#its a loooooooong post

[mai-mai-lim]

not me accidentally upload the previous post early WHILE IM WRITING JABSDFLKAJS

dang you keyboard shortcut i was trying to remove some space wheezeeee

[beehivemind200]

This bitch long as shit I forgot the purpose but here mine

ALWAYS CONFUSED!

New tag game

Insert a photo that you already have in your gallery that best describes you. saw this in the "tag game" tag

ntps: @red-in-revenge @toasterfroggy @allnewtpir @mike-queerler @foodiewithdahoodie @aidyaiden @newaronantics @unrepentant-byler-shipper @kirjavafan @rebelrobinrules1984 @sunflowerswren @notmybabies @emily-mooon @starmanbyler @microwaveonwheels @weirdo09 @iliataslost @charliethe3gg

[kokushibitch]

my dmmd au where mink is actually a brown guy instead of being vaguely yellow and grey. left edit is just a skintone edit while the right contains more natural looking feathers. i also gave him a stronger face

i spent a while trying to pinpoint his nation. unfortunately his design contradicted itself a bit and the slapping of random feathers and dreamcatchers everywhere pisses me awf. i wish that the artists had chosen to stick with one specific nation, and the closer i looked it actually wasn't as bad as i initially thought, but there were still some pretty egregious errors made with his design that could be avoided with CURSORY research, and for a company like n+c, big as they are with the resources to do better research, is unacceptable. to be quite honest, i almost hesitate to even make this post because i really don't want people to run with the information ill be discussing. while i am a native dude that enjoys DMMD, i know so many others that dislike mink, his design, and story because he falls into quite a few racist tropes. also, just because i can kind of glean some information about mink's culture based on his character design/home design, does not mean that it's a 100% accurate portrayal of said culture.

TL;DR: i used to think he was supposed to be ojibwe, but upon further inspection i headcanon mink as navajo/dine and afronative, my reasoning below the cut. im gonna make a later post discussing the nuances of his route and the meta racism in DMMD cause its been a loooooooong time since ive played his route. while im not navajo myself (im tsalagi) i at least have the life experience to tell the goddamn difference between nations lol. i also love the inclusion of a rainbow in his design as a fellow indigenous rainbow enjoyer

note: dine and navajo are the same thing, but im gonna use navajo because thats what more people are familiar with.

the easiest way to start would be with his most obviously unique feature, his locced hair. loccing among NA nations wasn't super common, but it did happen due to the culture & rituals around hair (no cutting unless under specific circumstances, braids/plaits end up "locced" from saltwater, etc etc). to me, however, his locced hair didn't feel like a purposeful design choice. meaning, i dont think the artist chose the locced hair because they wanted to convey something traditional about mink's culture, i think they chose it just because it looks cool, or because mink kind of just falls into the "vaguely brown" category. i'd also be okay with interpreting him as black/native, which i think im gonna do because i know that there are (or was, dead fandom) plenty of black dmmd fans that identify with him

his second most unique cultural indicator is his dreamcatcher. unfortunately, dreamcatchers have kind fallen into that "vague native design" bullshit, but they do have a tribal origin: aanishinabe. again though, due to the sheer abundance of people slapping dreamcatchers onto vaguely native characters, i cant say that this is a strong enough point for me to say definitively that he's aanishinabe. also, you dont fuckin wear dreamcatchers. end of, they're not supposed to be on your body.

THEN there are even more important indicators to me that denote exactly which nation he's from.

just judging base on the patterns used on his traditional tapestries, blankets, and runners, would denote some sort of southwestern nation. now they're not accurate designs necessarily, but i can understand and see clearly where they took inspiration from.

the peace pipe on the wall in both his home and his hideout immediately indicate navajo, a southwestern nation. the fact that he has a strong religious orientation to smoking herbs (im assuming in place of tobacco) is also very navajo to me. the pottery in his home & hideout are also very strongly southwestern, as pottery was a very common art in the southwest. the fact that he has an altar at all is unique because altars are actually not common practice and are usually only found in the southwest, which is actually a good detail point whether it was intentional or not. ignore the dreamcatchers which were, again, thrown in randomly

and of course his homeland contains mountains and more importantly, cliffs and canyons which is another southwest feature. there's also his fuckass cowboy boots which are VERY southwestern

IGNORING the dreamcatcher in his hair AGAIN, he's also flexin beaded jewelry. to me, these are just like regular beads, but you could interpret them as turquoise if you wanted. traditional turquoise jewelry is usually inlayed onto silver bands or pieces as well as strung together like so. his white belt also contains a very southwestern design.

as much as some elements of his design annoy the fuck out of me, i love, love, love, love the inclusion of the rainbow in mink's character design. the rainbow is so important to so many different nations, and mink being a religious person, it actually makes a lot of sense for him to have this sort of draw to rainbows or rainbow colored items. specifically in navajo culture, rainbows are used as Bridges between The Navajo and The Holy People, basically communicating with a higher power. a rainbow is also a symbol of the 7 sacred rituals in navajo culture, one color per ritual. here's a youtube video about it, learn something

i do have some thoughts on mink de-loccing his hair in his good ending, but i think i will have to save that for another post further down the line

anways, ive made my case. mink is navajo

[papermonkeyism]

I think I'm finally starting to recover, after a few years of artistic dry season.

The plague was a big hit, then losing my job and finally my social life collapsing once my IRL DnD group basically disbanded pretty much destroyed what creative juiced I had always lived on up to that point, and it's been HARD to just not having any desire to be creative or do anything.

But now that I have a job again, and have had it for long enough my bank account is stable, and having been adopted into a new DnD group that's active both in-game (weekly game sessions!) and outside of it (we actually talk and communicate generally as well! It's mostly online, but it's still more than I've had in years), I have started to feel more like myself again. That, and the brain meds. I can't overstate how big it is that my default doesn't have to be brain fog anymore.

Like, I'm doing evening doodles again? I'm actually having fun thinking up creatures and characters and plots again? I stopped carrying my sketchbook and pencil case with me everywhere I went during my dry stint of nothing, but now I actually feel like I'm missing it when I don't have it on me at times, like during coffee shop visits.

And I kinda... want to MAKE a thing again.

(Just thinking out loud again, pay no mind.)

I miss having a Project.

Jumping back into making fully plotted out comic feels a bit too much at this stage, though, so I probably won't dedicate myself wholely to something of that scale.

I don't know what exactly will be the final shape of Arcanth's eventual thing, but I'm currently enjoying myself in the fiddly worldbuilding stage. (And just so you know, in the slight off chance that I might maybe pick Wurr back up again some day, I probably won't tell you about it. After all this time and all the messages I've gotten, I don't trust you guys with that one anymore. Even if I would eventually get back to posting it online, it won't happen untill I have a full year's worth of buffer and that would still be a loooooooong way from now even IF I got back to it full time, and I still have that day job besides anyway.)

But what if...

I think an art book or a zine or something might be more achievable at this point.

I feel like the dinosaur project thingy needs some more fiddling with its eventual format (I know I already have enough concept doodles to fill a zine on its own, but I crave an excuse to go ham with watercolors and make full illustrations), but it's one option I still want to make eventually.

And I kinda want to do a slight redesign for the Singing People. (I bought a skull replica a while ago that had narrower snout than how I had drawn them. And I know it doesn't matter that much, and I can always invoke artistic licence and "they aren't necessarily supposed to be any specific real life dinosaur species, it could always go with the 'undiscovered' route if I feel like it and the Troodon/Stenonychosaurus material is super fragmentary anyway", but I'm pretty sure it would bother me anyway if I didn't at least try it out and see how it looked.)

Though I think I got an idea about what to do with Entica!

