#they still never fleshed any of it out other than visual design

[violet-dragongirl]

>_>

[adobe-outdesign]

geodude line review pls plus the alolan forms

Geodude is a rock with a face and arms. Which is great if you like rocks with faces and arms. It's not my favorite rock creature (I'm more of a Roggenrola person myself), but it is simple and straightforward, and the concept of a boulder creature that rolls around to move is pretty fun. Not much to talk about visually, other than it being a very low-contrast design. Also, I like the segmented mouth.

Graveler always seemed like just a better Geodude to me. It's the same premise—monotone boulder creature that rolls around with a face and arms—but they do an interesting thing by making the face smaller, adding a ridged, craggy area above said face, and giving it not one, but two sets of extra limbs. It adds a lot of interest and fleshes out the premise while not really changing anything too drastically. Surely the next evolution will be even better, right?

Nope, never mind.

I mean, I don't hate Golem—the reptilian features are interesting and provide a unique twist on the basic rock monster model, and hey, it's at least unique. But it does undeniably come out of the left field, sporting a higher-contrast body, a separate head and limbs, and reducing the number of said limbs down to four.

I've heard a lot of speculation as to why, but most of it is just that, baseless speculation. The most likely reason is that it's a Blastoise situation, wherein two separate rock creatures got merged early in development to avoid repetition. Regardless, that doesn't make it work any better with the rest of the line.

Also, as a design itself, I can't help but not like it as much as Graveler anyway. The head makes it impossible to roll despite the 'dex claiming otherwise, and the overall design is just less coherent. Like I said, the reptilian parts are interesting, but that's about all it has going for it.

Alolan Geodude is actually pretty solid. It drops the rock/ground typing (which I always found confusing anyway; what about the original justified it being ground?) in favor of rock/electric, represented by adding some magnetic shavings to the body.

These shavings really help the design, mostly because they greatly increase the contrast and help break things up without over-complicating anything. Those big 'ol black eyebrows just feel right, and the addition of "hair" is fun.

In addition, this design also makes the body more of a gray color (once again, fits with the dropped ground typing) and reduces the hands down to two mitten-like structures, which does feel good given the shape of the body. Overall, a solid improvement across the board.

Unfortunately, things go downhill a bit when we get to A. Graveler. The eyebrows still look great, and I like the little shavings that accent the head ridge as well. It still retains the similar mitten-like hands, the shape of which now really compliment said head ridge.

However, it randomly adds these yellowish-orange crystals all over its body, which I just do not get. They compete too much with the shavings, and they feel like an afterthought. I guess the idea was to add more color to the design? But they already fixed the low-contrast issue with the shavings. Maybe they wanted yellow to hint at the electric-typing more? Who knows. Either way, the design would look much better without them.

Also, for some reason it goes back to a brownish color instead of retaining the cooler gray of A. Geodude. Why? The gray not only looked better, but further helped with the contrast, and dropping it just reduces the line's coherency.

And A. Golem... yeah no, never mind.

The shavings have progressed from body hair to a straight-up beard, which is fine, I guess, though something about the body hair kind of worked; maybe it's just because it added to the "strength" idea with Graveler's bare arms, whereas the beard just feels random.

However, the beard wouldn't be too bad in and of itself... except they also added a giant rail gun to its back. It's just like, what? Why?? Where did that come from? I know that it's electric-type, but there was no thematic build-up to this (unless you count the inside yellow crystals from Graveler). It competes way too much with the beard, and makes the overall concept harder to disconcern.

Also, even putting that aside, the colors are really muddied here (still retaining the brownish color while using three different shades of gray/brown, none of which are high enough contrast), and it has these really weird baby arms. The simplified toes look good at least, and I do like the extra definition added to the face with the eyebrow ridges, but this really does not work as a whole. Which is a shame, because A. Geodude was a fantastic start.

As a whole, the original line is simple but effective, bogged down only by the sharp turn into Golem. The Alolan line starts off strong and tries to improve the design a bit, but unfortunately gets bogged down with too many details as it goes on.

[otakween]

Digimon Tamers - Episode 35

This was basically part two to the last Wham episode. Crazy shit's still going down, but it had a more hopeful ending at least. The visuals were also more striking this time, so I enjoyed this one more overall.

Notes:

FUSION! I did NOT know that this season had digimon-human fusion (jogress?) Guessing this will be a Takato-Guilmon exclusive since he's the only one who's been shown to have a connection to his digimon partner so far. Kinda strange that Guilmon's official ultimate form requires this fusion?? (In future video games, will the player character fuse with him?) Interested to see where they take this.

I was surprised we didn't get a reaction to Takato's digivice shattering, but I guess they have more pertinent matters to attend to. I guess Takato doesn't need it to do tamer-y things? Maybe this just means he can't scan cards or look at digimon data

I appreciated the opening scene with Jian's mom crying about Shiuchon. Little moments like that flesh out the characters and up the stakes. I hate it when parents are just omitted from stories cuz it makes it seem like they don't give a crap about their kids. (Side note: her chunky sweater/skinny jeans combo is cute lol. Ahead of her time!)

So Megidramon's existence puts the digital world in jeopardy because he's just not supposed to exist? Was that ever a thing in the past with bad digivolutions cuz I don't think so...

Megidramon was very badass in this episode. There was a lot of detail put into him like his acidic drool that made him fun to watch. Felt very Jurassic Park on steroids. (Though looking at his snout, he's more dragon-like than dino-like).

Makuramon shows up just to be killed lol. I call BS with Beelzebumon gaining other digimon's powers after he loads them. Renamon loaded a bunch of digimon and we never saw her gain any powers from that...He even had Taomon and Rapidmon's characteristics bulging out of him which was a pretty cool effect.

Pretty fishy how in the last episode Kyubimon was exhausted and incapable of digivolution but now all the sudden she's like "JK" and digivolves without issue. I get that times are desperate, but exhaustion is exhaustion.

One thing that's super confusing to me is that...didn't we see Takato design Guilmon's previous digivolutions? Like with pencil and paper? So where the heck did Megidramon come from? Did he just picture the design in his mind? Although that doesn't seem right since he was disturbed by his appearance. I don't really get the logic here...

Beelzebumon was too screamy in this episode lol. I was like "alright already, we GET IT"

I didn't expect this anime to pull out the dramatic slow-mo. You don't see slow-mo a lot in anime, especially not slowed down voices. It's honestly been done for comedy in western animation so many times that I can't take it seriously anymore.

Ew, they did one of my least favorite anime cliches which is the fish eye lens scene. I just think it always looks really dumb.

You gotta have the naked transformation sequence. Not often we get a male one, so that's refreshing (not that I want to see Takato naked lol).

New insert song yaaaay! Dramatic moments are always made better by a good ole insert song. I like Dukemon's design a lot, even though it's a little generic. The color palette is nice and I like that he uses a lance like he's a jousting knight. The lil Guilmon hat/visor is pretty funny.

[hybbat]

🔥 pokemon!

I have... a few...

There's nothing wrong with trubbish and vanillish as concepts, and unlike many pokemon their designs are still very good and cute and just the right balance of concept and design.

Gen 5 had almost nothong but banger pokemon designs and you cannot complain about them "just being replacements for other pokemon" when 1) pokemon has always had regional versions of the same concept, 2) newer games who only put out like 50 pokemon are also making blander clones of older pokemon, 3) regional variants exist and are far and wide a massive mistake, and 4) gen 5s takes on similar concepts were fully fleshed out into their own pokemon with their own place in the story and region and often did the concept and design better than the pokemon they are ecounterpart to.

Too many of the recent pokemon in the last two generations are too simple and just the animal theyre based on with a halfhearted gimmick or type slapped on in a way that usually ruins the design. This includes pokemon i like like wooloo, who is adorable and one of the few gen 8 pokemon I actually like, but it has no excuse for how simple and boring it is when flaafy exists.

Most regional pokemon force concepts onto older pokemon that would have been better as their own pokemon, but its easier to edit an existing pokemon. Most modern pokemon are designed to be easy to model rather than have good designs. There's a reason simple pokemon like diglett and pyukumuku have so many regional variants/similar pokemon and a lot more pokemon have patterns as their detail or simplified design concepts.

Raihan and Piers are some of the ugliest character designs in pokemon history, Marnie's character is nonexistent and her design is cowardly, and Leon is a nothing character with a bad design who has exactly one character trait (no sense of direction) which they go beyond tell dont show and have him actively contradict in his very first major scene (finding you in a foggy forest and guding you out)

The mainline pokemon games haven't become open world. They just became open field, and have less fun gameplay, less interesting locations, and worse visuals for it.

A 3d pokemon game is not inherently bad, even if it absolutely looks and plays better in 2d and 2.5d, and XY proves as much, as its only flaws could have been smoothed out entirely by a third entry the same as DPPt. The problem is the switch from tiling, the artstyle shift to more realistic, and switch to the switch which has done nothing but ruin all the portable consol games forced onto it while also making them more expensive. They problem is less content for your money, the simplification and reliance on nostalgia pandering to retain old fans, the poor modeling incapable of capturing the artstyle, and the refusal to give more time to make a game that requires more time to make due to the 3d. And the problem is the clmplete shift in focus and mindset that came with the onset of 3d games starting with ORAS and new management both in the pokemon company and nintendo.

Most fanmade pokemon games have terrible balancing and think increasing the levels and giving trainers bigger parties will make the game more fun. Imo gen 5 had the best balacing of any pokemon game, even on b2w2's hard mode, and I wish both official and fanmade games would take notes.

Pokemon went downhill when it took away HMs, because it also by extention took away most of its puzzle and exploration gameplay that was important to making grinding and travel fun. HMs had their annoyances, but they had an integral part of the gameplay that pokemon never truly bothered to replace, with the sole exception of ride pokemon in XY and Let's Go.

