[kyssimmee]

starlight and trixie comic

[kyssimmee]

i'm breaking the author's silence to address these tags directly, because i've seen similar responses a few times. your context is part of you. you like your favorite band because you found them somehow. you speak the languages you speak because somebody else taught you. you feel the way you feel because you have memories and experiences. shaving off pieces of yourself will not reveal a truth at the center, and will only make you feel less like a person worth being. you will never shed your context or influences, anymore than you will ever become younger or undrink a glass of water. but you are free to create as much additional context as you like. build yourself outward instead of digging for yourself at the center. trying 100 new things will give you 100 more data points on what you like, don't like, think, believe, feel. it might begin to reveal an image of yourself that you can recognize, respect, and love. your life is not an object to be kept clean, it is an ongoing action that you get to control. also that's starlight glimmer not rarity.

[kyssimmee]

both of their names are in the caption of the post

[kyssimmee]

starlight and trixie comic

[flandrepudding]

pooped out one more print before LPS palooza this weekend!! Will be available on my sh*p next week!

this is a fun technique I learned in college, if you have access to a scanner, I highly recommend playing around with it!! Kinda wanna make more tbh :p

[hms-no-fun]

do you have tips for getting yourself to actually sit down and work on creative projects? my adhd is medicated and yet i still struggle to actually work on the art and writing i deeply want to be doing

i wish i had an easy no-scope solution for you but i fully expect to be struggling with this same problem for the rest of my life. the artists who appear to be able to just churn shit out consistently for years on end are, in my experience, people who've developed a rigorous set of habits and built a lifestyle around their work, or are genetic freaks who've somehow hacked their own adhd into a superpower, or otherwise just don't really have much self-consciousness about the quality of their own work. they are few and far between, and even fewer are those who can maintain that pace indefinitely, but that doesn't stop the rest of the world from holding them up as the examples we should be aspiring towards. needless to say, i don't think that's particularly helpful.

there ARE lessons to be learned from them, to be clear. we tend to get up in our heads about making art because it's often an emotional process, but the reality is that the work part of the work is just that: work. nobody who clocks in at an office job is excited to be there every day, or even any day. sometimes making art is tedious and annoying and you just have to buckle in and do it anyway. a lot of it really is just habits, practice, and projecting a level of confidence that you probably lack. most people's bar of quality for your work is a lot lower than yours, and mistakes that seem obvious to you just plain are not that obvious. we always underestimate our own skills precisely because they're our skills, we acquired them haphazardly and only barely have a grip on how to use them so naturally take them for granted. YOU know how much you don't know, and so that's what you see in your own work. but other people mostly only see what you do know. and your sloppy half-finished sketch may look like magic to another's eyes. and ultimately there's always gonna be haters, you can't please everyone so don't even try, just fucking make the thing and release it. something that exists is better than something that doesn't exist.

yadda yadda yadda we've heard it all before. i know all this stuff intellectually, but it's so much easier to say than it is to practice. obviously we can learn from the crazy success stories, but it's just as important to recognize that you are not and can never be anybody else except yourself. advice that works for someone else might not work for you. the workflow and habit regime of a frighteningly prolific writer might very easily make your output worse. so, really, it's all about knowing yourself. i think probably you asked ME this question because you see me as someone who IS able to sit down and get the work done, and maybe you're even surprised it took me three paragraphs to get to my own process. the thing is, i don't think any artist makes everything they want to make. we're all carrying around a graveyard of unfinished, never-finished projects, and that's just how it is. i don't know that i've ever met an artist who's fully satisfied in that way.

i'm a very feast-or-famine writer. my partner often gets mad at me (lovingly) when i tell her that i wrote 3000 words in a day when she struggled to hit 500, but i always have to remind her that she writes about that much most days of the week, whereas i churn out a TON of material in a couple days and then might not write anything else for weeks if not months. it frustrates me to no end that this is the case, i've tried so many times to build better daily writing habits but it never stick. i do think i'm not doing as much as i could be, but at the end of the day i've always been this way and i will probably always be this way. trying to force myself to work in a different mode usually just makes me feel guilty, pressured, sad, overwhelmed, paralyzed. i'm just not good at it, and without an institutional setting where i've got the support of an editor and other writers i simply don't see myself getting good at it any time soon. so i try to give myself a bit of grace and work with my eccentricities rather than against them.

