#or that every piece isnt fully rendered

[theelusivelotus]

we cooking...

[feathernotes]

BACKGROUNDS IN WEBCOMICS

I want to talk about sustainability in your work process, featuring our fave: Backgrounds. How to simplify, convey, and deliver in comics! (examples include Phantomarine, Wychwood, Shaderunners and Ghost Junk Sickness) The usual suspect to burnout is often the workload involved. Many ppl who FULL HAM on pages that def need a detail cut for many reasons Main one being: You don’t need excessive detail to tell whats happening in a small panel, in fact, less is better. When you observe a page in its entirety, where does the eye travel? Where does the eye stop? Having a fully rendered BG in multiple panels can actually be a huge distraction, on top of the time it takes to get there. So how do you balance?

In Phantomarine, the most detailed panel is the establishing one, it holds our characters and allows readers to understand the positions they're all in/standing at. Its one panel that provides a specific telling detail: the railings behind Phae indicate we're on the boat.

In the bottom left panel,the artist uses the railings again, but doesnt have to render the lights, floor boards, or sea to show where we were, then uses the colours of said BG and mood to paint the rest of the page. This is where colours/gradients and small objects save the day! The same example is here, just flipped. The establishing shot shares DETAILS that you need to show the readers where we are, then the BG of Pavel eating food isnt over whelmed with background characters or other details that get in the way of the ACTION that is to be conveyed

it would be rather distracting if we were to see Pavel eat that bowl, with sooo many more details involved in the panel- instead, the drapes, hues of light, and clever sound effects tell us what is happening. Wychwood does the very same with establishing shots, then KEY DETAILS to provide the reader with where the character is standing, without sacrificing the facial expressions and details of the CHARACTERS that we need to get across

Most detail is in the top panel, the BAR that Julian holds onto is a KEY PIECE to show where they are in the BG already established. Perfect use of BG! Get used to thinking of those key details when changing scenes and establishing shots!

Pick those key details to tell the reader where they are and draw that. If you have a library scene, please just draw that BG once! Take a specific bookcase or key feature, use blocked shapes and colours, and make it less detailed than the provided establishing shot. I also wanna talk about : Action Scenes Focusing on the ACTION of the scenes is SO important when you have them, and often details get lost when a creator focuses on details that can distract a reader! My advice? Most action scenes are best without/need little backgrounds. A few shots from Ghost Junk Sickness demonstrate this. We're paying attention to the action- we've been established where we are before, so let's play in the sandbox now.

Have a panel or two peppered in there, with the same principal as above to ground where your character is, but do not add a BG in every panel. It instantly takes away from the action when it's not integrated as well, and it takes SO MUCH MORE TIME to draw that sequence!

Read More amazing tips: Here are some GREAT examples by the creators of ShadeRunners, HERE who break down how they do backgrounds ( AND CROWD SHOTS!!!!)

TL;DR: Comics are a MULTITUDE of skills and needs. It takes a lot of time and work to pull it off, so working with methods that make it easiest for you as the creator is what will help you maintain that momentum and stability you need! Good luck and get comicking!

[void-chara]

My gift for the @technoblade-gift-exchange !! i was assigned to @simplepotatofarmer who asked for dsmp rivals duo. i hope you like it Loyal!

rambling about headcanons, designs, and my process and stuff under the readmore, because i wanna talk about it but dont want the post to be super long !!

i had originally planned to not have a background and then at the last second i decided to speedrun drawing one in a few hours so um. quality difference but its fine. also unrelated but im pretty sure everything about how i draw animals and anthros makes it very obvious i used to be in the warrior cats fandom lol. anyway onto the designs!!

the gold on techno is scars from the totem at the execution, which i think is a pretty common thing for techno designs. he isnt supposed to be a piglin, but rather similar species of anthropomorphic pig. also his mane and tail fluff are naturally brown but he dyes them pink ^_^ so cool !! um. i maaayyy have forgotten the crown until i was way too far into the piece to add it. haha. oops. pretend its missing because. uuh. hes in a casual outfit. "but he still has the cape" yeah its comfy. "but dream has a mask thats not casual" dream is dream he does Not relax fully ever. see entirely intentional i would never make a mistake.

dream is an original shapeshifter species i came up with because i couldnt decide what i wanted him to be. i havent decided on a name for the species yet but i plan to make almost every solid-color or nearly solid color mcyt into this species. theyre mostly involuntary/unconscious shapeshifters. so like they change slowly over weeks or months to adapt to their surroundings, with little conscious control. basically i wanted him to be like five different things so i shoved them together lol, rabbit ears but in a pattern that looks like an axolotl, a cool tail, TOE BEANS tho you cant see them. this was actually the first time ive ever had a dream design im happy with so thats really nice.

i um. i made full use of my time lol, i spent a bit over a week on the lineart, another week on the coloring, and maybe a week and a half on rendering. unless i suddenly became shit at math(which is possible) that adds up to roughly the amount of time i had to work on it. im really proud of myself actually since i usually take a while to do art, and i wasnt sure i would be able to make something id be happy with in this amount of time. but i did! woah!! this was my first time participating in a fandom gift exchange and it was so fun, and also helped motivate me to draw more instead of getting distracted like i usually do (classic adhd moment) lol. anyway super cool!!

Loyal if u decided to read all this for some reason then again i really hope u like it!! u are so cool and i really love ur rivals duo opinions and creations so i hope u like this! i know theres been shit happening lately, i hope ur doing ok!!

[triptychofvoids]

Bro where you do you get the motivation to draw or post? Your drive to draw is to die for!

i will answer this in the same way i answered the last time someone asked me a question like this. to be fair, im not exactly churning out a fully rendered piece every day (i certainly wish i was!! but those take time and effort and a bit more energy aheh....) but i think the most important thing is that its something i enjoy doing! i just really like drawing! even if they end up being mediocre scribbles that never get posted, i just find it fun. of course, there are going to be some days where i dont feel like drawing, so i dont. i think it can help with motivation for creative endeavors if you dont force yourself to create anything you dont want to, but when you do, have fun with it! dont compare yourself to other people, let them do their own things, at the end of the day you should be creating because you want to and not because you feel like you have to or because its some kind of competition (it isnt)! long story short, i just think its fun!!

[brokenmousetrap]

🦀 PRICES 🦀

Adoptables: $10

(If you but an adoptable for an extra $5 I will draw a commission of anypony you want! It’s usually a fully colored and rendered full body piece btw)Just a reminder this only happens if you buy an adoptable and this isnt including regular commissions)

Commissions: $15

Prices depend on the type of commission! here is a guide 🦑

Bust: About $2-$5

~sketch: For free! Will sketch anything 4 free if u DM me!

