#one day I'll bring this concept into fruition

[a-star-that-burns-brightly]

gonna vague post about my ocgram concept... my favorite thing about the whole voting system I've thought of is that the moral dilemma of it doesn't come from "oh but was what this person did REALLY that bad?" or "okay it was that bad, but can we forgive it?" because news flash all of these fuckers have done indefensibly awful shit. The moral dilemma comes from the question of "does this person deserve a chance at redemption and reintegration into society, even though they've done these awful things", and considering what I am planning on having these people do, I think it'll make for some really interesting conversations :3

[franthonyofficial]

"Boom. Done. blossomed out of my desire to start a band with Keith Goodwin and Tim Arnold after the disbanding of Good Old War. We started trading ideas back-and-forth and writing some songs together. I didn't want to make another record that felt lonely and sad - I wanted my friends with me along the way. Bringing in Keith and Tim during the early stages of songwriting elevated these ideas and gave them dimensions that were missing in the music I had been making by myself.

The name Boom. Done. came out of a conversation I had with Keith about the kid's album, Let's Start a Band, we worked on together. We'd be discussing deadlines, and I'd be on the phone trying to figure out how to manage time between projects. I thought about a weird thing I was saying all the time, "Boom. Done." Saying the phrase would somehow affect whether the idea or concept would actually develop and come to fruition. It was almost a function of my attention-deficit and bipolar mixed together.

For me, one of the biggest challenges was deciding if I should include my name on this album. I felt that doing so might hurt the project and pigeonhole me. I had to kill off that name so I could start over and make music that wouldn't be burdened with the baggage of drug addiction, mental illness, and all the lying and deceit that came with it. After a call with Keith and someone from an artist management/record company explaining my rationale, we agreed removing. my name gave me a better chance at starting over with something fresh. These conversations were difficult, and brought on feelings of despair, self-loathing, and a sense of failure.

For a very long time I used unnatural and synthetic drugs to try and heal something in me that could have been healed through connection, humility, and service. I started looking at what I was doing as a service to others, as something that could hold a greater purpose. This took the pressure off me, and I started to remember the kid who would've been happy selling a single cassette tape at a local show - the kid who died of excitement when they got an email from someone saying they liked the music. The process of building and creating music has always been like a drug for me.

It took time and work, but I realized that if I wanted to feel joy, I had to focus on bringing joy to others. This shift in perspective altered the trajectory of the project and my life path. It was then that I started asking myself what the hell I was doing and why this meant so much to me. These songs? This album? I came face-to-face with who I really was and the things about myself I needed to nurture and let go of. I slowly started to learn meditation and how it can nurture the creative process. Being vulnerable and open with people, as well as being of service to others, was the key to healing a great deal of my turmoil. We decided to say, "Fuck it. We are going to make an Anthony Green record." Except this record would be different and we would approach it by working together to make one collective piece of art.

While making Boom. Done. there was a point where I relapsed. I thought about the irony that this could be my last record and that it would be titled Boom. Done. Maybe it was some kind of subconscious cry for help. During the winter of 2021, Keith and I flew to Palm Springs, California and rented a house in the desert to record the vocals. We escaped the East Coast winter and changed the scenery to stir up some new inspiration. During the final days of tracking I received a phone call from home that a family member passed away from a drug overdose. I did not handle this news properly, and I quickly relapsed myself. My relationship with this person had been very difficult. The process of grieving my loss along with everyone else was so painful and confusing. I still feel the spirit of this person in my life, and I feel that they have intervened in ways that have helped me immensely along my own journey.

It's possible I'll say this with every album I ever make, but this album truly changed my life and my mindset. It was a rebirth for me. A rediscovery of a part of my imagination I had tucked away out of fear and insecurity. I felt a reignited sense of wonder that can only happen when you nurture your inner child and give yourself space to accept and embrace all that you are in both shadow and light. In a lot of ways, I see this as my first solo album and everything leading up to as an experiment. When I was making this record, I wanted to create the feeling I get listening to Van Morrison or big band music, or even reggae and dub. The goal was to create the feeling of a party where you wouldn't be lonely.

I want to thank Thomas Kelly, along with all my family and friends, who helped me and stuck by me through my toughest times. I can never thank you all enough for your love, compassion, and understanding. I will spend the rest of my life trying to give back what was so freely and lovingly given to me. I know I was sent here to sing and make music, and to also be a father, a friend, and a partner. I'm lucky to have the people in my life that always make me want to be better, those who challenge me to love stronger. I hope everybody reading this can experience what it's like to do the thing you're meant to do on this earth with a heart filled with love and kindness, because there's no greater feeling.

