#but overall?? for a project where I guessed on everything?? It's great | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dwampyverseawards · 3 months

Text

FINALE: PFTONES VS WHEN GLASS SHATTERS

CONGRATULATIONS TO @pftones3482 FOR WINNING THE WRITERS SIDE OF THE FOR FUN TOURNEY, AND TO @local-dragon-haunt FOR WINNING THE INDIVIDUAL FIC/SERIES SIDE OF THINGS! THIS LAST ROUND IS BASICALLY JUST EVEN MORE FOR THE FUNSIES.

@/pftones3482

Relevant reason for being submitted:

not sure if it has influence on the fandom overall but it had an influence on me and I live by that

They create top-tier Phineas and Ferb content, from fics to thoughtful analysis of characters and episodes. The following link is a great showcase of just a portion of their current Phineas and Ferb fics;

Propaganda: Just their entire catalogue of Phineas and Ferb works on Archive of Our Own. This is my favourite fic of theirs;

And here are some of my favourite posts;

Vote for @/pftones3482!

Have you ever heard of the Secret Life of Candace? Aka best mermaid au ever? GUESS WHO WROTE IT?

I have been in the Phineas and Ferb fandom for over a decade - writing fics for it for 12 years, can y'all believe that? I'm one of the oldest "original" fandom members left on AO3, which is actually insane.

And to this day the things I love about the show have shifted a little - favorite characters, favorite tropes, ships, etc. Nothing drastic, but anyone who's been following me since the beginning has definitely seen those changes.

But the thing I have always loved most about this fandom IS the fandom. The PnF fandom is one of the most wholesome fandoms I've ever been in, and it's the reason it's one of the only fandoms I still interact with. Sure, there's been drama, and sometimes we don't all agree - no fandom will ever always agree on everything (if they do....run)

Overall tho this fandom is so kind and wonderful, and given how small we are, we are still obnoxiously loud about this show 😂 I love us for that

Regardless if I win or lose (and if I lose, I'm honored to go down to someone like @/inators, who is a very kind person and has a big presence in the fandom), I wanted to say thank y'all for getting me this far

Phineas and Ferb got me on Tumblr and started my writing career. The fandom is what helped me stay. If I could give y'all an award for "Best Fandom," I absolutely would 🧡💚

When Glass Shatters, written by @/local-dragon-haunt

Relevant reason for being submitted:

Propaganda: local_dragon has a fantastic way with words and unconventional story telling. AUs where Perry is revealed to the kids are frequent, but ones where he interacts with Linda and Lawrence too are few and far between and the concept has so much potential. I just love their writing

Vote for my bestie @/local-dragon-haunt they deserve it and they won't admit it

Contestants may add their own propaganda however they see fit, provided it does not put down the person they are against. All round 1 matches were randomly generated, and anyone may drop out at any time.

#I'll be honest I dunno if i should put this in all the main tags now bc its the finale so rly rly late on this ngl #but I'd rather not get another thing so.#Dwampyverse #Phineas and Ferb #PnF #Milo Murphy's Law #MML #Hamster and Gretel #considering theres like v little pertaining to those media tho it rly does just feel like tag clogging ya know #Polls #Round 5/Finale

60 notes · View notes

theosb0rnway · 1 month

Text

Just finished the Bad Batch finale and HOLY SHIT IT WAS SO FUCKING GOOD

SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT

THEY ALL LIVED!!! HOLY SHIT THEY ALL LIVED I CAN'T BELIEVE IT--

So um.... yeah Tech's still not dead to me, CX-2 is alive, everything is fine, we'll see him soon, it's fine-

Crosshair GOT HIS HAND CUT OFFFF- Not the biggest Crosshair fan but I still feel so bad.... BYT AT LEAST HE MADE THE SHOT AND SAVED OMEGA AND HE GETS A HAPPY ENDING NOW

Speaking of happy endings, THEY ALL GET TO GROW OLD!!!! I'M SO FUCKING HAPPY FOR THAT, I'M SO GRATEFUL THEY GET TO LIVE THAT PEACEFUL LIFE THEY WANTED, EVEN IF WE DIDN’T GET TO SEE IT

GONKY'S ALIVE AND WELL, THANK THE FORCE

Emerie helped the kids escape I'm so glad they all made it too AND THE KIDS LOOKED SO CUTE ON PABU WITH MOX, DEKE, AND STAK

ECHO'S STILL ALIVE AND HELPING THE CLONES FIGHT, HELL YEAH

They rescued the clones!!!! I'm SO FUCKING HAPPY they did

HEMLOCK AND RAMPART ARE FUCKING DEAD, LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOO

Rampart was a double-crossing son of a bitch and he got what he deserved. Rest in peace, Nala Se. You may not have always been on the right side, but you died doing the right thing.

Did I mention that I don't think Tech is dead?

The CXs were SO COOL I wish we got to see more of them!!!

DID I MENTION THAT I DON'T THINK TECH IS DEAD?!? (I'm not losing hope guys, I'm not-)

The Zillo beast absolutely RIPPING UP TANTISS was fucking FANTASTIC and I love it and it was VERY VERY MUCH DESERVED

Baryn is me, I need loud destructive noises to fall asleep LOL (this is why I can only fall asleep to FNAF songs in my ears-)

Seeing grown up Omega made me cry, and I love that older Hunter looks like pretty much every older Hunter fanart ever drawn-

Wish we could have seen older Wrecker and Crosshair, and GIVE ME SCENES OF BOTH OF THEM HEALING, PLEASE- (Crosshair did not eat on screen the ENTIRE SEASON I don't like that at ALL.)

Overall, I thought the finale was a solid 9 1/2 out of 10, the only thing that could have made it better was a CX-2 is Tech reveal, but... I mean I got everything else, so I'm not entirely disappointed.

I'm still staying VERY MUCH a part of this fandom, sorry not sorry to my followers who came for the Ninja Turtles and got Star Wars copy-paste men instead-

As I mentioned, I do have a Bad Batch project coming out soon, and I guess I could call it a fix-it now... but yeah, I'm not done with Star Wars and at this point in my life, I really don't think I'm leaving this fandom any time soon. Yes, it has some issues, as all fandoms do, but it's where I fit best at the moment. I'll still be posting other stuff, but Star Wars and the Scream franchise are my main fandoms for now.

Thank you to the cast and crew of this WONDERFUL show, you did it again, Star Wars. (*puts TBB in my top 3 TV shows of all time*)

And thanks to all my friends here on Tumblr who helped me get into this show and traded theories and so much more! (Also special thanks to @atyourdinosaurs for all of your love, theories, and ideas [and for inspiring my new project], and to @casp1an-sea and @thecoffeelorian for being two amazing friends I made from this fandom!)

We had a great run, guys. It's a honor to love this show and to be here for its final moments. Here's to more Star Wars and to more Bad Batch content in the future.

-Oz

35 notes · View notes

funnier-as-a-system · 3 months

Note

Heyy I'm that game concept anon! Wanted to say that it's been absolutely lovely to read about different systems' experiences!! Nice to see we're not alone lol. I'm usually pretty confident in what we have going on, and people around us (in college) somehow are... supportive, even tho they don't understand what I'm talking about like half the time, but that moment bent me out of shape a little. Glad to report that I'm now back into the proper confident shape yeehaw :)

Also in my first ask I somehow failed to mention this, but the whole deal with the "romantic connotations" was literally just my teacher making it up himself. Like as much as I wanted to show my relationship with my husband/co-host one for one, I wasn't originally going to make the game characters have a romantic relationship. Cuz platonic relationships are very important too! And overall the goal was to show how alters should have better in-sys communication and collective problem-solving, when possible (and NOT bully each other for 'stealing' each other's life, and NOT bully the persecutors for being mean without trying to figure out why they're mean and without trying to help them, and NOT bully other alters for acting like they do without learning their reasoning, like we did, unfortunately.) I guess husband's 'Protective husband' energy was just too intense for the teacher to handle lol. But NOW I do want to incorporate in-sys dating. We'll see how it goes, I guess.

(also please take care!! That's a lot of asks to have wow. Hope you're doing well!)

Hey there!! It's great to hear from you again!

I'm really glad you're feeling better after what happened. So, your professor was just seeing romance where there wasn't any, huh? Feels like a common theme with professors whenever someone writes about any kind of close relationship – maybe it's due to amatonormativity, or maybe in this case it's just your husband's "protective husband energy", as you say, haha. But I'm happy to hear that you've continued working on your project with passion, and that you have people who support you!

I'm also happy to learn more about this game concept you're working on, because it sounds very cool! Everything that you list are important things for systems to learn, though I find many systems struggle to learn them when they first discover their plurality. As we said to a friend once, with how strongly the idea of "one body = one self = one life" is cemented into everyday narratives, it's difficult to unpack that and accept that your body and life may not be only your own, thus making it difficult to accept your system and respect your headmates. Of course, this doesn't excuse rude or cruel behavior between system members, but it's a common reason we've found for conflicts that occur shortly after syscovery. So, I find the fact that you're not just acknowledging but showing these conflicts and the process of improving relationships (with the word "relationships" being used in a general sense here) between headmates in your game to be a very good thing!

