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sergeantnex · 3 months

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Zombie!Ghost x Reader: Relearning (Smut)

When I had been called in to work with Ghost, I knew it wasn't good. He had gotten bitten trying to save people. What was his higher-ups response to this? Break his jaw and keep him confined until a cure could be found. I knew this was going to require a lot of time and patience, fixing his broken jaw and figuring out how sentient he was. Most zombies were mindless and out of control, but Ghost... Ghost seemed aware and scared. So I made it my goal to be the only person he had contact with until he was better than the way I first got to him. I knew what I was doing was working because there were signs. His graying cold skin started to gain color and a bit of warmth. His pale blue cloudy eyes began regaining their brown. Each progression was little, but I noticed them and made sure to take pictures of him every day, marking and labeling the pictures.

Ghost seemed nervous, for lack of a better word, when it came to relearning to eat and drink. So I took the lead, showing him and letting him touch me as I did. Before I gently aided him in eating and drinking, making sure to reassure him that it would take time and that I would still be here to help him. Most days were like that, helping him readjust to simple things, but one big thing remained that I felt needed to be done. Bathing him. He still smelled of blood and death, the dried blood and filth still clinging to his skin and clothing. So I went into his old room, gathered up a pair of underwear, sweatpants, and a shirt. They were clean compared to the ruined gear and uniform he was still wearing. I grabbed a soft wash cloth and gentle body wash, shampoo, and conditioner. Once it was all set up in the private bathroom, I went to enter Ghost's room. His pale brown eyes looked up at me as I stepped in. My (h/l) (h/c) softly pulled away from my face and my (e/c) eyes locking with his.

"I've got something different planned today, okay?" I said softly, watching as Ghost tilted his head curiously.

"I wanna give you a shower, help clean away some of the dried blood and grime. Don't worry, I'll be right there, okay?" I reassured him softly as I offered my hand. Ghost was slow in taking my hand before letting me lead him to the private bathroom. I took the time to slowly remove his ruined gear, setting it all in the corner before softly speaking to him.

"I need to remove your mask, okay? I made sure to grab one of your clean balaclavas from your room." He shook his head at my words and stepped back. It broke my heart. He already felt safe with his mask before he was turned, but having people you trust break your jaw and say such crude things probably made him feel even more nervous to take it off.

"Hey, Simon, it's just me with you. There are no cameras, no one else but you and I. It's okay... you're safe with me." I reassured softly as I gently took his hand and gently touched it to my heart. It was small, but the action told him I was honest. I did it to show him I was honest. Every time I said something like that, I touched his hand to my heart. He was slow to give in, but eventually, he let me pull the ruined mask off. I gently sat it on the sink counter before gently working on his ruined clothes. I made sure to set them all aside before I turned to start the water. I kept it a bit lower than room temp to make sure it wasn't too hot or too cold. I looked back at him and softly turned the water so it wouldn't hit his skin directly.

"Okay, big guy, let's get you cleaned up, okay?" I asked with a small loving smile. Ghost gently tugged my shirt before looking at his ruined clothes. It took me a minute to understand what he was asking, but after a bit, it clicked. He wanted me to join him, to guide him like I had been doing for everything else. Smiling, I gently stripped my clothes before softly leading him to the large walk-in shower. The water was a bit colder than my normal temperature, so it was a bit of a shock when I touched it with my arm. Ghost, ever the vigilant one, noticed my shuttered breath and tilted his head.

"I made sure it was perfect for you, so it's a bit cooler than my body's temperature. Don't worry, it's okay, see?" I gently stepped my body under the water to show him I didn't mind too much. Ghost stepped forward and tugged me close to him as though he wanted to keep me warm. I smiled softly and took the time to gently wet the wash cloth and softly wipe his face. I smiled more at the sight of how much he had actually healed. Of course, there was scaring, but there was no longer decaying flesh. I softly wet his dirty blonde hair, taking special care to not pull his hair. All in all, my heart warmed at the progression of his healing. Sticking to our usual form of relearning, I washed myself first before washing him. I started with his hair and face before moving down his neck and chest. With each rinse of the blood and grime, he looked more and more human again.

I gently moved lower as I washed him, kneeling to wash his waist. I did my best not to stare or let my hand linger when I gently began washing his dick. I gently held his length and balls as I continued my work of washing him up. My mind wondered as I absent-mindedly washed his legs. Could he still get hard? Could he still feel desires or needs? Or would that take longer and more healing? I stood to rinse the cloth and ready more soap but froze as Ghost leaned his chin on my shoulder. I softly reached back and gently carded my fingers through his wet hair. I jumped as his hand softly cupped my vulva, his middle finger slipping between my labia majora. I let out a shuttering breath as his middle finger gently pressed against my entrance.

"Ghost -" I started but stopped at the feeling of his hardening dick touching me. I glanced up at him to see his pale brown eyes watching me. "Ghost, do you know what you're doing right now?"

Ghost nodded softly, a low, rumbling purr bubbling up from his throat. I wouldn't lie. It had been years since I've had such intimacy or contact like this. I whined softly when he pulled back a bit before pressing me to bend over. Following his instructions, I bent at the hips, letting him do as he pleased. I gasped at the coolness of his tongue, lapping at my outer lips. His slightly rough tongue reminded me that Ghost wasn't fully human. He still very much could kill me, bite me, and turn me as well. But as quickly as the anxiety rose, it washed away. Ghost pressed his tongue between my labia majora, letting it rub at my clit before trailing to my entrance. His saliva was shockingly warm as it created a contrast to his cool skin. Whining I reached a hand to hold Ghost's rough hand gently squeezing as he ate me out like a starved man.

Ghost stood, his erect dick rubbing against me as he pressed his hips forward. My mind foggy with arousal and my body aching to be fucked, I moved to help him. I softly pressed the tip to my opening and let him press his hips forward again. His thick shaft stretched my walls beautifully, each inch making me feel fuller and fuller. I moaned out as he finally bottomed out, his hips flush against mine. His rough, firm hands gripped my hips as he pulled out before thrusting forward. I gasped loudly and moaned out at the rough pace he was setting instantly. His grip was firm enough to bruise as he kept thrusting into me quickly. I brought my arms up to brace on the wall as I soaked up each time he bottomed out. Ghost brought one hand up to grip the back of my neck as he pinned me to the wall. Growls and groans leaving him as he fucked me so deeply.

Each thrust filled me so perfectly as his balls slapped my clit just enough to add extra stimulation. I could feel my muscles quivering and tensing as my orgasm approached. His tip kissing my cervix each time he sank all the way in. Ghost leaned in mouthing at my shoulder like he was going to bite me. I knew I should've been alarmed, but I my mind was too foggy with the need to cum that it blew caution to the wind. His hot drool gently trailed down my body only to get rinsed away by the water. His disfigured hand covered my mouth a bit as I grew louder with each thrust. My knees began shaking as my walls pulsed around his shaft. I mewled out loudly, the sound muffled by his hand as I began cumming. My hand desperately grasped at his arm as euphoria flooded my body and mind.

