#minus the long bits

[majyykdust]

i saw a photoset of a model w a haircut that immediately made me think of nepeta

[ruubesz-draws]

THE REAL BABY MAN!!!!

[zecoritheweirdone]

eyyyy,, guess who's been drawing more of that hc x msa au?

been making a lot of scene redraws/edits for the past few days,, buuut i'm not quite done with them yet,, so i'll prolly share them another time. until then- here's a lil pearl design! mostly made these to finalize her design,, since the next scene i'm doing involves lewis,, sksnsks.

[seaofreverie]

Sparkstember Day 26: A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip (Pacific Standard Time)

My feelings about A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip are as follows: 💖💙💞💛🖤💖💙💞💕. Yeah that sums it up. But ok, for real now. I have a long and personal history with this album, which... no, I don't actually have a long history with it, so maybe that only makes its personal significance to me even more amazing in nature. Got it as a christmas gift last year, been listening to it and enjoying it and occasionally crying to it and experiencing other beautiful emotions with it ever since. It's the kind of thing where I feel like a part of my very *soul* lies there, you know, right from the start.

How do I put it without sounding too dramatic. Well, it's probably the most comforting album for me that I can think of. It's in the music, but also in how Sparks themselves have this sort of presence of a spark of light in the dark for me currently, which I'm sure is something that many other people can relate to. It reminds me of how time will pass and things will change but you can always find something beautiful in midst of it all that can be your new home. And it TRULY feels exactly like this: I can just put this album on or even just think about doing that, and I'm immediately filled with warm fuzzy feelings and everything seems not quite as dark as it just seemed moments ago.

There's something deeply personal and resonating about ASDDD that I can't find on even any other Sparks album. And a big part of it is... drumroll... the lyrics (because I suppose I don't pay QUITE as much attention to those most of the time). This has got to be my favourite Sparks album in that aspect, definitely. I love how there's lots about being an artist, about achieving something, about feelings of inadequacy, fear, and about meaning and purpose too... And maybe less "strange" subjects than usual but still, the trademark Sparks humour never leaves and the more heartfelt elements of their work can shine even more!

I also think that this album is really just fantastic in every way, and has so many instant classics that feel like they've been with us forever rather than for only about 4 years. And something else that I nearly forgot, because I think this very special and cool thing about ASDDD especially is how it mixes synths and electronic, spacey sounds with acoustic guitar, and a more earthy sound, so to speak... and it's honestly just so perfect to me, how well it works here.

Another thing that occurred to me this morning when I was listening to Hippopotamus (and trying not to cry lol, been really feeling all the feelings of appreciation and love that I have for Sparks over these past couple of days), is how there's something so special and inimitable about Sparks in this era especially. I love their 00s renaissance era for all its artistry and brilliance and how it's them reinventing themselves completely all over again... But this - these last couple of years, is where the HEART of it all really shows I think. I just get this overwhelming feeling that they're doing exactly what they want to be doing, the way they want to do it, and they're having so much fun with it too. It's so clear not just in the music itself, but their live shows, and everything else... And what can I say, thinking about it this way leaves me all :'))))

No point in counting off almost all of the songs and only leaving out a couple, when they're all so great and either among my top favourites or on their way of joining those ranks, so I'm just going to go over a few of them now... What I could call my Top 3 probably.

All That

I mean. .. This song is so cool because it has such a closer feeling (and appropriately enough that's what it's used as during live shows) but it's still an opener of the whole album and, yes, it works. I guess it really tells you all you need to know about what else is to come right away. Fun fact: this is both my parents' favourite Sparks song, and yeah I got this album as a gift from my dad actually, and he says that this song sounds like it came right from the 80s and is this whole beloved classic song. Makes sense why it'd be their favourite then! And truly speaks in favour of how Sparks are just making modern classics like it's nothing. Besides that... this songs is truly All That and more. I don't know man! I started writing about every song on this album a couple months ago and then forgot about it so it's only half finished, and All That is one of those songs that I only managed to come up with maybe one sentence for at that time. It's a lot! And it's so utterly beautiful!

Pacific Standard Time

As I've said before, I don't really like making definitive statements like these most of the time, but if I REALLY had to pick just one... Sure, this might be my #1 favourite Sparks song (and #1 favourite song overall honestly, if we follow that route??). That whole effect of "everything's ok when I listen to this" - yep, this is where it reaches its peak. Most comforting song ever, no competition (maybeeee All That could come kind of close, but that one makes me cry too much to be truly comforting actually, haha)

Self-Effacing

Love the lyrics, love the whole thing, the acoustic guitar plus the organ work so well together. This song has both the energy and the hopeful spirit that makes me very happy, and it never fully left my mind ever since I first heard it

[tulipsnflowers]

Hey everyone go read seasons of change by @zscyber if you like long fics. Seriously.

I realize this is not for the last chapter but if I drew anything for that it would be me punching the lights out of Xanders so let's not

I already ranted about it in a different post but by God is the fic great! I can't wait for TDAD. Mostly because of James but there's going to be so much angst in general.

[the-dragon-girl-27]

Would you rather have unlimited gay or unlimited Kid Icarus for the NES on the Wii U Virtual Console?

