#featuring weird art in the background lmao

[kokoasci]

hey hiii love your art and i am astonished by your background composition, is there a process behind that or maybe tips you would share ?

hi!! thank you! this kind of like depends per piece, im not a professional artist (compsci student, so take my advice as a student with no formal art studies with enough salt to taste) but i do have a kind of general-ish process that i can talk about like with this scara piece comp:

i work pose first, composition second: i.e. i draw a pose and usually refine it before i start thinking about a background lol 😭

working general -> specific is my best friend, and I think it also helps me evolve a drawing as i go, since i don't usually have an idea for a full composition when i start (that's so stressful to me LMAO) you can see this progress here (i erased the basic guidelines though so theres no facial features, but i usually leave the face for last anyway because it helps me fit in an expression better)

by the time i have a full pose THEN ill start refining to an actual composition. this is also the point at which i decide to start putting actual effort in

then i just. fill the background with objects, usually ones that have a connection to the character or vibe im trying to fit. this is a weird example because the only things i know about scaramouche is there's some sort of like connection with puppets and he also likes his vision so i played with that idea, which is kind of where those fishes and the general pose came from. (i go into more detail about this here!)

i originally wanted to have puppet strings for those objects as you can see below but it made the final piece kind of muddy so i took them out :(

then its just coloring, which is usually what takes me the longest because im so. indecisive 😭 i like to keep depth and 3d space as the like #1 thing in my mind while coloring though and how shadows will work with that, because i think it helps a piece pop out way more

and that's how i get my compositions !! i make it seem pretty streamlined here please know it's a lot of redoing whole parts of the drawing and fixing the background/foreground until im happy with the finished result

thank you for asking, i hope this helped answer the question <3

#ask koko #you all should see the reference pictures i had to take for this LMAOOO i look so angry in them its so embarassing #but the drawing turned out well so. it was worth it #thank you for asking! #scaramouche

[ashlynniis-bracketeers]

UNCHAINED SANGUINEOUS HEARTMAKER {Guilty Gear}

Riding the high of a resounding Epiphany.

...Did I pull another "Desdinova" purely out of sheer A.B.A hopium? (I kept the lines sketchy, though, because I could not be arsed to try and mimic Strive's linework style again after the pain from last time ahjsdgajhsdgadk)

Yes. Yes I did.

So, those Season 3 character survey results, huh? The A.B.A hopium is real. I really do wonder what they'd do with her if she was brought to Strive, so I decided to try my hand at a "Strive-ified" A.B.A design.

Make sure to check under the cut for the "concept art" I made + their associated information.

So, design background info:

So, she's a... weirdo homunculus, right? An artificial human, created by a mad scientist she never met, so she was alone and never really learned how to... "people". That key in her head also keeps on reminding me of the bolts lodged in the sides of pop-culture-ified Adam's (Frankenstein's monster) head. She's also desperately trying to find a human(oid) body for the demon/magical foci Paracelsus/Flament Nagel, who she is deeply in love with. Artificially-created human, medical themes, artificial human form, deeply in love...

So what if she decided that, with her attempts at finding a body for him repeatedly failing (XX endings don't count, XX's canonicity is completely FUCKED lmao), why doesn't she just... create one herself instead?

In other words, the creation becomes the creator. Lil' bit of "Bride of Frankenstein" thrown in, if the guy making the bride (or in this case, groom) was the monster itself.

So, making her into a key-axe-wielding mad scientist homunculus.

I tried to make her pose reminiscent of a dance move, specifically a "dip".

I hope you like it!

GG ABA Strive fandesign sheet 01

The first drawing I got done of my design for A.B.A (featuring a base-shapes Paracelsus for scale). Featuring her color palette (F1 is base flesh, F2 is scarring, H is hair, B is bandages, C1 is primary coat color, C2 is secondary coat color, C3 is tertiary coat color, E is "edges", M1 is one of the metal colors, A is "accents", M2 is the second metal color, and the square below that is the eye colors), weird ragged patchwork "lab-coat", boot details, "branding", and some of the text on her design.

- The phrase printed along the front edge of her coat (and the heels of her boots) is "LOCK&SEE" (the "&" stylized to look like/replaced with a keyhole symbol), a spin on the phrase "Lock and Key", fitting with her obsession with keys and tendency towards twisting sayings/phrases into mondegreens. Also implies hiding something.

- The brand on the back of her coat is meant to look like the coffin shape on the back of Paracelsus's head during Moroha Mode, with the nose hole and right eye hole visible. Text above it reads "PARACELSUS" (with the P and R stylized to have curved horns in the back like MM Para), and the text underneath reads "FLAMENT NAGEL" (with similar "horn" stylization on the F).

- The scarring is damage from her not wearing proper protective gear during her experiments (because she doesn't seem like one to wear proper PPE lmao), much of it taking up most of the left side of her upper torso/arm (meant to mirror Strive Faust's stitching).

- She's both grimy and very... "DIY", so her stitching is very hodgepodge.

- The text along the stitching on the back of her coat reads "The More The Moodier.", a play on one of her mondegreen win-quotes in XX (against I-No: "People say "the more the gloomier", but she's just too much to take...") but with the same alliteration as "the more the merrier" which it was derived from.

- The brand on the right side of her shorts is the same as on her back, but without the "FLAMENT NAGEL" and with "PARACELSUS" underneath instead of above.

- The key markings (gloves, boots) all have the same key-blade shape as Paracelsus.

- I had some trouble figuring out some of her colors, as they differed between the sprites (blue metal, glove. and trim) and official artwork (dark brown metal + glove, blue trim), so I decided to have dark brown for the keys and dark blue for the studded trim and left glove.

- The laces of her boots and the buttons on her coat are meant to resemble Para's mouth stitches

- Made her head-key/neck keys have a little skull decoration similar to some of her XX art (it's very inconsistent).

GG ABA Strive fandesign sheet 02

The second "Strive-ified" A.B.A design sheet I made.

- Both of the large gloves look the same, with the red bands and Paracelsus-blade key markings.

- The dark blue left-hand glove is (mostly) the same. I like to think that it's her "woobie", what with her tendency to get attached to inanimate objects.

- The dark blue cropped tank-top is meant to only be visible in Moroha. The text reads "MOCK&KEY" (the "&" stylized to look like/replaced with a stylized keyhole symbol, the top part of the keyhole meant to look like a coffin), another spin on "Lock and Key" like the previously-mentioned "LOCK&SEE" compounded with her believing herself to be superior to humans. Moroha is what was locked-up.

GG ABA Strive fandesign sheet 03

Third sheet I made.

- Noting specific design changes during Moroha. Coat opens + key "eyes" gain red glow.

- Design for her head + neck keys.

- Design for her bloodpacks. Text reads "FRASCO". Symbol underneath meant to look like a "flask" shape made out of an upside-down keyhole.

GG ABA Strive fandesign sheet 04 (Para)

The fourth sheet I made, featuring Paracelsus and his colors.

I honestly didn't change much lmao. His design is already weird by GG standards, mostly just tweaked some things.

- Made his eyes asymmetrical. Right has small iris and no pupil, left has beady pupil. Wanted to make him look "cartoony (western) neurotic/nervous" while hinting at his "main" glowy eye in Moroha being his right eye.

- I blurred/smudged the blood along the bottom edge to imply that A.B.A dragging him around wore away some of it.

- I added some spikes to his collar for a "punk" look, which glow red in Moroha.

- I kept his mouth stitches in Moroha. The mouth-corner stitches remain, while the middle stitches are tied around his left horn.

GG ABA Strive fandesign sheet 05

The final sheet I made, featuring mechanic ideas, "meta" stuff, and a design for repurposing an older move into a reversal super.

- Non-replenishable resources don't really fly in Strive, so I decided to make them replenishable through an alternate version of Bonding (a.k.a Keygrab). One Keygrab variant for Moroha, one Keygrab variant for a bloodpack. Starts off with no bloodpacks. Max three bloodpacks at a time. Functionality basically the same as XX.

- Turned Altercation (i.e. Enter Goku Moroha) into a Moroha-exclusive reversal super. Goku Moroha is not something that flies by modern fighting game characters, let alone Strive, so GM would definitely get axed. Still keeping Altercation as an absolute weirdo of a move, taking different resources depending on how much she has of each.

- Not sure what to actually do with Moroha's function/moveset, but having an "Install" state is the big thing that defines A.B.A's playstyle, so she'd probably keep at least base Moroha.