Pokemon sleep would be amazing and more than any company I trust pokemon to make games that have good intentions, and if it came out 10 years ago I would trust it, but I know it just exists to harvest data and track people.

I've gone on this rant before but rotomdex is the worst thing ever to happen to the emersion of pokemon. I hate having a smartphoen or tablet instead of a pokedex and poketch/pokenav/cute scifi device that could be made into a marletable toy.

Pokemon does not have any right to be a full price game on the switch, let alone package the postgame as DLC they also charge for.

[sillyandquiteawkward]

hai silly :3 where did you learn character design? Your ability to create unique and compelling characters visually is so so cool and epic and i hope to be that talented someday. got any tips/resources?

honestly ive never been able to take a class about it (still mad my college pretended it had the class but havent had any teachers for it in years) however ive watched lots of videos about the topic. theres things like shape language and contrast and stuff thats good to keep in mind. i cant point out like one video over another bc i watch lots of character design videos and they all tend to say the same fundementals and just leave personal insight as the variety between them. watch lots of them esp if you find an artist you like made a tutorial.

i like designing characters first and putting their story second but if i have a concept i like ill tuck it away until i can think of a good use for it and then craft a character around that. i think ppl tend to like my characters bc they usually have a strong arecetype or trope that i use to tell their story and sometimes subvert for story. i dont like to make perfect characters, the messier the better. ppl tend to like the messy binches and it makes for great conflict when putting multiple of them together.

i also think ppl mostly tell me they like how i humanize people. even my perfect papa shiloh sometimes acts greedy or awkward. bayleys awful but you can understand where hes coming from sort of deal. other things ppl have told me they like is that theres just a lot of everyday joes. not everyone is a supermodel and people looked lived in.

honestly when it comes to writing nuance into the characters, drawing or writing them into scanarios really help flesh them out. and the more you draw a character design, the more you can boil down a design into being stronger. forget to draw one thing on a character and suddenly the design is able to breathe a bit easier you know? sometimes its better to pair down a busy character design, but dont go too far that you end up with generic background character #3. make sure they have at least one or two interesting design elements to pique the viewers interest.

of course thats just how i like making and designing characters. theres tons of ways to design characters that prioritize different things than i do. its all about what speaks to you. i wish i had better insight but i hope this helped a little

[celestialgloaming]

Oh yeah I'm pretty shocked to say this at all but especially now but the new Guardians of the Galaxy film was really damn good. It's sorta made me realise how alergic to genuine emotion the rest of the MCU is tho. Even non-guardians movies I think are good like thor ragnarock feel like they only have emotion when they're like trying to manipulate the audience into being like "omg that movie was so sad/sweet/etc." and play into specific relationship tropes whilst the guardians are just good characters.

Also like the character writing is good in a way that generally would only be like above average but A) this is the MCU and B) they're constantly having to deal with shit hands Endgame dealt them with important plot things happening and the movie not having time to deal with the emotion of them. They explore Gamora's character reset in the best way possible and don't do the annoying thing of just undoing it whilst still making her a fun character again. They deal with my big MCU complaint of never having Peter Quill like comment on or feel anything by going back to earth well. The fact that Nebula and Gamora were the daughters of Thanos felt like it constantly influenced their choices. Idk I have low expectations for the MCU but even on a neutral ground of my expectations for movies generally it's like quite good.

Visually like all the guardians movies it feels like the only part of the MCU that justifies the heavy CGI usage with really cool designs. There's like a flesh planet and it looks gross and really cool. It also feels like there's any amount of practical effects used compared to the zero of the mcu. Apparently the Nowhere set was used for the christmas special too so I guess that justifies the budget or whatever?

The film also pushes it's age rating a bit more - or rather just actually uses it? I think MCU films are so sanatised that everyone assumes 12a (pg 13 for america) movies are all gunna be like that. They use it to basically make kinda violent kids movies instead of the intended usage of the age rating. I'm sorta glad this movie is going to make some parents think twice and figure out what's actually in the movie and make their own judgements - hopefully for the kinda gorey bit and not the swearing lol.

The worst parts of the movie are that it's soundtrack is pretty mid compared to the last 2 guardians. Miku gets to sing gibberish for like 10 seconds so I'll give it that. And rocket racoon listening to creep would be the funniest shit if we could meme it but the internet is understandablely fed up with margel. But idk none of the songs go as hard as in the last 2. Other than that... Chris Pratt isnt like, the best actor? He's fine, not awful, acts a more real character than the rest of the MCU, but is worse than the rest of the guardians cast, and that's even with him being pretty typecast here

Yeah idk good movie highly reccomend if you thought the other guardians movies were any good.

[mmaboroshi]

Going through my writing, my final story in my trilogy has a lot more written than I remember. I tend to not look at it unless I have to, but I need to cross-reference something about it with the first story right now so I've actually been going over it. I still haven't even found what I need to cross reference, but thats just due to me not looking for those notes specifically (I know where and what it is). Its good to know that even after starting the other two stories, then deciding to connect them all, what is considered the final part of the trilogy is solidly fleshed out even in its unfinished state.

The messiest one at the moment is (still) the baby of the three, my middle story. It has the least written and doesn't have a timeline of events planned out in as much detail as the other two either (not that the first story really needs a super detailed timeline). Mmmm. Regardless, its good to write. Between all of the things I do when I don't have to worry about my main job, writing is probably the best one to focus on. Drawing causes perfection tendencies and I'm still too much of a beginner with all of my figure-making projects that I overthink any little progress I make. But I like to think I'm confident in my writing.

Maybe this is the year that I complete one of them. Was talking to my brother, the indie game dev that he is (aspiring), that he at least switched to focusing on getting all of his story sorted out rather than the game design. Its funny he catergorises me as a game dev as well even though I've never 100% made any claim that my stories would be presented as such (he thinks at least one of them should be a visual novel mixed with some other medium.) I myself don't feel much like a game dev which is why I just kind of nod when he says it. But anyway, maybe this will be the year one of us completes our projects. We've both completed things in the past...

[overcookedsushi]

The Retcon King Death of a story, and Rebirth of the same story...

This character has been through more redesigns and rewrites than any other character, and is probably one of the few characters to survive a complete scrapping, technically twice~ I always wanted a character based on the King in Yellow... The general aesthetics and art I would see would looking him up always gave me so much inspiration. In the earlier drafts of the story, a Analog Horror/King in Yellow/ Eldritch parasite was the main antagonist in the story, and would remain that way for quite a few story rewrites. But eventually I simplified the story immensely, and it's whole plot, character, driving force, all of it was wrote out of the story entirely. It would be a good few laters till I decided, "You know what? I want him to be in this freakshow somehow."

The very first draft was an incredibly simple idea. King in Yellow/Carnival Barker/Old Tech was the combo. The idea was really simple, him speaking into a mic, being the announcer and generally being very glitchy, staticy, analog horror adjacent.

This could have been generally fine and would have made for a great announcer character for any future game taking place in the freakshow itself... but, I was still remembering my old version... the main villain reduced to a voice and nothing more? I couldn't do it...

So I tried another design... Going for more intimidation factor, but also trying to balance the three aspects of the combo idea. Slowly making it more of a Tech Priest who would also wear yellow and have lots of static...

I definitely tried to make this version work... and again it definitely could have... but it didn't feel right. It was very visually busy, but something was missing. And I knew what was missing... it was his old story.

I was so damn attached to his old story, but I couldn't just drop him in wholesale. In the old story he kills Pin and literally consumes all time and space. I needed to find a way, but how? Most of these characters were deaths of nonliving things. I loved the idea that he represents the death of the first draft and is bitter about not having his fame and spotlight. But it wasn't until this next design that it started to click.

This is when it started to make sense to me. He wasn't just the death of a story, but the death of a whole story. Filled with characters, places, ideas and plot points that will never see the light of day. It is kind of hard to explain what I mean without revealing something really crucial about him... but I also don't want to reveal it yet, or ever till I can do it properly...

But he is the death of a particular story, one that did start but never got a chance to end. One could never imagine the bitterness a character like that would have towards the author if it could have free will. To be born, and to be told you will thrive, but forgotten and your story never told. No conclusion, no closure.

In a weird round about way...

This is my apology to a very specific character. Not the villain of the first draft, but a character I never got to use to their fullest. Someone I was proud to have made, and legitimately upset I never got tell the tale of. Plot twists, personality quirks, hardships and betrayals and revenge stories that will only ever be known by me. The Retcon King is my way of giving closure to a character I wanted to have an ending but never got one.

And it is because of this, this personal connection, the character now thrives. Representing the death of a story, and bitter resentment and anger towards leaving the most treasured among us sealed away in a flesh palace that will one day die by itself.

Make your dream game. Tell your dream story. Create your dream comic. Don't let your children rot away forgotten.

[bee-capstone-blog]

Blog no.15 10/10/23

It's still a high-energy time ōmutu - mutuwhenua in the maramataka. For me, it's a high-anxiety time as well. I'm doing my best to focus and be productive, to use this energy (anxious energy included) to further my report and hopefully start my visual journal for 301. I realise also, I never sat down and reflected on the workshop I ran with Yasmin. So here that is (based on memory and notes I took in my Miro board):

Workshop reflection: using the 4 F's (The University of Edinburgh, 2018)

The workshop lasted just over an hour, with 3 participants, Yasmin and myself as facilitator/participants. We recruited our friends and peers as participants through in-person chats and discord posts. We then introduced interested people to our idea and objective through Facebook Messenger and created a poll to plan the date and time of the workshop. The workshop was run in an enclosed, familiar space in the design studios, using a round table as the primary setting for the crafting and conversations of the workshop. We provided yarn, crochet and knitting materials but also allowed participants to engage in their chosen craft activity. We started by letting everyone get into making before bringing out any kōrero cards. I asked how everyone was doing to gauge the energy and capacity for vulnerable conversation. One participant did have skills in working with yarn, so another participant taught them how to crochet. When we brought out conversation cards, there was some hesitation to speak about certain topics and periods of silence. Likely because of our existing relationships with the participants, some more vulnerable topics were discussed, and personal experiences were shared. The kōrero was both light and joking and more serious. The person who brought their own craft activity (drawing) was the only person who brought their outcome with them after the workshop; the others seemed to enjoy the process but didn't bring home the artefacts they created.

