#also I love seeing the animation style evolve. look at where we started.

[thesinglesock]

Psychoanalyzing Lloyd’s most iconic hair styles.

[Post description: a series of screenshots from the animated series LEGO Ninjago. Image shows Kai and Lloyd sitting at a table, they are both holding tea cups. Lloyd is a child with a blonde bowl cut. End description.]

Rise of the Snakes Bowl Cut: this is a child. just a little guy. does not care about self expression through his hair at all, just trying to live his complicated little life.

[Image description: Sensei Garmadon and Lloyd are standing in front of a stone wall. Lloyd is young adult with neatly trimmed, short, blonde hair swept to the side. Garmadon has a similar hairstyle, but grey. End description]

the Sudden Growth Spurt Cowlick: still not a deliberate hair choice, he’s still a kid, trying to mimic his dad because he loves him and looks up to him.

[Image description: Kai has his arm around Lloyd, restraining him. Lloyd has black hair and light green skin. End description.]

the Possession Inversion: Emo phase. that was supposed to be a funny joke but I’m actually crying.

[Image description: Lloyd is holding his sword against Cole’s hammer. Cole’s back is turned to the viewer. Lloyd’s hair is white and nearly reaches his neck. End description.]

Baby’s First Deliberate Hair Choice! Now that he’s no longer feeling like a lost child and is entering his proper Teen Angst Years, the boy bought a pack of cheap bleach and dyed his hair in the monastery bathroom. He also stopped using his dad’s hair gel, sporting a looser, more stylish look.

[Image description: Zane is talking to Lloyd, who appears to be upset. Zane is in his titanium form. Lloyd’s hair is the same style as before, but now in a warm yellow colour with light streaks. End description.]

Post Harumi Golden Locks: you hair matching your girlfriend’s is only cute as long as she isn’t a homicidal maniac. After the Oni Trilogy Lloyd let his hair return to its natural colour, which makes it look much healthier. Too bad his newly developed severe trust issues can’t be fixed by swapping out his conditioner :(

[Lloyd is standing alone in front of a blurry, pink landscape. His hair has more visible dark streaks by the roots. The pink lighting makes it hard to see exactly what kind of blonde it is. End description.]

Dragons Rising: Lloyd has graduated the Angsty Teenager phase. He is now an Exhausted Adult. All his friends are gone, presumed to be dead (again), he is overworked, has adopted two protéges, and has not touched a shampoo bottle in Months. Just look at those greasy roots. Please let him take a break and also a bath.

#ninjago #ninjago dragons rising #vitpost #lloyd garmadon #lloyd ninjago #he's... all grown up?? #also I love seeing the animation style evolve. look at where we started.

[oftlunarialmoon]

Everything You Want to Know About “Kawaii” Culture- Kawaii Fridays

Originally posted to www.onlyfunthings.org on June 01, 2018

Ciao lovelies, Lunaria here! Today for Kawaii Friday I though I’d make a comprehensive post detailing all you could ever want to know about “kawaii culture”; where it came from, naming some fashions within it (I’ll do more detailed posts on each fashion later), giving some resources on good places to begin reading more/ youtubers to follow/bloggers/Instagrammers, and even telling some about my own personal experiences with kawaii culture.

Personal Experience with Kawaii Culture

As you may have noticed, myself and OFT are highly influenced by Kawaii Culture. Personally, I’ve been into kawaii culture since I was about 13 and a friend told me about Anime, Vocaloids, and the word “Kawaii.” Later I, thanks to the internet, discovered fashions like EGL, Decora, Hime Gyaru, Fairy Kei, and many others. My lifestyle and fashion style were heavily influenced by all these fashions and kawaii culture in general, and reflect these influences.

But enough about me, let’s talk about how it all started!

History of Kawaii

Etymology speaking, the word “Kawaii” is believed to have come from the word “Kawayushi,” a word dating back to the Taisho era (1912-1926) meaning loveable, shy, and small.

A big influence on what is seen as “Kawaii” dates back to the first shoji and kawaii illustrator, Yumeji Takehisa, in 1914. Takehisa merged Eastern and Western art styles in his Chiyogami (flat woodblock print patterns on paper) and used the word “kawaii” to describe them. He was one of the first to use wide, round eyes in his works. 

Another big influence on “kawaii” was shojo manga. Shojo Manga (Illustrated stories of a girlish nature), was said to begin with illustrator Katsuji Matsumoto, with the first Shojo manga girl being Kurukuru Kurumi-chan. She had big round eyes and a soft round face. (as seen in the pictures below). Kurumi-Chan was used as a source of encouragement for Japanese people during WW2.

Moving forward into more modern influences, as shojo manga developed we also saw the rise of Mahou Shojo (magical girl) genre of manga and anime. Characters like Sailor Moon brought forth the idea that kawaii could include flaws, and strong girls, but still maintained the air of childish cuteness.

What are some Fashions that are in the Kawaii Culture?

Some fashions in the Kawaii Culture include:

-EGL (Elegant Gothic Lolita). This style has evolved over the years to include Sweet, Sailor, Classic, and many other sub-styles, but it’s root was gothic Lolita fashion. Hence where it gets it’s name. For more info, see THIS post.

-Decora. A style dedicated to lots and lots of accessorizing.

-Fairy Kei. Lots of sweet pastels and childish themes.

These are pretty central to the Kawaii culture, of course there are more styles, but I’ll get into that later.

Some Good Resources for More Research:

Some Good Bloggers/YouTubers/Instagrammers:

Thanks for reading! I hope you learned a lot about Kawaii Culture today!

Remember to Stay Awesome and Love Yourself!

#agere class #agere classroom #agere daycare #agere school #agere #age regression #sfw agere #sfw littlespace #age regressor #sfw age regression #agereg #age dreaming #sfw little blog #agere blog #Ciao lovelies #agere learning

[tyrantisterror]

A Semi-Spoilery Ramble about Prehistoric Pokemon in the wake of Scarlet/Violet

You know me, I love the “Prehistoric Monster” trope, and Pokemon has played with it since the very start of the franchise.  The prehistoric pokemon are my favorite semi-official category of pokemon, and I love how the franchise has slowly built its own mythologized Monstrous Prehistoric Age over the course of its lifetime.

The newest entry in the game series doesn’t have any traditional prehistoric pokemon - that is, there aren’t any that you resurrect from fossils Jurassic Park style.  However, in Pokemon Scarlet, you encounter paradox pokemon that are explicitly from the prehistoric past, and this is where shit gets REAL intriguing.

See, up till now prehistoric pokemon have only be represented by facsimilies created in the modern era.  The Jurassic Park reference isn’t shallow - just like in Jurassic Park, the pokemon resurrected from fossils aren’t 100% accurate replicas.  Most of them have rock-typing as a result of being brought back from fossils rather than purely biological remains, while the Galarian prehistoric pokemon are horrific chimeras made by a careless scientist who’s doing an even worse job of resurrecting these fossils than normal.  The point is that we’ve never actually seen a true prehistoric pokemon.

...or have we?

Ok, so, Mega Evolution is introduced in the Kalos games, and is revealed in the Hoenn remakes to have been caused by energy released from meteors that landed in prehistoric times.  Why is this important?  Well, Aerodactyl’s mega form is speculated to be closer to what it looked like in prehistoric times than its normal form.  Likewise, the legendary pokemon, Groudon and Kyogre, undergo a process very similar to Mega Evolution, even requiring specific stones to activate it, but the process isn’t called Mega Evolution, but rather Primal Reversion.

This brings us back to Pokemon Scarlet.  Due to literal time travel shenanigans, a bunch of pure prehistoric pokemon are brought to the present, all of them being explicitly more dinosaur-y, or, if we’re really being honest, retrosaur-y, with lizard tails and Godzilla spikes being a common design motiff - even among non-reptiles, like Great Tusk (i.e. prehistoric Donphan), Scream Tail (prehistoric Jigglypuff), and Slither Wing (prehistoric Volcorona).

But the one that I want to highlight is Roaring Moon, i.e. Prehistoric Salamence.  See, Salamence also has a Mega Evolution form, and both it and Roaring Moon have enormous wings that connect to form a crescent moon shape.  In many ways, Roaring Moon looks less like a prehistoric Salamence and more like a prehistoric Mega Salamence.

Or, to put it another way: Like Mega Aerodactyl, Mega Salamence is closer to its prehistoric counterpart than normal Salamence is.

And this raises some fun questions.  Is the meteor radiation what made prehistoric pokemon so gnarly?  Was EVERY pokemon permanently mega-evolved in prehistoric times?  Could it even be what made pokemon have super powers unlike those of mundane animals?

Or, given the fact that mega evolution comes from meteors, which are normally the kryptonite of prehistoric monsters, did rise of mega evolution wipe out the prehistoric pokemon, with paradox pokemon like Scream Tail and Roaring Moon being the super-powerful brutes that wiped out the Tyrantrums and Aerodactyls of days past, before the radiation became less prominent and they evolved into their less powerful, more docile modern forms?

And what about Dynamax?  WHAT ABOUT DYNAMAX, GUYS?  Also caused by strange radiation, plus the fact that it kaiju-fies pokemon, with kaiju OFTEN being prehistoric monsters as well - the fact that Gigantomax Charizard looks like a hybrid of both Mega Charizard forms... Where does it fit?

AND!  Dynamax/Gigantomax energy was caused by Eternatus, an otherworldly pokemon that came from the stars and seems VERY similar to the Ultra Beasts, which explicitly come from other universes, while the meteors that created mega evolution seem to have some connection with Deoxys, an explicitly etraterrestrial (and possibly extradimensional) pokemon.

AND! AND! We have Legends Arceus reminding us that there are pokemon evolutions that went extinct much more recently, as well as Legendary pokemon who naturally (well, for a given definition of “naturaly”) warp time and space routinely.

It’s building to something!  There’s some really cool lore developing now about the prehistory of the pokemon setting and I am fucking here for it!  Give me that good Prehistoric Fantasy shit!  Inject it into my veins!

also Violet says the future is all robots, which is cool I guess.

[adobe-outdesign]

Would you kindly do a review on the pidove line?

I gotta admit, I'm not a huge early-route bird Pokemon person. There's typically nothing objectively wrong with them; it's just that they fall into the pikaclone issue where they're usually just Pokemon-style birds, without a whole lot going on for them in terms of visual interest or themes. They're fine, just kind of bland.

With that said though, I do like Pidove here just fine. I have a soft spot for doves, so this design does a good job capturing the charm of them (and the spaciness, judging by the 'dex entries). I love the little heart on the chest and how it parallels the pink flesh around the break, and the expression is charming and reflects its friendly personality. It's nothing spectacular, but for a pigeon Pokemon, it does its job fine.

Also, please take a moment to admire this TCG art while we're here:

Unfortunately Tranquill has the middle-evo issue of mostly being a fusion between the pre- and post-evos. It has one or two things unique to it—the shape of the pink area, the "hair" at the back of the head—but it mostly just exists to transition between Pidove and Unfezant. It's fine, but there's nothing that would make someone like it more than the rest of the line other than minor aesthetic preferences.

Also, the deep pinkish red around the eyes is odd when you consider the line's sexual dimorphism. It makes sense if it evolves into a male Unfezant; Pidove's light pink becomes a brighter reddish shade before becoming an entire wattle. But if it's female, it gains a deeper shade of reddish-pink before abruptly loosing it again. It might've been best just to leave it the same shade as the legs so it still makes sense with either gender.

I am only now realizing than Unfezant is a play on "unpleasant". I had always been pronouncing it oon-fezant until now, go figure.

Anyway, Unfezant is pretty decent for what it is. I like the patterns on the wings and tail in particular; having a lot of markings is not something we see on Pokemon very often, and the way they play off the shapes of the wings and tail really looks nice, especially with that tiny spot of color at the base of the tail. I also like how the faces retain the heart-shaped marking from Pidove.

The male in particular starts to gain some unique bird-of-paradise wattles, which gives it a bit more of a monster-y flair than most early birds have. I'm also always a big fan of correct sexual dimorphism, wherein instead of basing the differences on human gender binaries, they take inspiration from IRL animals (in this case, the male being extremely gaudy while the female is very plain).

Visually, though, I think I (ironically) like the female more. I like what the male is going for, but the shape of the wattles always looked weird to me; it's supposed to be skin, but it looks more like it's wearing a paper mask due the lack of any depth or texture to it. I'm also personally not a big fan of the green and pink combo—would've preferred one or the other—but they do seem to be basing it on ringneck pheasants so I'll give it a pass.

Also, the stomach markings bother me a bit. It's weird to have such unique shaped patterns on most of the body, only to suddenly use a realistic mottled texture on the stomach; it makes the design feel disjointed. I would've expected the stomach color to be bordered by either the scallop shape on the wings or the lines on the tail.

So overall, these are some fine early-game birds; nothing ground breaking but nothing bad. Pidove has a lot of charm, Tranquill is harmless but just exists to be a transition, and Unfezant has some unique colors and markings on the males, though the females are better as a whole. This might honestly be one of my favorite early bird lines, but then again, that's not saying much.

#pidove #tranquill #unfezant #pokemon #pokemon reviews

[curejiraiya]

i want to hear more about your hayami hiro hyperfixation!

Have I ever told you how much I love that they gave Hiro a big yellow bow in his middle school idol outfit

I love him! He's ADORABLE!!!!!!! I wish there was merch of him in this outfit, it's 100% my favorite of his. I've definitely posted about this bow before, but when do you see a masculine character that you're supposed to take seriously in a big bow. Never. And then they made him wear it again in Pride the Hero. He genuinely looks amazing in it. It's a big poofy yellow bow, he looks like a tiny soft boy. It's great. I headcanon that he continues to wear this outfit at Over the Rainbow lives when him and Kouji sing Pride together, forever. Like I want a 26 year old Hiro still wearing this knock off school uniform and big yellow bow. And the crowd goes CRAZY.

I've also posted about this merch before, but this is my favorite merch outfit they've ever made for the guys. Hiro with his hair up 😅 I think it looks so good. The different style for Kouji's hair is really great too. You never really see anime guys with different hairstyles, but I really like the ones from this collab. But their entire outfits here. Hiro and Kouji are wearing matching leopard print belts, insane. What a fashion take, why does it work. Hiro is in a crop top here btw!!!!!!!!!! Like it's hard to tell because of the jacket but crop top Hiro!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah I actually love everything about these outfits so much. I want a street Over the Rainbow song that we never got but deserved. Kazuki center Over the Rainbow.

