#I'll share my second illustration in a day or two!

[snek-panini]

It's been a few weeks since I had new books to share, but I finally got photos taken of the newest ones so today's the day. Here, have a book:

This is Across Tides and Currents, a Good Omens siren AU by Sodium_Azide and @doorwaytoparadise (hi. I hope I tagged you right). My favorite thing about this AU is that, at its heart, it's about learning to communicate with someone who is so different from you that you can't even physically speak each other's language, and yet you've still got so much common ground that you find a way. It's way lighter and more fun than that description makes it sound, though, so go read it if that's your thing.

The cover on this is Lineco book cloth, scrapbook paper printed to look like leather, and blue foil htv. The foil was actually a nightmare to do. The first time I applied it, it wouldn't stick no matter what I did, and the bits that did stick peeled off as soon as I touched them. I had to peel them up very carefully, cut a new image, and try again. Thankfully it worked the second time but I don't know that I'll be using the foil type again unless there's no other way to get the color I want. The non-foil metallic was so much easier to work with.

More book photos under the cut!

I went with a coptic bind for this one for a few reasons. The first was that I wanted to try one on a quarto-size book to see if I could. I also wanted to try the mitered corners thing I did when I bound Strange Moons, and see if I could have the same effect on the interior. (That bit didn't work out so well; the front is fine but I mismeasured the inside and the lines didn't match up, so I trimmed some pieces of cardstock to cover that up. I really like the layered look though, so that's fine. It's quirky.) The third reason is that not long before I decided to bind this one, the authors published a new chapter after two years of no updates. That's the best possible reason to have to change plans, and the glueless bind means that if they ever do that again I can just redo the stitching to add more pages. Win-win.

Getting whimsical with title pages here. This took way longer than I thought it would, probably because I don't like graphic design and I did it in Word where I do the rest of my typesetting. Usually what I do is grab an image and put text around it or on top of it and then just play with fonts and sizes, but this time I drew the lines and then made the text follow them. This is the first time I've used the word art feature since...probably 2009? I'd forgotten how. I have no doubt there are better ways to do this but if I'd had to learn a new program at that point I'd have quit. And I do think it was worth it--it's cute and fun and looks about how I imagined it.

Couple of photos of the inside. Sorry the first one's blurry, I had someone trying to get my attention when I took these. The section break image came from rawpixel, I just made it gray instead of black so it's more subtle. The fic has very nice illustrations that I specifically got the artist's permission to print and then I failed to get any photos of them when I did my little photo shoot. They look very nice, though. I swear.

The last image is something I've started including in my latest books. I'm calling them "A Note from the Bookbinder" and it's basically just me talking about why I chose that story, the experience of reading it for the first time, stuff that's going on in the fandom, stuff about the process like the new chapter coming out as I was preparing to print. It's kind of...like marginalia? Part of fanbinding is preservation and that's linked to archival work, and something I know archivists love is marginalia and diaries. I don't like writing in my books and I've never found any fun in journaling, but sometimes that kind of context is important so I'm trying to add it. Someday, decades from now, I may not remember all the details, so I'm trying to preserve them. IDK, this got philosophical on me. Go read about mermaids now. Promise it's a good time.

#bookbinding #fanbinding #snek makes books #good omens #fic rec #i wanted to do this as a mermay project #that did not happen #i finished it in october #happy mertober

[dk-wren]

Buddy Daddies Week - Ep. 9-12 Rewatch

Hello and welcome to Day 5 of my Buddy Daddies anniversary week! If you read the little end blurb from yesterday's post, let's just say things did not go according to plan and I decided to switch my planned post for today to tomorrow. That means today, I'll be sharing the last batch of thoughts and questions I had while rewatching the final four episodes of the series. And because this was a bit of a last minute switch, I was not able to grab as many images to accompany my notes at the time of posting. I will likely add those in later today or over the next few days. Hope you enjoy!

This interaction between Kazuki and Rei about Miri and who she gets her grit from is so cute because Kazuki saying she gets it from him paired with Rei’s side-eye (which in this case I interpret as due to disagreement) both convey how they deeply they feel connected to Miri and the father figure roles they’ve taken on for Miri

It’s kinda interesting to me how throughout this episode, at least based on the subtitles, Miri is the one who constantly says how she’s gonna win the gold medal. There are a few lines from Kazuki that sort of support that mentality, telling her she’s sure to win or that’s the spirit after saying she’s gonna get that gold medal, but overall, he generally just tells her to try her best. And I think that’s very sweet how he doesn’t really put that pressure on her and just wants her to do the best while enjoying herself.

Reason #? of why I love Miss Anna - her determination in the tug-o-war game (also gotta love how everyone is impressed/loves her even more for it)

Random bit, but again the sound design for this moment-perfect! I was so confused at first because I heard the crunching noises but in my head, I couldn’t put two and two together as to what would make that noise if Miri is just eating a normal onigiri. Then, it’s revealed why when Miri gets to her rice ball’s filling. Also, judge me all you want, but sound delicious and I will gladly take Kazuki’s judgmental stares and comments

Two other things about Papa Rei’s rice balls: 1) I love how imperfect they are in terms of shape and sizes, at least compared to Kazuki’s other prepared food. It does a good job illustrating how Rei is trying his best and still learning. And 2) I love how the different shapes/sizes might be due to the different fillings Rei put in, which of course would be revealed a few moments later, suggesting that Kazuki gave Rei his own space while he was making them based on his confused reaction

Even though Kazuki questions Rei’s choices in terms of what he put in the rice balls, I like how he puts back on a smile and asks him “See?” after hearing Miri’s enjoyment of them, circling back to Kazuki’s point that Miri would love anything he made for her (+ bonus small Rei smile)

The fact that there is no hesitancy in their actions. Miri takes a few seconds to read and process her scavenger hunt “item,” then immediately goes for Rei. She tells him to come with her, giving zero explanation, and, okay maybe after a beat or two of processing and thinking about it, Rei gets up and follows her. Then, when Miri and Rei come back to Kazuki, she tells them to run and the two exchange a glance and go for it, winning Miri her gold medal.

What a great episode, with such a cute ending of Rei and Kazuki thinking about next year’s Sports Day. Post-credit scene? Nah, don’t know her. This episode also just ends with the credits.

(Okay, pettiness aside, did Ogino take these photos or another member? And has Kyu been stalling? This is most likely a threat, but is it to warn him that he could have some control as to what information gets back to the Boss (or the illusion of that idea)?

From my first watch of this episode, I always thought/joked in my head, you can literally see the moment Kazuki’s heart breaks when Miri runs to Misaki instead of him. Just another moment which has always stood out to me.

Say it with me…character growth! When Misaki tells Kazuki and Rei that she is here to take back Miri, I can’t help but scream a little in how you can hear and clearly see Rei’s facial expression change at the thought of Miri being taken away

I know there’s a lot of conflicting opinions and views about Misaki, and while I will concede it was incredibly reckless and uncaring for Misaki to send Miri by herself to find her father, I think how Miri reacts to seeing her mother again says a lot about how Misaki outwardly presented/treated Miri. Underneath everything, I do believe Misaki loved Miri, even if just a tiny bit. Was she the best mother, probably not, but did she do the best she could given her situations, probably.

That being said, Misaki asking Miri (based on sub) if she’d rather be with her papas than with her does kinda irk me. The wording already sets up an underlying opinion, or that Miri would rather stay with Kazuki and Rei, which is only half of what Miri feels. Miri responds to Misaki’s question by saying that she loves her mama and papas, disagreeing with Misaki’s underlying question, but also making it known that she loves or wants to be with both of them. (I’m sorry if this is diving way into what I was taught in my rhetoric/writing classes)

Framing, let’s talk about, but not really because I am not knowledgeable enough in that regard, just gotta appreciate how when Misaki tells Rei and Kazuki that she wants to live her life for Miri, she is in frame, asleep on the couch, but right next to Misaki’s head/face. Maybe this is looking too into things (but that’s nothing new for me), but I feel like a connection could be drawn between what the mind wants and what her heart wants. And previously, all shots focus Misaki in the center of the frame, not seeing too much around her. Up until this point, Misaki is talking with the two of them with the knowledge they are in a “dangerous business,” but has yet to reveal this information to them. Before having to outright say it, Misaki is likely trying to convince Rei and Kazuki to agree to return Miri to her care. This is not to say Misaki made up or lied about having lung cancer (I do think she’s telling the truth about that), but in this moment, her mind is leading her more than her heart as she is attempting to remove Miri from this supposedly dangerous situation. Again, I do think Misaki loves Miri and wants to spend time with her, especially if she does not know how long she has to live, but I don’t think in this moment, it is her heart that’s fully leading her

When Kyutaro tells Rei and Kazuki that they better be willing to face the organization if they want to keep Miri, asking them if that’s what they want to do, Kazuki’s stuttering just comes up as “I…” in sub, which doesn’t give me a lot to work with. I think at this point, Kazuki is uncertain or unsure if he’s truly ready to fight back against the organization for a multitude of reasons. But, if he was about to say “I am,” or he’s ready/willing to take on the organization, I think that would explain a lot about his behavior when entering Suwa Manor in ep. 12 (which pulling from one of my previous post’s, I described as “Kazuki is radiating an abnormal amount of chaotic energy for him”)

Kyutaro’s line, “All this was ever a dream,” I’ve always been interested in what his intention was. Was it purely to convince them? Was he completely serious? I don’t think I have an answer for this, but it’s something that intrigues me

Give me another year and then maybe I’ll be able to put all my thoughts and feelings about the ferris wheel scene into coherent words. One thing I will say though,  something I’ve never thought too hard about before, but during this rewatch it sorta stuck out to me, I feel it is towards the beginning of this scene that Rei fully processes or understands that the decision has been made for them to give Miri up based on his reaction to Kazuki saying “Normal happiness.” Also, whoever chose to have the same song in the background of this scene as in the hydrangea fields in ep. 7, thank you for irreversibly hurting me

As has been pointed out before, the freaking parallels with Kazuki leaving his scarf with the kitten in ep. 1 to leaving his scarf with Miri in this episode, I will be crying in the corner if anyone needs me

Can I just say how much the end credits hurt after watching this episode? Especially the last frame! They’re all chilling, napping on the couch together, what do you mean Kazuki and Rei just gave Miri up? No, they’re all still together!

