Manfred, Everyone's Skeleton Son 💀

>listening to nin

>hear a new layer to song ive relistened to over and over

>"wow i cant believe i never noticed this before! i wonder what kind of synth he used. its very forboding in a specific way only nin can achieve"

>pause song to write post praising nin

>the synth specifically keeps playing despite the rest of the song being paused

>look outside window

>garbage truck

I watched Good Omens 2

No plot spoilers, but! There was only one song by Queen in this season (as far as I could tell).

I know I wasn't the only one who thought about other songs by Queen that would've fit this scene or that, and also not the only one who's ruminating about the songs that could be featured on the next season.

I've seen some devastating fantastic suggestions like The Show Must Go On, Who Wants To Live Forever, and of course, Love Of My Life. For the latter, I offer the lesser known alternative Nevermore, but honestly, there's only one song going around my head for s3:

Cause love's such an old fashioned word And love dares you To care for The people on the edge of the night And love dares you To change our way of Caring about ourselves This is our last dance This is our last dance This is ourselves Under pressure

Xie Lian knows the sound of a well-oiled machine when he hears one. And the pleasant rumbling that tickles his eardrums must be from one stopped right outside. Which is odd. Only because Xie Lian usually repairs broken machines. It’s incredibly rare for an already fine-tuned engine to seek him out for help. And even if so, they are always accompanied by another that requires attention. This machine isn’t here for a repair. It isn’t here for him. Xie Lian isn’t that lucky.

My piece for @tgcf-reverse-big-bang 2024! All the love for my partner @princessofxianle, who wrote the fic "Welcome to the Gu Ring" based on it. It was amazing to exchange ideas and see this little universe expand!

Read:

Hi! I wanted to know if the lyrics for all the songs in withering lotus and rotting waters were written by you? And if you would let me use them someday if they are yours. Not for another written work or anything like that but to use them for a song?

Hello! Yes, all the lyrics are written by me, except for the verse of Queen's "My Fairy King" in Withering Lotus, chapter 7, and the "Song of Yue Boatman" in Rotting Waters, chapter 4.

And yes, you can musicalize them as not-for-profit/non-commercial projects! Preferably as metal songs, but if that's not your genre, it's fine too. If you do it, please send me a link, I'd love listening to them 🤩

i hate when people are like “i really understand what it’s like to be Prey… to look up into the jaws of a predator and know it’s my purpose to be Consumed…” like bitch no, prey runs away, you’re some other shit

A note to all creatives:

Right now, you have to be a team player. You cannot complain about AI being used to fuck over your industry and then turn around and use it on somebody else’s industry.

No AI book covers. No making funny little videos using deepfakes to make an actor say stuff they never did. No AI translation of your book. No AI audiobooks. No AI generated moodboards or fancasts or any of that shit. No feeding someone else’s unfinished work into Chat GPT “because you just want to know how it ends*” (what the fuck is wrong with you?). No playing around with AI generated 3D assets you can’t ascertain the origin of. None of it. And stop using AI filters on your selfies or ESPECIALLY using AI on somebody else’s photo or artwork.

We are at a crossroad and at a time of historically shitty conditions for working artists across ALL creative fields, and we gotta stick together. And you know what? Not only is standing up for other artists against exploitation and theft the morally correct thing to do, it’s also the professionally smartest thing to do, too. Because the corporations will fuck you over too, and then they do it’s your peers that will hold you up. And we have a long memory.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking “your peers” are only the people in your own industry. Writers can’t succeed without artists, editors, translators, etc making their books a reality. Illustrators depend on writers and editors for work. Video creators co-exist with voice actors and animators and people who do 3D rendering etc. If you piss off everyone else but the ones who do the exact same job you do, congratulations! You’ve just sunk your career.

Always remember: the artists who succeed in this career path, the ones who get hired or are sought after for commissions or collaboration, they aren’t the super talented “fuck you I got mine” types. They’re the one who show up to do the work and are easy to get along with.

And they especially are not scabs.

*that’s not even how it ends that’s a statistically likely and creatively boring way for it to end. Why would you even want to read that.

Preorders are open for Tails And Scales, a MXTX fantasy creatures zine! It's packed with beautiful art inspired in Chinese mythology and the wonderful stories of Scum Villain Self-Saving System, The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation and Heaven Official's Blessing. It also features fanfiction, and one piece was written by yours truly, as you can see above. This is the first time I join a fanzine, so I'm pretty stocked! I hope you like my take on Hualian and dragons~

Get your bundle at tailsandscalesmxtxzine.bigcartel.com. There's time until December 1st!

ABCDMXTX - Day 4: Death.

I chose Wen Ning for this prompt because his destiny and afterlife are a good illustration of how, in the MXTX novels, death is more often than not a luxury that few characters can afford.

List of prompts.

Say hi to Manfred! I made him as a birthday present to my dear friend @tiiracotta, who's a big Dragon Age fan.

I had a blast working all the little details on the 40cm tall skeleton base I got in a Halloween clearance sale. All the other materials came from my stash, including the eyes, which were originally part of my prop sword sheath for my cosplay of Kusuriuri from Mononoke. The ornaments have been falling off through the years, so I recently replaced a few, and it was by noticing how similar the green crystals are to Manfred's eyes that I had the idea to make the whole doll.

I've always loved puppets, dolls and miniatures, so I hope I can make more projects like this in the future!

ABCDMXTX - Day 14: Nie Huaisang.

The man, the legend.

List of prompts.