#first production block still the clear best for me

[skinandscales-if]

S&S Anniversary

Today officially marks the 1 year anniversary of the demo release Skin & Scales! The first of many, I hope! I’m so very lucky and fortunate to have such cool people interested in my work, and I’m so delighted to see where the future takes us.

The story is still a baby, with much more to go, but I feel so honored to have built up exactly what the story sets out to create: community. You all have been an incredible part of this journey, and I could not be more grateful, especially to those who send me messages and take the time to interact, big or small. I want to do you justice, and I want to create the best product from everyone’s patience and love over this past year and onwards. This world and the characters have always been a welcome place to return to, and that’s thanks to you all. Thank you so much and here’s to more years to come. ❤️

To celebrate, here’s a little lore tease :)

BELOW IS THE WRITTEN TRANSCRIPT OF PRIVATE POLICE QUESTIONING. DO NOT REPLICATE.

REPORT BY OFFICER LEWIS BRANDY

SEND TO INSTITUTE IMMEDIATELY

DATE: 02/29/1990

QUESTIONS START 09:32

OFFICER BRANDY: Can you state your name for the record?

DARLING: Yes, of course. My name is Samantha Darling.

B: Great. Thank you for your cooperation, Mrs. Darling. I'd like to start by asking you a few questions regarding last night, the twenty-eighth of February.

DARLING: Ash Wednesday, yes.

B: That's actually what I'd like to start with. You’re a member of St. Cadoc’s Church in the western district, correct?

DARLING laughs.

DARLING: Yes, though I suppose that doesn’t matter too much anymore. I hadn’t visited in a while after the… new management.

B: Right. You were present at the incident, correct?

DARLING: That is correct.

B: Mind stating where you were in relation to the incident?

DARLING: I was checking in on a neighbor of mine down the street across from the church. I live in a small apartment a few blocks down, meaning I crossed by right as things got intense.

B: You saw the smoke?

DARLING: Easily. It hadn’t reached my house yet, but the smoke was already taller than all of the nearby buildings. It was… it was pretty horrible.

B: Understandable. I’d like for you to detail all that you saw when you arrived on the scene, Mrs. Darling. If you’re able.

DARLING: Of course. When I could see the ashes I pivoted from my street to get a better look, and by the time I could see other people, it was clear that the church was burning into nothing. It was… really hot, and pretty suffocating up close like that. But the fire didn’t look normal it was…

DARLING stops talking and folds her hands into her lap.

B: Blue.

DARLING: Blue. And hot white, but it wasn’t as significant to me at the time. It wasn’t like any other fires I had witnessed.

B: And what did you see around you?

DARLING: Around me? A handful of other folks, mostly shifters, all really scared and confused. I thought maybe one of them would know, but they were all either speechless or just as perplexed as me. It… it was pretty horrific to see, even if we didn’t hear screaming or anything.

B: Was anyone fleeing from the scene? Or anyone around looking suspicious?

DARLING: I… um… no? Not really? I wasn’t paying that much attention, but I saw shadows flickering in the fire, along with some noises from within. Not anyone who sounded hurt though.

B: Yes. And no one around you who saw anything either?

DARLING pauses.

DARLING: I didn’t ask…? It didn’t seem like it. We were all a bit preoccupied. I think someone ran to get a firefighter.

B pauses and shuffles his papers.

B: Right. You mentioned hearing noises inside the church, correct? Could you make any of it out?

DARLING: No. I thought it was just the fire at first, but then it sounded like… well it might sound odd, but it sounded like a conversation. Probably something closer to an argument. I might have heard a roar.

B doesn’t say anything right away. DARLING frowns then leans in a bit.

DARLING: I know Firespitters can withstand extreme heat longer than most but do you think there really could have been someone in *that*? I heard the priest perished in the fire, he may have been one of the voices inside, but I’d never been to a sermon of his. He was one of those, though.

B: Mrs. Darling, please remember I’m asking the questions here. This is a very intense case, and we are taking all possible precautions to make sure this can’t happen again. You understand that, right?

DARLING is quiet for a moment.

DARLING: Right. Yes. Sorry.

B: It’s alright. You’ve given us a lot of important information today, ma’am. Before we wrap up though, are you sure nothing else caught your eye?

DARLING goes quiet again.

DARLING: Well… I did see a larger man leaving right as I arrived. He didn’t look suspicious, he was helping a woman around his size leave the scene, but they traveled down a back alley before I could get a good look. I don’t think they were responsible though, I was worried they were hurt it looked like the woman-

B: Thank you for your time, Mrs. Darling.

DARLING straightens up.

DARLING: Ah- sorry?

B: You’ve given us a lot of valuable information today, ma’am, and the city thanks you for your service. It cannot be understated. Outside, we’ll just gather a quick survey of information in case we need to contact you again, but you are otherwise free to go.

DARLING: Oh- okay… alright, thank you for your time, Officer.

DARLING stands.

B: Be careful out there Mrs. Darling. Plenty of people who’d love to take advantage of the good folks in this city. Give us a call if you need it.

DARLING leaves.

QUESTIONS END 09:40

OFFICER NOTES: Follow up with Director about sent special forces. Include report on spotted witnesses. Question at further radius. Don’t press peculiarities.

#snippet #my art #S&S anniversary #twine #interactive fiction #I’m gonna try and not be a mess but seriously ty guys #luckiest guy alive fr ❤️ #and there’s city lore or whatever #also I’m aware of the irony of posting this before chapter 2 #it’s closer to release than ever though! #likely next month. I will try and post something more official lol

[kryptonitejelly]

I went down a rabbit hole of TGM interviews so here we are -

Soft thought for our sweet bby Flyboy!Jake -

Him confiding to our sweet reader about his Topgun training and not sure if is going to make it through.

🥺🥺🥺 this idea dkskalhfskjdksjdkaak.

context: Flyboy (a google search told me the TOPGUN programme is 13 weeks long)

You wake with a start to your phone ringing out loud. You jump awake, brain still foggy from sleep as you fumble around, body twisting, hands smacking the surface of your sofa in search of your phone. You find it, mind barely registering the contact on screen as you answer.

“Hello?” You turn, returning to lying flat on your back as you throw an arm across your closed eyes.

“Asleep at 9.30pm on a Friday night?” The voice that crackles over the phone is tinged with amusement, and you find your lips curving up ever so slightly as the familiar drawl hits your ears. Your voice was clear, barely thick from having fallen asleep on the couch, but Jake knows when you’ve been asleep.

“What’s wrong with that?” You flip onto your side, phone pressed between the cushion your head is on and your bead, hand moving to drag the throw you had wrapped around you closer around you, body curling into a ball.

“Doris has more of a social life than you,” he teases lightly to which you snort dismissively, “I see you have no fun without me?”

“As if Seresin,” you counter with words, and Jake chuckle fondly.

There is a comfortable silence between you both for a moment as you each bask in the knowledge that the other is there before you speak again.

“You ok?” It wasn’t out of the ordinary for Jake to call you, but despite his teasing and banter, there was a hint of something in his voice, something that matched with the feeling in your gut. You knew that Jake wouldn’t shy away from letting you know what was on his mind, but concern made you ask first.

“I’ve been having a series of bad flights this week,” he begins, “what if I don’t make it through?” His voice is casual, but you know better by now to know that he was worried. You can already see the doubt in his eyes through the line (though you can’t), picture the fear clouding his features, hear the hidden uncertainty in his tone. Jake was mid way through his TOPGUN programme; it was hard to forget the excitement in his voice when he had called you, yelling about the selection.

“Jake,” you say, pausing as you pull the phone away from your ear, your fingers pressing on the screen to select the video call function; Jake accepts within seconds and both your faces flicker on screen. You see him lying back in bed, the tips of his hair wet, the back of his head resting on the palm of the hand he has bent behind him, the last raise of sunlight of his evening casting a warm glow on his skin. There is worry in his eyes, and concern in yours, but both your lips are flipped up in the tiniest of smiles, because no matter the situation, you both are always happy to see each other, “get your head out of your ass and fly.”

Your words make him laugh, and you are rewarded with pearly whites and the sides of his green eyes crinkling. It makes your smile grow, but you don’t let it stop you from continuing, and drop your tone back to a more serious one.

“You always say you are the best pilot there is,” you pause, looking straight into the camera, and Jake takes you in, flipped on your side, cheek pressed into a cushion, “then fly like the goddamn best pilot you know you are and stop doubting yourself. The only person stopping you is you.” You leave the sentence simply.

Jake was confident, competitive, always had to be the best, which he very often was - a product of sheer determination and hard work most of the time, but you knew the amount of pressure he put on himself behind the scene to make sure all that perfection, being the best, happened. Jake was, his worst enemy, his own stumbling block, when he got into his head; but on he was able to break free of all that, he soared. You watch him mull over your words, his eyes blanking out in thought, thoughts rearranging themselves behind the scenes.

“I know you can do it Jakey,” you say again, softer, gentler this time after having said your piece that you both knew he needed to hear, “I believe in you. A few bad flights isn’t going to stop you.”

Jake’s gaze snaps back from thought, focusing on the phone screen on your face, features which have softened together with your tone, and he swears it does something to him, throws the beat of him heart off by a beat.

“Why are you in on a Friday night?” He doesn’t say anything, choosing to change the topic instead, but you both know he has internalised what you said.

“Sleeping,” you stretch your body, and Jake hears the crinkle of fabric, “I’m tired.”

“On the couch?”

“I fell asleep here,” you yawn, while pushing yourself up in a seated position, letting the throw fall to the side as you stand, phone in hand, while you pad into your bedroom, “better?”

“Much,” Jake responds as you settle into your bed, both of you still on the call.

You continue your conversation, you falling asleep first in the middle of a story Jake is retelling, your phone still clutched in your palm. He takes the opportunity to observe you, eyes closed, lips parted slightly, the sound of your breathing filling the silence. Jake watches you, himself in thought for a few minutes before he ends the call with a lingering look at the screen.

You recieve flowers the next day - no card, but the mix of your favourite flowers and colours tells you who they are from. You take a selfie of yourself with the bouquet and send it across to Jake. At the end of 13 weeks, Jake graduates top of his class.

#flyboy fic #flyboy #flyboy drabble #flyboy universe #jake seresin #jake seresin imagine #jake seresin x you #jake seresin x reader #jake seresin x y/n #jake hangman seresin #jake hangman seresin imagine #jake hangman seresin x reader #jake hangman seresin x you #jake hangman seresin x y/n #hangman seresin #hangman seresin imagine #hangman seresin x you #hangman seresin x reader #hangman #hangman imagine #hangman x you #hangman x reader #jake hangman x you #jake hangman x reader #top gun maverick #top gun imagine #not cm

[miss-tc-nova]

Overworked S/O - Leona, Azul, & Jamil

Fuck it, I’ll do my own headcannons since I could really use the pick-me-up right now.

