#turned into me making a gacha splash art for this guy

[den-ai-d]

So uhh...turns out: I REALLY liked this Om Nom design 😃

[solar-tl-27]

OH HEY WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT I’M BACK

Yall never get regular posts from me omg you guys I’M SO SORRYYYY

but but but but but ya’ll wont believe it

I have been… DOING ART?! youuuuu heard that right folks i me MYSELF AM d-doing art.

Ok soooo i got a few updates

Life is still incredibly hectic i swear i feel like one of those fanfic writers tha5 post like

Hey sorry it took 8 years i was in a coma! But thankfully that’s not… entirely the case?

I’m on the list for an appointment to see if i have adhd because hearing my friends who are diagnosed and medicated talk about literally MY EXACT ISSUES AND IT HELPING i was like… damm maybe it is the good ol case of audhd … so hopefully hopefully i can get something to help with that!

Uhhh in other news I’m saving for a laptop so i can get into video editing and idk make some animation memes and animatics!

But ofcourse

Ofcourse

I promised art let’s not dwindle any more!

First of all we have some art i did for my story quest for the moon (i did blur out a bit just cuz well idk my audience that well so i’ll be bluring it even though it takes away a bit of context)

Then another piece for that series and then… omg.. no way is that?! Is it?!

Hehe surprise let’s get into the first art!

3 GOT ANOTHER REDESIGN AND MIGUELS���S FIRST FULL ART

Welcome welcome to my sweet sweet sweet baby angel boy Three that’s right he’s been on my mind again so i drew him… kinda like a splash art? If he was in a gacha game very cute very demure (if that meme’s old already… no it’s not)

And then we have THE VILLAIN of quest for the moon

Miguel also our main character ash in the corner hiiii ash

Miguel is basically like the mentor that’s secretly just try to steal your powers type he’s very much an opportunist and i love to draw him and loooove to hate him! This piece is basically foreshadowing extravaganza that will… eventually be clear i swear I promise I PROMISE but for now enjoy the piece it took sooo long

Next art!

This is still a work in progress it’s not done yet but I’m incredibly proud of it soooooo I’m showing it anyway and then we’ll get into the surprise

MEET MY SON ALEXANDER

ohhh my goodness after being in art block for so long it feels so nice to just get a solid redes out i’m soooo happy with how he’s turning out AA that’s my son MY BOY one of my oldest oc’s from so so so so long ago and fun fact i drew both pieces with the exact same brush heheheh the headshot next to him is his brother phoenix

Ok NOW FOR THE SURPRISE

Guess what! That’s right i have actually ACTUALLY started finding my way into the new project reignited

That’s right we got a MAIN CAST now

Now obviously some are.. easy to find the original inspiration for but they won’t be that similar to the redesigns they used to be no no no

Welcome the new crew of project reignited!

Muse, Plume, Thea, Orianne & caelusss

Muse is the main character a human boy who is just trying his best who gets swooped up into helping a dragon girl save her kingdom and the magical dimension while also fighting to preserve his home town!

Plume a dragon girl (plume, bloom you get the gist) who somehow ended up on earth is now tasked to find help to save her people and mother while also discovering the beauty of earth

Thea the daughter of an urban development company ceo and the love interest of muse (did i get myself this invested into a ship that i made it canon here… yes.) she’s a frail girl but is forced to step in as her fathers ideas turn from helpful to greedy and destructive

Orianne Thea and Muse’s friend and the more motherly of the group but faced with difficult circumstances and changes in her life can cause her to lash out as her life is completely steered of its course by magic and her dad remarrying.

Caelus! Muse’s closest friend a pretty chill guy that works at an icecream parlour during the week and helps his family with their market food stand in the weekend, he really wants to be a culinary chef but doesn’t know if he can truly achieve his goals in his hometown.

