#three versions of the art go nuts

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

diasomnia ice-cream parlor au doodles

[Referencing this post!]

Hello, yes, I’ve been thinking about the Diasomnia ice-cream parlor AU again 🍨🍦 I guess I must have been really hungry lately www

I see them as offering not just ice-cream, bur also variants like gelato, shaved ice, milkshakes, etc. (They can afford it with support from the Draconia royal family’s funds 😂) The focus here will be ice-cream though, just because that’s Malleus’s favorite.

Imagine walking in and not knowing what to order (there’s so much to choose from!), so you ask the staff to pick something for you… (Yes, I’ve thought about this way too much and now I’m going to shovel this at you—)

Malleus strikes me as a very traditional and old-fashioned guy, so I’d see him falling back on ol’ reliable. You can’t go wrong with a classic sugar cone and a healthy scoop on top!

He recommends mint chocolate chip because it adds an additional pleasant cooling sensation to the actual coldness of ice-cream. Malleus is fond of the flavor himself; it’s great for cooling down a mouth that’s hot from breathing flames!

You’re brave if you accept anything Lilia hands you… You ask him what this is (the ice-cream looks… discolored in some places, and there’s all this weird stuff jutting out from it; is that a piece of lettuce???). He just winks at you and calls it “Lilia-chan’s Super Cute ⭐️ Special”, featuring a bunch of “unique” flavors he created himself.

It comes served in a cup because it’s easier to eat it while walking that way. For Lilia, who is a well-seasoned traveler, foods that are able to be eaten on the go are a plus!

Silver picks out a waffle bowl (it resembles a sturdy bird’s nest) and encourages you to try a lot of different things. It’ll help you to gain an appreciation for the new and unfamiliar! With how wide the waffle bowl is and how many flavors and toppings are in there, this can be good for sharing with friends from all over.

The particular version featured in the doodle has three kinds of ice-cream, each one representing one of the three Good Fairies. A pink flavor, a blue flavor, and a green flavor—maybe rose or strawberry, blueberry or cotton candy, and pistachio? It’s a very naturey palate.

His animal friends have helped with the ingredients; there’s honey drizzled on top, as well as crushed nuts. Freshly picked berries and edible flowers garnish the bowl too—oh, and we can’t forget a generous chunk of honeycomb!

… I don’t know much about Kingdom Hearts, but I’ve heard that Silver resembles Riku from KH?? So maybe Silver can offer some sea salt ice-cream too as a throwback 😂

… Was anyone surprised by this? No? No.

Sebek chose a tall parfait glass for serving so that the dessert can be as tall as possible. It’s a matcha and ube soft serve, swirled high. The green is Diasomnia’s color, and the purple is meant to be the color of the underside of Malleus’s cape. (Sebek wanted to include black ice-cream to for the Draconia royal color, but couldn’t find a good flavor.)

Art isn’t his forte, but Sebek did his best to “recreate the imposing, elegant image of wakasama” in his dessert. The cherry on top, flanked by two conical chocolate pieces, are meant to be Malleus and his horns. The wafer poking out is supposed to “enhance the young master’s presence”. All the other things are extra details in an effort to make the ice-cream larger than life: candied fruit peels arranged in a line (to resemble the spines on a dragon’s tail), mochi balls (“magestones”) piled to one side, and a chocolate biscuit stick + wafer that, together, look like Malleus’s staff.

Sebek tried really hard! … He will aggressively try to sell you on this item.

If you’re really hungry or with a large group, why not go for the Diasomnia Family Fundae? It’s their take on a sundae, served in a glass boat. There’s a whole banana, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, and three maraschino cherries! The bramble is made of dark chocolate.

Each student is represented by one scoop and a little candy or chocolate that helps to characterize the boy (horns, bat wings, lightning bolt, or sword). Sebek is a lemon-like sherbet, befitting of his loud, in-your-face personality. Lilia is a bright red berry flavor (strawberries, cherries, cranberries, etc.), like his favorite red juices, deep and complex. Silver is vanilla bean, pure, simple, and earnest. (He could also be a subtle lavender flavor, since that's a flower known to ease you into sleep.) And Malleus… well, that scoop is a pitch black, but the flavor is something you can’t quite place your tongue on. It’s a mystery, just like he is! (Maybe the shop changes the flavor every now and again. They can run a promo where if you guess the right flavor combo for that particular week’s Malleus scoop, they give you a discount or a free cone.)

A lot of chocolate sauce is dripping down from the Malleus scoop; this is because the sauce is supposed to be his “blot”. The bottom three scoops—Lilia, Sebek, and Silver—are blanketed by the chocolate thorns as a reference to how those three were sentenced to sleep.

[howlingday]

Weeping Knight,Grimm Knight, or Arcwitch?

Ooh, boy... Heck of a selection, huh? Jaune and the three "MILFs," eh? Alrighty. Let's talk about these three ships.

Weeping Knight/Willow's Knight/Frosted Knight

Normally, this would be your classic "pool boy/lonely housewife" trope in adult works. Hell, some people jump at the idea of giving Jacques Schnee the NTR treatment because, well, he's Jacques Schnee. And there's also the fact that Weiss didn't show interest in Jaune in Volume 1 (completely understandable, by the way) and this is some form of payback for that.

But I say, NUTS TO ALL THAT! You could definitely craft a loving story about Willow finding love again after not having it for so long and Jaune isn't just some horny young adult looking for a woman with experience. You could instead look at Jaune for what he is, which is basically walking medicine. He's healing Willow and she's relishing in the attention she's receiving.

Also, one of my favorite Willow x Jaune art pieces I see is Weiss going full emo/goth in response, and Jaune is like, "I'm not trying to replace your dad, Weiss! I'm just trying to be there for you and your family!"

Score - 8/10 if not written like a MILF porno

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Grimm Knight/Death Knight/At The Stake

This one is another old school trope of "what if the hero and the main villain got together". There's a lot that can go into this, whether Jaune becomes evil, Salem becomes good, or some unique scenario in between. Honestly, I find this ship both cute and wholesome when it's done well enough. Of course, there's lewds of this too, because apparently when Mommy Salami stayed too long in the oozie jacuzzi, her body didn't change from when she was in her 20s.

Still, this is a very cute ship and I like just about everything I see of it. Probably my favorite version of this ship I saw was when Ozpin sent Jaune to kill Salem, and she ends up marrying him and sending Oz the wedding invite. (Yeah, it's a self-plug. Big whoop, want to fight about it?)

Score - 9/10 just don't think about the potential Philip J. Fry effect

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Arcwitch

Since there's only one name to this, it stands to reason that this is the most famous of three, likely due to the fact that this was the first Jaune x MILF ship ever made. Unfortunately, this also makes it the more... problematic, just from the trope alone. The classic "hot for teacher" idea that becomes an actual crime when applied to the real world.

However, that doesn't mean that there's no good works with this, though it's mostly lewds pertaining to the couple. The best example of this ship I've seen is in Professor Arc, in which Jaune sneaks into Beacon as a teacher and he and her develop a very close relationship. Although, there's still a bit of an ick factor to it, but that doesn't mean that this ship can't be done well since it's a confident older woman with a more timid younger man. Overall, I think it can be a good ship.

Score - 7/10 and the ick keeps me from going higher.

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IN CONCLUSION:

If y'all wanna have Jaune be cute and romantic with an older gal, that's fine. Just, y'know, don't be weird and creepy about it. Course, won't stop me from writing these ships either. Never compromise your standards for the worse and KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

[8bitsupervillain]

Higurashi When They Cry Hou Ch. 7 Minagoroshi pt. 4

Shortly after this scene at the Irie Clinic Rika and Satoko are off to the local game store to play their board game tournament like they did at the start of Watanagashi.

Seriously, the original art for Hanyuu makes her look like such a pathetic creature, just a real sad sack. Which I guess is a perfectly in-line look to have given her character is a rather gloomy apathetic individual. Hanyuu throughout the early stages of the chapter is constantly telling Rika to not get her hopes up and to basically assume that nothing about her fate is going to change at all ever.

