#which has worked out perfectly

[vaugely10]

What do you mean pirate Pearl’s crew is only her? What do you mean something about sailing on the open sea with a crew that will never leave you!? VAGUELY10 PLEASE

-whereispearlescentmoon

short answer: divorce quartet...

long answer: martyn and pearl got kicked out of cleo and scott's pirate crew after one too many disagreements. so they both get dropped off on populated island and pearls like "well this sucks, but at least martyn's still here!" and then martyn just. leaves. something about going back to his king? anyways, she spends the next few weeks trying to get basic supplies and a small boat, then she tries to recruit people to join her crew! besides, she has a huge bounty! who wouldn't want to join her! and it just. doesn't work. turns out word has already spread that she had been forcibly kicked out of her previous crew, and the reason why she got kicked out. and nobody wants to join a washed up pirates crew.. but hey, at least she still has tilly!

[hildegardladyofbones]

One of the best things about Disco Elysium by far is that it does not fear ugly women. The world is full of ugly men, but ugly women are so hard to come by.

[februaryart]

Part 1 here 🍀 🌻

This fic is based on: Lovebirds by kiwithief

Thank you for reading! If you liked this please reblog, and read the original fic!

I had so much fun working on this comic, and so much love and thought went into making it! It ended up being so much longer than I ever thought it would be. This is 39 full pages, and I've been working on this since Nov 2022! Drawing them is a delight, though :)

[jaynovz]

The thing about JayVik is that they enable the shit out of each other, right? like a machine ratcheting up to a fever pitch

Like the hexite crystal where it stabilizes at higher frequencies because the oscillations balance each other out

But the kickback... Is WOOF. If one single thing gets pushed askew in that delicate balance...

EXPLOSION 💥💥

So they intensify each other in ways that could be termed "okay they make each other WORSE" which is not necessarily UNTRUE

HOWEVER

It actually is far worse if they aren't together bc they're both INDIVIDUALLY also batshit and would be finding ways to do crazy mad scientist shit regardless and do indeed temper each other

Am I making sense

[huginsmemory]

Even with TBOB and thisisnotawebsite.com there's... Still so much we don't know about Bill. Like ok yeah he's given a tragic background, we know a bit more about his henchmaniacs, but we really don't know a lot. Like, what happened directly after he accidentally destroyed his dimension? It isn't said. Sure time baby KNOWS about Bill's destruction of his dimension, but it seems like he didn't show up after Bill's dimension was destroyed to apprehend him because he only knows about Bill after Bill tries to make a deal with him, causing Bill's wanted poster. And how did Bill become basically the overlord of the nightmare realm, and gather all his henchmaniacs? Like there's a good period where we just don't know. And it's implied he's shocked and horrified (likely even dissociates, since he does that) after he destroys his dimension. But his characterization doesn't seem by that point to be one that immediately goes into a self-destructive, violent god-becoming maniacal spiral of self hatred; it's more one to be overwhelmed with grief and spend a good long time in the midst of his grief, then necessarily he's about to DO anything. And generally speaking trope wise, there's steps missing; typically in this sort of scenario, the usual progression is this:

characterized as monster due to being different in some way

tries to prove their not

ends up hurting someone anyways

gets further villainized, and antagonized by others

Acceptance of being a monster, and goes okay? You wanted a monster? I'll be a monster.

Now this fits Bill's early life, up to number 4, but we don't know what happens immediately after. It's possible he just went into his spiral immediately after, but it feels wrong, because it is missing the part of someone further villainizing him beyond himself which causes him to lash out due to the expectation (and internalized) idea that he would cause harm. I'd assume maybe some kind of interdimensional authority showed up and accused him of purposely trying to kill his dimension, which triggered his "okay, then I'll be a monster", or even a situation where his 'monstrosity' through the badge of killing his dimension is garners him respect. Considering that his henchmaniacs are chosen out of monstrosity and violence as a badge of honor, it feels very much like this would make sense, except none of them really know about Bill's dimension. He doesn't brag about the violence of it; he only calls it a liberation, contrary to the idea that Bill ever used it to gain clout. Instead, it's more likely that an interdimensional authority showed up and accused Bill, except from circumstances, it doesn't seem like it was Time Baby, so not sure who it would be... but at the same time, that expectation is often required for the character to truly embrace their 'monstrosity' and become truly violent. Or perhaps it was delayed after the destruction of his dimension, later when he begins to run with his henchmaniacs and disregards the law, but that also doesn't feel satisfactory for character development. Or perhaps I'm just overthinking this trope...

