#tbh i don't know a ton about either of them other than that. i've only read a few issues that they appeared in

[weaverofink]

he's critiquing her candy crush strategy

#i love them <3 i think they r so cute #supergirl #kara danvers #kara zor el #brainiac 5 #querl dox #legion of super heroes #dc #dc comics #i watched that legion of superheroes movie on hbo and was caught off guard w how much i liked them #they had a fun dynamic i thought it was cute #it was a shame they got rid of brainy's blonde hair tho. why did they make him bald #tbh i don't know a ton about either of them other than that. i've only read a few issues that they appeared in #tho i did go back and read the issue where they first meet and wow. comics were wild back then #art #my art #weaverofink

[alithographica]

Re: Redbubble & Alternatives

Redbubble is doing some nonsense and I've deleted my account. I barely bothered with it anyway, was mostly there for people who've asked for specific images as posters.

Anyway in doing that I sacrificed the $4.35 that was still sitting in my earnings. They only let you cash out at $20, so rather than drum up sales and therefore make Redbubble more money, I'm gonna do what I feel is $4.35 in anti-publicity for them. 🥳

tl;dr there are new fees that hurt artist income at all sales levels. Redbubble is either looking to cut costs and raise profits for funsies, or is in serious financial trouble.

About the new fees:

Redbubble offers their services to artists by allowing artists to control their profit margin above a certain baseline manufacturing fee. This was pretty cool! There's now an additional fee that will be charged starting May 1, 2023. It is not an upfront fee that requires you to pay out of pocket, but it does directly cut your profit margin. How badly? Well...

By Redbubble's own example, if in one month you sell $300 in products that you had set at a 25% margin, you'd previously earn $75. Under the new structure, that earnings level means you pay a $28 fee, so you will now be paid $47. That $28 represents a 37% cut off what you were supposed to earn.

There's a full fee table in that link, but other highlights include a $1 fee if you earned $2 (aka 50%!) and big sellers who'd expect to take home $400 will now receive $320 (an $80 fee, 20%).

It also puts you in a weird spot that earning $1 more in a month may bump you to the next tier, causing you to actually take home less money. Make $1 more, end up losing $11. Make it make sense. 🤨

About the new tiers:

Each shop is evaluated and labeled Standard, Premium, or Pro. Premium and Pro shops are not subject to the new fees, but there's no clarity on how to move from one tier to another. Redbubble says it's under your control but it's clearly not. Many artists are reporting that they have accounts with next to no sales that have been labeled Pro, and accounts with thousands of annual sales that are labeled Standard.

Action items:

Look, I'm not gonna tell other artists that they have to close their shops, or tell buyers not to buy from Redbubble if your favorite artists have chosen to stay. What you do with the above info is up to you.

What I will say is that many artists are leaving because the new pay structure sucks. I encourage people who buy from Redbubble to expand their support to other sites.

Attrition is arguably their goal here—they know people will leave over this, and that'll probably lower their costs and lower competition for the remaining accounts. But goodwill is lost easily and they're playing a dangerous game on betting how many stay vs. leave. I'm out.

Feel free to leave your feedback on Redbubble's feedback form here, but it feels slightly like yelling into the void.

Alternatives:

tbh I don't have a good read on things. If you do know of any recommended (or unrecommended) print-on-demand sites, speak up!

I will say that as of now (April 2023), based on my research:

🟢 INPRNT sounds like a winner if your game is art prints and stickers. Does not have any wearable products like t-shirts.

🟡 Etsy + Printify/Printful might be viable? Etsy always had higher profit margins than POD marketplaces, but it's a bit more work and they also do weird things occasionally. Also has a listing fee so if you're the type to upload a ton of designs, pricey.

🔴 Teepublic is owned by Redbubble. Doesn't have the tier/new fee structure as of now but might be imminent. Have also heard their customer service sucks.

🔴 Society6 is going to charge artists shipping costs, and there's going to be a (mandatory?) subscription service launched in the fall, so that's not a winner anymore either.

#redbubble #art advice #artist advice #artist resources #artists on tumblr

[beanghostprincess]

Why is shanks/buggy so underrated in this side of fandom? It’s much more loved in Japanese one, one of the most popular for shanks. I feel like this one prefers other mlm options for him and I don’t get it. It got better after OPLA I think but still. Sorry for my English!

Oh! This is actually such an interesting question. I was talking about this the other day and I came to a conclusion with my friend about this. Basically, there are a lot of things to take into consideration here. The screentime, the age of the characters, the chemistry, how they're perceived by the fandom and canonically, etc etc etc.

The first thing I thought about was the screentime, honestly. Shanks and Buggy grew up together and they have a deep bond, however, we've only seen that through flashbacks (one in quite literally episode 8 of the anime, another one in Wano that isn't even about them and they're just side characters in this flashback, and in chapter 1082 of the manga. But it's not even a proper flashback because we already saw that when Shanks talks to Whitebeard about Buggy, it's just Buggy's interpretation of it) and we only have like one scene of them together that isn't even two minutes long. So, quite obviously you'd think "well, the ship isn't as popular as other ships because they barely have any screentime" and I think it's correct but also not quite. And also, this would also have to apply to the Japanese fandom at the end of the day. Fandoms don't give a single fuck about screen time if the chemistry is right, really, but there's always this factor, y'know. Lawlu has less screentime than Zolu and yet it's more popular somehow because people absolutely love their dynamic. Then, if you stop to think about it, both Satosugu (Jjk) and Soukoku (Bsd) have the same dynamic and concept as Shuggy, but they're by far the most popular ships in their fandoms. They're basically the same ships but Jjk and Bsd give them proper development and story because they're shorter series. One Piece is a long show and we still have many things to see, even if we know it's gonna end soon, so I guess that we'll still have to wait to see more of Shuggy. Once we do, I'm sure it'll become more popular. Also, Shanks' personality is very diverse because he's all mysterious and all, so I kind of understand why people don't want to make content because they still don't have him figured out.

But then again, screen time isn't really the problem. It's just one of the factors. If they had more screen time, they'd be more popular for sure, yes, but it's not exactly what makes them less popular in this side of the fandom. Otherwise, it'd be equally as popular on the other sides too. The Japanese side of fandoms is different from this one and tbh they often don't take into consideration things like cancel culture and proship discourse or the standard beauty regarding age because they just post whatever they want and scroll past what they don't like (god I fucking wish we were like that because I am so done with these things). Besides, isn't Buggy like a very beloved character over there, aside from Oda's favorite? At least from what I've seen, they take his character way more seriously than this side of the fandom does, honestly. And it bothers me because he's such a complex and great character, and people never see it because they use him either for memes or to keep saying "omggg turns out the clown is hot!! Can you believe I want to fuck a clow-" yes, Samantha, we know you want to fuck the clown. It's not weird. It's not new. Do you even like the character, at least, or you're just using him to say how kinky and quirky you are? (And I don't even care about the sexualization of characters because, again, fictional characters are fictional characters and you don't have to take everything so seriously. I have tons of characters I don't like that much but only stan because I find them hot and that's alright. But damn, it bothers me sometimes).

Anyway, with this, I wanna say that there are other things to have in mind when talking about this.

Recently (I know it's not exactly new but in fandom years? Recently) there has been a huge thing surrounding the term "old men yaoi". People are so down bad for middle-aged men and they see two of them together and they instantly go "omg they're soo married" but that's- That's it? That's just it. They don't even ship them, they just find the concept of older men hot because "omg he's such a dilf" and they want to fuck both of them. But they never end up doing anything with it. They try to be so groundbreaking like "ohh I am SO woke by shipping these two old men! See? Breaking stereotypes!" because both irl and online, age has always been a very stigmatized thing. Apparently you can't be in a fandom if you're older than 25 because then you're weird, and if there's an actress older than 50 she's instantly useless for the industry.

