#plus the way you get curves in lines in the program i used to make the font is so confusing that tbh i kinda don’t want to bother

[stingyslegslookweird]

gonna work on an update for Limitless Evolution (my Agito font), but i want to ask:

people who have downloaded/used the font: are there any problems, complaints, etc. you have with it so far?

i know the upper and lowercase M and N are barely and not at all differently sized, respectively (which is the main issue i’m planning to fix), and there aren’t any parentheses or brackets, but if there’s anything i’ve missed or that you think should be added, i’m more than willing to hear you out, at least.

[creations-by-chaosfay]

Have you heard of the term "patterns mills"? These are shopfronts that quickly produce a pattern without any sort of testing or vetting, and then put it on the market with an AI-generated or stolen image for a very tempting price. Patterns produced this way are rampant in the cross-stitching world. However, I've recently noticed an uptick in these types of storefronts in the quilting and foundation paper piecing world. Since I'm well versed in FPP patterns, I would like to describe what an AI-generated quilt pattern looks like as well as provide other suspicious giveaways. AI will only get better, so while these mistakes are dead giveaways now, they might be fixed in the future. FPP patterns seem to be easier to replicate in AI than traditionally pieced patterns, which is why I will focus on FPP in this blogpost. However, you can apply the same clues to any sort of craft pattern (or really anything) you can buy online. Important: AI-generated images are not prohibited on Etsy. However, within their policies they state that you must disclose if you used AI within your listing, and these shops do not have that disclosure.

Below is a listing for a wolf face FPP pattern. When you first look at it, does anything seem suspicious?

First, I would like to draw your attention to the scissors in the bottom left of the photo. These scissors are physically impossible to use and are literally melting into the yellow cutting mat. The lines of this cutting mat are unresolved, as are the lines on the green cutting mat in the bottom right corner. These are your first giveaways. However, not all images have background sewing items that look a little funny. Let's take a look at the actual "completed quilt."

The first thing I notice is that the only background seam line (from this apparently foundation paper pieced quilt) is the one in the top left corner. The seam is merely hinted at and does not go all the way to the edge. Additionally, I notice that the eye is too round. One could argue that the cover photo is merely an enhanced version of the completed quilt, but there are no completed quilt photos in the listing. Another clue for identifying AI generated quilt images is that there are a ton of colors/prints used. The prints in this image seem nebulous and the prints around the eye whiskers (?) lose a lot of fidelity. The individual fabrics themselves do not have consistency.

In the image above, the things I notice are that there are curved seams within the gray and white colors. A typical FPP pattern would not have curved piecing interspersed between regular straight seam piecing. Also, piecing lines that are useless, especially visible in the bluish-gray piece on the left. The amount of piecing within that patch does not make sense. Below you will see another listing from a different Etsy seller.

From afar, it looks really good. Plus, the seller has great reviews! And it's a Bestseller! But let us take a closer look…

The first thing that sticks out to me is how the whiskers of the lion are resolved. You can see where they fade into the muzzle of the lion without a realistic piecing line. Some of the patches are straight up "smeary" and wrinkly, a telltale sign of AI. The program does not know how to accurately render the design so it creates an approximation. These are things that are hard to see unless you zoom in. Below is a listing for a legitimate lion FPP pattern from designer Pride and Joy Quilting so you can see the difference. It is clear that the first image is an actual completed quilt top.

Beyond the AI-generated cover quilts, I'd also like to cover other signs of a pattern generated from a pattern mill.

For the lion pattern, the cost is only $8.63. This is very cheap for what is supposed to be a full sized quilt pattern with a multitude of templates.

Both of these sellers have very generic names. While not an immediate cause for concern, I recommend being skeptical.

There are no actual completed quilt images within the listing.

Both of them are considered "Bestsellers" on Etsy, but the shop with the wolf pattern only has 10 reviews. It makes me wonder about the disparity between "buyers" and reviewers.

The 5 star reviews for the lion pattern are extremely generic and talk only about "how much their friend Lisa will enjoy the pattern" or "how easy it was to download." These are not helpful for understanding the quality of the actual product. The 1 star reviews are way more descriptive about the issues the pattern has. This makes me wonder about fake reviews.

Both of these patterns include a full layout of the FPP diagram within the listing. I personally would never do this and I don't know many designers who would.

The lion pattern says this within its description: "Before making a purchase, we'd like to inform you about some important aspects. The product stands out for its template, design, and print quality, serving as a valuable tool for sewing projects. The instructions include two techniques: direct fabric marking (with visible stitches) and invisible stitches. Both are general guidelines and not step-by-step instructions. You can choose these techniques or any other that you consider suitable based on your experience and preference. There are no refunds for the digital file. We appreciate your understanding and are available for any questions." This demonstrates to me that the pictures are not accurate because they are clearly attempting to depict FPP and are hoping that you won't read the description until it is too late.

Why is every lowercase i in the wolf pattern missing its dot? Like, why? I find that strange and off putting.

So, how do you avoid accidentally purchasing a pattern like this?

The first step is gaining experience in recognizing listings that seem a bit fishy. Use the bullet points listed above to see what kind of feeling you get when looking over a listing. I also recommend finding out more about the designer from their website or from their social media. Not all legitimate designers have these necessarily, but it's a great place to start. Try messaging the shop owner on Etsy. Does it sound like they know what they are even talking about? You'll then build a good list of designers and shops you trust. A big and worrisome thing to remember is that AI will only get better and produce better looking images. This will make it harder to identify pattern mills by the image alone. However, the clues that I've listed will help if you put them all together and come to a conclusion. I suggest using them for all your online shopping. I hope this helps!

[joshthewalkingtrainwreck]

Godot for Game Shows?

Yeah. I mean, why not? There's ultimately no hard-and-true objectively correct way to present a game, just good practices to keep in mind as you work with the resources available to you; even if it's just index cards scotch-taped to a dry-erase board, if you keep it in line with the look and feel you've planned with some thought into it, people won't be able to think of your brand any other way. some will even get offended if you change it (it happens, but most of the viewers who like your game will trust your creative decisions with as equal trust you have shown them in your production. Parasocial relationships are not the only type that exists between an artist and their audience in the information age; extend to them the same credit you would extend to yourself.)

But to touch on the reasons why I am using Godot as the infrastructure for the quizzes I am building, the details are under the cut:

I have found it to be more robust and more interactive than PowerPoint. It also allows for potentially more automation, it can be integrated with human-input devices fairly easily, with the ability to interface it with PLCs (users have already developed plug-in modules to use within it to interface with the Arduino platform).

There are a lot of features in it currently that are not anything I can use for the productions I am planning now, but if I can get the basic handle and functions of the software down it will make things that much easier once I am in a position to wire things up for a stage or studio.

Plus, there's the personal challenge of learning something that could be useful in other fields willing to cut a paycheck for it. It took me a while to get a basic handle on graphic design, so at least I can make stuff to show off. I don't think it would take as long or longer to get the handle on what will use those graphics.

Personally, the biggest learning curve is in the interface. Once you get accustomed to where things are and what happens to them when you click on something else, it gets easier to figure out how to get it to do what you're looking to do within it.

But the nice thing about open-sourced software like Godot is there are a number of equally-motivated individuals who are poking and prodding around on their own, and they might have figured out the same problem you're having (e.g. that elliptical orbit problem on a MeshInstance3D I spoke about in a previous post).

Those of you trying to break a bad habit of hyper-independence (especially of the incredibly rugged definition of self-reliance that comes with a life spent in rural Appalachia [e.g. "you have to learn to help yourself because ain't nobody else coming to help you"]), will find the waters of a beginners' channel on a Godot discord server to be pleasant and calm. RSD will not be inflamed as everybody else in there us just as clueless as you are. It's not just you, this is kinda tough. Ask for help.

If you've used programming languages before, the scripting end of it is nothing unfamiliar, especially if you've cut your coding teeth on the syntax and structure of python.

It's not the only piece of software I have learned in order to make anything, and it likely will not be the last. But it makes a fantastic contribution to one's productivity suite if you're so inclined towards goofy a/v nonsense like I am.

[bomberqueen17]

I have a good old mechanical sewing machine that can do zig-zags, and that's adequate for almost everything. My fancy electronic machine broke so many times I gave up on it. My mother-in-law is the kind of person who constantly finds sewing machines at garage sales, so I'm well-supplied. I do have a serger but it's hard to use; I only use it for occasional seam finishes.

That's the difference you're looking for, by the way-- a mechanical sewing machine selects its stitches using cams, an electronic sewing machine has a computer program set the stitches. Some mechanical machines can be very expensive, some computerized machines very cheap, but in general, mechanical ones are more powerful while electronic ones are more sophisticated but fragile.

(Sergers/overlockers are something else entirely, and have several (usually two) needles and a pair of looper arms and a built-in trimming knife, and are not for the faint-hearted but if you can get one and get the manual for it, they're very fast and very good especially with knit fabrics. But there are some things you actually cannot do on them, and must use a regular sewing machine for.)

I'm going to weigh in on using free patterns-- I got by teaching myself to sew trying to draft my own patterns and adapt free patterns and such, but I never made anything I liked very much. After twenty years of mediocre results, I bought a book on adjusting patterns, but by coincidence the author of the book had a figure very similar to mine and so I made up my muslins of the book patterns and discovered I needed zero of the adjustments so carefully laid-out in the book. So now I just buy all my patterns from that pattern company, since by sheer coincidence I am exactly the same shape as the company owner. (The book is Ahead of the Curve, by Jenny Rushmore, and I do recommend it. Your library might have it! The pattern adjustments are very clearly explained. But I didn't need any of them, LOL.)

So if you're working from a free or self-drafted pattern, it's worth trying to look up what causes common fit issues, what those look like, and how to adjust your sewing pattern. The big ones are full bust adjustment if you're busty, swayback adjustments and full bum adjustments if you're curvy elsewhere, and the major asymmetries-- if you have one side larger, OR if you're very curvy on one side of your body (full belly but flat bum, or vice versa)-- these are all things that are going to make your free pattern fit terribly and discourage you from sewing, BUT once you get a pattern or two that fits you, then you can really make anything.

I buy patterns from an indie company that specializes in my body shape. (In my case, Cashmerette patterns, which are for busty people, and recently expanded into straight sizes but for a long time were plus-size only. Because I am a G/H cup size 20/22, so I am their core demographic; I fall squarely in the middle of their size range, and I also find their pattern instructions to be so good they've taught me more about sewing in one year than I had taught myself in twenty.) So consider making that kind of investment, if you can find a company that specializes in your kind of body type. (The aesthetic of Cashmerette's shoots is whatever, sorta not my style-- I'm not saying look for people who look like you want to look, necessarily, because the thing about sewing is that the entire aesthetic of a pattern depends so much on the choices you make. The lines of the patterns fit my body, and everything else is details I can adapt. I literally mean look for people shaped like you physically are shaped, because that's how you're going to find a pattern that will be easy to adapt to your physical shape. If you're goth don't be afraid of preppy types and vice versa because that is all stuff you will choose, not anything baked into the patterns, LOL.)