And honestly, this actually did make me feel a letter better today. Enjoy. 

~~~~~~

Boys with an Overworked S/O

Leona:

The lazy prince doesn’t really get it. All he really knows is that you’re all gloom right now and that bothers him.

“If you’re tired, just stop.”

But it’s never that easy and you may never be able to explain that to him.

Fine then. If you won’t stop willingly, he’ll hold you down.

If you’re not already hanging out in his room, he’ll haul you there—kicking and screaming if he has to. And no, nobody bats an eye if you’re yelling profanities at him.

He’s not exactly gentle in tossing you on the bed either, but it’s not like it’s the first time.

Then, he just flops on top of you. No matter how you protest or complain, Big Kitty is just going to keep his grip around you, smushing you against his bed to enforce naps and cuddles.

Stupidly, it helps. When you finally give in because there’s no way you’re shoving his deadweight off, the steady breathing, dim lighting, and comfy mattress emphasize the exhaustion you’ve been fending off for who knows how long.

Inevitably, you fall asleep too.

Once nap time’s over, you might be frazzled (you were sleeping when you could’ve been productive). You can nag and scold and poke at Leona all you want, and he might snark back at you, but there’s no denying you’ve got more energy to better take on the tasks ahead.

When you come to your senses and thank him, Big Kitty will deny ever having intended on helping you, claiming he just wanted his favorite pillow to nap with.

And yet, as you roll your eyes at him, he masks that miniscule smile creeping on his mouth, content with knowing you’re feeling better.

Azul:

This cephalo-punk, busy-body is not going to just sit by and watch you overwork yourself.

If he had it his way, you’d be pampered and treated like royalty all the time.

The second he gets a whiff that you’re overloaded, he’s got some favors to cash in.

Gentle words and sweet reassurances coax you to the Monstro Lounge against your better judgement. He lures you to a secluded corner that’s been sectioned off from other guests.

The octopus is practically deaf to your insistence that you don’t have time to kill with him. He even smiles right in your face as you complain about wasting time, yet you still don’t have the energy to resist him nudging you into the booth.

The moment you get situated, a waiter comes by, dropping off a glass of your favorite drink along with a few of the lounge’s best snacks to pick at.

He’s definitely planning on keeping you for a while.

You protest and argue, rattling off a list of things you have to do as you grab your things to leave.

And then he reveals that those things have already been sorted out. Grim has been hauled off for Ace and Duece to babysit, Jade personally saw to the chores needing done, Floyd is overseeing the Ramshackle renovations you had planned, dinner is already in the making curtesy of the lounge staff, and Azul has blocked off time specifically to help you with whatever other issues you may have, scholarly or not.

He’s got everything covered so that you can focus on just a single task.

Honestly, it makes you feel guilty at not being able to cope with the workload on your own, but Azul completely disagrees. There’s a reason he collects favors.

And through your study session, he dotes on you. He makes everything clear and easy for your fried brain to understand, but also riddles his lesson with endearments and perhaps a kiss or two.

Thanking him after the burnout has run its course is met with dismissals of your gratitude.

“Really love, it’s no bother.”

But he freaking loves it, as he does you.

Azul aims to take care of you. If it’s within his grasp to do, he will do it for you.

Jamil:

You’re preaching to the choir when it comes to Jamil and overworking.

That doesn’t stop him from sympathizing though. In fact, quite the opposite. He hates his overloaded lifestyle. He’s tired, stressed, and has barely any time for himself (let alone you).

So what does he do?

This smart dumb ass snek packs your chores on top of his own.

You have a list of chores to get to, but by the time you get to like 60% of them, Jamil’s already done it.

Laundry? He washed it with his; it’s already folded.

Cleaning? He went to visit you, but you weren’t there so he “made himself useful” while waiting. Forget the fact he left as soon as you got back because he had his own chores to do.  

Food? He made extra so now you have to have the “leftovers.” And before you ask, there’s enough for Grim too.

Hell, he insists you join him and Kalim for studying because “Kalim needs help with the same subject”—mixing up his subjects as he tries to teach you because he’s busy trying to do his own homework at the same time.

Honestly, he’s such a godsend.

But with all this free time from not overloading yourself, you start to realize Jamil’s on his last leg.

Help this poor snek.

He’s going to literally work himself to death.

Just for you.

Wait wait wait. You can’t just thank him for his help.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“I was already doing that so I just did yours too.”

He’s going to say whatever it takes to assure you that it was nothing to add your work to his.

But he’s lying through his teeth.

It’s sweet, really. But the two of you agree to lean more on each other in the future. Perhaps you do the laundry while he cooks. At the very least, you agree to commiserate together while doing chores.

Sometimes, you even share custody of Kalim and Grim. You’re the only one he’d trust enough for this. You and your dysfunctional family.

Jamil cares, but if you don’t keep an eye on him, he’s going to spoil you just about the only way he can—by overworking himself. 

#twst azul #twst leona #twst jamil #azul ashengrotto #leona kingscholar #jamil viper #jamil x reader #azul x reader #leona x reader #twst x reader #novas twst headcanons #gender neutral reader

[enid-rhees]

hi :) could you do a enid x reader where reader gets injured on a run and enid helps them recover? (you can decide the injury) thank you and have a good day/night/evening!!

oooo i love this. also this was way longer than i intended but i had a whole story in mind so i hope you don’t mind !

pairing: Enid Rhee x Fem!Reader

warnings: injury, bit of angst. one suggestive joke.

genre: angst and fluff

the abandoned supermarket was unfortunately littered with walkers inside. your face fell to a frown when you realized you would have to clear all of them out.

it was only supposed to be a short run with just you and Rick to find some food. Hilltop was running low on canned goods.

“how should we do this?” you asked Rick. he took a look back inside and stared into the glass, staying silent as he thought of what to do.

“lets try this; i’ll attract them to the door. i’ll open it and let one out individually, and you kill it. we’ll do that until it’s clear.” he explained. you nodded once, “sounds good.”

Rick walked over to the two glass doors. he raised his fist and tapped on the glass a few times. slowly, the walkers started to crowd the door. “ready?” he asked. you nodded once more and took out you knife.

he opened the door ever so slightly, letting the first walker stumble out. you grabbed onto its shoulder, driving your knife straight into its head.

you repeated that for almost 10 minutes, and the parking lot had been filled with dead walkers everywhere.

“okay, find whatever you can. any amount is good.” Rick told you.

the two of you separated in the store, hoping it would quicken the process so you can head back home. you carefully stepped over stray bodies, taking your time to examine every scrap of food on the shelves.

you managed to find only a few useful products inside the store, while he barely found anything. but like he said, any amount was good. you stuffed them in the bag he brought along.

“check the back room down there, maybe there’s still food in boxes.” he instructed, pointing in front of him towards the one door.

you made your way over to the door, slowly opening it. once it seemed clear, you walked in, searching for any boxes.

as you took a few steps forward, you felt something grab your ankle. you flinched upon first reaction, causing your ankle to twist in what felt like a whole 360 degrees. you let out a loud yelp as the pain coursed through your entire leg.

losing your balance, you fell back. your body landed on the cold, hard surface. your mind blocked out the pain from the fall as a walker started to reach for your broken ankle.

before you could try and kick it off you, Rick ran in. he rushed to lean down and kill the walker.

he didn’t waste a second in pulling you up so you could stand up straight. another cry left your lips as your ankle touched the floor. Rick looked down at your foot before looking back up at you with wide eyes.

“what happened?” he asked you. his voice wavered, you could tell he was trying to remain calm. “i think it’s broken.” you managed to get out. “the walker grabbed onto me and as i jumped back, my ankle twisted completely.”

“shit.” he hissed under his breath. “we need to get you back. Siddiq can patch it up.”

Rick slipped his hand over your shoulder and you grabbed onto him as he helped you get back in the car so he could drive back to Hilltop.

the pain worsened every minute and you tried your best to hide how bad it truly hurt. you bit your cheek to try and cancel out the pain until you got home.

the ride felt longer than it actually was. your mind raced with thoughts, anything to distract you from the pulsing pain.

“we’re back.” he informed her. she let out a breath of relief. thank fucking god. he got out first to run over to her side and help her out.

the people at the gate rushed to open it once they realized she was hurt. he brought you inside and immediately took you over to the small building Siddiq used to treat everyone.

“Siddiq!” Rick yelled. “we need you out here. Y/N’s hurt!” rapid footsteps started to approach them. but it wasn’t Siddiq’s, it was Enid’s. you felt her heart drop a little once you made eye contact with her.

you knew Enid had started to help out Siddiq in the office, but you didn’t think she’d be helping today.

“oh my god.” Enid choked out, looking down at your slightly crooked and swollen ankle. “she’s not- you’re not-“ she started, trying to think of coherent words.

“she’s not bit. her foot is broken.” Rick was quick to reassure. she took a deep breath and nodded. “i’ll take it from here.”

Rick left and Enid helped you into a chair. “what the hell happened out there?” Enid immediately asked once it was just turn two. her eyes were wide and frantic as she stared into yours.

Enid stood up and ran around the small building, trying to gather all the necessary supplies. Enid lifted your up and you hissed at the first initial touch. “i’m sorry.”

“it’s okay. walker grabbed onto my ankle and when i flinched back, it broke. it had a grip on me and the way i turned my body caused it to just… snap.”

Enid picked up a roll of bandages, trying her best to be as gentle as possible with you. “this is why i should’ve gone with. fuck.” she mumbled to herself, concentrating on your foot.

“it’s okay, Enid. at least i’m still alive, yeah?” you cracked a smile, hoping it would bring one to Enid’s lips as well. she frowned looking up at you. “you’re right. but you’re still hurt.”

“how does it feel?” she asked you, lifting up your ankle again to test it. you winced, but it was a bit better than before. “better.” that put a smile on Enid’s face.

you watched with adoration as she put away the medical supplies she used on you. she looked so perfect doing this job. you knew she loved it - helping other people. you were more than happy for her when she told you she started to help Siddiq. it was a job that was made for her.

“i need to get you back inside. you need to rest.” she said, breaking you out of your trance. you looked up at her, your eyes staring into her green eyes. they were so mesmerizing to you.

before you could try and stand up yourself, Enid took it upon herself to lift you up in her arms. she was holding you bridal style.

“what the hell are you doing?” you laughed, wrapping your arms around her neck to hold yourself. “carrying you. you think i’m gonna let my injured girlfriend walk? what kind of girlfriend would that make me?”

you scoffed with another laugh. “okay, okay. whatever you say, love.” you watched her face turn red at the small nickname.

she got you inside the building and walked into your shared bedroom. she tried to be as careful as possible when laying you back down on the bed.

“i’m not made of glass, y’know. you’re treating me like that one guy from Spongebob.” she bursted out laughing, gently slapping your shoulder.

“you’re such an ass. i’m trying to be a good girlfriend here! would you rather me throw you on the bed?” your eyebrows raised with a teasing smirk.