The feedback from the participants was that the atmosphere felt safe, and I agree I felt safe being vulnerable, experiencing periods of silence and listening to people's experiences. Back in Te Rapunga I brainstorm what a gut-feeling based ideal workshop would feel like:

[Scan of notebook]

Many of those feelings were present in the workshop, both the audio/visual element captured in video footage we consensually took of the workshop, my subjective experience and my perceived experience of others.

Feedback on using prompt cards, from participants:

I wasn't sure how well the prompt cards worked; on the one hand, they did ignite conversation, but some were also not applicable to the participants/ they felt no connection to the questions/ prompts. As facilitators, Yasmin and I picked up on this and moved towards the questions that provoked interest and supplied our own experience as an ice-breaker for others. It is essential to consider whether facilitators are prompting conversation or if one of the employees leads the conversation toward gender experience and allyship. One insight I had from the workshop was that some topics were easier to talk about than others, and deciding the levels and topics is probably out of my ability to do well, thoughtfully and trauma-informed.

The workshop prototype went well. It was an excellent way to simulate my workshop idea and create an immersive experience that modelled the visual, auditory, visceral and tangible. Seating myself within the prototype is probably not good 'science' but for the creative process, I think, especially if bias carries a lower risk (eg, I am part of the community that I'm designing with), It's a great way to get a deeply emotional understanding of my idea that informs my design work in communicating the idea. I may not authentically test my prototype as my proposed participants aren't those I'm able to design with. But in terms of undergoing the creative process of fleshing out, refining and communicating an idea, it really helps to have the sensory and emotional inspiration from running a workshop. This reasoning, I acknowledge, sits design as more of a creative art than a problem-solving/ innovation machine, reflecting my own positionally and interest in design as process not outcome.

~Not really future plans but definitely things i'm learning about myself that can enhance my future projects.

[Video of workshop, shot by Yasmin, 2023]

References:

The four F’s of active reviewing. (2018, November 5). The University of Edinburgh. https://www.ed.ac.uk/reflection/reflectors-toolkit/reflecting-on-experience/four-f

[thedarkmistress16]

do you have any tips for coming up with things for ocs? like backstory or just facts about them.

I once took a creative writing class that brainstormed a character's history, motives, personality, etc. as an exercise and it helped a lot in fleshing out one of my oc's for a story project that semester, but you don't have to spend money on an instructed guide like that. The internet is abound with free sources (even at a local library) but writing them down in one place is cost-friendly too (though digital sources can be better, more organized formats).

Can always use a character generator that asks you the harder and more integral/specific questions depending on the kind of oc you plan on creating/fleshing out (d&d, gen roleplay, specific franchises/fandoms, etc.). I tried this out on my phone once and it was neat but not my style. was kinda overwhelming for me, but very useful for on-the-go brainstorming and having it all in one place, tho

Viewing existing character sheets from other artists helps too like seeing how they tackle certain concepts (special abilities, species, family dynamics, personal/physical/mental issues, etc.) or simply just how they word or visualize things (not unlike a writer's thesaurus, lol).

Speaking of art styles, finding various ocs from a single franchise can also help personal oc visualization; diff takes on the art style really helps me visualize simple things such as expressions or clothing in diff lights like the shape/form and shading or even outlining. It can easily inspire me to come up with a whole personality for a character just by a diff in design or style (seeing the outside of diff cardboard boxes??? it's hard to explain, actually XD).

Researching art styles also applies to exploring stories in general. reading a lot helps you understand why certain things occur in a storyline, and if you can easily implant your oc into those circumstances, then you'll be able to correlate similarities and figure out motives, backstories, and behaviors a lot easier (this applies to things that affect the plot, not quirky behaviors or mannerisms that exist to just exist as an extra detail. it also helps to be able to pinpoint how and why a story works in the first place for this kind of practice. ah, the joys of a writer, lol)

Expanding upon the research concept, explore diff mediums of media like tv, movies, fanfiction, and games- whatever your taste is. It never hurts to come across new content or viewing a tried cliche in a different perspective (also applies to reading between the lines, like analyzing the atmosphere of a scene of a couple spending time together, for ex.).

And of course, opening yourself to questions on your ocs really helps you think about their actions easier than trying to for yourself, sometimes. your brain can very easily be overwhelmed by doing that. outside questions can even help flesh out other parts of the oc without you realizing it later on (like a generator, but the q's are more random and specific in diff ways for things you wouldn't have thought of otherwise; mainly due to people's wide array of experiences than the general, most common things a generator will include).

If you daydream a lot, you can easily come up with a plethora of situations for your oc to be in if you already have a basic idea of their personality and visual style. and then analyze the circumstances for that situation to occur as you still remember it. or you can simply write the scenario out and always develop more of it later on.

Music choices help too, but for me it's mainly to set the mood over brainstorming, lol. creating a playlist for your oc can help greatly in terms of story and sometimes even speech patterns? there are playlists that exist to set a certain pov or tone, so it's worth to check out at least one of them (it seems many wattpad writers get inspired from this)

And finally, but most importantly, always keep a record of what you absolutely know you want your oc to be, in a journal or a document. I have diff ones for diff franchises, but also an all-encompassing one for in general what the character boils down to each time (i also love me some aus so this is really helpful). Maybe split it into a list of 'for sure' and 'maybes,' and come up with diff reasons why some trait or piece of history is in the maybe category. Or write everything in one go and condense it later on to a more refined list.

Sometimes, just writing in general, stepping away from it, or coming off of a block can give you oc inspiration like a bolt of lightning. I'd say try a bit of everything and see what works best for you. you wanna make a venn diagram or a web bubble of your oc's traits and facts? Fucking go for it! I go back to some methods now and again, like deviant art's filled and blank character sheets or meme templates or even re-reading my own writings on my oc and going ham on a certain idea. As a writer, there's always something to improve upon or include so you're bound to get something else out of what you created thus far. Just don't feel discouraged or burn yourself out over it if you can't come up with anything- sometimes the lack of one idea leads to a plethora of others.

[collinssaskia39]

This is your perfect opportunity to learn 우리카지노계열 and become a winner

In a large and popular category of trick-taking games, traditionally called whist-style games although the best-known example may now be bridge, one suit may be designated in each hand of play to be trump and all cards of the trump suit rank above all non-trump cards, and automatically prevail over them, losing only to a higher trump if one is played to the same trick.As a result, states where tribal properties dominate, such as California, receive fewer gambling taxes than would otherwise be the case. Therefore, it should be valuable to prudently explore how local residents in Asian regions, particularly those with similar ethnic and cultural heritages, label meanings or viewpoints toward the universal developments of casino gambling. Harrah's Entertainment explains that Profile of the American Casino Gambler is based on two studies:

How all these variations on the basic idea came about is not fully understood. One plausible theory is that some of them arose from midunderstandings due to language differences, which resulted in something like visual puns.Thus, with an ace and a six (7 or 17), the player would not stop at 17, but would hit. For the side bet to have no house edge in this game the meter would need to reach $149,389.47. For a $5 minimum game to have no house edge the meter would need to reach$238,716.85, and for a $10 game the meter would need to be $328,044.23. If the point is a 4 or 10 players can bet as little as $2 if the table minimum is low such as $5, $10 or $15 tables. If the player requests the don't pass odds to be not working ("Off") and the shooter hits the point or sevens-out, the don't pass bet will be lost or doubled and the don't pass odds returned. Unlike a standard lay bet on a point, lay odds behind the Don't Pass line does not charge commission (vig).

In Montana, VLT-type poker, keno and bingo machines are legal to operate in the private sector.Each Knave is clothed in armour, armed with a sword and leans on a halberd. The Knave of Hearts has a lyre-shaped badge representing arms, replacing what used to be placed, the Lion of Theirs. However, it may be that the first deck of cards ever printed was a Chinese domino deck, in whose cards we can see all the 21 combinations of a pair of dice. Among the early patterns of playing card were those probably derived from the Mamluk suits of cups, coins, swords, and polo-sticks, which are still used in traditional Latin decks.

A hand counting 21 on the first two cards (an ace and a 10 or face card) is called a natural or a blackjack.If you'd like to pass by the games of chance, you'll want a hefty bankroll and a knowledge of How to Play Poker in a Casino.A major rule change from Five Card Stud Poker is that Caribbean Stud Poker is played only against the dealer, and not against any of the other players at the table. Due to this aspect of the game, there is no bluffing or other means of deception involved. A few more subjects from the Piemontesi deck can be viewed by clicking here.Furthermore, in some editions all Genoese courts feature pink or flesh-colured skin, a detail never found in the typical French and Belgian styles (with the exception of very few editions produced for overseas markets). Lastly, in some editions the doubling line is no longer marked by a band or stripe (see picture on the right), but by a simple line.

In practice, players employing betting systems may win, and may indeed win very large sums of money, but the losses (which, depending on the design of the betting system, may occur quite rarely) will outweigh the wins.The pass line bet is a contract bet. Once a pass line bet is made, it is always working and cannot be turned "Off", taken down, or reduced until a decision is reached – the point is made, or the shooter sevens out.The other gambling game where your decision matter is video poker. The pockets of the roulette wheel are numbered from 0 to 36.

2nd column numbers 5 to 32 cost 40 chips each to complete. The payout for a win on these numbers is 392 chips.The former Portuguese colony of Macau, a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China since 1999, is a popular destination for visitors who wish to gamble.You'll need to stick to quarter slots, and at that you risk being finished for the day in about 15 minutes. Do not take this system for granted, however; a few casinos have signs all of the same color or use different color coding.

