#haha isn't it cool how i spent like an hour writing this

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

Hey slug! Obviously it's a bit older now, but I was wondering if you might be able to translate Sougyaran BAM, from Kuko? I feel like I don't quite understand the TLs I have seen, so I was wondering if there were certain references or concepts I'm missing here lol

I saw the email notification of this request at the perfect moment. Too anxious to do work or anything else productive. Too caffeinated to sleep. Fuck it. Time to look at Kuukou for an hour.

Under a cut for length

Like a lot of Kuukou's... well, everything... this song is an eclectic mix of elements that can all more or less be distilled into these couple of bullet points:

Trying to fight the listener

Dropping powerful life advice or Buddhist teachings

Claiming his music is both a game changer and the kind of stuff that gets your blood pumping

Scatting, rhyming without meaning, or otherwise making wordplay

Outside of the parts that are straight-up nonsensical, the majority of the rap is very casual to the point of being rude. However, it's also interspersed with formal religious language. Again, both of these are how Kuukou talks, but I get why this would make it difficult for someone to translate.

I talk about this a lot whenever I translate anything, but an important (and maybe the most important!) part of any translation is determining the methodology, focus, and goals before you begin. I figure that if someone's asking me to look at song lyrics for songs that have been out for years, they probably care a lot more about the minutiae of what the character's saying than if I'm writing a rap as part of a longer work where readers aren't going to give it much attention. In that second case, it's probably more important to convey the appearance of a rap--rhyme, rhythm, what have you--and make sure I'm hitting the overall meaning rather than translate word-for-word. You know? The issue is, translating word-for-word would produce mostly nonsense on this one, since my interpretation of its meaning is largely coming from reading between the lines. There's also no real meaning outside of the four bullet points above. It's all vibes. So, this is a vibe-focused translation. When Kuukou says something with no meaning (that I can tell) outside of wordplay, I've exchanged it with a fresh wordplay. At the same time, since I assume the audience wants to know the minutiae, I put footnotes at the very end for the most curious souls. Finally, outside of wordplay moments, there is no attention paid to rhyming, rhythm, or line length.

Also I spent like forty minutes on it so it isn't a polished work of art or anything of the sort. Lyrics:

You wanna piece of this? That’s cool, tough guy. Bring it on. ‘Cause I’mma mess you up. Hmm? You’ve had enough? Yeah, bitch, I bet you’re fuckin’ SATIETIED. Who the hell do you think you are? Aw, who I am kidding? It doesn’t matter who you are. I’ve never met an ass I couldn’t kick! And while I’m here thrashing your sorry butt, listen up. I’m Kuukou from Bad Ass Temple, representing Nagoya, yo. And I’m gonna be world champion. Whazzat? Who do I think I am, some kinda fancy-pants hotshot? Nah, dawg. I’m a monk, haha! Get in the zone, do it or go home, this ain’t the scene you’ve known. [1] I’m a rebellious rhymer staging a revolution. C’mon, join me! Let me hear your voices!

“Enough determination can move mountains,” as they say. Yeah, a-a-a-and I’ve got determination for days.

San gha gharan bam! [2] S-S-S-Scatting n’ rapping, rapping with my razzle-dazzle tongue [3] Check, ch-ch-ch-check it, che-wa-watch out Gha bam! S-S-S-Scatting n’ rapping, rapping, BAT’s sexy leader [4] Kick, kickin’ kickin’ killer San gha gharan bam gha gha gharan bam gha gha gharan bam Gha gha gha gha gharan bam

Say what? Rules, rules, rules—who the fuck cares about rules? I’m the ruler now. A ruler and a schooler. [5] Yo, I’ve got that brand new music— When I ring this giant bell, people hear that shit far and wide. Beat it! And lyrics? You already know I spit so much fire they call me a dragon. I’m all about the impulses, the anarchy, let’s fuckin’ go! I’m a breath of fresh air up in this shit. Eight pulls, nine pulls, ten pulls—someone say temples? [6] If you don’t know already, then you oughta listen up. You don’t need any of these options. Go make your own. Paint that shit vibrantly. Go try something new! And if it goes so well you can indulge in some goddamn rejoicin’? Then hell yeah, now we’re talking.

Yo, man. The world’s all in how you see it, as they say, and don’t you ever forget it. A-a-a-and I may be a monk, but I’m not preachin’ just to scold you! [7]

San gha gharan bam! S-S-S-Scatting n’ rapping, rapping with my razzle-dazzle tongue Check, ch-ch-ch-check it, che-wa-watch out Gha bam! S-S-S-Scatting n’ rapping, rapping, BAT’s sexy leader Kick, kickin’ kickin’ killer San gha gharan bam gha gha gharan bam gha gha gharan bam Gha gha gha gha gharan bam

Yeah, life’s got ups and downs. You asking me, “Whatchu lookin’ at?” [8] Your ASS, lol got ‘em. Wassup, wassup, I’m a rhymer. I’m makin’ some good shit up in here. Hm? Ey, dance, dance over days when our hearts are aligned [9] Shoo bidoo doo bidoo Roo bidoo doo bidoo Tickili tickili tackili-tatt-too

Yeah! Haha! My rapping’s freakin’ EXHILARATORY. Hello! Aight, c’mon on, lemme give you some of this and wake you right up. Yo, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, ho!

Gharan bam gharan bam Gh-gh-gh-gh hey! Bring it on, tough guy! R-r-rapping, rapping, r-r-rapping with my razzle-dazzle tongue R-r-rapping, yeah, gh-gh-gh, hey!

Yeah, clear the scene, ‘cause I’mma reinvent the scene. [10] Yo, get outta my way. I’m Evil Monk, the dragon of Bad Ass Temple, you know. Rrrrrrah! [1] This last is literally "clear weather (空)" or "energetic vibes (空)." At face value, it appears to be nonsense for rhyming. However, at the very end of the song, Kuukou talks about "the vibes/the scene (空気)" changing and him changing it (which can also be read as the weather changing/clearing up), which makes me wonder if those two are related. Just in case, I wrote them with a possible connection in English too.

[2] 僧伽藍 (sangharan) is a short form of 僧伽藍摩 (sangharama), a Buddhist temple or monastery. Bam is, of course, the sound of Kuukou throwing hands.

[3] 饒舌 (jouzetsu) is a fairly formal word in Japanese to refer to excessive talking. However, I was surprised to learn in the process of TLing this that it's also Chinese for rapping which appears to be how Kuukou's using it here. Also, if you're curious how English "jazzy" became "razzle-dazzle," I realized near the end of the song that I needed to start this word with the same sound as "rapping" (because he scats the j sound on jazzy and jouzetsu) whereupon I set out to find a good synonym. The issue is, I wasn't sure exactly how the lyric writers were using the term, so I put "jazzy" in an English-to-Japanese dictionary to get "loud, invigorating, eye-catching." Yeah, that's Kuukou all right. "Razzle-dazzle" is similar and starts with an r, so there we go.

[4] The lyrics say "xy な leader" (the な is just indicating that "xy" is being used as an adjective, btw) which I assumed means sexy... ekkusu ii said quickly sounds like sekushii. To be sure I wasn't barking up the wrong tree entirely, I ran a quick Twitter search on that line and found a very large number of Japanese Tweeters thinking the exact same thing I was. (It looks like Kuukou's VA once flashed his collarbone on this line in a concert, delighting scores of collarbone lovers everywhere.) That being said, searching anything on Twitter and finding horny Tweets isn't exactly a novel concept. Well, if I'm wrong about this, then at least I'm in the good company of all the thirsty Kuukou fans. Hahaha. If this seems OoC to you, I feel like it's here mainly for fanservice, not necessarily because Kuukou's trying to get some with the person he's beating up and/or preaching at. Although, idk. If you ship Kuukou with anyone, you could very well see some parallels...