- Evidence: Concealment becomes a full reversal that only hits one hit as opposed to three, because most people cancel it after the first hit anyway lmao

#Guilty Gear #A.B.A #Paracelsus #GG Aba #Guilty Gear Aba #GG Paracelsus #Guilty Gear Paracelsus #Guilty Gear A.B.A #GG A.B.A #Brackets Draws #Brackets's Art #long post #fanart #fan art

[chibishortdeath]

General Simon brainrot sketch page :3, as per usual, explanations under a cut. Apologies if my posts tend to be kinda huge and difficult to scroll past, I try to do the cuts to make sure they do the least inconvenience to anyone! (>-< ;)

Just the whole page in full ft. My thumb lol

Expression practice! Simon is feeling the weight of his situation rn alas :(. I’ve always imagined him being panicked the whole game; the overarching entire game timer really gives a pretty good feeling of dread imo. The two doodles at the bottom were attempts at multiple ideas I’ve seen floating around about the curse, but they’re kinda bad in execution looking at them no tbh. But the first one is based on the idea that the curse gives some vampire traits like sharp teeth and would probably lead to proper vampirism if he were to die from it. The second was general attempt at like skull practice and comparing facial features to skull structure, but oh my god the page kept smudging and I tried making it look ok with some random blood on there but it just made it look even sillier 💀.

These next two are based on two random like liminal space images I ran into on Pinterest and I drew them mostly because I suck at backgrounds and idk Simon’s Quest itself is like Castlevania: Liminal Space Edition a lot of the time, so it fits X,,,,D. The first one I really liked the composition of the path on the far side contrasted to the trees. Imagine the water is the purple cursed swamp :3. Hopefully Simon has laurels just standin around in there.

This second liminal space for Simon to be in was this neat nighttime photo of a graveyard! Trees are HARD TO DRAW, especially just in pencil and a solid black background. There’s blood on the ground and stuff cause he was just fighting some monsters, probably those two headed lizard guys. It’s the awkward stillness after clearing out an area of enemies.

The pose for this one is based on the LOL~lots of laugh Miku figure lmao 💀💀💀

Simon is very fun to put in exaggerated poses! Especially cause you have to exaggerate them more to get the same ratio of pose to negative space because muscles and armor. I had no idea how to make metal belt armor thingies sit in a like legs up floating sort of pose like this so they kinda bend a little weird but eh he looks cute otherwise. The other doodles present are one that says “brainrot” which is kinda making fun of my own dedication to an NES character 💀 and also cause haha rot like the curse. Also, teeny tiny Simon with a heart!!! :3

Yippie! Simon posing again! I think the first pose was inspired by this like random old anime style angel figure??? Idk I think she was just an original character figure and the pose was pretty different, I just used the reference mostly for the arm position. Anyway, he’s vibin, just sitting curled up and momentarily comfy. Alas, the horrors persist in the second doodle that was an attempt at showing how the curse kinda deteriorates him but he just kinda ended up having a scarily snatched waist and it looks more stylized than like sick. Also the armor kinda bends around him in a way that makes it look like it shrunk with him which is so dumb lmaooooo (XwX). I’ll have to revisit the concept eventually idk, just look at his face for this one XD. Hahaha tiny doodle based on Larval Rin on the left there, nothing to see here—

The main doodle is just Simon looking into the distance bewildered and holding the whip, standard stuff. There’s also a side profile doodle and an attempt at drawing crying again cause I was getting kinda rusty at both of those things.

Simon Belmont but if he was 2000s anime lol. A fun little style experiment, I might keep this as like another secondary art style. There’s also some doodles of a hanged man skeleton, the eyes of Vlad, a skeleton hand, and a couple little chibi Simon’s of various expressions.

More 2000s anime Simon, but in a more silly way like the art style change for joke sections. One is him just goofily holding up Dracula’s head, but it’s contrasted immediately with a more gritty usual art style doodle of him with harsh shading lol. Get you a man who can do both I guess 💀

I gotta practice more on backgrounds and composition and stuff, probably also get some curse effects consistent augh. Lately I’ve been on and off working on random things or just staring into space tired, getting back to using social media is hard and an exhausting uphill battle unfortunately (_ _ ;). Sometimes I feel like I should probably split these up into multiple posts to make things more visible and to put more focus on specific drawings, but idk I don’t really want to, it just feels weird to me breaking up a doodle page like that, if that makes sense??? Eh idk.

#castlevania #castlevania games #akumajou dracula #castlevania ii: simon's quest #castlevania simon’s quest #simon’s quest #simon belmont #art post #my art #fanart #sometimes I forget that the turtleneck addition to his undershirt was like something I added somewhere along the line 💀 #seeing the actual box art and staring at his visible neck like where your clothes at and then I remember oh wait #I did that ​I was the one that who made him cover up 😔 #ok also the hair lmaoooooooo hahahashshs prince of eternia lookin ass #Simon really out here with that fuckass bob Konami what barber did you send him to #I forget that like there’s not the sections and piecing I usually draw and that he really just has his bangs straight cut in that #I guess the way I draw his hair is like a middle ground between his manual doodles and the cover art? #yeah that makes sense I’m using that explanation of it now XD #anyway love him I’ve got another page of him I’ll try to post soon hopefully #past that is some really quick OC concept sketches and like idk dissociating #aaa I gotta talk to people but I keep losing all track of time and then can’t because of guilt augh it’s a miracle I’m posting this rn tbh #daydreaming is a horrible coping mechanism don’t do it guys I’ve been stuck with it since fourth grade 💀💀💀💀💀💀 #it’s addictive it starts out like ‘time to imagine a character to this song :3’ then it’s been two months #vent in the tags #but mannnnnnn 😔😔😔 #anyway here’s a whole sketchbook page of my comfort character who hasn’t seen a day of comfort in his life uh— #idk if posting at like 10 PM at night is a good idea but eh whatever

[tomatosoupgroup]

screenshot saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so uhh

this'll be a short one

sorryyyyyyy

I DO HAVE STUFF FOR YOU THOUGH

for example....

you might be wondering what the hell this is

this is a background for the visual novel aspect of the game!

well, an unfinished one.

i based it off this screenshot i took off google maps!

some of the things i need to add are

well

pretty much everything lol

but let's be more specific:

you see how in mine, all the textures seem flat, while in the real photo, the textures are defined?

bit funky innit

the thing is uh. i have no idea how to add texture like this in pixel art.

ive tried many times and it just looks really bad lmao

so i've done some research, and i think what i'm looking for are called "clusters"

never heard of those before

also whenever i look up a tutorial for drawing them they just basically say "just draw these funny shapes!" and i'm like "okay but wHERE. YOU CANNOT JUST TELL ME TO DO THING. I NEED CONTEXT FOR THING. OOGA BOOGA BANG ROCK WITH STICK"

completely unrelated but i've noticed that whenever i get two ads on youtube, i can't skip them both at once

like when i press the skip ad button, it just goes to the next ad

don't know if this is only happening to me but it is REALLY annoying

fuck you youtube

i suppose i should dedicate the end of my post to the project itself.

ANOTHER QNA!

Q: Will you charge money for the game?

A: Complicated question.

this game is the epitome of a passion project in my eyes. it is a story i am telling not for any of my own personal gain, but simply because i feel like it is a story that needs to be told.

but enough of all this sappy shit, i'll just explain it simply:

when this game eventually comes out, i will either:

a: open the game up to donations (like the "name your price" thing), the majority of which will go to charity and anyone who helps on the project or

b: make the game 100% free.

Q: Do you accept fanart of the characters?

A: UH

YEAH????

if you draw my characters i will literally go bonkers /pos style

i unfortunately don't have an official ref sheet for any of them yet, but i'll be able to provide substitutes if asked

i think it would be cool to feature some of the fanart in the credits! (with permission from the artists, of course!) but that may take up too much space so i'll have to think it over.

tldr i fucking love fanart

Q: What about NSFW?

A: ...

Okay.

Listen.

I HIGHLY advise against it. I'm a minor and that's just like. weird.

Even after I turn 18, it'll still be weird because they were characters I first drew up when I was 16.

but at the same time, i accept that this is the internet, and that some gooner supremo will eventually stumble across this game :/

so i just have one definitive request.

PLEASE

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

DO NOT INCLUDE CHARACTERS WHO ARE UNDER 18

for example:

You may remember Silhouette.

they are CANONICALLY 13.

so like. keep them out of it.

i don't care if they're "just a character". you could say my fist is "just a body part" right before i bash your face in

if you want, i can provide the ages for any character you ask. i have a whole spreadsheet!

so please.

anyways that's gonna do it for today

to everybody who isn't youtube: i love you and thank you for being here

i will see you next week!