Something that I really liked how it was handled was Miri’s perception on her parents. To her, Misaki is her mother and Kazuki and Rei are her fathers. Maybe it is just because she is young, but there are few things that could probably shake that view for Miri. She loves each parent for a specific reason or rather because they are really good at a certain thing. You could call it naive or innocent, but I loved how this then translated into Miri constantly saying she wants to be with her mama and papas whenever the question was posed. For her there was no choosing one over the other.

Hello, high school English really rewired my brain because I am back on my Shakespeare symbolism. First off a random thought: how long were Rei and Shigeki talking that it went from being sunny (okay, maybe it was already sunset) to fully dark outside? And secondly, the fact that Shigeki reveals his hand, or that he will now take care of Rei’s outside ties (i.e. Miri and Kazuki), at night, in the dark, ooooo!

Perhaps because I have my mind wired a certain way while rewatching this time (sorry if this has already been pointed out before), but I find it very intriguing how scenes between Miri and Misaki are paired with scenes between Rei and Shigeki. Both children, Miri and Rei, are more or less reuniting with their parents after some time apart. However, Misaki is there almost comforting Miri, telling her that she’s changed and wants to continue changing to provide a better future and life for Miri. Whereas with Shigeki, he’s there to remind Rei he cannot change and his return to the organization was inevitable. Unlike Misaki and Miri’s scenes, Rei and Shigeki’s reunion is cold, formal, and all business.

Again, perhaps it is just a translation thing, but I can’t get over the implications that come with Shigeki telling Rei he has yet to close up his “affairs.” Sorry gonna let my inner nerd out for a little bit, but based on the definitions from Merriam-Webster, the first definition is “commercial, professional, public, or personal business,” which easily relates to this situation. Based on this definition, we can interpret Shigeki as asking Rei if he tied up his personal business, as in his connections to Kazuki and Miri. Adding a second layer, the second definition is listed as “a procedure, action, or occasion only vaguely specified.” To me, with the keyword of “vaguely” in this second definition, “affairs” in this sense would compliment Shigeki’s clear distaste for Kazuki and the idea of Rei spending time away from the organization and with people he views as “lower” than their family. Likewise, it represents Shigeki’s distance from Rei and how he is only concerned with the end result, or Rei returning “home,” and not what comes in between or what must be done to get to that point. And for the third definition of “affair,” Merriam-Webster states “a romantic or passionate attachment typically of limited duration.” Now, “romantic” can be omitted depending on how you view Kazuki and Rei’s relationship, but the general ideas of a deep, or “passionate,” connection and “limited duration” stick out because under this lens, then Shigeki is literally undermining Rei’s ability to grow or belief that he has changed. “Attachment” goes back to Shigeki’s talk about Rei finding fixations that he must overcome or ignore because of the future he envisions for Rei in terms of taking over the organization. Shigeki believes Rei’s love for Kazuki and Miri is simply that, a fleeting feeling, and not one that was fostered and equally reciprocated. Similarly, in viewing Rei’s relationship with Miri and Kazuki as only temporary, this reflects Shigeki’s certainty that Rei would always come back to the organization. Bottom line I guess is no matter which definition you interpret Shigeki’s use of the word “affairs” at Rei, or in viewing each definition as another layer, it is loaded with his sole goal of making Rei feel like it was inevitable for him to return back to the organization and back to his side as the future heir

Ogino’s reaction to Kazuki yelling “Now, Rei,” conveys a lot of information about Rei’s image and status within the organization. If even a top member like Ogino immediately reacts, without fully knowing if it is a ruse or not, I’d argue tells a lot about the level of skill and efficiency Rei is known to have by other members

It’s a small gesture, but in her dying moments, Misaki telling Miri she’s sorry for being selfish, and then using the back of her finger to touch Miri one last time, a part which is not bloody, I just, ahhh. Forgive me if this is a stretch, but the fact that Misaki is purposefully not getting Miri “dirty” and in her own way, is trying to spare Miri from the darkness of the world or in doing what she can to help keep Miri’s innocence. Let me go scream over in this corner.

The four episodes covered in this post have a lot of really good examples of Rei’s growth over the season. The balcony scene is no different since you have Rei going from asking Kazuki if they can change (from ep. 8), uncertain of the answer himself, to telling Kazuki they can change, already having convinced himself and now needing to convince Kazuki

I still can’t get over the fact that Rei and Miri both have their own aprons now too! Though I’ve still yet to fully figure out what Rei’s is. For whatever, reason the white coloring makes me think it’s a polar bear on the front, but I don’t know how much sense that would make otherwise. I feel like if Kazuki bought the aprons, it’s likely a cat on Rei’s apron. (And that’s this episodes random thought or detail I’ve spent too much time thinking about)

Another moment that always manages to melt my heart: Miri struggling to put on her boot because she’s grown that much and the rapid succession of Kazuki asking if she forgot anything, Miri saying no, Kazuki asking about her handkerchief, her immediately saying she forgot, then Rei joining Kazuki and Miri with said handkerchief in hand. They’re a family y’all and they sure do operate like one.

Thinking about it now, I kinda wondered why Miri only made Rei make a pinky promise with him. Rei has grown a lot over the series, but between the two, he is still the more reserved and papa. Perhaps, this is why Miri only makes Rei promise since she knows Kazuki will be at the concert no matter what. Based on the translations I had though, when Miri tells them they better be at her concert, especially since her mama, or Misaki, won’t be, Kazuki responds with “We will” while Rei says “We promise.” With Rei explicitly saying “promise,” maybe that’s what leads Miri to make a pinky promise with him, which so clearly affects him for the remainder of the episode

What it’s been, like nine months and I still cannot get over Kazuki and Rei’s entrance and fight in Suwa Manor! Like, I wish I had more to say but I’m just yelling, rooting for them and love seeing them both be badasses

I know it's been pointed out, but man, the fact that Rei’s hair comes down during the kitchen fight as he is about to deliver the final blow to Ogino, with a little help from Kazuki, just shows his progression of who Rei really is, not the Murder Machine, or a living weapon, but Rei Suwa, a person and father

It’s so simple, and yet, and yet! the power that comes with Rei saying goodbye not to his Boss but to his Father, oh my gosh. He is not just walking away from the organization and his position, he is fully walking away from his family cause he’s got a new (and better) one waiting for him, just as he is

Such a small detail, but gotta love how Miri has kept that green teddy bear with her as she’s grown up

Perhaps this is just my imagination, but does teenage Miri’s voice sound different here than the one in Kazuki’s imagination. If so, that’s awesome because Kazuki wouldn’t know how exactly Miri would sound that many years later, and how Miri turned out nothing like Kazuki had feared

These photos! I love it all! I hope Kazuki, Rei, and Miri are all able to continue living peacefully and with each other for a long time!

And that's a wrap on my rewatch!

I had a lot of fun getting to revisit so many of these scenes and letting the more analytical side of my brain take-over. I know these were long posts, so I really mean it when I say I appreciate your time and support! Also, I originally wrote down all my thoughts on a doc, which is currently sitting at just over 9k words and 16 pages. So, I did try my best to condense what made it onto each post (let me know if you want me to post the full version for any of the eps). I've still got two more days of content planned, which I'm really looking forward to sharing! Unfortunately, school is about to start up for me again, so it might be a little bit of radio silence afterwards.

Thank you again for all your support and joining me on my rewatch!