In terms of sewing saving me money, I find that it does, because it prevents me from continuing my lifelong habit of impulse-buying fast fashion that doesn't quite fit me, out of desperation because the only garments I have don't fit well and are uncomfortable. The more I know how to sew, the less interested I am in whatever fast fashion company is having a sale. I spend far less on fabric than I used to on shitty, shitty t-shirts etc. I don't have very many garments because I'm slow at sewing, but the ones I have I like better, and I'm so much more picky when I *do* buy something, I would rather do without something mediocre if I know I could make a better one, whether I actually get around to making it or not. So, no, it's not cheaper to make your own, but it can save you anyway.

hi! loved your post about not giving up on learning new things as an adult. do you have any resources you could share about making your own clothes? thanks 💞

Hmmm.. I don't really have specific links and I've only been doing this for like.. a month? I made three pieces of clothing so far that I actually wear in public. But my starting pointers would be:

You need a sowing pattern and you need to follow the instructions. You can not just trace your favorite t-shirt and expect it to look good. (which is what I did when I started). New patterns can be expensive but if you have a printer, you can find free sowing patterns online. If not, thrift stores and online markets will have cheap old patterns and pattern-magazines. One magazine often has over a dozens of patterns.

Youtube is amazing for tutorials.

For me, half the trouble of learning how to sow was learning how to handle a sowing machine, getting the right tension on the threads so it doesn't break or get stuck, etc. I'm still getting the hang of all the things that can go wrong when handling a sowing machine. Again: Youtube is great.

If you don't have a sowing machine: ask older relatives before spending money on a new one. A lot of people have an old machine lying around and those old heavy machines are really good. And bonus: you might get a free class in how to use that damn machine.

In my experience, slightly thicker fabrics and unpredictable patterns help camouflage beginners mistakes. Loose baggy clothing is also easier because the fit doesn't have to be perfect. My first project that I actually wear in public is tartan dungarees (yay, punk). Do consider: cheap modern sowing machines aren't always capable of handling thick fabrics.

You can make your own clothes for many reasons but honestly: don't expect to save a lot of money. Nice fabrics are quite expensive and then there's all the tools. Of course you can recycle your old curtains, get fabrics from thrift stores, etc. But in my experience the cheapest of disposable fashion is so ridiculously cheap that most home made clothing can not compete.

If you wanna save money, reduce your impact on the environment and/or start easy: try fixing and resizing clothes you already own! @wastelesscrafts has a lot of tutorials, like this post full of ideas about how to upsize your clothes: https://www.tumblr.com/wastelesscrafts/700971177595830272/upsizing-clothes-there-are-a-million-upcycling/

That's my starting points for now, maybe more experienced people can leave more advice in the comments?

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

Knight in Shining Red Armor | Dante + Child!Reader (DMC 4)

A/N: Hey so this is a rewrite of one of my first (and only) DMC fic from like...2016. This takes place post-DMC 4

You can read the og one on my DeviantArt! But if you're here for the new one then I hope ya'll enjoy!

Summary: Child!Reader was taken under Dante's wing after being saved from a demon invasion, but even years later he hesitates to tell them what he truly is, fearing they'll resent him for his demonic heritage.

............

"Hey, um..Dante?"

"What's up, kiddo?" The red-clad devil hunter asked, though he wasn't completely paying attention to you. Rather he was sitting at his desk, feet kicked up as he was flipping through a magazine.

Meanwhile you were roaming around the shop, stopping only to gaze at the massive curved sword with glowing gems hanging on the wall behind him. He mentioned claiming many weapons--"Devil Arms" as they were called--from defeated demons, but you were curious about their names.

"Just wondering..what's that sword behind you called?"

"The Sparda. It sealed the barrier between the Underworld and human world. Nero went through hell and back, quite literally, to return it to me, so don't even think about touching......it?"

Dante put the magazine down as he turned to see you holding the Sparda in your small hands. You smiled triumphantly, but stumbled a bit before the blade accidentally slammed into the wooden floor, making you wince.

"Oops."

Yet your little act amused him, as he chuckled and shook his head. "You're a little too young to go devil-hunting, I'm afraid. But maybe one day you will."

"And maybe you can help pay off Dante's debt, too." Trish lightly joked as she entered the room, taking the giant sword from you and putting it back on the wall.

Her words were responded by a groan from the male, who went back to reading.

"Whatcha reading?"

Dante slowly lowered the magazine to see you sitting on his desk, but he just snapped it shut and tossed it into the trash, out of your line of sight. "Nothing that eyes like yours gotta see."

"Okay....ooooooh, what's this briefcase?" Hopping off the desk, you ran over to Pandora and crouched down to poke the skull emblem.

"Pandora. That baby can turn into six hundred and sixty six different weapons, but...right now we only have access to seven." Now he was feeling like an exhausted teacher on a museum trip, trying to explain each exhibit to his hyper first graders--the exhibits being his Devil Arms.

Yet as you ran around asking him about more of them, he couldn't help but see his childhood-self reflected in you. Just full of energy and never-ending curiosity and optimism.

Yeah..he definitely saw the resemblance.

Eventually you decided to leave him be and dash off to your room.

And only then did Dante drop his smile, sighing as he put both feet back on the ground. He ran a hand through his hair before dragging it down the side of his face tiredly.

"You know..you'll have to tell them eventually." Trish reminded.

"How, though? That kid's afraid of all demons..hybrids or not. I'm pretty sure saying "oh by the way the guy who rescued you is actually half-demon" is gonna send 'em running, and...I can't risk that." He shook his head, gazing at the jukebox in the corner.

"But I think [y/n]'s old enough to comprehend the concept of not all demons being evil," Lady chimed in after overhearing the conversation. "Just give it to them straight and I'm sure they'll understand."

As much as Dante wanted to argue, he saw that she had a valid point. But he still worried...

How would you react?

It's been a few years since he saved you from a Mega Scarecrow, though it turned out that more demons invaded your neighborhood, slaughtering everyone you knew and loved. And as he took you back to the shop to patch you up, he could see the terror in your eyes, any traces of innocence long gone.

No child should have gone through such a tragedy.

A tragedy that he was all-too familiar with.

After the defeat of the Savior, things have been looking up. You've regained your happiness as you lived in Devil May Cry and learned of Dante's tales of devil hunting, though the memories of that horrible night never truly left you alone.

Along with that, just seeing a demon is enough to make you run and hide, and you were terrified when you first met Nero and saw his demonic arm.

From that incident alone, Dante became extremely reluctant to tell you of his own demonic heritage.

He just didn't know if he's only hurting you more by keeping it hidden..

...............

Later that night, you were plagued by yet another nightmare. Different demons, same neighborhood...same deaths of your loved ones.

But in this one Dante got hurt, too. And you tried so hard to be brave for him, even shouting in the demon's face...but in the end you failed as it snatched you away, dragging you into the darkness of the Underworld before he could reach you.

Although you calmed down since awakening, you wanted to be sure he was alright.

So with what little moonlight shone in the shop's darkness, you located the worn sofa where Dante laid. He was engrossed in some TV program, though after sensing your presence his eyes flickered to you.

No words had to be exchanged in order for him to see what was wrong, as he sat up and patted the spot beside him. You smiled in relief and climbed onto the sofa, snuggling into his side as he wrapped an arm around you. "Th-Thanks, Dante."

"No prob. So uh..another nightmare, I guess?"

"Yeah, but..they hurt you, too and...I-I tried staying brave. I shouted at them to leave you alone and..they didn't listen. But...I think one of them looked scared of me."

"Wow." He raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Gotta say I'm impressed."

"Really?"

"Absolutely. Y'know demons are used to seeing kids scream and cry, not take a stand against them. Plus that's pretty epic of you to defend me, so thanks." With a smile, he ruffled your hair.

"You're welcome," you giggled a bit. "But..I really just wanna be as brave as you. I mean...Nero says you laugh at giant demons and tease them all the time. How do you do that without being scared?"

"Well..it comes with the business. Getting them riled up just makes the fight more fun. At least for me. You might think I'm crazy but if ya decide to hunt demons one day...you'll see what I mean."

"But until then, could I watch you fight one? Like a big bad one?"

"......."

"Dante?"

"..kid, there's a reason I never took you on any missions." Dante sighed, swallowing back the growing lump in his throat as he carefully planned his next words. "And how I always...bounce back from getting smacked by a demon tail. No human would be able to withstand that without some broken bones."

"Oh?" You tilted your head. "Then..how can you if you're human?"

"....because I'm not fully human."

As much as he wanted to shut up, he decided to tell you the truth once and for all, not sugarcoating anything:

He explained how his parents were a demon and human--a forbidden romance which resulted in himself and Virgil being born. His bloodline allowed them to blend in with humans, exercise their demonic abilities in battle, and even tap into their true demon forms.

All the while you listened silently, with not much emotion on your face. So it was hard for him to tell what you were probably thinking in this moment.

It scared him.

"...and that's it." He sighed, closing his eyes and looking away from you. "So go ahead and hate me if you want. I won't blame you for-"

"Can you show me?"

Dante blinked stupidly as he swung his head back towards you, wondering if he heard you right.

"I...wish you told me before, but I don't wanna be scared of demons anymore." You smiled a tiny bit as you elaborated. "Especially not one who helped me. So...can I see your other form?"

"...a-alright. Just...if you get scared I can turn back instantly, so don't freak."

"I won't."

He had doubts you'll keep your word, but he got up and activated his Devil Trigger form. As he opened his eyes, you gasped upon seeing how much they were glowing--being orange rather than blue. Red electric sparks danced around his metallic body as he observed you close, anticipating your reaction. He expected you to scream or cry.

Yet..there was only curiosity and wonder in your eyes.

"Scared yet?" He asked in his distorted voice, crouching down in front of you.

Not even the way he spoke startled you, as you just shook your head. "I was wrong all along..not all demons are bad."

"Not even this one?"

"Nope. You look awesome..like a knight in shiny red armor."

"...wow..I um...." For once, the talkative devil hunter was at loss for words. But when you learned forward to hug him around the neck, he was completely shocked.

Earlier in the day he thought of countless worse-case scenarios, and yet...the best-case was happening right now.

You were accepting him, hugging him even.

He couldn't believe it.

Dante smiled as he wrapped his arms around you, making sure his armor spikes didn't hurt you. "Thanks, kid. It really means a lot that you're not terrified anymore........[y/n]?" He was concerned about your lack of response, before realizing you were dozing off.

'Damn..I might make a pretty good dad, after all..' He mused, standing up and making the trek back to your bedroom. Then he set you down and tucked you in, relief and warmth in his heart.

He had a feeling that your nightmares won't be so bad anymore. Now he felt like he could truly protect you.

Why?

