#BUT YEAH tried a new technique with this drawing here!

[derpiedoxie]

HAPPY GAY!!!!!!🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

Featuring the wonderful boys Nick and Charlie!

[maaarine]

Why are British teenage girls so unhappy? Here’s the answer (Caitlin Moran, The Times, Sep 13 2024)

"The report, by the Children’s Society, found that British 15-year-old girls are the most unhappy in Europe.

British girls aged 10-15 are “significantly less happy” with their life, appearance, family and school than the average boy — and their happiness is still declining.

Boys’ life satisfaction, meanwhile, remains broadly stable. (…)

But I still didn’t have an “aha!” moment about why this so disproportionately affects girls until… I talked to some teenage girls.

It was at a party, and I went to vape with them on the patio. Because I take my nicotine like children do.

“Duh — it’s the boys,” one said when I brought it up, as all the others agreed.

“The boys?” I asked.

My last book, What About Men?, had been all about how much boys struggle these days: their loneliness; their suicide rates. I’d spent the past year feeling very sympathetic towards boys.

“Yeah, well, who do you think they’re taking out their unhappiness on? It’s us,” another girl said.

“One boy at school used to draw a picture every day of how ugly I was,” a third girl said. “Every day for two years.”

“They’ve all got ‘Rate The Girls’ polls on their WhatsApps,” the first said. “They mark you down for weight gain, haircuts, what you say.”

“But then, if you’re hot, it’s just as bad, in a different way, because they’ll be talking about how they want to f*** you.”

The girls discussed coping techniques. Bad news: none of them worked.

“The only way you can stop them is if you become ‘one of the boys’ and hang out with them. But then,” the second girl said with a sigh, “all the other girls call you a slut. Because you’ve gone over to the boys’ side.”

“Surely it’s not all the boys?” I said. “There must be some nice boys?”

“Oh, yeah,” one girl said. “But they keep their heads down. Because… well, look.”

She showed me the Instagram account of her friend. Under every picture she posted of herself — smiling in a new dress; with her dog — dozens of anonymous accounts had replied with the most rank abuse.

“Fat.” “Slut.” “You gonna try and kill yourself again, for attention?”

“They’re all boys from her school,” she said. “And look, this one boy tried to defend her.”

I saw a series of messages from a brave teenage boy, posting things like, “You’re all big men, leaving these replies under anonymous accounts.”

As I could see, this boy immediately became a target too. Mainly accusations that he was “white knighting” this girl: “You wanna f*** her, bro?”

“So,” I asked, “you don’t think it’s social media pressure to be beautiful, or the economy, that’s making girls so sad?”

“Well, yeah, them too,” the first girl said. “But, Monday-Friday, 9-3, I’m not on social media. I’m not… in the economy. I’m just with these boys. And no one talks about how horrible they are.”

I thought about another recent report, showing a 30 per cent ideological gap between Gen Z men, who are increasingly conservative, and Gen Z women, who are increasingly progressive.

I thought about Andrew Tate, who has nine million mostly young male followers — and faces human trafficking charges, which he denies.

And I thought: maybe these girls are on to something. Maybe more people need to vape with teenage girls and ask them for the school gossip."

[wheneverfeasible]

🧠🪱Wriggly Wednesday🪱🧠

Thank you for the tags my lovelies! @queenie-ofthe-void @steviewashere

So we all know the florist/tattooist trope, yeah? Steve is the pretty little florist and Eddie is the tough looking tattoo artist, maybe their shops are even next door to each other, or at least nearby. It’s a great trope.

Except…

Eddie is the florist and Steve is the tattoo artist.

A bit of modern AU here too maybe but…Eddie got in trouble as a kid selling stuff , okay? He ended up in juvie for a bit, and he was terrified that this was it and his uncle would finally declare him a lost cause just like his father, but…he doesn’t. He encourages Eddie, knows his nephew could be better than any other Munson, and it helps. Eddie wants to be better.

He handles juvie well, gives up dealing, and serves community service helping out at the local garden (it wasn’t his initial choice, but he takes to it almost immediately). After everything is all said and done, community service over and he’s fully free once more, he still volunteers at the gardens.

Eddie, he discovers, likes flowers. He likes discovering the meaning behind them, the totally rad Latin names of them, and he likes growing something from nothing and watching them bloom. Eventually, when he’s older, he opens his own little shop.

He doesn’t look like your typical florist, all dark colored clothes and long hair and tattoos and piercings, but he’s knowledgeable in what he does and his flowers always look so pretty and nice and he’s happy.

Steve was a pampered rich kid, until he wasn’t. He did sports, and he liked them, but not enough to make a career out of it. He never felt that pull towards anything. He did like babysitting well enough, even if the kids were more like friends than clients, but it wasn’t something he wanted to do forever either.

Will, one of the kids he babysat, was an artist. He sketched and painted and even took up a bit of pottery for a while, though that phase passed quickly. But Steve was intrigued by the drawings Will made. He tried to recreate them, and Will actually helped his technique a little, but it still wasn’t quite what Steve wanted to do.

And then one day, bored while waiting for his little friends to finish gawking at the nerd store he took them to in the city, Steve grabbed a pen from the counter and started his little doodles on his own arm, since he didn’t have any paper. And…he kind of liked that. One of the kids, Jane, noticed his drawing and held out her own arm for him to draw on. And he liked that a lot better.

After that, Steve began noticing tattoos on people. Permanent drawings that didn’t wash off, and things his father absolutely hated. And there were a lot of different styles, he noticed. And soon Steve was purchasing books about tattoo techniques and styles, about the history of tattoos in different cultures, and, with the last money he ever got from his father, he bought himself tattoo equipment and fake skin to practice on.

Steve really likes drawing, but he loves tattooing more. He looks nothing like your typical tattoo artist though, with his pastels and polos and styled hair that still speaks of his prep upbringing. He’s not covered in tattoos or piercings, but he slowly makes a name for himself. He gets a job in a studio, attends conventions and things, growing in skill and practice until one day he can afford his own little shop all his own.

When a new tattoo parlor opens up right next door to Eddie’s flower shop, he’s ecstatic at first. He could use a new tattoo. Then he meets the owner and there’s no way this jock looking pretty boy can handle the sort of ink that Eddie wants. He sees the work the man does, pretty watercolor flowers and cliché anchors, and figures the guy would run screaming for the hills if he had to tattoo a screaming skull or something.

Maybe they kind of snip at each other in passing, though Steve seems to enjoy it and laughs at Eddie’s sarcasm, and Eddie…Eddie likes his laugh and his smile. Maybe Steve buys a single flower one day, then tucks it into Eddie’s hair with a smirk before leaving silently, and Eddie…doesn’t know what to do with that.

Maybe one day Eddie sees an original piece Steve is working on, a bipedal monstrous creature with slimy looking skin and a head that opened into petals full of teeth. It was metal as fuck. Steve explains it’s his own interpretation of a monster from this game these kids (not kids anymore) he used to babysit would play, and Eddie…Eddie realizes he’s in very real danger of falling in love with this man.

Lucky for him, Steve is already smitten with the metalhead florist who works next door; he’s just been waiting for Eddie to catch up.

For their first date, Steve tattoos him for free, then they go and get honest to Satan milkshakes afterwards. Their next date, Eddie takes him to the local public gardens and tells him all about the flora there, their scientific names and history, and afterwards they get coffee and talk about what they want in life. Their third date they go to a vintage drive-in movie, though neither could tell you what it was they went to see, far too busy with…other pursuits.

A few years later, after Eddie says yes to the ring, they get matching tattoos of the other’s initials in the petals of a flower with teeth. When they get married, they get the date they met tattooed to their inner wrist.

Later, they add the date the little girl they adopt officially becomes part of their family. A few years after that, that same little girl grins as she watches a new date be added to their wrists, holding the boy who just became her little brother.

By the time Eddie and Steve retire, their wrists are full of dates. Eddie tends to a little garden outside their home, their kids helping out whenever they visit with the grandkids, taking over when Eddie just wants to sit and enjoy the flowers. Steve is there with him, a canvas open as he sketches and later paints Eddie and their family amongst the flowers.

Sometimes, as a little treat, he’ll even add a little demogorgon hidden amongst the blooms for Eddie to find. Eddie always likes those ones the best.

-

No pressure tags: @derythcorvinus @katyawriteswhump @fkinkindagauche @sp0o0kylights @skitchskatchbat and you guessed it, tagging you first 😤 @stervrucht

[system-to-the-madness]

Heart to Heart - Zuko x Reader

Word Count: 2 870 Warnings: mentions of war and death Summary: Zuko and you share a quiet moment at the Western Air Temple A/N: Can be read as a oneshot; Part Five of the series Perfect (10 times Zuko thought you were perfect and the first time he told you)

“So, you decided breaking into a Fire Nation prison would be a good idea, huh?”

Zuko sat at the edge of the ruin of the Western Air Temple, looking out into the valley, his feet dangling in the air. At the sound of your voice, he looked up.

“Well, perhaps not a good idea, but we ended up with pretty good results, I’d think,” he answered, watching as you sat down next to him, your knees pulled up to the chest as if you were cold.

“True, I’ll give you that,” you admitted with a smile. “And I think it’s definitely gotten you some sympathy points from Katara.”

“You think,” Zuko asked hopefully. “I desperately need those. She hates me!”

“Give her time,” you said nonchalantly. “To her you embodied pretty much all that is evil, topped probably only by your sister and your father. She’ll come around.”

“How about you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do I embody all that is evil to you, too?”

You turned to look at him, taking in his appearance for a good while, making him self-conscious under your intense eyes.

“For a while you did, I guess,” you answered eventually.

Okay, not the answer he had hoped for, but what had he expected? That you confessed you had always known he was good at heart? Hardly. He had tried to capture or kill the Avatar and his friends a few too many times for that.

“But Katara didn’t see you put yourself in danger to free Appa,” you continued. “It made me doubt the things I knew about you. The conversation you had with your uncle did, too.”

Zuko nodded, turning to watch the sky. A few clouds drifted past, thousands of stars lighting up the night.

"I made a lot of mistakes," Zuko admitted. “I can’t blame any of you for not trusting me, for not wanting to trust me.”

