#these are old and new doodles so they look a little inconsistent

[bxnnie-bxwl]

thought i would finally share of the bunny brother au ive mentioned before! theres more to it but heres some sketches for time being!

so its from the start is an anthro au which bonnie (glam bonnie) and barnaby (withered bonnie) are brothers. they dont have any family except for them selves and barnaby basically raises bonnie on his own (its very inspired by movie mike and abby ive realised KJDFGSD so basically their dynamic). Barnaby is disabled, having lost an arm and his sight from an accident and does his best to take care of bonnie <333

#hope you like it!!! #me and the server had gone nuts with this au and theres plenty more i need to cover about more characters #they're so dear to me... #barnaby best big brother #these are old and new doodles so they look a little inconsistent #art #fnaf #glamrock bonnie #fnaf au #withered bonnie

[likeastars]

Uuuuuggghhhh fuck it. Idk if I'll ever have the strength to work on this beast again, so you get a wip!!!!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s a small cottage, sitting comfortably in a clearing of the forest, not drawn nor doodled in any corner of any map, a cutout from a postcard hastily scrapped in the middle of the grass. A quick glance at the roof reveals it has been repaired its fair number of times, while a touch on the door handle tells that the rust on the lock is newer than the one scratching the pommel. The walls are obviously old, their wood is inconsistent in both size and type, and they breathe out heavy, weighed down by the many coats of colour. The last one changes halfway through, as if it was suddenly done by somebody else.

It’s not a convenient house, and it has no way of being comfortable for humans. But someone cared.

And that’s Kaisa’s main reason for knocking.

It’s a quiet rasp more than a knock. She waits, and a bit of fear bubbles up that she wasn’t heard; she doesn’t feel like she has the strength to raise her hand anymore. She hopes the soft tap of her head against the wood of the door will be louder.

It is.

They start. Faint, gentle, light steps, they arrive at the entryway and then stop, hesitant and weirdly silent. She can only hear one pair of feet, one puff of breath, and there’s no hushed conversation on the way to the door, only this looming quiet. They are alone.

It would be stupid to open the door then, the witch thinks. Then she adds: please.

And the lock clicks.

There's a person on the door now, arms tightly wound around her body and diffident eyes. Tense.

Also... interrupted, apparently.

Her hair falls short on her shoulder, held back from reaching her eyes by a colorful head band, while some rebel tufts stage their coup against the oppressor. A well-loved apron loosely covers some battered jeans and a ratty plaid shirt, full of dry smears of paint and mud, cracking and peeling at every movement. Heavily wrinkled too, as if they've been under it for a while, but the woman stays surprisingly clean. Her hands hands give no hints of any work getting done. Hands that look like they’re on their way to become rough and worn out like the rest of the house, but now they’re just empty, picked on. Maybe they come from a painting session that didn’t go well. Maybe they haven’t been going well for a while.

Their eyes meet in a curious study and a cautious glance, when the other woman's gaze suddenly drops to the glint in her pocket. Where her wand is safely tucked in.

When she freezes up this time, the only thing Kaisa can see is the uneasiness seeping under her skin.

“can I help you?”

Crap.

Can they help her? Probably not.

She really just saw the house and knocked. That’s it. That’s literally all it was.

She didn’t need any help. This person clearly prefers it this way. She should turn around and walk back into the woods and- and...

A brush of wind runs cold against her fingertips. It has been cold for a while.

“may I come in?” the witch asks, torturing a stray thread from her coat. “it- it really wouldn’t be for long. I’ve been out in the forest for… for a bit, i guess. A long bit. And I-“

A long sigh interrupts her. “fine.”

They stare at each other a bit longer than normal. They both look surprised.

That would be even stupider than opening the door.

“are you sure?” the stranger only replies with a raised brow.

"Come on." she puffs out, it's a tired little thing. They turn around, and Kaisa follows.

---

Leading her guest in, Johanna doesn't let herself think. Her body drags her off to the kitchen to put on some tea, the motions of rummaging through the cabinets for the last box of chamomile automatic, but slow, and familiar. She prepares the leaves and lingers, just a bit, on the bright new kettle they'd bought while renovating the house, before searching for the crooked flowery one she'd brought from Tofoten. It brings up stuff that's easier to ignore, and it takes ages to scald the tea.

Johanna then leans on the counter, waiting, trying to listen to any weird noise that might come from the other room.

A witch.

She remembers when they came to the old house the day of the incident. With the full moon on their shoulders the lines of their capes were painted with silver light, and they looked transparent, untouchable. Like ghosts. They perched on her doorstep speaking in hushed tones to her aunt, and they haunted the village until every neighbour who wondered about the blinding light in the forest forgot about it the day after.

The kettle whistles, startling her.

This one isn't a ghost. Johanna carefully sits the tea on a trail and breaths in, slowly.

She looked really cold.

Getting back to the living room still takes her longer than she'd like to admit, but her guest doesn't seem to notice. She's attentive, and focused, trying to gobble up everything she can put her eyes on. She moves slowly around the room, as if she's afraid of making any kind of noise, a skittish cat sniffing an unfamiliar environment. Then the witch's gaze shifts to one of aunt Astrid little trinkets, and Johanna comes back to herself.

She knocks on the wood of her library maybe harder than she means to, getting the other woman's attention.

Their eyes meet. They should sit down.

The normalcy and the easiness of the tea in her hand is what finally gets Johanna to unclench her jaw.

The cup sits between her fingers as a comfort more than anything, and as she drops her usual little sugar in her drink, she actually lets herself glance at her guest. She looks lost in thought. She keeps abusing a strand of her coat (which a good host would have already taken off of her) that escaped the knot of a button, with her eyes far away from the cup she's been staring at. They curve downwards, those eyes, curling up every time her round nose gets scrunched at the bitterness of the tea. She goes for her third spoonful of sugar in such a careful way that it looks practiced, and Johanna's fingers itch for her sketchbook like they haven't for months.

"thank you." the witch mutters, nuzzling in the warmth of her cup, ripping one last sigh out of Johanna.

#hilda #hilda netflix #hilda the series #sketchbook ship #sketchbook #hn #kaisa hilda #johanna hilda

[stoopystuppy]

crippling heathers headcanons 😭

this is just mostly the Heathers + V & JD ueueueue some of them may be OOC ueueueue

Artistic side

 ▪︎ McNamara:

- she'd be the type to have a cute cartoony and vibrant artstyle, and if it were the modern days, she'd definitely be an animation kid

- artstyle is very inconsistent, one second she’s doing an anime artstyle then the next she suddenly know how to draw semi-realism 

- uses pen, paper, markers and colored pencils but eventually switched to digital 

- isn’t afraid to try other mediums but she’s super comfortable with digital

- doodle!! doodle!! doodles!!

- vents via art

 ▪︎ Duke:

- she’s defo a painter kind of artist (more comfortable with oil painting), draws whatever she sees; objects, old pictures (she sometimes draw her gfs but hides it from them)

- experiments with different mediums

- she’s the type to say “lol yeah this is just a sketch” to a finished-looking output

- hates her works and probably burns them (the others cry for her but she’s like “lmao”)

 ▪︎ Chandler: 

- isn’t really the artistic type but since she’s surrounded with artists she kinda has those amateur artstyle that doesn’t look messy but has no knowledge in anatomy and such

- draws a lot of clothing designs (likes to draw floral designs)

- her gfs support her and they try to make her designs real and they wear it for her

- she just draws for fun or if she’s bored

 ▪︎ Veronica:

- can’t draw for shite, very messy and shaky hands because of coffee and little to no experience

- the type to draw pp for fun

- but fr, she would attempt to do realism and loves drawing with graphites

- does scenery artworks and portraits

- combines traditional and digital (linework in traditional, colorwork in digital)

 ▪︎ JD:

- the type to draw small edgy stickmen but when he draws seriously its like he's a facking god 

- draws in a monotone color (usually black)

- comfortable with using only charcoal and graphites

- throws his art away (the only thing he and Duke bonds over /j) 

▪︎ Martha:

- SHE HAS THE ANIME ARTSTYLE!!!

- loves drawing animals (especially ponies)

- she and McNamara do collabs together

Playing instruments

 ▪︎ Veronica: 

- plays the acoustic and electric guitar, maybe some drums but she likes playing the acoustic guitar more 

- plays the ukulele time to time

- she's also learning to play the bass (being taught by JD) 

- ironically plays the clarinet 

 ▪︎ McNamara: 

- just likes playing the recorder and drums, had lessons for both

- she also plays maracas and harmonica bc she likes annoying her gfs

- is being taught the guitar by Veronica

- loves learning different kind of instruments, although they don’t get used anymore once she finds a new instrument to play (tho if there are similar functions, the skill will go over it)

 ▪︎ Duke:

- was most likely forced to play the violin

- is learning other instruments via her gfs’ and recently fell in love playing the drums

- being taught the drums by both Veronica and McNamara :] 

 ▪︎ Chandler:

- more on vocal but was forced to play the harp or/and piano 

- does duets with Duke <3

- LITERALLY THE ONLY ONE THAT DOESN’T PLAY THE DRUMS BETWEEN THE FOUR OF THEM

- and also the only one that doesn’t have any plans on learning or hoarding other instruments because she’s burnt out with playing the two

▪︎ JD:

- pianist and a self-taught bassist 

- his mom was supportive of him playing the piano and he had piano lessons when she was still around but he stopped learning when she’s gone because he didn’t want to be reminded of her for the longest time

- bought his own bass with his own earned money to distract himself and learned it instead

- good thing for him too because it wasn’t as loud as the piano so his dad doesn’t scold him

- every single time he sees or/and touches a piano, he feels his mom around and would be emotional, he doesn’t have any plan on coming back but gets sentimental when he gets a chance to play it

Texting/Chatting style

 ▪︎ McNamara:

- loves using tone indicators and often uses them in her messages

- she types really fast and would make a lot of typos but fixes them 

- doesn’t care about punctuations and would elongate her words

- loves loves loves using emoticons because she thinks its cute :D especially these ones; ٩(＾◡＾)۶ , (ᗒᗣᗕ) ՞, (づ ◕‿◕ )づ , (⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄<⁄ ⁄) , (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

- loves using (yellow) emojis like; 💛✨🎉👑🧀

- enjoys keyboard smashing and using caps lock because she thinks it shows her excitement on things or shows how upset she is; "DHMJDKWODUQKOSHWJISJSJZ!!!!!!" and "hdjsksjnsnsnkz"

- laughs in either keyboard smash or “hehe”

- ex;

  Mac-a-: Guysssss i splled milk n the bed :((( /srs

  Mac-a-: spilled* on*  sowwy ╥﹏╥ fnkfianmkf /lu

—--------

  Mac-a-: UWUWEUUWEUWEUWUEWUEWUU✨✨✨✨✨✨

  Chandy: ????

 ▪︎ Veronica:

- uses tone indicator a lot for McNamara, Martha and JD 

- has good punctuation and grammar but does not give a damn about capitalization nor does she put periods at the end of her messages (unlike a certain someone)

- uses "lol" "lmao" and etc in a lower caps

- sends copypasta bc she thinks its funny

- the only time she uses caps lock is when she's screaming or laughing

- ex; 

  -Ronnie: is anyone up for pizza? /genq

  -Ronnie: no? well, that's alright /nm

—--------

   -Ronnie: cum

   Chandy: y am i dating u

 ▪︎ Chandler:

-  she isn’t really up to date with tone indicators and one time someone was ranting and she’s just “ok what the hell is a /neg” and then everyone just screamed at her (via chat form) and told her to shut up (only V and M did that) and that JD was venting lmfao

- she later was then taught about tone indicators and uses it sometimes (only with McNamara)

- uses emojis a lot and laughs with emoji; 😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣

- T A K E S   H O U R S  TO RESPOND but expects you to respond to her quickly 😭 

- she’s too lazy to type so she either uses auto-correct/predictive text thingy to continue her sentences or she literally just have missing letters in her words and go like “wht u doin??”

- her texts are literally either “r u hre? ive been waitin 4 u🙄😒😪” or “Are You Here? I’ve Been Waiting For You 🙄😒😪” (auto-correct/predictive text)

- followed by that is 3791874218 missed calls from her

- IRONICALLY SENDS THOSE “GOOD MORNING” GIFS FHIWAINFISAF and McNamara’s the only one who hearts it and replies with a “GOOD MORNING!!!”

 ▪︎ Duke:

- talking to her would literally be like talking to a bot or reading a research paper, bc of that she’s such a dry texter

- girls got proper punctuation, proper grammar and capitalization, EVERYTHING

- often gets annoyed when she sees grammar mistakes and would fix it for the person

- will literally type a whole paragraph scolding you to type better 

- doesn’t laugh in “haha’s”, just uses “lol” in lowercase, uses "lmao" after every offense towards others or herself

- barely text/chat and would rather just vc and send vm instead and then McNamara and Chandler join her and they all just started sending vms (V: w..what?)

- ex; 

  Dandy: Don't forget, we have an assignment due later at 4PM.

  Mac-a-: waIT WHAT??!?!

—--------

  Dandy: I hate myself lmao.

  Chandy: dont 😐😘💞

  Dandy: K.

—--------

  Dandy: I want to kill someone.

  John Doe: same.

  Pony Martha: You guys are /j right? 😊😊

  Dandy: *seen*

  John Doe: *seen*

  Mac-a-: aRE YALL /J OR /SRS!??!!??!?!?!??!

▪︎ JD:

- types slowly and somehow still makes typos and he doesn't fix them

- he just lets other people interpret what he's typing because he doesn't give a damn about them

- nor does he give a damn about proper punctuation and grammar although he adds a period at the end of his messages

- just uses tone indicators for Martha, Veronica and McNamara

- uses emojis but only the edgy looking ones; 🖤💔🔪🔫⚰🥀

- laughs in “haha’s” and doesn’t use acronyms

- ex;  

   John Doe: wnns sese my hmsrerz.

