#I actually wanted to include a screenshot of the full make up but long posts scare me so I'm gonna gif that and put it in another post

[avaantares]

Fanfiction Authors: HEADS UP

(Non-authors, please RB to signal boost to your author friends!)

An astute reader informed me this morning that one of my fics (Children of the Future Age) had been pirated and was being sold as a novel on Amazon:

(And they weren't even creative with their cover design. If you're going to pirate something that I spent a full year of my life writing, at least give me a pretty screenshot to brag about later. Seriously.)

I promptly filed a DMCA complaint to have it removed, but I checked out the company that put it up -- Plush Books -- and it looks like A LOT of their books are pirated fic. They are by no means the only ones doing this, either -- the fact that """publishers""" can download stories from AO3 in ebook format and then reupload them to Amazon in just a few clicks makes fic piracy a common problem. There are a whole host of reasons why letting this continue is bad -- including actual legal risk to fanfiction archives -- but basically:

IF YOU ARE A FANFIC AUTHOR WITH LONG AND/OR POPULAR WORKS, PLEASE CHECK AMAZON TO SEE IF YOUR STORIES HAVE BEEN PIRATED.

You can search for your fics by title, or by text from the description (which is often just copied wholesale from AO3 as well). If you find that someone has stolen your work and is selling it as their own, you can lodge a DMCA complaint (Amazon.com/USA site; other countries have different systems). If you haven't done this before, it's easy! Here's a tutorial:

HOW TO FILE A COPYRIGHT COMPLAINT FOR STOLEN WORK ON AMAZON.COM:

First, go to this form. You'll need to be signed into your Amazon account.

Select the radio buttons/dropdown options (shown below) to indicate that you are the legal Rights Owner, you have a copyright concern, and it is about a pirated product.

Enter the name of your story in the Name of Brand field.

In the Link to the Copyrighted Work box, enter a link to the story on AO3 or whatever site your work is posted on.

In the Additional Information box, explain that you are the author of the work and it is being sold without your permission. That's all you really need. If you want, you can include additional information that might be helpful in establishing the validity of your claim, but you don't have to go into great detail. You can simply write something like this:

I am the author of this work, which is being sold by [publisher] without my permission. I originally published this story in [date/year] on [name of site], and have provided a link to the original above. On request, I can provide documentation proving that I am the owner of the account that originally posted this story.

In the ASIN/ISBN-10 field, copy and paste the ID number from the pirated copy's URL. You'll find this ten-digit number in the Amazon URL after the word "product," as in the screenshot below. (If the URL extends beyond this number, you can ignore everything from the question mark on.) Once this number has been added, Amazon will pull the product information automatically and add it to the complaint form, so you can check the listing title and make sure it's correct.

Finally, add your contact information to the relevant fields, check the "I have read and accept the statements" box, and then click Submit. You should receive an email confirmation that Amazon has received the form.

Please share this information with your writer friends, keep an eye out for/report pirated works, and help us keep fanfiction free and legally protected!

NOTE: All of the above also applies to Amazon products featuring stolen artwork, etc., so fan artists should check too!

#fanfiction #ao3 #piracy #dmca #pirated fanfic #please signal boost #i'm mad but also laughing that my dmc fanfic is now a 'number one best selling novel' lol #i'm also a traditionally-published author #so this is both hilarious and deeply insulting to me

[whataperfectwasteoftime]

Spilled Ink

Pairing: Tattoo Artist Marcus Pike x f!reader

Word Count: 7.5k

Summary: Uhhh Marcus Pike as the world's softest tattoo artist that's it that's the fic.

Warnings: Lots of tattoo talk, obviously, which includes needles, tattoo guns, pain, mention of bleeding, etc.; reader is explicitly coded as neurodivergent because I said so; yearning; lots of kissing; Marcus Pike being a goddamn menace and he fucking knows it

A/N: @kedsandtubesocks made a post about Tattoo Artist Marcus Pike (original post HERE) and then I wrote 7.5k words in 12 hours, as one does. All credit for the idea goes to the amazing Erika who entrusted me with this idea and THANK GOD SHE DID because I don't think I could have gotten it out of my stupid brain otherwise. Header pics credit go to Erin @perotovar, who made these with Tattoo Artist Marcus Pike in mind and I'm just WOOFWOOFBARKBARKBARKBARKHOWL. Thanks also to @littlebirdsbookshelf who suffers through HOURS of me sending screenshots every time I write anything. Love you <3

Additional Note on Canon: I am pretending that we never got to see Marcus Pike in short sleeves in the show despite it happening twice. He has full sleeves on both his arms in this fic that he covered up during his time working at the FBI. Because sleeves are hot and I said so.

Masterlist

It’s not unusual, these days, to wander down the sidewalk staring at your phone. Some people are texting. Some people are reading the news–because hey, this is D.C. Others, like you on this brisk morning, are watching the little blue dot on a tiny representation of the city streets, trying to find the address you had typed into the search bar.

A text box pops up, informing you of your arrival, and you finally look up.

No wonder it took you so long to find the place–it’s hardly what you expected at all. You always picture tacky neon signs, bars on the windows, undesirables milling about on the street, smoking cigarettes.

Okay, so you admittedly don’t actually know much about tattoos.

All you know is that you want one–a fact you confessed to a friend over lunch the other week: a conversation that led you here.

“Okay, so get one,” she had said bluntly.

“It’s not all that simple,” you had protested. 

“Why?”

“It’s just… it seems like a lot. Mentally. Physically. I’m not sure I have what it takes.”

“They don’t hurt that bad,” your friend had insisted.

“I’m not just talking about that, I’m talking about… y’know, just everything. The noise. New people. Strangers touching me. It just doesn’t seem like something I’ll be able to do.”

“Oh. Ohhh. Because of the… yep. Actually I might have something for you,” she said, taking out her phone and scrolling through that app that drives you crazy–it’s overstimulation in a convenient package–full of noise, chaos, and flashing lights. 

She must have seen you pull a face, because she held out her hand placatingly. 

“Just finding the name of the place, hang on. It’s a shop right here in DC that went ‘viral’ for this video of a guy with autism who wanted a tattoo to commemorate his dad, but he was only comfortable lying on the floor–so the tattoo artist just… got on the floor with him! It was really cute, and anyway I guess he caters to all sorts of people, so… I dunno. Check it out.”

And here you are. Checking it out.

The words “Government-Issued Ink” are spelled out on large windows, and the punny name–apt for its location not far from the Capitol–makes you snort. 

The shop is bright, warm, and inviting–tearing down your outdated preconceptions that tattoo places must always be run-down, dark, and dingy. It’s also empty this early in the morning, save for a lone figure in the back, seated at a well-worn desk, his head pitched forward over his work.

He’s so enveloped in whatever he’s sketching that he must not have heard the light ringing of the bell as you had entered. You watch him for a few moments–taking in the graceful movements of his hand and the way his fingers grasp the pen. He’s dressed in a plain blue button-down dress shirt, which also doesn’t fit your assumed archetype of ‘Tattoo Artist.’ You can’t see his face; his head is leaning forward too much and a few short locks of dark brown hair obscure your view.

Suddenly wondering if you’re being incredibly rude, staring at someone without announcing your presence, you open your mouth to introduce yourself.

“Um.”

While not exactly eloquent, it serves its purpose. The man startles and looks up in surprise.

“I’m so sorry,” he says, jumping to his feet and letting the pen clatter carelessly to the desk. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

“That’s okay,” you shake your head rapidly. “I was, um…” You blink a few times, your nerves getting the better of you as the man comes around his desk to approach the front of the store.

“Interested in a walk-in consultation?” he offers, holding out his hands in a gesture that could either be an open invitation or a shrug.

“I don’t know,” you confess quietly. “I was thinking about getting, uh, a tattoo, and I was told this shop was… good. With tattoos. And other stuff.”

“Other stuff?” he chuckles, smiling warmly. 

“You know… with people who… might not be good at getting tattoos.”

“What makes you think you aren’t ‘good at getting tattoos?’”

“A hunch,” you shrug, expelling a little huff of laughter through your nose. “I was told to ask for a Marcus Pike?”

The man’s smile widens. “You’re looking at him.”

Oh. You aren’t sure what you expected, but it wasn’t this. Marcus Pike is well-dressed and clean-cut, almost startlingly so. You scan up and down, looking for any sign that this man could possibly be a tattoo artist, but the only evidence you can find is a small black target inked between his thumb and forefinger on his right hand. Don’t… tattoo artists usually have more ink? Of course, with him almost completely covered from head to toe, you obviously can’t create a full picture of Marcus’s skin, but the fact that he wouldn’t look out of place in one of the nearby government buildings still takes you by surprise.

You realize you haven’t said anything in response, but Marcus doesn’t seem to be bothered by your deer-in-headlights stare. Instead, he grins again and steps sideways, extending his arm in a silent invitation to come deeper into the shop.

“Come on in. If you’d like, go ahead and sit wherever you want, and we can talk about it. No pressure,” he promises. “I’m not here to push ink on you like a used car salesman; I’m here to collaborate with you. Figure out what you really want. And, if what you want ends up being ‘nothing,’ I totally support that, too.”

There’s something innate and intrinsic about Marcus Pike that sets you completely at-ease. You cast your eyes around, taking in the eclectic seating in the shop–all mismatched, all different colors, styles, and shapes, but all looking incredibly comfortable and inviting. You settle on a giant turquoise beanbag that seems to swallow you whole when you sink down into it, and Marcus grins and sits down in the bright yellow saucer chair beside it. 

“So at the very least, you’re thinking about a tattoo,” Marcus leads. “Can you tell me about that?”

You nod, feeling encouraged by his openness. “Yeah, so… my mom, she passed away a couple of years ago, and it just seemed like I should… memorialize her in some way. Like, in a way that leaves its mark on me like she left a mark on me, and I just couldn’t stop thinking about the idea of getting some kind of permanent art that commemorates her.”

“That’s a great idea,” Marcus says softly. “Lots of people choose to do that after losing a loved one.”

“Yeah, the only problem is that I’m not good with um… noise, or people touching me, or… pain, really,” you confess. “I’m like, the worst candidate for getting a tattoo that exists.”

Marcus chuckles softly and shakes his head. “Personally, I don’t believe that. I think anyone can get a tattoo done if they want it, provided they get it done in a way that feels safe and comfortable.”

“My friend, she uh, recommended your shop because apparently you’ve done some stuff for people with autism and it went viral on TikTok…” you ramble, “and I thought maybe that meant you’d be a good fit for… for me.”

Understanding flickers in Marcus’s expression, and he nods, a small smile spreading across his face. “I hope so,” he says with quiet earnesty. 

A beat passes–just a few seconds of silence–but something small and soft and warm settles down between the two of you, and the comforting feeling sinks down into the pit of your stomach and stays there, latent and waiting.

“So, let’s talk design,” Marcus announces. “Do you have anything in mind? Any images or ideas, however vague? I can do anything from replicating designs to building something completely from scratch for you.”

“I like the idea of it being a unique piece,” you tell him.

“I prefer original designs too,” he says. “Not to sound incredibly cheesy, but there’s no one like you, you know? In–In the general sense, of course.” He chuckles sheepishly, looking down at his hands. “I like knowing each person that comes in here leaves with something unique. Something all their own—I’m rambling,” he says quickly, the tips of his ears turning slightly pink. “One thing about me is that I talk too much. Anyway–did you have any ideas you can share with me about what you’d like?”

“I don’t have a good image in my mind,” you confess anxiously. After all, how can he build a design based on the swirling, disjointed images in your brain? “I think I want it to be colorful, like she was. And… I keep getting thoughts about, I dunno, the cyclical nature of life, something corny like that.”

Marcus laughs. “Sometimes the corny stuff is what sticks with us. So, colorful and commenting on the cyclical nature of life,” he lists off on his fingers, still grinning. “Anything else?”

“I’ve looked through your galleries online,” you tell him. “You have a few that look like watercolor paintings, and I really love how they look.”

He nods thoughtfully. “I’m gonna throw out an idea—Feel free to tell me ‘no,’ because I’m just brainstorming here, but I keep thinking about a tree of life. The leaves could easily be done in watercolor and could be any combination of colors you want.” His right hand twitches–as if reaching for a phantom pen–as he speaks, and his gaze seems to be fixed on a spot on the wall, his eyes glimmering with enthusiasm as he starts to speak faster.

“You could have the leaves and the roots connecting on the sides, making a circle, maybe even having her birth date and death date embedded in the roots…” He blinks rapidly a few times, as if dispelling the image from his head. “Anyway. That’s a possibility.”

“I think that’s amazing,” you say softly, watching Marcus with something like amazement in your expression. “Actually… I really like that idea. It sounds… perfect.”

“Oh,” he intones softly, looking at you in surprise as a bright, toothy smile breaks across his face. “Oh. Well then, let’s do it, huh? One final question: where do you envision getting it?”

“I was thinking on my shoulder. Here,” you indicate, pressing your hand to the skin of your upper arm. “That way it’s visible when I want it to be, but easily hidden if for some reason it needs to be.”

“That’s perfect,” Marcus says. “Plus, the circular design will go really well there. Okay. Great. Um, some things to know about the process. We’ll exchange emails, and you can contact me at any time with any questions, concerns, ideas, changes, anything. In the meantime, I’ll get started on a design for you, and I’ll share initial sketches that you can give feedback on before I move to the final stages of the design. It’ll take a couple of weeks, maximum, depending on any changes you ask for. My only request is that you’re always honest with your feedback–don’t tell me you like something when you don’t. I promise, it won’t hurt my feelings.” He grins widely. “After that, you book an appointment on a day that works best for you. I almost always book the whole day for the appointment to factor in time for copious breaks and making sure you feel comfortable. Does that work for you?”

