#(I initially did coloured lines but then I didn't like that so I removed it)

[ask-vio-the-purple-link]

Mindscape [Part 1]

Text descriptions with more details about whats going on below the cut!

Aka more descriptive stuff

Vio's eyes are closed as he focuses ignoring the sounds around him as he enters the realm of his spirit and mind. Opening his eyes they've gone back to their initial colour from first drawing the sword so long ago. Along with his eyes his clothing has shifted to that old tunic as well.

Looking at the forest around him he sighs a bit, then starts to walk the most visible path he can find.

Compared to the last time he did this there's many more trees around, but that could just be due to him not being clear minded lately. Either way Vio knows that something is wrong, and this was the way Farore recommended when he can't figure out what.

Thinking a bit he looks up seeming confused by how warm it was. More accustomed to his realm being slightly icy courtesy of Blue. "That's strange...It's warm this time"

"...Violet~..."

A very sudden voice causes Vio to turn in alarm, not having expected to have another there with him.

Looking back at him is a very bored and rather annoyed looking Vaati with his arms crossed.

Seeing him of all people irks Vio quite badly. Snapping a bit he remarks with disgust. "Why of all people are YOU here!!""

"Don't ask me Violet. I'd much rather not be here" Waving a hand the demon mage seems more bothered than anything.

"That didn't answer my question." Huffing Vio places a hand on his hip, surprisingly not afraid of Vaati's presence this time.

Bothered by that he retorts, "Yes it did!!"

Getting more aggitated by the moment he growls back. "NO, it did not!!!"

Not liking Vio's tone with him Vaati lets out a low snarl, curving his mouth into a frown. "𝙎𝙩𝙤𝙥 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙤𝙡 𝙑𝙞𝙤𝙡𝙚𝙩, 𝙄 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙮. 𝙊𝙧 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙤𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙤𝙣 𝙥𝙪𝙧𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙚"

"𝙔𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙨𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙮 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪. 𝙊𝙧 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙜𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙤𝙛 𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙨?" Vaati narrows his eye at the hylian with icy malice.

Vaati having gone from semi-civil to snarling at him has Vio pause and think momentarily. Before snapping at the mage in anger again.

"YOU! YOU SWITCHED THE BOOK I WAS USING FOR THAT!!"

Scoffing at this line of thought Vaati seems more annoyed than anything. "Tch, I did no such thing. You're just making accusations now. To tell the truth; You never had the real one from the start. I know because I'm the one in possession of the true book, not you."

Mood suddenly flipping Vaati actually smiles at Vio waving a hand nonchalantly. "Anyhow, care to join me for some tea. We can think of ways to remove me from here. As your mind sucks to be inside. It's all trees and thoughts of your Beast (Blue) "

"DON'T CALL HIM THAT! IF ANYONE IS A BEAST IT'S YOU!!" At the vague insult to Blue, Vio finally loses his patience with Vaati. And lets loose his feelings with no fear towards the mage. "SCREW YOU AND SCREW YOUR TEA I DON'T WANT IT!! YOU ARE A PATHETIC, SAD, MASOCHISTIC, ASSHOLE!! WHY ARE YOU EVEN STAYING IF YOU HATE IT SO MUCH!!?"

[siravalondulac]

xiv. songs connect me to my people

a heart so golden, a sun so bright

asoiaf ff | fem!oc centric

summary: elle meets the people who worship her word count: 2119 warnings: none author's note: final part of the "brotherhood arc"

masterlist

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She had expected much and more when Beric Dondarrion had told her to follow him, but to be taken to a cave entrance on the side of a hill was not amongst that.

Thoros approached her with a piece of fabric, moving behind her to lay it over her eyes.

“Do you not trust me?” She winced as strands of her hair got pulled into the knot.

“Just a precaution.”

He laid a hand on her back and pushed her forward.

She hated, hated, hated losing her sight. Oberyn had tried to blindfold her during training a handful of times, and she had always ripped the fabric off after just a few minutes. She had been trapped in darkness before - she would not let it happen again.

But she played nice this time. At least there was some light soaking through to her eyes. Not that that made the steep descent any easier. She stumbled over roots and stones and bumps in the ground, and Thoros had to grab her waist to keep her from falling more than once.

“Didn't know the great Paladin would be so uneasy on her feet.”

She huffed. “Usually, I am able to see-”

The blindfold was suddenly removed from her eyes, revealing the enormous cave before her. Its walls and floors were covered by white roots, with a fire burning in its middle and colouring the ceiling above it black.

Yet more curiously, there were people here, and quite a lot at that. She saw men, women, and children, chattering, working, going about their day. It looked… peaceful.

“What is this place?”

“Welcome to Hollow Hill,” Beric said. “What started out as our base quickly transformed into a refuge for anyone who needed it. Stark, Lannister, Baratheon - all those names mean nothing here.”

“It is wonderful.” Her gaze wandered across the cave. “But I still do not understand why you brought me here.”

Beric smirked. “They sing your songs at night.”

“What?”

“That is how we learned of you,” Anguy, one of the Brotherhood's archers, said. “Thought you were a myth at first, but then people arrived who claimed to have met you personally.”

“At this point,” Beric continued, “your mere existence gives them hope.”

The news of her arrival had spread like wildfire amongst the people, and soon after, the singing had started. A woman had brought out a fiddle and another a lute - not that either of those could be heard above the plethora of voices.

She had never even heard of half of the songs, and yet she had also never felt this good. Dancing at festivities, singing with the people around her, with no manners or rules to tie her down. She could be around whomever she wanted and talk to whomever she wanted.

A frog had called for a celebration

Of the victory over his people

Little did he know

It would all turn sour

The moment he’d let go of his arrow

For a hero had arrived

Determined to end his rule of terror

No matter the cost

She entered the tourney

Unseen by all

And with her golden curls swaying about

She threw her dagger

And buried it into his heart

They sang her songs, just like Beric had said, each and every one that was known to these people. Putting her at the centre of attention - in more ways than one.

Perhaps she was taken

By the king's enemies

Dragons, Snakes, or even the Others

Perhaps she was mistaken

For a lone orphan child

And sent to one of the brothels

Songs about her disappearance had even reached Dorne while she had been living there. After an initial scare that this could mean she could be found, she had started to like them. A lot. She had memorised each and every line to every song about herself she had access to, and sung them loudly at festivities. Oberyn had loved it, Doran… not so much.

Yet the people also sang songs she did not know what to feel about.

He sits alone on a giant throne

Pretendin' he's the king

A little tyke who's rather like

A puppet on a string

Too late to be known as Joff’ the First

He's sure to be known as Joff’ the Worst

A pox on that phoney king of West’ros!

This was her brother they were singing about. Her brother whom they were insulting. Sure, she had not seen him in years, nor heard anything substantial about him - besides what little Jon had mentioned - but she could not forget their childhood. He had been her only friend in the Keep, that had to count for something. Yet now, as she heard what these people said about him…

She’d been away for too long.

Whatever. Didn’t matter. They were in King’s Landing, she was here.

“Who is that up there?” she asked Harwin, pointing towards a lone figure sitting far up on the roots.