Thank you very much for the follow-up – and for the concern, haha! We'll be alright, but I think we'll soon have to create a specific tag for all these asks about intrasystem relationships. Maybe "datenight musings" will work? Hm, we'll workshop it.

#thanks for the ask!#it's certainly been a tiring time answering all these a.sks #but I'm enjoying it #intrasys sweethearts

26 notes · View notes

skeletonpunching · 1 year

Text

Buddy Daddies interview with Toyonaga Toshiyuki

Interview with Toyonaga Toshiyuki (voice actor for Kurusu Kazuki)

Interviewer: When you first saw the character design, description, and other information about Kurusu Kazuki, what impression did you have?

Toyonaga: I felt like this was a bright character - but he was also clad in a coat that gave off a slightly bleak air, so I imagined that there must surely be more to him than just that womanising side. At first, this series was referred to by the nickname of "Parenting Project", so I wondered, "Is he becoming a papa or something???"

Interviewer: Once you actually acted as him, what did you find appealing or interesting about Kazuki?

Toyonaga: I think, hopefully, the brightness and liveliness came across. The director also told me, "Please do lots of cooking," and I wondered: how could I add my own extra touches to the character of Kurusu Kazuki, while staying true to the series and the character? I treated this as a test from the director. But there was already plenty of interesting nuance to the lines of dialogue, and I tried to convey all of that fully in my performance.

Interviewer: You were essentially playing the dual roles of father to Unasaka Miri, and a professional assassin. Was there anything you kept in mind at those times?

Toyonaga: Honestly, I wasn't really consciously thinking "this part goes like this" or anything. There are lots of fantastical bits, and as an assassin, he's always super casual about shooting people (I guess that's how it goes, when you're an assassin…) so I think his portrayal doesn't come across as all that brutal. If anything, I'd say I was probably most concerned with maintaining the overall balance between the realistic aspects and the exaggerated aspects.

Interviewer: Please tell us your impressions of Suwa Rei and Miri, as well as what you find appealing about each of them.

Toyonaga: I'm pretty envious of Rei-kun, in some ways. (laughs) But even Rei-kun, who seems at first glance to have an enviably self-indulgent life, has the kind of past only an assassin would. I find his evolution very fascinating. Miri-chan, well, what else can I say? She's just plain adorable. I think Kino Hina-san's performance truly brought all that charm bursting forth. I'm a father myself, so I've really gotten to understand that sense of "adorableness".

Interviewer: From the episodes that have aired so far, are there any scenes that left an impression on you, or that you're especially fond of?

Toyonaga: Well, it's not part of the story, just a super minor detail - but in the opening, there's this moment where Kazuki picks up Miri-chan. That movement is so totally realistic, it really gets to me. You can tell so much care went into that. As for the episodes themselves, that conversation with Miri-chan's mother in the bar was a memorable scene. Kazuki says shouldering everything is a mother's duty, and gets the retort that people who talk like that, without ever having been parents themselves, bring the greatest misfortune to their families… There's a lot to think about there.

Interviewer: Please tell us what you think are the selling points of this series "Buddy Daddies".

Toyonaga: Miri-chan is cute. I recommend it to people who like watching shows while having plenty of comments and questions about the story, and people who like suddenly noticing some words or truths that might surprise them, even if they have no particular questions or comments.

Interviewer: Finally, please give a message to everyone who is enjoying this series.

Toyonaga: It's an original series, so no one has any idea where it's going next - I think that's really fun and thrilling. "What kind of events will they get caught up in from now on? Will it turn out different from what I expected?!" Maybe it will, and maybe not. I hope you'll have a great time watching the show, including all those unexpected twists. It'll be fine! Miri-chan will never betray you!!!

#buddy daddies #buddy daddies interview #toyonaga toshiyuki

150 notes · View notes

accirax · 2 months

Text

initial thoughts on DCAS episode 6

THIS EPISODE WAS SO GOOD!!! the fact that it was a musical episode is totally the cherry on top; i love it when series come with their own music (cough cough me @ project sekai). but overall it was also really funny, and had some great character moments, too.

i'll save my thoughts on strategy and where the season might be headed for my next power ranking post (whenever that is :,( ), but were some of my other thoughts/highlights.

specifically the phrase "fuck my life" and Yul saying it made me cackle. seems like Emily ISN'T Yul's manager, but she might still kinda take on that role this season? we'll see. the lack of phones is really having an effect on the plot.

they hate her so fucking bad

okay, i guess i forgot to consider this angle when i was saying it would've made more sense for them to vote out Fiore. however, having started with 18 participants, the merge will probably happen at, what, 10 people? (modern Survivor describes the merge as "at least 11," but obviously this isn't survivor.) sure, Hunter is a bit of a challenge beast, but he can't protect all three of them every episode. if this trio is only 3/10 of the votes, you could literally split the votes on Ally and Tess in a 3-3-4 if you can get everyone else to unite against them. you know what you should be worried about? THE VILLAINS ALLIANCE HAVING 6/"10" VOTES AT THE MERGE!!! sigh. why am i relying on Jake to be smart (/j)

i'm more impressed that there was hot water in the first place. this thing is in the middle of a field, no?

i'm finally starting to see how Yul can be a hilarious "love to hate him" kind of villain. he had some of the best lines this episode hands down.

TREVEK BECOME CANON???

there was absolutely no reason to put the apple on the stick other than to fit in. love this for her.

idk if this is a winner's cut moment or not. glad that the money would go towards schools and NOT the police force, though.

man, now i want to go back and check the other episodes to see if Tess has had the "Cyan Team narrator" role the whole time. in Survivor, that's indicative of a deep run. ...i really need to stop applying Survivor logic to everything.

and why are you thinking about what would make Oliver laugh, Kristal? ',:)

i appreciate the s1 callback, but Trevor doing this dance move gives me so much second hand embarrassment that i keep inadvertently closing my eyes every time i have to "see" it again. anyways, given how most of the episode songs had lyrics related to the Team's emotional state, it's interesting to see that Trevor is singing a romance song. trevek become canon pt 2?

this was an interesting parallel. with Kristal laughing at Derek's joke, it seems like they were trying to show how she's growing closer to Derek, in a way which Trevor might fear is romantic. were there supposed to be romantic undertones to Alec being the only one to laugh at Connor's joke? and, if there were, was that just a fun nod to the aleconnor shippers, or will it actually be canon/relevant to later in the season?

NOT a surprise. i need to see the "i want you died" poetry he wrote about Fiore after last season.

of course you were, you fucking fruit (affectionate)

the anguish: i love my gf :D let's frolick through a field together

"trust me dude i'm the divorce man"

GABBY?????

mood but also damn is Ellie really leaning into the villain thing this season. this doesn't even help her win the season, she JUST wants to see him suffer.

i forgot that the s1 contestants didn't know that Nina was her own separate being yet

they were NOT lying, Aiden's VA is a great singer! Tom's backing vocals and Ellie and Gabby's harmonies(?) were also really nice too, though. this was probably my favorite song of the episode just bc i think Cyan had the strongest singers. all of the rocking, shoulder-moving dances are also impossible not to imitate.

well, there's the thumbnail. their choice of thumbnail made me laugh bc i remember, back when i was watching s1, seeing all the thumbnails of Aiden kissing both James and Hunter and thinking that Aiden was going to be some sort of troublemaking flirty antagonistic character only to be blindsided by his actual characterization. i'm sure the s1 watching me would have only added this to her arsenal of evidence, although hilariously idk if i would have been able to tell the other character was Tom at the time. anyways, i was pretty certain from the start that this must be part of the performance. although, while i'm happy that Aiden seems to think that James will be okay with the performance, i wish we could have cut to James somehow just to confirm that that was true. i don't want the next time we see James, whether in the finale or some other time, to show that he was actually really jealous and upset at Aiden for kissing another man while in a committed relationship. also gabbielle(?) super cute in the bg :D

he's so fucking stupid... (/pos)

bold of you to say this to Ashley, who has been in a two year relationship with the guy who went home in episode 2.

i also really liked this song :D i understand why they made Jake and Ally the main singers, because they best encompassed what the theme of the song was about, but i think i actually liked Ashley's vocals the best. i wish she'd gotten to sing more. also for a moment i thought Marcus had a trans flag on his hat. it's still close enough. trans Marcus canon.

this was probably my least favorite performance of the episode, although idk how much of that was just how much i hate Alec's outfit. glassesless Alec scares me so bad... no hate to the VAs, obviously, i think they have nice voices! it's actually the way that they didn't sound like they had confidence in their singing abilities that made the performance feel a little shakier to me. i do think that this song had the best lyrics in terms of encapsulating each member of their team, though. i really like how Yul and Riya are the ones to sing "i'm going to chase it" as a duo, because they're the ones chasing fame and the limelight, and then Grett sings that she can't ignore it, because eventually she's going to have to realize that her entire relationship with Yul was a result of him clout chasing. Connor only singing "live in the moment until i die" is also very fitting given his placement... in both seasons. L.

really surprised that Riya (or anyone else) didn't even mention Yul's foot injury as part of this equation. Riya just said that she didn't want to lose any more challenges, and Yul's bad foot could totally lead to a loss. maybe i'm just overestimating the extent to which that foot injury will stick around, though.

season 2 characters are REALLY suffering out here.

