Heyo, quick one today. It’s great to give a lot of detail to character traits and personality quirks, but they aren’t real people, you’ve made them up, and thus, might not have a perfect memory for how you’ve described them, or drawn them in the past.
So before you post or publish, do yourself a favor and make sure the following are consistent throughout your story, if applicable:
If they’re left or right handed, or ambidextrous.
Which side their hair parts on.
Which side their scars are on (especially facial scars).
Which eye has the patch or is just missing, and how much or little the character fiddles with it.
Missing glasses and how prone a character is to forgetting them or anal about cleaning them. Glasses are always dirty (do they clean them with a proper cloth or the edge of their shirt?).
Which side broken, missing, or bandaged fingers are on.
If they’re wearing a cast, how it inhibits their mobility.
If they have a leg or foot injury, how severely they limp.
If their clothing takes damage, when/how they replace it or repair it, and whether or not they’re wandering around town accidentally covered in blood or grease or all-purpose flour.
Which injuries they sustain that should still be bothering them, like pulled shoulders, bruises, shin splints, paper cuts, sun burns, cramps, carpal tunnel, arthritis, tinnitus, road rash, and stubbed toes or pinched fingers.
Which side of their body buttons, rings, bracelets, pins, brooches, badges, or name tags are on.
If they’re wearing gloves or mittens, when they take them off or how their mobility is impacted by them.
How mobility changes if their fingernails are short and stubby or long, or artificial, like typing, eating, and grabbing objects.
If they have a wheelchair, how they transition out of it, into it, and move within it, like getting dressed or putting on shoes, or lifting themselves up into cars and back down—and how public spaces do and don’t accommodate them.
If they have prosthetics, how they maintain them, how they might sound different than someone else—prosthetic feet for runners won’t sound the same as sneakers.
If they need crutches, a walker, a scooter, or a cane, and how the world accommodates them.
If they're colorblind, how it impacts their day to day and descriptions compared to other narrators.
Jewelry often jingles. Pandora bracelets are loud af especially if they’re on your dominant hand when you try to write on a desk. Charm necklaces jingle if you bounce and some earrings can jingle when you shake your head.
Where tattoos are and if they take measures to hide them and how.
An aside about characters with tattoos (from experience):
If they’re new, they still hurt for at least a week depending on the level of detail.
Tattoos are basically mega sunburns and fresh ink should either be covered from the sun or, once it’s healed enough that the skin isn’t broken, heavily sun-screened to preserve coloration. Newer ink is very noticeable in sunlight, just like a healing sunburn.
Black ink tends to turn a bit green over time and sharp details blur. Tattoos are beholden to the skin they’re on, and how it stretches or sags.
Tattoos stink, as plasma and other fluids build up under the wrap (that can either be straight plastic wrap or a dermal cover akin to the stuff used for burn victims).
Tattoos can burn and ache if they’re on the legs when you stand, as blood and your body weight settles back into place.
Tattoos do very weird things to your body depending on the amount of ink and the time it took to design. Your skin peels kind of, but not exactly, like a sunburn, and every artist has their own tips for aftercare.
If the ink is over thin skin (I have one that ends over my ankle) the ink may have a texture left behind, a raised puffy bump, that fades over time.
A character receiving a tattoo might have this kind of bell curve effect, where it hurts really bad at the start, until adrenaline kicks in and dampens it, and then again once their adrenaline runs out. There is no pain quite like tattoo pain and everyone describes them differently. I like to think of them as itching a bug bite on a sunburn, dialed up to 11.
According to my past artists, women almost universally handle the pain better than men. I have definitely suffered other injuries worse than tattoo pain.
Fine linework hurts more than broad stroke coloring or shading, because the distribution of pressure is wider with more needles packed together. The larger the needle bundle, the less it hurts. All of mine are water color and the *splash* effect for the illusion of water drops uses a single needle and it’s always the most painful part.
Feel free to tag any that I missed!
Aventurine wanters will be Aventurine havers!!!!!!
10 more days baby!!!!