The house edge tells them what kind of profit they will make as percentage of turnover, and the variance tells them how much they need in the way of cash reserves.This number then permits calculation of rate of loss per hour, and per the 4 day/5 hour per day gambling trip: 우리카지노계열 Some gamblers simply take things too far: addiction counselors say that some problem gamblers are so impaired by their addiction that they simply urinate all over themselves or wear adult diapers rather than step away from the table or slot machine. Forwards/backwards – All numbers beginning or ending with the wild number.

Casinos may charge the vig up front thereby requiring the player to pay a vig win or lose, other casinos may only take the vig if the bet wins.The player must specify otherwise if he or she wishes to have the bet not working.Payout is the percentage of funds ("winnings") returned to players. By the 1940s there were Bingo games throughout the US.

[cryptocism]

So if Eight and Nine were raised as normal kids and had real names and all that...they dressed in normal clothes right? Like "civvies," t-shirts, jeans, long sleeves, shorts, sneakers and boots, all that jazz

How did they respond to the transition from multiple outfits/articles of clothing to just ONE JUMPSUIT AND THAT IS ALL, maybe two if it catches on fire and burns up, but other than that ONLY ONE

I just have Eight and Nine brain rot and love them so much (Nine has obviously become a fan favorite)

that... is an excellent question actually. so much of trying to flesh out this au is realizing just how much was never confirmed or elaborated on in canon smh (for instance where/when exactly Thad's lab exists space and time-wise - i've been assuming it's underground somewhere, many eons post-30th century, but it's literally never confirmed - where Thad gets food from, where he sleeps, etc.)

so really, who even made the Inertia costume to begin with? the design roots are obvious bc it's just Impulse but palette-swapped, but did Thad make it himself or was it provided for him by CRAYDL and/or President Thawne? does Thad wear it because of his dogmatic loyalty to the cause or because he has no other option?

and keep in mind that Eight and Nine had a "normal childhood" in the sense that they experienced a regular age progression (along with parental love and affection,) but they were still. raised by a computer in a secret wing of a massive laboratory. which isn't really uhh the typical childhood experience

because technoplasm exists (and im bringing it back bc a substance that is essentially physical code and can be made into any form it's programmed to be is a phenomenal concept) we can assume that CRAYDL could semi-accurately replicate whatever physical object they wanted, including clothes

given all of that and taking many creative liberties with the gaps in canon i'm gonna say... i don't think it would occur to CRAYDL to provide them clothes that fell outside the general Inertia range. CRAYDL loves them and wants them to be happy but personal self expression via physical appearance probably wouldn't even be on the radar for an AI who doesn't have much of a physical form to speak of (beyond technoplasm and. idk servers?)

that being said Eight and Nine have plenty of access to Styroband videos (actually another thing that's never explained: what the fuck Styroband files actually are. can they access the entire past throughout all of earth's history or is it Just Bart Allen?? how does it account for timeline changes? obviously Inertia didn't know just how much he'd get his shit rocked every time he went back to the past, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten his shit rocked the way he did! meaning he was changing the timeline with every trip and i've put far too much thought into this) SO Eight and Nine had some kind of visual for - at the very least - the kinds of clothing Bart & Co were wearing throughout his life.

this is a very long way of saying Eight and Nine spent their baby/toddler years in Inertia-style jumpsuits, and when they got old enough to develop their own methods of self-expression asked CRAYDL to make them some sweet sweet threads like the cool guy in the videos likes to wear.

being discovered by Three and subsequently folded into the Clone Team along with the semi-personalized semi-uniform outfits probably wasn't completely unfamiliar, but definitely restrictive in terms of like, personal identity and preferred ways of dressing

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Rocketear

The Rocketeer is a 1991 Disney movie set in 1930's America where a test pilot gets a jetpack and uses it to fight Nazis and— Wait, what? “Rocketear”? Oh, damn it!

Let's get into the eleventh (chronologically the seventeenth) episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fourth season: Rocketear.

We start off with Carapace and Cat Noir struggling to hold back some T-Rexes brought back to life by a scientist Jurassic Park style. Seriously, they reference the movie in the same scene.

Why wasn't this the plot of the episode again?

After managing to tame the dinosaurs with a whistle of all things, Ladybug notices something's wrong with Nino after he gives the Turtle Miraculous back to her. Apparently, he's wondering why Rena Rouge (who he knows is Alya) wasn't recruited with him today. Ladybug tells him that he was the only help she needed today. In reality, it's because Alya has adjusted to her new role of supporting Ladybug behind the scenes in her new form, Rena Furtive.

And I'm not a fan of the new form. I get the camo, but it doesn't really help her blend in when her suit is bright blue. I think it's based off the arctic fox, but that animal is able to camouflage itself because it's fur matches the snowy environment. I'm sure a bright blue jumpsuit won't stand out when she tries to blend in at all. Also, the fact that Alya can just change her hero form gives even less excuses as to why Ladybug's new form is only when she uses her Lucky Charm.

Alya is struggling to keep this a secret from Nino because they don't have a lot of secrets in their relationship. Marinette says she can kind of get it because she had to keep her identity a secret from her friend and has to keep keeping her identity a secret from everyone else. Basically, she's telling Alya to suck it up because this is what being a superhero is.

So the next time she sees Nino, Alya tells him she's no longer Rena Rouge, but not about Rena Furtive, which troubles her. The very next scene shows Alya showing Marinette pictures she took of her new costume and asking her which version looks better.

You could always try reviewing Akuma fights. I heard there's one blog that does it when they're not criticizing the famous director Thomas Astruc on social media.

Yeah, in case you can't tell, Alya was only able to rent her brain for a few episodes because she really doesn't seem as understanding about being a superhero as she was in earlier episodes. In episodes like “Optigami” and “Sentibubbler”, we saw Alya use more strategy and show discretion as Rena Rouge, seemingly taking her job more seriously, but then this episode just had to go and piss it all away. I also love how the first time the animators made Alya's skin the same when she's transformed is in a single frame for a joke.

Alya thankfully deletes the picture, but Nino overhears her talking about struggling to find more content for the Ladyblog, and decides to go to the movies with her to help take her mind off things. Nino, in turn, proceeds to give the same reaction to the in-universe Ladybug movie that Astruc gives to the PV.

Apparently, that movie's already getting a sequel and it has a teaser. So was the sequel animated at the same time as the original like Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III?

Nino gets pissed the next movie in the Ladybug Cinematic Universe will feature Rena Rouge and not Carapace... even though Rena Rouge debuted first. The teaser then shows Rena Rouge falling for Cat Noir (yet another creative liberty taken by the writers or something Astruc's self-insert threw in himself), and takes it like it's the real thing. Dude, the first movie said Ladybug was afraid of cats, and the director yelled at the person it was based on for judging it. He clearly has a hard time distinguishing fiction from reality.

Alya leaves Nino early so she can go on patrol, but Nino sees Cat Noir heading out as well. He then watches a video on the Ladyblog where Alya praises Cat Noir which is totally not Astruc projecting or anything.

I don't know what your definition of a prince is, Alya, and I honestly don't want to know.

So Nino takes this as evidence that Alya is in love with Cat Noir and decides to tell Adrien, who naturally laughs him off. And just before you think we have an episode where Adrien plays the straight man, Adrien decides to visit Alya because he's afraid he accidentally charmed Alya.

Yes, because Cat Noir is so charming, girls are just fighting over him, aren't they?

We then cut to a black and white film noir monologue by Nino (dressed like a detective with a fake mustache), who decides to spy on Alya. When Cat Noir asks Alya if she is attracted to him, she naturally laughs him off, though Cat Noir is thankfully a good sport about it, even giving her a hug to apologize. Unfortunately, Nino took this the wrong way.

The next day at school, Nino takes Adrien into his “office” (it's really an excuse to reuse the boiler room setpiece), and shows him the picture of the hug. Adrien says that Alya would never fall for Cat Noir because she's always dedicated to finding out the truth and telling her boyfriend everything. What's Nino's retort?

Okay, several problems with this bit. First of all, why would Nino even tell Adrien any of this? What would it accomplish? Why not say all this to Alya while confronting her about her alleged unfaithfulness? Second, Ladybug didn't give Nino and Alya their Miraculous at the same time until it was an absolute emergency. She outright said in “Hero's Day” that she didn't have time to recruit Nino and Alya separately.

Ladybug: I'm sorry for what I'm about to do. I know I'm revealing your secret identities but I don't have time to find a good excuse to give them to you separately. Rena Rouge and Carapace, I need you both!

Nino and Alya kept their identities secret from each other until then, with Alya even keeping the fact she knew who Carapace was a secret as well. Nino didn't find out because “they don't hide anything from each other” (which I plan to talk about later).

Other than that, I actually liked Adrien in this scene. It was really investing to see him try to justify the whole secret identities rule while Nino blatantly said there was an exception. This is the kind of stuff I wanted to see when it came to Adrien doubting Ladybug, not him destroying things in his anger.

While Nino rants about how Cat Noir “stole” Alya from him, Shadowmoth sends an Akuma his way, turning him into Rocketear.

And the design he has is just boring. It's just a blue jumpsuit with some black spots that look like teardrops, a teardrop-shaped head and a visor. I think the reason this season's been relying more on past Akumas and using more Sentimonsters is because DQ is terrible at character designs. I mean, compare this suit with Aigraon from Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger (his Power Rangers counterpart is Wrench from Dino Charge).

The design does so much more with the teardrop motif, giving him a perpetually miserable face with tear lines going all over his body. Add that to a more diverse color scheme, and you have a much more visually stunning design. And this was created in real life, not rendered on a computer. I'm not sure if this is a budget thing or a laziness thing, but if it's the former, you really need to do better, animators.

