#my first time trying gradient text

[kaq3yma]

BEEP BEEP! sakura haruka.

syn: it is your first date with him, how did it go? it was alright... but did you expect it to buzz? no.

୨୧ qeena's brief note: elloo, anouncing a (kinda) new theme with a sakura haruka scribble yippieee >w< i know the theme lowk similar to my old one as it still a pink&green theme but hey, can't help the fact im a hardcore soft pink and pale green girlie (•؎ •) i have this idea based off this one tweet meme i saw couple months prior (⁠╥⁠﹏⁠╥⁠) sorrryyy but i can't remember the exact account but i think yall know shskssks anyway, let me know what you guys think about this scribble & the new theme, will appreciate all ur kind words <3 that's all, thank you, i love you, reblogs and comments are very much appreciated and happy reading xoxo 🍡

. . . imagine you're on a date, on your very, very first date with a guy you're oh-so in love with, Sakura Haruka. The date went smoothly, he pick you up at your meeting spot, Kotoha's diner, and after that you two ate together. You get to browse all over town, trying dishes and stroll around. It's indeed a fun day.

However, the dual-colored hair boy still can't help but shy away to your touch. You don't mind that he don't want to hug, heck, even pecks, but you wish at least he don't mind holding hands, cling your arm around him or even be at a close proximity.

The date turn sour almost drastically when you subconsciously pull his arm out of excitement because you saw a familiar ice cream van stall, one you'd used to buy but he pull his hand away, and instead tucking it in his pocket.

The entire hour after the incident was a confused Sakura (try to) cheer you up but failed miserably and the date happened to end quickly as time flies. Sakura walk you home, taking short strides behind your almost-slouched figure upfront. His face burn in embarrassment and confusion, not knowing how to act, what to do and what to say.

"... I—"

"We're here." The sudden spoke of words cause him to halt his words into half, poor boy is bewildered because he thought he have more time with you until you both arrived at your home, well, you both did arrived quicker than his (pea) brain can comprehend.

"I'll see you tomorrow, good bye—" Someone can ask previous Sakura if he ever expect this Sakura to do something unexpected, so unexpected he shocked both himself and you and he'd say no but yes, it somehow is happening.

He lean down, almost uncharacteristically to close the gap between you two and seal the night with a kiss, short enough yet still manage to pull your breath away.

"I—"

"Beep, beep. Abnormal heart rate detected." His face almost explode into thousands (millions) shades of red.

[shrews-art]

Soooo I have this college AU in the making if anyone is interested?

[simplydnp]

WAD: Cover Art

dan is still working on selling the distribution rights for We're All Doomed! so i decided to make some DVD/Blu-ray disc jacket art!

this is my attempt at a traditional jacket design! none of the images used are mine, but i did create the concept and design:

as i was making the first one for myself, i was struck by the fact that 'well, it's for me, so it doesn't have to look like a stereotypical jacket cover' which led me to be more artsy in my approach for the next one:

i was really enjoying the creativity and space to explore, so i went looking for more inspiration for a third design. this led me to dan's favourite Muse album: Origin of Symmetry, which i paid homage to:

after the first Muse album, i looked at their catalogue to see if there was more inspiration there. i was just thankful dan's favourite was easy stylistically to mimic, unlike say, 2009's The Resistance...

thank you @danielhowell for the inspiration!

nerdy stuff & reference pics below the cut!

General notes

i don't know how to use photoshop! i entirely brute-forced my way through the whole project, and the only tutorial i looked up was for the gradient text in the 4th cover

this wasn't even the original project i was working on! you'll eventually get to see that though

and this one also inspired art for the disc itself so stay tuned 👀

i will do anything for authenticity so these are Full of intentional details

matching fonts is a nightmare

the traditional cover

took the longest, as it was the first.

the barcode numbers are the date of the first video he uploaded on dinof, and the last tour show date (in m/d/y)

i changed 'iceland' to 'poland' on the front cover, as he never actually went to iceland, and poland wasn't ever on the list even though he did go there

the orange may look a little off-center in the front, but these designs need to include space for a spine between the front and back cover, i promise it's right 😂

the black and white cover

inspired by the 'i want to believe' aliens poster

the cover art comes from his metal band merch shirt design

i had to manually shrink the text, line by line, and ensure it all lined up on the back!

i even made the logos on the back greyscale

the Muse: Origin of Symmetry cover

a shockingly perfect style for a WAD cover. i'm so glad i used the cubes, even if they couldn't be orange.

there's some versions of the art online where the sky is even more orange and it baffles me how i haven't seen any parallels like this before

the Muse: The Resistance cover

this cover was never supposed to see the light of day! i meant it when i said i was grateful i didn't have to try to adapt this complex design... and yet, i tried anyway.

i did all the grid lines by hand, including the jagged/broken edge parts, shading each section, and then drawing every star.

the hardest part was getting the gradient on the back text to cooperate. photoshop's gradient settings are surprisingly limited

gotta shout out @amazingphil for being the reason i knew what this cover looked like--it's the only muse album i knew the art of before embarking on this quest!

obligatory sob story:

i've been extremely and suddenly ill for 6 months. it is difficult to function moment to moment, but especially in doing little things just for me. this is the first and only art project i've been able to feel inspired to not only work on, but to finish, and despite the pain and long hours, i enjoyed every minute of it. thank you, dan, for creating this space for me to explore, and thank you, everyone here, for being wonderful support during this time 💞

[st4rbe0m]

GIRLS LIKE BOYS LIKE ME !

how would enhypen prepare for their first date with you!

🩷 now playing - on melancholy hill by the gorillaz

🩷 contents - includes kissing! no gendered terms used but makeup is mentioned in Jake's. enha as losers who are trying their best™ on first dates

🩷 a/n - unlocked how to make gradient text im basically unstoppable now. this is my first time writing a headcanon sort of thing!! so I hope it's good. pls do reblog and leave comments - I would love to hear from readers :)

masterlist

HEESUNG would be the type to try and play it cool and then lose his mind then play it cool again like an on and off switch. He would ask Jay fashion advice super nonchalantly, but Jay would be able to see through his shit IMMEDIATELY lmao. But like the good friend Jay is, he helps Heesung pick out a cool yet not over-the-top fit. Definitely picks up flowers on the way so that they're fresh, and maybe even spritzes a bit of mouth freshener before ringing your doorbell because of course he ate onion rings before leaving the house out of nervousness •́‿,⁠•̀

I feel like he'd take you to an arcade for a first date - not only because it gives you both bonding time while playing games, but he also gets to show off his shooter skills in those lcd zombie games (the playing league all night is coming in clutch for him right now). Definitely also the type to stand at the claw machine for half an hour trying to get you a toy. "Seung it's always rigged, come on we can play another round of ice hockey instead." "It's not about being rigged anymore Y/N. It's a matter of pride and courage. Life or death." Like boy T-T it's never that serious king. Would walk you home while you clutch a GIGANTIC bear plushie that he may or may not have bribed some poor arcade worker for while pretending he won at the totally not rigged claw machine, which was concerning, but also very sweet. Sweet enough to warrant a kiss on the cheek by the end of the date ;)

JAY would literally be the most perfect, gentleman-ly guy and just drop dead gorgeous and AHDJKD sorry my first date feels for Jay are RAGING right now. Definitely would be jittery for sure, but is calm and level-headed. I feel like he's the type to ask you out on a date very traditionally after harbouring feelings for a while, watching from afar kind of like the XO music video you know, with the flower shop? Bouquet with red or white roses are a MUST and he'd extend his arm out for you to hold while he takes you out of your house (definitely the type to charm your parents that has them pushing you out the door because that boy is PERFECT)

He would probably take you out to a restaurant or OR hear me out - an in home date where he's kicked his members out somehow and has the living room set up like a restaurant with a table with some candles and dim lighting, food he prepared (house-husband material. wife him up right NOW.) so that he could show off his cooking skills. Wonderful date, would drop you off home as well. Honestly I don't see him kissing you on the first date because of all that chivalry you know, but don't worry he's just building it up to the more perfect moment to be your perfect boyfriend.