Because he was gonna be your knight in shining red armor.

.

.

.

.

.

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.

.

.

"Jeez, man. Quit clanking around shit and---AH!!! WHAT THE FUCK?!!"

"Shhhh! Chill out, Nero. You'll wake 'em." Dante was quick to shift back to his human form once he was outside your room, glaring at his nephew. "Why are you so freaked out? This ain't the first time you've seen my devil form."

"But still..why in the middle of the night?! Thought we had company."

"...just go back to bed, kid."

"Don't call me kid!"

[firebuggg]

hiiiii can i ask what program you use to edit because all of ur stuff is so perfectly on beat. huge fan of ur work

hi!!! thank you so much (‘: there’s truly no serotonin hit like a good beat transition!

i use lightworks to edit, which is free and industry standard and has really good functionality! the learning curve isn’t too bad (hot tip: learn the key mappings early!) and it’s very powerful for getting beat transitions lined up to the millisecond. plus it helped me learn how to edit videos on my phone and fuck around with audio better!

my only lightworks caveat is that sometimes the audio/video can unsync when you export, which is frustrating after hours of getting it to hit just right — i have managed to hack my way around this for all my videos and am always happy to share what i’ve learned, but there’s no great support for that issue out there unfortunately

if you end up using it, i’d love to see what you make!! i only started editing video in dec 2021 and am surprised by how fun & rewarding i’ve found it & how it has made me better at picking apart stories i love to figure out why they work so well (‘: being able to whip up irl edits for friends and family is a huge bonus too 💖💖💖

[mitchipedia]

Tom Persky is the self-proclaimed “last man standing in the floppy disk business.” He is the time-honored founder of floppydisk.com, a US-based company dedicated to the selling and recycling of floppy disks. Other services include disk transfers, a recycling program, and selling used and/or broken floppy disks to artists around the world. All of this makes floppydisk.com a key player in the small yet profitable contemporary floppy scene.

While putting together the manuscript for our new book, Floppy Disk Fever: The Curious Afterlives of a Flexible Medium, we met with Tom to discuss the current state of the floppy disk industry and the perks and challenges of running a business like his in the 2020s.

…

20 years ago I was actually in the floppy disk duplication business. Not in a million years did I think I would ever sell blank floppy disks. Duplicating disks in the 1980s and early 1990s was as good as printing money. It was unbelievably profitable. I only started selling blank copies organically over time. You could still go down to any office supply store, or any computer store to buy them. Why would you try to find me, when you could just buy disks off the shelf? But then these larger companies stopped carrying them or went out of business and people came to us. So here I am, a small company with a floppy disk inventory, and I find myself to be a worldwide supplier of this product. My business, which used to be 90% CD and DVD duplication, is now 90% selling blank floppy disks. It’s shocking to me.

…

When people ask me: “Why are you into floppy disks today?” the answer is: “Because I forgot to get out of the business.” Everybody else in the world looked at the future and came to the conclusion that this was a dying industry. Because I’d already bought all my equipment and inventory, I thought I’d just keep this revenue stream. I stuck with it and didn’t try to expand. Over time, the total number of floppy users has gone down. However, the number of people who provided the product went down even faster. If you look at those two curves, you see that there is a growing market share for the last man standing in the business, and that man is me.

…

… my biggest customers — and the place where most of the money comes from — are the industrial users. These are people who use floppy disks as a way to get information in and out of a machine. Imagine it’s 1990, and you’re building a big industrial machine of one kind or another. You design it to last 50 years and you’d want to use the best technology available. At the time this was a 3.5-inch floppy disk. Take the airline industry for example. Probably half of the air fleet in the world today is more than 20 years old and still uses floppy disks in some of the avionics. That’s a huge consumer. There’s also medical equipment, which requires floppy disks to get the information in and out of medical devices. The biggest customer of all is probably the embroidery business though. Thousands and thousands of machines that use floppy disks were made for this, and they still use these. There are even some industrial companies that still use Sony Mavica cameras to take photographs.

…

A floppy disk has perhaps nine unique components. There’s the plastic moulding, the cookie, a shutter, a spring, etc. Maybe you can do eight out of these nine things, but as I always say, when you’re 95% done you’re only halfway there. You need all the pieces for the complete product. The amount of effort it would take to recreate a manufacturing line for all of the pieces that go into a floppy would be virtually impossible. We’ve done it before, of course, but now the demand is simply not there. Plus, in time, all the industrial machines, all the airplanes that still use floppy disks, are eventually going to be replaced. So why would you want to spend $25 million to tool up a factory to see if you can manufacture the floppy cookie that nobody has made in 25 years? People have been living off of inventory for five or ten years now. Floppy disks were a very specialized piece of technology with a very difficult manufacturing process. Compared to this, a CD looks like a piece of junk.

…

There’s a beauty and elegance to them. I can see how complicated they are, and what an elegant solution they were for their time. I’m not a watch collector, but I have friends who are. The beauty of a finely made watch is something to behold. Even though it might be less reliable than a $19 clock, it is a work of art. Just consider the human effort that went into its making. The same can be said about the floppy disk.

…

I would say that floppy disks have a future, but it won’t see a revival like Vinyl. People like the idea of the record player and it will be around for a long time as a very niche or cool kind of thing. Floppy disks are going to be a little bit more like buggy whips or typewriters. They’re going to be a collectible marvel of their time. Imagine how hard it would be to manufacture a new typewriter today. There are a number of American authors who talk about the fact that they can only write on a typewriter. It’s something very important to them that is tied into their artistic genius. I think that floppy disks are going to be a little bit like that. You’re not going to be able to replace them. There’s this joke in which a three-year-old little girl comes to her father holding a floppy disk in her hand. She says: “Daddy, Daddy, somebody 3D-printed the save icon.” The floppy disks will be an icon forever.

We spoke with the last person standing in the floppy disk business. By Niek Hilkmann and Thomas Walskaar:

[mrvelocipede]

It’s a trap

For the purposes of making illustrations, probably the most useful category of coloring methods to learn about is the orbit trap. Some day when I have lots of free time (ha ha) it would be fun to make an instructional video explaining the technical stuff about how orbit traps work, but for now the main thing to know is that they're a way of putting non-fractal shapes into the fractal structure.

The most commonly seen orbit trap shapes are circles and lines, because those are nice simple bits of geometry to plot.

But you can use all sorts of interesting and complicated things as well. You can fill up your fractal with hearts and stars and pretzels and flowers and so on.

In the Mandelbrot set, you get infinite copies of your trap shape, distorted by the region of the fractal they're in. If the trap center is (0,0) the shapes will be centered on minibrots, or you can change the trap center to move the shapes around. You can also scale the shapes bigger or smaller, rotate them, and do all sorts of tweaks and adjustments to make them look like you want. Often, the shape is unrecognizable unless you adjust the settings quite a lot. Things stretch and run together and overlap. The ways they do this are predictable, but can take some practice to get used to.

Here, two sizes of ring trap are shown on the same base fractal. At this location and magnification, both highlighted sections are round.

With a different section highlighted, you can see that the larger-scale trap becomes peanut-shaped, while the smaller-scale one divides into two pieces, more or less egg-shaped. The peanut-shaped version is what happens when the two separate distorted rings are so close together that they join into a single continuous shape. Each half is centered on its own individual minibrot.

The shapes get more and more complex and wiggly as they go, while still being based on that simple ring.

By adding layers with various kinds of orbit trap shapes, you can build up recognizable illustrations. In some ways, the process is similar to making pictures out of the basic shapes in Illustrator or Paint or any graphics program that lets you draw ellipses and squares and lines and such. A cartoonish kind of style is relatively easy to do, and you can also get more realistic if you want.

As a quick example, a suitably-colored point trap plus some astroid curves plus a lissajous (plus some imagination to fill in the blanks) gives you an infinite amount of Local Sports Team.

[pawpadink]

Art Feedback Session - Spookydoesstuff

"Our task was to make a mock intro to a show using our own original stories, either ones we had in the past or ones we made in class. I used Adobe Animate, which isn't very traditional for art to begin with.

I wanted something dramatic and more anime-esqe (inspirations being Persona 5's 2D animation, as well as the Cowboy Beebop intro.

The render itself didn't turn out as high quality as I had hoped, but that's on me for not figuring out how to render in a higher quality. With my time crunch (I had put off working on this until I had 1 1/2 days left, on top of a project for another class.)

I feel this could have been better? But I'm satisfied with it. I just wished someone had said something, even just asking about my characters (I dont generally ask here, at least about these specific ocs, just because I've had them so long and I want to give out more of their story through context and art. But in that class no one had seen them before and I would have loved explaining their story better than just 'alien cats')"

-- Spookydoesstuff

So! Let's start with the good. The color contrast is lovely, the bright red against the monochrome is a classic high tension color combo that really sells the adversarial stress of the scene. The characters themselves each have their own unique silhouettes, which means if you just filled each of the characters in with pure black and then showed me their reference sheets I could easily identify which character is which. The line work here is very crisp and clear, which for animation lends very well to streamlining and simplifying things. Your style itself applies very nicely to an animation style, again, thanks to its general simplicity will make the whole animation process much easier than a more detailed or complex style or design.

When thinking of areas of improvement, the first thing that is brought to my attention is expression. With the four-eyed cat in the second image, at a glance it's hard to see he's furrowing his brow a bit and his current expression comes across more as a neutral expression than a concerned, worried, or frustrated expression. I would recommend here adding a bit of emphasis on the expression with the eyelids or eyebrows so that it goes into the general shape of the eye instead of just above it or add a stylized eyebrow so it is more visible against the dark fur. Due to the thin line art, the line that marks where he's furrowing his brow is hard to spot.

Your art would also benefit from expression through body language! Cats, in particular, are incredibly expressive through body language. The ears in particular here are showing no emotion- Cats when anxious, scared, or angry will pin their ears back. Perhaps a bit more emphasis on bristling fur too- in the nape of the neck and the tail. Fluffing of tails is not just fear, but also aggression when raised high or thrashing. When curved it's fear. The nervous cat in the second picture might want to be keeping her head a little lower, as nervous cats will duck down, especially if submissive. Of course, since these are not standard cats, you are welcome to take these cat behaviors and alter them to your alien culture's standards! Go wild!

Also, look into playing with the line of action a little more. Even with characters that are standing still, exaggerating some curves in their body will add a hearty dose of personality. Plus, look into the 'law' of stretch and squish- I use the term law here loosely, it's more of a guideline.

(Here are some image scans from a book called Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair, and there's a lovely tutorial on expressions from the comic Lackadaisy here!)

Next I'd like to mention the shading. There is a bit of an inconsistency between the way you shaded each character. Although lighting direction was ignored for style here, the particular techniques used for each piece should remain the same throughout each frame of an animation, each panel of a comic, or between related images in general. In the second photo, the highlights on the four-eyed cat almost looked like fur patterning, so maybe refining that highlight by making it a little darker would make it more obvious it was a highlight and not a change in fur color?