Farewell, Kakavasha.
obligatory post before acheron's release
obviously, it's established that acheron is a variant of raiden mei. her real name is not actually acheron (confirmed through the livestream, but...come on, we all already knew that). specifically, there's loads of similarities in her design to the herrscher of thunder above all else
similar hair structure, hair part, n hairpiece (n obviously the color, too),
sword structure, patterns, n nearly identical handles,
one "red" arm,
the bust/halter,
and of course, the color scheme as shown in acheron's "emanator" form, n the horns shown in the livestream
with all that in mind, i imagine acheron is a variant of mei who failed to save the person closest to her (her kiana, to simplify it), n/or watched them die, or even killed them herself. it's shown during her dance with black swan that there was obviously someone important to her in her past, conflict arose in a setting much like the one featured in the livestream, n there's even imagery of her walking alone with only the moon in the sky to keep her company
kiana has been associated with the moon n moon imagery since the flyme2themoon days; her origin was quite literally a game about blasting off to the moon
this teaser resembles thunders over nagazora to me, as well as mei watching kiana's end in honkai gakuen
there's also the fact that the type of emanator acheron is, an emanator of nihility, is classified as a self-annihilator; those who have felt the pull of nihility n been unable to escape drowning in it. self-annihilator's take the meaning of nihility to heart, so much so that it erodes their bodies n memories
acheron has been confirmed as the self-annihilator type in her character introduction posted recently. what really strikes me about this line is the phrasing of "existence is nothing"
sounds familiar, doesn't it?
mei is characterized by the tragedies in her life, n how they impact her. growing up isolated, a kidnapping at a young age, bullying at school, suicidal tendencies, n the constant reminder that the girl she loves more than anything in the world will always put the overall well being of humanity over herself
to me, acheron is a mei shaped by loss. the mei we remember from hi3 had the chance to grow n change; to learn from her mistakes, n to fight for a better world, bc she had the support of her friends n her most important person. acheron doesn't seem to have that level of support from anyone, at least not anyone still in her life currently
which brings me to my next point. she HAD a "kiana," but ultimately lost her. n this is the result
acheron is incredibly powerful, but her power seems incredibly volatile. she carries this innate sadness with her wherever she goes, n the very path she walks n the very aeon she became an avatar of strips life of all meaning, all the beauty from the world
it's a far cry from the mei we know, bc clearly, there was a very pivotal change in her development that i can only attribute to the loss of her world's "kiana"
Make a list of ways people express irritation. Gestures, verbal tics, indirect responses are all fair game. Here's a few to get you started:
A barbed comment such as "I see you got dressed in a rush this morning"
Not leaving enough space as you walk past someone
Moving an object of theirs and putting one of yours in its place
Slamming a door
boothill in a teacup! (ignore sunday)
how macabro is that natal gonna be
doomed yuri enjoyer, how are we keeping up?
real writers don’t have writer’s block because they never start writing in the first place.
hello i have the geology flavor of autism an am so so normal about honkai star rail an have not stoped thinking about the myriad celestia trailer so im going to make a thread of fun facts about the gems/minerals each of the stone hearts are named after topaz: ❥ topaz is naturally colorless but gets its color from elemental impurites ❥ the word topaz comes from the greek word Τοπαζος (topazos) ❥topaz is most commonly used in jewelry ❥ its the state gemstone of Utah! Aventurine: ❥ Aventurine is a form of quartzite ❥ the word Aventurine comes from the italian word a ventura meaning by chance ❥ its a mineral! not a gem! ❥ green aventurine is the most common Jade: ❥ Jade is actually the common term two diffrent minerals, nephrite an jadeite. ❥ nephrite is usually darker than jadeite due to it haveing more amphibole an jadeite having more pyroxene ❥ the word jade comes from the french l'ejade meaning kidney area Sugilite: ❥ imma be honest i havent heard of this mineral before the trailer droped an thats probably because its very new as it was discovered in 1944! ❥ sugilite was discovered by Kenichi Sugi who it was named after ❥ most sugilite is purple or pink Agate: ❥ Agate is the common term for the banded variety of chalcedony ❥ the word comes from the ancient greek word for the dirllo river, Achates where it is said to first be discovered ❥ Agate is formed from lava an volcanic rocks Pearl: ❥Pearl is not a mineral as it comes from living creatures making it an organic material ❥ pearls are made of the same thing shells (an tums!), calcium carbonate ❥ natural pearls were most commonly found in the persian gulf Sapphire: ❥ Sapphire is the blue variety of corundum, the second hardest mineral on the mohs hardness scale ❥ the word comes from the greek word σάπφειρος (sappheiros) but back then was talking about lapis lazuli ❥ Sapphire is one of the minerals used on sand paper! Amber: ❥ not a mineral, it is fossilized tree resin so it is organic material ❥ 90% of the worlds Amber is located in Lithuania ❥ the word comes from the arabic word anbar Opal: ❥ Opal is a mineraloid because its naturally occuring but doesnt have the crystaline structure of other minerals ❥ the word opal comes from the sanskirt word upala meaning jewel ❥ Opal is the national gemstone of australia Obsidian: ❥ Obsidian is classified as a rock since it is formed rapidly cooling lava ❥ this baby is VERY sharp it was used in paleolithic times to make cutting an hunting blades and was used as surgical tools ❥ the word comes from the latin lapis obsidianus