What I want to say with this is that most people in the fandom are young. They're young and they like attractive, young, hot people and they don't want old, unconventionally attractive men. They don't want them unless it's to give a "hot take" and to be super progressive and woke. Do you know what they like? They like Dilfs. They like Shanks because he's conventionally attractive and good with kids and he's the standard for a Dilf. Because he's hot and mysterious but also silly and quirky and "he's almost forty that is so hot something something daddy kink". And they don't want to see him fucking someone his age because God forbid this man has a personality outside being a Dilf. Younger people in the fandom constantly read y/n fics regarding Shanks because they want him to fuck them and not Buggy. And they can't project in these old men, so they publicly say "oh, Shanks and Buggy are so married" because it's just a fact the fandom made clear, but they don't really like the content. Because liking Buggy sexually, apparently, is just so weird. Or as a character. Nobody wants to say their favorite character is the failguy clown. It's a hot take when you say that Buggy is hot because people keep being all weird about it when... Uh... He's- He's just a clown. Guys. It's not weird. Or bad. Who raised you to think that? God, I find Monet extremely hot and she's half-bird. Could we please normalize these things? They're fictional characters. And also, stop reducing Buggy to his jokes or the fact that he's a clown because his character is GREAT and complex and it just bothers me so much.

This makes me think about this whole "background couple" thing. Which are basically couples that are canon or that are so popular and obvious that people, instead of making content for them (because why would you make content for a canon couple?) just place them in the background instead. There are so many fanfics in which Shuggy is a background couple. Or studies in which, instead of analyzing them, they're used only for parallelisms. This happens with, idk, Saboala? Frobin? Yamace? People don't like couples that everybody agrees on. They don't like m/f ships because they can't be woke!!!!! And queer!!!! (when they easily could but whatever). They don't like ships that everybody likes because!!!!!! They're canon already and why would you write about them???? And so, Shuggy stays a bit more as a side couple instead. For being old and unconventionally unattractive and not having much screentime, but being extremely popular. Not in a "content" way, but in a "knowledge" way. Even the general audience thinks their bond is crucial to the story, c'mon.

One of the differences that this side of the fandom has with the Japanese one, as I mentioned before, is the cancel culture and proship discourse thing. They just don't have that concept. And that's perfect, honestly, I wish we could just scroll past what we don't like too and live peacefully because the discourse is getting tiring. And also you have to admit that, because of the anti propaganda going around, now fandoms have turned into the most puritan thing in the world. Beware! Sex! Age difference between fictional characters that have a consensual and healthy and mature relationship! Oh! God forbid teenagers have sex with people their age! Ohmygodjustshutup. And so, Shuggy isn't a problematic ship. Not even close. But inside the OP world, people do say they are brothers. They keep talking about each other like that, too. And I don't even think it's the typical "we say they're like brothers so you don't think they're gay because they're both guys and guys can't kiss" (I am having flashbacks from the IT fandom). They do have the same parents. Like- We all agree Shanks and Buggy were both raised by Roger and Rayleigh and they consider them, if not their dads, parental figures at least. Right? And you're aware that doesn't make it incest, right? Both things can coexist. Foster families are a thing. Lots of people who grew up together and consider the same people their parental figures end up dating because they don't see each other as siblings. Well, most people don't see it this way and hear the word "brother" and run from it like it's a fucking virus. The Japanese side of the fandom doesn't give a fuck because they're fictional and because they're y'know, not brothers? And even if they were, cancel culture and proship discourse is so fucking stupid to them because they follow the "don't like don't look" thing. But on this side of the fandom, a lot of people see them as brothers and the other half sees them as a divorced couple and apparently nobody knows how to fucking read this manga and have a proper fandom experience without jumping to each other's throats at the minimum disagreement.

So, to summarize: People on this side of the fandom don't like Shuggy THAT much and it isn't such a popular ship in comparison to the Japanese side, because young people don't like older men together, they don't focus on unconventionally attractive characters, are afraid of any little possibility of cancelation, and also, well, Shuggy doesn't have much screentime anyway so there's not much we can do with that.

#oh shit this is long #and i think i got a bit carried away #but yeah i am surprised the ship isn't more famous tbh #also have in mind that people read the manga but a huge side of the fandom are anime only and chapter 1082 is quite important for shuggy #and please PLEASE if you start discourse right now for the proship/anti thing i am going to jump off a bridge do not do that it's dumb #i got a bit angry at the end i am sorry #one piece #shuggy

[thephoenixdescendant]

HEADCANON: HOW THE BF5 TEXT YOU

a/n: hello hello how are ya? I know I've been fucking dead for what, 2 years and then I come back giving ya random headcanons and disappear again for a few months and again randomly come back. I'm a goddamn mess and I'm sooo sorry. I just have poor time management skills and poor mental health. And also lack of motivation. Anywayyyys, here are some headcanons which I have been planning to write for a long time but keep forgetting to do so (also I don't know whether this headcanon was already done or not).

Vert Wheeler

Okay, so this man likes to use proper grammar. Will take his time to text back and NEVER the type to leave you on read, because he thinks it’s rude to do so.

He don’t really use the newer slang a lot.

Uses emojis as a way to express his emotions, and it’s quite literal.

Like this man uses the “😭” as a sign that he’s upset.

Uses the “😂”, “😄”, “❤️”, emoji’s quite a lot.

Long paragraphs about how much he loves you, paragraphs about what happened during missions are to be expected.

Agura Ibaden

Just like Vert, she doesn’t really use newer slang.

Only uses ”😀” emoji.

Will only leave you on read if she’s busy. Otherwise she’ll text back.

Will send you multiple texts but not enough for her to blow up your phone with notifications.

Flirts with you A TON. She may not look like a flirt but, she is. Only to you.

Zoom Takazeumi

Uses a TON of newer slang.

He sends you loooong paragraphs if he’s feeling very romantic and if he deeply misses you if you’re away. But if he’s feeling normal and as always being the goofball he is, he likes to send you short multiple messages.

Uses a lot of emojis.

Zoom: Babe, I miss you so much aaaahhhhh Love you!!! ❤️❤️❤️💗💗💗💗💗💞💞💕💓💓💓💋💋💋💋💋❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️❤️‍🔥❤️🥰💗💘💓💞💋💞💋💗💘💓💋💞💕💜🧡🩵💚💕💞💋❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥💕💋💞💕💋❤️🥰❤️❤️🥰❤️🥰🥰💕💕❤️

Never leaves you on read.

Sherman Cortez

Sometimes, you wonder whether if it’s his grandma texting because he texts are so….old people-ish?

He will legit sends you Good Morning and Good Night Images. Something like this:

Very sweet and romantic when he has a full on convo with you.

He usually never leaves you on read and when he does, expect a bunch of apologies and a string of “I love you”’s

His texts range from short to large paragraphs.

He uses slang rarely

Uses a shit ton of emoji’s like Zoom.

Spinner Cortez

Uses a lot of slang

Uses emoji’s more than words tbh.

Obviously, short texts.

Will leave you on read, and will apologize if you get pissed off.

The type to send you a lot of memes. If someone looks through your text messages with him, it’ll mostly be memes that you send each other and reactions from both of you.

Stanford Isaac Rhodes

He’s British and from the royal family…so no slang. He kind of hates it tbh.

Flirts with you (obviously) and also will have a full on convo with you while he’s on the mission (Vert doesn’t appreciate this)

Will send you audios of him singing songs that he wrote. It’s obviously about you.

Sends you selfies of him with a text saying “I miss you, my little angel”

Short texts, but like a bunch of them. Enough to blow up your phone.

Will get insanely nervous if you don’t text him back within an hour if you’re away.

Tezz Volitov

This man is complicated.

This man just doesn’t text and it’s not because he doesn’t like it. He forgets to message people and let them know that he’s fucking alive.

You have to be the one to message him first and he’ll message you back shortly after. (Or like a day later. Depends on how busy he is)

Does not use emoji’s.

There are days were he is the first one to text and those are verrryyy rare. (DO NOT poke him too much on that, that will make him sulk)

AJ Dalton

Blows up your fucking phone with a long line of messages.

And half of the long line of texts are just him correcting himself from that fucking annoying autocorrect.

Sends a bunch of pictures of himself. Either of him taking selfies with random things he finds during missions or of him making goofy faces.

Replies to your messages INSTANTLY. He’s actually looking forward for your message.

Uses a shit ton of emoji’s as well.