Those of you who've been here a while know that one started out as my pandemic project. The world had just shut down along with my job warehouse, things were still new and uncertain, and I suddenly had so much free time and not much to sink my creative juices into, and I wanted something low pressure to do.

So I dug up an old setting from my teenage years two decades ago, gave it a facelift, threw out my teenage baggage and just ran wild. No planning, no plot, just art.

The "no planning" part did get back to bite me when the morbs eventually hit and I finally ran out of the creative juices, but that's still a lot of very good material, right there, ready to use.

But I just thought of a new framing device that would work with the already existing material AND give the character more of a goal and agency to make plotting more fun! And I think I like it.

Instead of a random scribe with no background from a place I didn't bother designing who just wants to see the world, Didor now works for a library that has sent her on a mission [to document something and/or take a message to *place*]. She still wants to see the world, but now she has a background, goal and a motive to do so!

And instead of just hanging around at Maaro's cart while Maaro does her own unrelated thing, Maaro is actively helping in her goal! While also doing her job.

I feel that having Didor be on a field work mission would give it more structure while not having to technically retcon anything already existing, and gives more solid excuse to do things than "random encounter number 82" would. Also potential reasons for further adventures ("While you're already out there, could you maybe also do X on the way?")

Also I want to insert nawani in it earlier. I didn't even have them as part of the setting untill psrt way through, and I want to show them off more.

Maybe a travel journal, perhaps?

[doug-meat]

parts of the npmd soundtrack that scratch my brain perfectly (act one)

this soundtrack is so good. this is a long post so its all under the cut Part two coming soon. also i alternate between chara names and actor names idk why i do that. i hope this is even slightly comprehensible

HIGH SCHOOL IS KILLING ME

the little grace note in the piano bit in the last line of the piano melody before richie starts singing in (i hope this makes Sense)

jon's voice for real . just through this whole show

"a thread" and "i'm scared" happening at the same time

the violins(??) coming in when ruth starts singing

richie and ruth's harmonies during "the weight has got me sweating" bit

the "and i can survive it for only so long" harmonies

steph's "shit"

the way steph says "couldn't fuckin' study"

FOR THE CLASS OF TWENTY TWENTY WURN

agh Agh AGH!

the whispered "i'm so fuckin' dead"s underneath steph and pete's dialogue

steph and pete's repeated "my melody"s

the howling

the second delayed vocal line underneath the last bit of the last chorus

LITERAL MONSTER

the "HUH" at the start

the guitar riff motif

the little guitar squeal right before pete starts singing

the way pete says locker

richie's little riff on "seduce her"

the chorus harmonies

everyone knows how he BANGS!

the "and we pray and we pray harmonies"

you better you better!

kims voice in the he roars part <3

the harmonies in this song in general

will branners voice in this song SO GOOD

the "HUH HUH"s behind max's i roar bit

max's "don't need no one to tell me" verse UGH so good

NO ONE'S GONNA STOP ME!

max's harmonies on kind, size and rise

I WILL CLAIM WHAT IS MINE!

COOL AS I THINK I AM

the piano motif Can you tell i love motifs

i bet this song'll suck!

oo woah oo woah oh Oh

when the violins come in especially their little BA DA DUMS after "princess leia told me"

what if i were King of the hill!

the drums kicking in after the one oowoahoowoahoh oh

ensemble coming in

the little growl on the second "i'm as cool as she thinks i am"

THEN AGAIN I'M DERANGED

she's the brawn i'm the brains!

the electric guitar kicking in

IF I CAN FINALLY BE COOL I WILL KNOW THAT I'M NOT A LOSER

I'M THE RULER!!!!!!

DIRTY GIRL

the synth and drums

the way max says behave and be-betray me

baaaabe I'mma love ya all night lOOOooooong

THE LIKE MORE SYNTH KICKING IN HALFWAY THROUGH THE FIRST CHORUS UGH SO GOOD

the way grace says classroom

you want me cant be skipping skewl!

grace's "be-behayveee" UGH <3

THE GROWL ON "on your knees pray along"

the chorus harmonies <3

I DONT CARE ABOUT YOU!

the bridge harmonies

AA AAAGH!!

i'm a i'm a i'm a good girl!

WHO ON OCCASION GETS DIRTY!!!!

I WONT CAAARE ABOUT YOU!

BULLY THE BULLY

the snaps coming in

we'll make him shit his pants!

the riff on that line ^^

the jager-man??????

what's our budget?

the growl on "he's just a nerd in disguise"

stephie gonna lure him in with her charm

yeah?

JAGER GONNA JAGER OUT!

chorus harmonies!

standing for the nerdy the prudy!

WE'RE GONNA CUT OFF HIS NIPS!

AAAAHAaaAaaahh

the guitar bits in the back

we're gonna keep the beans cool! that whole sequence

BEAN SCHOOL? EXCELLENT!

THESE CHORUS HARMONIES ESP STEPHS

pete's and our problem's solved

richie's and the school can evolve

AND THE SCHOOL CAAAAN EVOLVE!!!

ugh jon and joey sound so good on the "we're gonna get the jock pleading"

the last guitar note

BURY THE BULLY

oh god she's snapping again...

this is a lot!!!

the whole hack all his limbs off bit

YOU WANT ME TO FILM THIS?

tape him up after dousing with bleach!

the chorus harmonies. every bit of these choruses i cant even isolate its everything

steph's little "bury bully line up stories NEVER HAUNT ME!"

i just cut off his nips

GRACE TELLING RUTH TO GIVE HER MAX'S NIPS

GO GO NIGHTHAWKS

the way ruth says shiny

IT'S LIKE THE START OF A NEW YEAR!

jon's higher range <3

jon's harmony on "and now i don't eat all by myself"

the trumpets behind the chorus

all the squawks

the HUH after who knew footballs a team game

corey's voice sounds so good on the "or hit u with a saturated towel"

the no more bully ball harmonies

the HUH! after no more bully ball

We're all givin the butt slaps YEAH HEAH!

the way jason sings cause we care <3

AND NOW I CAN PEE ALL BY MYSELF!!!!

the overlapping vocals coming together for "in hatchetfield high school"

N! I! G! H! T! AWK AWK! KSSSS!

NIGHT! HAWKS! NIGHT! HAWKS! NIGHT! HAWKS! FLY!

FUCK YOU CLIVESDALE GO GET FUCKED YOURE FUCKIN LOSERS AND WE'LL KILL YOU (KILL YOUR ASS)

fuuuuck you cliiivesdale gooo get fuuucked

the watch us fly harmonies

NIGHT! HAWKS! FLY! AWK AWK!

NERDY PRUDES MUST DIE (my fave song in the soundtrack be warned)

the "watch these nerds run for their lives" guitar riff before max sings

will branners voice augh

the little synthy ba duh duh duhs in the back

the BAMS! after every line in verses

the way max says "hallway safe" and "break you"

ugh the guitar kicking in and the double BUM BUM for the second verse

YA BITCH!

WOAH UH OAHHH

SHOULDA JOINED THE SMOKE CLUB YA NERDY PRUDE

the whole chorus

the watch those nerds run for their lives melody Ugh loved it in axe man loved it here

YOU PUSHED ME OFF THE EEEDGE

the way he says crusade

and youre too weak to be enSLAAAAVED

the drums AUAUDUAAUAU

CLEANSING OF YOUR KIND!!!!

the way he says anti socialites

the entire repeat after me bit. its actually incredible i cant just isolate one part of it its so good

the ensemble kicking in

IIIIM NOT A LOOOSERRRR

But you have lost. Everything.

