#osj art

[orangesuspendersjesse]

Wheel landed on my fav Jesse today 🧡

[paradoxbeta]

what do you think the ancients looked like under their masks?

ANON THANK YOU FOR ASKING I COULD CRY TEARS OF JOY

The short answer: Human-like, but dubiously. Very colorful, ornate, and diverse. Heavy on body modification: piercings, implants, tubes of all sorts, and dramatic face/eye changes are everywhere. It's hard to describe one thing they all are, because they're each so different.

The long answer: (my ocs are here!)

Okay, so, important bare minimums: They can have pretty much any skin tone, and come in all of the patterns and markings you can think of (whether they were born with them or had them added.) The default Ancient eye is exactly like a humans, but people can and often do get changes to their pupils and sclera/eye color. They have "hair" that sort of looks like worm grass. I figure some kinda splatoon inkling type logic applies when taking into mind haircuts and buzzes and all that. They generally have elven, goat-like, or other non-human type ears. Most if not all of them have openings in their bodies for tubes a la cyberpunk, because Ancient fashion gonna Ancient fashion.

Now for the fun/personalized part. Their faces!

Ancients come in a range from the most humanoid to the least. Note that "animaloid" is an EXTREMELY nebulous term and not exclusive to the one shown in the picture. I'm not yet sure how something like this would come about. I like to think this is a result of generations upon generations of extreme genome modification, or "animaloid" Ancients are a subspecies/branch off of whatever the humanoid Ancients are, OR they're the same species, but just have an insane amount of genetic variation. This is an issue for me to figure out another time. Regardless, there is no strict line between what constitutes an animaloid and what constitutes a humanoid. Both are bipedal and have a variable amount of pectorals/arms,* with the primary differences being in the face. There are some Ancients that you can look at and immediately classify as one of the two, but most of them fall somewhere in between, like "humanoid" Ancients with exaggerated facial proportions or "animaloid" Ancients that are just close enough to human looking that it becomes difficult to put a label on it. Trying to classify individual Ancients is often a fruitless endeavor, but having the general spectrum in mind is important.

*Can have 1-2 pairs of each: note that an Ancient with one pair of arms may have 2 pairs of pectorals but an Ancient with 2 pairs of arms cannot have only 1 pectoral set. Ancients with 2 pairs of arms are rare.

As mentioned a million times prior, Ancients are super gung ho about body modification, and things we deem extreme in human society are probably only uncommon or even unremarkable in Ancient society. Obviously, not every Ancient is making themselves into the next Rolf Buchholz. Some are more conservative about changing their body, some are more extreme. But the general idea is that not having ANY sort of change made, be it as minute as an ear piercing or as dramatic as horn implants, is bizarre.

I know there's other possible takes on the Ancients that are much more separated from human aesthetics, and I love those! But I wasn't really concerned about the spec bio-y aspect this time around. I have enough alien aliens in my roster already, so my Ancients are entirely a product of me having fun without much concern for making them super believable. Hopefully they look cool enough for that to be a valid excuse.

And finally, some pictures of my Ancients, because it's hard to get the full scope without examples. Some of these are from wips I hope to post someday, so you might see them again later. Also I'm trying to format them all nice and next to each other so they don't take up so much space, but tumblr is losing its mind right now so if it doesn't format right then whoops.

[jester-jazzys-mind]

I love you, images with sad symbolism

Do you know what this means?

[corruptedmunk]

Old San Juan- Puerto Rico

Viejo San Juan

[joshualjohnson]

#PleinAirpril Day 19: Old San Juan (Yellow) - Puerto Rico This is from a photo I took of a bright little entry way to a house in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Just one of the many colorful vistas! Plein Airpril sponsored by @warriorpainters @blickartmaterials @winsorandnewton @cottonwoodartsbook #pleinair #pleinairpainting #oilpainting #painting #art #sanjuan #oldsanjuan #puertorico #osj #quarantineart #socialdistancingart #jljillustrates #joshualjohnson https://www.instagram.com/p/B_TVDwojlFK/?igshid=1p7xrrqcr4aaf

[wildbootsappeared]

A Continental Divides Update:

Not for the first time and probably not for the last time, I’m gutting the 6k-word draft I’ve written and completely remixing it. I do think a lot of what I’ve written will be usable later, which is awesome, but I’m also furiously reordering some scenes and rearranging character beats. Chapter 14 became two chapters for a while and maybe now it’s back to being one again?

Fufugivjdydydihhhohhoiguggu

So it goes!