-Dakota Wren

#buddy daddies #buddy daddies anime #buddy daddies rewatch #dk wren's bd celebration week #kazuki kurusu #rei suwa #miri unasaka

[blysse-and-blunder]

in lieu of a long weekend

10pm, sunday, oct 8, 2023

it's canadian turkey-day tomorrow ~ it's windy and grey outside ~ there is pumpkin pie in the fridge and i'm wearing an extremely pleasing wooly sweater my housemate was going to give away. we've turned the heat on for the first time this season. the cozy season of the year has arrived.

reading finished victoria goddard's whiskeyjack, book 3 in the greenwing & dart series! reading this series for me is an exercise in noticing the easter eggs that tell me it was written by a medievalist, and an academic, and a medievalist academic with a degree from the program i'm currently in. there's so much in this particular volume about poetry analysis. she came so close to using the word 'semiotic' and actually did use the phrase 'exoteric.' while i might have quibbled about things like pacing and plot and how i still don't always think first-person is a good fit in the hands of most authors, these books are like tailor-made for me. i can't not enjoy them.

and then on the other hand, i spent some extremely happy hours this past week with patrick o'brian's post captain. when i first read the aubrey books, i was probably in high school, fresh out of racing through the hornblower series. because the aubreyad is-- i'll be honest-- better writing, but also demands more of you as a reader, i fully didn't appreciate like 80% of this book. i knew the series, as much by osmosis as by actual time spent reading, and reading it now? felt like coming home. especially since i now have the attention, and the ability, to read between the lines. to pick up on the irony, the allusions, the humor, the misdirection! the women oh my god how did i not appreciate sophie, diana, or mrs. williams before now. i didn't mind before how little of the larger world and society made it into the movie, but i actually understand the griping now. but even more than that, i found the ship action and actual, like, battle extremely tense and interesting this time; i was up well into the night at one point just to see what would happen next, because i was nervous for my dear boys.

watching friday night double-feature with @hematiterings where we enjoyed the first three new episodes of Our Flag Means Death and finished with another two of netflix's Arcane: League of Legends, which we're probably going to finish fairly soon so i'll focus on that one. just quickly though, had a great time with the first new ofmd episode, just extremely good work from all involved, and then was weirdly not as into the second two-- though the end of ep 3 was back to grand. i think in general i like where the season is going, and i'm going to withhold further comment until we've seen some more.

i was not expecting to like arcane as much as i have been. didn't have a clue what it was when we started, but the art style has absolutely blown me away. here's a quick run-down of the animation, which is a mix of hand-painted digital, 2D, and absolutely gorgeous. it looks like a video game and a painting at the same time-- not in the same way spiderverse combines animation and illustration, but with some familiar elements. people's eyes have this amazing jewel-like depth and clarity? scenery that made us go 'oh, paris looks so nice!' and 'man i love cyberpunk' and other such witticisms. but seriously, if you like good animation and also art nouveau-inspired steam-punk aesthetics, there's a lot here. plus a good (dare I? could league of legends be good, actually?) tragic story-line, and enough twists that i haven't seen coming, to really get me curious about what comes next.

listening a long time ago, probably back in 2021 around the time of the most recent album, i think @mankillercalledbunny was sharing playlists or links that featured The Amazing Devil, and at roughly the same time i had a spotify playlist include a track or two for me, and now here we are. had their two albums "ruin" and "the horror and the wild" on all week, which made it a bit hard to read at times because i would get caught in the lyrics. this is exactly the kind of music two people who met at the RSC would make, it is dramatic, sort of gothic, sort of folky, sort of theater. the contrary motion, the interweaving voices, esp. in the chorus of "marbles", is where i've been living recently. i like knowing this about joey batey, i like that he has this extra dimension now when i see him as jaskier! i hope he can find a way to come back to it again, whenever.

playing i finally (after how long!) got the wizard's ink well - witch's pendant - goblins (??) quest in stardew! not a hard one at all, but so satisfying to be able to use that hint that had been hovering there in the library for the past, oh, real-world year or so. i'm like 50 pieces of hardwood away from getting the ferry up and running too, and i'm excited to move off of the plateau i've been on and open up the next level of the world.

making i mentioned the pumpkin pie up top, and it did turn out well this year despite a distracted me happening to leave out the butter when mixing the filling-- i noticed before it got into the oven, luckily, and was able to add it in! but...while it was in the pie crust, which was kind of sloppy. no nicely pinched or braided crust for me this year. and then, since the size of can of pumpkin you buy here is always a little too big for the recipe, i tried out the smitten kitchen pumpkin bread that many friends have recommended before, and that has been a delight. moist without being dense or heavy, but still very substantial? a little bit less sugar than the recipe called for, and no freshly ground nutmeg, but we did have fresh ginger and overall it is very nice. it also rose architecturally, which was maybe a function of it being on a higher rack? or of me miss-counting scoops of baking soda? anyway, hilarious.

working on working on consistency. working on momentum. working on not getting in my own way. draft of this conference paper due 10/26, slides and notes for this guest lecture due 10/25, and the chapter abides. the conference paper serves it directly, however, which i feel good about. i keep finding new things to read about, and keep being glad i've continued researching, since i'm coming up with excellent (it feels) material to work with, but i can't let that get in the way of actually. writing.

#in lieu of a commonplace book #ilcb #weekly roundup

[yakool-foolio]

You know I got to ask you about the main bois. Yakou and Vivia

Since, I'm feelin' extra, I'll talk about both of them separately and then talk about the ship!

First up, the man, the myth, the legend(27): Yakou! For my first impression of him, why not go back to the source? This is the first message I wrote about him when his name and summary was revealed. Suffice to say, I was very excited.

Yakou instantly hooked me and I had plenty to enjoy about him even before the game released. I got so frustrated that Yakou was being censored out of the English character trailers since Nintendo said 'nuh uh,' but I'm glad Chunsoft said 'fym nuh uh' and shared voice clips of Yakou on Twitter. I fought so hard against the theories that Yakou would die, too (but look where that got me... in anime Resident Evil). He was my favorite since day one!

As for headcanons, I know I've shared a few, so I'll do a lightning round! Yakou owns a retro gaming console; he's still got the mixology skills down pat; he knew how to do parkour in his youth, and can sometimes pull off tricks nowadays (heavy emphasis on sometimes, he is renowned for failing horribly a grand majority of the time); he writes his own silly editor's notes in the books he buys; he makes up tall tales about his raincoat's decals and his scars; he's a stomach sleeper and snores loudly; he has a very good mental map, even for places he's rarely been to, he's the go-to 'ask me for directions' guy.

As for complaints n praises, y'all know how I've sang to the rooftops about how Yakou is what I believe to be one of Kodaka's best written characters he's ever made. The only complaint I genuinely have is that he doesn't get more screentime. I would've loved more bonding time with him n the detectives, not just Yuma. I wish he was the one who told Yuma that he's doing the right thing as a detective instead of Kurumi, even if it would be interlaced with plenty of scolding for Yuma getting himself in trouble with the peacekeepers yet again.

And my overall opinion shouldn't be a surprise. He's my number one favorite in Rain Code, y'all know the drill.

Next order of business is Vivia! My first impression of him started out before he even had a name. There were illustrations of him released before his name was revealed, so I ended up nicknaming him 'Radioactive' cause his design looked like the physical embodiment of Radioactive by Imagine Dragons at the time (but I know not to disrespect him like that anymore). When his name and the photo of him laying under the piano was finally shared, me and my boyfriend collectively adored him.

All it took was that one piano image to make me spiral into an unshakeable association with the instrument for Vivia.

A perfect transition into talking about headcanons for Vivia, lightning round two! He plays piano to improve his self-expression; he is the equivalent of a cat in a human body; he can fit into places he shouldn't be; he can purr cause I said so; he prefers to sleep with candlelight due to paranoia caused by his Forte; he's the eldest brother out of his family; he knows how to care for basic wounds cause he was the one who supported his brothers' when they were injured from roughhousing.

I don't necessarily have any complaints about Vivia either. Other than the obvious 'gimme more content,' he's a solid character! He's a great rival and assistant for chapter 4, and his DLC is my favorite of the bunch! His Forte is the most interesting of the Master Detectives shown so far, and there's lots of room for growth if he were to appear in a sequel.

Overall opinion: second favorite for plenty of reasons as shown here and in many of my other posts!

Now I shall discuss Viviakou! I'm very active in shipping them, writing up content for them and thinking about them on the daily. It helps that me n my boyfriend also ramble about them often, cause they just like us frfr. We're both grateful it's a pretty darn popular ship, cause the fanart and fics fuel us.

The third and final headcanon lightning round! Yakou picks up guitar to duet with Vivia's piano; Vivia got the umbrella tattoo in Kanai Ward after the events of his DLC as a symbol of them protecting one another; Vivia will go out of his way to come up with the most poetic pet names of all time, while Yakou keeps it short n simple, which can be just as effective since he likes to use them only for their more intimate moments; Yakou is the ocean to Vivia's moon; they write notes to each other in the books they borrow from one another; they have those long distance couple bracelets that when one of the wearers touches it, it sends a signal to the other person, which is something they like to do when Vivia's at the agency and Yakou's out investigating or vice versa.

Overall opinion: Perfect ship for all my fluff and angst needs. They feel like the natural evolution of Komahina to me. Am I the only one who thinks that?

#'what is there to say that hasnt been said?' *writes an essay about them anyway* #master detective archives: rain code #rain code #rain code spoilers #ask game #yakou furio #vivia twilight #viviakou

[amazing-spiderling]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. spread the self-love ❤

HECK. Ummmm okay okay... I'll do my best.

