#and HERES some little design notes <3 until i make a more proper ''reference''' for her lol. i forgot i didnt actually color her here 💀:

[notthesaint]

Do you have any HK ocs(or ocs in general)

The moment I saw this ask in my notes, it immediately reminded me of the old sketch notebook that I left in the basement and didn't touched it for more than 2 years.

Well, certainly I do have hollow knight ocs and even non hollow knight ocs as well! But abandoned them and didn't drew them since because I forgot about them, and this ask is the reason why i suddenly remembered about them Hdhjdhd. Soo.... I got to thank you for that fella!

VERY VERY LONG RAMBLING FROM BELOW

Anyways, this is my first hollow knight oc I ever created and drew back in 2020, and...this is also one of my drawings before I stepped a foot in tumblr.

So....she was one of the vessels who escaped from pale king before he got to throw her into the abyss along with her other siblings who have fallen from below. She is a was clever, strong, and a cunning little vessel, which the pale king and his guards wanted to capture her and blah blah blah..she befriend a nosk, primal aspid and whatever. SHE IS LAME, and I really got so bored with her because she literally has no flaws in any kind of form, and the backstory is so lame as HELL. During that time, I really do not know that much about hollow knight lore and made so many errors that absolutely did not make sense with her backstory. I mean... made her a female, but in canon, vessels do not have any gender at all. (Psst... hey you can do whatever you want with your hk vessel ocs, its fine) (I will just give her 1 generous point because I think her mask is just unique, nothing else)

Also during that time, I really thought that the knight was a boy 😭... and I referred little ghost as a "HE" until I saw some hollow knight posts stating that little ghost and the other vessels had no gender in canon. So I was definitely clueless and didn't know that much about hk lore. This is also the drawing I made before i am a fan of nosk, until I later discovered nosk and immediately gotten interested.

I was definitely not an artist at that time and my art was horrible since Idk how to draw good before.....

And...not so long time ago.....

I created a nosk oc named Mirage. "Mirage" means illusion, which really somehow fits her deceiving nature. Well the reason why that this nosk oc exists was only because of @/flame-shadow's and @/fly-high-snug-games's nosk party event collab where you get to post your nosk oc and your oc gets to be with other nosk ocs. I really got very excited to collaborate because I AM...despite that I didn't have any nosk ocs to offer....BUT I DID. And.....here is the project :3..

So uhh....anyways, about her background and her story, well there is not that much that I could give to her backstory because I only designed her and created her just of the nosk party.. however THERE STILL IS. The thing you should know about Mirage is that she is a female nosk who wears belfly disguise, she is also a cannibal who enjoys to lure nosks and eats them. So basically she is just an imposter among the imposters WHICH IS QUITE FUNNY (for me "I think my humor is bad")

She is a very cunning and shady predator that no one could really never trust because she is very very evil and sadistic. Who enjoys playing with her victims before brutally slaughtering them. She also has a mate, which I didn't mention in the post intro i made for her. And her mate was dead...... well, because she ate him..... which is sad for the poor sucker

ALSO!! in addition, she carried her decreased mate's spawn after she mercilessly killed him and ate him. I don't really have that much in the story because I hadn't thought of a proper story of that. But she laid 4 eggs after a few days after she cannibalized the own father of the eggs, which are laid by her.

If you want to see the intro I made for her, it's....RIGHT HERE!!

This is actually like the first oc that I would take interest in adding effort and the proper oc that was not too flawless and was not a goody-goody in character. The first oc that didn't turn to be boring and too flawless, which didn't make it insufferable to take back and look at it. (Unlike my vessel oc)

There is a slight chance that I might add and create a proper plot for her soon!! (I hope) since I am quite interested about her...

Plus, I love how i designed her, I basically got inspired by a spinosaurus and added a bit of Dino features, which I would give extra points to!!

And....I did have non hk ocs, which are just FUCKING GACHA OCS 😭😭......and they reminded me of some weird gacha main character stereotypes. BUT THAT WAS LONG TIME AGO and my gacha phase was over because gacha def not my thing anymore. The reason why I did use gacha before was because I didn't know how to draw at the time, but I wanted to make ocs, so HJDHDH

(I am sorry that this is too much and incoherent, It's nighttime in here, I have many things to say, ANNDD... I wanted to answer this ask immediately despite I had a buncha asks in my inbox older than this) (well because this answer reminded me of the ocs that I lefted in the abyss and I gotta talk about them)

#ask #this is the longest ramble i ever made #and quite awe how did i answered this ask right away. instead of thinking and then getting no ideas with this #anyways thats....all!!!

[miloscat]

[Review] Eden Obscura (iOS) & Pixeljunk Eden 2 (NS)

A messy mobile malaise.

I ended my review of the original Pixeljunk Eden hopeful that a sequel would smooth out some rough edges and iterate in interesting ways on an already experimental game. Instead what I got was a clumsy spinoff, an aesthetic rehash that pivoted into mobile game exploitation and shallow repetition.

Eden Obscura is the smart device iteration of this follow-up project, released ten years after the original. I’m not sure what Baiyon was doing in the meantime but many of the assets are recycled, from the minimalist interactables to the dreamy backgrounds and even the ambient techno soundtrack. The basics are the same: swinging on silk, bursting baddies, procuring pollen, sprouting seeds, and making your merry way to a magical MacGuffin. Only now your time limit is tiny, you have multiple mid-air directional jumps by swiping or you can hover in place, and you’re always being penalised for straying too far. The new “out of bounds” system locks in a play area from where you last jumped, and far too often you’ll accidentally fly or fall out.

As a mobile experience turning these large playing fields into bite-sized sessions makes sense, but they also turned something that leaned more towards chill puzzling and exploration into a frantic flick-a-thon. Sadly other mobile conventions crept in too: microtransactions, a lootbox system that awards one-time boosts. Worst of all is the “random content” dynamic, where you’re assigned a draw of levels and a playable character rather than allowing you a preference or any means of guiding your own experience.

The little critters you play as—Grimps, as they’re called—each have their own gameplay modifier. This can be extending the timer when seeds are grown, boosting the speed of your jumps, or shortening your silk (why?). The original game had a few designs for P1/2/3, but they’ve added a bunch more here, many of them musos and DJs owing to Baiyon’s vocation (and I’ll note that from what I saw they’re overwhelmingly male). When you clear a set of levels and the lottery picks your next Grimp, you’re stuck with them until you beat the next set. It makes the game feel a right grind, repeating the same things and watching some bars go up, and I felt sad that it had come to this.

A side note that the “Obscura” in the name is a reference to cameras, and indeed your device’s camera will be constantly on while the app is running (not great for battery life). This is used to affect the backgrounds, as everything visible through the lens will be projected in-game in highly distorted fashion, as well as enabling some cheap gimmicks during gameplay like occasionally pointing at light surfaces for bonus time, or pointing it at specific colours between levels to eke out more boosts (with a cooldown timer, naturally). All in all it felt unnecessary.

So, I didn’t spend too long on Eden Obscura, keen to drop it and move on to the proper console sequel released two years later on the Switch. Little did I know that this now numbered sequel is little more than a port of the mobile game(!), now sans camera functionality. It’s a fully paid-up eShop game, but still has the one-time boosts and the loathed lottery system. At least the screen space is bigger and the timers more generous, but movement has for some reason been restricted: instead of half a dozen mid-air swipes and holds to build up your combo, you can now do one (1) extra directional jump after performing one aerial pause. And even though control is back to a controller, the controls themselves are completely different to the original game’s controls, and it just feels like you have less, well, control.

With only a drip feed of new content and a grating system of randomly enforced levels and characters, I got fed up pretty quickly with both implementations of this so-called sequel. I gave the mobile version a decent chance in some casual play sessions, but putting that experience on a console shows up its annoyances even more starkly and I didn’t play the Switch version for more than an hour. I’m done here. An ignoble end to my series on grappling games, and an object lesson that sometimes a sequel should be left at the back of the ideas drawer. If you have any interest at all in these games, please go check out the PC port of the original instead, which I’ve heard has a quality of life feature to save you from falls.

#pixeljunk eden #pixeljunk eden 2 #eden obscura #q-games #review #ios #ns

[heckolve]

ila 🌟🌿 anselm’s local psychic & metaphysical supply store owner

#my art #ocs #tct #ila #isaiah #hael #yeah isaiah and hael 💔 i posted traditional doodles of them on insta but i def havent posted them here in over a year 😭 #i will draw them more soon..... prommy. trying to figure out all this side character shit rrrr #anyway heres other character info on her that i included in the post caption on instagram: #shes an epic divorce lesbian #very eda owl lady stan pines type for lack of a better descriptor. #her and ave became very close when he first moved to anselm & she’s the reason he calls himself psychic at all #but. well. they don’t talk a lot anymore... #she only begrudgingly begins reconnecting with him after he brings abel around #and HERES some little design notes <3 until i make a more proper ''reference''' for her lol. i forgot i didnt actually color her here 💀: #VERY thick hair. she never wears it up anymore though #she loves wearing sharp glittery huge obnoxious earrings <3 and funny jewelry in general #ALWAYS in her robe in the present. its her signature look ✌ #i only drew the stars but theoretically its a very intricate & detailed metaphysically designed and pretty looking robe. very on brand #it makes her look the part but also she just has egregiously tacky fashion taste most of the time. and also is lazy dressing nowadays #she owns. 1 cowboy boots and 1 sandals and thats it for footwear really #why the stars in her hair? not for me to know. i think she probably throws glittery confetti shit in it for funsies maybe #shes a real deal psychic but she does act like a phoney through and through #shes very lazy about her psychic abilities in general like mostly she Can And Will just bullshit people and try to sell them junk #shes also kind of a huge coward though. she doesn't double down when things get overwhelming she jumps ship 😪 #shes also a very very normal psychic with mild abilities. not anything like abel let alone ave lol #although when she meets abel shes like. Thank Fuck. Finally. A Normal Fucking Psychic. she is not ave's number 1 fan #she is really the Most Normal example of psychic around. the just some guy of psychics if you will #i'll get into more psychic lore. eventually. but there are distinctions 😪

[hawaiianbabidoll]

Um, hi, Um, may I ask you for some PK hcs? It's just, you draw him a lot, and I figured that maybe you like him as a character, and I just want to hear something not bashing him all the time. I just get tired hearing people demonising him for the Abyss and the buzzsaws... Conveniently forgetting he was the one who gave bugs higher thought and designed Hallownest from the ground up. How the bugs under his rule was loyal for a reason. How he's a complex morally gray character.

Sorry for the small rant. But would you please?

First it should be noted that anything I say here is just my interpretation of the character. How people choose to write PK, since he has so little known about him canonically, is up to them, and you do not need to agree with me, just as I do not need to agree with others' interpretations of him.

OK.

Some headcanons.

1 - PK was more loving than WL and WL was the one who was able to maintain the distance needed to make the vessel plan work. The vessel plan failed because of PK's love. He was a very caring parent, and even if he didn't know what he was doing half the time with baby Hornet, his heart was in the right place and he was doing his best. He was a good dad....until he noticed he was doting on Hollow in a similar fashion. PK became distant from both Hollow and Hornet to crush his parental instincts in an attempt to ensure the vessel wouldn't fail, for the sake of Hallownest. The effort came too late, as Hollow already internalized his father's love and love became the idea instilled.

2 - The concept of no cost too great does not extend past personal cost. PK will not sacrifice things that are not his to sacrifice, thus why he shut down the soul sanctum's experiments. He wanted to save his people, not sacrifice them. So when he says 'no cost too great' he means 'nothing I give will ever be too much to save them'. (what is his to give is where things might get iffy.)

3 - PK was unaware any vessels but the pure vessel survived. The abyss is even darker to him than a regular bug, because of his constant glow effectively producing light pollution and making the darkness even darker beyond him. Mans literally could not see Ghost hanging there behind Hollow.

4 - If PK saw anything in Hollow that could be interpreted as having a mind to think or a will of their own, he attributed it to his own desire of wanting Hollow to be their child properly. In short, he thought it was all in his head.

5 - When the Hollow Knight began to initially fail, PK attempted to go to the dream realm himself to 'plug the holes' as it were, and help his child. He took the white palace with him in an attempt to give himself a proper foothold, a space that was his, in a realm that was hers.

It did not work.

6 - PK became a king by accident. He showed up and gained the adoration of all the bugs there and they chose to worship him and came to him with all their problems and worries. They called him a king, and it is that name that he learned to respond to.

7 - speaking of names - PK does not have a proper name. He goes by what others choose to call him, thus why his lady refers to him as 'my wyrm' rather than a proper name. He calls things as they are. 'The gendered child' ' the white palace' 'the hallow nest' 'the green path' 'the pure vessel'. Everything is very on the tin, because naming things isn't really a thing for wyrms. He will, however, use others' names if they give them to him. He just doesn't bother assigning names to things himself.

8 - PK was very smart but not always very wise. Very good at tinkering and coming up with new ideas but sometimes doing something really dumb that'd you'd think is common sense. His aura inspired curiosity and inspiration in others that drove the bugs in his kingdom to create amazing crafts and seek knowledge like he does.

9 - PK was a big supporter of the arts. He could not paint well himself but he loved to see what Lurien could do. PK played music, and would go to the watcher's tower to play music while Lurien painted. The more stressful the upcoming doom of his kingdom became though, the less he indulged in the things he enjoyed.

10 - PK was socially anxious and did not like making public appearances. He was insecure about his physical form, as he had intended to match the bugs of the land when he was reborn, but discovered his form was not at all like other bugs. His insecurity also fed into him caring a lot about how others saw him, and he often came off as a cold and calculating monarch to those before him in his quest to appear 'perfect'....even as he pulled at his own claws beneath his robes.

11 - PK did visit the capital city from time to time, but in disguise, so as not to draw attention. He would not inform anyone in the palace he was sneaking out.

12 - not all wyrms are higher beings, and PK was not born a higher being. He ascended when he was in the wastes. His love and devotion to his 'enthralled' would be considered strange to other wyrms.

13 -PK doesn't know how to handle kids. He overthinks things. Also he thought it a good idea to create and give baby Hornet a spike trap as a toy (the ones she uses in her 2nd fight). Herrah was not impressed.

14 - PK sometimes struggles to tell what is a dream and what is his foresight

15 - PK built for Hollow a music box that plays the lullaby heard in the nursery. It was the only gift given to Hollow that was unrelated to their role as a knight.

15 seems like a good number to stop at, this post is getting long now alright byeeee

#morally grey characters are the best #asks #anonymous #pale king

[algernoninwonderland]

Can I ask you to make a guide about writing Akumatized Marinette fics in such a way that still keep all characters in-character?

I’ll do you one better!

Here’s My Five-Step Program on How To Write Akumatised Characters!

Feel free to use it however you like!

1.  Have a clear idea of who your character is, what their drives and dislikes are, before you get around to akumatising them

For instance, Nino wants to have fun and to make his friends happy but hates being told what to do by authority figures. Mlle Mendeleiev wants to be regarded as a big deal in the scientific world and hates being ridiculed.

Though some of these drives and dislikes can be really ridiculous when it comes to some of these akumatised characters and can have little to no emotional weight because some episodes are comedy-oriented (M. Ramier likes feeding his pigeons, he doesn’t like being told that he can’t feed his pigeons, this is stupid but also funny) or just poorly written. Still, they all seem to follow that same basic formula.

2. Understand how we get to the akumatisation proper, or, what happens before the transformation

The characters about to be akumatised are being pushed to their limits. Why? It depends on the episode, but it’s usually a case of “the character can’t have it their way because of [reason] and that makes them angry”. What are they angry at? There’s no fixed rule here. Depends on the circumstances of the episode. They’re caught in a situation with an outcome that leaves them emotionally unstable and angry, is the point.

Watch Utena. Just watch it. It’s (maybe) the best anime ever. And Miraculous uses the basic mechanics of the Black Rose Saga without understanding what made it good in the first place. Without spoiling too much about that part of the anime, secondary characters with issues hinted at in the first arc come to the forefront of the show for one episode each, during which they are being pushed to their limits. They have a moment of Regressive Therapy with the arc’s antagonist who makes them expose their buried negative feelings and weaponises them to turn each of these characters into the “villain” of the week, if you will. In Utena, these characters, their desires, their fears, gives us a different perspective on the storyworld, the plot and the characters we’ve spent the most time with until then. It’s so good. Just watch Utena.

Anyway, Hawk Moth is a kind of devil figure there (all of this is very Faustian) using the moments of emotional vulnerability in these characters to trick them into striking a deal with him.  He offers them the power to act on these negative feelings, and they must do his bidding in return (he can exert some control over them if this deal is agreed upon but that’s really murky).

