#so I didn't have any frame of reference for whether this was a good idea or not

[arctic-hands]

Dudes I remember asking my pediatric gastro if it was dangerous for me to drink alcohol bc I believed D.A.R.E and thought everyone in the slightest out of school interaction would pressure me into at least drinking to look cool, and he said he wouldn't tell me that because he didn't want to encourage underage drinking.

I wasn't asking for permission I was even looking for an excuse to turn alcohol down if asked but cool beans dude I guess I'll find out in the moment if alcohol will kill me with the meds I'm on or the conditions I have. A+ doctoring you're totes responsible adult

[dearhargrove]

Hi there! I have an eddie diaz request please. I don't know if you've seen the boyfriend door lean on tiktok but I was thinking eddie either comes across it and tries it on reader to see if it works (reader is a bookworm) or he does it without knowing what it is and reader melts (in either scenario) and she explains and shows it to him and he says he'll have to do it more often? All cute fluffy and adorable if you can please. Thank you!!

summary Eddie finds out about the 'door frame lean' thing on tiktok and tries it on you.

word count 950

tags fluffy and a bit spicy, Chris!!, Eddie's a menace

a/n hope I did this request justice because I absolutely adore that idea! Need someone to do this for me? Also Eddie would most definitely do this at any chance after realising how it had you going crazy 😭 I used this tiktok as a reference by the way!

masterlist

You're sitting up against the headboard with your book in your hands and a glass of wine on the nightstand next to you, simply passing time until your boyfriend comes home from his 24 hour shift.

You're almost done with it when you hear the front door open and close, a bag being dropped on the floor and shoes messily discarded next to the shoe rack (it seems no matter how many times you get mad at him for not putting his shoes away he forgets it and repeats the same mistake).

Moments later you see him walk along the hallway to your shared bedroom. His hair is messy instead of combed back like it was this morning when he'd made sure to ask you if it looked good, and the exhaustion is clear on his face.

You close your book after putting the bookmark between the pages you were reading and look at him with a smile that he easily reciprocates.

“Rough shift?” you move off the bed and walk to lean against the door frame as he approaches. “Yeah. People are stupid,” you chuckle and he stops in front of you, reaching his left hand up and placing it on the door frame and easily leaning his head down to look at you.

You're entirely caught off guard, not sure whether to look into his eyes or focus on the fact that this position was very flattering on his biceps. You swallow nervously which he catches and tilts his head with a small smirk.

“What? Why do you look nervous, amor?” He asks huskily and puts his other hand on your waist. That's just about your last straw and you fluster and look away, “Uh, no, just- how was your shift?”

He laughs and lets go of the door frame to wrap his arms around your waist and pull you closer until he can reach your neck and bury his face in it. You're pretty sure he can feel your pulse being abnormally high from where he'd placed his head, so in hopes of not making him aware of how crazy this entire situation had you going you bury your hands in his hair and gently scratch his scalp. Something you knew would make him melt any time you did it.

He grunts and his arms tighten around your waist, fingers pressing into the middle of your lower back. “Fuck,” he mumbles, “That feels good.”

Your whole ruse to distract him backfired because he just kept getting more sexy and you're pretty sure he either knew exactly what he was doing or was totally unaware of the effect this whole interaction was having on you.

“Dad, you're home!” Chris distracts both of you and Eddie kisses your pulse point and squeezes your waist again before crouching down to lift Chris into his arms and hug him tight. “Hey, buddy. Aren't you supposed to be asleep? It's almost nine thirty.”

You watch them and take the moment to gather your wits again because, oh my god. You'll never be able to read about the door frame lean in a book again without thinking about this.

Later that night when you're both in bed, his head placed on your chest as he patiently waits for you to finish reading the chapter so you could play with his hair, he looks up at you, “I didn't actually believe that door frame thing would work.”

Your jaw drops and you look at him with furrowed brows, “What do you mean?”

“That.. what's it called? Booktok. Buck was talking about it because he thought it was funny and mentioned how I should know what that is since you read so much. I didn't so I looked it up. Who knew you'd fold so easily?” He teases and you glare at him in slight embarrassment and take your hand from his hair.

“Stop teasing me about it.” He laughs and shakes his head, “Never. You looked way too cute, though I almost got worried with how high your pulse was getting…”

You gasp and flick his forehead with your index finger, about to throw some insult at him when the door opens and Christopher stands in the doorway.

Eddie sits up and you put your book on the nightstand, “Chris? Everything okay, love?” You ask and he pouts. “Nightmare. Can I sleep here tonight?”

You look at Eddie with a worried expression and he slightly shrugs but scoots to the side to make space for the ten year old. He crawls into the middle of you and you pull the blanket up to his shoulders. He looks at you with big eyes and you smile, knowing what he wanted, before carding your hand through his hair. He hums happily and Eddie looks at you slightly offended, “He's stealing your attention.”

You snort and roll your eyes, “You can wait until he's asleep.” Chris grins happily at his father and then at you. “I'm cuter anyway,” Eddie gasps and you laugh as the two banter.

One look at the clock though and you're shushing them both with a forehead kiss, “Alright now, time to sleep.” Eddie looks happy with himself, taking that as him getting all your attention now and you raise one eyebrow, “You too.”

Chris giggles and then settles down, same as Eddie after he scowls at you. You click off the small lamp on your nightstand and see Chris already snoozing with Eddie watching him fondly.

Placing your hand in Eddie's hair instead you whisper ‘I love you’ which he repeats and puts his arm over Chris to put his hand on your hip, falling asleep not long after.

[littlesmokesceenfan]

(Thank you! I thought of an angsty scenario where Bulkhead accidentally saw Smokescreen crying, hears the things he said, and settles it through a heart-to-heart. Takes place around S3, where Smokey was a bit more mellow and is often visibly hard on himself when he makes mistakes. Very sorry for the long read!).

-

Bulkhead wandered around the deeper parts of the base when he heard faint crying noises. As he rounded the corner to investigate, he found Smokescreen, with one servo against the wall while the other covered his face, stifling his sobs.

Smokescreen muttered self-deprecating things to himself, “I tried my best, but it’ll never amount to anything.”, “What good is an Autobot if he keeps messing things up?”, “The team’s better off without me.” He doesn’t seem to notice Bulkhead’s presence.

Concerned, Bulkhead called out his name, asking if he’s fine. At that, Smokescreen panics. He quickly wiped at his optics and said "Oh! Don’t worry about it, I’m fine.” Trying to play it cool. But when Bulkhead asked whether he’d been crying, he stammered a bit.

“…I have no idea what you’re talking about." he said, excusing himself before darting away.

-

Later, they were assigned on a mission (recon/energon scouting/etc). Smokescreen pretended like none of that ever happened, and Bulkhead’s concern just grew. After they made sure that all was fine, Bulkhead thought it’d be a good time to approach Smokescreen.

“Kid, you shouldn’t be too hard on yourself.”

Knowing full well what he’s referring to, Smokescreen’s faux happiness immediately faded. “Look, if this is about what you saw earlier, then…forget it.” He replied defensively. “You-nobody was supposed to see that. I’m fine. You…really shouldn’t get worked up over nothing.”

Bulkhead was stunned. But before he could walk away, Bulkhead placed his servo on Smokescreen’s shoulder, stopping him.

“I mean it. You’ve done a lot for the team, and I mean a lot.” The emphasis on the word make Smokescreen turn to face him, his optics widened. “I heard the things you said earlier. Maybe you’re not realizing it, but you’re doing just fine. Heck, I’d even say that, for a newcomer, you found your footing really quickly. Without you, we wouldn’t have achieved many things. So, I don’t get why you’re doing this to yourself.”

(It could be more angsty at this point, with Smokey getting increasingly defensive because he didn’t want to be seen as weak. But that can be for another time.)

Not expecting the comments, Smokescreen went quiet and averted his gaze, doorwings beginning to droop.

And now, it was Bulkhead’s turn to wonder, ‘Scrap, was it something I said? I meant it as a compliment…was it my tone?’ (Which is ironic, because I imagine Smokey having these thoughts when someone reacts strongly to what he said, usually for the worst).

"Ah geez. Sorry kid, I didn't mean to-" But Bulkhead couldn't finish his sentence because Smokescreen began to cry, burying his face on his servos. His frame trembling and doorwings dropping against his back.

Noticing that it won’t stop anytime soon, and that he had interrupted him earlier, Bulkhead felt bad as he pulled Smokescreen into a tight hug, patting his back to comfort him. At this, Smokescreen began to cry a bit louder (I HC him as being touched starved) as he returned the hug.

After a while, once he stopped crying, Smokey would apologize for how pathetic he looked and Bulkhead would shake his head and say, “Don't worry, it’s better to let it out.”