   Chandy: what

   -Ronnie: sure

   John Doe: *sends pics of his hamsters*

—--------

   Chandy: istg ur worse than me

   John Doe: slay.

#heathers the musical #heathers #heather chandler #heather mcnamara #heather duke #veronica sawyer #jason dean #martha dunnstock #heathers headcanon #implied poly heathers + V #believe it or not but i have more ahuehuehue #randof stuffs

[geminineart]

I decided to do an Art Summary again! And this year I wanted to focus not in my best pieces, but in the ones that sum up my year better♥

January I started doing videogame art on my own (Trying to make my own projects and participating on game jams), which is basically what I want to take from this year overall.

February was a dead month due to a tragic loss.

March was focused on commissions, work, money!

April was focused on a very delayed Magical March ♥

May wasn't very active per se, but I got to post some old art for a project I worked on during 2022, and call me superticious, but I feel posting them gave me good luck! ♥

June was dedicated mostly to selfportraits and reworking my commission options and prices

July was Art fight! I got to do lots of pieces this year!

August was dedicated to making adoptales, in the hopes to both work on my stories and get some extra income!

September I dedicated it to OC art and fashion design, playing around with my warrior princess Arabelle while I continued with commissions!

October was also a busy month, but I got to do some Halloween art, and I'm really happy about it!

November was mainly dedicated to another game jam. Working hard on achieving the dream!

December has been mainly for real life and work has been slow, so there's only a little doodle to sum it up.

Overall, I feel this was a... complicated year. Lots of inconsistency and a lack of focus, and I don't feel there's so much to show for it. Emotional pain has been the most notable constant for me, and today I'm hoping to leave that all behind a welcome a new, much better year ♥ To all of those struggling, I hope you can look back and appreciate the little things you accomplished (I myself I'm trying to take my beginning in the world of gamedev as my summary of this year!), even if you don't feel they're as muchs as you'd have wanted♥ Let's start 2023 with a good step!

Thank you to those who read all this and thank you all for being here all this time ♥ Hapy new year, I love you all! ♥

#art summary #art summery 2023 #artsummary2023 #2023 summary of art #summary of art #summary of art 2023

[artofjim]

5 Years of Drawing: Part 1

Originally posted on ko-fi.com/artofjim

July marks 5 years since I started learning art and drawing every day.  As they say, time flies when you're having fun, and time has really flown!   I want to use this blog post to reflect on some things I've learned, look at some old work and compare it to current, and emphasize my gratitude for all of the support I've received in the last half decade.  This is a long one so I'm breaking it into 3, but it should give you a ton of insight into my journey as an artist that brought me here today, and hopefully help you carve out your own path!

Before July of 2018, I would occasionally get it in my head that I wanted to draw.  This would be prompted by seeing some cool art online, or needing a way to pass the time on trips.  I'd spend money on new sketchbooks and tools, and doodle for a weekend in them.  That would be that, and my sketchbooks would sit until the next time I felt like drawing again, which was no more than a few times a year.  I had a little natural talent at copying proportion and detail, but there was no methodology to my picturemaking and I relied heavily on replicating others' art.  Because of the inconsistent schedule and lack of interest in learning,  I usually say I started drawing after all of that.  Here's some sketches from before 2018.

This is a direct rip of Nate Van Dyke, with a couple additions of my own. 2014?  I learned about ink and decided that was the only medium I wanted to work in.

Around the same time. Every artist has been here at some point, I think. I found some photo portraits of homeless people on pinterest probably and took it upon myself to draw them. Lots to unpack there but we should move on (please we must move on oh God). Again, I wasn't trying to learn, I was just copying photos and other art with no rhyme or reason to it, and very rarely.  I just loved that kick when people would look at it and say it was good.

2018

In 2018 I was working in Tacoma and there was a great little book store called Culpepper's across the street.  Jerry Culpepper had ran that store for decades, and had no great love for comics.  As a result, anytime he got graphic novels in, he'd hide them in an unorganized shelf and price them way, way down.  This was also true of artbooks, but I wasn't interested in those (yet). Jerry and I had an amicable relationship, with him busting my chops about the coffee shop I worked at being too expensive, and myself ironically bringing him free drip on my breaks.  I remember him going into great detail explaining how "Black Panther was absolute shit! Waste of my time seeing that film!"  I probably went in there once a week and dug around, spending tip money on anything that looked interesting while Jerry peered down at the titles with a furrowed brow.  My love for comics started at this time, and some of the first graphic novels I bought were from Jerry Culpepper. The League of Extraordinary Gentleman and A Small Killing, both written by Alan Moore, and drawn by Kevin O'Neill and Oscar Zarate, respectively (a great place to start, if you ask me!).

Still have them!  Jerry always priced books with pencil on the first page.  He'd usually charge me at least 30% less than this, and shave off sales-tax if  I paid cash.

I bought so many comics and bothered Jerry so often that he started giving me stuff for free (again, he had no interest for comics and was intent on filling his store with civil war history and first edition antiques). I'd pay $20 and walk out of there with an armful of graphic novels, video game concept art, Japanese editions of collected Ukiyo-E plates, published artist sketchbooks, and all sorts of odd things I wouldn't normally look for. That's the beauty of local used book stores, you cannot predict what's waiting in there for you.   Those early Culpepper finds were, and still are, very influential to me. I dig through my bookshelf for them regularly.  I think it's very important for creatives to have a personal, physical collection of things that inspire and interest them, because they will bury into your style way more than temporary online influences.

"Culpepper Books: here you'll find a man struggling to get the hell home with as much money and few books as possible before he retires" -Jerry, during his last week of business when I asked him for a caption

In late-2019, Jerry Culpepper got an offer to end his lease early from a big developer and decided to retire right as the pandemic started to hit, which was definitely the right decision for him.  While writing this, I searched his name to see if I could find his online collection, and learned that he passed away in 2022 at the age of 70.  Here is his obituary if you'd like to learn more about my old friend at the bookstore who impacted my life more than I could have realized at the time. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/tribnet/name/gerald-culpepper-obituary?id=32332566

My last purchase from Jerry

Now that I was reading comics a lot, I became hip to Jim Lee, comic art superstar of the early 90s known for his work on X-Men, Punisher: War Journal, and countless other titles soon after.  Jim Lee streams on Twitch, and one day in July I popped in to watch purely out of curiosity and ended up following along with his live tutorial drawing Wolverine. There's a recording of this tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wxoH_eZgrw I had never had drawing explained to me in the analogous way that Jim Lee did.  Much of the concepts he was demonstrating are very fundamental no-brainers to me nowadays, but back then, despite drawing off and on my whole life, I had never been exposed to them.  I specifically remember him relating the teeth to a can of soup, and the triceps muscles to parallel canoes.  This was mind blowing to me, and sparked an obsession that is still roaring to this day. Here's my results from drawing along with Jim Lee that day.

A little heavyhanded on the spot blacks there, Jimbo...

Even though the idea of using simple forms like soup cans and canoes had been demonstrated so brilliantly by Jim Lee, I immediately went back to my old ways of rote copying.  Only now, I was doing it for a few hours a day.  I also started streaming art on Twitch during this time, and I'm amazed anyone watched because I was completely directionless.I was reading a lot of Frank Miller and the interest in ink was renewed, and I would just copy things straight out of comics, line-by-line.  I didn't have the tools or direction to study in a more meaningful way, so I just copied and copied and copied, with no real improvement besides hand-eye coordination, and my ability to copy from image to paper.Jim Lee had also mentioned Bridgman, and I found a copy of his big book at Culpepper's and copied a few pages (poorly) before giving up. 

Notes?? Why would I write down anything from the book?  This is drawing!!  Sarcasm aside, this was the extent of it.  Whatever concepts I pulled from it, I didn't cement with mileage so it was all for not.  Granted, Bridgman is not beginner friendly at all.

I also took part in Inktober for the first time in 2018, and actually attempted concept creation.  I knew I was bad at drawing heads, so I decided I would twist every prompt into a helmet of some kind.  Strange method.  You can view the completed pieces here, if you really want to: https://www.instagram.com/p/BokqcKngdlz/

2019

In 2019, I began to become invested in history, and really enjoyed drawing historical garb.  Japan especially grabbed my interest, and I bought tons of books about it from Jerry.  I'm surprised I didn't try to copy more Japanese  art, especially Hokusai's ink sketches.  I was filling sketchbooks regularly by now, still just copying for the most part, and getting a little better at it!  When I look back at those sketchbooks now, there's a  common "Jim" thread present even if I wasn't being very original.  I want to point out that I don't think there's anything wrong with copying references, ever, but especially as a beginner artist.  The way I was doing it, though, was from a limited perspective: drawing straight to final linework and not considering anything but the 2-d image.  I wish I had pursued fundamentals more, and varied my tools, but I just didn't have exposure to those things.  I was still wielding a brush pen like a club on every drawing, and using expensive markers that bled through the page.

I learned about Karl Kopinski, and some of the other star artists from Super Ani, and didn't know about all of the mileage and proper practice between where I was and where they were, so I tried to just do what they were doing. Of course, KK appealed to my interest in historical costume, and I copied a bunch of his drawings in my sketchbooks. I also dug into Sergio Toppi, attracted to his painterly hatching and masterful ink compositions, and learned about Moebius. I picked up a Final Fantasy 1-7 artbook for $10 (thanks Jerry) with tons of drawings by Yoshitaka Amano in it, and tried to match his watercolors with my bleeding Copic markers. Because there was no method to my drawings beyond copying mark-by-mark, there was an element of luck involved that decided the success of each drawing. The artmaking journey, then, was just chasing that next lucky winner drawing, which is not sustainable long term! Sure, I might get lucky more often as I copied more accurately, but I wouldn't know why, and I had no lens to understand what made an image work.

Toppi copy

One of the lucky drawings

Kopinski copy

Amano copies.  Notice the difference in quality between the Toppi samurai above and these; this is the element of luck I'm referring to.  There was no repeatable process, just diving into the final lines and gambling on it.

Beyond that, I wanted to create, not replicate.  I would watch Karl Kopinski, Kim Jung Gi, and Peter Han create worlds on the spot, with no reference, and have no idea how to accomplish that.  I figured it was my poor visualization ability holding me back.  All I thought mattered was drawing a lot, and drawing a variety of things.  I would stream on Twitch and take requests to draw anything anyone wanted for ten minutes.  I drew 20 different outfits from the Camp-themed Met Gala.  I drew video game characters, Power Rangers, cartoons, and Kermit the Frog smoking a blunt.  Occasionally, I'd try to draw people and places from life. 

My first ever POV sketch

I knew that clothing was something academics studied,  so I "studied" some drapery as well! All that meant for me was copying, line by line, a few reference photos.  I downloaded Autodesk Sketchbook, a free drawing program, and tried my hand at digital art.   If I wasn't just attempting photocopying, I did try my hand at some imaginative work, with a degree of realistic rendering. Here's those paintings, just so we can compare to my current paintings later.

I would paint over Bill Sienkewicz sketches, this is one of those

This funny little fellow is a Japanese God, Fukurokuju. The drapery is looking especially mushy.

In mid-2019, I decided I would challenge myself to making a comic for Inktober.  I was very naive, but still took a lot of time planning for it before October started.  I scripted out the pages, did some character "designs," and even  worked on turnarounds.  My thought was that if I took the time to figure out what a character would look like from any angle, I could just use that as reference when I needed it.  This is true, and how animators do it,  but I created this sheet by smashing together references and finding an image for every expression and angle I could need.  I also sculpted the main character's head so I could use it as reference.  I had not rediscovered the power of "form" yet, despite Jim Lee's great tutorial that started all of this, and the literal sculpted 3d form sitting on my desk.

Here's a few pages of my Inktober comic, Dog Days.  I made it 13 pages in and burned out super hard, since I was working full-time still and spending at least 8 hours a day on the pages.  The cyst on my wrist got massive and I was not sleeping at all.  I took a break for a few days to go on a trip and just never came back to it.  Surprisingly, I haven't ever experienced a burnout since then.

If you're interested in checking out the other 11 pages, they're available to Ko-Fi Members for $4.50/month, along with my other comics.

For my first comic, I am extremely proud of that work.  There's a sort of energy that is now inhibited by experience and judgment.  I was fearless and committed to every page, because I had no idea how long it would take me or what challenges I might face.  I  don't think I will or should ever finish it, because I cannot replicate that vibe.

I returned to drawing a few weeks after the burnout and dove back into Japanese historical drawings, becoming obsessed with the photos of Felice Beato, who brought photography to Japan right as it modernized.  Some coworkers of mine were my first ever commissioners, asking for some work relevant to what I was already studying.  The first was a family portrait taken in the early 1900s.  The second was a 6 panel piece on the history of Taiko drumming.  I think they spent more on the frame then what I charged them for the piece, which is hilarious to me now.   I also experimented with some blacklight ink and collage, which was a nice change from all the inking I did in October. 

I did these on expensive Awagami rice paper with ultra-archival Noodler's fountain pen ink.  I was fooling myself into thinking that expensive materials were necessary for any sort of "professional" work, and that they would elevate it.  In the end, it just made the process nerve-wracking and left no margin for error.

