#like i said though i'm not 100% sold that they're going to give up their “golden couple” LMAO

[butterflysonnets]

yes i'm rooting for m*leven breakup because byler is neat but mostly? i'm rooting for m*leven breakup for the sake of el and mike.

to me, their romance was always a puppy love born out of a combination of social pressures, naïve curiosity, and a lack of true understanding regarding intimacy and romantic love and what it really is. it was real in that they do truly, deeply care about each other and they are close friends, maybe even shared an attraction, but a maturing romance is so much more than that. they've grown up and out of being boyfriend/girlfriend, and that's okay! i think television/film needs to show more often that most of us don't have definite "soulmates" or first childhood loves that we spend our whole lives with. it doesn't mean these relationships meant nothing and didn't impact us, it just means they've run their course and that something else is in the cards, and this is part of life!

i've always felt el was at her best and most confident self when broken up with mike, discovering who she was and what she liked alongside another girl her age instead of just relying on mike for mentorship on how to live in the real world. she deserves more of an opportunity to find herself, her autonomy, and her independence, and to love who she is, and she's made it clear she's felt insecure in the relationship with mike because she isn't being loved and understood the way she wants, needs, and deserves from someone who is her partner.

also, it's okay if mike doesn't love her in "the way he should". he is not obligated to love her romantically and stay in a relationship with her just because she's a girl, because she "needed someone", or because he cares about her a lot. he shouldn't be pressured into a romance if it's not truly coming from his heart. he deserves freedom to find out and honour who he is, too, instead of just staying in his non-functional first relationship — one he got into as a child, essentially — and defining himself that way because it's what's expected when a boy and a girl are close. he loves her in some way, yes, but it's okay if he doesn't feel comfortable or secure being her boyfriend anymore, for whatever reason that is. he's felt insecure too, and that's valid and it matters.

they are their own people and are steadily growing and changing every day. they need time to figure out who those people are, and it's become clear (at least in my opinion) that those people aren't meant to be a couple at this stage.

they deserve freedom. they deserve to grow up and be authentic to themselves and not feel like they need to lie for the sake of a relationship. they deserve to move on from this version of their relationship that isn't making them happy and rekindle the best part of their bond: their strong, beautiful friendship. they don't have to be a couple if it doesn't make them stronger and better and happier people.

i think it would be healthy and wonderful for a show, especially one consumed frequently by young adults, to show a relationship starting, progressing, and ending on good terms in this way. sometimes things don't work out, and that is okay.

#eve text #elmike #stranger things #byler #only tagging byler because i feel like yall will like this take lol #tagging tagging tagging WHAT ARE EVERYONE ELSE'S THOUGHTS #god i can't believe i'm making a post about stranger things. this feels like poking a bear #i'm not particularly anti m*leven but like... they'd have to do something pretty special at this point for me to feel like it's viable #i'm seeing the bts of s5 and it's got me Having Thoughts #elmike friendship is something i am so passionate about #even before i ever liked byler (didn't ship at all until s4 even though i knew it was a thing before) i've felt this way about elmike #i always believed they were close friends at heart and needed to break up #the romance part of them felt very distinctly young and very much “he was a boy she was a girl” to me #and it hasn't deepened into anything more mature and i don't see how it could based on the current state of the writing... #the fact that lumax exists — a young relationship that is actively maturing and is healthy — makes that clear to me #and the “love confession” in s4 and how disingenuous and miserable it felt was just the nail in the coffin #also the fact that will (who is IN LOVE with mike) was instrumental in making it happen? ... uh... okay... interesting choice… #fucked up and reductive if they make it another queer unrequited love sacrifice for the sake of pushing the heterosexual agenda YUCK #so i really hope the speculation about a m*leven breakup is real!! i think it just makes sense for their characters but who knows #i don't believe in the notion of love at first sight or one true love and i think the writers don't too??? #love to me is an accumulation of experiences and we inevitably choose it at some point rather than fall into it... but idk #tv is so fixated on keeping couples together... sometimes it's just not reality guys especially with young people... LET IT GO... #like i said though i'm not 100% sold that they're going to give up their “golden couple” LMAO #stranger things hasn't historically subverted too many tropes if i'm being honest #anyway i seriously need this season to come out quickly... i'm so bored and getting my master's is crushing my soul #i need frivolity #ALSO btw i won't respond to hateful messages about this so please don't bother. it's not that serious. this is a netflix show

[genericpuff]

CHAD ANON-

Alright so I've been meaning to post about this for a couple days, but we gotta talk about what's been going on in the /r/webtoons subreddit the last couple days.

Every now and then, the heavens part and an anonymous creator will descend with their experiences with Webtoons. And they're almost never good. And that's good in the long run, because that means we have more ammunition to support Webtoons being an ass platform that benefits no one :))

Obviously the anons here are risking a lot posting this sort of stuff, so before I go ahead, let it be known that I'm gonna try and keep speculating to a minimum and just touch on what anon has provided. When it comes down to it, this post hasn't been verified in any way, so it might not even be 100% real, though there's a lot of evidence to suggest it is based on the responses from other users that validate many of the points anon makes.

I will also mention that any opinion I have regarding the contract outside of what's been provided by anon is from reading other accounts from creators who have spoken up and just generally being a community member for a long time who's been around the bend and heard a lot of shit from Originals creators. I am not an Originals creator and I have never been offered any of these contracts.

So let's get into this!

The contract 'evolving' over time was definitely something that a lot of us were at least semi-aware of, as it seems that a lot has changed since 2020 as verified by many creators who have spoken up on their contracts (or at least said what they could in light of the NDA's that WT uses to prevent them from saying anything). But I had no idea the extent to how far WT was going with it, how much they were trying to get away with. Automatically having the ability to buy 100% of the creator's IP? That is a huge, massive no-no. I've had some creators heavily imply to me in the past that they've sold off portions of their IP, but WT being given the automatic pass to buy 100% is severely unethical.

For anyone out of the loop, IP means Intellectual Property. It means whatever content is being made, it belongs to the person making it. Lore Olympus is Rachel Smythe's IP. City of Blank is 66's IP. Of course, copyright law gets dicier when it comes to stuff like fair use, trademarking, etc. but for the sake of this topic, IP just means "if you made it, you own it". Webtoons typically buys digital print rights, meaning if you sign on as an Originals, that means you can only post that comic that you sold to the Originals section. It doesn't mean you can't use other platforms for other comics, just that for the comic you sold, you have to post exclusively to Webtoons.

Webtoons is essentially trying to take that from creators by going "if you sign on as an Originals creator, you don't just lose your distribution rights, you lose all of your rights." They might still be able to run Canvas comics separate from Originals, but whatever they sold to Originals is no longer theirs to own. And the kicker is that it's, of course, for a very low fee. Buying out 100% of someone's IP should NOT come cheap, but WT is undoubtedly offering pennies in the hope that someone bites for that 'exclusive' Originals offer.

This. This is a big one. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure this is massively ILLEGAL.

Just like with the IP rights, creators should not automatically have their printing rights taken from them by a digital publisher. They can make offers, sure, but they can't force creators into giving up their rights for physical publishing when they themselves are not a physical publishing house. Some series do get physical prints through other publishers like Random House (ex. LO) but a digital printing platform should NOT be able to restrict the printing rights of a creator who has only sold their series for the purpose of digital distribution. Especially because, again, printing rights are usually sold for massive gains for the person selling them - not a portion of month's rent for people living in a shitty New York apartment in 2024. That is what Webtoons thinks your printing rights are worth.

This is one that I've been very certain of for the past little while, particularly due to my past discussions regarding LO's merch. Because let's face it... it isn't good.

But I don't hold Rachel accountable for this shit because she's not the one making it, it's almost certainly some in-house designer at Webtoons or some other third party through Random House Worlds. Sure, it says "By Rachel Smythe" but that's more so just for marketing at this point, because no one wants to buy merch made by Chuck the Penguin House merch guy.

Remember when I said LO's partnership with Inklore / Random House Worlds was gonna be purely for cheap merchandise in the realm of cookbooks and card decks?

Yeah.

Point is, it's clear a lot of creators who are part of Webtoons' merch program may not even have any say or choice in the matter. Of course, I don't know what Rachel's contracts specifically are like, so I won't speculate on that too much, but there's a lot of evidence to suggest that she may not own as much of LO as she used to. She was definitely a part of the older contracts from 2018 at one point that didn't have the more predatory tacked on bullshit like the Minimum Revenue Threshold, but... she's renewed her contract since then. So it begs the question of how much LO has suffered not just on her account of being bad at managing a team and writing a long-form story, but at the hands of Webtoons dipping too much of their hands into her work.

Oh look, another highly unethical if not outright illegal thing! Digital print publishers can't be your agent! Repeat after me -digital print publishers CANNOT be your agent! As anon explains here, it would make it far too easy for publishers to steer their creators into directions that only benefit the company. Agents are like lawyers for artists, their job is to protect writers, actors, artists, anyone who's trying to enter some kind of media industry. Most publishing agencies won't take unsolicited manuscripts for publishing, which means writers need agents who are willing to vouch for them and help them connect with publishers. Webtoons being the publisher AND the agent for creators... seriously, that's fucked up. It means Webtoons can direct creators to do whatever benefits the company itself, not the creator. But hey, we already knew that was the case as soon as we saw "Webtoon would be able to automatically buy 100% of your IP" LOL But if you needed more to support the sheer predatory audacity of Webtoons as a company, there it is.

