#whoops this should have been on my art blog

[fly-chicken]

Actually obsessed w her design tbh. The more I studied her little details the more I love her

Also look at teeny Luffy

[criswritessometimes]

70's sleaze

contents - ted’s name your price character, flirting, a wee bit of pining

author’s note // ok, name your price with ted’s character on it is the reason i started this blog. don’t look at me that way. also, i work in film and tv but on the art department side, so if many sound people out there notice anything wrong, uhhh, whoops! tell me what it is and i will fix it :).

(some sound terms so no one lost, lav mic is the small hands-free mic usually clipped to clothing and hair mic are similar to lavs but typically sit on the forehead and are threaded through the head and down the neck)

you loved your job; you really did. you’d been working in los angeles in film and tv for the last 2-ish years and were on some more niche projects, but you were doing what you loved (and getting paid), and that’s all that mattered. 

that leads to today. one of your friends had hooked you up with a pa job for a project called ‘name your price.’ you were working with ferdinand on the sound team; basically, he wanted an assistant to fix mics and battery packs on screen while he was focused on audio cues. it was a simple job and mostly sitting around with him talking. you glanced at the levels on the mics occasionally and kept seeing mic four acting up. the guy would speak, and his input was low even though his fader was all the way up. you lean into ferdinand and whisper, “during the first break, i’m gonna check mic four. the levels are weird on it.” he nods in agreement, “mic four is on ted; he’s at the furthest podium.”

the break comes, and you have a minute and a half to try and fix the mic. you get out of your seat, walking over behind the podiums, and tap ted on the shoulder; he’s a lot taller than you thought. “umm excuse me,” he turns to you, “uhh hi ted, i’m (y/n), i’m part of the sound team. your mic is giving us weird levels, and i was wondering if i could check your mic pack?” you explain. ted looks you up and down with his eyes peeking over the top of his sunglasses, still in character. “anything for you doll.” he hands you the mic pack as he dances to the music and chats with the other contestants. you fiddle with the mic pack, setting it to channel 5 and turning up the sensitivity to see if that changes anything. “ted you you speak into your mic? we just need to check levels.” you ask him. ted turns back to you, “of course i can sugar.” as he’s speaking, you’re looking over at ferdinand to get a thumbs up that levels are better. you don’t get it, and have 15 seconds until the break is over. “ok,” you say to yourself. ted still has his attention on you. “you can stop talking. try and be a little quieter this next segment. your mic is being really weird. i’ll be back to fix it.” you explain to him while closing the back of the mic pack . “is it ok if i put this back on you?” you ask. “go ahead; you know it best.” ted replies, a little less in character. he turns around, and you move his jacket to clip it back to the back of his pants. 

you walk back off screen to look at the levels. “do you mind if i?” you whisper, referencing playing with the faders on the sound board. “be my guest.” ferdinand replies, focused on hitting the multiple sound cues austin wanted from him. you move your chair closer to the soundboard and the connected monitor. you know the basics of sound mixing and what audio levels should look like, and hopefully, that’s enough. after a bit of tweaking, which was more complicated than you anticipated since ted isn’t speaking consistently, you pull the mic to a somewhat happy medium. however, you are going to have to turn the receiver down on the mic pack again. 

the next break comes, and you walk back over to ted. he’s dancing as he sees you and gives you a sleazy smile while visibly looking you up and down again. “hi ted, it’s me again.” you greet. “ahh my favorite crew member.” he greets. “may i see your mic pack again?” you ask. “of course sugar.” he dances to face the opposite way so you can grab it. he turns back to you, and you’re dancing along with him in a simple side-to-side as you tune the receiver down a hair. looking up at him, “can i speak into your mic?” you ask. he nods, “go for it,” while his eyes peer over his sunglasses. you move him to the side a little so you can look over to ferdinand, “woah take a guy to dinner before you start throwing me around!” he exclaims as he’s taken off balance slightly. your face softens, “oh, i’m so sorry, i didn’t notice i almost knocked you over.” you apologize. he breaks character and puts his hand on the side of your upper arm. “hey, don’t sweat it, i’m just fuckin’ with you.” you lean into his chest, looking up at him. “oh so no dinner?” you tease and see a very faint blush appear on his neck. you had to admit, he was quite attractive and the 70s-sleazeball character was doing something for you. you look back at ferdinand waiting for the thumbs up. you play with the receiver nob on the pack until you get the thumbs up for him. “umm i mean yeah sure.” ted stuttered out, “yeah dinner sounds great.” “am i making you nervous ted?” you ask, moving around him to place his pack back in his belt. “what no, we’ll talk later.” he recovers. you wink back at him as you walk off-screen as the break ends. you can see him getting back into character and trying to shake the blush off.

the rest of the show is going well, and you’re really happy you got the job from your friend. you were still paying attention to the mic levels and only had to change the batteries in austin's mic so far. during the chat the bed segment, ted starts taking fake pills from will and you stare at his hands as he makes sure the camera sees them and pops them in his mouth. it felt like your brain short-circuited; you can only imagine what his hands would feel like gripping your hips, then slowly moving up to your waist and kneading at you- “fuck, hey (y/n).” ferdinand pulls you out of your daze as you look at the levels and would you believe it, ted’s mic is super low even though the faders are almost all the way up. you shake your head as you try and vanish the thoughts, well at least for now, and focus on your job. “can we just change the mic?” you ask him. “i think we only have one other mic pack.” ferdinand whispers back. “cool so i need to change the pack right?” you clarify. he gives an iffy pause, “you may just want to take the lav from him, but the only other mic we have is a hair mic.” “i mean i know how to put one on an actor if thats the only option.” you explain, finding the years of theater in high school and sticking mics on your classmates was paying off. “that’d be great, thanks (y/n).” and ferdinand pats your shoulder. as the segment continues, you find the mic pack, the hair mic, the tape for the wire, and bobby pins, in the box production gave you for the shoot. you’re standing up, ready for the next break since you only had 2 minutes for the whole operation. 

the show starts the next break, and ted locks eyes with you immediately and points to his mic. you’re walking over to him to begin to explain what you’re doing. “ok,” you reach him and start ripping your tape into smaller pieces. “so we’re changing your mic and i’m going to give you a hair mi-” you look up and him and realize, again he’s a lot taller than you. without thinking, you grab his wrist and pull him off stage to have you sit in your seat. “so we’re giving you a hair mic,” you start your explanation up again, “is it ok if i touch your neck and hair?” you ask. “please, go for it.” he replies, a little quicker than you’d be used to. “what do you need me to do?” he asks, looking up at you. “take your lav and mic pack off and hand it to ferdinand. please and thank you.” you answer, and you start to work. as he’s taking the first mic off, you have bobby pins between your lips as you position the head of the mic on his forehead. you tape the wire down, snake it across his scalp, and bobby pin it in his hair so it's less likely to fall out. the mic snakes down his neck. you gently press pieces of tape on the back and side of his neck with the back of your knuckles as a way to respect his boundaries. “stand up for me please.” you instruct him. he does. “i’m gonna clip the new pack in the same spot on your belt,” you reach around him and do so, “also try not to mess with your hair too much, i placed the mic in with bobby pins, and you can’t see it from above and i don’t want it falling out.” you plead. “oh yeah, of course. thank you for changing it quickly (y/n). you're my favorite crew member.” he pats the side of your shoulder, winks, and then walks back on stage. you’re left feeling like you passed out and woke up to ted winking at you since you got super into your working headscape. well at least you remembered the wink. 

everything for the rest of the show is going well; ted is messing with his hair, but not to the extent that you've seen him do it before he got the new mic. throughout the show, you can see ted glancing over to you as a part of the pill addict character he’s playing, having a breakdown and looking off into space. you’re not sure if he’s looking at you or just your general direction. still, you tell yourself he’s looking at you. the breaks come and go, and ted is either dancing in the main space with the other contestants, talking to you briefly, or asking how the audio looks. his smile is so soft, and his mannerisms are so goofy you can't help but lean your head and gaze into his eyes as you chat.

during the last break for the live stream and before the haunted board segment, you walk around checking the cast's batteries on their packs. you reach ted's podium, and before you walk over to austin and will, he grabs your upper arm and pulls you over to him. his grip didn’t hurt; it just surprised you. “i have an idea for a bit for the last segment, you in?” he asks, whispering into your ear. you look back up at him and nod, “sure, why not.” he releases you, cheesing and dancing, knowing he’s still on camera.

