#took me a while to figure out a good color scheme but i think i really like this one

[slightabsol]

New shaymin sona :>

[ohdeerfully]

Hii!! i’ve never requested smth before but i absolutely adore your lil one shots for alastor and was wondering if you could write smth based on someone’s idea?

https://www.tumblr.com/sockmeat/741700944177315840/alastor-in-rut-but-instead-of-him-being-horny-hes

completely fine if not!! i just thought it was a cute idea and would love to see it wrote in an actual scenario!! :3

this is really simple and short but god writing block is killing me quickly... hope u like it anyway!!!!!! mwah mwah

as stated in the request, this is based off of @sockmeat 's post, which you can access by clicking here!

Jealousy Looks Good on You

alastor x reader (fluff) TW: alastor is super possessive, reader is referred to as female but doesn't really effect story at all, thats it i think

join my discord!

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It was that time of year again for Alastor. A few months of absolute physical and mental torture—which, considering he lived in Hell, maybe that was how Heaven finally managed to torment him for eternity. It never took a genius to figure out what put Alastor in such an odd state.

He was a deer.

Deer go into rut.

It was incredibly embarrassing, to say the least, especially for him when the rut was over. However, for his “mate,” who faced the brunt end of his seasonal affections, you didn’t mind in the slightest. In fact, it was probably your favorite three months of the year. 

You were currently lounging in the hotel lobby, chatting with Angel Dust about a bar he was interested in going to. You had one leg thrown up over the other, clad in a dark red outfit that had been “mysteriously” placed on the edge of your bed when you woke up—you knew who the culprit was as soon as you saw Alastor a few minutes later in a suspiciously similar outfit of the same color scheme.

He had been sitting next to you for a while, making small, nearly unnoticeable bids for attention as you tried to focus on Angel’s words. A pressure on your knee with his own, a light graze of his fingers through your hair as he lifted his hand to adjust his monocle… to anybody else, the contact would’ve seemed only coincidental; however, to you, it was obvious considering the great care he always took to mind his personal space.

A brief glance out of the corner of your eye confirmed your suspicions. You couldn’t help but lightly grin at the tense grin on his face and the growing expression of frustration as you continued to keep your attention on Angel.

“–so, that being said, I wanted ta invite’cha out with me! And Cherri’ll be there too,��� Your eyes turned back towards the spider. You could nearly feel the tenseness in Alastor’s shoulders heighten, and that radio frequency of his tuning up ever so slightly, but still noticeable.

“That bar is no place for my lady,” Alastor responded in a snap before you could even open your mouth. You whipped your head in his direction with a frown. 

“She isn’t your anything, Smiles,” Angel shot back, also interrupting your own attempt at defending yourself. 

It was almost comical, the way your head twisted back and forth with each remark the two made at each other. The tension was rising quickly, and you were getting more agitated with how many times you got cut off from saying a single word.

You were distracted from your own mental anguish when Alastor abruptly stood, hand gripping his cane with more force than usual. There was a dangerous look in his red eyes as he grinned down at Angel.

“She is mine,” Alastor stated with finality. “And what’s mine stays with me.” He reached down and gripped your hand, tugging you up with him. As angry as he seemed he was still gentle with you, at least. 

You’d be lying if you didn’t find the possessiveness attractive. Heck, it would probably be impossible to date the Radio Demon if you didn’t want to be obsessed over and practically owned. You were only slightly embarrassed at the heat on your cheeks when you felt the almost desperate grip of his on your hand, to which Angel pointed at with a defeated “what the hell.”

He basically dragged you away from the situation, ears slightly pressed back. He refused to look at you as you caught up to his steps and walked beside him. He didn’t have to look at you, though, because you already knew the turmoil that was going through his head.

“Don’t be so embarrassed,” You tried to comfort as he opened the door to your shared bedroom. “I think it’s very becoming of a gentleman to protect his property.” You enjoyed the way his eyes glittered with pride when you referred to yourself in such a manner. You didn’t truly consider yourself property, of course, but you simply enjoyed seeing that look in his eyes and the way his chest involuntarily puffed up.

What a different being Alastor was during his rut. More expression than ever with the way his affections and frustrations were so visible in his body language. He pulled you closer to him, squeezing you against his body as he let the two of you fall into the bed. You lifted yourself off of his chest with an elbow and looked down at him.

He met your gaze with his own wide, needy eyes and quivering smile. To put it simply, he looked… pitiful. Endearing. You loved it. He hated it. You knew if anybody saw him in this state he would go on the attack immediately without a single thought. You briefly glanced back to make sure the door had been locked. Just in case.

You smiled at him and peppered kisses on his chest and up, finally nuzzling your head into the crook of his neck. He sighed pleasantly at your motions, swooping his arms up to position you on your side in front of him, wrapping himself protectively around your body.

“I crave you, my love,” He stated in an incredibly forward way. His voice lacked the typical radio effect as he spoke, and you realized your skin was also not prickling with the sensation that usually accompanied his presence. You responded by layering your hands over his own, which was resting comfortably against your waist. “I never want you out in such a… dirty place with that overly sexual spider.”

“I know, Al,” You said with a sigh. “Too many ‘hungry eyes’, you’ve told me this.”

He remained quiet, and you could barely feel the way your hair flicked every time he exhaled against the top of your head.

You also remained quiet, opting to just enjoy the moment. These three months went by so, so fast, so you didn’t want to waste time speaking and bickering over meaningless things. You didn’t care to go to bars, anyway; you weren’t much of a drinker. You also hoped to get Alastor’s mind off of his disdain for Angel. While you trusted him to know better to attack one of your friends—more importantly one of Charlie’s friends—you didn’t want to take any chances. He was somehow even more unpredictable during his rut.

You leaned your head back, tilting up slightly to meet Alastor’s gaze. He placed a feather-light kiss against your forehead in response.

He was in for a long three months, but you were going to enjoy every second of it.

[shiny-jr]

Please yap away about your new Empyrean series~! I’ve been watching a bunch of videos and reading about Genshin Impact so I can better understand the world and dynamics you’re planning to write about and absolutely fascinated with everything~

Is there a specific dorm you’re looking forward to writing about or possible side arcs/missions in between the MC meeting the different Archons like the events in Twisted Wonderland? Were some of the dorm leaders easier to place as the different Archons elements than others and if so who did you struggle with?

Oh god, where do I even start? How much is too much to say? I don't want to spoil whole parts. I haven't actually written anything for it, but I do certainly have ideas. Ideas that have been accumulating slowly but surely.

Uh, I think first thing's first, none of the TWST cast are going to be just human. How unfair would it be if, say, Riddle was an archon (god) and Ace was just human? Kinda unfair. Which is why all the characters are going to be something else. I'm still figuring some of this part out.

Keep in mind, my knowledge of Genshin Impact extends as far as Inazuma and no further. Anything I know beyond that was through tiktok, that is it. So I'll be taking heavy inspirations from the first three regions.

Pairing the element to a character wasn't too hard actually. So first I focused on the archons, and I looked at the dorm leaders and what they stand for and what type of magic they use.

We know Riddle uses a lot of fire magic based off his SSR Dorm Uniform card. Additionally, the color scheme just went well with his hair color and the roses and all. At first I thought it seemed uncanny, because how could a green region based off of Britain be symbolic of the pyro element? Well, then I considered that since it borders Savanaclaw, it could make sense.

For Leona, I took into account the volcanoes that act as a natural border between his land and Riddle's. Additionally, his unique magic made it a very easy choice. I mean, turning things to sand? Slapping Geo on it and calling it a day.

On Azul's, I was actually torn. I know it seems like an obvious choice of hydro, but listen, at first I actually considered giving Kalim hydro due to his own unique magic. Then I thought maybe Azul would get cryo, but in my mind, leaving the other elements to the remaining characters just didn't make much sense. So, ultimately, Azul won the hydro element.

Giving Kalim the dendro element just happened to coincidentally align with the Sumeru region's main element. I wanted to give Kalim the next best thing if he couldn't have hydro, which was dendro. As I see it as a very "good" element with positive qualities, which he deserves.

Vil was one of the others that gave me trouble when assigning him an element. For a very brief moment, I considered giving him dendro, but that just didn't fit the sort of aesthetic I had in mind for him. Then I remember what his home region is supposed to look like, if it's similar to Epel's, it's snowy, right? So cryo was the next best option. I think it actually fits him well, if I do say so myself.