THE HATCHET TOWN MOTIF

UGH I LOVE THIS SONG. THE NMT MOTIF

[prettykittytanjiro]

Y'all I don't see enough posts about this SO HERE WE GO

Shrimad Ramayan is the FIRST TV show that I'm watching religiously/obediently and HAVE NOT MISSED ONE EPISODE

I first saw the promotion for LOOOOOOOONG back, ab mid 2023 i think

Didn't think much of it

New year's Eve rolls by, and my mother and grandma are watching CID and Adalaat- and I sit by for once, being bored

IN THAT ONE TIME OF LIKE FIVE MINUTES

I SEE THIS MAJESTIC AD going "Ram, siya Ram, siya Ram Jai Jai Ram"

Omg they looked so good

WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?!

I sat down to watch the show from the very first day

I HAVE NO REGRETS

I agree, there's annoying ads in the middle, and what not- BUT ILL PAY THE PRICE

CAUSE HOLY SHIT THIS TV SHOW HAS ME SWOONING

it's gotten to the point where the second its ten minutes before the airing time at least one of my family members call me, no matter wherever the hell I am, and remind me "oi ur show is coming on"

HSHSHDHDHDHDHDHHD

And it's not like it's hindering my productivity no no no, I've begun subconsciously finishing all my work before airing time JUST TO WATCH IT AND AFTER THAT JUST CHILL

I definitely recommend y'all watch it, its- on Sony TV, 09:00 PM on the weekdays, and next day episode reruns next day at 09:00 AM and 07:00 PM :)

ITS ALSO ON SONY LIV SO THERES THAT IF U WANT :D

I KNOW it's not completely true to the whole story but tell me which show ab Ramayan or mahabharat is- but its a great starting point and Sita and Ram's interactions are adorable and it's better than adipurush (a lot of things are better than adipurush but to be fair this is way way way better)

fight me

Anyways

Alr that's ab it

I might make a continuation post who knows

Thank you

(here are some pictures, taken by urs truly)

(yes I know bad quality shush)

Alr I'll see myself out

[cringywhitedragon]

A look into games developed by 4Chan: The known, The loved, The hated, and the unknown Pt 1 of 2

Note: Before I start this overview I would like to state that this post may (and will mention) a controversial title or two. This is not a review or opinion piece on said games and I will be trying to keep it as neutral as possible as this post is not meant to act as a review. Everyone is entitled to have their opinions on games, this post is merely designed to act as an overview to several titles you may have heard or haven’t about (and it is a loooooooong post!)

As a general rule of thumb, I will not be including games that are blatant malware (Lostboy.exe or Sad Satan) or Yandere Sim (as while this game was mentioned on and pitched on 4Chan by its dev, it feels a bit too mainstream and I would be here all day talking about it)

Once again, please take these games with a grain of salt if you want to play them as this is 4Chan so some people might find these games content offensive so please, be cautious and make your own call.

Also most of these games listed are freeware so if you want to try them yourself then you can. But as usual when downloading files from the internet, please be cautious as while most of the official sources are clean. It’s still not a guarantee. I will not be providing any direct download links under each section unless you count the wiki I’m using as a source but you will have to seek out these games on your own.

This post will be divided into two parts, this one will be covering some of the much more well known titles. Pt 2 will be diving into more obscure stuff. All games mentioned will be in the tags.

So 4Chan, rather you love them or hate them you cannot deny that this anonymous message board has had a major impact on the internet and meme culture as a whole.

Rather you love or hate them, you’ve got to admit that it’s quite amazing on what a decentralized group of strangers on the internet can do for either the good or bad.

And well, that can even extend to video games.

Believe it or not but the chaotic hive mind of the internet has produced its several share of video games. Rather they be made by a team of random anons or a single person, 4Chan has made several games of varying types, quality, and even reception by the general public.

Which is why today I’ll be discussing some of these games that crawled their ways out or have ties to the people of 4Chan

Namely I will be using this page on the /v/‘s recommended games wiki: https://vsrecommendedgames.fandom.com/wiki/Games_Made_by_/v/irgins

So some information may be a bit off for some of the more obscure titles as well as some games that are not listed here.

I will be including stuff like mods and or rom hacks as well as I feel that could count in this context. But anyways, onto the list starting with probably one of the most well known games to come out for 4Chan (for all the right reasons):

—-

So visual novels and dating sims. Two things that have come out of Japan that are almost synonymous with each other nowadays, not to mention the sheer volume of these sorts of games.

Usually these games involve the Player taking the roll of a faceless guy (usually in a Japanese highschool setting) who has the option to romance a number of girls of various personalities, getting to know them as people and maybe if they’re lucky, reaching the golden ending in which our MC gets together with the girl in question.

Another thing these types of games are associated with are eroge, or adult titles that mostly focus on the act of copulation. Though not all games that fall under that umbrella are simply there for the hanky-panky and can actually have great narratives.

And well, would it be a stretch to tell you that 4Chan made a game that fits this very description.

Kawata Shoujo is a visual novel/dating sim developed by Four Leaf Studios. While the game does follow the traditional trope of a Bishojo dating sim set in a Japanese high-school setting, there is a bit of a twist compared to your typical games in this genre which is that all of the main girls (as well as our protagonist) each have some form of disability.

The game began its life of all places from the back of an H-Doujin as more or less a proof of concept by a Japanese Doujin writer we’ll be calling RAITA before it was scanned and posted on the image board which would lead to the eventual development of this game.

In KS, you play as Hisao Nakia, a young man who transfers to a highschool for disabled students after a lengthy hospital stay after learning that he has a heart condition as he adjusts to his new life.

The game itself has been widely praised by a lot of people for its treatment of the characters and setting as well as its storytelling.

Like most of the games on this post, this game is 100% freeware but please be warned that it does contain adult content (I do believe there are clean versions out there but just to be forewarned) but nothing overly graphic in that retrospective but if you are under the age of 18, either play a clean version or wait as per the whole you know what.

Speaking of visual novels, let’s take a look at one that was a lot more controversial.

—-

So Goodbye Volcano High came out and was promptly forgotten by most of the internet. Like me, you may have seen the trailer for it once and that was about it, totally oblivious that there was any drama at all.

This was for a number of reasons but one of the major ones I would likely say is due to the game’s main target demographic and themes being the LGBTQ community which is a pretty touchy subject in the realm of video games.

The trailer particularly caused a stir on 4Chan which eventually kickstarted a series of events that would lead to the formation and development of a game known as Snoot Game.

Created by Cavanon and released about 2-3 years prior to GBVH, Snoot Game is a parody visual novel/retelling of GBVH that puts the player in control of the (literal) faceless protagonist named Anon navigating a school filled with dinosaurs and his interactions with the main cast, particularly with Fang.

Opinions on Snoot Game seem to generally be an overall mixed (and generally controversial) bag for a variety of reasons depending on who you ask compared to the likes of Kawata Shoujo mentioned previously. Some people consider the story to be really good (abet with it’s flaws) and even better than GBVH while other people consider it to be a horrible disgrace to the original and an attack on the LGBTQ community.

Though Caveanon would go on to release a sort of spiritual successor to Snoot called I Wani Hug that Gator, which follows a similar narrative but this time with a whole new cast unrelated to GBVH.

Like with all games on this list, I will leave it up to you (the reader) to make your own calls on if this game is good or bad as I will not be reviewing Snoot or GBVH. Snoot Game, being technically classed as a “fangame” is freeware while Wani is not (It is avaible on Steam).

Now that we’re leaving the realm of visual novels and the main controversial title on this overview is now behind us, how about we take a quick plunge into the deep waters of mystery for our next stop as a change of pace?

—-

Man it’s dark down here…

Be careful where you turn as you might be unlucky enough to bump into one of those floating heads behind us. Just try not to touch them or your game will crash.

