#just a little thing to refresh me because i haven't written all month and needed to reset my brain

[ceilidho]

prompt: you and Price get in an accident (1.6k)

-

He comes into your life like nothing less than divine intervention.

A fender bender, of all things. It’s a bad day and you’re distracted, too busy thinking about your dad calling to tell you that he lost ten thousand from his retirement fund when the stock he’d invested in crashed and how you’re supposed to help him out of this mess, and the roads are slick with that last snowfall of early spring, still unsalted even hours after the snow started. 

So when you slam on the brakes at the last second after noticing the car in front of you stopped at a red light, your car slips on the ice and slides forward, hitting the back of the stopped car and sending it forward a foot. It’s quick and sudden, and though you stepped on the brakes early enough to avoid a worse collision, your head snaps forward with the jolt and the seatbelt yanks you back violently, winding you. 

Your hands go tight around the wheel, eyes so wide that they nearly pop out of your head as you stare at the car directly in front of you. All of the dread in the world pools in your mouth and then down your throat when you swallow, heart galloping in your chest. You almost can’t believe it for a second.

Then the car in front of you—a big, fuck-you SUV that only worsens your anxiety because of all cars to hit, it had to be someone with a fancy, brand new car that probably has a lawyer on speed dial—puts their hazards on and the driver’s side doors opens and reality snaps like a rubberband back into you. With shaky hands, you put your car into park and put your hazards on as well. 

“Oh shit,” you whisper under your breath. An understatement.

A tall man in a brown parka steps out of the car and stares at you through the windshield, a stern expression on his face. He has a beanie pulled down over his head and a full beard, and for a second, the mental image of a bear emerging out of its den flickers in your imagination, all snow-dusted and irritable. 

He’s grizzled and older than you. The only consolation is that he doesn’t match the image of the driver that you had in your head—no seven thousand dollar suit or bluetooth earpiece; instead, he seems like the kind of man who’d drive an old pickup or a schooner, wearing an Aran sweater and a skipper's cap, with a pipe hanging from the corner of his mouth. He seems out of place in the middle of the road in your small town. 

But he is real, and even though you watch him march over to you, you flinch when he raps on the window with his knuckles. 

“Roll the window down,” he instructs, voice muffled through the glass, and you do because the command cuts through the buzzing in your ear. When you do, he reaches into your car with one hand and pops the lock, then takes a step back to open the door. You’d freak out if the situation were different, but you must be in shock because all you can do is stare at him dumbly as he leans into the car and undoes your seatbelt. “C’mon, sweetheart. Out.”

It doesn’t take much coaxing to get you to step out of the car. All he has to do is step back and you get out, knees nearly buckling, like jelly under you. He holds your elbow to steady you. Your elbow feels delicate and tiny in the width of his palm. 

“You alright, sweetheart?” he asks, looking all over your face.

You want to answer him, but all you can do is whimper, “I’m so sorry.”

“Hey, none of that. It was an accident. You alright though? Anything hurt?”

“Uh…I don’t…I don’t know.” It hasn’t really sunk in yet, you think. Maybe tomorrow you’ll be sore all over, but right now you feel fine. On the verge of shaking out of your skin, teeth nearly clattering together, but more or less okay. 

“Nothing too bad then. Wanna give me your insurance so we can deal with this, sweetheart?” 

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry. Let me just—” You move to reach back into your car to fetch your purse, but he stops you, insisting on getting it for you. 

And you let him, docile like a doll, watching as he leans into your car and across the seats to grab your purse, big frame looking comically large in your little car. Looking like he’d barely fit in the front seat if he tried to get in. 

He comes back out with your little purse in hand and opens it, handing you your wallet and purse by its strap. Your fingers are still shaking when you pull out your insurance information and hand it to him. Everything feels surreal and muted, and the tears are going to flow at any minute now if you don’t get a handle on it. 

He must notice because a knuckle fits under your chin and lifts your head up. “Hey, what’s wrong? 

“No, no,” you say, reaching up to swipe your fingers over your eyes. “I’m just—I’m really embarrassed. I’ve never been in an accident before.”

“Nothing to be embarrassed about.” His voice is much softer now, pitched low in the way handlers talk to spooked animals. He puts his thumb to your chin, holding you in place. “No one got hurt. Could’ve been worse than it was, and we’ve both got insurance, so what’s done is done. I don’t look mad, do I?”

Trapped between his thumb and knuckle, you can only give a slight shake of your head. “No.” 

“Then let’s just take it one step at a time and no tears. Okay?”

You sniff. “Okay.”

“Okay. I’m going to call the insurance, so you get back in the car and sit tight, alright?” 

You nod. 

“Good girl,” he says, a hint of praise in his voice. “Put the heat on too. It’s too cold for that jacket.”