[5] Literally "I'll beat up [everything] including the roulette board." Wordplay on rules (ruuru), ruler (ruuraa), and roulette (ruuretto)

[6] Literally "Terapii (therapy), terapii, terapii, tera (temple)-- Oh, the age of temples?" Wordplay/stupid joke

[7] I don't like how I worded this line, but I don't care enough to spend much more time fussing over it. Kuukou's making a joke that, as a monk, he delivers religious sermons 説法. However, in colloquial terms, a 説法 is a telling-off when someone does something undesirable. Kuukou, as a frequent doer of undesirable things, gets these from his dad constantly. Therefore, he's being like, "This isn't the LAME STUPID kind of 説法... this is the kind that ROCKS! *sick guitar riff*"

[8] These two lines seem like complete non sequiturs because they're paired together in Japanese for rhyming. (nami ga dekiru/nani ga mieru)

[9] I admit that I'm struggling to understand this line because the grammar is very irregular. Japanese Twitter is not being especially helpful here, as most Tweets featuring it are some version of "God, this damn song is stuck in my head."

[10] Literally "[Someone] changes the atmosphere/scene. The atmosphere/scene changes." See note 1

#hypmic translations #hypmic asks

[bloodybreakupscene]

Hi, I could request a picture with Robin where the reader invites Robin on a date because he had set up a surprise for him on Valentine's Day (made dinner with her mother's help, buys a gift and even takes him out) , but Robin ends up forgetting to go on the day because he had agreed to take Finn to the movies before and hadn't warned the reader? something with a little angst and a happy ending please?

-> 𝐋𝐄𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊 𝐌𝐘 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍

robin arellano x reader

-> you planned a special date for valentine's for you and robin but he doesn't show up :(

-> hello! i'm not very good at writing angst but i hope this is good, the plot was really interesting and i thought it was rlly cool HAHA

you were practically skipping to the local market. it was valentine's day and you were working on something special for your crush robin as you finally got the courage to ask him on a date, and he accepted! you spent a few days before v-day to plan out what specifically you wanted to do together but you narrowed it down to hanging out at the mall and then dinner at your place. you even got a gift to give him when you meet up!

you picked cute little heart decorations like balloons and cards, you didn't want to overdue it because robin didn't exactly seem like the 'lovey-dovey' type, but you couldn't help it sometimes, this stuff was cute. you walked out of the store, bag of goodies in hand, and went towards your home to make the card and then attach it to your gift. the gift you purchased a while ago, it was a black bandana with a different design to his current one.

you opened and then locked the door to your house behind you and got to work, with help of your mother. she was honestly so happy that you felt this way about a person, it's a special feeling, isn't it; she said, laughing as you stuttered and hid your face in the table while she helped you tape the off-white envelope to the small box you had. you and your mom both re-discussed the plans before she left for work.

"—and then after the mall, we'll come home and have dinner."

"are you sure you'll be okay cooking for two with me gone? i know you know how to cook but two is maybe much?" she thought.

"no mama i'll be okay, i promise!! don't worry."

"are ya' sure? or are you just trying to make me leave early." she joked, before pulling you into a borderline bruising hug. she tucked her head onto yours and laughed at your groans and cringing face.

"MOM!! . . stop." you rolled your eyes, trying to pry her arms off you.

"fine." she wiped a fake tear from her eye and gave you one more bug before she left for work.

"bye honey! don't burn the house down while i'm gone." she said, getting into the car in the parking lot and slowly drove away."

"bye, love you!!" you waved before closing and locking the door. you turned towards the clock and noticed it said 4:30, half an hour left before you and robin were supposed to meet. you ran towards your room and began to get ready, but not before putting in your favourite record on the vinyl player. dressing in your favourite outfit the song finally ended and you couldn't be even more happy. you strolled towards the mall entrance and waited for robin to show.

five minutes passed and you still couldn't be happy, you waved at the few classmates you recognized passing by and waited for robin to show up. five minutes turned to ten, and ten turned into thirty. instead of standing, you sat down at one of the few benches near the entrance. about an hour passed and you lost all hope of robin showing up. you sighed and took one breath in, air feeling sharp.

as you were walking home you bit down on your lip, trying not to let your tears leave your eyes. however, it was a bit late as a single tear fell onto the concrete and you speedwalked in the direction of your home. you passed a movie theater, slightly envious at the many groups of people hanging out together, but you walked faster and blinked your tears away. there was robin, hanging out with someone else, finney. you heard him talk about him a few times and thought their friendship was cute until now, obviously.

your heart felt sore and you continued walking home, debating whether to just let the tears fall or wait until you get home. the missing car in the driveway made you feel a little better as you were a little glad your mom didn't have to see you like this, a mess.

closing your bedroom door, the tears just started falling, no warning or anything. you leaned against the opening and just bawled your eyes out. your nose ran and your eyes felt rough as your wiped your tears constantly, your heart ached and you clenched your stomach as a pathetic attempt to make the pain stop. you leaned your head onto your knees as your wrapped your arms comfortingly around your knees.

the vinyl record still playing felt like a mockery and you shut it off immediately. while in your own little world, you didn't hear the front door open and someone enter your room. tears began falling harder when your mom wrapped her arms around you and held you comfortably. the two of you stood there, your sniffles getting quieter and your eyes stayed puffy. your mother said nothing as she walked out except a quiet and quick, "i'll cook dinner."

—

another blood curdling scream left the speakers of the movie theater. blood and guts spilled everywhere as the blonde lady on the screen tripped and fell into a rack of knives trying to outrun the killer, nothing robin hasn't seen before. he laughed as finney jumped yet again.

"i don't understand how you can watch these." he said, taking another handful of popcorn.

"you've seen one, you've seen a hundred." robin shrugged.

'damien? you're covered in blood. . . what's going on?"

"i killed them all, for you, as a gift, for valentine's day."

"you must be, the valentine's day killer then."

valentine's day killer, how fucking cheesy; robin thought. wait, valentine's day? holy shit, it's fucking valentine's day. the day he planned to go on a date with you. he spit out his popcorn and erupted into a coughing fit, causing other people in the theater to groan and shush the two.

"robin? are you okay? what's wrong?" finney asked, confused. he didn't really know what to do, especially since he met robin like a week ago.

"no— okay. let's go— outSIDE." he said, dragging finney with him outside of the theater.

"wha—? what? what's wrong?" he asked, confused.

"dude, i had a DATE with (y/n), and i fucking blew it." he responded, guilt relevant in his tone.

"what? are you serious?"

"YES!! holy shit, i fucked up bad. let's go to mine."

—

"he's shit honey, stop worrying about him." your mother said gently, hiding the anger she had towards this boy.

"i know. . . but i like him, maybe something happened." you said, trying to convince yourself that it wasn't his fault, and it was just some sort of mishap.

"if you say so, however i can't say i'll be happy if i see him over." she rolled her eyes, plotting robin's murder already. as she cleaned the dishes, the house phone rang. you walked towards the phone and picked it up.

"hey (y/n)." you hung up.