I think if you were given a little more time you would have managed with the shading, but still something of note to keep in mind for the future~

Finally I would like to address the environment... or the lack of it. The bright red background is lovely, especially in this grey scale-pop style of colors. My only issue is that it feels like they're floating in some red void- you have the darker red to denote the ground, but it doesn't feel very consistent with where the characters are placed and there's no shapes in the background to denote any kind of environment- no tree silhouettes, no building silhouettes, or any other objects that could denote where the characters are.

Above is an example from Persona 5 which kind of shows what I'm talking about. Looking at some perspective tutorials will actually show you a way you can manipulate the floor or gradients to help add some solidity to the ground. With this style I wouldn't even say you would need to add nearly as much detail to them as Persona 5's art- just some dark shapes and perhaps a gradient of sorts to give a sense of location to the scene would help.

Overall, wonderful job! My first impression was 'Oh hey this looks like something from Persona 5!' so you really got that feel you were looking for. You also immediately get a sense of relationship here- from an outsider's perspective with zero previous information on who these characters are or how they are related. You can clearly tell the four eyed cat is protecting the female cat in the back, and there's a sense of either accusation from the one-eyed cat or threat, and that the other two almost seem to be distressed as if they were once close to this character.

Keep up the good work, don't feel discouraged with the lack of feedback from your class. I really feel with a bit of practice in terms of expression and body language you can really make some great waves with your art! You have a great foundation.

In terms of art program recommendations, my wife and I both use Clip Studio Paint. You need the EX version for feature length animations unfortunately, but the PRO version is much cheaper and lets you do some very short animations however it is a very powerful illustration and comic tool as well. Krita is a totally free program that will let you animate as well and has a pretty robust illustration feature itself, but I'm not sure if it has anything specific for comic making.

A big thank you to Spookydoesstuff for being our first review and for being so pleasant to speak to! Please check out more of their art and their blog by clicking here to go to their tumblr!

[amythecinnabunny]

Space AU and Time Travel for Juke 👀 <33

Holy shit holy shit holy shit ok ok ok ok first of all AKDBJSJSJJEJE YES

Okay okay so let me try to iron out the mess in my head skxbjsjjd I hereby apologize if things get out of order or whatever but I am literally vibrating with excitement someone please write this I'll love you forever

Ok so I'm thinking also an aged up au for ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* reasons *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ sjsnnsn

Also, I've done this before and I'm gonna do it again, but Bobby and Trevor are two different people for the sake of the timeline here.

Time frame for this would be WAY into the future. Humanity has gone galactic. We also had our asses handed to us by several alien planets but we probably deserved it. Anyway, after we got rid of Elon Musk, we eventually made peace with the aliens and now roam the galaxy freely. 20-30yo generally try to get into a different fleet, just to learn about other races. Think all those alien ships adopts a human posts.

Julie, Carrie and Flynn are my three girl geniuses. They're like,,, the smartest people in every room. They've been like this since freshman year of college. Julie, Carrie and Flynn also all want to get into the student exchange program, which is exactly what you think it is. Alien races (and this now includes humanity) swaps out older students with each other so they get a feel of what the other race is like. It's fun, educational, and! You get to make super long distance pen pals!

I'd also have so much fun making up new memes???? It would be so fucking stupid tho but I love it.

Anyway, so after a few years of jumping through the exchange programme, hoping from planet to planet, unfortunately, without their bestfriends :<, the three of them qualify to board research ships!!!

So at like 23-25, my girls come back together on the same ship!! Its a massive thing and so they've hired so many interns from so many different races. It's like a landing hub for several smaller ships. They have like 10 interns per species and that's only because there are laws against having too many of one kind after they put 50 humans on a space station and the humans tried to take over. Also, humans multiply faster than the others. This terrifies some races.

Anyway, the ship's really just a bunch of college kids from different planets trying to avoid exam season by submitting research papers from their ship. They all bond over deadlines, breakups and coffee (or the alien equivalent thereof)

Flynn dated an alien girl for a while. They were cute. Flynn: as a lesbian, it's my duty to date all the women in space

This is also where they run into Willie!!! Yay, Willie!!!

Nick Danforth-Evans and Kayla Evans-McKessie are around ... somewhere ... in bunk beds like the little toddlers they wish they were, crying about the 15 page essay on why Xjsbsjdjd is a very intelligent race that we could learn a lot from (yes, that is a keysmash I'm too buzzed to be creating alien species names sjdjjdjd)

Carrie and Nick do date for a while but then Carrie hooked up with Kayla. Bisexual queen who?

Julie met Willie that time she didn't sleep for over 48 hours because she had a research paper due within a week and she hadn't started yet and it was 10 000 words on her experiences with the Psjxjjdkeiwj race. Luckily for her, the kid she bumped into and spilled an energy drink all over had the same paper and helped her finish it. Willie sometimes goes by the nickname Lifesaver, thanks to Julie. This confuses the metaphor-less people because Willie's never saved anyone's life?? So why is he a lifesaver??

ANYWAY ON TO THE TIME TRAVEL BIT

On their own, Julie, Carrie and Flynn are professional smart people who know what they're saying and are clever enough not to do things with too many risks. In the same room, however, they turn into dumb geniuses who can and possibly may blow up the entire ship. It's a good thing they have Willie, Nick and Kayla to babysit them, right? WRONG. Willie Kayla and Nick egg them on.

They decide there going to gather all the information there is on time travel and they're going to decipher it and make it work! Yay!

When they find stuff in alien languages they start calling up their alien pen pals "hello what's this word mean in this context? What, haha oh no, it's a research paper on why time travel projects were abandoned before completion. Okay, thank you!"

Before long, they have a working time machine. I mean,, they hope so. And so they enter a random date from the past and prepare to pop their heads through just to see what the world looked like approximately 200ish years ago

2020s, post covid because that exists for joke reasons later, Sunset Curve is performing live for one of their biggest audiences yet when mid-song, the floor just opens them up and swallows them whole before vanishing. The crowd things it's a stunt but Sunset Curve's managers are flipping their shit

Back on the ship, the machine starts sparking and with a soft boom and a hiss, the power in that quadrant goes out -- not before Willie's is pelted in the face with a pair of drumsticks and then a whole person.

It's a miracle the drums survived the trip, pet alone everything else.

So now these sleep deprived geniuses and co. have to hide three people and several musical artifacts, plus the smoking remains of a time machine, from their Supervising Officer, who is regrettably, a human too.

And none of them are very good at lying.

Luke and Bobby are though, and after piecing together bits and pieces from the frenzied rambling around them, Luke and Bobby save the group.

Shenanigans ensue as they try to rebuild the time machine under the watchful eye of the SO, while trying to mantainbfake credentials for the boys and trying to explain their very dated clothing. (Yes, Sunset Curve STILL rocks the 90s vibe. In the 2020s. It's their thing.)

Willex happens in the background -- and I mean that very literally. (Jukebox having a tension moment, Willex making out in the background.)

Honestly I'm not sure yet how theyd solve the problems, whether they'd send the boys back or not or what, but I do know that they will all cause a BUNCH of problems in between.

Sometimes they play music just because they still can. Sunset Curve becomes a house band for the ship. They get broadcasted to neighbouring or passing ships like "hey, losers, we have live music, SUCK IT!"

Focusing on the jukebox aspect of this whole fic, that's gonna be a fucking hilarious slow burn.

It will definitely contain the lines "Oh my god, I have a crush on Julie." "Congratulations, you're officially the last to know." "What? Even [SO's Name] knows??" "Dude. The ship's navigation crew knows." "Does ... Julie know?" "No, you're both morons."

Julie is having the exact same conversation four hallways away.

They'd talk a lot about sending the boys back home and it'd be really quiet conversations when everyone else is asleep.

Julie and Luke write music together and after a while, Julie performs a few of them too. Thanks to the concerts, they meet the other human interns that were on the other end of the ship and Carrie and Kayla form Dirty Candy.

The ship becomes known as the party bus.

A thing that will happen: Luke helps Julie write one of her history papers that she gets an A+ for and a comment about how dedicated she was to have delved so far back in the history records to get authentic insight.

Julie and Luke speak in memes but they don't speak the same memes and it drives them both up the wall.

Luke says yeet one day and Julie's soul leaves her body because she hasn't heard anyone say yeet since she was a toddler back on Earth.

Julie: odd display, but acceptable.

Luke, physically experiencing a record scratch: what the fuck did you just say

That is all I have to offer because I'm afraid of plotting further and causing angst somehow.

oh one more thing, someone gets to bang an alien and it's probably Flynn.

Oh oh oh another one more thing. Reggie says "this is just like in Star Wars" for literally anything. The band goes along with it for shits and giggles. The rest of them are very interested in this ancient tale called Star Wars. Reggie sees a picture of Flynn and her green gf and says "hey, you dated photoshopped Yoda" and Bobby just loses his shit.

[adenei]

I would love to read Romione fluff with “I feel like I’m in the clouds when I’m with you.” 😍

Hi anon! I’m so glad you asked for this one because it fit right in with a story I’d thought of not too long ago, but hadn’t gotten to write! I hope you enjoy this fluffy pieces. I’ll let you decide whether or not it’s canon :)

**********************************************

I feel like I’m in the clouds when I’m with you

Ron had just flown down from the quidditch pitch as Hermione stood waiting for him at the entrance of the locker room. It was a beautiful afternoon in early June. 

“I thought you were just going to clean out your quidditch locker?” Hermione asked with an amused look on her face.

“I did,” Ron pointed to the bag at the door as he dismounted from his broom. “It was too beautiful to not at least have one go around the pitch.”

“That’s true. Are you ready, then?” Hermione asked him.

“Sure,” he said as he grabbed his bag. “Where are we headed?”

“You’ll see,” Hermione told him as she turned around and tried to hide her smile. She grabbed his arm playfully and began heading back towards the castle. Harry and Ginny were once again off on their own somewhere on the grounds, which left Ron and Hermione to their own devices. She wanted to sit by the lake, and had the perfect spot in mind. 

She led him around the curve of the lake a ways up from the pitch. It was where the brush thickened, but there was a small opening that had a path leading inside it. Instead of going left as they usually would, Hermione veered right towards the opening. 

“Hermione, where are we going?” Ron asked.

Good, he’s never been down here before, Hermione thought to herself. “There’s a clearing up ahead that overlooks the lake. It’s quiet and out of the way, which I thought would be perfect for studying.”

Just as she’d finished explaining, the path widened, and sure enough there was a decent stretch of green grass before the the terrain turned to rocks and sand at the lakeshore. Up head, the brush made it’s way back to the lake to form a sort of semi-circle around the area. That’s why it couldn’t be seen from the castle. The sun shone brightly, and there was a blanket spread out where Hermione’s things had already been laid out. 

“Whoa, Hermione how’d you find out about this place? It’s brilliant.” Ron looked around in amazement.