This is the sad reality for a lot of content creators. Comics aren't a new industry, but webcomics are and a lot of the people going into them are either extremely young or just never learned how to navigate the professional world. We talked about this issue last week and now here it is in action - a lot of creators don't even realize they're supposed to hire lawyers for contracts like these, and those who do... can't afford them.

And again, I'm very aware that this reddit post isn't exactly substantiated by anything beyond anon anecdote (such as a copy of the actual contract) but a couple other people in the thread who were offered contracts also came forward to express the similarities - and differences - between what they were offered and what OP was offered.

(these responses are actually gone now but that's why we have the power of screenshotting as the thread was happening LMAO yay me)

This thread is also being discussed on Twitter:

For those who are as old and falling apart as I am (/hj) and remember when Youtube was still coming into its own as a platform, what Webtoons is doing to webcomic creators is very similar to what businesses like MakerStudios did to Youtubers back in the day - signing creators into predatory contracts with the promise of fame and fortune, just to pull the rug out from under them with shit pay, shit management, and less perks than they had just doing it all on their own time and dime.

Webcomics, as a blooming industry, are now going through the same problem as Youtube did back in the late 2000's/early 2010's. No one knows how to navigate the industry. A lot of people and businesses don't even know how to profit off it, at least not sustainably (and for some platforms definitely not ethically). Very few people have come out of this industry with the money and fame they were seeking in the long-term, both because it's easy to burn out quickly but also because there is no long-term yet due to this being such a new industry... and those who have come out with those victories are often people who are still just pursuing the traditional comic publishing ways of glory, by seeking out agents, signing print deals, and doing everything that any other freelance or contracted comic creator would do, because it's safer and offers more structure than what webcomics are offering on their own. There are no regulations, no protections in place looking out for creators, it's basically just a free for all of young people looking to monetize their creations and businesses willing to take advantage of those people for a quick buck.

I don't think any of this means that webcomics have to be exclusively relegated to being a "stepping stone" for traditional print comics or grander media like film and television. They're a medium in and of themselves, a very accessible medium to boot, that welcomes anyone regardless of their status, technical skills, or background. They're wonderful for that and I think more people should be willing to give webcomics a try as a medium if they want to express themselves on their own terms.

But as I've talked about in the past time and time again, there's still going to be a separation between doing webcomics as a passion project or a hobby, and doing them as a profession. When it comes to the latter, you have to be willing to treat it professionally. You have to recognize that there will be those out there who will take advantage of you for money, because that's what the professional world is all about. This is unfortunately something a lot of creators just don't realize, because we're going through those same growing pains a lot of Youtubers have gone through (and still go through) - learning how to navigate our passion as a job, with all of the legal mess, dotted lines, and legal stipulations that come with it. And we're in the midst of that learning now, by seeing the actions of companies like Webtoons that only seek to exploit creators rather than foster them. It unfortunately will take more creators getting screwed over before anything changes. But we have to be willing to talk about it, every single time. We have to be willing to separate the creator and their own faults from the faults of the platform that's hosting them - a creator can be both lacking in their own skills as a creator as well as lacking in support which makes it impossible for them to hone those skills.

And yes, I say all of this because it concerns the criticisms I make of creators like Rachel Smythe. I think there are a lot of things she does that are indicative of her as a creator and her inability to act professionally in this industry, from LO's rampant misogyny and objectification of women to her own misfires when interacting with her fandom. But there are also just as many things that can be potentially traced back to the platform - it's hard to make better content when you're constantly being exploited and hung out to dry.

Like anon, I too hope that more creators will be willing to stand up and speak on behalf of themselves and their peers, to push back against these contracts. It's gonna suck. It's gonna be hard to want to make those moves when just about every creator is just trying to put food on the table. But for every anonymous creator who stands up and speaks, for every person who isn't willing to sign those contracts and talk about the reasons why, for every storyteller who uses their skills to spread the message, the power they have grows. We have to make it impossible for Webtoons to continue to ignore.

After all, it would be a real shame for more of these stories to come to light just as Webtoons is seeking an initial public offering in the stock market. Wouldn't that just be so unfortunate for them? :)

#webtoon #webtoon critical #fuck webtoons #support small platforms

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for not giving my brother my old gaming consoles?

So I (28m) love video games. Nintendo's handheld consoles in particular (I also own my parents old '98 computer and some of the PC games). They were a crucial part of my childhood and I strived to save every console and game that I could, and still keep them now for sentimental value and the sake of preserving them. My brother (30m) was never really into video games, but because we came from a lower class family, the gaming consoles and all subsequent games were typically gifted to "the whole family" and by extention, my brother, as he was the older child, but they all ended up becoming mine in the end, as I was the only one who would use them beyond the first week of owning them.

As we got older, my brother lost all interest in video games, so games started to get gifted to me directly, while the consoles remained "for the family". None of them were ever "officially" handed over to me, except for my father handing me his old grey Gameboy and going "here, you like this more than me" (that Gameboy and the Metroid game in it are my ultimate treasure). But again, I was the only one who cared about them, so everything I could beg my parents to not sell got added to my collection.

Now that we're all adults and my brother has kids and said kids are now old enough for video games (both are 6yo) they both have taken an interest. Which is awesome! I let my niece and nephew play on my Switch when they come over, and sometimes they watch me play games on my PC. They also have tablets that they play games on too, so there's no shortage of access, and my SIL is thinking about getting a Switch for at home (they love Kirby).

Just a month ago though, my brother randomly asked me for "his consoles back". When I asked why, he told me it was because he wanted to give them to his kids. When I asked which ones, he wanted them all. From the grey Gameboy up to the Gamecube.

I flat out told him no. First off, the Gamecube was sold in a yard sale after my parents "persuaded" me to let them sell it. The Gamecube I own now was gifted by a friend, so that one is 100% mine. My brother doesn't believe me on that. Second, none of these handheld consoles are being made anymore, they can be hard to find depending on where you are, and the price of the games for them are even higher. I love my niece and nephew, but they are little kids, and it would be devestating to see or hear that one of those old consoles got snapped in half or crushed. Also, again, these consoles are my entire childhood. These are the ones I held in my hands as a kid, and those games are the ones I had for years, and contained my save files on them. They mean way too much to me.

My brother got mad at me, claiming that I'm being selfish and that I can just "buy another one online" and that "they sit in a storage bin all the time", and got even angrier when I asked him why HE couldn't just buy them online. We apparently are on the same page that these consoles hold sentimental value to us, but I'm having a hard time seeing his side of it when he barely touched them.

He hasn't brought it up since, but apparently my brother's been complaining to our parents because my mother called me a few days ago to tell me that I am being selfish and to "just give him the games already". She hates seeing us fight and tends to pick the side of the kid that complains to her first, so IDK if I believe her. My dad doesn't care, and my SIL thinks spending the money on a Switch would be money better spent.

I do feel a little bad, I know I would be steaming mad if the roles were reversed, but I just do not see how he suddenly cares so much about these consoles all of a sudden, and I absolutely do not trust that he would make sure his kids are careful with them.

So, AITA? Am I being selfish? I already was thinking about letting my niece and nephew try out the old consoles when they're older and I get them all set up in a proper display case, I just do not want to lose ownership of these consoles. I already lost the Gamecube, Wii, and so many games (including PC games) to my parents "convicining me" to sell them. I don't want to lose any more.

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

[origami-boat]

(this review is going to be shorter than i would've liked because of the character limit, if you want my actual unfiltered thoughts on this magazine you can find them in this mega folder.)

let's start with the review:

i don't know how this is being sold in bookstores so casually. it should be banned. it shouldn't have gotten greenlit in the first place. i don't understand what horrible people agreed on publishing this horrible magazine made by horrible creators.

don't pick up this magazine ever. it was the worst mistake i've ever made. my biggest regret, probably. i'm going to try and explain my reasoning here, even though it should be obvious.

concept (3/10):

so...i don't really understand the themes. the first volume is supposed to celebrate the creators getting married 100 times? which is...really disturbing and distressing. why would they share it with other people? shouldn't they be embarrassed? but i guess it is something...why did the theme shift from "marriage" to "god" in the second volume? what happened during these 101-200 marriages? actually, looking at the reviews of the first volume, i don't get why they released a second one. clearly there is no demand. i'm hearing rumors that a third volume's in the making, too...do they never learn? literally everyone is telling them to stop. nobody is asking for this. it's just annoying. but that just goes to show how self centered and selfish the creators are, i guess. and indecisive. because what will the theme even be? what even is the point? why not just quit...?

design: (4/10)

pretty simple. i don't have any notes on this one. it is misleading, though. it's so average, like they're trying to trick you into thinking this is an average zine. a normal zine. it really isn't.

memes: (6/10)

cute kitten pictures are the only tolerable thing about this whole magazine. the four points are for the project sekai meme and the chainsaw man meme. those were not funny. the rest is fine, i guess.

