#its not as polished or long as a result but its also very personal so uh...yknow

[purgemarchlockdown]

Autism and Amane

(CWs: Ableism, Child Abuse, Cults)

(Note: This is mostly based on personal experience and stories I’ve heard from other autistic people.)

It’s a bit of an understatement to say that I love Amane Momose. She’s my favorite character in the series, and I think about her constantly. It’s why I have this blog, I thought about her too much that I needed to write it out somehow.

A personal favorite headcanon of mine is the idea that Amane is Autistic. Mostly cause I’m autistic and I like head-canoning characters who I like with it. So now I'm just explaining why I find this reading of her character compelling.

Right and Wrong

There's no doubt about it that Amane is someone who is heavily constrained by rules and standards, and she expresses frustration towards certain rules in subtle or obvious ways throughout Milgram.

For example, the flag for vulgarity is the only one that is laying down on the ground in Purge March, something that is usually a sign for disrespect.

Implying that this is the rule that Amane breaks the most, something that is consistent with a lot of the other information we know about Amane. Since it seems like a lot of the things she finds enjoyable (cute outfits, amusement parks, performance art) are either neutered to the point of being boring or outright banned.

Outside of that, Amane doesn't operate on the rules of "normal" society. She operates on her own rules. Rules that are molded by the cult but still Her Rules. She does not care much for acting in ways that would be considered normal to people, and has stated that she is alright with that.

(T2 Amane VD)

Amane: Aren’t we the same? Me and Warden-san. You know, I’m aware that I’m out of the ordinary. That my environment was peculiar, and that everyone [else] is normal. Es: Amane… Amane: In fact, there have been people who said that to me. I’ve been told things like, “You’re being deceived.” “You can still make it right now.” “You’re crazy.” Es: … A: You are treating me as a child after all. Because I’m a child, you believe that I must have been brainwashed. It’s not like that. I, too— children, too, understand everything! Please don’t just decide that people must be unhappy.

While this is influenced by her abuse and her justification of it, even before this Amane has been very consistent on repeating this idea that she does not mind not being considered normal and is not going to change how she acts just because other people said she should, for better or for worse.

22/04/19 (Futa’s Birthday)

Amane: ……I’m fine. I don’t know what you’ve done or what it is you’re worried about, but I think if there’s something you believe in, you should stay true to it. It’s not something that should waver just because other people said something. I personally don’t plan on changing my own beliefs even if I’m told I’m wrong either……

That isn't to say Amane Doesn't operate by rules, she does, to an extreme extent even. Something that is even shown above.

But she operates on rules she personally believes makes Sense. If she does not agree with a rule she believes to be nonsensical she will express that. If she does she'll follow it to the letter, even if it harms her or someone else.

21/06/27 (Amane’s Birthday)

Shidou: Amane, I heard it was your birthday today. I asked Es-kun if we could get this cake to give to you…… Amane: I don’t need it. I’ll gratefully accept your well-wishes, but I don’t eat things like that. Also…… Shidou-san, I can’t say I’m especially fond of the way you assume that all children will love frivolous things like this. Shidou: ………… Is that so… I apologise. I’m sure everyone else will be happy to eat it, so don’t worry about it. Sorry for intruding. Amane: ………… ……cake……

She's very inflexible and dogmatic in that sense. But not just because of her cult. As stated she seems to disagree with her cult's view on vulgar things, and seems to have broken that rule multiple times before in the past and has gotten punished for it.

Not only that but she is insistent on certain ideas of "rightness" that are Outside of her cults worldview. For example, she consistently reiterates that children also have feelings and agency, to the point that's her Major focus in her T1 VD. Not her religion, not her crime, but her feelings about agency. The idea was just too important to her to simply let go.

Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior (e.g., extreme distress at small changes, difficulties with transitions, rigid thinking patterns, greeting rituals, need to take same route or eat same food every day).

What is a promise, if not a rule you swear to follow?

Good Interests

Now I would personally love to argue she has a special interest in religion as someone who was a kid with a Catholicism special interest (trauma is weird) but I don't think I have enough ground to argue that interpretation.

What I can argue, is a performance art special interest.

Amane seems to be deeply invested in performing arts. While it is a metaphor for how she's performing for her family and cult, outside of that she seems to actually show a genuine interest in it.

Amane is a bit of a critic. She seems to be a choirgirl that hates the songs she's singing.

T1Q14: Do you listen to music? A: Not really to songs that are highly entertaining.

Which implies that she knows what songs she Does find entertaining, and also that as established before Amane likes looking cute and pretty. She keeps on dressing herself in her MVs in cute outfits, and there is even a minigram about her being self-concussion about her hair and then getting it styled.

There's a Sincerity in these aesthetics, it really seems like Amane Enjoys Performing as an art form. The way she portrays her revenge is not her Stopping the performance, but for the marching band to break from the routine and to go full force into the "real world."

Not only that, but when Mikoto mentions he's an art student. Amane immdieatly asks him if he's good at drawing. The entire conversation shifting from their discussion about studies but about art.

20/07/15

Amane: It’s fine. If there are any words I don’t understand I can look them up later. An arts university, though…… Does that mean you’re good at drawing, then? It may be a bit rude to say, but that’s rather unexpected.

Her critic side even pops up here. Being surprised someone so "normal" seeming would be an art student.

It also seems like TV was a way for her to cope with her situation, judging by the final shot of Magic.

This stuff is so Important to her that it bleeds in Everywhere. Even when she tries to hide it to seem more like a "good girl." The visual ideas of performing arts and music come through.

As mentioned above, it seems like these interests were considered "vulgar" by her cult. It's not something a "good girl" like her should like.

It's something...abnormal.

Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus (e.g., strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or perseverative interests).

Normalcy

Amane is not as good of a girl as she wants us to believe or wants herself to believe. She knows it. She knows it too well.

Dear wise one, Am I worthy? Is it ok to spoil myself? I promise! A pinky promise is a pinky promise!

She's promising that she'll follow the rules this time. Promising that she'll be a "good girl." A status that gets her a modicum amount of respect and safety.

If you become a bad girl, monsters will come out This is the magic that stops that from happening

However, there's a sense of impossibility to become one, as if she was made Unable to fulfill the arbitrary conditions that were set by the people around her. Amane can only pretend to be a good girl, to...mask as one per-say. But she cannot Be One.

Only if, only if, only if I could be a good girl

Amane has been masking for basically her entire life, to various levels of success. To blend into the cult, and to seem "normal" in their eyes.

Except, she's inherently Unable to be one. It's not something about herself that she can change. To turn Amane into a good girl is to make Amane into something that isn't herself.

Amane isn't Human in the eyes of her cult, she isn't good enough to be one, she wasn't born in a way that allows for her to be Respected as one.

She's even Represented by The Cat in Magic.

Her feelings of pain and anger and isolation by being different are given to something inhuman. And since this is Amane's MV, this is partially an acknowledgement that she is not good enough to be a human

Not only that, but even in the prison she's isolated. The way she speaks is surprising for a child so the people around her aren't sure how to interact with her, and her unwillingness to act in a "proper" way gets certain people (Shidou) upset.

However, she doesn't seem to even view her seeming inhumanity as a bad thing.

Amane is consistently more frustrated at people not understanding her than her not understanding them. She cares about her feelings because no one cared to adjust to Hers. She cares about asserting her agency because if she does she'll be infantalized.

Because, In spite of everything, Amane deeply loves herself.

T2Q20: How do you feel about you not being like everyone else? Nevertheless I was born as myself, so I'm happy.

Conclusion

I wrote this post partially cause I was inspired by this really good Dunmeshi analysis of Laios' autistic frustration. Which made me go "Wow I should do that but with Amane." So I did.

There's so much I can talk about really, but to me. Amane is a character who is in a world Hostile to who she is. Stuck between having to pretend to be "normal" for her own safety and hating having to do it because it's sickening and confining. Where her interests are controlled or considered "abnormal" meaning she is unable to indulge in them. Where the people around her can either demonize her or infantalize her for not fitting the standards they hold her to.