“Oh, I discovered it a while back.” Ron didn’t need to know that this is where she’d spent time with Viktor one afternoon during the spring of fourth year. The ship had been docked nearby, and this was where the Durmstrang students often spent time when they weren’t on the boat.

She walked over and laid down, facing the sky. The clouds were white and puffy, which made for a beautiful backdrop against he blue sky. Ron laid down next to her, putting his arms behind his head. “I thought you wanted to study?”

“Yes, at some point, sure. I’d rather just enjoy the sunshine for now.”

“Who are you and what have you done with Hermione Granger?” he asked playfully. 

She laughed at his words. “What? I can act like a normal teenager when I want to, you know.”

“Can you, though?” Ron was leading her on, mischief in his eyes.

“Of course I can! I could go this whole day with no studying and just goofing off if I really wanted to.”

“I’d like to see that!”

“Is that a challenge?” she propped herself up on her elbow to get a good look at him.

“Yeah, I think it is.”

“Fine. What do you want to do?” Hermione asked him.

Ron thought for a moment. He was perfectly content staying right here and talking with her. “I’m happy doing this.”

“Okay, but what else?” Hermione pressed him further. Because apparently laying there and staring at the sky wasn’t enough for that busy brain of hers.

Ron laughed at her question. “What do you mean ‘what else’? Do we really need to do more than just sit here and talk? Or am I not interesting enough to talk to anymore?”

“Of course you’re interesting enough!” Hermione said quickly. “I just didn’t know what you wanted to talk about…”

She had a point. It wasn’t like they’d run out of things to talk about, but their reunited friendship was still fragile and neither wanted to ruin things. “How about we just ask each other random questions, and the first one who can’t give an answer loses?” Ron asked. He’d overheard the twins doing that once with Lee to pass the time on the train, and it seemed like a good idea. 

“Loses? Loses what?” Hermione seemed interested. That was a good start. 

“Oh, I don’t know. The game?”

“Well obviously, but what does the winner get?”

“Umm..how about the winner decides what we do tomorrow?”

Hermione thought about his proposition. “I think that will work.”

“Oh. Alright, you start if you want.” Ron figured he’d follow the ‘ladies first’ rule.

“Okay, but let me get this clear. We’re trying to stump the other person out of answering truthfully, right?”

“Reckon we’re making up the game as we go, so whatever you want.”

Hermione returned his words with a sly grin of her own. “Okay, what’s the cheesiest pick up line you can think of given the current location?”

“What the-?” he was staring right at Hermione. So, she wasn’t messing around, was she? Fine then! He looked around rapidly and noticed the clouds in the sky. “I feel like I’m in the clouds when I’m with you.” He grinned at her. 

His answer made her giggle. Hermione Granger was actually giggling at him. “Okay, that was pretty good.”

“I have my moments,” he said puffing his chest out with pride. “How did you actually learn about this spot?”

Her face fell slightly. Of course her own rules were to come back and bite her in the arse. “Remember that one time in fourth year? I told you I was going to spend the afternoon with Viktor?” Her cheeks became very pink. “Well, this was the spot wher we hung out.” She noticed Ron’s face instantly turn sour. “But we only studied! I swear! This was the area all the Durmstrang students hung around because the ship was stationed just over there. So there were a lot of people around. I just didn’t care for people stopping and staring, starting rumors from their assumptions, and he didn’t like the attention, either,” Hermione said quickly.

“Alright, then,” Ron said. He seemed to relax a bit at her words.

“What do you think will happen after we’re through with Hogwarts?” Hermione asked. It was another question that took Ron off guard, but this time it was for a different reason. 

“I don’t know, actually. I haven’t given it much thought. I hope I’ll get into the Auror program, but I suppose I could always work for Fred and George if I needed money in the meantime.”

“But what about us? How often would we see each other after Hogwarts?” Hermione questioned.

“Ah, Hermione, you asked your question. I believe it’s my turn.” He saw a slight pout on her lips that he thought was adorable. “I like those questions, so how about you answer them. What about us after Hogwarts?”

“Oh, you sneaky little…” Hermione started as Ron gave a lopsided grin. “Well, I suppose it would depend on the situation. If you’re in auror training, I’d probably rarely see you. Especially because when you do have free time, you’ll want to spend them with your family and...well, I’m sure you won’t have time for me.”

“That’s not true at all!” Ron was trying to decipher her words. Did she mean to say ‘..and girlfriend’? He didn’t have a girlfriend. He wanted her as his girlfriend, and even with the book the twins had given him, he was still struggling to make that happen. “We’d still see each other loads of times! Unless you go off and make new fancy Ministry friends, or- or met someone of your own.. But maybe Harry would invite us to live with him at Grimmauld Place. We can clean it up, and then we’d still see each other all the time,” Ron suggested, getting away from the idea of Hermione finding a boyfriend. The thought made his blood boil.

Her furrowed brows turned up as she smiled at Ron’s thought. “That would be brilliant, actually. Of course, this is all assuming that we get through next year unscathed. Plus, there’s the whole Voldemort thing.”

“Let’s pretend that’s not a factor, yeah? More fun to think about when he’s not looming over futures,” Ron suggested.

“Yeah, you’re right. What about marriage and a family of your own. Do you want that someday?”

“Yeah, course I do. As long as it’s with the right person,” Ron said honestly. “You?”

Hermione smiled softly, feeling the gaze of his ice blue eyes on her. “Yes, same for me. How about kids? How many?” Hermione couldn’t help but feel like something was building between them. Sure, they’d had serious, somewhat intimate conversations before, but they’d never been this candid about ‘future’ stuff before. She had to keep reminding herself that this was just a stupid game to stump the other from answering their question so they could choose tomorrow’s activity.

“I think two would be more than enough. Seven’s way too many. You?”

“Really? See, I was thinking eight! You know, being an only child and all, maybe I should try out the whole ‘large family’ thing.” Hermione held her breath as she watched Ron’s reaction to her answer. He didn’t know how to respond to that, so he just stared at her wide eyed until she burst out laughing. “I’m only kidding! Definitely no more than two. I don’t know how your mum managed childbirth seven times!”

Ron exhaled, laughing with her. “You really had me there for a mo’.”

“The look on your face was priceless,” Hermione bent over.

“Yeah, I can’t say I pegged you as the ‘large family’ type. Glad we’re on the same page, though.” Ron didn’t even realize the words had slipped out as Hermione froze.

“Wh-what?” she asked, her voice higher pitched than normal. 

Ron’s entire face became blotchy red as he realized what he’d said. “I- er- I- Just meant we both agreed fewer kids for when we- er- with whoever we choose…” That definitely wasn’t the best save, but the insinuation he’d just made about he and Hermione having kids together had thrown him.

“Did you ever think about kids with Lavender?” Hermione asked him quietly.

“No.” Ron said almost instantly. He was repulsed by Hermione even asking the question. If he was being honest, Ron was a bit disappointed that Hermione’s reaction hadn’t helped solidify anything surrounding her feelings for him. If they were indeed there. “Do you think the person you’re going to end up with is here? At Hogwarts, I mean.”

“Yes,” Hermione said wihout hesitation. “I mean, if I had my way. Why? Do I need your approval?” Hermione asked him boldy.

“Well, someone’s got to make sure he won’t break your heart. So if Harry won’t do it, then yeah, reckon you would.” Ron tried to make it a joke, but there was an undertone of sincerity that wasn’t lost on Hermione.

She smiled at his words, actually smiled, which threw Ron for another loop. “You’re smiling? I thought you’d get on your soap box about how I can’t tell you how you can or can’t date,” Ron said, sounding surprised.

“Let’s just say I’m really confident that you’d approve of him,” Hermione chose her words carefully.

Ron considered her statement for a moment before responding with, “I hate to break it to you, Hermione, but Harry seems pretty happy with Ginny, and he’s probably the only person I’d approve of. Except maybe Neville. The rest of the blokes are downright...well...blokes.”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “Only those two? There’s no one else you’d approve of?” Was Ron imagining it or had Hermione’s face gotten closer to his own. He could smell the peppermint on her breath now. He chanced a glance down at her lips. I mean, obviously he’d approve of himself. Wait…

He looked back up into Hermione’s eyes, trying to read her. To figure out what she wanted. She was so close now. It would be easy just to...he leaned in and grazed his lips against hers. He heard her breath hitch in her throat, but she didn’t slap him. She didn’t even back away. Ron leaned back slightly and said, “Well, I guess there is one other person I’d be okay with you seeing.”

“Oh?” Hermione said breathily.

“Yeah…” Ron said, without further explanation. To kiss her or not to kiss her? The internal struggle was killing him. What a time to be indecisive.

“Ron? Are you going to tell me?” Hermione sat dazedly, waiting for his answer. Sod it, he thought, and this time he leaned in, not overthinking anything anymore. This time, his lips pressed against hers firmly. She responded in kind. He pulled away. 

“Do you still need more of an explanation?” he asked her.

“N-no,” she said. “As long as that was your seal of approval,” she added.

“Sure was,” Ron said, letting the happiness finally take over.

“I don’t reckon we should tell anyone, though. I may get murdered in my dorm room if a certain someone suspects something.” Hermione said.

“You’re probably right..especially with Harry and You-Know-Who.” Ron agreed.

“Well, at least he and Ginny will keep each other occupied so we can spend time together without being questioned.” Hermione reasoned.

“That’s true.” 

Just then the bell chimed from the high tower, which indicated it was time for the students to head back in for dinner.

“That time already?” Ron asked. They got up and Hermione made to fold the blanket and place it in her bag.

“Doesn’t seem like we were out here very long,” Hermione agreed. “Guess we’ll just have to pick up where we left off tomorrow?” she gave him a shy grin.

“I think that can be arranged,” Ron matched her smile with his own. “Assuming your studying can wait…” he held out his hand for her as they made their way back to the castle. Finally, things were looking up.

[vykodlak]

Do you have any tips for amateur artists who want to improve? I love your painting style so much, and find your grasp of muscles and faces really impressive.

Ah, I’m always incredibly honored when people ask me for advice. Note that I don’t consider myself a pro and I still have a lot to learn too, but I hope that some of this’ll help;

You’ve probably heard all that stuff about doing studies and practicing countless of times before, so I’m not gonna go repeating that [but study is important – try to mostly work with live references, and maybe throw in a master copy every once in a while]. Note when studying from other’s art, like with master copies: be critical, and try to make sure that while you’re picking up their techniques, you’re not also picking up their mistakes! This is why mostly working with references of real life objects or models is important, and why people usually choose old ‘masters’, like painters from the renaissance, to study from [but keep in mind that they all had their own stylistic quirks as well].

Some other things I personally do;

- When you finish a drawing, put a date on it. Then, if you’re a pedant like me, make a separate folder for each month of the year and sort your drawings into them. This is mainly so you can chart your progress! Plus, it can be a lot more encouraging to compare drawings done between june and august than a drawing done in october and... something you drew at some unknown point in time a year ago.

