#they are going to make it possible to copyright a style

[chromaticroses]

sometimes we talk to reasonable ppl who are against generated art and go “oh, this is really just a difference in philosophy, i don’t really have to care all that much about it” and then i get an opinion from The Internet At Large and go “oh right it is vitally important that i Very Loudly care about this”

[cheesycatz]

The Making of: Life-Size Malworm Plush

(Wormton AU)

STATS

16 ft 3 in (495 cm) long

Total time: 150 hours

Material Cost: $124

Theoretical minimum cost (based on seamstress wage): $2,524

(Progress photos and commentary below)

I'll be referring to my life-size wormton plush as "malworm" for convenience sake.

Unlike my Spamton NEO, Caine, and Fake Peppino plushies, I didn't spend a lot of time on concept art. Since I planned to make the malworm plush as close as possible to its 2D design, I didn't have to add much stylization, other than simplifying some details (no way in hell was I going to make 104 separate embroidered stitches for the segments of his toes, sorry). I mainly used the planning stage to calculate how wide the body pieces needed to be, plotting it out in 1/4 in : 3 in scale and using circumference formula to find the values I needed. I planned to make it around 10 feet long, the length of a young adult malworm. A lot of this project was improv, but, I mean, it wasn't my first or second or third time making a spamton centipede.

The head was quite a complicated shape, so I carved a tiny model out of craft foam, covered one half of it in masking tape, then cut the masking tape mask (hah) into flat pieces. I then traced the pieces onto graph paper and manually scaled them up by using the fact that I wanted the nose to be 1 ft long as reference. The rest of the pattern pieces were very simple, as wormton's teeth, body, legs, etc were very easy to translate into 2D shapes. I used old school notes as paper for the body, as I needed a lot of it. It was entertaining cutting exerpts of Moby Dick and English Renaissance biographies into body parts. I ended up making the body significantly longer; I had to spend $100 dollars on fur anyways, so why not make a maximum size one?

Making the pattern pieces took around 8 hours. While waiting for the fur to ship, I started cutting out the teeth, legs, and eyes. By the time the fur arrived, I had already sewn 36 worm teeth. I did an 11hr all-nighter to cut all the fur in one sitting the day it arrived. After a long vacuuming session and an uptake in the amount of polyester fiber in my lungs, I finished cutting the pieces, taking about 18 hours and 40 minutes.

As usual, the head was the first thing I worked on. It was...kind of wonky once I flipped it inside out. I trimmed some of the fur so that I could actually see what was happening. The main issues were the lack of any forehead, the nose being way too wide, and the cheeks being too flat. I did some ladder stitching as well as modifying the thing from the inside, and eventually made the head look much better. The cheeks still don't stick out that much still, but I'm happy with how the head looks now. I think it conquered the sopping wet owl resemblance. I inserted wire into the nose and jaws to help them keep their shape.

When I started this project, I wasn't sure whether to make it based off of Wormton or just a copyright-free malworm; I decided to do both. I went with red for the non-Spamton version, as I think it really fits the cartoony fly/mothman-style cryptid look malworms are supposed to have.

I sewed a square pouch into the throat and put in all those teeth. I used hot glue to wrap blue squares around a wire for the proboscis, because I think I would've gone bonkers cuckoo bananas if I had to hand sew that entire thing. The throat pouch holds the proboscis when it's not extended, as well as anything else I wanted to shove in there. I never measured it, but it's around 4-5 ft long. I finally made the Spamton... eye patches(?) and a pair of eyelids, though I didn't end up using them in the photo shoot. I also made a new pair of nostrils, as the old ones kind of got swallowed up from all the plastic surgery I was giving him

Now that the head was finished, I got to work on the body. I sewed the white belly and segments of the body together. I left most of the tail open, as the fur was too thick for me to flip it out at a certain point. I worked on the legs, next. After living out my cosplay dreams by putting the claws on my fingers like bugles chips, I grouped the claws together and sewed most of each leg and foot together, leaving me with many pairs of charred drumsticks (did not taste good)

I attached an extra long wire structure into each set of claws, then threaded the wire through each respective leg and stuffed them. I ladder stitched the claws to each foot, then stuffed each with some plastic beans in order to give the feet weight. I then finished sewing each foot shut. I now had a pile of disembodied limbs and one very long scarf.

I wound many long pieces of wire together to create an armature for the body. While the plush's body is way too heavy to be properly posable, the wire does still give some structure. I wrapped the extra long ends of the legs' wires to the metal spine, using the body's leg holes for reference. I then pulled the body up the metal armature like a sock.

I pulled the legs through their respective holes and stuffed the body. It was the first time the malworm was huggable! It's sort of like an oversized body pillow, in a way. I had to ladder-stich all the limbs, the head, and the rest of the tail, as it would've been completely impossible to flip inside out. It was quite difficult to do on furry fabric, and my thread frequently broke from the force I had to pull with to keep the stitches tight. Eventually, I got everything attached to some degree.

The last details I worked on were the mane, tail tufts, and scopula pads. The mane and tail tufts were ladder stitched onto the body, but I decided to use glue to attach the pads to the feet. I think the extra blue details make his proboscis fit much better, and who doesn't love spider paw pads? I also glued some velcro to the eye patches so that they stay attached better. They slide under the black eye rings.

My malworm was finally finished! I tried to put a lot of effort into the photo shoot so that people who don't know about the AU can enjoy it. I wanted to make it seem like some weird entity whose only goal is obtaining more Spamton brainrot. Hence it making Spamton on Mario Kart DS under the bed, obsessing over the Spamton Plush, inspecting the Spamton Shrine, and just generally harassing the photographer (me, I guess?). I wanted to capture the silliness, creepiness, and lack of respect for personal space that Spamton is known for. I thought about giving him a bag of doritos under the bed like that one image of the isopods eating them, but went with the DS instead. I thought it would be funny to see this thing playing Super Mario 64 DS (or Super Spamton 64) and here the "buh bye!" sound effect when it closes the DSi XL.

That's all from me, for now. I have other Wormton related matter to attend to.

Don't let the parasitic Spamton larvae bite

[kalifornia1025]

The Red Circle Pt. 3 (SPOILERS)

*Cutely drops my notes* 

John’s REALLY struggling with the tech. I almost feel bad for the guy (almost).

Aww the episode starts off with John asking the gang (Mariana & Sherlock) if they’re okay after finding a dead body. Always nice he checks in with them!

“The good doctor here” SHERLOCK COMPLIMENTING JOHN

Imani’s back, yay!

Oh no, poor Imani…

This exchange:

Imani: “Sorry about this” (sending another red circle pic)

Mariana: “No no no-don’t be sorry”

Sherlock: “Yes you musn’t it’s fantastic”

John: “Sherlock”

Gregson and Mariana are formerly meeting!

THE MUSIC IN THIS CASE OMG ITS SO GOOD!!!

John, you’re playing Italian Mob style music to “capture the mood”?? What happened to “not wanting to stereotype?!”

JOHN JUST REPLACE THE MIC GODDAMNIT

“Ahh do I have a PTSD friend?” John’s new method to making friends apparently 

Mariana’s right this is stupid just GET A NEW MIC!! You can still keep the old one, John!

I now have a mental image of Sherlock staring wide-eyed at a big tv like he’s in a trance and I LOVE it

Aww possible future movie nights with a new tv!!

DONALD TRUMP JUMPSCARE

Wives of Cheshire comeback HA!!

“Oh you out of your trance are you?” Seriously how mesmerized was Sherlock to the tv for John to make this joke TWICE?!

Mariana discovers the next clue, awesome!

Sherlock: “I don’t seem to have (seat)belt”, Gregson: “What a shame” Gregson you’re such a salty bitch and I love you for it

Poor John trying to get around copyright stuff

“That’s a good start, you did knock and you did say please-“ another sweet moment of Sherlock getting better with social norm stuff

Wow John is REALLY stressed, and Sherlock is NOT helping

Hehe Sherlock is an iPad kid confirmed

I’m starting to love John calling Sherlock ‘Sherls’

“What’s the Site manager like? Is he…she…they?” John says nonbinary rights

John: Ah I’ve stepped in piss”, Sherlock: “Show me the urine”…um what???