#game dev #gamedev #electric love #electric love game #godot engine #screenshot saturday

[vicissitude]

i'm nosy can i see the receipts abt that artist

LMAO ofc im a major bitch abt him and there is.. a good few ppl interested wow. this isnt a formal callout or anything bc his fuckin etsy store already sells g.ame g.rumps p.ewdiep.ie and she.ith merch so. that speaks for itself. most of the rest of this is jus hard to explain discord shit so i'll put it under a readmore, but i'll keep it short n e ways

the background here is that i knew this guy through a vtm discord server for a year and he basically would jus cause nonstop drama bc if smth happened to his characters he took it very personally, and would just manipulate and guilt trip people because of that. and on the flipside

the server he runs now has had problems too like. i dont think i can give much detail in a public post but finding excuses to kick marginalised people from the server and throwing people into breakdowns and shit. that and entirely copying the previous servers layout LMAO

beyond just being a really horrid player and treating people like shit because they didnt let his character romance the prince or diablerise an elder he purposefully wrote the sheet of to make weak. his characters are... very uncomfortable lol. mikhail specifically is a white man whose black wife was killed by a brown man. he told my friend that mikhail would have a crush on their character bc she looked like mikhail’s wife (the only similarity was that they were both black: their character had sharp features and shaved head, mikhail’s wife had soft features and an afro, etc.)

he also called said friend sassy, despite knowing they’re black. if he’s called anyone else sassy i’ve never seen it. the context for this was a server event he constantly talked abt his character crashing and sabotaging

he'd make fun of my art and shittalk me (and others ofc). here's stuff he said abt my art to other people (im plague). he also just assumed that i purposefully changed my characters design bc he'd constantly compare mine to mikhail's brother. whenever i posted my art he’d either ignore it or make fun of it

here’s him implying that him and his partner’s characters who r brothers are doing incest shit

there’s a lot more ofc cuz i knew this guy for over a year. but at this point its becoming an actual callout lmao. TL;DR this guy basically uses discord servers as a weird machine for clout and is a creepy manipulative proshipper who engages in a lot of woke liberal racism and shit

#my asks

[readwebcomicsgdi]

woah look out

Here’s another little list of some comics! This is the fifth set, you can see the others here in the “roundup posts” tag~

Amongst Us (and Carciphona) By @okolnir​

“Amongst Us is a slice of life / romance / comedy comic about the couple, Blackbird and Veloce.”

I’m going to be ten thousand percent honest with you and admit that I got into this comic because one of the characters really really reminds me of my Agatha and I’m gay (I don’t mean to be rude by comparing them, I am saying this in the rec because a lot of other people also seem to appreciate the Tall Socially Awkward Intimidating Lesbian character archetype and they’re hard to find, it’s a selling point lmao). That said! It’s lovely to look at and certainly stands up without any of my own associations, and it’s a very cute and simple sapphic slice of life story. Y’all are always asking for wlw stuff, here is one.

I do want to mention this comic is actually an AU the author is doing of their main comic, Carciphona, which is an ENTIRELY different project; it’s a black and white fantasy manga that I haven’t actually read yet, but some of you probably have! To be honest this artist is quite a bit more popular than the folks I usually like to feature here, BUT: they’re publishing their own books and steering their own ship outside the mainstream and man I am all about that shit so go give these a shot.

https://amongstuscomic.com/

https://carciphona.com/

Electric Bones By HAZEL + BELL

“Lucian has just been fired from his dream job. Irritated and aimless, he is invited by his friends to go on a cruise trip in deep space.Lucian plans on spending his time on board indulging in every illicit activity and substance in the galaxy, but his plans are cut short when he ends up crossing paths with a familiar face: A robot who has an uncanny resemblance to the co-worker who got Lucian fired.”

yeah yeah Aria likes the smutty robot comic, but also it’s just really good. It’s good! The art is lovely, the story’s in that sweet spot where it’s “harder” sci fi with lovely detailed metal things floating in space but it’s ALSO having a good time without making you read a doorstopper’s worth of political lore every five minutes, and while this bit is maybe a bit less interesting from the other side of the drawing table, the lettering is creative and engaging and suits the story perfectly. A lot of comics get the fonts wrong!! This one didn’t.

This website is also navigable with arrow keys, which is just so nice. Why doesn’t everybody do this. Go turn it on if you have a comic site.

https://electricbonescomic.com/

broken By @yubriamakesart​

“broken is a fantasy/horror story about a psychic zombie kid befriending a fairy general and trying to deal with guilt, grief, and PTSD. This is complicated by eldritch abominations, a genocidal dictator, the dictator's wife, and a panic-induced exit from the last known bastion of civilization. Warning: this comic contains things like graphic violence (including suicide), body horror, and the occasional flashing image.”

The archive looks real big but don’t panic, this one’s broken up panel by panel so you’ll fly right through it. It’s maybe a weird thing to focus on but I super appreciate how much effort is put into the aesthetics of the website!! Even the backgrounds change along with the updates. The author clearly puts a lot of thought into crafting an Experience around their work, so it’s definitely worth reading it on the home site rather than on any of the mirrors.

https://broken.spiderforest.com/

The Secret Knots By @santapau​

The Secret Knots is, according to the author, inspired by things like A Softer World; it’s a series of self contained nonlinear pieces you can read in whatever order you like. He speaks extensively about how and why he started making this comic, it’s too long to put here but it’s a wonderful primer.

It’s hard to talk about this one you just kinda have to jump in. That said I love this shit dude this is exactly what I wanna see, make weird genuine shit and put it up for other people to read yeah yeah yeah

https://thesecretknots.com/

Shot and Chaser By @bigbigtruck​

“SHOT AND CHASER is a story about storms. Esoteric lifemates Tre and Olly set out together and experience a literal whirlwind of a day in the Texas panhandle. WARNING: This comic contains sensitive themes and is intended only for mature adults.”

You’ve certainly heard of this comic and this artist already (if not Shot and Chaser, you might be familiar with one of Weaver’s previous webcomic projects TJ and Amal) but sort of in line with the first one on this list, I’m just a real big fan of what they’re doing and how they’re doing it and it’s exactly the stuff I wanna see on this blog. I’ve reblogged it here before but I really wanted to put it in one of these posts because in addition to being a fun read it deals with Pentecostal stuff in a very like. Candid way, and I can always make room on my platform for anybody else making complex work about religious trauma.

http://tjandamal.com/sac/

as always, you can also read mine:

Kidd Commander by @shinesurge​

“It’s a world at the mercy of uncaring gods, and Phineas Kidd is a heretic with a chip on her shoulder and enough fury to outshine a supernova. Armed only with aggressive enthusiasm (and an explosive left hook), Phineas sets out to gather up a merry crew and travel to Kairos Crossing to catch the sun, an urban legend that has tempted countless dreamers to a bloody end.”

Kidd Commander is a romantic comic that’s mostly concerned with ambitious characters doing cool anime stuff while being subjected to trauma and dealing with said trauma! Rated T for lots of (cartoon) violence and swearing, and a good deal of irreverence for topics some folks might prefer to leave revered. If any of that sounds like it might make you uncomfortable this comic may not be suitable for you!    

http://kiddcommander.com/

If you’d like a comic (yours or otherwise) to end up in one of these, send me an ask or whatever and I’ll add it to my list of stuff to check out! The only requirements I have are I’d prefer for it to be a bit lesser known and it needs to be accessible in places other than tapas or webtoon because I am physically and emotionally incapable of engaging with either of those sites. Happy reading!  

#roundup posts #sweet recs

[mushroom-winners-proof]

might just be nostalgia but i do feel like smth really important got lost in the transition to kh3 graphics. i think ansem, sora, and kairi are the ones who look the least like themselves to me. xemnas and roxas are up there too. it's mostly the new style of eyes that bothers me but also some of them look way skinnier?? but like roxas's neck looks absurdly thin to me now. ansem def got it the worst, his whole head looks Off, like his face is narrower but his forehead is disproportionately wide (and his nose is like. sharp almost??)...and he looks like he lost all his gains lmao, it's not the coat either bc riku-as-ansem looked perfectly fine in kh2

(sorry for the long ask!!)

you got points my friend. the problem with KH i think is that it has such a cartoon-based style and universe since it’s a disney product that trying to jump from a toony look to what KH3 brought feels so unnatural. unlike FF that was always set in a considerably realistic environment, KH is always going to have cartoon elements because of disney IPs, so it’s weird that they’re trying to blend realism with characters like donald and goofy being prevalent (not that giant chickens and anthro cats are realistic, but FF benefits from everything being the same style, so over time even those features would be created in a realistic fashion with everything else and it wouldn’t be such whiplash) 

ergo, KH’s jump to realism feels so off because of its past installments defining what we consider to be KH’s art style for so long, and KH3′s approach is such a drastic change from that. when they were making KH3, i can only assume they were trying to retain some aspects of KH’s original model style while, of course, ‘modernizing’ it a tad (which is why certain body parts look exaggerated and too slender). the issue of course is that because it’s going for a more realistic approach, those exaggerated features look so uncanny

moreover, part of KH’s appeal i feel is how everyone looked during the PS2-era: there was a particularly bright palette to everything that really let characters and backgrounds pop individually and allowed you to focus on one thing or the other if you needed to. with KH3, besides its new models, the lighting of the game- while beautiful at times- certainly takes attention away from the character designs and has them blend more in with the environment. 

