#though now I'm realizing I don't have a screenshot of the rare animation for that hm

[pikahlua]

I love the way you write about this story and these characters, it's just so wonderful.

Other than your own meta, who else do you recommend? Any fanfics? What about video essays? I trust your opinions 🙇

There is no one who will agree with me 100% on everything, and no one will write or talk about something in the exact same way as another person. I'm sure you realize that.

I see eye-to-eye with @siflshonen on most everything in MHA, and I enjoy the different ways we often approach expressing similar opinions. @makeste has been on break from the manga as of late, but I vibe with her old metas.

@greenhappyseed @class1akids @transhawks write often about sections of the MHA story I am less inclined to examine as closely, and I regularly consider or even defer to their opinions in those areas (All Might-, Todoroki family-, and Hawks/LoV-focused perspectives).

On YouTube, Semblance of Sanity have the takes I agree the most with or find the most interesting. Next would be A Goodwin TV's takes. Blind Wave (reactions on their website) and K&K Anime have reactions and some discussions that I enjoy as well. I'm not really into any video essayists at the moment, though I think there is a lot of potential in the medium itself for good discussion. It's just harder to produce a video in a reasonable amount of time when writing and screenshots get the job done just as well, and most of the essayists I've seen have a more...power-scaling focus that I rarely agree with. (Yes, I have power-scaling opinions based in meta, and they're correct.)

Fanfics are a different beast. A lot of writers lean heavily on western perspectives, which I think is entirely valid to do for whatever type of story you're trying to write. For me personally, a lot of western-based tropes I often see in fanfic just don't mesh as well with canon-focused MHA stories, and many characters end up either out-of-character or at best something like their anime-only filler episode selves. Fanfic is often an avenue of self-exploration, and that means many good stories will reflect the writer's personal experiences more than anything. Those are enjoyable to read, but they don't scratch my itch for more content that explores the canon characterization even in shipping fics. And yes, I guess this is me being a half-hearted snob. There are just some things no one will bat an eye at that I will cringe reading merely because I know Japanese social mores a tiny bit better than most westerners (for example, I very much doubt canon Katsuki would ever get a tattoo, let alone Izuku). I never expect writers to know these things, but I can't help but raise an eyebrow whenever they come up.

I Want What I Don't Deserve (hi sifl, I'm plugging you again!) actually scratches the itch for me. Even in the moments where the author may be inserting their personal experiences or adding more depth to characters that isn't present in the manga, all these author additions make sense with the characters as they present in canon. I whole-heartedly recommend this story to Bakugou fans, Todoroki family fans, and even BakuDeku fans (there is a poetically tragic element to their relationship--though it is not the primary "ship" in the fic--and I think the fandom could use more of this specific take to spice up the ship). Plus Katsuki's opportunities for narration strike the perfect balance of self-deprecation, arrogance, teenage flippancy, and hilarity to keep me entertained for literal months now. (Fuck, just read everything by sifl, because their works reflect the care and craft they jam-pack into everything they write. Do it!)

I don't have many fics I'm currently reading or following. I feel like there was a period a few years ago when I really enjoyed the MHA fanfic world, but lately it's been hard to find anything that grabs me. I could probably use more recommendations myself.

This got way longer than I expected. Oops.

[melchinafan]

Just remembered, I had totally spaced on the whiteboard behind Dr. Hunt in the firehouse! He's got a little bit of info of his observations from when he treats "a Bastard Bite (TM)." (Key points being that fangs can/do break off in the game, it's not just a nifty logo thing, and that the bite itself is not enough to turn someone. So if the vampirism leans scientific, it's got limitations between blood- vs. saliva-based transmission.)

I'll drop the screenshot of it (and the Aevum whiteboards I nabbed, for funsies) under the cut for (pseudo-)science-references! (There's also notes I remember seeing in the building about things like the GDF11 stuff and research sources, but I don't have screenshots of them, oops.)

Doctor Hunt's whiteboard:

[Image ID: a screenshot of Dr. Hunt's whiteboard in Redfall. The left side reads: How to treat a Bastard Bite (TM) -slow blood flow, Gauze + apply pressure (followed by a doodle of a box of gauze) -Apply a tourniquet, if you can. -Depending on wound location, their teeth are LONG - internal puncturing + bleeding will occur. -Remove any teeth/bullets/etc. You can cauterize the wound. (with a doodle of a little gas can with fire coming out a tube) MAKE SURE (rest of text covered by magnetic marker holder, but is followed by a small doodle of vampire fangs in a crossed out circle)

The center of the board reads: Notes: Wound Survivability Neck, upper leg: FATAL -Primary attack spot for our fanged friends -known to snap a neck here + there Have unusually elongated extremities, will attempt to attack with arms and nails first TREATMENT BOARD -Samples collected from previously attacked victims -T.V. DELST .04 (I think?) -Hopefully have (something, cut off by whiteboard frame)

The right side reads: MEDBAY DAY: ? *MEDICAL SUPPLIES LOW -gauze (checkmark) -tongs/scalpels (circled, with an added note "finding lots of broken teeth, need more") -masks/gloves (checkmark) -test tubes OBSERVATIONS -those bitten do not turn (with the word "vampirism" crossed out) -Bites go DEEP

End Image ID]

Aevum Rat Parabiosis whiteboard:

[Image ID: a screenshot of a whiteboard from the Aevum building, with an illustration of the circulatory systems of two rats in the center. The left side reads: PARABIOSIS (Alongside-life) Combine vasculature of two living animals 1 - Remove thin layer of skin 2 - Stitch exposed skin together 3 - Promote wound-healing of joined skin 4 - Blood streams are joined during healing 5 - Capillary networks fuse together and share blood (with an extra note pointing to the rat diagram to label its capillaries) 6 - 1-2 weeks rats are pumping each others' blood Paul Bert 1864 Clive McCay 1956 Brian Pelletier 1992

The center of the board is primarily the rat illustrations. The left one is labeled as "Rat A Young" and the right as "Rat B Old." The following is written above them: Join circulatory system of 'young' rat to 'old' rat "REJUVENATION" Next to the old rat is a vertical flowchart diagram labeled Vessel, with arrows leading downward starting with Artery, to Arteriole, to Capillary (which is highlighted), to Venule, to Vein, circling up to Heart, which points back to the beginning.

