#<- i'm actually too lazy to think about the details of how it might work so whatever

[tankgotstuckinthecircusgate]

if scars don't make man look good then being alive sure does

[ruija]

Well I really love your art, may I ask how do u color? I struggle with coloring turtles and I wasn't to know how do u do that?

Hi anon! That's a very broad question, so you've given me a great excuse to ramble anything I want about my coloring, eehehehee~! This will be in two parts and I'll start with talking about my simpler coloring style.

As in, when I color characters on a white background, with a limited or light palette.

The driving force behind this style is me being lazy. My time, energy, and attention span are pretty limited, so if I want to finish anything, I gotta do it fast. And with fanart, I'm usually just doing it for fun and relaxation, so there's no need to push myself to polish it too much.

Despite that, I rarely post just black and white sketches or line arts. I always try to add at least a little bit of toning or shading, because that makes the image easier to read. The characters and their shapes pop out and catch the eye of the viewer better.

However, in this particular example, just the couple toning colors don't quite do the job. The way Don and Leo are entangled makes the center area of this illustration very busy and hard to read.

As a comparison; this pic has only one tone + mask colors, and it works. This is because all the characters are standing separately and their poses are very stationary and simple.

So for the Don + Leo pic, adding some shadows helps in bringing out shapes and depths. Also in general, if you don't feel like drawing BGs, it's good to at least add a shadow below the characters. It grounds them and makes them feel like they exist within a space.

Sometimes if the posing looks too complex and busy, it might just be best to color in the characters fully.

However, even if I do full flat colors, I tend to use a lighter palette. Putting characters in their neutral/default color on a white BG can look a bit jarring as if they're floating in a void. It feels less immersive and like the picture is unfinished.

Using lighter colors makes the image more cohesive, and fits the characters into the white environment a bit more naturally.

If I'm too lazy to draw a BG, I prefer using stylized and limited colors. It feels deliberate and that the whiteness is just part of the palette, whereas the character-accurate colors on white don't match as well, even if they're more pastel.

That being said, there's nothing wrong with just slapping the flat-colored characters on a white background. As you know, I do it too. I'm just exposing my 'fancy coloring style' for what it is; me being lazy, hah!

Limited and monochromatic palettes are a nice shortcut even when you do actual backgrounds. It's faster and you don't have to worry about clashing colors. And you can still convey atmosphere and mood.

Also, on the topic of conserving your time and efforts; I think it's very common among younger/less experienced artists to think that the amount of time you spend on your art piece = how good and well received that piece will be.

Which has some merit to it of course, but it can lead to putting too much effort into areas where it's not necessary. E.g. filling the piece with tons of details and clutter that don't serve an actual purpose, but rather make the image hard to read. Or doing really complicated shading for a meme/comic, where simplicity would deliver the joke better.

So whenever I'm drawing something I intend to publish, whether it's a quick doodle or a more polished piece, I try to follow these two principles: Make it easily readable and do the bare minimum that needs to be done to convey what I want to convey.

Putting time into practice is important, but if you draw for work, it's also crucial that you know how to prioritize and use your time efficiently!

Anyway, thanks for reading! In the next part I'll go into how I do my fully colored pieces, so stay tuned for that!

[sacchiri]

I recently bought the jp volumes of Hellsing along with the guidebook, and since I'm reading the series in its native language for the first time I might as well share some random things that stood out to me in no particular order.

This isn't meant to be an analysis of translation differences, I'm too lazy for that. Also it's been 12 years since I've watched the anime and read the low quality fan scans of the manga so some of these comments are just "Lol, forgot this was a thing"

Volume 1

... I really want to know who this guy is at the beginning, yelling at Alucard in overly familiar language to "Get your shit together!" and "You're the only one we can count on!!". We know from the style of speech that it's a dude, probably just some Hellsing rando, and maybe it's not all that strange since he has probably been working with the same soldiers for years--but it's still funny.

"I know, it's just so nice out :("

..The way "HELLSING Organization" is spelled out like this reminds me that apparently the name is supposed to be an acronym. No really.

...

God they're so silly.

Now that I think about it, the only thing Seras has done this chapter since being turned into a vampire is say "I'm sorry" over and over.... girl you got shot in the lung, why are you apologizing

Not a huge difference, but what Integra actually says here is "Leaving a corpse here for 20 years... You're a terrible person too, Father" and not "What were you thinking, Father?" as the Dark Horse translation suggests (note the lack of question mark in the raw version). I thought that might be of interest to some.

Something else I thought was interesting is the first line Alucard ever says to Integra, and how uncharacteristically polite he sounds.

O-kega wa gozaimasenka- That's two honorific 御's back to back! (He even said them in kanji, even Walter isn’t that straightlaced and he’s literally the butler.) This is also the only time Alucard uses this overly flowery gentlemanly language with her, and good thing too because it would be so annoying if he spent the whole manga ending his sentences with ~gozaimasu.

What I'm trying to get at is, after seeing this sentence in the Japanese version, I'm like 100% sure he actually heard her when she was mumbling to herself about hoping to find a knight in shining armor, and he was totally going the extra mile in playing into that role for their first encounter. Which is kind of sweet.

Lol they misspelled Alucard on the top left... or rather, they incorrectly spelled it right?

One would normally expect Alucard to be written アルカード, and indeed pixiv dict lists アーカード as a misspelling (the u sound is weak in Japanese, so it's easy to mishear arukādo as ākādo). Hirano was definitely aware of the correct spelling though, since he used it in the pilot chapter and in his old character sheets. It was only when the manga officially began that he switched to the アーカード spelling. I doubt it was because of copyright issues because there is already a long precedent of vampire characters named アルカード in various old manga, OVA, and games in Japan that have coexisted without issue (like this guy Hirano mentions in volume 1's afterword).

Most likely Hirano simply thought it looked better, or was a means of differentiating his character from the others somehow. It certainly makes life easier for Japanese fans searching for fanart since アーカード is only going to bring up Hellsing and not the Castlevania character.

Jan Valentine even pokes fun at the spelling discrepancy later in volume 2, but since there wasn't a good way of expressing this in English it was left untranslated.

(Speaking of spelling inconsistencies, there's a lot of minor details I'm noticing now, like half the time the furigana for 吸血鬼 is written バンパイア and the other half it's ヴァンパイア... anyway)

Um, just noticed literally everyone's wearing glasses What should I do

Hirano's habit of jotting random comments underneath his panels is one of the underrated perks of reading the manga

The Dark Horse translation almost makes it sound like she's looking forward to seeing this battle play out, while in the Japanese she simply sounds apprehensive. Almost as if she's worried about them? And she's going out on the field personally to make sure nothing bad happens? Aww

Ok this is a weird tangent, but I just noticed the scans of the Dark Horse version I've been looking at use a slightly larger image range than the Japanese version does. It was only noticeable when I got to this part:

The second image is what the Japanese version of the scan looks like and I can confirm that this is what it looks like in my physical volume as well. You shouldn't be seeing the messy borders of the inking on the bottom like that.

Manga manuscripts are set up so that there are a few millimeters of bleed border around each page. You're supposed to color and line all the way up to (4) while keeping in mind that printing and paper cutting may result in the image being trimmed up to (3).

Either Hirano didn't color his lines all the way to (4) (this man has been drawing manga for years but this is Hirano we're talking about so it's very possible), or Dark Horse didn't honor the original bleed borders of the manuscript. I'm kind of leaning towards the former since there was a Hellsing exhibit in Japan a few years back where you could look at Hirano's original manuscripts and there's one where you can clearly see that he spilled a mug of tea or coffee across the entire page

Anyway, it's weird, and I'm curious to see if someone that owns a physical copy in English can confirm whether theirs actually looks like that. It's volume 1, page 141.