Idia was the last character to give me trouble. For a while I really was not sure about giving him the anemo element, as he just seemed like the complete opposite of Venti and his ideals. However, the longer I thought about, the more I came to terms with it. Wind doesn't have to mean just freedom. Wind can be very terrifying too, like what we see in Stormterror's Lair which is the sort of aesthetic I imagined when I finally assigned him anemo.

I mean, duh, of course Malleus was getting electro. What else did you expect? I mean, there was a second where I considered giving electro to Idia, but then giving anemo to Malleus didn't sit right with me. Electro was ultimately the best choice for this archon. It's constantly used in the games around him, he has control over it, it just made sense to give him this element.

Any other characters that are not archons will have their elemental type be based off the region they're from. HINT HINT. For example, Riddle may be pyro as he is the archon, but at least one person in Heartslabyul will not have the pyro element.

[guesswhoisofftheirmedsagain]

I was thinking about my Rock Star Kon AU while writing this, but it ended up not specifically relating to that, so this could be read as a part of that AU or as completely stand alone. :] (this one def reads more like a short fic than anything tbh, apologies for bad writing ahead)

How Kon finds out Tim’s secret identity:

He goes to Tim’s apartment planing on surprising him, to officially ask him to be his boyfriend, and to apologize. They had a bit of an argument about what they were to each other. (It was all just a misunderstanding). Kon invites himself in, walking over to where he knows Tim’s room is, only to see clothes on the floor. Kon’s heart almost stops, he feels like he zeroed in on the clothes, his other senses leaving him. He follows the trail, anger rising when his suspicions become confirmed, that the trail led to Tim’s bedroom. He heard the shower running as he opened the cracked door to see into the room, a figure was laying in the bed. The only light in the room was streaming in from the attached bathroom. Kon knew he shouldn’t be, but he was mad, he had just started opening up to Tim, then he goes and sleeps with someone? The color scheme of the unusually thick looking clothes, and now that he thought about the various pieces of armor, the multitude of weapons carelessly abandoned, a mask set on the nightstand. A vigilante? Tim went and slept with a vigilante?

A tuff of black hair poked out from under the blankets. “Tim?” Kon’s voice was flat, an attempt to hide the hurt he was feeling. Tim shot up from the bed, the blanket falling down his chest. He was shirtless, Kon studied him but didn’t see any marks. “So which one, huh?” Kon didn’t have the looks of the vigilantes of Gotham memorize for Rao sake. “Nightwing? Batman?” His anger grew, he felt so, so betrayed. It’s his own fault, he got to attached. Lex warned him about this, that he wouldn’t find real love, but Kon had been too stubborn to see it.

“What?” The genuine confusion on Tim’s face, in his voice, only fueled Kon. “Where is he?” Kon started going for the bathroom door. “Is he in here?” He was- he didn’t even know what he was going to do with this guy, for sleeping with Tim, Tim was his. But he wasn’t, you never made it official. He pushed down that little voice, he didn’t want to hear logic right now. “Kon, what are you talking about-“ His voice was groggy, as if he just woke up. The question made him turn around to look at him. Against his need to beat up this Gotham vigilante, he flew over to the, now what is clearly, a vigilante suit. He grabbed it, and threw the shirt piece at Tim, who caught it. A look of understanding took over Tim’s face. “Kon, I swear, I wanted to tell you, I always meant to tell you eventually that”

“Tell me? Eventually?” Kon’s brain almost shorted out, was Tim dating this guy all along? Was Kon the second dude? Is this what being a side chick feels like? Really, what did he expect, Tim is good looking, rich, smart, funny and all around amazing, of course he’s out of Kon’s league. Vigilantes are cool, mysterious, strong, and save the day, is that what Tim liked? “Yes, if things kept going the way they were, I would have to tell you that-“

“I can’t believe you’re sleeping with a vigilante. Have you just- just been-“ Tim’s laughter cut him off, and Kon’s confusion overtook his anger for a moment. “Why are you laughing at me? Do you find this funny?!” Kon stormed over to the bathroom door, slamming it open. “Kon wait- I!” Tim choked on air as he called for Kon. Kon didn’t stop this time, pulling back the curtain to the shower finding, nothing? Kon immediately focused on his hearing, but was only able to pin point two heart beats in the whole apartment. “Where did he go, Tim!” He started looking around the room, not finding anyone, did this dude run out bare naked? How did he get out? Was Kon that distracted?

“Kon, Kon please there, there is nobody to find.” Tim’s laughter started dying down, little by little. “I swear, there never was anyone else here.” Kon narrowed his eyes at Tim, not buying it. “So? You just have a random vigilante suit laying around on your floor?” Tim looked him in the eyes, mixed emotions in them, amusement, nervousness, fear. “I am the vigilante.”

Kon’s brain skidded to a stop. What? The words echoed in his mind, turning them over, trying to find out how he could have misheard Tim. ‘Tell you eventually’ that what? Tim was a vigilante? Oh Rao, Tim is a vigilante. Kon approached Tims bed, hesitated only for a moment, then grabbed Tim by his shoulders. They were so close, Kon could see the pupils of Tims eyes, even in the dark. “So you’re not sleeping with someone then?” Relief filled Kon as Tim shook his head no. “No, Kon, I’m not sleeping with anyone, vigilante or otherwise.”

After Tim finally takes his shower, glad to get all of the grime from patrolling off of him, he and Kon have a serious conversation about what they mean to each other. By the next hour, they are officially dating, and Tim dreads having to tell Batman that Kon found out his identity. He dreads even more having to tell his family he actually has a boyfriend now, and prays to a god he doesn’t even believe in that they don’t get out the kryptonite.

[watcheraurora]

The Ballroom

Ficlet that I wrote in like an hour instead of getting ready for bed. I watched the episode when it came out but the vibes just hit me now 1.2k words

For the record: this one is not shipping. Platonic only.

—

Etho stepped into the ballroom and tugged to make sure his mask was secure over his face. He was aware that masquerade balls usually involved full-face masks or one that covered the area around the eyes. Not so much a simple cloth covering the lower half of his face. But he preferred keeping his nose and mouth covered. Kept his peripheral vision free.

He wandered aimlessly through the crowd. If he was honest, he wasn't entirely sure why he was here. He wasn't really a high-society sort of person. Sure, he was friends with the princess, but he would never have imagined that she'd bother to reach out to him for such an occasion. They weren't that good of friends.

In the center of the dance floor, couples were spinning around. Almost dizzying just to watch. Most everyone was in much looser, flowing clothing compared to Etho's close-cropped formalwear. He also noticed his black color scheme and white hair was quite stark against the lighter, desaturated neutrals. Creams, beiges, tans, a bit of a sage green splash here or there. The colors and the loose clothing were all typical of this country and their solar-powered technology.

Etho lived in the jungle—though he didn't consider himself one with it, the way this princess' people considered themselves. He knew he was separate from it.

And he'd never felt the difference more starkly than being surrounded by hundreds of people in masks all in airy, light clothes while his were exactly opposite.

Eventually—thank the gods—he found his way to a punch table. Though he didn't really know how he was going to drink it without removing his face mask. He saw some people pushing their masks out of the way to drink theirs, but he wondered if that didn't defeat the whole purpose of throwing a masquerade.

"Had a feeling I'd find you lurking in a corner, sir," a playful voice remarked.

Etho twisted to see a familiar figure—almost as tall as himself—emerging from the crowd. Slipping between two people with an easy grace.

The princess wore a light, flowing green dress. Accented with gold jewelry. She wore no tiara. Instead a ring of sunflowers was woven into her long brown hair and a mask of gold vines covered her eyes. Though it couldn't hide how bright blue they were. The dress was shorter at the front—not quite reaching her knees—and longer at the back. Revealing the knee-high strappy sandals.

Etho was pretty sure he was the only one in the room who'd noticed that despite the rather flimsy appearance of the dress, she was armed.

"Well, this isn't really my usual gig, now is it, Your Highness?" he asked.

"Stop with the formality. Pearl is fine. You know that." She waved dismissively. "We don't really bother with such things here." She held a hand out for him. "Walk with me."

He crooked his elbow and offered it to her. She rested her hand on the bend to allow him to escort her properly.