The right side of the board has illustrations of shriveled, normal, and swollen red blood cells to demonstrate the changes, and reads: (Reduce Parabiotic Disease) -Same sex and size genetically matched Young Blood Protein GDF11 A. Addison O- Activate Notch Signaling Cell Division Telophase (with an illustrated example) Cytokinesis (also with an illustrated example) Deactivate TGF-B Pathway

End Image ID]

Heterochronic whiteboard:

[Image ID: a screenshot of another long science-y whiteboard in the Aevum facility. The left side of the board reads: HETEROCHRONIC STUDIES Phase 1 Experimenting with heterochromic mice produced positive results Phase 2 Testing with human subjects Young "volunteers" are scarce Death is more common in young Experimenting on Amelia resumes with further tests -Isolate PBMC's from blood -Isolate Monocytes from her blood -Focal demyelination in spinal cord

The center of the board reads: Monocytes from Amelia are critical for rejuvenation of remyelination Chimeric blood in old parabiotic partner (followed by an illustrated diagram, labeled with the following:) young monocyte (CCR2 -/-) soluble factors in young serum CCR2 receptor old wt monocyte (CCR2 +)

The right side of the board reads: Experimentation physiology of conjoined twins Blood from Twin A flows to Twin B Mainly through capillaries and minor organs -separation of twins FAILED Transfusion does NOT work!! Most experiments resulted in death for the person receiving the blood

End Image ID]

GDF11 whiteboard:

[Image ID: a screenshot of another Aevum whiteboard, though this one is poorly lit. The left side of the board reads: GDF11 -Hox genes -Pathophysiology of aging -Rejuvination Bloodborne epigenetic factors -transmisible? The body remembers.

The right side reads: Parabiosis -Shared circulatory system -Amelioration of aging -Tissue regen

End Image ID]

W Sample whiteboard:

[Image ID: a screenshot of a slightly better lit Aevum whiteboard. the left side reads: W. Sample Test One Dorsal and Ventral Streams Informational persistence She will open what's behind the eye

The right side reads: Regular Transfusions -Positive effect on cognitive functions -Scared -Compliant -Martyr Complex? Dr. Young to speak her language

End Image ID]

@melchinafan Sorry for the late ish response I feel kinda sick so it took me a while longer to organize my thoughts. Also here we fucking go apologies for no read more sins I am on mobile

And no I haven't seen those ign articles! More canon info to add to my hordes! And Jacob :( sad baby girl. I'll probably post those (The screenshots of the new info)  later for easy access for others

Your point on all 4 of heros being effected makes me wonder if Grave lock girls magic has sort of an area of effect or if the alpha vampires magic is a double edged sword in positively affecting the heros

And ooooo I didn't know there were other blood remnants that came in dif forms makes me wonder if they are somewhat similar to the alpha vamp remnants bc I think i remember it being mentioned somewhere the vial also had psychic residue?? Could not be I'm just losing it but eh. And the psychic residue perhaps being in the blood/body? And that's why it alters you?

And yeah I agree! I think that we don't carry them into the fight just to crack open the door and sort of wave a red flag at a bull sort of way

And then when the alpha vampire dies we get the remnant imbued with a bit of that vamps specific magic

And yeah perhaps using the skulls almost a psychic lockpick if those chosen had been imbued with some of the alphas powers (referring to the trickle down effect you noticed, Vampire mlm is a concept that will be lodged in my brain now)

The biggest one for Bellwether not giving a shit I believe was a piece of dialog that said like "once we get out of here do you think they'll drop a nuke on this place" which made me laugh bc I audibly went just like resident evil grqt2h3 which despite some of the negative reviews comparisons to other games the lack of resident evil with vampires is making me laugh (I mean it in a positive way I'm very attached to RE)

Plus I don't think a privately funded not so small military/mercanary group is gonna lose sleep over a "few" civilian casualties (especially not when you can write em off as vampire deaths when it comes down to it)

Yeah I agree! One of my main grievances was I wish that side quest/mini bosses got more diversity and watchers idk if those are miniboss types as I think they go down p easy (but like I said can't/haven't played the game so I could be wrong) they seem closer to the mutated cultists than "true" vampires

And totally get you on lore one of my other favorite games is destiny 2 and holy shit the amount of environmental storytelling/lore is so strong they have a fan run website to compile it all so I totally get you.

And ooo I'm always looking for new games to watch/obsess over so I'll have to check it out

And yeah unfortunately the people I watched wernt too into grave lock collecting and the only 100 locations video I've found doesn't play em in full

And yeah with Addison I won't spoil it but holy shit he was the worst one too me I wrote out/expanded on the house of Echos mission so I was rewatching and it ended up being 4k words but also it was woof. I almost wish they swapped the order of the map start out in the second way with the other 2 then work into the 1st area for the hollow man

Yeah my sort of interpretation (both in how I'm writing and general fun) is that his Ravens outlines + his guns lock on are from that eye but a fun thing I had was giving them all like the way things are highlighted blue for you to grab some of the psychic residue as most of the psychic energy we see (barring layla) tend to be a pale blue - teal(?) Ish color and it was just funny to me that the highlights for important objects were similar

I agree with vampires probably having night vision as they are supposed to be a sort of apex predator so night vision fits with the whole can't go in the sun.  It does make me wonder if Jacob would run into issues in direct sunlight with that eye time to invest in sunglasses my guy

And yeah I hadn't considered the psychic spaces as like stronger spaces where the trance is louder, bc in my thoughts I think the trance is a seperate but adjacent magic thing to what turned them into vampires