i will say my insecurities have a lot less sway over me these days now that i've got so much godfeels under my belt, and there are so many people who've read it and shared their opinions. i used to worry a lot about if i could call myself "a real writer", which is absolute bullshit, but i don't worry about that much at all anymore. i have a baseline level of confidence in my writing and process that enables me to not second guess myself as much. but i understand that is almost exclusively psychological, and is an attitude i could have shed a lot sooner if i really wanted to. particularly i have the confidence to recognize when i'm having off day and get some writing done anyway, because i know my first draft doesn't need to be good or even remotely resemble the finished work. sometimes i just need a skeleton to riff off of, and maybe even getting it down in a rough and annoyed fashion is better. it's like, there's a level of scaffolding and structure to writing that is a bit like doing math, and sometimes you do yourself a favor by getting the math out of the way when you're not entirely feeling it so you can hit the ground running artistically when you ARE feeling it. in the spirit of "something is better than nothing," even sloppy chickenscratch bullet point outlines and tiny illegible thumbnails count as work. it's all about knowing what you can get when you can get it, and accepting that some days you're just not gonna get much at all.

a few meat and potatoes tips though. i find with my own adhd meds that i have the most success when i take them as i'm starting my work for the day. if i'm browsing bluesky or checking my tumblr asks when they kick in, for example, i'm gonna end up in a vortex of that for the entire day without even realizing it. i can't tell you how many times i've started answering a question on here thinking, okay, just a short one this time, a little warmup before i get back to work, only to end up spending over an hour writing a six paragraph essay full of dubiously-relevant asides instead of what i should ACTUALLY be working on. so open your doc or canvas or whatever, take your meds, and start working. sit with the tedium, stare at it, force out what little you can manage, and don't click away to other shit if you can help it. when the meds kick in, the gears will start to turn faster and with less effort, and now suddenly you're just doing it. stay hydrated, stay fed, try to do some stretches every once in a while (i'm terrible at this), maybe go for a walk when you hit a wall. if you're feeling grimy, take a shower. i hate that showering helps but sometimes it really does. but mostly, just pay attention to yourself. it's easy to push yourself to keep going when you're in a groove, but your body will usually tell you when it's time to clock out and a lot of the work i do after that point ends up getting thrown out or completely rewritten. pushing yourself too hard too often, holding yourself to too-high standards, guilting yourself for not getting enough done, THESE are the most common culprits behind artistic burnout, in my opinion. all you can do is what you can do, so do it as often as you can and just try, try to learn a few lessons in the process. challenge yourself, take care of yourself, make mistakes, and don't fear the dry spells. they're never as permanent as they feel.

[katestewartt]

Ncuti Gatwa SNL UK Monologue

[polarity-disturbed]

[ID: A series of six GIF panels shows Ncuti Gatwa standing on a stage lit in red and purple neon, wearing a sheer dark brown shirt patterned with sparkling silver web-like lines and high-waisted trousers. Vertical signs behind him read “LIVE” and “MUSIC.” White captions appear across each GIF as he speaks to the audience.

In the first GIF, he smiles with his hands clasped together as the caption reads, “Millions of you watched me as Eric in ‘Sex Education’...”

In the second GIF, he grins and clasped hands while the caption reads, “And maybe 12 of you watched me in ‘Doctor Who’...”

In the third GIF, he shrugs with both hands thrown outward as the caption reads, “Hey, maybe that’s why I kept crying.”

In the fourth GIF, the caption reads, “And even though I have since regenerated into Billie Piper...”

In the fifth GIF, the camera cuts closer to his face as he gives a baffled sideways look. The caption reads, “I don’t understand it either.”

In the final GIF, he leans forward intensely with his hands clasped again as the caption reads, “I still love ‘Doctor Who.’ And I got to meet so many crazy characters.” /End ID]

[z0ruastudyblr]

Common Words & Phrases from AAVE

Gullah & Early AAVE

Gumbo – From Bantu kingombo (okra), brought by enslaved Africans and became the name of the Creole stew thickened with okra.

Goober – From Kikongo nguba, the Bantu word for peanut that entered American English via enslaved Africans.

Yam – From West African languages (e.g., Wolof nyami, "to eat"), brought over during the slave trade and adopted into Southern cuisine.

Banjo – From a Bantu root (mbanza), the instrument was crafted by enslaved Africans based on West African string instruments.

Bogus – Likely from Hausa boko-boko (deceitful, fraudulent), entering American English through African American speech in the 19th century.

Juke (box/joint) – From Gullah juke (rowdy, disorderly), derived from Wolof dzug (to live wickedly), later attached to roadside bars.

Tote (to carry) – From West African languages (e.g., Kikongo tota, "to pick up"), recorded in Gullah before spreading to mainstream English.

Dig (to understand) – From Wolof degg (to understand), popularized by jazz musicians in the 1930s after entering English through AAVE.