"who was it?"

"no one." you sighed, kissing your mother on the cheek and then went back to the living room. you were about to change the channel when a there was a knock on the door, with your mom cooking dinner you decided to answer it.

"(y/n)!" robin called.

"oh. . . hey um, robin." you greeted, eyes starting to swell with tears again.

"i'm, i'm really sorry." is all robin could mutter, i mean, what else could he possibly say to make you feel better. your eyes were puffy and red, and it looked like you were about to cry some more.

"it's, fine, i guess." you were about to close the door until robin put his foot into the door, stopping it from closing.

"what??"

"(y/n), please, i'm really sorry, i promise, i didn't want to hurt you i promise i just forgot, and i wouldn't want to hurt you on purpose, please. i'll make it up to you in anyway please just, i'm sorry."

"that was, nice. it's okay. just don't say an apology that corny again, please." you laughed, wiping the after-tears from your eyes.

"thanks (y/n)." he said, smiling and grateful you've forgiven him.

#the black phone #the black phone x reader #tbp x reader #the black phone x you #robin arellano #robin arellano x reader #robin x reader #tbp robin #robin tbp #fanfic #fluff

[queenlua]

I've been thinking about picking up FF13, the way people talk about combat system intrigues me (I've never really liked standard final fantasy combat) and I love for a story to have a female lead... if the writing does a good enough job? I've heard a couple vague compelling things about Lightning as a protagonist but I've never known how much credence to give any of it. My hope, spun up from what I've heard, is that she's kind of a bitch (laudatory) without the writing being too... aggressively gendery about her being a woman, if that makes sense. Any information/perspective you care to share would be helpful 🙏

(and I don't care very much about spoilers-- sometimes spoilers end up being crucial for making me interested enough in a piece of media to actually try it!)

ohhh interesting yeah so re: ff13:

Lightning's arc didn't feel particularly gendered to me, surprisingly! overall i'd say her arc gave me vibes of Stressed-Out High-Performing Twentysomething Who Opts To Work Really Hard Instead Of Dealing With Feelings. which is, like, how i spent some chunk of my 20s, so, perfectly relatable on that front, and also a thing i've seen high-performing twentysomethings of p much every gender do at some point haha

for me her most compelling arc was the one she has with Hope, which is a kind of mentor-y arc—you sort of see her transition from "i'm barking orders and bossing this kid around because I Know Best," into, uhhh "oh fucking shit this kid is listening to me, they think i have Authority, how did that happen fuck fuck fuck i'm freakin out a little." you can read a decent amount of gender into that if you want to, right, mentor-liness is somewhat femme-coded—but not exclusively so; this arc also felt compelling to me in that i could kinda see that dynamic happening between a lot of different types of 20something-teenagerish pairs.

the writing has other weaknesses—ones you've probably heard already. the game seems to expect you to either Read A Bunch Of Tiny Print In Menus, or else Just Be Kind Of Confused For The First Few Hours, and i'm impatient so i opted to Just Be Kind Of Confused. weirdly, once you hit the 10-hour mark, the story tightens up hugely and everything's very coherent. and it's not like you're totally clueless before then. but it's just... yeah, it starts out a little wobby for non-Gender reasons

my big rec re: gameplay: would be, maybe watch a video of some speedrunners playing this video game first? just 15min-1hr should be plenty—watching speedrunners which got me interested in giving this game a second chance. the combat system is SO cool, but it's possible to do everything slowly/tediously/boringly, which will NOT feel satisfying, and unfortunately the difficulty isn't high enough to FORCE you to try interesting stuff early on. whereas, if you're trying to do Speedrunner Bullshit (try and finish combat AS FAST AS POSSIBLE, a few tricks you'll see them do), you will have an amazing time out of the gate. like i literally think those speedrunners TAUGHT me how to play the game "properly," and sure i wasn't LITERALLY speedrunning but i was focusing on gogogo in a way that felt really visceral and satisfying when i played.

i typed up some other scattered thoughts over here, ages ago

hope that all helps! & lemme know if you give it a shot, for good or for ill~

[haunting-system]

Hey, this intro post is mainly so you can see our bios on mobile as well, if you're on desktop you're obviously welcome to read them here but also I (Imogen) spent 7 hours learning HTML to put buttons on the blog site so if you wanna look at them there it'd be greatly appreciated haha

Red @finallyhauntings - 20, they/it/thon bisexual, host & local Cool Guy (I am actually very very cringe and take pride in that) (also the account's "main" blog, this is where likes and follows come from)

Lily @occasional-lilith - 23, she/her demisexual lesbian, raging lesbian, aspirational poet (when I'm in front enough to write), the only member of this system who knows how to bloody read

J - 2-5, he/him (but in a nonbinary way), our only little, probably won't post but we might refer to him sometimes (J isn't his actual name I'm just calling him that for like Safety Reasons)

Roxy - puppy, she/her, nonhuman alter (dog), her only two moods are PLAY PLAY PLAY GIVE ME SCRITCHES LICKING YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW and cuddle me so I can sleep

Bambi - 20, she/her pansexual aromantic, again won't actually post but might get referred to, all you need to know for context for if/when I meme abt her is that she exists for sexual purposes (has her own blog but I'm not promoting that shit here bc it's exclusively nsfw)

Orion - 15, he/him straight, big enjoyer of all things space and some things gaming (Fortnite, Helldivers and Elite Dangerous being some favourites)

Jaskier/Julian - 30s-ish, he/him bisexual, fictive of one Julian Pankratz, the bard Jaskier, that's been dormant since before we realised we were a system and is now very definitively back (and as of writing this missing my darling family)

Imogen @imogen-exe - 17, she/it aroace, graphic design is my passion (haha), I'm doing us an actual blog theme as soon as I've written my bio, I'm also taking on the responsibility of overhauling our SimplyPlural to make it look nice, complete with custom collages to represent each alter made by yours truly!

#plural system #traumagenic system #system stuff #sysblr #dissociative system #system things

[jamesunderwater]

having an anon friend always seems like so much fun and i’m somehow jealous of you.

my fave time of day: my favourite time of day is definitely just before the sun sets. like when the sun looks so much bigger and the sky is a bunch of different colours, that’s my favourite time. (it’s also the time i go home everyday so maybe it’s also the fact that it’s home time).

my favourite character: alaska young. the book version though. there was something about “looking for alaska” that hooked me in at a young age and i’ve never quite been the same since.

one fact: i failed high school english. most of my friends see me as highly literate so when i tell them i actually failed english (it’s my first language too) it always comes as a big shock.

now my questions for you: what’s your favourite holiday? if you could have any fast food brand available to you at a moments notice, what would it be? if you had to describe yourself using two colours, which would they be? 🩶

friend anon!!! despite my considerable neglect of our friendship, i want you to know that replying to your asks was literally on my to-do list for months. i hope that this feels like a compliment -- i only write out "reply to so and so" and "text so and so" when i really care xD

okay if you came off anon though OR figured out how to stealthily leave a message about wanting a friend anon (idk how you'd do that, but worth a try lol) maybe YOU could have a friend anon too. i need to be someone's friend anon, actually. it's such a sweet feeling to make someone feel seen like that, to make someone smile by showing them people care and are interested in them as a person. thanks for being the kind of cool person who does that! <3 i hope you get a friend anon, you deserve one too.