“That’s Arya Stark of Winterfell.” He laughs at her shocked expression. “I know, I know. But I remember her from my own service to her father, so you can trust me on this.”

She stared at her. “I met her brother.”

Oh no, oh no - why had she said this? She couldn’t just mention Jon like that! And in such a simple sentence as well.

“Which one?”

Should she expand on this? She could just walk away, leaving Harwin deadly confused. But that was not who she was.

“Her- Her half-brother.”

“Ah, Jon Snow. I remember him. Fine young lad.”

She quickly left his presence, making her way over to the other side of the cave. Climbing the roots, she ignored Beric sitting on a throne-like chair in their midst (without fucking banners they said), and settled a short distance away from Arya. The girl stared at her in confusion.

“Harwin told me who you are,” she said. “I'm Elle.”

Arya studied her, likely evaluating whether she should run or stay.

“What happened to your face?”

“That?” She grazed her fingers over the wounds. Still not healed. “Animal attack. Nothing serious.”

“Did you kill it afterwards?”

“No. It was merely hurt, and lashed out at me. I freed it from its pain and sent it on its way.”

“I would have killed it.”

They fell into silence. Elle's gaze wandered across the cave, across all the dancing and singing figures, before settling on Arya again.

“Why are you not joining them?”

“Why should I?” She seemed almost offended. “I am a prisoner. Prisoners don’t dance.”

“Would you like to?”

“Yeah, sure. But that has never been my world, always only Sansa’s. I forced Jon to take lessons with us, so that I wasn’t so alone, but I don’t think I will ever fit into that.”

Thank the gods for Arya Stark.

“You look like him, you know?”

The girl suddenly went wide-eyed, whipping her head around to her. “Do you- Do you mean Jon? Have you met Jon? When? Where?”

Elle chuckled at her excitement. “I was at Castle Black before coming here, that’s when I saw him.”

“How was he? Did he talk about me?”

“He's doing well. We did not really get to talk much, so he only got to mention you.”

A lie. A blatant, faulty lie. But she didn't want to squander that hopeful look on the girl's face too much. Nor did she want to talk about him too much. She couldn’t talk about him too much, the pain of leaving him still too big.

“I wish I could see him again,” Arya said.

“Aye, me too.”

The girl stared at her again, and cocked her head. “Who are you exactly? Everyone seems to know you.”

“They don't, they just-” She laughed. “Have you heard of the Golden Paladin?”

“Yeah, I heard the Lannisters in Harrenhal talk about her… Wait, are you saying that's you?”

Elle nodded.

“With the way they talked about you I would have expected you to be more…”

“Evil?”

“Yeah.”

Elle pondered. “You were at Harrenhal?”

“Against my will,” she said as if in defence. “Me and my friends had been taken prisoner, and they forced us to serve them. Tywin Lannister took me as his cupbearer, and I was scared he was going to find me out, but I think he was too occupied with his generals.”

“Do you remember what they said about me specifically?”

“Not really. Just that you were a threat and needed to be dealt with.” She played around with the threads on her sleeve. “There was one man who said he was going to hunt you. That he - what was it? That he would use your love for the people against you.”

She looked at the festivities dispersed in the cave once again. All these people had already suffered so much through this pointless war - she could not bear to see them harmed. Attacking them to get to her… It was certainly the easiest way to get her to behave.

A group below them had struck up a song of their own. Elle tried to listen to the words, yet she couldn’t make them out.

“What are they singing?”

Arya scratched at the white bark beneath them. “Some song about wanting to go home but not being able to. It’s in the Old Tongue, that’s why you don’t understand it.”

Griechischer Wein ist so wie das Blut der Erde

Komm, schenk dir ein

Und wenn ich dann traurig werde, liegt es daran

Dass ich immer träume von daheim, du musst verzeih'n

Denn ich fühl' die Sehnsucht wieder, in dieser Stadt

Werd' ich immer nur ein Fremder sein und allein

She slowly made her way through the crowd. How they were still able to go about their singing at such a volume was a mystery to her.

Sitting towards a cave wall was Thoros, staring into a fire. She had seen him throughout the entire night singing and drinking (a mad priest was one thing, but a drunkard, mad priest?), and decided to join him by the small fire.

“I cannot see you in my flames,” Thoros said. “When I ask the lord to show me anything of you, all I see is a dark void.”

“Perhaps my gods shield me from yours.”

He laughed, and took a swig of his bottle. “You don't think much of R'hllor.”

“My gods have never betrayed me. I feel little need to abandon them at this time.”

Again, that quiet laugh. “You'll see. You'll see.”

A change in song. She was unfamiliar with the tune echoing throughout the cave, so she tried to listen closer. And she truly wished she hadn't.

It was not as with the Northern song, where she truly had not understood the words - this time, she understood each and every one. Yet she could not make sense of what they meant.

“What-” She had to swallow. “What are they singing about?”

“Huh?” Thoros looked up in confusion. “Oh, that? That's about the queen's affair with her twin brother.”

Her heart stopped.

“What?” she whispered.

“Haven't you heard? All the queen's children are bastards, born of incest. It's why Stannis and Renly think they have a claim to the throne.”

Bastards. Incest.

“Are you- Are you certain? This is a serious accusation.”

“Oh, yeah. I am. You only had to look at them. Not a drop of old Robert's blood inside those kids.”

Later on, once she had excused herself, she found a small pond in one of the tunnels. Putting up a torch beside it, she stared at herself.

Her hair was her mother’s - it was what she remembered her by. And if she truly concentrated on her memories, she could see how she had gotten her build from her as well. The king had been big and intimidating, her mother lithe and graceful. Just like her. And just like her uncle.

Only her eyes were her own.

The king had never cared about her, she had known that even before she had run away. He had looked the other way when she had talked, had preferred his drinks over her, had never once been concerned when she had gone exploring. Perhaps he had not wanted a daughter - he did pay at least a sliver of attention to Joffrey - or perhaps he had known deep down.

Her uncle had cared. A lot. He had been her constant companion, always encouraging her interests, the only one able to find her whenever she had disappeared into the city. He cared about her more than a normal uncle should.

Her mother’s necklace hung before her, the golden lion glinting in the water.

Jaime was her father.

She buried her face in her hands.

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[mi5018leiascott]

Screening and key lighting

In my last post, I found a way of transferring Procreate Dreams. It was easy for the sausage roll, and I figured that it would be easy with the hand. I was wrong because the hand colour was confused by a similar green one. It also had a low opacity, so it required a bit of problem-solving. I tried orange, darker green, and blue, but it kept removing the desired colours. So, instead, I tried playing with colour correction. There were hue sliders and layers on top of each other. It was not working due to it being too many layers. Tones were being messed with. It eventually got confusing; however, it wasn't entirely scrapped. Gamma was eventually introduced; it was finally the correct colour. The sausage roll was hard to tell. I decided to find the effects. I accidentally found the glow; I initially didn't like it. After stepping back, it ended up fitting with the build. Then, I changed the background and added these lighting bolts to sell the idea of magic being strung from the cursed sausage roll.

