#i think their name was Lovelle? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rad-roche · 1 month

Text

Pulp Covers And How To Paint Them

With the rise of cheap printing in the early twentieth century, mass-marked paperbacks swept the world, each offering lurid thrills for obscenely low prices. Sex, sadism, and incredible violence for as little as ten cents. An easy purchase to slot in between fifty cigarettes a day and enough bourbon slugs to kill a small garden.

Pulp fiction is where some of the greats of American literature cut their teeth, including the big three, Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald and Dashiell Hammett. The contents of these stories, both the dizzyingly good and astoundingly terrible, have been absorbed and digested and remixed and regurgitated in nearly every permutation imaginable, fuelling pop culture some one hundred years on. This isn't an essay on that. Nobody likes to open a tutorial and be greeted with a wall of text. The history is for another time.

But it is about how to paint it.

Don't let the pre-amble intimidate you, it's not as hard as it sounds. You will need:

Painting software with some image editing capabilities. You don't need all the bells and whistles of Photoshop, but I wouldn't recommend something like MSPaint, at least not to start with. I'm using Clip Studio Paint.

A really beat-up paper texture. The grungier, the better.

A lightly-textured brush. Here are the specific brushes I use, 99% of which is the well-named rough brush. Try and avoid anything with any impasto elements.

Go to your colour-picking tool and use the 'select from layer' option. Doing all the painting on a single layer is going to make your life easier.

A complete willingness to make mistakes and, instead of erasing, painting over them. It generates much more colour variation and interest! Keep your finger off the E key.

Good reference! That painting is a master copy of Mitchel Hooks' art for Day of the Ram. Find a style you really love and want to learn? Have no clue where to begin? Do direct studies!

Let's not worry about whatever is happening in the background. It's probably fine. Let's get started! Pulp magazine art is a lot more varied than you might first think, so don't agonize over having a style that 'fits' or not. I'm also specifically aiming for something you'd see on the cover after printing, not the initial painting they would use for printing. The stuff I'll show here is a pretty narrow band of it, but here are some general commonalities. This is a painting by Tom Lovell.

Let's dig into this.

The colours are very bright and saturated, but the actual values, the relative lightness and darkness of them, are actually grouped very simply! You can check this by filling a layer full of black, putting it on top and setting its mode to colour. If the value of a painting looks good, you actually get a lot of leeway with colour. But here's what I think is the most important thing to keep in mind.

The darks aren't that dark, and the lights aren't all that light! Covers are paintings reproduced on cheap paper. Anything you wouldn't want to happen in the printing process, you lean into. Value wash-outs, lower contrast, colours getting a weird wash to them, really gritty texturing. So let's get painting! Here's my typical setup.

That bottom folder is the painting itself. The screen layer is the grungy paper texture. To get the effect you want, put it down, invert its colour, then set it to screen. That washes out your painting far, far too much, so to compensate, I put a contrast layer up on top. Fiddle around with the settings, but this is where mine ended up sitting.

Note I'm saying this before even starting the painting: you want to do this as early as possible. This is where the 'select from layer' colour picker comes in handy. You can paint without worrying about the screen or contrast layer. Something not looking right? Enable your value check layer and keep painting. When you turn it off, it'll still be in colour. Here's a timelapse so you can see what that looks like.

And when you check the values...

They're pretty simple! This isn't a be all and end all, but I hope it serves as a decent primer. I want thirty dames on my desk by Monday!

#rochedotpng #art tutorial #art resources #couldn't find a thing online about this style so here's how i do it #pulp #it's how i did the death shroud one more or less

162 notes · View notes

dreamerinthemoonlight · 4 months

Text

Tears on Yujing Terrace

Summary: You watch Liyue Harbor from Yujing terrace after a nightmare. Zhongli comes to comfort you.

CW: hurt/comfort, references to SA, nothing graphic but people sensitive to that may want to skip this one, pet names (loveling, little gem, my gem)

Word Count: 764

Pairings: Zhongli x gn!reader

Requests and Asks are OPEN

You are cold, despite it being the middle of summer and far south of Snezhnaya. The lanterns that line the street shine in soft yellows, oranges, and reds, but as is often the case on nights like tonight, the warm glow does nothing to chase away the shadows of your recent dreams.

Even this late at night, Liyue Harbor teems with life. And yet, you find that no crowd can break through the loneliness that cloaks you like a second skin.

And so you don't bother to try.

You make your way to Yujing terrace, returning a guard’s greeting with a tense smile when you pass through its gate. The Millelith assigned to the terrace have long since memorized your name and face, and have often served to ward off any unwanted company.

You cross Yujing Terrace, taking your usual place at the far edge.

From this vantage point, you can see half the city, the people there seeming so small, so far away.

You stand in silence, listening to the wind coming off the ocean while you chase your thoughts in endless circles.

Eventually you hear a familiar pair of footsteps approach you.

“Y/n?”

You turn to find a pair of molten gold eyes, glowing with gentle intensity. “Zhongli? Why are you here?”

“Why would I not be here? I woke up and you were not there. Why did you not wake me, loveling? Do you not wish for my company tonight?”

You shrug, wrapping an arm around yourself. “It’s not that. Tonight has been a bad night. I didn’t want to bother you.”

Zhongli sighs, coming to stand next to you. “My gem, helping you through a bad night is never a bother. Will you allow me to stay?”

Your thoughts turn to the nightmare that drove you out of your shared home and the cold that has surrounded you since you left deepens. “Please. I really don’t want to be alone.”

Zhongli steps closer and you lean into him, letting his embrace warm you.

“I’m sorry,” you mutter.

“Whatever for?”

“Not waking you. I know it worries you when I do this.”

Zhongli runs his fingers through your hair. “I know the kind of torments your subconscious mind conjures. I would not leave anyone to suffer them, least of all you. I will listen if you want to tell me about it.”

You stiffen in Zhongli’s arms.

“If not, that is fine as well,” he assures you. “I promised you that first night that I would not force you to talk about your nightmares, but I will always listen when you do.”

