#this turned out long

[belovedapollo]

I would love for you to talk about how you take your photos (things to pay attention to, lighting, editing tools, or anything else you think is relevant)! They're always so gorgeous!

Hey, I’ve talked about it a while ago on here . Aside from that I try to balance out my “canvas”.

Like here it is a simple layout with four books in (almost) the same size. The colors are mostly muted and black and white with a hint of sepia/brown. I’ve been asked many times how I get my background so black, but the truth is I just use my black wooden table. You can always edit some parts if it’s not dark / light enough for you. For that I use either Snapseed or procreate (perks of procreate is that I can go in with my Apple Pencil and edit what I want specifically).

For this one (as another example) I liked to play with the sunlight through the windows/blinds. It makes the picture more interesting and a bit dramatic. For me personally, I like to make simple, everyday things to look calm and inviting.

In this one I liked to put certain objects as focus. In this case it’s the photograph from my childhood. And since it is a B/W photograph, I decided to include a journal entry and book page without anything to distract from it. The red underline of the book page brings a bit color but not too much.

Everything can become interesting as long as you focus on what you want to put out there. I like light so I try to capture it whenever I can. Makes me feel calm, alive and real. If you’re interested in something then that can become your subject.

Also, as a little reminder: I have a double degree in graphic and branding. I took two photography classes back in university and learnt a lot from there and from trying out things. Just because something works out for me it doesn’t mean you will like it or it would work out for you. When I was teaching art for one semester, I told my students to go and try out things. You like watercolor? Go and buy one color, one brush and get some water and paper and try working with it. Just by trying out you’ll learn a lot. You don’t have to get the most expensive things. You don’t have to buy trinkets to make a picture more interesting. You always should try with things you already have and go on from there.

I hope this helped. If you’d like to ask anything specific don’t hesitate to let me know. 🌹

[perfectlyripeclementine]

there’s something so sacred about the relationship queer masc folks have to pleasure. i’m thinking folks on that spectrum between masc dyke/transmasc. in my experience because folks have such a nuanced relationship with their own bodies & varying levels of comfort with being touched, there is SO much emphasis on sharing pleasure, on mirroring the pleasure that they give.

it’s this incredible spin on the hetero thing of taking pleasure FROM someone, where pleasure is not a zero-sum game; their pleasure is the same as my pleasure, things that don’t feel good to me don’t feel good to them. it’s like when you put two mirrors in front of one another and they are refracted into infinity: turning me on turns you on, seeing you turned on turns me on, and it just escalates until we’re both shaking and satisfied and exhausted.

i see this so much in how ppl relate to their strap, or how they react when i’m riding and grinding on them - the times i’ve made someone come without touching them or even taken off their clothes, because seeing me and feeling my weight is enough to evoke the physical feeling of being inside me. i swear i saw God the first time i felt someone come inside me through the strap. these experiences have brought me so much closer to my own body and the pleasure i can not only experience but share. it’s so holy, and in the times when someone has wanted me to touch and pleasure them it felt so intimate and precious to be given that trust. no cis man could’ve helped me unlock this.

AND i see all of this mirrored too in the protector/carer dynamic - like i love the feeling of strong arms around me, love the emotion of someone wanting me to be theirs and wanting to keep me safe. and i love the squishy insides, love to be a source of sweetness and healing and regeneration, love to hold someone in my bare palms and be able to say this is for you, this care and pleasure i give you is yours to keep. i love how those things are seen and received rather than taken for granted the way that cis men do.

anyways when i hear people say femme/masc dynamics recreate straightness, or that thing of “well why don’t you just date a REAL man then?” i want to say that’s EXACTLY the point. queer masculinity gives me everything i cherish about men without the violence, the ownership that men are raised & trained for.

[lomappreciationblog]

I mostly talk about the art when it comes to my love for Legend of Mana, but definitely a huge part of my love for the game comes from it's music, all stellar tracks from the hands of Yoko Shimomura!

The HD version also provides rearrangements, and at first I stuck to the originals when I played the HD version, but some of the tracks have grown on me, the boss themes especially have that extra oomph! And the HD version also lets you freely listen to all the music in game, though a completely new player might get spoiled by some of the soundtrack names...

I did notice some of the soundtracks have slightly different names from the list I saw before, but I'm guessing these are the official names for these music pieces in English now.

Here's the differences I've noticed - this is pretty long, I'll put it under the cut:

I'm not totally sure if these older titles I have seen are fan translations or if they were used in official capacity before, so that's my disclaimer.