It definitely seems like the magic sort of got them all or bolstered abilities in some way and come on we both know that devs def smart enough to crack teleportation lmaooo necessity is the mother of invention and all that. But I do think that magic and science go hand in hand (destiny 2 is so great for that reason aswell because so much of what looks like magic can be kinda turned into science)

I think Remis ult is pure video game but healing it would make sense if it gave out a sort of opposite end of the spectrum vampire healing and helped you regenerate by like tapping into that magic that's settled in you or the vials/remnants

yeah we don't know how the healing actually works as you don't regen health unless you find medpacks which leads me to believe you do have to needle and thread it up instead of magic video game heal as explained in dishonored or prey

And yeah I'm assuming vamp regen at best at worst, you should uhhhh probably got get that looked at bud and yeah blood as fuel is a good idea even if it was connected or disconnected

And yeah the tissues, I'd imagine a wash cloth would be slightly more useful than tissues but eh and yeah sort of a gunk goop dripping thing (ie Eris Morn from destiny with her hive eyes)

And yeah! I think to be a bloodbag/sin eater it also I think is slightly voluntary(?) As the sin eaters are like that. And the blood bags seem pretty eager so maybe the most devoted cultists get turned into em

And yeah I'm uncertain bc I remember for one of the missions Jacob has a line like "but slitting the throat of your neighbor to get in." Or smth like that it's been awhile

And yeah vampire mlm, and yeah definitely maybe the more sacrifices brought in = higher chance of getting turned

I think it's a bit of both as we see with the alphas they were all real shitty people beforehand and yknow being willing to kill others to further your own gain definitely fits under "bloodsucker" (derogatory) in my mind lmao

And I think that's why Jason got away was bc hes not a bad person and was rather selfless hence but still also perhaps shaped by the intent of the person giving you magic (jacobs raven, laylas telekinesis which is something other higher up vampires can do as weve seen with the sea) But also made to shape you're own natural abilities remis healing, devs gadgets :) especially in those latter two cases where they wernt forced really to have the powers

The slow boil is soooo intresting to me bc like where were they? Like in the nests psychic spaces and just coming out to feed plus with the size of the alphas I think that'd kick up a fuss

I think probably a but of both, as drug trials/medical research like aevum was doing was bound to test on mice at least and upon observing the effects may have worked there way up to humans but huge fucking claw marks are probably vampires especially from what we've seen they are extraordinarily wasteful with animals perhaps both as food and ensuring surviving humans can't get it

And birds + animals disappearing evokes a similar feeling of when animals tend to dip before natural disasters because there senses and instincts are so much stronger than ours but also vampires killing them because they couldn't go after people yet

also lmao yeah like idk where tf they were going with that like was the plan to eventually move out of redfall or use it like a home base or smth bc you kill the animals and the people you're gonna have to start eating each other

And yeah I have to imagine at least one cultist was wincing and didn't voice it but was very much like aw come on guys

And yeah! Idk if it's ever explained if vampires exclusively have to eat blood/meat or can eat other things aswell

And oh my God don't get me started on the impacts of introducing a fuck ton of apex predators into your ecosystem and food chain not to mention if other animals mutated and are breeding. Like just removing Wolves from Yellowstone was enough to fuck over the ecosystem I can imagine something on this scale plus the probably intense growth from the decomp rates of bodies.. anyone in an environmental science field would be tearing their hair out (specifically my own redfall oc whose a park ranger is not having a great time with that)

You would have to build ground up essentially as trying a top down approach would fuck up the few remaining secondary and primary consumers (obligatory environmental science rant over)

They all def do the trance def is giving hive mind vibes aswell as a removal of emotional/rational thinking makes me wonder if the blood trance heightens base instincts/hunting drive or aggression like with animals being aggressive and shit being fucked

And oh def, bc each of the bosses has there own space but the nests aswell which makes me wonder if vampires have their own allegiances or a nest is like a pack

And yeah hindsights 20/20 and yeah fears a hell of a motivator and cults pray on scared lonely people with no other options and yeah in too deep

I haven't! Unfortunately I haven't watched a dev playthrough and there's not too many multiplaythroughs on YouTube but I'll inform you if I come across any! And as for rough speculation on mothman physique(?) I think leathery makes sense from someone as logical as dev since it glides so it being similar to a bat or moth it almost makes me think of point pleasants.. intresting... statue of the mothman to say the least...

And yeah woof the scientists sure as hell are doing some malpractice although I'd admire arkanes commitment to fuck the rich with them being consistent enemies.  And yeah sorry this got Hella long

[toyaslove]

Hi there! My first time requesting here! (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)

I know this one is quite werid and complex, but.... (ಥ⁠‿⁠ಥ)

May I request Toya with a very famous and talented GachaTuber reader who owns a big Gacha animation series (EG: 'The Music Freaks' by RozyClozy) and makes Gacha animation memes (EG: Kittypop Time), the reader also makes various artworks and memes based on VBS, they are mostly Toya centered though; One day, the reader draws a pair of couple matching pfp for themself and Toya, then asks Toya to use it with them on social media, in which Toya agrees to the idea almost instantly (PS: The reader has an alternative account for their irl friends only); Later on, Toya scrolls through a post which content is their current pfp, but it's posted on the reader's main account for their fans, so he finds out the reader is actually a GachaTuber by that; How would Toya react to it? (ŏ⁠﹏⁠ŏ⁠;|||)

I'd really appreciate it if you accepted this request! Tysm for reading! Have a wonderful day/afternoon/night! (⁠ﾉ⁠◕ω⁠◕⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠*✧

A/N: Hey there! Hdueheuhw I hope you're having a good day/night too! (I know that your favorite character is Toya, so, you can request me a lot of Toya fics bc I have more facility to write with him, and I appreciate writing abt him though!)