You nod eagerly.

“Last question,” Marcus says. “Is it okay if I get a close-up picture of your upper arm? That way I can make sure it fits the curvature of your arm, it’s the right size, stuff like that.”

“Mhmm,” you nod again, pressing your lips together and trying not to look nervous. Thank god you wore a sleeveless top under your sweater.

“Only if you’re comfortable,” he insists.

“No, no, it’s fine,” you say quickly, removing just the one arm from your outer layer and pulling it aside. 

You watch as Marcus grabs a little ‘point-and-shoot’ digital camera from his desk and comes back to your side.

“This is just used for design purposes,” he promises. “I delete them after the design is done.”

“I trust you.”

His resulting expression could light an entire room. “Thank you,” he answers quietly. “Okay. Super close-up, just your arm. Cool?”

“Cool,” you confirm, and you hear the camera click several times.

“Actually,” Marcus says, still staring thoughtfully at your bare shoulder. “Would it be okay if I made a couple of little marks–washable marker, of course–to make sure the dimensions are how you want them?”

Oh. You normally don’t like it when people touch you. You knew it was going to happen eventually, obviously, because how else was he going to get the design onto your skin? But it was something you had planned on working yourself up to, not something you had to do today. On the other hand, something about Marcus’s entire bearing makes you inexplicably ache to be touched by him. 

“‘No’ is an acceptable response,” he interrupts your dithering with a quiet reassurance.

And actually, that works to seal the deal for you, and your decision is made in an instant. 

“Yes. You can. That’s fine.” And, to your surprise, you mean it.

Marcus seems just as surprised at your answer–his eyebrows shoot upward almost comically at your response.

“Okay,” he says softly. “That’s perfect. Hang on.” He jumps up again to retrieve a black marker–from what was clearly a children’s set of washable markers. He meets your eyes, and again you take in that sincere, earnest, patient look that endeared you to this man from the moment you entered the little shop.

“Is it okay if I touch your arm?” he asks quietly, still watching you carefully as you nod.

“Tell me if that changes,” he murmurs, dropping his gaze to your shoulder again. His touch, when you feel it, is just as warm as you’d imagined. He’s gentle, cautious, and when he speaks again, his voice remains at that same, soft volume and tone. “I’m envisioning being from about here–” he makes a little black dot, “–to here. What do you think?” 

You nod. It’s the perfect size–large enough to cover your shoulder but stopping just above the point where the sleeve of a regular t-shirt would hit.

“That’s perfect.”

“Okay, so that’s–” he tsks softly, measuring the distance with his finger, “–about four inches, so that same distance across, and–” he makes two more marks on either side of your shoulder. “About like that. Is that okay?”

“Yes,” you answer, smiling with enthusiasm. 

“Great! Let me just…” Marcus draws a few short lines denoting the proposed boundary of your design, and you can’t help the soft giggle that escapes you at the cool tip of the marker on your skin. 

“Sorry,” he chuckles. “One more picture?”

At your nod, the camera clicks one last time. 

“Like I said, that’ll wash off with soap, no problem,” he promises with a smile. “Thanks for that, makes it easier to scale.” He grabs two business cards off his desk and hands them to you. “Can you write your email on this one for me? And you can keep the other one. Like I said, anything you need, just email me. And uh, barring that, you’ll be hearing from me in a week or so with a rough sketch. Okay?”

You scribble down your email and hand the card back to Marcus before pulling your sweater back over your bare arm. You slip the other card into your purse and rise to your feet. “Thanks,” you say, nodding to him.

“Hey, no–thank you,” Marcus returns. “Thanks for entrusting me with this. I mean it.”

Surprising yourself, you extend your hand toward him, and, when he takes it, you feel enveloped with warmth again.

“Thanks,” repeat, a little bit more breathlessly this time, before turning and hurrying out of the shop before you can embarrass yourself any further.

Your shoulder still tingles from his touch hours later.

Rather than it being a week before you hear from him, you receive an email from Marcus Pike just three days later.

Subject: Initial Sketch

Hello,

Please see attached. It’s just pencil for now, but I made a note of the general blocks of color I was thinking for the leaves. You’ll see what I mean when you open the file. Sorry, I know it’s a pretty rough sketch, I was just excited to get this to you. I look forward to your feedback!

Best regards,

Marcus :) 

Eagerly, you open the attachment. First of all, there’s nothing “rough” about the sketch other than the fact that it’s just penciled in. The details are already so intricate, and you find yourself smiling in amazement as you take in the design.

It’s beautiful.

Brackets, each labeled with a different color in Marcus’s neat, tidy handwriting, surround the top of the tree. Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Violet. 

At the bottom of the image is another handwritten note: *All the colors will blend together and the result should look like a rainbow.

Tears spring, unbidden, to your eyes, as you feverishly type out your response.

Subject: Re: Initial Sketch

Marcus,

I really don’t know what to say other than it’s perfect. It’s absolutely perfect. Made me tear up. Look forward to seeing it in color.

Thanks again!

Not even five minutes go by before your phone vibrates with another email.

Subject: Re: Re: Initial Sketch

I’m sorry if I made you cry! Obviously wasn’t my intention but I’m glad the design evokes emotion :) I’ll move forward with the design as-is and you should hear from me soon with a full-color image.

Marcus :) 

You can’t wait. The next week and a half stretches out excruciatingly, but finally, on a Wednesday evening, you receive another email. 

Subject: Final Design

Hey there!

Hope you’ve been doing well. Thought you might like to see the final design of your tattoo ;) See attached and let me know if anything needs to be changed. Be critical! Don’t hold anything back! Once we agree on a final piece, we’ll get you on the calendar.

Best regards,

Marcus :) 

Your mind skims over the fact that Marcus used a winking-face emoji in your email, because you honestly aren’t equipped to process that right now, and open the attachment instead. This time, you start crying in earnest. It’s perfect. The colors are so vibrant, and they make the tree look as though it’s in a constant state of movement. Your mom’s birth and death dates are entwined seamlessly into the roots themselves, in a way that makes them not readily apparent at first glance, but seeming to just appear out of nowhere upon further inspection. 

Subject: Re: Final Design

Marcus,

If I had any critical feedback, I would share it, I promise. But I have nothing. This is everything I’d imagined and more, and it means the world to me.

Thank you so much.

After a few more messages back and forth, you settle on a date one month out. 

You can’t wait.

As excited as you’ve been for the past month, when you step foot back into Marcus’s little tattoo parlor, the air of finality makes your body thrum with anxiety.

You’re really doing this.

Marcus is at the back of the shop, busying himself with setting up his workspace when you enter. Today, he’s wearing a dark green henley that looks just as soft as he is, and seems to complement his features even more. As soon as he hears the chimes, his head snaps up, and he grins widely. 

“Hey!” he calls out excitedly. “Just getting everything ready. Do you want something to drink before we get started? I’ve got water, juice, soda…” he trails off, waving his hand in the direction of a mini-fridge in the corner. 

“I’m okay for now.”

“Sounds good, but when we take a break, you should have some juice or something else with a bit of sugar in it, okay?” You nod, and he continues. “Okay! Where do you want to sit?”

“Don’t I have to sit in the chair over there?” you ask, gesturing to the traditional chair and bench near Marcus’s work table. 

“Not at all,” he protests. “The table is mobile, I bring it to wherever you feel comfortable.”

“Oh,” you say dumbly. “I’ll go ahead and sit in the chair, though.” Of all the options, it looks like the easiest–you aren’t entirely sure how Marcus would be able to comfortably tattoo you whilst sitting on a bean bag chair. 

“Your choice,” he insists, spreading his hands out in an open and unguarded stance.

You settle in the chair and he sits down on a rolling stool beside you. 

“Okay, so I’ve got a stencil of your design here,” Marcus says, holding up a paper with an outline of the tree for you to see. “It’ll transfer onto your skin exactly how you want it to go, and I’ll just trace it. Make sense?”

“Yep,” you nod.

“Before I do that, though, I have to make sure nothing interferes with the design, including tiny little hairs.” He holds up a pink safety razor. “Are you comfortable with me doing this for you?”

At your tentative nod of consent, Marcus leans forward and gently swipes the razor up and down your shoulder until he’s satisfied. His eyes dart between your skin and your face the entire time–making sure you’re still with him. After he’s done, he talks you through the stencil–confirming its location, gently applying it to your shoulder, and then holding up a mirror for you to approve. 

“It’s great,” you whisper excitedly.

Marcus returns your smile and begins to absentmindedly roll up his sleeves in preparation to start working–-and the question about tattoos that you’d asked yourself upon first seeing the man is suddenly and unexpectedly answered.

You can’t help the soft sound of surprise that escapes from you when you catch the colorful patchwork of designs on both of his forearms, disappearing under the pushed-up henley and suggesting that they go all the way up. 

Marcus catches you staring and grins, his eyes sparkling with mirth.

“I didn’t know,” you say softly. “You keep them covered up.”

“Force of habit,” Marcus shrugs. “I had a desk job for a long time.”

“Doing what?” you ask, curiously. You can’t see the man doing anything but this.

“If I told you, I’d have to kill you,” he jokes, winking in your direction. 

Ignoring how the wink makes your heart stutter in your chest, you bark out a laugh at his answer. “What? Were you like a secret agent or something?” you tease.

“Special Agent,” he corrects, grinning. 

“Get out,” you deadpan. “I can’t imagine you as a Fed.”

Marcus shrugs, giving you another one of his boyish, crooked smiles. “Would’ve been fifteen years this year had I not finally seen the writing on the wall and run for the hills a couple of years ago.”

“What made you leave?” 

He laughs softly, shaking his head. “That’s a long story. How sensitive are you to noise?” he asks, abruptly changing the subject.

“Uh, I dunno. Kind of depends on the day and the situation,” you shrug.

“Fair. Well, I usually let newcomers listen to what the gun actually sounds like, so there are no surprises. If it’s too loud, I do have noise canceling headphones.”

And miss out on hearing Marcus’s soft-spoken reassurances? No matter how loud the tattoo gun is, you’d rather endure it just to be able to hear him talk. 

Marcus turns the instrument on, and the room is filled with a mild buzzing sound. On your worst days, admittedly, it would probably grate upon your nerves, but you’re feeling relaxed, comfortable, and excited about your new tattoo.

“It’s not bad,” you tell him truthfully. 

“Perfect,” he grins. “Are you all set to get started?”

Heart rate increasing with pleasant anticipation, you nod giddily. 

“I’m obviously gonna be touching your arm a lot,” Marcus says, “so let me know if you need a break from that, the noise, the needle, anything.” Seeing your solemn nod, he continues. “I’m gonna do a little dot right here to let you see how it feels, okay?” He gently touches his index finger to your skin to indicate where. 

“Okay.”

The gun turns on again, and Marcus presses it lightly against your skin for just a second before pulling back.

“...That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“I thought it would hurt more,” you confess.

Marcus laughs. “Well, the same feeling over and over again in a small area can start to be pretty uncomfortable. I’ll check in regularly to make sure you’re still doing fine. Good?”

You smile widely. “I’m really excited.”

His smile softens, his gaze becoming warmer and more tender. “I’m glad.”

His other hand gently cradles your arm as Marcus leans in, a look of intense concentration settling over his features as he begins the design. Engrossed in his work, you take the time to study his forearms. They’re a hodgepodge of designs, clearly done at different times and by different artists, but you can see themes throughout. He likes classic styles, you can tell, and in between some of the more traditional works you can see beautiful references to an assortment of famous paintings. A Dali melting clock here. A sunflower clearly inspired by Van Gogh there. On his opposite bicep, you can just barely make out the side of one design that looks like it might be of a Greek statue. Tilting your head, you realize it’s Nike alighting on the bow of a warship, and you inhale sharply. That’s one of your favorite sculptures.

“Still okay?” Marcus asks, glancing up at you with concern in his eyes.

“Sorry.” You shake your head quickly. 

“Just checking,” he says softly. “Try to be just a little more still, okay?”

“Sorry,” you repeat, laughing sheepishly. 

“Don’t be, you’re doing great.”

You try to fight the way your entire body seems to grow warm at Marcus’s praise, but you can’t stop the way the feeling stampedes through you. You’re being ridiculous, you chastise yourself. He’s doing his job, and you’re getting all moony-eyed.

In order to distract yourself, you continue playing ‘Spot the Famous Artwork’ on Marcus’s sleeves–although, as distractions go, it’s not your best work. You can’t help but focus in on the way his forearm cords with muscle as he holds the tattoo gun, controlling each movement so delicately and precisely, creating a beautiful, intricate design on your shoulder.

After finding a bit of yellow patchwork that's clearly a reference to Gustav Klimt's The Kiss near his right elbow, you break your silence.

“You like art, huh?”

It seems like a stupid thing to say to a fucking tattoo artist of all people, and you immediately kick yourself internally for saying something so obvious. 

Marcus glances up, and, seeing how your eyes are focused on his own ink, smiles. “Always have,” he murmurs, returning his gaze to your shoulder. “Some of those are years-old.”

“Is that how you got into being a tattoo artist?” you ask.

“Sort of,” he answers, brow pinched in concentration as he continues working. “I uh, apprenticed for a shop in college to pay the bills before going to Quantico for training.”

“You’re really talented,” you tell him. “I was surprised to find out you haven’t been doing this your whole life.”

Marcus hums his appreciation as he carefully fills in a root. 

