spiral out

For anyone doing some hardcore world-building.

TAGSLIST [02]:re RANGER by yukoki

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A navigation tagslist page based on the beautiful game Firewatch by Campo Santos. The waypoints (shown by selecting the Map option) act as your custom links, and your files are where all your tags go. Enjoy!

The question I get the most is how I write characters that feel like real people. 

Generally when I’m designing a human being, I deconstruct them into 7 major categories:

1. Primary Drive 2. Fear: Major and Secondary 3. Physical Desires 4. Style of self expression 5. How they express affection 6. What controls them (what they are weak for) 7. What part of them will change.

1. Primary Drive: This is generally related to the plot. What are their plot related goals? How are they pulling the plot forward? how do they make decisions? What do they think they’re doing and how do they justify doing it. 2. Fear: First, what is their deep fear? Abandonment? being consumed by power? etc. Second: tiny fears. Spiders. someone licking their neck. Small things that bother them. At least 4. 3. Physical desires. How they feel about touch. What is their perceived sexual/romantic orientation. Do their physical desires match up with their psychological desires.

4. Style of self expression: How they talk. Are they shy? Do they like to joke around and if so, how? Are they anxious or confident internally and how do they express that externally. What do words mean to them? More or less than actions? Does their socioeconomic background affect the way they present themselves socially?  5. How they express affection: Do they express affection through actions or words. Is expressing affection easy for them or not. How quickly do they open up to someone they like. Does their affection match up with their physical desires. how does the way they show their friends that they love them differ from how they show a potential love interest that they love them. is affection something they struggle with?

6. What controls them (what they are weak for): what are they almost entirely helpless against. What is something that influences them regardless of their own moral code. What– if driven to the end of the wire— would they reject sacrificing. What/who would they cut off their own finger for.  What would they kill for, if pushed. What makes them want to curl up and never go outside again from pain. What makes them sink to their knees from weakness or relief. What would make them weep tears of joy regardless where they were and who they were in front of. 

7. WHAT PART OF THEM WILL CHANGE: people develop over time. At least two of the above six categories will be altered by the storyline–either to an extreme or whittled down to nothing. When a person experiences trauma, their primary fear may change, or how they express affection may change, etc. By the time your book is over, they should have developed. And its important to decide which parts of them will be the ones that slowly get altered so you can work on monitoring it as you write. making it congruent with the plot instead of just a reaction to the plot. 

That’s it.

But most of all, you have to treat this like you’re developing a human being. Not a “character” a living breathing person. When you talk, you use their voice. If you want them to say something and it doesn’t seem like (based on the seven characteristics above) that they would say it, what would they say instead?

If they must do something that’s forced by the plot, that they wouldn’t do based on their seven options, they can still do the thing, but how would they feel internally about doing it?

How do their seven characteristics meet/ meld with someone else’s seven and how will they change each other?

Once you can come up with all the answers to all of these questions, you begin to know your character like you’d know one of your friends. When you can place them in any AU and know how they would react.

If you have an emergency and have to go to the hospital, you’ll owe the hospital a lot of money. (I got into a car wreck and broke my ankle and my arm. My hospital bill was around $20,000)

You’ll also owe the ambulance provider, if you need one. (My ambulance bill was about $800)

You may get separate bills from the anesthesiologist or surgeon. (My anesthesiologist bill was $1,700)

You may need follow-up appointments. (My orthopedic surgeon billed me for the appointments and his surgery together and it was about $1,000)

You’ve also got to pay for medical equipment you need afterward, like crutches or a walking boot. (Mine cost about $75)

Altogether, I ended up with almost $24,000 in medical debt from one car accident. That’s a really scary number for someone like me who makes $10/hr at a 12 hour a week job.

I got my debt down to $1075 by making some phone calls and submitting some paperwork.

The first thing I did was contact the hospital. They don’t make it easy to find, but many hospitals (perhaps most hospitals?) have financial assistance programs for people who can’t afford medical bills. I don’t make a lot of money, and I have bills to pay, so they were able to help me. I called the billing department and asked if they had any assistance programs for low income people who can’t pay their bills. I had to call multiple times, and I got transferred in circles by people who didn’t know what I was talking about. Finally, I got an appointment with someone in “Eligibility Services” (I don’t know what other hospitals call it, if it’s something different). I had to bring my pay stubs and copies of all of my bills. When I got to the hospital for the appointment, nobody knew what I was talking about so I had to wander a little to find where I needed to go. I spoke with the guy in Eligibility Services, and I waited for a decision on how much of the bill they would forgive. A month later, I got a call telling me it was totally forgiven.

I did the same thing for my ambulance bill and my anesthesiologist, but the process was a LOT easier. I just had to mail some paperwork and it was totally forgiven.

I didn’t bother with the medical equipment suppliers, since the bills came from separate companies and I didn’t feel like going through the process twice for $75. I was assured at the hospital that they had similar programs for debt forgiveness, so I could have probably avoided paying that too.