Note that these soon-to-be-akumatised characters are not in the right mindset to fully realise what it is they’re getting into, unless they are Truly Evil. Hawk Moth is the one in control there, he is calm and manipulative, he is the one to define the terms of the contract, if you will. This makes me reluctant to call the great majority of the akumatised characters villains (but that doesn’t stop the show from treating them as such). They are blinded by their anger, and not in a position to bargain.

3. Understand what being akumatised is and what it does

“Hello, [villain name], I’m Hawk Moth. Are you sick of piles of owls constantly blocking your driveway?! Well then you gotta get Owl Trowel!  Things are pretty unfair, aren’t they? I understand. I will give you the power to do [whatever], in exchange, you must give me the Miraculouses” Hawk Moth, in every episode.

Being akumatised is a twisted, dramatic expression of these negative emotions and frustrated desires, with an awful colour palette and character designs that range from “pretty good!” to “no.”

Now watch the original Sailor Moon anime. Some of the people working on it later moved on to make Utena. It’s mostly a very good show, and one Miraculous draws from a lot. It blends what was the norm in the magical girl genre until then (shows centred around femininity and growing up) with tokusatsu-type monster-of-the-week stuff. Notably, some of the villains of the week in the early seasons were humans whose desires and frustrations were used by the Dark Kingdom (the Big Bad) to turn them into monsters. The Sailor Guardians (our heroines) had to fight and heal them from that evil corruption.

Being akumatised is a physical transformation and a mental transformation as well, characters who wouldn’t hurt a fly as their regular civilian selves become unhinged and violent and drunk with power. This isn’t them anymore, not entirely. Does that mean an akumatised character’s actions are entirely divorced from what their regular selves think and feel? Not entirely. Alya really wants to know who Ladybug is, Ivan really wishes people would stop picking on him, Aurore really thinks she deserved that victory. Being akumatised means taking these feelings to the extreme and manifesting them physically while attaching them to an item the character has been shown to carry earlier on. Maybe that item is the cause of what upset the akumatised character in the first place, and turning that into a weapon… Sometimes. Maybe it’s something else. The show isn’t very consistent in that regard. You figure it out yourself.

Hawk Moth brings out the worse in these characters and then some, using his magic. He exerts some degree of control over his akumatised pawns though how much is unclear, and I think that’s a deliberate choice from the creative team. In this case, I think the ambiguity makes things more interesting than “bad man entirely controls people who are only puppets with no will of their own whatsoever”.

4. And Now How Would Other Characters React?

When akumatised characters have vengeance in their mind, they go after the person they think is responsible for whatever went wrong. Unlike our heroes and HM, they aren’t concerned with being secretive about who they are, since they are overconfident in their new powers.

The most common reaction to akumatised villains attacking Paris is: “running away and screaming and trying to get somewhere safer”.

How would individual characters react to an akuma attack? How involved were they with the person that got akumatised? Did they play a role in making that person upset? Did they suspect the person had these kinds of feelings before, or is it a complete surprise? What does it tell us about the relationship between the akumatised character and the non-akumatised character reacting to them? Find answers to these questions and you’ve got it all figured out. Refer to the show itself regarding characterisation, it may not be always consistent so pick what you like best, what would be the most interesting.

5. Now That You’ve Got It All Figured Out, Plan and Write the Damn Thing.

Only you can tell the story you want to tell the way you can tell it, so do it, rework it, show it to your friends and rewrite it again until you’re somewhat satisfied.

And voilà! Hope this was somewhat helpful!

#ml #miraculous #miraculous ladybug #ml analysis #ml writers #ml fandom #ml writing resources #gabriel agreste #nino lahiffe #akuma #akumatized villains

[ronalddear]

Bathroom.

hi again! This is another drabble/missing moment set during dh after the wedding. Again this is only my second time writing any fic so it's very amateur.

This was requested by @nuttybeardetective , and was inspired by this post of mine. Ron is vaguely prudish in this but seeing as this is only my second time writing, I don't think I'm ready to write full-on smut yet. hope you enjoy <3

WARNING: none except for language, because it's Ron ;)

WORDS: 1515

The dim cold ambience of Grimmauld Place did nothing to soothe the uneasiness of the wedding attack and Ron was utterly fed up. One week after their untimely arrival at the grim house enticed them to try and settle into their temporary 'home'. At least physically anyway, Harry was now occupying Sirius' room in reserved isolation and after another night of sleeping adjacent in the drawing-room, he and Hermione had wordlessly agreed upon sleeping in their respective rooms that they'd occupied during the summer before 5th year, with some unannounced hesitation on his part.

The minuscule amount of clothes he carried was unpacked, his worn toothbrush now stood in the cup designated on the 2nd story bathroom, opposite his bedroom. The kitchen table was now draped in Hermione's lists and notes of all sorts, a map of the Ministry adorning the centre. Yet Ron felt as if mentally he was still at the Burrow, packing the extra healing supplies from the bathroom cupboard or stood in the stuffy kitchen, duplicating his mother's kitchenware to stuff into his rucksack.

The immediate thought of the burrow made his stomach drop and his head spin. The forced confinement made him feel ill. It felt as if he was in deep quarantine and had no knowledge of the world outside. This scared him so intensely that his paranoia was at an all-time high after a week without family communication. Surely the whole Horcrux-hunting fiasco would last longer than a week? A couple months maybe? Could he go that long without his serene home, the sunny hillside near the refreshing pond, and his family, who were at risk of being imprisoned or killed because of their non-prejudiced beliefs?

His stomach dropped again and his shoulders sagged under the scorching heat of the water flowing across his frame. He discovered that hot water was helpful for him to relax, only temporarily of course but it was much better than the frigid water in the small shower the burrow housed or the short-lived heating charm that made him feel as if he was showering in lukewarm tea rather than a proper hot shower.

His only downside was that his creamy skin was almost brick red, yet somehow his freckles showed through like a common childhood disease that Hermione had mentioned getting in her early years. He could not remember the name. His hair laid flat on his head, a darker red when wet but now longer than a quiff, he ran his gangly fingers through it, sweeping it back but failing to contain a few stray pieces, which dangled near the curve of his cheek and tickled his ears.

Goosebumps spread across flesh the instant his heels touched the cool tile. The sudden temperature change brought about a shock and he scrambled for his towel to aid his chill. After hastily wrapping it around his waist, he clumsily aimed for his vest to wear until he got to the room so at least he wouldn't freeze to death. Vest in hand, the metal toothbrush cup clanged off the side of the counter, making a ruckus in its wake.

Vest now over his head and arms, bunched just under his chest. the cup was replaced to its original spot and a good few swears had escaped his breath. He bent across the counter to clear the mirror of the steam that emanated from the shower when he felt the slightest brush against his bareback.

"Shit!"

"Sorry!'

His hand frantically searched for his wand to provide defence but unless towels came with pockets then he was out of luck. Hermione's alarmed voice stabbed through the bathroom and the echo lingered for a bit, just enough until he processed that she was in front of him. Her eyebrows were raised and her mahogany eyes were wide after she jumped away from him suddenly.

"Um..Hi.” she started with a great inhale.

Ron's heart rate hadn't returned to normal and his mouth was agape at the sight of her so suddenly appearing in the bathroom. Where he was. Alone. Until she came in of course. So now it was just him and her. Alone. He suddenly became very aware that he had just come out of the shower and was revealing a particular amount of torso, which was probably solid red now with a litter of freckles that he didn't fancy too much himself.

"Uh hey?" he started, completely at a loss of how to conduct the situation, while he sheepishly smoothed down the vest along his stomach. She couldn't have come in here to discuss Horcruxes right? Actually, he wouldn't put it past her to do just that, to be honest.

"I uh.. well I came to shower and I realised that you were still in here, still are in here so.. but yeah your vest was rolled up a bit sorry, just wanted to.. uh fix it, yeah, sorry." she stumbled over her words a lot, something he'd never heard from Hermione but she seemed to speak extremely fast yet agonisingly slow and deliberate at the same time.

She was breathing in deeply again and his eyes fell to the stray tight curls that graced the nape of her neck which her haphazard-looking ponytail exposed. The bathroom was quite dim and the yellow glow from the dingy lights fell just barely on her dark skin. Skin. His eyes travelled a little further to see she was wearing a vest herself, no a camisole, he didn't know what it was but his gaze was hooked on the space between her shoulder and collarbone. He had the urge to touch it with his lips.

He quickly averted his eyes as to not embarrass himself but they glanced over her bare legs in moderately short cotton shorts and he sucked his breath in so hard he was now bent at a slight curve, stomach clenched and breath hitched. He was quickly overwhelmed at the intimacy the situation opposed. Hell, he couldn't believe he was describing an interaction with Hermione as intimate. His ears were on fire surely, he'd need an Aquamenti to put them out if he survived.

"Oh", his voice heightened toward the end and he internally cringed so hard he thought he was going to combust.

"Yeah", she whispered, her eyes were on his arms, his brain scars were fully displayed and swirled across his recently filled out arms.

"I thought you were using the bathroom near your room?" he spoke softly and slowly, drinking in the sight of her lips, which she was toying with impatiently, now flushed.

There was an urge to cover his arms but he resisted and tried to focus on a chipped tile near the door. He failed as soon as she spoke once more, her voice clearer this time and with, almost, determination?

"I think I like this one more." she spoke, referring to the bathroom seemingly but her eyes were nowhere but him.

She intentionally made eye contact and his heart dropped to his lower stomach, his chest unnaturally warm. Wasn't this room cold as shit before? He was smart enough to know that bathroom was the last bloody thing she was talking about but words failed and he was more than happy to let her steer the conversation.

"Can I ask why?', he managed, his mouth was dry and he was sure he's never wanted anything more than for her to touch him, anywhere, she could slap him if she wanted and he would relish her skin on his.

Their breaths were erratic now, you'd swear they'd run a marathon twice over. Her chest was rising and falling agonisingly slow. He was still bent a bit so he was leaning towards her and she seemed to have gotten closer since she jumped back earlier. When did that happen?

"It's a bit more spacious I think, prettier interior as well", she whispered, swallowing halfway in between and added in the last bit staring so far into his eyes that he swore she was probably seeing through his head.

Pretty. Did she just say pretty? He was pretty sure she said pretty. No one had called him that before and if she had just called him fucking pretty he was going to die on the spot. Her words kept repeating in his head, soft and intentional. His entire body was frozen and he knew that the ground wasn't cold enough to make his legs tremble the way they were now. She gazed up at him and he swore he saw a glint of satisfaction after his reaction.

"Right, well, I'll let you have it then..Enjoy.", he applauded himself in restaining his voice from wavering at the end.

She gave a small thanks and he started to walk towards the door, her to the shower. Her bare shoulder touched his elbow at the exact moment her eucalyptus shampoo wafted towards his nose and he swore he almost whimpered. Their eye contact was only broken by the door closing and Ron almost collapsing on the other side.

PLEASE REVIEW! <3

#my fic #fic rec #harry potter headcanon #hermone granger #ron weasley #ron weasley fanfiction #ron weasley defence squad #ron weasley appreciation #romione #romione fanfiction #romione fanfic #ron x hermione #hermione granger headcanon #the golden trio #this is really long again sorry I just love details #hope you enjoy

[dakt37]

Avengers Assemble - Feral Outlaw Stony

So I've been expanding on this concept I doodled before Christmas, where Steve goes with Tony into the no-tech dimension at the end of season 3. Probably a lot of stuff isn't canon-compliant (beyond the obvious change that is), but "It's an AU so I do what I want" rules apply. Anyway. 

The tl;dr is: The two of them spend a little time puttering around the weird no-tech dimension, and then get absorbed into Battleworld. They become explorers, helping people out and falling in love along the way.

(Once again, I feel like someone must have had this idea already, but I’ve never looked.)

