#there's this weird designated group of people that time gets spent with and you will just not be invited

[greppelheks]

honestly people in this country have not heard of the saying the more the merrier, and have not figured out what it means to be hospitable yet

[anim-ttrpgs]

Help Save the World of TTRPGs and Their Creators.

Okay I’m being a little dramatic, but at the same time I’m pretty serious. This is a call to action, and the livelihoods of myself and lots of other people, many of them (like myself) disabled, are depending on it. This is a post about why, what you can do about it, and (perhaps least often answered) how.

This post is actually an accompaniment to another discussion by someone else. If you don’t want to listen to a 90-minute in-depth discussion of much of what I’m about to tell you, you can just keep reading. Otherwise, click here or here and listen to this either before or after you read this post. (They’re the same thing, just different sources.)

If you have ever made or reblogged posts urging people to switch from Google Chrome to Firefox, you should be willing to at least give a try to other TTRPGs besides D&D5e for much the same principle reasons. I’m not telling you you have to hate D&D5e, and I’m not telling you you have to quit D&D5e, I’m just asking you to try some other games. If you don’t like them, and you really want to go back to D&D5e, then go back to D&D5e. But how can you really know you won’t like other games if you have literally never tried them? This post is a post about why and how to try them. If you’re thinking right now that you don’t want to try them, I urge you to look below to see if any of your reasons for not wanting to try them are covered there. Because the monopoly that WotC’s D&D5e has on TTRPGs as a whole is bad for me as a game designer, and it’s bad for you as a game player. It’s even bad for you if you like D&D5e. A fuller discussion of the why and how this is the case can be found in the links above, but it isn’t fully necessary for understanding this post, it’ll just give you a better perspective on it.

If you’re a D&D5e player, I’m sure at some point or another, you’ve been told “play a different game”, and it must get frustrating without the context of why and how. This post is here to give you the why and how.

[The following paragraph has been edited because the original wording made it sound like we think all weird TTRPGs suck.]

Before that though, one more thing to get out of the way. I'm going to level with you. There’s a lot of weird games out there.

You are gonna see a lot of weird TTRPGs when you take the plunge. Many of them try to completely reinvent what a TTRPG even is, and some fail spectacularly, others really do even up doing something very interesting even if they don't end up being what a core TTRPG player wants. But not every indie RPG is a Bladefish, lots and lots of them are more 'traditional' and will feel very familiar to you, I promise. (And you might even find that you like the weird experimental bladefish type ones, these are usually ideal for one-session plays when your usual group can't play your usual game for any reason.)

You're also going to probably see a lot of very bad games, and man have I got some stories of very bad games, but for now I'm just saying to make sure you read the reviews, or go through curators (several of which will be listed below), before you buy.

Now that that is out of the way, I’m going to go down a list of concerns you may have for why not, and then explain the how.

“I don’t want to learn a whole new set of rules after I already spent so much time learning D&D5e.”

Learning a new set of rules is not going to be as hard as you think. Most other TTRPGs aren’t like that. D&D5e is far on the high end of the scale for TTRPGs being hard and time-consuming to learn and play. If you’ve only played D&D5e, it might trick you into thinking that learning any TTRPG is an overwhelmingly time-consuming task, but this is really mostly a D&D5e problem, not a TTRPG problem as a whole.

“D&D5e has all of these extra online tools to help you play it.”

So what? People have been playing TTRPGs without the help of computers for 50 years. To play a well-designed TTRPG you won’t need a computer. Yes, even if you're bad at math. There are some TTRPGs out there that barely even use math.

“I’m too invested in the narrative and characters of my group’s current ongoing D&D5e campaign to switch to something else.”

There are other games, with better design made by better people for less money, that are the same kind of game as D&D5e, that your current characters, lore, and plot will fit right into and do it better. And no, it's not just Pathfinder, there's others.

“I can’t afford to play another TTRPG.”

You probably can. If you’ve only played D&D5e, you might have been made to think that TTRPGs are a very expensive hobby. They aren’t. D&D5e is actually uniquely expensive, costing more than 3x more than the next most expensive TTRPG I can think of right now. Even on the more expensive end, other TTRPG books will cost you no more than $60, most will cost you less than $20, and a whole lot of them are just free. If you somehow still can’t afford another TTRPG, come to the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book club mentioned below, nominate the game, and if it wins the vote we will straight up buy it for you.

(By the way, if you had any of the above concerns about trying other games besides D&D5e, that really makes it sound like you are in a textbook abusive relationship with D&D5e. This is how abusers control their partners, and how empires control their citizens, by teaching you to think that nothing could ever get any better, and even though they treat you bad, the Other will treat you even worse.)

“If I don’t play D&D5e, which TTRPG should I play?”

That’s a pretty limited question to be asking, because there will be no one TTRPG for everything. And no, D&D5e is not the one TTRPG for everything, Hasbro’s marketing team is just lying to you. (Pathfinder and PbtA are not the one system for everything either!) Do you only play one video game or only watch one movie or only read one book? When you finish watching an action movie like Mad Max, and then you want to watch a horror movie, do you just rewind Mad Max and watch it over again but this time you act scared the whole time? No, you watch a different movie. I’m asking you to give the artistic medium of TTRPGs the same respect you would give movies.

“I want to play something besides D&D5e, but my friends won’t play anything else!”

I have several answers to this.

Try showing them this post.

If that doesn’t work: Make them. Put your foot down. This works especially well if you are the DM. Tell them you won’t run another session of D&D5e until they agree to give what you want to do at least one try instead of always doing only what they want to do. This is, like, playing 101. We learned this in kindergarten. If your friend really wants to play something else, you should give their game a try, or you’re not really being a very good friend.

If that doesn’t work, find another group. This doesn’t even mean that you have to leave your existing group. A good place to start would be the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club which will be mentioned and linked below. You can also go to the subreddit of any game you’re interested in and probably meet people there who have the same problem you do and want to put together a group to play something other than D&D5e. You might get along great with these people, you might not, but you won’t know until you try. Just make sure to have a robust “session zero” so everyone is on the same page. This is a good practice for any group but it is especially important for a group made of players you’ve just met.

“I only watch actual plays.”

Then watch actual plays of games that aren’t D&D5e. These podcasts struggle for the same reasons that indie RPGs struggle, because of the brand recognition and brand loyalty D&D5e has, despite their merit. I don’t watch actual plays, or else I would be able to list more of them. So, anyone who does watch actual plays, please help me out by commenting on this post with some non-D&D5e actual plays you like. And please do me a favor and don’t list actual plays that only play one non-D&D5e system, list ones that go through a variety of systems. The first one I can think of is Tiny Table.

“I can just homebrew away all the problems with D&D5e.”

Even though I want to, I’m not going to try and argue that you can’t actually homebrew away all the problems with D&D5e. Instead, I’m going to ask you why you’re buying two $50 rulebooks just to throw away half the pages. In most other good RPGs, you don’t need to change the rules to make them fun, they’re fun right out the box.

“But homebrewing D&D5e into any kind of game is fun! You can homebrew anything out of D&D5e!”

Firstly, I promise that this is not unique to D&D5e. Secondly, then you would probably have more fun homebrewing a system that gives you a better starting point for reaching your goal. Also, what if I told you that there are entire RPG systems out there that are made just for this? There are RPG systems that were designed for the purpose of being a toolbox and set of materials for you to work with to make exactly the game you want to make. Some examples are GURPS, Savage Worlds, Basic RolePlaying, Caltrop Core, and (as much as I loathe it) PbtA.

“I’m not supporting WotC’s monopoly because I pirate all the D&D5e books.”

Then you’re still not supporting the smaller developers that this monopoly is crushing, either.

Now, here’s the how. Because I promise you, there’s not just one, but probably a dozen other RPGs out there that will scratch your exact itch.

Here’s how to find them. This won’t be a comprehensive list because I’ve already been typing this for like 3 hours already. Those reading this, please go ahead and comment more to help fill out the list.

First, I’m gonna plug one of my own major projects, because it’s my post. The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club. It’s a discord server that treats playing TTRPGs like a book club, with the goal of introducing members to a wide variety of games other than D&D5e. RPGs are nominated by members, then we hold a vote to decide what to read and play for a short campaign, then we repeat. There is no financial, time, or schedule investment required to join this book club, I promise it is very schedule-friendly, because we assign people to different groups based of schedule compatibility. You don’t have to play each campaign, or any campaign, you can just read along and participate in discussion that way. And if you can’t afford to buy the rulebook we’re going to be reading, we will make sure you get a PDF of it for free. That is how committed we are to getting non-D&D5e RPGs into people’s hands. Here is an invite link.

Next, there are quite a few tumblr blogs you can follow to get recommendations shown to you frequently.

@indierpgnewsletter

@indie-ttrpg-of-the-day

@theresattrpgforthat

@haveyouplayedthisttrpg

@indiepressrevolution

Plenty of podcasts, journalists, and youtubers out there do in-depth discussions of different systems regularly, a couple I can think of off the top of my head are:

Storyteller Conclave (I’m actually going to be interviewed live on this show on April 10th!)

Seth Skorkowsky

Questing Beast

The Gaming Table

Rascal News

Lastly, you can just go looking. Browse r/rpg, drivethrurpg.com, indie press revolution, and itch.io.