"There's a Place in My Heart" is "A Soulful Place" (bgm for Home)

"Path of Journeymen" is "Traveler's Road" (bgm for a couple of dungeons, but most notably Luon Highway)

"Cliffside Town Gato" is simply "Gato Grottoes"

"Beautiful Colored World" is "Picturesque Landscape" (my most favorite dungeon bgm, which plays in Mekiv Cavern, Jungle and Tower of Leires. I've also seen this bgm titled just "Jungle")

"Marginal Beast" is "Beast of the Wildlands" (a bgm for a boss fight, can't remember any specific ones at the moment).

"Moonlight Roa" is "Lumina, City of Moonlight"

"A Dream of Distant Days" is "Dreaming of Yesteryear - The Siren's Song" (bgm for when Monique or Elle are singing - I've also seen the original subtitled Seilehn's song, which is probably just translation blip from Japanese, but I admit Seilehn is kinda pretty sounding)

"Across the Ocean" is "To the Sea" (bgm for Madora Beach and S.S. Buccaneer)

"Calmer Generations" is "Everlasting Calm" (bgm for the desert and Mindas Ruins. I do wonder why this track is titled with calmness as a theme, since the actual music itself sounds pretty frantic to me?)

"The Wind Sings of a Journey" is "Singing Wind, Journey's Path" (bgm for Lake Kilma and Junkyard, and I've also seen this titled simply "Junkyard")

The bgm for Fieg Snowfields and Norn Peaks is titled "Evanescent Memories", I think this was simply titled "Fieg Snowfields".

Now for the soundtracks specific to the 3 major arcs!

For the Star-Crossed Lovers Arc: "Where Truth Can be Found" is "Searching for the Truth" (this usually plays inside the room where Matilda is) "Two Feelings - Lucemia" is "Lucemia - Conflicting Motives" (bgm for Lucemia obviously. I've also seen this titled something like "The Excitement in Two of Us") "Distant Truth" is "Searching Beyond the Truth" (bgm for the ending scene. I do appreciate that with the name change, the first and last tracks are thematically linked, with the last one going beyond the truth - like Matilda and Irwin always wanted deep down) In this set, the boss bgm title "Irwin on Reflection" didn't change.

For the Dragon Arc: "Overlapping Destinies" is "Destinies Intertwined" "Bondage Bestowed" is "The Bond Bestowed" "Fiery Castle" is "The Flames" (hm, this time the official track is named after the location) "Scarlet Dragon Emperor" is "The Crimson Dragon" (boss fight bgm against Drakonis) "Led by Destiny" is "The Far Side of Fate" (ending bgm for this arc. This new official title is actually very fitting!)

For the Jumi Arc: "Blue Gloom" is "Melancholy in Blue" (this song IS most closely linked to the Jumi characters and plays specifically for Florina's dream quest, but I think this might also play in Cage of Dreams...? I might be wrong though.) "Sparkling City Destroyed - Bejeweled City Etansel" is "Bejeweled City in Ruins" (pretty similar wording for this one, though I appreciate the older title includes the real name of Bejeweled City - Pearl tells you it was called Etansel "in the old tongue" if you took her in Teardrop Crystal) "Treasured Love" is "Avarice of Fools" (bgm for the boss fight against Lord of Jewels 1000. Hmm, this is a drastic change, I kinda prefer the older title, it fits Sandra and Lord of Jewels' character better because they did both genuinely care for the Jumi, even if it was ultimately a twisted love.) "Of Glittering Tears..." is "The Color of Tears" (ending theme for the Jumi Arc. I kinda prefer the older one.)

Now for the music specific to the Mana Tree:

"Memories of Approaching the Distant Mana Tree - Theme of Mana" is "Thoughts of the Mana Tree, Far Away - Theme of Mana" "Holy Palace of Mana" is "The Sanctuary of Mana" (Sanctuary is the more accurate term since I think the Mana Tree is consistently referred to as a sanctuary inside.) "The Gloaming - Mana Goddess" is "Desolate Times" (boss bgm against the Mana Goddess! I love the older title - gloam means twilight, gloom or shade, and during the fight, one of the mechanics is the moon reflecting in the floor of the battle stage slowly being eclipsed, and once it goes fully dark the Mana Goddess unleashes a powerful attack, so it's very appropriate. Desolate Times just doesn't have the same ring to it. Though, I have to admit, the new rearrangement is very powerful sounding. I do love how eerie and despariring sounding this music is, it's a very haunting song, fitting for the side of the Goddess who wrapped herself in darkness.)

[aromantic-diaries]

For the ask game, is 16 okay?

do you have any arospec OCs, if so tell us about them?

Oh absolutely! I've answered this one with Jimmie, the guy in my icon, but he's not the only one.

You know this post? Yeah this is about a character I initially created as a fursona when I was 12 back when I was still unapologetically cringe, though I have made humanized versions of her too. Buckle up

Basically she's this chaotic fox person who may or may not be a trickster god. Her main thing is that she's simply a creature of chaos, basically. Some "cringe" things I came up with was that her eyes change color based on her emotions and she has an Evil Form™ that she transforms into involuntarily when she gets reeeeaally angry. Original character doo not steel. In terms of personality she's like the type of character who's funny and incomprehensible, sometimes kind of an asshole but loves her friends.

