#AND MORE ART. SO MUCH MORE ANIMAL-ART. I already have the first few months of 2025 planned out for some Animals-versaries ��🙏🏳️‍🌈

[hide-your-bugs-away]

Thank you for the tag @angrytranspossum !!!! Much appreciated, and rambling will be INEVITABLE. 🙏

Favorite Movie: Dont Look Back (1967) 100%. Some day very soon, I'm going to make an entire video about how genius the cinematic structure of Dont Look Back is along with the roles of the "characters" and how imperative each and every one of them is to the narrative arc that follows Bob... But beyond its cinematic magnificence, I just really love seeing the dynamic of that tired, cynical, introverted yet good-natured rock&roll poet has with everyone in his circle, and the film letting the viewer in on this dynamic. It's such a cozy film, and a really easy one to get into if you're a classic rock fan, especially a fan of 60s music - even if you don't have all of Bob's music and history committed to memory. I knew barely anything about him watching it for the first time... and now it's my favorite movie ever. It also features this silly and fruity British guy who wanders in drunk from time to time and plays really good piano... Alan Price, I think is his name? 🤔

Favorite TV Show: I personally don't watch serialized, fictional shows, since I don't have the mental capactiy to keep up with those sorts of things, but I legitimately loved The Owl House as it came out! Which is funny, because fantasy and horror are two genres I don't engage with much, if at all... but just make everyone LGBT and then it clicks with me. I am basically The Collector with regards to Animals memorabilia 🙏

Favorite Musical Artists: ALAN PRICE ALAN PRICE ALAN PRICE *BASHES MY HEAD AGAINST A WALL* Such an incredible pianist and songwriter.. Besides him, I of course can't shut up about The Animals either 🏳️‍🌈😔 I also really like Donovan, Herman's Hermits, Georgie Fame, Lulu, The Beatles, Dusty Springfield, and a whole lot of Motown music (SUPREMES!! SMOKEY ROBINSON!!) British Invasion/60s music in general! In terms of "modern" music, I like Glass Animals a lot (been listening to their stuff since "How To Be A Human Being" came out).

Favorite Color: Lavender

Favorite Season: Autumn (no allergies 🤞)

Favorite Book: I'll admit, it's been ages since I've read any fiction or books with a traditional narrative since I usually just read biographies now... One of my "recent" favorites is Andy Blackford's "Wild Animals", which features soooo many GOOD color photographs of the Animals, along with a succinct, detailed biography!! WITHOUT TOO MUCH ANTI-ALAN BIAS YAY. "Ready, Steady, Go!: The Weekend Starts Here" is also one I’ve enjoyed so far and am excited to dive deeper into.

Do you have any Funko Pops? : Two, for the sake of my Price-Burdon collection - my friend @/tealightwhimsy got me Leafeon and Glaceon figures because I associate those Pokémon with Eric and Alan respectively. 🙏

Do you play any instruments? : I used to, in high school, when I was in marching band - specifically, the xylophone, marimba, and auxiliary percussion. I stopped because I've become shyer over the years and don't really like performing anymore... I like having my art speak for me instead. ALAN PLAYED THE VIBES AT ONE POINT, THOUGH!! So we played similar instruments at one point, which is cool!! 🥹

Do you have any pets? : I live with three dogs and four rabbits! And I'm allergic to rabbits... 😆

Do you read or write Fanfiction?: Reading fanfics, not so much anymore, mostly because my special interest in The Animals means there's not really anything out there besides the self-indulgent shit I write, haha (especially because I have my own historical fanon and interpretations of the band's dynamic,, I read my own stuff a lot, I'm afraid 🥶). I do read Pokémon fanfics from time to time because there are a lot of gays throughout the series, especially the new games, that are fun to speculate about. I also read anything and everything @/unchained-daisychain writes because she's got that galaxy brain in terms of prompts and scenarios and skills!!! Writing, though, I still do when I have the time between art projects - most recently focused on my Price-Burdon essay-turned-passion-project, but I do want to dabble in writing some more fictitious Animals scenarios and studies in the future... yes, self-indulgent Price-Burdon stuff will of course come free-of-charge, but their fractured dynamic as a band is fun to explore, especially the forces above them that were driving them apart.

What song(s) have you had on repeat repeatedly? : "Hampstead Incident" by Donovan, and "Left Over People"/"Is There Anybody Out There?" by,, cONNIE ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT ALAN PRICE AGAIN,,

wheeEee tagging:

@majito18 @hilton-my-luvx @bobbyhasstardust @unchaineddaisychain @gasstationwomen

[orcelito]

about ready to jump off the walls for this purchase

i have bought. the full trimax set.

[remxedmoon]

(You don’t know how much longer you can do this.)

hi the wip for this was absolutely not supposed to blow up. why does that have 1k notes. horrifying. anyways!!!! it’s update time baby!!!! 64 new assets this time around!

so that’s what the caption was supposed to be. this update was already pretty damn big and took a ton of time to make!!! and i was finally done!! but then my hand slipped and now we’re at 143 new assets. super sorry for the delay! That Was Not Supposed To Happen.

i’ll go more indepth below the cut, but this update encompasses all menu/profile art for both isat and sasasaap, battle portraits for sasasaap, every single pixel icon in isat (to my knowledge anyways), the dialogue skipping animations, and a few miscellaneous additions.

also i spent too much time on these to put them below the cut so Please God Look At My Icon Resprites I Spent 16 Hours On Them. enjoy!

okay first things first. why the hell is this batch 143 assets. so. i HEAVILY underestimated how many times the menu drawings are used in the games. even removing all of the custom art, it’s still ≈30-40 variations! that’s a lot! and once i finally finished everything, i got Posting Anxiety and somehow convinced myself that attempting Animation And Pixel Art (two things i haven’t done in YEARS) would be easier than writing a normal post. so here we are.

the custom art here is pretty much par for the course at this point. extra menu art for bonnie, extra expressions for the party in act 5, we’ve done this enough times that it’s expected. i am aware that bonnie’s custom menu art gets completely covered by the ui. i kept it in because it’s really funny (and also i didn’t feel like extending the sprite (but then the sasasaap version forced me to extend the sprite anyways so Whartever)).

once again, provided a spritesheet for sasasaap’s battle portraits! i do intend to cover both games, it’s just a slightly lower priority atm. unlike isat though, i’ve got Less (read “No”) experience with sasasaap, so there might be more issues with those assets?? apologies if there are, i’ll try to fix any issues that come up!

the Miscellaneous Additions i mentioned above are the sprites used on the teleport map and the loading screen, which is just a tiny version of the skipping animation. they were pretty small, so i figured i might as well get them out of the way!

not actually much to say about the 75 icons surprisingly! i haven’t done pixel art in about 5 years?? and that’s a Travesty actually these were super fun to make. i did make mockups for the overworld sprites earlier, but they aren’t Officially part of the redraws (yet) so they’re getting posted seperately

and also!! some exciting news!! this project might actually become a Proper Published Mod pretty soon!! i’ve been in contact with someone who’s willing to help me get everything set up, and i’ll be getting a Usable Computer around the end of the year!!!! it’ll still be at least a month before it’s up (i’d like to get the enemy art finished beforehand wauaua) but!!! still exciting!

okay, i think that’s everything relevant to the update!! i Definitely can’t fit all of the relevant assets here lol. but i’ll try my best ! please enjoy !!

[gloomy-prince]

SUPER OLD RAINBOW! ART THREAD!!! Open only if you are brave enough to face teen me's cringe art...

(mostly joking but fr white Mimi and skinny Boo jumpscare below)

Very first digital piece of Boo and Mimi circa 2011!! I was 14 when I drew this. Usually I'm able to look back fondly at super old art of mine but this one does make me cringe a liiiiittle bit. Mimi girl what are you wearing, why are you white. Boo also had pink eyes in the beginning, which she would continue to have for several years to come (even in the current iteration of RAINBOW! they were pink at first, I later recolored those pages) but it was only later that it was due to the color scheme of the comic and not because they were literally pink. I'm pretty sure they were meant to be contacts, because their hair is and always have been dyed rather than anime-esque natural colorful hair, so that was some crazy dedication from Boo back in the day.

More 2011 art showing off Mimi's goth/scene-ish style and green eyes. They were initially meant to have pastel and neon fashion senses, respectively. The story was already named at this point, only a few days or maybe weeks into its inception, which is impressive considering it has taken us literal years to name other stories (I'm looking at you, Phantom Pains)

this one is from super early 2012! Interesting to think that this was less than 9 months later since it feels completely different to me. The first version of the comic had started at this point, and the pink and green color scheme was just starting to develop. This lineup features some characters that would later be cut. Lucian and Lily were friends of Boo, and Cecilia was Mimi's ex girlfriend. Notably Clarice is not on this lineup, and frankly I'm not sure why.

A picture I drew to commemorate 50 fans on RAINBOW!'s smackjeeves page, mid 2012. Boo's outfit resembled a recolored version of her 2011 outfit, but I have no idea what Mimi is wearing. What. are. you. wearing.

Chibi-ish drawings of Boo and Mimi cosplaying various characters, from early 2013. Homura Mimi is very funny to me, I really don't know why I didn't draw her as Kyoko. I assume I was trying to keep them as paired characters, but I didn't do that with the Sailor Moon or Disney ones, so I who knows why I did it with PMMM. Mimi's hairstyle changes to a shaved cut somewhere around this time, but it is much more dramatic than her current undercut, and her hair is still pretty long. Boo is wearing a closet cosplay of Fluttershy that I myself wore once. These also resemble the chibi-ish drawings on the chapter intermission pages of RAINBOW! Vol 1.

A character study I did in late 2013, which would be shortly after I made a major style shift into the art style that would eventually develop into the one I currently have. At this point, Boo was meant to be fatter than Mimi, but the execution wasn't really there at all. There is also a doodle at the bottom of me and Sunny at the time (I am the one with long hair), expressing thanks for 300 fans on smackjeeves. Considering it had 50 in mid 2012, the readership was pretty slow growing back then.

outfit exploration for Mimi, circa 2014. At this point I started to expand the color scheme a little bit more so that not every character would be paper-white, though she is still very pale even though she is no longer meant to be white anymore. None of these outfits really resemble her current style, and I don't particularly like any of them either. It took me a very long time to settle on a fashion sense for her.

an Adventure Time-eqsue drawing of Mimi and Boo that I actually drew less than two weeks after the previous image despite the difference in things such as the way the hair was drawn. I had to include this one because it blew up overnight, which was a huge deal for highschool me, I remember checking my phone at school a lot because it was just getting hundreds or even thousands of notes over the span of the day. I think it has something like 16,000 notes. Still the post with the highest number of notes I have by far, so I guess I peaked in high school, whomp whomp

More fashion exploration, this time of Mimi and Boo, from early 2015. The color scheme is starting to approach what it currently is, but much more dull since I used to be afraid of bright colors. Mimi's fashion sense is starting to get closer to what it currently is, but the pastel goth influence that was popular in early-mid 2010s tumblr is apparent. In chapter 1, Boo wears an outfit that is extremely similar to the one with the bear shirt, except it's a rabbit instead. The dress that Mimi gives to Boo is also almost identical to the depiction of it here. This drawing implies that Mimi was originally going to be present in the film noir scene where Boo finds her mom, which is interesting...

