a pretty boy with nice hair who is tastefully traumatised from his horribly abusive household. sirius rides his motorcycle and plays jokes and flirts with anything that moves, but he can do no real wrong and always comes back to his soft, bookish, chocolate-loving boyfriend remus, who will laugh about his lycanthropy and quietly disapprove but secretly laugh at his friends' antics while hiding his smile in his cardigan.

respectfully, what in the absolute fuck.

i'd put that meme in here if i could, the one that's like, "well done, you've broken _______ down to its bare essentials," but no. i can't bc it doesn't even apply. this isn't a meme, it's theseus' fucking ship.

fanon broke it down, and replaced the pieces one by one until we got to this point, where we need to sit down and ask ourselves, "is this even the same character?"

the answer is no, by the way. it isn't. when people talk about woobifying characters—you know, taking away every flaw they have, romanticising everything they do and making them only capable of doing good, wonderful, lovely things?—this is what we mean.

and it'd be one thing if it was just the one character, but, no. fanon went all in and made them all squeaky clean and boring, especially peter, who draws the shortest of the straws.

remus got fucked, too. not just because fanon insists on sticking him into a relationship with sirius. which, we'll tackle wolfstar in a bit, but that's not even the worst of it. here, we have yet another example of blatant, rampant woobifying. again, is he a bad person? no. we know he's a good guy, we know he's generally kind and well-mannered, we know that he wants to fo the right thing but hey, fun fact. did you know that you can be nice and a coward? did you know that you can be benevolent and good and kindly and have the greatest of intentions and still be shady as fuck? no? ask dumbledore. the man played people like chess pieces when he needed to, and he was a twinkly grandpa. these are things that can coexist.

teenage remus is a coward who, understandably, does not stand up to his friends, likely for fear of being ostracised, and doesn't uphold his prefect duties as he should and takes part in their bullying of snape as a result. he lets them romp with him in werewolf form while they are in their animagus forms and then, he lets them continue to do so even after they have multiple close calls, which, again, had anything happened, would have resulted in a trial in the best case scenario.

grownup remus is still a coward, he tells no one that sirius can move about the school in his animagus form despite wholeheartedly believing that he's a mass murderer, he tries to run out on his wife and unborn kid. he isn't deliberately making attempts to harm anyone, but he's content to sit back and let things happen to him and around him so he doesn't rock the boat, although he is capable of action, which we see when he is more than willing to help sirius merk pettigrew in the shack. he can be careless, he runs out to the shack knowing he hasn't taken his wolfsbane and ends up transforming in front of the students he, as a teacher, is meant to be protecting. of course, this doesn't negate his good qualities, it just bears repeating that his flaws do exist, and they're pretty serious.

fanon moony is always pleasant and kind and soft-spoken and bookish, and he always has to have his chocolate. he knows when to tell off his friends, and he'll do it, even if he's secretly amused by everything they do and laughs about it with his best friend, lily evans, who coincidentally spends all her time with them so he and sirius can go on double dates with james and lily and no one has to remember peter exists.

why. theseus' ship 2.0. does the actual character still exist or is this something entirely different thing bearing the same name?

as for peter, who needs peter pettigrew, the actual, legitimate, fourth marauder when you have lily evans? canon pettigrew is opportunistic as fuck. he's latching himself to the biggest bad on the block and he's going all in. for teenage peter, that was james and sirius, and for adult peter, that's voldemort. canon peter is good enough at transfiguration to master the animagus transformation, just like his friends, and he's good enough at potions to brew the potion that gives voldemort a body. and honestly, you can't say he wasn't brave. he could've run off somewhere and died, or changed his identity or something after he faked his death and framed sirius, but, no. he goes and resurrects voldemort. that's fucked up, yeah, but it happened and honestly, i respect that it. he stuck to his guns.

fanon wormtail is lucky if he exists beyond being a spineless sycophant for james and sirius, or an evil conniving little rat who's looking to toss his entire friend group to the wolves at eleven.

of course, this isn't meant to negate his bad qualities, he still murdered people and framed sirius and sold out the potters to die, but his good characteristics do exist, and james, sirius and remus genuinely were his friends.