I’m a little sad that I’m very much not hitting my 2021 goal of one new chapter per month ... but I’d rather have one really solid chapter than 12 okay chapters. 💪 And I’m very excited about the new direction.

I also sent chapters 1-13 to my favorite professor from undergrad this week, which is either the best idea I’ve ever had or the stupidest. He’s been very gracious about it so far though. (I repeat: favorite professor.)

I added a lot of footnotes because mans is at least my mom’s age: he taught me most of what I know about climate science, but he does not know what a solrock is. He does know what 19-year-old OSJ was like, though, because he graded her papers and listened to her ramble during office hours, and I am so curious to find out whether he’ll agree with my assessment that Natalie is a lot like younger me. And whether he’ll be pro- or anti-Mark. I’d love to joke about whether he’ll side with Aqua or Magma ... but he is obviously going to side with the people who aren’t causing oil spills, no contest. (Though I did low-key take inspiration for Montag from his mannerisms!)

I’ve also got new art to share soon and (hopefully) the fixed chapter by the end of the month. (Knock on wood.)

[dramoor]

“And they, confused with joy, Knelt to adore Seeing that He wore Five crimson stars He never had before.”

~“Limbo” By Sister Mary Ada, OSJ

(Art: Hands of Proof, by Hyatt Moore)

[kyoshirodney]

GET SIGNED UP IN ONE OF OUR TWO WEEK TRAL PROGRAMS AND RECEIVE A CHANCE TO “⭐️WIN⭐️” A FREE SIX MONTH TRAINING! CALL TODAY-CALL NOW (757)825-6013 ages 15 and up! https://youtu.be/OSJ-lUbDUMY #karate #MMA #selfdefense #jiujitsu #martialarts (at Cheeseman Martial Arts Brazilian Jiu Jitsu)

[orangesuspendersjesse]

underrated ship imo

[boricuatuits]

All in a 5-mile run in old San Juan. From the stray cats at Castillo de San Felipe del morro, to the blue cobblestone streets, to the bright-colored facades and political street art, OSJ… http://bit.ly/2E2qaNM | February 10, 2019 at 07:00PM

[junucariri]

Essa sexta, 20/04 às 18h30 tem Dona Ana da Rabeca e Wesley Santana no Ccbnb - Centro Cultural Banco Do Nordeste! Levem as suas famílias! Arte é liberdade, é educação, é resistência! ARTE SEM FRONTEIRAS - Abril Compareçam e convidem seus familiares, amigos e amigas! Dona Ana da Rabeca Horário: 18h30 Duração: 45min Dona Ana da Rabeca começou a tocar aos quinze anos de idade observando seu pai, o seu Zé Neco rabequeiro. Nessa época, tocando sanfona, acompanhava seus irmãos e o seu pai em festas de aniversário, casamentos, comícios, e muitas vezes, em suas próprias casas, fazendo a alegria da família e de toda a comunidade. Em 2017, a convite do pesquisador Gilmar de Carvalho, Dona Ana, a única rabequeira do Ceará, apresentou-se no Teatro Cine São Luiz em Fortaleza. Seu repertório e composto por clássicos da musica nordestina, e músicas da autoria do seu pai. Wesley Santana Horário: Duração: 45min Violinista, graduado em Música-Licenciatura pela UFCA, Wesley Santana iniciou seus estudos na SOLIBEL, no ano de 2008, ao ir morar no Belmonte. Seu primeiro instrumento foi o piano, mas, ao ter um contato maior com o violino, percebeu que aquele seria seu instrumento. Com o passar dos anos interessou-se pela música popular e começou a estudar esse repertório juntamente com músicas eruditas. Atualmente desenvolve seu trabalho como compositor em parceria com o músico Diego Souza no Duo Yaô, é professor na Vila da Música - SOLIBEL, Spalla da Orquestra da UFCA, coordenador da OSJ e pianista do Coral da UFCA. Produção: Junú Realização: @ccbnbcariri Apoio: @confeitariasantista #artesemfronteiras #ccbnb #donaanadarabeca #wesleysantana #junu #ccbnbcariri #rabeca (em Juazeiro do Norte)

[superdanchygurl-blog]

She was a boy

In the midst of thunderous rain in summer solstice, a mother’s foot was in a near death hole fighting for a life that is yet to come. Everything came into silence, when a voice of new life started to cry. It was 14th of May 2000, a new story has begun. It was then when people started familiarizing a name Marie Danyelle Therese that was given to a baby girl. When she was 7 months old in the womb of her mother and was told that it was going to be a baby boy, her mother prayed and prayed for St. Therese that during that time her relic was In the Philippines. Until, the baby was born. They were surprised it’s a baby girl.