The only thing I couldn’t get taken care of was the surgeon/follow-up appointment cost, but they were able to put me on a no-interest payment plan.

It’s got an almost endless range of furniture, doors, windows, stairs etc and is easy to use. In addition to that, you don’t have to install anything and if you create an account (which is free) you can save and return to your houses.

Examples (all done by me):

Here’s an example for how you can use it

So a little while back, I reblogged a post about tailoring your own clothes. The gist of it was this (IIRC):

Someone was wondering why even people on TV with non-mainstream-TV-approved body shapes always look so good in their clothes. 

The long and short of it is: their bodies aren’t better than yours. They just have people tailoring every single piece of clothing they wear to flatter their figures. 

Off-the-rack clothes aren’t made to look good on most people’s bodies. The advice in the post was buy clothes that fit the largest part of you, even if they’re too big elsewhere, and have them altered to fit. 

That post hit me like a lightning bolt. I have a curvy figure. I’m not plus-sized, but I’ve got a small waist and large hips. Which is great in certain types of clothes (dresses, mainly), but means that if I don’t wear fitted t-shirts or blouses–if they fall straight–I just look sort of… boxy. I need clothes that go in at the waist. 

My grandma was an amazing seamstress, so when I needed clothes fixed, she was around to tailor them. When she got into her 90s and her eyesight was too diminished for her to sew, we started going to a woman in our neighborhood who’d lost her husband and had started doing alterations to bring in some extra income. OF COURSE I looked good back then. I had a tailor.

Then I moved away from my parents without really knowing How To Adult and would go to Target to get clothes and just get depressed by them and never realized how much of an advantage having people who could tailor my clothes (and, you know, parents to pay for having them tailored…) had been. 

So. I have a 1970s Singer Fashion Mate sewing machine that is designed to weather the apocalypse–I got it at Goodwill for $20. 

And I have begun researching how to tailor your own clothes. If anyone else was wondering about that after that last post, here are some helpful links I’ve discovered. 

When and Why to Get it Tailored - This article is (annoyingly) set up as a slideshow, and focuses on getting a professional to do your alterations rather than doing them yourself, but it’s got some good advice nonetheless, such as:

Basic alterations that can make a huge difference, such as adding lingerie loops to keep bra straps in place (SERIOUSLY MY FAVORITE DRESSES FROM HIGH SCHOOL ALL HAD THESE AND WHY DID THEY DISAPPEAR IN EVERYTHING I WEAR NOW?), adding snaps between the buttons on button-down shirts for larger-busted women (you know how sometimes they gap? there’s help for that), etc.

Average prices (at least on the East Coast) for basic alterations: replacing a zipper will run you about $20, while tailoring pants or a skirt to fit your hips and butt will be about $35.

If you want to get a garment made of special materials (leather, fur, beaded/embroidered silk) altered, go to someone who specializes in working with that material.

What NOT to try to alter.

How to find a tailor.

Having that perfect dress that you love so much duplicated and how much that will cost.

Learning Alterations - Great step-by-step tutorials on basic alterations like how to take in the waist of jeans (essential if you have a smaller waist and larger hips, because it’ll stop them from riding down every time you bend over or sit down).

Tailoring Ready-to-Wear - A full-on online course from Craftsy (costs $24.99) with videos and individual lessons on everything from hemming pants to lengthening them to altering shoulders and armholes to adding hidden zippers.

Plus-Sized Fitting and Design - Another online course (this one’s $34.99) that looks like it focuses both on alterations and on actually making clothes that are flattering to plus-sized forms.

Alterations and Tailoring 101 - Not a how-to post, but this one has a lot of useful information and ideas, such as identifying which garments to alter.

Alterations Needed blog - A whole blog on this stuff, with a lot of detailed how-tos. It focuses on fixing things to fit if you’re shorter than average/petite, but contains a lot of great advice for anyone (like an entry on why button-down shirts often bulge in back and how to fix it). 

Pinch and Pin your Shirt - Super-quick video tutorial (aimed at gentlemen), but useful for anyone who wears button-down shirts on how to fix a baggy shirt. 

I draw closed snoots pretty much the same way as opened ones, as illustrated in this one tutorial i did a bit ago! Same goes for drawing opened mouths from the front. 

for closed muzzles, I tend to do placement lines for where the base of the muzzle connects to the face (and also as a marker for where the bottom of the eyes are gonna go!) and a line down the center of the muzzle to help me place the nose and make the upper lip indent shape! This is something I honestly don’t do too much bc I mostly forget but it helps SO MUCH

end result from using said guidelines hfhfh

as for opened snoots, here’s a lil thing using the same formula as my first tutorial;

Firstly, I start out roughing out where I want everything to go! The purple line in the right image helps me place the top corners of the mouth, where i’ll be dragging the lines for the sides of the mouth in a sec. This is a good time to map out how you want your expression to go, since the corner of the mouth I find makes it easier to connect everything else as you’re going along. 