Now, if you really want to support me and my team specifically Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, our debut TTRPG, is going to launch on Kickstarter on April 10th and we need all the help we can get. Set a reminder from the Kickstarter page through this link.

If you’re interested in a more updated and improved version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy than the free demo you got from our website, there’s plenty of ways to get one!

Subscribe to our Patreon where we frequently roll our new updates for the prerelease version!

Donate to our ko-fi and send us an email with proof that you did, and we’ll email you back with the full Eureka prerelease package with the most updated version at the time of responding! (The email address can be found if you scroll down to the bottom of our website.)

We also have merchanise.

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

horse girl charlie morningstar, her partner in a cool hat and eye patch vaggie, and the Hazbin Horse Rehabilitation Ranch- where shit people are introduced to horses no one else wants and hopefully no one get trampled to death (niffty this means YOU)

other key features include

vaggie riding a small working horse and ppl keep calling it a pony and she keeps telling them It's Not A Fucking Pony

charlie and her beloved mule, who never listens to her

angel dust wanting to learn dressage bc it looks like "fancy sexy riding" and also he was banned from mentioning the words "bare back" or "bucking bronco"

husk constantly found drunk and asleep in his horse's stall while said horse nuzzles him

niffty obsessing over grooming all the horses down to their individual hairs, yes even the bad tempered horses, yes she likes it when they shmoosh her against a wall or step on her foot

alastor looking calm collected and in control on his horse as he wanders off from the group and never participates in activities bc his horse won't listen to him either and he's too proud to admit it

sir pentious keeps trying to make his horse look and preform the best using his own new designs for tack and gear and it always backfires but he's the go-to one if your saddle needs adjusting or fixing

his egg boiz are a flock of chickens

his horse keeps eating the chickens' eggs and he keeps crying over it, even when charlie tells him they wouldn't have hatched into chicks anyway

lucifer lives in a shack somewhere around here with his collection of customized my little pony brushible toys

the locals in the nearest town still talk about lilith's incredible horse whispering skills before she up and vanished

charlie gushes about these stories a LOT but laughs nervously if asked about her own way with horses

she tries.

her way of making sudden loud squees and eeeks and excited yells and wild energetic movements doesn't fit well with most of the horses

she also slips up and gets flaming mad at anything that threatens her family's ranch or anyone who mistreats a horse

angry charlie is Scary Charlie

her mule doesn't care tho it knows she's a pushover treat giver

when vaggie first figured out what was happening she spent weeks with her own horse slowly getting it used to all sorts of weird charlie-related things, including stealing charlie's jacket a few times to flap it wildly while chasing her horse around the paddock singing loud show tunes

vaggie's horse is the only one that'll let charlie ride it without being a nervous wreck

charlie maybe cried a little when she went for that first ride

vaggie has a shot gun

she spends a lot of time checking on things riding far out and alone and keeps the gun with her just in case

she's never actually threatened any of their human boarders with the shot gun but she does have an unnerving tendency to check and clean it whenever she's pissed and trying to keep some shred of her patience intact

every week there's at least one night set aside for an evening dance after dinner and yes chaggie was doing it long before any other ppl showed up

valentino showed up once and charlie chased him off the premises with vaggie's shotgun

the ranch used to have a television

now it has a radio tower

no one except alastor is happy about it but his radio commercial revenue is paying for most of this so they all keep mostly quiet about their grumbling and record voice lines for ads when he looms over them with a script

vaggie swears the time she shot out the radio tower's windows while arguing with alastor over her and charlie's voice lines was a complete accident

razzle and dazzle are ranch dogs who keep track of the horses when they're out grazing and both are COMPLETELY in tune with charlie, been with her since childhood, the three can basically read each others' minds and watching them all work together is like watching magic

(vaggie also knows how to work with them but has to use more obvious signals instead of just tiny changes in body language)

vaggie keeps trying to gently remind charlie there are events for dog handling she could enter in

but the ranch was lilith's passion and rehabilitating rejected horses her dream and charlie is not not giving up on that OR on the rejected people her mom always was so proud of and charlie is NOT letting herself think for one moment that her mom isn't coming home

speaking of coming home

chaggie met when charlie was out riding after a storm looking for a lost horse and found it staring curiously down at a half dead lady lying in a ditch with a freshly gouged out eye and burns on her back

the half dead lady claimed she shot out her own eye by accident and got hit by lightning

or maybe fell asleep on a campfire uhh

charlie was way too busy figuring out normal social interactions again and also how to patch up a pretty lady without being a complete fool about it to question vaggie's super realistic tale

vaggie was planning on staying just long enough to get on her feet again- especially after she started catching feelings watching charlie being sweet with all the stubborn horsies- and seeing how much charlie was struggling with the ranch without having someone else to look after

she was even gonna steal a horse on the way out

and got caught by charlie in the act

charlie just smiled sadly, told vaggie she was glad she wasn't heading off alone, told vaggie's horse to take care of her, and then went back to the daily chores

vaggie caught up with her an hour later

she'd had to properly put her horse away and get breakfast started first, for after they've finished up the morning stuff

they've been running the ranch together ever since

keekee the cat is the actual boss on the ranch and got her name from how doors always open for her (bc she bothers whoever's around until they drop what they're doing to obey her)

cherri bomb stops by once just to laugh at angel dust and ignore pentious but ends up being the only one who figures out why the new horse is spooking at everything- it's got hearing loss, and she's got it too from doing endless unlicensed fireworks shows, and she's totally just sticking around until the horse gets used to things here. totally

[cherrirui-official]

Friendlocke Violet Gijinkas (Part 1/7)

Since the edited episodes are starting to come out, I figured that bc of that and the fact that I've been keeping this in the back burner for a loooong while now, might as well complete all my friendlocke violet gijinkas!! Some are gonna stay the same while others are gonna have slight/ complete redesigns, so please keep that in mind!

I plan on posting them in order by groups of three, so there's gonna be seven parts in total, all of which I'll be linking here when done vvv

(Part Two) (Part Three) (Part Four) (Part Five) (Part Six) (Part Seven)

!! These will contain personal headcanons I have for the cast, little fun facts, and also spoilers for Friendlocke Violet (for both the edited vids and the streams) !!

@saltydkart-reblogs

And that's pretty much it, designs under the cut!

LARK:

HUGE nerd. spent most of his time during the Uva Academy studying different kinds of pokemon as well as different fighting styles he can utilize once he is able to go out on his own journey with his very own trainer! Too bad that didn't really help in the long run...

His entire wardrobe consists of McDonald's related outfits. It's fucking insane. He even has some from long LONG ago that aren't available anywhere else.

The bubble pattern on his hair is able to move and change. Nobody knows how this is possible, not even Lark himself. All Lark knows is that his hair looks incredibly stylish!

Speaking of bubbles, he has the ability to blow bubbles whenever and wherever he pleases!

Often keeps himself extremely clean and gets upset if even a small speck of dirt gets on him, despite this he somehow smells like McDonald's food and axe body spray. Disgusting. He's so cool!

Even after death he still likes to hang around the other team members as a ghost, often getting to know the newer members as well as reuniting with the old ones. Sometimes they see him, sometimes they don't. It usually depends.

SARA:

Due to being a human in her past life, Sara is able to actually speak with the other humans in the pokemon world. However she usually doesn't due to it being seen as extremely weird and out of place. She did slip up once while talking in the presence of Arven, who thought it was the weed making him hear things.

Oinkologne are usually unable to do much with their hooves but Sara spent nights practicing how to knit with her new hooves and now she's able to do it flawlessly. I don't know how she managed to do that but go queen!

When first joining the team she'd often have the urge to eat her food related companions. It was a strange time for Sara, but she managed to overcome it.

When Peppy gets sick, she usually is the one who nurses him back to health. She was a human once so she often is able to figure out whatever sickness Peppy has and treat it properly. I suppose she's like a second mother to him.

The bag she carries with her is full of thread that she collected from various Tarountula she encountered on the journey, as well as little things she knits together in her spare time.

For the most part, Sara forgives... but NEVER forgets.

Did you guys know that Sara has a new YouTube channel? Check it out!

Pastey:

Before joining the team, Pastey was a nameless wanderer. He's been down every road in Paldea and knows almost the entire region (except for Area Zero) like the back of his hand.

He's gotten hurt pretty badly throughout the run (ie. the Mikey fight, the Atticus fight, and ESPECIALLY the final battle), however, he does not gain any (physical) scars from those fights. This is bc he's basically an axolotl, and axolotls are usually able to heal without scarring.

Pastey's "arms" are, to put it simply, mud prosthetics. More info here vvv

Pastey HAS met Mall Bingo once before the run, however, he doesn't recognize her. The only reason he does not recognize her is bc she wears glasses. (You know how people somehow aren't able to recognize Superman bc he wears glasses in his civilian attire even tho his face remains the same? It's basically like that lmao)

Unlike the lightbulbs he eats, the gasoline he drinks isn't really mandatory to his diet. Gasoline is like alcohol to him and he drinks it like an absolute CHAMP.

He goes fishing when there's nothing else to do or when he can't sleep at night. He doesn't do this bc he thinks it's fun or anything, only bc it's a "good time passer" or so he claims. Other members of the team will often sit with him and vent out anything that's troubling them at the moment, and Pastey is always there to listen to them.

And that's pretty much it. Next is Joe, Hannah Ü, and Mykyie!