Sorry I'm just picking random Hiro things I want to talk about lol

Something I was thinking about the other night was how Kouji and Kazuki both have pretty consistent symboling, at least in King of Prism anyway. I would argue Kouji doesn’t have a symbol in Rainbow Live. But in King of Prism Kouji is associated with honey, honestly not in the show but in the fandom, right. Because of that famous post where the person was like “Honey came out of his ass!” I still think that phrase is really funny. And Kazuki is really simple, he says burning, his thing is fire. But with Hiro I think we see the symbols associated with him evolve over time. It started with the yellow Rose and the use of yellow with him, we don’t necessarily see the yellow fade away, like I’m assuming the in-universe fandom still gives him yellow roses quite often. That’s just one of his idol things, like idols have callouts and a Hiro thing is that his fans give him yellow roses. But when Over the Rainbow starts he gets this heavy association with apples. It has to be an Adam & Eve, I’m pretty sure it’s an Adam and Eve thing, but I haven’t really figured it out. He’s Eve and Kouji is Adam? That’s what it is right? But what? I don’t know, it’s a stretch, maybe it isn’t an Adam and Eve thing, but my symbolism brain has a really hard time seeing someone take a bite out of Apple and not thinking it’s in Adam and Eve thing. But then there’s the third symbol and in my opinion the best one, or if anything this is the symbol of post-character arc hero. Like SSS era Hiro is heavily associated with crowns. Because he’s the King. Like specifically this style of crown:

And I never complained about it, but my personal gripe is that I think the traditional pointed crown is a lot less ugly LOL. But that’s irrelevant, regardless I think associating Hiro with crowns points to his character arc. That he overcame all of his struggles in Pride the Hero and came out a stronger person. I also just think this was his transition into an adult. I mean they probably officially said his age in Pride the Hero at some point, I’m pretty sure it’s 17, but he turned 18 in October of that year. And in my eyes him becoming the Prism King is him becoming an adult. It’s him casting aside the immaturity of childhood, and like committing to the things he loves. Committing to his job, his friends, his idol group. He is not a highschooler who can be manipulated anymore, he’s not a kid from a broken home. He’s an adult who won his life back. He’s overcome tragedy and this is his crown. Well not the one in the photo above, that’s from Prism Rush when they did like a fantasy thing, let me find a picture of his actual crown. I’m literally staring at it irl because he’s wearing it in a piece of merch that I have in my room.

I NEVER NOTICED IT HAS A HEART ON IT????? OH MY GOD WHY IS EVERYTHING ASSOCIATED WITH HIM SO ADORABLE

Anyway he deserves the crown. His arc to Prism Cup winner is stronger than Aira's imo (because Rhythm had the stronger arc in PR:AD heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy) It was clearly set up for him to win from the beginning but you can tell he's really the director's baby boy character. No other character could come close to winning.

In 4 years when he's 21 there is a 1000000000000% chance he wins again. I think Kazuki will be worn down by then (it's not that he's gotten worse it's that he spends a lot of his time working with kids and would put that before training). Kouji doesn't have the dancing or jumping skills. I think he knows that though he'd still try and try harder than anyone but Hiro. Yuki could maybe do it, but I genuinely think he's the only Septentrion boy who has a shot currently, the rest of them aren't focused enough on Prism shows and specifically that skill. And like ofc Shin could be cheezy prism power winner but idk he seems kinda like Kazuki in that his focus is spreading the love of prism or . whatever instead of actually grinding out skills in being a performer. I think even good guy Alec is still too destructive/wild to win though he could second place.

Apparently the Joji/Ace duo is actually super skilled? like based on their score in SSS. But that's TWO PEOPLE idk gang I love them but I want Ace before he turns 20 to realize that maybe he should sing for himself (I do love their duo though I just want it to be healthier for them both). Can Louis still jump? Does he still do prism shows after SSS? Something tells me no, but I mean who knows.

Anyway Hiro would win :) I want 21 year old Hiro to kick 16 year old Yuu's ass. I want Kouji to give 120% and still get his ass kicked and have a character arc where he has to realize like, he can't win but Hiro couldn't win without him, he's literally singing his song.

I am not kidding when I say I think about the next Prism King Cup like daily. I think the ages of the Septentrion boys works really well for a story there. It's not that I have it fully planned out, it's that I think through every kind of situation that could happen. It's so good.

They look so dumb. These 3 18 year olds are the most famous idols in Japan (I think Kazuki is 19, who cares.)

If they're 21 for the next Prism King cup, and (I'm rereading this like an hour later and I forgot you can drink in japan at 20 oh well,) after everything happens and they're just relaxing together again the night of the performance, Hiro and Kouji get fucking SMASHED. They just have that vibe. Kazuki either parties with them or is straight edge, I flip flop on that characterization for him. I also think all the girls are with them at that party, and it's like "mweh ur only 20 u can't drink," but Wakana is the type of 20 year old to NOT care and drink anyway, and Kouji is 100% slipping Ito drinks when only the two of them are looking. The other girls don't seem like drinkers. Bell is probably a wine mom later in life. A wine lesbian if you will.

The last thing I wanna rant about is that one group photo where Kazuki is getting his feet smashed, where is it.

Imagine if I had this saved instead of just googling it and scrolling every time.

Look at Hiro's stupid little hat. Look at his wink! No wait look at his hat, that's amazing why did he wear that?

Kouji ur looking the wrong way your boyfriend is on your right. Unless you're actually looking at Kazuki being tortured, then carry on.

This is probably the best Kazuki vs Kouji height photo, because with the whole group Kazuki looks SO SMALL. The girls are all in heels but I mean that gives them like once inch. He's so short. I love it.

Like you could be saying "Kouji is looking at his girlfriend and she's holding his arm hmmm," And I'm over here saying "Kouji is wearing MATCHING ROSE PINS WITH HIS BOYFRIEND," any questions?

I just realized these are different suits then the suits they wear in that one OTR business intro in SSS. I know cuz I have a standee of those suits lol. I guess they're famous they probably need more then one suit. Hiro and Kouji's are worse here, but Kazuki's is better for the bowtie.

Actually I lied, Hiro and Kouji have better colored suits and waistcoats above, but I really like their gay matching roses idk.

I don't have a conclusion for this post, it's just a bunch of random observations I have on my mind constantly about Hiro. In conclusion, Hiro Hayami is gay. or bi idk. I feel like he thought he liked Bell but comphet. So he calls himself bi, but let's be honest he's only dating Kouji. Or Kazuki i'm down for the street kings ship. Kazuki and Two H. Or he's dating both of them, I'm a very pro poly person.

God I could talk about Two H or Poly OTR for a long time, but I wont today I will stop typing. Sorry about my hyperfixation!!!!!!

#ramblings #king of prism #hayami hiro #oh god why did I write so much #I will put this in queue so it doesn't look like I wrote it write after writing the last one

[sparatus]

heyy

💋(or suitable turian alternative)🍦💖💞 (I think I know who but feel free to babble about them I'm all ears)

hell yeah thank u 💍

Fanfic Emoji Asks

💋 First kiss fics. Love em or hate em?

LOVE LOVE LOVE god i need to write more im so weak, especially for when it's two characters who've been friends a long time but haven't been able to bring themselves to admit their feelings until at some point everything comes to a head in an emotional moment and AUGH YES

🍦 What's the sweetest fic you've created so far?

i already answered this one here but let's be honest i've got a lot of soft sweet shit under my belt, lol. Where the Wind Rests definitely gets a shout-out, part of a series and has spoilers for the end of broken mirror but god tender reunions and marriage proposals my beloveds. i went looking through my desabrudas stuff to pick one out but honestly any of the stuff i wrote about them post-shanxi with kids is just pure cavity fodder, i need to write them more everything is oLD

💖 What made you start writing?

i used to be a semi-famous rper in the facebook rp community (back in. 2012. yes it was a thing fb used to be an easy haven for rp) for a. certain anime community i'm not going to mention you must be at least a level 3 friend to learn this fact. but that started it, and then i had a couple friends from that community who helped foster that and got me writing - i have an old twilight spitefic still up on ao3 (do not read it. cannot emphasize enough it's very old and i was mimicking smeyer's writing style and the characters have evolved since then) that was inspired by one of those friends!!

i got started writing mass effect specifically because my partner @lightspeedpowerpunk was writing a fic about our ocs, which eventually grew into Rise & Reign (we're rewriting it soon i prommy plans are in the works i miss my dumb stupid boys) and around chapter. idk, 10?? 12 or so?? i started contributing to writing it myself, and that just kinda kickstarted everything. everybody say thank you to the ogs axilus and thie'haasn for my [checks notes] jesus christ 84 mass effect works on ao3

💞 Who's your comfort character?

m. many,,,,, definitely cnclr sparatus, obviously, and also my oc for his wife, aediteia. the way i've written sparky has taken nearly the full 8 years i've been in this fandom to slowly build, and he's very near and dear to my heart. conversely, teia has also grown along with him, and their narratives both personal and together touch on a lot of things that are somewhat personal to me and my own growth as a person.

in the same vein, the arterius brothers also count - i can look back and see how the way i've written saren has changed over the years as i myself have grown. i write him less depressed now, he has a support system, in yes-reapers yes he's still having a Bad Time because sovereign is fucking him up and the reapers are tied to his brother's death but it's less. idk. gloom and doom emo sadboi 24/7, he's allowed to have moments of peace now. desolas in particular i've kinda realized is also reflecting a lot about myself, ESPECIALLY in no-reapers. his arc in my no-reapers au, and in fact a major theme of the entire series, is all about recovery from trauma and how our choices make us who we are; no-reapers desolas has been through a lot of shit, so much, 89 years of it, from his parents being killed to having to help his baby brother through his own trauma to his career to 314 and everything in-between, and he's been in a really bad place and learned really bad habits and attitudes, but after shanxi he makes the active choice to grow and move on, at first just because valis needs him but with therapy also comes to do it just for himself because he's tired of being sad and hurt and angry. and that's a very personal story for me, even tho i certainly didn't set out intending des of all assholes to be the one carrying most of my weight, lol.

nihlus and (valis) abrudas are also in the same boat, characters who've been through a lot of shit and got mad about it and have their own ways of dealing with it. something that's going to become apparent to shepard in itlog is that saren was nihlus's morality chain, not the other way around - saren played a large part in nihlus learning to heal from his father's death and move on as a person, and now that he's been hurt in this whole thing nihlus is starting to slide back into old habits. valis, on the other hand, is the lone sane man in the whole clan, trying to keep her head on straight and above water while her friends and loved ones are drowning, and i've had to be that friend myself and boy i really do appreciate that kind of character, especially for somebody like desolas who's been drowning so long he's forgotten what the surface looks like.

god i have so many emotions and thoughts about sparkyteia and the desabrudas/kryterius group (i like to call des + valis + saren the evolution trio, personally, as they're all in it, but nihlus makes a proper group name hard :lmfao:) they're all my comfort characters i come back to them every time when i get stuck in my head and start Thinking About Stuff i probably have others but this is already rEALLY LONG,

#press conference #callista-curations

[martamdxcontextualstudies]

The Dangers Of AI Art

Human vs Machine 

How do artists show their interpretation of this idea?

Istallations, interactive art pieces

Dangers of AI

Why is this art form so popular?

Why is it causing so much harm to independent artists?

Why is it so harmful?

What can we do to stop it before its influence grows beyond our control?

Is it actual art?

Can it replace artists?

What are the negative impacts of the dark side of artificial intelligence?

The Dangers of AI Art (studybreaks.com)

By Kristen Kalebich, Arizona State University

“Many apps, software and websites allow AI to generate art, and all they need is access to the internet, key words or phrases and sometimes a picture.”

“Artists seem to be engage in a losing battle”

“AI art often uses pieces of a person’s artwork and implements them into the new image without giving proper credit.”

“The generator plagiarises.”

“AI art pulls and meshes similar images found online.” 

It doesn’t really find inspiration for a certain art piece like most artists would. AI also doesn’t have a particular style, colour palette or median that it focus is on. It hasn;t spend years developing a style or an idea like an artist would. 

It lacks originality. And the emotional factor which is often how art bring attention to the viewer. As humans we can often feel the painting when looking at it. 

“AI struggles to implement these emotions into an image because it is guided by instructions and commands rather than complicated, subjective feelings.”

“What started as a harmless generator used to create fun and colourful art has become detrimental for artists.”

Create Something Amazing - NightCafe Creator

AI generator

Stable Diffusion

A next-generation text-to-image algorithm

DALL E 2 

From OpenAI, an advanced text-to-image algorithm

Coherent (CLIP-Guided Diffusion)

More control and better composition than Artistic

Artistic (VQGAN+CLIP)

Create beautiful images from a text prompt

Style Transfer

Turn your photo into a masterpiece

It has a bunch of different art styles that you are able to choose from before generating the images:

Nightcafe, artistic portrait, anime, hyperreal, 3D game, pop up, photo, ect

Algorithm: Stable

Model: Stable Diffusion v1.5

Text Prompt: Dog sitting on a couch looking out the window

Style: Oil Painting

Algorithm: Stable

Model: State Diffusion v1.5

Text Prompt: Group of bees sitting on a flower about to be attacked by wasps

Style: Hyperreal

Text To Image - AI Image Generator API | DeepAI

Text Prompt: Battle of the Crayfish

Style: Fantasy

Style: Cyberpunk

Style: Comic

Style: Impressionism

To me AI is an idea i find quite terrifying. We have seen so many movies about robots and computers taking over its not hard to see it as science fiction. But with the way technology is evolving so rapidly, it could quite easily replace us. From artists, to writers, graphic designers, photographers, AI can easily replace all of them. Leaving people who love their professions and have spend years building up their careers with nothing.

The Dark Side of Artificial Intelligence Art and its Impacts (analyticsinsight.net)

By Geetha Malathkar, November 29 2022

“New and exciting”, “gaining popularity quick”

“Potentioal for AI art used for polictical propaganda, to create fake art and to infringe on copyrights.”

“AI can now create realistic images, videos and even sculptures.”

“Sometimes indistinguishable from art created by humans” 

“Because AI is powered by data, it is biased against underrepresented groups. For example, if an AI is trained on a data set of predominantly white male faces, it will more likely create art that is biased towards white male faces. This could lead to a future where the art world is dominated by biased AI created work.”

“This could lead to united consequences like the ones we have seen with discriminatory recruiting algorithms and microsoft’s twitter chatbox that became racist.”

“As companies build AI algorithms, they need to be developed and trained responsibly.”

Ai also massively reduces the time it takes to create pieces of art. In order to create the art i used in the ai generator, i had to type in a few keywords that best described he image I want to achieve. It also gave me a large variety of art styles I could chose from to get my ideal result. All those images combined took around 10 minutes to create. A significantly shorter amount of time it would take me to illustrate the same prompt by hand. 

