#this is old art from july that i never got around to posting. think of it as a surprise treat :)

[noxious-fennec]

Hands are too shaky these days

[livwritesstuff]

for @steddie-week day 5 | exes to lovers

fully and completely inspired by @emchant3d's divorced dad's post [x] from a few weeks ago bc i did not once stop thinking abt it

tags: modern day, artist!eddie, finance guy!steve, steddie as rich gay divorcees, sort of an accidental parent trap situation

They were too young, Steve thinks in retrospect – married at twenty-three, their daughter born when they were twenty-five, and then divorced before his twenty-seventh birthday.

He gets to think retrospectively because in a few years it’ll be a full decade since the papers for that last bit got signed. Now, Steve is thirty-four and sweating his ass off in a red polo and crisp jeans, the stiflingly hot July sun beating down on him as he scans the perimeter of a crowded playground for a familiar head of curly brown hair – not his nine-year-old. He found Rosalind already, wreaking havoc on the jungle gym. No, he’s looking for his ex (-husband, technically, but Steve usually stops at ex; the -husband part just makes him sad these days).

It’s custody swap day, which is either his favorite or least favorite day of the week depending on who the swap is favoring.

Today it’s favoring him which is why he’s slowly making his way around the edge of a playground in Bushwick, keeping an eye out for his ex, Eddie.

“Steve,” he hears from somewhere behind him. Steve turns towards the sound and sees not that curly head of hair he’d expected. Eddie’s hair is completely buzzed (which, for the record, was not the case last week when Steve dropped Rozzy off with him) and he’s wearing a paint-splattered white t-shirt tucked into old jeans and all that combined is making it reeeally hard for Steve to pretend he’s not crushing hard on the guy he divorced eight years ago.

“Dude,” Steve started, eyeing Eddie’s hair (or lack thereof) as he made his way to the section of fence that Eddie was occupying, “What–”

“Yeah, yeah,” Eddie rolled his eyes, “Rozzy already hit me with all the good zingers so you’re too late.”

“No, I don’t –” Steve stopped, “It’s…not a bad look, just…you know. Why the change?”

Eddie looked away.

“Long story,” he replied as Steve remembered (yet again) that he doesn’t get full access to Eddie’s world the way he used to.

Luckily for Steve, Rozzy runs up to them and spares him from having to figure out a response for that.

“We should get pizza,” she says. Steve’s eyebrows fly up.

“We should get pizza?” he repeats.

“Please,” she adds, her eyes shining, “At Dad’s? And we play Mario Kart? Dad said I’m getting good at 200!”

“He said that?” Steve asked, and he glances over Rosalind's head to see that Eddie is making a so-so gesture with his hand.

He’s never been all that good at saying no to his daughter (or anyone), so it doesn’t take much more convincing on Rozzy’s part for the three of them to head off in the direction of Eddie’s loft, with a pitstop planned for the pizza shop down the block.

They actually have a nice time.

It’s true that Rozzy is getting better at 200cc – good might be a bit generous, but Steve’s fine with that (he doesn’t know if his ego could handle getting crushed by a fourth-grader).

Just as they’re finishing their second grand prix (the Star Cup, because Rozzy likes the dolphin race), one of the other kids in the building knocks on the door and invites Rozzy over for a sleepover, which Steve agrees to because he remembers the illicit kind of joy in a summertime Monday night sleepover.

Eddie doesn't show Steve the door after Rozzy's gone. Rather, he pulls a bottle of wine from the fridge – an expensive Sémillon he says was given to him by a client.

“So the art biz is still going well, I assume,” Steve comments as Eddie pulls two vintage wine glasses out of a cabinet and pours them each a healthy serving.

Conversation about work manages to sustain them through the first few glasses (Eddie actually remembered that it’s been just over a year since Steve left his dad’s Fortune 1000 for a CFO position at a marketing company that had just graduated from small to midsize status). They work through the second quarter of the bottle talking about Rozzy, and the third vanishes even quicker while Steve spills some of the latest Harrington family drama.

While Eddie is updating him on how Wayne is doing, Steve finds that he isn’t really listening, distracted in the way he can’t help but notice how Eddie’s paint-stained t-shirt is actually more like an undershirt, and a size too small for him, the torso and sleeves tight around lean muscle, and there’s a thin silver chain around his neck and a scruff of facial hair around his jaw, and –

Steve doesn’t immediately realize when Eddie stopped talking. When he does, when his eyes finally unstick themselves from the buzzcut and drop back down to Eddie’s, he sees that Eddie is staring at him too.

Eddie’s tongue darts out to wet his lip.

“Ask me again why I buzzed my hair,” he tells him.

“Why’d you buzz your hair,” Steve asks, because he’s obedient like that (and because he really does want to know).

“Steve–” Eddie stops, a giggly, wine-induced hiccup of a laugh slipping out before he shakes his head, “An entire can of paint tipped ov–” He cuts himself off with another half-hysterical laugh, barely managing to say, “Spilled on my head,” before he was completely doubled over, and Steve is laughing too because he can totally picture it and because he had a bit more wine than he planned to and this is honestly the first time that he and Eddie have hung out without their daughter in…Steve doesn’t even know how long.

“Steve,” Eddie says again when they finally both recover, and his tone is completely different this time around and there’s a vulnerability in his eyes that wasn’t there before and something is happening, something is happening, ��Please don’t kill me for saying this, but…fuck, it’s really kinda pathetic how badly I still want it to be you and me.”

Steve thinks he tries to respond, but then he was too busy kissing Eddie to do anything else, too busy scraping fingernails over Eddie’s scalp, too busy choking back a moan as Eddie sucks his bottom lip into his mouth, too busy tugging Eddie’s shirt out of his waistband to shove a hand up underneath and finding that he’s built more solidly than Steve remembers from the last time they touched like this, but something is telling him that’s true about Eddie – true about himself too – in more ways than one.

And if Rosalind comes home the next morning ready to ask how she’s getting back to Daddy’s house only to find that he’s already there, stealing Dad’s mug out of his hand for a sip of coffee when his own is right there…that’s a conversation for another day.

part 2

[dreaming-marchling]

2024 Fic Round Up

Tagged by @princessfbi (thank you! so thrilled to have discovered your work this year!)

2024 Word Count: 661,417

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

Safe In Certainty Started in 2023, Completed in Feb 2024 | Fast & Furious | Marked in Trust Series | 223,657k

Part four finished! Still stunned to be here story after story with the most amazing commenters I could have ever asked for. Not bad for a story I had never intended to share!

MARCH

Marked in Faith 10 chapters posted in 2024 | Fast & Furious | Marked in Trust Series | Roughly 60k posted in 2024

I'm putting this in for March because this is the month I began posting one story a month until Reckless in Devotion started. Some of those babies are longer than my oneshots, lol. Forever love exploring other POVs in the Marked in Trust world!

APRIL

MAY

The Ex 911 | Bucktommy | 17.5k

My first 911 story! My first Bucktommy story! Buck as a character totally captured me this year. I haven't been taken by a new fandom in so long so this was so exciting! Of course I beat the crap out of Buck right in my first fic for him :)

JUNE

Eyes On Me 911 | Bucktommy | 18k

Post lightning strike cataracts, I had so much fun with this one. I constantly think about extending it or maybe doing a Buddie version of it, I just loved the storyline so much and other scenes popped into my head after I posted

Doctor/Warlock Confidentiality Shadowhunters | Magnus-Centric | 17k

My first Shadowhunters of the year! Magnus Bane gets therapy against his wishes. I felt very clever for the title, lol

Heart & Universe 911 | Buddie | 6.8k

My first Buddie story! Why be stuck in a ship war when you can have BOTH?? I love writing them realizing they're in love :)

JULY

The King of the Dark Storm Shadowhunters | Malec & Chairman Meow | 5.8k

I've had this stray headcanon about Chairman being an old god trapped as a cat floating around in my head for fun for so long and finally I wrote it!