That makes you go warm all over, flustered and tongue-tied. Thankfully, he doesn’t seem to expect a response out of you. The only thing he expects you to do is get back in the car and turn the heat back on, the warm air billowing into your face when he leans in to crank it up all the way. 

Though most of the sound is muffled from inside the car, you turn down the heat and crack the window open slightly to hear him give his name to his insurance company. John Price. Even his name evokes the image of him somewhere else in the world, settled into the nooks and crannies of history. 

John handles everything for you while you sit in the car like he told you to, settling everything with the insurance companies and calling for a tow truck right after that. You don’t realize that, of course, until the tow truck pulls up in front of his car and he comes back to usher you out of your car. 

“How am I supposed to get home?” you croak. The tow truck driver hitches your car to the bed of the lift and pulls it up, your little car looking pathetic all alone up there. 

“I’ll drive you home then bring mine in later.”

“Why can’t I drive my car to the garage too?” You’re petulant now that you’ve learned that he won’t bite, and you know it’s petulance because you don’t actually put up much of a fight to get your car taken off the tow truck. 

That petulance trembles when his expression grows stern again. “You’re getting it checked by a mechanic before you get behind the wheel again,” he tells you in no uncertain terms, eyes daring you to contradict him.

You don’t. It’s hard to argue with someone so adamant on your wellbeing. A mechanic in later days will tell John, with you by his side, that your car was mostly fine apart from some slight damage to the bumper, but that you made the right call to bring it in just in case the frame cracked during the accident.

John’s arm will be around your waist at the time and he’ll pull you tighter into his side when the mechanic says that. And what do you do but go with it, curling into his side like it’s natural. You’ll have already fucked him by then anyway. It’ll be no less forward than letting him take you for coffee and then back home, following you up to your apartment and into your bed. 

Now though, you let him usher you into the passenger seat of his car and shut the door behind you, the wind cutting off abruptly. It only comes back when the door opens on his side. 

You rattle off your address and watch bemusedly as he programs it into his GPS and hits save. You don’t have the temerity to question him, to poke a hole in the bubble of familiarity ballooning around the two of you. The real world seems far away in his car, like you’re in limbo, the rules different here somehow. 

“How about a coffee?” he asks at the next light, putting his hand on your thigh and shaking when you don’t respond right away. “Does a hot drink sound good right about now?”

“I guess?” you say. In truth, it sounds great, but you’re losing the thread of this conversation, your old preoccupations getting further and further away from you. 

John gives your thigh a squeeze, lingering for a beat before pulling away. “Good. It’ll be a nice little pick me up before we go home. My treat.”

All you can do is nod, your throat dry.

[penny00dreadful]

Okay, okay, okay listen.

Remember when we were all obsessed with Steddie Legally Blonde a while back? Yes, I’m still thinking about it, leave me alone. And I adore everything I’ve read. It’s all so fantastic.

But I had a thought because what if we switched it up a little? I’m going mainly off of the musical here, so bear with. 

So what if instead of having Steddie as Elle and Emmett, we instead have them as Paulette and UPS Guy/Kyle??? Like??? It fits, right???

But then, but THEN who do we have as Elle/Emmett?

Buckingham.

No, but just think of it! 

Or I guess you don’t really need to because I’ve thought of it enough for all of us and it goes like this:

(OMG you guys I blacked out and when I woke up this thing was 3.1k long written over a few hours. I haven't edited this at all so please be gentle about typos/tense changes etc. The fever just took me.)

Chrissy is your quintessential girly girl. She is Elle Woods. She’s blonde, pretty, cheerleader, very feminine and happy where she is in life, President of her Sorority with her besties by her side and her guy who is… well he’s as good as any guy could be, right?

Jason is handsome, rich, well connected, he treats her with affection and he humours her when she has some pretty wild, out there ideas. 

But then it happens and they break up because apparently having a girly girl for a wife just wouldn’t look good if he’s gonna live his life the way he wants to. Lawyer, his own practice, running for office. 

Apparently her blonde hair and boobs would hold him back which, what the fuck??? 

What does that have to do with anything?

They love each other, right? That surface stuff isn’t supposed to matter. At all! They’re supposed to be together no matter what because they… they love each other?

Well fuck that noise, no one tells Chrissy Cunningham she’s too fucking blonde to do anything which is a hypocritical ass thing to say because has Jason looked in the fucking mirror recently?

Different fucking rules, apaprently. 

Well, no more.

She’s gonna fuck up law school right along side him and she’s gonna wear fucking pink while doing it too!

And like, everything is going fine. 

Chrissy’s not stupid, she knows how she’s perceived by people before they get to know her. 

Vapid, bimbo, perky, blonde.

Like that’s an insult.

