#please put something in my ask box if I don't post a bunch of stuff in the next couple days because I will probably forget

[david-tennant-wearing-things]

Please keep uploading EVERYTHING (as much as you can)

Of georgias insta posts/stories

Its amazing lol

Well since you asked, uh, funny story. I’ve actually been screenshotting nearly every Instagram story for several months and then keep forgetting to post them. (and I may or may not also be hoarding a lot of Anna and Ty's stories, so lmk if you want those too)

All of Wordle (or at least all that I can find in my camera roll) under the cut:

These were posted between April 3, 2024 and June 11, 2024

I'll post the rest of what I have soon! (But if I forget please come yell at me)

[luveline]

how about some domestic stuff of post-prison reid and stripper!reader??? that one fic broke my heart in the best way

Prison changes a lot of things about Spencer, so when you get back to his place after a quick run to the grocery store and find him packing away some of his things into boxes, you're not alarmed. “Spring cleaning?” you ask, stepping around him carefully where he's kneeling by the TV stand. 

“Making room,” he says. 

He must have bought something. You put your tote bag in the crook of your arm and bend a touch to kiss his cheek, his hair brushing your face. “You have so many things, Spence, you need a storage locker. You need two.” 

He feels blindly up your arm. 

You put the groceries away, wash your hands, and cut some veggies. You season them and put them in the oven to roast, calling Spencer to see what he wants with it. “You could have the leftover chicken, or I can make, like… anything you want, actually. Pork chops, or maybe forget that and we'll have pasta, I can frankenstein the– Hey, Spence? You listening?” 

You're not mad. He's always been prone to deep thought, but usually he isn't looking straight at you while you talk. “Spencer?” 

“You'll move in with me, right? If I ask?” 

You wring your hands. “You've asked me a hundred times.” 

“But this time, you'll say yes.” He's staring at you. He already knows. 

“You can at least pretend to ask me.” 

Spencer closes the box in front of him. “Please, move in with me. I can't spend that long away from you ever again.” 

“You see me almost every day when you're not working.” 

He shrugs, smiles. “It's not enough.” 

You sit on the couch. He leans over his box to hold your leg. Spencer's asked you a bunch of times, first because he worried about your safety, then because he felt it was a good option as his friend, and then again because he loved you. And you always said no because you didn't want to depend on him, and because some nagging voice in the back of your mind kept telling you he'd realise he didn't want you as soon as you got close enough. But it's been a long time since you thought that way, and his stint in prison emphasised how badly you need each other. 

“So, it'll be equal?” you ask in answer. 

“I'm not saying that. The rent is ridiculous, and you didn't sign up for that, and I have no idea where we'll put all your clothes. But it'll be half yours, absolutely.” He looks especially happy though apprehensive; he hasn't realised you don't need convincing this time.

“I want to bring my pink lamp for the bedroom.”

Spencer's smile changes his entire face. Puppy dog eyes turn thinner, his lips part, his perfect teeth like pearls. “I want you to bring the pink lamp. Bring everything. No one will ever understand our decor.” 

You sink down on the floor in front of him and nudge aside his box for a hug. He gives it to you, and, in a slightly uncharacteristic move for him, he cuts the embrace short to kiss you soundly, his hand on your cheek. He kisses you again and again until you're laughing into his mouth. 

“Does this mean you'll let me propose?” he asks softly. 

Your breath catches. He doesn't sound particularly put together himself, bringing his second hand to your face, holding your forehead to this. 

“I don't think it's something I have much choice in,” you say eventually, your smile audible and immovable. 

You get to say yes or no, but his wanting to ask is all on him. He's flustered you unexpectedly, and the quiet laugh coming from what feels to be the deepest recess of his chest tips you over. You dip down into his neck slowly, hiding away in the curve of his shoulder as his arms come heavy behind you. 

“All I could think was how much stuff I didn't get to say to you, or do with you,” he says. “If they couldn't clear my name, I kept thinking about how much time I wouldn't get back.” 

You breathe out in a rush against his neck. “But you're out.” 

“Yeah. I am.” He strokes your back. “Lucky me.” 

[vilz]

hello obviously there isn't anything i can really do to control this (unfortunately i deleted a bunch of posts BEFORE turning off reblogs on them) but i would prefer that people did not circulate my posts from this blog any more... i appreciate that people are kind to me about my art, but that is just my request i suppose. this blog is unprivated now, and if you'd like to see what is still up you can look at them here. my ask box is also open but i will not be making any art posts here from now on. here is a little preemptive faq:

why did you leave?

i didn't feel comfortable or happy posting on this blog any more!

do you still make art? do you post it somewhere else?

yes. but i've been pulling away from posting very much online, and the things i'm interested in drawing nowadays are generally more private, so i won't be directing anyone there or anything. i don't consider my new blog to be a continuation of this one.

i know your new blog!

that isn't really that surprising since i didn't honestly put great effort into concealing it or anything. we are probably not friends, so i hold no sway over you, but i would still prefer you did not share it or treat me as if i am still "vilz who posts fnaf art". i'm just a whatever blogger who blogs about whatever things. also to be frank i do not think my new blog has anything that interesting for people who followed for the kind of art i used to post here. this is not an invitation to say "it is interesting!".

we are friends!

if we have not been in direct, mutual conversations i highly doubt that. i'm sorry if that hurts anyone's feelings.

why did you delete all your self ship art?

people seem to enjoy my self ship art a lot, which is very flattering, but i don't want people to be looking at them any more. i realize that they are still rebloggable and are still circulating around, which is nobody's fault but my own, but i would prefer they were not shared any more. i can't really do anything about it and i also don't blame anyone for reblogging those posts since it's obviously not something they would know, but yeah.

i saw your art on pinterest!

i did not and do not consent to my works being put on pinterest. the art from "vilz" has not been uploaded by me to any other website besides tumblr. if someone is posting my art from here on a different platform, they are doing so without permission.

i saw you on magma!

i still join magma boards sometimes lol. it's a fun site.

what about your ocs?

they are still my ocs. sometimes i still draw them. currently, i do not have any plans of posting my oc art online ever again. i would prefer that people did not reblog the oc art i have posted to this blog.

what about your fics?

all of my fics are still up on ao3 anonymously. they are: small mercies obscura floriography baying of lambs scrape bitch, bastard, bullshit almost human a dream, recurring countdown i'm very flattered and happy that people have left kind comments on these. thank you very much for reading the words of an amateur and for sharing an experience with me.

are you going to finish your uncompleted fics?

i would really like to say yes, because i care a great deal about aspects of them, but it's looking pretty unlikely. i lost all my files (and my calmlywriter key !!! always save your emails and receipts, everyone!!!) and also it's hard to feel motivated about them now. i guess i will leave this up in the air just to soothe my own feelings but in reality the answer is Probably Not.

are you going to post new fics?

i might, because i've been in a writing mood lately, but please don't expect anything. if i do, they will be anonymous on ao3. i will not post about them here or on any other blog.

i really liked your posts and blog!

thank you. i'm glad that people could feel that way about the things i made and thought about stuff i care about. irregardless, i would prefer that people did not share my old posts from this blog.

i will do it anyway.

i cannot stop you, so there isn't really any point in pleading. i just thought i'd make a little info post for people who are inquiring. after this, there won't be any "posts" from me. if there are relevant questions or messages i might reply to them or just update this post.

thank you for reading and for enjoying my blog. goodbye !!!

[setsuntamew]

Hello and welcome to "Icon Making With Killian: An Intro to the 'Lost' Art of LiveJournal Icons"

aka, I'm still making them and I'd like to teach you how to do it, too!

This tutorial was written in Photoshop 2020, but you can probably recreate it in as far back as CS2-ish (since I still use the same sort of techniques I've been using since then, lmao). It also assumes basic understanding of the software, though I've tried to be as clear as possible throughout.

With that out of the way, let's get this tutorial on the road!!!!!!

I started with the bloomed art of Hiiro from the White Lilies scout box (image courtesy of the Ensemble Stars!! English Wiki).

I basically always start with a blank 100x100 canvas and paste the image into it. I try to go into icon making with a vague idea of what I want to do, and I knew from the beginning that my vision for this icon would have the top 1/4-1/3 of the image covered by a solid band of color. To make positioning the image of Hiiro easier, I made a rough version of the band with temporary colors (though they're pretty close to what I ended up using in the end).

With that in place, I could start working with the actual image for the icon. After pasting it in and adjusting the layers so it was under the band, I resized it and moved it around a bunch until I was happy with the position. Once I liked how it looked, I used an Unsharp Mask on the base.

Next up, I used a texture from lookslikerain. However, purple is all wrong for the color scheme I had in mind, so I went to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation... to change it up to better suit my needs. Never be afraid to mess around with textures!

Here's how I adjusted this specific texture, but each one is unique- both the texture and the icon you're creating, so it's best to play with it until you get good results.

I then pasted this into the icon, making sure it was under the layers making up the top bands of color (because I was only trying to affect the base for now), and set this layer to Darken.

Now it's time to mess with the colors of the top band. They sorta matched before I did anything to the base, but now...not quite. I used a layer style for each part of it, but using the paint bucket tool would work just as well. I went to Layer > Layer Styles > Color Overlay... for each, changing the colors as necessary. The thickest band is #85d0bf, the middle band is #086371, and the thinnest, lightest one is #fcfcd8.

Time to start putting stuff on top of everything!! I took this light texture from ianthinae, rotated it, and set it to Lighten. I decided I wanted it to be a little bit brighter, so I duplicated the layer, set it to Screen, and dropped the Opacity to 20%.

I then used a texture from Sarah-Dipity and set it to Lighten as well.

Okay, now that's what I'm talkin' about!!! It's time to throw some text on this~ I went for something simple to go with the theme of the story this card is from: Princely. The font is Georgia, 10pt, in #086371, set to all caps. I decided it didn't stand out enough, so I duplicated it, changed the color to #8b4235, dragged it under the first text layer, and moved it 1 pixel to the right.

I wanted a bit more embellishment around it, so I used this simple tiny text brush from colorfilter in #06444d. I also erased part of it to make it fit the space better.

Finally, I used a texture from shiruji, set to Darken to get a bit more color variation in it, and called it done! :D

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask, and I'll answer as best I can- as long as it's not about making icons in other software D: I only know Photoshop (and Paint Shop Pro, but I don't think anyone uses that anymore). If there are any other icons of mine you're interested in seeing tutorials for - or even just specific techniques! - just lemme know. I love helping :D

Also, I'm happy to share where I get icon resources from. I have a whole post dedicated to that on my DW graphics journal, though tbh that's the best place to talk to me about making graphics in general. But I will absolutely answer asks/replies/etc about icons here on tumblr, don't worry!!!!