           A new girl kicked in into life. She was molded and raised by her parents, Danilo A. Danseco and Marissa C. Danseco together with his elder brother Danniell Raphael Rogel C. Danseco. Growing up she’s eyeing to become a lawyer so she started pursuing it by going to school. For her, going to school is a stepping stone to achieve her dreams. She started her journey in Ibaan Central School, where she got an opportunity to become a photojournalist of their schoolpaper, even competed in District level and got the first place, advanced to Division level where she met new faces and new experienced a once in a lifetime opportunity. She graduated with 3 medals along with her dreams and achievements she entered Saint James Academy. She was a member of Teatro Marelliano and Dance Company when she was in Grade 10. She even got the chance to perform in the celebration of OSJ’s Centennial Year in front of different delegates from the other side of the world in the Philippines. Experiences and opportunities are the reasons for her to push forward and seek for more in life.

           Now, she is currently in her Senior High School year taking up Humanities and Social Sciences to finally kickstart her journey ride on being a lawyer. For her, being a professional lawyer is a big challenge and also a risk for her to take. Because that somehow gives her thrill just like she’s riding a rollercoaster of her life. She is now eyeing to be part of Polytechnic University of the Philippines in her tertiary to fulfill her dreams by taking up Bachelor of Arts Major in Political Science and AB Psychology at the same time in Manila or Sto. Tomas Campus. She is so motivated to pursue her dreams not only for her but also to her family because if ever God permits her to achieve her goal, she will be the first ever lawyer in her clan. Eventhough there are still many struggles along the way, she has become a brave girl to face new challenges that life may throw at her.

[wildbootsappeared]

Continental Divides Chapter Discussion #0: Humble Origins/Editing and Rewriting

I recently enjoyed hearing Negrek talk about the behind-the-scenes of the most recent chapter of Salvage and was inspired: I figure some of you might be interested in hearing some of that type of thing for Divides, too. CD touches on some pretty complicated subjects (historical events and politics and glazed-over-science) that are worth teasing apart a little more. So I’m going to start slowly adding in some chapter reflection posts! Keep in mind that these will probably be full of spoilers, and you’ll want to get caught up before you read em. 

If you want to hear me talk about something specific, feel free to shoot me a question.

(By the way, if you’re not reading Salvage yet—fam, get on my level. I’d describe it as a black humor odd-couple tale of … friendship??? Hm, that’s definitely not the right word, is it? Anyway! Featuring: an absolute goblin of a pokemorph, dismemberment, corruption, and Very Good Decisions. And lovely prose, by the way.)

With that, let’s get into it!

(CD spoilers below!)

Art by Giulia Bernardelli 

From Humble Origins

I’ve mentioned before that Mark and Natalie were my first original characters. They were side characters in my first ever fic from … god, 2003 or 2004-ish? So in many ways, they’ve grown up with me.

I learned about fanfic shortly after Ruby and Sapphire came out in the US, so of course baby OSJ had to try her hand at a Hoenn journey fic. I’m really sad that I don’t have a copy of the original text anymore because it was hilariously bad. You see, Brendan and May had to run away from home (instead of just … journeying like every other trainer?) because they were IN LOVE (after, like, a day and a half at most) but their parents WOULDN’T LET THEM BE TOGETHER. The story featured dazzling moments of creative genius like … Brendan and May “sneaking” into Rustboro at the wee hour of 10 am, whereupon May ran into a lamp post somehow. 

Later, Mark and Natalie appear to yell at our poor heroes and then at each other. Lots of yelling. In their first inception, Mark and Nat were basically discount Jesse and James but with less dress-up and queer subtext. Mark had a glorious moment of running while dragging his feet (?). Also, during a double battle against Brendan and May, I forgot about his zubat, so it fainted because “it was tired from flying,” despite having no feet and despite taking zero hits during the fight. Then Mark took shelter from the rain under a tree, where Natalie yelled at him some more and decided for both of them that they had to team up “temporarily” to get the red and blue orbs back from those meddling kids or something. I had grand plans for this whole plot where Natalie would kidnap May to get the orbs, but then May would end up in Magma’s hands (like a human hot potato), and Brendan would have to rescue her??? Something, something, Mark and Natalie see the error of their ways and team up to help Brendan and May … do stuff?

Anyway, I never finished it, and that’s definitely for the best.

I did revisit Mark and Natalie a few years later, though, this time for a story of their own called Out of Hand. I didn’t finish that one either, but I do have the original text this time (plus snarky comments and a “review” from me ten years after the fact). I can’t honestly tell you it was … good. Maybe good-for-a-highschooler. But! When I stumbled upon it again in 2018, there was enough in it that almost worked that I started to think about how I’d handle those themes and characters as an adult.

