#too much of a pain to resize things

[immren]

my friends and i’s vampires in our campaign !!

theyre a funny group to look at, i think. Also, half of them hate each other.

left to right (if ur curious): iver (gangrel), etienne (toreador), ambrose (ventrue), dove (brujah), damien (malk)

[clansnaphance]

Skins & Accents: Never be unpleasantly surprised by resizing ever again

I'm making this as a separate post in addition to a reblog reply, in the hopes more people will see it.

So, you've worked on a skin and you've poured your heart into it, worked at a high resolution, and rendered all the nice details... and then you resize to 350 x 350 px and half your details disappear, others look pixellated, and some things that looked great at full size are now way too cluttered.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a way to avoid this pain entirely, all while working at full size and never having to zoom out while you're in the flow to check on the details?

Well, I've got the hottest tip for you.

Start by upscaling your canvas to 2800 x 2800 px. When zoomed out to 12.5%, the canvas will appear as 350 x 350 px. You can also choose other resolutions, the important bit is that one of those resolutions results in an image appearing as 350 x 350 px when zoomed out at one of the default percentages (50%, 33%, 25%, 12.5% etc). We are not going to zoom out on the working file, however.

(This is my accent Thought we had a deal, which you can find in my accent shop)

Then it's magic time. This works in Clip Studio Paint and Photoshop, I don't know about other programs.

Window > Canvas > New Window in CSP:

Or Window > Arrange > New Window for [file name] in Photoshop:

This will open the exact same image in a different tab. Click the tab, hold to drag and it will float above your working image. Zoom out to 12.5%, grab the bottom right corner (it will appear where the green arrow is) to scale down the excess frame:

And voila, you will have a live version of your accent at its print size, regardless of how much you zoom in in the larger version:

Yes, that's right, live version, it will update as you draw! You can tell right away if a detail you add will show up at print size or not, if it will be readable or not.

Never be surprised by resizing again!

[revalition]

OCT 8 - VOLITION

Hold yourself together. Keep your Morale up.

I had to resize this image 3 times to get tumblr to take it... it is also past midnight here, but the day change doesn't really count if I haven't gone to sleep yet, so :)

Volition. My love. my favourite skill. please enjoy. I also drew the volitions of some of my mutuals!! because I love you guys and your volitions very much (holding them gently in my hands). hopefully you guys dont mind and I didn't mess them up too badly

anyway. uhm. I'm much too tired to write anything super coherent right now. please write tags for me or write comments so I can see them when I wake up haha

and! there is a LOT under the cut. like, way more than any of the other days. it is giant. be very careful expanding it <3

ok here goes... I'm typing shorter ones out and screenshotting big ones

--------

VOLITION - Stop, you're only making it worse for him -- you never help with *anything*.

- Rare volition being rude to other skills!!! it only happens under pressure, too

KIM KITSURAGI - "What else could she have done? Lie? She saw there was no way to lie and get away with it."

DRAMA - You would have caught it.

VOLITION - Like hell you would have -- remember?

- you tell him volition!!

SUGGESTION - What is *wrong* with you? Why did you ask to be connected to her? Who *does* that?! Act professional now.

VOLITION - *You* told him to do that stupid thing...

- rare volition callout!!

YOU - Can I trust that guy?

VOLITION - A little. They're all still of limited use, interpreting things to the best of their ability. Maybe they add flair or something? I wouldn't know. I don't add flair.

- this is one of my favs haha. you don't need flair, love, it's ok

VOLITION - Ouch.... That's like twenty points of pride-damage right there, buddy.

- This is after Sylvie turns you down to get coffee. (and you do suffer a point of morale damage haha). him calling you buddy is so funny. it's always mildly condescending too!

- here's the other two:

VOLITION - You're no titan of Volition, buddy. He's got you in a fork. Sit down or leave.

VOLITION - You're a little more moralist now, buddy. A little more *normal*. Even if you didn't want to be.

YOU - "Cryptid extravaganza? I like the sound of that."

KIM KITSURAGI - "And I *don't*. Just one."

VOLITION - Or he'll be *disappointed* in you.

ENCYCLOPEDIA - Whooh... tough choice there.

- volition knows it's truly the most terrible thing haha

VOLITION - An enormous expenditure of willpower to build up strategic semen reserves? You had me at *willpower*. Let's do it!

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - Life is all about pleasure... why deny it?!

- these two are hilarious. poor echem. but also volition, honey, nono...

- the game implies consequences when increasing your skills too high but you don't see it with all of them. Volition's one you don't really see much downside to, but you can just. Imagine it here. Him pressuring you to do something stupid, just for the sake of it being difficult. Surely that's not healthy??

- I do think Volition has a lot of issues. I'll get into some more of them later though!!

- but just... Harry wanting to do something that *is* a test of willpower and Volition is completely uninterested. But the semen retention thing is okay? sigh

- and then after that, he's just like. nope. we're not going to not swear :)

- he's so stupid sometimes. also it's absolutely hilarious to me that you can pick the "..." option over and over and Volition will match it forever. You simply cannot out-will your own willpower. It's just not possible.

- I actually live for Volition being the singular voice of reason. Look at the others all chiming in!!

- this one too, Volition being the only one trying to stop it! Why are they all piling on?? Composure not you too >:(

- I had excessively high Volition *and* Pain Threshold in my first run and the two of them!!! PT gets very self destructive at high levels, so seeing the relentless push and pull of PT and Volition was so good.

- This line from the description -> "Cool for: Sane People, Well-Adjusted Cops, The Non-Suicidal" yes it's cool for them, sure, but it's incredibly!!! important for NOT these people! Because Volition doesn't make you sane, or well-adjusted, or non-suicidal. He's just the one voice of reason in there trying to veer you away from making irreversibly bad decisions.

VOLITION - She tries to hide it, but some *great doubt* is spreading within her. There is a crown slowly cracking above her head.

- I need to talk about this line. Just. Volition acknowledging the existence of Joyce's own Volition (which he refers to as a crown!!!) cracking! the *great doubt* spreading and cracking apart the crown! hghh I live for any and every depiction of volition cracking apart when morale gets low and this is absolutely one of them.

AUTHORITY - Weren't you warned to *not* go down this path?! And yet you *still* go and do it...

VOLITION - Just because you *can* doesn't mean you *have to* say everything that comes to mind. Back out before the situation escalates.

- these two's dynamic is very funny to me. I love when they work together (but I also love when they fight! fight fight fight!)

VOLITION - Don't ask, don't look, don't do *anything* here. Just go away. Get back to work.

- "Just go away" ugh my guy is fighting for his life here to get you away from the cigarette and alcohol counter in the Frittte

- hghhk Volition. this is a Challenging passive check too (the second one, to hang up). *one* chance, that's all he has in him. It's not possible at all in the dream, no matter how high your Volition stat is. It's just not something he can do. But here, with the distance of the payphone between you and possibly real consequences, he's able to manage one chance.

- (also did anyone see the post about the payphone conversation possibly being entroponetic crosstalk?? I could talk about that for way too long. but I am getting sidetracked)

YOU - "Yeah, I'm done talking about her. I don't want to think about her anymore."

RHETORIC - What a strange choice of words...

EMPATHY - Caustic, overflowing with negativity.

VOLITION - That can't be healthy. What's happening here? Why do you keep coming back to this window?

YOU - Nothing, everything's okay.

VOLITION - But it isn't. And you shouldn't come back to this anymore. This should be the last time. Stop talking about that damn window, please.

- this one too

VOLITION - Throw it away. Please.

- I need to talk about this. Volition dutifully directs you away from all the reminders of Dora. He does everything in his power to stop the final dream from happening.

- And I get it. He's trying to protect Harry. Because Harry isn't mentally stable right now and it could endanger the case. but... at least, when the final dream happens Kim is (usually) there when you wake up. And if all went well, you get to go back to your precinct, and take Kim with you. And Harry has support.

- If the dream doesn't happen... it will happen eventually. There are a million reminders in Martinaise in the span of a week, imagine what Jamrock is like. It's an inevitability. And then you're taking the chance that the dream happens at a time when Harry is much worse off. Maybe he's alone. Maybe Kim left, maybe he was let go from the force.

- The dream could happen at a better time too, of course. we probably all imagine harry picking up the pieces after martinaise and his life finally taking a turn for the better. and I imagine this is what Volition had in mind, by delaying the dream. Maybe it can be delayed for a long time, long enough.

- but it's a huge risk and I just... don't know if he's making the right choice here. keeping important information about Harry's past, which has shaped his relationships and life considerably, in a box so it can't hurt him

- yeah. anyway...

YOU - What if I don't want to ask questions?

REACTION SPEED - You're a cop, Harry. It is *unnatural* of you not to want to ask questions.

VOLITION - You don't have to. No one is forcing you to be a cop.

- Volition??? sometimes this guy makes no sense, he's so funny. I really think he occasionally just does something for the sake of being defiant

EGG HEAD - "Please. Please?" The young man smiles at you widely, bright and innocent as the summer sun.

VOLITION - His pleaful smile is disarming, but you can withstand it's glorious assault, if you just put your heart into it.

- why? why?? don't turn down egg head ever!

VOLITION - Alright, come on now. If *he* hasn't said anything about your lack of pants, no one will. You're only hurting yourself by not wearing them...

- this one is so funny. I love that he lets you know he *knows* you're trying to get a reaction and you're not going to get one!!

- yes volition, stop himmm

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - How very astute of you! This renders it ineffectual. You should look for a *whole* cigarette. Or better yet -- an entire pack! Strike that, a CARTON! Make sure they're all healthy and able-bodied, then smoke them all.

VOLITION - Or -- you could *not* do that. No one is making you.

- volition as usual trying to stop you from picking up bad habits... I just love the way he talks. he's not even telling you not to, just voicing his disapproval in a rather passive way

INTERFACING - Wow, the gods of mass production have made this alcohol container *laughably* easy to open. A child could have done it.

VOLITION - I don't know about this...

- he still doesn't outright tell you not to drink it... :(((

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - Fine. We're not worried... you'll crawl back to this bottle soon enough. We'll give you another chance. Booze *always* gives you *another* chance.

SUGGESTION - Yes, it's *merciful* that way. It's your friend. Come back to it, we're all rooting for you to.

VOLITION - Not *all* of us...

- he's the only one rooting for you to not drink it!! he can't stop you. but he is supporting you in the only way he's able.

VOLITION - No. You *can* stop. Just wade through the hell. Month after month. Year after year -- you against the nothingness. It's possible, because *time* is possible.

- He can encourage you!!

YOU - "I *will* stop drinking."

MEASUREHEAD - "THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE. THE GAME OF *SHAH-MAT* YOU PLAY AGAINST THE GUL'S TRICKS IS UNWINNABLE. THE DAYS, THE WEEKS, THE MONTHS WILL WEAR YOU OUT. THE OCCIDENTAL HAPLOGROUP IS INCAPABLE OF LONG TERM LUCID THOUGHT."

VOLITION - NO.

- volition!!! <3 that's all he needs to say.

HORRIFIC NECKTIE - This is it. I'm gonna hit the ground and burn away now. Most of the people in this yard are gonna die -- if not all. Probably you too. It's a COMPLETE DISASTER.

PAIN THRESHOLD - Get ready for a world of pain, man.

VOLITION - No. Not a disaster. Weave this into the story of you. Walk out of its *ruins*. Save those who still can be saved -- *I'm* on your side.

ESPRIT DE CORPS - And the lieutenant too. And the men behind your back, drawing their weapons... you can live. You can get out of this.

- hnngh. this one is among my favourites too. my amazing 1 int run also had 1 motorics. at this point I had failed the rhetoric check to save ruby, failed the logic check to save lizzie, and now failed the spirit bomb throw too and was about ready to cry. Volition's quiet reassurance was very important to me in that moment. EdC too, and I did save Kim.