[scientia-rex]

"cite your sources" NO! I don't get paid to be on here! You motherfuckers think you can interact with every Internet rando like an influencer who has to generate engagement. I don't! I don't particularly want engagement! Engagement is how I end up with entitled comments from people who don't follow me and are too lazy to lift their little dainty fingers to mouse over to Google and LOOK SOMETHING UP! You don't get to be a scientist by taking someone's word on it, and I don't demand you take mine, but you are not paying me enough money to be your Psych 301 TA! Hell, they didn't pay me enough money for that when I was a Psych 301 TA!

I get paid for being a doctor. I work 115% time. I make most of my money at my day job as a family doctor, and then I work part-time at the jail. I'm on call for the jail this weekend, actually. So my motivation for engaging with a bunch of nasty little fucks who want to bad-faith drain my time and energy by asking for shit you can just Google if you bother to think about keywords for 40 seconds? None! Zip! Zero!

I miss the days before I was a doctor in a small town, because I don't get to be anonymous anymore. I can't run to the store looking scrubby and buy something weird without knowing that person's cousin is going to see me in clinic next week and bring it up loudly. "OooooOOOOOooh Doc I heard you were at Bingo last week and you had a few margaritas!" It's like the dumbest form of celebrity. People find it titillating to learn details about me, so I've become much more intensely protective of my private life. Unfortunately, this has happened at the same time as I have begun accumulating the most absolutely fucking bananas stories that I must not share because they might contain identifiable details.

All I'm gonna say is, please don't put veterinary-grade ivermectin in your eyeballs.

[kineticallyanywhere]

So this might be a super weird and bizarre question, but do you have any clear references/designs for Henry’s hooded poncho in Monkey’s Paw, even just a rough sketch? I’m a big fan of all the character designs in Monkey’s Paw, but that hooded poncho really caught my eye for some reason. I’m a bored knitter and it looks super cozy (I know it’s a drawing but still lol) and once I started thinking about how to make one I couldn’t get it out of my head. Since your art was the inspiration I thought I’d ask :-)  No worries if not! 

thank you so much for reading/enjoying!! im so proud of all that work

I am not a knitter, so I must admit I haven't thought much about what it would actually take to make this thing. but I am such a sucker for a good poncho so I just had to throw one on the first fantasy man I saw. and I didn't have these references before today but I'm glad to have them now, so if I hecking change the length again because I'm too lazy to look at older pages when I'm sketching I can hold myself by the face and point at this lol. Here's how I've been drawing in in the dream:

BUT the dream is also my contextual excuse to draw simpler than things in their world actually are. (to spend more time Making Comic and less time falling prey to my own perfectionism) One day maybe I'll get to drawing the epilogue for this thing and I'll be drawing the fully tricked-out version for every panel Henry's on. ...buuuuuut in case that's a million years from now here's a reference set with more details! again, not a knitter, so idk how difficult it would actually be to make this thing, but the main differences are just a wider collar pinched together by two bead-loop-things and some braid and oak leaf patterns down the shoulders and arms

(headcanon lore: his momma made it for him while wondering if he'd ever make it back from where the portal took him. when she tried to throw it away an Oakvalian found it and kept it safe until he really did come home and they put in on his body while he was in the homunculus in the dungeon. so he woke up wearing it and recognized the knitting immediately)

[shootingstarrfish]

Do you have any tips on how you do shading ?? Your art really inspires me and I literally suck at shading lmao.

hello anon!!! im honoured i can inspire you sdfhkjh it's crazy to me that i can inspire literally anyone :,DDD <33

tbh i do all my shading purely based on vibes/what makes me happy so im not sure im a good advice person but ill show you a breakdown of how i go about shading and hopefully that might help a bit? :o i've left it below the cut because i have too much to say and it ended up being really long LOL

of course if there's anything you want more details on i'm always happy to explain, just let me know!

okay SO ill use this asmo as my example, i think there's enough to talk about here that it should be helpful hopefully

so here's my lineart and flats! i do all my flat colours in one layer because i find it easier to make everything look more cohesive when the pieces arent separated (i usually like it when the colours bleed into each other a lil), but i also just dont like the process of having to switch between layers for everything too LOL flats are unfortunately my least favourite part :,D probably because my lineart is so messy hahah

as you can see, the shading is very minimal here, just some subtle stuff in the wings/sheer parts of the fabric and some blushing on the skin, i also stole the orange under eye/liner thing from TBHK because <3

and then i clean up any messy stuff by just painting over top of everything on a new layer, i also rendered the metal at this stage because i felt like it i guess???

i dont think i did a suuper good job at rendering the metal here (because i was lazy), it looks fine but something to note about metal is that usually you want to push the highlights and the shadows a lot more, as well as the reflections because it is so shiny and smooth this is why you'll see a lot of pink and blue in the metal, to show the reflections of his hair and the sky

i would recommend using reference to get a better idea of how metal ACTUALLY works but again, i was lazy lol so that's a simple explanation based on what little i know/have observed

the jump here is a bit drastic and you might be like woah starr where'd all this come from?? but this is all in one layer-

('hard light' - 62% opacity)

this is how that layer looks as a normal full opacity layer, for reference:

lately i've been using hard light layers to shade! they're very versatile because unlike multiply layers i can do my shading and my highlights within one layer (do you sense a theme of me disliking having too many layers lmao)

SO this is where i have a bit more to say about shading you'll notice the prominent shading colour here is blue, this is because the main environment here (the sky) is blue. i dont know if that's how things work in the real world but it works for me LMAO i usually prefer to have my shading lean cooler purely for aesthetic reasons, i like how it looks more

you might also notice some areas where the blue is a bit brighter, this is to imitate reflected light, again because the environment is blue light tends to bounce around on things and reflect back even into the shadows so this is the effect im trying to get, i like to typically go with a brighter blue cause it gives things a sort of shinier? quality that i enjoy aesthetically, idk if its very accurate to real life tho it also helps me to give depth to the shading since shading isnt usually just one flat blob, and this is a bit of a shortcut to having more dynamic (?) looking shadows

i also want to point out my use of bright reds on the edge of the shadows:

i believe this is called diffraction- there's a real legit scientific reason why it happens but i... dont know what that is i just know it happens in real life (maybe not to this extent?) and it looks cool so i do it SFHJKSFH i usually blend it into the shadows though as opposed to into the lighter parts, i find that tends to look better

some miscellaneous things-

don't be afraid to throw random colours around!! who cares about realism, it's fun lmao

this artwork is a spoiler for asmo's bday so shhhhh but i did want to quickly show that you can also use hard light layers to create a glowy effect, i literally just painted the pink/orange directly on the shadows layer and it helped to make his eyes more glowy

of course i do go in and paint over a little after and add some layer effects but it helps to have that base there

now that you've learnt that i dont know what i'm doing, i wanted to highlight a couple of resources that have helped me! i hope they help you as well <3

this video gives some really interesting insights into this artist's process and some problems they had throughout, as well as how they overcame them! it looks a lil clickbaity but i promise it's good!!

this tweet also shifted how i think about rendering when i want to do something with dramatic lighting!

+ an attempt i made to replicate this (i wanna try this again lmao it was fun)

i hope that helps even a little bit, i did my best to explain but sorry if it was mostly nonsense though :,DDD best of luck with your art, anon!! <3333

[a-s-levynn]

Happy little trees

aka the only way i know how to draw trees, and even that is thanks to Bob Ross

@alexghost07 I hope this helps! ♥

Always click for better quality, tumblr is not friendly to most image ratios !

Most people (including myself originally) are simply overthinking it. Especially if you are working with a medium that has one colour on a spectrum. For example a graphite pencil. Like i do.

These are so simple that it just.. for me it always felt like cheating almost. It cannot be this easy can it? Well, it is.

For me what helped is that now i never draw them with anything harden than a 2B pencil and very rarely softer than a 4B but there is no rules for these things. Do what feels right and comfortable for you and your desired end result.

And it's not that it would not be doable with a B or HB or even an H pencil, i just prefer the softer side. Easier to control and has an inherent softness that lends itself great to foliage if you are not aiming for high detail. At least for me.

But even between 2B and 2B are differences depending on the quality of the graphite. And a 4B for comparison.