A heavy growl filled my muffled hearing as Ghost also began spilling his seed inside me. The fluid was hot as it squirted deep inside me, some of it seeping out past his thick shaft and began running down my legs. My body felt so tired and yet so satisfied as Ghost pulled away. I could feel his eyes take in the sight of the mess he made of me before a pleased rumble filled the quiet. I felt oddly content and relaxed at what happened. It took me a few minutes to regain my strength before I turned the water off and exited the shower. Ghost following closely behind, I took time to grab his towel and dry him off before helping him get dressed. Once I fixed his mask, I began drying and dressing myself. Ghost's cool fingers softly scooped his leaking seed before lifting it to my lips. Without hesitation, I licked his cum off his finger drawing another pleased rumble from him.

"This better not mess with my body, mister." I lightly scold him. Ghost merely rumbled and held me close a bit. I smiled and led him back to his room before laying on his bed with a soft sigh as my legs felt weak from him fucking me in the shower. Ghost climbed next to me, where he softly held me close. A sense of safety and warmth washed over me, letting my tired body subconsciously lure me to sleep. I knew no one, and nothing could touch me as long as I had Ghost with me. No matter if he was human or not, I knew I was safe with him.

"I love you, Simon..." I whispered as I fought to keep my eyes open. My mind drifted between reality and the dream world as I fought to stay awake. His cool hand gently moved to play with my hair as he watched me.

"Love... you..." His words were deeper and more gravelly, more so than his usual. Smiling sleepily, I snuggled closer to him, letting my body give in to tiredness.

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thegoldenappleofdiscord · 7 months

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hit me with your best will solace hcs please, i can take it

will solace headcanons or something

gonna be real honest i forgot half of my headcanons and i'll probably remember them the minute i post this but:

healing and hymns: i don't think the healing process in chb is specified beyond "ambrosia and nectar," but i think a combination of powerful voice (stentorian) + correct hymn + natural talent = higher chances of healing success; i don't think will has a voice that's very pleasant to listen to. i think he can carry a tune, sure, but he isn't someone you want to listen to for extended periods of time. the thing i think makes him such a good healer is his strong voice - he's able to keep singing at a steady pace with consistency. he can heal his siblings of small bruises and paper cuts through a single song, but you won't catch him leading a campfire. [i thought way too long about how hymns work in the infirmary for my fic jdsjgfdg]

texan will: i've seen a lot of headcanons revolving around texan will that have always been a little odd to me, seeing as i'm texan and half of these hcs are just blatant stereotypes lmao. i think i even once saw someone say that because he's from the south he can't be a vegetarian, which is pretty absurd (coming as someone who fasts.) honestly the only one for this i can think of is that he uses "ya'll" constantly. also occasionally indulges in fried food, because fried chicken slaps (none of that fried oreo/snickers bs. miss me with that will would NOT go near that stuff.)

assorted appearance headcanons:

he has freckles all over him! apparently he doesn't have them canonically and we all just. collectively decided that he did, and i love that.

likes pockets. anything with pockets. also, flip flops, crocs, basically any open-toed shoes. sometimes he'll just go barefoot, because why not. i also think he wears a lot of bracelets - things made by his younger siblings (some alive, some not.) they're his version of camp beads.

from here i give up on categorizing my hcs:

gets more irritated during winter/fall months

tea person

the type of person to belt out songs when he thinks nobody is watching

is actually rather chill during shadow travel, and doesn't get nauseated because he's done it with nico so often

lets the cocoa puffs hitch a ride on him whenever he's in the infirmary, and always has to explain who they are to new patients.

doesn't curse often but when he does it's a storm

friends with drew because i said so and also because i think he, jake, and drew have "i became a camp counselor too early" solidarity. i think they all became friends post tlo and have maintained a tentative relationship since! those cabins have each other's backs.

big spoon

wants to get more tattoos (maybe a tattoo sleeve?)

doesn't want to become a doctor, but rather a vet, or maybe a teacher. reasoning being that he'll have to relearn everything, but also that he'll have to deal with the loss of his patients again, this time knowing he couldn't heal them magically because he's relying on modern medicine. plus, he would have to spend a long time away from his siblings, and seeing as how he's a year rounder, i don't think that would bode well for him.

really really likes planning events - especially birthday parties

wants to travel the world, but is also afraid to leave everything behind

was once afraid of growing up, and still sort of is. doesn't think much of his birthday, because he used to celebrate it with his mother, and he didn't really get a chance to start celebrating with his siblings before being thrown into war

terrible dancer, even though his boyfriend is really good at it

loves to garden! there's a garden for the infirmary where he gathers ingredients for salves and poultices, but he also just loves the scent of flowers. he likes to care and nurture things, and plants are something he pours a lot of energy into. he and nico also go strawberry picking a lot.

fast fast fast runner

post tsats: persephone will occasionally call him using an angel trumpet flower (this is like. a very specific vision but search up one of those flowers and imagine holding it up to your ear like a telephone:)

anyway she calls him on one of these bad boys and asks how he's doing. they have long chats about flowers and sometimes him and nico are invited for picnics in the underworld.

him and nico have a travel bucket list

he has possibly the worst handwriting ever. absolutely terrible

is pretty bad at using technology, but still has to pretend like he knows how to use it when he's helping nico navigate the internet.

aand that's all i remember for now!

#also i'm well aware that trumpet flowers are poisonous #seph has particular taste lmao #will solace #will solace pjo #will solace headcanon #nico di angelo #nico di angelo pjo #solangelo #drew tanaka #tsats #pjo #toa #rrverse #reeseanswers #lets not talk about how i used vocation forgetting what it actually meant mkay?

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tennybird · 4 months

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I have opinions about TotK. This is your spoiler warning if you haven't played/finished it yet. Also all of this is, once again, just my opinion on it and not a decisive fact! I will probably misremember things!

Anyway.

Okay so basically as someone who got it on release and beat it within a week, I'm a little underwhelmed by the game now that I'm looking back over half a year later.

It's not a terrible game! I'll say that first and foremost. But after waiting so long for it, and trying so hard to not hype myself up for it (failing horribly at that), it feels just a bit... same-y. The story is nice, and it's different. The boss fights and abilities you gain during your travels are nice. Everything else, though...

I like the map having stayed similar, with enough changes that I have to relearn some areas. The Depths are really fucking cool, and figuring out on my own that they're a negative of the overworld was incredible! But the sky islands were a little disappointing, I think. When we were told we'd be in the sky a lot, I thought there'd be more large islands like the tutorial one that you could walk around on. More references to Skyward Sword, too. It feels to me that they put more love into the Depths than the sky, in a way.

I like the main story. Figuring out Zelda was the Light Dragon (but not really believing it until the final Tears), and that she'd essentially spent thousands and thousands of years trapped inside herself, was AWESOME. Every cutscene involving her as the Light Dragon hit me hard, and I felt genuine sorrow everytime I saw her floating around the sky.