…

I’m just kidding, you’re 100% safe from these guys but they are the subject of our next game.

Station.exe was a mysterious game posted to 4Chan in 2014 by an anonymous user supposedly found in a secondhand store.

The game places the player in a dark world in what looks to be some sort of field or factory in which they are being pursed by various floating heads. Coming into contact with these heads will crash your game.

Much about this game is still widely unknown. People digging into the game managed to uncover coordinates tracing to sites in Russia along with some other stuff. There’s a good video by Nightfair that explains this game in much better detail that I will link here

Since this game does not have an official download site like the games mentioned above and while the original version of this file is considered to be virus free. Please be careful if you want to track down a copy of this one.

That was just a mere taste of the deep end of what’s to come for the more… obscure stuff… For now let’s return to the surface above and talk about another well known title before I’ll let you rest.

—-

Hope that little trip made you felt refreshed traveler.

It’s getting a bit dark now so why don’t we sit here around the campfire and talk about a little something we all may know.

Pokémon.

I’m a big fan of the series and maybe you are too. The fanbase is massive with currently 9 mainline titles and various spin-offs and remakes to boot.

And with a fanbase that large and eager for anything new, people are bound to create games of their own.

4Chan is no exception. In fact, these next two titles I will be informing you on are both Pokémon related, one’s a fangame and the other is a ROM Hack. They’re different enough to warrant their own respective overviews so we’ll have to save the other for later.

For the time being, let’s focus on the ROM Hack.

So what happens when you essentially cross the cesspit of the internet with our favorite mon catcher? Well one of two things… One is that you get a fan project very similar in scale to KS with a serious narrative that fits into the world. Or you get Pokémon Clover which is what we will be discussing as our last entry on this part.

Pokémon Clover is a Fire Red ROM Hack that completely overhauls the game with two new regions, new characters, 300+ fakemon, and a whole lot more and fills it all up with what all 4Chan has to offer (memes and shitposts)

It sure isn’t something Nintendo or Gamefreak would ever put in its games for sure and the Pokémon designs are quite solid.

If you do want to try this rom hack then do be aware that it is more on the edgy side in terms of humor in case that isn’t your cup of tea.

As this is a rom hack, you will likely need a copy of Fire Red to play it and due to legal reasons I cannot provide that. You are on your own traveler.

—-

It’s been a long journey even though we’ve barely scratched the surface.

Remember that you are free to backtrack to our previous stops and journey deeper whenever you like, though I will not be joining you.

When and if you do decide to return, we will continue our journey with a tale of a Pokémon from a far away land with starlit wings before we dive down into the abyss of the unspoken of. So be sure to pack your diving gear next time.

Until we meet again dear traveler. The campfire will be here warm and waiting.

[oh-shtars]

Reach for the Stars! AU QnA:

Thank you so much for those of you who sent in asks!! Y’all are the best. 🥹

I’ve decided to compile the asks I received into one post for easier access. So far, this is Part 1. If y’all want Part 2, keep shooting me more questions! 😉

I had to type in some of the questions myself since Tumblr unfortunately only lets me put on 10 screenshots maximum. (I still put them in word-for-word too btw 😂)

But let’s dive into it, shall we?

(⚠️This is going to be a loooooooong read-)

……

@annymation

Yeaaaah, this section is dedicated to you. Couldn’t thank you enough for the support from the very beginning. Love ya, Anny!!! 💖✨

1.) Who are Asha’s parents? What do they mean to her and how have they influenced her life?

Asha’s parents are still known as the same from the canon movie, Tomás and Sakina.

It really bugged me in the film how they mentioned Asha’s father like TWICE, and never brought it up again. That sounds like a very good thing for character building, but nooooooo. They won’t even address it anymore. It’s just there so that Asha wins sympathy points from Magnifico >:/

Anyways, Tomás:

is a philosopher who had a dream to share his ideas with people around him. But he also had a passion to learning the ways of magic, which is why he worked as Oliver’s (the previous king before Mag) apprentice for 2 years in his reign before he passed away. After the king’s passing, Tomás became Magnifico’s assistant. No longer an apprentice since Mag had banned the usage of it other than him and his wife for “Rosas’ greater good.”

Tomás is passionate and holds true to his beliefs. He has a love and curious wonder for the ‘maybes’ and ‘what ifs’ of the old myth about Wishing Stars. Most of his work is written around them, gathering old info and recordings from old sources that claim the authors have been visited and blessed with the guidance of one. It’s a ‘legendary and once-in-a-lifetime’ chance for a star to ever go down to earth. But because of its rarity, most people don’t really believe the myth is true.

He shared this wonder and love of dreaming to his daughter, Asha. It was her favourite thing to do every now and then each night to sit under the stars, and listen to her father tell her about her favorite bedtime story about these wonderful, celestial and magical beings above them.

When Tomás unfortunately died from their house on fire, that ambition and confidence to become just like her dad someday within Asha, broke. It’s like it had withered away along with him. Ever since the tragedy, Asha closed in on herself and spent her time drawing on her sketchbook and on her own to cope with the loss. Keeping her mind busy by helping her mother carry out chores in the castle as she grew older.

Thus, it’s why she got so estranged with her 7 childhood friends. Asha loved her father and all her memories with him very dearly and it struck hard to have this dream be taken away from her so suddenly.

Tomás’ death is a very sensitive topic for her. Asha’s insecurities to accomplish things for herself stem from the fear of dreaming too big and experience that very same pain again of being disappointed if that dream could never be achieved. But at the same time, it serves as her motivation to help others with their own wishes and help them be happy. Because she, herself, wasn’t able to.

Sakina:

is a little more down-to-earth. She wants Asha to not look up at the sky all the time and actually appreciate what she currently has. She balances out her husband’s influence on their daughter. She’s happy to have Asha be a dreamer like her father, but it’s also important for her to notice just how lucky she is in the moment.

One of Asha’s flaws is that she fails to notice these little precious things since her eyes are always on the prize. She believes that the only way people can ever be truly happy is if their wish is granted. Her strongest trait is love. She cares so much that she barely looks out for herself anymore.

Sakina loves her daughter and is also saddened by her husband’s death. It pains her to see Asha be so distant and be missing that little spark she had as a child. It’s Sakina that constantly encourages her to open up to her old friends more.

Like I said, Sakina is a “in-the-moment” kind of person in contrast to Tomás. She was a seamstress before the tragedy, but ever since then, Sakina barely does this hobby that she used to love doing. She just does it in her free time now, which she barely even has. (She does spend the time making cute clothes for Valentino).

Whenever Asha is concerned on why her mother isn’t pursuing that hobby as much anymore, Sakina reassures her that it’s not so bad. What’s more important right now ‘at the moment’ is do her job as a servant to the king and queen and raise and look after her daughter.

………

2.) Are the 7 teens, or any different interpretation of them, any different in your rewrite? If so, how are they like and what will they serve to the story?

Funny, I actually already answered this same ask like twice now. 😂

I’ll just link the answer I’ve already done here.

……….

3.) How was Asha’s childhood?

It went just as normally as any child would have. Loving parents and a home with a South European exterior and a North African interior design. (I’m pretty sure that’s what it said in Wish’s Art book)

Asha pretty much lived in her family’s home until she’s 10 years old. That’s when tragedy struck, their house burned down, her dad…..you know. And now, Asha and her mother are generously given a place to stay in the castle in exchange for their services. To express their gratitude for the king and queen’s kindness.

Asha was only 8 when Magnifico started his reign as king, so she doesn’t really remember much of what Rosas was like back then. When magic wasn’t forbidden and can be studied by anyone. Back when the easy route didn’t exist and no one gives up their wishes to the king.