the last segment starts with will being taken off stage for ‘illegally selling prescription pills’, mainly to ted. he claims to be by the rv park selling more after the show. ted walks over to Will, asking about the pills, and dry swallows one as he walks back to his podium and makes sure the camera sees it. the camera doesn't see the glance behind ted's sunglasses, which makes you feel like a meal to be eaten, akin to the pill. you swallow, trying to suppress the blush creeping onto your face. as you avert your gaze back to the levels to get a hold of yourself. until you hear austin ask, “can we get sound out here, ted is having mic issues.” you look at ferdinand, and he looks back at you, nodding his head towards the stage. you stand and walk over with tape in your hand and see the problem. ted messed with the mic so much it was undone from his hair. as you get closer to him, he takes you into a fake headlock and starts asking for more pills frantically; this must have been the bit. “more pills or i’ll kill like i did to that man in gainesville florida!” you look shocked and panicked as your face reddens as he was actually choking you a little and the other contestants back away from ted. austin sees the bit and plays into it. he looks at you, “(y/n), isn't it?” you nod. he looks up towards ted, “ok ted, just let (y/n) go and the pills that will be in your trailer, ok?” he’s slowly creeping up on the both of you, getting closer. ted thinks it over, and you feel his grip loosen on your neck. you take a deep breath, and his arm releases you from the hold. you fake fall onto the ground and scamper away behind the curtain. “ok, ted and (y/n) real funny,” austin says, “but can we get someone to fix his mic?” you come back out and walk over to ted. he smiles down at you. “sorry if that was too much.” he apologies. you motion for him to bend down slightly so you can fix the placement of the mic, “its ok, it was funny.” you replace his tape and walk behind the curtain again, making your way around the side of the stage to join ferdinand again at the sound table.

as the last segment comes to an end and wubby is named the winner, the cast mill about waiting for the broadcast to end, and you're doing the same so you can pack up and go. to you, it’s always fun to have an on set flirt or crush for a project. ted was a good player for the whole thing. everyone who has a mic comes over to the sound table to give it back, with ted being the last one. he sets it on the table, and his hand brushes yours, “hey i can uhh walk you to your car, i know it’s getting pretty dark outside.” he offers. you smile at him, “yeah i’ll met you outside the studio when i’m done.” he grins and walks off. you coil the mic wires up, place them with their corresponding mic pack, and take the batteries out of the pack before putting them back into the audio box labeled ‘mics’ in old painter's tape. ferdinand puts the small soundboard into the big storage bin production gave you along with the mic box. “is that it?” you ask. “i think so, hey it was great to work with you, hope you see you around more.” ferdinand extends a hand for you to shake, you do, “yeah, the same to you, this was a really fun project. If you're on it in the future, please let me know.” he chuckles, “you’ll be the first person i contact, i'll get your number from the call sheet.” you both release your hands as you grab your personal bag, wave by to ferdinand and walk out of the studio, seeing ted waiting for you. you see ted standing outside the studio doors, checking his phone and waiting for you. he looks up when he hears footsteps and smiles when he sees you. “hey ready?” he checks. “yeah, i’m pretty sure, if not i hope production will keep it for me or i guess i’ll see it on ebay in a few days.” you joke starting to walk out of the building with him. ted chuckles at your joke, and you feel a warmth in your chest from his laugh. the both of you reach the door to the building and leave. the parking lot is still dark even with the 2 light poles. “well, lead the way!” he instructs then follows you to the other side of the lot. “i was always told to take a spot far away from the building.” you tell him. “really? where’d you learn that?” he asks in disbelief. “oh i was lying I was just running late and this was the first spot i saw.” you confess as the both of you walk up to your car, he can tell it’s yours when you unlock it, and the headlights flash. “oh alright.” he tuts out. as the both of you stand there, you’re not quite sure what to say. you want to see him again but not on set, like dinner or drin- “hey if it isn’t weird,” ted starts breaking your inner struggle, “but would you like to get dinner sometime, you seem cool and i’d like to get to know you better.” “yes!” it quickly falls out of your mouth. you clear your throat, “i mean yeah, that would be great, it would be great to get to know you better.” you stand there for a minute as he puts his phone out for you to put your contact information in. you take his phone and type your number in then handing it back to him. “well, i’ll be seeing you.” he sheepishly says starting to walk off. “see ya!” you yell and wave towards him. when you get settled in your car, you take a minute and breathe. a smile starts to foam on your face from the day, and you feel a buzz in your pocket. 

from: 213 555 8620

hey, it’s ted :)

[plusultraetc]

what do u think of traitor!mic 🫶 i honestly was confused abt it when i realized how popular it was relatively speaking … there was a lot of it from like? 2020-2021?!?! i wanted to know ur take on him ദ്ദി ( ᵔ ᗜ ᵔ )

BESTIE YOU ARE ALWAYS ASKING THE DIFFICULT QUESTIONS. OKAY LET'S TALK ABOUT TRAITOR MIC.

The long & short of it is that I SEE the vision but unfortunately, he's just not for me 😭 That isn’t to say I’m not interested in other people’s takes on him (and am super open to post/fic/art recs if anyone has any; I recently saw this piece and had a full-body flinch reaction when I Realized. Like. OMG). I just have like. Zero thoughts of my own lol, because traitor!Mic is conceptually so opposed to my understanding of the character that I can’t quite au about it.

(Before I get into my longwinded nonsense, let me just add that we should have known Mic wasn't the traitor from the very start because if he had been the League of Villains would have been way more successful lmao)

So full disclosure, when I watched the first few seasons of MHA a couple years ago, I heard there was a traitor at UA and the first thing I blurted out was 'IT'S PRESENT MIC.' I honestly am not sure why I thought so at the time, other than the fact that he seemed like an incredibly unlikely candidate, and therefore was Very Suspicious to me lol. Like, I don't even think I knew he was the one who proposed the traitor theory--if I had, it would have been so over for him. I would have been convinced he was the traitor & trying to throw people off his scent maybe for the rest of my life. In reality I probably just thought he was too loud and goofy and therefore must be hiding something (what he was hiding was a tragic backstory, whoops!) But anyway I was actually really surprised when I learned traitor!Mic had become such a prevalent theory!

In many ways, I can totally see why. Mic makes a good candidate for a traitor! He's smart, he has reasons to be dissatisfied with the pro hero status quo, and as we learn, he has very distinct public and private personas--one of which is radio DJ Present Mic, and the other is really, really angry.

THAT BEING SAID. Looking back on it, I feel like the more we learned about Mic, the more the traitor theory kind of... falls apart. I almost feel like he's Too Angry under all that leather and hairspray to be a spy for the League. For example, if I was trying to stay under the radar as a villain spy, I wouldn't turn to the guy next to me and be like ‘HEY let's beat these civilian reporters up for trespassing ♥’

Mic has every reason to be angry. He lost a close friend in a villain attack at a young age, watched the toll his death took on his friends and family even while processing (or failing to process) his own grief, and later had to confront the reality of what really happened to Shirakumo--how intentional and therefore avoidable it was--as the world was falling apart around him. I’ve talked a little bit on this blog about my many Big Sad Feelings about the ‘middle generation’ of pro heroes between All Might and the up-and-coming UA students, but more than anyone else, I think the UA teachers are a very conflicted group. It’s like… not quite ‘former child soldiers raising current child soldiers,’ but a similar concept, especially for characters like Mic, Aizawa, and Midnight, who had such a traumatic experience during their own years at UA. Now they are very much responsible for the children they are going to *checks notes* send into the same, and in some cases even more, dangerous situations that chewed them up and spat them out as teenagers. Very healthy, very mindful.