Another cast lineup! This one is from late 2015-early 2016. Mimi is wearing an outfit pretty similar to what she wears in chapter 1 but with the colors altered. The execution of Boo's body type is starting to improve but she's still kind of pear-shaped. Mimi is also a little more square, and her hair finally looks like the style she has now. Clarice gets to be in the lineup this time and she is SUPER tall. I think she is still taller than Milo. And Mimi is around 5'7"-5'8", so Clarice must be around 6 foot by that logic.

The original version of chibi-ish Boo riding a bike in her Kiki outfit, from 2016. I think it was meant to be a banner of some kind, possibly for tapas or tumblr. A newer version of this drawing features as a chapter intermission drawing in the physical book.

The original cover for RAINBOW! from 2017. The color scheme is finally starting to get a little brighter! This is actually a redraw of an older drawing from 2014, I want to draw it again someday. Also, I was going by Rain at the time.

A drawing I did in late 2017 for a class in which we were meant to try digital painting and I went for a very simple approach. I like that Mimi's legs are a little noodle-y. This is also the first drawing where Mimi's eyes are no longer green, but dark pink instead. By the language of RAINBOW!'s color scheme, that means they are brown. Boo's eyes are still pink, however.

Another drawing for a class, this time from 2018. I can't remember the specifics of the assignment, but I used the opportunity to draw the playground and Max, the dog, for the first time. I like the way the trees look in this. That little snip of hair by Mimi's ear also made a reappearance here for some reason.

The original version of the drawing that would become the cover of RAINBOW! Vol 1, from mid 2019! I believe I drew it to be a banner on Tapas, but I used it for tumblr as well.

And lastly, Boo and Mimi outfit sheets from 2019-2020. I messed with them for a while, hence the timeframe. Boo's eyes are finally green, which I changed since I liked the idea of Mimi having green hair and pink eyes, and Boo having pink hair and green eyes, as if they are reflected a bit in each other. Outside of RAINBOW!'s color scheme, Boo's eyes are actually blue though. It took about a decade, but I finally settled on a fashion sense for Mimi.

BONUS ART!!! 💖💖✨✨ I thought these would be better grouped together rather than chronologically with the rest.

RAINBOW!'s banners from its era on smackjeeves! Smackjeeves didn't have square/circular icons but rather these thin long banners which could also be animated. I thought that was so fun, so I always animated them at least a little, even though one doesn't seem to work. It was customary to write girls love/boys love on the banner of mlm/wlw romance stories then, so almost all of them say that. I still see that trend on some comics on webtoon and tapas nowadays. They are from 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2017. I don't believe the 2017 one was ever used.

And RAINBOW!'s icon throughout the years! I always refused to change it, only update it, because I thought it was really cute. They are from (approximately) 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2021.

And finally, art from 2021 of Mimi with her cousin August, who will be the protagonist of our next comic, Phantom Pains. Weird to think that we'll be on that comic in foreseeable future, since it is also over 10 years old now. Bit of a passing the torch type drawing to end on. 💕 If you made it all the way here, thanks for reading! Hopefully it was fun and didn't hurt your eyes.

[balkanradfem]

So, in the light of sharing lesbian experiences, I thought I'd try sharing a story that makes me wary of dating; it ends in hubris, so be warned. It might make it more clear why I'm not trying to date the hot woman in my building! Click read more for a long sad lesbian story.

Years ago, I had a crush on a woman I met on tumblr. I started talking to her, and I told her honestly that I like her, and asked her if she was into women. She said yes! We started chatting and communicating daily, and after a bit we switched over to sending emails, so we could write long stories to each other. She was incredibly smart, talented, creative, she was a good storyteller, she knew so much about plants and animals, she had a garden, a dog, she lived in a country close to mine, so I could logically, at one point, sit on a train and meet her.

After we talked excitedly for a while, she told me she has a crush on me too. I was so happy. The unreachable scenario, your crush likes you back. I was living it, I was beside myself. I was dreaming of being in a relationship with her and how that would look like, and she was sending me flirty little messages in the emails. We kept talking, and slightly flirting with each other in our emails, and this went on for months. She would tell me about her life, experiences, past relationships, her art and books she wrote. I was into it all, I read anything she wrote or drew, I offered support whenever she was having a rough time or was bothered by something. I noticed at this point that if I send her my stuff, she doesn't really comment on it, but I felt okay about it, since I already had enough confidence, and wasn't looking to get praise.

During this time, I grew attached to her, I started to really love her. She was sweet and warm and so interesting to me. She knew a lot about stuff I didn't! Her stories and art were admirable and I remember fondly going trough it over and over. I felt a little bit like a child next to her, since she was 10 years older, and smarter, and I kept trying to prove that I too, am an adult, who knows stuff, and is smart. At one point we decided to have a video call, and I was so nervous, I had to go be outside to connect to a wifi, and I kept thinking what if it's awkward, what if we don't know what to say? I decided to tackle that issue by going trough a comic she drew and then using the call to give her tons of feedback, praise and opinions on it, it was a long comic so I was able to talk about it for an hour! She was happy to discuss it and our conversation went lightly and we had fun. I asked her at the end if she had a good time, and she said – yes, we talked about me the entire time! And I hadn't even realized that, until she said it. I think I felt a bit weird about it afterwards, because I do tend to fixate on people I like a lot, but ultimately, you know, we could talk about other things next time.

This is where things started feeling weird. We were talking for about 6 months then, and she was starting to disappear without notice. I wouldn't get my emails answered in a while, and every time I grew anxious and upset, wondering if I did something wrong, or she just got busy. At first I just blamed myself for, you know, being mentally ill, having abandonment issues, worrying too much. But I felt more anxious every time she'd disappear. I would sometimes have to go away too, for a few days, but I would always warn her, and let her know when I'd be away, and when I'd come back. She'd never say anything. So next time she disappeared on me, I asked her to please just let me know when she's leaving, because I easily get worried and miss her, and I do have some issues that make me feel abandoned. She said it was difficult for her to read this, because it makes her look inconsiderate in comparison to me, but she'll of course, say something next time.

She didn't. She kept both disappearing, and being too busy to respond to me. And even though we started talking with the idea of being in a relationship, it was never later discussed or prompted again, she only would add one flirty sentence to each email, so I'd know she's still interested. But now she was disappearing, or ignoring me, or  - just lost interest. I had to slowly realize that we were not, in fact, going to date. Because if she wanted to be in a relationship, surely by now it would be at least discussed or mentioned, and we would want to spend more time together, find out more about each other. And instead she was responding to me less, growing away from me, but still wrote in flirty lines. I was heartbroken, but also found it too difficult to keep pretending that it's going to happen, when it clearly was not, the contrast of what she was saying, and what was happening, was too much for me.

It took me a hot minute to gather my courage, and then I wrote to her that her disappearances are heavy on my mental health, and in order for me to feel normal about it, it's best if we continue as just good friends, and then I won't have to be stressed about why she's not responding to me. And she responded to that one instantly, saying no, we're going to date, in fact we can be dating now, she wants to. But this was instead, even more confusing to me, because why now? We didn't mention it for months, there was no progression towards it, she's organically responding to me less and less, obviously losing interest in talking regularly, she didn't care to warn me of her disappearances to ease my worry and anxiety over losing her, so how could she actually want to date? I sent her an email apologizing, calling myself an idiot, offering to talk her trough my mental process of making this decision, blamed it all on myself and my mental illness, but I couldn't bring myself back in the mindset of just, waiting for her messages, worrying if she was losing interest in me, worrying if I did something wrong and she didn't want to be with me anymore. It was mortifying to me.

I sent her further two emails apologizing and asking if she was okay, now worried if I hurt her with my giving up on romance, if she's maybe upset with me. I said sorry so many times and asked her to please share with me how this has affected her.

She never replied to any. She never talked to me again.

And I didn't understand, for a long time, what had happened there. Nothing made sense to me, in one second she was asking for a relationship, and then in the next moment she was done with me forever. I waited for a reply for such a long time, before I finally accepted that it's not coming, she wasn't... she wasn't interested in even being friends with me.

This was baffling, because I believed we had, in fact, created a good friendship over those 6 months! We learned about each other's lives, interests, pasts, we discussed ideas and art and feminism and capitalism, we told each other stories, we shared our struggles and days, we had our jokes and references, I had an entire library of her works and art in my head at this point and cared for her deeply. I thought we had a bond, and regardless of it being a friendship or a romance, we cared for each other. And I could see we weren't going to progress to a relationship, because she lost interest, or at least the desire to talk to me regularly, and I accepted it, so what was wrong?

Well, it would take me months more of thinking it trough and catching little hints and signs of things that were wrong. During our conversation, since I hoped that we would date, I would regularly try to prop her up and make her feel good about herself; I always wanted her to feel special and amazing, and would often shower her in praise and admiration. I wanted her to know that being with me would mean constant support and appreciation of everything good about her, and she'd get endless warmth and adoration, because this is what I thought relationships should be like, right, and I wanted her to know that's what I wanted for us. This sentiment was not returned to me in kind, but I didn't mind since I could already feel good about myself. She also didn't react if I sent her some of my work, but I would react to her stuff for ages, because I knew how good it is to get feedback on your own creation, anyone would enjoy that. I realized belatedly, that when she'd ask for support, I'd drop everything to reassure her and comfort her, and be mad at her behalf, while when I asked for support, she'd kinda side with me but still talk about herself. But all of these things were so subtle and tiny to me, I couldn't even see them over the excitement of 'my crush likes me back'.

I wondered, if she wasn't into me at all, then why didn't she just turn me down at the start, or somewhere down the line, she could tell me if she wasn't actually interested in dating me. Because if she seriously did want to date me, then she could have tried being friends with me, speak with me more consistently, show me that she was serious and that she does want to talk to me, and then try for a relationship later; it was unlikely that I would say no, I was filled with adoration for her. So she didn't want a relationship, and she didn't want a friendship, so why didn't she just say no to me?