and now, we get to lily and james.

we have hardly any information on either of them. they're a pair of cardboard cutouts that we can paint and stick flyers to and colour outside the lines however we want. we can do whatever the fuck, as long lily is brave and smart and somewhat kind and james is brave and willing to die for his family. we were essentially handed a pair of ocs.

and yet.

what little bits of canon we have are thrown out of the window regardless.

james is privileged and rich, and he throws hexes for fun. he's willing to hex lily when she disagrees with him, and then, he goes behind her back to continue hexing snape after she believes that he's stopped doing so. and that's all we know about him until he dies for his family at twenty-one years old. once again, say it with me: this does not negate his good qualities. he definitely had them, he took sirius in when sirius ran away from home, he became an animagus to keep remus company as a wolf, and he saved snape in the shack, thereby saving remus and sirius by extension. him having flaws does not make him a bad person.

fanon prongs is a feminist. he fights for equal rights for women everywhere, and he constantly treats his girlfriend, lily, like an absolute queen. he's the hottest boy in school and everyone claps when he walks through the halls. mcgonagall and dumbledore are always patting him on the back and making jokes with him. he has a built-in dark detector that helps him sense when someone is a evil and needs to he punished.

give me a break. the dude's cool and all, but was the gary stu treatment necessary?

...oh, he needed to match fanon lily? right, right.

canon lily is a contradiction unto herself. she's supposedly a great friend, but since we see her at a point where they were already drifting apart, we see her putting little effort into keeping their friendship afloat. she victim blames based on rumours, she doesn't seem to care over much about what snape has to say about the people who have been tormenting him since day one. and she's justified, of course, she doesn't have to stick around. canon lily is a bit of hypocrite, she says that snape calls everyone of her birth mudblood, but then that begs the question why she still hangs around with him if that's the case. he calls her mudblood, she retaliates by calling him snivellus, and finishes up with a dig about his underwear, which, sure, it's kicking a man with a rusty spoon and pouring salt in the wound, but she's, again, justified. i get where she was coming from. and then, of course, she dies for her kid after marrying the guy who relentlessly bullied her quote-unquote best friend for their entire school careers. but, like i said, canon lily is, in many ways, a contradiction.

lily is basically a plot device. she pushes everyone's narrative but her own, and does little else.

of course, this trend would continue in fanon. fanon lily exists to be the perfect girl who gets really angry over the slightest injustice, and of course, she gets to be one half of one of the oldest enemies-to-lovers "it was just sexual tension" cliche pairings in the book. she's just,,, a mary sue. in so many fics, so many headcanons, she's just pettigrew's stand-in, a girl to form a gang with marlene, mary and dorcas—who happen to be more undeveloped ocs who also get the woobify mary sue treatment—to parallel the marauders. there is nothing compelling about her character when she's presented as a saint, and even less when she's supposedly the other moral compass for the marauders that doesn't actually work because she thinks that james is cute.

and this brings me to the next topic. jily. what, why, how. this was supposed to be a healthy, happy relationship that would have lasted in the long run? absolutely not. even for its time, i can't say that i see it lasting.

first of all, jkr presents james' crush on lily as just that: a crush. a mildly obsessive one, but a crush nonetheless, which she tries to liken to the pulling of pigtails. and then, we see that james' way of getting her to go out with him consists of blackmail, and when that doesn't work, he resorts to threatening her. this could have been set aside if he had actually, genuinely changed when they started spending more time together, but as we're told by sirius and remus, he didn't. he just got better at hiding what he was up to. and it has to be that he hid it, because if she knew, this further damages the character that she's set up to have and paints her out to be either unable to stand up to him or an enabler.

regardless, they get married. and while i have trouble believing that it was out of genuine love, there are scenarios that could make some semblance of sense. it's wartime, after all, and maybe lily is worried about her stability in the wizarding world, so why not marry into an established family whose son is already showing interest? or perhaps, she falls into the trap of every bad boy cliche ever, and she thinks to herself, well, i got him to be better then, maybe i can get him to do even better in the future. or maybe, she doesn't get into a relationship with him immediately and sees him on and off, until eventually, she accidentally gets pregnant and they scramble to have a shotgun wedding so as not to leave lily alone at nineteen with a baby. or maybe they marry each other because they're there and sure, neither of then is ready and they don't know what love even is but what else is there to do when there's a dark lord about? anyways, the point is, they get married.