If you're struggling with depression or anxiety, find ways of expressing yourself creatively - sing, dance, write poetry or stories, paint, sculpt - the list is endless. Creation devours your pain and suffering and gives it meaning. It shines and sharpens it into a weapon of mass creation. Through music, we are given the opportunity for immeasurable connection with others. Thank you for taking the time to make this music part of your life. Love and kindness to you all. Don't forget your magic.

Warmest regards,

Anthony Green "

[darkestrellar]

so the two verses where svern is affected by the shadow crystal or an equivalent are his main verse and his fandomless verse

right now, there's not much difference between them, although Ideally it would be much more prominent in the main verse than it is currently, as that's where it's supposed to be Most Important (I just haven't gotten to the point where I can bring this to fruition yet)

I have lore for the main verse shadow crystal comfortably sorted, but integrating this properly into rp and more notably, a functional story role (since I want to one day revive the original old concept of svern having his own little "neo team", that's literally why the blog url is the way it is, but I put it in limbo a long time ago because I genuinely didn't know how I should put it into action in a useful way)

...is something that will take yet more time and thought. thus, main verse svern is currently stuck in an intermediate stage, purely out of necessity, because I don't know how to advance past it yet.

but the end goal is to maintain that first idea where he carries 100% his fixation on the shadow crystal, to whichever end it leads him to: ultimately he will not be able to escape it, because there's no reason for him to. he only faces the full consequence after it becomes irreversible (when he's probably died and is forced to hang around indefinitely after that and he realises this isn't fun anymore)

As for the fandomless version, I'm still working out the lore n stuff which hinders things a little in terms of like... exactly how far I can go into specific details, but it's close enough to what I already decided that I can just fudge through until I work out the rest.

here svern is also in an intermediate stage, or arguably at a little of an earlier stage than the main verse, actually. this svern is flexible and NOT automatically tied to a bad end although it will still be very very easy for him to go down that road without intervention or should something happen to make things Worse.

the shadow influence in fandomless verse is more like in incubation stage. it's still firmly there don't get me wrong but it's more in the background at the moment (at the moment). it also depends on what muses he interacts with, exactly how it will or won't manifest

this post is getting long but I want to write a few more things so I'll attempt to make a loose part 2

[stars-self-ships]

A couple of days ago, I came cross this cute animated short on Youtube by chance, and the first eight or so seconds of the video left me with but one thought:

"MAN. I want to be a pretty princess!"

To be honest, imagining myself as an esteemed princess isn't something that's ever come to mind since I started identifying as a girl, though this one video alone has caused my mind to run rampant with thoughts of being cordially escorted out of a carriage, wearing a beautiful dress and a lovely tiara, the whole nine yards!

Naturally, I've put some thought into designing myself— particularly my fursona— into the prettiest princess in all the land, and it was after I began thinking about what I would look like that I had the single greatest idea...

... what if I brought back the fearless dragon OC F/O I designed just about a year ago as her love interest? 👀

And just like that, now I'm developing an entire OC universe just for this one concept alone, seeing as it's the perfect excuse to finally bring said dragon OC F/O to fruition as well as potentially outlining even more fantasy OC F/Os!! 💞

I'll definitely be posting about it more in the future when I have more for it, but I just wanted to get this out there to announce that I will in fact be turning the above OC F/O concept into a fully-fledged character!

[siennasstore]

Day 1 Intro And Very Short Term Plan

Day 1 (January 23, 2024)

To be honest I don't know if anyone will read this but I've decided to start this lil blog to document my journey or trying to start my own business. Maybe (hopefully) one day I'll look back on this from my big top floor office and smile at how far I've come. 

For a short intro- my name is Sienna Rosales, I'm a junior in high school and am enrolled in my city's vocational school for esthetics, my birthday is January 13, I  hope to go to college and get my cosmetic science degree and one day become a practicing medical doctor of Dermatology. 

Back to the business tho. I would like to create an "all things beauty" type store. More than likely starting with makeup and skincare and then later branching out into hair, teeth, glasses, fashion, ect. Really just anything you can think of when it comes to appearance. I don't mean to sound vain but seeing how someone's mood can change when they think they look good is really why I want to do this. I want everyone to be able to use/ find a product that works for them in my store no matter their background or anything. I also think it would be cool to have a brick and motor shop one day that doubles as a safe space- and a cafe. 