And, maybe it's just me. But I personally relate a lot to that, and I think there's something really amazing about how she's still able to love herself in spite of it all.

(And, I also think she's trans but that's a whole other discussion.)

[crazilust]

Analyzing celebrities’ fashion according to their venus signs (pt.1)

I believe you can tell alot about someone just by looking at the clothes they've choose to wear. Let's analyze different celebrities' fashion and their venus sign (as well as the degree they're in) and give you some advice on how you can incorporate it in your own fashion style.

Aries venus

Audrey Hepburn

Even though we associate Aries venus with a very flamboyant style (and trust me, they can be and most of them are), I found important to put Audrey Hepburn as an example of someone who’s mastered the minimal, elegant fashion. Aries are very determinate and passionate individuals and once they have their eyes set on something, they’ll achieve it at all cost. I found it relevant in Hepburn’s style, because to me she achieved the quintessential minimalist fashion. She was able to balance being minimal while not being boring and basic, while staying true to herself. I think that’s one of the main strength of Aries venuses. They have to stay true to themselves, and when they do, they’re able to master their own fashion sense.

Also interesting to note that her venus is in a capricorn degree, which could also explain the more minimalist route.

Lady Gaga

On the other side of the spectrum, we’ve got Lady Gaga who also represents Aries venus perfectly. Her ability to tell a story with her clothes has become something we know and associate her for. Again, even if it’s completely different to Hepburn’s, you can still very much see Gaga’s need to be authentic to herself. Her style is a bit more tone down (see picture on the top right), but it’s still close to who she is as a person. It just evolved. Her willingness to be weird and over the top despite the constant misunderstanding of others and nagging, demands a lot of bravery and if that's not an Aries venus in a nutshell, I don't know what it is.

Her venus is in a Piscean degree (24), which could explain her intrinsic desire to use fashion as an art form and always push its boundaries.

Final take

If I were an Aries venus, I would take a long time reflecting on what I truly like, what type of person I am and how I want to be seen before buying anything. I would forget the trends and start investing in personal development in order to see how I could translate that into my clothes. Am I more a lowkey, mysterious kind of person? Flamboyant and over the top? The moment I’d be able to choose at least three words to describe me, I’d start building my closet around them and remind myself that I can go to extremes if I damn wanted to.

Taurus venus

Princess Diana

As a fellow Taurus venus, I’d be lying if I said that Princess Diana is not one of my main inspiration. To me, she represents perfectly what Taurus venus is all about. Simplicity, elegance and effortlessness. There’s a simplicity here, an ease that is very admirable from Princess Diana. It’s almost like she just threw this on but looks phenomenal as a result. It’s polished, but not forced at all and that’s where Taurus’ strength lies. Making it look easy. I also added her biker short outfit to represents Taurus’ need for comfort, but why not make it look cute? Also monochromatic looks to add that touch of put togetherness.

With her venus in 24 degrees (Pisces), we notice her tendency to break the mold and transcend beyond people's expectations. With today's eyes, it doesn't seem that groundbreaking, but at the time, and especially for a Royal, it was cra-zy (also the first one to be known for her fashion!)

Prince

What I wanted to focus on by putting Prince is his sensuality that I feel is overlooked alot when we talk about Taurus Venus. Or it's taken for granted almost. They have this little je-ne-sais-quoi that is so attractive and again, so effortless. Prince mastered this aspect so much and I find it very interesting. His clothes were a direct translation of how he felt about himself. Showing a little skin there, some see-through blouse here. Nothing extremely vulgar, but you get the message. I also wanted to put him there because whenever we think of Taurus venus celebrities, we always reference the most stereotypical ones like Ariana Grande and Lana del Rey. They most obviously embody the Venusian energy, but if you don't like this aesthetic, you can definitely be a little bit more out there just like Prince did.

With his venus in 7 degree, being a Libra degree, Prince was doubling down on his venusian energy, amping up the charm and sensuality while still being seen as charming.

Final take

What I would do (and should start to do actually) as a Taurus venus is focus on the quality of the clothes I put on my body, no matter the aesthetic or fashion choices. At the end of the day, Taurus look fabulous and effortlessly glam, but in order to enhance this trait, it's going to be important to invest in quality pieces in order to emanate this energy. I understand that not everybody wants to invest in clothes, but there's many ways you can do this without breaking the bank : thrift stores, depop, vinted (it might just take longer). Some signs can get away with cheap clothes, distressed clothing, but as Taurus venus, it definetely looks messy and not necessarily in a cute, grunge way lol.

Gemini venus

Margot Robbie

To my surprise, there's actually a lot of supermodels or sex icons/bombshells who possess a Gemini Venus. I say to my surprise, because I always see Geminis as kind of quirky, but it's true, they do embody the perfect balance of being hot but approachable (the twins archetype after all). It's like they can very well be the nerdy shy girl and the bombshell the next minute. I think you can actually see that in Margot Robbie's style where it's very Girl-Next-Door, but with an edge. The monochromatic pink look is to die for but switch the palette for a neutral look, platform for regular slippers and it's not as eye-catching. Without these two small details, you get a very basic look. I would've expected flamboyance, but from what I saw from these celebrities (ex: Kristen Bell, Sandra Bullock) is that they really embody the Model Off Duty vibes, where everything they put has a little edge to it while still appearing very approachable and mainstream. Which, when we think about it, is very reminiscent of Geminis.

Her Venus being in a Leo degree (8) could explain her tendency to want to be extra, lean more on the glamorous side and wear monochromatic colourful outfits

Megan Fox

Another route you could choose, as Megan Fox did, is to go push that Cool Girl fashion all the way and experiment fully with your closet, mixing and matching pieces with different textures and colours. Fox has always been known for her sex appeal and you can definitely see that in her fashion choices in the beginning of her career, but as of lately, she's been more avant-garde with her choices and honestly more fun. She definitely reminds me of the cool girls in my town walking around like they're just out of the fashion magazine, not giving a F about anything and you can't help but notice them.

Her venus is in 23 degrees, which is an Aquarius degree and could definitely explain her tendency to explore different styles and play with colours. Being very experimental.

Final take

What I would do if I were a Gemini Venus, is that I would learn my colours, my signature style and what goes best for my silhouette in order to put forward my best features. While this can be said for anyone, I think Gemini Venus is still very well thought out and in order to give that illusion of "I just got up", you're gonna have to know what makes you pop. As opposed to Taurus, for example, who can just rock an oversized hoodie and some boots and make it look elegant because that's what their energy gives off, Gemini is going to have to work a little bit harder. Experiment. Alot !

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

That's it from me folks, I'll post part 2 containing Cancer, Leo and Virgo venus very soon :)

[raisin-writes]

Asking to paint their nails- Donquixote family:

sfw, no warnings, just for sillies :) read as platonic but can also be read as romantic (minus sugar- i dont care that shes 22- and dellinger, dont be a weirdo).

Doflamingo:

He prefers to call in a nail tech and have a little mani-pedi spa day with you instead.

It's nothing personal, he appreciates the thought, but if hes gonna get his nails done, he wants it to be professional.

Wants you to match with him more often than not and gets a little mad when you refuse to, but wont hold it against you for very long.

A classic french tip girlie but may mix it up with a nice pink or a light glitter overlay from time to time.

Trebol:

He'll allow it, but god does he make it an insufferable experience.

He loves messing with you by intentionally making his hand twitch/flinch/shake.

"Bweheheheh! oops, guess you gotta start over now!"

He'll finally stop when you threaten inform him that you only have so much nail polish remover left and he'll end up with messy, ugly, clumpy nails that you wont be able to fix.

He's fine with whatever you give him, just dont make it look stupid.

Diamante:

Absolutely!

He's tickled that you would want to spend time with him like that.

Requests things like flashy white or gold stars, sparkly reds, or a nice baby blue to match his eyes.

A little bit of a stickler about your technique, but he wont be too hard on you if you mess up.

It's just nail polish after all.

Surprisingly will want to paint yours in return to match his.

His technique is ironically not that great.