“Can I ask what made you join the FBI instead of opening your own place after college?”

He huffs a little laugh through his nose. “Parents would have killed me, going to college and then doing nothing with it.”

“Running a small business isn’t exactly doing nothing,” you point out.

“Well, public opinion on tattoos wasn’t what it is now,” Marcus says. “They were scandalized by my apprenticeship, but it paid the bills, so they couldn’t complain too loudly.”

“Was it them who wanted you to join the FBI?”

“Mm, not so much,” he murmurs. “It was more like ‘whatever you want to do, so long as you can make a lucrative career out of it.’ Being an artist wasn’t one of those things, so in lieu of becoming one myself, I decided I wanted to protect them instead.”

You scrunch up your nose. “Protect them how?”

Marcus grins up at you and waggles his eyebrows playfully. “Art crimes,” he answers. “Being an art detective was kind of in the limelight in the early ‘nineties after the famous Gardner Museum theft, and I got swept up in the craze.”

“So you spent the last fifteen-ish years recovering stolen art,” you fill in for him.

“Stolen, forged, looted, illegally traded or smuggled…” Marcus offers, not breaking his concentration again. He wasn’t wrong–the repeated drag of the needle across what felt like the same square centimeter of your skin was starting to wear on you. 

“Uh-huh,” you say, forcing the discomfort out of your tone.

Noticing the tightness in your voice immediately, Marcus’s movements stop. “Feeling okay?”

You shrug.

The gun switches off.

“You gotta be honest about how you’re feeling,” he reminds you. “I might be able to create designs based off of customers’ vague descriptions, but that doesn’t make me a mind-reader.”

“It’s a little uncomfortable, but I can endure it,” you insist.

“There’s no need to endure something that’s painful,” Marcus argues with an amused smile. “Even if it involves choosing to repeatedly jamming a needle into your skin.”

You can’t help but laugh, and your heart swells when he joins you.

“C’mere,” he says. “Let me show you something.”

You let him lead you to the other side of the shop, where he stops in front of a large storage cabinet that you'd assumed held various supplies. When he opens it, however, you find that isn’t the case at all.

No, the entire cabinet is filled to the brim with a collection of stuffed animals just as eclectic and varied as the furniture. There's also a couple of shoeboxes filled with every manner of fidget toy you could ever imagine. 

"You can grab one, if you want. I know it might feel kind of goofy, but I promise they help with the pain."

"Okay," you breathe. Your gaze lingers first on the IKEA shark, then on a very soft-looking cactus with an adorable grumpy expression, but when your gaze lands on the largest and arguably oddest toy in the collection, your hands can't help but move toward it. 

"The big guy, huh?" Marcus laughs, taking the giant squid off of the shelf and placing it in your arms. You have to laugh at how large and ungainly it is; its massive black eyes stare vacantly back at you, but the effect is dopey, rather than menacing. 

"Where do you get all of these?" you ask in amazement. 

"Most of them are gifts from past clients, including that one," Marcus says, indicating the squid. "But I think he originally came from the Smithsonian. I was told his name is 'Cthulhu, Lord of the Deep.'"

"Thank you," you say in a small, appreciative voice.

"'S'fine," Marcus shrugs. "Feel up to continuing?"

You nod, looking down at your partially-inked shoulder. "Guess you didn't get very far before I had to stop," you remark, somewhat self-deprecatingly. 

"It's not a race," your artist says earnestly. "We've got the whole day, and we go at your pace. You're paying me, after all." Another wink in your direction.

"Yeah," you nod, confidence growing again. "Yeah, okay." You plop down in your seat, with Cthulhu in your lap, and Marcus takes his place beside you. 

“Gonna turn this back on again,” he announces as the now-familiar buzz fills the room, “and I’m gonna touch your arm–” his fingers wrap warmly and gently around your skin, “–annnd here we go.” 

The needle scratches insistently against your skin, but it isn’t so bad–not really, not with the hilarious giant squid on your lap and Marcus’s gentle, soothing voice in your ear. He talks while he works, sometimes asking you questions about your own life–to which he listens intently and always seems to have follow-up questions–and sometimes telling you stories of his own. You discuss art, obviously, but also music, books, movies, and baseball of all things.

You find yourself wondering if he has this type of easy rapport with everyone who comes in, but you assume he must. He might be the most disarming person you’ve ever met, and it’s hardly a stretch to believe he’s like this with everyone. Still, there’s an ugly, jealous part of you that wishes the connection between you was unique, special. That he’s only this warm with you. 

Marcus was right–squeezing the stuffed toy on your lap is a perfect distraction from the discomfort of the needle, and before long, the sensation fades into the background. As the time drags on, though, the persistent drone of the tattoo gun causes an ache to creep in and settle between your eyes. You take in a deep breath through your nose, count to three, and exhale slowly through your mouth.

Marcus glances up, watching you for a split-second before cutting power to the gun and stretching his back with a satisfied sigh. 

“Break time,” he announces. “Hand’s getting a bit sore.” He shoots you a knowing glance and another one of those crooked smiles. “And you should probably have a little something to drink, maybe a snack.”

“Yeah, thanks,” you say gratefully as he walks over to the little fridge.

“Apple juice?” he asks, holding up a little juice box that looks slightly comical in his large hands. When you nod enthusiastically, he hands it to you.

His fingers brush yours.

If it were anyone else, you’d recoil, but it’s him. It might just be the forced proximity, but…

You’re developing quite the crush on Marcus Pike.

Shoving the thought aside for the moment, you stab the straw into the little hole and take a long sip. Marcus settles down beside you with his own choice–a little can of vegetable juice–and holds it up in a silent ‘cheers.’

Feeling emboldened, you ask the question that’s been burning in your mind since you started.

“So what made you leave the whole ‘helping other artists’ thing behind and start a tattoo business instead?”

Marcus presses his lips together, and for a moment, you fear you’ve crossed a boundary. Just before you’re about to apologize profusely, though, he speaks.

“Have you ever just… woken up one morning, and realized that everything you were working toward, everything you thought you wanted in life… was a lie?”

“I… I don’t know,” you confess quietly, surprised at the emotion behind his words.

“Happened to me,” he laughs softly. “I had moved to DC for what I thought was my dream job, with who I thought was–” he shakes his head, as though dispelling an unpleasant thought. “I had spent my entire life checking boxes: College degree? Check. Well-paying job? Check. House? Check. Check, check check. I spent so much time trying to get ahead, like life was some kind of game to be won. If I said all the right things, did all the right things, if I did everything right… I’d have the life I wanted.”

“What was the life you wanted?” you ask, voice barely above a whisper.

“It was bullshit, is what it was. Saw one too many rom-coms as a kid, I suppose. I thought I was after the picket fence, the dog, the wife and two-point-five kids, that sort of thing. And one morning I woke up, realized that… that relentless pursuit of something I couldn’t even hold–it was all bullshit.”

“So you just… quit?”

“I quit. I wanted to create things again. I wanted to feel inspired. After a bit of uh… frantic soul-searching before I ran out of money entirely, I sold my stupid, too-big condo that I hated and bought this shop instead.”

“Did it work?”

“Well, I’m not bankrupt yet,” Marcus says dryly.

“No, I mean… did you feel inspired again?”

“I did. I do. So very much so,” he says, his voice soft and gentle. His eyes flick up to meet yours, and that comfortable warmth that had settled in between you the first time you had met him… grows. Mutates. Until the warm, tingling feeling feels a lot more like electricity.

An unspoken moment seems to pass through you, but then Marcus clears his throat roughly, setting the empty can aside and standing again, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“Wanna keep going?”

Breathlessly, you nod. 

In no time at all, you’re settled back in the chair with one of Marcus’s warm, strong, large hands cradling your arm as the other gently wields the tattoo gun. As he starts to fill in and blend the colors, the pain starts to increase, and you worry one of the fuzzy tentacles back and forth in your hand as you grit your teeth.

“I know, I know,” Marcus soothes quietly. “The color’s the worst part, but you’re being so good for me.”

It helps you to watch him work, so you do. He’s blending in the colors now, and you watch with interest as it starts to take shape. It’s so mesmerizing that you hardly even notice the buzz of the gun or the light sting of the needle anymore.

“And you said you ‘weren’t good at tattoos,’” he teases gently, noticing your obvious interest. 

“Did I say that?” you laugh, teasing back.

“I believe your words were, ‘I’m like the worst candidate for getting a tattoo that exists.’” he reminds you. “And look at you now, huh?”

You duck your head at his praise, unable to withstand the intensity and honesty in his gaze.

“Doing okay after all, I guess,” you say with a sheepish smile.

“You’re doing amazing,” Marcus corrects, smiling warmly. “The type of client any artist dreams of.”

You don’t know how to respond to the things this man says to you. Stunned and at a loss for words, you stare awkwardly at your hand where it still wraps around Cthulhu, Lord of the Deep.

“I’m sorry.” The words are soft, concerned. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I just meant that your enthusiasm and your curiosity is the stuff that makes me want to be an artist in the first place.”

“Are you saying I inspire you?” you try to tease, but it falls flat.

Just audibly, over the hum of the tattoo gun, you hear his whispered response. 

“Yes.” 

As Marcus wipes away the last of the stray ink on the purple bit of tree, the tattoo gun suddenly switches off. The silence is almost shocking, and you blink rapidly in confusion.

“Break time?” you ask.

Marcus chuckles, the corners of his eyes crinkling with amusement. “It’s all done.”

“It is?” you ask, although you can see the answer for yourself in the large mirrored wall to your right. 

“How’s it feel?” he asks.

“My arm kind of aches,” you confess, “but oh my God, Marcus… it’s beautiful.”

It’s his turn to preen under your praise, the tips of his ears blushing pink as he grins back at you.

“I’m glad you like it,” he says softly. “Here, let me give you a little something for the pain.” 

He squeezes a glob of light-green cooling gel and coats the angry skin with the barest of touches. “Still okay?” he asks, glancing up at you for confirmation.

After the harshness of the needle, the soft press of his fingers is more soothing than ever, and you have to resist the urge to sigh and melt into his touch. 

“Yes,” you whisper.

“You’re going to want to keep this covered for a couple of hours, up to overnight,” Marcus says as he carefully applies a dressing to your shoulder–still softly, but more businesslike than before as he walks you through all of the instructions for care. “Once you take this off tomorrow, you’ll probably see some fluid leaking from it–that’s totally normal. It’s blood, plasma, and extra ink, and it should stop after a few days before it starts to scab over.

 “You’ll want to keep it from drying out; I’d recommend scent-free, dye-free lotion if you don’t already have some,” he continues. “Wash it twice a day and put lotion on after. When it starts to scab, I can’t stress this enough: don’t pick the scabs.” He gives you a serious look. “Repeat that back to me.”

“Don’t pick the scabs.”

“If you do, you could cause it to scar, or even pull out the ink. One more time for me,” he prompts, and you get the feeling that this is always the sticking point in his speech.

“Don’t pick the scabs,” you repeat.

“It’ll take three to four months for the lower layers of skin to completely heal,” Marcus tells you. “During that time, keep it out of the sun, keep it hydrated, and you’re in the clear.”

“And don’t pick the scabs,” you say teasingly. 

Marcus winks at you. “Exactly. Any other questions for me?”

“No, just… thank you. It’s amazing,” you tell him. “You did such an incredible job.”

“Hard not to, when I have such a beautiful canvas.”

Your eyes dart up, expecting to see a teasing glint in his eyes, but all you can see is heartfelt sincerity. You swallow thickly, and he tracks the movement, his eyes dropping down, then back up to meet your eyes. Is it… not just you? Does he feel it, too? Realization slams through you and threatens to overload all of your systems. Marcus’s lips are parted slightly, and the look in his eyes… it’s desire.

“Marcus…”

“Wait,” he says urgently. “Hang on. Come… come over here for a minute, let me–” he dashes awkwardly over to the till on the counter and gives you your total. Frowning in confusion–he wants to do this now? Interrupting that electric moment that had passed between you?–you dutifully swipe your card and numbly take the receipt.

“Now you’re no longer my client,” Marcus explains softly. “I–sorry–I was about to throw caution to the wind and kiss you, and I didn’t… I didn’t want to be unethical, I–”

“Yes,” you say simply, giving your response to his un-asked question.

It’s all he needs to stride forward, gently take your face in his warm palms, and, seeing no hesitation in your eyes even as he searches your face desperately—presses his lips to yours.

The kiss is as soft and as tender as the man himself, which hardly surprises you. Your eyes slip closed as his lips move against you with aching caution. He’s careful in all things, including this–taking your cues, giving you the lead, letting you feel everything he’s giving you.

All too quickly, he pulls back–but his eyes only sweep your face again, a growing smile on his lips as he sees nothing but want reflected back at him. 

When he lowers his lips to yours again, he’s less gentle. One large hand leaves your face too hook around your waist, pulling you closer, closer–and when the proximity causes you to gasp softly, Marcus is ready. His tongue gently slips between your parted lips and you practically melt into him. When your knees buckle, his strong arms are what keep you standing upright, and still–

He can’t seem to stop kissing you. 

You break before he does–pulling back to suck in a few shaky, heaving breaths, and he smiles through his own labored breathing.

“I wanted–I–” he begins, before hastily pressing another kiss to the corner of your mouth as if he can’t help but do so. 

“I’ve thought of you,” he tries again. “I thought of you like this for the last month,” the confession finally spills out. “I wanted to–wanted to kiss you so badly all day, but I couldn’t. Couldn’t let myself.” He kisses you again. “But now,” he promises, whispering the words against your mouth. “Now I’m gonna get my fill.”

