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sainamoonshine · 2 years ago

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On paint, primary colours, and why your art teacher didn’t lie to you after all.

An explainer by SainaMoonshine

Sources: dude just trust me

Introduction: colour theory and what the internet has been telling you about it

So if you’re an artist and make digital art, or have spent any time at all online in the last 10+ years, you probably know about RGB colours versus CMYK colours.

A quick recap, just to make sure that we’re all on the same page: RGB colours is the way that your screen shows colours to you, and the way it does that is by blasting light at your eyeballs. Different light waves are perceived by your eyes as different colours. It’s called an “additive” colour model because when your eyes perceive all of the possible wavelengths at the same time, you see white. When you see no light at all (and therefore no wavelengths), you perceive that as black. So, in order to make combinations of colours, I need to combine wavelengths. Your eyes have receptors for the wavelengths of green (useful to our evolution because almost everything on this planet is some sort of green), red, and blue. So when your eye sees a wavelength that’s in between green and red it tells your brain “eeeh that’s probably yellow I guess.”

(This is, incidentally, the reason why we see magenta. Light has no corresponding wavelength for that sort of super-pink that is magenta. When it waves faster than red it becomes infrared light, which we can’t see, and when it waves faster than violet it becomes ultraviolent, which we also can’t see. But when your brain perceives a bit of red and a bit of blue, it basically just shrugs and makes up a colour to fill the blank. This is not important to the rest of this explainer, I just wanted to mention it because it’s neat.)

Given that, computer screens don’t really need to shoot all of the wavelengths at you; they only need to shoot those three primary wavelengths at different intensity and your brain adds up how much blue, red and green it sees and then makes up what colour it “should” be seeing.

(so yeah, basically when you see yellow on a screen you’re more-or-less hallucinating it. Sorry.)

Anyway that is how old computer screens used to work, with each pixel made out of three teeny-tiny little dot of red, blue and green light. Is that still how screens work now that they are flat? Who knows. Technology is magic, etc.

Now, about that other colour scheme that you might have heard about. CMYK. It’s called a “substractive” colour model and it’s the mode that you should set your photoshop file on if you intent to print something. Why is is substractive? Well, that is because when you print, you don’t print with light. You print with ink, which is basically a bunch of tiny pigment particles (or dye particles, but the distinction isn’t important here) suspended in a liquid (or a goo, or in the form of a powder). Assuming that you are printing on white paper, each layer of ink that you put down basically prevents light from bouncing off that paper and entering your eye. So when you combine colours using a physical medium like ink, you don’t get white. You get progressively LESS white, in fact. All of the inks mixed together will grab ALL of the colour waves and prevent them from richoteting into your peepers, so basically that resulting mix will appear as more-or-less black. (An ACTUAL black ink is added to printers for several reasons, one of which being that mixing cyan, magenta and yellow makes some sort of super-dark-brown-but-not-quite-black black that’s not super great to look at, and another reason being that coating a page of paper in three colours of ink is often time way too much ink than what that page can absorb. One pass of nice black is better than three superposed passes of other colours, especially when it results in a yucky subpar black anyway.)

So, basically:

When you colour with light = Red, Green and Blue are considered primary colours

When you colour with ink = Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are considered primary colours

…

Wait. Hold on. Didn’t my elementary school teacher tell me that Red, Yellow and Blue are the primary colours?

Congratulations! We have reached the reason I’m writing this explainer in the first place. And it is to tell you to stop listening to the self-proclaimed art experts on the internet that will scream at you all day that Red, Yellow and Blue are BAD and if you use them as primary colours you should feel bad and your elementary art teachers lied to you.

Because, the thing is? Go to any art store right now and try to buy a “primary colours” set of acrylics paint. It’s red, yellow, and blue. All of them are, in fact. Every single acrylics paint manufacturer in the world is selling beginners sets with Red, Yellow, and Blue as the main primary colours. Are they all wrong???? Are they lying to me, too??? Is the rando on youtube right and it’s a conspiracy???

No it’s not. Calm down. Go back up a few lines, read what I said again: When you colour with ink = Cyan, Magenta and Yellow are considered primary colours

Ink.

INK.

Ink and paint aren’t the same thing. They behave differently, my dudes.

Read more to find out why!

Why does it matter?

Because people on the internet are wrong and it bothers me.

But also, let’s say that you want to buy paint a do some art. You are standing there, frozen in the middle of the aisle at the local art store, staring at all of these tubes of red and magenta and cyan and blue and you don’t know what to do. You WANT to get the nice box of “all the essential colours” because it’s on sale, but it doesn’t have magenta and cyan, and all of the super famous art influencers on tiktok have filled your brain with the idea that red and blue are BAD and only cyan and magenta are the TRUTH. What do????

First off, I want to give you a solid reminder that no amount of mixing paint will make a nicer colour than one from a pure pigment. I know you wanna buy some yellow and blue (cyan?) and make all matter of greens with them. No green you mix will be as nice as a tube of green made with a green pigment. That doesn’t mean “do not mix colours”! Not at all!

It means: I’m about to tell you it’s possible to mix yellow and red to make orange and I don’t want you to point at the tube of cadmium orange and tell me that you didn’t manage to get this EXACT hue and therefore I’m lying. I know you can’t mix cadmium orange. You can mix something that looks at LOT like cadmium orange, okay? Okay.

So, with all that said. What primary colours SHOULD you get? Because the internet is screaming about Cyan-Magenta-Yellow but all the acrylics kits are Red-Yellow-Blue, so like. What’s up with that?

Yeah, what’s up with that? How *do* inks and paints behave differently?