HELP??????

love to see Alec and Fiore's kinda sorta dual redemptions. i have high hopes for them.

and those were my initial thoughts, which got way longer than i expected. thanks if you wound up reading towards all the way down here. i have no idea who the leakers are, obviously, but i really hope that they stop acting up soon so that the series can continue. i would hate to have the artists have to take a pay hit and/or stop making the series just because of some people's impatience and delusions of power, or have the honest patrons lose out on being able to watch the episodes early to protect from others' immaturity. see ya!

#disventure camp #dcas #sorry for no image descriptions this time i'm lazy and this has already taken up more of my day than i anticipated #disventure camp spoilers #dcas initial thoughts

18 notes · View notes

starakex · 6 months

Text

Wurmple Build Log

Guess who's back to drop another overly detailed post about a cosplay project. Another Pokémon one, unsurprisingly! My dumb ass made a Nargacuga fursuit head back in 2020 so I could learn how to work with upholstery foam. It looked... alright... but I know in my heart it was a horrible, horrible mess. Fast forward to 2023, I go to a 3-day convention, wear a bunch of different heavy wigs the whole time, get a rash on my forehead and think, fuck it, I am cringe and I am free, I'm gonna finally live the dream and make a Pokémon suit. It'll be great, and I won't have to wear a wig; I'll just have to worry about heat strokes instead. Fun! Of course, in true shitpost fashion, my perfect fursuit candidate has 10 legs and is shaped like a sausage.

Click on over to read the wondrous tale of building a Wurmple Partial Suit in like two weeks.

1. The Worm

Wurmple started as a dumb little sketch in the corner of my notebook. I have a lot of cosplays and plushes under my belt but the last fursuit (head) kinda looked like it would belong in a bootleg Freddy Fazbear establishment, so I brainstormed over a bunch of Pokémon I like that would work as a partial and are simple enough in design to avoid accidentally creating Uncle Uncanny 2.0. The goal was something that would be relatively comfortable and easy to bring to events 'cause I'm just not mentally prepared to drag a suitcase in public transport and wear a full body sweat carpet yet. I ended up doodling a few ideas like Haunter or Koffing, but then I pictured a Bug Catcher trainer with a bug head and I thought it was funny as hell, so the choice was made. I picked up my copy of Alpha Sapphire to get a good look at the model and immediately ran into a problem; the eyes on Wurmple are literally on the side of the head. They sit so flush you literally cannot see them if you look at them from the front. Not a great start. I figured I could probably hide a small hole for vision right above the mandibles where the red and cream colors separate. I wasn't super confident it would work, but dammit, I was already commited to being a stupid Bug Bug Catcher. Similarly, I looked at the side profile and figured I could open a hole behind the mandibles at mouth height to breathe out of. With an disproportionate amount of confidence for the bullshit I'm about to summon into the world, I began the project by patterning out the tail.

2. Bug Ass

I'll be honest, I started on the tail so I wouldn't have a reason to back out of it if the head ended up being a hot mess. I've patterned out and sewn a few plush before, so making a big ol' headless grub sounded like a reasonable goal. I usually make plush patterns by building out the shape with newspaper and tape, but Wurmple's tail got pretty big when scaled to fit a human, so I searched for alternatives. I ended up building the base shape to draw a pattern out of by taping two pillows together. I tied down small sections to shape the belly and slapped a layer of masking tape over half of it to trace my pattern. Once everything looked good, I cut the pattern pieces out and laid them flat. The pillows were returned to the couch safely once they recovered from the barbaric treatment.

I dug through my materials storage (a sad lonely plastic bin) for some Trash Fabric ™ leftovers from other Trash Projects ™ and tested the pattern out to see how it looked. I made the pattern for the spikes and legs at that point based on the test build and adjusted some seams on the tape pattern to refine some shapes, but overall the first pattern was a great success!

With the mockup done, I pulled out the minky fabric and got to sewing the tail together. I picked minky for the project 'cause it felt right for the cartoony 3d models to have that smooth short-pile look in real life (kinda like the official mascots, really). I was aware the margin for error when your fur pile is 3mm long is basically non-existent, but hey, at least I could work without a respirator on unlike fur! Sewing the body of the tail was pretty straightforward; I assembled the belly panels together, stitched the darts on the red parts to form the curve, and attached the backside of the zigzag spikes to it. I assembled the top and bottom halves together, tacked each zigzag down in place by hand, and filled the whole thing with polyester stuffing to see my beautiful bug sausage take shape.

Once I was sure it everything looked good. I stitched six little white legs and attached them onto the belly by hand using the belly seams as a guide.

Before moving on to the top spikes, I took a break from handsewing to build the tail base. It's a little nub made out of sandwiched upholstery foam with a belt running through a channel carved into the foam. It's topped off with a layer of high density EVA Foam glued at the base to keep the anchor point sturdy. Huge thanks to Neffertity for her tail tutorials as this was the main inspiration behind the method I used for the tail attachment. The foam nub goes about a quarter of the way through the tail, with the rest of it being filled up with the polyester stuffing that was added earlier.

Once the tail attachment point was secured, I started sewing all the spikes for the top half of the tail, stuffed them, and then stitched each of them to the tail by hand. Once they were all stitched on securely, I sewed the back closed with one last minky piece and Wurmple's tail was complete!

(Looking back, I could probably have machine stitched the legs and spikes on... But I was watching some really good Resident Evil Randomizer streams while handsewing these, so I didn't wanna get off the couch to work on the pattern again)

I'm so glad I started with the tail. It was basically a big plush, and I was so proud of the results when I was done that I was energized to start working on the head. Oh right, the stupid worm head with no vision.

3. The Head

Building up the shape of Wurmple's head was simple enough. I began by building a bucket head base out of upholstery foam by following Skyehigh's Studios old tutorial (new one linked here) and slapped some paper on it to figure out the size of the main elements; the mandibles and the eyes. I immediately regret following the tutorial steps for the eye holes, since I Forgot We Weren't Gonna Be Doing That, and mark where my cyclops eyehole is generally going to be instead.

Once I was satisfied with my patterns, I cut some more upholstery foam slabs, carved them with scissors until I got down to the general shape of the mandibles and horns, and glued them onto the base. I immediately got another stress injury carving everything down and realized I did not learn from my wig ventilating mistakes. I took a break to add a turkey carver to my online shopping bookmarks, which I immediately forgot about until I sat down to write this post. Since I was using minky for this project, I needed to make sure my base was as smooth as possible. The fabric is so thin it would pick up every wrinkle ever and look sad if I didn't. I dug into the bin for some Trash Felt ™ and glued it over the mandibles to smooth things out and added some mesh to the holes of the bucket head base to keep the curved shape of the head going without sacrificing those sweet ventilation holes. I also added my vision hole and marveled at my horrifying Mando helmet abomination. At that point in time I'm having some big doubts about the vision hole, but I trudge on because I'm not just gonna wear a bug ass to these conventions.

With the base complete, I covered the whole thing in tape and drew over it like I did with the tail to create a pattern, made sure to forget to take pictures of said pattern so that this step is lost to time, and started sewing the head fabric so I could slap some skin on this bad boy, starting with the horns. At the same time, I stitched the darts on the mandibles, pinned that to the head for later, and assembled the red halves of the head together on the back seam to test the fit.

With the test fit successful, I pulled the red part off in order to machine stitch it to the front half of the head along the zigzag edge and slipped the whole thing over the head again. With everything in place, I painstakingly handstitched everything up, including the side of the mandibles and the horns.

Somewhere in the magical stretch of time between midnight and 5 in the morning, I somehow summoned the inner lining of the head out of french terry knit, a tape pattern and a dream. I also painted a little piece of buckram for the eye mesh to match the red fabric and glued that to the inside of the head. I included a little velcro pocket on the back of the neck in the lining to insert a powerbank for the fans (which I then proceeded to procrastinate on installing for a whole 4 months afterwards). Since I'm an idiot and took no pictures signed an NDA with the Midnight Craft Wizard, here's a picture of the fan installation in the mandibles with velcro so they can be removed to wash it. (Fan kit by Henry's Helmet Fans)

Once the head was completed, I finally went to sleep. And then I woke up at noon and remembered I forgot the eyes WHOOPS I cut four circles out of high density EVA Foam (Two of them smaller for the pupils), heat shaped a slight curve to them, and covered them with minky. I glued the pupils to the irises and then I glued those suckers to the head and NOW THE HEAD WAS ACTUALLY DONE WOOHOO

Turns out hiding the vision hole right over the mandibles was... Actually a decent idea, in the end. It blends pretty well into the face at a short distance. The mouth opening also isn't visible in most angles so I can actually breathe pretty well, and I can even wear a portable necklace fan and have it blow hair into the head without making poor Wurmple eat the fan.