It’s just harder now that she’s away from her girls, gays and theys back home. And everyone here seems to think that the best way to live their lives is to look boring as shit while doing it along with tearing each other down.

She fucking hates it, but she’s determined to see it through. 

It helps that she seems to have found the one person on the whole of the fucking east coast who actually listens to what’s coming out of her mouth rather than just paying attention to the hair on her head or staring at her tits.

Robin is so strange.

She’s different in such a refreshing way, it’s like being able to breathe clean air for the first time in years.

And she’s fucking sharp. And sweet. And so, so comforting. 

Chrissy would have never managed to survive the depression of those first few weeks without her.

And like, she’s not ignorant to the fact that Robin sometimes does look at her boobs but at the same time it just feels different coming from a woman than it does a man. It doesn’t feel so objectifying.

Instead of putting Chrissy on edge it makes her feel a little smug. A little proud of herself, it makes her feel attractive and desired in a way she hasn’t felt in a very long time. 

Is that sexist? To prefer the attentions of a woman over a man when both do it just fine for her?

Chrissy’s not exactly sure, but she knows she enjoys it when it’s coming from Robin.

So maybe it’s a Robin thing. 

Chrissy honestly thinks things are looking up for her. 

Until Jason introduces Nicole. 

His fucking fiancee???

It’s been, like, four months since they broke up.

Nicole hates her guts, she can tell. She thinks she’s some two braincelled idiot who got into Harvard on daddy’s dime and needs to be babied through the simplest of tasks while not understanding how condescending everyone’s been the whole time.

Chrissy fucking understands. She’s been through it all before, but back then she had people by her side. It’s all so fucking childish. The world already hates women enough, Chrissy desperately doesn’t want to be at another womans throat, over a man no less, but Nicole doesn’t seem to feel the same way.

She’s ambitious and cut-throat and dedicated and a little bit terrifying. 

Apart from Robin, she’s on her fucking own out here.

And she needs something. 

Something of home to bring some light back into her life.

So she gets in her car and just drives around the streets hoping something will catch her eye. 

And it does. 

Some tiny little hole in the wall salon with a pride flag out the front that she’s immediately drawn to because god damn it she misses her friends. The girls, the gays, the theys.

As soon as she pulls over she feels both simultaneously like she’s come home and she definitely won’t fit in here, but she’s so emotionally raw at this stage it all kinda ends up converging on her and now she’s standing in front of a mostly empty salon and there’s a guy looking at her and she’s just fucking crying.

Through her blurry vision she can see the guy approaching and she really fucking hopes this isn’t gonna turn into a thing because she just does not have any spoons left to deal with some creep right now. 

But he seems to sense how he’s coming off because he becomes a little more effeminate from one step to the next.

“You okay, honey?” He asks, big brown eyes wide with concern and a hand covered in rings hovering over her shoulder, not touching. He has a cigarette in the other hand, held away to keep the smoke from reaching her, his arms covered in ink but Chrissy wants nothing more than a cigarette right now.

Or, that’s kind of a lie, but she’d love one in all honesty. She hasn’t smoked in so long. 

The guy spots her eyeing it, sticking the cigarette back between his plush lips and needing to use both hands to pull his carton from his pants considering they’re so tight.

“Bad day?” He hands her one and Chrissy ends up breaking down all over again.

She tells him that it hasn’t just been a bad day, but a bad half a year, really. She tells him all about Harvard and Jason and her professors and Robin and by the end of her ranting they’re sitting back in the breakroom of the salon. They guy’s name is Eddie, she learns and despite his mean and scary exterior Chrissy thinks he might be the gentles person she’s met in this whole god forsaken city.

He holds her hands between his and listens to her. Actually hears her talk and pays attention and is concerned and attentive and she loves him for it. 

He helps her find her confidence again, at least for the rest of the day. They commiserate about how they both stick out like sore thumbs in their communities and how people need to just kinda get over it.

He encourages her not to let the normies win, do go hang out with Robin, to go kick ass and she’s just wondering how on earth she can ever repay the favour when they hear

“Knock, knock.” 

Coming from the front of the salon.

Eddie’s whole face drains of colour before immediately turning red and he bolts up from his chair, stumbling out of the staffroom and moving back behind the receptionists desk.

Chrissy gets to watch in real time as all of Eddie’s incredible confidence and easy lightheartedness disappears into a vat of nerves mostly hidden by cheeky flirtation as he twirls a lock of hair around his finger and bats his eyelashes at the Hot UPS Guy who looks equally as charmed. 

When the guy, Steve, has to get back to his route, Eddie practically melts against the desk as soon as he’s out of sight. 

“Looks like I’m not the only one who needs help.”

Eddie rolls his eyes at her but smiles anyway. “I had that handled just fine.”