[moonlight1234]

Aether Sail MMO/ Treasure Planet MMO

i am a person of many ideas, all of them too much for me to do, so after many years of hoarding my ideas, and without making any progress towards any of them, i have decided to make some of my ideas public, i started with the RPG system that now has a blog that i will probably not post that much, so i ask you to judge this without thinking the scope is too big or whatever, i know all of that all too painfully, but i want to interact and maybe if this gets enough popularity i will get a contract or something. if you do decide to make my idea, please get in contact, i can work for you.

so, the basic idea is a MMORPG with Treasure Planet aesthetics and the 70% Victorian and 30% fantastic, the medium is cell phones, and you play with the phone standing upwards and the game should be made to be played with only one hand, both for accessibility and to make it easier to play. so you slide around to walk and tap to interact, if you interact with a enemy you get into attack mode. the combat should be something close to monster hunter but with a tab target system, idk if this could work but it would interact very well with the notion that you can only do one action at any time.

for guilds, one idea that i found somewhere that i don't remember is, that guilds are badly designed because it assumes that people only have one social circle, so my idea is to make it like Discord servers, where you can get into any numbers of servers you want, but you always get into the lowest role, and you can go up on roles if people like you or any criteria people want. you could also have multiple bank accounts per server and lock the bank accounts by roles, so you can really customize who has what money, and even share accounts with other guilds.

for dungeons, i want something like Tarkov with their loot n' scoot system, or extraction looter if you are boring, basically the idea of going in, getting stuff and either backing off to be safe or going farther to get more at the risk of losing everything you got. so its actually a risk and reward game to get better loot, to support that you can create encampment to create better gear, store loot and get out of game bonus.

PvP is optional, but its guild based, so you are in war against any other player that your guilds are enemies with. so it is optional, but its also social. enemy players can steal your items from boxes that otherwise they couldn't access, open doors, even if with some difficulty, and other PvP related stuff. to support that you have guild options that make you not enemies with everyone or be enemies with everyone (except if they have the previous setting activated). idk how overlapping would work, but i think its a good system overall.

for cities i think people should be able to buy terrain and houses, with limits, and create things like shops, also have a way for players to create laws and stuff, so basically player driven bureaucracy, that could be fun if balanced for fun, even if might generate too much conflict and be bad for some players.

crafting is something that i thought some amount of it, and i am thinking chore play, so instead of having placing things in a grid and happening instantly, something closer to Potion Craft, with some real physicality to it to make it satisfying, with a bunch of materials and ways to mix them to make it crunchy and let information on how to make some type of material be a political tool, a new way to interact with other players, so if you have a specific recipe that you got from dismantling a specific weapon.

notes are a way to create notes, you can at any time create a note and put information at it, you can sign them and they keep day and hour of creation or last change, they can work as documents, patterns of drawings like Animal Crossing, work like checks, material recipes to make crafting faster but at the risk of people discovering your recipes, and to give people temporary guild roles or other permissions. you can seal notes with wax and stamp it with a pattern. you can also create coins the same way, but not like the original coin, but side coins, so its really a player driven economy, player created coins need a stamp and a material to be made.

combat is like monster hunter but tab targeted, so you aim at the enemy you tap and get your weapons, and when you tap you attack, if you drag you move, if you slide quickly you can dash or roll depending on the distance and you have a block/parry or secondary attack button, a change weapon button, a change target button and 3 abilities buttons. so the combat is about playing towards the win condition of your weapon and using abilities to create openings or getting a big payoff from openings. the enemies would stun or throw you away with every hit, regardless of damage to make you really change how you play depending on what they do, but if you parry attacks you have a chance to throw the enemy away and if the enemy is really big you need multiple people to parry to push the enemy back.

Hades like dialogue, just add something about a player or tell a myth or something interesting but prioritizing things that are important.

and contest that the players can create to play around with other players, basically create rules for a sport or a arena, ways to allow light hearted conflict between players. be a fight to glory or a fashion show, ways to facilitate that type of stuff.

out of game bonus like World of Warcraft, but you can get better ones if you are in a good city or has a decorated house.

for monetization i would like a premium currency that you can trade with other players for coins only, but you can buy something from the game, but i am not sure what, probably some convenience or fuel for better out of game bonus. i think any form of monetization hurts the game, but this hurts the game less.

ships, with a velocity based on cloth released, and functions like cannon, helm, boarder and engineer, idk if the canons should use ammo or have a cd. we have a radar, that has info about enemies like position, speed, cooldowns, so its worth to keep someone there. idk how to make this exactly, but in Starfinder each spaceship has a number of rooms that it has to be able to hold stuff, so something like that, basically a room for people to sleep, a room for medicine stuff, a room for radars, basically space slots, but the trade off would be speed for size.

i think that's all and i would really like other peoples opinions on this, even just for the fun of talking, and if you see a future for this idea, pls send me a message because we can definitely have a deal. thanks for reading, luv ya.

[silveredfeathers]

So am I supposed to put a pinned post up or is it just optional?

Because I'm not sure what to put here but I see a lot of others with one... I live in Alola currently, I'm originally from Kanto, though I see Johto as my home region.

I mean I can put my trainer card post on this to make it easier to find so here's the link to that: LINK

I'm married to @trainerlynda and am dating @timetravelerpyrite.

Note to other Silvers: I AM NOT OLD

I made a website.

//CURRENT ARC: N/A

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//Ooc and character info below the cut.

RULES:

- Anon Hate is IC only and I'll delete anything that goes too far.

- Please provide English translations if sending asks with other languages.

- Please don't make me add rules on purpose.

---

Here's a list of ask games you can use if you want to throw an ask at Silver or me:

Headcanons (Writer)

Invasive Questions (Muse)

Pokemon Headcanons (Writer, please say it's for the ask game)

Never Have I Ever (Muse)

TM41: Torment! (Muse)

Memories (OOC Muse, don't send checkmark asks please)

Reporter (Muse, please say it's for the ask game so I can respond the right way.

Evil Team Propaganda can be sent Silv's way.

---

CHARACTER INFO:

I'm going to add more info to this and make it fancy later.

---

Rather specific tags:

#Wormholes Suck - Lore relating to Silver and Touya's past.

#Lore Crumbs & #Vague Lore Crumbs - For the most part, as it says on the tin, the post mentions something that happened before the blog due to my Silver being developed before I made the blog.

#Silver's Asks - Ask posts. This also goes for any tag that has the word asks in it (ie. #Magic Anon Asks).

#Chimera's Curse - Stuff relating to the "official" reveal of Silver being a hybrid to rotumblr.

#Mew out of the bag - [ARC] In which Gio was turned into part Mewtwo. The link is a masterlist of important posts.

#Fool's Faller - [ARC] Silver and Lyn first meet Pyrite in person here!

---

This is a blog meant to represent my version of Silver, which means he strays from canon a little bit... Okay alota bit. This blog may also cover some serious things, but also participates in the general tumblr chaos. He will only be shipped with characters my BF writes, for comfort reasons.

He is 36 years old, his birthday being 12/24/1988, which makes him 11 during the events of the Gold/Silver games. He's married to @trainerlynda and dating @timetravelerpyrite. A bunch of dimension hopping related shenanigans and other such things that have happened to him. He is also transmasc and bi. If, for some reason, you don't like that, please just block me and leave.

He is a hybrid of Ho-oh, Lugia, and Silvally, due to Kenichi's (He is Lynda's halve of the universe's Giovanni's twin brother yes I know that's probably confusing-) scientists messing with him.

Silver's Boxes (Pokemon List)

Artwork with this Silver in it:

His current pfp, drawn by me

Reference sheet, drawn by me

In between form and concept drawing of the full form drawn by me

Silver and Puppy, drawn by @/yewwantstobattle

Silver helping his wife calm down after some shit happened, drawn by me

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WRITER INFO:

I am 21 and am kinda new here. Please let me know in private if I end up talking to someone bad, I likely genuinely didn't know since that info is scattered pretty much everywhere.

Follows and likes are from @zoranaroleplayhub and sometimes @messyzoranablog. Asks are primarily in anon.

Any art that I post will be credited accordingly. If it is not labeled, then it's my own work or official.

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OTHER THINGS:

Ho-oh and Lugia Feather Properties - A headcanon post about the abilities different feathers Lugia and Ho-oh have, since the Silver and Rainbow Wings have their own special thing going on with them. It's in the format of old explorer journal pages. These headcanons will sometimes be referenced by Silver and are here for ease of finding.

[youredreamingofroo]

📩 Simblr question of the day: It's time to appreciate the small things! What's a small detail from one of your posts that you love? Could be a small tattoo on a sim, specific clutter in a sims' room, a little detail in a render or screenshot, whatever is applicable to you (p.s. I've been scouring simblr, and I've noticed people don't like how picky SQOTD feels, so please! Share around SQOTD asks, anon or not, I'm only one person and can't find and ask every person on simblr ~ 💛)

Thank you to SQOTD Anon and other Anon for the asks!! (I'm presuming we're gonna start seeing dupe asks with this getting passed around now LMAO)

I RELIGIOUSLY put small details in my renders and stuff, so take a shot (or sip of juice) for every small detail i point out /j LMAOO

- -

starting off with my most recent post, whether u wanna call these small or not, im still gonna point them out - the next panel after "I'll see you in a weeks time" you can see the text box is still there, which is just a play on perspective, you can also see the lyrics from the Beabadoobee song in frame on the ticket close-up shot AND finally (for this post), a more subtle detail, is the fact that the box with the "-$158" casts a shadow! I gave a before and after, thats how subtle it is and how subtle i wanted it to be :)

That's the one I wanted to share the most, but if you want to see and read about more details (small or just overlooked/overlookable), I'm adding a couple more under the cut :)

- -

- -

Lighting isn't so much a small detail, but a detail that I think is important and am sharing a couple (not all) moments where I used colored lighting to create contrast or just to outline characters or where I just felt it was important to use specifically-colored lighting:

Just gonna speedrun explain these: Leo's colors are red/red-ish pink and green is the opposite of pink, which I used in that specific render, so it was a nice contrast Hero's colors are a range from Red - Orange - Yellow-ish Green - Green Vanella's (A sim I havent talked about before!) color is Blue and I used blue both as lighting for the walkie talkie and to make her stand out from the background Leo and Roo's colors are [respectively] Pink/Red-ish pink and Purple, I like to, especially in these kinds of renders with no background, use these colors to highlight them and their favorite/representing color Same as the last, I used yellow and purple/pink to contrast the two, with blue as a sort of undertone(?)