A good portion of the board game tourney here is spent with Rika just overcome with a despair over how repetitious and pointless it all seems. It doesn't really get into it, but there's the distinct impression that she's lived through this tournament a fair number of times throughout the hundred plus year span she's been stuck in the loop. Also for some reason there's an odd change in the dialogue during this section. Rika tells Keiichi that he'll wind up playing the game Billionaire with his group, but when the store owner brings out the game it's a copy of the Game of Life. Which Rika acts like is normal, telling Keiichi that this is how fate always seems to shake out whenever they do this gaming tournament. Keiichi then decides basically, nuts to that and requests a different game for him and his group. Instead of Billionaire/Game of Life, the three play a game called pop-up pirate. Which is a game where you stab little swords into a barrel that has a pirate guy in it. This small change in fate inspires Rika to request a change to her groups game as well. It doesn't say what they change it to, but they do.

This small change in destiny made the visual novel then proceeds to skip over the game tournament. Presumably it happens the same as it did previously. I know Hanyuu is trying to keep Rika's expectations low so she doesn't get hurt by the lack of significant changes in her fate, but I do wonder how she perceives the small microscopic alterations to events like the above. Later on Hanyuu acts like these changes of events won't actually affect anything in the long run, and she advocates a "let's just let nature run its course" type of approach to Rika's situation. But I wonder if she's secretly slightly thrilled at the minor changes because it drags Rika temporarily out of her deep gloom.

It's now after the tournament, when the shop owner gives everyone, sans Mion a doll. I was surprised here because the visual novel offers a choice between whether Rika should try to influence events and convince Keiichi to give Mion the doll, or to observe.

I don't know if there will be ramifications further down the line, but choosing either option results in the same dialogue playing out for the most part. If you go with the try to influence Keiichi option there's a few lines extra about how he seems somewhat aware of your interjection, but otherwise it plays out the same.

I like the insinuation here that Hanyuu might not actually be Oyashiro. Who she would actually be is an interesting question I think, I'm pretty sure she is actually Oyashiro, but the idea that she's just some random horned weirdo who hangs out with Rika is also pretty amusing. Just some divine entity hanging out with the reincarnation of Oyashiro for a lark.

Oh yeah, also in this version of the universe Shion is in Keiichi and so on's class. It seems to be taking place in the hallucination Shion had before she died at the end of Meakashi.

Something that's been slightly bothering me since it came up in Tsumihoroboshi, and gets brought up again here is the change of the food they put the needle in from Onikakushi. They mentioned it was Ohagi, and it just struck me as wrong, because it was something else originally, I thought. So I went back and checked, sure enough in Onikakushi Mion mentions that they made mochi for Keiichi. Now I know this is a really extremely minor thing to get distracted by, but I am just sort of curious about the change here. According to the release dates on GOG and Steam there was four years between the chapters, and maybe it's more accurate this way or something. But there's been quite a few little changes in various aspects of the plots from chapter to chapter. The difference in the corpse tunnel in Watanagashi to Meakashi still being the largest one. It's not really affecting my enjoyment of the series, just a little oddity I've noticed.

Also did I mention Shion's back? She's back, in supporting cast form. And boy howdy do I have some opinions about some actions she takes later on.

[bumblekastclips]

KYLE CROUSE: Here's one from N'Oni! "Stole this question from Rabbithaver: Which would you rather have as a pet for the BumbleKompound: a Chao with an unsettlingly realistic human face that likes to stare at you ominously, a Wisp with tiny and deeply unnerving human hands that must be moisturized daily, or a Koco with fleshy hyper-realistic human feet that really likes to run on hardwood?" [audibly trying not to laugh]

IAN FLYNN: The Wisp, without hesitation. KYLE: Really?! IAN: I will- I will buy the Wisp all the hand lotion it needs. It has perfectly capable hands, it can moisturize its own hands. They're smart! They're dexterous! It can handle itself. The Koco? That would just be annoying. A little unsettling, but annoying. The Chao? We were talkin' about Sega IPs earlier, all I'm imagining is a Seaman version of Chao. KYLE: [wheeze] That's what I said when N'Oni was drawing this! Because this has art! IAN: [unintelligible] Just kinda jump back at this Chao looks up at you and goes, [deep Seaman voice not unlike George Takei] "Hellew." KYLE: [laughing] Yeah, yeah. IAN: [continuing in Seaman voice] "You have been away from the BumbleOffices for three days." KYLE: I'm going... IAN: [continuing in Seaman voice] "Please, feed me a Chao Nut." Eugh, no! No no no no. KYLE: I'm going to show you this horrifying image, and it's probably also going to be this episode's thumbnail. Just so you know. IAN: [sigh that isn't as worried as it should be] Okay. Is this going to be in the chat or in the DMs? KYLE: I'm sending it to you as a DM. It's in the chat, but it'll get lost in there, so... or it's- yeah, it's already getting lost. So... check your DMs. IAN: [seeing the image] Oh, yeah, I hate it. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. That- the wisp is worse than I imagined. KYLE: Yeah. IAN: But I stand by my decision, 'cause it can moisturize its own hands. I don't have to deal with it. KYLE: [laughs] I feel like the Koco is the least cursed-looking one. IAN: That almost looks like... Kirby. KYLE: Kinda. IAN: Like, if Kirby took his shoes off. That's... that's gross, but not bad. But no, Chao Takei? Not- not handling it. KYLE: [laughing] The Chao is terrifying. Oh, boy. IAN: [in Seaman voice] "Welcome back." KYLE: [laughs] IAN: [in Seaman voice] "I require more trees for my Chao Garden. Thank you." KYLE: I- I- yes, thank... you... N'Oni... thank... you? I'm not sure if we should be thanking you or not. [laughs] Oh, terrifying.

--- TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Please remember that nothing that is said on BumbleKast is canon! It's just some guys and their opinions occasionally spitballing ideas. If you don't like an answer, you don't have to take it as Word of God or anything like that. It's all just for fun! ----- Do you want a specific question transcribed and posted? Send the question and the episode date to my ask box! Or if you just want questions about a certain character, send me their name and I will see what I can do!

[kathanglangit]

okay here's how you design a fantasy weapon pls like and subscribe follow me for more tips-

Kidding- but this was sent to me by Dyl just a while ago and I just had to.

I do actually love seeing these wild designs, there's more imagination in them than you can beat out of a roomful of AI "artists".

Art by Peter Andrew Jones if I'm not mistaken.

I do wish there were more of them around, just over-the-top bullshit that doesn't take itself too seriously.

This one's from The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982). It's a sword with THREE blades. Two of them shoot out of the hilt as projectiles- I love it. I would never use it.

I set out posting my art online initially to design "practical fantasy weapons", and while I haven't abandoned the "practical" part myself, going nuts on weapon designs is still just really fun to do.

Saradomin Godsword from OldSchool Runescape and the newfangled RS3 version.

Doesn't have to be "practical". Depending on the context, the looks can be more important than the functionality.

Sanderson depicts shardblades in The Stormlight Archive as being ultralight to justify their size. Fun middleground, but not always necessary.

Art by Alex Allen.

There are weapons that will forever be iconic BECAUSE they went nuts with 'em.

Of course they also went nuts with the people using them, so there's internal consistency, but the point stands.

Guts' Dragonslayer, Berserk (1989-2021) by Kentaro Miura.

Cloud Strife's Buster Sword, Final Fantasy 7 (1997) by Square Enix, image from the 2020 Remake

Moonlight Greatsword, in one of its many iterations, this time as Ludwig's Holy Blade from Bloodborne (2015) in The Old Hunters DLC by From Software

Kratos' Blades of Chaos, God of War (2005), image from their iteration in God of War (2018) by Sony's Santa Monica Studio.