Cut for excessive rambling.

~~~

Not all the areas we see in the show are present in Battleworld when Steve and Tony first arrive, so the boys spend most of their time traveling around, mapping the place out as it expands. A lot of my ideas rely on them still having little-to-no access to modern conveniences. Obviously someplace modern has to show up for them to get their hands on a pickup truck and a motorcycle, but I’m picturing a post-apocalyptic junkyard that’s been picked clean of anything obviously useful. They get the vehicles working by sheer force of “I’m Tony-fucking-Stark.” But like that fully functional NYC area is way too convenient, so it’s not around yet. (tbh I’m not even sure if it’s an alternate NYC or theirs, in which case it wouldn’t show up until the other Avengers do anyway) 

They get the low-down on the "Battleworld" concept by eavesdropping on one of Beyonder's* welcome speeches. They realize that they are uniquely off the grid, because Beyonder didn't know they were in the no-tech dimension when he added it to Battleworld. They decide it's advantageous to maintain this secret status, but they're still Avengers™️ so they can't NOT help out wherever they can. But they don’t stick around any one place for long. Basically, they become vagrant vigilantes in addition to surveyors. They get a lot of their “stuff” (clothes, tools, toiletries, etc) as payment for odd jobs, or gifts from grateful locals they rescue. They get some food from populated areas as well, but also rely on foraging and hunting while on the lam. They have definitely eaten dinosaur at some point.

(*He doesn't get the nickname "Beyonder" until the other Avengers show up. In this AU Steve and Tony refer to him as "The Entity" or "Suspenders." You can probably guess who tends to use which.)

On top of the survival story, it's also a getting-together story. Steve and Tony flirt and pine and bicker and flirt some more, until a squabble turns into a confession and they finally start kissing. There’s plenty of time for “it’s cold in this wasteland and we only have one blanket, oh no,” but they’re firmly established as romantically involved by the time the other Avengers show up and they have the final showdown with Beyonder.

Anyway a lot of the AU notes I've been making are about the functional side of their Big Camping Adventure. So here's a bunch of lists about vehicles, gadgets, and navigation.

~

Vehicle stuff:

If Tony is riding passenger on the motorcycle, he can clip his repulsor boots into special footrests that reroute the energy and give the bike a speed boost. 

The bike has a tow cable. Steve can harpoon things using a spring-action firing mechanism, including cliff faces to help him scale steep terrain. The cable can also be uncoiled manually, like when Tony takes flight while holding the end so he and Steve can clothesline hostiles. 

Steve can stick his shield several places on the bike depending on what’s convenient. On the front as a windscreen/battering ram, on one side for easy grabbing, and even on Tony’s backpack so Tony can snuggle in properly while riding passenger and keep both their backs protected.

They probably don’t even need a ramp to get the bike into the bed of the pickup. Steve just picks it up and puts it there.

The evolution of Marsha (the truck) into a full Hulkbuster-style mech takes a long time. For the majority of their time in Battleworld, it’s just a truck with an ever-increasing number of weird add-ons.

Marsha can function as a tiny camper home. The cargo bed liner is a false bottom, which can be pulled up and rearranged to form a cover/roof. Underneath the liner, the actual truck bed is about a foot deeper, with most of that storage space taken up by a mattress and bedding. 

Tony can pull a cable out of Marsha’s steering column and plug it directly into his arc reactor. This unlocks extra features and weapons. He generally has things balanced so that Marsha drawing power doesn't affect him any more than his armor drawing power would. But on rare and desperate occasions, he can overclock and hurt himself. Steve of course hates when he does this.

Turnabout is fair play though: at least once, something else damaged the arc reactor, so Tony plugged into Marsha to draw power from the battery for his electromagnet while he repaired the arc.

Gasoline can be difficult to procure, so both vehicles are hybrids. Tony just keeps adding new power conversion elements as they go along, based on what they can find. 

~

F in chat for Tony’s armor:

Tony dismantles the armor he’d been wearing when they first went into the no-tech dimension.

Obviously he keeps skeletal versions of the repulsor boots and gloves in-tact enough to function. 

He also keeps most of the helmet, for when he’s riding with Steve on the motorcycle. Mostly because Steve insisted. It's gutted of tech though, so if the faceplate stays as part of the design, the eyes are just holes (like in the classic comics).

The rest of the pieces are kept in a large packing trunk.

Tony repurposes some parts into useful gadgets for himself and Cap, plus the odd toy for other Avengers (like Widow’s new stinger gauntlets) because he’s optimistic like that.

Electronics use precious metals like gold and copper, so Tony scrapes some out to pay for things in certain areas of Battleworld, like the cowboy town or the pirate area. He might also barter with other general bits like wires and screws, but he avoids parting with any actual full tech.

~

Plug-n-play Gadgets

Since the power draw for Tony's electromagnet is actually fairly minimal, Tony makes use of the arc reactor as a charging station, mostly when he sleeps. It's not like there's a corner store they can drop by to get a pack of batteries. Things he charges include (but are not limited to):

Flashlight for Steve. The bulbs for it came from the eyes in the Iron Man helmet. Note: Tony doesn't need a flashlight himself because he can turn up his arc brightness apparently, lmao.

Camp stove. Steve questioned Tony building one for a hot second because hello we can build campfires to cook over? But then it’s raining and they're in a cave and Tony is like, "if you fill this space with smoke I will divorce you before we're even married." And Steve is like "camp stove wow yes okay." Also they had camp stoves in WW2 so honestly it was simply a Himbo Moment to disregard the virtues of one in the first place. 

Walkie talkies. I know they had Avengers comms but I like the aesthetic of walkie talkies more. Maybe the comms relied on satellites that they obviously don't have anymore or something.

~

Navigation:

Speaking of a lack of satellites, the GPS in Tony’s armor is rendered useless. Steve is real smug about it and pulls out his old-fashioned compass. But Battleworld also doesn’t have proper poles, so it just spins wildly for a few seconds and then points at Tony’s electromagnet. Not to be deterred, Steve declares, “Well, you’re never lost if you can find Polaris.” They look up and realize that the night sky, despite having stars and a moon, is not at all arranged the way it is on Earth. 

Tony takes this as a Challenge. He builds a sextant, then spends the next several nights in a row muttering math under his breath as he painstakingly creates a hand-drawn star chart. This, combined with landmarks, becomes the primary way they orient themselves as they roam around Battleworld.

Many nights, Steve and Tony lie in the bed of the pickup together and make up constellations named after other Avengers and friends. Steve makes a copy of Tony’s star chart and sketches artistic renditions of the constellations on top. To close this post with an interesting visual, here’s an example of what Tony’s star map might look like vs what Steve’s would more resemble:

#avengers assemble #avengers assemble AU #battleworld AU #Feral Outlaw Stony AU #stevetony #dakity yaks #Dakt rambles about Avengers stuff #long post

[cheri-translates]

[CN] Love Carnival - Part 4 (Eng Translation)

🍒 Warning: This post contains detailed spoilers for an event which has not been released in English servers! 🍒

There are five parts in total! Brace yourself for tons of fluff :>

Part 3: here

[ LUCIEN ]

Looking around the adorably and warmly decorated cafeteria, and then the little gift that came along with the meal, I’m a little confused.

A few minutes ago, we were thinking about what to have for dinner, and we walked into this warm and adorably decorated small shop.

But we didn’t expect...

MC: I really didn't think it’d be so “hardcore”.

I hold up the little gift, placing it in between Lucien and I.

It’s different from the small ornaments and objects with a feminine aura from my memories.

This cafeteria gives a heart-shaped Burr puzzle to patrons who order the couple set.

MC: The dishes are so delicious that they’re comparable to top-grade restaurants. Even the gifts they provide are just as hardcore. It’s amazing.

Lucien is tickled by my dead serious expression.

Lucien: Looks like the organiser has put in much effort, wanting to leave every visitor with unforgettable and happy memories.

MC: But giving visitors a heart which can’t be unlocked - what’s the owner of the shop thinking...

Without a proper strategy, I play with the Burr puzzle, and can’t help but grumble.

Lucien chuckles, taking this “heart” from my hand.

Lucien: With a little technique, it can be opened easily.

He sits slightly closer to me. Slowing down, he gives me a demonstration while explaining the technique of how to unlock the Burr puzzle.

With the movement of his fingertips and a gentle tug, the wooden lock, which was linked for a very long time, opens, revealing a tiny empty space in the heart which can be used to store things.

MC: Even though you’re already sick of this phrase, I still have to say - Lucien, you’re truly incredible.

Lucien: If I say that I haven’t gotten sick of this phrase, would you be willing to say it to me even more times?

Lucien turns his head over slightly to look at me. In his eyes are the familiar smile and slyness I’m most familiar with.

MC: If I say it, will I get a special prize from Professor Lucien?

After hearing this, Lucien actually ponders over it.

He narrows his eyes slightly, as though he’s facing the most complex, important, and difficult question.

Lucien: If it’s a prize...

All of a sudden, he leans over to my ear. Every gentle word brushes against my outer ear, trickling into my heart.

Lucien: Would an especially happy Lucien be enough?

MC: ...Professor Lucien, that’s called being unreasonable.

Lucien: Is that so? I even thought you’d be very satisfied with it.

Lucien blinks, pretending to be taken aback.

Just when I think of how to best turn the tables, he places the wooden mortise of the Burr puzzle, which is used to store items, in my hand.

Lucien: Want to think of what to put in here? Given its structure, I’m thinking this is a safer place to store tiny keepsakes.

MC: Yes.

I turn towards the staff at the side, asking for a few sheets of post-its and pens, and also to allowing the temperature on my face to dissipate.

After we write on our respective notes for a while, Lucien and I exchange them.

On mine, there’s a simple drawing of a man opening a lock, a handsome smile on his face.

What Lucien hands over is a sketch.

In the simple composition, in the midst of light and shadow, he impressively draws me.

The me in the picture has her head lowered, writing on the post-it note, smiling very sweetly.

MC: Now, we’re doubly satisfied!

-

[ VICTOR ]

We walk and pause, finally ending up before the Pendulum ride.

Pointing at the attraction, where shrill cries can be heard constantly, I think of that children’s day when he had taken the “Time Traveler” ride with me.

And how time had stopped for a few seconds during the descent.

[Note] This is a reference to Fairytale Date!

MC: Want to give this a try?

I turn my head, looking at Victor expectantly.

Victor: No.

As I expected, Victor rejects me.

MC: Victor, could you be scared?

Victor: Of course not.

His expression is stern, and he looks forward.

MC: In that case, ride it with me!

While saying this, I pull him along with me and we sit down.

There’s still some time before the ride begins. The chatter and laughter from people in the queue before us continuously drift over.

Enthusiastic visitor: A friend of mine took the Pendulum before. When it was over, he calmly said that it wasn’t much. In the end, he started puking after taking a few steps.

Happy visitor: Hahahaha, the same thing happened to my colleague. He sat for the ride in another place once, and screamed until his voice was hoarse at work the next day. He had to drink chinese medicine for the entire day.

I’m somewhat tickled by the conversations.

MC: They’re speaking so exaggeratedly. How could that be possible? What do you think?

The criticism I expected doesn’t arrive.

Finding this a little odd, I look at Victor, realising that he’s strapping on his seatbelt seriously, his expression stern.

Oh...?

I really wish I could take out my phone and snap a picture of this Victor before me.

The Pendulum truly lives up to its name.

At first, I even thought it’d be so-so.

But when the Pendulum’s amplitude grows increasingly larger, till it feels like I’m being tossed around, I can’t help but scream.

MC: Ahhhhh--

This! Is! Too! Scary!

Just when I’m forced to sit through these parabolic motions, my left hand is gently held onto by someone.

Bracing against the violent wind, I open my eyes. Victor is sitting straight and quietly in his seat. His posture is tense, yet he looks as though he’s very calm.

Amid the shrill screams, I can vaguely hear his voice.

Victor: Don’t be afraid.

-

Stepping off the Pendulum, I immediately grasp for the railing at the side.

However, when I see Victor’s crooked tie and slightly unkempt hair, I can’t help but burst into laughter.

This time, I don’t let this chance slip by, and keep this dishevelled Victor in my phone.

I make a decision to have this picture printed out to be placed at the bedside.

Victor: ...what are you doing this time?

MC: Nothing, nothing! Oh yes, what do you think of this attraction?

Victor: ...so-so.

MC: If you’re afraid, you can just say so. It’s a normal human reaction, and I won’t laugh at you.

Victor: I’m not afraid.

MC: In that case...

I look at Victor, my smile growing wider.

MC: Let’s ride it again!

Victor: ...

MC: You aren’t going to prove that you aren’t afraid?

Victor: Let’s go then.

MC: Eh?

Victor: Since you’re so enthusiastic about this ride, you’ll definitely experience it together with me. Am I wrong?

Seeing Victor arch his brows slightly, and turning my game against me, I respond with certainty--

MC: I’m sorry! We’ll head to another attraction right now!

-

[ KIRO ]

The cafeterias in the Love Carnival must have gone through a lot of designing in order for moe flowers to appear easily for couples.

Every single themed cafe is packed to the brim. I hurriedly pull Kiro, who is wearing a wig, away from these “danger zones”.

There aren’t many people in the forest right now, leaving only the rustling of leaves.

MC: It’s a good thing I thought of this scenario beforehand.

Kiro: Deng deng deng deng!

When we speak in unison yet again, we retrieve picnic mats from our individual bags, and look at each other blankly. 

MC: ...I made enough for two. Did you also buy two sets?

Kiro: I was worried the cafeterias would be too crowded and we’d be hungry. 

Kiro: But...

His voice grows soft, and I don’t know what he’s struggling with.

In the end, he purses his lips, turning his eyes to me.

Kiro: I didn’t buy them.

MC: ...hm?

He chuckles in embarrassment, spreading the picnic mat smoothly on the ground, and taking out food boxes from the bag.

Seeing these food boxes, I’m left slightly stunned. Based on my memory of how long I’ve known Kiro, it seems that I've never had a taste of his cooking. 

Kiro: I was thinking that since today is such a special day, even if we couldn’t sit in a cafeteria to have a couple set meal, we should at least have something special. I don’t want you to be left with any regrets today, so I was wondering how to make things different for you. 

Kiro: And then... [laughs sheepishly] what you see in front of you happened.

I lift up Kiro’s food box. The rice has been scooped up in a crooked manner. Although the carrots could be said to be in heart-shapes, they look more like the heads of an arrow.

In the messy omelette, the ham seems to have sneaked out secretly. Perhaps it wanted to have a breath of air after being in such an enclosed space.

The octopus sausages are like blooming fireworks, hiding in the gigantic rice ball, too shy to see anyone. Meanwhile, the sandwich looks incredibly full, and it seems to have chicken drumsticks in it.

This looks like a far from perfect bento - shoddy and clumsy.

Kiro: ...what’s in front of you is already the best attempt.

MC: How many times did you make this?!

Kiro: I’ll let it remain an undisclosed secret forever.

He places his palm on his chest, closing his eyes and saying this quietly.

Chuckling, I hand the bento that I've prepared to him. In exchange, he gives me a few minutes’ worth of praises.

MC: This seems to be the first time I’m eating what you made.

Kiro: There shouldn’t be a problem.

He looks at me with certainty. His expression is exceptionally serious, causing me to laugh aloud.

MC: Why didn’t you show this to me before?

Kiro: They weren’t good enough.

MC: Have you met your standards now?

Kiro: Of course not! I just felt... that you’d be happy with this.

His eyes are bright, akin to a sun being hidden by soft clouds which are unable to shroud the light.

This perfectionist is slowly, bit by bit, willing to display the areas he isn’t perfect in before me.

Like the tender belly of a kitten.

MC: I’m especially happy. But if something does happen, you’ll have to take responsibility.

Kiro: Of course I’ll take responsibility! Even if nothing happens, I’ll also take responsibility! [laughs] I’ll take responsibility after eating.

The afternoon sunlight is just right. The quiet forest is reminiscent of a small world, embracing us.

MC: I’ll be digging in now!

-

[ SHAW ]

Ghost masks on sale are hung on the dark red wall. The masks have a sense of antiquity to them, and their bewitching and bizarre appearances look utterly terrifying.

Simply standing at the entrance of the haunted house makes one feel deeply frightened. And the rule of “Only one person can enter at one time” causes several people to shrink away.

Shaw and MC: ...

Shaw: Got the guts?

MC: What’s there to be afraid of?

Shaw: You first, or me?

MC: ...I’ll go first.

With a solemn expression, I prepare to enter. However, my wrist is suddenly gripped by Shaw, and he pulls me back.

Shaw: Wait. I’ll give you something.

I can feel him stuffing something into my hand.

Unfurling my hand, I see a string of Buddhist prayer beads laying quietly in my palm.

MC: ...

Shaw: Have a pleasant journey.

In the pitch-black and narrow pathway, I bite the bullet and move forward at a tortoise’s pace. My hands continuously twist the prayer beads, muttering to myself.

MC: Whether you're a monster, demon, or ghost, don’t come and scare me, don’t come and scare me...

Thud--

Footsteps sound from behind me, and the hair on my body immediately stands on end.

I’m rooted to the spot. After a few seconds, when I muster the courage to turn around, a hand plops onto my left shoulder.

MC: !!!

At this moment, my blood seems to freeze.

I quietly wait for two seconds, but nothing happens. Suddenly, there’s a twinge of hope in my heart--

Maybe it’s Shaw!

Thinking of how he usually likes to play tricks on me, I become even more certain of my guess.

With a deep breath, I give myself some courage and turn my head.

MC: Shaw--

??: Fuu.......

MC: ...

MC: IT’S A GHOST AHHHH--

With a speed which human eyes can’t capture, I huddle and curl into a corner, using my hand to cover my left ear, sensing goosebumps spreading across my entire body.

Along with my heartrending exclamation, a stream of chuckles resound at the same time.

??: It’s me.

Silvery white electricity appears in the darkness.

The person who’s speaking walks over to me. He squats down, a smile hanging on his lips, looking as though his prank has succeeded.

Shaw: Who was the one who made a solemn vow that she wouldn’t be scared?

I glare angrily at the person before me.

MC: I knew it was you! When you deliberately scare someone, of course they’d be scared! It’s an instinctive reaction. Also, you can scare someone to death, you know!

Weakly and helplessly, I hug myself tight. My voice is also trembling slightly.

He seems to be at a slight loss. After a while, he speaks. 

Shaw: ...fine, I was wrong this time.

Perhaps genuinely feeling apologetic, Shaw pauses, his voice also a little more gentle.

Shaw: Hey, want to know a way so you wouldn't be scared?

MC: ...what is it?

I lift my head from my knees in curiosity. 

He offers me a hand, his eyes crinkling slightly, filled with a wilful light. 

Shaw: Follow me and they won’t scare you.