I took it for a test run and realized the eye vision in the suit was actually pretty damn bad overall because the minky covered half of the original hole up, especially on the sides. I took a heat gun and some scissors to the head so I could peel it back around the vision hole, cut some material out to open it up more, and glued everything back down with a new piece of mesh. Now I have like 40 more degrees in my cone of vision, which puts me on par with some of the guys in Metal Gear Solid.

With those adjustments done, the head was finally complete!

4. Get Worm'd on

Turns out I like it a whole lot, whoops. It's definitively not perfect (what costume ever is?), but it looks leagues better than I expected it would, so it works out. Looking back, I don't think I'd really do anything else differently on the build. I still got to make the Bug Catcher outfit to go along with it, but with winter in full swing there's no rush to do so. Definitively looking forward to making a net, though!

If you're still reading, thank you for getting through my ramblings! I hope it was an interesting read, and maybe even provided some insights or inspirations for your own future projects.

❤️

#Wurmple #Cosplay #Pokemon #Pokemon Cosplay #Fursuit #Partial Fursuit #Fursuit Friday #Pokemon Fursuit #Fursuit Maker #Cosplay tutorial #Cosplay Build Log #Original Content #Oh yeah I'm totally making another dumb pokémon suit project after this it was real fun #I'm thinking maybe giving that Koffing or Haunter idea a try later. Or maybe something else equally stupid like Grimer. Something

18 notes · View notes

recurring-polynya · 6 months

Text

Writing/Art Update 12.12.2023

Good news first, I guess, which is that I (sorta) finished Chapter 6. I say "sorta" because the last scene gave me some trouble. I did finally finish it in the sense that it does everything it needs to do narratively, but I feel like I sort of missed the opportunity to make it interesting, primarily in the sense that it features two characters interacting who don't usually interact, and I wanted to make more out of that, but I'm not particularly sure what.

I moved on to the first scene of Chapter 7, and ran into basically more of the same problem. It's also the case that I've got a scene where one character needs to tell some other characters about a thing that happened, but the thing just happened the chapter before. On one hand, I don't want it to feel repetitive to the reader, but on the other hand, I don't necessarily want to do a "then Rukia told them about x, y, z," because the thing that happened was weird as Hell, and I think she wants to be a little selective about what she shares. Just gotta figure out how to thread that needle. Back on the first hand, this is a Bleach fanfic, so maybe flashbacking to a thing that we literally all just saw, moments ago, is simply part of the genre.

The real problem I'm having is that Chapter 1-4 were their own thing, Chapter 5 was the transition from Act I to Act II, Chapter 6 was the beginning of Act II, and now I'm here, in Act II, and I just don't have much of a sense for it, yet. I think I just need to write some stuff and throw it out, or possibly write some scenes out of order until I can get my hands around the form, the truth, and the reason of this stupid story. This is not the part of writing that I like, but it's the part of writing that makes it good, so I guess I gotta do it. It's mildly depressing having to go back to this after the delightful high of Knowing What I Was Writing and Writing It for, like, two entire, magical weeks.

Anyway, all this sounds like I'm in a bad mood but I'm not actually in a bad mood. I am extremely stressed out over general Decemberness, and so I'm trying to just not worry about writing too much for the rest of the month. If I write anything, that's great, and if I don't, it's understandable, I'll get back to it in January.

The end of Chapter 6 marked 18,905 on the Part B doc (55,778 overall), and then there's another 1081 of Chapter 7 written, but I'm honestly not sure if I'm gonna keep it or not. That makes 2,563 for the week, much of which might be trash, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's really weird, because by my projections, I've got about 30k words to go, which feels simultaneously enormous and hardly anything at all. I guess the answer is simply that 30k is enormous when you don't know what you're writing and hardly anything at all when you do. Unfortunately, right now, I feel a lot closer to the first than the second, but intellectually, I think it's not actually as bad as it feels.

In other news, I started a drawing thing last week. Sketch 1 out of 3 (the important one) came out surprisingly well. I really need to get back to work on that.

#writing update #art update

10 notes · View notes

lostbutterflyutau · 4 months

Note

2, 4, 5, 6, 23, and 24 for Velvette and Camilla please? I don't have emojis so just picture the devil emoji cuz hell

YAAAAS. Let's GO!!!

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

Velvette: Her attitude and looks. Seriously, girl is serving. Even though it is immature at times, I just love her overall aura and aesthetic. Plus, I love how observant we see her being in the bit of time she gets on screen and the fact that her looks change so frequently, which speaks to her position as a trendsetter and fashion designer.

Carmilla: Like Velvette, I like her attitude, but for different reasons. She's clearly been in position for awhile and that reflects in the way she conducts herself. I also love how she will literally murder for her family. I have a thing for protective characters who are also secretly soft with certain people (in this case, her daughters).

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

Velvette: Oh, geez. I guess I never thought about it much. Maybe something akin to Project Runway/Rainbow where I could see her being a great judge.

Carmilla: This is super obvious, but considering Striker is mentioned as having a Carmine-crafted rifle, it would be cool to see her in Helluva Boss. I know it will never happen, but the idea intrigues me.

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

Other than their respective songs from the show:

Velvette: Shameless by Camilla Cabello, but that's because I ship her with an OC of mine and it reflects that.

Carmilla: Sexy Bitch by David Guetta ft. Akon, for... reasons. I'm simping respectfully.

6. What's something you have in common with this character?

Velvette: Hmmm... Fashion, I suppose. Not in that we dress the same, but enjoy creating it (even if I just do sketches).

Carmilla: Not much, actually. The only thing I got is that we're protective of and will go to bat for those we care about.

23. Favorite picture of this character?

(This is my favourite Velvette look (Planning to cosplay it eventually!). And I just love the attitude you can see in her everything here).

(Carmilla with her hair down is EVERYTHING. DAMN GIRL. YOU A SEXY BITCH. (And I will cosplay you as well one day)).

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

Velvette: We haven't seen many side of her, but in some ways, Velvette reminds me of early Carla Delgado. Like, season one through mid season two where she was more ornery and disrespectful before Ash happened and she chilled out.

Carmilla: No one, honestly. Like, she has traits in common with other fandom characters, but I can't peg just one character from a fandom I've been in as being similar. Or I'm just blanking right now.

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel carmilla #hazbin hotel velvette #hazbin velvette #velvette #carmilla #hazbin carmilla #ask game #answered ask #character ask #adrianna talks #fandom ask

7 notes · View notes

loz-furbies · 10 days

Text

Spirit Tracks complete! It was quite a roller coaster in terms of how much fun I had, but my ultimate verdict is still a definitive thumbs up. Which is very unexpected because I had quite disappointed memories from my first attempt over a decade ago.

(spoilers I guess?)

As documented here, the stealth sections were quite a struggle, but at least I can just file that under "I just hate this genre" instead of what I felt with for example having to do the mountain for a fourth time in SS. The train sections weren't as bad as I remembered once I got the hang of how to deal with the demon trains, but at times it was just really boring when you just wanted to get somewhere and the train is so slow and nothing interesting happens during the travel. I really wished for some kind of turbo speed upgrade or a better cannon or something. Then there was the flute, which was a massive hurdle for me, but eventually it worked out fine because the issue was just that... I wasn't even blowing into the 3ds microphone. But seriously it isn't even labeled! This is not my fault, I'm not the dumbass here! Regardless the 3ds screen was at an awkward angle for playing, the DSi worked better for that too.

The stamps made for a surprisingly fun collectable, while I only did the bare minimum of rabbits because I didn't like the rabbit catching minigame (=I'm bad at it) and the prizes suck anyway. But the dungeon items were great (excluding the microphone-operated whirlwind); the stylus controls made them unexpectedly enjoyable and fresh to use. As for the dungeons, they were pretty easy but I still had a good time. Also points for Anjean for being a far more appealing character than I anticipated.

The music side had some real bangers, like the train theme, the evolving spirit tower staircase theme with the final version being especially awesome, and the light tear train theme from the end of the game. And microphone controls notwithstanding making music together with the lokomos was also fun and they knew to cap the game off with playing the game's main theme with Zelda singing and all the side characters joining in for a grand performance, which was probably my favourite moment overall. In general while I had my frustrations with the final tower section, the end game was solid and wrapped everything up nicely, with all the major gameplay elements getting their last chance to shine: the stealth + phantom puzzles, getting revenge on the evil trains (and finally getting that speed and power train powerup I was hoping for!), combat with the train, combat with phantom Zelda, the flute, and of course a sword fight with the final boss.

And then there's of course Zelda herself who really was the best element of the whole game. She's great as a companion in that she doesn't get in the way, both puzzle and combat gameplay were fun with phantom Zelda, and she was expressive and had some really funny and epic character moments. And most importantly she remained playable through the whole game! I was so bracing myself for her to get damseled in the grand finale but no, she remains an active gameplay element through all the phases of the last boss! Truly a game where Link and Zelda work together to save the kingdom, and not just Zelda doing some fancy magic in a cutscene. And then in the end credits they hold hands, which is more than what they manage to do in most games.

