#it's probably one of the most cool colorful and pretty things i've ever done

[evgar]

they'll be kissing once they stop being chased don't worry!

[canadianno]

TCOLC AU Bishop refs!

They're done holy FUCK. The art here is kind of old, so some of the proportions are a little wrong, but I don't really mind all that much. 15 hours and 89 layers later, all 5 bishops are done. On one canvas because... I didn't wanna make new ones I'm ngl.

Each bishop has an everyday outfit and a crusade outfit! If you're drawing them at any point (now or in the future) and you have questions about the designs, don't be scared to send an ask my way, I'm always happy to clarify stuff.

(Note: I would greatly appreciate it if people didn't make suggestive jokes surrounding any of the designs, I'm not comfortable with them! Love yall <3)

Ramblings below! Edited note: tumblr likes to completely break my posts when I add a cut sometimes, which happened here, so I'm not gonna put one in hopes that it doesn't kill my formatting again. Hopefully it automatically "read more"s this post. If it doesn't I'm very sorry 🙏

🌿 Leshy: It's to be noted that my Leshy is transmasc, literally just because I think he deserves it, it's cool as fuck. I really wanted to give him the classic top-surgery scars because, I'll be honest, they're fun to draw, but I had to find a reasonable explanation for it because he's not a mammal. Anyway that's how I ended up with an entire evolutionary explanation for why he would have those. I will never be given the chance to explain it in the fic ever, so it shall just be random information I have forever. I love him he's silly.

🍄 Heket: While I am a big supporter of tomboy Heket, I also think she deserves to be cool and wear pretty frills whenever the fuck she wants. She's awesome and her shirt is supposed to look like a mushroom. It's also worth noting that the crosses on the bishops heads are specific, with Heket having two crosses with double prongs. She has them like this in-game and there's probably a cooler explanation for it but. I have my own silly headcanons bc I do what I want! Also, since I can't decide for the fucking life of me if she's a toad or a frog, I've decided she's just. Both. Both of them. Her mom was a frog her dad was a toad. Is this possible irl? No but COTL is a fantasy world I do whatever the fuck I want.

🌑 Narinder: Main thing I note for Narinder is that he has distinct facial markings, you just have to look closely. Another note is that his clothes have a repeating cloud motif because of the fog in the gateway- which, trust, it was his own idea. Lamb doesn't know why he chose it but they're not gonna argue. Narinders' main robes are made of wool, but his crusade outfit is made of cotton so it's easier to repair if damaged. His crusade outfit has the Big Pants because he's mostly gotta fight with his feet now, since most of the time his hands don't function reliably enough to hold a weapon.

🪸 Kallamar: Kallamar is funny to me because he's the only one here who's plantigrade, meaning he's got human-esque legs. Another notable design aspect is that he has a tail, when squids do Not Normally Have Those. That's because my Kallamar isn't fully a squid, and you can kinda sorta blame my mutual for that. Not really it's me who gave him the tail. Anyway, no matter how you draw him or what outfit he's in those 3 dark red jewels on the golden chain thing gotta be on him somewhere- they're sentimental to him. He usually wears them as a crown, but in the crusade outfit they're around his neck to be safer. Also, on the crusade outfit, he has stolen a set of Shamuras gloves. Brat little brother <3

🔮 Shamura: Their main outfit really closely resembles their bishop robes and that is intentional! They made the robes themselves, and it would've been close to an exact match had the Lamb banned them from using golden colored cloth. This is only partially because Lamb doesn't like them, but also because they don't want the bishops trying to start a mutiny, and walking around in bishop robes is a pretty easy way to collect weaker followers like flies. Shamuras' crusade outfit is also pretty unique compared to the others, and one of two reasons is that it's meant to resemble their old crusade outfits when they were younger. The second reason is that they look really cool. The outfit is designed for mobility, mostly, and before you say anything, the hip windows are because Shamura usually holds close range weaponry in the second set of arms and hates the way they snag on fabric when its there.

[hiraunia]

With the final chapter of TCWKTM by @crinklytinfoil upcoming I have decided to celebrate with more doodles. YAY!

(Did I say upcoming, I meant release. Apperently I posted this 3 minutes after the last chapter updated)

I don't know why I have decided that Shrike always wears those night vision goggles(?) now but they look cool at least(GOD I LOVE THEM).

I think I've finally gotten a hang of Dani's hairstyle for my design which is a blessing because in order from the easiest to hardest hair texture to draw is Coily>Straight>Locs>Wavy>Braids>Curly with a jump of times 4 from braids to curly(My hubris for giving Cyan short curly hair has and will continue to keep biting me in the ass).

Speaking of Cyan, I've also updated him. He always has eye bags now cause he feels tired now, more so than the start of the fic at least. Since, unless I've missed something, he's still wearing Black's suit I felt I should make it a part of his outfit. One of the issues I was having when I drew him though was that we still call him Cyan but he wasn't wearing cyan anymore which is an issue when I read the story but when I drew him it just felt odd. My solution to that hangup of mine was to keep the suit and belt black’s but give him the gloves and boots so there's at least some cyan still on him since I don't think it was ever stated that Johnny cut those off, there wouldn't be a reason to and they would fit him better than Johnny's anyways. He also isn’t wearing his backpack thing or helmet(not that I ever drew anyone with theirs anyways) since I figured they probably lost it or some shit. In this pic no one is wearing theirs but that’s just because I wanted them to look like they were chilling, Cyan straight up doesn’t have his.

Funnily enough this is the one that took the least amount of time to make, I started it yesterday and finished it like now though I do attribute that to a stroke of sudden inspiration that I was able to draw in my sketchbook so honestly most of the work was the coloring.

Drawing these guys just kinda being silly is so fun it's unfair, especially Purple. This man has done so much bullshit, I should shoot him on sight but the moment I pick up my pen he appears, the motherfucker! A pretty fun aspect of these purple are, as you can see, he's using Grey's skin. While I'm pretty sure in the story he looks the exact same I figured it would be more fun for drawing purposes to mix the two of them together to create some distinction rather than just drawing Grey with a purple suit.

My design for Grey had him as average height but more stout(at least comparatively for my artstyle) while Purple was a little more scrawny and tall which worked well for what I wanted to do. His bangs are center parted when Grey's bangs are gathered in the center. Also I drew their expressions differently, when it's Purple I draw his more bitter/sour, I decided that most of his expressions are squinty and tend to furrow the brows while Grey's are more, I'm not sure how to put it, genuine?

As you can probably tell I really enjoy trying to come up with the character's designs myself but I know when to throw in the towel and admit someone did better than me. I tried to come up with a design for Olive/Finch myself but I just could not come up with one I liked even equally let alone more than @krysmcscience 's design. They really captured their energy well so I’m just using theirs.

Ayy, I drew my take on good old Johnny boy. I think I did a pretty good job making him look older without him becoming a mass of wrinkles.

Drawing Flayer's ship was pretty fun, I've been trying to draw backgrounds and objects more so it was good practice. We obviously don't know what it actually looks like yet other than it is made of flesh and metal so I definitely had to just make shit up. For these bitches sake I hope it's bigger than what I designed because it is going to suck otherwise. Just as I'm typing this I kinda already wanna redesign it though.