“Things are changing, you know,” you told him, reaching over and gently nudging his shoulder. His breath hitched at the soft contact. “You helped Aang to gain his confidence back about Fire Bending. He still has a long way to go, but it’s amazing that he agreed to try it again in the first place. And it’s kind of reassuring that you’re drawing your power not from anger anymore.”

The last sentence made Zuko smile a little.

“It feels different now, my Bending,” he explained. “Before it always felt violent, and… sort of hard, I guess. Like volcanic glass. Even when I trained it always felt like with each shot I fired, I was kicking or punching against a wall. Now it feels like it’s flowing, somehow. Like the heat and the fire is not some wild animal I have to force out, but a power that bends to my will.”

“That does sound like a big difference,” you agreed.

Zuko shrugged. “I’m still not as powerful as Azula though,” he mumbled. “I had hoped that with the new technique I might gain some ground on her, but it still feels like she’s miles ahead of me.”

“Right, you encountered her when you went ‘fishing’, right?” You drew quotation marks into the air, making Zuko roll his eyes in amusement.

“Yeah, she almost would have caught us, doubtlessly to put us in a snug little fishbowl where she could tease us the whole day.”

“This might sound like a stupid question, but,” you hesitated for a moment, “what would you do if you were more powerful than her, powerful enough to easily best her.”

Confused Zuko turned to you. “What do you mean?”

“I mean… would you try to kill her? Capture her? She’s your sister after all. Even with all the messed-up things she’s done, nobody here expects you to kill her.”

Zuko turned back to look out over the valley. You were right. All this time, for years, ever since childhood, ever since she had first beaten him in training, he had wished he would be good enough to overpower her. But then what?

“I don’t know,” he admitted, “I don’t know what I’d do.”

For a moment he just looked out into the canyon. In the starlight he could faintly make out the other buildings hanging from the ceiling into the abyss. What had it been like when the Air Nomads had still lived here? Every window of every tower must have been lit up, thousands of lights like a mirror of the sky above. Had Sky Bisons roamed between the houses? Drifted slowly through the night? What other animals had populated these temples? Had it truly been as peaceful as he imagined it now to have been? Zuko inhaled deeply.

“The thing about Azula is… I was always chained to her in a way.” He could see you furrowing your brows at him questioningly from the corner of his eyes. “There were no kids my age living in the palace, but Azula had two friends, Mai and Ty Lee. And I was always expected to play with the three of them. Often, I thought it was stupid, they made me feel stupid. I was older than them, and had other interests, but it almost seemed a game to them to find something I hated or would humiliate myself doing… Mai was the only one who would speak up for me sometimes. But only when it was about smaller things; she was too scared of Azula. I can’t blame her. Actually, I ended up dating her for a while.”

“You had a girlfriend,” you asked, but Zuko didn’t notice the hesitation in your voice.

“Yeah, we were together for a while after… after I betrayed my uncle. But I ended things, to join you. She saved our lives, on Boiling Rock. She stopped the guards from cutting the line to the gondola.”

“She sounds like a good person, and brave,” you said quietly. “You must miss her.”

Zuko stayed oblivious to the unasked question in your statement.

“I don’t know… not really. If I’m honest, I’m not even sure why I was together with her,” he shook his head. “It sounds cruel, but the only reason why I got together with her was because it felt like the right thing to do, after returning home. I knew she had always liked me, and somehow, I thought if I were dating someone, it would stabilize the life I was hoping to live. I like her, yes, but not the way you’re supposed to like the person you’re dating. I’m just sorry I was selfish enough to hurt her without a second thought.”

“You’re young, all of us are. I think it’s inevitable to make mistakes when it comes to things like love. Only the luckiest ones can claim to never have hurt someone,” you tried consoling him.

“The thing is, I knew it was going to hurt her. But I kept doing it anyway. Maybe I was hoping my feelings would catch up eventually, but they never did.”

They couldn’t, Zuko thought to himself. Not while the idea of you had taken root in his heart. The thing that made him feel almost the guiltiest, was that even though you were hardly anything like what he had imagined you to be, he still felt enchanted by you. Glancing at you from the corner of his eyes, he only felt his sentiment confirmed. You were sitting there, wrapped in a thin coat to protect you against the chill of the night air, hair dancing slightly in the wind, face glowing from the fresh air and eyes reflecting the stars above. You were beautiful like this, perfect and beautiful. He was sure to never have seen anyone who was as beautiful as you in that moment.

“As I said,” you interrupted his train of enamoured thoughts, “we all make mistakes.”

“Some more than others,” Zuko frowned.

“That’s not what I meant,” you quickly denied. “I didn’t mean-”

“I know, don’t worry,” Zuko sighed. “I’m just upset with myself. I think some things were inevitable along the way. I mean, everyone grows somehow. But breaking Mai’s heart really wasn’t necessary. I could have avoided that if I had been a little more confident in myself.”

“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” you agreed, clearly not sure what else you were supposed to say.

“I’m just hoping, Mai somehow knew we wouldn’t last,” Zuko continued absentmindedly. “We fought, quite often actually. I know I can be difficult, but it also often felt like she didn’t even try to understand me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like… I know I can get jealous easily, so her anger at me for those instances was probably justified but… sometimes I just need time to think, you know? Not about something specific but… for example there was this war meeting and Azula was invited but I wasn’t. I was upset, because it made me feel like my father was rejecting me all over again, as if I weren’t good enough for him. I was upset and Mai… I know it wasn’t easy for her to see me like that, but it felt like she was trying to distract me so hard. Every time I had a problem or was concerned or worried about something, she tried to cheer me up and distract me, instead of allowing me to just give those feelings space.”

“I know what you mean. Sometimes you just want to give those feelings time, to process everything. Even if it’s difficult. But like you said, it probably was really hard for her to see you unhappy,” you offered your own thoughts, making Zuko nod.

“I guess you’re right. But we ended up getting into disagreements over things like that more and more often. Even if I would have stayed, I don’t think we would have been together for much longer.”

For a while silence settled over you, as you watched the night sky. Zuko wondered why the hell he had just shared all his relationship problems he had had with Mai with you. Maybe because he hoped you would understand him better if he did, would see him more as a human with emotions than the antagonist he had been for you over the past months.

“How about you,” he eventually asked, not sure if he even wanted to know the answer. “Do you have anyone special?”

You shrugged as if it wasn’t somewhat weird for him to ask that.

“Not really. I mean… being on the run from the world’s most powerful army makes it kind of hard to form any meaningful relationships outside of the group,” you answered. “And I don’t mind, really. I’m not like Sokka, who can just flirt with every girl he sees. I don’t think I’d feel comfortable with someone who I haven’t fallen in love with.”

“Have you ever been in love?”

“No,” you shook your head, “you?”

Zuko turned to look at you again, taking in your form sitting beside him, knees still pulled up to your chest, chin resting on them, eyes fixed on a point far away.

“No, I mean… maybe once,” he answered. Was he in love with you? He certainly didn’t know you well enough to be in love with you, right? Maybe he was?

“If you don’t know, you probably weren’t,” you chuckled, turning your head to meet his eyes. “I think you’d know when you fall in love.”

“It’s difficult, okay,” Zuko defended, making you laugh quietly.

“Or maybe you’re just bad at figuring out your own feelings,” you offered with a teasing glint in your eyes.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Zuko grumbled and turned his head away embarrassedly. Another gentle shove against his shoulder made him look back at you.

“I’m teasing,” you told him, with a soft smile that made his heart melt. “I’m sorry if I-”

“No, I know, don’t worry,” Zuko took a deep breath. “I’m just not used to being teased without it being with some kind of ill intentions, I guess.”

“Well, Sokka’s gonna get you used to that real quick,” you laughed. By all the spirits, he loved your laugh. “He’s brilliant when it comes to making plans and coming up with ideas, but he’s also the biggest goofball I’ve ever met. He cares more than he tries to let on and is one of the most reliable people I can imagine when things go south.”

“We fought my sister together,” Zuko recalled. “It was weird, a few weeks ago we would have ripped each other apart, but when we went up against Azula together, he really had my back… he makes it very easy to trust him.”

“He does, doesn’t he,” you agreed. “He might not outright say it, but he really appreciated you going to look for his father with him. Thank you.”

“I’m just glad I was able to help. There have been enough families that got torn apart because of me. Knowing I could help reunite at least one is… it feels good.”

You grinned at his side. “It was a brave thing to do, to break into that prison just like that.”

“Brave? More stupid than anything, but thanks.”

“Bravery and stupidity are not as far apart as some would like to believe,” you chuckled, making him smile.

“My uncle would like you,” he confessed, watching your smile shift into a questioning expression. “He’d probably share his wise phrases with you all day long.”

“Your uncle sounds like a good man,” you said, and Zuko nodded.

“I think, I understand him better now than I did before. He lost his son in the war, and he was never the same again. I think, he developed a strong dislike for any kind of conflict and when my father exiled me, he decided to come with me… I don’t know why, maybe to save me from the fate Lu Ten met… I think Uncle Iroh was more a father to me than my own father ever was. It’s strange seeing Sokka and Katara with their father, seeing what normal parents are like with their children. It makes me mad at my father, that he wasn’t like that. Mad and… vulnerable, I guess.”

“I can’t imagine what that’s like,” you mumbled. “I don’t remember much of my father, but even my stepfather was always caring towards me. I’m sorry you didn’t get to experience that.”

“I guess, over time I’ve gotten used to it. Which didn’t stop me from begging for his approval, I’ll admit that. But now… I just hope I can see my uncle again and apologize to him for all I’ve done. After all these years that he accompanied me… I don’t know how I can make up for all the support he has given me, and how I betrayed him.”

“I’m sure when the time comes, you’ll know what to say and do. I think your uncle would be proud to know how you finally stood up for yourself.”

Zuko nodded thoughtfully. He just hoped your words would come true. He didn’t even know where Uncle Iroh was right now, whether he was even alive. If he ever got to see him again… how was he supposed to make up for all his uncle had done for him? How could he ever earn his uncle’s forgiveness after that terrible betrayal?

“Can I ask you something?”

Zuko perked up at your question but nodded.

“Earlier you said… you said your father exiled you,” you carefully asked. “I’d understand if you don’t want to talk about it but…”

“No, it’s fine,” Zuko shrugged. “What do you want to know?”

“Mostly just… what happened?”

“It was… foolish, both of me and my father. It started over-”

Before Zuko could even really begin telling you his story, Toph’s voice carried through the night.