Also if you look at the W.A.S Teasers, Green, Yellow and Blue are meant to highlight the different characters and sort of set them apart from each other

- -

in this post/render-set, I wanted to show (whether u see it as a big or small detail again idk, i see it as small/medium) just how exhausted Harvey/Younger Roo was and how sorry Roo was/felt, hence the slumped over body and Roo tightly hugging him

- -

you wont see this for a bit (until i muster up the energy for a flashback Hiraeth render), but Leo DOES wear this sweater again after Roo said he loved it :)

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I will never get enough of this panel, i always eat it up everytime I see it... but anyways LMAO The small detail here is just the hair strands... I feel like I did SO well on not making them look exactly perfect but not exactly like... fake hair, kind of representing the "I cut my hair myself" look- also the fact that I managed to perfectly remove his glasses (via model editing in blender)... *chef's kiss*

- -

shoutout to you if you remember the first nirvana post... anyways, Obv the text isn't small but it's just the fact that you can interpret these two frames in two different ways (that I know of): One is that it's saying DONT. (as in dont grab her hand) and then she does her hypnotizing shabang and it says "DO IT" a bunch (like yk,, do it, grab her hand-) The other, is that it says "DONT. DO IT." (basically just saying DONT DO IT, with a period/comma however u see it) Not necessarily a render detail, but something i realized a while ago while looking at this

- -

And thats it! Thank you again for these asks!!! I love putting in small details or just details that might get overlooked SOOOO much :)

[logosbot-tm-fics]

NEW CHAPTER FOR FORMALDEHYDE BC I DECIDED TO NOT LISTEN TO THE POLL

Enjoy!

Take My Tea With Formaldehyde

[Start] [<Previous] [Next>]

Chapter 8: Am I Pretty Now?

(More beneath the cut)

Mumbo felt rather pleased with himself. He had managed to get his hands on an Ariana Griande concert ticket. It hadn’t been his priority at all but he saw that the tickets had been released so he decided to buy one. He smiled to himself when he noticed that the tickets were sold for a rather affordable price as well, which meant that it didn’t feel like a waste of money. Instead it felt like a treat. Considering the fact that everything felt so confusing and messy lately, he felt like he really needed to give himself something.

The concert was, as always, great. Though it always felt weird that she had gone from a small artist to one of the most popular artists, if not the most popular. A part of him still thought of her as a small, unknown artist, even if he knew that wasn't the truth. It didn't really matter, her music was still great, and he still enjoyed the things she did.

But even if the show was great, Mumbo couldn't help but notice one thing. Ariana was moving her hands weirdly.

Or more accurately, she seemed to be struggling to move her hands normally. She struggled to use them, meaning that she either held the mic or not at all. Sure, she had an in-ear, but sometimes she used regular microphones. Not that Mumbo really knew why. It was odd to see her struggle, it looked as if she was hurt. As if she had someone hurt her hands.

Mumbo wasn’t the only one who noticed. He heard someone behind him whisper about it.

"Is she okay?" They said, tone worried. "She seems unable to use her hands."

"I don't know." Another person responded. "Her hands look hurt."

Mumbo had noticed that as well, they looked bruised, damaged. Wasn't it weird that both Grian and Ariana had hurt their hands? Rather odd coincidence. He shrugged it off, stuff like that happened.

He hoped Ariana was okay.

Later when Mumbo was scrolling through social media he saw a few posts writing about her damaged hands. Posts pointed out how she pulled her sleeves over knuckles in selfies she posted, or avoided putting photos of her hands in them.

Some posts had photos from the concert, with red circles around her hands. The comments were filled with concerned fans, or people saying that it probably wasn't a big deal.

Mumbo hoped she was okay.

~

Ariana is on TV, it's a talk show again. Her brown hair is slightly wavy, and she has a pink hair clip in it. She has rather soft makeup this time, just enough pink eyeshadow to bring out her dark brown eyes.

She seems to have a rather nice time, even if something seems to be making her anxious. She's fidgeting with her sleeve, smiling as she answers questions. Despite the anxiety she seems to be feeling, she actually looks relaxed.

The talkshow host, a woman with long blonde hair, looks kind and genuine. Her smile is so different from other people who have interviewed Ariana.

"I'm so sorry, and I hope you don’t mind me asking," The talk show host says, looking at the cards in her hand. They seem to be there mostly for support. She has asked a bunch of questions and has rarely looked at the cards. It seems as if she's actually interested in what Ariana is saying. "But a lot of people, myself included, have noticed that your hands seem to have been hurt somehow, what happened? You can pass on this question if you want." She offers kindly.

"No, it's okay, I've been getting quite a lot of questions myself." Ariana replied, smiling. "Well, I hurt them, to put it simply. "

"Pardon my curiosity, but how? Was it a dance accident or?" The interviewer asked.

 

Ariana laughed slightly, shaking her head. “I mean, a dance accident would make sense, but you don't really hurt yourself like that when dancing." She explained, resting her hands in her lap. "I also wish I could say it was for a good reason, but, this is a bit silly, I just hurt them whilst boxing."

"You box?" The host said, looking a bit surprised.

"Yeah, I do." Ariana smiled. "It's not something a lot of people know. It's my preferred form of working out.

“I see," The host said, her smile matching Ariana's. "But are your hands okay?”

 

“Ah, they’re better, I'll say that. It’s just a case of boxer’s knuckles. I’ve been to the doctor and I've gotten it treated, I'm just going to struggle to hold a microphone for a while.” Ariana shrugged it off casually.

“Oh, I see. I hope they get better.” The talkshow host said earnestly.

“Thank you.” Ariana smiled, and with that the conversation was over.

The interviewer then turned to the audience, to move on from the topic.“Now, let me introduce the world famous popstar and drag queen, Scottsune Miku!" She announced, gesturing towards a portion of the stage.

Scottsune Miku came out on stage. She greeted the host and Ariana with a genuine smile, before sitting down next to Ariana.

"Scottsune it's a pleasure to-"

Mumbo turned off the TV. Grian would be over soon.

~

To Mumbo, making tea was almost therapeutic. It helped him calm down, focus on the amount of tea leaves, how hot the water needed to be, and how long it needed to brew.

He made tea if he felt stressed, angry, sad, frustrated, or any negative emotion. If he felt bad, then there would be a pot filled with tea almost immediately.

This, however, was not one of those days.

This was one of those rare days when things seemed strangely fine. Grian was laying on Mumbo's couch, just watching videos on his phone, whilst Mumbo was in the kitchen making some tea for them.

Sure, there were awkward silences and a weird tension in the air even during the okay days, but they had become a lot more bearable. A lot nicer than the others.

It almost made Mumbo forget about the bad days.

Mumbo filled a plate with biscuits, and went out into the living room. He placed the tea, milk, honey, and biscuits on the table, before sitting down next to Grian on the couch.

As soon as Mumbo picked up his book to read, Grian put his head in Mumbo's lap. He often did that.

However, it took Mumbo a while to realise that he was playing with Grian's hair. He had just started doing it, and by god, was Grian's hair soft. It was also rather long. Not at all as well trimmed as it used to be. It used to reach just above his jaw, curling in such a way that it looked shorter…but now it was down by the nape of his neck.

It looked good.

Grian seemed very content with the fact that Mumbo was playing with his hair. His eyes were closed, and his hand rested on top of his phone that was laying on his chest. He seemed at peace. Calm. Relaxed, for once.

"Mumbo?" Grian asked, his eyes still closed.

"Mm?" Mumbo responded, trying to focus on the words in his book instead of how soft Grian's hair was. He was failing miserably.

"I feel like going out again." Grian says.

Mumbo nearly drops his book onto Grian's head in response. "What?"

He hadn't expected Grian to say that. It’s only been three weeks since the whole incident, and sure Grian's hands have healed, but…if Mumbo was honest, he didn't really feel all that comfortable going out. He didn't want that to happen again.

"I wanna go out again." Grian says, as if Mumbo hadn’t heard him. "I think it would be fun."

"You're sure?" Mumbo asks. "What if-"

"Mumbo, it will be fine." Grian cut him off, looking up at Mumbo. "I had fun, despite what happened. Besides, I don't want that to stop me from having fun and doing things I like." He sounded rather determined, and that convinced Mumbo.

The two of them decided to go out the next day, since that was a Friday and neither would be at work on the Saturday.

Still, Mumbo couldn't help but feel as if something would go wrong.

~

This time, they go without Iskall. Somehow it feels like both of them want to go alone, for it to be just the two of them. Neither says it and neither suggests bringing Iskall. They just…understand.

In the line to the club, Grian looks giddy, almost like a child, excitedly bouncing in place. Mumbo smiles fondly. Maybe it was a good idea to go out, despite what happened last time. If he'd known that Grian would be this happy, he wouldn't have hesitated at all, and would have agreed immediately.

Surprisingly, the queue moves quickly, and they're inside sooner than expected. Grian grabs Mumbo's hand as soon as they step inside, dragging him out on the dance floor. Mumbo doesn't even get a chance to protest. Not that he minds.

Mumbo can't dance, not in the slightest. He moves awkwardly, or almost not at all. It doesn’t seem to matter. Grian just seems happy that Mumbo is dancing with him, even if he's far from graceful.

Unlike last time, Mumbo doesn't sit down to take a break, instead he just follows Grian's movements. The way Grian smiled when he realised Mumbo was still dancing with him successfully calmed down most worries Mumbo had.

He doesn't know how, but at some point he gets a drink and Grian gets one too. It takes a while for him to realise, but Grian is the one paying for his drinks.

"Grian-" Mumbo says, holding a gin and tonic in his hand. It must be his third one, and they haven't been out that long. "You know you don't have to pay for my drinks, right?"

Grian gestured vaguely, trying to brush off Mumbo's comment. "Don't worry about it," He slurred, his alcohol tolerance lower than Mumbo's. Not surprising, he was shorter after all. "I want to, besides I've got more than enough money."

Mumbo wondered what he meant by that, surely being an accountant couldn't pay that well. Though, maybe he worked for a good company?

"You're sure? I can pay for myself, if you-"

Grian cut him off, placing his hand on top of Mumbo's. The look he gave him was strangely intense and rather determined. "Mumbo. I seriously want to, and I have a fair amount of money that I don't really have use for. Let me pay for you."

"Oh-" Mumbo was a bit unsure of what to say, but he guessed that maybe he shouldn't question it. Grian seemed absolutely certain. "I-...thank you."

"My pleasure." Grian said, smiling a bit. He pulled away his hand and tilted his drink slightly at Mumbo. Mumbo silently wished Grian had let his hand stay.

Sometime after that brief conversation, Grian drags Mumbo back out onto the dance floor. As the time has passed, more people have entered the club, and they end up being very close to each other. Mumbo feels a warmth pool in his stomach at the proximity.

Despite them being at a club filled with people, it feels weirdly intimate.

Mumbo feels slightly dizzy, but in a good way. Almost as if he's floating. He has definitely drunk more than he thought. A lot more…and, what's the time? He hasn't checked his watch in a while.