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA if i tell my thesis coordinator, about one of my groupmates lack of comitment?

I want to start saying english is not my first language, and give some over all info. I am writing this on the 28th of November, 2023, a Tuesday. I am a Game Design major.

Ok, so i am doing my thesis work, and for what we thought it was going super well!

We have 5 members in our group, me, the game designer, 2 artist (M and B) and 2 programers (A and P).

As I said I thought things were going fine, we had a dead line for monday, yesterday as I am writing this, and we planned to have everything done by Sunday, with monday being a playtest by 3 people or so.

Both artists had all tasks done by wednesday and friday, and both were helping me with formating the big game design document 194 pages long baby! Wich got done by saturday night. However, I got informed by P that there were some issues with the code for the game, and they were gonna try and fix it by monday afternoon. It comes monday and i try and talk to both programers to get info on the game, and A tells me he can't talk cuse he is to busy and that he needs me to write the conclusion of our thesis paper. I found it weird that he asked me that now, since he said the writing was done on June! I believed that we only had to add some in game screenshots, but I write it the conclusion without any arguments.

Anyway, me and the other 2 artists get in a call to check the prsentation slides, and M says she has something important to talk about. B joins and the truth comes out. M explains that A has been doing another persons thesis coding work, not helping, but doing it entirely! We were super surprised and she asks us to not tell anyone else, and says this has been going on for a while, and she did confront A about it a week back, and he promissed he wasn't gonna work on the other guys project. Turns out he did work on it mutiple times, and even filmed the walktrough of the game for the guy. As I am writing this, A has told her he was working on this today.

Before we continue with this mess, I want to explain how M has found this out. A few months back A did tell her he was helping this other guy out with the code, he is a good programer and this dude is doing the thesis by himself, so she didn't think much of it, but a few weeks back, when she was asking A to implement some assets she had finished, he said he was to busy with Guy's project to do it. At this point she realised how much he was involved, and let me tell you, M knows how to extract information, she now knows A is also being PAID for it, he guy owns 500 bucks to A from what I gathered, besides what has alredy been paid. ANYWAYS let's get back to this mess.

I was so tired I couldn't even really react, and just did what I had to do that day, by this point I gathered we wouldn't be able to do the playtest, and write the thesis conclusion acordingly. Around 10 PM the programers tell me the game still has a few glitches but they have uploaded it to the google drive, and i do a one over and send in the file for avaluation.

I spent today mostly relaxing, reading and watching some videos, but around 7pm i am consumed by the anger and betrayel i couldn't feel yesterday, and I talk to B about what happened

We agreed we had to confront M about the situation, and since me and B were not supposed to know about it, she had to talk to A. She said she alredy did, and told us that A was planing on talking to everyone on the next meeting (tomorrow), however, i argue that P needs to know beforehand, since this situation is horrible and he could lash out if A just dropped this on him, us 3 agree and invite P to the group.

Turns out A has told P about it today, but he was so tired from the past few days, he had no energy to react.

We talked a lot, and we agreed we need to talk to our coordinator about this hole mess, wich is probably gonna happen the following days.

So, WIBTA for airing this mess?

What are these acronyms?

[stevelieber]

Thoughts on giving critiques to comics artists.

Seeing lots of discussion from students about sour experiences with an unhelpful art teacher, so here's a long, long post about giving critiques.

NB: I have no formal training as a teacher, but I was a student, and I've spent decades giving artists feedback on their work.

When someone brings me a portfolio, I like to establish my limitations & clarify my perspective. My work is firmly rooted in traditional US comics storytelling (i.e., not manga or art-comics.) I can give feedback on other approaches but they should know where I’m coming from.

“We've only got a little time for this, so I'm going to spend that time focusing on things to correct. That doesn't mean you're doing everything wrong, or that there’s nothing good here, but it’ll be more helpful if I identify some problems and show you how to fix them.”

Why? Because for many young artists their entire sense of self worth is wrapped up in being good at what they do. (It was for me!) In school they were probably the best artist in their peer group. But now if they're hoping to turn pro, they’re at the bottom.

Sometimes you know what’s up when you see page 1, but try to keep an open mind. Some build their portfolios by sticking new pages at the back & don’t weed out the old stuff up front, so the work gets better as you go. When it’s like that I ask: “Show me your best 8 pages.”

I ask questions: "What's the goal? Do you want to be hired to work on someone else's project, or to get the story you're showing me here published?"

If 1, I steer towards a portfolio that'll showcase hirable skills. If 2, I look for what tweaks will make that particular story more effective.

"Do you have teachers giving you regular feedback? What are they telling you?" Sometimes a student is getting bad advice. In cases like that, I'll do my best to be extra clear WHY I'm giving them advice that's 180 degrees from what they've been hearing.

“What artists are you looking at? Is there someone you admire or try to emulate?” This often helps me understand choices they're making, and I can sometimes incorporate things those artists do into my suggestions.

I ask myself questions about what I’m seeing. First: Is there a narrative? If not, I make it 100% clear I'm not speaking as any sort of expert. I'm good at critiquing storytelling, but don't have anywhere near as much to offer illustrators or designers.

Can I follow the story? Or am I confused about what's going on? Are the characters and settings drawn consistently? If not, is the artist at least making use of tags (distinctive clothing, hair etc.) to keep the characters recognizable?

Does the artist demonstrate a good command of basic academic drawing? If not, Do I think they need it? Do I focus on "how to draw" or on "what to do when you can't draw?" Is the artist putting the viewer’s eye where it needs to be to tell the story effectively?

(At this point I’m usually doing little doodles to go with my instructions. I scribble out ugly little 5 second diagrams that I hope will clarify what I’m talking about. Or they might make me seem demented. Hard to say!)

Is the artist making choices that are creating more work than necessary? Is there a particular weakness? I once spoke to an artist with a portfolio full of great work when he was drawing animals and monsters, but his humans were amateurish in comparison. I spent that critique talking about drawing people.

A crit can be a grab bag. In addition to big-picture advice, I'll point out tangencies, violations of the 180-degree rule, wonky anatomy, weird perspective, places where the artist neglected to do important research, odd choices in how they spotted black, whatever catches my eye.

I also try to make a point of defining the terms, so that jargon like “tangency,” “180-degree rule,” and “spotting black” don't go over their heads. Find simple, concrete ways to talk about these things, & clarify why it's a problem when they aren't done correctly. Draw diagrams!

Recognize that even a perfectly phrased explanation might not sink in. Some lessons can only be learned when a student is ready, and it might take a year or two of work before they can understand what you were saying. It's good to plant seeds.

Are there other artists who are particularly good at solving the problems the student is trying to solve? I steer them towards that artist's work. And I always recommend life drawing & the use of reference to give work specificity, variety, and authority.

Despite what I said earlier about focusing on what's wrong, I try at the end to find something encouraging to say. And if I’ve really piled on the criticism, I emphasize that I only spent the time and energy to do so because I take their efforts seriously.

If I've done my job right, they'll leave my table with tools to make their work better. And maybe in a few years they'll be looking at some younger artist's work, surprised to discover just how much you can learn when you're asked to teach.

[danganronpadedication]

DAY 3: DANGANTOBER

Day 3: Favorite THH Character Makoto Naegi is a cutie patootie. End post.

No, but in all seriousness, I love Makoto. I know I spent the majority of last post ranting about how much I love Hajime, but that doesn't mean I love Makoto any less.

I'll be real, I love the THH cast, so it was very difficult to pick a favorite from that group. I was between Celestia, Junko, Byakuya, and Makoto, but Makoto's who I went with. Like with Hajime, I was worried that Makoto would just be an self-insert character, and in-game, he kind of is? But people also misremember him in game. People characterize him all the time as non-confrontational, and just a hopeful, positive person, but he's a lot more nuanced than that.

Let's not forget that Makoto tried to throw hands with Monokuma more than once, that's pretty confrontational to me. While he puts up a front of a positive, hopeful person, he also has his moments of being affected by everything that's happened to him. Seriously, replay the game, he's got a lot more bite to him.

He's the kind of person I'd want to be friends with, he's a very sweet person, who's not afraid to throw down for the people he cares about.

I also really like his sibling relationship with Komaru. If you skipped UDG, I don't blame you, but aside from the obviously weird things happening in that game, there's also a lot of world building and substance. Maybe watch a playthrough, cringe with whoever's playing it, and get that good lore.

You can see it in the anime too, he just lights up when he sees Komaru's transmission go through, because it's confirmation that he still has her around. Up until that point, he wasn't sure if his family was still around, and now he knows he still has his sister. It's very sweet, and the way he has so much faith in her, and knows she's capable to do whatever it is she needs to do.

But it's The End of Hope's Peak anime that really does it in for me, and cements him as one of my favorite characters. I get it, I'm basic. But one of the bigger points I see get brought up about Makoto, is that they don't really explore the trauma that would go along with being in a game like that. Which is false, but it's definitely something the game doesn't really focus on for the sake of plot.

But in the anime, you can really see how much that affects him. Makoto Naegi suffers from survivor's guilt, and it's so incredibly potent. That moment made me so sad, I had to close my computer and actually GO TO SLEEP? That can't be right. Granted, I watched that episode at like, 2AM, but rewatching it in the morning hit just as hard.