JAKE, this happy puppy would be so SO excited he'd be counting seconds up to when he would meet you :( He's so ADORABLE he would literally tell everyone knows about how he's scored a date with the finest person alive and then would proceed to spend a whole week just grinning in happiness cuz he's going on a date with you!!! I think more than flowers, he'd get you some sort of trinket or some chocolates as a gift :D and he'd be skipping along the way. TONS of compliments about your makeup and your outfit and just you in general.

I feel like he'd have a picnic-park sort of date thing setup, bonus if you have a dog because you best believe he'd be bringing Layla along. He'd ask his mom for help and pack the most scrumptious picnic ever, and just spend a day basking in the sun with you. The evening might even end up with you both walking hand-in-hand by the riverside, just chitchatting because this boy is a pro-yapper, and just enjoying each other's presence. Wonderful date that would end in a kiss wink wink ;) because he's just so so enamoured by you that he will literally lose his mind if he lets this shot go.

SUNGHOON is a loverboy at heart - as cool and chill he may seem on the outside you best believe he's giving that smile that makes his eyes crinkle while escorting you to your date. He's sharply dressed and has received the apropos speech from his sister about first date etiquettes even though he's quite a mindful man with great manners already. I see him getting white or pink tulips for the date.

He'd take you to a - I know it's a cliché, but an ice rink!! Because it's his element, and that confidence is what he wants to show you. That he's the one for you, or at least who he's trying to be. Sunghoon may seem like a player or someone who doesn't do serious attachment but with you, it just feels different. Giggling along with you and pushing you along gently, guiding you around the contours of the ice rink has his own heart doing pirouettes. And of course as clichè this is heading already, the date concludes with an accidental kiss that happens when you slip on the ice, bringing him down with you. You're both laughing at your hopeless nonexistent skating skills and all he can do in that moment is give you a small peck on the lips that makes his pale cheeks blush violently.

SUNOO is such a sweetheart, I have a feeling you would have already been friends for a while and that his feelings for you had been garnering for a while, until he just had to tell you. And so here he is, dressed down to a tee with the help of Jay's good fashion sense, and of course adding his own personal touch to it. This smitten cutie would be going all out with the gifts, trust. With a medium sized bouquet, he would also get a box of chocolates for you and maybe something else, like a scrunchie or a charm bracelet you'd mentioned you'd been eyeing for a while to him before.

Sunoo, in my mind, seems like such a pottery date kind of guy to me. He adores creativity and spending that time to do something a bit artsy with his favourite person just sounds so cute. He would maybe make a dish bowl sort of thing for him to keep at his sink for his skincare or balms or even vitamins, while you would make a key holder or a soap box. And he'd help you out with your paints, giving you ideas on what you could make, and listening to your inputs as well. Since you both were already friends before, it's a comfortable and secure environment around you both, that just makes this sunshine boy beam more than ever possible around you. "Sun that looks great!!", you'd encourage him, as he'd just wipe away whatever flecks of paint had gotten on your hand, basking in your praise. He might even take the opportunity to hold your hand, to which you of course had no complaints.

JUNGWON is panicking and Jay and Heesung are trying their best to call him down. Panicking because he overslept on his nap to freshen up for his date. But fear not, because this is where Efficient Wonie comes in and saves the day. It's like everything that must be done becomes natural to him - it's in his second nature to buy you flowers and ring up your doorbell, flashing that all so sweet grin of his. And after calming down the raging butterflies in your stomach, you both set off on the date he's meticulously planned.

I see Jungwon as a multi-activity date kind of guy, you know? Why not get the best of all the worlds with this guy? He has the date planned in his head for months now, considering how long he's been itching to ask you out. He starts the date off with a nice, cozy cafe visit where you both can pick up some beverages to set yourselves right. Following would be a movie, something he'd find meaningful enough for a first date. And he's trying his best to focus on the movie instead of the fingertips brushing against yours inside the popcorn bucket because he needs to know the plot for the next part of the date!! Which is taking you to a small diner after the movies to talk about what you both found interesting about the film - whether it was good or bad, characters and the theme. And just from there the conversation would flow. Jungwon would be so easy to converse with that you wouldn't even know where the time has gone, until you find yourself in front of your house with him, hours past in a blink. And with how adorable his dimples look under the street lamps as you bid him goodbye, you can't help but place a sweet kiss on them as you depart, leaving him lovestruck on the street.

RIKI wants to have a bit of fun on dates. Sure movies and arcades and picnics are fun. But this boy is a ball of energy when he's around the people he likes - if it isn't obvious from the way he's around his members and their comfort. And that's how you made him feel as well, comfortable in his own skin. So much so that it warranted a date with the dance prodigy, who couldn't get you off his mind at all. He'd definitely be much more confident in this date than the others for sure, but that doesn't mean he isn't a bit nervous!! But sweet boy is more nervous about making sure you have a blast tonight with him. And with the way you're laughing and accepting the flowers he got you, placing them in a vase, those worries fade almost immediately.

Riki would take you to a town carnival or an amusement park sort of setup for a date! This teasing little shit would totally use this opportunity for poking fun at how you would scream on the faster rides like the rollercoaster, and would claim how he would "protect you" if anything did happen (like dawg this is not a fight for honor it's legit just a rollercoaster). He'd win you some prizes from the side stalls, and you'd both share a large cotton candy. Would whine about the animal ears you insisted that he wear during the duration of the date, which you had bought from a concession stand. But he would also complain when you said he doesn't have to wear it if he doesn't like it like T-T bro. The date reached its final note on the Ferris wheel, and it's not like you were scared of heights, it's just that you'd severely underestimated how high the ride went. "You can hold my hand if you're scared", Riki says jokingly. But you take the offer instantly, tightly clutching his hand as your eyes are wide and looking around as awe starts replacing the terror in your eyes. And despite the view, Riki could only look at you. Feeling his gaze on you, you turned your head around to only find yourself encaptured in a sweet and romantic kiss, surrounded by cool air miles above the ground.

[dqmeron]

「 Gradient Text Tutorial for Captions 」

i'm sure there's several of these already out there, but here's a rundown of how i make the gradient text for my gifset captions! (example)

𖥻 tutorial below cut <3 | screenshots + bold/italic/small/color text included for my fellow adhders who can't sit through long blocks of text

websites used: color picker, text colorizer, text replacement

step #1: pick your colors (optional) when making gradient text for a caption, i usually use an image color picker to get exact hex codes! this just helps me match everything even better than i could when manually inputting colors! (this is completely optional, but i like doing it, so i thought i'd include it here!)

step #2: making your gradient now the fun begins! open the text colorizer linked above, and enter the text you want to be a gradient into the text box:

(all caps is by no means necessary! i'm just doing it to make the gradient stand out even more, since i'm going to have a decent amount of text in my caption.) after entering your text, choose the type of color effect you want using this drop-down menu! color effect is essentially the type of gradient/how many colors it uses, etc. play around with this to find the one you like best!

i'm sticking with horizontal gradient, but you can choose whichever one you like! (there's also a solid color option if you want to just use a color that isn't available in the tumblr text options.) after color effect, you can choose your colors using this section - if you did use the color picker from step one, you can just paste the hex codes into the boxes.

if not, click on the colored bars, and this hue picker will pop up:

drag your mouse around in the left box to choose your color. the bar on the right can be used to modify shade.