Just- don't pretend you could ever use them in the real world, yourself.

Actual martial artists can already hurt themselves using tried-and-tested weapons from history (i.e. there is someone to learn how they use them from), let alone the average untrained gamer with something out of fantasy.

Doesn't stop people from trying. Baltimore Knife and Sword are among the many blacksmiths who routinely produce real world versions of fictional weaponry (look up Man at Arms: Reforged on YouTube) and recently Digitally Twisted Outlaws (also on YouTube) started training with one such giant replica Dragonslayer, and dubbed their weapon-style the "Colossus Sword Form".

Bottom line, just have fun with it. Don't get too bogged down by what's consistent with real world usage, especially when the context is fictional.

[shadowqueenjude]

nothing makes me sadder than seeing writers that i like (their series/work) doing bad things...

i so get why you turned off anon now, this harassment is nuts bro, i think they just cling to an idealized version of azriel where he's brooding and dark but like a secret softy or something and significantly less weird and horny. I've been there man (not with azriel, i am sick of azriel fics, i need less prominent characters, give me an aramantha fic i want her i can fix her)

they're mad cuz you're attacking their idea of him but also idk why their mad when they are defaming elain. i am an elain stan, i am an elain lover she deserves at the very least to be allowed to do more but like at least she knows what she wants and will stick to it.

archeron sisters with better guys 2024 please i beg of you

(btw did you see copypastus' art for today, i think we need to talk about it I'm literally screaming and in love with all three of them suddenly i think i can fix them)

Classic bs in a fandom where the women get vilified for the same shit the men get glorified for. Weird too, because what the fuck has Azriel even done to deserve so much love? Personally not much of a fan of his character trope because it's so overdone, but there are so many characters of this trope who just pull it off better. An example can be found within one of SJM's own series, in fact! Lorcan in TOG pulls this shit off wayyyy better than Azriel. I mean if you're going to harass me, do it over an interesting character goddamn lol.

(yesss i loved copypastus's villain art today!)

[sonicasura]

Got another crack idea.

Tales of Arcadia but there are three Jims.

During the episode 'Where Art Thou, Trollhunter' one attempt at getting rid of the Amulet led to a different result. Jim tried to dismantle it outside, the item let loose a magical blowback that knocks him out. The Trollhunter awakens to two strange trolls with very familiar faces.

It's Troll Jim and Beast Jim(the latter still has traces of the Amulet's magic but not the corruption). These trollish doubles have the memories up to the point they vanished in their timeline. Beast Jim when he turns to stone while it's the shift into Beast for Troll Jim.

Yup. They know all the events to come, mostly the half troll. Beast's memories are a bit scrambled with some being hazy and a few not Jim's. (I headcanon that Beast Jim is actually Arthur's Troll form thrusted onto him through the shard.) Funnily enough, he's more closer to AAARRRGGHH in personality without the shard's interference.

Amulet figures 'Why not through this new Trollhunter a bone?' although all three Jims naturally freak the fuck out. It doesn't take a genius to realize why these two troll versions are there. To help train Jim and some added reassurance.

Nicknames are instantly assigned as all three will respond to Jim like the Three (Troll)Stooges. Human Jim is Rookie, Troll Jim is Jam(man got double teamed) and Beast Jim is Jumbo. The incoming reactions are expected.

Blinky, of course, freaks the fuck out at first before becoming very curious. Toby just thinks it's awesome as more troll buddies! AAARRRGGHH isn't keen about it for a minute before he just welcomes the idea of new troll brothers.

If you are wondering, Jim did suggest they stay in Trollmarket but Jam and Jumbo just keep sneaking back into his house. Both have their original host's homesickness so you know what that means? Congrats Barbara, you got three sons now and two of them seriously want to meet ya.

Just imagine Recipe for Disaster but multiply the chaos by three. Jumbo keeping Jam from storming in as the troll flavor homesickness reached its peak for the halfa, Draal trying to keep them both out of Strickler's sight, and Claire breaks in to see all three.

Avocado man probably doesn't find out after the fiasco but I think Barbara definitely will cause Draal needs Jim's help to take Shadowdancer home. Perfect opportunity for Jam to slip past Jumbo and take his chance. Guess who got the mom look coming back home?

Barbara definitely spoils both Jam and Jumbo with love afterwards. Also Draal gets adopted cause Jim has to spill the beans now. Things are gonna get even crazier as instead of a Trollhunter, Arcadia has the Three Trollish Stooges who've yet to reach TrollMusketeers.

My personal opinion anyway. If anyone wants to take a swing at such an idea then go for it. Want to see how many flavors of insanity everyone can craft. Hopefully enough to drive Merlin nuts.

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super Manga ch.38-42

Let’s put this thing to bed.

So we’re down to just twelve fighters....

U6: Caulifla and Kale (currently fused as Kefla)

U7: Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, 17, Frieza, Master Roshi.

U11: Jiren, Top, Dyspo, Kahseral

Basically, it’s the final eight guys from the endgame of the anime version of the Tournament of Power, plus Kefla, Roshi, and Khaseral.  Why those three?  Well, Kahseral is a jobber-to-the-stars, in this case putting over Roshi so he can have a little more credibility for later.  Basically, he eats the general’s lunch even though his power level suggests that he should be outclassed.

Okay, so Roshi’s got something lined up for later, but what about Kefla?  Well...

She was going to go after Goku and Jiren, when Gohan stepped into challenge her so Goku and Jiren could fight freely.  And that sounds like an interesting match-up.  I loved that Goku/Kefla fight from the anime, so I’m not thrilled that it got cut from the manga version, but hey, maybe Gohan could have his own chemistry with Kefla, and their fight could be a classic in a whole other way.

For example, what made the Goku/Kefla thing so fun was that they could relate to each other as fellow Saiyans.  But Gohan’s half-Earthling, which seems to throw Kefla off.  She doesn’t understand why Gohan isn’t transforming for this battle, and he says he’s pursuing a different path to power, one that draws on his Earthling heritage instead of his Saiyan blood.  Interesting... I’m not totally sold on that idea, but this fight might be a great way to develop it further.

Whoops, it’s already over.  Seriously, they start fighting, then they cut to the other characters, then Beerus ribs Champa over at the bleachers, and Whis is like, oh look, Gohan vs. Kefla is basically over.  They’ve fought so evenly that they’re basically both done for, so they end up eliminating each other with their last strikes.  The difference is that Kefla’s the last fighter for her team, so when she falls, so does Universe 6.

And this is what makes the manga Tournament of Power so damn frustrating.  I don’t know if they nerfed Kefla or beefed up Gohan for this.  Or maybe this version of Kefla just never went to SSJ2?  That’s not my problem.  The problem is that you can have two fighters go to a draw where one of them wins a moral victory like this.  But you have to show the fight, or it doesn’t work!  As it is, this isn’t much different from just having Jiren knock them both off the stage to show off his incredible power.  It’s clear Toyotaro just needed to get Gohan and Kefla out of the story, and he only had so many pages to do it.  And at least they got to have this all-out slugfest, worthy of both characters.  But if you hide most of it from the audience, what good is it?

And what really drives me nuts is that this art is rad as hell.  Imagine what Toyotaro could have done with these two in twenty or thirty pages.  But there’s no time for that, and that’s been the problem with this whole tournament.  It was one thing when it was Ribrianne and Dr. Paparoni getting cut for time, but Caulifla and Kale were pretty major players in this arc, and Gohan?  I mean, Gohan’s star power speaks for itself, but I’ll explain it anyway.  It’s 2023, and some fans still insist that Gohan should have taken over as the main character in the Buu Saga.  I disagree with them, but the point is that they make some solid points, and people still feel strongly about this decades later.  If Toyotaro can’t make time for Gohan in his Tournament of Power, then why are we even doing a manga version of the Tournament of Power at all?