So Mic does have reasons to be disillusioned, but the thing is, he very actively participates in an often-hypocritical pro hero society. (This is not a criticism of him btw; many characters in the series do, and it’s often what makes them interesting!) Something that’s come up in book club is the fact that Present Mic is a public figure with a platform of his own and absolutely no problem loudly critiquing other heroes and even students, but he like. Really Hates the media. It’s almost funny how much he dislikes them. This is as good a reason as any that traitor!Mic should have been a hard sell, because his feelings about the media are directly opposed to those of the early League of Villains--ie, the iteration of the League when the traitor’s intel would have been at its most valuable. The early League loves the media; they want to use them to sensationalize and legitimize their message. Present Mic, meanwhile, uses his incredibly limited screentime to quite literally get in their way. He could have 100% made better use of his platform & connection to the press to aid the League.

I did try to approach this question from a non-erasermic lens, but I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about Aizawa at all for two reasons: 1) unfortunately, Mic is a side character. He doesn’t have THAT many appearances throughout the series, and most of the time, he appears with or somehow-relating-to Aizawa, and 2) you can’t talk about a traitor without talking about who they’re betraying. And honestly, I just can't see him betraying Aizawa--not after everything they've been through together, not after weathering Aizawa's darkest years, and not now, when All Might's imminent retirement (that the UA faculty is aware of in advance) means that big changes are looming on the horizon for all pro heroes. Mic himself acknowledges that the age of All Might has made them complacent--he knows that the end of the Symbol of Peace spells trouble, and that current pros are largely unequipped for a world without All Might. He has a tendency to prioritize others, especially Aizawa and those he cares about, above himself, and right now would be the very worst time to sell All Might/UA/etc out to the League.

And then of course there's the obvious: he really is just. Very kind. We don't get nearly enough Present Mic throughout the series, but what we do get tells us that he's supportive, protective, somewhat-sassy and Doing His Best. Like yeah, he roasts the other characters literally every chance he gets, and he can def be judgmental, but when it counts (when Uraraka was feeling guilty that Midoriya stayed behind to rescue her during the Entrance Exam, when Bakugou and Todoroki needed someone to supervise their remedial training, when Ms. Ikoma became overwhelmed by her students' admittedly poor behavior), he steps up for the people around him. Idk he's just a really solid hero. This is my formal apology to Present Mic for suspecting him in like 2018 or whenever it was.

THANK YOU FOR OPENING UP THIS CAN OF WORMS, do you have any thoughts on traitor!Mic? Any recommendations? Does anyone? 👀

[rosescore245]

the tags you added to the gay rights red memes on my art blog made me cackle, your takes on him are so right and you should say it

Aaa thank you!!! Red has lowkey been a kin of mine since I first read the manga when I was like. 6. And now that I am almost 12 years older than I was then, I Have Thoughts.

I am using this ask as an excuse to blabber about Red btw, because I always have Opinions and I Think I Am Right because that's how most opinions work

(I'm so so sorry in advance it keeps getting longer. and more retrospective and a little symbolic. whoops. got too silly)

(Like 3 or 4 sentences out of this entire thing allude to Red being Attracted To Blue and tbh Green and Vio too, and there are like 2 mentions of Vio and Shadow being Gay As Hell. this did not become crazy shippy. But what is a ship but the way that characters are intertwined by their actions and being, when one's every action is to keep another happy and safe, is there any need for the words I Love You? I think not. So I guess with that logic this entire thing is one big makeout session, the fourth gayest thing, below "situationship where you're beaten with hammers", "toxic doomed yaoi", and "literal gay sex" lmao)

Red genuinely intrigues me so much and I love to look at him, study him like a bug.

The Link at the beginning of the manga showed so many traits, but I wouldn't quite say any Fully Aligned with who Red presented as. We saw Green's determination and drive, Blue's frustration and quickness to believe others are doubting his abilities, and arguably Vio's foresight in the way Link brought a flower from the Outer Kingdom to bring to Zelda, knowing it would lift her spirits. That's something that kinda holds hands with Red's behavior, but absolutely nowhere before pulling the sword does Link show that naivete and whimsy that made Red, well, Red!

Then Link splits, and they're all different. Green and Blue are the Most like Link, Green a little more so, and Vio hadn't been incredibly off with his smugness and high opinion of himself. Red, however, from the beginning, seemed just a little Out of Place. Green brings up working in a team out of Necessity, not because he likes it that much, and while Blue and Vio openly disliked the idea, Red simply states, well, a fact; "I've never been on a team before!"

He doesn't say Quite how he feels about it, which I think is Telling. He's feeling out the situation, even if just a little, and he's trying to adjust accordingly. He's Adaptable (and gay /silly) and notices during that first little battle that they are NOT working together. So he knows they Need to Work Together, and he knows that they Are Not Doing That.

He gives them someone to protect. I think like 90% of what he does is exactly how he feels, just cranked up a good bit, but he realizes that they need a center. It's not perfect, but it works Okay, at least for a while, and he's happy with it. I don't think he wanted to team up, either, because literally none of the other three Really did. If 3/4 of a guy start gagging at the idea of Working With People, the chances of that last part doing the same is pretty high.

He definitely latched onto the others, Vio and Blue more than Green, and I frankly think he admired Blue the most. It became less necessity and more "I want us to stay together."

It's not perfect, it never would be on such short notice. Blue's temper is insane, Green seems to doubt himself, Vio literally wants to be anywhere else all the time, and Red's trying to give them a shared goal of Not Letting Him Die.

Red's lesson from being split up kind of...doesn't make sense to me, personally. The lesson he said ("I learned I can't rely on others to protect me all the time!") seems flimsy. The situation he was put in, Kakariko and the Fire and the Thief, doesn't FIT that lesson. Not quite. Sure, he was alone there, but that was the case for ALL OF THEM (except Vio and Shadow making out in the trees), he wasn't special for that. I honestly, wholeheartedly believed Red learned a different lesson, and he felt like he couldn't Say It.

He learned he doesn't always know what's right. He saw a kid in trouble, and his morality told him to protect the child, as the son of the captain of the royal guard. He did so because it is in his moral compass, and he paid for it. He chose to try and trust the kid again because of his kind nature and soft spot for children, and, again, it BIT HIM. He tried to do what HE THOUGHT was RIGHT, and things kept getting WORSE for him. He learned that trying to hold the group together the way he was, the "right way" in his mind, wasn't going to make things better.

So he eases out of that role little by little, not too quick upon reuniting with Blue and eventually Green. By the time they're in the Tower of Winds with Vio on their side again, Red is still like chest deep in the role he made for himself.

Their father appears, and he's terrified because he's caught between moralities, I think. He must protect the ones he cares about the most, but when both blades are held by hands he knows so well, it's tearing him apart.

He genuinely cares about the other three. When he was grasped and in danger and Blue saved him before he could even think about it, I think it was one of the most Real versions of him that compelled him to act SO GAY. "My blue hero!" GIRL PLEASE.

Shadow sacrifices himself, and Red looks almost Blank about it. He doesn't understand, not fully. It's not sinking in, the sacrifice made. He is meant to protect and care for and hold Link together, to be a foundation of good deeds. Red is Link's Morality, and Link's Morals are very ideal.

In the Ideal Situation, Shadow wouldn't need to die. Because he's atoned and chosen light, then Hylia should have let him live in that light. But as the glittering shards of the shade float away, that's not what happened. It wasn't RIGHT, it wasn't how it should have gone. Like Blue, who kept lashing out, though much more self-aware, Red hadn't done a 180 upon learning his lesson. What was right, even if it didn't always Fix Things, was RIGHT, and the goddesses were meant to be RIGHT.

And the end wasn't right, either. They grew and changed so, so much, shouldn't they have a happy ending? But he understands a little better, now, and knows that what he thinks is right might not be what is right to the goddesses, so he's resigned, if not emotional.

He may have gotten a chance to show he cared, but as Blue wiped his tears and told him they were all just going to be closer than ever, he never got to SAY how much he cared.

Shaken, changed, and unresolved, they plunge the sword into the pedestal, and Red's story ends.

I have no idea how much of this made sense, but these are my biggest thoughts whenever I read through the manga. If Blue and Vio are the two plates, and Green is the main part of the scale, then Red is the thing binding Blue to Green to Vio, allowing their differences to weigh and be judged. Red is what connects them, it's what he'd been trying to do from the beginning.

Everything he did was to try and keep them together, because the stories always taught the lesson that the hero with the strength of four fought to the end as one. Even if he didn't personally like it, it was how it was supposed to go.

And that's one thing he was sure he was right about as it all blended together.