You really can’t catch a break your shoes, huh John?

I’m listening to Sherlock and John talk about possibly reaching down into toilets in order to solve the case…man I love this podcast

John: “You’re doing the next one”, Sherlock: *sharp inhale* “fine” tbf Sherlock this was YOUR idea

“The Patreon numbers are gonna collapse” no such thing sir I’ve checked and we’re all here and loving this

Sherlock: “Imani would you perhaps like to have a go?”, Imani: “No”, Sherlock: “Bugger” I love how quickly he says it

Neuralizer mention! I love the Men in Black movies so much

OOOH, John and Sherlock making the realization at the same time!

Sherlock why do you always have a gun??

NOT THE CHIPMUNK VOICES DURING AN EPIC MOMENT

“English pigs, wot?” John sounded so genuinely confused by that

AHHHHHHH CLIFFHANGERS, THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE!!!!!!

Okay as painful as that cliffhanger is, this case is getting GOOD! I’m loving it. It’s definitely jumping up to my top five fave cases from the podcast. I was not expecting the case to be as silly as it is, and I’m absolutely relishing in it. I love the irony of John insisting this case is gonna be a bad one when I’m loving every minute of it! Alright everybody, now we just have to not die from waiting on the last part…see y’all next week!

[not-terezi-pyrope]

Ok. It's pretty clear you are more welcoming of AI, and it does have enough merits to not be given a knee jerk reaction outright.

And how the current anti-ai stealing programs could be misused.

But isn't so much of the models built on stolen art? That is one of the big thing keeping me from freely enjoying it.

The stolen art is a thing that needs to be addressed.

Though i agree that the ways that such addressing are being done in are not ideal. Counterproductive even.

I could make a quip here and be like "stolen art??? But the art is all still there, and it looks fine to me!" And that would be a salient point about the silliness of digital theft as a concept, but I know that wouldn't actually address your point because what you're actually talking about is art appropriation by generative AI models.

But the thing is that generative AI models don't really do that, either. They train on publicly posted images and derive a sort of metadata - more specifically, they build a feature space mapping out different visual concepts together with text that refers to them. This is then used at the generative stage in order to produce new images based on the denoising predictions of that abstract feature model. No output is created that hasn't gone through that multi-stage level of abstraction from the training data, and none of the original training images are directly used at all.

Due to various flaws in the process, you can sometimes get a model to output images extremely similar to particular training images, and it is also possible to get a model to pastiche a particular artist's work or style, but this is something that humans can also do and is a problem with the individual image that has been created, rather than the process in general.

Training an AI model is pretty clearly fair use, because you're not even really re-using the training images - you're deriving metadata that describes them, and using them to build new images. This is far more comparable to the process by which human artists learn concepts than the weird sort of "theft collage" that people seem to be convinced is going on. In many cases, the much larger training corpus of generative AI models means that an output will be far more abstracted from any identifiable source data (source data in fact is usually not identifiable) than a human being drawing from a reference, something we all agree is perfectly fine!

The only difference is that the AI process is happening in a computer with tangible data, and is therefore quantifiable. This seems to convince people that it is in some way more ontologically derivative than any other artistic process, because computers are assumed to be copying whereas the human brain can impart its own mystical juju of originality.

I'm a materialist and think this is very silly. The valid concerns around AI are to do with how society is unprepared for increased automation, but that's an entirely different conversation from the art theft one, and the latter actively distracts from the former. The complete refusal from some people to even engage with AI's existence out of disgust also makes it harder to solve the real problem around its implementation.

This sucks, because for a lot of people it's not really about copyright or intellectual property anyway. It's about that automation threat, and a sort of human condition anxiety about being supplanted and replaced by automation. That's a whole mess of emotions and genuine labour concerns that we need to work through and break down and resolve, but reactionary egg-throwing at all things related to machine learning is counterproductive to that, as is reading out legal mantras paraphrasing megacorps looking to expand copyright law to over shit like "art style".

I've spoken about this more elsewhere if you look at my blog's AI tag.

[hretoprvdthepltnx]

Hihi !! Before i request I just love your writing so much and I couldn’t resist to request this!!

Could I request a teen! Reader (angel) who’s sees crowley & aziraphale as their parental figures who is trying to make something nice for them?

The reader is super silly and innocent so like the stuff they make look like something else 💀

Handmade

Ineffable Husbands x teen!angel!reader

Summary: Y/n wants to do something special for their favorite angel/demon duo. So, they try their ethereal hand at the human art of crafting.

Content: y/n uses they/them pronouns, improper use of miracles,

Note: Anon, you're such an absolute sweetheart. I appreciate you so much. Unfortunately, I didn't realize what you meant by 'something else' until after but hopefully you still enjoy the fic.

Rating: 14+ || 500+ w.

Gifts were important. Gifts were a way of expressing profound love for an individual, at least that is what Aziraphale had taught you. Gifts meant a lot; they were a language all their own. Gifts meant I love you.

Gifts were hard.

You stared at the heaping pile of crafting utensils Maggie from the record shop had leant you. There were a lot of options and she had even been kind enough to make you a list of ideas, the only problem was that none of it seemed quite right for Aziraphale and Crowley.

You stared at the felt and the streamers and silently willed yourself to come up with an idea, but nothing happened. Sighing, you sat back with your shoulders pressing against the side of Aziraphale's desk. It was lucky that they were out, the sight of you sitting on the floor surrounded by confetti might raise an alarm. Or perhaps not, you were prone to floor sitting.

You tossed your head back against the leg of the table and the telephone jingled with the bang. Perhaps you should call her and ask for her help, but no, this was your idea, and it would make it even more special if you did it yourself. There had to be something you could make.

Your eyes drifted to a stray bottle of silver glitter and stayed there, staring with such mindless intensity it was a miracle the tension didn't cause the bottle to bust. Miracles. You could use a little miracle of your own right about now.

"Wait," you sat up too quickly, dizzying yourself, and snatched up the little plastic bottle of glitter. "If it's only a small miracle, and one for good, then I can't possibly get in trouble for it. And it's still like I'm making it myself, because I am." A smile stretched wide across your face, and you turned to the plant in the corner, "This is going to be perfect."

Hours later, when Crowley and Aziraphale arrived back at the bookshop, there was a notable difference to the building. That being because the entire inside of the bookshop had turned into a Victorian style ballroom. "Right, well...what's all this?" You beamed at the demon from where you stood in the center of the large room. "Suprise! It's a gift!"

Aziraphale's face went from something sad - which you had luckily missed - to something proud and beaming. "A gift, yes! And, oh, how wonderful!" Crowley didn't look quite as convinced. However, he perked up quite notably when the record player you had been fiddling with started to play Queen's Somebody to Love. You offered a hand to both fellow angel and the demon in front of you, "Care to dance?"

"Why certainly!" Aziraphale answered for the both of them, whatever complaint Crowley had been about to give died in his throat as he was yanked along. As you danced, you made a mental note to thank Maggie for the record next time you saw her. Perhaps you might even thank her with a gift.

|| masterlist || navigation ||

story by hretoprvdthepltnx©

Ineffable Husbands/Good Omens copyrighted by Neil Gaiman©

[getfuckedblr]

here’s my guide to making typesets! I use Word to make my typesets, Canva for designs, and Adobe to insert the majority of my designs.

this is a ton of info and I tried to make it as readable as possible, but plz let me know if u need any clarification!

Word: always use the app, the online program doesn't have all of the options needed

paper size: US Letter Borderless

then i flip it landscape, do custom borders, and select book fold. I do 1 inch on top and bottom, .75 in inside, and .5 in outside. i leave the gutter option alone and leave it set to 0. You can choose how large you want your signatures to be (sheets in booklet option on the margins page): I normally do 40 page signatures, but if it's a smaller text you'll want to go smaller for stability. after that, you should have a half page to start your typeset!