Also, how did he have his powers? Some is clearly stuff he's always had; pyrokinesis from that one rhyme, the ability to see into 3d, and he was somehow able to destroy his dimension by whatever he did to let Euclydians see the stars (telekinesis?), but beyond that? Was he always all-seeing? How did he become a 'dream demon'? Are his deals actually binding or does he lie? Are these things that he acquired later, because Euclydians seem to be written about as if they usually don't have any of these abilities, nor the abilities Bill is known to have when young, nor did Bill seem to be able to be all seeing when he was younger. Plus, how was Bill able to survive the destruction of his dimension, if he's technically made of the same stuff as everyone else, who all seems to have a physical form? Why then does he seems to be characterized as a being made of pure energy and thought; is that just in Earth's dimension, or does he have a physical form within the nightmare realm? There's multiple things that are contradictory about his body (mouth-eye, yet talked about removing his exoskeleton to feed--not sure exactly when this was mentioned--plus his mouth located under his bricks and bowtie in his exoskeleton in journal 3). But he seems so thrilled by his physical form though on earth, and we know that physical forms exist within the Nightmare realm as Ford was in it... yet it seems like hes characterized to have no physical form, so did he perhaps lose his physical form when his dimension died? Did he technically die with them too, but with his powers was able to survive essentially as a ghost like he tells Dipper you become without a body?

[liquidstar]

a friend who'd wait :)

[nyan-bynary]

I'm gonna have to wait out a few weeks to be able to complain about jjk's ending bc rn half the ppl are bashing everyone who expected more as ppl who just wanted gojo back

[candlewitches]

There’s truly no joy like a northern mix in snow up to their chest

I wanted to stay on the already trampled path around the meadow perimeter, Kal said we had to go through the middle so he could look for bunnies

[completeoveranalysis]

[2]

I love the little magic swirls marking the scene change, and their reflections in the water slightly distorting their faces. Very pretty. Very meaning.

I think my big question about what Lava Lamp is saying is... he says he was in the Lava Lamp until he turned the correct age, but we've seen that was also only escaped the lava lamp because he was illegally broken out by Xing Huo. Did her actions just happen to line up with the correct time frame, by hitsuzen? Or did she act at that exact time by choice? 

Was Evil Wolverine just going to keep him in there indefinitely even though it was outside the bargain (of course he was) and it took Xing Huo’s actions to technically fulfil the terms of the wish? I think I quite like that. How even though Evil Wolverine tried to take even more than he was owed (again), hitsuzen still arranged itself so that the terms still fulfilled themselves naturally.

But following that thought a little further I do love that the point in time where Lava Lamp's Time Price is Over is such a central moment across the multiverse. It's "Where The Original Timeline Ended", but it's also the BIG Acid Tokyo Moment, as well as The Natural Time Where Watanuki’s Time Expired, and The Time Where Syaoran Had To Grow His Own Soul all at once. It all lines up PERFECTLY because most of it is FROM the same cause, even if we didn't know it until know, and it just so happened to line up with a completely unrelated visit to Acid Tokyo, which was already going pretty miserably (ie, Syaoran was being murdered, and then he was murdering other people) - but all connecting at JUST the right moment to prevent everything completely falling apart right there and then. A few minutes late and Auto Pilot Syaoran might have succeeded in a full party wipe and it all would have been over.

[hylianengineer]

The stupid streaming service website has decided that I am forbidden from watching Ted Lasso, specifically. I have tried six times and every time there is some sort of critical error. Usually it just freezes but on one memorable occasion everything was in French and it wouldn't let me change the language preferences.

[no1ryomafan]

I hate how my Kikaider brain rot has actually worsened since watching the sequels because I thought it would put it at bay since it’s been putting me off from doing other stuff but I just keep ROTATING all the stuff about 01 funnily enough.

01 is just so *weird* because it’s not like I’m having a relationship where I hate it and I think it ruined the original but then become obsessed with wanting to fix it-I have had rewrite ideas but it would come with their own problems nor are they really striking me-no, I don’t actually feel super negative towards it, even if it’s objectively so flawed for multilayered reasons but I keep hyperfixating on WHY it’s so flawed because the OG show and even the crossover are not nearly as flawed in comparison. They do have their issues but they serve their purpose.