To punctuate his statement with one of your own, you slant your head and deepen the kiss, wrapping one hand around Marcus’s neck and pulling him closer still. He makes a soft noise in his throat, and the grip on your waist tightens. You lose yourself completely to the feel of his tongue sliding slowly against yours, until he suddenly pulls back.

“I’m doing this all wrong,” he whispers–although he’s still smiling. “I wanted to ask you out to dinner, first.”

“So ask me,” you say with a giggle.

“Come have dinner with me,” Marcus murmurs, shaking his head in quiet amusement as he steals another gentle kiss. “Right now. Tonight.”

“You might have to open all the doors,” you tease. “My arm hurts.”

Another kiss.

“I’m wounded that you think I wouldn’t open every door regardless.”

“Are you always such a gentleman?” you remark with a wry smile.

Another. 

“Well,” Marcus grins wolfishly. He places on last, lingering kiss on your lips and then makes a show of offering his arm. “Not always.”

#marcus pike #marcus pike x you #marcus pike x reader #marcus pike x f!reader #marcus pike fanfiction #the mentalist #pedro pascal

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for talking about my fights with my partner with other people?

I (18M) and my partner (17NB) have been together for a couple of years now. Like most couples, we've had our fair share of fights, some of them very serious. I have a problem with paranoia over if I'm doing the right thing or not, because I have trouble understanding right and wrong unless I've been through a situation myself or had the morality of it very heavily explained to me. Because of this, during several of our heavier fights, I would go to people that I trusted and show them the conversation from beginning to end through screenshots (me and my partner are long distance at the moment, so most of our fights have been over text), and ask them if I was alright or I was being a dick.

However, over time, this caused most of the people I was close to to hate my partner. Several of them believed my partner was abusive or at least toxic because of the fights they saw, and at least one was outright violently angry towards them, publicly making a post about wanting to hurt them (I apologized to my partner for this, and asked repeatedly that this person take the post down, made it very clear I wasn't okay with that, but they kept it up anyways.)

I tried to change their opinions by highlighting positive things about them, and repeatedly making clear the things I knew I had done wrong to them so it was clear any toxicity wasn't one-sided (please don't even try to question if I was really bad or anything like that. Had it happen before. Yes what I did was actually wrong. I have apologized and been working on it for a long time now, and debating if it was really wrong will not be helpful or wanted.) But even so, even now, everyone who knew even parts of me and my partners problems still hate them.

My partner has made clear to me that this hurt them. It made them feel isolated, and very alone. Because I had people backing me up and people to talk to, and those people hated them, while they didn't have access to therapy (which I also had at the time, and also do now) or people to talk to about it at the time.

I've apologized for that, and long since stopped telling anyone about our fights or problems. Partially because I found out it was hurting them, and partially because a few months after I had started doing that in the first place, things took a turn for the worse in our relationship and I always either didn't feel comfortable showing people what was happening anymore, or when I did, I ended up being asked to stop by the people I spoke to because what was going on was too heavy and often triggering for them to handle, which I respected. I also didn't have access to therapy for a while because I had just made a major move and my old therapist wasn't licensed to treat people in the area I'd moved to.

However, more recently, I opened up to both my therapist and my mother about everything that happened. Unlike with before, both of them got the full story, from the start of our relationship to now. I made sure to include everything I had done wrong (that I either figured out on my own or my partner told me about, I do worry that there's other things that I don't even know about yet) so that I didn't paint myself in a better light than reality. My therapist cried when I told her. Not full on crying or sobbing, but I could see the tears in her eyes the entire session. My mother was very angry. Both of them think it's for the best we break up. My therapist agreed it's toxic, which I know it still is, although I've been doing my best to make the relationship more healthy over time. She didn't outright say the words, but when I told her what my mother had to say about it, it was clear that she agreed with her that it was abusive. She wasn't angry the way my mother was, or as insistent about me breaking up with them, but she didn't think this relationship or this person in general was healthy towards me.

My mother, however, was almost violently angry. There was several parts of the story where she clenched her fists or had to pause to calm down. On top of that, when I brought up my partners disorder (it was heavily relevant to a large part of the story, as knowing they had it was necessary to really explain what happened for many parts of it), she started repeatedly telling me that she believed they're faking to manipulate me, and that "based on her years of research that wasn't how the disorder worked" (her "years of research" was an introductory college psych class over a decade ago, which barely mentions the disorder in question, so I don't trust that at all). This made me worry even more that I was being an asshole by sharing this, because I know firsthand how much it sucks to have someone not believe you about your own mental health. Not to mention, I have a similar disorder myself, so it felt wrong the way she talked about their disorder (I brought this up but she said it was different and she believes me, just not them. I'm pretty sure that's mostly because I'm diagnosed, and they aren't, due to not being able to get therapy). She also wouldn't believe they didn't have access to therapy because they live in a place with free healthcare, and didn't seem to understand that doesn't always apply to mental healthcare, especially when they're a minor and their parent won't get them therapy even when asked.

However, the reactions from both my mother and my therapist has made me start to question if telling people about our fights was really an asshole move in the first place. On the one hand, I know it hurt them, and that I hurt them in other ways on top of that. But on the other, if even middle aged adults, including one with a psychology degree, think it's so bad on their end, maybe telling them was a good thing. I don't want anyone to hate my partner, especially not when I know I was also toxic towards them and I don't feel like it's fair to treat them like they're so much worse than me, especially when my partner has said to me that I abused them (this was also shared to mother + therapist). But the way these recent events have gone have left me confused, and feeling like a giant asshole towards my partner all over again. So am I one for this?

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

[princeofmayonnaise]

okay so let me explain. so Neopets.com is run by Netdragon who has a CEO who is an AI and they recently deleted the accounts of Adam and Donna, the literal creators of neopets.com and long story short, the newbie chat on neopets.com has been the general discussion board for like 2 decades despite it being called 'the newbie chat' but one day I refresh the page and they have gentrified our home and it's called 'new to neopets' now and I'm like wat and TNT makes a post announcing there is now an official general chat which people (not me) have been asking for for years and a lot of people are so happy it's back and begin posting away on it but then a day later TNT makes up a brand new rule with no warning that we cannot dare talk about anything not directly neopets.com related on any of the boards anymore including non-neopian food and clothing (if you mention hats they MUST be hats that exist on neopets.com or ur account could literally die. this is an actual example given by a staff member in an email) and they began freezing and silencing people who had posted non neopets related things on a board called 'general discussion' which they never announced or explained the rules for whatsoever, and people only found out the rules because users began posting the warnings they received which actually explained the rules to them and people literally had to email staff to get the rules figured out and then post screenshots for everyone else to see because of course TNT couldn't do that for us themselves and then finally TNT makes an announcement that says no non-neopets talk is allowed on the general chat but then they they start freezing and warning people on the newbie chat too for posts that were made days before the rules changed and this is all because neopets wants to be 100% child friendly now except they are selling neopets.com wine glasses as merch and have held multiple events at bars you obviously have to be 21+ to go to and are encouraging players to go on Reddit, and they made a sorry mommy sorry meme tik tok of their neopets faerie characters on their official neopets.com tik tok oh and also the april fools day joke this year was about this child character from the early 2000s Nick Neopia who used to be this totally radical skater guy but is now a full grown thinly veiled Q-anon-esque conspiracy theorist who ranted about 'the globalist' which is an antisemitic dogwhistle and lets not forget the plot about staff members being brutally murdered either idc if it was years ago and so people are getting frozen and their pets obliterated for asking other players simple questions and yet there has been a board about BDSM up for literal hours while TNT is actively taking down other posts ALSO this was all after both the huge NFT and massive data leak scandals. does this make sense so far? are you following??

#neopets #long post #neotag #discourse #neoboards

[eliyips]

HOW DO YOU MAKE X SO FRIENDSHAPED?!

But also genuinely curious about the design translation from the actual skins to your interpretations due to the small but mighty details added in

Infodump as hard as you want!

If i ever pass up an opportunity to talk about my X design, it will be because I am either dead, or dying!!! neither are true at time of posting, so here you go! I will be going over my ENTIRE design process for Xisuma, starting with my initial design:

My initial design for Xisuma wasn't anything special, in my opinion. Most of what I included was directly ripped from the classic Doomslayer. Though, the face scars were inherited from fanon, of course. :) The changes that I did make were in service of having things make more sense for Xisuma. Namely, the belt buckle, and the fabric covering the arms...

The belt buckle is simple - bullets didn't really make sense as a design motif, all considered - but the fabric is more complicated. I have a couple different ideas about why Xisuma wears the suit, but I haven't settled one way or the other on some of the specifics, so forgive me if I'm a bit vague. Ultimately, It is just my impression that X is not comfortable having his body visible more than it needs to be, whether that be for health-related reasons or for personal/emotional reasons. I don't intend to ever draw Xisuma with his helmet off, because of that. To me, it feels like a violation of boundaries. To be perfectly clear though, that's just for me - more power to other artists who draw him without the helmet/armor! :)

By the time I was full-on fixated on Xisuma, I realized I was unsatisfied with this first pass at his design. Mainly, in regards to the helmet. So I did more work on it!

I feel like my re-design process for the helmet is a good example of the importance of using reference. :) I did a lot of unsatisfactory sketches before pulling up pictures of real helmets, at which point I feel like I settled on something I was happy with very quickly.

Specifically, I referenced motocross helmets! My choice of reference was mostly driven by my passing interest in sports equipment design, though motocross helmets are similarly bulky and have the same distinct mouthpiece as X's helmet, so I think it was a good choice. I also feel like the pixels at the top of Xisuma's skin can be pretty easily read as the brim of a helmet, so it works out!

Other than the motocross helmet influence, I also made the choice to add tubing to the sides and back of the helmet. This rolls with my headcanons about the purpose of the helmet, connecting to air tanks on his back! I also think it helps to distinguish him from the doomslayer, in addition to the new helmet shape.

The only other changes I made were to the helmet's palette, added a few additional grey tones for contrast, and the positioning of his scars. I decided I wanted them to be a little off-center, leaning towards his left eye. I'm pretty inconsistent with how I draw the scars though, lol, so it changed again by the next time I drew him.

At this point my design is mostly settled for him, and I don't expect it to change very significantly any time soon. I don't have much else to say about it, but I listed the other iterative changes I made to the design above! I figure I will continue making small tweaks to his design every time I draw him :)

That said... I have yet to answer your initial question! So I will answer it now:

"HOW DO YOU MAKE X SO FRIENDSHAPED?!"

My answer is that it's (almost) all in the eyes!!! I have already talked pretty extensively about Xisuma's eyes. So I won't dwell for too long! In short, human facial recognition is very closely tied to the eyes. The ability to see the eyes of a character clearly affords you a lot of flexibility when it comes to making a design seem approachable, or "friend-shaped." I painted over a screenshot of doomguy to illustrate my point!

My drawings tend towards being a little cutesy, of course, so that helps :) but you can see that the bright, saturated color, big distinct eyes, and less harsh expression all contribute to making him seem like he is less of a threat, despite this literally just being the doomslayer.

Another thing that helps is, again, related to the style I draw in. My art is very "clean" looking, not gritty. I use a lot of soft shape language and don't texture things too heavily. With Xisuma specifically, I also make no effort to make him seem intimidating. I use very neutral angles when drawing him, I don't frame him in a way that makes him seem intimidating or imposing, I don't pose him too confidently or angrily. Because he's not that kind of guy! Though it would be an interesting challenge to try and make him look as intimidating as possible :) I certainly think he could be quite scary, if he wanted to be. Just a matter of what I'm trying to convey.

... I think that's all I have to say for now! Once again, blown away by all the nice things people have to say about my Xisuma design and my art. Everyone here has been so kind and encouraging, and I really appreciate that. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to yell about Xisuma! If you have follow up questions, by all means, I am ready to answer :)

#hermitcraft #hermitblr #xisumavoid #xisuma #character design #askeliyips #if you also can see the helmet brim on xisuma's skin please let me know #could be a mirage #mcyt

[frangipanilove]

The Book Of Carol; A Damn Romance Novel...?

...ok hear me out before you go into anaphylactic shock...

I came across an interesting gif set in the Daryl Dixon tag the other day. It was by zehiiro on Tumblr, and I truly thought it was a great observation. I don’t want to tag them in case they'd rather not be dragged into Bethyl/TD stuff and thangs, but the parallels were convincing, and they deserve cred for their observation. Naturally, I interpret it differently than they do, but I will never claim to have the full truth on how anything in TWDU is meant to be interpreted. I can only offer my point of view, and I quite enjoy reading other people's perspectives, it's often very enlightening.

In any case, the parallels are solid, here's a screenshot:

It makes a lot of sense if what we saw in Carol's sneak peak was shot intentionally to reference the scene from 7x10 New Best Friends. This was after Carol and Daryl had been apart for an extended period of time, just as they are in the current timeline. It was directly before they reunited, something we have to assume will happen relatively soon after the sneak peak takes place in current time. And it references a scene that, in my opinion, heralds rebirth, reunion and resurrection. I'll try to explain how below.

In 7x10 New Best Friends, Daryl has an altercation with Richard, because Richard wants to set up Carol to be killed by the Saviors, in an attempt to lure Ezekiel to go to war, along with Rick, against the Saviors.

Daryl, of course, has major objections to the idea. They fight, right next to a trailer decorated with horses, that we later learned was actually used in the movie Smokey and the Bandit. I wrote about that in an old post of mine, read it here.

Interestingly, we saw a callback to that trailer recently in TOWL 1x5 Become...