her smile dropped, “i didn’t mean it like that!” she exclaimed profusely, waving her hands in front of her. it was your turn to burst out laughing. “just messing with you, Enid.”

she grabbed a pillow from the side of your head and placed it under your foot to keep it leveled. afterwards she placed an ice pack on top of it. you assumed she got it from the doctors building.

“do you need anything else?” she asked you. there was genuine concern laced in her voice, and it made you feel warm inside.

“can you lay with me?” you asked softly. she didn’t need to be told twice as she crawled into your bed next to you, wrapping her arms over you.

“thank you for taking care of me.” you said quietly. “i feel a lot better. genuinely.” she pressed a kiss to your head, letting her lips linger there.

“wouldn’t want to do anything else. i’m just so happy you’re okay.” she told you. she leaned her head down, connecting your lips. “i love you.” she whispered against your lips.

“i love you too.” you smiled, pressing one more kiss to her lips.

#enid rhee #enid rhee x reader #enid rhee x fem!reader #enid twd #the walking dead #twd #the walking dead x reader #twd x reader

[l2bbocsstuff]

ASAMI’S ANNOYANCE

I thought dealing with Raiko was a pain, but this guy is something else. 

“Mr. Mayor, this discussion is getting us nowhere.  I’ve dealt with your assistants, your council members and now with you.  I have said the same thing to all of them and now I will say it to you – you can either have the upgrading of the monorail system in Ba Sing Se done correctly or done cheaply – you can’t have both.”  Asami plastered on her fake smile and stood up from the meeting table.

“Mrs. Sato, I still believe we can come to an equitable agreement.”  Mayor Won-Yee glared at Asami.  He placed both his hands on the table and leaned over it as he stood.

Asami was not intimidated in the least.  “Unfortunately, I do not.  Future Industries will not put its name on anything that is not 100% the best it can be.  The corners you wish to cut during this improvement do not fall in line with the way my company does business.  Therefore, I shall take my leave.  Good day, Sir,” with that the CEO stacked and ordered all the paper in front of her, put them into her leather briefcase, turned and left the meeting room.  Her assistant, Rei followed a respectful two steps behind her.  Rei glanced back over her shoulder to see Mayor Won-Yee looking apoplectic.

Once the two women were clear of Ba Sing Se city hall, Rei asked, “Do you wish to return to our branch office?”

Asami responded in the affirmative and they walked the three blocks back to their office.  This gave Asami time to calm down.  She knew she had been away from her wife and their daughter for too long.  The two weeks she had been in Ba Sing Se seemed like an eternity.  She was sure no three-year-old should be without their parents for that amount of time.  Asami felt defeated, a fortnight away and she had nothing to show for it.  Once she and Rei stepped back into their temporary workplace, all the employees turned to look. 

Asami spoke with as gentle a tone as she could muster, “I’m sorry everyone.  There was just no way to make the Mayor’s demands work.  I wish Future Industries could have helped your city but as you know, we only manufacture the best products.  This would not have been one of them, so I left the meeting.  I’m sorry that you may be bearing the brunt of some bad press for the next few days.  I want to say that I appreciate all the work that everyone in this office put into creating the plans, blueprints, and agreements for this project.  It just wasn’t going to work for the price and demands that the Mayor made.  Rei and I will be staying one more night and we will be returning to Republic City.  If there is anything anyone wants to show me before we leave just knock on my office door after lunch.”

The employees began to clap and Asami blushed.  The middle-aged branch manager known as San said, “We know you tried hard ma’am, but no one here would disagree with you pulling out of the meeting.  Future Industries is the most forward-looking company in the world and if you don’t think the project was right, it wasn’t right.”  He walked over and shook Asami’s hand.

She and Rei entered the temporary office they had been working in.  Asami slumped into the chair.  “Rei, please make all the arrangements for our airship flight back home.  I want to get there as soon as possible.  We can leave at first light.  I’m sure the flight crew wants to get home too.”

Rei dialed the phone and within ten minutes everything was planned.

Just one more night.  Thank the spirits!!  Then home to Korra and Akari.  This trip was a monumental waste of time.

Lunchtime had come and gone and suddenly there was a knock on the office door.

Asami’s assistant called out, “Come in.”

San walked in and behind him stood a bespectacled young woman.  She couldn’t have been more than 25 years old, and her smile lit up the room.  San introduced his co-worker, “Mrs. Sato, this is Kira Blanchard and she has been working on, what I think, is a million yuan idea.”

Kira stepped forward and shook Asami’s hand.  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, ma’am.”

“I guess I need to say it again.  It’s Asami.  That goes for both of you,” she said with a wink.  “So, what’s the idea?”

“I’ve been designing and experimenting with electronics ever since I graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering from university and this, I think, may revolutionize the industry.  We can miniaturize radios!!  With the work the company has already done on circuit boards and transistors, Future Industries can make radios portable.”  She handed the blueprints to Asami.

Asami was astonished.  She stared at the papers in disbelief.  “That’s amazing!! And astounding!!  And awesome!!”

Kira continued, “There are still a few bugs to work out, but I think I can complete this project and have a working prototype within 6 weeks.”

“It certainly is more than a million-yuan idea.  Make sure nothing about this gets out to the public.  We’ll make this portable radio the next big thing, after all, we’re called Future Industries, not present industries.  Well done to both of you.  When the prototype is complete and working get yourselves to head office.  I will inform the Board of Directors about this.  I am so glad that the two weeks I spent in Ba Sing Se wasn’t a complete bust.”

The day ended on a high note and Asami could barely sleep that night.  Not only because of the new radio design but also because she was going home to see her wife and daughter.  The only thing that upset her the next morning was when she saw the newest edition of the Ba Sing Se Bulletin, the largest newspaper in the city.  The headline screamed, Cabbage Corps to Upgrade Our Monorail.  Asami just shook her head.  Whatever!! She thought.

With the flight time and the time changes, the CEO knew she would get home in the middle of the afternoon.  She pulled her Satomobile into the garage and stepped into the mansion.  It was quiet, almost too quiet.  Asami went looking for Korra and Akira, whose nickname was Lights.  They weren’t on the first floor, so she headed upstairs.  She walked past Light’s room, and it was empty.  Then she peaked into the master bedroom.  She couldn’t help but smile as both Korra and Light’s were partaking in an afternoon nap.  They were covered under a duvet.   Asami toed off her shoes and removed her jacket.  She calmly crawled in beside her daughter and reached over to touch her wife.  Korra awoke and seeing the love of her life just smiled.

“Lights wouldn’t go down alone and who am I to refuse a nap,” Korra’s eyes twinkled.

“I won’t refuse this nap either so …sssshhhh.  Let’s not wake her up.”

“How’d it go in Ba Sing Se?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

“Love you. I’m glad you’re home.”

“Love you too and I’m glad too.”  Asami’s frustration forgotten.  The warmth in her chest and her gratitude for her life was overwhelming.  Some tears leaked out before she fell asleep.

#korrasami #tlok #lok #korra x asami #asami x korra #lok fan fic #tlok fan fic #drabbles from discord prompts #asami sato

[vex-cti]

[LONGPOST] I just finished... Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

I wanna write down all my thoughts before I delve into more in-depth online opinions. I'm writing this on the same day as having done the last two chapters of the game, so I may have not had time to process the story completely. However, I've been playing this game for the entire month and I got a lot to say. Obvious spoilers ahead, but I'll still try to keep some things vague enough.

Okay Square Enix, you win, I'll use photo mode

Graphics in video games are like how attractive a dessert looks, it doesn't dictate how it will taste, but it makes you want to try it. Rebirth feels like one of those games that is finally showing what the PS5 is capable of, with environments extremely rich in detail, superb lightning that's both colorful and conveys the right emotion for each scene, this is the prettiest Final Fantasy has ever looked, even compared to 16 which had some optimization issues and dull lightning in some areas, specially towards endgame. No single location in Rebirth feels half-baked, what used to be single screens and flat textures in the original have been completely re-imagined to have their own identity. I will talk about more about the open environments when I talk about gameplay and exploration.

Reliving the moments: Going above and beyond

The cutscene direction for this game is absolutely phenomenal, I love that they have amped up the campiness of the original 7, while also being faithful to the serious and emotional moments. What shines even more in Remake is the excellent writing when it comes to the characters, their performances are full of charisma, and it made it clear to me why the cast of seven ended up becoming so iconic to gaming as a whole. Every scene with these characters interacting, no matter if it was the dullest of sidequests, made everything entertaining. But the best part of Rebirth, like its predecessor, it's when it brings back the iconic moments we all wanted to see. The Junon Parade, Costa del Sol, Red XIII and Cosmo Canyon, Barret and Corel, and many more of these moments have barely altered from how they happened originally, reliving these moments feels like watching a high production TV Series based on a book you loved as a kid. If you love the original FFVII but have no intentions of playing the remake due to how things change, I at least recommend you look up the scenes that do stay faithful.

Some things left me wanting

Still, Rebirth only covers up to the end of Disc 1 section of the story, and has some blatant teases from trailers and the game itself that left me wanting. The Planet's weapons are mentioned and different versions appear, but there's no Diamond or Ruby weapon superboss yet. Both Cid and Vincent make their debuts near the final chapters, but are not playable for now, which left me a little disappointed. And this lets me segway perfectly into the other best part of Rebirth...

Can I just say I love the portraits in this game? Love me some PNGs

When I first played Part 1 of the Remake saga, I felt like I had no idea of what I was doing with the combat, I found the action-hybrid system too complicated and visually cluttered I felt like I was brute forcing every fight and not really enjoying myself. I finished the game and didn't come back to it until early this year where I decided to do Hard Mode for the Platinum, and this time I had a way better time, now understanding the combat system and each fight better. It makes for a flashy, semi tactical game with very visceral and satisfying animations, powers, character building thanks to materia, the importance of positioning, blocking, switching aggro, it felt like the realization of what games like FF12 and 13 aimed to be.

So imagine my surprise when Rebirth made it even better. Fundamentals are still the same, new skills were to be expected, but my favorite new addition are synergy skills. Not only do you get special commands you can perform with your partners in the party with extremely satisfying animations, you also have synergy real time action commands which reward you for being more reactive and agressive, now adding perfect blocks and counters, now every time you play with a different team composition you're gonna feel the difference of having Barret or Red or Yuffie as your partner, as you get access to different skills.

They also help you build ATB for characters not actively controlled at any given time, which is an excellent quality of life improvement. My only nitpick is that despite the menus allowing you to have 3 different party compositions and even allowing you to set the leader for each, Cloud is mandatory. Cloud is of course good at everything, so it's not the worst thing, but it does suck that I can't play as a team of Barret, Red, and Yuffie at any time in the open world. Though you can do that at virtual combat challenges or the colliseum. This feels like an oversight.