The original show having a recap ep was a odd decision and unfortunately the ending feels rushed/unsatisfying due to they had to make a up a ending since they couldn’t do 01s yet, but also as a self contained story it’s still incredibly solid and works for 12/13 episodes. Where as crossover despite being a single episode works for its runtime since it ties perfectly back to both the OG show and 01 + gives Jiro a ending that’s the closest thing to closure he’ll ever get, it’s biggest flaw is just the Inazuman characters are something you won’t have full context on if you don’t read the manga because they sadly didn’t get a anime-which yes I am also reading the manga, didn’t get far but I like what I have read-but that also does not actually effect the Kikaider side of the crossover.

But then you have 01 which absolutely FAILS at using the 4 episodes it’s given in almost every way: It doesn’t tie back to the original despite the originals ending being the way it was for 01, with plot holes being caused from it and it’s tonally different as it leans more on action than story which is not in its favor as it takes up most of its short runtime leading to the new characters and the story not being as developed as the original despite having incredibly interesting plot points, just the execution is not there.

It’s the one Kikaider show that needed to be longer, either the episodes needed a 45 minute runtime or it needed to be 6-7 episodes which is at least half the length of the original if it also couldn’t get the 12/13 episodes treatment. It just baffles me how 01 was given such little time especially as a OVA yet was still made likely due to the first show doing decently, yet they didn’t use their time wisely at all to make it actually tie to the original.

But I still can’t find myself to actually hate it or deem it as bad because maybe I appreciate the fact it existed just so the crossover could happen and we could also see the 01 characters animated, or just again, it doesn’t ruin the original so you could honestly pretend it doesn’t exist even if I don’t because I like the crossover and it’s important there. It’s something I don’t feel strongly for and I will always just advise the first show to people, since it being so flawed for so many reasons that’s it’s baffling at least makes it interesting to think about rather than boring or god awful.

[volfoss]

Long time no faceup...

Under the cut cause my number 1 hobby with doll faceups is to talk 700 years about the process and well. I was talking a LOT this time around lol

I am so kind of notoriously bad at not finishing a doll. Like ridiculously so. In my defense with this doll- his face sculpt was SO ridiculously out of my comfort zone (I usually have more cartoonish dolls > realistic) and he was massive (and his body had a lot of mods that I in turn wanted to modify) (on top of my pain increasing a lot which caused me to not be able to work on projects often the last year or two). I would have kept his faceup if it wasn't scratched badly in certain places but, here's the before (blank, I am NOT showing how bad my previous faceup attempts are..it's bad) and then I'll get into processes and such!

[ID: A large ball jointed doll sitting up. His face is blank with no eyes or wig and his body has multiple sculpted blue sections on it. A cat is sniffing his shoulder. /End ID]

The mod work was easy (thankfully! Pin that says I ❤️ my dremel) but I am not done with that so I will be focusing on his face! I watched a lot of realistic faceup tutorials and came away with a few takeaways:

1. Watercolors and a skinny nail brush WILL be your best friend. Also water in general to fix the mistakes

2. Take your time <- you'd think this was obvious but I'm soooo bad at rushing a faceup ok. I'm so bad at slowing down

3. Pastel before watercolor makes it go on smoother (the vid recommended using white which worked well bc this boy is very pale lmao)

4. Be brave and get the worst bit done first so if you fuck it up it's no big deal

So, with that knowledge I began sealing the head (was doing him along w 2 other heads Ive been putting off) and that was when the trouble started. I use sponge on sealant (liquitex matte varnish. Works like a dream always and no respiratory gear or weather conditions needed) but it was applying glossy. I assumed it was too cold in my room and after a few layers of hoping that would fix it, it didn't! Thankfully it had happened to me before and I shook it up VERY aggressively (like 1-2 minutes of shaking) and it went on fine minus some exaggerated texture on the resin from the few bad layers. Now this is one of the issues w this method, the other is it can trap dust/hair or whatever in there (you can easily pick it out if you notice it before it dries tho). These are both pros for me, I like when the doll looks more textured skin wise (realistic) and if I'm getting a little too lost on what direction to take the head, the dust or hair can make moles, freckles, or even scars! Prefacing all of that with the sealant was kicking my ASS and I was fighting for my life, which wasn't giving me much hope when this was a faceup style greatly out of my comfort zone and skill set, so it was just really a bad start. Also important to note that I did like absolutely no mockups for this which I usually do. I did a very vague basic realistic faceup and that was it, which was not really setting myself up for success, one may say.