“Katara made hot milk with honey for everyone!”

“Let’s talk another time,” Zuko offered, getting off the ground. His feet felt strange, standing on solid ground again after dangling in the air for so long.

“Another time,” you agreed, taking the hand Zuko had offered you and let him help you to your feet.

Your hand was small and cool in his, and he had to resist the urge to keep his fingers closed around yours, just to feel your skin against his for a short while longer. When he hesitantly let go of your hand, it felt like a wave of ice was spreading from his heart, and he immediately ached for any sort of contact with you again.

He really was an idiot, wasn’t he, he wondered as he followed you past some rubble back to the others, who were sitting around a campfire. Seeing all these people, who so willingly had adopted him into their group, another ache, the warm and gentle kind, spread through his body. After all this time, for the first time in his life, he felt like he truly belonged somewhere. He had earned his place in this group. And when you motioned for him to sit down next to you and offered him a cup with steaming hot, sweet milk, he couldn’t help but think that he didn’t want it any other way.

Tags (it seems like some of the tags aren't working, sorry...):

(@ghoststookourlifes )

@ashcal99

@4acoffee

(@pxrplewalnxt)

(@toomuchboredd )

@banished--prince

@oddobsessionbutotay

@makik0

(@joysflower)

@hamdehlesmis

@mitski9328373

@angstylittleb1tch

(@lovecalll )

@sy1v30n

@sagemastah

(@buzzbuzzlilbee)

[ehh-is-the-name]

You know when I said I'd make a Floory rug..?

So yeah, I did it.

This is your calling card to do the same. Make a rug, I triple-dog dare you. Don't know how?

Here's a breakdown of how I made The Floor:

Before fully getting into it, in that rb I said:

We could have so much mroe than what the shop offers- it could be glorious. I couldn't get tuft chin hair or flower power blush floor with $45 dollars at their store, but I could get it irl for the low low price of like a week-straight worth of work.

Ha... haha.... No. It took a lot longer than that. MUCH longer than that.

This is a little jitter lapse with the dates I worked on him. In each pic I spent around 2-3 hours working on him, except the last few in August. Those I spent like 3-5 hours on because I needed him to be finished before the semester started. My goal was to get him finished and sitting in my dorm, and I fucking did :)

= - - =

Starting from the top though, since I had the design after making the rb post linked, I decided on the size. I was watching the video showcasing him as a rug, and I gauged he was about a yard wide, so I based my measurements on that. I knew that I was going to needle punch him instead of latch hook him because I felt the punching would be faster. And well... I've done punch needling before this project so I figured it'd be faster than learning a new technique.

Here's what I mean, for a frame of reference.

Since I went the punching route, I knew he'd need a frame to be punched out on. To keep the fabric taut and all that jazz. Luckily for me I had a bunch of wood hanging around from an old bed's slots, so I made the frame out of that. Similarly, I had a bunch of fabric lying around.

Word of advice: DO NOT USE NORMAL FABRIC WITH A NORMAL PUNCH NEEDLE YOU WILL TEAR THAT SHIT UP. Learned that the hard way-

The fabric I used was NOWHERE near "loose" enough for a big punch needle. Loose in the sense that it has more holes in it. On the left is the fabric you're supposed to use when making a rug (Monk's Cloth), and on the right is the fabric I used (pic not of the exact cloth but close).

Notice that the holes on the right are a LOT smaller... I did not realise this mattered until I'd already primed the frame and drew him on with a sharpie.

Bask in his glory.

To give a breif on how I did this, I hooked my 'puter up to the TV with an HTMI, opened the image I had of him (it's a bit different than the of doodle in the rb b/c I wanted brighter colours), and literally held the wooden frame with the fabric on it up to my TV and traced it. I traced it from the inside first so that it would be mirrored on the side I would be punching on. If you draw the design you want to punch on the side you're punching on please mirror the image first.

Forgot to say, yes I had a staple gun too, so that didn't add into the price of making this Floory rug.

After this point, it was pretty smooth sailing, sorta... It would've been if I'd bought a thinner yarn for the main body. See, in this whole experiment, I was very dead set on keeping this project under $45 so I bought a large ball of cheap yarn. I tried to gauge how much I would need with the needle height (about 3/4 inch I used), but I got scared and just wound up buying this giant green ball that I needed to de-ply to work with properly. You could kinda see it in the jitter-lapse below, but yeah.

Before punching with this Red Heart size 4 yarn, I had to separate 1 of the ply FOR THE ENTIRE RUG. I had to pull out a substantial amount from the big skein, de-ply it, roll it back into a ball, then needle punch with it.

And why did I have to do this? BECAUSE I WAS USING THE WRONG FABRIC AND NEEDLE PUNCH FOR MAKING A WHOLE ASS RUG!!

I didn't know that the needle punch needle I had was an embroidery one, NOT a normal needle punch needle. Notice that it's small, and embroidery floss is the thing going through the hole and NOT size 4 yarn. And for the right, notice that it's also kinda small but the needle itself is a lot thicker, the channel that the yarn is going through is wider than the yarn itself- and that it's YARN AND NOT EMBROIDERY FLOSS.

Needless to say, it was aggravating and made the process take a lot longer than it should've. It wasn't impossible, I mean, you see him finished above and below, but it made it WAY more tedious, since a the thicker yard, even after being de-ply'd, still got stuck in the needle punch needle. After wresling with that off and on for... what about 4 months give or take, it was on to gluing and backing.

Going on the record to say that Tuft the World, Sam Made That, Shop Last., AJ MAKES, and BrokenBlvds' thread were the backbone of my glue searching, and rug-making experience. If you genuinely want to make a tuff rug (hand-punched or otherwise) their guides are so helpful <3

But for real, finding the right glue was a lot harder than anticipated. Many people said to use Roberts 3095 adhesive for rugs along with another glue, but I didn't have the funds for that, nor was planning to buy a whole gallon of rug glue I'd only for 1 project. I took up BrokenBlvds thread as my glue of choice, even though they were asking for something better. So far (about 3 months of use and a couple cleanings) the Roberts 6700 glue is holding up fine. The thing that isn't, is the yarn. After one vacuuming, fuzzies have been obscuring his eyes and junk. It's not bad, or even that noticeable, but I do miss his original state. That's what I get for using cheap yarn. I still love him to death tho.

Side tangent aside, I also used the 6700 because it has less of an odour, and I planned on bringing him to my dorm right when he was dry. While that was drying outside, I worked on the backing. The OG Floory rug had a nonslip backing attached (if I remember correctly), but mine does not! In similar fashion to the fabric of the rug itself, I also used left over fabric as his backing. For structure, I used some of my father's old uniform pants, and to make it more like dirt, I used an old bed sheet.

I stitched them together in a quilt-ish design so that the layers would be attached throughout the rug. That was a rush, but when I finished it I went out back and stuck it on there with a bit more Roberts 6700. When it was cured enough to come inside (3 days after gluing) I worked on the nonslip portion.

Had a rectangle of rug grip mat stuff, stuck some pins around the edges of Floory, traced the pins then cut it out. It's a little hard to see but looking up top, you can see a few of the pins sticking out around his edge.

After getting that, I released him from the frame, "pinked" his edges, and whip-stitched the edge shut.

That hurt my thumb SO FUCKIN BAD- Had to have pliers next to me for most of the whip-stitching, because it was so hard to get through the glue with a blunt needle. I used a blunt needle 'cause it was the only needle I had that could hold the yarn, and to keep in the spirit of the experiment... No way I was buying a needle when I had a needle that could technically work.

Now, in the name of the whole experiment, let me do a breakdown of the things I bought verse used:

Items Bought for project:

Green Red Heart Yarn - $15

Roberts 6700 Carpet Adhesive - $9

Wrong sized punch needle - $3

Total spent on Floory rug: $27

Items used in general:

9 different colours of yarn

About 1.5 yards of polyester/cotton blend fabric

1/2 of a flat sheet from a bedsheet set

1 pair of uniform pants

1 embroidery needle punch needle

4 (roughly) yard-long wood slots from a bed

Nails and screws (and the tools for those)

1 Staple gun & about 70 staples (I fucked up a lot of them & restapled)

A sewing machine

Pinking shears

Tapestry needles

etc...

Total if I had to buy all that: More than $45!

I put the lists side by side to say that I know saying "Oh just make it yourself" is easier said than done. If I didn't have all the shit I did, I would've just bought him myself like any sane person would. But no, I had the will and the materials, and I wanted The Floor in my dorm. And now here he is, along with my crazy ass Jhariah x hfjone bag...

That's for a different post- but forgive me, it's the most recent photo I have of him.

All and all, I had a good time working on him! It was very therapeutic to hunch on the floor of my living room and stab fabric a gazillion times to make The Floor from Inanimate Insanity. It drove me a bit inanimate insane, but honestly, I wake up every morning and see his face and it makes things better. So in reality, I guess you could say it was the friends I made along the way- thanks for watch

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Special Interest 1

Warnings: non/dubcon, age gap, creep behaviour, and other dark elements. My username actually says you never asked for any of this.

Characters: Cole Turner, short!reader

Part of the Bookstore AU

My warnings are not exhaustive but be aware this is a dark fic and may include potentially triggering topics. Please use your common sense when consuming content. I am not responsible for your decisions.

As usual, I would appreciate any and all feedback. I’m happy to once more go on this adventure with all of you! Thank you in advance for your comments and for reblogging.

The smooth jazz fills the aisle of the bookstore, a cozy warmth blowing from the vents above as you unwrap your scarf and let it hang loose from your neck. You unbutton the top of your coat, fanning yourself as the nip of winter fades. You tuck your gloves away and hike up your bag, stepping close to see the titles on the spines. The fog's finally gone from your lenses.

You have that one, oh and you already know how to crochet potholders, no you're looking for a challenge. Something different. You need new techniques if you want to keep your Etsy shop alive. You're not struggling... yet.

You pull out a book on how to crochet replicas of different plants; like a cactus or a daisy. You could do little faces on them or do a rainbow of colours. Your mind runs crazy with all sorts of alterations. You open it and flip through the pages, hiding behind the cover as you turn and lean on the shelf.