As for her being aromantic, me and my best friend at the time had a joint OC world that we made together. Well my friend was obsessed with her crush so her sona was pretty much always drawn with the character who was based on him. So in contrast, I, the kid who's never been in love and wanted none of it, made my sona be the exact opposite of that. She was basically the food > romance type who was always single and never pursued anyone romantically. I tried giving her a love interest but looking back it was a will they won't they situation where it was more about them being shipped by outsiders than them actually liking eachother and when I looked back at her later I thought okay this character is absolutely aromantic. I had originally intended her to be straight, later made her a lesbian, then bi, I paired her up with two other OCs, another guy and then a girl, but then I just went fuck it she's aro. That's really the only option that makes sense for her.

Fun fact she's also genderqueer, as in she is pretty much genderless but presents more masculine and looks like a boy and goes by she/her pronouns which is sort of a representation of how back then I was fine with being a girl even though I didn't really relate to the traditional ideas of being one and felt rather boyish compared to other girls. It was back when I had already known I had an unconventional relationship with gender but before I actually started questioning whether I was really a girl, since I didn't care much about gender

[anewbeginningagain]

The RD scoring made me so angry that watching the women's free felt like a chore. Like, in what world do C/B beat the Italians and the Canadanes technically??? She doesn't get into the ice, like, at all, she's basically drifting. I felt the same as you about G/F, this is the first performance of their RD that I've enjoyed and watching their feet was one of the highlights of the event for me. However, the Canadanes delivered the better overall package (although his free leg is admittedly weak). C/B were so painfully boring to me that the only reason I'd have them in 3rd here (with the above 2 teams being 1st and 2nd) is that the other teams were worse. And I'm sorry, but as much as I like Lilah and Lewis as people and find them entertaining, they have no business being in this conversation and the only thing their overscoring can achieve is put people off. P2 are unwatchable to me, G/Pa were good but his costume and her hair issues were distracting, the poor girl spent half the program brushing her hair away from her eyes. They can deliver wonders with the right coaching team, which is why I'm extremely meh about them this year. The Lithuanians were the best I've seen them do the RD so far, given that the theme doesn't suit their natural movement style. C/P were good, this was kind of a median performance for them from what we've seen this year but there's less of a gap between them and G/Pa than what was scored. I can't with any of the French teams, with L/B her back is so inflexible that they'll be really limited in what they can do elements-wise and their packaging is very Euro-retro. I don't find the Finns too offensive but she just looks so fragile to me, I can't focus on anything else. Taschlers were on fire. Of the rest, I enjoyed the Ukrainians' progress a lot. Do NOT get me started on KanaDai and their scores/calls, though... I need them and Marina to go tf away already, that was hideous. And omg that poor Svinin Zhuk team, the sheer cringe...

Italians won in BV over C/B, Canadanes got slightly less because C/B got level 4 for the midline. But I have to say, while I think the Italians and Canadanes are the two best teams in terms of edge quality and their basic skating skills and I'm for sure not a technical specialist, I did think C/B were strong in the RD and tbh the current rules for levels are so contrite that who even knows at this point. I do not agree that she doesn't get into the ice, she's not the strongest but I think she improved a lot as well (Igor legit did nothing with her).

I 100% agree that G/F had such good footwork today, like again I'm not a techincal specialist but watching it live even before the levels came up I knew it was superb, but I also agree that Canadanes win overall, Nikolaj's free leg is the thing that always bothers me but it also improved a lot this season so kudos to him. I really think that Canadanes deserved at least 3rd.

F/G are for sure the weakest of the top 5 (though today not sure I would even have G/P above them in the RD) but people will hate them no matter what. Once people decided they figured out Lilah's family tree they also decided to hate her in one of teh ugliest ways I've seen in the fs fandon and god knows I've seen a lot of shit in my days. Their overscoring is annoying but again, it's not as bad as people make it be.

G/P were borderline unwatchable to me as well, but as I said I'm very biased because of my strong dislike of their RD since the second I saw it, in a see of bad fake latin programs they somehow managed to have the worse, and we fucking have wicked games latin and Adele latin this season so it says a lot.

Green/Parsons as you said were distracting, his costume is fine to me, her hair not so much, I like the improved speed but they are very sloppy in their footwork and keep losing levels. As @saucylittlesmile said, CPom with 5th highest BV but 10th overall is super frustrating but that's why I believe that if they can get better speed and keep the levels they will make a push. I still think the best outing of the RD for CPom was 4CC, I also hope they can attack the FD because I need them over 112 and over 114, like get a SB/PB.