"I wanted to invite you," Pearl began casually as they walked around the edge of the ballroom, where the crowd was thinner, "because I appreciate all the work you put into building the infrastructure around here. Just because I have the idea for putting together a postal system doesn't mean I have the technical knowledge of how to create one."

"I guessed as much," Etho replied casually. "That's why I accepted the invitation."

Pearl grinned. "I do appreciate all the effort it took. I mean, you practically built every mailbox by yourself."

He shrugged. "Happy to help my friends," he said. "And Tango helped. Especially with the most complicated work that I didn't want to do myself."

"Yes, well. He declined my invitation."

"Oh, if you think I don't like fancy balls, he detests them. I don't think you could pay him to wear formalwear." Etho snickered behind his mask. "I don't think he owns anything more dressy than cargo pants, come to think of it."

Pearl chuckled.

They reached the platform where the musicians were playing. "Just a moment," she said to Etho. She released his elbow and started moving the flowing folds of her skirt. "Do you dance, Etho?" She glanced up at him.

He snorted, his mask muting the noise a bit. "Not as much," he replied. "The 'dancing' I learned involves a lot of sharp and pointy things."

Pearl grinned. There was something trickster-ish about the glint in her eyes. "Well, allow me to teach you, then," she said.

She finally located whatever she'd been searching for in the folds of her gown—a music box made of red mangrove wood dangling from a gold chain off the leather belt worn over her corset. She twisted the key beneath it a few times and tapped the conductor of the musicians on the arm. He turned expectantly. She passed the music box over. He accepted it with a nod.

Pearl turned back to Etho. "Shall we?" she asked.

Etho offered his elbow again. "I can try. No guarantees I'll be any good."

Pearl smiled. "I have faith in you," she remarked, taking his arm.

She led him out onto the dance floor and showed him where to place his hands. One on her shoulder blade, the other holding her other hand.

They slowly made their way through the slow, simple, but airy waltz the musicians were playing. Etho was coordinated. He wasn't hopeless. He just wasn't used to such things. He got the basic steps quickly. He could follow the line of dance. He just wasn't going to be pulling off any complex tricks any time soon.

The musicians faded out their song.

"And now," the conductor said, "a special request from Her Highness, Princess Pearl."

The conductor held the music box up to a microphone.

It began plunking out a gentle melody.

Etho tilted his head to turn his ear to hear better. "I know this tune," he said softly.

"Hmm," Pearl hummed mischievously. They began dancing again. Carrying on the waltz as the music box carried on.

Something seemed to click. The tune sped up and the musicians started to play along with the box.

The other dancers slowed to a stop. The whole ballroom went silent apart from the music.

Etho and Pearl were the only ones still moving.

Etho looked around. "What is this? How did you do that?" he asked.

Pearl lifted his arm to twirl herself under it.

As she did, her beautiful dress turned into body armor. Her hair braided back.

A weapon appeared in her hand. "Well," she said with a grin, "I thought we should have an opportunity to dance in a way you're more familiar with as well." Her tone was light. Playful.

Etho couldn't help but smile behind his mask. "Let's dance, then."

Pearl tossed him the mace in her hand. He caught it easily. Another appeared in her other hand. "I do so love this song," she remarked as she swung.

[mister-qi]

Mr. Qi Friendship and Romance Mod Devlog 5/9/2024

Previous update

For those curious about the mod progress, read on!

Since the previous update, most of my efforts have been spent on Art and Implementation. While I've made some progress on Writing, that hasn't been my main focus.

Writing

Heart Events: no major progress, besides a bit of writing/blocking for the 4 heart cutscene.

Daily Dialogues: Generic dailies are 64% done. Unique dailies are currently on the back-burner. Marriage dailies are also on the back-burner, but I have quite a few written regardless.

Misc dialogues: A new section! This includes so many little details, which even get as hyper-specific as what happens if you divorce him and then attempt to invite him to a movie. What does he say if you give him a bouquet at low hearts? What does he say if you're married to him and there are slimes in the house? Stuff like that! There are 49 of these written so far, and it's hard to estimate my progress because as I continue looking through both the documentation and existing files I get more and more ideas.

Gift Dialogues: Not a ton of progress since the previous update, though I've written his birthday gift reactions.

Art

Portraits: 2 new portraits finished: blush and shocked.

Sprites: You may have seen me posting about this, but Mr. Qi does not have a walk cycle in the vanilla game, so I had to make custom animations for him. I've also changed his color scheme to better match his sprites.

Besides that, I've also made a walk cycle for the Bouncer, who will show up in at least one cutscene, maybe two.

look at him go!

Maps: I'm really excited to announce that I've recruited someone to help with maps! Their name is wovensong, and they're currently working on the Casino VIP Room, which features in the 10 heart cutscene. They're helping with both the sprites and .tmx files, which is a huge help.

Misc sprites: none yet

Implementation

I have a functional version of Mr. Qi that can be befriended in my files now. He doesn't have a ton of dialogue in game yet, but you can give him stuff, raise his friendship, and trigger some placeholder heart events. But getting to that point has been kind of a hassle, in ways that the average modder doesn't have to deal with!

You see... the vanilla "Mister Qi" has a space in his internal name. If you know anything about coding, this should be setting off alarm bells.

Here's an example of where that's an issue: say you want to trigger a cutscene at two hearts with an NPC. You'd write something like:

f Jodi 500

which the game reads as "trigger this cutscene when you have 500 amount of friendship with the NPC named Jodi"

But if you were to write:

f Mister Qi 500

the game would go "you want me to trigger this cutscene when you have Qi amount of friendship with the NPC named Mister?? WTF?" and then SMAPI throws you a big red error and the cutscene would never trigger. Yippee!

It took me... a while to figure out how to get around this. Luckily the 1.6 update now allows for parsing for quotes in certain scenarios, so what actually works is:

f \"Mister Qi\" 500

So I'm glad that I started this mod now instead of pre-1.6!

However, it's definitely possible that the space in the internal name will cause issues down the line, so I have some (rough) code for what to do in that scenario. This involves hiding the vanilla Mister Qi, and adding a new, identical NPC with an internal name that doesn't have a space. Other mods, such as Morris Redeemed and some NPCs like Marlon and Gunther in SVE, do this as well.

And, if you're thinking that I could just change the internal name itself: maybe?? But probably not. There's some hardcoded stuff surrounding Mister Qi, and I worry about breaking it. Additionally, if any future official Stardew updates added new content revolving around Mister Qi, there's a risk that the mod would break in more serious ways.

Final Notes

Overall, I feel like I'm making pretty good progress! There's still a lot to get done, but I'm proud of the work I've done so far. Thanks for reading!

[penny-the-pissed-poltergeist]

RWBY volume 4 episode 2: Remembrance rewatch thoughts

RWDE/Critical opinions ahead, you have been warned

.Say what you want about the Schees, they have the color scheme down

.Weiss's depressed walk around the house is a good way to establish the manor. Just pointing out how at lot of assets here look it be 2D inserts, they're blended a lot better then latter so it's not really a problem but still.

.Klein made Crapes :)

.It's feels so weird that Whitley was never mentioned before this, especially with Weiss mentioning how he's "changed" when we have no frame of reference for how he usually acts.

.Ruby's having nightmares and not telling anyone :(

.Okay fine, Jaune talking about his family life is cute. Even though I can't tell if I find the jokes about him being effeminate annoying or charming.

.The dead guy looks as much like a video game NPC as someone can look, really takes away from the impact they're going for.

.While paused for this, I noticed how Stormflower attach to Ren's pants like they've been glued on instead of hooked or holstered into anything and that annoys me.

.This default skin ass Hunter stays alive for the exact amount of time it took to explain how he got there. Makes me wish they'd just found his body and figured things out through context clues.

.The rest of this scene is pretty good aside from that, this character reactions are really well done. I've said and am going to say many things about the writers, but they can write sadness pretty darn good.

.When Ren and Nora looked at that hoofprint, all they could think was "HOW HAS NO ONE KILLED THAT THING BY NOW, COME ON!?"

.I know Jacques says Ironwood is a "trusted friend and ally" to the schees and people have used that to try and say Ironwood was down for all the shit Jacques pulled, but Ironwood clearly doesn't agree with or approve of most of the things Jacques has said or done (He killed this man later for crying out loud) and I could see James being in power long enough to have possibly known Nicholas and had become and ally to them when he was still around (Nick has issues, but he's still better then Jacques)

.So is the embargo trying to make it so nobody has the amount of dust to even start a war? Cause I can't think of how else it would help. Also I'd have to assume this is VERY resent because Nora thanked the Schnee dust company last episode and I'd assume they didn't go to Atlas off screen.

