#ame talks

[chaotix]

“i don’t think sonic has a home. i think he just travels the world non-stop and camps out whenever he needs to take a break.” “well, he’s crashed at my lab sometimes.” “you maintain his plane, you keep your door open for him -- i bet you even keep your kitchen stocked in anticipation!” 🥺 💙

#ame talks #sonic and tails moment ( in tears ) #i like that sonic just wanders and stops by tails' lab sometimes aa it's perfect

[amevello-blue]

Things in Rise that Echo 2003 TMNT

Hi Ame here back on my bullshit-- getting right into it. I can't remember where or who said it, but one of the creators of Rise mentioned that 03 was their favorite iteration, and it really shows sometimes. Spoilers for 03 and Rise below ;)

The first thing that comes to mind is Shredder. "But Ame, 03 Shredder was a little alien guy-" NO I'M TALKIN ABOUT THE ORIGINAL SHREDDER. In 03, Ch'rell took on the mask of a well-known boogeyman at the time; the Shredder, who was a demon that had lived 1,000 years ago. Oroku Saki was a man who defeated the demon alongside the rest of the Ninja Tribunal, and after he defeated it, became possessed by it after falling prey to its promise of power.

The most obvious I think are their markings. In 2003 they use 'chi' to give them mystic abilities. It's the act of becoming one with the world around you, but it also seems to work when you are connected to the people around you. Even the medallions over their chest mimic the Hamato symbol that glows on Rise's chest when activating their ninpo.

Their markings even mimic each other (except for Raph, whose Rise version doesn't have any markings, which is a travesty). Leo has slash-like marks, Donnie has geometric marks, and Mikey's got a lot of circles!

NOW OKAY THIS ONE'S A BIT OF A STRETCH, BUT-- Leo has made portals with his sword before! Specifically, he held one open with it.

It's the little things <3

Like the ghost of dead Hamatos coming back to assist their rat sons in the final moments :)

Some more small things! Raph and Donny's brains being rifled through! (Which also happens to 2012 Mikey)

Raph's and Leo's shoulder! (Hard to get a good shot of Leo's, thanks 4kids) Ironically both happening at a moment where Leo has "failed" to protect his family.

Rise Mikey being the "greatest mystic warrior" reminds me a lot of what is alluded to many times with 2003 Mikey; he's very good at what he does! He's a Battle Nexus Champion! He's the one who can channel chi the best! He could surpass Leo even in skill if he actually applied himself, but he doesn't. Because he just doesn't find it fun. But it's shown a little in the episode Same as it Never Was, where he's able to dispatch a whole group of guys with guns all on his own, including three armored cars and a HELICOPTER.

Also making comparisons between 03 SAINW!Mike and Rise F!Leo losing their arms is kinda a stretch but I'll point it out anyway.

And speaking of the movie. My absolute FAVORITE thing to compare is the Krang of Rise to Sh'Okanabo of 2003's Fast Forward season. It's like they took all the concepts of Sh'Okanabo and made it BETTER. Everything was executed SO MUCH BETTER.

Gooey tentacle villain? Check

Weirdly organic flesh ship? Check

Alien invaders turning people into drone versions of their species? Check

(Also side note about that one, I think it's hilarious that in 03 Raph's the only one who DOESN'T get Kanaboe'd but in Rise Raph is the only one who DOES get Krang'ed.)

Taking over structures with their goop? Check

And finally. Small boy son that is a descendant of Casey Jones. Check :)

#tmnt #tmnt 2003 #rise of the tmnt #rottmnt #ame talks

[beeames]

SHE'S HOME... 💕

#ame talks #* reblogs turned off because this is just me screaming but AA LOOK AT HER #a year later and she's finally here (sob) i'm so happy with how she looks! now to figure out where to put it...

[bluepeachstudios]

Ghost In the Shell Premier

Read Chapter One here!

Donnie’s breath caught in his throat, and something in his chest fluttered to life that had been dead for ten years.

The figure was a humanoid rat. He didn’t look quite like Splinter; he was much younger, he was brown instead of grayed, and his face was bald where there should have been fur. He was a human-rat mutant hybrid, though.

Donnie quickly snatched up his bo staff and his coat, ready to head out when he heard a chirp.