Toya Aoyagi X Gacha Tuber!Reader

♫ ~ Poor guy, don't be mad with him, but he's a little out of social media... (have patience with him, he's not used because of his dad 😭)

♫ ~ For example, if a virtual fight happens, or he would know by Akito or he would know about it after 1-2 months, so it'll be hard to him to discover that you're a Gacha Tuber

♫ ~ Well, he met you and he thinks you're a nice person! When you guys started to date it were he discovered that you draw, some of your dates are consisted in: or Toya sit on your lap to read, or you sit on his lap, you guys do what is easily for you bouth. Basically you guys just like to spend quality time with each other!

♫ ~ Backing into what I was talking about, he discovered that you draw in one of this dates! He was with a book on his hands, but he was staring at your drawing amused, like, "omg, how can they draw so good?"

♫ ~ Man... just think about how this man would react if you offer to use a matching icon with him, drawn by YOU. He's giving little jumps at the floor 😭

♫ ☆ ♫ ☆ ♫ ☆ ♫ ☆ ♫ ☆ ♫ ☆ ♫ ☆ ♫ ☆ ♫ ☆ ♫ ☆

You and Toya are using your matching icons now, so Toya likes to keep admiring it, he thinks it's just incredibly adorable that you done for yourselves

Your drawing have you and Toya, Toya holding your face and you holding his chin, the both smiling (with a little pinky tone in your guys's cheeks)

Well... today is a rare case, because he opened his social media! He was scrolling his screen, some friends talking about some last posts and his icon. He responded all of it, so, now he really feel bored. He look at the roof of his room and he put a hand on his forehead, after he takes his cellphone again and now he's just messing around social media.

But wait! He thinks that. He saw a post that had more or less 1.5M of views... and... your matching icons are there! He looks scared at his screen, and then he realizes that the name of the account looks like your name... He don't know how to react... so... he just send you a message

Hello, my dear... How are you?

Well... Today I opened my social media and I saw something interesting...

(He sent you a screenshot of your guys matching pf in the reader's main account)

Hmm? Oh... I know what it is... so you finally discovered my account! I'm a Gacha Tuber, I didn't want to tell you for 2 simple reasons. The first it's because it maybe looks like I'm gabbing myself, and the second it's because I found it would be funny if you find it! So... it's for that reason!

♫ ~ After that you guys keep texting yourselves, he admiring your works, he seeing the references for him and vbs, he really is amused!! He loved all of it! But he just wanted to you to show him your acc earlier, bc he would be your biggest fan!

♫ ~ Btw, he's amused and astonished with your talent! He enjoys it really much, genuinely he loves it! He's your biggest supporter and fan!

♫ ~ After that day, he keeps showing vbs your drawings, your animation memes, looks like he love your art than yourself 😭

♫ ~ Every day he watches your animation series... even if he has to watch it again, it remembers him of you

♫ ~ He always asks if you need some help while you're working, if he can help you, he would be the happiest man!

♫ ~ He watched and admired all your videos and arts, one by one!

Btw, just because of you he's using more frequently his social media

A/N: I hope you liked! I didn't write too much bc my mom sent me to go to sleep (guess what I didn't listened to her) 😭😭😭

If you want some compliments or smth like that just ask me!

[artblock-tm]

RIGHT BACK AT YOU. ART GAME NUMBERS 1, 17, AND 22

(And mayyyybe 20 if you'd like to ;))

YIPPEE

How would you describe your style?

Hm. That's always a hard question for me. Mine is a bit more cartoony and certainly takes liberties when it comes to how realistic it is, but at the same time I try to get things close to accurate (such with anatomy and detail and whatnot).

I can't find words that pinpoint what my style looks like, but I can certainly find the inspirations that got it to where it is now. (Anime and various animations!)

Since we're speaking of my style though, fun fact: I CAN'T for the life of me imitate other people's art styles. It'll always look really similar to my regular art style, just changed up a bit. I see challenges were people imitate different art styles and realize, "Wow! That's cool! How the HELL did they do that!!"

17. What do you love getting compliments about?

When it comes to art? Anything, to be honest. Hell, I'm happy if people reblog my art without any tags. (Although, once or twice, I've gotten an "inspo" or a keysmash or a slight ramble and that really made my day.)

What I like most though is feedback on my OCs. I'm honestly rather bad at character design, and I love knowing what people think about them. Alas, people hardly see my OC art...when I do post it. </3

22. What inspires you?

MANY THINGS, my friend. Some things have made lifelong shifts on my art style (ex: the shading under the chin technique I use is derived from the anime Black Clover!), but most often, I get inspired to draw a specific thing.

Music often inspires me- especially vocaloid, and especially if there's art featured in the video. One of my favorite vocaloid songs is Reckless Battery Burns and I'm obsessed with the MV in it.

TV and movies inspire me, too. I adore the Owl House and have noticed some completely unintentional similarities between Hunter and one of my own characters! Also, bringing back Black Clover, there's a lot of worldbuilding from Masked inspired from that anime.

Books inspire me too! A good example of that is my Shapeshifter/Badgeseller 1984 comic. Another series that gives me inspiration is the Giver series by Lois Lowry (not just the first book, the entire thing, all four books). Ooh, and also the Pandava series (or the Aru Shah series, I don't fully know what to call it). Writing is cool! :)

Secret question: 20. A piece from this year that you're really proud of!

Most of my art this year is Shadow Rift, haha...let me see what I can find.

^ This one is a good starting point! This one was me playing around with lighting. I found a new technique to use with my art program, and was just messing around with it. So I paid less attention to the background and colors to do so. Here's a fraction of a screenshot I took when I realized just how good it was!

I was going to compare it to another one of Shadow Rift's pieces, but I realized that discussion would be too long. And would ruin the magic of the piece I was comparing. Whatever.

Next one has bright colors!

I was mostly playing around with colors and proportions on this one, and I really like the turnout. This is the rare piece of Doodle OC art. Her name is Krystll, and YES I will infodump about her if asked.

And, for the final thing I'm super proud of, that Shapeshifter/Badgeseller 1984 comic. Go look at it again, if you want to. :)

That's it for now! Thank you so much for asking! I'm willing to answer any follow up questions anywhere you like! (Tumblr, Discord, etc.)

