#i already made a similar redesign a while ago but this one is better

[mortysmith]

btw heres my garnet redesign

#steven universe #garnet #like srry her design has grown on me but i still yearn for something different you know.... #someone pointed out that garnets new design doesnt feel like a culmination of her character its just like. the same thing but different #do you get what i mean. #so i want smth that feels more casual! relaxed! she no longer has all this pressure on her #shes showing off her components more shes embracing their differences ??!!? IDK #say nice things abt this #i already made a similar redesign a while ago but this one is better

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Skeeter (again)

Debut: Super Mario 64

Do you feel it? The surface tension? Could it really be? It’s Skeeter! Y’see, Skeeter is a real All-Star, as in, we already made a post about them long ago! It might’ve even been our very first post to break 100 notes! But also as in, Skeeter has a lot of fans here! And we owe it to all those fans, myself included, to make a more in-depth Skeeter post truly worthy of Skeeter, I think. So let’s begin! 

Of course, one of Skeeter’s biggest fans is Princess Peach herself, given she comissioned a painting of one for her castle! There are a couple paintings of enemies in this game, but this one feels the most candid! It is really just a Skeeter, scooting in its natural habitat! And that painting leads to... Wet-Dry World? Hey! We live there, don’t we? More reason that Skeeter really deserves a spotlight on this blog, then! They’re basically our national flag! What better funny little guy to welcome you to, well, y’know. That!

Let’s talk a bit more about what a funny little guy this is, and how funny, and also little. Skeeter uses the tried and true Mario 64 technique of designing enemies: Orbs! Spheres! Orbs are the same viewed from every angle, so you can save them as sprites and conserve that sweet, sweet cartridge space. 

It gives them an undeniable charm though! Like, this is a bug that looks like a molecule! It really is just a ball with little legs, a funny dangly orb on top (to denote Silliness) and two big googly eyes! 

Say, looking at those googly eyes... Skeeter looks a bit sad, doesn’t it? Oh no! What could possibly be wrong in Skeeter’s life, do you think? It has such an idyllic lifestyle, scooting about the surface of the water... But even a Skeeter has its troubles. You shouldn’t try and assume what people are going through, y’know! I won’t pry, Skeeter, but if you ever need to talk about it...

Now the Skeeter market is constantly changing, and Skeeter needs to be adaptable to keep up with the times! That is why Skeeter’s been redesigned in basically every one of their appearances! Each era needs a different Skeeter, and Skeeter will deliver!

Well, all but one of their appearances, at least, because Skeeter makes a sneaky little cameo in Mario Party 3′s Woody Woods board! Do you see them? Have a good long look, because they’re in there! They were just a static image, but Mario Party Superstars had the gall to not bring them back when they remade this board. Can you believe that? I really ought to write a letter to complain!

The Mario Party 3 devs may have liked Skeeter, because they went as far as to make a special Robo-Skeeter for one of the minigames! In Ridiculous Relay, three characters take turns piloting different wacky vehicles, one of them being... this wonderful Skeeter mech! Wow! 

We only ever see this design from the side in-game, but thanks to modern technology and The Models Resource, we can witness it in all its glory! It really is so perfect to reimagine the antenna as a funny robot antenna! Wouldn’t you want to sit in there? Pilot it, even? 

Anyhow, introducing Mario 64 DS Skeeter! While some may lament the loss of The Classic Skeeter, if you ask me this is a basically perfect modernization! Plus, I think those original low-poly 64 designs are most charming on the N64 itself!

This one keeps all the core Skeeter traits, such as the Funny Dangly Orb, but the new big conjoined eyes are very adorable, and make it no longer sad! They even gave extra detail to its feets, emphasizing that they are suction cups! And there is something very soothing about its new shade of blue! Hey, isn’t it a similar colour to Robo Skeeter? I wonder if that was a coincidence! 

Personally, I would like to own both versions of the Skeeter painting and display them in my home, side by side, so all of my visitors know I have impeccable taste! Although maybe not in our apartment, because I’m not sure what happens when you place a portal to Wet-Dry World within Wet-Dry World. 

Our next Skeeter design is from... hold on a second! Silly me! This picture isn’t from Video-Game’s, it’s from Real life! You may have already guessed, but Skeeters are based on a certain real-life guy named water striders! Or pond skaters! Or water skaters, water scooters, water skippers, water bugs, Jesus bugs, and of course, water skeeters, which is where our beloved Skeeter got its name!

These bugs are well-known for their ability to Hang Out on the water’s surface, without sinking! How do they do that? It’s the Surface Tension, baby! In the grand scheme of cool things bugs can do, this probably isn’t that impressive, but it’s Pretty Cool in its own right, don’t you think? I like how Skeeter takes the ripples they make on the water and turns them into little suction cups! It’s cute!

Hopping back into the virtual world, our third Skeeter is from Super Mario Sunshine, and wow! This sure is  ! I mean all of Sunshine’s enemies look funky, but this is something else, huh? I guess I do quite like the colours and the Funny Shoes, but the eyes look a bit... scary! What has this Skeeter seen? Do I even want to know? 

Two things you should know about Skeeter in Super Mario Sunshine, pal. The first is that they aren’t called Skeeter, they are called Blue Spiders or Pondskaters. They aren’t spiders, but I guess they are Pondskaters! The second is that if you jump on them, you will bounce super high. I do not know why that is. 

Last but not least, Mario Galaxy 2 redesigned Skeeter once more, and... well, maybe not the least, but this one isn’t my favorite? They made its legs a lot shorter, and took away the iconic dangly thing in favor of a more compact skeeter! This does look more like a guy you can jump on, from a game design perspective its probably a lot better, so it’s not all bad! Besides- this one is pur

Of course the funniest thing about this one is its face! Not only are the eyes a little detached from the body like a classic Banjo-type Rare guy, but they are oh-so unimpressed! This guy would say “yeah yeah, laugh it up, pal”.

With how each Skeeter clearly shows a different mood, you know what that means! It’s extremely marketable relatable memes! Sure to go viral! Which one are you feeling today, Trainers? 

Yet legends tell of a fifth Skeeter... A Skeeter so mysterious, it even has its own page on the Super Mario Wiki..! Yes, it’s Skeeter from New Super Mario Bros., which I get to use bold for because its technically a different enemy! This guy is called Bomb Skeeter in Japanese, but for the English version they left it as just Skeeter, making the distinction kind of confusing! In my last post I exploited this confusion for comedic effect, but now I won’t do that anymore. It’s time to be serious about this. 

Still, isn’t this guy fantastic? It’s so much wider than your average Skeeter, plus magenta and teal is one of my favourite colour combos! It’s got everything the 64 DS design has and more!

The reason for their wideness, of course, is because they are filled with explosives! These Skeeters p**p bombs at you, as demonstrated above, and they can even break through blocks! I think this is a real clever way to adapt Skeeter to the second dimension- giving them a vertical hazard makes them an even bigger threat when you are swimming below them, and makes them even more special! They didn’t even have to do this, because Skeeter would probably work fine in 2D. But they did! Hooray! 

That may be all the Skeeters I have for you today, but the journey of Skeeter is far from over! With all the Skeeters we’ve gotten, more are sure to follow... at some point! If you are reading this from the year 2032 and enjoying a brand-new purple and orange Skeeter design from Super Mario’s Crazy Castle, with one raised eyebrow and slicked-back hair, hello! Know that you are living in the best future!

#mario #mario enemies #skeeter #super mario 64 #new super mario bros #mod f boy #can i get a hell yes for surface tension?

[katsukikitten]

Back at it again since tumblr didnt want me in the tags the first time

Bakugou was irritable today. Not that his irritability was anything new but every little thing set his skill crawling. His forearms littered with threatening pops as he bared his teeth to anyone brave enough to look his way. 

He figured the only way to get his agitation out was to hit something, anything.

 So he headed to one of the two closest gyms from his small apartment to blow off some much needed steam. The local 24 hour gym that was open to the public was a no go, not just because it was always over crowded but also because he got banned after cussing out some damn extras who were snapping pictures of him instead of working out like one should. Leaving his only other option to be the agency's "gym". 

When he first set foot into the sorry excuse of a gym he demanded a better upgrade for it, if they expected to keep him and Kirishima in top shape. Otherwise he would begin to look elsewhere considering other agencies were dying to have the newest upcoming pro hero in their rankings. The agency obliged, delivering his expectations and more in less than a week. Guess being in the top five really did have its perks. 

The ash blonde pulls his shiny new coupe into the parking garage and finds a spot closest to the entrance. He grabs for his water bottle from the passenger seat before exiting the car, locking his black beauty as he made his way inside.  He swipes his fob over the keypad before it beeps while flashing green, allowing him entrance to the back door of the basement. Walking past the long corridor of support labs that had long since closed to get to the gym. The rooms illuminated by the low light of locked computers, secrets and redesigns stowed away behind bullet proof glass. 

Nearing the end of the dimly lit hall he spies harsh light flooding onto the linoleum floor, indicating that someone seemed to be collecting some major overtime. From his experiences at UA he figured each room would be filled to the brim with over eager support, eccentrically yelling at one another over specs and improvements, sharing their love of science at a volume much too high for Bakugou's taste. Shortly after his hero debut he discovered just how wrong he was about the support labs. He had needed a 2am, mid shift, costume adjustment so he came here, expecting the place to be brimming with brilliant minds only to find one person still working. 

So it should be no surprise that at 10:30 at night there was one room that was clearly occupied. Still a rare curiosity takes over the hot head as he peeks into the room while passing, wondering if he will catch a glimpse of you again. 

He found you odd, as you seemed to be nocturnal or better yet maybe you didn't sleep at all. No need for it as your hunger for knowledge seemed to outweigh any basic human need.

Bakugou had only seen you a handful of times, here and there in passing towards the gym at all hours of the day and night. Maybe it was just coincidence that he would find you hunched over something with this gleam in your eye as you destroyed and rebuilt the item over and over again.  

He shakes his head, he doesn't get it. Doesn't get why you dedicate so much time when no one else in your department seemed to give as much of a damn as you did. Or maybe he did get it, maybe it was similar to how he pushes himself so he can be number one, except yours was just for intellectual stimulation. 

After an hour and a half of throwing weights and punches around and becoming heavily drenched in sweat, Bakugou finally calls it a night. Gulping water from his water bottle before wiping at the sheen that collected on his forehead. He sighs out, before catching himself in the mirror. Smirking as he flexes, letting go a few pops. Admiring not only his improved physique but also his new hair style. Sides faded but top long, ash strands looking borderline messy, as if someone had just caught him and a lover kissing heavily in a dark hall during a house party, their fingers desperately pulling at his hair. 

He reaches for the ceiling in a grunting stretch as a yawn forces its way out. He leaves the gym, switching off the lights before making his way back to the parking garage. A furrow of his brow as he notices the light to your lab is still on, maybe you had forgotten to kill the light when you left or maybe you were still tinkering away.  Crimson eyes peer into the room, spying you as you begin to stretch. Your eyes latch onto his as he watches your expression go from concentrated to elated. You jump from your seat, causing Bakugou's brow to furrow more before you're flinging open the door and yanking at his wrist.

"Wow what are the odds?! Well I guess they would be around 4.64% considering you don't normally frequent this gym but I should also factor in your recent ban raising it up to.." 

"Oi, shitty woman, quit the nerd talk!" He yanks his wrist from your small, delicate hands. Totally unsure of what your name is and even if he did know it, he would sooner address you with an insult than your family name. 

"Ah I forget, not everyone loves numbers. But still I am quite lucky tonight." You beam up at him, hair threatening to fall loose from its haphazardly shaped bun, "You're just the man I needed to see, Bakugou." 

He isn't sure why but a faint blush creeps to his cheeks, was it your bright smile that threw him so off guard or was it the way your lips formed around his name?

He sucks his teeth, looking away from you with crossed arms. 

"Well I'm sweaty as fuck, so you really don't need me." He huffs but before he can turn on his heel you're clamping cool black metal to his forearms. You guide him to the door to the testing area of your lab, turning his arms this way and that to make sure your measurements are perfect as you ramble on. 

"No! No! That is the perfect condition for this experiment. I've been working on your winter costume since there are deficiencies with your current one. Since you, and I'm sure you already know, sweat less in the winter there needs to be some sort of counter balance to offset the possibility of little to no stored sweat. Preventive measures could be made sure and you collect sweat from previous activities but 'stale' sweat does not ignite as quickly or as violently as fresh sweat. One could argue that using heavier and denser materials could help aid in more sweat production but this risks overheating should a mission need you inside or a rapid change in environment all together outweight any benefit. So not only are these bracers less obnoxious than your gauntlets, no offense, but they collect 56 to even 62% more of expandable sweat compared to the normal 54% all while reducing the amount needed for ignition. Sure my colleagues could say that's a marginal improvement at best but…" Heat radiates off of him in waves, pulling your eye upwards. You're met with a red hot gaze that seems to rake over your skin. An odd chill runs down your spine as you realize your mistake. 

Nerd talk.  And rambling nerd talk at that. 

All the while Bakugou wonders why your hands are so damn cold and yet they feel good, soothing to his warmed skin. Refreshing even as it reminds him of a passing breeze in the summer or hiding in the shade from the sun.

A bit of heat rushes into your cheeks as you suddenly realize how close you are to THE Ground Zero. Someone who you knew so intimately through paper and yet knew nothing about all at the same time. You knew his measurements, the circumference of his head, his biceps, the number of inches around his thighs. Hell, you had them memorized since the big boss upstairs assigned you his costume and accessories well over a year ago. And yet you couldn't even fathom to name his favorite color or favorite food for that matter.

You swallow thickly, clearing your throat as you move on, dropping his deadly hands as you do.

"Ah, anyway, these bracers are designed to help with not only better sweat collection in both summer and winter but to aid in some stealth missions as they make no sound compared to your heavy gauntlets." You smile at him once more causing his stomach to flip before those small icy hands press harshly into his toned hot back, pushing him into the testing chamber behind diamond glass. 

"I just need you to test them. I need to make sure they can withstand your heat and power." With that you shut him away, quickly trotting to the mic on the other side. Pressing the button to speak as he turns his arms over looking at the smooth black material 

"Now, remember, it takes less sweat. So don't go all out!" At first you worry it falls on deaf ears before he gives a nod your way. Suddenly you are in awe of the power house that stands before you as his expression changes from utter agitation to complete determined focus, all with something as simple as a deep breath out. He focuses on producing enough sweat to ignite, calling on his quirk as if it were an extension of himself. Pooling it onto his skin, permeating the air with the slight smell of burnt sugar before he let's go a small pop. 

But the medium sized explosion he had expected was anything but what was produced.  Suddenly the brace on his arm explodes from the pressure as does the diamond glass in the room. Fear grips Bakugou as shards of glass go flying towards you before you flick your wrist harshly.  

The deadly shards bypass you, glistening shrapnel sinks deeply into the tile floor around you like a piece of jagged art.

And yet you seem unphased, delighted even as a manic smile paints your lips before it sours. Eyes noticing that the bracer barely stood up to the challenge. 

"Fuck…the density still cannot withstand the joules output or force that Bakugou is capable of…" A string of murmurs that remind him all too much of Deku as your fingers curl in the air, calling forth the failed experiment with unseen forces. The blonde long forgotten as you hunch over the workbench, going back to square one. 

Crimson eyes dissect your form and actions as you pull various books and tools towards you with the influence of your quirk, hovering around the work space. 

Suddenly you feel heat radiating behind you when normally you're enveloped in the cool air of the air conditioning, kept extra low in the labs to prevent overheating of parts. You look over your shoulder, suddenly remembering the Pro hero who's beginning to wonder why you're in support with a quirk like that. 

"I know, I know. The last bus and train left hours ago. I'll catch them in the morning." You guess at why he's lingering as you wave him off with your hand. He's caught off guard by your statement before he notices the clock, going to open his mouth to scold before snapping it shut. 

Why should he care if you work through the night? What was he gonna do? Offer you a ride when he didn't even know your name? 

He sucks his teeth biting out as he leaves. 

"Just call me when you're ready to test these again." 

Weeks pass and it's as you never left the lab. Glued to the same spot as he tests the product every other week only for you to grow more and more frustrated with each failure punctuated by shattered bracers. 

And every time he enters the lab room he learns something new about you. He can tell when or if you've left the lab for longer than a few minutes by how tidy the space is or lack thereof. A chaotic circle encompasses you filled with random items that you hope will ignite a spark of inspiration. Anything from books to thin sheets of metal and even to soft fabrics that haphazardly lay atop metal tools. Anything one could possibly imagine was probably there, sitting along-side several empty cups that once held iced coffee. He notices the bags beneath your eyes as they darken with each passing week and he's beginning to wonder if you've ever left as he leaves anywhere between 12 to 3am most nights. 

Tonight is no different as he makes his way to the gym at midnight while you're hunched over his bracers. A part of him wants to tell you to stop being an idiot, to rip you from your little stool and drag you to your bed or wherever the fuck you'll sleep as the other part points out 'why do you fucking care?' So he watches silently, eyes fixated on you until he runs out of glass to look through before he locks himself away in the gym. 

Bakugou puts in his black wireless earbuds before cranking his music up, tossing his phone onto a nearby workbench. He stretches this way and that, reaching for the sky as he looks at his form in the mirror, his hard earned V and bottom two abs wink at his reflection beneath his signature black tank top and his black hoodie. 

His fist connects easily with the heavy black bag suspended by a large chain. The sandbag swings back and forth with a creak with each heavy handed blow. Bakugou loses time with each kick and hit thrown at the bag, each passing song fueling his desire to melt his frustration until his hair is plastered to his forehead. He lets out a steadying breath as his heart roars in his chest,he rears his fist back for a final blow backed by a bit of his quirk. It connects with the well worn leather with such force a weak link in the chain snaps as the fabric obliterates, the 200lb bag flies into the mirror behind it. Shards of reflective glass glitter as they rain onto the matted floor. 

"Fuck." He huffs, stretching and turning to the opposite mirror. Sending a quick snap of his tongue out with the caption "Oops" as the background showcases the decimated gym to Kirishima. He picks up his bag, removing his ear buds to be met with the cool air of the hallway. 