Inserting your fic:

the next thing you’ll do is insert your fic; on ao3 click entire story, CTRL A to select all, CTRL C to copy it all. Paste it into your document. word automatically detects the headings, and you should be able to see all your chapters on the left side bar (if you can’t see it, click the page numbers on the bottom left to open the tab).

Formatting:

you can do the next few steps in any order, but we’re going to fix the formatting now. you’ll want to CTRL A everything, pick a font and a font size. I normally use georgia and size 10, going smaller or larger depending on the file size.

To have an indent on every line: CTRL A your work to select all, right click the “normal” style, on the home tab. go to the bottom left, open the drop-down menu, and select “paragraph”. next to special, hit first line. i like to do .3, you can do whatever you want. i then like to make sure the space after is set to 0, the line spacing to single, and then hit save. it should automatically adjust your lines to start at whatever indent you picked.

To fix the spacing: go into the layout tab, and go to spacing. There'll be a before and after option: write in 0, then click enter for both of them. Word is a little bit bitchy so you have to force it do things sometimes. after this you can choose if you want single spacing, or 1.5, or whatever you want.

*sometimes, the way the fic was formatted when posted to ao3 means that even after setting the line spacing to zero, there will still be a space in between each line. this is where you have to troubleshoot. you can either go line by line to delete the excess space (yes, for real. and yes, it's just as awful as it sounds) or, sometimes, not every-time but sometimes, you can highlight the chapter text, go into the home tab on top, click the A with the purple eraser to erase all formatting, and then do all the beginning steps again, and it will get rid of the extra space.*

Now that your format is mostly fixed, delete the archive of our own beta, and anything else you don't want. I normally delete everything up to the title of the work, and leave that for creating my copyright page. Remember to do the same for the end of the work!

Page Breaks and Section Breaks:

the next part is the most crucial. it's how we format both the chapters, but also how we format the headings and footer. this was the part that took me the longest to figure out: it's the page breaks and section breaks. page breaks mark the place where one page ends, and another begins. section breaks will create a new section in your document, so you can break the beginning few pages from the rest of your textblock. This will allow you to insert page numbers that start on page one, instead of at the first page of the document.

I like to go the end of the description, and then click on the first chapter. then I'll add a section break. you can find this in the layout tab, click breaks, and then click section break. so now our section 2 starts with chapter one. After this, add a blank page after the description and before your new section, and then click on the first chapter. (adding a blank page allows for smoother formatting later with headers and footers)

I then go to each chapter, delete the authors notes at the start and end of each chapter, and add a page break at the start of each chapter. i like to use the heading tab on the left to click each chapter, so I know I'm actually starting the new page right where I need to, and other formatting won't delete the page break.

when I create a compilation fic, where I have muitlple fics in one typeset, I use section breaks at the starts of each new fic. this will allow the page numbers to continue, but I can then edit each sectio to change the fic title and the authors name. if you're really fancy, you can do this for each chapter title as well, you would just hve to use a section break for each chapter instead of page break. *Remember to click link to previous to turn it off, so you are only editing that section, and not all the other sections. this can be found in the heading and footer tab on the top, which will automatically open when you click on the heading or footer.*

Adding page numbers, authors name, text name:

To add a page number, I click the footer, which automatically opens the header/footer tab on top. Then, I click page numbers, add page numbers. I turn on different odd and even pages, which is also found in the header/footer tab. you'll have to insert page numbers on both an even and odd age to get them to show up once you click that option. Page one should be an odd page, page two should be an even page. I like to put the page numbers on the outside of the page. Then you'll click format page numbers, click "start at" instead of "continue from previous section", and write in 1. now your typeset starts at 1 on chapter one instead of the start of your document! you'll need to go back and delete the numbers that showed up on the first section, but remember to deselect link to previous before you do that! or you'll end up deleting your page numbers again.

to add text on page numbers:

click into the header/footer again. double click directly on the page number, then start typing. You ca highlight the whole thing to change the font, font seize, etc. I normally do the same size as my text, and I'll either do georgia font or garamond font. I google "copy paste line for text" to get that line dividing the page number from whatever text I have next to it.

to add graphics on an entire work:

you can go into the header or footer, go to the insert tab, and insert a picture. Doing it in the header or footer will ensure it's on every single page that shares that header or footer. I have done this in the past, and find it's cute, but it's also tricky because it needs to be small enough to fit inside the header or footer, and won't really be able to interact with the text because it's different on each page, while the graphic will stay in the same position regardless.

Blank Pages:

you want blank pages at the start and end of your textblock: this is what you'll be glueing your end papers to. even more, you'll want to ensure your total page number is both divisible by 4 (each page of paper will have four pages of your text on it, two to each side) and fits into your signature count. If you're working with a 40 page signature, and you have 420 pages, that's fine. You'll end up having the last signature only be 5 regular pages instead of 10, which is plenty enough to sew. you really just want to try and avoid only having one of two pages in that last signature, as that won't be very strong in holding up your end page, or be very stable in sewing on to your book block.

to make sure they're blank, with no page numbers, you'll want to insert a section break on the last page of text. Deselect link to previous, delete the page numbers and you should be all good!

Printing/Saving:

I'm on a mac. I don't know how you would do this on anything but a mac. let that be a warning lmao. but I will CTRL A everything, ensure it's US Letter Borderless, and then hit print. if you don't tell the document it's the right size, it'll be funky when you go to print because of the margins. to insert images, i click save as pdf. it'll save it in the correct order to print for your signatures, and then I upload it into adobe to edit further. that'll have to be a different post bc this is entirely too long already.

If you want to print directly from here, ensure it's printing the right size, flip on short edge, double sided. and you're all done!

[half-man-half-lime]

Plagued by wanting to yell NO IT'S NOT at the anti-AI crowd who say AI is theft, and to yell YES IT IS at the pro-AI crowd who say it's not theft

Or in a not-snappy-and-funny way of saying things, a huge portion of the anti-AI crowd, while genuinely fighting for their futures against something that will be damaging and harmful to the artistic profession and presents a new kind of intellectual property issue, act like a superstitious angry mob who treat the technology like the devil, go on rants about the true spirit of creativity or whatever that are dumb and irrelevant, incidentally go to some ableist places, and spread misinformation about how it works, while supporting misguided changes to copyright that will do a tremendous amount more harm than good. (Obviously the threat to artists is a bigger priority than how annoying they are about it, but BOY do they make it hard)

And a lot of the pro-AI crowd seem willfully ignorant of the threat and harm the technology poses, present false binaries about copyright law and the nature of intellectual property (hey, it turns out that Disney's abuse and distortion of copyright law doesn't mean there's nothing beneficial to small-time creators in the original intent of the law! It's possible to create laws and precedents about this stuff that don't automatically make things worse!), and act like the conceptual similarities to how human artists take inspiration from other work and other specific mechanics of the technology not being literal copying and pasting means there's no threat to the artistic trade as a whole (and that such a threat isn't conceptually disturbing in ways other forms of automation aren't necessarily), and that a machine that can accurately imitate someone's style with high speed and volume of output without the human judgement or work put in doesn't represent a MASSIVE exploitation of someone's individual labor and a unique new kind of violation of their creative voice that collages and parodies don't

[quartzdawn]

Went on google search, typed in 'Ugigiugi' just to analysis her tracing again, and accidental found her ancient Egyptian Mythos art. Apparently either Ugigugi or someone else relogged them on Pinterest and because of that they are now forever frozen there as a memory of a person who is no longer on the internet (and thank god for that).

I was happy to actually find these because I genuinely need to see what these looked like, as when looking at the tracing PDF file that @/Twistedpometea made and seeing a few select of the Egyptian mythos art there, I noticed that if you go to her Deviantart (the only social media she has left) the Ancient Egyptian stuff was the only thing that was completely 100% deleted. you can't find any of the art for it other than on google.

Moving on to an actual topic, while looking at this art wise, not only can you tell that a mass majority of this art is traces of Leona from Twisted wonderland, but the designs are straight up nearly stolen from the Webtoon Ennead (Another place she also traced from in a few of her works). Her Seth is literally a hybrid of the Ennead Seth and Leona from TWST mixed together to make some hybrid child.