[imperial-nuisance-rudje]

so this stretch of ew. I did this in two stretches across multiple days, so my memory is a bit fuzzy. Please forgive any misremembered sequences.

first off: i've said this before but it bears repeating: the pacing here is actively worse than stormblood's worst pacing. Why the fuck am i getting to the windup of what was clearly meant to be an end-of-expansion boss at level fucking 83.

Anyway.

amon announcing his plan to piss on the moon, blink animation doing heavy lifting

zenos_actions.png

Those tempered by Anima started wrecking shit after Anima died, but notable that the thing made from Varis's remains lacks anything of Varis but his voice.

I think this was in response to the above, which: fair.

Rare "allowed to mention Zenos in a nonantagonistic way" answer.

bnuuy ow o

anyway: The Fucking Moon

Arrive on The Fucking Moon and immediately start hearing voices. I'm sure the guy with Literal Psychosis took this excellently before he realized he wasn't the only one hearing it in his canon.

gonna be honest a lot of the moon shots are from me just really wanting to fawn over my bnuuy. Don't remember the context here, i believe this is shortly after meeting the Watcher? There was a dialogue option I didn't get a screenshot of where you can tell the watcher to fuck off because it initially sounds like he wants you to do violence to wandering shades, though he does clarify that he's fine with pacifistic means when possible and just needs to rebuild zodiark's prison walls.

the dog dialogue is very funny

swapped to drg for overlevelled reasons around this point. i am nothing if not dedicated to shayun having slutty goth glams for as many occasions as possible.

autism to autism communication

Jokes aside, Zenos and Fandanny are breaking Zodiark's bonds.

gay

it is genuinely incredible how incredibly homoerotic every single zenos line becomes when you play a man, which i find funny considering that the trailer placeholder wol is the most jeff fantasy-ass dude

the blorbo is just so happy to fight his bestie!

unfortunately, fandanny reveals that his plan all along was exactly what he told us during shb, annnd

yeets himself into the pit. the pit jailing zodiark.

and we learn that zodiark's mind is in no small part the minds of those sacrificed to him as well as whoever the current heart of Zodiark is. half a planet's worth of screaming, distressed ghosts. jesus. poor elidibus...

and tumblr is yelling at me for putting too many blorbo pics in now so TO BE CONTINUED

[freezing-turtle]

Art Month 2024 is complete! I have once again overcome this challenge, having (hopefully) grown far stronger than I was before! My roster of Drawn Characters is certainly more full than it was before.

This post is going to be a sort of master-post of all the posts of Art Month 2024, an easily scrollable listing with a bit of commentary and reflection here and there. It'll be below the break (assuming I do this right). Feel free to point out your favorites, and maybe share this (or the individual posts) with others who may find the artwork cool or neat. Thanks for being here with me this October, I am taking a bit of a break from drawing for now (need to recover physically with Rest and mentally with Gaming).

Day 1: Watermelon Teto I don't remember why I went with the Majima Melon meme, but I'm satisfied with it.

Day 2: Furina I feel like I enjoy the mini-Furina more than the actual main image. She's just so silly.

Day 3: Cheryl Was very happy about the background on this one, actually. It still takes longer than just a flat color or gradient, but this style of background painting is still pretty quick. This is also when you can say I turned the makeup up to 11, and yeah. I just find it fun, and can't really do much with it irl, so it works its way into my art rather often.

Day 4: Shantae I did not realize Shantae had this much pull. This one got a lot of traffic and hype, at least compared to the rest. I do like it on its own merits, I feel like I adopted parts of the original style well, but yeah, it shocked me a bit. Again on backgrounds, though, I feel very confident with my clouds these days.

Day 5: Spirit Tracks Zelda Feels well-made, but almost doesn't feel like its mine as much because of how closely I stuck to the original artstyle. Also, I'm not so happy about the background. It's fine, but it sure took a while for it to just be "fine."

Day 6: Balatro This was very well-liked by the official Balatro Discord server; I think it helped that most people focused on imagining/ reimagining joker cards, so this was a lot more fresh.

Day 7: Bunnies I felt it was important to have some requests in here, and spread out, so that I could maintain motivation by saying "I have to get to at least here so I can make this for my friend!" It's a different flavor of motivation, which I think keeps things fresh and functioning well. I made the designs for these two, then went to check, and I realized the black bun was a boy bun, but didn't want to redo the whole thing, so I just decided he would be a femboy in this.

Day 8: Sakuya The rare animated work from me. I'm really unfamiliar with CSP's animation tools (and animation tools in general), so it was a bit of a struggle making this work right. Previous frames of the knife kept appearing behind the current frame until I moved everything to the right on the timeline, then the frames disappeared as expected. I don't know why or how that fixed it.

Day 9: Reina I'm not very satisfied with this one. I know very little about the character, and I feel like it just doesn't look right, but people who know her seem to have enjoyed it, so I guess it's alright.

Day 10: Sigune This might just be my best art in general? Like, this one went so well. Strong expression, good fore/middle/back ground, everything is lined decently well, it's just a really strong piece. "My Best" might be subjective, I could shift it around depending on criteria and how I'm feeling; it's almost certainly the most detailed illustration this character has ever gotten, though. I don't think I've seen anyone else draw her this well.

Day 11: "Rare Occurrence" This one felt silly, but still pretty good. More painterly, and mostly background, which I used in-game screenshots to help guide me on (mostly just the center mountain). I probably should've thrown a ToP in the background, better solidify the AH reference. Was kinda surprised to find that people used to hate this episode, though, it permanently altered my ability to see pink and brown sheep, and I thought it was the origin of Ray's "ENDERMAN!" voice clip, but I didn't rewatch the full thing to check.

Day 12: Palutena I did not consider what effect the cropping would have given her outfit. I just didn't want to draw all those details, there's just so many bits. I also wanted to draw a girl with gold makeup, and a goddess of light seemed like a strong fit. I think it was a strong idea, but my execution on the face wasn't all there, in my eyes.