And the scanned version to actually see the differences:

Not a huge difference but everyone has preferences or ideas what goes better with the given drawing or look they try to achieve.

You can also play with the darkness, naturally, to make it even more silhouette than tree:

But maybe the biggest help for me was to switch pencil hold for this. Usually i hold my pencils and pens either like this, this or this:

It is dependent if my hand is hurting/cramping or the area i'm drawing or how i want my lines to fall, how defined or blended shading i want, or to avoid smudgeing if i'm too lazy to get something to put under my hand etc.

But for the trees i am holding it like so:

I do this for these trees or foliage of similar kinds. For bushes and other kinds of trees i just make the trunks a bit more gnarly and the crowns more fluffy in a cloud esque way, and let everything blend together. The viewer's brain fills out most of it anyway.

The goal is for me to evoke foliage just enough to be translated and recognized as for examople: a road between bushes and trees. (instead of beeing just random scribbles on paper)

(I also made the farther ones lighter because as you look towards the horizon in larger expanses, the further away things are, the lighter and less defined they seem.)

And the obligatory video, just so you can actually see what i'm talking about here. Until 2:40 it is real time, so you can see at the actual speed how i am doing these. The rest of the video is about x5.2 speed.

Originally it was almost 8 minute so let's say this little scene took about 10 minutes altogether. It definitely looks like a 10 minute sketch but i love this type of stuff. It's low effort and still looks good.

This is with a single 4B pencil and a white pencil thingie i talked about before.

(No sounds on the video besides the pencil on the paper. Also shout out to my goblet, replacing the RedBull can from last time. ✌🏻)

The main thing is that i try to avoid it to be too symmetrical but still keeping a level of semi-symmetry because pine trees do have a natural symmetry.

And the propeerly scanned end results:

I really hope it helps, because these are very fun to draw and far more easier than people might originally think.

Thank you again if you read this far, happy creating! I hope your day is kind to you. ♥

[lewis-winters]

would love to hear more about the skinny/speirs confrontation 👀 (I'm sure other would too so feel free to answer publicly)

Ok I did not actually anticipate ppl being interested HAHAHAH but since ya'll asked nicely (@ep6bastogne and @hellofanidea mWAH to you too), here it is under the cut.

Ok so like. Understandably, people are more focused on Web and Lieb when it comes to the mountain top scene and that's perfectly fine. They're the ones I first thought about too. But then the more I watched that scene, the more I nyoomed in on two details: 1) It is implied that Speirs personally gave the order for Liebgott to go up there and deal with the officer, and 2) Skinny is the one who ends up pulling the trigger.

Which brings me to like. This fic I started planning in my head but couldn't quite write down because I am. Lazy. Anyway, it follows several plot points:

1) This is piggyback riding off my meta that Ron had ulterior motives to sending Liebgott up the mountain, which I have outlined in this post. TL;DR Ron used Lieb's anger (and to some extent, Web's too-- in my head, he heard about the incident with the baker in ep9, and he wanted to exploit that, not anticipating that Web's own self-preservation (of both his own person and morals) would get in the way) to do his dirty work, knowing that he wouldn't be questioned because of his position and because of said anger blindsiding all logic Lieb might have.

2) Skinny somehow knows this. He's more intuitive that people give him credit for. If Ron handpicked Lieb and Web because he knew, at least to some extent, that their anger would push them to do what he wants, then what the hell was Skinny doing there?

3) That question will haunt Skinny for awhile. Because why did Ron know, somehow, that Skinny would pull the trigger when either Lieb or Web could not? What anger and violence did Ron see in Skinny that made him think: "ah, yes, him; that's my killer of killers"? And most importantly, why did Skinny prove him right?

This is very much informed by how irl Skinny's PTSD was very much centered on the people he killed as a soldier (as opposed to people he lost). He's constantly cited in his writings and his letters that he felt unforgivable. So it isn't a massive leap for me to go yeah!! that boy killed an unarmed man (albeit a nazi, but I don't think even that could help him justify this) and then was later present when Web says "war's over, anyone would run" which no doubt would add to his already guilty conscience.

Add all of that together, and you have a recipe for a very traumatized lost boy wondering if maybe he's carrying a monster inside of him, and if maybe Ron could see it.

4) the answer, in the end, is that Ron couldn't see it. This was the dialogue I wrote first, and it has had me by the balls ever since:

"So why me? What did you see in me that was so twisted and cruel that you decided I should be up there, huh? Tell me!"

"... Nothing. I just needed a third man."

5) anyway. Ronald does, finally, admit to having used Lieb and Web to get what he wants. But Skinny doesn't care, because all he hears is that he's collateral damage. And that's not quite as comforting as Ron thinks it is.

soooooo. yeah.

**another plot point I have listed but couldn't really put anywhere in this weird ass list: there's also some cognitive dissonance sprinkled in there-- Skinny could justify Lieb and Web's reactions. He'd say Lieb has the right to do it. He'd also say Web's attempt at perserving himself as wise. it's important to note that Skinny went into this with the mindset that he was already unforgivable from the beginning. this just exacerbated it, but also gave him somebody who could probably answer his questions (i.e. am I really unforgivable? am I rreally a monster? am I a murderer? etc etc).

[andreal831]

I know you have pretty much the entire story outlined for TGW so I’m not sure if you even gave much thought to this, but even if you didn’t, it’s still fun to think about ‘what ifs.’

I’m gonna split the questions up into multiple lines so it’s easier to read. It’s also been a couple months since I read this part of the story, but I was thinking about it earlier and with the new chapter posted I feel like picking your brain a little. So fair warning, some details might be off.

When Hayley offered to erase her memories of Elijah, was there any moment where you thought about actually having Hayley go through with it/Jackson not stop Klaus?

What would you have had Elijah’s reaction been like of finding out her memories of him were gone?

Would Hayley still interact with the other Mikaelsons as much?

Do you think Hayley would have fallen for him all over again had he’d actually gone back to New Orleans for good?

Would Hayley’s actions of been any different to the point Jackson knows she’s significantly different? Would he have felt guilt?

Would Klaus of been able to sit around and watch Elijah hurt, knowing he has the power to give Hayley her memories back? Or would he give her memories back even with Elijah telling him not to?

Would there be any situation that Hayley gained her memories back even without Klaus telling her to remember?

Would Hayley have kept on the bracelet that Elijah gave her?

Some other things that have absolutely no correlation with anything above.

I assumed you wouldn’t kill off cami just because of things you’ve said in other posts, but I wasn’t really sure of how just because of familial ties being required for the bind. The way you did it was absolutely perfect, but why doesn’t Cami also have to be at least part wolf for the unification to work? Given the information from Hayley and Jackson’s wedding, I thought both people had to be apart of the same pack. Im definitely just forgetting something.

Given you’re already planning a sequel(s), I’m assuming Elijah and Cami will both be fine eventually. If you don’t put it in the main story, can you please write an outtake of everyone throwing a huge party for cami and Klaus?

Are you planning the sequel to follow the basis of season 4 (moreso the hollow)? Or are you going a different route entirely?

Last question, wow this was a lot. Since you unified Klaus and cami, if Hayley and Elijah ever get married, will they also do the unification ceremony? It’ll make them stronger, so I don’t see why not.

I probably should’ve split this into two different asks, but honestly, I’m too lazy to do that now lmao.

This will have many spoilers for The Great War. If you are not fully caught up until today's new chapter, go catch up first!

Hi! Firsts, thank you for reading! I'm glad you are enjoying it.

I do tend to think about 'what ifs' a lot with this story. I've had most of it worked out in my head for so long and for the most part when I write, it goes in that direction, however sometimes side stories do sneak up on me and I have to figure out how to write them in or if I even need to include them. That's kind of what happened with the chapter where Hayley offers to compel away her feelings for Elijah.