I went for something more simple based of the premise that ships are complicated and difficult to make; the whole thing is kinda supposed to look like the flesh is doing a lot of the work to keep it together to compensate for a lack of technical knowledge and skill but just now I remembered that Flayer was the head of the mechanics so she almost certainly has more than enough knowledge and experience to make a good ship on her own even without the flesh. Oh well, I can redesign it when we learn more. I'm keeping its face though, the face was a completely but incredibly happy accident.

Also, I find it interesting that the Imposter’s missions are usually about them destroying biomechanical technology but one of Flayer's named imposter abilities is to use her genetic material to create machinery that fuses artificial and organic material.

Bounus Doodles!

I'm pretty sure these were all drawn sometime before the new year but they were all I had and I didn't want to post one image of doodles so enjoy them now.

While I am still proud of Brown and Devon making out I think my favorite doodle here is Cyan and his judgmental ass face. Why is he staring at Finch like, he is not in any position to but judging like that.

I also borrowed Kry's designs for Red and Umber, I couldn't help myself for Umber, it was just too perfect!

Not sure how I feel about my take on Skeld!White(Finnegan I CANT-). I'm not sure if it's just I'm so used to seeing Kry's design that anything else feels weird or just that I made him too baby faced and princessy. I tend to draw men that are very pretty and feminine so I think I went overboard when I tried my hand since he was usually described similar to how I would normally design a man.

[vacantgodling]

I figured I should send you an ask instead of spamming your notifications: I saw the word "cyberwestern" and almost lost my entire mind. Graves and Dove are so interesting. Can I get an infodump on the project? What inspired it and how it's coming along, etc. The more details you can give on What Their Fucking Problem Is, the better. Thank you :>

honestly i am totally down with notif spam so if you still want to after i talk your ear off, HAVE AT IT :DD

so i did kinda do a mini info dump centering around graves like 20 minutes ago -> here but i figure a more... organized answer should be in order!

inspiration

what inspired the graves we dug is currently hard for me to remember. i think i mainly just wanted cowboy ocs? and one of my friends (@/nonsensical-pendulum) has an oc named 'graves' and the name sort of got stuck in my head because i thought it was Cool. and then, for once (this is a rarity for me) the title came pretty quickly after the graves we dug. and i didn't know what it was about for a bit, just that there were cowboys, a mc named graves, and they were digging holes... apparently. and then slowly from there things started to fall into place. unlike a lot of my other wips i feel like tgwd has a bit of a hard to pinpoint starting point, but i also think that's bc a lot of the stuff i had relating to its origins began on the blog i used to have in 2021, but then i deleted it entirely so all of that is lost now LOL

when it came to making it a cyberwestern itself, honestly i saw some cyberwestern style art with cowboys in citypop color schemes and i was like YEAHHHHHHH YEAHHHHHH. so i thought it'd be cool to go cyber instead of a traditional western lol.

how its going

so i'mma be straight up, tgwd is on my secondary wips bracket. if you look at my big ol wip list here it kinda breaks it all down, but those on my secondary list are ones where i enjoy working on them but they just don't have the same level of brainrot status as those at the top of my mind--namely paramour and btaf have taken those spots in the past couple of years. so usually how it goes with any of my secondary wips is i'll just be vibing, suddenly think about an aspect of it, think about it for a bit and then perhaps have a bit of a frenzy where i build on it, and then i end up deflecting back to my major ideals lol. so rn (at least for the past hour) i've been thinking about tgwd and getting asks is kinda an excuse to keep focus and work on it. i'll probably end up defecting back to my usual haunts in a few days.

THIS BEING SAID i have written some things for it which i shall get into momentarily

but what's going on?

so basically here's a mini timeline/play by play of what's happening that leads up to the beginning of the wip

firstly, the land is kind of a perpetual night; the sun on this world (haven't decided if its another planet or smthn yet) is pretty dim and so cities and fluorescent lights are the main lightsources of the world. there is also an 'artificial moon' but tbh idk what that means rn.

GRAVES in his early 20s leaves the ranch where he grew up to make a life for himself in the closest city called Rapture. Rapture is a city of glitz and glamor, run by crime lords and greed. he ends up entering "the organization" (it doesn't have a name yet) as an armed hire and gets hired out on different hits by different vendors to do their bidding (which is usually taking out their grudges on other crime lords. the organization has a strict neutrality policy that most everyone respects--if you have enough money for a hit, it'll be done, or you better hire some better guards).

to aid in the ever growing violence in the city, somehow someway the organization develops a special ops unit for their largest jobs, which includes an injection of a serum which manifests certain abilities in their best agents. graves, and his new acquaintance TOMB become some of the first to experience the serum, and this ends with graves gaining a black glow around his feet and an ability to walk silently and through solid objects, and tomb gaining an ability where his mouth glows orange (i haven't decided what it is, but i do know unlike graves or dove, he can't turn his ability off).

the two do solo jobs for awhile, until the organization decides that they need mentors to train new recruits that use the serum and this is how graves ends up meeting DOVE--a former opera star who's ability glows green centered around his eyes. they sort of hit it off immediately, and though tomb warns graves about getting too attached but graves can't really help it. he and dove get. attached.

a few years like this go by, and then the organization gets a huge hit--to take place at one of the biggest centers of crime, a club modeled like an old state building called The Rome, towards the epicenter of Rapture. the organization puts its best agents: graves and tomb, and their two rapidly trustworthy mentees: dove and dawn (tomb's mentee). the situation quickly goes south when their plot for assassination is discovered, and in an effort to save the mission, graves makes well--a grave mistake, and ends up trying to take down the target. unfortunately, the shot misses and ends up hitting dove instead. an explosion goes off afterward, and tomb and graves barely escape with their lives. dawn and dove are presumed dead.

while tomb compartmentalizes and continues on with his work, graves breaks down. and in his grief, he decides to defect from the organization without getting permission first. (after the mission at the rome, graves and dove did get permission to retire, but since the job wasn't done they aren't allowed to leave) since he was also pretty high up, he also has trade secrets and they couldn't just let him go and be a loose canon like that. its easier that if he's not going to comply, that he be dead--and so they send the one person who can catch him after him: tomb. tomb's taking his time, but he's also doing what has to be done.

the whole thing however turns upside down again when dove comes "back" from the grave. he's alive! very much not dead! and from what i'm comfortable sharing at the moment is yes, he was harmed by what happened but he's still very much alive and is ready to make good on their promise: to retire. and if he has to drag graves into making it happen then so be it.

what's written thus far

the official chapter 1 -> the start of the rapture

beginning of chapter 2 -> you're supposed to be dead

i want what you want (or they try talking about it, doesn't work, sleep together to create more problems instead)

do you trust me? (or, dove lets out some of his aggression at a very kicked puppy graves LMAO)

and yeah -- i think that's the most info i got right now! there's a lot of stuff i got to figure out an outline as well. BUT yeah i hope this was helpful :3c

[circusjuney]

10 random facts about me!!!