Day 13: Athena Cykes Painting over the courtroom background like that probably wasn't necessary, but it's pretty alright, at least. I tend to prefer shorter, untied hair, but these wild ponytails with strong shapes are fun to draw as well. Same sort of deal as with Miku (or Teto).

Day 14: Femme Joker [P5] I thought this one was going to spread better than it did. It's okay, though. I'm happy enough with the posing, and drawing male characters being feminine is fun in a slightly different way to drawing female characters being feminine. Probably has something to do with my transier feelings, we don't need to get deep into it, though.

Day 15: Super Hat Witch Sort of a different format so I could show off more of the concept of what the character does, rather than a simple pinup or whatever. I'm glad the requester found the hat to be sufficiently Big, I kind of expected at least a joking "the hat should be Bigger."

Day 16: Skyla & Elesa I hid Shadow the Hedgehog in the background, he's in one of the windows, barely visible. Another one where I feel like I could've done better, especially around the faces, but the concept felt very nice and was a nice twist on what I was seeing in most of the trending Skyla art.

Day 17: Hisami Yomotsu Between this and Sakuya, Touhou Tumblr was surprisingly kind to me (surprising in the fact that I didn't really expect it to be here and be active in spreading stuff like what I made)

Day 18: Nifl & Fjorm There's this artist I follow who is a big Nifl fan, and I shared this in her server, and she seemed really happy and excited about what I made, so that felt pretty great. I also like what I did here; faces were a little experimental, mixed results a bit, but Nifl definitely looks good to my (present-day) eyes.

Day 19: Mirror Maiden I really like Mirror Maidens. The closest thing we have to a playable Mirror Maiden is maybe Layla, who is another one of my favorite Genshin characters, but I want her to have the blue lipstick (and also to not get screwed out of appearing in all the new Sumeru content, she just got left out of the Sumeru group photo in the current Event going on, I'm mad about it).

Day 20: Guildmarm I think I forgot to add a layer to show the glass of her glasses more properly, but it's a very minor thing. I wish MH4 was on something other than the 3DS.

Day 21: Bowsette Felt good about my modifications to the more standard Bowsette designs. The green eye makeup felt really appropriate here, capturing the green part of Bowser's head that usually gets left out. Background was cool, too. Probably could've put more thought into the floor tiles, but, nah.

Day 22: Dark Magician Girl I still don't really get the rules of YGO, but I imagine she's playing (or trying to play) a Spellcaster deck of some kind, based on the fact that the [Spellcaster] tag was on the card I used as a reference image.

Day 23: Queen Deltarune I tried to put not that much effort into this and it still did well. Oh-ho-ho. Also, nobody's pointed out the Cool S. I felt like it fit.

Day 24: Gumi-Mew This one had a lot more effort, it was kind of like a birthday present. Really happy with the dynamism in the pose, it's maybe not perfect for rounding the corner like that, but kinda rocks.

Day 25: Poison I think this is where I realized I was getting fatigued mentally. I was still doing alright, but I was needing to take more and more breaks. Really sleepy.

Day 26: Pyra Definitely wish I had remembered the animal hoodie. Probably would've been harder to draw, but I think it's cuter. Also, this one got a bunch of people to tell me to finish playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2; I'm sure it's good, but I just have other priorities at the moment.

Day 27: Spooky Corrin Another one where I hoped it would've been more popular. I've seen a lot of her this year in particular, but maybe I was just looking for it this time. Still happy about it, I think the little dragon form is cute.

Day 28: Creepyfrogsta "You've met with a terrible frog, haven't you?" is still just hilarious to me. It's good to break things up with something silly and fun every now and again. Get that variety in there, it helps pass the Art Month (in case you wanted advice on how to complete on yourself [probably don't dive right in with a full, 31-day month. Maybe start with just a week if you feel unsure]).

Days 29 and 30: Hexed Trainers Had to fuse two days somewhere to slip under Tumblr's 30 image limit, this combo made the most sense by far. Modified it to also have my regular Hex Maniac from Art Month 2023 in the background (as well as using that background because it's better). I would be lying if I said I didn't at least kind of want to be transformed into a cute goth/ gothy girl. Most types of girl would already be a good start.

Day 31: Aversa Costume I think my shading could've maybe been better, some details aren't perfect, but I was fighting my way to the finish line, and sometimes you just have to be happy with whatever you can get done. I can do better in the abstract, but I couldn't do better in that moment, and that's an important thing to keep in mind, you know? I hope this will be good for me in the end. I don't know if Art Month 2025 will be a thing yet, but we'll see.

Thank you for making it all the way to the end, this post and all the art in it took a lot of time to make happen. I appreciate your support, I'm glad that if nothing else, I can make people's days a little bit better using the skills I've been practicing for years.

[nerdinsandals]

Ooooh I think I've seen this page in English before! But I didn't know this book was translated and distributed in Spain too since we don't get a lot of anime-related stuff besides the show itself. I might have to look for it and add it to my collection of "printed media with Conway in it one way or another". 👀

These books are definitely official, in the sense that they're officially licensed, but I personally don't consider them 100% canon since they're written by third parties instead of people directly involved with the production. Nevertheless, I still love to see people behind the scenes showing some love for certain characters (like our boy Conway here), and they provide some fun trivia!

Masaaki Iwane himself said that he thought the "stalker" tag (on Pixiv) was harsh on the character, which to me confirms that that wasn't the original intention at all. The fanbase just decided to deliberately misconstrue everything about his character (he's just a lil weirdo, but he's not a threat!). They've done this to other characters too, like Kenny, so sadly I'm not surprised. And it's particularly sadder because this side of the fanbase is mostly adults, so one would assume they'd be better behaved. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But back to the fun stuff, the books! One of the books I like re-reading from time to time is a Pokémon Annual from 2010, because it has some HeatTag sprinkled throughout it in subtle ways. Like I said earlier, I don't consider this 100% canonical by any means, but it's fun to read nonetheless!