Your light is still on causing him to grind his teeth as his phone reads 2:45am. He's angry enough he chooses to avoid looking into your enclosure as he walks past, fearful his sharp tongue will give him away. He misses you perk up, frantically waving for him to come in before you're at the door, flinging it open to yell out much too loudly in the empty halls. 

"Bakugou!" Your voice is hoarse and cracks from disuse before you clear your throat, lightly jogging to catch up to his large stride, "I've done it!" 

He ignores you, lips pursed in a tight line before your cold hand wraps tightly around his wrist. Pulling him back to the lab with eager steps. He rips away his wrist with a growl and follows you reluctantly, you seem unphased by his harsh actions. 

"I've finally perfected it. I'm sure this time. I was looking at it all wrong. Larger surface area does not always equate to better absorption. Not to mention the pressure for the explosions beneath the bracer is what was causing the failure in the first place. A marginal error that I should have caught earlier. This new design covers less than 15% of your skin but increases…." You ramble but it all falls on deaf ears. 

Bakugou sees that your hair is so loose in its ponytail it might as well be down. The bags beneath your eyes weigh heavy on your pretty features, your skin showing signs of dehydration as it seems to have lost some of its elasticity. Your lab coat is wrinkled and your nametag, that you're wearing for once, is pinned on upside down. He commits your name to memory although he finds it odd that it must be your first name instead of your family name, then again you do hail from overseas. As the two of you walk into your lab he realizes instantly that it has become your main living space. Shards of diamond glass still litter your floor, there is no rhyme or reason to the placement of objects.  Tools, and trash commingle in dangerous piles and stacks around the room. Something knits itself as it floats in the air, wavering a bit when you pause your rambling to yawn.

"Oi nerd!" Bakugou's voice is sharp, authoritative as he grips onto your wrist. Eyes still washing over the room before they land on you. Somehow you're too daft or too tired to pick up on his concern. 

"Yea yea nerd talk. I fucking get it." A half snap from your exhaustion, "Just…" 

You lose his grip before grabbing onto his arm, finding a mesh woven bracer somehow on that disastrous desk. It seems to be made of a soft, elastic fabric as you slip it over his thick forearm after shoving away his sweatshirt sleeve.

"Perfect, your sweat output was pretty close to max earlier. I could smell caramel from the gym. This is going to be so fucking great!" You giggle in delight as the other mesh bracer finishes itself, dropping before you frantically reach for it. He notices your faulty step, your under the breath curse and the long moment your eyes flutter. He almost bites his tongue clean off. 

Again your cool hands find his burning skin as you try to keep your tired brain focused on the task at hand and not how his forearms have grown nearly a half inch since your first encounter. It's difficult not to fall victim to his intoxicating smell as you force yourself to not sway on your feet and collapse into a lovely muscular man. His heat seems to have some sort of affect on you, causing an odd affinity between you both.

"Okay all done! Please give a medium sized blast!" You encourage, shoving him into the testing chamber as he glares down at you. He isn't sure why your chaotic state is bothering him but it does. He rolls his eyes as you slam the door shut. He brings clarity to his mind, focusing on his quirk and how the sweat feels against his skin. How it yearns to be something more, to explode into a whispering flame that may catch something ablaze. 

He gives in, just a little, giving it what it wants, igniting it with a simple thought. An explosion he would have considered large if he were still at UA but since all he's done is grow these past five years, earning him the number 3 rank, it comes to no surprise when the glass shatters yet again. 

Except this time you're too entranced with the smoke clearing, of seeing if your baby you've slaved over has made it through to comprehend the sharp threat. You notice the flying glass a moment too late, flicking your wrist to change the trajectory from what was supposed to be your entire body but your arms are grazed by the razor sharp shards. You grit your teeth, cursing to yourself calling forth a first aid kit. 

But nothing shows up in your peripheral except for a looming presence. One you give your back to in order to find the first aid kit with your gaze, when was the last time you ever had to look at something to summon it? 

Damn it, how could you be experiencing quirk failure from exhaustion right now? Sure it took a lot of brain power for your quirk but it takes weeks of no sleep for a failure plus you had been eating...your eyes glance around the room. You hadn't been eating, or so it says from the lack of any sort of plate or take out aside from your iced coffees with the added protein and carbohydrate shots your body needed to process your quirk with ease. 

Fuck, guess it really was quirk failure. You bite your lip, unable to find that damned kit hoping the hot head wouldn't catch on to your short coming. 

Vermillion eyes watch crimson spots bloom across the white fabric of your coat. He grinds his teeth, searching for the first aid kit only to find it knocked beneath a shelf. He rights himself, stalking your way with a grimace just to stop in his tracks. He watches you slip your oversize jacket off of strong shoulders, toned arms adorned with several thin slices that weep red, but what has really caught his attention was that body con dress. 

Sticking to you like a second skin, but looking somehow comfortable at the same time, he wonders for a moment if you've made it yourself. It's similar to the fabric used to make his shirts, breathable, soft, always smelling a bit sweet like you when they are fresh from the lab. His hand twitches as he can imagine how supple your curves would feel in the delicate yet sturdy material, palm already too familiar with the soft sensation. Red catches his eye once again pulling him from the trance that is your body. He sneers at the cuts as he grabs onto your cold shoulder, shoving you into your chair so he can work on you. You look up a bit shocked with a pinch of anger mixed in and a dash of hurt pride. He takes no notice as he wraps bandages tight around your arms, your eyes locked onto the bracers. The smile on your face cannot be helped as you stare proudly at your work, it was able to withstand so much power and remain not only in tact but unsinged. You grab onto his wrist turning it this way and that, a pen and pad float near by as you take notes. Bakugou cannot hide his astonishment as he watches the invisible hand borrow your neat yet rushed script as it is unable to keep up with your thoughts. You pull the bracers from his arms, fabric begins to tear itself thread by thread before spooling itself, wrapping around wood as if it were a snake. He pulls away, eyes hard as he talks himself out of whatever the stupid "heroic" side of him is saying. He takes a step back and with it taking his warmth. You shiver but you are too busy to notice, teeth chattering ever so slightly but you're too busy studying. He growls to himself. 

Suddenly you're enveloped in a dizzying sweet smell and warmth, it is then you realize that Bakugou had shoved his hoodie over your head. Slinking your arms into the holes to move the hood of the sweatshirt back, quickly realizing the material is not damp as you had once thought. It's warm from his quirks use, material dry as a bone, reminding you of pulling your favorite blanket fresh from the dryer just to wrap yourself in it as rain taps on the window of your apartment. 

Subconsciously you snuggle into it, opening your mouth to state how much work you have to do but instead you have to stifle a yawn. 

Had the cold of the lab always kept you awake, were you starting to actually feel the weight of your work only because you were warm? 

"I think it's time for bed, nerd." 

He places his hot palm on the back of your neck in a power move as he speaks. He enrages you and entices you all at once as your face snaps up to meet his gaze, your own eyes burning holes into him. He smirks down at you, deciding in this moment that he really likes you.  

"I'm taking you home. Get your shit." He squeezes your nape as a warning. He isn't taking no for an answer.

"I'll take the bus and train in the morning, three hours is child's play." Hitting his hand away, trying to return to your work. He scoffs in response. 

"You sure are oblivious for someone so smart. Tomorrow is Saturday." He crosses his exposed arms, unable to hide his smug smirk as realization washes over your stunning features, "That means the bus won't be in the business district til 10am." 

"I think I'll be okay." You say after a moment of silence, "I've waited longer. Or I could walk..." 

"Will you?" He retorts, "Your office says otherwise." 

You follow his gaze, your entire office in disarray, as if a bomb went off. 

You guess in a sense one had gone off. Biting your lip as you mull it over, eyes finding Bakugou's file shuffled across your desk, spying your own hand written cliff notes. 

Stubborn your script reads, you sigh admitting defeat as you wave your hand over the file. It tidies itself, papers folding neatly back into the Manila folder before you snap your fingers. 

Bakugou watches items soar around the room, books fighting and bickering over their order, pens and pencils long forgotten in corners of the room race back to their place on your desk. Papers flutter and fall into the trash or shredder in defeat as plastic cups sink into the plastic bin in the corner. The diamond glass follows suit as your own hands grab onto the bracers, giving them a gentle squeeze before you access an invisible drawer on your desk, hiding away your project before pushing it back. Wood flush against wood as if there were no drawer at all. 

A question burns on the tip of Bakugou's tongue, it dies in his throat for now as a new one is born. 

"That Kirishima's faceplate?" The question comes out in the form of a bite, for some reason the thought of his more likeable friend coming in here as often as Bakugou has set his blood boiling. 

"Ah yes, I just got this assignment from the big boss. Kirishima's new unbreakable breaks his faceplate everytime. Otto had it before me, which was odd. He is more of a reverse engineer. Taking an unknown material and figuring out how it works." Your eyes linger over the empty office across the way, "But he's been out and Kirishima can apparently no longer be on the back burner. Especially now that I've finished with the company's top hero." 

His heart melts just a bit as he watches a smidge of pride form in your dazzling eyes. He scoffs to change the topic.

"Come on, shitty woman." He guides you to the parking garage. 

Once there he acts out of character. At least what you would believe to be out of character as he holds open the door to his car for you, waiting for you to step in. 

"What?! I ain't fucking kidnapping you but I ain't letting you weasel out of this shit either." He growls, waiting impatiently by the door. You step in as he gently shuts the door behind you. He steps in himself, the engine purrs to life as you give him your address. 

"That far out? And you were gonna fucking walk?" He laughs, "Hell no, never again. You'll call me before you do that next time." 

"I don't have your number asshole." You grumble to yourself but he grabs your unlocked phone from your hands, plugging in his number and calling it. 

"There now you do." He locks it and puts it in his cup holder, demanding your attention. No longer can he keep that burning question to himself, "Why are you on support?" 

It puzzles you for a second before you realize he means it as a compliment to your quirk and not an insult to your intellect. 

"Oh that's easy. Being a hero wouldn't benefit me, it's too restrictive. I'm more of a…." You ponder on your words, vigilante was wrong, you wouldn't take justice into your own hands for the sake of others and villain was too strong, "Chaotic neutral. My moral compass is pretty grey and being in this lab benefits my need for knowledge." 

Bakugou glances your way, respectful of your honesty while your eyes become heavy watching the street lights blur, the hum of the engine pulling you deeper into relaxation.  There was something about a car ride that took you back to your childhood days in America.  The outskirts of the city would quickly wind into back roads lined with corn stalks that scrapped the sky. 

The street lights slowly became fewer and farther in between as the black coupe took you further from the heart of the city, soon more stars began to dot the sky.  You see just the tip of his zodiac constellation, it stirs a question within you. 

"So why do you want to be a hero?" You keep your eyes focused on the backdrop that lies beyond the tinted glass, missing Bakugou's knuckles turn stark white. 

He doesn't speak and that's answer enough for you.  

It took him an hour to get to your side of town, an hour. One you had said you would walk, one you mentioned you had walked before. He pulls up the sidewalk by your building, turning to you. 

"We're here…" His announcement turns into a sigh as he sees your slumped form. Head limp but thankfully not leaning on the glass as you're snuggled into his hoodie. You're murmuring how you need to update your measurements in your sleep causing Bakugou to roll his eyes. He pulls away to parallel park. He debates, should he wake you? 

No, who's to say you wouldn't attempt tor eturn to your work? He sighs, pocketing your phone and pulling the lanyard out of your purse that has, what he assumes,your house key on it. 

Katsuki's blood runs ice cold in his veins as realization sucker punches him square in the chest. He had NO fucking idea which apartment was yours. He turns your key over and over but why would that have the number on it? 

"Fuck." He would have to pray your mailbox was both clearly labeled and inside. He shoulders your purse before scooping you into his arms, sure to cradle you like the princess you are. 

He steps through the automatic doors, relief washes over him as a wall of mail boxes greet him. Better yet, they were neatly labeled with names AND apartment numbers.

But it is not long lived as his red eyes rake over the names, the family names, last names. He only knew your first and of course, of fucking course the Gods would laugh at him as panic rises in his throat. You had to have the most common first initial didn't you?  He had spotted it six times already but none of the last names seemed out of the ordinary, if anything they were all ordinary, run of the mill Japanese last names. Nothing foreign about them. 

"Fuck." He murmurs, plan B wouldn't work either, he can't just try out every fucking apartment with your first initial, how weird would that be, some guy shoving keys in random doors with a passed out woman in his arms. 

"Fuck." He cusses again. Was he going to have to take you to his apartment? Fuck, fuck fuck! He couldn't do that, the press slunk around his apartment like vultures, even at this hour.

"Oh you must be the guy that's been keeping her up so late at night." A voice sounds behind him, he turns towards the sound. A smaller young man smiles at him as if he and Bakugou share an inside joke. 

"Quite nice of you to bring her home, and get her mail." He laughs softly reaching for something in the desk, he approaches slowly, "But she must have forgotten to tell you she lost her key a couple of weeks ago. She always asks me to get the mail instead of paying the lost key fee. Don't blame her though." 

The desk clerk, Wantanabe, rambles on as Bakugou's sharp eyes watch closely. Silently thanking the Gods' for their blessing as he watches Watanabe slide the spare key into your mail slot. He commits your last name to memory, but more importantly 5C burns into his retinas. 

"...she hasn't been home in four weeks,  so she has a lot of mail." That snaps Bakugou back to the present, a small stack of mail is presented to him. He stares down at your form unable to keep the scowl off of his face. The dark circles beneath your eyes seem to become darker by the second. 

"Thanks." He growls through gritted teeth, snatching the mail as best he can without disturbing you. He looks for an elevator and when he sees he will have to climb five flights of stairs he wonders if this is the reason you don't come home often. 

Soon enough 5C is staring Bakugou in the face. He is hesitant, even if he does bring you home safely he wonders if you would misread his actions. As the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished. Still his hands move quickly, sliding the key into the door and unlocking your mysteries. The apartment is sizable for the area, clean at least what he can see from the light of the hall flooding in. He flips on a switch with his elbow, he expected harsh light but instead ambient string lights that line the ceiling illuminate the space in a warm light. A three chair island with a marble water fall looks out into the living room, a large sectional couch swallows the space, a TV atop a nice entertainment table while books litter the coffee table and one part of the couch. The apartment feels as if it had been warmed by the sun through the drawn curtains but not overly hot, it feels cozy really.  As if Bakugou could imagine himself spread out on the grey sofa while you're curled against him, half dozing half reading your book. 

The thought jarrs him, he feels too close to you now, feverish almost as he rips your key from the door, shutting it softly before placing the lanyard onto the kitchen island. He spies a hall and passes a full bath, then a freshly vacant guest room to see a final door closed that he assumes is the master. He flips the switch and again light snakes around the ceiling washing the room in this comfort. He can understand the soft yellow lights considering you spend forty plus hours beneath harsh, bleaching white lights. He pulls back the comforter as best he can and lies you down gently. He removes your red bottom heels and praises the Kamisama when he sees you do not have on tights not that he would remove them anyway. You snuggle deeper into his hoodie, smiling as you do, dreaming of whatever little scientist's dream about. Katsuki imagines it's all math, measurements, molecular structures, nerd shit. You begin to murmur in your sleep.

"...gotta update his chart…" 

"Fucking nerd." Bakugou smiles to himself, you look peaceful even as your mind races with reminders. Another snuggle deeper into his hoodie, he goes to reach out to push hair from your face and stops himself. 

"What the fuck am I doing?" He growls aloud, he doesn't know you. Barely figured out your last name and that was by both chance and stupidity on the desk clerk's. He heads for your bedroom door, stopping with his hand gripping the handle. He peers over his shoulder before killing the switch, flooding your room with darkness. 

He shuts the door and with it the odd ache that's growing in his chest. 

#bakugou x reader #bnha bakugo x reader #katsuki bakugo x reader #bakugo x reader #katsuki bakugou x reader #katsuki bakugou x you #bnha x reader

[beevean]

SEGA and the eternal issue of “Sonic’s girlfriend”

[Translator’s note: here is the original article written by @latin-dr-robotnik​​, originally written on the 18th of May 2020]

Today we’re going to talk about one of the aspects SEGA is more secretive about: Sonic’s relationships.

[Translator’s note: this article was written to celebrate Seaside Hill Paradise’s 200th entry. If you’re fluent in Spanish, I highly recommend you to check it out! And if you aren’t, go follow Latin’s Tumblr blog if you haven’t already and you’re into Sonamy, analyses, gushing about music and shitposts.]

This article concludes my Sonamy trilogy, and I recommend you to read the previous two articles: “SEGA and the eternal issue of the Sonamy dynamic” and “’I love you’ – forbidden words in Sonic”. This means this is a shipping article – if you’re not interested into another essay about the love life of a blue hedgehog, I can redirect you to other articles such as “Sonic and speed: are we misunderstanding them?” and “What went wrong with Classic Sonic’s music in Sonic Forces?”.

Everybody else, welcome to today’s article!

It should be noted that this article focuses more on the semi-official and strictly official aspects, since there is really not much to say about the fandom. Nowadays the fandom has a relatively peaceful coexistence, creating art, fanfics and more, for all kind of ships; sometimes there’s an occasional fight between ships or a ship that clearly is not appropriate… but besides that, everything seems relatively calm, at least in my experience and compared to other fandoms.

Too cool for relationships...

Few things are as mentioned and yet silenced by the official SEGA media as the fateful words “girlfriend” and “Sonic” put together. In official terms, Sonic has always been this young, cool hedgehog, with a pure love for nature and never too worried about life, but with a moral code that makes him fight against injustices. During his first years, Sonic was almost impatient and a little emotionally distant, although as it was the ‘90s and things were not so clear for the young SEGA star, different interpretations would take the character through different paths - some more radical than others. As the years went by, and going through many redesigns, certain aspects of his personality would be perfected, exaggerated, or even flanderized. His position on relationships, on the other hand, would remain relatively constant over the decades, with a few particular exceptions.

