#it’s like 90% pencil right now lol

[spacespore]

I drew wirt!!! And collected some flowers to press!! Yay

[centrally-unplanned]

I blogged before about this company, Orange, that is an AI-powered manga translation company. Essentially, their pitch is that most manga is still (officially) untranslated, a ton of manga gets made after all but few become mainstream enough to get ported overseas. They posit the barrier to that is the cost of translation; if they could automate that process, then they can make viable for release what previously was not. That concept rests on two questions - does the tech pan out, and does the economics add up?

Recently they went live, under the name Emaqi, so we can better explore those questions. What I notice on first glance is the pitch seems to have shifted a little bit in post:

You are not the translators of Vinland Saga, Witch Hat Atelier, or Magic Knight Rayearth, very obviously so. They have Sailor Moon in here lol. These are just the official translations being cross-listed into their "manga platform", where you buy it there and it lives, DRM-locked, in their app. Which is fair enough as a model, that is just Kindle, it works. Though Kindle and a dozen others already exist, so their value-add has to be the AI translation stuff right? That is why I would choose this over another app.

Which they do have, though it is kind of buried:

"Only on emaqi" - there is no mention of the translation approach, poor guys! Can't fault the branding decision I guess given the state of the discourse. When it comes to the products themselves, I went through ~6 or so of the sample chapters of different manga, did a few spot checks with the original Japanese, and read the reviews of some others who looked into it. They seem fine! I am cautiously impressed, I think there proofers did a good job smoothing out some edges, it has a "manga tone", and while small issues like the hyphenation the reviewer above mentioned do exist and are legit noticeable, they aren't common and not a huge deal. It has flow issues? Some dialogue should link together in how it is written, but doesn't. But it isn't crazy off or anything. You will not be wowed by these, but certainly if you are someone who reads bootleg scanlations you are gonna have no problems. A lot of manga uses pretty simple vocab and isn't breaking new ground on plot, I can see how a purpose-built tool could handle it well enough.

The economics though...here is where I don't think this case was ever going to pencil out and isn't now. Because I am pretty sure no one here has heard of any of the manga listed above as exclusives. (I saw 90's manga Geobreeders in there, but that was already partially translated in the 2000's, not sure if they did a new one? Setting it aside) Which, of course you haven't, if you had it probably would have been translated! Books are a 90:10 market, most books never get read and some books get read a ton. Anything big enough can justify a professional translation, and the other can't really sell to begin with.

On top of that, their model is mass translation; which means these obscure manga are presented to you with no context, no hype, no build-up. Wtf is The Blood Blooms In the Barrens?? See, if you were like a boutique publisher, selecting "the best of the best" in untranslated manga, you would promote your specific product. Interviews, social media, the value of the brand-itself as a quality seal. Publishing less is more, actually, your value as a publisher is as a quality selector. Or you could be say the porn market, where you max quantity so people can search "foot fetish breeding kink oshi no ko" and get results; they know what they want. But they aren't doing either! And to be blunt a lot of these are not gonna sell on their art alone:

I'm not mocking The Delayed Highschool Life of a Laborer here, that is better than I could do; but if you want to me spend money on a whim the bar is high and these don't reach it. Which of course they don't, they would be professionally translated if they did.

And finally, the price - $5 dollars, for volume 1's, like a 100-200 pages. The cross-listed manga typically sells for ~$10? That isn't much cheaper! If "translation" was this big cost barrier, and all you got is cutting the price of ebooks in half, I don't know if the analysis was so solid. This is a new product, I doubt they are overcharging to make a quick buck right now - this is the "sell at cost to scale" era.

In all of their lead up press they would say things like this:

Orange's process uses AI to read the manga through image analysis and character recognition, then to translate the words into English, Chinese and other languages. The technology is specialized for manga, meaning it is able to handle wordplay and other difficult-to-translate phrases. A human translator then makes corrections and adjustments. The process can deliver a manga translation in as little as two days. Orange will work with multiple Japanese publishers. The company looks initially to complete 500 translations monthly.

But this is missing a lot of context. For one, these manga are simple high school or battle manga that are ~200 pages long, many of those pages have only a few lines of dialogue, etc. Imagine you are a professional translator, and you are given that manga to translate, all the set-up done for you, all you gotta do is write. How long do you think that would take? Not that long! It could probably take like a week if it's actually all you did (calc'd from a 10k word count manga volume, 2k is a typical "good translator" per day count - many manga are shorter than that). And note how they said "as little as two days" - not median two days! Just, you know, aspirationally.

Translation is just not a big bottleneck. You gotta do layouts, lettering, proofs, etc, these can all take just as much time - and are being done by people, they still need wage workers doing all this. But that is small fry in comparison to publishing contracts, author approvals, distribution, all of that. And most importantly, product acquisition - you have to get authors to sign with you! That can be months of work. I am sure they are trying to get bulk agreements with publishers and such, but authors will push back on that, this is not an easy endeavor.

Which is why, in above, they say they hope to have "500 translations monthly". And after a year+ of work, on launch, they have...

...18. As best I can tell at least, their site deliberately obfuscates what they actually translated versus are just hosting for resale after all.

So yeah, as mentioned I don't think the economics pencil out. These aren't worth $5 dollars, they can't actually generate volume that makes "massive economies of scale" actually valuable, and their approach is currently antithetical to the idea of generating traction for any of their individual works. Niche publishing just doesn't work this way.

But it is early days, and hey I respect the experiment! I do think the tech is pretty good, and it is nice to see a company showcase it. It isn't quite good enough yet for prime time, but it could get there. I do want more manga to get exposure and audience; I will give a fair shake to any who try.

[distorted59]

I need Danish Gremlin Lars headcanons so bad right now plsssss

Hi!!! first of all, I'm sorry it took a little while, hope you enjoy!! <3 and again, thanks for asking!

Loves it when you play with his hands! we all know this man has incredible hands, esp with all that tape around his fingers, lord have mercy.

Would absolutely love to teach you to play the drums

He WOULD tease you with his drumsticks, i fucking know it, this man is a kinky mf.

Like, he would slide one over the inside of your thigh and the other one over your neck and breasts. 

THE TAPE AROUND HIS FINGERS STAYS ON!!! (need i say more)

He’d whisper sweet things to you in Danish, whenever he’s proud of you or when he tells you he loves you. 

ALSO, during sex???? and he’d go all crazy cus it all just feels so, so good???

I feel like he’s quite dominant, maybe in his early years (‘81-‘84) he’d be a little bendable (not literally, but who knows?). But, in the 90’s he’d be FERAL.

Like I said earlier, I feel like he’s a kinky mf. Exhibitionism, he likes to get freaky in public. He loves getting praised, he wants to hear how good he is at something. Pleasing you, playing drums, cooking, mowing the fucking lawn. He doesn’t mind, please fulfill his ego.

Small dick, but the energy is BIG.

Has stamina for DAYZZZZ!!!

He would fuck you on his drumset, i can just imagine him eating you out and hitting the kickdrum while doing so. (IM SORRY I HAD TO)

I feel like early 80’s Lars is a real sweetheart, maybe still a little shy but definitely runs his mouth. 90’s Lars has no fucking filter, he’s cocky, arrogant, gets whatever he wants and takes whatever he wants. 

Loves to just be around you, showing you he’s here. You’d watch him and the boys rehearse and he would squeeze your hand or your thigh, flashing you small smiles and giving you kisses here and there. 

“You still with us, darling?” He squeezes your thigh, smiling with those adorable dimples of his. 

"Hm?" You dozed off a little, but his fingers sliding to the inside of your thigh keep you very awake. 

“Are you enjoying watching us, babe?” Lars grins.

“Oh, yeah.” You nod. “You’re doing great, baby.” 

“You think so?” He smirks proudly, his fingers tracing circles over your soft skin. “You like watching me play?” 

“Mhm.” You hum and smile down at his hand. Already knowing what you two will be doing later. 

He would take you to Denmark, showing you his hometown and places he went to as a kid. His childhood home (which is now a fertility clinic I believe, lol) and his school, where he played tennis as a boy. 