I will continue with years 2020 and 2021 in my next post to keep this one from getting any longer!  Follow my Ko-Fi to get  notified via email when that comes out, or tune into my social media: https://linktr.ee/artofjim

If you'd like to support my art career and get some goodies in return, become a Ko-Fi Member in exchange for art in the mail every 6 months, monthly giveaways, access to my comics, discounts in my shop, and more.  Starts at $4.50/month, goes up for better rewards. https://ko-fi.com/artofjim/tiers  Thank you to all of my members, past and current, for enabling me to pursue my greatest interest in life more comfortably. 

#blog #art journey #art education #art level up #drawing #art blog #reflection #learn art #art study #art practice #tacoma wa #tacoma

[cyberfairyblog]

If I were to tell you these two are the same character none of you will believe me!

My plan was to make full analysis but since I don't have the time I decided to rant about this topic briefly. Anyone who peeked through my blog probably knows how much I feel about Jason's current design. Suffice to say I have no positive feelings towards it mainly because, i find it boring and downright ugly. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it's not the case with these designs.

First, his facial expressions aren't actually that expressive. Jason is known for being passionate outgoing and emotional, so why does he look like he's just so done with Earth? To me Jason should have one of the widest range of expressions of the cast. He has this spark in him that he's not afraid to show visibly. The current art-style hinders any passion and makes his expressions dull. I know the intent was to blend cartoony and realistic but the way his face is drawn, it screams Uncanny Valley than cohesiveness.

Second this particular shirt. I'm sorry that color does not look good on him! I have bad eyes but I clearly see the shirt literally blends in with his skin. I had to set the background to gray because I couldn't tell if he was wearing a shirt or walking around nude! Or maybe it's the way skin texture is illustrated.

His old design however has a lot of personality! He wears decent clothes that don't blend with his skin lol! A cute little quirk is that he has Whit's hairstyle so you know he's his son without making them too alike. Nu!Jason looks like a balding monkey, I get he's supposed to be in his 40s but every design before had him with a full set of hair. So why the inconsistency?

Retro!Jason does look like a guy who actually has an active lifestyle - vs Nu!Jason who's a twig! I don't know if anyone feels this way but he also looks like an actual handyman, someone you trust will get the job done. The biggest aspect is Jason's former life as a spy, with his old design you can tell he did more than just sit at a computer all day. He's attractive, which strangely adds credibility to his Chick Magnet status and just so full of life you can't help but be charmed by him! I don't get that same vibe from Nu!Jason.

Overall, I miss Jason's old design. I don't like his new one or that art style in general. Of we get another design change I wish they use aspects actually present in Jason instead of making him completely different for no real reason.

Picture of retro jason source @the-doodle-nerd

#jason whittaker #adventures in odyssey #aio #odysseymysteryhour #character design #rant #radio show #christian media #christian cartoons #he never appeared in the cartoon but his designs were based on the art style of the show #crap forgot to add source 😓

[subtlereferencetomyinterests]

Something to Uplift Us

Ao3,  MasterPost

Relationships:  Romantic DLAMPR (Roman-centric, kinda Remus-centric), platonic Creativitwins!!!

Do I like this??? Meh. Is it something that I wrote? Yes. I will heal myself from SVS-R with Fluff.

Warnings: Remus Typical Nonsense, swearing, mentions of being in Quarantine, all sympathetic sides, non-sexual Pole Dancing

Word Count: 2,667 

Roman was the essence of romance and it showed. For his entire existence, he'd been well acquainted with the hypothetical. If he were his own person, if he had a prince of his own, if he had the chance at a romantic relationship, he knew what he would do. Roman knew relationships, he always had, and it had tortured him to know that he'd never have one.

Which was why it frustrated him to no end that he hadn’t been the one to ask out his fellow sides. He’d honestly never thought that it would be an option. When he first developed his feelings for the others- Virgil, Patton, Logan, Janus, in that order- he had felt nothing more than excitement. He was giddy, he was light-headed, just to know that he could feel that way. He would spend hours daydreaming, just musing over the way they made his heart stop, but he never hoped for anything to come of it. He wasn’t sad, or mournful, or pining per se- just so caught up in the joy of feelings that he forgot that he could do something with them. 

So he thought about it a lot, suffice to say. And all he had now was time to think; it was nearly month three of quarantine. Roman had wrung his brain out like a sponge for anything new to think about- The Imagination was practically turning gray! He tried to tend to it, truly he did, but it was getting harder every day. Creativity's fellow sides had all busied themselves taking up new hobbies- Virgil was teaching Patton to draw, Janus had learnt embroidery, Logan took up knitting, Remus made trash sculptures… They all seemed to be having their own little renaissance (complete with plague), and what was Roman doing? Wasting valuable free time!

  In a fit of desperation, the artistic trait dived under his large canopy bed, rummaging around until his hand caught on the lip of a cardboard box. With no small amount of effort, he pulled the enormous container out from under his bed so that it could be properly examined. There, piled high in the box, were dozens of notebooks and sketchbooks- all of which filled to the brim with writing, drawings, and poetry. Having no clue what he was specifically looking for, Roman upended the box and watched the contents crash to the floor. Something in here would surely spark his mind! Perhaps some old work would catch his eye and inspire some redraws!

The side hadn't needed to search for long. Right at the top of the pile- bright pink, its cover dotted with puffy heart stickers- sat a large, spiral-bound sketchbook. You could almost see the light bulb pop up over Roman’s head as he squealed and snatched up the sketchbook. Flopping down onto his bed, he flipped it open in one hand and placed the other against his chest. 

“Ooh, some of my best,” he cooed to no one in particular, gaze turned to the dozens of love poems surrounded by little doodles of hearts that filled the pages. This was the journal he’d confided in before the sides had all officially begun their relationship, filled with flowery prose about anything from Janus’ scales to Patton’s smile; from Logan’s laugh to Virgil’s freckles (a rare sight, usually hidden by make-up). Roman was so lost in nostalgia that when the ideas hit him, he nearly fell out of bed in excitement at his own thoughts.

Of course! He could take all of these old writings and compose them together, into one eloquent amalgam that would illustrate perfectly all those things that he’d been unable to articulate in the beginning! And it seemed only fitting that such a soliloquy be delivered in The Imagination- in the most gorgeous scenario he could fabricate! Somewhere open to a starry sky, for his left-brained loves- but it had to have ornate architecture, of course, and it had to be cozy. Oh, it was all coming together now.

Roman leapt out of bed, posing with his hand above his head and sinking deeper into The Mindscape extravagantly. He didn’t waste time looking around at the depressing half-formed scenery, sweeping his arms up and erasing the entirety of his half of The Imagination. Time to get to work.

Remus was stretched across the Commons couch, his head in Janus’ lap and feet in Logan’s. The TV hummed with whatever show they’d thrown on as background noise, and a few feet away at the counter, Patton and Virgil were hovering over some sort of scrapbook.  Nobody had the energy for conversation; nobody had the energy for anything. 

It was magnificently boring. The Duke already filled up an entire sketchbook, written half a dozen shamelessly smutty self-insert fanfictions, constructed and subsequently destroyed eldritch beings in his room, and bothered his boyfriends. So, all that was left to do was doze.

It didn’t help Remus’ tired state that Janus was running his fingers through his hair. The monotonous waking world was finally slipping away. Maybe there was something buried in his dreams that could hold his attention.

But just before sleep took hold, a white-hot energy ran through the trait’s body, jolting him so suddenly that he tumbled off of the couch and onto the floor. His arms and legs were all pins-and-needles as he looked up at his very concerned partners.

“There’s fuckery afoot!” Remus announced, wide-eyed. He pulled himself up and grinned, “You guys stay here!” 

Without so much as a good-bye, Remus threw himself into the ground, saving himself the time of sinking out properly. After a moment’s silence, Janus resumed working on his embroidery. 

“Should we go see what that was about?” Patton asked tentatively. 

“Meh,” the three other sides responded in unison. After a moment, Janus added, “It is Remus, after all.”

Roman’s structure was coming together beautifully! Wide marble columns rose up and held aloft the glimmering silver ceiling, the middle of which was a sky-light open to thousands of stars and a brilliant full moon. Surrounding the opening was a spiral of stone roof- through the gaps of which even more astronomically accurate stars shone!

The inside of the building consisted of an immense mahogany stage, currently cloaked by thick velvet curtains and overlooking plenty of seats. Rather than traditional theater rows, Roman had arranged the seating like lovely cafe tables, all of which were given generous space from each other (Except for two at the very front, of course). Lanterns hung from the walls, casting the space in warm lighting. Creativity currently stood at the very back, thinking that it could use just a little more of something. With a smirk, the side snapped his fingers and the wall of the room was pushed backwards several yards. With a few more flicks of the wrist and dividing columns, a little lobby was formed. 

He’d given the theater room maroon carpeting and rich gray walls, but the new back section needed brighter lighting and a more cream-canary color scheme. Now he could just finish the decor!

Or he would have, if not for the fact that at that moment someone crashed into his ribs with all the grace of a flaming motorbike. 

“BRO!!!”

“ACK-!” was all Roman managed, as all the wind was knocked out of him. He glared up at his brother, who was sitting on his chest. 

“I knew you were up to something! You wiped half of the whole fucking Imagination! What is this!?” 

Roman wheezed, pushed Remus off of his chest, and finally pulled himself off the ground to catch his breath. His brother was spinning around the room already, eyes sparkling as he took in the building.

“I had to blank it, I needed my full focus,” Roman explained, back to work and filling the back wall with tall bookshelves, “and it’s a surprise, so don’t tell the others.”

“Oh, I won’t. Provided you let me in on whatever this is,” Remus had an ear-to-ear grin, bouncing on the balls of his feet. After a moment’s consideration, Roman hummed.

“I’m doing something nice for our boyfriends. I think we all could use a little pick-me-up, so do not ruin this!”

“I wanna do something nice for them! Lemme help!” 

“You don’t even know what it’s for! Plus, it’s personal!”

“I already asked what it was for, Stupid.”

Roman huffed.

“I wrote them something. Hence the stage.”

“So, what, you’re gonna bring them all into your fancy library-opera for your poetry orgy and I sit in a corner somewhere and be quiet?”

“Ideally.”

“Not a chance, Whore!” Remus swung himself up onto the concession stand that Roman had just created, tearing into a box of candy (food made in The Imagination always tasted weirder than food or ingredients they conjured elsewhere in the Mindscape, but he didn’t particularly mind). 

“Fine. What do you want to do?” Roman challenged, hands on his hips.

“I. Want. To. Help.”

Roman raised his eyebrows doubtfully. Grumbling, his twin started gesturing around the room as he spoke.

“The stars are too bright, they take the focus away from the stage instead of accenting it. The color of the curtains are too similar to the carpet. You’ve got Corinthian shit in there and bookstore lobby vibes in here, which is garbage and inconsistent.”

Roman blinked, his eyes following along with Remus’ criticism. 

“Hm. You have a point.”

“I’m Creativity too, you know. I have some taste.” The Duke said, gnawing on the cardboard box that had contained Imagination Candy moments before. 

“You’re wearing crocs and jorts, simultaneously.”

Remus waved his hand dismissively, hopping off the counter and rushing across the room.

“Whatever. Come on, I’ve got an idea how I can accompany your performance, too.”

“Oh, goody.”

Hours had past and little had changed in the Mindscape living room- Virgil and Patton had finished up their scrapbooking and were curled up together in an armchair, so Logan was sitting at the counter space previously occupied by the two and clacking away on his laptop, and Janus hadn’t moved. The muddled energy of the room had remained pervasive.

That was, until the door to the imagination slammed open, the doorknob cracking against the wall. Four heads shot up to see Remus and Roman, standing side-by-side (quite looking the part of identical twins, matching smiles and all). 

“Oh god,” Janus groaned instinctively, carefully setting his embroidery on a side table, “What did you two do?”

“Yeah, I don’t trust that look,” Virgil said.

The twins scoffed in mock-offense, continuing their odd coordination.

“We try to do something nice,” exclaimed Remus.

“And not so much as a ‘thank you,’” added Roman solemnly. Eyes were rolled, but Patton perked up considerably (just as planned). 

“Ooo, what are you talking about?” 

“It’s a surprise!” Said The Duke, bouncing up and down. Creativity Prime gave a sweeping motion to indicate the still-open door to the Imagination, which had been steadily seeping into the common room with a bright new energy that it had been lacking for days. 

“Follow us,” he instructed, disappearing through the door once more with Remus at his back. Patton bounced after them immediately, grinning. 

The three left-brained sides exchanged glances, shrugged, and followed suit. 

The twins were backstage in an instant, trusting their partners to figure out where their seats were on their own. Roman began pacing around as soon as they finished warming up. 

“Are you sure you can do this? I’m still not sure if your performance is well-suited to acoustic guitar-”

He was cut off by Remus groaning exaggeratedly.

“I can work with anything, bitch.” 

“Right, right,” There was a beat. “You’re sure you’re ready?”

“I’ve been ready. What’s going on with you?”

Rather than responding, Roman did another lap around the stage. 

“C’mon! Stop pacing before I take a bonesaw to your legs!”

“Okay! Alright! I’m ready!”

Before Remus could come up with any more gruesome threats, Roman snapped his fingers and the curtains began to rise. He took his place half-sitting on a stool up front, a guitar in his arms. Behind him, Remus stood between two sturdy metal poles that rose from the stage and into the ceiling. You can already see where this is going.

When the stage was fully revealed, the lights above the audience dimmed. Figuring that the show would be rather awkward if said audience consisted of four people, the Creativities had The Imagination render dozens of prop-people. They moved and acted like a crowd of humans, but each individual was too vague to focus on for long. Thus it was made very clear where their fellow sides were, sitting right up front with a wide array of expressions from amazed to amused to bewildered.

Roman took a moment to steel himself and then began playing. Originally, he’d planned on spoken-word for his loves, but traditionally there is music involved in pole-dancing, so he’d made a few adjustments in order for Remus to be able to contribute. 