After you get that sorted, drag the lines (blue lines) down from the corners (it’s perfectly fine if the lines don’t match up with the corners, it doesn’t have to be exact!), which are the rest of the mouth. Now is a good time to go in and tighten up/stretch the mouth shape to however it’ll benefit your character/style/expression. My sona has pretty round shapes, so I keep things rounded for her most of the time. (unless i’m exaggerating her expression, then things tend to get a little bit sharp and asymmetrical)

Sure! Here’s some of the books I‘ve read on it. 

These are mostly first-hand accounts from UK antifascists:No Retreat: The Secret War Between Britain’s Anti-Fascists and the Far Right by Dave Hann, Steve Titzey

Beating the Fascists: The Untold Story of Anti-Fascist Action by Sean Birchall

Bash the Fash: Anti-Fascist Recollections 1984-93 by K. Bullstreet

Some books about older antifascist struggles:Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

The Ghetto Fights by Marek Edelman

Also, I have Militant Anti-Fascism: A Hundred Years of Resistance, which looks more like an international overview, but I haven’t read it yet.

There were also some good articles online about antifa recently but I can’t find them now :/ Any followers care to add any links?

 Anti-Fascists Will Fight Trump’s Fascism in the Streets - The Nation

Trump and everyday anti-fascism: beyond punching Nazis - ROAR Mag

The limits and possibilities of Anti-Fascism - It’s Going Down

Starting an antifa chapter: Practical Organizing for Antifa and Beyond - Antifa Dallas

More Practical Organizing for Antifa and Beyond - Antifa Dallas

Reaching the Moral High Ground and Finding It Barren

What the fuck is a “rapefugee”? On sexism, sexual violence and the alt-right  - London Antifascists

US anti-fascists: ‘We can make racists afraid again’ - Al-Jazeera

Fighting Cops and the Klan: The History and Future of Black Antifascism - Truth-out

Feminism, Fascism, and the Folly of a ‘Fair Fight’ - Novara Media

Claim No Easy Victories: A History and Analysis of Anti-Racist Action - M1AA

Anarchists Are Killing Neo-Nazis in Greece - War is Boring (from 2013)

Meditations on American Antifascism - Charles Wofford

How I stopped worrying about riots and learned to love anti-fascist rage - Afrosapiophile

It’s Time for Anarchists to Pick Up A Gun - The Conjure House

Soros, ‘Globalism,’ and Grassroots Revolt: How the Right Uses Conspiracy Theories to Appear Revolutionary - IGD

Prepare & Repair : taking action & keeping safe at rallies, protests & direct actions - Slackbastard

Another good one on Daryle Jenkins and his great work exposing fascists - Wired

‘It was as if I had peered into hell’: the man who brought the Nazi death squads to justice - The Guardian

Building Working-Class Defense Organizations: An Interview with the Twin Cities GDC - IGD

Collusion Between the Police and Alt-Right Is Inevitable  - IGD

The world has said “No” to Richard Spencer - Antifascist News

Berkeley: A Medic’s Report - IGD

Facebook users have found a way to shut down Britain First - The Canary

On Ultras and Militant Structures - IGD

Why Environmentalists Must Be Antifascists - Earth First!

Blunting the Impact of a Knife Attack - Stratfor

Cede No Ground To Fascists - On fighting fascism in your subculture

“Our Women” and the Real Meaning of “White Genocide” - IGD

A Communiqué on Tactics and Organization to the Black Bloc - This one is really good

Antifa aims to preserve safety of community through response

I mean if you think about it they are drawn in poses that usually Models in magazines do. And those poses are meant to be interesting and draw the viewer in for a closer look bust still be refreshing and easy on the eyes

I made this today as I find it’s a helpful tool when I make characters. I call it the 1-2-3 method.

1 value: Their core belief.

2 flaws: The limitations of the character. Things that can affect their actions and abilities.

3 traits: What makes them, them. the aspects of their behaviour and attitude.

It’s important that you justify their personality through their backstory and home life, however, and it’s good to have conflicting flaws/traits within a group which will help create tension and drama.

Here is a page for premodern weapons, broken down into a ton of subcategories, with the weapon’s region of origin. 

Here is a page of medieval weapons.

Here is a page of just about every conceived superpower.

Here is a page for legendary creatures and their regions of origin.

Here are some gemstones.

Here is a bunch of Greek legends, including monsters, gods, nymphs, heroes, and so on. 

Here is a website with a ton of (legally attained, don’t worry) information about the black market.

Here is a website with information about forensic science and cases of death. Discretion advised. 

Here is every religion in the world. 

Here is every language in the world.

Here are methods of torture. Discretion advised.

Here are descriptions of the various methods used for the death penalty. Discretion advised.

Here are poisonous plants.

Here are plants in general.

multi-panel moodboard / character aesthetic psd.02-

for notes and editing help - please see READMORE

all text is editable – fonts used – myriad pro / movie letters

all four panels included in one psd

comes complete as shown with images 

psd in sections for ease of editing

black and white option

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