Fortunately, this meant I was playing around different characters all the time, because they're all great, and it feels super satisfying to set the right materia for each one according to what you envision them to be and complement their abbilities. Some are obvious: give Yuffie the steal materia, give Aerith healing materia. But who gets to be the mage, the debuffer, the buffer, the tank, that's up to you. I found Red XIII + Darkside materia works extremely well thanks to his Reaper Claw abbility and his health regeneration, sort of like a bestial Dark Knight, great crowd control and support all around. Cait Sith takes some work to get used to, and requires lots of setup, but his luck based gameplay can have some serious benefits, I'm sure he will come in handy in hard mode. Yuffie plays almost identically to her DLC, and she is excellent for handling boss fights with multiple parts or different weaknesses.

Exploring will either be fun or tedious, depends on who you ask

I feel like the other primary component of the gameplay, which is the exploration and traversal, will be a bit more divisive. It takes tropes from standard open world games like towers, points of interest, fast travel, loot locations, hunts, there is nothing new or original about it. However, that doesn't mean it can't be fun. Completing areas feels like I'm playing a collect-a-thon akin to Sonic Frontiers, where while it may not be the most exciting thing in the world, it is very relaxing for me, as I take in the sights and look for ways to get to new areas and find the next rare fiend. What I enjoy about the world design is that areas are not large, but are very packed and designed in such a way where you can't get everywhere by just looking at markers on the map, sometimes you do have to look for clues on the environment to get to where you need to, meaning you're looking at where you're going more than your tracker, which is great, but you still get the benefits of one. So it's a nice compromise, not as open ended as BoTW or Elden Ring, but not as braindead as a Ubisoft game. However, completing these areas can take a while, and if you're like me and plan to do all of them, don't be surprised when each area can take you up to 10 hours if you want to do everything.

"No seriously Cloud, I'm still waiting!" -Sephiroth, 100 hours into your game file

If you remember FF16 (I love that game too btw), you might remember how universally hated the sidequests were, not so much for their stories, but for their large amount and lack of variety. It seems like Rebirth is an active effort to avoid those same mistakes. Most sidequests in this game has you doing something different, have an entertaining story or character development attached to them, or even have you doing something dumb like bringing chickens back to their sweet innocent mother, or following an Ex Shinra employee in some brutal gold saucer challenges. I won't say every sidequest is a winner, at the end of the day, they're still busywork, and never will a game make you feel good saying "Congratulations on your progress, you have unlocked even more sidequests to do!". Still, I have to commend them, they do not bombard you with them, you can do a few at a time and be good for the next area, and the rewards allow your party to access more skills.

They have some of the most fun music too

The sidequest also introduce an excuse to have you do more of the minigames and take on their harder difficulties. And BOY did they add soooo many minigames, I could not believe I was encountering a new one what feels like every hour. There's something both horrifying and admirable about the devs commitment to bring back the spirit of a ps1 classic in this way. Have you noticed that triple AAA games basicly don't do minigames anymore? Yea fishing games are still around I guess, but Rebirth is not ashamed to harken to those videogamey roots and sheer goofiness. Red football, Fort Condor (love the reinterpretation), Super Dolphin Sunshine, and so many more. Enjoy youself with these minigames, and pick your least favorites too because there will be at least one that will make you want to break your controller. Contenders for me are Glide de Chocobo for it's terrible camera, and Gears & Gambits for having an overwhelming amount of Gambits for such a simple minigame (even FF12 had you start with a small amount). Still, there is more bad than good here. What I was not expecting was a brand new card game, akin to Triple Triad in 8 and 14: Queen's Blood.

*Insert Yugioh abridged reference here*

Not only did I not expect a new card game 2 hours into the game, I did not expect it to be so good, and have me thinking about different deck builds, deck synergy, strategies, and ways to one up your opponent with some smart plays. Queen's Blood is an extremely fun time sink and nice break from all the combat and normal exploration. It can be overwhelming at first, and having so many different cards with effects each is a hassle I've seen many not even wanting to bother with, finding some of its rules to be too confusing. I will say that if you're not constantly updating your deck with better cards you won't be making much progress, but you also won't know what cards are better if you don't play enough to get what your objective is, so it's best to start getting into it the sooner you start the game. Do make sure you take note of some of the later puzzles and challenges, as they can teach you strategies to make comebacks on hard duels.Screw the survival challenges, though.

But the journey isn't quite the same, after all

Perhaps the stuff I have the least things to say about, are the new elements to the story, which are more prevalent during the beginning and ending sequences of the game. I was honestly intrigued at the start, the tension and anxiety felt in this unknown timeline Zack has walked into, and the mystery surrounding the true fate of our protagonists, as it shows you bits and pieces of more information the further you progress, I was curious to where things were going. Unfortunately, the ending provided even more questions than answers, and I still feel like it's not as emotionally impactful as perhaps it intends to be, maybe due to the lack of clear information. I understand it wants to keep itself vague with the idea of multiple timelines and universes colliding, or what Sephirot's actual plan is. But it does make things like the Whispers feel even more pointless than when they showed up in Remake, but at least their presence has been reduced, as expected. Areas where changes to the story were most effective were when they were not pointed out to be a product of a split timeline, like the conclusion to the Junon festival, or the Gongaga reactor sections.

But of course, what most people were more curious about, was how was the ending going to change, we all knew it was going to be different no matter what. And while I feel like these convoluted elements do take off some of the emotion of the original scene, there is one element which does seem to align these new events with the emotions of the original: Cloud himself. For he experiences the events of the ending differently from the rest, and it's left unclear how reliable is his perspective. Add Sephiroth's manipulation of Cloud's emotions and he becomes this genuinely creepy and ruthless shell of himself. This new problem does not completely go away by the end, as Cloud is not fully aware of it yet. But with how the new version of the ending has unfolded, it left me with these feeling of doubt and... hollowness, confusion, not sure if to be sad, or hopeful. Which I feel is exactly how Cloud feels as well, as his human nature is questioned.

Despite thinking a faithful story remake would have been more satisfying, I can't deny these new events had me thinking about the story of FInal Fantasy 7 in ways I could connect emotionally to it even more. Perhaps, what this game truly achieved for me, is remind me just how much I love this franchise, for its extremely creative worlds and creatures, to its unique stories and unforgettable characters. Rebirth is a celebration of Final Fantasy, a joy to look and play, to relive and to guess. It's got one more part to prove if these changes to the narrative were really worth it, nonetheless. And honestly, I hope they don't keep relying on vagueness as much.

But when they are not being vague, I promise you, every moment, old or new, will feel exciting.

#final fantasy vii #ff7 rebirth #ff7 rebirth review #review #iranted #now when someone asks me what i thought about the game i can just copy paste this #no but wait then they would find my blog #i did not think this throuuuuuuuugh #i wonder if babyboi will want to ever do a final fantasy marathon with me hmmm i got so much to say about all games #i should also mention the towns in this game are WONDERFUL #and the gold saucer date had me internally sobbing

[katherineholmes]

The violence ask game — 4, 7 and 12!

4. what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

My mental health is extremely fragile as it is, I don't need to be bombarded by posts that upset me or takes that I vehemently disagree with. Especially when they use tags that I follow. So I blocked them. I wish I could block more people, but I honestly get a bit nervous blocking people.

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

Ufff, Caroline. I swear to god when I first saw the show, I related so much to her. My insecurities were exactly like hers, and I genuinely wanted to love her. But it was clear by the time we get to mid-s1 that Caroline's insecurities are a product of her own mindset, neither Bonnie nor Elena do anything to make her feel insecure. And she grows up and realises this but apparently her fans don't. The whole narrative that Caroline has been wronged by everyone is ridiculous (except Damon - he should've been burned alive for what he did to Caroline), if anyone was wronged by everyone, it was Bonnie, not Caroline. Sometimes, I wonder if we've seen the same show.

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

Davina. I don't know if people should like her, because I would never dictate anyone like that, but she gets a lot of unnecessary hate for hating Klaus. Like Klaus ruined her teen years, he killed her boyfriend Tim, continually threatened Tim's life, had a hand in sacrificing her, and didn't even leave her in peace after she came back from the dead, she has every right to hate him.

Davina is so much like Elena, she's alone, traumatised, doesn't have a support system, doesn't have anyone on her side, and is doing her best to just survive somehow. Not to mention that the ancestors did horrible things to her on the other side. Despite all this, she still helps the Mikaelsons when it comes to protecting Hope or Cami. She does not deserve the hate she gets, she needs to be wrapped in blankets and protected instead.

#asks #qvnthesia #the vampire armand #the originals

[xris05]

Geography, sustainability, etc etc

Despite popular demand to the contrary, I have returned, with a goal to achieve only the most utter of victories. Conquering this damn assignment whilst being passive aggressive to ideas I find unfeasible at the same time.

On todays schedule we first have up to the chopping block for prompt examination, Hydrogen Fuel Cells. For once, an idea that I have both initially heard of, and did not have a strongly negative opinion of from the onset.

A bit more of a deep dive is always scholarly (and required for me to feel like I've done my due diligence). Unusually, this didn't leave me immediately thinking it was the worst and most uniquely foolish invention conceived by a human mind.

Let's keep to that positive streak by thinking about the positives of hydrogen fuel cells. For one, they're not fossil fuel, gas guzzling nightmare apocalypse machines. This may be literally rock bottom in terms of bars to clear, but it's still a step up compared to 85% of vehicles sold last year.

Secondly, they produce zero air pollutants! Which is honestly quite good, as personally I don't like breathing in an unknown and potentially toxic soup of chemicals and letting it marinate in my ole respiratory system.

Thirdly, hydrogen is pretty damn efficient as a fuel source, pulling roughly 70 MPGe (that's miles per gasoline gallon equivalent)

However, this is where I'm going to pivot away from being positive and cheery because such relentless optimism has no place on my record, and thus, let's dive into the issues.

The first issue is some that the keen-eyed amongst you may have been able to note already. These are Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Now, for those unaware, hydrogen is the first element on the periodic table, and is also absurdly flammable. Quite famously so, in fact.