I'm assuming she decided to make this "beautiful' decision so that she can easily trace fanart of both Leona and Seth instead of actually have to draw anything at all from scratch.

Anyway, thought this was interesting because my closing suspicion of her possible being homophobic keeps growing because this is apart of the several pieces of work were she replaced a male character in a MalexMale relationship (whether its fanart or official original art) with her female self insert to serve a heterosexual perspective. This time being a more sever case.

If no ones ever read 'Ennead' it is strictly considered a boy love story. Seth (god of war in Egyptian mythos) is seen having several romantic and sexual relationship with men. Specifically the god Horus. Its-- the story is a lot, but the main point is that this series doesn't have many hetro elements to it.

In Ugigugi's version she keeps Seth, gives him Leona's personality (kind of), and then replaces Horus with her Self insert Julia. The stories are nearly the same from what I can gather and all she did was erase the more graphic and horrid parts of the story to create a more fluffy 'gentle' perspective of the relationship. Almost in a way to spite the Ennead version of the story which has a much darker storyline to it.

Funniest part of this all? She's drawn Ennead fanart before so I genuinely do not get why she thought she was going to get away with this.

(LMAO love how in these pieces to not make it clear that she took heavy, and I mean HEAVY inspiration, from Ennead she just changed the art style. Just because the designs [which were probably also taken from other sources] are different doesn't mean that the tracing of the characters aren't obvious)

Now the only thing I want to know is why she mass deleted all of the Egyptian artwork she did and not the obviously traced Twisted Wonderland work that's still on her DeviantArt. is the author of Ennead more threatening with copyright striking? Was the universe she created actually co owned with another user and the other didn't want to participate anymore after realizing she was a tracer? Was she accused of something like racism ? Its odd for sure. if anyone knows comment or reblog because I think its really strange.

(also in the process of making this I found more of her ancient Egyptian mythology art so will make another post. Apparently its being sold on those weird scam sites that sell things for expensive prices. Apparent they think many of this work is worth 24USD. )

[crystalverse-project]

hello, welcome to my mcyt blog, except it's only about one youtuber and it's not about the youtuber but only the character

this post is about the graphic novel trayaurus and the enchanted crystal. or to be more specific the fact i've found and bought two foreign language versions just to compare them both because i think translations are cool and interesting and i have autism and nobody's documented this and i have autism and the next thousand reasons consist of i have autism

trayaurus y el diamante encantado (spanish)

trayaurus et le cristal enchanté (french)

so i didn't even know this book got translated at all until a few months ago. and i managed to find both of these on amazon for reasonable prices, except the french one came with a broken spine and the only remaining spanish one is now demanding several hundred pounds for the only one left last time i checked.

i don't have a way of getting scans of this for preservation, so my phone camera's going to have to do. i also don't have an english copy anymore but i do have pictures of the pages to cross reference. this is what happens when you have a special interest guys you start cross referencing three versions of the same book at the same when you only know one language. (i haven't translated it all yet so i was looking at visual differences right now)

NOTE: all uses of "english" version refer to the original uk release. i've seen us releases that are so different they could be a different blogpost

back covers

for some reason the spanish copy is a lot less thick as the french and english ones? they all have the same pages so idk why that is. i can't remember which is the original way this spine faced, but everything is the same except the publisher logos.

according to copyright info the spanish version released in 2018, french 2017. i don't want to go past the picture limit so i'll just say there was an error on the spanish version where it said original title, it was written 'trayaurus and the enchanted cristal'. in the book the crystal is specifcally a diamond in spanish

in the introduction all the character names are white outlined with black in french, this wasn't a thing in english

the sound effects were translated in spanish and left english in french

various other text translations, in spanish one part was just blank

the two most interesting changes/errors:

the sign for trayaurus' office is translated in french but in spanish it's in english but in a different squished font? i'm not sure why they'd change that, i had to go get the pictures i took of the english one just to check i wasn't going insane

and here's a silly error i noticed on one page...in the french version the speech bubbles just went randomly off course

soon i'm going to try translate all the text to see if it's accurate/different, what i can make out now is pretty much the same.

we've found two other translations of this book, but for...political reasons i don't feel comfortable talking about them. if things were different in the world i would absolutely, because one of them is possibly bootleg and the other one has a flipped reading style so the whole book is the other way around. we HAVE found a full version of one but i don't want to offend or alienate anyone, so i won't talk about them.

i could, however, make more blog posts about the book, because it's inspired me so much. just not in a completely positive way. the story and characters i of course LOVED in the book, it's dantdm, favourite series in the whole world, my comfort series. the illustrations in the book though...um

i also found it being sold on a japanese site, but it wasn't translated. but i did see some of the tube heroes figures being sold on yahoo auctions in japan. i would try get a closer look but it's blocked in the uk and i don't have a vpn... ;-;

BONUS, ON THE TOPIC OF TRANSLATIONS:

before you ask, no, this is not ai generated, or a fandub.

there was this canadian kids show called "gaming show in my parents' garage" which was just stuff about kids playing video games and getting guest appearances, dan was in a few episodes!! but also it was dubbed and broadcast in central europe on a channel called megamax, this is a clip of the romanian dub. the guy doing dan's voice i found out is called alexandru rusu, and he does a lot of romanian dubbing for other shows. for just a few examples, he did the narration on this same show, cyborg on teen titans, geoff in total drama, the bus dude in fireman sam and the narrator in thomas the tank engine in the seasons where it wasn't cgi

[hellsw0rth]

Here it is! Doomsday in the style of 1976.

TWO MINUTE PREVIEW. FULL TRACK ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

I was initially going to come up with a story to explain how the Doomsday scenario could happen in Season 14. Maybe Sarah-Jane was whisked away at the end of The Hand of Fear, as part of a backup plan by the Master and Chancellor Goth, and the Doctor found out about this, and talked with her at the end of The Deadly Assassin using Time Lord technology on Gallifrey.

But I thought it would be better to let you come up with your own ideas to explain how Sarah-Jane could get separated from the Doctor in a parallel universe, and how he managed to communicate with her. Feel free to share your thoughts about how this could happen, in the comments. I'd be very keen to hear how you think it could have worked!

I took inspiration from the soundtrack of The Deadly Assassin to come up with the instruments to use for this. There's heavy woodwind (oboes and bassoon's) and one of the backing instruments is an organ which featured prominently in that story. I tried to balance both authenticity with emotion and nostalgia - a balance I try to strike with most of my remixes. So, before anyone comments "this doesn't completely sound like it's from 1976", this is why. Tracks like this would not have featured in Classic Who, and to strip it down and make it as authentic as possible, much of the emotion and nostalgia would have been removed (in my opinion, anyway) that means it deviates massively from what I'm trying to do.

There are some brilliant creators out there who do an incredible job of making 'era authentic' music. @HudsonMedia and @GeorgeCMusic are two examples of creators who do a phenomenal job of this, and deserve infinitely more praise than they get for their efforts. I admire their work immensely, and would encourage you to subscribe to their channels.

My approach is to echo the nostalgia and emotion attached to the original track while making it sound like it *could* have sounded in the era being channeled. This is done by taking the original track and 'plugging in' the instruments or sounds of the era. My work has been described as "bombastic", "fun", and "emotional", which is what I try to prioritise with my mixes. That's a long winded way of saying that if anyone says 'it doesn't sound like the 70's' that I KNOW!

Also, I know someone is going to comment "this, but the 1960's" or something similar. I'm receptive to suggestions for future releases, but lately the suggestions have been more like a demand or insistence than a suggestion for the future. I've been getting a bit uncomfortable with the degree to which people have been saying 'do this', like they have the right to demand something from me. Like I said, I'm very receptive to suggestions, and several of my releases have been the result of a suggestion, but please don't phrase it in a way that shows you have the right to tell me what to do. I don't claim any monetary reward for this work, and I'm very unlikely to ever start some sort of monetary reward platform for these, for ethical reasons (it's copyrighted music, and I use sheet music and/or MIDI files made by other people). So, this work isn't rewarded by money, and it's something I do in my spare time, both as a therapeutic distraction from a tumultuous personal life, and as procrastination from my PhD. So, please phrase your suggestions a little more respectfully.