“I just… it was one of the really bad ones. It wasn't the kind that scares me, but the kind that haunts me for hours after I wake up. Even if I push it away and think about my work for today, as soon as my mind drifts I remember. I don’t want to remember.”

As you speak, tears spill down your face, soaking Zhongli’s nightshirt.

The adeptus sighs, pulling you closer. “If I could banish these nightmares, I would. I do not like seeing you suffer.”

“I think… I should probably tell you about it.”

“It may help, love.”

You tell Zhongli of your dream slowly, halting over your words. When you’re done you’re nearly sobbing. “I don’t know what was worse, seeing the girls and the anger I felt, or being left behind. Alone. Unable to act against that bastard, but also vulnerable. Now that I think about it, I was left alone and had that guy wanted to do to me what he did to the girls…”

Zhongli rests his cheek on your head. “Next time, my love, please wake me. I cannot keep the nightmares away, but I can comfort you after.”

“You do keep them away, some,” you admit. “Usually when I’m as stressed as I’ve been, they’re nearly nightly.”

“And yet you still have ones like this one.”

You shrug. “Sometimes they can’t be helped. I’ve seen what you look like after yours.”

“Mine don’t happen nearly as often, my love.”

“They still happen.”

You fall silent, listening to the steady thump-thump of Zhongli’s heart, letting it ground you.

After several long minutes you pull away and lace your finger together. “Can we go home now?”

“Of course, little gem. Let us go home. Do you want to go back to bed, or would you rather I make tea first?”

“Tea first, please.”

“Consider it done.”

The two of you leave Yujing Terrace, unaware of the smiles the Millelith send your way.

#I wanted to write Zhongli having a nightmare #And I probably will eventually #But it turns out it's Zhongli's turn to be the comfort character #Zhongli x reader #Zhongli x gn!reader #tw: sa mention #genshin impact #genshin impact fic #genshin writing #genshin #genshin hurt/comfort #hurt/comfort

79 notes · View notes

tianshiisdead · 1 year

Text

Found while cleaning old drafts: some meta on Robin, Lovell, Griffin, their relationships, and the all-consuming many-sided nature of empire:

I'm really fascinated by Griffin and Robin's similarities to Lovell and their reactions to it: that they are polar opposites both narratively and in their roles and relationships, that Lovell is a simple villain and a clear evil while Robin and Griffin are victims of his actions, but that none of them can escape the fact that being raised by him has horribly imprinted onto them traces of Lovell as well. Griffin taking his last name and defiantly giving name to what Lovell refuses to acknowledge, Robin getting mistaken for Lovell by his son, all the places where Griffin is mentioned to be similar, and most of all the fact that Lovell himself is the one most discomforted by the similarity. Lovell both intentionally makes them in his image for the sake of convenience but also avoids it, because his ability to use them as tools hinges heavily on his complete dehumanization of them based on race, the similarities reveal something he isn't ready to confront. It reminds me of the concept of 'total empire' according to 'Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism', where colonization is as defining for the colonizer as it is for the colonized, and the colonizer brutally enforcing their will on the colonized has the flip side of the colonizer becoming changed by their own consumption of the goods of the colonized, goods projected onto the racialized bodies of the colonized, making their own identities through what they've taken. Babel brings that up over and over very blatantly through comments on how the British define themselves with foreign goods, but Lovell and the tension in his similarity and relationship to Griffin and Robin read like a sort of microcosm of that as well. He cannot acknowledge what he's imparted onto them because it would say something about himself that he can't accept. On the other hand, Robin doesn't directly confront his own connections and similarities with Lovell for most of the book, but Griffin does, he's the only one out of the three of them who forces it into the open. It's very telling that the beginning of the end (of Lovell) is tied to Robin doing the same, forcing their connection into the open and making Lovell look it in the eyes. I think there's something so compelling about Robin-Griffin-Lovell and their relationships, a multifaceted dynamic that tends to get glossed over for painful reasons I can understand, but one that nonetheless has a lot to say about the themes of the book, presented a little more subtly.

#babel #babel an arcane history #meta #robin swift #griffin lovell #griffin harley #richard lovell #figures there's no tag for him lmao #tia rambles

161 notes · View notes

barblaz-arts · 9 months

Note

Am I right about you having an AU about Wednesday Addams as an adult having to werewolf kids and one is called Vega?

Because that idea is very interesting because you know we always get to see her as teen so seeing her in her probably mid-30s is very refreshing and something new.

So I really like your comics😁

My OC Vega is an only child. You may be thinking about Lovell and Arson who are Wenclair OC's of @enidtendo64 . They have a third kid there named Persephone, but I believe she's a psychic. Love their AU You should check out their blog for more content about those kids

If you wanna know more about my AU too tho you can just check out the #next gen nevermore AU tag

#asks

52 notes · View notes

aromantic-diaries · 5 months

Note

so, im both aro and ace (despite the amount of sex jokes and calling people hot, still asexual)

well, this is a long story, sorry in advance

so, im talking to this friend (A) here, he says something that is sooo aro-coded, and im like "this guy is probably aro-spec too and maybe he doesnt know so lets help a little" and i tell him to read loveles because 'the main character is very relatable', he ends up with him knowing about aro identities, he questioned his own sexuality before and he isnt aro, but with the 'very relatable' part i sold myself out as aro, and he wasnt arophobic (he literally said he almost used the label so) so it was okay

fast forward a year , we are talking, sexuality ends up as a topic, and i confess i didnt come up to anyone, the only people who knew were him and another friend who found out by accident (really supportive, even though im not sure that i was ready), he ask about this other friend of ours (B) and why i didnt come out to her, considering she is queer herself. i think im not ready to do that, both times i came out were not intentional and though it didnt end up badly still, not ready, also, my relationship with this friend is, well we mostly talk about gossip and all of her crushes, boyfriends, etc., basically it was purely sexual acts and romance, not my favourite topic of conversation but i we dont have anything in common outside shared memories (childhood besties) and school and we are both pretty unpopular so no more people) plus we never talk deep shit so i felt weird bring it up

few days later, the three of us were in class and talking about our teachers (and shipping them cause we are nosy), we get to his teacher and i say that i couldnt picture her with an special other and A says "like asexual, you mean", (it was more like aro but i didnt feel like explaining the difference plus i was panicking a little because i knew where this was going) and A countinues "B, what do you think of asexual people?", B says something in support, and then he asks me "[my name] do you know any asexual people in real life?" with a look on his face saying 'come out', i kinda evade the question so he asks B if she knew any, and B answers she had the theory that i was ace (i mean, she was right). i didnt know what to do so i made a joke "was it so obvious?"

i dont think i was ready to come out to her and i didnt want it to happen, but the conversation didnt end up bad, she was supportive but still i wasnt ready. i dont think it counts as getting outed because he just forced the conversation that way but didnt really say "[my name] is aroace", but i dont know of B hadnt mentioned her theory, would he had outed me?

i dont know how to feel, im basically venting, maybe do you have any advice for this situation?