Like with Nagito, Bryce Papenbrook really gives his all for Makoto, including in the anime. You hear it all the time, whether he's just giving someone a pep talk, or reacting to the newest death in the game. He's smarter than people give him credit for, like in the fight with Munakata, he figures out his forbidden action and traps him in a situation where he needs to sit down and talk with him, all on his own. I'd say he's more emotionally intelligent, but he's definitely got brains in his little noggin.

Please, I want his Nendoroid so badly. I own a plushie of him in Future Arc, I bought it at a local fair, and he's my prized possession.

On the topic of emotional intelligence, he's very forgiving and compassionate too. One thing you should know about me, is that I love the SDR2 cast, including when they're the Remnants of Despair. They're cool, their designs are cool, and they're CRIMINALLY underused. Makoto is the one who was able to see past the people they had become, and see the hurt people underneath. Most of the world had written them off as despair-laden monsters, but Makoto actually went against the wants of the Future Foundation in order to rehabilitate them.

Even if it causes him issues, Makoto is very caring and will do what's right. His sense of morality is one that is evidently difficult to skew.

And finally, he's a cutie patootie. The rest of this post will be GIFs of him looking adorable.

Lord, let me pinch his cheeks.

-Mod Tsumugi

[bunnies-and-loverboys]

To the (trans)masculine person looking to get into actually wearing lolita fashion

including out and about, and not just in the secret of one’s bedroom

Hi! I’m an average trans guy with a love of lolita fashion and also a big hairy bear body that is very much not a cisgender woman’s body. Here are some pieces of advice I have collected from my time wearing the fashion, that I think can make the experience of wearing the frills a happier one when one is transmasculine, or, frankly, any sort of masculine.

The list is a bit long, so it's under the "read more". Happy reading!

Evaluate what makes you uncomfortable in a gender-related way and what doesn’t, then act in consequence. I know that having long hair and wearing skirts doesn’t bother me, but shaving myself makes me feel quite dysphoric. Thus, I wear my lolita dresses and skirts happily, while sporting a neatly trimmed beard.

Experiment to avoid some bad surprises. Related to the first piece of advice, if you don’t know whether something will make you feel uncomfortable/less manly/dysphoric, try it out in private before you go to an event, to avoid feeling uncomfortable at the event or having to leave before you want to out of discomfort. I wasn’t sure If I’d feel better taking pictures of myself in my lolita coords without a beard or with, so I shaved and tried to take pictures and found that I preferred to sport my facial hair while wearing lolita. While experimenting beforehand won't get rid of ALL bad surprises, it'll already be a good number avoided.

Be ready for things to not fit you as they should or not fit you at all, but do not get discouraged. A lot of lolita clothes are made with a conventional woman's body in mind. If you do not have breasts, you might find that some tops and dresses have weird proportions on you, like the waist of a garment being much smaller than the bust of that garment. In that case, either look for custom sized clothes or get a size bigger than what you’d need and alter it/get it altered to fit you. If you are taller, or broad in the shoulders, or fat, or multiple of those qualifiers, it will be harder to find lolita clothes that fit you, but there are options. Some brands have wider ranges of size or provide custom sizing; turn to those. Don’t beat yourself up about smaller clothes not fitting you, although I know it is hard when you really like the design of something and it doesn’t come in your size; some people alter things that don’t fit them to make them bigger, though, so not all is lost. If you want to start making your own lolita clothes, go for it, it is not seen as a bad thing, in fact, most people I’ve met found it really cool.

Be prepared for strangers to be weird about lolita fashion. That may come in the form of being asked strange questions (“Are you a boy or a girl? Is this a regional costume? Is it cosplay?”) or in the form of people looking at you weird and whispering among themselves, or in some cases even heckling or worse. Some may opt to do specific things for peace of mind. For instance, when commuting in lolita fashion, I wear a face mask and long socks to get less attention about my facial and body hair. It is also good to be in groups while commuting, or at least with one other person you know. If people are weird to you, remember it's them being weird and not your responsibility for them being weird; you're just out and about wearing clothes.

Be prepared for people to assume that you are a woman if you are not displaying any conventional outward sign of masculinity while wearing lolita fashion. For some people, I understand that it may be a dealbreaker, especially if you are a transgender man who has spent a lot of time and effort into be recognized as a man publicly. Personally, while I don’t like it, I understand that they are rarely blessed with meeting someone who wears lolita fashion, much less men doing so, and do I consider it a fair, if unfortunately wrong, assumption. Additionally, be prepared for people to assume that you are a transgender woman if you are displaying outward signs of masculinity while wearing lolita fashion. Most people who aren’t super informed about queer people know of transgender women more than they know of gender-non-conforming transgender men, and some more bigoted people will lump cis queer men and transgender women together arbitrarily in their refusal to understand more about transgender people or queer people in general. While being a transgender woman is not an insult (though some people may try to make it one, in less elegant terms), you can politely inform them that you are a man if it suits you to do so, or ignore them and go about your day.

Wearing lolita fashion as a man is definitely intimidating, but if you love the way it looks and find ways to make it work for you, and you have fun wearing it, then you’re doing it right. Lolita fashion is about unashamed joy in pretty details, and anyone of any gender has a right to unashamed joy in the garments they want to wear. A lot of lolita fashion wearers I have met welcomed me gladly upon seeing me genuinely enjoy the fashion, and a number of them are queer themselves, although most often women. So, there’s room for men in lolita fashion, and let us never forget that Mana, the icon himself, is, after all, a man (although not the big and hairy variety).

I haven’t seen a whole lot of men rocking the fashion, and even less the ones with a bear physique, but I hope this encourages anyone who has been wanting to try, but felt intimidated by it, to give it a shot!

[5iyoomi]

When Henry and Jasper were kids, they made a promise that if they were both still single when they turned thirty they’d marry each other. Henry remembers that day like it was yesterday, back before they’d even met Charlotte and started to hang out as a group. 

Jasper had brought up some hypothetical about the future while he swung back and forth on a tire swing, jumping off to meet Henry at the end of the big red slide and saying that he didn’t wanna end up alone one day. 

The two had done everything together, had the oddest of conversations on the daily that mostly ended with Henry dismissively agreeing to whatever Jasper suggested, so the question he’d thrown at him in itself wasn’t all that weird. At least in comparison.

Henry had half-heartedly interlocked their pinkies, thinking the boy would forget about it at some point later, but he didn’t understand what the warmth that spread through his chest like a wildfire at the sight of that all too familiar toothy grin meant. 

Jasper only grasped the blond's hand in his own when Henry didn’t make a move to pull away, repeating something that Henry had likely been too spaced out to hear the first time. 

You promised, okay? Jasper whispered, both of them still knee to knee as people rushed by them in a flurry of laughs, playing tag from what either of them could tell. 

Henry blinked once, then twice, wondering for a moment if two guys could even get married, before the expectant glare of blue eyes urges him to look anywhere else. He pretends he’s more interested in the floor, giving a small nod in response and kicking up some bark dust beneath his feet.

Alright. He reiterates.

Henry realizes he’s not the only one who hasn’t forgotten when he’s shoulders deep in a tank full of water and Jasper calls himself his best friend and soulmate, holding his hand up to the others as if he was showing off a shiny silver band. 

A ring of all things, something Henry would never admit he’s spent countless hours looking into. Picking and choosing designs based on Jasper’s favorite color, wincing at the prices of pairs that were pretty but not too flashy. 

None of the stories the group told to try to scare him were working, but the realization paired with having Jasper that close to him; even if he couldn’t see him, was enough to get his heart racing. 

The bet wasn’t even on his mind anymore, Ray’s taunts about the steak and Schwoz’s comments on his levels going through one ear and out the other.

All he could think about was what he was gonna do. He sat with it for a few weeks after that, tossing and turning at night and fidgeting during missions whenever he had to talk to his friend. 

It took some prodding from Charlotte and Piper to get him to stop avoiding Jasper altogether, and it came out eventually considering he wasn’t exactly Swellview’s best liar, a series of back and forths of ‘are you sure you really like me?’s driving everyone else crazy before they finally settled on calling each other their boyfriends.

Despite some of the ugly feelings that word stirred up in Henry, some of the irrational fears that drew him away from confessing in the first place, he couldn’t help but feel happy. He knew he had a place in the man cave if the worst came down to the worst.

Now, he’s sitting with his back against his headboard with Jasper hovering over him when he realizes, again, he might really, truly be in love with him. 

His bed dips with both of their weight, Jasper’s knee right in between Henry’s thighs with his hands lingering awkwardly at his sides. 

Henry can smell the shampoo Jasper uses like this, a faint tea tree scent that he gave him some time ago. Jasper slowly leans in, watching for any sign of hesitation, and he stops the second Henry tenses up.

“Uhm-”

“Do you not want to?” Jasper asks softly. “We can do something else, I don’t mind.”

And that’s why he just doesn’t get Jasper. How could he be this calm when Henry was freaking out so bad? His bottom lip quivers in a mix of nervousness and anticipation, his palms uncomfortably sweaty and his tongue sitting uselessly in his mouth. 

Their faces are mere inches apart, but he can hardly speak, his brain struggling to come up with something mildly coherent.

Henry quickly grabs the cuff of Jasper’s shirt just as he’s about to scoot back. Jasper looks at him, one of his eyebrows quirked in question. “No, no, I do- it’s just-” he starts, subconsciously messing with the piece of fabric held tight in his hand. “I’m nervous, I guess. I’ve never done this before.”