But, somehow, the first layer was ok! I put white pastel down under the eye, around the eyebrow placement and then after some mishaps with the watercolor on the brows, I went to my old tactic. Usually with brows, I lay a layer or two down of pastel (FAR lighter than I want the brows to be) to kind of carve a rough shape out because I'm so atrocious at getting them even (like to a comical level. The amount of times I've had to redo a full brow to match the other makes this be my default method bc I'm SO bad at them).

I did one layer of that, and then decided I would try again with the watercolor. I don't want him to have super obvious eyeliner or anything (statements I've never said before. I have dolls where the liner covers the entire eyelid, I love a big eyeliner) so I just did the top waterline in a dark brown watercolor on a skinny nail art brush. This went... Suspiciously well? To the point where I just decided hey, we're going in and doing the eyelashes on the same layer.

Eyelashes are another point I'm so bad at, to the point where of all of my dolls I've painted, I've done bottom eyelashes 2x like ever. 3 at most. I remembered the tips from the video (not too much water but not too much paint, steady your hand, take it slow, and not doing just straight lines (hard to do that because I default to that often lol)) and just dove in.

The first eye went so well that I just went right into the second one and it was so much less bad than I thought it would be. It's crazy that practice and research helps? After that dried, I mixed pink and peach acrylic paints together to paint the lower waterline, and after THAT dried, I covered the bottom lashes with the same white pastel. It muted it a lot but the main thing I've learned working with this sealant method is that it WILL take stuff off. So in theory, I hoped that it would take the white pastel off and not fade my very painstakingly painted eyelashes.

Somehow it did work (thank you makeup knowledge or something) and the first layer was done. It felt SO wrong to have a first layer with NO blush???? Like absolutely makes no sense to my brain but it was so relieving to be done with the worst parts (minus the brows. I was not looking forward to those).

[ID: A three quarter view of the doll head shown above. Instead of being blank, it has very faint blonde eyebrows and dark brown lower eyelashes. /End ID]

This is the time in which I admit that I was wrong that it was so bad to do a realistic faceup (which could easily change when I do the blushing, you do not want to see the 80s blush situation I had on the first faceup attempt), as having the brow bones so prominent made the painting so much easier. I was very mad about this as this is my first proper* attempt at this sort of faceup and it was going so well (* proper meaning I actually attempted to adapt my style to the sculpt instead of putting my usual methods to use here on a head of a different style). Honestly I just kind of locked into the brows, and since my brush is a nail brush, there's a little ball stylus (I think that's what it's called? Dotting tool may also be what it's called) so when I messed up, I got that wet and very gently cleaned it up, dabbing the excess water/paint with my finger. This was SO much less painful than using acrylic paint on brows (that is MISERABLE to remove if you fuck up with black acrylic. That does not budge ever) or using watercolor pencils (like with doing my own eyeliner, I do much better with a brush than pencil).

Genuinely never will go back to using a different material for doing the brow strokes, this was such a breeze. Even getting it even wasn't too bad, I just cleaned the brows up with that same technique until I got it close enough. While I was waiting for that to dry, I used the same dark brown (I have a very small watercolor palette and no clue how to blend it lol, so I just used the same color this whole faceup so far) and same brush to add some paint to the eye crease to add some more dimension to the face. While that was drying, it started to bother me that all the dust was just not covered up, because my brain is used to when I break the paint out, I'm nearly done with the faceup, so it should be covered and cleaner by now. Which honestly I'm glad I did! It looks a lot better with most of it covered, although I do still.plan on doing a scar from the left eyebrow up to the forehead as well as others on the forehead but those are 3d sculpt projects and not flat paint projects (I use Elmer's glue to build it up and then blush/paint over top) so it is not my problem now lol.