~Lineart: $2

~Colored (w/ bg): $3

~Colored and Rendered (w/background): $5

Half Body: $5-$10

~Half body Lineart:$5

~Colored:$6

~Fully rendered + background design (flat colors are all free depending on the pattern):$10

Full Body: Anywhere between $15-$25

~Lineart: $15

~Colored w/flat background: $18(depending on intricacy of design)

~Colored, fully rendered, and detailed background: $20-$25

:) Please DM me if you would like to commission me or send me an ask if you are confused! I am open to changing my prices since I am not in a particularly bad place financially (but could still help me). Thank you if you ever buy from me!

(PS with every commission and adoptable I will send you a detailed cutiemark of the character and an icon/element for free :))(on occasion I will draw a character for free depending on if you have brought something for me before)

[norman-ratri-truther]

message your artists that I've been trying to learn is that you don't need to shade every single drawing you do if you don't feel like it!! drawings don't have to be super rendered and blended to be good, you decide when your drawing is finished whenever you want, art can be colourless, art can be just a sketch, art can have flat colours, art can be stylised and not realistic, art can be characters in a flat void with no background, art can have little to no story, your drawings do not need to be a fully polished rendered illustration with a dynamic pose and a full background and foreground to be considered finished!! there are so many art styles where minimal shading or none at all is part of the look and they look great!

there's nothing wrong with just drawing your blorbo unshaded doing a simple pose on a white background, it isn't worth any less than big grand pieces that take 14+ hours, and you should not push yourself to only make huge drawings and not bother with doodles and small ones. Simple art isnt worthless, simple art is good, you aren't a bad artist because your art is simple! it still takes tons of skill!

sincerely someone who just spent like 3 hours shading a drawing that I was super happy with when it just had flat colours but I felt it couldn't be a finished drawing if I just posted it as is so I tried to add shading when deep down I didn't even want it to be shaded

[tenya]

[uppyr-blog]

D4: talking

drawing boba everyday until the trailer drops

(sorry if this isnt such good quality, since im doing this everyday im unable to draw fully rendered pieces every time.)

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

1. even ignoring how silly the AOW is and how the nymphs are just fodder for persephone's "story", imagine how insulting it would be to likely end up hades' "eternal free labor" only to find out your "sister" had been living and working down in the underworld for weeks & 1) never mentioned or tried to see you and 2) made a bigger point to try and resurrect/pay for the people who KILLED YOU?? like persephone just ends up looking like she cares more about her reputation than her supposed "sisters"???

2. even ignoring the fact theyre the /same exact color/, why are we supposed to buy "the twins are zeus' kids" as some twist? rachel this is greek mythology even the most amateur fan would know it's more of a surprise if someone /isnt/ his kid. then again she wants us to buy "persephone is a fertility goddess" is a shocking twist as if  she's not literally a spring and vegetation goddess?? like yeah no shit she's a fertility goddess. hades is one too as well as most deities.

3. we have panels of daphne that went through rachel's sketches (which if they were  as fully rendered as she claims on instagram this wouldnt be an issue), inks, flats, colors, rachel putting in the dialogue, AND an editor looking at them and they cant keep the colors correct and straight up don't have her pointy ears and blue splotches gone. say what you will on more traditional comic and graphic novel publication, but at least you know youre getting a well produced product over this rushed mess.

4. that's honestly the thing tho? LO really is the most lazy trope-d, uninspired story if we really break it down. No tropes are subverted or shown in a creative way, plots are random and undeveloped if not dropped completely, they talk so much (!!) yet still remain so flat with little to no progression, and there is really no themes or messages beyond ... I'm not sure, poor people are bad? "Feminism" is when your world revolves around a man and female relationships are abusive? Classism is good?

5. Why does every single Eris redesign have her with long locks of feather hair? Can't a woman have a shaved head? A buzzcut? Or is that not 'feminine' enough for her fans 🙄

6. Nyx, to hades: “I had half a mind to steal you myself from your mother”

Also Nyx: *throws her actual child away to a piece of shit tyrant who is not good at all with kids*

Thank you Rachel for this great character consistency 😩

7. I'm not inherently against the idea of Hera knowing about Persephone's assault (though I'm not sure why she'd know just off touch?) however I do not understand why we're supposed to root for her going behind Persephone's back and telling it to others without her consent? Even making Hephaestus see the actual act, which is a huge breach of consent. I get it's supposed to be her helping, but it just seems like even Persephone's trauma isn't her own, it's for others to do as they please with it.

8. I hate how so many people excuse LO's poor writing and art as "that's how Webtoons are" as if they don't have countless beautifully written and drawn comics on there that get critic praise and awards without WT's massive marketing campaign behind them like they do for LO. There is a ton of talent and wonderful products on there that don't deserve to be dragged down because of LO's lacking quality having more focus. LO is the cheap fast food kiddie meal in a sea of high quality, gourmet options.

9. It honestly feels like the writing in LO is just Rachel going off overused tropes with nothing new added to it, fans comments, and thinking she's more clever than she is by doing random ideas and thinking it's "subversive". like ma'am, just listen to your editor and actually write something decent over trying to overcomplicate the story even more to make it seem more "serious" and thinking you're reinventing the wheel.

10. IDK why some of yall say Eris couldn't be a kid of Hera and Zeus (in myth) as they are the definition of a discord full relationship. Like they had the God of War and the Goddess of Bloodshed, how would discord be out of the question? Though, regardless, the only reason she's their kid in LO isn't Rachel thinking she's being "accurate" but rather needing a scapegoat for Persephone (reverse character development! RS is such a visionary) and to be like "see? all of Zeus' kids are bad!"

From OP: I wouldn’t say it’s a “all his kids are bad” thing since Hephaestus and Hebe are good. LO is just framing Zeus a a bad father in general, Eris being an exception since he had good reason to kick her out.

(I didn’t including Artemis and Apollo since he never had the chance to be their dad/involved in their lives until now.)

[ot3]

My approach to flat colors + limited palette drawings

This is a follow up to this post  i made about how i go about figuring out a color palette for my limited palette drawings. an anon asked me about my actual technique of finishing them so this is gonna be an explanation of how I work in a limited palette with flat colors. I ended up with these thumbnails for a sketch last time so we’re gonna work from here and I’m gonna sort of walk through how i got to the finished version

first things first: every part of this process is just developed as a result of me messing around. take my advice with a grain of salt and if you think you know a way to do something better/that makes you more comfortable. go with that over what I say.

I’m honestly a little surprised when people express confusion about how i draw like this because it’s SUPER simple - literally all you’re doing is just stacking solid color blocks of shape. its very imprecise despite how sharp everything ends up looking. 

First things first is that you want to decide how you will be handling your edges throughout the duration. Do you want your shapes to be ultra-sharp and precise, or do you want a little bit of a wobblier, grainier edge? Both can look good but it’s VERY much a matter of situational basis. i’ve been favoring looser and grainier shapes so that’s how i’m going to be working on this. 

on the left here, you can see the shapes made with precise rectangular selections and an untextured pen, on the right, freehand drawn shapes and a grittier pen. There’s something immediately pretty different feeling about them. So play around with that first - its not something that’s fun to change halfway through! But lets step back a minute. It helps to work large to small. The two biggest shapes here are these orange chunks and everything gets stacked on top of them so i’m gonna do that first. 

