shimmerbeasts

[shimmerbeasts]

ARCANE LEAGUE OF LEGENDS: S1 -> S2 ↳ "Vi, it worked. Did you see me? My monkey bomb finally worked!"

[shimmerbeasts]

[shimmerbeasts]

will never be sick of drawing her

[shimmerbeasts]

how to write monsters that actually scare and not sparkle

✦ first rule: don’t over-explain. once you give me the monster’s exact height, weight, claw count, and dental record, it’s not scary anymore. it’s a pokémon. mystery is the muscle. a shadow that almost looks human will always hit harder than a full description of a swamp beast. leave gaps. let the reader’s brain fill them in with their own worst fear.

✦ physics should not apply. horror monsters are terrifying when they break the rules of the world we think we understand. a body folding in ways it shouldn’t. joints bending the wrong direction. silence in a place that should echo. footsteps that sound like they’re coming from the ceiling instead of the floor. once you warp reality, the reader doesn’t feel safe in their own.

✦ chasing is fine. but waiting is worse. scarier than claws, scarier than snarling—try a monster that just stands in the corner and watches. even scarier? it smiles. because predators don’t smile unless they know something you don’t.

✦ let it act like it knows you. a growl is scary, sure, but a whisper of your name in the dark is worse. a hiss of your birthday. a laugh in your mother’s voice. monsters are no longer “other” once they feel personal. they’re invasive. they’re inside your head.

✦ bonus tip: give them wrong appetites. a monster that eats flesh is cliché. a monster that eats wallpaper? horrifying. one that eats memories, so a character wakes up without knowing their own name? disgusting. one that eats reflections from mirrors so you don’t see yourself anymore? revolting.

[shimmerbeasts]

[shimmerbeasts]

Storyboard redraw #1 : powder's transformation to jinx

[shimmerbeasts]

[shimmerbeasts]

JINX in ARCANE 2x02 Watch It All Burn

[shimmerbeasts]

I know this has been talked about many times before and much more eloquently, but one of the reasons I love CaitVi and why I'm so happy that Vi got her happy ending with Caitlyn is because it's the first important decision Vi has made that she did 100% for herself.

Vi doesn't have any obligation to be with Caitlyn or care about her. She could have, very easily, run away with Jinx after "breaking" her out of jail and never looked back - in fact, Caitlyn herself is surprised when that's not what happens. Even after Jinx locks her in and then Caitlyn opens the cell, Vi could have run after Jinx then. In canon, after the battle, Vi had no reason forcing her to return to Caitlyn. She could have joined up with Ekko and the Firelights, she could have lived on her own, hell, she could have even left the entirety of Piltover and Zaun behind.

But no, she chooses to stay with Caitlyn. Because that's the woman she fell in love with, and being with Caitlyn brings her happiness. Simple as that. She's not family, she's not a childhood friend/little sibling figure connected to her past (like Ekko), she's this girl that Vi willingly let in and is willingly choosing to make an important part of her life.

As somebody who also has been saddled with the expectation of being the caretaker of many people in my family, who's had to learn to balance those responsibilities with the things I want to do and other types of relationships I want to have, it just makes me really fucking happy to see a character go through an arc that involves them learning to value themselves and their own happiness over always having to prioritize others because of familial ties.

Being with Caitlyn is the first no strings attached, completely free decision that Vi makes in her life. She could leave Caitlyn whenever she wants to (she won't lol) or she could stay with Caitlyn for the rest of time. It's completely up to Vi, and I love that for her.

[shimmerbeasts]

"She did not -!" Vi caught herself. Why are you defending her after what she did to you? "It's her blood in your veins!" "Then why are you the one acting like her?!" The Zaunite almost curled in on herself. Subconsciously, Vi placed a hand on the spot on her stomach where Caitlyn had hit her with the back of her rifle. It had been the same spot where Sevika had punctured her gut with her mechanical claws. It was hard to say whether that made it hurt even more. Her look fell upon the gondola. Vi huffed out a bloom of smoke, flicking some ash off the tip of her cigarette. "I don't think it is just her fault. She keeps listening to that bloody warmonger!"

She let herself be helped to her feet almost reluctantly. Sure, Vi could have tried fighting that, but not only was she too numb to bother with it, deep down, she knew that trying to fight Camille Ferros in regards to anything always ended badly for her. No, better to let the woman have her way and not ruffle too many feathers. It was still unnerving to be inspected by her like that. Vi felt like an insect under a microscope, exposed and vulnerable. It was not the first time that Camille had examined her like this, but it never made it any easier.