and then what? if we count pottermore into canon, he goes on to further damage her relationship with petunia and vernon, to the point where she ends up crying. if we don't, she fades into the background enough that nobody has anything to say about her. she's harry's mum, she's james' wife, lily potter, she was kind and smart and brave and that's it. her agency is gone, anything else we have of her personality is gone.

jily just,,, wasn't built to last. and, yeah, this,,, this is a hill i'll die on.

same with wolfstar, honestly. there are so many reasons why it wouldn't work, but fanon has made it so fucking prevalent that it's literally everywhere no matter where you look.

first of all, i've said it before and i'll say it again. sirius is more likely to get with james that he is to ever end up in a relationship with remus. their chemistry is just,,, underdeveloped. net zero for a relationship.

secondly, sirius instigated the werewolf prank, and lupin would have paid the price for it. this could have been overlooked, but he doesn't seem the slightest bit guilty about any of it when it's brought up in poa. he could have been responsible for lupin losing the security of his place at hogwarts in the best case scenario, and in the worst case, his life. and he seems to look forward to full moons, even though they clearly aren't pleasant for remus, which,,, yeah, you're going to have fun, but like, maybe be concerned about the fact that your friend undergoes excruciating pain and it isn't a pleasant time for him? read the room, my g.

thirdly, they don't trust each other as much as fanon seems to think they do. they were both willing to believe each other the traitor before ever suspecting pettigrew. sirius thought remus gave away the potters, hell, he thought remus was a spy for voldemort, and remus was convinced that sirius was a mass murderer. neither of them needed to be convinced.

fourthly, maybe i'm reading too much into it, but like. sirius had money. remus had no money, since, yk, he was a werewolf and struggling for cash and still, sirius,,, did not leave him any money. i feel like if you had money to spare, you would give to your friend who is literally poor. but, again, maybe i'm reading too much into it and this isn't as valid a point as i think it is.

and ehh, the fifth reason is that it's,,, actually very much not the representation for the ltgbt community that fanon says it is but y'all aren't ready for that conversation.

anyways, just,,, even when you set the couple shit aside, the power dynamics between everyone here is fucked. like, james and sirius are clearly at the top of food chain calling the shots and egging each other on. then there's lily, who isn't even a marauder, but is always ever-so-slightly above remus but still not on their level, because, well. neither of them actually listen to her. remus is the novelty friend, the friend who's,,, alright, i guess, but you keep them around specifically because they're funny or they can dance or they have something that you can either show off to other people or keep as your little inside joke, your little secret, yk? and peter is just sort of there. like, yeah, he can do what we can but does that make him as good as we are? no. does he have a funny little something about him that we can exploit? nah. therefore he sits at the bottom. and like, yeah, james and sirius are on the same level, but james is yanking sirius' chain, not the other way around. anyways, like i said. power dynamic's fucked and it bothers me that we were given all of this, and fanon decided to take it all and throw it away so they could give us flamboyant!badboi!sirius black x softboi!motherhen!remus lupin going on double dates with feminist!trustfundbaby!james potter and saint!lily evans while ignoring peter pettiwho?

theseus' fucking ship, indeed.

anyways, this needed to be said. it might not make as much sense as i want it to, considering it's 4:12 in the morning as i'm posting this, after taking a break from writing to do some research and coming across way too much content about fanon marauders, but it's here and it still makes enough sense that you can read it and understand what i mean. and like, at the end of the day, you can go ahead and headcanon whatever you please, you can write fic and make art and do whatever you like, just,,, remember that they're exactly that. headcanons. stop presenting fanon as canon. please. i'm literally begging. we actually have evidence against it. just,,, acknowledge that they're headcanons and stop putting them forward as though they're able to fit into canon. please.