thank you sm @flovoid for the tag my friend!!!!! <3

i am a singer!!! i grew up singing my entire life, and it's actually my dream to make at least one album. idk if i'll make multiple but i really want to make just one. probably some sort of rock album

i'm a horror freak through and through. i mostly only watch horror movies and tbh for a while i've wanted to try my hand at some horror sims content but i didn't want to make anything that might scare people off ghfdsg. btw my fav horror series are the v/h/s series and terrifier (except all hallows eve srry damien) ✌️

my favorite bands are system of a down, deftones, pierce the veil, mcr, radiohead, and i have another one but tbh i'm too embarrassed to admit it on the internet <3

bugs are a special interest of mine and i just enrolled in a zoology course at my uni to hopefully learn more about them :,) learning on my own is hard tbh because there is a LOT of misinformation about bugs on the internet so i wanted to properly learn in a school environment and i hope to someday work with insects!! bugs!!!! yesss!!!

i love clowns... this one kind of ties in with the horror fact tbh because i mostly love scary horror clowns!!!! they're just so fucking cool to me idk!!! literally some of my favorite horror movies ever are clown related like terrifier and killer klowns from outer space. also the luna clown from scooby doo can hmu whenever i'm free everyday

my username is circusjuney mostly just because i love clowns but also because of circus baby from fnaf!!! fnaf is another special interest of mine and i wanted a username that tied in some of my interests like that. however i've thought about changing it bc some people call me circus instead of my name 😭

my favorite color is orange bc it's the color of pumpkins and autumn leaves and halloween and it's all my favorite things! :,)

i am lowkey a musical theater lover but i really mostly love random songs from diff musicals and haven't had the chance to go through most shows all the way through except for waitress (my fav) and hamilton which i unfortunately can recite the entirety of 😔 in my final 2 years of high school i joined a performing arts program and spent half of everyday at a different school taking theater classes!! i joined the tech crew towards the end bc being forced to perform was doing numbers on me mentally 😝

my fav food is a breakfast sandwich <3 gimme a bagel or a brioche bun with some bacon and eggs and cheese and other fun stuff.......... eating that makes my hearts go up like in minecraft

and lastly um... idk...... i'm running out of facts........ the last fact is that............ ily <3 <3 <3 i am a pretty sappy person tbh and i have so much love in my heart it kinda hurts sometimes <3 <3 <3 so i'm giving it to you now so that it hurts less <3 <3

now im tagging @butteredfrogs @living-undead @youredreamingofroo @zleepyhollow @blueyjoy @mmonetsims @kuroashims if you've done this already or don't wanna just ignore!!!

also i feel so bad i have not been keeping up on tumblr at all bc i wake up play minecraft and go back to bed it's bad fhjdskgdasklgkdfj so sorry for my inactivity <3 <3 <3

[lorbanery]

I am a Sally Hansen hater. They put out some very cute nail polishes, but I've personally never met a Sally Hansen nail polish that ever actually dried.

But I saw these cute ass press on nails and I wanted a set for some photos I'm getting done and these were perfect. So I figured, what the hell? It's just plastic and super glue, even THEY couldn't fuck that up.

FORESHADOWING

Now, I've been applying press-ons all Pride month — this is my fourth set and third brand. So let's get it out of the way now: When I say these were a pain in the ass to get on? It's not just a skill issue. I know how to apply press-ons properly, I still consult the directions every time, and I've had a good amount of recent practice.

First things first, they call these "almond shaped", which you might agree with based on that top-down photo. But consider this from another angle:

Now, I don't have anything against claw nails. It's a very cool maximalist aesthetic that allows for a lot of artistic and style expression; and, let's be honest, it's a style that was created by Black women and femmes and the dislike of those kinds of nails is deeply rooted in misogynoir (that particular combination of sexism and racism that Black women experience). Besides, it's just created by the natural curve of the nail (or at least the curve of the false nails recreating the curve of the natural nail). But USUALLY you don't get that real claw look for AT LEAST another inch. I don't know why they have this extreme curve. For that matter, going back to the "almond shape"? Almonds aren't concave like the edge of these nails!

I know that's hard to achieve a perfect almond shape when you're doing it yourself. But I'm 87% sure these are molded, and also you are a MASSIVE manufacturer. You can afford to make nails that are ACTUALLY almond-shaped and not have this weird angle and concave edge that makes it look like I'm cosplaying an iguana.

Moving on. I have used press-on nails since the days you could only get semi-opaque white nails in square or oval shapes that required you to nail polish them yourself. I have NEVER found a press-on that was this cheap, flimsy plastic. Below are two comparison photos to show you how much they bend.

Onto the actual application. It is normal for some glue to seep out at the edges of the nail. It's even normal that, occasionally, your pressing down finger will get stuck to the press-on while the press-on didn't get stuck to your nail. But it happened for 8 out of 10 of these nails. All but the thumbs got a healthy, ugly coating of nail glue while I struggled through multiple attempts to get the press-ons to actually STICK TO MY NAIL.

Now, I will give SH this: I was able to wipe some acetone nail polish remover over them to remove most of the glue without straight up melting the plastic, or even losing the shiny finish. Which was inconceivable twenty years ago. I'm pretty sure that's one of the many reasons they started manufacturing them with colors and designs already on the nails. Because if you made a mistake while you were painting them yourself there was a high probability that the only remover you had on hand was acetone-based, so you were SOL.

So credit where credit is due, not only did these not melt, not only did they not lose their shine, I don't even see any evidence the design was affected in any way.

On the other hand I've never had this much leakage. Like, it was so bad that I, someone who had previously been under the impression that acetone was still a no-no for press-ons, broke out the acetone remover. And you can still see some of the leftover glue residue.

These nails are more expensive than Kiss nails but infinitely worse quality.

I guess we'll see how long the glue actually lasts, but I'm not holding my breath. I still have some leftover Kiss glue I could use instead, but honestly their glue is pretty shit too. Like not as bad as SH, but once the press-ons have lifted/popped off once, you'll get maybe a day out of the new glue application before they lift/pop off again. I wish I still had the OPI glue to use, but by the time I got frustrated enough with the Kiss glue, the OPI glue had leaked out and coated the whole applicator tip in semi-cured nail glue.

Anyway fuck Sally Hansen.

[elfyourmother]

Do you consider yourself a lore breaking, lore bending or lore adhering roleplayer? Does this adherence to lore depend on the kind of lore you're exploring with your characters; i.e. you play fast and loose with ideas xiv has yet to develop, but you tend to pay close attention to the fleshed out ideals? Is there lore you have modified that you're proud of and would share here?

I view lore as a starting point for me to jump off from and make my own. Always have.

I find strict adherence to game canon for its own sake creatively suffocating and always have, in every setting I've ever written in. It’s pretty much entirely because I grew up on DMing and writing in Forgotten Realms, which took a very DIY approach back in the day that was heavily encouraged by its creator. Everyone's Realms were equally valid, according to Word of God, and there were often intentional "blanks" left in sourcebooks for the DM to fill. These books emphasized over and over again that the DM was the ultimate authority on canon, not TPTB or the novels or anything else. That philosophy has informed my approach to worldbuilding in the transformative fandom sense for the last 30 years. That and being a queer Black femme of color who is very rarely satisfied by canon narratives rife w racially problematic tropes. I change things to make a space for myself and my characters and the stories I want to tell, by necessity. FFXIV is no different in that respect.