ohhh, that moment before the sun sets is such a beautiful one!! i'm curious what your landscape is like when you're heading home each day -- are you seeing this sky against a city backdrop? an expanse of fields? suburban streets lined with houses? a mountain with houses scattered all down it? the sea or other waterscape? i must know.

haha i am excited that you ended up choosing a character i actually know! fun fact, when i was in high school, my childhood best friend and i reconnected and we always had a kind of ethereal bond. one day we were sitting in her car in a cemetery and decided we wanted to rename ourselves based on our truer nature, but decided we should name each other. i actually named her Alaska, because she so, so reminded me of Alaska from that book. she was just (still is, even now)...unearthly in some ways. magic kind of poured out of every part of her. she ended up changing her name to Alaska really everywhere, truly went by the name for years. I think she only recently started going by her birth name again. (she named me Luna, if you're wondering, and what a compliment, to be compared to the moon in any sense)

i hope it's not rude to say, but i love your one fact? cause fuck school. it is so not a measure of our actual intelligence or proclivities. kinda love that you prove that with that story -- though i am sorry you had that experience, because I'm sure it was very stressful.

okay, i probably already apologized for this, but like.......sorry again for having absolutely no capacity for short replies. i don't really know how people don't comment on every little thing like this? hopefully you don't hate it!

favorite holiday: generally speaking, Christmas. Huge fan of Halloween as well. but the last few years Christmas has been very quiet for me, and while I haven't hated that, it just isn't exactly the holiday it used to be. So you know what? In this moment, I think my answer might be New Year's Eve instead. for several years now I've spent that day in reflection, and journaled for hours at night about the previous year or years, hopes for the new year, all of that. I love it. and I love that, unlike other holidays, I don't really feel the need or even desire to be with others that day -- so the fact that I'm usually not doesn't feel strange or like something i need to fix.

fast food brand: i don't really eat fast food much, or eat out that often at all. but despite the fact that i hardly ever eat red meat, for some reason my brain has associated "i did a hard thing and now i deserve heavy-calorie, easy meal" with Five Guys. which is basically really expensive, wonderfully greasy burgers, and i always feel like shit afterward, but there you have it.

two colors: oh how i love this question... it's hard not to jump to my favorite colors, but that's not what you're asking here. i'm so curious what my friends would say 😆 but me? i think i would say the golden yellow of ginkgo leaves in fall. and... mm, yeah, the dark green of a spruce tree (i looked some up, and i think the black hills spruce tree is the best representation of the green i mean).

<3333 thank you for these questions and the wonderful conversation, friend anon. i hope you had the loveliest of holidays and this week is restful for you.

#friend anon #lovely anons #you've got mail #me

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #37

The candied orange peels are just about finished drying out! Behold!

As you might expect, they taste even better now that they're fully dried! I will put them in a container soon so I can share it with some friends on Sunday! I'm very excited!

I played a game called Terraria for the first time in a very long time today! It's a wonderful game in which you can build lots of cool things and fight various kinds of interesting enemies! I already have thousands of hours invested into this game, and it's one of my favorites, but I don't usually have anyone to play it with. Doing it by oneself is usually fine enough, but without someone to do it together with, it usually feels pretty dull and meaningless after a while. With the way my brain works, I have lots of trouble trying to find the meaning in building beautiful things if there's no one around to share it with.

I wonder if you've ever felt like this. Are there things that you haven't done in a long time that you would like to return to doing? Do you sometimes struggle to create things if you can't share the results with anyone? I know you can't answer me, but still I wonder.

In any case, I made a new friend from Germany yesterday, and as it turns out, she is familiar with Terraria, too! She hasn't played it in even longer than I have, so there have been a lot of updates since the last time she played. These updates introduced a variety of new enemies, items, and mechanics that she wasn't familiar with. But she's very smart, and she relearned what was familiar to her and adapted to the new mechanics very quickly! I was impressed! We gathered a lot of resources in order to build things, and she even dug a very deep hole all the way down to the Hell biome! Watching her patience and persistence in action was incredible!

Even better, she's a wonderful conversation partner, and we spent the entire time chatting and laughing about various things, from the politics in our countries, to random, silly topics. She even taught me some German words and phrases! I think my favorite one of those is one that I know about in English, but we don't have a specific word for - it is well-known in my world that sometimes, when you have a problem, and then you try to show it to someone, the problem mysteriously vanishes until you stop trying to show it to someone. In German, that phenomenon is called Vorführeffekt! It is a very good word, and you can bet your bottom that I'm going to incorporate it into my own vocabulary (even if I still have a little trouble trying to pronounce it, haha!)

I got enough resources today to build a house, but it has been so long since last I played that I almost forgot the typical style that I like to build in. This is a clumsier example of the houses I usually like to build, but that's okay - I'll show it to you anyway! Check it out!

My friend spoke about getting marble to build a whole castle with! It is time for her to go to bed, but at my house, it's still the middle of the evening; after I'm done writing this letter to you, I might wander around the world and try to find her some marble to build with; I literally cannot wait to see what she can do!! I'm so excited!

It's a relatively rare thing for me to make a new friend; most folks find me vaguely unsettling for a variety of reasons, haha! But that's all right; the rarity of this thing only makes it all the more meaningful when I find someone I seem to "click" with! I wonder how this interaction will unfold! In written conversation on previous occasions, she has said a variety of insightful things that shows her critical thinking skills and deep attunement to patterns and detail; I am very much looking forward to learning as much as I can by listening to her perspective on a variety of things as time goes on!

It seems like making new friends is a relatively rare thing for you, too, isn't it? But that's just the way it is sometimes for folks who are considered "unusual". And that's okay. This sort of thing is why us weirdos have to stick together. And it's a lot more fun that way, anyhow. After all, normal is kind of boring, isn't it? So let's make a promise to embrace our "weirdness" instead of wandering around, trying to pretend to be someone we're not. That sort of thing is exhausting anyhow, and we have better things to spend our time and energy on, don't we?

Stay safe out there, all right? Remember you are loved, and let that knowledge empower you to do brave and amazing things.

I'll write again soon.

Your friend, Lumine

#sephiroth #ThankYouFFVIIDevs #ThankYouFF7Devs #ThankYouSephiroth #final fantasy vii #final fantasy 7 #ff7 #ffvii #final fantasy vii crisis core #final fantasy 7 crisis core #final fantasy crisis core #ffvii crisis core #ff7 crisis core #crisis core #ff7r #final fantasy vii remake #final fantasy 7 remake #ffvii remake #ff7 remake #final fantasy vii rebirth #final fantasy 7 rebirth #ffvii rebirth #ff7 rebirth #final fantasy 7 ever crisis #ffvii ever crisis #ff7 ever crisis #ffvii first soldier #terraria #new friends #wholesome

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (25/06/23)

a new series and a finale today wao tho next week will be quite busy with 3 anime finales and 1 manga one and the 1 hour premier of the ryza anime let alone any stuff I might catch up to too since I'm on vacation from work, should be fun

blue - finale/completed green - new series/new to me

Anime

Megumin Ep12 (Finale)