#battle force 5 #bf5 #hot wheels battle force 5 #hot wheels bf5 #hot wheels #hwbf5 #vert wheeler #agura ibaden #stanford isaac rhodes iv #zoom takazeumi #sherman cortez #spinner cortez #tezz volitov #aj dalton

[welcometoteyvat]

thanks for sharing the post. have the user blocked. hate it when people apply western (e.g. english) practices and cultures to other practices and cultures. it is not the same :( either way, what is the canto accent? i am not a native chinese so i don’t know what’s the accent they gave gaming. could you explain (if you can!)

oh no problem i don't think it was like a terrible post on the relative scale of internet takes, but op pissed me off lol like a native canto speaker spoonfeeds you info and you just refuse to engage with it. it's not even being curious it's just dense as hell. they eventually came around but man the reading comprehension-

anyways the canto accent—idk how to describe it tbh. some of the syllables sound more canto? like the way they're broken up and which words get more emphasis etc. tons of ppl (on bilibili) said it sounds like very realistic/authentic "guangpu" which is shorthand for cantonese accented standard chinese. the best example of this imo is when he says 本领嘛 (běnlǐng ma) in the suanni papercut teaser; the stress/emphasis on each syllable like separates them a lot more than in mando? ben and ling especially sound sharper when he said it, like if you use more force w your tongue/lips to pronounce the b and l sounds. i am not a linguist so this could be completely off (but there's more unrelated talk about canto vs mando under the cut)

the more explainable thing he does is use phrases that aren't used in standardized mandarin. 我埋单(wo3 máidān) ("my treat" in eng dub) is a canto phrase—i think(?) mandarin speakers would say 我结账 (wo jiézhàng). 埋 means bury in mandarin, but in cantonese it can mean to close/settle (accounts), or come together (as in closing a wound). closing the check in this case ig. importantly 埋单(canto) and 买单(mǎidān, mandarin) do not mean the same thing (unlike i originally thought haha), even though the tones are v similar

he also says 勤力点 (qínlì diǎn) during the suanni trailer which i assume would be 尽力点 (?) (jìnlì diǎn) in mando, they both mean the same thing (to work hard) it's just diff words. qin is the first word of qinkuai 勤快, hardworking

his 喔 (wo, filler word) and 哪(na, also filler word, except he says it like 那哈 na ha to me lol) also just sounds so canto jfsdkfj. they both exist in mando and are used but idk the pronunciation sounds a bit diff?

DISCLAIMER: this is all written by a mando only speaker. I watched the trailer and just listened to everything gaming said that I've never heard spoken in mandarin before, then searched it up to see if it was actually canto, but I do not speak Cantonese. if any of this info is incorrect please tell me, i don't want to spread misinfo. thank you! <3

cantonese vs mandarin rambling utc

more about how the accent differs: I thought about this q a bit and ended up searching for canto text to speech. This likely won't help much, since ga-ming spoke accented mandarin, not entirely cantonese, but if you're curious and want to hear the differences between standard mandarin and canto, you can go to https://fanyi.baidu.com/#zh/yue/ and paste some chinese text into this, and click on the speaker/audio button at the bottom of the text boxes to hear it spoken. the left is mandarin, the right is cantonese. if you'd like you can also paste the text into google translate, which will give you the mandarin pinyin. i extracted some of gaming's most noticeable lines here if u wanna try. Honestly, it might be more helpful to listen to his lines in mandarin and then listen to gaming's version to see if you can hear any differences, because his audio from the livestream is a lot closer to mandarin than cantonese

舞兽戏 你们听说过没有 (said in standard mandarin, beginning of 4.4 trailer)

舞兽戏在沉玉谷地区还是很有名的喔 (at 0:10, 4.4 trailer)

去新月轩喝个早茶怎么样？(std mandarin) 我埋单 我埋单 (at 0:31 in the 4.4 trailer)

本领嘛 多学多练 勤力点，总能行的。哪，你看文仔也觉得对喔！(1:38 in tidings of an auspicious beast)

"所以是真的吗，老先生" is the one other thing he says in the suanni PV, but there's a very slight difference that i don't know if i'm hallucinating it

there are 2 more lines that I didn't include (his skill and burst voicelines) but i can't tell if there's much diff in his accent. his skill sounds a tad diff but idk if im just not familiar with the words L

#anyways. hi anon. thanks for the q! i hope this helps! sorry about the late answer haha #ga-ming #gaming #gaming genshin #嘉明 #teyvat thoughts #genshin impact #asks #anon ask

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

I don't think Layover did great tbh. Terrible on YouTube (including all his MVs, Tiny Desk, and music show performances), underperformed in the biggest music markets, did poorly on k-charts (that debut was abysmal compared to the other members), predicted for less first week albums in the US than D-Day despite an extra version (but waiting on chart). Here’s a chart I’ve seen floating around Twitter that gives a good idea. Probably need to verify some of it, but I think it’s mostly accurate...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6LDbz4bYAADB7M?format=jpg&name=medium

His fanbases started working really hard on his first week Spotify streams when they realized he wasn’t doing great anywhere else, so he ended up with higher first week streams than FACE and LC, but barely, and most of his streams came from SEA (which isn’t a big deal or anything, but a lot of it was definitely from mass streaming farms). He also had a massive day 8 drop and allegedly way lower than day 8 for FACE. And let’s note that Layover has one extra song instead of an interlude too. He’s also higher on some official album charts, but that’s only because FACE wasn’t eligible because it’s an EP. He had much bigger overall album sales, but we were expecting that with vbar. I think they bought like 840k? So over 1/3 of his sales.

Unless I’m missing some achievements or got something wrong (I haven’t kept up with everything), I think it was a pretty meh debut considering all the promo he did and the fact that he’s “the most popular member”. They only have those first week streams, pretty sure. LMA has had good longevity though, so I guess we'll see. And BTW, they’re saying his hot100 performance was hurt because of DC2 sales being gone, which, sure, but he had 50k Slow Dancing CDs to compensate, way more than LC, and they couldn't even completely sell them out. I think his stans were using VPN to buy on iTunes in the US too because a few days in he went from 1 to 44 on iTunes chart with no explanation and never recovered. Curious what his final sales end up being. I'm not saying he did bad, but I don't think it's really anything to brag about either... I haven't seen a ton of objective people talking about it though so idk for sure.

The spreadsheet is killing me hahahs #dedication. I would like to know the missing numbers and positions, tho! Still, thank you.

I knew about kcharts, youtube, albums, and first week on spotify for the album. I saw some number that I assume included his prereleases, and it really is nothing major considering the first tracks released, and the fact that it had one more song than face. Just five minutes ago I saw that on their 8th day, like crazy (combined) had the same number of streams as Taehyung's entire album??

Sidenote: if there's one thing I was forced to learn this year, is how much difference combined versions of a song can make.

I don't think he had that much of international promo, or at least I didn't see it. I know he's been to A LOTTT of korean shows, and also his promo for pre-releases was already longer than Jimin's, but I think he just comes across as a really uninteresting person so I don't know if people would actually tune in to his music, no matter how many times they see him on TV. He definitely got more than Jimin, that's 1000% for sure, even if we consider the MVs alone; he got the same thing Jimin was denied.

I knew he'd get more albums sales, because past experience. And I knew they'd try hard to stream to break some "records", even if it won't hold up for too long. I also knew he doesn't really have many fans in the US, (I still think Jimin's the most popular member there). I've also been saying since the day I opened this blog that his "popularity" is overrated and he's never really been in the same league as Jimin when it comes to music. I blew off so many people here who would come up to me and try to convince me he was competition to Jimin or better than him in some way.

I guess the only thing I'm surprised with is youtube. I got his tiny desk video on my homepage today (saved it to watch later) and it has less than 300k views.......... It's kinda crazy. I wonder if part of the reason he got his visual album was because his youtube numbers were usually better than everyone else's combined and they believed he'd do good.

Oh, and the songs credits. It's unbelievable to me that he did NOTHING on it. People who work on songs get credits even for writing two words, so I just can't wrap my mind around the fact that he didn't do anything at all.

I'm also curious if they would've restocked the digital CD had it been sold out, but my gut tells me they wouldn't have, or it would've been just one more, and a smaller batch.