Pica:

...... Reluctantly agrees.

He's silent as he watches you work, but his gaze is very intimidating and scrutinous.

Kind of a mouth breather, dont comment on it or he'll get mad at you.

If you ask him very nicely, he'll let you experiment on his toe nails, painting them however you want.

He's satisfied with a simple matte dark purple, but his favorite is a metallic gold- not the regular nail polish, but the holographic powder, he likes the shiny chrome finish.

Vergo:

Some days he'll say yes, sometimes its just not a good time.

He's a busy guy, he doesnt have all the time in the world to sit down and let you fiddle with his nails.

Sometimes he just doesnt want his nails painted and thats that.

On the off chance he agrees, he prefers a simple solid black or a plain white.

Giolla:

Yes, but she's such a karen about it.

So passive-aggressive and indecisive.

Makes you never want to paint her nails again.

Likes loud, contrasting colors and sometimes fun stencil patterns.

She usually compliments your work after its over, but will sometimes make a back-handed comment if she isn't completely satisfied with the results.

Lao G:

Surprisingly agrees to it.

However, shaky hands make for many mistakes.

Dont bother putting a top coat on.

regardless of the outcome, he'll give you a thumbs up and a "GREAT WITH A CAPITAL G!"

Gladius:

Bully him into it a little and he'll cave.

He's used to this, having been the test subject for a younger Baby 5 when she first got into nails.

At least you seem to know what you're doing, comparatively.

Prefers plain black but can be swayed into dark colored marbling with gold flecks.

Machvise:

Another test subject for young Baby 5's nail journey, and Dellinger's.

He thinks it's funny to walk around with bright, obnoxious nails, but really could care less what you give him.

He actually kinda liked the time you gave him pizza slice nails.

Draws the line at press-on nails.

Sugar:

Allows it, but will very bluntly tell you you're doing it wrong.

The best compliment you will get from her is, "its not the worst."

She likes when you put cute stickers and stencils on a pretty pastel blue color.

Señor Pink:

Needs to be lead to believe it was his idea, otherwise the answer is no.

Watches intently, doesnt speak much.

Sucks his pacifier suddenly from time to time and the sound in the otherwise silent room makes you flinch.

He doesnt have any preferences, but appreciates when you make the color match his bonnet.

Might make you do his toe nails too so they match.

Viola:

Of course!

Her favorite is a dark mauve with white hand-painted flowers on the thumbs and/or ring fingers.

Dont worry if you cant paint the flowers correctly, she still appreciates it all the same.

She'll ask to paint yours in return.

Dellinger:

Slay 💅✨

You can use his nail polish.

Teases you if you mess up but genuinely starts to get annoyed if you make too many mistakes.

Likes cat-eye and holographic effects; don't worry, hes got the magnets and powders for it.

If he's feeling generous, he'll return the favor, but he might give you what he thinks would look good instead of what you want.

Buffalo:

Nuh-uh, no way.

......... Unless?

Easy to bribe into getting his nails painted.

Lets you paint them however you want, as long as you fullfill your end of the deal.

Baby 5:

Yes!!!

She loves getting her nails painted.

She'll even paint yours, however you want them!

She likes lace tips, but can easily be swayed if you think something else would look better on her.

(Please be kind to her; if you really must, meet her in the middle so she still gets what she wants.)

Bonus:

Bellamy:

Beg him over the course of a week and he'll eventually cave, but only his toe nails where nobody will see them.

Prefers plain black or navy blue colors.

Is very fidgety and uncomfortable the entire time.

(ironically, he doesnt like people touching his feet (he's ticklish))

Groans and complains, asking every 5 minutes if you're done yet.

Such a big baby.

Corazon:

Yes!!!

He's giddy at the thought, he would love for you to paint his nails.

Really, he just likes the quality time he gets to spend with you.

His favorite is a dark plum color with soft pink heart stencils.

He'll offer to paint yours in return, but knowing him, he'll just end up spilling a bottle or two.

Or three.

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

Hello slug! Do you have any piece of advice you wish you knew when you first started out as a translator? (Or just something you want beginner translators to know)

I could go on about this all day if you let me, so I sat on this ask for a few weeks and tried to condense it down to five of the most helpful-- if a little abstract-- points. Hope this helps!

Usual reminder that I'm referring specifically to J->E media translation, although I would imagine most of this applies to media translation of other language pairs.

Edit: Ohhh Tumblr's being a nasty little man and not letting me post everything. Try to curtail my verbose ass, eh? We'll see about THAT! More in the reblogs it is.

A translation is a piece of creative writing informed by the unique needs and limitations of its author, audience, and medium. Before I write a single word, I always consider what approach is most appropriate for translating the work. This is informed by many things, including but not limited to: - Author(s). A work with a single author (most books, indie games) usually demands stricter fidelity, as the words you write become representative of this person's views within the English audience. A work with multiple authors (most bigger games, virtually all anime) may allow greater creativity in the pursuit of other goals. The author's purpose is also paramount. If the author's primary goal is to make people laugh, you will often want to make your work do just that. Serious works should read seriously. Romantic works should tug at heart strings. Occasionally, authors will provide specific guidelines to follow. You do not always have the ability to push back, even if you think they are horribly misguided--in many cases, the company you're working with can lose business if translation teams cause too much of a fuss. If the end result looks silly, you may be blamed for it in reviews and public perception. Responding publicly is not a good look and may hurt your chances at finding employment elsewhere. Conduct yourself professionally! (End of tangent.) - Audience. While rewriting a text to cater to an audience is almost never appropriate, it will often make you and the audience happier if you consider their expectations for translations. Fan translation readers often want to receive a black-and-white, "correct" interpretation of the text--an understandable desire; I'm not knocking this--and therefore may be more receptive to inappropriately detailed translation notes while less receptive to looser interpretations of the text. Readers of professional translations, especially paid works, often demand a higher level of polish and are less tolerant of juvenile goofery that can sometimes be gotten away with in fan translation. Similarly, genres affect the work. BL audiences are more likely to be LGBT+ than isekai action audiences and will expect translators to use more politically correct language. Some niche genres expect (at least, the appearance of) stricter fidelity at the word level than genres that attract a wider mix of casual and serious fans. - Medium. Even if one translator works on multiple iterations of the same series, the nature of the medium will force them to produce two very different translations. Anime and manga are often more understated compared to works of straight text (visual novels, actual novels, some RPGs) to avoid overwhelming the visuals. Anything that is voiced (anime, some video games) must follow the tone and sentence structure (Ie, "short clause, pause, long clause" is often translated as "short clause, comma, long clause" even if there are many, many other ways to express this idea) of the voiced line. Anything with character limits (anime subs, video games, manga) must be concise and punchy. In manga, the script's visual presentation--line length, what words should be placed together to create a nice shape, word length in skinny bubbles--must also be taken into consideration.

[dk-thrive]

Writing is thinking, but it’s thinking slowed down — stilled —

... And that’s one of the arguments for writing well — for taking the time and summoning the focus to do so. Good writing burnishes your message. It burnishes the messenger, too.

You may be dazzling on your feet, an extemporaneous ace, thanks to the brilliant thoughts that pinball around your brain. There will nonetheless be times when you must pin them down and put them in a long email. Or a medium-length email. Or a memo. Or, hell, a Slack channel. The clarity, coherence, precision and even verve with which you do that — achieving a polish and personality distinct from most of what A.I. spits out — will have an impact on the recipients of that missive, coloring their estimation of you and advancing or impeding your goals.

If you’re honest with yourself, you know that, because you know your own skeptical reaction when people send you error-clouded dreck. You also know the way you perk up when they send its shining opposite. And while the epigrammatic cleverness or audiovisual genius of a viral TikTok or Instagram post has the potential to shape opinion and motivate behavior, there are organizations and institutions whose internal communications and decision-making aren’t conducted via social media. GIFs, memes and emojis don’t apply.

When my friend Molly Worthen, a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a frequent contributor to Times Opinion, took the measure of the influential diplomat Charles Hill for her 2006 book “The Man on Whom Nothing Was Lost,” she noted that a principal reason for his enormous behind-the-scenes influence was his dexterity with the written word. He took great notes. He produced great summaries. He made great arguments — on paper, not just on the fly.