Shaw and I hold hands as we continue down this cramped pathway.

Because he’s by my side, I feel much more composed.

Female ghost: I’m~ Filled~ With~ Hatred...

All of a sudden, a hand plops onto my shoulder. Shaw and I pause in our footsteps.

I subconsciously tighten my grip on Shaw’s hand. In the next moment, I feel him returning the gesture with a squeeze.

Courage fills my heart. With this, Shaw and I turn around together...

??: IT’S A GHOST AHHHH--

Another shrill cry fills the pathway.

This time, however, the cry doesn’t belong to me, but to the “female ghost” with dishevelled hair.

Shaw extinguishes the electricity in his hand. He removes the ghost masks we saw at the entrance earlier, and laughs.

Shaw: If you want to scare me, you’ve got to put in more practise.

-

[ GAVIN ]

MC: What should we go for next?

Gavin and I are walking along the street, searching for our next target. A row of vending machines attract my attention.

The line of vending machines contain all sorts of toy capsules. From keychains to ornaments, there’s everything one could wish for.

Especially that one containing couple keychains. The furry keychains look exceptionally adorable.

I notice that Gavin has paused in front of one vending machine.

It’s a vending machine containing robots.

I vaguely recall watching a cartoon related to it when I was young. However, I wasn’t very interested in it, and never really understood it.

However, this looks like something Gavin would like.

MC: Gavin, there’s one vending machine I’d like to try. Could you wait here for me?

Gavin: Coincidentally, I do too.

I grin, nodding at him.

MC: Let’s split up and get the toy capsules we want, and we’ll meet back here later?

-

When we meet up again, I place the toy capsule in Gavin’s hand with satisfaction.

MC: Open it and take a look? Do you like it?

Gavin twists the toy capsule open, and surprise flashes across his eyes.

Gavin: I like it.

While he speaks, he pieces it together simply, letting the small, monochrome robot stand in his palm.

The little robot is holding a gun in one hand, and a shield in the other. Behind it is a structure resembling a one-sided wing.

On top of its circular head is a yellow antenna. Along with its four short limbs, it looks extremely cute.

Gavin: This is my favourite model.

MC: I got it randomly, and didn’t expect to get the right one.

Gavin: I was lucky too.

Gavin smiles, takes out a toy capsule, and opens it.

It happens to be the furry couple keychains I saw earlier.

One of them has soft and long ears, while the other has straight, sharp ears.

Gavin keeps the one with sharp ears, then carefully attaches the doll with the long ears on my bag. Pleased, he nods.

Gavin: Mm, it suits you.

Gavin keeps the little robot in his pocket, and the keychain swings next to me.

Seeing the gifts we’ve exchanged, sweetness brims from the depths of my heart.

MC: Having been with you for such a long time, I feel that my knowledge has been expanded.

Gavin: I've learnt quite a lot too.

Gavin pauses, then continues confidently.

Gavin: For instance, that the lipstick you're wearing today is the colour of red bean paste. And that you’ve curled your fringe slightly. 

Pleasantly surprised, I blink and want to give him a round of applause for his perfect answer.

MC: What else?

Gavin: Also, that I have to separate the white from the yolk when making fried rice. And that succulents don’t need that much watering.

MC: Then... what are the steps to preparing sliced fish boiled in chilli oil?

Probably not expecting that I’d suddenly pose a question, he ponders it carefully before responding in an exceptionally solemn manner.

Gavin: I can’t explain it right now, but I noted it down in my notes.

After he finishes speaking, we look at each other, then laugh in unison.

MC: Gavin, tell me more about this robot. And about basketball, motorcycles, planes and all the things you like.

Gavin: Okay. I’m hoping that you’d give me more cooking classes too.

The corners of his lips curl upwards slightly, and fragments of sunlight flash in his eyes.

Gavin: I want to have an even better understanding of everything to do with you.

-

Part 5: here

#mlqc #mlqc cn #mlqc spoilers

[hangingslothcentral]

Here’s what writing an episode of Spirit Box Radio looks like...

If you’ve ever wondered how episodes of Spirit Box Radio are written, here’s a little overview of that process!! If you like this, I can also write up a similar breakdown of the sound design process!

Most, but not all, episodes are born in the ‘Episodes’ section of the Show Bible. The Show Bible is a document of epic proportions - 50k in length and growing every day - which contains all the essential information about the show, from the continuously evolving methods I use to edit different character voices as I learn more and more about audio editing and production, right to ‘sketches’ of the episodes for all three series of the show. There is also a large section called ‘Ideas and Notes’, where I’ll write freeform dialogue between characters and keep track of themes and ideas to try and keep them consistent. These are all numbered, and referenced in a seperate spreadsheet I have of all the characters with significant and/or speaking roles in the show.

The full break down is under the cut!!!

The grandaddy of the the plans in the Show Outline, where I go over all of the main ideas I want to be talking about in the show and roughly mark out the outline of the shape of each season. The first draft of the Show Outline was very messy and rough, but subsequent versions are broken down into Season-by-Season chunks, all talking from a multi-series perspective so as to place the ideas of the show along a three-series-long arc.

Season Outline

Season Outlines take those ideas for the shapes of the series from the Show Outline and refine them further from a beginning-to-end-perspective. I'm a goal-oriented writer, which means my story ideas tend to come from a very ‘the end’ kind of place, and the stories that lead up to that ending are all about serving that ending. Quite often the ending itself changes a long over the planning and writing process for me, but that’s the great thing about a plan! Once you have it, you can change it if you need to. What a plan does, however, is provide you with a framework for understanding what bits of a story you have, and what bits you still need to make.

The three seasons of Spirit Box Radio are quite deliberately split into two halves. There are lots of reasons why and one of them is that it gives you a very specific kind of shape to be working from. A season with a mid-season break has a part one which has it’s own escalation of tension and climax, which comes at the mid-point of the season-long escalation, where the story might otherwise sag a little.

Beyond splitting the plan into Parts 1 & 2, I typically also break episodes into ‘Blocks’. This is partly practical; I can refer in conversations with my guest writers to where it falls in a specific block of episodes, and where that block fits in the story as a whole, and it also makes splitting up the episodes for sending out scripts to my actors a lot more straight forward. Part 1 of Season 1, for example, was broken into three blocks; episodes 1.1-1.7; 1.8-1.13; 1.14-1.20. I won’t go into detail about how this effects the structure of the episodes themselves, but it’s usually about building characters up to making a certain decision, or following a certain subplot more closely before pulling away.

Episode Sketch

A ‘sketch’ is a very brief summary of what needs to happen in that specific episode. This can be concrete, like ‘find [x] item’, or vague, like ‘establish that Character A has Trait Y’. Sometimes I’ll make a note to include a specific sound or character beat, or I’ll reference a noted scene from the ‘Ideas and Notes’ i think would fit in there. It’s usually at the sketch summary stage that I figure out whether or not there will be other characters in a specific episode. The sketches for almost all of the episodes in Season One were written between August and October 2020.

Episode Plan

This stage takes those necessary elements from the sketch and fleshes them out into a coherent story. The key thing about podcast episodes is that they have to be able to be entertaining on their own, minute by minute, as well as serving the whole series (I talked a lot more about this in the last episode of Hanging with the Sloths on Patreon which is only £2/equivalent pcm to access if you’re interested!!)

Whilst I’m making my episode plan, I’ll look back at the sketches for the episode I’m working on and those before and after it, and refer to the series outline where I can, to make sure I’m keeping a handle not just on the individual pacing of the episode, but the pacing of the show overall.

I like to have Episode Plans done by about a month before I need to have a script finished.

The Script Itself

Spirit Box Radio scripts are either agonising or happen in the blink of an eye. I do not have a set approach to how I write an episode. Sometimes the plans come with sections of dialogue written months before and I’ll drape the rest of the episode around those moments and see where I end up. If there is a character other than Sam in an episode, I’ll typically attempt to write that section of the script before the rest, so that I’ll definitely have it locked by the time I need to send it to the actors. 

Any script that is for other actors (i.e. not me) has to have notes, direction, and additional information included to help the actors give their best performance. That’s difficult sometimes because I guard my show secrets closely, so it’s often a game of working out how much I can tell an actor without including spoilers for later important plot points unless absolutely necessary, and how to supplement gaps in their information. I’ll usually compare a character to a character from something else as a shorthand for performance.

This means there are two versions of every script which needs to be seen by people who aren’t me. My scripts, which I call the master scripts, have all my audio cues, breaks for drinking water in recording sessions, character notes that are Top Secret, sound scaping ideas, specific sounds I’ll need to use at different moments, and specific audio cues. As I get better at sound design, my version of the script only gets messier and messier to look at. Sometimes, when I’m writing scripts, I’ll actually even start with sound design notes now!!

Script Locking

This is the point at which a script can no longer be changed. Scripts with other characters in them have to be locked before scripts for just Sam, because they need to go out to actors and I need to ensure that I have time to go back and ask them to redo things if necessary, and also to make sure they have proper time to rehearse and organise read-throughs as they’d like to. That means sometimes sections of an episode are locked way before other sections are even written. This can be challenging as a writer because sometimes I’ll come back to a section which I know still needs work, and find I’m extremely limited in what I can do because I’ve already sent an actor a script to record from - sometimes for later episodes, I’ll have the lines from otheres already recorded and ready to go before I finalise some of Sam’s lines for a specific episode.

Sam is recorded a minimum of three weeks before an episode is due to air, and I’ll record in 3-episode stints, usually. I like to have the scripts locked a week before I record so I have time to read them through at my own pace, but sometimes I won’t manage to have them locked until three days out. On one hateful occasion, I threw out an entire script after I’d recorded an episode and re-recorded the whole thing the day before airing. I do not recommend doing this and whilst I am much happier with the result it was an agonising experience because once I’d rewritten and re-recorded that episode I then had to edit it before it was due for release, a process which takes about six hours minimum. I was making tweaks until 20 minutes before the episode went live. Do not recommend.

Editing

Speaking of editing, the final stage of writing an episode actually happens in the cutting room. Sometimes episodes are simply Too Long. Sometimes stuff that worked on paper just don’t work in audio. Sometimes I can’t say a word correctly for the life of me and have to cut a whole sentence to cover it over. More rarely, but still often enough an occurence it bears mentioning, I’ll realise in the editing process that a conversation is better in a different order than the one given in the script, and pull and move around the dialogue to adjust the flow. Sometimes I’ll move sections about a bit to accomodate similar problems with narrative flow.

Annnnd that’s it! That’s what the process looks like!

#spirit box radio #spirit box radio podcast #writing #audio drama #behind the scenes #writing process #show runner

[f-nodragonart]

Vertebrate Wings, PART 2: Membranes and Feathers

Return to main post + TOC >>HERE<<

Membranes and Feathers TOC

  Membranes

  Feather Arrangement

  Feather Layering

  Feather Shape

  Combinations

Membranes

A common question I see in relation to bat-like (and sometimes pterosaur-like) wings: Can a creature fly if the wing membrane only attaches to the armpit of the wing? Can massive wings make up for the lack of membrane?

Short answer: No.

Long answer in the form of a numbered list of problems with these sorts of wings:

 1)      Wing membranes (and feathers) need to SUPPORT and STABILIZE the whole animal’s body in the air. Without membrane attached along the length of the body, the torso is left to dangle limply and awkwardly below the wing shoulders. This couldn’t work because:

    a.      As I explain in more detail in the Full-body Integration section, flight is a ~primarily~ horizontal affair (the obvious exception being hoverers, but I cover this in the Flight section). A limply-hanging body would increase drag and air resistance to an absurd degree compared to the typical streamlined body position of a flying bird or bat. While flight is primarily driven by the wings, it really is a full-body affair.

    b.      The weight of the ENTIRE creature would be localized to the wing shoulder, which would make for excruciatingly painful flight at the VERY least. The membrane helps distribute the weight of the body over a wider surface area so that no one centralized point is pulling too much weight. (again, hovering flight is an exception to this, but this is largely due to the tiny body weight of a typical hoverer)

 2)      ~Generally~ evolution is lazy. The theoretical length of the wings necessary to make up for the lack of membrane would use up a ridiculous amount of energy—energy that evolution isn’t likely to waste. Especially considering that the length of these theoretical wings would have to be accomplished through lengthened fingers, which are more complicated and use up more developmental energy than simple membrane extension.

 3)      These lengthened wings would theoretically be freakin’ MASSIVE to make up for the lack of membrane. I can only imagine they’d be too heavy and/or too long to realistically function. They’d more likely drag uselessly along the ground as the animal attempted to use too-long muscles and tendons to lift them up.

 4)      “The creature wouldn’t be able to flap their wings when flying. Wings act like a lever; the less wing membrane you have close to the body, the further out lift and air resistance act on them and the more force you need for each wingbeat. If you attach wing membrane at the armpit, then so much force would be needed that the dragon would have difficulty moving them on ground, never mind during flight. Adding more arm strength to overcome it is not an option because there’s only so much muscle you can add without running into many more problems,” thank you Rahjital~

This all applies to feathered wings as well—bodies need support during flight, and these sorts of feathered wings aren’t gonna provide any.

The back edge isn’t the only important part of the membrane—the front edge is highly important as well! This section of the membrane is known as the propatagium.

It provides a smooth, sloping curvature to the front edge of the wing (something the bare arms could not provide on their own), and helps stabilize the position of the wing through the tendon connecting the shoulder and wrist (or thumb/pteroid, depending on the wing).

This structure is present in ALL vertebrate wings—bats, pterosaurs, and yes, even birds.

It’s simply not very apparent in birds because this membrane is covered by feathers. Remember kids, bird arms aren’t rounded noodles—it’s the propatagium that gives bird wings their smooth outline!

Bats wings have hair-thin muscles across their membranes to help tense and otherwise manipulate the wing shape as needed. I actually had a hard time finding good diagrams of these muscles, sans this one EXCELLENT reference for the muscles and major veins (+skeleton) via edited versions SammyTorres drew of photo of a museum reference.

(had to cut it off to preserve image quality, but u can see the original reference photo at the link)

As for pterosaur wings, there’s still debate over how exactly the membranes were structured, but there is at least agreement on the existence of multiple layers of actinofibrils embedded in the membrane. As quoted from exdraghunt, “Pterosaur wings were stiffened with unique fibers called “actinofibrals”. These fibers can be thought of as being like the wooden battens of a paper fan, or the quills of bird’s feathers. They allowed the wing to spread out to full span, or to fold up tightly against the body, while keeping the membrane stiff enough for flight. These fibers became shorter and less regular closer to the body, so that the membrane closer to the body of the animal had more flexibility compared to the parts out at the wingtip. The fibers start out perpendicular to the arm, and shift to parallel with the wing finger out at the wingtip.”

(via)

This made pterosaur membranes much stiffer than bat membranes, but still more flexible than bird feathers in terms of delicate maneuvering and camber-control.

Also, here’s a cool diagram dissecting the layers of pterosaur membrane~

Feather Arrangement

The first thing we need to get straight here is that the main flight feathers of a wing—the remiges (singular: remex)—sprout EXCLUSIVELY from the “hand” and lower arm sections of the skeleton.

The shoulder may be the source of thrust in the wing, but the “hand” and lower arm are the actual “paddle” used to beat against the air. As we can see in the below diagram, the tertiaries (which are embedded in the FLESH of the upper arm, NOT the bone) simply fill in the space left between the remiges and the main body.

In my own research (of Googling reference photos), I’ve found that the secondary remiges tend to gradually decrease in length closer to the elbow, tapering down until the tertials are able to fill in the gaps. This may not necessarily be true for all wings, but this is the trend I’ve picked up on.

idk what the deal is, but there are almost zero references for the underside of a bird wing, so I took the liberty of making my own reference, traced/edited from these photos of crow wings. (“edited” in that I emphasized a few feather bits that aren’t quite as “pronounced” on actual crow wings, but were drawn in for the sake of illustrating their general position. the axillaries, for example, were referenced from plovers.)

The coverts (when it comes to flight) exist to smooth out the transition from arm to remex, covering the entire arm/hand section and then some.

It’s important to note that the lesser/median primary coverts DO EXIST on the dorsal side of the wing, they’re just reduced compared to the much longer greater primary coverts, so the lesser/median coverts are usually covered by the alula (this is another detail I emphasized/edited in the above ref—the lesser/median primary dorsal-side coverts aren’t actually visible with the current position of the alula on a crow wing). I don’t have references for why the feathers in this section are sized/arranged in this manner, but I think it may be due to the presence of the alula. Either way, you can usually get away with not including the lesser/median primary coverts in most wings/positions, but it is important to know they exist for those special occasions they do make an appearance.

(via^)

The alula is the section of feathers that sprouts from the “thumb” of the underlying skeleton (this can be seen in the remex skeletal of the wing I posted higher up), and helps to increase lift by smoothing out air flow over the primaries. The feathers of the alula are situated on the topside on the wing, over the primary coverts and under the secondary coverts.

As a side note, the wing reference I drew is just a BASIC guide to feather arrangement. Depending on the shape and flight style of the wing, the feather “sections” can vary quite a lot, as can be seen below.