Not Sexy 911 | Bucktommy | 7k

Listen, I need more fics about Buck using sex in unhealthy ways. It's catnip for me. Tommy got a glimpse behind that particularly miserable door in this one

Invasion 911 | Buddie | 10k

Nakedperil!Buck and protective!Eddie - a match made in heaven, in my opinion

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

Over the Cliff 911 | Gen 118 Fam | 6k

This was originally supposed to be how Buck got injured in Not Sexy but I was having way too much fun with the cliff rescue which wasn't even the point of Not Sexy so I chopped them in half to make a gen 118 family/Buck whump story and gave a much more to the point explanation for Buck's injuries in Not Sexy

Away From Us 911 | Buddie | 76k

My first 911 multichapter story! A presumed dead lawsuit era story full of angst. I fully anticipate more lawsuit era angst in my future, lol

OCTOBER

Art Class and Earthquakes 911 | HenRen/Gen Buck & Karen | 5.5k

Karen Wilson is awesome and needs more stories

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

Reckless in Devotion Fast & Furious | Brian/Dom | 33k posted in 2024

The 5th installment in Marked in Trust series!! This took me so much longer than I thought it would but it's finally up and running and I am so excited for everyone to see what's to come :)

To Be Bonded Shadowhunters | Malec & Parabatai | 30k posted in 2024

I still literally cannot believe that this is finally being shared. I started this story in 2019 - I know I keep saying that but like this thing took me 5 years. It is my nemesis, finally vanquished. And people are enjoying it??? What? I've been cursing its name and people are now enjoying it. Wild. Wonderful

2024 has been kind of a crappy year for me irl but in fic it as been wonderful. A new fandom, so many words shared and, best of all, such amazing support and kindness from readers. You're all so wonderful and you have truly been one of the brightest pieces of my year. I cannot thank you all enough.

Tagging: You know the drill, if you saw this and thought "I wanna do that" then you're tagged. Literally @ me so I can read yours, that's how tagged you are.

[beekeeperspicnic]

What I've been getting up to without my computer

Since I don't have any game updates at the moment I thought I'd give you a look at my very analogue Sherlock Holmes related project!

As you probably know, the Sherlock Holmes stories were mostly originally published in the Strand Magazine which came out as floppy monthly magazines with hardback collections every six months.

A while ago I spotted a really beaten up copy of the July to December 1893 book on eBay for £8. This book can sometimes go for £200 in good condition because it's the one with...

I immediately decided to make repairing it a Project!

You can see here that the text block has totally come away from the boards.

Along the spine I was really excited to see something a little familiar being used to give some structural support! My initial thought was that this had to be a slice of a cover of one of the floppy Strand magazines.

But when I got it loose and studied it, although the paper and ink colour is the same, it doesn't actually follow the layout format of the Strand covers. It's lots of little ads, and they run off the bottom like this is part of a larger document.

Scrap of paper on left, a Strand Magazine on the right:

So yeah, that's still a bit of a mystery, but it's cool to see this scrap of paper the printers had lying around. I had to remove it, but I'm going to keep it safe.

I did some gentle cleaning of the cover using a putty eraser, just gently pressing and rolling, never rubbing. It picked up a little of the grime.

The cover had got some paint splotches on at some point in the past, and I tried to gently remove these. Part of me wishes I'd left them as I think I was starting to effect the blue colour in the area.

(Original on the right, my attempt at cleaning on the left!)

I also reinforced some of the parts of the bookcloth around the spine that were very worn with Japanese tissue, which is very thin but very, very difficult to tear.

Now here's a fun part, with some help from my cat Miss Malkin!

The spine of the book had a few problems.

The fabric which wraps around it and helps attach it to the cover/boards which is called scrim (or mull, I've seen it called both!) had totally decayed and turned into gross dust, I knew I'd need to replace it.

Although the sewn binding was sound, I could tell that the glue wasn't doing its job anymore. It was old 'animal glue' that had turned hard and brittle. I knew I'd need to replace it with something else, like PVA.

I needed to get that glue off, so I tried out a trick I saw online. I made a paste/gel out of methycellulose, which is a substance that gets used as a thickener in lots of food products. Of course I keep mine in a fancy little jar:

The gel softens the old glue without getting it dangerously damp, allowing you to gently scrape it away. I have a really satisfying video of me doing it, but Tumblr only lets you upload one video per post, boo.

Look at all this gnarly gunk!

But look at how good the text block looks with its new scrim and glue!

I got the black paper from Shepherd's in London which is a specialist Art & Conservation Paper shop (they have a book bindery too but it's closed at the weekends.) Buying it was so fun, I got to look through lots of samples and pick something which matched the original paper.

I then had to get it home half way across the country on public transport. Yaaaaay.

I was trying to think what I was going to use to replace the Strand Magazine page on the spine. In the end I decided to leave a little note, for some future person who might take the binding apart someday!

So, here it is!

I have to admit that this whole project has been a real challenge, emotionally more than anything! It's required me to be brave about messing with an old book, and to acknowledge that even where I've made mistakes, at least it's better off then it was when It arrived at my house.

[makuro-ua]

Wally Darling x GN! reader — PART 1

“Smile for me, won’t you?”

Warnings : None

{——————————————————}

You slam the door behind you and slouched against it, crying. 

You just got fired from your favorite job, and not only that— you no longer have a source of income. Out of all the work youve been in, that job had the highest pay.

Now everything was gone.

You wiped your tears, and tried to take a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm yourself down.

Once you did calm down, you looked at your apartment wall for a few minutes, thinking about what to do now.

Oh, right.

Maybe looking at a few pictures of your favorite show would help. Although that… favorite show was old, it still felt nostalgic because that was the show you grew up with. But it suddenly stopped producing, and once it did— it flew over your head and you forgot about it.

Until a few weeks ago, you found pictures of Wally Darling as you were scrolling through the internet. You thought he looked familiar, and it was proven correct when the person who posted those pictures stated that they found a website trying to revive an old puppet show.

The moment you clicked the link to the website, your heart ached. You looked at the website, dug deeper in it, and felt a wave of nostalgia overcome your senses. 

It was if you were a child again.

The art of your favorite characters, that colorful yet warm color palette it had— not too vivid nor too dull. It felt perfect. 

Due to the show flying over your head as a child, you could only remember small fragments of the episodes and the main cast. You almost forgot that Julie had a family in the show until you looked at the website.

Thinking about the show calmed you down. Oh, right… you were gonna look at pictures of them.

You stood up and walked to your room, booting up your computer and heading to the website.

You looked at the character art once again, and wished you actually lived in the neighborhood.

That way, you’d have fun.

You never really had attachments in your life, really. Your friends moved on, your family drifted from you the moment you became a fully grown adult.

You head over to the ‘neighborhood’ page and clicked on Wally’s house.

You stared at him for a bit, eye-to-eye.

“I wish I’d live in the neighborhood with all of you.”

Your eyebrows scrunched together and you looked down your desk. You put your palms over your eyes and began crying.

Laying your head down, you began slowly drifting to sleep.

As you were about to sleep, you felt someone hug you from behind. However, you shook it off as your imagination.