HAND/EYE COORDINATION - Your hand trembles as you scratch at your cheek... oh no, that's not how a grown man shaves!

YOU - Leave it for now.

HAND/EYE COORDINATION - Thank god, I would have cut your throat.

VOLITION - The centipede is exaggerating -- people don't actually cut their own throats when they're shaving. At least not accidentally.

- centipede!!! it's such a funny nickname. alternatively

HAND/EYE COORDINATION - Your hand trembles as you scratch at your cheek... oh no, that's not how a grown man shaves!

YOU - This isn't sharp enough. Scrape harder.

HAND/EYE COORDINATION - Stop, for crying out loud! You're gonna cut your own throat.

VOLITION - There's no way to salvage this.

- these guys are hilarious. why is volition even watching this mess? 'there's no way to salvage this.' ??? I'm not even sure if he's referring to you or H/E... he must be so tired.

ENDURANCE - You feel like you're about to faint and fall off the swing. Your hands get clammy and the air tastes sour to breathe.

HALF LIGHT - Oh god, Harry! Oh god, Harry, what did you do...?!

VOLITION - No! Just nope. Say no to this, Harry.

- more of this!! >:( of volition trying to just avoid anything painful. wake up man.

LOGIC - Everything is so pretty and red -- you and Leo look like brothers as you glance around with similar childlike wonder.

VOLITION - Keep it together, no need to show your wonder.

- why? :( it's not hurting anyone. legendary difficulty passive for volition, high levels of volition are sometimes questionable. I love collecting all these instances of volition making weird suggestions. it's like when people point out really weird things Kim does, that you don't really notice as weird because he does it so calmly and confidently.

VOLITION - Huh... no, Mr. Conclusion. You're always kind of limited in your analytical abilities. That's not *her* fault. But still...

- volition: you're kind of limited in your analytical abilities... meanwhile logic and viscalc and ency calling you stupid and brain damaged lol. vol is so gentle about it!!

- then again...

VOLITION - ...no? He's not going to show up? I'm sorry, your lie detection isn't working. It's not her doing, he's just totally inept. It looks like you're also an idiot. But that's not her fault.

- lol.

RHETORIC - This is good. Clear the air first -- between you two -- then move on to questions.

VOLITION - No, it's not good. It's the opposite of that. This will let her dictate the terms of your...

RHETORIC - Shush. I can't hear what she's saying.

- no. don't ever cut off or shush volition ever again

- >:(

YOU - No-no-no-no...

INLAND EMPIRE - Yes, yes, yes, yes.

VOLITION - No-no, we're not starting with that. Not now. Not this time. This thought is over.

- volitionnnn... ily. my own volition also cuts off dangerous lines of thought for me. I think he's got to be constantly vigilant, in order to be so good at it. must be exhausting :(

YOU - "Can't promise that. I might attack him again." [Leave.]

KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant groans, but doesn't say anything.

VOLITION - That's right, you *should* do it again! It's the *last* thing he'll be expecting.

- uhm. not sure that's a good idea!!

VOLITION - You're too weak to say 'no' now. Waking up is the worst part. Maybe somewhere down the line you could decline...

- referring to declining the speed. all volition fails are very sad

VOLITION - Yes, look at yourself. What do you see?

YOU - Just a sorry stack of shit...

VOLITION - Yeah, didn't even know they stack shit *that* sorry.

- beautiful, rare volition scolding you!!!! after you disregard his advice and don't apologize to kim after the church fail. he's on your side, but he also knows he needs to tell you that this wasn't okay.

VOLITION - First the investigation, now this... how many more things do you have to fuck up?

- this one too! same scenario. this is a difficulty 16 (Godly) check...

- yes this again. it just needs to be in here. the volition panic attack. if this volition passive doesn't fire, you take no volition damage. it's completely self-inflicted :(((

PAYPHONE - The headset lands in the cradle with a clank. There it sits -- still warm from your hand. You have no idea what just happened.

(heal 2 endurance and 2 volition)

- if you hang up the phone before dora picks up!

VOLITION - He subdues the feeling. Dusts himself off and moves on. So should you. There will be other chances.

(heal 2 volition)

- if Kim misses getting a picture of the phasmid

HORRIFIC NECKTIE - The necktie is guiding you through this. It's your spirit animal, both your nemesis and friend. Suddenly a feeling of ease brushes through you -- you're fine again.

(heal 2 volition and 1 endurance)

AUTHORITY - That... was the most honourable thing anyone has ever done, Harry.

(heal all volition)

- very special incidences of healing more than 1 volition at once!! the fact that healing/damaging morale is just directly called heal/damage volition in the variable naming is. yeah. I think about it constantly. does it hurt him? I think it does. and he never says anything about it (unlike endurance!) he just bears with it quietly.

VOLITION - In honour of your shit, lieutenant-yefreitor. Which you kept *together* in the face of total, unrelenting terror. Day after day. Second by second.

INLAND EMPIRE - DETECTIVE

ESPRIT DE CORPS - ARRIVING

AUTHORITY - ON THE SCENE

- obviously this one has to be in here. funnily enough, in my second playthrough I had 2 PSY but everyone had been bumped up enough that they all fired except authority... I ended up throwing a point into authority and retrying the dialogue so it could be complete haha

VOLITION - What? I thought you had your shit together! This is nearing a complete meltdown! Stop it!

- volitionnn :( if you don't stop you have a panic attack, so I guess he's only trying to help

- this is too funny. volition honey, you absolutely do add flair too

YOU - Oh, you mean Cuno?

VOLITION - Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!

- yup, absolutely no flair. Super. Tip-top!

VOLITION - These guys are compromised. She's got them singing along to her tune. The little bleeps and bloops you trust for info -- you can't trust them anymore.

- it would be a crime to not include the bleeps and bloops in here! why does he call them that?? haha

- rare instance of volition not being able to stop the disaster!

INLAND EMPIRE - Your surroundings are undisturbed. While you slept, you were alone. Now that you're awake -- you're still alone.

HALF LIGHT - Get the fuck out of here. Fuck this place, fuck this world, fuck this life, fuck this body -- just fucking go.

SAVOIR FAIRE - The sheets are stained red. Your blood's been running again. Keep it together. Just get out of here and finish this fucking thing.

VOLITION - Harry... I know there's not much to say -- but if nothing else, just remember that you've made it this far. And it's just a bit farther now. Let's finish this.

- this is just. it's awful, if you have the final dream all alone. but at least you have volition with you

DICK MULLEN AND THE MISTAKEN IDENTITY - Dick Mullen was made to crack skulls and solve cases. It's who he is. He could no more stop being a detective than a tiger could cease to be a predator in the night.

VOLITION - You're no tiger, though, Harry. You're a man. It's your curse to have to choose.

- I like this one.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - That sugary black rum stain on the counter makes you teary-eyed with joy. It's almost touching how syrupy and sticky it is. How long have you been up already?

YOU - Not now.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - Oh *excuse me*, do you have something better to do than lust for sweet syrupy rum and lemonade? With a twist of lemon? Maybe lime? Maybe who cares, just rum?

VOLITION - Yes, you do have something better to do. Stop drooling over that stupid rum stain and go. Before it's too late.

- this is a challenging (difficulty 12) check! it's very difficult to resist the sticky rum stain I guess

YOU - Give up.

LOGIC - There we go. Your mind is a relaxed muscle. It's so nice and easy to give up, isn't it? On the downside -- you have no idea what you were supposed to do now. I could have *debriefed* you.

VOLITION - Blissful idiot -- say something. You've stood there for too long.

- blissful idiot

VOLITION - Don't be an idiot and say it. In this day and age, of all times. It won't end well.

- once again, volition pushing you away from the bi-curious thing. :( he just wants to keep you safe, but it comes at a cost.

- you can't just wrap harry in bubblewrap, volition. he'll never grow

- volition absolutely saving the day here. do NOT say it harry! authority's advice is SO hit or miss

VOLITION - It's time to leave it be. You're about to make a child cry. Are you proud of yourself?

YOU - Damn right I am! Proud as the Lion of Serber.

VOLITION - Excuse me, I'm not sure I heard that properly...

- volition ily. he has to deal with so much.

VOLITION - Should we? He's *nice*. I don't like *nice*.

- this is so funny. he's very suspicious.

VOLITION - Look at it, detective. And be ashamed. Until you make it right by *legally purchasing* that raincoat, I'll make sure you feel guilty every time you see it.

- YES YES conscience volition!!

YOU - Close the carabiner.

SLEEPING DOCKWORKER - The sleeping dockworker has little to say about your actions. He remains silent.

VOLITION - You're not 100% clear what you did here was *right*, but to hell with it...

- only sometimes!!

VOLITION - I can't restrain this one. The need to *cop* is too strong. You just need to ask it.

- why are you trying to restrain copping??? this guy, sometimes. he's so stupid (affectionate)

VOLITION - That's it. I'm calling it. Kim is beyond compromised.

- uhm. volition completely overcompensating with the compromised skills is quite funny. once drama wakes up, he does it too

VOLITION - See? It's oddly moderate. Probably compromised.

- oddly moderate now means compromised??

- this is it. this is volition's only comment on this disastrous authority fail. he makes no attempt to stop it!!

VOLITION - Being Cuno's pig has a steadying effect on your hand. Go with the flow, man...

- volition's so silly sometimes

DAMAGED LEDGER - You feel that thing in the back of your head? That little voice, that quiet scream? You already felt this was a bad idea, but especially right now it's even worse. Try as you might, you can't read it now.

VOLITION - You've got *business* to deal with first. Talk to the Union boss first, at least... I can't stop you for long, but there's just enough of an excuse now.

- Volition fighting for his life to stop you from reading the letter :,(

VOLITION - If it's possible, then by pure willpower alone. You are going to have to become... a psycholocomotor.

- that is *not* a real word but we love you anyway vol

LOGIC - Is that how it is now? We should just try all good things *twice* and then give up? By that logic...

VOLITION - Not you too...

- he's all alone out here :(

VOLITION - Someone's been a very busy boy. Good on you...

- thank you...?

VOLITION - *Very* off. Just let her go. Listen to me for once...

- for once?? :((( but if you try...

VOLITION - I can't help you. I am totally useless. Everything I've said is lies. I want the exact same bad things you want. To stand here, like a pillar of salt, saying...

- this is probably one of the saddest lines. all the skills falling apart in the dream is awful, but volition might be the worst. it's also very important that volition *does* want the exact same thing you want. He wants to drink and smoke and think of dora and die. And he chooses to resist it anyways. To be the only thing standing in your way. But it's to the point where it's all he knows. He knows that he has to resist the things he wants, and will occasionally take it too far. Keeping Harry (and himself) from things that will make them happy. In the setting of the game, Volition keeps things together and on track. But once Harry is back in his normal life, it will become very much a double edged sword I think. Luckily(?) it will self balance a bit, where if Volition prevents Harry from being happy then he'll lose morale, weakening volition, and then vol won't prevent harry as much and it'll balance out. hopefully.

VOLITION - Despair creeps into you, getting fat on your weakness. Whatever noble intentions you once had as a police officer -- it's eating them all up now.

VOLITION - Nothing you can say would make you feel any better now...

- 😭 I hate this, I hate the volition death. the endurance one is really painful too, but this one's painful in a different way. Volition isn't getting back up from this. the awful newspaper clipping saying you go to live under a bridge... that's what happens when you let volition die?? if any of the other skills (except endurance) drop to 0 you can just raise them back up, but vollll.... ugh.

VOLITION - Listen... It's okay to take a few minutes to yourself. Sit down and have a breather.

ENDURANCE - You need to rest. Your body is aching. Getting in here has taken something out of you. Have a seat.

- our two health pool boys encouraging you to take care of yourself <3

YOU - "Kim, can *you* see it?!"

KIM KITSURAGI - "I can see it."