Over the next few months, she and Eddie get closer, Eddie and Steve stay exactly where they were that first day and she and Robin are quickly approaching best friends level.

But Chrissy is starting to come to terms with the fact that maybe she wants a little more than to be best girly-girl friends with Robin and maybe she wants to stick her tongue down her throat about it. 

The two of them are practically attached at the hip, spending all day at classes together, alternating between their respective rooms to study late into the night, ending up in the same bed together and waking up together in the morning. 

Chrissy is almost, completely, entirely sure that this is all very not platonic but it’s so difficult to tell.

She’d be constantly sleeping over with her friends back home, hugging, kisses on cheeks, cuddling in bed or when watching movies, just girly things.

But this feels different. Is it different?? Or is this just how Robin is with all her female friends, the same way it’s always been how Chrissy was with her friends back home. How can she tell if it’s going from platonic to romantic??

And all of that needs to go on the backburner anyway because they’re being put on a real life, for realsies you guys case. And if they fuck up this case they could be at fault for someone spending the rest of their fucking life in prison for something they didn’t do??

Unacceptable.

And after Chrissy finds out their client used to be on the same cheer team as her? It was all over. No way was she gonna let her go to prison just because everyone thinks a pretty young woman couldn’t possibly love someone a little older than her. 

Not on Chrissy’s watch. 

But first she has to deal with Robin’s wardrobe because they professor is insistent that all the women wear skirts and tights and Robin is not having it.

Neither is Chrissy to be fair, so she takes Robin out to the most lavish place she can, decks them both out in the fiercest looking pantsuits they can get their hands on, refusing to back down.

It comes as a surprise to both of them when Nicole stands with them in solidarity as well and now their professor is both outnumbered and losing his arguments with only Jason on his side about this and they fucking win.

It’s only a small win but it still feels fantastic. 

Riding her high of winning that small fight, she bursts into the salon and informs Eddie that he is going to either kiss or ask out Steve the next time he sees him and when Eddie reacts like she just said she was going to shave all of his hair off she refuses to hear it. 

Because the thing is Eddie is pretty, really pretty and she knows that Steve knows it, but she doesn’t think that Eddie himself is really aware of it. And despite his prettiness, he’s all awkward elbows and knees. 

So she gives him some tips and shows him how to highlight certain things about himself, the long legs, the tattooed arms, the hip bones. Even his cute little bum. She teaches him how to subtly pull at his clothes in conversation so some skin is exposed or his tiny little waist is highlighted. She teaches him how to use his eyes to go in for the kill.

He doesn’t seem to think it’ll work but she is almost certain it will. 

And it’s confirmed for her when she gets a call later that night from Eddie who sounds fucking over the moon and completely bewildered by the fact that Steve likes him back??? Has done for months?? And they had some incredible dirty nasty sex in the salon after it closed for the night and how they’re going to the movies tomorrow??

Eddie swears he’s gonna send her the biggest fuck off fruit basket he can find. 

Everything is looking up for her, especially after she has such a major win in court, figuring out one of the prosecutors witnesses had perjured himself on the stand (without outing him to the whole damn court, thankfully).

Or at least everything was looking up for her until she found herself alone in a room with her professor and she felt the energy in the room shift before it happened. 

His hands were on her before she could do anything about it and she cracked him across the face for it before she could even think about what this could do to her legal career going forward. 

Because that was the reality of it, wasn’t it? 

Either allow herself to get assaulted or destroy her career before it even started. 

She didn’t know when her priority had shifted from getting Jason back to actually pursuing this as a future career. But she had found to her own surprise she loved it. She adored it actually. 

And now…

Now it would all be gone. 

Jason had seen, of course he had and he was less than kind about it because apparently it made more sense that she had fucked her way into Harvard than had actually been smart enough to get there on her own. 

She couldn’t stomach anything Nicole could possibly have to say to her but if the way she was glaring at Jason with barely concealed rage after that comment was anything to go by, Chrissy didn’t need to worry too much about that.

She just wanted to go. To get out. She needed to get out. And she would have gotten away scott free if Robin hadn’t been hanging around waiting for her.

Robin’s face broke into a bright smile but that quickly slipped away when she saw the state Chrissy was in. She was all sweet concern and care and affection but Chrissy couldn’t fucking deal with it at that moment, she couldn’t face her.

She couldn’t face Robin who would find out what a fool of herself she’d made believing in Chrissy, when Chrissy had thrown all of their hard work away.

Because no one would ever fucking see her as a person. She was just a piece of ass.

So she ran.

She didn’t even realise where she was running to until she was standing outside the salon doors again. 

It was late, they were closed, of course they were, why was she here?

She was standing outside the door crying again like she had been the first time and it was all just so fucking stupid-

“Chrissycakes?”

