#my bf's design hardly changed because he liked his original design the most

[thunderc1an]

Recently updated my bf's and my warrior/cat-sona

[fleshblueberry]

Babe wake up im going to rant about my ocs lore because im bored

Tw/cw depression, suicide, kidnapping, addiction, unreality

I write angsty stuff for my ocs oops-

When i first started making my characters they were very different in alot of ways and they were very different from what they are now. But i some how managed to glue all the chaos of my ocs together into a semi-coherent story. I went through an insane amount of world building with myself and i honestly dont think ive ever writen or typed any of it out before! its all just up in my head (and you know my memory is trash so ive probably forgotten of alot of things i made before lol). Anyways- i have two main story lines for my characters. Ethan's story, and Vevlet's story. Although i must admit Ethan's story is less complex than velvets simply beacsue it acts as a story of prequeal to Velvets story line. (Alternate realities that happen to have effect on each other basically- we love space time junk)

Ethan's world is very similar to ours, the most similar out of any of my fantasy worlds lol. Ethan's story revolves around self-discovery. I mean for it to be a wholesome/lighthearted thing that quickly leads up to dark undertones (spoilers lol). Ethan's story begins with Eef pre-transition (AFAB to NB). We get to see Ethan learn about themself and have fun exploring emotions and what it means to be alive. Ethan comes from a run-down family (mom khs, dad mia). So he lives with his adoptive parents (who i have yet to design and think about- theyre lesbians 100% though). A major moment for Eef is meeting his partner Seth. As you already know Ethan and Seth are cute ass boyfriends and stuff but guess what! im jammed their story full of angst and edgy shit bc i "wrote" most of this when i was hella depressed! Anyways Seth's family is like moderally welathy, wealthier than most i would say. Seth catches feelings for the emo chick ofc (forgot to metion Eef was definately a hot goth girl before he transitions).... uh yea anyways seth ends up flirting and crushing on eef and eef is like yea sure im bored and sad why not. and they end up dating after a while. Theres an important moment in their relationship when Ethan take Seth to this dead tree. THis dead tree is very important also bc it is where his mother hanged herself, and Ethan doesnt quite remember that bc he was very young when it happened, but he knows it as a place of comfort and he goes there alot when he feels sad or alone. this tree could be taken as symbolizim but heheh ill never tell. anyways Ethan is like yo my fevorite tree and Seth is like wtf okay bro ily and all but why a dead tree with an unstable tire swing?? ANd ethans like idk but i like it here reminds me of my childhood (op my guy) and they spend the night there. Also when ethan comes out to seth as nonbinary seth is just like ok,,, because hes bisexual lol. anyways time skip and Seth has some addiction problems once he graduates, long story short- Ethan doesnt like it bc his dad was a druggie so he trys to help Seth and Seth raises his voice and ethan is tiny compared to his bf so hes naturally like terrified of being hit and he suddenly feels his world of happy and peace he build back up bieng destroyed once again so he heads to his mothers dead tree and decides life isnt worth it anymore, and he hangs himself in the exact spot his mother did.... once seth comes off one of his highs or whatever hes like- oh fuck i yelled and acted agro to my traumatized partner. and he immedatly goes to the tree bc its Ethans favortie spot but its to late. regret is the only emootion anymore... its over for them.