(these are the colors i'm using)

skip over the "additional text settings" section (these options mess with the html code and cause issues when you try to use it on tumblr) and check the preview to make sure you like how your gradient looks.

if you're having a bit of trouble seeing the gradient properly, you can scroll back up to "additional text settings" and turn on bold to see it better. just make sure you turn it back off before copying your code.

now you're ready to copy your code!

after making sure any additional text settings are returned to their default/unchecked states, scroll down and copy the HTML code (NOT the BBcode). select the text and copy it using command/ctrl + C or right click and click "copy".

step #3: replacing

the text colorizer used here is great, but it does add unneeded semicolons to the html code that mess with tumblr's settings and cause formatting problems.

open the text replacement site (linked at top), and paste the code you copied into the text box:

in the "replace this:" box, type ; (leave the "with this:" box blank)

click "replace text". skim over the new code to make sure the semicolons are gone (sometimes you've got to click "replace text" a couple of times for it to work), and then either click "copy to clipboard" or select and copy the text manually.

step #4: writing your caption now that you've got your code, open tumblr and make a new photo post. look in the top right-hand corner of your screen, and make sure "legacy editor" is turned on. if it isn't, click the toggle to turn it on.

next, you need to make sure your text editor is set to html. to do this, click the little gear in the top right corner of the new post. select "html" from the drop-down menu next to "text editor", and then close the settings. [07.27.23 update: if, like me, you're stuck using the new editor, you can still set your post type to html, and gradient text will still work. the post editor will just turn your files into code when you're editing, and you'll have to fix the spacing in between your gifs (if you're using this for a gifset caption) in the preview tab. it looks super weird and alarming at first, but it does still work with the new post editor.]

upload your gifs and then move down to the caption. open the html tab and then paste your code! once you've done that, click on the preview tab to check how it looks.

my gradient looks pretty good, but i'm going to bold the text to make it more visible. here's how to use html to do that:

<strong>code goes here</strong>

here is a list of other html codes you can use to stylize your text! (they use <;b> for bold text, this is another way to do it, either method works fine!)

if you want to have another line of text under/above your code you need to add <br> at the end of the top line to create a line break (just pressing enter won't work). here's an example of how to format that:

text text text<br> text text text&lt;br> text text text

write the rest of your caption, and then you're done! here's my end result and my final code:

i hope this was helpful! feel free to send me an ask if you have any questions! happy giffing <3

[autball]

The idea that autistic people lack/struggle with empathy comes mainly from two things:

1. The (ridiculous and outdated) research that supposedly showed we lack Theory of Mind. Turns out it’s garbage, but unfortunately it just won’t die.

2. The fact that allistic people don’t know how to read us and are conditioned to assume the worst about us.

So in my ongoing effort to dispel this myth, here is a non-exhaustive list of areas we may struggle (or “struggle’) when it comes to empathy. Do note that these issues are not exclusive to autistic people, they are not all things WE are “doing wrong,” and that none of them involve completely lacking or being incapable of empathy.

[Image description: POSSIBLE REASONS AN AUTISTIC PERSON MAY “STRUGGLE WITH EMPATHY” - Infographic by Autball.

Translucent white boxes with black text on an aqua to green diagonal gradient. The boxes read:

(1) We Show It Differently: We may be trying to help in a way that we would find comforting but you don’t.

(2) Don’t Realize What’s Happening: We’re not all bothered by the same things, so we may not realize there’s anything to be upset about.

(3) Perspective Taking Issues: Cognitive Empathy is not the same as Affective Empathy; we can feel it if we get it.

(4) Didn’t Pick Up On Cues: If you’re relying on facial expressions, body language, or us “reading between the lines,” we just may not get the message.

(5) It Wasn’t Extended To Us: It’s hard to understand the concept when we don’t get any/enough experience with it ourselves.

(6) Conditioning: We’ve been told we lack empathy so many times that we’ve stopped trying.

(7) Alexithymia: If we can’t identify our own emotions, it’ll be hard to show them, or even recognize them in others.

(8) Big Feelings Are Overwhelming: Some people learn to “turn off” their empathy/hyper-empathy in order to maintain/survive.

(9) Misinformation: A lot of people call things “empathy” that aren’t actually empathy, like putting others’ needs before our own.

(10) Just Not That Emotional: Emoting just might not be our thing; that doesn’t mean we can’t understand what’s going on.

At the bottom in bold white text is the following: * = (asterisk equals) Allistics struggle to do these things with us too! See: The Double Empathy Problem. (The first four boxes have asterisks in them.)]

[perplexingluciddreams]

more details of experiment edits on AAC:

first i will show 3 pictures of Supercore 50:

how it looks automatically without any edits

my current grid set that i use for communication

the version of this grid set i added just to try colour changes and other visual edits.

[Image description: 3 images of the same vocabulary grid set in Grid 3, called Supercore 50. the first image has rounded corners on buttons, a white background, bigger spacing, and text labels on every button with text above symbol. second image is similar looking with same rounded buttons, but less spacing. is different by black background, text label removed from folder and menu/function buttons, text below symbol. third image is very different looking from other two. same black background, menu and main folder buttons have black background with simple coloured symbol, mainly yellow. no folder buttons have text label, and many have simplified symbol. all button colours are altered in tone and shade. all darker colours, easier on the eye. the "little words" buttons are changed from almost white to dark grey with yellow text. End ID.]

here is explanation:

added new version of my grid set (Supercore 50) to just play around with and change colours and see what works. didn't want to mess up my actual grid set with all my personal edits and added vocabulary. didn't go to bother of making it all "uniform" across the whole device (because is time consuming and i will have to do that eventually on my real grid set).

mostly just tried out different colours. and how to make home page as easy to visual process as possible. didn't change colour coding (for example pronouns yellow, verbs green, adjectives blue, little words grey-ish - that all stay. just change tone of colours to not "attack" eyes).

eyes can't cope with a lot of "whiteness" in any colours, especially on a screen where there is so much white/blue light already. makes much sensory overload and bad headaches. pastel colours or very bright neon or light blue/purple/yellow/grey... not fun. brain simply skips over any blocks of those colours cause it can't get past whiteness to see what is on the button.

in Grid 3 edit menu you can change colour of button - there is a palette of pre-made colours, but you can also do "adjust colour" and choose custom colour there. and there is something called "button styles" so you can just edit one button how you want, then say "update style" and it will change all buttons with that "style".

i worked out that turning down "saturation" and "luminosity" helps me a lot. then the colour doesn't "attack" my eyes so much, so i can actually search the screen for the symbol/word i want. better visual scanning ability.

also removed borders on buttons. just adds extra stuff for eyes to get "stuck" on. it looks cleaner without border.

On Grid 3 there is also different button "themes" available (different from button styles), which changes the entire automatic look of the entire grid set with just change that. changed from "modern" to "blocky" theme. because there is a slight "colour gradient" on buttons with "modern" theme (I think🤷🏻‍♂️). meaning there is more highlight at the top of the button on more shadow/darker at the bottom. makes it hard to see the symbols and text because it is not "flat" looking. to me the "modern" theme looks slightly bumpy and 3D, the "blocky" theme looks flat. and brain can't process 3D (especially not at same time as try to search for words and scan screen).

i also made the "menu" buttons or "grid functions" buttons have black background (to match black background of entire grid set), with symbol in yellow. and remove text labels for these buttons and some folder buttons. this helps because then only the word buttons "jump out" at brain. so there is less "bulk" of the screen to process. and the "function" buttons have only simple symbol, so can easily find!

this is all still only changed in the blank version of Supercore 50 that I added for this specific purpose. it is a HUGE change to my AAC. so i can't just change it all at once. it will have to happen in stages. and i am still not 100% sure of all the changes. (for example i don't really know what to do with the folders. don't like how they look right now...). so i have to be very confident in a change before i can make my real grid have it.