She was enveloped in Eddie’s arms before she could even blink, being ushered inside and steered back to the staffroom, same as that first time. 

There were beer bottles and take out containers over the table and Steve sitting at the table and oh, she’d interrupted something hadn’t she? 

What a fucking way to officially meet one of her best friends new boyfriend right?

But they were so sweet. 

They sat and listened while she spilled the whole thing, offering at different points to hunt down her professor for her or slash his tires or lose all of his mail or whatever and she was forced to giggle through the tears.

But she shook her head in the end. She was tired. She was sick of having to defend herself constantly. 

She needed… she needed to go back to where she belonged. 

And she was about to. 

She was about to leave the salon, swear to keep in contact with Eddie because god damn it she loved him now and she was ready to run.

But then there was a hammering at the door and Chrissy poked her head out to see Nicole standing there looking like she was on a fucking crusade. 

And… was that…?

Robin was standing behind her, looking like she was just trying not to get in Nicole’s way.

Eddie grumbled to himself about changing the damn salons opening hours if this was to continue but he unlocked the door anyway.

Nicole burst in all fire and determination, shoving her finger directly in Chrissy’s face.

“I hated you. But god fucking damn it if you didn’t prove to me that this is the career you belong in. And I refuse to stand by and see an admirable woman of your smarts and calibre get run over by some small dicked professor with a receding hairline. You’re so much more than that. So c’mon. We’re breaking through that fucking glass ceiling if it kills us.”

Holy shit.

Robin pulled her into a tight hug, warm and comforting and a little too long to be platonic, running a hand through her hair. 

“We’ll do whatever you’re comfortable with Chris, but… you deserve to be in that courtroom.” She muttered into her ear and Chrissy could do nothing but nod into Robin’s neck.

She heard Eddie sigh behind her. “Okay if we’re doing this then… I need to make a few calls.”

A few days later Chrissy made her triumphant return to the courtroom. Everyone was there to support her. Eddie, Steve, her besties from back home that Eddie had called, telling them it was a friend emergency and so of course they all came right away along with Robin and Nicole bracketing her on each side. 

And while she could tell the court wasn’t taking her rants on hair care very seriously, when she finally came out with the verbal crackdown, proving the witness was actually the murderer, the gasps from the gallery were enough to feed her for years to come. 

When all was said and done at the celebration later that night, she found herself being approached by Jason.

He told her it was a mistake to let her go, to discard her the way he had and she agreed that yes it was. But his mistakes weren’t her problem anymore. And from the look of it they weren’t Nicole’s problem either. 

Jason surprisingly took it well enough, mentioning that he never really felt the same passion for law that she so clearly possessed. 

She wished him luck with finding what he wanted to do.

But now.

Now she needed to find Robin. 

Chrissy couldn’t take it anymore.

So weaving through the people around her, she grabbed at Robin’s hand, dragging her away from Steve who she had become inseparable with and pushing her into the hallway.

Robin didn’t even have a chance to ask what was happening before Chrissy was on her, pressing her into a wall, holding her close with her hands on either side of her face, kissing her with so much longing and elation and joy and happiness that when she pulled away Robin looked completely dazed. 

Robin blinked slowly a few times before her face broke into a wide grin. 

“Me too.”

[merrock]

RULES UPDATED FOR 2024

While the vast majority of our rules haven't changed (though the page has gotten updated, with the rules re-written so that it's been refreshed in my mind), there are a few rule changes/updates that we want everyone to be aware of. So for today, we are asking everyone in the group to please read the rules thoroughly:

OUR RULES PAGE.

Under the cut, we will talk a little bit about some changes that we want everyone to be aware of! Giving this post a like once you have read the rules is always appreciated. xx

ONE: acceptance days changed, and a permanent cap of 30. for now, we have changed our acceptance days to Tuesday, Thursday & the weekends. Weekend availability will be 100% dependent on me! If I am around, I will accept. If not, I won't, but I will try! Since we feel like we are doing pretty alright right now, we will be keeping our writer cap at 30 for the time being. The best time to reach me is 5-10PM EST, and I do ask for patience with response times. Remember: as your admin team, just because we are online and doing replies doesn't mean we are instantly available here on main.

TWO: diversity rule updates. while our overall rule of 1/2 of your characters need to be diverse is absolutely staying the same, we are asking that one out of your first three characters be either bipoc (black or indigenous, or we will accept face claims who have no proximity to whiteness), gender diverse, body diverse or disabled. every other requirement has remained the same.

TWO POINT FIVE: everyone currently in the group is grandfathered in. this means we are not going to ask people to drop characters or change face claims. rather, we will just ask that if you pick up more characters, you be sure that you meet requirements if you aren't already. easy peasy! (everyone with current reserves is free to pick them up, as well.)