"Cute," a voice draws the book down an inch and you look down the aisle at the man facing the opposite shelf. He taps the shelf beneath the 'Gardening' sign as he smiles at you, "you know, they got a whole bunch of books about real plants down here."

You bring your brows together and furrow your nose. Who is this strange man judging you? The gall. I mean, look at him. He's a bit too old to be commenting on your interests.

"Uh, thanks, but I don't like to get dirty," you say without thinking. You're not the type to be rude but something about his tone really irks you.

You shift back to face the shelf and close the book. You slide out the other with sweater patterns. Those take so long, you haven't added those to your catalogue. You put it back and adjust your glasses as you pause and tap the book in your hand. Oh, great idea and you don't even need a pattern. You could do book covers and little bookmarks!

"You knit?" The man startles you again as he approaches.

You glance at him from the corner of your eyes, "crochet, but I can knit too."

"Huh, my mom does too. Tried to teach me but I'm all thumbs. I'm better with plants," he says.

You shake your head and focus on the shelf. You don't get why this guy is bugging you. On first glance, he's got at least ten years on you, maybe more. And why the heck is he bringing up his mom? You don't know her.

"Look, I hope I didn't come off rude, I was just... curious. I've never seen anyone knit a cactus before," he puts his hand on the top shelf.

"Crochet," you correct him again, keeping your chin set ahead of you.

"Yeah, crochet," he chuckles, "sorry, I'm a bit ignorant.”

You bite your tongue. You've heard of older men being a bit much but have lucked out in not being bothered by them. Until that moment.

“Cole,” he offers as he pulls his hand off the shelf, holding it out.

You don't even look. You're too nervous and honestly, annoyed. You want him to go away.

You count your losses. You don't need to splurge on a pile of books. One is fine, you can see if there's anything new on Pinterest.

You turn on your heel and head down the aisle, away from him. You hear him huff as you turn down the next, tempted to stop and look at the Tarot but wanting to get far away. You could probably hide out in the non-fiction section until he evacuates.

As you get to the end of that aisle, you find the book crushed against your front. You bounce off another person and stumble back. You look up at the stranger, Cole. He puts his hands up defenseless and grins.

“Oops, sorry, we keep running into each other.”

“Uh, alright,” you try to sidestep him but he does the same. You both move in the same pattern, back and forth, getting in each other's way, “okay, okay, just stay still.”

He stops and stares with wide eyes. You slowly sidle by, watching him to make sure he doesn't try anything. This is getting too weird for your liking.

You twirl and swiftly march away, hugging the book tight as you try not to trip in your hurry. You're too exposed at the checkout line so you surpass it and flee towards the comic book section. If that doesn't work, the bathrooms are right behind that.

You finally look back again as you get to the graphic novels. You can only see shelves. You're alone in the aisle, grumbling to yourself in agitation. “Creep.”

You take your time wandering, thinking maybe you might be able to get into Batman as you admire the art on each cover. Your adrenaline cools and you feel a bit less addled.

You sneak around the perimeter of the store and find your way back to the craft section. He's gone. Hopefully he went back home to his sad plants.

It's difficult to shake your unease. You pick out some of the needles they have hung with other small accessories and head to the till.

You join the line, your mind already trying to decide what you want to order at the cafe. As you step up, just about to get your turn at the counter, you feel a nudge, a silty voice rolling into you.

“Uh, excuse me,” the timbre is all too familiar.

“Really, dude,” you snap around, “take a hint.”

“You dropped your gloves.”

He holds up your wadded gloves and you cringe. You force a smile and snatch them away. “Thanks,” you grit out.

“Yeah, just being a nice guy,” he shrugs, “trust me, I got the hint.”

He steps back on his heel and turns his attention to the table of pens and other stationary that separate the tills from the rest of the store. You sniff and roll your eyes, quickly flitting up to checkout. The sooner you're gone, the better.

[ultra-nooblet]

All the writing I managed to do for Inotober'24

Alright, here it is! All the prompts that I managed to complete for #inotober'24. Sorry, it took a bit to get out. Normally I rawdog what I write, but I tend to type faster than I think to the point that there are too many typos to ignore.

Main account is @thrallath I figured, I'd use this one for my writing since the name I've used for my main account has always been for my drawings and videos. Anyway, I've almost always kept my drabbles to myself and about my OCs. It's been a hella long time since I've done any fan writing, so Enjoy! :)

NSFW stuff at the end! ;)

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There are two versions of Ino. One is an absolute slut and the other that's the king of the cinnamon rolls. Most of the prompts are about the latter and are surrounded by the idea of Ino having a shy (female-aligned) reader for a partner. It's more of an xReader fic broken up through drabbles.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it far enough for when y/n transforms into badass and I don't know if I'll get around to continuing it (writing isn't my main passion).

Synopsis:

Ino is a sweat pea, but he was definitely that awkward loud kid who scared everyone away. The kind that talked too much and got in people's personal space in the hopes of keeping someone's attention.

In y/n’s case, she was born with a powerful cursed technique, but because she was a girl, and her parents were poor all they cared about was selling her to the highest bidder. So she grew up very sheltered and in probably a lot of uncomfortable situations with suitors most of whom were probably way too old for her (yeah, we're going full edge with this one). That is until Nanami found her and with the help of Gojo was able to t̶h̶r̶e̶a̶t̶e̶n̶ convince her parents to let her try to become a sorcerer instead and if she succeeds she doesn’t have to get married. (Something something suspended disbelief for the plot because Gojo could probs just pay her parents off).

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1. Secret

Ino x Shy Reader

Takuma grew up without friends and tries to make up for it with his over-eagerness. He often hides his insecurities with his enthusiasm.

Imagine lil’Takuma belonging to the Ino clan. A humble newer clan that never picked up on the harsher traditions of jujutsu society.

So lil’Takuma gets written off by clans like the Kamos and Zenins because Ino’s are seen as softies, so he doesn't get to socialize with other sorcerer's kids.

Imagine lil’Takuma finally going to elementary school but is singled out as the weird kid for showing up late since his parents wanted to keep him home until his CT developed and wanted to make sure he used it responsibly.

So lil’Takuma tries really hard to change people's minds about him but just ends up talking too much, getting too close, or getting overly excited and blowing it whenever someone looks his way. He hides his disappointment every time someone tells him to leave.

But then imagine how ecstatic he is to finally get to Jujutsu High, so he can prove himself to the other sorcerers and is absolutely convinced that this time will be different! :D

But then imagine how upset he is when he finds out he’s the only 1st year because class sizes are hella small for sorcerers. :(

But then imagine how excited he gets when he finds out at the last minute that a new student would in fact be joining! :D

Of course, he makes all the same mistakes when he sees her.

Y/n is just so shy and timid because of her history with guys and she’s never really been left on her own before.

But Ino doesn't know that yet (Gojo forgot to give him the memo), so he doesn't realize that he's scaring her when he starts loudly approaching her and talking like they’re already bffs.

Their first encounter is even more terrifying when he notices her while in the middle of his training session, so all y/n sees is a masked man trying to chase her down because he's too excited to take his sheisty off.

And of course, lil’Takuma is a late bloomer because he never really got a chance to play with others so he’s still kinda childish by the time he goes to Jujutsu High. But also because his parents tried their absolute hardest to make sure he stayed a kid for as long as he could (they also probably spoiled the hell out of him due to the lack of friends).

So imagine y/n freaking out when Takuma suddenly grabs her hand and drags her to his dorm to “play” but she’s too afraid to speak up.

Then y/n is just dumbstruck when Takuma wasn't joking. He genuinely wanted her to come to his dorm to show off his Lego collection and he’s excitedly showing her all the cool things he's built.

Imagine Takuma managing to chip away part of the wall y/n had built around herself when she hesitantly chooses to sit on the floor next to him and starts putting something together.

Imagine that big dopy smile Takuma gets when he realizes that he’s making a friend instead of watching her run away from him.

Y/n becomes his little secret, a friend he gets to keep all to himself. He doesn't immediately tell her he's never had a friend before, so she slowly starts to rely on him to show him how friendship works.  

Eventually, he tells her, and the two navigate their new lives together at the school. What he doesn't confess is the crush he ends up developing for his tiny friend later on.

2./24. Birthday/bookstore

A continuation of Ino x Shy Reader

Y/n never celebrated her birthday before, unlike Takuma who was always spoiled by his parents and raised to believe that the birthdays of those you care about are a big deal. So of course he’s going to care about the birthday of his first and only friend.

But imagine y/n still being unsure about Takuma because she has so many years of trauma and Takuma lacks any tact around her.

So imagine y/n trying to hide so she can have some peace and quiet, but the boy has her on radar and always manages to find her hiding places because why wouldn’t best friends want to spend every minute together?

But then imagine how much more determined Takuma is to find her under a bunch of pillows in the school’s library after Gojo had told him it was her birthday.

Imagine the pouty face y/n gives Takuma for being caught again but he’s too dense to realize that she wasn’t playing hide and seek.

So Takuma starts dragging her out of her pillow fort because god damn it, they need to celebrate, and he’s had zero time to prepare! So Y/n is internally crying that another day of reading has just been sabotaged.

Then Y/n gets scared when he starts leading her off campus because she’s never been off of campus unsupervised before and with a boy her parents would no doubt be upset to see if they found out.

Only to be surprised yet again when she realizes that Takuma is incredibly perceptive when he wants to be.

Like how he notices how she's always reading these old books so he takes her to an antique bookstore and lets her run loose.

He doesn’t even pester her, he just patiently watches y/n enjoy herself even if she spends half the time doing what she’d normally be doing if he had just left her at the library.

Eventually, he has to quietly interrupt her because it’s getting late, but also because he has to take her to the bakery knowing that she is a lil sweet goblin given that she’s always grabbing extra dessert in the school cafeteria.

Again, the self-proclaimed dummy manages to chip away at Y/n’s wall and keeps warming her up to him.

3. Skateboard

A continuation of Ino x Shy Reader

Takuma is trying to find ways to get y/n to break out of her shell, but also trying to show her more of his outdoor hobbies because she doesn’t get enough sunlight.

Imagine Takuma putting her on his skateboard and then taking her by her hands to pull her along slowly.

The way he finally gets to see her smile even if it was only for a brief moment and he gets all giddy because he’s finally starting to crack her.

How Takuma lets y/n try it on her own, but somehow she accidentally ends up launching his skateboard into the sunset.