VOLITION - Four simple words -- thank god. If he can see, then you're not insane.

- this one is obviously very important.

YOU - "I've finally gone insane..." (Put your head in your hands.)

[...]

VOLITION - My god... maybe you *are*.

- if Kim and Cuno aren't there, and your Volition is really low, you get this very sad fail. :(

VOLITION - True, you ought not love ruins and hell -- and the fading scent of apricots.

- I like this one.

WASHERWOMAN - "I *can* wash it for you," she says after looking the jacket over, "but it's going to take about a half an hour. Think you can stay put for that long?"

VOLITION - Hell yeah!

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT - No, we must run around ceaselessly. It would be torture to stay put.

- I really really love him.

YOU - "By the way, I'm going to sing karaoke here."

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - "Absolutely out of the question."

VOLITION - You wait and see, cafeteria manager!

- volition will not be told no!!

VOLITION - No one can STOP you from finding the phasmid.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT - WHAT IS HAPPENING TO YOU?!?! Are you going to CRY now, son?

VOLITION - You heard the coach! This is weakness. It cannot go on much longer, or you will LOSE.

- these guys are great. coach!

YOU - Right. Activate Denial Mode.

VOLITION - You're not really an automaton, you do know that?

- oh, thank you for the insight volition

- even your most willful, imaginative skills know this scope creep was insurmountable...

DRAMA - But we *are* awake, sire! She has been forthcoming -- with sordid details women usually conceal! Most *shocking* details of the sexual kind! We are a bulwark, un-breached...

VOLITION - You've been breached, bulwark. You've been breached, like, a thousand times now!

- nooo poor drama (volition is right)

- Volition trying to reassure you after the Tribunal is very important.

- SO TRUE.

DRAMA - This may have been a *grave* mistake, sire.

VOLITION - Maybe. Maybe not. Mercy is rarely a *complete* mistake.

- I really adore this quote.

I think I'm going to leave it here. I haven't included some quotes that I put in other posts already but I might add them in later to have a comprehensive Volition post... But I've spent like 4 hours on this already so I'm giving it a rest for now :)

[timewarpagain]

God I hate FA/HAES mindsets so much.

Before you all start screaming at me, no I don't think it's okay for people to make fun of overweight/obese people. Yes I am aware of certain conditions and medication that can affect a person's weight (more on that later), but those are very very rare. The reason why people are so big is because they eat more calories than they burn. That's it. It's simple thermodynamics, you are not above science lmao.

You are not being discriminated against if you can't fit in an airplane/movie theater seat. Those buildings and seats were there centuries before the world started to get bigger and fast food places were everywhere and junk food was always within reach. Not being able to find cute clothes is such a huge First World Problem, and that's also not how sewing works. It entails so much more than, "well just make it bigger" like you're resizing a picture. Rollercoasters have height and weight requirements for a reason, you can't outdo physics. People not wanting to date you sucks and can be hurtful, but it is not discrimination.

No, you can't be ""fat"" and healthy at the same time. Fat is just a few pounds over the maximum normal BMI range. Dozens or hundreds of pounds over that is not fat, it's overweight/obese. The medical field do have a lot of outdated views and conceptions about certain groups (women, PoC, disabled, etc.) and to an extent this is no different for obese people. There are a lot of doctors who can be assholes and dismissive. And if you're a woman it's 100x worse. But not being able to do certain procedures, or asking their patients to lose weight when they have concerns about pains is not discrimination. They need to rule out that the symptoms you're having is caused by your weight and it'll be easier to see things inside the body if they aren't blocked by excessive adipose tissue. I think people hear "you need to lose weight" and assume that's the only treatment plan instead of the first step to make things less complicated.

FA/HAES activists are really young, in their early - late 20s. Of course they aren't going to see a lot of health problems. But they need to be PREVENTED before they get worse. You (hopefully) won't be seeing a lot of issues at the moment but bad eating habits will catch up with you as you get older and they will be harder to treat. We're already starting to see prolific FAs dying young (late 30s - early 40s) and way too early. T2D is devastating. An extremely high weight puts you at risks for multiple conditions and problems like HBP, coronary artery disease, cancer, pre-diabetes, etc. Being on tons of medication and constant doctor appointments aren't fun.

Body positivity means that you shouldn't feel ashamed or bad about how you look. It doesn't mean that you are unable to try and keep yourself healthy as much as possible. HAES doesn't mean "I'm obese but I'm healthy because I have good bloodwork". It means that being obese shouldn't stop you from getting exercise, losing weight, eating healthy, and treating your body well.

[sweeetestcurse]

My Gif-Making Process

Hello! I'm Gilli and I've been making gifs for a very long time and have recently been asked a few times about my process. So I've decided to go into detail on that. Probably too much detail. But this should help out anyone that wants to make gifs of their own whether it's of video game footage they've recorded or movies/shows that they own physical copies of.

Below the cut is a step-by-step process that I go through, plus information on how to record their game/rip blu-rays to a PC for those that don't know how to do such. There are screenshots showing the entire process of me making a single gif and the end results of that.  

I hope everyone finds at least one thing in this they find useful. 💖

Programs Used:

OBS Studio KMPlayer Photoshop  MakeMKV 

I wanted to start with how to record your game footage and how to rip blu-rays to your PC for those that aren't too sure about how to do that.

To record your own game footage, you'll need a program that records your screen as you play. For that, I use OBS Studio.

To set it up to record your screen, go down to the sources section and click add display capture. From there it'll have you pick which display it will be capturing, it should automatically have your primary monitor selected but if that isn't the case click the drop-down menu and pick the one that you'd be using to play games on. And make uncheck the box for capture cursor, as no one wants a flying cursor to ruin their footage.

You may need to resize the capture window to fit, but all that takes is hovering your mouse over it, clicking, and dragging it to fit. 

Next, you should go into the settings set up a few things. Mostly to make sure it'll be capturing at the right FPS and the folder the videos will save to when you record.

These are the settings I use. I don't mess with the audio portions since that doesn't matter for gifs.

If you're using a capture card for a console, you can add that source to OBS, as well. This is what that looks like (you'll need to drag the window to fit here, as well.).

I don’t mess with the settings, as I’ve never needed to.

And now may be good to note that with older consoles the default FPS is 30. If you want to record footage of that you'll want to switch the number that's captured down to 30 as well so your gifs don't have extra frames.

With that all set up, you'll need to open up the game you're wanting to record. Sometimes recording is simple and other times it's a bit of a pain in the ass. When it's simple, you'll be able to alt+tab out of the game and start recording with OBS whenever you wish, so you won't have to make a huge video file for only a minute or two of footage that you want.

When it’s difficult, however, the game doesn't like being alt+tabbed out of and starts running sluggishly when you do that. When that happens, save and close out altogether. Then start recording with OBS before opening the game and go from there. It's a little bit of a process to find out which game is which, but it isn't a difficult one.

And to record a video in OBS, simply hit the Start Recording button and you're good to go. When you’re finished, click it again. And that’s it.

As for ripping blu-rays to your PC, you'll need to have either an external or internal drive that's able to read blu-rays and MakeMKV. And you should make sure you have enough space on your PC for it. I've found single episodes of a show can be anywhere from 5 GB to 20, and movies are larger the longer they are. The average I've run into is about 30 GB.

If you have all that set up and ready to use, start MakeMKV and click to open the blu-ray disk. 

The movie (or episode) file tends to be the largest on the disk. Uncheck everything else and choose your output folder. 

Then hit Make MKV and wait until it's done. The ensuing file should easily play in KMPlayer, or your program of choice.

________________________________________________________

Now, with all of that out of the way, we can get to the actual gif-making of this gif-making tutorial.

When you've got the video you want to capture frames of, open it up in your program of choice and capture away. These are the settings I tend to use.

To open the frames in Photoshop, click File and go down to Scripts > Load Files into Stack. 

In the Use dropdown menu, click on Folder. Then click Browse and find the folder you loaded your frames into. If you want to make sure the files load in order, go ahead and click Sort By Name. It’s usually not necessary, but it could cut out the time it’ll take to reload the frames again if something goes wrong.

It should be noted that the process of loading frames will take longer the bigger they are, hence why I use the JPEG setting instead of PNG. I've not noticed a change in quality between PNG and JPEG, but if you wish to make sure you're using the best quality possible, go ahead and use PNGs, just know that this part might take some extra time if you do.

With everything loaded, click the Create Frame Animation button in the timeline window. Then, find the three small lines near the X that closes the Timeline window, and click on that then select Make Frames From Layers. 

After this, you might need to highlight all the frames and, in the same menu, click reverse frames. It’s not actually reversing the gif, but making it so it plays correctly. For some reason, this happens a lot for me in Photoshop. I cannot explain why it does, just how to fix it. And it takes all of .5 seconds to do that.

Next comes the more tedious step in this whole process. You’ll want to go through each frame and make sure there’s no doubles. If there is, it’ll mess with the timing of the finished product. Double frames can make a gif seem slower than it should be overall, or just in certain parts. If you’re making a gif with a lot of frames it can be annoying, but it’s worth it in the end.

My next step is always to crop the canvas down with the crop tool. For simple scenery gifs that I save at 540x480 pixels, I use a preset that I made. 6:5. Then I'll drag and/or shrink it down to exactly what part of the canvas that I want to gif. In this case, I moved it a smidge to the right and hit crop.

Then I resize it. Since I've noticed that sometimes there's a small line around some gifs, I resize it down to 582x485 pixels so there's some extra I can crop out around the edges. It's a personal preference, you don't need to do this. It’s just something I’ve done for years.

From here, I start coloring/lighting. Most of the time, I use five layers for this. But every so often the gifs will need a bit extra to get them where I want them and I can end up with 10. It all depends on whatever it is I’m making gifs of. For the gif in this example, I'll be using my usual five layers. Levels, Curves, Select Color, Exposure, and Vibrance. I don't believe the order of the layers matters, but I always start with lighting and move on to the color.

This part is all personal taste. The way I choose to color things might not be how you like it. If that's the case, switch things up. Experiment. If you want things brighter, with the colors more saturated, try upping the levels on those layers. Hell, you might not even want to mess with the colors at all, just brighten things up which is totally fine. But these are the settings I've decided to use for this particular gif, for those that might be curious.

This is what the gif looks like before any coloring, sharpening, and without tweaking the frame delay.

First, I use a Levels layer. Most of the time I use it to start brightening things up, but sometimes I only use it to darken the shadows a bit. This time, I’m doing a little of both.

Then it's onto Curves for a little more brightening and some contrast. I use these sparingly. It's very easy to wash everything out.

And one last brightening layer, Exposure. I've never touched the Offset option. I don't know what it does and at this point, I'm too afraid to ask.

Next is Vibrance. So that I know exactly how much I need to fix/change the coloring. I don't like to make my gifs too saturated, so I don't mess with these settings very much.

And now comes the fun part. Actually coloring the gifs. I tend to situate my Selective Color layer between the Curves and Exposure layers, but I don't think it matters where it goes.

Here’s what it looks like before coloring.

This is another super subjective and personal series of settings. For this gif, I want to bring out more of the warm orange and yellow shades without washing out the green of the conifers in the background, but you might want to bring out cool tones instead. There's no wrong way to color gifs.

As I’m sure you noticed, with this gif I’m not messing with the Cyan, Blue, or Magenta modifiers. Not every gif needs to use every single modifier, and that’s fine. 

This is the end result of all those steps.

And next is the sharpening. Select all the frames in the Timeline and the Layers window, head on over to those three little lines in the right corner of the Timeline window, and select Convert to Video Timeline.

Then click Filter > Convert for Smart Filters.

And then Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen.

I use two sharpening layers and these settings aren't set in stone. Sometimes this is too much, sometimes it's not enough and I need to up some settings. It's just another one of those things you can to tweak as you work.