Maybe he should, it might be a good idea-

His thoughts get cut off by Grian suddenly kissing him on the cheek. Mumbo gives him what he assumes is a questioning look, and Grian just shrugs in response.

"Felt like it." He said, casually, as if he always just randomly gives Mumbo kisses. Somehow, it actually feels fairly normal.

They still don't move off the dance floor. In reality, it would probably be next to impossible, there's far too many people around them. Neither really seems to want to sit down, and continue to dance…if you can call it that, it's more moving to the best of their ability on the crowded dance floor.

“Mumbo?” Grian whispered, the two so close together, that his voice could somehow be heard over the music and the people around them.

“Hmm?” Mumbo hummed, looking at Grian, who was looking at him with half-lidded eyes.

“Do you…” Grian began, stopping himself for a second, tilting his head to the side. The movement was a bit awkward, clumsy almost. “...Do you think I’m pretty?” He asked, smiling in a strangely shy way. He played with a lock of hair. If Mumbo was more sober he probably would have wondered why Grian looked like that.

Mumbo had difficulty processing the question, the alcohol making his brain work slower, worse than usual. “W..what?”He said in response, vaguely aware of the fact that he was standing up.

Grian leaned forward, so he could whisper into Mumbo’s ear. “Do you think I’m pretty?” He asked again, his lips centimetres away from Mumbo’s ear. Mumbo felt his breath on his neck.

When Mumbo finally managed to process the question he felt a smile break out on his face. He couldn’t stop it. He didn’t want to stop it.

He nodded in response. “Yes.” He said. “Yes, you’re very pretty.” He gently tucked a hair strand behind Grian’s ear, just so he could see him more clearly.

Grian looked surprised, his eyes wide, a faint blush on his face. Was it there because of the alcohol or-

“Really?” Grian breathed. “Am I prettier than Ariana?”

Mumbo felt his head spin, half wondering why Grian asked that. He barely realised that it was a rather strange question to ask. “Yes, always.” Mumbo replied, earnestly. “You’re the prettiest. Always the prettiest.” His words slurred together.

Grian seemed very pleased with that, and put his head against Mumbo’s chest. “The prettiest…” He whispered, a smile on his lips.

They lose track of time, and before they know it, it has to be after 2am. They have sat down at some point, Grian leaning against Mumbo. Mumbo thinks that some people have to think that they're a couple. He doesn't mind that. He wonders if Grian minds that, but realises that he'd have to ask if he wants to know.

They should probably leave. It's late and they should probably get home.

Mumbo asks if Grian wants to come to his place, and Grian nods silently, his arms tightly around Mumbo's body

They take a cab together, and start to giggle and laugh and neither knows why they're laughing. Grian holds Mumbo's hand tightly, as if he won't ever let go.

Mumbo doesn't want him to.

~

Mumbo and Grian half walked, half stumbled into Mumbo's apartment. Almost falling onto the floor in the hallway. The two of them were laughing drunkenly as they went inside, the type of laughter that bubbles in your stomach and is impossible to stop. The type that makes you laugh until your stomach hurts. They clung onto each other for support, which didn't exactly work. Neither was particularly stable.

Mumbo somehow managed to sit down on the stool in the hall and started to take off his shoes. He struggled but eventually got them off.

Grian laughed even harder when he saw how Mumbo almost failed at the simple action. Mumbo laughed as well, throwing his shoes at Grian. The shoes missed Grian completely, since Mumbo's already terrible aim seemed to have somehow gotten even worse, and Grian fell down on the floor, still laughing.

Grian clumsily pulled off his own shoes. He sat on the floor for a short while until Mumbo tried to help him stand up. Neither could seem to stop laughing, the happiness felt sticky and sweet, and it held them firmly in its grasp. Not that either could really complain. When was the last time they properly laughed together?

Grian somehow managed to stand up properly, smiling at Mumbo. Mumbo smiled back, and ended up looking directly into Grian's eyes. The laughing stopped, though not in a bad way. The air felt electric, and neither looked away.

Mumbo had known for a long while that Grian's eyes were blue, but oh. Oh, how they were beautiful. They were like an ocean, a gorgeous mix of blues. Earlier Mumbo would've assumed that they were just light blue, but now he wondered how he had ever missed the specks of midnight blue in them.

Grian breathed, his eyes stuck on Mumbo. Mumbo's lips felt dry. Grian licked his lips, as if they were dry. Mumbo noticed that Grian's chest was rising and falling slowly.

Grian leaned clumsily against Mumbo saying nothing. Grian then tilted his head to the side, a strange sort of curiosity and wonder in his eyes.

Mumbo mirrored his movements, not breaking eye contact. He couldn't. Even if he had wanted to, he wouldn't have been able to. He kinda…

Mumbo was unsure of who made the first move, who put their hand on the other's back, who breathed in before taking the plunge. Maybe they did it at the same time. Because suddenly, his body was once again pressed against Grian's, but this time they weren't dancing.

No, this time his lips were pressed against Grian's, as he felt Grian kiss him with a newfound hunger. As if he was starving, as if he couldn't keep himself back.

Mumbo slowly slid his hand up Grian's shirt, tracing his spine with his fingertips. He felt Grian gasp against his mouth, felt him tense up for a second before relaxing into Mumbo's touch.

A part of Mumbo knew he shouldn't be doing this– he knew he wouldn't be doing this if they weren’t so drunk. But they were. And they were too far gone to stop.

As if they would've wanted to stop.

Part of Mumbo was screaming at him, knowing that their friendship was too fragile for this, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care, not when Grian was holding on to him, refusing to let go.

He felt Grian's hands in his hair, and the last thing he could properly remember was Grian pulling them towards Mumbo's bedroom

[eyesallforu]

Rules!!

CONTENT WARNING (so feel free to click away if any of these are triggering): This blog will content subjects of gore, murder, stalking, cannibalism, manipulation, and most likely a bit of NSFT content! DNI if you are a minor unless stated otherwise in bio! (Do not lie about your age either! Mun will block on sight!)

AND IMPORTANT FOR PERSONALS AND EVERYONE ALIKE: Do not reblog any threads that you’re not apart of!  I’ve had this happen to me too many times and I’ve gotten tired with messaging people who refuse to take my posts down.  If you do this, I WILL BLOCK YOU.

For Personals: While I will not write threads with you?  I’m still fine with you sending asks and questions for my muses.  Even though this is an RP blog, this account is still considered an Ask blog too in my eyes.

Don’t try and spam me if I haven’t gotten back to replying to your thread.   

I usually reply to 1-2 threads a day, just to keep myself from burning out too quickly.  Most replies that you DO get from me will usually turn up within a two week time span.  However, you’re allowed to message me once or twice if I forgotten to get back to your thread within a month.  Sometimes I do tend to forget threads if I’m busy, or tend to drop them suddenly due to time constraints or I’m just not feeling for it anymore. However, if you feel I haven’t gotten to you in a while and you want to keep a certain thread going? Feel free to let me know.

Don’t get angry at me if I haven’t replied to your thread right away.  I’m human as well, you know.

I am NOT a RP meme achieve!  Please do not reblog RP Memes from me if you’re not intending to send one in return.  I’ve seen it done so many times on here that it just really hurts people only use me for that sort of content.  If you want to use/save it for later (like Reblogging/Liking it), go to its source, not my own reblog!  I don’t need that stuff clogging my notifications. Consider this as a warning: I WILL softblock or hardblock you if you continue to do this repeatedly.  This rule isn’t here for show!

I will NOT put up with having my muse(s) being controlled by others.  If it’s something minor though?  Please just ask.

My ideals and morals are not to be reflected in that of the expression/actions/and thoughts of my muse(s).

PLEASE!! If you are approaching me with the intent to ship with this stalker muse, please message me beforehand. While I am ALL for a good ship for this freak, I would like to know ahead of time so I don't have ships forced upon me and unpromptly. I have autism and do not read signals very well and like to be upfront with everything before I dive into a subject matter like this. I do not keep my more darker muses filtered, and I do not want people to get upset at me when I've made it clear Doe might bite some folks he feels threatened by.

I am open to any story genres, but I’m semi selective when it comes to smut writing.  It just depends on the context.  If I ever feel uncomfy, I WILL let you know.

I’m also a Multi-ship blog, any ship that takes place here is fine by me.  However I will not ship minors with my muse(s).

Please do not harass me or send in anon hate.  You will be blocked instantly if I see that at all in my inbox.

Do not try to bring me into any personal drama of yours, especially with other users.

I do not accept oneliners.  I find it very hard to work with replies that are very short, as it doesn’t give me much to work with.  The only exceptions for this rule are asks or people sending rp memes.

Please don’t spam my notifications with a bunch of likes every 30 seconds. Unless you’re a close mutual, this type of behavior can get really annoying after a bit. I will not hesitate to block you.  (Liking things every now and then is fine.  It’s just when it overtakes my entire notification box is the issue.)

If you gotten this far and read this entire page: Let me know by sending “YES, YES I DO!!” In my inbox then!

[adelaide-lemonade]

Day 1

Hi! This is my first real post on Tumblr besides my little intro from yesterday. Today was decent, but it had a bad start. First of all, I spilled water on myself like 5 seconds after waking up. Then I was craving a bagel for breakfast but the bagel had mold on it!! My wifi went down in my house. It started raining. I tried to tell myself that I was lucky to wake up another day, but then my tummy started hurting. And it's hard to be grateful when your tummy hurts. (TUMMY HURTS?!? RENEE RAPP?!?)

Anyway, I knew I just needed to go to school and see my friends because friends make everything better. So I got to school and I felt better. My belly stopped hurting, and I was pretty productive. But, then, the talking started...basically there's this guy who likes me. (We'll call him Chocolate) And usually I don't judge, because I know I'm not the most normal myself, but he is VERY strange. On Valentines Day, I was putting my stuff in my locker when I felt a tap on my shoulder. So I turned around and he shoved a box of chocolate in my hands. And I was like, "Oh, thank you so much!" And he just walked away. Then, last Friday, I felt ANOTHER tap on my shoulder and I felt my impending doom. And guess who was there when I turned around? That's right. Chocolate. He had a notebook that said, "Can I get your number? Yes or No?" He couldn't even ASK. But I didn't know how to say no, so.... I gave it to him. :( :( :( A while later, I got a text from him. One of the first things he sent was a YT short that was basically like, "Did you know you can't feel your tongue when you smile? Got you! Look at how cute you are when you smile!" BARF. Now, what you have to understand is that I have NEVER heard Chocolate talk unless he's with his friends. Like, I've tried asking him questions and stuff but he only nods or shakes his head or grunts. So him sending this was beyond brave. I talked with him a little bit, and he called me cute a few more times and a bunch of things happened. In the end, he kinda sorta maybe asked me out and I said I liked him as a friend. And I felt horrible. My mom kept telling me that it was the right thing to do but I still feel really guilty.