Blue Screening

This one took the most effort as it was a bottle meant to be in front and in the background. I started off with the background. I tried using the same method with key lighting. It massively removed all of the blue from the couch, the blanket, the tablet and the paintings. So, Similar to the hand, I layered them. It kept getting worse, so I scrapped it to restart. Eventually, I caved into doing a tutorial. It helped by showing me the colour range and removing the blue. It was a YouTube channel called Jake In Motion. There was still an issue, as white spots appeared in areas that were not supposed to be there.I put in objects behind it, though it showed through the curtains. I then tried exporting it in Dreams, drawing over the problem areas. That was tedious work, so I tried again in After Effects. I resized the video and used a simple choker, which really helped. The only time it became an issue was when I needed to camera-track the characters, which was its own issue. It didn't track the motion because it didn't match the size. It was then exported and put back into After Effects. I rewatched a tutorial on tracking, though I struggled with getting two characters in. I did eventually find success. As for how I got the table in the front, it was by duplicating the video and using a roto brush to carve it out. Despite being somewhat messy, I was pleased it was a success. The roto brush tutorial was by Motion Array Tutorials. Then, I exported one more time because it would save on fewer 3D cameras being used. It was finally finished; I felt proud because it went through many trials. But I wish I could have the trees in the back line up more with the other shot. Overall, it came out well.

[moving-image-project]

Editing Process of Float.

Failed Keylight and Rotoscoping:

The initial Idea was to have the subject on a green screen and keylight him into the sets, however, what I did not take into consideration was the lights making the green bounce off of the subjects clothes and skin. The green on the subject made it almost near impossible to be able to keylight the green out of the video without removing portions of his body as well.

The solution to this was rotoscoping every single scene. This was incredibly time consuming as I had to go almost frame by frame to make sure that the rotoscope AI outlined the subject correctly as it is not always accurate. A lot of the time, I had to make adjustments to the outline as it would also pick up on the shadows of the subject. I also feathered most of the shots to make my life a little easier, as the outlines weren't completely perfect and sometimes the background would be inside the lines.

The lights didn't only make the green of the background bounce off the subject, it also made the green bounce off of the sets and so in post, I had to mask out the green background to make it black so that the sets wouldn't be only partially visible.

Creating the Shadows:

Once all the masking and rotoscoping was done, I put the clips where I wanted, resized the subject and put him in position in each clip. I then copy and pasted the original subject layer, flipped him vertically and placed the flipped subject at the feet of the original to start working on the shadows. For the majority of the shots, the light source is coming from the back, meaning that the subject will become a silhouette essentially, and a shadow would also be casted. To make the shadow blend in with the set and make it look more convincing, I added a camera blur to the layer and played around with the settings until it was to my liking. The same principal was done for every single shot that includes a shadow.

Colour Grading:

The colour grading is similar for most of the shots where the light source comes from behind. I used lumetric colour grading, set a high contrast, made the blacks of the subject match the blacks of the background and lowered the whites so they are barely visible making him look like a silhouette. For the backgrounds I also made it high contrast but I wanted the lights to be bright without making the set itself overly illuminated as I wanted it to look ominous and dystopian, like the original source of inspiration. To do this I made the blacks very dark but turned up the highlights significantly so that only the lights were affected and not so much the actual sets themselves.

Because I messed up during the shoots with the lighting, colour grading in this project was crucial to make it look believable as it is what allowed me to blend the subject into the sets as much as I possibly could and I am quite happy with how it turned out.

Typography:

I put the title of the song on the floor of the shot by making the text a 3D object and changing its X rotation to place it on the floor. To make it blend in, I used this video for help.

Transitions:

The transitions for the first video were very minimal as I did not want to take away from the sets as I wanted them to be a crucial part of the video, similarly to how the story of "Blame!" is developed throughout the manga, "Show don't tell". There are fading transitions, zoom ins and outs that were done using opacity, scale changes and motion blur. The camera wasn't actually zooming in, they were different shots but the changes in scale made it look like it was the same position but close up.

[catonator]

Musing about media (also of the social kind)

Well then.

I'm back here, many, many years after I initially left to pursue greener pastures. Ironically a few years later tumblr itself became one, but I digress. I've decided to try to keep a (at least) monthly blog to force myself to write a little more. I don't have a plan, or really any idea about what I want to write about yet, but many things in life are little like being a forgetful skydiving tailor; jumping first, and then having to build the parachute on the way down.

So firstly I wanted to expand on something I wrote about a week back on Twitter. The new frontiers in social media. It seems like the 2010s are coming to a close, with many of the foundations of that decade suffering some shakedowns and shuffles.

The new 10's were a strange decade, and obviously we're not really far removed enough to say what did and didn't make the decade what it was, but I have a few pointers. I'd say there's at least one notable characterization: the celebration of corporatization.

Fittingly for tumblr, I'd say the decade really got its flame from the geek culture early on in the decade on this very platform. From my formative years here, I pretty strongly remember the fandoms, and especially the mixed media fandoms like "superwholock". Obviously big balls of nonsense fangirling isn't exactly anything new but the thing I remember distinctly is mainly how different the approach to media appreciation was, it was little less "hey I like this and I was inspired by it to do my own thing" and more just "I FUCKING LOVE BEING A FAN OF INSERT THING HERE BOY I WILL CONSTRUCT MY ENTIRE PERSONA AROUND BEING A FAN". A little self-indulgent, to be blunt.

You can probably pretty easily draw a feeble and tortured mental line from that to the later big IP fests later on, where big companies would just grab metaphorical action figures out of their massive vaultlike toy chests and mash them together, for massive profits!

So uh, what the fuck am I on about and how does this relate to social media? Well, I think the early tumblr years ended up colouring the internet far more than you'd expect. After most of the users jumped over to the bigger sandboxes like Twitter later in the decade, I think the internet in general started to transform a little, away from the small communities of fun people to users just living in their comfort zone.

I'm a little worried about the future of the internet, but also hopeful. I think the one big thing of the 2010s we should leave behind is living in some nebulous cloud of likeminded stuff masquerading as a community and instead learn to appreciate the smaller groups of people around you, for what they are. It's what I truly hope to see out of the new frontiers.

[2023-512kaylawilliams]

Feedback review and refinement since formative hand-in

I was unable to get all the changes i wanted, done before formative hand-in, which was disappointing as i really wanted to get the most out of the feedback we will get from it. This was mainly because i got confused with the deadline (mix-up with my other class) and submitted at 5pm instead of midnight 🤦🏼‍♀️. But i have been working on completing my booklet since and making further refinements beyond the feedback i received last week in class.

Just to mention it, I have tweeked my grid quite a bit since i started my earlier drafts. With streamlining elements on each page i added/removed parts of my grid and also changed my margins accordingly. Below is my current working grid.

I worked quite stricly to the grid i made, making sure that all the elements in my type specimen were consistant with the execeptions being intentional to "break the mold" so to speak.