...That being said, I DO wish we could have a game where you get to actually travel with her. I WANT her to tell me about the minor lore of the world! I want to know about the various flora and fauna, and I want her to talk about Hyrule's history! Zelda is part of the royal family, and I'd imagine that part of her studies pre-BotW she'd have to learn about the history of her family (especially because of the importance of the Goddess' blood...). With how pre-BotW went between her and her powers, and her and her father, I'd imagine she'd make it a point to learn more about their history that ISN'T just the prophecy.

I, personally, did not like most of the temple boss fights. I can't really explain much of why- except for Queen Gibdo. I HATED Queen Gibdo because of all the smaller Gibdo chasing you, trying to chase down Riju for her power... It was a lot of things stacked on each other, and simply not my thing. Colgera was an absolute favorite however! The boss theme is AWESOME, the mechanics of being in the air and having to watch for projectiles, as well as crashing through the ice sheets to take it down? VERY, VERY FUN. Climbing through the sky just to get to the temple itself was one of my favorite experiences. Going up and up and up, and finally reaching the top where you break out above the storm clouds and see clear skies...

A thing that bothers me about the temples is that the cutscene at the end, where the ancient Sages gifts their powers to the new ones... I feel like they could've spent a little more time making them different, even if that meant more time in development. I would be okay with that! I think games should be in development longer in order to produce a good, finished product! Anyway.

The fight with Ganondorf was fun for me. I get SUPER immersed in it, so it was a fearful moment when I thought I'd beaten him, only to see his health bar fill again... and then go offscreen. And the DEMON DRAGON FIGHT? Holy SHIT.

I just wish there was more... substance to the game, I guess? It feels weird saying that. There are more things to do, but it's missing something I can't name. Something BotW had, but is now gone. I like TotK, like I said. It's clearly had love put into it, and I'm glad the developers spent more time on getting it as close to the perfect image they wanted as they could. Maybe it's just cause I've spent more time with BotW (over 300 hours), but I think I'm a little biased towards it. Maybe I'm just getting older and grumpier about vidya games, too. Who knows!

If you read all this, cool! I will reiterate that this is simply my view on it! If your view is different, good!! I'm happy to know there are people out there who enjoy it more than I did. Or if you hate it more than I do, maybe you have other things you want to point out about it that I missed.

#james speaks #long post #loz #totk #the legend of zelda #tears of the kingdom #i love reading people's opinions so please tell them to me if you want somewhere to ramble!!#zelda #totk spoilers #tears of the kingdom spoilers

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kibbits · 9 months

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Hi okay so I've been rotating the break a leg boys in my very neurodivergent head and. I don't know the specifics because I don't know theater or musicals, but with the everything about them - having to relearn how to be themselves, essentially unmasking, and the difficulty with social cues that comes with actually interacting people rather than just performing for them - I just. Okay wait lets start differently -

At some point they become true friends with Y/N, we know that! But do they know? They never had friends before, and with their difficulties I can just see them struggling to even understand the concept, much less where the lines are, and wondering if Y/N considers them friends too!

So while I don't know how you planned it out/ if you have something different in mind already, I just kept thinking of a scene where they wonder and try to ask - hey, are we friends? But they're scared of misunderstanding cues because it's all new, so they fall back onto their scripts! Because despite everything, they know those, and they're reliable and familiar! So they rope Y/N into a little improv scene or perhaps a little musical number where the characters proclaim their friendship, and then they just. kinda trickle out of the scene to ask - are we? because just asking outright is scary, but they can mask it as a play, while also trying to reach past that comfort zone, and I just think they'd really need some sort of confirmation that yes, they are friends!

(and that certainly is not projection as someone who struggles to identify boundaries for friendships and likes to double check also - I mean the boys have the extra complication of Y/N being assigned that job to care for them! I'm sure there's anxieties involved, once the masks begin to crumble! Okay I can be normal now this is. long. GFHDSJ)

HI OK SO!!!! YOU BLEW MY MIND COMPLETELY WITH THIS ASK AA

So uh as you know you're the one who recently made me realize I'm audhd and,, , in the light of that,, , SO MUCH of my own goddamn AU just. clicks.

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first of all-- YES! Yes, I totally see them doing that! Setting up an elaborate scene and thinking about how it'll go, late at night (imagining in scripts how YN might react)

They purposefully leave the end of the script blank so YN (who might not realize it's based on reality at first, or sees it but thinks they're reading too much into it) gets to the end and goes: "Uuuh guys? I think I'm missing a page? Are they friends or not?"

And the boys go: "We don't know-- are they?" (hopeful puppydog eyes)

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Second of all, I'll use this as a jumping point under readmore cause my god it made me see the AU in a new light dfkljdg

Cause uh I realize now that it's not just an AU about 'what if they'd never become daycare attendants' but rather about acting (masking, putting up a front, internality vs externality, discovering sentience, discovering themselves and each other as people) in general

So I think that first of all,, due to the nature of the thing, YN is probably ALSO audhd and struggles with boundaries, because I do, too. (head in hands i genuinely didnt notice now much i coded them pff But then again, uh... I am ALSO pretty good at masking fgjkldg)

I can get very attached to people very fast, and I call people my friends easily (but like. several different kinds of friendships?? Different degrees of intimacy and points of connection) but i also need to hear it from the people in return or else i get wary of "taking up too much space" (despite the irony of liking when other people are interested gjklgd)

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But. MY GOD LUCE. THEY'RE ALL SO ND (specifically Autistic and ADHD, healthy dose of anxiety and More)

So we've got Sun and Moon who are a Problem Animatronic, who are Strange and Offputting sometimes. They take their roles too seriously, they embody them, they don't 'act like real people' outside of that. They follow arbitrary rules, and expect you to know and follow them, too.

And then Y/N comes along, and they immediately follow along with their rules (read:script/assigned role) not only that? But they clearly establish their own rules, too, as well as reasons for Sun and Moon to follow them (god. you see what I mean by everything being so clear in retrospect??)

Management sees: Holy shit, after countless maimed staff members, a(disposable one)n intern bumbles along into the closet where the Actor has been shoved, and miraculously gets them both to cooperate??? And they survive? Without injury?

Sun/Moon see: FINALLY some good fazzing food communication!

In reality: AUDHD to AUDHD communication is happening dfklgjkld

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so uh just wanted to say all 3 are AUDHD.

Sun collected all the kinetic/high energy symptoms and habits, like physical hyperactivity and restlessness, full body stimming (watch out for the limbs!) poor volume control, jumping the gun and interrupting, things like that

Moon got the more internal ones: Non-verbal or minimal words a lot of the time, doesn't like to be perceived when he's not acting, sits like a gargoyle/floor time/other pressure stim (WILL flop onto you) and also chewing fkljdgj, innatention etc

They both def don't have personal space awareness, are anxious and restless but in different ways, sound stims/echolalia out the wazoo

Y/N by nature will be different but since its my AU they'll reflect mine so. healthy mix/helping of both? fgjklgdl Inattentive, both super observant and blind to obvious things, sometimes less verbal, sometimes hyperverbal, pacing and shaking their hands like they can't contain all the things they want to say, Floor Time (tm)

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Lots of mirroring and parallel play hangouts, they're all both cats and golden retrievers your honor. Sun will pick up YN and/or pace. Moon will flop over/near them. YN is good with both jkldk They can hang out in silence, or talk for HOURS.