(also there is still folders and buttons i haven't changed at all. just mostly did home grid so i can see the difference. still working on it and will be long time until ready to change my real AAC).

i will keep updating on the changes!

[cookieeks-art]

I don't really go here (don't have a computer or console to play the game on), but I got curious about this man after seeing him on my dash, and now I can't stop thinking about him. So here's some art I've made of him in-between scrambling to find gameplay videos featuring him and reading everything I can find about him online. (Feat what I imagine my builder would look like if I had the game. Her name is Frida and she's so far only wearing the basic clothes, bcs I'm not sure if I can properly figure out how she would dress unless I played the game. Also, I projected a little of my own trepidations with marriage on her, mostly because I imagine that even with Pen not wanting to be married it might hurt his ego a little for someone to be so happy that marriage with him isn’t on the table.) The text in the first panel in the comic is taken directly from the wiki, (apparently it’s his response when accepting a romantic confession?), but I apologise if he’s ooc in the rest of the comic, I'm still getting a feel for him.

(ID in alt and under cut!)

[ID:

A digital drawing of Pen from My time at Sandrock. It’s shows him shoulder up, from a profile view, a serious expression of his face. He’d shaded in a warm orange with light blue highlights. The background is a greyish green. In the lower right corner is a doodle of a person with long hair, grasping the air infront of them with a comically feral expression and text reading “I’m so normal about him” ending with a smiley face above her head. In the corner is aslo a signature reading “Cookieek”.

The second image is a digitally coloured sketch of Pen from My time at Sandrock. He’s vivible from the hips and up, and from a 3/4 perspective, standing against a gradient background, and smiling at something off screen. He has one hand on his hip and his cape is flowing beside him. He’s cast in warm orange light, with blue shadows. In the bottom of the picture is a signature reading “Cookieek”.

A comic in greyscale, featuring Pen and my builder Frida, a skinny woman with a round face, a scar on the left side of her chin, and light hair pulled up into a messy high ponytail. She’s dressed in the default builder outfit.

The first panel shows Pen looking down at Frida, smiling smugly with his hand under his chin, two stars around his head, and saying: “Very well! I promise you I will not only be the Protector of Sandrock, but the protector of you. Though you must know, I am in strong opposition to this strange concept called "marriage."”. Frida is looking up at him, her back to the viewer.

The second panel shows Frida beaming up at Pen who’s now the one with his back towards the viewer, she’s giving him a thumbs up, while exclaiming: “Then we are on the same page!” with a smiley face at the end. Beside her head is a small “yay!” written above another smiley, but with an open mouth smile. Pen appears to almost freeze up.

The third panel shows Frida walking away from pen with a pep in her step, a big happy smile on her face alongside a blush. “Terrified of marriage” is written above her head, with an arrow pointing to her. Pen is still standing in the same pose as before, but with a baffled expression on his face, and question marks around his head.

The fourth panel focuses in on Pens face, as he lowers his hand, appearing now to be both confused and slightly miffed, question marks still around his head.

The final panel shows Pen striking another confident pose, looking to the side with his fingers grazing his forehead, sparkles around his head. He smiles, and says “Ha! Poor Skinny! So upset, but trying to have good humor about it! I can see through it easily! But good play, good play.” He’s sweating slightly.

In the right lower corner is a signature reading “Cookieek”.

End of ID]

[my-plastic-life]

I did a thing... actually, I did several things. :D My ani-ME (anime doll version) needed manga in her house, so of course I had to make mini Inuyasha manga! I've done this before, but this time it's different... I didn't do miniature versions of the Viz BIG volumes. Nope, I did all 56 original Japanese volumes. Because ani-ME is in Japan, so she must have the original volumes!!! :D What a task this was - because the volumes are so old, it's hard to find high resolution pictures of them online. And even if you do, many times it's just the front, not the back and definitely not the spine. I found some, but then the front and back cover colors were completely different, some had text and graphics cut off from what was most likely a scanned image, the colors were inconsistent between various websites, some colors were clashing badly due to low quality resolution, etc.

So I literally made a template in Photoshop of the real size of the original manga (obtained via Amazon) and rebuilt EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. from scratch. I was able to find a site with all the original cover photos, and then I found the most high resolution cover I could find to duplicate the pattern that's on all books (colors vary), recreated the logo for each book (the character symbols and the gradients are all different for each volume), redrew the SS Comics logo that's on all books, and I even replicated each individual barcode. Because I'm nothing if not a consistent perfectionist. :D

For the backs, I used the images I found and just copied and pasted the characters and Japanese text, and for the teeny tiny characters I used the brush tool to trace over them. Even though I knew you probably wouldn't be able to see them in such a small scale, no way was I leaving them out! Consistency, darn it! :D

For the spines, I found complete sets on eBay and used a photo of the spines from those auctions as a template. I redid everything on the spine except the character head at the top of each, which is copied and pasted from the eBay files. They're definitely pretty low resolution, but hopefully it's not noticeable at such a small scale.

And the volume numbers? Try as I might, I could NOT find a font that matched them. So I got the most high resolution volumes I could find and made number templates... so each time I needed one of the volume numbers, I'd just use a color overlay on it and plop it where it needed to go on the front and spine.

Then the fun part - resizing them all to 1/6 scale. They're a little over an inch tall right now. And because they're not very thick in the spine, wrapping the covers around foam board to mimic pages wasn't working. So I had to make pages... for 56 volumes LOL. I just took my cover template, sized it down, and made it a blank white with a black stroke so I could see where to cut. I could fit 11 mini pages in one row across a regular sized sheet of printer paper (I used cardstock for extra thickness and stability), and I could fit like six rows on a sheet. I was able to fit 11 pages in one volume to allow the spine room, so 56 volumes x 11 mini pages each = 616 total pages I wound up cutting, then stacking and gluing together. But, of course, that wasn't a perfect fit, as the pages, despite being sanded down to be completely straight and smooth, poked out of the covers. So I had to wrap the covers around the pages, mark where they hit, and use an X-acto knife to trim the pages down before gluing them inside the covers.

But finally, I was done! It was time-consuming, but I love how these little books turned out. They don't open, but that's totally okay. That would be way too much work, and every time I make a book that opens, it never closes again. I did, however, manage to find some pages from the original first volume (in Japanese), so I printed a second volume 1 cover and glued those pages inside. So now ani-ME has an open book she can read too!

So there you have it! My mini, 1/6 scale Japanese volumes of Inuyasha - all 56 of them! I made that bookshelf just for them, but I intentionally left more room in case I want to add more manga later. But of course we had to have Inuyasha manga on the shelf - it's the most important! :D And the poster on the wall is totally a tag from one of my shirts LOL.

Showing off her new bookshelf stocked full of all 56 volumes of the Inuyasha manga:

Relaxing in bed, reading from the beginning:

Why yes, she is reading the Inuyasha manga on an Inuyasha pillow :D

All 56 volumes on the bookshelf:

What do you do with an Inuyasha shirt tag? Make an instant doll poster, of course!

Front covers:

Back covers:

Volume 1 pages (glued in order, right to left):

Size reference (shown with American penny):

[imogens-temult]

Hi!

I sent this ask to the UserGif blog and they directed me to you. I was wondering how you created this black widow layout set:

https://www.tumblr.com/usergif/709701351905624064/black-widow-2021-dir-cate-shortland-insp

The layout is so cool and creative, I love it so much.

Thanks in advance!

hey! first off, thank you so much i really appreciate it.

now i will attempt to explain it, but i am never the best at these things so if you have any questions, feel free to ask! (all this is assuming everyone has a basic knowledge of gifmaking etc.) we're going to recreate a gif from my original set here.