But at least she’s now growing up in a time where all wishes are given an equal chance to be granted very easily with no struggle or strife anymore, right?

……

4.) What do you want the moral of your story to be?

Fun fact:

When I was brainstorming how I would go with this rewrite, I went back to Disney’s roots. How did this company’s legacy come to life? Of course, I went back to their first movie: “Snow White and the 7 Dwarves.”

And you know what I found?:

Walt risked everything to let this movie exist. He risked selling his house and going bankrupt because he believed so much that ‘Snow White’ would be a success.

“Omg, this company. Disney. All these amazing movies. Started because one man took a giant leap of faith and never gave up on his wish.”

And I knew I just HAVE to capture this one action that brought the Disney we all grew to love into life. (No. Not the corporate Disney we have now unfortunately-)

Every character in my AU will experience the fear of “what ifs.” What if this doesn’t work? What if I fail? What if it’ll all be for nothing?

But Walt Disney pushed and strived to reach his dream. Even if the odds weren’t pretty. So I wanted the moral of my story to be THIS. To never stop dreaming big.

And now, at least you know why I named my Wish rewrite: ✨ “Reach for the Stars” ✨

………

@apricotchocolate

Awwwwww, THX SO MUCH. 💖 It makes me so happy that people love what I’m trying to create. Believe it or not, this is the first time I’ve ever felt this committed to creating something grand. It’s kinda scary :,).

And Sueño’s backstory?

Hmmmm, I don’t want to spoil much.

All I’m going to say is he was unfairly captured from the sky at a very young age of only 12. And ever since then, Magnifico exploits and uses the young star’s Wish Magic to grant, collect and store the wishes of Rosas.

Basically, just think of this deleted scene where Mag attempts to pull down a star from the sky. ⬇️

Will Sueño ever run out of Wish magic? No, not really.

The most important part of a star is their magical core. It’s like a human heart. A Wishing Star is born every time two mortals share their FIRST and MUTUAL Act of True Love, whether platonically, familial or romantically. The magic of this act of love shoots upwards to the sky, where a Wishing Star’s core is created and an ordinary ball of burning gas gains consciousness.

This core is what holds them together and it’s what produces more Wish Magic that is used up whenever they grant a wish. Without it, they fade away to dust and basically die.

So as long Sueño’s core is still intact, he’s fine. Sure, it still hurts to have Wish Magic extracted from him but, he’s alive. 🤷

I sure hope Mag doesn’t intend in absorbing it for desperate measures in the end, amirite?

……..

@chillwildwave

I’ll be honest here, I’m no song writer. No experience or not even know what makes a song “perfect” for a scene. As long as the song is a vibe and it makes sense to me, I don’t really pay attention much to the rhythm or beats.

But most likely, I’m going to be keeping some of the canon songs and tweak them a little bit? (Definitely keeping “This Wish” and “At All Costs” but tweaked.)

Or, if the song is too far gone to save it from my story’s context, (like “Welcome to Rosas”), I’ll probably just explain what happens in that scene and pretend there’s a song there.

Or

I could use some pre-existing Disney songs to set up a scene’s vibe but they won’t actually be sung. It’s just to enhance the experience I guess.

……….

@spectator-zee

1.) I do actually! Omg, I even amazed myself on how I even came up with it. 😂

Magnifico’s end is going to be poetic and I already have a design in mind for him post-story. Also, the final battle? Ohohoho- it’s SOMETHING!!

It’s always the middle part of the story that gets me unfortunately 😤.

……..

2.) My favourite character has to be Sueño. I really love how I got creative with his character and make him really stand out from the other Starboys. Where he’s not exactly the naive “Let’s-grant-everyone’s-wishes!!” kind of guy. It’s the opposite.

I’ve also come to become fond on how he slowly opens up to the human world around him after all the paranoia and anxiety he used to have. Character development~ ✨

But I also liked Magnifico’s complexity too.

He’s tragic but it doesn’t excuse what he’s done. He’s incredibly cruel and he’s aware of it. He’s a hopeless romantic when it comes to Amaya. He’s someone sympathetic who didn’t deserve his village getting destroyed. He’s still a jerk and an arsehole who needs to be stopped. He’s someone whose concerns were unfairly ignored in the past. He’s still completely willing to make innocent people suffer underneath him.

Idk, I guess I just like grey characters.

……….

3.) Lol, Magnifico nor Amaya can’t speak sign language. And they’re used to the star’s passive attitude and being too afraid to stand up to them at all.

But the universal sign of ‘Fck you’ isn’t too hard to figure out once Sueño finally had enough of them and grow a backbone. Mag would be caught off-guard and heavily pissed about it, that’s for sure.

………..

@ficsinhistory

Thank you so much for this question, because it really made me think about this for a bit!! (Not saying the previous asks didn’t, but this is just a point that I had a vague idea but didn’t put much detail into it yet.)

When Asha accidentally released the star that Magnifico had been keeping this past decade, the star escapes the castle and tries to return back to the sky. Only to crash back down again due to an enchantment on him that prevents him from leaving Rosas at all. He’s stuck on earth basically until they find and break the artefact holding the spell.

Which is undoubtedly back with King Magnifico-

If he wants to go back home to the sky, he’s going to have to go back to the castle and break this enchantment. Asha wants to help him, but out of concern and love for her kingdom, she needs his help to release a few wishes and grant these poor, dull and zest-less people a chance to experience the joy of their wishes granted without being in the king’s debt.

The star did not like the idea. He is out of the Wishing business for the next million years or so. But he literally has no idea how to sneak back in without attracting attention and without confronting the scary meanie of a king as much as possible. Plus, he doesn’t even know what a “normal human” acts like. Without her help, he could risk getting caught by the king’s magic. Again…

And dammit, how could he say no to that desperate, sad look on this girl’s face-

Fiiiiine. A few wishes granted but that’s it.

I guess ‘trusting Asha’ is more of a ‘he had no other choice’ kind of thing? He does inevitably have to interact with her on the way though. And at first, Star expresses his frustration with this situation with little harmless jokes, pranks, and stalling their journey back by interacting with the cute woodland creatures. Much to Asha’s frustration.

He initially thinks Asha is just like everyone else. She wants something from him. That’s it. He’s sort of distant at first, and he flinches and reacts negatively to any attempt of touching him.

But over the course of the story, Star gets to learn more about who she really is. A loving and empathetic person who just wants what’s best for those around her. She even gave him a new name that meant she doesn’t see him as just merely a star.

Sueño. Someone who’s not just a wishing tool. She really treats him like an actual person. A person with feelings. Slowly, he starts to really trust her and become genuine friends with Asha.

And overtime, become a little smitten of her beauty both inside and out.

I mean, what, who said that-

………

@tumblingdownthefoxden

………..

@kstarsarts

I guess for Asha, she will try to understand as best she could and if it’s something serious, she’ll try to really listen and seek further clarification.

Though, if it’s casual talk and nothing important, she’ll do that introvert thing where they just politely nod and pretend that they definitely heard you because it’s too embarrassing to be saying “Huh???” like 5 times.

Sueño? He’s actually pretty extroverted once he’s out of his shell. So he isn’t shy to really ask for more detail on the subject if he needs to. He’s VERY familiar with the feeling of not being understood often because he, himself, can’t speak. So, he makes sure that he does put an effort to understand the person he’s talking to.

Though, he might accidentally go a little off-track with his questions and suddenly, you’re talking about an entirely different topic.

…………

Wow, this sure was interesting. Don’t you think?

As always, details might change in the future but this is really helpful for me to track down my thoughts on where this passion project is going.

I can’t say enough thank yous for all the asks and all the support!! Love y’all!! :DD 💖💖

Edit: Look at that, we have a Part 2 :)). Thanks Saph!!