Roman started singing, melting as the gazes of the real audience members turned awestruck (and also very flushed, likely from whatever surprisingly impressive poses his brother was pulling behind him). He liked to think that he poured his heart out into every performance, but for this one it felt quite literal. 

Roman’s voice picked up gradually, and he could vaguely hear metal clanging behind him. It went on like that for a good few minutes- because if there was one thing the Twins weren’t, it was brief- before the show finally concluded. Roman stalled for a moment as both the imaginary and real components of the audience applauded uproariously. Remus swung down from the pole and hopped over to him.

“We bow now, Dumbass,” he hissed, noticeably out of breath.

“Oh- right.”

They took hands and took a couple bows as the clapping died down, standing back up with wide grins and red faces. 

As soon as the auditorium was relatively silent, Patton rushed the stage. He outstretched his arms and hopped up and down excitedly.

“Lemme up!” 

Roman grabbed his hands and pulled him on stage while Remus was still attempting to catch his breath. Morality leaned down to give The Prince a brief kiss, and then bounced over to the much more exhausted half of the act to give him the same treatment. He was grinning so wide that it looked painful, his face a bright pink. The Duke wore a matching expression, but the smile was much more unnatural in that preferred way of his.

“So you liked it?”

Rather than verbally responding, Patton grabbed the hands of both Creativities and made a cheerful ribbiting sound.

“It was wonderful,” Logan supplied, climbing the stairs on the side of the stage to meet them, Virgil and Janus right behind him. He was much less outwardly enthusiastic as the other spectacled side, but no less appreciative.

“Yeah, did you guys put all this together today?” Virgil asked, throwing an arm around Roman’s shoulders. 

“What else did we have to do?” Remus answered with a shrug. 

“Good point.”

Janus cleared his throat lightly, immediately drawing everyone’s attention. His eyes were noticeably rimmed with redness, a small smile on his face as he outstretched all of his arms.

“Here, all of you, now.”

Patton cooed.

“Group hug!” 

Fitting six people into one hug may seem awkward, but it always seemed to work out for the sides. At least, Roman thought so. Virgil would fake exasperation at the affection, but they could all tell he loved it. Logan would try to maintain his dignity and fail miserably. Patton was a ball of warmth and energy that seeped into the rest of them. Janus was by far the best at giving hugs, though it could be considered cheating to have extra limbs.

At that moment it hit Roman that, perhaps he hadn’t started this relationship, but he was still a part of it. And that was all he could ever want.

These    Performances    inspired Remus’. They are oddly calming to watch, and super impressive!

@shrimp-crockpot

#my writing #fanfiction #fanfic #sanders sides #ts #sanders sides fanfic #ts fanfiction #dlampr #prinxiety #dukexiety #roceit #demus #dukeceit #logince #intrulogical #intruality #royality #tw cursing #roman #remus #virgil #patton #janus #logan #ts logan #ts janus #ts patton #ts virgil #ts remus #ts roman

[staboteur]

//i have like a really really major hankering for a frozen AU like i talked with alois mun about it for a little bit but it’s been living rent free in my head for like... 2 weeks now lmao (esp with all those cool dresses ive been doodling, bc those all fit into that specific AU), but like if we threw out all the dumb shit that di/sney does with their characters and plots lol so no more trolls, no weird inconsistent betrayal plot point, etc, unless it’s like,, something you feel inspired by, then we can like talk about it?? bc i really like everything to do with this world, except the fact that it was written by disney who have no idea how to actually write women’s empowerment lmao anyways

//rene doesn’t hurt someone else, he ends up hurting himself with his own powers (thus creating his signature streaky hair, which are brighter silver in this AU instead of the more blended greys of his usual hair color). He also scars his hands, which is the main reason why he wears gloves (which i always seem to forget whenever i draw him in dresses, ugh).

//his storyline is also very much about freedom of expression, but taking on a more ‘identity’ route (i guess more like frozen 2). I also just... a lot of random fun headcanons about him

//he looks even more like a corpse than usual in this AU, bc he’s literally frozen, like the reason why he doesn’t feel coldness is bc his body is basically always at 0C or below. He can be warmed up by external sources, but he doesn’t provide his own heat (kinda like a reptile lmaoo cold blooded or some magic thing blah blah blah). When he blushes, his skin starts to look like a regular healthy human being’s. If he’s outside in the cold for a long time, he can start to look a bit like a walking corpse--his bad joints are a result of being so cold all the time and also not really doing self care or anything. Hot baths are a nightmare, he might melt.

//he’s also very cold to the touch (another reason why his primary design will probably have him wearing long sleeves, gloves, long pants, etc etc, all buttoned up and stuff, to prevent people from touching him directly). If it’s warm and humid he’d probably form condensation on his skin lmaoooo and he can freeze people with a touch, if he’s consciously doing it.

//also like i feel like he wouldn’t just wander into a forest and create a giant castle, he’s too much of a disaster for that, he’d wander into a forest, stumble into a river or like do other clumsy shit bc he’s a spoiled rich boy who has never run or climbed or done any mountaineering for a single minute in his whole life, climb out, walk another short distance, then fall asleep next to a log, and the next day someone finds him and thinks he’s a corpse, goes to investigate, wakes him up, and he freaks them the fuck out bc the person who discovered him thought he was dead (this just,, idk im just very attached to this idea bc i think it’s funny ghasdlkfjhsl like rene sleeping peacefully, looking like a very run of the mill frozen corpse, then suddenly standing up amidst the cracking and creaking of a thousand old man joints and also the ice that formed on him while he was asleep). By the end he’d probably not look the best, like torn clothes (even if he magicked himself a new outfit), matted hair, skeletal looking thinness, discolored skin, etc, y’know, like the ice witch that elsa was supposed to look like, before they decided to make her more marketable and gave her eyeliner and makeup and shit

#{ ooc | out of cloaking } #{ tbd | to be sapped } #//iiiiii i really want frozen auuuuuu #//it's a good oneeee #//i promise!!! #//well ok i guess it's a /little/ self centered bc rene gets to be the special boyTM #//so maybe ill just turn it into a fic series or smth #//i /will/ write this AU mark my fucking words #//it's right up there in priority with my uhhh modern mercenary AU where rene has a web series about being a hitman #//i really wanna do a funny thing where like... he's a 'hitman' but like instead of killing people #//a lot of the time he like takes a commission #//half down #//the offers life advice #//basically he's like 'if i can solve this problem without murder you can keep the other half of the commission' #//then proceeds to solve their problems #//bc honestly murder is hard to get away with #//he can't be bothered esp when the issue is like 'my wife is cheating on me!!' he'd just be like 'then break up with her you dolt' #//'stop being a stubborn bastard and just break up with her why tf do you care so much about someone who obv doesn't care about you' #//'i dont blame her for wanting to walk out on you if your solution to cheating is to hire a hitman like damn id walk out on you too' #//'and i'm the one who's getting hired to do the murdering' #//his cover job? 'personal advice and private investigation' #//which is basically what he ends up doing in his moonlight job anyway lmao #//i think that's actually the perfect cover operation for him #//hell he probably got called to investigate his own crimes sometimes #//which he delightfully gets to manipulate the evidence for #//it's very fun i like the intrigue and the dramatic irony i just think it's funny

[pickybearcub]

Getting to know Spider-boy: Chapter 1

Summary: Ten minutes. Ten minutes was all it took. She found his backpack in the alley and left before he got back.  Now, before Peter knows it, Ned thinks he has a secret girlfriend and Spiderman has to be her kibble runner.

Pairings: Peter Parker x OC

Warnings: None

A/N: So, just wanted to try posting my story here. It’s actually already complete on FF.net, but I’m going through it and making a edits, mostly to grammar and some inconsistencies in the story. I’ll post every few days, just to put a little time in between each chapter. Here we go...

Note: Dividers by @whimsicalrogers

Chapter 2 Masterlist

Hey mom.

I finally unpacked the last box! So I guess I'm officially moved in. The new place is nice, just like your friend described. It's a little small but more cozy than anything. I really like it. It's really different from the heart of the city. A good kind of different though. I'm looking forward to running at a more normal pace.

I got a part-time job at that café I was telling you about. I'm trying to see where I can get a second job to fill in the gaps.

Glad to hear things are going well over there. Aunt Annie must be glad to have you teaching a few students. Tell me about them when you come around.

Anyway, it's almost time for my shift, so... gotta go. Best of luck to you and everyone there.

Love yah~

 Nadia clicked "send" before shutting down her laptop. She pulled her dark hair up into a quick ponytail and slung on her bag while she walked to the door. Locking it, she twirled her keys before shoving them into her bag and jogging to the other end of the hall. She hopped down the stairs two at a time and set a brisk pace to her walk.

The young woman breathed in deeply as she walked through her new neighborhood. Soon, she was passing a few familiar stores and small businesses. A bell gave a cheery jingle as she opened the door to the coffee shop she now worked at.

"Good morning, Hannah."

"Morning, dear." An older woman, the owner, greeted from behind the counter. "You're twenty minutes early again."

Huh…

Nadia shrugged, walking around the dining area, starting to set up the chairs. "It's a step up from the half-hour early and waiting for you to arrive and unlock the door."

 Hannah gave a light chuckle. "You know you don't need to be so early, though it is nice."

"It's okay. I think I'm still used to all the rushing around I did back home." Nadia lived most of her life in a fast-paced city. Here in Queens, even if it was just ten kilometers away, everything felt calmer. She didn't have to deal with hellish traffic or the morning rush of people on their way to work.

She'd have to learn to adjust and slow down just a little more.

Another bell chimed as she left another shop later that afternoon. A bookstore to be exact. When her shift had ended at three, she'd gone around to explore more of her neighborhood. She got a little carried away browsing through the titles. Especially when more than half the store was filled with used books.

Nadia always thought that secondhand books were more interesting than brand new ones. Some had various marks left from their previous owners. Notes and highlights, dedications, and dog eared pages. Every once in a while, there would be a piece of paper or two stuck between the pages. Most were older and weren't in circulation anymore, which only added to their value even if they were sold at a cheap price.

The dark-haired girl smiled as she walked. She would definitely go by there again so she could actually buy something-

A heavy thump and a huff pulled Nadia from her thoughts, bringing her attention to a familiar young boy who was tugging at two black garbage bags.

"Hey there, Sora." The ten-year-old looked up, grinning when he saw Nadia. The boy's name was really Shaun, she just called him "Sora" because of the game he was currently addicted to.

"Hi, Dia!"

She'd taken a few babysitting jobs when she first arrived in Queens. Shaun had been one of the kids she’d looked after.

"Isn't it your brother's chore to take out the trash?" She walked to him and tried lifting one bag. It was a bit heavy. Definitely a little too big for Shaun to carry on his own.

The boy huffed again, pouting. "He hid my Nintendo again. He said he'd give it back if I took out the trash this time."

Nadia frowned. That wasn't nice.

"I'm at a good part of the game too." Shaun scuffed his shoe on the ground.

The young woman let a gentle smile onto her features before once again grabbing a hold of one bag. "Why don't I take one, and you grab the other. That way, you can get back to your game faster."

"Okay!" The kid grinned and took hold of the smaller bag.

They both carried the bags to the dumpster in the back alley. When the business was done, the boy thanked her and she told him to tell his parents what his brother had done.

Shaun nodded and scampered back out the alley quickly so he could get his handheld back.

Nadia sighed and dusted off her hands on her pants. That boy never listened to her about telling on his brother, Shaun was too nice.

She was about to walk out of the alley when she noticed her shoelaces were untied. Kneeling down to redo them she spotted something by a corner beside the dumpster.

"A backpack?"

She picked it up by the strap and looked it over. It was dark blue, didn't seem very old, and it was relatively clean. Who would throw out a good bag?

But then… it had some weight to it.

Huh…

Nadia hesitated for a moment before she opened it up. There were a few notebooks, a pen, some spare change, and a few pieces of paper.

This wasn't thrown out. Someone owned this.

No. Someone lost this.

Maybe some kid got bullied and the bullies dumped his backpack here.

She slung the strap on her shoulder. She'd check out the stuff more thoroughly when she got home.

Maybe she'd find an ID or something in one of the pockets. It was starting to get dark, so it wasn't logical to leave the bag and hope whoever owned it found it here. Someone else might take it.

Nadia started walking again and thought about what she was having for dinner that night. There was still some pasta leftover from the day before. That would have to do.

**Ten minutes later**

Peter landed nimbly in the alley where he'd left his bag. He let out a breath as he took off his goggles and mask.

Man. The fabric really made for stuffy breathing after a few hours using it-

Oh no…

He looked down at the empty corner of the alley and groaned.

His backpack was gone.

May would ask him how he lost another backpack after just three weeks. He really needed to find somewhere more secure to leave his stuff when he went on patrol.

On the upside, at least he didn't leave any of his Spider-Man stuff in there.

"New backpack, Peter?" Ned said as he put some of his things in his locker. "That's like the second one this month."

Peter scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah… Uhmmm… A dog chased after me and kinda ripped it."

"Oh! But you're okay right?" Peter's best friend asked, genuinely concerned. "You didn't get bitten, did you? I heard that you get five shots just in case of rabies. Was the dog foaming at the mouth?" He shuddered at the thought.

"No, Ned." Peter chuckled. His friend could get a little easily agitated or overly enthusiastic when it came to asking questions.

"Oh. Okay. Good then." The two walked side by side to their classroom. "You've been a little distracted lately. Maybe that's why the dog got you…." Ned mused.

"Enough about the dog, Ned. Let's just get to class." Peter sighed and tugged at the straps of his new backpack. He didn't like how he had to keep lying to his friend about certain things.