Well, at least Gohan’s fight got cut to make room for more Goku vs. Jiren, right?  Not really.  I mean, we see Goku and Jiren fighting, but not enough to justify the Gohan/Kefla fight.  Like, they might as well have just done Jiren vs. Goku vs. Kefla just to shake this part up.  Or maybe just spend more time on Gohan vs. Kefla, since Goku vs. Jiren doesn’t actually heat up until Gohan and Kefla are eliminated. 

Anyway, at this point in the story, Goku feels like he needs more power, so he charges up, and the U7 guys on the bench compare his effort to the Kaio-ken.  I’m not sure if he’s actually using Kaio-ken like he does in the anime, but this would mark the first time it’s referenced in the manga.   Either way, whatever he’s doing here, it’s not working.

So then Master Roshi scolds Goku for his one-dimensional strategy.  He’s trying to out-power Jiren, when martial arts is much more than mere strength.  To demonstrate this, he fights Jiren himself, and while he can’t actually hurt the big guy, he dodges and blocks all of Jiren’s attacks.

Soon enough, Jiren eliminates Roshi, but not the lesson Roshi was trying to teach.  And this is how Goku figures out how to do Ultra Instinct in the manga. 

It... is very inelegant.  To be fair, the anime made the whole thing seem like a total asspull.  Goku tries a Spirit Bomb, only to have it literally explode in his own face, and somehow it awakened some sort of change in him that let him discover UI. They kind of lampshaded this by having Whis and the others basically admit that no one really understands how this happened.  Obviously, Whis has been training Goku and Vegeta with this concept in mind, so it’s not like Goku was unaware of it, but he was a long way from tapping into UI, let alone mastering it. No one knows how the Spirit Bomb helped him figure it out, but that’s what happened. 

The manga version tries to connect the dots, but it ends up making the whole thing look even more implausible.  Roshi doesn’t fight Jiren for very long, but the mere fact that he could last as long as he did kind of undermines Jiren’s whole deal.  And Beerus and Whis compare Roshi’s performance to Ultra Instinct, albeit in a backhanded sort of way.  His style isn’t UI, but it bore a crude sort of resemblance to it.  And watching Roshi’s primitive approximation of Ultra Instinct was enough for Goku to figure out how to do what Whis has been trying to teach him. 

And... okay, but it still seems kind of dumb.  If Roshi can last fifteen seconds with Jiren, then why didn’t he kick Cell’s ass?  Why didn’t he take on Frieza in Res F?  The lesson he’s trying to teach Goku here is that strength isn’t nearly as important as technique, except that’s sort of the opposite of the Kame’sennin style, isn’t it?  He made Goku and Krillin do chores in heavy turtle shells, just so they would get so insanely strong that they didn’t even need to learn any special moves. 

I think the point of this is that strength and finesse go hand-in-hand, and Goku was trying to use one to the exclusion of the other, which would get him nowhere.  Obviously, Roshi lacks the power to go the distance with Jiren, but Goku can excel in both at once.  But it seemed more effective when Goku seemed to die in a Spirit Bomb explosion. 

Not to be outdone, Vegeta also powers up to fight Jiren when Goku’s UI wavers.  He doesn’t turn Super Saiyan Blue 2 or anything like he did in the anime, but he does get stronger, and Jiren acknowledges this.  But Vegeta’s not interested in achieving UI, because it doesn’t suit his ego-driven approach to combat.  As he tells Jiren, he had no instructor, and he doesn’t even remember learning the basics from his parents. 

This irked a lot of fans at the time, because everyone collectively agreed that Nappa taught Vegeta how to fight, and it’s kind of shitty of Vegeta to just talk like Nappa was never part of his life.  Look, I get it, but Vegeta’s kind of a shitty guy in a lot of ways.  What really helped me understand the Saiyans as a concept was when I realized that a lot of the stuff Vegeta says about Saiyan culture and history is biased as fuck.  Someone taught Vegeta the basics, and if he doesn’t remember then it’s probably because he thought so little of that person that he never appreciated their efforts.

I will say that I do believe Vegeta is almost entirely self-taught.  Remember, he surpassed his father while he was still a child.  Nappa might have been a second father to Vegeta, and he probably taught Vegeta a lot of important things about life and spaceship maintenance, but what could Nappa possibly teach Vegeta about combat that Vegeta didn’t already know?  When they invaded Earth, Vegeta was the one giving Nappa helpful tips.  Vegeta’s arrogant for a reason.  

And it’s not a coincidence that he’s such a prodigy.  Vegeta grew up on the front lines.  If he wasn’t a fighting genius, if he couldn’t adapt and overcome the challenges he faced, then he wouldn’t be here today.  He would have died on the battlefield like some other Saiyan who couldn’t keep up.  Earth was very likely the first time he lost a campaign, simply because he wouldn’t have survived a defeat anywhere else.  You don’t build an undefeated streak like that without being very good at what you do. 

Okay, so what about Top and Dyspo?  Well, they don’t get to do much.  Vegeta clobbers Top pretty good, but it’s not nearly as big a deal as their fights in the anime.  And Dyspo’s still worn out from other fights earlier in the arc.  Finally, Frieza gets Top isolated on one of the floating chunks of the ring, and he destroys all the ring fragments around it, so Top can’t leap far enough to get back to the stage.  Dyspo saves him from getting eliminated, but he ends up getting them both trapped on another ring fragment.  So they have to ask Jiren for help, but he’s in no mood for this, and lets them fall. 

While I’ve complained about a lot of how this version does things, I do like the idea of Jiren turning on his teammates like this.  He sees them as being in his way, and he’s not entirely wrong about that, except that in this situation, he’s outnumbered, and numbers count.  Even if Top and Dyspo couldn’t fight, saving them would have changed the outcome of the tournament, since they would have outnumbered Universe 7 at the very end.

Here we have a nice bit where Golden Frieza takes on Jiren while Goku and Vegeta recuperate, and Whis notes that Frieza is still fighting, despite knowing he’s no match for Jiren.  This was something the anime didn’t really pick up on.  In both versions, Frieza tends to fight alone and ignore the others when they need help.  But he will help when he’s absolutely needed, so the implication is that he’s merely conserving his strength, not being a coward.  Against Jiren, it seemed like he was merely delusional about his chances, but here Whis spells it out for us.  Frieza knows exactly how outmatched he is, but he can’t give up so he’s just going for it. 

As Frieza and 17 try to hold off Jiren, 17 proposes a change in tactics.  Then he tries to blow himself up to stop Jiren, and asks Krillin and 18 to take care of his wife and kids.  I like how Krillin tries to talk him out of this, while 18′s like “Sure, I’ll bang your wife, do what you gotta do.”

Meanwhile, we get this bonus comic that shows us how Goten, Trunks, and Marron are doing on 17′s Park.  A bunch of Cell Juniors are on the island, and he forgot to tell them about that, but he tamed them years ago and taught them to respect park rangers, so as soon as they see the boys’ uniforms, they settle down. 

Back to the action, Goku’s UI fails, and so Goku and Vegeta double-team Jiren to try to maintain the initiative.  Ironically, in the manga, their double-team attacks are well-coordinated, thanks to all those sparring sessions with Whis.  In the anime, their coordination sucked, but that actually made it harder for Jiren to read their movements. 

Anyway, we learn Jiren’s wish is to resurrect his dead master, Gicchen, and seek his approval.  Belmod tells the other Pride Troopers the whole story.  Gicchen never recognized Jiren’s success, and this has bugged Jiren ever since.  It was Gicchen’s idea for Jiren to join the Pride Troopers, but he never explained why.   Jiren assumed it was a way for him to increase his strength, but Gicchen’s actual purpose was for Jiren to learn the value of teamwork.  Obviously, he hasn’t, so wishing Gicchen back to life would be kind of a waste. 