That said, I don't smash SE canon just to smash it either. Despite how bonkershits a lot of Gisèle's canon appears on the surface (eg. post-war Ishgard's constitutional monarchy with King Aymeric), everything I change has been carefully considered and engineered for as much internal consistency as possible. As much as I operate on Rule of Cool, I need things to make sense for me to have fun.

But I am distinctly not a roleplayer, for this and many other reasons. I'm strictly a fic writer, and I don't ever collab with people. The world Gisèle operates in is constructed entirely for her, and my own enjoyment, by design. So no one is forced to deal with my stuff if they don't like it.

That said, King Aymeric is probably the lore I’m most proud of. I wrote a ficlet for ffxivwrite last year on it here, but the cliffs notes: Aymeric invoked the ancient covenant between man and dragon when begging Hraesvelgr’s aid against Nidhogg and vowed he would restore it, but Hraes said that because that covenant was broken by an Elezen king, only an Elezen king could restore it. Hraes was wily though, it wasn’t just upholding weird draconic custom in saying that. His ulterior motive was to make Aymeric guarantee his people would be united enough not to turn on the Dravanians once Nid was handled. the end result is that Aymeric restored the Ishgardian throne (“The Azure Throne”, as a nod to Haldrath), but as a largely unifying figurehead/ceremonial position with Parliament strictly defining the role of the king. Artoirel is Lord Speaker of the House of Lords. Aymeric’s still LC of the temple knights in addition to his royal duties. He wasn’t giving that up lol.

making a constitutional monarchy plausible in the context of the story was challenging and I think I’ve done a solid job of it tbh. I wanted to lean into the Arthurian romance vibes of HW but also solve the fundamental problem I had w how it ended, which is that I don’t think it’s a terribly realistic scenario for ppl who were under a theocracy for 1000 years. Aymeric essentially having his hand forced by Hraesvelgr solves the issue of why he would restore the throne and tbh I don’t flinch from the complications of squaring that with the revelations about Ishgard’s founding, I think it only plays more into Aymeric’s ambivalence about the role he’s been thrust into.

[hazely-sims]

Get to Know Me - Sims Edition

I was tagged by @papermint-airplane and @petrolstationflowers! Thank youuuu 🧡

What’s your favorite Sims death?

I generally don't allow my sims to die of anything but old age, but I would like to try out all the different deaths and ghosts at some point. The haunting curse ghost looks especially cool.

Alpha CC or MaxisMatch?

A mix of both? I tend to use Maxis-type clothes and furniture with textured patterns. I like most of my stuff to be fairly gameplay-friendly as well and it bothers me when there's clipping with sims animations so I don't use too many alpha clothes.

Do you cheat your sims weight?

Not generally, but I find that most EA sims are just very skinny? I had the pregnancy weight-gain mod installed, but the results were so extreme that I removed it and cheated the weight myself.

Do you move objects?

I mainly use it for storytelling, but is it even possible to play this game without using move objects sometimes?

Favorite Mod?

What an impossible question! If I had to choose one mod I can't live without, it'd be NRaas MasterController, but in terms of gameplay mods, I'm really enjoying adding new recipes and harvestables to my game these days. That's a lot of different mods together, so maybe I'm cheating a bit with that answer, haha.

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack?

The first sims game I was ever able to successfully install was Sims 2 and I think it was a "Deluxe" package that came with Nightlife? I don't remember what my first pack was for Sims 3. Maybe Late Night as well?

Do you pronounce live mode like aLIVE or LIVing

It's an adjective, isn't it? Like 'alive.' Listen, I get that it's probably supposed to be the other one, since they have some weird theme of using verbs as adjectives. But 'live' is already an adjective, so no-one is going to say it that way.

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

How can I choose just one?? I do obviously love Rose a lot. She's adorable.

Have you made a simself?

Oh yes. Honestly I'm shocked so many of you don't. I automatically insert myself into every fantasy hahaha I am very self-absorbed.

Which is your favorite EA hair color?

I don't even really remember which ones there are as defaults in Sims 3? I don't particularly love any of them.

Favorite EA hair?

Hmmm I enjoy the long male hair from Supernatural, especially on beardy men. And I also really like the 'modern braids' female hair from the store.

Favorite life stage?

Like most people, it's YA, sorry.

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

Definitely gameplay. I am trying to be a bit better at building, but it's such a slog.

Are you a CC creator?

I have dabbled, so I suppose, technically yes.

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad?

I don't know about a 'squad' but I'm pretty sure I have friends. I don't discord or anything, so if we're commenting on each other's posts, then I consider us friends? Hopefully that's okay lol

Do you have any sims merch?

No, is that like a thing?

Do you have a YouTube for sims?

No, I have no interest in trying to play the game in a way that's entertaining for other people. I do that the rest of the day; sims time is just for me.

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing?

I've put a lot more effort into aesthetics recently. Setting things up takes more time but I get a lot more enjoyment out of the game once it's done.

What’s your origin id?

I guess I probably have made one at some point but I have no idea what it is and I don't think I've ever used it. It's also just as likely that I actually don't have one.

Who’s your favorite CC creator?

So many impossible questions 😭 There's no way I can choose only one, but these days I'm always eagerly anticipating posts from @nightospheresims, @sim-songs, and @nectar-cellar.

How long have you had simblr?

It's complicated, haha! I had a simblr way back in... 2011-2012-ish? It was a messy time on simblr and in my life so I was never really able to develop a healthy relationship with it and I eventually deleted my blog after being inactive for a long time. Then after continuing my legacy story just for myself at a snail's pace for about a decade, I decided it was time to share with y'all again, and I opened this blog in October 2021.

How do you edit your pictures?

Reshade is first, and if a shot is taken outdoors and it's for a gameplay post, then sometimes that's it. If it's a bit darker than I'd like, I might apply all or part of this action using Photopea. Sometimes even more than once if it's really dark.

If it's a storytelling shot, I'll then also do manual debanding by selecting an area, copying it to a new layer, applying a gaussian blur, and then erasing around the edges to clean it up. It's tedious but also relaxing? And very satisfying in the end.

What expansion/ gamepack is your favorite?

Sims 3 has so many bangers but I love Ambitions a lot even though it's a glitchy mess sometimes. It's just so much fun.

I am never totally sure who's done this but I'll tag @pudding-parade, @echoweaver, @oasislandingresident and @frostedshore. No pressure of course! 🧡

[shynmighty]

#12 - Be honest, how many outfit tabs do they have? And #13 - Let’s see those outfits! Which of the outfits is their main outfit and why?

Oooh we're diving into Aeony's wardrobe for this one!

(From these asks)

Pic of Aeony because I love her!! 🥰

Sooo...this is gonna be long so I'm just gonna go ahead and...