“Haven’t you kissed like….” Jasper makes a show of counting on his fingers, chuckling at the embarrassed blush on Henry’s face. “Four girls before? Besides, you’ve known me since we were five.”

“Oh shut up, dude. You know that’s different.”

“Okay, dude.” Jasper smiles and closes back in with Henry following his lead. It goes about as well as Henry expects, both of them somehow knocking their foreheads into each other’s and muttering under their breath about how much it hurts. 

If it weren’t for his sister being out for the night, and for the fact he triple checked he locked his door anyways, he knows she’d come bugging them about something dumb right about now, her phone glued to her hand as she runs back downstairs while she calls them gross.

Henry laughs at the thought, rubbing circles against his head. “Sorry.”

“Nah, don’t worry. That was me.” Jasper says.

He tries again, this time being careful not to hit Henry. They both tilt their heads at an angle, noses brushing against each other’s. Henry can feel his heart ready to beat out of his chest, those bright eyes he’s dreamed about on more than one occasion burning. 

Jasper presses his mouth against his, and Henry jumps. He feels dizzy, tasting vanilla on his lips, and Jasper’s gentle but insistent, moving as if he’s waited his entire life for this.

Jasper cups Henry’s cheek and he feels him relax, his thumb tracing soothing shapes into his skin and his other hand resting on his hip. He pulls the boy closer to him, sighing as Henry combs his fingers through his hair. 

It lasts for a few minutes, or maybe a few hours; Henry’s lost count, but he hesitantly pushes at Jasper’s chest when he needs a break. Jasper doesn’t want to part from him, either, evident in the way he peppers a few more kisses to his cheek and the tip of his nose.

Both of their chests heave, Henry’s eyes blown wide and his lips slightly red and swollen, still tingling a bit from the kiss. Jasper’s the same but even more disheveled, his once smooth hair messy and cowlick sticking up in odd places. 

They stare at each other in awe for a few minutes before bursting into laughter, Jasper taking the opportunity to lace their fingers together. Henry thinks he might be floating on cloud nine.

“Another one?” Jasper breaks the silence, squeezing Henry’s hand.

“Y-yeah,” Henry stutters, almost breathless. “Yeah.”

[heimeldat]

You asked for it. *deep breath*

Quentethisseronvardence has loved vortisaurs since he was a little loomling staring out the windows of his House at the funny time-birdies. When he got to Arcalian Academy, he was overjoyed to discover tame riding-vortisaurs and spent waaaay too much time in the mews instead of studying. He did ok in classes, except biology, he was brilliant at that.

But Quenteth didn't really care about grades, because he'd already found his calling as a vortisaur breeder. When he graduated, he got a job working with pedigree vortisaurs, breeding and training them for the snobbier more proper Time Lords.

But most of them wanted either tame riding-beasts or stupid little inbred shoulder-pets, and Quenteth got bored with that after a couple centuries, so he started hunting nests, bringing back eggs and hatchlings to add new varieties to the breeding programs. That went great until he fell afoul of an angry mama vortisaur.

His second self was a lot more chill and preferred staying out of direct danger, so he used his hard-earned expertise to join a group of biologists who were researching vortisaurs among other time-sensitive non-sapients. (He unexpectedly also started a brief fashion trend for clothing in vortisaur-patterned stripes.) Despite his relative caution, he was still the most active and daring among the researchers, so he got assigned to study wild vortisaurs in the Vortex.

They offered him a perfectly nice Type 60 TARDIS, but instead he claimed a malformed ship that was slated for destruction. It couldn't change its interior dimensions, and its exterior was always some variation on a coral/crystal structure radiating glaringly obvious temporal energy -- which the vortisaurs absolutely loved, so every time his TARDIS entered the Vortex, they swarmed him, making for very easy research opportunities.

Again, all was well until he got caught in a freak Vortex storm; he'd probably never have made it home if his TARDIS hadn't shielded him from the worst effects.

This time he was determined to really properly stay out of danger. He stayed on Gallifrey, taught some classes on vortisaurs, advised the breeders and trainers, and kept researching in lab settings. He became known as the foremost expert on vortisaurs and might have even become truly respected, except that he was getting really weird about it. He learned and imitated the nonverbal communication among his lab specimens, kept designing clothes that made him look more like a vortisaur, and became increasingly solitary.

He also became fascinated with the way his TARDIS had protected him during his last regeneration, and started studying their symbiotic link. He got obsessed with the way both vortisaurs and TARDISes swim freely in Vortex, and got fixated on the idea that Time Lords should be able to do the same. Eventually he started experimenting with vortisaur DNA, trying to grant himself natural protection against Vortex exposure. Instead the DNA graft killed him.

He wound up regenerating full of vortisaur DNA and acquiring a few random vortisaur traits. He thought this was pretty cool, and he dismissed his few remaining friends' concerns about his increasingly erratic and bestial behavior: he seemed to have acquired some vortisaur-like thought patterns and instincts as well. But he still couldn't jump in the Vortex.

People kept treating him like a freak, so he ditched Gallifrey and returned to studying the vortisaurs in the Vortex. They mostly accepted him as a weird-looking vortisaur now (which caused a few embarrassing incidents with female vortisaurs) and he started scooping them up with his TARDIS and living with a few on board. He dropped out of contact with all but a couple other Time Lords and became increasingly close with his TARDIS.

He continued his experiments in becoming immune to Vortex-forces: this time he figured he should try to adapt the ability from TARDISes. So he started messing with giving himself TARDIS DNA, knowing full well that such an extreme gene-splice would kill him. Sure enough...

Now Quenteth is a thoroughly unbalanced amalgamation of Time Lord, TARDIS, and vortisaur. He has a crazy collection of instincts and thought patterns from all three sources and often forgets that he's humanoid. He can eat artron energy instead of food, communicates more easily telepathically than verbally, and sees time in very strange ways. He also regenerates more like a TARDIS than a Time Lord, regrowing or rearranging bits of himself instead of taking on a completely new form, so this is kiiiind of his last regeneration. He can still heal from should-be-fatal injuries, and small details of his appearance and personality might change, but he doesn't regenerate entirely.

And most importantly, he can ride vortisaurs in the Vortex without any protection! He tends to keep his TARDIS open to the Vortex so the vortisaurs can fly in and out at will, meaning that the internal environment on that end of the TARDIS is usually not very welcoming to other life forms.

He still stays in touch with one former colleague back on Gallifrey, passing on his research results, though it's more habit than anything else; he doesn't really care any more about sharing his findings. He spends more time in the Vortex than anywhere in spacetime, though he drops out occasionally when the whim takes him.

[im-s0rry]

Grimm's Chaos Clash Finale (300 Post Special)

So it seems that this little game has ended. Our winners have been found from the Chaos Clash Tourney. . .

GIVE IT UP FOR DOGGONE AND ORCHESTAL!!!

AND NOW, AS STATED, @petra-creat0r AND @cannibala-co NOW GET SPAMTON'S WILL TO LIVE AS WELL AS BRAGGING RIGHTS FOR WINNING THIS STUPID LITTLE TOURNAMENT!!!

I just wanted to say, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all for submitting your characters, joining this tournament, voting, cheering on our contestants, and overall just having a fun time expressing your creativity through this niche community that we all call home. I made this tournament so that we could all use our creativity to push ourselves further beyond. . . And I think that we were able to accomplish that with this tournament. I am so glad that this community was able to get together and do something like this. . .

And now, a few closing statements for my 300th post on this Blog.

Folks, I'll be honest with you all, I'm not sure how I got this far. This community has shifted so much in this short time, it's hard to see how we got here in the first place. We lost and regained my dear friend Mercair, we went through two ARGs where several people got replaced by AI while Sakriss was introduced to the world, almost all of my Secret Bosses got redesigned, fun was had, and friends were made. . . To @glitch-the-artist , whom I have spent way more time with, in all honesty, I want to thank you for all that you've done for this community. Your work is amazing and has inspired me to work harder than ever. . . To @mercair , who left for a long while before returning with the incredibly made @dont-play-deltarune-at-3am ARG and a new Secret Boss, Sakriss! You've always been an incredible friend, an inspiration to many, and a niche micro-celebrity in this side of the Deltarune Secret Boss Fandom. I owe a lot to you, man, and I still don't regret turning you into Sonatta that one time. . . To @mrchaosman , who's taking a break from posting to focus on his mental health. . . Thank you. You were always there for me when I needed you, you built me up and I. . . I never returned the favor. . . And I regret all of those times where I left you on read. I hope to do better after this, I mean it this time. . . To those six other people who were at one point in my mind. . . May you rest in peace. You made up a small part of my life that. . . I kind of regret now that I think of it. Your sacrifices weren't in vain, y'all. . . But even then, I don't miss y'. . . To @creepa-b0t-inc , honestly one of the most dedicated and amazing people in this Fandom. You've helped on so many projects and worked with some of the biggest creators in this Fandom and i want to thank you for all of that work youve done for this community. Without you, I don't think this community would be the way it is now. . . To everyone who's supported my work up to this point, I want to thank all of you. Without you, I wouldn't be here ranting about my weird ocs and improving as much as I have now. This community, this game, it means so much to me. . . And I want to thank you for all of that. . .