He loves art so he would take you on little museum trips and years later to these auctions where he would sell the pieces from his home for millions of dollars, (SKOM docu).

Loves bragging to people about you. “My girl is great, she’s the prettiest woman i know.” and "Well, my girl loves playing the drums with me." <3

You know those bandanas he wore in the 80’s? Yeah, tying your wrists up with them or putting it in your mouth to prevent you from moaning too loud <3.

He is a little fruity tho. (so threesome with Kirk maybe? yes/no?)

Load/Reload era, this man wore some heavy eyeliner. I can see him asking you for a little help.

He’s in the bathroom, trying to figure out what the fuck to do here.

“Babe, could you help me out here?” He holds up the pencil and gives you puppy dog eyes. 

“With what, baby?” you walk into the bathroom and look at him, slight confusion written over your face. “Is that my eyeliner?” 

“It’s for the new album!” He protests. “We got a new look, ya know?”

“What, cutting your hair wasn’t enough?” You tease him and sit on the sink counter. 

You take the eyeliner from his hands and pull him closer by his shirt, you wrap your legs around his waist and make him look at you by holding his chin. 

“Okay, close your eyes.” 

He obliges and you softly apply the liner just above his lash line. He squints a little and breathes out through his nose. 

“Don’t move, baby.” You scold him. 

“Sorry, It feels a little weird.” a wide smile spreads on his face. 

“Look up for me.” 

He does what he tells you, looking at you before he looks up entirely. You apply some under his waterline, smudging the edges gently with your fingers. 

“All done, babe.” You kiss his lips softly. 

He smiles into the kiss and murmurs a “thank you” against your lips. He checks himself out in the mirror behind you and grins. 

“Wow, I look sexy!” 

“Larzy Poo” - James Hetfield, 2023

[theinsanecrayonbox]

FOP: A New Wish e16?, 18-22

well would you lookit that, new episodes. thanks internet for telling me...since i don't watch cable live...but man, we are starting the wonky releasing aren't we? e17 was e16, but now e16 is 2 episodes after e17?? the more things change, the more they stay the same eh? lol

Episode 16: Lost and Founder's Day

yeah like i said, wonky episode ordering. i know they sometimes air out of production order, but this? this is also a full 22 min episode?? nice. i guess that's why it's so out of order...wouldn't have that problem if you didn't split 22 min eps into 11 min ones, just saying...

huh, and description is saying that Dale is the new Crocker...yeah, i can easily see that...it's the plot of s2 of the Santa Clauses

so story time proper now

oh right the Dimmadome hat, because Doug founded the town, du how'd i forget that.

aww Dev is still glasses-less. but lol smart watch that can't tell time, classic

pfffft the mentioning of Poof and Cosmo's slip of the tongue, that's great. nice that they acknowledge that Cosmo had him. but wait, did they just admit that they left him alone for 10,000 years while on vacation? it hasn't been 10,000 years...but still, you left your son at boarding school this entire time??? guys

oh hey recurring wish characters, just chilling in the wild, not drawing any attention for weirdness...why'd Mark have to hide in the past again

pfft Dimm n' Out Burgers

Doug got gold in 1953...the original series was like mid 90s...???

oh Hazel's gonna wish for others, now we're pulling Live Action plots...but also Wishmas...but also standard, and was that the standard kid hurray that FNaF uses??

dawww Dev :( i mean i know we knew the statute wasn't gonna be good, but poor Dev. and wow laying on the Poof referencing heavy; if i hadn't been spoiled that he's returning it wouldn't be a surprise because that is not foreshadowing, that's a neon sign

and hat montage...ok...at least it's not a musical number i guess...and it is a nice commercial break spot, because *double length episode*

heh snarky Dev. but also daww protecting Hazel

and dawww 3rd act breakup?? Dev hunny

but now we have terminator founders' day statues. this is getting crazy again, and i love it

ha! callback to the "oh great the wand not working noise". also callback to Cosmo was right

pfft "Dill Pickle Dimmadome". just a dumb joke, or Rugrats shoutout, you decide!

huh just now realizing that the non-Roman Dimmadome was French, very obviously a French trapper, so...are the Dimmadomes also Canadian?

dawwww Hazel be nice to Dev! he did save you

HEY! Poof is back! yes, yes, he's Peri now; very grown up, not a questionable foreign slur, i know. and he's Dev's fairy????? ok i did not see that how he came back; i expected him in an episode or two. but how interesting that the spoiled rich kid who's parents don't love him gets the purple fairy...again...

well, i guess i can see why this was produced as e16, but aired after e18 since that's sort of a big plot point

Episode 18: Work Her Magic

so chronologically this should be before Lost and Founder's Day...lets see is that matters. because this series does have some ongoing continuity to it...

synopsis has the standard plot of kid thinks parent is overworking so wants to spend time with them. doesn't sound like Add-a-Dad, so that's good

adult Hazel design? huh

heh the puppet replacement is back...and having an existential crisis??? O.o this show man...i love it

hey design for Antony

interesting montage

wait what was the name of the building??? E-Lidder+Acey Publishing. oh, ok, it went by so fast i thought it was E-Leddy, as in similar to Mr Turner's boss at the pencil pushed factory office thing. idt there's a connection, carry on

there's no Un-Wish Island for Hazel, but instead a cosmic void...filled with neon glitter...Mad Muse Mythos??? O.o

ah well, the ending was good enough. this was a low magic, personal growth episode, which is always grade a good. but you know...i feel like there could be a wish uprising in the future, just like Un-Wish Island...oh and no, idt this being aired out of order in comparison to Lost and Founders Day matters at all

Episode 19: Crock to the Future

so many pun titles, i am loving it. but Crocker is back??? did he get demoted to janitor after his affair with Vicky (heh yes i will never forget the worst part of Odder, and neither will any of you so it will never happen again)(also this is NOT the Odder timeline so i know there's no correlation...other than the cosmic multiverse deciding to punish him for eth actions in an alternate reality lol). but...since the internet spoiled that there's an adult AJ, this is sort of a missed opportunity to have it be adult Kevin...not that i want Kev to be a carbon copy of Crocker, but still. would help narrow the timeline more (gimme adult Chloe! gimme proof there's no Sparky!!), seeing as Poof is grown and present, so we know it's not a Channel Chasers timeline...

anywhos, actual episode!

AJ!!! Anthony James Junior is AJ's full name??? and he's into Paranormal Science/ uh...that doesn't really track, but AJ!?

but also, claiming that the experts said a ghost containment unit was impossible...so this is not the same universe as DP, since that is confirmed as possible. i know it wasn't really a connected universe before, but confirmation that they are separate is nice...though i say that and watch as Jack and Maddie end up in a background shot coming up lol

wow their paranormal detector works

AJ!! "remember him from the original series?" lol but yeah this has got to be 20 years in the future minimum...

hey there's Mark and his ship on that mural!

IT'S CROCKER!!!!!! and he looks so OLD! zomr i love it, he looks so much like Dolores and Albert. and he still has the FaIrYgOdPaReNtS!!

huh we acknowledge that Crocker was their godkid, nice

Wanda, why would you think Crocker covering eth building in a net is impossible? he afforded to do that back on a teacher's salary, he can certainly do that on a janitor's

Timmy name drop!

so Crocker does this every year...AJ knows his old teacher works for him. neat!

well this was actually a very fun cameo episode! i highly approve!! shame Kev didn't show up to pick Crocker up at the end, and it'd mimic how Denzel was with Dolores, but better since Kev isn't fairy crazy...i liked Kev lol

Episode 20: Battle of the Dimmsonian

description says Dev and Hazel magic battle. so...it's Remy Rides Again

oooo Dev's the wishy-washy wisher, that's neat. it goes to show that even he doesn't know what eh wants or needs

waitwiatwait "remember episode 13 when i was horse and you were a cowboy hat" e13 of NW was Stany Danky and was there cowboy wear in that? e13 of the original series was Christmas Everyday and...no i think it was only Maria that was a cowboy there. hm.....

oh are they going to follow the "fairy godparents can't out other fairy godkids" rule??