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

Brainrot Housekeeping: Updated Schedule!

Hi friends! I've got a whole message under the cut, but here's the important part regarding this blog's new content schedule:

Saturdays: mini-hcs Sundays: answering asks (& maybe some rambles?) Mondays: full-hc Tuesdays: answering asks (& maybe some shitposts?) Wednesdays: Vesuvia Weekly Thursdays & Fridays: rest

You might see some polls showing up in the next week or so about new content types - if you're interested, feel free to vote! ^.^ More under the cut:

While I haven't hit rock bottom, I've been getting some symptoms of burnout recently and I'd like to avoid completely running myself into the ground XD

This blog has really pushed me to see what kind of creativity I have, especially just how much work I'm able to produce and sustain. I thought I'd get tired and burn out at two months tops, and it's been over and year and I have no immediate plans to stop! However, taking a look at my own system right now, I do think I need to slow down.

To be honest, fanwork isn't something I've been doing a long time - this tumblr blog is the only fandom creative stuff I've ever done! Before that, most of the things I created were originals - music, art, and of course, writing (though I haven't touched my sketchbook/paints in forever and I haven't done any sightreading in years - whoops).

It gets hard to keep your muscles moving when you only move them in one direction. As much as I love writing headcanons for the M6 in response to people's prompts, there is so much else my mind can do that it misses having the space for. Which brings me to the reason for this schedule adjustment - I miss having that creative freedom.

I still greatly enjoy writing headcanons for you guys and participating in the fandom, and I don't plan to stop anytime soon. However, I want to take some time back to get back into frolicking in the stuff my own brain comes up with, and making space for that to grow into something real.

The questions I need to figure out now are 1) how much time is it going to take me to get my full capacity back? and 2) should I keep this as a purely Arcana blog, or expand it for all my creative work?

If you've read this far, you have my sincerest gratitude. I'll see you guys tomorrow :)

Cheers!

brainrot

[poke-of-the-month]

//im gonna be honest i know you said you wouldnt reblog propaganda other than whats put in the form because its "unfair" but tbh? thats wrong. it makes things MORE fair. polls like this are popularity contests. got more followers, especially more active ones + some popular mutuals? congrats! you win! harley ONLY won her poll because it broke containment. genuinely. look through the notes theres non pkmn irl blogs voting for her. deckard swept without that, sorry! another thing that did help though was the memes and drawings and jokes and interactions that harley's owner, deckards owner, and another person were having. harley is an unpopular pokemon run by a less popular blog. she lost without silly memes and drawings and breaking containment, presumably to mutuals of her owner wanting to support their mutuals rp blog. deckards voters DIDNT seem to break containment *and he lost by under 5 votes*

//that propaganda makes more people see the pokemon they dont know. if i dont know both blogs in a poll im just going to pick one at random but if both are drawing images and theyre being reblogged on this blog? well whoevers drawn their pokemon silliest is getting my vote. i only know one? well if the other has some silly propaganda like memes and drawings i might vote them instead!

//no one interacts with eachother on these polls except for small amounts of rbs saying vote this or that but even then on most polls it was one or two rbs. pickle v mightyena and harley v deckard look like the ONLY exceptions. no one is interacting with your polls which is sad! it should be a place for people to be having silly ic arguments about their pokemon and interacting with eachother and coming together!! they cant do that if no ones being encouraged or having their propaganda reblogged! theres no incentive! thats what kills poll blogs like this if theres no reason to be silly or interact with this blog its gonna just feel like an obligation or turn into something no one joins because its just like whoop! the popular blog won by default again! no fun shit happening at all. with propaganda being rbed even if the popular blog wins you still had a good time you still got to make silly art and see silly arguments.

//THE ONLY REAL ENGAGEMENT OUTSIDE OF RBING OF THE POLLS ITSELF YOU HAVE GOTTEN THIS ENTIRE POLL WAS FROM HARLEYS OWNER, PICKLES OWNER, AND DECKARDS OWNER!! THEY WERE THE ONLY ONES I SAW ACTUALLY POSTING ABOUT IT (excluding the few people posting images of their pokemon with the ribbons AFTER THEIR POLLS)

//rbing propaganda (and thus encouraging it) makes things more fair by getting the less popular pokemon and blogs out there, it encourages people to engage with this blog by drawing images making power points writing essays and making memes, and it keeps this blog relevant fun and fresh for so much longer. i have never followed a poll blog SOLEY for the poll itself. ive followed for peoples propaganda and commentary on the polls. hell, propaganda for WHAT THE NEXT POLL SHOULD BE WOULD BE SO FUN TOO!! imagine people sending entire asks trying to convince people to vote for the next poll to be for the fire type or for it to be for bidoof only!!

//i genuinely do not know why it would be "unfair" because some peoples art skill isnt as good? thats on the viewers for judging based on art skill rather than the apparent effort put in or how silly it is or just the fact that the blog runner put in effort to draw their pokemon for the poll. also people might draw their mutuals pokemon as propaganda as well! !!! both pickles owner and someone else who doesnt have a pokemon in the poll draw harley + someone on the pickle vs mightyena poll have been saying they might draw pickle. i also mentioned earlier propaganda that isnt drawn art. making stupid memes like the do it for her memes that both harley's owner and deckards owner made, the drawing of a super smash bros vs screen that harleys owner made with harley and deckard, and thats just scratching the surface of what people did, and a lot of propaganda with other poll blogs tends to be power point presentations with the slides all posted telling people why they should vote their guy and not the other! those dont require artistic skill all the time! you can just use official art or even a meme that doesnt require an image of the pokemon. and then this propaganda can encourage MORE PROPAGANDA AND MORE INTERACTION AND SILLY JOKE ARGUMENTS IN THE NOTES!!!!!!!!! is it "unfair" because some people wont make propaganda? well then thats not unfair. they COULD make a power point or make a silly joke post or just talk about their pokemon more but if they choose not to then its not unfair they just didnt take the opportunity that their opponent took.

//you're reasoning honestly doesnt make sense and i feel like reblogging propaganda and stuff encourages more interaction with this blog making it more of an event for people to interact with each other and just something fun to partake in. it should feel like a friendly competition, not a set of would you rather questions.

Cool then make your own blog instead of sending me a novel about everything I’m doing wrong. If you don’t like how I do my blog then no one is forcing you to participate in it and no one is stopping you from doing the same thing better.

[officially-other]

Some art, for once!

For context, we fucking hate doing art most of the time. I say that with love! Art is wonderful, it's a good way to self-express, it just... is so difficult. We're perfectionists, collectively, and we're prone to looking at something we've barely even started and going "Oh, well this sucks. I'm trashing it."

But lately, we've been working on an AAC. Which is also a big deal, and completely unrelated! Long story short; we've wanted something like this for a while, and now that we know it's a few specific people in our collective, it's easier to dismantle the internalized ableism for their sake. But there's a lot of anti-endo emote/AAC symbol blogs. Like... a lot, actually. It's disheartening. We're not endogenic, but we aren't comfortable using symbols/emotes from someone who has Endos in their DNI. We think that this sort of thing should be accessible regardless of stance on anything. So we've started drawing our own symbols for the buttons we lack in, if we don't think any of the blogs we like will take a request for it or feel like we'd be bugging them with too many "simple" requests.

And, within a week or so:

In order: Any, Based on, Enderfolk, Loud, Quiet, Seizure, Short.

The Enderfolk has to be my favorite, and is honestly the first time any of us have ever drawn a character without experiencing a lot of frustration. The one for seizures is because we have them, and based on how it was explained to us as a kid! "A lightning storm in your brain." And the short person looks annoyed because... Well, our friends call us short all the time and we're always (playfully) pissed at them for it.

If for whatever reason anyone wants to use these, you absolutely can! We... might even take requests for these, if anyone's interested since we really are trying to enjoy art more and therefore make art more. Plz just send us an ask if you use them and are comfortable doing so, because we'd like to know, or if you'd be interested in requests! I'm not sure we'd post enough to justify a whole entire sideblog for it, but I don't think we'd spam this one too much.

Our art certainly isn't very skilled, nor is it objectively "good," but I think we're starting to feel a little less like it's objectively terrible and I consider that one hell of a win.