How Takuma starts to panic not because he lost his board but because y/n looks like she's about to cry.

Y/n thinks she’s in trouble and that she’s finally gonna see Ino’s mean side and prove that he can be just as mean as the Zenins and other sorcerers.

And when Takuma starts pulling his mask down, y/n starts thinking she's about to get the beating of her life.

But instead, Takuma proves her wrong and he just takes y/n by the hands and skates her around using reiki to show her it’s okay.

(Further down I mention that y/n's CT is negating other 's CTs. It's always on, but in this instance, she can turn it off, because this is too cute of a scene to not imagine.)

Also, it’s just hella cute thinking about y/n standing on top of Takuma’s feet while he’s gliding around like a figure skater. (Plz someone write about this).

4. First

A continuation of Ino x Shy Reader

Remember how I head-cannoned that Takuma was a late bloomer? Yeah, well he just realized that y/n is a girl. Yeah, he's always known but now he's just noticing it! He didn’t just have a best friend, but a best friend that’s also a girl and a pretty one too! He didn’t think it was possible given that all the girls would run away from him screaming in middle school, but y/n never did! Y/n just always stood by him (when she stopped hiding) and listened whenever he would ramble about his current fixation.

Granted he was too dense to realize that y/n was freaked out by him when they were first getting to know each other, but it had less to do with him being weird and more to do with her past.

Though y/n was probably hardcore judging Takuma as a certified freak given that he was an endless ray of sunshine and kindness when just about every other sorcerer she was exposed to were all like the Zenins.

As for listening to him, y/n was just too shy to speak up then, and eventually, she got used to his constant yapping.

It was almost impossible for this boy to not crush on his only friend! But oh my god what is going to do?! He’s never had these feelings before, and what would y/n think?! She’s since become his little shadow, but she still doesn’t talk much so it’s hard for him to get a read on her. But it’s killing him on the inside because he doesn’t want to mess things up!

Insert Takuma trying to do a bunch of lame and cheesy things, trying to look cool in front of her but he just comes off as weirder than usual. (Lil’Takuma has 0 rizz and 0 bitches. Yet. ;) )

But also on top of trying to act cool all the time he has like the world's worst poker face (because duh, he wears a mask half the time so why does he need to work on it?) so he’s inexplicably grinning like a dork whenever he looks at her or caught staring.

But all the extra eye contact makes y/n self-conscious and nervous because she doesn’t know why he’s always looking at him and acting strange.

So y/n finally calls him out. She hasn’t figured out why he’s acting different but, Takuma at least knows now that she likes his usual dorky self.

So Takuma gives up on the cool guy act, but he can’t help but try to impress her every now and again because hey, he wants to make sure her attention stays on him despite y/n already being put off by most guys.

Y/n doesn’t tell him yet, that he's one of the only people who makes her feel safe, or at least the only person where she feels that she can let her guard down. Y/n is starting to get a crush too, she just hasn't fallen as hard as Takuma yet.

5. Flowers

A continuation of Ino x Shy Reader

(This probably happens before the fourth prompt)

Imagine Takuma on yet another attempt to get y/n to break out of her shell by taking her to a public park to look at the flowers because she’s always spending time in the garden at the school, but uh-oh Takuma’s middle school bullies just happen to be there too.

Why does someone as strong as Takuma have bullies? Because damn it, Lil’Takuma was a good bean who doesn’t want to fight people weaker than him because he thinks that’ll make him a bully too.

So imagine when Yyn steps away, Takuma’s bullies notice him and make him feel like the world’s biggest loser and he's silently praying that y/n doesn’t see this out of fear of her looking down on him.

But y/n is seeing it! But she’s also too scared to speak up because guys are scary, so she just waits until the bullies leave.

But then she asks Takuma why he didn’t do anything when he could easily beat all of their asses and he tells her his logic.

Then Y/n kind has this lightbulb moment where she realizes that Takuma is a safe guy to be around and finally decides to fully trust him.

However, as they carry on about their day they run into his bullies again and they start picking on him for hAnGiNg OuT wItH a GiRl.

And while all of the bullies are focused on Takuma, y/n does the unthinkable when the timid girl chucks a rock at the ring leader's head!

Insert scooby-doo chase where the bullies want to beat the hell out of y/n and Takuma is trying to run after her too because he knows what will happen if they catch her.

Thankfully, she’s super quick and tiny so she easily manages to escape.

Eventually, the two end up finding each other again in a random bush.

Insert Takuma asking why she’d put herself in danger like that and y/n explains that because she’s weaker it’s okay for her to fight them as it wouldn’t make her into a bully.

The two have some flawed logic, but they're both so innocent and sweet as they try to figure out what doing the right thing is.

Then Takuma has his own lightbulb moment when he realizes that the y/nn, who’s afraid of even the smallest of curses isn't as helpless as he thought.

It was a big concern that y/n didn't have it in her to be a sorcerer, but now Takuma is convinced that the others were wrong.

Y/n does have what it takes to not just be a sorcerer, but one of the good ones too, because she proved that she can be brave if it means helping others. The two of them just gotta figure out how to get her to act like that on missions.

Even better though, it means that Takuma has higher hopes that she won’t end up dropping out of school so that means he doesn't have to worry about losing her!

8. Childhood

A continuation of Ino x Shy Reader

Sort of an a/u idea in which the Ino clan was one of the first clans y/n’s parents went to to try and sell her off for marriage. I kinda imagine that the reason y/n is so sought after is because her CT makes her a living Inverted Spear of Heaven. Any technique or use of cursed energy within an arm's length around her is just automatically disabled. But to stop her from being OP, the downside is that she also can’t manipulate cursed energy or use RCT. She can’t reinforce her body with CE to be stronger, faster, etc. She’ll only ever be as tough as the average m̶o̶n̶k̶e̶y̶ human. So she’s definitely getting her ass kicked the second someone above her weight class comes rolling into the club.

They were both around the age of six when they first met before y/n became shy after being thrown at so many men. Just she and Ino were left to hang out while the adults talked. Of course, the two automatically clicked they were sheltered kids and never met another person their age with a CT before.

Y/n was new to this because she was born into a family of normal people and Ino had just gotten his CT and was eager to share it.

Cue those two running all over the courtyard as Takuma shows y/n all the cool stuff he can do and y/n is losing her mind as he skates around using Reiki and then summons a goddamn dragon.

But then y/n gets jealous because her technique isn’t flashy at all, she’s just stuck making things “boring” while all the cool stuff happens around her.

But then imagine what happens when Ino face plants as Reiki gets deactivated because he got too close to y/n.

A moment of silence and y/n panics because she thinks she hurt him. But then he lifts his face from the dirt and starts laughing.

Que all the chaos that they try to create when Ino thinks her CT would be the funniest thing ever to prank others with.

So these two goobers start trying to convince other members of Takuma’s family to think they all have broken CTs but everyone already knows who y/n is and the two are just really bad at hiding their laughter.

But then it’s time for y/n to leave and the two are absolutely heartbroken despite only knowing each other for a few hours.

Of course, Takuma’s parents would turn down the idea of buying anyone and an arranged marriage. They love their little boy too much to do that to him and unlike the other clans, they actually have morally good standards.

But on the other hand the two end up separated.

News spreads about y/n's CT and the bidding war begins with the Zenins being the highest and now they're just waiting until she’s old enough to marry.

Y/n ends up being miserable, closes herself off, and hating her technique.

Takuma goes back to being the friendless weird kid and they just slowly forget about each other.

Until they meet again years later and after months of getting to know the other one of them vaguely starts to remember that this isn’t their first time meeting.

Perhaps they're looking through some of Ino's old photos and they just happened to stumble across a picture taken by a relative of the two playing together.

Insert the two losing their minds when they both finally remember.

Random (For all the prompts I didn't have time for/couldn't think of something)

A continuation of Ino x Shy Reader

-Imagine y/n being so sheltered because of her parents that she just gets easily impressed with whatever Ino is trying to show her.

-And of course, it’s a big ego boost to Ino because someone is listening to him and thinks he’s like the smartest and toughest guy out there even though he’s kind of a dummy.

-But y/n is the real smarty pants because she needs to do good in school to avoid getting married so Ino just gets super proud of her when she surpasses him academically (not that it was hard for her to do.)

He definitely uses her to help study and copy notes from

-They just became each other’s biggest cheerleaders. Y/n wants Ino to become a first-grade sorcerer just as badly as he does, and Ino doesn't want to lose his bestist buddy if she were to fail.

-Eventually y/n finds herself thanks to Ino and ends up being as big of a goofball as him.

-Watch them magically share a single brain cell and only ever lock in if they’re on an important mission.

If they’re not laughing together then they're laughing at each other.

That one scene where Ino is trying to show off to Megumi and Nanami lectures him about it? Yeah, y/n is totally snickering in the background because “oooooh he got in trouble~”

-But heaven forbid someone other than them is laughing at the other. Someone is picking on Ino? Y/n is going bulldog mode and vice versa, yet somehow they struggle to stick up for themselves.

-He is the absolute neediest man on the planet, one paper cut and he’s running to y/n acting like he’s been shot and begging for her to take care of him.

-Or if he just wants attention, he’s throwing himself in y/n’s lap and sighing dramatically. He gets more persistent the longer she ignores him.

Yeah, that book y/n was reading? Well, now Ino is using it as a pillow to look straight up at her and pout.

Y/n doing some kind of craft? Well, he’s taking y/n's hand and placing it on his head for scritches.

-Alternatively, he’s gonna act like a big tough guy on missions to impress y/n even though they both know he’s Baby behind closed doors.

----------------------------- NSFW Below! -----------------------------

-Y/n has no idea how many times Takuma has hidden an awkward boner because of her. He was always such a gentleman when they were just friends, and of course, he didn't want to scare her away.

The internal panic he had whenever she got too close to finding out because she accidentally bumped into him.

There's probably been at least one instance where he's pushed y/n away to save her from an embarrassing moment and then had to endure y/n going off on him because he couldn't tell her why he shoved her.

-But now that they’re together he’s absolutely shameless when he gets one and they’re alone.

Will probably text her whenever he gets one (even the random boners) not because he's necessarily horny at the moment, but just because he knows it'll annoy her.

Other times he's so down bad he's begging for any sliver of help she'll give him.