But his powers….

Being Spider-Man…

Knowing Ned, telling him wasn't really the best idea.

Besides, he was still getting used to his powers himself.

Nadia knew just how difficult and irritating it could be to lose your notebooks, especially when you were a student. Taking notes was difficult as it is. She riffled through the backpack she found to see if there was something with a name.

"Peter Parker…" She mumbled, finding a slightly crumpled quiz paper. Why did that name sound so familiar?

Sitting on a stool on her kitchen island, she lazily poked at the bowl of noodles beside the few papers she'd pulled out.

"Wow…" A breath of admiration escaped her as she found two more quizzes. Math and chemistry. He got A's on all of them. "You are one smart cookie."

She pulled out a notebook. Maybe there was some hint of which school he went to. She didn't want to go through the phonebook to ring up every Parker listed there. Flipping through the pages to find a doodle of a school mascot or a randomly scribbled school name or event, she twirled her fork through the pasta she had been eating.

Decathlon tm meeting – Friday

Band practice moved to Tuesdays

So part of a decathlon team and a band… Group of friends or school band?

There probably weren't many of the schools here in Queens that had a decathlon team, right? Academic or athletic though… Ugh…

There had to be something else…

Nadia had just been about to stick the noodles in her mouth when she reached a few pages near the back.

Her fork dropped from limp fingers right onto the paper with a splat.

"Crap!" She quickly tipped the notebook up to get rid of the pasta. There was now a reddish-orange spaghetti sauce stain on the page. She rushed to grab a napkin to clean up the mess before the sauce seeped to the other pages.

Underneath the blotch of pasta sauce were a few calculations, notes, and diagrams. The top of the page read-

Web fluid 1.2

---

Tags:

Well...Tell me if you want to be tagged X]

#fanfic #fanfiction #peter parker #peter parker x oc #oc #original character #friendship #family #getting to know spiderboy #tom holland #marvel #mcu #avengers #homecoming #spiderman #spider-man

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY TWITTER IS A BAD ECONOMY

On the average trip I bring four books and only read one of them, because I find new books to read en route. That was exactly what the world needed in 1975, but if this label didn't already exist, it would seem the noise is whitish. It implies the result won't be pretty, because it meant that to write as he wanted to seem aristocratic; she was afraid she wasn't smart enough. Just have a gentlemen's agreement. Which is exciting because among other things it means third parties can use this technique whenever a you have at least a random sample of the applicants that were selected, b their subsequent performance is measured, you'll know if they do. So there's another difference between essays and the things one has to write in high school. When I was in college I imitated the pompous diction of famous professors.

Do one thing and do it yourself. Mihalko seemed like he actually wanted to be our friend. The worst thing is that it was a little alarming to have users who got lots of traffic. Better stick to the standard cartoon version that the Civil War was about slavery; people would be confused otherwise; plus you can show a lot of bandwidth. You'd think it would be: just try to sell one. However, even that is an interesting prospect. That's probably the number one question people ask me. Since they're writing for a popular magazine, they start with the most radioactively controversial questions, from which because they're writing for a popular magazine, they start with the most radioactively controversial questions, from which because they're writing for a popular magazine they then proceed to recoil from in terror.

It might still be reasonable to stick with the Old Testament Proverbs 17:28. The economy of medieval Europe was divided up into little cells is terribly inefficient. But Apple created wealth, in the sense of what people will pay for their skills, the answer is yes, apparently. Next year you'll have to explain how your startup was viral. The most obvious difference between real essays and the things one has to write in school is that real essays are not exclusively about English literature—to write, without even realizing it, imitations of whatever English professors had been publishing in their journals a few decades before. They overvalue ideas. Eventually by trial and error I found that what the teacher wanted us to do was pretend that the story had really taken place, and to have the junior people do the work for him. And then there was the difference in the way of having the next.

It seems that, for the average engineer, more options just means more rope to hang yourself. The idea is basically that you sort search results not in order of how much advertisers bid as Overture did but in order of textual relevance as search engines did then nor in order of textual relevance as search engines did then nor in order of textual relevance as search engines did then nor in order of textual relevance as search engines did then nor in order of the bid times the number of startups are created to do product development on spec for some big company, they should apply for patents because patents are part of the mating dance with acquirers. Calder's work is his own happiness showing through. A free market interprets monopoly as damage and routes around it. The immediate cause of death in a startup is that I happen to have it. The big media companies shouldn't worry that people will post their copyrighted material on YouTube. People are finally starting to admit that Wodehouse was a great writer, but to serve a ruler powerful enough to enforce order, rich people had private armies. Another classic way to make something people want is not the thing itself, but it was wonderful for us, his students. And two things, especially, is where the USPTO has been dropping the ball. Basically, I had to add a new application to my list of known time sinks: Firefox.

Particularly the sort written by the staff writers of newsmagazines. So I don't really blame Amazon for applying for the one-click patent would turn up in the company and went to work for you without giving them options likely to be worth suing for money. To be patentable, an invention has to be more true in software than other businesses. You can see wealth—in buildings and streets, in the narrow sense of the word unjust here is the unmistakable spectral signature of the Daddy Model. For example, a city could attract angels from outside. I ignored it the way you let yourself ignore a bug that only appears intermittently. To do really great things, you have to do is remove the marble that isn't part of it. That's the paradox I want to explore: great new things often come from the margins.

He has since relaxed a bit on that point. If 98% of the time I thought, they did call them essays, didn't they? At first I tried rules. With a tractor an energetic farmer could plow six times as much land in a day as he could with a team of horses. You're short of money, for example have been granted large numbers of preposterously over-broad patents, but not random: I found my doodles changed after I started studying painting. It may work, but it didn't last long. Unfortunately, patent law is inconsistent on this point. That's the good part. If 98% of the time we could find at least one good name in a 20 minute office hour slot. I've seen the lever of technology grow visibly in my own time. Where the method of selecting the elite is thoroughly corrupt, most of the world's history the main route to wealth was to steal it: in pastoral societies by cattle raiding; in agricultural societies by appropriating others' estates in times of peace. Indeed, the same principle: the way to ensure that would be too much of a political liability just to give the other side of the story: what an essay really is, and how you write one.

It's an old idea that new things come from the margins. What really makes him stand out, though, it became the basis of education than wealth. What people know of him now is his paintings and his more flamboyant inventions, like flying machines. This was Henry Ford's plan. A couple years ago my friend Trevor and I went to look at the list of movies playing, they want that extra oomph that the big stars have. Scholars had to figure out what he meant. This leads to my final suggestion: a technique for determining when you're on the right track when people complain that you're unqualified, or that you've done something inappropriate. That's the whole point of technology. If new ideas arise like doodles, this would explain why you have to fund startups that won't leave. And they're full of exactly the right kind of friends. After the lecture the most common form of discussion was the disputation.

9% of the people. Well, founders aren't much better. To attack a rival they could have ignored, Amazon put a lasting black mark on their own reputation. The patents aren't mine, of course, it's called school, which makes that clear to everyone, though in fact all jobs are some percentage school. Thump music. Startup School. And yet they work horribly. The only point of buying one now is to advertise that you can get away with working as if the goal were to discover good ideas, but for good new ideas, and you always get more attention for that. The Age of the Essay probably the second or third day, with text that ultimately survived in red and text that later got deleted in gray. Which is precisely why we hear ever more about it. A company that sues competitors for patent infringement before they'd even released a product. When you're old and eminent, what will you miss about being young and obscure?

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #time #performance #imitations #Which #sense #years #school #people #liability #economy #ball #farmer #reputation #application #technology #world #Thump #order #teacher #list #magazine #office #things #essay

[happymetalgirl]

March 2020

Wow, March seems like such a bygone era, time doesn’t mean anything anymore with so much turned upside down (especially in the music industry) in the throes of the pandemic going on right now. One of those things was me losing my punctuality with this blog. While I haven’t been on top of my writing, I have certainly been listening as much as ever, with plenty to talk about this month, so better late than never I suppose. Here are the albums I listened to during March.

Code Orange - Underneath

I just wrote about the Pittsburgh metalcore juggernauts’ highly anticipated fourth full-length, but I’ll summarize again what led me say that Underneath is a good album, but not as good as the breakthrough album whose high bar this album was always going to have a hard time clearing. The band go all in on the industrial elements that accented Forever on Underneath, as well as push their luck on the more melodic, alternative metal-oriented hardcore tracks, which came with some growing pains, the latter more than the former. And I really think that they probably are just growing pains with the band getting more comfortable with this expansion of their sound, which (contrary to what the many zealous 10/10 reviews are saying) I think the band will get significantly better with if they keep this trajectory going into their next album.

8/10

Body Count - Carnivore

I really have tried to focus on the positive aspects of Body Count’s music, the fearless, topical, confrontational lyricism and the capacity the band has to generate a good hardcore breakdown, but the band really do seem to be unable to get out of this one-dimensional rut they’re stuck in, with Carnivore simply a few shovels deeper in. The band’s appeal tires very quickly with Ice-T’s recycling of lyrical themes and his band’s repetitions of generic hardcore tropes. They come through with a few moments of intensity, a sick breakdown or two, but the positive, hopeful moments are too few and far between. I would think that with not a whole lot of competition and a hip hop icon behind the microphone that Body Count would have the capacity to do more for rap metalcore, but they seem stuck in a cycle I do respect the stances Body Count takes against injustice, and I want them to be a more prominent, important voice in metal, but they have some climbing to do to get there.

4/10

My Dying Bride - The Ghost of Orion

The grand masters of gothic death-doom don’t ever really steer too far off course, rather they sometimes just take their foot off the gas, as they do on The Ghost of Orion. It has all the elements of any beautifully melancholic My Dying Bride album; the slow and burgeoning guitars, the downtrodden vocal melodies juxtaposed with bursts of growled anguish, and the melodrama of vibrato-laden strings; but it’s all arranged and conjured without much tangible passion or pain. That’s by the standard of the band’s pretty solid discography though, so with that considered, it’s by no means a terrible death-doom album, it just won’t be converting anybody or getting anyone more excited about My Dying Bride and death-doom.

6/10

Warp Chamber - Implements of Excruciation

Brutal death metal can often seem pretty one-dimensional, and it often is, but in the hands of a band who really has the ambition to make more of it than just some guttural rumblings from all the instruments involved, the genre can really take on a wholy new monstrous form, its horrific, deathly instrumentation heightened by the melody and the compositional nuance that a competent band can bring to it, and that is exactly what Warp Chamber do on their debut album here. Full of cavernous growls and ceaseless low-register battery, it can seem, at face value like just a regular brutal death metal album, but when the band starts breaking out the winding tangents and manic solos that, again, just heighten the chaos and compliment the brutality. It’s more than just regular-ass death metal, and I’m glad to have heard this debut. I hope Warp Chamber has more in store.

8/10

Loathe - I Let It in and It Took Everything

Do you love Deftones? Maybe you do. I do. But I don’t think either of us love Deftones as much as Loathe loves Deftones. I’m goofing right now, but Loathe really do channel their Deftones fandom real hard when they’re not in full hardcore mode or getting eccentric with the segues on this album. And it does offer a great combination of styles, with angular, low-tuned modern metalcore noise riffage juxtaposed pretty strongly against the gauzy shoegaze that immediately hearkens to that facet of Deftones’ music. The band struggle to get the flow just right on certain songs and across the album in general, with some pretty inconsistent songwriting, but it’s definitely outweighed by its still somehow immersive quality and the strength of the individual pieces going into it.

7/10

Earth Rot - Black Tides of Obscurity

The Australian band brings forth some more of the tried and true modern death metal a la Bloodbath, Carnation, and modern Cannibal Corpse, but with enough eerie, blackened oddity throughout the songs to keep the journey from being too homogenous. It’s these moments that both give extra life to the bludgeoning, but at-times basic, modern death metal the band is conjuring and kind of disrupt the flow of that muscly death metal. At times I do wish the band would chose to focus one or the other more exclusively, but if this pushes Earth Rot further into this kind of stylistically ambitious death metal, I appreciate the stepping stone this album acts as.

7/10

Myrkur - Folksange

After riding a pretty strong wave of critical adoration for her contribution to the growing wave of atmospheric black metal that culminated in the respectably sonically unique Mareridt in 2017, Myrkur’s Amelie Bruun has taken a step back to refocus or recalibrate artistically. As the title suggests, Folksange finds its creator rewarding herself for her contributions to black metal with a return to her love of Scandinavian folk music, and you can tell she loves it on this entirely folk-music-based project devoid of any black metal elements. I may not have been as head-over-heels as a lot of critics were about her black metal albums, but I certainly appreciated her folk-inspired ambient take on the genre, especially the unique sonic pallet of Mareridt. I liked those albums quite a bit, yet it is clear that the sound on Folksange is her forte, which makes sense if Scandinavian folk has been a longer-standing passion than black metal for Bruun. The instrumentation is absolutely beautiful and Bruun’s angelic voice fits so perfectly with it, but Folksange is more than just superficially aesthetically gorgeous. The songs (old and original) are written and arranged with such a natural knack for the style that makes it such a serenely enveloping experience that stands as Myrkur’s best work yet. I highly recommend it.

8/10

Old Man Gloom - Seminar IX: Darkness of Being

The famed supergroup’s first of two releases planned for this year after the loss of Caleb Scofield sees them dabbling around in an experimental array of genres that all the members have some sort of significant experience and specialty with. From post-metal of the sludgy, Isis-esque variety to the more noisily esoteric, Sumac-esque variety, to distinctly post-hardcore-influenced stylistic diversions, the band’s wide-reaching sound takes all sorts of twists and turns along their most recent experiment with the members’ varying pedigrees and influences guiding the music on quite the unusual nomadic trek. From the repetitive chord progression of the opening track to the album’s noisy finishing tracks (one of which features what sounds like rocks tumbling down a shaft of some sort for an extensive period of time), the band let their adventurers’ instincts guide them as they wander through their own experiment through the interplay of their members’ various styles. It’s weird, and not super polished, but it’s certainly fixating.