I really don't think anyone should make you come out if you don't want to do it and it's supposed to be your choice so this sounds like something you should really talk about with friend A and explain to him that you didn't want to come out yet and that this wasn't okay. It is lucky that friend B was supportive though because this type of situation is even messier when the other person is not supportive. But even so it's still a gamble because most of the time you can't predict how someone will react and it's better to not take the risk of coming out to someone, let alone put someone else at risk. I hope you can talk this through with friend A

#anon #mail time

21 notes · View notes

spritecranverry · 5 days

Text

(Spoilers for 'Babel' if u haven't read it yet and don't want those)

Hi I'm re-reading this book after my physical copy got delivered and I'm here to argue that Robin's fate is sealed the moment he chooses his name:

When Robin's mother dies, she says his name - his real name - one last time. It's only two syllables, but he'll never hear it again; Professor Lovell decides it's not worth keeping because the English tongue wouldn't be able to pronounce it. It's in this portion of the book that Kuang establishes one of the first instances of language as a means of wielding power: namely, the power to erase.

Even further, the scene where Robin chooses his 'English' name encapsulates his relationship to his identity for the rest of the book: he is simultaneously disconnected (or "un-anchored", as Kuang puts it on page 15) from his culture and 'othered' by it while living in English society, no matter how hard he tries to assimilate. Lovell makes Robin drop his own family's surname on page 12 (which we also never learn), effectively cutting him off from ever re-tracing his own ancestry and lineage. I think it's interesting to note that part of why Lovell doesn't value Robin's surname is because to the English, a name that isn't linked to status and capital is worthless.

What's even more interesting, though, is that Lovell doesn't let Robin take his last name, even after Robin realizes that he's his biological father. Instead, he forces Robin to choose a random English name. He tells him on page 10 that he has no family, and that his father is "unknown". Lovell wants Robin to remove all markers of his Asian identity from his name while simultaneously never claiming his son as his own despite his dependency on him.

This effectively places Robin in this odd liminal space where he is only allowed to participate in English society conditionally, but he also doesn't have the option to ever return to Canton because he no longer has the ability to fully reconnect there. His identity as a result morphs into this ambiguous thing that is constantly in flux relative to how white society perceives him. The choice to make him literally half white and half Asian as opposed to a fully Chinese man trying to assimilate makes this especially poignant; at no point does he have the ability to opt out of this constant state of limbo that the construct of racial identity puts him in. Robin - and perhaps Kuang did this intentionally - exists during a time when diasporic and mixed identities are still being formed and conceptualized, which means he wouldn't have much access to communities of people in similar situations. With the exception of Griffin, he's basically alone here.

It's during the scene where Robin first sets off on that ship to England that I'm reminded of what happened to the identity of enslaved Africans once they got through the Middle Passage: they and their descendants would never be able to fully re-integrate into their cultures of origin, but would also be permanently 'other' in the eyes of American society, relegating them to a constant state of place-lessness. An un-anchoring, if you will. (Obviously these are not the same, but a similar thing is happening in terms of cultural belonging and as an African American this is what came to mind. Please don't jump me 🤚🏾)

Let's circle back to the footnote on page 11 that quotes the book Robin took his name from: "I killed Cock Robin. Who saw him die?"

For the entirety of 'Babel', we see Robin struggle for the rest of his short life against the implications of his name and the circumstances that led to him choosing it, and none of it of his own volition. I think the most tragic part of Robin's story is that Lovell decided what he was supposed to be long before the book even begins. Robin's decision, then, to stray from that path renders him with (at least in his eyes) no other viable way to exist in this world in the state his father has left him in. Once he decides to stop participating in the imperialist machine, neither England nor Canton (which he has no way to return to after killing his father) has a place for him.

Long before he makes that final decision at the end of the book, Lovell subjects Robin to what I think can be interpreted as its own kind of death. He's become a ship permanently lost at sea with nothing left to anchor him and with no destination in sight. The other characters never really seem to fully understand the extent of the loss he has experienced because he is the only character other than Griffin who has been 'un-anchored' in such a specific way. Re-reading the book knowing what his fate will be, then, makes the rest of the story feel like a very slow, winding, and complicated march towards death.

TL; DR: Robin's been dead since the very beginning of 'Babel'. In fact, he's dead the very moment he becomes 'Robin', and Lovell killed him. But who saw him die?

#blabbering #long post #babel an arcane history #babel rf kuang #babel or the necessity of violence #the footnotes are themselves a part of the story if you really think about it #bookblr

10 notes · View notes

milkssshake · 6 months

Text

Just started Babel I think I’ll document my experience on here bc I’m really liking it so far.

I wanna know Robin Swifts real name so bad. Also professor Lovell rlly impregnated a Chinese woman and dipped but then came back for him after? Assuming Robin is his child it’s being heavily implied.

#books #babel

17 notes · View notes

thetypedwriter · 11 months

Text

Babel Book Review

Babel Book Review by R.F. Kuang

This book was so incredibly impressive in multiple ways. I was blown away by Kuang’s sheer amount of research in terms of history, etymology, linguistics, and sociology. There were so many aspects of this novel that required her to dig deeper into subjects and Babel is an incredible display of her hard work and effort (and PHD’s).