THREE: one of every three characters must pick up a WC. one out of every three characters that you pick up has to fill a wanted connection, not just the first three in this instance. in other words if you play 9, 3 of those had to have filled connections. this is pretty self-explanatory!

FOUR: slight changes to activity checks. it's just easier for me, to be completely honest, to do activity checks on an as-needed basis. we've found that scheduling them has the hang-up of some accounts sitting inactive for nearly a month before being re-opened. so checks will be done as we feel they are needed. actual expectations have not changed!

FIVE: a separate section for rules about starters. since we had quite a few rules about starters mixed in, we pulled info into its own little section. mostly, we have included reminders to not post more than one starter per day as a writer (this is new, but we feel it will help keep things spaced out and give all writers a chance to both reply to and get replies on starters without things being overwhelming), and a reminder to make sure that starters are accessible as far as location & actions -- and also just to reply to starters!

SIX: trigger warnings. while this isn't a new/updated rule, per se, we did want to post a reminder that all trigger warnings should be tagged with the same format, so people can blacklist them. please use the format trigger tw. you can see all of our triggers here, and never hesitate to shoot us an ask if there is something you would like to have tagged for your comfortability on dash. over the next couple of weeks, if we see people using other tags for TWs, we will just reach out with a little reminder, you are not in trouble, we're just trying to get everyone to use the same system!

PLEASE NOTE: if you have issues with any of these rules, or questions about the changes, you are always welcome to come talk to us, but we will not be addressing things on anonymous if they are combative at all, or make us uncomfortable; while this is your safe space, it's also ours.

[fereldanwench]

So I've been kind of wondering for the past couple of months if doing a revamp of my posing/photomode guide for AMM would still be a worthwhile endeavor.

One of the main reasons I made it was because back in the day, posing NPCs (especially any that didn't have the generic male locomotion) was not the most straightforward thing to do, to say the least. But when AMM got the major update that had poses built into the menu, I wasn't sure if it would really be needed in the same way, which put it pretty low on my list of priorities.*

*That guide was also very time-consuming to put together, and while I was happy to do it because I like sharing and organizing information, the main reason I was able to dedicate so much time to it was because I was unemployed. Which, both thankfully and regrettably (lmao), I haven't been for a year.

There are still some quirks with how poses work in AMM (like the way the poses reset if you unfreeze or move a character), but my guess is that it's probably a lot more accessible and a lot less confusing now than a year ago.

I think the support and development for PMU have also done a lot to make posing/expressions (especially for V) way easier than it was in the past.

But it's possible that all of this just seems so much easier to me because I've also been at it for a while now. I don't really feel like I have as much of a beat on where folks, especially newcomers, are with this stuff anymore--Maybe it still feels really overwhelming and incomprehensible.

So, to get to my point: would folks find an update/revamp of that guide beneficial?

I think if I did do one, I would probably streamline it a lot--It would probably just be a refreshed version of the little practice scene to use some spawned NPCs, lights, and maybe a decor item; I think that was what most people used in the current guide anyway. I wouldn't go through explaining how to install AMM, each menu tab in detail, locomotion stuff, etc.

I've also kind of gone back and forth on doing a couple of video tutorials. They'd be a lot easier and quicker for me than writing out step-by-step instructions. But, I know for me personally when I'm learning new processes and software and whatnot, I prefer text over video--Not sure if I'm the minority here.

Poll here for quick feedback, but if anyone wants to share any specific thoughts, questions, struggles, etc., feel free to reblog/comment to do so. (I might not respond to everyone, but I'll definitely read any feedback.)

[perryhedge]

Media Thread September 2022

I noticed a lot of people on Twitter making a media thread to keep track of everything they watched/read/anything in a month. I like that idea, and I think it's sort of what inspired me to make a Tumblr in the first place. The barrier to entry on this site is pretty low so it's a good place to dump thoughts. However, the barrier is not quite as low as Twitter, so I basically had this half-written for a long time without feeling ok making it a whole post. But you know what fuck it here we goooooo

Anime

I thought I watched more anime this month but I guess not. Makes sense what with Tadoku. This was the month I gave up on seasonal anime for the foreseeable future. For the most part I am not watching much new period, mostly sticking with long-running kids shows until I decide to watch some shorter shows in full again.

Yofukashi no Uta - Talked about this a little here but I really liked this! The colors, music, humor, voice acting, dialogue, and character designs are all great, and the show basically never stops being exciting and fun all the way through. I don't need them to make another season of this I think but it was a great time.

Gleipnir - Talked about this here. A strange show, but generally interesting and weird all the way through. Loved the OST, brutality of some of the action scenes, and just general strange tone. For a while everything felt edgy, but not in the played out way, in the sense that I actually felt on edge. Like a little bit nauseous sometimes honestly. Cool show.