- Actively observe everything! Take mental notes, notice and connect patterns. I can’t watch movies or shows anymore without making note of how the lighting in a scene hits the actors’ faces, and what shapes the shadows & highlights make, the way a limb looks when it’s bent a certain way, clothing folds, or even minute detail like the shadow cast by the nose. Hell, I do it when I’m looking at pictures, or even catching myself in the mirror.

'Course, observation alone isn’t enough, so you should try to apply these observations to your art as soon as you can! Doesn’t even have to be a finished piece, just jotting down some notes or a quick scribble of what you’ve noticed can go a long way in cementing it into your memory, especially when you do it often.

This observation can also extend to watching other artists paint, there’s a ton of process vids on youtube. In short, don’t just copy what you see, try to figure out why it is the way it is, and how it all connects!

- If you can, get your hands on some clay or a 3d program of your choice [I used sculptris for a long time, it’s really simple to learn]. I studied sculpture for 4 years so maybe this is coming from a biased perspective, but just being able to have something in 3D form and touch it and turn it around has made it much easier to later visualize the same thing in 2D. You sort of learn how to paint or draw ‘sculpturally’ when you think of everything as having surfaces, and ‘wrapping’ your lines, colors & lighting around a shape. Hopefully that makes sense, lmao. 

When painting in light, try to think of every form you draw as being separated into planes that the light hits at various degrees [see the Asaro Head below for a human face that’s broken down into planes]. The further the plane is facing away from the light, the more shadowed it will be. So, for example, if the light is coming from up top, notice how the top of the eye sockets, top lip, the area underneath the lips etc. are all in shadow, since those planes are facing away from the light. Try to group these shadows together instead of focusing on one detail like just the eye socket alone. 

The more you work on being able to visualize 2D shapes as 3D in your mind, the easier it’ll come to you to apply lighting even without precise reference. 

Then you can work on applying the same principle on a smaller scale, like the curve of a cheekbone – that sharp, drastic line between light and dark on the Asaro head wouldn’t be as clearly present on someone with more meat on their bones. Instead, there would be a more gradual movement from light to dark, depending on how pronounced their cheekbones are.

Another thing to note: the harsher the light, the sharper the shadows. The light in the image above is pretty bright, so the shadows are pretty stark and distinct. If the light came from further away or was more diffused, the shadows would be less sharp and there would be more mid-range values [halftones]. You wouldn’t get this kind of sharp contrast in a neutral light like a midday, overcast outdoors scene, so try to take into account the environment and the source of your light source!

Also, 3D models can be excellent references for drawing stuff at various angles. Sketchfab is a good site for this. More under the cut:

- Use references. I say this every time I’m asked abt advice. I spend about 10-30 mins gathering refs or contorting myself horribly in the mirror to try and get the right ref before starting a drawing. Open a pinterest account or make a folder on your computer and start gathering pictures. Personally, watching videos of photobashing helped me get out of that “if it’s referenced, it’s cheating” mindset. That’s not to say that photobashing doesn’t take skill as well, but when you see someone make these gorgeous paintings out of stock photos you might go “well, it wouldn’t be so bad for me to look at a picture sometimes”.

PureRef is a really good app for gathering all your references in one window, so you can check them as you draw. 

But also, don’t get too bogged down in finding the ‘perfect’ ref, because then you won’t get any drawing done. Which leads me into the next bit.

- Sometimes a drawing’s just not going to come out ‘’perfect’’ no matter what you do. And the more time you spend on it is less time you’re spending working on other drawings, or doing studies, or petting a cat or whatever. 

Part of this is instinct, part practice, but you can work on recognizing when a drawing is just... the best that you can currently make it. When you find yourself painting over the same eyeball 10 times, it’s time to go “I need to do more studies in this area, so this’ll have to do for now”. To make it sting a bit less, try to note what you Did learn from the drawing [did you make headway into painting folds better, or metals, or anything]. Not every drawing has to be a learning experience, but practicing to be critical [in a FAIR way] of your work can only help you in the long run.

- Critique your work on occasion. Open up some older drawings from a month ago and try to pinpoint what you did right and what you did wrong. Then, do more studies of the thing you did wrong. Try not to fall into the trap of only looking for mistakes, or criticizing yourself too harshly for them. Better yet, think of it less as a mistake and more as a gap in your knowledge that you’re about to fill.

- If you’re working digitally, have a black & white layer above your main paint layers so you can toggle it on and off occasionally: helps to check your values. Also, you can use the ‘levels’ adjustment layer in PS to easily bump up the contrast a bit. Uhh, also in photoshop, the mixer brush tool is actually a lot better for creating ‘natural’-looking blending than the smudge tool. Make it your friend. I still use the smudge tool if I want really smooth blending, though. Sometimes I just use the hard round brush and paint studies like that, no blending tools or anything – it can be a fun learning experience.

That’s all I can think of for now! Good luck! If you need any elaboration on anything don’t b afraid to ask, I’ll try to answer to the best of my abilities [or redirect you to a more knowledgeable source].

[fatoujallovv]

so here’s my disclaimer: I hardly know what I'm doing. This is my glued together homemade giffing method that I’ve created over months of just random experimentation and bits and pieces from all kinds of tutorials. there are probably better or more correct ways to do a lot of these things! this also isn’t a completely universal tutorial, some of the specifics are geared towards giffing skam, specifically skam france. 

I gif in photoshop cc 2020 on a macbook. Some things like keyboard shortcuts and little things about the photoshop interface will probably vary if you are on a pc/ other version of photoshop! 

this is very long and very unprofessional, but I hope there is something in here that someone will find helpful!

we’ll be going from this:

to this:

up to date as of October 25, 2020

downloading clips

selecting what part you’re going to gif

cropping

my action for resizing, converting to a smart object, and sharpening

coloring

exporting and setting the delay

tldr tips

1. downloading clips

4k video downloader (which you can get for mac or pc here) is great for things posted to youtube, especially from skam france because all the clips are on their youtube with no weird geoblocks or anything! it’s really easy, you just have to open the clip in youtube, copy the link, and go into the program and hit paste link. I like to put on smart mode first and set the destination folder so all my clips go into the place I want. 

There is a 30 video per day download limit, so if you’re thinking you really want to gif lots of stuff from the show, and want a big chunk or a full season it’s definitely worth hunting for a mega or google drive with full episodes to download because it’s just less hassle! I might come back to this post later and compile a list of all of those, but for now if you type “[remake] no subs google drive” or “[remake] no subs mega” into a google search, you’ll probably find something! the all of skam website has no subs for several remakes, but not all!

If you don’t have enough space on your computer to be keeping full seasons, I know there are methods to get screencaps without having to download (generally for giffing movies and regular tv I think this is a common method), but I’ve never done it so I’ll redirect you to this tutorial that explains it! you should probably just go there for the whole thing tbh it’s much more coherent than this, but I digress. 

2. selecting the piece of the video you want to gif

now that you’ve got your episode or clip you’ll want to just open it in photoshop! if you go the screen capping route the way to do that is a bit wonky, so you can keep following the tutorial I linked above and join back in here at coloring if you like!

if the timeline at the bottom doesn’t pop up automatically you can go to window > timeline and turn it on! now you can use the scrubber bar thing to find the moment you want to gif! 

The advantage of this over screen capping is you can scrub with more precision. the arrows circled in blue below let you jump only one frame, where in screen capping I'm pretty sure you can only go by ten second or one minute intervals. 

I usually drag the scrubber as close as I can to the start of the shot/moment I want to use, fiddle with the arrows circled in blue below to jump forward or back one frame at a time until I'm at the first frame I want. I move the left grey handle to the scrubber and then I hit the play button and let the whole shot/moment play. Pause and repeat the shuffling with the arrows until you’ve landed on the last frame you want to use and move the other grey handle. 

the moment you want to use should be between your handles (it’ll look like what I have circled in red), and if you hit play, you should see the thing you want to gif playing on loop above the timeline. the speed will probably be weird, but we’ll deal with that at the end. 

now I recommend doing command or control + s to save your gif as a psd (photoshop document). this is a working, editable file which means if photoshop crashes you can open your file right back up and keep working as long as you’re hitting command or control + s at regular intervals as you work. later we’ll go through exporting in gif format that can actually be uploaded to tumblr.

3. cropping

next I crop out any logos or black space at the top and bottom. Just click on the crop tool on the lefthand side of the screen, drag the edges and hit enter when you’re done. you can of course crop out more than just that, but regardless of what you crop out, now is the time to do it. 

you can set an aspect ratio for your crop at the top of the screen if you’d like to be positive that all the gifs in your set will be the same:

4. my trusty action: resizing, converting to a smart object, and sharpening with one click

Now is when I use an action I made that does all the resizing, converts to a smart object, and sharpens. I’ll take you through the steps so you can conceptually get what’s going on, but I highly recommend using the actions window to record your process as you follow along so you have this action as well. It easily shaves at least 5-10 minutes off of the whole process, and these steps will be the same every time. 

here’s how you make an action: go to window > action and open the action panel. click the plus symbol to start recording a new action:

in the window that pops up, give it a name and hit record:

now just continue with the steps below, and it will save them!

first you flatten frames to clips (I think it says flatten to layers on older versions of photoshop). this is in the menu at the top right corner of your timeline:

next you convert to frame animation by clicking on the symbol in the bottom left, circled in red:

if there is more than one thing in the frame animation, delete the extra one. you don’t need to keep the last one but it won’t let you remove it until there are other frames in there. also go into your layers and delete video group 1 and its contents. don’t ask me why these steps are necessary, I don’t really know, but I’ve noticed it sometimes gets wonky if you don’t do this:

now you want to make frames from layers and delete that first frame that was there before:

then we return to the timeline: 

use command + option + a (control + alt + a for pc I'm pretty sure) to select all layers and then right click within your layers window and select convert to smart object. It’s important to convert to smart object after you go back to the timeline, or the gif won’t move:

next I resize. gifs for tumblr should be 540 pixels wide. for recording your action you should just go into image > image size and only change the width to 540 in case you ever have gifs cropped to different aspect ratios. don’t touch the height, let constrain proportions figure it out!

now, here’s what our base gif looks like, no sharpening, no coloring:

now to sharpen. go to filter > sharpen > smart sharpen. this is up to personal preference, but my go to settings are:

this is what we have after sharpening:

now is when you can stop recording your action. 

just press the stop button in the action window:

this action is pretty much universal and after I select the moment the gif will be and crop however I want, I use it on every gif I make!  so although this initial setup is tedious, now you’ll never have to do these steps again, and the process is magically much quicker.

5. it’s time to jump into coloring!