Now, a key feature of what i do: clipping masks. almost all digital art programs have them. What a clipping mask does is it constrains the pixels of a layer to the transparency of the layer below it. Here I have the light orange layer, and then on top of it the buildings and billboard are clipped to the orange. Most of you probably already know this and I’m overexplaining a bit, but there was a time when i didnt know how clipping layers worked and someone had to explain it to me.

now you’ll notice the shapes of the buildings are rough, and sloppy. here’s the fun part: since this is all about stacking shapes, only your exterior edges matter. this all gets filled in. be as sloppy as you want when you’re making your shapes. in fact, the outside edges get trimmed out a bunch to when i do this - i go in and erase them clean. Don’t be too finnicky about drawing perfect and precise! its a waste of time. As long as the silhouette is what you want, the interior can be a nightmare.

Working this way, it’s important to keep your layers stacked in a way you can make sense of. Right now there are four layers here: the background dark orange, the two main orange rectangle shapes, and then the buildings on one layer and a billboard on the other. I rack up a LOT of layers doing this and it makes it annoying in some aspects, but being able to freely recolor any one chunk without losing my detail is a key aspect of this.

So, I block those out

Next, I do the same for the smaller chunks that are still main shapes. There are once again, a lot of layers here. The top layer is the hair - you can see the head showing through it. The head and arm underneath the hair, same layer. Then the cup. Then the light green pieces of paper. Then the dark green ones.

The cup is technically farther forward than the head and arm so you would think it’d go on top, but the point isnt to recreate the foreground and background hierarchy with layers so much as it is to group things in a way i can work with. The cup goes underneath so it can be grouped with all the other objects on the table. 

now, i just go and fill in all the shapes. i forgot to do the blinds but i get them later. you might notice a lot of these shapes are pretty rough, which was harder to notice before they were filled in. Now that I can see better, I go in with an eraser and clean up the edges until they’re the shape I want 

sometimes erasing leaves little bits of ‘noise’ around objects like on this napkin here. i like to keep a little bit of this noise for texture, but if you dont like it make sure to get rid of it! if you’re working very crisp this will stand out a LOT

Next up is to add some detail onto the objects

I flipped the canvas here because the head shape was wrong - the ears were uneven and i wanted to fix it. I want to go about adding detail onto the billboard and buildings. i do all detail with clipping masks - but the objects are clipped to another layer and so nothing can be clipped to them. instead, i unclip them and just erase by selection for the same effect

all of the text on the papers is clipped to the papers below it. the buttons are clipped to the phone. the yellow photos and card are actually another independent layer on top, in case i want to recolor them separately. im indecisive and end up recoloring things a lot. For the most part these objects are starting to become recognizable as more than just shapes

i go in an add the details on the background and character now. theres some more stuff on the table. the lines of the face and ears are on one layer, and the flats of the eyes below that. Here’s what each group of layers is, and what they look like on their own

The background/bottom chunk. Just the table, window, and shirt.

The middle bit. All the stuff on the table and the blinds.

Finally, the top, which is just his head and arm. 

now this stage is the bare bones of the drawing. you can more or less tell everything that’s happening. it reads. but its very much lacking in something - it doesnt have a ton of depth or interest. and adding that additional detailing, the dept and interest, is where stuff starts getting REALLY tricky and subjective. 

im gonna take you to a much simpler scenario to show the sort of options i go through at this stage

ahh its our dear friend, sphere casting shadow. this is, more or less, the kind of image we have. you can tell whats happening but it’s lackluster. there are TONSSS of ways frm here that you can go add interior detail to a shape once it has been established. here are some quick and SUPER rough examples

from top left to bottom right: flat cel shading, softer airbrushed/gradient shading, halftone, and a textured brush. Each of these has their strengths and weaknesses. They can also be combined.

for example, here’s the solid cel shading being used to contain a gradient/airbrushed detail. This image - probably the single oldest piece of my art i still willingly show people - is entirely colored with gradients being contained in cel-shaded chunks. It has a sort of soft, luminous quality but without losing its crispness.

here’s a super quick bust with some variations of stuff going on. obviously this is no masterpiece but you see how different types of detailing can interact with each other and be used to distinguish materials too. 

With the mob psycho comic I did, the detailing that wasnt line was done using a variety of halftones of different shapes layered on top of each other

by contrast parts of my ace attorney comic use a textured brush and have a sort of blended, papery feel

any of them can work for pretty much anything as long as you are using it with intent. practice around. mix styles of finishing together. find a comfort zone. the more you do it the more intuitive it becomes and at the heart of it this process is a very intuitive way of drawing because of how far removed it is from realism.

Now here is the trick - light and shadow.

Everything up to this point has been very flat and adding detail helps but there’s only so much that can accomplish. To get HEAVY light and shadow you need to think about things differently. I think if there’s any part of this process that’s complicated, its this one. 

To truly get the most out of your palette, you need to pick chunks of an image to be in higher/lower light and then either ‘step up’ or ‘step down’ the colors in that chunk. here’s what I mean.

Here’s our ball with a beam of light on it. Everything Within the beam of light is one step in our limited palette lighter than anything outside of it. Here’s how I go about doing this: the shape of the beam of light is below everything else. Then, once I have the shape blocked out, i select it. With that selection in place, i go to EVERY SINGLE LAYER that’s effected, lock the opacity, and recolor that chunk. So what’s going on here is that there is only one more layer - the beam of light, below everything but the background, and the rest of this effect is just caused by every layer above it now being two-toned following the exact same silhouette. THIS is why it’s so important to keep your layers separate - if the shadow and highlight had been painted onto the base directly, i would not be able to do this without significant effort. 

This works with all of the finishing techniques I talked about above

A combination of cel shading and half toning, all stepped up to give the appearance of heavier light on one area.This is also how I go about rendering transparency in this style. All of my layers are fully opaque and I allow the colors to do the work of conveying transparent material

Here’s our ball with the patterned/textured brush  shading, being viewed partially through a window

it’s obviously not a very representational way of working, but as long as your audience UNDERSTANDS what you’re trying to convey, then you’re executing it successfully.

So with that, now we’re gonna go and finish this drawing.

For this one, I decide a big central shadow is necessary. In the original thumbnail, he was backlit, which I still plan on doing, and that wouldn’t make sense without casting a shadow.

I’ve had to change the colors of some objects entirely in order to get this to work right. This is what I mean when I call this an intuitive process - some stuff felt weird, so I changed it. This also involves a bit of problem solving. The newspaper is now unable to be separated from his hand. Sometimes changing the color of an object makes that object look better, but ruins its relationship with the objects around it. It’s up to you to learn how to adjust and finagle things until you get it where you want.The paper he has and the napkin underneath it also all blend together now.