now youre probably wondering how the absolute hell does that tie into velvets lore?? well do i have a tale for you. Velvets sotry begins on her 21st birthday, she is out for drinks with her douchebag bf and her bestfriend. several drinks later she yells over blaring club music shes going to the restroom, and as shes walking back she sees her bf and her bestie making out and she doesnt even say anyhting and walks out alone. She is making her way back to her apartment very tipsy. She then hears a vechile driving beside her, she cant make out anyhting theyre saying and the people in the car get out and before she even relises whats going on shes thrown into the vechile and is being beaten and yelled at. She passes out as theyre driivng to somewhere. When she next awakes she is in a barn-looking place. Concreate walls painted red and straw all over the floor. she cant stand, her legs stung and so did her entire body. for several days- she doesnt know how long she stayed in this place unable to move or do anything. Weak and starving, she gathered up her last bit of strength and hung herself on a low board (havent really worked out the details on that scence bc i keep changing my mind but she does hang herself). Cut to a space of nothingness- legit nothing- exactly its impossible to imagine nothing. In the nothing sits velvet all skin and bone, and then an entity, a hooded figure with long hair, sits next to her. No words are spoke, but the entity looks at velvet longingly. Then it tears out its eye- just full on plunges its hand into its socket and rips it out. bloody mess honestly. the entity hands its eye to velvet, and she takes it. there is no thoughts here, no sound, only actions. Cut once more to a coriners room place? ya know the place with dead bodies and tables and shit- anyways a bright light emerges from dead!vevlets chest and surrounds her entire body. *cue stunned doctor mans* Velvet arises from her death with her scars healed over and... wings. Yup shes an angel now. I mean her world already had monsters and things of suppernatural belonging but- angels are rare. She makes 1 of 2 angels in their relam as of current. Angels are "made" from regrets. Regret overflowing from two sources- one long dead and the other recent. This is where ethan comes in. Ethan's regret from how he died was powerful and sad, powerful enough for his spirt- an entity- to reach Velvets. Velvet too, had much regret in her death. So young and so many things that could have been avoided. In the days following up to her death in the barn/cellar she only felt regret. Regret for all she did and all she didnt do. So much pain summoned the entity. Their powerful forces of regret pulled them together and allowed Velvet to return- but at a price for the both of them. the entity lost its eye- symbolizing a loss of humanity and conscientiousness. While Velvet lost herself, she no longer can view her world in the same way. She has severe ptsd- like episodes and halucinations. She cant go back, she has to live through he own grief. Velvets appearnace also changes quite a bit. Her hair got longer, she has two sleek gray wings on her back, and- one of her eyes are purple now. why does it hrut her to see that eye? why is it all so familiar yet far away. Her human brain can hardly understand all the changes. But she was gifted this- she knows she must try. And luckily for her society sees angels as higher beings. They are given the umost respect but they are also greatly feared because of how misterious their origins are. The only other known angel meets with velvet quite alot through her story, he will act as a sort of guide/plot device to make things a bit easier for myself (havent worked out his lore tho or even a design for him hjbfkjsdb). Anyways im tired and its 1:35 am so thats all the lore you get for now, plus its the stuff ive thought about the most so- i dont really want to think any furtherb ahead yet lol. to many little things to work out...... i love creating but oml typing hurts after an hour or so-

Jam out!

... I don't even know what to say to this

[perksofwifi]

Building this 1979 Pontiac Firebird was a Form of Therapy for a Veteran

Stories don’t always begin with the featured vehicle. This 1979 Pontiac Firebird actually began with a 1967 Chevy pickup. I photographed that C10 for sister publication Classic Trucks. It was exceptional beyond the sum of its parts: Tony Scalicci transformed it from hardly more than a frame and bits of a rusty cab into a top-shelf Pro Touring rig that made the cover of a national magazine. And he did it in like a year. But that’s not even the impressive part: it was his first shot at building anything. This is a busy dude with a big family and a serious job.

This article was originally featured on HOT ROD. For more stories like this, check out the HOT ROD Network.

When pressed for the secret to success he revealed something that most wouldn’t associate as any sort of benefit to car building: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Tony is one of the near-countless veterans affected by their service. PTSD manifests in just as many ways. “Specifically, I over-think,” Tony explains. “I can’t turn my brain off. When I don’t have anything to do—meaning I don’t have something to focus on—I get overwhelmed with thoughts that I shouldn’t be having.” Building things trains his mind on something more positive. “I use that therapy to go to the next car.”

This is that next car. In fact, there have been so many next cars that Tony went into business building cars for others at G Rods Garage in Chehalis, Washington. But while building that truck, Tony discovered something that changed his life: Autocross. Specifically, the Optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge. As he quickly learned, the truck he built had more of the appearance of a racecar than the performance of one. To remedy that, he had to start from scratch.

His inspiration for it was as unlikely as the backbone of his productivity. “My grandmother bought a brand-new Trans-Am in 1979,” he reminisces. “At Optima you want to show up with something that’s different from everything else. I’d never seen a Trans-Am.” After some searching, Tony found a derelict project. “The guy blew it into a million pieces and gave up,” he says. The car came together around Speedtech Performance’s successful Track Time suspension, a system that uses the company’s interpretation of the torque-arm that helped make the third-gen F-body so successful.