Jazz – Possibly from West African or Creole slang for energy/sex, first documented in AAVE in Chicago around 1912.

Okay (OK) – Though its origin is debated, strong evidence traces it to West African languages (e.g., Wolof waw kay) via enslaved Gullah speakers.

Hip/Hep – From Wolof hipi (to open one's eyes, to be aware), entering jazz slang in the early 1900s before going mainstream.

Hepcat – A compound of "hep" + "cat" (jazz slang for a person), literally meaning "one who has his eyes open" in West African-influenced jazz culture.

Jazz, Blues & 1940s–60s Era

Cool (as in fashionable/calm) – Originated in jazz circles, likely from saxophonist Lester Young, and entered mainstream via West African aesthetic concepts of composure.

Cat – A jazz-era term for a skilled musician or cool person, derived from West African-influenced jive talk.

Crib – Jazz slang for a house or apartment, popularized in the 1940s before becoming mainstream in the 1990s.

Hokum – AAVE slang for nonsense or BS, used in blues and jazz before being adopted more widely.

Diss – Short for "disrespect," coined in AAVE and popularized through hip-hop in the 1980s and 1990s.

Bad (meaning good) – From AAVE, where inversion of meaning creates emphasis (something so "bad" it's actually good), used since early jazz era.

Jive – AAVE slang for deceptive talk or a style of jazz dancing, used by Cab Calloway in his 1930s Hepster Dictionary.

1970s–90s (Hip-Hop & Pre-Internet Era)

Homeboy/Homegirl – AAVE for a close friend from one's neighborhood, popularized in hip-hop and later shortened to "homes" in casual speech.

Dope (meaning great) – Shifted from "stupid" in standard English to "excellent" in AAVE during the 1980s hip-hop era.

Props – Short for "proper respects" in AAVE, used in hip-hop to acknowledge skill or achievement before entering mainstream slang.

Word (as in "I agree") – AAVE interjection ("Word!" or "Word is bond") meaning "I'm telling the truth," derived from Nation of Islam teachings.

Phat (meaning cool/great) – AAVE acronym believed to stand for "Pretty Hot And Tempting," though likely an invented backronym; popularized in 90s hip-hop.

The Bomb – AAVE phrase for something excellent or top-quality, widely used in hip-hop lyrics before mainstream adoption.

Def – AAVE slang for "excellent," popularized by Run-DMC's "King of Rock" and 80s hip-hop culture.

Fresh – AAVE for stylish or excellent, used in early hip-hop and 80s pop culture before spreading globally.

Wack – AAVE for "bad, inferior, uncool," popularized in hip-hop and later mainstream youth speech as the opposite of "cool."

Hella – AAVE intensifier meaning "very" or "a lot of," originating in Oakland/Bay Area AAVE in the 1970s-80s.

Cap / No Cap – AAVE meaning "lie" and "no lie," popularized by Bay Area rap in the 2010s, derived from "capping" (exaggerating).

1990s–2000s (Internet Adoption & Ballroom Culture)

Slay – From AAVE and Black ballroom culture (Paris is Burning, 1990), meaning to do something extremely well, now mainstream via social media.

Spill the Tea – From AAVE (originally "spill the T," with "T" meaning truth), popularized by drag culture and Black queer communities.

Shade (as in insult) – From Black ballroom culture (documented in Paris is Burning), meaning a subtle insult, now used broadly in pop culture.

Reading (as in insulting) – From ballroom culture ("reading" someone), meaning to publicly insult with wit, immortalized in Paris is Burning.

Kiki – AAVE from ballroom culture meaning a casual gathering for gossip or chatting, later mainstreamed through pop music (e.g., Kesha).

Fierce – AAVE and ballroom term meaning exceptionally good or intense, applied to fashion, performance, or attitude.

Woke – From AAVE meaning socially and politically aware, first used in 1940s Black activism before resurging with Black Lives Matter.

Shook – AAVE meaning startled or upset, used in 1990s New York hip-hop (e.g., Mobb Deep) before mainstream adoption in the 2010s.

On Fleek – AAVE phrase meaning perfectly executed, coined in a 2014 Vine by Peaches Monroee, one of the last pre-AI viral AAVE innovations.

Finna – From AAVE contraction of "fixing to" (preparing to), documented in Southern AAVE for decades before wider use and dictionary recognition.

Chile – A phonetic spelling of "child" in Southern AAVE, used as a term of endearment or exclamation since at least the 1970s (The Wiz, 1978).

2010s–Present (Social Media & Gen Z Slang Pipeline)

Lit – AAVE meaning exciting or excellent (originally "intoxicated" or "on fire"), popularized in hip-hop before becoming a Gen Z staple.