FIRSTLY, you need your basic layout, now i used the rectangle shape tool to create the space for the big gif, and the little palette boxes, and fill them black so you can see them easily and move them around until i'm happy with the layout. and then move onto my text, the posters i was originally inspired by on etsy no longer seem to be there but the font i used which i *think* is what was used on those (as i wanted to get as close to my insp source as possible) is Nimbus Sans L for the title in bold, and Nimbus Sans Rounded for the rest (semi bold for the director and the genre/date and italic for the starring actors) and once i perfected the layout, and added a white layer for the background i saved that as a psd for future use. (make sure you're in timeline mode, and that the frame rate of this canvas is 23.976 fps - as that'll stop any issues when creating the whole gif.)

from here, you're free to gif make your first gif as normal, colouring it and putting it all together in a smart object so then you're ready to just paste it into this canvas, clipping it over the big rectangle, resizing as needed and then sharpening. (if you're unsure about clipping masks - this gifset relies on them - there's a handy tutorial here!)

so, here's how it looks with the main gif in place, and i've filled in my movie details for the film i've picked (i try to keep my layers as organised as possible so i recommend labelling things so you know exactly which text layer is which) i put all the text layers in a folder, and make a folder for all the palette rectangle boxes too.

next is the fun bit, or at least it is for me (personally i like to zoom in for this bit) but it's time to colour pick for the palette. before you do this make a new layer for each palette and clip one to each of the palette boxes like below.

like i said, i like to zoom in for this, but select the eyedropper tool, and start picking your colours, i try to do it in a gradient, usually starting with either the brightest or darkest colour etc. for this gif i want to go from browny red to blue. once you pick your first colour, go to the layer clipped to the rectangle you want that colour and fill it with your colour. keep repeating this process until all your colours are picked and you're happy with your palette.

and here is what you're left with. so now, just do what you'd usually do when saving your gifs, i personally put everything back into frames, so i can save with a timing of 0.05. and then repeat for each gif until you've got a beautiful gifset that you love!

i hope this made sense, and is easy enough to follow! sorry if it's a bit rambling and ridiculous, me and explaining things are not compatible.

[jgracie]

Cynthia I am having an existential crisis rn. I've been trying to make my texts gradient and use custom colours on Tumblr bc I'm bored of using the basic colours of texts that Tumblr gives me. And I've tried like every tutorial ever and they literally don't work at all?? Like I'm losing my mind rn, how do you do it?? I'm sorry if this is a bother- 😭

elora!!! its no problem at all :) its def smth that doesnt get explained very well on here so i totally get it 😭 tutorial below the cut <3

go to this website

IGNORE ALL THE WEIRD CODE!!!! it looks very intimidating but you dont have to play around with it at all

focus on this little box on the corner! the red rectangle is the first colour in the gradient and the green is what it transitions to

click on each one to play around with the colour wheel and change it! idk what device ur on but im on a MacBook and i don't have the option to pick a specific hex so if you're on a similar device and have specific colours in mind this is the one time you play with the code

where i've highlighted, change #FF0000 to the first colour and #00FF00 to the second. u dont have to touch anything else!

4. once you have your colours, paste your text into the text box right next to the red rectangle and click run! code will appear in the box right under don't try to decipher it just copy!

5. when making a post, you'll see a little gear toggle thing in the top right corner! click on it and change "rich text" to "html"

6. what ur gonna see is gonna look SUPER overwhelming (mine doesnt because this is just a test post LOL) but dont panic! find the text you want to change, highlight it (JUST THE TEXT don't include any of the code that makes it bold or wtv) and then paste the code you copied from that website!

(i used command v here LOL)

thats basically it! u can preview to see if u like it and then save :) lmk if some of this didnt make sense!!!

[neonmetro]

HII ive been a huge fan of your art for forever and i never get tired of seeing it in my feed. you have this very specific style of design and composition (the fonts, the colors, the symbols) that scratches my brain really hard and i'd love to hear about the thoughts behind them!!!!

AHHH THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!! ofc :D i hope you don't mind the rambling

i'll be very honest most of my compositions just follow the triangle rule (making poses follow a triangle) and filling up the page (with text, icons, etc) and lots of going back and forth seeing whether or not smth looks good 😭 like spending literal hours on the placement of sparkles

i REALLY like using text in my art and i usually have a certain phrase or highly specific vibe where i'll then go and look for a quote that'll fit that vibe and i'll usually place it somewhere midway through lineart

i kind of use the same few fonts and i think its pretty noticeable (kozuka mincho std h, hanmingwang mainly) but its mainly bc i can use it for both chinese and english words, i think it gives off a really cool vibe to use both languages with fonts that have serifs

i also just. make shit up as i go tbh i usually draw the pose first and have to work a background around it and maybe add some sparkles to fill some more space

the ahab piece i just knew i wanted waves at her feet and the composition to feel like its at sea, with her hair mimicking oceans. once i was done rendering the fullbody i just looked up vintage ships line art for the bg and thought maybe the white circle/halo would look cool) and the outis piece i only had the half body and chibi drawn out and kinda framed everything around it

i usually pick text that's kinda on the nose references, the ahab piece's chinese text is "moby dick" and "WHITE WHALE HOLY GRAIL" is from blood and thunder about. well. captain ahab. the outis is again just more direct references, w. corp, her trailer quote, and her own name. there was some extra space in between the chibi and the halfbody i wanted to fill and originally wanted to do a train icon but it wouldn't fit in such a small space, so i decided to go for sign icons instead (thinking about it, if i didn't do the exit sign i might've done a wet floor sign or smth but i like the little detail of adding the X on the arrow leading out, giving her no exit)

i always feel something is missing from the composition so i spend a long time trying things out since i usually don't have this planned out but also backgrounds are uniquely weird because i want the characters to stick out but contrast is very important to me

i remember trying to figure out how to make the background of this piece both cohesive with the rest of the art and also make it not blend in together (so i opted to add shading to the leaves while also doing another gradient from the right corner up), the sparkles were also there to fill in space

most of my colors are just slightly more saturated vers of the character i'm drawing's canon colors and then i slap 48762793832 filters on top to make it even more saturated lawl

like this is a sneak peak of art that's queued up ^ and there's a pretty massive diff before gradient maps/filters and after lol

[friendlies-af]

Broken phone p3

Did you miss this section? Today my sister Angel (@littleangelblogstuff) and I decided to draw together again. Today's topic suddenly became Mike (and we didn't discuss what we were going to draw in advance!). We drew within the New World!AU.

Jeremy picked out a dress for Puppet, but he's not sure if she'll like it. Mike thinks everything will be fine.

AI: 1boy, 1girl, :3, beanie, blue eyes, brown hair, crossed arms, crossover, dark-skinned male, dark skin, dress, english text, gradient, gradient background, green eyes, hat, jeans, open mouth, orange background, pants, pikachu, pokemon (creature), shirt, short hair, smile, turtleneck.

AI thinks Jeremy is a girl (does it knows something about the 2019 Rebornica's reboot??). Okay, I decided to stick to the “dress” and draw something from the past. I used the fan game "Five Nights of Flirting" as inspiration for Mike's childhood friend. I really liked Ellie, so I wanted to take her into my AU.

AI: 1boy, 1girl, :3, beanie, brown hair, fang, hat, holding, holding animal, holding pokemon, long hair, open mouth, pikachu, pokemon (creature), ponytail, purple shirt, shirt, smile, sunglasses, sweater, vest, yellow background.

Oh no, the sunglasses are missing! 😭 Okay, Ange decided to try the near-lineless style + Rebornica art style. Mike looks happy to have received the rare card.