...after Rick and Michonne had escaped in that yellow car we all knew was a reference to a selection of yellow objects seen through the years...

...such as Beth's yellow polo, and a certain yellow Ford Mustang from season 2...

Remember Carol's blue Ford Mustang? I wrote about it here and here. Mustangs are horses, and I believe these shots were specifically included in reference to the symbolism around Mustangs, and I mean both the horses and the cars here.

This shot of Carol's blue Ford Mustang from TWDDD 1x6 Coming Home, shows the licence plate that points to TWD 5x2, which was when Carol and Daryl discovered a Grady car, and followed it into Atlanta, and eventually located Beth.

And like I expanded on in the post about the yellow symbolism, it all derives from Carol's yellow Jeep Cherokee from season one, plus the aforementioned yellow Ford Mustang from season 2...

...which happens to have the same licence plate as the car that Carol and Daryl drove to follow the Grady car to Atlanta, which eventually led them to Beth...

...and which I believe is a reference to the Lincoln Continental Beth and Daryl hid in in 4x12 Still (because the LC on the licence plate, in my opinion, could represent "Lincoln Continental").

What happens directly after Daryl and Richard's fight by the mustang/horse trailer, is that Daryl makes his way over to Carol's house. He knocks on her door, and reunites with Carol after a long time apart. And what is Carol doing right before she opens her door?

She’s reading a damn romance novel, called Denim Dreams, with a familiar looking Sirius Piggyback on the cover:

Sirius Piggyback; The Literal Book Of Carol

Below, we see the actual Sirius Piggyback from 4x13 Alone, along with the stock photo from Shutterstock that was used as the cover photo for Carol's damn romance novel:

In 4x13 Alone, Daryl carried Beth, piggyback-style, across a cemetary. In 7x10 New Best friends, Carol lived in a little YELLOW house, near a cemetary, enjoying a damn romance novel, with a Sirius Piggyback cover photo...

Those are some darned suspicious coincidences...

Back when 7x10 New Best Friends aired, this caused quite a stir, and it remains to this day one of my favorite Bethyl hints to ever appear in TWDU. Read more about it in these excellent posts from season 7 (here and here).

Later, we see Carol prepare food for Daryl, while explaining why she had to leave. We see the romance novel, with the Sirius Piggyback cover photo, on her bookshelf, right next to a symbol we remember from 5x8 Coda:

My take on the title "Denim Dreams", is that, long story short, "denim" is a blue clue (in the sense that "blue jeans" is an established term). And as I explained in a recent post, "blue" is a synonym for "police". Beth and Rick are both encompassed by the "blue" symbolism, Rick because he's a police officer, Beth because she's "the new sheriff in town". The "pig" in "Sirius Piggyback" refers to the derogatory term for police, "pig", which has been used as symnonomous with "police" several times in TWDU. I wrote about the "pig" symbolism recently in this post, along with my take on the cat symbolism.

Speaking of cat symbolism, there was plenty of that to be found in 7x10 New Best Friends. Here's Rick, articulating what I tried to say in my cat symbolism post:

...to replace the one you lost...

...it's just that sometimes the one you lost can't easily be replaced...

But the cat symbolism is about rebirth, reunion and resurrection, and that's something to hold on to, according to an overwhelming number of characters in this episode...

...which is interesting, concidering a certain someone sang an entire Tom Waits classic on the subject of "holding on" back in season 3:

I know I keep saying that the symbolism we see is about "reunion". I'm not taking that out of thin air. Here's Daryl's commentary as we hear Beth's voice singing "Hold On" in the background:

Straight from the horses mouth there. What Daryl is referring to is the fact that he had just returned to, and reunited with, TF after initially having wandered off with his brother earlier in the season.

So, to circle back to the scene from 7x10, and its parallel, the scene from Carol's sneak peak; they're about reunions. Sure, it's obviously specifically about the imminent reunion between Carol and Daryl, both in 7x10 and in TWDDD seasson 2, which I'm personally looking forward to immensly.

But there are multiple layers to the reunion symbolism in TWDU, many of which speak directly to TD.

Because that damn romance novel, Carol's actual book from 7x10 New Best Friends, The Literal Book Of Carol, is a story about the Sirius Piggyback. And the comment on the damn romance novel from 4x1 was about Beth, that's a 100% undeniable fact:

Sirius means return, rebirth and resurrection. She will be back. Sirius Piggyback.

Perhaps in "The Book Of Carol; a Damn Romance Novel"...

#team delusional #bethyl #team defiance #daryl dixon #beth greene #beth x daryl #daryl x beth

[the-unrelated-theorist]

The Red-Eyed Entity, Part 1

I need to go a lot more in depth, but Toriel's last words in Geno have always bothered me.

I rarely see anyone talk about this, and when someone does, they seem to assume that "them" means that Toriel feels like she is protecting someone like Asgore and the other monsters.

But that... doesn't add up.

For one thing, at the end of a True Pacifist run, Toriel says that even Asgore deserves Mercy. So, even though he thoroughly disgusts her, she doesn't see him as being purely evil.

But also, it just doesn't make sense grammatically. For her to say she was protecting "them," meaning the monsters outside, the exact phrasing makes it sound like she felt like she was protecting all of them, which she is not. It would make a lot more sense grammatically for her to say she was protecting "one of them." Toby generally doesn't make major grammatical mistakes like this.

Now, for the record, I do realize that Toriel has seemingly referred to Asgore as "they" one other time:

But the implication here is obvious- she DOES mean the monster community as a whole, acting under Asgore's orders.

This meaning just doesn't quite line up with the phrasing in her death statement:

Also... she looks quite maniacal in that second picture, doesn't she? Like she knows exactly what she's looking at.

Almost every monster in the Underground can see that Frisk is not human. They see Frisk's human form, but they can see that Frisk doesn't act like a normal human.

Note: The Asgore pic is not mine, I can't get past Undying. I screenshotted this video.

Every other monster can see that Frisk is possessed by something evil, something neither human nor monster. Toriel was blinded to it by her desire to protect Just One Human, and she became their first major victim.

But here's the thing: no one else, including Asgore, knows what this thing is that possesses Frisk. They know it's dangerous, but they don't recognize it. But Toriel DOES. She RECOGNIZES them. And she knows how powerful and dangerous they really are. Undyne and sans both realize this thing's level of power later, but they don't know what it is. Toriel KNOWS.

Our actions somehow open up Frisk to full-on possession by some evil entity that uses their body to strike unfathomable damage on everyone in their path. Please note that I am not trying to remove responsibility from the player- my point is, rather, that while we don't cause the destruction directly, we do enable it. Bear in mind that we don't strike the final blows against sans, Asgore, or Flowey. Whatever is possessing Frisk does it for us. And willingly, too- I mean, most of us played Genocide because we wanted to experience the thrill of killing Undyne and sans. But really, it's a symbiosis. We keep Frisk's SOUL alive long enough for the entity to commit the actual murder.

Who's more evil: the murderer, or the lackey that keeps them alive and empowered so they can continue to murder?

The next question, then, is: what did Toriel see?

But we already know the answer to that.

This thing is not Chara. Or rather, it is not the human child that the Dreemurrs took in and raised alongside their own son Asriel. It will take many posts for me to put all the pieces together, but this is not the human Dreemurr child. This is the entity that possessed Frisk and changed their body to look like the Dreemurr child. When we kill Toriel, she sees THIS thing. And she does NOT see her human child. She sees an evil force bent on destruction.

And she RECOGNIZES it. She's SEEN this thing before.

But where??? And how??? The only other place we've seen anything resembling this thing, this entity, is...

But this was in a different world. The Toriel of this world was a completely different person.

Or was she?

It's always intrigued me that she says we shouldn't be surprised to learn that she wanted to be a teacher. Combined with the face she makes and looking off to the side... is she trying to remember something?

We've still got another 5 chapters of Deltarune to go. If there's any kind of connection, it should reveal itself eventually.

But, at least for the moment, I just feel like the creature, or as I call it, The Red-Eyed Entity, we see at the very end of a Genocide Run is NOT Chara Dreemurr, but Something Else Entirely.

#that's not chara #the red-eyed entity #genocide #toriel #papyrus #sans #undyne #asgore #my theory

[shoezuki]

Shoe im too sleep deprived to go zooming on all those screenshots and redownloadong the bird app, may i ask what is happening w the dream drama u posted? I love ur summaries, they make me laugh about things i am gratefully unaware of

My beloved anon im sorry it took me this long. But i am lazy. No other reason really. So i am now chronicling this dhit on my phone. And oh fuck dude is it a trip

SO. this fuckery began with quackity announcing the QSMP. He did so on the 17th of march and whatever the fuck. He mentioned it earlier than this (edit: just checked but the First announcements was the 10th)

And this is all great. New server that fucks. But what truly started all this. Was dream's tweet on his private twitter.

Im gonna try to be kinda impartial qnd jus. Explain it all as is but first i gotta say who says this shit lmao. So quackity announces his new project and is very passionate about it, he tweets more on his alt(?) About how much it means to him to bring his two languages spanish and english together. And dream on private is like 'wow cool! Guys dont get mad at me when i announce the same thing later tho haha' its just so weird.

But anyways. The usmp wasnt even A Thing. Only written instance of dream makin a multilingual server was in a tweet defending himself from copying quackity. (Altho he allegedly mentions in streams or whatever wanting yo do things w other ppl from other languages? But that shit dont count n im not diggin audio n videos out fuck that).

The actual, official announcement of dream makin a usmp was april 2nd (idk why this says the 3rd but whatever) wherein he announces the 'first multilingual smp' with a list of languages that will be on it such as portugese, spanish, english, russian, etc. And that it has live translation.

The same day, quackity releases a tweet labelling the qsmp as the 'first multilingual smp' and that he is introducing a live translation system to it. Mr beast connects that the usmp and qsmp are similar to which dream responds. Quackity doesnt respond, nor does he acknowledge the usmp at all.

Dream's response is essentially theyre different in that qsmp is spanish and english, he announced his live translator first, they had 'similar good ideas'.

So. This sparked a lot of drama and discussion. Because of the 'first multilingual' bit in that people began discrediting qsmp as it was 'only' english and spanish, and therefore was bilingual and not multilingual. Altho others countered thid by saying quackity himself called it a multilingual server in his streams. Not to mention the idea that the translator was copied but regardless both those things are kinda stupid arguments and just drama inspired by the comparisons.

More notably is that dream team were making fun of the 'first multilingual server' bit after this. Dream was liking some jokes at it as well

Dream also liked some. Vaguely sexual/romantic 'they should just kiss already' art of him and quackity?

Also after this dream started somewhat addressing/replying to quackity more. Quackity didnt respond to any of it.

Dream also tweeted this on his private the day after

Most narrowed in on the 'this wouldnt have happened without quackity' and was often interpretted as dream saying quackity HELPED him w it in some way or that there was more collab behind the scenes but we will find that to be false. Because. On april 27th. Dream dropped his magnum opus. Which i will include in one screenshot.

Anyways i seriously encourage reading the full thing here because its. Something. Theres so much. It is literally 1.7k words. A lot of it is repetitive but i will. Try. To summarize it.

Essentially dream is writing that he has been trying to contact quackity for some time now with no response. He has been messaging him about how theyve ended up with similar servers (therefore noting that neither one know of the other). This gets nothing. Dream tries contacting quackity more publically with jokes. Nothing. He starts going through secondary sources by talkin to ppl to message quackity for him (i think some people who dream knows that are on the qsmp. Unsure who) but quackity doesnt say shit. Dream is being absolutely ghosted.

Im also noting this last paragraph in his first tweet where he describes being 'taken back' when quackity announces the qsmp live translator after his usmp announcement, because he 'knew it would cause more drama'.

He says he messages quackity so they can plan how to deal with the 'vitriol' between the teo 'communities' and that the drama can be solved with 'communication'. He is ghosted. He also mentions that he puts the usmp 'on hold' in the 2nd tweet so it all can be dealt with and he can 'extend love and support to quackity'. Most notably he says that its alluded that quackity wouldnt let ppl who were on the usmp couldnt be on the qsmp which dream tries to say makes sense for quackity to do.

Theres apparently a fucking image limit on the tumblr app which ive hit so i am now not using images and speedrunning this shit. But im quoting this one thing exactly as its most important:

"That being said, I’ve seen the communities split against each other and have tons of hate build around this and around the speculations of peoples motives and friendships and so on, and it’s really really harmful to the community as a whole. I have seen more threats, doxing, fights, slander, and hate between a bunch of fan bases that I’ve seen in a very long time. I personally have experienced an elevated level of in real life threats & stalkers & even had the police involved in somebody showing up at my house, & even putting trackers on my family vehicles, surrounding this drama, for the first time since pre-face reveal. That’s really why I feel like I have to say something about it despite me wanting to avoid any kind of serious talk about all of this, especially even talking about communication publicly feels wrong but necessary in this instance. I never like to air out anything that feels or is private, but I feel like in this case it’s really important for my fan base to be aware of my intentions, motives, thought process, and how we got to where we are. I’ve always been a creator that’s very open with my fan base about everything going on in my life and this is a massive thing right now for my friends & me"

His last tweet begins with him saying he 'doesnt want anymore drama' and ends eith him saying he loves quackity and believes this is all just a miscommunication.

Now, obviously, shit blew up. Hes been ratiod a few times by people meming it. Ive seen many people on quackity's 'side' saying that the usmp doesnt even exist yet, dream is the one causing drama, etc. And people on dream's 'side' saying quackity is being horrible and needs address this because its caused dream to be in danger. Most importantly. Quackity didnt address it at all.