writing: (1/10)

i'm giving it one point because i'm generous, it doesn't actually have any redeeming qualities. from the very first pieces you could tell that the author has gathered up all the love they have ever felt before and put it in each and every word. imagine this: you're drinking tea, and you accidently put two spoons of sugar instead of one. disgusting, right? too hopeful. too full of love. too raw. just thinking about it makes me shake. what the fuck is wrong with the author. in an ideal world, i would've wished for them to find a better therapist, but i don't think any therapist deserves to go through that. they should just die, maybe...?

art: (1/10)

no redeeming qualities again. yes, i know, i'm too generous. in this case it's actually so vile i threw up several times. too joyful. too intimate. again, too much love. what is with this magazine and love? aren't there other, better things to celebrate? not to mention, i've seen the artist say some pretty weird stuff before. like how they enjoy...yaoi...i know, that's so fucked up...they're really fucking evil and unsalvageable. death is the only solution for what's wrong with them, whatever that is.

final rating: (2/10)

i can't bring myself to rate it any lower. i feel kind of bad. even after all i've said, i understand that the creators didn't choose to be born this way, you know? of course, i don't think they can get any better, so...i just wish they would disappear as soon as possible. make the world a better place.

hope this review helped. don't waste your time and money on this thing, it does more harm than good (it does not do any good, really). go enjoy something else.

for those unaware this is for vol 3 of yurimag!! it’s a zine i make with public enemy number one @impastopesto it’s the worlds top magazine that celebrates yuri of all kinds. part one and part two are available for free on my itch.io account: haunted-oyster

this is the general vibe of the zine btw

#sorry miu had to post the ask #bc i didn’t feel like screenshotting the whole thing #anyway yuri mag pt 3 out soon #maybe #probably #fave

[pitynostars]

ok so first things first, i loooove gatwa's doctor so much already. if nothing else, i love the masterclass in acting he's putting on, his expressiveness is so impressive. he brings a very fun energy to the role

the church on ruby road has me feeling a bit mixed as well. the plot was kind of meh, and i didn't like how in the alternate universe ruby's mum was just so mean without her. it didn't make sense. like what makes ruby so special, hm 🤨 what's this one white blond baby got that all the other babies in the world don't 🤨 i know the point was to show how much ruby meant to her mum, but like. there are other ways to do it than have a complete 180 in characterization.

i'm honestly not super interested in the mystery of ruby's parentage (which apparently seems like it will be a huge thing unless they're just making stuff up to fake us out, in which case, good on them). but i don't want it to be some big reveal i'm sorry 😩 especially not because if it is, people will bend over backwards to say how great storytelling it is when they'd never say that if moffat did a plot like this. i hadn't even considered the possibility really, when i'd first watched it, i thought it's just not that deep, but maybe i'm wrong. the people who are theorizing that ruby is rose and tentoo's daughter are sooo funny though like

ur only saying that because she's blond and we all know nobody on this show can be blond without being related to The Blond(tm) 🙄

that literally means they abandoned their kid. yes. such good parents 😫

i also feel like we didn't....really get to know ruby that well? i'll reserve judgement to give them more time obviously, and millie seems very green (not a judgement on her, and she and ncuti seem to have a lot of fun energy together) so there's still time and there's a lot of time in general for the stories to get going, and it had to do double duty as a christmas special and an intro episode for both new doctor and new companion so like, my feelings may also change with time. anyways those are my thots for now

yesss i was sold on gatwa very quickly i just hope he doesn't become 10th doctor rehash number 2345932853845 i am so tired. give him something new. also praying him and ruby don't have a romance angle there were a couple of moments in CORR i was like. GOD NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NOT AGAIN.

CORR plot being meh i agreeee but also xmas specials plot is a lot of times like a wafer and as someone who watched it quite roasted ngl i kinda appreciated it 😂

YEAH omhg tho with ruby disappearing and her mum (i want to say carla??) completely changing as a person??? i get that the point was supposed to be like one little change can make such an impact etc etc as well. but also i was just like. .... ok but what about the other kids wasnt good enuf ???? maybe i'm a cynic lol. but fr have another MORE kids on the wall bc she's trying to fill a gap she doesn't know is from what !!!! IMAGINE.... especially with it being sort of set up as a doctor/companions parallel oh my god

nooo oh my god i know what you mean about rubys parents i like that theyre setting it up as a counter to 13s "it doesn't matter i'm good as i am my past doesnt define me" etc. but i really want it to not be interesting. i want her parents to just be like. normal people who had to make a hard choice lol. oh my god. i just realised. we're gonna go thru a fucking rey star wars arc with her im gonna lose it byee... imagine she ends the series like "im ruby doctor" :) i would quit watching.

but yeah 100% it's gonna be a big thing. atm i dont care but i guess we'll see and hope they do something interesting with it.... prayers she's an alien tbf

rose and tentoo would be terrible parents tbf i said what i said.

YEAH i know what you mean i feel like that about gatwa too i think its hard making the first intro for both an xmas special because it has to be kinda silly and rompy so you cant rlly get too into the grit of the characters?? still reserving judgement on them both, but its taken me a while to warm up to like. everyone in dr who since bill--- wait i take that back i loved bel in flux from like her first scene but she's not a doc or companion.

#replies tag #long post #dw spoilers

[mokutone]

🌿🌱 Mokutone Masterpost 🌱🌿

Hi! Welcome. This post will function sort of as a FAQ and will be updated as such. You don't need to read it, but if you've had these questions, here are my answers:

"Do you take Commissions?"

Not yet! I do, however, have a Ko-fi, where I'll do some little thank-you doodles!

"Do you have a shop?"

No, not at the moment! I am considering it though...

"What materials do you use?"

By far the questions I get asked the most are about this, so this will get very long and I'm going to put it under a readmore. I will address the papers, inks, watercolors, dip pens, brushes, and other materials that I have used.

I also answer questions about my materials under the "my ninja tools and scrolls" tag, and give art technique advice under the "my jutsu" tag. Yes it's silly, but this is a Naruto art blog. this is what we all signed up for.

Mostly, this will be a list of my traditional materials. I will address the paper, pens, inks, and various types of watercolor that I use!

📄 PAPERS: 📄

—Strathmore 400 Series Heavyweight Drawing Pads 100lb/163gsm. (these numbers refer to the weight/thickness of the paper. thicker paper is less likely to buckle) ———> This paper is extremely cheap (a 9"/12" pad is often under 10 dollars), takes inks EXCELLENTLY, but it's a much lighter paper, and it will buckle under watercolor. For this paper, it's good to only paint small sections, to paint very slowly, or to paint with the paper taped down to another surface.

—Fabriano Hot Press (Hot Press means the paper is smooth, not rough) Watercolor Paper, 140lb/300 gsm ———> I use this paper the most because it's fairly cheap to buy in bulk, while still being good enough quality that my picky watercolor teacher approved it, Lol. I can usually find a 9"/12" block of it with 50 pages for about $20 if i look hard enough—and the paper is hardy enough that if I'm careful, I can paint on both front and back of the paper. Bad for archival purposes maybe, but great for having fun and not spending more money. [Example]

—Vision Cold Press (Meaning the paper is rough and textured) Watercolor Paper, 140lb/300 gsm ———> My watercolor teacher said this stuff was garbage, but...I don't really care! It is DIRT CHEAP and YES it buckles a little despite being thick, and YES it feels like cardboard in your hand, and YES it ONLY comes in coldpress, but the texture is grainy and even and nice... and like. when I say dirt cheap I mean dirt cheap. I used to get the 6"/9" 30 page pad for like 6 or 7 bucks. [Example]

—Arches Watercolor Pad/Block, Hot Press, 140lb/300 gsm ———> This is that expensive shit. I got a pad of it for a class back in college, and I dip into it now and again—I also bought a little bit more when there was a sale recently, a 12 page. It's 100% cotton, and it takes pigment based watercolor REALLY well, but it's not so good about dye based (I'll discuss the difference between those later) [Example]

🎨 WATERCOLORS: 🎨

DYE BASED:

Dye based watercolors, because they are based in dyes instead of pigments, are not lightfast. They are not archival. If you expose them to sunlight, they will begin to fade, and some will fade rapidly. That said, if you hoard your art in a dark place once you've documented, go hog wild! The fact that they're all liquid already makes them really easy to use.

—Ecoline Watercolor [Liquid] ———> These are a little watery, but they are cheap and easy, and I used them for the majority of my early watercolor art on this blog!

— Dr. Ph. Martin's Radiant Concentrated Watercolors [Liquid] ———> They are expensive, and sold in small quantities. They are, however very bright, like that label isn't lying! They're super concentrated! I have not actually run out of any of the ones that I bought (at a store closing sale bc otherwise they're too expensive lol) because they only use a small amount at a time

— Dr. Ph. Martin's Synchromatic Transparent Watercolors [Liquid] ———> They are also expensive, and also sold in small quantities. They aren't really made for paper either. They're fine. Probably not worth it though!

PIGMENT BASED:

—Black Sheep Art Supply's Pans And Half Pans! [solid watercolor] ———> These have been very enjoyable for me to work with!! They're very bright, affordably priced, and the paints are from a small business, as well as being handmade and from the first Black-owned art supply store. I've had wonderful experiences ordering from this store, and I wholeheartedly recommend them!