Because she wanted the attention. She liked being adored and having someone pursue her so passionately. And the rest... didn't really matter to her. She would have only talked to me, and flirted with me, to have me believe we were going to date, and the second I didn't believe it, and I wouldn't pursue her in that way.. I was as good as dead to her. I was just a resource in there. She didn't care when I was starting to get hurt by being ignored by her, and she didn't care when I specifically said to her that I was struggling with mental health because she was trying to have me believe in something I saw wasn't true. She still tried to push me back into pursuing her after I gave up because of pain. She wanted the attention even when it was hurting me to give it.

I also tried to put myself in her shoes, and see how I would react in her place. I imagined if I had flirted with someone, and then ignored them for a while, and they then asked to be just friends. I don't think I would have even attempted to persuade them to go back to how they were before, because I would be horrified that I set this person up with false expectations, and then caused them pain by failing them. I would be relieved that they weren't mad at me for leading them on, and would feel awful for leading them on at all. But I also wouldn't even bring myself into this situation; if I had feelings for someone, and then realized they're fading away, but this person was still hopeful, or anxious, I'd have to set them straight and tell them what's up, so they could get a chance to move on. Saying 'no I actually want to date, lets go back to that' when I'm ready to drop them in an instant would be unthinkable to me.

What happened was so much worse than being rejected, or turned down. I was at this point wishing so badly that I had just been rejected. I would have moved on from that in a day or two. I had created a whole bond with a person who could not have cared less, and who dropped me the second I did something they didn't like. If I had known that's the reality of it, I would have never wanted to be friends, or anything else. And I also had no way of knowing, it was a shock when things turned out this badly.

I left that experience with some new conclusions. One was that I'll never try to date someone who makes me feel like a child. When I would feel dumb or childish next to her, she would poke fun at it and tease me about it, when I would genuinely feel not taken seriously, and I hated every minute of it, I hated having to prove that I'm an equal to someone. I also would no longer try to pursue anyone with so much love and attention. I might have been wrong to be so honest and direct with my intentions and my feelings. I set myself up for exploitation. It wasn't the first time I was exploited in that way either, this was just one of the worst ones.

After this experience, for a while I stopped liking people in general. Considering even being friends with someone, filled me with anxiety and exhaustion. I fell depressed and had thoughts about never talking to anyone again. I just didn't want to be put trough this again, and it took time for me to believe that a person can be that selfish and cruel, and hide it for so long, I didn't believe this could happen. I guess it hit me worse than it would have because I have abandonment issues, and this falls heavy on a heart of a person who's been abandoned before.

But anyway, I am feeling better now, and I'm very careful about having any kind of ideas about dating! I'm not interested in anyone who gives even the tiniest hint of mixed signals, or wanting to play with my heart, or promise anything unlikely or far down the line. If someone says they like me I won't even believe them! But, I'm keeping my honesty, and I won't set anyone up for this kind of pain. If I don't intend to be with someone, they'll know right away :).

[ravenstargames]

✦ Lost in Limbo Devlog #9 | 02.29.24

What is this?! Two devlogs in one month?! More likely than you think! This February has been very productive for me and the team, so let's dive right into it!

Ooooh boy, Raquel keeps knocking it out of the park! She managed to get done every expression for every LI, and I coded them all! Now we have our wonderful characters ready for their debut. We have been using the wonderful Image Tools for Ren'py made by the talented and hard-working Feniks, whose tutorials and resources save a lot of dev's lives every day! This tool has made everything a bit easier for newbies like me, hehe.

Here's a taste of our edgelord's expressions! 💜 They're kind of a cutie when they put some effort into it!

We also had our second valentine's day celebration art piece thanks to Kayden! Sadly with the reworked version of the demo, you won't meet Vycar yet, so we thought we could ask for his forgiveness by giving him a beautiful bouquet and reminding him how much of a sweetheart he is! 💜

Also, Raeya got a hair update!

So, we weren't completely satisfied with the way we portrayed Raeya's hair, so this has been a rework we were sure we wanted to make. At first we were just going to render it again, but we ended up working on it from scratch to better represent what we envisioned for her. We hope you like it as much as we do! ; v ;💜

As always, we are open to any critique or advice; we are white people who have the luck to be able to ask POC friends for their advice as we work, but the more the merrier! Don't hesitate to send us your opinion to our ask box or even our email, gamesravenstar@gmail.com!

When it comes to the background department, we have been making great progress thanks to Airyn, who is honestly leaving us with our mouths hanging open every time! Thanks to her, another background has been finished and another one is in the making, leaving only two backgrounds to be revised and approved!

I personally can't stop looking at this WIP! She understood perfectly what we wanted to portray just by looking at an old WIP we had, and this is what we have so far—and it's already amazing!

Allie has been OBLITERATING the script. As of today, I think we have almost gone through everything that needed to be corrected and discussing, and lord if the script doesn't look a 100% better after we put it in Allie's hands. The way she writes, the way she understands everything I want to say even when sometimes I don't even know myself—what a talented, inspiring and amazing writer they are. I know I may sound annoying at this point singing her praises endlessly, but if the script is in the state where it is now, it's thanks to her!

My programming adventure of the month has been a success, if I say so myself! I've coded the characters with aaaaall their layers, their expressions, the blinking animations, made some videos, and started coding the script. Step by step as they say; I've coded 18 pages, and there's, uh...142 more to go. Haha! *sobs*

BUT WE ARE GETTING THERE! We can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I can finally click 'new game' and read the script and see the stuff going on! YAY!

Some extras of the month—we are preparing a Casting Call to choose the voice acting talent that will hopefully give voice to our characters. The demo won't be fully voiced (it's impossible with the funds we have, which are...zero), but if we are lucky we'll use some of our personal savings to pay for at least a few lines for each character so you can get an idea of how they'll sound if we get funded! Raquel is preparing an art piece for the announcement, and I'm getting the document ready and asking fellow VA friends for advice :3.

Also, we have a new member here at Ravenstar Games! Some weeks ago Astro and I formally adopted our first kitty, 8 month old Riki, fulfilling one of our dreams. We got him from a feline association that works with volunteers and fosters cats who have been abandoned, cats they find on the street, and so on. Riki has been living with me since January, and he's a happy, long big boy who loves playing, cuddles, and sitting on my desk while I try to work!

Say hi to the Ravenstar family, Riki! 💜

A productive month full of accomplished milestones, excitement and new challenges! The team has worked so hard, and I've done my part too! We still don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but we have done a lot of stuff we were sure we wouldn't finish yet, and look at that! We are doing so well!

As you can probably tell, my batteries are starting to run low, so I'm going to leave this devlog here. Thank you all like always for cheering us on, for being here in this journey with us, and for all the love you send our way. Let's hope March is as amazing as February has been, for us and for all of you! 💜

[yumeka-sxf]

My thoughts on Spy x Family: EYES ONLY Guidebook (English ver) - part 3

Continuing from my previous two posts, this will be my last post discussing the English version of the SxF manga guidebook "EYES ONLY." I'll discuss some of Endo's and Lin's comments on specific chapters, some of the included concept art for the series, all the Twiyor tidbits the book has to offer, and conclude with a couple things the English version of the book omits.

Endo's and Lin's comments on specific chapters

There's at least one comment from Endo and/or Lin on every chapter of the manga from when the book was originally published (up to chapter 61). Unfortunately I can't cover every single comment, but I did want to highlight a few (more will be covered in the Twiyor tidbits later on).

So Bond wouldn't have actually died from Yor's cooking then? Good to know her cooking isn't that bad, lol. Also that's a good question, Lin, maybe you should ask Endo? 😅

Lots of great info about the cruise arc. Makes sense that they had to plan it out many months in advance and keep revising it to patch up plot holes. All that work definitely paid off! Interesting that they almost considered not having Loid on the ship at all. Glad they didn't because otherwise we wouldn't have gotten one of his best outfits! 🤣 (can't wait to see this piece of work in color in the anime!)

Incidentally, the scene Endo mentions where he "managed to make Yor look pretty cute" is this one (she does look pretty cute here).

My favorite comment of Endo's about any chapter has to be this one for chapter 56. Never change, Endo 😂

And lastly, some good comments about chapter 59 (Becky visits the Forgers).

This is one of my favorite stand-alone chapters so I'm glad it was well received. Funny how they kept going with the joke instead of ending it "normally"...but when you have such great characters and setups, good comedy writes itself!

Below is Endo's commentary about Henderson, not a specific chapter, but thought I'd point it out since he mentions Henderson is the only character he's done a shower scene for...not anymore!

Also, while not related to a specific chapter, I do like what Endo says below about Loid and Yor's "dark sides."

He enjoys drawing them this way, which is cool, but he's also cautious about not overdoing it and saving those expressions for important situations.

Concept art

Most of the pre-serialization character designs included in this book were also in the exhibition pamphlet, which I already discussed thoroughly here (wish I had remembered these were in the fanbook so I wouldn't have put so much effort into trying to read Endo's scribble notes). So I'll just mention a few of the most notable things.

As I discussed in my post about the pamphlet, Franky was at some point intended to be the uncle of the family. Though I do think it would have been fitting to make him the uncle, I also like the main focus being on just the "nuclear" family, with the uncle and other characters having supportive roles.

An interesting note about the beta version of Yor is that she seemed to be more like Fiona - she was in love with Loid right from the start, to the point of trying to eliminate Anya! I doubt this is something she would be doing all the time as it would have been difficult to make her a likable main character if she was always trying to kill her daughter...in all likelihood, she would have tried to kill Anya at first before eventually learning to love her as a daughter. While I see how this could work for an intriguing character arc, I'm glad Endo decided to make Yor a loving mother to Anya right away, and not make her feelings for Loid an obsessive "love at first sight" kind of thing.

Twiyor tidbits

Being the shipper that I am, I tried to see if I could pinpoint any Twiyor subtleties throughout the book, as vague as they may be! 😂

Below are excerpts from Loid and Yor's character pages where we're given info on their current stance about each other.

Love the emphasis on their bond of trust ❤️

Below are excerpts from chapters 14 and 35, probably the most Twiyor-heavy chapter pages in the book.

This confirms that Loid did indeed interpret Yor's kick as her not having any romantic feelings for him.

Below are comments by Endo and Lin for chapter 30, where Fiona is introduced.

Endo's line is a little ambiguous here, but I think he's saying how people sympathize with Fiona because she's "doomed to lose," which is...telling 😅 (does Fiona's loss automatically mean a Twiyor win?)

Endo says he likes the "You're strong, Yor" conversation, one of the most Twiyor-ish scenes in the series so far! 😊 Lin also mentioned how they got to use that theme again during the Becky chapter.

Weird that he chose to highlight this line of all things as Loid's "Family Comment" for chapter 10. Could this and chapter 79 be more foreshadowing for an eventual "Twilight vs Thorn Princess" showdown? 👀 Or maybe he just likes teasing fans because he knows it's something they fantasize about.