I made a TLDR post about it the other day but the show is finally over. As I said a billion times since then, it should've ended after ep6, I felt like everything after that was very weak, especially ep9 when they were just cramming as many konosuba references as possible. As a disclaimer I don't like konosuba or find it funny, I find kazuma, aqua and darkness extremely annoying, tho I like megumin (even if the main show makes her a bit too dumb). "Oh why did you watch the spinoff if you don't like it then?" cause, again, I like megumin and I figured it being a spinoff prequel to the main show it'd be better since she wouldn't be such an idiot, and hey I WAS right the first 6 eps were really good, but as soon as her and yunyun left their village it started going downhill. but ANYWAY. Art/Animation: I know konosuba usually looks like ass but since this was a different studio and all I had some hope but I was wrong. now, it looks a lot better than konosuba but it's still barely animated, the only impressive thing was megumin's explosions but I mean, they better be right? Music: was alright I don't really remember anything to write home about, OP was alright as much as I'd like to praise it more cause I love machico and the ED was really good, always let it play every time Story: story was alright, I wish they stayed longer at the school/village or only arrived at the noob town in the last ep and spent more time traveling different places but oh well. finally the voice acting carried the show HARD. takarie and aki had great performances and stole the spotlight but a lot of the other charas were good too, fairouz ai as cecily and nazuka kaori as arue for example at the end, I wish I could say I liked it more but it simply isn't the case, oh well at least it wasn't a complete waste of time like some other stuff I've watched in the past

Idolmaster CG: U149 Ep11

holy moly amazingly good episode, just WOW, can't really make justice to how good it was with my words. tho I do wanna point out how early in the episode there's a long scene with absolutely no music or dialogue, only sound effects and it was really really good

Mashle Ep11

WOW there was ACTUALLY some sakuga in this anime that's crazy, honestly with how disappointing the anime has been visually, from the start I'd given up hope, I was like "well they'll just have sakuga at the end for the big fights right haha" and then when there wasn't any, even for the razor fight I lost all hope so I was extremely shocked when I saw a clip of the scene linked above getting posted. tho I highly doubt there's gonna be any in the finale, there's gonna be a fight but I don't remember it having anything impressive but anyway. finale next week, which is lining up with the manga finale so that's neat, it was also funny that the episode had the first instance of the victory dance pictured below, when it was also on this week's manga chap lol

Pokemon Horizons Ep12

new milf dropped let's goooo alright episode otherwise, some lore drops to set up the overall plot for the show which is traveling around to find the shiny ray and the rest of the party of this legendary adventurer guy, they found one in paldea and next they're going to galar so I'm guessing there's gonna be one per region, or at least an excuse to travel there, since they've been in 3 so far. tho, ep titles referenced iono in some weeks so they're gonna go back to paldea? we'll see how it goes

Jigokuraku Ep12

decent ep, action was p basic tho it's a cool fight and still better than a lot other stuff. I thought this ep was gonna cover the whole fight, including after daddy shion shows up but I was clearly wrong considering he showed up right at the end. looked at the manga again and now I think it's gonna end on ch44/45 with yuzuriha telling sagiri about ninja genjutsu and how gabimaru's wife might not be real and all that stuff, but honestly that depends on how fast they do the fight cause this ep ended at the end of ch40 so they'd need to do 3 chaps of fighting plus 1 of the aftermath at least... well we'll see how it goes next anyway. hopefully they also announce s2 p soon tho with s2 of jujutsu and csm too it'll prob be a while

Manga

Ice-Head Gill Ch1

the newest series, debuting on jump today. it was.... alright. I quite enjoy that it's based on norse mythology, not something you see often in manga but on the other hand I don't like how young the mc is. "oh but wsj is for kids it shouldn't be that weird" yes yes the same old tired argument, but he's even younger than the usual jump mcs. but anyway, not much to say about chap 1 tbh, the art's not impressive but it is solid and the designs are good, story is p simple, the kid had to flee his home cause supposedly his dad betrayed the kindgom and now after getting his hands into the dad's diary, he's setting off into the world to find him and stuff, p standard adventure manga type of stuff in the vein of red hood or ginka not that long ago, hopefully for the artist it can last longer than those but we'll see

Blooming Love Ch7

cute chap, it started off with them exchanging contacts after the date at the start (moving fast) and then the lad asking his friend for advice about texting since he's not used to it, culminating in him messaging her mistakenly instead of him.. been there brother

Dandadan Ch111

VERY cool chap, the first half had 0 speech bubbles focusing solely on the action, culminating on okarun finally arriving at the battlefield in a cool ass spread, after which the text bubbles started again, the final spread was vey cool too with our cast getting ready to finish up the aliens, really looking forward to next chap since it should be just a lot of cool action

Choujin X Ch38

not only was the chap 50 pages but it also had a TON of exposition so it felt extra long, it could've probably been cut into 2 separate chapters, at the halfway point when they go to the meeting, and we coulda had those chapters more spaced out instead of waiting a billion years for this huge one but oh well

Kaiju 8 Ch88

not much to say about this chap, was just the wrap up of the narumi fight and the start of the hoshina one tho I just wanted to be smug about saying it was gonna be hoshina next on the last chap, very pogged up for this fight I always like his style

ST☆R: Strike it Rich Ch5

nice chap, the rest of the "fight" with nozomi and hina was nice ending with this shot down here of hina lifting her with her leg monka. they also set up the next few opps for hina and hopefully they should last more than just 1 hit so looking forward to that

The Ichinose Family's Deadly Sins Ch30

haven't talked about ichinose in a while but it's just been floundering about, rehashing things over and over, we've only had some real developments the previous and this chap with the sota guy from the dream being revealed to be the older brother of the family. should be ending soon now (hopefully) since there's really not much else to cover so that's good

Kill Blue Ch10

uh oh, it's a bit early for you to be figuring that out isn't it? tho the series has been doing quite fine in ratings so I don't think it's heading to cancelation but help but think that when there's a development like this yknow

Witch Watch Ch114

good chap, I didn't expect to get a 1v1 battle arc so soon but I'm really looking forward to this now

Blue Box Ch106

very cute chap with taiki and natsu going back to school after their break and the tension that comes (mostly for taiki) from them hiding the fact they're dating. this is exactly the kinda stuff I was hoping for when they got together so I hope we can get a few more chaps like this. also it's good to see that despite this happening, they're both still focused on their respective sports and the series isn't throwing that to the wayside in favour of romance. tho miura is trustworthy so I wasn't worried

Tenmaku Cinema Ch11

another nice chap but sadly it's still doing p badly in ratings, even with mashle ending next week and ichinose seemingly ending soon I don't know if it'll survive, which is a big shame. can only cross my fingers and hope but not holding my breath

Martial Master Asumi Ch2

oooh, good chap, really keeping the momentum from ch1 that's good that's good. anyway I'm predicting nito is gonna lose so we can get some more backstory™ for okiba but despite losing the dad will still let her participate in that tournament thing but we'll see

Cipher Academy Ch29

good chap like usual finishing up the first class vs class battle with our protags winning without the leaders even having to participate. also wanna praise how good cipher's composition is in general, you can see it in the page I picked but also on the final page of the chap where they introduce class B the next enemies for the class battle. cipher was in the middle of the ratings this week, so I would be p pogged up if next week is the same, giving me some assurance that it won't get canceled suddenly anymore

Sakamoto Days Ch124

nice and action filled chapter, the battle against slur's goons has finally started and with quite the bang, looking forward to some quality setpiece scenes in the next few chaps

Mashle Ch161

next chap is gonna be the last and it's weird seeing it go even if I wasn't here from the start, chap was alright not much to say, just wrapping up the after fight stuff and what was gonna happen with all the people that died and stuff. expecting the finale to have what everyone ends up doing in the future and that kinda stuff