The powers are meh, giving Nino the ability to fling explosive tears at enemies. It's a clever idea, and it makes sense he gets a power that parallels Cat Noir's, but I think maybe it would have been more interesting if he couldn't control the tears at all. Like, imagine if he was constantly crying like Blue Diamond, and with every tear he shed, Rocketeer could send it at whoever he felt was causing him misery, mainly Cat Noir, all while serving as a metaphor for people who blame others for their own personal issues. Better yet, make him look like the detective outfit Nino wore for the second act. It would have made him more unpredictable instead of making his tears generic projectile weapons.

Marinette and Alya see the fight and transform into Ladybug and Rena Furtive respectively, the former summoning her Lucky Charm, a projector. Is it just me, or has this been happening with Ladybug a lot recently?

Back to Rocketear, we get a good moment where Cat Noir intentionally lets the Akuma hit him so he can get a chance to resolve things diplomatically. See, this is a moment where Cat Noir's self-sacrificing nature feels heroic and not selfish like when he does it without Ladybug's permission to spite her. Unfortunately, it doesn't really go anywhere as Ladybug shows up and plays the recording Nino took (Alya found his phone earlier), while Rena Furtive uses her Mirage to give the audio to what actually happened that night.

Rena transforms back into Alya and embraces Rocketear, who apologizes to her for his behavior. And then he just... rejects Shadowmoth's power while looking like it wasn't that much effort.

At least when Chloe and Alya did it, we saw them struggling for a little longer. I guess maybe it's because Nino is motivated by his love for Alya, but I think it should have been fleshed out more. So Ladybug purifies the Akuma, gives Nino a Magical Charm, and Cat Noir is still unsure about his feelings for Ladybug at the moment, though they still pound it.

Back in his room, Adrien ponders why Alya and Nino get to know their identities while he and Ladybug can't, but Plagg points out it's because she's the Guardian. It's brief, but I do like seeing Adrien start to doubt Ladybug's judgment, and it looks like it'll foreshadow future episodes. This is a problem I've had since “Hero's Day”, and I'm glad the writers are finally acknowledging this double standard. I just hope they don't end up blaming Marinette for whatever happens later on.

Marinette, of course, apologizes for what happened between Alya and Nino, and I have to say... yeah, no. It's obviously Nino's fault here.

Nino really pushed personal boundaries in this episode, much like Marinette's friends in “Gang of Secrets”. Yes, honesty is a valuable trait, but sometimes, people have secrets they want to keep to themselves. Nino's idea of “not hiding anything from each other” is somewhat controlling, like he's demanding Alya tell him everything whether she wants to or not. The fact that he immediately assumed Alya was cheating on him without giving her freedom to make her own choices doesn't make him look good. Let's be honest, a more realistic outcome would be Alya choosing to break things off with Nino or at least lecture him about how she can do what she wants and keep the secrets she wants. But instead...

And that's how the episode ends.

Okay, Marinette just said she trusted Alya to make the right decision, but I highly doubt she meant this. Marinette strictly said Alya had to keep Rena Furtive a secret, and now she's telling Nino this despite the risk? The whole reason Marinette and Luka broke up was because Marinette had to keep her secrets from Luka, but now it's okay for Alya to be completely honest? How is this not a double standard?

This episode was just dull, and there’s not even much I can really say about it.. There were a handful of standout moments, and the stuff with Adrien was somewhat compelling, but Nino's behavior was just insufferable and dragged the episode down. The Akuma fight was weak, only lasting about four minutes at most, and while the Lucky Charm was more creative this time, the plot was just frustrating. It's really one of the weaker episodes this season.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch the better Rocketeer.

[therealvinelle]

What are vampires?

(Yes, I changed the title from “What is venom?” a week after publishing and after a whole set of sorry souls reblogged the post. I’m very sorry, but as I sat down to write the follow-up piece I realized that this meta is about vampires, not venom, and the title is no longer appropriate. My perfectionism got the better of me and I’m sorry.)

There’s been a lot of speculation on that in this fandom, here comes my take. It’ll split into four parts, this being part one where I look at what venom does to the human body. In part two I look at hybrids, part three I speculate on what venom is, part four I treat possible origins and raisons d’être of venom.

So, this first part is mostly me regurgitating facts. We won’t get anywhere if we’re not all agreed on what vampires are.

Also, I get very pseudo-scientific in this meta, but I have no education in biology or medicine so I could be wrong about everything. I tried to use good sources, though, so I can’t be entirely off-base.

With that out of the way, LET’S DO THIS.

To create a vampire, you infect a human with venom. This venom spreads throughout the body, altering every cell. The process is complete when the heart stops beating. If the human was injured at the time of infection, they will be healed, as long as the heart keeps beating.

Let’s go through that.

How does the venom spread?

When Bella was bitten by James, Edward was able to suck the venom out. Several minutes passed from she was bitten until Edward sucked the venom out, yet the burn was only reported to be in her hand. By contrast, anyone who’s ever had pharmaceutical administered intravenously knows that blood travels quickly. If venom travelled like any normal fluid, Bella would have said «My hand is on fire. No wait, my arm! No, wait, my torso! No, wait-» and Edward wouldn’t have been able to suck it out.

Additionally, Bella has that scar left by James. The venom had already altered the cells at the entry point.

To me, this sounds like the venom is like Pac-Man, spreading through the body by altering one cell at a time. It’s the only explanation for why it’s so slow. More on that later, though.

How does it alter the cells, and in turn the human body?

Physically, their skin is made impervious and perfectly even, their teeth are straight, razor sharp and white, their bodies impossibly strong, fast, and precise, their senses heightened to an insane degree yet they feel no pain from most physical injuries. Their digestive system is altered so they can only consume blood, preferably human blood, anything non-blood is regurgitated. They’re much more attractive than they were in life. They’re not reliant on oxygen, and their blood doesn’t circulate. They produce their own venom.

Mentally, their minds function at the capacity necessary to even utilize a body like this. They are able to process their heightened sensory input (for example, it’s the brain that interprets visual input from the eyes. For vampires to be able to see better than humans, both eye and brain have to improve), process though much faster than humans, they forget nothing, and they feel emotion and physical sensation more strongly than humans do.

Let’s go through these alterations one by one.

Skin

Frequently likened to marble, vampire skin is as hard as stone. When Bella becomes a vampire, she’s stunned Edward’s flesh now yields to her touch. Before, if she pressed her finger on him, his skin would not yield. The shapeshifters can kill vampires because their fangs are sharp enough to pierce their skin, without that advantage they couldn’t do it. No ordinary weapon could injure a vampire.

The stone skin is an armor, protecting them.

Teeth

As us humans get older, the enamel in our teeth is worn away, revealing the tooth’s underlying yellow color (the dentin). Vampires can live for thousands of years, yet their teeth remain that perfect blinding white. What changed? I see two possible explanations, one being that vampires still have enamel, and it’s too strong to ever be worn away, or they don’t have it because their teeth have been altered to the point where they don’t need a protective layer anymore, and their composition is something completely different from that of human teeth.

I think it’s the latter, as there are two other major changes reported. Their teeth have changed shape, they are now sharp enough to pierce through human or vampire skin. They’re also venomous (more on that later), able to inject anybody they bite, fellow vampires included, with venom.

There’s also the fact that vampires are changed on a molecular level, but more on that later.

Strength, speed, and precision

Meta I wrote on vampire strength disparity.

Vampires are ridiculously powerful, no upper limit (as in, «Newborn Emmett can carry 500 tonnes») is given, but whatever it is it’s high. Alice might just be the physically weakest vampire in the saga (Jane is physically smaller, but she eats properly. Alice lives on a subpar diet), but to Bella it makes no difference, Alice blows her out of the park anyway. Edward, a malnourished and not too strong vampire, is easily able to pick up entire trees by the roots, and then throw them at a small target.

As for speed, vampires move faster than the human eye can register, which according to this article means they can reach a speed of 38 146 mph! (61 390 km/h for us metric people) (Also, the traveling object used for this calculation was a ball, and the article specifies that it would be different for bigger objects. Alas I’m not going to bother my physicist friend with this, so we’re using the ball number.)

When it comes to precision, vampires exercise perfect muscle control. They’re so graceful their steps can’t be heard by humans,  Edward can famously stroke a soap bubble without popping it, and they’re able to perfectly mimic the handwriting of others (a task anyone who’s ever googled forensic calligraphy will know is next to impossible). Much of this appears to be instinctual, like a downloaded .vampire package. Knowing how to attack prey, where to bite, that all happens on autopilot. So too does running, jumping, walking (funny how their default mode, even Carlisle’s, is to walk too quietly for their designated prey to detect). Snarling, hissing, and growling are also distinctly non-human manners vampire adopt.

Senses

Heightened sight, hearing, and smell is extremely useful. It makes them much more effective hunters. The smell especially is useful here, but really, all their senses are invaluable in this. It’s great for dealing with fellow vampires as well, they can see, hear, and smell their kind coming from a far distance.

There’s an added advantage, though. As I got into here, and here, if a vampire’s memories of their human life is dull and washed out compared to their brilliant new existence, dismissing humans as equally deserving of life becomes that much easier to justify. Heightened emotions serves this same purpose, though considering their longevity I think this is another form of survival, that they’re wired not to grow bored with life (but this is really for a separate meta).

There’s also the fact that their senses have to be tuned up to 11 to fit their other enhanced abilities. There’s no use in super-speed if you can’t see where you’re going.

Vampires’ heightened senses make them more efficient predators, and help them become the bloodthirsty sociopaths we know and love.

Pain receptors, or lack thereof

Vampires feel pain when they are thirsty, when their limbs are torn off, when they are bitten by other vampires (it appears to be the venom that stings), or when subjected to a gift that induces pain (Jane, Kate). They don’t feel pain like humans do, nor do they feel discomfort (they can sit indefinitely in any position, never feeling the need to shift around.

Interestingly, it looks to me like pain serves the same function for them as it does for humans. The brain registers pain to tell us something, a biological error message. Don’t walk on that leg, it’s injured. Get your hand off the hot stove and don’t put it there again. Pain is useful.