Worthen noted in her book that “transmitting ideas into written words is hard, and people do not like to do it.” As a result, someone who performs that task gladly, quickly and nimbly “in most cases ends up the default author, the quarterback to whom others start to turn, out of habit, for the play.”

Good writing announces your seriousness, establishing you as someone capable of caring and discipline. But it’s not just a matter of show: The act of wrestling your thoughts into logical form, distilling them into comprehensible phrases and presenting them as persuasively and accessibly as possible is arguably the best test of those very thoughts. It either exposes them as flawed or affirms their merit and, in the process, sharpens them.

Writing is thinking, but it’s thinking slowed down — stilled — to a point where dimensions and nuances otherwise invisible to you appear....

I think you can take the “pen and paper” out of the equation — replace them with keystrokes in a Google Doc or Microsoft Word file — and the point largely holds. That kind of writing, too, forces you to concentrate or to elaborate. A tossed-off text message doesn’t. Neither do most social media posts. They have as much to do with spleen as with brain.

What place do the traditional rules of writing and the conventional standards for it have in all this? Does purposeful, ruminative or cathartic writing demand decent grammar, some sense of pace, some glimmer of grace?

Maybe not. You can write in a manner that’s comprehensible and compelling only or mostly to you. You can choose which dictums to follow and which to flout. You’re still writing.

But show me someone who writes correctly and ably — and who knows that — and I’ll show you someone who probably also writes more. Such people’s awareness of their agility and their confidence pave the way. Show me someone who has never been pressed to write well or given the tutelage and tools to do so and I’ll show you someone who more often than not avoids it and, in avoiding it, is deprived of not only its benefits but also its pleasures.

Yes, pleasures. I’ve lost count of the times when I’ve praised a paragraph, sentence or turn of phrase in a student’s paper and that student subsequently let me know that the passage had in fact been a great source of pride, delivering a jolt of excitement upon its creation. We shouldn’t devalue that feeling. We should encourage — and teach — more people to experience it.

— Frank Bruni, from "A.I. or no A.I., it pays to write — and to write well" (NY Times, December 21, 2023)

[nardo-headcanons]

Hi there, nice person. I love your headcanons and I thought maybe I could send some requests. So, how does this work? Can I ask, for example, about your theories for things that bug me and that I never found an explanation for? For example, why the hell do the Akatsuki paint their nails? Not me, of course, I am pretty enough without cosmetics. But those people were so obsessed with nailpolish I could never understand why. Take care and good day!

If it isn't my favorite avenger and revolutionary. Hello there, my dear! That's a perfectly valid thing to ask, and I think there's a reason behind it that goes beyond mere cosmetics. Big thanks to @the-real-sasuke-uchiha for that great question.

Why the hell do the Akatsuki wear nail polish?

Aside from looking menacing as hell, there's a practical reason behind it. Your nails can say a lot about your health, more than you might think. And for several people, this might be a benefit. There's Pain, who's literally an undead corpse. Dead bodies undergo quite some chemical changes, the discoloration of nails is a direct result of that. It's easier to hide it that way, by wearing nail polish.

Then there's your beloved brother Itachi, who is chronically ill. We don't know for certain what kind of illness he has, but if it comes with purpura or any other skin or nail discolorations, this is an easy way to cover it up. Kakuzu is a frankensteinian amalgamation of different bodyparts, I wouldn't be surprised if his hands aren't his own. The discolored fingernail part also applies to him.

Sasori probably doesn't even have fingernails anymore, but painting them on gives it the illusion that he has.

As for the nail polish itself, it is most likely aquired from Kirigakure. Why, you might ask? The water country is known for its extravagant beauty industry, and since the affiliation of rice farmer is a very popular one, nail polish is used as a sealing coat to protect your nails from water damange. Didn't take long until they started mixing colored pigments into it. If osmosis makes your fingers look like a sponge, why not let it happen in style?

[eri-pl]

Silme, sule, orthography and stuff

(@dfwbwfbbwfbwf you wanted me to explain, and it's too much for a comment)

So, the th -> s shift in Quenya. And the question of "which words do have the Feanorian th".

The th is one letter (sule | thule), and there's another letter, silme, and everyone pronounces it as s, even the Feanorians.

To know how would they say "Silmaril", we need to know which tengwa (=letter) does this word use. Thanks to @nerdy-catfish for giving me a link to some etymology. No th variant is mentioned, so it is the silme s.

Also, I realized that I have the edition of the Silm which has Tengwar ornaments on the inner cover and it mentions Silmarils and I checked and yes, it's spelled with silme.

Anyway, I was to talk about Polish orthography and how we had similar situations as the Quenya "th -> s". (English likely had some of those too, but I know Polish better. )

So, for example, long ago we had "ó", which was a different "o". Not longer, I think, but higher in tone? I'm not sure. It slowly changed in sound and became as English "oo". But. We already had a "oo" sound and letter, the letter "u".

So the result is that now, Polish kids have to learn which words with the "oo" sound use "ó" and which use "u".

Why won't we do a revolution and spell all of them with "u"? I don't know.

But, just like in Quenya, it is visible in etymology. It helps to remember many words. For example:

"róg" (horn) <-> "rogi" (horns)

If the "oo" sound changes to o (or a) in some word... (whatever it's called), it's "ó". The "u" never changes. (But, sadly, some "ó" stays as "ó" always too.)

We have similar problems with other sounds, all caused by sounds converging and two letters becoming one sound:

u / ó = oo sound

h / ch = h sound

ż / rz = zh suond

I imagine the poor non-Exilic elven kids must have a hard time with the s-sound too. Oh, wait. Elves have perfect memory. :o

Also, an interesting fact: now it's almost gone, but like a 100 years ago you could very well tell if a Polish person was from the Eastern part of Poland (or rather: of what was Poland before WW2) or well-educated, by how they pronounced "ł". Now we all say it just like English "w" :( but earlier they pronounced it with a touch of "l".

So it's kinda like with Feanorian vs non-Feanorian Noldor. The difference is audible.

BTW, even if we disregard the poiltics, I still have a dillema on sule vs thule.

"Th" makes the orthography non-ambivalent and also fits the Tengwar scheme better - the sound fits better with others in its set.

"S" sounds better in my ears. Maybe because I'm Polish and the "th" sound is not native to me.

[salty-an-disco]

Man. The character poll got me looking at my designs with new eyes, and I feel like rambling about it, so Imma just do it.

(pretty long artist ramble under the cut)

The thing about me is that a lot of the choices I make when I’m designing something are mostly intuitive/subconscious; just me following a Vibe and seeing what works for the feeling I want to pass on. Not to say I design stuff without thought, I’m just not aware of those thoughts until the design’s done lol

All this to say the character poll got me analyzing my own designs and realizing what my intuitive brain was going for when doing these aissmdmfjdm

this was the first ever concept I drew for these guys, and you can already see some of the building blocks for my final designs here.

The thing that I focus most on, at first, is the overall silhouette and posing. Which is why I wasn’t worried about specific details or polishing up anything in this drawing, I just wanted to get a feel of these characters and see what kinds of shape worked best for them.

Going through each design and my process for them–

Cold was both the easiest and most difficult one for me. While I had a pretty strong idea for his overall shapes from my first drawing and knew what details were important (fluffy collar and head shaped like a water drop), specific details eluded me. I wasn’t sure what to do with its legs or cloak. Eventually tho, I decided I wanted them to be almost completely covered in feathers, leading to their white plumage with dark hands, feet, and face. Something simple, but effective, and I was happy enough with it. I was torn between a diamond or the X for its cloak’s clasp, but eventually decided the X was a more striking detail, and connected her to Spectre more.