YN will just start singing a random silly thing and bouncing in place and the bots will sometimes mirror (Moon not so much verbally but he can hum, and Sun can actually talk through the speakers (buttons) on their chest while Moon is out anyway)

Oh yeah that's another thing! Sun can help Moon out if he's out but has a hard time communicating, because they can both talk while the other's out as part of their duet setting. They don't often do it, though, because most of the staff would freak out if they knew they were both active at the same time? Which is silly, it's literally built into their routines/gimmick!

Man now I am thinking of so many nice hangouts (of course its not ALL sunshine and rainbows but. They click well.

#asks #beloved luce #beloved moots #break a leg!au #dca au

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andmaybegayer · 29 days

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Last Monday of the Week 2024-04-01

Boopin' Monday

Listening: Sometimes you go a while without listening to a performer well understood to be solidly good and you forget that they're solidly good and then you listen to them and you're like yeah this is good. Daft Punk's Human After All album.

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A positively wet album.

Reading: Finished Glory In The Thunder, by 0xabad1dea. A very strange book to read, like, it's a peculiar mix of extremely by the book fantasy and the peculiar "teen queer perfusion" style that 0xabad1dea was aiming for. A lot of plotlines but very well plotted, they weave in and out very neatly and intersect at the right times. It's a satisfying book to read but also I get the feeling that 0xabad1dea is having more fun writing it than I could ever have reading it.

If nothing else I should understand more of her posts now, since many of them are notebook sketches of these characters. I'll get to the sequel another time but I'm busy digging through my book list for what to read next.

Watching: Not much! A lot of short web stuff most notably the new Antimemetics Division short film, which has part 2 coming out in a couple days! Exciting stuff.

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Playing: Forza Horizon 5, the Audi Quattro Rally S1 is up as a reward this month and I was like hey I want one of those, although I ended up scoring one through the rally DLC quests. I did wrap up the rally DLC storylines though so I'm caught back up with all the big quests, still haven't finished a ton of the ones that came out since I kind of stopped playing it as much as I used to because I was wasting a lot of my time in that game. It's too easy to get sucked into just cruising between races idly for hours.

Making: Started poking at LÖVR in detail, started writing a boids simulation but I fell down the rabbit hole of locomotion methods in VR, dealing with the dual coordinate spaces of the headset position in space and the virtual space positioning transforms is a little daunting, I expect I'll have to write some helpers to simplify it. Slowly relearning how Lua works.

Also sat and sanded the NAS case, I was planning on painting it this weekend but I was a little sick so that is on hold until probably Friday when the workshop opens again. Also need to go finish signing up for a library card so I can use the library system's shared workshop for smaller things, it looks cool.

Tools and Equipment: I have been responsible for rescuing a dying storage server at work, and I would like to pitch mdadm. If you're still using hardware RAID, stop that. It is a bad idea. You are setting yourself up for problems. CPU's are fast enough now that software RAID is perfectly performant and it makes sure that you don't end up in the situation where something silently goes wrong with your RAID card and you don't realize that your data has turned into giblets.

mdadm is actually really nice when you aren't dealing with inscrutable bugs that I see because I'm in the bugfixing division. Very simple to manage, good documentation, comprehensible metaphors, handles itself when possible, and has several sets of instructions that are basically guaranteed not to break anything that was no already broken, which is handy if you are dealing with an already fragile system.

#last monday of the week #Youtube

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cheapsweets · 2 months

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The nocuous Shonweak

My response to this week’s BestiaryPosting challenge from @maniculum

Jinhao shark fountain pen with fine, hooded nib, with Monteverde Raven Noir ink, over initial pencil sketch. I'd considered adding some colour, but didn't have time this week; imagine it's got telltale orange/yellow and black warning colouration :)

It's been interesting trying to relearn pen shading techniques from scientific illustration again (as ever, suspect going a bit bigger would make this easier, I'm also going to have another rummage through my pens to see if I can find an even finer nib, since the one's I've been using don't come close to using a dip pen).

Reasoning under the cut;

The Shonweak is so called because it is proof against fire.

Okay, first things first, we get no indication about what type of creature this is. My default assumption when the bestiary authors don't give us any more detail is that is must be a Beast, but I've been wanting to mix it up a bit. But what to go for...?

Of all poisonous creatures, it has the strongest poison. Other poisonous creatures kill one at a time; it can kill several things at the same time. For if it has crawled into a tree, it poisons all the apples and kills those who eat them. In addition, if it falls into a well, the strength of its poison kills those who drink the water.

Okay, a poisonous critter, and not just poisonous, the most poisonous...! Okay, this narrows it down a bit. We get some creatures that are occasionally poisonous due to their diet (including certain birds, and snakes!), but mostly we're looking at amphibians, insects, echinoderms, fish, flatworms, and some others too.

This also made me think about the line between poisonous and venomous. We've all been on tumblr a while, so we've probably seen the memes, but technically the main difference is that poisonous animals deliver their toxin passively (in this context, being eaten is passive...)

We also know that this thing can crawl into a tree, so must be able to climb (that eliminates most fish, for starters).

I've gone for a beetle, since drawing an arthropod is pretty different from anything I've done thus far. Main influences are;

The diabolical ironclad beetle, a tiny awesome critter that is nigh on indestructable. It has a flattened body, fused elytra, and a cool, knobbly surface to its armour; I gave the elytra a bit of an overlap, so it could consider clamping its body down if it gets into a sticky situation (like a fire).

Bombadier beetles; in case you're not aware of them, their defence mechanism is spraying near-boiling noxious chemicals at attackers (you'll also be familiar with them if you've ever read the Spider World books by Colin Wilson!). The most famous ones are yellow and black, and you can see the nozzle on the end of its abdomen.

While the bombadier beetle does actively spray toxins, keeping them in its body also makes it poisonous - best of both worlds!

Also can't deny the influence of the blue death feigning beetle, a very aestheic insect indeed, and if I'm honest, the tanker bug from Starship Troopers...!

I did look at large beetles like the goliath beetle for some inspiration, especially around the legs (I imagine the Shonweak to be pretty big as beetles go), but decided against it since they're a lot fancier, and I figured a tough, fire-braving critter like this to be a little plainer and unadorned.

It resists fire and alone among creatures can put fires out. For it can exist in the midst of flames without pain and without being consumed by them, not only because it does not burn but because it puts the fire out.