.Why are Ironwood's arms so short, he looks like a T-rex with those things.

.If anyone else not named Jacques asked Weiss to sing for this I'm sure she'd be down, she's just uppity because her dad is being weird about it as usual.

.While I can find Klein's semblance charming, from everything I know about DID including some people who are in systems (Not all DID) IRL that I know (That's as much as your getting from me) it doesn't seem accurate to real systems at all to my understanding, I feel like they shouldn't have just said that he has DID/multiple personalities without any research.

.As much as I dislike Jaune, I can't diss the end of this episode. It's really well done and as good at being as melancholy as intended. Even if yelling and putting yourself through pain in middle of nowhere when other people are sleeping and grimm are around seems really foolish. (If want something more in depth, go ask someone who actually likes Jaune)

[hostilemuppet]

All your ocs (trolls, gems, ect) have such cool designs! I especially love what you do with colors and shapes :D Do you have any specific process when you make them or is it like an elaborate vibe-check

aww, ty :) for every oc no matter what i always try to make sure something about their character is communicated in their design, whether its something like "they are a doctor so they wear a doctors coat" or more like "they are lazy so their outfit looks very low effort"

but for TROLLS specifically, i almost always try to make sure theres some sort of theme or motif going on that i keep in mind throughout the whole design process. keep in mind what you want/need (eg, for slush puppy he needed to look like his parents, while for rosé i established from the beginning "pink glitter troll" and that smth i needed to stick to) and plan around that. heres an attempt at explaining my thought process after the fact

sometimes a theme isnt as obvious, for example brad and angelina were designed to resemble raggedy ann and andy toys but that isnt really obvious when theyre any older than children. i think this is okay since their older designs still show their personalities and are still pretty cohesive while complimenting each other

often youll have a theme or look youre going for but still struggle landing on perfection, and thats fine! a couple of my favourites, cupcake and glitz, took agesssss to nail down

(not including my reference photos for obvious reasons, but there is NO shame in assembling a moodboard for a character design! i highly encourage it in fact!)

for cupcake i knew i wanted her to be sweet lolita from the beginning (since. her name is Cupcake.) but settling on something concrete was trickyyyyyyy. everything from "her outfit should seem cutesy enough to fit her vibe without being so complicated that it looks muddy on such a small chibi body (and would be really hard to draw...)" to "i need to give her a hairstyle that looks trolly enough, oh no this doesnt look trolly enough but the hime cut really fits her personality, does the massive hat help her silhouette?" to "i want her colour scheme to look like youre walking into a candy store, is this incohesive? what if i try going for a chocolate and raspberry vibe? doesnt have what im going for... how do i salvage this?" it was a lot of facing a problem, trying to fix it, and then facing a NEW problem. and thats okay! rome wasnt built in a day yknow. sometimes youll need a loooooot of drafts to get a character design youre happy with. in fact its actually way better to have several drafts, especially if its a character youll actually use a lot! believe me, ive made the mistake before of "i designed what i thought looked good but i actually hated drawing it over and over again". if you love the way it looks and you think its effective, but you hate actually using it, its still a bad design! its half the reason i redesigned penny 😭 to be fair to me though im not sure i really expected to love penny as much as i do now...

with glitz i have less notes since i had an actual person (his co-creator) to give me real time feedback rather than reasoning to myself </3 but the same sort of thing happened. he actually took me more than a month to finalise! part of that was we only had one parent for him decided at first (and it was actually through the design process we figured out the other one! if you know who glitz is you can probably see the exact moment we figured it out 😭). but from the beginning i still knew i wanted him to look flashy with glittery accents (but NOT a glitter troll!) you can see i originally wanted him to have glitter freckles but i swapped that out for a glittery star shaped... okay i never actually decided whether that was makeup or a birth mark. audience interpretation! but i ended up giving him a much more recurring star motif since he wants to be a star and sometimes you gotta beat the audience over the head with symbolism

im not sure if any of that actually helped or if it was just rambling, but the tldr is: make sure you have an end goal in mind! whether its communicating something specific about their personality (eg glitz's flashiness representing his ego and lust for fame) or you have a theme you want to stick to (eg pitaya is obviously styled after actual pitayas), having a goal makes everything so much easier since you know what youre actually working towards! if youre just throwing shit at a wall, you probably wont end up anywhere youre fully satisfied with

[shuuenka]

Of first meetings - Fei Bai Bing

ALT text under cut

She put down her cup and looked up at him. Aside from occassional nibble at pastry brought by a waiter she didn’t touch any of the food in front of her. 

‘’Color me curious, how did you find out I switched with my sister?”

‘’You accepted Princess Consort's invitation for the small banquet, while still acting as Fei Bai Ping,” Wu Chun Tian replied, and started his dinner. 

He noted her raised brow. 

He figured he should be as much truthful as he can - if he wants young miss Fei to come over to 9th Prince side. It’s tricky - Fei family is allied to 4th Prince by marriage granted by the Emperor. Fei Xin is by all accounts loyal to Lian Bai Wei. However after his little trip to temple in the mountains, he is quite sure that first and second miss’ of the household do not feel the same way. 

‘’Our Princess Consort enjoys a wide array of pastries,’’ he continued. ‘’Recently she’s been enjoying sweets brought by merchants to our Minli harbour from far off lands and wanted to share them once we’re in the capital.’’

Young woman at the other side of the table frowned, understanding visible in her eyes.

‘’And from what I know you sister does not eat pastries due to wasting-thirst disease, no?” he quipped.

‘’Being friends with my cousin comes in handy,’’ she said. 

‘’Can’t deny. Don't blame me - it's Fei Jing Rui who has loose mouth.”

‘’And then you visited my sister in the mountains and heard the rest of the story.”

“Out of curiosity, yes.”

She took another sip of her tea and gave a small sigh. 

Golden ornaments in her hair jingling as cocked her head, ’’So, what is that you want?”

‘’Xiao Lou Tai - or rather, the information that Xiao Lou Tai can provide me.”

Her lips curled into a smile, first one this spring afternoon. She hummed and refilled her tea and then added a drop of honey into the cup. 

Everything she does, he notes, is unhurried and graceful. As if she had all the time in the world. Makes sense for someone who schemed from the inside of 4th Prince mansion for a year.

‘’Does the 9th Prince not have his informants? If so, then he’s further from the race to the throne than I thought.”

‘’He has his informants, but not a whole network,’’ he admitted. ‘’What I want is much more than a group of runners and your Xiao Lou Tai has it.’’

He leaned on the table.

‘’You have a bloody feud with the 4th Prince. You have Xiao Lou Tai, but you don’t have means to bring him down, young miss Fei.’’

The clutter of the restaurant noise from below the balcony and some people passing by the room was the only indication that time has not slowed down or stopped.

‘’Three conditions,’’ Fei Bai Bing finally spoke. ‘’One - the information that you will be requesting will still cost you. Two - I do not want anyone else knowing about this deal. I do not plan to be anything but a young miss of the Fei family that just came back from the mountain temple.”

He nods. ‘’Reasonable enough. Third?”

‘’I want you to establish, by whatever means, a tea house in Minli.’’

He blinked.

‘’Does Xiao Lou Tai want to expand north?”

''Mine does.’’

He didn’t have to think twice about her conditions. He smiled back at the young woman sitting across from him, ‘’deal.’’

Her lips stretched in a sweet smile and she raised her cup of honey tea, as in toast.

‘’Very well. I don’t have bitter wine, so I’ll raise this cup of sweet tea to toast you. I fall down to hell, you will go down with me.”

‘’Miss, what kind of toast is this?”

He huffed out a laugh, but raised his own cup. That's fun.

Good, he thought.

Lian Bai Wei had his web of influence stretching across the whole capital and even further. He even reached for Xiao Lao Tai with this marriage.

Always a few steps ahead of him and his prince.

‘’Color me curious,’’ he said. There was one thing he didn't figure out in all ofthis mess. ‘’You made 4th Prince eat quite a loss when minister Li stepped down, thus breaking their unspoken alliance. How?”

‘’Oh, this is something for me to know,’’ she said standing up. And then with half of her face obscured by an embroidered fan, she turned to look at him and continued,’’ and if you’re as smart as people claim you are and curious - for you to find out.”