[milkweedman]

what do you recommend for dying with beets? Use raw fiber, batts or already spun yarns? Cotton or wool? Do I have to shred up the beets or can I use the juice in the can and eat the beets myself ? Does it smell like beets? Use color fixer or something more natural? Dyou tbink I can like speckle it on an already commercially dyed pink yarn for pops of darker pink? or dip dye it for pink gradients?

Tbh I would recommend absolutely none of this, for the sole reason that beets, like red cabbage and tumeric, do not produce lasting dyes. The colors you get from them don't want to stick to things and even if you do manage to transfer color from the dyebath to your fiber, it will come out pretty quickly (within months at best) and usually the end result is something that kind of just looks stained.

To attempt to answer most of your questions though (which are very good questions, but would be answered with an unequivocal No if you're asking them about beets specifically):

I personally prefer dyeing things as washed fleece (not raw--you need to remove the dirt and lanolin or no dye will stick). It feels safest to me and I enjoy the extra freedom it gives over dyeing as yarn--with dyed fleece I can alter the color just by mixing other things in as I card it, or I can pull out the most vibrantly dyed sections and process them separately for different effects, etc. But it's entirely personal preference, and you can dye either yarn or fiber using natural materials without much difference.

I would not recommend dyeing batts using any traditional dyeing methods (except perhaps solar dyeing, which is very gentle), as the likelihood that you come out of it with a batt that's still spinnable, at least without reprocessing, is definitely lower than with fleece. I have heard of people dyeing batts by cooking them in a tray of dyebath in the oven, but I've never tried it and can't speak to how well it works. Batts should be alright with acid dyes, but natural dyes are (for the most part) not instant and require more time, heat, exposure, etc.

Wool is much easier to dye than cotton. I would always recommend testing new dyeing ideas on wool rather than a plant based fiber if possible.

Dicing or grating the dye material is not strictly necessary but is a good idea for larger or less permeable materials--for example, I don't bother shredding avocado peels because they just don't need it as they're very thin. But I do always chop avocado pits into small pieces, because cooking whole avocado pits is not very energy efficient, and possibly would not get all the dye out.

I definitely would not recommend trying to dye things using cans of food (especially the juice or canning water from said foods). You will get better, more vibrant color with fresh dye materials than with dried or frozen dye materials, and I have to imagine that extends to canned goods as well. Generally you also want to use both the juice and the fruit/vegetable/whatever, as you'll get a lot more color that way. I suppose if you were only dyeing a tiny amount of fiber, just using, say, blueberry juice and keeping the blueberries to continue cooking into jam, you'd be fine. Same if you had tons of blueberries and could easily amass large amounts of blueberry juice. But a definite limiting factor in natural dyeing is the amount of dye material that you can get your hands on, so people usually use all of that material instead of trying to reserve parts of it for eating.

I have never found that the smell of the dye material transfers to wool when it's dyed. Once it's dry it just smells like wool. Not necessarily the case with plant fibers, but I would generally not worry about making your wool smell like food permanently.

I don't know what color fixer is (the only thing with that exact name that came up was a laundry detergent for colored clothes that may have fugitive dyes--definitely do not use this in the place of a mordant), but the majority of natural dyes need things called mordants to adhere the color to the material. The more natural types of mordants are minerals (copper and iron are very commonly used) or tannins (such as from soaking acorns or from walnut hulls). Unless you are using a dye material that doesn't need a mordant (indigo and woad, for example, are well known for not needing mordants--although you also can't just throw them in a pot with water and simmer for a while to extract the dye from them, it's more involved than that. So there are trade offs), you will always need to mordant your fiber to get a good and long lasting color. For example, if you want to dye some wool with yellow onion skins and you don't mordant the wool, you will still end up with dyed wool. But it's a very light wheat color. If you want rich colors, you need to use a mordant.

Natural dyes are not suited for speckling yarns. Acid dyes work great for that, but natural dyes usually require you to fully immerse the fiber in the dyebath, and then expose it to heat over a long period of time. I do know that you can get speckled yarns using resist dyeing methods--essentially, if you take a skein of yellow yarn and tie sections of it very tightly and then dye it all in a red dyebath, you would get a primarily red (or reddish orange, perhaps) yarn with yellow speckles wherever those ties were. So that is one method that you could use to get a speckled yarn with natural dyes. But the method you're suggesting (just speckling it with a paintbrush or your hands for pops of different colors) is not suited to natural dyes. The most likely outcome of that would be no obvious change whatsoever. The second most likely outcome is probably just yarn with intermittent and random stains.

Natural dyes are not suited to dip dyeing, either. I think you could potentially get it to work, or at least get similar effects--you could mordant a piece of fabric/hank of yarn and then cook it in the dyebath like normal except leave part of it sitting next to and above the pot, which would then remain undyed. But whether the yarn would felt or get weird or whether there would be any unforeseen complications, that I don't know. It sounds like a good thing to experiment with once you already have some foundational knowledge of natural dyeing. But I wouldn't recommend it as a first project, for sure.

It sounds like the parts of dyeing that you have an interest in are better suited to acid dyes, so that might be a better route for you to go down ! If you do want to try natural dyes, I would recommend starting out with some good beginner dye materials, such as onion skins (by far the easiest and least bad-smelling dye material I've ever used, this would be my firm recommendation). Another good option would be powdered madder or other powdered dye materials (I specifically say madder, though, because it yields beet reds) that can be done without much fuss.

I hope this was helpful !

#i assume (possibly incorrectly) that was prompted by the comment i made in the tags #about dyeing some yarn with beets for my sweater. but that was like... not actually something i was considering #and more a joke to get 'beet colored yarn' that is not the color of beets but is color FROM beets #which would not be good color. hence the joke #i learnt my lesson about dyeing things with beets as a kid bc the one year my family got tasked with making #the pascha eggs for our church my mom dyed them with beets and guess what happened ? #they were sort of a weird off brown and the color came off every time you touched it and then stained the hands #it doesn't work and shouldnt be tried on anything that you care about or need to get good results with #by all means if youre determined to get good lasting color out of beets give it a few shots #but try it with scrap and in small amounts so that you dont waste the stuff that is almost certainly about to be ruined #by beets. #i do love beets but they dyeing is not among their many uses #natural dye #natural dyeing

[tetrakys]

this was never in the history of forever ever gonna happen and i understand why it didn't and why it won't but i would've died 1000 deaths for a male mc in mcl. not even just in new gen, i would've loved to be gay asf in hsl, ul and ll too:') this isn't like a critique or anything but a guy can dream right😂😂?

lol anyway, just wondering if maybe you have any recs for otome with male/gn mc? or if not if you know someone who might? mcl is the only one I've ever gotten really into so i don't know about any other games like it 🙃

I'm sorry, friend. I really wish you and everyone were able to play the game as you wish and wouldn't have to "adapt" to what is available. Unfortunately some features like a male MC or multiple f/f routes are too expensive for a small company like Beemoov.

Tbh I haven't seen many otome games with a male MC around, otome by definition have female protagonists. There are lots of BL games around though (BL = boys love) where the MC is gender locked as male and all the crushes are male. I've never played one so I can't recommend any but if you look for BL games I'm sure you're going to find a ton!

Other than BL/yaoi games, there are games with no visuals of the MC so you can assume they are whatever gender you prefer (oten they let you choose pronouns). Generally these games have no illustrations or they do but only show the crushes alone without the MC. A few names I can think of are Arcana, Obey Me, Touchstarved (only the demo is out at the moment), When The Night Comes and other games from the same company (iirc there was some drama around it but I'm not informed). Again, take a look around because there are many! I think these games are generally referred to as Amare games, because they have the same formula of otome games but aren't strictly aimed at a female audience.

The only otome game with visuals I can think of which attempted to have both female and male MC and also multiple routes (5 male and 5 female) is Sweet Elite. However, I would say that it failed in this attempt, because in 12 episodes of the first season, there is only one episode with 1-1 illustrations with the crushes, then there is one episode where there are illustrations of the crushes alone, and everything else is group illustrations, max 2 or 3 per episode. (To me it ended up feeling more like a friendship game than a romance game.)