#snap chats #also it's no worries on the long-ask thing lmao i like hearin yalls thoughts :) #i like it when we talk bout stuff its fun #plus then i get rights to send back a long resposne as well lmaooo #im kinda rambling id did go off topic im sure but point is Yeah Its Wack

[bunny-rambles]

get ready for the numbered list once again but for once i actually did start this ask by just scrambling fast a list of things i had to say beforehand so i hopefully won't have to send another ask to correct myself lmao :'

1. tea does become addictive once you get used to it (also! if you need an energy boost and caffeine doesn't work for you, i've found out that ginseng works well for me — it doesn't contain caffeine and is a very strong energy booster - also it tastes pretty good ahah -, the only thing is you can't drink too much of it like i'd do with tea because it spikes up blood pressure ahah)

as for the green tea tasting bland, if that didn't depend on the quality of the tea leaves themselves, that might've depended on like, water temperature or infusion time but i won't get ahead of myself because i'd write a whole paragraph and that is so not the case in an already long ask. but ye! matcha is always good but like, for future reference it's best if you just drink it in shops rather than making your own because it takes a lot of attempts to not make it like, full of clumps :'

2. if that kind of things interest you i'd actually really suggest looking into commedia dell'arte and all the like. first of all, because there are some very interesting stories to be discovered, and then it gives also an interesting background knowledge of many of the harbingers which is always fun :3 (also as an italian i love it because it sounds always very funny seeing the english va's or like generic english speakers trying and failing to pronunciate the word 'tartaglia' lmao)

2.1. of course zhongli was an art critic. he and venti had a sort of frenemy thing going around where zhongli openly criticised all of venti's music because he thought impressionist music was weird and venti made it even weirder on purpose. and diluc totally has a bar everywhere he goes — in this fic he also kind of used it as a shelter for homeless artists (like benny, razor and the likes) whom he like, fed and left with a roof under their heads, it was really cute. (grumpy accidental dad of grown ass teenagers diluc is a super funny concept to me lmao). the history with the harbingers is actually still in the working because it was supposed to have a bigger role in the second half of the story, i just haven't reached to writing that point :') (but like, the idea at the base was that the fatui were some sort of like, organised criminal businessmen working on shady commerces on like, drugs and weaponry and such and they managed to cover up their wealth by being the most successful opera crew in town — and, as scaramouche kindly explained in one of the paragraphs, they could hide any type of weaponry amongst the stage props ahah)

i would love to send you snippets but like ;;; i've reread the entire story up until where i had stopped writing it and like a ton of parts taken out of context don't make too much sense if they're not with the rest of their paragraphs. but since xiao had the funniest lines, i'll delight you with some of my favourite xiao thoughts in this story, like "On most days, Xiao wondered why the gods had made Zhongli so tall and broad shouldered and stable. It was unfair, because Xiao was a man with a frail mind but a strong body, yet still no match to the other when he tried to lift him up and throw him out of the door.", and "Truth to be told, Xiao didn’t really know Childe, but he was too handsome to be real, looked positively shady and was, most terribly, an extrovert.". yes, poor xiao was the outlet of me being a mostly comic writer writing a serious story. yes, i enjoyed it way too much, his character was the best to write. // also he and zhongli were kind of like brothers subtly but steadily judging each other's life choices and i lived for that

literally the only true context for the harbingers business i had ever written was in the scara centric paragraph (which featured a lot of unnecessary makeup description of our dear angry gremlin) and it went like this: "The hands he was washing his face with had seen blood, and had enjoyed every drop of it. Debtors, trade enemies, rival businesses a bit too cunning for lady Tsaritsa’s liking, all had been slain by the knives looking innocent into the mass of stage items. So what if Scaramouche woke up every day wanting to crush someone under the tip of his fingers, because it only took the rising of the moon for his dreams to come true."

to close this paragraph, of course kazuha wrote poetry on the side. he wrote poetry about everyone in every time and most of his screen time was him gushing poems about some pretty things or people he saw or playing an instrument. my sweet artistic son, sigh.

3. flowery english is the best ngl. but good luck with starting uni anyways!!! :))

4. oh believe it i will never be tired of getting scara food ahah ;; will be waiting for the new works then!! <33

5/6/7 and onwards. as i already say, like, always reply to me only when and if you feel like it. i don't mind listening to you if you need to like vent out or something but i also can and will wait until you feel ready to reply so really don't worry to much and don't apologize for being late. i hope i can think you're feeling better right now, though.

also for miscellaneous things: heart shaped rhinestones would surely look gorgeous on you and i'm glad that makes you happier, and as for mint syrup in italy you just usually find it in normal grocery stores, but if you find it hard to source and you can only find mint leaves there's i think tons of very easy recipes you can use to make your own :3

with this i'll tune off because it's almost time to start worrying about lunch. ti voglio bene anch'io, buns, take care! <3

hugs,

- 🍓

Here we go,,,

1 - I had the green tea at some restaurant and I got it for free with my noodles, it didn’t taste like much, just,,, very faintly flavoured hot water. I didn’t taste any of the flavour at all, nor can I recall it. Just,,, leafy water,,, hot leaf juice. Hehe. If you get that reference, I’ll be very happy. I’ll look into getting matcha at a shop then if I ever stop by a tea shop !! There’s plenty of them where I live, but I don’t really have friends in my city and I’m scared of going out alone so I’ve avoided them like the plague. But I’ll be out n about soon so, I’ll keep this in mind :,)

2 - Ah yes, the infamous Tart. I believe the t is silent, so it’s tar-tal-ia, am I correct? I would look into but there’s just,,, so much lord in Genshin my tiny brain can’t keep up. If I stumble across a video dumbing it down for me I’ll 100% watch it, but goodness research on my own would be super complicated to keep up with AND connect to the game. (Still confused with Enkanomiya and the Sumeru crumbs,,,,)

2.1- god I love that, and I can imagine Venti having a shit eating grin on his face while he plays while Zhongli is very visibly judging him behind his tea cup. FOUND FAMILY DAD DILUC SUPREMACY!! I love this trope with him, and I find it so sad that no one brings up Diluc being a mentor for Razor.

(AND KAEYA BEING ONE FOR BENNETT TOO !! It’s completely glossed over in the game but Kaeya taught Bennett how to fight with a sword, that’s why their styles are so similar!!) ( Kaeya and Diluc both having young ‘students’ that have similar traits to one another as well - Bennett because of his drive and determination and passion, something young Diluc probably wasn’t lacking in either. And Razor, this one’s a little more complicated, but he’s like a lost little puppy. He’s strong, fiercely loyal to his family, but for such a young boy he has so much on his shoulders. Kind of really reminds of how a young Kaeya would be, and Kaeya is fiercely loyal because let’s face it, he wouldn’t be in Mondstat if it wasn’t for his brother. I love these two oh my god, I hope they reconcile because in subtle ways, it’s extremely obvious they miss each other, and it shows in their ‘prodigies’) ( ALSO ALSO Razor and Benny being best friends? Come on T^T)

Hm, as someone who has many oc’s and au’s surrounding them (that I don’t really talk about but constantly daydream about), I feel like your pain. But, as these things go, it’ll hit you one day and it’ll finally slot together perfectly. Don’t be afraid to take some inspiration from things too if you’re really stuck !! Also that Scara snippet?? THAT- chef kiss. Absolute chef kiss. Magnificent.

As for Xiao, god I felt that one in my soul. As a moody 5’something short introverted lady, I too hate extroverts. (Okay well SOME, but most of them are just so,,, ugh, like where’d that energy come from? Take a nap-) and everyone wonders why I think he’s the character most similar to me. Short, moody, awkward, secretly soft, looks very intimidating and takes a while to open up, secretly hating tall people, a tragic backstory that has made us who we are like- if I www a fictional character, it’d be Xiao. Kazuha is more what I’m like online with flowery English and a soft, friendly exterior, but irl no I’m Xiao. Awkward, quiet, moody, everyone thinks we hate them but we just don’t know how to speak to people, I can keep going on. Oh and people like Hu Tao are the ones I gravitate to and find hilarious, much like how Xiao finds her numerous. Ah okay rambling over I just see a lot- a lot of similarities in us. I’m curious, who do you think you’re most like? Or who do you think I’m most like? We’ve interacted quite a bit to give you an idea of someone, no? If not I’d love to hear who you think the character resembling you is. You remind me of Albedo quite a bit, but with some Venti/Kazuha mixed in there. Oh! Zhongli too ! Very soft, intelligent and extremely interesting to talk to <3

3 - Scara freshly served, there’s a post out right now <33

4 - I would honestly hate to vent out my feelings to you. I want to be a source of positivity or happiness when you speak to me, I don’t want you hearing all my problems. Am I feeling better? Um. No. Not particularly. But it’s not forever. So it’s okay.

ti voglio bene my dearest fragola amica <3 (google translate don’t let me down)

#bun speaks #🍓 anon #Diluc #kaeya #they would be perfect dads #I’m spreading my dad Diluc agenda

[morimallow]

Kurōo with a male reader but reader actually animated and draws really well, can do realism easily literally any art style. And has worked fir anime studios & even made their own anime animation b4?