[EDIT: apparently the shop is on a break or something! oh well]

—Dr. Ph. Martin's Hydrus [liquid watercolor] ———> These are liquid watercolors, like the dyes, but they are archival and somewhat light-fast, which means they can be exposed to moderate amounts of sunlight without fading. I haven't gotten to use them much yet, but they seem fine. You do have to shake them a lot to mix the pigment in. They can also be a little difficult to rewet, and may appear somewhat flaky.

—Turner Professional Artists' Watercolors [tube/semi liquid] ———> These are watercolors stored in tubes, you know, the traditional way! I used these for class, back in college. They're cheap, but well pigmented as far as cheap watercolors go. If you're really on a tight budget, this is probably the best pick.

—Holbein Artist' Water Color [tube/semi liquid] ———> My best friend (the one who got me into naruto!) gave these to me! Usually they can be very expensive. They're very high quality, and gorgeous. I'm so enamored with them and touched by the gesture that I use them very rarely, I don't want to lose them! They're special to me!

✒️ INKS: 🖋️

I only use permanent inks which will not bleed (much) when water is applied, due to working in watercolor. This list will reflect that

—Dr. Ph. Martin's Bombay Black India Ink ———> I use this the most frequently. It's a little shiny, but not too bad, and it is completely waterproof once dried. Of the Ph. Martin inks, it's the cheapest by far, and a 1oz bottle (which lasts me months) can be found for about $5. —Dr. Ph. Martin's Black Star (Matte) Ink ———> Very waterproof, does not shine much at all. If you record your art with photography rather than scanning, this may be useful to you! Unfortunately, it's about $10 a bottle. —Dr. Ph. Martin's Black Star (Hi-Carb) Ink ———> Very waterproof, very shiny. I don't use this much because I don't like my ink to shine, but it can be very nice with the right application. Unfortunately, it's also about $10 a bottle.

—Yatsumoto Sumi Ink ———> you can get this stuff cheap. Like, you could get a 12oz bottle of it for like $12. That's very cheap. Unfortunately it's not completely waterproof, and if you agitate (rub the brush vigorously) over the ink, it may seep into the watercolors. If you're careful though, this won't be a huge problem. It's also good for ink-only work.

—Liquitex Acrylic Ink ———> This is also very waterproof, but it also takes longer to dry than the other inks, so I find myself smudging it a lot. It's also about $7 for a 1oz bottle, but about $20 for a 5oz bottle, so if you're committed to the ink, it can be cheap to buy in larger sizes.

—Diamine Registrar's Blue-Black Ink ———> Expensive. Really more of an interesting find than a practical ink for me. This is mostly waterproof, but a very thin ink, and you can feel the nib get scratchier when drawing with it. That's not a bad thing, it's just a textural thing. It's produced in a similar way to medieval inks, with iron and oak-galls, and because of this it has some interesting properties: When first applied to paper, it's a pale or sky blue, but it darkens rapidly as it dries, becoming almost black over time. It runs the rusk of corroding metal pen nibs due to its chemical makeup, and so nibs which use this must be washed extra thoroughly.

✍️ PEN NIB HOLDERS: ✍️

—Speedball Sketching Pen Set: ———> Easiest to get your hands on. Comes with two nib-holders and 6 different nibs to try out, available at most art stores, and usually around $10. It's also not bad quality—I don't use the tiny little nib-holder any more, but I use the standard black one all the time.

—Tachikawa Comic Pen Nib Holder, Model 40/ Model 36 ———> My Favorite. Thank god it has a little rubbery thing around it, because I grip pens hard 😭. It is able to hold standard-size AND small-size nibs. Occasionally, I find that some "standard-size" nibs might not fit, but I've never had this issue with the small size nibs.

Honestly, those are my favorites, but it's really hard to go wrong with pen nib holders. If they fit comfortably in your hand, and they hold a nib, they're good!

🖋 NIBS: ✒️

Nibs are difficult to acquire. They can be expensive too.

— Speedball ———> If you want to get a variety of nibs to experiment, this is my first recommendation. They have a wide variety of nibs to experiment, and find out what your favorites are.

—Tachikawa Pen Nibs ———> They've got less robust options than Speedball, and a little more expensive too, but they're very good nibs! The G-Nib is the standard nib used in comic making, and especially for lettering. It's a very stiff little nib, so it doesn't flex too much. This makes it pretty reliable, and especially good for lettering/writing.

—Manuscript Leonardt Pen Nibs ———> A lot of options for everything from caligraphy to cartography to sketching, also a little expensive—what is notable is that their pen nibs tend to be on the more flexible side, allowing the artist to get a lot of line weight variance. This is bad for lettering, but fun for drawing! They also have pens shaped like hands. Neat.

—Brause Pen Nibs ———> These were always super expensive where I was. I got a few. They come in this dorky plastic case with a sliding top, and I kinda wish they didn't bc that's a whole lotta plastic for something that coulda been stored in cardboard or paper, lol. I now use the cases to hold perfume samples. They're good pens, they're just expensive and the packaging is dumb.

—Whatever the hell is on Etsy. ———> People love to sell vintage things on etsy, and pen nibs are no exception. Often, you can find random samplers of pen nibs, or collections of pen nibs for sale. Sometimes you can find a whole box of one kind of pen nib, often times with a lot of nibs in it. I once bought one of these for like $45 and i don't even regret it because it's got a shitton of nibs and I realllly like using them. It will literally last me the rest of my life.

🖌 Brushes: 🖌

I don't have a lot to say about brushes! Ultimately, if it makes a mark on paper, and you like the mark it makes...I think that's a good brush.

I've been told you should go for ones which hold a shape, I think, and don't spread out in a big puff. Ones which use animal hairs are apparently best, but they are also very expensive. Generally, with watercolors, you will want to use "round" brushes, especially for beginners. If you want to experiment, I recommend Filberts, but there are also sword/dagger brushes if you're painting something like grass. Mostly I use:

—Creative Mark Mimik Kolinsky: ———> As the name implies, these are meant to mimic (synthetically) brushes made from Kolinsky fur. These are nice and I like them. They're cheap, but hold their shape well, and feel good in the hand. —Creative Mark Mimik High Performance Synthetic Squirrel Hair Watercolor Brushes: ———> What a name. I find these to be just as good for me as the Mimik Kolinsky, but a little bit cheaper. As long as ur careful not to treat them too roughly you'll be fine.

—Princeton Watercolor Brushes ———> Good. Expensive, but good. They have a variety of synthetic + natural materials, they are well made, if you have a little money to throw around + want a brush which will preform very well but will not destroy your bank, this is a solid brand. I've used ones from their Velvetouch, Mini-Detailer, and Heritage collections before, and enjoyed them all very much.

Additional Supplies:

—Porcelain Palette ———> I highly recommend using a porcelain palette instead of a plastic palette, both because I like to cut down on plastic when I can, and because the porcelain palettes are just....so much more convenient. The glass-like coating means that they will be easier to clean, whereas all of my plastic palettes over the years have gotten permanent stains. They're a little harder to accidentally knock around because they're heavier, which probably isn't a problem for most people, but I can be kinda clumsy. I can't tell u the number of times I've sent a full plastic circle-palette of watercolors flying lol

[marinerainbow]

Ok I'm too excited, so here's a deatailed post for my new gal

Shiny Weasel

I am not an artist so I don't have any visuals for Shiny. I'll try my best to describe her appearance.

Also, please note that she's still not 100% developed. So there may be changes in the future. I'm happy with what I've got right now, but still.

As the image implies, Shiny is pretty much a flapper girl for the 40's. She drinks, wears whatever she wants from short skirts to trousers, and lives how she wants. She's honest, in that brutal sort of way; unless she's trying to deceive you, she'll say whatever is on her mind, no matter how witty, sarcastic, or brash it may be.

Shiny works as a performer in a somewhat high-end (high-end as in they got nice props) yet seedy club in Downtown Toontown. I'm debating on whether or not she owns the club, or she's just a worker. Though that's her 'day' job. Her real job is making her own moonshine and selling it to whoever seeks her services. From upstanding citizens to lowly criminals. Technically, by the events of the movie, alcohol is no longer prohibited. But moonshine was still considered illegal to make because of how dangerous it can be. Not to mention making it at home, which Shiny does. (I hope my research is correct.)

She's confident, she's loud, she's stubborn, and she refuses to let others dictate how she should act or present herself.

Appearance wise, Shiny's got the body type that the Toon Patrol has. So she doesn't have the humanoid body that Whinnie Weasel does. Her belly/neck/palms are a brown sugar shade, and her back/legs/arms are sienna brown. I'm debating on making her eyes the generic black pupils like Smartass and Stupid, or giving her vibrant green eyes (it'd complete the whole eye color set for weasels if they were green, but I don't want to risk making her look like a weaselfied Jessica Rabbit either)

She doesn't have human-like hair like Greasy, but she does let the fur on her head grow out to make hair like Psycho. It's short, and she styles it when she's working in the club, but leaves it as a fluffy pixie style when she's off duty.

She does wear sparkling/fancy clothes clothes when at the club or just dancing. But when she's at home or just doing her chores/errands, she wears more casual clothes. I can't think of anything specific, I still need to work on her style.

Now, hopefully I was able to paint a clear enough picture XD now, onto tid-bits!