OH ALSO obligatory disclaimer: Please, don't come at us for copying someone's style. We fully haven't. We took note of what we liked in art for AAC stuff (Colored lineart, softer color palettes, softer brushes) and went from there. We're not taking inspiration from anyone specific, although if someone is upset about art style or something they can DM us.

-Trixie (A member of a subsystem, which we've forgotten to post about. Whoops.)

[eruanna1875]

New Pinned Welcome!

Hey there, folks! This is Eruanna, and welcome to my blog! My activity on here is... sporadic, to say the least (meaning I'll forget about it for weeks, then have a burst of posts I saved in my drafts for ages, lol). However, you're welcome to look around anyway!

I'm also a creative type (in... several areas, probably too many, whoops), so here's a bit of a guide to what I do:

I write! You can find me on AO3, or here on my blog (#my writing, #my fanfiction, and #my stories are all available to search through my tags, but #salt and light will probably include everything). I also talk about my stories a good bit, just sort of rambling, so you'll probably find that there too.

I draw! Pretty sure it's #my art and #notebook sketch for tags (and #salt and light). It's a mix of exactly two things: fanart and random stuff I sketched up for my own stories.

I even make music! There's not much out there yet, but I have a few demos floating around. They're in the #my music tag.

Obviously, I reblog things, because this is the reblogging site XD Sometimes I make lengthy comments, and sometimes I just add a quick react and some tags, but yeah. I reblog stuff.

I also have (a million) sideblogs, so maybe check those out? @long-live-the-gobop is my technically main blog, because I made it first, but it's specifically an AIO fan blog. I also have @saved-for-me-own-stories (other stuff related to my writing), @marching-tall-through-it-all (Tangled/TTS stuff), @the-gifts-he-has-given-me (art stuff, mostly tips but a few art posts as well), @new-tag-oc (reblogging from the deactivated ones), @tpc-tangled-au (my Tangled AU featuring all my characters), and @less-lost-than-you-realize (my OTGW sideblog).

Yeah. And that's not even a third of them.

Well, I suppose that about sums it up for types of content! Oh, and just a reminder, you'll also see quite a bit of the tag #salt and light on here, because I'm both very much a Christian and very much a creator of content that flows from that.

And, because I'm a Christian, I decided it would be best to tell you where I stand from the Bible itself, so it's clear that this doesn't come from me alone but from God:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." ~ John 3:16-19 (KJV) and "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." ~ Acts 4:12 (KJV) (that one pretty much speaks for itself)

"...That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." ~ Philippians 2:10-11 (KJV) (a key word, every) "For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well." ~ Psalm 139:13-14 (NKJV) and "I was cast upon You from birth. From my mother’s womb You have been my God." ~ Psalm 22:10 (NKJV) (a key phrase, from my mother's womb) "But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." ~ Mark 10:6-9 (KJV) (some key phrases, man and woman, and man and wife)

Obviously, all the words and phrases are key, because it's the Word of God, but this is just to emphasize, so it's clear what my beliefs are.

I'm rooted in what God tells us, about Himself and the world He made. Thus - regardless of what the world says God is or what the world says people are (or aren't) - I'm not going to move. This is where I stand.

As I said in my previous pinned, I'm not here to cause trouble. I'm not an argumentative person by nature, and I'm not going to try and provoke things or send people hate asks or anything. Even if they think I'm a psycho for believing the things I believe.

If that's you, just know I'll be praying for you.

And, regardless of whether you agree with me or not, I hope you find something to enjoy on this here blog o' mine! I'm just here to spread a little salt on the stories we devour and light on the shadows of this world. :)

[depressio111117]

Happy New Year, one and all

I hope everyone had a great, good, or even just okay 2024. There's some uncertainty in this coming year of 2025, but I hope that we as a community can stick together through any hardships and continue to have loads of fun. You're all such lovely, silly people and it's been so much fun spending the year with all of you.

Now, with that being said, I'd like to take this as an opportunity to discuss this blog and its currently uncertain future.

As you may or may not have noticed (you might not give a crap and that's fine), I haven't posted anything substantial... basically since early 2024, late 2023-ish. I've vanished from just about every fandom related Discord server. And at this point I should probably remove the CEO of Stinkoman claim from my blog title, because I've seen at least 3 people rightfully take that name throughout the year. This account has always been very reblog heavy, but nowadays it's exclusively been reblogs. Truth be told, this is due to dwindling interest in Homestar Runner. The Homestar phase that inspired me to make a sideblog in about 2022 finally faded, as it has on-and-off since 2017 (2022-early 2024 was just the longest it ever lasted), and I've moved onto different fandoms. In those nearly 3 years, I've graduated high school, made and lost some friends, it's been pretty wild. Homestar Runner has helped me through some serious times, and now it's sort of being put to the side.

That being said, I still love it! I consider Homestar Runner my special interest, and I'll always hold it near and dear to my heart. I am not looking to abandon this blog any time soon because I sincerely enjoy checking the main tag twice a day, reblogging everything I see and admiring the creativity and humour of this community. I do it because I genuinely adore just about everything I see, and I wanna put some more eyes to it, even if it's just a silly doodle or a sentence-long shitpost. But while I'll continue to do that to my heart's content, my own art and fanfiction will not be prioritized. Sorry if any of you gave a flying hoot about 20X7, that didn't even get past the inciting action chapter, whoops. Fellow amateur fic writers take note: do some planning for your big multi-chapter story or else it'll probably fall into a ditch, lol.

Who knows? Maybe 2025 will have some big release that'll make me come crawling right back, and my hyperfixation will blossom again, and everything will be hunky and not to mention dory. But in the meantime, I'm just gonna sit in the audience and politely clap and smile at drawings of silly dumb animal characters hanging out, or making out, or jibblie-ing out. I'll still always be happy to accept asks and chat about who knows what.

Again, I wish everyone the most merry of new years, whether you stick with the fandom or not. Strong Bad will always be with you, whether you want him to or not. If not, a restraining order might be of value. But you didn't hear it from me.

[scarlet-alleyway]

Hey again! I hope you’re doing alright. I hear that things have been rough for you, but hang in there; I believe in you!!

I wanted to let you know that I LOVE this blog and your engagement with everyone on it. Shout-out to the anon artist for their amazing drawings, but your art style is also so good?? Being able to write AND draw is like, not fair honestly. Save some talent for the rest of us :p

Wait, I should ask a question, shouldn’t I? Formalities and all that - okay, how about this:

Do you have a favourite ROTTMNT episode, and if so, why?

Vincent, you are such a delight and i would gnaw at your enemies for you

i was keeping this in my inbox for a while because i couldn't help but keep staring at it, but to answer your actual ask at the end (whoops):

It's so hard to pick an actual favorite episode!! I think my hands-down favorite ROTTMNT experience has to be the Movie in general, but One Man's Junk (S1, EP23?), Mystic Library (S1, EP20), Pizza Puffs (S2, EP5), and Jupiter Jim Ahoy (S2, EP24) are really fun for me to re-watch too ^_^

I'm not actually sure why those are my favorite re-watch episodes, but considering Raph rotates in my mind like an action figure at all times, that might be part of the reason- scenes where his 'big brother' attitude shines just make me feel so cozy

[crazy-grrrl-on-the-computer]

Okay, sorry for suddenly appearing, but I'm too curious for my own sake. There are posts you tag with some of your OC and now I'm interested in Dark and Justice. Both are that kind of pair I would love.

I AM SO SORRY IT HAS BEEN 84 YEARS AND SO MUCH HAS CHANGED, BUT I PROMISE THEY’RE EVEN COOLER NOW!

JUSTICE TRANSED HIS WHOLE IDENTITY AND IS NOW A VAMPIRE NAMED DAMIEN, AND DARK MURDERED HIS EVIL EX AND STOLE HIS NAME //WHOOPS

Aaaah, thank you for asking about the murder babes!!!!! ;;3;; But please, you never have to apologize for asking about my OCs~ I love talking about them and I’m really glad you were curious for more information even if I somehow entirely forgot to post the original reply I had typed up before everything changed and only just recently rediscovered this Ask still floating around in my inbox!

Dark is my OC and Damien belongs to my friend @dirtflavoredcoke (you can find more OC-related stuff on their @kieranocemporium blog)

The ship has a new tag on my blog now to represent the new era and also because of just how much has changed about Damien’s backstory!