Lastly, I wondered about releasing this in July, being the 18th anniversary of Doomsday. But it seemed too far away, and as the Majestic Tale (1970s) is taking a lot longer to work on, I thought this would make for a decent release in the meantime.

Enjoy!

[patheticpaprika]

Goncharov: Fandom's Struggle Between Fanon vs. Canon and How That's Created A Mythos Rivaling The Greeks

A tag ramble to this post that got away from me and became too long to feel okay putting in the tags lol. It can be easily read as a stand alone though.

It's absolutely FASCINATING to me being able to both watch and participate in the Goncharov (?)fandom(?). It's taking everything that fandom culture is and letting it run free without any barriers to stop it.

Because frankly, I can't think of anything (to my knowledge) quite like it in recent history to reach such a scale. Both the ability to write stories down and the rise of copyright have had a significant impact on the way stories are told. We went from a storytelling culture that slowly evolved each story told by the person telling it, to one that is very close-handed to the narratives created.

And yes, to some extent, this twisting and evolving still happens in fandoms to the point that fanon and canon can become so separated it feels jarring. But that's just it isn't it? There always remains the canon. That will always be the true story. Fanfiction will forever be fanfiction, no matter how much we want it to be "real." You can whittle away at the narrative to shape it into something more appealing, but it will always be stuck as a block of wood.

Yet, the very fact that fanon exists proves that we never lost that want to change stories and make them a little bit our own. All that we lost was the medium to do so. Evolve something too far, and it won't be the same, will it? We're stuck in the confines of "canon."

I have seen fanfiction of fanfiction before, but it tends to quite quickly pitter out without its own foundation to stand upon. More can be added to the universe, but what's there does not change. It does not evolve the way a story passed down orally does; in a story spoken, the canon is forced to slowly change by the memory and style of the speaker. A classic game of telephone.

Goncharov however? There is no original story; there is no true canon. Not only is the story evolving freely from storyteller to storyteller, but the only reason there is even a coherent story in the first place is that there are multiple storytellers weaving the tale at once yet also expecting you to fill in the gaps.

It's like we're all playing that one writing game where each person writes a sentence back and forth to create a story. Yet, instead of you and one friend, we're playing it on this gargantuan sitewide scale that can't possibly all be connected into a singular coherent narrative. But you're not supposed to be able to. Each person can choose what they want to know it as. It's like some big giant exploratory choose-your-own-adventure book. The framework is there, but it's going in 50 different directions and you can always add another one in just for fun. You discover the story as you read, but only the bits you like get added on.

It's fucking incredible.

We all see each piece of media through our own personal lenses but never like this?? Not to this extent. We're all collectively joining together to obsess over the little ideas in our heads we got from each other's prompts and are excitedly spewing them regardless of how contradictory they are. We do something similar brainstorming with others but not with 12k messages in a single day.

Would this have even been possible before the rise of social media? Not to mention the strong sense of community Tumblr has that is so rare to see with such a large amount of people. There's more people than you could ever know on this site but we all act like some deranged extended family. Yes, people can work together but so rarely do people that vary so greatly in personality and life experiences, get together in such larger numbers to do a little silly goofy CREATE AN ENTIRE STORY THAT DOESN'T EXIST.

We pull shenanigans like this all the time. But this time it's not like eeby deeby or even the mishapocolyse; this time we're seeing the power of an entire community working together to create not only layers and layers of memes but layers of memes shaping an entire mythos. It's like we're the Greeks thinking up stories of our gods but instead it's a homoerotic mafia movie from 1973 written by Matteo JWHJ 0715 and Martin Scorsese that all started with a picture of a shoe.

We have stumbled across something fascinating and new. This may not be the first mafia movie that's been thought up and played around with but this is absolutely the first to be created by thousands of people working together but also towards their own individual goal/story. We're seeing the power that created mythology being wielded by fandom culture, and it's letting it evolve like no other story has.

It's free from the confines of prescribed canon, but there is so much being created that can be canon if you want it to be. This isn't changing one by one like some spoken tale towards exponential growth either. This has been created like one spectacular big bang. We had a funny post of a boot, and then we had a poster and that was enough to make Tumblr go collectively insane. (Not that we weren't already.) I want to (politely) shake all of you by the shoulders till everyone realizes how crazy this all is.

This story is ours, all of ours. Goncharov (1973) is held together by the power of belief and love for it. We have fragments of canon, yes, but it only exists because we want it to. And God-damn it, I hope we do it again. Together we can create things that we'd never thought could exist (and in this case still doesn't).

-We- are strong. Please never forget that.

As it now 6am and I have not slept, I will leave you with a quote; Goncharov's final solemn plea as he slowly bled to death, for I feel it's in an odd way rather fitting.

"What is the dust but a remnant of what we once were, all around us coated with it.

But we brush it away in search of something else. Not everything that mattered once matters now.

Yet you seem to think that's the only way, just keep dusting it.

You never stop to think that some things we search for might not be worth keeping.

Nothing has meaning unless we continue to think it does.

So please... I beg of you, can't we just move on and let this sickening contempt between us dissolve into dust?"

[merp-blerp]

So Claudia Cacace recently posted her last Be More Chill animatic and said in the pinned comment that she had wanted to stop a long time ago when people gave her bad attention; it made me think about how animatic creators at the height of the musical theater fandom were treated horribly, despite being the backbone of that fandom for the longest time. For example, I remember people used to give Mushroomie/Mushie r crap about how they were “copying” Szin’s art style, which is literally impossible. A lot of people in the fandom were clearly inspired my Szin’s artwork because she was one of the most popular artists in the fandom at the time and her art was indeed really good. You can’t “copy” an art style. And when Szin announced that she wasn’t going to make Hamilton animatics anymore “fans” were calling her a liar among other awful things because she had said in a now private (or maybe deleted) Q&A video that she had wanted to do all the songs, despite that fact that she also said in that same video that she was going to keep making Hamilton animatics as long as they were fun for her, which they has ceased to be by the time she had finished Act 1 and a bit of Act 2. It had been years, disinterest naturally happens and that’s okay. There were a lot of animatic creators who stopped for the same reason; animatic creating had stopped being fun for these artist and began to be more like a job rather than the hobby it started out as. Remember most of these creators were making these animatics alone and possibly without much if any pay from YouTube. And on top of that a lot of these creators were minors at the time! They likely had other obligations in life like school and family, not able to have time for a job, let alone a very time consuming, demanding, solo job. Not to mention all the other things these creators had to deal with, like making content in a timely manner so the algorithm didn’t abandon them, or YouTube’s shitty fair use system constantly threatening to copyright claim or strike videos and even entire channels in some cases like Mushroomie. If you were in the musical theater fandom around 2016-2019 you know how important animatics were. Pro-shots were even more rarely made than they are now (like pretty much never), and bootlegs of then-currently running shows stayed up online for only a few days or weeks if you were lucky, so a lot of fans had no way of legally seeing the show(s), and sometimes not even illegally. A lot of people who loved these musicals would love a show for it’s music, but had no clue what the full plot was out of a lack of being able to access the show in an affordable way, affordability still being an issue with Broadway today. So animatics were very vital to people getting at least an idea of how these shows visually looked and an opportunity for artist to do something they loved. This was how people got to see their favorite show in away that YouTube couldn’t (fairly) take down. Quite noticeably, when these animatic creators almost collectively stopped making animatics for these musicals or slowed down around 2019, the fandom fizzled out as well, or at least changed. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t dead like some believe in my opinion, but it’s definitely different. In one way, now that a lot of the most popular shows from this time and others have some kind of pro-shot or shitty movie adaptation, and YouTube being a lot more lose with bootlegs then they used to be, animatics aren’t as vital, but their importance shouldn’t be something to sneeze at and it blows that these animatic creators weren’t treated with the utmost respect they deserved at the height of their popularity. I know I’m pulling an old issue out of the grave and this issue is essential gone, with animatics being made at a less frequent rate than they were at the time, but I’ve never seen this talked about in length. If any animatic creators, currently active or not, are reading this, I hope you continue to enjoy you creations and that people respect you as they should.