On the second layer, I hit the gear next to the OK button and selected both Use Legacy and More Accurate, then adjust as I wish.

Then I save it. I do not understand these settings. One might think that I would after using them for so long, but I do not. Please don't ask me about them or I might cry.

We’re not done quite yet. As I'm sure you noticed, the gif is a bit too large a file for Tumblr's 10 MB limit and I haven't even touched the frame delay settings. That's because I do it once the coloring and everything else is done.

Go to whatever folder you've saved your work in and drag the gif/s into Photoshop. Once they’re loaded, select all the frames in the timeline and click on any of the small arrows pointing down in the right-hand corner of each frame in the timeline, then select Other, then you'll need to set your frame delay. 

For 30 FPS (console games and live action, usually) I use .05 and for 60 I use .04.

Next, I delete frames as needed to fit under Tumblr's limits. And with that done, this is the final result next to where I started out, so you can see the differences more clearly.

Before:

After:

I’m pretty sure I’ve gone over everything, but since I’ve been doing this for so long that I easily could have missed something since I’m so used to seeing it all the time. If anyone has questions, I’m more than happy to answer them. ❤️

[erazonpo3]

I'm a little late to the #webcomicday party but I still thought it'd be fun to break down my process a little bit using the latest Way Out chapter as an example!

So I have a rough outline for the whole comic but I don't go into too much detail planning each story arc until I'm about to get stuck into it. The rough outline is for jotting down ideas as they come along, acting as a skeleton for what will eventually happen, while the more detailed arc outlines are for plotting and pacing the story beats.

Planning each chapter out like this means that each one feels like its own mini-story, and more importantly, stays on track and achieves something to further the story or character progression. You'll notice that the chapter notes are still pretty barebones, which leaves me room to fine tune the smaller beats within the script.

Then, it's scripting time! I'll only have a script for the chapter I'm working on and a script for the next chapter, so as I'm currently working on Chapter 66 I have a script for chapter 66 & 67 but not 68. This is ideal for me in keeping the story flexible, allowing me to take a chapter in a bit of a different direction without feeling tied to a whole arc's worth of scripts that I'll need to rework otherwise.

Around 20 panels is the sweet spot for a chapter of Way Out; there are some with fewer and some with more, but shooting for that number makes me think about whether a scene ought to be extended or cut down in order to meet that goal. If I only plan out 18 panels then I can probably squeeze something extra in, while if I plan out 23 panels, I have a look and see if there isn't anything that can't be condensed.

The scripts themselves are pretty sparse, mostly just dialogue with basic action notes that I highlight as I finish. I'm usually pretty good with visualising things in my mind so the notes are more of a reminder to self about angles & expressions more than anything- if this were a collaborative project I'd probably put more effort into making it descriptive, but it's not.

I've never been one for thumbnailing, which is bad comic practice, I know. But once I have my script I just want to get stuck straight into drawing and don't like slowing down to jot down what is already pretty vivid in my head when I can just. draw the thing.

(a large part of why I started my first webcomic in the vertical format is because you don't need to consider variety in panelling and page flow, which is something thumbnails are very important for).

And so the sketching begins! My sketches are rarely pretty with little focus on anatomy and shape and more focus on blocking and size. I use Procreate to draw the panels and its resizing tool has a tendency to obliterate the quality, which I can sharpen in small amounts but it saves a lot of pain if I plan it all out in the ugly stage.

In some ways I often prefer the sketches to the clean lineart, but that's mostly the stylistic scratchy-ness of it that I have to do away with in favour of clean lines. I'm not always super proud of the art in the end but not every panel needs to be a masterpiece and it's all practice. I think a quantity over quality approach is kind of necessary if you want to make a comic and not lose your mind.

I sharpen up and clean any spots up as I go, but once they're all done I glue all the panels together on my desktop so that I can adjust the spacing between them, then I cut them back up again into smaller slices for posting! And that's the whole chapter process!

I also have a quick (and by quick I mean 4 minute) rough timelapse of chapter 65's coloured panel I can post, if anyone would be interested in seeing that, but it'll probably need to be its own post bc it'll crash this one.

[beepobot]

Vrchat and Hab units

I'm going to be posting about my progress on the Vrchat world I'm currently working on. I've been working on this for about a month so I have made a little bit of progress so to make this more interesting I'm also going to show and explain my weird workflow I've created while making this map.

This post doesn't directly contain NSFW content but the context for the things I'm creating is very much NSFW.

This is HDG (Human Domestication Guide) related:

The world I'm creating is something that exists in HDG universe(kinda), HDG is a non-con kink setting in which very dorky, benevolent, shapeshifting, plant based aliens called affini go around turning different species into their personal pets also known as florets which they love very much.

And what I am trying to create is something that is called a habitation unit or hab for short, Habitation units are places that independents or affini and their florets live. Affini are much larger than terrans(old sci-fi for humans) and thus habitation units owned by affini reflect that and the idea of this map is that you're a human in a affini habitation unit!

More information about this setting in great nerdy detail can be found on the HDG wiki . (You can also find the stories made in this setting and if you read Abscission and other "foundational works" some things I do might make more sense)

The process.

I have really weird preferences when it comes to map making which isn't something a lot of programs offer. So my process for creating this map started with valve's source 2 engine and the version of hammer that's currently included with facepunch's in development game s&box.

I'm pretty sure what I'm doing can be done with any version of the source 2 hammer but I'm just using s&box because it's the one I have access to and I don't want to start up half-life: alyx being it takes forever.

My main personal issue with other ways of map making is how most programs handle things like texturing and the grid. I'm very particular in the way that I want things to align "correctly" so with other programs where the texturing tools aren't the greatest or the grid doesn't do a very good job of making sure everything is on the grid really irks me and I just get really frustrated by it, So using something like hammer gives me a bit of peace of mind when it comes to that so that's the main reasons why I'm doing the weirdness of exporting and importing hammer maps instead of directly creating it inside of something like blender :]

Anyways I started by creating a map in hammer just like normal expect for the map I'm making is made about twice the size as I normally would make a map which isn't too hard to account for(I stacked two info_player_start's on top of each other :] ).

I started by making a very simple and bad sketch of the top down and just went for it and winged it for the most part.

Next I made some basic geometry and walls trying to split up the habitation unit the best I can while keeping in mind what kind of rooms the habitation unit would need and then I took a screenshot of the top down and put it into mspaint to decide what each room would be and after a bit this is what I ended up with.

Now I must get this into unity(Hell on earth). I start by exporting the map from hammer in the FBX format and then I opened the map in blender to fix problems with the model. One of the problems I get in blender is that for some reason the model will have bunch of different version of the same material which I must condense into one material, Deleting the copies and assigning the right material to the correct faces. luckly this process lets me preserve the amazing uv's made by hammer so all my textures will still align once in unity :D

Now that I'm in unity this part of the process is mostly just making the map work in unity. Creating colliders, resizing the map and creating the lighting. (Creating the colliders is a pain in the ass!)

First thing I did is create a collider for the world which is just one big collider that is the size of world and just acts as the floor. Next I made the collision for the hab (at this point it is extremely janky and bad). you can't just use the hab as a collider either sadly, I'll put an example in the images below.

After the colliders I just put a basic point light in the center of the hab and then baked the light.

At this point I decide to make some placeholder furniture and such to get idea of where everything should be. I made a couch, bath, kitchen with a center island, a compiler and a bed and closet for the bed room :].

And now I'm making my first model which is a datapad! Datapads are basically just tablet computers but not shit but unlike the datapad this model isn't the greatest. it was made very quickly just as a test. but here it is:

Okay! If you couldn't tell by the "quality" datapad texture I'm not the greatest modeler ever! Sooo.. this was the part that I was putting off... texturing the hab..

so.. I didn't do it and I went and redid the lighting instead :]

So in unity there is two methods of creating lighting for your scene, Real time lighting and Baked lighting. both are great ways of doing lighting in my opinion but for performance reasons because VR is already a very heavy thing to run we will opt for baked lighting. Baked lighting is a bit harder to set up and takes a bit more work but that is fine because the results are awesome!

Baked lighting does all the fancy things like global illumination, ray/path tracing, bounce lighting, shadow casting things etc before hand and bakes it onto a texture called a lightmap and applies that texture to the world to fake the lighting and this helps your poor computer a lot that is already rendering two screens worth of content.

But you run into the problem of the world looking like its lit but nothing else is.. well because it isn't. the world only looks lit up because of its texture and not because it actually is and this applies to objects like non-static props and players. unity's way around this is setting up a thing called "light probes". Light probes work by sampling the lighting at certain points in the world to tell the models how bright and what kind of colour they should be and blending this information between the points. This is a very manual and kind of time consuming process to do properly but the general idea is to put points anywhere where the lighting changes dramatically.

Anyways so the first thing I did was removed the old point lights that I just randomly placed into the rooms and replaced them with point lights with spot lights above them, the reason I did this is to fake the shadow that the light's housing would cast on the room itself, Generally this isn't needed but it does add a little extra detail to the lighting which I like.

Next I did the light probes. I just cobbled these together just putting them everywhere I needed to and then went through and deleted ones that didn't need to exist. This probably isn't the way you're meant to do this and I know that but I'm extremely lazy when it comes to these kind of tasks so whatever.

This is also the point that I decide to setup the reflection probes. which is very similar to light probes but instead captures a texture that is used to fake reflections, You don't need to put as many around only about one per room or new area :]

After that, This is when I did some very basic texturing for the hab but this also meant me remaking it. I made it so instead of a big room with walls its a lot of smaller meshes that are just the parts of the hab that exist(it is less complex then is sounds). (image below)

Next I added some basic textures making the floor a carpet and making the walls a plaster(I had greater ideas in my brain but for now it has been reduced to carpet and plaster), I also cobbled together a really basic texture for the hab in quixel mixer(epic games like free texture garbage program).

The hab texture is very gross and temporary but the idea is that its a hexagonal repeating texture that is rubbery, my thought being that the outside was made to be more "floret" friendly, the outside being darker so it reflects less light (for sensory purposes) and to be rubbery just in case a floret runs into it while not paying attention to what they're doing :]

And that's about it! ( for now :] )

This is the point I am currently up to as I get ready to tackle whatever the next part is. I might follow this up with some random things that didn't really fit. like fixes to problems I was having. Making stuff in unity is still very new to me being most of my mapping experience is in source 1 hammer and only a little bit in source 2 hammer. so this has been very fun. I've tried to explain ideas the best I could but of course there is probably way better explanations. This was a super long post and the next one when it comes out will probably be a lot smaller being I don't need to condense a months worth of shit into a single post.

What I'm planning on doing next is making models for all the placeholder things I've made and or making some images that are meant be part of pamphlet that is meant to be a guide on how to use the functions of the hab for new or forgetful florets, The idea is that it will actually explain how certain parts of the map work once I add functionality though at this point its going to be more of a test in terms of design and isn't going to be finished being this map is lacking logic so there isn't anything to explain but still!