And he finds it out because he and Kenmawere snooping around?

WAIT, THIS IS SO CUTE. LET ME.. CHERISH THIS. I will entitle this..

Strokes

〖 This is fluff and crack (but I'm not funny?) despite the title, believe me. 〗

You were at your university studying a course totally unrelated to arts, same old poorly made up excuses for you not to go and enroll for Fine Arts running through your mind on a daily basis.

If you think about it, it's fine. Your parents decided to let you go and do artsy stuff after you graduated from whatever that course is.

But then again, this is you and you know you'll get rusty if you won't draw and just focus your mind on lengthy equations and pain-in-the-ass Language lessons and field practices you're sure you won't even use it in real life. Not with your chosen real career choice.

So, you decided to give it a go. You will be immediately offered a job if people can already see your potential.

You'd draw in your free time and also in not your free time and send those samples to animation studios. You use digital and paper and pen alternately... just because.

You would say you're popular. You have an art account, not using your real name because who the hell knows what your parents might do?

You would post there your WIPs, some original characters you made, an character you saw in a manga you read a long time ago that you forgot the title, your commissions with a large DO NOT REPOST or SAMPLE in the background, rough sketches of your boyfriend who doesn't know he was drawn, not that he would mind if he did know.

But the thing is, he really doesn't know. Nope, not a clue. None.

Not until you asked him to use your laptop, which was full of your drafts and placed helplessly on your study table, to send an email to your professor.

You have 4 accounts all in all: a personal one, your art account which you use for digital art stuff and to communicate with other artists, your account for the university and a formal one for.. formal stuff, I presume.

The things is, the account that was currently logged in was your art account and the animation studio you work at sent you your schedule the moment he opened your laptop.

Which means he accidentally opened it.

Kenma was sitting on your swivel chair, doing something on his phone. He was Kuroo's ride because they had somewhere to go after your boyfriend's done with what you made him do.

Kuroo briefly scanned the content of the mail before switching accounts so he could send the file you wanted to pass to your prof.

After telling you it's already sent.. he went back to your art account and whispered to Kenma who was too bored he joined Kuroo in his shenanigans.

Were they thinking you're living a double life? Yes. Did they scan your files? Yes. Did Kenma accidentally stumble upon an open box filled with tons of sketch books and old tablets you used for digital art? Yes. Did they start their search for whatever they're searching there? Absolutely.

For Kenma, he grabbed the sketch book with a label with the same name as the game he's addicted to at the moment. They were drafts then the final designs for the characters.

Kuroo didn't really feel angry or irritated you didn't tell him this. He knows you'd answer him honestly if he just asked but he can't.. stop.. looking at your works.

He was mesmerized. He has a lover so good in arts? HELL, YEAH. He's now convincing Kenma to join him to commission you because you deserve it.

You knew Kuroo would know about your work the moment you entered your dorm with their shoes still by the door. You leaned on the door frame, looking at them still smiling fondly at your works and you were thinking how to approach the situation because.. you weren't really angry? Your works have been out in the public for so many times. Why would you have an issue with Kuroo and Kenma looking at the original ones?

“What do you think?” you asked.

“You didn't tell me you were this amazing! I didn't even know you draw,” Kuroo said pouting but still feeling proud and happy if that's possible.

“I thought you already knew when I asked if I could practice on you?”

“What? When— I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO BE BETTER AT KISSING SO I SAID YES.”

“I was on my phone.. drawing you..”

“You weren't scrolling through videos on how to kiss?”

“What made you think I was scrolling through kissing shit when I was holding my phone at a weird angle because that was the first time I used my phone for digital art?”

“Well, did it turn out good?”

“Absolutely, I caught your ugliness and enhanced it to make you uglier.”

Bickering, teasing, and Kenma not minding you two.

Kuroo then asked what your plans were after college and told you about the schedule he accidentally saw earlier. He knew then about your work, about when you made your own anime that was one of Kuroo and Kenma's top 10 faves. It was a short one but definitely caught their hearts.

Kenma had been planning to develop his own game and wanted you to design the characters, get your own crew to develop the graphics and all that artsy stuff (because I don't know anything).

“Kenma, you're my best friend but you can't just steal my boyfriend from me!”

“Kuroo, stealing and hiring are two different and obviously unrelated things.”

After a few more hours of planning and telling stories, Kenma decided to go home and Kuroo stayed for a sleepover.

He asked you where the hoodie he lent you a few weeks ago was because he didn't bring any change of clothes and you said it was in the top drawer.

Just as he was about to close it, his eyes caught a glimpse of a picture.

No, it wasn't a picture. It was a digital portrait of someone..? Maybe a late relative or your close cousin? The person (?) in the frame had some of your features. It was too realistic it didn't cross his mind that it was one of your works.

“Hey, babe? Who's this?”

The moment you realized what he was holding, you stopped breathing. He wasn't supposed to find that but then again, maybe you shouldn't have hid it in one of your drawers.

You mumbled your answer.

“What? Come again?”

“W-What our c-child would look like,” you looked away, blushing.

I realized the title had nothing to do with the content. Maybe this is why I never win in essay writing contests. LMAO. 💀

#kuroo x reader #haikyuu x reader #male reader insert #kuroo x male reader #haikyuu x male reader #haikyuu x you #kuroo tetsuro #kuroo x y/n #could also be #gn reader #kuroo x gn reader

[uiruu]

i just saw someone say they don't like monster factory because of the bodyshaming and like... if that's how it hits them then I'm not gonna argue with them of course, but i don't really know of any instance of shaming... it's either about celebrating bodies or it's just neutral and about creating the character who fits whatever improv narrative they're coming up with. and any time they do go "oh no that's horrifying", it's about some feature that's totally non-human, like having a giraffe neck or teeth that glow, or some feature that, if it were on a real person, would be a conscious choice someone made, like a bad haircut or extremely bad fashion sense.

like, I'm not gonna tell someone who feels this way about monster factory that they're wrong because they experience what they experience, you know? but at the same time it's just not a conclusion i would have ever come to, i think. I've never gotten the impression that they're making fun of real people at all, and something like 99% of what makes the character creation parts funny is the way the narrative and personality of the character unfolds as they shape them.

they have made characters who are fat, sure, but that's not ever The Joke, you know? Justin actually always makes a point to appreciate when games let you play as overweight people because he himself is overweight. they make an effort to vary up gender options, height options, size options, all sorts of variables like that between their various characters, just to keep things fresh. and i don't think giving a character a big nose when not all of their characters have big noses means that they're making fun of big noses, because the joke literally never is "haha big nose". the joke that the nose serves might be just to help shape the face into something funny, but the joke is about what emotion, mood, or character background the character might be in or have, not about how ugly or whatever the character is.

i can't really think of many times, if any, where they've made a character where the whole point is that theyre ugly and worthy of ridicule. most of the time, their goal is to make a character who has an eccentric personality, or is extremely sad, or trying their best, or idk something else like that lol. i can think of more monster factories where the character's physical attributes don't get goofed up that much and the majority of the monstering comes from the clothing/accessories/story they make up for them, etc than i can monster factories where the monstering mostly has to do with what they look like (and only that). like, the final pam isn't that weird looking. if you stripped arby the meathead mcdonald of all his clothes and accessories he'd just be a normal old man.

but then also, when they do goof up a character physically, it's usually so nonhuman that it doesn't read to me as having anything to do with actual people at all. like toucan dan the toucan man. or squirtle. or knife dad. or yoba skywalker starwars rules. or truck shepard. or j'aam lmao

if it felt meanspirited, i wouldn't be into it. and like, i felt like if almost any other people other than Griffin and Justin were doing this series, it definitely would be meanspirited. i don't think many people are capable of not only walking the line here, but like thriving in it, and creating a space to make fun characters with really large personalities and eccentricities and physicalities that reflect those things, WITHOUT it veering into just joking about physical appearances. in a vacuum, you could view some of the creations from a distance and think it's veering into that, but in context it doesn't really, in my opinion. when they give a character long arms and short legs, it's so long and so short that it doesn't resemble anyone, and even still, the jokes are less about how wild it looks and more about the utility of these features and what they say about the character and the world they inhabit.