He froze, looking back at the computers. Terror and sadness welled up inside of him at that familiar sound. He gripped the edge of his desk as he looked at the rat man, who had paused and crouched down to set whatever he’d been carrying in his arms onto the ground.

Four tiny mutant turtles.

Donnie sank into his chair as he watched the rat interact with each one. They were different breeds of turtle. From their markings and physiology, there was a snapping turtle, a box turtle, a spiny softshell, and a red-eared slider.

An overwhelming sense of loss swallowed him whole.

#ame talks #tmnt #tmnt 2003 #rottmnt #rise tmnt #sainw #Same As it Never Was #tmnt crossover #tmnt fanfic #tmnt au #tmnt ghost in the shell

[amewinterswriting]

So, I've been playing the remaster of Baten Kaitos lately and for a JRPG of it's time (2003, originally) I'm actually quite amazed by how the narrative subtext frames disability. Major spoilers after the read more, and I will explain everything so you should understand even if you know nothing about the game.

In the world of Baten Kaitos, islands are kept aloft in the sky and the people live on them because of a disaster that poisoned the earth. Most of these people have wings on their back that they can make appear and disappear at will. They are referred to as 'Wings of the Heart' and their appearance is unique to each person, symbolizing their hopes and dreams and personalities. The people of the Empire do not have wings (? or perhaps choose not to use them, according to the prequel) but compensate with mechanical 'winglets'. It's also worth mentioning that the Empire is a major antagonistic force for about half the game, so even though there are friendly characters who come from the Empire, the association of no natural wings is predominantly 'evil'.

The protagonist only has one natural wing, and a prosthetic wing to compensate. It is shown that he has faced prejudice because of this - people treating him with suspicion and hatred because if his wings are deformed, it follows that his 'heart'/soul must be deformed as well.

In fact, this is a major motivation for him deceiving the rest of the party and the player themselves, aligning himself with the evil god we were trying to prevent from being resurrected the whole game. His 'payment' is a second, natural wing to match his existing one.

The plot then follows a secondary protagonist who eventually manages to confront him with a magical artifact that disrupts the evil god's power for long enough that he can choose a different path. And he does so, physically ripping off the wing he was 'gifted' and returning to the good guys and using his prosthetic (which the second protagonist had kept safe for him in the hope that he would one day rejoin them and he might need it).

While I have a lot of criticism for some elements of that plot (the one-winged protagonist should definitely have had more of a 'redemption' arc after deceiving the whole party and the player in a way that nearly destroys the entire world, but five minutes after he's rejoined the party it is almost as if it never happened), it is interesting that a game of this age does address the fantasy of 'what if I could just be magically fixed' and reject it. It actively frames the use of the prosthetic (something crafted for him with love and care from his family, later protected and cared for by the party in the hope that he'd come back to them) as something positive and better than a magical cure for him.

It's definitely not a perfect story (I would have loved to see some kind of connection between the party members - even at the end of the game, it does feel a lot like a group of strangers just happened to be going the same way and tagged along with each other), and I can't bring myself to decide whether the 'prosthetic' plotline is helped or hindered by the idea the the prosthetic is not a physical inconvenience in any way (never seems to need maintenance and works just as well as a natural wing, even adjusting as the protagonist grows) and only a social one (characters comment on it, some in negative ways and he admits he's faced that kind of prejudice his whole life). On the one hand, it's nice that he only actually faces any problems because of other people - it's a fantasy story, why shouldn't his inventor grandfather be able to make the perfect prosthetic for him? On the other hand, not having any physical ramifications (that the player is aware of) really does make his flip flop to the darkside and back for an hour seem a little cheap. Like, you've been bullied a bit, that sucks, it's still not worth screwing everyone else over, including all the people who have actively fought beside you to prevent the very thing you're doing?

But overall, the handling of his disability and the fact that the game doesn't just hand him a magical 'cure' as his happy ending? That feels pretty good to me.