The two would find a place to sit, and Bulkhead would tell Smokesceren stories about the team to cheer him up. About the good and the bad. How they coped with losses and cherished precious moments. How the team would fall apart and reconcile since they only have each other. All the while Smokey was listening intently, realizing just how much he was left out and muttered a soft, “I…never heard any of this before. Guess I have a lot of catching up to do, huh?”

Bulkhead would just chuckle and say, “You probably do, but you’re part of us now, and like I said, you’re doing just fine, kid. Just don’t be too hard on yourself, yeah?” in an assuring tone.

He went quiet for a bit, before adding, a bit sheepishly. “I’m…also sorry for being a major jerk to you that one time. I know you meant well, you didn’t deserve that.”

Smokescreen smiled, his usual cheeriness returning, he doesn’t feel like an “outsider” anymore.

“Don’t sweat it, that’s all in the past now!”

Ahhhhhh.

I love this so much. Yes give Smokescreen a hug! Thanks you op.

[charmac]

Okay so, I got high for the first time in awhile and I'm thinking about Sunny just, It's weird that I always do, near obsessively, have since October of 2022. It's just like, my favourite thing to love and to think about, but I have been watching for a lot longer than that. I'm just gonna delve on my pipeline from casual fan of this show to stan, cos I think it's interesting and I'm high so nothing is stopping me:

For over three years I've been watching this show on repeat, whenever I didn't have a scheduled show to watch, I'd pop it on. But I just watched it casually, normally, like haha funny bad people show kind of way (I am sorry). All I did was watch it over and over, sometimes see a funny viral Sunny Tweet and like it, and then the Podcast came out.

And it weirdly made me more into the show, more introspective about the characters. So I would interact on r/IASIP but they just, didn't really get it properly.

And then S15 aired and Reddit really didn't get it and Charlie Kelly was just this massive presence in my mind, and I wrote a silly little kidfic about him because I was just thinking and thinking. And Reddit didn't get it.

So I I tried to come onto Tumblr, but everyone shipped Macdennis and I. Did Not. like Dennis. I saw him how your average r/IASIP commenter sees him. (So sorry.) I thought shipping Macdennis was fun in a, like, asking Mac to get completely used and fucked over kinda way (again, so sorry). Imagine my shock walking into Sunnyblr with that idea. Tumblr liked Dennis.

So I just kinda did the Episodes on repeat/Podcast/Subreddit kinda vibe for awhile. And then I met Meg and talked to her, and I stood two feet away from Rob and I know it's cringey, lmfao, but something shifted further. I was talking obsessively to my bestie @macdennissurvivor and Twitter started showing me Dennis edits. And then I made a silly little Macdennis edit of my own.

Then I went to the live show in Philly. And the audience was miserable and oh my god none of them get it. But there's so much to get . And Glenn, wow, weird, interesting guy. (And he weirdly kinda clarified that Dennis wasn't straight.) The show was fine but the audience was miserable because none of them get it. They throw out lines and references and it's all a joke. But it's not all a joke, there's so much to get. They're not getting it. Please someone else get it.

And so I dipped my toe back on Sunnyblr. And I got more involved with Sunny Twitter and Nat (legal last name Paddysroyco) Tumblr user @boysareouttonight's Dennis edits were like the final nail in the coffin of being a stan.

I think something shifts when you are able to look past Dennis' facade and actually see the person inside, the character they won't let you see unless you really get it.

And the obsession begins, and continues, and is good to me, keeps me happy and everything here just tickles my brain and makes me engage and talk. And like there's real, actually insanely intelligent discussion on here and meta and analysis and theories and then there's the most cracked out post you've ever seen and then there's something that's somehow both and it's just something else.

I'm at an all-you-can-eat buffet after reaching into the depths of my cupboards for a month straight. And we're getting more, and a lot, and whatever it is is more content. Every frame, every title, every crumb we find, there's other people here who get it all and make it fun, in a way that's not tiring or eye-rolling or completely off the mark, in a way that keeps me full-steam rolling ahead and coming back.

This devolved a little, as thoughts do, but I am happy to be here, I guess. I'm looking forward to this fucking season and whatever lies ahead: whether it's dry for Macdennis or overwhelmingly wet, whether we get solid character development or some weird backsliding, a mix of both, if there's strange retcons or really fucking-good ones, any unexplained moments or looks or props, or expressions, I'm experiencing it all with people who get it. Maybe in a completely unhinged way, maybe in a crazy smart way, or a reasonably sober way, but always from a place of getting it.

We're getting Season 16, it's real, more to the story, more to piece together and layout and pick and prod and compare and re-tell (and re-write if you really want). In, like, 18 days. Fuck me up.

[canyoufucksoniccharacters]

Alright, I’m putting myself out there. There ain’t no anonymity, and I accept the consequences of my actions.

I need to know (actually for the satiating of my own knowledge but I know nobody will believe me anyways).

Amy Rose, is most certainly, definitely, off the table, correct?

...

...

...

Aaahahahaha...

HAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHHAHAHA

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA

FOOLS, I HAVE RISEN, FROM THE GRAV-

... Oh, it's the middle of November. Shit. Missed October by a pretty big margin.

Uh. Well, I guess it's as good of a time as any to honor the blog profile picture either way, isn't it?

CAN YOU FUCK AMY ROSE?

Well, as always, we should go to the earliest possible source of information. Not the most popular, the first. This is equal parts trying to figure out whether or not you can fuck a Sonic character and going through their strange and rocky age history.

For once in this god forsaken divine punishment that is doing research on matters related to the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise, the starting point is quite simple. The Japanese manual for Sonic CD!

Here, her age is listed as 8. This manual actually holds a good amount of weight, as Amy's penchant for belief in the divine starts here, with mentions of tarot cards and believing that her meeting with Sonic was fate. Though, something I find worth noting is that at this point, the way their relationship was portrayed was far from mutual, more akin to a young girl idolizing someone way out of her age range, who also just isn't interested in romance in the slightest.

Though, it's a bit odd that Sonic wouldn't be a bit more icked out by an 8 year old girl hitting on him if he's 15/16 in the classic series. But, let's remember that this age for him hadn't been confirmed until Sonic Jam, only really ever mentioned in SATAM, which holds no bearing on discussions of canon.

... But, of course, we've already hit a snag.

Tails is also listed as 8, in the Japanese manual for Sonic 2.

This, of course, makes complete sense for him, moreso than Amy. Tails is absolutely a child. A child prodigy, but a child nonetheless. An orphan too, presumably! So he has a good reason to latch on to Sonic, other than just admiration.

... But, uh. They can't both be 8.

Excuse the tiny image, but this provides a good height comparison between the 3. Amy's sprite is taken from Sonic Origins Plus. As you can clearly see, she's definitely shorter than sonic, but also absolutely taller than Tails. So, what gives?

I wish I could tell you. It seems like the two teams at the U.S and Japan had similar ideas that they took in entirely different directions, and so the team that made Sonic CD probably didn't have any frame of reference for what an 8 year old would look and act like in the Sonic series, whereas the team at USA ended up creating the character that would become the gold standard for children in the series.

Oh, and yes, I made sure to check, Amy in Sonic CD and in Sonic Origins are the exact same height. Different sprites, but same height.

So, while the concept of Amy being at least a bit younger than Sonic and thus having an inherently imbalanced relationship with him is definitely present here, I don't know if the exact number of 8 holds too much weight, specially considering the presumable lack of communication between the two teams.

Not getting into the comics. Specially because they kept yanking readers' dicks with Sonamy vs Sonally for cheap drama way more often than they ever should have.

So, what's the next source we can l-

... No. NO.

Sigh. Fine. I always have to at least give this horrible thing a passing mention.

Let's just get it over with and look at what it says for Amy.

For once... I'd actually be willing to give this one the benefit of the doubt. She's older than her age listed in the Sonic CD manual!

But, of course, like everything else in this manual, it's total bogus. As I've said many times, none of this is in the Japanese manual, for one; secondly, I could somewhat buy this for Adventure 1, but between that game happening, SA2 happening, and Heroes? Nah, there's no way. Specially considering how much more obsessed she is with Sonic in this game. Mostly due to bad writing, but still.

And, thirdly, our good ol buddy Tails again.

He's still 8. The age he had listed in the Classic era. So, somehow, he's impervious to the inevitable forward movement of time? Sure dude. Whatever.

Oh, and the age from this manual was the one Sonic Channel listed for years and which people took as fact and used to maul anyone who shipped Sonamy due to what to an observant without enough context would seem like a really really bad age gap.

So, both of her listings have some pretty considerable contradictions, mostly because of Tails, and lack of communication between people working on the series in Japan and the U.S. Meaning that... Neither of them are reliable.