The reference I drew is just a guide to help you identify these sections of feathers in other wings more easily, even if they look quite a bit different than the wing I drew.

Feather Layering

Now for the information I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for—the detail that artists the world over struggle desperately with: feather layering.

I could just tell you all that the LEADING edge of the remiges is seen on the TOPSIDE/DORSAL view, while the TRAILING edge of the remiges is seen on the UNDERSIDE/VENTRAL view, and that will be correct.

(via^)

HOWEVER, I find that I much more easily retain design information if I know WHY a particular structure is designed that way in the first place. So, here I leave you a very informative analysis of remex arrangement and how it effects flight.

While I do highly suggest watching the whole video—especially for the helpful animations—I understand that it's a long sit with dry delivery, so the main takeaway is this:

Remiges are arranged as they are in order to minimize drag on the upstroke by allowing air to filter through the feathers and under the body, thereby pushing the body up in the process.

If the remiges were theoretically arranged opposite from this, they would filter air AWAY from the body on the upstroke, thereby sucking the body down and rendering the thrust on the downstroke null.

Now, it’s important to keep in mind that this reasoning applies more strictly to the remiges compared to the other feathers. While it’s incredibly important for the remiges to be in proper arrangement, the coverts are a little more lenient, considering they just smooth out the wing. The median/greater coverts do follow the arrangement of the remiges per which side of the wing they sprout from (and lesser coverts are layered in a more-or-less “shingles” pattern), but real-life coverts tend to be a lot messier than “ideal” coverts.

Covert arrangement (particularly that of lesser/medians) can be “goofed” a little without too much problem; It’s remex arrangement that can make or break flight.

Also note how this feather layering effects the layering of wing “sections” when the wing folds up (which will be discussed in more detail in the Positions section).

Feather Shape

Feather shape is also a critical factor in wing design (and even full-body design), BUT to tackle shape, we must first understand some basic feather anatomy.

There are quite a few bits here that I’m not rly gonna get into (mostly because I myself understand feathers more in the greater scheme of a wing/body than individually), but it is important to note a few specific features, here.

The shaft is the base upon which the barbs sprout from, and where the feather itself connects to the body via the calamus(quill). Note that the barbs (at least in the pennaceous portion) ALWAYS sprout from the shaft at an outward angle. They do NOT point at a 90 degree angle straight out from the shaft, nor point backwards towards the quill, but FORWARDS towards the feather tip. This is most likely a mechanism for both reducing drag and creating a more stable interlocking of barbs.

The pennaceous portion is what’s visible to the open air, so the barbs must be designed to handle what is required, such as a relative stability/stiffness for the remiges of the wings, a drag-resistant design for feathers of the body, etc. etc.

The plumaceous portion is typically hidden beneath other feathers, so isn’t necessary to draw in most designs. It’s just important to know about the fluffy plumaceous bits that exist underneath for those occasions that the feathers are lifted apart.

*note-- not all feathers have an afterfeather/shaft as shown in the first diagram-- this is most common to grouse, and is kind of like having extra down.

This is just a basic rundown of feather anatomy I’d reason to be useful to artists, but if you’d like a more in-depth discussion of feathers, I suggest this page.

Now knowing this basic feather anatomy, we can look at the diverse shapes and forms feathers can take. As has been shown in the feather types above, feathers can vary quite a lot depending on their purpose. The primary remiges, in fact, have a unique set of anatomical terms to help describe the shapes they can take.

(via^)

It’s important to note, here, that at least part of the reason that the primary remiges in particular are so diversely shaped is due their being the “flight manipulation” feathers of the wings. While coverts smooth out the wing and secondary remiges provide ample surface area, it’s the primary remiges that really determine a bird’s particular style of flight (I’ll get into some of these basic flight types more in the Flight section).

It’s also important to note that the “drag direction” for any feather—remex or otherwise—is essential in planning their shape (it’s just much easier to identify in remiges). See how the barbs on the leading side of these primary remiges is much shorter than the barbs on the trailing side?

(via^)

This is because the leading side, as can be assumed, must meet air resistance head-on, so the shorter barbs provide a stiffer, more stable surface to push against oncoming air currents. The trailing side, on the other hand, provides the main surface area of the feather, so the barbs can be longer.

This asymmetrical balance of barb length changes depending on where the feather is on the wing, so it’s no surprise that the primary remex barb lengths are much more asymmetrical compared to the secondary remex barb lengths, since these barbs don’t directly push against the air on either side of the feather.

(via^)

Though keep in mind that the shafts still “lean” more towards the leading edge here, so as to properly tilt against the air on the upstroke.

This feather diversity doesn’t just apply to different feather types—even the exact same feathers of the exact same basic type can vary DRASTICALLY when compared between different species. Just look at the differences between the above wood duck primary remiges and the primary remiges of a sharp-skinned hawk below.

(via^)

Thus, when designing the feathers (particularly the remiges/rectrices) of a creature, you need to understand the creature’s specific form of flight, and the purpose of certain sets of feathers.

(The USFWS Feather Atlas provides EXCELLENT scans of the remiges and rectrices (main tail feathers) of TONS of different bird species, if you’d like to see more scans like these.)

Combinations

Combination feather/membrane wings are somewhat popular, and while they’re improbable I wouldn’t say they’re impossible. Improbable, because evolution would likely choose one or the other for a full wing (taking into account the energy available during development, as we’ve discussed). Or, at the very least, make the feather bits more fur-like than the rounded, complicated designs of typical coverts.

The only impossible combo-wings I could think of are webbed wings that have ALL the wing feathers—remiges included. Remiges are meant EXCLUSIVELY for flight—if the wing already has a membrane (a membrane which takes up much more energy to build than feathers), then there’s no need for additional remiges. In fact, these lengthy feathers would detract from what makes the bat wing so practical—its ability to “collapse” and otherwise bend and stretch in precise movements. Remiges would only block the bat wings’ ability to properly bend.

Not to mention, these feathers would break up the smooth/streamlined quality of these wings if they were to reach that far out over the membrane. Think about it—bird wings only have one layer of remiges, creating one smooth surface, and bats only have one layer of webbing, also creating a single smooth surface. Webbed wings with remiges on BOTH sides (or even on ONE side) would create multiple surfaces that would somehow need to lay flat against each other (but likely wouldn’t due to their nature). And that isn’t even to mention that remiges need a stable bone base to properly attach to, which the bat wrist/hand couldn’t provide, considering it already must support the fingers themselves, let alone primary remiges.

Covert feathers, on the other hand, are mainly there to create a smooth transition from the front edge of the wing to the remiges (and are embedded in flesh rather than bone). Thus, I could see their potential use in bat-like wings for the same reason, so long as they aren’t large enough to interfere with membrane/finger flexibility.

-Mod Spiral

#wings #anatomy #mod spiral #membranes #feathers

[vintagesimstress]

III. Meshing a (vintage) dress

(Previous: II. Learning to mesh)

Now that you know how to get around in Blender, you can finally put your newly acquired skills into action and mesh your first dress. I just hope you did your homework and really made your donuts - otherwise you might find it very difficult to understand what's going on in this part! I'll assume that you've watched and practised it all, so I won't explain the basic yet again. I will be writing the shortkeys in brackets though – there are way too many of them to remember them all after just a couple of videos.

So, let's get it started... But where?

As usually, there's no one proper answer to this question. Generally speaking, creators' approaches to meshing can be divided into 3 categories:

Combining parts of different EA meshes into a new mesh – a.k.a. frankenmeshing.

For sure you've seen frankenmeshed CC many times, even though you might not have realised it. Let's say EA releases a new DLC which includes a top with some cool, never-seen-before sleeves. Let's say there's a dress in game which you think would look great with those new sleeves instead of the boring old ones. In such case you can simply export both meshes in S4S, open one of them in Blender and append the other one (more on it later). A bit of deleting & merging of vertices and voilà! The mesh is ready. Most of the time you don't even have to worry about uv-1 and weights (again, more on it later... LOTS on it later).

Mesh editing

That's pretty self-explanatory, isn't it? This method is what most tutorials try to teach you. Look for a piece which resembles the most what you'd like to make. Export the mesh and make the necessary adjustments. Depending on how much you edited, you might have to mess with uv-1 and weights a little bit, but usually it shouldn't be too problematic.

Making a mesh from scratch

As far as I know without having ever used Marvellous Designer, this is what MD creators do: 'sew' their mesh completely from scratch and then import it to Blender. Such a mesh doesn't carry any of the vital information – uv-maps, weights, bones, anything - so all of those have to be manually assigned to it. This, obviously, significantly increases the workload and can be very tricky to do; however, this meshing method gives you almost unlimited freedom. If you don't limit yourself to editing existing stuff, you can make pretty much ANYTHING.

As you can see, all of those methods have their pros and cons - and they're all equally valuable as long as they help you achieve your goal. The method which I like the most and which I'm going to show you lands somewhere between no. 2 and 3: I use an existing top and make it into a dress. This way I have lots of creative freedom, but also reduce the unnecessary workload (yes, in most cases meshing a top from scratch would be totally unnecessary).

Enough theory, let's go grab that top!

Open S4S. Choose the “Create 3D mesh” option under “CAS” menu and then click that “CAS” button. You will see the list of all CAS items in your game.

NOTE: If you DON'T see the list, that probably means S4S didn't manage to find your TS4 files. You have to open the 'Settings' tab and manually change the 'Sims 4 Path' and 'Sims 4 Documents'. And if you're already there, make sure your Blender path is correct as well!

As you can see, there are many categories you can choose from at the top to narrow down your search. I need a top for adult females, so that's what I'm going to select. My favourite starting point is that simple BG top – it's skin-tight (meaning: the texture is only printed on top of the body, not really meshed, which makes it perfect for any future edits) almost everywhere, except for the breast area: there it's nicely stretched, just like it should be in case of my dress. If I wanted to make a dress with a deep décolletage, like an evening or ball gown, I'd type 'nude' in the search bar and select that naked female Barbie top instead.

The swatch doesn't matter. Select any of them and then click 'next'. I chose the red one, just because I like the colour:

What you're doing now is cloning a BG item and creating a new package. Name it whatever you want and save it in some 'Tutorial' folder or so. It doesn't really matter, as soon you won't need it anymore – we're here only for the mesh.

Once you've done it, a new window will appear. This is your new package with all the information it carries. We'll delve into details later – for now, as I said, we only need the mesh. Go to the 'Meshes' tab and click the 'Export mesh' button (make sure NOT to change the level of detail by accident!). Save it in your Tutorial folder as whatever (e.g. mesh_1).

You can close S4S now – we won't need it for a loooong time. Open your newly exported Blender file instead. This is what you should see:

NOTE: It won't make any sense to you right now, but check if you see the 'S4Studio CAS Tools' on the right side! If they're not there, it means your Blender and S4S are not properly connected and you'll run into problems later. Go back to S4S settings and assign the correct Blender path!

I'd suggest you immediately change the perspective to Ortho (num 5) and hide those sidebars on the right (n) and left (t) of the main window. Better, right?

Make sure your cursor is in the main window! If the shortkeys aren't working, it's probably because the cursor is in the wrong place.

When you go into edit mode (tab), you might notice one very important detail: body parts are also parts of the mesh. If you delete them, they won't appear on your sim either. Our top includes hands and neck only – the rest of what you can see is visible only in Blender. A good way to check if your mesh isn't missing anything is clicking that little plus next to 'rig' and then 'closing' all those little eyes next to all the listed body parts. Now your model will look a bit different:

Of course, missing some of those body parts is not a problem. A dress shouldn't include head or feet – those are separate categories. We can toggle feet, both heads and teeth visible again. What we lack is a bottom, i.e. legs – but luckily, we don't have to worry about it, as they'll be hidden under the skirt anyway. I will explain how to add legs (or any other missing body parts) to the mesh at one point, but a bit later – for now let's say we don't need them.

There are two methods of meshing a skirt that I'd like to show you, and they both start with the same basic steps:

1. Just after exporting, your mesh is cut wherever its uv map was cut, which might lead to some problems. Better select all your vertices (a), press w and choose 'remove doubles' from the list. Almost 300 vertices got merged!

2. Turn on the X-ray. Make sure you're in the front view (num 1) and then select (b) all the vertices below the waistline. Press X or del and choose 'vertices'. Kaboom!

3. Select (b) the lowest remaining row of vertices.

4. Extrude those vertices down (e, z) until the point to which your dress should reach. If you're using a reference picture, that's one of those moments when you should take a close look at it.

5. Scale (s) those extruded vertices until the bottom of your dress is as wide as it should be. If you're using a picture, pay attention to the proportion of the bottom of the dress vs shoulders – that's usually the best reference point you can get. Mine should be quite a bit wider than the shoulders, so I got this:

6. Turn the camera around and check how it looks from other viewpoints. I can see that my skirt is kind of asymmetrical, and not in a good way: flat at the back, going too far to the front. Let's go to the side view (num 3) and move those vertices back a bit (g, y). Much better!

7. I still don't like that flatness at the back. Let's go to the top view (num 7) and select only the central vertex on the back. Now, do you remember what you did to get that icing on the donut? Proportional editing? That's what I'm going to use. I'll turn it on only for connected vertices (alt + o) and then move that central vertex back (g, y).

NOTE: If your whole mesh is moving when you're trying to use proportional editing, scroll your mouse wheel until you see a white circle on the screen. The smaller the circle, the smaller the area affected by your edits. By default it's very big, that's why everything is moving!

8. Once again look around and make sure the basic shape of your skirt mesh is correct. Save, e.g. as mesh_2 (ctrl + shift + s).

Did you make it till the end? Congratulations! I'm sorry it got so long and I hope you could follow everything (also, please tell me if something isn't clear, I'll try to add explanations). Of course we're not done with our meshing adventures; the skirt still needs lots of tuning, but we'll deal with it next time. Now we all deserve a good rest :).

(Next: III a. Method I: Loop, Sculpt, Cut)

#tutorial #meshing

[planet-crait]

A Saltier analysis of the Art of Star Wars Rebels (Part 2)

So…..after my initial post you can find here more issues with the book where pointed out to me/I just sat looking through it noticing even more issues so….consider this a part two to my original post going over even more issues I have with the Art of Star Wars Rebels. Obviously there will be salt so if you enjoyed the book a lot and don’t want that view tainted please don’t click on below the cut. Also beware major spoilers for Rebels. 

So first off we’re going to kick off with talking about some items that were very strangely missing from the book. Now full disclosure @findswoman​ really was the one who noticed this issue but it seriously deserves mention and I am stunned I missed it but, why are Loth cats and Loth Bats not ever mentioned in the book? 

Loth Cats are a near constant presence within the series, they play some minor roles even in destroying a droid and helping distract guards. Loth bats similarly inspire the gliders that the kids use to rescue Hera! Said gliders make it into the book

Why aren’t the loth bats, the inspiration for said gliders, even in the book as well?

Another potentially controversial criticism I have is for the cover for the deluxe edition itself. 

Some people may love it which is fair but personally I am not as fond of it as I am of the original cover. I get that they were trying to get a feel of the holocron in the cover but it just doesn’t vibe with me at all and I feel like they could have done something more special for the deluxe cover. 

Speaking of holocrons, they do not get a proper showcase within the art book. Here is the page where it is mentioned and notice how it talks about the map, not the holocron itself. 

Hell, you barely see it in the image in the book! Why? The holocrons are a big deal in the show, why are they not getting showcased when items that only make an appearance in one episode do? Even if other media showed off the holocrons, this is the art of Star Wars Rebels, if it was important to the show, it deserved a place in the book. Instead they waste space on things that were not important or even really shown in the show. Like Tatooine gets two full pages in the book:

Some of those images almost look like shots from Episode 4 which brings back the question of what the heck is this doing here? (Which I found myself asking way too much when looking through this book). Again this book should be a celebration of Rebels, not all of Star Wars. Those pages could have been used to show off key elements from the show that for unknown reasons got cut from the book. 

There is just a lot of what feels like filler or wasted space in the book, for example Rex, Obi-wan, Vader, Yoda, Bo-Katan and Palpatine get two pages devoted to their characters while other main characters from the show get only one page or only half a page like in Choppers case. Zeb, Kallus, and Hera also all do not get their alternate season designs shown off in the book while Kanan, Sabine and Ezra do. Hell Rex even got an extra half a page to show off designs that never made it into the show and seemingly only exists to push Filoni’s headcanon that Rex was there with Han Solo. 

Why are the main characters not allowed to be the unashamed stars of this book? Why did the editors feel the need to waste space with characters who are not the stars and have their spot to shine in other media? Original characters for this show should get full and multiple pages for their characters, not characters who have appeared in other media and probably appear in other art books. 