Surface Tension

I'm taking this opportunity to highlight a fic that I wrote for an anthology I put together with a team of *very* talented writers and artists, Metal Gear Solid: Lost Years. I had wanted to tell a story about Hal's isolation and vulnerability in his youth, the aspects of his past that made him an easy target for predatory behavior- and even though this story isn't particularly long, I think it's the one I spent the longest working on (in a words per day sense). Writing this story made me dead sure that Kojima was referencing the movie "The Graduate" when it came to the Emmerichs, and I tried to channel that sort of listlessness into this story. Because it was for a zine, I don't think it got many hits or comments, so I'm putting it here now.

The Man in the Mask

My own little "hit in the face by Apollo's red playground ball" of a fic- I actually wrote this Spideypool AU to deal with my frustrations regarding the handling of asylum seekers at the border- but the pandemic aspects of the story ended up hitting very close to home for everyone just a few years later. Fun! This is one of those stories I thought of as a "weird one that nobody read" but when I looked at my actual hit counter, I saw it had proven more popular than I realized, so that's good for me? It's a bit of a bottle episode that is more about Wade and Peter than Deadpool and Spider-Man and has a more sedate tone for most of it, but I'm partial to the way the story unfolds.

Pictures of You

Another Metal Gear story, this was for the Otasune Zine "Let the World Be". I got to team up with the incredible Harshai who did the illustrations for this story in the zine. It's a collection of moments during Dave and Hal's Philanthropy days, each one with an accompanying photograph. It's a pretty soft one, but one that comes to mind a lot, especially when I'm in the car and staring out the window at the landscape, thinking about these two on the open road. It also comes to mind every time I see a ridiculous food challenge posted on a restaurant wall. I need to see about getting permission to share the art in the posted fic, because I think it really adds something, especially the last image which was a polaroid of Sunny besting Hal's time eating the enourmous burger.

Five Years Later

Yeah, it's a WIP. What are you gonna do about it? Back from hiatus, it's the second installment of a "mostly MCU compliant" Spideypool "met as childhood friends" AU that my friend @343enderspark and I have been working on for years. In this portion of the story, Wade is dealing with life in a world without Peter (oh, and half the population, I guess) and slowly starting his journey of training and eventually becoming the person he was meant to be. (And the Defenders show up because I literally could not resist.) I got to try my hand at writing a lot of different characters in this fic, so it's been fun to flex those muscles. We had a long break between the first and second chapter, but we're back on track and CH 3 is drafted and waiting on edits, so that should be out soon. :3

Home's Around the Corner (It's a Long Way There)

More WIPs? Yeah. More AU's? Double yeah, because this one is more or less an AU or an AU. XD This is a new project I'm working on with @blissful-thinker that's Earth-65 but a step to the left, where Matt wasn't adopted by the Hand, but ended up staying with the Chaste, and returns to New York City years later only to find out he doesn't really have a place in his old home anymore. (Or does he?) This one has been a lot of fun and allows me to write one of my favorite things- tired DA Nelson, and also too-big-for-her-britches Gwen, haha. It may be niche, but it's *my* niche.

#i was sent this twice but i'm only gonna do it once #this is bullying i'm being bullied #daredevil #metal gear solid #spideypool #my fics #earth-65 #otasune #mattfoggy

[nerdygaymormon]

There are two parts of this podcast episode that really struck me.

The first is why the different generations of Americans are reacting differently to the Israeli war against Hamas, which I'll summarize below.

The second part is Rabbi Sharon Brous sharing an ancient Israeli practice that beautifully illustrates mourning with those who mourn and seeing each other's humanity. Go to the 53:00 mark of the episode to hear it.

—————————————————————  

There's the older generation of Americans who saw Israel when it was small and weak and in danger of being eliminated by its neighbors. They have a sense of Israel's impossibility and its vulnerabilities from the dangerous neighborhood where its located. There was the 6-day war in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973.

Next is a generation that only ever knew a strong Israel backed by the United States' military and political support. This generation also knows Israel as an occupying force imposing its will on Palestinians. But this Israel also had a strong peace movement trying lead Israel to be a more humane and moral nation by reaching peace with the Palestinians.

That peace movement collapsed due to the Second Intifada and suicide bombings. This caused Israeli politics to move further and further right. Israel sought security through subjugation. Extremists from the margins become Cabinet members. Settlers in the West Bank, with government backing, annex more and more territory, making the possibility of a two-state solution less and less possible. Israel walled up Gaza and left the residents to the control of Hamas and to misery. That's what the generation of younger Americans knows of Israel.

—————————————————————  

SHARON BROUS: So there is a Mishnah, an ancient rabbinic text in the code of law that was codified 2,000 years ago, that tells the story of what would happen when the people used to go up to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. And imagine Mecca, like hundreds of thousands of people coming at once on a kind of sacred pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They would ascend the steps to the Temple Mount, and then they would go through this arched entryway. And they would turn to the right, and they would circle around the perimeter of this courtyard.

And then they would exit essentially right where they had come in. Except, the Mishnah says, for someone who’s broken hearted. That person would go up to Jerusalem. They would ascend the steps, walk through the arched entryway, but they would turn to the left. And every single person who would pass them coming from the right would have to stop and ask this simple question, [HEBREW], what happened to you? And then the person would say, I’m brokenhearted. My loved one just died. I’m worried sick about my kid. I found a lump.

And the people who are walking from right to left would have to stop and offer a blessing before they could continue on their pilgrimage. And I just want to think about how profound the insight is in this ancient ritual because if you spend your whole life dreaming of going up on this sacred pilgrimage to the holiest site, the holiest place on the holiest days, and doing your circle around the courtyard, the last thing in the world you want to do is stop and ask the poor guy who’s coming toward you, are you OK? What’s your story? What’s going on with you?

And yet central to your religious obligation, in fact, the only religious obligation you have that day, is precisely to see this other person in their suffering, to ask them what their story is, and then to give them a blessing. And if you’re broken, shattered, the last thing you want to do is show up in this space with all of these people and go against the current in such a public and visible way. And yet, you’re obligated to do that.

And so I think the rabbis kind of captured this very sacred and profound, psychological and spiritual tool for us, which is to say when we are suffering and when we’re hurting, we need to be seen by other people. We need somebody to say, tell me about your pain. Help me understand what’s going on for you. And we need to be blessed.

And that’s why the loneliness of this moment feels so profound for so many Jews because we feel like, wait, we often ask people, tell me about your pain. Tell me about your suffering. How can I be a good ally? How can I stand with you in solidarity? Why aren’t people asking us? And it’s a reminder for us that we have to reinforce our commitment to living in a world in which we can see each other in our pain.

And when we’re walking from right to left, because we’re OK that day, not to turn our eyes away and our hearts away from the poor person who’s walking toward us who’s broken that day. Otherwise, our humanity is lost to us. And it doesn’t only hurt the person who’s broken. It hurts the whole society. It, frankly, hurts our democracy. It endangers our democracy when we’re unable to actually engage one another’s pain because we feel that our cause is so righteous. Our work is so holy, so important that we’re going to keep circling from the right, even though there are all these people who are quietly walking in the other direction, saying, please, please see me. I’m hurting right now, and I need you to help me in this moment of my pain. I need you to help me by bearing sacred witness to my heartache in this moment.

#rabbi sharon brous #ezra klein #israel #long post

[suzuya-mwfnaf]

Sneak Peak of FNAF Affinity Remake

I've been typing up the story for this remake and just wanted to share what I've made before it's reworded or changed.

Author's note: The story you're about to read is the same basic story of Mobox87's FNAF Affinity AU but remade and told differently due to how botched it was when created. So, I decided to take her story and recreate it from the ground up to make my headcanon and publish it as an alternative to the AU that Mobox87 fans grew up with. The story does contain violence, strong language, abuse of alcohol and sensitive topics. Viewing this description is advice.

The morning sun of dawn rises bright on a summer day while a glare of sunlight peaks hitting against my face through the window blinds that were barely shut. I slowly open my eyes while waking up to get myself out of bed as I rub my hand on my head. I began my day early, started removing the blanket covers over me and walked to the bathroom to brush my teeth while looking at myself in the mirror. Seeing my own face in the mirror had me thinking about myself to reminisce about my past that I know briefly. Flashback to years ago when I was a kid, my first name is Michael and my last name is Afton. I woke up from being unconscious in a hospital with my head in pain but I would soon be greeted by a man with a beautiful wife and two kids. I was puzzled as to who I was looking at. Who are these people? Are they my family? Where am I? It was all so new to me and I didn't know anything before I woke up on this hospital bed, before I could speak any words. The man's wife spoke up to me with a response to the few seconds of silence, "Oh finally! You're awake! We thought you'd be in a long coma. The doctor that's taking care of you said that you hit your head really hard.", I was speechless now and I didn't know what to say back then the man in his suit approached. "I heard what happened and immediately rushed to the scene. Apparently you saved my daughter Brandy from someone dangerous, I wanna thank you for being so bold. Currently my daughter is asleep to calm herself in the bed next to you as she recovered faster than you". I turned my head to his daughter next to my bed. The girl Brandy was in a purple sweater and had pigtails. From the looks of it she seemed mostly unharmed except for the area that's bandaged on her wrist. The man greeted himself to me and family, "By the way kid, my name is William. This is my wife Renata and our kids Chris and Elizabeth. It's nice to meet you Michael". Puzzled again but this time he called me 'Michael', is that my name?... I can't seem to know or remember who am I.