Brindle Folk people lived in Dimmadelphia before settlement huh? ad they have a lot of antlers...and a spirit named Viozalia...and that looks like a portal....otter-deer fae nice (i see what you meant saying i had a lot to work with in these new episodes lol)

hey that looks like a ghost portal...fae spirit...yeah that tracks...heh called her a demi-god wow. wrath of the underworld? what is this show?? i love it!!

hehe Viozalia tricking Dev into giving her the staff; classic fae.

"what to do if your kid tries to start the ghost apocalypse" that is actually a thing that they though could happen/has happened before?? also ghost apocalypse, and child possession, this is amazing

the family reveal was fun lol

dawww Dev not knowing how friendships work

hehe Ghostbusters references all around

that was actually a really good episode. very enjoyable, plot progressive, character progressive, very spoopy. A+ team

Episode 21: Patty Possum's Party Playground

is that a FNaF reference??? and did they forget that they already have Mikey Mozzarella's?? and description says Hazel wishes eth animatronics to life...it is FNaF holy crap!!!

Patty Possum looks like a female Mikey Mozzarella...

and if Winn watched her show in daycare, it's at least a 5 year old franchise

man i love Ski-Ball

Patty invited the children onto the stage to be her new posse...she's gonna try to keep them isn't she...

ah another instance of Cosmo and Wanda being idiots and loosing their wands the most stupid way because if they didn't there'd be no plot

haha yup there it is, she's keeping those children. time to survive until 6 am kids

wait what was the tunnel graffiti?? Miss you Mom...with 25 tick marks and a skeleton, oh...i thought it was something cooler. carry on

ok i am so into this musical number. the background music is actually going good this ep

dawww lesson of the week time; friends are friends even when they are apart

oh no the possum is stealing not-Timmy to stuff him into a suit to be the new turtle or something! lol

ok, so this was fun. didn't go as dark as the other spoopy episodes, but it was still fun, and filled with fodder.

Episode 22: A Date to Remember

this one's description sounds like a Lovestruck light...but hey more returning characters!

oh actually it seems like it's got some Apartnership mixed in too actually...huh...neat

hey, Cosmo's referencing their first date from "Floating with You" from School's Out: The Musical. you guys did your homework a bunch

wait she made that wish...oh geeze Hazel Marty McFlyed herself...oh wait no, not time traveling, but basically yeah

heehee 2d versions of stuff that happened, love it

what happened to Cupid?? O.o this character is like, 100% different than the original. are we saying that Cupid isn't a person but an office/title now? so this isn't the same Cupid?? redoing Father Time was since since he wasn't a highly established character, but Cupid was, and since we had April Fool reffs it's not like you guys never saw OG Cupid

all the sports jokes are going over my head. i don't sport ball.

but you know, the message that love isn't just a point game, and that Angela still had free will to choose despite the game saying otherwise, that's great.

so other than the confusing character...it was ok

Episode 23: Lost in Fairy World

the kids get lost and fairies have to find them before Jorgen finds out? is it now illegal to bring your godkids to Fairy World?? i mean, tat should've been a rule from the start, but why now?

heehee family brunch of candy. and Dev's first Fairy World exposure, nice. but you know what, this is actually really cute and clever setup giving Peri to Dev. Dev's an only child with an absent father (and no mother in sight), so he gets a single godparent. BUT he also happens to also get 2 grand-godparents and a godsister/aunt in the form of Hazel. Dev gets the big loving family he wants so badly. meanwhile, Hazel started this by loosing her brother's friendship when he moved away, and feeling distant from her parents; well she got herself 2 more godparents for the attention, and now has a godbrother and godnefew/goduncle and godcousin/brother (i know technically it works one way but the dynamics of the personal interactions feel the other so just role with it). she's gotten back her family she thought she lost. this was really good story telling here.

anywhos, Fairy World!! oooo map...with several locations....ooooooooooooo

Cosmo and Wanda being over bearing parents to Peri is great. and Peri saying Dev's his first godkid...eh...i guess he's technically right since we only saw him assigned to Dolores in Fairly Old Parent before...

ok we're going on a world tour! first stop: Star Dome. it's...a wand garden? i feel like we established wand production in the past but i can't recall when... second stop: Rainbow Highway. not much to it third stop: Dollfins. it's...dolphins, but dolls...wut? this seems silly fourth stop: Wings n' Thangs. it's a factory...mk...well since Norm did have wings stapled onto his back i guess wing manufacturing is a thing

Jorgen seems stupider than he used to be...i blame the sweater vest

the kids unwished themselves? wait what?? THAT'S the Hocus Poconos?? Wish storage...Unwish Island...the glitter void where the puppet went...is that this place??? I...hu...and there is an Un-wish dragon. i...hm...

pfft ok i'll give the dragon the meta joke, that was funny

and i guess this new system does make sense, seeing as Timmy got Un-Wish Island because his Wish Storage was over willed, so dumping the unwishes in a designated area with something to destroy them does make sense. now i'm hoping there's a rebel Gary here and we go Mad Max with a smattering of other unwishes lol

pffft Fredanator head, nice. i guess it's cameo time....holy crap that was a skeletal snake!Vicky in a milkshake glass O.o show!! i love you

wait ate a godkid again?? O.o!!!!

lol Dev learning no lessons. he's trying guys, he's learning...slowly lol

ok not a bad episode. very much a cameo game. still loving this show, looking forward to next week's crop.

[kyomunosaki]

I started Hypnospace Outlaw

...and I've noticed a few small things that are super interesting, mostly with the idea of tutorialization.

I didn't plan to do a writeup on this, so I don't have any of my own gameplay's screenshots. I remember most of the gist, so I can probably write a few sentences on this topic that really stuck with me. I would've gone back for more screens but I'm feeling very lazy and I might repost this with editing/photos in the future lol

So Hypnospace Outlaw is basically a pre-2K "internet janitor simulator" except that you don't do it for free. You're like a free contractor/PMC janitor, where you get comissions to hunt down certain infringement of internet/Hypnospace law.

The first case is to find instances where the copyright for a 1968 of a cartoon character named Gumshoe Gooper is being infringed upon. I found this case to be a phenomenal tutorial for both the game mechanics and the philosophical(?) questions the game wants to ask.

Gumshoe Gooper (Hypnospace Outlaw)

At first upon getting this case, I was still grappling with the game mechanics, exploring the Windows 98-ass interface with the skill of an old man in a nursing home. At the time I entirely forgot about the search function, so I just explored by going through various web portals and webrings, a la Geocities.

I found a lot of interesting sites that I don't really have the time (nor screenshots) to talk about and do justice with, but there's a lot of awesome things to find in Hypnospace if you're willing to just take time and look around. I do want to possibly talk about that later if there's interest.

After just stumbling around the internet and remembering how hard it is to find stuff through web portals, I remembered the search function existed thanks to one of the sites I ended up on having tags that open up the search window. So I searched for "gooper"

You find 3 sites from that search, two from AbbyWrites58 and another from another woman who's name I can't recall right now. The first site is a typical late 90s personal site you might find, for a first-grade teacher. It contains mentions of memorials to dead lost ones, a Hypnospace Heaven or something, and is part of a "Spirituality" web ring, but otherwise not much to note. The first link however, is a link to "Drawings of Gumshoe Gooper by my first graders"

Webrings on Abby's World (Hypnospace Outlaw)

On the link, its filled with pencil/crayon sketches of Gumshoe Gooper by a bunch of children, but also 2 gifs that seem like legitimate copyright infringement. I still felt apprehensive about reporting this page to the Hypnospace Enforcers, because it felt like a teacher just wanting to share the work of her students and I was hoping to find other violations to fit my quota. Regardless, even if I were to fill out my quota there were only 2 very clear examples of copyright infringement on the page.

So, I went back and checked out the other site by AbbyWrites58, and this one was... a political support website for a local politician? Who was seemingly a politician that had different views than, I, the player did? And she was using a GIF of Gumshoe Gooper saying that he supported her? I didn't have much hesitation just hitting her with the copyright violation on this page.