The next few parts of this process are REALLY just trial and error, where I toss a bunch of spaghetti at it until it works. It’s hard to decide what to screenshot, because I don’t know what will or will not be part of the finished drawing. To that end, you can watch the recording of this drawing here. This video isn’t edited at all so it contains a couple of minutes of really shitty sketching, and then all of the color thumbnailing work i did in the last post. Actually getting started on these final colors begins around the two minute mark. It is also sideways, I am sorry I don’t know why. 

Now, here you can see where I’ve more or less worked things out. His hand’s not on the cup anymore because my friend pointed out it didnt have an arm attached to it. I added some halftoning to make a gradiating effect in the sky and on the table to give the impression of a sunrise. His eyes are different but as of posting this, I don’t like them and am probably about to go back and change them again. The Cup now has a shadow and some rim lighting. His hand is in shadow. The stain on the napkin is big enough to define the edge of the paper on top of it.

Little things like that. 

The more you draw like this the more the way you need to think about your space becomes natural. I hope this helps and I wish you all the best of luck!

[empress-of-xerxes]

Homecoming (Pt. 1)

The Immure pressed from the warp like a fist, shattering reality like glass with tendrils of cascading warp fire echoing out from the center of its re-entry. It was brutalistic, blocky and massive as any modified iconoclast destroyer could be counted to be with endless portals along its hull for modified gun platforms. It shuddered as if breathing in from a long time spent beneath the currents and thrusted forward, not waiting for the rest of the fleet fluttering in behind it. The Immure tasted prey and it's Commander would grant it a feast.

---

Braggart Hal, Arteshtaran of the Perfekt Entropy and Champion of Adrian the Beautiful, stood upon the command dias of the Immure bloated with withheld rage and venting steam from the rents in his armor that bled etheric light. His armor barely contained his soul now and he breathed out a sigh that made reality tremble as his fury became a palpable, mist of red fog billowing around his armored frame. The power field of his fists cackled and spasmed as he flexed its fingers and allowed his rage to burn bright within the weapons machine spirit. Braggart had always been a brute, even in youth. Amongst his Legion he was an outcast for foregoing the beauty and art of combat for more blunt and devastating methods. His enemies were broken not by fanciful sword play but with brutality. Break. Shatter. Ruin. The words echoed in his mind constantly like some echoed mimicry of the World Eaters mantra. He did not wish for blood. Nor skulls. Just ruination in it’s entirety.

"We... are here..." Braggart whispered but the sound came out in threat filled syllables. His chest rumbled in a throaty laugh and he breathed in deep with anticipation. "I will break... the King of Ashes."

He grinned beneath a helm he could never remove as the first alert chimes of weapons and auger lock began to sound out. "Xurok... is mine..."

--- 

"Confirm again." Xurok ordered but already he knew just what had burst forth from that torturous reality into Xerxian space. He had been waiting for it. For several months he and the Vanguard fleet patrolled the edges of the system and maintained key cordons around the Mandeville points in and out of Xerxes. It had been tedious work and all the while he had begun to put together the message left for him by his... lost son. That message had lead him here and it was here that he readied the first line. Twelve ships of the Xerxian Royal Navy waited for the first of the Perfekt Entropy to arrive in system and all twelve reported the same numerical and idents marking the newly arrived iconoclast as none other than the Immure.

"Confirmed Hazarbad! Every ship confirms. That is the Immure." Reported a deckhand attached to ship to ship communications.

Xurok growled, grip tightening around the haft of his axe as he witnessed the long distance renderings of the long lost Xerxian ship. "It's blighted." The Immure was long past it's original design and was bloated with weapon arrays and arcane technology. A true destroyer that even it's smaller size couldn't mask. Pylons stretched from it's prow and along it's spine and ejected jaggedly from it's back. Arcs of ethereal light danced between the harness points and the destroyer seemed to feast on the residual warp ichor that clung to it's hull from re-entry. Xurok could swear the ship was laughing as he saw that hull lurch and spasm.

"Weapons lock and engage. Now! Full spread." He announced and began the tedious work of commanding a void battle. All around the command deck the Ram personnel began their calculations as more splinters of blighted ships began to cough out of the warp tear made by the Immure. There were twenty now. All old Xerxian patterns and designations.

"Fire at will! Target the lighters first but hammer the Immure with everything else!" Xurok ordered and the Immure answered with a flare of engine discharge as it roared forward.

---

The Epigram burned silently in the void with its hull ruined and torn asunder. It was a victim to the onslaught unleashed by the warp-bloated weaponry employed by the Immure and its death marked the first of many as the iconoclast surged towards Xurok's Mayra. Lance beams, solid sabot rounds, mass accelerated tungsten, and a whole litany of other weapons were filling the void with constant flashes of void shield flares and the occasional trickle or sickly pop as a ship's voids shivered out of existence and the metal of its hull taste the sting of munitions. 

Braggart flexed the fingers of his gauntlet, making a fist and squeezing hard to the groaning of servos. His attention was fading. Vision swimming red with hate. Before him was the weakness of his species laid bare. Complacency and fear, tethered to remain bound to a single system when they could have taken the stars. 

"Adrian's Perfekt... we cull the weak... prepare to board..." He growled across the ship wide vox and echoing out the same transmission to the rest of the fleet. The Perfekt Entropy aboard were already awaiting this moment, weapons primed and combat stimulants awaiting the first sign of neural activation. 

 Three of their ships had fallen to the initial wave of attack from the Xerxian Vanguard but plenty remained and order was remade. They spiraled and danced among the first line of defense, bleeding and setting a path for the Immure to meet with the Mayra. A duel of the strongest of Xerxes' sons. 

"Burn engines at... max... Cleave our path forward..." Braggart hissed as he began to retreat from the command deck. He would reach his prey. He would break Xurok. He would open the way for his brother. He had sworn this to him and if Adrian had simply asked... Braggart would have razed the galaxy in his name.

---

"You will not have to worry about finding him." Said an unusually calm and monotone voice from behind Xurok. The Immortalis commander turned about and his eyes narrowed at the turncoat named Helotes. The former apothecary wore no smug smile, no sneer of arrogance. It was strange to even consider this man once one of sons of Fulgrim when all the mirth and pride was absent and in its place neutrality and bitterness thrived. Helotes wasnt a schemer but there was no denying the man was capable of webbing ideas as fluidly as the rest of the degenerated Emperor's Children. What his true motive was... for the time being... is unclear. 

Helotes' brow raised and he returned Xurok look with the tired, aged gaze of his own. The ashen grey smudges still splotted over his eyelids and the wrinkles and deep frown always set upon his face really spoke to the man's age. But there was still a deeply hidden youthfulness there, glinting in eyes undeserving of the color grey. Stolen, Xurok once pondered, but had since given up wondering on. 

"What is he now?" Xurok ventured. 