So yeah, overall a bit uneven but still well worth playing, and I'm glad that I took on the project to clear all the loz games because otherwise I might have never bothered to finish this.

#spirit tracks #ramble ramble #game talk

5 notes · View notes

sarandipitywrites · 5 months

Text

saran's year of writing (2023)

hey y'all! saw a couple posts like this floating around and thought i'd hop on the train, because this year has been WILD for my writing (in a really good way). let's start with the bullet points version and i'll put the details under the cut. here we go:

I JOINED WRITEBLR

shared snippets of my work with other, actual humans!

made friends?!

started (and finished!) draft 2 of Dead Roots, Dark Water

wrote 1 short story for every week in october (that's 5 stories in a month! that's great for me!)

first NaNoWriMo in 10 years (and i finished it!)

drafted and re-drafted The Art of Empty Space

started draft 3 of Dead Roots, Dark Water

details, links to projects, me getting maybe a tad too personal, and those all-important wordcounts under the cut:

I JOINED WRITEBLR

i just realized i only started participating at the beginning of october, but it feels like i've been hanging out with you all the whole year 😅 maybe that means i should cut back a bit? nah...

really though, this year was the year i started taking my writing more seriously (not in a 'gotta get published' kind of way, but in a 'writing makes me happier than anything else and that's enough reason to set aside time and energy for it without feeling hella guilty' kind of way) and seeing you all posting your work and being so positive and encouraging to each other was what helped me get up the nerve to join in. and i can say without a doubt that it's the best choice i've made all year. y'all are such a supportive community and i've never once felt like i was encroaching or didn't belong here (and for me, that's really saying something)

so i guess what i'm getting at is: THANK YOU! i've loved reading your snippets and projects this year, and i'm way more confident in my own than i've ever been 💜 y'all are good peeps

Dead Roots, Dark Water

word count (edited and written): 187,789

that's a lotta words! DRDW is both my longest work wordcount-wise, and the work i've dedicated the most time to... probably ever. and i'm SO happy with it, it's a little concerning (/positive)

DRDW is now on its THIRD draft, and (assuming i don't do a massive re-edit) should be ready to start posting in 2024! *excited screaming* i've never released anything i've written in its entirety (the snippets i've been posting are actually a lot more than i've ever shared before), so this is MASSIVE for me and i'm both excited and terrified! overall, though, it's a very, very good thing

Short Stories

this october, i decided to challenge myself to do several things i don't ever do: write short stories; write them on a timeline; and share them. and i did! i wrote one short story for each week in october, and posted them here. they're far from my best work, and due to the timeline, they never could have been my best, which oddly i think helped make it easier to post them? they were also the first pieces i shared here (or anywhere)! they're not awesome, but i'm proud of them and i'm proud of myself for sharing them

NaNoWriMo and The Art of Empty Space

i've done nano once before, ten years ago. i was in college and had a lot more time then (and a job where i could spend the entire day just writing - i didn't know how good i had it), and even so i remember struggling to reach my word goal. but by the power of writing everything in wingdings so i can't second-guess my word choices, i made it this year! and even though i decided to challenge myself by writing a romance-heavy project (something i've historically avoided because IT'S HARD FOR ME, DAMNIT), i love AES and its characters and that feels fucking awesome.

even though my brain decided to spring a surprise plot restructure on me and now i have to rewrite like half of it. it'll be better for it, though, so it's all good 🥲

What's Next?

my plan for early 2024 is, of course, going to be to work on draft 3 of DRDW with the hope of getting some chapters posted (they are LONG, so i'll probably post to tumblr in chunks and the full, unbroken chapters on Ao3 due to formatting). once that's ready, i'll be able to return my attention to AES and getting draft 1.5 all written up. i've mostly figured out where the plot's going there, so it'll just be writing it up to figure out the gaps. if i'm able to write something for november again next year (which i really hope i will; nano did some great things for AES), it'll probably be one of the other Jak & Daxter fics i have kicking around in my head, because i am Obsessed (and switching it up between working on fanfic and original fic seems to work well for my brain).

i've been not super active here for the last month or so because Real Life Work is kicking my ass, but hopefully that will calm down and i'll be able to do more of what i want: writing wild shit, reading your wild shit, and screaming about it together 💜

good vibes and best wishes to everybody in the new year 🥂

#ayearofwriting #a year of writing #writeblr #2023 #writers on tumblr #saran rambles #the art of empty space #dead roots dark water

16 notes · View notes

farawayfromsomething · 8 days

Text

When did people stop trusting people? All I can think about is how people became so trusting in robots. But these humans are becoming robots…

Chapter 1: The script

As I walk down the street I look at the tall buildings surrounding me. Every building reaching for the sky. I open the door to my monthly appointment of ai. I wonder what ai even means does it even stand for anything? I go to the front desk and see a woman about 20ish looking into nothingness.

“Hey”

“Hello there, what can we do for you today?” the voice is the same as any other person, every word scripted encrypted into their brains

“My name is Raine, i am here for my monthly appointment of AI”

“Hello Raine, would you be citizen 3768 of generation 34?”

“Yes that is me” sometimes i wonder why we even have names if we are defined by numbers

“Go sit down we will have you come up in approximately 12 minutes and 34.7 seconds”

“Thank you” As I sit down, I look at the walls of every poster on here advertising AI. Advertising, I think as if that it isn’t illegal for people not to have ai. I wonder why we even need this. Something clicks in my brain and my pattern of thoughts stops. And I start playing tetris in my brain on the small software that makes up my life.

“Citizen 3768 of generation 34, also known as Raine, please come to room 24” the person at the front desk says, her voice projecting into the whole room. I make my way down the corridors somehow knowing where room 24 is despite me never learning where it is. I knock on the door and an old man looking about 30 opens the door. Must be lucking making it that far in life.

“Ah citizen 3768 of generation 34, what would you prefer to be called?”

“Raine please”

“Ah Raine, what a lovely name” his ‘ah’ before every sentence annoys me, it annoys me everytime, every doctor does this.

“Um yeah I guess so”

“Ah teenagers are always so awkward” there is a big pause in between his sentences until he says “So Raine I see you need to have your AI shot, is this correct?”

“Yes, sir”

“Okay so if you could just lay down on the bed, today is a big day, quite a big shot, we will turn your iStage off. Do you consent to this?”

“Yes” I reply. I lay down on the bed. And as he turns off my iStage, I finally have the perception of colour. Everything around me has a tinge of blue. My sense of smell comes back to me. I smell everything, gloves, medicine and deodorant that medical workers are required to wear for this reason. My mind starts to wonder having a million thoughts at once. Everything seems so much more real when i dont have my iStage on. But I can't turn it off this is the only time I get to feel. And I do feel I feel a lot of things, a speck of nervousness, a hint of excitement, and an overall sense of overwhelmingness. And then all of a sudden, the feeling of emptiness returns

“Ah thats it Raine”

“Thankyou doctor”

“Ah You are most welcome, head to the front desk and they will tell you what to do next and all of the jazz” doctors saying jazz got real old, real fast.

“Goodbye” I mumble so quietly but somehow it comes out louder than expected. I walk back to the front desk. I try to walk faster but I can’t. When did this happen? Why can they control my pace now?

“Hello there, what can we do for you today?” the same woman stated, the same sentence every single time

“Hey, I’m citizen 3768 of generation 34” When did I start calling myself that?

“Citizen 3768 of generation 34, age 13 years, 4 months and 0 days, often referred to as Raine, got their fourth shot of AI today?”

“Yes that would be me”

“Hello Raine, how was it?”

“It was good” no that's a lie it was amazing I love feeling, just being with colour and smell and just feeling my emotions

“That’s very good, shall I book you in again for 23 of October?”

“Yes thank you”

“What time is preferable?”

“Anytime” Why am I lying? I have school that day, I need it to be after school.

“So would 4:30 pm work for you?”

“Yes”

“That's great, come again”

“Thank you” I exit the building. I walk towards the inner city, every building seems to get taller. I walk on the pathway down the street heading towards the food court. I have a weird sense of hunger, what even is hunger? I want food. This never happens, this isn't meant to happen. I walk to a store. Selling what appears to be sandwiches. God, I haven't had a sandwich in ages, in about four months. I queue up. I am behind a guy who looks to be about my age but taller, his hair tall on his head. A jacket wrapped around him. He turns around to face me.

“Hey” he chimed, his voice so happy

“Hi” I say for the first time in ages, it doesn’t feel scripted. It feels, well, normal. Feels as if I can feel.

“What’s your name?” he asks, his voice sounding normal, and not robotic

“Raine” I say, my voice shining through. “What about you?”