My parent's are supportive (tho it seems one more so than the other tho that's neither here nor there because they love me and I love them) and my older brother agreed to talk to a friend of his who he models for that runs their own business, I will be sure to nag him about that. I have lots of concept ideas on my tablet: I suppose I may have got tired of just concepting and keeping them to myself and hence we ended up here. I have some money saved up from when I was able to work although I suspect it is not enough. 

I have no clue where to start. At the moment I am signing up for free versions of website builders (Wordpress, Wix, Shopify, and Squarespace) to try and catch the vibes of them. Either later tonight when I am undoubtably up even tho I should be sleeping-shh don't tell my momma- I will start looking up how to start a business, what you need to start a cosmetic business, ect ect. I will try to update tomorrow/ whenever I work on this new big project of mine. I feel like this is something to big for me to do (especially mostly on my own) but the thought of having this come to fruition brings an excitement to my heart that I have truthfully not felt in years. If someone is reading this I would really appreciate any advice you can give. Maybe one day I'll even post some of my concept drawings here. 

-Thanks, Sienna R.  

(there's also a google blog version of this also under Sienna's Store)

❤️

[purplekoop]

Ehehehehheh, so glad you picked up what I was laying down there!

See spider-borg Widow was very much the idea I had in mind when putting her as Tank in that list, but there's actually a little bit of a history I was hoping to reference with the idea.

See, there's no less than 3 things that "spider tank" could refer to when talking about Overwatch's development history, all of which I'd want to give their own posts but I'm gonna go ahead and ramble about now while it's topical.

The first "spider tank" is... Orisa. Now, "spider" isn't the first animal that comes to mind when you see Orisa, but there was reason to call her that back before her release.

Back before Orisa's proper reveal, when she was only teased via the existence of Efi and a few other official hints, there was a leak going around about a "spider tank" named "Anchora". The name sounds... vaguely like Orisa, but it comes together when you hear about how Orisa was designed on a gameplay level. Her role in the tank lineup was to be a contender to Reinhardt (at that point widely considered to be the only ""viable"" tank due to his constantly reliable barrier), specifically cited to be designed as an anchor for her team, with her static barrier and other abilities making her the best tank at holding a position. It's more than likely that "Anchora" was the functional placeholder name for Orisa before everything about her was finalized, and her design could've been more spider-esque than the more centaur-like design we have now, with the leak's inaccuracies being due to the info being from an earlier point in development.

The second "spider tank" is something that a fan wiki calls "Spider Tank" directly, and they're probably my favorite non-playable OW character.

This omnic war machine is the most "when you see it, you can't unsee it" background entities in all of Overwatch. This guy's in so many places that they absolutely deserve their own post later, but I still wanna bring them up because they're the "spider tank" that survived the most into the final game.

The last one though is the visual that I had in my head the strongest when putting Widowmaker in the tank tier, and that's the star of this image, a piece of concept art shown around in OW's initial reveal days, though even then it was pretty outdated by what else was shown in cons and such.

We see a lot heroes in a mostly final state: Reaper, Winston, and Genji look accurate to now, Mercy's weapon seems to be a little off but she's otherwise fine, Roadhog is GREEN, we can see a peek of what I think is Reaper's shotgun in the bottom right, and... hey, that's an interesting-looking entity in the middle, huh?

Don't worry, we can get a better look at her in this fantastic image shown around the same time.

Listen, there's so much to talk about here that it absolutely warrants its own post, but I'll try to keep it topical to Spider Tanks. And uh... well, we get to see traces of THREE spider tank adjacent characters here! We got tall, neon, and screamy chilling in the back, Spider Tank (my beloved) on the far right, and shining bright red in the middle is Proto-Reinhardt. It's been said outright that an earlier concept for Reinhardt was that he'd be African, with his armor design reflecting that, so I think it's safe to assume that the big, armored individual see here is meant to be the conceptual predecessor for everyone's favorite hammer-swinging crusader. However, I think it's also fair to assume that the aesthetics of this early tank concept were split from the big armor guy concept, and would later come to fruition as the most playable spider tank in the present game, Orisa.

(again, this is just reminding me I need to make a compilation going over all the recurring prototype characters in Overwatch's concept art, it's so fun to see where the concepts for some of these characters have been over the years)

Absolutely MASSIVE tangent aside

Once again, very glad you picked up on what I was laying down with putting Widowmaker as a tank. I did not however plan out the abilities in advance, so absolute top-notch work on those, I'd say you got the concept perfectly with a set of Tank abilities based on the spider theme. There's maybe some room for iteration, but the whole thing adds up cohesively for a disruption-focused tank with above-average mobility and crowd control at the cost of damage output. My only alternative ideas would be to base things more directly on her existing kit, which you already kinda got down with Web Swing as a parallel to her existing grappling hook, though I'd trade Lunge as an extra movement ability for some kind of upgrade to Venom Mine to make it better at area denial, though that might make things cluttered considering she's also putting up Web Walls, and most heroes (besides I think exactly just Symmetra) don't have more than one "object" ability outside of their ultimate. But hey, maybe the upgraded venom mine could be one of the spider drones from that old spider leg hero art! justifying that tangent somehow!