As I said before, Bernadette Peters is my voice claim for Shiny. Both for her speaking voice and singing voice (yes she sings)

Moonshine isn't her only crime. If she doesn't like you and/or you give her a reason, Shiny will steal your wallet and use whatever she finds. Cash, credit cards, you name it. If you really piss her off, she'll put you in debt.

She can be brash, but she can be nice too. Nicer than Smartass at least. Basically, if you play nice, she'll play nice too. And if you earn her trust, she'll be quite the loyal friend and ally.

Shiny has ran into the Toon Patrol plenty of times. They've had to pay her a visit a few times while acting as a police force for the judge. They 'check up on her' and sometimes have had to arrest her for appearances... Though in reality, she pays them for protection to continue her moonshine business, and has even sold them some of her best alcohol. She's gotten well acquainted with them because of it (especially with a certain zoot suited weasel)

I was actually originally going to make her related to Smartass (and by extension Stupid, with my hc that they're brothers). I was thinking about families for the weasels, and I wanted to make him a sister. Though when I started developing Shiny more and more, I couldn't figure out how to make it work. So it's a scrapped concept (I still like it though, so maybe she and him develop a sibling bond? I'm not sure).

The reason why I colored her name purple is because I imagine that would be her color. She'll wear purple hued dresses at work. It's her favorite color. And it could be her designated color if she became a part of the TP.

Her birthday/the day she was drawn is March 28'th, 1913 (making her 34 years old during the events of the film)

Considering that she dances nightly, I imagine Shiny is pretty fit. And she also knows how to move her body to quickly evade danger and wandering hands if needed.

My biggest inspiration for Shiny is Ms. Scarlet from Clue the Movie. Though other characters were her inspiration; Granny Boone from 2001 Maniacs, Wendy from Gravity Falls, Velma Kelly from Chicago, Joy Turner from My Name is Earl, Daisy Duke from The Dukes of Hazzard. Even a little bit of Jessica herself. There are other characters, but these are the ones that come to mind at the moment.

And that's Shiny! Please let me know what you think! ^^

#my own OC's #my own characters #Shiny Weasel #WFRR #Who Framed Roger Rabbit #Toon Patrol #Disney #Disney Villains #Judge Doom #Youtube

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

B-15's Backstory: Incoherent Thoughts

Because I'm still not over this, and not likely to be over this any time soon. I've been sending my friend near constant stream-of-consciousness texts about this all day. Now you get to deal with it. Headcanons, theories, reactions, etc. Spoilers for Loki episode 2x05 and probably Loki: Agent of Asgard.

I'm literally just typing up my texts about B-15/Verity, so they really are incoherent/stream-of-consciousness. I'm not kidding when I say I've been thinking about her all day. I'm aware this is almost certainly just an easter egg, but my brain does not work that way when I get a hint of something I love.

She found him before Mobius did. She's been with him all along!!!

Besides Sylvie he loses her last in episode five. ;.; She finds him first in 1x01, and she's the last agent he loses in 2x05.

If Tom Hiddleston does not say "Verity" at some point in episode six I won't know what to do with myself. Then again if he does, I'm going to have to pause the episode to cry for twenty minutes.

I wrote this TWO WEEKS AGO. A part of me knew.

I complained about Loki not being on my birthday month for my calendar but IT'S VERITY I'M OKAY WITH IT. [The thing draped over her is a palm from Palm Sunday. It's the only place in my apartment it's able to hang.]

Oh my god if B-15 is not outright confirmed to be able to detect lies in the next episode I'm gonna ignore everything the writers try to tell me and I'm going to do a whole rewatch explicitly to catalog all of her interactions and assess if I can conclude that she has this power in the MCU. She already only needed Sylvie to tell her to her face that Sylvie didn't create C-20's memories and she believed her.

Personally I want that scene from the mid-season trailer where Loki's like "I'm a fast learner" and everyone else just takes him at his word, but then I want B-15 to be like '...This boi's acting sus.' And everyone else gets to work, and she pulls him aside and is like, "What are you up to?" And he's like, "Nothing." And she's like, "I know you're lying." Basically if someone (Loki) says something in the episode that I know as a viewer is a lie and they do a fairly decent job of acting convincing (none of this over-the-top terrible lying bullshit to really drive home to the audience that they're lying), and B-15 says the words "I know you're lying," I'm sold. I won't rewatch everything to figure it out. I'll be convinced she can detect lies.

No but Sylvie and B-15 becoming ride or die bffs, no romance, like Loki and Verity are in the comics would give me LIFE.

I've come up with another way they can imply B-15 can detect lies next episode. If at some point Loki just starts telling his friends about their lives on the timeline instead of doing the memory magic, and he turns to OB and goes, "You... are a brilliant writer." And B-15 is in the frame, and she doesn't say anything, either in that moment or as an aside to Loki, but she just twitches a little at the lie. I'll lose my fucking mind. If that and the one season one interaction with Sylvie is all we get as implicative confirmation, I'll fucking take it. My girl can detect lies. Sold. Done.

[Not really a headcanon or anything, but just to show you I'm a fool irl too] Also I came in, [my dad] said, "Hi, what's up?" And I said, "B-15 is Verity Willis." And then I grinned like a lunatic even though he has no clue who Verity is and I know he has no clue who Verity is.

We currently do not have any evidence that B-15 is not ace, so Verity is still 100% ace in the MCU, too.

#loki #loki tv show #loki season 2 #loki season 2 spoilers #loki theories #loki comics #b-15 #please is it too early to tag her still #i know i KNOW it's an easter egg and that's probably it but i just don't care #i just love her and i've wanted her here for a long time #so i'll take what i can get even if it's crumbs okay #seriously between this and the shocking accuracy of my pre-ep fic #you are all getting a front row seat to how marvel breaks my brain for good #if we get the Coat next week it was nice knowing you

[sullina]

What are your thoughts in a modern au melban ?how do you think they'd meet and would they have the same dynamics? Love your stuff so wanted to ask your thought :D

I'm happy you like my stuff and thanks for the ask^^ I hope you like what I wrote^^ Enjoy :D

So modern au MelBan... I do think they would still have pretty much the same dynamic with each other, but maybe not necessarily with the people around them.

Since alcohol, in modern times, is getting let's say "less popular", I can see Meliodas being rather and sneaky and kind of hiding how much he actually drinks from his friends and maybe family, depending on how much his family is actually in the picture.

Ban doesn't drink much, but for the one sole reason that he gets drunk super fast and just physically cannot lift his glass to his mouth after a few drinks.

Meliodas, at some point after becoming an adult, has opened the Boar Hat using money he either worked for or already had from his family or he sold something valuable, point is he had enough money to open the bar. Things weren't going well at first, but he needed employees and Hawk came in and took the job, which actually saved the bar, even if Meliodas would never ever admit it, because Hawk already had experience with running a business while Meliodas had no fucking clue on what to do beyond "buy and sell alcohol". Hawks ego was big enough as it is XD and like this, Meliodas and Hawk became somewhat friends. Elizabeth and Meliodas obv aren't together in this, but they're still close friends and cherish each other. Elizabeth also met Hawk over Meliodas and immediately fell in love with him. Not romantically, she just thinks he's super adorable and those two actually get along really well. Elizabeth occasionally also helps out at the bar when she can, since she wants her friend to succeed. (depending on whether or not this modern au still had magic and stuff, Hawk can be a pig/purgatory creature here or not, I'll leave it up to you, but I do want to say that I'm not opposed to magic in a modern au)

Enough on Meliodas though, onto Ban. Ban is a real kleptomaniac, but has miraculously never gotten a jail sentence. He did get the police called on him frequently though, because he tended to be aggressive, but only got taken in for the night, you like those cells the police put drunk people into to sober them up and let them go the next day? (a translator said it was called a "drunk tank" but I've never seen that being used, so I'm not 100% sure it's the right term ._. )

now how do they meet?

Well, Meliodas' bar was doing relatively well, but it wasn't exactly a hit either. He needed money and a lot of it. Same situation with Ban. He was flat out broke and he was living with friends who were nice enough to let him stay and crash for a while (King and Elaine, I guess would be the most logical choice here), he didn't want to be an eternal burden on them. The solution? Well, there was a fight festival coming up, and the prize money was nothing to sneeze at.

Ban being Ban was no stranger to fighting, so he had quite a lot of experience just out of necessity, giving him a pretty good chance at winning, if not first place, he could still get second or third, both of which also came with some prize money and as far as Ban was concerned, anything was better than nothing.

Meliodas on the other hand didn't seem like the fighting kind of guy, right? True. It's actually a very closely kept secret of his, but he really really like pretty much any kind of fighting sport. In his family, he was more or less forced to learn some kind of martial art bc "status" and stuff. That's one thing he didn't mind though, since he actually kind of enjoyed it, even if it was a little tedious at times. He was told that they (him and his brother(s) (depending on if Estarossa is included here or not)) had to take it up for exercise, but Meliodas suspected that their father wasn't 100% clean and wanted them to be able to defend themselves against potential kidnappers and didn't trust security guys that could be bought. Even after he left, Meliodas still kept up his training in secret, but also got into less "reputable" (?) fighting sports like, idk, wrestling I guess? And this lead to his sort of mixing a few kinds of fighting into his own style. This was definitely an advantage when someone wanted to start shit in the Boar Hat, like when they didn't want to pay for the food or something.