You woke up.

But something… was different. Your desk looked much vivid, similar to ‘Welcome Home’s color palette.

No, your whole room was different. It was much organized and much to your liking. Accessories and decorations you wanted your room to have was there. 

However, your computer was replaced with a box of crocheting materials and a few books.

You squint your eyes and pinched yourself.

Ouch.

Where were you?

You stood up and walked around your house. It was the same thing, things you wished to have were there. It was if you were in your dream home.

But, when you saw yourself in the bathroom mirror, your heart dropped.

You were a puppet.

Similar to the ones in ‘Welcome Home’.

Were you?…

No, that couldn’t be, right?

You rushed out your house and your eyes widened.

You were just near the neighborhood. A bit far from the other’s houses, but you were mostly hidden in the forest.

You walked to the neighborhood. 

A few moments later, it felt like someone was watching you.

“Hello, friend.”

{——————————————————}

A/N : if this gets enough attention i might post a part 2 wahaha. Thank you for reading!

[violet-prism-creatively]

my 2024 year in fandom 

I started off the year by creating my whump sideblog @violets-whumperflies (January 3). I've been into whump for a long time, but never got up the courage to be part of the community and post my own stuff until then. 

My spring was marked by the resurgence of my interest in The Owl House and Avatar the Last Airbender, fueled by the mutual square/triangle/pentagon of hell groupchat. Thank you to Lilac (@itslilacmoon), Crush (@crushpunchh), Aru (@watery-melon-baller), and Never (rip). Chatting with you guys about fandoms and the struggles of college life made my spring a bit more joyful. 

I also participated in two Nimona fan events this year, courtesy of the wonderful @zyrafowe-sny! Nimona Week was a fun burst of springtime energy and the Nimona Big Bang kept me making art throughout the year. Shoutout also to the WIP Wednesday community that encouraged me to write!

New fandoms this year! In May, I finally got around to reading The Locked Tomb series and loved it. I annotated the ebooks of HtN and NtN while reading on a plane, which helped me keep track of my theories and showed some fun reactions that I "liveblogged."

July was a tough month for me in my personal life, and I turned to fic to cope. I somehow stumbled upon Batfam hurt/comfort and kind of got obsessed. Eventually, this extended to actually reading some comics. I haven't posted about this fandom a lot since it doesn't "fit my brand" on tumblr, but I suppose this is the "inflict posts about new fandoms on your mutuals" website. 

In early December, one of my friends got me into Epic: The Musical. Since then, I've already published two fics for it, because it wouldn't let go of my brain. I even revived the old tiktok account I had before tumblr to do cosplay. And it was perfect timing to get into the fandom because the last saga released on Christmas! 

Fics published this year: 

this rot leaking from my eyes (The Owl House, febuwhump, Feb 8)

Refined (Avatar the Last Airbender, final chapter Aug 18)

Study of a Monster (Nimona, whumptober, Oct 5)

Can you make it back to Ithaca? [No] [Yes, but it's no longer you] (Epic, Dec 10)

The blood on your hands (is something you can't lose) (Epic, Dec 29)

Fics started writing that I intend to finish:

Batfam whump 

tlt college au 

toh luz hurt/comfort 

Abandoned projects: 

we're going to ignore these... 

Another update on my personal life: Remember my girlfriend? They're now my queerplatonic partner! They figured out that they're ace and nonbinary and now we're both leaning into our aspec identities. I think this is also reflected in my fandom interests, where I drifted away from shipping and towards platonic and familial dynamics. My new favorite dynamic is "whatever they have going on between them is not romantic or sexual but infinitely stronger and weirder." 

If you read all this, thanks! Whether you're a longtime mutual or randomly stumbled upon this post, I appreciate you!

[bringerofdarkness-fancomic]

Important Notes Segment - #1

I want to bring up some things before I finally get around to posting Bringer of Darkness here! I don't know if I'm gonna write more important notes segments, but I figured I'd number it as the first just in case. Contains some minor spoilers.

Please bare with inconsistencies/wonky-looking art.

I personally don't mind them; looking back on these early pages have shown me how I've improved since I started, yet I felt like I'd give people a head's up regardless how I feel about this comic.The comic's about a year old, as I first started posting BoD on the twelfth of April last year (2023).

This especially applies to Amy and Exnic's heads. I didn't have any proper references for them when I started working on the comic, so they may look WEIRD from certain angles. Just expect potentially weird looking panels from somebody trying to figure out poses they've never practiced drawing before.

Exnic is only allowed to say "I AM GOD" once.

Being an alternate take on Sonic.EXE for Bringer of Darkness, I personally figured it'd be odd if Exnic didn't say that at all. However, I put a limit on how many times I'm allowed to write him saying that to ensure I don't overuse it, and I landed up choosing once.

It's pretty early on, too, just to get it out of the way. Don't worry, he has a reason to say it, and it's one of my favourite moments in the comic so far (huh. maybe the real reason I haven't dropped this comic is because of how much fun I'm having writing Exnic?).

The only blood we're going to see is from Exnic himself.

Being an alternate take on the hedgehog known for having blood pouring from his eyes, it'd be weird if I said we weren't going see any from him at all. That being said, I'll be treating it more like tears and saliva for him, which means we won't be seeing it all the time.

I think that's both interesting and funny at the same time. Nobody but Exnic is allowed to bleed in this comic. Plus, you don't always need to rely on copious amounts of blood for something to be horrifying, do you? :)

This is the last post before the comic.

That's right, it's about time I stop beating around the bush and actually start showing the comic off soon! Although, if you're seeing this post, then that means this blog's week long hiatus has already started. This is just to give everyone a break from seeing Bringer of Darkness stuff before the comic starts posting.

Not to suggest anyone's tired of BoD, but I don't wanna push things. Besides, as much as I'd love to post all fifteen pages I've got right now, I ought to pace myself. So this is less under the assumption people are annoyed, and more under careful moderation.

Cover drops July 12th. See you there. :)

[purplekoop]

Koop's 2024 Year of Art in Review

This year's been a strange one to be certain, going a whole year without a PC that can run the full suite of modern games and streaming I built a habit of using in 2023, but looking back it was a shockingly productive one in terms of art. Guess that's what not having OW on PC sucking away my attention span. I didn't get something made every month, but had a pretty substantial output anyways, so I wanted to recap the months I did have something.

January:

January got some notable additions to the War Bots cast with the polar opposites Nekross and Harmony, as well as some Kirby humanizations! Honestly a lot to revisit here, these WB characters need some polish and I've never been content with this as "my" Susie. Might give her another pass and try and also humanize the Mage Sisters, that's well overdue at this point.

February:

So this month brought Dredge, the most recent addition to my lineup of Splatoon OCs. Not much to say other than every day I haven't drawn these goofy splesbians weighs heavy on my soul.

March:

March brought the last Bot to get art this year, since Lyonn's only art is years old. Honestly pretty happy with Otto's art, cheaping out on some details aside I think this nails his unique look. at least until that Minion-lookin-ass-poser came around...

April:

Was busy with work, travel, device repairs, and Endless Ocean Blue World this month, so no art. Oops.

May:

Yeah this was all I made this month. Can't complain, this was fun to draw and got decent notes by my standards. I might come back to these two, this art is relatively on-model but I keep seeing people have too much fun being more creative with Queen and Tasque Manager's designs, especially with bigger poofier hair for the latter. Eh, I'll think of something when I have the time.