Okay, if this is the creature I strongly suspect it is, this is an interesting wrinkle to the mythology around it; it's proof against fire because it puts the fire out (not something I've heard before). I'll have more to say if it does turn out to be what I suspect...

Okay, hear me out... The bombadier beetle combines exothermic chemicals in its body to produce its boiling, caustic spray... What if a creature could do something similar for a seriously endothermic reaction; it would be almost like a tiny, living fire extinguisher... I imagine the Shonweak as a bomadier beetle relative, spraying freezing toxins at enemies (or just generally if stuck in a fire, or if it falls down a well, or if those apples are looking particularly hostile...)

#maniculum bestiaryposting #bestiaryposting #shonweak #my art #🪲

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emilyart-mo · 3 months

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Day 1, reunited with my favorite medium. Lots to relearn after not painting with it for probably 10 years or so.

Things learned: 1. Paper is way too soft for liquid mask (ruined my cat that way :( but I should have tested it on another page instead). 2. Paper is also too soft for any washi/artist tape. 3. Lost my watercolor safe ink pen, so here we are. I am using this to my advantage though. Hoping to get some natural looking lines on the soon to be tabby cat using its outline + water. Will test on another page first. I might just need to go in with marker instead. I'll let the painting do the talking; maybe it has a different story it wants to tell.

I goofed up a little bit just not paying attention which is just something you can't do with this artform. But I'll go in after the rest of the piece is done and touch it up with acrylic.

#watercolour art #cat art #self portrait #watercolor #mixed media #ink #watercolor pencil #process art #artists of tumblr #illustration #junebug

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crimson-rain-smoked-flower · 3 months

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I’m really sorry to bother you I genuinely just don’t know where to ask this and you seem pretty knowledgeable on the subject.

Ok so this is a genuine question and I’m not trying to be aggressive. I am very sorry if I come off that way as a lot of this is just what I have been taught/personal experience. I am also kind of bad at communicating my thoughts in words I’m sorry. So recently someone I follow reblogged a big answer you gave about pro shipping and it kind of taught me a lot of things. I’m currently in the process of relearning what some ppl on the internet have taught me. But I do still have personal issues. I still think any form of child porn is disgusting and really shouldn’t be spread. I see that it’s a bit less fucked up when the child is fictional but it still feels extremely fucked up and not okay to me. I still do also find issue with pedophilic ships. Fictional incest also fucks me up but I’m like “that’s fine because it isn’t real and they’re both consenting adults?” I just can’t personally deal. And I really can’t understand the labels proship and anti too. Like I used to be anti I think? But I just didn’t like the idea of fictional characters in child porn. Like I understand reading about child rape in a book to learn “this is a fucked up and bad thing that should not happen but it does and we need to acknowledge it” but I don’t like the idea of people drawing children in a sexual sense to jerk off to. Like those feel like different things to me. Just another fyi I’m very conflicted because I have been very shoved into purity culture for a while and only recently am in a transitional stage of realizing the harm it does. I think what I’m trying to say here is I’m trying to understand what I’m supposed to feel? I still for some reason can’t get behind the “it’s just fiction” on child porn. Whereas I seem to be able to be okay with pretty much everything else?I don’t know I’m sorry. I understand blocking it out which is what I have done, I think I have to come to terms with the fact that it will always exist. But I still cannot see myself being okay with it or supporting people okay with it. And when I say supporting no I don’t mean I’m going to go and harass them. I don’t like that idea I’m more the type of person to pathetically ask why if I were to interact with them haha. Speaking of harassment that has always felt icky to me. What I mean is more like just… being okay with it?

I’m sorry if this is just a jumbled mess of words. I’m really trying to figure things out here and it feels almost like a moral dilemma to me that has been going on for a while. If you see this same ask or something similar elsewhere it is probably me trying to ask for advice or help from other for some kind of peace of mind.

first off, thank you for the question. i'm always down to answer questions asked in good faith, and i'll do my best to answer yours.

there's a few angles i want to come at this from, the initial gut reaction, the difference between different portrayals of something, and the sort of "is this okay to be okay with" bit.

your initial reaction to underage ships is disgust, and honestly that's perfectly okay, there's nothing wrong with that. you seem to already get that there's a difference between something that's disgusting to you personally, and something that's morally wrong, which is something that i don't think most antis get. you're allowed to be disgusted by things, while still acknowledging that they're not actually hurting any real people, and therefore there's nothing morally wrong with them.

(as a side note, the exact definitions of anti and proship will probably vary from person to person, but in my opinion, someone who's proship is just someone who understands that harassing people over fictional things isn't okay, and that the best way to deal with things that make you uncomfortable is to curate your own experience. it doesn't have anything to do with what you personally like or dislike, just your way of dealing with it. not to say you must identify by one of those labels, i think its also totally fine to just mind your own business and do your own thing. "proship" has been around longer than the label, it used to be the default position of fandom, with people mostly abiding by SLAS (ship and let ship) and YKINMKATO (your kink is not my kink and that's okay). that is to say, i would already consider you to be proship, but you don't have to label yourself that way if it makes you uncomfortable.)

i think a potentially helpful way of viewing things might be to consider how you feel about violence depicted in media. you don't mention feeling any specific way about it, so i'm going to assume you share the popular opinion that there's nothing inherently wrong about depicting violence in media. with certain exceptions, like not showing replicable violence in children's media, people generally understand that fictional violence is fine.

in the real world, its not like violence is somehow more okay than sexual assault, both are awful things that can cause lasting trauma, but in a society where sex is generally considered more taboo, depictions of sexual assault are often seen as worse, even when there's no real backing for that as both things are equally fictional.

you mentioned that you're okay with portrayals of underage relationships in the context of dark fiction that's intended to provoke disgust or fear or another negative emotion but less so with portrayals that are intended to be erotic in nature, and while that's a perfectly fine distinction to make for your own comfort, its worth bearing in mind that different people are going to make that distinction in different places. many works, especially ones created by survivors to process their own trauma, aren't going to be that cut and dry. additionally, the authorial intentions aren't always going to line up with how the work is perceived.

at the end of the day people are going to make content that makes you uncomfortable, its the unfortunate truth of this world. you're allowed to be uncomfortable with it, you're allowed to not want anything to do with those people. by curating your own internet experience you're already doing a great job at dealing with that.

i'm not just gonna tell you that you have to be okay with sexual content of underage characters, it's something that can be deeply uncomfortable and gross for a lot of people, myself included. but it is fiction, and the creation of it isn't inherently harmful to another human being, so there's no reason it shouldn't be allowed to exist.

i hope this was helpful for you, if you have any followup questions, or there was something i didn't address well enough, please feel free to ask. and don't worry, you didn't come off as aggressive at all.

#cd.ask #disk horse #augh sorry if this sounds disjointed my thoughts were kind of all over the place #long post

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here-be-bec · 2 months

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20 QUESTIONS FOR FIC WRITERS

thanks @commanderfoxdeservesbetter for the tag!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

105! hit 100 over febuwhump.