So Meliodas and Ban both enter and end up fighthing each other. I'd say Meliodas takes first place while Ban takes second. Diane also entered, but I'm not sure yet what place she would take, but it's definitely higher up. Might be third place even.

Ban is accompanied by King and Elaine while Meliodas came alone, since he doesn't want his friends to know that he can fight as well as he can (not necessarily because they would judge him for it, it's just that it's his secret and he'd like it to stay that way). Diane is here on her own, but is loosely acquainted with Elaine and Elizabeth (not quite friends, but not strangers either) and she loosely knows Meliodas as well, but is shy around him, because she has a slight crush on him. Not as big and obvious as in canon, but enough for her to take an interest in him. They're not close though. Merlin comes as an independent party to watch along with Gowther and Escanor. She's here for research purposes and may want Escanor to enter to test his strength, or maybe not.

So Ban and Meliodas meet in the fight festival, but because they fight in the finale, they actually "meet" before that. The festival takes several days and during those days, the participants are granted a room to stay in. It's a very popular festival, so the organizers can afford to do that. While staying, there's a bit of a problem in the kitchen one day and the food takes longer. The hungry participants are getting impatient, which is a terrible combination and Ban is getting hungry, too. Instead of just complaining about it though, he wordlessly enters the kitchen and starts helping out, which is noticed by none other than Meliodas, who, as you know, is an absolutely terrible cook. That day, the food tastes especially good, which leads to Meliodas approaching Ban and getting the info out of him that HE'S the reason for it.

Now that already intrigues Meliodas, but only after the festival, after they fought for first place, is he 100% sure that he wants Ban to come back with him. Now what exactly happens, I can't tell you, but they bond while fighting bc they're just Like That. And even though he lost, Ban had so much fun that he immediately tells Meliodas that they should go again, because no matter how much Ban tries to bury it with alcohol and a shitty attitude, he's still a good person and a bit of a child (in a good way) at heart. King sees it too, which is one of the reasons why he's so patient with him, even if Ban frustrates him to no end. Meliodas agrees to fight with Ban again, but only if he comes with him (to work as his cook in the bar). Ban is more than happy to take the job, because cooking is one of the things he's actually good at and enjoys. And Meliodas can even offer him a room right above the bar if he needs a place to stay! (it's one of those 'work on the ground floor and house/home above, all under one roof, like in canon).

Ban, who is not only in need of a job, but also wants to stay with this new friend he made, takes the offer. Of course he can't exactly Just Go with Meliodas from the fight festival, he's with King and Elaine there and he still has all his stuff at their place. So they get to talking and find that they actually live relatively close, maybe in the next town over or so! He doesn't take the room right away though.

('m basing this on germany, where the next town over is like 10 minutes by car btw)

Ban gets used to the work fast. His food is an absolute hit, leading to a fast increase in customers, which means more profits. Before all that though, Ban messes up a few times. Due to past experiences, he believes Meliodas might fire him, but he doesn't. He's actually very patient with him and even cares for him when he gets blackout drunk and doesn't judge him for it. It's this pure kindness and patience that makes Ban like Meliodas and develop a slight crush on him.

As for Meliodas, well the two still fight on the regular, just for fun. After one of these sparring sessions, Ban asks how Meliodas got into fighting, because he doesn't really seem like the fighting type. Meliodas is reluctant to tell the truth about his upbringing. Before he actually gets to it though, Ban, being able to tell that he's uncomfortable, stops him and tells him that it doesn't matter. Whatever his past was like, they're friends now.

Oooh, I just thought of a great reason why Meliodas keeps his fighting thing a secret, because when he just left home or even before that, people would think it was kinda creepy or weird, which kept Meliodas from making friends. He didn't mind in the fight festival, because he figured no one knew him there plus he was only there for the money anyway. Becoming friends with Ban was a lucky coincidence.

So Ban and Meliodas become closer and closer and Ban moves into the room that Meliodas keeps offering him. So they spend practically 24/7 around each other now, and they don't really think much of it (just bros being bros). Hawk doesn't live with them, since he lives very close by, like in the next building over or so. Close enough that he can be there in less than 5 minutes by foot.

While living together, Meliodas' mood improves A LOT. He's hadn't realized it, but he's actually been pretty lonely living all by himself and with Ban it's a lot less lonely and he doesn't feel like he has to hide anything from him. Meliodas also learned that Ban is an unexpectedly grabby person when drunk and will latch onto the nearest person and fall asleep. Most nights, this is Meliodas. The first time this happened, Meliodas was a bit uncomfortable, because it was unfamiliar, and tried to bring Ban to bed and to let go. It didn't work. So Meliodas had to sleep in the same bed as him for the night. Thing is, Ban also tends to mumble in his drunken sleep, and confessed to Meliodas that he has a crush on him! It was hard for Meliodas to fall asleep after that... and Ban woke up the next morning with no memory of what happened.

Meliodas is a bit of a blushy mess for a few days afterwards, because on the one hand, he kinda likes Ban back, but on the other, what if it was just drunken babbling and Ban doesn't actually like him like that? If that's the case, then coming onto Ban could ruin their friendship and that's the last thing Meliodas wants to happen.

Eventually though, with enough encouragement from their friends, Ban and Meliodas do end up confessing to each other. Without alcohol this time. Or their friends set them up, like setting up a romantic dinner to finally officially get them together.

#sullina nnt #nnt #nnt melban #melban #nnt meliodas #ban #nnt ban #nantsu no taizai #sds #seven deadly sins

[rubberduckyrye]

Just so you know, Eugene was always going to be the prince of the Dark Kingdom. That was something they'd decided on way back in pre-production.

I'm sure you mean well, but... sorry, I'm not 100% sold on that.

The reason why is because writers for corporations have to say things that line up with keeping their jobs. If they were to, say, reveal that they had a bigger plan for Varian that didn't come to fruition, a plot point that the fans would definitely get upset and salty over, of course they're going to be told to keep quiet about it.

"Pre-production" is also a vague term here. "pre-production" for the whole series, or for a specific season? Because according to Wikipiedia, the third season was only green-lit just before the second season premiered, with the second season green-lit just before the first season premiered, and the second season taking a year and some change to be fully developed.

Had the show been green-lit for three seasons all at once, I might buy that Eugene being the prince of the dark kingdom was always the plot point. However, there is the issue of that post-production editing could have made things change, even though season two was green lit before season one was airing. It only means that it was green-lit to be produced, not that it was created and ready to go. They only green-lit the second season just a month before the movie and the series premiered.

The reason why I'm mentioning this is because it all lines up with Chris's fall from grace when it comes to fandom involvement. Before the second season was released, he was already shutting down Varian fans and causing issues in general. The second season was in pre-production during the airing of season one, which provides the perfect opportunity to change the story last minute as things were being developed. Which accounts for a lot of plot holes, rushed character arcs, and other problems that occurred in the second season and especially in the third.

When I hear things like "But they said this was decided during pre-production," I can't help but to wonder who said that, and if they had to say that in order to keep their job.

Like seriously--do you understand how big of a stir it would cause if an official writer for the show came out to reveal that Varian was supposed to be the prince (something that the series actively sets up in narrative themes and foreshadowing, mind you, especially in the first season) but it was changed because of Chris's weird nonsense? It would cause an uproar among fans. Especially the more conservative mothers who would be extremely upset over some man's """crush""" being so... ahem, obvious. And not very kid-friendly.

You know what that does? It makes Disney look bad.

So, unfortunately I'm not sold on the idea that Eugene was always meant to be the prince. There's no way to know for sure with how corporations like Disney are. Writers are at the whims of those who give them their salary, after all.

#tangled the series #Varian #Eugene #Look it could be true #but I'm just saying that we can't fully trust what Disney is making their employees say #Like in the end it doesn't really even matter because we will literally never know the truth in this case #but there are things that just line up too well #Again I could be entirely wrong and feel free to correct me if there is a way to do so that isn't just testimony #but I digress

[decepti-thots]

Hey you said that some of the transformers comics were jumping in price bc of paper shortages and limited prints due to poor sales. Is that true basically across the board, and they might go down if IDW prints more of them? I'm trying to collect the phase two hardcover collections and for some reason I can find all of them at retail price or lower, but there's like 3 copies of volume 5 online at any given time and they're 3-4x the retail price, and it's driving me crazy. (and the fact that it looks like phase 3 doesn't include the last 2-3 volumes-worth or so, and I can't tell if they just haven't published it yet, or it's going from limbo straight to never-published hell thanks to the reboot and IP sale...)

Ohhh this is about my SotW TPB post I take it?

So all the below is 100% conjecture for the record, and it is perfectly likely that I am wrong in every regard, but this is just what I've seen discussed these past few years in both fandom and publishing generally. Grain of salt, etc. Sorry to go into wayyy more detail than you asked for anon, but I figure while we're here and since I've seen people ask similar questions, may as well give all the advice I have to offer!

So yes, the reason they have jumped in price is they're out of print, period, and it is indeed more or less across the board bar brand new releases (which are likely getting 1-2 printings tops) as far as anyone can tell. We think this has been the case for a while, actually. A lot of stuff just didn't fully sell out everywhere so the last few copies in stock made it seem "in print" for a lot of titles, but then when IDW lost the license and people ran to buy up copies, well. Turns out those were just leftovers, mostly? So the prices started going way up.