__________________________________

That's all I'll be sharing for now, expect some illustrations to be made since I'm making this as a light novel series before it's a fully illustrated comic.

#fnaf #oc #wip #sneak peek #fic preview

[luckynewtgames]

And If You Think I've Forgotten...

...about that "smol" resource-gathering game I ran the poll for, you've got another thing coming X3

The rest of my March is pretty booked thanks to CF fulfillment, but I plan to get back to it the second April starts! I'm so excited about it too! I'm dragging in getting Rochelle of Warped Board Games to do illustrations, so it should be pretty awesome.

It's going to be a multiplayer game inspired by a very light version of the Carta system by Peach Garden Games, with a dash of Splendor. There's exploration, quests to fulfill, the ability to trade amongst other players, and definitely a streak of action management.

I'll focus on the tea-collecting fae dragons first since that got the most overall votes and I'm definitely going to need Rochelle's help for illustrations. Since this wasn't the only place I had voting though, I'm also going to create a version with Small Forest Animals Opening Shop and Gem-Mining Kobolds. My hope is to not only have different prompts for each card (maybe even custom cards, if Rochelle's up for it), but have a small mechanical twist that will make the game a bit more embedded into the theme.

I have a few other things in the works, including another resource-gathering game that is a bit more complicated, but should be a lot of fun. a couple of creators who I admire seemed to like it, and one actually asked me to make an SRD of it when I asked him his thoughts, so that's promising :3

I also have a trick-taking, potion-mixing game that I originally was designing for Valentine's Day but didn't quite make it. I'm toying with the idea of re-theming it to be more generally potion-focused, but I'm not yet sure. I'll probably toy around with it a bit after finishing up the first two.

Oh, and I have a super simple dice-rolling potion-brewing game zine planned, though I might save that for ZiMo next year ;)

Right! And someone reached out to me about my Ko-fi. It turns out they have this awesome idea for an agnostic character background that looks like so much fun and is based on a song they wrote (the song sounds amazing, btw!). So we're going to design a zine together (series of zines? Not sure yet) that's out of my norm but has all the right vibes <3 Can't wait to share it with everyone!

So yes, a lot of things to look forward to for the rest of the year X3

#ttrpg community #ttrpg family #ttrpg #indie games #indiegamedev #itch.io #tabletop games #ttrpgs

[danthatartman]

Books I read in 2023

Heeeeeeeeey Tumblr, I'm alive! Warning for very long post.

Given how little I ended up drawing during the back half of the year, I want to do a different kind of summary to close out 2023. And, since I already posted my thoughts on almost every movie I watched on Letterboxd (https://letterboxd.com/NotThatCrypto in case you're interested), I wanted to share the books I read during the last 365 days.

For 2023, I wanted to read at least a book per month, with a secondary goal of reading two per month. I ended up with 16 total reads. Not quite two per month, but probably the most I've ever read in terms of different books in a year (If we don't count that time I got obsessed with fanfics and read what must have been the equivalent of 20 novels in like five months a few years ago.)

Anyways, let's get started.

1: Tress of The Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

Sanderson is my favorite writer, and this year he and his team delivered the Year of Sanderson kickstarter, which ended up including 4 novels he wrote in secret during the pandemic. Tress is the first of these novels.

I found this to be a delightful story. Sanderson really flexed his style muscles for this book. It's probably his most beautiful in terms of prose and rhetorical figure usage. You can really tell he wanted to make a novel *for* his wife.

It gave me the vibes of older fantasy tales, while still retaining much of what I love about the Cosmere and Brandon's books in general. I do wish some things were a little more unpredictable, as the twists were a bit too clear right from the very early chapters, and would have liked to be more surprised. I'd probably rank it among my top 5 fave books by him, specific spot undecided.

4.75 stars out of 5

2: I'm Not Mr. Monster by Dan Wells

I started reading the John Cleaver trilogy last year, this is book 2. On the one hand, I think I preferred the atmosphere and pacing from the first one. On the other hand, Wells managed to dive so much deeper into John's psyche here, and that really carries the whole book. There's also some concepts that I felt could have been expanded more upon, but guessed that would be done in the last book (We'll get to it later) Overall, some improvements over the first, and some things that felt weaker to me.

3.75 stars out of 5

3: Queer: A Graphic History by Meg John Barker and Julia Scheele

Read this because I was dealing with some personal stuff earlier in the year. It's a graphic novel that details some of the more theorical and philosophical aspects to queerness and sexuality throughout the years. Found it to be really well explained but at the same time, brief. It serves as a really good jumping-off point to get into the subject, which I want to do in the future. Scheele's illustrations are awesome and really help to highlight and simplify the most important information.

4 stars out of 5

4, 5 & 6: Percy Jackson and The Titan's Curse, Percy Jackson and The Battle of the Labyrinth, and Percy Jackson and The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

Like with the John Cleaver series, I started reading Percy Jackson last year, after a friend of mine really recommended it, and wanted to read them before the show premiered. I read these in succession, so I'll list them together.

Titan's Curse was really good, probably the most emotionally complex Percy Jackson book, and I'd probably rank it second or third amongst the five.

Battle of The Labyrinth is probably my least favorite from the whole series, as it felt repetitive and at times like it dragged on for too long.

Last Olympian however, was super enjoyable for me, even though it did also repeat some actions sequences in terms of structure. Would rank it highly as well.

As a whole, I found the Percy Jackson series to be a blast, and it scratched my greek fascination itch. Percy is a really well realized character, and I adored reading from his perspective.

I do wish I had read these books a bit younger though, as I obviously encountered some stuff that left me wanting more as a result of the target audience. Not at all faults of the books, but good to point out.

Titan's Curse: 4.5 stars out of 5

BotL: 3.5 stars out of 5

The Last Olympian: 4.25 stars out of 5

7: The Binding by Bridget Collins

One of my most dissapointing reads. Its characters never clicked for me, and I found the book to be too tropey and like it didn't do enough with the premise or its magic system. It left me feeling frustrated, especially after I'd heard some really fantastic things about it.

I will award some points for the writing style though. It was very beautiful, and was what made me power through, other than my curiosity.

2 stars out of 5

8: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

While I think it is quite easy to see where the story is going right from the start, I think the journey to get there is super compelling. I like Haig's style, and only wish this one had been slightly longer so it could dive more deeply into each of the protagonist's possible lives. Some really cool imagery too.

Enjoyed it, and want something similar that explores the things that this one didn't.

3.5 stars out of 5

9: The Alpha's Son by Penny Jessup

Cool queer love story that also happens to involve werewolves. I honestly think the shapeshifter aspect of the story is undercooked. The relationship between the two main characters is interesting but I also think sometimes it develops too quickly.

Action is definitely not this book's strong suit, and given how much the third act focuses on it, it feels a little underwhelming. However, the style and characters are good enough that I am interested in reading the sequel, which came out a few weeks ago.

3 stars out of 5

10: The Frugal Wizard's Guide to Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson

Back to Sanderson. Book two of The Year of Sanderson was an incredibly dissapointing one for me. I think this is the book of Sanderson's that I've liked the least. The humor never clicked, and I found the protagonist to be quite unlikeable. The illustrations for this one felt very disconnected from what I was reading too. Sefawynn was really cool though, best part of the book. The writing felt too dry, and while the tech seemed interesting at first, at the end I felt there was a more compelling story to be told with it.

2 stars out of 5

11: The Werewolf's Guide to Life by Bob Powers & Ritch Duncan

Funny that I read two books with "Guide" in the title right after the other. Read this as research for some personal stuff. Really cool book, written as if werewolves were real, basically functioning as lore and instructions if you were to turn into one. No real story here, other than the few examples of "real life cases" they share. Fun writing style, with interesting ideas about the genre.

4 stars out of 5

12: Yumi and The Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

Third year of Sanderson book, and back to the Cosmere. I adored this one. I think Sanderson wears his influences on his sleeve a bit too much here, but that also made me love the book all the more.

Both Yumi and Painter are extremely interesting as characters. I also think Sanderson really captured the feeling of mystery with the worldbuilding and plot that his best works do. The imagery it sprung to my head was really beatiful, and the gorgeous illustrations by Aliya Chen are breathtaking.

Uses a bunch of really evocative and interesting concepts, and in superb ways. I do wish some of the secondary characters were more fleshed out, and I feel like the ending is a bit too tidy.

This is a story I really wish there was more of, but Sanderson has said he has no plans to revisit these specific characters. I hope at least the world is explored further, cause that was such a great setting. Had a blast with Yumi. So glad Brandon got so much better at writing romance with this and Tress.