The third page was just another site but with an official Gumshoe Gooper strip posted on it. As you can tell the rest of this essay is lazily thrown together and just a retelling of events, but I do not remember the exact details of the page. I just remember still feeling apprehensive about reporting stuff on the page with children's art, so I think I reported that strip.

I still hadn't reached my quota of 3 violations reported, so I begrudgingly made my way back to the initial site I had landed on in my search. I decided to report one of the GIFs, and didn't feel too bad about it since while she did teach first graders I did find her political views somewhat, off-putting. I was going to make my way back to the case page to finalize it, but I got a notification on the not!Clippy software, telling me that if I find more violations I could get a bonus on closing the case?

A child's drawing of Gumshoe Gooper (Hypnospace Outlaw)

So, I decide to report the other GIF on the page as well, and look at that: more money. And then I have a dark urge to test something out. What about this first grader's art? What if I file it for copyright infringement, what would happen? Would the kid get in trouble? Will the teacher get the blame? Did the teacher even deserve any blame? Well, I hit the report. It works. So I go through the page, filing every crude drawing of Gumshoe Gooper by children as a violation of copyright law.

I get a lot of money, and I don't feel too bad after learning more about AbbyWrites58. Besides, the other members of her webring were openly fascists! That sort of association makes you liable to uh, getting in serious trouble over copyright infringement of a 1968 cartoon character right? It's just my job! I needed to hit the quota! And what if I flag her account to the authorities, her account with her location and other personal information tied to it?! What is the worst that could happen, and maybe I would feel a bit more bad about it if her political views weren't so, wrong?

This sort of self-justification I found myself doing just felt fascinating. It was some of the most engaged I felt with a game's narrative in so long, and it's only been made more fascinating by later cases like even the one just following this with ZANE_ROCKS_14. If you liked this post, maybe I'll actually try to edit this one down properly and actually take screenshots too. Regardless, if you got this far thanks for reading!

Edit: I can see how this makes me look like kind of a dumbass but I guess what's more accurate is "what her political views were being signalled as" is more accurate for some of the stuff I say above lol, but I'm too lazy to edit the post more than this

[lej222]

What do you think Jisu's intentions are in all these? Reading chapter 136 last night i first thought he was helping Miae by making Cheol jealous but when academy kids and songi came miae gave a big smile looking at cheol and jisu was actually annoyed seeing that! What is his motive actually?? He is acting manipulative? What will he gain from thiss he's a sly fox😬

Really good question which is really hard to answer! 😃

So keep in mind these are just my thoughts, I can always be wrong.

So far, we know very little about Jisu, but clues about his character have been given to us since the first chapter, and so most theories about him have become true. I think we should look at his character in a chronological timeline.

Right off the bat, I'm writing this with the assumption that Jisu is likely autistic (seems to be a general observation in the fandom, I also made a post about it). From very early on in childhood, Jisu seemed to be slower than the kids of his age (like touching his head way after he was hit) and had a sort of expressionless face even in elementary school.

At one point in time, Jisu becomes Miae's classmate in elementary school, around the time Miae met Cheol. They used to live in the same neighbourhood for a short while, because as we know, Jisu also kept moving around like Cheol (all the Jisu and Cheol parallels!?). Jisu was likely bullied by the other kids for his 'unique' personality, which, in the 90s meant that he was simply different but no one would have known why around that time (it was a different world for sure, autistic kids were told they were stupid for being slower and they were likely targets for bullying, even more than now). We see a short memory of young Miae telling Jisu she can make his bullies pay. This is the only fragment of memory we get until Jisu leaving school. We have no idea what happened in the meantime, but when Jisu is forced to write a goodbye letter, he mentions how he liked Miae the most for which Miae starts crying while Jisu is just standing there awkwardly. End of their childhood interactions.

-> now, first of all, I believe memories are super important in the story and they are tied to the concept of fate. As Miae and Cheol's relationship progresses, we can suddenly see memories Miae was not even aware of having. Jisu's memories are still hidden because Miae doesn't remember him. This is a very important point because it is the reason we will definitely keep seeing him in the story.

My speculation is that Jisu had a fondness for Miae as a kid, but it was not necessarily romantic love (and he likely did not understand why he had that fondness). We know Miae treated him like a normal person when he was bullied. Without knowing their interactions, Jisu likely found her interesting (btw, autistic individuals can have fixations on people as well, Jisu is now fixated on their coincidental encounters).

Years later, Jisu transfers in the spring semester in 1998, right before Cheol transfers in the fall semester (coincidence that much??? More like fate lol) We can see he remembers every name and face, making categories as to which school they attended together (reinforcing the idea that Jisu might be what we would call a 'genius' which is not uncommon among people on the spectrum, in fact, most geniuses have ASD). Jisu sees Miae and notes that her hair is weird (now we know why lol) and then moves on. A year later, when they end up in the same class he's surprised, but doesn't really care. As coincidences seem to pile up, like Cheol kicking Miae's pencil at his chair(he gives it back btw, while Miae thinks it was Cheol), they are sent out to the corridor together, they become folk dance partners, Jisu finds Miae's name tag and uses it to avoid punishment, they are both called to the teachers' office for doing bad on their tests, Jisu wants to give back the nametag but doesn't have it on him (!!!!! important!!!) And he still doesn't seem to care that much, it's Miae who tries to talk to him.

It's not until their detention week that Jisu becomes more talkative with Miae. And it's likely around that time he acknowledges the coincidences and decides it's fun. That's when the funny fate in the story takes action and makes Jisu meet Miae in the most random scenarios. As soon as Jisu acknowledged its existence, fate tried to help him. Mind you, Cheol and Miae haven't acknowledged their relationship as of now (interesting right?). So Jisu thinks it's a fun situation and keeps talking to Miae, even the teacher notes how he never really shows this behaviour around anybody else. After that, Miae starts showing sides of her Jisu likely hadn't seen since they were kids, like she smiles at him. I think, and take this with a grain of salt, from these interactions Jisu has likely started developing feelings for her, and he's probably not aware of it.

Jisu wants to help Miae, because he likely wants her to be happy. But he might have started liking her along the way as well. I don't think he always met Miae intentionally, it would have been practically impossible, but he has the ability to plan what to do (the cigarette incident). He knows how to push Cheol's buttons -->> important note here!!->> once Jisu said something like he knows what guys like Cheol are like. I've seen a theory in the Korean fandom that Jisu naturally seems to dislike people with an authoritative presence, like the teacher who hit him (and Jisu's silent defiance was obvious). From what he can see, Cheol likely falls into that category (we readers know it's not true) and Jisu is bothered when Cheol chases Miae around as if he's acting against Miae's wishes. Which obviously raises the possibility that Jisu had a kind of person in his life who was acting the same (a strict father? abusive teacher? the bullies?) which would explain why he was always rude to Cheol. Again, it's just a theory. At the very least, Jisu wants to be Miae's friend and likely felt left out in that situation. He might like her, he might not, but he will definitely be important in the story if you ask me.

Sorry for the long answer😃

[readmypaws]

Hello folks of Tumblr,

Some of you are new here, so allow me to help you get started here. This tutorial is for mobile users cause im too lazy to log back on on PC rn...

Anyways,

Lets start with the simple part, how to navigate this place. Ive been here a year and it cam still feel likenan enigma sometimes but here are the basics:

1. Your feed is going to be made up of 90% of what you follow. Tumblr doesn't really have an algorithm perse, but more of a "heres is someone that someone you're following follows" or is stuff in the same tag. You can actually completely turn off what little algorithm there is in the settings if you like.

2. If you like a post, like it, but if you do just that, you'll never see it again. If you truly love a post, you need to repost it. Reposting it adds it to your blog, and you dont need to be stingy with reposting!

3. Scared something doesnt match your blog but you still like it? Well fuck it, reblog that shit! We love variety here

So thats the basics of looking at posts, but I can guarantee you that no one here, not even the p0rn bots dont post here. So I'm gonna teach you how to do that!