This was always going to be a haylijah endgame and I didn't want to kill Jackson so I needed them to end someway and I wanted it to be on Jackson's terms. I always felt like Jackson's character was used as a place holder in the show rather than a character (which is why I never really liked the character), so I wanted to give him his own autonomy outside of just being an obstacle. I also hated how in the show Hayley doesn't have a backbone when it comes to Jackson. She never sets boundaries or stands up for how she is feeling. She essentially gives up her power over the pack and becomes his figurehead queen rather than the Hayley we know and love.

So in order to improve all of that, Hayley had to learn to stand up for herself and Jackson had to learn how to communicate. Meaning we needed an event that would push both of them out of the passive comfort they had fallen into after the unification ceremony. Jackson is angry about how Hayley feels about Elijah and Hayley had repeatedly told Jackson that she couldn't help how she felt in the show and then it dawned on me that, in this world, she can. We saw Elena do it with Damon. This led me down a completely different path than I had originally thought because I asked myself all of the questions you asked. I ended up not going down that path cause we were already 28 chapters in and it would have taken up so much time to get us there and back.

I also just don't think Jackson would ever actually let Hayley go through it. Say what you will about Jackson, I know I do, but he did love Hayley. He didn't always understand her but he wouldn't want her to love him simply because she forgot about Elijah. He wanted her to love him and move on from Elijah herself. And when he realized she never was going to, he decided he needed to move on.

All of that to say, I did debate going down that road but I thought it would be out of character for Jackson and any of the Mikaelsons. I never liked how quickly Rebekah and Klaus got onboard with the unification ceremony and throwing a whole wedding in their home and Klaus inviting Elijah to it like he didn't realize just how painful that would be. But none of the Mikaelsons would ever help Hayley erase Elijah.

Now if she somehow convinced someone to do it, no one would want to tell Elijah. Klaus would likely tell Astra who would then have to tell Elijah. And part of Elijah would be relieved. At this point, Elijah is holding onto his part of the white oak stake in case he needs to take dramatic measures to save his family. Part of him would be relieved that there would be one less person to mourn him. But the other part of him would be devastated. He never anticipated being with Hayley any time soon, but, as Jackson stated, he did hope that they would have their chance eventually.

Elijah wouldn't have gone back to New Orleans because Hayley wasn't what was keeping him away. And he would need even more time away because seeing Hayley look at him without the affection he was used to would break him in ways he hadn't felt since Celeste's death. He would try to get back with Astra to help ease the pain which would only make her angry because she knows exactly what he was doing. It would be a mess.

In New Orleans, Hayley would still interact with the Mikaelsons. Her relationships with each family member existed outside of her feelings for Elijah. However, she likely would feel more pulled to the pack. I think Jackson would end up even more annoyed because Hayley wouldn't just be completely in love with him. I do think Hayley loved him but was no in love with him. Simply erasing her feelings for Elijah wouldn't make her be in love with him. I never felt like Jackson did much to "woo" Hayley. Like at least flirt with your wife if you want her to fall in love with you. He went from accepting that they were just marrying for political reasons to being upset that she wasn't treating it like a marriage. So they still had their own things they would have to work through even if we removed her feelings for Elijah. But I definitely think he would have felt guilty. He would have made her remove such a large part of herself after she already had sacrificed so much for her daughter and their pack.

If Elijah did come back in town, he wouldn't try to win her back. He would check in to make sure she was happy. But they would definitely have to interact at some point. They are still family. Hayley would remember Elijah, just not her feelings. But unlike with Damon and Elena, Elijah hadn't done anything to hurt her so she wouldn't hate him. He would just be a distant family member that she doesn't have any feelings for, one way or another. But like Season 5 showed us, the feelings wouldn't stay gone for long. Haylijah developed feelings for each other very quickly and when they met up in France, it just showed that it would happen no matter what situation they were in.

Elijah would of course tell Klaus not to give her her emotions back because that's what she wanted, but Klaus would argue it's not what she wanted, it's what Jackson wanted and he doesn't care about what Jackson wants. Klaus would 1000% force them back on her once Elijah was back. Or even before that if he felt like Hayley was making decisions based on her feelings for Jackson. I could see him using it to try and manipulate them.

I would love to say Hayley would gain her memories back just for seeing Elijah or some other romantic thing. But that's not how compulsion works. Klaus would have to undo it.

Hayley would keep the bracelet on and she wouldn't be sure exactly why, but it would feel important that she did. She would still remember it was from Elijah and the letter he wrote, she just wouldn't have the emotions connected to it. But she knew that Elijah would keep her safe and that would feel important to her.

I'm so terrible at trying to scare you all because I make it so obvious what parts of the show I can't stand and must change, like Cami's death.

I had to think long and hard about how they would save her. I wanted her to be in the Chambre, but like you said it required a familial tie and unfortunately, Cami is a bit short on family. But the Mikaelsons are her family. So I just needed to make it a reality. I debated a regular marriage but felt like that wouldn't be enough for familial magic, she needed to share blood, or in this case a heart. This is where I'm deviating slightly from the lore. The lore requires it to be alphas from different packs. And Klaus isn't in any pack so logically he can just be the alpha of his own pack. Now it working on a non-vampire is completely in my head and since it's a fictional magical world I can bend things to my will. I try to stay within the rules of the world (more than the writers do sometimes), but this one I can see working. We don't know much about the wolves spreading out, but we know the ceremony was used because packs developed different powers. To me, it would make sense that in the early days, the packs would unite with different supernatural creatures and that's how the packs developed different powers. How else did they become so different when they all derived from the same original pack?

Spoilers for the next story: We will get some marital party(ies). We have not seen the last of Klamille. I just couldn't do that.

TGW is ending in August 2014 and I will not be doing a long time jump like the show did. I hated that so much. They made a whole show about a magical baby and just skipped over the majority of her life. We will have a little bit of a time jump so we will be somewhere in 2015. More spoilers, we will see some crossover from TVD if that gives you any hints of what the story will be about. Also the name of the next story is "I Know Places." All of my story titles are based on Taylor Swift songs (I did that so long ago and have committed to it).

I haven't thought about a unification ceremony between Hayley and Elijah because I need to think through what that would mean to the pack and Jackson. It would give Hayley a boost, but would it sever any ties between Hayley and Jackson as co-alphas? To me, them no longer being married didn't do anything since the magic was already in place, but if Hayley then ties herself to another as an alpha in her own right, it feels like it would get messy with her ties to her pack since she is not an alpha by herself. If that makes sense?

I know this is long but let me know if I didn't answer anything or if you have more questions!

Thank you so much for reading my story! I truly appreciate it and love talking about it.

[nanistar]

do you have any tips on story writing / comic making? ive got something all plotted out but i just dont know where to start with executing it

hmmm this one is tough because i have a long history of starting and giving up on comics, even if i have a full script written out. i'm personally really bad at the whole planning-stuff-out thing. i tend to work in short bursts and write stuff maybe two or three scenes in advance.

i think my best advice would be: if you have something planned out, and you're excited to start working on it, just start working on it.

don't wait to find the perfect beginning, because in my experience, you'll eventually lose confidence or motivation if you wait too long. the worst thing that will happen is you might come up with a cooler idea later, but the good thing about webcomics is you can always start over, especially if it's early on. my "main" comic- something ive been working on since 2014- i have started and stopped about 6 times, and i have changed the plot/settings completely about as many times. i even wrote it out as a 100+ page novel for a creative writing class in high school. i actually started SBC with the intention of doing a short 1-2 year comic to kinda "warm up"

share some of your process online and with friends for feedback as you go with pre-planning. when i was building up the mojave clan concept, briskwater was intended to be the main character, with vulturepaw, a sunclan cat, having an unrelated but major side story but when i shared my first character sketches with my friend server, they all went bonkers over Saltburn so i changed my plan to focus on her. you don't have to share everything, but just having people initially interested in your story is a HUUUGE motivation boost. if you're having troubles scripting a start, don't script. think about openings to shows/series that you like and just start sketching stuff. i really like the foreboding prose-like openings of Fellowship of the ring and Avatar the last airbender, that tells you everything you need to know about the world itself, and mayhaps foreshadows a bit, but is still opened-ended enough that it can go anywhere. you can also start in media res; AKA start where the action all ready happened/is happening, and do a "teaser" of sorts, and then go back, sometimes called a Cold Open (tho that one is used mainly in TV, and some argue it's different but they're both functionally the same thing). think about how procedural investigation shows will often show you an obscured view of how the episode's victim gets murdered/kidnapped/whatever, and then it launches into the shows opening credits.