That’s the gang this will from now on be an original concept and no longer a winx rewrite yes winx will be an inspiration for this work but i do not intend to go the fairy route nor make the world building as big as i had made it in my rewrite… what you will see is me taking my rewritten work as a basis for this story considering i have basically rewritten my version of domino, zenith and solaria from scratch sooooo SWEET BABY BOY CRYOS MY BABY will be making a return later on in this story he’s mine he’s my son my boy i can do with his character whatever i pleaseeee ok ty

That’s the update that’s the post thank you all for enjoying my content and my terrible upload schedule life had beeeeeen hectic ty ty hope ya’ll stay for more and if this was your first post of mine you saw…. Check out my other work pls and thank u

Oki

BYEEEEE

[voiceofsword]

do you have any brotps/friendships for rinne or niki ( since they seem to be like . the ones you think about most ) that you particularly like ? aside from the other bees ofc

YEAH!! under a read more bc its a little long :'3

roommates are a given, i think hikari dorm is perfectly balanced (chaotic) in its own way and that even tho the 3 of them are so different they also manage to get along really well. i cant take them seriously at all and i think thats part of their charm lol. they're all such Characters individually that together it just feels Normal. i can imagine the three of them sitting around the bathtub, kanata splashing around while hiyori paints his own nails and rinne gossips. its like if the golden girls were anime boys but theres 3 instead of 4 and none of them are divorced or widowed. so really nothing like the golden girls but im sure u understand...maybe

nihihi dorm is actually tied for my fave with gender dorm god i love them a ton, i think in part because i love nikis relationship with hiiro and how hes adopted him as his own younger brother, but also hinata. i think about niki cooking for them and having them try new dishes and them having movie nights or staying up all night playing games and even tho niki has work the next morning hes like (exaggerated sigh) fine ONE more game...but he loves it

i love both rinne and niki (and crazybs in general honestly) doting relationship on 2wink and im so happy they keep getting collabs .. in case they decide to give us more crumbs... plz. they feel like younger siblings to them. rinne especially makes me so soft because past his initial impression of being a bad influence and generally just pushing his luck on how much he can tease, it always feels like hes looking out for the two

otherwise i also rly enjoy how they both interact within their own circle (i feel like ive been wanting a nikis kitchen tour for the past 2000 years. i hope we get framed picture of izumi in one of the 3*s).

i rly like how rinne gets along with his kouhai both in asobi and craftmonster bc of the attitude he takes on, ive mentioned it in another post but w/ the former especially he rly just allows himself to be playful so much so that it almost takes the kids off-guard bc theyre like what..hes not as scary as we thought he'd be at all. i think the best rinne friendships are the ones where they set those prejudices aside and dont take him seriously at all lol bc that's when he rly starts to feel comfortable. this grown ass man running around playing games and doing arts n crafts with a bunch of 15-17 y/os (and shu i guess) is a funny mental image and it rly feels like he can let himself loose. conversely i also love when he's exasperated with his juniors bc then hes like oh right im an adult i need to set an example.. this is about U chill yellow

on the other hand i like how niki interacts with ppl a lot more "serious" than him i.e ibara, natsume bc he tends to like..soften them? ppl cant help but let their guard down around niki hes just.... himself. like even if theyre initially wary they grow to be like "oh wait this guy's really nice what the fuck"

i particularly like nikis kitchen circle bc its ppl you usually wouldnt see interact with niki but u can tell they want to impress him. its so sweet nikis just some guy who wants to share his love for cooking. also thinking about the difference between how ibara would interact with rinne and niki (harsher with rinne bc hes his Boss whereas with niki he's more accommodating, that one gordon ramsey meme thats like u donkey vs oh oh dear) is funny so even if theres not a lot of interactions for them i want to think ibara would let niki get away with just about anything

AND NIKI AND TETORA...IVE ALREADY DISCUSSED THIS A FEW TIMES THOUGH... i have a huge soft spot for them. ritsu too. they get like 2 interactions (sweets hunter story, craftmonsters recent gacha) but ritsus humor is just so DRY and u can see niki be like (cogs turning in his head) Whar? its really silly ALSO HE CALLS HIM NIKIPYON....IS THAT NOT PERFECT... i need them to be friends

i like niki and mayois friendship, but its admittedly not my favorite; i like how niki feels like he can trust mayoi implicitly and how he tries to make him comfortable too — i think theyre both quite similar irt self image/esteem although they both go about it in different ways. their interactions can be sweet but one thing that stops me from enjoying them fully is how mayoi always seems kind of uncomfortable (and niki seems unaware of how/why he's uncomfortable) ;_; i hope that in the future the writers can let mayoi be more at peace around him, it'd be sweet!!