[astranauticus]

ok one last post about the Project to truly exorcise it from my brain. just some process/design thoughts (also now that it's done if you want to read my liveblogged whinging for whatever reason here it is)

first off some stats because i kept stats like the nerd that i am:

time wise making this animatic took about 93.5 hours give or take (thanks procreate process replay) spread across exactly 2 months

anyway when i said i finished this project mostly through stubbornness and sunk cost fallacy this is what i meant lol like a lot of my thought process through this was just 'no way in hell am i letting some of these drawings disappear into my drafts forever'

on average each frame took about 2 hours 45 minutes but thats a bit of an overestimate since i forgot to count some of the animated bits from the first two lines (so id guess the actual number is more like.. 2 hours 20 minutes?)

btw that line with the starry apparition fading away? 12 hours total

the single longest and most painful frame to draw was the one of the crew walking through tu'narath (5 hours 30 minutes) because a. perspective b. architecture design c. for some reason i put a lot of detail into rendering the armour on all the githyanki i drew why on earth did i do that

(its especially painful bc that frame was one of the ones that didnt... feel like an important enough moment in the actual story of the show to be worth capturing the way the wish or even like, endellion is, i just needed to put that there for the storytelling flow or whatever of the animatic itself and it bothered me so much)

one other interesting little mishap was that i did all of these on canvas size 1080x720px (so that's why the youtube resolution isnt particularly high lmao) which is why procreate let me put an absolutely absurd amount of layers in one canvas (all 8 frames of with memories projected on the astral sea were done on one canvas. 159 layers) because the layer limit for that canvas size is 400 BUT. i accidentally started the starry apparition fade on an A4 canvas (my default canvas size for like all my normal fanart) and i only realised after finishing all the lineart and starting on colouring because i hit layer limit so i had to resize the canvas which did... interesting?? things to the lineart resolution

also if youre wondering how i drew K-LB that many times in something resembling timely fashion the answer is i sacrificed some... amount of sleep to 3d model and rig him in blender which. honestly? i consider it a roaring success

splitting the frames by bar was a Choice and certainly a choice ive.. had doubtsTM about but thats the kind of thing you cant really change without bringing the whole project crashing down so if the frames seem to move a bit too fast im so sorry there was really not much i could do there

idk if people actually noticed the very very tiny drawings of the crew moving around on the ship in the 4th line especially since they sometimes get obscured by the subtitles but the REASON for that is in my original drawings the subtitles went in the top left corner but they kept conflicting with other stuff so i just gave up and threw them to the bottom (also i originally included the chinese lyrics but then i got lazy lmao)

anyway that little detail like VR-LA angstily looking at the sea reminiscing about the JourneyTM and the crew sort of appearing along with the memories of their adventures together was one of those things that seemed SO COOL in my head but once i actually execute it its like. hmmmm not sure if that worked out the way you thought it would buddy. also the tiny crew was EXTREMELY hard to draw so put that down as another point in 'me subjecting myself to deeply painful and out there compositions for no good reason'

anyway i called this my magnum opus but i do actually have some thoughts about another one (a companion piece, if you will) for another song by the same band because now that i know what capcut can do im.. really itching to try something a little different because this like powerpoint presentation style? fully a product of me using iMovie as my only available video editing software for the past like 7 years of my life

[aceofwhump]

Question is the legacy editor any good? I've never used it because I'm paranoid about it messing my posts up lmao but I'm curious

The short answer is yes. Legacy editor, the older way tumblr did posting, is in my opinion, the superior editor. I love the legacy editor. A lot. It is definitely superior and I'm sad staff has decided to slowly get rid of it.

However! With that said I've been pretty much exclusively using the beta post editor for the last like year when staff announced that they'd be eliminating the legacy editor eventually so I thought it'd be a good idea to get used to the beta editor. Which I suppose I did. I've gotten used to it and don't use legacy much at all anymore. I also wanted to use it because I got really tired of not being able to edit in mobile the posts I made on web using the legacy editor. With the beta editor you can edit across platforms which is soooo nice. (although it appears that in one of the apps many updates I can now edit a gifset I made today via legacy editor but not the posts I've made in the past using the legacy editor so who knows what's going with that).

But there's a lot of annoying things about the new beta editor that make it inferior to the legacy editor and I'm praying that staff will improve it. For starters, and probably my biggest complaint, is how awful it is to upload and rearrange images. It's so much easier in legacy editor to move images around. In beta the page moves when you start to move the image and it drives me CRAZY!!! I always end up putting the image in the wrong place because the page won't stop moving! Legacy is wonderful to arrange images. I do think the upload is slightly better in beta purely because it uploads multiple images in the order I select them where the legacy just puts them in whatever order it wants to and I have to remember what order I wanted my gifs in.

Legacy is also better because it actually differentiates between an image post and a text post. With the beta editor everything is technically a test post. So my gifsets are not considered an "image post". Some people have noted that the beta, since it's not an image post, it resizes the images a little and sometimes decreases the quality of the gif by doing that. I haven't really noticed that myself with my own gifs but doesn't mean it isnt happening.

The legacy editor also allows me to upload my gifs without stupid errors for no reason. Lately any time I upload more than 6 gifs at once I get an error message and have to upload them one by one. Its not because of size because they're always under 7mbs so I don't know why I can't upload them all at once. I hate it actually. And sometimes my gif will be under 10mbs (like 9.7mbs) and it'll tell me that the gif is too big. Excuse me tumblr but 9.7 is smaller than 10! I never had this problem in legacy.

The legacy editor is also better when it comes to using html, inserting links as text and not the stupid thing beta does where you paste the link and it becomes that stupid post preview thing that I hate, and oh my god is it awful for text blocks! When it first came out you couldnt select multiple texts blocks at all. You can now but it isn't the easiest. And it like expands when you do and makes it weird. Idk it's hard to describe. In legacy you can just...select all the text with no problems. Text blocks are treated like individual sections in the beta and make editing a major pain in the ass.

I also don't like thst apparently new xkit won't work in beta and you have to use xkit rewritten because fuck I don't want to learn how to use that one when I've been using new xkit for years but I guess I'm gonna have to now. I haven't been having any problems with xkit yet but who knows....

So yeah I think overall legacy is better. Beta Post Editor has some good things (I like the increased image upload limit, the editing tags is good) about it but there's so many problems. Unfortunately we're stuck with it so I've been sticking to using it exclusively to make the transition easier on myself. I do suggest becoming used to how it works and to just continue to provide feedback to staff about features we dislike or bugs we come across. Hopefully they'll listen and improve it.

[roxie-the-princess]

You should do Witch of Blood complete stranger I’ve never met in my life

wow hello there person ive never met even though we follow each other thats crazy

anyway witch of blood

Witches are served by their aspect, in both meanings of the word. While witches at first glance may seem to be well-off or blessed by their aspect in some way, the truth is more complicated. Witches are characters that are put into some position of power or authority or responsibility, or given things to help them, typically related in some way to their aspect, but they tend to wish they weren't.

Feferi, Witch of Life, was seemingly well-off, being the heiress to the throne of Alternia, but she hated the way the planet was run- she was heiress to a throne she didn't want to inherit.

Jade, Witch of Space, was raised by a first guardian that protected her and wouldn't let anything bad happen to her. Unfortunately, that came at the cost of being alone her entire childhood. Later on, after becoming godtier, she was blessed with the powers of a first guardian- but she wasn't really a huge fan of the new dog instincts, and she certainly wasn't a fan of being taken out of the action because she was too strong to get involved.

The path of the Witch is a double-edged sword- you're granted many advantages because of your aspect, but too much of a good thing can be bad for you.

A Witch's powers come from taking back control. When life gives a Witch lemons, they don't make lemonade- they rearrange the atoms of the lemon to make cookies. A witch breaks the rules of their aspect to do something no other class can.

Lots of Life players can raise the dead, but it took Feferi, the Witch of Life, to literally create an afterlife in the dreambubbles.

Jade, Witch of Space, literally breaks the laws of physics by resizing objects without changing their density or mass, which allowed her to transport all the Lands of the beta session to the alpha session.

Blood is the aspect of bonds. While blood is often tied to the familial, the bonds of blood are those forged by friends. It is also, of course, the aspect of literal blood- along with pain and suffering.

At the same time, it is the opposite side of the coin to breath- the aspect of freedom. Blood can be an aspect that makes its heroes feel like they have no choice.

A Witch of Blood, served by their friends and loved ones- They might feel like they're held captive in their own home or among their friends, even when they have the witch's best interests at heart.

A Witch of Blood, served by pain- Others empathy may cause them pain, when all the witch wants is for them to be happy.

A Witch is not all bad to be, though. Once they take back control, they will do amazing things.

When breaking the rules of blood, several potential powers come to mind. I'll separate them into a few categories.

Breaking the rules of pain- being able to endure anything without feeling pain even if your body can't handle it, being indestructible but still feeling pain, feeling good instead of bad when someone hurts you, getting stronger instead of weaker when injured, erasing the downside of some attack that would normally have recoil, etc.

Breaking the rules of bonds- counteracting forces of gravity and attraction, magnetizing things that aren't magnetic, etc. (gay marrying somewhere in a place where its illegal???)

Breaking the rules of blood- A troll could easily manage to use powers of another caste, changing their own genetics, etc.

There's probably loads of other cool ideas, witches are pretty insane when it comes to ideas for powers. These are just a few I thought sounded cool.

[abysmal-black]

(@pxison - reg. Snooj suffering begins now 😈) There was a current of giddiness running through Niji as he sought after the blonde runt. So much time had been lost between his disappearance and reunion with the rest of the family that Niji was all too eager to make up for. In his clutches was an all too familiar helmet. This time resized to fit the cooks head should it be reapplied for old times sake. No matter where Sanji hid himself, he could never truly get away from any of his brother's torment. The sickening grin Niji was wearing only grew when he finally found the little scumbag and the helmet within his possession was presented in full view as though he took pride in all the memories it held. “Remember this Sanji? Those pretty little bracelets you're wearing are nice and all, but I thought you'd look even better in this. Doesn't it take you back? Why don't we both go down memory lane, I'm sure the other two would like to join in as well for old times sake.”

Contentment is long gone, all Sanji can hope for is silence. Being left alone with his own thoughts is preferable to his twin's company and for the most part they've left him alone. No longer is he the small boy that can't defend himself, begging for his sires help to call off the dogs he called brothers. It would be empowering if the mental scars didn't ache. Everything is the same, almost untouched by time in the years he's been absent. There is some sliver of solace that his mother's grave is kept tidy, her ghost not wandering these dreary halls.

It's in the cathedrals that the chef spends most of his time, beauty and color rare on Germa. Inside hallowed walls it almost seems like another place, foot traffic kept low and thick walls drowning out the drone of combat drills and weapons testing. It's as serene of a hideaway he can hope for and passes most of his time with a book of napping in the pulpit for privacy.

Today however, he's been found out.

Niji is loud as usual, any attention good attention. Sanji makes a point to not even glance up at the man as he nears, neatly rolled joint maneuvered to the other corner of his mouth and page turned. Whatever he wants isn't good but the cook feigns an air of nonchalant hoping he'll leave.

Curiosity sets him on edge; there are very few things his twin could be referring to and single viable eye opens fully. Why would they still have that thing? Throat clenches suddenly dry, anxiety crawling up his neck like a cold towel. He knows what it is without looking, can still feel the weight of heavy steel closed around his skull and panic grips his heart. Can hear the painful thumping in his burning ears of racing heart. Knows if he doesn't act know Niji will push the matter and after all these years Sanji can't go back. He can't survive the cell, the mask, this place. Are his hands worth his sanity? If they are gone would his kidnappers find him useless again?

“Fuck off.” It's meek where he wants to growl. “I'm not in the mood.” He's never in the mood and fingers turn another page. “Get lost or I'll fillet you.” This time his voice doesn't crack, the treat very real even if it's carried by bravado.

[sonkitty]

This list is way beyond a lot of me, but there are a few things I feel I've found and understand, so here is my take.

"Crowley's sunglasses. Could this be explained by POV switches? If so, why do they change halfway through and then stay that way?"

They cannot be explained by POV switches. Aziraphale "proposed" at the end of episode 2, that they borrow each other's homes to form a special connection. Crowley accepted despite his verbal and facial cues. It helps to watch how he manages his left hand to see how his response is a Yes. I'll go into it in my own series of posts when I can, but I'm not at that point just yet.

Crowley's sunglasses are his door to himself. He gave his door a new finish because it's a big step in their relationship to form this connection.

...

"Why does Micheal do the magician's "nothing in the box" display with the matchbox? It's a very specific action. Something's in that up with that damn matchbox. We're being asked to look at it, while something else happens that we're missing. And someone noticed that her nails are in terrible shape when she does it, but our eyes are on the matchbox."