"Yeah, big surprise there", Vi said sardonically as Camille remarked how terrible she looked. The Zaunite smelled of dirt and grime, blood having plastered itself to the fabric of her clothes, which she had not washed for the last three days, the bourbon in her breath and the cigarette smoke in her throat. She looked like a pile of downright misery. Vi scrunched up her nose in discomfort as Camille's thumb rubbed roughly across her cheek, smearing away some of the oil makeup.

"Will you stop doing that?", Vi growled under her breath and tried to shove Camille's hand away from her cheek, though the motion was listless. She chuckled low and tried to sit up a bit straighter. Tugging at her cigarette again, Vi tactfully breathed to the side so Camille did not get a face full of smoke. She explained: "I'm making money in the pit rings of lower Piltover. The paint is just ... part of a getup."

It was the truth, albeit a shallow one. Vi did not trust Camille to not abuse any knowledge she might obtain from her. The woman was an intelligence agent for a reason, and if Caitlyn was a skilled interrogator, Camille Ferros was the master the young learned from. Besides, how could someone from a noble house even come close to understanding how alienated Vi had become from everyone around her?

Jinx did not need her anymore, Caitlyn did not want her anymore, Zaun had become so bastardised and beastly in her time in Stillwater that there was no chance she could return to its streets. Piltover was so strange and different in its customs, it might as well be another planet. No, the best place for Vi was something of her own choosing. Proving to herself that she could keep the monster at bay, even when everything was falling apart around her.

Never mind that she was failing on all fronts.

It was hard to believe it was possible, but Camille thought that somehow Zaun was even more of a waste and a dump than usual. Not that she couldn't find some comfort (or even mirth) in how openly her compatriots were trying to stop rebel spirits into the ground, but they were coming about it completly the wrong way. Trying to stomp out resistance this openly would only encourage more of it, and in their desperation to find Jinx, they were creating new threats.

For some reason the rest of her family seemed content to watch this happen however, and while she had no problem disobeying them, they had gotten her word that she'd not intervine and as such her hands were metaphorically tied. Still, she did her nightly routines from time to time, to pass the time, maybe even get lucky and find a drunk or an idiot who tried to attack her and she could answer in kind.

Well...she certainly got her wish.

"Violet" It was not a question rather than a statement, and she found herself strangely sorry for her current state. Sorry which was quickly replaced with annoyance as the bottle was thrown her way, a roll of her eyes was followed by the quick rise of her left leg, splitting the bottle perfectly in two and letting it fly past her and crashing back down.

"Oh, nothing much, I was admiring the view, taking in the local scenery, trying to figure out just how badly your girl screwed up" Walking up to Vi, she put a hand on her back and hoisted her up from the floor like one would pick up a cat, and gave her a scan with her eyes. "You look terrible dear"

Nothing had been damaged which would cause any inmediate permanent damage, but if she kept this up that was certainly where she'd end up. One of the cyborg's thumbs rubbed roughly against Vi's cheek, as she inspected the make up "Have you decided to partake in your city's favorite passtime of garbage diving and found yourself in an oil barrel? What is this about?"

[shimmerbeasts]

ARCANE S2E01 | “Heavy is the Crown”

[shimmerbeasts]

Anonymously tell my muse how you would fuck them

Be as specific and detailed as possible!

[shimmerbeasts]

words by me

[shimmerbeasts]

☆GET TO KNOW ME♡ : [20/?] Favorite Characters

JINX - Arcane, League of Legends

Sheesh! I’m not that crazy.

[shimmerbeasts]

Jinx, manga style.

[shimmerbeasts]

xe

@xjdkg89q

[shimmerbeasts]

Butch Vi Week - Day 7: Free Day!

Vi as Kassandra of Sparta. A piece I had already inked but decided this would be perfect for the final day of Butch Vi week. What's more butch than being a badass Spartan misthios who has a little sibling they thought they lost but turned out to have been brainwashed by the bad guys and sent to terrorize people? Wait... that last part sounds familiar.

12 hours in Clip Studio Paint Pro on a XP-Pen 15.6 Artist Pro tablet.

Buy me a ko-fi to support my art?