 "Divinity." Helotes grumbled sardonically, "Or as close to reaching it as any one can be. I helped him on the path at Adri- I mean the Beautiful's request. We were to guide him and contain his being until the very end. A conduit for the range in his soul. A prison." Helotes rubbed his chin and the Mayra rumbled as its guns unleashed another salvo. 

"It was cruelty to indulge him, but there was no better drug to sate the beast. Sarn devised the numerology. I carved the frame. He whispered as He always did. Soothed the beast as he soothed us all." 

The edge of Xurok's lip twitched and he looked away from the apothecary. He remembered Braggart as a brute but Helotes made him sound like so much more now. A slaughterer. A pawn. A tool. 

"Can we kill him?" Xurok asked with a bite to the intonation.

Helotes thought on this as if it was the first time he'd ever been asked. He rubbed the back of his shaven scalp and shrugged to the groan of armor servos. "Theoretical: Sunder and delay, break apart piece by piece. That would be the best course of action. But Practical..." He snorted, "Nothing short of tossing him into the sun would do the trick." 

Theoretical? Practical? The words had been intoned and Xurok took note of their meaning. He could not remember their use prior to now but they were a familiar rhythm. Pre-Heresy... but did they remain Post? A question for another time.

"Xerxian plasma burns three times as hot as any sun." Xurok growled and Helotes almost smiled then.

"So there is a plan then?" Helotes crossed his arms and the honor guard of the Immortalis Primus shifted with agitation. Xurok nodded but remained silent for a while. He needed to see what Braggart was before he could break him. He needed to know if the path into the mountain crest he had taken and the pain he had endured there would prove enough now. There was only so much the scales of the Shahmaran could do against the degeneracy of the warp but Xurok knew in the fire of his soul that it would have to be enough. Against dev and fae, against even the Thrones themselves, his weapons and his being had proven themselves capable. It was all about balancing the cost of power permitted. 

"He is coming for me, yes?" Xurok asked and Helotes need not confirm. "Then let him. We grant him a path straight to me, slow him only slightly, enough to make sure the rest of his fleet burns in the cinders of his hubris. Once he is on board we must goad him at every turn. Promise him failure." 

Helotes clicked his tongue, "Making him angry isnt what I would suggest..." 

 "But it's what we must do. We have to let him burn himself out. Let him unleash the worst of his rage so that we get that moment to strike. If he is as you say, Divinity climbing, then that is when he is most vulnerable. At the apex of his ascension." 

Helotes chuckled dryly, "You want him to ascend? That can not end the way you see it..." 

"I want him to become the pawn, not for Adrian, but for the things that echo in the Windsong. That is when he loses Adrian's favor and with it his protection." 

Helotes did not understand, not fully and Xurok could not blame him for such. This insight was only possible through the knowledge that mother Xerxes could provide. Through the whispers of the Scales and the burden of blood. 

[space-mist]

Did you end up not creating that side blog for oc dumping? I thought it's a good idea to just info dump on them. It'll be a nice space for people who'd be interested

I did actually, it just needs...building, and I haven't got the energy like that to work on it rn

i'll get around to it but my problem rn is just...a general sense of frustration with my content and a perceived lack of interest, i guess. there's a big pm server i'm in that's oc friendly on the surface but pretty cliquey, every time i talk about my content i get basic responses or someone else just posts over me in an hour and gets WAY more engagement. i can't really force anyone to care and thats not the point, but i put a lot of work into everything i do and i wish it could be recognized without someone going "oh cool! reminds me of my thing that's better" and they pull the attention towards themselves

plus, i'm not much of an artist. from what i notice people only really look at characters that they find conventionally attractive or are drawn in fully rendered pieces that look nice. p much my only contribution to this fandom is my oc stuff, and writing...about my ocs. who cares about that? if you're not pandering to what everyone wants or already having an established group, youre better off taking yourself out back. its all about the ships and looking hot, original content doesnt seem to get much of a focus especially if it isnt drawn. that isn't to say im not makin the blog or anything. i'm just....really frustrated w recent stuff and having my own brand of a nihilism moment. none of my shit matters, there's always gonna be a bigger and more popular person who's gonna outperform me, whatever. i keep trying despite it all

[smokewizard992-blog]

Its not done but this is my longest story so far please excuse any grammical errors.