June:

The smell of artistic combat on the horizon... and also humanized Queen Sectonia is here for some reason. This was when I updated Mugie and Shadow Boxer too, the tip of the iceberg for DWS this year, though at the time it was just for the sake of Art Fight. And the peak of getting ready for the month was Grand Machino, one of my favorite original guys getting his best design yet. Of course, this month's output would look shallow compared to...

July:

Art Fight month is always a doozy, and after an underwhelming run last year and one final reference update in my DnD OC Zecanna, I'm much prouder of my output this year. Maybe not in terms of quantity, but I put out some high-effort individual pieces and really tried to push to go bigger and better... as demonstrated by the two attacks I chose to highlight here. I'm happy to report that the bottom art of my partner's DnD bad guy is proudly displayed in her bathroom in a custom frame, which is probably one of my highest honors.

August:

Not much out of my post Art Fight stupor and birthday month, but I did get a proper art for my current DnD character Lightspring. These always feel like special pieces, considering my DnD characters have a guaranteed fanbase of at least the 6 other people in the campaign.

September:

This was the only thing to come out of September and it was very clearly both an effort to get out of a slump in art and also an omen of things to come. The more big mario princesses I draw in a year the better that year thusly is.

October:

Darkworld-oween folks!! The only way for my output to rival any given July was for another month-long art endeavor, this one dedicated to my original seasonally-fitting fighting game project Darkworld Showdown. Extremely proud of how much I got done, and how well I managed to update a cast in desperate need of it. Obviously given how I got like 20 designs done, I only showcased some of my favorites from the earlier end of the month here.

November:

An oddly productive month for being right after a major month-long art project and on a month where I went out of town for about a week. These are only a couple of the big (in. a few senses.) pieces I got done, starting with a marginally late Halloween piece and ending with one of a couple Mario-themed pieces. er... Maria, as I later decided is the context these pieces take place in. I also dabbled in some Pokemon anthro characters to get in some more body type practice and sate the insatiable need for further avenues of yuri.

December:

Rounding out the year, December was extremely busy with work and holiday prep, so I only had time for a couple gift pieces to friends, one of which was a personal art for my partner, but this one here is of one of my friend's player characters in an upcoming superhero-themed TTRPG game I plan to run next year. We did a secret santa event in my one friend group, and I knew I had to go the extra mile with my friend's delightfully insane robot design who certainly deserves it. Certainly not a shabby way to end the year, I'd say.

I'm not sure what all 2025 holds in terms of what I hope to accomplish art-wise. For a basic and realistic goal I'd love to finish the War Bots cast with art for its final four characters, and perhaps take this October to do the same for Darkworld Showdown. I may also talk about my other major dream game project, City of Desos, though considering how far out any serious work on that is I'm not in a hurry. With my new PC I could even start on actually developing a game... maybe not a full-on platform fighter or team shooter to start, but it'd be nice to start working on those skills properly. The new PC also means streaming is back on the table, and while my setup isn't perfect for it I think I can figure out something. I do also have a whole dang TTRPG system to develop now, so. That might keep me busy. Either way, I'm looking forward to spending plenty of time with friends this year after a lot of plans got bottlenecked by not having a PC that could do half the stuff I wanted. But honestly, as much as anything I wanna have fun with art this year, something I'd say I did pretty good on in 2024. I chased a lot of ideas without any grander ambition besides it sounding fun, and it was refreshing. Maybe I'd like to set up commissions and hope to find an audience for the nonsense I got up to in November, or just have a side space to focus on that indulgent sort of thing more. That might mean spanning out to more social platforms, been putting off making a bluesky account for long enough maybe... maybe. I dunno, got a whole year ahead of me, and plenty more after that.

To anyone reading this far, thanks for indulging me. That goes even further for anyone who's been following for however much longer, or just checking a few posts. Sorry December's been quiet, hopefully I'm not too wrapped up in PC games and the rest of my holiday-gotten backlog to remember to do some art this year, maybe even enough to not need to skip any months next year. I still gotta do that New Donk City poll winner piece... the WIP of the first part is somewhere around here...

But all that said, here's to a bright 2025, let's make it as great as it can be! Happy New Year!!!!

[cleolinda]

Weekend links, April 28, 2024

My posts

I spent the first half of the week struggling through (well-medicated) mania and the second half currently with a sinus infection! I’m not enjoying it! Not either one! 

Reblogs of interest

Pro-Gaza protests at universities in the U.S.: a solidarity Passover seder and an accidental Pulitzer photo

Canada Agrees 200 Islands Belong to the Indigenous Haida Nation

--

The Hot Vintage Lady Polls continue to go for the throat. I felt so bad about Dorothy Dandridge that I started posting and reblogging propaganda for her, but Ava Gardner, my beloved, went through anyway. Backing her felt like a wish on a monkey’s paw ("Not like this!!"). (See all poll results here.) I tremble to think what round 5 will look like. Like, there’s a point when your girl is gonna come up against a Hepburn, you know?

Notably gone this week: Judy Garland, Julie Andrews, Lupe Vélez, Irene Papas (who took out Vivien Leigh in the previous round), Gene Tierney, Barbara Stanwyck, Lena Horne, Jean Seberg, Anita Ekberg, Angela Lansbury, and Cyd Charisse. Like I keep saying, everybody loses. Everybody but one. Round 5 will start May 1st. 

--

Hozier Watch 2024: His first U.S. #1, which he’s now playing at shows! The first U.S. #1 for an Irish artist in 34 years! What?? you cry. Did “Take Me to Church” not do that ten years ago? Well, I went and looked it up: No. That was the “Blank Space” era. Say no more. 

Speaking of Taylor Swift—Paste Magazine went IN on the new album and got threats as a result. Meanwhile, Taylor’s fans are harassing the ex-boyfriend who did nothing wrong (as opposed to the racist one) because her PR is egging them on. I’ll admit: even though I’m not a fan, I found the Paste review to be overlong and not focused enough on the actual songs, proportionally. But that post about the PR saga is everything I miss about Fandom Wank. 

(“My rival dresses to display her legs, and her shoes are of an alluring fashion”)

Meanwhile, the Watcher guys issued the best apology possible, although it was still excruciating to watch. (Background.) They will remain on YouTube while introducing the streaming service. As a Patreon member, I haven’t asked for my free subscription code yet, but I’m going to. Some fans forgave them pretty easily; others have walked away. I’m curious to see if this affects the mood of anything new they film, since a segment of the fandom got really, really ugly about it. Mostly it just felt sad all around. 

Meanwhile, in Alabama: nobody wants to measure the feral hog.

Turns out Death Note had a good reason to concoct “American” names like “Bobson Dugnutt.” Also, I somehow had two posts tagged “death note” this week and I don’t even go here.

The worst brownies ever created and what Tumblr has to say about them

“You roll up to the Wizard Battle and your opponent takes out his spellbook but it’s just one of these”

I know that Loki is not Odin’s son in actual Norse mythology, but the bredlik is amazing.

TIL that Florence and Ravenna are still feuding over Dante’s remains

Maybe haunted dolls cost extra

Chorses

Video

Branch manager

Senior branch manager

“Free serotonin from Honey the Italian greyhound”

Sola learned to show love from her humans

I have seen many of jauncydev’s videos about dog personalities, but I have never seen him commit quite this hard before

I like tie-dye videos anyway, but this one is sick as hell

The sacred videos: you are not prepared for this police sketch, and neither is this news anchor

The sacred texts

Kick his ass, baby. I got yo flower.