idk, that's just my two cents. i understand if there are people who feel this way though, because i can only speak for my experiences and they can only speak for theirs. but i just felt compelled to post this because like... that's a criticism of monster factory that i haven't really seen before, and i wouldn't really have gotten that impression just from watching them. especially once the series really got going and they started focusing more and more on the narrative, to the point where the creation segments of episodes like the #noid, turbovicki, daz, stang, etc aren't even that prominent, and definitely aren't even the funniest parts of those episodes lol. well maybe daz, i liked the creation of daz lol. but anyway.

their goal with monster factory isn't to create things to laugh at, it's to create things to laugh with lmao. to create a monster and find how to love them. to create art.

long story short, monster factory is a monsterfucker series. i think. that's not the conclusion i had in mind when i started writing this, but that's what im going with. it's about beauty, power, and beautiful powerful monsters who definitely fuck, for sure

#long post #sorry if this is crossing a line jxnzkzzlzl #monster factory #mcelroys #mbmbam #o #i wanted to just scroll past the comment i saw and move on but i couldn't stop thinking about it until i posted this #i don't want to attack anyone who feels this way about the series though........ fjddkxnxkxm #but i do just wanna give my thoughts

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 11/9/21

ALMOST birthday problems

listening short ride in a fast machine, john adams. i listen to a lot of instrumental stuff throughout my workday and there are only so many video game soundtracks i actually like.

this version is nearly a full two minutes shorter than the version on spotify i liked best. this piece looks fucking exhausting to both play and conduct, and the comments are full of conductors complaining about it lmao

read the wiki page like “okay what is this About is it an experimental piece about spaceships bc that’s what i want this fluttering-adrenaline-pulse piece to be about” no! it’s about eighties sports cars. it does not sound like it should be about eighties sports cars. 

i know just enough about classical music to be dangerous. i know what i like, which is when people incorporate folk music into their style (copland, dvorak), music featured in the barbie ballet movies (tchaikovsky), and a very small number of bach chamber works (one specific doctors’ waiting room music). this doesn’t really fit into any of those and sounds more like a movie score to my (bad, deaf) ear but it’s a pretty cool four-minutes-and-change.

reading Has Witch City Lost Its Way? by Kathryn Miles for Boston Magazine

the author asks this question and then kind of shrugs at it. this was a weird one! i’ve been to salem quite a few times. it’s a very charming little town on the sea with good nightlife, you can take the train into boston, the rhythm and flow and concerns of a tourist town are very familiar to me, it’s almost the perfect place for me to live, and i could never ever live there bc 1) money and 2) i find it absolutely fucking insufferable in large doses. i think the intersection between queer people and astrology/witchcraft/woo is fascinating, and it probably is a great way for some people to reclaim the concept of religion, but please god get all that as far away from me as possible. i like nondenominational spookiness and vampires and that’s about it.

it’s very difficult for me personally to think of witchcraft without thinking of both queer people and terfs. it’s odd that the author did not address this, nor did she mention that many of the “witches” killed were people of color. the author does point out that hey! it is super weird to disneyify a place where atrocities were committed! but she also flinched away from any real criticism about the modern white witchy movement trying to make itself as palatable as possible though commercialization. except in a very oblique way, bc all her interviews were with people who have a vested commercial interest in “Witches Are Nice And Friendly Actually”

this is quite long for a puff piece, with several interviews conducted for background info, and i get the feeling there was a very heavy editorial hand here. massachusetts people are fucking terrified about losing out on tourism, since historical events are really the only thing the state has going for it (unlike jersey, where yeah tourists drop a lot of cash, but there’s a sort of indifference about how the state is viewed? they’re assholes and proud of it and massachusetts ppl are assholes and really defensive about it).

watching not quite a fallow week, but bouncing off a bunch of anime while trying to find something just okay enough to handsew. bouncing off things for very petty reasons, let it be clear. saving The Harder They Fall as little a treat for myself tonight, bc i have YET ANOTHER work call w/japan.

playing one cycle/playthough of The Remainder (act 1/free prologue) free on steam by Square Weasel Studios.

i like to keep an eye on the LGBTQ+ tag and this one is in fact gay, people have hair and pronouns. there's a sea-based magical and religious system! please pay attention to the psychological horror content warning up top!

art style is delicious- there's been a rash of "magical otome protag with amnesia" lately (the arcana is i think the most famous), and i do like how they're like "what do you look like? hah just kidding, this is u :)"

romance/otome/dating games have consistently been some of the most fucked up games ive ever played, for reasons of Genre that could be several theses on its own. i appreciate the content warnings at the top, but even though this is not a game specifically tailored for a fanbase (i think it would work better without the name customization, actually) it does have a beautiful tragic sadperson whomst i expect to see some cosplay/fanart/fanworks for. there isn’t a good gender-neutral term for sadboy. bear with me.

inside baseball industry musings, my company does not rep them, all thoughts my own &tc: i cannot immediately find a ton of info about this studio, other than they're canadian. this is odd, bc finding info about games and studios is literally my job, esp bc they are also doing all the Indie Marketing things right EXCEPT for social media- releasing a free teaser like this, doing episodic drops with completely different SKUs so they keep getting fresh eyeballs, and a very high-effort and polished art style. they also have a very well thought out steam page that properly sets expectations and gives a good teaser of the game. their thumbnail is fucking killer and drew me in in the first place, and the whole thing (aside from one! one singular typo in the actual game itself! very forgivable!) is very polished. this team knows what they’re about. i'm sad nobody's really talking about this, but we are experiencing an absolute glut of games right now.

it doesn’t really look like anything i’ve seen before, which is always very exciting. it’s got flashes of dry humor that i like very much and i probably will pick up the full game when it’s out in feb (ep 2 is out but i like consuming completed things bc i Never remember to come back to them)

making hey remember this bad boy? finally washed it on cold/delicate/with woolite and on the extreme-low-heat dryer setting, then absolutely crisped it again on high for a bit bc i am quite paranoid about moths and carpet beetles. i would like to hang this on the wall adjacent to my work desk bc there’s been a bad echo on all my calls lately, but this blanket is very hard to look at. so it is folded up small and thrown artfully over our maroon futon and they kind of cancel each other out.

the fringe is in okay shape, i started combing it out before realizing that’s an insane thing to do and i only have a limited number of hours on this here earth. the thing i DID do was reattach the fringe in the seven or eight places it was peeling off. i think it was originally machine stitched on, which makes sense. although if you hand-embroidered and hand-quilted a blanket of this size, a little bit of straight stitch is going to be Nothing to you.

teaser of next week’s tuesday again no problem, bc god willing i will have cleaned/deodorized/built a proper frame for this thing and hung it up

#tuesday again #tuesday again no problem #oh my god i passed out so early last night and i still feel like Death

[purpletyrant]

ok im all caught up on Kittyquest and damn. I love this. There's a bunch I want to compliment but I think i can get it down to like 1) I love how you use collage backgrounds for almost all the panels! A charming feature of Homestuck's art style that kind of dropped off towards the end so it's cool to see someone keep developing it. (oh crap out of space gotta send 2 asks)

(cont.) 2) Holy shit the worldbuilding. Most fantasy/sci-fi worldbuilding goes for weird out of the gate but. your Earth C and Kitty's place within it appears more or less pedestrian at first glace only to unfold its delicate insanity over hundreds and hundreds of pages. Exquisite. 3) Joana, as an antagonist, fucking rules. Just exactly the kind of spiritual unhingement Kitty's world could produce. That forest monologue... amazing

thank you, thats very kind!! the collage method is something i picked up when illustrating fanfics with complicated bgs i didnt want to draw, so it stems more from laziness than anything LMAO. much like andy husster, i also seek ways to reduce the amount of time i spend on any given panel

"delicate insanity" is a good phrase, i like that. and im glad someone out there is rocking with joana. i think "delicate insanity" suits her too. as a citizen living a mundane life on a planet founded by literal deities, how do you grapple with the concept that the gods are a tangible, present force in your life... but fail to live up to expectation? the world the kids have built is a fragile ecosystem fit to pop like a bubble if the cult of the witch gets their way. its not lord english levels of narrative peril, but rather a subdued kind of panic... i hope it continues to entertain!! thank you for sharing your thoughts :)

#ask

[mrsunstrider]

I’ve been out of the fandom side of league for a long time, but I’ve had a lot of thoughts about the current event and how much of a letdown it feels to me, and I wanted to get them written down somewhere. Spoilers ahead for the Sentinels of Light event, up until the end of part 3.