Anyway, what I was going to say about the talking today: everyone at school knows that he likes me. And they'll joke about us "dating" even though everyone knows that never in a million years would I date him. And THEN, something happened in English class. We were performing some Shakespearean thingy, and, me being an aspiring actress ;), I was the lead role. And whooooo was playing the guy I had to marry?! MY CRUSH. ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I haven't liked THAT many people because I usually like someone for a solid year or two before I stop liking them. Anyway, this guy, (we'll call him Whale), is different than my other crushes because I actually have a chance with him. Even though he is BEYOND cute. Like, he does a bazillion different sports, so he has these amazing muscles. And he used to live up North so he has a different voice than most people where I live. And he is just SOOOOOOOOOOO cute. But, despite this, I actually have a chance with him because he's not popular. At all. He's super smart and kinda nerdy-crazy because of all those sports, right-so he's not high up in the social class of school. So I could totally ask him out. But I'm not going to because that's scary.

Moving on, I only have 2 more weeks left in school!! And it's about a month until my birthday and I CANNOT WAIT. I love summer, and the beach, and tanning, and my birthday, and swimming, and no school, and ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I have to go! Thank you soooooo much for reading and please like or share this so that I have more motivation to keep writing! TYSM!!!!!!!!!

[crimson-moonflowers]

Heyo!! :) if you’d like, please list 5 things that make you happy, then put the same message in the ask box of the last ten people that reblogged something from you. You don’t have to, it’s up to you! 💖

I honestly feel bad when I get things like this, because I have a bunch of lovely asks that I never posted in my drafts (I always answer stuff but fear not writing things correctly so always double check but sometimes I end forgetting about the asks).

But you're not here for that!

5 things that make me happy...?

1. My friends. Seriously, I wouldn't be here today without them.

2. My family, I suppose? They're a pain to deal with sometimes but still care for me so... Yeh.

3. Music! There isn't a day when I'm not listening to it, I get a bit stressed otherwise.

4. Jjba? I mean, it brought me a lot of things that make me happy, like friends and creativity I thought was gone.

5. My dog! He has been with me for 10-11 years, first dog I got and wouldn't change him for anything... Don't know what I'm gonna do once he's gone.

Anyway! Thank you for the ask anon, it was fun to think about this stuff, have a good day/night! (⁠*⁠´⁠ω⁠｀⁠*⁠)

[hwisans]

navigation

hi, welcome to my tumblr! this post is just a navigation post that outlines more about me and how i run my blog to make it easier for anyone who comes across it.

i've had this account for almost 10 years but recently decided to repurpose it as i was not liking how it was. i've also been wanting somewhere that i could discuss and talk about some of my interests more.

please make sure to read through everything before you follow me.

about me

my name is isobel, i'm 22 and i'm from sydney, australia

my pronouns are she/her and i'm queer! i identify as demisexual

i'm currently a full time uni student

message and ask preferences

my ask box is always open and i'm happy to chat! i personally prefer asks to dm's as i sometimes can feel a little uncomfy and awkward when someone dm's me but i will still answer anyway!

please don't send me any super personal questions about my sexuality. i'm more than happy to answer anything about my journey with figuring myself out or educating you on demisexuality and the ace spectrum if you're trying to understand better. but anything which is extremely personal such as my sexual preferences or if i've ever been sexually attracted to someone etc. will be ignored and deleted.

anything that is sent to me that i consider hate or harmful will be ignored and deleted. this includes anything racist, homophobic and queerphobic, xenophobic etc. in particular, i will not be putting up with any hate towards my sexuality and asexuality as a whole. either your message will be deleted or i will post it so i can clown you and your ignorance

things i post about/reblog (aka my interests)

books. i talk about books alot and i primarily read ya (mainly contemporary and fantasy), romance (contemporary, fantasy and urban fantasy, historical) as well as standard fantasy (can you tell i really enjoy anything fantasy)

kpop. i've been a kpop fan since 2015 and it's something that has been a bit of a lifeline for me over the years. my current ult groups are ateez, sf9 and stray kids but i'm a multi-stan and stan numerous other groups

marvel. i'm a massive marvel fan and have been for several years now. recently my obsession has grown because of all the new tv shows as well as a bunch of the movies coming out almost back to back here in australia over the last 6 months

star wars. i've loved star wars ever since i was a kid but i've been really into it lately because of the mandolorian and now am completely obsessed with the show (and grogu)

random aesthetics. i really like looking at aesthetic photos (specifically anything cottagecore, desk setups/studying photos and bedroom or room photos) and so i'll most likely reblog those occassionally

i'll probably edit this list as needed. i also lurk on here and like stuff more often than actually posting or reblogging anything so this list is more of what to expect if i do post anything.

what hashtags i use for my posts

i use #isobelspeaks for anything that is a personal post

anything that i talk about for books, tv and movies will be spoiler tagged if the post contains spoilers. same for anything i reblog

i will be regularly updating this post as needed!

[rainworldslugcats]

Hi ! Just wanted to ask , how do you put your own slugcat skin in game? I know it's works with fancy slugcat mod,,, but i don't know how to use it ;-; , can you teach me

i can try! although i only learned most of this very recently, so i’m not the most knowledgeable. i also use BepInEx as the modloader.

im going to start with the assumption that you already have fancy slugcats installed and working, after this you’re going to need the custom assets and custom tails mod. both can be found on RainDB.

keep in mind, each of these mods contains a read me with more information, so reference those if you don’t understand something in my explanation. everything is under a read more as this post is very long.

ive also attempted to be as detailed with this tutorial as possible.

and lastly, please read through the entire tutorial before starting work as it’s very likely you’ll end up having to redo things otherwise, mostly because of the way custom tails functions.

part 1: custom tails

we’ll start with adding a custom tail, the custom tails mod requires ConfigMachine, fancy Slugcats and Custom Assets. (publicity stunt is only required if you still use Partiality, not if you use BepInEx) download and apply these mods first. (the .dll files)

once you’ve downloaded custom tails you’ll find an “examples” folder in the .zip file, this contains the files you’ll edit to make your own custom tail. 

each of the example tails is shown on the thumbnail for the custom tails mod, so you can get an idea of how they look in action.

sidenote: the devil tail png is completely white, and thus it can be hard or impossible to see on a default photo viewer, open it on something like paint tool sai and add a colored background. once you’ve selected which base you want to use, extract (or just copy and paste) that tail png along with its txt file somewhere you can work on it, desktop works just fine. now you can make whatever modifications you want to the tail, i’ll use my firecracker tail as an example.

note: if you leave parts of the sprite purely white, it will get colored in with whatever color you choose in the fancy slugcats menu, its essentially transparency.

once you’re happy with how it looks, it’s time to apply it. firstly, change the tails name into something recognizable, like FRtail.png

now take your txt file and name it the same thing you named your tail, and make sure to be exact or things might break.

then open said txt file and change the default tail name into your tails name.

once all that is done, you have to navigate into the atlases folder in your rain world install. to get there open up steam, find RW and right click it in the menu to bring up this text box

choose “properties” at the very bottom to open up this menu

select “local files” on the side, and when you see this screen press “browse” and it will open up the root folder of RW.

(i have quite a bit more stuff in my install folder due to mods, so don’t worry about not having all of it) from here you want to open the “Assets” folder near the top, from there you open Futile > Resources > Atlases.

now all you need to do is put both your tail png and txt files into Atlases like so:

note: capital letters matter, if you used capital letters in your name you have to use those same capital letters in every name, for example if you use frtail.txt and FRtail.png it wont work. it all has to be the same in every case.

once that’s done, go back to your RW root folder (the one where RainWorld.exe is located) and open the “ModConfigs” folder, from there go to Fancy slugcats > custom heads. it will be empty if you haven’t made any modifications yet.

once youre here, make a new txt file and name it the same name you’ve used for your tail.png and txt files. then open it and type the same name inside it, don’t forget to save.

now you should be ready to open up RW, remember to enable the required mods: fancy slugcats, custom assets, custom tails, config machine and publicity stunt (partiality only)

note: if your game opens up to a black screen and wont start, it usually means something is wrong with the txt files, either you forgot to add a name inside one of them, you forgot to save when you added the name, or you’ve misspelled the name. double check all the names for your png and txt files.

now then, let’s get to adding your tail to your slugcat

once the game is open, navigate to settings and open mod config, from there you should see custom tails in the menu. once here type your custom tails name into the “sprite” box, remember to be exact with the name.

if the name shows up red, you’ve made a mistake somewhere in the process, if it shows up as white, its been successfully added!

if you touch the sliders it will add a gradient to your tail and undo/cover up any sprite changes, so keep them as black. you can also change your tails size in the fancy slugcats menu as usual.

now you have a snazzy tail to show off to the world! “.......but wait” i might hear you say “my tail isn’t the same color as the image i made!”

that’s because whatever color you apply to your slugcat in the fancy slugcats menu gets applied on top of the image you made. meaning if your slugcat is a rather more dark color, it will make your tail darker as well. meaning not only will bright aspects of it not be bright anymore, the base of your tail will be darker than your base slugcat color, thus it wont match. this is a problem i ran into as my slugcat is purple with bright accents.

the transparency i mentioned earlier helps with this “if you leave parts of the sprite purely white, it will get colored in with whatever color you choose in the fancy slugcats menu, its essentially transparency.“

you can use this transparency to make the base of your tail match the rest of your slugcats body, now all the white will be filled in with whatever color you’ve chosen in the menu, however it still wont fix all other parts of it having the base color applied to them.

now if your base slugcat color is white, you don’t have to worry about any of this at all! the tail will stay how you made it!

if your slugcat will be lightly colored but not completely white, or your dark slugcat will have dark markings, this is all stuff you can reasonably account for while making the markings themselves (once you’ve made the txt and png files and put them in the right places, you can edit the png in the atlases folder directly) but if you want to do something more close to my slugcat, we’re going to have to do it by changing the color of slugcat using sprites.

part 2: sprite edits

so, to get around this problem and to get the freedom to edit the sprites however we like we’re going to be editing each sprite separately. this way you can virtually add anything you like to your slugcat, antlers, spikes, fur. although this might require you to change the position of the sprites to get them to line up properly in-game.

i’ll only touch on recoloring sprites as i haven’t edited the shape of any of them yet, i’ll update this tutorial with extra info once i’ve tried it out myself.

some of slugcats sprites have multiple versions that will get bundled in order to make the animations you see in game (head, arms, legs)

others are static sprites and only have one version (tail, body, hips)

firstly, you’ll need to find the sprites you’re going to edit, all of these sprites are included in the custom assets zip file you downloaded from RainDB.