AI: 1boy, bandaged arm, bandages, blue background, blue shirt, cellphone, closed eyes, crown, gradient, gradient background, hand on hip, holding, holding phone, male focus, phone, pikachu, pokemon (creature), shirt, short sleeves, smartphone, smile, solo, upper body.

“Bandaged Hands” immediately transported me to the present. No, Mike doesn't harm himself (on purpose)! One of my drawings showed Mike playing a game on his phone. I wanted to expand on this topic. "Mike, how often do you donate to this game?", "This is the first time!"

That's where Angie's part ends. I definitely liked it~

I wanted to draw Mike with Ellie's ghost. Due to his head injury, Mike has frequent headaches, and Ellie's presence almost always makes things worse.

AI: 1boy, 1girl, beanie, blue eyes, dark skin, ghost, hat, silhouette, sweatdrop, sweater, transparent background.

I like that the AI was able to see the ghost in the picture. But what I like even more was how Ange was able to draw something completely new! And then there is Ellie in life too!

AI: 1boy, 1girl, bandana, brown hair, closed eyes, covering mouth, flashlight, grin, hand over own mouth, holding, long hair, long sleeves, open mouth, purple shirt, red shirt, shirt, short sleeves, smile, teeth.

I liked the experience of drawing Michael Afton, so I decided to draw something dark again. The 1999 incident, also known as "the bite of '99". Someone had reprogrammed an animatronic dog to attack a boy who stood in his way to perform a ritual (and no, it's not Vincent!). Mike miraculously survived, but Ellie…

AI: 1boy, 1girl, bandana, blood, blood on face, brown hair, knife, red shirt, shirt, short hair, silhouette, weapon.

Back to the present, back to Ellie protecting Mike. She only does this in particularly stressful situations, because she understands that she is harming her friend.

Each time such drawing brings a new experience. I'm glad that so much attention was paid to Mike this time. This section doesn't end, and someday we will bring something more interesting! (Also, I think it's worth leaving the FnoF tag just in case)

[chronicangel]

rhapsody in green

Link to this fic on AO3. Words: 2786 Date posted: May 30, 2024

Summary: He tries to tell himself that he’s not being stood up. They said around six, and it’s only ten minutes past the hour. Around doesn’t mean six exactly, and sure, Lex got here half an hour early because he was worried he wouldn’t be able to find the place or something else would make him late, but Jimmy probably doesn’t have the same neuroses that Lex does. Maybe Jimmy hasn’t texted him saying where he is or what the hold up is, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, does it?

Lex hasn’t been back to Suicide Slum since he left for college when he was 16, and every time the door to the bar Jimmy picked out opens up, he half-expects his father to walk in. It’s mostly college students, though, some sporting the traditional yellow and red of Metropolis University, many crowded together at one round booth in the corner and laughing loudly. There’s a TV playing some show that Lex doesn’t recognize and isn’t really paying attention to, and there’s outdoor seating with a pool table that no one has touched all night. He guesses six o’clock might not be the right hour for the pool crowd.

“Ya wan’ another water?” The bartender asks in something resembling a Boston accent, and Lex nods rather than answering out loud, jumping and turning to look when he hears the door open again. It’s just another college student, smiling and waving at her friends in the booth.

He tries to tell himself that he’s not being stood up. They said around six, and it’s only ten minutes past the hour. Around doesn’t mean six exactly, and sure, Lex got here half an hour early because he was worried he wouldn’t be able to find the place or something else would make him late, but Jimmy probably doesn’t have the same neuroses that Lex does. Maybe Jimmy hasn’t texted him saying where he is or what the hold up is, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, does it?

Face it, Lex, he thinks as an older pair of men walk up to the bar to order a pitcher of beer. Jimmy probably realized that you two were incompatible and decided not to go through with the date. He’s probably sitting in his apartment trying to figure out how to text you to cancel. You don’t even know why he was interested in you in the first place.

The door swings open again, and before Lex can even turn to look, the bartender grins and throws his arms up in the air, his green sweater untucking from his pants to reveal the hairy bottom of a fat belly. “Jimmy! I ain’t seen ya in months! I was startin’ to think ya forgot about ol’ Bibbo Bibbowsky.”

“I graduated, Bibbo!” Jimmy laughs, and he sounds somewhat breathless, like he ran to get here. “I’m working at the Daily Planet now, it’s not a 10 minute walk from the apartment to catch a quick drink anymore.” There aren’t any chairs at the bar, so Jimmy leans his elbows on it, one of them bumping up against Lex’s.

“Well I never understood the college types,” Bibbo dismisses with a wave. “Ya still drinkin’ a starry night?”

Jimmy gives a thumbs up and then turns to Lex. “I’m so sorry that I’m late,” he starts, bowing his head down in what Lex assumes to be shame. “My last meeting of the day ran over and then I walked all the way back to the apartment and realized I forgot my jacket at the Planet and--”

“It’s fine,” Lex dismisses, with a sort of casual coolness in his voice that he thinks doesn’t betray the fact that he was totally panicking about whether Jimmy was ghosting him or not only a few minutes ago at all. “So this was the bar that you hit up in college?”

“This is the bar that everyone hits up in college,” Jimmy corrects while Bibbo slides him a glass of the same dark liquor that they were drinking when they first talked (really talked). It doesn’t look exactly the same, the gradient less smooth and fewer gold flakes suspended throughout. He guesses it’s probably cheaper. “You didn’t go to MU, did you?”

Lex shakes his head and takes a sip of his water. “The last thing that I wanted to do was lock myself in Metropolis for another five years,” he says. “I thought about going to Gotham U, but the crime rate is way too high to live there sustainably unless you’re super rich and can afford the nice neighborhoods. I ended up going to Columbia.”

“Up in New York?” Jimmy asks as though there’s another one. Lex nods anyway. “My parents went there. That’s where they met. Mom always told me that I shouldn’t put myself into so much debt for a journalism degree that I’d never be able to use to pay it off,” he says, rolling his eyes. Lex attended on substantial scholarships, but he has to admit that it was more expensive than staying at home would have been. He thinks MU even offered him a free ride. “So what brought you back to Metropolis then?”

“My sister. She’s five years younger than me. I started college a little early, but after I finished my master’s degree, I was pretty much just working some deadend job at a tech startup in Manhattan debating if I wanted to go for the full PhD or not. When she told me that she was starting school down here, I knew that our parents weren’t going to do anything to support her, so I moved back and took the job at AmazoTech.”

Jimmy stares at him for a second, and Lex would be anxious if not for the little smile just barely visible on his lips. He can feel his heart beating in his chest, and he’s sure his cheeks are pink again. “Y’know, you’re a really nice guy, Lex,” Jimmy says, and Lex wants to argue, but there’s another loud burst of laughter from the college students in the booth that cuts him off. He levels them with a glare, and Jimmy rests a hand on his shoulder. “It’s pretty loud in here. Why don’t we step outside?”

The outdoor portion of the bar is simple. Much like the outdoor dining in a restaurant, there’s a cement floor and a few tables with umbrellas. There’s one long table in the middle, which houses another large group of college students, but they’re passing around a cigarette (at least, Lex hopes it’s a cigarette) and speaking in more hushed tones. In the back, there’s the pool table, with a ratty couch seated a few feet away from it under an awning. Next to that couch is a window which leads back into the bar, presumably to order drinks without going back inside.

Jimmy drags him all the way to the back, plopping down on the couch next to the pool table. Back here, it’s almost quiet, the chatter at the other tables not carrying too far. “Is this better?” Jimmy asks, and Lex nods. Then, hardly a beat later, “Do you know how to play pool?”