1. You will notice a blue button that looks like a pencil, click that and itll take you to the post creator.

2. Now the page is pretty blank, but that means you can do whatever you want with it! At the bottom of the screen (or if your keyboard is up, top of the keyboard) you'll notice 7 buttons. From left to right they are:

text formatting, the second is links, third is gifs, fourth is images, fifth is uh... I don't really know tbh lol, sixth is polls, and the seventh is uh... I also dont know that does lol.

Feel free to go crazy with these! Have fun :)

3. After writing your masterpiece, an autistic 3am rant about cheese, or a shitpost you're gonna wanna share it. If you immediately post it, it wont be seen by anyone except those who follow you. If you want people to follow it make sure that:

YOU TAG YOUR POSTS!

There is an add tags button above the toolbar, you gotta type what tags you want. Dont stress about making them completely match your post or what the "meta" is, its Tumblr, there is no meta for the platform that is just neurodivergent queer people lol. Share to wherever the hell you want so long as its somewhat connected to the post :). Add as many (up to 30) as you want! I recommend 5 at minimum. You can even write your posts as just tags!

So thats your post done! Thats the jist of Tumblr, theres also customizing your blog but I'll deal with that later :)

Have fun here!

[ace-was-already-taken]

Fuck it, man, I'm doing my FIRST VENT POST!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!! (I'm SO not okay 👍)

TW: sh mentioned

I doubt anyone's gonna actually read this fucking post lmao

ANYWAY where do I start?? What do I even say??????? I guess I'll just get to the point???? In all seriousness, I barely know my own personality anymore. I mean, I THINK I'm just a quiet and reserved person? But that's only in public, then when I'm talking to someone, I say what they want me to say (+be who they want me to be, as in, making a whole personality for them) And if they ask for my opinion, I say it, but add a bunch of shit like "but that's just my opinion, take it with a grain of salt" and shit like that. I REALLY just want to be myself outside of the internet, but I just can't. The only time I'm 90% myself is with my friends tbh.

And then I have my rock-bottom self-esteem and shit. Like, I can barely think of anything good about myself, and I don't believe 99% of compliments I get. I'm self-deprecating asf. I feel like I look like shit. Just pure shit. And that I'm worthless, don't deserve anything nice, shit like that, yk? I don't wanna end it all, but I have no way of letting out my feelings either. I did go down the path of sh, but then my parents took away the object I was using for it (the blade of a taken-apart pencil sharpener), but they somehow don't know I was doing sh. And honestly I feel like doing it again, but I don't have any objects to do it without making it obvious.

The only things that make me happy right now are, like, Project Sekai (which includes my yt account that I post on sometimes), Tumblr, Pinterest, Character.AI, drawing, music (specifically listening to music + daydreaming to it to escape reality) and talking to my friends.. All of this is online for the most part. Also, like, one moment I'll be happy asf, having the best time of my life, and then I just randomly feel depressed- Also goes the other way around, mainly the other way around (One moment I'll feel depressed, and then I feel happy asf)

On a little side-tangent, I'm SUPER detached from reality, if that's the right phrase. Everything feels fake and scripted, like some twisted RPG. Things feel and look too complicated to be possible, and other things just feel fake. Idk how to explain it.

My life is shitty. I can't even tell my parents any of this, I don't trust them. My stepdad has the mental maturity of a toddler, and my mom would probably not give me the support I need, and just say "well it's not like I can get you therapy right now" or something like that (or just mention her own issues and not give any advice to mine). But hey, if someone is reading this and has some advice, feel free to say it or whatever lol

This post is getting long, so I'll end it there lol

lowkey considering deleting this lmao

[izzy-b-hands]

12, 15, 34, 46?

Ella!! Thank u for asking 🫂🫂❤️❤️

(also apologies i am stoned and wordy aksndkfgn)

12. Your favourite book

I have a few answers for this one, but narrowed it down to the one I'm saving up to buy a new copy of eventually: Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan.

It's fairly short, and the story subjects/setting are modern and mundane (or at least that's the critique i see leveled at it a lot, tho to me like. That's part of the punch of the entire book, but they can have their opinions, incorrect tho they may be lol), but like. the first time i read it, it just Did Something to me lmao. Part of it was the customer service experience thing, tho different industries (library at the time for me compared to restaurant in the book), and the experience in it of feeling like/having it confirmed that you, as an employee, are continually being handed more and more stress and responsibility for less reward, but you can't just drop it bc you like/tolerate your coworkers, and even on the days they piss you off, you want the best for them. And then the fallout of when a decision comes down from above your level that's shit for everyone, but you're left bearing the brunt of it from coworkers and customers alike. Very relatable, very realistically written to the point it almost makes you squirm.

The characters are all well written and realistic too; you wind up feeling like you could walk into this Lobster right now and talk to all these ppl irl, easily. That makes it just as hard at the ending to say goodbye tbh, and that's given it massive reread value for me (i think since i first read it end of HS I've since managed a reread every year to every other year. I actually accidentally packed away my copy when moving and it's been killing me not being able to do a reread rn, but i want to wait until i can have my own copy to keep again.)

Anyway i think most libraries should have it, and it's not a horribly expensive ebook, so if ur looking for a sign to read Last Night at the Lobster, this is it 🙌❤️🦞

15. Do you remember your last dream

Kind of? Tbh I passed out really hard earlier (still not sleeping amazingly with the back lol) and vaguely recall the weird, fever dreamish stuff my brain was throwing at me. That consisted of what i believe to be, ongoing all at once in the same room:

-a Tom Waits concert, with him holding but not playing an accordion

-a Bob Geldof interview, except it was Bob as he looked in the 90s

-a fire, which everyone who wasn't listening to Tom or Bob were attempting to put out by passing exactly one bucket back and forth to the inexplicable bar sink that sort of appeared and disappeared at will

Everything else was too much of a blur, but those bits really stuck out lmao 😂

34. Something old

I like this question, weirdly enough, bc I'm not one hundred percent sure how to answer it. It's vague, so i think I'm safe to interpret it kinda.. however?

(if i have that wrong tho do pls lemme know, I won't be offended and will re-answer this one if that's the case lol)

In terms of something old, I keep thinking abt my grandparents old house, even tho it's silly to do so (the thing has been sold for months now.)

Thing of it is, as of the last rare phone convo i had with my grandparents, it sounds like they really regret selling. The lack of stairs at the new place is better for their joints but like. They clearly miss the old one, the unique things that made it theirs and familiar.

Grandpa in particular mentioned a few things specific to the house that he misses, but the one that took me out was abt a bit of painted wood in the front doorway. When i was like. 6? 7? old enough to know better but still stupid enough to do it, i wrote my (dead) name on that bit of doorway, in pencil. For whatever reason, they couldn't ever get it to erase much at all, and never painted over it despite talking abt it a lot (they were soooo pissed at me the day i did it and the months after lmao), so it was still there when they sold the house.

And Grandpa tells me he wishes he would have bought some wood scraps, torn out just that bit of the doorway, and then fixed it and repainted it. Says he would have had someone reframe the whole door if needed. He even has a little shelf where he's been putting grandkid related knick knacks, that he'd put it on, apparently.

Couldn't tell him bc emotions and being that vulnerable are difficult for him, so i never want to push when he's opening up to me like that, but goddamn if he didn't make me cry with that, and i wanted to tell him how sweet it was, and that i miss the house too.

I miss that whenever Housemate and i make it back to visit ND, i won't be able to show aer the house i basically grew up in. I won't be able to show off the shed my grandpa built, say hi to Sally (mum's passed on cat from years ago, buried in the backyard with her name carved by grandpa into the wood barrier between the rock/gravel area and the bottom of the shed), lay in the backyard together under the huge tree while we snack and sip drinks (bc grandma doesn't let anyone leave the house without being fed if she can help it.) I won't get to show that spot by the front door, or show all the other million little quirky things that made the house so lovely.