Although this could be somewhat beneficial to a lot of companies, it would completely rock the art world off its feet. 

There is also a much larger chance of being hacked when using Ai generator programs. Behind each successful AI generator there is a programmer. It could be quite easy for them to input a series of codes and “take advantage of AI systems” that ultimately could lead them to getting into your hardware much easier. 

CYBERARTS 2016

Prix Ars Electronic

Starts Prize '16

"The digital revolution that was recognisable on the horizon decades ago... Now constitutes the mainstream in media, business and politics." (pg 10)

"Dissatisfaction and mistrust are widespread" (pg 10)

"The artists and scientists involved in this project are not only paving the way for new developments, but also opening up totally new ways regarding the role of science in our society and the interplay of technology and nature." (pg 10)

"On the social level, this is a matter of new positive future scenarios of new social models, which are the approaches to a process of rethinking that seeks ways for us to livewell without growth." (pg 10)

INFERNO (pg 74-75)

Louis-Phillippe Dewers, Bill Vorn

"Participative robotic performance inspired by the concept of control."

"Bodies are handed to eternal and external forces controlling them."

"Shifting the exoskeletons command from the authors, to the computers and to the performers."

"Inferno questions the nature of control either mechanic or human."

"Also addresses recurrent issues revolving around the human-robot symbiotic relationships."

"Wearing or being entrapped in a robotic entity recalls the concept of the cyborg that emerged in the late 80s."

PATHFINDER (pg 82-83)

Generative approach for conceptional choreography

Qnformative in collaboration with Christian Loclair

"Generates and projects abstract shapes into space in order to simulate Danzers exploration."

"Digital approach to the conceptual research of Dance."

"Choreographers can adjust certain parameters of the algorithm - such as speed, complexity, or the geometry of objects."

"Pathfinder expands the idea of creative collaboration by integrating an intelligent digital entity to an artistic process."

[prophecytoad]

Development Update - Lumayn

If you’re here reading this, thank you for taking your time for this little blog of mine. This week on the agenda I’m going to be talking about how the development of my current project has been going, what I’m working on now, and where development will go next.

Before we begin, I’d like to announce that the project now has a name: Lumayn! This word was originally something that I thought I had come up with when I used it for the name of a continent in a DnD campaign that I have been running. I thought to myself, “Why not use it for the game name?”. So, I went about googling to see whether the name was in use and it wasn’t! But, what I also learnt was that it is already a word in use in the Somali language and translates to “lost”. Serendipity smiled on me when I chose this word; it’s the perfect word for my DnD campaign AND for this game!

Now, lets get into the breakdown.

The Problem Space

Like all things, Lumayn began as a concept. I thought to myself about some of my favourite games that I played growing up: Pokemon, Digimon, Monster Hunter, and what drew me to those game types, and what inevitably pushed me away from them. The draw of those games was simple: The games featured really cool monsters and you get to interact with them; I loved finding monsters whose designs I found fascinating. No game is perfect though. For Pokemon specifically, it was things such as: being able to draw a parallel between the core mechanic and animal captivity, too many designs which results in some awful and lazy designs, and a lack of focus on the interacts with the monsters specifically that led find it difficult to play the games past early iterations.To fix the issues I have with the monster genre, I wanted to come up with an idea that focused more on the monsters themselves, their personalities, your relationship with them, and interacting with them. 

Lumayn Concept

Lumayn is a 3D monster adventure game where the player’s interactions with their partner matters. You partner has their own personality, and how you treat them will affect how they treat you back. The player will work with their partner to learn abilities, evolve, fight powerful enemies, and restore their town.

Your relationship

The way you treat your partner will change how they react to your assistance. In combat, you will be able to suggest actions and provide help, however, if your partner does not respect you because of how you have treated them, they may ignore you entirely and refuse assistance.

Whiteboxing

I began development of the prototype by focusing on developing a sufficiently sophisticated AI for demonstration purposes. Using basic capsules in Unity, I used the Unity Navmesh system to develop a follow system

I then whiteboxed a basic start area, and what would be a combat arena. When the player collides with an enemy, they and their partner would be transported to participate in an intense fight with one or more enemies

Working on the AI

The AI that runs the monsters in Lumayn will be an extremely important part of the experience. Each monster will have a unique personality based on many different factors that change how they behave.

Monsters will have different likes and dislikes. For example, some monsters will like hot areas filled with lava and stone, while other will like forests filled with trees. In each of these areas, monsters will respond to stimuli like flowers, berries, and pretty stones depending on what they like.

Another facet of their personality will be how they choose to fight while in combat. For example, some monsters will be aggressive, taking the first move wherever they can, while some monsters will be passive and wait to react.

A basic version of the combat AI has been implemented, as well as the personality generator.

Making things prettier

Your partner can now walk around with you and fight on their own in combat, so it was time to make the prototype look a little prettier in order to better demonstrate the style of the game.

I took some time to experiment with various free assets to update the game visually. While I am happy for the time being with the way it looks, there will be a lot of work later to improve the visuals.

Modelling

Currently I am working on modelling and animating one of the monster ideas. Animations will make an immeasurable difference in the believability of the monsters and their personalities.

This is the current iteration of a creature species known as “Rex”. They are an adolescent level monster with an affinity for starting fires.

Next up

Future development will involve giving the demo more personality. Better artwork, models, level design, and interactions. There’s a lot of work to do to give the players a visual interesting game where they can fall in love with their monster partner!

Here’s a peak at a design for the starting area!

Last Up

As always, here’s a cool frog. An internet classic, the Black Rain Frog!

Image retrieved from https://www.boredpanda.com/unusual-frogs-toads/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

See you next time!

#gamedev #development #unity3D #art #videogames #adventuregames #monster

[sashi-ya]

Vampire!Law or werewolf!Law?

Hi, hi! I used to be obsessed with vampires back then. Never seen/read Twilight, though. But still. I didn't know if you wanted something NSFW, so I included some, not that explicit just in case. I hope you like it ♥. I loved the prompt so I'd probably be extending this story, perhaps with more OS someday!.

Vampire! Law x Reader.

Countryside town AU. No gender description. Everybody is 18+. No spoilers. TW: Blood. Slightly hurted animals. Kind of blood play. Soft NSFW. WC: 4.4K AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31552169

Drawing done using a base from: deviantart.com/shadow-bases

It’s a cold night, puffs of steamy air coming out from your mouth as you quickly walk to your parents’ house. The moon shines in between foggy clouds that cover a dark sky. You regret the moment when you accepted going out, plus everything around seems a little threatening. You are used to the city you were living in until now, and somehow forgot the feeling of living in your hometown. But, your old friends wanted to see you, and you couldn’t just say no.

The old town you were born in seemed to have never evolved. Since the day you left your parents’ house and moved to campus in the big city, the town has preserved its own style, the same houses, the same old shops.

Reddish dried leaves crunches under your feet, and some crickets sing in the dark. You grab your phone just to check the hour. 00:00. You are a little bit tired; you’ve been driving the whole day to get there, but even though you were exhausted your old friends insisted on celebrating your comeback to the nest.

You are about to get to your house, when a sudden noise creeps the hell out of you, but you realize it’s just a cute white cat. “Hello kitty, you scared me!”, you say as the little cat comes purring. You crouch and pet it, after all it was too cute to not play with it.

“Bepo… Bepo… where the hell are you?”, you hear a man’s voice that comes closer. “Are you Bepo?”, you ask the little kitten and try to see what his collar says. “Bepo!!, there you are!”, a young man says with a gravelly voice.

“Oh, excuse me!”, you tell him as he comes closer to grab the white ball of fur. “Oh no, it's ok! I was about to go to sleep and I was looking for him. Did you scare her/him/they, Bepo?”, he says, approaching you, bending down and petting the kitten’s head.

The clouds move allowing the moonshine to bathe his face, revealing refined face features. A straight but snub nose, white pale skin, black spiky hair that ends up with sideburns, a goatee, and intense grey eyes with very dark circles were his main features. He was the most handsome man you’ve ever seen in your life so you stay caught on his face for a little while.

A cold breeze blows your hair and somehow a chill runs through your spine, as you hear the sound of wind chimes dancing along on the front porch of a wooden house. “Do you live in this town? I haven’t seen you before… I mean, I’m kind of new into town though…” he says to you with a smile while lifting the cat on his slender, pale and tattooed hands.

You stand up and say “Oh, uhm...I’ve recently graduated so I came back to my parents’ house to work with them, I used to live here, though”. “Oh, I see! Nice to meet you! My name is Law”, he says while extending his hand to you. You hesitate for a second, but then you say “Nice to meet you Law, I’m Y/n”. You shake hands, and realize how cold his skin is, almost as if he was somehow… dead?.

The encounter is disrupted by your dad, who got worried of you not arriving at home and opened the door to see if you were coming. “Y/n! there you are!. Oh, hello young man!, How are you?”, your father says from the front porch. “Goodnight Mr. Y/sn, everything alright! What about you and your wife?” Law says waving at your dad. “She’s inside a little worried for her pancake, that I see you’ve already met!”, your dad tells him while laughing. “Dad… I’m ok, go inside, I’ll be there in a minute”, you say to him, embarrassed.

“Nice to meet you, Law. Have a good night”, you say petting the little cat. “Have a goodnight too, Y/n-ya. I hope I could see you again”, Law says, giving you a side smirk. You nod and walk away.

You flop onto your bed, tired, exhausted. You close your eyes, total darkness until… his eyes… Those crystal grey eyes are the only thing you can see, and then they turn to yellow. And you wake up with a big gasp to the smell of blood.

“What the fuck was that?”, you say, agitated. An orangey sun ray filters from the windows of your teenage years room and hits directly your face. You block the sun with your arm realizing soon it was already morning and today you start working on your old family farm as a vet.

“Good morning little pancakes!!”, your dad greets you, as well as your little brother. Your mum is cooking those delicious breakfasts you used to have when you were younger and you sit on the table, pleased and filled with your family’s love.

The day passes with you meeting all the animals on the farm, you even have to take care of a wounded horse. “Don’t worry Violet, it’s just a little blood, but your leg will be fine”, you say to a black spotted mare that has been jumping on the field and somehow hurt his leg.

At noon, your childhood best friend sends a text telling you that tonight you two should go to “Shambles Bar'' - the one and only bar that has ever been there since you were born - to have fun since it’s Friday. You agree, not because you were a fan of partying but because you missed those old days before you left for uni.

“Leeeeet’s go party like the old timeeees, babeee” your best friend shouts at you while jumping on your bed. “hahaha stop it, you are going to break the bed!!”. You both laugh, get ready and head out.

You pass next to Law’s house and try to see if he is at home, but it seems as if no one is there. “Oi, do you know Law?” you say pointing with your thumb to his house. “Law?”, your best friend asks confused, and continues, “You mean the vampire guy who lives there?, yeah. Why?”. “Vampire guy? what do you mean?” you ask, half confused, half curious. “Haha, the guys call him like this. I mean, have you seen how pale he is? and those dark circles? He looks like he is dead. Plus no one has seen him during the daytime. Ever. But how do you know him?”, she tells you. “Oh, yesterday, his cat, Bepo, came to me. He was looking for the kitty and we happened to talk”, you tell her with a tone that tries to downplay the topic. “Oh, I see. To be honest I don’t even know what he does for a living so I don’t have any more info. Maybe Luffy or Zoro know him, you can ask them tonight”, she says. “Yeah, maybe”, you say and change the topic.

A few drinks after and you and your friends are already dancing to the sound of country music and the humble light system of the old bar, when the same image of those eyes of your dreams flashes before your eyes and a sudden smell of blood hits your nose. You stand still for a moment, scared. “Babe, what is it?”, asks Nami, one of your friends there. “Uh.. n- nothing”, you say confused and keep dancing.

A few seconds later, someone is touching your shoulder from behind. Your friends stand still for a moment with a subtle scared expression, but the touch of that hand felt warm for you, even as if some type of power was running through all of your body.

“Y/n-ya?”, a well-known voice calls you, and you turn around. There he was, Law, “the vampire guy” as your friends call him. “L-Law?”, you say slowly smiling when you see his pale face. “What a coincidence, huh?. I mean the town is not that big…”, he says, and you finish his sentence with a “yeah, and this is the only bar…”. You both laugh and for some seconds your eyes are fixed onto each other’s.

“Oi, Torao! you wanna drink with us?” says Zoro, inviting Law to our table. “Yeah, thanks, Zoro-ya”, he tells him. You all sit and ask waiter Beca to bring you another round of drinks. Law sits next to you.

Sanji, another friend of yours, asks you “You two already know each other?”. “Kind of”, you say laughing a little blushed. “Y/n-ya met Bepo, first!” Law tells your blond friend, laughing.

An old song you and your friends used to dance as “your song” starts playing on the jukebox and you run to the dance floor. You can’t help but gaze at where Law is just to see if he is watching you dance. And he does, he is looking at you, with a smile on his pretty face. Your cheeks turn to red, but you are way grown up to act like a teenager, and decide to invite him to dance. You are driven somehow to him, you don’t really know why, but you are.

“Law, do you wanna dance?”, you tell him, extending your arm as you were calling him to the dancefloor. “You too guys, come here!!” Nami shouts to your friends.

Law stands up and walks to you. Smiling, he incorporates to the circle and starts dancing. He doesn’t dance well, but you just don’t care, you either after all.

A slow song starts to play, romantic also. Robin, another of your friends, tells you that the song is called “I Hear a Symphony”, and that Law should dance with you. You look at her, widening your eyes trying to tell her to stop, but Law grabs one of your hands and tells you “May I have this dance?”. You giggle a little, I mean why is he talking like a prince?, but then you just let yourself go and accept his offer.

The pale guy puts his other hand over your waist and you two start dancing to that pretty melody. For a moment you feel as if you were dancing into a castle, like in another century.

Interlocking your eyes, you start to think that coming back to your hometown wasn’t that bad and somehow you feel as if everything around you disappears. For an instant you believe to see his eyes change colors, from that crystalline grey to an intense brilliant yellowish color, but this time you don’t get scared. You feel attracted more and more to him, as if something invisible was pulling you towards him.

The touch of his hands feels cold, really cold, just like the first time… “is it because it’s almost winter?”, you think. Law is looking at your lips, neck, and something on his expression shows as if he was willing to devour you. And frankly, you too… you lost yourself looking at his mouth, he has it barely open. He has prominent canines that show through the little space in between his lips, and you remember your friend's words “the vampire guy” ...

The slow music is over, and now pop blasts on the bar. The couples part and you all come back to your table. It’s already 2 am, and you all feel exhausted from working all day - except Law, who seems to be really energetic -.