Babel tells the story of a young boy who is taken from his home in Canton and trained by Professor Lovell in England. Given a new name, Robin Swift, the best tutors, and a strict schedule that dominates his childhood, Robin is forced to forget his home and dead family in order to assimilate into White British society, a society that sees him as foreign and less than human, even as they rely on his Cantonese in order to power their city.

Blending realistic, brutal history of the British empire—bloody politics and colonialism included—with the magical element of silver bars and silver-working, Kuang creates a beautiful blend of accuracy and the fantastic. In this world she’s created, silver working is birthed through what is lost in translation, requiring different languages and people who deeply understand it.

The effects of this translation are magical bars that can be imbued with a variety of purposes like making carts go faster, ships sail smoother, and teapots stay hot—only if you can afford it, of course.

Robin’s childhood is stained with memories of Professor Lovell’s cold shoulder, violent temper, and reticence to admit that Robin is actually his son. With Lovell looming over him, Robin is relieved when he’s old enough to attend Oxford as a Babbler, a revered translator.

A good portion of the book details Robin’s stay at Oxford, including his studies with his other cohort members: Ramy, Victoire, and Letty.

I could argue that this section was a bit long, where we have chapters upon chapters of Robin attending classes, dreaded school functions, mundane translation work, or spending time with one of his friends but overall, I enjoyed it.

This is where Kuang focuses a lot of energy and pages to linguistics, building her world and magic system of silver bars, and developing the relationships between Robin and the others. These chapters are also steeped in history, with several of them almost coming across like a textbook.

Again, if this sounds boring, it wasn’t. I found the historical recounting of the British empire a fascinating subject when used in conjunction with the silver bars and Robin’s eventual epiphany of his own situation and latent childhood cruelty.

Some much needed spice came in the form of Griffin and the Hermes Society. Griffin, it turns out, is Robin’s half-older brother and also an unnamed heir of Professor Lovell.

He is a part of a rebel organization whose purpose is to destroy Babel, stop the pillaging of other languages for Britain’s greed and pleasure, and eventually, to change the course of history by dismantling war plans between China and England.

I could go on and on by summarizing the rest of the book (which would contain massive spoilers), but the ending focuses on Robin and his friends going to Canton themselves, witnessing the British trying to get the Chinese addicted to opium, a harsh death that leads Robin and his cohort to join the Hermes society, and then a fight against the empire itself as Robin and his rag-tag survivors destroy Babel within in order to bring Britain to its knees and leave Canton alone for good.

The plot of this book itself was solid. I don’t say fantastic because there was never at any point where I was truly shocked or blown away by a surprise twist or revelation. The characters you think will die, do die, and the characters that seem suspicious of betrayal, do in fact betray others.

This would be a criticism of obvious expectations, but I don’t think astonishing was what Kuang was going for. I think she was going for more of a streamlined story in which, yes, the white girl does feel slighted and must take action in order to save herself.

I did like the occasional separate POV’s that would explain a character’s backstory and motivation, but in general, Kuang was trying to tell a realistic story and she did, including adding historical footnotes, remarks on translation, and word definitions that I found fascinating, if a bit obtuse.

Setting wise, Oxford was brilliant. You can tell that Kuang is half in love with Oxford, which makes for very pleasurable reading. As I studied abroad there myself, it was very nostalgic and lovely to read about its cobblestone streets and spires glinting in the moonlight.

My biggest gripe with the book are its characters. They’re not bad, not by any stretch of

the imagination, but none of them felt very fleshed out either. The only character I found myself really understanding and relating to was Robin, as we spend the entire book in his head. I found Robin to be a sweet, tortured soul who took us on a riveting journey of self-discovery and eventual, brutal revolution.

All the remaining characters in the book were fine, but I never felt like I knew them on any grounds. It annoyed me when Kuang would have a paragraph or two every other chapter discussing how much Robin loved his cohort members and list off random things about them, like how Victoire preferred her tea or how Ramy acted in the morning. These idiosyncrasies should have been shown to me, not told.

The book would have been at least a third longer if Kuang had truly tried to develop the characters naturally in a way where their connections felt believable and organic, so I understand why she didn’t, but it comes at the cost of having shallow characters with little depth and minimal attachments to the reader. When several characters died, I didn’t bat an eye.

I teared up slightly when Robin was miserable in prison, but the deaths of others? Not a blink.

While I understand that Kuang’s focus was more on the history, sociology, and linguistics, as I mentioned at the beginning of this review, by shafting the characters, it does make this a good book rather than an exceptional one.

For me, a very character-driven reader, no matter how stunning the research and backdrop of your novel, if you don’t have strong characters to pull the reader through, it will never amount to a book I would consider great.

However, that being said, I really enjoyed this book for what it was and the information it contained, even though we never learned Robin Swift’s real name. It was a very different read than the novels I’ve been ingesting lately, coming across as refreshing and informative.

I really enjoyed the book, despite not having attachments to characters, because of all that I learned and the lens of history it offered.

Recommendation: If you like history, revolution, languages, and magic, this is your book. If you wanted a different perspective on the fall of the British empire mixed in with fantastical silver bars, you will find nothing more polished or better explained than Babel. If history bores you, the world and characters will not be enough to pull you through to the end. But as a lover of history and different perspectives, I bolted down Babel and cherished how much I learned in the process.