That sequence is a clue to a hidden game in the story called Earthly Objects. It's a layered type of game the characters are playing. An audience member can play it by trying to figure out how the game works. The mechanics are heavily based on touching.

I suspect the Book of Life is actually disguised through the matchbox.

You can find me ramble on about these things in these posts:

Post #8 (finding out Gabriel is in the bookshop)

Post #10 (storming out)

I cover the matchbox touching sequence in the "storming out" part, the closing section.

...

"Crowley put something in Aziraphale's mouth during the kiss. I don't know what, but something he had to swallow. obligateweirdo pointed out that he seems to palm something out of his mouth when he touches his lips the second time, and that Houdini's wife used to slip him the keys to his cuffs with a kiss before his shows. Whatever Crowley gave Aziraphale, it's physical. And Michael Sheen has said he doesn't want to share what's in Aziraphale's pockets -- because Aziraphale put whatever Crowley gave him into a pocket?? Was it the fly? (But didn't that go into Gabriel's eye and stay there?) And if it was the fly, what was inside it?"

Pockets are a big deal in Earthly Objects. They are a really, really big deal. They are the more advanced mechanics within the game.

The game has a lot of findable, solvable puzzles, and a certain group that is very much meant to be found is 6 Threshold Tricks. Among those 6 is something called...The Pocket Trick...which is a giant pain due to a significant increase in difficulty scale. It impacts many things all over the place, including the other 5 Threshold Tricks.

I think the thing you found was a tie clasp of one of Crowley's ties, resized as necessary because it's too small to be just one as it is.

The tie strands are connected to the hands because they are Crowley's Tied Hands.

I wrote more about it here:

The Pocket Chain Rainbow Connection Part 4: The Door Trick and The Door Catch

...

"The rainbow lens flairs sure look like eyes. Like a pupil and iris. Is this a subtle hint that we are seeing through someone else's eyes?"

I don't know what parts you mean look like eyes, but rainbows are very much related to the pocket mechanics mentioned above. The Pocket Trick's core concept is, "Think outside the pocket," because a player has to use their imagination with word play.

Elvis Presley has a song titled, "A Pocketful of Rainbows." Each touch in The Pocket Trick has a "rainbow" to find. The Bigger Thresholds Trick, The Door Trick, and The Window Trick also have rainbows, all of which happen in episode 6. The Sunglasses Trick receives a reflection of white light, I assume, because it is beautifully layered.

There's a rainbow at the start of Crowley's first present day scene. There's a rainbow at the end of Crowley's last present day scene before the cut that is going to be used for the credits.

And there's a Rainbow Connection. I linked part of it earlier, but the more simplified post for the whole thing can be found here:

The Pocket Chain Rainbow Connection

My murder board

Updated 4/22/24

I'll add links as I can, but here's what I've got so far on the Good Omens season 2 puzzle/game. I feel it's important to note that I think we've been given all the puzzle pieces and a bunch of helpful hints besides.

The continuity errors:

Crowley's hair (POV thing)

Crowley's sideburns (POV)

The Bentley, "our car" but then it is Our Car in 1941 also -- WTF (There is a line in the book about someone being powerful enough to make something change and then make it so the change always was that way, but damned if I can recall the line or context now. Need to re-read AND re-watch! Found it! It's when Crowley first meets Adam after he's come into his powers -- he reads Crowley's mind and history like it's a book and this is the impression it leaves Crowley with. Adam's power is very similar to how the Book of Life is described in the show. Curiouser and curiouser!) (POV!)

Eccles cakes when Crowley leaves the shop, it's still morning, the continuity of time is messing with me. When they get the eccles cakes, it's light out. When Crowley leaves, it's dark out. He throws a lightning temper tantrum. He comes back after 9 by the clock in the shop. I still think it's not unreasonable to assume Aziraphale simply tidied away the eccles cakes in that time. Nina would have liked her plate back, after all. But all of this begs another question: 4a. Why is it around 11:30 when Aziraphale leaves Maggie's shop with the record and says he knows what he'll be doing for 21 minutes, but after 4 pm when Gabriel shows up? What happened for those 4+ hours? See 6. Clocks are wrong. Time is wrong!! (4.b the eccles cakes are prominent in at least one promo poster. Even if they don't disappear, do they mean something else??)

Portal rug it's a faded rug right up until the ball, when it becomes a thick red rug, then it's back to faded once the ball is tidied away. It just got made pretty for the ball, then changed back. The change is a nothingburger.

Clocks are wrong -- all over the damn place!!

Cross on Gabriel's statue -- appears to disappear. (POV)

Honolulu roast sign -- appears out of nowhere. (POV)

Title/location cards -- but there are some spots where the S1 title cards are used, what's going on there? (POV clues? -- this needs a closer look)

Drawing of Gabriel -- the one Aziraphale draws in the shop is NOT the one he shows the pub owner in Edinburgh. Why? (POV)

Wet roads/series poster -- what is up with all the rain??

Lights at Marguerites -- on again, off again. (POV? Or is it just when she's closed and open? It's a cafe, after all, they won't be open in the morning.)

Aziraphale's chair position in the Final Fifteen

1941 photo, Crowely's hand

Repeating extras -- not just repeating, but acting oddly -- walking back and forth, touching things, not eating, dressed the same every single day, etc. Do the people on the street in Edinburgh behave the same way?? (POV?)

Resurrectionist sign at the pub -- one with a scalpel, one with a butcher's knife. And it makes me think -- was Mr. Dalrymple a surgeon and a scientist with a scalpel, or a butcher with a cleaver? (POV. Wait, Aziraphale is the only MC there -- whose POVs would we be seeing?? Crowley's. He calls to tell Crowley what he found, what we're seeing is Crowley's idea of what happened.)

Store front signs -- appear and disappear. (POV)

Whickber street as seen from Heaven vs. on location -- the one Saraqael looks at in Heaven is the Google Maps picture of SoHo from 2019 with the book shop added in. It's not even from 2023! There is a building being torn down in it. In person on the show, it's different -- and the building is long gone in actual Google Maps 2023. (I think Saraqael is trying to hide the big miracle. She's showing the arc angels the book shop when it got reset by Adam in 2019.)

When Shax talks to Crowley and he takes off driving. When she appears, he is parked further up the street than when he leaves. Noticeably so. (POV? Or scenes out of order and this is a different time than it looks like?)

Edinburgh castle -- when Aziraphale arrives in Edinburgh, the castle is behind him. When the camera switches angles to behind him, Edinburgh castle is in front of him. The street he is on (streets, actually) are real streets. The castle was put in the first shot deliberately, but exists for real in the second shot. (POV)

Edinburgh streets -- when Aziraphale arrives in Edinburgh, the street he parks on is cobblestone. When the camera switches to behind him, the street is paved. (POV)

Weird sounds of all kinds?? (POV? Some of them yes.)

Crowley's sunglasses. Could this be explained by POV switches? If so, why do they change halfway through and then stay that way?

Questions about things the characters do:

Where did Crowley go during the Job flashback? And why was he wearing his spy turtleneck? (To meet up with Saraqael, perhaps? Seeing as Shax interrupted their meeting earlier that day?)

Where else did Aziraphale go in Edinburgh? And why did he go to the graveyard?

What did Gabriel need to bring to Aziraphale? What happened to it? (God's voice? A message from god? The Book of Life?)

Why does Micheal do the magician's "nothing in the box" display with the matchbox? It's a very specific action. Something's in that up with that damn matchbox. We're being asked to look at it, while something else happens that we're missing. And someone noticed that her nails are in terrible shape when she does it, but our eyes are on the matchbox.

What else did the Metatron say to Aziraphale? (Anything? Are we getting the whole, accurate story? Most of it? Any of it?)

How long was Crowley in Heaven, and what happened while he was there? (Did he sneak around and steal something? Did they harm him? He's acting a bit weird when he comes back.)

What happened to Aziraphale's briefcase? The one he took to Edinburgh. Where he did who knows what. (Is that a POV thing??)

What, if anything, is wrong with Crowley's memory? (Or is he just dissing Furfur and Saraqael?) (OR! Given the Gabriel removed HIS OWN MEMORY AND PUT IT IN THE FLY, so apparently angels ((AND demons??)) can affect their own memories, did Crowley deliberately do something to himself to get rid of unwanted memories??? He seems pretty untroubled by not remembering Furfur or Saraqael or why they made gravity -- almost as if he doesn't care the memories are gone. Okay, maybe he's gotten rid of some memories himself, but then WHY??) This could be a big old nothingburger. Or is he dissing Furfur and offering plausible deniability that he's met with Saraqael before -- like, when he was wearing his spy turtle neck??

What is Shax's mission? She says she's Crowley's replacement, but then she asks for "what she needs" from Crowley on the bench. Huh? What does she need?

How does Crowley know about hand washing in the Resurrectionists minisode? (This strikes different than the "lead ballon" remark on the wall. It's hard to say if Crowley knows about lead balloons, or if they're speaking an angelic language and it's being translated for us and the translator has a sense of humor or is trying to convey Crowley's sense of humor. The hand washing is actual, concrete, specific knowledge of the future.) Ah, I just re-read the book, where he mentions helicopters to DaVinci, and also Neil said this. It's something Crowley can do. He's a demon, he knows things.

What is going on with Maggie? I don't think she's a demon, but there is something up with her. (Also, one of the men in the graveyard in Edinburgh has a tattoo that says "no regerts." That's a real tattoo that circulates around the internet every once in a while -- I think it's a subtle reminder that humans aren't necessarily great at spelling, either.) But she has a Mason symbol on her necklace, and I still think the Masons are significant somehow; Aziraphale can't miracle-influence her; Aziraphale expects her to feel the arc angels arriving.

Why does Gabriel speak with god's voice? (Was that what he needed to bring? That message? But he says he needs to give Aziraphale something, and both times he speaks in god's voice, it's to Crowley. Hmm. IS that God's voice? It's a woman, but who is it?)

How did the pub owner recognize Gabriel's picture so fast? He says himself, "Look pal, I see a lot of people -- oh, yeah, I remember him!" ?? Was it just because Gabriel was weird at him?

Why is Crowley throwing books? It gives us a laugh, but is there a reason for it? He even seems confused as to why he's carrying them right before he does. (This is a POV thing -- the lens is "Aziraphale's" lens, so I think we're seeing Crowley tell Aziraphale what happened while Aziraphale was gone, and how Aziraphale imagines it would go.)

Why is Saraqael the only angel to react with fear before anyone else recognizes the Metatron? (Is it because she's been working WITH Gabriel, Beelzebub, AND Crowley and Aziraphale to thwart the second attempt at ending the world? Neil says he had some secret things for Sandalphon to do, but the actor wasn't available, so Saraqael does some of those things instead . . .)

Aziraphale gently laughs at Muriel's Inspector Constable persona, but then IMMEDIATELY adopts a just as over-the-top reporter persona. Is he doing it deliberately, or is he that un-self-aware? If he's doing it deliberately, why? Who's he trying to convince he's not that savvy? The pub owner? Anyone who might be spying? US?? Is that a POV thing? And if so, whose?? (AHA! I think this is Aziraphale telling Crowley what happened, and Crowley picturing Aziraphale being adorable in his disguise. Aziraphale is not that silly actually, but probably not as slick as he wants to think.)

Why the heck did Maggie and Nina go talk to Crowley while the Metatron was talking to Aziraphale? What they had to say wasn't important enough to leave Nina's shop during a rush, and I definitely don't think they derailed Crowley from what he needed to say to Aziraphale, though it might look at first as if they did. So what was that about?