[artist-ladychelsea]

So I wanna throw my 2 cents in because I've thought about this alot (in terms of spe at least)

Gold is sun because "he's the main character!" "he's the most important!" and he "outshines" everyone

Silver is moon because opposite Gold obvs, but also he in general is more 'feminine', long hair, full coverage outfit, water type mons (obvs this is not bad but they are sort of 'traditionally' fem things)

Crystal is stars because it's a nod to the her being first girl (so Gold is Earth's sun and she is another 'sun'). But it also leads into the fact that she is the least cared about of the Johto spe trio. You can see the moon during the day sometimes, but you can only enjoy the stars at night.

Adding Lyra to the mix, I've always seen her as clouds. I know it's not really 'galaxy' in theme but I think it fits her. Also, cloud covers all and let's be serious, Lyra is their most popular Johto girl.

When it comes to the Johto characters (particularly their PokeSpe varients), Gold/Hibiki/Ethan is generally associated with the Sun, Silver the moon, and Kris/Crystal the stars. I kinda hate it because 1. it necessarily doesn't leave room to include Kotone/Lyra, 2. the Sun is a star so basically it's just a repeat, 3. I'm generally not a fan of PokeSpe's interpretation of characters.

Therefore, I propose these alternative celestial body associations:

Gold/Hibiki/Ethan => Sun/Stars because big bright protag energy

Kotone/Lyra => Moon because dreamy sweet female protag energy

Kris => Planet because down to earth protag energy

Silver => Meteor/Meteorite because crashing down and causing a bunch of ruckus for the protags energy

[notahorseindisguise]

i dont want the latest post on my account to be me being a cunt. im not a cunt i promise im usually a very nice person. anyway faqs:

yes my flight home to australia from america got cancelled. i am in a hotel room right now provided by the airline. it is 4am.

theyve put me on another flight to fiji, leaving tomorrow at 8pm. check out time at the hotel is 12pm. i do not know what im going to do for the 5 or so hours before i need to head to the airport. probably nothing exciting, i have a strong fear of missing flights.

i did manage to get put on another connecting flight from fiji to australia. its just that its 5 hours after i land in fiji, so its gonna be one loooong layover. it should be ok. ive waited for longer periods of time in the last couple weeks

yes i am very stressed. there is still so much that im worried could go wrong and im done with problem solving and being smsrt and brave. i just want to go home and hug my mum.

so thats the situation we're dealing with. we clear? ive set my alarm for 7ish hours from now, at 11am. i was meant to be getting a good nights sleep tonight, but i chose loooong loooooooong scrubbing shower instead. thank you for reading and goodnight

[duckedoesartstuff]

arghhhhhh another ao oc except its the one i ignore LOL

had this in my files for a loooooooong time now ... figured id post it now since I kinda have been dead for a bit ... (SHOUTOUT TO ANYONE WHO RECOGNIZES THE SONG my fellow will woodians)

might post more about this characters lore some day ... for now she is neglected

MAY OR MAY NOT BE WORKING ON AN ARCANE ODYSSEY COMIC .... YOU DONT KNOW WHAT IM UP TO ... im doing mischevious stuff >:)

also some thsc stuff coming up soon idk depends ...

[kitteecassee]

AN UPDATE FROM THE BLACK CAT MEOWS

ahem***

sent out all the bundles/scenes that i needed to my precious beans ♡⁠

snapchat show has filled up my private story ♡⁠

posted content to my OF aND filled up the queue for this month there too finALLY MY GOD ITS TAKEN SO LONG THANK FUC- ♡⁠

i need to post to fansly + patreon but Patreon is more pressing, my fansly is filled to the brim with content aND i just posted two brand new vids over there too that need moar attention and lurrrrv >.> but Patreon needs my attention even moAR so 😤👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 but that means i won’t have time to livestream today >.> >.> >.> but i’ll try again this weekend!! ♡⁠

gonna take a break but when i get back it’ll be time to focus on that, turning on my sale for manysvds annnnd queueing here because it’s been looooong loooooooong enough I GOT THIS MEOW MREOW

gonna end this year with a bang aND make what i need to get my stuff mailed to me, goal is kinda high but this cat won’t give up!! tIOME FOR A BREAK AND THEN ATTACCCCCC ♡⁠

[cdelphiki]

Same anon as before x

I'm so glad you appreciated my comment, I was a teensy bit nervous about coming off like a stalker but Jason and the three terrors makes me want to chew glass over how much I love it so figured I'd go for it anyway.

When I started reading this way back when, I had never heard of Mara or Athanasia (i was very VERY new to dc comics lol). I even want to say this was probably one of my first (?) ventures into DC fic at all and I was very much figuring out characters relationships and how they were all connected. Through it, I gradually fell in love with both the girls AND Damian (who i had seen very mixed and conflicting takes on at that point) and it made me want to read comics about them.

Fast forward several years and I am very firmly a DC fan and fanatic lover of all four of these babies thanks to you!

Also, please don't ever feel weird about taking breaks between chapters! Writing is hard, real life is worse, the life of a fic writer is a certified train wreck. Whatever the case, I am truly obsessed with your work so no hiatus will ever make me less interested or enthusiastic about this fic and its updates, no matter how long goes on between them...

All this to say, I'm with you till the end of the line friend! Even if that line is an IV line in a nursing home, I'LL BE THERE! ❤️

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Okay no lie, I hadn't heard of Mara or Athanasia EITHER, this story bounced off an ask I got from an anon back in 2019 and I was like "oh who are these children" and ran with it. I'm so glad you love them!!!! I love them, too. I fell in love with Mara almost instantly upon reading her, at the time, ONE COMIC APPEARANCE where she had an UNHAPPY ENDING and i was like no i love this child I need her to be happy and loved 😭😭😭😭

And thank you 😭 With this one I had such a loooooooong break in the middle, I keep getting scared if I set it down it's gonna end up being 4 years again and I cannot let that happen LOL. I want it to be done so I can have it done! and I can read it start to finish!! I'll likely go through and do polishing on part II and III because I just feel like it's not as polished now as part I had been. Part I I wrote like 3/4th of it without posting at all, then did many rewrites before posting and I just think it's better writing. But maybe I'm just biased because it's new writing of mine and I tend to be more critical of newer stuff of mine than older stuff.

[rawk-chikk]

How to Build Your Own 'Augmented Super Wife Supersoldier From The Future' Funko Pop.

A Semi-Coherent Guide By RC.

This is a long one. A loooooooong one.

I meant to do this like two and a half years ago, but in the spirit of keeping this fandom's head above water, and the fact I'm at the hospital (nothing serious!) with nothing to do for the next couple of hours, I'm doing it now.

So if, like me, you are still bitter that Grace and Dani didn't get official Funkos, or official *anything* due to manufacturer short-sightedness, why not say 'fuck it' and build yer own?

This rambling tutorial will attempt to demonstrate how to build Grace from the 'when they start to kill me, run' scene.

Like, literally that bit 😋.

Anywho. Let's do this!

You will need:

- Funko Pop DIY (female)

- Polymer clay (eg. Sculpy, Fimo, CosClay). I'd advise against cheapo no-name alternatives purely because in my experience the baking times/temperatures stated are absolute garbo. Also, polymer clay will give off quite gnarly fumes while curing, so better to use a trusted source. But if cheapo's all ya got, it's all ya got.

Other modeling materials you might consider instead of polymer clay include...

Epoxy clay (eg. Milliput, Apoxie Sculpt, The Army Painter 'Green Stuff', even something like J-B Weld or similar 2 part plumber's/repair putty).

Plain ol' air drying clay (eg. DAS, FimoAir, Gedeo).