“Well, my dear friends, I’m not a teenager anymore, I think I’m coming back home now”, you inform your friends, to which some of them reply protesting and the others supporting the motion.

“If you want to, I can walk you home. I mean, we are neighbors”, tells you Law. Something inside you says “oh no darling, you are going fast”, but your mouth simply slips a “Oh, thank you, that’d be fine”.

You grab your coat, and head to the door followed by your deadly crush. None of you two say a word the first few steps. Tonight, is even colder than yesterday, but your cheeks are so red, full of blood that you don’t seem to notice the freezing breeze. “He is going to think I’m desperate, like he is the hottest guy I’ve ever met, but still… calm down Y/N”, you say to yourself, while walking thinking about what to say to break the ice.

“The moon looks pretty tonight, doesn’t it?”, he says to you, timidly. You look up to the sky and contemplate a big full moon with reddish tints on its hue. “Oh, I think it is the eclipse they were talking about on tv last night… the “red moon” ...”, you say, but got interrupted by Law, “Yeah, a “blood moon””. The way he said that, felt almost as threatening, but you look at him, and there he is, smiling at you with a friendly face.

You remember you still don’t know shit about him, so you ask him, “Oi, Nami told me you moved into town a few months ago, what did it bring you here?”. He stops for a moment, looking at the ground, but then sketching out a fake smile he tells you, “I got bored from the city, so I moved into the countryside… but to be honest I came mainly because I heard that pumpkin pies here are delicious”. You look at him, because that sounded like a terrible lie but you chose to believe it and when you were about to ask him about what he does for a living, he interrupts you, “Well, it looks like we are already home”. “Oh, yeah, I haven’t noticed, ha-ha”, you say, a little bit annoyed because you wanted to ask him more questions, but mainly sad because the walk was over.

“So… goodnight”, you say to him while fidgeting back and forth with your feet. “Goodnight…” he says. You are both facing each other, and you nor Law are moving. He got his eyes fixed on your lips, and you wish he would just kiss you.

Slowly, little by little, Law approaches his face to yours, closer, closer, until... he stops himself violently. You get scared, but you don’t move a single muscle. “Why… why you… why do you smell like blood?”, he says gasping.

“W-What?”, you ask him confusedly backing up. “You, you smell like blood… have you… your arm…”, he says, snatching your forearm. Suddenly, you remember this morning, you cured Violet, and some blood got spilled on your forearm but you washed the area and took a bath right before going out. “How did you know?”, you ask him.

He remains silent, trying to calm down. “I’m… I’m sorry I have a really sensitive nose”, he says and continues, “Why don’t you go to sleep, we can talk tomorrow, it’s pretty late now. Goodnight”. He says and runs to his house.

You are left there, and for a moment you just can’t process what just happened. “What the fuck, Law?”, you think. A cold shiver on your back announces to you, you should go back home and go to bed. There was no point in staying there.

You snuggle on your bed, still trying to understand but the exhaustion your body felt wins and you fall asleep. Again, those eyes, the smell of blood, the cold touch, you can see, smell, feel it all… “Y/n! pancake!!! wake up!!!”, you hear your dad shouting at you. You open your eyes violently, “What??? What happened dad??”. “The cattle, some… something attacked them…”, he says horrified. “What?” ...

You get dressed and run to the cowshed. A poor steer lays there, he has been attacked by some kind of animal… with fangs, and the poor thing looks like he has lost some blood. Luckily he was still alive, so you helped him instantly.

“Pancakes, what are those wounds on the neck the animal has?”, your dad asks. “To be honest, dad, I don’t know. It looks like some kind of animal has bitten the steer, but didn’t eat it… it looks like… has drunk some of his blood…”, you say to your dad astonished even more than him. “But, what kind of animal could do such a thing?”, he inquiries. “The only ones that could do it are the Desmodontinae, or vampire bats… but they are not typical in this hemisphere…

The incident quickly spread and everyone in town was talking about it. Luckily the animal recovered in a few hours, as the wounds weren’t that bad.

You can’t stop thinking about Law, and quickly you forget about the animal incident. He has been on your mind all morning, “why did he run away?” ... That afternoon you decide to go see if Law is at home, you really need to ask him about last night… Plus, deep inside you are a little bit annoyed, you wanted him to kiss you…

You ring the bell of the wooden house, but there is no answer. Since the blinds were all shut down, you think that he must be at work.

Suddenly little Bepo appears meowing from the backyard. “Hi Bepo!! Is your daddy at home?”, you ask the little cat while ruffling his head fur. The cat rubs on your leg and then walks back to the backyard, so you decide to follow him.

If Law isn’t at home you could perhaps take a look at his patio. You are curious and he represented a mystery you wanted to decode, really bad.

At first you think you’ve seen someone looking at you from one of the windows of the house, but you thought it was just your imagination. You trespass private property.

The patio showed nothing but a bucket on one of the corners, next to an old mossy bench. You follow Bepo, and as you are approaching the metal pail that has something red inside, your phone rings. “God damn!!”, you jump scared. The phone screen shows an unknown number calling, “That’s weird”, you say and pick up. “Hello?”, “Hi!, Y/n-ya, it’s me, Law. I’m sorry to bother you but I wanted to apologize about last night”. Law… LAW! You realize you are still in his yard so you quickly leave the place and start walking home. “Don’t worry, I guess it must be a little intimidating to be with someone that smells like… blood”, you say. A silence takes the call but then Law simply laughs -again, a fake laugh- and tells you that he will call you later to compensate you for last night. You agree and say goodbye.

You close the door behind you leaning over it, gasping. Your heart races. What if he knows you’ve been stalking his house…? “I’m such a creep”, you say to yourself, and go to your room.

You spend the afternoon in your backyard with your mum, October is about to end so the fall season is at its peak. Maple leaves fall from a big tree next to your porch and garnish the patio with its coppery colors.

That night, your parents and brother were invited to a party in the next town, so they won’t come back until the next day. After a hot meal you go to sleep. You haven’t received any messages from Law yet and you wonder if you should text him or just let him do it first. You finally decide that he should be texting you first, so you snuggle in bed and close your eyes. For the third night in a row, you dream with those eyes, with the smell of blood. But, this time it's so intense that you awake instantly in the middle of the night. “Again?”, you say while brushing your hand over your eyes.

Suddenly you hear something knocking on your window… “Law?!”, you say, gasping. He mimics something similar to an “open please”. Your bed is next to the window so you are still sitting there in your pjs, so you stretch to open the window.

“What are you doing here?”, you ask him while helping him to enter. Law sits on the bed and tells you, whispering “I’m sorry, I was missing you, I really, really needed to see you… plus I told you I wanted to compensate for yesterday”.

A subtle light from the moon illuminates half of your faces, and you are speechless. “So, this is how he plans to compensate for running away last night? He is on my bed… he looks so sexy… damn”, you think. But Law starts acting innocently, and begins to ask you about the trophies on your shelves.

You tell him about how good you were at volleyball when you were in high school, and he tells you that he was too. “Where did you take that picture?”, he asks, pointing to an old photo you had pinned on the cork board. “This one?” you say, and when you grab it the side of the paper cuts your finger softly but enough to make some blood sprout. “Ouch!”, you say and you are about to take your finger to your mouth when Law grabs your wrist violently. “L-Law?!! What are you doing?”, you tell him, scared trying to unfasten from his hand. Law doesn’t speak, he starts to tremble, he is breathing fast, he is squeezing your wrist.

“Let me go, Law!” you say, but he doesn’t hear. He is somehow focused on perhaps staying still, trying to avoid something. He suddenly looks at you, his expression resembles a beast, beads of sweat run through his temples. His eyes change from grey to a bright yellow, his pupils dilate. His prominent canines are now true fangs.

Law is salivating, his veins are now visible on his forehead, you can see how his blood pumps faster. You can’t understand what the hell is going on, but for some reason you don’t scream. You concentrate on his eyes, you are able to see a remaining humanity in them, so you are far from scared.

He lets go of your hand, and kneels on the floor. Law is panting soundly; he is fighting against himself. “Calm down”, you say to him. He looks up to you, with tears in his eyes, still emitting guttural sounds. He is surprised to see how your face doesn’t show terror, nor contempt. You don’t know why, but you are even more attracted to him, dangerously attracted. You were willing to let him drink your blood if he wanted to…

With a smirk on your face, you say to him, “Blood is what you want, huh?”. He opens his mouth, and a pair of sharp fangs are shown. He shakes his head, he doesn’t want to hurt you, but he needs you. “I trust you; I know you won’t hurt me. You can drink from me”, you offer him. You know he is able to stop, and somehow everything makes sense. The poor animal this morning, he has just drunk a little blood but didn’t inflict mortal wounds to it. If he was that considerate to an animal, he will probably be with you too. -Or that is what you wanted to believe-.

He swallows, and still trembles and without any warning he pounces on you. Your back hits your bed and he's over you. He fixes his eyes on yours and asks you, "are you sure about this?". "Uhum", you nod. You are so desperate for him, that you probably consider yourself a beast more than him.

Law buries his fingers on your cheeks, and violently moves your head to the side, exposing your neck. You feel a few drops of saliva that falls into your skin from his mouth, and see how he approaches your neck.

He bites you, but even if it hurts, he is drinking your blood from your carotid so subtly, so carefully. A few seconds later, he stops. Some of your warm blood runs from the wound onto your bed.

"T-Thank you…" he says, planting a soft kiss over the little holes on your skin, caressing your hair. "You are welcome", you say, almost naturally as if being bitten by some kind of beast was something you always do.

But suddenly, you start to experience some kind of pressure on your chest, and breathing becomes difficult. Your eyes roll back, and you feel different. You look at him, trying to understand what is going on, and he simply brushes his tattooed hands over your face. "Don't worry, it's normal. You are not going to turn into… me. But, a little bit of me runs through your veins now…". He says, brushing his hand over his mouth trying to clean the mess your vital fluid has left on his lips.

You are not worried about becoming into a vampire or whatever the hell he is, but because you are experiencing a strong need to touch him, to kiss him, to fuck him. "Kiss me", you command him.

He looks at you, still settled over your body and your lips meet. His tongue invades your mouth, and you can taste the metallic rests of your blood on his mouth.

Without separating your mouths helps you take off your white -blood stained- shirt and then you do the same with him. His torso shows a big design inked on his skin, and a few wounds.

His fangs subtly scrape your skin, from your neck, to your chest, lower through your stomach. He spreads your legs with his strong arms, and softly but enough to leave some marks, bites the skin of your inner thighs. The feeling of those fangs softly ripping the first layers of your skin made yourself squirm in pleasure.

His yellow eyes fix on yours, and now he is devouring your sex. You throw your head back and surrender to his skilled tongue movements. What follows next is an extremely hard pounding session, that leaves you trembling, exhausted, sore… but satisfied.

Since then, every night you let him slowly drink you up, drop by drop, giving to him a bit of your life every time. Your eyes slowly changed colors, first a little patch of yellow, then half of your right iris…

A deadly, dangerous attraction, that won’t last forever… or maybe, if you decide to let everything aside and turn into a full vampire like him… who knows? maybe your obsessive love for him would end up changing your life… forever. ♥

#trafalgar d law x reader #trafalgar law #trafalgardwaterlaw #trafalgar one piece #trafalgar d. water law #trafalgar law x reader #trafalgar law x oc #one piece #law one piece #law x y/n #law x reader #one piece x reader #one piece x you #one piece x y/n #one piece x oc

[kanene-yaaay]

Go to Sleep

Kanene’s note: Gosh, having a schedule is weird. I just wanna post everything I already wrote and ramble non stop about it asdfgtyujkigfdo. XD

Well, this was suppose to be a drabble, but it’s very long so sdftyujikgfred. I hope you like it!

Warnings, fun facts, random things and stuff:

* This characters don’t belongs to me! They all belong to Thomas Sanders from the serie Sanders Sides.

* This is a SFW tickle fanfic. If you don’t appreciate this kind of content, please, look for another blog. There are a plenty of fabulous arts in this site!! ^w^)b

* This is Lee!Virgil with Ler!Roman. Around 1.500 words.

* Sorry for any spelling, pontuation and grammar mistakes! Any and every advice is very very welcome! \(-w-)/

* Listen a bit to the birds today. Changing the way you think is not a bad thing. Drink water, sleep, eat and love!

[~*~]

Roman growled, missing by a few inches the button of his thunderous, infuriating alarm before finally hitting it. Staring and blinking lazily at the numbers his brain struggled to discern and recognize, only to confirm it was really time to wake up and start the day. He grabbed his pillow and squeezed it with all the strength he could muster, rolling from one side to other on the mattress, trying to wake up his body as quick as his mind and almost falling from the bed a reasonable number of times during the process.

 He got up, yawing, stretching and humming as the first lyrics of the day stuck on his head, hand rubbing at his eyes as he followed the kitchen’s direction with slow steps and tired sways on the beat of the song.

 Two dark, wide eyes stared right back at him, their owner completely frozen on the spot with his hand inside the cabinet, probably already holding some sort of a snack. Roman also stopped mid-step, gears running inside his mind, gaze locked on the other, his brow progressively furrowing.

“Virgil,” he began, voice slightly hoarse “What the heckty heck are you doing up? It’s barely seven in the morning!” Virgil only stared back, slowly closing the cabinet’s door, as if afraid the movement would startle the other. Roman proceeded to get some eggs and other cold ingredients from the refrigerator for the breakfast, his words growing more awake and vivid as they spilled with no filter or whatsoever from his lips. “You got an early shift again or something? Those are absolutely hellish. A bunch of people exhausted, tired and glaring at you as if you are the holder of all their problems and their solutions can only be achieved by being insufferable pieces of- Urg. I can’t believe they would give you one right after you got the night one. Damn, I didn’t even see you arriving here yesterday!”

 He turned his attention back at the other, looking for a kind of frustration in the place of the still startled, wide gaze which continued to be directed at him. Virgil nodded slowly, stepping away and putting some physical distance between him and the confusion on Roman’s features.

 Then, between the strings of sleepiness that clouded his brain, it clicked.

 Suddenly more details on the other’s behavior started to become clearer: the way Virgil’s hair was messier than his usual ““style”” (Roman scoffed mentally, thinking that if he rolled his eyes any harder they would never come back to his normal place again), his wary, yes, but way too much slow movements, the way he seemed to be unable to stop blinking at every millisecond and, above it all, the final piece of the puzzle.

 Virgil wasn’t wearing his pajamas.