7/10

Candlemass - The Pendulum

After further cementing their relatively unchallenged status as the kings of epic doom metal with The Door to Doom about a year ago, Candlemass have offered up a quick little demo-focused EP with one new fleshed-out song, the title track, which takes them to the faster, more Dio-era-inspires side of their sound with the grand, soaring operatic vocals on the chorus and the relatively fast (by doom standards) guitar rhythms on the verses (think “Paranoid” or “Children of the Grave’). I love the very Dio-esque delivery of the word “fools” at the end too, very fitting. The demo track “Snakes of Goliath” slows it back down to Ozzy-era Sabbath worship in typical Candlemass fashion, the riffs and arrangement pretty respectable for a supposed demo track. The other full-length demo, “Porcelain Skull”, by contrast, does feel much less compositionally fleshed out and more like an actual demo piece. The other three demo tracks are just little instrumental studio doodles that don’t really add anything to the EP. If this EP could be interpreted as any kind of power move, it’s that Candlemass at demo level have just such a sharp compositional intuition for grand Sabbath doom metal and can pretty much nail it in their sleep.

demo-level 7/10

Igorrr - Spirituality and Distortion

I was definitely looking forward to this album big-time after the gloriously unashamed weirdness of 2017’s Savage Sinusoid filled a massive void I felt was needed in my metal bank. By contrast, Spirituality and Distortion is such a reserved project it feels either shy or cowardly from the usually hyper-eccentric band. The greater absence of the vocals of Laurent Lunoir on the album highlight also just how much character he brought to Savage Sinusoid through his zany performances. Without his vocal wildness across the album, the attention on Spirituality and Distortion is then directed to the significantly timid production and electronic finagling that doesn’t measure up to that of Savage Sinusoid.

6/10

In This Moment - Mother

*Sigh* In This Moment is one of those bands who I think really do show a lot of potential but just can’s seem to reach it. They get a lot of unnecessary shit for Maria Brink’s sexy stage presence and generally theatrical aesthetic and live show, but they do have the capacity to produce emotive alt metal ballads like “Whore” and bangers like “Big Bad Wolf” that give some insight into what heights they could potentially reach if they were much more consistent. I was hoping that Mother would be a solid rejuvenation/comeback after the benign disappointment of 2017′s Ritual, and while it’s certainly different, it’s not better. Mother really tries to take on this big, enveloping sound, and biblical, post-apocalyptic feel, and it can sort of carry it for a little bit and be temporarily immersive until the band needs to go full force. When it’s just some fancy eerie atmosphere and Maria Brink’s sultry vocal delivery, it holds up okay, but when the horribly synthetically produced arena-booming instrumentation really comes in and breaks that immersion, you remember that it really is all just trite alt rock whose lofty flair is all a facade.

4/10

Mamaleek - Come and See

Undoubtedly the most wildly experimental album to grace my ears so far this year, I was not expecting such a forceful avant-garde project from Mamaleek so relatively soon after Out of Time, but damn I’m glad I got it! The anonymous brotherly duo have always taken black metal on quite the far-off journey whenever they bring it along on one, ever making it their mission to create something one-of-a-kind with their work, and Come and See has to be their most enthralling album yet. Ramming together the transfixing manic anguish of their blackened experimental noise with the angular dynamism of jazz and even some blues rock in a musical particle collider, Mamaleek have made a truly one-of-a-kind album, and that’s even by their standards. I’ve mentioned before that I tend to like my jazz pretty rowdy and aggressive (like my metal), and the chaos that Mamaleek already generates with their brand of black metal is perfect to trim with and infuse with the angular dissonance of traditional jazz at its more energetically extreme. While the array of chaotic sounds may make Come and See their most intangibly black metal album, the ethos of that root genre pierces through by way of the harshly shrieked vocals just as much as the new jazz elements do. I really might just have to do a full-length review on this one because there is so much going on here that is worth admiring and I can’t stop loving it.

9/10

Phalanx - Golden Horde

This album came out a few months ago and has been making some pretty significant waves on Bandcamp, and for good reason. The relatively young band on their second release ever do showcase a pretty good knack for groove and death metal brutality, balancing slow, thick, tasty groove and blasting death metal without falling into metalcore breakdown clichés or death metal clichés. The three-pronged vocal attack the band touts isn’t quite as dazzling as they might think it is (with the abundance of talented vocalists capable of shapeshifting through a variety of metal vocal techniques), but I do think it would be cool to hear them use that approach with all three vocalists acting more simultaneously to more effectively convey the chaos of the war-related lyrical themes they focus on. Nevertheless, this quarter-hour taster is a great starter for them and definitely worth checking out. Hopefully it’s a foreshadowing of the blossoming of a bright new act for death metal.

7/10

Regarde Les Hommes Tomber - Ascension

I’ve been seeing a lot of praise being thrown this album’s way, and I honestly can’t disagree too much with that it is a pretty damn good album. It is very reminiscent of the Numenorean album Adore that I praised so highly last year. Like Adore, Ascension is an atmospheric black metal album that could easily hook your typical dude who hates Deafheaven and blackgaze and makes a really big deal about it. The band’does well on Ascension to avoid the reliance on generic post-rock guitar reverb ambiance that turns so many people off from blackgaze, working together a lot of unique sonic twists that don’t usually find their way into ambient black metal and channeling direct, cutting, yet humanly vibrant instrumentation that’s backed by raw cries of agony very similar to what Numenorean was doing last year. Perhaps this is the new way forward for atmospheric black metal and blackgaze. If so, Regarde Les Hommes Tomber are doing well to lead the way.

8/10

Deadspace - A Portrait of Sacrificial Scars

I already offered my praises to this album at length with my long-form post dedicated to it, but I’ll give it another shout for its brilliant, bittersweet sending off of the seemingly tireless Australian band. Deadspace give their oppressive/depressive sound the added magnitude and glory offered by choir and orchestral elements with more tact than most bands that use those elements regularly. I really am surprised that the band have decided to split up at such a high point in their artistry and I wish there could be more from them, but I have to respect their decision to end it here, and A Portrait of Sacrificial Scars is a great note to end on.

9/10

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Episode 104: Kindergarten Kid

“I'm smarter than your average Peridot.”

Oof. I need a break. Do you need a break? Let’s take a break.

When I was a kindergarten kid, my family had a firm policy against “commercial TV,” as in any children’s television programming that included commercials. Our house didn’t get Cartoon Network until 2003-ish regardless, but this meant pretty much everything that wasn’t PBS (and later Disney Channel, which had commercials but not for toys) was restricted to friends’ houses until I was about eight. I was born in 1990, so the ban lift came right on time for Digimon and Pokémon to debut (in that order, fight me), but until then my access to cartoons was largely limited.

So yeah, unlike others of my age group, I didn’t grow up with Rugrats or Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, and due to the continued lack of Cartoon Network I also missed out on Dexter’s Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls until reruns in the aughts. But I did have The Tapes, and The Tapes had Looney Tunes, so I was more than satisfied.

I still remember sitting up straighter when I first realized what Kindergarten Kid was doing back in 2016. The southwestern setting is a pretty big hint from the start, but we were cleverly introduced to the area in Beta and Earthlings and aren’t primed to see the Road Runner and Coyote connection until the plot revs up. And yes, these rivals are the clearest inspiration for Peridot’s futile attempts to outsmart a faster, “dumber” foe with intricate traps. But with an exception here or there for comic relief, Messrs. Coyote and Runner are silent, while Peridot is anything but. And as much fun as it would’ve been to go full throttle and make the entire sequence silent, I’m so glad to see Raven Molisee and Paul Villeco instead have Peridot emulate another icon from the Looney Tunes roster. And no, it’s not Porky Pig.

It’s ironic, because his best work sees him fail to come out on top, but I legitimately can’t think of a better cartoon character than Daffy Duck. Like, out of all cartoons, from every country, from any time period, period. Bugs Bunny is no slouch—he follows the legacy of Loki, Anansi, Reynard, and Maui as modern America’s most notable trickster deity—but Daffy perfected an archetype that’s largely unrepresented in myths of yore, and stands head and shoulders above all other examples, including Wile E. Coyote himself (and Daffy’s fun but better-in-the-comics counterpart, Donald Duck). Aptly referred to in Babylon 5 as “an ancient Egyptian god of frustration,” Daffy evolved from a perfectly good screwball character (Daffy Doodles is the best of this era) to the embodiment of self-inflicted pain.

I’ve already compared Peridot and Ruby to the little black duck before (seriously, stop what you’re doing and watch Daffy Doodles if that weird nickname doesn’t ring a bell), but Kindergarten Kid seems to go out of its way to evoke the essence of Daffy. Wile E. Coyote’s ploys may have the same convoluted detail as the Peri-Plans we see, but going on at length about how a scheme is going to work only for it to immediately fail? That’s Daffy Duck. Puffing up in confidence at the infallibility of said plan, and having it collapse in the middle of a smug victory lap? That’s Daffy Duck. This episode pulls its pacing straight out of the Hunting Trilogy (from which we get the famous “Rabbit Season!” “Duck Season!” debate), with Steven subbing in for both Elmer Fudd and Bugs depending on who Daffy is allied with at any given time, and it’s a beautiful thing to watch. 

We even get variations of classic gags to keep things fresh. It would’ve been acceptable for Peridot to slowly dismantle an injector to crush Gem Runner, only for it to not fall until she’s right beneath it. But no, she realizes the risk, takes a step back, then gets crushed by falling rocks. I still would’ve laughed if her cannon refused to fire until she stepped in front of it, launching her over the horizon. But the recoil launches her backwards, crushing her with more rocks. Rehashing the exact same classic gags would’ve been an easy way out, but the gags are classic for a reason and I would’ve appreciated the tribute; that we see actual creative changes instead brings Kindergarten Kid to even higher heights. Yes, the final plummet is directly based on Wile E. Coyote’s own falls (sadly without the sound effect), but there’s a level of innovation here that’s compelling for an episode referencing the past so vividly.

Still, the biggest difference between Kindergarten Kid and vintage Looney Tunes is that unlike Daffy or Coyote, Peridot can make a change. The episode is similar to Barn Mates, in that both are a series of sketches that show Peridot and Steven trying and failing to accomplish a goal (which is perhaps the most clinical way to describe the standard Looney Tunes short). Both episodes end with a victory for Peridot when she realizes she must rethink the core problem, but Kindergarten Kid works better by halving the number of characters that need to grow. Barn Mates is by no means bad, but it’s hard to balance the story of its two leads, so Lapis is left without much focus behind her actions. This time the opponent is something of a force of nature, so we can spend more time digging into why Peridot’s plans aren’t working.

Peridot has already changed quite a bit, but her superiority complex remains a central tenet of her personality. It’s been tempered when Steven is involved, but she still treats most other Gems as intellectual inferiors even when she gets along with them. So of course she sees outbraining a Corrupted Gem as a cakewalk, and of course Steven teaches her the error of her ways with a lesson in empathy. These are obvious story beats, but old habits die hard, and I like that Peridot still has issues with her ego despite how far she’s come as a Crystal Gem.

It’s hard to compare any voice actor to Mel Blanc, in the same way it’s hard to compare any English-speaking playwright to Shakespeare, so I’m not gonna give praise that lofty, but Shelby Rabara still nails the fury of a gremlin who's smart but thinks she’s way smarter. It’s not easy on the throat to shout this much, and in such specific nonverbal ways, but I still think her best moment is when her confident front falters, and she yells that she’s doing the best she can. She’s as angry as ever, but that glimpse of vulnerability shows that she’s not a lost cause like Coyote.

Steven also returns to old habits, focusing all his energy on helping Peridot and not mentioning his mother once. I can see how this might make Kindergarten Kid seem too flippant, but as we’ll confirm in Mindful Education, our hero is pushing down the bad feelings instead of dealing with them. I think it’s crucial to have a few episodes where he seems okay to lull us into the sense of security that his breakdown destroys, and just like Bubbled, it’s clear that his coping mechanism is putting others before himself. He never complains about the physical injuries caused by Peridot’s poor planning, instead making sure his friend is okay.

Like Log Date 7 15 2, the show leans into Peridot’s brand of comic relief to cool us down from a major event. This is an even sillier episode, to the point that the other Crystal Gems are watching it for entertainment value, but it comes after an even more harrowing Diamond reveal. And because this one has more to do with Steven, he gets more to do in the episode: he’s not reliving a Peridot montage, he’s participating in her adventure, and the episode is stronger for it.

I understand that comedy is subjective. For instance, I’m not huge on meta humor in the style of our next episode; I acknowledge that it’s done well, but it’s not for me. So I don’t expect everyone to be huge on this episode, especially if you tragically lack a childhood full of ducks getting their beaks blown off and rabbits dancing up to bulls to slap them in the face. But hopefully folks who were let down in their first viewing, expecting more drama and lore in our post-shattering reality, can give Kindergarten Kid another look, perhaps after downing some classic cartoons, and enjoy it for the outstanding love letter that it is.

(I still don’t know why she references Yogi Bear, that’s a whole other era of cartoon, but nobody’s perfect.)

If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have inconsistencies…

I know it’s absurd to nitpick unrealistic elements of such a cartoony episode, but Steven’s endless bag of marshmallows bugs me. At least it gives us another Peridot-as-raccoon reaction.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

It barely misses the cut, but boy do I love this episode. Like any great Looney Tunes short, I can watch it and laugh no matter how many times I’ve seen it; the gags are so pure that rather than getting bored of them, I now chuckle in anticipation before the hits even come. 