Hero is another one that came very easily to me, but whose specific details I struggled with some. I gave him pure white eyes at first, but it limited his expressions, so I ended up giving him those black with white pupils eyes while doodling around. I figured out the helmet shape almost instantly while doing my second ever drawing of him, going for that beak-shaped helm with fiery feathers; tho the rest of his clothes I was really unsure about. Whether to give him a full set or not, if I give him a cape, or metal cladding, etc. The solution came by trial and error, simply giving him different pieces and seeing what fit best, and I eventually arrived on the set he has now!! The secondary clothes just kinda appeared as I doodled him in more casual scenes, and the hair came because I was looking at all the puffy-haired Hero designs and suddenly felt like mine was too bald lol. Overall, I’m really happy with my fluffy and smol son <3 (oh, and yeah, I always pictured him as short in my mind and never thought much about it isjsjdndjndjc)

While it too me a bit to get a doodle of Smitten out, I also figured him out almost instantly. The main thing I wanted for him was to look bright, approachable, and expressive. He’s the only one who has normal-ish eyes because of this, and the side cape was something I gave him to differentiate him from Hero and add to his dramatic flair.

Oppy was definitely the one I struggled with the most, as I had too many ideas in my head for him that all clashed with each other. He didn’t have a set design in my head for a while because of that, which you can see in my early doodles of him where I very clearly didn’t know what to do with his suit lol. His head shape was the first thing I figured out for sure, with those antennae hair strands being present ever since the first doodle I did of him, and for his suit, I just put Reigan Mob Psycho and Larry Pokemon Scarlet in a blender and that car salesman looking ass was the result (centrist politician was another vibe I was going for). I’ve been told he looks deceivingly handsome, tho personally, I just think his face is very punchable.

Broken was prolly the easiest one for me, and one I was satisfied with the first true try (I consider those first sketches up there more of a ‘test run’). I wanted them to look the most similar to Quiet (even more so than Hero), but, well, broken. A reflection of the state Quiet was left in by the Princess in the Tower lead-up. The horn tufts have been ripped off, there are a lot of slashes and cuts across its body, their feathers look unkept and like they have been torn off, and lots of its scales are missing. The sack covering its body is their measly attempt at covering their injuries, and I tried to make all the bandages look old and makeshift.

While the funny corvid face in my first attempt at drawing Contra is very neat, it just wasn’t very fun to draw or allowed them to have many expressions, so I changed it to the face you know now. The curly hair was mostly just me wanting my favorite blorbo to have my favorite kinda hair to draw, and it just so happened that it also fitted with them lol. Them being the only one out of my voices that wear pants instead of some upper body wear is something I always had in mind for them, and the suspenders were more of a little ‘extra’ thing I added to give them more of a clown look alongside with their hat. Something I find funny about my design for Contrarian is that, while it didn’t change much since my first full drawing of them, you can tell something about that first drawing seems off. A little scruffed and odd-looking, and that was mainly because I simply wasn’t used to drawing these humanoid bird things and you can really see me getting the hang of it with how I drew Contrarian, specifically.

(even the colors saturation is something I slowly figure it out by trial and error)

Paranoid was the next one I did, and not to brag but, I think I nailed it that second try aidjkxmddkfkkfc only thing I knew about her design was that I wanted her to have large eyes and a bold spot on her head, and then everything else I just kinda drew around that. And honestly? Really happy with the result!! The bald spot ended up looking a lot like part of her brain was straight-up exposed, so I just rolled with that, and she probably has one of the most fun faces to draw. Her silhouette is also very distinct, with the cloak + fluffy head and horn tufts kinda looking like pigtails giving her a very fun shape. I just love how she turned out, not my personal favorite design, but definitely the one I’m most proud of. She looks like a weird bug and I love that.

While I had very strong images for Cheated’s, Hunted’s, Skeptic’s and Stubborn’s design, it’d still be a while before I actually sat down to figure out their details. But once I did, they all came quite easily.

For Hunted, I just wanted it to look like a Creature. I had the idea of having leaves stuck to its feathers as a sorta camouflage thing, but that’d be to much of a hassle to constantly draw, so I scrapped that and just kept the camouflage marks on its cheeks. I wanted its body shape to look slender and nimble; slightly malnourished. The head shape was mainly me wanting its beak to look the most distinct from the other’s beaked voices, more of a ‘wild’ look, and the cat-like tufts was also added for that more feral look.

For Skeptic, I went back and forth on some details, but the hat, big gloves, and scarf were the things that stuck to the end. Something I find really funny with him is that he wears no clothes besides those accessories and its just the way his feathers are drawn that gives the impression of a suit, or some kinda coat under that scarf lol. His color pallette is the one I find the nicest. It’s mainly monochrome, but I think it works well for him.

Only thing I wanted for Stubborn is Big Soft Kitty. With scars. That was about it tbh, I just wanted him to look big, stronk, and huggable, he’s just a big kitty to me.

Cheated I also knew from the start what I wanted to do with him, as you can see by how similar the first concept and final designs look. Main thing I wanted for her was this sorta ‘uneven’ look, with her clothes seeming like they used to be symmetrical before being sliced and torn up. The slices on an ear tuft and a brow is something that just sorta appeared as I doodled him.

So… yeah! This is about it. It took me a while to reach to this final result, but I’m really glad with how all my designs turned out and seeing that others likes them too makes me incredibly happy!! :D

[bl00dh0rs3]

I really need a name for this au. Anyway i nailed down their color schemes (flats and some character design-y thoughts notes below)

Aw man im really about to go in on this here, ok--ill stick to just design stuff and a bit of Their Deal^tm for now! ill explain the au in full some other day, with a more polished drawing.

Alright so. I am still doing research, its ongoing, but i think ive decided that, in this au, their relationship is something more akin to... in a past life they were the same, but for spiritual development reasons, the qi that made That person split, and went on to reincarnate as Them--narratively this is going to make them function like. Just normal Foils lmao--just with an added umph of it being somewhat literal for them, in the scope of their world, if that makes sense! I dont want to put myself in the box of calling them brothers, bc it just irritates me, but they are Not going to be romantically involved in this au either--SWK has enough trouble in his weirdly uneventful but still tumultuous love life as it is (👀 at Erlang and ZBJ), im not going to torment him by adding his evil clone to that list LMAO. Also LEMH aromantic as hell bc i said so.

Also their both trans thats very super important. Trans monkeys forever obviously

Anyway, So theyre still sort of "the same person", yet not, as they had still Never properly met (until Liu'er chapter)--their both incredibly similar and incredibly different, due to the imbalance of the energies within them and the actions they took for the majority of their lives. SWK is the yang, extroverted and bold and destructive and take-no-shit, while LEMH is the yin, (at least in this story) by being reclusive and a bit of a pushover for the longest time--the, erm.... Outburst, being the result of built up resentment and imbalance within himself spurning him to overcompensate for what he was lacking. It's kind of complicated and intricate and i like it that way if describing it is kind of rough Pfft--but anyway!

Point is, i wanted ALLLL that to be reflected in their designs by giving them plenty of Contrasting but Complimentary, and even sometimes juxtaposed details! The incorrect yin yang belt buckles/brooches are the most obvious one i think, next to the general warm vs. cold color palettes--then there's Liu'er being shirtless and with shorter hair, just to bring a sense of masculinity into his appearance, counterbalancing the fact that he's otherwise very feminine and in line with his Yin nature. Id say i made SWK's hair longer for the same kind of reason, but given that long hair isnt seen as inherently feminine, mileage can vary on that--if one reads it that way then yay, fun detail, and if not, then you still get to be looking as a SWK with long hair, and thats always a win in and of itself.

The red parts of their face are also matching--SWK's making up the over eye and LEMH's the under eye, to visually indicate the "this is the same person split in two" dealio. I also tried to make SWK appear a bit more Rounded and Soft, curving his cheek tuffs and little beard In a bit more (belying a gentler nature and other. Yknow, Round thoughts underneath his theatricality (contrasting with his yang-ish behavior), while LEMH's is sharp and feathered out (bringing to mind hostility and action and other Sharp thoughts, equally in contrast with his usually yin-ish nature).