[ID: A front facing picture of the head above. The head has dark brown curved eyebrows, moles dotted at random around the face, and the eye crease is filled in with dark brown. /End ID]

As if this project wasn't driving me crazy with stress enough, when I powdered the brows, one of them just didn't get as powdered as the other and so when I applied the sealant, about half the brow came away with it! Absolutely devastating but it is just the nature of water colors and liquid sealant! The next layer now had to include a patch job on the brow, as well as blushing (or if I was a little smarter, one layer for the brow repair, seal again, and a layer for the blushing so I didn't mess it up again!). It was such an incredibly frustrating set back especially with how long it took me to do the brows initially.

At THIS point, I was so relieved I had done a mockup digitally (even if not super accurate to what I ended up going with) because thinking of doing the blushing the next layer did make me want to cry a little bit for a couple reasons (on top of the already immense frustrations that sealing the brows on the start of day 2 brought).

As I said earlier, very different head type than what I usually do (usually can just slap some pink on the cheeks, brown elsewhere etc), but the bigger issue was how pale he is. I find it a billion times easier to paint a yellowed doll or a doll with darker resin (I am SO excited to get to my Dong next (his resin is so pretty (and has been really fun to work on while I was in white boy shading hell)) than a white unyellowed doll. If you know color theory or like any makeup at all, paler skin makes things show up so much brighter, which is a pain in the ass when you're trying to make a doll not look like they have clown makeup on with the blush alone. And with how sculpted his face is, I had to place the blush just right to get it to look ok, as well as somehow get the shading to look clean and decent.

I used a combination of a brush directly against the pastel and shavings and slowly built up some flush to the cheeks and shading around the nose.

[ID: The same doll head as above, but with a more peach color to the lips and cheeks, with slight definition around the sides of the nose bridge. /End ID]

I added the tiniest bit more blushing (my favorite hobby is procrastinating sealing. #1 thing ever) and then felt really unsure if I was somewhat close to being done or not, so decided to try it on his body with random eyes and wig to see what else needed to be there, which confirmed a couple things!

[ID: The same head as before, now shown on a seated large ball jointed doll body. He has a long lilac center part straight wig on and dark eyes. There is a doll to the left and right of him./End ID]

The first thing was somehow ALL of the messy forehead was covered by the wig, which was such a relief in of itself. The second thing was all of the blushing looked really good and natural which was such a big relief honestly.

He really just looked like some guy which was very funny as I really um don't have any dolls in my collection that have a normal faceup (guy addicted to getting too silly with it voice: Well surely getting MORE goofy won't hurt! I think the closest to a normal guy would be Theo? Cordelia perhaps too but she's also so pink lmao) and look like just a guy that you could find at a gas station. This will probably not last as I wanted to turn the forehead marks into silvery scars (I feel we could get a little silly with it and have it be magical or something like that, provides the scars look ok lmao. Future me's problem). I definitely need to add some more shading under his eyes (under eye bags are PERFECT when his eye bags are actually sculpted, I'm not used to that on a sculpt lol), accents to the lips (MAY do lip lines. May just add more color. No one ever knows what my go to is with lips because I hate doing them), add highlights (and maybe use some pearl x powder on the eyelid area... I kind of want him to look MOSTLY natural but I cannot lie, the lure of men with eyeshadow. It's a slippery slope) and mess with his eyes a bit as he looks really good with that purple wig, so I'd like to use colors that coordinate with that if possible (same with the eyes probably?). All in all, this was a lot of work for a low energy day and I feel I'm entering the home stretch a bit!

Day three, and despite how horrendous I was feeling like the entire day, I locked in and got a lot done!

[ID: The same head as above, with silver scarring on the forehead and nose and slightly more pigment on the lips. /end ID]

In pictures the scars look a LOT like leeches to me but it's ok or something. I wanted to do silver as I felt it would be fun to do a more magical twist with the characters and having some funky colored scars would work with that! I started with a layer of light grey paint and Elmer's glue mixed together, then added layers of a silver paint with the glue until it was more pronounced from the resin, how a scar would be, and then shaded with watercolors (before then adding the blushing to make it look like actual scars instead of weird metal globs). Honestly I really liked how the eyebrow and nose ones came out but the forehead ones were more of a cover up job rather than where I wanted to place them, so they may get adjusted later.

Other than that, I started work on his eyes (and most of the day was laying in bed in pain so I didn't get a ton done sadly)! It's not very visible in photos but I also used a glittery powder (pearl ex) on the eyelids to add some sparkle.