Bae – AAVE term of endearment meaning "before anyone else" or just a shortened form of "babe/baby," mainstreamed in the 2010s.

Ratchet – AAVE originally meaning a rowdy, aggressive woman (from "wretched"), later used to describe anything wild or out of control.

Turnt – AAVE meaning excited or intoxicated, from "turned up" in hip-hop lyrics, mainstreamed in early 2010s party slang.

Clap Back – AAVE for a sharp, witty comeback or retaliation, popularized in hip-hop (e.g., Ja Rule's 2003 song "Clap Back") before internet slang.

Bussin' – AAVE meaning delicious or excellent, applied to food or anything great, popularized on TikTok in the 2020s.

Sus – AAVE shortening of "suspicious" or "shady," used for decades before Among Us made it a global meme in 2020.

Snatched – AAVE originally describing flawless hair/makeup or a tight waist, now used to praise anything perfectly executed.

Periodt – AAVE emphatic form of "period" (meaning "end of discussion"), with a hard "t" for emphasis, popularized on Black Twitter before global use.

Bonus: My personal favorite AAVE term that I see used online religiously is receipts! AAVE meaning the proof shown to back up an accustation

[electricpurrs]

i think of this ProZD video constantly its always so fucking funny

[cervine-arctophile]

when i do commissions, to figure out the frame count and how the animation is gonna move based on the request i do a quick thumbnail animation that i send to get approved, no one ever sees these but its a very important part of the process, most of these are 4-5 frames as i try to keep gifs in that ballpark (for price reasons) unless the requests requires more

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

Every time OP dances, her parrot flies along with her. OP says she never trained it on purpose and her parrot just loves doing this naturally. Sometimes it’ll just hop right onto her face. (cr 月下郭城)

[naamahdarling]

Help I love him so much

[witchgirltricks]

A contemplative moment

[bug-leg]

[thepictoblr]

every year i open up the sanrio character rankings and every year i am disappointed

[iliothermia]

Never forget the time I accidentally burnt my challah and left it in the woods and someone posted a pic on twitter and hundreds of thousands of people saw it. And then someone linked me it and said "this reminded me of you" and I had to tell them it was me

[nothingforkings]

[gauntletqueen]

Does anyone have the fucking tiktok video of the overly enthusiastic rich bearded guy showing off his new hiking shoes in his Mansion and the Woods, but then another dude duets with it to make it look like he's escaping from being held prisoner please please

edit THANKS @smellslikebot

[creatingblackcharacters]

THE LONG-AWAITED WEBSITE!!!!

It's not perfect- Strawpage's design tools are... not great- but I did my best to bring you all a Tumblr-free transcription of all my lessons. This is probably the most labor-intensive thing I've done for this page (next to the character polls). Four months of blood, sweat, and tears... and now, she LIVES!!!!

Some Notes:

I created it with the intent of Desktop use, so Mobile might have some issues. If it's not working on your phone, try desktop.

Out of the multiple browsers tested (Firefox, Google, Edge, Brave, Safari), Firefox had some issues sporadically.

I'm still going to post lessons on here, first. This page is priority to me, and the website is more of an archive.

The fonts are normal past this opening page.

I will be adding a portion to send funds soon, if'n you are feeling kind and generous.

Thank you all for your patience while I worked on this. It was a labor of love and I hope that it shows. 🙏🏾 Happy scrolling!

[insertdisc5]

🎮 HEY I WANNA MAKE A GAME! 🎮

Yeah I getcha. I was once like you. Pure and naive. Great news. I AM STILL PURE AND NAIVE, GAME DEV IS FUN! But where to start?

To start, here are a couple of entry level softwares you can use! source: I just made a game called In Stars and Time and people are asking me how to start making vidy gaems. Now, without further ado:

SOFTWARES AND ENGINES FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW HOW TO CODE!!!

Ren'py (and also a link to it if you click here do it): THE visual novel software. Comic artists, look no further ✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It has great documentation! It has a bunch of plugins and UI stuff and assets for you to buy! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! (You'll just need to read the doc a bunch) You can also port your game to a BUNCH of consoles! ✨Cons: None really <3 Some games to look at: Doki Doki Literature Club, Bad End Theater, Butterfly Soup

Twine: Great for text-based games! GREAT FOR WRITERS WHO DONT WANNA DRAW!!!!!!!!! (but you can draw if you want) ✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It's versatile! It has great documentation! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! (You'll just need to read the doc a bunch) ✨Cons: You can add pictures, but it's a pain. Some games to look at: The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo, Queers In love At The End of The World, Escape Velocity