When Shax stops Aziraphale for a ride, he says, "Oh, I really need to get to --" and then is cut off. He really needs to get to where? It's an easy assumption to think he means the book shop, or London. But is that all he means? Or was he on his way somewhere else? And if it was just the book shop, what does he mean he's late? Late for what? And that lens is still Crowley's lens -- Aziraphale is relating the story to Crowley. Crowley also knows where Aziraphale was going besides Edinburgh.

Crowley can tell something is wrong. Something. What?

Good God, this questions list just keeps getting longer. Why would the Metatron allow Beelzebub and Gabriel to leave, after trying to stop Armageddon 2.0, but come after Crowley and Aziraphale like that? Just because of the big miracle? (Which I'm not sure they did.)

Why does Crowley say "Oh, God," right before his confession in the final fifteen? To let Aziraphale know that he understands what Aziraphale is saying? That God (or the Voice) is there? Seems possible.

Why didn't Gabriel come down the lift in the Dirty Donkey? He also says he had to carry that box for sooo long. Where was he wandering around?

When Crowley leaves Heaven, he tells Saraqael and Muriel to come, too. But in the elevator, Michael and Uriel are there! When the fuck did they show up??

The whole time Aziraphale is in Maggie's shop asking about Every Day, he is looking out the windows and is VERY nervous. Is he just concerned about leaving Gabriel on his own, or is he nervous about something specific? He does react to the car horn outside as others have noted, but he is already jumpy and checking the windows repeatedly, the car horn isn't anything particular, he's just already fixated on the windows.

Why does Beelzebub tell Shax to attack the bookstore? Aren't they worried about Gabriel being harmed? And they know Hell is understaffed. Maybe that's why they command it? Because they know Shax won't be able to get the demons?

Questions about the world:

What about the Masons? It's such a specific thing for the pub owner to bring up, what is the meaning of it? And Maggie has a Mason symbol on her necklace. Did the Masons carve the statue of Gabriel? When did they see him?

The only narration we hear in the entire season is Aziraphale in the Resurrectionist flashback. Why? (Maybe to throw us off? I think we have multiple POV characters in season 2, not just Aziraphale, but we only hear Aziraphale so we assume he's the POV for the entire season. But still, why do we only hear him narrate 1 flashback? Argh, is he reading the diary to himself in the present day? That would explain the end, "And that was the last I was to see of Crowley for some time." If he is reading it in the present day, why? What made him think to go back to THAT entry?? Oh, duh! He JUST heard the story of the jukebox from Maggie. And Gabriel appearing -- same city that statue is in. Of course he thought of something important from that diary entry! Now, what did he notice?)

Is the Book of Life a real threat? We hear two stories about it, that it's real and that its ability to erase beings was something to scare the cherubs with, this is inconclusive. Crowley gets nervous after Beelzebub talks to him, but he could just be upset that their little break is interrupted, and now Heaven and Hell have taken an interest in them again.

Is reality fucked up? How? Whickber street bubble, Aziraphale's power turned up (how?), etc.? A LOT of it is POV shifts!

Job 41:19 on the matchbox: 1941?? YES. Bullet catch/kiss scene!

Where TF is God? "There was nothing for Her to do" my ass. She narrates. That's it. So there was nothing for her to narrate? Hm. (Because there was a host of other narrators? Are the Crowley/Aziraphale through the ages flashbacks in S1 narrated by God? I don't think they are, but I need to rewatch. They are not! And they aren't narrated by God because Crowely and Aziraphale are the POV characters in them.)

So many promo posters show Aziraphale, Crowley, and Jimbriel together, or symbols of them. Three feathers: two white, one black. Tea cup, cocoa mug, wine glass. The three of them. Not with Beelzebub, not with Muriel, the three of them. And all three of them have been Jesus-coded in some small way. No one else. Those three. What. Why. Are they the sacrifice required to bring about the new world? Why not Beez, then?

Wait. Two Crowleys?? WTF. There are two Crowley puppets in the magic shop, and Crowley doesn't remember Saraqael or Furfur. Is he dissing them, or is that the second Crowley that never did meet either of them? Am I insane? I have no theory here, just some wild speculation that needs a lot more time to simmer. Two actual Crowleys, or two ideas of Crowley? Or something to hurt my head?

Why are they in a cave in the opening sequence? The guy who made the opening sequence says they are in the fly that Gabriel stores his memory in. Okay, why? And Crowley lights a match to see. Hm. What else was in that fly that Gabriel didn't take when he got his memory out?

An album on the wall in Maggie's shop says "Rat Keith." This seems to me to be an allusion to The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett. In the book, some men have tied several rats' tails together to create a rat king that keeps the wild rats under control -- except that the rat king has too much power and is doing way more than just that. People die. So who's been given too much power and is now running the show instead of being a puppet? The Metatron, perhaps? Hm . . . Also, Keith is the young boy who plays the part of the Pied Piper for Maurice's scam. He leads all the rats out of town, never mind that the rats can talk and are in on the scam.

Things I think I know:

NEIL GAIMAN IS A LYING LIAR WHO LIES. Except when he's dropping hints or answering straight out. All of his answers to anything anyone asks about GO are suspect at best. (I cannot blame him or anyone else on the cast or crew -- they spent A LOT of time and energy building this very meticulous puzzle game for us -- why would ANY of them give ANY of it away? That would ruin all the fun!)

God has been removed/has vacated. Where did she go? I wonder if anyone knows. Is She just standing back and watching? In the book, Crowley says that anyone who can create a whole universe in six days doesn't let a war of rebellion happen unless they want it to. But that he and Aziraphale wouldn't understand, because if they understood, they wouldn't be them. It's INEFFABLE. He also then FORGETS what he was talking about a minute later.

God doesn't narrate because She's busy being Maggie. Aha!

The Metatron is working for himself. The dice on his tie seem to imply that while God does not play dice with the universe, this jerk surely does. Also, see the rat king observation above, #10.

Gabriel was bringing Aziraphale a message, the box is a red herring. But that brings me to another thing I suspect -- there was something else in the box, and the box is deeply important. Ah, damn -- is that what Crowley gave to Aziraphale in the kiss? Whatever was in the box? Was that what he found out while he was in Heaven? What Gabriel took? Did Gabriel put it in the fly with his memory?

Heaven did something bad to Crowley while he was there. That coffee is a red herring to draw our eye away from him. But that brings me to something else I suspect -- Crowley's knackered and a bit off when he returns from his TEN HOUR JAUNT in Heaven not because they did anything bad to him, but because he stole something very important. Maybe the thing he gives to Aziraphale during the break up?

Crowley and Aziraphale did NOT perform a huge miracle. I don't know what happened, but it wasn't them working together. (Or did they? Are angels and demons more powerful together? Did the Fall create a schism between them that weakened them all? Or are they and Saraqael hiding who did do the big miracle?)

This is a 2 man con. Of course it's a 2 man con. I read American Gods. Crowely and Aziraphale have a plan. This might be version B or C, they might be springing it sooner than they hoped, but that break up was a ruse. A hard, painful ruse, but a ruse. They knew their respite would be short-lived, they've been putting something together for years now.

Crowley put something in Aziraphale's mouth during the kiss. I don't know what, but something he had to swallow. obligateweirdo pointed out that he seems to palm something out of his mouth when he touches his lips the second time, and that Houdini's wife used to slip him the keys to his cuffs with a kiss before his shows. Whatever Crowley gave Aziraphale, it's physical. And Michael Sheen has said he doesn't want to share what's in Aziraphale's pockets -- because Aziraphale put whatever Crowley gave him into a pocket?? Was it the fly? (But didn't that go into Gabriel's eye and stay there?) And if it was the fly, what was inside it?

Gabriel went somewhere else before he went to the book shop. He didn't come down the elevator at the Dirty Donkey. Did he go to Edinburgh? Is that why the pub owner recognized that picture so fast? "Oi! That's that naked bloke was in here last week!" (Or was him walking down the street because we first see him from Nina or Maggie's perspective?? POV muckery?)

SECRET SONGS??? Why are the songs secret?? I'm losing my mind, what is happening??

Several narrators. I'm not even sure how many, but we're seeing the world through the eyes of characters, not God or a faceless narrator. This is part of why things are weird. I don't think that's the full explanation for the whole season, but I think it's a big part of the weirdness. A book that comes up often in the show is The Crow Road by Ian Banks. A brief description of the book says that it is written from the point of view of several characters and the story is told out of order and in no particular fashion, with changes from character to character POV coming at no particular interval and with no warning. AHA! (I did come up with the idea before I saw this post, but @highlandwhackamole beat me to writing it. Well done!) NOW I'm wondering if we aren't also seeing the story as told by the characters we see, but as heard but an as-yet unknown character . . .

The scenes are out of order. The DAMN SCENES ARE OUT OF ORDER! I don't know their correct order, but they are out of order. The Crow Road, again, is told out of order, forcing the reader to piece the scenes together (from a brief description, I'm thinking more and more I need to read this book rather than try to skim it). Is it as simple as watching the scenes in chronological order??

Our angel and demon have hidden something in the book shop. Something important. I have no current guesses as to what. Crowley still has his crank from starting up the nebula. What else might he have taken with him? Is that it? Or something else? HOLY SHIT ARE THEY HIDING JESUS??? Is THAT who did the miracle??

When Aziraphale tells Crowley that their Gabriel miracle set off alarms in Heaven, he sort of raises his eyebrows and says it in the same way he says other things he doesn't mean -- the same tone he says "I forgive you" after the Kiss, or how he says "He says he's Bildad the Shuite," in the Job minisode. It wasn't the Gabriel miracle that set off alarms in Heaven, it was whatever Saraqael was doing, or whoever Saraqael is hiding, and Crowley is well aware of it and whatever Saraqael is up to. Aziraphale just told Crowley that they have to take responsibility for whatever Saraqael did to allay Heaven's suspicions. They are talking in code through more of this season than we first think.

The rainbow lens flairs sure look like eyes. Like a pupil and iris. Is this a subtle hint that we are seeing through someone else's eyes?

When Crowley and Aziraphale argue about what to do with Jimbriel, behind Aziraphale is a privacy screen, and behind Crowley is an open door. Does this reflect how each of them feels, that Aziraphale believes they are speaking in private and Crowley believes they are being listened in on?

Repeating themes:

Beverages of all kinds -- tea for Aziraphale, wine or whiskey for Crowley, cocoa for Jim.

Time -- lots of clocks/mentions of time

Love/partnership/togetherness being stronger than separateness

Queer couples -- is literally everyone in season 2 in a non-cis-het relationship?? Even the guy in the graveyard says he uses his phone for Grindr -- a gay men's dating hook-up app. Nothing wrong with it, but it's an interesting writing choice. Why? Equality and representation -- or a Clue? (I think it's a POV Clue!)

Memories/forgetting/remembering

Payment -- money comes up in both the Resurrectionists minisode and the Flesh Eating Nazi Zombies minisode, but no one pays for anything in present. There is bartering, but no money.

Rising from the dead -- Job's kids (even though they weren't actually dead), bodies used for science, Nazi zombies, the Second Coming.

Unreliable narrators

Death in general -- but 9a., I'm a dirty pagan, why didn't I make this connection sooner, death always leads to REBIRTH, change, something totally new and 9b. there are tarot cards in the magic shop, and even if you're not a dirty pagan, the Death tarot card means transition, something must die before a new thing can be born. Hmmmm.

Morality and what is "good" and what is right

Recognition and identity

Repeating words and phrases OMG the list goes on:

Technically

Properly

Isn't it just?