and atp i feel like ive talked enough about hiiro and rinne for it to not warrant having its own little ramble section here 😭

[fairykazu]

he may be a five star but you're a 10/10 bf ft. bf! scaramouche

masterlist | series mlist | previous

after scaramouche left with 51840 shards in your honkai star rail account, you might want to use it because he did give it to you willingly and lovingly. you stared at it blankly for a while and before redeeming half of the shards, you tried to reach for more apples, but you finished them already. sighing, you checked your pity and it's zero. despite doubting to get imbibitor lunae, you pulled anyway.

10 pulls in and nothing but two copies of march 7th and one copy of serval. three four stars and one is even off banner, luck is coming you pray.

it's been 60 pulls and still no water dragon in sight, you feared this would happen... hard pity. 97 wishes left but you do have 25920 lefts in the bag so maybe you'll be fine. but gacha addiction is terrible when you have anxiety, so maybe you'll skip just once.

scaramouche heard you scream from the office, and he figured you either got the lunae guy or you lost again. he walked in as you were in tears. not sad but happy. so you did get him. well, did dan heng get you those shards? no! he did.

he leaned on your rolling chair, "did you get him?" he fiddled with the locs of your hair.

"yes!! i am going to relax now since i have him." you replied, leaning back, your eyes meeting his confused ones. "...what's wrong?"

"name, you have been raving about this guy to the point of neglecting me-"

"i didn't neglect you???" you made a face that was between confused and nearly laughing. what connection does dan heng and your boyfriend have???

"let me finish, you should c6 and r5 him or something because i bought those for you. not dan heng. i mean, because i spent money on you!" he replied, leaning towards your desk, grabbing your mouse.

you took the mouse out of his hands and placing it back on your desk, "scara, are you jealous of dan heng?" glancing at your boyfriend, his face fell before he could react to your question,

"name, that's a funny accusation! why would i be jealous over a fictional character?" he looked everywhere but you. there's his tell. he's lying.

"okay, scara, so if i tell you i read fanfiction of him would you get mad?"

"why would you read fanfiction of HIM when im-" he gestured to himself. "- real and your ACTUAL boyfriend..." then he connected the dots, "i think it's okay to read fanfiction but me personally i would cuddle my girlfriend while i play games."

"okay scara." you said, trying not to laugh.

he mimicked your tone, "'ok scara', do you want the e6 or not?"

then you looked the other way. he knew that look. you and scaramouche somehow developed the same tell when you were little kids. damn that tell! scaramouche thought as he sighed while he pulled his chair next to yours, pushing you to be next to him. you scooted yourself next to him, making the chairs collide just a little. you and he shared a knowing look just before you were on his lap and he exited out of the dan heng splash art.

you noticed that he deliberately ignored the ten and thousands of screenshots of lunae's splash art. you hid a laugh while he clicked on the 10 pull button. "do you want to skip or look through?"

"look through." he clicked through each wish. three stars lightcones, a copy of asta, a two copies of yukong and yanqing.

"i was hoping your boyfriend luck would come through."

"wait for it." he replied, still clicking through. "do you want to wait or skip?" he asked again. you mumbled the latter.

he skipped and boom! lunae on your screen. he's now e1. "that's only one copy. we have five more to go." he turned your head and asked, "do you want to continue?"

"okay."

"okay." his warmth of his hand disappears to go back to the mouse.

after pulling and redeeming shards again, your five-star version of dan heng is perfectly maxxed out in terms of level, skill and eidions. you were pretty content after that. your beloved character is loved and always used in your teams. scaramouche was just as content as you were since your attention was averted away from dan heng and was back on him as things should be.

although, the next morning you did notice that dan heng's lightcone changed from your alternative lightcone, on the fall of an aeon, to his signature, brighter than the sun and not to mention, it's r5. you really need to have an intervention about this with your boyfriend. you leaned back in your chair, noticing an uncomfortable object on your chair. you turned around and saw a post-it-note attached to a pochita plushie.