#ame talks #not my usual thing #baten kaitos #thinking about tropes #trying not to critique the rest of the plot though because...wow I really forgot how paper thin a lot of the characters are #and the ending #and some of the choices of the remaster #and the sequel #I could write another essay about the sequel

[arkngth]

feels weird knowing that my followers on here are 95% not bots, unlike twitter. but like. in a good way i think

even if most of them are inactive or dont even see my posts(when i actually post lol)

#ame talks #its also way easier to block n report bots here cuz theres not as many 💀

[absinthe-of-midnight]

Ya gal just helped smuggle gross hospital food out in a fannie pack for her mom and learned that a dilf nurse tried to flirt with her brother

#guy thought he came back but left so quick when he saw it was just me and my sister lmao #ame talks

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

#yeehaw #1k #5k #10k #posts that got cursed. blasted. im making these tag updates after... 19 hours? #also i have been told it should say speech loss bc nonverbal specifically refers to the permanent state. did not know that! #unfortunately i fear it is so far past containment that even if i edited it now it would do very little. but noted for future reference #edit 2: nvm enough ppl have come to rb it from me directly that i changed the wording a bit. hopefully this makes sense #also. in case anyone is curious. though i doubt anyone who is commenting these things will check the original tags #1) my friend did not do this on purpose in any way. it was not intended to distract me or to hit on me. im a lesbian hes a gay man. cmon now #he felt very bad about it afterwards. i thought it was hilarious but it was very embarrassed and apologetic #2) “why didn't he use 🫵🏼?” didn't exist yet. “why didn't he use 🆗?” dunno! we'd been using a lot of hand emojis. 👌🏼 is an ok sign #like it makes sense. it was just a silly mixup. also No i did not invent 👉🏼👌🏼 as a gesture meaning sex. do you live under a rock #3) nonspeaking episodes are a recurring thing in my life and have been since i was born. this is not a quirky one-time thing #it is a pervasive issue that is very frustrating to both myself and the people i am trying to communicate with. in which trying to speak is #extremely distressing and causes very genuine anguish. this post is not me making light of it it's just a funny thing that happened once #it's no different than if i post about a funny thing that happened in conjunction w a physical disability. it's just me talking abt my life #i don't mind character tags tho. those can be entertaining. i don't know what any of you are talking about #Except the ppl who have said this is pego/ryu or wang/xian. those people i understand and respect #if you use it as a writing prompt that's fine but send it to me. i want to see it #aaaand i think that's it. everyday im tempted to turn off rbs on it. it hasn't even been a week

[lazylittledragon]

can't believe we're all adults being forced into the club penguin level of censorship in 2024

#ramble #if you say unalive in front of me i will personally kill you with my hands #you just can't muffle and censor and hold someone's hand through some things #some things are horrible. and they should be spoken aloud and they should upset you. because they are horrible #the second we started kidzbopifying the world was the end of taking anything seriously i think #i'm not even joking i've spoken to people older than me who won't even say the world sex #this isn't the playground you're not going to get in trouble just let us say the word!!!!!! #how am i supposed to listen to you when you won't even say the thing you're supposed to be talking about #yes this is the fault of the platforms with their censorship rules but the fact that we all just go along with it like it's not dystopian #you do know it doesn't stop with cursing right. people are already having to censor queer terms because they get flagged as inappropriate

[em1e]

what made u guys pick ur url's !

#some of u guys havw such cute ones !! #i am just curious x3 #push 2 talk

[chaotix]

anyways this means that forces’ claim of classic sonic being an “alternate dimension sonic” is no longer canon and classic is simply a younger version of modern again. big win 👍

#ame talks #the way these tailstube videos have done more for continuity in sonic than the past 15yrs of all other media

[amevello-blue]

Hello! I shouldn't be awake cause it's 12:24 AM BUT very quick question: do you have any advice or questions you ask yourself that help with character building, storyline, or worldbuilding? Cause I'm making a TMNT iteration and the struggle bus is crashing into a brick wall repeatedly 😔

Oh gosh. OU-- OKAY HERE WE GO

CHARACTER BUILDING

If you're going for your own version of TMNT, you can basically do anything you want with the characters. They can have whatever personality you like! They can be whoever you want them to be, however you want them to be! When you've got a group of four main characters, though, you want to make sure they're distinct enough from one another where they don't overlap.