So, what does that leave us with? Well...

I'll make this very very clear; I do not personally subscribe to Sonamy. I don't find it very interesting and I feel like doing it where canon stands right now is kind of antithetical to the direction of Amy's arc and what they've established for both of them. I'm not saying it can't work, I just think you need to put in some fanfic legwork to make it feel earned and genuine. And really, I don't think you could find something that convinces me, specially since I'm only rly a Sonadow believer because of how the whole commitment and romance thing isn't an issue there since they flow together so well.

But, I'll be the first to admit that, whether you like it or not, it's still teased every so often, specially nowadays.

Which... Would be weird if she was still like. Young. You know? It really only feels like it makes sense if she's the same age as Sonic, maybe only a smidge younger. Specially because it's not like she's trying to get over it and discard her feelings entirely, no, she's made moves on him as recently as Tailstube, and there's even been statements from writers about the fact that they've casually dated before but never really got anywhere, which the post will be edited to include once I have access to a computer.

So, what does this mean for Amy?

Well, she has to be in a similar age range to Sonic, otherwise this would all be REALLY weird in a way both the writers and Amy herself wouldn't be able to ignore. Which means we have to ask if Sonic is fuckable. Which, we indeed absolutely have. And so, what works for the blue, works for the pink as well. Which means...

You can, most likely, fuck Amy Rose.

... Just don't drag her Classic design into this. That's still totally a kid. I see you, you creeps in the e621 Sonic tag. Shame on you.

[eurydicees]

what do you think about the nanowrimo situation?

hm. loaded question that i have a lot of thoughts on. under the cut because this got kinda long winded and maybe more than a little disorganized :/

first off, personally, i stopped using the website when the insanity with the YWP forums got exposed, and then when the ML stuff happened right after. i don't want to go into any of that in this post because that's probably not what you were referring to when you send this ask, but for anyone interested, here's a link to a pretty comprehensive breakdown of what happened.

overall, i don't think i'll be using the website this upcoming november either--they haven't actually effectively addressed any of the YWP stuff, imo, and this AI thing isn't helping their case with me. i'm probably going to do a final transfer of all my stats onto a google sheet or smth at some point, and that'll be it with me and nanowrimo's official organization.

but just because the organization itself is corrupt and is also making not so great marketing decisions outside of that, and just because i don't want to give their website traffic anymore, doesn't mean that the challenge can't keep going!

the idea of nanowrimo is bigger than the website at this point. it's a concept more than it is a corporation. we can decentralize it if we want to. track your words elsewhere, set your own goals. that's all doable, imo. but i digress. now. re: the AI stuff.

just to start point blank, nanowrimo as a corporation probably doesn't actually have an opinion on this as a debate. they probably could really care less about (a) the impact this decision has, and (b) the implications of it.

what they do care about is that they have gone through 1-2 years of absolutely horrific scandal, and now they have bagged a sponsor that happens to be an AI writing tool. so fucking obviously they've decided that AI writing counts for nanowrimo.

anyways. disregarding motives, my thoughts on this as a stance are that this uh. kinda sucks!

nanowrimo is about two things for me. first, it's about the community you can find in doing the same challenge as hundreds of thousands of other writers. you can find that elsewhere, off the website's forums! in fact that's probably for the best, given the, you know, *gestures vaguely*.

more than that, it's about the writing.

i know that sounds obvious, but i think a lot of people actually forget that. it's not about winning the challenge or losing it, it's not about reaching the highest word count of everyone you know, it's not about writing the next great american novel, it's not about having a project with no later edits necessary.

its just about getting words onto a page. they don't have to be good words. they don't have to be polished. they don't have to be poetry. they don't even have to be spelled right! i have drafts where i changed names halfway through and i'm 99% sure i didn't actually replace all the instances of that name.

nanowrimo isn't about writing the perfect novel in 30 days. it's about pushing yourself to try writing. to try to get into the groove of writing every day and to have a goal to aim for. it's a lofty, occasionally stressful, and sometimes unrealistic goal! it is! i will happily admit that. the point isn't winning, though, it's not the actual 50,000 words of it all, and i think that's what everyone misses in their critique of the challenge itself.

to me that's what's so insulting about the stance that they're taking on AI. whether or not you believe AI writing/drawing/whatever is real art, nanowrimo saying AI is acceptable for nanowrimo SPECIFICALLY is a fundamental misunderstanding of what the challenge is about.

it isn't about just generating the highest word count possible in the smallest time frame possible. it's not about reaching 50,000 words the fastest, or first. it's not about just pumping out words because you want a higher word count than you got last year.

nanowrimo is supposed to be about challenging yourself to just try writing. it's not about being good at it.

using AI to polish your writing during the month--like nanowrimo is suggesting you do--or even using AI to write anything for you--like it seems people believe other people are doing...it's defeating the purpose of trying writing. nanowrimo isn't about editing or polishing your sentences--thus, even more, it's not about polishing AI generated sentences into your own.

their belief that critique of AI writing is classist and ableist is...it's a take. i'm not arguing about that right now lol. that's a different post.

saying classism and ableism are barriers to writing a novel--oh absolutely. 100%. but using AI to combat those things for nanowrimo is missing the point of why you should be attempting the challenge.

nano's statement essentially centers AI use on making your writing good despite access issues. they cite needing financial help to get professional editors/outside eyes, needing AI to "see issues" in your writing, not having the same level of education as someone else participating, etc. etc. which is, again, a fundamental misunderstanding of what the point of nanowrimo is. it's not about making your writing perfect, it's about trying to write, knowing that it isn't going to be perfect.

in the nano's founder's history of the challenge, he talks about why the challenge persisted after the first time, and why he and his founding friends found it to be something worth doing. it's not because they got the next great american novels at the end. it's because "...the writing process had been really, really fun."

nanowrimo isn't about writing professional-grade edited novels in 30 days. that's just not possible. it's about writing because you want to write.

it's not because you want to win the challenge. it's because you want to try writing. in my opinion, using AI to write is not "trying writing." it's running AI and that is very, very different--whether or not you believe it's "art."

the founder says, in the same post, "I think the scene—full of smack-talk and muffin crumbs on our keyboards—would have rightly horrified professional writers. We had taken the cloistered, agonized novel-writing process and transformed it into something that was half literary marathon and half block party."

again, this challenge was never just about churning out 50,000 words. that's not how it began and the fact that it became that--to the point that AI is being deemed necessary, to the point that it's you have to "win" with 50k no matter how you do it--is really sad to me.

whatever your stance on the "critique of AI writing is classist and ableist" take is, nanowrimo isn't the place for AI writing when the challenge shouldn't be about churning out 50k via any method so much as it is about just you trying writing. trying to find time, and a routine that works for you, and a goal that works (or maybe doesn't work) for you.

some people are going to lose. for any number of reasons. and that's literally fine!! anyone who's done it more than a couple times has lost at least once. MOST people who attempt it at all lose.

the thing, really, is that we have to reframe this a little because it's not really losing. if you, even ONE TIME, had a pen/paper or laptop or however you write, and/or you even just thought really hard about a story you care enough about to create--that's a huge fucking win. no matter how many words you ended up with and no matter how "good" they are, if you tried writing, that's incredible and an accomplishment to be proud of.

nanowrimo saying "use AI to win nanowrimo with as many really, really good words as possible" is completely missing the point that "winning" isn't the thing that matters about this challenge.

(also, like. just as general blanket statement. nanowrimo doesn't work for everyone, for any uncountable number of reasons, and that's also literally fine. if you can't write 50k in 30 days, that's okay! you don't have to! no one is forcing you to, and no one is forcing you to try! i tapped out once because i was fucking up my wrists and it was starting to hurt to type. it's okay not to do it if you can't for any reason, or, really, if you just...don't want to. that's fine.)

all in all, it's an intimidating goal! it sounds kinda crazy! you don't go into nanowrimo solely to win it--though that's of course the endgame goal--but to try writing. using AI feels completely antithetical to that goal of just trying it.

it doesn't really matter where you stand on the AI art debate. nanowrimo as a corporation can't settle that debate for anyone. but what they have done, in my opinion, is just expressly miss the entire goal of their own challenge. and that's really, really frustrating.

(also, in this statement, they uh. kind of seem to acknowledge everything i just said. they know that using AI for this challenge specifically defeats the whole point. they just also want the sponsorship.)

[hekateinhell]

Hi! Why do you think Armand never believed Daniel loved him? And did some part of Daniel believe Armand loved him? What do you think they would have needed to feel loved? Or was it a lost cause?

Hi! ❤️

So right out the gate with this one, huh?

I don't think Armand or Daniel thought that the other didn't love them per se. It was more an issue of questioning the depths and/or motives behind that love.