I’m not a big fan of how different this is from the anime, where Jiren refuses to even consider resurrecting his dead friends and family, because he’s so jaded that he won’t even trust the Super Dragon Balls.  Instead, Anime Jiren planned to wish for absolute control over everything, ensuring he would never need to trust anything, ever.  These two different versions of Jiren do tie in together.  It’s the same character with the same personality flaw, but it irritates me how something as fundamental as “What would he wish for if he won the Tournament?” doesn’t get a consistent answer. 

On the other hand, I like how this version explores the relationship between Jiren and Belmod.  Jiren defeated him at some point, and here we find that they were friends for a time, which is how Belmod knows him so well. But they became estranged, and it’s not hard to see why, when Jiren refuses to trust anything but himself. 

Meanwhile, Vegeta’s the one who suggested this double-team attack with Goku.  Vegeta doesn’t enjoy fighting alongside Goku like this, but he’s practical enough to understand the necessity of it, and trust isn’t an issue.  Goku gets on his nerves, but Vegeta trusts him implicitly. 

All right, so let’s wrap this up.  Eventually, Jiren knocks Vegeta out of the ring, leaving Goku isolated and helpless, when suddenly Frieza shows up with a Death Ball.   He tells Goku to hold Jiren so he can hit him with it.  Jiren still manages to deflect the Death Ball...

But that was just a feint to leave Jiren open to Frieza’s Nova Strike.  He tackles Jiren and Goku out of the ring, and Goku’s confused because there’s no one left in the ring to win, but he doesn’t know about...

... 17, who never really self-destructed at all.  It was all a secret plan he and Frieza came up with, and since no one can sense 17′s power, it was easy for him to fake his own death. He still wants 18 to watch his kids, though. 

So I like the way this version uses 17′s vanishing act and Frieza’s sacrifice play as part of a plan.  In the manga, Beerus has Whis revive Frieza specifically for that strategy, as opposed to the anime, where he rewarded Frieza for his fighting in general.  I also like how they show Frieza leaving with Whis, because I never understood how Frieza returned to his minions in space. 

However, I don’t think the manga version really did enough to develop 17′s character.  He just does well in the tournament, then wins the tournament, then says he wants all the erased universes restored.  In the anime, he showed some respect to Universe 2 when they vanished, and there was a sense that he really did develop some compassion for the others as the tournament progressed.  The manga just doesn’t have time for anything like that, which leaves 17′s character arc feeling kind of hollow.

So we’re in the middle of Chapter 42 of the manga, and the second half is the beginning of the Moro arc, so I’m not going to get into that.  I do appreciate this page mentioning the events of the Broly movie, which saves me the hassle of wondering where the movies fit into the manga timeline.  So we’ll call it a night. 

Overall, the manga Tournament of Power just isn’t good enough to compete with the anime version.  That’s a shame, but I really do think that the main weakness of the DBS manga has been with it’s directive to retell the stories from the anime and movies.   With the Tournament of Power finally finished, we can finally move on from that problem, though.  The next 45 chapters are all-new material, so that’s got to be an improvement, right? 

Well, we’ll see, but not until June I think.  I’m kind of tired of this liveblogging thing, so I’m gonna take a nice long break.  In the meantime, here’s one last Winger song for the road.

[hazel-of-sodor]

Bakers Dozen: Canon Ships I want to see in Star Trek Online

I love Star Trek Online, and one of my favorite features is the sheer number of ships you can fly from in the shows. From the 22nd century to the 32nd century, there are literally hundreds of choices. But there are still many canon starships I’ve have not had the chance to make poor finacial decisions for. So what better choice for the first round of Baker’s Dozen.

Here’s 12 canon Starships (and one honorable mention) I want in Star Trek Online.

Lets start with the Honorable mention:

The Consitution III Class

Picard Season III’s hero ship, the affectionatly dubbed NeoConnie bears the distiction of being both the Titan A and Enteprise G. Those who read my Enteprise F headcanon also encountered the USS Riptide, an early command of my Captain. Why then is she only an honorable mention? Because the developers have already announced they are working on her. *sighs* shes gonna be a promo ships isn’t she?

1. The Federation Class 

First appearing in Franz Joseph's Technical Manual, this design first appeared on screen as background display’s in The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock. More recently, Star Trek Picard saw model’s of this legendary starship in Ten Forward, alonside ships such as voyager and Enterprise D. Considering my flagship is a Gal-X, this would be a wonderful predecessor. Plus TOS ships are always welsome

2. The Romulan Bomber

In Picard Season 1 we were introduced to the Romulan ships with this beauty. An elegant design with blade like wings, it instantly caught my heart. Instantly recogniable as a Romulan vessel while being a new and distinctive shape, it was a perfect evolution of what came before.More Romulan rep is always appreciated. C-Store? Please?

3.The Niagra Class

One of my favorite ships in all of Star Trek, the Niagra class is a three nacelled cruiser blending elements of the ambassador and galaxy lines. Perhaps uniquely, the third nacelle is underslung. She has only appeared as wreckage, most notably the USS Princeton, lost at the Battle of Wolf 359, nut several other STO ships have the same origin. The Cheyenne and New Orleans both come from the same boneyard fleet. Also a updated Princeton Class to match the Lafeyette and Andromeda would be gorgeous.

4. Lower Decks BackGround Ship

This unamed Ship class from Lower Decks is beggin for someone to realize her full potential, maybe a desendant of the Crossfeild Class? I loved her from the moment I saw her, and desperatly want to know more.

5.The Yeager Class

No this is not a meme, its one of my favorite background ships. She has an isane amount of screentime, as shes in stock footage used alot in DS9. She served throughout the Dominion War. Why the weird hull? In my headcanon, she was built as a proof of concept for a tactical sister class to the Intrepid. (This will eventually be a full headcanon post). Once she proved succesful (for what she was), the go ahead was given to desgin a production version with a properly designed secondary hull. The outbreak of hostilities saw the Yeagar pushed into service, as she was a fully combat capable vessel. Also, the amazing Pundus already designed the 2412 variant. 

6.The Mayflower class

A ship from the Kelvin timeline, the namesake of this ADORABLE starship was lost at the Battle of Vulcan in 2258. We need more Kelvin ships, and it is a crime this sweet gal isn’t in game already.

7.The Duderstadt class

You knew. I knew. The Pakleds knew. A modified Bill Krause design, much like the Titan/Enterprise herself, the USS Intrepid made a daring, intimidating, and awe inpiring debut in Star Trek Picard Season 3. Its rare to see a new ship so univserally loved today. But she deserves it. The only bad thing is she’s prolly gonna be the lockbox ships.

8.Jupp Class

This Gal appears waaayyy in the back of a DS9 episode according to the art deparment. Good enough for me. Shes a clear member of the refit family, and is an obvious choice to add to the Miranda/Clarke/Light Cruiser Frame. Always could use TMP rep

9. The Intrepid Type

Really? This isn’t in game already? How?!? Please? Enterpise Era Rep? I haven’t even watched Enterprise yet (oops) and I know this ship!

10.Springfeild Class

Another ship lost at Wolf 359, common, pretty small science ship? Complete the fleet? It could literally be the Chekov class.

11.Curry Class

This class appears in Deep Space 9, and features tow variants with different Nacelles arrangements. TMP Carrier anyone?

12. Block 2 Constitution Class (Kelvin Timeline)

I just want to talk. Its been 7 years since this beautiful ships arrived, and theres no offical models, and no STO Release...WWWHWHHHHYYYYY????

I love this ship. Its my favorite lettered Enteprise. I need her. Shes the only canon Enterprise besides the G not in game, and they’re working on the G. Best design in the Kelvin Timeline, and we don’t have her. I would totally spend stupid money on her, but I can’t.

Please STO, show mercy.

Hope yall enjoyed this first Baker’s Dozen, see you next week!

[tmbgareok]

I have a question regarding vinyl printing on your website. I was really interested in purchasing John Henry on vinyl and I was wondering if it would ever be reprinted through your official distributor for purchase on tmbg.com. I'm also curious to know if this could possibly happen with other albums as well such as factory showroom, the spine, and any other albums/releases that were released in previous years but aren't being sold.