You could even whip up a batch of 'cold porcelain', or an oven cure salt dough from ingredients you probably already have at home. Make sure you clear coat any salt dough creations properly after curing as over time ambient moisture may mess with it.

Each option above has its own pros and cons. Do your research if you aren't sure. Me? I used Fimo.

*ahem* Carrying on...

- Masking tape

- Hobby knife

- Pin vice

- Kebab skewer (wooden), or styrene rod

- Paint brushes

- Primer (plus dust mask if you're using a rattle can indoors)

- Sandpaper (around 400 grit oughta do it but you could probably go 200 either side of that and get a good result)

- Acrylic paints (optional: Posca PC-1MR pens in black and white for fine detail).

- Crafter's heat gun, or a hairdryer

- Varnish/clear coat.

Optional extras: Airbrush, spray booth/cardboard box, rotary tool, oven thermometer, artist's/cake decorating turntable, UV resin, silver leafing pen, jeweller's files, jeweller's wire, acetone, superglue or 5 minute epoxy, a lil piece of sponge, pearl mica powder, scavenged Funko Pop head 😈.

Step One: Grab your Funko DIY and separate the head from body using heat to soften the vinyl enough to wangle it off the neck post. Shoving it in a mug of hot water for a few minutes should do the trick. Make sure to dry out the head as much as possible. Last thing you want is mould growing inside it. This is Terminator, not The Last Of Us 😉. Alternatively you could use your heat gun/hairdryer, but I explain in Step Six why the water bath approach is a better option (imho) at this early stage.

(You are giving this entire thing a quick read through before you start, right? I dunno about the rest of you but I like to have at least a basic idea of the work ahead before I get stuck in. Saves finding out you're missing a necessary tool/material at an inopportune moment and all).

Stop rambling, RC. Sorry. It's easier to be succinct when you haven't lost half your photos 🤦‍♀️. Moving on...

If you don't wanna attempt to sculpt the hair yourself you can, as I did, take a kitbashing approach instead of using the supplied DIY head. Grab one of the many commercially available Funkos with a decent approximation of the hairstyle you want and then go Step One on em. Buy 'pre-loved', buy BNIB, dig one out of a dumpster, steal one from your lil cousin, it doesn't matter. Procure as your time/budget/situation dictates. Improvise where necessary.

Sorry, Ron. I need your floppy hair. I do not need your clothes.

Or your boots. Or your motorcycle.

...😋

Step Two: Take the body of the Funko DIY and mark out the position of the tank top and the cuffs of the jeans. These will be used as guides for when you add the clay.

At this point I used a pin vice to drill the hole thru the fist for the rebar. If you're a crazy person you could use a rotary tool with an appropriately sized bit attached.

To make the rebar I fashioned a mould from a drinking straw and filled it with UV resin. Because I'm awkward. A wooden kebab skewer, or some hobbyist's styrene rod (eg. Evergreen Scale Models) would work just as well. Just cut it to size, paint it silver and you're golden. I used a metallic leafing pen. You use whatever you've got handy. Doesn't have to be shiny. A flat grey acrylic would work just fine.

Use jeweller's files and sandpaper to make small adjustments to the hand hole and rebar respectively in order to get a good press fit. There's always glue if you overdo it 😉. But don't add the rebar to the model just yet, as you're gonna need room to manoeuvre for the next bit.

Step Three: How do you make it look like your figure is wearing clothes when you don't have much real estate to work with?

You fake it, that's how.

You do not need to model an entire set of clothes! It's an arse ache, and we're all about working smarter not harder on the RC channel.

So, take your modeling compound of choice, roll a chunk of it out to the desired thickness, and then cut into strips, say 2-3mm wide. Use your best judgement here.

Now, using the jeans as our example, wrap a strip around the bottom of the leg where the cuff would sit. Cut off any excess and blend out the join. Just give it a lil rub and it's like it was never there. Like magic! You should have a nice defined edge at the bottom, just above the foot. Now see the top edge of your lil clay strip? Well, you wanna start pushing and flattening the clay to blend the edge right out so it fades back into the body.

Repeat for the other leg, and the bottom of the tank top. The straps are relatively simple, tho the bits that pass under the arms can be fiddly due to lack of space. Use a hobby knife to shape and crisp up those edges and then blend out the extraneous edge. Same thing with the neckline.

Run a strip around each foot to form the soles of the boots, and a lil 'x' on the top of the feet to give the impression of laces.

For the rips in the clothing you can simply gouge out a little of the clay. If there isn't any on that part of the model (the knee for example) roll out a little wormy dealie (for you North of the Border fans 😉), position it as needed, blend out the edges, then gouge as required.

If you're playing on hardcore mode, this might be the time to start piling clay on the Funko DIY head and sculpting the hair. You may prefer to leave it til the head's re-attached tho. It depends on the material you're using. If you don't think it'll stand up to a bit of manhandling while pushing the head back onto the body, save this step til that bit's done.

Cure according to the clay manufacturer's instructions. The vinyl will not melt at the temperatures required to cure polymer clay, but if you don't wanna risk it or you don't wanna use your food oven to cook plastic, with all the gnarly fumes and stuff, I've given you plenty of air dry and/or non toxic alternatives. Consistent temperature is key with polymer clay. Undercooked, it's quite brittle. An oven thermometer comes in handy here if you've got one.

Step Four: Primetime!!! Some like to brush on primer, which is fine if you're painting a fence or throwing gesso on a canvas. Not so fine if you're painting a figurine imho. I mean, unless it's Cassandra from Doctor Who. A good rattle can of spray paint is what you want ideally, but again, it's about what you can afford/wangle/manage with your crafting space, so feel free to ignore me and brush away!

First rule of Primer Club: several light coats are better than one heavy coat. Second rule of Primer Club: knock each coat back a lil with sandpaper before applying the next one. Third rule of Primer Club: sit your rattle can in a warm water bath for five minutes before shaking it up to improve flow.

You can get primer specifically for plastics but while I would recommend it, it's not absolutely necessary.

A scavenged head may need masking off if the base colour already matches the skin colour of your character. Save yourself a bit of painting innit. You can get really tight, clean edges against the hairline with a hobby knife. If the hairstyle, hair colour, and skin colour match straight outta the box? Congrats! Why are you even reading this? 😜.

That thing in the background is a portable spray booth (that other thing is a turntable). A cardboard box is also a portable spray booth if you want it to be. Only thing it doesn't have is an extractor fan. So put on a dust mask, and open a window or work outside.

The DIY figure comes primed outta the box, so if you're using the DIY head and are planning on sculpting the hair after re-attachment you don't need to prime it. Unless you want to.

Step Five: Time to paint that shizz. You don't need me to walk you thru this bit, right?

Right?...

Masking is your friend if you don't trust your ability to freehand with a brush. If you're masking over a part you've already painted and are afraid of pulling the paint off, you can knock the level of tack on the tape down by sticking it to yourself (or your clothes) a couple of times before applying it. Some prefer to add a light layer of clear coat to 'lock in' the underlying paint. It's like a real life 'save point'. Some people do both. Some use masking fluid. Some use silly putty/blu-tac/plasticine. Play around, see what works. You do you.

I painted Grace's eyes blue coz Grace is extra and so am I. I threw a lil bit of pearl powder in there to add a subtle shimmer, as I thought going full metallic blue might be a bit too extra.

Lady Funkos have eyelashes. Don't forget the eyelashes.

(I nearly forgot the eyelashes).

A fine tipped Posca pen comes in handy here if you've got one.

Ditto the eyebrows, tho those aren't just for the ladies obvs.

For Grace's augmentation scars, again I recommend a Posca pen but a brush will do.