you’ll find slugcats sprites in Unpacked Atlases > RainWorld, extract this folder to make looking for the correct sprites easier.

note: all of the sprites are white by default, this makes them incredibly difficult to see in a folder without opening them in some external program, thus i’ve changed my windows settings to make the folder background dark (this can be found in Personalization)

this folder includes the sprites of most of the creatures in RW, so picking out slugcats sprites can be a tad... difficult. thus i'll name every single sprite you’ll need to hopefully make it easier. BodyA, HipsA, PlayerArm0 to 12, FaceA0 to 8, FaceB0 to 8, FaceDead, FaceStunned, HeadA0 to 17

aaand all the leg sprites are in a png because they have so many names

most of them can be found bunched up together in the RW folder, a tail texture isn’t included as that will still be handled through custom tails as detailed above.

now i suggest you make some way to store all of slugcats sprites neatly, as it will save you a lot of hassle in the long run. i separated all body part sprites into folders.

now you’re free to make any edits you like to the sprites. however, i’ll go about this tutorial with the expectation the only edits are color edits, not shape edits, as again i don’t have experience with those.

once your sprites are all colored and neatly organized its time to compile them, each body part gets compiled into their own bunch (arms in one, legs in another) for this you’ll need a program called texture packer, i can’t provide a direct link because my post might get thrown into the void by tumblr, there is however a direct link in the custom assets read me.

once you’ve downloaded texture packer, heres an easy to follow short video tutorial made by AndrewFM on how to use it.

once your sprites are bundled you’ll go through the same process as with adding your custom tail. i’ll use arm sprites as an example.

you’ll get a png file with all of your edited sprites in them, as well as a .json file that contains placement information, turn that json file into a txt by renaming it (yourarmname).txt

now open the txt file and rename every single part to whatever name you decided to give your arm sprites, but keep the numbers at the end of the sprite names, they are important.

note: do not rename the individual sprite png’s before they are packed

now that your txt and png files are ready, drop them into the same Atlases folder in your RW install as you did with your custom tail, and similarly add another new txt file into ModConfig > FancySlugcats > CustomHeads and rename it to the same name you named your sprite, and add that exact same name inside the txt file itself.

if the game yet again refuses to start, remember to double check the names in the txt files.

now we’re ready to apply the sprites in-game, open up RW and head to setting > mod config,

depending on which sprites you’ve edited, you’ll need to enter the sprite name into the specific field it belongs to, for me i’ll add the name to the arms section. you’ll get more details about what goes where when you hover over the text field.

for some of them, you’ll need to include A at the end of your sprite name, but only in the mod config menu

this shows where they are needed.

now you need to repeat this process for each bundle of slugcats body parts and apply them. note: body and hips despite both being part of slugcats main body gets applied separately, and even though they only have one sprite each you still need to pack them with texture packer and go through the same process as for the others.

this all might seem tiresome, and in certain ways it definitely is, but once you’ve gotten the hang of the packing, adding to folders and applying the process gets a lot faster.

once all of your sprites are applied, legs, hips, body, head, arms, tail. you want to make sure in fancy slugcats settings to make your slugcats color pure white so it wont affect your custom sprite coloration in any way. however you can apply color to slugcats face through the menu as usual.

there is a known issue where slugcats fists when climbing poles don’t get colored, this issue currently can’t be fixed easily.

the end result? quite a fancy slugcat indeed!

if i made any mistakes, or there’s extra info i should add, then message me and i’ll edit the post accordingly!

if there’s anything you can’t figure out no matter what you try, join the RW discord and ask people in the modding support channel, thats where i got most of my information from!

hopefully this is helpful to some of you! i spent quite a while making this tutorial so reblogs would be very much appreciated!

[6knotty6thotty6]

So a couple of months ago, I saw a YouTube video that was an audio recording of season 5, episode 6 of Bojack Horseman, “Free Churro.” In the episode, the main character, Bojack Horseman, spends 20 minutes giving a eulogy at his mother’s funeral. There’s one big problem though, his mother was an abusive bitch. His eulogy is him trying to contemplate what she meant by her drying words, “I see you,” and whether or not she loved him. As someone who has a dead parent who was abusive, this is probably my favorite episode of any show ever for how much it helped me understand my feelings. The comments section is filled with people sharing their pain with their abusive families, but one comment stood out to me above all the others by how raw and relatable it was. This comment was by a YouTuber named Moonstruck. At the bottom of this post is a link to her channel. Please support her. After reading this, she deserves a million subscribers. Also please watch Bojack Horseman. (I corrected some of the grammatical errors to make it easier to read)

Disclaimer: Child abuse, bullying, trauma, and mental health:

Moonstruck: 

This is a great monologue, but one part of it, in particular, really caught my attention was the 'grand gesture' bit.

When I was a kid, I read this book called "Chicken Soup for the Soul." There's a shitload of them. I don't remember which particular one it was. I hated the whole series because it's just someone profiting off a bunch of other people's stories rather than trying to write their own, in my opinion. 

Anyway.

This one story that I remember, the ONLY one I remembered,  was sent in by a little girl. She wrote about how her father never told her that he loved her. He never once, in her whole life, said the words "I love you." I don't remember her mom being mentioned, maybe she was dead; it doesn't matter. The point is her dad was basically an emotionless asshole. Well, one day, this girl gets sick. Really sick. Possibly on her deathbed sick. She wrote that one day she woke up to find a necklace sitting on her nightstand that had a pendant that looked like her dog. She said she held it to her heart and cried because that necklace said all the things her father never had.

I thought, "What a load of bullshit."

A cheap trinket doesn't make up for years and years of emotional neglect. Anyone can buy a thing and toss it your way. Hell, he didn't even hand it to her himself, just left it there for her to find if/when she woke up, then left her alone again to possibly die.

A lot of people say that actions speak louder than words, in cases like political protests and shit. While that's true, scenarios that this that girl are different. Gifts can never replace the words, "I love you."

When I was a kid, my father never told me he loved me. My mother didn't either, but she's a whole other kettle of fish. I would say 'my biological mother or father,' but I never got adopted ones, so who gives a shit. Anyway. My father was rarely around, and when he was, he just spent the entire time fighting with my mother and leaving again. He would do and say anything that could get him to spend less time in the house with her. With us. I can't blame him. If I could've left during those times, I would have. I tried more than once. I even earned the nickname 'runaway' from a family friend because of it. 

I was told that I was worthless as early as I could understand words. I don't know what it is about me that set my mother off, but she HATED me. I was always told how expensive I was to keep alive and how I wasn't worth it. If I dared ask for anything, she would remind me how much she spent just to keep me from starving to death and that it was too much already. On the rare occasion I was given something, it was so she could use it as a threat. She was like, "Sure, you can have that toy horse since we got your sister a real one, but you better behave or we'll give it to her and let her break it." Or "Oh, fine, we can keep this dog as a FAMILY pet (NOT YOURS), but if you do something we don't like, we'll take it away and kill it." 

Oh, yeah. I have a sister. She’s cut from the same cloth as our mother. I don't consider any of them family anymore. She was two years older than me. She was the "we should have stopped while we were ahead" kid. Anything she wanted, she got. 

"Mom, can I have an award-winning horse and expensive dressage lessons?"

"Sure!"

"Mom, can I have a car?"

"No problem!"

"Mom, can you pay for my ballet lessons?"

"Absolutely!"

She was the golden child. The one that could do no wrong and wasn't a mistake. Even after she totaled her car, got arrested for an underage DUI, and got pregnant three times in high school, she was still the good one. I never even asked to go to school dances, parties, or go out with the one friend I had. My sister liked to see me in pain. She'd tell our mom that I did things just to get me in trouble. Whether it involved blaming me for things she did or fabricating stuff, she'd say whatever it took to get my mother to beat me while she watched and laughed. Oh, yeah, our mom was BIG on physical punishment. I've been whipped with everything from a riding crop, a wooden paddle, spoons, and especially belts. Anything that was close at hand when my mother got irritated, I've been hit with it. 

At one point, my sister had three tall, beautiful show-worthy horses. I was allowed to keep a sickly old pony for all of a week before she was taken away, then I'd get called ungrateful for asking why we had to get rid of HER instead of one of the horses. Even though my mother said it cost too much to keep them all. With horses being obviously too rich for my blood, I asked for something cheaper, and for once, I got it. I was given a baby goat that one of our neighbors' goats had abandoned for being too weak, and they didn't have time to raise. I loved that goat. I bottle raised him, and named him Ben. He was my best friend for a while. When he grew up, he got so big that I was able to stand on his back to grab tree branches and pull them down so he could eat the leaves. I walked him on a leash like a dog every day. I loved him so much. My mother had me enter him in a show, and we won ninth place! I was thrilled to have something to show against my sister's collection of dressage show ribbons. I finally had proof that I could do something right! Sure, the prize money was taken away from me, but I still had Ben.

But Ben didn't come home with me after the show. It turns out he was sold to a slaughterhouse because that show was for meat goats. I didn't know until he was already gone. Of course, my mother punished me for being upset and even forced me to write a thank-you card to the people who bought his meat. 

My mother was always like that. Anything I loved was used as a threat. I eventually accepted that loving anything was a waste of time. I learned to detach myself from my feelings, and I got really good at it. I can completely turn off my emotional reaction to anything. One time I had to put down one of the egg-laying hens at work that got too sick to save, and I felt nothing while bringing down the ax. When I lost out on a job that could have changed my life, I told myself how stupid it was to hope for anything good. Any positive emotion I felt got me punished, so I learned to feel nothing at all. To this day, I still have trouble feeling things, even when I want to. I'm taking pills now, and they help, sometimes. 

I've had several suicide attempts. I keep a box of razor blades in my desk just to have them close. I got a tattoo of a heart with rainbows on my wrist. Partially for LGBT solidarity, but mostly to remind myself that there is still beauty in the world. I still struggle with wonder if I actually believe it or not. 

I've tried so hard to be a good kid. I never partied, never drank, never smoked even when the chances were there, and I would have greatly loved anything to make the pain stop or even just dull it a little bit. I was in the gifted and talented program at school and was able to graduate at fifteen. For a while, I was sent to a children's home where I was passed around to many people I didn't know, including a clown who I may or may not have actually been related to, until I eventually wound up out here where I am now. It's all pretty hazy, and the details get scrambled. 

It's been 10 years since I've had contact with my mother and sister. I can't even keep in touch with the one friend I had, even after I lived with her. She's tried to reach out to me, but I just… can't. I try, but I can't. Sometimes, I can almost pretend that my past wasn't real. It's just a hazy fog that isn't really there. I want to believe that if I don't allow something, or someone, who was part of that past, someone tangible and real, into my life again, then the fog will go away. This is why I can't do it. I know I'm a terrible friend. Ariel, if you're reading this, I'm sorry. You're better off without me in your life anyway. 