I was also curious about releases for kid's albums such as here comes science since you've released why?.

I'd appreciate if you responded it means a lot that you read this. Best regards, cheers!

JF: we are systematically addressing every album we have the ability to get on vinyl or back on vinyl. Some projects are easier than others in terms of existing films for artwork, and properly mastered audio. Others require a significant bit of finessing (curiously the repackaging of releases that were previously CD+cassette only are often harder as the films need to be blown up almost double their original size and resolution issues abound). The assembly line began a couple of years back with the pink album reissue, Lincoln, Mink Car, the Flood picture disc, and Apollo 18 and accompanying picture disc. We are working on a few things right now-Long Tall Weekend, The Spine, The Else, a compilation including The Spine Surfs Alone and additional semi-lost tracks around that era. New versions of John Henry, Factory Showroom and Severe Tire Damage are definitely front-of-mind, but there are art challenges there for sure. The Disney stuff is entirely out of our control, and I suspect they don't really have any interest in vinyl at all unless it was a million-selling piece of their catalog (and even then it might not be a market they service)

UPDATE/CLARIFICATION

This is a pretty complete list of what is in the works. That does not mean we know when even the next project will actually cross the finish line (we just finished Mink Car, Apollo 18 and picture disc, all of which were a bit of hassle to get going) We are a very small business with perfectly limited resources and not a ton of “pull” with our partners. A big issue we run up against over and over again is putting in an order, getting a delivery date of three months and it arrives nine months later. (think overwhelming increase in demand for vinyl in general, internal failures in vinyl production like the Apollo Masters fire, pandemic, war, supply chain breakdowns, international inflation, etc. The volatility in this kind of manufacturing has gotten so dire that we no longer take advanced orders on anything, because we simply can’t count on any manufacturer’s delivery estimate. So without even trying, something we might assume this week is showing up in February might not really get to us until September. In summary-the scene is nuts.

[neutronstarchild]

are you supported writers in ao3 against a.i. thieves ?

I did not realize my stance on this issue was super hard to figure out (hint: it's not. I'm against AI and have said so, so this ask seems to be about signaling rather than a sincere request).

Right now A.I. is not intelligent. It is ingesting the unprecedented amounts of data that human beings have created. This is the first time in history that statistics could be applied to such enormous language training sets (can you imagine trying to enter the data onto a computer back in the day when computers were terminals?)

That means that right now, it is taking as much human created data as it can to try to spit out things that are similar but not identical to what it ingested. It's why AI is extremely well-versed in the Omegaverse, because it's been scraping fanfic archives (and everything else, including a LOT of stealing intellectual property that could lead to lawsuits).

So someone coming to an unfinished story, copying it into some AI bot and then saying "give me an ending" even if they have no intention of publishing it is stealing, because it's giving new intellectual property to the A.I. language set to use to more efficiently parrot things back.

Don't buy into the hype that we are three steps away from self-awareness. A.I. can only give us a guessed model of things that it ate (kind of like when I fit a line through lots of datapoints!), often illegally. It's very good at plagiarizing and lying.

So please stop sending me asks about whether I will stand up and say (AGAIN) that of-fucking-course I support AO3 writers against thieves coming in and stealing their stories and feeding ever more into the plagiarism machine.

What else am I doing about it? Well, I reupped my membership to OTW, so that I can voice these serious concerns to the board as they sit with the reality of A.I. and what the unscrupulous are doing with that A.I. AO3 is an archive designed for people to look at things that they loved and closed their eyes and imagined what (and who) their favorite characters could be doing, then sat down at their computers or with their notebooks and actually put to words (or art) those things to share with the rest of us.

So... do you want to know what to do since your favorite story ever ended on a cliffhanger and it's driving you nuts because you want to "know the ending?" Here are some non-A.I. things you can do!

Comment on that fic, explaining why it is your favorite and how it makes you feel (though avoid "when is the next chapter?" comments, they can make the muse go back into its cave to hide).

Make some fandom friends. especially ones that love said story as much as you do, and roleplay an ending privately in a Discord server with those friends. The reason that putting a story into ChatGPT and then finishing it is ucky is because ChatGPT remembers and steals that input.

Ask yourself why you loved that thing so much. Is it because it is a clever trope perhaps? Or the premise is delicious? Well then, sit down and open a document (or notebook) and write your own version, then use AO3's Inspired By to credit the original story. Why is this different than A.I.? Because it's connections you yourself are making, instead of parroting out plagiarism.

Go onto your fandom social media account and say something about how much that unfinished story means to you and why, because you never know if there's a writer out there who just needs that tiny little push to finish.

And when can we think about all this generative A.I. stuff and use it? Well, once policies are in place for transparency in what is in the training set. Ways to opt out your creations (this includes retroactively). Right now the tech bros are running away as fast as they can with the stolen treasure chest and hoping they run far enough that governments throw up their hands and don't tell them to return what they stole. Don't let them do that.

So, there you have it.

I support writers against content thieves throwing their work into A.I., and now you even have a handy-dandy little list of things you can do if you are hungry for the end of the story that does not involve plagiarizing and stealing!

[erigold13261]

Who at Nsr like coffee? Who likes tea? And most importantly who likes hot chocolate?

Usual big list of names and likes. Putting it under a cut

Mayday: She prefers teas, but will sometimes drink hot chocolate made with water and not milk.

Zuke: Tries to stick with either tea or black coffee. He stays away from added sugars so his blood sugar doesn't rise.

DJSS: Hot chocolate, hands down. He hates tea and only coffee he consumes is coffee flavored sweets (you can't stop this guy from eating coffee macarons).

Sayu: Any really work. Sweet teas, very sweet coffee, hot chocolate. It's all nice to mer, as long as it isn't bitter, which is why ze will pass on trying coffee if ze doesn't know how it was made.

Aoi: Probably a black coffee drinker. Maybe some like almond or soy milk in it because he likes the taste better than cow milk.

Haru: Probably cold hot chocolate (which sea says is different from chocolate milk).

Yua: Iced coffee or bubble tea.

Renho: Tea.

Remi: Tea, but will drink cocoa made with water if Mayday makes some for him.

Tila: Tea with honey.

Dodo: Doesn't really like any of those, would rather lemonade. Maybe would like sweet tea if introduced to it.

Sofa: Coffee, any kind of way but will not drink it with a milk substitute. Soy milk is gross to them and almond milk or any other kind of tree nut milk can kill them.

Yinu: Hot cocoa with either hazelnut milk or vanilla almond milk. She's not allowed to drink coffee and even if she was she probably wouldn't like it. Will drink tea occasionally.

Mama: Prefers tea but will drink coffee to help stay up.

Papa: Coffee and hot chocolate. Used to drink a lot of Champurrado until Yinu came into his life and couldn't drink milk. He never realized there were vegan/lactose-free versions of the drink otherwise he'd have made it for Yinu a lot.

Neon: Before being a cyborg, his go to would be coffee. He actually would make a soju infused coffee for him and Martha a lot of the time. Though after the divorce he stopped with the coffee and just drank the soju alone (or whatever kinds of alcohol he'd have on hand). After the cyborgification he doesn't drink any of those. He just drinks/eats nutritious smoothies or shakes. Even if they taste awful, it doesn't matter because he can't taste anymore.

Rin: Probably would like a salted caramel coffee over anything else. Though it probably doesn't care for any of those to have on a regular basis. Water is just fine for it.

Purl-hew: Coffee. Absolutely, hands down, Purl is in it for coffee. Literally one of the easiest ways to start getting close to Purl is to get them coffee. And if you make it an alcoholic coffee? Even better.

Zimelu: She probably doesn't care, as long as it tastes good. So like, a good coffee will be picked over a bad cocoa, and vice versa. I would say out of the three, tea would be the least drank, but if offered or she goes to a place with good teas then she'll definitely drink it.