But yeah, part of why I suggest the abilities be slightly more similar to her existing kit is because I like the idea of not just twisting the heroes to their new roles, but their existing abilities too. Like I mentioned in the initial post, my ideas for Support Tracer was that she still had Blink, but Recall would also let you pull a teammate with you to safety (like Life Grip but with time travel) and Pulse Bomb would be a similar kind of "throw a device for an AOE effect", but instead of a lethal explosion, it'd be a burst of recharging energy that instantly full heals allies and resets all their cooldowns to be recharged, also retaining its low ult cost. But to clarify, that's not a hard rule, just a fun little "bonus challenge" that I'm more than willing to bend if it'd make more sense.

But yeah! Very very glad you're having fun with ideas for this AU too, I'm gonna be sharing my own ideas and maybe possibly don't count on it some art for it when I get the time, but feel free to come up with and share more in the meantime!

@purplekoop

One of the role swaps in your tier quickly caught my curiosity: Widowmaker as a tank. She would have not been one of my first picks for tank. She’s a sniper. She’s rather skinny. She’s not well padded in the slightest. Making her a tank would be impossible. Which is exactly what makes this so fun. I quickly began brainstorming. Trying to wrap my head around how someone with her body type and play style could be a tank. Then, I had the idea of continuing her spider motif in a brand new exciting way.

First of all, there’s no reason for Widowmaker to be a sniper. The name Widowmaker came from having killed her husband in his sleep. I doubt she used a sniper rifle for that. So instead of being genetically altered to become a better sniper, she is modified in a different way.

Amelie Lacroix is given giant robotic spider legs.

They would attach around her torso. Completely enveloping her normal legs. She would have eight legs, not six. I hate it when they do that. (Although if we're being realistic Blizzard would only give her four). She would also have a rectangular, almost coffin-shaped, abdomen. The normal parts of her body could still be her usual outfit. She absolutely must keep her helmet. Her right arm is a gun, like Megaman. He left arm has a shining purple blade attached to it.

Her primary fire is still kinda a sniper shot. It's a hitscan with a very thin area, and you can't headshot with it. However, you can charge it (akin to Winston, Illari, or Symmetra), and once fully charged it afflicts poison on the hero hit. It's unleashed from the gun on her arm. It's called Bite.

To fully capture her spider side, Widowmaker is more focused on disruption than protection. Her secondary fire is Web Wall. Two pairs of her legs lift up and create a spiderweb wall right in front of Widowmaker. There's a little animation of her creating the web, so it doesn't create instantly. However, she has two charges of it. I don't the size of it, but I imagine it to be taller than Sigma's shield but not longer. More of a square shape. The properties of the web wall are my favorite. The web wall does not stop any projectiles or bullets. All damage thrown at the wall passes straight through it. However, enemies cannot pass through it. In fact, touching an enemy web wall applies the hindered status effect. The webs will have a timer for how long they stay up (similar to Ramattra). I'm also considering the walls ending early based on how many people touch them. Putting them on flank routes can be really effective. Tracer might be able to blink through them (to fuel the rivalry). Allies are not affected by the web wall. They can pass through as they please.

Widowmaker's primary ability is rather simple. Lunge has you dash forward a set distance. If you collide with an enemy, Widowmaker slashes them with her blade, inflicting poison.

Widowmaker's secondary ability is Web Swing. It functions similarly to Wrecking Ball's grappling hook. However, it deals much less damage and you don't really gain momentum. Any enemy you collide with does get afflicted with hindered.

Ensnare is her ultimate ability. A circular web bursts from her and covers the floor. All enemies in the circle are afflicted with poison and hindered as long as they remain inside the circle. The effect also briefly lasts after the enemy leaves.

Also, if we want to be funny, she can have a passive similar to Genji, Hanzo, and [third hero i don't like]'s wall climb. Widowmaker could very well have Wall Crawl as a passive.

I don't know how much health she should have or what type. But I would like her to have a faster walking speed than most tanks.

TLDR:

Let's really make Widowmaker a spider.