4.5 stars out of 5

13: This is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

Okay, this one was very interesting. I'd heard about it before it blew up on socials, but I have to admit that that was what made me dip into it.

While I liked a lot of the concepts and the general structure of the book, I was not a fan of the authors' writing styles. They just moved too quick, and I felt they spent too much time describing certain aspects when others drew my attention more.

Red and Blue's relationship doesn't feel organic to me, and given that it is the main driving force of the story, I found it disappointing. I also found some descriptions to be more confusing than poetic.

While in concept this is a mighty interesting read, I think some things fall apart when put in practice.

3.5 stars out of 5

14: I Don't Want to Kill You by Dan Wells

Finale of the John Cleaver trilogy.

I feel like it starts off a lot stronger than how it ends, but still really liked it. I think I prefer it to the second one as well, but can't help but feel that it didn't manage to recapture a lot of the powerful ambiance of the first installment.

Well's prose also read much sharper and refined here, and John is a fully realized character. It's very uncomfortable to be in his mind, and yet I couldn't help but keep going.

Glad there is more after this, as I do think that these characters and world can be explored further. Excited to see where it goes. Also very curious to read more of Dan's work, as his way of thinking interests me a lot as it is so different from mine.

4 stars out of 5

15: Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl

Quick read that my students (a whole different story for another day) chose for their reading assignments so that they could practice their English. I adore the movie and was excited to read the source material along with them.

Really liked it! We read a lovely illustrated edition. The story's scope feels just the right size, and Dahl's writing style is a real blast. I do think the last two or three chapters are too quick, and would have liked to see a stronger conclusion to the story.

4 stars out of 5

16: The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson

Final year of Sanderson book, and also final book I finished this year. Appropriate that it's number 16.

This book has me a bit conflicted. Sanderson jumping so far into the future of the timeline, but doing so with a character we are very familiar with feels risky to me. I think it reveals a lot of things that changed my expectations for Stormlight.

As for the story itself, the book takes a bit to get started. It's first act felt a little frustrating to me. That really seemed to change once the second act started. It's a lot more engaging and exciting. Sunlit is the most standard Sanderson novel out of all the secret projects. That's not a bad thing necesarilly, but I do think the other two Cosmere focused ones felt a lot more exciting and innovative as a result.

Nomad as a character felt a bit muddy. It almost felt like reading three people at once, something that sometimes happens to Sanderson when characters are viewed through other POV's, except this time it happened within Nomad's own. Auxiliary rules though.

Worldbuilding is probably the best and most enticing part of Sunlit. I also think the ending was very cool and I really wanted to continue even after the end.

3.75 stars out of 5

And that's it!

I read a lot of Sanderson this year, but I also managed to read a bunch of books that had been on my TBR for a long time. I was excited to delve into some genres I'd not read much of before. I'm also glad to have read books that might have not been my cup of tea, that always helps to make better sense of my tastes and to train my skills too.

As for next year, I *might* continue reading more of Riordan's work, as well as checking out what's next for John Cleaver, BUT I want to go back to The Wheel of Time first, I'll probably dedicate January and February to that.

I want to get into some more epic fantasy series, so First Law, Farseer, and Malazan are all on my radar, but I will probably choose only two of those. Discworld has also been popping into my head recently, doubt I'll dive too deep into it for now though. Might keep going with Gentleman Bastards too, I love Lies of Locke Lamora.

I want to read more sci-fi as well, been thinking of going for The Expanse or Murderbot.

Wind and Truth comes out in December, so I want to read as much non-Sanderson before then, we'll see how it goes.

I'm going to try to reach the 2 books a month mark, but won't make any promises, as a lot of things are in flux in life right now.

I am open to suggestions for books if anyone has any! Would love to hear ya'll's thoughts on that and the post in general. xoxo!

#text post #artists on tumblr #2023 summary #books #cosmere #brandon sanderson #percy jackson #john cleaver

[1-tiger-every-day]

We are almost 3/4 of the way through the year, and... frankly I didn't know if I would make it this far. Probably, if you'd asked me in January if I guessed I'd still be doing this in late September, I would have told you no -- probably predicting I'd fall off the wagon sometime in March. Normally I suck at routines, consistency, and regularly creating without getting sucked into an art block or paralysed with indecision between multiple projects! I've never been able to run a consistent art blog on tumblr or anywhere else -- before long, life would get in the way, and the thing would end up gathering virtual dust and taunting me with its emptiness.

I wanted to reflect on a couple of the factors I think have helped me keep going this time, when previous projects have fallen by the wayside.

1. Clearly defined goal with obvious limitations. The instruction is simple: make one tiger, every day. It doesn't matter how good the tiger is. It doesn't matter if it took ten seconds or two hours. It just has to exist. And because that goal is quite achieveable, it creates a positive feedback loop that means drawing tigers - oh, my! - doesn't feel so scary after a while.

2. On a related topic: it's also a free enough prompt that I have space to play around every day, finding new and creative ways to fulfil the criteria. I can make a tiger sculpture. Once I made a tiger quiz. I made a 3D sculpt of a tiger in Blender that was an affront to God. I can try out new media, materials, and programs. And if it doesn't work out, oh well! There's always tomorrow.

3. Tiger intern T: I honestly think that this blog might have foundered over the summer if it weren't for T. When I'm struggling with hand pain, fatigue, illness or Just Not Wanting To Draw A Fucking Tiger Today, he steps in and picks up the slack. I really feel grateful and im happy to share this project with someone. I'll still feel just as much of an achievement at the end of the year, but better because the celebration will be shared 😊

4. Gifting tigers: whether it's little presents for friends or fulfilling requests from strangers in my askbox (provided they ask nicely😅), I love to make my tigers for other people, or even for myself. It's become a nice way of keeping a diary of special days in my year, from birthdays, pride, and holidays to more poignant occasions. Which brings me to my last point...

5. Not to be cheesy, but... YOU! I read every single tag, ask and comment that I get on these tigers. I can't believe there are 1100+ people following this little blog now, and especially those of you who regularly leave nice tags or replies: just know that you make my day every time, and I would definitely have given up posting my shitty tigers into the void by now if it wasn't for you. THANK YOU 🐯(P.s. I know I have an unanswered ask in my askbox right now, to the asker, I loved your question and I promise I'll reply asap!!! I have not forgotten you! 🧡!)

6 (bonus): other artists inspired by the form of the tiger, including illustrators, poets, sculptors, painters... i try to reblog a handful of my favourites, so you can all enjoy them as well!

#if this was instagram I'd have given up by fucking february #hear me roar #update #art process #artist #love you all 🏵

[skittidyne]

hi skitty!! im a huge fan of bbac forever and im sooo excited at the prospect of originale!! i was wondering if theres anything u can share about the story - just fun facts n shit, little tidbits if u will. im rereading the chapters u put up ages ago and it just made me so excited to eventually read it!!

aww, thank you anon! ;v; i'm also very excited (and nervous) to share originale with the world. but there's plenty i can share!

most nosebleeds are, very tragically, mostly only in backstory

the first book covers through to the dreamlands incident*

*with some major edits of the plot timeline prior to that...

there are two puns in the story, one of which is pulled from bbac itself ("wouldn't dream of it" in regard to the dreamlands). the other one is a stealth pun and i hope one day someone figures it out

the main cast are named after various horror creators (and characters), and i specifically gave yui's role to a lady called hayley west so she is, in fact, h. west reanimator

several beta readers have mentioned disliking a certain character and i am TICKLED by it, especially considering he was a fan fave in bbac

i do not have a title for the second book yet .__. but i have names for books 4 and 5

given that three of the main characters (vivienne, mark, and hayley) are weebs, i'll work a haikyuu reference or nine into it eventually, but not yet

shockingly i am not as in love with the kitsune role (now gumiho!) as i was with futakuchi. but i still enjoy writing fox spirits!

i have zero idea what to envision for covers

i have looked into hardcovers if i self-publish

it'll be around 400 pages (first book)

i have the shirt picked out i'll wear for when i make announcement pics for social media

instead of visions only toward the end we'll have shorter ones as interstitials between all the chapters for the series to hammer in that natalie is a stealth mc

i am undecided on whether to go romantic or platonic for two pairings that were full ships in bbac

i am GUTTED that i had to move one character's introduction and thus role into book 2 onward, because she's great and hilarious, and it's extra hilarious because we actually know her by two different roles in the book and i'm wondering at what point people will realize that. also she speaks like a valley girl twitch gamer. because she is one.

sam appears very much to be the fan favorite character so far. which is so valid he's such a good bean

i'm heavily considering moving up my deadline to publish to this summer ("skitty, it's may" yeah i know) so i can hopefully help finance a move

i very much want to write a creature compendium side book a la fantastic beasts and probably will eventually given that it's already partially written (the issue is illustrations...)

mirai (one of the tengu) turned out to be a stealth fave to write because they are SUCH a hot mess but also go :3! whenever their love interest is around

i'm writing mass effect fanfic now and i thank god every day i have so much practice writing weird-ass backward knees with the tengu for those aliens

the afanc is in book 2

there will be more than one old moon ball in the series because i am NOT writing on a half-year timeline ever again (did you guys know what my current mass effect novel has)

the jackalope's name is pyewacket

isaac will get his familiar way earlier than kenma did but it will still be midna and she will still look like this because that is vital to my wellbeing

sunshine remains sunshine because he's actually a multidimensional immortal cat, that's what the failed experiment did to him

my dad made the eventual hunting knife emil will have, because he's just extra like that. in the book it has a partial werewolf bone handle. i cannot legally state what the real counterpart handle is. but i'm also thinking about doing a giveaway way later in the series for it (because apparently it's legal to ship knives in the us! thanks america) because i like to be entrepreneurial and think about fun marketing things. it's also fun to think about "hey you like this book series? enter this giveaway! you can win A KNIFE"

(along that vein there are also keychain bottles of angel blood, demon blood, and luck...)