French as I said suffer from bad packaging this season and Gui's choreography and vision for them. They were edgy and fun last season, this season they are barely noticeable.

FINs are also a bias point for me, between her being so fragile looking, them hopping their twizzles and not getting dinged for it, and her wide open mouth that is somehow considered interpretation, I just can't with their scores, they are a 72 team, not a 76-79 team.

R/A I love, strong outing for them and they are even stronger in the FD id they can skate it calean (which means not falls, not twizzles fuck ups, no choreo lift fuck up like it happened 2-3 times already).

Taschlers were great fun and they have power and speed for days, but they too suffer from sloppy footwork - to be 9th with a pattern level 1 bothers me.

Ukranians are really developing nicely, it was smart to switch the Conga they used at the end of the RD to Hip Hip Chin Chin, it works way better.

Also liked the Estonian, I bow down to Solene for competing and looking better than a lot of teams who didn't almost die at the start of the season.

And I have a soft spot for the Australians, they fucked the twizzles here but I think they have a lot of potential tbh.

Legit don't even know who are the Svinin/Zhuk team but it's ironic how Stepanova/Bukin dumped them this week for Zhuin's politicking (though I'm legit shocked they are thinking about returning given the ban and the fact Stepanova just has a secret baby)

[mangozic]

my dead goth son and his friendly neighborhood personified concept of insanity

[wasabi-gumdrop]

local ladies man’s signature move totally useless against autistic monster enthusiast. more on Kabru’s fumble era at 6

[culbi]

oh hiiii

[ciearcab]

gouache falin

[jacobglaser]

He's just an Angel... I know.

Good Omens (2019-)

[pangur-and-grim]

I updated the breeder on what's been happening, and she called Belphie out for being bald

[ruushes]

companions re-classed pt 2 - wyll 🗡️💘🐉

with thanks to @thedragonagelesbian and everyone who suggested drakewarden, i think the change made it a much better piece! 💛

karlach

[yelsapo]

"It was the wrong anagram" needs to be added to the list of dw lines that sound arbitrary on their own but are absolutely HORRIFYING in context

[katsinspats]

I think my copy of the game is broken they've been doing this for 30 minutes

Crop of the Biolizard edit I did bc it makes me laugh:

[egophiliac]

crossing my fingers and wishing upon every star that chapter 10 finally brings us the tweel cards 🤞🤞

[fanaticalthings]

Bruce coming home one day to find Robin Jason clinging onto a chandelier with Dick below him cheering him on.

Bruce: Jason what are you doing?

Jason: Dick said that you missed his antics after he moved out and so he’s teaching me how to be a better son

Dick: After this we’re going to drive the Batmobile into the bay :D

Jason: We’re going to what? I mean yeah! Right into the water.

Jason trying to whisper to Dick: Dick I can’t swim though

This just further fuels the chaotic dynamic of Dick and Jason during a time where Dick was still going through his teenage angst and was absolutely not a benevolent role model LMAO

I mentioned it in this post, but it's just so funny to me to imagine a Jason who grew up with an absolutely WILD Dick Grayson as an older brother, while the younger batkids grew up with a more mellowed out and mature (arguable but when measured against the other kids, he wins by a landslide) Dick Grayson.

Robin!Jason era:

Dick: You wanna go out and get high?

Jason: I can't, I have homework.

Dick, sputtering: HOMEWORK?

----

Dick, about to do an elaborate (and totally not dangerous) acrobatic move in the manor: Watch this, littlewing

Jason: You shouldn't do that, it'll make Bruce upset.

Dick, on the brink of angry tears: Why are you like this.

----

Jason, dejected: Listen, I know you don't approve of me because you think I'm not good enough as Robin, but-

Dick: Not good enough as Robin? I don't care about that, I just think you're a little bitch

----

Dick taking Jason out on a hangout for the first time: OK, looks like I got my work cut out for me. Take out a notepad and write everything down. I will NOT have my successor embarrass me like this. So what you wanna do to piss off Bruce-

---

[Years later, Jason returning to Gotham with the fury of a thousand suns and the chaos to match it]: I'm gonna make your life a living HELL, Bruce

Dick, older and relatively more chilled out: Okayyyyy, maybe let's just– calm down a lil, haha, no need for the theatrics

Jason, betrayed, observing a Dick Grayson who is teaching his new younger siblings to behave and be mature: Dick, what the FUCK

-----

Present!Dick, mentoring Tim: Make sure not to be too impulsive, don't wanna raise Bruce's blood pressure

Red Hood!Jason spying on them from afar: Who even ARE you??

-----

Jason: So you teach me ALL of that, only to turn into the ONE thing you despised so greatly all those years ago

Dick, sweating: Well-

Jason: I'm ASHAMED. How can you be worthy of being called my PREDECESSOR?