(Pictured above, the Hindenburg descending in flames, picture captured by Sam Shere, 1937)

So, understandably, there is some safety concerns about putting hydrogen into our little boxes which we cram ourselves into, and then hurdle down roads at 40mph. Especially because people have a habit of crashing said metal boxes quite spectacularly.

In the interest of fairness though, I will note that cars tend to be pretty hilariously dangerous anyway as gasoline tends to also be very damn flammable and explosive at the best of times anyway.

The next issue, is the question of my most beloved of subjects, infrastructure. Much like gasoline, one needs infrastructure to fill up their little mobile deathmachines with enough juice to keep it moving, and this requires a place for one to fill up the tanks, and the places and equipment to refine the hydrogen, which might be on sight, but equally so could be offsite and if it's offsite you need to transport it onsite and so on and so forth. But incentives and funding from whatever your local monopoly on violence is likely the response to this particular issue, even if most these days focus on electric cars

Now, one thing that is also pretty important to note is that all of this is expensive. Building and refitting production lines to make hydrogen fuel cell cars, and the fuel cells themselves, and to build the infrastructure and all that lovely stuff. I find this the least compelling argument personally, as money is last on the list of things that matters in the face of the climate crisis.

So, here we are, the conclusion. Are Hydrogen Fuel Cells the future? Are they economical? Are they going to violently explode? The answer to all of these is probably not, but make your own opinions, don't just trust me, do your reading, look into it, come back and call me an idiot who knows nothing, I encourage it

See yah later folks, and remember, if you think you're about to solve the energy crisis, ask yourself if your new power source is as efficient, safe and cool as nuclear power.

#geography #human geography #academic assignments #longish post #tags my enemy #Screaming into the void #trains are always the answer #how do i use tumblr #where am i #who am i #what is this place

[demonicintegrity]

Watching from the sidelines as photomatt makes a fool of himself. and I'm just tired.

Listen im not gonna say "i hope someone dies in a car explosion full of hammers" has like, the strongest high ground standing. I'm above that. So may you. But I am gonna say it highlights the double standards pretty well. Are we gonna pretend like half the site wasn't openly wishing for Trump or any sort of alt-right politician to die? Not even like in a cartoony way? Just straight up memes about preparing the crave rave if anyone went? Which was a lot more passionate and strongly motivated than this? I watch so many people get straight up nazis in their askbox. I see so many bigots remake blogs without a sweat if they're even deleted in the first place. Misinformation and racist memes abound. But this small thing gets someone and all their blogs nuked off the website? Okay. Sure. Yeah. That tracks.

Hell, the fact no one can even tag him now shows a special standard. Wdym none of us can blocked being mentioned by others but the specialist ceo can because he's getting flamed for his own double standards? We can actually, its just buried in my settings I didn't know was possible until writing this and double checking. LMK if yall knew that was an option cuz I sure as hell didn't. @staff can still be mentioned and replied to on some of their posts, I'm sure some genuis is gonna have the bright idea to bother them even though they have no control over him. Hell, I've seen them being tagged in posts about policies and drama and all that! The ability to bother the working folks is never taken away but the ceo is above that.

(and no, it's not comparable to a kys joke, which I have never and will not ever condone. That's a fucking crime and terrible.)

(And if the average person can't get the police to do anything about the weirdos in their dm's, if celebrities couldn't get the police to help by being stalked by paparazzi, I doubt they're gonna take "someone on the internet I don't know wished I would be dead by a silly way" seriously. They wouldn't even take my roommates bike being stolen on camera seriously. That was a bluff out of his ass and we know it. He just wants to throw around power he doesn't/shouldn't have.)

("I hope X person dies" is harassment at best but not a credible death threat. It's hard to prove any sort of legitimate attempt behind the words. I would know, queer people get told they should be dead all the time and there's nothing that can be done because it's not a threat. I don't even think it was mentioned at him or anything like that, so it wasn't even intended to be seen by him. So yeah.)

And that's what all the outrage is about. It's the double standards. It's about how all these legitimately awful people still stick around because its not hard, but some random queer or otherwise marginalized person will get scrubbed off the face of the Earth because they were a little rude once. Or because they've done nothing at all. Remember when normal-horoscopes' blog got nuked for no fucking reason at all? Have no idea if that blog was ever restored. But man, all those posts unable to be searched for again.

And to be clear, I'm not surprised by this. In the slightest. When have ceo's ever reacted will to the people using their product not giving a shit about them? I may not know the entire story of who this trans women is and her history but like. But this part doesn't shock me. It sucks but its not surprising when Whatever Rich Ceo picks an enemy out of thin air and tries to drag them around as an example. It's happen so many times. I'm not shocked.

Nor does seeing the transphobia spike AGAIN because of it.

It's just exhausted that I set up myself here all comfy and everyone I follow is considering jumping ship again. I doubt I'll ever use any of the tumblr copycats. I got rid of my twitter. I've been putting off making an instagram for forever. If this goes assume your best chance is finding me on discord or by carrier pigeon. And ill be upset as hell because I love tumblr, it's my homebase, and I just set up my art blog here.

Yeah. So none of this is surprising. Disappointing, but not a surprise. You mean the website that regularly thinks any depiction of a queer person deserves a mature label with no ability to really appeal and fight against that, is being mean to a trans person?? Is the sky being blue also shocking??

Yeah whatever. This isn't changing or personally affecting me in any way but like. Man. Sure. Okay. Might as well be an issue on top of the others on this god forsaken webbed cite.

#rambles #photomatt #current events ig

[arainmorn-art]

A test task I've done right when I got sick, four days ago, so it feels a bit like a fever dream, how I was maniacally drawing, modelling and texturing 3 days in a row. And the final piece has this feverish vibe, I think x) So, the theme was a retrofuturistic dieselpunk+atompunk bomb shelter's atrium leading to living rooms. I didn't know there is a whole genre called atompunk, but apparently good old Fallout series is a part of it. And also it was told that the main focus would be the wall, ceiling, floor and railings design. You have 3 days to make it using any medium. I've decided to use my 2D-concept art skills + modest 3D Blender somewhat skills + aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand my new passion, making procedural textures in Substance Designer, which I've started to learn and use about a 1,5 month now. I thought, let's mix useful and pleasurable, shall we? The best way to learn something is learning it on the field. Come on, I've learned Photoshop while drawing my first picture book in uni, it works.

First thing first is to find the whole vibe. I'm by far not an architecture expert, most of my life I've been drawing characters, but the thing I've learned about it that there should be a pleasing repeated pattern of shapes to look at. As it doesn't suppose to look natural\organic, there should be a decent amount of straight lines, so it will look manmade. And it's freakin' hard to find this fine line between atompunk and regular sci-fi and I don't think I've managed it. But that's the thing with test tasks, what matters is: • the amount and diversity of variations you provide • your desicion making to show what you as a professional think works best • your ability to turn any variation into a project • your determination to finish it Even if your choice might not fit the project one employer has in their mind, other potential employers will see your work too and might find it fitting for their projects.

My idea was to create a wall of doors that will also be a tileable wall texture that I'd do in Substance Designer. I was so thrilled about it as I was so inspired by so many tutorials on Youtube and Artstation how it would be fun to do my first sci-fi panel...

...and oh my friggin' gosh it took me 6h in one sit to make it. I was so focused I think I've rarely breathed, my shoulder was aching and burning form tension, it was about 01:00 am and I was slightly panicking if I could finish everything else. It was the end of a day 2, I've spent 1.5 day on concept arts and this door. But still I was determined, as having a clear idea what to do (concept-art) and a tile that will cover 1\3 of the final piece (doors) is already a lot. Everything else can be improvised on the go. I've tested my door texture in Blender, was relieved it works and went to sleep. And I was also getting slightly cold and coughing a little, but I haven't thought about it.

When I have a goal, I even wake earlier than usual. It's a day 3, I must put everything in it. So after a really challenging for a texture novice like me door creating a floor tiles was like walk in the park. It was fun, not painful and done before the noon, so I was confident in myself. And I've began my blocking in Blender. It is not by any mean a sophisticated 3d-modelling as a true 3d-artist would do. If any professional 3d-artist looks inside my Blender kitchen, their hair would turn grey. I do the same when I model my scenes for Deciphering comic: if it looks right, than it works for me. In game development production it's also the case that concept artist's models are only a reference for 3d-artists, so if you are a concept artist you can just don't bother about how technically disasterous and wrong in terms of wireframe and polygons your models could be.

Slightly unreasonable tangent: Blender, why are you such a bitch when it comes to spiral stairs?! WHY? Why, you caprisous shmack, what the matter with you, why can't you do a decent spiral stairs in the first try?! Why every time I'm doing the spiral stairs I have to pull my hair from the head, dance with drums and shout curses at you, and you still do it through you digital asshole?! So... yeah. My initial idea with a solid staircase went to the trashbin as I couldn't handle mine and Blender's temper and there've been not so much time left, it was around 8 pm. So I was thinking on my foot how I could turn it into something that looks like a designer desicion and not rushed last minute one, but yeah, I've failed it. I've also find out that I got sick and had a high body temperature. Yay!

By the way, stained glass looking texture on walls was an accident. When I was testing my door texture, I've made a mistake an applied it on the whole bloking area. It stretched across everything in an ugly way, but... this screen pattern looked good. Surprisingly good. It would be a crazy idea to have a glass walls in the suposed bomb shelter, but... damn it looked interesting. So I've created a new texture just for this part. Yeah, design over functionality, that's how it gets born, that's how it goes. Just some happy accidents.

Then I've figured it would be a right time to do a fast concepts for railings... but my tablet decided to not respond. I've tried to install new drivers, checked eveything, lost an hour on it and decided: f*ck it, I'll finish it with my mouse if I must. Luckily I still had my Samsung Galaxy tablet so I quickly doodle some designes for railings. But composing the final concept art was still going to be done by mouse.

This is when I've accepted that this is more a steampunk-ish train station with a bit of 60s than a bomb shelter and let it go. We have high ceilings? Let's have polls to the roof. No, let's also have a balcony under the roof. Let's have an elevator with glass and metal ornaments. Let it be more retro than futuristic! Can you hear I had a high temperature and feverish determination? I've made several Eevee shots as they were fast to render and compose.