If other side characters like Tristen and Usra Wren or Ketsun where getting these full or two pages I wouldn’t be quiet as annoyed because they are all original characters for the show, but those characters only got half a page while again, characters from other media like Saw and Mon Motha got a full page. I will say this until I am blue in the face but the original characters created specifically for Rebels should have been the true stars of this book, instead they are getting gypped and the short end of the stick while other characters the team thinks is more popular are given the spotlight. (I am not showing the pictures because, as is, this post is getting ridiculously long but I will happily share them in a reblog if anyone wants to see this).

They even included characters who never appeared in the show in the book

This is the very definition of wasted space. This page could have been used for undercover Chopper designs or season 3 or 4 of Hera and Zeb designs or one of the many many things that never made an appearance in the book that by all accounts should have been like Kanan’s lightsaber or Zeb’s bo-rifle. Instead we get stuff of Director Krennic.

Even things that had their fair share of content, still managed to miss the mark in some cases. 

The Ghost in total has about six pages devoted to it which even includes concept art for it that was never used which is not a problem at all. In fact I love that! This is what I bought the book for, to see concepts and art for things that were at some point going to be in the show but were cut for one reason or another. The book would have benefited if it contained way more concept art for things like this like for example what Filoni imagined Lasan to look like or other concept designs for Zeb or hell talk about Kallus’s early days when he was originally a Chiss. Interesting stuff like that which wasn’t explored in the show but still exciting and interesting. 

My big issue with the Ghost sections (yes sections) is that instead of putting everything related to the Ghost together for some reason the pages are split into two different sections within the book. 

(Don’t ask my why they decided to throw concept art of the millennium falcon to go with that little tidbit instead of more concept art for the Ghost, just know this is on my shitlist too)

These are pages 48 through 51 of the book. The next time the Ghost appears is way later near the end of the book

Pages 150 and 151! Some of the split concepts for things can be explained by the fact that the book is split into several sections: Beginning, middle, and end of the show. However this does not give a satisfactory explanation as to why the Ghost’s concept art is split across two sections and not even evenly! Why not put all of the information for the Ghost all together in one section so if someone was looking for something specifically for reference or something they don’t have to look through the whole book to find it because the info is all over the place?  Directly following the later pages is the Phantom II so maybe the logic was they didn’t want to just toss the Phantom in without any other context? Which….doesn’t work cuz the Ghost honestly feels thrown in for no real reason. The Phantom II being separated from the Ghost and The Phantom would have been fine because the Phantom does come in later so it being in the section devoted to later parts of the series would have been fine. 

Of course, I can’t really say there is a section for the Phantom, that one image you saw back on page 50? That is the only reference the original Phantom ,something that was in the show for two seasons, get’s. One image and maybe a second but it feels more like an image of the back of the Ghost and not one of the Phantom. Meanwhile the Phantom II get’s two pages entirely to itself. Why the difference? Both ships were in the series for two seasons, why not some images of the inside of the Phantom or more shots from different angles? Why does only the Phantom II get these?

I really cannot fathom why they skimped out on one ship and gave two pages to another when both had equal importance. 

Now I mentioned before that the layout of the book may have influenced the decision to split the pages talking about the Ghost, but personally I am not a fan of the layout of the book. It makes things confusing and doesn’t flow well. Here is the table of contents:

At a glance this seems fine and a nice nod to the series having four seasons, but notice there are no sub categories like textbooks that have key concepts in the chapter and what page they start on. So if you wanted to focus on character models? You would still have to spend a lot of time flipping through the sections to find what you were looking for. Personally I would have rather the book be divided by content: Characters, props, and environments. That way all things that are alike would all be group together instead of broken up into four sections across the book. Of course other art books could be laid out like this and people may like this method. This particular point is a bit more nitpicky and me being a person who was far more interested in character concept art then anything else. 

I briefly touched upon this in my part one analysis of the book, but this issue rears its ugly head again in the issue of things not getting good labeling leaving the reader having to read the mini paragraphs or searching the book to figure out what it is or what is going on. 

Want to know where this is?

Or this?

Or even this?

Me too, too bad the book can’t be bothered to tell you anything about these. When I was searching for anything to tell me what these images among many others in the book where, I noticed this

Which for a bit I couldn’t figure out what  it was, notes accidentally left in? Some obscure reference to what it was supposed to be? Looking at other pages I noticed repeat notes that looked the same so I was starting to get even more confused until when looking through the cover pages, I finally spotted this:

Which okay fine they shorthanded the artists names in the credits right be the art….but then I noticed that not every piece of art in this book has any sort of credit along with the fact that quite a few have no label for what it's supposed to be. And while one could argue that those places are iconic enough to be recognized I have to disagree. Not everyone knows or follows all Star Wars Media that is a fan of the show. Not everyone has a great memory of the episodes within rebels or places that most would think are familiar. There is no reason to not put in a small label next to the artist credit so fans know what it is supposed to be. I could guess or try to look it up but I shouldn’t have to, the book should tell me what it is!

Even worse is the inconsistency on if an artist gets credit for the art they made. Like this one here:

No credit or anything, we have no clue who created this piece or why there is nothing here to indicate who did, and that is not fair to the person who created this piece. (I checked the next page as well even and there was nothing)

Also yes that image above the artist’s credit is another concept art from episode 4 which was slapped on there for who knows why. Again this should have been more art from Rebels. This is not, nor should it be, the art of Star Wars. It is the art of Star Wars Rebels. No concept art from other media has any business being in this book. 

So many aspects of this book feel rushed or slapped together with no real rhyme or reason even though it was delayed in its release and then released early! Why? It just doesn’t make any sense and isn’t fair to the fans of this show who adored it and wanted to get this book to learn more about the show that for many fans, including myself, got me into Star Wars. We deserve more respect than this. 

This book truly feels like a quick cash grab, not the thank you to the fans of the show it should have been. 

Again I cannot stress this enough, if you like the book that is fine. But you cannot blow off and ignore the voices of people who are not satisfied with this book and expected so much more from it then it gave us. 

#SWR #the art of star Wars Rebels #Star Wars Rebels #Salt #part two #SWR salt #let's see if the pictures get all screwed up again

[rockshortage]

Ok, soooo 3 (I know you already answered this before, but I can't find the post and I can't remember what your answer was ;<;), 8, 10, 15, 16, 17, 21, and 28?

gets asks and proceeds to ignore them for 3 days

3. What does your oc’s voice sound like? (Or, if you have one, what’s their voiceclaim?) Can they sing, whistle, or roll their rs? Do they have any speech impediments or notable dialects/accents?

This is a different video from the one I linked the first time I answered this, but same guy: https://youtu.be/OMjJSyPTFSg?t=53 this one has a lot of respect women juice in it and I’m living for it Main factors for choosing him are: the age, he’s swiss, and a metal musician. So that gives me good references for just the voice itself, the accent, and some pointers to what the singing voice could sound like. (Could, because the style of metal is a bit different from what Hector would mostly be into, including the singing, so idk dude) I haven’t had a ‘oh this one is PERFECT’ moment with this voice claim, so if that ever happens I might change it, but I doubt it tbh.

Hector can sing pretty well, it’s something he’d do a lot while working on projects at home. Singing/growling/screaming along to music he’s listening to a lot, so he might as well work on getting good at it. He can whistle fine as well, doesn’t do very often though. Can’t do the loud ‘come here’ whistle. Can absolutely roll his ‘r’s. As for the accent, the voice claim one goes in the right direction. Hector’s would be messier though because of all the different influences of people around him.

8. What’s it like inside your oc’s mind? (Literally, or metaphorically.)

Always busy, mostly inward focused. Thinking about what he’s been working on, the last conversation he had and how that could have gone better or the next conversation he’s gonna have to have with one of the bosses.

10. Who’s the first person your oc goes to to talk about something that made them happy? Sad? Angry?

The best bet for Hector actually voicing emotions is MAAK. Not a person exactly, so idk if you wanna let that count, but if it’s something that bothers him on a deep level, the robot is the only thing he’ll vent at voluntarily. For lighter stuff-  sure, he’ll go bitch to Gage about mildly annoying things that he already knows bother him, and if Hector’s excited about having completed some kind of gizmo he’ll show that to Gage too, or Butch if they’re around. Basically: positive emotions mainly go to Gage, Butch and Darryl, same for lightly negative things. Things on a deep seated level go to no one / MAAK / the fog crawler maybe. And this is a spontaneous thought, but it’s possible that over time he manages to get more communicative with Darryl about those things. He still won’t be great at it and will probably need a beer or two beforehand, but I could see him learning a bit of healthy communication with her.

15. What’s your oc’s morning routine like?

For 15 and 16, we’ll just pretend he has a proper sleep schedule and assume he’s safely at home, because there are so many things that would vary a lot depending on where he is.

Depending on how tired he is, he’ll either try to get 5 more minutes or just roll himself out of bed. Get MAAK out of standby, give him a little pat and maybe a tin can to devour, then shuffle on over to take care of hygiene stuff – brush his teeth, wash his face, tame the bedhead, put on a little cologne. Then it’s coffee time, which he will have on the couch or at a desk if there’s a busy day ahead. He’s not much of a breakfast eater, but if he knows he’ll be out and about the entire day, he’ll just have to force himself to eat a proper meal. Whether he gets fully dressed (minus mask) before or after breakfast depends on the mood, can go either way.

16. What’s your oc’s nighttime routine like?

He’s more of a shower in the evening kinda guy so that’s usually what he does. Generally only after he knows he won’t be needing to get back out onto the patio anymore, or if it’s already so late that it doesn’t matter. Because then he can change into some more comfortable clothes (sweatpants/sweatshirt) while he winds down for the night. Then it’s journal time, in which he writes down stuff he hasn’t already over the course of the day and review his notes. Might talk to MAAK a bit while he does that, because why not. If he’s not tired enough yet he might pass the time with some tinkering, reading a book, listening to some music, etc. until he is. Then MAAK gets a good night pat, is put into standby mode, and it’s sleepy time for Hector too.

17. If your oc had a social media page, what would it be like? What would they post about? How much personal information would they feel comfortable posting on it? How often would they update it?

I know I’ve already written most of this stuff down, but I can’t remember whether it was public or just in a private conversation between you and me….

It wouldn’t have much of a structure, neither in content nor update schedule. He’ll post about whatever’s interesting to him or he feels like sharing. Usually stuff that isn’t really pre-planned, so for example an instructional video on how to program a robot to do X will involve him trailing off and talking about some other thing or go on a rant about X decision in Robot Design that really annoys him, and if Programming Language did Y instead of Z it would be so much easier and so on. other flavors of content:

blurry picture of big dangerous creature taken from way too close

making horrible food creations

followed by best of compilation of angry comments

feeding MAAK various things

How To Swear In Swiss German

Signs written by raiders, now with even more spelling errors and funky phrasing

Like with Darryl, the rare actual nice picture of a person because I’m a sucker for that concept. Such as: Darryl smiling. Gage and Butch being cute together. Lily playing with a pupper. And other such soft gooey things

But also the occasional Old Man Selfie (you know like those facebook profile pictures) with annoyed Gage in the background

21. What’s a fact you haven’t shared about this oc?

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh he’d be bi I guess? Effectively ace thanks to Trauma™, and while his interest in anything sexual wouldn’t be much higher even if that trauma wasn’t a thing… he might have at least had a little more opportunity to figure himself out

28. What’s your favorite thing about this oc?

How far he’s come. I mean that mostly on a meta level, because he’s the first OC I decided to stick with, and it’s so nice to see that other people like him too and now he not only has an in-world ‘place’ and backstory and everything (that keeps getting more complex), he also co-exists in that world with your OCs and that makes everything feel so much more alive than I ever could’ve hoped for at the start, and it’s just so much fun 😘

But I mean in the story itself he also comes very far. Going from introverted nervous mess who couldn’t hope to train a dog to still introverted nervous mess but managing to become pretty competent at leading that big ol raider empire

#anyway got a lil sappy at the end there #hector messerli #corvidexoskeleton #at first i was addressing you in third person in this ask #but it felt so fucking weird #because you're the one who sent the ask #sorry to everyone else for who reading this might have been easier if i left it in third person #but i could not #ask #hector ref

[homespork-review]

Homespork Act 3: Insane Mindscrew Haymakers (Part 1)

BRIGHT: Before Act 3 proper starts, we see a message from Nanna to John, written in the front of the Sassacre’s joke book from Dad’s safe. The message is somewhat bizarre. For one thing, according to Nanna, the book it’s written in will end its journey on the day she dies...and still carry on for a while. For another, it talks about game elements we’ve encountered already, and hints at more to come. Overall it’s a nice bit of detail, enough to whet the reader’s interest.

You are no doubt reading this as a handsome and strapping young man! Why, the mangrit needed to lift the book is itself a sign of your maturity, not even to speak of the wisdom needed to grasp the nuance of Sassacre's time-tested mischief. I am so proud of you, grandson! How I wish I could have delivered this heirloom to you in the flesh. But I am afraid it wasn't in the cards! For you see, John, like you, this book must yet take a journey! Its journey will end on the Final Day of my life, and even then will continue some. Though I suppose that will be up to your Father. Perhaps he will discuss it with you one day, when he and you are ready. But it is your journey I am writing about to wish you luck! There will come a day when you will be thrust into another world. And once you arrive, that is only the beginning! You will soon delve even deeper into a realm of Warring Royalty in a Timeless Expanse. A realm of Agents and Exiles and Consorts and Kernelsprites. Of toiling Underlings and slumbering Denizens. A realm where four will gather, the Heir of Breath and Seer of Light, the Knight of Time and Witch of Space, and together they will Ascend. John, if only you knew how important you were! I regret my passing came so early in your life. And yet I feel in my heart we have already met. But what I know for sure is that we will meet again! Until then, John, I do hope your Father keeps you well fed!

FAILURE ARTIST: As I said earlier, Hussie has artfully defaced books, including one antique one about an expedition around the world. Defaced books show up again in this comic.

CHEL: Particularly, it implies that Nanna also had knowledge of the game during her lifetime, somehow, and refers to the gathering of four heroes. This is our first introduction to the classpect system, which now rivals Hogwarts houses as a method of personality description in fandom at large. I think at the time I didn’t realise who it was referring to… Anyway.

Next, we officially meet GG, the fourth and final member of our gang, a “silly girl” with a cheery grin, sleeping in a greenhouse full of vegetables and spirograph-shaped flowers. Since she’s sleeping and can’t object, she’s referred to for a while as FARMSTINK BUTTLASS, but she’s way ahead of us; under her hand is a note admonishing the reader and declaring her actual name to be Jade Harley. I think she’s the cutest of the kids, myself - just seeing her first appearance makes me happy! All its weaknesses aside, Homestuck’s pretty great at creating painfully cute character designs and attaching a good range of personalities to them.

FAILURE ARTIST: Jade Harley was considered a “Mary Sue” when she was first introduced. I don’t know why. Yeah, she has a lot of eccentricities and unusual possessions but so do the other characters.

Farmstink is a reference to an old comic Hussie did about this dude obsessed with the stink of farms. Hussie’s early work is really weird.

CHEL: The reader attempts to wake Jade by dropping a pumpkin carved with an animal’s face on her head, but the pumpkin disappears; as we know, WV now has it. Fortunately for the pacing, Jade wakes up on her own. Look closely, and you’ll notice the symbol on her shirt changes each page; that turns out a bit later to be due to her hi-tech WARDROBIFIER. If I recall correctly, Hussie intended to settle on one chosen by reader vote, but ended up on a cycle of three different ones.

FAILURE ARTIST: Jade settles on three icons to appear on her shirt. However, eventually just one icon stays on her shirt. The WARDROBIFIER doesn’t get much use with her, though a later character has the same thing.

CHEL: Jade is also wearing COLORFUL REMINDERS on her fingers, and when the view pans out it’s revealed by the view from the window that her GARDEN ATRIUM is on a high floor. She plays the flute badly for a while in a Flash game; apparently it’s not her preferred instrument. Also fortunately for the pacing, we think, she knows how to use her sylladex, and prefers to set its retrieval function in the form of a memory game because you seem to have a knack for always guessing right on the first try! On checking her reminders, she remembers to wish John happy birthday, gathers some fruit, and heads upstairs by means of a teleporter.

Jade’s bedroom proves to be full of various disturbing-looking plushies, albeit not nearly as disturbing as the Smuppets, hanging baskets and potted plants, a bass guitar, and G-rated furry artwork, including a piece obviously drawn by Dave. Franchises depicted in her toy and poster collections include GREEN SLIME GHOST (the apparent copyright-friendly source of John’s T-shirt and pogo ride), MANTHRO CHAPS (mustachioed human faces on plush animal bodies), and SQUIDDLES (adorable octopi with magnets in their bellies which stick together as Tangle Buddies!). Her favoured weapons are rifles, though she would never shoot an animal, and she has various gadgets on a worktable, including a thing that looks like a disconnected window not unlike those shown in Rose’s book, which she apparently hasn’t been able to get to work.