[bells-n-wisps]

Hey Straying World AU fans I have stuff

notes for each design (if I have any) below cut

Five Pebbles - I don’t have many notes! Other than the fact of me giving into TRIANGLE PEBBLES, he’s mostly the same.

LTTM - OH MY LORD HER DESIGN TOOK SOOO LONG TO FIGURE OUT. Very much worth it though, because I’m very proud of her design! I wanted to lean into more of a sunset motif, especially considering her downfall, so that’s fun. Definitely made me appreciate Moon more

NSH - Eyyyy, it’s the design I’m most excited to share!! I came up with the idea of NSH’s face just being a S C R E E N while making little doodles during lunch. Not only does it hide him from Sentinels more, but I think it’s also a pretty cool design! NSH’s very silly free gremlin personality deserves a free-range screen. Idk if this face design will carry over to my normal Rain World design or not.

Suns: Nothing changed. Sorry. Nothing changed.

UI: FINALLY I FOUND A GOOD DESIGN FOR THIS SILLY AUGHHHHH… I wanted to play into a bunch of different representations of innocence, including a rabbit-ish color scheme (or just cute fuzzy things in general), the little angel wings, and a child’s nightgown. I feel like the designers went all-out for them.

SOS: I wanted to give her desert vibes!! In the future, I might give her more Egyptian motifs to relate to their whole afterlife stuff. Overall, kind of an “I’m tired and she dies super early let’s just slap colors on her” design.

[tornrose24]

So a fews days ago, @chinirom05 asked me some questions regarding my art and writing, and I told them the question was too good to be just on a DM, because my response might help other creatives/writers.

So to answer the questions...

When it comes to fashion, it really depends on a few factors. Since I’ve mainly done fan art on here, it boils down to ‘What’s the event/time period’ and ‘who is the character I’m dressing up.’ As a bonus, sometimes I try to factor in if I want to pay homage to the character’s ethnicity/heritage (I did this for those TGAMM Aladdin AU drawings for the princess attire).

So I’m going to go WAY back in the past for one example that the CU fandom might recall–remember the CU Tangled AU drawings and fics I collaborated with @princeasimdiya12 ?

While there was inspiration from the movie its based on, I also had to research the time period the movie supposedly takes place in (I think it was around the 1790s if I remember correctly). Edith was the best challenge for this one because there were a lot of dresses to put her in, but I also needed to design them in a way that reflected her character as well as would look good for her body type since she has a plus sized figure. The apron from the first fic was meant to show off her creative side, Her castle dress had polka dots as a nod to her canon outfit, and the ballgown used colors I thought would be good on her–but blue was a necessary element due to her iconic blue eyes. (damn, that was YEARS ago and when I had my old tablet!) Also I loved getting an excuse to research period outfits and creating dresses. George and Harold’s outfits outfits took inspiration from the characters they were based on, but I kept their color schemes and looked up clothes boys might have worn back then.

A more recent example was from the TGAMM fic Her First Forever Friend, and I did do drawings for it, including the example I’m about to talk about. It comes late in the fic (chapter 13, to be specific), but for the moment in question, I wanted to give Molly a new outfit that was meant to be symbolic/reflective of her nature and growth in the story (especially given how limited her wardrobe is in the show). I researched sundresses (or just dresses) for a girl her age, until I found a design I could work with that also looked like something Molly would wear. I also used yellow daisies in her appearance as a theme and for the symbolism behind it (I wanted to use pink lotus flowers at first, but their meaning didn’t exactly fit what I was after). If you’ve read the fic or seen my drawings for the fic (which includes her in that dress), then you’d understand the meaning behind it as well as what the outfit is meant to be parallel to. (Also, if anyone is reading this, do NOT click the link if you haven't seen the series finale of The Ghost and Molly McGee, or read up to ch 13 of my fic.)

If you mean inspiration for fashion… I get it from almost anywhere. For art in general? Well, I started taking inspiration from anime, and then gradually cartoons.

For the writing question… well, it’s not easy. When I have a story, I focus on the ideas and plan things out in my head. However, I might not have the things in between right away, so I might have scenes that take a bit more work to figure out compared to others. There are also some times where I realize an idea might not work so I’ll have to plan it out differently, or I want the story to go in another direction (or I just can’t use an idea).

One good example of this is–again–Her First Forever Friend. I thought I’d be doing a one shot, but it had the potential to be more, so I gave it a go. Here were some challenges:

-Since Molly came to Brighton earlier than usual, how would certain events change as a result? If she’s meant to defeat The Chairman just like in canon, how do I get to that? What’s going to be the big moment where ‘everything changes?’

-Chapter 4. Everyone who read this fic knows this chapter for lots for reasons. As I wrote in my notes, I had a huge decision in ‘who will stay and who will go’ by the end of it. I knew I had a much more interesting story on my hands if I made the choice that I ultimately went with, as well as a really good character arc for someone who needed it… and my readers really enjoyed how that character arc developed. (There’s one line in chapter 6 that best reflects this arc and my readers quoted it in their comments on archive.) In the chapter that came after this, I wanted to put the fortune teller oc in the dream sequence, but I opted not too as it would have made the scene too messy and I needed to keep attention on the three characters already in it.

–When I got to chapter 8, I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but then I realized ‘wait a minute, I’m seeing a problem/plot hole in the future if I just continue forward.’ So I had to give the duo a new problem as well as a way to find the solution–it extended the story to about 2/3 chapters but it was worth it, and I got some good moments to write out.

So yeah, just some examples of my writing process. Sometimes I have things planned, and sometimes I don’t. Especially if I don’t have the entire story arc in my head.

Also, I’ve learned that I need to try to simplify some sentences to make them flow–especially if there’s action in it (a reader commented that my fighting scenes needed shorter sentences to make them easier to read many years back). However, I like going all out on the more emotional moments–if there’s a heartwarming moment in any of my fics, chances are that’s something I loved working on the most and went all out. Also, I’m sorry if you ever need to look up words–I guess that’s the academic side of me wanting to include things that hopefully the readers will look into.

Now if you are collaborating with someone, like I did with princeasimdiya12? There’s a bit of compromise, but I’ve tried to include all of our ideas and put them together. It’s been a long time since I wrote the Tangled CU AU fics and I can’t recall which exact story elements were his at the moment but I made sure to make a note as to which story elements were his. (Also, I’ve seen some collaboration fics where it looks like there’s a scene going on, but everything looks painfully out of order as if the two are writing responses at different or later times, and I can’t handle it.)

Anyway, I hope that advice helps somewhat.

[mikestengl]

Everyday

I always seem to find petty things to do before I finally go out the door to my studio. I look for something, anything else to do: I had better check my email again? What was that purchase I’ve been thinking about making that was so important? There was a person, an event I was curious about. Let's take the time now and research that. It's because working in the studio is challenging and difficult. It's hard. It's work. Another painter at a life drawing group said one day:

Drawing's hard! If it was easy everybody would be do it.

Out there in the studio it is just me trying to do something and criticizing it all the way. Trying to make something with the presence and interest value to take up wall space. To hang in other people's lives. And it’s financial too: can I save this canvas? 

Yesterday in the studio, just before the end of the day, just before I took a towel and wiped 3 days of work from the surface of the canvas, I adjusted a few anatomical parts and I did so boldly as I recall. So today I’m looking forward to heading out there and assessing the situation. When I open the door (if it’s not raining) I’ll stand at the entrance a distance from my easel and squint my eyes to try and get that sense of overall balance of composition. See if the figure is standing her ground. With gravity.

Creating shapes, choosing arrangements, deciding upon a color scheme and mixing pigments. Working to do justice to the original reference material. I heard a very good painter say once, and as soon as he said it, it reverberated through my soul like lightening or whiskey: 

You are not trying to paint the subject matter. You are trying to paint how you feel about the subject matter.

While elsewhere in the cities of the world, the ones not being tormented by war, well dressed individuals and couples walk the floors of tall shiny art galleries and look at works hanging heavy on the walls. Paintings by the living and paintings by the dead. But here I will be clipping my toenails and feeding the cat.

[feverinfeveroutfic]

The Confectioner’s Tale | Chapter Ten

happy birthday peter 💚

I would see Pete the very next day on my day off.