[lastoneout]

If the Pokemon lawsuit situation is so dire, is there anything we can do to stop it?

Based on my understanding of how copyright lawsuits work there really isn't.

Even bigger voices in the industry speaking out about these excessive patents and making Nintendo look bad probably won't change their mind. The last time they did this they gained a lot of negative press and even that didn't make a dent in their sales or move them to change their practices. Also it seems like it genuinely doesn't matter how much Game Freak shits the bed on Pokemon games, people are still going to throw buckets of money at them. I do believe their recent switch to taking 3 years between major releases might be because Nintendo really does care about their brand integrity and Game Freak putting out such broken games with Nintendo's name attached was making them look bad, so they forced them to clean up their act, but Scarlet and Violet still made a bunch of money and Pokemon continues to be one of the most profitable IPs in the world. I don't think boycotting Nintendo is really going to do anything and complaining likely will be ignored because they already don't openly respond to public criticism and they also have more money than god and will use it as they see fit.

I genuinely wish Nintendo had gone in on brand integrity because again, I don't think what PocketPair is doing is okay, and they do seem to care a lot about how they present themselves so going after a game that was getting insanely popular and looked so similar AND wasn't family friendly makes sense. Genuinely if their argument was just "this game's creatures and design look so much like ours it's possible for the two to be mistaken and having that confusion weakens our brand identity and has the potential to make consumers look at us badly for the guns and violence thing which is directly contrary to what we do" I would be like, yeah, fair, they have a case and PocketPair was cribbing Pokemon's style so ofc this would happen. That's a case that has happened before with other brands and probably will happen again and I don't think anyone can really argue "having a game that looks nearly identical at times to our *children's* game but with guns is confusing consumers and devaluing our place in the eyes of said consumers" isn't a solid complaint.

But going after them for patents on like BASIC GAME DESIGN CONCEPTS that thousands of games have used is unbelievably scummy and I can only assume it's because they didn't want to risk losing. Idk what other reasoning there could be behind this choice, and it extra sucks because this proves Nintendo is holding the games industry hostage and judt promising not to pull the trigger...unless they feel like it for whatever reason, and that's not okay.

Tbh I would love to be able to say that Nintendo will go back to leaving everyone else alone after this...but they did win a lawsuit against another MAJOR game studio for "stealing their patented mechanics" and iirc that game had next to nothing in common with Pokemon or any Nintendo game visually or thematically so....? No one is safe. I don't even know if other studios on their level could fight it. Nintendo can come after anyone for really basic shit, so all you have to do to bring the hammer down on you is piss them off.

And to be completely fair!! I do think unambiguously PocketPair did piss them off!! No one with a brain can look at Palworld and deny that they were flagrantly dancing the line between influence and infringement and seemed to be there on purpose, and I have to assume the only reason they didn't bother to try harder to differentiate their game was because they both wanted to ride Pokemon's coattails and didn't think they'd be successful enough for Nintendo to notice them...but they blew up and the rest is history.

(And I mean this is entirely speculation based on the fact that the CEO is apparently not against AI and has dabbled in it before AND given how they seem to have stolen Dead Cells' gameplay and Hollow Knight's style and smahed them into one game that is WILDLY different from Palworld but looks nearly identical to Hollow Knight...I think they might have some different opinions about what counts as copying and what doesn't, and are also maybe not super interested in making new games based on ideas their devs have and just want to crib whatever is popular to make money. But again, just speculation based on what I've seen.)

Sadly if Nintendo does have those patents they can do literally whatever they want and we can't stop them. The best anyone who's upset can do is just speak out about how this is fucked up and I guess boycott Nintendo? But I'm not optimistic either will ammount to anything and I myself am not taking PocketPair's side or willing to give them any money because they clearly did fuck up and are willing to continue to shamelessly copy devs and studios with way less money and resources like Team Cherry and that's not and will never be okay.

I don't think there's a good answer here. Palworld might be able to pay whatever Nintendo wants if they lose just because they have been so successful, but idk what Nintendo will demand. I think the best outcome out of all the shitty options would be PocketPair having enough money to stay open while paying Nintendo but still get scared away from copying and reconsider their model and switch to actually making original games, even if they are inspired by other ones(because Palworld would NOT be making this kind of money if it were a bad game, the studio CAN make good games and I fell really bad for the Palworld fans they deserve better than this and there is a world where Palworld was artistically unique AND good and we should be in that world), but idk they might just switch to targeting devs that can't fight them. And them losing in any way, remaining open or not, sadly just reminds the entire gaming industry that they're at the whims of a money focused mega-company that is more than willing to shut down ANYONE they want for whatever reason if they decide to.

It's a shitty situation, and sadly I don't think it's one we can do anything about as individual consumers :/ not that I would really know what would be the good thing to do anyway since I think both companies are in the wrong, so I'm not comfortable defending either beyond offering my subjective take on what they're each doing.

The real way forward is vocally and financially supporting indie devs that are doing their own thing, helping raise awareness and support for game development unions and the current striking unionized voice actors in the video game sphere, pushing back against AI, and if you feel so inclined to boycott games from studios and companies you feel are doing shady harmful shit. That's the way forward, this lawsuit itself is sadly out of our hands.

[itsawritblr]

An Ask about Editing.

"I am seeing mixed information regarding editing and when to attempt to submit to a publisher. I was under the impression that the publishers provide editors, but some online sources are telling me that it is typical to hire your own editor and pay them before you send the novel off to publishers."

All publishers have editors. If they have websites they'll have the editors' names listed there. Example: The Random House Team.

It's not typical at all to hire an editor to work on your manuscript. You're supposed to know how to edit your own work. Some people hire them because they think it'll give them an advantage. However, the question is:

How good is the editor?

There are people who fake being editors. They take your money and do a few changes on your manuscript.

There are people who are mediocre at editing, but will take your money and do a few changes to your manuscript.

If you don't know how to edit, you can't tell who's a charlatan, who's mediocre, or who's excellent.

It's your job as a writer to learn how to edit your own work. If a publisher acquires your book their editor will work with you to improve it. But they prefer to have a manuscript that's as polished and as close to perfect as possible, because that means less work for them and a shorter period from editing to published book.

"Is there a substantial risk of stolen ideas or anything like that when someone hires their own editor?"

OK . . . . *inhale*

Your word for word manuscript is automatically copyrighted from the moment it's written/typed/scrawled in crayon. It's yours. You do not need to file for Copyright and spend whatever the fee is these days. In the highly unlikely case of plagiarism, you have as proof your original ms (manuscript) and your notes, etc., which you used to create your work. And you can prove that the editor saw your manuscript before they published whatever they did.

But ideas can't be copyrighted.

Example: Both A Bug's Life and ANTZ have similar ideas. But they're not copies.

Example: If your story has a short, scruffy detective who smokes a cigar and drives a beater, but he's English and lives in a Detroit townhouse, your idea doesn't legally rip-off Columbo. Everyone will think you ripped it off and think less of you, as they should, but no one can sue you because the ideas are so alike. Well, they can try, but it'll more than likely be a waste of their time and money.

Plagiarism is much more likely to occur if you put your work online, because anyone can see your work and there are a shit-ton of unscrupulous wanna-be writers out there. But no publishing house's first reader -- the person who reads your ms before moving it on to an editor who'll decide if your ms is good enough for them to buy it -- is going to steal your work.

As for a hired editor, it's very, very unlikely.

"My second question would be if you have any examples of perhaps a page or two of a novel where I can read the original version from the author, and then the version after the editor has taken a crack at it and then updated with the editors changes and recommendations? I tried searching for this but didn’t get much luck. I suppose I am looking for a concrete example of how much an editor puts in."

I don't do that. Unless you pay me $$$$.

Editors are essential to publishers. But again, they don't touch your ms unless the publisher decides to buy it. And they won't want it unless you've edited the fuck outta it first.

What you need to do, what all writers need to do, is learn how to be your best editor.