The this is that Sonic, in the words of his own creator Naoto Ohshima, has always been considered “a young man with a child's heart”, which has helped to substantiate and understand why the character would remain relatively distant from his feelings, and much closer to his own interests associated with the life of adventure.

... or is he?

Despite everything I just said, they tried in many occasions, if not succeeded, to give Sonic a girlfriend, with various results.

As carefree as Sonic is, and as much as SEGA tried to clarify this point over and over again, the people behind his character have always tried to introduce one or more relationships into his life. Even Naoto Ohshima himself has made his own suggestion as to who might be a hypothetical partner for his character. The different interpretations I’ve mentioned have tweaked Sonic’s character to make it more apt to certain types of dynamics, and the cultural gap between the East and the West (which I analyzed a few years ago with the first article of this “trilogy”) also has a considerable impact on the type of relationships that would be established for Sonic from very early in his history until today.

Author’s note: the concept of “Sonic + human woman” of 1990 wasn’t completely forgotten, no no, it was brought back 16 years later, in… well… the worst way possible.

Let’s see an example. Going back to his very origins, in his pre-Sonic 1 sketches Sonic was often depicted with a stereotypical damsel in distress, Madonna, his own “Princess Peach” that ended up being scrapped for many reasons, including the similarities with Super Mario. As the years have gone by, this concept has not disappeared, but rather the writers and directors of the series have taken it down different paths over time. While Madonna was too cliché, other candidates for the role of “Sonic’s girlfriend” would quickly appear to try different dynamics, directly or indirectly endorsed by SEGA.

Sally Acorn

For many years, Princess Sally was for Western fans the first person who came to mind when they thought of “Sonic’s girlfriend”. Since 1993, and for 2 more decades, her relationship with Sonic has gone in many directions, but fundamentally the most amazing thing about this whole situation was that she was Sonic’s official girlfriend (at least in the Archie Comics canon). It was also one of the many headaches for SEGA in the last decade.

Originally a fellow fighter against the macabre Robotnik from the 1993 animated series Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic and Sally’s relationship was always marked by their opposite personalities; while Sally tends to plan ahead and is much more focused on the seriousness of the task, Sonic was the type to destroy robots first and think later. “Opposites attract,” they say, and by the (premature, I might add) end of that series both were already more than friends. They had already kissed a couple of times.

At the most critical moment in their relationship, Sonic, after a year of being missing in space and presumed dead by everyone, returns to Mobius only to end up back in potential danger, decides to ignore the wishes and warnings of Sally, who’s clearly emotionally traumatized and stressed by both the general situation and the responsibilities she had to carry out for her kingdom in the absence of her parents. The result of this explosive cocktail was one of the most infamous scenes in all of Archie Sonic, "the Slap", where Sally finally reacts violently to Sonic's selfish statements. The hedgehog's response? Well, a long exposure to the screams about her experience - also traumatic - up to that point. In the end, both end up screaming and crying in front of virtually everyone.

What followed in the next decades was an expansion of that original SatAM canon in the Archie Comics, in which its various writers introduced varying degrees of drama and increasing conflict to demonstrate the strong bond between them, destabilizing or even stabilizing it again, multiple times. They would be together for some time, then they would be apart, eventually rekindling the flame of love passionately, until a final sacrifice on their part and the eventual resetting of the entire Archie Sonic canon.

In their last years, after the Super Genesis Wave, Sonic and Sally’s relationship went back to being platonic. a good friendship with the advantages and disadvantages of their personalities - Sally’s leadership and Sonic’s extreme confidence - while the focus was put on the flourishing relationship between Sally and her best friend (and old computer!) Nicole.

Regardless of the way their relationship ended, it's undeniable that Sally has left a huge mark. Being a product of the West, her existence was never really accepted by the Sonic’s Japanese creators, but because the bulk of the fandom is here in the West, Sally's presence has been strongly associated with Sonic, the Freedom Fighters, the comics... and also the ship wars between her and the character we’re going to talk about next. Her very existence was a living contradiction to the Japanese central canon, an official girlfriend who broke all the ideas that existed for Sonic in terms of his conception of relationships and lead him through unique paths. Whether for better or worse, Sally broke the mold.

Eimi. Rosy. Amy Rose.

On the opposite side of the spectrum there’s Amy, a character that was originally conceived as the Minnie to Sonic’s Mickey, but with her own dynamic.

Despite Amy’s existence being strongly tied to Sonic’s, once again Sonic Team tried to avoid the classic cliché (in this case to copy Mickey and Minnie), opting then to establish Amy as the one interested in a relationship, while Sonic runs away from this idea. For this dynamic to keep working, Sonic’s feelings have to be kept hidden, with excuses like his “shyness”, which leads to ambiguity, or because, as said before, of his “child’s heart”.

The most interesting thing is that Amy kept her canonical status of “self-proclaimed girlfriend” since 1993, which makes her “official” and “not official” at the same time, but there are some traces left from the Sonic manga of 1992 (which in turn influenced Amy’s original design), where a prototype version of Amy (or, as it was spelled there, Emi/Eimi) played the role of Sonic’s girlfriend (or Nicki’s, to be more precise). With this detail in mind, Amy can be considered, at least in the East, the very first “Sonic’s girlfriend”, even before Sally – but her situation is much more complex.

Sonic Mega Drive (top) and Sonic Boom (bottom), representing some differences in different Sonic continuities.

In any case, the manga would be the first and only time Amy was officially considered “Sonic’s girlfriend”, because in the following decades and in several continuities the core of their dynamic shifted to Amy chasing Sonic. Both would get closer or further away depending on each case (in Fleetway, for example, Amy ends up marrying another character, while in Archie Sonic there would be only a few instances of potential interest, quickly overshadowed by convenience or other things directly or indirectly related to Sally), but generally no continuity would establish an official relationship. In some cases, such as Japan, it wouldn’t even be necessary to clarify the state of the relationship, since their cultures accept more easily the dynamic that Sonic Team proposed as an “official relationship”. Just looking at the artwork highlighted on Sonic Channel (run by SEGA of Japan) shows how much more accepted the relationship is, even though Sonic Team’s official artwork still avoids any kind of public confirmation. (Author’s note: I’ve written more about Amy according to the East and the West in the first article of this trilogy)

Unlike Sally, there is no “opposites attract” situation between Amy and Sonic, and, at first, there is no prior friendship from which a potential relationship could flourish. We witnessed their dynamics from the first moment they met, and it would not be until years later that there would be a minimal basis for interaction from which various official continuities would bring both characters closer together.

Technically Amy already knew that her destiny was tied to Sonic and the events of Sonic CD on Little Planet, thanks to her tarot cards (an element that has disappeared since then), but for Sonic it was just another day of adventure, and although we’ve seen how Amy's feelings have progressed, mostly in Adventure 1 and 2, Sonic has never reflected on his personal feelings; it’s an aspect of the hedgehog that to this day remains a mystery to the audiences.

Also unlike Sally, Amy has appeared in multiple continuities of all kinds and because of that her relationship with Sonic has been affected in various ways. The main videogames canon has remained ambiguous and unchanged for 25 years: Amy would stay close to Sonic and offer some good moments to reflect on her feelings about him (some of which I mentioned in my post about Sonic Unleashed and Amy’s emotional support), while Sonic would remain distant, uncomfortable, shy, and, more recently, potentially affected by her apparent loss.

Sonic X is the first official attempt (by Sonic Team no less) to offer an expanded view of our characters. There’s a lot of discussion about how Sonic is slowly opening up to Amy’s advances, and these developments follow a line that we discussed in previous articles of this trilogy, and how, during the 2000s, the Japanese writers of the series kept slowly deepening the interactions between the two, reaching very important symbolic moments like Sonic X Ep. 9, 52 and 76, among several others. I am purposely leaving out specific details to direct your attention to this fantastic thread by Yvanix Rose that highlights some key details about how this continuity worked the Sonic-Amy dynamic. [Translator’s note: the thread is in Spanish]

Sonic X, episode 76.

Another essential continuity for the development of this dynamic was Sonic Boom, since, despite having been a separate continuity with its own interpretation of the characters, its existence managed to influence the main canon in some way in the years that followed its original release in 2014.

Sonic Boom made two important changes in the dynamic: Amy did no longer externalize her feelings with the same frequency or intensity (speeding up a process that already started in the main canon in 2008), and Sonic was noticeably more nervous and insecure of his feelings for her, even being jealous in several occasions. These changes got the dynamic closer to the “friends who have secret feelings to each other but they’re too shy to admit it” trope, and in the second season it could even be said that there are signals of the “secretly dating” trope. Nothing was officially confirmed yet, but the changes to the dynamic offered a fresh perspective to work from: winks and inferences about a relationship that was not talked about but seemed to happen behind the scenes.

Sonic Boom S1E16.

Sonic Boom’s approach also opened the door to working a little more on the characters’ new personalities. Taking a little inspiration from the original foundations of Sally and Sonic’s relationship, Boom now presented situations where Sonic and Amy’s perspectives actively clashed with each other, leading to discussions and moments that showed a little more of the mundane details of the friendship they had, rather than appealing to more classic behaviors of the main canon, like Sonic leaving the scene in a hurry. Considering the way things turned out the last time we saw this kind of dynamic on screen, it was pretty safe to assume that their new opposites were now attracted; the implied secret dating and so on only helped to give it more sustenance - which the fandom would eventually take to the extreme.

And lastly there’s IDW Sonic, the comic series that replaced Archie Sonic after its cancellation in 2017, and the most recent arc that offers an interesting perspective. Starting its continuity from the end of the events of Sonic Forces (which at the same time took on certain characteristics from the post-Boom era, particularly as far as Amy is concerned), IDW Sonic didn’t waste any time in presenting the way in which it would carry out its dynamic between Sonic and Amy.

Amy makes her feelings for Sonic very clear, and he is surprised but unable to match them. However, Sonic doesn’t want to outright reject her, and suggests that she come with him; she refuses, claiming that she has duties to the Resistance, setting the tone for the rest of the series. (IDW Sonic #2)

“Sonic’s girlfriend” today

As I mentioned earlier, after the reboot Sally was no longer considered Sonic’s girlfriend, and her disappearance after the cancellation of Archie Sonic in general is a sign that we may not see her ever again, even as a friend. As of today, in 2020, only Amy has been left in her “unofficial, but…” state, with various minor events taking place both in the main canon and in IDW Sonic:

In 2018 the official SEGA shop wrote a description for a piece of Amy Rose merchandise that said “celebrate 25 years of Sonic’s girlfriend”; the mistake wasn’t immediately corrected, despite the fandom pointing it out immediately.

The video game canon has remained dormant, with Team Sonic Racing in 2019 featuring more of a regular friendship between Sonic and Amy, sharing rivalries and quiet moments alike.

On the other hand, since IDW Sonic and Sonic Boom laid their foundations, we've begun to see a certain shift in the way the two characters are presented. While we’ve talked about IDW Sonic already, Sonic’s social medias have done multiple “Twitter Takeovers” where Sonic characters answer questions from fans, and Sonic has always answered more like his version of Boom to the inevitable question about Amy and his “feelings”.

Recent official animations like Sonic Mania Adventures and Team Sonic Racing Overdrive have shown Amy flirting with Sonic in a more casual way.

The current dynamic seems to be pointing towards “Sonic’s hidden feelings”, and I think we are at a perfect point to change the approach. SEGA in general seems more open to the idea of bringing these characters closer, probably as a marketing strategy, but without yet separating themselves from the central ideas that defined the dynamic for the last two and a half decades.

Conclusion

The idea of “Sonic’s girlfriend” has been one of the most experimental and controversial in the almost three decades that this series has been around for. SEGA has opened the door to all kinds of ambiguities, developments and interpretations, all with their pros and cons, instead of settling on a definitive position. As iconic as these characters, conceived as Sonic’s “romantic interests”, have become, they have also had their share of criticism and controversy, especially in the fandom.

The presence of Amy as the only “official but self-proclaimed girlfriend” today says a lot about the control SEGA (specifically SEGA of Japan) regained over the characters, after decades of interpretations that offered different alternatives with various degrees of success. At her best, Sally represented an ideal relationship with Sonic, much more complete and profound than the back-and-forth game between Amy and Sonic. But at her worst, this same relationship represented everything wrong that could happen by associating Sonic with the emotional spiderweb of a romantic relationship. SEGA hardening its control over the characters seems to have put an end of this type of situation where Sonic ends up being involved in a romantic telenovela, but at the same time it has revitalized the flirting game and the implicit associations that give fuel to the fandom fire.

From my humble interpretation, I think we’ve reached a point where Sonic and Amy have shared enough stories and moments to solidify the core aspects of their personalities and their friendship, allowing them to take the next step, which is to play around with the idea of “something else”. 25 years ago it was hard to see how these two characters could work together beyond “it’s SEGA’s word”; today there’s enough of a story to find a rhythm and chemistry for them, and the series of situations they've put themselves in (e.g. IDW Sonic’s plot arcs) are increasingly helping this case. The topic of “Sonic's girlfriend” may be a controversial one for SEGA and the fandom in general, but the doors have slowly been opened for this debate to develop and be investigated with interesting results, and I think that, in this new decade of 2020, there’s a unique potential to explore this kind of discussion, without sacrificing in any way the central principles of Sonic as a character. Thank you for joining me in these 200 entries, and hopefully we’ll see each other for many more.

#sonic the hedgehog #amy rose #sonamy #translation #analysis #long post #happy birthday latin! #this one was so hard #i had to cut a lot of shp-related parts sadly #but this whole project was very fun and enlightening

[ffamranxii]

Okay folks, I am all caught up with Tokyo Mew Mew Au Lait chapters 1-3 and Tokyo Mew Mew 2020 Re-Turn chapters 1 and 2 so I am Doing A Thing! Buckle up, bitches!

MASSIVE SPOILERS IF YOU’RE WAITING FOR THE OFFICIAL ENGLISH RELEASES (whenever the hell those will be). Thanks to @berrychanx​, @hikayagami​, and @ribbonstrawberrysurprise​ for the scans, English translation, and hard work putting the translation onto the manga so neatly.

LEADERS

MOMOMIYA ICHIGO AND SHIBUYA AOI

Honestly this is the biggest difference between the 2020 Re-Turn reboot/original series and the magical boy tribute. Aoi is in no way like Ichigo once you get past that they’ve both been injected with Iriomote cat DNA. Whereas Ichigo is cheery and bubbly and cute, Aoi is withdrawn, suffers from low self confidence, and sort of breaks the fourth wall during nearly every fight, freaking out at how catchphrases and such just seem to burst forth from him after he transforms. (It’s honestly a funny highlight.) Their respective crushes are also treated differently, with Aoi falling hard for Anzu (though of course saying nothing) almost immediately, almost a love at first sight sort of deal, and Ichigo already having this crush on this boy when we start vanilla TMM and already deeply committed to him in the reboot. In civilian form, (using vanilla Ichigo here, it’s not fair to compare Aoi to 2020 “been a magical girl for years” Ichigo), Aoi is a lot more unsure of himself, and seems almost to be in this Mew Mew thing for Anzu, whereas Ichigo immediately had a “I’ll do my best” acceptance mindset from the start. (Both freak out over their cat ears appearing at random moments, even Ichigo in the 2020 reboot, and I think I can finally give poor Aoi a point over Ichigo here. It makes him uncomfortable but he just wears a hoodie and hopes no one notices. It makes Ichigo freak out more lol.)

THE LOVE INTEREST / DUNGEON NAVI / SECONDARY PROTAGONIST

AOYAMA MASAYA, HINATA ANZU, SHIROGANE RYOU

Anzu is a precious peach and she occupies such a weird role here that I almost couldn’t make her a neat little graphic. She doesn’t fit neatly into a “oh, they’re a genderbent so and so” like nearly everyone else, and it’s fascinating. On the one hand, several panels in the first chapter of Au Lait make it clear that the writers are setting her up to be Aoi’s love interest. Every magical girl anime has a love interest, so why wouldn’t a magical boy manga? But that’s where she diverges. Unlike Masaya, who is a very clear tribute to Sailor Moon’s Tuxedo Mask (with the exception that he’s a cute bean as a civilian, he’s nearly the same person. No past, gets kidnapped, magical form to protect the magical girl, evil form to fight the magical girl [this happened in PGSM, and he’s been brainwashed several times]), who has always been a secondary character, Anzu actually starts the Au Lait manga. She wasn’t even featured on the promo images, so when I opened the first chapter in a zip file I thought I’d downloaded the wrong one. My rudimentary Japanese confirmed I hadn’t, but I was like “well who tf is this chick?” I waited for an English translation to be sure and yup - Anzu is being treated almost like a secondary protagonist. Well that’s new. It’s as if the Au Lait writers smashed together the characters of Ryou and Masaya and named their love child Hinata Anzu. She’s intelligent, she knows more about this project than she should, and, like Ryou in vanilla, she’s out and about and helping the boys, not just as a civilian, but in every battle. She doesn’t have powers (that we know of), but her smarts and knowledge of animals have served them well time and again. Au Lait seems more like, as one reader put it, Anzu And The Dork Squad than Aoi’s team. 

Masaya in 2020 Re-Turn is adorable. He is at odds with Quiche over Ichigo (or more like, he dislikes just how much Quiche likes Ichigo), and in a moment of panic he uses his leftover remnants of Deep Blue’s power to... change his clothes. I’m not sure what actually happened there. (Note: Thanks ribbonstrawberrysurprise: Deep Blue manifested to float the chimera anima/train and its passengers to safety.) But I love that he was so concerned for Ichigo, who at that moment desperately needed help, that the being who created his body and didn’t like Ichigo wanted to protect her. Ryou was his standoffish self, but even he seemed to have a hint of a lingering crush. He organized a party for the Mews and then took over in cafe duties so Ichigo could meet her man at the airport, unable to quiiiiite meet her eye while saying so. I always did like Ryou/Ichigo.