The following are changes and refinements i've made to all my spreads - i also reordered the whole booklet. All of the change i made will be checked once i print it to see whether the changes look okay on paper and once the booklet has been folded. I'll do this this week so that i can finish it up for my presentation.

I removed the halftone effect on the images - will try this during printing to see which i like the look of better.

I amde my pepeha bigger - grouping the Māori version and english version rather than skipping between paragraphs.

After deciding on the header/footer elements and their placement i ended up removing the diacritic on the 'a' in 'kia' as it got in the way. I tried other diacritics to see if they would work but they were all on the top of the character and thus interferred with the header.

I also increased the width of the left spread and narrow the 't' on 'tā'.

This spread got quite a dramatic change. I wasn't happy with any variations of the vowels and considering i have varying weights throughout my pages I though a page dedicated to showcasing the unique serif feature this typeface has would be a better use of space.

I am yet to see whether this spread will work or if its proportions work okay but so far i'm happy with it.

This double page spread underwent some minor changes in comparison to the rest but i made the text larger. Mostly because i had a lot of smaller text on other pages and this felt too much - it also shows the typeface at a scale i haven't got anywhere else in the booklet.

I did try just increasing the width to medium but at the smaller scale the text just didn't seem right.

I also removed the titles and to distinguish between the two piece of text i made one in italics and the other remained regular. Instead i put the titles and an explanation at the bottom of the page. I tried many variations of putting the titles in differen sizes etc. but none seemed to work.

I made a few more pages in my booklet fully coloured to add more contrast.

I also changed the page title to diacritics and ligatures which i think is more concise and reflects the contents of the page better.

This spread had only minor changes, Emil said he really likes the layout so the only thing i added were the names of the different ampersands (as named by the DJR).

I decided to keep the outlined year on the right spread and added a caption to explain why i left it that way (as there is a reason). I also added labels to signify that the old style numbers were in fact a feature of the typeface and i didn't do it manually myself.

I made the symbols and puntuation page more balanced by playing with the idea of the symmetry i made in the third line. Also making use of the brackets rather than having them on a separate line.

I made a feature of the flower symbol that this typeface has - initially i had no purpose in adding it (originally on my cover design), however, being a unique symbol in the typeface i decided to make it into a flower (simply by adding a line) which made something that reminded me of a daisy (the significance of which is mentioned in the caption on that page).

I have kept the info page to the back as they will be points already covered in the booklet (history or rationale page) but just repeated for easy access.

The original idea i had for this spread just seemed like a bit of a waste of space and had too much white space for the booklet. The new design also brings in the block colour as well.

The biggest thing was Emil mentioned that he really liked the octathorpe in my typeface, it was quite unique and thought it would be a great idea to make a feature of it like i did the ampersands. I will have to see how it's placement is like once i print the spread but i like how it came out.

[idv-ask-servais]

(Blog is dead oops and I need to finish an animation for a school project so take this Emma I drew a while back.)

[kiivg]

What your art process? Do you do the backgrounds first or last? How do you pick colors? Sorry if you answered ask like this before. I am just big fan of how the art is completed looks! I like looking at all the small things and people in background!

.Thank you so much!! I am trying very hard with my art at the moment to do a few new things, always trying to improve, and I'm super enjoying it at the moment despite the 8,000,000 year art block I had hahaa.

.There's a sort of in depth look at my process below, but also I have a gigantic grand total of 2 videos on my youtube channel and I do not know how to record on this tablet so idk what's going to happen there :)c.

.So initially, I don't ever just sit down and draw something, like I have to at least have a vague idea in my head of what I want to draw. Right now it's all Dragon Age because I replayed DA2 and actually managed to do the Fenris romance, and then I wanted to try his rivalmance because Anders' rivalmance is delicious but apparently Fenris' sucks so... Wah. Also Sebastian ehehehee.

.Anyway, (if these pictures are unreadable I will scream and upload them separately), Depending on how clear my idea is on what I want the picture to look like depends on how clear the initial sketches are that I do. Like I could try to draw a few different angles or a few different poses, or start drawing like, for example, Hawke dancing whilst playing the lute thinking he was going to be in a tavern, and then changing it to a more sombre version of him in Crestwood at night with a few of the Inquisitor's companions. Like I say a lot, I like to have a story in mind with each picture, so the Champion in Crestwood image lead to things like, does Hawke have a fling with Dorian where he's very clear about not being able to give him what he wants (re: a boyfriend), because he's still in love with Sebastian, despite them breaking up years ago (re: Anders blows up the chantry). And I think that adds up to a lot in the picture, because it lets you put more things in that fit into a context; even if the majority on that picture is covered up by people.

.If I don't know what I'm drawing entirely, then I'll draw it in sections, like I'll draw what I know I want to draw, and then kind of fit things around it. The exception being that if I have a particular angle I want to draw, then I will sketch only the thumbnail and then the background, and then fit the thumbnail sketch better to the background, and then carry on as usual. Most of the time, the background is just framing lines and maybe the vague outline of what could end up being a pillar, or a flag, or a statue, or those kinds of things.

.Somethings end up being like a foreground filler (Varric is surprisingly good for that haha), which add another layer to the picture and hide something that can be quite monotonous, like drawing Meeran's trousers in that last picture, I didn't feel like they were interesting enough, so I just put two people playing cards in the front. It makes it a lot better, like yes, I did draw Meeran’s trousers, and his boots, and I ended up removing them. 

.But that’s a lesson I had to learn. I can actually draw something, completely line it, and then decide, actually it’d be cool if this was there instead, and just erase part of my picture. Like so many times I’ve watched youtube timelapses and watched people sketch everything, and then line everything, and then colour everything, and nothing is ever thrown away. But you can throw it away if it doesn’t fit, and you don’t get special artist points for not doing that or whatever idk, imaginary artist rules are dumb.

.One thing I do want to say is that when I’m drawing, I do take several hours to do a picture. Because like the Fade picture, that background is so line heavy, so many lines, so much to colour in and shade and everything. But it looks so cool haha. And since I take several hours I can get bored of just linearting the same thing. I’m not going to enjoy drawing someone’s outfit from head to toe in one sitting. It’s just too samey for me, so I like to flit around the picture. I’ll draw Carver’s face, and then I’ll draw Hawke’s face, and then I’ll draw Carver’s hands, and then start on the Inquisitor. Not only does it keep my brain finely tuned to what I’m doing, it also gives me fresh eyes on what I’ve already drawn. 

.Adding to this, it’s also good to go back to the sketch when I’m slowing down on lineart. I don’t know about other people but I don’t use pen pressure, all my lines are 3px, that is extremely samey across the whole picture, it can become kind of repetitive. So I go back to the sketch, and if there’s nothing that I haven’t drawn properly or clearly enough (I hardly ever sketch hands/feet or the things connected to on the first go round) I just add something else in. Maybe someone could be wearing another belt, or some fancy embellishment on their clothing, or maybe a whole other dude is there in the background. Just the simple action of going from clean straight lines to messy chicken scratch kind of loosens up the hands and switches the brain round, and after I’ve sketched what I need to, I’m fresh on the lineart again.