Armand would've easily been able to read mortal Daniel's thoughts and know what he felt (even when Daniel didn't realize it himself). And remember that Armand hasn't been in a relationship with a human since he himself was human (or ever had a proper relationship at all, really).

At this point (from Armand's POV), he's used to being rejected (Lestat), abandoned (Marius), and discarded (Louis). There's nothing in his history that indicates his relationship with Daniel can endure, that Daniel would choose to stay with him once he's been given what he wants from Armand over everything else. Furthermore, Armand has no frame of reference (that we're told of) for a functional, loving maker/fledgling relationship.

He has so much trauma with and from his own maker to work through, and all he's seen from Lestat's fledglings is that they've come to hate him, abandon him, and even try to kill him.

And from Daniel's perspective, it's more like, "How can you say you love me if you're willing to watch me die?" He doesn't have any knowledge of Armand's history at this point to understand why he's so utterly resistant to the idea. All Daniel knows about Armand's past is what Louis told him in the interview, and I think these two passages would've stood out to him in particular:

“‘Love?’ I asked. ‘There was love between you and the vampire who made you?’ I leaned forward. “‘Yes,’ he [Armand] said. ‘A love so strong he couldn’t allow me to grow old and die. [...]’”

It is for you [Louis] that I’ve been waiting at the Théâtre des Vampires. If I knew a mortal of that sensitivity, that pain, that focus, I would make him a vampire in an instant. But such can rarely be done.

Whether or not Armand meant what he said when he said these things to Louis, it must have been such a painful struggle for Daniel to reconcile that knowledge with all the worldly goods and expressions of love Armand bestowed upon him. QotD says they never discussed the contents of IWTV, so I have to wonder whether this ever came up, because how could it not?

I think Armand turning Daniel was what proved to Daniel that Armand truly did love him as much as he professed to. But already, as soon as he's lost that mental link, Armand starts questioning him:

"I love you," Daniel said. "Are you certain?" Armand answered.

Armand can no longer be certain; he has to take Daniel at his word, and doing so puts him in an extremely vulnerable position.

Even in the beautiful image of the garden he projects for Daniel during his turning, Armand still depicts himself in it being dressed as the ruthless, dusty, forgotten coven master. Which I think illustrates everything we need to know about Armand's sense of self-worth here. He sees himself being the person he was at the worst period of his life, and he can't accept that Daniel would come to see him any differently.

In my opinion, The Story of Daniel & Armand, Part One couldn't have ended any differently. Armand needed to be able to heal first and to prove to himself that he was capable of breaking the cycle of failed relationships (which he did with Louis, and I also think seeing Louis work to mend his relationship with his own maker helped drive the point home as well).

They did live happily ever after, so we have that at least?

[suyooo]

Hello!

I'm creating a GDQ break channel as a coding exercise and I couldn't help but notice your Mega Man one is incredible. I was wondering what, if any, tools you used to work with sprites and 2D animation in general. I'm new to PIXI and animation as code in general so any tips would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Hey, thank you so much! I didn't know much about PIXI before either, so when I started the Mega Man channel, it was mainly just reading the code of the other channels that do something similar to what I did, and seeing how it works there. For me, that channel was Corvimae's T-Rex Runner channel, it's a fairly simple one with a bunch of examples of working with 2D sprites in PIXI!

(For others seeing this post: Here's a link to the channels on the break screens on Games Done Quick streams - they are open-source, and anyone can make their own. If you're up for a small coding project and have a neat idea, and want to contribute to the GDQ stream layout, I highly recommend it, it's a lot of fun!)

For sprite animations using frames, one tool that really helped me is Texture Packer. It allows you to take all your seperate sprite files and put them all together into one atlas, so you can access them via references like mySpritesheetVar.textures.coin instead of having to manage all of the texture objects and offsets yourself. That makes sprite animations a lot easier: To create something like the walk cycle, I just loaded all of the frames as seperate layers in GIMP (or whatever image editor you prefer) and aligned all the layers so they lined up like they should when the animation plays. From there, you can export each layer as a seperate file, with all the empty space still around them. These can then be added to Texture Packer, which will take care of trimming off all of that transparency, but it will also make sure everything is aligned just like you set it once the atlas is loaded! You'll have to manually define the animations in the JSON file after exporting it (which is just an array of the file names of the seperate frames). But after that, you can simply assign the animation to any AnimatedSprite object by using a reference like mySpritesheetVar.animations.walkCycle and PIXI will take care of everything. (Don't forget to call the play() method to actually start the animation - that had me confused at first.)

As for animations involving sprite movement, in most cases, you should be able to keep it simple, and just move objects by a constant amount each frame. It's easy to set up, ensures that everything always lines up correctly, and there's often no need for more complicated approaches (especially for a retro-styled channel, where most things move in straight lines anyway). Most of the objects in the MM channel do something like this, such as the shots moving at a constant speed. There's also no need for proper collision detection for objects like them - taking pickups as an example, I just compare their X coordinate against a constant value to see whether it is close enough to the left side of the screen to be collected (which also helps to make sure the items can never be jumped over).

But since the channels are based on games, one tip I can give is to try out a little bit of physics-based animation - if the movement of your sprite works the same as the one from the original game, you can get good-looking results fairly quickly! Jumps, for example, can be done by setting an upwards vertical speed for the sprite and then applying gravity to it every frame, to get a really nice jump arc. For this kind of movement, since you are trying to replicate a game, there's a lot of similarities to code you would write for games. The main difference is that there's no player input, the jumping is instead controlled by donations and timers. So, looking up platformer physics tutorials might help with implementing these animations - to see how the physics behind the movement work, and how you can apply them to the sprites here!

If any questions come up about how something in the MM channel works, feel free to drop me a chat! Looking forward to seeing your channel :)

[tencrowns]

Hello I would love a reading! My question is how to make pyshic antenna stronger? I'm going through a transformational process and I'm having a hard time with self belief. Thank you! N.V.W.

Hi! Thanks for your patience, I didn't really have a great spread for this prepared as I've been focusing on yes/no type questions today. Since I already had my Tomas Hijo LotR sorted the way I needed for a y/n, I grabbed The Labyrinth deck by the same artist and pulled this:

Starting with the far left, This is what you already know. The Chariot. Decisive action and forward movement--you have already determined that this is something you want to do, pretty clearly, and you have the momentum to carry through with it successfully.

Far right: this is "on the other hand." Fate, reversed. If you look closely, you can see that this card is numbered XIII, and is a thematic retitle of the traditional Death. Big change, right? This speaks more to whatever is about to happen as inevitability. Whatever happens as a result of this process is something you can't avoid, and that there may be changes in more than one plane of your life that you may not have yet anticipated. Increased awareness and being in touch with the immaterial may change your perspective on some things in your life that are comfortable right now, and that shift, like all change, may be unsettling.

Card three, bottom center. This represents something you need to change. The three of poles (wands). This card traditionally speaks to collaboration and cooperation. To me, not knowing your situation intimately, suggests that you are trying to tough through this process alone when you don't really need to go through it alone. Even if it's just someone to bounce your experiences and ideas off of to get an outside perspective, I think it's very easy for us as people to get lost in our own sauce and paralyzed by second-guessing or not understanding what we have experienced. Having someone else to push off of, and allowing them to push off of you in turn, can provide valuable insight and the kind of friction you need to get ahold of a tricky idea.

Fourth card, top center. Six of junk (pentacles), reversed. So typically pentacles refer to very material things, or things that have some kind of tangible, monetary value, but this card in this position specifically refers to debt, and I am electing to read this as a debt of energy, for lack of a better term, in the context of your question. There's an unfair exchange going on somewhere in your life that is a problem, though I can't pin whether this is something you are owed or a debt you need fulfill yourself. Is your time and attention being allocated fairly? Developing any skill or your intuition takes a lot of investment of yourself, and if your time and energy is being monopolized by something without good reason, that's a problem, or it could be that something or someone else in your life that you have been neglecting is holding you back from the kind of advancement you're looking for because it's there in the back of your mind, gnawing at you a little bit. I'm not sure which way this is going, but it definitely recommends you do an assessment of any loose ends you might have.

I think the framing on this reading is so interesting, with the two majors on the outside and the minors in the center, mirroring each other in the upright/reversed positions!

[tobi-smp]

hello! i’ve seen some ppl saying that whenever new members ask others why dream is in prison, their answer is never a concrete/real/justified one, and that’s why it’s not really ‘fair’ that dream is in there. what do you think about this? what would you say he’s done to deserve being locked up? (for the record im not even close to being a dream apologist)

I'm not sure I Entirely understand the question, so feel free to elaborate if I don't cover what you're actually asking me for !

the way it makes sense to me is: there's a line between the information that the characters actually have and the full situation. many of the characters would have a difficult time putting it into words because they don't have the full picture of what happened that night or what lead to it.

so it makes sense that a lot of the characters wouldn't know what to say or wouldn't be able to express what they wanted to say the most coherently when randomly prompted by people with No context about the rest of the server. to that end, lets go over what various members of the cast Did actually know about that situation at that point in time.