Warning: There is a massive chunk of text with accompanying art below the cut! ^^

Damien was born human to a farming family in Geneva, New York alongside his sister, Quinn, sometime during the early 1900s (1896, to be exact). Their father had hoped for many children, particularly boys, to help out around the farm but was disappointed that it appeared he had two daughters. “Appeared” being the keyword because little did they know that the promiscuous boy-crazy eldest who was caught on at least one occasion with the hired farm hand in the loft was a boy the entire time. This, of course, Quinn knew and accepted even if she didn’t fully understand her brother yet.

Although their father would have preferred him to “focus on becoming a proper lady and wife”, Damien began a career as a sex worker despite the growing risk of imprisonment that came with the US government’s rising concern about prostitution and the spread of venereal diseases brought on by the first World War. Also, he may or may not have endured some pregnancy-related trauma (miscarriage or abortion) while working that job. Either way, it is safe to presume that this wasn’t the first or last era where he would serve some amount of jail time for offenses including but possibly not limited to public intoxication, obscenity, and patronizing speakeasies during Prohibition.

But by the 1920s, Damien was dying from tuberculosis and, short of better options for survival, he allowed his vampire partner at the time to bite him and save his life. Damien had hoped that turning would allow him to spend more time with Quinn, since he had always felt quite protective of her (an understatement for sure), but he wound up having to leave her behind for her own protection, so his family assumed he had simply died from the illness. (He would later find out that Quinn would run away in grief and be turned without consent by a different vampire that same year, but they wouldn’t reunite until many decades later.)

Unfortunately, Damien’s taste in men had proven to be less than stellar, so after getting what he wanted (the bite) he left his asshole partner in the dust to figure out life as a vampire on his own. This was much easier said than done, but it did allow him to finally start transitioning socially and later, as gender-affirming care advanced in the states, he would begin to transition medically too. At some point along the way, he took up escort work until he decided to “retire” from the working life because he is admittedly too lazy to work and doesn’t think he should have to.

But this is where the backstory gets a bit blurry to my knowledge, so I will leave that up to Kieran to clarify.

Dark, birth name Ezra, is a poltergeist. I’m still working out the details of his backstory from when he was alive, but so far I’ve decided that he is descended from Italian immigrants who came to US America during the first Italian diaspora (+ he’s Irish on his mother’s side) and he died sometime in 1960s New York.

A combination of unchecked mental health struggles and a repressive Catholic upbringing during a high-tension war era already rife with racial prejudices bred just the right conditions for a rebellious streak in him. He gravitated toward the greaser subculture and acted out in ways that didn’t exactly win him many points with his contemporaries, but he was less concerned about fitting in and more focused on proving that he was his own person. Ezra had his eye on a girl, but her older brother did not approve of him and consistently tried to get between them. Eventually, in the heat of a confrontation, Ezra snapped and killed them both. While on the run, he was ultimately killed in a shootout with the police.

In hindsight, he realized much later that he had probably been trying to use the relationship to get close to her brother too but had mistaken that desire for jealousy and acted out in rage. That rage connected with his violent end is what wound up turning him into a poltergeist, which has ironically given him a lot of time to reflect through the decades and discover himself as a person via unhindered exposure to different types of people he had previously never been able to know or conceive of.

At some point, he wound up drawn to a psychic alongside four other poltergeists. A psychic’s purpose in what I call the Extended Monster Universe is more or less to act as a therapist to spirits who need to move on, but given that Lexy was only in high school and barely aware of this ability… she wasn’t exactly the best at it. But because she was determined for them all to get along and wasn’t picky about what she called her new poltergeist friends, Ezra started using Dark as an alias to avoid the irritating ordeal of being known. Unfortunately, there was an exorcist-in-training at her school who sniffed them out rather quickly. It took Dustin a while to bypass Lexy’s determination to keep her friends safe, but he eventually managed to trap them all in a spirit orb and pass them off to his older siblings – Lila and Brentley, two bounty hunters who specialize in artifacts.

It was in transit that they literally bumped into Jesse, a nobody trying to escape a bad situation, accidentally breaking the spirit orb and allowing the weakened poltergeists to seek refuse in his body. Terrified and confused, Jesse continued running and only later found out that he had somehow become a share soul for five very different poltergeists with very conflicting personalities. What this meant was that, in their desperation for safety, they had temporarily attached themselves to his soul for stability until they could regain enough of their power to figure out how to leave… and they were fighting for control. Sympathizing with them to an extent and realizing that they were on the run from the same people, Jesse made a deal with them that he would help the poltergeists find a way to escape if they helped him to avoid the bounty hunters who might do him harm for winding up in the middle of their mess.

A cross-dressing rom-com adventure unfolded from there as the poltergeists took turns attempting to resolve the “bad situation” Jesse had initially been running from and help him seduce Brentley once they realized a relationship could garner them access to artifacts that might release them from Jesse’s body. The romance wound up being more real than anyone was expecting and once again Dark was pushed to come to terms with his own sexuality. In any case, Jesse pulled through for them and the poltergeists made a break for it back out into the world at the first opportunity. From there, Dark no longer cared what happened to the other four or where they ended up (he would later on learn that at least three of them found their way back to Lexy for old time’s sake) – he felt more powerful than ever and he was going to make that the world’s problem.

This is more or less when Dark met Damien.

[This is where I would insert art of them together, if I had any recent ship art for them, but I wanted to get this reply out there sooner rather than later. ;;n;;]

One night, Dark happened to interrupt a vampire’s dinner. Seeing as he was already dead and harboring his own urge to kill, he decided that the smartest course of action would be to use the threat of exposure to blackmail Damien into letting him in on these hunts.

Of course he didn’t realize it for a long while, but practically from the moment he opened his mouth Damien already wanted a piece of him. The way Damien saw it, it was real cute that a cocky poltergeist thought he cared about something as inconsequential to him as exposure, but he did prefer his men to be the “take charge” type and what better aphrodisiac could there be than bloody murder.

Playing his newfound partner for sport seemed to be exactly what Dark wanted… until their accompliceship turned into a flirtationship (no thanks to Damien’s dirty mouth), which found its way to the bedroom (figuratively speaking). To say that Dark wasn’t the best at flirting/relationships would be an understatement, as most people think he is too awkward and blunt, but he’s a quick and willing learner. If he hadn’t recently spent so much time in the body of someone who was very accustomed to casual friendly flirtation, he might have picked up on Damien’s attraction to him sooner.

But eventually it did slip out and Dark figured that, if playing house together satisfied Damien enough to give him what he wanted, he could make this  new development work for him. Damien’s feelings were initially just another way for Dark to maintain control of the situation (or so he thought), but Damien was hoping it would only be a matter of time until Dark finally made a romantic move that didn’t involve the bedroom. Living in such close proximity to Damien and Quinn meant getting used to their personalities, habits, and routines… and feeling some way about it. Soft things.

The first time Dark noticed that he was smiling fondly at Damien, he spiraled into an intense and prolonged internal debate. Fondness wasn’t an emotion he was familiar with and it was making him lose sight of his goals. The solution was simple: Damien was ruining him, so Dark needed to kill him. But… he shouldn’t be so hasty. Perhaps Damien was still useful. Did he… care?!

After grappling with the realization that Damien’s feelings were apparently contagious, he is currently satisfied with his decision to not kill his partner because if this is what love feels like then he’d just have to be okay with it. As it turns out, it’s really nice to feel comfortable enough with someone to let them watch his back for once instead of pushing them away. This is what he’d been missing out on all those years, so maybe he can allow himself to want it.

There is more to this story (more characters and more development), but this summarizes how their found family got here pretty well.

If you have a Toyhou.se account, you can take a peek at Dark’s current in-progress profile and see more images of him here, and you can also find Damien’s profile/gallery here. They’re a bit threadbare right now, since we’ve only recently gotten started on that site, but we’re making progress!!

More art can be found on Kieran’s instagram: kieranology.artz

Kieran also made an in-character aesthetic blog for Damien, which you can find here if you’re interested in seeing what kind of blog he would have (nugoth and vampires; warning for blood, suggestive, and simulated gore content): @damienxdeadly

Aesthetic Moon Divider found here.