But then quackity announced he was going live in an hour. And a lot assumed hed say something. But he didnt. His stream was roughly 15 minutes long and it was entirely quackity announcing that he was introducing brazilian/portugese speaking streamers onto the qsmp.

Anyways. Theres a lot of details but my hand hurts now. A big thing is whether qsmp or usmp was 'first'. Imo theres a lot more pointing towards quackity having had this is store for a longass time, as he had been hinting and a project of his for months and more notably the qsmp is so organized and put together i doubt he couldve had it finished up 'after' dream as dream's nonexistent server was an idea he got after that squidcraft thing in early March i think?

More recently (i think today) i saw that quackity apparently took two emojis off his twitch that were dream roblox characters and i saw people freaking out in r/dwt2 about how quackity could be so petty? But ya. My condolences if youve read all this.

#fuck everyone this aint going under a readmore SUFFER. #anyways. opinion of the author: dream is fucked up hoohmygod. #dream #dream hate #dream neg #discourse #anon

[waitmyturtles]

**EDITED TO ADD: Updates below on the subtitles that I’ve seen, thanks to the BLESSED @mmastertheone!

Gosh dang it: I thought this post was gonna be way more exciting because I wanted to shower you all in Old Fashion Cupcake epilogue screenshots, but ALAS, the security on Japanese DVDs seems to be so good that all of my screenshots came out blank, crying emojis. As you can see from my previous post, it looks like Twitter (THANK YOU, TWITTER CUPCAKES!) are working on ripping and subbing the epilogue. So this is just my verbal takeaway, wah, along with some shots of the free goodies from the DVD at the end of this post. Somewhat long post ahead, with me giving spoilers to the canon manga!

CANON AND DRAMA EPILOGUE SPOILERS AHEAD, READ AT YOUR PERIL...

I want to say first that I’m not sure how Kato Aya, the OFC director, has set up the chronology in the drama, and if the chronology is the same as the canon manga. The scene that we’re watching in this epilogue -- Togawa strolling shirtless into the kitchen while Nozue is making apple pie -- technically happens two months after the street confession in the canon manga. I don’t know, because the DVD is not subbed, whether this is explained. 

So in the canon manga, after the first volume ends with the gorgeous street scene of Nozue and Togawa confessing, Sagan Sagan wrote a couple of “extra” chapters, before the proper second volume. The *second* extra is of them at it, full stop. The *first* one is the preamble to their consummation, the explanation of what’s been happening since they first started dating after Nozue’s confession.

Essentially: Nozue is very afraid and skittish of intimacy with Togawa. He sees intimacy as a means of creating a family together -- and he’s concerned that by giving into the intimacy that Togawa desires, that Togawa will be disappointed that Nozue can’t give Togawa a family after they’ve consummated. It’s an incredible meditation, actually, and Sagan Sagan is truly a brilliant writer for getting into the tangle of what intimacy means to Nozue vis à vis having a family, and giving a family to a partner, which arguably would have been his framework of living his life with a potential female partner had his life gone that direction (but, as we remember from the start of the drama -- Nozue had no such intention to complicate his life with such matters). 

Togawa, on the other hand, is an absolute hornball, which makes Nozue VERY nervous. Togawa thinks Nozue is cute, and wants to do him. After two months of dating, they have only had one moment of oral copulation, which is no good for Togawa, no good. 

So prior to the apple pie scene in the kitchen, the guys are having a long conversation about the nature of what their intimacy could mean. I’ve written about this before in my conversation with @absolutebl on identity politics, but part of this conversation includes Nozue griping to Togawa that his love for Togawa is pushing Nozue to say things that an “old geezer” (I’m guessing Nozue is saying “ojisan”) wouldn’t otherwise say, including the meditation on intimacy and creating family. (Just have to throw in that I just found this whole part of the manga so moving as a parent, because I never saw intimacy ONLY as a means of having family, so getting into Nozue’s mind on this is so revealing.)

And Togawa says, listen, intimacy IS the way that I want to love you and get to know you, not by having a family. We will love each other more, I WILL LOVE YOU MORE, if we can be intimate. So put your past experiences behind you, Nozue. 

And then, they do it, but that first time is not depicted. 

So THEN, the next morning, is the apple pie scene, where I think we have our epilogue? But again, I’m not sure if Kato Aya actually intended HER epilogue to be right after the street confession scene, or with the two-month time jump that the canon manga has.

OKAY, SO THE DRAMA EPILOGUE!

It’s only three minutes long, damn it! I really thought it would be longer. Togawa strolls in, shirtless and sleepy and foxy, and asks Nozue what he’s cooking (which I am GLEANING from the manga, your devoted Cupcake MILF here really needs to learn Japanese). Nozue’s making apple pie, obvi.

We really need this whole scene translated, because in the canon manga in this scene, Nozue says something really lovely -- with this gesture of the apple pie, Nozue says to Togawa that Nozue has decided that the way he’ll be stable and contributing to this relationship is by being the home cook for the two of them, which clearly moves Togawa. But Nozue then says, this is my first time making this -- and Togawa, as we know from the Twitter preview last month, takes that to mean about their night prior, and says “daijobu desu,” it’s okay, it was your first time. Nozue, in the manga, picks up on the joke and yells “I WAS TALKING ABOUT THE APPLE PIE,” so I hope that got in there in the drama epilogue. In the canon manga at this point, Nozue tells Togawa to zip it, which does happen in the drama epilogue.

The epilogue then jumps to Nozue hearing the doorbell ring, and advises Togawa to put something on, jebus, because Nozue’s ordered a futon for Togawa to sleep more comfortably in Nozue’s house. Togawa is silently moved again, and brings the futon in.

Togawa comes back to the kitchen and is standing silently, which is where our most recent subbed preview starts. As Nozue is asking questions about the apple pie, Togawa is cutely brooding and notes that Nozue had told him to previously zip it. When Nozue asks him to say something, anything, Togawa says “please marry me,” and the chapter ends.

I really hope that we can get a full subbed epilogue, because there was SO SO MUCH in the original manga extra of that scene. The second volume of OFC actually refers back to Togawa’s proposal, and goes even further with their commitments to each other -- it’s just truly lovingly beautiful material. 

But also, Togawa in the manga is a communication master -- I mean, he’s a total hardcore hornball and is good at getting what he wants, but he’s really compassionate for Nozue and what Nozue is going through with his intimacy aversion. And Takeda Kouhei as Nozue, I think, captures that skittishness really beautifully with his gentle bluntness back to Togawa. 

Gah, friends, I really wish y’all could see the whole thing. I’ll keep checking on Twitter for a full subbed scene. It would be amazing even for Viki to come through. Tagging @absolutebl, @respectthepetty, @freakyfreakz, @emile1blue, @floofz, @gillianthecat, @squeakygeeky, and the ever lovely @the-nihongo-adventure -- hope I didn’t miss any other Cupcake darlings!

FINALLY: CUTE SHOTS! ENJOY! SORRY FOR THE CRAP QUALITY! I NEED A SCANNER!

(OH! P.S. Go see Takeda Kouhei in other things! I’ve written a good bit about Kimura Tatsunari’s acting, and I have Sotsugyo Time Limit on my list of things of his to watch, but I’m watching Banshaku no Ryuugi right now, a show about a gal who loves her nightly drinks, and Takeda’s in it, and he’s soooooo adorbs as a lovesick co-worker. He’s great!)

***EDITING TO ADD: Thanks to the INCREDIBLE @mmastertheone​, we have access (temporarily!) to a subbed version of the epilogue. Everything hews pretty close to what I’ve written above, just definitely not as in depth as the manga, and no explanation of the chronology issue of whether or not there’s a time jump. In this instance, it is a very cute moment in time where Togawa ribs Nozue on his lack of experience. These guys! They are just LOVELY together.

Just to let y’all know, Sagan Sagan-sensei is technically writing the third volume live through the ihr hertZ manga magazine in Japan. However, it seems like she’s taken a bit of a break -- maybe to let the heat of the drama die down, I’m not sure. So for all of us pining for a season two, there is DEFINITELY new material to parse -- and volume two itself is just incredible for the depth that Sagan Sagan takes into their relationship. My head would spin if Takeda and Kimura took that material on. Kato Aya on Twitter has certainly been excited by all the attention to the series, so.... who knows!

#old fashion cupcake #old fashioned cupcake #nozue x togawa #togawa x nozue #takeda kouhei #kimura tatsunari #sagan sagan

[softpine]

@bb-enablefreebuild it's true, but asa says it himself, "I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I have everything a person could want and a better family than some could ever imagine - but it’s not enough for me. I don’t know why. I want to be happy, but I don’t know how." it was important for me to include that part in there, because that has nothing to do with finn – well, only a little bit in that he knows he can come across as ungrateful given that his family is incredibly supportive and some people's families, like finn's, are the opposite. otherwise, this is entirely centered around asa's internal feelings. he's had depression nearly his entire life, it's just that when finn is around he's able to find reasons to take care of himself (going outside for long walks, sleeping regularly, paying attention in class because finn tells him to, taking his meds, etc.) and without finn there to ground him, asa is falling apart for more reasons than one. so yes it's the heartbreak of losing your first love, but it's more than that for him. it's losing the primary reason for living in the moment and looking forward to the future :(

he will be soooooooo pissed :( we'll have to wait and see if asa tells him the truth (or the full truth) about how he got to this point... especially after everything asa said in this post; he KNOWS finn wouldn't approve of any of his actions thus far, but he keeps digging his grave deeper and deeper because he's already gone too far, he's already broken finn's trust and he can't leave things like this now :(

that tag is so funny, i wasn't even referring to myself in Sim God terms i was just mad at him as if i'm a powerless reader like the rest of you jfkjsds and YEAH poor casper :( he'll come up in one of the next posts so i don't want to say too much, but the fact that his worst fear is missing out on something important while he's away, to the extent that he's calling constantly to check on his family is so..... :(

bro yes 🤭

thank you for sharing!! that makes complete sense to me and that's a really sweet way to incorporate your mom in that decision 🥺

RIGHT he needs the sense knocked into him fr

@forgotten-pixels ahhhh i love this question, i was JUST thinking about mac while i was making vegan chili mac the other day fjkjsds i'm actually going to save this in my inbox and take some pictures for you when i have the energy because i miss mac and honey too :') they're always hanging out in the same room while i'm taking screenshots, they just NEVER make it into any good pics. it's actually a curse i swear

i honestly have no idea, i'm sorry 😭 it'll probably be awhile though, i haven't been doing great tbh but i want the next post to look as good as it does in my head so i don't want to half ass it!!

@itsalwaysgonnabeher oh you caught that huh sjfkjsds don't worry (yet) 💖

@little-orphan-ant I'M SORRY 😭 i'm thinking brandi wtf at all times too lmao

omg okay so i'm saving this message in my inbox for later because i KNOW for a FACT that i listed everyone's favorite candy many years ago but tumblr's search function is so incredibly ass and i don't have the energy to keep searching for it right now but i will find it eventually i promise 🥺 and if not i'll just rewrite it and then when i inevitably find the original post we can compare my answers and see how well i know my characters' tastes fjksjds

absolutely yes i'm afraid 😌

in my head i still have to sound it out sometimes if it's been forever since i've typed her name fjksjds

@rebouks thank you so much 🥺🥺 the same goes to you!!! 💖

@moonfromearth thank you!! it's so sweet you thought of me ;-; 💗

#sorry i'm answering some of these so late #been fighting for my life in my brain lately and words are not coming easily 👍🏻 #but it's been so long since i've had to break out the replies post :') #asks #anonymous #nonsims #brandi answers #moonfromearth #rebouks #bb-enablefreebuild #forgotten-pixels #little-orphan-ant #itsalwaysgonnabeher

[thecoramaria]

Hello! I have recently come across your videos while writing my first long fic. They have been such a joy to watch and very helpful. Your videos showed me that we are both quite extensive planners when it comes to our fics, but it sounds like your outlines are way more extensive than mine. Have you/would you be willing to share how you format your outlines to keep up with such detail?

Aaaahhh thank-you! I'm glad you've found them helpful. I always love to hear that from my dear viewers 🥰 and I'm always glad to hear from other extensive planners!

To share my outlining process in a video will probably be a feature-length movie, and since I use Milanote, I think they ought to sponsor me for it because I genuinely love it and have convinced other people to love it as much as I do haha

The thing that makes sharing my outlines for my WIP 'The Light Invasion' tricky (other than spoilers) is that I do decorate them with a lot of fanart. I think it's okay for private use, but I wouldn't want to share my outlines publicly unless I can somehow get permission from the dozens of fanartists. If I were to do a video on my outlining style, I would recreate my format from scratch to showcase it, rather than use my actual story notes.

I will share a snippet of my outline that uses screenshots from canon though, since that's what I used for my first few chapters.

[Put two in there because the first has lower quality.]

Okay! So my goal with my outline and how I format it is to both have the details and the big picture. I want to get a ton of information at a glance. That's why I use pictures and colour coding, so let me walk you though each feature, from top to bottom.

The Parts: 'The Light Invasion' is divided into three parts, and the chapters of each part sit on their own row, so we have the 13 chapters of Part I at the top, and then the 29 chapters Part II below that, and then the 11 chapters of Part III at the bottom. When I zoom out of my outline, I have a quick way to visualise how long each part is.

The Columns: I think it's pretty obvious that each column is a chapter. Since the state of the sky is perhaps the most plot-relevant thing in my story, that's what that strip of colour at the top of each column represents. The light blue represents a typical day/night cycle, while the dark blue is the perpetual night, and then there's orange later on that represents perpetual twilight.