 “YOU DIDN’T!” Roman gasped, as if Virgil’s life choices were a personal attack. “YOU DIDN’T GET ANY SLEEP LAST NIGHT!!” A turn of heels and he was again fixating his glare on the other, his free hand accusingly pointing in his direction, receiving an annoyed hiss as immediate answer.

 “Shut up!” Virgil snarled, practically growling back at him. “It’s fucking seven am don’t be so freaking loud.”

 “Don’t change the subject! Why didn’t you go to sleep?”

 The one being questioned just snorted, half amused. “Bold of you to assume I’d ever sleep in my whole life.”

 “That is it.” Virgil didn’t even have the time to wonder the meaning of his friend’s sentence before the aforementioned picked him up, resulting to a not very contained shriek escaping from his lips and his hands not much gracefully – or gently, although since they were keen on just jumping on each other out of nowhere to play fight Princey would be fine - meeting his friend’s face.

 “Roman! What the he-”

 “Did you just SLAP me? My beautiful face?! Before my own beautiful eyes??” Virgil Storm always got, even if he would never admit this out loud, surprised with Roman’s capacity of doing a series of offended incoherent noises which evolved to words before being carefully metamorphosed in weird noises all over again, and in the end still managing to form comprehensible sentences. His surprise did nothing to quell the grumpy snark immediately flying from lips, though.

 “And I’m going to do it again if you don’t let me go in this exact instant.”

 “You go and try to help and that is the acknowledgement you get,” The one wearing pajamas with little crows printed on it huffed, mumbling in a lower tone as he noticed the sharp gaze being thrown in his direction. “fucking unbelievable.”

 “I still can hear you, Princey. You’re literally carrying me.”

 “I sTiLL cAn HeAr yOu-OW! Ow! Ow!” The sentence was interrupted when the sleep deprived one punched Roman’s shoulder. “You’re insufferable, you know that?”

 “Let me fucking gAAH!” In a way his wish was granted, one could say as they watched his protest being cut as Storm was impolitely tossed on his bed, Roman quickly following his friend on the mattress, arms hugging him from behind, and physically preventing him from escaping his current soft predicament. “Prince, you’re dead.”

 “Shhh, no talking. We’re sleeping.”

 “We are not. You are being a pain in ass and I am about to defenestrate you.” Despite his fervent protests, his sharp, flaming glare began to lose its heat, his body not doing any actual effort to free himself from the other’s – strong, good - grip, muscles starting to relax against the great warmth involving him in a comfortable and secure blanket.

 “Sure, sure, mister Grumpy Pants, you can do that when you wake up.” He tightened a bit his hold around Virgil, yet being the most careful as possible, actively ignoring the annoyed hiss his friend gave him. His hoodie was really fluffy at the touch, slightly remembering his stuffed animals he frequently hugged to sleep.

 For a moment, everything was pleasantly quiet. The one with smudged makeup, since he hadn’t time to get it off before being trapped by his roommate and best friend, felt the tiredness becoming sleepiness as the seconds went by.

 …That was until an electric sensation shot across his spine, leading him to almost jump in the same place 

 “S-stop nuzzling me!”

 “Hm? Oh sorry.” Virgil pressed his lips tightly closed, preventing the wobbly giggles to escape as Roman speaks, not realizing how close his mouth was from the base of his neck, every breath sending tickly shocks across every nerve. “You’re just too much sooooft.”

 Roman opened an eye when realized that no snark remark from the other followed his words, the figure in his arms shaking too much to be asleep. A frown painted his feature as he readjusted the position of his hands, trying to get a bit more of balance to look at Virgil’s face when suddenly a high-pitched yelp escaped, cutting the air and immediately catching their attention.

 “Did you just squeal?” He questioned as his glare assumed a playful shine seeing a blush spread on his now frozen friend.

 “It was NOT a squeal! It was a yelp.” Virgil’s words came so fast that they almost tripped on themselves. Roman snorted, a smile taking over his face. “Get off me!” and, in the moment the one wearing a hoodie tried to pry his hand from the spot on his right side where it was resting, the pieces finally clicked in the right place and his smile quickly submerged, giving space to a smirk.

 ‘No WAY Doctor Doom and Gloom is ticklish!’

 However, the red lover only blinked as the true personification of innocence and naiveness, his hand firm in its place, fingers starting to slowly move, light pokes being delivered on the sensitive skin. “But why that, Knight Mare? It’s cold and all I could ever want is just to hug my bestest friend!”

 “You already hugged me, now go aWAY!” His voice trembled in the last second, the exact moment his thumb experimentally scratched the spot right under the lowest ribs, leading a surprised squeak to leave Virgil’s mouth.

 They both stared at each other, gleaming, filling their wide eyes.

 “No.” Virgil said, trying to squirm away but finding himself stuck between Prince and the wall. Roman didn’t even attempt to hide his smug grin, anymore. This was going to be so much fun

 “Don’t you dare! Don’t you freaking dare!!” His friend only laid down again, now carefully, yet firmly, pulling him one more time against his chest, growling playfully. Years and years fighting for the Tickle Monster title on his family, battles and battles against Remus only sharpening his skills, which showed by the way his fingers seemed to find every single weak spot on Virgil’s skin, wiggles, scribbles, pokes and scratching exploring everywhere. “No! Nononono! You fucker, you moron, you bitch, you-” A few chuckles cut his curses as he one wearing pajamas squeezed his side a couple of times, the tip of his fingers also teasing his ticklish stomach. “Roman!!”

 “No, no, my so dear, so ticklish, friend. Roman is no longer here, this is…” He paused for a dramatic effect, basically beaming at the giggly giggles and wiggly wiggles from the other. He shoved his face on his neck, the next words vibrating almost as bad as the spidering on his ribs. “The Tickle Monster!!”

#Cursing #This is inspired on a meme I saw that was basically two beans staring each other like ':0' with the legend 'Me waking up at 5 AM' and- #- 'My roomate going to sleep at 5 AM' #Idk why but this is so funny to me xDDD #I will probably use that exact scenario in others fics in the future #Lee!Virgil #Ler!Roman #Ticklish!Virgil #Sanders Sides tickles #Sanders Sides tickling #Kanene's Fanfic #Kanene's Fic #Kanene's Art #I couldn't write the tickles here for some reason xDD Honestly if someone want to continue the idea/fic pls feel free to! #I really like this idea xP

[prof-peach]

If you could cross over two of your favorite games, which would you choose? Please explain, why that crossover would be a good match.

Oh you’re going to regret asking this one, I’m bout to GET SERIOUS.

So Pokemon, obvs, I love the whole world it’s built in, but the games imo are REALLY boring, I haven’t enjoyed one a lot since gale of darkness, the main ones just are a little too linear obvious plots, pretty standard setups for story and style. Speaking of style, the games lack personality, the models aren’t animated well, moves have no dynamic energy or visual difference at times, and the turn based battle style just feels kind of, I don’t know, old? Slow? Just doesn’t suit what I enjoy personally, gives me a FInal Fantasy vibe and I just cannot stand the speed at which things happen in those games, plus not into 3rd person ‘let’s build a team of people’ much, but that’s a problem for another time. With this all in mind, the game I wish would happen is like gen20 Pokemon, far future sadly, I doubt I’d see it in my lifetime but god I’d be happy if I did!

Ok so take the newest Zelda graphics, the visual treat that was BOTW, open world, puzzles, not JUST combat, you got side missions, hunt the chickens, find missing pets, parcels, items, whatever. Love it! The horse taming?! Amazing you funky little game. Now take the bad guys and beasts from that. And put Pokemon in instead. Give them the diversity, the life and believable natures that BOTW gave the animals, I followed a frog in BOTW for 15 minutes, and it was a great experience, it felt like it was believable. Above world spawning, ACTUAL difficult gameplay, rare spawn rates, make dragons hard to get again, cmon, it’s too easy now, make it so we need a certain set of Pokemon for certain tasks. Water types big enough to carry you will be able to get you to new areas, rock types that can help you climb mountains faster, or break through blocking boulders. Actual towns with more than 4 houses in them, shops, barns, farms, homes. Like little link with the heat, maybe ice types would struggle in volcano areas, or bug Pokemon not be so comfortable in gale force winds. Give the weather more of an effect on your partners. Mounts, don’t even get me started that Pokemon Let’s go had you able to ride any of the larger species, but swsh did not???? Bitch please, give me my rideable Pokemon. The wild area too was far too closed, limited, online was laggy and a mess, camping is limited, let me do more with my team. Pokemon for me is all about the actual creatures, how they live with humans, and the many wonderful things they’re capable of. Yes of course it’s cool they can fight, but like what else you know?

I’d love a game that lets me buy a plot of land, maybe plant things, custom build things. I’m a sucker for the fallout4 settlement builds when they’re modded to hell and back, they’re fun! It can be a really calm and creative process. If I could do that and skip the main campaign and all the battles for a bit? Amazing, it sound perfect for me. I am that distracted hoe collecting flowers while the kingdom burns in the background. Side quests are everything to me. Let me give homeless people enough money to get them in a home? Let me adopt Pokemon that are stray around the town? Plz oh plz bring me a Pokemon game that allows me to work WITH my team to do more than KO other species. I want to save and buy a plow for my buddy gogoat, and grow amazing foods to sell to get currency to spend in decorations, to spoil my team. Give me actual game consequence, if I ignore that sick and injured Pokemon I find in the wild, later maybe it’s family don’t want to help me out with a different problem, too stricken from grief. I am all about the average bits, the old women who need help, the lost pets board in town, the general day to day stuff. Let me get cosmetic items for the Pokemon I keep, cute outfits, special gemstone items, let me actually live with them, or even feel remotely like they’re realistic.

Ok so in game, if it’s looking like BOTW it’s pretty beautiful but also stylised, I’d have it so you can send out a maximum of 3 Pokemon from your 6, using bumpers and such to throw them out. If you hit the trigger you switch from controlling the human trainer, to the Pokemon you’ve targeted with a standard lock on targeting system. You then can be the leader, but be the Pokemon. You could technically defeat the game without a human if you wanted, which incorporates the mystery dungeon games I think, and caters to that crowd. I’d love to see the use of attacks out of battle, things like using water gun to grow plants, using ember to start a campfire faster and stave off the cold. There’s no consequence to Pokemon anymore, and I think that’s where it’s lost me. I have to admit I miss the days of a poisoned pokemon fainting if you don’t heal them soon enough, I miss gym battles that were actually tough, damn, try picking charmander in red and beating brock without grinding in viridian forest first, it’s not easy. And I loved that. Yes it’s a child’s game, it will never be difficult again, but god it’d be nice to have a bit of a challenge, or maybe a difficulty setting, so some could play it with hostility turned off, great for kids, or you can be n adult like I know so many Pokemon fans are, and play it on expert mode and ACTUALLY have to work hard to beat the game. Alternate skill trees anyone? Train gun a fire type to ACUTALLy combat water moves?? Please! Cmon! It frustrated me that every challenger has pretty much a systematic set of moves to use to win. Grass opponent? Fire attack spam until you win. It’s dull, so at least with very difficult tricks to either find or learn in game would make it more achievable if you can send that fire type in and I don’t know, train them so much the heat evaporates the water mid-battle and you suddenly have a shot at winning. Pokemon has taught me that if you work hard enough you can achieve something, but the games just have such strict ways to win. Feels wrong.

In terms of battling, let us BE the Pokemon, let us learn to dodge, train our speed, train our defence, make a team of truly tough Pokemon instead of just, average? Some species have a cap on their skills, a squirtle has lower stat points than a Charizard, but you can’t ever change that? Let me choose the Pokemon I believe in, and let me work with them until they’re just as good, if not better than the game tanks. This would also make online battles more interesting. Everyone picks the top trio. Fairy, dragon, legendaries. And yknow what? It’s boring. That one IRL fight with the monster Pacharisu that won in the world tournament with follow me and the situs Berry? Unbelievable, I love that little rat so much because of this, so let us all have a chance to build a team that’s strategically viable, strong, and potentially a winner formula, even if they aren’t fully evolved, or the biggest Pokemon in the world. Yeah maybe you have to grind way harder with your unevolved Pokemon, but you get to the end game and win, because you put love and time into species that you enjoy, not just good fighters.

Unfortunately I am beholdent to Todd-idiot-Howard, and I love the Eldrescrolls and fallout games (before they got dumb, not that I don’t play the new ones. 76 I’m looking at you, you big asshole game.) honestly I hate online games, so none of that junk, just a good old fashioned open world sandbox game is plenty. Games for me are an escape from others, not an invitation to socialise. To each their own of course, and I do play online games sometimes, just pretty short lived ones, over watch and rdr2 for example. Would they be sometimes better on private servers? Yes of course, fallout76? Want to play with others? No. I do not. Please leave me alone. And if you buy a private server you’re feeding the monster that is Todd Howard, the man the myth the asshole, then we’ll get more bad games like 76. I just so desperately want the Pokemon company to see what a beautiful potential game they’ve got on their hands, that could be suitable for far greater audiences, but instead they’ve focused on the kids. It’s fine, it’s functional, but it’s lost to the fans from day 1, that are all 20+ years old now and want something meatier to play, something far more broad and inclusive. I also hate that there’s no wheelchair option in any Pokemon game. Like cmon, it’s not hard to include that.

In short, BOTW + Pokemon, with a sprinkle of open world sandbox to it, less fighting, more fun. Or, at least both options. Sure, go fight everything, great, but I want to farm carrots over here with 6sunflora, plz let me have some peace.

Edit: I forgot about harvest moon, chuck some of that in there too.

SECOND EDIT: someone in the comments mentioned to put this in Unova? Plz love yourselves, this game would be ALL MAPS. Stuff one singular location, this is the ideal game, put every map in it, join them, put islands in, make them more explorable, more detailed!

#pokemon #not peach #OOC

[6480n]

Looking for fellow creatives for a fantasy project!!

Hi all! I’m looking for other people who might be interested in collaborating on a hobby world-building project. !!Please help me find people by reblogging this post!!

[ID: Sketch of someone waving cheerfully at the viewer. end ID]

This world is designed to be the basis for a magic-based, multiplayer platformer fantasy game similar in ways to Maplestory and Fantasy Life, where the player character travels throughout various cool and magical realms. If you want to learn more about the world, please check out the information under the “read more” (I didn’t want the post to get too long).

Some stuff about me: I’m a Thai-American genetics student/researcher with heavy interests in evolutionary biology and Southeast Asian culture. I like to draw/design in my free time. I’m looking for people who are interested in contributing (to any degree), especially those who have an interest in biology, ecology, or sociology/anthropology. I would love to be able to work with other people from cultures that are underrepresented in the fantasy genre (though ofc not a requirement). No skills necessary!!! I'm able to handle all the art and visual design load on my own, I'm just looking for anyone imaginative!

