#stelera speaks

[stelera]

I'm curious if anyone's asked this question, but what made you ship them?

I know cross shipping is a thing, but what made you ship them.

Once upon a time in 2009, in the darkness of the wings backstage of a school play, two highschool best friends wrote a very silly crack fic together in a spiral notebook.

No but for real back in highschool I met my best friend when we were both extras in a school musical (and we are still best friends now 14 years later). We were both part of the weeb crowd and while we had seen each other around the same social group we hadn't really talked or interacted much. We knew we both liked anime though, and turned out we both liked RP too, so we got a spiral notebook and started to RP together at rehearsals when we had downtime (and as chorus members there was lots of down time). The problem with this was that we didn't actually watch the same anime. I was rabidly into Naruto Shippuden and my bestie was very into Inuyasha.

I will admit I tried to watch Inuyasha to the best of my abilities at the time, but I didn't have a TV in my bedroom so I had to try and sneak out into the family room and turn the volume down super low and watch it on Toonami at 4am (wretched time), but I only managed to catch a few episodes this way before I gave up.

To solve this conundrum, we just... RPed with our favorite characters from our favorite animes and called it a crossover! My bestie figured out most of the initial time travel stuff and we just had a really fun time with it! Honestly it was a tough call between Inuyasha and Koga for my bestie's favorite character so our ship was almost Koga/Deidara but it's good it turned out the way it did.

Later in college after writing two sequels to the original fic, we re-wrote the original, but we really didn't have the skills to do it justice. I re-read that re-write back in maybe late 2021 early 2022 and just got bitten real hard by the nostalgia bug and started re-writing it. I've also revisited all of the source material (re-watched Shippuden and finally got around to watching Inuyasha twice now!) and really fleshed out a lot of the lore that was left bare-bones at best in our first couple passes. In doing so though, I really only made myself love the ship more.

I know it's just this obscure little crossover with strange and humble beginnings but honestly? To me at least... they're kind of accidentally great for each other. To Inuyasha, Deidara is someone who can keep up with him physically, who he doesn't have to worry about (usually) in a fight, who rolls with his temper and his banter without taking it too personally, who can be genuine with him and doesn't play mind-games with him, who doesn't see him as in any way lesser and doesn't treat his demonic heritage as an obstacle, who even admires him all the more for who he is without the desire to change him. To Deidara, Inuyasha is someone who makes him want to be better, who doesn't judge him for the darkness of his own past, who even shares in some of that darkness without letting it define him, who can roll with his off-color sense of humor while still being serious when necessary, who can care for him deeply and openly without strings attached, who can be someone he can heal with, who gives him the affection he's been starving for his whole life.

There are just... so many ways they mesh together well, if I sat here and kept waxing poetic about them, I'd have to open a candle barn.

idk if there's even a way to TL;DR this... they're good FeralXFeral energy. Rough, rowdy bros who fight hard, banter sharp, and love fierce, and whose jagged edges fit together surprisingly well.

[stelera]

And for when they want to talk about it, sometimes "do you want advice, or just validation?" goes a long way. Sometimes our instinct is to try and help by suggesting solutions, but sometimes when we're upset and hurting, what we really need is someone to tell us "that sucks I'm so sorry" and knowing which to give can help a lot.

“Do you want to talk about it or be distracted from it” is honestly the best thing you can say to me when I say im sad/in pain etc.

[stelera]

good morning! i found one of your InuDei comms in the wild, and it was SUCH a blast from the past i had to drop into your askbox. your InuDei fics left an incredible impression on me, such that i still think about them a whole actual decade later. crackships get left by the wayside a lot, since they aren't "serious", but they are the truest definition of Playing With Barbies and i love them. i love yours!

(my Playing With Barbies ship is Xigbar/Deidara [XigDei], which i write with my sister as a means of keeping in touch and makin' stuff together.)

anyways! your InuDei comm made me light up like the sun, so i wanted to share how much it meant and still means to me. thank you for your time and for sharing InuDei, and i hope you have a really wonderful day! take care!

Bro, you're gonna make me cry. Waking up to this is so wonderful. Like I am so genuinely touched that there are still people out there who remember InuDei from way back in the Deviantart and FFN days. The fact that you even still think about it a decade later is just so mindblowingly sweet to me. InuDei was a crossover ship I started in high school with my best friend, and we wrote it for years before finally falling off with it in favor of other interests. I re-read our first fic back in 2021 I think and got bitten hard by the nostalgia bug and rewrote the first fic and have been working on rewriting the second (I've gotten myself kinda stuck on chapter 10 but I will persevere).

Crossover ships are such a special thing, I think. They really are the purest form of indulgence of the blorbos, and the more I learn about and see other people's crossover ships, the more they really grow on me. What you and your sister have with XigDei is something so special, and you'll treasure it for a lifetime, even if it gets dusty in a box somewhere for a little while.