THE SASSY RICH BITCH

AIZAWA MINTO AND YOYOGI SHIZUKA

First of all: SAILOR JUPITER TAUGHT ME THAT PINK EQUALS FLOWER HURRICANES AND CAN I JUST SAY THAT I AM DISAPPOINTED AS FUCK THAT SHIZUKA ISN’T PLANT BASED AND CAN’T DO FLOWER HURRICANES THAT IS ALL.

Admit it. When we saw the promo image, we assumed certain things. One of those things turned out to be true: Aoi would be the Iriomote cat, because of course he would be Ichigo’s counterpart. Shizuka is wearing glasses, and his costume had the little tail, which meant he must have been a fish or a marine mammal and therefore Retasu’s counterpart, right? RIGHT. But also very, very wrong, my friends. Shizuka is indeed water based like Retasu - he’s an Amazon river dolphin (the pink ones!) - and that’s where all his similarities to our gentle green girl end. Instead of making everyone exactly the same but gender flipped, Au Lait is going in a slightly different direction, and I really like it. Shizuka is actually the most similar to our resident princess Minto! They both attend prestigious elite schools and generally act better than everyone else, but the real gem here is their interactions with their leaders. Shizuka has some truly snappy one-liners - such as discovering Ryuusei (”that’s the power of an idiot”) - and his reactions to Aoi are gold. He considers himself a genius, and indeed he’s very intelligent according to Natsume (and his school seems to be for smart people, it’s not prestigious for music or anything like that), and he makes little quips at Aoi all the time about how Aoi isn’t. I could totally see him spending an entire shift reading a book at Cafe Mew Mew while Aoi does all the work, only for him to stand up and someone to scream “HOLY CRAP, SHIZUKA’S UP, SHIT’S ABOUT TO GO DOWN.” 

Minto is also full of snappy quips at Ichigo in the reboot, mostly about how Ichigo should handle the biggest, strongest enemies since she’s the leader, and can’t Ichigo even keep them in place so Minto can shoot them down? (And yeah, someone totally said the above comment ^ when Minto stood up at Cafe Mew Mew.) Minto was always one of my favorite characters, and I love that we saw a lot of close ups of her in the reboot, and that she seemed to be second in command.

THE CHILD

FONG PURIN AND KANDA RYUUSEI

Oh my god these two. I refuse to believe they aren’t related. I know Purin is Chinese but you cannot take this headcanon from me. 

Purin is my favorite character in OG Mew Mew and Ryuusei claimed my heart the second I saw the Au Lait promo. NEITHER OF THEM DISAPPOINTED ME, I AM SO IN LOVE.

While I WILL say that I in no way care for Mew Pudding’s redesign (I hate literally everything about it. I miss her jumpsuit. I hate the little pigtails at the top of her head. I hate the ribbon. At least she still has her fingerless gloves), I love that she got an entire panel of just her being badass. She stood in the middle of some train tracks, facing a runaway speeding train chimera anima, with that ^ fucking look on her face, and was like “where you going, na no da?” Purin from like, ten years ago wouldn’t have done that. She has matured so much, but she’s still the young, goofy little acrobat monkey who provides for her tea-themed siblings (who criminally do not make an appearance) and I just love her so fucking much, you guys.

RYUUSEI. Guys. He’s an idiot. Oh my god. He’s a cute lovable idiot. “What’s a gomodo dragon? What’s a kodomo dragon? What’s a condo dragon and why does it need a house?” Anzu was in love with him for like five seconds until she learned he’s a dumbass, and Aoi was jealous as fuck, and no one ever told him what his damn animal was, and I laughed my ass off through his entire last couple pages. He also had his jacket hand embroidered with the kanji for dragon, BUT IT’S MISSPELLED. It’s missing a stroke! XD 

Ryuusei is the KOMODO dragon (which is Anzu’s favorite animal), and komodos are badass. He also either always had weird animal powers, or just never noticed that he suddenly got super smell. Komodo dragons, by the way, can track their prey for literally MILES by smell alone, for DAYS. It’s absolutely terrifying (thank you for the nightmares, Wild Thornberries), and Au Lait made it fucking comical. I can’t even. HE CAN SMELL THE RED DATA ANIMAL ON PEOPLE. I love it. He’s super strong and super cute, apparently lives with his grandparents, and is Purin’s counterpart in every single way, except I think SHE might be more mature than him. I love him. He is my baby. 

Yellow is my favorite color and yellow never disappoints. 

THE FAMOUS

FUJIWARA ZAKURO AND ROPPONGI AYATO

Zakuro had next to no presence in the reboot. She occasionally made some panels look pretty. She twice had a half page to herself, one per chapter. I am sad. I love my wolf lesbian. In semi-related news, I feel I have solved the mystery of Zakuro’s red data animal, something that has plagued the TMM community for years. The grey wolf is not endangered at all, yet Zakuro is injected with one, right? I read somewhere (either in a TMM blog or a conservation blog) that there is a subspecies of grey wolf that IS critically endangered. I believe it’s the Mexican grey wolf? I headcanon she was injected with DNA specifically from a Mexican grey wolf. 

Moving on. In Chapter 3 (which was a DELIGHT), we met Ayato. Chapter 3 was the most frustrating chapter because let me tell you, Au Lait marks the first time I have ever read a manga chapter by chapter as it was being released in Japan. So I’m waiting Nakayoshi to publish the chapter, then I’m waiting for someone to scan Nakayoshi, then I’m waiting for someone to translate it, over and over and over, and omg I can’t believe this is what people DO. I’ve waited for full volumes before, but CHAPTERS? This is torture. Ayato, I haven’t had enough TIME with you!

Ayato seems to be an actor (in a really... really weird stage play), and has very few lines in his first appearance. I’m not sure what I make of him. He says about six sentences, which is actually a lot for a character introduced on a cliffhanger, but... I can’t decide if he’s said them in a mysterious Sailors Neptune and Uranus way or a flamboyant Sohma Ayame way. I ALSO DON’T KNOW WHAT ANIMAL HE IS AND I AM VERY ANGRY. BB Ryuusei said he smells like yakitori (a type of grilled chicken), which confirms he’s a bird. But. WHICH BIRD, DAMNIT? 

CHAPTER FOUR WHERE ARE YOU?

THE FUNDING

AKASAKA KEIICHIRO, HINATA NATSUME, SHIROGANE RYOU

Hello again, Ryou! The boys here were wallpaper (though cute wallpaper) in the reboot. Natsume is 100% a troll. I love her. She admits in chapter 3 she literally just injected hot boys for her Mew Mew project. Even Ryou wasn’t that blunt. I mean, if you gotta save Earth and stare at people while you do it, they better be cute, right?

IF FOUND, PLEASE CALL THE FANDOM

MIDORIKAWA RETASU, SHIRAYUKI BERII, AKAI RINGO

Aside from her two half panels as a Mew Mew per chapter, this is the only good cap of Retasu as a civilian in the reboot. D: I believe Hiroo Taichi will be her counterpart in Au Lait.

I never liked Berii. There, I said it. She got TWO animals. She was some random newbie and she got to be leader just like that? And she was clueless and dumb and the writing in A La Mode wasn’t great. But I really like 2020 Berii. She’s cute, she seems more rabbit than cat, and she seems more intelligent and less of a blonde Ichigo clone. I don’t know if she’ll have an Au Lait counterpart.

WHERE IS RINGO? THE REBOOT WAS THE PERFECT OPPORTUNITY TO PUT HER IN THE STORY FOR REAL AND SHE JUST... WASN’T THERE?! THIS IS BLASPHEMY. RINGO IS THE BEST MEW MEW. BEST GIRL. JUSTICE FOR RINGO.

THE RELATIONSHIPS

MASAYA & ICHIGO VS AOI & ANZU

ZAKURO & MINTO VS AYATO & RYUUSEI

Nearly all of 2020 chapter 1 focused on Ichigo seeing Masaya again. I’m guessing this took place after he left for London. Ichigo left with him after A La Mode, and some time between then and Re-Turn came back to Japan, and now Masaya is back. They are still as lovey as ever, but not as sickeningly cute as Tsukino Usagi and Chiba Mamoru or anything. Phew! Their counterpart in Au Lait seems to Aoi and Anzu. (Look at that height difference! Poor Anzu, her poor neck.) Aoi already has a massive crush on her, but Anzu, bless her, is oblivious.

AND NOW FOR THE GAYS.

I think Zakuro and Minto is probably one of the most popular TMM ships and holy lesbians, Batman, they were well fed with this GORGEOUS panel at the end of chapter 2. Look at it. Zakuro had literally no panels, save for her two intros, to herself, and barely any panels at all in the reboot, and then BA-BAM, this beautiful ending shot. I swear Ikumi did it on purpose. Speaking of gays - is Ayato/Ryuusei the new Zakuro/Minto? Ayato seems to be at least bisexual (he also hit on Anzu), but this was literally his second panel. He is in a (terrible, TERRIBLE) play, and the actors are walking in the audience looking for the villain. Ayato walks into the audience and HITS ON RYUUSEI. His first goddamn words are “Do you want me to keep you, my cute little puppy?” to Ryuusei. He says fuck this acting shit, I see a SNACK. I think I ship it. I think I ship it hard.

THE STORY

*Au Lait is just getting started, so typical magical girl boy anime manga: Let’s find the others! Shenanigans! Some fillers! It’s cute, I love it, go read it.

*2020 Re-Turn is actually REALLY GOOD and chapter 2 reminds me of just how unique Tokyo Mew Mew was and still is among not just magical girl series, but animanga as a whole. Quick, what was the last environmental series you remember? Mine was Captain Planet - in the 90s. Preachy, in your face, after school special about things like pollution and endangered species and littering and honestly it was really cool, but very much a product of its time. Even now, magical girl animanga is still focused on bad guys, but bad guys are generic and represent something created for the series. Here, the bad guys are US, other human beings, who traffic animals, who endanger them, who wreck our planet enough that animals are barely clinging to life. There’s a very poignant scene featuring the adorable snow leopard up there (who’s the secondary protagonist of the reboot) ^, showing his mother being shot and himself being snatched by poachers, and he’s terrified, and has no idea what’s going on or where he is, and Ichigo is terrified for him. We need more series like this - not just of the magical girl genre, but of ALL genres. To make it accessible in this way, for people of all ages, something enjoyable, that people can fangirl over and love and its creators clearly put a lot of love and thought into. We need another Captain Planet, but less preachy, less after school special-y. We don’t want to be like the aliens (who remember, are descendants of humans who fucked up Earth so badly they had to leave it). 

Behind all the cute of this manga and its reboot, and its new spinoff, Tokyo Mew Mew has a powerful message that we should all be following. It’s not even subtle. Get yo shit together, peeps. 

#tokyo mew mew #tokyo mew mew 2020 re-turn #tokyo mew mew au lait #tokyo mew mew ore

[wlwtangle]

Sonic for Beginners Guide (as of the 2020 Sonic Film)

Heya! I don’t think I’ve seen anyone make a post like this yet, or I haven’t seen a post like this yet, but if you just saw the newest Sonic film in theaters or on digital, and you’re interested in going into the Sonic community and trying out tons of other Sonic Media and don’t know where to start, here’s a guide that should help you where to go next if the only thing you have to go off of is the newest movie!

Intro

Everything that I will recommend you to in this post only assumes you’ve seen the full Sonic movie (yes, that includes the post-credits scene) and will prominently feature the following:

Dr. Eggman/Robotnik

Sonic

Tails

(No, this guide won’t feature Owl Mom, as she only appeared in these movies so far. She was never in any other Sonic media, and I doubt you’d see much of her outside the movies)

With that out of the way, let’s begin!

Games

There are quite a lot of Sonic games, and this can seem the most overwhelming, especially since SEGA has been trying their hardest to get new fans from the games rather than the films. But there are a few good games to start with if you only saw the film!

In terms of emulating any of these games: I am fine with emulation. There is nothing wrong in terms of finding ways to preserve these games for years, and if you don’t have the money to own any of these games, then I do recommend emulation. The only emulator I can recommend in terms of the old, 90s Sonic games would have to be Kega Fusion, and if you want to find the ROMs/ISOs, good luck. I can’t tell you how to find ROMs/ISOs, as that is illegal, so I’d recommend asking a friend for help or DMing me if you need help finding a place to find ROMs/ISOs, but legally I can’t post where to find ROMs/ISOs. Despite all of that, when possible, please support SEGA by buying them officially when possible. With that out of the way, let’s truly begin!

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) - The very first Sonic game, of course, is the best place to start. Not the 2006 one! The 2006 game also titled Sonic the Hedgehog for Playstation 3 & Xbox 360 is not a good representation of the Sonic brand SEGA has been trying to push today, and it’s not a great game overall to start with. Sonic the Hedgehog from 1991, however, is! It isn’t based off the new film, but it is what the current film has the most based off of. It starts off with the basics; you play as Sonic, and you have to stop Dr. Eggman from taking over the world, while saving all your animal buddies. It isn’t too long of a game, and better yet, this game is the easiest to get. It’s available on the Playstation Network store, Xbox Store, Nintendo Eshop (both for the Switch and 3DS), Steam (for Windows and Mac), and it’s even available on both Apple and Android devices! It’s free on phones, but you have ads, so that’s probably one of the best places to start in terms of games!

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992) - Now, if you just saw the film, including the post-credits scene, then this is another perfect place to start. Not only can you play as Sonic, but you can also play as Tails! There are tons of more levels than in the first game, and there’s even a little secret if you collect all the Chaos Emeralds! (can’t say much about those as they haven’t been introduced in the films yet) And like the first game, there are tons of places to get this game. You can get this on the Playstation Network store, Xbox Store, Nintendo Eshop (on both Switch and 3DS), Steam (Windows and Mac), and on both Apple and Android devices! Like the first game, it’s also free on phones, with ads, so if you played the first game or only saw the newest film, this is another great place to start.

Sonic Mania (2017) - Another perfect place to start, and one of the best Sonic games in the past decade, this is an official catch-all Sonic game made by fans for not only the classic 90s games, but also features new levels and new playable characters that haven’t been seen in any recent games, including Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel. Now, I don’t think we’ll ever be seeing Mighty or Ray anytime in the films, but Knuckles is in this game as well (and in Sonic 2, I forgot to mention that), and I got a feeling Knuckles might show up in the next Sonic film. But yes, you can play as Sonic and Tails, of course. And this game does also have a multiplayer mode as well, and tons of extra secrets. And honestly, if you do want a recent game to start off with, Sonic Mania might have to be the best place to start with. And the best part is, this game is available on all recent modern gaming hardware, including Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Steam (Windows and Mac). Sadly, this game isn’t available on smartphones, but that shouldn’t detract from how good this game is. While the base game is cheap, only running you at $20, the DLC for this game only costs $5, while the physical release of this game (which includes the base game, DLC, and more), should only cost you $30.

Now, I hear ya, platformers aren’t really your thing. You don’t have the most modern, recent gaming devices, and your computer/laptop isn’t that powerful either. You only have a smartphone, and you only play mobile games. In that case, SEGA does also deliver in smartphone games, especially for Sonic! There is really only one I can recommend for beginners that even did include a limited event based on this film (that sadly has already passed), and that is

Sonic Dash (2012) - Possibly the easiest place to start with in terms of Sonic games on smartphones. Even though Sonic 1 & 2 are available for smartphones, SEGA did make and release this before those games came out. And with 100 million downloads, who could deny how huge this game has been for them. You really only start out as Sonic, play through Green Hill Zone, and you fight Dr. Eggman. Gameplay-wise, this game is very similar to Temple Run/Subway Surfers, so if you played those games, then this game shouldn’t be that hard to get into. As you play this game, you’re able to unlock more characters, including Tails, and you even get to unlock more levels, and even get to upgrade your characters as well. It is available on Apple and Android devices, and is free to play, despite all of the ads, so you can start off there if you don’t want to play any big Sonic game and just want a casual, light mobile game to play.

Now, Sonic didn’t only have games to boot. He also had tons of cartoons and comics! And let’s talk about those cartoons!

Cartoons

There are tons of Sonic cartoons out there, and there really aren’t that many to start off with if you only saw the film. These are the only few I could recommend to start off with.

The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993-1995) - One of the first Sonic cartoons by DiC (animators behind the old Mario cartoons), this is honestly one of the few Sonic cartoons I could recommend to beginners, or only those who have seen the film. It stars Sonic and Tails, as they defeat evil plans by Dr. Robotnik, and it does include characters exclusive to this show. And despite the reputation this show has, I’d say this is one of the better cartoons to start off with. Sonic the Hedgehog 1993, or better known as SatAM (Saturday Morning Sonic Cartoon), isn’t really that good of a place to start off with if you only saw the movie. Not only does this show feature tons of characters that aren’t really seen outside of this show and the Archie comics, but this is a little bit more serious, and I don’t really recommend this to beginners who only have the film to go off of. AoSTH, however, is a lot more light, comedic, maybe even a little more childish, but it is one you can have on in the background and don’t really have to pay attention to, and it’s one you could show to kids. You can find this show currently on Netflix, as well as a number of episodes have been uploaded to YouTube in HD, so you can choose wherever you want to see this show.

Sonic Mania Adventures (2018) - A short series of shorts based on Sonic Mania, I’d say this is another great place to start especially in terms of cartoons. They’re all silent cartoons, and are based on Sonic Mania, but also features an original story to boot. Best part; you can watch them on YouTube now. Here’s a video with all of the episodes combined, and they also made a Christmas Special as well. The whole series is only 15 minutes long at most, and it’s something I definitely recommend checking out if you have the time.

Sonic the Hedgehog the Movie/the OVA (1996/1999) - An absolutely different movie from the actual Sonic movie we got a couple months ago, despite some obvious problems within the script and writing itself, I’d highly recommend checking out this movie! This is a really good movie that captures the speed of Sonic perfectly, and is one of the only few Sonic cartoons based on that 90s anime aesthetic. So if that suits you, then I’d recommend checking out this film on YouTube.