The hypothesis in fandom is that IDW has almost certainly been running on a 'reprint only if needed' policy for at least some of their books for quite some time now, putting off doing new print runs for trades to avoid slapping a lot of cash down for a run that might take years to sell out and fully make a profit. Because again, publishing right now is expensive and risky for various reasons, so the threshold gets higher and higher before you want to go for it, especially for something as high-cost as full colour comics, especially for smaller print runs period.

So the stuff that the original print runs of haven't sold out yet are going for RRP, and that includes a lot of the more recent books, plus just some random older ones. Once they sell out, the price skyrockets. This leads to weird, random stuff being way more expensive, like volume 5 of the IDW phase 2 collection as you said, or volume 8 of MTMTE (saw one of those go for £110 not long ago).

(Also, stuff that came out before this was likely to be quite so big an issue isn't as badly hit even once out of print. LSotW is much cheaper than SotW despite both being out of print and both being in high demand. Why? LSotW probably got more and/or larger print runs. Not just because it's been out longer, but because when it was out, IDW may not have been as shy about when they reprinted stuff. See also: AHM is cheap as hell still, it's not as in demand and they probably just... printed way more copies total before the problem struck.)

For most of the TF stuff that's just sort of. It, really. They're not re-printing when the license is going next year, why would you. Buy whatever you can now tbh, if it's worth it to you; there's already MTMTE volumes on UK ebay not only being offered for £100+ but bought for £100, which means it's not people trying their luck and failing.

For the hardback collection volumes, though, there is the caveat people have speculated whether it's remotely possible IDW have retained the rights to finish publishing the rest of those comics in that specific collection past 2022. That is PURE speculation to be clear and not backed up by anything solid. The sole reason a few people think this is that they are, as you say, going ahead with the next phase three omnibus release as late as September 2022, which neither brings them remotely close to finishing the series nor makes a lot of sense if they are hoping to get them all out before losing the license January 2023. So we're wondering if they're not scrapping it because the transfer of rights allowed them to keep those in print, in which case maaaaybe reprints of earlier volumes will happen... but on the other hand maybe they're just. Gonna release a random last volume and let it end uncompleted. WHO KNOWS.

All of this may be eased somewhat if the new rights holder chooses to re-print IDW1 comics to make some cash off them, of course! The caveat being, there's a lot of IDW1 comics that just aren't... well remembered or beloved the way stuff like e.g. Wreckers is, so unless they specifically pick up the hardback omnibus series that covers the entire run, it's unlikely we'll see every comic physically reprinted even then. Some of this stuff is probably never going to see a physical re-release. Alas. They're a lot more likely to do a fancy MTMTE/LL omnibus release than like. Any of the random IDW1 crossover comics. (Which, sure, they're not worth it or anything half the time, but on principle it makes me sad, haha.)

tl;dr: it's not likely to get better for these versions, and we won't know til it's too late if the new comic publisher will make new versions. sorry. :(

[blazehedgehog]

Got a top 5 or 10 most wanted Fortnite skins?

I've been playing Fortnite regularly since 2019. I've had every Battle Pass since Chapter 2. I get free currency daily for having a Fortnite Founders Pass (hence why I have every Battle Pass).

I am drowning in so many skins that the 100 locker presets Epic gives you is nowhere near enough. Every time I get or buy a new skin, I have to make the hard decision of what I can safely replace.

It actually genuinely influences my spending habits because I'll think, "I've wanted this guy for a long time, but I don't feel like deleting anything for him."

If you mean: are there any skins not in Fortnite that I really want? I don't know if I can answer that. Partially because of what I just described, but partially also because of "Santa's Lap Syndrome" where I'm sure I've said "oh I want that in Fortnite" but now I cannot for the life of me remember a single thing.

Following through on Samus would be nice, I guess. It seems like she was really close to releasing and then got held up at the last second. There's a fair amount of evidence in her favor (but this post is long enough as it is), and I was all prepped an ready to buy her back when I thought she was right around the corner.

As for skins already in the game, I can just skim a list to tell you that.

Envoy. She's priced cheap and I think she's cute.

I'd love to have Calamity, but she's a battle pass and as such will never rerun. She's just a cool cowgirl and has lots of alt styles.

I've come very close to buying ISO and her male counterpart. They're actually in the shop as I'm writing this. FIGHTING POLYGON TEAM

Sandshark Driver reminds me of Gum from Jet Set Radio. That's enough for me.

Mezmer is another guy I've come EXTREMELY close because I think his mask is rad.

I think Peekaboo's juggalo/goth clown alt is hilarious but I've never been able to bite the bullet and buy her.

The Joker is fun but he's always a real money skin and he's only sold in a pack with other stuff for like $30. Barf.

Mariana looks super cool but I wonder how visible she is at night.

Trog was a Battle Pass skin so he's gone forever.

I like Errant because you can apply gun wraps to his armor, giving him hundreds of customization options. But I own another skin that functions somewhat similarly.

Silver Surfer just looks cool.

I have Deadpool, so the other X-Force members just make sense, like Domino and Cable.

I regret not being on the ball enough to get this Playstation Blue variant of Versa. (it was free for PS+ subs) Vanilla Versa is definitely a "one day when I have enough vbucks to spare, I'll buy her."

The Classic Storm Trooper is also just a good in that "I always had this skin in Quake 3" way.

Blackheart is another Battle Pass skin I would die for. Blackheart/Blakebeard is one of THE best characters in STW, Fortnite's campaign mode. AND HE HAS GHOST PIRATE STYLES

Dire is yet another Battle Pass skin I missed. He was the Halloween skin one year and is basically just a cool werewolf, and you can toggle how far in to the transformation he is.

Spider Knight is just a cool looking... uh, Knight. Really, I also want his glider, which is a giant flying black widow spider. But the skin looks great, too.

I've come very close to buying Ghost Rider.

I've waffled back and forth on Rustler because I don't know how much value there is for me personally in just going "hur hur it's my little pony." It's still funny it exists, though.

I've thought about getting the OG Beef Boss, but I already own a couple of other variants, so it's less important now. Same for Tomato Tom.

They put a freakin Gundam Wing parody (Sentinel) in the Battle Pass and it is maybe my #1 regret not having it.

Sometimes I want Crackshot, but I have a friend who uses him pretty often, so it'd be kind of weird? (Another STW all-star character)

When I first started playing, Moisty Merman was the top of my most-wanted list. Now I've wondered if I still care.

Deadfire is in the same camp as Calamity as far as "cool cowboys" go, but this guy is also a phantom cowboy. Double cool!

Order Remnant is the same category as Envoy where he's not very expensive and I just like the way he looks.

Madcap is a fun concept for a character and I like his colors.

A World War 1 gas mask guy is a weird thing to see in Fortnite, and that's the entire reason I want Sky Stalker.

I don't like Chiara's default (with the silver paint), but I love her alt.

I didn't love Kill Bill, but something about Siren is still cool.

Taskmaster is like The Joker where I'd like to have him, but he's in an expensive real-money pack and no thanks.

Eternal Voyager was a Battle Pass skin from the season before I started playing regularly and he's awesome. That skull alt...

...Honestly? That's a lot more than I expected. And I'm probably forgetting or missing some. For comparison, here's a (also probably incomplete) list of all the skins I already own.

If I had to boil it down to a top ten most wanted, I'd say: Chiara, Versa, Mezmer, Ghost Rider, Sky Stalker, Taskmaster, Madcap, Deadfire, Domino and ISO, I guess.

#questions #Anonymous #fortnite #wishlist

[anthonysstupiddailyblog]

Anthony's Stupid Daily Blog (751): Sun 7th Apr 2024

Today was daylight savings and not the good one where you gain an extra hour of sleep but the shitty one where at one AM your five hours sleep IMMEDIATELY becomes a fucking four hour sleep which is no fucking good. Luckily I find that after a few minutes on the pedal bike to work the it shakes off the cobwebs due to the lack of sleep and starts to pump the adrenaline through you so I woke up pretty quickly. On my lunch break I saw that Angus Young was trending and I thought “Oh fuck off” but turns out he’s not dead it’s just his birthday which is a good thing not just for me but for the universe because if I had paid £180 for the AC/DC gig (not including travel and accommodation) only for it to be cancelled for a reason as trivial as the lead singer dying then I would get to work on that doomsday device I've been planning since I was four. I realised it would be stupid to try and avoid the spoilers from night one of Wrestlemania all day so I just checked them out on Wrestling Inc. I wasn't surprised that Rock and Roman won their match and I suspect that Cody will overcome the odds tomorrow night even though I'm still not sold on him being the one to end the most historic reign of the modern era. I was happy to see that the tag titles were finally split because there are a lot of tag teams on the roster who could use the rub but haven't been able to recieve it because there has only been one set of tag titles for the last two years. I was sad to see that Gunther's historic Intercontinental title reign came to an end last night. I love Sami Zayn to death but the one to beat Gunther should have been Chad Gable. They could have done a Daniel Bryan style grassroots movement to get fan support behind him then had Gable win a chamber match for the title shot. On the subject of wrestling news also broke today that AEW is going to air the footage of CM Punk and Jack Perry's backstage confrontation during All In at Wembley. Under normal circumstances I'd say that this deemed like a desperation move and a ploy to get a bump in the ratings if not for the fact that Punk fired the first shots on Ariel Helwani's podcast. Prior to this Punk and AEW seemed to be agreeing to a non-disclosure deal where neither side would bash the other but Punk threw all that to the wayside when he described Tony as "a great guy but not a boss" and said AEW is full of people who are content with "some goof giving you a five star match and performing to a quarter full arena". I get what he's saying but to say the entire roster are marks for Meltzer is being disingenuous plus I can't imagine that any of the roster are happy when they look out and see that the building isn't full but that's Tony Khan's fault not theirs. If they're doing this in order to get extra heat on The Young Bucks and potentially to debut Jack Perry as a member of The Elite then fair play to them. It still feels a bit childish but as I said Punk fired the first shots and said that he was just telling the truth so if AEW have footage that shows he wasn't telling the truth then they should 100% air it.