If i have my way, age of the house and my own age at the time be damned, whenever I've made enough money to do it and have plenty left over, I'd love to buy the house myself. Not to live in all the time (jfc absolutely NOT i love the house but not ND lol), but to have for like. Maybe summer trips? there's enough room we could pick up friends in the area and have them come stay in the house too, tbh. I don't like the idea of it sitting empty whenever i wouldn't be there, so maybe I'd offer it to the cousins rent free to share? Take turns staying there, maybe help grandma and grandpa back to see it now and again. Idk. I just always dreamed of buying the dang thing, even if i never wanted to permanently stay in ND (and still v much do not want that, I like CT far better.)

46. Are you excited for anything

A few things rn! Housemate helped me save up enough and is going with me to see Avatar this month, and it'll be my first full show of theirs, and Housemate's first time seeing them at all!! (my first time seeing them they were just opening for Trivium lmao, so it was amazing!! but a bit of a cut down set list/overall thing, u know? didn't stay for Trivium's entire set but they were lovely too!)

We've also got several little weekend trips partially planned out: Mystic, a local flea market, a couple different beaches, getting up to York and over to Newport, plus maybe the big E and the ren faire in the fall!! I don't know if we'll manage all of it over the next few months, but I'm excited for whatever we get to!

Apologies I'm quite toasty so I'm feeling overwhelming positive for once, so i do have more! I sent a job app in to an OD office in the local costco, for a fairly chill seeming reception role, and I'm really hoping they'll want me. It seems a small enough office to be calmer than my old one, and that it's OD only and not an MD/OD office makes me feel a lot better abt it too (eye surgeons are amazing, they can do amazing wonderful things, i am grateful for them all. however. im also 97% sure 5 out of the 10 i know personally could hit me with their car and not blink, the god complex thing some surgeons have gets SO amped with this speciality in my experience, it's WILD, but I digress.)

My back is slowly getting better too (tho I've been humbled again the last few days in the nights and early mornings, it's still very angry at those times), so I'm also just looking forward to like. Being able to move more again. Standing up to do the dishes without my back spasming. Maybe even leaving the house again and doing one of the fun things noted above, tho i know i shouldn't rush it or my back will humble me again without a second thought lmaoooo 😅)

[tired-o-fighter]

So you may wonder

Hey tired

You made so many promises for propagandas

Why didn't you post a single one?

Wellp

I am not exactly in an alrighty ish mental state lmao (nothing bad or tragic or anything just used all my brain energy and I'm running low and can't actually function like a human being lol)

But more importantly

I made the decision to go get my nails done. And because i basically had no actual nails to work with i got poly gel nails annnnnd it's too long. I ACTUALLY CAN'T FUCKING DRAW.

Holding a pencil like i used to is actually not possible but I'm relearning so it'll be alright

But digital? Haha no way. I use my phone and finger for all the digital art you've seen. Guess what when you get long ass nails you can't use your fingertip to touch the screen.

Still haven't had my mental breakdown over this. But for now (the next 20 days) i gotta draw traditionally 90% of the time. Which is what I'm working on. As again, Holding a pencil the way I've been holding for the past like idk 14 years is actually not possible and a tad bit painful when i try to do it by force

I'm actually genuinely sorry for not posting the stuff i promised. Regardless of the results of the polls , I'll post all of them as soon as i can.

Right at this specific moment i have no creativity like none and I'm just trying to figure a way out to prepare for the last day of polls

If you still want something. Whether it's art ask or au questions or anything you'd like to tell me or ask me, my ask box is always open. I'll do my best to answer them. Especially the none art ones

Thanks for reading my rant.

I'll bounce back just gimme a lil bit of time and don't let me isolate myself please

[sixrealmsbeneaththesea]

Horny on main. PSYCHIC DAMAGE.

The rest isn’t actually that bad. Like, I’m just tryna be tame and tasteful starting out lol.

In my journey to attempt smut, I find that… holy shit. The people I’m lurking on Twitter are right, 90% of what you draw is trash…until it isn’t. Of the twenty something things I did, only 3 were like “….ohhhh yee did I do that…ah but shit it’s in pencil.” Apparently no self-respecting artist does any of this shit in pencil, I’m like a damn caveman. Ooga booga oog boog /pencil smash

Watch I swear my ham hyperfixation is mostly gone now, once I start playing FFXVI, imma be up in there. Oh but I also started Disgaea and you know…dragon people. lol Clive and Fuji. And Garudaaaa, my spicy wimdy girl~

[fitgothgirl]

Haven’t been taking good care of myself. I haven’t been to the gym in about 3 weeks, and even then I was just doing strength training about twice a week. No cardio, not enough daily steps, not enough water, diet was really hit or miss. I kept wanting to get things going but had been struggling to take myself any further. And of course my diet is more-so on the “miss” side more recently with the holidays.

I want to use the refreshing new year to get back on track and refocus, as so many do. My bf is in the same mindset - he was saying although 2022 has been good, he doesn’t feel good about having a pretty stagnant year physically and wants to start walking and get back to his Peloton.

I’d also like to get into therapy with the new year. I’ve been wanting it for a while as some of you may know and have struggled in regard to getting something solid due to financials or my insurance. But I now know what my insurance will be next year and I wasn’t required to switch to a shitty plan that I thought I was going to have to take. So now I can call the person my psychiatrist referred me to a couple months ago.

One newer thing is I’ve suddenly gotten super into adult color by number books. I bought one about a week ago and only have one of the 27 pictures left undone. I use Crayola Super Tip markers which I love; it’s so satisfying to just glide it along the edge of a line, and they can be fine or bold. So much more satisfying than colored pencils IMO haha. Almost reminds me of the glide of a paintbrush. And color by number is so much better for me than regular coloring books because with the latter, I stress too much that I’m not picking the “right” color since I’m not really artistic.

Anyway, I’ve ordered 2 more books now, both with over 90 pictures each lol... I get so hyper-focused on them, I swear I almost can’t stop sometimes. But it’s so much better of an activity than rewatching the same shows or taking in toxic shit on the internet. And it’s something to do with my hands, which is really good for me; if I’m just watching or listening to something and my hands aren’t occupied with eating or smoking weed or scrolling on my phone, then they want to be eating or smoking weed or scrolling on my phone... Cross-stitch is also good but a little less mindless and a little harder on my fingers, so I don’t turn to it as easily as this. This is almost becoming a compulsion lol. Definitely worse things in the world though.

[r04ch]

Okaayyy posting my writing heres one I did today to help dialogue.. i usually dont write in this script format but i wanted to try something diff ! Also the descriptions around it dont sound very smooth cuz like IDK but just dont think im a sharty writer cuz of this lol

COD, Otter x Alex, 820 Words

Summary: Its hot af and pool time bonding yahoo also like 2 second trauma dump (gasp!)

It's a hot, humid day on the 141 base. The quarters are empty, the inhabitants instead resorting to the swimming pool outside.

Farah and Kate are chatting in the shallow end, sharing cocktails. Soap, Gaz and Ghost are cannon balling and wrestling in the deeper end, while Price naps in a chair. Alex has just arrived, towel slung over his shoulder and sunglasses protecting his eyes. He spots Otter, who is writing in a journal on a lounge chair, and approaches the man.

Otter is wearing a loose tank top and comfortable board shorts, a pair of sunglasses adorning his face. His hair is put up in a short ponytail, his braid hangs loosely. His knees are slightly pulled up to stay under the safety of the umbrella providing him shade. He sips at a virgin pina colada that Kate made him.

Alex: Thought you were a swimmer?

His tone is playful and light, standing above Otter to block the sun from the latter. Otter looks up at him from under his sunglasses.

Otter: Oh, I am. Im busy right now though. 

Alex: Busy? Its 90 degrees out, what could be making you so busy?

Alex has a appalled expression which pulls a chuckle from Otter.

Otter: You know, stuff and.. things. 

He waves his hand vaguely.

Alex: I don't think I do know, care to explain? 

Otter pushes his sunglasses to sit atop his head, squinting softly at him. Then, he shrugs and pats the end of the chair, pulling his legs up into a criss-crossed sit to make room. Alex complies, taking a seat and leaning over to gaze at Otters journal.

Its a portrait sketch of Farah. Its gorgeous.

Alex: I didn't know you could draw. 

Otter: I have a feeling you don’t know a lot about me, Keller. 