Lex, in fact, does not know how to play pool. Based on how the game goes, Lex thinks that Jimmy probably guessed that. Jimmy breaks, the balls shooting around the table in a scattershot, two solids immediately getting pocketed. He manages to get a third before missing his fourth shot, the cue ball barely whiffing by a solid yellow ball. Then, for Lex’s turn, Jimmy presses himself up close behind him, grabs both of his hands, and carefully helps him aim the shot, murmuring some sort of advice about how to line it up in his ear that Lex does not hear at all over his heartbeat pounding against his eardrums. He’s sure his face must be bright red. The rest of the game goes rather similarly, with Jimmy pressed up close against Lex and holding him for each of his shots, until eventually Jimmy scratches (Lex learns what scratching is in that moment) and apparently the game is over.

“I think you should do a study with that big science brain of yours about whether or not beginner’s luck is a real thing,” Jimmy says, in remarkably high spirits for having lost.

“I don’t know how--” He starts, but Jimmy holds up a hand to cut him off and then leaves him there to go to the window and get them some more drinks. Lex takes the opportunity to lean against the table and take a deep breath. He’s not sure he’s ever had that much sustained contact with another person, and if he has, it definitely wasn’t positive.

There’s a tap on his shoulder, and he turns around to see a behemoth of a man with dark sunglasses and hair slicked back with so much hair gel it seems like the guy has probably never used hair gel in his life. He’s got the Superman body type, and it immediately sets Lex into mild fight or flight. “Excuse me, are you using this table?” The guy asks.

Behind him, Lex can barely see a tiny yet familiar woman, also wearing dark sunglasses. “Um, I think my friend was about to--”

“Are you guys serious?” Jimmy yells, loud enough that a few patrons at other tables turn to look at them. He stomps over, setting their drinks on the nearest table. “This is seriously not cool! Lois, I know this scheme was your idea, but Clark, you shouldn’t have let her drag you into it!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the woman (Lois?) says, at the same time that the man (Clark!) says, “I’m sorry, you’re right, we should just go now.”

All three of them stare at each other for a second, and Lex feels distinctly left out of the loop. “Um, hi,” he eventually says, and then all three of them turn to stare at him and he suddenly feels like that was definitely the wrong move.

Jimmy pinches the bridge of his nose with one hand and uses the other hand to gesture at the couple. “Lex, you’ve met Lois. This is Clark, my idiot best friend.” Clark waves meekly, and Lois grins entirely unabashedly, like she doesn’t understand what she’s done wrong. “They came here to spy on our date like children.”

“We weren’t spying!”

“Um, Lois, you called it a spy mission.”

Lois turns to (presumably) glare at her boyfriend, and then both of them reach up to take their sunglasses off. “It’s nice to more properly meet you,” Lois says, holding out a hand.

“Right,” Lex says skeptically, eyeing the both of them up and down as he shakes her hand like it might go off if he touches it wrong.

“They’ll be leaving now,” Jimmy says, shooting the both of them a look. Clark brings up a hand to rub at his neck and Lois glares right back at him.

“Oh come on! Clark says that you’ve never gone on a date with anyone in all the time that he’s known you!” Lex blinks, and Jimmy pulls both of his hands up to bury his face in them. “We were curious! Just one game of pool and then we’ll leave.”

Jimmy drags his hands down his face with a groan and then turns to look at Lex, like he’s silently pleading for him to send them away so he doesn’t have to. Lex can’t help but smile a little bit to himself. He’s never seen Jimmy really interact with his friends before, and he thinks that it could be interesting just to observe him in something at least resembling a more natural environment. Maybe he’d prefer that wasn’t their first date, but oh well. “One game couldn’t hurt anything.”

“See? One game couldn’t hurt anything!” Lois repeats, grinning at Lex, and he thinks he can feel the credit he’s earned with her. He can’t help smiling to himself a little.

“Fine,” Jimmy groans in obviously reluctant agreement. “But I’m breaking,” he insists, grabbing the stick he’d used in the last game and taking a long drink from one of the two bright pink drinks he had brought over for them. Lex takes a sip of his, watching Jimmy line up the shot and send the balls flying around the felt. They’re stripes this time, it would seem.

With his friends here, Jimmy doesn’t help Lex line up his shots like he had in their game, and he has to admit that he likes pool less this way. He bends as far over the table as he can, narrowing his eyes into tiny slits at the balls as he tries to calculate the best angle to hit them at. Admittedly, the physics of this game aren’t as straightforward as they seem.

He hits the ball too hard, and the one he tried to pocket goes tumbling around the whole table like a rocket before stopping against a wall.

Lois and Clark debate for a minute who’s going to take the first shot, and then Lex and Jimmy are treated to the comedic sight of Clark bending his hulking body over the table and Lois pressing her body against his the same way Jimmy had to help him line up the shot. Her hands don’t even reach his from behind, landing more at his elbows than his wrists, and even standing on her tiptoes she’s murmuring whatever advice she thinks is going to help him out into the base of his neck. He must be at least a foot taller than her, and Lex wonders for just a moment how that must work before realizing he absolutely does not want to know. But it does work, apparently, because Clark manages to pocket two balls with one shot.

When it’s Lois’ turn to shoot, Clark contrasts her so completely by standing at least three feet back, his arms crossed over his chest and his head tilted like he’s trying to actually watch her-- not just take her in, but observe what she’s doing. “Take a look at this, Smallville,” she exclaims enthusiastically as she takes the shot, only to not only not sink a ball, but to miss any contact with every ball in front of her. Lex coughs a laugh, bringing a hand up to cover his mouth. “I’m going to get a drink,” Lois announces with a pout.

One game turns into three, until Lois, Jimmy, and Lex have all had much more alcohol than they reasonably should and Clark has started forcing his friends to drink water and gently pleading with Lex to do the same (fortunately, he doesn’t have to fight too hard; Lex is still not really a drinker). It turns out that Lex and Lois are both awful at pool, and the games are mostly between Clark and Jimmy, with their respective partners just slowing them down. This doesn’t really stop Lois and Clark from winning all three games.

“Okay, I should really get these two home,” Clark tells Lex apologetically, with one arm around Lois’ waist and the other around Jimmy’s shoulders.

“Nooo, Clark, c’mon! One more game,” Lois pleads.

“We have brunch with your dad tomorrow,” Clark says, with a tone like the last thing he wants to do is actually go to brunch with Lois’ dad. Lex assumes there’s a history there that he doesn’t know about. Then, eyes widening a little, Clark slips his arm off of Jimmy’s shoulder and says, “Well! Lois, we should really go close your tab.”

Lex and Jimmy stand across from each other, alone in a sea of strangers. “I’m so sorry about them. I thought they might do something like this, but then it just seemed--” He cuts Jimmy off with a kiss, and their mouths slot together like puzzle pieces. Jimmy is warm and smells like campfire and alcohol, his lips wet and plump. He brings his hands up to cradle Jimmy’s cheeks, which practically burn under his palms. Jimmy’s hands come up to his waist, sliding under his letterman jacket from a high school he hated going to.

When they pull apart, Jimmy’s eyes are half-lidded and his mouth hangs open just a little bit. It’s adorable, and Lex wants to kiss him again. “I had a good time,” he says instead.

Jimmy clears his throat and pulls away the rest of the way, shoving his hands into the pockets of his puffy blue jacket. “Right,” he says. “Well, let’s make sure to do it again sometime soon then, huh?” Lex nods, and Jimmy rushes away to join his friends. Lex can see him starting an argument, but he can’t hear him over the other people still populating the terrace.

Lex stands there for a minute just trying to catch his breath, his heart pounding in his chest and his cheeks burning. That went… better than he ever could have imagined. He went out with Jimmy, they had a good time, they kissed, and it was amazing. And he even thinks his friends like him which is… well, it’s more than he could have ever asked for.