Too late

Funny old world

Not as such

Made for each other

EVERYWHERE

Obviously

Hints:

Powell and Pressburg films

The Crow Road

Catch 22

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, Terry Pratchett in general

Jane Austin

Book Good Omens

The titles of episodes, minisodes, places, etc. 7a. The Arrival: a book and a movie, though the book seems far more relevant. And lovely. The Clue: a movie. Companion to Owls: a line from a Bible story. I Know Where I'm Going: a movie. The Resurrectionists: two novels, each called The Resurrectionist, singular. Both look unhinged. The Hitchhiker: a Twilight Zone episode. Nazi Zombie Flesheaters: Literally no other reference. ?? Nazi Zombies do appear in a LOT of movies, comics, and video games, usually as a dark joke. The Ball: a video game. Irrelevant? It's a puzzle-based game, so maybe not. Every Day: a song AND a movie. Some themes repeat here: Puzzle games, being re-directed from one's path to find true love, death and being brought back to life in a gruesome and unpleasant way.

That's what I have so far. I'll try to update with new ideas and information, as well as links to things that support my theories as I find them.

[ghostlymallow]

A little animation I did for school

PROCESS NOTES

I did everything on paper, fountain pen for the foreground, and I used my shitty uneven ink brayer to coat the backgrounds with linoprint ink for that ~texture~

then I scanned it and composited everything digitally. for the beginning I copied and cut out all the foreground elements and used a plastic sheet to layer over the bg in the scanner (which is why it's Like That). I used OpenToonz to sequence everything and reframe some timing issues as well as to do some basic comping. (the part where he pulls out the diamond is on 3 animation layers, not including the bg) then in After Effects (i don't like Adobe, but that's what's available at school), I resized everything and added the zoom out at the end. I realized that I made the opening square too big, so I had to resize everything again, but that meant that the margins of my animation (with all the notes and frame numbers and messiness) would show, so I layered up some texture files to create the vignette effect.

Afterward, I used DaVinci Resolve to add sound

Notes for next time:

x-sheets and timing charts are a godsend! -- while animating, I had no way of viewing playback, so I just had to trust that the "math" would check out, and it pretty much did! I still had to adjust some timing, but less than I feared. considering that this is the first thing I've done on paper in like 3 or 4 years, i'm glad

double check the math on sizing -- yeah, I made a few errors that bit me in the butt

scanning takes way longer than you think it will -- it took like 5 hours to scan less than 120 frames of animation. also, apply that to inking, especially if you're relegated to only working after you get home.

having individual assets will save your ass -- I am SO glad that I had the warewithal to do this

resize everything at the same time if you want them to match up -- I resized all the animation in opentoonz and then the bgs in AE, don't do what I did, kids. even if you have registers, it's still a pain, it won't be exact

reserve some time to learn your software with small things first -- i think the only reason I was able to pull this off without staying up into the wee hours of the morning was because I was at least partially familiar with all the software already, also old forums are still my best friend. I think I want to learn Fusion next

FINAL THOUGHTS

in all, I'm proud of what I've done, this is the longest animation i've ever done, the first thing I've done traditionally in YEARS, and I did quite a bit of troubleshooting

i am so so tired, so I think it might be a bit of time before the next one, but as much as i might bitch and whine, I LOVE this process, it's so much fun, and the frustration was just part of the challenge.

just, I think next time I'll try not to leave myself with a 1 week turnaround lmao

[brierburrbrito]

“Ah, question?” Flash asked, raising his hand as though he were a kid in school. “How did a kid end up becoming the King?”

“Oh well that’s actually really simple.” Phantom chirped, folding his legs criss-cross applesauce and floating in the air. “See, I never wanted nor did I ask for it. Oh no, I spent most of my after-life wandering around the infinite realms, occasionally popping into the human realm to check on progress. I was perfectly happy being a floating, doting ghostie. A few years ago I became a hero to a small town to protect them from more violent ghosts. Then -someone- decided to be a froot loop and release Pariah from his perma-nap, and I ended up defeating him in single combat. Hence, King by right of conquest.”

Constantine’s first question was ‘WHO THE BLOODY HELL RELEASED PARIAH FROM HIS SARCOPHAGUS?!’

His second question was ‘WHY DIDN’T JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK HEAR ABOUT THIS?!’

And his third question, Flash asked for him. “Hold on, how old are you, kid?”

Phantom smiled. “I’m fourteen! Well, I was when I died. I kind of haven’t really kept up with how long I’ve been dead though.”

J’onn frowned, taking in the literal child’s appearance. “There are mentions of you in ancient texts of my people.”

Diana stepped forward, a frown on her face as well. “There are records of Phantom on Themyscira as well.”

Phantom nodded. “Wouldn’t surprise me. I’ve done a lot of travelling. Now, what did you need?” He blinked innocently, looking every bit the naive teenager that everyone knew he had likely been before death claimed him.

Batman was the one to speak up, though it pained him to imagine how much this child had suffered. He didn’t seem to be able to rest even in death. “An enemy has appeared, and we are having difficulty fighting back. He has put Superman into a hospital. Flash and Wonder Woman have only just been released. Several others are there now.”

“Who is it?” Phantom asked, adjusting his too-big crown to no avail.

“His name is Darkseid, King Phantom.” Constantine said, bringing attention to himself. “We’d like your help in defeating him.”

The child-kings head swivelled to him, toxic green eyes seeming to glow brighter. “Yeah, okay, but I want something in return, specifically from you, John Constantine.”

The temperature in the room seemed to drop. Constantine didn’t like the look on the kids face, despite the slipping crown obscuring it. “If its my soul, you can have it.”

“What? No! I have like a hundred slivers of that thing, it’s completely worthless…no, I want your help.”

“My help?” Constantine asked, feeling offended by the soul comment. “With what?”

“You’re magic aren’t ya? Help me resize this damn piece of headwear!”

DPxDC Prompt where Danny gets ghost king summoned by the JL, but it’s one of those “crown too big for he gotdamn head” situations, and not in a way that looks cool.

It’s just completely obscuring his face, sat on his shoulders with tufts of white hair poking out. 

Danny’s only glad they can’t see him blushing (and that he can hide the damn thing when he’s not actively forced to reveal the artifacts by, say, a fucking summoning).

[kirusha49]

Dating in Barranquilla

Dr Danišik said there is huge potential for the technique when it came to more accurately dating eruptions in New Zealand. Hence it is far more useful than the original TL technique in dating buildings. A relatively short-range dating technique is based on the decay of uranium-234 into thorium-230, a substance with a half-life of about 80,000 years. A fair deal of this criticism is deserved; X wasn’t designed with personal single-user desktops in mind and, as a result, it has accumulated quite a bit of cruft over the years in the form of various confusing standards that attempt to bolt modern paradigms onto an aging model. This post will go over some of the smaller things that can be done via Xlib with a minimal amount of pain and confusion. Because the concept of window “frontness” is purely decided by the window manager and not the X server itself, Xlib must rely on standards like the Extended Window Manager Hints to suggest changes in visibility to the window manager running above it. נערות ליווי בתל אביב והמרכז On non-EWMH compliant window managers, therefore, this should fail gracefully. 4. Map the Window to the Display and flush it all for displaying. An innovative method co-developed by a Waikato University researcher has been used to verify what is the world's oldest known map and will have significant uses in better understanding New Zealand's volcanic history. The method involved using special types of equipment, on of which is the so called Ultra High Vacuum Helium Extraction Line. Amino acids can exist in two different mirror-image forms (L and D type) that can be differentiated using polarized light. Despite national differences in corporate law, corporations share a set of legal characteristics which define this type of organization; these include (a) having legal person status, (b) having limited liability, and (c) having the ability to transfer shares, as well as (d) sharing ownership of resources and (e) having a centralized management under a company board. Well done with those 2 matches Sasha. Already well established and frozen as version 11 (hence “X11”) well before the initial release of Linux in 1991, X is a relic of an earlier time in computing, complete with a codebase widely panned for doing too much, too little, and failing to do anything well in the process.

We had someone who submitted an application and then by the time we saw it, it was too late to actually go book the ticket and they had made other plans for the date. • We’ve made our application as user-friendly and straightforward as possible. Another possible red flag - Tinder's operating margin in the first half of 2015 fell to 14 percent from 23 percent a year earlier, largely because of a rise in the cost of revenue. We do follow ups after every first date and check in with successful matches after three months and again after six months. If scientists find a layer of volcanic ash with a known date on one side of a valley and also find a layer of ash with the same chemical fingerprint somewhere else in the valley, they can assume these layers were laid down at the same time. We were interested to see if the youngest of the volcanic deposits were the same age as the settlement. Compiled just as above, this produces them same plain window, but with dimensions no smaller than 200x200 and no larger than 800x800 after resizing.

Our plain window is fine and dandy, but what happens if a user tries to resize it beyond the size of our (non-resizable) window contents? We rigorously vet every user just to make sure people aren't using our app for unlawful purposes. Not getting the opportunity to meet good single people? You’ll meet an agent for a private and confidential conversation. Keep your personal details personal: Never share personal information or photos with someone you don’t know and trust - especially photos or webcam calls of a private nature. The scammer needs the victim to pay their phone bills or buy a new laptop so they can keep communicating with the victim. Our impressive database of users, along with precise and thoughtful matching techniques, ensures that we can find amazing matches compatible with your personality, taste and location. But signing up in dating sites or apps will let them find the kind of women they’re looking for.

[blues824]

If requests are still open, could I have the dorm leaders (plus Jamil if you could) with a fem!s/o who is capable of using glyph magic? (For reference, The Owl House and Weiss Schnee's semblance in RWBY) Hope this wasn't to much too ask of you. Thank you! Love your blog!

Why, thank you for your compliments! I’m so sorry it took me a while to do this. I lost motivation for the longest time, and due to not wanting it buried in my asks, I resized it to 3 characters.

Riddle Rosehearts

Probably surprised because he thought you didn’t have magic. Like, you wait until everyone’s overblots to demonstrate the true power that resides within you, while he demonstrates his magical authority whenever someone breaks a small rule.

He remembers when you drew a glyph with your fingers to show him what you can do, and you added various symbols as well as shrank and enlarged the original circle. It looks so mesmerizing and he was very impressed.

He noticed that it was the only magic you could perform, but at least you weren’t completely defenseless. He would help you practice by sparring with you so that you could manage the glyphs better. 

Other than that, he’s kind of indifferent towards it. I mean, it might not be uncommon in your land to use glyph magic as opposed to unique magic, but here you don’t see it often. He applauds you for finding a way around the ‘no magic’ problem you have.

Leona Kingscholar

Isn’t surprised, but is? He thought his little herbivore didn’t know how to use magic at all, but he knew that you had some unspoken strength within you. You also only use it when necessary since you haven’t quite mastered it yet.

When he overblotted, he saw that you were doing multiple glyphs both within each other and simultaneously. It impressed him, to say the least, but it was no match on your own. Luckily you had some comrades (there is no way they were your friends since they keep getting you in these situations) helping you.

He’s seen you use it against some Savanaclaw dorm members for being loud and obnoxious, and he was glad to be able to continue his nap undisturbed… though it would have been better if you were next to him as he lay in his bed. 

All in all, he’s kind of impressed. Glyph magic is fairly powerful, and if one mastered it they could do great things with it. He knows that you are a bit rough around the edges, so he will suggest training with some of his dorm members.

Azul Ashengrotto

Would probably try and get you under contract because you don’t see this a lot under the sea. Your magic is very unique in Twisted Wonderland. Mans sees dollar signs where you see trouble, pain, and exhaustion.

He remembers once when Floyd went in for one of his hugs and you, knowing what that entailed, started drawing a glyph to push the eel back. Azul was amazed at how fast you were able to do it, but then looked at the glyph. It seemed a bit on the rougher side, but it was great for a moment of panic.

Out of pure curiosity, he asks you about it. You gladly show him what exactly you could do, resized and added to the glyph to make it a different spell entirely. He was watching, taking notes. If someone found that notebook, they would think he was going to do some ancient ritual to disturb a god of some sort.

He finds it amazing, to be honest. For someone without magic to find a way around it is astonishing to him. He applauds you for the dedication you had to learn the different glyphs and how to alter it to your desire. Might ask for some advice, though.