Vampires, by contrast, are not going to get injured from someone hitting them. There are no blood vessels that can burst, no soft tissue that can burst nor bones that can break. So, no need for their brains to register that as pain. Humans need to change positions every now and then for the sake of our circulation and so we don’t develop pressure ulcers (and I’m sure there are more reasons), vampires have no circulation and, as mentioned above, their skin is armor. No pressure ulcers.

What they do need pain for, is to let them know to feed. That’s the big one, and in turn the strongest one. The pain of the thirst is unbearable, as it has to be to turn a human who was infected with venom into a killer. It’s survival. Same goes for feeling pain when their limbs are torn off, or their bodies damaged by a bite. Their pain receptors let them know to avoid this next time.

As for Jane and Kate’s gifts, this may not serve a purpose for other vampires, but it serves a purpose for Jane and Kate. It protects them. So, sucks for everyone else, but that’s what gifts do, they give the gift-haver a leg up on others.

Digestive system

Carlisle had spent many years attempting to understand our immortal anatomy; it was a difficult task, based mostly on assumption and observation. Vampire cadavers were not available for study.

His best interpretation of our life systems was that our internal workings must be microscopically porous. Though we could swallow anything, only blood was accepted by our bodies. That blood was absorbed into our muscles and provided fuel. When the fuel was depleted, our thirst intensified to encourage us to replenish our supply. Nothing besides blood seemed to move through us at all. (Midnight Sun, chapter Home)

Ignoring the horrifying fact that the context for this quote is Edward wondering if Bella’s tear could stay in his system forever, this here is extremely interesting and I agree. Partly because I can’t think of anything better, partly because Carlisle is an in-universe medical genius who’s had access to far more data than I have. He can run experiments, I can’t. Even if I came up with a theory I thought was better, if blood absorption through porous tissue is Carlisle’s best theory then there must be evidence in favor of this which I don’t have access to. So, porous tissue it most likely is.

(Also, my «Carlisle totally volunteered for vivisection fun times with Aro in Volterra» theory survives that first paragraph. Vampire cadavers might not be available for study, but live ones absolutely are, you just pick them apart and put them back together after, and bring in Corin and/or Alec so the guinea pig has a good time too. There’s no way that never occurred to Aro. Even if it didn’t, it’s bound to have occurred to someone over the years, and Aro touches a lot of people. And we know he and Carlisle discussed what vampires even were, that they were best friends and all about that science.

We also know that sometimes, your weird science experiments involving dismemberment and tripping on Corin in Volterra, stay in Volterra. The tissue is porous, Edward, DON’T ASK ME HOW I KNOW.)

This has huge implications. What happened to the digestive system they used to have?

It’s still there, but non-operational.

Middle solution: it’s recognizably there, but welded shut. At some point, whatever the vampire ingests hits an untraversable boundary, and from there the blood is absorbed while any other matter remains, undigested (though possibly dissolved by venom) until regurgitated.

The vampire’s inner anatomy is unrecognizable from that of a human. Vampires have no need for livers, bowels, gall bladders, and so on, and so these organs no longer exist, or have even been replaced by other organs (assuming vampires need any, more on that later).

My vote lies with the third option, though both second and third are possible. The first one, not so much, as it means that in theory, they could force something through their system. They can’t.

More, vampires are nothing if not extremely efficient and economical organisms. They don’t need to feel pain from a physical blow, so they don’t. Why carry around these organs they’re not using?

Then there’s what they even need their digestive system to do. Humans need the nutrients in our meals not just as fuel, but as- well, everything. We need the building blocks for our cells. Our bodies are constantly renewing themselves. Vampires, by contrast, don’t appear to do this. There’s no waste of any kind, and their skin doesn’t get flaky. Edward specifically says blood is fuel, and I think that’s a literal interpretation.

Now we’re veering into speculation territory, and this isn’t the place for it just yet as we’re veering into what venom is and does, but I think whatever digestive process vampires have, serves to turn their blood to venom. I don’t think there’s any particular organ for this, I think that’s just because that’s what happens when venom comes into contact with blood. We see it happen when humans are bitten, and I think it’s fair to assume that the same thing happens when venom comes into contact with ingested blood.

This also helps explain why animal blood isn’t equal to human blood. Animals can’t be turned to vampires, it’s blood but venom and animal blood aren’t on the same FM, so to say. So, with no better option, yes venom can make do with animal blood, but it won’t perform as well as it would with human blood. The vampire is now weaker, with the frankly terrifying side effect that their eyes change color. We’re so used to this that we just go «oh, yeah, animal blood means their eyes turn yellow. It’s like a LED light letting you know which diet the vampire is on!» when in any other organism, a chance of color like that is usually the sign of something being wrong. Blue lips, yellow sclera, red urine, all color changes that point to something not being not as it should be.

Now, to go further here would mean getting more into what venom even is, which is best saved for part three. I’ll say this, venom appears to be the only fluid in the vampire body. It’s moistens their eyes (and melts their contacts), pools in their mouth, is injected through their fangs, and the application of venom to a wound makes them heal faster. Venom is the substance they rely on, more so even than blood, their elixir of life. (My speculation on how Edward was able to impregnate Bella is reserved for the hybrid/what is venom metas).

Also, on what vampires carry over from their human bodies, I do think they’re economical enough to not fix what ain’t broken. I think this because the human nervous system is absolutely brilliant, and indeed Bella regains sensation during her transformation where her spine had once been broken and unable to communicate with her brain. Question is, of course, was this because her new vampire body still uses the human nervous system, or did Bella regain sensation because her transformation had gotten to a point where this was no longer the case?

Beauty

The beauty part has gotten some very valid criticism, as beauty is very subjective and venom makes it out to be an objective, empirically measurable unit.

To caveat first, we see in canon that not all vampires are gorgeous. James was an ugly human, and so as a vampire he’s no beauty. Maggie was emaciated and not particularly attractive, so she’s bony and not hot by vampire standards. The Cullens, by contrast, were attractive humans. Human Bella is a hottie, she pulls all the guys without issue. If she were as plain as she thinks she is, she wouldn’t get male attention. Being new is only gonna get her so far. Jasper was turned because Maria thought he was a cutie, and same goes for Emmett with Rosalie.

(There’s also a certain inherent bias - I imagine attractive people have a much higher chance of getting turned than uglies.)

More, understand that vampires don’t look human. They’re flawless, desirable, perfect, yes - but they are very distinctly not human, and humans know as much instinctively:

Like any normal human, suddenly standing just a foot away from a vampire would send adrenaline racing through his veins. Fear would twist in his stomach for just a fraction of a second, and then his rational mind would take over. His brain would force him to ignore all the little discrepancies that marked me as other. His eyes would refocus and he would see nothing more than a teenage boy. I watched him come to that conclusion, that I was just a normal boy. I knew he would be wondering what his body’s strange reaction had been about. (Midnight Sun, chapter 21, page 547)

Vampires are beautiful in the way the Nefertiti bust is beautiful. It’s perfect, otherworldly, timelessly beautiful, but looking at it you know this is a bust and not a living human woman.

With that in mind, I think some of the vampire’s unnatural beauty is… not circumstantial, but happy bonuses to their other qualities. Their perfect skin, for instance, goes a long way towards making them beautiful. Perfectly smooth, a glowing white, no disruptions like blackheads, scarring, or sweat. At one point Bella describes Rosalie as looking airbrushed. Their perfect teeth, impeccable grace, these features also help.

Now, I think when venom makes a human more beautiful, I think the big thing it does is make the features perfectly symmetrical. This by itself is immediately inhuman and unnatural, more computer generated than human, just perfect enough to tick off the uncanny valley box. This would explain the flawlessness Bella keeps describing in vampires. It also explains the disparity in beauty, the features Rosalie had to work with and get symmetrical were lovelier than the ones James had, and why they can look completely different from each other yet share that same kind of uncanny impeccability. It also explains how people of wildly different face types and ethnicities can all be beautiful, the venom won’t erase the features you had but rather refine them into the best they can be.

I do think that refinement, in addition to symmetry, happens. If it didn’t, the change wouldn’t be so radical from human to vampire. More, all vampires are described as having sharp features, Esme stands out for the fact that she retained some of her human softness. So, the venom appears to make features more angular and, well, sharp.

Aro’s description is in favor of my interpretation of vampiric beauty: 

I couldn't decide if his face was beautiful or not. I suppose the features were perfect. But he was as different from the vampires beside him as they were from me. His skin was translucently white, like onionskin, and it looked just as delicate (New Moon, page 234)

His features are flawless, meaning symmetrical. He should be beautiful, so it’s the skin that gives her pause.

There’s also the matter that beauty is observed in the body, not just the form. They all look strong and limber, even the tiniest of vampires. I imagine some of this is simply texture, that vampires are made hard, smooth, and perfect, but we have this from Bella looking in the mirror after waking up a vampire:

She was fluid even in stillness, and her flawless face was pale as the moon against the frame of her dark, heavy hair. Her limbs were smooth and strong, skin glistening subtly, luminous as a pearl. (Breaking Dawn, page 261)

Fluid even in stillness, her limbs smooth and strong. This woman was starving to death when she died. Combined with the fact that Edward, who was a sick 17-year-old, has muscle definition, it seems venom does body sculpting as well. Though it’s worth noting that hydration goes a long way towards muscle definition for humans, so the change in fluid composition in vampires could have something to do with it their limber appearance.

Then there’s the other vampire beauty markers.

Their voices are described quite unusually, with words like wind chimes, bells, or feathers. They’re beautiful, but, like everything else about vampires, inhuman. When Carlisle calls Billy on the phone, Billy immediately recognized the voice as somehow wrong, it’s too clear and sharp.

I mean, I think in part this is because their vocal cords aren’t made of soft human tissue anymore, but most likely stone. No matter what they’re made of, though, it’s no surprise that we’re not getting human voices out of them.