Something I usually do to figure this out is like, what's their worst fear, what would they feel a perfect life would be like, what are their short-term goals and long-term goals, etc. and move on to smaller stuff like quirks. How do they stand for a long period of time? Do they eat polite or messily?

Another thing about character building is thinking about where you want your character to be at the end of it. What is the Final Form of your character? Now smack them back down the mountain because they gotta climb that shit themselves. Think of it like this; if you want a character to have character development during the story, you've gotta think about how you want them to be by the end.

I'll use Rise Leo in the movie as an example here because it's obvious. By the end of the movie he's selfless; he's sacrificed himself to save his family and has made peace with dying alone because of it. At least the world is saved. At least his brothers are alive. We go back a little, and we have Leo realizing that his selfishness, his need to be right and making reckless decisions without relying on the people around him and trying to do everything on his own, has all put the people he loves in danger. We go back even further and find Leo overconfident and sloppy because he believes it's not a big deal. He's not taking things seriously, he's more interested in being the center spotlight, he wants to be the best.

The good thing about TMNT is that you can kind of pick and choose personality traits and character arcs from other canon iterations, or you can mesh them together. If you get stuck, look at the other "versions" of that character and decide which traits you want them to have, or which traits you don't.

STORY

Story isn't something I can exactly give a whole lot of help on, because it's your story. HOWEVER, I can explain the snowflake method, which I feel is a good way to figure out what you wanna do.

The snowflake method is a way of outlining a story. First you write a one-sentence synopsis of what your story is about. I'll use Mystic Forest for an example; "Four teenage mutant ninja turtles live in the forest and fight to protect two worlds from the Shredder".

Then you make it into three sentences. "Four TMNT live in a forest and discover that their world is connected to another; the Yokai Realm. A man named Oroku Saki, moonlighting as the Shredder, wants to make a deal with an ancient Yokai to open the worlds to each other once more. The turtles learn how to master magical yokai weapons in order to defeat him."

Then you can take each of those sentences and expand upon them. Break everything down further, in threes. Explain more and more each time.

Basically, figure out your concept, you can go more easily from there.

WORLDBUILDING

Ah the bane of my existence and yet my most beloved. You can get caught up in worldbuilding SO easily. Make sure you're working on the stuff that really matters to the story. So, if your turtles are living in the city, maybe write a paragraph or two about what the city is like. Is it grungy and rainy with lots of shadows and the distant glow of lights, or is it bright and bustling with neon everywhere with a seedy underbelly?

Is the vibe of the story fantasy, sci-fi, a mix, something else?

If the turtles have powers, how do they work? What are their weaknesses? What are their strengths? What does it cost to use the powers? What stops them from using them all the time?

What are the locations your characters will go to during the story? What are those places like? Are they buildings or the outdoors?

There's a lot of worldbuilding resources out there, you can really go ham on stuff just looking up "worldbuilding questions" and get a ton of prompts to think about. When building up a specific location I like to think about the five senses; what's it look like, what's it smell like, what's it sound like, what's the taste in the air, what's the feeling of the buildings or the plants or the barren wasteland? etc.

Figuring out how the turtles came to be is usually something most people do, but it's not something that's a requirement. Also, some people do stuff in a different order; they'll worldbuild first, then figure out story, then figure out characters. I end up doing that a lot of the time. Sometimes it's story, then characters, then worldbuilding. Just depends on what you feel most comfortable with.

If you find yourself hitting a wall, maybe stop and ask yourself why you're smashing into a wall and not going around it. Maybe something isn't clicking right. Back up. Look at what's around it. Character not quite feeling like you wanted them to? Look over what role you've given them, check the other characters, see if they have the relationships you want them to have. Back up even further. Are they in the correct place in the story?

And uh, when in down, throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. :) thinking outside the box and being purposefully ridiculous can something help stretch that imagination muscle.

#ame talks

[beeames]

the boops....

#this is a sideblog so idk how it works for these but HJD HELLO #booping you all back in spirit #ame talks

[bluepeachstudios]

Hey Ame, where have you been?

Well, you see, remember that post from a few days ago where I mentioned absorbing my writing demon and writing like 17k words in two days? It's slowing down a bit, I might be able to actually work on my proper projects now. BUT. I will. Tell you all what I've been writing and also drawing. Here's some doodle.