-You can’t tell me that the man with a built-in slip-in-slide power doesn’t use reiki as lube. (Honestly surprised I haven’t seen someone say this yet.)

-Ino looks like the type of dude to just casually keep his hand down the front of his pants all the time when he’s at home. He ain’t even doing anything, he’s just casually holding the goods.

No matter how many times y/n tells Ino that after 21 years his dick still hasn’t gone away, he keeps doing it anyways.

-Ino 100% bought one of those clone-a-willy kits and gifted y/n with it thinking it was the greatest idea he’s ever had.

The idea was for y/n to use it whenever they're separated for long periods because of missions. Either she was still healing from a prior mission, or he had to go on one that was deemed too dangerous for her. Otherwise, they do almost all missions together.

-Ino gets super offended and acts like y/n had just kicked him down the stairs if she doesn’t use it.

He’s definitely asked y/n to send videos of her using it whenever he’s away for long missions.

-However, watch him try to back out of it and take his words back whenever y/n suggests using it on him. She just wiggles it in front of him and he starts running.

But y/n is insistent that if she can handle his cock all the time then why can't he? He finally backs down and agrees to try it (plz I need someone to write this too, it would be so fucking funny).

-Kitchen sex? Hell yes. This man is snick snaking while frick fracking. If y/n is cooking and he’s feeling horny, then Ino is running to hug her from behind and start working her until she’s feeling it too. All the while, this man is reaching over y/n to nibble at whatever she’s making. Hydration breaks are important, but why waste time taking a break when you can hydrate on the clock?

Honestly, Ino probably hovers in the kitchen regardless to be y/n's taste tester.

-Obligatory man has the stamina of a rabbit/thinks pussy counts as a legitimate meal. There isn’t a single surface in their shared apartment where Ino hasn’t taken y/n on.

-This man is always cooking up some new over-the-top scheme to get into y/n’s pants. No, he can’t just simply ask, this goober is strutting into the living room in just his underwear while y/n is trying to watch the news. Without a word, he’s dropping himself on y/n’s lap and dancing his heart out like the slut that he is.

Normally, I'd imagine that Ino likes to stay covered up and prefers his clothes to be baggy and comfortable.

However, he probably walks around the apartment in the nude far more often than he normally would if he were single. If only because he's trying to get a reaction out of y/n.

If she yells at him to put some clothes on, then he's achieved his mission. If she starts trying to jump his bones, even better.

-That being said, he's still the king of consent. Because his mamma didn’t raise no heathen, and because Nanami respects boundaries too.

-Watch how clumsy Takuma suddenly becomes when y/n sends him a single text that reads “I’m wet” and he’s sprinting back home, falling up the stairs, and tripping over every single thing in the apartment to the bedroom.

Again, Ino is either a slut or a goober. At any given time he can act like he's the bedroom expert, but then suddenly turn into a stumbling mess if y/n catches him off guard.  

Most often though, I can imagine him and y/n having a lot of very passionate sessions one moment, and then the second someone says or does something slightly off they start laughing like a pair of clowns.

Wouldn't be surprised if theirs been at least a couple of times where they've gotten so derailed with the jokes that they almost forgot to finish what they started.

[thunder-point]

Cole I'm sorry but I suddenly remembered this super funny thing that maybe is only funny to ME AHSGH but like.

so there's this popular meme(?) from Mean Girls where they're all talking about Regina like yeah she's flawless she has two Fendi purses etc.- and then Bethany goes "one time she punched me in the face ... it was awesome."

now imagine (because I'm terrible at video meme-ing) Peem's friends describing Peem. YEAH Peem's a great artist, he's kind and pretty , yeah he's so patient and loving—and then there's Phum— "one time he kicked me in the balls...it was awesome."

if anyone is reading this ask and CAN make this into a thing, please do 😔🙏

i don't know how to edit, or to draw, i just know how to yap (badly at times) so i will try to do my best for you my beloved.

but -- reading this i imagined a whole scenario that is solely ridiculous and maybe tender.

so i will say it to you, and i hope it puts a smile on your face.

as always. IMAGINE:

they are at parkingtoys for a night of drinking. the whole extended squad. and phumpeem have been official for a few weeks. still in their third year of university. so the situation is as it goes:

there's a senior from year 4 that peem really, but really respects. like so much. and he's so shy around this guy, because his technique for painting water is literal perfection or something.

let's call him... Top. Alright.

So that evening Top spots their big table, namely spots Peem and Q, and comes to salute them and ask how it's going with exams or something. And listen, Peem's friends know how Peem gets around this guy. How he gushes about his skill. Q has tried to make Peem go and ask for his Instagram for a while now, just so they can talk about painting and Peem can tell Top directly how much he loves his work.

So as soon as Top comes in and Peem greets him with a lowered head, a bashful smile and shyness in his voice, his friends jump to action.

"It's going great," Q starts, draping a casual arm around Peem. "This guy here got his third A in a row. I think I might have a competition this year for the third-year student with straight As on exams."

"I'm glad to hear that." Top smiles, before he looks around. "I see you guys made some new friends, too."

"All Peem's fault!" Tan cuts in, too solemn for his words. "He's just so friendly, you know? He charmed everyone in Engineering."

"So charming," Pun slurs out with a nod, way beyond tipsy. "Such a good friend."

"Have you had the pleasure of being his friend, Top?" Chain asks nonchalantly, despite doing his best to keep Pun upright. "Just saying, he's a pretty talented guy. You guys could talk about paints. Or something."

"Guys," Peem groans behind his palm, barely able to peek a look at a very amused Top.

And Phum? Well, he's just very confused. Like, Fang, Beer and Mick are confused. But Phum is truly confused. Maybe because he's a bit tipsy, or because their friends sound like they are trying to hook Peem, his boyfriend, with this guy. He knows a bit about Top. Knows that Peem kind of idolizes him. But why did Pun have to mention that he's charming?

At this point, Phum kind of wants to yank Peem under his arm and keep him hidden from the world. But then Top says, "I would love to be his friend, of course." And Peem's eyes get those glittering, dancing delights in his eyes, and he's peering at Top like he's bringing him a foreign part of the world, and how could Phum deny his boyfriend of this happiness?

So he tries to help, tries to join the charade of chatting Peem up -- platonically, of course.

Key word, tries.

He makes obvious eye contact with Top, face earnest, and he declares, "One time he kicked me in the balls... It was awesome. He's awesome."

Top blinks.

The table goes quiet, stupefied, except for Peem, who chokes on the drink he was having at that moment. He sputters the drink onto the table, and Phum immediately cups his cheeks to check if he's okay.

"Phum," Peem croaks, lips shiny with liquid and spit and eyes incredulous. "You can't just- Can't just say-"

At that point, Q and Chain begin to guffaw so hard Pun falls because of it, no longer supported by Chain. Tan is hiding his face behind a very amused Fang.

"What?" Phum mumbles, and then he throws his head back to give Top a frowny glance. "But he is awesome, even when he's angry. Trust me. Doesn't even matter that I went to the hospital because of-"

"Phum," Peem groans, hands trying desperately to cover Phum's mouth, to bring his head back. Phum is still babbling a bit. Just a bit. Because he needs to let this guy know just how awesome his boyfriend is. But then nimble fingers push into his lips and Peem murmurs, "Baby, that's enough. C'mere."

And Phum- Well. He flushes quicker than one can blink, before he buries his face in Peem's neck, who makes an endeared oof, despite embarrassment still coursing through him.

"And now he's shy," Q snorts. "Jesus fuck, Peem. Your boyfriend is something else.

It's that Peem rarely calls him baby in public, okay? And maybe he's more than a bit tipsy.

He hears Top say, "I didn't know you were in a relationship."

Phum makes sure to turn around just enough to give Top a look, before he says, "He is. Only I can get kicked in the balls by him, get it-"

Peem shoves Phum's face back in his neck with a choked-up sound, "I think we need to go. Enough alcohol for you."

Phum lets out a soft sound, arms coming around Peem's dainty waist. He nuzzles his collarbone. "Whatever you want, baby."

AAAND YEAH. JUST. Just endearment. I hope this was a fun read for you, alan

[pebblestompmyway]

Well, my favorite Kratt brother from Wild Kratts (I freaking loved that show when I was little), a drawing I've planned to post long time ago! Yeah, I tried a new painting technique for this in case you wonder.

Oh Lord! I wish I knew yesterday was his birthday..., but well... here it is now!

I hope you all like it :)

[giggly-squiggily]

Hi Squiggily I hope your having a nice day so far, can I please request ler! Shoko and Suguru lee! Satoru. I love these three so much and I wish we got to see more of them in the anime/manga.

But of course anon! :D I've gotcha covered- these three give me utter LIFE! (Honestly same- I wanted more! T-T) I hope you like it!

Cloud 9 (Taglist Peeps):

@thatbigbisexual29 @duckymcdoorknob @gladdygirl18 @baby-tickles2022 @cupcake-spice13 @rachi-roo @chibisstuff

“Hit me!” Gojo’s declared, grinning.

“Bet!” Geto winded his arm, ready to do so.

“....hm.” Geto lowered his arm, suspicious. “What happens if I do?”

“You won’t be able to.”

The green haired student raised a brow. Then he reached into his pocket, pulling out an eraser. Without any warning- he chucked it at Gojo’s head.

Boink!

“Gah! Okay- bad example.” Gojo rubbed his forehead, cheeks dusted pink as Geto and Shoko laughed. “Try to punch me! I need to be in immediate danger!”

“No way- what if your new technique doesn’t work?” Geto’s brows furrowed as he looked upon his friend. Sure, he wanted to strangle Gojo from time to time, but to really punch him out…”I’m heavy handed- you might die.”

“I’ll be fine! Trust me!” Gojo grinned, eyes dancing behind his glasses. “What- scared you’re gonna look like a wimp?”

Geto’s eye twitched, smile dangerous. “Very well.”

A fist was raised. Gojo raised his chin, closing his eyes.

“Ehehe!”

What came wasn’t the stinging pain of a fist, but rather a sudden jab to his ribs. Twisting around, he found Shoko standing behind him with a cheeky grin. “What- Shoko!”

Another poke- then another. “Come on- block me. You said you need to be in danger, yeah?” She snickered as he squirmed, giggles pushing past his lips with little resistance. “This counts as danger, yeah? Or this? Or this?”