And a Cycles engine one for a better presentation. As my tablet died, there wasn't much I could paint over it, but I've tried to hide a couple of rendering mistakes. Mostly it was just about composing rendering maps, masks and filters in Photoshop - and I also was close to my limits as it was 02:30 am when I've finished it.

It looks a bit as this whole location is underwater, but it's fine. Brings some mystery to it. Next morning I've send and still haven't received any answer. But it's alright, if they don't find it fitting, and decline. It's actually happened to me several times, when my test tasks for one company is liked by other one. That's not the main case I'm talking about. Every now and then an artist should do some kind of challenge, as only challenging yourself you learn something new. It's a never-ending journey and that's the beauty of art, it's not just a job, it's a way of life. And gee I've learned several things during this one! It may look like a screenshots from 2000s oldschool videogame, but hella I love old school videogames. It may not lead me to a new job in a short run, but in the long one it feels like a one of a millions steps in my art journey and I'm strangely inspired to create more of this obscure kind of environments.

And thanks for reading!

#my art #my post #scifi #science fiction #retro science fiction #retro scifi #retro futuristic #concept art #environment concept #game concept art #atompunk #steampunk #blender #substance designer #interior design #futuristic #environment concept art #atrium #arainmorn's art

[justworthlessreblogs]

waffleverse: full bibury fic author's notes

this fic is so long and i had so many writing decisions/notes i wanted to talk about that they couldn't all fit in ao3's 5000 character limit. so i figured i might as well put them here. they'll be under a cut to prevent any accidental spoilers!

writing notes:

- first off this fic drove me CRAZY. another one of its nicknames was “the frankenfic” because i really did feel like i had 3 fics i was shoving into one. and it also took on a life of its own. every day i wake up and scold myself for deciding that covering 33-40 was a good idea. it was not helped by me not having many strong feelings about any of the episodes in that set, which led to me feeling really bored when writing them, and then in the last month of writing i said “fuck it, we ball” and started just making up shit. i also remembered Hey I Made Bibury Try To Kill Rio Back In May I Should Do Something About That. so you get bibury backstory! plus i was sad that they never explore her’s and rio’s time working under noir in canon aside from like. one scene in episode 18

- rio is trying his best to be better at emotions but it is definitely an uphill battle and not linear. the other cures meant well by accepting bibury so easily - after all, it didn’t really work out that great when they were constantly suspicious of him - but he didn’t see it the same way they did. in his eyes bibury was getting away with everything even though she did similar things to him. this was inspired by how the show itself does not seem to ever hold bibury accountable (at least as of where i’m at) but makes it very clear that rio needed to do something to make up for what he did (which i am fine with! this is not a “omg poor rio he was so hated by the writers” moment. i just found it interesting and thought i could explore it)

- episode 37 was the reason for like. nearly all of my original writer's block. it almost got cut, but in the end 34 got the chopping block instead because i felt that bibury didn't really have a justification to be there and 36 got basically entirely cut because i thought it was boring. plus 37 was just… too important to not acknowledge unfortunately. i still definitely want to write a waffleverse version of 34, though, i just think it’d work better on its own! which is why i summarized it here. i had the entire thing written out and saved it, so the original version will probably get uploaded to spice of life someday

- rio being like “i am so mad at my sister. however she is upset so i will make her waffles” was very funny to me. the duality of rio kuroki

- i left the bib & rio talk at the end open-ended, since i had so many things they could have possibly discussed that i couldn’t fit them all in naturally no matter how hard i tried. so let your imaginations go wild lol. however i guess i do have to thank that original draft of their conversation since it was the thing that finally, finally, made me figure out what i wanted from this fic - exploring not just bibury, but bibury and rio. this fic was originally a lot more ciel-heavy than what the final product ended up being, and frankly bib & rio didn’t interact much at all, and i wasn’t able to get to the bottom of why they still hated each other until i remembered. hey. attempted murder

- you are all so lucky that i ended up incorporating 26 into this fic because the original plan was for the scenes that changed to be stuck into spice of life when i got around to writing them someday. the mcu-ification of waffleverse is defeated for another day

- no fantastic animale because i really dislike those super forms and the attack. this is one of two times i have actively disregarded canon, i usually try to stick as close to canon events as possible (which is why the crystal animals are in this. you have no idea how badly i wanted to cut them). fantastic animale is Just That Bad. this was literally the first thing i decided after i started planning this fic. so animal-go-round is powerful enough in this ‘verse. just roll with it please

- no "do sweets bring sadness?" dilemma here because i didn't vibe with that part of the episode. i was looking forward to bibury shenanigans :( the crystal animals are just cielbib shippers /j

- if the writing seems disjointed i apologize it's because this thing was written on and off over a period of 3 months and is also super long

- i had so much fun writing the bathroom scene. finally allowing myself silly rights. the flashback scenes were also really enjoyable

- i messed with the yukari v. kirarin fight because i was a little disappointed with how it played out in canon. yukari tells everyone right away here because she had a Realization because of part 4. kirarin is more resistant than the average fairy to diable in this universe but not fully immune

- RIO FINALLY GETS TO SAY FUCK WOOHOO i've waited so long for this. also bibury is definitely a character who would cuss if the show's rating wasn't the japanese equivalent of tv-y7 so i was a little looser here

- you all know it in your hearts that aoi was 100% a vine kid. also there was no way i was letting that joke slip past me

- did the math and i'm preeettty sure that rio's age in the prologue section checks out with the waffleverse timeline? when i started this series i was under the impression that rio had been gone for way longer than what the series ended up implying, and so in waffleverse i decided he was gone for about a year. he's 12-about-to-turn-13 in the prologue and 14 in the present (his & ciel’s birthday was shortly after part 4!)

-bib starts calling him rio pretty quickly because a) she may have been evil, but she respects people's preferred name choices and b) yukari already had an arc about realizing how he's not julio anymore and i really didn't want to write that same arc a second time!

- waffle’s secondary attack finally shows up!!! waffle protége my beloved. giving him some sort of barrier just Felt Right (and waffles are the perfect shape for it). i like to think he can split it apart and use it offensively a la rosetta reflection. it was originally supposed to show up in 34 (which got cut) then in 37 (then i cut the battle from the episode since it felt very forced) and then i worried i wouldn’t be able to fit it in at all but got the opportunity with the climax rewrite

- in regard to bib's aging i'm going with "noir's presence slowed down her aging a lot somehow, so she may be chronologically 106 or so, but in all other aspects she's around 13-14 and will now start aging normally again". the same would've happened to rio had he stayed with noir longer. insert noir child labor joke here

- hey remember that time noir tried to take rio back!? i guess 40 kinda busted that for canon by establishing he sees them all as expendable but in my defense while i was writing part 3 i saw it more as a twilight-dyspear situation. and then i ran with that. at this point i’m just gonna have to accept that waffleverse isn’t purely canon divergence any more thanks to me writing it as i watch the show, which leads to the show debunking things from earlier parts 

- was a bit disappointed that the great fairy meeting episode didn't really involve, well, a meeting. so they actually get some time to talk strategy here! i'm so sad the technological limitations of ichigoyama meant that i couldn't have waffle give a powerpoint presentation on noir like i wanted to. it would've been so funny. maybe i'll make it for fun someday

- yeah i messed with episode 40 like. a lot. sorry. it's just how it ended up working out tbh. i actually debated back and forth for literal months on if i should give bib a "canon cure waffle" moment or not, and nearly did it, but decided against it because in the end it just didn't feel quite right for a multitude of reasons. so you were going to get fairy combat and then bib yelling at grave instead. and then that got rewritten once i decided i wanted to expand more on why rio & bib are so antagonistic to each other. you can still see traces of the original climax though in ciel showing up with the fairies, as well as the part where bib confronts grave! bib also originally wasn’t supposed to be dragged into the town with them, she was gonna stay on the mountain and then venture down with ciel and the fairies. but rio said Nope She’s Coming With Us once the fic's course changed direction

- my beta enabled me on the "bibury hasn't slept in an actual bed in a century" thing. i originally sent it to him as a joke. he told me to go ahead with it. but let's be real noir would do something fucked up like that

- let waffle fight the townspeople 2k23. this is the other time i actively disregarded canon in the fic idc what it says He Would Do It

- bibury’s verbal beatdown of grave was inspired by her canon one in episode 40

- ciel & bib's relationship isn't gonna progress past "mutual crush" at any point in waffleverse simply because i cannot write romance sorry. rest assured it blossoms into a beautiful love story. they get married on the island where they met properly for the first time. rio is ciel's best man

- i came to the realization that a lot of my decisions regarding this fic were along the lines of "fuck canon". idk what that means

#precure #pretty cure #kirakira precure a la mode #cure waffle au #waffleverse: writing #waffleverse: behind the scenes #long post #so sorry about the length. you can blame bib fic and its 13.9k word wordcount

[aloeverawrites]

Hello so I got an ask from a system who wants to go vegan but can’t because their family is making it unsafe for them. I want to say I’m so sorry I accidentally hit the delete instead of answer ask button bc I am an idiot, but I have read the ask so I’m still going to try and answer it and I hope you see it. And always feel free to send another one that I will take better care of-

So I want to start off with the definition of veganism which is a “philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude — as far as is possible and practicable — all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing, or any other purposes.”

I know that for your alter it is the disgust around eating meat that is a big part of why I went vegan so I do understand. But I also want emphasise, if it helps at all, that you trying so hard and doing everything that you can in your situation is vegan we all have different limitations on what we practically and possibly can do as vegans. And if these are some things you can’t get past right now then it wouldn’t be fair to say you’re not doing enough.

Being vegan isn’t just about food, if you think you could get away with buying clothes that is made of animals products, things that aren’t tested on animals, soaps that don’t contain milk and things like that you can start with a non-dietary veganism. Most vegans become plant -based first and then eradicate animal products from other parts of their lives you could start that process in reverse. And hopefully that can help ease some of their guilt about eating meat products. My family was also very unsupportive at the beginning of my journey but I had a different situation and it was eventually okay. I’m not quite sure how it will be for you but I want take your word for it I think you would know better than me. We share a family computer so because of my searches they started getting recommended vegan videos and began to understand, I’m not sure if the same can happen for you but I do hope they change. You don’t deserve to feel like this in your own home.