Haym: He likes MAKING the drinks more than drinking them. He does not like tea at all because a lot of the time it isn't as strong as he would want it to be. Cocoa is something he'll drink, but overall coffee would be his go to choice. Though let me tell you, once he figures out about spicy hot cocoa, he'll be making that all the time for at least a month until he gets sick of it.

Eloni: No preference. As long as it's warm, so no iced coffee or sweet teas for them.

Dew: Probably an iced coffee kind of person. Or cold drinks in general. For some reason, even though he was hurt by the cold, he prefers his food and drinks to be very cold.

Maragold: Fruity teas!

Carna: Fae is stealing sips of coffee from everyone and then complaining because it sucks, only to go and take more sips. Otherwise, faes drinking lemonades.

Eve: Coffee and tea depending on the time of day and what she wants to accomplish. Will try the water cocoa Mayday makes but doesn't really like it. Will go out for coffee art or try to make her own.

Tatiana: She tends to just drink water or maybe an energy drink like gatorade (not an energy drink for the energy, idk what gatorades are classified as), but she is known to indulge in hot cocoa from time to time. Also maybe some tea if it's offered, but she doesn't go out of her way to drink it.

Kliff: I definitely see him as a coffee enjoyer. He gets some cheap ass coffee beans and makes his own shitty coffee that he seems to really enjoy a lot.

DK West: He mainly drinks tea but will also drink coffee. Hasn't had cocoa in years, but would be willing to have it again.

Cyril: Oh this bitch is living off of coffee. The only time he drinks tea is when he is sick or he thinks he has to rest his voice, then it's just some soothing tea with honey that he chokes down unhappily.

Noa: The cook of Ex-Jay, he's the one who is making the good coffee or tea for everyone, otherwise these idiots would be buying the worst beans or shitty leaves and making horrible tasting drinks they would pour down the drain. But, Noa is making himself some coconut-infused hot cocoa and eating it with some potato crisps

Asa: Will steal some hot cocoa from Noa if available, otherwise buys black coffee to drink.

Rei: Tea drinker. Usually sticking to black tea. Him and Bunny kinda do the Chinese tea ceremony where they dump their tea on tea pets.

Bunny: Tea and coffee drinker. Likes doing the tea ceremony where she dumps tea on tea pets (of course she has a bunny pet) and she got Rei to start joining her. She tries all kinds of teas and loves trying new leaves to steep.

Elivy: Drinks mainly tea now, but was a heavy coffee drinker when he was younger.

Quida: Similar to Elivy, she used to drink a lot of coffee when younger. She still drinks coffee regularly, but has actually started drinking more hot cocoa, especially with her grand kid.

Joust: Black coffee. He used to add milk or cream but now he just drinks it straight. Sometimes he adds a bit of alcohol, but mainly it's just him drinking really crappy coffee.

Martha: Coffee. Cream and sugar in hers.

Aria: She doesn't drink any of those drinks. Sometimes she will try to drink tea for the health benefits but just doesn't like it that much. Though she hasn't tried all kinds of teas and I think she would like fruity teas or milk teas.

Esther: Coffee, though she will never turn down some good cocoa.

Braam: Coffee, and he will turn down cocoa. Well okay, he'll take it but just so he can give it to Esther so she had more cocoa. Though once Catherine came around he started giving it to her which made Esther pout and leading him to buy her more cocoa.

Alyona: Coffee mainly, but she used to make this really nice hot cocoa with a kind of toffee sauce that Matvey and Tatiana loved.

Matvey: Coffee with some coffee liqueur is what he goes for. He doesn't drink tea at all and hasn't had hot cocoa since Alyona passed.

Sarabi: She's a tea drinker, but will also have coffee with some neighbors, especially the beans are from one of the local businesses that she loves.

Nuru: Drinks coffee but also drinks soup broth. Like, he will have a thermos around him just holding some of the most delicious and rich soup broth ever and will drink that a lot of the time. Much to Nova's horror whenever he thinks he is about to take a sip of some water or something.

Celine: Probably a split between tea and coffee. Like Eve, it depends on what she is trying to do or the time.

Barbara: A mix of all three. Whatever she is in the mood for. If she had to choose one then a sweet or fruity tea is what she's picking.

Joey: Coffee. Black coffee probably. But it would be some high quality coffee that he says doesn't need any kind of milk or sugar.

Yiruk: I feel like it drinks way too much coffee then it should be. It will also drink a lot of hot cocoa, especially at a really good cafe.

Kayane: Tea drinker, all kinds of teas, hot or cold. But will also drink an iced coffee.

[bgw57]

This is me. Yes, I was born when baby lotion came in glass bottles. Sixty-six years ago on August 3rd, before the Space Age, even, although just two months and one day before. This is also the start of all my stuff. Beside my flat-on-top ears there are a couple of other things in this photo that I still have today.

This is me posing with my hospital bracelet in 2017 when I was working on an earlier version of this blog, called The Packrat Project. I'm told I have a lot of stuff from my childhood, and unusual amount. I not so sure. It all seems perfectly normal to me. Doesn't everyone have their hospital baby bracelet? Maybe Mom or Dad tuck it away in your baby book, which at some point they hand to you as a gift. Or it's discovered in the back of some drawer as you clean out their house, moving one of both of them to Senior Living or the grave.

I don't remember now what the specific motivation was for my mom to one day hand me a couple of small boxes, a stationery box and a box from Johnson & Johnson, maybe that's where the bottle came from, a promotional product. Like this, my very first piece of wall art.

I'm not sure what the tie in was with Carnation evaporated milk, other than milk being one of the chief topics of conversation around this time. I'm not sure, did I lose half a pound just after weighing in at 7 lbs 11 oz? Hmmmm

Siri says that it's normal for babies to lose weight, initially (who wouldn't, after that trauma?) but they gain it back by three weeks. I had surpassed my birth weight at 2 weeks as you can see by these after-visit summaries for a six day exam when I was still Baby Boy Williams (above) and the two week visit, seven pounds thirteen ounces, after which I evidently become quite the little eater - 19 pounds at six months.

And so here I go. This is an experiment. A vanity project. Something to do in my all but formal retirement (official start Feb 2024). In my next entry - a bit of the tree this nut falls so near to.

[shadowredfeline]

Three in One Post

For a Response to my P-Pal

Me 🇺🇲: Yeah my Social Club always likes to craft something random. Even if I had to do some Holiday Crafting or bulletin crafting. Because Bulletin board crafting is very common. But not for long because I'm gonna go Bowling on Thursday since Bowling is the sport I'm very good at. And also for the response for the Post, I'm sure the Speedsters would love to play with the Ramcats and Rabbits Nintendo 64 depending which game they like to play. But I would imagine a 90s drawing, Debby, Paul, Windy and Scottie play the Nintendo 64 a lot since all they would do is play Mario Kart. But all that Debby would always play is Dr. Mario 64 on Nintendo 64 which I know didn't come out until 2001. After Paper Mario, Pokemon Stadium 2 and Conker's Bad Fur Day. And before Mario Party 3 was released. So I bet the Speedsters would enjoy playing the Nintendo 64 with the Ramcats and the Rabbits. And also, I hope the Tikis we know in Donkey Kong Country Returns won't try and do anything chaotic with their hypnotic music. Even since I wanted to craft something random for the Luau Party. Which I'm sure the Speedsters and Maxwell and Friends would enjoy after the Tikis get defeated.

And for my A-Pal's On this Day Post.

I do remember Shovel Knight since it has become popular and that's why Nintendo wanted to make an Amiibo of Shovel Knight. And I know for Smash Bros., Shovel Knight became very common for the Assist Trophy, and I bet he would make a perfect summoner. Even Maxwell and Sam can use the Shovel Knight Card as either helping or Summoning. Because each Assistant Trophy becomes a Card, depending if you want it to be Independent, Help you or to summon.