FAILURE ARTIST: Manthro Chaps is a reference to Hussie’s particularly disturbing set of comics where he plays around with anthropomorphization. Like having an anthro chicken man lay anthro eggs.

CHEL: The comic in question, Humanimals, can be found here; warnings for extreme body horror and general grossness.

FAILURE ARTIST: Jade is told by a forum prompter to Lose interest in fauna and never speak of it again. Jade refuses to in a beautiful little speech but she denies she’s a furry. Oh, if she only knew what was coming for her.

Jade looks out the window and we find out she lives somewhere next to a volcano.

CHEL: The very same one which appeared in the animation at the end of the last act, in fact.

Your grandfather is a WORLD RENOWNED EXPLORER-NATURALIST-TREASURE HUNTER-ARCHEOLOGIST-SCIENTIST-ADVENTURER-BIG GAME HUNTER-BILLIONAIRE EXTRAORDINAIRE. He has taught you everything you know.

Grandpa is heavily coded here and in his appearance a bit later as a Great White Hunter, an upper-class European guy who goes to faraway countries in order to shoot the animals there. Of course, non-white people can certainly do that, but white is what people will immediately picture upon seeing the trope. Also note we have another ridiculously wealthy family here. Since all four of the kids have now been introduced and we’ve had a lot of WSP points from their races and financial statuses already, here we get another HOW NOT TO point as well.

The Country Club Here every single character is white and middle-to-upper class. Unless your novel is taking place in rural Sweden, this will eventually give the reader the eerie feeling that some form of ethnic cleansing has taken place. HOW NOT TO WRITE A WEBCOMIC: 14 WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 7

One could argue that some form of ethnic cleansing is taking place, since these are the kids who are surviving the apocalypse, though that’s not actually fair because there are plenty of other SBurb sessions all across the world which might also succeed.

Jade opens her GADGET CHEST and produces several more items pertaining to her interests, including her computer, which she keeps in a Squiddles lunchbox. Several fortune-telling items are included among them, but according to Jade they are not the source of her abilities. The Magic 8-Ball is apparently usually wrong, responding to being asked whether it’s John’s birthday today with NOT EXACTLY, and the Magic Cue Ball is supposedly always right but is impossible to read, making it completely useless.

FAILURE ARTIST: There’s another Problem Sleuth reference (or rather Problem Sooth) but what’s important is the Magic Cue Ball. Unlike her Magic 8-Ball, it has no window where one can read the prediction. If only Jade had a special vision. Perhaps an eightfold vision.

Jade goes to feed BEC. She has some sylladex trouble until she finally just takes a steak out of her fridge.

CHEL: Once again, the sylladex shenanigans waste several pages.

GET ON WITH IT!: 9

Bec’s identity is as yet unknown, but recall that Dave called him a “devilbeast” in an earlier conversation, and when he suggested shooting Bec Jade said she didn’t think she could if she tried. He also apparently eats nothing but steaks (lucky Grandpa’s a billionaire), so Jade is living on an island with apparently minimal supervision from her guardian and an allegedly dangerous carnivore running wild outside. Like Dave, at this point it seems to be very lucky she’s a cartoon character.

FAILURE ARTIST: Using a special oven she irradiates the steak. Umm, I think Bec can take that but I worry about Jade.

Jade finds and plays her elaborate bass and she’s much better at it than with the flute. During the flash, the camera pulls out and we find out where she lives: in a tower on a small volcanic island with a frog temple in the lagoon. An airplane goes by and drops a package.

Jade uses her super high-tech “lunchtop” to have a conversation with John. Nothing special about that but we see on her chumroll a bunch of unfamiliar handles. Hmm.

CHEL: The unfamiliar handles are listed in the “Trollslum”, which one presumes is a blocklist. I think you have to see just how hi-tech the lunchtop is:

"Jade: Get down to business." (Watch on YouTube)

Hussie’s really coming into his own with the animations by now.

FAILURE ARTIST: Dave has sent her some messages begging her to wake up and unfortunately one line has the f-slur in it.

CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 7

In the end, he decides she’ll probably forget what he says.

CHEL: Begging her to wake up” doesn’t exactly cover it.

TG: youre asleep again arent you TG: or do you even know if you are TG: i still dont know how that works TG: its like nothing means anything

Apparently Jade sometimes talks to him while she’s sleeping.

FAILURE ARTIST: There’s a little flash where you can listen to some of Dave’s tunes. When you’re done with that, you can join her in looking at mspadventures.com. A crude John wearing a wizard hat is sitting on his lawn with the caption

It begins to dawn on you that everything you just did may have been a colossal waste of time.

What the hell is going on here? Is Jade reading what John is doing right now?

CHEL: I think it’s just a fourth wall joke, but it’s certainly accurate, considering our GET ON WITH IT count.

FAILURE ARTIST: Next, we get this flash called Midnight Crew: Act 1031. If you are watching it in 2019, the song playing is Dead Shuffle by Mark Hadley. However, the song was originally Nightlife by Bill Bolin. Unfortunately, Bolin had a dispute with Hussie over Hussie using music that Bolin considered WIP. Bolin blew up and called Hussie “unprofessional” and in a very professional move posted a photo of himself giving the double deuce. It’s a shame this happened since Nightlife is a jauntier and more appropriate tune.

CHEL: The Midnight Crew, to be specific, are gangsters with card-themed names who bear a striking resemblance to WV, living in a mysterious purple city full of towers, pitted against the Felt, another gang of odd-looking green fellows who wear bowler hats with numbers on them, in the colour schemes of a set of pool balls.

Hussie did make reference in the previous page to a “weird tangential intermission [which] clearly advanced the plot in no way whatsoever”, implying that it actually is relevant, and the purple city and its shiny black beady-eyed inhabitants look very familiar, but since as far as we know at this point the Midnight Crew is just a comic-within-a-comic, you know which counts get added to.

GET ON WITH IT!: 10 WHAT IS HAPPENING??: 2

Just for the record, the leader of the gang is named Spades Slick, and yes, we’re aware that “spade” is a slur against black people, which makes it slightly unfortunate to be applied as a name to a black-shelled alien creature. However, we’re not counting that as PROBLEMATYKKS because Hussie and the Crew’s original writer certainly did not intend that. It’s not that commonly used a term from what I’ve seen, the playing cards would be the more likely immediate association, and with the other characters being Clubs Deuce, Hearts Boxcars, and Diamonds Droog, it’s just an unfortunate coincidence. If he was a black human, then I’d object more strenuously.

FAILURE ARTIST: Jade talks with Dave (I think the conversation is a repeat?)

CHEL: Yep.

GET ON WITH IT!: 11

FAILURE ARTIST: Finally, we get the flash we’ve been waiting for: Dave strifes with his mysterious guardian. Or rather, he strifes with Lil Cal while Bro is a speed blur.

BRIGHT: Unlike the other strifes up to this point, the reader can’t do anything other than watch, because Bro slices the command box in half right at the start.

TIER: In the world of Homestuck, the parental units are overall just really weird! Like dad Egbert severe overabundance of cakes and mom Lalonde's drunken dysfunction. It's overall all hilarious, fitting with the tone and humor of the story well!

But then we have our lovely outlier. The one, the hated, The. Bro “a huge bastard honestly” Strider! A.K.A basically the one guardian whose questionable parenting gets the Real Consequences treatment later on in this tale. Peculiar that.

CHEL: Now, under most circumstances, an adult man beating the hell out of a barely-teenage kid, on the precarious rooftop of a high-rise building no less, would be horrifying. However, Bro chooses to hit Dave with his puppet, which… is frankly hard to take seriously. Obviously it would still hurt if a real person did that, but it looks so stupid that the immediate assumption is that it’s a joke.

BRIGHT: Particularly when earlier strife moves like Rose’s ‘Empty Suicide Threat’ were intended to be humorous. This is about on the same level as that, in terms of severity!

TIER: Being smacked around by the flopping noodle limbs of a freaky puppet is honestly hard to take seriously. Hell, this entire sequence is chock full of outlandish “Rule of Cool” bullshit and I am Peeved that I was apparently supposed to look at this sequence of ridiculous events and go “OBVIOUSLY THIS IS FUCKED UP AND ABUSIVE”.

ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?: 7

CHEL: I could kinda see that with hindsight from the rest of the comic, but definitely not “OBVIOUSLY THIS IS A LOT MORE FUCKED UP AND ABUSIVE THAN THE OTHER AWFUL FAMILY CIRCUMSTANCES”, which is what was apparently intended. And we also get another HOW NOT TO point, which we’ll give now even though the official “reveal” comes much later.

A Novel Called It - wherein an abusive parent exists Bad parents are everywhere in unpublished fiction. Whole cities of abusive fathers and sneering mothers live in the pages of books that can’t be sold. While occasionally, and notably in the horror genre, this sort of material can be made good (Carrie, V. C. Andrews), most cruel parents in fiction are just as much fun as they are in real life. HOW NOT TO WRITE A WEBCOMIC: 14

That damn puppet gets creepier every time, admittedly, more so now that Bro is moving so fast that the thing appears to be dancing on Dave’s head under its own power. Dave’s expressions look more annoyed than afraid or hurt, however, in my opinion.

FAILURE ARTIST: Anyway, we go back to Jade. Rose is pestering her.

TT: I require a font of frighteningly accurate yet infuriatingly nonspecific information. TT: Do you know where I can find a wellspring of this sort?

Very business-like, isn’t it? Rose and Jade’s relationship is a big missed opportunity in this comic. They’re more like friends-of-friends than friends.

CHEL: I don’t know, that sounds to me like how Rose talks to the boys too; facetiously formal. Still, they don’t converse nearly as much as the boys do with each other or them. Male writers in particular tend to do this, and it’s not entirely their faults. People are socialised to think women talk a lot more than they do, so he probably didn’t notice.

TIER: A real shame honestly, we were fucking robbed of some peak interactions between a sunshine flower child and a “dark and brooding” baby goth. Fucking. Robbed.

FAILURE ARTIST: We find out that Jade was the one who had the idea of playing Sburb. She had told Rose that the game would answer some of Rose’s unnamed questions. Rose wants more information on this Big Day. Jade says the game will not be what Rose thinks it is and will answer questions Rose hasn’t thought of yet. On that mysterious note, Jade says goodbye.

CHEL: We check in briefly with Rose in the present, confirming that she’s found the secret passage and is escaping the fire, bringing the corpse of her cat along with her, then to John, who is doing much worse. The ogres (the giant tusked imps) have cornered him, and while he flails frantically about with his Pogo Hammer it doesn’t do much good. They beat the snot out of him with the old Sassacre book and the tire swing, then send him flying into the abyss; fortunately, Nannasprite is able to catch him on his bed and provide healing, allowing him to flail uselessly at the ogres again and get beaten up again, ad infinitum.

Back in the desert, a giant worm-like creature emerges from PM’s bunker and chows down on the cart full of mailboxes. PM is displeased, and puts a hand on the hilt of an ornate black sword.

Cut back to the FAQ, which John has found time to edit with information about the punch card system. He doesn’t know if anyone is left alive to play the game, but Rose asked him to add to it, so he will. He’s figured out with his 133t h4x0r 5k1llz that the captcha code on the back of the cards is converted into a binary-based pattern on the cards, 0 being blank and 1 being a punched hole. Overlapping the cards functions like a bitwise AND operation, causing both to be enacted. The 48-hole card system allows for 300 trillion combinations, but John lampshades the fact that this couldn’t possibly cover every conceivable captchable item, and that various combinations of overlapping cards would just produce the same combination. This is just adding to my conviction that the system ought to be reworked; the totems alone would probably allow for a much wider range, if one gets down to the atomic level of their shape. Then again, those would be a lot harder to merge… Still, I’m sure there’s some way to work it.

BRIGHT: This section was kind of surprising to me because up to this point we haven’t had much if any description of John being into coding, so the section came out of left field somewhat. Not bad, necessarily, just jarring.

CHEL: Actually, he did mention in his intro that he likes to program, albeit not very well, he had some coding books on his shelves, and the icons on his computer are named in a way which implies they’re some of his attempts at coding. However, this interest never really comes up again later that I remember.

Meanwhile, the secret passage Rose followed led to her mother’s laboratory, which bears the logo “SN” with a stylised atom and a spirograph pattern in the loops of the S. It seems Mom Lalonde knows more than she’s letting on about the game. Inside the laboratory is an enormous HUBGRID of devices into which the laptop can be plugged.

FAILURE ARTIST: Rose uses that ol’ r-slur when she says she won’t go on the pad so that’s another point.

CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 8

CHEL: Jade uses the TRANSPORTALIZER to travel most of the way down to the ground floor, but not all the way down because the one on that floor is blocked. As she walks down the last couple of flights of stairs, we see Grandpa’s own collections of stuff; taxidermised animal heads, suits of armour, mummified corpses (made by pasting in photographs to the cartoon background, it’s creepy as hell), and his BLUE BEAUTIES, or the DAUGHTERS OF ECLECTICA; sun-bleached portrait photographs of beautiful women. On the final floor, we are confronted with the thing blocking the final portal; a gigantic preserved monster with a white head and green serpentine body. It took me till just now to figure it out but I think the white part is supposed to be a human torso on the snake tail; at first it just looked like a snake wearing a stocking mask. That’s what happens when the humans don’t have arms.

Jade thought she had logged off from Pesterchum, but suddenly it pings again, and here we are introduced to an entirely new section of the cast. We’re probably not spoiling anything by not being mysterious about them at this point in the fandom’s history, but just in case, we’ll stick to doing the reveals when the comic does. The person talking to Jade is one of the names from her TROLLSLUM, under the handle carcinoGeneticist; they gloat about being “BETTER AND SMARTER THAN YOU, FOREVER” when asked how they’re still contacting Jade after being blocked, and mock her about today being “FINALLY THE DAY YOU FUCK EVERYTHING UP”. Angry, Jade blocks them again.

FAILURE ARTIST: I had forgotten that “they” appeared so early.

CHEL: Well, “appear” is stretching it; the TROLLSLUM only make contact through Pesterchum for a while yet. And when they show up, we’ll have both plenty of skilfully-written points to pick out and plenty of counts to apply.

#Homespork #homestuck #literary critique #sporking #Let's read #let's read homestuck #homestuck let's read #homestuck review #homestuck meta #homestuck reread

[wolfpawn]

I Hate You, I Love you, Chapter 75

Chapter Summary - Danielle gets ready to leave for the reshoots, meaning that since their moving in together, it is the first time Tom is left behind, an odd sensation for him.

Previous Chapter

Rating - Mature (some chapters contain smut)

Triggers - references to Tom Hiddleston’s work with the #MeToo Movement. That chapter will be tagged accordingly.

authors Note - I have been working on this for the last 3 years, it is currently 180+ chapters long.  This will be updated daily, so long as I can get time to do so, obviously

tags: @sweetkingdomstarlight-blog @jessibelle-nerdy-mum @nonsensicalobsessions @damalseer @hiddlesbitch1 @winterisakiller @fairlightswiftly @salempoe​ @wolfsmom1​

If you wish to be tagged, please let me know.

The break was everything Tom needed to get himself back in a good frame of mind, his body needed the massage to get out the knots he seemed to have given himself after the stress of everything, the break away got him out of the eye of the public, and finally being able to be intimate with Danielle again made him feel as though he was not falling apart completely. If her masseuse was to be believed, she too was carrying a large burden on her shoulders, but she had not shown it in his presence. After more than a little prodding, he had gotten her to admit that study was getting on top of her as well as trying to get back to work, with at least another fortnight before her brace could come off, she was worried she would miss the opportunity to interview for the US job she had been eyeing for the summer. He sensed she was also worried about him but did not say anything on the subject.

Their return to the city was fairly quiet, getting immediately back into a routine, though with less studying from Danielle's perspective. Instead, she readied to go back on location for Game of Thrones for the reshoots, packing large hoodies and jackets to take attention off her injured arm, which she was hoping to keep hidden. Tom worried that it was not a good idea to go if she was injured, but part of him knew it was not a concern, but selfishness that was causing him to think that way. He knew she would be fine, she was more level-headed than most, bar the incident that led to said injury; she would make sure to be careful so that it would be off sooner rather than later.

"I am after clearing the downstairs area of all things 'me' related," Danielle informed him as she entered the bedroom. Tom turned to look at her, conveying his confusion as he did so. "You said you were inviting the writer here for the interview?" "Yes." "Well, we don't want to go parading it all, so I have all my stuff tidied away."

"You erased all trace of yourself?"

"No, simply tidied my things downstairs until I come back." She corrected. "Our room is the same, as you can see," She pointed around. "About Mac, do you want me to put him in somewhere or will he be okay with you?" "Are you saying you think I cannot mind our dog?" Tom asked putting his arms around her.

"I am saying you might not have the time or the wish to mind him if you are busy." "I am not too busy for him, he will stay here with me." "Okay, and what are you planning to cook for…what is her name again?" "Taffy." Tom smiled. "I was thinking of cooking something simple." "Make it something reheatable, do it earlier in the day to allow you to no seem ignorant and ignore her while cooking," Danielle suggested.

"You are so considerate." Tom kissed her. "You don't mind her coming here?" Danielle frowned, "Why would I even care?"

"Well, another woman…" "Tom, she is a magazine writer, this is not some seedy rendezvous behind my back, if I was not working I would be here or close by, you are making it sound as though you plan on the two of you having some heated saucy affair." Danielle scoffed.

Tom looked at her for a moment. "Thank you." Danielle cocked her head slightly. "So many partners get jealous." "Tom if I get jealous at you meeting women you need to work with, this is not going to last particularly long." She laughed. "I mean, safety control means I work with the set crew, which to date, has had zero women on the construction side of things, zero, nada, zilch. If the same logic was to be applied to me, you would be bald, grey and going crazy."

Tom's brow furrowed. "Not one other woman in the whole area?" "Well there are set designers and other such women, but the construction guys, the ones that put the sets together, that's pretty male-orientated; not to mention I am the first woman a lot of them have worked within my role." She shrugged.

"Really?" "Yep." Tom pulled her into him. "That's my girl, breaking down barriers."