1: most important here is that they were going to kill dream. dream is in prison because he has a magic revival book that can bring back the dead that he used to bargain for his life. that's why quackity and sam are trying to get the book, because once anyone else has that information they can kill dream (or at least, that was the idea until things changed).

2: Murder. dream did lots of murder and lots of attempted murder. everyone knew that tommy and tubbo (two children) were going there to confront dream and when they found them dream was 10 seconds away from killing tubbo for good. he was also Very Famously a mass murderer with the final control room, where the highest number of canon lives were lost at one time and has yet to be topped. he also Tried to murder the people that made up mexican l'manberg (quackity, sapnap, karl, and george). he chased them all the way into the holy lands and threatened to break the no killing rule, he only didn't because he was talked down by quackity. it's debatable whether or not anyone besides tommy knew that he killed mexican dream at this point, but he definitely did do that. methodically hunted down All three of his lives until he was dead.

I didn't include the duel for independence here, because it was a Duel, but it's kinda scummy to get in a duel with a teenager anyways so that's notable.

3: politics? sort of. dream's whole thing is that he doesn't want anybody to create any factions at all because he wants everybody under his rule. he's played politics before, but the goal has always been in destroying any and all factions. he gave l'manberg its independence, and yet he was trying to encourage jack to betray them the next day. he backed schlatt in the elections, allowed him to come into power, and then played both manberg and pogtopia until both faction leaders were dead. he dethroned eret on a whim, dethroned george on a whim, rethroned eret on a whim, and eret was perfectly aware that dream was completely in control. he of course Did What He Did to mexican l'manberg because he didn't want them to become a new faction, nearly murdered four people. And Then he manipulated new l'manberg until he got his hands on the thing he Actually wanted (the discs) and then promptly burned it to the ground until nothing remained.

it's a blatant abuse of power through and through, and one that affects the entire server whether they realize it or not (and many certainly do).

4: The Weird Shit. he openly admitted to manipulating tubbo, a teenager, in front of most of the server. he burned down the community house and intentionally framed a different teenager that he got exiled for months. that teenager Has Made References to dream having Done something terrible in exile, tried to make dream Admit to what he'd done only for him to refuse. when dream tried to run away that teenager threatened to kill himself if he didn't come back And Dream Did Return. in the location that he was captured he has a vault full of people's attachments from all over server, which tommy said were meant to be used to control them, in that vault there's a cage labeled for skeppy implying dream was going to imprison a Full Ass Person. they only Had a prison because dream commissioned it right before he tried to murder and take a teenager. etc etc etc.

there's more that dream Has done of course, the specifics of what he did to tommy especially. but all of that is what would've been public knowledge at that point, or at least things that various people who showed up would've known individually.

[itsclydebitches]

Hi! I was just watching good omens and I came up with some questions, but I didn't know whom to ask, so I was digging around for go analysis blogs and found you. *takes a breath* So, I was wondering if you had any thoughts on why Heaven's camera angles are the way they are. I noticed that, in heaven, the camera tends to focus on the characters' heads specifically, so they fill most of the screen. Either it's a meta reason or a reference to something (like Newt with the Office) that I'm not getting. That's the main thing, but I've also wondered why exactly Aziraphale uses the verb "fraternize" in the 19th century. It seemed an odd pivot from caring about Crowley's safety to Heaven's rules. Thanks so much!

Hello! Omg yes, let's talk Good Omens cinematography.

First, the obligatory Analysis Disclaimer: I doubt there's a specific interpretation that you're just not getting, some singular, "correct" reading of the scene(s). Two years past release, I'm positive the fandom as a whole has come up with plenty of ideas (I mostly hang on the periphery. I'm far from up to date with GO meta), but any and all of it will, by nature, be subjective. Thus, all I can offer is my own, personal interpretation.

So for me? It's about intimacy.

Not intimacy in the sense of friendship, but rather the broad idea of closeness. Confidentiality. Emotion. Knowledge. Understanding by means of literally getting into the thick of these conversations. I love the camerawork in Heaven (and elsewhere) because the camera itself acts like a person — an additional party to these interactions. And, since we're the ones watching this show via the camera, it makes it feel as if we're peeking into scenes that are otherwise private. Obviously all cinematography does this to a certain extent, the camera is always watching someone or something without acknowledging that we're doing the watching (outside of documentary-esque filmmaking), but GO uses angles and closeups to mimic another person observing these scenes, someone other than the characters involved.

The easiest example I can give here is when Michael makes their call to Ligur. Here, the camera is positioned up on the next landing of the staircase, as if we're sneaking a look down at this otherwise secret call. There's even a moment when the camera pans to the right to look at them through the gap in the railing, briefly obscuring Michael from our view.

Here, a standard expectation of any scene — keep your character in focus — is done away with to instead mimic the movements of someone actually hiding in the stairwell, listening in on the conversation. It creates that feeling of intimacy, as if we're really there with Michael, not just watching Michael through a screen. The camerawork acts like a person overhearing an illicit conversation prior to falling back on mid/closeup shots. We're spying on them.

To give a non-Heaven example, the camera helps us connect with Aziraphale during Gabriel's jogging scene. It's hard to show through screenshots, but if you re-watch you'll see that the camera initially keeps them both in the frame with full body shots, allowing us to compare things like Gabriel's unadorned gray workout clothes with Aziraphale's more stylish outfit; one's good jogging form and the other's awkward shuffle. However, this distance also creates the sense that we're jogging with them, we're keeping pace.

That is, until Aziraphale begins to lag. Then the camera lags too, giving them both the chance to catch up, so to speak.

Until, finally, Aziraphale has to stop completely and the camera, of course, stops with him. We're emotionally attuned to Aziraphale, not Gabriel, and the camerawork reflects that. Even more-so when we cut to a low shot of Gabriel's annoyed huff at having to stop at all, making him appear larger and more imposing. Because to Aziraphale, he is.

This work carries over into Heaven's other scenes. The closeups are pretty much a given since, whether it's Gabriel realizing Aziraphale has been "fraternizing" with Crowley (more on that below!), or Aziraphale choosing to go back to Earth, the scenes in Heaven are incredibly important to the narrative. Closeups allow the viewer to get a good read on each character's emotional state — focusing on minute facial changes as opposed to overall body language — and that fly-on-the-wall feeling is increased as we literally get an up close and personal look at these pivotal moments.

Compare a shot like this one of Gabriel to the line of angels ready for battle. We don't get closeups on any of their faces because their emotions aren't important. Yes, that's in part because they're background characters, not main characters, but a lack of emotion — their willingness to enter this war without question — is also the point of their presence in this scene. So they remain a semi-identical, nearly faceless mass that runs off into infinity down that hallway, not any individual whose inner life we get a peek at via a closeup.

I particularly like Aziraphale's conversation with the angel... general? Idk what to call this guy. He's just gonna be Mustache Angel. But, getting back on track, his scene has a lot of over the shoulder shots which, admittedly, are pretty common. From a practical perspective they're used to help the audience situate both characters in the scene — you're here, you're there, this is how you're spaced during this conversation — but it can also help emphasize that closeness between them. Keeping both characters in the shot connects them and though Aziraphale and Mustache Angel definitely aren't on the same page here, those shots help cue us in to the unwanted intimacy of this moment. They're both angels... even though Aziraphale no longer aligns himself with them. They're both soldiers in a war... but Aziraphale will not fight. This angel has a list of Aziraphale's secrets, including that he once had a flaming sword and lost it... but Aziraphale doesn't want to admit those circumstances to him. This angel wouldn't understand, even if he did. Intimacy here, connection and closeness, is something discomforting because Aziraphale can no longer embrace those similarities. They put him (and us) out of sorts, so when we get them both in frame, that connection creates tension, not relief.

And many of those over the shoulder shots are given sharp angels, or the camera is placed too close to the "off screen" party. Compare a shot like Luke and Rey to Aziraphale and Mustache Angel. Here, Luke is a clean, solid line on the left side of the screen, just enough there to cue us in to where he is in relationship to Ray, In contrast, Mustache Angel's mustache is Too Close and proves rather distracting. Rey and Luke are connecting here over being Jedi with responsibilities to uphold (or at least, Luke will acknowledge that connection later lol); Mustache Angel is forcing a connection with Aziraphale that makes everyone uncomfortable.