also finally, and i mean this so, so genuinely, it does not have to be perfect, and it wont be. you are going to be drawing SO many characters so many times, so many BGs ect, things are going to slip through the cracks that that's OK. you can take shortcuts, you can be lazy, you can have continuity errors. also give characters in the BG funny stupid faces instead of worrying about details because its fun to do

sooo yah. that's all i got TLDR: look at intros to media you like, and steal their style. don't worry about getting it perfect. if you have even a slim idea of what you want, just go for it and it will come to you. if you don't know what you want.... also just go for it.

also. my style of writing/comics works for me, but it might not work for you so take any advice i give with a grain of salt. ask other comic folk, like @razmerry and uh. ive been sitting here for 15 minutes but i literally forgot every other comic person ever. so sorry. but anyone who knows things feel free to add on.

[blackstarchanx3new]

Hi! Uh... I might sound a bit dumb for this question but I really can't think of anyone else to ask, how do you fucking go about on making an au? Because like... I don't know. And it's overwhelming me ngl. I don't know.

You know all those random head cannons that float around in your brain.

Or interactions you've thought of between characters FROM said head cannons:

You just make those a reality. X'D

Welcome to the "Character based AU" Idk what else to call it.

Creations AU for example: Born from me having dumb funny ideas like making Bonnie a stoner, or Freddy a literal prostitute and the Night guard a stone faced bad ass who reacts near emotionlessly/weird no matter what bullshit is in front of him.

Shit like that gives way to a LOT of stupid interactions/comedy. Is if objectively funny? Idk. But it makes me laugh.

Fannon Fan cannon ideas I like from a writing perspective. Not exactly a cannon/theory one lmfao can't stress that enough.

Glamrock Freddy being Michael/Josh in Creations instance, Mikebot, William murdering to try and resurrect his children, Golden Freddy being crying child. Those are just some examples of fannon ideas/theories I liked enough to run with.

Cobbled with: Scenes from the actual games I like

Also: A shit ton of OCs cause we're cringe tonight!~ >:)

I mostly focus on CHARACTER based AUs just cause I like writing CHARACTERS not character concepts.... Multiverse Mayhem is a character concept thing, but I'm not ready to write that yet, and it's way more "Character based" when it comes to how it's actually IMPLIMENTED

But you can do em with random concepts too most UNDERTALE AUs I know are more IDEA based than character based:

CONCEPT AUS!

Have you ever asked yourself:

"WHAT IF INSTEAD OF BEING HAPPY, THEY WERE ALL SAD!" "WHAT IF ALL THE CHARACTERS WERE SHRIMP!?"

And my least favorite: "WHAT IF WE SWAPPED THEIR ROLES!?"

The laziest/my least favorite/fun trope lmfao but a lot of people like that one. it's SUPER hard to make interesting At least to me but my opinions are ass so you can throw em out. X'D but if you're a good writer you can make nearly anything work.

Evil character A is the good guy and Good guy is the bad guy. They swap outfits and MAYBE their backstory's are swapped? Idk there's no consistent rules to this AU idea. Somehow we ended up with the reverse of what was there in cannon. I've only seen it done in a fun way when it's like REALLY detailed Reverse Falls I found interesting for example. Underswap is lazy af and we can all admit we only like the skelebros. I virtually ONLY like them when they're accessories to other AUs/playing off other Sans and Papyrus but that's just me....

There's also "What if x plot point from cannon was changed"

Like uhh, you know. A character NEARLY dies in cannon but ACTUALLY dies in this AU.

@james-p-sullivan wrote a fic about that with Four Swords where Vio dies at the fire temple.

That still has one chapter left that i am waiting eagerly for. X'D

Basically AUs like this are "Cannon divergence." I think is what they're called???

These are super fun.

Because if you know the characters really well you can make em react to whatever divergence in cannon in great ways.

And then there's:

THE PREQUEL, THE SEQUEL AND THE MIDQUEL

Four Swords Returns for example is a sequel with midquel elements.

Midquel: You add scenes where they COULD have fit in cannon or you flesh out scenes mentioned but not seen.

I made FSR: Because I didn't like the ending we were given.

And if you hate an ending: Make a sequel. It's fun.

I started FSR with the simple concept:

How I can split Link in 4 again?

Vaati's curse! :D

Vaati is still alive. Retcon Gannon being in the sword and retcon Vaati being dead. Literally no one has complained because Vaati is wonderful and we love him.

Make it possible for them to split again.

Oh...But what challenges COME from this?

Boom the plot happened.

Basically: Ask yourself a SHIT TON of questions.

"What if this?" "What if that?"

Keep going.

Keep writing cool scenes you would like to see in this AU.

Bam.

You got yourself an AU. :

Hope this helps.

[galactic-pirates]

For the Fanfiction Writing ask: 2, 18, 29, and 48, please! 😁

Yay thank you for the ask!

2) Where do you get your fic ideas? Ask me at the time and I'll know. Ask me now and I'm not sure. Some are obvious. Like if there's a specific prompt and then my brain chewed on it and lightning struck boom and it coalesced and came together into something.

As you are a Sanctuary friend let's take some of those fics:

Happy Ending = the song "this is the way that we love / like it's forever / and then live the rest of our lives / but not together" and I was like, make it fluffy. I don't know. I was just coming off writing Our Darkest Hour.

Choosing Fate / Time Will Tell = the tropes. I was like let's do an arranged marriage AU. Pretty sure I was watching Bridgerton at the time as well. And then I wanted to see if I could make Soulmates a trope I could like.

Life Without Purpose = for a Zombies in July event

Gentlemen of Blood = I was given the title, and had to think of a fic to go with it. That Bond quote by M came into my head of "when they say they have people everywhere, you don't expect one to be in the bloody room" plus the Sherlock Holmes movies.

I don't know, does that answer it a bit? My brain is a mess and it just needs prompting for it to spark basically.

18) Do you enjoy research? Which fic of yours required the most research? Nope I'm too lazy. I get easily frustrated. If I can't find the answer quickly I get annoyed. The internet is wonderful and I want to strangulate it sometimes. It's like I know the information must be there, but can I find it? It's no wonder I am drawn more and more to making my own worlds, because then I can just make everything up and don't have to worry about if I'm right or not. I just have to be consistent within my own story.

The aforementioned Happy Ending actually took a surprising amount of research, which to be honest probably ruined the fic because once I had all the stupid marriage details, I had to include them because I had bothered to look them up dammit. Haha, I know, why self? Also Odyssey: Future's Legacy had a lot of history in it and I had to make all the timelines line up. Let me tell you timezones + international travel = headache. I'm pretty sure Warehouse 13 never paid attention to travel times on the actual show but I made everything plausible.

29) What’s something about your writing that you’re proud of? Already answered here :)

48) Who is your favorite character to write for? Has this changed since you’ve started writing for that fandom? This is very close to question 41 (here).

Ok well let's go with Sanctuary fandom. I'm going to go left field and answer with Nigel. Which isn't exactly true but I will explain. Nigel is like the forgotten member of The Five a lot of the time. He's the one that didn't live until the 21st century and the one that isn't romantically linked with Helen. There's very little known about him and I was surprised and delighted as the more I referenced him, the more cohesive he felt in my mind. He got an actual personality, backstory, goals etc. So while Nigel isn't a favourite character, I do enjoy how I developed him.

Bonus question as you had a repeat!