They were initially going to both have the fillets on their heads, for reasons Like the ones above, but without a shirt Liu'er torso was feeling empty and i felt like he needed something to break up the grey of his fur--so, necklace. Hes bouta get choked tf out dont worry about it ❤

Uhhh thats all i can think of writing down right now, feel free to let me know if any of it is kind of Eh, constructive criticism and all that--if you saw any typos no you didnt, thank you for coming to my ted talk and have a groovy day

[itsjaywalkers]

Hello Laurie! How are you? How are your holidays going?

I'm the same person who messaged you 2/3 months ago about the fic that I was writing and being scared to post it because it's not my native language. I was wondering how your writing goes, like how do you edit? What do you struggle with the most? I know you said it's not your native language either, and I just wanted to know what slows you down the most? Because for me personally it's grammar, structure of the sentences and its punctionation. I always wonder if my commas are in the right place and if I used right marks, obviously the placement of it differs in every language. And do you have any tips for me? ANYWAYS i'm so sorry this is such a long question bahahhaha, also I've read your new Bartylily fic and I love it. I'm on my knees for them, can't wait to see what you got in store for them. Hihi have a good day! <3

hi darling!! i'm okay, doing some writing!! and my holiday is going great <3 i've been at the beach all week, swimming and reading and eating delicious food. i missed my parents and my sisters like crazy, so it's been very fun to get to spend so much time with them <333

oh, yes!! i remember you!! i hope that fic is going well, and that you'll decide to post it someday. i feel like i already told u this, but i'm sure it's lovely, and if deep down u wanna share it, u should be able to do so, fear be damned (im aware it's not that easy but . u get what i mean)

and my editing process is . very boring and very long . i usually just write the whole chapter out, exactly how i have it planned in my mind, without stopping to check for mistakes, or letting myself get distracted by . a paragraph or a line i don't like, all that can be fixed during the actual editing. once it's done, i try to give it a day?? to let it breathe a lil. and then i reread it all!! i go scene by scene, and sometimes it means just fixing the grammar of some sentences and deleting a random line here and there, and other times it means deleting a whole conversation, or rewriting an entire scene bc it's not working how it's supposed to. editing can take me from a couple of hours to actual days, so it's not a process i really enjoy </3 writing can be a pain, but it's when i get to be messier and have fun and not worry about the end result. editing means polishing and rereading until you grow sick of the story. it's necessary but it's not my fav part of the process, that's for sure

i don't think i'm that bothered by grammar, but it's mostly bc this is just fanfiction and i kinda just . have fun with the language?? sometimes i'm aware i'm not structuring a sentence the Proper way but it looks more beautiful my way, and it sounds nicer, so why would i change it?? not a single one of my uni profs is gonna be reading it anyway. but as someone who isn't an english native speaker either, i totally get u, bc i used to be very insecure about this, and i still am a bit sometimes. i had this fear that ppl were gonna be able to tell english isnt my first language at a first glance. but so what if they do?? theres nothing wrong with that, and bc im bilingual, i speak and write in english in a manner native speakers cant replicate, bc i see and understand their language differently. and i think thats lovely!!!

the thing i struggle the most with is descriptions?? i feel like im not detailed or accurate enough, and like i lack a lot of vocabulary. i do my best to fix it during editing but it never quite works i fear.. i also write ridiculously long sentences, bc i use way too many commas when i should be using periods. and i think that my dialogues are pretty good, but at the same time im always . concerned about characters sounding real enough yk?? since, again, english isn't my first language

and i don't know about tips darling. i keep saying this, but i feel like i'm not the best person to ask about this At All, bc i'm not that knowledgeable, or talented, or skillful. i can tell you to remember that at the end of the day this is fanfiction, and we're supposed to be having fun and being self-indulgent. try not to worry so much about grammar and proper sentence structure or putting commas in the right place. bend the language until it sounds pretty enough for you and a sentence rolls off the tongue the right way. who cares if it's not Correct or Proper. it's not meant to!!! also, don't edit right away, let the story or the chapter breathe for a bit, otherwise you're gonna hate the whole thing and believe it's a Mess. it's usually not!! you just need a break and to put some healthy distance so u can edit more honestly, less unbiased

don't apologise!! my answer was even longer SIGH i hope some of this was at least a little helpful <3 and thank u so much!! more ppl than i thought are reading and enjoying the bartylily fic, and it fills me with joy <3 next ch is coming VERY soon and i can't wait

wishing u the best and sending u all my love MWAH <333

[imustbenuts]

yakuza 1 kiwami thoughts after finishing it, very mixed feelings about this game :v

WHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. WHO. HOW. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS. the story. the COMBAT.

i get it. i really do. this is probably a project they started and finished in a short time by reusing assets and pulling the old motion capture data from the master and applying it in the remake. the future of the series hinged on this very flawed original ps2 game. the pacing doesnt let the story sink in and ferment as a result of this ps2 mocap. i get it.

the graphic updates are great. majima everywhere is actually really fun. kamurocho is super cool. the dialogues in the substories and MES are zingers. wonderful. amazing. the pores on everyone's face, fuck yeah. gimme that!

BUT. the main game makes me want to drop a sega arcade machine in front of SEGA's building over in japan. the maimai machines are getting it.

because i genuinely. i dont understand why certain decisions are done in the creation of this game.

story wise i get trying to preserve the og as much as possible and changing things as minimally as possible but. but. i would have re-written a lot of things. hell, i would have rewritten at least one thing and that is yumi.

as it is theres a lot of bits that seems like *checks notes* mr. yokoyama was on the fence about. but sir. SIR.

if you flesh out nishiki, flesh out yumi too. they are a package deal to kiryu's character foundations. im actually really ok with nishiki despite that ending where kiryu and nishiki dont talk! but then yumi??? she hasnt endeared me. COME ON SEDUCE ME MR. YOKOYAMA, SEDUCE ME WITH HER LIKE YOU DO YOUR MEN! im playing as kiryu, so for the love of GOD SEDUCE/ENDEAR HER TO ME.

щ(゜ロ゜щ)!!! WYD!!! you kind of did it with reina with y0!! sir!!

and also, why is yumi's tattoo and literal key defining trait is that shes beautiful (with the gekka bijin shit) and thats. it. beauty = instant love interest for kiryu and nishiki. this was already stupid in 2005 asian dramas, it was stupid in the 90s and its still stupid today. (source: me with all these asian dramas absorbed as background noise growing up)

if yumi doesnt get fleshed out, then drop the romance. just tone it down or drop it altogether. id even argue theres even maybe a better foundation for her to be kiryu's sister than romance, but thats my personal opinion stemming purely from the lack of polish she gets.

there is no in between here imo. the problem is that kiryu seems very... dense when it comes to romance and sex to the point that he reads like one on the ace spectrum. in y0 hes 20 and so reads like his brain was button mashing the hormones, so that still tracks for me. i can also accept him being attracted to anyone but that attraction must come with screen time. he spends more time thinking about nishiki and worrying where haruka's mom is than he thinks about yumi.

this poor butchered girl. yumi's character quality is like. as good as the ring he gave her. a mcguffin. hhhhhhgh. and then she dies getting shot by the guy she decided to move on with while kiryu is in jail instead of waiting for him, like shes... getting punished for it... jesus christ this writing choice is dreadful.

fine whatever... j-drama tragedy and all that. i can still accept all of these flaws bc y7 and y8 are such a GREAT time, and mr. yokoyama has clearly gotten better at this writing thing.

in retrospect for y8 personally, maybe kiryu is so dense he doesnt realize this love is more like a crush or some platonic or familial affection. and in y8 that has evolved into a twisted what if scenario hitch-hiking on his sense of longing for an alternate future that isnt rooted in any reality. (did they date???????????? even stayed together for a while to see if they were compatible in their daily lives or language? i think majima has even cleared the dating hurdle with MES here...)