We are too close to him here. He feels too close to Aziraphale too. This whole conversation is upsetting and discomforting, pushing Aziraphale to finally choose which side he's on (his own with Crowley). The shots aren't meant to subtly keep the audience from getting lost and then otherwise be unobtrusive, we're supposed to be Very Aware of this angel's body and how close he's getting to the character we've come to identify with — both literally (he's leaning in) and in terms of forcing Aziraphale to finally make his choice.

When Mustache Angel marches forward and gets all up in Aziraphale's face, the camera positions itself behind Aziraphale in a way that makes it feel like we're hiding behind him, with Aziraphale taking up far more of the screen than Luke does. Like the scene with Michael or running with Gabriel, the camera often likes to mimic a "realistic" response to these events. This angry, shouty angel is getting closer, best take a step back and stay out of sight behind Aziraphale, holding his ground.

These closeups also serve as a nice contrast to the wide and longshots we get of Heaven. It's an imposing place with skyscrapers in the distance, lots of steel, immaculate floors, and endless white. It's overwhelming and it's cold. But then we cut to those mid-shots of Gabriel and Michael, telling us that they're in control of it all.

Aziraphale? Aziraphale is not in control. Not now, anyway. When he appears in Heaven we get a longshot to show off this endless void and he's just another, tiny speck in it. If he weren't flailing around — an acting move that likewise helps sell how out of his depth he is — it's unlikely you'd even notice him. Aziraphale's clothing and hair blends in perfectly with the background. He's forgettable. Easily overlooked. Someone to underestimate. And when he moves, he has to come to the camera. We don't cut to Aziraphale to establish control like we do with Gabriel. He's left to awkwardly shuffle up to Mustache Angel until he's finally come into view.

Yet when Aziraphale makes his decision, he aligns himself with the brightest, most colorful, most interesting thing in the room: Earth. Earth, with all its messy individuality, is the antithesis to Heaven's controlled uniformity and a bright blue orb hanging in the midst of all this white helps remind us of that. Aziraphale rejects becoming one of the identical soldiers and instead literally reaches out for the one thing in Heaven that doesn't fit in.

When he leaves, we get an extreme closeup for the first time. Mustache Angel is pissed and as such we not only get a good look at his face in the aftermath of Aziraphale's choice, but that extreme closeup on his mouth as he's shouting too. It's like he's shouting directly at us, the viewer who is currently cheering on Aziraphale's decision. There's a war, dammit... but we don't care. Not in the way he cares, anyway.

So there's a lot! And I could probably go on, but apparently I'm only allowed to add 10 images per post now (tumblr what the actual fuck if anyone knows a way around this please share!) and I've already had to merge a bunch of images like an animal. So let's awkwardly finish up with the duck pond scene.

...without a GIF because they apparently count as images too 🙃

Simply put, I don't think Aziraphale bringing up fraternizing is a pivot from one to the other — from caring about Crowley to caring about Heaven's rules. I mean yes, Aziraphale is lagging behind Crowley in terms of rebellion and a part of him is, at this point, absolutely concerned with how he'll come across to the higherups, but that worry doesn't stem solely from a (now very shaky) desire to obey for the sake of obeying. The thing is, Aziraphale's disobedience is, by default, also Crowley's disobedience. If they're friends and they're ever found out, they'll both get in trouble. Which, we know from the end of Season One, basically means being wiped from existence. That's horrifying! And it's a horror that threatens them both. I don't think Aziraphale cares about rules for the sake of rules; after all, he started off by giving away his sword, lying to God, is currently meeting with Crowley anyway... this angel has always ignored/bent the rules — established and implied — that don't suit him. Rather, he cares about the rules if he thinks they have a chance of being enforced. If there will be consequences for breaking and bending them. This is still about caring for Crowley (as well as saving his own, angelic skin). If they're found out, Crowley dies. And, as we the viewer learn, Heaven was indeed observing them that whole time. There was always legitimate risk attached to this relationship. Aziraphale's fear, hesitance, and at times forceful pleas to stop this stem as much from Aziraphale worrying about Crowley's safety as they do a learned instinct to obey the rules without question. He pushes to end the relationship because the relationship threatens the only thing Aziraphale cares about more than that: Crowley himself.

As for the term "fraternizing," that's a loaded one! I won't go into a whole history lesson here, but suffice to say it has military roots: to sympathize as brothers with an opponent. That is literally what Crowley and Aziraphale are doing. They are an angel and a demon, supposedly innate enemies, supposedly poised for an inevitable war... yet they've formed an incredibly strong kinship. They've both learned to love their enemy, the thing every army fears because, well, then your army won't fight (just as Aziraphale won't). However, beyond the enemy implications, "to fraternize" eventually took on a sexual meaning: to not merely love as a brother, but to lay with the enemy too, usually women from enemy countries (because, you know, heteronormativity). Nowadays, "to fraternize" often implies a sexual component. I've been rewatching The Good Wife lately and in one subplot, the State's Attorney cracks down on fraternization in his office. He doesn't mean his employees are forming bonds with assumed enemies, he means his employees are having sex on his office couch. So Aziraphale's phrasing here carries a LOT of weight. He's both reminding Crowley of their stations in the world — you are a demon, I am an angel, us meeting like this can have formal, irrevocable consequences for us both — as well as, given the fact that this is a love story, drawing attention to the depth of this relationship. They love one another, as more than just friends. Though whether Crowley's scathing "Fraternizing?" is a response to Aziraphale falling back on the technicalities of their positions, or acknowledging a love he's yet to overtly admit and commit to — or both! — is definitely up for debate.

[rebelcourtesan]

How to Commission Artwork

Since I've seen people not know how to be decent and negotiate with artists when it comes to commission fanart/art, etc. I've written up a handy guide on how to do so.

Pay with MONEY!!!!!

I don't care if its your birthday or how big of a fan you are of the artist, expect to pay with money. I've seen posts about commissioners trying to get art for free. And when the artist stands their ground about charging money, they get all offended and insulting.

There is so much wrong with this. Art takes TIME. There is sketching, line art, coloring, shading, and then rendering which takes time, and even more so if the art requested is complex or has multiple subjects and a background. There are artists who love their jobs, they key word being JOB!!! It's a job! If you spent a lot of time working on something for someone else's benefit, then you'd want to be paid for it!

I know we've all seen videos of people speeding through art and painting, but remember, those videos are sped up and likely put together in a video editor to cut out the times the artist took breaks.

With that being said . . .

2. Be prepared to pay their price!

Most artists will have a commission page listing their prices for sketches, lineart, color, etc and what the price is at bust, half-body, or full body. Expect to pay extra if there are more characters involved.

If the art is complex, then the artist may ask for more money.

3. References, references, references

To give artists a good idea of what you want, please provide them with references!

Here is an artwork of demon Liz with Bjorn, a character from Beautiful Trauma. The art is from @gogiweydes.

When I commission this art, I already had artwork of Liz which I provided, but I didn't have any artwork of Bjorn. So in order to give her an idea of what he should look like, I provided reference pics.

I gave her a general idea about Bjorn being a black bear demon who was a Viking in life with. Then I sent her these pics.

FYI, the second pic if a panel from Blacksad, an awesome animal andromorphic noir comic.

Most artists will do a sketch, let you see it to make any changes or adjustments before doing the in-depth work of line art and coloring. Take advantage of this chance to get the art you want.

4. Be Patient!!!!

As I said before, art takes time! Also, artists have a life of their own to live and sometimes real life happens whether its being hurt or sick, attending other responsibilities such as school or family. Their life does not revolve around your commission!

It's okay to check with in with them if you haven't heard from a while. When you commission the art, and if they don't offer a time frame, politely ask for one and they may give you an estimate, but please, also keep in mind that the unexpected can happen to any of us and be patient and understand when they aren't able to present your commission on time.

5. Be mindful when asking for Sensitive Commissions

When I said sensitive, I mean anything triggering such as violence, NSFW, or abuse. While a lot of artists are cool with it, many are not. Usually, on their commission pages, they'll list what they won't do and you should respect that list! Don't push them to create something they aren't comfortable with.

When commissioning something you aren't sure if they'll be okay with, ask them. Tell them you have a commission that may be triggering or NSFW and in polite terms give them a general description of what you want. Then go from there.