11) Do you write scenes in order, or do you jump around? I'm a very linear writer. I literally can't write out of order. Sometimes this trips me up because I think if I sense that something I have written isn't right (aka the foundation is rocky) then I grind to a halt and stop making progress. Now with fanfic which I never tended to revise that heavily, that's fair enough - I'm not going to do a complete redraft but with original work? Ehhh.

It is generally speaking better to revise a complete draft, to see the entire picture. I can't recall where I first heard the expression but I have applied it to drafting ever since - "there's little point in polishing a turd" - aka, I don't know what I'm going to have to cut until I can look at the whole thing, so don't waste time polishing a scene that might not make it. But yeah getting frozen because I have to be linear, but something isn't right, but I shouldn't waste time fixing it - frustrated mental scream!

Oh another point! I have a friend that exclusively jumps around, I don't think they could write linearly if they tried. I have always wanted to ask them, but haven't dared in case they think I'm judging them (and I'm definitely not!), whether they find foreshadowing/thematic arcs/character emotional journey's etc. harder to write as it's out of order. For me, I can't imagine getting my head round it backwards but clearly people do it, so that's a me problem. But yeah no I have to be linear.

[anfie-in-the-box]

Dreamtale_Not_Found & Aftermare Week

Notes

I wasn't sure if I'd finish this in time, I literally just started today, but look at that! I did it!

As usual, minor spoilers for the main work (here), feel free to skip this post if you want to read chronologically! Enjoy!

。。。

Walk

Nightmare appears in Aftertale, and Geno notices his presence immediately. 

"let's go for a walk," Geno suggests instead of greeting, then leaves his work desk and stretches. Nightmare looks at him fondly and says, "What, Papyrus forces you outside?" 

"both me and sans," Geno smiles and takes his lab coat off. "he's very persuasive, you know."

"And everyone knows I'm the best company. Well then, where are we going?" Nightmare asks readily.

Sometimes it's just how they spend their time together — wandering around the town, in silence or chatting quietly, Nightmare unheard by the others and Geno pretending to be talking on the phone. There's actually a rumour saying Geno has a long-distance relationship with a human or a monster whose ancestors didn't get trapped under the mountain Abbott, although the details are uncertain and vary quite drastically. It flusters Geno and amuses Nightmare — they kind of are in a long-distance relationship, especially now when they can't touch each other. There are entire universes between them. People don't need to know that, though.

"don't know yet. let's just wander for a bit." Geno smiles, and Nightmare grins and nods. It seems to be a good day so far. Geno is passionate about those projects of his, a true scientist that he is; there's no doubt that he loves his brothers, and he loves Nightmare, but sometimes he feels so… numb. Nightmare understands; Geno's been through so much, he needs help. If only he could accept it. He's stuck in that cycle of guilt and helplessness; he's left the screen, but the screen hasn't left him. It's haunting him, making him feel like he deserves to suffer. Nightmare would be a hypocrite if he ever blamed Geno for that. Nightmare also needs help. He slowly teaches himself to let others help him — the villagers might still hate him but Dream is by his side now.

But today seems to be a good day for both Geno and Nightmare.

"When did you last eat?" Nightmare asks after a while. 

They walk slower but don't stop. Geno takes his phone out of his pocket to answer. 

"now that you mention it…" Geno smiles sheepishly. "i am hungry, i think. street vendors or a cafe?" 

"I feel like going to a park, and you won't have to sit while I stand. Always awkward." But also fun, Nightmare doesn't say. Geno's small glances at him are so cute… 

"sounds like a plan," he says. "i know just the place." 

"We could also do some people-watching while you eat!" Nightmare exclaims eagerly. It's something he's picked up recently. He's mostly doing it in Geno's world, but with Dream's help, he's started going to the village, too. He hides in the shadows, untrusting of light, climbs up the roofs, unnoticed and unwanted but still there where he wishes to be. It's risky but worth it, and besides, Dream helped him make the cape, it's their joint creation Nightmare enjoys using. 

Nightmare and Geno stop talking while they walk to the park, but the silence is never awkward or tense; not this time as well. They simply enjoy each other's presence. Geno still holds his phone, pretending to listen carefully; too lazy to put it away, Nightmare's silly, wonderful beloved.

What a nice, nice day. 

。。。

Credits

Undertale © Toby Fox

Nightmare!Sans © jokublog

Aftertale © loverofpiggies

Aftermare Week © @bluepallilworld

。。。

Notes

Let's leave the couple to their date (;

[septembersghost]

I'm seeing a lot of comments say that Kim probably told him to turn himself in and never to contact her again, they're divorced and she's finally moved on with her life, and he needs to take responsibility, and other comments saying whoever he talked to told him she's not there anymore, and other comments saying she died...

she didn't die. i shouldn't promise anything when we don't know, but i'm certain, like heisenberg purity levels percentage, that they would never ever kill her off-screen, and they would never have jimmy find out that way, either, nor would muffling the call be a good dramatic device for that (even though we know we'll see the call, probably in the next episode). there's no way. they wouldn't disrespect kim like that, nor would they disrespect us like that.

to that point, let's say, hypothetically, that the next episode is partially kim-centric, as clued in by the title. a partial storyline - in the penultimate episode - isn't, in my mind, going to tell us she simply got better and moved on. she didn't leave because she didn't love jimmy, she was running from herself, from her guilt and trauma, she was punishing herself. now, yes, six years is a decent amount of time. a lot could happen in six years. it's not impossible that she served him divorce papers. he knew where she was, so there had to be some contact along the way. it's not impossible that she'd rebuild and heal, but given the type of person kim is, it feels unlikely that she'd seek out or even let in a new relationship in that sense. i could be way off, but i envision her keeping to herself. leading a simple, quiet life, where people might like her, but don't know her. (it could be far more depressing than this too...) she works at some kind of sprinkler place (shades of the car wash), i imagine her keeping herself small and contained - the black and white gene life before gene even exists. moreover, to go back to the above point, it's disrespectful to kim and her arc to decide to give her a whole new life and possibly love off-screen, and have jimmy discover this over the phone. it's lazy writing that they don't tend to go for here. there has to be something more interesting to give her.

furthermore, i don't actually think jimmy (or saul or gene or whoever he may be) would react to kim being remarried or even to her telling him to turn himself in with that level of fury? idk i could be wrong, but that seemed like a far more distressed reaction. if she'd found someone else, i think he'd be dejected (and it would be natural to be hurt, despite how long they've been apart and everything he's done, being hurt by that is human) and maybe even sulky and bitter, but i don't think he'd yell at her and beat the phone to hell and shatter the booth. if she told him to give himself up, he could easily just say, "uh. screw that, no," and hang up. something way more intense was happening there.

this is pure conjecture, but i think whatever he found out on that call is perhaps part of WHY he's pulling these scams too. not only because of his anger, because he wants power/control, because he's relapsed, though all of that is true, but it feels bigger than that, as well. like, idk, he wants/needs these hauls for a reason. it's...reductive and depressing if his sole motivator is malicious intent here, if all he wants is just to rip these guys off and have the thrill of it. not that a different motive would make it better, but it would give it reasoning. why did he fall so far here? why did he make such a hard pivot?

i go back again to what schnauz said, "we started talking about how it’d be interesting to not hear the details of whatever news he heard about Kim and leave that for later. Something upset him — we don’t know exactly what — but we’re going to see how he deals with that pain." whatever news he heard ABOUT kim, not whatever news he heard from kim. (i can understand why people are construing the worst from that hint.) my guess is he wasn't able to speak to her, and the argument and frustration/fury we saw him unleash was in regards to that and in not having any other way to reach her. i think it's the final piece of the story that will have to be solved.

[illegiblehandwriting1]

I feel the need to mention this, cuz I was thinking about it and I found it absolutely hilarious. (Skyward Sword spoilers but, c'mon, it's like 12 years old now.)

Time travel breaks a lot of things in the Zelda universe. The Hero of the Skies, miraculously, managed to keep an immense amount of continuity going. SkSw Link managed to not break time, but I can't help but notice that he broke something else.