I typically start with exposure and sometimes some brightness/contrast. with really dark gifs like this, you kind of have to make it worse before you make it better. I did this:

now the gif looks like this:

we have some static and some ugly bits, and this is where selective color comes in to fix it! boost blacks like this:

and now your gif looks like this:

the skin tone is looking a little sickly and weird, so I go into the yellows and reds in my selective color layer to fix it! I also messed with the greens here because I didn't want color in the background (that part is totally optional and just up to your preference):

now we have this:

to really take the color 100% out of the background, I did one more separate selective color layer for cyan (again, I just felt like it but this is optional!):

and now the finished gif:

there’s lots of fun extra things you can add like text and tints and overlays and all that I won’t get into, but feel free to reach out for help on those types of things! 

this gif was certainly not the most complicated to color. some ridonkulously dark clips (*cough cough* vendredi 20h27 *cough cough*) take tons and tons more effort than this and a lot of the time you’ll want to use color balance layers and vibrance layers and all of that to mess with your coloring. 

with all of this coloring business, I really just learned by doing. I don’t know all the technical purposes of each type of adjustment layer, and I tend to stay away from curves just because I find them confusing and annoying. The bottom line is that you should always experiment and find out whatever coloring works for you and run with it! I’m sure every gif maker you talk to does things at least a little differently! 

I highly recommend taking the time to go through all the types of adjustment layers and just move the sliders around to see what they do! That’s honestly one of the best ways to learn and decide what you like!

6. now to export and adjust the delay!

the keyboard shortcut for exporting on mac is command + option + shift + s, control + alt + shift + s for pc, otherwise you can go to file > export > save for web

my settings are here:

the settings only need to be configured once! otherwise just hit save and follow the pop ups to choose where to save and what name you want to give your gif. Since you saved as a psd way back, that will be the name it’s automatically given, but call it whatever you want!

then I adjust my delay by opening the gif I just exported (not the psd, the .gif file) and using one of my delay actions. I’ve made an action for each delay between 0.05 (real time) and 0.08 (really slow mo for certain super short shots, typically for more ~artsy~ sets). 

all my action does is select all frames:

adjust the delay (which will differ based on whether you want them slowed down and by how much): 

for reference, this is a 0.05 delay:

and this is a 0.08 delay

now you just export the same way you did before! 

remember if you’re recording this as an action, you don’t want to touch the file name, just say yes when it asks if you want to replace the file. if you always save your gifs to the same place, your action will now enable you to override any gif with the incorrect delay with the correct one with one click!

7. tldr: the main tips

for downloading 4k video downloader works well for non geoblocked youtube videos, the all of skam website is another place you can look to download with no subs, here’s the screen capping method if you don’t want to download

The main way I combat dark lighting is to bump exposure to the right, gamma correction to the left, and then enhance black in a selective color layer. The amount of these three adjustments will vary gif to gif. I know lots of people use curves, but I find them really confusing for some reason, so this is my method! As my graphics teacher likes to say: there are always at least 3 different ways to reach the same result!

there’s a little bit of additional coloring on this one, but here’s another before and after example so you can get an idea of how those steps get you a better lit result without making the lighter parts super over exposed:

besides those three steps, you have free rein to use the other selective color channels, as well as color balance, vibrance, hue/saturation, etc. to restore color that was lost or to change the colors altogether! mess around with it and have fun experimenting!

7a. bonus coloring tip: 

sometimes you can make use of selective color to completely alter an isolated color in your gif. You can get very adventurous with this, but here's a simple example of changing blue tones to teal (I got away with these gifs being longer because they were in rows of two in the set I posted them in. I'm too lazy to trim frames so I can put them here at 540 px without going over the 10mb limit so just ignore the quality ok):

7b. actions, actions, actions! 

if you find yourself doing a certain thing over and over, always record it as an action. the amount of time they will save you is honestly really impressive. 

You can duplicate actions, so, for example, if you have different sharpening preferences for different shows or scenes, you can duplicate your gif process action and go into the steps, double click smart sharpen, and alter it however you want! 

This could also be good to do for the different widths for tumblr if you ever do sets with rows of two or three! Duplicate actions is also how I made my actions that set delay at 0.05, 0.06, 0.07, and 0.08!

when in doubt, always make an action! it’s worth minimizing the tedious bits of the process as much as possible so you can focus on the fun part of seeing your awesome gifs come to life! any little task you find yourself doing often, make an action!

and for now that’s all I have. if any of this made no sense, if you want to suggest a correction or addition I could make, if you’re ever curious how I did something on any gifs I post, or if you have any other sort of questions, feel free to send me an ask or a dm! if I can’t answer your questions I’ll be happy to try to direct you to someone who can or a tutorial to help! again, I'm no expert, not even close, but I hope at least one person will find one thing in this mess that helps. 

[cindersandroses]

Digital Get Down, Chapter 1

AUTHORS: cindersandroses ( losille2000 and cinderella1181)

CHAPTERS: 1/?

PAIRING: Actor!Henry Cavill/ Plus-Sized OFC

GENRE: Romance/Fluff/HUMOR

FIC SUMMARY: When SuperHank met OrcPrincessPeach on the World of Warcraft message boards, it was love at first raid. Now, almost a year later, they’re ready to take the next step and meet in person. Half a world away from each other, both decide to meet in Atlanta for DragonCon, since she was already going to be there for her work as a game designer at Blizzard... never mind that she is a devout nerd. They both have to face the fact that reality is very different from a digital world.

RATING: Mature

AUTHORS NOTES: This idea happened while we were floating around our pool a few days ago. I don’t foresee this being very long, but as always, if you want more, we will write more.

Also on AO3!

Chapter 1

SuperHank: Hey girlie girl, I did it! I got the pass for DragonCon. After almost 10 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days, I’m officially coming to meet you!

OrcPrincessPeach: Yay! Are you sure you can afford it... and the airfare?

SuperHank: Dollface, for you, I would move the oceans and walk to you. I can’t wait. August seems so far away.

OrcPrincessPeach: Be still my beating heart, you sappy romantic. I can’t wait to see you.

SuperHank: Same here. I gotta go raid. I will talk to you later. I’ll text you before I go to sleep. Have a good day at work.

OrcPrincessPeach: I will see you later tonight!

Opal closed the laptop and smiled to herself, trying desperately to keep a squeal of delight from escaping her lips. Nothing ever made her feel as amazing as talking to Hank did, even when it meant little sleep and getting up well before the sun to do it. But Amber, her roommate, would be the first person to yell at her for making too much noise in the morning… especially since it involved Hank, whom Amber did not particularly like for some reason.

Nevermind that he and Amber had never actually talked to each other. And, in fact, Opal had only ever talked to the man herself, too. Well, “talking,” in so much that they called each other, texted each other, and chatted on the World of Warcraft message boards about everything and nothing at all. There was the one time, though, when she had been “talking” with Hank, that she may have gotten too loud during a little early morning (for her, anyway) phone sex.

So maybe Amber did have a point.

Opal’s cheeks heated at the thought, replaying the memory in her head as she pulled on her most adorable red peep-toe pumps. All the boys in her programming pod at Blizzard loved it when she wore them; they always made her feel like she could take on the world. Because, seriously, who was going to mess with a woman wearing sky-high red heels during the day? It was amazing what she could convince her fellow game designer nerds to do when she wore these heels with this outfit.

She smoothed her otherwise fairly normal navy blue sheath dress over her slightly rounded belly and wide hips. These clothes were her armor against the world, much like how her orc character dressed in the game. Opal and her orc both needed the image that they could take on the male-dominated World of game design, when in reality, she could very much be a shrinking violet. Especially when it came to her body.

Hence why she had only shared very, erm, specific photos of her body with Hank, and him with her… in the best light, angle and pose. He had an amazing body, and she, well, she didn’t have an amazing body. It wasn’t terrible, per se. It did the things she needed it to do, but she certainly could have spent more time at the office standing desks or in the employee gym. But her red pumps wouldn’t allow her to do either.

So she just had to hope--and pray--that when he saw her in the harsh light of day that he didn’t run away screaming. Because there certainly had been a few online boyfriends before this who had done just that.

Opal left her room and carefully made her way downstairs to get her bag together for work. Tycho, her rather large ragdoll cat, was laying on the back of the couch, half on the black bag and rubbing his chin on the rigid canvas handle. Clearly, the bag was his now, just like everything else in the house.

“Hey, you better move it, buddy. I gotta get to work so you get good gushy food.” She pointed at him.  “Be gone when I get back in here.”

Tycho rumbled a low meow in response and didn’t move.

“Freeloader,” she mused.

She headed into the kitchen with a huge smile returning to her face and butterflies making her slightly queasy. After almost a year, she was finally… finally… going to meet the boy she’d been dating online. Most people would take that as a sign that this was all it would ever be--online and still fairly impersonal.  To be fair, though, Hank had planned to come and see her once before, but work had not let him.  And it wasn’t like they were on the same continent, normally. They were halfway around the world from each other. But this time, he swore up and down that this was going to be it. They were going to cohabitate in the same hotel suite for a long weekend, and make good on all the very dirty promises they had made each other in the ten months they’d been “together.” Of course, she was well aware that he still may cancel, but for now, she was going to live in her dreamworld.

Amber was already in the kitchen as Opal made it into the room. Her roommate sat bleary-eyed at the kitchen table and stared at her cell phone screen.

“You already made coffee?” Opal asked.

The brunette nodded and motioned her head towards the almost full pot.  “Yeah, cause I didn’t have to get up at a stupid time in the morning to talk to my internet boyfriend.”

Opal rolled her eyes. “Amber, it’s not that bad.”

“Really, Opie? What time did you get out of bed this morning?” she asked, her eyebrow peaked.

Opal sighed. “Six.” Amber shook her head.  “It’s not normal. How long have you been ‘dating’ this dude?” she asked, emphasizing her point with air quotes and all.

“Almost a year, but he and I are finally meeting. We’re going to meet in Atlanta for DragonCon. It’s a halfway point between us, we figured it would be neutral territory,” Opal explained.

“Is Con really ‘neutral’? You’d live at a con if you could.”

Opal ignored her comment. As far as she was concerned, it was neutral… and certainly big enough to get lost in the crowd if things didn’t go well. She certainly didn’t want to bring him around her house if Amber planned to be there to scare him away.

Opal continued with a light, dreamy sigh. “It’s going to be super exciting. I’m ready to meet Hank. He is a fantastic guy; he is kind, funny, loves his family.”

“Sounds like you’re describing a labrador. Next thing, you’re going to tell me he is loyal and in love with you,” Amber replied, shaking her head. “You can’t be in love with someone you have never met in person.”

Maybe Amber was right, after all. How much could someone truly know a person from what they say alone? It’s merely a facet of who they are. Actions were also huge, and he had not yet proven anything to Opal in that category.

But still, Opal was sure Hank was different. She’d had a lot of online boyfriends throughout her life--her life revolved around the computer, so it was only natural. And comparing all the other examples with her current love interest, this just felt different. Like… it might actually be real.