I had still been thinking about my date the night before with Alex, and I wondered if we could possibly do it again should he and his band venture their way through the southland again. We had wonderful chemistry, and I knew for a fact that I would enjoy expanding things a bit more with him. So many things I wanted to bake for him, and yet I could feel the grains of the hourglass slipping away even when I relaxed on my back porch.

At that point, I was living in a little flat near the quiet, green hills of Camarillo: the one part of Los Angeles that carried the kiss of the ocean and the rain, and more so with my little vegetable garden suspended right before the railing right outside of the sliding doors of my bedroom. I could sit out there with the sun at my feet and look at my peas, my beans, my carrots, my radishes, and my chili peppers while I let my mind wander forth.

It was a hazy, gray morning, as per usual most days in Southern California, and I spotted that long streaky mane of jet-black hair down the block. I still wore my pink and gray pajama pants and my black velvet camisole under my black and gray sweater with Monterey and the California bear embroidered over my heart when he came over to me. Those green eyes looked on at me like a pair of neon lights against the cold fog.

“Hey, there’s the baking girl,” he greeted me, and he hooded his eyes and showed me a little smile.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” I told him as I picked up my black and white marbled cup of coffee for a sip.

“There are multiple places of the City of Angels that we have yet to explore,” he replied as he entered earshot. “I was also told there was a lovely library around here.”

“And you would be correct,” I assured him. “In fact, it’s the next block over.” I crossed my left leg over the other, but he stopped in his tracks, and he examined my legs as well as my hips.

“You look like a villain sitting there,” he told me.

I would never forget the time Ben said that to me. The one difference was Pete was being cute.

It happened the day after the dinner party, and Anne-Marie and I had the day off. I took a shower when I got up that morning as the humidity gave me enough sweat for an entire summer.

After a good hearty breakfast of steak, scrambled eggs mixed with onions and red bell peppers as a play on the Denver omelette, and sourdough toast, I sat outside on the front porch relishing the remainder of my coffee, and I did it mainly because it wasn’t as hot out that day. The overcast sky allowed me to be out there with the view of Mount Rainier and nothing more than my thoughts at the helm. We were right across the street from a bank and another apartment complex, so when the sun rose again, we had the right amount of shade for most of the morning.

The porch of the loft had been painted a bright pink with a black trimming to complement the blood red color scheme of our bakery. When Anne-Marie and I stayed there, we hung up things like beaded curtains in the doorway and whirligigs and elaborate woodworks right over the railing. We both had spindly wooden rocking chairs straight out of the Deep South on that porch. I kept a little bonsai and a little accompanying rock garden on the table next to me.

We may as well make it our own, as we figured.

Naturally, Ben had come over that morning to see Anne-Marie for something. I didn’t want to think about it, but rather, I wanted to enjoy my coffee as well as the cooler weather that morning. The continual blanket of clouds overhead also seemed to better accentuate the immense summit of Mount Rainier as well.

But it wasn’t enough to better accentuate the mop of dark hair upon Ben’s head, even as he towered tall enough to look over the railing at my bare feet. I rocked in the chair a bit with either hand suspended around the rim of my mug. The gray Northwestern sunshine shone down on the building across the street from me to give me some faint light as well as the blanket of shadow. Ben swallowed as he looked on at me; the sun made his eyes stand out to me like a couple of turquoise stones.

I could feel it with him. He wanted the round hole to be square as much as I did. He didn’t even have to open his mouth for me to read his body and his face.

“You… look like a villain sitting there,” he had said to me, and when the words left his lips, I could see the nervous look upon his face.

But Pete wanted to play with me.

“So, I saw you having dinner with that Skolnick boy last night,” he started.

“I thought that was you outside the restaurant,” I recalled with a nod. “Yeah, he and I went out to dinner last night. It was really nice. He was really sweet and gentlemanly to me.”

“The gentleman with the little gray sliver of a torpedo on his head,” he remarked with a nod and a little chuckle.

“Torpedo, is that what you called it?” I couldn’t help but laugh, either.

“Yeah, it’s like a little lightning bolt on his head. A little weapon of mass destruction. It’s like if he loses that streak, he loses his prowess.”

I chuckled, and then I took a sip from my coffee again.

“What’d you do with each other?” Pete continued, and he stood before the railing with his hands pressed to his hips.

“We talked,” I recalled. “Just… stuff. I talked to him about baking stuff, and he relayed some of his knowledge of jazz music and alternative rock. His mind is like a labyrinth: it’s easy to get lost in his thoughts.”

“That’s beautiful,” Pete said, and his green eyes twinkled in the hazy morning light. “Really, I’m gonna write that down when I get back to the hotel room, that was a beautiful line you just said.”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“Eh, that was nothin’,” I promised him. “He was especially fascinated by my likening baking to different forms of chemistry, especially when I called confectionery to mad science.”

“Mad science, you say?” He raised an eyebrow at that.

“Just like mad science,” I echoed my words from before. “Even making caramel is akin to working with napalm, and it’s just hot melted sugar with cream mixed in once it turns amber.”

“Something about… getting burned with that shit,” Pete followed along with a shake of his head.

“There’s a part of me that wants to make a dozen cookies in the shape of that,” I suggested. “Cookies in the shape of the burns from hot molten sugar syrup. It’d go along with the ghost pepper chocolate cake.”

“Sounds… grisly,” he stammered, and he showed me a little nervous smile. “Ghost peppers, you said?”

“Yeah.” I nodded my head, and I gestured to the planter before me. I had a pair of jalapeño plants, as well as a plant for bell peppers and a plant for those little red and green chiles from New Mexico. But there was a small one at the very end, right next to the planter with the carrots and the green beans, one that was beginning to flower again even after my last harvest, and one that was about to give me some more fruit in a couple of weeks’ time. Peter’s eyes widened at the sight of the plant before me.

“You actually grow them?”

“No, that’s actually a Serrano bush,” I clarified. “Ghost peppers grow primarily in India. I really only call them ‘ghost peppers’ for Halloween reasons.”

“Kinky,” Pete said with a sly smirk. He padded up to the railing for a better look at my plants, in particular the chili peppers. My jalapeños were nearly ready as the fruits were beginning to come forth from the plant itself, while the chiles were utterly blanketed in flowers.

“I also scrape out the seeds and the pulp from the Serranos and the jalapeños,” I continued. “Take the seeds out and then either sauté them or do a quick pickle of either one. There’s still a little heat in there, but they turn mostly sweet so they pair really well with dark and white chocolate.”

“Even kinkier,” he built upon it, but I shrugged my shoulders at that.

“The dark chocolate one is a play on Mexican hot chocolate. A dance of my Latin roots with my Belgian ones, too. I call the white chocolate fusion the ‘502’ fusion.”

“502?”

“After Room 502 from Waverly Hills over in Louisville, the most haunted place on the eastern wing of the country. I take the liquid white chocolate and pour it into little molds in the shape of bandages and also ghosts. The bandages, I put on little dark chocolate cookies in the shape of heads or skulls.” I sipped on my coffee again, and I could see he was more than intrigued by that.

“Surprised you don’t have any Peter peppers,” he joked.

“Now, if your last name was Piper and I was growing a whole peck of them and earmarked a few of them for pickling,” I followed along with a wag of my finger at him, and that coaxed a laugh out of him. Right as the laughter escaped his sensual lips, the fog broke, and the morning sun caressed his face.

It reminded me of the sun hitting Ben’s head, in that his eyes seemed to glow so bright. Bright and hypnotic, such that I would completely forget their reputations. I would often wonder if someone else felt that with me whenever the sun hit me in the right way.

“I’ve been told that one shouldn’t be knocking on your door panel,” I pointed out to him.

“And you would be correct,” Ben answered.

When I threw that out to Pete, he chuckled and nudged a lock of black hair away from the side of his face.

“That’s just to keep the bastards away,” he assured me.

Thing is, back then, Ben’s words only tempted me more, especially when I could feel the temptation with him. There was a chemistry there, albeit an odd one, one that made me think of the confectioner’s napalm, both at the time and when Pete and I were talking to one another. I polished off the rest of my coffee and I leaned forward in my chair.

“Would you like me to get dressed and show you where the library is?” I offered him. “I’ve been wanting to go over there, anyway. Find some art history books and more books on the culinary world.”

“I would love that very much, my cinnamon girl,” he replied, and he flashed me a wink.