Bitsy: Little topdown games! ✨Pros: It's free! It's simple! It's (somewhat) intuitive! It has great documentation! It can be used even if you have LITERALLY no programming experience! You can make everything in it, from text to sprites to code! Those games sure are small! ✨Cons: Those games sure are small. This is to make THE simplest game. Barely any animation for your sprites, can barely fit a line of text in there. But honestly, the restrictions are refreshing! Some games to look at: honestly I haven't played that many bitsy games because i am a fake gamer. The picture above is from Under A Star Called Sun though and that looks so pretty

RPGMaker: To make RPGs! LIKE ME!!!!! NOTE: I recommend getting the latest version if you can, but all have their pros and cons. You can get a better idea by looking at this post. ✨Pros: Literally everything you need to make an RPG. Has a tutorial inside the software itself that will teach you the basics. Pretty simple to understand, even if you have no coding experience! Also I made a post helping you out with RPGMaker right here! ✨Cons: Some stuff can be hard to figure out. Also, the latest version is expensive. Get it on sale! Some games to look at: Ib, Hylics, In Stars and Time (hehe. I made it)

engine.lol: collage worlds! it is relatively new so I don't know much about it, but it seems fascinating. picture is from Garden! NOTE: There's a bunch of smaller engines to find out there. Just yesterday I found out there's an Idle Game Maker made by the Cookie Clicker creator. Isn't life wonderful?

✨more advice under the cut. this is Long ok✨

ENGINES I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT AND THEY SEEM HARD BUT ALSO GIVE IT A TRY I GUESS!!!! :

Unity and Unreal: I don't know anything about those! That looks hard to learn! But indie devs use them! It seems expensive! Follow your dreams though! Don't ask me how!

GameMaker: Wuh I just don't know anything about it either! I just know it's now free if your game is non-commercial (aka, you're not selling it), and Undertale was made on it! It seems good! You probably need some coding experience though!!!

Godot: Man I know even less about this one. Heard good things though!

BUNCHA RANDOM ADVICE!!!!

-Make something small first! Try making simple: a character is in a room, and exits the room. The character can look around, decide to take an item with them, can leave, and maybe the door is locked and you have to find the key. Figuring out how to code something like that, whether it is as a fully text-based game or as an RPGMaker map, should be a good start to figure out how your software of choice works!

-After that, if you have an idea, try first to make the simplest version of that idea. For my timeloop RPG, my simplest version was two rooms: first room you can walk in, second room with the King, where a cutscene automatically plays and the battle starts, you immediately die, and loop back to the first room, with the text from this point on reflecting this change. I think I also added a loop counter. This helped me figure out the most important thing: Can This Game Be Made? After that, the rest is just fun stuff. So if you want to make a dating sim, try and figure out how to add choices, and how to have affection points go up and down depending on your choices! If you want to make a platformer, figure out how to make your character move and jump and how to create a simple level! If you just want to make a kinetic visual novel with no choices, figure out how to add text, and how to add portraits! You'll be surprised at how powerful you'll feel after having figured even those simple things out.

-If you have a programming problem or just get confused, never underestimate the power of asking Google! You most likely won't be the only person asking this question, and you will learn some useful tips! If you are powerful enough, you can even… Ask people??? On forums??? Not me though.

-Yeah I know you probably want to make Your Big Idea RIGHT NOW but please. Make a smaller prototype first. You need to get that experience. Trust me.

-If you are not a womanthing of many skills like me, you might realize you need help. Maybe you need an artist, or a programmer. So! Game jams on itch.io are a great way to get to work and meet other game devs that have different strengths! Or ask around! Maybe your artist friend secretly always wanted to draw for a game. Ask! Collaborate! Have fun!!!

I hope that was useful! If it was. Maybe. You'd like to buy me a coffee. Or maybe you could check out my comics and games. Or just my new critically acclaimed game In Stars and Time. If you want. Ok bye

[mtfoss]

Seriously cannot recommend GBStudio enough for beginners, it makes making a gb/gbc game pretty simple, it's also FOSS (free, open source software) and the devs in my experience are very responsive as is the community

GB Studio

A quick and easy to use drag and drop retro game creator for your favourite handheld video game system.

[holmoris]

Worth noting that ren'py and gb studio will happily let you add whatever ridiculous code you want on top of their frameworks. GB Studio will straight up dump the entire engine as a CMake project if you want to work in assembler or C, so if you don't like the way something works you can change it.

[demoisverysexy]

A while ago, I made a doc filled with pretty much evwry cheap and free resource I could find for game dev, and Im still working on it. Highly reccommend checking it out.

Demo Argenti’s List of Cheap and Effective Game Dev Tools