2. What is your total AO3 word count?

167,182!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

star wars: the clone wars is the main fandom, but i've also written some stuff for alex rider! and a few gift fics for jedi fallen order, marvel, and doctor who.

4. What are you top five fics by kudos?

no. 1 is 'connection is what saves us' (which makes me happy, because it only recently overtook second place and i like to see a fox-centric whump fic on top).

no. 2 is 'the food's too sweet'.

no. 3 is 'an acceptable loss'.

no. 4 is 'no stranger to guilt'.

no. 5 is 'dead men feel no guilt for dying'.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

yes! sometimes it might take a few days, but i always love the opportunity to ramble about my fics some more!

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

given that 99% of what i write is whump, this one is a tricky one. if you hate major character death then i recently started writing a few fics for the 'kill a character bingo' prompts. but if you, like me, believe in fates worse than death, then i would probably say 'cut abruptly short' had the angstiest ending (lining up with canon in terms of the tragedy of order 66, with an added element of angst from the theme that i used for the fic - "force sensitivity as horror").

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

another tricky one! because despite everything, i've realised that i've actually been pretty good with at least writing a hopeful ending into my fics. so with that in mind i'm going to take the opportunity to plug my favourite (only slightly angsty at the start) crack fic of all time, 'follow the leader'. perhaps the happy ending is more implied than explored, but still, :D

8. Do you get hate on fics?

nope!

9. Do you write smut?

not at the minute, i suck ass at writing romance so it would probably only ever be part of some depraved angst bs.

10. Do you write crossovers?

not yet, but i have a few that i'd like to take a stab at one day, if the inspiration strikes. bioshock, batman, doctor who... many possibilities.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

luckily, not that i'm aware of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

nope!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

i am currently co-writing a fic, but it is a long way off from being published! really really looking forward to sharing it, though, it's going to be a beautiful combination of angst, crack, and time travel :D

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

i don't really ever ship anyone! it just isn't my cup of tea, usually, unless the ship is dangling the carrot of angst in front of me. the only ship i'd say that i ever enjoyed exploring was thoschei (the doctor/the master) from doctor who. lots of potential for a supremely fucked up or fun dynamic, haha. i suppose i should also mention shadowgast from cr2, i was rooting for that throughout the part of that campaign i watched live.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

well if you want the nice answer, i'll say the isolation au as a whole, but that's because i don't think i'm going to run out of ideas for it any time soon! if you want the less nice answer, then i have been struggling with the long fic sequel to 'dead men feel no guilt for dying' for over a year now. i have loads of cool scenes outlined and fun ideas, but still haven't been able to settle on an overarching plot that i like! it's very annoying. massive kudos to multichapter fic writers!

16. What's your writing strengths?

i think i do well with structuring my fics. i enjoy figuring out how to write things that flow together, or mirror other scenes. one of my favourite fics to write was 'reiterate, relearn', which i think is a prime example of this!

17. What's your writing weaknesses?

hate writing dialogue! very rarely does it come naturally, which i think is because i characterise everyone sliiiiightly different in most of the fics i write, depending on the au that they're in. most of these guys also don't have much in the way of canon dialogue to go by!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

hahaha, mando'a is really something i should have tried to incorporate more of! i like it as a fandom/legends trait for the clones, but it would require me putting actually thought and planning into my fics.... and alas!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

if we're counting before i knew fanfic was a thing, i guess it would be pokemon mystery dungeon oc fics in a notebook when i was like, 8. if you're talking fic that i've intentionally written, is was for the jse ego fandom; a bit of a niche community surrounding certain arg-like videos by jacksepticeye!

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

oh boy.... too many choices. as a i say above, i think 'follow the leader' was definitely one of my favourites to write, but i think my favourite as a whole has to be 'in thanks they will keep him forever'. not putting something from the isolation au here was a tough call, because those first three fics were genuinely a blast to write, but 'in thanks' was such fun to plot out, and so self indulgent - wait! that means i totally have done a crossover fic, technically! but i won't count it, because 'in thanks' only contains a single monster from doctor who, adapted to star wars for coruscant guard horror purposes. as i say, very niche, very self-indulgent, and i definitely i want to write more stuff like it in the future!

----------------

okay, this was a bunch of fun, i always like the excuse to read back through old fics! if @stardustloki, or @amberskyyking want to do this, or anyone else who thinks this looks fun, then here you go!

#bec writes #tag game

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barry-j-blupjeans · 2 years

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19 with blup? :)

19. "You haven't done this in a while, have you?"

Lup was usually good at finding ways to put her ideas to the test and with Barry there as her- ...research partner, there weren't many things they couldn't try out. The nature of the cycles had gotten Lup maybe a little too comfortable with the idea of serious injury because of a lab accident, but that wasn't important right now. Right now, they were facing their toughest challenge yet. As far as ideas go, it was a good one. A great one, even. But...

"You haven't done this in a while, have you?" Barry asked. He was incredibly close behind her, but it wasn't unwelcome. The piano bench was plush and comfortable, and Barry's warmth against her back made her want to melt, just a little bit.

"Excuse me, I have played the piano every day for the past forty-seven years," Lup said and Barry laughed. He leaned over her shoulder, resting his head against hers.

"I wanna know where you've been keeping an entire piano," Barry said, "because I can barely fit a bed and a desk in my room."

"That's a secret for me to know and for you to find out," Lup said, nudging him and raising her eyebrows.

"Was- was that supposed to be an innuendo?" Barry asked, fighting a grin. "Like, is the piano up your-"

"I haven't played piano in a while, you've caught me," Lup interrupted and Barry buried his face into her shoulder to stop himself from laughing. "Probably the last time I seriously tried, I was like, one-oh-five, which is a while ago."

"Yikes," Barry said. "Yeah, it's been a- a bit for you, huh? We don't have to have a piano in this. Like, there's tons of instruments that sound great together that's not just a piano and whatever else."

"Piano just... sounds right, though," Lup said, leaning her head back against him. "I can relearn."

"I can take a stab at it, maybe?" Barry said. "I, uh, I took a few piano lessons as a kid-"

"Aw!"

"-so maybe I still know somethin'. And me playing piano at age eight is a lot more recent than you playing piano at age a hundred and five."

"Fair point," Lup conceded. She scooted off the bench and patted the seat. When Barry sat down, it was Lup's turn to lean against him, wrapping her arms over his shoulders. Barry let out a little breathless laugh, flushing.

"I, uhm, I'm loving this arrangement, I really am, but I do- I do wanna focus."

"Transphobic of you," Lup said, removing her arms nonetheless. Barry rolled his eyes, but he was still smiling. She caught the stool he had dragged over here earlier and sat on that instead. "Go for it, Bar."

"Okay, uh." Barry placed his hands over the piano and tapped a note with his left pinky. He hit another, and then another until Lup finally realized he was attempting to do the major scales. It was messy, but much more than Lup could do, considering she hadn't remembered where to start for any scales. When he reached Gb Major, he started his way back down. Then, he sat back, looking pleased with himself. And cute. Pleased and cute.