“Ahehheheahha! S-Shohohohoko, you suuhuhuhuck! Gehahahhahaha stahhahahap!” Gojo pressed his arms into his sides, trying to block out her hands. “Suuhuhuhuhuguru, heheheehhelp!”

“Help huh? I suppose I could.” Geto grinned as he walked over, fingers poised and wiggling. “Come here, Satoru.” “Oohoho no! Dohoohohn’t you dare!” Gojo tried to run, darting left and narrowly avoiding their grasp. He was running now, flying down the path with Geto hot on his trail. “No! No stay away-AH!”

A curse formed at his feet, tripping him and sending him tumbling. Geto was on him seconds later, fingers finding his ribs once more and drawing out even more laughs from the pale haired teen. “Suhuhuhuhuguru dohohohohoohn’t!”

“Don’t what?”

“Tihihiihihihickle mehehhehehehe!”

“Tickle you? Okay! Shoko you hear that? Satoru wants us to tickle him!” Geto called over his shoulder to their friend, still tickling. “Come help me!”

“Okay.” Shoko tossed the but of her cigarette to the ground, crushing it beneath her foot before bouncing over.

“Nohohoho! Nohohoho, not you TOHOOHHOOHOHO!” Gojo all but squealed when two extra hands came down upon him, pinching along his knees. “NOHOHOHOHO NOT THE KNEHEHEHHEHEES!”

“Oo, bad spot? And I thought his ribs were bad!” Geto laughed, adjusting himself so Shoko had more room. “Do you think his hips are too?”

“Only one way to find out.” Shoko reached down, squeezing his hip with delicate fingers.

The noise Gojo let out couldn't be described as human.

“AHEAHAHHAHHA! STHAHAHAHAP IIHIHIHIHIHIT!” Gojo cried through his mirth, tears forming behind his sunglasses as he swatted at their ever present hands. No matter where he blocked- something on him was ticklish! “PLEAHHAHAHAHSE ENOOHOHOOHUGH!”

The tickles came to an immediate halt. Gojo gasped for air, lying across the ground as he weakly curled his arms around himself. “Ahehehe…hehehe..thihihis suchks. It dihihihdn’t work…”

“What, your so-called force field?” Geto raised a brow. “Maybe you need to work on it more.”

Shoko was quiet. Then she scooted up to Gojo’s face. Without warning, she brought down her raised arm, pen in hand. Gojo’s eyes widened-

The pen stopped inches from his nose, suspended by an invisible force.

“Wow. It worked.” She mused, pulling her hand away and watching the pen hover over Gojo’s gaping face. “Guess you need to be in true danger for it to work.”

“Wow…HA! I KNEW IT!” Gojo cheered, yelping when the pen dropped, bouncing off his sunglasses. “I knew my limitless technique would work!”

“You're truly getting stronger by the day.” Geto spoke softly as Shoko and Gojo laughed, trying to stab him again with the pen. “Hey- does that mean what I think it means?”

“What?” Gojo and Shoko asked, pen halfway down to his face.

“If you can recognize you’re not in immediate danger, your limitless technique won’t activate. Or that what’s to come isn’t all that unpleasant.” Geto started to grin, enjoying the look of shock and embarrassment spreading over Gojo’s face. “Does that mean you like us tickling you?”

Shoko perked up, equally amused. Gojo flushed as he backed away, looking anywhere but them. 

“Oh what do you know- my little test worked! Hehe- I better go report it to the Masa-Sensei; gotta go- BYE!” Gojo all but scrambled to his feet, running for the hills and his friends laughed themselves silly.

Thanks for reading!

[lavendarlily]

yeah of course my first fic for @phicphight is gonna be crack

for the prompt that wasn't a prompt by @faeriekit

am i doing this right?

prompt: PR096 - No prompt, just a note; I can't guarantee I understand the format of the prompts required here.

words: 777

click here to read on ao3

jack stumbles across something troubling, but finds the light at the end of the tunnel.

Finally. He had the house to himself. Jazz was at a study group, Maddie went to test some weapons in the field, and Danny… well, all Jack knew was that Danny wasn’t home. 

Jack loved his family - so incredibly much that it was a miracle you could fit all that love into one man (even one at Jack’s size). Yet between the needs of his children and assisting his wife with her inventions, it was difficult to find a moment for himself. Believe it or not, Jack Fenton did in fact have interests and hobbies outside of ghosts. It was just hard to make time for them, and boy was that new yarn burning a hole in his crafts closet, just waiting to be used. First, there were a few techniques he wanted to research before really digging in.

He fetched the laptop from the basement, and grabbed a soda from the fridge on his way to the living room. Jack settled in, feet resting on the coffee table since Maddie wasn’t home to tell him otherwise. He opened the computer, and groaned to himself when a myriad of open tabs took over the screen.

He’d told the kids so many times! Close your tabs after using the computer! He was always afraid of accidentally closing or deleting something they needed or hadn’t saved. There was also a sense that looking through their history was an invasion of privacy, but whoever had used the computer last would have to give up that privilege. He carefully clicked through the tabs, making sure there wasn’t anything potentially important before exiting out of each one. At least his kids had been doing their homework - Shakespeare analyses, essay writing tips, and hey! They’d found a tutor through some site called ChatGPT that was helping them with their assignment. 

He was almost done, ready to dive into video tutorials on achieving the perfect cross-stitch, when he paused. Though Jack tried not to linger on a page longer than he deemed necessary, this one caught his attention. An all too familiar face stared back at him - multiple faces - arranged against a blue background. Jack squinted his eyes at the search bar, reading it aloud.

“Tum-bl-er,” he said slowly. What the hell was this? Jack was certainly concerned at the amount of Phantom propaganda on the screen, leading to an even more troubling question: Which of his kids had fallen under the ghost boy’s spell to have ended up on a hell-site like this?

He scrolled through post after post of photos taken by Amity Park locals, elaborate drawings of the ghost kid, musings of his origins and whereabouts and… oh gosh… love-life. Who were these people worshiping Phantom like this? And why was Jack still looking at it?

It was like a car crash - he couldn’t look away. However, this led him to one post that finally gave Jack a semblance of hope. 

Phic Phight.

Jack knew he was no genius, but he side-eyed the misspelling and continued to skim through the rest of it. Fighting was all he needed to hear, especially if there was a group of people who idolized Phantom like… this. The ghost kid needed to go. These people needed to be saved from his manipulation! The words “Team Human” jumped out at Jack from the text, and without needing any more convincing that this is where he needed to be, he clicked the link that led to where he could sign up. 

He skipped through all the boring information and went straight into entering his information. There were a few questions he didn’t know how to answer, but he was Jack Fenton! Anyone who was organizing against the ghost problem that plagued Amity Park knew where to find him. 

There were only a few questions left, labeled as “Prompts”. Jack wasn’t too certain what it meant, but he could only envision it as where to leave suggestions for the best ways to defeat and capture Phantom. He entered the words electrocute, net, and Fenton Bazooka. He felt a little guilty for not understanding the entire gist of what was going on, so he also left a quick note for the organizer in hopes they would be forgiving.

Jack clicked the submit button at the bottom of the page and smiled to himself. He couldn’t wait to meet all these other folks interested in the well-being of their town. Team Human. It had a nice ring to it. He’d be sure to let Maddie know when she returned - who wouldn’t want the Fentons on their team?

And maybe… he could even get his boy Danny in on it too. 

[ren-the-glitch]

Going to quickly clear up why I haven't been posting as much. I recntly started going to a new school, after graduating from my previous school. Not sure if this kind of school is a thing in other countries, so quick explaination.It requires me to do an internship for the first year and it's more like a highschool, but like college you get to choose a major. Going to a higher level of school and my internship has taken up a lot of my time, hence the slowed down upload schedule.

But my major is art, so I'll be able to have time at school to study the fundementals of art to improve the illustrations I make and post here. The new school is stressful and takes up a lot of my time, but I'm happy with it. I'll try and find a good balance between school, my internship and my youtube channel.

Anyways onto actually talking about this drawing. So I watched the I'm In Love With The Villainess anime and found it very fun. I wanted to do a drawing similar to those cover illustrations for jrpgs, you know where the main characters have their full body drawn and the side characters are drawn around them. This did mean drawing a lot of characters and this drawing taking a really long time. Though I still enjoyed working on this.

I also tried out a new technique for the shading. I drew saturated lines onto the edge of the shadows. This is to add more interest to the shading and colors, plus it just looks fun. I also found that it makes the shadows more crisp and stand out more, so yeah, I'll definitely keep using this technique.

[littleeyesofpallas]

So, Shutara in the anime, huh?

okay okay yeah i got around to e13 this morning and I see what everyone was excited about. Some of the new lore i'm a little iffy on, but ooo the visual designs are more than enough for me to chew on.

So the obvious highlight is Shutatsu Karagara Shigaraminotsuji[娑闥迦羅骸刺絡辻]

Shutatsu[娑闥]: Oldwoman* gate

*weirdly this kanji does not appear to be commonly used in Japanese at all, but does have the Japanese specific(as in Chinese and Korean don't use it this way) meaning of "old woman" but I have no idea in what context it would be used or if there is some other usage of it that could be evoked here other than to mean "old woman."

The "Gate" in question though seems to be a more obviously superficial reference to the shape of the bankai itself using the bits of sewing machine to make a tori gate.

Karagara[迦羅骸]: "Kala" Husk

So it appears that the Kara[迦羅] here is from the Chinese writing[摩訶迦羅] of the Sanskrit Mahakala[महाकाल] which is alternatively named Daikokuten[大黑天] in Japanese, and is a Buddhist god of wealth. (it is also the way the Japanese write the name of a 6th century Korean kingdom? but that doesn't feel relevant here...)

But of note, the Japanese name itself made up of ka[迦] which has no meaning(?) and is just used phonetically? and ra[羅]: referring to "Silk" or "gauze" or other similar lightweight fabric. The -ra at least seems to have more literal applications here, but honestly it feels less pertinent next to the extremely conspicuous word choice...

And gara[骸] is "shell"/"husk" and other similar things that get left behind when you remove the innards. The character itself can also mean a "corpse"/"cadaver" but not generally when it's pronounced as "gara." (The image it evokes to me is letting a robe or gown slide off your shoulders and drop to the ground, the robe being the "husk.")