I tend to be very realism-focused, so I’m hoping that input from others will help this world blossom into a more fantastical, wondrous setting. You don’t have to commit to anything--if you want, you can just hang around a bit and see if it interests you, or just provide input once in a while.

This is currently just a fun side-project that I work on in my spare time. I want to make it clear that even though I’m designing it with a videogame in mind, there really is no guarantee that it would ever get to that point, and I don’t want anyone to join with the hope that it would eventually pay off monetarily. I’ll make sure that anyone who contributes heavily will get a say in where the project eventually goes, if it turns out to last long.

Please contact me on Tumblr or Twitter to get involved! I plan on making a Discord server to keep all our collaboration in one place, invites given by PM.

[All images described in alt-text]

The premise of the world is that flora and fauna are not separate beings, but instead that all animals start their lives as plants, turn into animals, and then at death they create seeds which sprout into new plants. People also go through this life cycle--when they start out life they’re the huge, slow-growing plants that provide the structure for complex ecosystems (pine trees, kelp, huge cactuses), and then when they become people, their community cares for the ecosystem in question.

--MAIN GOALS--       - To build a work in the fantasy genre that rejects the overwhelmingly common eurocentric and often colonialist setting, as well as incredibly popular westernized systems of fantasy morality (light v. dark, demons v. angels, etc)       - To portray fictional cultures in a way that highlights the incredible diversity of IRL cultures without stereotypes or homogeneity       - To show the interconnectedness of everything, including showing different groups of humans as being connected with each other and showing humans as part of the environment; actively rejecting contemporary notions of “mastery over nature”

!!Everything below here is subject to change!!

Since I’m heavily interested in evolutionary bio, I built the biology of this world on the premise that life evolved much like it did on our world, starting from a single organism and blossoming out into different branches. Humans, or rather “people”, evolved multiple different times whenever a complex, dense ecosystem arose. Here are the groups of people I’ve come up with. The player chooses which species they want to start out as, and the dominant weapons or magic style of that culture determines the combat style they first learn to use. (Each group of people has multiple different subcultures, but there would be one “main” subculture that players start out in.)

Merfolk/seafolk:

Perhaps some of the earliest peoples, seafolk start their lives as kelp and inhabit the thick kelp forests that surround many coastlines. They have a love for exploration and discovery, but generally avoid encroaching on land. Their magic generally has to do with water, and the weapons they use are mechanical crossbows and heavy blunt weapons (blunt weapons integrated with controlling/redirecting the flow of water to lend force to blows). I haven’t figured out which real-world cultures to draw on for inspiration for seafolk societies, since nobody IRL lived underwater, of course. This is probably the most open-ended group of people. They’re visually based on fish and salamanders.

Frostfolk:

These people start their lives as conifers and thus inhabit the taiga and tundra. Their magic mostly has to do with ice, cold, or wind, and their main weapon of choice is spears. In this group of people, I want to have different societies: a nomadic hunting/fishing society, a nomadic pastoral society, and a more sedentary river/forest-based society. They’re based visually on dinosaurs, specifically theropods, with perhaps more bird-like features.

(No name yet):

Related to frostfolk but now geographically isolated from them, these people start their lives as cycads and live in the tropics, especially on chains of islands. Some subcultures would be highly seafaring, while some would be more sedentary and involved with metal-working and smithing. For the sedentary cultures, their magic would revolve around utilizing fire, and weaponry would be small blades made from obsidian. They are also based on theropods, but would have more vibrantly colored feathers like tropical birds.

Dustfolk:

Based on carnivorous mammals, mainly cats, foxes, and coyotes, these peoples start their lives as succulent plants like giant cacti. They inhabit the deserts and canyons of the world and live a largely nomadic life. Their magic has to do with wind/sandstorms, and their main combat styles are focused on hand-to-hand combat, utilizing claw or knuckle weaponry.

Plainsfolk/brushfolk(?):

These people start their lives as deciduous trees, generally as part of savannas, or sparse forests on mountainsides. They are based visually on ungulates, mainly deer/antelope, goats, and pigs/boars. I plan to have a semi-nomadic subculture in the dry savanna, a more sedentary agricultural society in the tropical savanna, and a mountainous society. Their weaponry would use a combination of sword and shield, and they would utilize light magic by way of reflective metal or glass.

(No name here either... they’re humans):

Finally, there would be a species of primate-based people that start their lives as broadleaf evergreen trees and inhabit the tropical jungles of the world. Many of their societies would be agricultural, with some fishing river-based cultures. Their magic would be related to monsoons and thunderstorms, especially lightning magic, and they would use long, thin blades for fighting.

---

In addition to the "main" cultures of the world, there would be many cultural centers where multiple peoples meet and trade food, goods, and technology. People will not be divided by nation borders or "species".

Currently, my idea is that combat is used to battle metaphorical representations of disease, malaise, generally bad and imbalanced things. I haven't developed this part of the storyline too much yet, I just know some thematic goals I might have.

In addition to combat (either physical or magical-based depending on the player's preference), players would be able to pursue a few different skills, like farming/breeding using a robust genetics system, tailoring/clothes-making, furniture/crafts-making, smithing, healing, cooking; as well as more "meta" hobbies like making maps and puzzles for other players to use.

Again, if you're interested in getting involved or have any questions, you can reach out to me here on Tumblr or on Twitter. If people do end up being interested, I'd like to make a small community on Discord to chat with! Edit: We do have a discord server now, you just have to ask to join!

#artists on tumblr #world building #fantasy #character building #speculative biology #brainstorming #game design #fantasy world #can't think of any other tags #ive never tried putting out a post like this before so i wonder how much of a long shot it is #spec bio #speculative evolution #ecology

[everythingsinred]

Let's Talk About NatsuMikan: The Anime (pt. 1)

I could go on and on about these two and I think I will, just because I don’t often see people talk about the analysis behind them. The meta I have seen about them has included a perspective that equaled the anime and the manga and I don’t think that’s an accurate way of viewing their relationship.

The anime is a different species than the manga, something that frequently happens during the adaptation from page to screen. Since they’re so different, I’ll analyze them separately.

There's going to be many parts to this so I'll keep a table of contents right here so people can more easily navigate (though you can also read through the "let's talk about natsumikan: the anime" tag on my blog):

Anime Analysis

Part 1: Exposition & Episode 7

Part 2: Episodes 8, 9, 10, & 11

Part 3: Episodes 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, & 17

Part 4: Episodes 18 & 19

Part 5: Episodes 20, 21, & 22

Part 6: Episodes 23, 24, 25, & 26 & Conclusion

The anime makes changes, as anime adaptations often do. The most outstanding changes are appearance related, as Natsume now has brown eyes instead of red, in addition to other characters who have hue-shifted eyes and hair. But there are also story changes, and I’ll be focusing on the changes that occur, specifically in regards to Natsume and Mikan and their relationship.

For one, their relationship starts evolving much earlier in the anime. I think it’s pretty undeniable that in the anime, Natsume started liking Mikan at the end of the dodgeball game. That scene never happened in the manga, but in the anime, it’s a crucial step in making sure nothing seems too sudden or forced.

The anime is 26 episodes long. If Natsume only starts liking Mikan after she saves him during the Reo Arc, then we’re already halfway through the show when positive feelings between the two appear. On the other hand, the feelings develop more slowly in the manga because there’s more time to properly develop the relationship in a more drawn out way.

My analysis will start with the anime, because it’s shorter and easier to discuss.

Exposition

It’s impossible to say that the anime was completely loyal to the manga. It very frequently couldn’t be, because it needed to fill in time in episodes or give closure early before the manga even addressed it (Natsume’s backstory in the anime, for instance, is vaguely referred to and implies deviation from the manga).

The most obvious difference between the manga and the anime from the get-go is visual. Not only do they have differing art styles (I don’t dislike the anime style but Higuchi Tachibana’s art style is so distinct and unmistakable while the anime’s isn’t so unique), but the setting is also different.

While the manga started in the depth of winter, the anime starts off in summer/fall. It always struck me as odd that while the first page of the manga has Mikan running after Hotaru in full winter-wear, the anime starts off warm and idyllic. You could almost think of that as a general warning for the difference between the anime and the manga. After all, while the anime has a reputation for being a cutesy and upbeat story about friendship and magical powers, the manga is much darker and discusses many morbid and depressing themes that can and WILL fuck you up. Warm vs. cold seems like an accurate difference, though I don’t think that was intentional.

We see way more of the village life in the anime, including Mikan’s efforts to keep the school from closing. This is a welcome change because Mikan’s passion to keep the school open is nothing compared to her friendship with Hotaru, and even after the school is saved, she runs away to see her friend, even if it means she goes to another school. The manga doesn’t imply that Mikan knew already about the school’s fate, and since she is always so preoccupied with Hotaru anyway, we don’t really get the impression that she cares very much. To Anime!Mikan, Hotaru is more important than saving the school, something she was so passionate about she rallied to get signatures. It’s an extra scene to prove just how much Hotaru matters to Mikan, and to show even more how selfless Hotaru was to go to Alice Academy, since she knew how much the school mattered to Mikan.

“Sign my petition to get a Gakuen Alice anime reboot!!!”

My boy Natsume is only introduced properly in the second episode, when we actually see his face and he speaks. His appearance is different from the manga’s too. I’m not sure if this was to appeal to a younger audience or what, but Natsume’s eyes are changed to brown instead of their iconic red, something that was always my biggest peeve about the anime adaptation. His hair is also somewhat purplish instead of entirely grey/black and, although this does bother me a lot less than the eyes, I wonder why they made this change when other characters have black hair. It might have been to differentiate him from Hotaru, another main character with black hair, though I’ve never had issue in the manga telling them apart.

His first interaction with Mikan is a lot more pleasant in the anime than in the manga, although that’s not really saying anything. Mikan’s skirt simply falls off and Natsume draws attention to it, rather than the unpleasant events that took place in the manga. This different event makes it a lot easier to support a relationship between the two of them right off the bat. They are still antagonistic but it’s not as terrible as it is in the manga. This makes it easier to establish romantic feelings earlier on, and might have been changed in order to achieve just that, or possibly also to appeal to a younger audience. Maybe both? Who knows.

“You can’t sit with us!”

With Natsume presented the way he is in the anime, it’s easier to make the claim that he’s simply a good guy who acts the way he does to protect people. And it’s true! He is! But he is also so much more. In the manga, he’s a more complicated character. Although he is a good person, he still requires character development, which is something he does go through, and something I’ll talk about more in his meta analysis later.

Most of the events at the beginning of the anime parallel the events of the manga. Mikan goes to Alice Academy at the same time of year, Natsume shows up with an explosion, Mikan has to go through the Northern Woods, she discovers her powers in her fight with Natsume, etc. Some of the continuation from episode to episode is different than the transitions between chapter to chapter, there’s extra scenes inserted to fill up time, and some of the exposition seems strangely presented (in the anime, Mikan finds out more about the school when she finds Narumi and Iinchou waiting for her at a tea party, which is…. Super weird…), but all in all the information and events are mainly the same. The big differences start with the dodgeball episode.

“Look how happy she is. Makes me wanna barf.”

Episode 7 vs. Chapter 9

I love the dodgeball episode. I feel like for the most part, the anime does deviation from the manga pretty well. With the last arc as an exception, I generally enjoy their changes and additions to the plot. The anime has to be different, has to progress at a different pace, has to introduce topics at different times. They have an episode to fill, and less time to build relationships. Natsume and Mikan are both different characters in the anime but it’s very subtle and has to happen due to the fact that the anime is shorter and seems more designed for younger audiences, in addition to wrapping up before the manga could explore more of the story.

Anyway, let’s talk about the dodgeball episode. AGAIN THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN THE MANGA THE SAME WAY so when discussing NatsuMikan as a concept, the anime events cannot be treated the same as the manga events. A lot of people maybe forget that the manga is very different than the anime when it comes to this episode. I see the two media conflated in plenty of fanfics, where seventeen year old NatsuMikan reflect on the dodgeball game from their youth that changed everything, and I get it because the anime version of the dodgeball game is cute! It's shippy! It's fun! But it doesn't happen in the manga the same way.

There's a similar trope with the sakura tree, which I can only remember from the anime, and yet it's such a fundamental aspect of NM fanfic it might as well have played a vital role in both anime and manga. Nothing wrong with any of this, of course. I'm just making it clear that my analysis will cover the two media as separate for the sake of a cohesive essay. Separating them in fanfic is far less important.

This look could probably kill someone. I’m surprised Mikan is still alive, TBH.

The chapter’s focus is Mikan starting to feel more at home in Class B, making friends with her once-hostile classmates, but the episode is more preoccupied with Natsume and Mikan’s perspectives on each other. While in the manga, the game ends with a tie and Mikan accidentally hits Hotaru in the face with the ball, the anime draws out the game to fill an episode and to introduce an evolution in the way Natsume sees Mikan. The first part of the anime episode is Mikan introducing her friends to her new senpai, Tsubasa. After she invites her friends, we see Natsume glowering at her and promptly ditching the next class, saying to Ruka that he can’t stand being in the same class as her. This addition to the plot already foreshadows that their relationship will change in some way by the end of the episode.

Tsubasa tells a frustrated Mikan that if she wants Natsume to be less unpleasant, he’d need to release some of his toxic energy. Thus, the sporty Mikan introduces the concept of dodgeball to the unwelcoming class. When they finally agree, Natsume gives one condition: that they play with the notorious Alice Ball, which is powered by the thrower’s alice (a detail absent from the manga). This Alice Ball is particularly terrifying with the threat of Natsume’s dangerous fire alice. Mikan also needs to get more people on her team, another aspect absent from the manga. While in the manga, Mikan only had her few friends on her team (including a wandering Ruka) and this ended up playing to her advantage, the anime has a humorous plot of Mikan tracking players down for her team, including a fake mustache she makes with her pigtails (she’s so cute, I love her), paying Hotaru to be on her team, and blackmailing Ruka to participate. This was mainly to fill time, but it makes the dodgeball game more important as well.

In the manga, we don’t see how the game ends, just that the teams tied and that everyone in class is having fun and bonding. In the anime, more emphasis is put on the “Mikan vs. Natsume” aspect, so a tie like the manga’s would be anticlimactic. Thus, the anime concludes the dodgeball game with Mikan and Natsume being the only kids left on the court, and Natsume not using his alice when he throws the Alice Ball. Even Hotaru leaving the game is something she does out of boredom instead of injury, further separating the other characters from the plot. It’s about Natsume and Mikan, and everyone else is mostly a side character. (Though Ruka also plays a vital role to this episode AND chapter, and it’s at this point that I think he started developing real feelings for Mikan as well. So when it comes to the anime, he and Natsume fall for Mikan around the same time, but in the manga, Ruka likes her first and the “he liked her first” argument for Natsume vanishes, though he never had that “advantage” to begin with.)