So, clearly, it's even more proof that when games have a big visual component and also offer customisation, it's basically impossible to have two genders MC. Unless it's a huge company producing them, but I'm not even sure that's the case because Is It Love? games for example were produced by Ubisoft and they didn't even offer look customisation, let alone gender customisation.

Another suggestion I can give you, is to check out mobile apps such as Chapters, Choices and Episodes. These aren't exactly otome games, but more similar to romance books translated as games. They have huge libraries and several titles are either gender locked yaoi or you can pick your own gender. You can even customise the looks of the MC and the crushes, but of course there are no CGs.

Oh, and one last thing that comes to mind, another option for you could be to check out dating app simulation games, basically fake tinder apps, they have lots of crushes each one with their own story, you can choose pronouns but your avatar will never appear in game or in CGs. A few names I remember are MeChat, Love Link, Love Verse, but I'm sure there are more. The stories can be quite entertaining so I suggest you check them out. (I remember MeChat had both a Lysander and a Castiel lookalikes).

So really, there are SO MANY games around that there's no need to stick to one where we have to adapt to game features we don't like. Ultimately MCL's main target audience are straight, cis women (with a very small offering of f/f routes) and I wouldn't stick to it if I weren't one. I remember when I started playing 11 years ago and I was looking for more games in a language I could understand and I could find very little, now instead there's so much competition that there's something for literally everyone.

Good luck with your search, let me know if you find anything you like! 💕

#game rec #otome games #amare games #my candy love #mcl #if anyone has more recommendations please help the anon out!

[ursie]

genuine question: if devin wrote dick as romani in a hurtful way, why does fandom seem so intent to keeping him romani while decrying the writer that made him romani in the first place? like, if it came from such racist/hurtful archetypes then why cling to it so much? (in contrast, i've seen people say that headcanoning tim as asian is bad because of sterotypes, which is why i don't understand the difference.) i barely read past the 80s comics i grew up with, i just read a ton of fandom arguments and the contrast between "dick IS romani" vs "tim ISN'T asian" is like. i don't understand it? i know fandom isn't a monolith but there are trends overall. idk, i figured you seemed like a "safe" person to ask this question in good faith. hope it doesn't upset you! thanks for taking the time to read and/or answer this. <3

Ok so the thing is bad rep is worse than no rep-yes but erasure is worse too so the solution isn’t to erase but to fix it and there has been genuine effort in canon and by Romani people in the fandom to address Dicks rep. While it’s undeniably rooted in some stereotypes there’s also no denying how important Dicks character is. He’s undeniably the most popular Roma character of all time and that’s an issue when people won’t acknowledge he’s Roma. He’s multifaceted and smart and brave and complicated and undeniably good ect these are really good characteristics for any character let alone one to represent any group of people. The best thing dc could do is either hire Roma writers (or Roma editors/sensitivity readers/ect) they need Roma people in the workroom not less Roma characters in comics. Because at the end of the day If we wait for perfect rep before we acknowledge it we’re not going to get it and that goes for any marginalized identity. People cannot know other’s peoples lived experience-which is why we need to push for our voices in the room. Almost all the diverse characters in comics nowadays started as stereotypes and were stereotypes til someone said no and chose to do the work so they could write them better or at least try-that’s what needs to be done. I think it’s funny (and this isn’t at you) that with Dick given his importance given his cultural influence people push for erasure due to some writing flaws when that’s not and never been the case canon or fanon for other characters I mean have you read early black panther? It’s not good. I think people need to reflect if they actually have an issue with how he’s written or if they not only don’t want to view him as Roma but don’t want to put in their own work of looking past the stereotypes either. Also tbh while you’ll see people tote that Roma people don’t like his rep (which I’m not saying there’s none who don’t) the posts that are most commonly referenced are by non Romani people (and one is by a total freak so yeah). In current canon Dick is probably about 1/4th “ethnically” Roma (though that hardly matters he’s Roma hes roma like. Roma is a race he’s just not white) but also in preboot, dick's father was a kalderash-american rom, dick also spoke lovari dialect in preboot. as of post flashpoint, dick's mom is an american roma but her vitsa is not confirmed, so i just like to hc john was kalderash and mary was lovara personally 🥰 like again the best thing dc can do is actually talk about the Graysons, Mary’s family, ect and make them human. Make them more than stereotypes. Actually talk about his culture and his family and his people-not just brush it under a rug until they reference it for diversity points later

As for your other question/point to me the difference between hcing a character as a different race vs like Dick is the push to view white characters as non white instead of actually making fan content of canon non white characters? Like it’s almost a white guilt thing w Tim (this is not at fans of color) but like you want to feel good about stanning characters of color but you also. Don’t actually stan a character of color (like Tim or Jason for instance) so you just hc them as non white (and yes often stereotypically) instead of like reading a single comic w Duke in it. Like racebending is fine and I think it’s good but when done by white fans it’s often actually done to like justify their distance from actual canon characters of color. Like I’m glad you think Tim’s Asian but you still won’t draw fanart of the batfam w Duke in it in 2022 yknow? You still prioritize Jason over Cass but you think he’s Latine, you hc Steph as ambiguously brown but you still characterize Damian in a racist manner, ect. Does that make sense I’m not actually sure I’m explaining well. Oh and in the case you specified Dick is canonically non white wheras Tim isn’t-and it should be noted that white isn’t the baseline-While no one’s saying writers had any intentions he was never stated to be white before-him being “retconned” as Roma isn’t really fair or true he was simply revealed to be so as again white cannot be treated as the inherent norm (nor should heterosexuality and being cisgender or able bodied) I’m not saying you’re wrong but I think it’s important not to think about that kind of stuff in those terms if that makes sense. I hope I cleared this up. I certainly tried and should you have any more questions my inbox/dms are open

Edit : adding on an important response from @royharper : the bottom line is that people who aren't roma should not be speaking on his identity as a rom because they have no idea what roma identity fully entails. i've seen people claim "he's not culturally connected, therefore he can't be roma" or "he can be white and roma, he's not a person of color" when neither of these things are true. for one, while devin is inconsistent in her writing, dick is shown to be raised within the culture as far back as her titans run in the late 90's, in which he is shown to be speaking romanes with his father in a dream sequence that is heavily implied to be a flashback of sorts, and as well lian states that dick can speak romanes when discussing the various languages that her dad, aunts, and uncles can speak. language /is/ culture for us, it's not something that any outsider can just learn super easily. it was really strange that she retconned this herself by the time gotham knights was written a few years later through the character yoska, who attempts to speak romanes with dick and finds that he can't understand him, however using this, along with the orientalist stereotypes devin tried to impose on both dick and yoska when writing about roma identity, as an excuse to say that dick is not "really a rom" is racist. outsiders do not understand the nuances of roma identity enough to make that judgement, and no, wikipedia is not an accurate source for information about roma. touching on the idea that roma can be white, this is a misconception. while outsiders may be folded into the community by marriage or adoption, this is not very common because we don't tend to marry or adopt outside of our communities. furthermore, roma is not an ethnicity. roma is our race. our ethnicities are our clans. there are roma with pale skin, there are even roma that appear white, but they are still racially roma and are still subject to racial discrimination. in response to the idea that there is an outpouring of roma fans who don't want dick to be roma at all, this simply isn't true. that rumor was originally started by someone who was outed as a racefaker, and is perpetuated by white fans who seek to weaponize this perspective to justify their whitewashing and racism. i've known more roma who were, while still critical of devin's orientalism/antiromanyism, ecstatic to have a roma comic character who actually speaks the language, as in comparison to doctor doom and the maximoff twins, who are arguably just as popular, who do not speak romanes in comics, or have only spoken one or two words of the language. dick is important in terms of representation for this fact alone. i can't fathom the amount of people who are not roma who think that just because roma characters are often subject to stereotypical writing that it's somehow better to simply erase their racial identity all together rather than doing their own research to avoid stereotypes when portraying the characters and pushing for these companies to start hiring roma creatives as we do with /every other character of color because not a SINGLE character of color in comics history has been entirely free of racist, stereotypical writing or of colorism and whitewashing in official artwork/. and yet you don't see people pushing for other characters of color to be made white. it's really very telling to me. and just for the record, since i know this is for some reason a popular talking point, dick's race was not retconned after devin initially wrote him as roma. his race has been referenced across numerous other comics written by other writers over the years, most notably tim seeley in his run of nightwing rebirth. while i have issues with seeley's characterization of dick, and he tends to sexualize him just as much if not more than devin imo, dick's racial identity plays a big role in the raptor arc. stop acting like devin was the only writer to ever write dick as a rom and that it was never seen or heard of again in canon after she stopped working on nightwing.