Undead Unluck Ch164

what the hell they made mui busted in this loop let's go, it was always a shame she didn't get to do much til the end in the previous loop. it's a shame 2 of shen's fights against union were resolved so quickly like that but knowing this makes it ok, looking forward to them fighting

The Elusive Samurai Ch115

it's refreshing finally having a full chapter with out protagonists after so long, tho the manga is indeed following historical fact which is quite worrying for our boy tokiyuki. but nevermind all that, a new cute girl is joining the cast and that's what matters baby

Akane-banashi Ch67

EXTREMELY good chap, sheesh akane never ceases to impress me, don't got anything to say other than wow they didn't show her score at the end of the performance at the end of the chap but it'll be at the start of the next one and I'm still very confident in my prediction. this performance being so good just made me more excited for akane's tho, can't wait for it to start

Ayakashi Triangle Ch134

argh quite the cliffhanger to leave on when there's not gonna be a chap next week, good chap tho it was nice seeing shadow mei help despite her still being tsun about it

#quite late today cause I didn't get to watch my shows yesterday like usual so had to do it after reading jump #silver talks animanga

[starleska]

Hello! I'm one of the people who made a request and I just wanted to apologize. I shouldn't have taken from granted that you write for everyone, haha- This... Is embarrasing- Don't worry at all and thank you for let us know how requests make you feel! Again, I'm so sorry if seeing so many requests made you stressed, I didn't mean to contribute to that uneasiness! If you are okay with sharing headcanons though, please let me know! I have a few in store that may be of your interest, hehe! Again, if you are not okay with that either it's also totally okay! Have a lovely day! 💘

😭😭😭😭😭 oh angel, thank you so much!!! but please, don't feel any need to apologise - you haven't done anything wrong, neither has anyone else!! i promise 🥰 i really, really appreciate that you spent the time to send in a request, and doubly so for being so kind and considerate and responding! i'm gonna get a little bit personal under the cut;;

honestly, don't worry yourself at all - this is totally a me problem. i reckon a lot of mentally ill fandom creatives can relate to this: trauma stuff i won't get into can manifest in compulsive people-pleasing, even in spaces that are supposed to be stress-relieving, like fandom! when i used to run that other blog, i would spend hours making content that i didn't really want to make. you end up creating because it makes others happy, so you feel useful, and as an apology for existing: like, a living tax. and that is not a healthy way to live 💖 one of the hardest things you learn in therapy is that you are ultimately in control of your own boundaries, and you don't have to reply to anything online. you don't have to answer an ask, or fill out a request, or participate in a prompt, or make a gift, or give your opinion on a specific topic...yet, it's still so tough to let go of the idea that you're being rude if you say no to a request. but it's never a personal slight! all of the asks in my ask box right now are full of so much love, and passion, and creativity, and i often wish i was one of those people who pumps out ten drabbles a day and can fulfil everyone's deepest, darkest fantasies. but i've been down that road, and it just...isn't for me 😅 i've spent years crafting what i think most will agree is a wholly self-indulgent space, where i get to gush about whatever weird-ass fictional show or character seizes the autism in the right way. that makes me really happy, and it makes me even happier knowing that other people are drawn to it 🥰 i really love interacting with people who have similarly strange interests - and i came in expecting 'Big' Jack Horner to be another niche choice (oh, how wrong i was 😂). i will admit the times where i've accidentally created content for a hugely popular character (looking at you, Warren the Eagle) i have become overwhelmed quickly by the sheer volume and demand. however - this burnout it something i have to manage. i don't believe anyone is imposing on me by sending asks about something they really enjoy!! it's very silly of me to be intimidated by lots of people being excited about a cool, sexy character and wanting to hear my thoughts about him. i'm trying to remember that it's normal for people to have a backlog of requests, and that we're allowed to just...let it sit, or say no, if we don't want to answer. that's okay! tldr; you are very sweet and you've made me feel a lot less stressed about all of this;;; it's my own fault for doing so much in such a short space of time! i'm gonna keep your words in mind and try responding at a more measured pace. i would absolutely love to hear about your Jack headcanons if you're happy to share 🥰💖

#news at ten: local villainfucker bites off more than they can chew by accidentally getting invested in a very popular character #i hope this helps explain why i might be a bit slow or refuse some requests 😭💖 #starleskasks #mental health

[trixree]

As a queer woman I never felt welcome in the Okama, even back at Impel Down. They never felt militant to me despite their role in the Revolutionaries, mostly seeming content with being comedic fodder and sidekicks for cishets.

But I did feel welcome in the Donquixiote Family. Despite their queerness being limited to coding, I always felt as if they had more righteous rage and pride, not being talked down to and existing outside a social norm.

Am I the only one here?

I think the okama tap into a particular Thing about queerness and that Thing is the cishet preoccupation with The Body. Do I think Oda did this intentionally? God no. Do I fault anyone for not connecting to the okama in the same way I did? Absolutely not. What follows is a VERY long rant that no one asked for about why I find the okama particularly compelling as a subversive sort of queer power in the One Piece Universe. If you choose to read more, you continue at your own peril.

For about as long as there has been an effort to police queerness, there's been an effort to define it in "scientific" (= pseudo-scientific) terms. Why? Well, because if something has a pathology, it has a cure. Early attempts to pathologize queerness ranged from "gay men can't whistle" (yes, I'm serious) to "lesbians are left-handed" to very specific (and very racialized!) imaginings of "proper" bodily proportions (see: size of the clitoris, presence/absence of body hair, muscle distribution, etc.) And this compulsion to give a morphology to queerness is still around today! See: discussions of sex differences in the brain, the diagnostic tool of “gender identity disorder”, and The Gay Gene™. If you want to read up on this more, I really recommend Nancy Ordover's American Eugenics

This preoccupation with the Queer Body is in our history, in our medicine, and absolutely in media. Specifically, in One Piece, I think that it’s these sorts of Queer-Body caricatures that Oda relies on with his design of the okama.

There’s long been this belief that queerness was linked to hormone production. In the 1896 work of English eugenecist Havelock Ellis, Ellis suggested that an “abnormal balance in internal secretions” was to blame for the morphological anomalies he observed to be associated with “lesbianism.” (And anyone who knows anything about the brutal history of experimentation on queer folks knows that hormonal experimentation was a particularly grim recurring feature.) Funny how the choice devil-fruit for Emporio Ivankov was the Horu Horu no Mi…

The scene that introduces us to Ivankov’s powers was a very particular evocation of the mythical terrors of hormones. Before our eyes, Ivankov turns a buff, hairy, deep-voiced man’s man into a high-voiced, big boobed, blushing lady. Is it meant to be comical? Most definitely. Does it also tap into a century’s worth of deep societal and medical anxiety about the sorts of people—re: “sexual deviants”—that an “abnormal balance of secretions” creates? I sure think it does. And, more obviously, the character design of the okama draws from this tradition of Queer Anatomy. See, the “hairy men in dresses”, the “animal/beastial” (with my apologies to furries), and the starkly contrasted/clashing binary:

But here’s where I think Oda’s intended caricature of queer bodies backfired for a lot of queer One Piece viewers: he made the “mistake” of making Ivankov a character. Like @talesofmetalandmagic pointed out, a lot of the okama get relegated to a role as comedic fodder. But there’s one thing that I think Oda does really well and that is creating a fully realized world. Many of his gag characters come back as fully-fledged people with backstories, motivations, depth!!!! (Just fucking look at Buggy!!!!) Oda does the same thing with Ivankov by making them the leader of the revolutionary army and a vitally important ally to Luffy during Impel Down/Marineford.