“Micheal” He turns back around and orders a sandwich

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

does this make any sense??? also i will continue to write this i have a plan don't worry

#idk why i am telling you to not worry #you arent worried #are you?#writer stuff #writers on tumblr #writing #writeblr #creative writing

3 notes · View notes

snowyknight-17 · 11 days

Text

As requested by @gimmebones715 some hurt/comfort Jake and g/n sole. I worked hard on this and I hope people like it 🧣💙

“I think about us.”

TW: Fallout trauma/PTSD episode.

“Aaaannndddd…. DONE!

That should be the last of it.”

Lupe scrambled out from under the memory pod, a smear of grime across her cheek.

For the last few nights she has been working on this memory pod to better assist the chief with settlements run by the ASAMS.

“You sure it’s safe to use? It ain’t gonna shock ‘em or nothin?” Jake was knelt by the back of the machine doing an eye exam of Lupe’s wiring, tightening the occasional screw.

Lupe stretched her back, cracking the strain out it,

“Of course. I mean…I’m sure it’s gonna need some tuning…but it should really do as we planned and help the chief not…electrocute them.”

“Well I don’t want to take any chances. Let’s do another diagnostics check, then I’ll be the first to see how it goes. Once everything is green, I have a great idea for the VR design.”

What a day…

You and Raphael finally made it back to HQ. Clearing out Fallon’s was…tough, but you both found some great scrap.

As you both made your way through security you couldn’t help but chuckle at Raph’s face,

“You ok there buddy? Your face is gonna get stuck like that.”

He turned his scowled face towards you and grumbles,

“You could have warned me we were taking on a super mutant hive. Gonna smell like those green freaks for a week.”

You smile at your grumpy friend,

“My dear how did you not notice the blood bags that decorated the outside?”

“Too busy covering your ass.” His scowl softened as he shook his head, then he mumbled something under his breath along the lines of

“…was right.”

“Hmmm what was that?” You take a friendly jab at his ribs. You and Raph had a great back and forth but something was off tonight. The whole walk back to HQ was quiet, not tense but…weird.

Just then Aiden walked in to the checkpoint, paper work and a mug of coffee in hand.

“You two reek.”

Raphael humphed, “Let me ask you somethin Aiden. They always this reckless?”

You turn to him, a funny look of shock on your face.

“Excuse me?! Reckless?”

Aiden lifted one eyebrow and sipped his coffee,

“Let me guess…they ran in guns blazing, pipboy radio on full blast without so much as a look in your general direction to see if you were following?”

“‘Bout the gist of it.”

Aiden looked between the two of you and sighed, “Yeah you get used to it.”

You take a breath in to argue back when your favorite cowboy walks in,

“Darlin! Good to see you…. Is that slime you got on ya?”

Jake was pointing at post combat viscera that has made its home on your jacket,

“Mmhmm. Super mutant. Wanna hug partner?” Your smile was genuine but Jake was backing away at the thought of mutant grease getting smeared on him,

“Ho that’s ok. Maybe go on and shower then come see me in the comm room. Gotta surprise for ya.”

Clean, refreshed and ready to see this surprise, you made your way to the comm room.

Lupe and Jake were so engrossed in their latest projects, neither heard you enter.

“Eh hem. Don’t work too hard now.” You smile finally being in the presence of Jake; the Amber eyed southern man who came outta no where.

Lupe stood quickly at your entrance and yelled,

“Tada! Whatcha think?”

“The memory pod? I gotta admit I’m curious at this endeavor of yours.”

Jake was by your side now, his hand on your lower back guiding you to it,

“This is a game changer. Gonna make it so much easier to control the ASAMS.”

“How so?”

“Ever place an ASAM and forget to set it to the desired plot? You know built a library instead of a training ground. Or a weapon store instead of food and drink…well now no more trudging all the way back to some boondocks settlement. The ASAMS can be remotely changed. All from the comfort of HQ. You’ll still have to place them manually, but can change their output from here if you need to.”

Lupe had her hands in her overall pockets, a huge smile on her face.

“Yeah and all you have to do is lay in the pod and let the lounger do its program in VR for you. Wait till you see the house Jake decorated.”

Jake had a dusting of pink on his face, eyes down but smiling,

“Huh…well it wasn’t hard to make but I can’t wait for you to see it.”

The sun itself could not out shine their happiness and sense of accomplishment. But you were not as excited.

The last time you sat in this, you relieved some of the greatest trauma you have ever known. Saw your spouse murdered, your infant stolen. You can still hear the bull barrel go off, Shaun’s screams carry on in echoes down vault halls.

A shiver runs through you and your skin pricks up. You’re cold and if you breathed out hard enough, you’re sure you could see your breath.

Small spaces were…not the same. And you were uneasy at the thought of being in any pod like space.

“Darlin?”

“Darlin?” Jake has his hands on your shoulders, looking deep in your eyes,

You shook slightly and stared back at him and smiled a weak smile. You had spaced out.

“Hey there partner. You doin alright?”

“Yeah,” you squeak,

“I’m fine just thinking was all.”

Jake didn’t look convinced and rubbed his hands down your arms, slowly returning your warmth.

“Um you feel ok to try it out? It needs to tune itself to your brain waves and all that. Won’t take but a moment?”

You nod your head, explaining that you have just been busy lately and not eating enough or sleeping enough, running through your list of excuses that you use once a week or so to explain gaps in performance. Then you put your brave face on and follow Jake and Lupe’s instructions.

But you can’t really hear them. All you hear is the sound of sitting in leather and you remember that’s how it sounded first getting settled in your cryo pod. Your eyes are starting to sting as sharp tears force their way through. Then the door closes, you hear it close but it’s loud. It hisses and makes this vacuum sound as it locks all the other air from getting in.

Overheard you hear Jake’s muffled voice. You’re cold and hot at the same time. Jake’s out there and you’re about to get stuck in this pod. What if you can’t get out? What if another 200 years go by you? Jake would be gone, your son would be gone and you’d never find him.

No you can’t lose like this. Not again.

It’s very hard to breath now but before you can pound on the glass pleading for help to get out, a vision appears and you start to hear Jake’s voice.

He can’t hear you but you can hear him. Your vision goes black and fades to blue. Soon shapes appear and turn into furniture. Furniture you recognize.

Your blue kitchen set, your mixer, your red couch.

This was your house. Your prewar house. Some things were different though and you noticed your anxiety slipping away.

Then Jake’s voice lifted through the fog in your mind,

“Ok Darlin’ go ahead to the grid on the wall by the television set, I’ll guide you from there.”

You listened, you did as he said and changed a store type in sanctuary. Jake gave his praise and said to have a look around before coming out. All you had to do was open the front door to exit the VR.

You felt like you were moving through deep water. It was hard to get the hang of things. It didn’t help that you were so triggered from all the memories. This was your house.

Before the bombs.

When you had a family. A baby. A mate. Happy times for the most part. You looked at the sink and remembered giving Shaun his first bath in there. He was so little but loved the warm, lavender scented water. As you turned, you saw your spouse sipping on a cold drink and they gave you a wink reminding you of this one time when you were intimate on these counters.

You smile at them and they smile back before turning into a teddy bear wearing combat armor, looking over sheets of blueprints.

As you look around more you notice Laura’s picture. A sweet little girl smiling for her daddy on his workshop table. Her overalls had all kinds of tools and rolls of duct tape in the pockets. She has pigtails. Your finger tips gently touch the photo of Jake’s daughter. You have not met her yet, but you already consider her family. The warm sound of the washing machine takes your focus and it’s Jake’s scarf on the hood. It’s just out of reach, but you imagine it’s soft and smells like him; evergreen soap and engine musk.

You’re starting to calm down. This was yours and Jake’s house. A place for Shaun and Laura too.

It took a minute, but this was what you wanted. Family. Home. Your kid back in your life and Jake as your lover. It was starting to feel good and in the back of your mind, you hoped this is what he wanted too.

Crying again. You seemed to cry a lot when you thought about your future. But with all these friends and allies and settlements, your future was looking brighter with each ASAM placement.

You felt silly and went to the bathroom to freshen up, but as you looked in the mirror you were haunted to see the face of Kellogg. He smirked at you and said something you couldn’t hear. You backed up suddenly, hair standing on its ends. Your spouse’s killer was standing there matching your head movements, talking without making noise. In fact there was no noise. Just the blood in your ears.

Blood in your ears followed by far away sirens.

Utter panic was setting in. You’re sweaty and chilly and ready to bolt. You run to the front door, getting it open, only to be met with,

“Good morning! Vault Tec calling.”

The yellow trench coat and trilby hat unmistakable. Except he was not right. His face was burned off, unbelievable scarring, skin hanging off in strips but he was smiling just like that October morning…

“Darlin?! Shit! Lupe get Cassandra in here pronto!”

You struggled as Jake pulled you out. Your arms flailing in fight mode. You hear him but can’t quite see him.

He’s here but he’s not, you’re so scared you’re gonna lose him, you’re saying something but it makes no sense. Like trying to speak in a dream.

There’s a pain in your shoulder…then nothing.

*many hours of chem induced slumber later*

It feels like fur. You breathe in and smell the unmistakable scent of your best friend. Dogmeat has a nice dog smell. Fur, campfire, corn chips…

You squeeze his paw and he shifts to snuggle closer, giving your nose a single lick.