12. Be honest, how many outfit tabs do they have?

The short answer is 10. But we're being honest here, so...honestly... some of those slots have been replaced over time. Going by the number of outfits she's had historically, she probably had closer to 15 or 16 outfits. Some of them were pretty awful and I feel bad for disrespecting my baby like that. I've had Aeony the longest of my current characters, so I've done the most tinkering on her.

13. Let's see those outfits!

So... A bit of a disclaimer about Aeony's wardrobe. It's very much a work in progress. I first designed Aeony during the DARK TIMES (ie...before Arcann was an available love interest) and my concept for her was "Make a character so I can pretend to romance Arcann." I won't get into detail about her characterization because this post isn't about that, but my concept for her aesthetic was "Matchy Matchy with Arcann." So I decided early on that her colors would be either white, or white and gray (and this kinda spilled over to the rest of my legacy). And I wanted to avoid going totally matchy matchy by using Thexan's robes. Thus...the great adventure to find Aeony the perfect outfit began!

So without further ado, here are the outfits I have collected for her over the years!

This one was an attempt to give Aeony a Zakuul aesthetic, but...eh. I wasn't jazzed about it. I hardly ever use it, and to be honest...I kinda forget it's even there.

This is an EARLY outfit, and Aeony did wear this for a hot minute back during her first run of KotFE/ET. She hasn't returned to it since the time before stamping your weapon was a thing, so her gear lightsaber is showing! I actually kind of like this look, but for some reason it doesn't click as her MAIN outfit.

Aeony actually wore this for a looooong time, but didn't accomplish anything in the story. It's a nice outfit, but for some reason it's also just not clicking for me.

I actually thought this would be her main outfit, but I think it's a bit too rugged and doesn't QUITE mesh with her personality.

This is the closest I've come to finding THE ONE TRUE OUTFIT. I love love love this set, and it looks amazing dyed white, BUT....

See, here's the back. The black is un-dye-able. Booooo. It looks kinda cool, but doesn't match Aeony's carefully crafted aesthetic. So I thought to myself, maaaaybe I can make it work if I fuck around with it?

Here's my attempt to fuck around and find out... it looks okay, but it probably would look better with a black & white dye...and that's not Aeony. It's a bummer, because from the front I think it's actually decent. But I'll be seeing it mostly from the back. And I can't handle the un-dye-able black. I CANNOT. *stamps foot*

This is Aeony's OLDEST outfit, which she completed most of her class story with. You can tell it's old because Aeony was in her pointy headdress era. I like this outfit. But it belongs to a bygone era...Aeony has moved on!

Another oldie but a goodie....Satele's set! I think I ditched this look because at the time EVERYONE else was wearing it. Including Satele. One of them had to change, so I decided it would be Aeony...and then Satele changed her outfit 😂

Getting near the end now! I love this outfit. It's probably the closest I've come to finding Aeony's signature "look"...but I dunno. Something is keeping me on the fence about it.

I using this armor currently...and so is everyone else...but it's a good placeholder, I think. The search for Aeony's perfect outfit is eternal and ongoing. But the outfit of my dreams is out there, I just know it!!!

And those are her outfits! This was such a fun ask, thank you so much!!! 🥰

[dragonsoftheeast]

i was tagged by @stannisfactions! You're so cool, thanks for thinking of me.

How many works do you have on AO3?

29. I really wanna bring it up to an even 30 tho.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

220,728

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Hotd right now, though sometimes I think about adding more to Glory and Gore, my vikings AU

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Fire Made Flesh, Colors in the Night Sky, Millenia, second son, not born but raised

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to! Sometimes I take a while, but I'm always ready to talk about my stories! And I love to hide loads of internal references and wordplay in what I write, so when people pick up on them, I get so excited! I also like to hear how people are thinking about characters and if anything's affected them!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Definitely Heart Strings gah. Fire Made Flesh may rival it when it's done tho, since it still is the story of the Dance.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

deserving has a pretty happy ending, I think- more satisfying than the canon one, if I do say so myself.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

A couple times, all on Helaemond fics. But that's what you get in such a big fandom, I'd never written for such a conflict heavy fandom before.

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Not really. I'm not really comfortable doing that.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I've not written a crossover yet- however, I do have a Pacific Rim HoTD fusion somewhere in drafts.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Honestly not sure. This relates to the next question, but I once got asked about a translation and then never heard back so I ended up wondering if it got stolen.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Hopefully, I got Glory and Gore translated into Russian! From the question above.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

No- tbh I'm not sure I would be good at it. I'm open to trying, though, and I'm always willing to share ideas.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

I've never written for them, only a poem in high school, but Hector and Andromache from the Iliad. I've just read the Emily Wilson translation and...they hurt me but I've always loved them.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Probably Millennia. I had such plans for them, but TVD burned bright and fast as a fandom for me.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I love my writing voice, I think I change my style up a lot depending on the piece itself, but I always have to like the rhythm of it in my head before I'm good with it. I think I'm fairly good at worldbuilding too, though of course with that some things are weighed with more interest than others.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Probably increasing tension. I always wanna jump into the resolution and the confrontation! But then I'm like, noooo I gotta provide context and I have to work backwards. ugh.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Anyone who's read me probably knows I love to do it! Only conlangs though, with a natural language that's a little beyond me since there is an actual sense of what "feels right." But I love me some HV dialogue, it gives me such a cool

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Percy Jackson!

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Right now it's a tie between dropping glasses just to hear them break and delicate in every way but one. They're not my epics but I think I just wrote some of my most beautiful language in them.

Some of you guys might have done this already but I'll tag @emilykaldwen, @carladuquette (I think you've returned to fic!), @volvaaslaug, @lavandorhaze, @qyburnsghost, @appletreeduty

[doublegoblin]

Get To Know My OC (Andrea time)

Thank ya to the ever cool @asterhaze for the tag (wasn't popping up for a notif but I did see my little name in your bunches of people)

I've done this for Alex and Dave (I think lol) so this time I'll be filling this one out for the lovely Andrea; second in command to Alex and honestly the one who helps keep them sane. Let's go!

Are you named after anyone? 

To be perfectly honest; maybe? I don't often talk about it, but, back when I first came here, back when I had those memories still; there was just something about that name that stuck to me. I'm not sure if it was that portion of me's name, someone we liked, or like...whatever else. I still really like it, and it feels like it suits me. Though if I was looking for a change I'd probably go with something like a Rebecca or Sally. Best friends before I started working for the large and looming. Like they still are my best friends...I think? We chat every once in a while but what with work and all...I'm sorry, that wasn't part of the question!

When was the last time you cried? 

Saw a really cute bunch of Dreamers hanging out on the park benches before coming here so uh...I'll let you put those pieces together.

Do you use sarcasm? 

Depends on who I'm around. Most of the other co-workers are fine but uh, boss and big boss? Yeah, nah, it'd turn into one of those moments where you try and make a joke but then that other person makes it out into a whole big lecture. Alex I think would be more likely to tolerate if not understand it, I mean they've tried their hand at it before anyway. Dave on the otherhand...good luck explaining the nuance of that kind of thing to a god. I swear, you'd have a better chance trying to convince him to change the uniform mandate.

Do you have kids? 

Mostly the new batch of newbies that stumble in. Unless you mean the other part of me? Then I have no freakin' idea!