Kieta Hatsukoi - Counting this as an anime because I will probably never watch enough J-dramas for that to be a section. Put this on on a whim and it's insane and hilarious, constant plot twists and over the top acting make this such a fun watch. Watched it with some friends too which was really refreshing.

Hamtaro - I'm still watching Hamtaro and it's still really cute. I like watching this without subtitles and I can pretty much understand most episodes now! But I do have to take frequent breaks to not burn out.

Crayon Shin Chan - Hilarious, expressive animation and a unique aesthetic make this a consistently fun watch. That said I haven't watched in a while because a) I'm waiting on Buriburi encodes and b) it's a bit difficult for me to understand some episodes without subs so I am waiting for it to click.

Manga

I read a ton of manga this month. Like almost 50 volumes. I'm pretty confident I haven't read this much manga in a month ever before. Part of it was the Tadoku reading contest. But at a certain point I realized it was just really fun to read manga in Japanese, I don't even think I need a spreadsheet or anything anymore. It's just fun.

One Piece - This month One Piece has been getting into the swing of things. Some of the most exciting times to be reading this manga weekly are the bits in between big arcs, and this is no exception. Since the world is so huge and there are so many characters we love, it is immensely satisfying to see the story just smack around a few dominos and set the whole chaotic system into frenzied, unpredictable motion. The thing with One Piece is it can go pretty much anywhere, and it's immensely satisfying when these interstitial arcs happen to remind you of that.

Look Back - Picked up the Japanese edition at a bookstore in like April and could not read it at all. I read it finally this month and it was really great! Melancholy, nostalgic, cinematic, it's just a really clever and coherent one shot with amazing art and expressions and a really interesting structure.

Giant Ojousama Vol 3 - The tokusatsu parody fetish manga is back and it's still way better than it has any right to be. This manga is written by someone who is having a ton of fun, and the way it uses callback gags to build a ridiculous continuity is something I love to see. It reminds me of something like Venture Bros in that sense. The character designs and gags are also amazing, and the action is very good too. I'm not kidding!! It's a good manga!!!

Tomodachi Game Vol 6-7 - It's alright. Art is honestly not very good. Weak characters and every game ending in a clever anticlimax just put me off the series, but does have a certain addictive quality to it. Dropped.

Gleipnir Vol 6 - 12 - after the anime adapted portion this goes off the fucking rails. I do like some of the hellish imagery and creature designs, but man I could not tell you what is going on anymore. There was a very clear point the manga should have ended, and that entire volume was really cool and exciting, but the bits after that have me scratching my head. I guess it's still pretty cool though.

Tokyo Mew Mew Vol 1-3 - Some thoughts here. The villains are not very interesting or appealing and the plot kicked in in a strangely anemic way. I do like the last Mew Mew design but it looks like this is heading towards a generic magical girl narrative structure, so I have a good feeling the best parts of the manga are behind me. Tentative drop, but it was a good time.

Tenshi Nanka Janai Vol 4-5 - continuing a long-running group read, this manga keeps getting better. The way characters interact with each other is often surprising to me, but they never interact in a "manga" way. The characters, cartoony as they may be, feel real and subtle, and that makes some of the plot developments hit really hard. There's also the fact that the layouts get better and better, and each page looks completely different than any other page. It makes it hard to binge (this is true of a lot of shoujo for me) but I do really like the creativity.

Tiger & Dragon Vol 1-2 - I saw a picture of the volume cover of this on Twitter or something and had to check it out. And guess what! It's super cute. The main character is cute, the two boys are cute, the premise is cute, it's all just cute. I am a bit worried since the mangaka mentions she doesn't know where this is all going, but for the time being it's just so much fun and I love the lighthearted love triangle hijinks. I don't know why! It's just cute!

Tokyo Revengers Vol 7-29 - Oh boy this is the big one. I'm actually too tired to say much about this, but just know that the reason I melted through 23+ volumes in a month is because this is one of the most addicting manga I've ever read. There are plenty of flaws, sure, and the last arc is equal parts confusing and infuriating, but when it's good it's good and when it's not I still have to know what happens next. Not a perfect one, but a manga that definitely reminded me of what I like about manga in a way I haven't felt in a long time.

Beelzebub Vol 1-4 - After catching up with Tokyo Revengers I decided to check out this nostalgic read for more furyou content. Honestly, it's a little disappointing. I think a lot of the things that read to me as novel now just read as stale or lazily self-aware, and the action is not as good as I remember. That said, there are still plenty of good gags, and it's getting interesting right about now. Like a lot of long manga it needs a bit of setup, and it's fun enough that I will give it a chance to try something more ambitious. I generally do like the "first big arc" in a lot of WSJ stuff, and just seeing the long build up leading to the arc that the mangaka has to put their all into or else they might get axed is just a thrill every time for me, I don't know. But yeah I used to think this was underrated, I think I understand now that it's perfectly rated.