Alex scowls which earns him a hearty laugh. 

Alex: Okay, well why don't you tell me some things?

Otter: Like what?

Alex: How’d you learn to draw like that?

Alex’s index finger lightly taps the page, tilting his head like a curious puppy dog.

Otter: I picked it up when I was younger, it helps me focus. My mother was an artist.

Alex: What did she draw?

Otter: Portraits, too. She had the eye for it, her paintings were phenomenal. I wish I took some.

Alex looked away from the drawing, choosing to instead drink up Otter's features. His round nose, pudgy cheeks, the sharp split in his left eyebrow. The golden brown hue that haloed his iris had him drowning in it. Otter was oblivious to Alex’s current predicament, continuing to shade Farah’s cheek bones.

Alex: Why don't you?

Otter stopped his pencil and bit the inside of his cheek, finally glancing over at Alex. 

Otter: Well, that’d be difficult. They’re all piles of ash now, probably sunken into the earth. 

Alex faltered and gawked for a moment, Otter smiled softly.

Otter: That house burned down a long time ago. I should’ve clarified, sorry. 

His cheeks radiate a pink glow of blush. 

Alex: I didn't know that.

Otter: I know. 

A blanket of tense silence fell between the two, before Otter reached for his drink and took a long sip. Alex memorized the way his lips moved.

Otter: Want to try?

He mistook Alex’s fascination with him for perhaps being thirsty. Alex was grateful for it though.

Alex: Sure

He took the straw and downed the last bit of drink, earning a gasp from Otter as he playfully pushed Alex away from him.

Otter: I know you did NOT just drink it all!

Alex: What? I was thirsty!

Alex laughed while Otter feigned an offended and dramatic expression of shock.

Otter: That is so rude! I cannot believe you!

Alex: Just get another one! 

Otter huffed and rose from the seat, placing his sunglasses back into place over his eyes and giving Alex a half hearted glare while waltzing over to the bar. The former smiled softly. Averting his eyes back down to the page and, nosily, poking through the rest of the journal.

It was full of mostly birds or insects that had messy scribblings besides them like “saw this little guy in Urzikstan” and so forth. He also passed a few rough sketches of Kate, and the resident dog Riley. 

Then he landed on two pages of just him. While most were very rough, hardly even outlined, others were complete with shading. He especially liked the small doodle of him with a mustache 2x the size of his head and a small LOL written beside it. Alex couldn’t help the pride and joy swelling in his chest. Now curious as to when Otter was able to get such accurate references. 

As Otter walked back over, now with two drinks in his hands, Alex quickly flipped the journal back to Farah. Pretending as though he never saw the other pages and instead graciously accepting the mocktail. 

[takoyakitenchou]

hikari’s commission

i have come back from the dead to drop the final chapter (i skipped all the middle ones lol) of renaissance, my totsuki legacies headcanon babies or whatever. feat arato-hayama daughter and nakiri-yukihira daughter mostly

“It’s about time I redesigned Legislation,” Kaede said through the pencil between her teeth, her broad draftbook propped open on her knees. “This looks absolutely horrendous.” She was sitting on the decadent rug in Hikari’s office at Administration wearing boardshorts and one of Hikari’s crop tanks with old sketches of Totsuki’s current Legislation building spread around her.

Hikari sighed resignedly. “So you’ve said.”

Dropping the pencil to her lap, Kaede closed her draftbook and said, “I’ll have blueprints for you by next week. But that’s not important right now. Hikari, what’s wrong?”

“Why would something be wrong?” asked the chef. “Other than the fact that I forgot your 18th fucking birthday two months ago.”

Kaede rolled her eyes. “Since when have you ever remembered my birthday? You’re wearing a shirt with sleeves. There is most definitely something wrong.” She set aside her drafting materials and scooted over next to Hikari. “I know you only called me here to talk. If this was an actual commission, the current fourth seat would’ve contacted me. Did you even tell Eissan that you’re diving into Totsuki’s budget? He’ll go loopy if the monthly statement doesn’t match his record books.”

“Oh, yeah. About that. I’m not really on speaking terms with him right now.”

Kaede blanched. “Eh?”

All traces of her typical badass nature lost to the winds, Hikari rested her head against Kaede’s shoulder. “I broke up with him.” 

Fuck.

There wasn’t anything she could say that would give justice to the overwhelming gravity of the statement, so Kaede pulled Hikari closer and held her in silence for a long while.

“So… you mind telling me what happened?”

“Nothing, actually. I realized I don’t want to narrow my field of vision just because he seems like the right person… right now. What was it you said? Better to break his heart now rather than later when he’s too far in.”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t want Seiya to not be in my life.”

Kaede smiled gently and shifted to face her. They were both cross-legged and their knees were touching. “Of course. But it’s going to take a while for Eissan to realize he can’t call you his girlfriend anymore. You have to give him his grace period. But don’t linger.”

“Of course not,” Hikari replied, leaning back on her elbows. “I don’t change my mind.”

“I know you don’t.”

“I don’t mean to pry, but I just want to know… why did you and Tsukasa break up?”

At this the architect gave Hikari a long look, her heterochromatic eyes suddenly full of recollections. “We were incompatible,” Kaede replied finally, and her voice was clipped.

“You must’ve hurt him pretty bad,” Hikari said, knowing this girl only spoke like that when she was feeling regret.

“Yeah.”

It occurred to Kaede then that she would give up any commission to see Hikari. She’d choose this silver haired chef with a mutant nose over the New York Times, the prime minister of Finland, the governor of California, a thousand awards and infinite accolades. Every day, any day, she would come back for Arato-Hayama Hikari the second she called.

“You’re thinking aloud again,” Hikari chuckled.

“Shut up.”

“Would you really, though?”

“What?”

“Give up your work for me.”

Kaede gave her a look and remained silent for a long moment. “Of course.”

At this, Hikari sat up and leaned forward. “And what if I told you I want you around all the time?”

“Then… I guess I would stay.” 

-

If Kaede had been a chef, tonight would’ve been her gradfest. Following the graduation ceremony in the morning, the legacies of Totsuki’s 90, 91, and 92nd generations were now gathered in the ballroom of Nakiri Mansion with their parents to celebrate the end of another era of jewels at the academy.

Despite their typical inclinations to network and hold court, Kaede and Hikari hovered in the periphery of the area, staying within a few meters of the bar. 

There was something different between them — it was foreign but not unwelcome. Something passionate, vibrant, and utterly charged.

Hikari looked up at Kaede over her champagne flute. She was wrapping up a conversation with Erina and Hisako about designing a building for their first joint venture because seriously what the fuck had taken them so long. Her strawberry blonde hair was tied in a high ponytail, her angular face framed with loose strands. God, her eyes. The light from the chandeliers overhead glanced off those dangerous panes of glass, more electric than lightning. 

“Is it weird,” Hikari asked the three of them once the flow of words had more or less stagnated, “that I find my childhood best friend ridiculously attractive? Like… hella fucking cute?”

Kaede frowned, and for a second Hikari thought she registered a flicker of disappointment in her eyes. “I mean, not really. He’s gorgeous. Isn’t he taken, though?”

“Sorry?”

Erina said, “I thought he was dating Marui Sena.”

“Aren’t you talking about Auden?” Hisako asked.

Hikari shook her head. “I’m not talking about him.”

Kaede finished off her mimosa and gave an eyebrow raise. “Who is this childhood friend? Do I need to interrogate someone to make sure they deserve you?”

“I’ll help,” Hisako put in. “Private Investigator Arato is a little rusty but back in business.”

Without another word, before she could register the fact that everyone — their parents included — was watching them, Hikari leaned in and kissed Yukihira Kaede.

It was a fucking war. Blazing, intense.

And yet it was like the ripples in a pond. Quiet, serene.

Hikari noted with moderate amusement that Kaede was one hell of a good kisser. Whether this was due to her inherited god tongue was up to debate, but she had no time to wonder because it hit her then that Kaede was kissing her back. She set down her flute and swiveled to pin the architect against the bar, threading her fingers through her hair, closing a distance between them that did not exist. It was rare for Arato-Hayama Hikari to be more in tune with her tongue than her nose, but Kaede’s lips were warm and soft, sweet and salty at the same time, rendering everything else insignificant. Spices, mint, champagne.