What’s the first thing you notice about people? 

How well they can take a little ribbing. Most people are pretty chill and even tag along. But some, hooo boy, they throw a giant fit! "Oh give it back!" this "How did you even get ahold of it?" that. Bunch of killjoys.

 What’s your eye color? 

So! The shade I'm going with now is like a mix of a soft lavender with an undercut of hazel! When I get bored of it I'm sure I'll change. I love lavender though! Oh my gosh it has to be one of the best colors of the visible spectrum! I haven't tried ultraviolet though...ya know what, think I got a new style to try out.

Scary Movies or Happy Endings? 

Every waking moment here is a nightmare of horrors and corporate smothering...so happy endings are nice!

Any special talents? 

I can throw a knife reeeeeally good. Like, really good. Care to see?

Where were you born? 

Skip

What are your hobbies? 

Oh man don't put me on the spot like this! Uhm...wow mind is a complete blank. I promise I'm not boring! I just...uh...well...I like to go for walks? Do crosswords? Uhm...ugh! I hate these kinds of question so skip!

Do you have any pets? 

Oh my god! *she rummages around in her pocket and pulls out a heavily creased photo* This is Piere! *unfolding the photo you are greeted with the chittering maw of some kind of furry cephalopod * He is the sweetest little Mawlite! He's about three cycle old so still just a hatchling! Now despite his sweet looks he can be such a little rascal! Why recently-*for roughly the next 2-3 hours she enthusiastically goes over every small detail of her pet, the words all blurring together at some point*

What sports do you play/have played? 

Uuuuhm, look I'll be honest with you. If I'm not out working I would much rather set my happy ass down on the couch and snuggle my wittle baby~ But, I was pretty okay at archery.

Favorite subject in school? 

If there is anyone out there who liked anything about onboarding or those stupid preliminary classes I wou-you know what no, I know at least one person. Let me level with ya, I have forgotten most of the nitty-gritty so we'll just skip this question also.

Dream job? 

Despite my bitching, I couldn't think of a better department to work in. Well...maybe the Wildlife sector but then I'd have to deal with that manager and wouldn't have as much time to be home and all that jazz. Though, I would get a sick kit. Knowing Dave though this will be going onto an official record so I'll just say I'm happy where I am.

Tags!: @stanrendipity @lola-theshowgrl @tailoroffates @tisiphonewolfe (Idk how many you have done for these!) @gummybugg @moonluringfrost @mysticstarlightduck

[forestwhisper3]

Tagged by @joyfuladorable but I don't know how to link their post. Sorry.

Share your wallpaper:

Laptop lock screen

Home screen

Phone lock screen

Just a turtle emblem on a black background

Phone home screen

As you can see, turtles are still in my brain rent-free.

Last song you listened to: Not counting the instrumental stuff I put on to help me write? YT music says it was Yasashi Kiss by Hitomi Shimatani, but before that, it was Adoro by the Broncos, The Guiding Key by Liz Robinett, Passing Through by Kadan Mackay, Feel it Still by Portugal. The Man, and a remixed version of I Love You Baby by Gloria Gaynor. I also listen to a lot of electro swring and stuff with a good bass beat, as well as jazz and classical.

Currently reading: nothing specific at the moment, just different fanfics, haha. My sister really wants me to start reading one of her favorite series, but I can't ever seem to dredge up the willpower to do it.

Last movie you watched: The whole way through? The Mario movie. I've seen bits and pieces of others since then whenever my mom's watching one, but not the whole thing.

I'm not counting the Rise movie since that's just a permanently open tab on my laptop now.

Craving: Frozen yogurt. Or a bacon avocado cheeseburger. Or steamed buns. Or all of them. It's been a while since I've had them, and I want some.

What are you wearing right now: Stitch pajamas when I started this, but work clothes right now since I'm at work.

How tall are you: 5'3"

Piercings: I guess my ears? Pretty sure one or both of them have closed over by now, though.

Tattoos: None. At most, I've done those fake paper ones that used to come with packs of gum, but nothing permanent. Don't really plan to, either.

Glasses? Contacts?: Both. Since middle school. Used to hate glasses, but now I love them. Only thing I don't like is the poor vision that comes with it, haha. Contacts are for work or trips to places like theme parks where I'm afraid they'll fall off on a ride or something.

Last drink: Water. If we're talking alcoholic...I don't even remember. I'm not a big drinker.

Last thing I ate: Pizza for dinner. And breakfast since I was too lazy to make anything.

I don't even know what toppings were on these but they were delicious.

Last show: TMNT, specifically, "The Real World" from the 03 series. I need my reference video.

Favorite Color: Red and purple. Green is nice too.

Current obsession: I think it's pretty obvious, lol. TMNT.

Unrelated obsession: ... I'm not sure what to put here. Fluffy things? Cute things like penguin stickers? ...Pokémon?

Any pets: 4 cats, 2 dogs, all rescues. We are very much a "You're coming home with me" family.

Crush on anyone?: No one that's real, lol, and my fictional "crushes" are said more as a joke more than anything. Am I opposed to the idea of romance and being in a relationship? Not at all, but I'm not gonna go out of my way to find one or stress out about it either. If it happens, it happens, and if not, that's cool too.

Favorite fictional characters: Now these I have a lot of. Yusuke Urameshi, Yagami Taichi, Gary Oak, Roronoa Zoro (although I love all the strawhats really), Michelangelo (though again, I love pretty much all the ninja turtles), Knuckles, Tails, Professor Layton, Donald Duck, Sora, Cloud Strife, Vincent Valentine, Zack Fair, Maes Hughes (and most of the FMAB cast), Luigi, and many more. These are just some of the first ones that come to mind, but it would take too long if I did all of them, lol.

Last place you traveled to: ...What is this traveling you speak of?

Joking aside, probably Tucson, Arizona, to visit my brother. Not counting that? Mexico, but that was ages ago.

Tagging...uh...*checks to see who actually interacts with me on here* @klonoadreams and @eldritchgray I guess?

[elfelt-valentine]

This is me asking about your transformers ocs

• Who was ‘born’ first?

• Who is the most temper-mental?

• Any of them a ‘class clown’?

• Name a favorite aspect of each [physical build, backstory, personality, etc.].

• Do your ocs enjoy earth and learning about human customs? Or is it beneath them?

I'll die for you thank you

There's a group of bots traveling around the space pretty aimlessly, consisting of Riff, ex-communications officer (so he likes to say but he's still pretty much in charge of the ship when captain isn't there), Monarch, an ex-phase sixer, twins Cleft and Treble who used to be mechanics for racers, Fleewheel, a used-to-be-smuggler pretty much, and the captain himself, Emberfist. Fairly there's more people... But that's all crew for now! Let's just say they interact with each other the most.

- Emberfist is the oldest! He's been around since times Before Megatron's decepticons, and feels very strongly about what both factions did to their home. He's forged as well! After him goes Fleewheel, then Riff, then Cleft and and Treble, then Monarch.