THE COMBATTTT WHYYYYYYYYYYY

im. what. what is this. did people QA this enough?

so a bit about Game Design: Crowding.

generally, when the Player Character in an action game is surrounded by multiple enemies, it is ALWAYS a good idea to code some semblance of chill into the AI. if a few enemies starts whacking the PC, then the others in the crowd must hang back and chill. otherwise the PC gets stun locked and their health drains to a flat 0 leading to a game over in a snap.

fps games does this by purposefully making enemies have poor aim.

action games does this by limiting the amounts of attacks on screen from enemies.

so. why is it. the enemies here have a built in auto dodge, block and a stun lock dog piling brain.

not even monster hunter has this amount of read coded into their attack patterns. neither does the souls games. it's also offset by the longer than usual attack animations that asks the player to both read and commit on the screen from enemies and their own avatars alike.

but y1k. ?? ?? ?? ? ??????????????????? w h y. why did it toss out this piece of common sense out the window for the 2 brothers boss fight in debolah and for jingu. naze. doushite. wei shen me. WHY.

i think the most telling thing is when, during multiple BULLSHIT fights i was constantly thinking how i wished i was fighting majima instead...

majima is such a saving grace for me here. what a frustrating ride.

y1k reminds me so much of the same flaws gintama had early on, and i know for a fact things get good and there are good things in here. i really do like some of the plot points. but ugh. ghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhg.

it just wasn't. sincere enough. you know?

tiger drop.

[watching-pictures-move]

Put On Your Raincoats | The Fashionistas (Stagliano, 2002)

In the Rialto Report’s interview with John Stagliano, I remember him citing this as the artistic highpoint of his career. This is notable for being shot on film in the early 2000s, when I think such a thing was getting rarer in the hardcore genre, and swept the AVN Awards the year it came out. So it’s definitely White Elephant Art as far as porn goes. And while I’m being a little harsh and I don't have the greatest sense of the genre during this particular era, I don’t think it speaks well for its state that in the ‘70s and ‘80s we were getting genuinely stylish films with daring subject matter, while in the 2000s we’re getting something that looks like a TV show you’d catch at an off hour and where a good chunk of the plot hinges on the hero Rocco Siffredi navigating a DVD menu. (Speaking of White Elephant, I assume that’s what he calls his equipment. Elefante Bianco.)

And I do think to an extent the higher production values work against Stagliano’s artistic instincts. The features of his that I’ve seen… all the way through… were firmly in the gonzo style that he pioneered, with longer takes and free flowing camerawork that roved to whatever attracted his eye. Namely butts. That still happens here, but with film cameras, that I assume are heavier and limited in how long a shot can go, the visual style at times seems a bit neutered. You might hope this would result in some storytelling discipline, and there is a decent amount of plot here, but this is also over four hours long. (I watched it over a few days, I’m not a maniac.)

I’ve also alluded to Siffredi being pornography’s equivalent of Klaus Kinski, a quality I find off putting and is very much on display here. Some of this falls into matters of personal taste, and I’ll concede that the first sex scene here, between Siffredi and his neighbour, I found pleasingly energetic up until the halfway point when it tipped over to a level I found excessively rough. I do think it’s a bit jarring how stiff and dead-eyed he can be in the story scenes and how aggressive and unhinged he can be during the sex scenes, and the way that first sex scene is followed immediately by a deer-in-the-headlights expression is particularly severe in its whiplash. But from a narrative perspective, he’s supposed to be intrigued and seduced by the titular Fashionistas into the world of BDSM and rough stuff, a dynamic he very much fumbles.

So I was struggling with this early on, but I was eventually won over, and a lot of the credit goes to Belladonna. Whereas a lot of the other performers here are very polished in both their appearance and their screen presences, she has a naturalistic, unassuming quality that radiates a certain warmth. This movie is in part a story of her learning to stand up for herself to her dominant girlfriend and boss Taylor St. Claire (who navigates the tricky territory of being both regular mean during the plot and hot mean during the action), and I think had it been framed more consistently from that angle and concluded less abruptly, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. I should also note I found her bangs, gap teeth and skull sweater super cute, so perhaps I am not being entirely clinical in my appreciation of her performance. Also, as anyone who’s seen her in action can attest, she’s a freak in the sheets, so no matter how rough some of the later scenes get, she credibly remains an active participant, which makes the proceedings a lot more enjoyable.

I’ll also say that I found the sex scenes after the first one a lot more enjoyable, thanks to a greater emphasis on sexual variety and the changing up of dynamics, sometimes within the scene. Again, some of this comes down to matters of personal taste (I guess I prefer when ladies are meting out the roughness instead of dudes), but I think Stagliano occasionally produces some clever ideas, like when he cuts between Belladonna stripping and then being dominated by Taylor St. Claire and a DVD where Belladonna is being dominated by another woman. This is also the scene when his visual style seems the most on point, the camera moves and use of shadows working with the flow of the action, particularly during Belladonna’s initial strip routine. (The ass closeups are a particularly appropriate choice in this case.) So it’s my favourite part of the movie, although the later sex scenes are not without visual or erotic interest.

Other notes:

The other significant male character is Siffredi’s assistant, played by Manuel Ferrara. I know he has his fans too, but he mostly seems to be in this for Siffredi to outact. That being said, I don’t think the standard porn trope of ensemble casts is too much of a detriment here, as most of the sex scenes are centred around one or more of the main characters, and Siffredi is more charismatic when he plays off some of the better actors in the cast, especially when he gets to drop some Italian.

Siffredi at a few points looks pretty sharp in a white suit, but then when he visits a sex club gets called out by almost everyone he meets for dressing inappropriately for the setting.

This, being a product of the early 2000s, is very much couched in the era’s ideas of cool. Not necessarily a bad thing, as the groovy alt rock song that plays during that Belladonna / St. Claire sex scene works out pretty well. And Stagliano’s editing is more conservative than the nu metal style of filmmaking popular in the mainstream at the time.

This being about fashion, there is, not unexpectedly, a flamboyant gay fashion designer who wears a necklace that says “BITCH”, although the character is generally depicted likably. As far as the fashion in this movie goes, it is not to my personal taste, but I guess it suits the story.

Given how much of the story hinges on some DVD menus, the menu design here is pretty amazing. But even better is the cover of the tabloid magazine capturing Siffredi’s personal troubles, and the scene where Belladonna draws devil horns and a Van Dyke on his picture using a graphic design program.

[good-wine-and-cheese]

eva for blorbo bingo 🥺?

Miss Queen Eva!!!!! I love her so very much, she's an awful disaster of a woman who never really learned how to be a person properly, she kind of got shocked out of her life of privilege and realized that if she wants anything in the Real World she has to engage with the world on its own terms and she is just not good at doing that. Her answer was to make everyone around her as miserable as herself and that's very powerful of her honestly. I love that her story isn't like, a linear road to recovery. She gets better, then she gets so much worse before she gets properly better again. It's human! It's good writing.

I don't think Urasawa dropped the ball per se but in the anime at least it feels like Eva's "I'm still in love with Tenma!!!!!!!!!!!!!" arc went on a little too long in a way that didn't add much to her story. I would've loved for those feelings to kind of just get lost amidst the animosity. The result of what we do get is that some of her scenes, while very good, are a little one-note in that she just digs so hard into that one issue. Which is fine and all but I've read Urasawa's other works and I know he can do a lot more with a similar character type. Audrey Culkin is what I would consider the final form of what he was going for with Eva in some regards. She just needed some more polishing off ya know?

Similar to Grimmer she kind of....isn't there for long periods of time and I think it's a shame! That said I don't think it would add much to introduce her earlier, the period she's gone for makes sense, I just miss her chaotic energy when she's gone.

Also yeah fandom used to be so shit to her. Tumblr seems to love her again which is good but there were people that hated she survived or just thought she was the absolute character and I am standing here looking at her relative crimes to like, Bonaparta, and going Hm Okay!! Glad that people are starting to love her again but yeah a lot of people are still so weird about her. She's a bad bitch and it's why she's great

[reverienne]

self-rec tag game

I saw it making rounds on my dash and you know what? I'm doing it and I'm strongly encouraging @aylaaescar, @bluekaddis / @rainhowls-arts (yes, it's my wink wink nudge nudge for you to fill it twice), @czandziowata, @etoilebinaire, @lavampira - and anyone else who wants to - to also give it a try! 💕

Rules: Share five of your own fanworks (fic, art, etc.). Then, tag five more people to share the things they’ve made.