Bokura no Shokutaku - absolute gem of a manga, I wrote a short review here. Very sweet, reminds me of another manga Restart wa Tadaima no ato de. I love the art, the vulnerable and honest relationship between the main couple, and the more or less complete lack of conflict in favor of essentially a light fluffy fantasy romance.

Games

I don't usually play a lot of games...

Dragon Quest- I wrote a review here. It was pretty fun, played it in Japanese, thought it was charming and clever and did not overstay its welcome.

Youtube

I watched a lot of Youtube as always but I feel too ashamed to post most of what I watched. I don't have that much shame though so let me talk to you about vtubers

Vtubers

I initially planned to watch a whole lot of Okayu's RPG streams as part of a Japanese listening challenge. The idea is that a narrow domain is easier to master, and Okayu was a good candidate because she speaks sort of normally and I like her down to earth personality. For some reason though, I kind of very quickly lost interest as is often the case with long projects that I plan out like this. Instead, I watched a lot of Roboco for reasons I could not possibly explain. I guess I just like how strange she is, in a sense her commentary is more interesting since you never know what she's going to say next -- not the case with Okayu who is pretty sensible. I also developed a strange fascination with the baseball sim Power Pros, and watched a decent chunk of Nishizono Chigusa's playthrough of it. I could not possibly play this myself, so this is a good substitute. I feel like she understands the game as much as I do, which is to say not a lot, and I like the upbeat and energetic commentary. Still can't really get into streams (video game streams at least, I can understand the free talk streams a lot more) since they're frankly pretty boring, but as something in the background while cooking, with the motivation of Japanese study, or just as a way to enjoy a game I won't play otherwise, they can be pretty fun.

Other

im a blisy / papa jefe - I've always had a fascination with the gen 3 Pokemon games in particular and those are the ones I've played the most over the years (I once caught every single one in Emerald). These two channels showcase some of the insanely powerful RNG manipulations that have been developed over the years by passionate fans. That's what I like about this game, for whatever reason a lot of people are obsessive over this one particularly, and as a result the game has been analyzed and broken down to a science. I like looking at the speedruns of gen 3, but the tricks in these videos go far beyond even that. Seeing the magic that you can do without doing any hacking at all is just amazing, plus now that I'm older and have some programming knowledge it's interesting to see some of the technical solutions they come up with, though to be a honest a lot of it goes over my head still.

GoufyGoggs - Didn't watch a ton of this channel because it's mostly about action games which I don't really play, but it's exactly that perspective that is interesting to me. She has a very interesting conception of games and what makes them work, and it's so much deeper than I've ever seen anyone talk about video games. I really like the idea of an analysis that actually dives into the specifics of mechanics and how they impact the flow of the game, rather than just the lazy rating out of 10 or the dodge that is focusing on writing/aesthetic. I didn't realize it myself but I too have often taken the cowardly route of just describing what I like about a game as what I like about its aesthetic, and this channel made me think more about analyzing things in a more serious way.

Action Button - I just like how he writes, he's funny and weird and ambitious. No other "video essay" type Youtuber will ever come close, because none of them are writers, they're video essayists, and for better or for worse Tim Rogers is a writer. Some of the sentences this man comes up with are just out of this world.

The Electric Underground - Found this guy through GoufyGoggs and again, just a completely novel (to me) and interesting perspective about games that just blows anything I've ever seen out of the water. His focus is specifically shootemups, which I have no knowledge of. I didn't realize there was so much to say about this genre, let alone so many specific and intelligent insights. I don't know if I'll watch a lot of this channel because again, I don't even play these games, but it just makes me happy to know that what I thought was just a very simple arcade game genre is actually a passionate topic of discussion amongst some people.

wondermagenta - Okay last one. Another Youtube video about games, this one I really just do like his personality. Most of his videos (not the one I linked) are off the cuff and feel very raw and spontaneous, yet he takes games so seriously and has so many interesting insights on them that I just find it fascinating. Again, not my genre -- he mostly seems to enjoy action RPGs like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta which frankly look hideous to me, but the way he describes them as the peak of his particular ideal of expressiveness in games has me nodding my head anyway. This is someone who not only loves games, but loves thinking about games and talking about them, and again I didn't really know that was something you could do, since most people who play a lot of video games have next to nothing to actually say about them. I think after watching a lot of his videos I'm pretty much done with my "interest in video game Youtube analysis" phase, at least for now, but it was really fun and interesting to explore this new (to me) world.