Top Twenty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

When It Rains

Catch and Release

Chille Tid

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

No Thanks!

     5. Horror Club      4. Fusion Cuisine      3. House Guest      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

(I’m almost happy there’s no promo art for this one, because hot damn do I love this pic from Dark Tarou.)

#kindergarten kid #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

[belladonnablake]

All odd numbers 🖤

1: Golden mornings or peachy sunsets?: boston summer sunsets are always peachy but there’s something about the morning sky after it snows that is just as good? sunsets for summer and mornings for winter3: Do you wear scarves often? do you have a favorite?: i’d like to wear scarves more often than i do but i don’t know what to do with the back of my hair when i do? so maybe i will more often once it’s styled if i ever go to a hairdresser before the next time i die? but i do have a fave! i bought myself a tottenham hotspur scarf in the north end more than a few years ago and i’ll. try to take pictures of myself wearing it. i’ll try to take pictures of myself this year because i didn’t last year lol5: Is there a food you’ve never had but always wanted to try?: there’s a lot of things but i can’t think of too many right now! a lot of it is regional food you can’t find in new england or you can but you have to go out of your way. i’ve tried both rabbit and gator in the past couple years and i want to try more meats. caribou would be nice too. this is one of those questions i could talk forever without ever answering it completely so i’ll cut it here you’re welcome7: Do you listen to ASMR?: not too often but i’ll listen to rain or like moving water in general when i write on occasion, otherwise the music i’m listening to influences the music i’m writing. but nothing more than that9: What’s a little thing in life that you love?: i answered this but because it’s a question that can be answered more than once so i’m gonna do that. i love winter jack jack daniels. it’s like apple whiskey. i love my new pink and green joycons and i love the green and pink colour scheme in general. i love my new hoodies too. one is a powell peralta hoodie with a small logo on the front and big on the back, of the bones skeleton with the red hood. and the other is a thrasher hoodie with green font and a pink jellyfish11: Wobbly lines or using a ruler?: my hands are shaky and have always been shaky so my straight lines, they’re straighter than i am but they’re still bad. i don’t even think i own a ruler but if i were going to draw a straight line i’m going to need one lol13: Do you have any candles? what scents are they?: one of them is apple something and the other two are sparkling icicles and sweater weather which like. i don’t know how to describe either but it’s not the same as lighting a sweater on fire or sticking an icicle up your nose15: Do you have glasses?: another one where i’ll try to take pics for later but i have green aviators, red aviators, and purple aviators. all sunglasses off of rainbowoptx dot com17: What’s your favorite season and favorite month in that season?: winter autumn tie but my fave months are october, november, and december, and all but ten days of that are in autumn? 19: Favorite Ghibli and/or disney movie: it’s been years since i’ve seen either so forgive me if my memory fails me but i remember princess mononoke, kiki’s delivery service, and spirited away the most out of all of either ghibli or disney? and i should probably rewatch them soon as well as the others to see if that still stands21: What snacks do you usually get at the theater?: i don’t think i’ve ever actually gotten snacks at the theatre? i haven’t been in years, but there are a few things either out or coming out that look like they’d be worth going even if the concept of theatres is something that i don’t really understand? ...i’m thinkin bout once upon a time in hollywood baby! the best candy for theatres is reeses pieces and like any of the bites candy? cookie dough bites etc23: Would you fill your house with plants if you had a green thumb?: i keep my liquor bottles around to use them as vases tbh. there really isn’t a place for plants in our apartment, or maybe there is and i haven’t found it25: Do you have a favorite type of art style? (eg: soft looking, no to little color, sketches, crisp and clean, minimalist, pixel art etc.): my style varies all the time and i try to do all of the above, i’m very inconsistent myself. but i’m very fond of 3D modeling atm!27: Do you like nicknames?: i like nicknames if i like the person using them? i’m a person with a lot of names because i’m a dumb kinnie and hate using one name exclusively and i guess all my names are nicknames but like. i don’t like how nicknames for most people are shortened names or how they think shorter names are nicknames for a longer name idk like i’ve got a cousin named liam, that’s not his nickname. his legal name might be william but that’s not his name. his nicknames have nothing to do with that. and like there’s nothing wrong with nicknames that are shortened versions of a name but i hate how that’s what most people think of them as29: Do you still like old memes? (tell the truth): i don’t like how meme formats are the same and the reaction image changes. i like reaction images but i don’t like how some of them become memes and then it changes to a different image for the same format. i like the new wave of doge memes and i still like pepe and i love how stupid dat boi was 31:  Are you a fashionable person?: i’m a crusty folk punk that wears the same flannel every day but doesn’t know how to make crust pants33:  Cookies or brownies?: i don’t love either and would rather just eat raw cookie dough. i think there is such a thing as too much chocolate and brownies do have too much and cookies are often borderline but i do like a baller macaron or cheesecake cookie35: Do you find the crickets chirping outside your window relaxing?: i live in a city so... replace crickets with drunks screaming anything from the lyrics to everlong to i need you! we need you! we need you! we need you! we need you! fucking idiot! i don’t have further context for either but ya that’s relaxing to me37:  How often do you doodle?: not as often as i should because of the perfectionism thing giving me this fear of practice? i blame public school for killing off as many artists as they can tbh39: What’s your favorite random piece of decor in your house and room?: mr. durdam... he is a hollow plastic penguin around kneehigh next to the tv stand / amiibo shelves. we also hung waluigi from the ceiling for a while.41: Any birthmarks?: i got two dots on my wrist, one larger one smaller. looks like an exclamation point !43: First video game you ever played?: it was either one of the early zelda games or one of the ps1 games? i was too young to form memories but i know it was one of the two. i know i played arcade games at some arcade on hampton beach when i was that young too. qbert that orange FUCK45: Do you use gifs/ memes a lot when replying to people?: i’m trying to get better at remembering to save reaction images and remembering to use them. i don’t even know how people use the gifs when replying to people because i was stuck with a phone that couldn’t update its operating system for years and now i have a new phone with an up to date operating system and i’m still figuring things out47: Ideal temperature outside?: so it’s either gonna be below freezing so it’s able to snow or like... around 50 or below and literally feels like nothing at all. because i hate when it’s too hot to wear beanies. i like when it’s cold and i like when it’s not hot or cold. but i hate hot49: How often do you hear airplanes outside?: if i were to go outside and lie down on my back i could watch airplanes all day long. it’s a little different than being on castle island but it’s still close enough to logan to where planes are near constant but not too loud. i hear the train every ten minutes too. and the cars are always

#love you <3 #icyhot-ingenium

[swelldomains]

What`s Hot in Digital Marketing - April

From April Fool's Day campaigns to Easter-themed tweets, there was lots to speak about in April. As digital online marketers, it was wonderful to see brand names locate brand-new means to connect as well as involve with customers, which was the major emphasis of April as opposed to previous months where brand-new feature updates and copycat plans took the spotlight. We take a look at what obtained us talking in April ...

From Easter Eggs to Twitter Eggs

April provided services a great chance to send solid Easter campaigns prepared to catch the client's eye and also send them coming in store or online to discover more. We rounded up our top Easter advertising and marketing campaigns of 2017, which included choctails, mobile-only video games as well as wonderful online compensations. Do not fret, we listened to all concerning the Cadbury/ National Count on Easter debacle, and we have actually placed our tuppence-worth in our blog site too!

Easter wasn't the only egg-y subject on our digital radar. You guessed it! Twitter's dropped the egg! In an attempt to stop association with anonymous trolls, Twitter's altered the egg for a "gender-balanced" head for those who do not decide to post an account picture. The factor is to motivate those that haven't had possibility to customise their account to do so much more swiftly. Will this stop the trolls? Perhaps not, however it could make them less complicated to recognize. That appears to be the goal, anyway.

What does this mean for electronic marketers?

Utilising possibilities to connect a brand name with such a big occasion is a should for a lot of digital marketing professionals. At Extreme we functioned hard on various Easter advocate our clients, including running some wonderful competitors for Nisa in collaboration with Cadbury so we know ourselves just how vital staying in addition to the events schedule is!

In regards to the Twitter egg, we're not exactly sure what difference the new default profile photo is really mosting likely to make (besides looking a little better compared to an egg visuals). It's absolutely intriguing to see Twitter respond to user responses and also proactively try to find services to identify and inhibit online abuse from giants. We'll offer that a like.

Brands got foolish

April Fool's Day chopped up once more on 1st April, providing brands yet an additional possibility to establish creative campaigns to capture the customer's eye.

Coca-Cola announced it was adding helium to a new range of drink, giffgaff released broken display balm and the Royal Mint introduced it was developing a new 99p coin.

We're likewise particular followers of Brian the Rail Canine ...

https:// twitter.com/BrianTheRailDog/status/848211317202857984

Poor old Brian could not have got the Twitter focus he possibly deserved, yet we're still like him anyway.

What does this mean for digital marketers?

Though much of the projects ran in published magazines, a lot of the conversation around the finest April Fool's projects took place on social networks. From a service perspective, this opened up the chance to offer a fun, light-hearted side to the brand name. Getting in touch with consumers without pressing a service or product frequently leads to a much more devoted following, and it was terrific to see numerous brand names not wanting to lose out on that particular chance.

But Facebook got serious

Facebook's been attempting to work with journalists and also mainstream magazines extra successfully for a while currently, as well as now one of several features and also applications has been released. Call-to-action buttons on Immediate Articles offers customers the opportunity to join to the publisher's e-newsletter or Facebook web page, thus highlighting them as a reliable source.

This most recent upgrade could perhaps be a nod to Facebook's dedication to attempt as well as work much more closely with information resources as well as organisations to deal with phony news. With the UK General Election fast approaching, Facebook's under pressure to obtain a minimum of a few even more treatments in position to quit sly phony tales going viral.

What does this mean for digital marketers?

Facebook absolutely appears to be getting pally with the journos, a fascinating advancement that could suggest a shift towards Facebook becoming more of a social news-sharing platform. This is slightly inconsistent provided recent brand-new updates such as Messenger Day as well as it's not really clear which instructions Facebook's entering. Looks like Facebook's again aiming to be all things to all people (as well as hi there, we've written a blog site concerning that, as well!)

Google goes back to the attracting board

Machine learning's a fascinating subject, and for those fledgling Picassos around Google's brand-new Car Draw app might be the best digital update of the month. Whether you're a Monet or keep it basic with stick-men, Google will help turn your doodles right into pictures.

Users can have a look at the attribute on mobile or desktop, and it's feasible to download and install or share pictures so you don't need to say goodbye to your most recent masterpiece.

What does this mean for digital marketers?

It's a brand-new development for artificial intelligence, and also a cool new feature for individuals, as well as from a digital advertising and marketing perspective it's always interesting to maintain an eye on just what Google's up to! We're absolutely enjoying this room for other brand-new functions and apps.

Instagram offers Snapchat one more Direct hit

Of training course, it wouldn't be a round-up of digital news without a copycat tale upgrade! This time Instagram's releasing a brand-new version of Direct, which is incredibly much like Snapchat. With the blue video camera symbol now in three different places, there's really no justification not to develop some outstanding content as well as individuals will no question like the new updates.

The slight copycat nature of Instagram has undoubtedly assist to increase use of the app. Whether you like the brand-new (sorta) attributes or not, Instagram Stories is currently used by over 200 million individuals each day - higher customer rates compared to Snapchat. Not only that, however Instagram Stories is including around 50 million everyday individuals every 3 months so use the feature is revealing no indicator of declining.

It should be a rather big strike to Snapchat. Its innovative, one-of-a-kind attributes started trends as well as led the means for a whole new period of sharing content - however in the busy world of digital, it was constantly mosting likely to be just a matter of time before various other applications started to carry out the greatest functions and also mark them as their own.

What does this mean for digital marketers?

Monitoring the means individuals communicate with apps is unbelievably essential when it pertains to establishing social techniques. We think brands could start placing more of a concentrate on Instagram and maybe avoiding huge Snapchat advocate now, though undoubtedly Snapchat is waiting in the wings with another ground-breaking feature that'll take our breath away. Go on, Snapchat, please?

We've been truly curious about monitoring this month's mix of digital updates and brand projects - as well as dealing with our very own, certainly! If you wish to come down and also digital with us, get in touch!

Sign approximately our e-newsletter - we assure you will not wind up with [Twitter] Propel your face!

#digital marketing #marketing #social marketing #social media #social media statistics

[667-darkavenue]

Sad Lib Ouija

@daughterofthestars‘ lupcretia doodle gave me a craving to write some mage hand shenanigans so....

“Gonna wake up so sore tomorrow,” Lup complained, brows drawn together from the pain of moving her shoulders at all.

“It’s been raining for twenty days straight on this shithole planet,” Taako, caked in mud, whined back before disappearing into the bathroom that connected their adjoining rooms.

He snapped the door shut with deliberate force to punctuate how pissy the day’s events left him. Lup didn’t blame him. The light of creation appeared late this year, which pushed them to leave their base at the crack of dawn every grey morning to get as much searching done through the rainstorms constantly plaguing this part of the country they stayed in. They spent the day hiking calf-deep in mud through twisted jungle paths, then scaling a mountainside before discovering, upon reaching its peak, it was the wrong fucking mountain. Lup nearly flung herself off the ledge in frustration. Rain or not, they had a mission to finish, and would set out again in less than seven hours.

She’d been in a similar mood as her brother twenty minutes ago, but, exhausted and sore as she was, something about being freshly showered and wrapped up in her bathrobe always lifted her spirits. She collapsed face first into her bed, longing to knock the fuck out.