Their scent is appetizing to humans and other vampires alike, and serves a duel purpose. Humans are attracted to them (well, vampires are too), while vampires are able to use it for tracking purposes. It’s tremendously useful for keeping track of your territory, as randos can’t walk in and eat your food and sneak off again without leaving a trail. It’s also good for meeting up with friends, we see Carlisle and Siobhan use it for this purpose in Midnight Sun.

Circulation

The purpose of blood is to carry oxygen and nutrients to the cells. Apparently, this isn’t a need vampires have. All they need is venom. The theory that their tissue is porous adds to this, as it would mean blood travels through their body in a different manner. The porous tissue replaces circulation.

So, no circulation for vampires because they don’t need it.

This meta is now getting ridiculously long, so I’m putting the venom production section in the venom meta.

The transformation

The transformation is complete when the heart stops beating. The former human is now a vampire, and no longer reliant on a heartbeat, nor oxygen. In this they are different from hybrids.

As for the process itself, I think that as the venom spreads, it starts multiplying on its own. This is why it took longer for Carlisle than it did Bella, she was bitten and injected multiple times and on every part of her body while Carlisle was grazed on the arm. Bella had more venom that could work on her, Carlisle did not. These facts support my theory of the slow spread of venom.

I’ve played with the thought of the transformation happening in stages, where the first act is the spread of the venom, which then spreads throughout the body and heals the body to put it at default, the second act is the bodysculpting, and the third act the finishing touches. It doesn’t quite fit with venom transforming as it goes, though, so I’m very hm on that.

A few observations:

Activity level doesn’t appear to help spread the venom. Carlisle exerted himself, and his transformation took far more time than normal (though lying still instead of contorting in agony probably doesn’t help in that regard). Bella laid still as a corpse, and her transformation took far less time than normal. The venom spreads in its own time, regardless of what the blood circulation is up to.

Going by the accounts of the Cullens, while the pain is constant, the transformation hurts increasingly as the venom spreads.

Bella was severely injured, and needed to be healed before she could even feel all the pain. Her broken spine, for instance, meant she couldn’t feel below the waist.

Carlisle said it’s «easier if the blood is weak» (cryptic much?! Not making it easy for me, dude. Though as this was said in the context of Edward explaining that Carlisle would only turn someone already dying, I do think he’s referring to what it’s like for vampires, though, that humans are not so tempting if they’re half dead.)

Healing

Now we’re veering into the venom meta, but: the transformation fixes anything that could impede the vampire’s function. Bella would get nothing done with her post-birth broken body, and so she’s fixed up for her. Alice’s emaciation means she’s thin and less strong than others, it doesn’t physically prevent her from doing anything.

The venom, it appears, heals the human not because it’s being altruistic, nor to make the vampire more appealing to others, but to make the human into an ideal host. BUT MORE ON THAT IN THE VENOM META.

With that, my god we’re done. And this meta is  words in total, an ugly number.

Lastly, I know that putting a read more at the end of a 4k long meta is the worst joke in the world (RIP to you poor souls scrolling past this. My reason for not being a read more kind of gal to be found here)

Nothing yet, I’m afraid.

[savnofilter]

Kinktober Day 1

dabi 

☠️ warning(s): 𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕥 𝕡𝕝𝕒𝕪, somnophilia, fingering, loss of virginity, con-dubcon.

☠️ genre: smut, holiday special.

☠️ words: 2.9k words [11 minutes, 40 seconds].

☠️ read more: kinktober(uary)

☠️ summary: dabi wanted to preserve you for as long as he could, until one morning your beauty was too much for him to just observe.

The sun's beams were what woke him up. His nocturnal nature surprisingly let him sleep in this time, the presence next to him making it possible for him. Not hiding the secret factor of Japan's summer heat doing him in as much as the rest of the league's humid rooms.

He rolled over to blatantly look at you, hiding back the feeling to smile at your peaceful slumber. His eyes scanned as you also fell victim to the hot heat, small amounts of sweat coating your skin. Dabi couldn't help but let his cyan orbs wander, the more his eyes traveled your body the more his mind started to race. He couldn’t help but feel like you were something sacred, the times you did ask him about certain topics lived rent-free in his mind. Most times, your questions were raised when the off-hand perverted comment was made  by Shigaraki with no filter, opening an opportunity for you to talk with Dabi about certain topics.

“You’d like to try it?” Dabi asks looking over at you, his head tilting to look at your face better and smirking playfully at your blush.

“I-I mean yeah! If you wanted… I know you have more experience in this stuff…” You ramble off, shyly hiding into his hoodie. “Just take care of me, okay?”

You two hadn't done anything… intimate yet. Most times Dabi had to teach you things, and the furthest you had ever gone was letting him touch and show you how to pleasure yourself to your embarrassment. As much as you showed disdain for not knowing as much as an adult your age knew, Dabi loved it. It was something about your innocence that always made him want to wait. To hear you beg for him to take you, to show you what other things you could learn.

His actions were teetering on the right and wrongs, his thoughts slowly but surely egging him on to move closer to you. Dabi was taking a heavy leap of faith, not wanting to lose a relationship over a loss of control. The bed moved a bit, the slight movement accentuating the subtle jiggle of certain places that made him smirk. His hand moved to carefully sweep any miscellaneous hairs on your face that either fell out of your bonnet or lost its way in your poorly done bun. 

His hand took a minute to rub your cheek, his free arm moving to support him on the pillow as his other hand ventured down your body. His touches were light, almost as if a ghost was touching human flesh for the first time in a while. His front had successfully pressed up against your back, his growing boner pressing against your underwear-clad butt. He felt you shift just a bit at the feeling, a small but mischievous glint coming to his face as your body unknowingly snuggles into his.

The forgotten hand now rested on your body, his unnaturally warm hand played with the bottom of your tank. His hand slipped under just a bit, his hand softly caressing your skin and letting his hold slowly make it up to your body. He didn't miss how your breasts strained against your struggling top, his hand not helping it either. His palms started to heat up, noting the way your body positively responded to the touch. 

His fingers grope one of your tits, playing with the bud of your hardening nipple. The feeling of your breast pressed against his palm was doing wonders to him; your innocent and sleeping form adjusting slowly to his soft and sensual touches. Dabi leans down to kiss at your neck, his other coming up to take its place with you playing with your chest, the other tugging down your underwear enough to expose your cooter to him. His deep groan comes from his chest as his left-hand heats up in fondling you, tugging the bud before rubbing the erect nipple. His right hand cupped your sex, his fingers testing the waters and pulling away from your neck to see your face. To his delight your face had increasingly softened, your lips now slightly parted and your brows scrunched just a bit at the sensation he was giving your nerves. 

Dabi decided to up the ante, using his middle finger to rub your clit. His eyes caught the way your hips moved to ride his digit, making the corporate decision to warm his fingers. Your breath slowly picks up in an aroused cycle, your untouched body not sure what to do with itself. He continued to rub your clit, observing once your cunt started to slick up and you had finally stirred from your slumber.

You had no proper words to start or explain the sensation you were feeling, the thing you could was let the sounds of pleasure leave your lips. “I -- haaaah…~” You breathed out. Your eyes looked up at his with a loveful lust, his cock twitching in excitement at the confused but trustworthy gaze in your eyes. 

“Good morning,” He starts teasingly, pressing his hips into your ass to emphasize his morning wood. ���I hope you don’t mind, I couldn’t help myself~” He leans down to give your lips a peck, the familiar feeling of your plush lips against his making him softly moan. He lets his two fingers rub and tease your opening, moving his position to your side and having you lay on your back. His arm was back to supporting himself next to your head, his face merely inches away. “I’m going to put them in, okay?” He asks, his thumb never slowing to keep your hormones running.

“Please give it to me, Dabi, please…” You softly whine, thighs moving apart to give him room. 

He nervously gulps at that -- for what reason? He doesn’t know himself. It wasn’t like it was his facetime breaking someone’s innocence. The feelings of this going further than you two had ever anticipated rained in the back of his head, the very thought made him want to rush but also cherish this time. 

He leaned down to capture your lips in a kiss again, this time his fingers successfully being able to enter your needy cunt. His mouth ate up all your wanton moans, fingers slowly pumping in and out of your cunt to prepare you for proper comfort. His tongue invaded your mouth, your muscle desperately moving against his and falling submissive to his sensual and loving touches -- the feeling with a hint of deviousness you hadn’t encountered with Dabi yet. The movement was almost hard to do with your virgin cunt squeezing at his fingers, legs spread open for his fucking. His calculated fingers stroked your walls, the new sensation leaving you quivering already. Dabi couldn’t help but speed up his fingers, the erotic sounds of your cunt taking his thrusting making the experience much arousing for both you and him.

When he pulls away you both are light of breath, the room no longer hot but a heavy humid -- only an ambiance of sensuality running through the air. “You like it when my fingers are deep in you like this, Doll~?” He taunts you, smirking as you once again nod your head, one hand designated on holding onto his arm close to your head as the other clung to his snapping wrist that quite literally held your pleasure in the palm of his hand. He positioned his fingers to hit a bit deeper, the change of angle prompting him to hit a spot inside that you weren’t ready for.

A moan shrieked from your mouth as he does, thighs immediately moving to clench around his thighs. Much to his surprise, it was what took you to cum on his fingers. He watched in amazement as you tried to pull his unrelenting fingers away, groaning deep in his chest as your pussy sucked in his fingers, heating his thumb to give your thumb some more stimulation as he rubbed into.

“Dabi--!” You breathlessly called out for him, never mind the other tenants that housed in the building. The pleasure was too great and your body was moving on its own. “Baby, it’s t-too much hnngn~!” You tried to reason, your needy pleas falling on deaf ears.