“Okay. Hang tight. I’m gonna clean out my mug here and then change my clothes. I’ll be out in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.”

[victorluvsalice]

Sims 4 Wednesday -- Potential Tiny Town Challenge

Hi all! As we're between Chill Valicer Save updates this week, I wanted to talk to you about something I discovered relatively recently and have been thinking about off and on -- The Tiny Town Challenge! I first learned about this challenge through seeing a thumbnail for James Turner's version on YouTube, and, curious, tracked down the original challenge and rules to see what it was all about. You can get the full rule set and take a look at the original lot and Sims Deligracy created at the link above, but the basic gist is that you spend the challenge setting up a tiny town on a large lot (preferably 64x64) for seven Sims. Each Sim has a specific money-making skill that they must use to earn the funds to build their house on their specific sub-lot, and a favorite decor style and color that must inform what their house looks like. Each Sim is moved in individually, once the previous Sim has finished their house, and the challenge ends when all seven houses and any communal area is fully built.

I took one look at that and I was like "yeah, I'm into it." XD Both because it sounds like a fun challenge, and because it's a challenge with minimal set-up (which is the problem with the challenges I personally have come up with previously -- I think they'd be fun, but they require a loooot of prep!). Having thought about it for a bit, I have some ideas about how I'd like to do the challenge myself -- and some problems that I'm going to have to figure out before I can set this up as a potential alternate save file to the Chill Valicer Save:

-->Location: I decided relatively quickly that I'd like to do the challenge in Windenburg, setting up a little community on The Crumbling Isle (something like how Plumbob Paragon set theirs up). I almost never play in Windenburg, so I figured that setting the challenge there would be a good way to encourage me to wander around that world and see the sights. And I already have some ideas about using the other lots to make a true town out of the island -- like turning one lot into a Community Space to get a community garden going, or another lot into a retail store that a couple of the citizens run. Might be fun!

-->Citizenry: Well, you guys know me -- of course the first three residents of the tiny town would be Victor, Alice, and Smiler. However, I'm having trouble deciding on who the other residents of the town could be. The way I see it, I have two options for the rest of the group:

Option One: Add Victoria Everglot and Emily Merrimack and do a "Four Victorians Riding A Roller Coaster" polycule thing on the tiny town lot! This would be fun as it would allow for amusing and adorable polycule shenanigans...but the problem here is the color schemes. Specifically, while Smiler is fine with their primary color being Yellow, Victor, Alice, and Emily ALL suit Blue being their primary color (Victor has his blue butterfly and blue tie -- plus I've always headcanoned it as his favorite color; Alice has her iconic blue dress; and Emily has her blue -- everything), and Alice and Victoria would both suit Red (Alice has that iconic red blood splatter on her apron; Victoria has her red dress). Now, I know how I could fix this for Alice -- make her primary color Green, to match her eyes -- but I'm not sure what to do about Victor and Emily. I mean, when it comes down to it, Emily would have to get Blue, look at her, but the only other alternate colors I can think of for Victor would be Black or Grey, and that would result in a depressing-looking house. :( So yeah, bit of an issue there!

Option Two: Add my young Emmett "Doc" Brown Sim (patterned off his appearance in BTTF: The Game), a fem!Malkavian Fledgling Sim I downloaded off the Gallery (which I'm already planning on calling Mal Kavian), a Preston Garvey Sim, and my take on a Wheatley Sim to the gang and just represent pretty much all my favorite fandoms and games in one go. The bonus here is that I've got the full roster of seven Sims; as stated, I'm representing a bunch of things I enjoy, not just the primary three; and I get a tiny bit of diversity by including a black character as a primary. However, there are also a couple of issues here:

I'm not entirely sure I want to do the challenge with the full compliment of seven Sims, as I have trouble wrangling a mere three sometimes in my Chill Valicer Save. And before you ask, no, I don't have For Rent, so I couldn't turn the lot into a Residental Rental and just play one family at a time. I'd have to really fight with my own micromanaging tendencies to get this to work!

We again have color overlap issues because Victor, Preston, and Wheatley ALSO all suit the color Blue (Victor for the reasons listed above; Preston because the Minutemen have blue as their primary color scheme; and Wheatley because his eye is blue in the game). Now, admittedly, this one is a bit easier to solve -- make Preston's color Light Brown to match his iconic duster (yes, Sims 4 actually distinguishes between Light Brown and Dark Brown -- the only color that gets that distinction in the sort!), and Wheatley's White to match his core's outer shell -- but still. I am apparently obsessed with Blue characters!

Now, I can think of an interesting way to solve this dilemma -- set up two tiny towns on the Crumbling Isle on the two biggest lots, and divide the Sims so there's like five or so on each lot. (Suppose it could be like Victor, Alice, Smiler, Doc, Mal Kavian on one, and Victoria, Emily, Preston, Wheatley on another?) That does mean having to do the challenge twice, and wrangling a lot more Sims, but... *shrug* We'll see how I feel!

-->Skills, Colors, and Decors: As previously stated, all Sims have to have a specific skill that they use to fund the creation of their home, and a favorite color and decor style that should inform the look of said home. Now, the decor thing is kind of a mystery to me (I mix-and-match styles all the time when building, and I don't have Dream Home Decorator to make Sims Like specific types -- though it does occur to me that I could just fudge it by having each house just reflect their canon in some way), but I do have skills and colors almost entirely locked down for almost all of my potential citizens --

Victor: His color would be Blue (probably darker shades of such), and his money-making skill would be either Painting or Piano (though I'm leaning toward Painting because I've always headcanoned him as being more private with his music)

Alice: Her color would be Green, and her money-making skill either Painting or Writing (leaning toward Writing because I like the idea of her writing her own books)

Victoria: Her color would be Red, and her money-making skill would be either Knitting or Cross-Stitch (since we know she likes to sew from seeing her working on her blanket in the movie when Victor climbs onto her balcony)

Emily: Her color would be Blue (brighter shades), and her money-making skill would be either Flower Arranging (for her bouquet) or Gemology (for the wedding ring that starts the whole Corpse Bride mess -- it just amuses me)

Doc: His color would be Orange (as part of the BTTF logo), and his money-making skill would probably be Robotics (since it's the most sciencey-one), though I wouldn't say no to Fabrication

Mal: Her color would be Red (because, you know, vampire), and her money-making skill would be Wellness (because it deeply amuses me to have a vampire from that clan doing yoga and spa stuff)

Preston: His color would be either Blue or Light Brown (as previously stated), and his money-making skill would be either Fabrication (because he's the settlement guy, and Fabrication is a lot like how the workshops work in Fallout 4), Woodworking (the more low-tech version of that), or Archaeology (because he clearly enjoys the past, given you find him hiding in a museum and his coat is apparently looted from another one -- probably have to use a mod to make it available outside Selvadorada, though!)

Wheatley: His color would either be Blue or White (again, as previously stated), and his money-making skill would be Programming (again, because of the hilarity factor -- I mean, Wheatley CAN hack in the game, but we all know just how "good" he is at it XD)

Smiler: Their color would be Yellow, and their money-making skill --

And this is where I run into a problem, because I'm not entirely sure what to do for Smiler. Because my version of Smiler's primary thing is chemistry (or alchemy, depending on the setting), and I'm not entirely sure how to best represent that with the skills on offer. Should I do Mixology, on the basis that I heacanon they are also awesome at mixing drinks? Herbalism because that's kind of close (I have a mod that puts Granite Falls bugs in other worlds, so that's not an issue)? Do I rely on Simsonian Library's Apothecary mod and related skill because that is arguably closer that Herbalism? Or do I just fudge things by choosing Mixology or something before turning them into a spellcaster and having them focus on the Alchemy section of the spellbook? Decisions, decisions...

But yeah -- that's what I currently have in mind for any future Tiny Town-related save files I may make! Not gonna guarantee that this is gonna happen, but it's a distinct possibility. :) And if you guys have any suggestions regarding how I should do the tiny town (and what the fuck Smiler's money-making skill should be), please let me know!