This book is 14 years old, but I think you can still find it for pretty cheap! It contains novelizations of all episodes of the Summer School arc, though it skips a few parts. It also has some PNGs of Ash, Brock and Dawn (+ their partner Pokémon) that you can cut out and decorate your space with, along with some kid-friendly activities. But I bought it for the novelizations, haha.

I'll just share some of the little bits that I like (via my phone camera because I can't scan these, so forgive me if the pics are a bit blurry or shaky, my hands just can't stay still sadjklas).

[I realized this turned out really long because I got carried away so I'll put it under a read more :P]

The first thing is that they straight up refer to Conway as an "old rival". At this point in time, Conway wasn't really officially a rival (if anything, he developed a casual, and mostly one-sided, rivalry with Dawn during this arc, not before; and he didn't become Ash's rival until the Sinnoh League), but since I love the idea of Conway being one of Dawn's official rivals I'm glad that he's at least referred to as a rival in this one instance even if we never really got that canonically. Plus, saying he's an "old rival" would imply they have a longer history together, which is definitely not the case canonically, but it gives the reader the impression that these people may be a bit closer, which is nice for a little camp arc.

Another thing is that the wording rarely, if at all, frames Conway as someone unpleasant or uncomfortable to be around, just someone with his own quirks that people have basically gotten used to by now (whether they enjoy them or not, well, that varies depending on the person and the moment 😆). Of course, this is a book for kids so it's supposed to be all nice and fun, but it's interesting to point out anyway.

They also made Dawn blush when Conway offered to transcribe her thoughts for her school project, something we know did not happen, haha. And this is also one of the few instances they explicitly mention Conway having a crush on Dawn!

(You may notice that the screenshots they used are very pixelated dlfkjsd)

They also made her hug him, which definitely didn't happen canonically, but hey! It happened here~

This next one is something that's actually canon but I want to point it out anyway since I'm talking about the Summer School arc. This is a scene that has Dawn sensing a gross presence, tricking the audience into thinking it has to be Conway, the character who tends to appear out of nowhere, but surprise surprise! It's not him, it's Kendall. She doesn't get this feeling when Conway is nearby (she doesn't sense him at all lol).

The same scene but from the Japanese version, just to show that it's pretty much the same:

Though I must mention that, in the original, Keisuke says his biceps are to protect her from ghosts, not to stop her from running away. Kendall is somehow implying she's the one who's scared. If you remember the episodes, you'd know her intuition about his vibe was right, because Kendall ran away as soon as he saw some Ghost Pokémon having a snack. It's not like she really needed his help though. :P

Anyway, as Conway is looking for a partner, they state once again that he has a crush on Dawn, and that she's spoken for. In the actual episode, all characters team up with members of their own team, and Conway is looking for a partner who's on the Blue Team, so it's not like teaming up with her was even an option to begin with, but they still decided to put it in there, why not?

So the Ghost Girl hypnotizes Conway and takes him to edge of a cliff so that he falls to his death, but he's saved by Dusknoir who accidentally scares him and he faints. In the book, the following scene is pretty much the same, except Conway is referred to as Dawn's "new friend" (wasn't he an "old rival"? :P Did they get closer during their stay at the camp according to the writer?), and it also says that Dawn tried to wake Conway up for a few minutes, which adds a bit more drama to the situation. In the episode, he regains consciousness almost instantly.

The rest of this episode's story doesn't involve Conway so I'll omit it. 😌 The final episode's adaptation doesn't have any remarkable changes, but they used this iconic screenshot. Look at him go!

So yeah, they may not be canon, but they're definitely worth checking out or even collecting if that's your thing! These little bits were very much worth the purchase, haha.

HeatTagshipping and Conway fans out there!!!! Look what I just found!!!!

Okay. So a couple of days ago I went to the new bookshop that had just opened in my town and came across this huge Pokemon Encyclopedia hidden amongst a lot of art and crafts books and picked it up out of sheer curiosity, without many expectations. It was really complete, covering almost every season of the anime, yet it focused mainly on Ash journey, as to be expected. Still, I decided to check the Sinnoh League chapters... And oooooohhh boy, DID I FOUND SOMETHING!! 💗💗💗

Now, can you people even begin to imagine the hype, the raw emotion I felt when I saw that not only there was a full section covering Hearthome City Tag Battle Ark but that it also included a small yet beautiful paragraph revolving one of my all-time favourite Pokemon characters?

ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

Dawn's Partner (Hearthome City Tag Battle ark)

Conway likes statistics and strategy - he's analyzed every battle in the league to create a formula that will allow him to win. However, he's not so confident around the ladies. Despite his nerdy nature, he's a great partner for Dawn. His Slowking is optimized with defensive moves like Safeguard and Protect so Dawn can focus on attacking while Conway has her back.

Have you guys read it?! Have you!? HAVE YOU!? 🤩🤩🤩

Well, just to be certain I'll say it again!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🎉🎉🎉🎉

Okay. So not only the author is stating that Conway IS NOT a stalker, but rather a kinda social incompetent guy (Seriously, what's up with some people? I admit he's meant to be portrayed as some sort of weird, mysterious, slightly creepy character but a STALKER??!! Then how should we qualify Team Rocket who has been following Ash around how many regions already!?). They've also outrightly stated that he was a GREAT PARTNER for Dawn. Their words, not mine!!!! 😍😍😍😍

All right, perhaps most of you are currently thinking that this is not that much of a big deal, but given the fact that there is only a very few people out there who actually care about this character (I'm not even talking about a possible romantic dynamic between him and Dawn; even though that I do ship them romantically, I would have also been fine if the series had fueled their relationship in a more platonic way), the fact that I was able to find some Conway appreciation crumbs within an official Pokemon book (at least I think it's official) means a whole awful lot to me.