#also to clarify because I don’t want people thinking I think otherwise racebending is good just not when you do it to ignore other canon #characters of color yknow? #like that was my point. #asks #long post #dick grayson #ask to tag #anti Romani racism #Tim Drake #Jason Todd #Nightwing #Robin #Batman #I babble

[seahdalune]

Seana's 2023 art highlights

(surprisingly, not a reupload this time!)

January: i drew nothing! we're off to a great start.

February: i drew something! i love Champ even if i haven't drawn anything tf2 related since April. i think it was this piece where i decided to give Champ RED coloring. [link]

also, this is the month i made my second Moldy plush.... i wasn't very happy with this one, though. [link]

March: uhhhh. more of my tf2 ocs but i think those aren't that interesting. just go to my tf2 oc blog @brokenbrainstormbulb if you wanna see them honestly, i have an image limit to keep ffs. that said, this was around the time i got into TC2, so i drew a lot of that kind of stuff... i'm never drawing stuff for it ever again, sorry. [link]

April: look at the cool thing i drew for a fellow tf2 robot fan! now, this is the point in time where i start drawing more because of a certain interest, so look forward to all the art that'll come up here.....

May: wow, this really was my first public piece of Papa Louie art, huh. i was so proud of it when i showed it off on tumblr the first time... i don't like it as much anymore. for one, the office wall color is wrong.... i still can't believe Papa Louie was what got me out of art block, but god, i'm glad it did. i don't think i've drawn this much before, and even though the community's tiny, i'm glad to give back as much as i can. anyways, i said something like "it's so funny that people think they're either super married or divorced as hell" on the same post. i still think that, and it's defos funny as hell, but i've grown a kind of appreciation towards the ship as well. like yeah, you go girls, we love that extra slow burn with so many road bumps on the way! [link]

June: how the hell did i pump this out. this was also like a few days before i had to leave for the airport too... i don't know myself sometimes. i swear i still love Boigashipping! i just... i'm just busy with other ships okkkk [link]

July: i didn't draw anything...? i was in Bali. and i was busy selling adopt designs to draw anything substantial, oopsie! actually, i DID draw the first part of WDB... it's uh, still the only part. i'm sorry!!!! i'm sorry!!!! i swear i have the whole thing outlined!!! can you just give me anons about the story instead so you won't have to wonder what comes next!! [link]

August: TOSI fixation. it had not gone past it's conceptual stage, i must note. i do wish i would do something about it though. [link]

September: the art trade i did with my friend! actually, i was a few weeks late with my part, so it was supposed to be finished by August. oops. i like the textures tbh. my Chuseok drawings.... i need to draw more characters in hanbok, hee hee. [link]

October: (breaths in) ...this is the month i finally gave into the JoGotcha wantings. LOOK. ever since someone put the idea into my brain i couldn't get enough of it, and like,, nobody draws the ship anymore so i had to take matters into my own hands. this is the first ship i'm this obsessed with. i usually leave ship stuff to other people but this time that wasn't enough and i... i had to do SOMETHING, y'know? [link]

Cringetober? who's that? haha;; i stopped feeling like doing the whole list after less than a week. impressive.

November: oh look, Plushy Power League. Quinn didn't win, but i do like the thing i drew as propaganda, so whateves. the first Papa Louie character i ever drew (minus Chuck and Taylor)... did i change how i draw her? uhh. maybe? i'm not too sure. [link]

also look! the keychain drawing... i need to talk about my Gods and Monsters au again at some point. actually, since i last uploaded the image of my keychain, i revised it tons... it's kinda different now, and i defos think it looks better. this is actually the time i finally fixed the stupid display setting thing that was really messing up my coloring! [link 1] [link 2]

December: ...oops! tablet broke. and i got my 3ds back so i just didn't draw that much even after exams were over. didn't stop me from drawing though, and in fact i think i made something pretty neat with my christmas art.... even if it did come one day late. [link]

wow. that's a whole year of stuff... and that's defos a lot! i think i'm really happy with what i drew this year.... i don't know what was in my water the last few years but my art highlights felt really.... miserable? for some reason. i mean, yeah, i didn't do a lot of what i had planned (GOE ANIMATIC IM SORRY) but i can see that i've done just as much with my hands anyways, so like, who cares? plus, i always have next year... that's coming in 3 hours, oh god- so, maybe i won't be too hard on myself for not fulfilling my goals... like, i kinda glossed over it, but i did sell my designs for money, and that's like, really impressive! so many people around me buy and sell their art stuff already, so i guess i didn't really register it as something to be proud of... but doing that shit (making, and marketing) is hard!! so like, it's a wow moment for me!

anyways, i'm tired, i only came back home a few hours ago, and i need to get up again for church in a few hours.... mrphgdjd. lets stop being sentimental, and i'll see you people next year. that's a long way off! hope you don't miss me.

#dalune recap #dalune recap 2023

[not-poignant]

Wooooheeee merch!! Me is excited!!! Food for thought, maybe you could start a kickstarter campaign or something to cover publishing costs? I know they have a publishing category 🤔 I don't exactly know their policies so it's best to check further but I've definitely seen erotica books/art campaigns on there. Might be a good idea?

Hi anon,

I think this is a cool idea if you're a) American and b) can get to a post office, lol.

The thing is, I can't do anything that would involve me fulfilling orders from my house.

Firstly, there's simply too many books to cover (Game Theory would have to be broken down into 4 volumes, with the possibility of a 2-part release later on). I don't want to run complicated and stressful Kickstarter campaigns every 6 months forever. (Not to mention, frankly, that most Kickstarter campaigns fail to earn the amount they need, and I'm still figuring out how to make minimum wage via Patreon).

I do not have the spoons to think about dealing with the shipment costs (let alone the fact that I can't drive or catch public transport and therefore get to post offices) of extremely heavy, chunky books. But what I do know is that a lot of readers will be extremely put off by shipping costs easily in excess of $50-100 alone - not including the books or the tax on the books. Australia has one of the highest tax rates for books in the world, we have some of the must punitive shipping charges (some of your favourite Australian artists use drop shippers and this is why), etc. I used to ship small original pieces of art internationally, about half the size of a piece of paper, and extremely light-weight, and the *starting price* for shipping was around $30 USD. For heaver books it shoots up immediately.

For this reason, I actually have zero confidence in how this is actually going to work out without using a drop-shipper and distributor like IngramSpark. Mosk Kickstarters don't fulfill out of Australia wherever possible. And I have no intention of paying thousands of dollars to put books in my tiny cottage, only to realise I've shafted myself and all my international readers (which is...nearly all of you) by forcing everyone to pay an extra 10% GST on the book itself along with the extortionate postage prices for what will be, honestly, heavy books (postage is calculated by weight). Not to mention that I then can't get to a post office, and am completely dependent on other people to help me with that! And then on top of that, I don't believe many books will actually sell, so I'd prefer to use third party vendors wherever possible so I can be not miserable about it. When people can always read the ebooks for free, the only folks who are going to dish out money for paperbacks/hardbacks are going to be the really hardcore fans (I do not have a ton of these, though I love every one of them), or folks who hate ebooks.

Even if I had money at my disposal, I could never use a system like this (Kickstarter / paying for the mass printing of books), and almost no Australian author would, tbh.

On the other hand, aside from the book cover fees, I could technically list a book today on IngramSpark and my only fee would be the ISBNs.

And that's way less stressful than a Kickstarter. ;) And if I get booted for my content, that's just gonna be how it is. It possibly leaves Lulu as an option, but I'd prefer not to go that route mostly because it dumps more of the cost on you folks, and it also eats more profit margins for me.