A lot has changed since then, but that 2010 draft of Out of Hand established some of the skeleton of Continental Divides. For example, that was when Archie became Natalie’s brother to help explain how she got involved in Aqua. I decided to keep that structure because it was a good way to let Natalie start as a neutral party/reader proxy and then quickly become embroiled in the conflict. It was also the first time Mark’s sister appeared, though I don’t think I’d decided what to do with her at the time except to use her as decorations in his angsty dreams, haha. His smoking habit also started in 2010. I, too, thought he’d quit “years ago,” in literal real time. Jokes on me—it turned out to be a useful way to signal the start of him losing control, the negative influence of Cora/Magma in his life, his hypocrisy, and his guilty feelings about things he’s burned. Scarlet appeared for the first time in this draft, too. I think I was equal parts trying to humanize Archie and to write my way through feelings about growing apart from/pining for someone. Her backstory took up a disproportionate number of pages in the old draft, but I liked the idea of keeping her around as a figure who could complicate Natalie’s relationship with Aqua and with Archie. The 2010 has  a couple fights between Mark and Natalie that I respect for bringing real danger to the protagonists ... but also can’t help laughing at. They literally fight until they tumble over a waterfall, like a cartoon. Silly as those scenes are, you can also see how they laid a foundation for scenes like the fight in Chapter 9.

CD is basically me responding to Out of Hand with, “I see you and I raise you.” 

2010-OSJ had some vague feelings about inequality and environmentalism, but none of it was very well thought-out. She mostly wanted to tell an enemies-to-lovers story, in part because she thought she was living in one IRL. Nowadays, I’ve got a lot of feelings about climate change, political divisions, activism and responsibility, corporations, policing, and whether or not violence is a good answer to certain kinds of questions. Hoenn is a safe space to explore those feelings. (It’s got pokemon, so it’s inherently more fun, right???) 

Kyogre and Groudon are such obvious parallels to sea level rise/more intense storms and rising temperatures/wildfires respectively that I couldn’t resist. And in Magma/Aqua I see a lot of parallels to political conflicts happening in the US right now. The far left and the far right don’t share a vision of what a “better world” would look like, but they do share a mutual mistrust of “the swamp” and all the ways the government tag-teams with corporations to dunk on ordinary people. I’d love to believe that someday we could team up across the aisle to fight corruption together. It’s certainly hard to imagine how we could get to a better world with one half of the country pitted against each other … Something has got to give eventually, probably not peacefully. 

My versions of Magma and Aqua aren’t exact parallels to the US political left and right—both are pretty left-leaning, for one—but I still find a lot of hope in the idea of two enemies from rival factions learning to (eventually) care for one another and work together towards common goals. At the very least, it’s something I can manifest and control on the page, and that makes me feel better about all the things I can’t control.

Editing and Rewriting

My first attempt at Continental Divides was inarguably an improvement on earlier versions of Mark and Natalie … but it still took quite a bit of rewriting to get to the draft that’s available to read now. The first draft in 2018 opened with what’s now Chapter 3, the protest in Rustboro. I had the right idea with “starting at the beginning,” but starting with an action scene was the wrong move: we didn’t know enough about Natalie to care when she was in trouble or to understand why she was making any of those choices. Moreover, even though the political content is important, this is ultimately still an enemies-to-lovers story: the beginning needed to center Mark and Natalie’s relationship. You know, to establish some interest before it all implodes. The next attempt ran a little long, though, and the current version condenses their initial meeting and Nat’s backstory much better. Maybe the next time I start a new project I’ll have an easier time knowing what makes a good starting point, but this time there was a lot of swinging back and forth to find a balance.

If you’re interested in seeing how my first chapter changed over time, you can see that here.

I’m really happy to have a first chapter I know is a solid representation of the subject matter, tone, and writing level of the later chapters. Getting stuck in an editing loop is a real danger … but if you’re ever going to edit part of your fic, let it be the first chapter. A good first chapter is critical to keeping potential readers onboard. I can tell from feedback that I’ve stuck the landing now.

Hope you enjoyed this not-so-little reflection on the origins of this story!

Some music (Spotify links):

Night of the Long Knives - Everything Everything

MMMMHMMMMM - Four Fists

[orangesuspendersjesse]

jesstra

@silentbeaves I heard you like jesstra /silly

[orangesuspendersjesse]

what if gay people

[orangesuspendersjesse]

every single jesse

free to use, transparent if you want to make a pride pfp