Comics

Now, this is even harder to decide on where to start with when compared to the cartoons. Not only are all the comics not that good, but they are all especially dependent on whatever type of knowledge you have on Sonic. The Archie comics are really only dependent on SatAM, and are cancelled! But the IDW comics are heavily dependent on if you played Sonic Forces, which isn’t that great of a game to begin with if you’re only knowledge of Sonic is based on this new film. But the IDW comics aren’t even on that good of an arc now. The British Fleetway comics aren’t that great either; not only are they ableist (with Super Sonic being “mentally insane” and evil), those comics are also cancelled as well. I really only have one comic series to recommend to beginners, if you can even find them.

Sonic -Mega Drive- (2016) - Made by one of the best writers for the Sonic comics, Ian Flynn, and drawn by the same person who redesigned Sonic for the new film, Tyson Hesse, these are a series of one-shot comics based on the original Sonic games. Very easy to get into, the cast isn’t that large, and overall it’s just a whole lot more appealing than the Archie or current IDW comics! There’s only two issues, with a third one that was cancelled due to SEGA withdrawing the Sonic license from Archie in 2017. If you can find them, I recommend checking them out.

Misconceptions About Sonic the Hedgehog and the Fandom

Now, coming out of the new film, you are really interested in Sonic the Hedgehog, but you already know about a whole lot of misconceptions about Sonic and his fandom, which may turn you off from going into this. So I am here to smash down a lot of those misconceptions, because a majority of them are all wrong, and I’m pretty sure anyone can enjoy Sonic after watching the film.

1. The Sonic Fandom is only full of overgrown babies who complain about all the newer games and only love the old games. 

This is an absolutely terrible misconception! This is absolutely not true for the entire fandom, and despite the bias I have towards the 90s Sonic era as seen in this guide, let me say this: There is no one wrong place to start with in terms of games. The Sonic Adventures games are good, Sonic Colors is good, and so is Sonic Generations and Lost World. There is no terrible Sonic game, and if there is, then that game probably has a small fandom of people who see the positives of that game, and only wish to improve on it. You are not wrong if you have an unpopular opinion on any Sonic game, and you can honestly enjoy any Sonic game of your choice. Yes, there are gatekeepers in this fandom, but they are small in numbers when compared to the majority of this fandom. This fandom is absolutely welcoming of any Sonic fan who enjoys any part of Sonic, and if anyone online is making you feel bad about enjoying any part of Sonic, then you can either ignore them or block them. You don’t need to hear their voices, as their voices are only minor when compared to this whole fandom.

But yes, there are people like SammyClassicSonicaFan who do have a bias towards 90s Sonic games, and there are people who have a bias towards the Modern games. But overall, it doesn’t matter what type of games you do enjoy, it’s just that you don’t bully or harm anyone else for enjoying those games. And again, mostly everyone in this fandom are fine with whatever Sonic game you like. Not that many people really bullies anyone in this fandom, and if they do, then again, they are the minority.

2. The Sonic Fandom is full of furries who only draw porn of the characters.

Yet again another terrible misconception about the Sonic fandom! Just because you’re a fan of Sonic, doesn’t make you a furry. I am one of the rare exceptions, though, as I am a Sonic fan, and a furry as well, and Sonic is partially the reason why I am a furry. But overall, I have met Sonic fans who aren’t furries, and I’ve met furries who aren’t Sonic fans.

And to that other half of this misconception; no, just no. Not only are the majority of the cast practically children (Tails is 8, Amy is 12, and Sonic is even 15), a majority of the characters who are 18 or over only barely fit that range (Rogue is 18, Vector is 21), and a majority of adults don’t even have confirmed ages (Dr. Eggman doesn’t even have a canonical age, and there’s been debate over whether Shadow is 15 or over 50 years old). So no, we don’t draw porn, and almost all of us are grossed out when we find Sonic porn (the only exception of this are the creeps who do draw that porn, but we don’t consider them apart of this community).

So there you go! That’s all I could think to mention in this whole guide! I hope you have fun enjoying these shows and games, and I hope you especially have fun in the Sonic community!

If you do have anymore questions about anything related to Sonic, feel free to DM me or send me asks/anons on this blog.

#sonic #sonic the hedgehog #sth #sonic fandom #sonic community #sonic 2020 #sonic the hedgehog 2020 #sth movie #sonic movie #sonic the hedgehog movie #sth 2020 #idw #archie #tails #dr eggman #dr robotnik #sonicblr #sonic mania #sonic 2 #aosth

[guruji]

Website Redesign- Planning as easy as 123!

This change has shifted the interface of web design services to a different level and the focus is now on redesigns.

Website redesigning is involves a slight distinction and considerations between mounting and developing new sites. Say for instance, those that have existing sites have more or less enough knowledge on what sites and site formulas work. They have already a grasp about what they consider as assets in their site's form and function. Recognizing these assets can pretty well contribute to a more prosperous redesigned site.

Other businesses may take a few months to decide in favor of a redesign but mind you, planning a redesign can be as easy as 123! It's unbelievable but it's true. Here are the three basic redesign planning tips:

1. Problem Identification. As i have stated a while ago, more or less you have already formed an idea why your site is not doing that good in the World Wide Web. This is because of certain factors. These factors must be avoided in coming up with a redesign. Remember the maxim - learn form your mistakes. Well, this is basically the main idea behind problem identification. This is done to preclude similar mistakes that have transpired in the past. In recognizing these mistakes, the site will intentionally be improved. Aside from mistakes, we should also consider the good points of your existing web design. They can be re-applied or made stronger and better.

Thus, before you plan the details of a re-design, analyze first. Identify the problem areas as well as the good areas. You may ask some of these questions in order to get the desired web site:

a. Is your site functional? If it gives the needed information of the viewers or the target market and they get it quickly and clearly then, the site is said to be functional. It pays to have organization, this is because it will refrain the viewers from transferring from one site to another.

b. Does your site clearly point the 'call for action'. If you are into selling products, your site must have triggered the viewer’s decision to buy the product. At a glance, they must be convinced and the cobwebs at the back of their heads must be rebutted or deleted.

c. Is your site an epitome of a professionally-made site? Are the appearance, layout, images and content appealing? If not, better have it redesigned in a way to make it catchy, informative and serviceable.

2. Layout the redesign plan. The next thing to do is to establish a workable layout for the redesign. Establish plans how to solve the mistakes in web design. Each issue must be identified to serve as guidelines. Also, problems and mistakes must be given due solutions.

3. Define your Goals. Aside from giving solutions to the mistakes and problems you have encountered in your existing web site, be sure to establish and define your goals to guide you with what to do in the redesign.

The aim or the overall purpose must be made clear and flagrant otherwise your redesign will just turn out to be a waste of time and money. Good luck!

Thanks and regards,

https://gurujisoftwares.com

#Website Redesign- Planning as easy as 123!

[drrjsb]

Body & Soul: The Endgame Fix “Part One: The Price”

Summary: If you weren’t happy with Avengers: Endgame, here’s your fix-it fic! We start on Monday, October 22, 2023: Eleven days after achieving time travel, six days since losing Natasha, five days after the Hulk Snap, two days since Tony's funeral, and one since Steve went into the Quantum Realm and Old Man Steve appeared.

[Monday, October 22, 2023]

“Five days! It’s been FIVE WHOLE DAYS that you’ve been walking around like this? Just what the hell were you thinking, Bruce?” Dr. Helen Cho swore intensely as she escorted an ailing Dr. Bruce Banner down the Avengers Quinjet ramp to the rooftop at the U-GEN building in Soule, South Korea. The more she saw of the obvious physical damage inflicted by the Infinity Stones, the more the geneticist was getting wound up. This was a complete reversal of their normal temperaments as the healer began to rant at her friend and professional collaborator, and the physicist calmly accepted her chastisement with a sheepish smile and a shrug of his broad shoulders underneath his tailored charcoal gray suit.

His right arm was now out of the sling he’d used during Tony’s funeral a few days before, but it was an obvious mismatch with his healthy left arm. “안녕하세요to you, too, Helen,” Bruce replied with a good-humored laugh. “By the way, this is Princess Shuri of Wakanda,” he said, gesturing behind them with his good hand to the slim, bright-eyed teen who was enjoying a laugh at his expense as she tucked a meter-long cylindrical container under her arm to bring off the Quinjet with her. “I believe you’ve already been consulting over the Internet,” the physicist added.

Helen suddenly flushed with embarrassment and turned to her other visitor. “Oh, my apologies, Princess Shuri. I’m sorry for being so rude. It’s good to finally meet you in person, your highness.”

“No problem, Dr. Cho. Please, just ‘Shuri’ is a lot easier.” She reached up and gave Bruce’s good arm a pat. “This is more important, and you are right to give him Hell for not getting here sooner,” the young woman chided Bruce.

“Just ‘Helen,’ please,” the older scientist said, feeling very chagrined.

“Hey, I tried to get here faster, and you know that, Princess,” Bruce needled the young Wakandan prodigy in return since they’d had to detour for her to pick up her package in Oakland, CA, on the way from Upstate New York to South Korea. Bruce turned to his colleague, “Please, Helen, you’d just gotten back to your family, and there were too many other things going on after the battle at the Avengers Compound to have more than triage done anyway. Thanks to Shuri and her medics, it’s been stable or improving over the last four days, and if you look closely,” he pulled back his blue dress shirt’s collar and bent down for a better view of his neck, “it’s starting to regenerate around the edges of the burn.”

“I could tell that from some of the scans you sent, but let’s get inside the lab, and I’ll judge for myself.” Bruce was just able to fit his oversized frame inside the freight elevator with the two scientists by ducking and crouching a bit. Squeezing through the doors on the staircase would have been worse. When they arrived at the correct floor, Dr. Cho led them into one of her lab spaces where the third generation of “the Cradle” and its related research projects now resided. “I’m sorry for the mess and disorganization. The program and our research agenda continued in my absence, but I’m almost back up to speed.” Bruce noted everything looked as neat and well-organized as it always had in the past.

Helen kept grumbling to herself in both English and Korean as she helped him take off his clothing from the waist up before tackling the protective sheathing and nutrient treatment wrap shielding his right arm. The irony of their character reversal—her anger and his calm—wasn’t lost on him, and he bit his lower lip to avoid smiling too much and antagonizing her. She still shot him a deadly glance. “Don’t you dare smile unless that’s from the pain meds, Banner,” Helen threatened. He doubted there were currently any pain meds involved since they’d never been effective for long after his original “accident” altered his metabolism. He was used to being stoic about it as Banner and irritable when he’d been just Hulk about three years ago. Now that he’d co-integrated, he was enduring it as good-naturedly as he could.

When Bruce had Skyped Helen very early that morning (tomorrow afternoon for her with the 13-hour time difference), her husband Philip had to reassure her she wasn’t being pranked. A much larger and greener Bruce explained to her that while she was gone for five years, he had made peace with his anger-prone alter ego and “merged” with the Hulk. If it weren’t for his voice and facial expressions, she wouldn’t have recognized her old colleague in the new Bruce. Even face-to-face, she was still feeling a bit unnerved by his floor-to-ceiling size, but he was surprisingly nimble and coordinated as he maneuvered around the delicate equipment. She had to admit, especially with the geeky glasses and easy-going confidence, the new Bruce was pretty charming.

The U-GEN staff had brought in a reinforced examination table for Helen to use, so she could examine him since he was now roughly seven and a half feet tall and about 900 lbs. Not as big as his former temperamental Hulk form had been, but this Bruce was now closer to Hulk physically than Banner’s spare 5’ 9” frame. Thankfully, his intellect and puckish sense of humor were as prominent as ever; still, this was a lot to wrap her head around on top of everything else she’d missed in five years. To be honest, having a project like rehabbing Bruce’s arm helped her focus since she was having difficulty fitting back into her own projects that had moved on without her. In cutting-edge science, five years felt like a lifetime. She wondered what Nat thought about this metamorphosis since he hadn’t mentioned her yet, and they’d seemed to be getting so close. They were all definitely going to have to catch up and talk about this later. Right now, the geneticist needed to see what they had left to work with function-wise and determine a course of treatment or make some tough decisions about whether or not to remove the limb. She guessed this was just one of several likely reasons for the Wakandan wunderkind to be involved since she’d reportedly redesigned Sergeant Barnes’ prosthetic.

Now that Bruce’s upper body was exposed, Helen studied the extensive wrapping protecting his arm and shoulder. “Here, may I please assist you, Helen?” Shuri offered as she caught back up to them in the right section of the interconnected areas. She’d gotten a little lost in thought as she’d curiously looked around the cluster of labs on that floor. (She could hardly wait for the tour!) She’d been taking a lot of mental notes since the final showdown at the Avenger’s Compound as she’d met many interesting people.

As soon as Tony’s body had been taken away from the battlefield crater, she’d approached the exhausted Hulk as he collapsed onto his knees in the rubble. It didn’t take a genius to see he was obviously injured and overwrought, but she was surprised to learn he was not the angry alter ego she was expecting, but the good-humored physicist she’d teased about Vision’s neural configuration who was now broken down before her. Bast forgive her, how she’d mercilessly critiqued Banner and Stark’s work on the synthezoid just before the Snap! Now, it felt like a lifetime ago, and so much had changed while she was “blipped.”

On the day of the second battle, Shuri had quickly sent an assistant to look for Natasha Romanoff, knowing that’s who should have been there to share their loss together only to be told by one of the Dora Milaje that the warrior and spy had sacrificed herself before the battle had even started. Shuri had quickly stepped forward and taken charge of Banner’s care on the battlefield. It was devastatingly obvious to her he’d lost the two most important people in the world to him, but she’d be damned if he was going to lose his life or his arm next.

Tents were set up in a field away from the blast crater where the Compound had been. Only a few of the storage buildings and a maintenance facility toward the very back of the property had been spared due to the angle of attack, so the survivors took Bruce and the other wounded there where they still had electricity and running water. Her initial scans showed he had unusual radiation burns, similar to what Stark had suffered. “So, are you the fool or the hero responsible for bringing us all back, Dr. Banner?” she surmised.

“It was a team effort,” Bruce acknowledged, yet he demurred taking credit even after paying such an awful price. She estimated he had paid about 160 pounds of flesh to return half of all life in the universe—including hers and T’Challa’s—so maybe it wasn’t such a bad deal? Of course, that put a lot of people in his debt. She, however, was one of the few in the unique position of being able to pay him something back now when he needed it.

“Joint effort or not, you alone wore the Gauntlet and made it happen. Thank you, Dr. Bruce Banner. You don’t even have to say, ‘You’re welcome,’” she added pertly.

Despite the pain, he’d smiled and nodded. “You are welcome, Shuri. I just wish Tony had let me do it the second time.”

She shook her head. “Even I, who never met Mr. Stark, know he wouldn’t have let you, and it was not your fate.” The older physicist simply sighed and shook his head as the tears started to fill his eyes again. “Whether you like it or not, Bruce Banner, you are the one who is going to survive, especially if I have anything to say about it.” He looked at her and almost laughed through his tears. That’s when she was sure he had some fight left in him. “Besides, who am I going to teach how to make synthetic synapses work properly if you don’t stick around, hmm?”

That had gotten a small chuckle out of him, so she and an assistant had set to work removing the burned purple, grey, and black tech suit from him. The tricky part had been separating it from where the material had melted onto his tough skin, especially the spots on his back and hand where the healthy tissue was starting to regenerate around the fibers. That wouldn’t have been an issue if the uniform had been made out of Vibranium, which she could easily have made to separate or meld with organic tissue by merely adjusting it with one of her Kimoyo Beads. This was a different carbon-based weave that incorporated organic materials with the high-tech microstructures. At Bruce’s suggestion, the healers used their Beads to apply cold and the fibers shrunk enough to be removed with a dental water jet. They were nothing if not resourceful that afternoon. Next, they applied a Wakandan cooling nutrient wrap to disperse the heat and protect the burned tissue from infection. It was no secret that aloe was a major ingredient, and it also had a pretty powerful anesthetic. However, her patient didn’t need to know that. Eventually, he’d slept stretched across four cots.

Continue on AO3, WattPad, or FanFiction.Net

#DrRJSB #Brutasha #NatashaRomanoff #BruceBanner #Hulk #Endgame #post endgame #Endlame #fix-it fic #Black Widow #Hulkwidow #Brucenat #MCU #Body & Soul #Mark Ruffalo #The Price #Shuri #Helen Cho #Science Family

[fucknoirfolklor]

Just curious. Since you seem to have watched all if not most episodes of the previous generations of Gegege no Kitaro (including Hakaba), what are your opinions about each generation of Gegege no Kitaro, also Hakaba Kitato? Which iteration/series is your most favorite? If it's gonna be long post, it's alright! I want to know about your opinion so I will be happy to read what you think about it!