Chapter Names: I've explained in one of my videos why I think chapter names are just as helpful to writers as they are to readers, but the gist is they can help me remember which chapter is about what. It also means I can connect the chapters in my outline to the chapters in my contents page and manuscript.

Thumbnails: These are screenshots, stock images, or fanart that make a great visual shorthand for what the chapter is about. The first chapter includes a prose adaptation of the opening scene from 'Twilight Princess' where Rusl and Link are chatting at dusk in the spring, and the second chapter is when the perpetual night has set in over Ordon Village, hence the use of screenshots. We haven't departed that far from canon yet!

Edit Tracking: Before I post my fics, I usually do three final rounds of editing. The first round is the final copyedit, when I resolve everything I made a note in my manuscript to change. The second edit is the final proofread, which is also what I record myself reading out loud for the podfic. The final "edit" is the editing of the podfic. These checklists help me keep track of that, so I don't end up doing extra edits because I forgot I already did a part of the process.

Scene Cards: So each card you see in each column represents a scene, and those cards are actually collapsible, so when you click on them, you get a full dot point list of the scene's beats, as well as possible details, description, and dialogue to introduce.

POV Colour Coding: The strip of colour at the top of each colour corresponds to the character who's POV we're in. As you can see, most of the POV is Link (green) with a little bit from Zelda (pink). We don't actually get to see our second-most prominent POV character have her own scene until Chapter 5, hence why you don't see any blue strips representing Midna, my blorbo to end all blorbos!

Single Sentence Summary: So this is something I kinda abandoned later in the outline, buuuuut the first sentence in each card, right next to the POV, is meant to describe the purpose of that scene's inclusion. I've since just started writing what the premise of each scene is and going from there. The thing about a scene's "purpose" is that it's pretty intuitive for me, so I don't really need to state "and this is what this scene will be for!" since I already know in my heart (or can figure it out during editing). But anyway, that little bit of text that's available even when the card is collapsed helps me quickly remember what a scene is about.

The Beige Colour: Okay, so remember how I mention zooming out to see my 53-chapter outline in full? A big part of this is that I actually use my outlines to track my writing and posting progress. The default colour for the cards is actually the same colour as the columns: so Dark Mode Black in my case. When I finish writing a scene, I colour it grey. When I post a chapter, I make it beige. That way, when I zoom out, it's really easy to see how much I've written compared to how much I've posted, as well as how much I have left to write/post.

So yeah! I use my outline not just as a plan for my story and a way to keep track of all the nitty gritty details, but also to track the progression of the drafting, editing, and posting process. It might seem complex to others, but works really well for me. I can find anything I want with ease, and I can learn a lot of what I need to with just a glance. Hopefully this will give you a few ideas on how to creatively use your outlines too!

P.S. This is just the plot for one book in a trilogy alone. It doesn't go into how I've done my worldbuilding notes or character profiles, the latter of which is uh...

Yeah...

Each one of those icons is actually a full Milanote board you can click on to see their character profiles. OC icons were made using Djarn and Brightgoat's picrews. Idk where that picture I use for Fabian is from and I'm too low on spoons to find out.

(also this relationship chart is outdated so take everything here with a grain of salt)

#i'm gonna tag the ships for anyone who has them blacklisted #midlink #shadilia #zelda x oc #ashei x oc #the light invasion au #cora's ask box #outlining #writing tips #just fanfic things

[bryan360]

No “On This Day” posting I’ll be focusing today.

Also….

‼️(NO COPYING OR PLAGIARIZING FROM ME AND ONE OF MY CLOSEST FRIEND’S WORK! THAT INCLUDES OUR CHARACTERS, DESIGNS, STUFF, ETC. IMPOSTERS AND SEXBOTS ARE NOT WELCOME TO FOLLOW MY BLOG WHATSOEVER! 😡 That will be all….I mean it.)‼️

2024 Review - Seagate 2TB Portable Drive (Third/Final - Storing game(s))

It’s been a long time coming; not to mention through scheduling at the program all weekdays I’d been in. Nevertheless, I’m finally coming back to this topic for the final time. After that the second half of installing with my gaming console is done, I’m now be storing/moving one of my games from its internal storage; which I’d already got it at early January this year.

⬆️ (From January. 6th, 2024; 3:04 to 6:24 P.M)

The first one is I’d finally gotten to installed Forza Horizon 5; the same game from last year’s Christmas gift for my Xbox One system. You can thank our friend @carmenramcat of ever giving me for Christmas by surprise. Link Here

I haven’t boosted this racing game yet; not until after getting my own potable hard drive in early January 2024. There are plenty of games in it as well, but that’s gonna wait after the final part of this topic review.

So anyways, I’d managed to move this to my portable hard drive which had lot of storage needed. Just how long it will take after installing? Well from checking in actual time (via screenshots information) about 3:04 to 6:24 P.M., it’s 3 hours, 20 minutes, and 33 seconds when calculated by using calculator.net website. Wow. Sure it would make sense due to how big this racing game will be, but taking three hours or less was a bit long. Still, nothing bad happens once it’s done for my portable drive. At least I’m grateful that I’d finally got this game downloaded after months later. The transfer progress should’ve speed things up though. That being said, I can’t wait to dive in unless for further planning to share soon. Or if I haven’t gotten through FH3 progress as of yet. I’d appreciate for having my portable drive with me that I’m willing to transfer other games more. 👍

Update: So I haven’t downloaded just one FH5 updated patch just yet. Not until back in Sunday this week that I got it as well. Now it took me about from 1:52 to 2:23 P.M.; or 31 minutes and 5 seconds shorter. Not bad that didn’t take this long. I won’t be surprised that there will more updated patches for FH5 to check out, just in case.

(Back in March. 24th, 2024) (just after transferring other games that I’d save since February 3rd, 2024)

Now to get into with my other games I’ve previously transfer for my portable hard drive. During the same date of January 6th, I did the second time with 👊💥MultiVersus; a free to play fighting platform made by Player First Games. It took about few minutes than I did with my Forza Horizon 5 game within three hours or less. And then afterwards til February 3rd at 6:20 to 6:53 P.M., I got with two previous Forza Horizon titles, Rare Replay included two Banjo-Kazooie titles, Cuphead, Kingdom Hearts 3, and PAC-MAN Museum+. Talk about plenty of some along the way. Thought looks like it takes minutes for almost all games included this time. That’s good to see that it happened, right?

So anyways as I’d going back to its storage devices setting, my portable drive is about 16.1% within 1.5 TB free spaces. It’s not full enough as of yet. Though who knows if there’s plenty room to pick which I’m going for sooner or later. Other than that, I also pointed out for its internal storage had few games in it. It’ll be for another time to save, I promise.

My Experience/Overall Thoughts: ⬇️

Storing/transferring FH5 (Forza Horizon 5) (plus other games) with my external hard drive was an interesting progress to get through. It depends how many games to transferring within minutes/hours before completion. All in all, I couldn’t done it without my first portable drive that I’d wanted for my gaming console. It won’t be a matter of time before I can get a new one in the near future, but not right now. I’m happy of having a portable drive I’ll be taking care of. 🙂 If you’re curious or interested to get one of those, then it’s available on Amazon.com. It normally cost about $70, so hopefully that you still have your savings left. Link Here

See ya guys until my upcoming topics are coming soon. 👋

Tagged: @murumokirby360 @carmenramcat @alexander1301 @rafacaz4lisam2k4 @paektu

[silver-wield]

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Review Chapter 4!

Okay, this collection of posts will be filled with spoilers, including clips and screenshots, so if you don't wanna see things, then don't look. Some of the things I'm gonna highlight will include references to Remake and other sources to link with the overarching plot. This is a straight path playthrough with no sidequests or extra content.

Now you know, let's go!

Chapter four is a meaty fucker. Once you discount all the waffle you can do with sidequests and other random things, chapters 1-3 aren't actually that long and involved story content wise. Chapter four is really the start of the bulky content. And I'm gonna summarise most of it because I'll be here all day otherwise.

Okay, once we cross the plains and reach Under Junon, we're basically thrown into the fight with Bottomswell, although it's not called that anymore and icba to recall what its new name is.

The battle itself is pretty fun and makes full use of Tifa's flight capabilities if you know what you're doing.

The plot has been changed slightly. We don't rescue Priscilla, but instead it's Yuffie in trouble. Our buddy, Mr Dolphin, has his moment at the end with a combo and he comes back into play later when we climb the electrified tower, which I honestly thought wouldn't happen because it's pretty cringe originally, but they made it work so I can't complain.

Once we've dealt with Bottomswell and made it back to shore, we find the mayor giving Yuffie CPR. Now, I noticed Cloud scrutinising the procedure, so I'm suspicious about this coming back at some point in part three. There was originally a draft of Tifa giving Cloud CPR that didn't make it into the game, so it's possible they're planning on doing something with the idea.

Anyway, we save Yuffie and get a hilarious bit between her and Barret. I honestly love their dynamic. She's such a kid and he's got so little patience for older kids. I feel bad for future teenage Marlene 🤣

After we agree to meet Yuffie, it's back to the inn for some convos and rest. This one with Barret amused me. Cloud knows he likes the limelight and plays along with it. This detail also comes into play later the GS when Cloud's defending Barret to Dio.

On the way to his room, Cloud overheard a strange voice coming from Aerith's room. This is the first hint that Red isn't exactly what he seems to be. We also hear more about the whispers and what happened to them both. This is actually interesting. What exactly did Sephiroth need to steal from them?

This chat with Tifa is non-optional, unlike the others, and delves deeper into their relationship and her suspicions about what he remembers. They have a heart to heart, but aren't quite on the same page, which leaves them both a bit downcast.

Next morning, Yuffie intrudes to let the group know she's been hired to kill Rufus at his inauguration. She escapes and they're left to pursue her and hide in plain sight as troopers. But they also want to talk to Rufus about whether they're actually being hunted.

But before all that, Cloud has to go hopping off the back of a dolphin to climb the tower. And yes, he looks smug when he's done because he's a lil shit 🤣

Meanwhile, we get some snippets leading into part three's storyline in Wutai with EC's Glenn making an appearance. Rufus literally killed him, and going off what he spoke about, it's possible he's actually just Sephiroth in disguise and using Glenn to stoke war and gather more dead souls in the lifestream to corrupt it. But we won't know for sure until part three.

After the failed assassination, Cloud splits up with the others and finds himself stuck with some of the platoon he was directing in the parade. You have to keep them alive to succeed at this part.

At the end of the gauntlet is a rematch with Roche. And after you kick his ass, he helps you get to the dock to board the ferry.

Cloud reunites with his team and has picked up a few stragglers. And Yuffie. Who's in disguise as a robe. But that's for chapter 5.

A lot happens plot wise in this chapter, but most of it is set up for part three. Rufus mentions he's read Cloud's file, so that'll be interesting. There's also the plot with Glenn and stuff with Roche. And that's before we even get to Sephiroth.

#FF7Rebirth spoilers

[robloxstruggles]

royale high blackwood manor (shooter minigame) tips

hi everyone, idk how much the Greater Royale High Community (tm) knows this stuff or how much people have figured it out, but i know a few friends haven't so im making a guide full of tips some of my friends have found useful.

blackwood manor is, with a little aim, EASILY the fastest way to farm candy (and for me the most fun). i've written this guide assuming that the player doesn't have much experience with the shooter genre at all just so i can cover all my bases.

THIS IS NOT A CANDIES GUIDE. it's a gameplay guide + analysis that may result in you getting more candies. all screenshots in this guide were taken on graphics setting 9.

this post includes:

what i consider the best FPS setup

how to see

some thoughts i have about how projectiles/enemies work

cosmetic tips

a tl;dr because it's too long

LASTLY, A DISCLAIMER: this is helpful for ME!!!!! if you have another system that works for you, feel free to share! this is not an attack on how anyone else plays the game or a presumption that i am the best royale high blackwood manor gamer, it's just a bunch of things i've found that my friends think is helpful.

how to play as an FPS the easiest way + visibility tips

DON'T PLAY ON MOBILE. i mean someone out there is gonna prove me wrong by being awesome at this game on mobile but i've heard nothing but complaints from mobile users playing this game. i have no clue how it handles on xbox. i play on PC with mouse and keyboard because it's how i play most shooters.

royale high has the shift button mapped to sprint, so playing as a TPS, you'll be right clicking and dragging a lot *or* toggling shiftlock all the time. FPS is the way to go.

when you zoom in, you may be met with your gun blocking your screen like this:

the surest way i've found to get rid of this is to use the "ninja" or "crawl" walkpack. it's under animations -> walk packs. if you're unfamiliar with RH, note that you have to jump or walk to reset the walk pack. here's the FPS view for ninja, then crawl, both idle and when fighting at a standstill:

the main benefit to using crawl is that the gun is basically never visible, even when running and shooting, because it's below the HUD. this means you're never gonna have it blocking your vision. but when you look down, you're gonna see your RH nickname, since it's in front of your first person view sometimes. you can get rid of that by resetting your RH nickname to display your normal roblox display name, but the RH nickname is such a big social part of RH that idk if that's a benefit unless you really, REALLY can't handle seeing the gun shake.

that said, with ninja equipped, your gun WILL be in view when running and not shooting... so it depends on your preferences.