Get a copy of this:

This is a writer's Bible. I suggest owning a copy so you can study it and make notes if needed. You can get cheap, readable used copies from eBay, Abebooks, or your local used bookstore.

You can download this pdf and print it:

The Elements of Style.

Also get this. It's great for fiction writers as well as nonfiction writers.

This also has an online pdf: The Elements of Editing.

There are tons of books about editing. A simple Google search will find them.

Books About Editing Books. This list is for books about editing books and the craft of writing (mostly fiction).

There's Writer's Digest Magazine. They have lots of articles by editors and writers. Read it online and look for copies at your nearby library. Warning: There are ads for editing "services" and that kind of shit. Ads are how the magazine makes its money (that and subscriptions). Ignore these ads.

If you have a local library, ask the reference librarian for the section with books about writing and editing. If it's a small section, or there isn't one at all, ask for an Inter Library Loan (ILL). This is when the librarian requests the title your looking for from any library in the U.S. and often abroad, and it will be sent to her library, for free.

I can't emphasize this enough: The library is your best friend. Librarians are there to help. There are tons of writers who thank librarians in their Acknowledgements, including Christopher Paul Curtis, Anthony Horowitz, and me. Get to know your librarians. (OK, some librarians are assholes. Find the ones who aren't.)

If you don't have access to a library, either public or college/university, look in a used bookstore. If you don't have a used bookstore, cheap, readable copies can be found online.

If possible, take a course in editing and writing. But only if you can easily afford it, and only if the instructor is a professional editor or writer.

You need to be the best editor for your work. No one will be as invested in your book as your are.

I repeat: No one will be as invested in your book as you are.

Learn to edit well, then send off your ms. If you write fiction, you'll need a literary agent (there are a few boutique and small press publishers who don't require agents). An agent wants to see polished work. But, if she's even half-way good, she'll help edit your ms to a level where it's ready for a publisher to see it.

Now, you caught me on a slow day, and I'm feeling generous (I was a newbie too. Got my first rejection at age 11, from Alfred A. Knopf Publishing). But I'm not answering any more questions from anybody, because I have a ms to finish.

If anyone ignores this statement and tries to get more help from me, my response is:

I'm outta here.

[dreamescapeswriting]

When Sparks Fly ~ LMH

⤜WORD COUNT:  2.4K

⤜PAIRING: Single!Dad ! Minho x GN!Reader

GENRE: family au, non-idol au, single father au, best friends to lovers, fast paced, sweet, soft, first kiss,

⤜Copyright: © DreamEscapesWriting - February 2023

⤜MASTERLIST

The soundtrack to the latest Disney musical blasted through the speakers in the back garden as kids screamed and ran around like they were headless chickens, Minho scratched the back of his neck as he looked around for his daughter.

“Hana is with Yn,” Chan spoke from the side of Minho and watched as the father visibly relaxed at the thought of his kid being safe. Why had he agreed to do this stupid party in the first place? Oh right, yeah, you said it would be good for Hana to have her friends come around and for whatever reason Minho found it impossible to say no to you.

“It’s sweet you did this,” Chan said as he gestured around at the kid's party. There were screaming kids everywhere and their snobby parents. There was also everything a kid's birthday party could ever need, a bouncy castle, a clown making balloon animals - which Minho was doing everything in his power to avoid. There was also lots and lots…and lots of food. Seriously, who did the cook think he was cooking for? The army? 

“Sweet or insane,” Minho grumbled, standing beside his friend from work and shaking his head. For as long as Hana had been alive Minho had always been on the protective side of her, wanting to make sure no harm could ever come to her. It was only through a push from you that Hana was even attending public school, if it was up to Minho he would have had her homeschooled where she didn’t have to be around other kids or other people altogether. Which he knew seemed a bit extreme and insane but he couldn’t help it when it came to Hana’s well-being. 

After her mother passed away during childbirth Minho switched to a completely different person, gone was the man who was laid back and spontaneous and here was the man who needed a set plan all of the time and never went anywhere without at least four backup plans.

This party had all been your idea, you were Minho’s best friend and when Hana told you her father was planning on having a small night in for her fifth birthday when she wanted to be with her friends you’d had to step in and help out. Minho didn’t even know why he’d agreed to this but there was just something about you that Minho could never say no to it had been that way since college.

“Sweet, I mean…We all know what you would much rather be doing,” Chan spoke as he stared at his friend whose eyes were still searching around the party for you and his daughter. Chan let out a small chuckle and pointed his head in the right direction of where you and Hana were sitting.

“Yn is doing Hana’s princess make-up,” He whispered making Minho’s whole body warm up to see the two of you sitting so close to one another. Hana was dressed up as rapunzel with her hair styled the same way, only her hair was black but other than that it was the perfect costume. Even the flowers placed in her hair looked relatively similar and Minho knew that you had been the one behind the great hairstyle making his chest warm up and flutter at the thought. You’d been here since 6 this morning making sure everything was going to go as smoothly as possible, leaving Minho to relax in bed as long as he could until Hana rushed in to wake him up.

“You’ve got it bad for them,” Chan smirked noticing that Minho had barely taken his eyes off the scene since he saw you. You were chuckling at something that Hana was saying while you applied a little more sparkle to her eyes, being careful not to hurt her.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Minho grunted, forcing himself to look at something else so that Chan would move on to a different topic of conversation. He would much rather talk about the business world than he would talk about his relationship with you. Not that there was one. The two of you were friends and nothing more.

“No? Is that why you follow Yn’s every move like the best golden retriever boy in the world?” Minho rolled his eyes and shook his head, that couldn’t have been further from the truth about his relationship with you. The two of you were just best friends, sure he’d had a crush on you in college but nothing had ever come from that since Minho had moved on and got a girlfriend and had a beautiful baby girl.

“You’re projecting your own feelings,” He shuffled away from Chan who followed after him, both of them moving in the direction of the food table, Minho wanted him to drop the subject but Chan was like a dog with a bone when he started on something and he would just never let it go.

“No, I just know when my best friend is blind to his own feelings.” Minho turned his head to stare at his best friend and seriously began to consider whether or not it was too late to change who his best friend was. 

“Maybe I should find a new best friend.” He narrowed his eyes at Chan who simply laughed at him,

“As if you could find someone to deal with your dumb ass,” He teased, whining as Minho turned his back on him and went to leave again but Chan stopped him by placing his hands on his shoulder and holding him in place. 

The two of them stare in your direction as you let out a loud laugh. One that seemed to wrap its way around Minho’s heart and give it a squeeze, god your smile had always managed to make him smile and your laugh never failed to warm him up even on his bad days.

“Yn has you wrapped around their pretty little fingers anyway,” Chan announced, shrugging his shoulders.

“They do not,” This was instantly met with a scoff and snort from Chan who just shook his head at Minho. If Minho really didn’t see what he was like for you then he was more blind than Chan originally thought. Minho would do everything and anything if you asked him to, there was a time you’d asked him to give a small business speech at your school where you taught and he dropped everything to be able to do it.

“You really don’t see it?” Chan questioned, dumbfounded that Minho really couldn’t see everything he did just because you would ask of him. His question was answered when Minho stared at Chan in silence,

“Do you remember that day when Yn called you completely panicked because they couldn’t find their car keys so you gave them your car to borrow,” Minho shrugged his shoulders, that was nothing he wouldn’t do for any other friend he had.

“I would do that for you too, it’s no big deal,” Minho mumbled, his eyes finding their way back to you to see you cleaning up the make-up you’d just used, letting Hana go to her friends.

“Okay, what about the time you went to a wedding with them even though you hate weddings?”

“Yn, needed someone there so I was the only option,” Chan laughed at just how blind Minho was to all of this. Minho had always hated weddings but you’d begged him for weeks to take you, telling him how desperately you needed someone to be by your side or your friends would all bug you about being single.

“How about the time, they convinced you to throw your daughter a birthday party even though you hate parties?” Minho’s throat when dry as he began to realise just how badly he had it for you, knowing he would give you the world if you simply fluttered your lashes at him and smiled in his direction.