I'm already the unlimited gay so I would rather have unlimited Kid Icarus: Uprising for the Nintendo 3DS

[toxooz]

So uhhh...how ruthless and dark can lilac be?

me seeing the name Lilac in my ask box tbh pfft���

UM boi its been a minute and all my love for Lilac resurfaced i gotta draw him soon AAAA(and honestlyy redesign him a bit) but anyway I'd say Lilac is a pretty kind spirit but at the end of the day he's meant to represent the whole notion of nature, life, and the innerworkings of ecosystems and how that must stay balanced by any means necessary and, from the human perspective heavily influenced by empathy, may seem cruel and uncaring at times but it is simply his duty as a spirit of that world. Like in this world nature may seem cruel ei. a male lion killing any male lion cubs to prevent future competitors, or a mother stork throwing her own young out of the nest because it's chances of survival would be hindering to the rest, a monitor lizard biting prey and following it as it slowly dies from the infection, how typically large prey animals Will obliterate Anything that it feels threatened by, the list goes ON and on but that's simply how life works on this planet and how certain animals are designed to live and survive in their own way. Lilac may assist and can create life ( his specialty is plants, more complex organisms are a little more complicated for him) and can take life away, but he typically keeps his hands off and lets nature do it's own thing. Any territorial battles amongst harpies he *usually* stays neutral since in his eyes it is merely territorial disputes which again is natural as certain territories can cycle through with time. If there is a species that is overrunning the ecosystem Lilac will eliminate however many members of said species until it is balanced again, if there is a forest fire from a lightning bolt he will reside in that area and help the harpies rebuild and survive until it's as if it never happened that's just How He Is. So ig he can be as ruthless and dark as nature can be, in fact Valon's main resentment toward Lilac is that Lilac shows no outward remorse for how Valon got his cards dealt- Valon was the runt of the nest, as a result was bullied and singled out by his siblings(even tried to be killed by them) and was ultimately thrown out of the nest whenever difficult times arrived, but managed to survive the fall and grew up carrying that bitterness of 'why didn't you care enough to help me live you were just going to let me die a miserable death if it meant 'keeping the balance through natural selection??'. He hates that he can't get a reaction out of Lilac when it comes to that topic which ultimately leads to him only half accidentally waking up Gracrux and surprise surprise throwing off the entire ecosystem with the mass destruction from Gracrux's wrath which all that lore abt the harpies n such can be read here>> X

Even if Lilac does feel bad for Valon or any other creature that doesn't make it, the bottom line is it is what it is and there are a multitude of reasons why he cant help every single harpy out there just because he feels bad so he prefers to stay stoic and unwavering about it. However if anyone from any other world discovers the harpy portal and Lilac finds out he Will be as cruel as a territorial hippo if he must😳 so Cinder better watch his everlovin asssss lmfao

[dracomeir]

Creature <3

Minus Darnell design by @raiy-yn

[the-admin-behind-the-slaughter]

So. Not sure if it's spoilers or anything for the RP blog. But is your version of Afton going to be an au version now instead since like. The whole current update and all that stuff happened. Ermmm yah! :3

Or is he going to be the silly evil guy afton that was revealed in the game

I'm sorry I wasn't sure which blog to ask this on 🙏🙏 (and sorry if this has been answered before lol)

I'd like to think he has range as most people in real life are complicated. He's still going to be Afton and not an AU rendition.

(Unless you count the whole "got your nose" spiel as an AU)

I'm still keeping his current characterization because:

To me it would not make sense for him to just act outwardly hostile when he's trying to hide the fact that he's committing war crimes from strangers.

Its the characterization I've already established on the blog and it would be jarring for him to start acting different.

Another thing I'd like to add is I think it adds a duality to his character. It begs the question: Is he acting nice out of compensation or is he like this because he himself has a caring quality to him despite the atrocities?

[1eyedstar]

:3

(☆w눈)/ its been awhile

I've missed being here 🥺

[shikai-the-storyteller]

I'm so burnt out and stressed about a variety of things lately, but a funny / sweet coincidence recently happened that I wanted to share:

Last week, I had a university student reach out to me (via my work email) asking for resources / advice on their research paper because I've written a lot of articles about the thing they're writing about. (I just got back to them today and they were real sweet, I'm excited to see how their paper turns out)

A week or two ago, I had someone reach out to me on RA asking for some specific clip info / date info because they were doing a research paper about Pac, and today I saw that they published their paper and put a special thanks to RA in the notes :')

I just think it's very sweet and a funny coincidence that my work (professional and fandom work) is getting cited in research papers. It made me smile a lot, I genuinely love that.

[lordsardine]

.

[naritaren]

I got through my very long work day with no neck breaks and just my new med. It took until just now for my neck to start hurting.

This is good. I can work with this.

[ikemenomegas]

I can't watch anything anymore [swoons in an overdramatic fashion to a fainting couch] turned on an ep of jjk and got Sad remembering how these characters dig themselves to an inevitable end. turned on an ep of naruto like that's better, saw Asuma then Itachi in the opening and couldn't make it past that (bluebird will always be one of my favorite naruto openings because it's so filled with longing but...) I know very well this is my own fault and my own taste but I still want to complain about it. No wonder I end up watching so many cooking shows

[bakatenshii]

is this the longest fic I’ll ever have written? (maybe)

[volfoss]

50k words yoppee!