Gold Star, You Tried: A compilation

A personal favorite: “mayhaps I TWIMST aroumd”

The origin of “By Talos this can’t be happening”

Personal tags of the week

Seasonally: cherry blossom. Also, art: an old standby, but it was really good, and also, I’m sick.

[askkaimeilu]

Mama Gumi is coming to town!

.･*:｡.･*:｡.･*:｡.･*:｡.･*:｡.･*:｡.･*:｡.･*:｡..･*:｡.･*:｡.･*:｡.･*:｡.･*:｡.･*:｡.･*:｡.

Before uploading more with my current Arc, my best friend (@princessanieloid) recommended me to make a post-introduction about Gumi, so you guys could understand better how i represent her in this KML-verse! ^w^

(these are only headcanons about Megpoid Gumi, none of them are official)

SUMMARY

In this KML-verse, Megpoid Gumi is young adult lady (26 y.o.), who has siblings - Gakupo (half-brother) and Ryuto. She is happily married to Yuuma Roro and has a little boy - Baoro (who is the same age as Junko). She is a singer, but also, works as a daytime babysitter in VOCAL.Inc. (she babysits minors-singers or vocaloids' offsprings).

Biography

She was a middle child in Megpoid family (her half-brother Gakupo, is 3 years older than her, and her biological brother Ryuto is 11 years younger). She was diagnosed with childhood obesity (caused by slow metabolism), but her parents didn't seem to take it as something serious, and they kept letting her eat as much as she wanted (thinking that the problem will disappear with with age).

At early school age, she met Roro, who was a in parallel class, they easily found a lot in common (Gumi and Roro both loved origami, and used to went to an art club together). Because of her plumpiness, she was bullied from other youngsters and given those kinds of nicknames, such as seal, pig, cow and etc. Which would leave Gumi in a anxious state and low self-esteem, consoling herself with sweets, where only worsened her problem, but that is where Roro, her family begin to take action. Megpoid` parents regret what they negligent, who were with her warning for years, and can comfort Gumi by overprotecting and giving her careful diets. Her old brother and Roro tried their best to help her lose weight by exercising and eating fewer calories - it weakly work at her body, but moral support helped her to get through bullying,

When Gumi became a singer and member of VOCALOID at the age of 18, she was warmly welcomed (especially by member of CFM, whom she befriended with one of them). The result from family and Roro's support was also cemented by her friendship with Luka, who accepted her for who she was. Lady Tuna even found her appearance as really charming, and told Gumi to never doubt her body and accept herself.

Some facts!

Gumi is the same age as Luka (except that Megpoid is 6 months younger) while Roro is 2 years older than Gumi.

Gumi is sweet, tender, loves joking around with youngsters. She can't stand when something unfair happens to her family or friends.

She was pampered by her parents as long-expected child, but it doesn't made her selfish nor arrogant - parents' love inspired her to be a loving and wholesome to everyone.

In InternetCo group, there was a joke about Gumi "How to guess Gumi's favourite color? Pink! Why? Look at her environment". Many a true word is spoken in jest, because Gumi's closest people - Roro and Luka have pink-hair.

(Roro and Gumi): Roro was inconfident about confessing his feelings to, while Gumi was more opened with it; Roro will do his best for his beloved Gumi to make sure that she is safe and sound. They never got separated with each other. Gumi and Roro were childhood friends, and even got a nickname from their classmates "two peas, that looks like carrot and watermelon, in a pot".

When Roro found out that Gumi was expecting their first child, he was so happy that he literally cried (but that is a secret between two of them, because Roro wants to make an appearance of strong confident guy). And all throughout the pregnancy, he was always making sure that Gumi is okay - drank vitamin pills, eat enough, not cold nor heat and etc.

Funniest (sort of) coincidence was the thing, Gumi and her pink best friend Luka were both expecting in the same year (with only 2 months difference, because Baoro was born in July, and Junko - in September). Meiko even said once: "Have you two in cahoots to have a child at the same year?!", which is irony, because both of them kept asking Mei as the one, who had the experience in this. (even though Megpoid and Megurine read a lot of books about pregnancy, they felt come confident if they would talk to somebody, who went through this)

When Gumi and Roro`s baby was born, Roro wanted to call their son as Baoro (His name on Japanese 保ロ means "protective son"), because he wished that their son, when he will grew, will protect and support his beloved ones (especially his mom).

[magicalyaku]

Greetings! I just realized that all it takes to get rid of me is giving me a good videogame to play. I started playing I was a Teenage Exocolonist and it's so hard to stop! Why is it so good?! Aaah! Ahem. Anyway, welcome to Part Two of my big wrap up of all the books I read between April and July! The theme this time is France & Other Places! Yes, somehow France got lumped in with all sorts of otherworldy realms. :P

A Paris Affair (Maureen Marshall): Not sure why my brain thought I'd get something like In Memoriam with this. It's historical fiction as well but otherwise they have nothing in common. If I had to compare it, it'd be to Will Darling by KJ Charles (which I loved). A capable protagonist, a sly, lying, and handsome rich guy, and conspiracies. It was fun! Vivid. It made me want to actually go and look at the Eiffel Tower again. Like, I've been there as a child but it's not that special for us nowadays, right? But reading about its construction and the discourse about it, it started to feel a little special. I also liked the historial bits about Parisian culture und such. I'm not into history at all, but getting small bits in my books is nice.

The Alchemy of Moonlight (David Ferraro): Major content warning for spiders in this one. There are a few scenes in the first half of which one is really, really not fun if you can't stand spiders. Personally, I tried very hard not to think about what I was reading. /D I'm usually only bad with visual images but given that I just had an unfriendly encounter with General Spidermom and her hellspawn in my bathroom I was a little unamused. Anyway, the rest of the book was fine. (Just fine.) It's apparently gothic but despite the crawlycrawly and the old castle and the ghosts and secret tunnels, the vibe was a little lost on me. It's also set in France and apart from the occassional croissant it didn't feel French at all. The Paris Affair? So French, so lively! This one? Could have been any European country with nobility. As for the love interests, one was too good to be true (meh), the other one started out toxic, but was redeemed (meh as well). The ending, well … In some ways, it turned out pretty good (I did went woah! at one point). In others, I thought it was a little easy (didn't feel that relationship solution. Seemed to me more like "I don't want to decide, so I'll take the easy way out.") And the protagonist … he wasn't terrible. I just thought he must be the prettiest thing alive if every guy falls for him at first sight. And I wish we would have been told how his aunt knew about his preferences? Usually, in this type of story, it's revealed that the hero had like one experience with the stable boy or some lord's son or whatever, but there's nothing in here. He had never talked about it before and yet his aunt knew well enough to want to send him to an asylum of all things! Give me details! All in all, it was entertaining to read, but in the end it was just fine.

Otherworldly (F.T. Lukens): This is the book that held up the entire post. I thought maybe I'll remember something about it later! I didn't and I feel bad about. I have no recollection of the time and place I read this either. But that is how it is. It's a solid book, I'd say, otherwise I would have something to nag about. 8D Nah, Luken's books usually are good. Cute, adventurous, ultimately positive. And the cover art is beautiful.

The Diablo's Curse (Gabe Cole Novoa): This is the sequel to A Wicked Bargain. Do you have to read it beforehand … probably not? Dami is the only recurring character and there are only a few allusions to the first book. I certainly didn't remember much except the general setup around el Diablo and the contracts. And that I had some issues with Mare and how the plot progressed as in "I have to save my dad, but I'm here doing nothing for two months". That didn't happen in The Diablo's Curse! The first part is so fun with the dynamic between Dami and Silas, and afterwards it's very focused and always going forward with just the right amount of tension. Also, I just like Dami. And I like, intended or not, how their gender fluidity parallels their upbringing (as in no human culture to tell them how to be, and that paired with an adaptable body). I enjoyed reading this a lot!