"How was that?" he asked.

"Cute," Lup said. And then, "fuck. Good! It was good!" Barry laughed. "You deffo still know more than me. How does it... feel, I guess is what I wanna ask. Like, do you feel like "I could play this for a year" or is it more like "ehhhhh traumatic childhood piano lesson memories.""

"I"m leaning more towards the first one, yeah," Barry said. "I mean, we can try out a few different combos but the piano will probably be where I'm most comfortable unless you want me to play the tuba."

"You can play the tuba?" Lup said, delighted. "Oh, babe, you've just changed this whole duet idea in my head. Oh my gods. A tuba!"

"Lup-"

"We gotta find some fucking tubas," Lup said. "You play that, I'll play the bugle, and we'll knock everyone's socks off! Bam! Day saved!"

"A bugle?" Barry choked out. He leaned back so far laughing that he almost fell off the seat. "Lup, I- I gotta see that-"

"Where the hell do they keep the brass instruments in this place?!" Lup said, standing up. Barry wheezed. "We got a duet to plan!"

#blupjeans #barry bluejeans #lup #taz #taz balance #im just love them!#asks #anon #mine #ise cube writing

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99yikes · 2 years

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Hi! I’m a beginner artist when it comes to digital art and was wondering what app and brushes do you use for your art, or maybe if you have any tips on digital art. I figured I’d ask you since your art is so cool and looks so nice!

aksjskdjf hello there! thank you so much for the compliments, i'm flattered!! my art is super sloppy, but i'm happy you like it (꒦ິ꒳꒦ີ)♡ i'm honestly a little embarrassed to post this cuz i'm pretty much still a novice at digital art stuff, so there are probably better/more concise ways to go over all this, but i'll gonna try my best anyway!! sorry if i ramble ;;

to answer your questions, i use procreate! i'm also pretty lazy and i don't really like to switch brushes often, meaning i work almost exclusively with the 6B Pencil. i sketch with it. i line with it. i even color and render with it sometimes. i knew when i got into digital art i would want to use a textured, pencil-like brush bc my favorite artist did and i always loved the way it looked.

here's an example of just how excessively i use it lmao (with some Pro Tips™ /j):

but ! because i use it so often, i've made some minor adjustments to the brush -- not enough to warrant calling it a completely different brush, but enough that there's a noticeable difference between the original and what i use when actually drawing.

personally, i like a tapered end when sketching and lining so i gave it a little fall off and adjusted pressure taper settings, and i also appreciate more control (less loose/shaky lines bc a pen tip on a glass screen is SLIPPERY), so i upped the streamline setting too!

here's a look at what settings i tweaked if you want to try it out yourself:

other brushes i tend to use are:

Round Brush for coloring. very super mega basic, but easy to work with!

and it's worth mentioning that lately i've been using Baskerville to line things! i used it in this itafushikigi piece. it gives me a lot of control and it's very tidy so i like it (bˊᵕˋ)b

and that's...really it lmao. of course these are all default procreate brushes. no matter what program you use, i just recommend testing out different brushes and adjusting settings until you find what works for you! you can always reset to default if you dislike it and duplicate the brush if you adore it. you can also download other brushes, but i don't have much (read: any) experience with that 💃

other tips would just be get familiar with your app and practice as much as you can. i'm very much a "pick one thing and draw it a million times" kind of person bc repetition gives me an opportunity to work on things i want to improve. 'if i draw yuutafushi enough times, eventually i'll perfect how i draw them' -- that kind of mindset?? idk if that method works for everyone, but, y'know...having a muse helps ;;

digital art was like a whole nother ballpark for me and i felt like i had to relearn how to do everything, so don't feel discouraged if your traditional art abilities don't immediately transfer over! it just takes time to get comfortable with it. drawing with your finger on a screen vs a pen on a tablet vs a pencil on paper are all very different experiences and there's a learning curve for each!

anyways, i hope that helps a little. sorry this is super long! good luck on your digital art journey ❤️

#asks #long post #if u see typos i'm sorry lmao

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obeymefluff · 24 days

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List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who liked or reblogged something from you! Get to know your mutuals and followers.

(No pressure!)

I found the asks yippee !!!! (Have mercy I haven't touched my actual profile in centuries)

I promise promise promise I'll get to the actual Obey Me asks soon (some of them have been waiting in the closet and staring ominously through the cracks in the rotting wood) but I need to like. Redownload the game and relearn the personalities so I don't get TOO ooc (might still include far-fetched headcanons if they spark joy)

But for now the top five things that make me happy would probably be

-Anything resembling the autism creature or similar doodles (reaction images, little stupids, etc)

-Petrichor

-Gradients in digital art (particularly from purple to pink to orange to gold) (it's like hiding a sunset and a touch of the natural magic of the world in something that will always be man-made)

-Games of any sort

-Peanut butter

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redstringraven · 27 days

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oop forgot to say

25 & 16 was for nyxram

>:D aaa, thank you so much!!! appreciate it! 💜

edgy/misc OC ask meme

16) what is your OC's pain tolerance like?

i imagine it's disturbingly high... to what's, like, probably an unhealthy amount. triceratons are tanks as a whole already*--due to their size, thick skin, and high-temperature tolerance--and here you have one who likely finds more nostalgia in certain pains than she does foods, smells or music (she didn't even grow up with access to music, so). yeah, nyxram is definitely one of those people where like. if you shoot her, you better know it's going to kill her. otherwise all you'll have managed to do is irritate her at best and piss her off at worst. she's not going to go down unless she's either dead or her body just physically gives out on her. which, again: not easy to do with triceratons in general. ...nyx could be standing in the meeting room bleeding from her side and be more concerned with excusing herself so she doesn't stain the floor or equipment than, y'know. the fact she has an open wound in her side. *they're hella nerfed in-series imo, and i'm gonna blame that on zanramon because he's there; don't @ me (lh)

25) what is your favorite thing about your OC?

gosh... i have a few, but for brevity i think i'll say: i love that she's a morally-gray character and also that because of the background i've given her, it's given me an opportunity to play with different approaches to triceraton combat and weaponized tech. like, post-rebellion nyx struggles with falling into old habits or old ways of thinking; she finds herself eavesdropping on her squad or traximus when she's quietly seeking '''moral guidance'''. she's a person who grew up in extreme isolation with, essentially, two serial-killers-for-hire as parents/teachers, raised and forged to kill. she had enough of a compass to realize she wanted out of that life, but now that she's out? she's having to learn, relearn, and unlearn all sorts of things. and there're times she falters; close as they've gotten, she and traximus butt heads about plenty of things. trax often wants to do things right. nyx often wants to get them done. it can be a lot of fun to think about how she might have moments of pause and internal struggle when it comes to choosing to listen to traximus or a squad member over something and trust their judgement, or if she chooses to solve the problem in a way she knows "worked" for her in the past. she hasn't been 'fixed' or made 'right' now that the external conflict of the old republic and rebellion has passed. the internal conflict is still very much there, and it's an interesting thing to get to explore. as for the combat/tech elements, i'm still trying to re-design nyx's suit to better reflect her as an assassin while also leaning a bit more into a scifi greek/roman-inspired look instead of something more based in the triceraton soldier's uniform, personalized tech included. i also want her to have a very distinct way she holds herself when ""working"" that makes her appear even more alien compared to the postures of triceraton soldiers. like, the ones we see in-series hold themselves similarly to how soldiers as we know them might--straight posture, kinda stiff, upright, grounded footing, etc. but when i picture nyxram, i tend to see her with her weight more on her toes/balls of her feet, and her posture slightly hunched with a wider stance. ...more 'dinosaur' or bird-like elements to her gait, presence, and overall silhouette, making her intimidating in a new and different way. "i've never seen a triceraton move like that", other races might mutter. ...some triceratons, too.