[nostromocomicdatabase]

Dark Horse; Alien: Outbreak

Unlike Batman, Transformers, or even Sonic, it was rather difficult to find reliable sources in regards to the conception of this comic series. I did own a physical copy of the 30th Anniversary book, so I was able to get insight from the initial writer.

By the way, originally I was going to go over the history of the production to the Alien movie itself, then Aliens, but 20 minutes into the The Beast Within: The Making of Alien documentary and it’s a bit much for the purposes of going over the comics. So I'll give bullet points, it’s still pretty long though.

Ronald Shusett, the executive producer, heard of a movie called Dark Star made by Dan O'Bannon and John Carpenter with designs by Ron Cobb, a big student movie that went to theaters.

Ronald would get in touch with Dan and John, and would strike up a rapport with Dan and would tell him that he has the rights to what would become Total Recall and in turn Dan told him about the horror story version of Dark Star that he has been working on for a year that would become Alien.

Dan would briefly be called to Paris, France to work on Dune by Alejandro Jodorowsky, which in the end never came into fruition, but there Alejandro would introduce Dan to H. R. Giger. who had a show going on display in Paris. Giger would offer opium to Dan, telling Dan that he is afraid of his visions and when confronted that it’s only his mind, Giger retorts “that is what I am afraid of”. Afterwards Giger brings out an artbook for Dan to look through as he speaks with Alejandro about Dune.

Following the collapse of the Jodorowsky’s Dune project, Dan would crash at Ronald Shusett’s place where he would work days and nights for 3 months on the Alien script, changing the initial title from Star Beast into Alien, a result of realizing the amount of times the characters say “alien”.

In the midst of the night, Ronals would conceive the facehugger and chestburster through phrasing it as “the monster screws one of the people”.

A friend named Mark Haggard gets a hand on the script and later that night tells them he could get the money for it. The script would get passed down from Mark to this guy he knew, Walter Hill who had recently formed a production company with David Giler and Gordon Carroll, Brandywine Productions.

Walter and David wanted all the credit for the screenplay. Carroll would remark in The Beast Within: The Making of Alien that they changed the “whole character of the film”, Dan would add that Walter said in one of his speeches “the greatest thing I have to bring to this project is that I don’t know anything about science fiction and I don’t like it.”

Many people seem to regard that neither had the capabilities to make the script better, and were actually making it worse, the only good thing they added past getting the ball rolling for financing, was making Ash a Robot.

Originally Fox wasn’t sold on it, but when Star Wars came out and science fiction became a hot genre they wanted an alien and spaceship movie fast and green lighted Alien.

Walter was originally going to direct it, but he figured he didn’t have the temperament for special effects. Many directors were asked but none of them wanted to ruin their credibility by doing a “dumb monster movie.” (Spoiler Alert; Said dumb monster movie would later be preserved in the United States National Film Registry.)

Walter and Gordon, stunned by visuals of The Duellists, brought on Ridley Scott.

Ridley would storyboard the movie over 3 weeks and was able to double the budget.

The first time Dan met Ridley, he gave the director Giger’s artbook and Ridley loved it, which endeared him to Dan. Ridley would press on Fox for the use of the designs, using the work as it is rather than bringing Giger for planning. Beautiful and threatening, with strong sexual connotations.

Ridley would repeat this point to Giger, that he only needed to design a few more things such as the facehugger and the surroundings.

Ron Cobb would do industrial designs for the sets with basis in reality and Chris Foss would design the outer of the ships with more fantastical elements.

Dark Horse was the sole publisher of Aliens comics for 30 years until the purchase of 20th Century Fox by Walt Disney, the license to produce Alien, Predator, and Predator vs Aliens comics moved to Marvel Comics. The initial writer, Mark Verheiden, comments that the only mandates he was given were the alien creatures on earth, featuring Newt and Hicks, and (out of business concern) was the absence of the character Ripley though that last one would eventually be rescinded. The only notes he got from 20th Century Fox about their flagship series was a note or two about cautioning tastfulness with some of the sexual and violent scenes, Verheiden wanted to explore a dystopian, but high-tech future where religion and commerce and technology clashed with these creatures. And this is highly evident the moment the series starts. Within the world we explore the aftereffects of the events of Aliens had on Newt and Hicks (renamed to Billy and Wilks respectively in the aftermath of Alien3) as well as Verheiden’s educated guesses on the Aliens mythology, such as the identity of the Space Jockey.

Aliens3 rendered the story non-canonical when it showed Newt and Hicks dead forcing Dark Horse to re-release the comics, editing the names of Newt (Billy) and Hicks (Wilks).