English version omissions

There's an additional Endo interview that's missing from the English version of the book: an interview with him and Kazumi Takayama, a former idol of the group Nogizaka46.

At first it seemed very odd that they would leave out just this interview, but after discussing it with others on Discord, I realized it's because it has to do with an idol. Apparently getting licensing rights for anything that has to do with a Japanese idol group is very difficult, which is further hindered by the fact that Takayama isn't even part of that idol group anymore, which makes getting the content green lit for official release overseas even more taxing. So probably Viz decided it wasn't worth the trouble and just left out that interview. But thankfully u/Nemshi on Reddit posted a fan translation of it, which you can read here. They talk a bit about SxF, but most of it is just general questions they ask each other.

And the other thing missing from the English version that I really can't understand is the inside cover! Another great 4th-wall breaking joke from Endo (I added a quick translation of the Japanese version below).

Unlike the Takayama interview, I have no idea why they didn't include this. They include the inside cover as an extra page in all the English volumes, so why not here? Very weird.

---

And that's all I'm going to share for the "EYES ONLY" fanbook! Honestly, there's so much great content in the book that I didn't touch on, like info about East/West relations, about Eden Academy, Endo's comments on all the designer chairs for the volume covers...and lots more. So definitely get a copy yourself if you can! It's a must-have for any SxF fan 😁 Books like this aren't officially released in English very often, so the fact that Viz thought it was worthwhile to make this proves how much of a hit SxF is!

<- Return to Part 2

[sparklykat-hideoutenthusiast]

Posted this too early. Ignore this as I edit it and perfect it! ^^

Construction is under way! >:D

INTRO POST!!! WOOOO!!!

Art requests open until further notice.

@eckos-reblogs is my reblog blog! Check that out!

Last updated: [2025, day, hour.]

(↑ will not update when I update my moots list or post limit status)

(I update this often, a reread of it every now and then would be greatly appreciated!)

↑ Maybe every month depending on your time scale?

This is the new one cuz the old one was way too long and I wanted to edit the og post but couldn't cuz of the reblog so new one it is! :3

My name is Ecko and it's my preferred name but you can refer to me as Melleona (my OC) or by a nickname as well if you'd like! (just please ask me first if you want to use a nickname as I'm bad with setting boundaries.)

My pronouns are She/Her but feel free to refer to me as it/it's! :3

• Furries, Therians, anyone of lgbtq+ community (including ace people cuz apparently there's a debate about that), weirdos (not the gross kind. We're fun weirdos here :3), and more are welcome on my blog! •

(you're automatically welcome if you're kind anyway lol but whatevs :3)

Boundaries: No racism, homophobic behavior, 18+ topics, reposting, ect..

Just in case you don't know what the difference between reposting rather than reblogging: it's when you (typically) take a screenshot of the art, post, or whatever, and then repost it on either Tumblr or a different app rather than hitting the reblog button! This can be done with no malicious intent but often it's done to get the credit for the post and fulfillment/clout for themselves. It's very rude :(

While this has never happened to me personally, I do feel like it's worth mentioning ^^ ❤️

Post limit status: Free/trapped

Way more info under the cut:

Hello! I've been an artist for around 5 to 6 years, and I still kinda suck at it at times! I do traditional art and digital art.

I mostly draw animals, anthropomorphic creatures, creatures in general, whatever beautifully ugly creature faces I can come up with, OCs, and sometimes human faces!

•I classify as a furry but do not reblog a ton of furry stuff nor do I have a fursuit. I just like drawing and seeing anthropomorphic animals•

Old intro post

Tags and stuff! To help you find stuff in my blog better through search :)

#Echo Rambles -For posts of mine that include mainly me talking about random stuff

#Echo rants - for when I rant. Similar to #Echo rambles but more insistent/rowdy

#Echo answers - For when I answer asks!! :D

#The Clowder seeks - For when you guys ask me stuff!

#Eckos moots <3 - for interactions with moots,(I love y'all sm<3)

#Echo asks - For when I ask questions :3

Mama Change - For when I mention my mom. (Her name is "Change"..or it's more of a nickname but no one calls her by her actual name except for professional/job people like a dentist or something)

#Ecko irl - me irl

!List of discovered side blogs in @the-search-continues 's intro post!

-There are 15 openly known side blogs-

If you are interested, in asking for an art request:

It's not guaranteed to be good or to be done quickly but I will try my very best every time. You can even request multiple times if you'd like! Like a ton of times! I really don't mind! You can also request art of fandoms I'm not in but make sure to give me a good reference or the drawing will look off :3

My main Media for traditional art is, pens, pencil, gel pens, paint markers (posca) and normal markers! I hope to soon branch out to ink! (Maybe one day you'll get to see some watercolor stuff from me. It's not that good of watercolor art and I don't enjoy painting too much tbh)

✨ My OCs reference sheet along with a bit of lore ✨

------------------------------------------------------------

I'm a minor! Mind your words, don't send me gross/weird asks or messages. (I've already had a few people message me asking for my age, a picture of me, and my sexuality. No, I will not be sharing my real appearance on here. my age? Minor, that's all you need to know. My sexuality? I don't know and you don't need to know either, respectfully ^^❤️)

IDC if I post something slightly suggestive or that says I know about 18+ themes. I posted it, not someone saying something to me of those themes. Sure, I understand the stuff but It really doesn't matter now does it? It just means I understand enough to know you shouldn't be saying that stuff to me. (Boundaries ✨)

------------------------------------------------------------

Moots can message me asking for some of those things.

I feel comfortable sharing my age with moots and maybe my irl appearance if you'd like to know! ^^

------------------------------------------------------------

[aquaquadrant]

Hey! I'm an aspiring author/artist who is working on a few original stories and I'm thinking about posting them on Tumblr. I'm curious what your experiences were when posting the Hels to Pay story on this platform. It is very creator friendly? Did you find it easy to build a community? I know your people are all mcyt (Life series/Hermitcraft) people, so it's probably a different situation than I'm in since I'm working on an original story. One of them is written like a novel and the other one is a comic, and I'm not sure if one would work better on Tumblr. I'm fairly new here, only been using Tumblr for a few months

Also, off topic, but I love all your work and I can't wait to see more :D

aw hey there! hmm that’s an interesting question… i’ve done a lot of different fics in different fandoms over the years, but HTP was the first time i posted a fic series solely on tumblr (only uploading to A03 after it was already finished and i haven’t even gotten them all up yet HAH) so it was def a different experience. and i’ve also posted a webcomic here w lunarcrown so i feel like i can speak on that too.

i’m very fortunate to have gotten a great response to the series, even starting from the first chapter. there are many regular readers who always enthusiastically reblog each chapter or share their thoughts via ask. analyses, theories, even fan art… it really makes writing a pleasure when i see how excited ppl are for each update.

but i’m gonna be honest, building a community around a creative work is much easier when there’s art involved. i’ve seen it in my own works and in other popular works in various fandoms. it’s just the way people work, art is more eye-catching and easier to hook you in, let you know right away if it’s something you’re interested in, or pique curiosity. so with mel making amazing art about the au (her and i inspiring each other w art and writing in an endless cycle), i felt like it was fairly easy to build a following. every time she draws a scene from the fic, it has the chance to reach someone new and get them interested in the au, where it came from.

mind you, this isn’t the first time i’ve collabed with mel, and we’ve both been posting our works on tumblr for a while, even if not in the mcyt fandom. so it was prob better received than if we were brand new. our fancomic did fairly well too for that reason, we were both kinda established in the fandom with our own works before we started publishing a comic. while it featured a main character, it also heavily featured an oc and was very different to canon so it honestly felt more like an original story. it was just familiar enough to bring ppl in, get them to buy into the original concept we brought to it. that’s why a lot of my stories are aus i think, they let me work with a familiar setting or familiar characters but then put my own spin on them.

i’ll also say, while i’ve yet to publish a completely original work, i’ve also done fics that heavily featured ocs before (and even an oc x canon ship) and it’s definitely harder to get ppl to invest. it’ll take more time and probably just more consistency, posting frequently enough to stick in ppl’s minds, so try not to get discouraged! i’ve seen other creators do things like post a really gripping art piece with no context, or do a lil animation trend for their oc, or even make a bunch of memes that’d fit their character or story to help grab people’s interest.

of course, everyone and every story is different so you may find smth else that works for you! and i’ll say that based on experience, it’s easier to get a following for original content if you’ve already built a base from fandom-related works. like, for example, the fic i wrote with an oc ship had wayyy fewer views/comments than the other fics i wrote for that fandom, BUT i’d often get ppl saying “i came from your other work and decided to give this a shot and it was great!” so ppl are more willing to test out original content when they’re already assured that they enjoy your work.

none of this is a hard and fast rule, ofc. i’ve seen fics gain massive fandom popularity without a dedicated artist behind them, though it often helps when a popular fandom artist reads and gets inspired to make fanart, then it really takes off. i also know there are plenty of original stories that have independently achieved great success (as in, not published by a studio. just webtoon or youtube or similar methods) so anything’s possible! like i said, this is just general advice based on my own experiences.

ANYWAY. i think i got a bit off topic but hopefully that helped give u some insight! best of luck with everything 💪

[ckret2]

When you watch an animatoc to a fast paced song do you prefer longer shots or just pure high scene changing chaos?

Secret third answer: I prefer for it not to loop.

A lot of fast-paced animatics like that will have a 30 second clip, and spend 10 seconds flashing through like six beautifully drawn animated shots, super fast, very impressive... aaand then it flashes through the same six shots again... and then it flashes through them a third time......

Like, I saw them the first time. If you only produced ten total seconds of animation, then I only need to see ten total seconds of video.

This particularly stands out on longer animatics (or other forms of fanvids—AMVs are guilty of this too) when, say, there's a chorus that repeats, and the video just loops the same animations/scenes/images every time the chorus comes up. The tension is supposed to build as the song goes on! It's supposed to get more moving, more exciting, more emotional, more funny—whatever the mood is. When I see 20 seconds of animation I just already saw 50 seconds ago, it kills the tension and the emotional build. And also I might stop paying attention, because man, ADHD really do be like that.

I get the feeling sometimes people have their animations loop like that because they want to use like 1 minute of song, and they want to do really fast-paced quick cuts, but they only have the time and stamina to put together 15 seconds of animation at that pace. The frenetic pace isn't sustainable for them. And if that's the case, I'd prefer it if they'd:

Admit they only made 15 seconds of animation and make it a 15 second video

make longer slower shots so they aren't giving themselves as much work and can stretch the idea for a full minute.