I typed all of this out because sometimes, about fifty dollars or so shows up in my PayPal from my father's email address. I don't know if it's from him or from her using his email, but it doesn't matter either way. The point is I know my mother is the one sending the money.

I know my mother likes to think she's a good person. She went to church every Sunday, and probably still does. She organized a lot of church events and participated in every church function. I had to be an altar server for several years until I aged out of it and was in the choir. She kept going to that church even after the priest got drunk, called me many horrible names in front of everyone, and was revealed to be a pedophile that raped a little boy at gunpoint. She probably still goes to that same church and organizes things. She likes being in charge. She likes having people look at her and say, "That there is a good person."

But are you, though, Mom? Are you really a good person? Were you a good person when you hit me? When you lied to me? When you laughed with my sister about how much I got hurt for things I didn't do? Were you a good person every time you told me you'd kill my cat or leave my dog at the pound? Were you a good person when you sold Ben to be eaten, knowing that I loved him? Were you a good person when you made me read "A child called It" and told me that you'd start doing the things in that book to me if I didn't behave? Were you a good person every time you told my father I was a liar whenever I tried to tell him what you were doing to me? Were you a good person when you told me I wasn't worth the cost of being alive? Were you? 

Fuck you, Mom! Keep your fucking money! A necklace on the nightstand isn't enough. A trinket can't heal years and years and years of abuse and hurt. You can't hide these scars under dollar bills. I hope you die alone. I know I probably will, but I don't even care anymore. I lost the ability to care thanks to you. You can't make up for the things you did and the things you didn't say now. Too little, too late! 

[lavenderek]

So you're saying you don't think "underage" fic is gross. Is that what youre saying?

well, no. yuck. what i’m saying is, what exactly and specifically do we want to happen?

there should not be explicit fic about underage characters, got it. so what age can they not be under? 18? 16? what country’s laws regarding the age of consent do we prioritize? like, i think it’s gross that the age of consent is 16 in some places, but i’m an american, so i would, wouldn’t i? so ok, what if we hedged it a bit and put the age as like, 14? that way it’s not little kids, it’s all teenagers. but no, gross, 14-year-olds are children. fun fact: so are 16-year-olds. they are also children.

what about fic about two teenagers having a consensual encounter? should all romantic or sexual fic have to be about adults only? your answer to this may very well be “yes,” and that’s completely valid. a teenager writing fic might disagree. somebody who’s a big fan of a show that’s about a bunch of teenagers might disagree. should there be an adults-only section on the site? there’s already a “stop, you have to be 18″ box to check before you can access explicit fic, so how do we verify a user’s age? they can just lie about their age and click through anyway. you have to be 18 to make a youtube account and i’ve had one since i was 13. i remember very deliberately choosing a new birth year when it asked for my birthdate.

then you get to slightly greyer areas like large age gaps, or heavy role play between consenting adults. i have absolutely witnessed fic that’s clearly written to be CP, but it’s tagged as age play. so like, for all intents and purposes this is CP, but if you roll in like “hey, this is fucked up,” they can be like, “oh, so you read this picturing actual children, sicko?? you have a problem with two adults doing shit in the bedroom??? how dare you!!! don’t like don’t read!!!”

it’s kind of like on porn sites, how they make like nasty inc*st stuff but call it “stepmom” or whatever, like oh, they’re not actually related! sure, joseph, thanks for covering all your bases

so we can’t ban kinks. or can we? should we limit depictions of serious addictions or domestic abuse too? torture, or even body horror? these are generally accepted to be dark content.

i’m not trying to engage in whataboutism, i’m naming actual, relevant questions about shit that’s disturbing in real life (no offense to kink people who follow codes of consent and conduct) and can be incredibly upsetting to encounter online. shit that i can’t imagine wanting to read, let alone write.

these are the questions that we, you, i, people pro-a*3 and people anti-a*3, are all asking, and not a single one of us can or should answer them unilaterally.

so it’s like, oh, okay, so there should be no oversight at all? should there be no rules? no, obviously, that would be horrible, i don’t trust any of these fuckers to conduct themselves civilly. so there should be some rules, but not too many rules. that’s what we have now, and clearly the way things are now isn’t working because a lot of users are reasonably very upset.

should there be a voting system, and rules are set by a popular vote? should certain words be flagged and you can’t post the fic with that word in it? should there be a thing where when you post a fic, you have to select the ages of each character and that’s listed at the top of the fic? what if they age during the fic? should there be a flagging function, where you report someone for not using sufficient tags? users will find workarounds for all of this. you know they will. so mods will have to be very specific about the rules and introduce, like, a vetting system for it. which is a lot more manpower and a lot more chances for subjective judgments.

all of the above is why it operates on a tagging system instead. i’m gonna be real, i only go on a*3 to read comments on my own shit lmao, and even when i did go on there more often i never went in the tags searching for fic. so is there a blacklist function? is there a flagging function?

if there is a flagging function, maybe they make it so that if the flagged user has violated the rules, their account is suspended and their fic made private for the duration and until they add necessary tags.

cool, a compromise. but uh-oh, it turns out Mod A agrees that this fic is n*ncon, but Mod B thinks it’s just vague, not n*nconsensual, and doesn’t feel comfortable banning the fic. or it turns out User didn’t post anything flaggable, they were reported by somebody who is targeting them for some reason, or by someone who is more stringent about n*ncon than somebody else would be, like, it’s gotta be enthusiastic and verbal consent or else it’s skirting the edges too much.

it’s like, we’ve already witnessed censorship (please take this word usage gently, i know it’s touchy but it’s the word to use here) being a problem here on tumblr with their stupid nipple ban. there’s a double standard regarding whose nipples are explicit and whose are kosher for public consumption. people have to appeal their shit getting flagged and sometimes nothing gets fixed regardless. i’m sure other people are pleased that there’s less of a chance of them accidentally scrolling past a picture of a hard dick at work.

so you get it, this is a problem that’s more complicated than “all of x should be banned and if you post it there’s something wrong with you,” a belief you’re more than entitled to hold but can’t base, like, fanfic legislation off of. you get it you get it.

you get it, but like, what is the fucking deal with those “fandom moms” who go off on soliloquies about the days of old or whatever the fuck whenever this topic comes up? what about the weirdos who are like, “what’s next, banning gay fic????” yeah, if we allow gay marriage you can marry a tree, that’s how it works, thanks tiffany.

but no, the reason they do this is NOT that they think lgbtq content is comparable in any way to CP. the reason they do this is that this exact problem has taken place on every site that has ever hosted fic. and many previous sites did think lgbtq content was comparable to CP. it was categorized as adult content and hidden.

that’s why a*3 exists in the first place. it was to avoid godmodding and absolutism. it’s supposed to be more or less self-governed. i don’t want there to be CP on a*3 any more than you do, but i also don’t trust randos to decide what is and isn’t acceptable content. this topic is not new.

i’m in support of stronger government regulation in real life because it can be argued that certain actions and systems violate human rights. everybody deserves food and shelter, for example. the same can’t be argued in this case because some creep writing CP doesn’t violate my rights. i find it offensive and i don’t think they should be writing it, but my right to click the back button is intact. there is no institution making it impossible or even difficult for me to not read fanfiction. the creep could just as reasonably argue that their right to post what they want is being affected.

why is this response so long? is it because i can’t shut up? yes, but also because this is a complex issue and that’s why nobody has taken significant action on it.

people are also big mad.

i’ve never understood this impulse to see somebody not doing a thing you want them to do and assume it’s out of malice or incompetence, anyway. i don’t know anybody who volunteers for a*3 but it’s my assumption that given the choice to have us all pissed at them, or have us all not pissed at them, they would choose to have us not be pissed at them. it just seems like the reasonable reaction to have. and like, i’d be pretty shocked to part the kimono and find out they’re all CP-loving gargoyles and a*3 actually stands for A lot Of child abus3. that is the reason i have not been like, “fuck a*3.” because what are they supposed to do, you know?

there’s no simple or inarguably morally right solution here. the princess is in another castle. just post fic on tumblr, i guess? make another hosting site that’s exactly like a*3 but romantic characters can only be like, 21?

i actually think the legal age in the US should be raised to 21, not joking. your brain literally and biologically isn’t finished developing at 18. teenagers lack the world experience to make decisions that adults make.

somewhere there is an 18-year-old or a person who moved out and became self sufficient at 18 who hates this sentiment. there’s a teenager in an abusive home who would be intensely demoralized by the prospect of having to remain beholden to these people for three more years.

and there’s a parent who is relieved to know that their kid can’t be preyed on by army recruiters for three more years. there’s a person who got into a car crash with a teenager who misjudged whether or not they could make a turn who’s like, yeah, she could probably have benefited from a few more years.

nothing is as simple as it should be. i agree with you, but i’m not willing to pass blanket judgments with regards to actions that should be taken. and honestly, given how little i actually go on the site, i don’t even have a dog in this fight. so all my opinions on it are moot anyway.

(side note, if you are in an abusive home and you can’t make your own bank account, or if your bank account is monitored by your abusive parents, maybe try venmo? you can get a debit card that pulls directly from your venmo balance. a surprising number of places accept venmo payments, and this way you can save up money in secret.)

anyway uhhhhh seeya

[roswelldetails]

RNM 2x05 - I'll Stand By You

So just a little note from me, the person behind the season 2 detailing.  I am trying really really hard to keep emotion out of these posts...which is really really hard for me because I'm an inherently emotional person. I'm a glass case of emotion, ready to shatter at any given moment. (#dramatic)  But I want to be true to the intent of this blog and keep my feelings, biases, and, you know, shipping out of this blog.

It was really really hard to do with this episode. Because I straight up ugly cried for like, 45 of the 60 minutes. 😂

So I guess, the point is, I'm proud of myself and sticking to the details here. My regular blog is where I'm doing the emotional flip out thing! 😂

EPISODE SUMMARY:

ACCEPTING REALITY — The discovery of some complications with Max’s (Nathan Dean) pod forces Liz (Jeanine Mason), Michael (Michael Vlamis) and Isobel (Lily Cowles) to confront the possibility that they may not be able to save him. Elsewhere, Maria (Heather Hemmens) and Alex (Tyler Blackburn) make amends. Kimberly McCullough directed the episode written by Alanna Bennett & Jason Gavin (#205). Original airdate 4/13/2020. 

DETAILS:

Max/Isobel/Michael reunite at age 11 according to what Michael tells Alex in 1x10.  So that would make the opening of this episode set in 2002ish.

Michael tells Max and Isobel, "I remember you. I don't know you."

"After nobody adopted me for a year they just stuck me with the name of that trucker who found us."