Title: Kurokus revelation Another bright and sunny day in the leaf. kuroku returning from a short and simple misson he took to alive his usual boredom. "Now that im home i wonder what to do now" said kuroku as his coat fluttered in the wind. He stops with a face of uneasy wonder as he places his hand on his chest "the ticks are uneasy" kuroku pondered "something isnt right i probably forgot to clean something in the cafinic.." kuroku said with an uneasy grin. And in an instand several explosions can be heard through out the village. "WHAT THE HELL!" said kuroku as he unwravels the hive. "For once things wont be boring!" Said kuroku confidently as he takes off to go meet the challenge. Moving quickly through the village he notices several large centipede creatures thrashing around the village. One of these large beasts turns its attention twards kuroku and lunges towards him kuroku jumps landing on a near by building. "Have a taste of this then!" With a few flicks of his finger tips the hive takes off into the sky above the centipede. A series whirling and click of gears from the hive is heard as several compartments open in the hive revealing ticks fit to burst. The ticks quickly detach and begin to plummet twards the beast eventually exploding in rapid succession "special move: aburame light show" said kuroku with a large toothy grin on his face as the smoke cleared revealing the beast in multiple pieces but kurokus victory is short lived when he senses another presence close to him but before he can turn and retaliate he takes a hard right hook to the cheek sending him across the rooftop. Kuroku now bleeding from the corner of his mouth he looks up and becomes stricken with suprise "i...its you! Theres no way my ticks blew you to pieces!!!" A deep voice radiates the air "you didnt honestly think those little flys of yours would be enough did you?" Chapter 2: Brains vrs brawn "Ok first off meat head they arent flys they are ticks" said kuroku in a irritated groan as he slowly stands up to his foe "Akui kosodoro this time ill make sure i do more than just give u a parting gift on your face" kuroku muttered wiping blood from his lip. Loud cracks echo through the strangely still air as akui cracks his knuckles. "Speakin of which i need to return the favor bug boy" with out a seconds hesitation akui charges across the roof top chakra collecting in his drawn back fist to deliver a more powerful blow as he lashes out his blow once again connects to kurokus face but before he flys off kuroku bursts into a puff of smoke revealing a log "A Substitution?!" Said akui with a shocked tone of voice. Akui quickly notices a patch of paper on the log showing a crude drawing of kuroku giving the finger saying "catch me if u can boxer breifs" the log then opening two side doors revealing 4 ticks. Akui quickly launches back knowing what those bugs mean. Narrowly escaping the blast akui is forced off the roof top and onto the city streets. "Where did that snail slip off too" said akui angrily quickly throwing up hand signs for a jutsu. Boar,dragon,rat his eyes intensify and chakra forms infront of them in an almost binocular fashion and through his eyes all the scources of concentrated chakra are highlighted in his vision. Akui knotices theres chakra strings all over the street attached to random objects and sputtering off into what seemed to be random dicrections. "Tsk youll have to do better than that" akui then focuses even harder revealing the chakra in each string one in particular glowing brighter than the rest "there u are!" Said akui as he runs following the string leading him to a pottery shop. "This again...WHY DONT U COME OUT AND FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN!" Akui shouted into the building. frothing with anger akui hesitantly walks into the shop following the string up to a gourd in the back of the shop "ive seen this trick of yours hide by disguising yourself as the gourd your puppet rolls up into while that damn doll attacks from the shadows well not this time i have you now!" Akui said excitedly as he smashes the gourd with his fist busting off the top half only to reveal theres no kuroku but more ticks ready to blow akui quickly backing up in a panic he knocks over some other pots which have even more ticks inside "SHI-" akui intterupted as the entire shop bursts into a torrent of smoke and flame. Across the street kuroku hops out from behind a tree "first off i dont fight like a man i fight like a shinobi. Second off. Special move: Basket Bomb" said kuroku as he adjusts his shades and reels the hive back into its gourd shape. (End of chapter 2) Chapter 3: we all know pain As kuroku wraps up everything from he previous encounter which included making sure the shop keep and any civilians were unharmed. A roaring voice echoes throughout the village "ALL MIGHTY PUSH" says the voice as the village begins to shake and rumble and a large crater begins forming during this a large gust of wind and dust blows up sending kuroku flying. Hitting his head upon his landing rendering him unconscious. Moments of kurokus life past by in an instant and yet he experiences every moment like they just happend. Most of these moments included hinata in every moment she appeared kuroku felt a warm joyous feeling overwhelm him but as they went on that feeling faded and shifted into a red hot jealousy because he realized hinata wasnt looking at him but rather naruto instead the memories became blurry as they went by faster faster eventually kuroku saw his own face with a scowl and furrowed brow he opens his mouth and says "its not ment to be". Suddenly kuroku jerks awake realising hes buried under a pile of rubble blood running from the top of his head to his chin on the right side of his face. a small chip in the left lense of his shades. His throat dry his body sore. "I have to find her" kuroku grumbled as he began to shift and move to get out from under the rubble. Upon finally digging out his upper torso he saw something that crushed him not physically but this hurt more than any broken bone down at the bottom of the crater he saw her.. hinata standing in front of what kuroku first thought was the fourth hokage but looking more closely it was naruto trying to protect the village and she was protecting him. Kuroku couldnt hear most of what hinata was saying but the message to kuroku was vividly clear. Kuroku heard these words as if he was right next to them "i love you naruto" and just as kuroku heard these words he felt his body become 100 times heavier and his heart drop into 1000 pieces his ticks became restless as one lonely tear fell down his cheek kuroku didn't fully understand how he felt . he was hurting but there was something else a tiny something a small glimmer of somthing deep down past all the pain....it was peace kuroku felt at peace with what he saw and then he realized why kuroku felt happy so long as hinata was happy and if konohas hyperactive knuckle head ninja was the one who made her happy. Kuroku began to try and pull himself outt of the rubble but he was to exhausted to continue eventually collapsing once more. (End of chapter 3) Chapter 4: recovery Kuroku opens his eyes to realize he was napping in the woods and needed to get back to the village so he stands up and begins walking kuroku eventually reaches behind him to grab something and starts to panic "HEY WHERES MY uhhhh..." he said forgetfully he begins patting all over himself for he couldnt shake the feeling of something thats very symbolic of his character is missing as he pats his coat pocket and finds his shades "ah here they are" kuroku said as the feeling mostly dissapated kuroku eventually stops and kneels at a small creek and leans over to see his reflection and he quickly knotices the one black tuft of hair that sticks up no matter what he does "in my dream it was red...i may do that it looked pretty good" kuroku said to his reflection "that way youll look far cooler when your older" he said with a playful childlike chuckle. Kuroku eventually looks up and sees a man in white cloth staring down at him from atop the hill. Kuroku being the agravatable child he is began to march up to the man to tell him its rude to stare but as he got to the top the man turned and walked away only to reveal to kuroku that theres a small log cabin at the top of the hill but hes sure that he shoulda been able to see the cabin from where he was but ever determined kuroku marched on into the cabin only for him to see rows upon rows of large doll like items of all shapes and sizes kuroku is filled with wonderment he sees the man at a small work desk at the other side of the cabin so kuroku wanders up "what are these things.." kuroku said curiously "Puppets" said the man in a kind but stern voice "i build them to keep from being home sick" said the man again kuroku astonished his mind began to scribble all the possible aplications for these tools "TEACH ME HOW" shouted kuroku as a grin makes its way across the mans face as everything fades away once more with a quick glimpse of kuroku learning building and training eventually completeing the hive as once more he wakes up only in a room he did not recognise on a bed that wasnt his as he felt around he knoticed his legs are in braces and he bumps into a book accidentally "HEY watch it will ya im trying to study here" said a voice as the page gets turned kuroku quickly looks up quickly being a loose term since hes very sore and he knotices hanabi hyuga reading her book at his bedside as she looks up and realizes that hes awake and she stands up and runs out the door kuroku is very confused but remains calm as neji and shino walk in "about time u woke up natsu has been working tirelessly treating you and taking care of hanabi" said neji in his usual stern voice "im actually astonished this isnt a result of more of your breeding projects" said shino as a way to mock kuroku "honestly it kinda is" kurokus face suddenly went strawberry red as natsu walked in and and lit up "oh im so releived your awake" said natsu gently. "Y-your a woman?!" Said kuroku with embarrased suprise in his voice "does my name not give it away?" Said natsu "to be honest its not at all what i imagined" a flash of a pink haired pyromaniac appeared in kurokus head. Natsu looks down and says "sorry i didnt meet your expectations kuro-san " kuroku quickly retorts 'NO no u exeeded them greatly ! Uhh how long was i out anyways? Natsu looks up "about a week." She says reluctantly "A WEEK?!" said kuroku with a shock "that means at somepoint youve......" his face turning even more red natsu walks up and starts removing the braces "it wasnt bad" said natsu very quietly kuroku looks to be on the verge of a heart attack as he falls out of bed from celebrating (End of chapter 4)

[topsolarpanels]

Al Gore: ‘The riches have subverted all reason’

With the sequel to his blockbuster documentary An Inconvenient Truth about to be released, Al Gore tells Carole Cadwalladr how his role at the forefront of the fight against climate change devours his life

In the ballroom of a seminar centre in Denver, Colorado, 972 people from 42 countries have come together to talk about climate change. It is March 2017, six weeks since Trumps inauguration; eight weeks before Trump will announce to the world that he is withdrawing America from the Paris Climate Agreement.

These are the early dark days of the new America and yet, in the conference centre, the crowd is upbeat. Theyve all paid out of their own pockets to travel to Denver. They have taken time off work. And they are here, in the presence of their master, Al Gore. Because Al Gore is to climate change well, what Donald Trump is to climate change denial.