[jraker4]

Heh, whereas I didn't just notice that when one side starts making meta arguments about who is clearly 'winning', that means...well, you get the idea. When you're on the record as thinking Israels should just die, when you're on the record 'proudly' (although at various times you've pretended otherwise) hating Jews, of course it's relevant when you start talking about whether Israel is justified in taking an action or not. It's relevant because you're trying to have it both ways: demanding that Israel be defended for taking actions any nation would take, while also insisting that they should just die and it's good when they do. It's worth reminding you that I'm aware of your bad faith, because it's a classic tactic of the antisemite to pretend they're having a debate with rules, when really they're just looking for any avenue of expressing their bigotry. It's got nothing to do with my thinking I'm 'winning', because there isn't really winning in the traditional sense with a bigot like you. Case in point: you continue to refer to Israel enforcing a blockade 'because of an election', framing it as Israel tyrannizing over politics it doesn't like. When to say that Israel has a political dispute with Hamas is about as much of an understatement as saying you have a healthy acceptance of your own cultural Christianity: Hamas had openly committed to the destruction of Israel and used terrorism to pursue that goal before 2007, and you react with screaming and online stalking when someone points out that your upbringing leaves a lingering impact.

The links you refer to are matters of opinion, not fact, so don't speak as though 'by definition' anything. Especially when one of those opinions includes things like 'as the Soviet Union said...' Though it certainly wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to hear that you were a tankie, it is always amusing when someone behaves as though the Soviet Union were above politics.

'Going too far'? That sort of language is explicit in its claim that there is some level at which Israel would be justified, but they've long since exceeded it. That's why I make a point of bringing up your disingenuousness: you don't actually believe that. You hate Jews, and think they should just die. You're on the record about that. So, no, I'm not going to let it pass without remark when you say things like 'going too far' or 'Israel isn't acting in self-defense'. You don't think Israel can act in self-defense, because you think it should just die.

[ouyangzizhensdad]

i've debated with myself so much about madam yu and saw you rt that post defending her and i read it but it still didn't sit right with me, i'm not chinese but i am from one of those taugh love mom cultures and still find her extra bad, i asked a few chinese people who don't stan the book and they were horrified at the defense and said that it was not normal, sure she shows regular ch mom characteristics but she's like the hyperbole of a ch mom so does anyone own the monopoly of wha's normal?

Hi there anon, 

This is only my pov and I cannot speak from the perspectives of Chinese and Chinese diasporic people, nor for the people who wrote on the topic of Yu-furen (I can only speak of how I interpreted the posts I came across).

My understanding of the situation, however, is that they are not attempting to do with these posts what you are suggesting. You ask “does anyone own the monopoly of what’s normal”, which suggests you believe the posts meant to give a definitive answer on what is ‘normal’ behaviour, when in reality the posts seem to have been made with the opposite aim in mind: to remind people who do not share the cultural background of the intended audience of MDZS that there does not exist a single definition of what constitute “normal” behaviour and that fandom discussions dissecting every single action or word of Yu-furen’s toward any character to portray them as “clear signs of abuse” has been difficult to stomach and might even feel imperialistic for people who have been raised by parents who came from a cultural background where some of these very behaviours are not regarded as abusive.  

These posts, in general, have also seemed to attempt first to explain the nuances of Yu-furen’s relationship to WWX, which often gets wrongfully portrayed as her unequivocally being his adoptive mother or a legal guardian. She is not a mother figure to him and does not act toward him from that position. These have also aimed to remind people that the behaviours and care we feel are “owed” to “children” as a group are spatiotemporally specific, and influenced by a variety of factors--in this case, WWX being the child of a servant and a disciple of the sect. By reminding people that, in her position, in that specific spatiotemporal moment, Yu-furen would have been allowed to be much more extreme in her disciplining or could have simply refused to let WWX stay in Lotus Pier, what I feel these posters are doing is not telling Westerners that they personally think it would be appropriate behaviour towards a child, but rather highlighting that this means something wrt how Yu-furen is characterised in the context of the novel considering that the intended audience of the novel would be aware of that reality. Differently put, that it suggests a framing of Yu-furen as someone that does bark more than she bites even if she does bite. And aside from the irrelevant surface-level readings of Yu-furen as a sort of “girlboss” that seem to originate mostly from the CQL-verse in any case, I’ve never seen anyone suggest that she is irreproachable. All the serious analyses I’ve seen acknowledge that Yu-furen is meant to be a complicated figure or acknowledge that she abuses her authority in the sect by giving WWX punishments she does not bestow on other disciples. What they seem to disagree with is the ways western fans make sweeping generalisations and accusations without the relevant context, which comes off to them as insensitive and coming from a place of cultural ignorance.

Maybe it is time for a discussion that humanist thought, that which underlines so much of our modern understanding of rights and social progress, flattens spatiotemporal differences (or, as they often talked about, cultural differences), staying deeply rooted in Western supremacy when it aims to provide a single answer to what is right and what is a right. It can verge very easily into the evangelical and the imperialistic: we have only to look at the influence of the “global” LGBT movement has had on erasing  localised social organisations and identity markers by superposing themselves unto them as more intelligible ideas through which to barter for rights with the political class. Or worst, by having the “global” LGBT movement frame localised expressions of queerness as not progressive enough or harmful (sometimes I think back at Gaudio’s ethnography of queer men in the Hausa-speaking region of northern Nigeria, and how the men who took on the penetrative role in sex  generally switch to self-reference and being referenced in a feminine way and using “women’s talk”, and thinking “wow, they would be so cancelled or condescended to by tumblr kids 😬”). 

The point of this tangent is not to underline that everything about humanism or its influences on modern life are bad, but that it is an intellectual “tool” that can be do harm and be imperialistic and racist (since it is generally the White, Christian-adjacent, Western standards that are posited as the moral truth that defies differences in cultures and material contexts). And most of the discussions of what “adults” owe to “children” (ideas that are generally treated as homogeneous and clear-cut across time and space, as apriori categories), of what rights are owed to children, exist within these frameworks. Or, they might exist within the framework of “science,” as if science itself cannot be influenced by Western imperialism and researchers’ biases. Reading western language acquisition research and comparing it with cross-cultural ethnographic sociolinguistic research on language acquisition really highlights how some of the science that informs “good parenting” in the West is incapable of realising how much the material and cultural context of the West influences the results that are supposedly controlled. 

Or, again, the idea that science can help us define clearly and once and for all where the line between shitty actions and abuse, or discipline and abuse, should be drawn, is to me one that cannot be dissociated from a belief that science can provide us with definite truths about our existence as social animals as if these sort of truths were not inherently positioned and negotiated. It is an uncomfortable idea, isn’t it, to realise that two people can be against abuse but at the same time not draw the line at the same place? How do we best grapple with the discovery that “abuse” is not an apriori category but rather one that is constructed according to varying forms of positioned and shifting knowledge and experience? I do not have an answer, but I certainly think that fandom arguments will probably not be the best place for that level of philosophical discussions. 

To conclude, anon, I do want to acknowledge that your ask seems to come from a place of concern and perhaps even hurt. And that is perhaps why the posts from Chinese diasporic people in the fandom might appear to you as dismissive or flippant towards the interpretations of other fans of the novel. But perhaps without this prism of concern and/or hurt through which your perception of these analyses are filtered, you might have been able to notice a lot more nuance to their points than what your ask suggests. And that is not a criticism per se, but simply a reminder that, sometimes, some topics are difficult for us to approach clear-headed and to receive differing perspectives in good faith. In any case, I am certainly not the arbiter whose opinion on the topic will finally settle these debates, as such you might want in the future prefer to direct your questions (politely of course) to people who penned such analyses or who can speak from the relevant cultural perspective. If your aim in sending me this ask (because I reblogged a post you disagreed with) was to judge whether I passed your litmus test for being “morally just” to decide whether anything I have to say on any other topic is still worth paying attention to, well I suppose you now have your answer. 

[notafraidofredyellowandblue]

My take on Till..

What follows is my personal take on Till Lindemann, without ever having met him but i occasionally like to ramble and it's sundaymorning and i don't feel like doing something useful yet...so here goes (will probably be long) 🌻

My feeling is that Till is one of those people who is absolutely genuine and authentic. A person who others would describe simply as 'Till is Till'. I would bet that if someone who knew him 30 or 40 years ago, would meet him again today, they'd instantly recognize him and what he does and feel he hadn't changed a bit (not necessarily meaning his looks, because obviously those have changed over the years). His character seems to be very true to himself. He still has the boy/young man in him and his likes and dislikes probably didn't change much either.

That's not to say that he is a 'simple' man. He has many facets and several more 'extreme' than the average person-in-the-street. But in every facet he is what he is and pursues it because he is completely into it. Whether it's the dark side that comes out in his lyrics and poetry, the cutting or burning himself in his performance art, going on his own back to nature, boozing, sex, partying with like-minded people, childlike humor; he has no hesitation about any of it, gives himself completely because *he* wants it and enjoys doing it, not to please others, or because they tell him to. His entourage, the people that often travel with him and hang out, will probably cater to his likes and not try to impose their own likes on him.

For people he has to deal with professionally (making music, shooting videos, doing interviews etc), the trick will be to find a way that is in Till's broad scala of 'things he likes' and if you succeed, he'll be easy to work with and do what you want, without even much discussion. If you don't, i think he'll loose interest quickly and before you know it, he's off doing something else, and then you're done.