In an ideal world an animator could just produce 1 full minute of fresh animation, but in an ideal world I'd be able to write one million words in a month, all of wish we could make more art than we have time to make, so I'm not begrudging an animator for not being able to produce Even More Art than they already did. If u got 15 seconds u got 15 seconds. Just don't loop it, that's all.

Same goes for animations that use a full song. If you're doing a song with a chorus that repeats a few times, either do something at least a little different with the chorus each time, or edit the song to take out the choruses you'd otherwise just repeat.

(Caveat that this "please don't loop" plea doesn't apply if repeating over & over is part of the artistic vision. Like, if you're doing a video about being stuck in a time loop, or a toxic relationship repeating the same cycle over & over, or what have you, then I'll be like "damn... deep cinematic choice there." But if you're looping it just to avoid work, then just... cut that part of the song. It's fine.)

Anyway that matters a lot more to me than the length of the actual cuts—but I suspect the length of the cuts sometimes factors into a creator's choice to just loop what they've got.

[pokituu]

I’m so impressed with how many styles you have and that you use them regularly (realistic, semi realistic, 2d, and 2d, 3d & pixel animation)! How did you learn to balance this many and get so good in all of them?

THANK YOUUUU this compliment means so much to me because so often i feel so worried I will stagnate since I basically like to draw the same subject matter over and over again 😳 but I do like to periodically try new things that I'll become invested in for chunks of time.

i guess advice more than just 'practice' is to be willing to try out new things that you have an interest in, even if it doesn't work out at first and is frustrating. you gotta be persistent to learn something new BUT if you get bored then just move on! if it sucks hit da bricks.... I really like this bjork quote abt creativity

idk throughout my life in art i just try to learn about stuff i'm interested in and practice what i wanna practice. like i wanted to get good at pixeling when i was like 14 so i kept practicing and trying new ways to go about it until i started to figure it out. same with digital painting when i was 15 and i just kept trying again and again until it clicked, even though i was frustrated a lot, i never actually lost the interest when i saw people's pretty paintings and that feeling of 'man i wish i could do that!'.... so i literally couldn't stop myself from trying over and over at painting. it goes beyond just drawing too. planet earth is fun because ANYTHING u are interested in you can try........ i make fursuit heads and other crafts to see if i can! this year i started making my own songs and also learned leather-working because i saw a cool craft and wanted to try :3

part of it is letting yourself age too because as you get older you will grow interested in new things. i am 27!! i've been drawing since i could hold a pencil. that's a long time to encounter a lot of stuff to get obsessed about and wanna try out for myself. SUCCESS TIP!: i typically pursue things that are adjacent to other skills i already have invested in, like drawing to 3d sculpture to digital modeling, or start blending them like sculpture + coding skills = 3d animation rigging. The reason is because a lot of these skills are transferable and make it easier to pick up. like a skill tree in a video game... and you'll end up in weird places like sculpture to sewing to leathercraft. It's nice to have creative hobbies you can be sorta be mediocre at without attaching your self worth to it, but other people still often find it impressive anyways because it's stuff they've never tried to do. It's really healing and easier to like what you create And yourself by extension when you're just having fun and learning without having to worry about the end product being "good". Anything you try is not a waste because you are learning new skills and more often than not, something you've learned is transferable to some other area of your life!!!!!!!!! nothing is ever a waste of time.

this is also the secret cure to art block btw well actually there are two secret cures. a) is you have to embrace the art block and go get obsessed with some other creative thing for a bit. either that or b) go absorb other people's creativity to a bit and watch some shows and read books or talk to people. c) is a mix of both. eventually you'll return to art again feeling fresh and motivated if you're willing to give it a few months. I think art block really just means you're bored and need a change of scenery one way or another 🤔 that's just my onion though

TL;DR have fun pursuing things just because you like them. as you keep doing it you'll just get better at it through practice whether you really intend to or not.

[partyhorn]

Very long personal 4am rambling. Honestly, I'm trying to really think about what direction I want to take MFM in. I will say that I'm still always going to make it as a comic first and foremost, I'm very excited for the story and don't plan on putting it on hiatus or discontinuing it (my love for comics as a medium is too strong to NOT see it through to the end!) I hate to talk about personally on this account, but in all honesty, I'm trying to figure out what's best for my own health. Drawing all these pages physically exhausts me, especially with how much more complex the art is becoming. My passion for the story is endless, but it's almost at a detriment. Came to the realization that it's one of the only things I feel genuine joy for anymore (...but that's already kind of shown itself in the themes of "passion can drive you to crazy lengths" in the comic.) I'm pretty much in the same regard when it comes to making this whole story. I completed all of chapter 45 in just 2 weeks, a whole 27 pages of highly-rendered panels in a very short amount of time for that kind of work. And I love it! But it's exhausting.

But really, I'm not sure what else I could do. My current financial situation isn't great, and I'm just trying to focus on what I can do to finally get financially stable (and then I'll focus on my health and crazed work ethic later). In relation to art, my main idea is to try to jump back in the indie animation scene to help draw more attention to the comic, which I'm getting a start in with the coffee short film. That's a ton of work as well, even more so than comic work in some aspects, but animation IS more popular and is sure to draw in at least some new folks. I'm just gonna have to see where this little short film leads me when it's finished a good few months from now (luckily 3D animation is miles easier than 2D for me.)

I feel like I've expressed my frustrations before at how unpopular comics are as a medium in general. It's a ton of work and deserves much more recognition for sure. I've enjoyed drawing comics tenfold as much as animating, and that's what I'd majored in during college! But comics are just not a popular medium. I don't even really want to jump into huge animated projects again with my current exhaustion (and a couple projects already still sitting on the back burner... sorry Parvey) but I feel as though I have no choice if I truly do want MFM to reach a bigger audience. Which in all honesty, I'd love more than anything in the world to happen.

I've put years of work and driven myself to physical exhaustion working on these comic pages. It's me alone who's drawn all 1100+ pages of this story (with a handful of commissioned chapter covers every now and then), and I'm tired of lying to myself- it IS a ton of effort. I'm considering really shifting gears to focus on more animated content relating to MFM- first the short film, then maybe jumping right into the huge animated adaptation, and then whatever comes after that. 2D or 3D, I don't really know at this point. Both are a lot of effort, and it's hard to judge when I'm so tired. But it might be a better investment of my effort in the end if it gets me anywhere in life. If it's any indication given how I've drawn these thousand pages myself, I could probably one-man-band this as well. But, that's also just the passion speaking.

I'm not really sure where I was going with this at this point. My brain is kind of fried. I don't plan on quitting the comic, I'm going to draw it to completion no matter how long that takes. But I'm also becoming very aware of how it's affecting me to be working myself to death for seemingly nothing, driven by an extremely intense passion. I don't even know if I'd be able to slow my pace down on making these pages if I tried- it's like an unscratchable itch to keep the story going, even during times where I force myself to focus on other more important tasks. I feel as though it really reflects in recent themes in the comic itself: grind culture sucks, and once you slip into that mindset it's hard to climb out. Even if it's something you do entirely to yourself, even if it's something out of love, it can still severely affect you. That's as best as I can describe it.

But that's not all to say that I'm ungrateful for the amount of support for the story I've gotten- in fact, it's one of the things that really keeps me going. It's great to get asks, genuine or goofy, and I appreciate everyone who's ever told me how the story has impacted them and such. It makes all of the time and effort I've put into this whole comic feel worth it. Frankly, I'd love for this whole story to get fandomized to hell and back. I don't know if it'll ever get there, but it'd be cool. Thank you all for the continued support, for real.

I think I just want to focus on ways for this story to reach an even bigger audience, even just for the sake of putting this endless passion into something that'll do me good as a physical person. If I suddenly shift gears and decide to jump headfirst into making a full animated adaptation, then that'll probably be why. But I also might wake up tomorrow and completely change my mind. Either way, chapter 46 is probably going to be done in a few week's time, just because I know that's how my brain works.

[whoishotteranimepolls]

Updates and Announcements please read carefully

There haven't been as many polls as normal because I basically have started uni this week was orientation. I officially start classes next week so I'm not going to have as much time to make polls.

When it comes to me making a new series where I post any future stupid essays I get asking me to ban characters. I will be doing that but there will be some rules when it comes to what I actually share publicly. It will only be an anonymous ask because I don't want people to actually bully them on their blog. I'm not going to share anything that's actually harassing because people were concerned about spreading their hateful message, I know the difference between malice and stupidity. I mainly want to focus on and share the essays that I can tell were written by someone with zero media literacy an over inflated ego and some sort of savior complex or sense of moral superiority those are the people that need those flimsy arguments to face scrutiny of Tumblr. And trust me the anonymous ask may be turned off right now So I can have a little bit of peace because I was dealing with getting ready for uni but since we all made fun of them they're waiting for the second. They turn back on to defend themselves. So I know I will receive some more stupid essays very soon. Stay tuned because I've had a couple of suggestions for a title for this series so I'm going to let everyone vote on it so keep an eye out for that poll.

The Pride Month Event. I will be opening up the request box only for The pride month 6-way poll characters probably the last week in May maybe sooner. This is where you can actually suggest full rosters of six-way polls, but they need to have the theme of lgbtq+ characters. This is because I am not familiar with enough anime to know of enough Canon lgbtq+ characters to fill out the entire month. This is a special event. Don't get used to being able to do this. The only special request would be. Please tell me what part of the lgbtq+ community they are a part of so I know what poll to put them in so I can't accidentally mess it up and put them in the wrong poll. That is also why I highly recommend full Six-Person rosters for whatever lgbtq+ category you want to recommend.

Now I will add to this. I will be doing both Canon or coded characters? Because I know for the longest they wouldn't explicitly say they were LGBTQ+. There will also be a fannon categories to this. I will put a preference to Canon and coded characters by making those polls first. If I don't have enough of those polls to fill out 30 days worth of polls. That's when I will start doing the fannon recommendations. Ships are allowed because I've done Duo and trio polls but be aware those are sometimes very hard to find photos. Especially because I still will not accept fan art, but I've also learned how to use Photoshop recently so I can Photoshop two official photos together if I have to because I've already done it for a few of the duo polls already if you haven't already been able to tell.

If there are any questions, especially regarding the pride month event the ask box is open.

[echantedtoon]

Oblivious Crushes Ch2 Urogi And Karaku

(Hey everyone. I just wanted to thank everyone who read this far and liked my story enough to read it to it's end. I had a lot of fun writing it and it makes me happy knowing some people loved it enough to read it fully. If you liked this consider checking out my other works. Thanks to everyone for reading this, faving it, or leaving a nice comment. And thank you to Koyoharu Gotouge for creating such wonderful characters and giving me the opportunity to make this wonderful story.

Warnings for alcohol consumption mentioned, Karaku IS his own warning, possibly some innuendos, and some cussing.