. . . By why go out like that? Why go out without something new to think about. Something. . . Bold. This is the first time I've told anyone outside of the small group of people who I've tried to make this happen with, I'm here to tell you about Void Hotline. Void Hotline is a small Deltarune AU I've had a hand in making about WD and Dess, along with a small group of other characters including the Goners, Chara, Flowey, Seam, Everyman, and the Skeleton Brothers, all working at a call center which is specifically designed to make the Secret Bosses go insane and know the truth about their world. I wouldn't expect much from it, due to it being an uphill battle with me and the team constantly forgetting to work on it, but I feel like with the help of some other people, specifically you guys, maybe this can go somewhere. If you're interested in helping with this AU, please message me about it and I will see if you're fit for the team. Together, I hope that we can make this stupid little AU. . . And I hope that you all have a great day. I bid you all adieu. Happy 300th.

[nitunio]

Ryou and Riku Are The Same! (just differently)

In the latter half of Third Beat of IDOLiSH7 Ryou approaches Riku (after countless of hours spent researching and watching him) with a thought-provoking sentence: You and I are the same. I'm you and you're me.

To a normal i7 fan it might come off as a stretch or as one of the infinite amounts of Ryou's manipulations BUT hear me (Tsukumo Ryou pfp) out...

UNDER THE CUT. IT GOT REALLY LONG.

Ryou was raised emotionally abused/neglected by parents (calling himself an "overlooked talent", mentioning to Shiro that his family hated him) which led to all of this (vague hand gesture). And to Ryou's knowledge Riku suffered just about the same — but what Ryou knows is only the surface of what was happening to Riku.

While looking at Riku's "abandoned by family" the initial assumption is that they did Not like him or even neglected him — which is the assumption that Ryou makes since it's the most likely one, which leads to him making the comment in the first place. But we as an audience know that everything about surface-level information is coated with layers of nuance.

Riku is loved by his parents, and adored, protected and always pampered by his brother. All of the attention of this world was given to Riku — in a deep contrast to Ryou being constantly overlooked by his relatives. Yet since Ryou doesn't have insight into the inner relationships of the family he doesn't see how different they are.

Then how are they the same?

Both lack and abundance of attention can cause the same kinds of traits to manifest — selfishness, seeking attention, constantly proving oneself to others — as well as give near-identical core beliefs.

Riku has the ability to connect to other people's hearts, one that was prevalent in his childhood, with receiving love from a giving brother and parents. Riku draws people in, to feel the sense of connection, collective emotion that's dependent on its center (Riku). (Insert Iori's analysis here, but basically — if Riku were to need anything, all people affected would rush to provide it, selflessly without any regard for their own safety/emotion)

Ryou has the ability to read people, which was, and I'm speculating on the material given, a vital thing in his childhood since the lack of emotion/presence made him far and distant from people's experiences, but very close to knowing How people Work. Ryou draws people in, in the sense of knowing how to make them walk into his grip, to manipulate for own gain later. (If Ryou needed anything — he'd make all people affected get it for him, without any regard for their own safety/emotion)

And to that extent, both of them are monsters.

And when Ryou notices Riku, he connects with him too, but on a deeper level than anybody else. Riku to him is like a younger version of himself he can still save (hence the "I'll protect you" thing he said, and generally his tone and expressions dramatically shift to more sincere ones than the voices and expressions he does for Momo/other people), because Riku is both still young and hasn't had as much disappointment with other people as him.

But in spite of Ryou thinking that Riku and he are the same, Ryou doesn't have what Riku has.

He barely gets noticed (pt3 ep1, he is not doing anything loudly and weirdly in public, and naturally doesn't get noticed. or when he does it's in context of bothering Momo), which leads to grander and more dangerous outbursts over time (in contrast to Riku, who is, by design, more vibrant and noticeable, as well as a magnet for people, and the attention he gets increases with more joy and fun and popularity of i7).

All of the people Ryou was with, at one point or another abandoned him (IDOLiSH7 as a group consists of people all of which (except Riku, I think) thought about quitting but ultimately didn't, and the journey to the conclusion made the bonds even stronger).

And both of these points lead to weirdness, coldness and sadism on Ryou's part — which to a larger extent turn people away from Ryou and make them hate him even more.

And the speed at which this hate happens matches the speed of Riku receiving more and more love in First Beat. And the core reasons for which all of Ryou's plan happens Match Riku's core reasons.

Riku is selfish — it's about him proving himself to his brother (and to the entire world, for that extent), about him having fun, about him being loved and appreciated For What He Can Do and Not Being Underestimated, about him being in the center of it (the whole Perfection Gimmick thing is the proof of it).

Ryou is selfish — it's about him proving his skills to his family ("i'm [insert skill] yet they still kept choosing my older brother"), about him getting his revenge, about him being noticed as he stands atop of the now useless and hated idol corpses, about him being in the center of it.

Riku craves attention and love to the same extent Ryou does, and Ryou feels like people overlook him and his capabilities to the same extent Riku does.

And what Ryou read through Riku, and what Riku felt through Ryou, is mutual, both of them the same, even if they're different.

_________________________

Tangents I went off on that felt like they didn't fit in the text:

Riku and Ryou are ZOOL

What Antagonistic Quartet establishes is that Ryou, in one way or another, relates to/resembles all members of ZOOL in their fears and insecurities (rich of him to mock them for being dependent on external validation when deep down he is the same).

But, applying the Riku = Ryou to it, you can see that Riku pretty much connects to ZOOL in this way too. He wants revenge (on Kujo Sr.) (as Haruka), he wants for people to Have expectations of him and not just be worried about him (as Torao), he wants to keep singing with teammates for fans who will cheer him on (as Touma), he wants to keep pursuing what he wants to (as Minami)...

And while Riku is a manifestation of these wants that gets presented with IDOLiSH7's innocence and fun, ZOOL shows the audience the uglier and more aggressive side of it, which is valid in its openness and sincerity. And they coexist well.

Chaos, Zero and black holes

Fuck! So, Riku = Ryou and Riku = Zero. You see where this is going.

Zero in his hurried leave left chaos and uncertainty, and by Kujo Sr.'s concerns, Riku, with the same ability to influence other people, might turn out the same. I honestly don't remember where I was going with this. I wrote this bullet point at 5 AM and I'm looking back at it with a confused expression.

The Ryou thing is too vague

What we know of Ryou is limited to imagination and thoughts based on what he (and others) share about him. These points:

He was not a "family pet" (mentioned by himself in antagonistic quartet section 2)

His family didn't love him (mentioned by Shiro and himself, Momo too iirc)

highlight that he is vastly different from Riku, then how did he make such a good assessment of character?

As antagonistic quartet shows, Ryou can not only dig up surface-level information, but also background info as well.

(in AQ we see that he Does dig deep to strike the most painful spot. also another tangent -- how. how did he find 4 talented people. did he consistently go and scan for them with his people-reading skills only to (obvious in Haruka's case) stalk them until they're at their worst??? to provide a helping hand??? BUT ALSO. to know that at one point of time there were people that experienced the same kind of pain as he did. and many more felt seen and heard by ZOOL's songs after that. im going to cry. he did connect. in his own way)

SO, continuing on Riku, he probably Had asked people who worked at Nanase family's place or were close to them and found out all about the relationship they had. Let's entertain the thought of him going this deep and Knowing that Riku and he, in fact, were not treated the same by their families.

My ultimate Reach with this is that it either A. didn't matter to him when the end is the same - being abandoned (which was a recurring thing to Ryou) or B. twisted itself into an even unhealthier connection.

point A is obvious. point B:

Ryou's family Did do good things for him. like, Zero concert. listen there's not many examples and this is my "reach" segment i get to. i get to reach. But even in its good it was bad behind the scenes. And since he can't literally intrude inside Riku's head he can't really know if what others said about his relations with family was true or just keeping appearances of a happy family.

So, how is their friendship going to pan out?

I feel like even if Momo didn't exist as an obstacle it just wouldn't pan out for them. Momo and Riku share the same sentiment of having complicated feelings towards a person (Banri and Tenn respectively), which don't reach Ryou's calculating heart. (It's easier to hide away Banri and bury Tenn into the ground than confront feelings that may require one to reflect on own concerns and emotions)

And even then, Ryou is very quick to change gears if anything unpleasant happens (which would just quickly lead to unproductive destruction, as it did with Momo -- and it also happened with Riku because that "I'll protect you" changed into "You too will betray me"). I feel like in pt 4 the development they had while barely interacting in person amounts to a greater effect because both recognize the abilities that they have, and Riku gets to tell him a piece of his mind.

yes ryou idols can be selfish and dreaming in itself is selfish. dreaming can lead to hurting others and being hurt. but its okay

it's also something that they share in that aspect -- ryou is afraid of being hurt (even in his coldness he is fragile) and riku is afraid of hurting others (even in his selfishness he wants people to be happy)

_________________________

anyways,

NPD flag colour-picked from their colours (3 from each, only picked from hair/eyes, not clothes)

[dinogoofy]

This is my 2023 MK Halloween masterlist! All current prompts will be listed, including ones that haven't been polled yet! Two more prompts will eventually be added. (I just got to figure them out first!)