Nightmares in Paradise (Ring of Solomon 2) (Aden Polydoros): I faintly remember being a little disappointed by the first volume because I wished it would try a little harder and dig a little deeper. This second volume does that, you know, a little, I think. I'm not the biggest fan of the writing style with its million pop culture references, but I can imagine kids loving it. Also, I have to give the author credit for actually writing different than in his books for older readers. I liked this better than the first volume. Grumpy Ash is good and he doesn't behave like one of the kids. I was a little shocked how easily they kill off three children in the beginning. Like wtf, can you please think about that for two seconds, dear protagonists? Never mind the main bully guy, but what about the other two? That was a little weird. Other than that, the story takes place in the Garden of Eden and has some more biblically accurate depictions of angels and a lot of "they can either be good or bad" and I wonder how actual Christians think about this. :'D

That's it for Part Two. Two more to go! Next up will be Gay Adult Fiction series. And August is almost done as well haha …

[yayforocs]

OLD ART PART 3!!! WHEEEEE!!!

still in february 2015 :VVV

i made a gif!!! of myself!!! look at that why did i never post this anywhere!!!! hello!!!!

i'm like 99% sure that i drew this bc of the production of aida that my brother was in, but it was like way back in 2009 or something so maybe we dug up the dvd and watched it?????? dunno but i'm pretty certain that's supposed to be amneris

and i did post the tiny here but i never posted the full pic!! which. i can see why sdfkljs but also i do like the interaction itself so i'm posting it now anyway

...a coresilence douglas that i never posted???? huh.

march 2015 V:

this used to be my mobile banner for ages just bc i wanted something to slap on there dklsgs

wasn't sure i'd ever get ahold of the original pic again but yO!! here we are!!

this one is just titled 'why bother' :( unfortunately i went through A Lot mentally around this time period, and there are quite a few doodles i think i made around this time and the next couple years that i never posted anywhere bc they were Too Edgy or Venty or just plain depressing to me. i honestly don't quite remember why i drew this, i think it had something to do with feeling like i was losing friends? maybe? i'm not quite certain honestly.

april 2015 :0

core and i did a little doodle rp character funsies exchange between robin and douglas and this was a response i drew but ended up never using :V

may 2015!

a couple different banners apparently! probably for my rp blog. i don't remember using either of these, but i'm assuming i probably did, atl for a little bit

ahaha oh wow i genuinely have no memory of this huh. absolutely no idea on why there's a jarring disconnect between the first eight and the last two but shrugs!

-oh this has made me realize i now have Much More to post on robin's toyhouse huh

i've also got a lot from july 2015, but uhhhh i say it's a lot bc it's for a lyric video i wanted to make to jason walker's echo :VV there's quite a lot done and HONESTLy i thought i'd lost all of it bUT the firealpaca file!!!! i've got the firealpaca file!!!!!!! aaaa!!!!!!!! so it's all here!!!!!!!!!

there's also this kdlsfjds

and then we skip all the way to march 2016, which is the last folder i have :(

literally my first attempt at a nuzlocke and i'm dying i can't believe i never posted this dlkjfskjl God what a run

hey does this technically mean i've made a complete nuzlocke comic? --shot

anyway that's not actually from 2016! that's just when i scanned it, i made that wayyy back in 2011, possibly even 2010 :V but there's no way i'm not including it in these posts sdklghs

ok so i did actually post this a while back, but then when i started working on locke'd in i went through and deleted all my nuzlocke art posts even slightly relating to it bc of 'spoilers' or w/e, these are some of my mons from a different run that... i dunno, i guess i just restarted or something? not actually sure why i didn't finish this one. i think i was going to cameo these girls in the comic or smth so i poofed the original post

atl i think, i could be thinking of any of the other like. five different teams i was planning on cameo'ing.

GOD THERE'S MORE BUT IT'S FNAF AU AND IT'S BIG BIG SPOILERS DO I. DO I POST.

I AM WARRING WITH MYSELF SO BAD OVER THIS.

I DON'T THINK I CAN LET MYSELF POST IT AUGH

but GOD i kinda want to :waugh: one day..... one day i will post EverythingTM

buT YEAH THAT'S ALL OF IT!!!! THERE'S SO MUCH RECOVERED ART I'M!!!!!!! :WIGGLE:

dude i didn't even start looking on this flash drive for art i was looking for old writing sdklfjdskjl

[the-meme-monarch]

oh oh chulip headcanons, got any abt Julie? I thought it was neat she used to be an idol, and just by basic virtue of "time passed since the game was made" one of the older school type ones.

i will also do goro, love interest, and the cat bc i don't think i have enough to constitute them being in their own posts!!! and in case no one asks for them. and they are Family

-its a fond headcanon of mine that just about everyone in llt is Not Human so julie has non-retractable claws, sharp canines, and four eyes (her eyebrows) :], love interest inhereted the claws and canines. I'm not certain yet but im thinking goro is. a sentient sweet potato thing in human form based on his section in Her Heart .

-love interest's bow emotes like cat ears :]

-julie and goro are t4t. when you show julie dr dandy's card she says "[love interest] was born at that hospital". notice she didn't specify who gave birth to her

-love interest is also trans

-when love interest ran away it was moreso that she went to school one morning and just. never went back home. stuffed her telescope and sleeping bag into her backpack and left

-this isn't My headcanon but I adopted it as well. goro is so so good at making sandwiches. i think he's actually a better cook than julie(her yakitori being described by Everyone as being burnt and/or raw, where goro considers his sweet potatoes to be art and also they heal you so i don't think Julie made them.)

-love interest used to help her mom cook or help goro sell sweet potatoes :] she was the one keeping the business afloat really .

-julie and goro having been an idol and a movie director and A Couple, made llt into a bit of a tourist attraction. before then llt was literally only known about bc of lover's tree, (which i like to think that in-universe the "[name] and [name] sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g" rhyme came from! it is inaccurate to actual lover's tree lore and it pisses llt residents off So Bad!) anyway them being individually popular and Together put llt like Actually on the map. but julie was a one hit wonder and goro's career fizzled out around when love interest was born (his last movie being akuma doll). julie opened a restaurant to try to keep an audience, but well. she is Not a good cook.

-goro was famous for his movies bc they were so bad they're good. y'know.

-goro and julie don't really wear their wedding rings, with julie cooking all the time, and goro's just not much of a jewelry guy, but he wears both their rings on a string/necklace tucked under his shirt :']

-also according to the jp guide book goro isn't good at expressing his emotions. so not a headcanon but i think it's worth mentioning

-also sorry to be a goro stan but i need to mention it. julie is not faultless in their relationship. please remember that julie threw out his movies (which were important to him. he literally ran a movie theater) and she belittles him in every interaction they have up until she thinks he's Dead. she slaps him when you first meet them. goro is not physically abusive. him throwing the bottle was a Final Straw type moment. not that goro isn't also without blame but it makes me fucking seethe that people put all the blame on him when the point of julie's kiss quest was highlighting that they're Both flawed people but can Both grow and become better. i can only guess people treated him as the aggressor like that bc of his alcoholism, and how julie was the one harmed at the apex of the bar scene from the wine coupon, and the "she likes cats, she'll be fine" line WHICH i think that translation did it a disservice. I think he meant "she's like a cat. she'll come home when she's ready". y'know.