Just for context. If you didn't already know this is a modern au fic and obviously I'm NOT doing a Zohakutan x Mitsuri. This is just a funny what if idea based on the art by @hawnkoi / @hawnkoii on Tumblr. Kinda based within Kimetsu Gauken and will probably be ooc with the four main clones and short but screw it! Let's go!

ALSO!! I'm going off the headcannon that Karaku is already very flexible. Have you seen him doing those backflips and cartwheels in the anime? Plus it's kinda cannon Mitsuri knows ballet with all the twirls she does. I had to research a LOT of ballet stuff for this )

@hantengus-fuckass-clones

@hantenguclonesimp-minuszoha

If you had told him a few months ago that he'd fall for the most beautiful, chatty girl on campus.. Honestly he probably would've believed you.

It wasn't really a big secret that he's been around on plenty of dates. Not quite as much as his identical green eyes brother but enough to be known for his own fun loving personality. He liked to say that no one who hung out with him date or otherwise was bored. Quite a few parties he's thrown. Lost count of how many drinking contests he's won in the past two university years, only loosing to Karaku whom he could respected. But it was on only one of these days that he actually caught sight of her. 

He thought that whole infatuation at first sight thing was just in movies. Y'know. Hollywood stuff so people would watch more chick flicks. However it was like time slowed in that particular moment he was leaving the hallway with Karaku and about to enter the campus library, they were supposed to meet two of their brothers after their tutoring session and then the lot of them would leave to visit their gramps and little brother over the weekend. However when Urogi went to grab the doorknob, it flew open and something solid ran  into him. Something hard enough to send him stumbling back and falling onto his back hard with something landing on top of him in a heap. 

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! Are you ok?!", a voice squealed out above him.

Blinking his vision slowly focused and he found himself frozen. Time seemed to slow down and he looked up in awe at the beautiful face in front of him. The light hit her face just right from the window as cheesy as it sounds, and lit up her worried eyes staring down at him with that worried frown making her bottom lip pout and her cheeks puff out slightly but enough to make her look all the more cuter. One of the two giant braids hanging from her head knocked into his cheek...All he could answer out in that moment was a wide eyed wheeze. 

"HAHAHA! I think you knocked the wind outta him, Mitsuri." And all at once his vision was taken away from him. Two hands grabbing her by the waist and hauling her up off him and to her feet as his brother laughed. Karaku smiled widely at the woman who looked worried at the smiling man. "Wasn't expecting to see you here. Late night studying?"

She shook her pretty head making her braids sway and the green eyed man smile more. "No. I was actually tutoring your brothers!"

His eyes widened slightly in realization. "Ah! So that's how you've been makin' that extra dough. I didn't know you were teachin' Sekido. How many pencils did he break this time?"

"None! He's getting a lot better!," she smiled up at him and giggled making a rare pink come to his face.

"Yeah...So I've meaning to ask you." A hand rubbed almost nervously on the back of his neck. "Since I gotta miss our weekend sessions, do you wanna make up for it next week wh-when you're free?"

She happily nodded again. "I'd be happy to! But I really gotta go now." She cutely hopped from foot to foot. "I promised my friend I'd meet her when I was all done and I forgot the time and Sekido got stuck on that algebra problem- AH!" Karaku chuckled as she cutely grabbed her cheeks with a squeak. "And I'm making myself more late! I gotta go! See you next week! I'm so sorry again!!"

Within a few seconds she waved at Karaku, bowed apologetically, and then raced off down the hallway off to who knows where leaving the two standing there.

"Hey, Banana Eyes." Karaku leaned over his brother still splayed across the floor. "You gonna get up or do you need a forklift?"

Urogi did sit up. Slowly. Wide eyed and in awe glancing at where she disappeared. "..Who was that?"

"Mitsi? She's from my dance class. Y'know? The one I take on weekends. Here." Urogi was hoisted up to his feet by Karaku a moment later. "It helps keep me in shape. You guys keep saying it's really weird remember?"

"Huh? Oh. R-Right."

Karaku rose a brow at his brother's distracted gaze. "Uh. Are you sure you're ok? She did knock you on your ass pretty hard back there."

"Huh? Oh. Y-Yeah. I'm good. Let's just go catch up with the guys."

He wasn't planning on dwelling on the thought any longer. The weekend trip helped somewhat. Getting to see their gramps and grouchy little brother helped take his mind off her for three days max. Tuesday turned out to be the bane of his existence as the moment after class Karaku rejected his offer to join him for a night at the local bar and grill (honestly the placed cooked some really delicious chicken so you didn't just have to go to get hammered for the night) but was surprised when he turned him down.

"Can't. Mitsi's helping me catch up on what I missed last class."

"Class?"

At this his brother gave him a deadpanned look. "Uh. Yeah? I've been taking dance classes since forever remember?" As if to make a point he held up a small backpack slung over his shoulder. "I go every Saturday, Dude! How could you forget?"

"Oh yeah. Right, right. Um. So you're practicing with that Mitsy-"

"Mitsuri girl! How about you let me tag along?"

Color Karaku surprise as his brows rose at Urogi's nervous smile. "You? You want to come? Uh. Y'know it's not gonna be a real class right?" His green eyes narrowed suspiciously eyeing the nervous smile on his brother's face. "It's just a catch up for me. Also why would YOU of all people wanna come, Mr. Dancin'-Is-For-Girls?"

Good question. It was because it would look WAY too obvious to everyone if he just randomly decided to join the tutoring stuff she did. Plus he really didn't want to bother Aizetsu or Sekido about letting him join. Aizetsu would just flat out say 'no' and Sekido would just tell him to quite bothering him in typical yelling fashion. So really the only way to see her without getting too obvious was to tag along with his bro under the guise of being bored. It could work since he's always tagging along with him anyways. But he was sure judging by Karaku's suspicious face that he wasn't buying it this time.

"Aw. C'mon, Bro. I've been stuck up with homework all day." He slung an arm over his brother's shoulders as casually as he could  smiling. "I'm bored! And there's nothing to do around here. It'll be funny seeing you prancing around in a tutu-"

"It's a leotard, Asshole!" His arm was shrugged off as Karaku frowned. "And for your information it's NOT easy to 'prance around'! It actually takes years of practice and it's great exercise. Now if you're done shitting on my hobby, I'm gonna be late!" 

Urogi frowned as his brother just pushed past him and began walking away from him. This wasn't going as planned! So in a panic he ran to catch up with him. "H-Hey! I was just joking! I didn't mean to rile you up! C'mon! I can keep my mouth shut! Just lemme come-"

"Fine!", Karaku barked snapping a look over his shoulder, "But you're gonna stay in the audience and away from us! The last thing I need is you making fun while I'm trying to catch up with something actually important to me!"

"Got it! You won't even know I'm there!"

"Doubt it."

Urogi kept his mouth shut(for now) and just silently followed his brother out of their dorm and across campus. Karaku made one stop which was to randomly stop and rip out a handful of pretty hydrangeas and roses from nearby bushes (Which was probably against University rules) before he continued on and both found themselves at the Uni's theater. Ah. Right. Theater kids and geeks met up here. Honestly probably the perfect place to practice frilly dances besides the gym. He was caught off guard slightly when Karaku made him stop and firmly pointed at the audience seats. Ah. Right. He said he'd be quiet and sit out there. It annoyed him but his other choice was just looking like an ass in front of the cute chick he wanted to meet so he chose the less incriminating route and trudged himself into the rows of seats. It was exactly what you expected. Rows upon rows of seats, big curtains, a giant wooden stage in the center, a really beautiful girl in a pink leotard doing twirls on the stage-

Urogi tripped doing a double take falling between two rows of seats with a loud thud-

...His head popped back up quickly and yellow eyed widened in realization. IT WAS HER!! She was oblivious to him in the audience doing a rapid motion of tiny steps forward before stopping in place and twirling more on one foot with her hands above her head. Ironically her hair wasn't in long braids this time but a giant braid-bun combo on her head but that didn't matter she still looked beautiful. However despite doing ballet (at least he was pretty sure it was ballet) she didn't wear a tutu. Instead it was a full body pink leotard with white leggings. It enhanced her already pretty figure. She did a few more twirls until she stopped and instantly smiled as his brother walked onto the stage wearing a similar green get up. He was too far away to hear what exactly they said but she sure looked happy when Karaku handed her the (stolen) flowers and said something that made her giggle much to his delight. Oh gods- SHE LOOKED SO CUTE WHEN SHE LAUGHED!! SHE WAS LIKE A REAL ANGEL!! He remained mostly silent in hiding watching them (her-) as they interacted for the next hour until he got an idea into his head that he would soon regret later-

"You want to what?"

"I wanna try out your twirly dance class." His brother stared silently. "I saw her- I mean you both doing that dance thingy and it looks like fun! I wanna give it a try too!"

Karaku stared at him like he suddenly grew another head. "Uh-...You are kidding right? The classes I take is for experienced professionals that's done it for years and close to graduating. Not for people who's literally never even tried doing it." Karaku pointed out gesturing to him up and down. "You could get seriously hurt if you try doing it!"

"Aw! C'mon. It can't be that hard! I just tiptoe around and spin right?"

His brother frowned harder. "Uh. No. There's literally so many things that you gotta get good at first. Balance, muscle build up, flexibility- The closest to that you've ever done was the time you got wasted on the merry-go-round last spring festival. You don't even have the proper shit to wear!"

"DUDE PLEASE!!," Urogi begged which again caught Karaku off guard. Urogi rarely was serious let alone begged. "Just this once! I promise I'll stop bugging you! Just give me a break-"

"Alright fine! Geez. Now I know how 'Kido and Aizetsu feels."

He lit up smiling. "Dude!" And happily grabbed his shoulders. "You're the best! Love ya!"

"Uh huh. *sigh* We're holding a class for beginners next week, you can join that since it's less likely you'll break anything. I'll let ya borrow a spare outfit but YOU'RE-" Karaku tapped his finger into his chest a few times. "-paying for the class yourself. Got it?"

"Got it! I mean it, Dude! I owe ya big time!"

"You got that right."

Yes! This was perfect! This was his chance! All it would take was one car ride over there and one class to get a chance to chat with the beautiful angel! Nothing can go wrong now!

"Hi, Everyone! Welcome to the beginners class!"

Urogi stood there giving a nervous shiver every so while. A green leotard and tights identical to the one Karaku wore clinging to his body way too tightly as he stood there embarrassed amongst the other students who were all girls giving him an amused look. He felt embarrassment like none before meanwhile the beautiful angel smiled widely in front of them all along with his brother trying his hardest not to laugh at him but failed as his shoulders shook slightly with laughter. How more humiliating can you get?