The biggest issue is and has always been tbh the editing and the fact that chunks of Game Theory need to either be completely rewritten, or removed (the spanking chapter is incredibly OOC), and working out the covers because if the story has to be broken into multiple volumes, continuity in design is vital.

#asks and answers #pia on publishing #i cannot overstate just how punitive shipping costs are in australia when sending internationally #this has been the reason i haven't offered merch for over 7 years via Patreon #and if i do offer merch again it will have to be once every 6 months #and that will be for *extremely light-weight goods* #there's so many things people in the northern hemisphere are privileged to be able to do #especially folks in the USA #which is that you can generally access fast shipping #and generally affordable shipping #did you know in january of last year i couldn't get anything shipped to me from the US #for under $150 #it's better now x.x #but not by much

[chaos0pikachu]

please talk about the bl actors you find absolute shit I love controversial opinions

LMAO puta out here tryin to get me cancelled, rejected, cast out, exiled

sure why not, putting this under a cut b/c no one likes seeing bad opinions on ppl they like so enter at your own risk etc etc:

tbh there's not a ton of them b/c I haven't watched as many shows as other folks. Like, watching shows is difficult tbh especially Thai ones which are like an hour long each episode and have a lot of filler I just can't find it in my soul to do it okay. BUT out of the shows I have watched I've been left pretty unimpressed by:

Ohm from Until We Meet Again: I know he's really well liked, but I'm sorry my dude can't act. Flat. I probably have the most firm opinion on him and I just find myself so thoroughly unimpressed. I think what doesn't help is that Fluke is a good actor.

And I don't just mean the crying, like Fluke, Gun, and First are all good criers right? It's a fandom joke at this point but like, that ability isn't what makes them good actors. You can see their experience on screen, in how they embody the characters they play, the subtle changes in their physicality, how they line read, the way they interact with their costars.

I've said before but I find Pharm to be a pretty boring character, but Fluke gives him enough charm on screen that I don't outright dislike him. Meanwhile Dean is just boring. He's BORING. And Ohm doesn't have the skills to make him not boring. Stoic characters are actually really difficult to play, I actually really liked the performance of Wang Yibo in The Untamed b/c without the use of animation LWJ is a difficult character to play b/c he's so internal and stoic outwardly. But Yibo gives him some humanity with his line reads and his eyes (the lantern scene comes to mind) and I don't even LIKE that show.

Ohm just doesn't have the skills to make the standard stoic romantic hero work, he's to flat, he relies to much on his innate physicality to carry the performance. All that said I haven't watched one of his recent shows so maybe he got better idk!

Bright from 2Gether: Idk if this is popular or not and I didn't even like 2Gether but talk about another dude who can't act woof. Bright reminds me of the mixed actors Netflix always casts in their teen romcom sequels that are hotter than the basic white dude love interest but never win b/c why would they? Anyways he can't act, I liked the other dude Win way more. He had great comedic timing and even when Bright was required to act like happy or joyful it came off as ~Acting~

Off from Theory of Love/Not Me: So lemme say that I don't think Off is a bad actor not like Bright and Ohm flat lmao I just think Gun out acts him at like every corner. I think Off lacks charisma but that's so subjective so I don't talk about it much b/c I know ppl love him/OffGun but like, I don't see it much. Idk OffGun is nice, they're nice! But they're just nice. They're chemistry doesn't wow me or blow me away or anything there's something I find really restrained about them? Like they've been working together for so long they feel more like really good friends than that passionate I want and love you type romance. I will say tho I think Off picks some good projects so good for him

Earth/Mix: FML this one's gonna get me okay so like I don't think either Earth or Mix are bad actors but I think they're a bit idk overhyped? I found 1000 Stars mind numbingly boring - except for Mix's char I loved the char but found the performance a bit lackluster - and they're the least interesting part of Moonlight Chicken for me. They remind me of OffGun where they're such good friends and they've only really worked with each other mainly (I know Earth's worked with other screen partners) that I think it's developed some bad acting habits and they're to comfortable. They don't give me that passionate I want and love you type romance. Which for 1000 Stars, totally fine it wasn't that type of show but I really felt that missing bit in Moonlight Chicken.

Mix was trying hard to give bedroom eyes (and I do think he succeeded!) but tbh I didn't feel the sexual tension between them, I didn't feel the "this is a bad idea but I want you to much to care" vibe. I honestly think Earth was a miscast anyway b/c the char is supposed to be almost 40 and he's fucking 28 irl it's as unbelievable as Jennifer Lawrence at 20-something playing a 40-something in American Hustle.

Earth also plays mostly stoic characters and I think they often come off as boring. I think he's actually pretty funny? His comedic timing is pretty good but he doesn't get to play fun characters! He doesn't have enough experience to give weight to these old characters they keep casting him as.

I think you can really see the difference in the scenes with First and Mix actually. Mix was better but you could see First was leading those scenes. What's truly frustrating is I think Mix could grow as an actor if he wasn't always paired up with Earth. One of the reasons I think First, Gun, and Fluke are so good is b/c of their experience. They act against other people, they take out there projects at times, being locked in a "pairing/ship" just hurts an actors development imo it's limiting and I selfishly hate it

It also doesn't help that Thai BL usually only has shallow secondary relationships between the main chars and supporting characters. Like, one of my gripes with 1000 Stars is all the supporting cast are severely under developed to the point they really are just avatars for "kind village people" they're more of an ideal than actual characters yes even the doctor who was just the standard "best friend who helps the mains hook up".

not to harp on Kinnporsche but one of the best things about the show is the time it takes to make characters interact with other chars outside of their romances. Pete's friendships with Arm, Tankhun, and Pol feel genuine. The mean girls club of Big and Ken feels real (you know those coworkers, you've HAD those coworkers), Porsche and Chay's relationship feels REAL and sincere and valued, Porsche's relationship with Tankhun is funny yes, but contrasted with how Tankhun acts around Kinn and Korn. Kim's isolation adds to his storyline. Kinn's relationship with his brothers is paralleled with Porsche and Chay's. Vegas relationship with Kinn, Gun, Porsche, Pete even Tawan are all so VASTLY different it's amazing to see.

What also helps is seeing what actors bring out what. Like, Bible is a good example, the energy he has with Apo is different than what he had with Build. Like obviously Vegas "love" for Porsche was fake while it was real for Pete but making that distinction clear in your performance matters. And isn't as easy as folks would think.

ok I'm beat that's all for now folks lol

#chaos pikachu talks to damn much

[princesskoriandr]

Does Kory like children and do you think she would ever want to have kids?

Kory does like children:

[ NTT (1980) #29 ]

and the one time she got close to having children in canon, she seemed happy to have them but didn't really say anything that specific about it until Raven went to reveal the gender of her unborn child, saying: "No, Raven...don't say anything more. I want some good surprises to happen."

[ New Titans (1988) #130 ]

she's happy to be with Ph'yzzon but it seems that he's the one that explicitly wants to have children, whereas Kory seems focused on just like creating New Tamaran. and while I don't think she doesn't want kids, I also don't know that she emphatically and, with excitement, wants them either. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Kory wants nothing more than to have a family and, for a long time, the Titans were that family. then she married ph'yzzon and it's clear that he wants a family. so...do with that what you will.

a few years later in the Technis Imperative arc (which tbh is a little bit of a throwaway arc aside from like Raven and Vic) Kory is sort of enveloped by Technis and put into something they called "virtual reality tanks" and her virtual reality includes things that Technis thinks would entice Kory:

her parents, alive, and spending time with three of her and Dick's children. and Kory immediately clocks this because she's apparently less prone to delusions than all the other Titans (maybe, idk) and, while she says it's "wonderful" to see her parents...she doesn't really have anything to say about like the potential of children. she just acknowledges that they don't exist and moves on.

in the two universes where she does have living children, she obviously loves them, even if we don't get a ton of detail about her time with them (literally Kory and Mar'i have one scene together and that's it), but she also only has one child in those universes and not multiple children. so, while it's absolutely canon that Kory loves kids, it's not super clear whether or not she absolutely wants or doesn't want kids. I think she might be open to the possibility but she might be ambivalent or even neutral toward having children.