“Language was always the companion of the empire, and as such, together they begin, grow, and flourish. And later, together, they fall.” —Antonio De Nebrija

Score: 7/10

#babel #rf kuang #oxford #translation #linguistics #historical fiction #book blog #book #book review #favorite books #books #Book Recommendations #book rec #book recs #Popular Books #popular fiction #book analysis #Book Aesthetic #7/10

33 notes · View notes

melziss · 2 months

Text

thought I'd make a little ✨️about me✨️ post for ya'll.

so this is me (if you care)

name: mel

age: 19 (scorpio bby)

pronouns: she/her

sexuality: bi (but less and less everyday honestly)

country: brazil 🇧🇷

I'll mostly talk about how gay i am for women, how beautiful women are, and how women are the best thing to exist

I'm also a fucker for incorrect quotes, so you'll find a lot of them in here cause they're easy to do.

ships (aka my ao3 favorited tags): clexa, calzona, marina, supercorp, ronance, skimmons, avatrice, vauseman, lottienat, jackieshauna, taivan, limoreau, avalance, wenclair, bishova, kacy.

now to the good stuff: the fandoms (under the read more, cause i got too excited)

[i won't necessarily post about them, but they might pop up here and there]

music: maya hawke, gracie abrams, conan gray, boygenius, muna, reneé rapp, taylor swift, harry styles and lorde.

tv shows and movies:

• current (might pop up more): ncis hawai'i, ncis sydney, legends of tomorrow, wynonna earp, supergirl, madame web.

• favorites (will pop up a lot and then never be talked about for months): yellowjackets, warrior nun, motherland fort salem, scream, agents of shield, station 19, grey's anatomy, hawkeye, orange is the new black criminal minds, percy jackson, bottoms, stranger things.

• supernatural/post apocaliptical stuff i watched when i was 12 and are now camp to me (I'll talk abt it if you want me too): teen wolf, the vampire diaries, the 100, twilight, wolfblood, the originals, pretty little liars, buffy the vampire slayer.

other random stuff im into: all things mcu, movie commentaries, and long ass deep dives [mike's mic, ur internet mom ash, dylan is in trouble, trin lovell, uncarley], the sims 4, reading fanfiction, art, interviews and press, arrowverse, podcasts, movies directed and produced by women, sapphic media, reading, architectural digest, collecting popcorn buckets, jenna ortega, milo manhein, matthew gray gubler, motherhood, found family trope, fashion and cats.

that's all folks, some other random shit might pop up eventually but im a pretty chill person...feel free to recommend me stuff you think I'll like based on all of the shit i wrote above.

#about me #melziss #why did i even write this #i put arrowverse in there but I've watched everything but arrow #and batwoman

7 notes · View notes

vanguard-if · 3 months

Note

how did u go abt naming characters if u dont mind me asking!! love asking this for ifs i think it’s interesting. esp w emilio and nia did u decide on their last name first or not?

LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS QUESTION PREPARE FOR MAJOR YAP!!!!

SO. so. in general, i actually revamped a bunch of really old ocs and turned them into a newer version of themselves. i did this for Vera, Kiera, Cirrus, and Vio.

Vera's "original name" was Avianna...i just kind of screwed around with it until i landed on Vera. i like reworking old ocs instead of leaving them in the dust...so here we are! fun fact, Vera chose her name. it's her bounty hunting alias.

genuinely don't ask how i came up with the old names for Vio and Kiera...i was like maybe 11 or 12. i think i used google translate with a bunch of languages until i thought i found a cool name. Vio's was Hvezda (think it's Czech) and Kiera's was Folkier. the old characters were actually pretty similar to Vio and Kiera, looks-wise.

Cirrus is one that's a mystery to me because i CANT REMEMBER THEIR OLD VERSION'S NAME OH MY GOD it's actually pissing me off soooo bad. know it was something long winded and started with an o.... maybe had an x somewhere in there. they remained the same, more or less. he's always had a sky/cloud/ethereal being theme.

Charles? legit just stole his name from an abandoned OC named exactly that. except now he's a cunty elf with blonde hair.

um okay so onto Emilio and Nia. they're completely new characters, so i was starting from scratch with them. i wanted to start off with their ethnicities (if they were people in our world). the two of them would be Latinx and Indian. their first names don't really reflect this (except for Emilio's kinda). as for their last names...teehee.

Lovell aren't the twins' given last names. it'll be brought up really soon, by the twins, that the King and Queen of the North aren't their biological parents. this is also just well-known, but no one makes a huge deal out of it, since that's just a bizarre thing to do. and also rude. their parents basically told them to change their last names, since they're supposed to assimilate to the royal family and title. would also like to mention the King and Queen are white...make of this as you will.

my god!! jaye is yapperdoodling again!! thanks for this ask!

#emilio vanguard #vera vanguard #nia vanguard #vio vanguard #cirrus vanguard #charles vanguard #vanguard if #twine interactive fiction #ask #if wip #twine game

17 notes · View notes

mocolococoffeesimp · 5 months

Text

General oc info in this post. (Trying to do "wiki" style for this.)

Name: Candi.

Candi and Zoe reacting to a cockroach in the house.

Candi and Zoe intro dialog with certain characters.

Theme: Give me the night, Artist Des Rhocs. (Imo, fits Candi well as a character who just wants to have fun.)

Alias: Troublemaker, Greedy twink.

Race: Human.

Gender: Male. (Is gender-nonconforming.)

Age: 26.

Height: 167cm/5'5.

Weight: 64kg/138lbs.

Blood type: O.

Origin: Unknown.

Birthday: January 15.

Eye color: Hazel.

Hobbies: Watching movies/shows, playing games, reading comics, pick-pocketing, lock-picking, jogging.

Likes: Sodas, jokes, puns, movies, arcades and money.

Dislikes: Stoic people, getting caught, boring movies, spicy foods.

Occupation: Thief, information gatherer.

Weapon: Bare fists and boots.

Voice claim. (I am extremely uncreative with my voice claim choices, I am aware of it.)

English: Faye Mata/ Erika Harlacher.

Japanese: Ayumu Murase.

Story.

Background.

Wherever Candi goes trouble follows him. More often than not, it is because of his own actions. He performs on the streets, while he is looking for the next loot. As much as he loves money, he also respects anything worth of value. No job is too small or big for him, for the right price.

Fun loving and chill Candi is no stranger to heated situations. There are times, when he has two options: Run or talk his way out. If, neither of those work, he will throw punches. His fighting relies mostly on evading and trying to make his opponent making a mistake. After a gig gone wrong, he spent some more time as a street performer, still emptying occasional pockets. This habit of poking his nose, where it didn't belong has gotten him to the bad side of Conclave. As he has stolen and sold off their property.

Name:Zoe.

Zoe with s/o who has rough/calloused hands.