"to name, don't give me and another intervention about spending money. it is worth it to see you smile. from scara."

[mudskip-muses]

❝ H-HEY! Watch it! ❞ Licorice says as they hastily scramble out of the range of paint bombardment. They can’t be certain, but they are pretty damn sure that this pink menace was aiming for them… Or at the very least, didn’t give a single hoot that they were in the splash zone. Bristled like an indignant cat as they regain their balance— they did NOT almost trip over their robes, shut up —Licorice stomps their foot with a huff, fists clenched at their sides as they snap, ❝ You almost got PAINT on me! ❞

And such a garishly-bright color too…

Honestly, Licorice doesn’t really have a problem with bright colors. When they choose to wear them. But with their naturally darker pallet, it’s hard not to feel like the brightness clashes if they have too much of it. Besides, it doesn’t fit the persona they’ve adopted. Dark and dreary and DANGEROUS… not bright and bubbly and whatever-the-hell-else this guy has got going on. It also doesn’t help that stubbornness has taken a hold of them, making Licorice decide right-then-and-there that getting paint on them would be a grievous insult.

❝ You better keep that mess to yourself or else… ❞ Licorice threatens despite not actually intending to go ahead with anything. Not when there’s no one around to help if things don’t go as intended. Not over something as technically trivial as paint. They’re irritated, not STUPID. — (( *shoves a bby boi who decided to be a Bitch to the weirdo throwing paint around jgvjfchfvf* ))

If Gumball was being honest, he hadn't seen the other cookie wander in close to his zone, most already having the hindsight to be wary whenever the artistic cookie seemed to be struck by inspiration, lest they become part of the art. Splattered with a pink somehow even brighter than their hair, Gumball looked to the voice in curiosity, only for a mischievous grin to fall across their face at the sight of Dark, Drab, and Boring clouding up their vibrant canvas.

"Psh, or else what? I doubt some color would kill ya, might even do you some good!" Sure there was some purple speckled about the other cookie's wardrobe, but there wasn't nearly enough to counter act the black hole of ropes draped about Licorice. "You're the one who should watch it, this is my house! I can do whatever I want to it!" He wasn't exactly given permission per se, but no one telling him to stop after he started was permission enough for him.

Almost as if to prove a point, Gumball turned suddenly towards the newly built house, a paint bomb being pitched towards roof only to end in a colorful blue spatter that mixed nicely with the pink already streaking the tiles as it dripped down to the ground below like candied rain. "You wanna throw one?" Pervious animosity forgotten, Gumball dug about in the bag down by his feet, pulling free a neon purple paint bomb a moment later and holding it out with a grin. "Look, it's your color and everything!"

@gacha-pcn

[queenlua]

The Good Game Critics TM (a giant post o’ links)

yesterday i was complaining:

damn, how come the only people who are writing The Good Video Game Criticism TM are exclusively relegated to… abandoned Blogspots and Tumblrs that haven’t been updated in five years…?

and someone asked:

addadashofpepper: can you like, post links to some of these? cause the thing about these is that they are really hard to find!

oh boy, tumblr user @addadashofpepper, i would be DELIGHTED to share.  i dug through my RSS reader / bookmarks, and here’s what leapt out at me:

[under a cut because this got LONG and i got EXCITED]

ella guro: indie dev and creator of Problem Attic, which made a splash back in the day (a somewhat Braid-inspired platformer iirc).  she’s mostly removed herself from the game scene these days, but she still blogs about artsy-culture issues from time to time, and if you dig through the archives, some of her old posts on games (probably circa 2012-2015?) are so so good

prophet goddess / blood church: i discovered them literally two days ago, but i’m digging what i see (their ladykiller in a bind review was the first post i stumbled on)

dead genre chronicles: a group of three friends did a monthly JRPG podcast, where they’d play a JRPG in its entirety and talk about it.  see, they found mainstream discussions around JRPGs annoyingly stilted, including the term JRPG itself—like, we’re still using the term “JRPG” to mean “turn-based combat with funky anime aesthetics,” but that airbrushes over so many weird and fun and distinctive mechanics that developers inside-and-outside of Japan have been experimenting with, right?