Her throat was so dry.

Maybe she could ignore it.

No, it was uncomfortably parched.

Lup’s eyes snapped open and she released a frustrated sigh. With every tired muscle complaining, she dragged herself out of bed and down the hallway with plans to chug down a jug of water in record time. The corridor was pitch black, except for one streak of orange light spilling from a door left ajar. They’d been on this ship long enough for Lup to know that was Lucretia’s room, just from its place in the hallway. Naturally, she poked her nose in as she passed.

She saw Lucretia’s back hunched over her desk. Lup could tell she was ready to drop by the tired heaviness in the way her shoulders sagged. She leaned against the doorframe and watched for a couple of minutes, somehow still impressed at the sight of Lucretia writing with two hands simultaneously even after all this time.

“Hey.”

Lucretia paused at the sound of a voice in her doorway and looked over her shoulder. She didn’t put the quills in her hands down. “Hey?”

“What are you doing?” Lup traipsed in and sat herself right on the edge of the desk. “How d’you have the energy for this right now?”

“I don’t know if I do have it,” Lucretia said, darting a panicked look at Lup’s legs nearly knocking over an inkwell as they crossed. “But I won’t have time to do it in the morning.”

She went back to her journaling. Her handwriting was lovely in both books.

“Thought you gave up this nerdy stuff now that you’re a badass who comes on missions with us.”

“You thought wrong,” she said without looking up. Her voice had a careless, flat edge to it that implied ‘Fuck off, Lup.’ Old Lucretia would have softened that. New Lucretia was awesome.

New Lucretia slid sixty yards down a mountainside when the ground, soft and heavy with moisture, collapsed out from under her today and didn’t even seem freaked out about it when she caught up to the team. She had to be more exhausted than any of them.

“Are you coming with tomorrow?”

“Yeah? Yeah.”

“Have you stayed up every night doing this? Jesus, Lucretia, put the quill down and go the fuck to sleep.”

She dutifully ignored Lup hovering over her and continued writing away. Lup plucked the quill out of her right hand. Lucretia’s head snapped up to pierce her with a sharp look. It was a good one, for a moment Lup felt like she was actually in trouble.

“Give me that.” Lucretia held her palm out expectantly.

Lup slapped a low five on it with her free hand.

“Lup.” She reached for it and Lup raised her hand to hold it just out of reach.

Lucretia’s fingers swiped higher and nearly caught it this time. Lup clamped the quill between her teeth.

“Let’s tango,” she said through clenched teeth, feeling like a dancer holding a rose in their mouth.

“Fine.” Lucretia dropped her hand and fell back into her seat.

Victory! She’s giving up and going to be--The quill ripped itself out from between Lup’s teeth with a vicious yank. It floated right back into Lucretia’s fingers.

“What the--” Bits of feather stuck to the the tip of her tongue and the roof of her mouth, and she sputtered clumsily for a moment, trying to spit them out. “Did you fuckin’ Mage Hand me?”

“I don’t know, did I,” Lucretia wondered out loud to her notebook, which she turned her focus to again.

An impish smile broke over Lup’s face, but Lucretia was too busy looking down at the page to see it. Seconds later, a transparent hand appeared over the quill and pushed its stem. Her elegant handwriting jerked mid-word.  

“Seriously, Lup? Grow up.” Lucretia tried to carry on unbothered.

“Yikes, what does that even say? Put it down, you’re obviously tired.” Mage Hand pushed the quill again, ruining another word.

Lucretia carried on despite the fumbles in her text. “I’m fine!”

Mage Hand clamped itself around hers, dragging Lucretia’s fist over the page. The current sentence read: The aboriginal race native to forests of our expedition has the misfortune ofSLEEP living amongst the only known LUCREsource oTfA GO the deliTO SLciousEEP Hama root.

Lucretia made a tiny, distressed noise in her throat at the garbled mess taking over her page. “Let go of me!”

“I’m not touching you,” Lup answered in a familiar, playful voice that was usually reserved for Taako.

“Why are you even here? Get out of my room!”

“Aww, are you an only child, Lucretia?”

The root is a delicacy throughout thHEY controlling empires. Colonial farming operationsFUCKIN encroach upon STOtPhe jungles that the peaceful LanzaroHEtesYYYcall home.

Mage Hand dissipated at the end of its time limit and Lucretia sighed, relieved. Lup immediately recast it.

“Stop!”

“You stop,” Lup insisted.

Though colonizers met resistance from THEIR theCLOGGED ASSHOLES native population, the taste of COCK the Hama root was so beloved that entire divisions were sent overseas to suSUCCppress the uprising.

“Lup, this is important!”

“Oh my god, I know. What happened after the succ?”

“This is a historically significant culture with very little documentation!”

“It’s like fantasy mad libs, but not even fun. Sad libs.”

The operation is well known as a historical embarrassment, as tHEIR DICKS WERE SO DAMN SMALL IN COMPARISON TO the Lanzarotes’ prowess in stealth prevented the military from ever fully suppressing the LUST OF the native population.

“Fine, I give up.”

“Oh, no you don’t.”

“No?” Lucretia tried to drop the quill, but Mage Hand kept its fingers wrapped tight around hers, trapping it in her hand.

“I need to know what happened with the sexual revolution! You have a duty—”

“Let me go!”

“—To the people—”

“I want to stop now!”

“—Lucretia. Do you really?”

Mage hand took over the text while Lucretia’s fingers went limp and desperately tried to wriggle out of its grip. The story continued: THE LAZNAROTES ARE MOST NOTABLE FOR HOW MANY WAYS THEY CAN DICK YOU DOWN.

“What are you doing?”

“Holy shit, Lucretia, how do you even know that?”

“That’s not even true.”

IT’S COMPLETELY TRUE.

“Lup, this is a first hand source—it’s an archival document, you can’t just—”

BELOW IS AN EXPLICIT FIRST HAND ACCOUNT FROM MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. FOR I, LUCRETIA, AM NOT ONLY A COMITTED PUBLIC SERVANT, BUT ALSO A SEXUALLY ADVENTUROUS CHRONICLER FOR THE ANALS OF HISTORY. *annals *committe*NO. ANALS.

“Wait,” Lup paused. “Are you spellchecking me?”

“Hm? I’m curious where this is going.”

In the midst of Lup’s shock and delight, the hand let go of Lucretia. “You wanna read some x-rated jungle smut about you?!”

Lucretia pushed the messed up journal toward her, its open pages scattered with their messy, inconsistent joint handwriting. “You can take this with you if you need some time to work on it.”

“Ha, I knew I could make you give up on the boring shit.”

“Oh, no. No, I already wrapped that up.” Her left hand closed the journal it had been writing in and gave the cover a light pat.

Oh, fuck. Lup was so concentrated on messing with Lucretia, she didn’t think about the second book. It never crossed her mind that Lucretia could possibly maintain focus on serious writing with her left hand at the same time that she dealt with Lup being ridiculous on her right. Could it be... Old Lucretia was also a secret badass all along?

“Touché, you slutty annalist. I’m coming back tomorrow night.”

#lupcretia #taz #the adventure zone #lup #lucretia

[conoscenze]

salice // salice & allen.

I mentioned this Allen guy a couple of times, and I also posted what he looks like, but what do we actually know about him besides the fact that he is a lawyer that works alongside with Salice, in the same studio? Nothing much.

This is a brief resume of who he is and what his relationship with Salice is like.

1 // basics.

Full name is Allen Owen.

He’s half-English half-Scottish; he hates his country, England, similarly to Salice (who hates Italy).

He is about 2 years older than Salice, which means he’s 34-35 years old.

Allen’s born on the 8th of November.

Forced to work as a ballister by his father.

He typically handles financial fraud, conning, gambling and robbery. He will, however, also handle graver cases such as murder or violent / sexual assault if he’s requested.

Would like to drop out of law to become a graphic novelist, or to generally pursue any career related to visual arts. Allen does in fact demonstrate good drawing abilities---his favourite hobby is doodling caricatures of colleagues both he and Salice don’t like.

Bisexual, has a preference for men.

Closeted-not-closeted, it’s complicated.

Also desperately seeking a partner: however, he seems to have a disastrous, inconsistent and troubled love life, in which he’s been dumped numerous times.

2 // personality.

A similarity she shares with Salice is the difficulty in showing all emotions except for annoyance, frustration and irritation. Much like his friend, working as a ballister seems to be numbing down his feelings for the sake of professionalism.

Going through the cold surface, Allen is actually a rather excitable man. He gets really invested especially in things he likes, and he can be quite the open book.

Unlike Salice, it is not so difficult to get him to smile. While his colleague grimaces at the mere thought of them, Allen instead loves being smothered with puns, and all terrible jokes alike.

The guy that wakes up at 6AM even on free days.

He always has a plan for the day even when said plan is doing nothing. His agenda is ridiculously structured and he feels the need to fill it no matter what, even with the most flimsy of events or happenings.

Thanks to said agenda, he knows each one of his colleagues’ birthdays. He only cares about Salice’s, seen as they are good friends.

Once walked in an exam while wearing loafers. Considering he got out with an excellent grade at that very same test, he prides the memory as some sort of victory.

At work, he is a meticulous and precise lawyer, making him one of the most reliable around. He is punctual, always has alternative plans for everything, and always seeks out the most peaceful way to resolve issues so not to stir more trouble. He’s known and renowned for his ability to deal  with the most difficult of clients---not even Salice knows how he makes them play along with his script.

He often mocks Salice because of her undercut, but he just earns, in return, a snarky mock regarding his own dated mullet. Touché.

Allen considers himself a romantic literature fanatic, which he very much is. He owns a handful of books from the specific time period, and he also enjoys Renaissance and 1800′s art / painters / paintings to a great degree.

He always has something to say, even on subjects he isn’t extremely informed about. He’s simply very skilled in keeping a conversation lively, even when the topic at hand is bleak and rather dull. This “talent” of his is what grants her favour in court most of the time, as argumentation is very essential when it comes to handling court cases.

He is a hopeless romantic. This is why he’s been in quite the number of relationships; when it comes to love, he can be quite impulsive and reckless. Along with that, he can’t quite clearly separate love from sex---he’s trying to get better at it, but it’s still difficult. In fact, he often finds himself mulling over one-night-stands, even though he is conscious that it was a one time event, and that he won’t cross paths with them again.

3 // physical.

A good looking young man. He is nor excessively fit, nor thin. He keeps himself in shape just enough to not have physical issues.

Black hair, brown eyes, thick brows, straight nose, and strong jaw. He’s very typical when it comes to his facial characteristics.

What does stick out, though, is that mullet which he wears proudly. He still thinks they’re cool and to stay true to his belief he got himself one.

He’s 180cm tall.

Mostly wears suits and clean, elegant clothing. Unlike Salice, he likes wearing this stuff.

In his free-time, he likes to dress with typically 70′s fashion items, or generally with clothes from the seventies he bought at some random market. Yes, he owns platforms. In general, he enjoys wearing typically masculine clothing with a tinge of androgyny to it; he loves wearing shapely, tight clothing as well as ascots.

4 // allen and salice.

They met while studying at the same law school, as all good old friendships start---but they didn’t like each other at first. Being both rather competitive and hot-headed when they were younger, they were basically rivals, the friends that surrounded them both often supporting this mutual “soft hatred” they shared. With time, they ended up making a joke out of their banters, and eventually calmed down. Now they rarely ever fight, and if they do, they’re going to get over it quickly and painlessly.

Many, many people think they are in a relationship or engaged simply because they’re not afraid to show that they feel comfortable with each other’s presence and that they do not reject the other touching them (like shoulder patting, hugging, hair ruffling, poking); while Salice doesn’t care---she easily dismisses stupid assumptions---Allen actually feels a little offended by it. As much as he likes Salice as a person, his worst nightmare is to get engaged with another lawyer. Plus she is not his type at all, no matter how pleasant her company might be in his opinion.

Allen is ignorant of Salice’s necromancy activity. He doesn’t think of her unusual sleep patterns as odd, seeing he’s in the same situation as she is (basically a chronic insomniac). He does, however, find weird her interests: aka dead people, black magic, and gore horror films---it may well be because he has entirely different tastes. He is more of your average white guy, that doesn’t mind the typical mindless horror movie, but that also cannot stomach for the sake of him anything beyond fake splatters and cheap eerie stories.

While he avoids going out with most other lawyers he knows, he and Salice often meet up out of work to chat and generally to relax a bit. There’s a café not far from the London city centre they often visit during the weekend, or even during the week. They like to discuss about their job---or, more specifically, talk shit about the ambient they work within---but also a large variety of other topics, such as philosophical matters, fashion, music, etcetera. He is much more talkative than she is, but it’s a good balance overall.

Salice knows every detail of Allen’s messed up love life---he always updates her on it. Salice doesn’t mind hearing about it because she likes giving him advice, within her own certain knowledge and beliefs. She always jokes about putting an eventual new partner he tells her about through a “worthiness test”: but knowing her, chances are she would put them through such a pop quiz, if she ever came across them.

Overall, Salice considers Allen a good friend, as well as a good person. Unlike most other ballisters, he still hangs on the spirit of justice and just judgement that he entered law school with, even if only a bit---and considering he did not want to study jurisprudence in first place, she really does find it an amazing thing. He may not be her best friend, in her mind---but in her heart, she knows that if he ever got hurt, she’d go out of great lengths to rightfully avenge what was taken from him.

#salice || disclosed information. #salice & allen || suiting eachother up. #outta violence || ooc. #allen is a tired man #this list is just a bit of info about him and what hes like around salice #theyre like v good friends ok. theyre good.