“Thank you!”

Natsume wins (something that shocked me at twelve years old) and is ready to walk away with his handy “tch” and all but Mikan thanks him for not using his alice and he goes off on her, demanding to know why she’s still smiling despite her loss. She says she’s happy that he had fun and was involved with the rest of class for once, and that in a way that means she wins. For Anime!Natsumikan, this is it. This is the turning point. “I just wanted you to be happy and have fun,” is what Mikan might as well be saying. “Really, this was all for you!” It’s sweet and it’s thoughtful and I don’t think Natsume ever imagined he’d be on the receiving end of her kindness, especially after all their beef. Manga!Mikan would probably not say these things to him, even if she meant them, for the sole reason that Mikan is stubborn and holds onto her pride, especially when it comes to her early relationship with Natsume, but Anime!Mikan is much more forgiving and much more willing to extend an olive branch, like in the dance episode. In any case, Natsume starts falling right then, and it’s obvious too, because he is pissed, and even more angry because he’s not even mad at her. He’s angry with himself for his change of opinion. This is the girl he was fully content to hate forever and yet here he was, starting to like her. Not ideal.

This scene, something so crucial to the development of Anime!Natsumikan, is completely absent from the manga. In the manga, Natsume still dislikes her by the end of the game although he does have fun.

He's not angry, just disappointed. In himself.

I’m not going to say one is better when it comes to starting up NatsuMikan because they’re very different creatures and I actually thoroughly enjoy both.

Anyway, the NatsuMikan after episode 7 is almost the same as in the manga, but the events carry a different weight since we know Natsume likes Mikan now (even if he would never admit it).

Summary

I hope this first part was interesting, and that it introduced the idea of Anime!NatsuMikan as being a little different from the manga's version. Yes, it is more or less the same story, but with so many thematic and plot changes, they take a different form as well, in a perhaps more subtle way, kind of like a slightly canon divergent fanfic. Fanfic where Natsume starts liking Mikan a bit earlier on in the story.

Next Part ->

#gakuen alice #alice academy #natsumikan #hyuuga natsume #natsume hyuuga #sakura mikan #mikan sakura #meta #my meta #ga #meta analysis #mine #ga meta #ga meta: anime nm #let's talk about natsumikan: anime #im trying to create a system from one post so let's see how it goes #ive never posted media analysis like this but im very excited to bc ive always wanted to analyze these kids <3 #unfortunately due to tumblrs image post limit of 10 i had to split this into MANY parts #im a visual person and i know others are too #if these images are not sufficient then i would rec maybe rewatching the eps after reading or maybe just skipping through the eps #u might some find some changes and themes of note as well to add and that would be super fun! #ga meta: nm #let's talk about natsumikan

[hishoukoku]

Heyyyy. I wanted to know how if u know how cql differs from the original story. Which is better? I'm kinda lazy to read and the donghua seemed super rushed to me? The manhua i heard is similar but it doesnt give me the same vibe idk.... maybe it's just me. like even a few pointers about big story changes would help. tyyyyyyy

Heyy,

I wanna start by saying that I do love all adaptations, so I will do my best just to point out the differences without being partial (too much) for certain plot elements.

It's true that the drama is a neat way to experience the story at a slower pace, but it's so because in a TV series scenario it makes perfect sense for everything to be slower and laid out or fed to the viewer. It makes sense to overextend tender and dramatic moments or to take the time and add a bunch of funny hilarious bits.

The donghua however is absolutely amazing and 100% worth watching. The plot advancing quicker than in the drama or the novel actually makes a lot of sense given, well first this is animation. It focuses on what's really important and the way the action scenes are intertwined with the main story elements is absolutely astounding. In an animated medium they did the absolute best to bring this long story to life. Plus the art is absolutely GORGEOUS, down to every frame. I strongly recommend it.

The manhua does follow the novel almost to the letter which is so refreshing to see and it's so rad to read too, plus I like the art style and also no censorship xD

I love them all because they each work in their own way. Bringing the drama slow pace into the donghua wouldn't work at all as well as making CQL shorter and more action packed would look ridiculous.

Personally I think it's rad to watch them all and gain even more knowledge on an amazing story, by consuming the same story in multiple forms of media.I just think it's great to explore all the angles from which the story can be observed.

~

Onto a few major differences. I believe this list is far from complete, but I tried to jolt down what I could from memory:

-> Basically the main difference would be Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji uncovering the mystery of Nie Mingjue's death:

In CQL, this was changed from the novel plotline: dismembered arm(+ putting back the dismembered body) of his spirit, to a spirit sword. It ultimately leads to the same epic conclusion as it does in the novel. The culprit is unchanged, just the means to get there and the characters motivations along the way are altered.

-> Another major divergence would be the entire Yi Iron arc and the hunt for Yi Iron pieces, which takes a vast majority of the CQL flashbacks. This isn't present in the novel. The Yi Iron is only important because it practically explains the already existent and yet unpracticed demonic cultivation, which brings me to my next point.

-> In CQL Wei Wuxian is not the actual founder of demonic cultivation. Wei Wuxian still uses demonic cultivation and all his inventions are there, including of course the Stygian Tiger Amulet. The reasoning behind this is the Yi Iron plot I mentioned above, which was something that was uncovered and worshipped in the past and it's a tremendous source of dark energy and power. This leads to the fact that demonic cultivation already exists, despite no one actually using it except for Wei Wuxian (after finding the first piece in the Xuanwu shell).

-> To emphasize more on this, a big part of WWX's morality is altered in CQL. The necromancy part is also heavily downplayed in CQL. We see the same choices being made which inadvertently lead to the same conclusions, but he is always shown as more of a victim of circumstance or there's always a bigger plot at stake, pointing all the blame towards him.

Without going into a character analysis in this arc (because I absolutely adore WWX and I would talk about him for hours) I wanted to point out a few more things on this:

- In CQL he's shown to be in wrong place at the wrong time type of situations, which is sort of downgrading what the original intent behind his character was about.

- I feel like the novel has built WWX to be very self-aware and more realistic and human. He knows exactly where his stands and what his moral compass is the entire time. He blames himself even for stuff out of his control and every decision he ever made no mater how it was perceived as, was all rooted in and filtered through his absolute sense of justice and selflessness. He's aware of his mistakes and assumes responsibility. He's very absolute about the decisions he sticks to and he's extremely intelligent and calculated.

Then again, I'm not blaming CQL per say for altering this, I know every divergence to his character was solely due to censorship (as morality usually is in cdramas), I just wish he'd been given a lot more credit where credit is due, like in the novel. Because he deserves a lot more validation and recognition. Absolving him of everything he ever did is actually a disservice to all the pain he endured and all the work he put into the cause he believes in and simply striving to survive and in the unfair, judgemental cultivation world.

-> The structure of the story is different. The novel, donghua and manhua jump from flashbacks to present time back and forth, while in CQL, episode 3 to episode 33(halfway) are all flashbacks presenting the entire past story arc to you, before returning to the present fully. Again, to have everything laid out in order, works well in a TV series environment.

-> The relationship between WangXian evolves differently. The novel has Wei Wuxian mistakenly concluding that Lan Wangji doesn’t like him, driving a wedge between them after the Nightless City events. This of course, has a beautiful natural progression into romantic relationship, later on after he resurrects.

CQL on the other hand shows Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji having a very close relationship from the moment they reunite as Wei Wuxian died knowing Lan Wangji cares deeply about him. I believe this to be a bit utopic as, technically without previous explicit romantic affection - censorship -, Wei Wuxian's actions wouldn't normally lead to such an easy transition into them being extremely close, especially for someone as stoic as Lan Wangji. True, Lan Wangji has always believed in Wei Wuxian's sense of integrity and justice and this was prepared beforehand, however it would make even more sense if this was backed, like in the novel, by love as a powerful incentive.

-> Wei Wuxian's reincarnation in Mo Xuanyu's body doesn't cause him to alter his appearance in CQL. This isn't really explained except for subtle hints that Mo Xuanyu took precautions to ensure Wei Wuxian looked like his original self, but ofc we can tell it was done so due to convenience.

In the novel it's clearly stated how Wei Wuxian takes Mo Xuanyu's appearance which makes complete sense to happen after he used the Sacrifice Summon.

This would be about it as main pointers, if you'd like me to go into details for any of them please let me know. Otherwise I feel like this post is already long enough, heheh.

#anon #ishidareplies #god i ramble a lot in every ask #cql #mdzs #the untamed #wangxian #wei wuxian #lan wangji #canon divergence #mdzs meta #?

[mysticdragon3md3]

Ranma ½ is GENIUS. Here’s Why by  Bonsai Pop

The thing I really appreciated about Ranma ½ when I was younger, was that it was a discussion about gender without getting sidetracked by sex, the way most “sex comedies” did, especially at the time.  At the time, publishers tried to market Ranma ½ as a “sex comedy” in the vein of raunchy college-setting Hollywood movies or fanservicy Male Gaze series (compare “Futaba-kun Change” or the proceeding “harem genre” that Ranma ½ started).  But Ranma ½ felt more like a discussion about gender more than sex, or even more than sexuality.  And being an AroAce kid, who didn’t know what AroAce was at the time, but was very confused about my gender, I really appreciated Ranma ½’s focus on gender over sex, fanservice, and heterosexuals navigating (sexual) relationships—which, I *cannot* express enough, was the saturated majority of all anime/manga, that even came close to discussing gender, at the time.  I just wanted a discussion about gender, gender roles, complaining about presumed traditional ideas about gender, and how to define one’s own gender despite society’s pressures about gender.  I wanted a discussion about Strength, that the martial arts genre did so often, without an advocation for sexist ideals, toxic masculinity, stereotypes about “feminine” being weaker (even as warriors), fixated only on romance, or any number of female stereotypes, etc.  I feel like I can’t remind people enough of how it was back then, when not only were these toxic mysoginist ideas portrayed frequently, but they were also portrayed as good, true, “right”, or unquestioned.  At least when Ranma Saotome was being a sexist jerk, he was punished for that terrible thinking or eventually had to reconcile with his dissonance.  And Akane Tendo was revolutionary at that time too.  It used to be that on the Shonen genre side, we had only hyper fem, passive, romance-fixated, love interests, OR nagging, cold female characters that really felt like the author was conveying all their horrible views on women in general, OR sexy eye-candy that had close-ups on their boobs or butt so frequently, that it completely made their lack of focus on romance or anything else in their personalities, secondary.  Then on the Shoujo genre side, we had girls who were fixated on nothing but romance, constantly jealous and possessive—and often over guys who hadn’t even proven themselves worthwhile to pursue romantically.  Let’s face it: A lot of Shoujo leading men were often jerks, treated their female love interests badly, and for some reason, she was just supposed to play the devoted “Lady Murasaki” and be totally “in love” with him.  Whyyyyyyyyyy?????????????  Even worse on the Shonen genre side too, because he treats her badly, it doesn’t get portrayed as bad treatment, he doesn’t understand why she’s angry, so she just looks like a volatile nag all the time, often existing only to be objectified or serve as a flimsy motive for his character arcs and actions. It was a pretty bad time.  Not that now has eliminated those problems, but when Ranma ½ and Akane Tendo seem like the shining lights of something different, maybe then you can understand how much I sorely needed Ranma ½ and Akane Tendo at that time.  

Really surprised that this video essay didn’t mention Jackie Chan.  The thing that differentiated Ranma ½ from so many martial arts battle anime/manga at the time, was that Ranma ½’s style of martial arts was inspired by Jackie Chan.  Meanwhile, all the other Shonen martial arts manga/anime were so serious and based more on “cool”, “action” genre toned martial arts movies.  

I’m intrigued by this video essay’s idea that Ranma ½ the series isn’t sexist, but rather, characters within the series are sexist, and are so in order to make a point about how them being like that is messed up.  I need to grapple with this because one of my problems in looking back at Ranma ½ is that it can be a little transphobic and/or homophobic at times.  Like, I’ll never forget when Tsubasa Kurenai was introduced and, Akane, this character that we’re supposed to completely sympathize with during this series, just keeps screaming in Tsubasa’s face that they are a “pervert”, simply because it’s revealed that Tsubasa identifies as a boy but dresses as a girl.  I think the episode just ended like that, and that was supposed to be a joke, but I don’t know whether the reveal’s shock intended on the audience was supposed to be conveyed through Akane and we were expected to have the same reactions as her, or if we were supposed to be shocked at Akane’s reactions and her reactions being ridiculous were the joke.  I dunno; it was a long time ago, I don’t remember much context, and I really should look it back up.  But frankly, there’s a lot of Ranma ½ to sift through and that’s more time than I have, writing this post.  Akane does seem to repeatedly have instances of being perfectly nice to characters, but when she discovers they’re actually guys, she spends a lot of time yelling “pervert” in their faces.  Sometimes I don’t know if we’re meant to see how ridiculous Akane is being or if we’re meant to agree with her.  Again, I watched/read the series a long time ago, and maybe if I re-watched/re-read it now, it would be clear to older me.  Because, when it happens between Akane and Ranma, Ranma has a specific line, grummbling about how Akane was perfectly nice to him, up until she found out he was actually a boy.  And Ranma was a bit nice in his characterization up until that early line of dialogue, so maybe we were supposed to be on his side in that thought.  So maybe Akane spending the rest of the series yelling “pervert” at Ranma (repeated so often it’s essentially their running gag), is supposed to be a joke laughing at how irrational Akane is being.  o.o?  I’d hate to think we’re supposed to be on Akane’s side, repeatedly calling Ranma a “pervert” over a curse that he had no control over getting, and early on was portrayed as a misfortune that the audience was supposed to sympathize and pity him over.  Maybe the whole thing is supposed to point out Akane’s flaws, since everyone in the series is pretty messed up.  (Even Kasumi unsettled me a bit when I was younger, in that she dropped her entire life, to replace her mother’s role when she died.  For me, being a young girl who didn’t buy into those traditional female roles, that were still at the time, strongly pushed onto girls in society, that was a little unsettling.  Still love Kasumi as a person though.)  Akane did have reason to “hate boys”, as the series specifically states early on, but I’d like to think that she was given this flaw as a point to grow away from.  Just as this video essay calls to attention Ranma being sexist and, over the series, eventually growing out of it.  But back when I was young and initially into Ranma ½, I feared that some of these sexist or even homophobic ideas in Ranma ½ were actually reflective of thoughts that Rumiko Takahashi advocated.  After all, there’s a point in Maison  Ikkoku where Kyoko berates herself by saying all women are fools.  Maybe I was too young to see the nuance in a character berating her own mistakes in her love live, vs the implication that all women are “properly” stereotyped into being obsessed with love and end up acting foolish for it.  Nowadays, I can see how we can berate ourselves whenever our specific actions can slot us into generalized stereotypes, and we curse ourselves for falling into proving stereotypes true on occaision.  But back then, when I was younger and watching Ranma ½ for the first time and reading Maison Ikkoku for the first time, I was afraid that such lines were reflective of Takahashi believing such stereotypes as truth.  Which is why I was so happy when sometime after Ranma ½, Inuyasha had a canonically gay character, and instead of Inuyasha calling him a pervert the entire time, he just got exasperated with his non-stop flirting, the way that all the female characters from Ranma ½ are tired of guys who won’t take “no” for an answer.  At the time, I thought, “Yay!  Takahashi has evolved to a less homophobic stance!”  But maybe, all this time, she was always against such things, and merely portraying them, even through characters we were supposed to sympathize with, merely to show how messed up such ideas are.  I really like that thought which this video essay presented.  