"My name is Mitsuri and this is Karaku!," she brightly introduced herself before motioning to his brother whom only gave a friendly nod. "Unfortunately the instructor is busy rehearsing a very important play so we're here to run you through the simple basics! But don't worry, we're not going to be doing any actual dances today! Today is all about just getting the basics down and working on your flexibility!"

Gods he wanted to disappear. It's ok! He just had to power through it is all!

She held up a whole hands. "Now you might already know this but for those who dunno there's five basic positions in ballet. They're all really easy to remember since they're literally just called first position, second position, and so on! We're going to go over them real quick. First the first position!" Her body shifted into a stance. "First you point your toes outward and squeeze your heels together like so!"

Ok. The positions were awkward and tense to do but they weren't too hard to get through. It'd be easier if Karaku wasn't trying to die from laughter the entire time enbarrassing him more and making his face red in embarrassment. He was just jealous that Urogi was getting the basics down probably better than he did! There's nothing to it! Watch him sweep the angel off her feet with his flawless exercises! They were in the middle of something called a first arabesque which was just a sorta flamingo pose where he stood on one leg while splaying his arms and other leg out-

THUD!

His leg shook badly. The strain all those poses giving out. His face panicked. And then he fell face first into the polished wooden floors with a loud thud that had everyone looking at Urogi. Karaku snorted loudly but quickly stiffled it as Mitsuri shot him a look.

"Don't make fun of him! It's his first time! Everyone makes mistakes!," she scolded him before looking back to Urogi in pity. "Hm.. He's probably not used to such stretches yet." It was that moment that she smiled with an idea. "I know! Now would be a great time for flexibility exercises!"

It was then Karaku's face immediately dropped his smile. He looked almost horrified looking at Mitsuri, then at Urogi picking himself up annoyed, and then back to Mitsuri. "Um. Maybe it's a little too early for that, Mitsi. Let's just stick to posing today-"

"Nonsense! Flexing out the muscles will totally help!" She waved him off. "Ok everyone. Find a partner! We're going to be doing a flexibility exercise practice!"

Suddenly Karaku didn't look so amused anymore. Apparently these flexing exercises meant that they were just gonna sit themselves on the floor and hold hands while you stretched out your legs?? Ok! Yeah! He could totally do that! Easy least! Mitsuri had Karaku help demonstrate by sitting across from her and helping by pushing her legs back until she was in a splits position. She smiled at everyone gazing their own attempts. The girls were actually a lot better at doing this than he was. Instinctively he kept pulling his legs back into himself which she frowned at. 

"No, no. Urogi, you're doing it all wrong."

"I'm trying! I'm pretty sure men aren't supposed to bend this way!"

"Karaku does!"

"Yeah? Well my brother is a freak of nature."

Karaku frowned at him from where he was sitting but Mitsuri only smiled. "How about I give you a hand?"

Karaku looked horrified as the color drained from his face and Urogi's eyes widened. "UH! It's alright, Mitsi. I know Urogi better so I should probably help him-"

"Oh no!," Urogi cut him off with a large happy grin. "I think I'd be more comfortable with a real professional!"

Karaku's face couldn't have gotten more pale as he watched Mitsuri stand up and walk over to Urogi as if Karaku was watching someone walking into their own demise. Urogi however was in absolute awe happily watching as his old partner switched places and allowed the beautiful angel to sit down and smile at him fully. He felt his heart pick up and his burn a hot red as she took his hands tightly all with that cute smile directed at him-

"Good luck. You're not gonna be able to walk the rest of the week."

"Huh? What di-"

Urogi barely turned to look at his brother over his shoulder and his speech was cut off when without warning her hands clamped down tightly on him and her legs snapped his back. His vision exploded white and an unbearable pain shot through his body- 

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow."

"I tried to warn ya. I told you it's not easy and you could get hurt but did you listen to me? Of course not."

"Just shut up!"

Karaku wasn't wrong. Sadly. He felt like he sat on a chair made of nails for an entire day! His legs shook and wobbled with each step he tenderly and slowly took as his body shook and wobbled like a newborn deer walking for the first time. Karaku for once didn't laugh and looked mixture of irritated and pitiful. Thank God they didn't have to walk the entire way back to the dorms. 

"B-Be honest," Urogi winced and whimpered as he still slowly walked. He might actually cry from this. "H-How bad does it look?"

"It looks like you froze your entire legs in Antarctica for a hundred years, got drunk, and then tried walking when you got no dam feeling in them," Karaku bluntly replied making his brother wince more in embarrassment. "*sigh* I can't believe you did all that just to try and hit on her!"

"I wasn't!"

"Oh please! It was obvious! The only one who didn't notice was Mitsi and honestly she's pretty dense when it comes to flirting with her. Believe me I tried." Another whimper out made the green eyed man sigh. "Look. Instead of putting yourself through hell like an idiot, why don't you just sign up for her tutoring on a different day than Sekido and Aizetsu's? I'll even ask her to fit you in somewhere."

His watery yellow eyes went wide. He could hug Karaku right now If his entire lower half didn't feel like he got hit by a train. "Yo-You'd do that for me?"

"*sigh* Yeah. I don't think I can stomach you putting yourself through another circus act. Sides you can use the extra help. Have you seen your science score?"

"GREAT!..Uh..By the way, how far did you park?"

"Not too far. Why?"

"Can we just pretend I'm drunk and have you carry me the rest of the way back to the car? I literally can't feel my ass."

[c0smiccom3t]

Dimension Dyfenders Mini-newsletter blog - OCTOBER EDITION!

Hello, everyone!! Welcome back to a new D.D newsletter blog post! This time, like ive said ever since a month ago, it's not a big one, but it's very exciting indeed! So, i guess you can call this a "mini"-newsletter post. Now without further ado... Let's hop 2 it!

BIG NEWS REGARDING POCKET ADVENTURES!!

You guys still remember pocket adventures, do you? If so, remember the part where i said its first minisode's script was half-way done? Well... THIS JUST IN! I'm happy to announce that the script is OFFICIALLY FINISHED! Now, all that I have left for minisode 1 at this rate is finishing up all of its pages! And speaking of pages, Here are some panels from the upcoming pages from the comic, possibly to be finished in April, and planned to be released in May 2025 (the series' anniversary month)!

And that's not all! A script for a minisode of pocket adventures also finished production a while ago. (It's not minisode 2.) But hey, i'm saving that for another time, anyway. It's way too soon, and summer has already passed, so... Maybe next time, waves will be easier to catch. Who knows?🌊🏄‍♂️🏖️

What's that you're saying?

"Comet, that's great and all that Pocket Adventures minisode 1 is coming along great! But what about Toonies?"

Ohhh Am I GLAD you asked!

Lucky for you all, I have more toonies comics planned right inside my noggin. So, once i can think up of any good ideas, they will be released for you all to enjoy! As for the new fans however... Since there are some people (esp on Bluesky) who are NUTS abt Indie animation and comics and all that and want to know about D.D's world, premise, cast, etc... I'm happy to announce that RE-INTRODUCTION COMICS ARE IN THE PLANS! they may not be in development, yet. But I can assure you, new fans who discover this series will get their cake! OH YEAH! I forgot to mention another thing... Sometimes in toonies and in the reintro comics, there will be chibi versions of the characters getting into shenanigans! Here's what one of our characters will look like as a chibi, courtesy of the y2k artstyle and Knockout himself.

Look at this, isn't he adorable?? Just think of what the other characters will look like! the possibilities are endless!

I dont know when those comics will be made and uploaded. But trust me, wether it's the re-intro comics, toonies or Pocket Adventures, you're sure in for a treat! Okay... I'm sure there isn't anything else i wanna say, is there...? Oh yeah! Almost forgot!

So... About the specials.

Yes, I mean the Halloween special AND the supposed to be 3rd anniversary special. As much as it pains me to say it, the latter is NO LONGER an anniversary special due to time constraints and IRL stuff getting in the way. Instead, it will be a regular special! (It's still a special though!) It will be rewritten to fit less into the anniversary type and instead it will be made about something thats the same (the gala) but just 30% different which i cannot say because i put an NDA on myself and i can't get it out because if i try to his highness will kill me.

As for the good news, I can say that there's another special in the back of my mind. Actually, its script has been in development for a while now! Just give it a few februarys and it'll happen. However, i'm not telling what it is, but I'm positive that it'll leave you... Love-struck.👑💕

Speaking of plans and whatnot, I'll have to reveal that there isn't gonna be much content in 2025 after m01, mostly because i'll be working on the minisodes and won't release them until theyre finished and because me and my mom have been thinking of moving back to italy next year once im done with art school. So, that means D.D might go on yet ANOTHER hiatus, unfortunately. HOWEVER, I have BIG plans for 2026! Plans that i can't go much into detail (once again NDA by myself). But i can definitely tell you all, that's its gonna be amazing! No, it's not animated (yet.) but it's def worth waiting for!

And for any "fansies" reading this. Trust me, he's NOT leaving anytime soon, and you know it!

As for other stuff before i close this off. There will be a thread on my bluesky about introducing you all to Dimension Dyfenders as a whole! (once i finish up with concept art + ref sheets and new renders im currently working on.) So, be sure to look out 4 it!

THANK YOU ALL FOR READING! I am so excited to show off what this series will get into next as yours truly tries to carry it on their back while its 2 team members are away as much as they can! And trust me, I'll be sure to NOT disappoint you all. And thats a promise.

once again, thank you for reading and thank you all for your support! I still will be on the lookout for any fanart i see about the series! Remember, stuff like that and criticism are very appreciated here!! Have a riftastic day/night!!

[skyward-floored]

Febuwhump collab day 27 - left for dead

...and partially day 23 and day 29 as well.

This one was suggested by @silvrash-797, though several other people also asked for Sky angst. I didn’t exactly follow your idea because I’ve got a few fics already in the works about what you specifically asked for, but I hope you like this :)

(And just to remind y’all where we’re at here, in the regular Incredibles movie, Syndrome (Dark Link) tricks supers to his island to test the robot he’s developing. In this au, Sky ends up being one of these people (and I’m writing a longer fic about how this happens, and it’s coming I promise XD))

Warnings: blood and injury, nearly drowning, an explosion, general peril... just some heavy stuff here. Hopeful ending though.

Today’s lovely art (coming soon :)

Ao3 link

————————————————————

“Well well well. Face to face again. It’s been quite a while, Loftwing.”

Sky glared, his chest still heaving with how hard he’d been running up until moments ago. Dark hovered above him, his boots emitting a soft light that somehow kept him suspended in midair, and the two machines at his sides blocked Sky’s escape route. A satisfied glint shone in Dark’s eyes as he stared down at him, one that made Sky feel more and more like a cornered animal.