If you can when you are if you are separated from your family and eating out on your own, maybe you can choose is vegan options. The best vegan options in mainstream restaurants are like accidentally vegan like chips or salad or just anything that is naturally made out of plants. specialty things that have a lot of nuts and replacements are usually for if you order like a vegan meat burger or something like that and they are often better at home anyway. I personally don’t buy meat or cheese replacement unless I’m cooking because then I know it’s vegan, sometimes restaurants can mix up your orders.

Also if it can help maybe you can, if you’re able to try and cook your own meals or family meals that are vegan, if eating meat is really wearing on you all, but don’t worry about it if you aren’t able to do that.

Sorry my solutions are mostly compromises, but yeah I don’t think most vegans would blame for you for eating what your family does especially since it sounds like you’re in a kind of volatile situation here.

As for dietary requirements that is a blocking point for a lot of vegans so that’s very understandable. Personally I don’t eat nuts as well and I don’t like dates, I forgot what the third thing was but yeah there are ways to be vegan or plant based without eating those things. I would recommend eating a lot of beans, potatoes, rice, quinoa things that are high in protein but not necessarily nuts or anything and maybe tofu if you can. (Fried soy tofu is the best, I just buy I preseasoned because it isn’t worth the trouble-) If ordering vegan drinks maybe you could use the soymilk or even pat milk and avoid nut based milks and try and be very clear about that.

I think exploring with plant based foods even while you can’t completely cut away from animal products would be really helpful for you when you transition to full plant based if you’re able to get away and make that step if you want to. I do understand some members of your system focusing on your safety and some focusing on animal rights and I think if you both learn more about each others sides hopefully you’ll see eye to eye on it. I definitely understand where all of you are coming from though. It’s important to protect animals but it is also important to keep you safe. As a society we are failing animals but we’re also failing people who are in toxic environments and can’t get out yet. Your rights and safety are important too and it’s okay prioritising that.

 I’ll try to look for more resources for vegan food you can eat outside of family meals.

And I have access to a pretty good vegan community on here so if you like I can try and contact some of them and see if they have any advice. I really hope things go well for you, I’m sorry you’re in this situation. I appreciate you thinking about the animals while you’re all having a hard time as well.

#vegan for the animals #fell free to reach out at any time as well dudes #animal rights

[themindofastrid]

Five time management tips + resources useful for you (and me)

Image by rawpixel.com

1️⃣ Start small (make a to-do list).

I know being productive can seem really hard and stressful sometimes, especially if you have a thousand things to do. But the best way to start decluttering your mind is to write down absolutely everything you need to do, aka, a to-do list. You can keep a monthly to-do list, and then break it down into a weekly to-do list, to finally turn it into a daily to-do list. Lastly, you can keep a master to-do list, which combines the three types of to-do lists mentioned before. I personally use Microsoft To-Do.

2️⃣ Prioritize (classify your tasks).

After you have your daily to-do list ready (preferably, however you can do this with your monthly, weekly or master to-do list if you would like to), what will help you identify what should your next step be is assigning a level of importance to each task, aka, prioritizing. To classify the tasks you can assign numbers (i.e. 1-10, 1 being the most important and 10 being the least), letters (i.e. A for most important, and Z for the least), the Eat that Frog method (classify the tasks by starting with the most important and bigger one first, and then doing the next most important one, and so on). I personally prefer the Eisenhower matrix, which is a very simple way to classify tasks by urgency and importance. It basically consists in creating four categories or quadrants: urgent-important, urgent-not important, not urgent-important and not urgent-not important, and assigning one to each one of your tasks. It should look like the image below.

Source: Pinterest. Find two more prioritization techniques on this Pinterest post.

3️⃣Make the time (schedule each task).

After you have a clear vision of which task you should start with, the next step should be assigning it a specific date, time and duration, aka, calendar blocking. Your calendar or schedule works like a vision board but for your tasks. It will give you a clear idea of which tasks, in which order and for how long you should work. I like to use a physical desk calendar for monthly tasks, and a digital calendar for weekly/daily tasks. If you would like to know more about calendar blocking, check this video, and if you would like to have an aesthetic Google calendar, check this video.

4️⃣Break 'em down (break big tasks into small chunks).

If a big task still feels overwhelming and terrifying, a technique that can really help is breaking it down into a step-by-step plan, aka, turning it into small chunks of work. In his book Eat That Frog, Brian Tracy explains it like this: "Break large, complex tasks down into bite-sized pieces, and then do just one small part of the task to get started." To make it even easier, you can assign a Pomodoro timer to get started with your first small chunk, or you can apply the 10 (or 5) minute rule.

5️⃣Create a system (find what works for you).

At this point, I am pretty sure you ended that daunting task, you completed your most urgent and important tasks, and you feel like you can do anything; and, of course, you're completely right! Now that you have the key to your productivity success, then turn it into a system; find what methods, tools, schedules and setups work for you and stick with them. Remember, isn't about what works for others, it's about a system that serves you. How to start? Check this video on creating systems by Rowena Tsai.

Further readings:

Plan and Organize your Life by Beatrice Naujalyte. Best Time Management Tips by Intelligent Change. Warren Buffett’s “20 Slot” Rule by James Clear. 9 Proven Time Management Techniques and Tools by USAHS. Declassified School Survival Guide by Notion.

#post #article #time #time management #eat that frog #to do list #tips #recommendations #eisenhower matrix #productivity #study blog #studying #student life

[mariacallous]

The “Twitter Files” are to journalism what cosplay is to superheroism: an occasionally convincing imitation of the real thing. Though I shouldn’t insult cosplayers so: They bring joy and beauty to public life, while the Twitter Files are merely proving to be grist for the likes of QAnon and other extremely online individuals addicted to viral outrage. The latest round, this time curated by ex-New York Times editor Bari Weiss, was meant to show that Twitter did indeed engage in the dreaded “shadowbanning” of far-right imagining and discriminate against conservative accounts by completely hiding them from the general public in an act of “woke” censorship perpetrated at the highest levels.

But Weiss revealed both less and more than she wished, and in the process helped confirm what should already have been obvious after Matt Taibbi’s first round of Twitter Files posting: The confected scandals supposedly revealed by this PR-friendly access to Twitter’s internal systems offer a theatrical transparency that occludes the lack of the real thing under Musk’s leadership.

Part of the problem lies in the actual definition of “shadowban.” The term has come to mean whatever people want it to mean, with all the ideologically useful flexibility of words like “woke.” This has allowed Musk’s right-wing fans to play gotcha with an old tweet from Twitter HQ that categorically denied shadowbanning. “But, aha!” they seem to say, “Now intrepid journalist Bari Weiss has shown this is not so!” Weiss took advantage of this deliberate slipperiness when she claimed,  “What many people call ‘shadowbanning,’ Twitter executives and employees call ‘visibility filtering’ or VF,” and implied her sources said they were exactly the same thing.

But all she showed was that Twitter was doing what it had always said it was doing. First and foremost, “visibility filtering” covers everything, including user-generated filtering. If you’ve blocked or muted anyone, they’ve been visibility filtered for you, in company parlance. It also covers the way tweets from openly suspended accounts would be rendered invisible to the public. Without linking to it, Weiss selectively quotes from this 2018 Twitter blog post by former trust and safety lead Vijaya Gadde and former product lead Kayvon Beykpour where they categorically said, “People are asking us if we shadow ban. We do not.” 

The trouble for the mob is that there are more words in this post. Gadde and Beykpour set forth a clear definition of shadowbanning: “deliberately making someone’s content undiscoverable to everyone except the person who posted it, unbeknownst to the original poster.” This, they asserted, was not done—and nothing in the Twitter Files proves otherwise. Musk enthusiasts have deemed this mere weaselly wordplay. But, shockingly, there are still more words in this blog post. To wit: “We do rank tweets and search results. We do this because Twitter is most useful when it’s immediately relevant. These ranking models take many signals into consideration to best organize tweets for timely relevance. We must also address bad-faith actors who intend to manipulate or detract from healthy conversation.”

This ranking is explained in further detail with examples and an FAQ about a recent incident where some Republican politicians (along with Democratic politicos and a whole lot of other non-conservatives) were temporarily unable to be autosuggested through search. That was quickly fixed, but Gadde and Beykpour were clear that Twitter always had, and always would, engage in ranking and filtering based on a variety of factors. In other words, the thing that Weiss actually “uncovered” was something Twitter admitted to over four years ago. It’s even in Twitter’s terms of service.

In short, no one’s tweets were unfindable to the public without the poster knowing about it: If they were suspended or banned, naturally they’d be aware. De-amplification—affecting a person’s ranking in search results and the like—is rather different. Some might call it “freedom of speech but not freedom of reach.”

The people playing semantic games are Musk and his propagandists, performing a pantomime of transparency while glossing over a range of issues. Matt Taibbi revealed that the Trump administration made requests of Twitter all the time—but we know nothing about what they were, which were acted on, and why. Weiss revealed that the transphobic account Libs of TikTok was actually being given preferential treatment: No moderation decision could be made about the account without consulting higher-ups, a privilege afforded to very few on the platform and doubtlessly implemented to avoid upsetting the ever-voluble online right. Why? 

But, more than that, there has been absolutely no transparency about Musk’s decisionmaking since his arrival. Where are his emails? When can we gain insight into how he’s single-handedly made numerous content moderation decisions already? When will be allowed to verify that his public statements match his private reasoning? When will we learn how critical decisions about staffing were made? The answer is: likely never, in the absence of effective legal action. 

Musk’s Potemkin transparency is meant only to flatter him by ginning up false scandals about Twitter’s previous leadership (whom, it must be noted, he has made rather rich with his purchase). It paints a fictive image of Twitter as a dictatorship that Musk has liberated to the adulation of cheering masses. That, aside from its general utility to the right wing’s bottomless politics of grievance and self-victimization, is the chief aim of this entire enterprise. For the populist right, it offers a Zeno’s paradox of a conspiracy, where the ultimate revelation is just one more viral Twitter thread away.