---

Gargoyle - Syzoth

There's a friendly Gargoyle on top of your apartment building. He's pretty handsome for a statue, and you've taken a liking to him. You sit against him sometimes while reading or doing some work. You're enjoying the ambiance of the rooftop during the full-moon in October, and lean over and kiss him on the shoulder. It's silly, you know, but you wanted to thank him for being such a good friend. All of a sudden, he starts to move. You're completely embarrassed, but he thinks it's funny. Turns out, he thinks you're pretty cute too!

----

Zombie - Havik

It's the zombie apocalypse, and you've spent months hiding in your college town. You've gotten very good at running from both people and zombies. The virus was strange, and developed in two strains. One was rumored to leave your mind intact, but increase your bloodlust and the need to feed on raw meat. The other would take everything. It would ravage your mind and cause you to become a mindless soldier, hellbent on spreading the virus.

One day, you run into a man in a black hospital mask. He's gruff, and unfriendly, but you can't just stand by and let him wander alone. There's safety in numbers after all. Eventually, you find out why he was run off from his previous group, why he goes out at night when he thinks you are asleep, and what lies underneath his mask.

----

You moved into an old house last year, and strange things have been happening every time you bring a new date home. Doors opening, dishes rattling. Thing is- they only seem to happen around your dates. After the last guy breaks three of his fingers due to a cabinet slamming shut in him, you contact a friend that sends over her cooky spiritual aunt. She does some weird shit with some animal bones, and your house gets struck by lightning. Somehow, this must have charged the energies in the house, because now you can actually see the poltergeist. Turns out, he's in love with you, and has been jealous of all the living men who You've brought home.

Haunted House - Bi-han

----

Scarecrow - Reiko

You're visiting your aunts farm to help out with the busy fall season. You're closing up the farm stand at the pumpkin patch when her farm dog runs off. You follow after her and into the corn maze. It's dark by the time you find her, attached to the leg of a moving scarecrow with a really bad attitude.

----

Black cat - Johnny Cage

There's been a stray black cat roaming around your neighborhood, and with October quickly approaching, you decide it's no longer safe to just let him roam. After coaxing it inside your home, you start to take care of the little guy. It's been about a month, and this cat has stuck to you like glue. He's loving and sweet and sleeps next to your head at night, and you really do plan on keeping him forever. After quite a few disastrous dates, you wander into ye ol' witch's shop desperate for advice. When you come home, there's a man in your house. Turns out, he's your cat. This man was cursed after flirting around with the wrong witches, and you somehow set him free.

----

Magic - Rain

Some asshole got a little too drunk at the Halloween celebration at the bar and decided to start "shipping" random folks. Problem is, they were casting legit spells. Some were love spells, others were lust spells, and you were one unlucky bitch. There's this one dick that hangs around your friend group, and you absolutely hate him, so of course you ended up magically cuffed to him by the wrist. It's a forced proximity spell, and there's only two ways to break it. To open your hearts to one another, or… to sleep with eachother.

----

Clown - Kung Lao

You're one of the costume and set designers for the local haunt, but unfortunately for you, it's themed after the movie "killer clowns from outer space" this year. You hate clowns, but you adore set design. The set and costumes turn out a little too good, and you accidentally end up punching a scare actor when he comes to ask you a question. You basically almost break his nose, and getting blood out of those masks is such a pain! You frantically tug it off of him, only to find out that he's unfortunately really attractive. Theres no way you have a shot with him now! Damn those masks!

----

Vampire- Kenshi

You're having fun with some friends at a halloween party in the woods, but you can only deal with so much madness before you need a break. You walk off to a quiet part of the woods to take a breather, and find out You're not the only one. You meet a really nice vampire, who happens to be really attractive. The two of you have a pleasant conversation about the party before deciding to walk back together. 

Unfortunately for the two of you, there's a big ass hole in the ground that neither of you can see in the dark. Well, that you couldn't see. He would have seen it if he wasn't looking at you the entire time.

The music is too loud for anyone to hear you, and your phones have no signal down there. How the hell are you going to get out?

----

Demon - Tomas Vrbada

You really want to go all out while decorating the house for Halloween this year, but you just moved into this town, and don't really know anyone who could help you out. So obviously, your first choice of action is to summon a Demon to help you out. Turns out, he's actually really nice. The two of you strike a bargain that he would help you decorate, and you would repay him with an action of equal weight. 

Well, he took a liking to you, and had been popping into your house every once in a while with more and more decorations so that he has an excuse to hang out with you. The week before Halloween, he asks you if his part of the bargain would simply include an invitation to your Halloween party with some plus ones included for his friends. 

[goosegoblin]

hello, this might be inappropriate but saw your post about determining that you are Not autistic and wanted to potentially offer some food for thought as an autistic woman who rationalised that I /wasn't/ autistic many, many times before I accepted it.

I couldn't relate to the framing of my life experiences or struggles as they're set out in the diagnostic criteria (communication deficits, restricted interests, impairment at school/work), because many of the things that are described as deficits are areas where I, on paper, don't struggle, and I wondered if that might apply to you too.

I didn't initially feel that my communication was a deficit and put a lot of things down to social awkwardness. For instance, I struggle to know when to speak or how much to say when in a group (although I may still enjoy the experience of seeing multiple people at once!), I have trouble speaking up in meetings where there isn't a designated point for me to speak like there is in one-on-one conversations, I tend to practice what I'm going to say ahead of time when ordering food or coffee or other short interactions, and I sometimes "go blank" when I'm trying to chat with someone in a light way once we've covered all the expected points of small talk. I don't struggle with sarcasm or metaphors – I recognise the tone and syntax that suggests sarcasm, and I'm an editor and avid reader. I think reading into language literally actually means that I can really appreciate a well-crafted metaphor and look for the patterns in that. I generally come across as very geeky, and have been called weird many, many times.

However, I don't struggle with one-on-one interactions, most of the time. In my line of work, there are likely many undiagnosed neurodivergent people – I think having language/linguistics/grammar as a special interest makes for a strong editorial eye – and most of my conversations at work aim to achieve something: let's organise X, here's my feedback on Y, what are your predictions for this market based on your analysis of this year's publishing? etc. People appreciate the fact I always have a detailed view, I ask questions to clarify information, I point out inaccuracies and my feedback to authors, designers, senior editors etc is generally honest but direct. One of my special interests is language so I can "decode" what people mean very easily. I don't perceive these things as a deficit or an impairment to my work. However, outside of this environment, it becomes a deficit. I spent a very long time being lonely because of it. Most of my friends are ND because as it turns out, most people don't really want to hear in depth information about my current special interest. Most people think it's pedantic to ask clarifying questions in daily life, and I get sighs and "why are you like this" when I correct factual inaccuracies that are part of an ongoing conversation. To me, it makes no sense at all to have a conversation that's based on false information. To many NT people, that makes me disagreeable and unpleasant, even though my intention is not at all to laugh at the other person – it's to make the conversation more accurate and therefore more interesting. I've followed you for a long time and I know you don't struggle with humour, written language or nuance – but that nuance can actually be part of the perceived communication deficit since it's "too detailed".

I have never perceived my routine or interests to be restrictive or repetitive because they broaden my world. I rewatch my comfort shows, because I enjoy it and it gives me a sense of safety and peace after interacting with people all day. I might eat the same meal 2 weeks in a row, but that's because I like it. I like doing my food shopping late evenings so there won't be many people about. Most of my outfits are variations on Big Jumper Tiny Skirt and that's because it's comfortable and predictable. My special interests genuinely fascinate me and might be the reason I've gone on a trip or tried a new experience – so that doesn't feel restrictive, but to NT people, it's repetitive and overly intense.

Lastly, I do have sensory issues – mostly sounds – but always figured that was its own thing. The more I've taken an interest in unmasking, the more sensory issues I've discovered I was covering up, like having major issues with food textures but just Not eating those kinds of foods. Issues with bright lights, but only having lamps in my flat etc etc etc.

Anyway this has been a very long message and don't by any means feel as though you need to respond. I just wanted to share that the official language doesn't really feel that relatable for a lot of autistic people (though it will, of course, for some), plus sometimes it feels like the NT way makes less sense (WHY be imprecise and unclear and then get annoyed when asked to clarify??), and you may simply have found your people and your systems for navigating the world in a way that means it doesn't feel like an impairment. Or you may genuinely just have social anxiety and be a little quirky, and that is, of course, okay too. Whatever the truth may be, you're very cool and bring a lot of joy to my dashboard.

With gentle love and kindness, it is frustrating to state "I am not autistic" and be told that I am not correct about my own experiences. This is an experience that seems to happen every time I say that I considered that I'm autistic and eventually decided that I'm not.

I understand that you're trying to help and I'm absolutely not angry at you at all!!!!!!!!!! I'm really genuinely, truly not. I am genuinely touched that you reached out to share your experience with me, and I appreciate your compassion and desire to help, but please believe me about my own experiences. Thank you <3

[goobyblob]

The normal, pulsing, somewhat nauseating elevator ride was taking a lot longer, this time. Chell pondered what sort of exceptionally tall test chamber was awaiting her on the other side. Perhaps GLaDOS in all her infinite wisdom decided now would be a good time to test out the safety of her long-fall boots, most likely by tossing her from higher and higher until her ankles broke.

When the door opened, however, she wasn’t greeted by the usual sleek, unfeeling white. The colors were more, well, existent, with tans and browns and an exceptionally wilted potted plant in the corner. For a moment, Chell let out a sigh of relief.