#how to put the romance back in necromancy #ask #anonymous #i have described the cats more lovingly than any love interest in that book

[papillon82fluttersby]

GOOD NEWS for me and those who have been following my Famous Five Art Nostalgia series: I had an appointment this afternoon with a lady I'd been in contact with through a second-hand retail site for 3 FF books from the Edito Service collection (which I knew nothing about except for finding their covers online), and an additional book with illustrations by Sidobre, which I had been low-key looking for although I prioritise the earlier illustrations by Hives and Baudouin.

Well, what do you know: she did bring the 3 Edito Service volumes, but the fourth one wasn't the one advertised. Instead, almost apologising, she brought me a copy of "CC contre-attaque" (#03 FF Run Away Together) with Baudouin illustrations, which was one of two volumes I've been most looking for without much success. Granted, it's a second edition with an Hives cover, but I was mostly interested in the inside original illustrations anyway, of which I had found very few online. And as a cherry on top, she asked for a very low price. I couldn't believe my luck!

I'll try to digitise the illustrations and update the relevant FFAN post this weekend.

Also, I am happy to report that the Edito Service collection also contains inside colour illustrations, which I wasn't aware of. The books are a bit difficult to get flat enough for digitising without causing damage, but I'll see what I can do. Some of the art is INTENSE and it would be a shame not to share it. I don't think I'll be actively looking for the entire collection but I'll see what's easily available.

TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY 😊

#famous five art nostalgia #famous five #le club des cinq #news

[ra-tutubixi]

A Chronicle of the Ways in Which Upturned Canoe Mountain Has Wronged Me

i've had to write this whole parable two and a half times now. fuck you too, tumblr (lovingly).

anyway

i was writing a not-so-small post on architectural calendarics that i'll eventually share here, and i'd gone pretty well all things considered, even with exams and whatnot massively slowing things down. but Toluquilla posed a perfect storm of problems i was not prepared for.

see, before it, most of the calendarics i'd researched and digested were Horizon Calendarics. what are Horizon Calendarics? Horizon Calendarics are when you align a building or smth in one to a certain feature of the horizon, be it a prominent peak or a noticeable dip, and put the thing at just the right angles and distances to sort of create a calendar that tracks the movement of a celestial body, with notches or protrusions on important dates or period boundaries.

cool shit right?

up until this point, i'd done a fair few descriptions and put a few images to illustrate what i'm talking about. obviously i hate myself and i'm working with relatively less popular or outright obscure sites, but decided to work first with the better known and gradually crawl down to lesser-known ones.

Ranas and Toluquilla are very cool sites i'll eventually talk about, but i decided to do them for two reasons:

they both have described architectural calendarics

i love the sierra and i want others to love it as well

i'm no scholar. i am good at boiling dense info down into equally dense but more accessible terms and can compile much, but i don't know shit about astronomy, much less about calculating dates and azimuths and stuff.

for historical contexts and... just about everything that's not mercury poisoning (yes, really), there's very limited information on the region. like things do come up on google scholar, but they're either very old, impossible to get, or obtuse references to the previous both.

yet fortunately again, there is a book on alignments.

Orientaciones astronómicas en la arquitectura de Mesoamérica: Occidente y Norte was so very useful for Ranas after i finished the history bits. it uses fairly complex language, but the times it describes are easy to comprehend, albeit the text is a little ambiguous where it doesn't need to be.

in retrospect, the same can be said for Toluquilla, but nighttime me does badly with texts that cannot decide what numbers are most important to mention and where to mention them.

the crux of the issue came in the last few lines, which are essentially a lightning round of "things we tried but we don't know how to order them" and which contain a single word i didn't know. azimuth didn't scare me, especially not with the little degree sign, but the word orto had an unknown i couldn't parse out immediately. hablo bien la castilla, formal y mi variante local, pero no sé de términos tan astronómicos porque nunca se me ocurrió buscarlos. es mi primera vez viéndola.

being too knocked out to remember that Wiktionary is a thing that exists but just conscious enough to decide that attempting incredibly complex calculations was a good idea, i delved into inah's rough map of the site and a website that could output the different angles at which sunrise and sunset happened in relationship to the north of a given site for a day or in a datasheet for the year.

"there's probably some mountains that i can read," said a naïve me, full of hubris and thinking that the authors were wrong or something. with what little i could pick up, i learned that the Temple of the Second Ballcourt is the place with the alignments, and as such picked it for my own purposes.

the foremost problem showed up when i couldn't find a tool to get those sorta elevation heatmaps but in relative elevation to just grab a pic and overlay enough lines and circles to see where there could reasonably exist an axis, one of the most recurrent points that Horizon Calendarics use, or notable extremes, another set of points that define the most northern and most southern sunsets and sunrises.

"oh well, i'll just use peakvisor and check a range of angles to see if anything comes up." reasonable to a point, ig.

instead of grabbing my protractor, i used a fairly accurate but still very prone to error method of using a compass to measure the difference in angle from north of a given line. i don't have a compass, let alone one at hand and one with guides, so i used my very prone-to-sliding phone's compass and did a relatively good job at it, only some 5 degrees off. i shouldn't be celebrating this. ...anyway

i got the datasheet for the solar angle and got the minimum and maximum ones from all sunrises and sunsets. i was eventually left with four numbers, maximum and minimum sunrise and sunset azimuths.

i plotted these on desmos into lines (y = xcos ß btw), along with the flawed alignment and the perpendicular (y= x / cos ßa), and lo and behold i got something that looked like an alignment.

[blue line close close to purple line is the perpendicular; lrA is minimum rising] needless to say i was excited. i got something, different of course, but not too different.

then i checked the date for that minimal — June the 23rd and 24th. it's close to the solstice, about 2 or 3 days off. i went onto the calculator that projected minimals and maximals per day and... the result was off by about 5 degrees further — indeed, the minimal absolute was on the 22nd, @ 64.45°...

the line was off, and for large large distances like actual sunrise this is bad.

by now it was the morning and i was much more open to the possibility of failure, so i turned to read again, fresh and full of energy...

all this was useless to me. i already had my answer and i could've avoided all this extra strain if i had only slept a bit. literally, in the first few sentences it says the dates and the way in which the site can be read: it, along with its Ballcourt and the city's First Ballcourt, is pointed towards April 30th and August 13th's sunrises. notably, these are very close if not outright identical (these were calculated with actual formulae by actually knowledgeable people, but calculations, as they are, are still prone to a little deviancy sometimes; alternatively, they could be a nod but not a total homage) to the aligned sunsets of Teotiwakan's Pyramid of the Sun, April 29th and August 12th~13th.

instead of considering for a minute that maybe it wasn't a Horizon Calendaric but a Staked Calendaric (similar to the other one, but uses "stakes" or just a few closer landmarks to indicate the date, much like E-groups further south), i was too stubborn to even consider it. i even approached the point and almost changed my viewpoint, but no, no, it was too jarring at the time.

i then looked up orto on wiktionary and lo and behold, it fucking means sunrise.

with this cleared up, i was able to read the last few lines, lines which say that the Temple of the First Ballcourt have another alignment, for the 27th of May and the 18th of July. these seem like unusual at first, and indeed, one is displaced by 27 (april->may) and the other by 26 (july->august) days. however, the number 13 is a bit of a motif in mesoamerican stuffs, and in this case lends credence to this separation seeing as 26 is a multiple of 13. the 27 is likely intentional, as total symmetry seems a tad secondary to the Classic Sierra Gorda people — in the sister city of Ranas, which does use Horizon Calendarics, the count for one of its two timereader temples is of 140 days, while for the other it's 145~146, with two gaps of 40 between their tailends to complete the whole year.

so far we have 105 days accounted for by the four stakes, 13*8 + 1 (possibly 1 more sometimes to account for the extra decimals accumulating).

the other 260 are hidden at the other side of the Temple of the 2nd Ballcourt, which has sunset stakes in february 9th and november first — each tailend is gapped by 80 days, multiples of the important 20-day concept, and between the two stakes there are 100 more, completing our cycle neatly.

take this as a cautionary tale. i was open to many things, to different ways of counting times, but i was so tired and so infatuated with Ranas' (and primordially by Kwikwilko and T'ajin's) way that i forgot the sheer diversity inside the continent. in a way i was Horizon-centric, and now i know better.

but hey, everything's better than being eurocentric :^)

#i am violently tired today #but at least i'm not *spitefully* tired #effortpost outtakes

[pumpkin-spike18]

✨Weekly Progress 2024 #13-15✨

I thought I missed 2 weeks, but turns out it was 3 🤐

Weekly Progress #13

Submitted DGM Page

Submitted 1/2 Fan Project checkin

Fleshed out about 1/3-1/2 P^3 outline

Read through + ID'd illustration points for Fan Project #2

Weekly Progress #14

Made SYVNH Script plan

Copied SYVNH + Side B to renpy

Talked with SFB musician

Drafted a pitch

Initial scripting pass for SYVNH main story

Sketched SFB Dove & Avia sprites (additional poses + outfits)

Linearted SFB Raven sprite

Weekly Progress #15

Initial scripting pass for SYVNH Side B

Finished 19 new additional SYVNH art assets

Coded in additional SYVNH art

Programmed in Side B link in main menu

Scripted in additional SYVNH art

I had a lovely two weeks of scripting 🙂🙂🙂

Yes, I lost my mind. Yes, it was mostly missing to begin with so no harm done.