Candi and Zoe reacting to a cockroach in the house.

Candi and Zoe intro dialog with certain characters.

Zoe with a photographer s/o+ going to movies with Candi.

Theme: Go!, artist Santigold.

Alias: Ice princess, Duchess.

Race: Human.

Gender: Woman.

Age: 30. (Will tell you, she's 24.)

Height: 170cm/5'6. (175cm with heels.)

Weight: Private information.

Blood type: B+

Origin: Unknown.

Birthday: March 8.

Eyecolor: Yellow/Orangish.

Hobbies: Doing nail art, cutting and styling gems, shopping.

Likes: Nail art, gems, fashion, spas, wine, beautiful things.

Dislikes: Dirt, unfashionable people, people not treating her with respect.

Occupation: Royalty and gemonologist.

Weapon: Magic, gems she summons. (Fan is aesthetic choice.)

Voice claim: Vella Lovell.

Story.

Background.

Born into royalty, Zoe is prideful woman of her status and looks. Wherever she goes, she does so with style. Her being born into royalty wasn't only thing she gained right off. She was born with the power of gem manipulation. Her parents used her powers, as ways to find gem-sites and dig them. When Zoe was old enough keep the business going herself, she had already mastered her powers. Not only could she sense them, she could manipulate them and summon them.

Zoe is a prideful and powerful woman. As her status as a royal and somewhat intimidating woman, she has gotten a status of a ice queen, which is quite true. Zoe won't trust people easily, always thinking what others might gain from her royalty status.

Zoe was roped into assisting Ky, for one of his missions as it had something to do with gems and her business. This eventually led to her being the first person, called whenever there is something gem related. Which, she is happy to do. But, often times that means fighting and getting her clothes for the day dirty. Much, to her dismay.

#guilty gear #guilty gear oc #guilty gear strive #ggst

8 notes · View notes

sunsetkerr · 2 months

Note

Hi there! I got a question:

I've seen a few things with the whole Sam situation and, honestly, I've got no idea what's happening. Would you mind explaining it, because I feel so stupid not knowing anything about what's happening💀

hi love! I am probably not the best person to explain this whole thing, but I will try to the best of my ability! I've broken this up into sections so my brain can compute it all lol.

this is a long post.. so strap in!

(I'm also going to reference this shit so people don't get upset with me)

The Incident / The Accusing / PC Lovell

So January 30th 2023, there is a dispute around a taxi-fare in Twickenham, South-West London. Sam was accused by the attending officer of "[using] insulting, threatening or abusive words that caused alarm or distress to a Metropolitan Police officer who was responding to a complaint involving a taxi fare".

There is zero mention of the case until yesterday (5th of March, in Australia).

We are now aware that the attending officer who accused Sam has been identified in court as, PC Lovell.

(Now, @moonystoes posted a lot of information here, if you would like to read it- and that is where I am getting this next lot of information from.)

There is an officer named PC Lovell, who we will now refer to with the number 1 for clarity, that has been accused, and I believe convicted, of some horrid things in Avon and Somerset (2 hours and 33 minutes away from where the alleged incident occurred).

These incidents include, posting revenge p*rn of three different women, sending unsolicited nude photos to a number of his female colleagues and acted in a described 'predatory' manner towards a cadet who was a minor at the time. He has been given both verbal and written warnings in 2006 and 2016 for his actions.

However, an anonymous person came forwards and communicated with @moonystoes that there is a PC Lovell (2) that works in Surrey (20 minutes away from where the alleged incident occurred), and another PC Lovell (3) that lives in Reading (50 minutes away from where the alleged incident occurred).

!There is no knowledge on if these officers are the same person!

So please, do not jump to conclusions as people do not want to be dismissing the claims on an innocent man.

There is lots of speculation that if it is PC Lovell (1) from Avon & Somerset, that the claims and allegations against Sam could hold little validity, due to his past.

But please remember, we are not aware of the full story and these allegations against Sam are serious and not to be taken lightly. Racism is a serious issue and is not okay. Please take caution when approaching this issue and be kind.

The Case / The Law / Potential Imprisonment / Comments from Football Australia and her Coaches

Sam's teams original defence has been reported as this: "she didn’t intend to cause alarm, harassment or distress to the officer and that her behaviour did not amount to it and it was not racially aggravated".

If Sam is convicted, these are the laws that will be applied: "Under Section 4 or 4a of the Public Order Act 1986, under which she was charged, the racially or religiously aggravated version of an offence can attract a maximum penalty on summary conviction, which is six months imprisonment or an unlimited fine or both."

Football Australia and Matildas Coach, Tony Gustavsson have only just found out about the news at the same time that the public did. There has been talk about stripping Sam of her captaincy, but this has not come from Football Australia themselves, they have denied it.

Football Australia CEO, James Johnson, has communicated that he will not be asking Sam to stand down from her captaincy. This has been decided due to the fact that she (most likely) will not be playing for the remainder of the year as she recovers from her ACL injury.

Johnson also said this about Sam: "Sam has rights as an individual. She has pleaded not guilty. I think we need to remember that and we need to respect that.” // “I haven’t spoken to Sam other than a text message just to check in on her well being at the moment because she is an employee of ours and also a player.”

Tony Gustavsson had this to say: “I can’t comment on the offence because there’s a legal matter at this point. The only thing I can comment is my experience and interaction with Sam as a person and as a footballer, and I have only positive experience with that,”.

The Defence / Throwing the Case out

Moving onto the case itself, Sam's team is now fighting (as of the 6th of March, Australia) to get the case thrown out before it reaches the court date, which is February 3rd 2025.

On April 26th, Sam's defence team is going back into court and fighting to get the case thrown out after it took over 12 months to even lay the charge on Sam.

"Court documents released on Tuesday show their plan is to argue an abuse of process by Crown prosecutors after it took almost 12 months to lay the charge."

So until April, we most likely will not know anymore information. Again, please remain kind. These are not allegations to be taken lightly.

Hopefully this answered any questions that you had! The articles that I got this information from are linked below for your convenience.