#there are some other instances I just couldn't find #starfire #koriand'r

[space-blue]

I wanted to let you know that I am super SUPER excited for your recom picrew 😩 it looks beautiful already!! I've got two questions. I wanted to ask how difficult the process is for creating one, I've thought of trying to make a na'vi one myself. Is it complicated with all the layers and all of that? And wanted to also ask if you have any more avatar-related picrew projects planned for the future!

Ahaha, thank you Anon!! I'm excited for it to be over as well tbh. I wanna play with it and more importantly move on with my life lmao. I truly believed it'd be 3 days work... And I was wrong.

Yeah, gotta be honest, it's a massive bitch.

Mostly the issue that is costing me a ton of time is the stripes. Picrew does not surpport blending modes. You only upload normal PNG files. Because of that, I can't have a single stripe pattern for every skin colour.

No : I must export as many stripe colours as I have skin colours. And the stripes MUST match the colour of the ears for better transition... AND there are 3 types of faces in what I've done, that means that for EACH design of stripe, I need to export 3 shapes x 4 colours.

Another issue has been the noses. Entirely my fault mind you... But hiding part of the eye with broad noses, like here :

Meant I needed to have painting INSIDE some of the noses. Which I did on a single file. And uploaded. And matched to skin colour so you don't see my ugly patching up job.

But the nose needs to be on top of the eyes... The stripes must be under the eyes and on top of the nose... Which can't happen... So I have two options, and I've opted for redoing all my stripes better... And then realised fixing the noses instead would be so much easier.

I do wanna cry a little sometimes lol

But they look better now. I have 3 styles of stripes and I want to do 3 or 4 more, because I really love striping and it makes characters really unique. Next up is potentially eye colour (if y'all suck my metaphorical dick hard enough because what A PAIN).

Sanhi/Tanhi whichever spelling it is, is giving me grief and I'm looking for a CSP brush that would sort of automate it for me.

It's a LOT of tedium. Drawing is easy and has been very fun! I was dreading making the hairstyles and get ups for Na'vi, but I think I'll revisit the picrew itself later and add them as new options rather than making a separate one.

File uploading on the website is such a bitch. Here's the tutorial I use btw. I also use a firefox add on to auto translate the page.

Will I do more? Definitely. In time. I lost the one job that pays for my food, so was thinking of opening a few comms and focus on that rather than just faffing about, but I'll definitely be returning to picrew, either for more Na'vi stuff or simply to try my hand at some other style. I'd love to see more people do their own Na'vi picrews!!

I made this one simply because the options are so limited!! There's two and one is full bodied and chibi. That's nice but doesn't scratch my pfp or OC needs. Feel free to make more, I'd love to play with it!!

#picrew #avatar #recoms #anon #thank you anon!! #Off to work on it now

[lostandfem]

hi ! I don't know if I could call myself detrans, since I've only transitionned socially/mentally. I discovered your blog throught the detrans tag and your 'comic' panel.

I apologize if it's weird, but I had this urge to talk to you, to someone who gets it.

I've identified as a trans guy from age 13 to 18, and had planned to have top surgery and T and all. It was far from a joke, and this also aggravated tons of social issues, my eating disorder, difficulties to breathe due to binder and self harm...

Nobody seems to really take it seriously. My trans Friends are just like ''yeah, you just were wrong about yourself'' and are okay with me as long as I'm not a 'terf'. My parents are happy to have a daughter as if it wasn't difficult for me.

I still have dysphoria. Whenever I see a man, Real, fictionnal, it hurts so Bad and I ache to be him. I can't accept my female body or voice, my social position either. To be made of this flesh is humiliating to me. I thought about transitioning in the end, even if it's Bad for the health and there's no way to be really a man, just to stop the ache a bit .

I know my situation is not at serious as you, since you medically transitionned, and I cannot imagine how hard this must be. (And I'm sorry if I offended you by comparing our experiences.)

Is there anyway to talk to people like me and you ? I feel so alone and misunderstood. Thanks you, and good Luck in your life .

I’m so sorry for your experience. And I’m so sorry I took so long to answer this. I was on a break for a while.

I almost just want to leave this ask here and let it speak for itself. Let it stand as a testimony for the experience. I relate a lot to it. I’m familiar with that ache. I want to be seen, to be understood, to share bonds and have belonging. And I’ve really only seen men represented that way in a way I can relate to. In a way that’s not about being catty or doing your nails or any number of stereotypes.

Part of the reason I stopped transitioning is that I had the realization that it wouldn’t work. There wouldn’t be any number of surgeries or hormones that would make me just like them. That I was only forcing my body to do things it didn’t want to do in order to fit some standard I decided for it.

It sucks a lot that it seems to be a common detrans experience that no one gets how hard it is. That it’s so easily dismissed as “oh yeah you had the wrong label for a while, but it’s okay cuz you have the right one now :)”. Even without medical transition, it’s still a whole mindset shift and facing your pain head on. I’m sorry you had to have your experiences dismissed so easily.

Tbh the only detrans people I talk to are in radfem spaces. Discords and more private spaces usually. But other than that I don’t have any idea. Most of the time, I think, we’re kinda pushed into the fringes or into silence so we’re hard to find. I’m happy to chat for a while if you need it. I can’t guarantee I’ll help with anything, but sometimes it’s just nice to talk to people you can compare experiences to

#asks #detrans experience

[fractoluminescence]

For the AO3 wrapped meme! :)

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)? 12. How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year? 20. Which work of yours have you reread the most?

Oh! Tbh I reblogged this so as to not lose it and come back to it when I'd have more stuff posted (which is why it's got the fract resources tag instead of the featured tag) and was kinda expecting nobody to notice lol. The ask is welcomed tho <3

(Note: This got a lot longer than I meant it to be. Whoops)

3: Most of my works are currently unpublished - in the sense that I've been ambitious right off the bat, and have been working on the same WIP for roughly 7 years now. I like 'Blood Bank' (which is posted on AO3 and is an unrequited love AiShin Vampire AU I wrote in a rush for AiShin week this year - I'll need to copyedit it properly sometime lol), but otherwise the work I'm working on (currently nicknamed 'You Only Die Twice', but I'll likely change that name because it doesn't make as much sense now as it did when I named it that) is the one I'm the proudest of.

The whole thing started out as one big story called 'Isolated', but then I learned to plot about 2 years ago or smth and realized I was trying to write at least 6 different novel-length stories within one fic... So I've untangled them and now I'm working on them one at a time lmfao (at least now I know why I was struggling to write that massive thing so much ahahah, what a mess. At any rate, I've decided to only publish each of them once they are finished, so while the old Isolated from high school is still online I haven't posted anything of this fic series since).

I'm very proud of my characters (my main character in particular. She's the first OC I managed to develop correctly and actually like. That's a whole story though so not going into it here), but even more so of the structure I'm able to give the whole thing - it feels so good to actually know what I'm doing and have so many elements of the story just click into place like well-oiled cogs.

Also the story involves the SRDI so I get to write sci-fi-ish mad-scientist-sounding stuff hehehe.

---

12: So, I have YODT, as mentioned above. I also have a fic I wrote the first chapter of during AiShin week called 'Feed Me Love' to finish (it's a sort of mirror version of a friend's fic). And I have my other long project, an either novel or novella-long demon-summoning AU fic called 'The Summoner' (also AiShin) that is in the works, but I've set as a rule for myself to only work on it during periods during which I need space from YODT (which I currently don't, because I'm barely working on the latter, and this is the fault of my master's schedule because I only have very few hours of class a week and thus completely lost the habit I had of writing at the same hour every day after class that allowed me to make tons of progress last year. I can currently barely step out of my house and my sleep schedule is worse than it has ever been, including during periods when I was a lot more depressed than this).

I have a song I started revolving around Momo that's been going very well but that I haven't taken the time to work on since this summer, and a couple of poems that I'm waiting to be fully confident of before I post them anywhere that I might wrap up sometime.

I also intend to rewrite and finish the translation of one French fic I had started in high school sometime. Knowing me I'll likely start working on it again at the drop of a hat one of these days.

---

20: YODT, probably, since I fix plot-consistency issues as I go. Other than that, likely a poem of mine somewhere wins that one.

#whipplefilter #featured #bleach #fract personal