.So onto colour, I’m not going to lie, I do a lot of colour picking initially from my old stuff haha, and then edit it from there. It allows me to kind of pick skin/hair tones and then build off of those, so I’m not just white canvas to colour immediately. I also tend to sick to a very loose colour gamut, ranging from desaturated blues, purples, pinks, reds, and sometimes desaturated yellows. I don’t like using orange and I don’t like using green, the exception being the Fade picture which HAS to be green so I’m brave, I left my comfort zone there, and it worked, lmao, whatever.

.But what I start with is a limited palette, I have maybe three or four colours to start with, and then I slightly change those colours depending on what I need. Like for an example, does Sebastian’s jacket need to be lighter than his pants or darker, then I can just grab the colours of his pants and then change it as per what I want.

.The secret, imho, is putting the colours of people into the surrounding area like I explain below. It makes their skin or their hair or their eye colours fit in to the picture; it’s like an alternate version to reflective light (I think?). Yes this character does have blue eyes, but in this picture? Purple. Yes this character does have grey hair, but in this picture? It’s golden. It’s reflective light, it’s a colour gamut, and it’s colour theory. Which I’m not an expert on and other people can probably explain it better :).

.Throughout the picture’s process I will tend to change the colours of some things, or add layers of “Darker Colour” or “Subtract” or all those fancy things because I sort of know how they work. I used to use the “Soft Overlay(?)” but I prefer “Lighter/Darker colour” because it will only change a percentage of the image. Like for the picture above I made the whites of Sebastian and his wife’s clothing more yellow and subsequently warmer using the “Darker Colour” filter. If you experiment with those, you’ll learn how to use them how you like.

.For changing the colours of things (like Varric’s coat or the wine tray), it’s mostly about trying to balance the image out. It added some darker elements to the picture above because everything was no longer super pale. It frames Sebastian, his wife, and Hawke in a better way, they are essentially the brightest things in the picture.

.I also found out that personally I like to make things dark and the add highlights as opposed to the other way around. I feel like adding an orange light can be more beneficial than adding a blue shadow. But you could also do both which looks banging. Another thing with colour is the actual colour of the lineart. I usually take the darkest colour on the picture, and put it at anywhere between 15% and 50% on a layer above that only affects the lineart. (Can’t remember what that’s called exactly oops.) but that also helps to tie the picture in together.

.Anyway!! Thank you again! I’m having a lot of fun drawing and have gained a lot of followers lately, hello :). I’m always open to questions (especially about my OCs god if you ask me about them I will just be ecstatic) and I love reading all your tags and knowing all the pain I caused with that picture of Carver in the Fade >:)c hehhehehehh.

.Hopefully this is helpful? Or Interesting? Or, if this is TLDR: Sketch, lineart; you can do those things simultaneously, colour gamuts are your friend, the state of your art is not permanent, and I love you :).

[slashbitch2]

Chapter Six (Jennifer Barkley x Reader)

Previous Chapter

The entire day, nay week leading up to Jen's arrival was fraught with tension. Time went all too quickly, yet dragged simultaneously. By Friday you were brimming with so much unnecessary energy that your productivity at work was comparable to that of Leslie, who's determination was currently your source of frustration. Had she not been so resolute about giving Jen a 'personal Pawnee tour', than you would've reunited at 5 rather than 9.

Admittedly, it was also your fault for not calling out her lengthy lie, but those extra four hours you had to suffer through were compensation enough.

In an attempt to pass the extra time, you tried to stay at work for longer, but Fridays were your half day and Ron demanded that you go home immediately, lest you do any extra government work. Reluctant to return to an empty house, you'd asked around if anyone wanted to hang out, and were met with a series of rejections.

Except for Ann, who upon being enlightened about the situation, insisted she help you get ready for your date (initially you refuted the title of 'date', but by the second hour of your evening it became tolerated). Her company, though unexpected, was more than welcomed. Having someone to share your excitement with made the increasing tension almost fun.

"Y/N?" Ann waved her hand in your line of vision, catching your attention. "We going in, or just spending the night in the car?"

"Don't tempt me." You muttered, grudgingly dragged out of your thoughts.

In front of you the queue to the The Snakehole Lounge was gradually growing. The sheer amount of people gathered outside was intimidating, so you dreaded to imagine how packed it'd be inside. Staying at home would've been preferable, but it seemed that time alone with Jennifer was not a luxury presently granted to you.

"Come on." Ann nudged you with her elbow. "You've been going on about this all day and now you're going to wuss out?"

You twisted round to face her, illuminated by the flickering multi-coloured lights beaming out the club's windows. She was watching you closely, trying to gauge how you felt based off expression alone. Despite all that was rushing through your mind, you were at a loss for words. How could you even begin to convey what you were currently feeling?

"Stop overthinking it." She said. "There's no way of knowing what'll happen when you see Jennifer again, but only you can change that, so just roll with it."

You paused to consider her suggestion, coming to the conclusion that she was more observant than you gave her credit for.

"You're right." You admitted, grateful that she'd knocked some sense into you. "Thanks." Awkwardly, you leant across the centre console to hug her. You didn't know Ann all too well, but needed some way of showing gratitude for her sensibility.

"This is nice." She relaxed into the embrace, then unwound an arm to glance at her watch. "But we're five minutes late so I'm pretty sure Leslie will be sending out a search party soon."

You chuckled, separating from Ann to glance at the building once more. Jen was somewhere inside waiting for you. She'd voluntarily returned to Pawnee, and to one of its less than fine establishments of all places, just because she wanted to see you again. The very notion had your heart racing.

"I'm ready."

---

The atmosphere of the club was as intense and unruly as expected. By the time you'd adjusted to the blinding lights and deafening music, Ann had already slipped away, replaced by Tom.

"Welcome this evening's esteemed VIP." He thrusted a disturbingly bright neon beverage into your hand. "Drink up."

"What is it?"

"Sweetums Fizz. My go-to drink for when I'm tryna get lucky." He winked. "But if it doesn't work out, feel free to give her my number."

Coming from Tom, that was the closest you would get to his blessings. So, unenthusiastically you took a sip of the dreadfully sweet drink , screwing up your face as you forced it down. Trying your best not to grimace at the taste, you smiled at him in thanks before he dispersed into the mass of people.

Next to approach was Leslie, who engulfed you in a crushing hug while spewing unintelligible nonsense about her trip. Usually her overly affectionate manner was too much, but this time you pulled her closer. If all went well tonight than you would be forever indebted to her.

Removing yourself from her grip, you interrupted her endless talk. "As much as I'd love to hear about Washington," You yelled over the obnoxiously loud music playing. "I can't hear a word your saying."

"Right." She nodded. "Wrong time, wrong place." There was a pause as the both of you were happy enjoying each others company. Since Jen's exit, Leslie had been so supportive and you'd missed her while she'd been gone.

Although, now wasn't the time for acknowledgements. "Have you seen Jen anywhere?"

"Oh, yeah." Leslie swivelled around and gestured in a general direction. "I think she said something about staying near the fire escape. Said this entire building was probably a hazard."

