#still gotta mess with it a bit more

[kelbunny]

Wip sketch for a redraw of that one sketch in the Tristrat artbook that was one of two things that got me interested in shipping these two haha

[bacchuschucklefuck]

oh fuck I got class swap fabian I think. I kiiinda know what I want him to look like now

[spotaus]

Thinking about Orchid and her connection to my take on Gender (because this was meant to be about her and the Crew but it just devolved into a character analysis kinda??? More trauma-dumping maybe???) This is very much an oc/personal rant so feel free to ignore it 🫡

So, Orchid started off as a character I didn't really think much of (hear me out this is going to be relevant) because I wanted to add a 'girl' character but didn't know what to *do* with her, y'know? She was always going to be the strongest one there, she had the odds stacked in her favor with her parents. She was always going to be the gloomy side-character to match Reset's energy. But I think she's gone through every stage of Generic Woman I could possibly find.

At first she was angry and abrasive (think Fell!Sans) where every other word was a curse and she was likely to throw the first punch then laugh as she kicks her enemy while they're down. This was when Reset was a cartoonishly self-centered villain whose goal was simply to prove others wrong. Then Orchid became a sort of sisterly figure. This was short-lived, but she was the one comforting people who Reset would torment, but would ultimately follow his orders, because at this point he was actually a danger and sadistic. And then there was the phase where the story mellowed out and she became the token Goth Girl who, yes she was strong, but was heavy on the 'whatever' energy. Then there was her Era of deep self-loathing and anxiety about her worth that held her back and made her a much more timid and meek character who would only lash out on occasion.

Now, Orchid is the best of those iterations I've written yet. She's calm, level-headed, and a natural leader. Her father raised those traits into her. But she's very reactive, and can be silly, and when she's comfortable it's likely that air of importance transforms into something more comfortable and familiar. She laughs loudly and grins wide, she likes loud video-games but loves to read in the quiet. She's extremely disciplined, and normally no one can get through her tough exterior besides her best friend, Reset. She does what she does for her own enjoyment, sure, but she's thought of every angle and makes her choice to help Reset and control the others with her whole chest. She still worries she won't live up to her invisible expectations, and that and her loyalty are her two driving forces.

I know that Orchid is important to me because she's the longest-running female oc I've had. I have a rough relationship with womanhood/girlhood and I know looking back that Orchid recieved every ounce of my distaste for being a woman that I could shovel into her. That never made her less of a character, she was actually always one of my favorites, and rarely was she a 'punching bag oc'. I just... projected onto her a lot. And she's a good sign of how I've learned who I am. I've decided that my own femininity is something I could live without. I'd rather not associate myself with it, and I'd like to leave it in my past, focusing on a future where I'm not tied down with any gender roles or expectations. That won't happen, but I've come to terms with it myself. Orchid though? I figured out through her that I don't have to hate women characters. My own distaste for my circumstances doesn't mean I have to push it onto my characters (on God I've never expressed anything rude to actual people, that'd be rude as hell and uncalled for, but I have a bad habit of disliking fictional women in media). So, Orchid is a well-roubded character finally. She has motivations abd goals and a *lot* more depth than I ever expected her to. She's happy with being a woman, she's content. She's not treated differently for it in unfair ways by those she cares about, so she doesn't mind it. She likes to wear pretty outfits and lets Reset add bows to her ribbons. She doesn't let being a woman hold her back in the slightest.

So, yeah. Orchid is one of my babies. If I ever leave this Fandom behind for good, she's one that's coming with (Ichor, Orchid, and Pretender all have human designs I can use elsewhere lol-) but in the meantime I'll just rotate her around in my brain for a while longer.

If I'm right, she's been with me for nearly 5-6 years and I went through a *lot* with her as an outlet. So, she's kinda just like an old stuffed animal. A lil ripped, matted fur, maybe a stain or two, but there's a story there and that makes it important beyond belief.

[flufflecat]

dont feed the pyramid

[infizero]

hehehehehehehe

[carcarrot]

i guess im being offered the job lol

[vamp-bites]

So. Uh. Hi. Hello.

I was wondering if you could... Offer some haunted knives au crumbs.... I need to know in excruciating detail about this new ring of Legato hell.

How did u sense that I nearly doubled the word count on my doc for this au the day u sent this... unfortunately I wasn't hashing out the Legato bits but I can tell u what I've got anyway

So far my plan for Legato in this au is not extensive but he will haunt Knives out of the corner of his eye from the point Knives first sets foot back in Octovern to when he's finally face to face with him again in an alleyway in December.