“I-”

“Or when Yn was crying over something and you ran out of a business meeting to go and be by their side,” Chan continued to list off reason after reason why he knew that Minho was a simp for you only drilling it into Minho’s mind just how blind he was to it all.

“Chan-” He whispered, trying to get him to stop all of this,

“But if you’re sure you’re not a simp for them and they’re single, maybe I have a shot.” Something snapped inside of him, his blood boiling as he turned to face Chan and grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt, bringing him face to face.

“You won’t even think of going up to Yn. Yn is mine,” Minho growled through gritted teeth, his eyes never leaving Chan’s who appeared to be smirking at the reaction he got from the man.

“Sounding a little possessive there Minho,” He chuckled, making Minho drop him and make his way over to you. 

As soon as you saw him coming you smiled up at him, you finished packing up the make-up into a box and shut it when Minho finally reached your side. You’d been trying to get to him all day but you’d been so busy making sure the party was a hit you hadn’t managed to get to him yet. The two of you began to walk in the direction of the house and you smiled weakly as you got inside the kitchen, you hated that he was being so silent and you feared he wasn’t enjoying the party.

“Isn’t it going well? Hana seems to be having a lot of fun.” You laughed a little, turning to look at Minho who looked like he was stuck trying to think of something and your heart sank. It really looked like he was hating this whole thing when you promised him it would be worth it just to see Hana’s smile.

“Are you upset about the clown? I didn’t hire him, I’d hired someone dressed as prince charming but there was a mix-up and I didn’t know what to do since he was already here and so I just let him get on.” You ranted out in almost one breath, panting a little when you finished your sentence but frowning as Minho continued to stare at you in silence.

“Is it the bouncy castle? Because it’s safe, it has a net and lots of padding around just in case anyone falls from it, you know I would never put Hana in danger-”

“Will you just shut up and stand still?” He questioned, your heart dropping to your stomach as you stared back at him in silence. With one step closer his arm was wrapped around your midsection, bringing you into his chest before he leaned down and pressed his lips to yours. Stunned at first your eyes widened before softening, letting your hands rest on his cheek while one arm wrapped around the back of his neck trapping him and bringing him closer to you. 

In all of the times you’d imagined kissing him, they never would have prepared you for this. The kiss was passionate and ignited a fire inside of you that you knew you’d never be able to put out. Minho’s hands tightened as he embraced you against him, never wanting to let you go.

“CAKE!” Someone screamed from outside the kitchen door, and the two of you broke apart as you stared at him. The two of you looked away from one another, your lips were swollen from the kiss as your heart did its best to calm down.

“We should put the candles on the cake,” You whispered breathlessly, moving to stand beside Minho, both of you reaching for the candles at the same time making your hands touch and sparks fly. 

“Let’s light this up,” Minho chuckled nervously, pressing a quick kiss to your temple and whispering to you that you would talk soon.

“I guess you were right, we did need all the food,” Minho mumbled as he looked at the food table to see it completely empty of anything edible and you smirked to yourself.

“I'm always right, aren't I?” You questioned, pressing a soft and gentle kiss between his shoulders and giggling when he let out a small whine at you.

“That’s true, is Hana asleep?” He quizzed, wrapping an arm around your waist and pulling you to face him, the two of you staring at one another.

“Passed out in her bed, still dressed up though so I’ll take care of that later,” You promised, the two of you were finally all alone and it only took all day and night. All of the kids and entertainers were gone and you were left to deal with the mess that was left behind,

“Thank you for today, I think you were right about her needing this,” You smiled at him as he ran his hand over your cheek, gently running his thumb over your skin and smiling to himself. Though he never would have done this alone he was glad he had you with him throughout all of this,

“I told you-”

“You’re always right,” He mumbled, pressing his lips to yours as you let out a small and happy whine. 

“Let’s clean and then we can talk about the date you’re going to take me on,” You winked at Minho, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek and rushing to go and clean up.

“You’re that sure I’m going to take you out?” He chuckled, of course, he was going to. There was no way he wasn’t after the explosive kiss you’d shared earlier and all of the flirting you’d been doing since then,

“Yes, besides you have to.” You quipped making him chuckle looking at you, you began cleaning up some of the food trays and Minho stared at you.

“I do?” He raised an eyebrow at you, smirking as he noticed how sure you were of all of this,

“I’ve been dropping hints for months that you should ask me out or that I have a crush on you, so you have to take me out for being so blind to it all until now.” You joked, giving him a playful wink as he smirked back at you and nodded.

“Of course, of course. Where would my date like to go?” He chuckled, both of you cleaning up and trying to come up with a game plan for your date night.

Tagline: @chiisaiblog @hanasonmi @sw33tnight @taestannie @illicee @army24--7 @acciocriativity @scarletemeterio @halesandy @aerastus @lost-leopard-beanie @laylasbunbunny @critssq @pearlygraysky @lenfilms @btsiguess-kpop @meowmeowisdaname @imafivestarkpopstan

[roseartsandfics]

Tifa (OG) -- Rose

I'm baaaaaaaaack!

Golly, I hadn't even displayed anything for awhile, now ^^;. I've been busy, yes. First time back to displaying after the hiatus! Here is another rose artwork featuring my favorite FF character Tifa Lockhart, in the original FFVII, of course ^^

So wondering why I am not active as much? I was doing another virtual career camp. And I've been dealing with mental health issues for a while. It lasted for days, and I am still trying to recover, but I hope this helps.

Some spoils as I am about to say, for those who hadn't played CC, so yeah, be aware of that lol

I beat Crisis Core Reunion last month just before starting FFVII OG. So I managed to get up to the Minerva optional boss, and holy crap I could not defeat her 0_0. I knew she was going to be hard to defeat 0_0. One of my biggest mistakes is not getting the Genji Shield (which is missable to me, and impossible because I only mastered one Octaslash, and I was not going to take FOREVER to master three more), and possibly not having enough materia to convert to SPs, which I was losing due to the SP materia things I used to prevent more damage. Hey, Ziedrich and SP Turbo or Mastered works! They say Costly Punch works, but it made it a lot worse for my SP and getting damage and die every time without getting a Phoenix Down on time (no offense). Aerial Drain and Jump are slower. Surprisingly (prepare for what it works on her), Darkness works on her. HP wa getting low, but I can be fast on healing, and so I beat her! I gave her multiple tries because I am afraid of how other battles in other FF will be, and I don't want to lose the chance on beating them (Jevil from Deltarune I gave up because he was impossible to defeat XP)

Anyways, so I finished Tifa today, and did I little experiment on coloring and made more designable rather than make my coloring more crappy lol. It's been awhile since drawing her in the OG, and I've been playing the OG for a bit, and so here she is! I started using the Crayola Colors of the World pencils to actually color something more divergent and shadowing her hair and skin. I did her eyes differently because I don't feel like drawing her eyes in my style the way I always draw eyes (I am bad at drawing eyes lol). I am actually really happy how this turned out to be ^^. I actually liked how this piece turned out! ❤️ I just love her, and her characteristics as well in the game (and film) <3. I am still writing my fanfic, just hadn't gotten around to it.

We are supposed to have a tropical storm, so I can get this displayed before potential power outage. There… probably isn't going to be much gaming, unless I can play my 3DS and switch handheld, or write (which I can write my fanfics are awhile if the interent isn't wonky, or so, idk), or read, or draw, or whatever the hell I'm doing. I might be on hiatus again after the storm due to potential outage, so this will be the post before the storm. At least we are prepared, tornadoes are the ones I am worried about, but I'm watching. Stay safe and have a good night!

For those who don't know, any rose portrait arts are inspired by a friend of mine on Deviantart (still)! Welp, good night, and sleep well!

Tifa Lockhart and Final Fantasy VII ©Tetsuya Nomura, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yoshinori Kitase, Yusuke Naora and SQUARE ENIX

Artwork ©RosePrincessArts

No copyright infringement is intended

Used: Soho Studio pencils and colored pencils, Crayola regular and Colors of the World colored pencils, Cra-Z-Art colored pencils and blending stumps