It is difficult to take people seriously when they complain about Twitter having been led by a group of titled individuals with managerial responsibilities making management decisions while they simultaneously cheer the consolidation of those tasks in the hands of one man. What Musk offers is not transparency: It is caprice. His idiosyncratic whims, for which we can only take his word without any mechanism of appeal or accountability, are the content moderation policy. It beggars belief that anyone could see this as an improvement.

This mirrors the broader fiction about the takeover promulgated by Musk’s fans: that he has somehow emancipated the company and made it more democratic and accountable. But in corporate governance terms, he has simply moved from the oligarchic democracy of a publicly traded company—which, not for nothing, was required by law to disclose a great many things to the public—to a personalist dictatorship.

What he dreams of is freedom from any accountability. He’s not liberating “the people,” he’s liberating himself: taking Twitter private was about ensuring he’d not be accountable to shareholders or a board, and that he could disclose only what he wanted. In a typically brazen move, after granting ideologically captured stenographers unfettered access to Twitter’s tools to promote a message he approved of, he sent an email threatening his own staff with legal action if they ever leaked anything. Transparency indeed. Musk dreams of a world where no one tells him “no.” It’s a solipsistic dream shared by too many of his fans.

The sort of people who worship at Musk’s feet online—especially his newfound cadre of right-wing posters—are the sort whose every accusation is a confession or an aspiration. Rest assured that everything they have falsely accused Twitter of doing is what they seek to do to their many ideological enemies. Indeed, it’s already happening, with no transparency about the reasoning, no clear TOS violation to cite, and no process of appeal. His every move is a mockery of the idea of transparency. Is the public afraid that Musk’s gutting of content moderation staff and CSAM teams in particular will lead to a surge in such vile material? Just falsely imply your former coworkers of covering for pedophiles. Right-wing populists steeped in QAnon conspiracies will cheer you on, you will look revolutionary, and all the while things will just get steadily worse. 

The one potentially good thing to come out of this mess is Musk’s pledge to make Twitter’s VF more visible to end users, telling them if they’re being deranked and why. I’d actually welcome this, but it’s just another Musk promise; as with all else, one has to watch what Musk does rather than what he tweets. And what he’s doing points in an unsettling direction.

Musk’s most enthusiastic supporters lived in a delusional dystopia of their own making. Now they want revenge for the imagined slight. It won’t be pretty.

[shuro]

I want to start doing linocut soon. Do you have any tips for a beginner, or product recommendations? I loved the pokémon ones you did and have been meaning to ask for a bit :)

YEAAAAAA!!! linocut is so much fun! >:D

i am still not sure what the best products to get are since i just picked it up myself about six months or so ago i think....

i basically just went shopping on the blick website for all my stuff lol

to start out, i would suggest getting a small set of carving tools (the set i bought came with a sharpening stone but i have no idea how to use it and whetstones are expensive so i'm TRYING to make do ;__;)

i also purchased a tube of block printing ink (black), some ink palette paper (it's clear plastic and makes for easier ink application) as well as a small brayer to apply ink

later on i ended up purchasing a baren for smoothing the paper over the block. they're used to ensure even ink application! before i was using a big spoon. it was not ideal. so i also recommend grabbing a small handheld one of those too! (i think mine was like 10 bucks or less on blick)

in terms of paper, there IS specialty printmaking paper you should probably get for the best quality prints, but i just use regular old 65lb cardstock from michaels and it works fine for me so??????

regarding tips:

keep your compositions simple at first as you get the hang of the medium and carving out shapes with your tools.

i find that thick, chunky, angular straight lines work best for me because getting fine details + rounded edges is difficult with the tools. (this is especially true if you are working with smaller pieces of linoleum like i do)

also don't be like me and thoroughly research how to properly sharpen your tools bc i think i may have ruined one of mine WHOOPS

keep me posted if you remember to!! i would love to see what you create <3333

#asks #anonymous

[astorytotellyourfriends]

enemies to lovers + Luke/Bobby *heavy breathing*

brought to you by the third to last photo in taylor kare's latest instagram post and also miss you like hell by nightly (thank u @where-you-go for always indulging me with perfect lukebobby songs)

-x-

Luke doesn't even know what he's doing here. If Alex or Reggie knew what he was doing, they'd be so pissed. They'd tell him he should know better, that he's only going to make things worse; as if Luke doesn't know that already.

He's not acting in his own best interest or with any sort of common sense. He's never had any common sense when it comes to Bobby so honestly, nobody should expect anything different.

It's his own stupid fault that he even found out about Bobby's show in the first place. If Luke would just block Bobby on Instagram then this never would've happened. Deep down, he knows that even if he did block Bobby, he'd still torture himself every once in a while by looking up Bobby's account anyway.

But maybe it's not just his fault. Maybe it's Bobby's fault too, at least partially, for posting more now than he ever did before. A year ago, Bobby's Instagram was practically bare. Now it's like he's selling himself, his brand, and it's all a fucking lie.

Luke just wishes the lie didn't look so fucking good. Maybe he wouldn't be so mad. Maybe he wouldn't have bought an impulse ticket to Bobby's show tonight and maybe he wouldn't be skulking around in the back of the club, waiting for Bobby to take the stage.

Maybe Luke would be at home doing something productive with his time, like fueling his anger at Bobby into a song or two. Maybe a whole album. Maybe Alex and Reggie wouldn't notice.

The lights in the club go dim and the crowd starts cheering, which does absolutely nothing to settle Luke's churning stomach. He told himself that he'd stay as far away from the stage as possible. He doesn't want Bobby to know he's here; he doesn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he still gets under his skin.

Bobby's not allowed to know things about him anymore.

Luke hates that the first thought that comes to mind when Bobby takes the stage is fuck, he looks good. He shakes his head, tearing his eyes away from the stage as he resists the urge to get closer. The set hasn't even started yet and he's already losing his goddamn nerve.

He manages to stay still through the set, not even lifting his hands to clap when songs end. Everyone else around him cheers, clearly enjoying Bobby's music and the show he's putting on, but Luke just glares daggers at him from the back of the club.

"Thanks," Bobby says, huffing a laugh into the microphone. Luke bristles at the sound of it, hating the way the sound of it tugs at his chest. "I've got one more and, uhh, I have a new song that I was thinking of playing…"

The crowd voices their interest with a number of cheers and Luke feels a lump form in his throat. Bobby glances around as he wraps his hand around the microphone stand, and for a moment Luke thinks that maybe he's spotted him. His heart skips a beat and he feels the urge to run, but then Bobby speaks again.

"It's, umm," he swallows hard, "it's about someone I… someone I lost. It's called Miss You Like Hell."

As soon as the song starts, Luke's seething. It would be so much easier to feel good about hating Bobby if he was a shitty musician on top of everything else.

Drove by your old apartment

Looking for a way to start it over again

Cuz you’ve been stuck in my head

Luke doesn't want to like this song. He wants to hate it, he wants to hate Bobby with every fibre of his being. He does hate Bobby, that's not going to change. He had his chance to apologize and he didn't take it.

Tried to open up about it

Called a friend to clear my conscience

They said there’s nothing, nothing

It feels like the walls are closing in on Luke. The crowd seems to disappear around him; it's only him and Bobby in the room.

I miss you like hell

I don’t know what to do about it

Bobby doesn't even know he's here. There's no way he knows. Luke is being so careful, he's kept to the shadows, he doesn't want Bobby to know he's here. He feels the urge to leave, but it's coupled with the desperate desire to rush the stage and force Bobby to say these things to his face.

There's no way this song isn't about him and Luke knows it, but he wants to hear it from Bobby himself.

Before the song ends, Luke finds his feet moving forward of their own accord. He dodges people left and right, maneuvering through the crowd until he's barely two feet from the stage.

He's staring Bobby down the entire time, which means he sees it the exact moment that Bobby notices him. It's like he's seen a ghost.

Bobby stammers through his goodbye, forcing a smile when he thanks the crowd, but it's obvious he's rattled. Good, Luke thinks to himself. He keeps staring Bobby down even as Bobby exits the stage, throwing one last look over his shoulder at Luke before he disappears backstage.

Luke practically runs through the club to get out as fast as he can, not caring one bit about anyone he knocks into in his rush. As soon as he makes it out the front, he hightails it into the alley beside the club in search of the stage door.

He doesn't have a plan. His mind is blank apart from a constant loop of Bobby. He can't let him get away. He needs Bobby to explain himself, even if he has to force it out of him.

The stage door swings open just before Luke reaches it, causing him to stumble to a stop. When Bobby appears through it a moment later, Luke honestly thinks that he's hallucinating at first. There's no way it's going to be this easy.

"What are you doing here?" Bobby asks, his voice hoarse and breathless.

"I…" Luke starts, finding it hard to breathe. He hadn't realized how out of breath he was until this moment, and he curses himself for it. He doesn't want to show any weakness right now. "I just--"

"I didn't--" Bobby falters, turning away from Luke like he can't hold himself together if he's looking at him. "You weren't supposed to be here."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Luke snaps.

"What are you doing here?" Bobby asks again, sounding stronger this time. Far more angry than before.

"It's a free country," Luke says as he crosses his arms. He keeps staring at Bobby and slowly starts to feel his resolve crack. "I bought a ticket at the door," he adds lamely.

Bobby mimics Luke, wrapping his arms around himself, and huffs. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you here?" Bobby shouts.

"I don't know!" Luke shouts back. "Why did you write that song?"

"No, you--" Bobby groans loudly. "You don't get to ask me that."

"Why not?"

"Because you don't get to dictate what I write songs about!"

"I do when they're clearly about me!" Luke yells. "What the fuck, Bobby?!"

"You weren't supposed to hear it!"

"Too fucking late!"

"I didn't know you were--" Bobby groans again. "If I'd known you-- I wouldn't--"

Luke scoffs. "What, you'd go back to pretending you never gave a shit about me?"

"That's not--"

"You don't get to play the victim, Bobby," Luke says as he approaches Bobby. "You're the one who left."

"Don't you think I know that?" Bobby answers angrily as he moves closer to Luke. "It's all my fault. I fucking know it, okay?"

Luke laughs bitterly. "Is this you taking responsibility?"

"Fuck you."

"Fuck you!" Luke gives Bobby a hard shove, but Bobby gets right back in Luke's face.

"Don't fucking push me," he growls.

"Or what?"

They're so close together that when Bobby breathes out, Luke feels his breath. His heartbeat is pounding in his ears as they stare each other down, anger radiating off of both of them. He hasn't been this close to Bobby in months and it reminds Luke of so many things all at once, but he fights to hang onto his anger.

In the end, it's Bobby who breaks first. He crashes his mouth against Luke's as he throws his arms around him, tangling one hand in Luke's hair with a grip so tight it hurts.

Luke whimpers into Bobby's mouth but latches on in an instant, kissing him hard as he digs his fingers into Bobby's back deep enough to leave bruises.

Even if nothing else about their former relationship worked, this was always something they could agree on.

filled prompts

#bobby x luke #lukebobby #jatp #jatp fic #julie and the phantoms #justine writes shit #answered #Anonymous