[icharchivist]

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if Belial and Lucifer had to fight for real. And I know it's said they're equals, I do believe that Lucifer is physically stronger or slightly more powerful, because you know Lucilius couldn't resist to give his original OC do not steal clone the biggest dick imaginable the greatest power, but Lucifer is very straight-laced. And he might not want to murder Belial with prejudice, while we know the same does not apply to Belial. And even if Belial couldn't take Lucifer head-on, we know that's not his style anyway. He's cunning, he spins his web and works from the shadows, he's gonna stab you in the back when you least expect it (which is still funny considering he is still canonically one of the most powerful primals and could probably murder you effortlessly if he felt like it, but he's still doing the subterfuge thing because it's funny). So Belial is going to fight dirty and use manipulation and obviously abuse the fact that Lucifer would clearly not want to fight.

If it were anyone else though, I think Lucifer is a fucking beast (pun intended) in battle. He has the stats, he dual wields katanas that are as long as he is tall, hell, he's double classing into healer just for the heck of it. Even if you managed to injure him in a way that would actually bother him, he'd fix himself up and keep going. We're very lucky he's on our side, because bro literally did kick the shit out of God without breaking a sweat. I don't blame Sandalphon or Beelzebub at all, if I saw the guy I'd immediately fall in love with him too.

Anyway, my point is, they're both hot. And unfairly powerful. And by god, are they pretty. And-

dFKLDJFLD the final point really sums it up yes!

But yeah, i 100% agree with your reasoning over here.

They're both meant to be equal, but they also have their specialities. Belial would try to turn the murder into a trickery, and Lucifer is a massive powerhouse that is probably even more powerful bc he's Lucilius' OC with a weak spot for Belial who is very likely not to want to fight him, so it puts them into a weird situation.

in a fight where they somehow don't care about each other at all? Lucifer probably can destroy Belial, but it would be a tough as nail fight where Belial will trick him as many time as possible and might actually come close to winning. If Belial dropped the trickery, maybe he'd even manage to do so even better.

But their special relationship puts a lot of different possibility to their ultimate fighting, also depending when in the timeline they decide to fight, so it's tricky.

But the real conclusion is that they're both hot and powerful and pretty and if they can destroy me to start with i'm already sold. so that's the important conclusion here.

#ichareply #ichafantalks gbf #anonymous

[the-firebird69]

Black widow Harley is full of people they got a shipment like 20 bucks or 30 bikes and they're gone you got on the phone send 500 it said 500 usually don't sell one you better make it a thousand. They're on the way the guy sent 1500 and says I'm banking on you selling more said thank you.. they're willing them off, they're yelling that they're going to give him this much money and that much money. So the guys going okay, pull your horses though they got somebody from the bank, certifying bills and they can transfers and they're moving fast, 2000 more bikes on the way. We're going to get it out there now Hera is ready she packed up a ton of victory got in the line with Ken says he can't do it so she doesn't line with the store and said you want to have the engineer there this is that would be great so you better get ready and think of a price like 100 grand and he goes 100 grand for what and I told him for each one says Hera says this is why I always sold out and said you'll see so she says more and they're going down there to the victory to Harley all of the motorcycle shops and they sold out in minutes and then be calling like mad Men we loaded up a ton of them and they're coming in

Thor Freya

It's a huge day for me my friend is still my friend he says I'm cool in my jets with Jason that's funny as hell but for really for real I'm going to start selling my bikes I'm actually selling them I can't make as many as they want so he wants to know if we want to be a wholesaler distributor that is well I know what he's saying and we're saying yeah in the United States and the max are not frowning anymore so I'm going to call him and he's saying it's going to see what he can do and that's good

Brad

He's not producing them out in the Midwest no he was but not that many probably he has 500 million but we're not at them yet and he can't get them we could get them and we could sell them to him at a discount for finding them or take some in trade so you see what we're saying so he has to start producing and he might want to buy hours and resell them cuz he never keep up with production and we want things to happen and we need to ride them then we have some we have a bunch of them and we don't have access to his either. So it's going down like this he might call up and try and order a bunch and it's not a bad idea we start selling immediately so we're going to sit down with him and talk to him and see how it goes

Hera

I said the top part but actually we did and this not a bad idea and we think he's going to call he does have the number and we can get a ton of bikes real fast we have a Time made and yeah they're not his version ours are a lot faster and no this is not a chain on them. Other bikes are wanted too they want the KTM the maaco the boltaco gas gas and of course our son's bike they want all the brand names Hondas first and dirt bikes and then they want all of the sport bikes in the superbikes and they're calling like madness and they want a lot of the it's it's the supermoto or touring bike it's the ones that can go off road they really like them they're happy and fast and they want a ton of them huge orders are going on massive orders and we have stock and we're going to start sending tons of them and the max want them and the McDonald's they're real huge orders and foreigners everybody they just figured out that they're in a race against Time

Thor Freya

We publish now

Olympus

[pangolinheart]

And another: how did you go about creating Rhiki? was she always a Miqo'te? Did she change at all from where she started?

Rhiki was actually my second FFXIV character, albeit my first long-term one. I had started the game like 2 or 3 years earlier via the free trial and had a character on the Aether server who was a Roe lady named Styrnlona. I never really got very far though and then I got busy with work and other things, so I ended up putting it down and not picking it up again. (Styrnlona also started out as a lancer.) When I picked it up again it was at a recommendation of a few friends I played D&D with. Because I played a tall, buff goliath barbarian woman, it somehow seemed too on-brand to remake Styrnlona on the server they played on. So I tried to make a character that was totally different from anything I had played recently (mostly buff women and shitty magic elves). A miqo'te or viera seemed like a sufficient departure from what I would usually choose, so that's how Rhiki ended up being a miqo'te. That being said, I was really tempted to make an au ra... If female au ra weren't so short I probably would have (though Rhiki ended up absurdly short anyway so the joke's on me.) As for her personality, I kept with the theme of trying to make her different from my typical character. I don't have very many recent characters who are super social or emotionally intuitive, and the idea of playing a character that was more fun-loving and mischievous appealed to me. Originally I envisioned her as being more of a trickster-type character, but as I played she ended up becoming a little more excitable and dorky.

Compared to other rpgs I've played, ffxiv doesn't really give you any sot of starting point or background for your characters, and since I knew nothing about the game or plot when I started I wanted to make her motivations general enough that it would be easy to adapt to whatever direction the plot took. Lots of "fledgling adventurer" backstories I had used before or felt too edgy or played out, and I also didn't know enough about the game to 100% commit to a backstory. I ended up with the general idea of "some dumb wayward 20-something who doesn't know what they want to do with their life so they're just vibing and trying stuff out." Appearance-wise I really just kind of played around until I found a concept I liked. I had a hard time deciding between the sun-seeker and moon-keeper subtypes (I like the moon-keeper lore better but I'm just not a huge fan of the giant round pupils lol). I ended up trying to make her coloring around a theme of "sunrise/sunset" - thus the original purple and orange hair and purple and orange highlights and purple/pink eyes. I originally intended for her skin to be darker, but the lighting in the background I was using made it look much different than it ended up being in-game. I've thought about my free fantasia to change it, but I'm not totally sold. If I could go back I would give her the lion-like tail instead, and maybe the slightly darker nose facial feature... But I've already gotten so much art of Rhiki as she is and I can't think of a good story-relevant reason for her appearance to change lol.

Overall, Rhiki hasn't changed too much since I originally made her. Obviously she got a new haircut that necessitated a slight color change (the orange looked too weird with the highlights on the pvp cut.) She really does look older with her new hairstyle. In regards to her personality, she definitely ended up less "alluring and impish" than I intended and more "goofy and obnoxious," but she's still a fun character to play around with! And of course there's the maturity that comes with age and experience. And the compounding effects of trauma. You know how it goes. If I ever made an alt I might try to go with someone a little... taller lol. Maybe go back to Styrnlona, or try out a duskwight or viera. There are a lot of glams Rhiki just doesn't look good in because of her body type. I'm still tempted to make an au ra though because I love the horns and scales... A hyur wouldn't be off the table either. I might also try to make a character with longer hair - sometimes i want to try out a longer style for Rhiki but every time I try them on she looks like a totally different catte...

#ffxiv #final fantasy xiv #asks and answers #rhiki tag #sorry this is late i fell asleep last night! #also I always tell myself to answer asks in a single paragraph #and yet....