Much love, celeste

Articles:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-06/sam-kerr-criminal-charge-no-comment-from-fa-chelsea/103550968

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/kerr-s-legal-team-seeks-to-have-charge-dismissed-over-abuse-of-process-20240306-p5fa5b.html

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/samantha-kerr-to-face-trial-in-england-accused-of-harassing-police-officer-report-20240305-p5f9up.html

https://www.news.com.au/sport/football/plan-to-turn-sam-kerrs-racism-saga-on-its-head-emerges/news-story/645078ee226373d13a19e84284d5958e

https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/matildas/sam-has-rights-football-aus-responds-as-matildas-coach-blindsided-by-kerr-allegation/news-story/6b1bc996c897856bb0ebd8e8f1f90038

https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/samantha-kerr-to-face-trial-in-england-accused-of-harassing-police-officer-report-20240305-p5f9up.html

#asks • . * .#sam kerr

4 notes · View notes

delunesnumberonefan · 6 months

Text

we're going to start the "love and war crash course posts" off with my greatest obsession in the campaign: the Matriarchs.

The Eldari Empire is where the bulk of the campaign is set in. it is ruled by 7 half-sisters known as the Matriarchs. Each of them has their own house/family that specializes in a different school of magic, each rule from their individual cities, they all share the same dad (who we hate). We have a complicated relationship with the matriarchs. Some of them are wonderful. Most of them are bitches. All of them have so many issues. My thought process was such upon realizing the extent of Them:

SO. obviously i am very normal about these women. these seven, powerful, morally grey, issue-having older women.

my boyfriend chase walked right into this one. he didn't see it coming, but he should've, and now here we are.

i am going to introduce each of the matriarchs under the cut. i want to thank korppipoika (linking them and not @'ing them because they don't need to see this) for drawing portraits of the matriarchs for me. I commissioned all of them so my boyfriend could have a poster of them in his room. i am the best girlfriend

so. the matriarchs.

we're going to go in order of age, starting from the oldest and the worst matriarch.

this is Adele Alnwick. her specialization is enchantment. mind control. you might be able to see where this is going.

Adele is on our shit list at the moment because we met an NPC (Badger) who was my character's (Gilt's) childhood best friend. Some shit went down, we got separated from Badger, Adele got her hands on her, and now Badger is evil mind controlled and wants to kill us.

we do not like adele.

we don't know a ton about her. Her whole thing is "house of corrections" type behavior. you go to her city of Athuum, and you either come back changed or don't come back at all. Athuum is subterranean in the mountains and also surrounded by lava.

She has one son, his name is Naite, and naite was mind controlled his whole life and escaped through the lava to get away from his mother.

if that ain't a testimony to the kind of person Adele is, i don't know what to tell you

next up is the complete opposite end of the scale: the matriarch we love the most.

Meet Freya Lovell.

the Eldari Empire (magic) has been at war with the neighboring dwarven faction (Ymir Conglomerate) (science) and the neighboring human faction (The Grand Imperium) (religion) for the past 100 or so years. House Lovell holds the line against the dwarves from the city of Thantos.

...how do i even begin to introduce Freya Lovell

she's half-giant, 10 feet tall. she is gentle. she is kind. she is a warrior woman who bonds with people (gilt) by kicking them through solid stone walls. Gilt views her as a mother figure and a mentor figure, as well as a dear friend. her specialization is abjuration magic. shielding. protection. she has a spell over her city called Heaven's Gate to make sure no dwarven projectiles hit Thantos. Thantos is shaped like a wedge or a shield. her keep is between her people and the battle line.

we met freya at a point where everything had gone to shit so hard in the campaign. we were wanted fugitives, we had no hope, no allies...and we stumbled upon a field where suddenly we couldn't use magic. and she sat in the center, and as we got closer we realized how big she was. she introduced herself, and gave us our first powerful ally, a home base, and hope besides.

i love Freya Lovell.

Freya had a human husband named Nicholas. he has since passed. Freya had two children with him. the first is her son Castien. they never really connected with each other because he was a bookish lad and Freya more readily bonded with his sister, her daughter Kalia.

about two years ago, there was a nasty battle. freya was out of commission after receiving her scars from a dwarven siege monster (think metal dragon) and so kalia and castien went out in her stead.

kalia died. castien lost his leg. after he recovered enough to realize what had happened, he ran.

...for two years freya was convinced she was the only surviving member of her family. and thanks to Gilt and Lost, we've returned her son to her. her daughter's corpse was taken by the Ymir Conglomerate and turned into an elite soldier known as "a Jack" (playing cards type hierarchy). we have defeated kalia, and are currently working on restoring her control so that freya can have her daughter back, too.

i would kill for freya lovell. we are house lovell in this household.

next up

Octavia Gilkes.

so there was an eensy lie in the above description of the matriarchs. the empire used to be ruled by seven powerful hot older half-sisters. four years ago, in a battle with the Grand Imperium, Octavia's mother Augustine Gilkes, the Illusion Matriarch, was mortally wounded. In her final moments, she activated a spell known as the Hell Wall

the hell wall would trap anyone who entered the city of Thannath in a powerful illusory reality that they couldn't escape from. for four years, anyone who entered the bounds of the city was trapped in this illusion and starved to death.

because Augustine died, the matriarch powers were passed to her only surviving child and only daughter, Octavia. for four years an 18 year old girl was trapped in a prison of her mother's making, a prison where nothing was wrong, everything was perfect, and she couldn't escape. she didn't even realize something was wrong, most of the time.

we traveled to Thannath to see if she could be an ally. through a very complicated series of events, we managed to bring the hell wall down. we found octavia ratty, dirty, emaciated, crying in the same room as her mother's corpse.

and we brought her to thantos. and on the way we were telling her outlandish stories from our adventure, stuff that the hell wall couldn't make up. stuff that would assure her that she was back in the real world. she didn't believe us until she encountered freya's curse.

all the matriarchs have curses. part of their magic. we don't know Adele's. Freya's is that no one can use magic within 100 feet, any type of magic. Octavia's is that her emotions take physical form and can get away from her, so to speak (and literally). when octavia's curse got cancelled out by freya, she collapsed into Gilt and Lost's arms, sobbing her eyes out, because she finally realized that she was truly free.

how many times had she been rescued in there? how many times had she believed she was free only to wake up back in it?

octavia is my daughter. i love her to pieces. second best matriarch.

next.