Ghost in the Shell is a fic that's a crossover between 2003's Same As It Never Was episode universe and the Rise universe.

Remember how in SAINW, Donnie disappeared, and they had no idea where he went or if he was even alive? Well surprise, he ended up in the Rise universe after he started trying to build a dimensional portal. Accidentally ended up punching a hole through realities, slipped through, and ended up not only alone in the Rise universe, but also 10 years before the Rise turtles are even mutated.

The appearance of an alternate version of himself and his brothers comes as quite the Shock(tm). But he's been isolated in the sewers for 10 years and caution has turned to paranoia and he has netted a five mile radius of cameras around his home. Through these, he watches the Rise kids grow up, and occasionally appears to them to guide them home when they got lost in the sewers.

The Rise turtles have no idea who this guy is, only that he appears and disappears just as quickly. They think he's a ghost, so that's what they call him. Donatello takes the name because. Well. "Donatello" died back in his dimension.

Eventually they find him and force him to live with them and accept love and a new family. And also drink less coffee.

This whole fic is inspired by a few things!

@b0t-4-bra1ns' 2003/Rise crossover which includes the episode The Freaks Come Out at Night going horribly wrong. Only Casey and Raph escape, and they end up in the Rise universe. Cue Raph becoming a father of six.

@wondrous-art's SAINW fic (it is jokingly titled Smame as it Smever Smas atm and I laugh every time I think about it) where SAINW Donnie went missing through a dimensional portal and ends up getting found by our canon 2003 Donnie and pulled into the canon dimension.

and finally, @virgilisspidey's fic Two Souls, which features 2012 Leo (Aoi) dying and somehow becoming soul-connected to Rise Leo. Only Leo can see him, he is a literal ghost instead of. Y'know. A metaphorical one. It's very good.

I've got 17 chapters and 37,000 words written. I hyperfixate when I'm stressed and I'm moving so this is what has consumed my brain. None of my other projects have been abandoned, I'm still working on them, just, this past week has been only this.

#ame talks #tmnt #tmnt 2003 #rottmnt #rise tmnt #tmnt sainw #tmnt crossover #tmnt ghost in the shell

[amewinterswriting]

I was going to post this as a reblog of @writingwithfolklore 's post about gaining confidence with your own writing but it wound up about as long as the original post, so I'm posting it myself.

I think the key is reading widely and getting involved with the writing community/other writers.

As a reader, you tend to seek out the 'best' of your preferred genre (whatever best means to you in this context - it could be a writing style that gels with your brain, or fabulously detailed world-building, or profound messages about the human condition - there's no one objective way to say one work is better than another). Which makes sense, why would you, if reading for pleasure, want to read things that are less pleasurable?

But this (at least in my experience) sets up an unobtainable standard, where you as a writer want to be as good as the highly edited and polished work that you are reading. You don't get to read first drafts, and you don't read the stories that didn't quite work.

Something I've been doing lately is reading stories which are likely to be less 'polished' (drafts from writer friends, zines, first-time indie authors, first-time trad published authors) with a more critical/analytical eye to really dig down into why they work or don't, and how I might have approached the same subject myself. I keep those critiques to myself unless explicitly asked, but they are useful for me to work out what kind of standard I expect from my writing, and to get it to a more realistic place of 'done' rather than 'as perfect as my favourite author'.

(Because I know this might be misunderstood: I am emphatically not saying that self-published work cannot be as good as trad-published work. I am saying that someone's first work is unlikely to be as good as their future works, since writing is a craft you develop with practise, regardless of whether they trad-publish or self-publish. Sometimes this is mitigated by some really amazing editors and they do tend to cost more than most indie authors have got in their editing budget. But trad-publishing is only really good at producing the kinds of stories that trad-publishing and their readers are already familiar with, and self-publishing can take a lot more risks with storytelling, which I personally find vastly more interesting.)

If you found this interesting and you want to give me a tip, I'm always accepting over on Kofi.

#writblr #writing advice #writing community #reading #ame talks

[arkngth]

i have aged :3c

#my art #ame talks #doodle #digital art #illustration #art #artists on tumblr #birthday