-we know Julie has been living in llt since she was at least 8 years old (when you show her the micro gum she tells you about an incident from then) but she doesn't know that microgum makes you small? and she doesn't know that the graveyard doesn't mean an Immediate death sentence. I think she just didnt know abt microgum bc She Was Eight and then her time as an idol made it hard for her to connect with the rest of town (being hounded by the media/fans/paparazzi) so she never even found out that That Kid probably didn't Just Disappear he probably just got small, and then even after that she just didn't get out much bc she had family and restaurant to maintain. maybe only a few people even know that being sentenced to the graveyard doesn't mean Instant Death. policeman does just shoot on sight at night after all

-julie and policeman seem to be/to have been friends? he knows that the hair pin poor boy stole is julie's and that it's special to her. and julie says he's a good man .

-the cat disappears behind the hospital every night. i like to think it knows everything abt everyone in town for it's quiz at the end bc it lives in the walls of the hospital and is eaves dropping/reading dandy's documents

-love interest straight up did not name the cat. but maybe post-game she does :]

-this is less of a headcanon and more of an idea for a potential re-release, but i think it'd be neat if you Could kiss the cat, but as you level up the cat gets more and more upset with you, until eventually trying to interact w it at all it attacks you. then in Her Heart we find out it's because you've been getting closer to love interest and it's jealous you're going to take her from it (it's line in-game "[poor boy] is trying to steal my [love interest]"). and rocky. let me kiss rocky

[solarsavoy]

Sorry if this is a lot but 🏅👮😈👨‍👧‍👧✨

It's never too much! I'm happy to answer all the asks!!

🏅 What is something you recently felt proud of in regard to your writing (finished a fic, actually planned for once, etc).

I haven't been too happy with my fics lately tbh, however, I was really proud of finishing Karmagisa week back in July. I was really worried I wouldn't, considering my recent streak of updating irregularly. (Guess I'm just like every other fic write now. 😅 I just miss being able to keep up with posting regularly, because then I got regular comments which are like my lifeblood.) But yeah, so, Karmagisa week.

👩‍🏭 If one of your fics was going to get you arrested, which one and why?

I still don't think any of my other fics will have anything on Students of Despair. However, if I do it right, Pandora's might be worse in that respect. The reason is the same for both: I'm going to be googling a lot of dead body stuff and possibly adding in methods of killing. Yeah, that's probably gonna get me arrested. 😅 So if I do, somebody please point out this post to the police so they can see that this was in fact the intended purpose and I wasn't googling that stuff because I wanted to do anything.

😈 Is there anything you enjoy doing that you think your readers hate?

Strangely no? I did initially wonder if my readers would hate that I don't feel the need to make every ending happy, but I actually think that makes readers more interested, not less. (Looking at you, tuuli. XD)

There is one thing though. I love writing whatever ship the story may call for for the sake of the story. I won't change it just because some people don't like a certain ship. This makes me sad because I'm not intentionally trying to ever hurt someone for writing about a ship that I love and/or appreciate (because strangely not all ships I include are ships I personally ship, like NagiKae, but I do appreciate them) but as a writer, I feel it's my obligation to follow the story. I don't always know where my ideas come from, but it sometimes feels like if I'm not following the story, I'm disrespecting the thing that gave me the idea in the first place. Maybe that's weird, but I also attribute my inspiration to write at all to the same thing that gives me ideas. If I try to write a specific idea just because I want it, it's very hard to write without the backing of my muse. (It's hard to write at all lately, but that's a separate issue.) Anyway, that's less of speculation and more of a fact, but I do wonder if it hits more readers than I'm aware of. I know not every person is going to like every ship, but I still feel bad.

👨‍👧‍👧 Do you tell people in real life that you write fic? 

Oh, all the time.

In fact, there's a round of questions I ask literally every new person at one of my jobs. 1. How old do I look? (because they often guess I'm around 20-25 when they're actually a decade off and it makes me feel young XD) 2. You like books and reading or anime and manga? And then their answer to 2 will direct how the next part goes, which is either "I wrote a book and it's an isekai!" where I then blabber about my book for 30 minutes, or "oh, which anime? Have you seen Assassination Classroom? Great, cause I write fanfiction for that!" and then I proceed to blabber about that for 30 minutes. I do this because otherwise I never bring it up and there've been a couple people that were disappointed they didn't know I wrote/drew sooner, so I've just decided on this introduction of "yes, I draw, I write, I'm awesome, please check out my stuff" and then I proceed to never bring it up again because I haven't practiced my social interactions beyond that first one. (Did I mention I'm socially awkward despite being very chatty? Well, at least I got it out. I'm very bad at marketing otherwise.)

It always touches me when they ask how my art/stories are going later and it makes me not regret my word vomiting introduction as much, so I keep doing it. It helps because otherwise I feel way too into myself, introducing myself like that, like I'm a salesperson selling my stuff, which I am essentially doing. I know this, but no one will know about my stuff if I don't talk about it so, this is how I do.

✨ Choose three adjectives to complement your own writing.

Deep, intuitive (as in with the characters), and smooth (usually because of flow and/or how smoothly I tend to do AUs or mix ideas in crossovers).

Thank you for the ask! Love you Hailey!!

[neptunevasilias]

Doing a little check-in/reflection now that I worked my way up to the end of August last night with the "10 years of sssn" thing.

First of all, what is this all about? I got into rwby/team sssn in 2017, so I've been around for a long time, but I actually just missed this sub-fandom's heyday, or at least only saw the tail end of it. So I consider myself a "historian" of the fandom, with an academic interest in observing the social phenomena as well as just my normal fan interest in the characters. Tumblr's reblog system has been really helpful for this: each reblog is a new instance of the post, rather than just an embedding of the original post, so if the original post or poster is deleted, I can still access the post. The tagging system also means I can easily find more posts on other people's blogs.

Since I care about this so much, I thought it would be really awesome and fitting to reblog posts on their 10th anniversary. That would've taken a lot of setup, though, so I never got around to it. Until last night, when I stayed up until an awful hour to get all of the 2014 posts ready.

I'm obviously not trying to get every single post there ever was. I'm not even getting every single post I've ever collected. And, I'm not even getting every post that I would have wanted to gather together if I'd had the time to be more thorough. There's also some other complications, like I've been blocked before by artists who I assume wanted me to stop reblogging their ancient art. (and by the way, my collection goes beyond what I have on this blog. I have a side blog where I collect pretty much anything I can get my hands on, even if it's not "good" or I don't "like" it, both for the sake of a complete picture and also because I can still use those old posts as a jumping off point for more deep diving)

I might still reblog some posts later even though they'd be "out of order," just to show that I think it's a good and/or significant post that I still want to celebrate reaching 10 years. For now though, I'm working on getting caught up to today's date with what I was immediately able to scrounge together.

Enough about that! Time for some actual reflection. This has been really fun and interesting to be honest, even though I spend a lot of time cataloguing stuff from this fandom and have a good grasp of trends, limitations from parts of canon not existing yet, etc, I still was surprised seeing it all put together like this. I don't know whether or not it's just because I spend the most time looking for Neptune posts, but it seems as though after he was introduced in July, he was given a lot of exclusive attention because he was new. I didn't expect him to be so much more prominent than Sun at this time. Of course, this is also exclusively to this growing sub-fandom (which, since it's pretty much lacking half of its characters, arguably hasn't reached the point where it can be called "the team sssn fandom" yet). To the wider fandom, Sun was probably still a more relevant character (and by the way, it is still surreal to see 2013/early 2014 content of him that was by himself, where his only other connection to other characters is with other Faunus).