Helena Farraday.

...Helena goddamn Farraday. we don't know much about Helena.

What we do know is that Helena's curse is that she sees everything going on everywhere all the time all at once. she's the Divination matriarch, and literally Sees All. she's the surveillance state embodied in a person.

she never emotes. never smiles. never speaks above a whisper. hardly blinks. she looks like a statue most of the time

she has a loving husband named Actias Farraday who sees everything she is and sees every single weird quirk as a feature and not a bug. he loves his wife to pieces. the two of them have the most wholesome relationship in this whole damn thing. i have written smut about them.

they have four children. two are spies in the other powers. the other two are the secret police.

helena sees the future. but if she tells anyone about it, it changes. so helena is doomed to see everything that will happen to everyone everywhere all at once but cannot say a word about it.

...we have no real opinions on Helena Farraday. she's the one we know the least about. she seems chill, and i have no ill will towards her.

oh the next one is a treat

Ethalind Newmont.

where do we even fucking start with ethalind. she's the matriarch everyone thinks of when they think matriarch. she's 7 feet tall. she's on all the propaganda posters. she's the evocation specialist. literally her thing is destroying people from long range.

she's also a massive hedonist and throws elaborate orgies in the capital. she has had 9 kids with 7 different dads (2 sets of twins). she is the matriarch with the highest kid count. i know in my heart that she has a breeding kink.

i love her.

she's terrible.

her curse is that her magic literally eats her body if she uses it to destroy. her arms are just bone, but her Transmutation sister made her rings that transform her arms back to normal as long as she wears them.

the palace in the capital city of Varantha is white and gold. opulence taken to its extreme. the transmutation sister literally makes gold but ethalind has more of it. everything is white and gold, ethalind is a stickler for it

she shirked her duties, actually. she prematurely passed on the matriarch powers to her eldest son through a magic artifact and fucked off to do...whatever she does in her free time idk.

honestly i support this decision, having magic that destroys your body sucks, she's honestly a girlboss for deciding that ruling wasn't making her happy and fucking off to have fun. i love her for this

we saw her at a party once. she took 15 minutes start to finish to make her entrance and when Gilt told her that she understood the impulse to "set it down" (her responsibilities) ethalind took her out onto the veranda and bitched her out for 10 minutes straight.

she is so insane crazy. none of the matriarchs are hinged in the way they are supposed to be, but ethalind is deranged. she is unhinged. she is such a fascinating npc and i love her. can't wait to see more of her

Lorelei Omand. the transmutation sister i have talked so much about.

lorelei is another one we don't know a ton about. we don't know her curse. she's the first matriarch we met because we were passing through Mymeara and happened to rescue her youngest kid, only daughter, blatant favorite (Lola) from a kidnapping plot ordered by lorelei's youngest son, Dominic.

she turned him to gold as punishment. really horrifying implications for her entire palace being solid gold.

she has four kids, each from a different suitor that was kinda hand selected for her?? she hasn't expressed much interest in like actually pursuing someone herself, she's had people paraded in front of her and went from there.

the only issue i have with lorelei is that she shows obvious, blatant favoritism to her daughter and kinda neglects her sons. listen. freya isn't mom of the year. but lorelei is still worse. she's good with lola!! but not so much with the rest of them

lorelei is the only sister to be half-human, and also doesn't have pretty long hair like the rest of her sisters. she's insecure about it :(

and. hoo boy. oug h. here we go. last one

Saskia Valentine.

she's enemy #2, after Adele. She's my girlfriend's character (lost)'s mom. if ethalind is nuts, saskia is batshit.

saskia killed her nephew (ethalind's youngest) on a live zoom call. saskia fucks otherworldly entities to have kids that she uses as war machines. saskia is the conjuration specialist, and spends 10 years prepping for the fuck of the decade so that she can have another war machine baby. she has 7 kids, 6 horrendously powerful sons and Lost :) 6 different dads, Lost and her eldest brother share the same demon/force from before creation dad in a neat bookending of the bunch

saskia resides in Altensar. nobody knows what in the goddamn hell is going on in altensar. saskia doesn't like sharing, and people tend to not come back if they go up there. she's terrifying.

whenever chase does her voice, i am overcome with murderous rage. i hate her so much every time i listen to her talk. however, she is so incredibly sexy and i want her to step on me. you know? she inspires so many contradictions, and i don't understand how she does it.

lost is something called a "seraph" which we have heard briefly mentioned by a hologram of the matriarch's mutual dad, Adamwyn. we don't like grandpa. im not convinced that grandpa isn't in saskia's basement

OH YEAH

saskia was the youngest and dear ol dad's favorite. which tracks so much to me that it makes me angry. it makes so much sense. she was spoiled rotten by her dad and doesn't even stop to think, let alone think that she might be wrong about something

i love her. she's so fascinating. i hate her. i can't believe how attractive she is. i want to strangle her. if she kissed me i would fear for my life due to my proximity. i want her to kiss me. i want to be on a different continent from this woman at all times. do not let her near me. but i also want to play with her hair and listen to her talk about her evil plans.

she inspires so many conflicting emotions. i don't understand. im in love with her. i hate her. i think she's sexy. she makes me so irrationally angry.

look at them. bitches (affectionate) (derogatory) (conflicted) (confused) (aroused)

and that has been the Matriarchs! they have...so many issues

everyone thank my boyfriend chase for making such unhinged sexy women. everyone say thank you right fucking now

#roselyn talks #love and war #saskia tag #chase tag #gilt tag #long post #IM SORRY I DON'T THINK THE CUT WORKED #;-;#the matriarch tag #freya tag #ethalind tag #lorelei tag #octavia tag #helena tag #adele tag #just adding tags because now that i've broken the damn i WILL be talking about these terrible women

11 notes · View notes