Imo he doesn't suffer from the idea that many people have when they get older, that they can't do the things anymore they did when they were young, *because* they got older. If Till thought it was funny to try and nick snacks from grocery stores, he still thinks it's funny now, where others would think "well, we were young kids then, but it isn't appropriate anymore". That others feel the need to explain his actions with "then he was an 'angry' youngster, now he is a quirky grandpa", doesn't bother him, but i doubt he himself feels an explanation is needed, it's just the way he is.

All in all very much a 'What you see is what you get' kind of guy.

Flake

I think Flake is the easiest one for Till to relate to, because like him, Flake is an authentic person: Flake is always Flake. Imo Till likes Flake's dead-pan, and selfdepreciating humor. They share a dressingroom and although they seem to be completely different people with regards to how to do a concert and who to invite for the afterparty, their combination works well for both of them. And Flake likes Till as Till and trusts him completely. I doubt even if Flake had a reservation about something Till does or says, he'd feel the need to say it to him.

Olli

There are few pictures or stories about specifically Till and Olli together, there is relatively little info on Olli himself (outside of concerts). I think Till appreciates Olli's calm and straightforwardness and Olli likes Till to work with, but other than that they may not have that much in common. Maybe in this case the age-difference is also a factor being the oldest and youngest in the band; an difference of 8 years may not seem much when you're in your 50's, but it is when you're in your 20's, and if you've known eachother for as long as they have, that often lingers on in the way you see eachother when you're older.

Schneider

Schneider is imo the one in the band who appeals to his 'young dude' side most. They share a sense of childlike or boyish humor (the little video of Till playing with his loose fingernail would imo be something that would amuse Schneider as well). When they did the video of Ohne Dich and Till joked with Schneider to have a threesome with one of the dummies. I think Schneider enjoys this side of Till, but doesn't necessarily understand all aspects of Till. He might joke along about sex or the darker lyrics, because he thinks it's all for fun and for a laugh, and then is a bit confused when Till actually writes the lyrics down and 'means' them. I think Till's performance art is way out of Schneider's comfortzone and even out of Schneider's entire frame of reference. (And i still think that Schneider unfollowed the Till_Lindemann_Official account on IG after the 'BJ under the drumstage' video showed up; not that that account is maintained by Till anyway, and nowadays it's mainly used to plug merch, so maybe that's why Schneider unfollowed).

Paul

Paul is the one (also mentioned this in another ramble post) i think who is most acceptant of the extremer sides of Till, up to a certain point. And when in Rammstein, Paul tries to coax Till to stay within certain boundaries. Paul knows how to get Till to only go as far as Paul thinks is okay, secretly imposing his own way on Till, but wrapping it in a way that Till accepts it and goes along. Till likes Paul, his humor, clowning around with him on stage (and probably off it as well). The one thing I think Till doesn't like is when Paul starts arguing or quarreling and he only tolerates it as long as he doesn't have to get involved himself. Without Paul's meddling the band probably wouldn't be what it is today, and in the end that is appreciated, but during the proces, i think Till rather leaves to have a beer or two (or four) and wait for the Paul-storm to have subsided. Paul has probably mellowed down over the years and isn't as blunt or sharp anymore as in his youth, and this makes it easier to relax and have a good time together, but i don't think Paul would soon join Till's entourage.

Richard

Richard is the one Till has known longest and probably best of the band. They lived together when they were young, went on holidays, shared views on sex and relationships and loved to go partying (even though Richard's vice was always more drugs than alcohol, but that didn't matter in having a good time). They also shared the experience of not having a good childhood, and it was probably of comfort to them both to have someone who understood that. And they are a shared family, having a daughter each with the same woman, and for Richard family is no.1. They also complement eachother in their work. There are loads of interviews where Richard is gushing over Till as a writer, a person, a friend, without even having to be asked (he'll just bring up the topic himself). Richard takes his work very seriously, wants to achieve new things and still argues if someone wants to meddle with his creations, and imo (see Paul) this is the part Till would rather skip and not get involved with; i could also see that Till doesn't really *get* the overthinking/worrying side of Richard. Likewise, i think Richard doesn't *get* some of the extremer sides of Till, like the 'Till enjoys pain' aspect (i think Richard hates Till being hurt, even he does it himself). I do think that over the years though that unlike Till, Richard *has* changed; which isn't necessarily bad, he seems to have his drugaddiction under control and having a young daughter maybe calmed him down a bit. Maybe there is also a bit of a midlife crisis going on (some people over 50 feel they have reached their peak and just want to go on relaxed until their pension, but Richard certainly isn't one of those). Imo this has led to the two not being as close as they once were; i think Richard regrets it more than Till. Richard has mentioned how Till doesn't seem to have a lot time, and with that he probably means one-on-one time. From Till's point of view, Richard is the one who changed his fancies and likes (never directly refering to him in interviews but occasionally mentioning not being into something like yoga or therapy, which have helped Richard a lot over the years).

See...told you it would be long...for what it's worth: which is nothing 🍀

[verdant-nem]

Keeping my promise and giving a bonus drawing reimagining the bathing scene prior to the wedding (which from what I could find is actually a tradition in ancient greek weddings)

I apologize if it looks wonky and flat, my phone is not cooperating as of recently ^_^

(it also has my Daphne redesign)

"We are with you Kore, we'll help you get through this"

Alright! Now below are my ideas (ramblings) for rewriting the wedding scene and part of the trial arc (the Kronos arc will have to wait ) sorry I wrote a lot and I still

Some footnotes for the design of Hades and Persephone's dress:

• I wanted the brothers to look related, so I am going to use different shades of blue for their skin but try to make them look somewhat similar in body type and structure, even if Hades is a more emaciated (I really need some reference sheets because I'm bad at drawing that body type)

•Made his hair lighter like it was in the first chapters, adding a star/galaxy motif to look more like his father, and red eyes when he is calm and a dark blue when angered

•As for Persephone, I wanted it to be more of a statement. She is marrying Hades out of need and I would like it if she made that clear. The black dress is meant to evoke the pomegranate she will eat with the sleeves and collar. Her necklace has the nine seeds on them, while her hair was Hades' choice and was made to resemble Rhea's (He canonically has Oedipus's complex so I wanted to do something for it)

Now for the plot:

• In Withering Spring (my rewrite/reimagining) the wedding between Persephone and Hades happens a lot earlier since my Persephone is already more than a century old

•It's actually what I'm working on, but the panels in the trial with hades and Persephone fading away could have worked better if it was Demeter and her.

• It is a consequence of Persephone's trial, in which Zeus decrees that she be put in the care of Hades in the underworld to take care of the souls of mortals she killed in her act of wrath. Since I liked the idea that Zeus is helping Hades get with Persephone, I think he would also do this to "reward" Hades for reporting Kore (instead of Apollo, who in this au is part of the later plot to overthrow Zeus with Athena and Hera , tries to convince her too)

• Hades basically tricks Persephone into staying in the underworld under his protection during the trial, in which Kore actually communicates with nymphs that grew up and lived with Demeter to search for her outside the underworld.

•For Kore's punishment to end, she has to marry Hades in order to get the power and influence necessary to actually help the shades

• A small thing I am still questioning whether to put or not: Persephone's powers fading away as a result of staying too long in the underworld (even in her internship, she didn't stay more than a few days at a time before returning to Artemis with Hermes). It would add stakes as to why she needs to marry Hades so quickly and the Kronos plot too. If anyone has any corrections/suggestions I'm all ears.

• Back to the verdicts, Demeter is sent to the Mortal Realm and stripped of her powers for abusing them to keep the truth from Zeus. Demeter's storyline follows that of the Hymn.

• Since my version of Kore is quite stubborn, I think she would try to escape and rejoin her mother in the mortal realm,in which she is pretty good at blending in with mortals. I didn't mention much Leto until now, my redesign for her is still in the works as I try to find more on her, but she and Demeter are close friends in Withering Spring (Demeter sympathises with her) and she is quite good at hiding from wrathful gods she is the one who reunites the two.

•The proposal scene turns instead into the kidnapping of Persephone (Really like the framing in there and the moths/butterflies, a few adjustments and it would fit the original myth beautifully)

• Something that irks me is how we are always told she is the most compassionate goddess and how she is so kind to minorities but it goes nowhere and is even shown otherwise in the narrative. So in WS, one small change is the majority of the underworld loves their new queen and even prefers her to Hades (who is shown they are afraid of)

The wedding

Introducing my full Hades redesign and me trying to correct persephone's gown to actually have a meaning

I will reblog later with a few design notes and story ideas related to the kidnapping and the wedding