[inklver]

just because i feel like it:

some random thoughts about the art i made for ironstrange week + the very rough thumbnails for each piece (putting this under the read more so this doesn't take up too much space bc this is a Very long post)

day 1 - red/wrath

first fanart for this fandom! there are a few things i don't like about this piece (questionable anatomy, use of values could be improved, + stephen's hair makes him look like a wet cat /hj) but i do like the lighting and the theme of red spider lilies. i've always wanted to draw them and i love their symbolism of death and final goodbyes—feels very fitting for these goofs :b

i started working on this a good amount of time in advance, and i'm glad i did—this was one of the only pieces i used a painterly style for despite it being my preferred style; it takes me a lot longer than lineart + color, so i didn't get the chance to use it again throughout the event (with the exception of day 6)

day 2 - nervous/orange

i struggled with the anatomy on this one—i don't draw back views often (or, at all really) so the first panel was pure pain. the second panel wasn't much better; it took several attempts to pose the hand in a way that looked somewhat natural. pretty pleased with how this turned out all things considered, though! my only qualm with this is the rushed shading, but that's what happens when you're a slow artist on a time constraint :,)

day 3 - yellow/cheerful

i think this may be one of my favorites from this event. i'm very very happy with the lighting and overall atmosphere of the piece :)

i realize now that i used flowers as a theme for every color prompt—anyways, like i said in the tags of the original post for this, i very loosely referenced yellow primrose (symbol of happiness, warmth, & love, conventionally given to those in long-term relationships or someone who has always been there for you through thick and thin)

day 4 - intrigued/green

i ended up liking this better than i expected to! i had to play around a lot with the lighting/color scheme before i was satisfied with it, though that's on me for not having much of a plan for it beforehand (with most pieces, i already have an idea of the color scheme when i start working on them). not much else to say about this one except surgeon stephen my beloved <3

day 5 - blue/serene

this was the first time i've properly drawn a kiss and holy hell how do ship artists do it. that shit is so difficult. i struggled a lot with the anatomy and ended up changing the poses a bit; i also flipped the composition because 1. it looked slightly better that way and 2. i could include tony's ring <3

and yes stephen's mug says 'cunt' (with the handle being painted in black to form the 'c'—very much inspired by jacksepticeye's mug); for tony's i had to search for funny mug designs lmfao

i was going for a very domestic/warm atmosphere, which i think was more or less accomplished, so i'm pretty happy with this overall :)

also, not really pertinent but i was listening to sweater weather on loop while drawing this so. make of that what you will.

day 6 - grief/indigo

ah, this piece. definitely my favorite of the 7, love how this turned out despite ripping my own heart out a bit while making it :,) listening to hyacinthus on repeat didn't help

my initial idea for this—the thumbnail in the top left—was going to be one of them bleeding out in the other's arms, but i had another idea that i felt more drawn to so i chose that instead (this was a very last minute change so the thumbnail is pretty much just a couple of stick figures pfft).

i decided to go back to the painterly style since it felt more fitting for this & i'm glad i did, although it was a little rushed towards the end when i was adding in the final details (the butterflies are pretty much just lasso tool + glow layer). this was also my first time drawing stephen's robes and. man that was a pain to figure out. get a simpler outfit stephen.

day 7 - purple/disdain

had to end the event on a happy note! this was very rushed but i still like how it looks, though the bg petals are a bit janky.

the prompt 'purple' immediately made me think of violets, which were used as gifts for newlyweds so. here we are (they also happen to be symbolic of faith, mystical awareness, and spiritual passion—pretty fitting for our favorite wizard)

i didn't dedicate as much time i should've to actually making the violets look like violets instead of some generic flower but again, slow artist under time constraint. i did spend a lot of time with the expressions in this one though! i really wanted to convey a sense of pure joy and love, and i'm very happy with the result in that regard :)

something that i noticed was that it had become a lot easier for me to draw these two by this point. suppose it makes sense considering i'd literally been drawing them nonstop for 2 weeks lmao, but it was still pretty cool to see how quickly i managed to finish a sketch i was happy with, compared to when i was working on the first few days (good lord was it difficult drawing stephen in the first piece, especially at that angle)

anyway, prepare to see more of them in the near future because the brainrot is far from over. if i am this attached to them without having seen the majority of marvel movies featuring them (i'd literally only watched ds1 until yesterday when i watched im1—yes i started shipping them without knowing who tony was, i don't know how either), i think i'd be a puddle by the time i catch up on everything :D

whoo that was a lot—if you've read this far, thank you and have a cookie 🍪

[jessiemeows]

New OC's :) Well not really but kind of!

Rae (Storm) Nightshade & Amaya (The end) Aníara Othzál

Both are redeemed durges

Rae is for Ascended Astarion & Amaya is for Spawn Astarion

I've written a little bit of their back stories below as well just an FYI Amaya has a full story to her already while Rae is brand new so I need to cook with her a little bit.

Rae is going to be sort of power hungry and will most definitely influence all of her companions to take whatever they can and never give. Unfortunately this will lead to very bad paths :( (I will not be raiding the grove that is too much for me lmfao only one tied will die, IM SO SORRY KARLACH ITS FOR WYLL). I am also going to try to figure out how to save Last Light Inn without murdering everyone when I have Shadowheart kill Dame Aylin, I'm sure I can figure it out, I watched a YouTube vid about it the other day. Therefore I'm once again playing as a chaotic good person?? I think? I'm not sure what it is called if you are power hungry low-key do evil things but are so chaotic you end up doing the right thing. What I've come up for her backstory well what little I thought of is her as a siren, that's how she brought back her victims in sacrifice for Bhaal (similar to Amaya but I've cooked longer with Amaya so she has much more trauma). I don't think she ever liked being under Bhaal's influence similar to Amaya, I believe it is cannon that all Dark Urges have left the cult at some point (I could be wrong but I read somewhere that they have) but she did leave the cult before. I haven't cooked long enough for me think of why she rejects Bhaal's power since she is power hungry but I feel like maybe its because she's so bitter, her dad didn't save her, no one saved her from Orin and all the fucked up shit that happened in the mind flayer colony but I'll get back to y'all on that soon lol. I may give her bluish skin but I might not because tieflings can have human color skin tones, I like Rae's color scheme too it's going to be dark royal blue which reminds me of electricity. I'm not sure if I should keep her as a storm sorcerer it just fits her I suppose, I originally wanted to be a monk. If anyone knows how to use a sorcerer let me know, I've tried to play as one before but didn't understand the mechanics lmfao.I only created her in customization, I'm waiting to get to the grove with Amaya and then I'll create her for real.

Amaya is my go to playthrough that I adore so much and already thought of so much lore for her (her former name use to be Eris but I changed it lol. She's my funny little cry baby chaotic good girl, different from Rae is she always wants to do the right thing but ends up doing it in the most chaotic way lmfao. She's a cleric/paladin of Selune mainly because her mother was a cleric of Selune and her dad also worshiped her but was a ranger, after her adoptive parents died when she was 12 (she did not kill them the Zhentarim did) she was kept as a slave for them, did unimaginable things that a teen should do :( this was mainly because one of the zhents took a gross liking to her, she was also forced to thieve, her main schemes back then were using her cleric abilities to scam someone out of money and then pickpocketing the rest. She had her first Bhaal urges happen to her just before her parents died but vowed she would never act on them after their deaths. This wasn't until she couldn't take it anymore at age 16 and killed her main abuser (there's more to this but I want to write it out eventually in story form.) After a few more years of being on her own other bad shit happened which was when she finally found the cult of Bhaal at the young age of 19. After this, Bhaal of course demanded kills from his lovely daughter and she became a siren but hated every second of it and tried to run away more than once but never couId and would be punished for it which then eventually leads to her wound on her wrist which will occur she will bleed bleed and have a lot of pain, she will also have one of the worst headaches that can even make her physically ill every time she rejects one of her worse urges (this was a joy with Lae'zel thinking she's transforming every day lmfao). I think of this as similar to Shadowhearts wound but more graphic, basically a conditioning to make her do bad things. Again there's more to it that I written about already and will eventually release in future. I changed her color scheme from purple to red bc I hated all the purple eyes lol and I prefer to keep a theme going tbh lol. With Rae her physical appearance will not change when she rejects Bhaal (I may change her appearance when Astarion makes her a spawn though but only a little) but Amaya's appearance does! Her natural eye color is dark brown which is why I chose the eyes that looks like a red haze is over natural color. Her hair will also no longer have dark red streaks and will be just normal black and the glowy horns I think will change from red to white :)

I know there will be another dark urge OC soon it will be for Wyll though but that OC is literally just gonna be me lololol. I'm waiting for Larian to fix Wyll before I start that though. Hopefully SOON!