Disaster zone: extermination in the wake of Superstorm Sandy in New Jersey. Photo: Mike Groll/ AP

Its 10 years since the reason for this, the documentary An Inconvenient Truth , was released into cinema. It was an improbable project on almost every level: a film about what was then practically a non-subject, starring the man best known for not winning the 2000 US election, its beating heart and the engine of its narrative drive a PowerPoint presentation.

When the filmmakers approached him, he explains to the room, I thought they were nuts. A movie of a slideshow, delivered by Al Gore, what doesnt scream blockbuster about it? Except it was a blockbuster. In documentary terms, anyway. The careful accretion of facts and figures genuinely shocked people. And its a measure of the impact it had, and still continues to have, that Gore delivers this vignette to a rapt crowd who, over the course of three days, are learning how to be Climate Reality Leaders.

Its the reason why we are all here his foundation, the Climate Reality Project, an initiative that grew out of the film, provides intensive trained in talking about climate change, combating climate change denial and the tone might be described as activist upbeat. This is a crisis that is solvable, were told. Trump is just another hitch, another impediment to overcome. And it will be overcome. Merely occasionally does a sliver of hopelessnes leak around the edges. You have to stay positive, a man called David Ellenberger tells the audience. Though sometimes, he acknowledges: Theres not sufficient Prozac to get through the day.

Its almost a relief to hear person acknowledge this. Because before there was FAKE NEWS !!! and the FAILING New York Times ! Trump was tweeting about GLOBAL WARMING hoaxsters! and GLOBAL WARMING bullshit! The war on the mainstream media may capture the headlines currently, but the war on climate change science has been in play for years. And its this that is one of the most fascinating aspects of Gores new film, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power . Because if the US had a subtitle at the moment, it might be that, too, and the struggle to overcome fake facts and false narratives funded by corporate interests and politically motivated billionaires is one that Gore has been at the frontline of for more than a decade.

Breaking phase: a huge fissure in the Larsen C ice shelf in the Antarctica. Photo: Nasa/ John Sonntag/ EPA

The film runs through a host of facts that 14 of the 15 hottest years on record have resulted since 2001 is just one. And the accompanying footage is biblical, frightening: tornadoes, deluges, rainfall bombs, explosion glaciers. We consider roads falling into rivers and fish swimming through the street of Miami.

The nightly news, Gore says, has become a nature hike through the Book of Revelations. But what his work has shown and continues to show is that proof is sufficient to. The cinema opens with clips from Fox News ridiculing global warming. In recent weeks, the New York Times has started describing the Trump administration as waging a war on science, a full-on assault against evidence-based science that runs in parallel with his attacks on evidence-based reporting. And Gore is in something of a unique position to understand this. What becomes clear over the course of several dialogues is how entwined he believes it all is climate change denial, the rights and interests of big capital, dark money, billionaire political funders, the predominance of Trump and what he calls( hes written a book on it) the assault against reason. They are all pieces of the same puzzle; a puzzle that Gore has been tracking for years, because it turns out that climate change refusal was the canary in the coal mine.

In order to fix the climate crisis, we need to first fix the governmental forces crisis, he says. Big money has so much influence now. And he says a phrase that is as dramatic as it is multilayered: Our democracy has been hacked. Its something I hear him recur to the audience in the ballroom, in a room backstage, a few weeks later in London, and finally on the phone earlier this month.

Popular backlash: protesters demonstrate against the Koch brethren, funders of climate change denial. Photo: Nicholas Kamm/ AFP/ Getty Images

What do you mean by it precisely? I mean that those with access to large amounts of money and raw power, says Gore, have been able to subvert all reason and fact in collective decision making. The Koch friends are the largest funders of climate change refusal. And ExxonMobil claims it has stopped, but it really hasnt. It has given a one-quarter of a billion dollars in donations to climate denial groups. Its clear they are trying to cripple our ability to respond to this existential threat.

One of Trumps first acts after his inauguration was to remove all mentions of climate change from federal websites. More overlooked is that one of Theresa Mays first actions on becoming prime minister within 24 hours of taking office was to close the Department for Energy and Climate Change; subsequently donations from oil and gas companies to the Conservative party continued to roll in. And what is increasingly apparent is that the same think tanks that operate in the Countries are also at work in Britain, and climate change denial operating the a bridgehead: unifying the right and an entry road for other tenets of Alt-Right belief. And, its this network of power that Gore has had to try to understand, in order to find a way to combat it.

In Tennessee we have an expression: If you consider a turtle on top of a fencing post, you can be pretty sure it didnt get there by itself. And if you assure these levels of climate refusal, you can be pretty sure it didnt simply spread itself. The large carbon polluters have expended between$ 1bn and$ 2bn spreading false doubt. Do you know the book, Merchants of Doubt ? It documents how the tobacco industry discredited the consensus on cigarette smoking and cancer by creating doubt, and shows how its connected with the climate denial motion. They hired many of the same PR firms and some of the same think tanks. And, in fact, some of those who work on climate change denial actually still dispute the connection between cigarette smoking and lung cancer.

End of the road: the Gave de Pau river overflows after unseasonal cyclones in France. Photograph: Laurent Dard/ AFP/ Getty Images

The big change between our first conversation in Denver and our last, on the phone this month, is the news that Gore had been desperately hoping wouldnt happen: Trumps announcement on 1 June that he was pulling America out of the Paris Agreement. The negotiations in Paris are right at the heart of the new film, its emotional centre, and when I watch it in March, the ending still assures Gore expressing guarded optimism.

So , what happened? I was wrong, he says on the phone from Australia, where hes been promoting the movie. Based on what he told me, I definitely thought there was a better than even chance he might choose to stay in. But I was wrong. I was fearful that other countries for whom it was a close call would follow his result, but Im thrilled the reaction has been precisely the opposite. The other 19 members of the G20 have reiterated that Paris is irreversible. And governors and mayors all over the country have been saying we are all still in and, in fact, its just going to make us redouble our commitments.

The film had to be recut, the ending changed, the gloves are now off. What changed Trumps mind? I suppose Steve Bannon and his crowd put a big push on Trump and convinced him that he needed to give this to his base advocates. He had blood in his eyes. Its instructive because Bannon, Trumps chief strategist, is also the ideologue behind Trumps assault on the media. And Bannons understanding of the news and information space, and efforts to manipulate it via Breitbart News and Cambridge Analytica, both funded by another key climate change denier, Robert Mercer, are at the heart of the Trump agenda.

And what becomes clear if you Google climate change is how effective the right has been in owning the subject. YouTubes results are dominated by nothing but climate change denial videos. This isnt news for Gore. He has multiple high-level links to Silicon Valley. Hes on the board of trustees of the Apple and used to be an adviser for Google. We are fully aware of the problem, he says with what sounds like resigned understatement. Gore has had more than a decade fighting climate change refusal, and in some respects, their own problems has simply worsened and deepened.