  I’ll clarify firstly that I have only completely watched 2007 and Hakaba, because they were “my” generation. I was a child back then so that was what made me stick with them before any other when I first discovered the franchise years ago. It’s not even that 2007 is my favorite. I like it’s world-building immensely and how some of the adaptations fit with the times, but it doesn’t feel that spectacular in animation style. Some of the redesigns that aren’t the main cast are needlessly fetishized when their original designs were perfect as they were.  It has some neat updates and whenever Kitaro interacts with humans it’s wholesome. I mean, c’mon, this is the show where Medama-Oyaji dragged EVERYONE into his fandom and had them cosplay as firefighters and quote his favorite foreign drama. 2007 has such funny slice of life moments.  I don’t like the episodes where Kitaro’s latest crush is the focus of the adapted plot, though. I find those annoying and forced. While it had it’s purpose in Hakaba Kitaro’s storytelling, it really doesn’t give off a good experience when it’s crammed into the main series.  That’s not to say Hakaba Kitaro is a romantic story, or that the romantic subplots were good romance per se, it’s that they served a purpose for highlighting Kitaro’s later corruption. It’s outdated and comes across as quite sexist, but I give it a pass for the purpose of it’s satire and the source material itself. Shigeru Mizuki’s voice isn’t really something that covers issues like sexism or sexual harassment very respectfully, but the Hakaba Kitaro anime at least puts these sequences together in a way that can make the viewer understand why a child like Kitaro would behave the way he does.   Anyways, 2007 was cancelled so saying that I only completed the last gen is kind of funny. I have watched a majority of the 80′s series. Something about it gets me really pumped. I guess that’s because other than Hakaba, Toda is the most hot blooded of all of the iterations of Kitaro. That said, I can’t say I watched the 80′s series as much as I did for him and his pining for his mother. No, I mostly watched for Neko. She carried the whole series on her shoulders in my opinion, even though she wasn’t a powerful character, she was just enjoyable. I didn’t like sitting through any of the episodes without her.  Other than episodes I can count on my hand, though, I don’t really like the 80′s series that much. I would normally say I hate it, but I can’t bring myself to. I never could. I couldn’t even make fun of it. I will explain why I don’t like it though; the biggest reason is because for example, Kitaro is put into these situations that gross me out. Like that Mujina episode where the badger inflates his ball sack as a last-ditch effort to beat Kitaro. It’s just really nasty stuff that maybe I would have laughed at if I were a ten year old, but I’m an adult now so seeing that absolutely ticks me off.  There are other series that play off Kitaro’s sexual harassment for comedy, and those episodes (or moments in the episodes) make me uncomfortable too, but that one from the 80′s series affects me the most. I don’t like how in the 90′s series, when Kitaro is cross dressing, he gets the upskirt, but I really loathe how in the recent series his shirikodama was stolen by the kappa. I know this is common in anime but it doesn’t change that this isn’t what I like about anime in general. I really dislike when underage characters are put through that for the sake of some cheap laugh.  I don’t talk much about the current-running series because I don’t really have much else to add that isn’t already abuzz somewhere else most likely. However, I will say that it is another mixed bag for me like the 80′s series. I like Sawashiro-Kitaro himself, but he doesn’t always feel like KITARO to me. This series has a similar thing going on that 2007 did with it’s art direction, except the change appears to pander less to Kitaro fans and more to otaku fans in general.  I don’t dislike it for changing Neko’s design. For me, Neko’s design has always been all over the place with each generation so I don’t see her as any less of a character for it. I will say I openly love/hate Kitaro’s design. He’s adorable, yes, but after seeing the direction of his character I can’t say any of it feels like Kitaro. It brings me back to my point; it’s like he’s Kurapika from Hunter X Hunter, if he were in a GeGeGe no Kitaro AU. I like Kurapika as a character, but there’s something lost in 2018′s Kitaro. He’s not the oafish, cackling observer that I’m used to. At all. I don’t hate this, as he can be a very special Kitaro for this generation of kids and teens, but he hasn’t even laughed sadistically once.  Sure, his unforgiving, tired stare is pretty cool, but a purely nonchalant observer doesn’t make for as fun a role. Not all the time anyway. I understand why his character has gone in this direction, sort of, since he’s always been a mediator between humans and yokai, but him emoting is always a real treat. I end up missing Takayama-Kitaro’s tired but easygoing personality, since Sawashiro-Kitaro cranked that up beyond eleven. Now “depression nap” Kitaro has been dethroned in terms of sleepy levels. It’s played to be cute in one episode, which I can appreciate.  However, back on track to what it’s missing. Nezumi-Otoko was Shigeru Mizuki’s mouthpiece for example, since his Hakaba Kitaro was discarded over a disagreement. Here, Nezumi-Otoko is extremely annoying and fans of him don’t like him as much as other iterations at all. I am one of those people that doesn’t like him this run. He has some neat moments, sure, but they’re nothing without Kitaro himself there. It’s all about his relationship with the protagonist. I like moments with Nezumi-Otoko, but there are times he overstays his welcome. I won’t say he’s as bad as he was in the 80′s version, though.  2018′s Kitaro has some mediocre episodes, but also those that really are emotional hits. This makes it so much better than the 80′s series, but it’s still largely influenced by the 80′s series. You can tell in that the cast hit the same notes, and that similarly the moral of the episodes can be missing or weak. I won’t say they come across as feeble as it’s predecessor, but I digress.  I have yet to talk about the 90′s series. I know very little Japanese, so I watch at a pace where I can research the episode I’m watching, if it hits any different notes that the other series have missed out on, etc. I do this for a lot of episodes because when talking about this franchise, it’s largely a discussion of which series adapted which episode (or story arc) in a more enjoyable way. The 90′s series is one of those I have to say has deliberate pacing that the 60′s and 70′s lacks. It feels much slower, but also more driven. I can’t really give it too much criticism because it captivates me too much. I’ll never forget that moment where Medama-Oyaji pours his heart out to Kitaro after he’s transformed into the Gyuki. Sure, it’s missing a body horror scene, but it’s so heartfelt…  I have a similar outlook of the 60′s/70′s series. I don’t separate these two because one is the prequel to the other. There are some that bemoan the loss of the black and white style, that there’s something lost when adding color, but I disagree so much. Like the 90′s series, the 70′s series is very captivating (especially for it’s time)!  I feel like people talk about the 90′s series so much (which is a good thing), so I like to go on and on about how beautiful the color is in the 70′s one. One thing that really sets apart the 70′s series from it’s prequel and all the others is the boldness of it’s line art, as well. It gives me a feeling that each of those lines a love letter to the manga’s art style, if only a bit. It pops so well with the additional color, and it’s not like it doesn’t have some brutally ironic moments that are staple for it’s predecessor.   Speaking of the 60′s series, though, it may not give us a wholly mean spirited Kitaro, but it shares the strange vibes that Hakaba Kitaro’s storytelling gives off, just even more sympathetic. Kitaro is still quite a creepy boy, but he’s so much himself or the core of what that character represents to every generation afterwards. There’s something so satisfying about seeing him try to strangle Nezumi-Otoko after the man taunts that he’s too soft to do something to his friends. Contrast that with today’s Kitaro…  Anyway, I love to draw during my free time. It’s my favorite hobby, so my favorite series to watch are Hakaba Kitaro and the first two Gegege no Kitaro series, and the 90′s series of course. The direction of the shows I mentioned are what give me the strongest impressions out of all of them. Not to mention the movies! There’s a really pretty scene in the 80′s movie too, for instance! 

#books-are-my-life-stuff #Gegege no Kitaro #Long post

[recommendedlisten]

It’s been awhile since Recommended Listen has done one of these, but back by popular (content) demand, the weekly Best of the Rest column has returned to highlight the rest of the week’s great music you should know. Leading into it, Massachusetts DIY scene favs Future Teens and Dump Him both tried to figure out ways to move forward while Big Thief are proving to be unstoppable with their creative genius. The return of Vivian Girls is arguably being enjoyed more so the second time around, Chelsea Wolfe’s natural instincts are giving us even more reasons to appreciate her dark art, and NYC post-punks Bodega continue to live up to the promise of being shiny new models. Meanwhile, Field Mouse succeeded at finding meaning in everything as modern punk scene cult hero Chris Faren searched for his within a screen. There’s a lot more to cover here, so let's get down to the music business.

Here’s the best of the rest from the week of August 11th, 2019…

Antagonize - Slip Death EP [Triple B Records]

The last time I saw Aaron Bedard, he was being showered in balloons and kids walking all over each others’ heads as part of the final bow of Bane, the seminal melodic hardcore band who very much helped make the New England hardcore scene what it is today. Bedard returned to the stage a year ago with a new band called Antagonize, and after throwing down some demos and promos, they’ve released their debut EP Slip Death on the great Boston hardcore label Triple B Records this past week (label leader Sam Yarmuth designed its cover art much like he did for the vinyl reissue of the 2001 Bane classic Give Blood.) Bedard’s intensity has not slowed down with the passing of time either. In fact, it’s become exponentially more confrontational as he and the band thrash through fast, visceral existentialist dread. Throw them on a bill with the likes of Fury, Fiddlehead, Turnstile, or any of the countless names coming out of the Triple B roster right now, and Antagonize -- and Bedard -- know exactly what the scene needs at this moment.

Slip Death by ANTAGONIZE

Charli XCX feat. Sky Ferreira - “Cross You Out” [Atlantic Records]

On September 13th, Charli XCX will release her long awaited “proper” third studio effort Charli. Between years of experimental EPs and one-off singles, it’s been awhile since we heard her target her vision for mass consumption with major label approal, and she’s bringing some of music’s most intriguing voices into the fold with her to get that across. We already heard her team with Lizzo on “Blame It On Your Love” and Christine and the Queens for “Gone”. Its latest preview “When You’re Not Around” is one for Twitter pop fandom, however, as it sees Charli XCX joining forces with Sky Ferreira on the A.G. Cook-produced track. The two artists have been heralded as pop music’s most underrated creators for the better part of this decade, so to hear Charli and Ferreira’s paths cross seamlessly into this digital slowburn as they put the collective shit they’ve dealt with personally over the years behind them is a fitting way for it to happen.

Code Orange - “Let Me In” [WWE Music]

At least weekend’s WWE Summerslam, rebooted horror heel Bray Wyatt returned after months of being kept off screen in action with a brand new character persona called the Fiend that saw him evolving from the creepy bayou cult leader of previous and into a psychotic children’s program host who turns into a deranged monster wearing a mask designed by horror film makeup legend Tom Savini. In helping get this new terrifying character’s image over with the crowd and viewers watching was Code Orange, one of the most exciting bands in hardcore and metal going right now, who reinterpreted Wyatt’s old theme “Live In Fear”, a sinister, swampy piece of occult rock originally recorded by Mark Crozier, under its new name “Let Me In” and making it into their own heavy pummeling likeness, adding layers of deeper darkness to Wyatt’s Fiend character in the process. This isn’t Code Orange Kids first foray in soundtracking WWE superstars' themes, as they backed Incendiary’s Brendan Gorrone live as goth anti-hero Aleister Black made his way to ring during NXT Takeover Brooklyn III. Now that Black is on the main roster, inevitably he will cross paths with the Fiend at some point, making you wonder where Code Orange's loyalty will lie...

The Highwomen - “Highwomen” [Low Country Sound / Elektra Records]

The Highwomen -- a.k.a. the country songwriting supergroup of Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, Amanda Shires, and Natalie Hemby -- are one of the most exciting things to happen to country music this year. On September 6th, they will release their eponymous debut album, and to date, the foursome have proven themselves quickly to be working flawlessly as a well-woven collective where nothing remotely resembling an ego outshine the other in its first coupling of singles “Redesigning Women” and “Crowded Table”. It’s latest is a goosebump-inducing sunset song that hears each member sharing a piece of the narrative that tell a greater story about their ability to overcome all and any hurdle. “We are the daughters of the silent generations / You send our hearts to die alone in foreign nations,” their voices collect in its final moments. “They may return to us as tiny drops of rain / But we will still remain/ And we’ll come back again and again and again.

Miranda Lambert - “Bluebird” [RCA Nashville / Vanner Records]

Beyond the Highwomen, Miranda Lambert is now joining the highly anticipated of new Nashville releases with her seventh studio effort Wildcard, due out on November 1st. Her last effort was the excellently crafted post-divorce catharsis The Weight of These Wings, but judging by the sounds of WIldcard’s first single “Bluebird”, Lambert is getting back to her old high jinks of sorry not sorry whip-smart lyricism and folding them into cool, flawless country-pop. “And if the house just keeps on winning / I got a wildcard up on my sleeve / And  if love keeps giving me lemons / I'll just mix 'em in my drink,” goes its chorus. Lambert’s undefeated streak will likely continue with this as well as her tour behind the LP, which sees her bringing along her Pistol Annies sisters, Maren Morris, and Ashley McBridge along for the ride on select dates for her Roadside Guitars and Pink Guitars tour, kicking off in September.

Octo Octa - “Can You See Me?” [T4T LUV NRG]

Back in July, Octo Octa, the electronic dance outlet of Maya Bouldry-Morrison, dropped “Spin Girl, Let’s Activate”, the leadoff single from her forthcoming third album Resonant Body, set for release on September 6th. The listen was fully in motion with a bright luminosity radiating from with Bouldry-Morrison she says was inspired after a year of tremendous change and personal growth. That expanded energy extends even further in its subsequent listen “Can You See Me?” in which she allows emotions to overflow onto the soundboard through an empath in samples vocals and a cosmic tidal of synth arpeggios running through whichever cracks in its constant break beats they can find. It’s invigorating, and both as a measure of her art and being, there’s really no avoiding Octa Octa’s presence being made known here.

(Sandy) Alex G - “Southern Sky” / “Near” [Domino Records]

Rocket was a very special album in the prolific catalog of (Sandy) Alex G, though it wouldn’t be a surprise if the experimental indie pop wunderkind’s new album House of Sugar, set for release on September 13th, bests it in its own way. So far, we’ve heard the warped and rickety storytale standout “Gretel” and the earnest ode to a friend and place passed on “Hope”, and this past week, he introduced two more in “Southern Sky” and “Near”. The former, which includes an animated video by frequent visual collaborator Elliot Bech, is a country-stained sigh featuring Emily Yacina that hits a similar backwoods bliss that “Bobby” did two years ago, while the latter retreats to pinbacked repetition, wonky loops and samples that warp the canvas with Alex Giannascoli’s signature smeared fingerprints. (Sandy) Alex G will also be touring extensively behind the effort starting this October, with dates featuring the likes of Tomberlin, ARTHUR and Corey Flood.

Taylor Swift - “Lover” [Republic Records]

The last we heard of Taylor Swift was her divisive post-pop call-out Reputation, and with its tinge of industrial bangers and stadium-translating success, it’s safe to say it aged better than what anyone expected upon release. Her new album Lover is on the way next week, and so far, two of its early singles have been absolute dogshit while the other was just so-so. In the streaming era, it comes no surprise that there will be 18 tracks total on the album, which means there’s bound to be some duds. Hopefully they’re more like it’s title track, though. Jack Antonoff seems to be one of the few people who knows what to do with making Swift sound like a breath of fresh air in spite of her missteps in this lash-batting late night bar crawler that is the Jekyll to Swifty’s drunken Hyde. She really could have reverted full-on back to country-pop and easily gotten away with it...

Queen of Jeans - “Only Obvious to You” [Topshelf Records]

The surprises within Queen of Jeans’ sound are unraveling themselves quickly, but in subtle gestures leading up to the dreamy Philly indie-pop band’s release next week of their sophomore effort If you’re not afraid, I’m not afraid. So far, they’ve delivered a devastating blow to the ego in doo-wop form with "U R My Guy” and searched for a way out of a dead end relationship on “All the Same”. “Only Obvious to You” steps away from pastel lights and balloon grandeur, leaving plenty of room fordark space in between two warm bodies for the distance to hit hard. “Love will fuck you over hard,” Miriam Devora repeatedly reminds herself in the listen’s closing moments, and in the listen’s video shot at Philly Pride, they want to do their community a solid by letting it be known that no matter how you love, pain is pain, and your feelings are valid, too. This autumn, they’ll be mending broken hearts on the road alongside tourmates From Indian Lakes.

Whitney - “Used to Be Lonely” [Secretly Canadian]

Someone in Whitney’s camp had to have intentionally planned to have the Chicago country soul duo’s sophomore effort Forever Turned Around be released at the final breaths of summer and the cusp of autumn’s cupping season on August 30th, because “Used to Be Lonely” is the kind of listen that tugs at the heartstrings of both the, uh, lonely and not so lonely, in a way that will make those with someone feel warm gratitude to have someone by their side, and those who don’t romanticize about the day it happens to them. Its accompanying visuals, directed by Austin Vesely, are on point just as well, as it captures a budding romance developing at the kind of midwestern country fair in a small town you’d hit up some weekend in September when you could use a slice of simplicity in your life of how even the most humble moments can feel extraordinary if you’re sharing them with the right person. If not, Whitney will bring it to you when they roll through your city this autumn.

#the best of the rest #songs #antagonize #charli xcx #sky ferreira #code orange #the highwomen #miranda lambert #octo octa #(sandy) alex g #taylor swift #queen of jeans #whitney #new music & videos

[musicin68]

Totally Disco, Issue #4

Episode 4: The Butcher's Knife Cares Not For The Lamb's Cry

"Make sure you stay out of the tardigrade fields. They're cute but they'll eat you. " - Janet Van Dyne, Ant Man and the Wasp

One of the things I love about Star Trek is how small they make space feel. It's ridiculous, awful, awful science. Space is big. As Douglas Adams so elegantly wrote, "vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big". On any given day in Starfleet they encounter cosmic storms, nebulae, quantum filaments, spatial rifts, tachyon fields, wormholes, dark matter, rogue comets, and today specifically, the gravity well of an O-type star. And it never fails to make me laugh. Hell, a flagship might run into all of these at once. You know where a ship using a faster than light drive that fell out of a "jump" would most realistically end up? Nowhere. As in "the middle of". Because space is horrifically big! Seriously, as a concept, it is nightmare fuel. Of course, that ship would immediately be attacked by Cylons. But that's a given. They look like us now.

Spoilers...

Oooh! Guest staring Michelle Yeoh! Maybe...oh, it's a recording.

Oh god. They ate her. I am not generally sentimental about death. A body is a body. When a person dies the person part is gone, but I'm still so unhappy they killed her at all it just...ugh thank you ever so much for that image, writers.

And then you go and say something like rage glands. Classic Trek ridiculous. Ripper? Eh, I’m sticking with Alice. The tardigrade is definitely a girl. Aaand, oh look, I don't have to learn Security Chef's name. Glad we're back to knocking off crew members. It was getting crowded in here. 

Pippin, lighter of torches, must give up everything! What does that mean? What is everything to a Klingon? TNG taught me that as a Klingon, if you don't have honor you don't have anything. So definitely going to have to give up that. House Mókai (yup, that name I remember, diacritic and all) are deceivers (sounds like spies to me) according to L'Rell. Lying is pretty dishonorable, but I imagine she would call it practical. She prefers to work from behind the scenes. I bet she likes keeping her head attached to her neck and getting shit done. My kind of girl.

Sorry, I zoned out there for a moment. Where was I? Right, he's going to have to give up everything... oh. Oh! Why did T'Kuvma start this in the first place? To "Remain Klingon". That’s what they all keep yelling. If that's "everything" to him...Pippin doesn't get to remain Klingon. The spies are going to make him something else and change his face like in Trouble with - Holy shit! Lorca has a tribble. It's on his desk. It's been making cute noises, that now sound strangely like Chekov's gun, for the last two episodes! That is awesome!