I wanna have Legato haunting him be more of a source of horror for Knives instead of annoyance like Wolfwood, but end with them having a conversation that sort of closes the door on the "Millions Knives" persona for Knives, he officially divorces himself from that identity through divorcing himself from Legato. Legato, to Knives, represents everything he's trying to leave behind him so when this ghost comes crawling out of its grave and clawing at his leg and vouching for its eternal loyalty to him he freaks out and tries his hardest to kick him off him.

at this point Knives has told Vash that he's no longer gonna be "Millions Knives" and will from here on out be just "Knives: a citizen of NoMan's Land" and to make good on his word he believes he needs to leave Legato behind but he's also realizing that he was this guys whole world in life and now that he's dead Knives is the only living entity on the planet that can see/communicate with him and he doesn't know what to do about that because the last thing he wants to do right now is keep Legato around because he feels like every minute he spends with his ghost lurking over him is a minute wasted regressing back from the little progress he's started to make.

basically, Legato needs to pass on and accept rejection and Knives needs to move on and leave his old self behind. and they cannot do that together. so Knives uses a shred of power to physically touch Legato in order to shove him away from him and leaves him in that alleyway.

as of now i haven't 100% decided how Legato ends up but just leaving him in that alleyway doesn't feel right so I'm thinking that later on, when Knives has gotten a bit more of a solid sense of self than he starts off with in the story and the mere presence of Legato doesn't feel like a black hole anymore, he finds him again, still there but slowly fading into a ghostly sludge of a vengeful spirit that can't move on, and they make some amount of peace with each other and Legato passes on. I'm still workshopping it tho

P.S. Knives does ask Legato whether he was in love with him and Legato says he actually isn't sure and its not a yes but its not a no and Knives, local aromantic who recently discovered that romance is not exclusively a human construct, doesn't know what to do with that information because the idea of a human being in human-love with him places him within a human social system that he previously considered himself completely above and suddenly he feels way too much like a normal person having normal person experiences and he finds it uncomfortable because he just decided to play the role of "person" like a week ago and he's new to it

P.P.S. there is a chance their entire initial encounter happens while Knives is slightly tipsy and/or hungover because in my timeline it happens right after he gets drunk for the first time with Livio

[thetangibleghost]

I've always wanted to wake up from a dream laughing and I just did but I realized after I woke up that I have missed a million social cues :((((((((((((((((( it wasn't even funny idk why I couldn't stop giggling. I dont even giggle irl.

[acaciapines]

on today's episode of 'acaica's background thoughts for the dess raises kris au': okay but lets be serious do dess and chara actually stay together in the end--

[velvetwyrme]

I think one of the funniest canonical things about EOVD which never gets mentioned in the fic itself but is true in my mind is that the MC/reader (Dare) as a character just. exists within the comedy genre, and thus inflicts the same genre on everyone else around them.

In the same way that a cartoon character follows cartoon physics, they just run on different rules, except it also affects everyone else around them. Inescapable Comedy Aura.

[inthewild-flowers]

things i have done today to make my room more executive dysfunction friendly: bought a laundry basket to be used only for clean laundry that it would take too much work to put away & relocated my earrings boxes so they r on the shelf by my desk in full view and always open.

[bloodmoonlich]

.

[the-kipsabian]

done with the second worst part of cleaning, i have vacuumed

[victorluvsalice]

Another Game To Add To The List

So -- you guys all know that I like video games. I mean, I post on a pretty regular basis about the antics my Sims in my latest Sims 4 save file are getting up to. And you all know that I love to put my favorite characters in my favorite video games if I'm able to -- or even if I'm not. My current Sim family is my Valicer OT3; my Fallout 4 protagonist is Victor Van Dort (or as close as I can get with FO4's character creator and artstyle), and my Vampire: The Masquerade -- Bloodlines Malkavian Fledgling is Alice Liddell (I may not be able to actually reflect that with her appearance in the game, but I can sure as hell write about her adventures doing all the quests!) I have a vested interest in this sort of thing.

So -- when my friend @gaydragonwizards got me into Baldur's Gate 3, leading me to purchase the game for my birthday using the Steam gift cards my parents had gotten me, I immediately thought, "Okay, so -- Alice has VTMB, and Victor has FO4...but a certain newbie roller coaster OC does not have a game yet. And this one DOES allow you to do a custom character..." Which led to me deciding that Smiler was going to be my "Tav" in BG3! I haven't gotten very far in the game yet (I had to do an early restart to add in a mod patch that the creator was VERY SURE shouldn't be put in an existing playthrough because it fucks with XP and leveling a bit, and then recent hotfixes possibly breaking quest items made me too nervous to play for a bit), but I have gotten my Smiler set up, made it past the Nautiloid segment, and have started exploring the wilderness around the ravaged beach! Here's some shots of Smiler in the game:

Smiler's look from the character creation/level up screen! They're a half-elf with Body #2 and Head #5 because that was the combo that actually looked the most like my Smiler Sim -- have a comparison shot:

It's not a PERFECT match, but nothing was going to be -- it's pretty close, though! The hairstyle is of particular note because that is in fact one of the very first mods I picked up for this game: Alt Lae’zel Hair For Tav! None of the in-game hairstyles had the right sort of "bangs" that my Sim!Smiler sports, so I was REALLY happy to spot this on Nexus Mods to give my Tav!Smiler the right look, at least from the front. :) (And, hilariously, the mod was in fact uploaded ON MY BIRTHDAY, so I'm counting it as an inadvertent birthday present.)