they had a blog attached to the podcast, and the blog was ALSO excellent

unfortunately, they took their main website down a while back :( however:

you can get some of the old blog posts by fiddling with the wayback machine

becky backed up a bunch of her contributions to the site (i particularly liked her ffxv post & this sort-of ffxiii post that punched me in the face in a good way)

leeroy, one of the other contributors, blags here, though i don’t think he backed up his stuff from the original site

the entirety of the podcast is archived on libsyn and is very good if you’re into podcasts!

no don’t die: okay, this blog/interview series is AMAZING.  and still active!!!  ahh!!!

the whole concept is, this dude finds people who work in games.  or used to work in games.  or who ran a weird fansite for video games back in the early 00′s.  or curate some video-game-shaped things as part of a museum exhibit.  and so on, and so forth.

the dude has a knack for finding really interesting people with all kinds of windows/perspectives on games, and manages to get them to talk about really interesting things.  two of my fave interviews: rebecca heinman, who ported Doom to 3DO in ten weeks on her own in utterly batshit conditions, and mustin, because i’ve got that overclocked remix nostalgia

my friend pokey: so, they’re on tumblr, they write in all lowercase, and their writing style tends to be on the dense and referential side, which ordinarily has all the warning signs of “all pretentiousness, no substance,” right?  (i am not exempt from this, by the way; look at me typing in all lowercase like a scrub.)  but, i’ve reliably gotten interesting insights out of their posts & have been surprised how often i mention their blog to a Friend Whose Aesthetic Tastes I Respect and they’re like “ah! i LOVE that blog!”  also i liked their notes on chrono cross at the end of this post because i literally want to talk about chrono cross every waking moment of my life, come talk to me about chrono cross friends, etc

em reed’s blog is excellent.  i really liked this post about what the phone/gacha game experience is like

auntie pixelante: anna anthropy’s old blog; still not sure why she didn’t archive it somewhere?  but whatever, the wayback machine has your back.  this early review of Gone Home is reasonably representative

tim rogers: i have kind of mixed opinions on him, but i do find something in his work compelling enough that i keep coming back to him, so.

the dude made his initial splash with his extremely long mgs2 review back in the day; there’s a slightly more recent archive too; he also does a lot of sadposting on medium that ranges from “guy in my MFA” to “fuck i can’t believe this dude’s making me feel feelings” in quality, ymmv.  (he also apparently does video reviews now? that are like many hours long? and i am just not the youtube generation so i tapped out on that one bud)

tevis thompson: another critic i have mixed feelings about, but if you’re the kind of dork that enjoys reading stuff that Made A Splash At The Time, and like, nerd subculture histories, you'll have to read his “on videogame reviews” for that reason alone.  i also really dug his 100-word video game reviews series

ludus novus: i haven’t read this dude’s blog in ages, but i liked it a lot when i read it in 2012ish and there’s TONS in the archives

emily short: an IF writer who goes way back.  i haven’t read her blog lately, but the archives / older posts definiely have cool thoughts on the structure of interactive fiction

jonas kyratzes: indie game dev, creator of The Sea Will Claim Everything.  he tends to blog about lefty politics and general arts stuff more frequently than he blogs about games, but he does blog games from time to time.  i liked [1] and [2], for starters.

adam cadre: this guy goes waaay back in the IF scene and has made a bunch of Inform stuff.  i’ve never actually played his games!  but i like his blog a lot (convenient tumblr mirror here).  he almost exclusively blags about books and movies and such these days, but if you dig you can find him talking about games sometimes.  (also, Masterchef Australia, which he loved so much he wrote over fifteen thousand words about it and it’s one of my favorite bizarre blog posts on the internet)

the fool reversed: this blog is focused on LARP game design & issues around that, but i’d say it’s relevant to anyone interested in game-y topics.  as a mostly-outsider to that scene, i thought this was a fun find!

annnd a few last ones:

i haven’t kept up with critical distance in ages, but it used to be a great way to find new game writers, and quite possibly still is, i dunno

while i’ve personally bounced off timber owls a few times, i know some folks who like their writing a lot

hope this helps!!!  happy digging through internet archives and such