He just so happened to break the fucking law of conservation of mass.

(putting a read more cuz this gets LONG)

How, you ask? It's pretty simple.

This fucking thing.

You can go back from the beginning of the game and see Zelda's crystal, Impa's bracelet, etc. That's perfect! I love it! It's amazing! Genius attention to detail from the devs. But this fucking pedestal does not exist until the end cutscene. It just shows up in the modern-day Sealed Temple - along with the Master Sword, which should be there as well - like "ayup, homies, how ya doing".

And Link doesn't bat an EYE.

Okay, fine. I'm fine with his reaction. That's his friend, and he's a bit busy. Besides, you cannot convince me that he actually paid attention in any science class ever.

But still. THAT'S NOT HOW PHYSICS WORKS.

However, fear not! I am not solely here to complain. I may have a solution.

You could say that there's not allowed to be two copies of the sacred sword in a time at the same time, but that's boring, right? That's just not any fun. I don't like that. So here's my solution.

The pedestal is movable. HEAR ME OUT, IT GETS BETTER.

So. here's my timeline of events.

After Demise is defeated/Link finally puts Fi to rest/Zelda tries to bring Impa with them/etc. the Gate of Time is broken, right? And it was probably young Impa that did that, right? She's already proven she can break a Gate in Lanayru, so she just waits for Link, Zelda, and Groose to go through and then she blows it up. Great. Awesome. Glad we can all agree on that.

So. Young Impa breaks the Gate of Time. She's probably already seen the Sealed Temple in modern times, right? She was there in that time anyway, might as well see how decrepit her house becomes. It can be a road trip.

Anyway.

So, she probably knows that the pedestal isn't there in modern times. So after she breaks the Gate, Impa just picks up the sword and the stone (you probably couldn't take them apart, after Link slammed Fi in there) and shoves it into her one (1) non-canonical broom cupboard. I'm sure the Sealed Temple has at LEAST one of those, right? And then it sits there. For thousands of years or however long it takes.

Anyway, when Zelda's taken by Ghirahim (In the present day, after Sky Keep) and Link and Groose run through the Gate to save her and stop Ghirahim and all that jazz (no, that's not really important, I'm sure they'll do fine and all. Kinda boring, though, in comparison to what IMPA's doing), the old lady, being her wonderful old lady self, just calmly walks over to the non-canonical closet and carefully puts the Master Sword and the rock pedestal back in its place like it's made of styrofoam. She's IMPA, after all, we stan buff old ladies here. She probably has, like, lines she drew on the floor, too, with a nice little outline where it should go. I feel like that's something she would do. Y'know, for continuity.

I firmly believe that was her last act as the Keeper of Time or whatever she was (I can't remember lmao, too lazy to go find it rn). She made sure all was right in the world of physics. And I love her for it.

Long story short, Link's lovable but oblivious, and Impa was the real unsung hero of the story. Thank her for all of your questions when you first noticed that the pedestal just spontaneously appeared.

Damn, she was so humble that she didn't even mention it when she died lmao. Just doing her job.

Consensus? Rip Impa. But I bet Hylia adores her for keeping the law of conservation of mass intact.

Oh wait, so THAT'S why she keeps coming back. She proved herself as smart. Hylia needs her to guide these dumbasses, and given that she used her entire life to serve, Impa was happy to oblige.

OHHHHHH. See, that makes a lot more sense.

Now, here's the real question. The original Beedle gave Link a sidequest and dropped him out of an airship.

So why does HE keep reappearing?

Anyway, thanks for reading my essay about a pointless subject lol.

[necroangelz]

🪽

i love hearung people infodump about stuff wven its stufg idk pleasr peladeplelfeldmf dies

( the angel apologizes for the late response to uur ask . it's been more than a week .oops . it's okay though because this infodump is HELLA LONG. /SRS )

i adore ppl who listen to infodumps > < /p gen

『 🪽 』

infodump about an oc

so, then, let me tell uu about the story of the half demon and the human she loved. (aka my demon Slayer ocs doomed Yuri )

this infodump is gonna require some prior knowledge to demon Slayer tbh > < I'm too lazy to explain details that are specific to the demon Slayer series Soz ... also my autocorrect might randomly capitalize Slayer so just ignore that

so let's introduce the characters !!

KAGUYA UBUYASHIKI

picrew

kaguya's name above links her playlist that i made a few yrs ago !! the playlist is quite old and i don't add new songs to it as much but i quite love it a lot > < i think the songs suit her well so there's no reason to change anything

at the start of the canon series (like lets say kaguya is in the story because thats how i wrote it lmao) Kaguya is 25 years old. as her surname "ubuyashiki" implies, she's an adopted member of the ubuyashiki clan. her mother was a pillar (a pillar of what, I'm not sure yet ahaha...) who disappeared before kaguyas birth, and left the infant Kaguya at the doorstep of the ubuyashikis. they decided to take her in and raise her alongside kagaya ubuyashiki, the head of the demon Slayer corps at the start of the series. Kaguya is 2 years older than kagaya. she is also his only surviving sibling as the rest of their siblings committed suicide years ago (canon fact i read just now lol)

she doesn't know much about her mother, and only knows her mother through the stories that others tell about her. unfortunately, due to their line of work, those who knew her mother end up dying until she's the only one carrying her mother's memory. there rumors though that her mother had an affair with a demon right before giving birth to kaguya

Kaguya hopes to find her father one day. how she will do it, what would she do (ask him why it had to be her mother, ask him about her mother, kill him, form a relationship with him, etc.); she doesn't know.

fun fact about her father: originally she was going to be the daughter of muzan kibutsuji. because this was a common trope i did before, i made ocs who were the daughters of villains. i didn't really regard the villains as parental figures because i was in love with them, but i suppose i enjoyed the family dynamic this trope would have. it was interesting to imagine the villain parent as being softer and kinder to their daughter (if they were on the same side [kaguya would not have been on the same side as muzan, obviously]), their daughter being spoiled, treated like royalty, and inheriting the same villainous traits from their parent(s)... i actually did have another oc who was muzan's daughter, although she didn't exist in the same "universe" as kaguya lolz

... looking back at my childhood and family history i can see why i was so in love with this trope

anyways. Kaguya harbors a secret that she doesn't hide well, so most people are aware of it, but out of respect no one accuses her of anything. Kaguya might just be a half demon half human (okay well take out the word "might" because she IS). she exhibits great inhuman strength and speed, she can heal quickly from any injury (it's not as fast as the regular demons' regeneration, but she can survive injuries that humans would usually die from. she recovers quickly from injuries and never gets sick. healers love her. literally. i used to ship her with shinobu.) she's also allergic to sunlight and wisteria. she gets severe rashes when she stands under the sun for too long and her body temperature rises quickly when she's outside. hence, she wears a wide brimmed hat to protect from the sun. i also think she would wear her universe's version of sunscreen. she also feels nauseous around wisteria. heaven knows what would happen if she ingested it.

she's sort of a prodigy when it comes to being a warrior/fighter. she began having rigorous training to fight demons since she was 8 and since then she has become a high profile demon Slayer. (that age might change... it used to be 6 but i thought 6 was too overkill lol. that's really young isn't it. she should be at the playground /ref)

I'm a bit undecided about what her breath style should be. it used to be breath of the Phoenix (based on the song the Phoenix by fall out boy) and i have a design of Kaguya with red robes which would fit that breath style more, but I've grown used to purple robes Kaguya! i know i could have Kaguya use breath of the Phoenix while wearing purple robes, but robes are often symbolic of a slayer's breath style, and purple robes just don't really give Phoenix vibes.