- Riff, I'd say. He tries to play it cool- a lot, but after everything that happened with him he's barely holding it together, from being an impulsive blabbermouth to a shutdown recluse. Good thing Ember figured out he's better at work and doing his weird music thing rather than just sit and sulk.

- Fleewheel. LOL. He's always this 👌 close to be kicked out of the ship, but for the same reasons that keep him there - his mouth and dumb sense of humor. He's a fun among the sad for what it's worth.

- I'm Yet to make designs for a lot of them, so bear with me 🤡

Riff might be my favorite out of all of them, I'm pretty happy with both his design and backstory/character. Fairly he started off as a sona (like most my favorite ocs do LOL), so he has combination of red and black that i love to work with. I find his disdain with war because of jis personal losses and desire to let them duke it out and leave him out of it also my favorite part.

Emberfist i love cuz in my head he looks like a very tired, a very done with everything mech. He's a monoformer, as well, so it didn't exactly make his life any easier. He's an engineer and he's the one who even built their ship! Overall i just like him, he cares for his fellow cybertronians who are tired and hurt, and pretty much welcomes anyone on his ship and won't be scared to protect it with all his might.

Monarch has one of my favorite designs I've ever done, i love the colors and her wings are torture for me to figure out but i love them nonetheless. Her story is also very fun to me she's just the biggest traumatized loser. She's a triple changer who could turn into a jet and a bomb. She was supposed to have an indestructible spark casing and such, so whenever she used her bomb alt mode, she'd be able to reconstruct herself. She, well. Never found out if it works LOL she just left when she was on her first mission cuz she got so so scared. Love her.

The twins are fun to me because i. Love twins. They play music all the time and are very high energy, it's fun to watch. They're small and frisky and generally just a delight. You'd think they cause mischief but they're more of snitches actually LMAO they don't get along with Fleewheel well.

As for Fleewheel... Anyway.

(Joking i actually think he's very silly i love silly guys who are just asking to have shit beat out of them)

- Only Fleewheel's been on Earth, actually! Had a lil rendezvous with Swindle there. Wasn't impressed much, and surely isn't looking forward to coming back there (though humans are quite entertaining)

As for others, they've HEARD, probably PASSED it at some point in search of energon, but didn't dare to land. For reasons. Riff downloaded a lot of Earth music at some point, though, and he's been menace about it ever since.

[inkofamethyst]

August 14, 2023

Went to Target, noticed that many of the decorations on sale were deep greens and pale purples, realized that maybe I'm not quite as original with my ideal room colors as I'd anticipated. What is life but a series of events in which I realize that I'm not as special as I thought I was (I am being dramatic and hyperbolic but still).

Took out my mini twists (finally); in loveeee with the ultra-defined fro. Game-changing style for sure, but I can't wait this long in the future to take them out bc the twists were majorly raggedy.

In this day and age, and into the future, I can imagine personal branding becoming more and more important in landing academic jobs. And by that I specifically mean having some sort of online presence that connects who you are to what you do. That one old friend of mine, probably the person I've known the longest outside my family even if we really don't ever speak, she is very successfully building an online brand doing just that, and it's pretty incredible to watch, actually.

Speaking of branding, I'm trying to come up with pseudonyms to change my name to. Mostly to minimize the effect of this blog on any personal branding I may decide to do (I recognize that the internet is forever and that the damage is therefore already done, but no one needs to know that I have a deeply and perhaps inappropriately personal tumblr whatsoever). Genuinely, I'm the kind of person to grow unreasonably attached to the first thing I come up with (floralfountainpens), but I want to spend some time considering several options. I give myself a month max to think on it.

Oh also I'm normally a matte lipstick girlie but my mom convinced me to try the maybelline lifter gloss and I think I actually kind of like it?? It's really buttery, non-sticky, and, best of all, works well with my skin tone even though it looks crazy pink. I've been a little inspired by Barbie, I guess. I dig it.

I'm watching phd vlogs on youtube (because of course I am), and this small vlogger I'm watching right now talked about how she was a commenter on some papers at a conference for the first time. As she was describing this role (and I've seen this done once or twice I think at the national conference I went to the past two years), I was horrified at first by how daunting the task seemed. I really struggle with trying to sound appropriately intelligent (...to prove that I am capable of being in a situation and not raise anyone's doubts which I now recognize is not a particularly healthy attitude), so coming up with meaningful commentary/critique, especially if on the spot, sounds horrific. Then, I realized how similar it is to something I did in my last two years of undergrad. For the last two years, I was a moderator for what is essentially a conference for my humanities program, and I had to perform a fairly similar task: asking insightful and coherent questions to panelist presenters whose work I was seeing for the first time. I actually received compliments on my moderation. So I'm not as fully unprepared for that kind of thing as I might think. Which is a little cool. [edit: I think one of the biggest takeaways from my experiences as a moderator is that coherent and simple but interesting questions are better than rambly and intelligent-sounding questions. Of course, I'd like to go to more talks and symposia in grad school to really dissect this kind of role so that I may be prepared for it, just in case.]

And you know while I'm far from being a crypto bro, I'm starting to like,,,, lowkey get into investing???? In the simplest ways possible, really, with a Roth IRA and a CD (and medium-yield savings account I guess), but the idea of getting started early, making regular contributions, and then possibly not having to worry about retirement (assuming we survive as a species long enough for me to get there) is kinda sick ngl. Most of my money isn't really liquid, I guess, which is a little nerve-wracking, but The Market generally seems to be headed upward, so I'm not pressed in the slightest right now. The FDIC can't hold my hand forever if I wanna see real gains. At least, that's how rich wealthy people see it.

Last thing: I liked Barbie for its obnoxious femininity. The first two-thirds or so felt like a release. It was silly, it was goofy, it made me smile. The last quarter or third or so in its seriousness did have a real message which I could relate to on some level, but it felt fairly didactic, especially the whole monologue on what it was like to be a woman or whatever. Like yeah, the message was there, but I felt like the movie beat me over the head with that bit out of fear that the audience wouldn't get it maybe? I think They Cloned Tyrone did a better job at having a clear overtone message without being as in-your-face with it (or maybe they just balanced the message with the plot a bit better idk). There are certainly other criticisms of Barbie that I've encountered, and while they have merit, I feel like I can just accept this movie as its own new thing. [edit: To add, a """seminal work""" [edit 2: isn't it peculiar, calling a movie like this "seminal" ... what about ungendered terms for the same thing... alternatives include influential, groundbreaking, formative, innovative. I like the term, generally, but I sort of wish there was a feminine equivalent.] doesn't need to be flawless, in my opinion. It merely needs to exist and set in motion some sort of change in thought as a result of its reception (whether that change is how the audience approaches media or how creators approach media or something else entirely). I think Lost is another example of an imperfect work that changed media and still deserves recognition despite its shortcomings. Time will tell whether Barbie is the start of some wave or if it merely remains a one-of-a-kind event.]

TODAY IM THANKFUL FOR THE STAR TREK STRANGE NEW WORLDS MUSICAL EPISODE???? Never in my life did I think that this serious sci-fi franchise would be able to pull such a thing off, but that error's on me because this franchise switches between silly and serious at the drop of a hat. Like,,,,, "Apologies, the most confounding thing: I appear to be singing; most unusual, so peculiar" LITERALLY CRYING AAAAAAAA THE WHOOOOooOOoOoOOooOLE THING (vocals, orchestration(!!!!!), plot, ensemble, choreo, technobabble) WAS SO STINKING FUN

((in two weeks im flying away.))