DO NOT PAINT THE NECK POST. Don't even varnish the neck post. Keep that bitch masked up until you're ready to reattach the head. Like, you can get away with painting the very bottom if you're worried the bare plastic will show even with the head attached, but that's it. Any more will be making a rod for your own back.

You have a choice now. Whether to weather your figure. I chose to add that extra level of detail as it made sense to me. Use a combination of dark washes, dry brushing, and/or sponge stipling to add dirt, blood etc. If ya want.

When you're happy with your paint job, give everything (except the neck post!!!!) a couple of layers of clear coat.

Step Six: When it comes to reattaching the head you probably don't wanna be dunking anything in water by this point, just in case. So we're gonna soften the neck post (and around the base of the head if necessary) with hot air instead. Use a hairdryer if you don't have a heat gun. DO NOT use an industrial or decorator's heat gun for the love o' god. That shit's meant for stripping paint, not gently warming vinyl figurines. It'd be like using a nuke to shake a cherry tree, and you'd likely burn yourself. A hairdryer is more than capable of doing the job.

Why did we not use the hairdryer for Step One? To be honest there's nothing stopping you if that's what you wanna do, but as you don't have direct access to the bits that need softening at that point you will have to wait for the heat to penetrate. You could be doing other things in that time by letting a water bath do the work for you.

Now, however, you do have direct access, so you'll probably find you only need to blast the hot air for 10 seconds or so.

Step Seven: So, you've got the head re-attached, and your paint job is finished and clear coated. That means it's time to add the rebar. If you went a bit too far with the drilling or sanding now's the time to get your glue on. As an final extra touch you can spiral some thin jeweller's wire around the length of the rebar to make it look more rebar-y. I didn't do this bit as the wire I had in my possession at the time was too thick for my tastes.

But whether you opt for that or not, congratulations on making your very own Grace Funko Pop!

I'm still planning on making security guard and future war versions of Grace, and at least one version of Dani. Yeah, I've been saying that for the last two years, but it's still absolutely happening, trust me.

Anyway. That'll do it. If you have any questions, or you need further explanations or recommendations etc. y'all know where to find me.

[shutup-andletme-go]

okay i need help deciding where i should make ren's hometown be for the fic i'm writing

under the cut bc this is a loooooooong post team (but there's a poll!)

so in the book it's really not specific, like At All as to where he lives, but Georgia says in her letter than she lives in the other corner of the country to him.

i don't get particularly aucklandy vibes off him so even tho thats where he ends up i dont think he started there

so. also there is a strait in the middle of the country and while busses would be cheap-

wait its 1996 the ferries would probably be stupid cheap compared to todays prices

okay so we could say that georgia and ren live on different islands

hold on a minute

so his aunty's message tells us that ren lives in a city and his aunty will be picking him up and going south

so that gives us some narrowed down options

PARDON ME THE ACTUAL FUCK

okay so i googled "what places were considered cities in nz 1996"

and thats fine and dandy theres a wikipedia page that i'll look at

in the bar of 'others search for:' there was one entitled "what happened in nz 1996"

i open it

and scream in horror as the name winston peters appears

direct copy paste from the wikipedia result:

Although predicted by many to ally with Labour, on 10 December 1996 New Zealand First leader Winston Peters chose to form a coalition with National, thus preserving Prime Minister Jim Bolger's administration. The 1996 election effectively showcased the difference made by the new electoral system.

winston peters is one of the deputy prime ministers THIS YEAR

Government

Legislature term: 53rd New Zealand Parliament until 8 September, then 54th New Zealand Parliament from 5 December.

The Sixth Labour Government, elected in 2017 and 2020, then the Sixth National Government elected in 2023.

Speaker of the House – Adrian Rurawhe until 5 December, then Gerry Brownlee

Prime Minister – Jacinda Ardern until 25 January, then Chris Hipkins until 27 November, then Christopher Luxon

Deputy Prime Minister – Grant Robertson until 25 January, then Carmel Sepuloni until 27 November, then Winston Peters

Leader of the House – Chris Hipkins until 25 January, then Grant Robertson until 27 November, then Chris Bishop

Minister of Finance – Grant Robertson until 27 November, then Nicola Willis

Minister of Foreign Affairs – Nanaia Mahuta until 11 November, then Grant Robertson until 27 November, then Winston Peters

christ almighty when is he going to die in a hole i hope its soon <3

oooh shit ren might have been old enough to vote in that election

and idk if he'd vote by himself but i feel like georgia would have encouraged it

okay back to the list of cities. we have:

auckland (still do not agree he's from auckland)

christchurch

wellington

hamilton

tauranga

okay cool so technically there might be others but im sorry palmerston north is not a city

making myself reread the book gave me a new perspective bc i was gonna say he's from like levin or somewhere

obscure like that

te puke perhaps

but no! he's from a city which means i can't take the angle of "ren didnt think places looked like this in 1996. not even wellington." but thats okay!

i'm leaning towards hamilton myself

just obscure enough

but still a city

pretty far up in the north island

oooh i kinda wanna write georgia as living in wellington she would thrive in wellington i think

@antisocialgaycat tagging u as always <333

[pocketofpencils]

Questions for Writers

10000 years late! thank you @calunalilly for tagging me

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

a very modest 19 lol

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

163,620

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Last Tango in Halifax

Happy Valley

Collateral

1 Vigil fic lol

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1: The Equation of Mass. : Caroline/Jane christmas fic. My first ever loooooooong one.

2: I Want You To See Me: Caroline/Gillian. Glasses are annoying, lets kiss about it.

3: Welcome Home: Vigil fic lol First ever thing I published on the internet.. Only 412 o words, thought people would hate it but I still get kudos and bookmarks on it 3 years later lol

4: Brunhilde and the Bastard in the Barn: Catherine/Jane Current WIP/Pain in the arse lol. Getting ready to wrap it up :')

5: Pain and the Passing of time: Caroline/Gillian. First LTIH fic, in first person *gag*. Makes me cringe, but also surprises me that I wrote that!

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try really hard to! My inbox overwhelms me sometimes haha! But I appreciate and read every comment I get! So thank you to the like 2 people who are probably reading this haha.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

It is yet to be written! But I do have a mildly angsty one in mind.. Not a not happy ending.. Just happyish lol

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

Equation of Mass I guess. Most Fluffiest

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No! Thankfully. I only write there for fun. Any hate (that isn't warranted of course call me out if I fuck up) would probably make me stop posting haha.

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

Yes.. Im a much better smut reader than writer I can tell you that lmao.

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

I mean at this point I think we have just accepted Jane into the Happy Valley landscape, so much so that its sometimes hard to remember she's plucked straight (or gay ;)) from another show. So I guess almost all of my works are crossovers haha

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

lol hands off my garbage

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Ive had to explain words to my American friends.. does that count?

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I just did my first colab with @calunalilly! I think were going for another..or 1000 <.< lol

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

All the pairings I write for are my faves. i also love Mirandy :')

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

Lmao well anything Ive started I always have doubts I will complete. I am (very very slowly) writing my first book...and I have doubts but I am working through them!

16. What are your writing strengths?

I dont really know.. I think jokes? Funny is most important!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

lol Grammar, formatting, imposter syndrome, actually writing lol. All things that I am working on. I also need to plan better to stop writing plot holes lmao. remembering fic is just for fun!

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

Do what you want bro lol

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Published: Vigil.. I also wrote some unpublished Killing Eve and Doctor Who fics that will never see the light of day as I wrote them by hand (lol) and lost the notebook I wrote them in. So I hope who ever found that notebook enjoyed them lmaoooo

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

ahhhhhh I dont know. I think Year of the Dog was the first one I wrote and was like: "Ok I can do this writing thing".

Everyone I would tag, has already done it so... :)