(i also suspect that you may have slightly less range with crawl. but i also suspect that is not actually an advantage in this minigame. more on that later.)

the elder animation is also pretty solid, but the takes up a lot of the screen when shooting. here's that for comparison.

lighting tips

now you have to worry about seeing. it could be my monitor settings, but i see better WITHOUT the night vision goggles. (you can turn them off if you have them equipped in case you want them just for the looks.)

when i first wrote this i swore by the headlamp - but i turned my graphics settings down and noticed the effectiveness of the headlamp entirely depends on your graphics settings. to summarize:

on settings 1 and 2, it's so muted i can only tell it does something looking at my avatar. it hardly projects onto the environment at all.

on 3, its brightness is slightly more noticeable, but still pretty terrible.

on 4 and above, the spotlight is much clearer and it has a noticeable effect on the environment around it.

luckily, there's another way to make the environment glow that's fairly effective at all graphics settings: items designed to emit a nondirectional glow. this includes things like candles, lanterns, etc. a lot of wings i thought would do this don't; dewdrop mist does for some reason but it only helps a little. the items i listed will be the most effective, and they're best with the light source set to white. this will largely just help you with your immediate surroundings (i.e. running into a wall) but it does help. on graphics settings 1 thru 3, this is your most powerful option.

if you don't have any, there's a new item this royaloween that emits a good glow: the pumpkin wand. equip this and change the colors however you want, but make the light itself white. if you don't have the item, google a guide for royaloween 2023 chests and it'll be in there.

two warnings: 1) it'll look in third person mode on your avatar that stacking tons of glowing items adds more glow, but in first person mode i don't know if they help much. 2) not every item that has a bloom glow effect will emit an actual light source anywhere near your avatar.

top: just the headlamp. middle: headlamp + Nightmare Cavern Lantern item. bottom: headlamp + Nightmare Cavern Lantern + Pumpkin Wand.

the game is always gonna be super dark appearance-wise, which is actually one of my least favorite things in a shooter. most of my navigation is done by just knowing the map, which is kinda unfortunate.

some combat thoughts i've had

the game is definitely designed to encourage you to seek out the ghosts. they can lose you by moving through walls, but they move at roughly your own walking pace. and while you can't go through walls, your bullets can. this means when they go through a wall, you can sprint to find them in a reasonable time frame, all while shooting at them.

your gun shoots a projectile which travels a short distance in front of you in an arc. i THINK the projectile is actually dealing damage to the ghosts, because shooting something out of range will miss if the projectile goes below it but your cursor is on the ghost. it also feels like the damage isn't dealt until the projectile lands on the ghost, so there's no invisible instantaneous damage arc.

this means you can arc your shots by firing them higher. if you haven't played a game where this is important, this means taking advantage of how the arc from the gun is shaped. if you aim slightly higher than the target, you can hit a target further away. if you've played a game with a bow and arrow, like botw/totk, you've probably done this. the same thing applies to this game.

that would be really useful, BUT!!! the ghost-sucking mechanic also encourages you to follow them. it can be REALLY tempting to stand around getting arc-snipes on the ghosts, but that means when it's time to capture them, you're across the map from them fighting your way thru dark walls trying to close the distance and someone else will get the ghost! you'll still collect candies for shooting the ghost, but you can collect even more if you suck them. plus, the timer means for some ghosts, you REALLY won't capture them alone unless you start immediately.

so when is arcing shots useful? simple: the biggest ghosts. the ghosts all hover about the same distance from the ground, and the ghosts with the highest XP are the tallest. these ghosts are going to attract a lot of players. if you want to get the most candy out of them, you NEED to be pumping damage into them. so if you can't pursue it and maneuver thru the map at the same time, it can be beneficial to hang back and aim at it from far away, THEN close the distance once it's almost time to capture it.

i think this is clever not only because "big ghost = more HP" makes a lot of sense if you've literally ever played a game before, but because their height encourages players to arc their shots anyways. the highest HP ghosts are the easiest to aim at from a distance. the tall skinny ones take a little more aim, but they're still easier to hit at a distance not just from the bigger hitbox, but because it encourages you to aim in a way that maximizes your range. pretty cool, huh?

just remember, if you've never played a shooter before: at range you need to aim ahead of the target with slower projectiles like the ones in this game.

also: the distance your gun travels is DEFINITELY dependent on how high it is from the ground. your range feels like it's HALVED when using crawl compared to ninja. this means the ideal way to play the game seems to be to equip super high heels and then use an animation that keeps the gun away from your vision.

cosmetic tips

save an outfit with the goggles and/or headlamp and you'll be able to use them year-round. i've been using the goggles all year this way. here i am wearing an outfit in royale high with them. second pic is to show you that the headlamp still works!

you can change the colors of the headlamp and night vision goggles. the night vision goggles even support patterns on the metal part. adding a pattern to the glowing eyes will make them stop glowing.

the headlamp will equip an average color if you try to use a pattern with the band. using a pattern or a dark color will cause the glow effect on the item to stop working, but the light emitted to the environment doesn't appear to depend on the color you select for the headlamp at all. ugly combination of the two for demonstration:

if the headlamp doesn't go with your outfit, the skull crown layers really fantastically over it. it'll look like the skull is glowing.

and, of course, combining that with the ability to change the colors of the lamp/goggles, you basically get custom glowing skull this way:

my favorite combination for the night vis goggles is the breathe me mask. this is a super unpopular outfit item, but it works really well with the halloween gear. when it glows, it blocks the bulkiness of both items and only the lights show through. equipping a dark color or pattern will let all the details show through. both effects are super cool for a sci fi vibe.

but honestly, i will put these goggles over ANYTHING.

in conclusion:

FPS is the best way to play the minigame. it gives you the most aim control while moving. if RH could map sprint to anything else TPS might be viable. but right now it's not. to play FPS, make sure you've got an animation equipped where the gun isn't in your face.

SAVE AN OUTFIT WITH THE EVENT ITEMS SO YOU CAN USE THEM ALL YEAR. THEY ARE FREE and if you play sunset they are SUPER HELPFUL IN SPACE/SCI FI THEMES.

equip a glowing item with white light to help you see.

happy hunting!

#royale high #roblox #yes i have a life no i dont believe it either

[changingplumbob]

Not Sims - Just Reign

So I binge watched the final 5 episodes today and... I am emotionally compromised. See below for my ramblings and how I attempted to make album art a decade ago.

If you clicked keep reading I'm going to assume you don't mind reading my rambles so I'm just going to indulge myself here. I need to process and getting it out helps me process.

I first saw Reign during my final year of High School and fell completely in love. Quite aside from English History being a special interest for me at the time, Adelaide Kane and Toby Regbo were so gorgeous. Honestly the signs that I'm bisexual were right there but it just did not click.

If you're my moot you will know by now I am a massive romantic. So of course I would get invested in the Mary Francis love story. Thanks past me for routing for Francis from the start, smart choice.

The outfits took my breath away, as did the wonderful landscapes. I fell in love with everything Mary wore and tried to find a graduation dress that was as close to something like that as possible.

The music! I loved every track they put with the episodes. Shout out to that one youtube channel that was posting full versions of the songs. I have a playlist with the music from the first two seasons and have listened to it on loop so often. There was a website that would post screenshots of the episodes and I would copy paste and make my own album art. Not to do anything with, they were solely for me to see when the songs came up on my iPod.

BUT I only watched the first two seasons before I took a break. History wise I knew Francis would die before they had a child, but the end of season 2 seemed to announce his death was approaching and my romantic self could not handle it. So over the next few years I rewatched the first two seasons plenty, and continued to listen to the music. I tried to watch season 3 in my first year at university, I really did. But things were different back then and I could only find low quality episodes because legitimate streaming services were in their infancy, if they even existed.

During my post grad diploma I would take a train part of the way to my placements. It was on the train that I happened to catch someone watching Reign on their phone. Not just any part of Reign either, the recap that shows Francis dying and Mary saying goodbye to the coffin. You bet any progress I had made towards being able to watch it was reset.

Following the worst of my depression, last year I began to feel a proper interest in things I love again and I wanted to see Reign to its conclusion. So I got myself the DVDs for season 3 (I don't have netflix, plus I like having physical copies of things) and worked my way through. Since I hate spoilers I didn't want to read the blurbs included in the cover so I never knew which episode Francis would die in, I was happy he was in it for so long. The whole plot with Francis having made Mary a sword for taking back Scotland made me love them all the more.

I gifted myself season 4, the final season, for Christmas. I've been watching it in bits and pieces. I have this thing where if something is ending I try to hold off the ending for as long as possible. But today I was so under the weather that I did watch the last disc all in one go.

Side note, Rizzio. I can't believe that actually happened! But wikipedia says it did. It really sounds like something a drama show would make up.

I've always known Queen Mary was executed for supposedly trying to kill Queen Elizabeth. I wasn't sure how Reign would tackle that. I figured they would do a flash forward or do that text over screen thing. I love neat endings but my heart could survive not seeing the end of Mary. I begun the final episode, saw Toby Regbo's name in the starting line up and immediately teared up. If he was in the episode then they were certainly going to show her death. Those end scenes, they made me happy and sad all at once. I loved that Francis was there for her, and I loved the flashbacks through their life together. Damn did it make me cry though.

The main characters have had a place in my heart for a decade. So heck yeah I'm grieving the loss. I know I'll watch it again, so it's not a permanent goodbye, but it's tough to see the end of anyway.

#spoilers under the cut #I love reign so much #ramble ramble ramble #I wrote a whole damn ted talk length thing to process #Don't like reign then don't read

[fallintosanity]

y’all liked my post about why Tumblr Blaze is the biggest fuck-you to Facebook and other ad companies in forever, so okay, let’s talk more about another advertiser thing that - intentionally or not - Blaze disrupts. 

(disclaimer: I am not a marketer, and have not worked in the ads industry. I have over a decade of experience in information security and privacy at a variety of major tech companies, including Google. A significant part of my career has involved working with marketing teams from the security and privacy side of things.) 

Fifty years ago, advertisers had no real way of knowing how effective their marketing funnels were. The funnel represents how many people see the ad, how many people follow up on the ad (by clicking, or going to a store, or whatever), and how many people convert (to customers, subscribers, whatever) as a direct result of the ad. At best, pre-Internet advertisers could see big-picture numbers, like a spike in purchases after an ad campaign kicked off, but it was very difficult to directly attribute any given conversion to a specific ad or campaign. 

Enter the Internet. 

(under a readmore because this is long. still not a rickroll.)

Without going into a lot of technical detail, the current ads ecosystem gives advertisers an INCREDIBLE amount of detailed information about how their ads are performing. Essentially, advertisers can track how many people see an ad, click through the ad, leave the page after clicking through, convert after clicking through, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Aside from using this to justify their own existence to the business higher-ups (“we spent $100k on ads and got 23k new subscribers, 15k new customers, blah blah”), advertisers use this information to tweak how their campaigns are performing - changing the ad copy, or the targeted demographic, or whatever else in order to ensure maximum effectiveness. 

Now let’s look at Tumblr Blaze again. From the FAQ: 

(Side note 1: you do get to see all the activity for your blazed post in your regular Activity dashboard, as well, though it’s mixed in with the rest of your activity. Depending on how many notes you get normally, it may be hard to separate the blazed post’s notes from everything else.)

The report you get at the end of your blaze period is surprisingly different than what you see from looking at your Activity dashboard. When my blaze period ended, I had upwards of 9k notes on my post, but this is the report I got:

(Side note 2: I paid for the 20k impressions level so it’s neat that I got more than 25% extra.) 

I’d guess that the reason for the difference between the Blaze report and what my Activity dashboard showed is that the report is only counting direct reblogs, i.e. people who reblogged directly from me, rather than from someone else who had already reblogged it. Ditto likes and replies - those are probably only on my copy of the post, rather than on all the reblog chains like the Activity dashboard shows. 

Whatever the reason, I actually got a much better view of the true reach of and response to my blazed post just by looking at my regular blog activity, than I did from the “full” report. The report also comes as an email - that’s the whole email in that screenshot - so it’s no good for pulling into any kind of automated reporting or metrics dashboard. 

Tumblr also doesn’t allow you to edit or delete your blazed post at all during the blaze period. If you want to change your post, you have to wait until the Blaze campaign is over, or end the campaign early:

(Side note 3: this is GOOD. Since blazed posts are moderated, i.e. approved by a human before being blazed, Tumblr is making sure that you can’t pull a fast one on the mod team by swapping your post content after it’s been approved.) 

So Tumblr doesn’t give you any more stats while your Blaze campaign is running than you get just for, y’know, posting a regular non-blazed post. You can’t change anything about your blazed post to improve its performance. And like I talked about before, you can’t target your blazed posts to reach a specific audience. 

The upshot of all this is that anyone trying to use Blaze for a traditional ad campaign is not going to get any useful information about how their ad is performing - unless they take the time to interact with Tumblr the way a regular user does, i.e. by obsessively and manually reading all the notes on the Activity dashboard. They can’t change their ad mid-campaign to make it perform better - at best, they can reblog or reply to their own blazed post with additional information. But again, that requires them to interact with Tumblr the way a regular user does. 

This is another sign that Blaze is not designed for advertisers or marketers: it makes only the most token gesture toward providing the kinds of performance feedback and enhancement they’re interested in. Given how thoroughly the ads industry flipped out when first Apple, then Firefox, and finally Google announced that they were removing the cookies advertisers depend on for targeting ads, I don’t see advertisers having any interest in using Blaze. It doesn’t provide them the ability to even meaningfully track how well their campaigns are performing or make real-time changes to improve performance, much less target their audiences. 

Blaze isn’t for advertisers. It’s for us, the users of this hellsite(affectionate).

#information technology #information security #sanity talks a lot #sanity talks infosec