“You can love their heart, and I adore him. He is pretty great. I’m just hoping he’s the one.” Opal grinned.  “We would have an amazing story to tell our kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids.”

Amber pressed her lips together into a terse line and returned to whatever was on her phone. “Well, when this all bursts in your face, Opie, you just come home to me and remember that I love you no matter what.”

Opal smiled. “I know, Amber. You’ll pick up all the pieces. But I don’t think that’s going to happen with him. I don’t know. He’s different.”

“Does he know?” Amber asked, the cup of coffee close to her mouth.

“Um... know what?” Opal asked.

“That you’re not some skinny bimbo?” Amber asked, motioning in her direction. Amber’s eyes scanned her body slowly, critically. “All the people on the internet have this idealized image in their head that the person they’re talking to is Giselle Bundchen, not Ashely Graham or Tess Holliday.”

“They are both gorgeous and many men are in love with them,” Opal defended. “And they’re both married.”

Amber shrugged. “I’m just preparing you for it, if it happens. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

This conversation, though, was hurting her. Hank wasn’t the direct cause of it, just a reason for Amber to start this. She knew Amber had her best interests at heart--no friend wants their friend to get hurt--but the way she achieved her goals, and the words she used, were not nice.

Opal sighed. “Look, he knows I’m fat. He knows I have curves and I’m not a size two. He and I have had several conversations about the fact I’m not some little skinny thing. He said he adores my heart, and he doesn’t care what kind of body it comes in.”

He also said he preferred thick women because he didn’t feel like he was going to break them when things got… athletic. But Amber didn’t need to hear that, either.

“My god, if that isn’t a line,” Amber scoffed.

Opal shrugged. “Amber, stop! Your thinly veiled attempt to fat shame me isn’t going to work. I’m going to go to Atlanta, I’m going to meet him, and I may even sleep with him.”

Amber rolled her eyes. “You won’t have sex with him. You’re a 32-year-old virgin.”

Opal shrugged. “You know, stranger things have happened.” She twisted the top on her thermos. “I’m going to be late for work, I’ll see you later.”

She walked back into the living room, removed the cat from his perch, picked up her bag and headed out the door to work. As she walked the block to the bus stop, she pulled her phone out and put on the playlist Hank had built her. She smiled as the songs began to play, each one having a special meaning to both of them. He was always adding new songs with little notes about why he added them.

These little love notes never failed to make her happy again. She couldn’t imagine what would happen if they ever stopped.

She knew what Amber said shouldn’t bother her as much as it did, but she was self-conscious. Her body had always been something that set her apart and had made her shy when it came to men. Of all the potential dates she’d had with online boyfriends, she had only been on three real dates in her adult life. All of them turned tail and ran once she said she was a virgin. So for those very few that were able to get past the body issue, those three considered her lack of experience to be insurmountable.

Hank didn’t make her feel like that. He didn’t seem to care, or if he did, it wasn’t a deal-breaker. If her lack of experience didn’t do it, there was a very real possibility that her other image issues would be the end of it.

When she arrived at the bus stop and sat down, Opal made the decision to push Amber’s nagging voice out of her head. She wasn’t going to let Amber break her confidence. Hank adored her, for who she was, and that was all that mattered.

She turned her music all the way up to block out the self-doubt and scrolled through her playlist, looking for her favorites. At the bottom of the list, added only a few minutes before, was a new song. Opal giggled and clicked on the song, closing her eyes to listen to the electronic 80s synth and Richard Marx croon, “Right Here Waiting.”

[hhsaryrud]

I ran and turned into another street

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[dontcallmecarrie]

One Step Forward...

just realized that while I have quite a bit on Tony’s time in college for BDEL, it’s pretty general so here’s an attempt to remedy that. Bear in mind that there’s a timeline squish going on, otherwise things won't make sense.

. 

Tony looked around the enormous lecture hall with wide eyes, practically vibrating in his seat. He knew he stuck out like a sore thumb, but he didn't care: his shiny new student ID was burning a hole in his pocket, his messenger bag was a near-clone of his neighbor’s, and in the next few minutes he’d start on the next chapter of his life. 

This was the first time he’d set foot in an institute of higher learning, for the express purpose of learning. Sure, he still had to lay low, since Tony Stark was still #1 on America’s Most Wanted Missing Children [even if his twenty-second birthday came and went months ago, take a hint already Howard], and living with someone still getting used to the world after an involuntary ice nap, but...for the first time in his life, he could let loose. 

Could finally poke at some of the things he’d been itching to try with like-minded individuals, could research and leaf through theses and journals without having to sneak around anyone who might be curious as to what a ten-year-old was doing with a textbook on fluid mechanics.

Child prodigies were easy to pick out; enterprising college students, though?

When everyone was broke and scrambling to stand out, especially in a university big enough for some of its courses to have upwards of 300 students, while also having some cool-sounding research going on? 

Nobody’d look too closely at some freshman asking too many questions. 

That’s what he was counting on, anyway. 

The professor strode up to the podium, and Tony straightened up in preparation for his first day of college.

.

Mistakes were made.

Many, many mistakes were made.

.

Tony walked out of the latest round of exams with a bounce in his step, already thinking about whether or not he’d be able to make it to the guest lecture in time to find a seat...only to pick up the dark muttering of some of his classmates. 

“Ugh, that was brutal and I think there was a typo somewhere in there because how—”

“—had like one slide covering it during lecture, why was it—”

“—an I’m going to fail, this stupid class is going to tank my GPA, fu—”

Some were almost in tears, some were fuming. More than a few were bleary-eyed, clearly having pulled an all-nighter cramming for the test that made up a good chunk of their grade.

Tony tried not to feel too guilty about wrecking the grading curve because he had no doubt he’d aced it, and had done the extra-credit question too just because he could and it’d seemed like a fun thought exercise.

Then he checked his watch, bit back a curse as he clutched at his messenger bag, and started to jog towards the building he’d seen on the flyer about public health talks.

.

Culver University had several of the typical crypids for a college campus: that one bookstore five minutes away with just about every book under the sun, that hole-in-the-wall restaurant that somehow managed to avoid getting written up for health code violations, that one professor who was always listed on the roster but hadn’t been seen since the first day of class.

However, not three months into the new academic year, a new cryptid was being added to the roster: Caffeine Rush Undergrad. 

.

If Tony hadn’t known just what the hell he was doing, he would not have managed to secure a space for his research project. As it was, his obvious interest and experience in computer programming had been a plus, so even if he’d had to bullshit his way out of declaring a major while also convincing everyone he knew what he was doing— it was worth it. 

He now had a bench dedicated to his work on cloud computing, and even if Culver didn’t know his end goal was getting JARVIS even more mobility than before on top of seeing what else he could do with what resources he now had at hand, well...this place was a goddamn candy store, alright?

Also, as a bonus he was now a familiar face to several departments he hadn’t quite gotten around to checking out, including a free pass to continue arguing with that one philosophy chair whenever office hours were slow and his code was compiling.

.

Caffeine Rush Undergrad had a name, presumably.

However, when looking at short freshmen and transfer students and seeing the only one in the room who looked actually excited about the upcoming exams, well...it was hard to remember to ask. 

. 

Tony met Bruce Banner and Betty Ross after he found some of their publications, and his glee at discovering that they were working on something a few wings away from his own bench was...something. 

Not explosive, because he knew better than to attract the wrong sort of attention, but something. 

Sure, they’d eyed him suspiciously at first, but after seeing he knew what he was doing and that he had no interest in stealing their research, they got along swimmingly!

Well, at least they didn’t treat him like a younger sibling the way Foster and Selvig did, anyway.

More like a second set of eyes, and even if Tony didn’t entirely get the finer points he was able to follow along well enough. Kind of like the way Bruce was a great rubber duck whenever he shared what he was doing with JARVIS, even if he sometimes seemed more than a little amused by the comparison. 

.

Caffeine Rush Undergrad was like a goddamn puppy, all wide eyes and running around all the damn time, leaving behind towering stacks of books whenever he went to the library and sneaking into lecture halls for classes he wasn’t even in just to ask the speaker questions later.

It was impressive. And exhausting, and intimidating, especially when word got out that Caffeine Rush somehow had managed to secure a research position in one of the most competitive programs on campus.

...and then he disappeared after the Green Incident, which only cemented his notoriety.

.

Tony had two coffees in hand, one for Betty and one for Bruce, and nearly dropped both the moment he glimpsed General Ross in the hall, headed towards—

Oh.

He turned on a heel and ducked into the nearest office he could find, before Howard’s old golf buddy could spot him and risk putting two and two together.

.

“You didn’t tell me your old man was Thunderbolt Ross.” Tony said as he passed over a cup of now-lukewarm coffee. His voice wasn’t accusing; he was better than that. But his hands were this close to shaking, and there was a tension he couldn’t shake because he’d foolishly, naively assumed he was safe here, why had he—

“What’s wrong?” Bruce asked, eyes sharp and damn it he was slipping if some civilians could see it. 

“Nothing.” Tony plastered on a smile, and shoved his cup in his direction as he mentally readied himself as to what he’d need to do now because if his mom hadn’t picked up chatter then they were okay, but...

Oh, right. 

Geez, seeing Ross had really shaken him up. But his family was safe, and he had a plan and a story and he could bullshit with the best of them, he just had to get a grip.

Deep breath, steady hands. DUM-E was pressing against his leg in his messenger bag, while Butterfingers was a comforting weight in his jacket pocket. He could handle this. 

“Nothing,” he repeated to their disbelieving looks, “it’s just that my mom was a... Vietnam protestor. She broke a lot of shit, and... may or may not have several warrants with her name still out there.”

He hated lying to his friends, but his family was on the line. Uncle James was still living with him, his mom didn’t need any more stress than she already had. 

Also? It wasn’t actually a lie. Technically, his mom was a kidnapper. Jury was still out on the treason charges, though, because enough people counted her as a whistleblower that Howard hadn’t been able to get those charges to stick.

Bruce relaxed, but frowned in concern. “You recognized Betty’s father from that?”

Tony didn’t hide how awkward he was feeling now, after the fact. Especially because it was the truth, in a way. If only even weirder.

“There’s a strong resemblance going on, and he...mayormaynothavebeenlookingforherpersonally.”

Misleading? Yes. Did he regret it? Nope.

Betty shared a look with Bruce, then looked at the doorway and blanched before surging forward and shoving him behind her desk.

Fortunately, Tony knew enough to roll with it and so ducked and curled himself the best he could just as the footsteps got louder and General Ross’ voice came from the doorway.

“Oh, almost forgot— Banner? What are you doing here?” 

Bruce’s shoes had a very distinctive squeak whenever he shifted his weight nervously. Tony’d noticed it before, but never quite like now.

“Hello, General Ross—” He started, before Betty cut in.

“Dad? I wanted to tell you this in person. I have a boyfriend.” She must have gestured or made a face, for the choked noise coming from Bruce’s side of the room and how did he get himself in these situations, seriously?