When they finally came up for air, Kaede’s eyes were glazed over, the flaring purple and amber lights dimmed to a glossy ambience. But then she blinked and her expression cleared, and she commented drily, “I guess no vicious interrogation session?”

Hikari smirked as Kaede placed her glass down with all the acute precision that her occupation demanded.

“Hayama, what if I break your heart?”

“You won’t, Nakiri,” she replied, and then she kissed the architect again, ignoring their mothers’ ecstatic whooping and the congratulatory racket of everyone else in the ballroom. And that was more than enough.

This was the renaissance of emotions they’d tamped down— 

No, that wasn’t it. That wasn’t it at all.

This was genesis.

[theclo4ked1]

iiiIIT'S SUMMER! Well, not quite, but close (enough...) I feel so free, but you know what isn't free? My laptop's storage space, there's a gigabyte and a half left on the C drive right now, but that hinders the performance; it frees its own space so I can put more things, but that's not good since the computer needs those resources to function goodly, or so I've heard.

This is why I am (not) launching a Kickstarter to buy a Faster Stronger Better Gaben- I mean a cooler computer, preferably a desktop tower. Here's a list of perks and things YOU will RECEIVE If you support me:

 

 

...and as a bonus,  

Please (do not) donate! Give to the (not so) needy XP... Alright alright, I was just playin'. I finally caught another break so now I can rest and do other things like: cleaning... AHEM so, some days ago, I made a short post hinting at something I was doing relating to Dora the Explorer, if it wasn't obvious. If you know me, you'd know that show (the first four seasons anyway) is a...pretty significant part of my life, and I look forward to what plans the creators have in store for her future.

Hm, what's that? A reboot on Paramount+? One season has been released? Oh, okay, yeah I'll give it a look- Kathleen Herles returns as a voice? Holy. Miér-coles. Okay real talk, I was gonna watch regardless of if she was gonna come back as a voice, if she would come back at all. I actually just watched the first Paramount+ episode, not the ones pre-released on YouTube, and when I finished watching it, I thought to myself...

Huh. I don't think I learned much of anything.

Maybe the point is to just entertain children, and if that's the case, fine. But in my opinion, that makes this reboot far less interesting. Y'know I wrote this big ass post to the Forum for the franchise's fandom wiki giving a critical look at the reboot, "Dora '24", and comparing it to the original show that I lovingly call "Dora2K" because the show began airing in 2000, but did you know it was being produced in the late '90s? I call them by numbers after "Dora" because the new show is just called "DORA", subtitled "Say Hola to Adventure". Anyways, I'd appreciate if you read it, and gave me your thoughts either here or there. Actually, I found out today that someone wanted to know about a Discord to talk about the show, one that I did want to lead, but wasn't sure how it would go, how to promote it, who would help moderate; the works. Okay okay okay okay, enough pr'amble, (more like mumble lol (could you even call it preamble? i got caught up in things again, im so sorry)) BEHOLD, MY FLOATING MA- *skips cutscene*

This, my guys, gals, and nonbinary pals, is my BIG FUCKING THING! I'm not just referencing the Shadow the Hedgehog Fandub unnecessarily, no, this paper is approximately 4'x6'. "seee~, moy grahn-day" teehee Yes, this is what was brewing at D(ora) ‘n D(rawing). I planned for a cubism kind of drawing, then saw it after it was finished and decided it wasn't exactly cubism, then I was told it looked like cubism, so ultimately... It'S iS CuBiSm!!! I didn't explain it before, but the drawing takes from that scene from the live-action movie where Dora's cutting a GOT damn rug at the high school dance. She dances in a style that mimics animals from the rainforest, but the thing about that scene is that it's just Dora on the floor-a. Everybody else is by the wall, not on the dance floor at all because it's an awkward event, as any school would have it. I call this piece "Disco Dorka: Inspiring Sunshine", but I shortened it to the subtitle when sharing it with peers. "Inspiring", because the whole scene with Dora just being herself, not giving a damn (though I can't remember if she knew the other students were making fun of her right there) is inspiring to me. "Sunshine" comes from the sun costume Dora wore because it was a solar system-themed school dance. You may have noticed this is an ink drawing as opposed to my pencil or a digital drawings. A month or two ago, I was introduced to ink, and of course, that changed my life. I wholeheartedly adore ink, THIS is what I needed, it's a digital exclusive thing I can achieve only on a computer screen; it flows, it can make thick black lines THATS LIKE MY FAVORITE THING IN THE WHOLE WORLD but its messy but like OMG WHO. DA HELL. CARES?

Being introduced to ink really helped me to find myself, artistically, and my, is it freeing to know what I can do; what kinda potential I had. I apologize if it sounds like I'm bragging, but I think maybe it shows that finding out exactly what you're made of requires you to go outta your zone. Not your comfort zone, just what you know. Explore. (oh my god thats dora's whole thing, wtf why does it loop back) Last thing I wanna bring up is the text. I was told by peers that adding text is something that defines my ink style, it makes it mine. Probably not unique, I shouldn't have to say "i KnOw I'm NoT tHe FiRsT", but I know. I'mnotthefirstHAHA The text references Season 3 and parts of 4 of "Dora2K", y'know, the stars that Dora and Boots caught like Pokémon? It confuses me, do the stars travel from Star Mountain and are returned there from a wormhole in the Star Pocket, or is the Star Mountain in the pocket a pocket dimension, or OUGH! MY HEAD. The movie, as far as I know, makes no reference to this. I thought of writing REACH FOR THE STARS but then I was like "nah that's Sonic, this is about Dora now change it" and so i did. Ah, that's all I wanna say about my cool thing. These last four months have certainly been a trip, but now you can expect MORE ART probably. I'd get back to playing Sonic Mania (which is apparently bad now??) but I'm too tired...zzzzzzz... zzzz- oh yeah thanks for reading... z.....zzzz......zzzzzzz.......

[sonicenvy]

feeling very good about my little organizing and cleaning project tonight. So my parents have all of their pencils, pens, markers, basic in house tools (tape measure, screwdrivers, pliers, wrench), and cutting tools (box knives, x-acto blades, scissors and flat blades) in these old baby formula jars (from the 90s, when I was a baby lol) in their cabinets. The labels on them were very old and misleading, literally every single pencil was not sharpened, there were many garbage pens/markers and some of the cutting tools were separated from their covers.

So tonight I decided to sharpen all, like, 100 pencils, test all of the markers and pens, and clean out the tools bins. That done, (and weird blisters acquired from the manual pencil sharpener we have) I decided to make new labels for the jars. Since my handwriting looks horrible when enlarged, I instead opted to make these in photoshop. I used a font called "Routed Gothic", which is a Leroy Letterer font that looks very much like my dad's actual "I'm a former draftsman" print handwriting. (He was a top Leroy Letterer back in the day apparently, and now his handwriting is just Like That™ and, in all caps all the time 😂). I picked this so that they at least somewhat matched all the other labels on everything else in the house that are handwritten by dad.

For the labels, I gave them a 30px solid squared corner black border, made them around 2" x 5.5" (in) and affixed them to the can with double sided tape on the back and packing tape on top to laminate/seal them. They look very nice now. It's the simple things making me happy this week lol.

Side note about old pens that is a LPT from yours truly:

If you have an old pen that is not working, sometimes the tip is simply crusted in dried pen ink, which can be easily removed with a paper towel saturated with isopropyl alcohol (aka rubbing alcohol). It re-wets and removes the old ink (and, secondary side note, can remove sharpie and ink pen ink from surfaces like plastic and vinyl) leaving the pen once again usable! huzzah!

Anyhow, labelling things makes me happy. I love the label maker at my job and I love designing and printing labels for shit at home. Satisfying organization tool, right up there with The Perfect Box™ for the thing you're putting away right now. Organization is a happy place, most of the time, especially when it's not my shit lmaooooooo