Smiler's arrival on the Ravaged Beach, having just woken up from their little fall out of the Nautiloid! As you can probably guess by the outfit, I started them out as a Bard. That was the class that seemed to make the most sense for them, both from a "the roller coaster in Alton Towers is often associated with upbeat music and dancing, especially after the original Festival of Thrills and The Smiler Takeover, and bards DO get access to a good number of mind control spells" and from a "my personal take on Smiler is that they are super charismatic and want to make as many people happy as possible, and the Bard's high Charisma start combined with the Entertainer background suits that perfectly." XD However, they're not JUST a Bard these days -- thanks to the further power of mods, upon their first level-up, they became a Bard/Artificer! :D I picked that class because it has a whole sub-class dedicated to Alchemy, and one of my headcanons for my Smiler is that chemistry/alchemy (depending on the universe) is their thing. Plus it just looks like a super-cool class and mod. (And yes, I do have 5e Spells and Unlock Level Curve to enhance things further, with the appropriate patches (including ULC's patch to smooth out the weird XP valley while leveling up -- learning about THAT was what prompted me to restart so I could install it). Oh, and the exclamation mark is from Camp Event Notifications -- it's telling me that Smiler should Long Rest soon to get one of the special camp events.)

Smiler hanging out in the Wilderness camp! I came here for the first time after picking up Shadowheart, Astarion, and Gale, and was amazed at just how PRETTY the camp is. I mean, look at that waterfall over by the ruin that houses the Magic Mirror! :D Seriously, this game is gorgeous -- I've spent a decent amount of time just wandering around with the camera, admiring the scenery. XD Anyway, as you can see, Smiler picked up some new clothes -- the main outfit is some basic leather armor, dyed with the dye available in the Traveler's chest (I first dyed their starting jerkin, but hated the resultant color scheme -- I'm not wild about the red arms on this set, but at least the yellow pants and black chestpiece feel right!), while the cape and their new lute are from the Digital Deluxe content -- the "Cape Of The Red Prince" and the "Lute of the Merryweather Bard." (Hey, I got this for my birthday, I wasn't not going to get the Digital Deluxe content!) I had them give the lute a little try in-camp -- the upbeat Bard song DEFINITELY suits them. XD

And finally, Smiler with their current companions, ready to head to the nearby chapel on the beach -- Shadowheart (in some new, slightly better Sturdy Armor), Gale (in his robe and wizard hat), and Astarion (sporting more DD content, the "Bicorne of the Sea Beast" and the "Needle of the Outlaw Rogue" (the dagger on his hip)). They are indeed a motley group. XD Hopefully Smiler's 17 Charisma will allow them to talk their way out of most binds!

Now, you may be thinking at this point, "Well, this is going to spark another AU, isn't it?" And you would be -- partially correct. Allow me to explain by excerpting part of my and Squid's conversation while they were recommending mods to me and I was telling them about my plans to do Tav!Smiler:

Squid: ((though -- there is one thing that has popped into my head. with playing Smiler, obviously you can't have any of your Valicer stuff going on in BG3 by default. and do you really want to give yourself ANOTHER AU by playing as them again :P )) Me: ((Oh, that's not really a worry -- the Valicer in the Dark crew already fucking claimed the game as a potential AU ))

YUP. Much like how my brain insisted that the Alice in my Fallout of Darkness stuff be a variant of my Malkavian!Alice from Londerland Bloodlines, thanks to me getting into BG3 at the same time as my obsession with Valicer In The Dark ramped up, the AU in my head is now the VITD trio going through the game. And while it's only a partially-formed pile of shitposts as of yet, that idea PROBABLY deserves its own post...

[mrnnki-img]

[bmpmp3]

when it comes to deep learning style vocal synths vs concatenative synthesis style vocal synths i like and use both, theres pros and cons for each, i adore deep learning synths for their versatility in vocal modes/expressions/appends/whatever and their breaths and of course im a fan of how many have multi-lingual functionality, but one thing they just cant beat concatenative on is the late 2000s-ass NND-ass doujin-ass impossibly fast rapid fire syllable'd japanese pop singing a la disappearance of hatsune miku. to be honest miku barely handles it. thats what the song is about. to me no one does it better than a basic but well oto'd CV utau LOL