Stuck in a Yandere Visual Novel...HELP!!

As I discussed before, I do my scripting in multiple passes. Though, this time I checked to make sure my staging is good before doing sound bites and audio. I'll admit that it's mostly so I can listen to streams as I go through the rather mindnumbing task. There were 10 files for the main story remaining so I tasked myself to script 2 files per day. Each file varied from as little as 150 lines (like 1 file) to 200 lines (most files) to 300+ lines (1 ending) and completing 2 files/day took about 6-8 hours.

Scripting mistakes result in both above and below. ...This is what I get for calling MC's sprite "mcs" and the male extra sprite "ms" One missing letter gives me a black shadow jumpscare.

The Side B scripting was a bit forgiving. It's only 28 pages compared to Scenes 5-6's 55 pages. So altogether Side B only took me 2 days for first pass scripting. That gave me time during the rest of the week to draw... new art assets... that I realized I needed during scripting. Some of them weren't required, but I felt would make a scene flow better.

And since I'm an artist?

Of course I did all 19 of them.

Wait, this wasn't updated- Just trust that I did 19 new image assets, including 3 new sprites 😂

Here are some previews. Is that a familiar character? Maybe~

So yeah, I've coded and scripted in all the new art, but I haven't tested everything yet. I plan to do that when I add in the soundbites.

A Sky of Falling Birds

...Still don't know what sort of visual I want for the game so I just started making sprites and lineart. I might make a demo with just the flat color at this rate tbh.

I got some positive reactions on their sprite sketches, so that makes me shy happy ;//v//;

Peter Pan Project = P^3

Still no title, but I've gotten used to calling it P^3 right now haha.

I didn't get very far with this project in the last 3 weeks, but about a third-half the story is outlined.

The story comes in 2 parts. The first part is 2/3rds outlined (1.7k+ words). The second half of the story is two bullet points lol. Granted, The second half may be a rapid descend to a conclusion. The planning document is already 2.3k+ words, which surprised a few folks...? I think my longest planning document was 11k+ words.

Hopefully next time I update, I'll have more info to share.

[Fan Projects]

Not too much/anything I can show yet as project rules have me not sharing until specific dates. It will be for Ace Attorney and D. Gray Man c:

#devlog #vnlink #vndev #visual novel #syvnh #sfb

[thepiecesofcait]

Well well well if it isn't Hands Clasped Tight zine sharing time!

Here is one of the two illustrations I did - this one appears in the platonic half of the zine and goes alongside the wonderful found-family piece - Today We're Changing History - written by @fuckyeahlesmiserables

I had a lot of fun with this, and really enjoyed getting to work alongside the litany of the other fabulously talented contributors involved with the @lesmiszine <3

A huge thank you to everyone who purchased a copy!

#These three <3 #Grantaire #Eponine #Gavroche #Hands Clasped Tight #Les Mis Zine #Illustration #Digital Art #Les Miserables #Found Family #Les Mis #Fic Rec #Cait Makes #I'll share my second illustration in a day or two!

[kitkatpancakestack]

Having watched 9-1-1 since S1, and in this case specifically since S2, I feel like one becomes desensitized to whatever this nonsense is between Buck and Eddie. I know this bc sometimes I'll be watching a clip or an episode and I'm like "ah yes so sweet, Eddie and Buck are each other's person" but THE WAY their story is told, it's easy to forget how this shit must look to the outside/casual viewer!

If you're like me and find yourself in need of a vibe check because these two dumbasses got you spiraling, here's a list of honest to God canon things this show has delivered:

🤔Buck and Eddie took all of half a day on the job together before they were ride or die BFFLs

🤔Outside the major disaster event, the second plot-focused episode of S2 is Buck doing the absolute most for Eddie for no other reason than he worships the ground Eddie walks on. In this episode we get the unbelievably subtextual conversation about "they're not my type" and "not mine either....at least not anymore" and *shoulder bumps*; we get Buck going with Eddie (???) to the hospital, Buck basically planning out a whole fun day at the firehouse for Chris, Buck introducing Eddie to Carla......I mean......

🤔Eddie was railing his wife most of S2 and still was so, so invested in Buck (he brought him to visit Santa with Chris????)

🤔"Are we the only people we know who don't have kids? .......BUCK!" *Switch to Buck about to risk it all for his future son*

🤔Buck and Eddie literally stare for about 10 solid seconds across space and time when Chris is found post-tsunami and it's so intense I have to look away!?

🤔Eddie tells Buck there is nobody he trusts with his son more than him. Nobody in the whole entire world. One in 7 billion babeyyyy.

🤔Oh yeah, they have an entire divorce/reconciliation plotline masquerading as the lawsuit arc

🤔They behave especially homoerotically in Buck's kitchen, but that's none of my business I guess ☕

🤔Buck bi-panics through all five stages of grief when he realizes he cannot dig to Eddie with his own bare hands

🤔Abby says "he (Buck) moved on a long time ago" and then just immediate cut to Buck talking about Christopher going to summer camp. Please, Tim, at least try to make these parallels less obvious I mean🙄

🤔Eddie is #disgusted at Abby and v protective over Buck, and I don't have the emotional capacity to detail the symbolism of Abby moving away and Eddie stepping forward (taking her place???) smh

🤔Buckley-Diaz domestic excellence literally in a literal episode literally titled Future Tense

🤔Eddie comes home from his date to *shocking revelation* Buck appearing from behind the wall! The scorned lover! And he tucked Chris into bed! Eddie calls Buck a miracle worker! The lighting is warm and suggestive! I am not supposed to view this at least a little bit romantically!?

🤔Christopher is feeling sad and insecure and he is mad at Himbo Dad #1 so he runs to Himbo Dad #2 bc he knows how to work the system

🤔In an episode titled "Parenthood," despite the fact that Buck is not a parent, they really do be putting him in situations to share his Big Opinions on parenting, usually in tandem with Eddie? @Tim share your location I just wanna talk

🤔Treasure Hunt aka How To Pine Quietly For Your Best Friend and Instead Disguise It As Petty Jealousy, written by Eddie Diaz

🤔*slow, deep breath* Eddie got shot in broad fucking daylight but wait Buck is there too? Oh and you're gonna splatter him with Eddie's blood in a moment that is so perversely intimate and then you're gonna utilize the music in the scene to illustrate how Buck and Eddie are caught in this one moment together separate from literally the rest of the world? Okay cool cool cool cool cool cool cool —

🤔Wait wait Eddie REACHES for Buck????

🤔You're telling me Eddie fights off the sweet relief of unconsciousness to make sure Buck isn't hurt?

🤔They really let Buck say "Just stay with me" and "I need you to hang on" Like That and Eddie turns his head to look at Buck, the last thing he sees before the sweet void takes him????

🤔Buck said "I know what's best for Christopher" this whole entire episode and not a single person found this surprising

🤔Buck and Taylor kiss and Eddie's comatose gay heart says, "miss me with that straight shit" and wakes up immediately

🤔Eddie waits to video chat with Chris until Buck is in the room and also Ana girl where'd you go? I thought this was your sERioUs bOyFRiEnD

🤔Eddie Diaz said he values and appreciates and loves his best friend and he is going to make it everybody's problem *changes will*

🤔"You act like you're expendable, but you're wrong" are actual words between these two men that actually played on screens everywhere at 8:57pm EST on FOX

🤔The very last plot-focused scene of the season (we do not count the montage however it is very cute) is this moment bw Buck and Eddie.

If you, too, realized you became desensitized to the literal soulmate narrative between these two, consider yourself vibe checked!

#buddie #im sorry Tim but you can miss me with your nonsense #i am 😎 unable to be manipulated 😎 #im not the same ignorant fool when i started this weewoo show back in S1 #i am cultured #i am educated and experienced #most importantly i am tired #pessimism? we dont know her #nothing but positivity and crackheadery nonsense here #hiatus crackheadery #K spirals