I’ll start with the things about it I like: I think all the art for the event is incredible, the art team did a really good job, likewise the music and cinematic were both good. I like the relationship and animosity between Riven and Irelia, I think this was a good opportunity to have them interacting and is one of the few things that has been done well in the visual novel. I think Gwen is very cute, and I like that it’s canon that she’s the one dressing them up. I liked the parts with Rengar - the only section that’s actually made me laugh so far - although I think he’s also been written very… out of character. I’m not a big Rengar fan, so I can’t really comment on it in depth, but I’m pretty sure he’s never referred to himself in the third person before.

As for the rest of it.... Yikes.

I understand and appreciate that they couldn’t put every champion in, but to not mention anyone directly involved in the event is a weird choice. Where are the leaders of Demacia and Noxus? Why should I believe that Leblanc would leave the (apparently incredibly easy to get into) Black Rose hideout open to anyone? I know it’s established that only relic weapons can defeat the wraiths, but does that mean every other champion just… I don’t know, died before the sentinels arrived? We see random background characters - the solari soldiers, lunari people, those two piltover sentinels - but literally no other champion who could’ve been included even if just to go “shit’s fucked huh, I gotta stay here and protect my people” or whatever.

But then the whole event seems so disconnected from the rest of the lore and the other relationships throughout it. I think Graves and Miss Fortune are the most egregious examples of this. All of Graves' lore, short stories, cinematics he’s been in have mentioned TF or shown him with TF, but when you meet him in Piltover he’s there “on vacation” and there’s no mention of TF at all. Even when you get to Bilgewater and meet up with Miss Fortune there’s no mention of him, like he just didn’t exist. It’s so heavily at odds with how they’ve been treated in the past, with being heavily entwined with each other’s stories, with TF’s multiple voice lines in legends of runeterra mentioning Graves, even with the nods to TF in the Sentinel Graves skin. 

Miss Fortune, imo, has had it the worst though. All of her previous characterisation has been ignored in favour of having her immediately betray the Sentinels for power. She’s portrayed as desperate and paranoid, convinced everyone is working against her to help Gangplank, instead of the self-assured, powerful captain Riot has been putting forward since Burning Tides. When the bio for Ruined Miss Fortune came out, I thought maybe they were trying to cover up spoilers for Ruined King, but now I don’t even know where Ruined King is supposed to fit into this narrative. Pyke and Miss Fortune seemingly don’t know each other, and none of the other characters in Ruined King are mentioned at all.

All in all the whole thing doesn’t feel like a big canon event, it feels like a poorly written, rushed AU. Done well, I think a visual novel could’ve been a cool format to tell this story, but I think it would’ve benefited so much more from being a chaptered story on universe instead. Compare this even with Burning Tides - the story, the featured game modes, changing the announcer to Gangplank - and it just falls flat in so many ways when it’s supposed to be so much bigger. @vaguely-concerned said on their post that it feels like the sort of fanfic men write to disparage women and queer people who write fanfic, and they’re honestly completely spot on, right down to the shoehorned in no-homo relationship between Graves and Vayne.

From what I’ve heard, the lore team didn’t even work on the visual novel, but the skin team did and honestly… it’s obvious. The Sentinels of Light event feels like it exists just to showcase cool things that could happen, with no regard for the established characters it’s using to do them. And while the event has been disrupted by covid and delays, that doesn’t change the fact that the writing is juvenile, repetitive and that the story has no set tone. I don’t know if this is supposed to be a serious event, when the player-character seems to only have joke lines, when Graves’ only motivation is apparently robbing people, when Rengar is sad because someone beat him up once.

I’m someone who really likes the lore in League of Legends. I thought Burning Tides was amazing, and I’ve been waiting years for them to do something similar, but this event has just made me tired and sad. The enthusiasm I had for it at the start of the month has just fizzled out completely, and now I feel like I’m just waiting for it to be over so we can wait for the next thing.

Anyway this was a lot of words to say I’m a salty TF main lmao

#League of Legends #Sentinels of Light #boy I wrote an essay here huh #here's all my feelings anyway lmao

[ryttu3k]

Already finished Coteries of New York, so on to Shadows of New York! I’ve seen the first bit in an LP, at least, but the bulk of the story will be new. This will have two playthroughs, one for each ending, since at least it has them XD First up - the ‘good’ ending!

Oh dang I like the music.

Julia is a bit on the edgy/cynical side XD

Yeah, she’s got a shit deal :-\ And what’s worse is that it’s all planned out.

Interesting note - at Lodestar, there were shadowy figures in the background, but you could rationalise it as people on the other side of the windows. On the train, you only see the shadowy features, and it’s otherwise empty, so no obvious figures casting them...

I guess if you choose the ‘don’t shoot’ option, Julia gets drained and it’s an early game over?

God that Embrace scene is intense. I got goosebumps!

Spirits, huh? Oh yeah, Obtenebration became Oblivion and is now connected with necromancy, IIRC?

I’m glad she had a good few nights XD;;

Valerie Duval, she was... the scourge in CoNY hunting down the Red Hook killer?

Nice to meet you, ‘Katherine Wiese’ XD

Cool ponytail, Qadir! I really dig the relationship between him and Julia, it’s fun. ‘sup Aisling, how’s Agathon? A blood hunt, really? Y O U. Okay yeah probably better for Julia’s long-term survival for Arturo to ignore her XD;; Samira’s so pretty. Ooh this guy is Hope’s sire, yeah?

“You wanted to hear about which member of New York City's Camarilla I dislike the most?"

"Yes?"

"Too bad. They're all my dear colleagues, and I deeply respect every single one of them."

"Sure you do. Wouldn't want to blurt out something that could lock you out of Mr Vanderweyden's legal services, would you, you ass-kisser?"

"I do expect to find myself in need of a good defense attorney when my broke, incompetent, and foul-mouthed assistant finally pushes me over the edge."

THEMST.

Benoit hi!! “Got any news about Sophie Langley?” *sharp intake of breath* Benoit backstory, that’s rad. I wonder if it’ll be uncovered in-game? Like we know Arturo is still around, Panhard is still around. Presumably Adelaide Davis is still around. Callihan... well, I know what happens to him. I think Torque ditches the scene before Sophie dies?

Father Leonard seems like a good sort. I wonder what his deal is?

Dakota is adorable. I’m going to do the ‘good’ end first even though I know it’ll make me feel horrible, but dangit, the ‘bad’ end is totally going to be my canon.

...Vin Diesel? XD

DING DONG THE DOUCHE IS DEAD. ...Deader than usual, I mean.

jfc Panhard that is pretentious as hell. Both the party description and the costume, actually XD Qadir’s mask is kind of funky. Oh my god Arturo you are a Toreador is that the best you can come up with?! Nice horns, Aisling.

...Thought, given their clans, Samira/Aisling could be interesting as hell.

Man, Arturo and Panhard must be pissed off XD Unless they’ve already picked their replacement stooge?

And here’s where the plot starts! Hey, isn’t that the priest’s house? Ohh, they’re meant to be meeting with Mia. I guess they’re just reusing assets.

“It’s a list of four names. ‘D’Angelo. Hope. Agathon. Tamika.’“ *SHARP INTAKE OF BREATH* Okay, that could be the list Sophie gave the fledgling. Which one did Callihan get it from?

Oh criminy Dakota don’t tell me you’re into that Q-Anon shit XD;; Ooh okay that makes more sense. Neat.

Ahhh man I was hoping to get a lead and instead Julia has to punish this poor fuck XD;; Yeesh. Okay, Bunny as a Reporter it is, then.

Almost run over by a limo, huh? *chinstroke*

Oooh this is the lead to Hope! Yeah, I’d say she has a connection with a Montgomery XD Wonder if she did end up eating her? Huh, contact used LeakyGutSyndrome... didn’t Hope end up having to retire that one, or was it the other one? Let’s just... Dominate this guy. Sorry dude it’s for your own good.

Agathon’s missing? :( Damn, he’s like one of the only decent Tremere. Oho, a diary! Oh sweetheart :( Oh, Silvia died :( Damn, interesting past, though... and a reference to CoNY again.

Fucking shadows, I literally glanced over my shoulder.

S C H E M E S. And yeah, looks like I’m on my way to the ‘good’ end :-\

Oh shit, Adelaide or.... whatshisname, Kaiser’s dude? Oooh man who to meet first... Kaiser’s dude. Oh. That was a bit anticlimactic XD

On to see Hope at Double Spiral. I think this is one of those choices that leads to one of the endings, so what’s more ruthless and Camarilla... busting in it is.