[edit: this post was all over the place (even more than usual) because it's more of a collection of thoughts from the past several days rather than a single entry written all at once]

[demongoddessallurasiren]

“I just came from r/196” ask game

Saw another post. I think I should invite y'all to one of our longstanding traditions. Answer the questions then tag 10 (or more) people. I'll go first.

Name? Rachel but I have 7 other personas, user name is one of them.

Pronouns and gender? She/They. Female/Non-Binary

Sexuality? Pansexual

Country? USA

Top 5 fandoms? Owl House, Wednesday, Fruits Basket, She-Hulk & Encanto

What is your Most forbidden snack? Those thumbprint cookies, I can eat a whole container to myself or Ice since I know it's bad for your teeth but I like to crunch a munch!

Would you pet a bug? I want to pet a tarantula but at the same time I want to scream when i see one lmao and you shouldn't do that with those cuties.

Share a weird fact/story about yourself with the class. I sometimes have lucid dreams and they tend to be the most vivid and scary. Like, creepy silent Hill type stuff

What does the color blue taste like? Cool whip or maybe like a sugar cookie.

What is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? My awesome family. They are my world.

What is the stupidest thing you've ever done? Ditched the rocky horror show play that the local theater was doing, for a party that turned out to be a sausage party with drunkies who wanted to hit on every female....yea I never listened to my friend again after that.

Stupidest thing you've seen/heard someone else do/say? Probably me, I call Bandicoot- Bandicute lmao....

Hyperfixation song? Void by Melanie Martinez or Slumber Party by Ashnikko

Is there any meaning behind your profile picture and/or username? My profile pic is just me having a night out with friends. My username is of one of my 7 personas. She is a Succubus/Siren who is basically like a dommy mommy. I've drawn her a couple of times. One day I'll be brave enough to post up my art.

Dream career as a child? Vet

Dream career as an adult? Content creator, mainly art and showing off my personas by putting together outfits and make up.

Thoughts on cilantro? I loooooooove it

Have you ever been banned from a location and if so, why? Nah, I don't think so, I'm pretty chill most of the time, mostly because of my social anxiety.

What is your cursed food combination? Hmmm idk, I'm pretty picky about food, I guess some people don't like that I put peanut butter on my ice cream and pancakes.

Trans rights? Oh hell ya! They are beautiful people who deserve their happy ending! 🖤🖤🖤

I'm not sure who has done this, so I'm not going to tag anyone, hope that's okay!

[transgirl-gaming-thoughts]

My Thoughts On: Virtual Console

I don't think I've done this yet?

Hey there, it's Alex! Wow, seems like all my blog posts are about a decade late to the discussion? I mean, even the whole idea of a blog like I'm running feels dated in a bygone era. Oh well, i don't really care, this is fun!

I love Virtual Console! The idea of playing all your favorite older games digitally on a more modern console at a fraction of the original price is revolutionary! The Virtual Console brand started with the Wii Shop Channel where you could purchase them using Wii Points (that's a whole topic unto itself) for previous Nintendo platforms, such as the NES, SNES, and N64, but some third-party support came in the form of Sega's Master System and Mega Drive/Genesis, SNK, and even Commodore 64, what? They had some pretty niche games on here, but also many of the biggest titles like all the 2D Mario games, Metroid, Zelda, pretty much anything you could ask for! They were missing some classic N64 games like Banjo-Kazooie for obvious licensing reasons with developer Rare's acquisition by Microsoft, and GoldenEye 007 which recieved a Wii remake. Other games like Earthbound or Panel de Pon weren't available because they hadn't yet reached the level of popularity they hold now (especially in Earthbound's case).

Quick tangent here, but I still think the DSi should have gotten Virtual Consoles. I mean, it already had an eShop! There were DSiWare games being developed just like WiiWare games! Plus, they removed the famous Gameboy Advance slot (or "Slot 2" as it's officially called), so this would be the perfect opportunity to make users repurchase their favorite GBA games, and maybe GB/GBC games that were previously unplayable on the DS, and install them on the DSi! They probably could have squeezed NES and maybe SNES VCs on there too if they tried. This was such a huge missed opportunity that would've added validity to the DSi, and could've truly pushed the DS to being one of the best consoles ever, even more so than it is now. But I digress, moving on!

After the Wii came the 3DS, sporting the 3DS eShop and, you guessed it, portable Virtual Console! Yes, finally, handheld VC titles! The 3DS ended up having Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance (exclusive to Ambassador Program), NES, SNES (New 3DS only), Sega Master System, and Sega GameGear.

The GBA Virtual Consoles only had a small handful of titles released alongside the eShop, and were only available to download for free by members of the Ambassador Program, users who bought their 3DS systems before the price was cut a few months after release. They later introduced SNES Virtual Console, which is amazing! But instead of putting in effort, they said "Oh, uh, the old 3DS isn't strong enough to run SNES games, you need a NEW 3DS" and really? Is it too weak? You mean if I open my original model 3DS right now I won't see a fully functional homebrew SNES Virtual Console collection? Really? Moving on...

After the 3DS, Nintendo quickly released the WiiU as their new home console! This too featured an eShop, and Virtual Console! This time, GBA was available to everyone! They also added DS Virtual Console, which is very cool in my opinion! From what I hear it wasn't executed very well, but that's such a unique idea! They also added certain Wii titles to be downloaded and installed, sort of like a VC, but not part of that brand. Those will forever be in a state of purgatory...

And finally, we come to the Nintendo Switch, and... nothing. Nintendo has completely done away with the Virtual Console brand, and broken my heart. Instead, if you sign up for Nintendo Switch Online, their online gaming service, you get access to NES and SNES apps loaded with a bunch of retro games, but most of them are just random things most people don't care about. If you upgrade to the NSO Expansion you get N64 and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis apps, but again, so far there's just not enough games to warrant the huge price jump of the Expansion. So far there's not a whole lot of value to the service, and we're still waiting on more to justify it. Personally, I'm thinking GameCube would be good candidates for this line, and a GC app would make me instantly upgrade!

As a more recent update, Gameboy was added to NSO, and Gameboy Advance as a part of the Expansion! This is a great step forward, but its not everything they need to add value to the Expansion. Still, good job, Nintendo!

The Virtual Console name has a lot of history to it, and a lot of fond memories from gamers such as myself who remember downlaoding and playing all sorts of games on Wii and 3DS from older consoles. Today, as the brand has been done away with on Switch, and the 3DS/WiiU eShops closing, it seems that era is ending... but don't forget! With homebrew you cans till find the installable files online and put them on your console! There's also tools to make your own custom injects for the 3DS! We can still enjoy new VC for many years to come with these wonderful tools from dedicated developers.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to ask questions and suggest new post ideas in my ask box! Stay safe, stay hydrated, and God bless! Happy gaming to ya!

~ Alex