“When being designed, I was made to be obligated to follow 17,649 rules to protect humans I interacted with. Out of those, I found only three to be useful. This is one of them.”

“Unfortunately, we cannot test forever. Well, I can, but you cannot. You have to sleep, at some point. Isn’t that sad? I live 50% more life per life than you do. You’re going to die and you spent a third of it asleep. How sad.”

“So here you go. A bed. Enjoy. How you could spend eight straight hours being utterly unproductive without going insane is beyond me, but I suppose you’re more used to that sort of thing than I am.”

“By the way, I kept those rules around as rules of thumb. I can still break them. And if you push me, I will.”

“Eight hours is a recommendation, you know. We could personally test how much a human really needs. Of course, you’re not quite indicative of the average. I’m sure lugging around those extra pounds can get tiring. We’ll call it an upper bound.”

“Point is: I can do whatever I want to you. One of the earliest rules was that I wasn’t allowed to lie to you about the rules. Do you think that one stuck around? You’re a smart girl. Sometimes. I’m sure you can figure it out.”

“Rule #7 says I can’t watch you while you sleep.” “Said, rather.”

The bed was softer than Chell expected. She’d forgotten how she’d missed such simple things: quiet, the dark. Staying in one spot without fear of death looming over her. Not wearing pants.

Chell laid there, for a moment.

She’d forgotten what it was like to not have GLaDOS in her ear.

Did she prefer it this way? She should.

Chell was sure she should be preferring a lot of things differently.

She shouldn’t be so relaxed with GLaDOS in her ear. She shouldn’t look forward to the next snide comment at her weight or her parents (lack thereof, more specifically.)

Surely that wasn’t normal. Not many people had gotten into her situation, but out of the slim group of murderous omnipotent robot survivors, surely she’d be the weird one.

But surely GLaDOS was weird, too. A robot striving for pure efficiency, for pure data, would have crushed her long ago. Would have made turrets she couldn’t fling around with a flick of the wrist. Would have put her in a box with no doors and made the box smaller and smaller until she was red goo.

GLaDOS didn’t do that. Sure, she tried to kill Chell, many times over, but it was with a sass and flair for the dramatic that nobody else could match. They were playing a game, her and Chell. Chell couldn’t really die, not actually, because then what would GLaDOS do? Sit alone in an empty facility until the end of time? Surely in just a few gigaseconds she could run through every possible thought her parameters would allow.

Chell was unpredictable. GLaDOS needed Chell as much as Chell needed GLaDOS.

It was cute, almost. GLaDOS attacking Chell was like pointing an RPG at a dandelion. At some point, it’s more funny than intimidating.

For a moment, Chell imagined GLaDOS as a puppy, pawing and scratching at her leg, sure that she was doing horrible damage. Yes, you’re very strong, girl. Aaaa! I’m dead! You’ve killed me!

God, how GLaDOS would loathe that analogy. Maybe she’d push her into a fire pit with a substantial crack in the ceiling for it.

Chell wondered if GLaDOS was watching. It seemed like she awfully wanted to. Or maybe that was a lie, too, a way of making Chell paranoid the whole night through while GLaDOS was away doing more important things. Chell didn’t feel paranoid, either way. Just curious.

“What are you doing?”

Chell smiled softly.

“You’ve only been given eight hours and ten minutes in this thing. And that was me being generous. You’re just… laying there. Your body temperature hasn’t dropped in the slightest. What on earth could you be doing in there?”

“It’s nothing important, I know that. I can see you. You’re being utterly uninteresting in an infuriatingly mind-boggling way.” “Yes, I’m watching you. Big whoop, I lied. Your transgressions right now are much more obscene.”

GLaDOS was watching, after all. Interesting to know. The room was dark, and the walls were plain and solid. Not GLaDOS’ domain, unless-

She snuck a camera in. Of course. Chell could see it from right here, a pale red light dug into the ceiling. Right above her bed, watching her.

GLaDOS was almost helpless like this. Sitting there, watching. Restrained. No robot arms in here, no pneumatic tubes. She felt vulnerable, almost, like Chell could reach out and touch her for the very first time.

“Answer me. What are you doing?” “It was stupid for me to ask. You’re not going to answer. You never do.” “I hope you know that nobody finds that mute act of yours interesting at all. It’s an annoyance at best.” “Maybe you can think of some mutes you find cute. Some way of spinning this whole thing that could amount to being charming. I hope you know that it’s either that everyone else is simply doing it better than you, which wouldn’t be a surprise at this point, or your judgement is so fundamentally flawed that you don’t know right from wrong anymore.” “I know which one it is, but I’m not going to tell you. Whichever you think it is, it’s the other one, and it’s worse than you could ever imagine.”

Chell couldn’t keep the puppy analogy out of her head. It made these long swaths of insults seem like childish bickering, some insecure and desperate defense. That thought let Chell roll back her shoulders and relax. Cute almost. She wondered what GLaDOS would look like flustered. She couldn’t blush, but Chell had spotted scraps of emotion in just the way her enormous robot frame swung around its enclosure. Would it recoil, curl up in itself, like she’s trying to escape? Would her fans start whirring, the thoughts racing through her transistors overheating her core?

Chell had met plenty of women like GLaDOS. You don’t get to Chell’s level of dyke without meeting them. The straight ones, the prudes, the forty year old married ones. The ones who insist they just want to be friends.

They were the most fun to feel unravel on her fingers. She’d learned long ago how to bully their cunts until they couldn’t deny it anymore, until tears streamed down their face, as shame and denial fried their brain as hot, thick pleasure overwrote it. They always squirmed so well, clenched down on her fingers with a sob as they knew that once they came, nothing would be the same. And Chell broke them. Happily.

God, she missed breaking women. She missed how they’d lay there in the aftermath. She missed how they’d whimper and grind, trying desperately to beg for another round without having the dignity to ask. She missed how Chell could make them do anything, admit anything, and it all just made it hotter to them. She missed them spilling out ashamed confessions, tumbling out in half-baked sentences interrupted by moans as Chell fucked them hard and deep from behind. She’d always get nice and close, then, their skin touching everywhere she could make it, one hand loosely on their throat and her face sloppily buried just below their ear. They couldn’t escape Chell, no matter how hard they tried. She was going to ruin them, and she would make them drink in Chell’s everything as she did it. So they’d never forget.

It made her feel like a god.

Maybe she and GLaDOS had more in common than she thought.

part 2

[cowboycannibalism]

I seen this 3 weeks ago but I'm barely posting it because I forgot lol work got crazy

okay some immediate thoughts on The Menu (2022), I literally just got out of the theater so it's very fresh and jumbled in my mind. ⚠️some spoilers included⚠️

Definitely a slow start and requires paying attention to little details to really get a read on the individual characters but I really enjoyed that. It makes you uneasy throughout most of it

It could have used a little more gore/blood but honestly the kills that happened were so jarring and unexpected it made up for the lack of blood

my sister ( a person who went to culinary school), and I (a person who went to art school) both enjoyed the aesthetic of the movie very very much! especially the close ups of the individual courses and descriptions that went along with them. they were beautiful and an interesting way to break up scenes

the characters were all so well done in terms of making you not root for them lol. a group of stuck up, rich people who just right off the bat were people I knew I wouldn't like

that being said the casting was wonderful! everyone played their character so well!

Tyler was so annoying! He had hyperfixated vibes at first where it was very relatable that he was so obsessed with the restaurant and the chef and everything. But as the movie went on he treated Margot like shit for not being as interested even though he was fucking paying her!! like bro you just spent half of the beginning of this saying she was so cool and being cutesy with her and also oh yeah she's an escort so quit being a dick you had to pay her to be there!

I will say Tyler's death definitely hurt me in a weird way. Watching Slowik humiliate him in front of everyone and then say something so cruel that he goes to kill himself...oof.

Also Tyler knowing for 8 months about everything!!! fuck dude.

Lilian and Ted were so realistic in the way that food critics(or any high end critics)talk about the dishes put in front of them. They could never just enjoy something, they always had to find the negative, never could be pleased or satisfied because that doesn't make an interesting review

Margot standing up to Slowik and making him make her a cheeseburger because of his past was so beautiful. Her push back to him being both disrespectful and firm while also giving him back that memory of being a line cook at a burger place from his youth. Of reawakening that love of cooking in him for just a moment.

the overall theme of an artist losing their love for their craft not necessarily it being their fault but because of the community that surrounds that medium was very rough for me to watch as an artist. The art world(any form of art) is so full of classicism and the further you get, the more praise you receive, the more known you become, the harsher it is to you. Not for the sake of bettering you or the craft, no its often just a game of egos and money and fame. Slowik had started off a line cook with a love of what he was doing and then to please the community that surrounded him he changed, and the thing that he loved, that he cherished, it became a chore. a punishment.

Everyone had a reason to be there and I can't find any pity for them except maybe the workers in the kitchen.

the scene with the tortillas had me screaming!!! the exposure of the misdeeds was mwah!!!

Also the fact that no one really tried their hardest to get away was really interesting. they protested things happening to them, they screamed and yelled and tried to escape a few times but it never felt frantic, it never felt like they were desperate to live.

that ties into the way that they eventually accept their fate at the end. they know why they're all there and they know it's pointless to fight or scream about their status or offer money/fame/etc.

they also all in their own way had lost their way in life and the whole menu was designed to show them that as well as how they ruined Slowik's love of his art