But I will disagree with this video essay on 1 thing:  The manga is better.  I’m not trying to be elitist.  I realize that comedy has a very subjective sensibilities, and the anime leans into awkward silence type comedy, whereas I am sick of that type of comedy.  But so many visual gags and jokes in the manga, and Rumiko Takahashi’s style in general, involve panels that are almost completely re-drawn, with only 1 element changed—the gag element—suggesting that the eye is supposed to read from panel to panel quickly (since the human eyes/brain filters out a lack of change, and is hard-wired to focus on changes from previous conditions).  To me, this suggests quick punchlines, whose sudden oddity is supposed to shock, implying an intended fast pacing to the jokes.  And yeah, Takahashi will draw seemingly normal scenes, detailed with all the normalcies of a commonly recognizable environment, then suddenly the next panel is exactly the same except a character is contorted into a silly pose or an absolutely ridiculous creature with an intentionally nonsensical facial expression has suddenly appeared, amid that completely “normal” scene, with all its “normal” details _redrawn_.  It’s why the “evil oni” episode in Ranma ½ had a ridiculous face, despite its supposedly ominous background.  In fact, anywhere Takahashi can fit a gag face, especially if it contradicts the surrounding scene’s/story’s serious tone, she will do it.  She has even said in interviews that if scenes are too serious, she will try to put in a gag in the corner.  I remember reading Maison Ikkoku during a depressive episode (for both me and Godai) and suddenly Yotsuya had poked his head through a hole in the wall, into the scene, shining a flashlight onto his own face, like a kid telling a ghost story, all while he made funny faces and Takahashi’s typical gag with the sign language “I love you” gesture.  The woman cannot let things stay serious (except for Mermaid Saga, parts of Inuyasha, and some short stories), and I love her for it!  ^o^  But the way she suddenly injects ridiculousness into scenes and character designs, suggest, at least to me, an intended fast paced delivery with the jokes.  That sudden shock when you notice Yotsuya making faces in the corner of a depressing scene. That sudden shock, when Ranma is hiding from his mother, and is clinging to the ceiling or futons like Spiderman, and Akane is just supposed to act natural so Ranma’s mom won’t notice where he’s hiding.  To me, this suggests the punchline is supposed to come at you like a sudden punch, unlike awkwardness that hangs in the air.  So when the anime tries to make the joke linger, I just don’t enjoy it as much as when my brain can dictate the faster pacing I want (and believe better fits) while reading the Ranma ½ manga.  

Also, the manga is better because those manga filler episodes were not as well written as the manga.  Rumiko Takahashi is a master of short stories.  And that shows when you run into the less-effective filler anime episodes–even when you don’t know they’re filler episodes!  I remember watching the Ranma ½ anime before reading the manga, before there was even internet lists of which were the filler episodes, and coincidentally, all the filler episodes did not make me laugh out loud, whereas every episode up until that point, had made me uncontrollably laugh.  I feel like the anime thought that because Ranma ½ was an episodic, very silly series, they could just insert anything and it would fit.  But clearly, only  the manga-based episodes—and even individual scenes!—had the nuance of Takahashi’s writing and pacing, to make even an episodic, ridiculous series work.  

  Also, I love how this video essay just lavishes the love on Rumiko Takahashi.  ^o^  

Another thing this video essay pointed out that I appreciate about Ranma ½ is how indifferent Ranma is to all the advances of his suitors or even accidental fanservice.  All the consequential “harem genre” series that tried to emulate Ranma ½ always seemed to include male protagonists who were surrogates for the audiences’ intended horny reactions.  But Ranma was neither turned on, enticed, nor tantalized by even accidental fanservice falling into his lap.  (As Mother’s Basement has noted, harem genre protagonist have a penchant for accidentally falling and grabbing a girls’ boobs, or their face falling into her boobs, or accidentally put into a position to forcibly see up her skirt, etc.)  If anything, he’s more embarassed that he accidentally walked in on girls in undress, rather than enjoying the view OR reacting so long, that the scene drags on, fixating on the accidental nudity/groping/fanserivce.  And I was about to postulate that maybe because most harem genre and fanservice series are usually made by straight men for an audience with a Male Gaze.  But Takahashi wrote Maison Ikkoku’s Godai, right before she created Ranma ½, and he very much enjoyed the view, took peeks, and fixated on any accidental fanservice.  So it’s actually Ranma himself who had reactions and a perspective that were very agreeable to this asexual.  

I hadn’t noticed before this video essay said it, but Happosai really is condemned much more for being the “pervy old man” archetype, whereas other series are very permissive towards that same archetype, even when they’re being sexual predators.  I’d like to attribute this to Takahashi bringing a woman’s perspective, but Sailormoon was also written by a woman and (if I remember correctly) Rei’s grandpa’s pervy ways were reprimanded in only 1 episode then permitted as a running gag in the rest of the series (thankfully, not often).  Then again, lots of the Shoujo genre also advocated for many toxic traditional ideas about gender (like girls picking romantic partners who don’t respect them, and girls being fully devoted/invested in such guys, because they “once” meet the bare minimum for human decency by being nice to them once).  So maybe it was uniquely Takahashi’s prerogative to not let the “pervy old man” archetype slide as supposedly “endearing” silliness.

#ranma 1/2 #ranma1half #rumiko takahashi #video essay #analysis #gender #manga #anime #nostalgia #old otaku #martial arts genre #shonen genre #reactions #reminicing

[purekesseltrash]

My Fic List

Whelp, decided I should do one of these.  I have mostly written for Hockey RPF and BNHA, as you have likely already seen!

My BNHA Fics

Bury Them Deep

- “Shouji Mezou's entire life has revolved around being a goalie and playing hockey since he was five years old. After being drafted in the third round in the NHL, Shouji has two more years of college before moving on to playing professional hockey like he's always wanted. Or at least like he always thought he wanted. An injury that ends his season throws him into a tailspin, forcing him to take a look at his life and how he is going to live it, especially after meeting his fascinating new goth history tutor.”

(This bad bitch is 81k total and is chock full of my red hot hockey takes and midwestern references.  I love it very much and it is a sweet baby.)

The Rooftop Necromancy series AKA my black metal band AU:

Downhill from Here 

- “ Hizashi just wants to tour the country with his best friends with their metal band in their shitty van like they've been planning for years. He'd successfully hidden his crush on one of them for years, after all, he would definitely be able to make this work and keep things fun and uncomplicated. Until Aizawa decided to start acting weird. “

(In which I take you all on a nostalgic trip to 2006-2008 metal culture and you can see the black metal love song that my dumb ass wrote.)

The Perfect Mistake

- “ It wasn't as though Hizashi had planned on breaking up with his boyfriend while they were on tour in a tiny cargo van with no room and no peace. He would have much rather preferred to do it when they were home and he could easily go and crawl back into his mom's basement. But he didn't have a choice. “

(As relationships tend to do, theirs goes through problems.)

Rooftop Necromancy

-"He’d even ended up leaning into the crowd when someone’s elbow had connected solidly with his nose and thrown him back. They’d gone quiet as Hizashi got himself up to his feet, ripped off his now bloody ‘Within Temptations’ tshirt from 2004, whipped his hair back from his face and screamed, “That’s what I’m FUCKING talking about.” into the mic.

They went wild for it, cheering as blood ran down his nose, past his mouth and dripped onto the stage, leaving him feeling like an otherworldly monster performing an occult ritual. Metal, he thought dazedly to himself, why in the fuck had he ever stopped doing metal."

(I hyperfocused so hard at the idea of Mic as a metal head that I wrote this in seven straight hours and WROTE THROUGH THE ATTEMPTED COUP ON DEMOCRACY WITHOUT KNOWING IT.  It’s a bit rough, but it’s got some good parts and it spawned the whole damn series.)

Hands Up

- "But of course he had, they had always been able to read each other and what they meant. That had often been their problem, if he was going to be honest."

(In which they figure their shit out.  Basically it was written when I was thinking alot about how my own mental health had evolved through the years.  It’s basically the story of two people who are both very good for each other and also very bad and how they deal with that.  It’s probably the most personally meaningful thing I’ve ever written.)

The other BNHA fics:

Waking Up With Ghosts

-"Hizashi opened his eyes to a world that belonged to ghosts. His headphones were gone and the gray, grimy world that he felt more than saw was muffled and still. This was bad, he hazily thought."

In which we follow Hizashi shortly after the events of 296. How he's found, how he finds out and how he has to tell.”

(I fished this one out of the garbage of my Google Docs because I’d written most of it and forgotten about it.  I dragged it out, prettied it up a little and threw it up on AO3.  It is by far my most well read BNHA fic, go figure.)

Leave Her Johnny

-”Captain Hizashi Yamada has combed the Seven Seas looking for the elusive smuggler Eraserhead. He has spent years searching for him, tracking his movements and trying to anticipate where he would be next. But he had never considered what would happen when he finally found him. “

(I wrote a paragraph of this and was immediately like ‘I MUST CREATE THIS’.  I take some chances writing wise in this as the whole thing is done in a Victorian Era ish style of writing.  But I think it’s effective and the ending is likely one of the best that I’ve ever managed.  I’m proud of it.)

Gold Rush

-”"That earned him a laugh and Mashirao’s smile made something in his chest ache, something that made him want to hurt. Why had he ever left?

“I’m really not,” Mashirao was saying but Shinsou just shook his head and kissed him once, twice and wished he could take the sunny afternoon and make it stay forever. Make it stay forever like Mashirao somehow had, while the neighborhood had adjusted without Hitoshi’s permission.

“You are,” he said, “And I love it.”

I love you, he should have said.  But as Mashirao’s eyes softened and the blonde pushed him back against the bed, Hitoshi knew he didn’t need to say it."

(You know how sometimes you listen to a Death Cab for Cutie song about gentrification over and over until a fic comes out?  Because that’s basically what happened here.)

Black Sun

‘"But then he remembered the way that Shouji had eaten the night after, one hand curled into his hair as he hung back in the corner. Shouji hid when something was wrong, like a wounded cat trying to find a dark place to either live or die and he was being released tomorrow. Now was the time to push or he’d find Shouji right back on his bed, staring at nothing."

Something happened to Shouji on the beach. Tokoyami is sure of it.‘

(Aaaaaand Death Cab for Cutie strikes again.  But heyo, my first published ShouToko and it is SOFTTTTT)

In the Far and Mighty West

Mic came closer and despite himself, Shouta could not find it in him to feel afraid. “You won’t understand, not really. I’ll try, though. I’m like Pecos Bill or Paul Bunyan or a jackalope or that fish that your friend caught that he swears he brought in but that you’ve never seen proof of. I’m the herd of dogies moving sweet and steady in the right direction, I’m no stragglers to worry about, I’m that perfect dog that’s there to keep them in line. I’m that group of good friends that you would kill for, I’m the woman who you’re dying to come home to, I’m that promised home of milk and honey. I’m Mic.”

Shouta stared at him dazedly and licked his lips, feeling drunk and stupid as he stared at the man. “You’re… magic?”

“I suppose you could call me that.”

(Cowboy!Erasermic.  Inspired heavily by American Gods and my own love of folk heroes.)

In Your Violence

- “'Mezou frowned, eyes narrowing. “Are you trying to say that you’re scared that I’ll be killed by having faith in you?”

“It would be in your best interest to stay away from me,” Fumikage finally said, his voice falling flat and quiet. “I am destined to be a monster.”

'Mezou gets the call he fears, the one that says that Fumikage has lost control again. But this time it's different, in more ways than one.”

(I listened to Silence by Marshmello until I went insane in this is the result.  Featuring some of my super depressing headcanons about Shouji!  But it’s not awful.)

My hockey fics that I still like:

Hufflepuff Halfwit  

- ““Zhenya, the wind is coming from the west, I will not remind you again. You shut that window before the house stinks of factories!” She snapped and Geno stared at the owl as though maybe it would know what to do. But instead, it had given a little hoot and wiggled inside, only to drop it’s letter on the counter.

He turned his head very slowly back to look at his mother, who had suddenly gone very quiet. “It… just showed up, Mama. And um. It brought a letter.” He waited again, looked back at the owl who had begun to nose at the pirozhkis in interest and then looked back at his mother with the best puppy dog eyes he had ever attempted. “Can I keep it?”

(This is a part of my hockey/Harry Potter au that still legitimately haunts my dreams.  It’s basically a Sid/Geno in Hogwarts but I really love the world building I got to do with Koldovstoretz, the Russian school of wizardry.  Don’t read ‘On the Word of a Slytherin’ though, I’m not as proud of that one.)

The Prince  

- “What the fuck.” Matt breathed out, sitting back heavily onto his hotel bed as he stared at his phone.

‘This is Henrik.’ The text read. ‘I would like to meet you. I will book a room in Pittsburgh at your convenience. Let me know what time will work for you.’  - 

(Listen, it’s Henrik Lundqvist/Matt Murray smut, I feel like that is novel and interesting and worth your attention.  I wax poetic on goalies in this, as you do.)

The Zoo of Toronto 

- “No one missed it when a massive porcupine had shuffled in between the reporters with a single minded focus, pushing media away until it was able to grip onto Phil’s suit pants and try to pull itself up. He hadn’t been able to do more then besides pick the animal up before it could shred his pants to shreds and walk out of the locker room before the decision had been made with the Toronto media.

Phil Kessel was guilty.” 

(Not gonna lie, this is probably my favorite of the hockey fics I’ve written.  And it’s Phil/Carl, which is never found anymore but it was a good pairing.)

#my writing