He’d been trapped on this island more then a year, but he hadn’t been cornered this badly since the very first day.

Sky panted as he looked around for an way out, adrenaline pounding through his veins. Somehow he’d let himself be chased to the edge of a cliff, a steep drop into a gorge behind him with a river flowing far below. His wing was still too injured from a recent altercation to properly fly, and the drop was too tall for him to have any chance of survival if he fell.

He was trapped.

Dark smirked down at him, almost like he knew the thoughts running through Sky’s head, and Sky’s hands grew clammy as he continued to flick his eyes around, looking for a way out.

“It’s been, oh let’s see now... about three months since we last saw each other face-to-face?” Dark continued, humming thoughtfully as he watched Sky. “Something like that.”

“I’d prefer to go longer,” Sky croaked, his voice raspy from disuse. “Your face isn’t much to look at.”

Dark’s eye twitched, and Sky felt a flicker of satisfaction.

“Well it’s fortunate that this will be the last time we’ll ever meet, then,” Dark growled, and Sky let out a raspy chuckle.

“Oh I hope so. I’ve been praying for that for over a year now,” Sky said with a smile, but instead of making him madder like he expected, Dark’s face abruptly slipped into a malicious grin.

“Lucky for you, I have just the thing to make sure we truly never see each other again,” he sneered, setting a finger on his wrist. “And I’m afraid I have to prepare for a returning guest, so I don’t really have time to chat.”

Sky’s blood ran cold, his mind flashing back to Dark’s other ‘guests’. A handful of supers had been tricked here after Sky, but he himself was the only one who had survived, and he couldn’t watch anyone else die on this cursed island. Though Dark had said returning... that hadn’t happened at all since Sky had ended up here, as far as he knew.

“A pity, too,” Dark continued breezily. “As I recall, you and the Fierce Deity worked together fairly often.”

Sky’s blood turned to ice, but he didn’t have time to even properly think through Dark’s words before he pressed a button on his wrist.

Sky’s entire world froze, muscles seizing with energy he couldn’t escape. He felt himself being moved slowly up and far past the edge of the cliff, and his heart beat like a drum in his ears as he stared at Dark, seeing no pity in his eyes.

“Goodbye, Crimson Loftwing,” Dark said with a smile. “I’d say it’s been a pleasure, but I’m beyond glad to finally be rid of you.”

Dark released the energy.

Sky plummeted like a rock, a cry escaping him without his permission as Dark’s laughter flew past his ears. His wings tried to unfold on instinct, but his one was still injured, and both were weak from malnourishment and not nearly enough maintenance.

But Sky flung them out anyway, knowing it was his only chance. His eyes watered at the pain the action brought, but the tiny bit of steering his wings afforded managed to slow him down and get him to fall in the water instead of being dashed to pieces on the rocks nearby.

Not that it hurt any less when he plunged into the river.

Hitting the water was like slamming into a wall, and Sky blacked out for a moment as agony overwhelmed him. The pain and shock of being underwater jolted him back awake moments later, and Sky forced himself to focus through the panic screaming in his head.

He quickly pulled his wings close to himself, and tried to swim for the surface despite being battered by the current. Several rocks hit Sky as he tumbled down the river, desperately trying to hold his breath.

Air briefly met him as he surfaced with a gasp and a cough, but then he was plunged back under again, deeper than before.

Sky struggled furiously to free himself from the water, getting tossed by the current so much he could barely tell what was up from down. All of him ached, but he kept trying to swim anyway, fighting the current and the rocks he kept hitting.

He wasn’t going to die here, not now, not after more then a year of surviving by the skin of his teeth, fighting for survival and coming out alive after countless close calls before this.

Sky refused.

Then he saw something drift by in the water, something small, with a red light pulsing on it.

His panic tripled, and Sky struggled even harder, heart pounding in his ears as a burning feeling rippled up his wing and side. He knew exactly what it was he had seen, and he needed to get away now.

The river had widened though, and Sky was still far from shore. The current has lessened a little, bit he couldn’t really tell which way was up, and he struggled along, trying desperately to reach land.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he wouldn’t be able to reach the shore though, and when a large rock caught his eye, he kicked towards it instead, praying the shelter would be enough.

He’d barely gotten behind it when he heard a piercing beep.

The explosion that came seconds later threw Sky backwards, and his world became nothing but a giant rush of water and heat and brightness.

Something slammed into him and he blacked out again, tasting blood in his mouth.

(...)

Consciousness came back slowly, accompanied by enough pain that Sky almost passed out again.

He choked out a shaking breath, thick and watery as some liquid spilled from his lips and dribbled down his chin. All Sky could do aside from that was lie there for a long time, trying to focus through the pain, water dripping off his face and pooling beneath him.

He finally managed to drag his eyes open, but almost immediately closed them again with a hiss, bright afternoon sunlight sending pain shooting through his skull.

The explosion had thrown him halfway out of the river, wings dragging behind him in the current. Sky thought he might’ve recognized where he was, but the brief glimpse he’d gotten wasn’t enough to be sure.

Though he wasn’t sure if he could even move yet, so it wasn’t like it mattered.

Sky drifted for a while, too exhausted to do much other than occasionally cough a bit of water up. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he couldn’t stay here forever, but the mere thought of moving made the pain seem to double.

So he stayed where he was. Lying on the riverbank, faintly shivering, wishing he was back home for the thousandth time since he’d gotten here.

A quiet beeping suddenly hit his ears, and Sky forced his eyes open again, blurry gaze landing on a flying machine that was scanning its way along the river. Fear jolted through him, and Sky sucked in a pained breath as he tried to get his battered body to listen to him.

Dark had obviously sent the robot to make sure the job was finished.

Get up, get up, you’ve survived this long you can do it longer get up—

Sky coughed, and despite every part of his body shrieking in protest, somehow dragged himself out of the water and behind a large tree by the riverbank, praying it would be enough to conceal him.

The beeping from the robot grew louder, the skywatcher buzzing right up by his tree. Sky could barely breathe, and felt his heart plunge into his stomach when he saw the feathers he’d left behind him, scattered along the ground.

If the skywatcher wasn’t already going to find him, it definitely would now, and Sky didn’t have any energy left to run.

This was it.

Sky wheezed softly, closing his eyes and thinking back to his wife and daughter as the skywatcher turned towards his hiding spot, red light scanning.

I’m sorry Zelda, I’m so—

An angry squawk pulled him out of his head, and Sky watched in surprise as one of the bright red parrots that lived on the island flew around the skywatcher, screeching in annoyance. Feathers fell from the bird, and Sky heard more cries as the drone buzzed around the tree.

A nest? he thought dizzily, then held his breath as the skywatcher scanned its light right towards the trunk where he was hiding.

The parrot swooped down in front of it again, joined by another as it cried out. Both birds began to peck angrily at the skywatcher’s underparts, avoiding its attempts to shoo them away. A beak hit a light, and something sparked as a parrot screeched. The machine jerked at the abuse, and the red light shook and glitched as it scanned right over Sky.

Then it paused, and made the negative chime that indicated it hasn’t found anything worth its time.

Sky would have collapsed with relief if he hadn’t already been on the ground, and the skywatcher finally moved on further downriver, the parrots letting out a few more angry squawks before returning to their nest.

Sky let out a hysterical croak.

I’m still alive.

Another wheezing giggle escaped him, and Sky closed his eyes, panting as the shock and pain started to catch up to him again. He knew he couldn’t stay where he was despite how exhausted he felt, even if all he wanted to do was pass out right now.

He’d gotten lucky, but he needed a spot to rest where he wouldn’t immediately be found by the next project Dark would inevitably send out.

Sky let himself rest for a few minutes more, then sighed thickly, bracing himself. Then slowly, agonizingly, he got to his feet, and began to stumble for his closest hiding spot. It was another stroke of luck that he’d been dumped relatively close to one of his most secure ones too, the entrance stealthy, and nearly impossible to find.

He usually only resorted to using it in emergencies, but this certainly counted as one.

Sky’s injured wing dragged behind him as he plodded along, feathers gathering more dirt and debris. Every step sent more pain jerking through him, and with every move he made, Sky wanted nothing more then to collapse back on the ground and stay there. But he knew if he stopped now he wouldn’t be able to get back up, and so he kept going.

Stumbling through the jungle. Nearly tripping on every root he walked past. Blood dripping behind him.

Still moving.

Sky almost didn’t realize it when he finally reached the entrance to the small caves he’d discovered a few months ago, his vision wobbling, and senses dulled. But then ferns brushed against his hips, and he stared, nearly crying when he realized he’d made it.

Blood stained the thin leaves as Sky pushed aside the ferns hiding the entrance, and he forced himself to crawl inside, his shaking growing more severe the longer he went. He didn’t remember it being such a long tunnel the last time he’d been in here, and it hadn’t been that long.

Right when Sky was starting to think he wouldn’t ever make it, the tunnel finally opened up into the larger spot he’d hidden in a few times now, a cozy alcove with a few precious supplies tucked inside. A small opening in the ceiling let in a thin shaft of light, and the spot in the corner that functioned reasonably well as a bed still had everything he’d put there to make it more comfortable.

Just seeing it made the last of Sky’s energy desert him, and he collapsed in the alcove, shivering with pain and cold, water and blood still dripping from his prone form. All he could do for a moment was breathe, thick and unsteady, and he coughed, liquid dripping from his lips he could only hope was just water.

Sky had had plenty of close calls while he’d been trapped here, brushes with the guardian robot Dark was developing, close encounters with his henchmen he’d barely managed to escape from, and the jungle itself lending its own dangers he’d had to avoid.

But he’d never come quite this close to death before.

Sky shivered, pulling his good wing around him as he closed his eyes.

His lungs ached from inhaling water, his body bruised and burning from the river and the explosion. His wings were barely functional, his mouth tasted like blood, and something had torn a gash right through his suit, more blood trickling from his chest.

And he was sure there were more injuries he wasn’t even registering at the moment, probably serious ones, but... he was alive.

And staying that way was all he had to do right now. Stay alive, heal, get his strength back. Then...

Try to stop Dark. Try to escape.

Do it all again.

Sky’s head ached, the pain in his middle increasing a bit, and he let out a shuddering breath as tears pricked at his eyes.

Endure, he thought weakly as he drifted off, pain the last thing he was aware of as something wet trailed down his cheek. Same as you have been. Endure.

Just hold on.

(...)

“...”

“Ledge, there’s... there’s someone over there.”

“What?”

“...”

“Ohh, I told you this was a bad idea... Following blood never leads to good things. I bet he’s one of those guys who were chasing us.”

“...”

“...No, he doesn’t look the same. I... I think he’s hurt, Legend.”

“How can you even tell, Roolie? He’s just lying... there...”

...

...

“SKY?!”