"That sounds like her." You grinned, spotting the green glowing fire exit sign. "Wish me luck."

"You don't need it." She patted your back, smiling reassuringly as you shuffled past.

Navigating through the crowd while keeping an eye on your target was a challenge. Several people bumped into you, their drink nearly spilling as they pushed past without an apology. However, nothing else mattered as you drew closer to the sign. Nothing else mattered except finding Jen.

Only she wasn't there.

As you struggled through the final row of people, you were met with yet another group of strangers. You sighed, absentmindedly swirling your glass as you resigned to return to Leslie. You then raised it to drink while turning round, though the necessary libation never reached your lips as you collided with someone.

The casualty gasped, stepping back as the cocktail spilled down the front of their dress.

"Shit." You froze, surveying the damage. "I'm so sorry-" You finally glanced up to face the woman and apologise again, but halted upon realisation.

Of course it was Jennifer. You just couldn't catch a break.

"I was going to surprise you, but looks like you got there first." She joked, scanning the vicinity for any kind of napkin. You joined the search, eventually spotting a couple abandoned on a table.

"Again, I am so sorry." You repeated, watching as she scrubbed at the stain. The attempt was futile as it didn't take long for the paper to be completely soaked through, and with little improvement to her dress. "Come on." You grabbed hold of her hand as she discarded the napkins, eager to try and improve this disaster of an event.

You maneuverer through the club with much difficulty while dragging Jennifer, who had an iron grip on your hand. Invigorated by the embarrassment, you arrived at the bathroom a mere minute later, all but shoving her inside one of the cubicles. Under the blaringly bright lighting you could assess the damage in greater detail.

"You know what?" She casually leant against the wall, waving her finger around. "I'm having some serious Deja-vu right now." You looked at her questioningly, pleased to see she didn't look too upset with the state of her dress. "Us together in a public restroom, you staring at my chest..."

You scoffed, reaching past her to grab the toilet paper. "Don't flatter yourself." You wrapped several layers around your hand, creating a makeshift towel. "Completely different circumstances."

"Same outcome though?" She raised an eyebrow suggestively, taking the bundle of paper from you.

"We'll just have to wait and see."

"I think you owe me." She scrunched up her face. "Or is throwing your drink over someone a traditional Pawnee welcome? Because that would explain the mess back there. Pretty sure every surface was sticky."

"Maybe you should wear one of those plastic ponchos next time." You muttered, nervously fidgeting with your hands.

The familiar anxiety from earlier seemed to have reappeared, you were unable to drag your eyes away from where they were fixated . Under the sobering bathroom light, everything had suddenly become very real. It had been years since you'd pursued any kind of serious relationship, and Jen was hardly the easiest person to start with. You tried to think about what Ann would say if she were here.

Probably something astute like "All the best things in life are worth fighting for." Too cheesy.

It'd be more "Nothing good comes out of running away from what you want, even if it's hard." Not inspirational enough.

Possibly "With great effort comes great gain." Nope. You'd definitely plagiarised that one from somewhere.

Maybe she'd-

"Y/N?" Jen ducked into your line of vision, bringing you back to reality. "Lost you there for a second." She smiled cautiously, resting a hand against your arm as if tethering you to the present.

"Sorry. I was thinking about something a friend said." You admitted sheepishly, placing your hand atop of hers. "Or would say if she were here."

"Oh yeah?" She carelessly threw the wad of paper behind, her full attention now on you. "And what would she say?"

You'd finally settled on what Ann would suggest. She'd say "Kiss her, idiot."

And you did.

[okaywitheverything]

Konoha X Reader ♡1

A/N: So I’ve been really inactive I know but its because I have a lot of tests coming up. Here is fun series I wrote long ago which is sort of everybody flirting with you in Konoha. Hope you like it. Here’s part one of three.

"Yeah, it would be a nice change of space. I've been cooped in one place for far too long I feel. I've always had a nick for travelling and exploring." You answered with an adorable smile on your face.

"Is that the only reason? Pardon me for questioning you but I need to be completely sure about approving your request to move here to Konoha. I can't take any duty of mine lightly."

"Nothing less would be expected of you Hokage-sama. You truly are as intellectual, perceptive and ingenious as people say."

The Third Hokage laughed lightly at this. "As flattered as I am dear, I am not cutting you any slack." He replied smugly.

"I'm an okay Jounin-level kunoichi that feels the urge to start anew. Oh come on, I'm not an assassin in disguise! I could have fooled you if I actually wanted to." You replied as serious you could, slightly staring at him to try and intimidate him.

Don't think it's working at all.

"I'm actually in a disguise right now."

That's seemed to have caught him off guard. You smirked a little. "You haven't even checked my ID yet. The photo it has right now, doesn't match my current self. Wait! Don’t peek! Let's make this interesting. You'll see my abilities as a ninja as well. What do you say?"

Tempting the Hokage was probably not a good idea, but you have never been one to shy away from risks.

"Oh I'm not doubting your ability of deception. Say what, that door leads to a bathroom. If you manage to amaze me with a different disguise that matches whatever is in your ID, I'll let you move here, no more questions asked." He said, propping on his elbows, leaning forward. This old man was surely fun, you had to give him that.

"Alright, give me five minutes."

You looked at your appearance right now. Really big dorky glasses that hid your beautiful features under its frame. A really tight braid with middle parting of your hair. You looked oh-so-nerdy right now. But only you knew that on the removal of these two things, your entire appearance did a one eighty degree. And that's what you intended to do as of right now.   

 You looked at yourself with awe in the mirror. You never bragged about your appearance or thought of yourself as superior to basically anyone. 

But you weren't one to willingly drag yourself down, you remained confident with whatever you wore, whatever you had. Sure everyone had bad days, but to make a routine out of it? That was not you. Right now, your beautiful (h/c) tresses cascaded down your body to (whatever your hair length is).

Your cherry pink lips glossed more as you reapplied the lip balm. Your (favourite colour) blouse was the one thing that remained the same. You swapped your baggy pants with a similar (favourite colour) skirt that reached your mid thigh that matched your painted nails. You had removed your glasses already and replaced it with contacts. (Or just removed if you don't need contacts)You were thankful for all the accessories you kept in your (favourite colour) purse in case you needed to party anytime.  

But you really outdid yourself by taking out matching heels from the bag and replacing your flats. 

Guess the female purse is really a mystery.

You readied yourself and stepped out.

 Go big or go home, right? 

The Hokage looked up from some documents he was checking and Kami, you could have sworn you saw blood trickling down his nose. You instantly grew worried, was he having a seizure? 

You then saw him frantically grabbing your folder and snatching out your ID. His widened eyes darted back and forth from the photo on the ID to your  confused face. 

"Are you going to say something?" You said after few minutes of silence.

"I think I need to check the bathroom to see if you swapped places with someone. As shocked as I am to admit this, I was totally not expecting that. Keeping my end of the deal, as you have truly amazed me, I can only hope this will help our undercover missions. Anyways, welcome to Konoha!" The Third replied with a grin, a narrow strip of blood still gushing down. 