We can also see the early beginnings of the fandom making things up about the characters in order to have something to work with. Before a name was revealed for him, people (or at least one artist) called him "Azure" just from seeing him in the trailer for volume 2. Now at the end of August, Sage and Scarlet are still in that same position, because they only exist as a still image in the opening. But for now (possibly, again this could just be because I focus a little more on him than the others), the attention is still on Neptune. I haven't seen anything mention it, but they would have actually known about Scarlet's name (and from what I know about the community they would have at least regarded it as a theory) because Sun tells Neptune not to go blab Blake's secret to Scarlet. I mentioned that without Sage and Scarlet, this sub-fandom hasn't quite solidified into its final identity, but their shared attention on a minor character is laying the grounds for it.

I don't really have a point to make by saying this, but I feel like it's worth pointing out that by this point most of the fans are still pre-existing RT fans and/or part of the target audience that rwby initially drew in. And since it's tumblr (and a large chunk of it slash), this is also the intersection of that demographic and the tumblr demographic. As rwby becomes more popular with volume 2, we'll see the fandom diversify a little bit, but it's interesting to see this stage. Another side note is that it's interesting to see a tumblr community during tumblr's prime. Not a lot, if any references to the sub-fandom or larger fandom's presence on other social media. There's not really a need to, I guess, because tumblr is still thriving and its culture is so different from other social media. And if I understand it right, twitter hadn't become the dominant fandom presence yet at that point.

I don't have a way to neatly wrap this up because I need to get ready to go to school NOW, but yeah that's all folks see you later!

[projecthipster]

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky)

The book, not the movie, so I will not put Logan Lerman in the header image.

“I’m going to write it down because maybe if I do I won’t have to think about it. And I won’t get upset.”

Dear Friend,

I’d like to think back to July 2022. I’d lazily started writing Project Hipster reviews here and there, and reading books based on what the lists threw at me, though I wouldn’t realize that a Tumblr sideblog was the right venue for them (is it? I still don’t know) until next year when I posted the praise of Franny and Zooey that kicked off this blog. Sort of. It’s never really been fully kicked. 

Anyway, I was reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower as part of my aimless attempt at reading agreed-upon “hipster books,” and I was enjoying it. It’s a thin little book, so it fit like mustache wax on a barista into the laptop pocket of my backpack. I’d just started doing the city bike tours that I’m still doing now, and I’d taken a pretty young Parisian English teacher around town on a sunny Canada Day. We’d had a good time and so we agreed to meet up again for lunch the next day - Perks still tucked into that laptop pocket for train reading. 

I met her at a classic barbeque joint on McIntyre, in that block with the old bank that’s now the Irish pub, and the baptist church, and the street art of the flowers in the alley, and that row of condemned buildings that used to have a bubble machine in one of the windows until it was discovered that the bubbles were coming out of a fentanyl distribution centre. You know the block. The barbeque joint hosts punk and metal shows in the evening, but we were there for lunch. Waiting for food, we got to talking about books. I wanted to know what books were good for studying French. She said, read Camus. I did. That’ll be a post here soon. I wanted to know, what books do you use to teach English to French teenagers? There’s one we read last semester because it has lots of meaning but simple language, she said. It’s called The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Have you heard of it?

Zip-open went the laptop pocket!

All this is to say, there’s something simple but universal in Perks, something that transcends its semi-autobiographical adolescent rooting in early 90s suburban Pittsburgh. Stephen Chbosky is no believer in universalism in storytelling, that supposed root of relatability, the creation of a blank slate. To try to make anyone’s story feel like everyone’s story is the surest way, after all, to make it feel like no one’s story. So, Perks is inseparable from its pre-hipster, car-centric, football-obsessed, conservatively entrenched baseline. I say baseline because one of the ways protagonist Charlie evolves is in breaking out of this mainstream dullness. There’s little anger in that breaking away, though. Charlie doesn’t feel like so many Hipster Novel protagonists, listless in suburbia and longing for some great perhaps. Instead his finite existence is so sheltering that he doesn’t seem to ever ponder alternative ways until other characters bring them before him. That’s not to say there’s no sense of breaking free. As Charlie rides into the city in a old pickup truck with his older friends playing a mixtape after his first party, in the early first iteration of the most iconic scene, the one you know from the movie, even the sentences of his guarded epistles break out of sentence-verb-object and grow to infinity, as he himself declares, “I feel infinite.” From then on the doorways looking to infinity reveal themselves slowly. There’s a lot of contrast for most of this slim school year chronicle between Charlie’s family life, trauma-wracked and sullen but rarely so dramatic as to feel like it has to be in focus, and his life with his friends, who reveal the worlds of indie music, gay camp, and sometimes unhappy experiments with drugs. Like I said, the cultural references aren’t subtle. There are mentions aplenty of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Fleetwood Mac, Nirvana, Nick Drake, and again and again The Smiths. Then there’s Bill the English teacher, who plays that English Teacher in a YA Novel role of the literary mentor, a bit of the older author guiding his own memory-avatar of his younger self towards the bookish present future. This is a way of dropping books that Chbosky likes, or that might have influenced the book in some way. Lots of these are also landmark Hipster Books that I’m due to review sooner or later on this blog: On the Road, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Separate Peace. I’d be scared of the cultural monolith that those books represent, but I’ve already passed the first great monolith, one of my favourite books of all time, as it is Bill’s, and Charlie’s, and very obviously Chbosky’s. I’m talking about The Catcher in the Rye of course. It’s a little funny to read Charlie talking about reading Catcher over and over, when he’s telling a novel in exactly Holden Caulfield’s narrative voice. I mean that. I really do. It’s those sort of insistent short sentences at the ends of paragraphs, and all the “kind of”s.

Of course Charlie is absolutely no Holden, which is what keeps Perks from being a Catcher retread. Chbosky’s experiment seems to be telling Holden’s story if instead of lashing out at the world in bitter irony, the trauma-battered youth retreated inwards to isolation while maintaining his unshakable empathy and kindness. That’s the meaning of the title. What are the perks of being a wallflower? Well, they’re that from the sidelines, you can see what goes on between people and understand them, without getting hurt. There’s no need to develop Holden’s prickly shell of ankylosaurus armour over the heart if you blend into the wallpaper enough to never be noticed. 

Of course, being a wallflower forever doesn’t make for a very good story. The story here, while like Catcher it also digs back into the source of Charlie’s childhood trauma, buried under all its layers of denial and justification, also follows his journey to try to “participate.” The text hits on something special when it reminisces on the soulful importance of meandering conversations in late-night fast food restaurants.

Which is why we need urban planning that re-emphasizes the affordable third space. But that’s another essay.

Love always,

Your Hipster Archivist

I give this Hipster book four bonus English class essays out of five.

Project Hipster is a futile and disorganized attempt to dive into the world of things that the internet has at some point claimed "are hipster," mostly through ListChallenges search results.

This review comes from the fourteenth list, The BBC and Goodreads Declare: "If You Score 20+ on This Quiz You Qualify as a Hipster."

Yeah, the name of the list is longwinded this time around. I like that it lists the sources for this declaration though. I’m glad to know that this is a book that Goodreads, the website where Fifty Shades of Grey is rated higher than Moby Dick, doesn’t just say but DECLARES is For Hipsters. I trust the BBC though, if only because I still like Doctor Who.

Up next: some movie or another from a list clearly made by someone English. Most likely more Tarantino.

Stay deck.