"I didn't ask you for anything."

This is like the thesis statement of Michael's whole history with Max in the flashbacks.

"Don't pay more than you collect, kid. Passing credit back and forth is a good way to get stuck with somebody forever."

Rosa's art. 

What I can see says: "...what they all told me, but I didn't listen" and "Stand the shelter".

Rosa on her dreams

"I have not had any freaky dreams in weeks. Okay, Max is probably off haunting Isobel now that they're strong enough for their psychic twincest weirdness."

"How long has that been happening?"

"Um, I don't know. It's an old boom box."

"Rosa, have electrical appliances been malfunctioning around you?"

"I really thought it was just a side effect of the handprint."

"If being in the pod introduced a new protein into your system it could have altered your DNA too. You could be developing abilities."

"Liz, look. The handprint is changing.  It's smaller."

"It's fading."

"Tell me this is a good thing."

"I don't think so."

Michael and Liz theorizing on why the pod shorted out:

"The pod's got a charge. It's like a battery powering the preservation process. This one's gone dead."

"Did the generator blow the electromagnetic threshold?"

"I think a surge came from the pod itself. But that pod has lasted almost a century. It shouldn't glitch out."

"Okay, well, then, this one did."

"All right, stop. It doesn't matter why the pod is broken. It just is. So how long does Max have?"

"My theory is that being tethered to Rosa through the mark is what kept Max from going brain-dead, and in turn the stasis process is what kept the mark from fading. So he could be gone by tonight."

"Okay, well, we have three more pods. So let's just put him into another pod."

"No. He's just gonna do it again. I haven't told you everything. I didn't want to scare you. I didn't want to be the one that took the hope away."

"Talk now, Rosa. Right now."

"I was seeing Max in my nightmares months before I told you about it, and he was begging me to stop you. He said that he was in a lot of pain in there."

"That's Noah's pod. Noah told us it was broken. It wasn't keeping him in stasis. He could feel time passing. None of us thought of that."

"We've been doing everything we can to make Max stronger. He pulled his own plug."

Note...as far as we know Isobel was the only one who knew about Noah's pod being broken.  In 1x12 it was before Liz arrived at the house that he told them about the broken pod, so only Max and Isobel heard that part of the story.

Alex on his training. "NSA intelligence cryptology training".

Monitor screen in the secret lab:

Noah's heart is still too weak to transplant. Kyle says it needs at least eight more weeks

"I wrote a paper for a bioethics class on patients in vegetative states who feel pain. Sometimes it's all they feel."

As a non sciencey person, I was wondering if bioethics class was a real thing. Tonight I saw an interview on the news with a UC Berkeley bioethics professor on COVID. So yes, it's a thing.

Alex on Michael that summer post-Rosa's death:

Starting fights with jocks

Broke into the drugstore

Not going to UNM

Hasn't hung out with Max all summer

Got busted for stealing hubcaps (Kyle's hubcaps, we learn later) 

Became a walking bar fight

Was in jail when Alex left to enlist

Michael on Max in 2008:

"It's more than that. And it's less than that. We were friends when we were kids, but now Max reminds me of a bunch of stuff that I'd rather forget. The only thing that we have in common anymore is Isobel."

Max's yearbook had a pencil stuck in the page with Liz and Max's photo in it. (The one we first saw in 1x03).

"Biology Club. Max hated science. He was in that club for four years just to watch your sister chew on the end of her pencil."

Max's mindscape:

First just desert, clouds, and then lightning strikes (destructive energy?)

Liz's antennae -- they disappear from Isobel's hands

Rosa describes it as broken

Crashdown special is Max's favorite "Little Green Man milkshake".

The Crashdown counter is kind of merged with biology lab equipment. 

The juke box is there

The Crashdown booths

Jeep

Neon Crashdown sign

One of those claw drop game machines (from the Crashdown) but it's filled with baked good displays.

The yearbook

Later, everything else is gone except the one Crashdown booth, the Jeep, and the neon sign.

The distorted music they follow to find Max is the Cactus Groove song in the music list...just, messed around with. See @angsty-nerd's post here:

"I'm the hothead. You are the hero. It's always been that way."

"You stole the hubcaps off Kyle Valenti's graduation present. Both his parents are cops. Do you want to end up in jail tonight?". 

👀 Tonight, specifically. 

Michael seemed excited about the job at Foster's Ranch until he found out that Max set it up for him.  Max found out about it from his dad (only like the 2nd or 3rd mention of his dad in the series so far).

"When I got back in town I asked Max why you and your brilliant mind hadn't changed the world yet. He said you didn't care about the world enough to bother changing it. He believed you could."

Max and Isobel in the mindscape:

"You're okay. I could feel something was wrong with you.  Everything felt…"

"Cold. I know."

"You can't be here. It's finally ending.  I can feel it. But I don't know what happens if you're in my head when I die."

"So it's true? You want this?"

"I could feel my connection to the outside world getting stronger, so I snapped. I couldn't take it anymore. I released a surge. You have to let me go, Iz."

"I can't take it anymore."

"Okay."

"I am so sorry."

"I just want to memorize this."

"Okay. Okay.  I need you to tell Liz something."

"You can tell her yourself.  She and Kyle are prepping for surgery.  They're going to use the faulty heart. She just wants to talk to you before you die."

"No. No."

"You won't be suffering. They're just gonna bring you back and then let you go."

"No you have to stop this.  You cannot bring me back under any circumstances."

"Max? What is really going on?"

"I am dangerous.  Whatever Liz is bringing back is not me. It's just some broken shell."

Maria on her mom's computer 

"Her nurse said that for the two weeks before she went missing, when she wasn't trying to escape, she was talking to someone online."

The 21st birthday flashback

Isobel gets Michael to help move Max after getting drunk on tequila.  He passed out in front of the tattoo parlor. It's the same tattoo parlor Michael goes to at the end of the episode.

Max's weird drunken statement.

"The thing is, there has to be there. Okay? There's always three. Until the very end.  I'll show you...What it means is you should be here…'cause it's all broken without three. So we'll figure it out.  You'll find your way back."

👀 Until the very end. Interesting.

On Max becoming a deputy:

"You know he did the whole police academy thing because of you, right? He thinks you're gonna get into the kind of trouble you can't get out of if you don't know someone."

Back in the mindscape:

"I figured it all out. She, there's an energy to suffering, there's an energy to death, and when I heal people, I absorb that energy. So when I resurrected Rosa, I took in ten years of emptiness. So if you resurrect me, you will be bringing back an infection. Don't want… I don't want to come back as a monster. I don't want to hurt anyone that I care about."

"That's what this is about? We've been hurting, Max. We don't work without you."

"You will! You will. You are stronger now than when I died. All of you are. You, Michael, Liz, you will survive this. The three of you. No, you need to stop them, Iz. Now."

"Okay. I love you."

"You too." Isobel disappears.

Max is using pretty similar wording to his drunken rambles in the 21st birthday flashback

We don't see that Max is chained down until this next exchange with Rosa. Isobel didn't see that detail as far as we know.  Didn't hear the chains clanking when they stood and hugged. Only after Isobel left.

"I'm sorry this is happening."

"Isobel is lying. She is buying time.  You know she'll never let me go. But you can feel the darkness too, right? That's why you don't like being in my head. Because you know it's real."

"I didn't want that to be true, but yes."

"I know my sister and I know your sister and they'll never give up. So you have to be the one to stop this surgery, okay? Or I will destroy everything that we love. You have to stop them to save them. Now go.  Please, Rosa. Go."

Isobel explaining to Liz

"When he saved Rosa he absorbed all of that dark energy. He's gonna have to expel it."

"And he's afraid he's gonna kill someone when he does."

"Yeah. So we just need someone stronger than Max to take that hit...if he thinks he needs to protect us he obviously doesn't know how capable we are. Bring him back, Liz. I'll handle the rest."

"I get it now. It's gotta be the three of us."

"He would never pull his plug to end his own suffering. Unless he thought he was saving us from something. And I'm a little sick of his heroic martyr crap."

In case you missed it, Michael did not know that.  At the beginning of the hospital sequence Isobel is telling Liz what she learned in Max's mindscape and says that she hasn't been able to get ahold of Michael.  Michael figured it out on his own. He finally "got it".

The pacemaker:

Isobel with Max at the end… everything is gone except the Jeep. And Bright Eyes playing (the song he and Liz danced to on their first date back in 2008). And then his eyes close and Bright Eyes fades away.

“First thing I remember is the three of us. We woke up terrified and lost. But together. And then all of the sudden I was alone. I got real good at being alone. I had given up on people entirely. And then you found me again. Hell of hero move. You showed up just in time. When you are a kid who nobody loves, kindness is a currency. Friendship doesn’t means jack. Family just lies, and hurts, and leaves. I’ve only ever known love to be temporary. So yeah, I push people away. Every time someone threatens to care about me I test their love until they have to leave. Connection is conditional. Everybody eventually gives up on the guy who refuses to be rescued. But you were the only one who I couldn’t run off. You never believed me when I tried to be something I wasn’t. So this thing in your chest, it might give your heart a pretty solid kick every once in a while. Consider it payback. It’s my hero move, Max. If you wake up, you consider us even, okay? If you wake up, we can be a family.”

Good visual parallels during Michael's speech. Alex and Kyle drinking together during the "and then you found me again". Maria walking up on "the guy who refuses to be rescued"

Max is in the coma for three weeks.  Wakes up at the secret lab (instead of his house, which is where he was previously.  I'm guessing it was a planned wake up because he's no longer plugged into all of the IVs and whatnot.

"I begged you to understand."

"Max, it's gonna be fine."

"No… I told you to let me go. I can feel it inside me."

"It's...it's symmetry, okay? It's just energy for energy.  We can deal with that. Fight it, Max. This isn't you."

"I don't want to hurt you. I need to get out. I need to get away from you, from everyone."

"I can't let you do that."

Max shoves Isobel and runs. When he shoves her there's a slight ringing like the sound they use when the aliens use their powers.  Isobel follows and stops him with her powers.

"I made a promise that if you came back and you weren't Max, and you were actually going to hurt people that I would kill you. I figure, hey, you got to play God. Make life and death decisions all on your own. Well it's my turn now."

MUSIC:

1. Letters To Cleo "Here and Now"

2. Lady Antebellum "Love Don't Live Here"

3. Cactus Groove "Fallin"

4. James Talley "Big Thunder"

8. Ross Copperman "Stars Are On Your Side"

5. Lindsey Ray "Keep You Safe"

6. Tommee Profitt feat. Sam Tinnesz "With you Til The End"

7. Bright Eyes "First Day Of My Life"

The Cactus Groove song is the first song this season that I haven’t been able to find on Spotify… let me know if any of y’all had any luck with it!