Wait. Is this why they redesigned the Klingons? And made me read subtitles? (I know. I don't speak Klingon. What kind of Trekkie am I?!) So I wouldn't recognize the spies when they show up on Discovery's crew manifest? I mean Worf and B'Elanna look different, but are recognizable out of full Klingon TNG/VOG makeup. Romulan Troi and Yar still looked like themselves. Ugh. No! It is, isn't it. That is just...insulting. I'm not even sure I can explain why... If your plot twist is that dependant on shock valve to be enjoyable, it's just...I am hesitant to say "bad", but I'm not watching Momento here. I don't know. I was very excited a paragraph ago and now I am disappointed by the presumed execution of a plot point I am guessing at. Okay, Discovery. Please, prove me wrong. Also, if we're talking about makeup, is L’Rell’s name just a play on L'Oreal?

There are some interesting comparisons set up for us between Michael and Pippin. They both once held positions of respect and leadership in their respective cultures and are now outcasts. Their mentors were both people of conviction and principle and are now dead (in the same conflict no less). They have both been offered a way to regain something they’ve lost. I look forward to seeing how they contrast as the story moves forward.

Parting shots: → 1.There are an awful lot of people telling me that Captain Creepy is a bad man and a questionable leader, at best. Chef tells Michael that Lorca’s only interested in what she can do for him, and by extension everyone around him. Saru says that Michael will fit right in with Lorca when she manipulates him to find out Alice isn't threatening. One more time: THESE ARE NOT GOOD QUALITIES. Give me Georgiou or give me...right you already gave me death. Fuck you, writers. → 2. Role call! Burnham, Saru, Tilly, Stamets, Alice, Lorca, Chef, Georgiou, T'Curse-you-for-killing-her, L'Rell - Bridger of Houses, Kol - Stealer of Ships, Admiral Cornwell (Another woman in charge!), Pippin (only figuratively dead, but I wanna cross off more names). There's a doctor too. Are we all here yet? → 3. I'm just going to hook this thing I don't know what it does or how it works to my engines. That seems like a good idea, right? Then I'm going to beam a creature in with it, turn it on, and see what happens. Even after our sister ship had a horrible accident, killing everyone aboard, while doing something similar - we are undoubtably certain this is the best course of action. God I love Star Trek. → 4. Even hologram Georgiou is a better captain than Lorca.

#st:dsc #random episode ramblings #random Star Trek ramblings #s1e4

[fedine]

Answer all of them

Under a cut! This is a long one!!

1: Do they drink coffee?

I don’t think so; though I do think he enjoys the occasional Starbucks drink.

2: Are they left or right handed?

Right handed!

3: How do they do their hair? Facial hair? (If they have it)

His hair is super long! I’ve seen some pictures of him where he has it tied back, but not too many more recently. It looks messy but it is really really cute! I want to brush it or just run my fingers through it a lot. He also does grow some of his facial hair out! I like it a lot.

4: What’s their favorite animal?

Well, going off his fursona, I’m going to go with a wolf.

5: What is their relationship status?

Taken by me!

6: What is their favorite band/singer?

A weird thing about our relationship is that we don’t really talk about or share music too much, but we know we have similar music tastes! I also know he likes Death Grips.

7: Are they more a cat or dog person?

Dog person!

8: What does their laugh sound like?

Ohh, gosh! I love his laugh so much! He also has several of them, ranging from: “This is a horrible picture and I’m showing it to you now,” “This is a horrible picture and I’m NOT going to show it to you,” and my personal favorite is his really really loud laugh he does when some meme he sees gets really weird/bad or we keep adding onto it ourselves.

9: Do they know multiple languages? Which ones?

He used to take French, so he knows a little bit, but he isn’t fluent. 

10: How old are they? How old are you?

He is just a year younger than me. 13 months, to be exact!

11: One word that describes them.

I can’t possibly choose one word, but honestly my favorite one to describe him as is “warm” because I see it in his eyes in pictures he sends and when we video chat. He makes me feel like I’m at home with him, even if we’re so far apart.

12: Do they have any pets?

A German shepherd mix named Winston! I hear him a lot in the background of our calls.

13: What is their favorite TV show?

He really liked Bojack Horseman! He binged it around the time we got together. We also like watching shows together that we never finish… Though, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was one we did finish, and we both loved it! He also really likes Dragonball Z, and Bleach!

14: What is their favorite movie?

Oh, that’s a hard one because he REALLY likes movies and film theory and stuff, but I’m pretty sure it’s a Marvel movie. He also told me one time that he likes Studio Ghibli movies a lot, but he talks about Marvel movies a lot more.

15: What car do they drive?

He does not drive.

16: What ethnicity and/or nationality are they? 

He’s Australian! 

17: Where did you meet them?

I met him online, after he joined my guild in World of Warcraft. I had been a member for a year already, and I believe I had just gotten back from an extended break from Horde side. He was very new to the game, and also very shy at first, but he joined up with us because he wanted to try role play, as well as raiding. He was at a large, server-wide event that I went to as well, but it took him a while to get into the Discord voice chat. He’s very shy! Once he got in though, we hit it off really well! Soon we had begun to spend nearly every waking moment together. Also, we haven’t stopped doing that. It’s been about a year since we started that. 

18: What was your first meeting like?

Would you believe me if I said it was almost an argument? I’d been healing a long time, and he loved to tank, so we each thought our own roles were the most important in a raid/dungeon environment. “A tank keeps the mobs off the healer, so they aren’t overwhelmed;” “A tank won’t last long without a healer.” Well, now we know that both of the roles are much weaker on their own, and they are only really at their peak when they have the other with them. Still, that has not stopped him from saving the raid in huge manners as he’s the last tank alive and the boss is at 1% HP. Of course, I’ve saved the raid too, just in much more subtle manners!

19:  What is their zodiac sign? Are your signs compatible?

I’m a Virgo and he’s a Libra. So, yes, I do believe that they are!

20: What month is their birthday?

October! That was already my favorite month of the year before I even met him!

21: What is your favorite outfit on them?

Whatever he’s most comfortable in! 

22: Are they good texters?

He’s very good! He’s a quick typer, and messages me “Good morning!” if I don’t get to it first every day! He types with the correct capitalization, too, which I find very cute for some reason, but that may be just because it’s him.

23: Your favorite feature about their appearance.

Oh, hmmm… I love the way he looks, and it’s hard to choose just one thing. His eyes, maybe? I did already go over that, as well as his hair… You know what, I’m going to keep talking about his eyes. They’re two beautiful shades of blue, and every time he sends me a picture of him I can see how much he loves me in them, and sometimes I have to make an effort to not be overwhelmed by it. In a good way!

24: Your favorite thing about their personality.

He’s a big sweetheart, and a huge goofball! He knows how to make me laugh and feel better whenever I’m not in a good mood.

25: Do they make you laugh?

Every single day! 

26: Do you make them laugh?

Yes, I do! We have very similar senses of humor. Sometimes it’s awful. I love it all the time, though!

27: Are they good huggers/ kissers?

Even though we’re long distance, yes. He is, and I know he is. 

28: What is your favorite “flaw” that they have?

He’s a degenerate. It’s really funny though. I love how chaotic he is.

29: Are they nice to strangers?

He is VERY shy, but yes, he is! He’s extremely sweet and kind.

30: What is the funniest thing they have ever said?

Honestly, he’s just the funniest person ever and makes me crack up every single day. Sometimes he just randomly says whatever comes to his mind. Today I really liked his joke about that redesign for the new Incredibles movie. Something about weed. We’ve been making a lot of weed jokes today.

31: Saddest?

Also from today: he didn’t know what a buffalo was. He thought they were different from bison. I was eating buffalo jerky from 5 years ago and he thought it was a brand of jerky. He also thought they were extinct.

32: Weirdest?

Literally any vore joke he has ever made. 

33: Cutest?

Gosh, just trying to pick one thing is so difficult... But when he tells me he loves me and how he can’t wait to see me? When he tells me about dreams he has with me in them? It makes my heart melt.

34: Ever dreamt about them? What happened in the dream?

Recently I posted about a dream I had about him and I just kissing each other. Nothing super exciting sounding, but gosh, I want to experience it so bad.

35: How tall are they? How tall are you?

I am... 5′4″... He is... 6′5″... 

36: Do they have a booty?

I do not know. He has only sent me selfies of just his face or completely front facing. I can only assume. Doesn’t matter though! 

37: What are their hobbies?

Video games. He really likes World of Warcraft (of course!), Fallout: New Vegas, Grand Theft Auto V, Elder Scrolls Online, Overwatch, Quake Champions, and Pokemon!

38: What are their talents?

He’s has amazing reflexes, honestly. He uses them for gaming, and because of it, he’s amazingly good at just about any game he plays. 

39: What would your dream date be with them?

A physical one, where we are next to each other.

40: Does anyone know about your crush/love?

I make it a point to make sure everyone knows.

41: What do you guys have in common?

Pretty much everything, really. From sense of humor, taste in music, and favorite video games for the most part. We also share the same sexual orientation, and we have yet to disagree on politics.

42: Do they go to the gym?

No, but he exercises just about every day! If he doesn’t do a whole bunch of jumping jacks his legs start to get sore.

43: Do they go by their given name?

Yes and no. Since we’re in a World of Warcraft guild, we both go by screen names, so no one there calls him his real name but me. Same thing with just about everything online, though. Other than that though, he does.

44: What is their favorite color?

He really loves orange! Orange and white is one of his favorite color schemes. It makes me think of orange creamsicles!

45: How far apart do you live from them?

About 572 miles-- roughly an eight and a half hour drive. 

46: What song reminds you of them?

Boats and Birds by Gregory and the Hawk

47: Do they listen to a lot of music?

I think so, but I think he listens to more random YouTube videos than anything.

48: What do they smell like?

He gave me his jacket for Valentine’s Day, and when I first got it I just held it up to my face and smelled it for a good while because it was the first time I got to experience what he smelled like. I can’t really describe his scent, because I’m not good with words in that way, but I just know that it’s my favorite scent in the whole world.

49: If they were in a book (protagonist or antagonist or supporting character, up to you) how would the writer describe them?

If it were up to me, I would describe him as accurately as possible. Still, I only really know his personality the best, so that’s what I would describe the most. I think he would be a protagonist, as well. He’s my protagonist, anyway.

50: How often do you see them?

We talk every day-- I’m talking to him right now! But as for actually seeing him, I look at every picture he has sent me of himself every night. There’s about... 22 of them that I have, including a video, but there’s one I missed of him in Australia in a “had to do it to em” pose. I’m still sad I lost that one. 

51: The last text/ message they sent you?

It was a Sorlag skin from Quake Champions. As for a text message from Discord, it was a “Call me!”

52: The last thing they said to you in person?

:(

53: What is the most embarrassing thing that’s happened to you in front of them?

I once said “Heal, boy!” to him while we were leveling in WoW together because his health was low and he wasn’t paying attention, but it came off as “Heel, boy!” like he was a dog... The more embarrassing bit though about it was that one or two of our friends were there as well.

54: Do they have any tattoos or piercings?

To my knowledge, no, but I seriously doubt it.

55: What color are their eyes?

Blue gray! 

56: What is their clothing style?

Comfortable: jeans and graphic T-shirts! That I plan to steal...

57: What is one thing that makes them really special?

Literally everything about him. He’s the most special person to me, and I love him for every single thing. 

58: Will you tell your crush your feelings?

Alright, gonna be honest, I'm a bi wlw, and I was content to never say a damn thing about any feeling I ever felt, so I’m thankful every day that he did, because I was very ready to take my feelings to the grave and pine after him forever.

59: How long did you know them before you started falling for them?

Probably like a day or something. It didn’t take long to start liking him-- even when we were alone in the server voice chats that day I felt comfortable around him.

60: Was there a defining moment when you knew you liked them?

Sort of! I don’t remember the exact details, but I do remember messaging one of my best friends about it immediately. I was pretty vague about it to her. Something like: “Yeah, I think I’m in love with someone in the voice chat...” And she knew immediately who. I guess I was obvious, though.

#gem-licker #bf tag #surprise! he made me answer everything anyway!

[immortalross]

I’m going to share my way of doing FB ads (which is the opposite of what many of you either do or were taught). While my way is NOT the only way, I find it easier than the ways most gurus recommend. It’s simply my preference and has worked well for the clients I’ve worked with. 1. Implement the FB pixel yesterday. This is super important because it allows you to build some audiences that give you an upper hand. 2. Identify (to FB) a retargeting audience and as many conversion events as you have in your funnel. If you’re not techy enough to do it, hire someone. It’s that important. 3. I see so many advertisers trying to sell their courses or front ends in ads. Have you tried selling the click instead? You don’t want to have to redesign your funnels, but doesn’t it make more sense to sell the click than to try to sell the entire product in an ad? What wins in 95% of my tests is to convince them to click in the ad and let the sales page or landing page do its job. 4. You absolutely must have a one to two sentence hook. For the best performance, it should not be taken from the next page, but lead into whatever copy you have on the next page. Generally, redundancy (repeating yourself) will reduce conversions. Saying something similar in a different way will generally boost them. 5. Most ads aren’t taking advantage of videos or their power. While your target is scrolling, you know you need to grab their attention. Do you think the movement in a video will catch their eye better than most images? In 95% of my tests, it does. I use Viddyoze, Breakout Clips, Powtoon, and inVideo to make most ads. If longer stuff is required, I edit in Screenflow and usually combine at least 2 of the tools I mentioned. I’ll add some examples in the comments. My way almost always works better than any other I’ve tested. 6. I see many of you using bold or other “attention getters” in your posts here (the one I'm using in this post is fine because it's provided by FB. If you're using outside tools, that causes the problem I'm describing...). Did you know they don’t work on Android phones (which is roughly a third of mobile users)? I see them in ads, too. In fact, I used to use them. Don’t. While you should test everything, having a third of mobile users see “???????” instead of your strongest words feels like a huge mistake. An alternative would be to target Android users separately. Emojis work and are fine to use. 7. Most beginner advertisers stack a bunch of interests first to create an “audience” to target. This is what most FB ad gurus teach. This is also really bad form. Instead, test individual audiences (the larger the better) to make sure they have your prospects in them. Once they’re proven, then you can add them into a larger group for targeting. If you don’t prove their value before adding them to a group of interests, you will be adding people you shouldn’t be targeting at all. Plus, if the big, combined audience does convert, you have no way of knowing which interest the target came from. 8. Use dynamic ads and include a wide variety of pieces to test (you can test as many as 10 text boxes, media (video or image), description, and headline options - use as many as you can). This is multivariate testing done with the help of FB and it does a good job of narrowing what produces results quickly. If you have 8 videos that aren’t working well, they’ll only show the 2 that are. This tells you what messaging and media to focus on with your ads. Most importantly, it allows you to spend less and get more testing done faster. 9. Even if you have to wait a few weeks to let the audience build up, use a retargeting audience to test your ads!!! Why? You don’t have to worry about whether your target is a good one. They’ve already proven they are by visiting your website. 10. If you have zero traffic to start, choose some obvious interests and stack them to test your ads. THEN, switch to testing your interests via a retargeting audience. THEN, take the winning ad and start testing interests. If you test too many things at once, you can’t trust your results. 11. Create at least 2 different lookalike audiences. One based upon your retargeting. Another based on your most important conversion event (lead, front end sale, back end sale, etc…). Test and see which performs better. Feel free to test other lookalike options. 12. Scale slowly and carefully. Most ad networks will be happy to take your money and flush your budget down the toilet. My general strategy is to double my budget every few days once I see that my numbers are where I want them to be (CTR .5 - 5%, CPC $.10 - $3, CPL $1 - $15). Know your numbers because you need to know what you can afford to pay. I have a client that has never paid less than $40 per lead, but is sitting at 12X ad spend over the last 3 years. BONUS - While this isn’t part of my strategy, it’s probably the most important thing I can share with you: Trust the pixel. Years ago, we had access to targeting options that made targeting so easy that it was almost cheating. After getting in trouble for being too invasive, FB had to remove most of the crazy ones. Where did they go? Hidden in the FB AI. Their pixel can still use those kind of options to target the right people for us. All we have to do is make sure we feed the pixel with the right leads and sales. I feel like the biggest mistake you can make is not to advertise, even if it’s a $5 per day retargeting campaign. As promised, I’ll post some video examples and I’m happy to answer any questions or clarify anything you find confusing.