(Mind that my ao3 fics are currently only available to the logged in users. Sorry for the inconvenience!)

1. something you absolutely adore:

Sierra's ShoH MC, Odelinka! And my ShoH MC, Bogusia!

They were made as a matching set and turned into custom acrylic keychains. Their coming into existence was a turning point in my life and I'm not exaggerating when I'm saying that they made my life so much better. Here's to more chibi keychains in the future! <3

But! I've spent way too much time refreshing the page and marvelling at my coding for Achievement Unlocked not to also count it here. It's a 70-words-long coda for Episode II of Wayfarer and my second attempt at coding. A long break made my return to CSS more challenging than I'd like it to be, but I'm very pleased with the end result and I keep shoving this little fic into the faces of all people who are up to date with the public build of Wayfarer. I think that it's just neat.

2. something that was challenging to create: 

Worst Romance Ever was both my first fic for Dragon Age, first fic published on ao3, first fic shared publically in a veeeery long time and, most importantly, my first venture into CSS coding. It's an account of a dudebro gamer criticising Emerald Aeducan's romance route in the fictional remake of Dragon Age: Origins. (Don't get discouraged by its unfinished status - it's technically finished, I'm just going back and forth on whether I should upload a little extra.) There was so much I had to learn for this project! Frankly, nothing I've made ever since matched it in terms of intensity. The layout is not perfect and I'd like to rework it sometime in the future, but it's a testament of my persistence and I'm proud of it anyway! Also, that's how I discovered that I actually like CSS coding and want to dabble in more ao3 skins in the future! So, small steps. :)

3. something that makes you laugh (or smile, if that fits more comfortably):

Zarya of disapproval! Her judgemental face never fails to crack me up. (Gosh, I really need to draw some more for Mysticons...)

4. something that surprised you (in how it turned out, how much other people liked it, etc.):

spotkania o 8. rano na Zoomie, my ~200-words-long modern AU ficlet for Wayfarer! I wrote it on a whim, published it right after, in a bout of unhinged self-confidence wrote about it on Wayfarer's Discord server... but nothing could prepare me for the warm welcome this ficlet received! It was written entirely in Polish, it was as niche as it could get, and yet! One person actually confessed to reading it with the help of Google Translate. I'm still overjoyed just thinking about it.

I ended up translating it into English the very next day, another record for me, though 8 a.m. Zoom meetings most likely got lost in the notifs and didn't match the Polish version's popularity. Still, I love both! And if you played Episode I of Wayfarer and have a minute to spare, I recommend giving it a chance!

5. something you want other people to see:

I dare to say that my art of my blorbo, Serena Amell, is quite underrated. C'mon, with some tweaks suggested to me by my best friend, I really managed to make her look very cute!

[moawling]

blog log bla blog

I'll be posting more polished documentation on my website but im rly happy to blog about my in-progress works! I pasted this over from my cohost hehehe

I've slowly been taking the steps to redesign my website! A couple of months ago, I made this mockup with hopes of modeling my artist page after a Gameboy Advance.

The original concept was to illustrate different site links as GBA cartridges and display my current work status on the main 'GBA' menu. While this idea is still feasible, my current methods for executing this idea with 2D images are clunky, time-consuming, and an accessibility nightmare (i'm terrible and lazy with coding). To have all of those cons and end up with a very flat and inanimate website would be hugely devastating, so I've been exploring different options.

I broke down the original pixel art drawing to create some textures! I used Crocotile and Blender to whip up this 3d model! The buttons and screen are separate objects and can be rigged for easy animation.

I'm hoping to utilize Spline to implement this model onto my page. Spline is simple and extremely easy to use, but its simplicity also limits the range of animation and rendering options.

I imported the model into Spline and the limited shader options result in the image texture lacking that crisp, pixel look BOOOO BOOOOOOOOO (we hate this!) While Spline allows me to easily render and build an animated, interactive web experience, it's unfortunately an accessibility nightmare. (if anyone has tips on making 3d-based sites accessible please let me know) I will have to consider building a separate website down the line for folks that use screen readers :' )

I'll be posting more updates soon! I'm long due for a site upgrade and I'm really hoping to create an experience that showcases my personality and work.

thanks for reading :)

[sioster]

im so sleep deprived,,, but i also interested on the chapter 5 cuz you keep ref to them,,,,, i have a very grabby hands,,, gimme gimme, throw it to my face >which part of that au you personally like? and do you have their designs in mind?

NOOO FINDJNFEVBYFBGF why am I like this and have the urge to reference my stuff 24/7 </3 so sorry ahgnjht ):

not me looking thru all of my school notebooks, workbooks and studentbooks looking for the designs 😭 this is what being addicted to drawing does to a girl instead of drawing only in a single sketchbook </3

very readable summary of the story: (oopsies a bit of blood spilled 'ere)

>wil the hero accidentally blows himself up during a fight (villian dt vs hero sbi minus tommy) (L)

>a civillian (drem) scrapes him off the pavement and tries nursing him back to an okayish state, no bonding here

>dumbass wil leaves the civillian's flat (he's barely walking- dear starclan he's literally breaking down from pain ,,GO BACKKK,, STOP RUNNING OUTSIDE)

>wil meets the villian that he sees as his arch nemesis (dream). Wil initates the fight because he was not very stable at that moment, dream on the other hand sticks to defensive moves since he doesn't want to open up wil's old wounds. Dream slips and cracks open his head like an egg- dream's civillian identity is revealed, wil is torn on what to do, in the end he takes dream back to dream's flat (hes not about to share his addres if he even has one)

-the roles have been reversed, its now wil that has to take care of delirious dream, they finally start to bond. So far the things I have here are just '...sickfic typical stuff again </3' and a comfort after nightmare scene that is important to the growth of their relationship (dream has a nightmare about the time he slipped and wil was practically just yelling and watching him choke on his own blood. in the nightmare however, wil never unmask him so he can breathe- dream chokes, literally drowns in his blood as that face hidden behind bandages watches him. When dream wakes up, wil comforts him and takes off his face bandages by himself for the first time to show that dream no longer asleep and he means the words that he calmed dream with)

-yeah after that i dont really have anything more than just fluff, also yeah at that point wil officialy moves in- it's not like he already was practically living there for the past few months. If this ends up as a fic I'd say to end it here for an open gate if I ever write a sequeal, but fr real I just don't have anything more planned yet lol

Goger- freezes time for short periods of time, long bow

Hero/Villain powers and weapons so far:

Snapneck- fire bending stuff. whatdidya expect </3, fists

Dream- believed by everyone to have super stamina, actually shapeshifter (only dt knows), axe

(there are 2 other heroes (not dsmp) made if I would ever need em in the bg, plus 2 crack antiheroes)

Phil- vampire but instead of bats it's crows (not sure if the blood aspect will stay), a saber

Techno- superstrenght, probably a long sword or a crossbow with some kind of thing allowing for close combat

Tommy (hero apprentice)- electricity, so far doesn't know how to really use it, small daggers

Wilbur- nothing and hes sad about it ): , any kind of explosives (still needs a close range weapon tho..)

So far I only have aliases/hero&villain names for dream (civilian Dream, supervillain Zmora) and wil (civilian Wilbur, superhero Muza)

.... yeah I had to use polish words for them ( : (zmora = mare, muza = muse)

I call this piece "your hands are so close dudes just hold them"

fullbody designs with ugly face bandages since I didn't know what I was doing yet back then... btw ye wil lost a chunk of his right hand to the explosion oopsies 🤗😊

finally good looking c5!wil's face bandages 😭 also bonus at!ratza i guees xD

Oh and a favourite moment... I have a difficulty choosing between the confrontation resulting in cracked egg and the after-nightmare comfort sokbpbsbb0a both of these moments have so much of character in them (not really shown here but man,, this ask answer is already super long) so much of insight on what's going on in their brains nlvlmfmpdpdppkf