[iloveschiaparelli]

My issues with this post:

[Image ID: Tumblr post by @/Correllian with a picture of a blue gradient with white text that says "It's not neurotypical or neurodivergent. It's vanilla or neurospicy." The caption says "Why be plain, when you can be spicy? 'normal' is overrated and boring." The post has 0 notes. /.End ID]

Note: I wrote this post intending for it to be a reblog, but upon viewing the rest of the contents of the profile I decided I did not want to engage with the blog's owner since the "facebook republican" vibe was extremely strong, and I do not want to argue with this person. My goal with the post is to educate, and I do not see that being productive with this person. If that seems like a stupid reason to screenshot instead of reblogging, or rude, let me know and I will repost as a reblog. But for the time being iIwould like to avoid engaging with the blog's owner and simply talk about this specific post.

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I keep seeing this come up in my feed and ive been mostly ignoring it bc it makes me slightly uncomfortable but then i saw it had 0 notes which either means im the only one seeing it or the people seeing it also feel the same way i do (maybe??)

Anyway it's not even a big deal TBH but here's why I don't really like this, I'm not trying to be insulting or anything I just want to be informative and LITERALLY this is not important enough of a problem to warrant the quantity of words I'll be using, but that's just how I am. Sorry.

First of all, the neurodivergent/typical label first came from a journalist who wanted to acknowledge that not every condition is a disorder and that there are natural variations in how peoples' brains work. So, to refer to ADHD and autism as "neurodivergent" rather than "broken" or "disordered", with the goal of putting into perspective that you, as a person, are not broken or that there is "something wrong with you" just because you are autistic or ADHD.

It's popular now, but neurodiversity labels haven't been in widespread use for very long despite being coined in 1998 by Harvey Blume. A lot of the push for neurodiversity labels came from the autistic community and so it's kind of a victory of sorts to be able to use them instead of referring to people as "normal" vs "autistic/ADHD", since categorizing people into "normal" and "other" boxes naturally creates a sense of otherness, both in the minds of people on the neurodivergent side and the neurotypical side.

In addition to confronting this issue, the neurodivergent labels are also just, more accurate? There isn't really even a definition of what "normal" means, and it implies the absence of problems altogether which we know is not true because nearly everyone in the world experiences some kind of mental or physical problem, of varying severities. It could be depression, it could be an allergy, it could be a disability beyond depression.

The word Neurotypical on the other hand is targeted specifically to the brain (Neuro) and rather than using a vague term like normal, uses the term Typical. We as a society generally use the word Typical interchangeably with normal, but specifically usually as a way to describe someone who fits the characteristic of whatever group they are in, or someone's actions that fit the characteristics of their other actions. Essentially, to describe someone or something that is consistent with a "type".

"Sweating and increased heart rate are typical experiences for those engaging in intense physical exercise."

"Sarah is always late to things! She isn't here at the party yet, and it started two hours ago. How typical of her."

Therefore, Neurotypical specifically refers to either people or behaviors that are consistent with the most common set of neurological conditions and behaviors, or with the most common neurotype.

Neurodivergent simply means anyone who deviates from this neurotype, which is why it's a blanket term for autism and ADHD. It could also be expanded to include other neurotypes as well, although I'm not familiar with them all, if there are any.

The first problem I have with this comment about ditching Neurotypical/Neurodivergent for Vanilla/Neurospicy is that people in the autism community are quite divided on whether neurospicy is a further-stigmatizing or infantalizing alteration to neurodivergent. One discussion of why can be found in this tik tok here. (It's like 10 seconds long). Although there is a pretty large group of neurodivergents who are OK with and even enjoy the use of Neurospicy, it seems that there is an equally large group of neurodivergents that are not and do not.

I am included in that second group, but my roommate is in the former. As long as she does not use neurospicy as a term to describe me, I do not mind if she jokes about it for herself! However, this post states in a very matter-of-fact tone typical of facebook posts that not only should vanilla/neurospicy be used, but that neurotypical/neurodivergent should not be used. The text in this image goes out of its way to invalidate existing, widely used labels in favor of ones that many see as stigmatizing or infantalizing. Both of which are huge problems for the ADHD/Autism community, especially the latter group due to developmental delay associated with autism. The societal attitude surrounding this word is similar to the reaction to "Is he acoustic" which for some autistics is a funny joke, but objectively still causes harm because of the way it is weaponized by neurotypicals to make fun of autistic traits and autistics in general by posting the audio or cracking the joke whenever someone does something "weird" or unexplainable. I've even seen acoustic used to describe an object that has stopped working properly (broken = autistic). Neurospicy is, although much less frequently, used in a similar way by neurotypicals to make jokes about autistics in ways that are not always respectful and can be harmful.

The text in the post itself goes even further to say "'normal' is overrated and boring." The word Normal is not used prior to this in the post, but by context it seems to refer to the neurotypicall/neurodivergent labels as "normal" labels and is saying that they are overrated and boring, and that using Neurospicy instead is different and therefore good.

The second problem I have with this post is the use of the word Vanilla. This one is much more of a subjective problem, since different people will gather different things from seeing this word based on what kind of content they regularly interact with. Personally, when I see the word vanilla it usually makes me think of ice cream or Minecraft mods, but in this post it's used right alongside the word "spicy" and normally the only place we see those two words used together in the same context is in the kink/bdsm community. As someone who used to be aspec and still resonates with those experiences, the idea of associating my neurological identity in any way with sexual activity or kink is extremely disturbing. This one is much, much less likely to be intentional, but I wanted to include it simply for complete honesty.

All this together, just causes this post to make me mildly uncomfortable, which is why I've declined to interact with it so far and have scrolled past it mostly. While I don't disparage the use of the words "vanilla/neurospicy" for people to describe themselves if they are comfortable with it, I find the notion of demanding, intentionally or not, that everyone use them and that our chosen labels be taken away from us to be very frustrating and uncomfortable.

I am aware that these effects are likely completely unintended, and once again I am really not trying to make a big deal out of it. My goal is simply to explain why this post has made me somewhat uncomfortable and may do the same to other people.

[cookieeks-art]

Here's a little silly comic based on this skit by ProZD that, once more got a bit out of hand. This time it was mostly because I I didn't like the look of the coloured sketch of the first panel, and had a day where trying to paint digitally was the just thing I needed to do to recoup my energy. I decided to keep the other parts of the comics as coloured sketches, since it sort of worked with the mood switch and since I simply wasn't in the mood to paint over them too.

(ID in alt and under cut)

[ID:

Two images

The first is a rough digital painting of my oc Edda (A pale chubby woman, with deep eyebags, brown hair and grey eyes) with her head thrown back, laughing ominously, while cast in dramatic light from bellow to make her look even more off-putting. Both the background and the shadows in the image is purple, with the exception of the slightly streaky dark black shadow thrown behind Edda. The background has elements of a sketch remaining, like handwritten text behind her writing out her laugh digitally coloured yellow, and visual noise. In the left corner is a signature reading Cookieek.

The second of old two traditional sketches coloured digitally, both follow up’s to the previous of Edda laughing. In the first Edda smiles casually, while looking to the side and saying “great knock knock joke Snow.” An arrows then point to the second sketch which is of Snow from Red shoes and the seven dwarfs, sweating nervously as she tries to keep up a smile (her eyes simplified into dots, and her mouth a soft triangle to amplify the nervous energy), and replying with “…thank…you.” The two of them have light purple shaped behind them, Eddas appearing like a cloudy boarder around her, and Snows behind a simple rectangle lying down. The background is a soft purple to pink-ish gradient. In the left corner is a signature reading Cookieek.

End of ID]