On the other hand, two-thirds of the American people are convinced that its an extremely serious crisis and we have to take it on, he says. And there is a statute of physics that every action renders an equal and opposite reaction. And I do think there is a reaction to the Trump/ Brexit/ Alt-Right populist authoritarianism around the world. People who took liberal republic more or less for granted are now awakening to a sense that it can only be defended by the people themselves.

Man on a mission: Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth. Photo: Paramount Pictures

And its in this, his faith in social progress against all odds, that he takes his lead from the civil right movement. The cut of the movie I watch compares the climate change movement to the other great social movements that eventually won out: the abolition of bondage, womens suffrage, civil rights. Something profound and disturbing is happening right now, though, he acknowledges. The info system is in such a chaotic transition and people are deluged with so much noise that it gives an opening for Trump and his forces to wage war against facts and reason.

Is it, as some people describe, an information war? Absolutely, he says. Theres no question about it.

What there isnt much of, in the film, is Al Gore, “the mens”. In 2010, he split from Tipper, his wife of 40 years and the mother of his two grown-up daughters, and what becomes clear is just how much of their own lives the fight takes up. When I catch up with him next, hes in London for a board session of his green-focused investment firm, Generation Investment Management, and I ask him to tell me about his recent travels.

Two weeks ago, I had three red-eyes in five days. Ive been in Sweden, the Netherlands, Sharjah, then lets assure, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles. Where else? he asks his assistant.

Vegas, she says. We did CinemaCon.

Vegas, we did that. And then, lets consider, Nashville, on my farm.

Focus on facts: Al Gore in An Inconvenient Sequel. Photo: Courtesy of the Sundance Institute

I assume this amount of travelling is connected to the release of the cinema, but no. Ive been at this level for the past 10 years and longer. He hesitates to use the word mission, he says, and then uses it. When “youre feeling” a sense of purpose that seems to justify pouring everything you can into it, it attains it easier to get up in the morning.

He does tell me a bit about his mothers though. He describes his father, Al Gore Sr, who grew up poor then became a lawyer and a legislator, as a hero to me. And it was at the family farm in Carthage, Tennessee, that he held the first Climate Reality training, an informal get-together of 50 people that has morphed into the event I witnessed in Denver. Theres no type or demographic, I shared a table with a disparate group including a consultant for the aerospace industry, a French lawyer and an American cook. And they seemed to have almost nothing in common aside from their passion to do something about climate change. Im a gardener so Im ensure whats happening with my own eyes, the cook, Susan Kutner, told me. You cant ignore it.

In light of Trumps fixation with fake news, its fascinating to assure. Gore has been fighting disinformation for more than a decade. And, hes developed his educate program counter to the prevailing ideology. The answer is not online. Social media will not save us. We will not click climate change away. The answer hes come up with is low-tech, old-fashioned, human. He takes the time to talk to people immediately, one to one, in the hope they will speak to other people who will speak to other people.

The course is run by Gore. He is on stage nearly the entire period over three intensive days. And the heart of it is still the slideshow. One of his aides tells me how he was up until 2am the night before. Hes preoccupied with his slides, he has 30,000 of them and he switches them around all the time.

Tinder dry: changing climate has find an upturn in forest fires around the world. Photo: Jae C Hong/ AP

In the movie, you ensure him perpetually hustling, calling world leaders, rounding up solar energy entrepreneurs, training activists. Hearing information from people you know is at the heart of his strategy. You require people who will look you in the eye and say: Look, “thats what” Ive learned, this is what you need to know. It runs. Ive seen it run. It is working. And its just getting started. Weve got 12,000 trained leaders now.

How many people do you think its impacted?

Millions. Honestly, millions. And a non- trivial percentage of them have gone on to become ministers in their countries governments or take leadership roles in international organisations. Theyve had an outsized impact. Christiana Figueres[ the UN climate chief ], who operated the Paris meeting, she was in the second train conference I did in Tennessee. And, right now, people are getting actually fired up.

Al Gore shared the Nobel Prize in 2007 for his efforts in combating climate change, but in some ways it feels like hes just getting started. The remainder of the world is only now cottoning on to the enlightenment battle thats at the heart of it a battle royal to defend facts and reason against people and forces for whom its a truth too inconvenient to permit. For Gore, the US oil companies are the ultimate culprits, but its only just becoming apparent that Russia has also played a role, amplifying messages around climate change as it did around the other issues at the heart of Trumps agenda, and we segue into his visits to Russia in the early 90 s, during one of which he gratified Putin for the first time.

What did you induce of him? I would not have thought of him as the future chairman of Russia. I once did a televised town hall event to the whole of Russia and Putin was the one who was in charge of constructing sure all the cables were connected and whatnot.

Revenge is tweet: an image of Trump is projected by Greenpeace on to the US Embassy in Berlin after he declared that America was pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Photograph: Michael Sohn/ AP

What does he construct of the investigations into Russian interference? I suppose its review of the Trump campaigns collusions with the Russians and the existence of financial levers of Putin over Trump is proceeding with its own rhythm beneath the news cycle, and may well strike pay dirt. Its also worth pointing out that when someone passed his campaign stolen information about George W Bushs debate research, he handed it to the FBI.

And then he astounds me by pulling out a reference to an interview I conducted with Arron Bank, the Bristol businessman who money Nigel Farages Leave campaign. Hes been reading up about the connection between Brexit and Trump, and Bankss and Farages support of Putin and Russia. He told you: Russia needs a strong man, didnt he? And you hear that in the US, and I dont think its fair to the Russians. I am a true disciple in the superiority of representative republic where there is a healthy ecosystem characterised by free speech and an informed citizenry. I genuinely resist the slur against any nation that theyre incapable of governing themselves.

Brexit, Trump, climate change, oil producers, dark money, Russian influence, a full- frontal assault on facts, proof, journalism, science, its all connected. Ask Al Gore. You may want to watch Wonder Woman this summer, but to understand the new reality were living in, you really should watch An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power . Because, scaring because this is, in some ways the times of typhoons and explosion glaciers are just the start of it.

Al Gore Live in Conversation followed by a screening of An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power , for one night merely Friday 11 August in cinemas everywhere. Book your tickets at po.st/ aninconvenientsequel An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power is in cinema everywhere from 18 August. The film also opens the Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House, 10 -2 3 August, somersethouse.org.uk

The Observer Ethical Awards: how to enter

To vote, go to theguardian.com/ surrounding/ 2017/ jul/ 25/ vote-in-the-observer-ethical-awards-2 017 or email ethical.awards @observer. co.uk with the category title in the subject header. Then tell us in no more than 200 terms why you, or your nominee, deserves to be recognised. Feel free to attach scenes, a short movie or relevant connects. The closing date is 15 September. For more information, go to observer.co.uk/ ethical-awards

Read more: www.theguardian.com

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