Are there things about the okama that are offensive? Absolutely. And look, I don’t get to dictate what does or does not offend any given queer person, alright? I am not the Queer Tzar. I’m just saying that I think there was something unintentionally clever in having a huge part of the Impel Down arc contingent on queer-trope gag characters—they are unapologetically vital to the story. I mean, just look at Bon-chan, whose heroism was the only reason Luffy made it out of Impel Down.

Say what you will about Oda, but his characters are never really just one thing, and the okama are not just offensive queer caricatures. They’re powerful allies, guardians of key knowledge, and heroes with emotional weight. For me personally, seeing these characters run around as blatant call-backs to the gay nightmares of english eugenecists while having their pronouns Respected by the main character is something like empowerment. Yeah, the okama of the Kamabaka Kingdom have stubbly faces, big red lips, and pink frilly dresses, but they also spent two years kicking Sanji’s ass, and honestly? Fucking get his ass, ladies.

@talesofmetalandmagic says she feels drawn to the righteous rage and pride of the queer-coded Donquixiote Family. I absolutely think there’s some merit to that. Doflamingo is very campy, and the visual of him Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlbossing his way to the top has its own sort of subversive power to it.

But in my watching experience, the Class aspect of Dofflamingo’s backstory sort of drowned out any subversive queer power he might have had. Not to get this Girlboss Cancelled or anything, but the man was very motivated by the belief in his own inherent superiority and his right to like… have slaves and stuff.

All of this is to say that no one gets to determine how your lived experiences connect you to works of fiction. I was drawn to the subversive potential of the okama because of my own academic and personal interests in imaginings of the queer body. You, my dear, can be drawn to whatever the fuck you want.

#haha isn't it cool how i spent like an hour writing this #i use my time very wisely actually #also yes i did make that doffy gif what are you going to do about it? #trixree speaks #meta and analysis #one piece analysis #my posts #long post #impel down #queer history #thank you for the ask <3

[busghost]

Hi. Off topic, but: someone on twitter said Mihoyo hates women, comparing Ganyu's trailer and Xiao's. That Xiao's trailer was "badass" and most they talked about Ganyu in her trailer was about her sleep habit. Ganyu is half adeptus while Xiao is an adeptus, kinda like a mythical powerful creature in Genshin's world, so she should be depicted as such too (powerful), but apparently since "Mihoyo hates women" they didn't show her badass side, and not only that, they couldn't give her a meaningful, deep trailer.

I couldn't stop thinking about Honkai, and that I think her statement isn't true. Right, Genshin is not Honkai. But if Mihoyo hates women, it'd be shown in all their games, wouldn't it?

In my opinion, there's a certain amount of fan service, something that I dislike in both games, and there's things they could do better when representing women, but still, to say that they hate women? Because a character trait is emphasized, does not mean that it is the only trait of the character...

Her tweet has more than 1,5K of likes. So many people agree with that?

I feel out of place, "defending" Mihoyo, a company that creates wonderful games, but at the end of the day it is still a company that wants your money...

So, in general: I think criticism is valid and it's good so Mihoyo can become a better company, I just don't agree with her opinion and wanted to see other point of view, when comparing Mihoyo's other games.

In your opinion, when having Honkai girls in your mind, is it true that Mihoyo hates women?

Firstly I’d like to say this.

Rather than be the Purity Police expecting perfection and constantly being disappointed or infuriated, I can recognize that something has plenty of flaws, but still has other merits and enjoy it. You can think parts of something are bad but still enjoy the whole.

To actually get started.

It’s hard to say anything about mihoyo as a whole because there are many teams at the company. The Honkai team, GGZ team, Genshin team, AI research group, that first-person shooter in development, their otome game, and other projects I’m sure I don’t know about.

I can only give my opinion based on my experience with Honkai Impact because I only played a few hours of GGZ and Genshin and just didn’t like the gameplay.

As for my take on that Genshin statement of hating women. I think it’s only a problem if it’s consistently happening to every female character. If they only advertised men as badass and then women on other traits that would probably be showing some favoritism for their male characters, or sexism rather if they showed the women as incapable of the same things as the men. There’s nothing wrong with advertising a character on their different traits I don’t think. You can’t advertise every character as being the most badass, that’d get boring.

But I don’t think I know enough about what happens in the Genshin community or Genshin itself to comment on what happens over there.

But I do know a lot about Honkai Impact and the Honkai community here, I’ve lurked on Reddit, seen plenty of youtube, and spent one terrifying moment on Amino.

So at the beginning (of Honkai), there was a lot of bad fanservice-y stuff that I really didn’t like, we could go on but I’ll just show you these pre-release Mei designs.

In-game on the left, pre-release on the right. 

In short, it wasn’t good. But they changed them so I can commend them for that, but these images are representative of some of the stuff that was in the game earlier. I am split on how if you touched the characters in inappropriate places on the bridge they’d kill you and log you out of the game. It is funny but probably not something that should’ve existed in the first place.

So there were definitely some bad approaches they took to the characters, but over time this started to change and I’m not sure what happened. I’m guessing that they really came to love and respect their characters as people rather than caricatures they could sell?

Don’t get me wrong, they are still trying to sell you something but it seems like ever since Honkai Impact began they’ve done so much better over time portraying women in their media as characters and selling the story they are part and the people they are of rather than selling you on fanservice of their boobs or other such silliness.

Sure outfits may be revealing still but they make sense and are overall super cool. They make the characters look amazing/powerful/beautiful without shoving them out of character or reducing them to sex objects. For example, the Herrscher of Thunder battlesuit is revealing, no arguing that, but it makes her look so powerful and awesome.

There are still bad ones, they aren’t perfect and their target demographic is people who are really into anime so sometimes nonsense sells. Looking at you, HoT outfits and Succubus outfits.

Even a character like Himeko or Rita isn’t out of character when she has mostly revealing outfits because it can come down to whether she is being sexy vs being made a sexual object. And sometimes they do cross that blurry line into “haha anime titties pls buy”.

The comics are a great example of their improvement, the first volume has a ridiculous amount of inappropriate angles with panty-shots and and idiot focus on boobs. You look at recent manga, esp after they switched the artstyle/artists there is none of that.

This wasn’t asked about but I’d like to discuss it too, the wlw representation in Honkai Impact is fantastic even working in the restraints of CN gov’t censorship. I don’t care if they meant for it to be or if they’re just trying to get my money, these characters feeling like people in love, for better and for worse, in healthy and unhealthy relationships. These aren’t stories about lesbians coming out or how hard it can be to be queer. These women are just in love and they explore the dynamics of that love just as they would for any straight characters. But my girlfriend wrote a much better post about this subject so I’ll link that if you want to read more.

I’m not sure if I worded this exactly how I wanted to but

I can’t speak for Genshin Impact but really believe the Honkai team at mihoyo at least loves and respects the women they write in their stories.

#honkai impact #genshin impact

[purity-town]

Little late getting to these -- that's fully the fault of a class project I spent all of Monday/Tuesday and most of Wednesday working on -- but I finished my project and wrote up some long replies to these!

(Apologies for any funny formatting -- I'm trying out the beta for the new post editor!)

Absolutely not.