For power, Tony had Tory Eaton build an LSA with a raft of parts from Lingenfelter Performance Engineering: a ported 1.9 Eaton supercharger, ported heads, and a Brian Tooley Racing cam. Eric Armstrong at Armstrong’s Automotive and Performance Center in Enumclaw coaxed 722 hp and 640 lb-ft torque from the healthy combination. What that engine drives is unexpected: a Tremec TR6060. It’s basically the venerable T56 with a host of improvements like triple-synchronized first and second gears and double-synchronization on all others including reverse. A one-piece countershaft also gives the trans a 600 lb-ft torque capacity. However, the gearbox presented a few problems. Because GM intended it for the IRS-equipped Camaro, it has an output coupling that requires a slip-yoke driveshaft. The transmission is also much bigger. “You have to raise the floor to fit the trans,” he says. “It’s bigger back there.”

Tony modified the body in ways that escape notice but make the car function better. Naturally, he tubbed the rear but to get 335/30ZR18s to tuck, but he also had to slice the rear quarter panels lengthwise over the wheels and fill the gap that emerged. “Everybody thought it was awesome, but it was the easiest thing you can do,” he assures. To get 315s on the front, he pulled out the leading lower edges of the fenders out. That widened the nose at the bottom, so he cut up two bumper fascia on either side of the center and grafted them together with a scarf joint and urethane adhesive. Tony worked with Boze Alloys to create this design that borrows everything from the snowflake…except the weight. They measure 18×9 and 18×10 and mount 315/35R18 and 335/30R18 BF Goodrich g-Force Rivals

The feature that makes the car distinctive—the T-tops—also made it a lot harder to build for track use, because they compromise the structural integrity of the body. To combat the potential chassis flex, built an eight-point rollcage from .095-inch wall-thickness tube. He used 1 3/4-inch tubing for everything right up to the tops of the A-pillars and sail panels. From there he spanned the top with 1 ¼-inch  tubing. “I would’ve gone thinner-wall, but I couldn’t find chromoly in the diameters that I wanted,” he says. What’s especially noteworthy is how Tony routed the tubing. He removed the inner roof panels, tucked the tubes into it, modified the inner panels to fit, then welded everything back together. The only evidence is a bulge in the inner A-pillars.

Though effective, the design has secondary consequences. Because he had to snake the tube across the roof to go through the T-top spine, there’s a lot of material in there. And because he had to run heavier-wall tube to get the sizes he needed, that extra material is kind of heavy. Adding to that weight is the full interior that Tony Miller at Stitches Custom Upholstery created. In total, the car is 400 pounds heavier than the class minimum.

“It was crazy just how much it hurt lap times,” Tony admits. “I really thought horsepower would overcome the weight.” He cites a buddy who turns faster lap times despite reduced power. “It’s lighter—he was below the 3,200-pound weight minimum whereas I was 3,525.” Furthermore, his friend had the advantage of ballast. “He put the weight where it did the most good.”

Though heavy, his 1979 Pontiac Firebird performed beyond expectations. “I can’t remember how we placed in the first race (in Las Vegas), but in the last race, I finished in the top-five.” The race between those will go down in infamy; at the Fontana meet, an aggressive speed bump bent an exhaust outlet upward, directing hot gases at the urethane bumper which ultimately caught fire. “By the time I noticed it, I’d done two laps,” he says, laughing. “I walked away pretty cool about it, but the photos quickly became memes.” He had the car not just track-ready but repainted within 14 days.

Tony once again found himself in a similar predicament as he encountered with his pickup: he learned a bunch more that he couldn’t address without basically starting from scratch. “If I could’ve thrown carbon doors at it, I think I could’ve consistently been in the top three with it,” he speculates. “But at $2,500 to $3,000 a door, it just wasn’t worth it.”

Obviously, the story about this car didn’t start with this car, and it doesn’t end with it, either. Tony recently bought a third-gen Camaro. “It’s crazy how much lighter it is,” he marvels. With LS power but otherwise stock with a full interior and half a tank of gas it weighs 3,030 pounds, well below the 3,200-pound threshold giving him plenty of ballast potential. And with a Lingenfelter LS7, a sequential Tremec, Heidt’s front clip and IRS, plus Tony’s creative gumption, it can’t help but run hard.

“When I built this car I looked at things differently,” Tony says. “I thought, ‘Well this is what the rules say’, but there’s a gray area – a huge gray area. A lot of the guys I run with, have been doing this for four or five years. They’re really good at that gray area.”

The post Building this 1979 Pontiac Firebird was a Form of Therapy for a Veteran appeared first on MotorTrend.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/1979-pontiac-firebird-custom-car-by-veteran/ visto antes em https://www.motortrend.com