Also, I know that the photo doesn't show it but do you remember how Brock's partner Holly, despite not being initially interested in him, ended up developing some sort of romantic slash deep admiration feelings towards him? Well, I can assure you her paragraph did NOT have not even half the amount of praise they gave to Conway.

Long story short, I've got a new headcanon now. Until someone can prove me wrong I'm going to assume the author of this book is an undercover HeatTagshipping fan, or at least a secret Conway fan.

Ok. I'm done for the day. Bye.

[animentality]

Its still kind of shocking to me

But when I made this dumb blog, it was to look at some artsy stuff my friend Maddie was posting and just to have another app on my phone.

And it just spiraled into...whatever the hell this mess is.

And I just recently hit 20,000 followers and it's like...

Why.

I have no idea, still, why you're here.

I made some anime posts but now I don't do that, or at least, very rarely and on special occasions like snk getting a new season.

Don't know why you're still here, don't know why newcomers are here.

I mean seriously, I gained followers like crazy my first year on Tumblr.

I remember a girl named Stephanie had a Tumblr for a year at that point and i told her I had 200 followers, and I guess I must've sounded proud or something because she said, "that's all? I have 500."

Like, that was a bitch thing to say Stephanie.

I got her back before I graduated though, I said, "how many followers do you have on Tumblr now?"

And she was like, oh a thousand, I'm pretty good at blogging.

So I just whapped, I was like:

"oh, that's all? I just hit 18k."

I was feeling bitchy and that was just before I deleted my Facebook so I had no compulsions about it.

Honestly I really just wonder because I have a vague idea.

I know that a lot of you originally came, the first ten thousand of you, because I wrote a lot of gushing rants about ships or fandoms.

I was a self sustaining fandom blog that didn't rely on one fandom.

I also had the help of an old friend I don't see around anymore, shingekinokyojinheaven.

We had cringy pun battles and interacted often.

I think he got me a lot of followers, although maybe I shouldn't say that because you have to have a personality and ability to interact with someone on this site in order to get yourself an audience with the "Tumblr popular."

I also changed my url from a nobody name to captainarlert.

And snk blogs were so in Vogue in 2013, lmao.

I was also in the free! fandom, also fairly popular.

I rode that high for a while, contributing to memes and writing warm and fuzzy stuff that made people feel validated in their shitty anime watching hobbies. I wrote meta. I pandered to ships and started discourse from time to time, built a Brand on being brusque but funny. I guess that helped to distinguish myself from other anime related blogs.

Which is pretty crazy when you consider the fact that by just writing posts and taking screenshots and reblogging stuff, I hit 20,000 followers.

Like.

Think about it.

Other popular bloggers post beautiful art. They write fanfiction. They write poetry. They post memes. Blogs like thebootydiaries write in almost Shakespearean verse, slimetony seems to have the perfect mode of Tumblr speak set to keyboard.

Then there's weavemama, who posts wokeness.

And a myriad of popular blogs, who post specific content.

Who have a specific aesthetic that's never changed.

These people make an effort to Tumblr.

And they of course have way more followers than me, but I look at them and wonder what the hell I did to deserve any of mine.

But anyway. Back to the story...

I was responsible for standing myself apart from the rest I guess, because snk was popular but couldn't last forever.

Plus I realized I didn't really want to just be an snk fan blog.

I switched urls to captain of anime, then anime admiral, but they were both kind of lame.

So I switched to mental insanime for a bit.

And then I thought of a new one, animentality.

Short and sweet.

Sounds like someone who'd be Tumblr famous, doesn't it?

Stuck with that.

Was in the Tokyo ghoul fandom and some other anime.

Oh right, knb.

Haikyuu. Yowamushi pedal. I think free! came back somewhere in between.

I guess I was really known for free!, Snk, and a smattering of other anime.

But I dunno, somewhere in there I really hope that other people were staying not for anime content but for my personality, which was increasingly growing more unstable as I finished off high school.

I remember senior year I was pretty much done with anime.

And I kept thinking my blog has to stabilize at one point I can't keep getting followers.

Like I have no more anime content, I have no more metas to make you feel warm at night.

All I have now is my daily life and observations about the things in it. You can't sustain a blog like that, not if you're not constantly funny and fluent in meme speak like...I dunno, what's their name? Perdu?

There's a guy I'm forgetting, something with a b...well whatever.

You know, the Tumblr Giants who define this space as #whacky and #relatable and #lol I'll eat ur whole humor-oriented. The type of people who circulate poor grammar based on so random jokes and mock others through parody and would absolutely make a joke out of this post if they ever saw it, because in the end of the day they're not here to think or make a discussion with anyone, or work through the processes of life, they're here to entertain. And maybe originally they were here just to chill and occasionally reblog some cool stuff but they have an internet personality to uphold now.

And I think about that sometimes.

Because that really sucks.

And I'm glad I grew out of my internet personality phase, I'm a lot happier.

Being irritated and bitter was my personality for a while, and it wasn't just the internet personality of animentality, that was just me.

Now I'm bitter and irritated but it's whenever it suits me.

And it's more like despair, so it's a lot easier to breathe.

Well I hope you enjoyed my pointless essay.

Let me conclude by saying that...you're probably here because I made some half assed rant in your fandom tag about a movie or a show or a bill wurtz video or just a relatable life post like the college psa or a random text post about media discourse.

And thanks for the follow, I like/tolerate every one of you.

But you know, I have a story about why I'm even here, with the blog and all the people who just shrugged and decided to keep following me after the content went haywire.

And it's that people apparently don't mind inconsistency if it's provided by someone they inexplicably find appealing.

And it'll work wonders for your confusion some days, and not at all on other days.

So I'm glad for the experience, and the relationship between myself and this absolute shit tier garbage smelling blog.

But damn.

Shouldn't you be following a Naruto fan art blog or something

Or reblogging a perfectly formatted, cut and dried post written by people with one-word names?

It seems odd that you're here.

And you let me infiltrate your dash with dumbass shit like this post.

Seems very odd.