Nastya isn’t having a good night, is she XD;; Also Hope’s suit is badass.

...huh. Sounds like she’s actually managed to get shit sorted decently XD

Interesting... the coterie members were a list of heroes for hire that multiple people had, including Sophie. Well, that widens the scope a bit! Anonymous information broker, shall I assume that’s Kaiser? OH. No, it’s her sire!

“The story going around is, he left me alone and I hate his guts. Well, at least half of that is true.” Which half, though...

Aww man I wish I had saved some of those websites! I miss SciFiVine...

You know, I’m not 100% sure Carter’s the murderer (my main suspect is Arturo at this point tbh) but damn, the bit about Stern’s show kinda makes me want to slap him anyway XD;;

Queer Catholic blues, huh :-\

“Haven’t you noticed what’s going on in the news? People are going absolutely insane about this virus, cancelling trips and orders and --” Ahh. We’re in that 2020 XD;;

Okay the scene with the kid meeting his girlfriend was cute but then spooky time?? jfc was that the Abyss?!

Ooooh did she just find Tamika solely by accident? Thanks, Abyss XD I love how Julia’s first response is ‘shit, she’s hot’. And she took out a whole SI squad herself? Nice. Calebros mention! Huh, so the SI are maintaining the status quo... they became an issue because the Camarilla tried to sic them on the Anarchs and Sabbat and it backfired, maybe it actually succeeded here?

Ooh, a history with Torque. Neat. Also not sure with the art, but are those tattoos on Tamika’s arm, or fur? I mean, Gangrel beast marks and all.

Sorry Torque I’m just trying to get the ‘good’ end :(

Mention of the fledgling! Officially ‘disappeared’, that leaves it fairly ambiguous at this point.

Oof. The Circulatory System are... not cool. And yeah Julia’s just been called tf out, I do look forward to this scene in the ‘bad’ end XD;;

COVID strikes back. The Big Beat Burger is closed :( Charlie is sweet, at least! I hope his mom is okay.

Well that rat bit was weird. Hi D’Angelo! Oh my god blood doll rats? Drunk blood doll rats?! Still a damn good detective, though, that’s good shit. On to Kaiser and some answers! ...Yeah, okay, he’s a prime suspect too.

Kaiser, you are a deeply unpleasant person :-\

...good to know pepper spray still works. And, uh, probably satisfying to beat him up XD;; And yeah, there’s the last choice for the ‘good’ ending. Sorry dude.

...huh. Okay, I was at least partially right XD;; Oh Qadir, not you too :-\

Well that’s a bit... weird of Dakota, yes.

lmao oh Benoit you absolute mess. Religion as A E S T H E T I C XD I have a theory he’s from Michael’s line and I also quite sincerely believe that Michael would take one look at him and bitchslap him into the next millennium. He’s a Path follower, isn’t he?

Father Leonard is okay. I wonder who the ‘friend’ is?

This is very Agatha Christie, revealing the killer in the midst, except I have the horrible feeling Qadir’s going to go with ‘it was suicide’ and not ‘it was everyone’.

Denouement! Before it ends, Julia’s traits:

Loyal only to myself

Glass half-empty

A little abuse of power never hurt nobody

You can’t be a writer and not lie

The ends justify the means (duh)

Honestly she may have just blackmailed her way into power, set up Carter to take the fall, and sent poor Dakota to final death, but the drama was impeccable XD Good luck not ending up in the Abyss, Julia!

#ry plays sony #vampire the masquerade #vtm shadows of new york

[camelliagwerm]

ok i’m sorry it took me until now to write this up but hey, better late than never when it comes to my thoughts on shadows of new york. yes there are spoilers for this and coteries

draw distance really didn’t have to make julia as relatable as they did. she’s a depressed millenial who’s just trying to make ends meet, dead on the inside, has a complicated relationship with her sort-of girlfriend/roommate/blood doll, and as a wlw and a relapsed catholic, has a complicated relationship with religion as well.

(laurie calling her a “weird little david bowie-looking lesbian” is literally living in my head rent free, thanks for that @eivorwolfsmal)

i feel like the game took a bit too long to get into the main meat of the plot. i get they probably wanted to show julia’s mortal life and embrace in the same way they showed the embrace of the coteries protagonist and what her night to night existence looked like but it probably takes roughly an hour and a half out of a four hour game to show this if you’re an average-speed reader.

the main focus on the game is trying to work out who wanted douglas ‘boss’ callihan, the leader of the new york anarchs, dead. and to literally no one’s surprise: quite a few people wanted him gone. i only wished i could personally congratulate the culprit because the bastard had it coming.

the companions from the previous game are featured to various degrees -- julia works with d’angelo for a bit, interviews hope, does a quid pro-quo deal with tamika and agathon only appears in a flash back type situation. the thing that frustrates me is that they act like they barely know each other despite the fact they were potentially in a coterie together. the fledgling from the previous game is barely mentioned

i think this could have been done better if before going into shadows, you could set up which clan the fledgling was from, and which companions they recruited (my fledgling was a ventrue, recruited agathon and d’angelo) so it was at least a little less immersion breaking.

characters who were just sort of there during coteries had more screen-time and personality this time around -- qadir in particular got way more screen time since he’s the closest thing julia has to a mentor. the primogen council -- prince hellene panhard, thomas arturo (aka that one toreador harpy who pops up at the end of coteries and might make you go, uhhh who??? if you’re not familiar with new york by night) and aisling sturbridge return, but they also included addison payne (ventrue primogen, who i’m 90% sure isn’t in new york by night, so he must be a draw distance addition), carter vanderweyden (malkavian primogen) and samira (banu haqim primogen, again most likely a draw distance addition since the banu haqim only joined the camarilla in v5)  -- were  the major npcs outside of qadir and dakota (julia’s ‘gal pal’ as the game put it lmao)... and also suspects.

i really enjoyed the new art of the characters -- in particular i loved hellene’s celebrations of power variant and also aisling’s new art work but what did you expect from this url. tamika had a really nice update as well.

regardless of what you think of  draw distance’s writing, i definitely think that they have once again nailed the atmosphere necessary with a vtm game. it’s not particularly surprising considering they did reuse quite a few assets from coteries, but they added to them by making the backgrounds more dynamic, added shadows, and included new key artwork for different locations such as st. patrick’s cathedral and the art hole.

the music slapped.

unlike coteries of new york, i was surprised to see that you didn’t really need context from other source material to understand what was going on. i went into this game fully expecting to understand what happened over in chicago, but it wasn’t needed.

thank god they sorted out the disciplines -- it was sort of a mess in coteries because the three clans could access a select amount of abilities (e.g. toreador could access potence, brujah dominate) regardless of clan. but in shadows, you just have dominate, potence and oblivion. i haven’t really tested oblivion because i was trying not to be a walking masquerade breach, but oblivion is tied into the story.

the traits system was actually well done and the traits julia develops influences the end of the game. the game does subtly push you towards certain traits by reminding you that julia is lasombra, but it wasn’t intrusive by any means.

speaking of the endings, i personally preferred the bad ending to the good ending, if only because julia’s position in the ‘good’ ending makes zero sense to me

this is more relevant to the good ending -- julia claims she’s the only lasombra in new york when i know damned well that isn’t true; boss callihan’s group, the midnight runners, were mostly lasombra. new york  in theory should have a good population of lasombra that might be anarch or independent after the sabbat-camarilla war in the late 90s, and i’m sure some would have wormed their way into the camarilla following their entry into the chicago camarilla. my own feelings on that aside, if julia’s claim is true for the game -- that she’s the only lasombra in new york, then what would be the point of having a primogen for one whole person? like i could accept the thin-bloods having a primogen in robert larson in the previous game because there was a sizeable population, but using up a primogen slot when there’s only one clan member seems...idk? wasteful? 

(ok i can understand why they went that route because lasombra are ambitious, ruthless etc. they like being in control, survival of the fittest etc etc. but for me personally it didn’t feel right.)

once again draw distance has written themselves into a potential corner by using up-to-date vernacular (including one such encounter with a toreador who went “no <3″, callihan being called a “racist clown”) that i think is going to age the game considerably in the future in the same way coteries is going to age (e.g. hope using “vibe check”). part of me likes this because it really establishes when this happened, but it might also age the game horribly.

(side note, you can tell this game was written very recently because it’s set in march 2020 and has references to covid and happens just before the major lockdown starts)

overall i did really enjoy it. i think it being more linear was a benefit rather than it being a little more open so they could focus on the main storyline, even if the pacing was a little odd. i’d put it at a 7/10 since it did really cater to me (favourite clan and favourite setting), but i would definitely say it’s subject to change if i replay it at a later date.

#harper.txt #vampire the masquerade #shadows of new york