[beesinspades]

oh my god I haven't been tagged in one of these in what feels like AGES. thank you @the-13th-battalion!

What book are you currently reading? I started the sun and the star but I've been way too distracted with fics, writing, and drawing :(

What's your favorite movie you saw in theaters this year? in theaters? I haven't seen many, but I'd say suzume!

What do you usually wear? ever since I tried cargo pants for my milo thatch cosplay earlier this year, I've been wearing almost only that, with a teeshirt or a tank top. I also got my first pair of combat boots and I'm obsessed with them even though I still haven't managed breaking them in. but also I love jeans and a good shirt paired with a waistcoat! and when it's not hot I almost always wear an old man's cap

How tall are you? 5'7 (173cm)

What's your star sign? Do you share a birthday with a celebrity or a historical event? scorpio. I share my birthday (not the year though) with the fall of the berlin wall. but also with lillium from countdown to countdown which is a webcomic that you all should read :3

Do you go by your name or a nickname? yes

Did you grow up to become what you wanted to be when you were a child? i didn't know who i wanted to be as a child and i still don't. but i do believe teen me would think I look cool at least!

Are you in a relationship? If not, who is your crush if you have one? eternally single, and I haven't had a crush in years #greyarostruggles

What's something you're good at vs. something you're bad at? I'm good enough at writing (it's the only thing I've got going for me alongside cooking hahaha), and I'm very bad at keeping in touch with friends, especially if we don't share an obsession over the same special interest to start conversation about. which sucks because interests aligning like this doesn't happen often :') i hate how my brain works

Dogs or cats? love dogs but i'll always be a cat person :3

If you draw/write, or create in any way, what's your favorite picture/favorite line/favorite etc. from something you created this year? this year and one favorite line? mmh maybe this one: “I'm a priest, remember? I’ll show you all the other ways I can worship you.” also I'm really proud of my ace vash pride art!

What's something you'd like to create content for? baldur's gate 3! I'd like to write a fic with my tav and astarion, but ah, I'm not sure I'll manage with all the trigun stuff I already have in the works.

What's something you're currently obsessed with? [glances at current state of my blog, then at my reflection in the mirror: tristamp vash hair, vash glasses, vash teeshirt, vash's gay earring, vash tattoo] do i really have to answer this one

What's something you were excited about that turned out to be disappointing this year? nah it's fine so far in terms of things I was excited about

What's a hidden talent of yours? i can blink and whoop i've impulsively spent money I shouldn't have spent again!

Are you religious? nope

What's something you wish to have at this moment? a hug and a miracle cure for my stupidly resilient acid reflux issues

I tag @curiosity-killed, @piyo-13, @wrathyforest, @graphitedemon, but no obligations of course~

[vafibrearts]

Hello Friends and Happy Tuesday!

This week, I don't have a usual post on the Fibre Arts blog due to an injury to my hand which has prevented me from sewing recently. It's not very serious and just needs a few days to heal up!

In the meantime, I'm thinking of sending my machines in for maintenance since I can't really use them right now anyway, and their last annual check up should have been in February or March, whoops!

And though I can't sew right now, I can still work a mouse and keyboard, so I'm hoping to get started on my label stencil plan. Wish me luck!

[aelaer]

“Nobody asked about my writing” meme

Thanks for the tag, @tea-understands :) Thankfully I have a small handful of folks who ask me about such things but I do love these memes.

 1: what are you currently working on? 

The Big Boy Fic! The finale of Earth-197320, which I'm 99% certain I am calling Above the Shadows. And I'll have a fun update on Write Every Day June in a couple days.

2: summarize your current project 

It's the fifth and final fic in a series that I started 4 years ago from an anonymous prompt sent to @amethyst-noir. I really clicked with it and she gave me her blessing to pursue it as a full-fledged fic, and here we are today.

Here's my first stab at a proper summary that I wrote for this questionnaire (tell me what you think y'all??):

2019 starts off in crisis-mode as rifts within the borders of reality begin spiraling out of control, drawing the resources of the Masters of the Mystic Arts thin. Tony now juggles the problems of a suddenly-absent Stephen, keeping his work with the sorcerers a secret, and Pepper's uncertain future. Stephen does what he can to maintain the stability of reality while keeping the promises he made. And somewhere out there, the other Stephen Strange is still hiding, putting his own plans into play.

3: summarize your current project poorly 

An author split up what should have been a single work into five separate stories because she wanted to fulfill Bingo cards in 2019, leading to a series that the readers are probably going to need to reread because there's so much detail in Fic 5 that calls back to stuff that happened in Fics 1-4. Fics 1-3 match the length of Fic 4, and Fic 5 is well over the length of Fics 1-4 combined, making for even poorer fic splitting choices. Whoops.

4: describe your favorite character or characters

I mean. Do I really need to? If you're on my blog you know who my faves are.

I guess quick summary as they are in the series in particular:

Stephen Strange: Has an enormous guilt complex that he's been working through a lot. He got better with the help of new friends. His work has endeared them to him quite a bit.

Wong: Has taken a leadership role, but not the title of Sorcerer Supreme for reasons not yet established to the readers. Carries his own secrets. Excellent poker face, but not emotionless.

Tony Stark: Has been blatantly ignoring the Accords ever since he went against Ross's back to find Steve in Siberia and has been continuing that trend since. Seeing the feds turn their eyes on Peter changed his opinion quite strongly. The Steve Issue is still difficult.

Other Strange: He thinks the Avengers and Masters of the Mystic Arts have failed their duties and that he can protect all of reality by himself. He just needs more power.

5: post a line from your current project without any context 

Closed my eyes and scrolled and went to a random page. This is what came up.

Oh, Jesus Christ. This explained so much about the man.

6: how do you get through writers block?

If it's not something health-related which just makes it physically very hard to work on items, I'll switch projects with my shorter fics. For a long fic like this, I'll put on a sprint and just power through 15 minutes at a time to get the harder bits out.

For health-related stuff (including mental), you sometimes just need to work on that first before you can be in the right space to write.

7: would you want to live in the world of your current work? 

Hell no. Superhero worlds are terrible for normal people.

8: briefly discuss your outlining process, if you outline 

I write an outline with the main beats of what I want in that chapter. Then when I get to the actual chapter, I'll sometimes expand the outline with more detail in that chapter section itself. I often go back to the main outline and add new things as I come up with them, or switch around elements in the story to a new chapter. This is how the planned outline has grown from around 12 normal chapters and 1 interlude chapter to 18 normal chapters and 2 interlude chapters (with potential for more growth seeing as I'm getting into some areas that have original outlining that I no longer am certain I want to use as they were ideas from over 2 years ago and the story's evolved a lot since then).

9: what is the aesthetic of your current project?

So much plot. Rewriting a lot of the end of phase 3 to push my Found Family agenda. Fix it vibes, but I think it's a natural fix it arc from the canon drama that could have happened in canon if the Russos gave a damn. A lot of character exploration into their own separate journeys and growth arcs. Pretty accurate on Marvel tones with action, drama, a bit of snark and humor. An itty bitty dash of canon romance but we all know I'm including it only because it needs to be there due to the plot and character arc reasons and not because I'm all googly-eyed for the genre.

10: what song sums up your current work the best?

Each chapter in the series takes a song lyric from a specific song and I identify that song with the story pretty heavily. For instance, Illuminating the Shadows took "The Light" from Disturbed.

For Above the Shadows, it's "Phoenix" by Fall Out Boy (who I'm seeing live in concert in a couple days, yay).

Tagging those who I know are writing/trying to write: @mckiwi, @sobeautifullyobsessed, @burglarhobbit, @amethyst-noir. No obligation either way. Also if I didn't tag you please feel free to take this (and you can poke me here if you'd like as a reminder that you're still actively writing fic regardless of the fandom and I'll try to remember for these sorts of things).

[divineerdrick]

One Piece Live Blog: Episode 49 and Chapter 98

Does Luffy even need to worry about falling? Knowing him, he's probably sweating more from the fact he would have had to start over. Again, we see Luffy lacking creativity in dealing with a problem. He should know by now that he can just haul himself up to the platform with ease. It's not like he cares if people know he's got the Gum Gum power.

Yeah, Luffy was always going to be fine with that XD

Wait. What in the world?