You responded with another charming smile of yours. However, before you could say something, the door abruptly opened revealing a large man with really long white hair and a lady close behind who had beautiful golden locks."Hokage-sama, did you hear about Oro- Oh! Hello there. I don't believe we have met. I'm Jiraiya, a renowned writer and appreciator of beauty and grace. And you seem just the kind of elegant lady that I was looking for."

 The man started but changed his composure entirely when his eyes met yours mid sentence. You tilted your head in slight confusion and saw the lady behind him come ahead while smacking the back of his head. However, as soon as she saw you, a slight pink tinted her cheeks.

 Maybe at the embarrassment of realising someone else's presence?You wondered.

"Hello I'm Tsunade. I haven't seen you around, you seem new." With pink cheeks, she put her hand forward which you gladly accepted giving her a small smile.

"Yes, I arrived here today. I'm (Your first name) (Your last name)." You replied.

You didn't realise at what point exactly did the white haired man had moved to the corner of the room during your conversation. You saw him squatted down, vigorously writing down something and mumbling incoherent words along the lines of 'new characters initials will be (your initials)'.

What surprised you was the river of blood gushing down his nose, blood almost thrice the amount you witnessed on Hokage's face earlier.

He seriously looked like he was about to pass out.

Is the weather here really this hot and cruel?  Good thing I'm wearing a mini skirt right now.

You came out of your thoughts when you heard knuckles cracking quite loudly and saw Tsunade glaring at Jiraiya that he totally ignored as his eyes only travelled between your face and his book. 

The Hokage, about whom you had completely forgotten until now stood beside Jiraiya, leaning to read what he wrote, giggling like a lovestruck teen.

 "Is this how you are supposed to behave?!" Tsunade pulled Jiraiya up by his ear, and to be honest she even scared you. "And you sensei, supporting him like that?!" She continued and you praised her confidence and unwavering voice.

If you hadn't witnessed the scene, you would never believe she was talking to The Lord Third. 

The Third sheepishly scratched his neck, embarrassment coating his cheeks. You felt you should excuse yourself before the situation escalated to another level. "If my request is approved, I'd like to look around the Village." You said moving towards the door. "Let me assist you with that. I know all the exclusive spots in the vill- Oww   ow what?!" You heard Jiraiya exclaim from the corner.

"Have you forgotten about the important matters we came to discuss here? It's not like I'd rather stay here than show her pretty ass around but we have some duties." Tsunade said making you blush.

'Pretty ass' caught you off guard. Both the curse and the compliment. 

You grabbed your folders and put them inside your purse and headed out, not before flashing a bright cheeky smile to all the three people in the room as you heard Tsunade say, "We hope to see you around soon." 

The two guards outside almost didn't recognise you as the same girl who entered the office. They exchanged quizzical glances while all you could wonder was how could they let Jiraiya and Tsunade intrude like that. Maybe because it was an emergency. You gave them both genuine smiles and shrugged to yourself while moving to find the exit. 

This wasn't how you planned on exiting and roaming, in such a short skirt but you had no choice because of the intrusion in the office. You didn't mind though, Konoha seems to intrigue you in a good way and you found yourself excited to explore, looking like a total bomb in that sleek, sexy (favourite  colour) outfit of yours.

A/N: this was just some meaningless drabble of sorts. Hope you enjoyed.

[jahdaiheadley]

Hi! My name is Jahdai, an illustration student at the university of South Wales. This blog will be my place to record and reflect on my work throughout my module on visual skills.

This week we started off with some still life drawing. My classmates and I brought in objects and passed them around to draw each one.

We were asked to draw in continuous line, overlapping each one.

I've never drawn in this way before then so it was interesting to try it. We did 10 drawings in total, but the first few I did in regular pencil before changing to coloured pencils for the rest. All the drawings were also timed so that combined with the overlapping helped with losing some of the perfectionism I had and allowed me to concentrate on just getting the shapes down.

I like that I can see the different drawings individually despite how much they overlap. Though I've noticed how in some parts are particularly inaccurate from where I was rushing and drew the shape from memory rather than from what I could see. I will need to work on that.

The image below was my attempt at replicating a drawing that was flipped upside down.

This is supposed to produce a more accurate drawing as your brain is less able to fill in gaps, requiring you to follow on the individual shapes more carefully. This was my first time attempting this method, despite being aware of it before. We had a time limit to replicate the image but unfortunately I didn't finish it in time. What I was able to get down captured the proportions quite well in my opinion. I found it to be an effective method.

These 2 photos contain line drawings of my own hand. Top left we have a continuous line drawing done without looking at the page and only my hand. Drawing below that is the result when looking at both the paper and my hand. This was a contour drawing.

The photo on the right as another contour line drawing of my hand, in a different pose. We were able to take more time on this one.

I found it fascinating how the proportions of my first drawing were somewhat accurate despite not being able to see the lines in relation to eachother on the page. It's surprising how well I could replicate such a complex shape without looking at my process.

I also take notice of how much less I completed in the same time for the drawing below. Though the lines are smoother there seemed to have been a lot more hesitation in effort to get more accuracy. In hindsight it doesn't seem like there was a huge difference between the quality of each drawing.

Next, we did some more timed drawings, of the object we brought to class.

My object was this small instant camera. I picked it because it wasn't too complicated but still had a fair amount of details, and because it consists of a range of shapes in various sizes.

I was asked to do a series of timed drawings using the same object (or switching the object occasionally if necessary), increasing the size each time and capturing a variety of angles.

This activity helped challenge me to refine my line-work as I only had a short time to replicate the shapes. I felt as though using the same object allowed me to focus more on my lines and speed, as opposed to if I had changed the object. This is because it removed some of the hesitation that comes with being confronted with a new subject. That being said, I feel as though changing the object like I did with the first task is good for shifting the attention to that initial hesitation and would have improved that area of my skills if that's what I wanted to focus on instead.

For a few of the drawings I noticed a fair bit of distortion that I didn't notice at the time of drawing. But as a whole I think I did quite well for my first class here at USW.

Overall, I would say this was a productive day in class, did a lot of practice. I'm excited to see what else we do in the future for this module.

[vexun1]

Humans are space orcs: Demi-Humans

 So I've been reading a whole bunch of Humans are space orcs / Australians and the like. And I thought it's my turn to take a shot at it. There's one thing that people here didn't mention even once. (To my knowledge.)

 As some of you may know, Japan has currently approved human-animal hybrid experiments. So it's possible that in the far future, human-animal hybrids or Demi-Humans would become a norm. Imagine how aliens would react to this. Take a bunny human for example:

  My crew and I waited patiently for our new member to arrive. We were all excited. Some had even prepared a list of questions they wanted to ask them. Having a new member was, ofcourse, a joyous event. But this wasn't just any new crew member. It was a human.

  The other humans from the public relations office had told me that the human we were getting in particular was 'special' and 'rare', and that we were very lucky to have someone like them. I did not quite understand why at first... But I soon came to realize why.