#;letters #tmnt oc #;meme: edgy/misc OC asks #;tmnt oc: nyxram #[ \eue/ !! thank you again! ]#[ fdjksgs will i ever be able to make nyx animatics like i see in my head; only time will tell.. ]#[ she's a mess but she's trying ]

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lunatic-fandom-space · 10 months

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Oh god, Im five minutes into the Shanghai Special and I definitely remember reading salt posts about this at some point, but I completely forgot that the inciting incident of Marinette wanting to go there was to follow Adrien and that she basically used going to visit her uncle as the excuse which is bad, especially considering Adrien is the whitest boy alive and the show does this weird thing where he knows chinese culture better than Marinette and knows how to speak the language better than Marinette and his family has more personal connections to the chinese miracle box than Marinette's, like, it looks really bad

But the reason Im making this post is actually because I wanted to talk a little about the way they handle Marinette being part of a, idk if this is the best way to phrase this, non-dominant culture. Im phrasing it like that because Im white and the child of two immigrants from the same country, so Im not getting into the additional nuances of being biracial or even of belonging to two different cultures here

First off, I think its fine that Marinette isnt super in-touch with the chinese side of things because she doesnt like, live there and her parents dont seem to be encouraging her to get in touch with it. Im in pretty much the same situation and I actually find it pretty relatable that she doesnt interact too much with her culture outside of like, food mostly. It is a shame because we couldve had something interesting with her initially not being interested in learning more about chinese culture and only researching it and ancient china to find out more about the Miraculous, but then a genuine desire to reconnect with that part of herself starts to grow from that, but I dont think its the biggest deal in the world

The thing that bothers me the most is that they not only basically had Adrien 'be better' at her own culture than Marinette, she doesnt react to it all beyond maybe being like "oh hes so talented" and its like. Im having a lot of trouble putting this into words, but I'll try anyway

When youre the child of immigrants especially and youre not very in-touch with your/your parents' culture, dont really speak the language, dont participate in any traditions and then you meet other immigrant-kids from the same country/culture and they do speak the language and are overall way more in-touch with it than you are, theres this incredible sense of embarassment that I could never explain to people who are, idk, unicultural ? is that a word I should use here? And like, with other people from a similar background theres atleast this sense of solidarity yknow, but with people who are not from there and who are maybe just good at the language and know the culture bc culture lessions are a pretty big part of most language learning lessions.... its a bit different I would imagine. I say 'I would imagine' bc my parents are from a russian-speaking country and we live in germany and, while a lot of schools here will offer some kind of voluntary russian lessions (atleast in my area) most of those are attended by immigrant-kids trying to learn or relearn their language and Ive never met someone who was born here without a russian or post-soviet background who knew russian beyond a few words and who was well versed in russian culture and the cultures of ex-soviet countriws.

However, if I did meet a person like that, I would probably be pissed. Thats obviously not the case for all immigrants and I think the reason why the thought of people not from 'my' culture being "better" at it than I am honestly relates to some deep personal baggage I have because I started crying when I wrote that previous section. And like, its good to learn other languages and to learn about other cultures, please dont let this post discourage you in any way, this is just because of some personal stuff that I dont want to share here.

My point here is, there are intense and complex emotions attached to your family's culture, even if you dont participate in it yourself for whatever reasons you may have. I dont like that its just being swept under the rug for Marinette because the writers would rather have her drool over an intensely bland guy than even begin to address how awful it feels to not be able to communicate with or understand a memeber of your own family due to cultural differences and because you just didnt keep in touch.

Thats it, if you're biracial or you were raised in a multi-cultured home and you have thoughts about this, please share them because I'd love to hear them!

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug salt #miraculous ladybug crit

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anxiety-thyme · 1 year

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I’ve been relearning InDesign for book layouts. It’s been super fun and frustrating because a) it’s been a decade since I used it last b) I originally learned on a Mac and I’m all Windows now and c) I know there are features that exist that will make things faster and easier - I’ve just been stumbling around until I figure it out. I forgot how much I love the process though.

I’ve also been figuring out the best workflow for me. At this point we are at:

Download fic from AO3 as an HTML

Convert to Word - I do this using google drive actually. If you upload the html doc there, you can then redownload it as a word doc. Probably an unnecessary step?

Format the word doc - remove all of the tagging & content you don't want included in the main text. I like to use the layout tools for putting in section breaks in word instead of InDesign. It makes finding the chapter breaks easier.

Do all of the find/replace editing like replacing double spaces with single space, removing spaces before periods or commas, etc.

I do not mess with the actual text outside of those updates unless I catch a spelling error.

Grab whichever template for InDesign I've built and import the text.

Apply the body paragraph style to the full text.

I've started exporting the document as a pdf and opening it in GoodNotes. I like doing this so I can read through the text and see if I've missed anything, and figure out what I want the layout to look like, or think through any fun additions before I start working on the actual layout. As an example, I'm working on a fic right now where after reading through a bit of it, I changed how I wanted to address some of the content, like how I show things that are handwritten, and what the chat messages look like, etc. I wish I had done this with my first couple because I feel like I would have done some things differently if I had.

Once I've hammered that all out I'll go back to InDesign and start working through those formatting: any of the neat stuff I want to focus on like a section of chat messages, any items I want to handle differently from the body paragraph style, etc.

I save applying any parent page styles until almost last since everything up to this point can affect what pages the chapter starts end up on. I unfortunately realized after my first layout that applying chapter start parent styles too soon means redoing them a million times.

If I'm feeling good at this point, I'll go back through and find all of the widows and orphans that I want to deal with.

Throughout this entire process I'm printing out test pages to make sure that things are showing up in print the way that I want them to.

All that's left then is one last scroll through to see if I've missed anything and then once I feel good about it I print.

I know (from past experience) that there are much quicker ways to do this that don’t require all of these steps, but I like this process. I feel like pulling the text into GoodNotes and reading the fic in that way helps me remember what I love about it, and figure out how I want to highlight everything that is wonderful about it.

#book binding #bookbinding #fanbinding

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