Okay, so he extends his leg behind the platform . . .

Smoker dodges it . . .

It wraps around the fountain.

Then here's when things get awkward. Luffy's left the frame even though we're seeing both points of his leg.

Now we're seeing him spinning around in the air in a really weird trajectory.

I think the animators just kinda dropped the ball here. I might know more after reading today, but I think what they were trying to show is Luffy's leg having wrapped around the fountain, when it unwound it caused him to spin through the air and get flung. But they either ran out of time or money to animate that, so they just repeated the scene where the leg got wrapped, then part of the animation for the kick, then just kinda move a cell around over the backdrop to try and depict it. Ouch! Won't lie, this looks really bad!

Sanji . . . Imma slap you. Yeah, she's not the one you're looking for, but you could have been a bit more polite there. Plus she's still really cute.

Also seriously! How can you miss that heart motif?

Oh! This actually fits really well! Buggy is using poker cards to do a reading. Fortune tellers were big in circuses back in the day. So this is a good thing to add to his motif.

Yeah, he really doesn't do fall damage.

So here we're establishing her right away as the Sergeant Major of this Division.

I'm a little surprised here, but not too surprised. Zoro is probably really hesitant to get involved with the Navy again. But he's still an upstanding guy. He's going to pay the Sergeant Major back, even if this is how he has to do it.

There's the connection again. Laying it on thick.

Wow! They're really giving this guy no poker face here XD

Cool! Here they're just letting Zoro recognize the sword for what it is.

Laid it on a little thick there XD

I find it interesting they did the whole thing with the glasses and the Navy office and then still did the swords, but the Sergeant Major still doesn't recognize him. I'm curious why they felt the need to add more to this arc.

I like how they're going about all cloaked, except for our "mystery" woman, but Richie is just out in the open XD

We have a name!

Alright! Time for some reading!

Sheesh, Koby!

Here, Sanji has given up on pursuing our "mystery" lady, and is instead actually getting some shopping done.

Nami's also showing off why she's such an excellent navigator.

And see! No problem!

Also, we're just jumping right into it! Looks like we've got some serious Shonen padding going on in the anime. We're getting right to who our "mystery" woman actually is. And wow is she laying it on thick! She's clearly enjoying the attention she was obviously craving before.

So our new Devil Fruit is the Slip-Slip Fruit. Apparently this prevents her from being struck and has also changed her physical appearance, though she of course only considers it the loss of a few freckles. We're also jumping straight to the sudden, but inevitable betrayal. She wants Luffy as her man. But she's going to let Buggy get his shot at him at least.

Well that certainly wasn't a thing. No real art or anything for it either. Just, "Whoops, Cabaji caught a Luffy!"

"White Chase" Smoker, huh? And apparently, this isn't a Division but Navy HQ. Smoker's also not lone wolfing it here. Instead he's actually deploying his men to make sure the pirates don't make a get away. We still spare some time for "My pants ate up all your ice cream," though. Oda knows the Navy hasn't looked good throughout the bulk of his manga so far. Smoker needs his moment to establish he isn't like the goons we've seen so far.

We have a slightly more Naval title for Tashigi here, as Master Chief Petty Officer. My understanding is Master Chief is an honorary title outside of the normal chain of command. I'm still not even close to convinced this isn't Kuina. But I want to know what the story is here.

And with everyone meeting up for the confrontation, I'm going to have to pause the manga for a bit XD

In the anime we have another story going on with Usopp in the next episode. Instead of just helping with the shopping, it looks like he's going to have to fight his own bounty hunter. Usopp is an amazing shot when he needs to be, but that tends to only be in practice or when someone else's butt is on the line. I'm curious to see how that will go down.

I'll pick up the manga again when we get to the fight at the scaffold.

[nolanrossblog]

Game Hammers

HELLO! This is the first-ever-world-renowned Game Hammers blog. There are 2 Developers on this week's post, they are hopefully going to be on future blogs as well. The developers of this blog will track their progress in the week and whatever difficulties they encountered. The mission of this blog is to create a good environment for learning and exploring. Nolam This week I was working on a witch game, so I started by creating a new unity project with some cubes. I want to set it up to be a 2.5D sort of space, where you can move left and right but also see the depth of scenes, kinda like Tomba. In this project, I set up some core mechanics like wall jumping, ledge grabbing, moving, regular jumping, and some scaffolding for more complicated things like combat.

Here you can see the little block guy finding his way in life. In my progress towards moving, I thought it would suit the game to add a sliding mechanic for rails. So you can like, slide on rails. For this, I turned to splines - which I would later regret. If you don't know what a spline is: it's a bendy line. Bendy lines are very useful but very complicated as well.

This was an attempt at a homemade spline made with the help of chat GPT. It was very rudimentary and I abandoned it after realizing unity has built-in splines. All of this so that I could make a bendy banister. For about 4 days I farted around and wasted my time with this, realizing that it's probably better to just do an easier straight line anyways. Whoops! After that cr*p, I tried to find a new productive avenue - so I went towards making some art.

The game is about a witch who has to clean a house with her broom, and crossing my vision with Flodo's, I was able to come up with a model of the character, after an interesting attempt.

that attempt ended up having cool hands, but they likely are to forever rot on my hard drive. This attempt, however, was much nicer despite having no fingers to speak of.

The character ended up having a poofy outfit that looks very warm on her - which I like a lot. I did lots of new things making this like faces and hair, and have been trying to improve my topology. Yesterday, my parents left on vacation and I am in charge of my 3 siblings. It's going to be a difficult week ahead - going back to school and stuff - so I'm excited to see what progress I can make in school and with modeling and game design. PS. Grammarly on tumblr is booty.

Spebby Hey there! This is the Spebby section of the weekly Game Hammers Blog. Like my compatriots, Nolam and Flodo, I’ll be rattling on about what I’ve been learning and doing this week of my life. It’s midterm season, and I’ve been hard at work on studying up. My focus has mostly been upon Calculus, with a focus on Parametrics, Polar Graphs and Surface Area of Rotation. I’m feeling pretty good about my study actually, I have a pretty good grasp on Integration and Convergence, and this midterm’s topics are pretty similar, so I think I’ll be all good! While studying Polar Graphs, I came across a pattern I particularly like, which I’ve dubbed “The Lotus”. Not a super original name, but I think it fits. I accidentally stumbled across this one, the function that creates it is 4cos(5θ/13). A render of it can be found below.

Outside of Calculus, what else have I been working on? As a stinky Comp-Sci major, I’ve been working on that. I’m still fresh meat. I very much appreciate my CS professor. He’s quite willing to throw us into the deep and push the limits of what our little brains can think of. I’m pretty brash, so I don’t quite give each assignment the thought I probably should. Learning about in-line assembly arguments and how to effectively use them, proper memory management, creating truly class-agnostic functions and how to write fast and efficient code. I find programming quite fulfilling and therapeutic honestly. Making something run faster and figuring out why something wasn’t working quite how I suspected is always quite the reward.

I’ve unfortunately not had much time to work on programming in the lens of game development. Perhaps Nolam has better time management than I do, he always seems to find time to crank out another prototype. Prototyping is quite the art, I’ve never really had to write something from scratch like that, Flodo or Nolam have always beaten me to the bunch in regards to these sorts of things. At some point it’s on my todo list to get cracking with a prototype. I’ve found it frustrating being limited on what I can feasibly do in a project, but to be honest that’s given me some liberty to get the creative juices flowing and try something wacky within my limitations.

Continuing the theme of academics, outside of my STEM major, I’ve been trying to take some interesting humanities classes. Anthropology has been an interest of mine for awhile, at first I thought only Cultural Anthropology would interest me, but Primatology and other Biological Anthropology subdisciplines have proven to be even more interesting to me. Learning about how odd humans are from an evolutionary perspective, and the adaptations that were taken in order to allow for our unique form of movement or perhaps our ancient ancestors, those of Selam, Toumaï and Platyops. Anthropology is such an interesting subject; If you have the ability, enroll in an Anthropology class, they’re super interesting and can teach you a lot about the world and perhaps change your worldview. 

I could go on and on, but I feel it’s best to bring this entry to a close. Be catching you next week. Perhaps we could have a longer chat, no?