“H-hey…there you are.”

You open your eyes and see blue and red, followed by a well kept beard.

“Darlin you had me so worried.”

Jake started to sparkle into your sight. He wore a face of relief as your eyes met. He looked tired, but he was still so beautiful.

“Hey handsome.” Your mouth was dry, your eyes crusty in the corners.

“You’ve been asleep for hours. Cass gave you a fat dose of calmex and you went out fast. I carried you here and stayed for a while but then I went back to see if maybe we wired something wrong…”

His voice was drifting off as he spoke, you were just so happy to be here with him. Be back in HQ. You couldn’t help it, you stretched out and hugged that wonderful man; to feel him against you, make sure he was real.

He returned the gesture, he hugged you back gently then a little firmer,

“Darlin,” he spoke quietly, “What happened? You wanna talk about it?”

As you let go of him, the warmth only he can give, slips away and you just want him back. So you invite him on your bed and he sits next to you, his strong arm around your body. You both watch Dogmeat readjust himself at the foot of the bed and you both smile as he plops down on both of yours feet.

You sit like this for a little before speaking,

“It wasn’t your wiring dear that’s for sure. Call it PTSD, a panic attack, anxiety…I thought I was fine until I got closer to the memory pod. I was in one once while I searching for the Institute, and i relived my experience through the eyes of my mate’s killer…”

You explained the whole thing. Everything you experienced. Your prewar memories of that fateful October day, your spouse’s murder, when your baby was kidnapped…

How being in the tight space of the memory lounger gave you muscle memory of the cryo pod that froze you.

The whole thing.

Now Jake knew some of it, but not to this extent. And he never said a word. He let you speak giving the occasional squeeze with his arm around you as you spoke.

This vault dweller, prewar relic, gorgeous human being, was burrowing a hole into his heart and he was gonna be there for you every step of the way.

You stopped speaking, your nightmare over. Jake nodded his head and turned to you when he was sure you were done,

“I’am so sorry darlin’. I mean I knew some of what you went through, but…well…this has shined more light on your story…”

He pulled you closer, and before he could speak, you did.

“Ya know, all I could think about was losing you. Not having you around anymore. When that lounger closed I was afraid another 200 years was gonna go by, I’d be lost to time again.”

“Darlin I need you to listen to me,”

Jake turned so he was facing you, your faces close but not too intimately,

“I will do what I can to keep you safe. I promise to be there for ya. I’d never want to put you in a dangerous situation.” He was rubbing your arms, pressed his forehead to yours, “Darlin…I can’t do this without you.”

His voice was getting heavy with emotion. Even though Jake plants himself in the comm room while you’re wadding through the wastes, he has been there for you when you get back. He always listens to you, laughs with you, eats with you. Your friendship was blooming into something rare, something real.

“Hey…I liked the little touches in the VR house…did you do that?”

A smile crept into his pretty eyes and he chuckled,

“Noticed that did ya? Yeah I spent some time programming familiar things for the both of us. I thought it could…well…foreshadow our life to come.”

“You think of us? As a couple?” You could feel your heart skip a beat. Up till now your ‘relationship’ was not romantically intimate. You knew you both cared for each other and expressed that in quality time, but you’d be lying if you said you didn’t want more.

Your flirty comebacks could turn into lusty pillow talks, the brush of your hands in passing turning into passionate touches behind closed doors…hell you’d settle for breakfast in bed; but he wants to make a home with you…

“Absolutely I think of us. I think of finding Laura, finding Shaun, winning this blood bath of a war. Darlin sometimes I’m downright selfish with my thoughts about you. Having you all to myself, in our own little house…I think about it a lot actually. Us.

The kids.

A home.

It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

As if on que, Dogmeat lifted his head and licked his chops, eyeing you both down and earning a laugh from you both.

Jake patted the mattress calling the shepherd over, “Of course you can live with us. Ain’t nothing better than a family dog.”

He nestled between the two of you and huffed as he laid down.

As the three of you rested, nestled together, you feel lighter than you have in weeks. Jake had that effect on you.

Jake Evans.

A man you met 210 years into your future, through a series of insane events…well let’s just say you’re grateful. Grateful, happy and all that good stuff. Nothing could have brought you greater comfort than knowing you have a bright future ahead with him as your man.

#fo4 #fallout 4 #jake evans #ss2 jake #sim settlements 2 #Jake is a sweetheart

4 notes · View notes

davidmariottecomics · 7 months

Text

Burning a Resource (Or How I'm Leaving Twitter)

Hey again!

Yesterday, I drew and posted a little comic on my various socials (reposted here) about how I'm gearing up to officially shut down my Twitter. And I want to talk a little bit about why it isn't an immediate thing that I'm doing, and some thoughts I've had on losing what has ultimately been a really valuable resource in my personal and professional life, particularly in light of how it has gotten people jobs.

Why am I Leaving?

The long and short is I can't ethically stay. I find Elon Musk to be detestable as a human being and wish him nothing but ill-will, in the same way that he uses his money and resources to push ill-will upon the world. And under his reign--because he certainly treats it as a kingdom--the site had gotten a lot worse in a bunch of ways. For months, people have been describing the overall site's decline into far right views and activism. You can see all the problems of greed and bad business sense at work as so many functions have gone offline or been shunted to only being accessible behind a pay wall. There're increasing problems of the user experience--I know someone who has basically given up on Twitter because the site makes them "verify their identity/that they're human" multiple times a day, and then directs them to the Twitter Rules, without any sort of guidance on how any rule that Twitter has may've been violated. And, yes, there are a lot of services that I've elected to use despite having compunctions about them, but that's uhh... living in a capitalistic society and having to make decisions on how far you're willing to flex and while that's not a morally great feeling, it's part of how we have to exist at the moment and being cognizant of the decisions we make around these things is an important part of navigating further use. And this point, I am not going to keep using Twitter.

Why am I Staying?

That all said, I'm not leaving this exact moment. I'm not sure of my exact exit date. By the end of 2023, certainly. But I have a few things I'd like to wrap up before I go, and I want to briefly walk you through them.

First off, let me just say, this is also very highly influenced by my age. I am of the age when I have never worked at a company that didn't have a social media presence while I was there. I watched in real time as platforms like Twitter and Facebook became a regular part of business--through promotion and connections--and how that was added to workflows as I was coming up. I think a lot of the people who've had an easier time detransitioning from socials are folks who were not trained onto it from a young age. But that's not my case and I want to make sure that the business and personal aspects of my life that have been entangled in Twitter are compensated for in other ways.

To me, the most important loss that will come from this is of community. And that's why I've continued to stay above all else. There are a lot of folks I'm connected to on Twitter that I don't have connections to other places. Functionally, I like Bluesky a lot. I'm about to hit 1000 followers, which all told, is pretty good. I have over 4 times that on Twitter, but I would guess a significant portion of that difference is not on Bluesky because it's invite only. And while I may have connections here and there on other platforms, they're pretty diffused and I am not using most of those platforms regularly enough to actually know who all is where. Like, despite everything I just about Bluesky, it's my second largest platform above Facebook (not counting the IDW Sonic Squad page), Instagram, and on anything else, less than 100 people are set-up to regularly see my posts, and that makes the way I use social media harder to do.

And the primary way I do use social is to find and connect with creators and help promote their projects. So, this week, I'm setting my Twitter up with scheduled posts and through whenever I deactivate, I'll still have my posts going out about new projects that are important to me and to the people who worked hard on them. I think their work deserves whatever boost of recognition it might get from my social presence there.

In the coming weeks, my other big project will be to get as much contact info as I can. I have found so many artists that I really like on Twitter and I want to be able to reach out to them when I want/need to. I want to make sure my friends and I exchange ways to communicate outside of this. I'm taking this upon myself because that's, I dunno, my role? Editors tend to be the ones to reach out when we have a project. So I want to make sure I'm doing my part of be proactive about keeping that up.

Finally, I want to make sure that I'm not completely out of touch with the other personal and practical parts of Twitter. I follow Genshin Impact because I think the game's fun. I frequently get updates on it through Twitter and should probably make sure if I want to continue those updates, I'm aware of how to get them otherwise. I follow journalists and sex workers and activists and unions and smart people whose thoughts I don't want to lose and dumb people who post real funny and just like... my friends and I'd like to make sure they aren't lost in the ether either.

How We Collectively Move Forward Earlier this week, Becca and I got to do something pretty cool and talk to a class of sequential art students. If you were one of those students and are now reading this, hi! But we were asked to attend to give sort of a really cumulative look at working in comics from the point of view of an editor who has been at this for a long time and from a working freelance artist who does a lot of tabling at shows and indie work and is also still looking to get in and start doing work at bigger companies. As part of that, we talked to the kids about the advantages of tabling at and attending cons and how to go about meeting editors at shows and generally, how best to get the attention of an editor.