I will absolutely have a wonderful day now, because this ask has really and truly made it wonderful. 💞 💞 💞

[stelera]

Hi there! Sorry for the random ask, but along with that excellent fishing Deidara art you posted a while ago you mentioned art of another feral blonde guy catching a fish with his mouth? Would you happen to still have that image, just out of curiosity?

Actually yeah! He sent it to me in a tumblr message so I just had to scroll a ways to find it.

Shoutout to @nekojirou's great art

His name is Thorfinn, but I'm not familiar with the character or the source material. And the pose was apparently based on this picture, which I also didn't recognize. Hence why the pose I drew was slightly different.

It is entirely possible that I just live under a rock and play with my little blorbos like dolls.

[stelera]

when u get this u have to put 5 songs 🎵 u actually listen to, publicly. then, send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers (non-negotiable, positivity is cool)✨

I'm gonna put down the most recent songs I've binged because I generally listen to a single song on repeat for a week straight or longer.

Electric Feel (Justice Remix) - MGMT

2. Bury the Light (DMC5 Special Edition OST) - Casey Edwards/Victor Borba

3. Жу-жу [Ju Ju] (feat. Глюк'oZa, ST [Gluk'oza St]) - Ленинград [Leningrad]

4. Nightmare Parade - FAKE TYPE

5. Material Girl (Heavy Metal Cover) - Leo Moracchioli

[stelera]

Hey! I'm planning out my Strive cosplay too and you're the only other person I've seen do one! I'm kind of a sewing n00b so if you have any pattern recommendations that would be awesome (for the shawl/poncho, shirt, and boots especially). I was also wondering how you did the chest gem? I would think something like resin + LEDs sort of the way Nigri does her Syndragosa but I'm not 100% sure if that's the best way to go. Any tips and tricks would be totally appreciated!!

This reply turned into a dash-stretcher, so I’m putting the answer below a cut!!

I wish I could help more with the patterns, but the ones I used were made custom for this project. If I could just give you a McCall’s pattern number I would do that in a heartbeat. I’ll do my best to describe how they’re put together and maybe that will help you, but I’m a sewing newbie too and got a lot of help from a seamstress friend breathing down the back of my neck.

I can give you the gist though, the tunic is two pieces, no sleeves, flared more at the bottom and tighter to the chest at the top. There’s some funky stuff going on on the chest but I’ll get to that when I talk about the gem core.

The capelet is five pieces counting the lining, but the outer layer and the lining are the same shape (I recommend cutting them separately though). There is a front piece and a back piece and the seams are along the shoulders, and the collar is kind of like a turtleneck, one piece sewn together into a ring, then folded over on itself once, then the whole thing, inner and outer layers sewn together at the neck hole. I wanted the collar especially to fit to the skin, so I used stretch fabrics. If you’re going that route, then for the neck hole and the tunic you will want to use stretch stitches (I used a serger for a lot of the inside seams, but I don’t recommend this unless you have experienced supervision because sergers eat projects if you’re not extra careful, and even with supervision I still cut a pin in half with the dang thing). If you’re using a less stretchy fabric (like a woven fabric) you will need to include an access if you want the collar to be fitted, so a button or a zipper in the back of the cape. I used a rayon for the outer maroon color, and a swimsuit fabric for the lining. I recommend a slippy fabric for the lining, whatever you pick, because you want the capelet to slide rather than stretch, so you can have a nice clean line around the outside seam. (I used a straight stitch, inverted the fabric, steam pressed to get the line very crisp, then a straight top stitch.)

The boots were probably the simplest part? I probably overdesigned them when making them, but it’s all good. I got some cheap comfortable boots on Amazon (you can do like slouchy fake leather boots as long as they’re cheap, that’s how I do most of my cosplay boots, just wreck some cheap boots off Amazon) you might look at some knock-off Uggs for the right boot shape? I didn’t think of that at the time, but I should have. The spats on the boots I made kinda just by tracing around the outside of the boot and giving myself lots of extra room. The star shape I made by coating one of the boots in masking tape, drawing the shape I wanted on it, then peeling the tape off, laying it on some plastic wrap, and cutting out the shape I drew. The stars are also made of a fleece material so they’re very stretchy and just kinda conform to the shape of the boot very readily.

The belt and the boot straps are just some elastic I got at JoAnn’s with some hooks.

Okay so then the gem core.

My first thought was to resin cast the gem core, like you said, but with the weight of the LEDs and the battery pack I got concerned about the integrity of the tunic holding it all up (because I used a knit, it stretches even vertically). So rather than going the resin cast route, I had a friend of mine who has a home 3D printer print out the shape in a transparent blue plastic. It’s super lightweight.

The inside circuit is four LEDs, two sets of two in series, in parallel with one another.

I used a 6V coin cell battery pack using two 2032s. In theory it should run for about 6 hours of continuous use.