Kaguya with red robes ! i use this design in an AU of kaguya's story. i won't go into the AU in this post but all one needs to know is: it's based on moon knight. because i just so happened to have a moon knight phase around the same time i was really obsessed with kaguya's story

another breath style Kaguya could use though is wisteria breathing. i just thought of this recently so it's a wip idea, but it could be interesting bc wisteria breathing is strong against demons but it will also hurt her. wisteria and all that. it feels symbolic of her as a character as well.. somehow

anyways, Kaguya is aloof, keeps her distance from others, acts invulnerable and cold, although she has moments of warmth and can still show kindness to others. she prefers that others do not get to know her on a personal level and keeps everything professional. her brother and her 1 or 2 friends encourage her to loosen up and they've tried everything to get her to socialize with others.

she's desensitized to her pain and others'. the corps often gives her the hardest jobs simply because she's one of their best fighters, so she's used to long battles (and winning). she's not cocky when it comes to fighting, but she certainly knows that she will eventually win. she rarely shows fear. she knows that a scared warrior is not what people need.

obviously she has a dash of trauma added to her character.

i realized Kaguya is extremely similar to mizu from blue eye samurai. i didnt intend fur that—kaguya was made AGES before BES was released, but i think that's really cool lol

RISA AKAGI

kaguyas childhood friend who died at 25. she was a demon Slayer of a high rank, just like her dear friend. came from a rich family with parents that loved her; sadly they never understood her deep down. they didn't understand her dreams to pursue creative arts like writing and music. instead they wanted her to marry so they can become more wealthy.

her parents did arrange a marriage for her, but they lost their wealth anyway. and soon enough, risa lost her husband and her family.

risa was used to dealing with expectations. her peers often viewed her as a perfect unattainable standard. someone to watch and be jealous of. someone to compare themselves to.

she was a practical person who kept calm often. a lot of people liked her and thought she was easy to get along with. she always knew what to do, how to behave, to get people to like her and do what she wanted them to do. many people in her circle liked to act as if they know her well/personally/deeply but she's a guarded person who knows how to keep people away, just like kaguya. the difference between them is that risa can fool people into believing they're closer than they actually are

i actually never thought of what risa's breath style would be. kaguya was her main mentor when she was in training so maybe she developed a breath style based on kaguyas? like early on she was using a common breath style but ended up developing one similar to kaguyas. I'll think about it further though.

that's all i can say about risa.

so what's their story anyway?

their first meeting was when they were children (eight and eleven, risa is 3 yrs older). it was a short meeting, almost unremarkable, although they kept thinking of their meeting bcz they wanted to meet each other again very badly. their wishes were granted and they meet again as teenagers (14, 17). this time theyre able to form a friendship and oh, how close they become. it's like a once in a lifetime bond. and speaking of lifetimes they feel like they know each other from a past life.

^ note I'm not tryna be weird about this, they didn't develop feelings for each other until they were both adults/chronologically 20-somethings. Kaguya physically matures faster due to being half demon so physically she looks about risa's age if not older. she doesn't act like a regular young person either due to her life experiences. i made their ages like this to emphasize how she is stronger in terms of physical power despite being younger.

they are inseparable... except for complications in their life that do separate them. one, as they grow up, risa's marriage to an older man is arranged. as a result she doesn't have as much freedom to do what wanted (ie, hang out with Kaguya) like before. they find their ways though, don't worry. a bit after their marriage, risa's family loses their wealth somehow and they're forced to move to a small very rural town

two, Kaguya obviously has to hide her true life from risa. keeping such a huge secret causes fights and other troubles between them but what else is she to do? she just can't tell a regular civilian about the demon Slayer corps and demons at all . she wants to keep risa safe too so she has to tell her Absolutely Nothing

all of that becomes for nothing though when a demon attacks risa's family, killing her parents (and siblings that live with them, if i decide to give her siblings. i should give her siblings), her husband, and her husband's family too probably. but basically a lot of people are dead. Kaguya arrives and kills the demon, but at that point only risa was the survivor. Kaguya tells her about demons and demon slayers, and risa chooses to enlist in the corps.

when risa enlists, she's 20 and chronologically Kaguya is 17. of course she hasn't really properly ENLISTED yet because she has to go through the final selection ! ( i kinda find it funny that they call it the "final selection" when there's no other selection process for demon slayers other than this, but it's also kind of a final thing in the way that many people Die from it ) so risa moves to kaguya's estate and trains for three years before entering the final selection. obviously she survives and passes with flying colors because she was trained only by the best (kaguya <3). she became friends with the people she saved/helped in the final selection too

so now at 23, risa is a demon slayer! things go quite well in her career. she goes on pair missions with kaguya at first so that risa's safety is ensured and she doesn't have a hard time. risa is worried she actually isn't that good of a demon slayer and at some point she hates relying on kaguya during pair missions, thinking that her success is only because of kaguya and not because she has any skill at all.

aside from that risa also tries to deal with the trauma of losing her family and the mental and physical strain that comes with training and fighting demons. she's terrified that she too will lose her life one day but when she fights alongside kaguya she feels safe, and when she goes home to kaguya after a successful solo mission, she's determined to do her best fighting demons for the rest of her life so that she's happy when she dies

but then she thinks, does she really want to do this for the rest of her life?

kaguya thinks of the same thing too, because before this she was fine being a simple weapon for the corps. a weapon with no friends, no connection to this world, and no real passion in life. she's so strong, obviously she's meant to be a demon slayer, right? but being with risa causes her to rethink everything and what she truly wants

the two of them discuss if they want to retire when they're a bit older. get a nice house in the countryside and live together, raise livestock, and live a calm life where they never think about their missions and they never have to raise a sword against a demon again

,,, well

one day, risa goes on a solo mission and doesn't come back. kaguya knows where she went so she searches the whole place for her, and searches even farther, but none. she tells corps workers stationed in nearby locations to keep an eye out for risa, she searches every week for her, but she doesn't see her nor hear from her for months. she doesn't even find a dead body

what she does find, a few months later, is risa turned into a demon. she would find out later too that demon!risa had already killed a few humans in their time apart. demon risa has no memory of her life as a human, so her first instinct upon seeing kaguya is to attack her. risa is quite strong as a demon. it hurts kaguya to see risa fight with a variant of the same techniques she used when she was still a human

kaguya wants to save her, she wishes there was an ending to this battle that didn't involve risa's death, but she's relentless in her attack. it was either risa died or kaguya died

so she's slain by kaguya. let me just copy paste this line from my notes:

"as her head gets chopped and falls off, one moment from her human life flashes before her eyes. a blurry memory of her and kaguya sitting in kaguya's estate, drinking tea and enjoying the afternoon sun. the memory constantly changes shape and briefly morphs into other memories that she can't process, and it feels like a scene playing from far away. like a memory that isn't hers. risa doesn't think this is from her memory at all, due to the blurriness and transience of it. she dies facing the sky and a single teardrop falls from her eye."

risa was 25 when she died. kaguya was chronologically 23

as one can guess, this whole ordeal traumatized kaguya even further than she is already traumatized. poor thing. all of this would have taken place 3yrs before the main story (so kaguya would be 25 too when the main story would roll around)

okay, so what really happened to risa on the night she disappeared during the mission anyway? how did she become a demon?

i don't have a LOT of details sorted out, but basically she was wounded and super duper hurt during the fight, the demon she's fighting offers to turn her into a demon (i'm guessing she should've been fighting a demon moon then... oohh what if she thought she was fighting a regular demon but then a demon moon shows up and offers to turn her??) obviously she declines the offer but in the end she gets forcefully turned into a demon. so yeah !

i would also like to note that in this story, the demon slayers are aged up just a little bit. i'm sure it makes sense to someone that a lot of demon slayers are young—because they die before they can grow old— but a part of me was unsatisfied with that! so a lot of the pillars are in their early to mid 20s, with the exception of muichiro who is 17, tengen who is 31 (this bitch is 23 originally wtf??, and gyomei who is 44 (HE IS 27 I THOUGHT HE WAS IN HIS 40S)

thats all i have to share i think. thank GOD its all over now /s if one has somehow made their way to the end and read everything in this ramble, comment uur fav video game or something .

aaaaaand thats the end of kaguya ubuyashiki and risa akagi's wonderful backstory and their happy ending.