And for my P-Pal's On this Day Post

I bet Spot and Riya are sure to enjoy eating so much junk and sweets, which I know Shadow and Lisa would do the same, after some Ballet of course. Or we can have the four as well as for Luna once they get chubby, they be like "Ah this is the life! Food, Sweets, Games, Sunshine, and not a care in the world!" And I know it would be something like in Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts, which I know is a big letdown on the Xbox 360 and I know Luna wasn't a fan of either. Even since she does love playing versions of the Rareware Titles. Same for Lisa and Maxwell and Scottie. But it's nice for Microsoft to offer Nintendo to put some of their titles onto the Nintendo 64 on Switch. And I hope they can put some of the Rareware Titles onto the Nintendo Switch Online on Nintendo 64. Like Donkey Kong 64, and Diddy Kong Racing. Maybe Banjo Tooie should be next even since I usually play the Two Banjo Kazooie games on my Xbox since it does Auto saving. I always love video games where they Auto Save.

[inventors-fair]

Strange Beasts: “Not So Simple” Runners-up ~

Our runners-up this week are @curiooftheheart​, @grornt​, and @reaperfromtheabyss​!

@curiooftheheart​ — Rubble Scrounger

Gee, Abelzumi, how come mom let you have TWO blitz-themed cards in your top picks? I really did look through Scryfall for an easy combo, and I’m sure I missed something, but the EOT clause and the manner in which this just likes to save a single draw makes it a little less than broken and certainly more interesting. I’m a little hesitant to name if this card is playable. It turns one draw guaranteed into a treasure, so what’s happening around it? Multiple blitz cards are less playable because you need a big mana sink to presumably make more mana, and the drawing part of it is less directly limited-themed because Conniving isn’t in these colors, so we’re left with a curious case of needing quite a bit of mana to make this work the way it wants to.

Maybe that’s okay? I think a three-mana blitz would have been fine, on top of the fact that Commander players (especially Izzet players) might like this card a lot. This is a card that’s asking for a fair amount of setup and a cool idea of what it wants to do in a thoughtful way. I sincerely like what it’s going for, and we always need more Raccoons. Whether or not it’s optimized, I’m waffling on that.

~

@grornt​ — Effluviox

My only critique of this card is in relation to the contest, I think; it feels less like something jarring and unique than it feels like glue that /should/ be there. It’s quite contemporary in its mindset, in my opinion! I want Elementals to have been able to do this, and having learned this new word, I want to see the full sick nasty version of this art, too.

It’s good in and to itself, really. Let’s look at Revilark. Revilark would have actually been a good example for this contest, because the evoke cost is higher than its casting cost, which is certainly unusual in that expectation. This card having tribal glue on top of “normal” evocation puts it in a place of understanding. If I’m reading the intention correctly, though, I can see you running with something similarly flavored to Stenchskipper, where some big part of one tribe intersects with another in some mechanical way. Would I love to see this card on Lorwyn? Yes. Does it necessarily change how I see evoke? Unless there’s something big in my blind spot, not exactly. Is this a runner-up because of the art? I want to say no, because it’s also a stellar design for that world, but I won’t lie—I rocks with the ‘viox.

~

@reaperfromtheabyss​ — Bontu’s Favored

Part of my tick-down is because there should be a comma after ‘life’ but that’s one small reminder. The major part is how much you can really go nuts with this card as a win-con. I want to make ‘number of cards in exile’ work in Magic, too; is that really possible, though? The amount of grandfathered cards that genuinely wreck the moderation like Demonic Consultation does is disheartening. Maybe something would even need to be banned. Is that worth it? Or, is that not even worth worrying about? It’s an uncertain question for sure. And aside from that, in a purely limited environment, this card can go pretty nuts.

Amonkhet had a lot of graveyard exile, or at least enough to make this really hard to not block when it swings in. Sacrificing, maybe not quite as much, but even shocking or -1/-1-ing this would be worth it if you can get a cheap Lava Axe with recursion. Maybe creature cards? We ran into this issue a little bit in some pre-design with the mods. Fantastic direction, fantastic feeling of “the one whose rage extends beyond the grave and echoes with the lost time and time again,” and fantastic overall idea. The game just has it out for you.

Awesome cards, folks. We’ll pick up again soon. Commentary as it comes! @abelzumi​

[repulsivegoblin]

Hi, hope this isn't weird- I followed for the Jojo fanart and stayed for the dmcb content. However, I can't fully appreciate the art and other references bc I watched dmcb at least two years ago and all I remember is that time Akira busted a nut so hard it reached the ceiling. In lieu of rewatching the show or reading the manga are you willing to give a rundown of the plot :D be as concise or lengthy as you like and no pressure to actually answer, but I figured you might enjoy the opportunity to infodump to a very eager audience ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Hi there!

Sure, I´ll give you a little summary but first I let know that your message made me laugh really hard, the "nutting in the ceiling" scene is so bizarre that is not surprise that you remember it .

Basically, dmcb is an adaptation of the original Devilman series from the 70, so there are a few changes from the og story in order to reach newer audiences. The og series dealt with themes like the fear of an upcoming war but also made a point to show how humans tend to be selfish and irrational. It wasn´t meant to have a happy ending but rather show our cruel nature.

Crybaby changed the war aspects to show social issues like xenophobia but the ending remained almost the same. (Spoilers: Akira dies at the hands of Satan who then realizes how pointless the war between humans and demons is. This is because he was in love with Akira and now that he´s gone, he feels completely empty).

There are a couple of changes in the main characters too.

Og Akira was a little bit more violent because of the influence of Amon (the demon he fused with) and he wasn´t as sentimental as the crybaby version but he had his human side too.

Ryo (the blonde one) was the one who had more changes. He is still pretty much violent and deranged in the og version but he is way more human, in the sense that he shows way more emotions, allowing himself to be vulnerable. In the manga, when it was revealed that he was Satan it was a little bit more impactful because, while he had his violent tendencies, he still was pretty much a guy fighting alongside his friend to defeat demons and save humanity.

Crybaby Ryo on the other hand was a little bit colder to the point that I and other people who watched the show suspected that something was up with him. (Still love him tho) Also, the fact that he loves Akira is present in every adaptation he's in and is crucial to his character.

I should mention that there are a bunch of adaptations to the manga, the most popular ones are 1987' OVAs and Crybaby but there´s also Amon: Apocalypse of Devilman and a crossover between 009 Cyborg and Devilman. Every one of these has its own take on Akira and Ryo´s design and I tend to use all of them as references.

So, basically the sequents of events goes like this:

_ Ryo takes Akira to the Sabbath where he merges with a demon.

_ They go demon hunting and the story shows Akira trying to manage his new body.

_ There are a couple of demons that almost always are present: Sirene (she´s the one with the wings on her head and he titties out) Kaim (he's always with sirene and simps for her) Jinmen (the turtle) and Zennon (He´s the giant one with three heads).

_At some point the demons realize that Satan was simping way too hard and sacrificed one the strongest demons in order to keep Akira alive in the case of an Apocalypse so they invade the earth to kill al humans.

_Ryo finds out he´s Satan and joins the demons as their lord/god.

_ Miki Makimura (the girl who lived with Akira and the one he ad a crush on) dies in a HORRIBLE way and that prompts Akira to let go of his humanity and desire to live.

_He still wants to kick Satan's ass tho.

_ Satan kills him instead (accidentaly, I guess).

_ While he´s sobbing for the loss of the one he loved, God appears and kills everyone and reestarts the world.

There are two sequels to Devilman (Violent Jack and Devilman Lady) but for the love of Satan don't read them, both of them are incredibly violent and filled with SA. I sometimes draw stuff from Devilman lady (which is the worst one) because I got really attached to some of the characters even if the story they are in is one of the worst things I ever read.

I think I covered some of the essentials if you have more questions feel free to send me another dm. Also I'm sorry if there are some gramatical errors, english is not my first language so I might screw up some sentences.