And the whole thing mounts onto the tunic using velcro. The front of the tunic is reinforced with iron-on interfacing and the white star behind the gem is made with ultrasuede which gives it a lot more support, and behind the gem is a pocket for the battery pack.

Hope this gives you some ideas! But this is definitely not the only way to do things and I totally encourage you to try things out and see what else works for your cosplay!

[stelera]

i love your strive ears! i was really curious on how you made them movable/positionable, im looking to do the same thing and it would be so helpful thank you!!

Yo! I've talked about this on a couple other posts. I don't have good close ups on the joints, but the ears are actually made poseable with Lego joint pieces.

Check out these posts for a little more in depth talk about the process!

https://stelera.tumblr.com/post/185638762898/samanthaauburn-stelera-at-cosplacon-this

https://stelera.tumblr.com/post/185691304893/i-saw-ur-strive-cosplay-and-swore-those-ears-were

[stelera]

Y'all need to look at this valentine my dad brought me!! I know this probably wasn't it's original purpose but it's the perfect valentine for your asexual daughter 😍💌

[stelera]

31. What is your favorite class? Favorite race?

I’m a simple person. I like centaurs, and I like drow (also driders because duh). I also like robots but I’ve yet to play a warforged (which is a real shame tbh, because I would like to) though I have played a possessed sword... I really like playing tanks and healers. I’m not super big on combat myself, so I like to do my best to facilitate combat for others :)

[stelera]

for the D&D meme: 5. Favorite NPC. 9. Your favorite thing about D&D. 21. Have you ever regretted something your character has done? 22. What color was your first dragon?

5) Favorite NPCGosh there are a lot of good ones!! From Underdark I love Borby so much, and Shumsha!! And Barl Meatbane! And Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch! And I don’t know if we got a name but I also thought that girl from Josie’s place who was a cleric of a goddess of adventure who just gave me a real Tracer vibe... I thought she was cool! And Josephine too! And Xalatan obviously.From C&G there’s also a lot of really good ones I just love them all! Klyve and Father Danbrook, and Dastron if he still counts, and Emilio Pinweather! And the Weaver! And Lacrimosa! And Hope! And look I know I already said Klyve but also... like... Klyve.And from Titan’s Hand and like whatever Orrin’s new game is called... Obviously Marty. I’m sorry I accidentally insulted his mechanical daughter >’:

9) Your favorite thing about D&DI mean I love the roleplay obviously. I think my favorite thing is getting to tell a really cool awesome story with all your friends!! I think the story is always the best part!! And sometimes the real story is the friends we made along the way!!21)Have you ever regretted something your character has done?Early Clyde, before I actually gave him a real backstory because I’m dumb, was just real regrettable over all. Can we just retcon all of early Clyde? Like he used to be a blithely ignorant Jehovah's witness for foxes? Let’s not.22) What color was your first dragon?I feel like there might have been some kind of dragonling at some point but Zaran is the first dragon I remember and he’s purple!! And he’s also my pen pal and I forgot to mention him among my favorite NPCs but I love him too!! I should see how he’s doing...

[stelera]

Denavir's backstory is 30k words and counting, and it only covers the most recent 6 months ish of his life, and not the previous 128 years.

god I love my players so much I asked them to flesh out their backstories a bit before the next session and one of the first time party members just shared a google folder with me that has a 3 page documentation of her life story and a powerpoint with pictures that match her aesthetic im-

[stelera]

So...

Since Tumblr is signing it's own death warrant on the 17th, where do we all go now?

I legitimately don't have another social media platform lined up as a backup, and since tumblr broke the search feature on my own blog, I'm unable to actually cultivate my own content. I know there is some NSFW stuff in there, but without combing through 7 years of content by hand I won't be able to find it to bring my blog up to the new tumblr standard. My blog may well be deleted. If that happens... I don't have an alternate social media account to default to. So...

Where do I go? Where do we go to stay together?... I don't want to lose this weird collective online family... where do we go?

[stelera]

Tagged by @cheshireswoon

Guess I’ll tag @pleasedontstealmysoul @watchnotover @your-old-so-and-so and @its-just-a-phage 

[stelera]

@pleasedontstealmysoul got me the best ever birthday cake ever!!!!!!

[stelera]

So I made the perfect grilled cheese last night...

[stelera]

I think @staff will never understand why I hate having recommended posts seeded into my feed. It's not that the algorithm is bad, it's that I have no desire to see the content of users I haven't carefully screened beforehand, because tumblr is a festering hive of racists, bigots, actual neo nazis, porn bots, violent aphobes, pedophiles, DDLG kinksters, and incest fetishists and I don't trust anyone I haven't carefully screened beforehand. I have taken responsibility for my own tumblr experience, and cultivated the kind of content I want to see. Don't give me the content of people I don't know, that ruins the whole purpose of letting people control their own experiences on tumblr.

At the very least give me the ability to turn recommendations off. Maybe other people like them, but I do not.