  As we all waited inside the main deck of my ship, the door slid open. We all looked to see the human. An apex predator species from a class 6 deathworld was on our ship. The human was female and seemed to be the average height for one... But there were some distinct features that I immediately picked up on. Her skin, unlike other humans' was close to a pale white.. almost as if she was dead. The colour of her eyes was a bright pink that almost seemed luminescent, surrounded by a dark pink that then went to a normal white like all humans. I had read a human guidebook, but I did not recall humans having such detailed eyes. Especially ones that were pink in colour... Especially ones that had vertical lines for pupils. Her hair was white with a slight tint of pink. Again, I did not recall reading about this in the human guidebook. But the one detail that stood out the most from the human in front of us... were the two white antennas on top of her head. The antennas were wide and looked like they had fur on them. They seemed to be concave and hollowed out towards their base. The backside appeared to have thicker white fur, with a tint of pink, while the inside had thinner, pink coloured fur.

I set the oddities aside and approach the human. The rest of the crew follow behind me. “hmm.. is this Captain Xorlax’s ship?” The human quietly asks. Her tone of superiority sent a chill through my body I had never felt. I set that aside and stand firm. “Yes, I am Captain Xorlax of the ship Vonhuan. It is a pleasure to meet you.” I greet her and hold my hand out to her. Shaking hands was a welcoming gesture used by humans. She takes my hand and shakes gently. Her slender fingers were much longer than that of a normal human, I noticed. “My names Lirin, I’m glad to be working with you all from today onwards.”

  She made an expression described by the handbook called a ‘smile’, which was the human’s way of being polite to one another. As she shook my hand, her predator eyes locked onto mine. There was an eerie dead presence within her eyes. The pink eyes with the vertical pupils gave off no form of emotion, and the stare from her eyes made my whole body freeze.. in fear. It sent a wave of fear through my whole body. It was then that I received a horrifying reminder... we were making friends with monsters.

  I decide to not ask her about her appearance. Humans, especially the females, can be very easily offended when it comes to their appearance. I show the human to her quarters and leave her to set herself up. Some time passes, and we leave the space port. The human comes out of her quarters in clothing that exposed most of her pale white body. She mostly kept to herself, but she was trying to packbond with the crew like any normal human.

  As time passed, the crew became comfortable with her and began asking her questions about humans like they initially intended to. Though they avoided the topic of her appearance all together. No one wanted an angry apex predator on their ship. I observed that the two antennas on her head were attached to her body, and were not a form of accessory. When called, the antennas would turn to the direction of the sound before the rest of her body did.

  We arrived at a space port on a human colonial planet. The crew got off and we made our way to the main lounge of the port office. We waited for our engineer to order some parts that he needed to maintain the ship’s engines. Lirin sat down on a chair in the lounge and was minding her own business with her handheld. Since the office didn’t have chairs for none humans, we stood near her and waited. The other humans in their own seats were glancing at her, and it was obvious that they were even talking about her. She was definitely out of place even among humans.

  So I assumed. A human male approached Lirin with a large sum of human currency in his hand. “E-excuse m-me.” The man called out to Lirin. He was making an expression described in the guidebook as nervous. “C-could you P-pyon..... for... me?” Pyon? What was pyon? I did not recall an action called ‘pyon’ in the guidebook. Lirin stood up and looked at the man. She smiled and clasped his hands. “Thank you for the money.. Pyon!” Lirin finished her sentence with the same phrase the man had asked her to say. She tightened her vocal chords and made a high pitched sound.

  Whatever this was... it was of great significance. A human who was drinking a fluid sprayed out the contents in his mouth. Another human who was consuming a solid somehow got it stuck in his body, he was making shrill sounds of pain as he tried to remove it from his system. The man who had asked Lirin for the favour was leaking a red fluid from both of the two holes in the appendage on his face. I later came to know that the fluid was human blood and leaking it from their face was called a nosebleed.

  Every human in the lounge was quiet and had their eyes trained on Lirin. More males approached her with sums of currency. “H-hey.. can I... touch... your ear?” One of the other males who approached her asked. Less ask and more like a plead. Lirin’s antennas bent down and faced the man. He hesitantly touched the antenna, and then began gently rubbing it. They were clearly finding some sort of pleasure from this.

My crew and I stood aside and watched as countless men came to Lirin with currency and even valuable items, in exchange to touch her antennas or here her make the sound. When we finally left, Lirin had a bag full of items and an astonishingly large sum of human currency. She seemed pleased to say the least.

"Lirin, what just happened?" I asked her warily. I needed answers, her appearance, the way everyone acted towards her.... was so unusual. "I mean... You saw didn't You? What's there to explain?" Lirin looked perplexed, almost as if she expected me to know.

I could not hold it anymore, I had to ask, offensive or not, I needed to know. "NO I DO NOT! I understand what I saw, they seemed to enjoy your presence and 'service', but WHY!? WHY!? Why do they enjoy it? Why do you have those antennas!? Why do you look different compared to everyone else!?" I blurted out all the questions that my crew and I had. I disregarded any form of formality and respect. If I offended her, it was her problem.

Lirin began making a rapid succession of sounds. I recalled to the guidebook, it was called laughter, or in Lirin's case, giggling, it was a sound humans made when they found something funny or enjoyable. Her laughter froze and she looked into my eyes, her vertical pupils grew thinner and seemed to grow longer, as if she focused her gaze on me, sending a cold chill of fear through mine and my crew's body. While I was able to hold myself back from making any sounds, some of my crew members could not. We all felt the same fear of a predator looking into us, as if she was ready to devour us. I regretted asking her.

Or so I thought. Lirin sighed. "Well... to put simply, I'm a subclass of the Demi-Human called bunny human. Since I'm a female, I'm a bunny girl." "Demi what?" I was not following a single bit of what she said. "I'm a human, like everyone else, but I'm a different kind of human. I'm a human-animal hybrid. It's not like I'm half human, half animal, most of my body us human, except for a few details, hence 'Demi'-Human. There are different kinds of Demi-Humans, I'm a bunny girl cause I have features of a bunny." "So you're not a different race?" I asked her, still unsure. "Yeah, I'm a human, it's just that my ears are huge and on top of my head, and my eyes and skin are slightly different."

Lirin, pulled on her antennas, which apparently were her ears, and showed them to me. "You probably didn't read about it in the guidebook cause we're pretty rare, there aren't many of us around, let alone once that venture into space. That's also why it's a big deal to most people." My crew and I had calmed down, almost as if a huge weight lifted off of us. We now understood.

"Also, stop getting scared whenever I make eye contact, I'm not gonna tear you all apart and feed you all to my fourteen children or anything." "W-WHAT! WHAT DO YOU MEAN!? YOU HAVE CHILDREN!? AND FOURTEEN OF THEM!?" "Hey! Hey! Calm down, I'm just joking." We all went back to the ship and went back into space, feeling just a little closer to Lirin.

I hope reading this was worthwhile. I'm not that good at writing stories, but I hope you get what I mean. Aliens would be really surprised to hear about different kinds of Humans. Feel free to add in your own Demi-Human type and make a story out of it!