All that was left is a bit of scar work, figuring out if I'm going to do lines on the lips (my worst debate always tbh, I feel they rarely look good with my faceup style and are often a pain in my ass), finish the eyes (admittedly this is just because I'm very slow with it as I don't really like working with the resin a ton), and gloss the areas that need it. There is definitely a chance I remove the forehead scarring (the great part about it all being glue is well. It removes easily) and do something different there that's a bit bigger and less small blobs but that is tomorrow's problem. Honestly really excited about the eyes, they look REALLY good from when I've tried them in!

I then proceeded to procrastinate for about a week maybe (time is odd for me rn) because I was so unsure about the forehead scarring but when I picked it back up, I did the finishing touches I planned on here and then wrapped his eyes up and he's done! 2 heads to go (sadly. I'm so scared doing them to be honest cause it's so much work always) but very happy with him!

[ID: The head shown previously, but on his body. His lips and scars are now glossy, he has eyes with a dark blue sclera and bright purple glittery iris in, and is wearing a long straight lavender wig. His body is wearing a teal and purple camo shirt that is tight fitting. The doll is sitting between two other dolls on a shelf. /End ID]

[kaiowut99]

...so all this time, I've been applying fixes to card errors for my finalized GX subs often using a combination of AfterEffects and Sony Vegas with scenes involving movement like zooms or panning along the screen... manually keyframing zooms or pans in Vegas after Power-Pinning a card proxy into place in AE...

...when I could've been using Track Motion in AE to wipe out 95% of the work?? Leaving just spot-checking here/there to see how it came out??? How did I only just get the hang of that lmao

[vampirebiter]

i love thrift stores so much. last week i got a dvd of the 25th anniversary phantom of the opera proshot for a single dollar >:3c

[hooffuloftootsierolls]

Hurting myself by making Exorcist OCs but as I develop the personalities and fun little traits of each of these Exorcists, making sure a good amount died in the finale. Not every one of my beloved Exorcist OCs gets plot armor 😔

[glacialdeath]

;;Clarification on verses and how I generally handle Post-TYBW:

In my opinion, Rukia being settled and having a family is nearly a prerequisite for Rukia assuming captaincy. That or some other significant event for her, which I don't know the shape of at the moment. In canon, it's only when her child is more grown that she actually takes the title(10 years after the end of the war), so she remains acting captain for a long time even if fully compliant. I would suggest by default that you assume she's lieutenant but fully assuming the responsibilities of an acting captain of the thirteenth if wanting to do something post TYBW. If you say post-TYBW I'm usually picturing this length of time.

OR if you want full captain Rukia, just remember that you are adding at least a 10 year gap for her to take up the rank... >3> I'm open to other ideas on discussion as well, just talk to me on them so we're on the same page.

Not noting this because I want to avoid the verse where she's captain. it's the opposite really. I think this point is very interesting, and want to get into the headspace of her here and what leads up to this more so. It's really more of an invite because I want to detail out before she makes captaincy and her headpiece and ten years is lot to fill in for my brain and I know there are significant things that happen before that point I want to fill in.

Some headcanons on her and captaincy:

She will actively respond to Captain Rukia, and or Kuchiki-taichou even while just acting captain, but make fun of you on getting your eyes checked or something.

With the passing of her captain, she's very reflective and actively refuses the title or pressure to take the rank. In her heart is some uncertainty in her life's direction, and some thoughts on making the most of life, where that takes her is open though. I don't think it specifically needs to take the shape of canon, but it is some kind of journey or change in focus for her. She's stops just looking at what's in front of her and maybe even looks back and beyond.

Her absolute first priority after thousand year blood war is looking after what remains of her squad. She knows she's now the highest officer that remains for them to look towards after they've lost someone who has been there so long and was important to so many. More than herself, she puts her squadmates first and will shut down and hide her own grieving or emotions to look after them and be the sign of strength that they can lean on.

She attends meetings in place of a captain for the thirteenth while acting captain.

Rukia still thinks she has a lot to learn, on leadership, and particularly on her bankai before taking on the full role of captain.

You could change my mind with a good thread on it or maybe have the right person talk to her, but this is my current mindset, until something makes me think different ¯\_(ツ)_/¯