One of the things we talked about was with Twitter becoming less of an option, one of the more accessible ways to get on an editor's radar is going away. Not that editors like to be cold DM'ed necessarily, but as someone who has found a lot of talent through specifically Twitter and who recognizes that interstate, much less international, travel for cons is expensive and taxing, it sucks to lose that resource. And that's compounded by a lot of other resources going sideways--like, DeviantArt and ArtStation and some of the other art sharing sites have become hotbeds of AI theft bullshit and were full of NFTs before that. Some of the other potential social sites that could be used to promote your art like Cohost or Mastodon or TikTok are not always the best at discoverability or a good match to how you interact online (I don't really use any of those platforms). It's tough.

As has been said time and time again, it's neither fair nor particularly productive to have a significant portion of your work day be crossposting a million times and places and slightly different formats hoping to have your work hit where and when it needs to. Making comics is often a 2nd shift job, or a 4th & 5th shift job as you're trying to do more consistent work--be it a day job or non-comics freelance, plus caring for a family of some sort, plus the act of making art being a different job from the act of promoting it being a different job from the act of actually running an independent business to do all these things.

My only real solution is, y'know, collective support. On my own website, I have a Friends page with links to the sites of people I like and have worked with or like the work of. I know that the Cartoonist Cooperative has a talent database of their members. There's a fairly new Adult Artist Webring. One of the best things I think creators can do with their peers is equivalent exchange projects--be that getting blurbs from or having your friends/peers post about your new project on their platforms, exchanging promos of projects on Kickstarter updates or just reposting each other's stuff, making ad swaps so if you have an indie project, you can put an ad for your friend's thing in it. I think other people should of course have Friend-type pages on their websites, and I am always appreciative when an artist reaches out or declines a project and recommends some other folks they know. It's a major part of how things build in this industry and how we do maintain connection outside of social media spheres.

And, from an editorial perspective, one of the things that's really tough to navigate sometimes is how welcome you are in some of these spaces. I've mentioned Discords before, and while they can be a really great communal resource to the artists in them, there are a lot of very regular, valid reasons why artists might not want an editor in that space. So it does have to be considered and measured where and how folks are presenting themselves to get that visibility and traction.

My last thought is y'know do try your hardest while also, again, accepting that this is a ton of work all the time and is often done on top of other work, to figure out what makes sense for you to reach out to people. If you aren't able to go to cons and meet editors, or you're only able to go to cons where you don't think many editors are attending, how do you move forward? Well, maybe your solution is to do a lot of anthologies that have a mix of talent involved and might get some extra eyes on your work because it also includes people who are known names that editors follow. Maybe your solution is to get an agent who can send your work out to editors on a regular basis and let them know when you're looking for work. Maybe your solution is to get a hold of cool comic and zine shops and see if they'll do consignment on your books, even if you aren't local, because they're local to where publishing is. Maybe your solution is to look up if a company has a talent director/scout type role and to reach out to them, rather than editorial directly. There are alternate ways to both social media and cons to get your work in front of hiring folks eyes, thought they also require a bit of leg-work and luck.

Because I've talked about it a lot, here are the other places you can find me online.

Bluesky Instagram My Website Patreon Tumblr Buttondown Linktree I am on Cohost, Mastodon, Facebook, and LinkedIn, but don't really use them actively, so not linking here. You can email me, though I ask you please follow my rules on the contact page. If we know each other, you can ask for my Discord handle or my phone #.

Until next time! What I enjoyed this week: Blank Check (Podcast), Solve This Murder (Podcast), One Piece (Manga), The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon (Book), Reverse 1999 (Video Game), Joe Pera Talks with You (TV show), Witch Watch (Manga), Freakazoid (TV show), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Troy Little's graphic novel adaptation), drawing a little comic and generally trying to do a little more art to go with my writing, when the cats do understand their new litterbox.

New Releases this week (11/8/2023): Godzilla Rivals: Round Two (Editor on most of it) Sonic the Hedgehog #66 (Editor) Sonic the Hedgehog: Knuckles' Greatest Hits (Editor) Sonic the Hedgehog: The IDW Art Collection (Editor)

New Releases next week (11/15/2023): Godzilla Rivals: vs. Mechagodzilla (Editor)

Announcements: If you'd like to have me on your podcast, Twitch stream, at your convention, signing at your store, talking to your students, whatever, feel free to hit me up via my contact page. To those first couple things, sorry a few podcasty/Twitch-streamy things have been delayed. We've been having some headphone/mic technical issues, but that should be fixed soon.

Wanna support me? Visit my webstore, my Patreon, my Kofi, or my eBay. And you can always visit Becca's portfolio/shop/Patreon/Twitch streams too.

It may feel futile as all polling already shows we aren't being listened to, but email, call, or fax your representatives to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and the stopping of a genocide. There are also plenty of places to donate your time and money.

Pic of the Week: Enjoy a little comic about leaving Twitter.

#comics #comics editorial #godzilla idw #leaving twitter #comic #I know I posted the comic by itself yesterday so sue me #finding comics jobs #finding artists

7 notes · View notes

djservo · 9 months

Note

HI CAS you managed to beat me to it and remind me that i will also be away around our typical wrap up time! travelling gals. i've seen some of your goodreads activity too and i think we've managed to keep in line with books read which does make me laugh a lil. how was your buddy read? your august reading? new vibes for autumn? i want to know everything!

omg we're so in sync I love it and I hope your traveling went/is going well!! <3 first buddy read (out of a projected total of 4) went well, as did the rest of my august reads!!

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

the first of the buddy-read chronicles with my buddy and it was a success! fitting for these seemingly ever-changing phases of independence/womanhood/#HoningThyCraft that we keep morphing into and within. it was a bit of a slow start and made me think of jenny slate talking about books which I sent to me friend like 5 pages in like "omg please tell me it's not all like this" but we pushed through the initial slump and were pretty engaged with the rest of it. I highlighted so many passages to chew on, some favs being -

"the beauty of the world which is so soon to perish, has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder"

"What effect has poverty on fiction? What conditions are necessary for the creation of works of art?"

the iconic -

"a good dinner is of great importance to good talk. One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well."

and even some lil funny bits -

"the chief glory of a woman is not to be talked of, said Pericles, himself a much-talked-of man"

miss woolf has jokes!! but yes overall really ended up enjoying and connecting with this more than I expected at the start and it's short/low stakes enough to where I think anyone could give it a shot and end up resonating and/or taking something deep from it

High Blood/Pressure by Michelle T. Clinton

I forget who exactly posted it, but Someone whose taste I wholeheartedly trust had posted a snippet of Good Sense & the Faithless on their insta story which first put Michelle T. Clinton on my radar. devoured this one in an afternoon, I was so hooked and charmed by her prose and the way she sets up a scene!! not necessarily setting wise, but this sense of interaction/conversation that's both natural yet distinct in tone. personable yet frank, which isn't really easy for me to pick up on when I'm first getting into poets - like I feel like I need to read several poems for their voice to really click for me because I'm too focused on connecting more superficial dots of understanding, whereas this one clicked right away. fav poem was MANIFESTING THE RUSH/HOW TO HANG but I really did love each one + I've already tracked down a used copy of Good Sense & the Faithless online that's on its way to me now hehe very excited

Looking For Mr. Goodbar by Judith Rossner

similar to Secretary where the movie's been on my radar and I've been itching to watch but the purist in me wants to read the book first and then I read the book and don't watch the movie LOL 'when you give a mouse a cookie' ass situation!! I think the story's still too fresh on my mind and if I were to watch the adaptation right away, though it would make sense for the sake of comparison, it'd feel too much like homework ykwim like in college I took a class about film adaptions of literary works where we'd get this short window of time to read a book then watch the film in class and discuss/dissect + I guess it kinda spoiled that act of reading then immediately watching, or turned it into something very clinical whereas I wanna be able to watch the adaptation for what it is without being a hypervigilant critic... ANYWHO!!!! I actually had no idea this was based on a true story/crime? so I think most of my qualms, which are narrative-wise, are kinda irrelevant since that's like.. literally what happened! that's the truth! but I guess I felt there wasn't enough explanation as to how the protag's sexual appetite/curiosities developed the way it did (unless you wanna be an armchair psychologist and connect the dots to her childhood upbringing, but I personally don't think even that's enough). I read a good chunk of it at an airport bar and it felt very fitting + I think I should start scouting my reading settings according to the book I'm reading bc it does indeed add to the ambience of the story and DRAMA of it all !!!!

since the start of September I've finished 2 books, unconnected in vibes but still somewhat complementary. I'm reading Quarry by Jane White now which is our second buddy read/the start of our "dark childhood/boyhood" theme that I think will bleed nicely into October, I really struck gold at the used bookshops during my travels but they're all kinda meaty and require some supplementary reading/context (to me) and idk if that's the vibe right now. kinda wanna stay in a fiction bubble a little while longer and there's certainly no end in sight given some of my recent TBR adds on goodreads so!! we shall see!!!

#will catch up with sims stuff soon but the pixels repulse me at the moment so pls hold x #ask #cheesehair #reads

8 notes · View notes