I’m going to share my way of doing FB ads (which is the opposite of what many of you either do or were taught). While my way is NOT the only way, I find it easier than the ways most gurus recommend. It’s simply my preference and has worked well for the clients I’ve worked with. 1. Implement the FB pixel yesterday. This is super important because it allows you to build some audiences that give you an upper hand. 2. Identify (to FB) a retargeting audience and as many conversion events as you have in your funnel. If you’re not techy enough to do it, hire someone. It’s that important. 3. I see so many advertisers trying to sell their courses or front ends in ads. Have you tried selling the click instead? You don’t want to have to redesign your funnels, but doesn’t it make more sense to sell the click than to try to sell the entire product in an ad? What wins in 95% of my tests is to convince them to click in the ad and let the sales page or landing page do its job. 4. You absolutely must have a one to two sentence hook. For the best performance, it should not be taken from the next page, but lead into whatever copy you have on the next page. Generally, redundancy (repeating yourself) will reduce conversions. Saying something similar in a different way will generally boost them. 5. Most ads aren’t taking advantage of videos or their power. While your target is scrolling, you know you need to grab their attention. Do you think the movement in a video will catch their eye better than most images? In 95% of my tests, it does. I use Viddyoze, Breakout Clips, Powtoon, and inVideo to make most ads. If longer stuff is required, I edit in Screenflow and usually combine at least 2 of the tools I mentioned. I’ll add some examples in the comments. My way almost always works better than any other I’ve tested. 6. I see many of you using bold or other “attention getters” in your posts here (the one I'm using in this post is fine because it's provided by FB. If you're using outside tools, that causes the problem I'm describing...). Did you know they don’t work on Android phones (which is roughly a third of mobile users)? I see them in ads, too. In fact, I used to use them. Don’t. While you should test everything, having a third of mobile users see “???????” instead of your strongest words feels like a huge mistake. An alternative would be to target Android users separately. Emojis work and are fine to use. 7. Most beginner advertisers stack a bunch of interests first to create an “audience” to target. This is what most FB ad gurus teach. This is also really bad form. Instead, test individual audiences (the larger the better) to make sure they have your prospects in them. Once they’re proven, then you can add them into a larger group for targeting. If you don’t prove their value before adding them to a group of interests, you will be adding people you shouldn’t be targeting at all. Plus, if the big, combined audience does convert, you have no way of knowing which interest the target came from. 8. Use dynamic ads and include a wide variety of pieces to test (you can test as many as 10 text boxes, media (video or image), description, and headline options - use as many as you can). This is multivariate testing done with the help of FB and it does a good job of narrowing what produces results quickly. If you have 8 videos that aren’t working well, they’ll only show the 2 that are. This tells you what messaging and media to focus on with your ads. Most importantly, it allows you to spend less and get more testing done faster. 9. Even if you have to wait a few weeks to let the audience build up, use a retargeting audience to test your ads!!! Why? You don’t have to worry about whether your target is a good one. They’ve already proven they are by visiting your website. 10. If you have zero traffic to start, choose some obvious interests and stack them to test your ads. THEN, switch to testing your interests via a retargeting audience. THEN, take the winning ad and start testing interests. If you test too many things at once, you can’t trust your results. 11. Create at least 2 different lookalike audiences. One based upon your retargeting. Another based on your most important conversion event (lead, front end sale, back end sale, etc…). Test and see which performs better. Feel free to test other lookalike options. 12. Scale slowly and carefully. Most ad networks will be happy to take your money and flush your budget down the toilet. My general strategy is to double my budget every few days once I see that my numbers are where I want them to be (CTR .5 - 5%, CPC $.10 - $3, CPL $1 - $15). Know your numbers because you need to know what you can afford to pay. I have a client that has never paid less than $40 per lead, but is sitting at 12X ad spend over the last 3 years. BONUS - While this isn’t part of my strategy, it’s probably the most important thing I can share with you: Trust the pixel. Years ago, we had access to targeting options that made targeting so easy that it was almost cheating. After getting in trouble for being too invasive, FB had to remove most of the crazy ones. Where did they go? Hidden in the FB AI. Their pixel can still use those kind of options to target the right people for us. All we have to do is make sure we feed the pixel with the right leads and sales. I feel like the biggest mistake you can make is not to advertise, even if it’s a $5 per day retargeting campaign. As promised, I’ll post some video examples and I’m happy to answer any questions or clarify anything you find confusing. 2021-05-11T15:27:50.000Z

#RossGoldberg #ImmortalMarketing

[anklenephew1-blog]

Sneak peek at the new admissions and SFS sites

Aug 16, 2018

Sneak peek at the new admissions and SFS sites

Posted in: Miscellaneous

As I've mentioned here, here, and here, I've been spending my summer leading a project to redesign the new sfs.mit.edu and mitadmissions.org. Although we are two separate offices, we report to the same Dean (that would be Stu) and share a communications team, and are working with Upstatement, the agency that helped design the new www.mit.edu and science.mit.edu. 

We're coming up to launch on both sites and so I wanted to take this chance to blog a preview and talk about some of the design decisions we've made. These aren't final -- things will change before we launch -- but you can get a sense of the basic design direction. 

Student Financial Services (SFS)

SFS is the office at MIT that combines the function of assessing and providing financial aid with billing and collecting tuition and other payments. Their processes are very complex and highly regulated by institutional, state, and federal policy. And, while we offer generous financial aid, anytime money is involved people tend to get stressed out. 

Based on these findings and priors, our goals for this redesign include: 

making it really easy to find what you are looking for, especially if you don't know what that is yet 

provide simple documentation of complex processes 

reduce places where information can be duplicated, trying for a "single source of truth" wherever possible 

helping people find information or ask SFS staff if they want to talk to a human 

Here's a quick preview of what it looks like: 

We basically built a site with two templates: a "section front," used on homepage and landing pages, that provides visually scannable explanations, directories, and statistics to quickly orient people to core topics. At the third level, we have an "article template," which breaks down big processes into modular pieces and explains each one of them. This structure was borrowed from the application section of the current (soon to be "old") apply section on MITadmissions.org. 

Inspired by Feynman's physics lectures, we included a margin notes feature, so you can mouse-over annotated words and get even more detail.  This another way we are trying to enable simple, human-readable language wherever possible, while not losing any of the required detail and complexity for those things that do require further elucidation. There's also a glossary, a help section with FAQs and an email form, and a super-powerful Solr search to quickly search all of the pages and/or filter them by type of page. 

We decided to focus on SFS first, and so we're planning to launch it next week, on Thursday 8/23. Assuming all goes well (knock on wood), next Thursday morning we'll flip a switch and visitors will start going to this new site. At that point, we hope to begin collecting any bugs that emerge and performing any necessary design tweaks, as well as developing a content improvement strategy going forward. There's lots of ideas we have about how to improve the SFS content, like more financial literacy information, crowdsourced strategies from students on hacking their budgets, and more interactive tools to help estimate aid and plan budgets. Most of that will happen post-launch, but I think this website will be a good platform on which to build. 

MITAdmissions.org

If you're reading this, you're probably familiar with our office, and with our current website design; if you're a longtime reader, you may even remember the old one, which Kris and I rebuilt when we both starting almost a decade ago. 

Going into this project, we felt pretty good about our website, but there were a few things we wanted to improve: 

the blogging (and content development) backend is awful and really gets in the way 

we needed some better media management and security fixes (https please) 

we wanted to make better use of our incredible wealth of content in old blog posts 

Here's a quick preview of what it looks like: 

As you can see, it's in some respects a revised version of our current websites. There are some structural changes -- we've brought the aforementioned "article template" across the whole site, for example -- but a pretty similar look and feel. Many of the features from SFS (blazing search, margin annotations, help section, etc) were ported here as well. 

Yuliya has spent the summer reading the blogs and categorizing them into dozens of categories that will be used across the site to surface old content and help people get access to useful information about MIT academics and culture. She plans to post about this process and her findings in the future. 

We hope to launch the new admissions site in early September. Because we're focused on SFS right now, we're in a bit of a pause on feature development on the admissions side, but I think we're going to be able to add even more things to what you already see in this preview: more illustrations, lots of graphics tweaks, and good places to host MITAdmissions Labs content once it's built. Like with SFS, we'll keep doing content development too, but most of that will happen post-launch. 

That's your preview! I'm really excited about both of these sites and hope you'll like them as much as I do once you have the chance to use them. And let me know if you have any questions below. 

Source: http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/sneak-peeks-of-the-new-admissions-and-sfs-sites

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

[verycybercyber]

Re-constructing +user testing goals

LINK TO THE PORTFOLIO PAGE https://julijarukanskaite.wixsite.com/de-re-construct

Credits: World globe Icon made by https://www.flaticon.com/authors/turkkub  from https://www.flaticon.com and is licensed by Creative Commons BY 3.0

Images:  Unsplash, copyright free images

The first thing i choose to attempt at changing was the drop-down menu. Although useful in the sense of saving screen space, it might come off as not transparent enough when it comes to the user goal i set at the start of this task. Here I choose to try to change it with a tab design pattern. The goal is to show the user that they are in only one of the tabs and they have the right to choose what tab to view. Although not perfect in context of the tab names being quite long, this is still the same in terms of saving screen space. I finally decided upon using the same icons the original app uses to indicate the tab sections instead of using full titles.

+ when it comes to the tab design pattern, badoo does use it in its discover page already: 

The second thing i changed the design pattern of is the strangers online section on the top of the screen. Instead of having a carousell design pattern I chose to put the icons of users online into a simplified thumbnail pattern where instead of going directly to the person’s profile when a thumbnail is clicked, an in-between page would be available to scroll through the people Online. I believe that this way not only is the discover section clearly separated out of the chat screen: it takes up less spaces and due to smaller icon size and generalized nature of the thumbnails proves to be clearly different when it comes to reading the screen. 

Here I have decided to also design an additional screen for the in-between of chat and user profile so the user testing proves more persuasive and precise. I have copied the pattern another discover page that shows both non-online (yellow dot) and online people. 

I simply replaced it with only people online. Here the user can get a better view of the accounts suggested but is not obliged to jump into someones profile straight away. It must be noted that I am redesigning the experience of navigating the chat section thus considering the user testing this page is needed:

This section with “discover” thumbnails does suggest an affordance as a button as I intended

User testing results

For user testing I used Adobe xd mobile app that accessed my prototype and allowed it to be tested in the real-life scenario of using a smartphone. I tested on 3 different people that are my flatmates.

For the user testing my curiosity was focused on how users interpret the visual hints in terms of the menu tab, but more broadly I was concerned about how people would interpret the chat screen and people on it, what sort of intentions they perceived the app to be offering.

My method of testing was based on “thinking out loud” and observation. I provided the user with a task of finding a chat with one of their matches and observed their actions of choice in pursuing it while listening to their thinking out loud. After that I asked broader questions and observed if the person would spot some features they did not before, thus pointing out the learnability aspect of the redesign. Then we kept on talking as i followed up on the observations i made and asked the people to explain their motives in more detail. Finally, i opened the actual Badoo app and let the user see and try the original in order to provoke some comparisons between the change in menus.

MENU TABS

Both observation and thinking out loud revealed that all of the users testing the prototype choose to follow the icons. In terms of the goal being to find a chat window with a match, the speech bubble icon proved very transparent: ”it is ubiquitous”, one of the people claimed in the follow-up talk. 

However, all the people tested expressed a level of confusion between the “All” tab and the chat tab:  “all and chat tabs seem to have a similar function”, said one informant. 

After testing all 3 seemed to find the tab menu,, besides the confusing all-chats difference, simple and informative: “this is what you need to see all your options, it’s a good thing that you see all your options: it makes sense to have them as long as there are not too many (tabs)”.

ALL AT ONCE: PERHAPS NOT SO BAD? A question of the agency overexposure

2 out of 3 users i tested on had no previous experience in using dating apps and seemed satisfied with being exposed to all of the possible chats to happen: people online to discover, people who favorited etc.:“ In this case you see that people basically decided and you have a chance to decide on who to like. So it is not a bad thing.”, said one informant - he guessed that is a common logic of dating apps and in his opinion that serves the purpose of getting easy and quick matches. Another person had a similar opinion: “They have to present you with people, cause it’s the starting point”. However approving of these aspects, one of the 2 positive responses was surprised by the logic of favorites / favorited being in one section: “Oh, but those are also the ones that liked me”. This reminded me of my initial concern, and I believe if I were to iterate on the menu in more detail, this would be one of the things to focus on to provide more clarity and hopefully more agency over the understanding of the structure of the menu.

The 3rd person has been using dating apps some time ago but did not “think-out-loud” about having all the different options available. She did express confusion about the discover option:  “ where is my agency in choosing who I get recommended?” she asked.

DISCOVER / STRANGERS ONLINE

This feature proved puzzling: while 1 out of 3 users did “think out loud” about noticing the green dots indicating all icons as being online and guessed these were people online to discover (as was intended), the 2 others both thought the discover option was a display of their matches  /chats, and one of them added that he considered it to be a search option for exploring you chats: “But how do you find people?”.

[violetsogsimblr-blog]

Week 2 - The Mashuga Family

If you’ve been playing The Sims for as long as I have, you might be familiar with the Mashuga Family. Back in the day, Sylvia Marie and Frankie Mashuga were the only family living in Neighborhood 2 of the original Sims game. They are perhaps most recognizable for their tacky, octagonal house.

I loved playing with the Mashugas when I was younger, because they already owned that hideous vibrating heart bed that made baby making easier, and I’ve always been a family focused gamer. This was almost 20 years ago, so I can’t say for sure what else I did with them, but I know that baby making was always a big part of their lives in my old games. How much of an impact 10 year old Violet’s in-game decisions from back then will effect the newest incarnation of the Mashugas remains to be seen.

So, anyway, for those who are not familiar with the Mashuga Family, they consist of a husband and wife named Frankie and Sylvia Marie. Mashuga is a Yiddish surname, implying that they are a Jewish couple in culture if not in practice, although the content from Seasons makes me want to make them practicing Jews. At the start of the game, they are childless and living in a bright pink octagonal house consisting of a bedroom, bathroom, living room, and kitchen. Their front yard is a mess of mismatched shrubberies, a water fountain, and a dozen pink flamingos. From the outside their house is, well, an eye sore and the inside is hardly better.

For the sake of my own amusement, I placed the Mashugas home right next door to the Goths. The idea of a bright pink monstrosity next door to a beautiful Gothic mansion on an affluent area tickled my funny bone. Ignoring the Goth entourage that showed up for the welcome wagon put their relationship slightly lower than friendly, which goes along with the idea that they would be less than thrilled to have such a gaudy eye sore as their neighbor. What will it do to the property values!?

In the original Sims game, Sylvia Marie worked as a Psychic Phone Friend and Frankie was a Bungee Jump Instructor. Thanks to the wonder of the Sims fan base, I was able to download a Paranormal and Xtreme career path to set them up with similar careers in this incarnation. Armed with a downloaded version of them from the gallery, a replica of their house also downloaded, and two new careers, I was ready to play.

One thing that must be said about Sylvia Marie and Frankie is that they are by far the friskiest couple I’ve played in a while. Every time I looked up it seemed as though one of them had rolled a whim to Woohoo. Truth be told, this is very in line with the Sylvia Marie and Frankie of old. I sort of see them as that weirdly sexual couple from high school/college who always made other people uncomfortable with their open talks of BDSM and masturbation. In redesigning their home, I kept that in mind; choosing not to put curtains on their living room full length windows despite their penchant for nudity, and putting mirrors on every available surface in their bedroom. The Wicked Whims mod lets their freak flags fly a bit, and Sylvia Marie and Frankie certainly were not shy.

I always intended for them to have a baby, but their penchant for unprotected Woohoo meant that they got pregnant on their own. I didn’t particularly mind considering it fell in line with my plans for them anyway, and for the duration of the pregnancy they lived a pretty relaxed life. Frankie worked out, went swimming, and Woohooed with his wife. Sylvia Marie lounged around, autonomously drank cocktails, and Woohooed with her husband. In her second trimester she visited a gynecologist and got an ultrasound (thanks to a mod) that showed a single boy baby. From that point on, both Frankie and Sylvia Marie were ecstatic about their baby, and really dropped some major cash building up a subterranean baby nursery for him.

Finally, after what felt like forever, little Frankie Mashuga Jr. was born. Back in the Sims 1 days, Frankie Jr was always the name of the Mashugas first son, so it felt appropriate this time around as well, despite now knowing that the Mashugas are Jewish and it is not customary to name a baby after the living in Jewish culture. I reconciled this by reasoning that Frankie is probably not a devout Jew, and Sylvia Marie is more New Age superstitious than religiously superstitious.

Frankie and Sylvia Marie are very good parents, and worked much better as a team than Arun and Jesminder Bheeda. Frankie, in particular, far outshined Arun with his proactive and intuitive parenting. Every time the baby cried, he was the first on the scene and always autonomously performed whatever action his son needed from him (as opposed to Arun’s pointless cooing at his feces covered child). Perhaps because of her superior partner, Sylvia Marie did much better at keeping her own needs in check alongside her son’s. Jesminder Bheeda’s energy level was constantly in the red, whereas Sylvia Marie was hardly ever below yellow.

Faced with the easiest baby in the world, as far as the Mashugas were concerned, it was a reasonable time for the Mashugas to consider having another child. Although they would never be the baby machine Mashugas of old, I figured that they as a couple would like to have more than one child, and would prefer for their children to be close in age. A day or so after Frankie Jr was born, the Mashugas conceived their second child.

Before long, the dreaded transition from stationary baby to Terrible Toddler came to pass. Toddlers are always a big pain to raise, true to reality, and I was sure that the carefully oiled machine that was the Mashugas parenting would likely be thrown into chaos with the introduction of a toddler. My fears were made all the worse with the randomized toddler trait of Wild.

Frankie Jr. turned into a cute toddler. I gave him wild curly hair, which made him look so much cuter. I imagined Sylvia Marie struggling to get a brush in his luscious locks, and then giving up because he was just a toddler and it didn’t really bother her either way.

Sylvia Marie and Frankie continued to be hands on parents as Frankie Jr. grew. During the days, while Frankie was at work, Sylvia Marie would play with blocks or set Frankie Jr into the kiddie pool for a dip. One day, when Frankie came back from work, little Frankie Jr. ran across their front yard and gave him a big hug. It was so cute to see him being attached to his daddy that way.

All too soon, the end of the Mashuga rotation came to pass; but not before an ultrasound confirmed that Sylvia Marie was carrying a daughter. For their last day, a Saturday, the Mashugas celebrated the Jewish spring holiday of Passover and spent a large amount of cash decorating a beautiful subterranean nursery for their daughter. Obviously, there is always room for a change of plans, but finding out that they were expecting a girl seemed like the perfect stopping point for the Mashugas as far as having kids. I thought that Sylvia Marie and Frankie would want to continue to give their son Frankie Jr. and their unborn daughter the best life possible, and with a limited income and amount of space, bringing more children into the world would probably take away from the two they already had.

Still in her second trimester, Sylvia Marie Mashuga cooked a lovely fish dinner for Passover, Frankie read stories to their son, and then the two of them took turns lounging in a bubble bath. The ending of the Mashuga rotation was nice. I was tempted to continue playing them a few more days so I could be there for the birth of their daughter, but on my Sims calendar Easter is the Sunday after Passover, and I want to celebrate it with a family with kids old enough to do the egg hunt. My MCCC settings will alert me when Sylvia Marie goes into labor, though, so I can come back and name the baby. An update on Baby Girl Mashuga will be forthcoming in the next Sim week.