(but apparently some people think this could be a play on the sanskrit karagara[कारागार], meaning a "prison"/"jail" or otherwise "place of confinement"? But i have no idea why anyone would have chosen the kanji in question to approximate that... I'll be honest, I don't buy it; it gives me very "I'll send you to the netherlands!" translation flub vibes. The techniques themselves do feel reminicent of the Buddhist naraka in theme and aesthetic, but the leap from "prison" to "naraka" seems unsubstantiated by the wordplay here.)

Shigarami-no-tsuji[刺絡辻]: Bloodletting crossroads

shiraku[刺絡] is the bloodletting technique used in old Chinese medicine. It's sometimes thrown under the umbrella of "acupuncture" but the methods are different. Where as the needles in acupuncture are meant to be precise and release pressure, the blood letting involves a few semi-random pricks in a localized area and then the use of a heat cup to create a vacuum that draws the blood out.(better than leeches at least...) The thing with the heat cups is what's being referred to here.

But broken down it's, shi[絡] "thorn"/"prick"/"splinter" + kara[絡]: "entangled"/"entwined"/"enmeshed"/"wrapped up in" etc... literally describing being "in the middle of (many) needles"

tsuji[辻]: a "crossroad." Nice and straight forward.

my issue however is that I'm not entirely sure where the "mino" phonetics here came from, or what that very deliberate choice of alternate reading might mean in this context... (see comments section)

(also, sorry if anyone's squeemish about cups full of blood, but I tried to find an image that at least obscured the actual needle wounds)

and then there is...

Shideno Rokushiki Ukimonnohata[死出六色浮文機]

Shideno[死出], lit."death+exit" a more specific term for "Death" from shide-no-yama[死出の山]: "mountain of death" that refers to a mountain the dead cross to get into the afterlife. Appropriately evoked by forcing the Sternritter each through their own illusory ordeal.

Rokushiki[六色]: "Six Colors" appears to just refer to the fact that there were 6 of them.

Ukimonno Hata[浮文機]: "Brocade Loom." "Brocade" being made up of the words [浮文]: "Floating+Character" referring to the raised patterning. and [機] being a kanji for "machine" but when pronounced "hata" it specifically refers to a loom or other textile machine.

Much easier to pick apart by comparison at least...

[kimeoshi]

‘Twas both 👁👁, but yeah honestly I’m very interested cause damn- (sorry if I seem awkward I’m not good with online interaction 😭😭 LMAO)

NAH no worries you're doing fine!!

It's a pretty wide array of topics but touching the surface of it, I'll go into my art process.

Here's a short thread where I went into this similarly!

I pretty much follow the steps of what I mentioned there, but it varies a little bit based on the style I go for too: painting whole illustrations or design or more simple fun things.

I could describe what I did in each frame of my process gifs which I've posted before but I would need some time. With big pieces, the steps I go by (read slowly, it's a pretty dense text):

thumbnailing -> sketching with bigger shapes to get the line of action/feel (that is, I'm just blocking out the composition) -> refine that a bit -> hide BG, draw the characters (lineart) and add the base colors of them. (then merge & rasterize a copy of it for later) -> put them back in the environment (unhide BG), make them grey -> add shading in greyscale style (multiply layers, glow dodge layers, you name it) -> get that previous rasterized layer back and put it on color mode -> those characteristic shiny parts get a new layer with overly saturated + high brightness colors -> color BG with a new color layer -> then rendering/refining for concerning amounts of time -> add effects and change color/brightness/contrast curves + gradient map -> profit???

For software, I generally use Paint Tool SAI (I adore blending/painting here), I use Clip Studio Paint for the 3D posing library/sketching/lineart, and Photoshop for final effects. (Update: I mostly do all things in CSP now)

(if you have CSP, try out this brush... it saved my life)

As for improvement:

I experiment, watch a lot of youtube videos (I personally like the ones which analyse an artist). I suggest thoroughly understanding how something moves and works (for anatomy I can recommend the book 'Anatomy for Sculptors'), I also study and jot down important pieces of advice or insights to a collective document, rather than saving them to my device where it is highly likely to be forgotten.

I believe if you put great importance on colors and composition, that can cause the most noticeable, 'fastest' improvement, at least if you view it from the lens of social media. (While online environments provide significant reassurance, it must be engaged with in moderation, as it is easy to fall into a lot of negative mindsets, taking the enjoyment out by perfectionism, comparison, or seeking validation, etc.)

Another improvement technique you can try is to slow down a speedpaint video of your choice and follow along with the artist. Extremely useful, I recommend, put your artist under a microscope.

Of course I don't do all of these things every single waking hour, it's just a side hobby to my unrelated studies in real life. Even if you don't actively draw your visual library and knowledge can improve passively, I find that so fascinating. I don't touch a paper for months and there's a sudden jump, like damn what. (Not saying you should do this, active learning is still better ofc) Either way my point with that is, that improving does and did take a lot of time for me as well.

Apologies if this goes all over the place, I tried to touch upon every subject that came to mind at the moment, in not too much in detail, overall I hope it makes sense

If you have any specific questions related, feel free to ask! Or if there's any specific problem you'd like to tackle but find yourself lost, same applies!

[shakooo]

Hey Shakoo!! I have a silly question, if you don't mind answering :):

So you mentioned you use Toonsquid, correct? Well I noticed how you kinda make more animatic style videos, like not frame-by-frame. I was wondering how you make more "animatic style videos" instead of smooth animation on an app mostly used for smooth animation. Sorry if that makes zero sense 💀 I wanna make a YouTube channel and try again on TikTok with just art, and I just needed a little help. You're a huge inspiration to me <3

Thank you!!

hiiiii Mel sorry for taking so long to respond :(

but weeeell answering your question YEP i use toonsquid and about the rest mhhhm first of all i want to clarify that i am veryVERY new to this "animate" thing since i was barely able to get Toonsquid TwT

and there really are MANY techniques to make an animatic, but well, and all i know is cuz over the years i have seen thousands of artists make animatics, and now that i can try to animate i am trying to apply what i was able to se so i also recommend watching tutorials if you don't understand my explanation (i not understood well what you meant by "like not frame by frame" srry 😭 if i explained something totally different from what you were referring to,but don't worry) i'll still try to explain to you how i do it ^v^

(ig you can't see something in the images, just tell me, and i can send them to you by DM)

| i tried to make a mini video to explain it, maybe it's not the best example but yeah |

here something that i can recommend is not to work with less fps, for example a canvas of 2-4 fps, that indicates are the drawings that you need to form a second, like if you use a canvas with 2 fps , you will only use 2 drawings to form a second, although i say this from personal experience cuz before when i """animated""" in Procreate i tried to make an animatic and it was very uncomfortable, because i thought that to make an animatic i needed less fps jaksjka

but i say this from my own experience, maybe you can do that and i'm telling you the opposite😭JAKSJKAJA

AAAAND i hink that's all i can say, and what i know, i'm sorry if you don't understand much of what i said, but explaining things is difficult for me without avoiding going too far TT-TT

i also hope this helps you!!! i am realy glad you consider me an inspiration IT MEANS A LOT TO ME!🥺💖🫶 and k also wish you the best with your new start on YouTube and tiktok :'>>> if you dedicate yourself to this and put effort into it you will go faaaar

[acheronist]

how did you start learning tattooing? what made you want to try it?

ohh... hm. Well. Okay to be so honest and short and easy with you I was really depressed and having my quarter life crisis and so I picked it up as a way to try and get myself back on track with like. being alive + doing something semi-meaningful with my life lol

here's the longer detail stuff that I fear is a bit too tenderhearted to just have out in the open

💌

near the end of last year (november-ish) I was yapping with a friend of mine from art school who ended up getting into tattooing after we had graduated, and explaining that i didn't like how publishing illustration was treating me and i felt like i was spinning my wheels and going nowhere. so she really encouraged me to give tattooing a shot? because I needed to do something different and she thought my art style could be really well suited for tattooing... and ofc i've been tangentially aware of tattoo culture but i was always kind of too scared that I wasn't like........ GOOD OR COOL ENOUGH? FOR IT? it seemed very intense and like there wasn't going to be room for me yknow. but anyways after talking with my friend i started doing a lot of research about like.. the history of tattoo culture and how techniques developed over the centuries and what are the popular styles now and what modern health/safety expectations of tat artists are now etc. just kind of taking it all in. following a lot of artists on social media etc and talking to my friend about what her apprenticeship entailed... but I bought myself a shitty cheap tattoo kit online in december and spent most of december-february just trying to teach myself how to handle a rotary pen machine and get a feel for it? and basically spent all of my time either playing around with my machine and fake practice skins or drawing or researching about tattoo history. and then in february/march I redid my whole portfolio with some neo trad designs + my other illust work and started visiting some local shops and basically just begging for 15 minutes to talk to someone in the industry and figure out if I was hopeless or not lmaooo. I went to about five shops and got soundly rejected / turned down from all of them, so I was really taking it as a sign that I should give up? but then the last shop I was going to try was like. idk it felt different and way more optimistic than everywhere else I'd tried at.... the artists on break at the time all took a chance to look thru my portfolio and talk to me, the shop owner is an angel, and so we went from "can I just ask for your professional opinion on if I suck at this or not" to getting introduced to everyone as they were working like "this is isabel she's gonna be our new apprentice!😊" which was!!!!!! CRAZY.

and so it took about two weeks after that before one of the more experienced artists in the shop was like 🙄 Fine I will teach another fucking apprentice I guess. Whatever. and I was like oh no he hates me. (turns out there's some shop lore about how awful the last apprentice was and everyone was kind of waiting to see if I'd turn out the same way) so I've just been working really hard ever since to prove I'm serious and now I'm everyone's favorite little idiot in my shop eheheh

but yeah! so I've been apprenticing officially in my shop since the end of march!!! just learning and trying to be helpful for my artists and trying to take it on the chin that I'm brand new and still learning and have a long way to go yet without getting miserable about it... but I feel very optimistic and way better now than I did in december, and everyone in my shop is soooo so kind and encouraging of my progress it really does feel like... Oh there is hope for me after all!

but yeah anyways. I just wanted to have an archive of my work as I progress and improve? so now everyone who follows my stupid ass blog has to bear witness to me being slightly bad at tattooing for months yet xoxoxo