"Just wait til I am finished my study and get back my paperwork," She smiled. "Now, since I mentioned saucy already, there is Bolognese in the freezer, your one, you should just defrost some and give it to her."

"Why the Bolognese?" "Because you make a damn good one." Danielle smiled, leaning up on her tiptoes to kiss him.

"What am I going to do without you?" Tom stated, looking at his smiling girlfriend. "Get on with it, it's about three days, a week at most." "Hey, there's a big difference between three and seven days," Tom pointed out.

"There is, but they won't say until we get there what is being reshot, so we can only hamper guesses and that's the best I can give. When I get there, I will be told what it is and can give you are a better idea of when I am back," she stated with a smile. "Sure, you are meeting Taffy and have the Graham Norton show so that's half the week gone alone," she explained.

"Then a small recess until hectic schedules again."

"Yes, being proper adults with responsibilities isn't always fun." Danielle agreed, "But I mean, the Kong premiere run is what, two weeks? We can handle that, right?" "Three, but yes, phone calls, texts, skype." "I am not skype sexing, I am saying that right here and now, people can hack that and the last thing I want is my hoo-hoo on the internet!"

Tom chuckled. "Agreed, that would not be advisable. So phone calls and texts then?" "Phone calls, texting while trying to have a bit of fun is not easy I would imagine." "No, it's not." Tom agreed, leading to a raised brow from Danielle, "I was far younger, and it was back before predictive text." Danielle erupted in laughter. "God I was tragic." Tom groaned as he joined in. "'Was'?" she jested. "Was that far younger, curly-haired Hiddles?"

"With obligatory oversized jeans and thinking I was cool." Danielle erupted in fresh peels of laughter. "God I have come so far."

"Thank fuck." She forced out between laughter. Insulted, Tom grabbed her and began to tickle her leading to Danielle falling onto the bed in laughter. "Stop!" "Are you saying you would not have had time for younger me?" Tom asked.

"God no, younger Danielle would probably have been in this same position, though probably with a bit more drinking and going out." Danielle smiled.

"Wait you used to drink more, what happened?" "Myself and a friend, we drank a whole bottle of vodka between us one night," Tom winced. "It was the last time I did that." She nodded.

"How old were you?" "Nineteen, maybe twenty. Before that, I went out to nightclubs, drank my weight in alcohol and eating dodgy takeaway like every other youth." "Young, irresponsible Danielle, I would love to have seen that."

"And you?" "I don't think people realise how much alcohol a bunch of lads on a rugby team can drink." "Weren't you on the rugby team when you were in Eton, underage?" Tom shrugged. "Bold boy." "Then the Drama society in college, it wasn't a day if we weren't drinking it was a day wasted in some of their opinions." "But you ran the London Marathon back then, didn't you?" "Jesus, that was the hardest day of my life." Tom groaned. "Wait, didn't you say before you were going to do an IronMan?"

"Was." "What happened?"

"Work, I can't dedicate as much time to it now." "So you have given it up?" "What, no. I just have to wait for this to heal so I can cycle and swim, not to mention the weather is crappy, but I have found a pool to train in. The cycling is harder, there are a few places, but the city is far harder to navigate with all the traffic." She stated, holding up her hand.

Tom smiled in relief. "I thought you had given up something you love."

"Nah, not going to happen. I mean, I won't get to an IronMan for a while, but I am not after giving up. I am just a bit busier now, but it is short term, I want to get this all under my belt first." turning slightly, she gave the bed sheet a small smell. "I may need to give these a wash before I go, it stinks of my deodorant." "Don't, leave them as they are," she looked at Tom. "This is odd for me, being the one left at home." "It's only for a few days, you'll be abandoning me for longer." She smiled, toying with his hair.

Tom moved around so he was over her, smiling down at her. "I know, I am sorry, I wish I had a regular job." "I don't, you are incredible at what you do and you love it. I am so happy you get to do what you love so much, and if it means that for a few weeks here and there, I have to wait at home, or even skype or call you from wherever I am, I am okay with that." Tom leant down and kissed her. "My flight is in a few hours." she reminded him.

"Are you packed?" "Mmhmm." "Well then, I am going to ensure you go well satisfied," Tom swore as he leant to kiss her again.

*

Tom - Well, that went well.

Danielle - Done and dusted?

Tom - Yes, I went to speak to her at the hotel today, clear up some of the points that may not have been as clear as I wanted them to be.

Danielle - Good stuff.

Tom - How is work?

Danielle - Fine, cold, wet, dirty, but hey, that's why I signed up for, right?

Tom - Sadly there is good and bad. BTW good call on the Bolognese.

Danielle - Called it! No, seriously, it is lovely.

Tom - Minus the celery? :)

Danielle - what can I say, I'm not a fan.

Tom - duly noted.

Danielle - where did you eat the first night?

Tom - Can't say, you'll be mad.

Danielle - …..you went…..without me…..That's it, we're over, goodbye! Tom - Darling...

Danielle - You think you can grovel at my feet? Don't darling me!

Tom - We can go when you come back.

Danielle - I cannot believe you brought another woman there, I am heartbroken!

Tom - I'm sorry.

Danielle - Bite me!

Tom - If you keep acting like this, I might have to!

Danielle - …..really? You kinky fecker!

Tom - And I'm off the hook!

Danielle - so what else did you do?

Tom - Well, after she left last night, I watched Moonlight, as good as expected, but we did the interview yesterday, partly in Regents park, partly at the house.

Danielle - I haven't been there since New Years.

Tom - God it was gorgeous that day, the fog was so thick.

Danielle - We lost Mac about fourteen times in it! Tom - that only made it more fun.

Danielle - I suppose :)

Tom - So, now that you know what they are filming, do you know how long before you are home?

Danielle - My flight is booked for Friday, should be in about half seven to Gatwick.

Tom - Three more days? :(

Danielle - I know, it is almost done putting it together, I have to sign off on it in the morning, then film all tomorrow and Thursday, back Friday.

Tom - I'm collecting you from the airport.

Danielle - Well you have then time :) I'll make a deal with you, we will spend all of Saturday doing what you want?

Tom - So not leaving bed then?

Danielle - If that's what you want.

Tom - Bed is horrible without you.

Danielle - only three more nights. Xx

Tom - Mac misses you too, by the way, he is barking at the stairs every morning for you.

Danielle - Please stop, I can't know that! Tom - It's just him and me, all alone, without you here, all alone.

Danielle - Feck you anyway!

Tom - You want to come home?

Danielle - I wasn't overly happy to leave in the first place.

Tom - you'll just have to rush back so.

Danielle - Aren't you supposed to be at the BBC?

Tom - I am there now.

Danielle - Good.

Danielle - I am being called to set now, enjoy and talk to you this evening, tell me everything then. Bye xxx

Tom - Let me know what time to ring you, have a lovely day. Xxx

Tom put his phone in his pocket and smiled at Danielle's pretend anger at him going out for food without her as well as her enthusiasm to return home soon before getting to his feet and readying to go on stage for the Graham Norton show again.

#I Hate You I Love You #tom hiddleston #tom hiddleston fic #chapter 75 #wolfpawn

[yeonchi]

Doctor Who Series 12 Review Part 3/10: Orphan 55

Air date: 12 January 2020

So, it’s been a couple of weeks since the last review. While I usually like to start writing the episode reviews right after I’ve watched them, circumstances have required me to mull on my thoughts for a little while. If current affairs and other fans’ reactions to this episode are any indication, this one’s going to be a doozy, so I’ll get right into it.

This episode’s spoiler-free thought: “I finally found one of the things I was looking for.”

Major spoilers continue after the break. I’ll be talking about the main topic of this week’s review after my thoughts and verdict for the episode.

The third episode paradigm

It’s looking like the third episodes of each series are dedicated to tackling issues in society and as such, they tend to have quite a few SJW red flags. Series 11′s Rosa tackled racism while this episode eventually turns out to be tackling climate change and global warming.

At the same time, it seems like the writing is too focused on the issues that it sometimes neglects to explain particular plot points. In Rosa, we hear that Krasko killed around 2000 people, but we never hear who the victims were or what Krasko’s motivations were (I would presume that it’s racism). As for this episode’s neglected plot point, that’s coming up next.

Ryan and the SJW tipping point

It’s already the third episode and Ryan is still getting some character development. I thought Yaz was supposed to be the focus of this series. Despite this, however, the unfortunate thing has happened - the SJW agenda has finally made a negative impact on the story for me.

After the Doctor helped Ryan get rid of the Hopper virus, he meets Bella, who had also been infected with said virus. It is revealed that Bella is seeking to destroy Tranquillity Spa, owned by her mother Kane (who she initially claimed to Ryan as being dead), because she left Bella and her father when she was little. Ryan connected with Bella on the topic of missing parents, but somehow the story fails to have Ryan relate to Bella with how his father abandoned him, but was able to reconcile with him in the end. However, I’ll give Ryan credit for making an attempt to act like the Doctor while dealing with Bella.

I don’t really mind the Ryan/Bella shipping in this episode, but the real downer of the episode’s conclusion is that the Doctor seemingly leaves Bella and Kane to deal with the Dregs because they had too many people on the teleport with a minute until a massive bomb goes off. Instead, we get a little lecture on how Orphan 55 doesn’t have to actually happen and how we (as humans) should “be the best of humanity”. I thought Ryan was gonna go all Donna Noble there (I think Tosin Cole could pull it off) and beg the Doctor to save Bella and Kane - for all we know, it’s not a fixed point in time or anything. The Doctor could just return them to where they came from relative to their time.

You know, for a series whose episodes are supposed to be 50 minutes long, this episode fell short by three minutes and a bit - this was also the case in The Witchfinders. If we used this scene from The Fires of Pompeii for comparison, then even with the rest of the episode as it is, you could still fit in a scene where the Doctor saves Bella and Kane and have them listen to the Doctor’s speech in the TARDIS. This is how you don’t let the SJW agenda get (too much) in the way of a good story.

Other general thoughts

Doctor Who has covered parallel universes on occasion along with alternate timelines, though they usually get cancelled out in the case of the latter. However, this is seemingly the first time that we see a possible future story. Assuming that alternate timelines are parallel universes themselves, I could write it off as the Time Lords facilitating simple travel between universes, except we just saw in the last episode that the Master killed all the Time Lords.

God, Vilma’s acting is so over the top, especially after Benni goes missing and all the chaos starts. I guess that’s what happens when you hire boomers and make their characters stereotypical. There are two things that Vilma’s acting reminds me of, namely Shakespeare’s plays and Greta Thunberg. You could leave Vilma and Benni out of this episode and nothing of value would be lost.

Speaking of those two, why does Vilma act so surprised when Kane tells her that she killed Benni? It was literally his final request. Then again, it’s like telling someone that they want to be euthanised minutes before they die without warning. Boomers should just all die lol.

They made catgirls/foxgirls an actual thing with Hyph3n. Oh wait, this isn’t anime, so they’re more animal than human.

Tokusatsu reference time. The Dregs seem to resemble the Sheerghosts of Kamen Rider Ryuki or the Orphnochs of Kamen Rider 555, but with a generic design that makes them look like footsoldiers. The latter would be more applicable because of their evolution.

Not many people seem to talk about annoying kids in tokusatsu, probably because most of them get forgotten over time. Sylas toes the line between being the common annoying (and dickish) kid in distress to being the rare kid that is actually useful. Him locking the linen cupboard with his father, Nevi, and everyone else inside confirms the former, while his superior knowledge of mechanics confirms the latter.

This episode has no cold opening. The writers must have forgotten again.

Summary and verdict (the tl;dr ending)

If this episode was about changing the Earth’s future outright so that humans don’t become the Dregs, then my thoughts would be very different. As it is now, I’m conflicted as to whether I should give a higher rating for the attempts to make this a good story, or a lower rating for this episode being too SJW that it forgets to be good.

A summary of the third episode comparison - Krasko got no (proper) backstory while Bella and Kane get no ideal resolution other than they’re going to die fighting off Dregs as a bomb is about to explode.

Ed Hime, who wrote this episode, also wrote It Takes You Away in Series 11. What happened here? That episode was way better than this one.

Rating: 5/10

Climate change - the big SJW red flag (and a side note on police brutality at protests)

It’s no secret that climate change is a problem and has been for decades. It seems that climate change is worsening the effects of disasters around the world. British charity Christian Aid published a report detailing 15 disasters in 2019 that caused at least a billion dollars of damage. Not detailed though is the Australian bushfires, which if I’m correct, are still burning right now. The first of those bushfires started in June which snowballed into the worldwide tragedy we have now. Dust storms, hail storms and even the Wuhan coronavirus (SARS 2.0) aren’t helping things at all, as heatwaves have been getting hotter and hotter every year.

The main reason why I’m calling climate change an SJW red flag is because in recent years, environmental activists such as Greta Thunberg and the Extinction Rebellion group started highlighting this issue more and more through protests, speeches and whatnot in the hope that governments can take immediate action (because evidently, international agreements such as the Paris Agreement and the actions that are being taken in accordance to them are too slow and not enough).

Greta and XR have received criticism for their words and actions. In the case of Greta Thunberg, she was criticised for being over-emotional, taking a gap year from school to focus on her activism (let’s face it, if the option were available, I think a lot of kids would take it even if it meant that they wouldn’t be with their cohort anymore), apparently being manipulated by her parents for political points or the fact that people are defending her because she has Asperger syndrome, OCD and selective mutism, on top of being ignorant about climate change (which is pretty much the general argument of her naysayers).

Extinction Rebellion protests have been criticised for their civil disruption; the ironic thing about it is that they have protested on public transport when it is actually something that helps their overarching cause. Who can remember when those protesters got dragged off the Tube train? And what about them gluing themselves onto roads? Compared to the former, it’s a step in the right direction for their message, but don’t say I didn’t warn you if someone gets called a terrorist just because they drove their vehicle into a pack of vegans.

I want to take a moment to go on a tangent here. Over the last year, there have been a lot of political protests around the world, so XR and all the other climate protesters should think about their place because if their country has really bad political problems (no, Trump and Brexit don’t count), they would probably have bigger things to worry about.

I’ve never really heard anyone compare XR or the climate protests to the protests going on about Hong Kong, particularly in regards to police brutality. I don’t really mind anyone else taking leaves from their books, but the one thing I which I find absolutely offensive and insulting is that protesters outside of Hong Kong are complaining about police brutality, like come the fuck on. I’ve been following Hong Kong news since before Occupy Central in 2014 and I’ve been following it through last year as the worsening police brutality reached depths you vegans aren’t even worried about yet. However, to play devil’s advocate, the protesters are just as worthy of criticism compared to the police and frankly, in Australia, both the protesters and police are getting off easy compared to in Hong Kong.

You’re worried about getting pepper sprayed, beaten up or discriminated because you’re disabled, LGBT, black, Muslim, whatever? Try getting randomly searched or arrested while going about your day (especially if you’re a high school/uni student), finding out the police are colluding with gangs, getting beaten or molested after being subdued, being arrested just for helping someone as a medic or most importantly, being fired to oblivion with live bullets, water cannons that dye your skin blue, pepper spray, bean bag rounds, rubber bullets or more importantly, carcinogenic Chinese tear gas. Until the climate protests get to the point where you need a centralised website to detail your protests, press conferences and police brutality to the world, keep crying in your echo chambers about ACAB or whatever while being ignorant to the fact that like there are starving people in war-torn countries, there are people in Hong Kong who are living under a bigger climate of fear than you are. Fuck you vegans. You make me sick.

Before I return to the main topic, let me leave you with a choice quote from a Spectator Australia article from November 2019 aptly named “Hong Kong is fighting for its very soul, Extinction Rebellion are throwing tantrums”:

It is beyond a joke to suggest that the publicity stunts of Extinction Rebellion are comparable to the protests in Hong Kong. Doing so is an insult to people who are truly fighting for their future. At best it reflects a lack of self-awareness by the climate activists, at worst it is an attempt by Extinction Rebellion to piggyback on the global sympathy that genuine protestors have stirred in Hong Kong and divert it towards themselves.

My opinion on Greta Thunberg? The tone of her voice has already committed the logical fallacy of appealing to emotion. She looks like one of those kids who do or say extraordinary stuff so they can get their 15 minutes of fame in the form of adults fawning over them, but she continues to do it and somehow, people don’t get bored of it. I respect her for having the courage to give the speeches (there were a lot more than what I originally thought, tbh), but it shouldn’t have to take an anxious and emotional girl with Aspergers for governments to do something about climate change if they think it’s so important. As a friend of mine said, however, “It'll take the end of the world to get them to stop taking money from oil and coal.”

Watch the above video from the 10 minute mark onwards, because I have similar feelings about this whole thing.

I remember watching the film 2012 in the first year after it was released and I started getting worried that the stuff that happened in the movie would actually happen on 21 December 2012. In May 2011, I remember going on a quick weekend holiday in the country and reading about Harold Camping’s prediction of the end times in the newspaper. It said that the rapture would take place a week after, on May 21, and that the end of the world would take place on 21 October. Talk about “fool me once, fool me twice”, huh?

I’m not a fan of the climate protests, XR or otherwise, but I’m not a climate change denier either. I care enough about the environment to do my bit when I get the opportunity and that is pretty much it. I have a lot of things on my mind already and having another thing to worry about is the last thing I need.

Damn, writing this review after my two week break really took more effort than I thought it would. Stay tuned for the middle of the week as I review the fourth episode, Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror.

#doctor who #doctor who series 12 #thirteenth doctor #doctor who series 12 review #thirteenth doctor review