Dabi was too drunk on your essence and visuals, he glared down at you once he realized your words. You knew the look wasn’t anything but mean, only serving the purpose that he was in charge. “Is it too much for you, babygirl?” He inquires, noting the way your pussy dripped and his fingers. “Can you be a good girl and take another one for me~?” He asks, slowing his fingers to let you catch a breath, his hot fingers still shooting bolts of arousal through your veins. 

For sure he knew he was pushing your limits, how else would he make this fun? Had you been any other simple person he wouldn’t be doing this. It was the desperation in your eyes that pulled him in, using his skillful hands to draw you closer and relish in the feeling of your cute thighs squeezing his arm for him to keep even though you were pulling it in.

Dabi had no mercy in stroking your g-spot, the one spot making you tense and the heat of his fingertips not helping any better either. He was pleased to watch your eyes roll back, a shiver running over your body as he urged another orgasm out of you. He slows down and mumbles reassuring words into your ear, pulling his fingers out slowly and watching as your slick drenches his fingers. He quickly gets up from his bed, getting a towel to clean you up. He holds his smirk when the rough but soft fabric brushes against your throbbing and sensitive clit, tossing the towel behind his back. He reaches over to give you your water bottle, helping you sit up a bit and holding your chin up to his careful hands.

He didn’t communicate anything as he helped you take a sip of water to calm you down, his gaze holding nothing but deep adoration for you. His heart hammered as he took in your panting state, hair now messy and face hot, the few strands of hair sticking to your skin. He hums in content once you hand him back the bottle, screwing the cap back on, and leans down to give your lips a peck before he rests the water bottle back onto its post on the nightstand. His hand moves to hold your cheek, his thumb rubbing your bottom lip.

“Do you think you can go further, or would you like a bath, Doll?” He asks gently. Your adoring eyes stared up into him, pondering on it before slowly nodding your head. He sighs softly, his hand coming up to grip your jaw and tilt your head at a better angle to look at you better. “I need to hear you say it, Y/N.”

“Please, use me as you see fit…” You ask just as told. His eyes only softened just a bit, wordlessly getting off and reaching over for his draws. You see him pull out a bottle that had the label as “lube”, your face scrunching up in mild confusion at it. You watched him get comfortable between your legs again, his hands coming up to get your tank top off leaving you embarrassingly exposed in front of him. You bit your lip as you watched him prepare, not having enough brain capacity to really ask him what is in the bottle when he finally whips out his dick. The question of wanting a condom is almost going over your head since you were so caught up on his erect dick. You had never seen one before, much less even thought about seeing it in a person or on technology.

It is sure as hell was intimidating. Dabi couldn’t have had a normal pecker, no. His cock looked almost 7.5 inches long and not too shy on the thicc side either. His impressive length curved upwards just a bit and his tip had precum at the tip of its head. Your eyes widened in surprise at the piercings on his length, the proud studs that lined up perfectly on the underside of his cock. You watched as he took a generous amount of the translucent liquid into his fist to get himself lubricated fully. You gulped as you witnessed him lube his cock up, his actions alone stoking you up for the next event's activities.

“What? You surprised doll~?” He teases once he’s done, using the remaining lube on his hand to lube up your already slick labia. You purse your lips to keep yourself from moaning out from the feeling, trailing your gaze up to his dark and lustful one.

“Y-Yeah… is it going to fit?” You ask worried, jumping once he carefully presses it against your opening. He pauses and grabs your thighs from the back of your knees and holds you open.

“I mean, it’s not supposed to hurt.” He says ‘reassuringly’, speaking to you as if the underside of his pierced cock wasn’t giving the lips of your cunt a wonderful massage. “If it ever hurts, let me know, okay?” He asks softly, nodding his head in affirmation before he pulls his hips back a bit to allow him some space to have his tip press at your opening once again. He aligns himself before carefully aligning himself. He slowly thrusts himself in, testing the waters and watching your face to see whether to continue or not. When he sees your confirmation he continues, his cock almost halfway in when he managed to grab a whimper from you. The sound was almost too magical for him, the sweet reward of obtaining his sweet, innocent, and beautiful girlfriend’s virginity. The sound makes him pause before he checks on you again and finishes the process with bottoming out. He buries his face into your neck to softly kiss at your skin once he’s fully in, prompting you to wrap your arms around his shoulders.

He lightly kissed at the old marks on your neck, moving to new spaces to bite and create new marks by sucking on them. Being the gentleman he is, he kept a regular pace for you until you gave him the go. As much as he wanted to demolish your cunt, he sure as hell didn’t want to tear it on his first time with you. So he did as said, starting from his comfortable pace before picking it up. Dabi had his hips angled so he could rub against your clit each time he rutted in you, the vibration of his growl against your neck made you shiver along with the feeling of his dick piercings massaging the insides of your cunt walls.

“Daabi ahh~” You cry out for him, your nails digging into the skin of his exposed back. The pain elicits a groan from him, his hips smacking into yours in response. His hold on your thighs was tight and strong, holding you up high and ready to be rawed by him this early in the morning. He smirks against your skin once he hears your loud and annoyed whimper at the feeling of his mark, his tongue unapologetic ally licking the spot to make it better.

At this point, Dabi was successfully bottoming out inside of you and it made you feel wonderful. You had no idea how to shut up from the sensations you were receiving and it did nothing but fuel Dabi’s ego. Your heels dug into the dip of his back, legs keeping him in close as he rides out his pleasure in you. Your cunt was impossibly tight around him and it was so very hard to keep himself from going all the way to his usual pace -- also keeping in mind the studs could just easily hurt you as well.

You didn’t take the time to warn him you were going to cum. The given factor of your sweet words slurring as you tried to catch yourself, head tilting against the pillows and body tensing up in hot pleasure. He watched as you finished on his cock, your erotic face spurring on his as well. Dabi was more skilled in pushing it back to draw yours out. His teeth bit at his bottom lip as he held back from cumming in you and pulling out last minute. His hand easily glided his cock as he eased himself to cum on your untouched and pure skin. A deep groan came from his chest, one short of a deep groan that sounded like a growl.

His white substance coated your skin and gave you a nice look, the sperm landing on your stomach and lips. Dabi smiled sweetly as you tried to catch your breath, your skin glistened with sweat and inappropriately displayed just for him. “I’ll run you a nice bath, you’ve earned it.” He leaned down to give your lips a loving peck as he carefully picked you up in his arms, allowing you to wrap your arms around his shoulders and face nuzzle his neck. He makes his way to the shared bathroom that is connected to your room, his smile quickly changing into one of a mischievous grin.

He couldn’t wait to do more with you in the future~

[autisticandroids]

anyway way back when i made this post i promised myself i would talk about my headcanon on how cas' trueform is fucked up specifically because of the leviathans. basically this is part of my fetish for making the gamble era have unerasable consequences that plague cas everywhere and he can never escape.

but like. okay so death calls him a mutated angel in meet the new boss, so having the souls and the leviathans inside him clearly does something visible to his trueform. and like. given the way that manifests on his vessel, well... to be delicate i would say he is probably pretty.... stretched.

that's probably the majority of the damage, but i would say that there is also a certain amount of mutation. as much as i generally argue that cas wasn't really being controlled by an outside force as godstiel, he still probably experienced influence. not as in, the levianthans were trying to pilot him; maybe they were but it was ineffectual. i mean, having the leviathans in him (specifically leviathans; imo the souls were just along for the ride. they were probably more influenced by him than him by them) was causing him to become leviathan-ish. like. develop leviathan-like traits: leviathan-like bloodlust, levianthan-like disdain for other lifeforms, and perhaps leviathan-like hunger, as well. and i think this should be reflected on his body. his angelic flesh, if flesh is the right term (i don't think it is), the stuff his body is of, becoming more leviathanish.

and like. okay i don't think any description of an angel's trueform is ever going to be literal, unless it's like. super duper hyperconceptual. but like. okay. i think each angel is probably different? but in my head cas specifically is... some combination of geometric and like. architectural. as much as an angel's trueform can be anything. probably more on the architectural side. he's not special enough to be the Guy Who Gets To Be Just A Platonic Solid. cas is probably like. his trueform is like. i mean his trueform isn't anything angels' trueforms don't..... is. but he's kind of metaphorically the idea of a sort of howl's-moving-castle-esque nonsensical architectural behemoth. probably with cleaner lines and less... lived in. a building designed by scp-184. the idea of architecture but not its use. a dr. seuss building. cas is a house where no one lives. the concept of a building. and he's cold and inorganic. his only organic part is eyes, and those, despite being organic, are standardized, millions of identical eyeballs peering through slits in cas' not-flesh.

i think becoming leviathanish causes him to develop more organic features. as godstiel his angled, geometric body becomes twisted and bulbous, already bending it out of shape, but the leviathans also cause him to develop animalistic features. talons. tentacles. suckers. fingernails. nostrils. tongues. cnidocytes. different types of eyes. mouths where there were none. as well as non-animal features: voids, tentacles of pure unreal darkness, negative space.

also when i say organic i have very strongly in my mind images from barlowe's guide to extraterrestrials: the whole book serves as inspiration, but the slash, the garnishee, the mother, the demon and the medusan are particularly influential, visually. certainly when i say mouth i don't mean human lips and teeth, more a tentacle-filled slit like barlowe's dextran.

and then when he pops, when he is suddenly empty again, his form is changed forever. it's scarred. his architecture is cracked and broken from being stretched and twisted. some of the cracks are healed over with a fleshy, organic substance because being inhabited by leviathans has made him permanently more animal-like. mouths develop on this substance. parts of him are reduced to rubble. many of the new organic parts that he developed while the leviathans were in him wither and die, leaving behind dried out husks. he is twisted into new shapes that he did not take before. his form has new emptiness, and blast zone at his center where the souls and leviathans pushed his form outward.

in short, cas is physically very different after godstiel. he was probably unique and scarred after going through so many battles, not to mention falling. but post-godstiel he is almost unrecognizable. it's like he's a completely new entity.