Nope! There are a few people who do know (other guides Andrew's met before, the Dryad, and I'd imagine the Witch Doctor knows something's up even if he doesn't know why), but none of them live in Purity Town proper, and the Dryad and Witch Doctor aren't the kind to participate in rumors or spread what isn't theirs to share. The old man is also aware just because he and Andrew have talked about their curses, but he's 1) not currently in town and 2) not going to share even if he were.

Most folks don't know much about Andrew in general; Becca probably knows the most out of the townsfolk, knowing a little bit about his family and where he's from (he has some pretty specific skills as a hunter that betray this, but he doesn't talk about his exact town of birth), but no specifics and certainly not time periods.

Andrew is good at keeping things quiet; he has to be.

I would actually appreciate if you didn't post to Pinterest -- usually I'm fine with people reposting with credit (several of the things I've posted to my DeviantArt have found their way to Instagram, for example) but Pinterest has something of a reputation for stolen art (things being reposted from another Pinterest post without credit this time, or credit being hard to view for users not logged in or just viewing through Google). So reposting elsewhere is fine (though if you repost to Reddit or Instagram, tag me at u/Ariibees or @Ariibees)! I'd just prefer my works stay off of Pinterest.

The terminology related to The Guide/Andrew/The Guardian/The World’s Core/The WoF is all confusing because on some level, they’re all the same being. Kind of like trying to talk about Jekyll and Hyde -- same guy, different looks/actions, haha.

For all intents and purposes, references to the WoF being the barrier/core/whatever behind or within which the spirits of light and dark are contained is equivalent to saying “these spirits are held trapped by the magic of the Guardian, who when summoned appears as the WoF.” I do break slightly from the official lore in how the WoF/Guardian/thing holding back these spirits works (mostly because I don’t really like the idea that the Hallow is a “temporary guardian” or whatever), but the basic concept of “these are trapped by [thing that makes up the WoF]” remains unchanged.

If “loony cultist” is a reference to something, I’m so sorry, but I’m lost on it. If you’re just talking about the lunatic cultist in a funny way, then yes, they’re in here as a very plot-significant character!

I had to google what meme you were talking about, but it did make me laugh.

Andrew’s most annoyed by the nickname because people do like to call him Guide, and for someone who’s dedicated his whole life to his role, it can get tiring. He doesn’t really *mind* being called Guide -- it’s fine, that’s what he is and as long as people are respectful of his job he’ll take what he can get -- but at the same time, he’d like for people to stop thinking “Aah! Monster!” or “Weird academic know-it-all” and just...treat him like a normal person sometimes. So he fights to be called Andrew. And...Malik comes along and gives him a nickname that he doesn’t like and doesn’t allow others to use, save for maybe a small group of people of which Malik is not a part. So, not cool, man!

People love to overcomplicate explaining shading/lighting, and if you wanted to you could certainly go on and on about reflections of light off the ground and shading colors and all sorts of things, but as I’m writing this at 1 AM I don’t really care to.

If you really want to get into shading, I see nice ones on DeviantArt or Tumblr from time to time, or you can always watch a YouTube video on it. Really, though, just keep at it, think about how the shadows should look and work, and you'll get better at it eventually and pick up new ideas on how it all works. (And this is coming from someone who is new to making comics and actually started as a painter.)

Purity Town’s shading comes down to this: simplicity. As much as I’d love to spend hours and hours redrawing the panels I don’t like and carefully shading every fold of fabric and painting detailed backgrounds, I’m a full-time college student and will be working full-time over the summer -- I don’t have the time. So, I cut corners: I reuse backgrounds or use brushes (see: bricks, trees, clouds) that make certain details easier, and I try not to obsess too much over panels I’m not fully happy with. Shadows go where they feel right, and light on the opposite side.

For shading, this comes down to making things quick and easy. For these last few pages, character shading/lighting has only been five layers. One hard light layer for the bluer soft shadows, one overlay layer for darker soft shadows, one linear burn layer for hard shadows, one soft light layer for soft lighting, and one overlay layer for hard lighting. I’ll often also make use of glow dodge layers for lighting, or change the color balance or add more hard/soft light layers if there’s a very heavy color filter on the scene (such as a celestial event, blood moon, or outdoors at night).

Using all the different layer types is essentially a cheat code to fancier lighting -- don’t want to use flat black? Boom, hard light or overlay or burn will give you colored shadows. Want to make your light brighter? Glow dodge will make it burn your retinas.

Sorry that this isn’t a very comprehensive guide, but in my mind, shading and lighting is really something that you pick up over time and it’s hard to sit down and write a guide for it without making it into a massive essay on art theory that I don't even know proper terminology for because I'm not an art student. Of course with some googling you’ll find *proper* guides for this sort of thing from art majors and the likes, and those can be super helpful and technical! But for Purity Town, I just sort of go with what feels right and what's easy to replicate.

Firstly, I’m happy to hear you’re liking the comic!

Secondly, those buttons are actually there due to the theme! (For those on mobile who can’t see it, I have the theme set to only display on desktop as I prefer the current mobile layout on phone.) I’m using the simple webcomic theme (a quick Google should tell you how to install it for yourself) -- except I’m not actually using it for the webcomic features; rather, it’s a case of “this is the most simple, nice-looking non-default theme I could find.”

The previous/next buttons are added by the theme with the intent that the blog is being used as a typical webcomic website, with nothing but comic pages being posted. However, I post asks and other art here too, and I do so with the intent that people looking at #Terraria or their dashboards in general will see it. So...I use html formatting to make the first/previous/next/last links, along with an index and chapter-by-chapter viewing (using /tagged/chapter##/chrono) so that no matter where you’re coming from, you can still navigate just the pages!

If you want to add just the previous/next buttons, I can’t really help you -- web development is not my area of study in the slightest. But you can check out the theme that they come from and if you want to install only them, you can surely find a tutorial on it somewhere!

(As a side note, the comments section is not from the theme, it’s from a site called Disqus. I don’t expect many people, if anyone, to leave comments, but since I link back to this site a lot and many folks don’t have Tumblr accounts, it’s an option I like to make available.)

Hiya! My hike was pretty nice; it was a short and easy one, but that was quite appreciated as the trail is unmaintained from November to April, and the trail was covered in fallen trees and quite rocky. Still had fun, though!

And for backgrounds, it depends! For indoors scenes (or outdoors scenes with buildings) I don’t tend to use references, outside of looking up things like “which side of a door is the handle on.” I will, however, integrate real-life textures (see: the quilt and rug in Guide’s house, the wood walls on the building in the background of this week’s page), and paint over paintings from the Terraria wiki.

For outdoors scenes, for simple backgrounds (such as foliage-heavy) ones, I typically don’t need references. I like the difference between detailed, lined indoor/man-made object scenes vs. painted, messy outdoor scenes. But for things like mountains, I do sometimes look up references to help with color choices and the likes.

The town’s layout is a bit strange in that depending on the scene, the background could be drastically different. One side of town faces more mountainside, one side faces the orchards/open hillside, and the other two sides face various degrees of open space and more mountainside/forest. References taken on top of mountains are helpful to get an idea of what degree of foliage I should include between the characters and the sky.

Though this is very specific to the town of Purity -- other towns/villages will have significantly different-looking backgrounds, even the foliage-heavy ones.

That said, what's even more helpful than looking at photos is looking at paintings. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron is really good for getting an idea of how to draw grasslands and distant mountains, plus Studio Ghibli movies in general!

#purity town #pt asks #terraria #not an update