The main difference between ink and paint is the binder. That’s the substance that creates the “base” of the product, and little teeny-tiny particles of pigments float inside and those make the colour. With ink, the binder is typically translucent and liquid. With paint, the binder is typically a sort of paste that may or may not be translucent.*

*This is a gross over-simplification for the purpose of entertainment. I am not a colour scientist.

Which means that when thinking about colour mixes, one must keep in mind that you can’t really add white in an ink. (I mean, you can, but you’ll get a cloudy liquid that is no longer translucent, AND it will mess up your texture. I know there are white inks. DO NOT mix them with regular ink.)

Let’s say that I want to make a red ink less red. I want to make it paler. The way to do that is to dilute it. Adding more liquid to red ink = fewer red pigments per drop of ink. I now have a paler, more liquidy and translucent ink, and when I spread it on white paper it looks pink-ish. (I personnally think that diluted red looks like diluted red and not pink, but ymmv)

But even after diluting my ink like that, I can still colour something “red”. I’ll need to apply that ink several times on my artwork in successive passes, and it will be a pain in the ass, but eventually I will still be able to get “red” out of that ink bottle because I didn’t change the colour, not really.

But what about paint?

Paint is different in that usually you want it to be opaque. (DISCLAIMER I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT WATERCOLOUR PAINT HERE DO NOT @ ME)

So if the red paint you’re using has a translucent binder, adding more binder is kind of eeeeh. I mean you’ll get a less “aggressively red” red, sure, but also a less opaque paint. Which isn’t great. (Again, I am not talking about watercolours)

BUT! Here’s the thing: you can add white to your paint. It’s okay. In fact, it’s encouraged! And a lot of premixed paint will already be premixed with a white binder, usually Titanium white because it makes for a nice bright base that really makes those other colours pop (and also it’s not lead). Some kits of acrylic paints might also come with a tube of white specifically labelled as “mixing white”!

So if you, as an artist who likes tubes of premixed paint and didn’t even know someone could make their own paint, wants a paler red, what you’re gonna do is add white. Which will probably make a nice pink, or at the very least a red-with-white-in-it sort of colour.

You have now successfully made your paint paler, but now there is no amount of superposed layers you can paint that will eventually result in red, because we’re juggling two pigments here, not just the one. And also this paint is opaque. (Not watercolour)

Okay but what does that have to do with primary colours?

It has everything to do with them! A “primary colour” is a colour that cannot be created from mixing other ones. Given that I cannot add white to make inks brighter, then the primary ink colours are those that are the brightest and most luminous on the colour wheel: cyan, magenta, and yellow. Blue, being darker than cyan, can be created by mixing cyan ink with a little bit of magenta ink, but cyan ink will never happen from blue no matter how much I dilute it or try to mix it with something else. Because the way to create cyan from blue would have to involve making it lighter, which I can’t meaningfully do with an ink.

But I can do it with paint! I can take some blue paint and add a bunch of white and a liiiiiiitle dab of yellow and voilà! Something that looks a lot like cyan had been produced. (Remember my earlier disclaimer that no paint mix is going to be as nice and shiny and vibrant as a pure pigment from the tube? Yeah, it applies here. I’m not saying that you can use blue and white and yellow paint to make something exactly like what comes out of the tube of cyan, but you can come pretty dang close.)

Same with magenta! No way no how am I ever going to make a decent magenta from red ink, but all I need is some red paint and some white and a soupçon of blue and I can make myself a pretty damned good magenta-ish paint mix. (Idem, straight from the tube > colour mixes, but good enough is what interests us here, not perfect match because perfect match just isn’t possible NO MATTER which primary colour wheel you use)

Oh, so what you’re saying is that the primary colours of paint is indeed Red, Yellow, and Blue?

Not really. You can also make red paint with magenta (+ yellow) paint. And blue paint out of cyan (+ red) paint.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Truth is that when it comes to acrylics and other types of paint (not watercolour I don’t know anything about that and in any case I inagine it would behave much like ink), you can conceivably mix almost every colour from other colours except yellow (and white). It takes some messing around but yeah. A cyan-magenta-yellow or a red-yellow-blue starter set is equally functional in theory.

Wait, so which do I choose?

It all depends on what you’re trying to paint and how much mixing you are mentally prepared to do. For example, in order to make a nice pale but vibrant green, you either need to start from a cyan + yellow or dick around with the blue to bring it down to a cyan-level of brightness and THEN mix it with yellow.

Similarly, if you want a deep dark forest green and you only have a cyan, you’re gonna have to darken that up with a little bit of red towards a more royal blue type thing before mixing it with yellow. Otherwise you might make the mistake of taking the acid green result of a cyan+yellow mix and say “oh hey I’m gonna make this green darker by adding some black!” and that’s the devil talking.

Orange mixed are also brighter when made with red rather than magenta, given that magenta has a blue undertone. Similarly, magenta = better purple.

To be quite honest, the cyan and magenta paints are so very bright that they tend to create colour mixes that aren’t “natural”, so that’s why most paint kits start you off with red and blue. If you start painting straight off the bat with the most aggressively bright hues in the colour wheel because some rando on Instagram got it into your head that a starter paint kit HAS TO include cyan and magenta, you’re going to end up with acid-green tree leaves and magenta-petaled flowers and wondering why your landscapes look wrong, even though you bought the bestest of most correct paints ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You could also just buy a kit that has all five colours, plus white and black (and maybe a decent brown). Reject conformity! Refuse to take a stance in the ‘Primary colours’ debate! There is no primary paint colour except yellow anyway! Wake up sheeple!!!

So that’s a couple of thousand words of colour theory infodumping just to say… what was your point again?

My point is that I was trying to google something about colour mixing with blue, red and yellow and saw that the internet was inundated with thousands of dumbass « oh my goooooood your art classes LIED to you about the primary colours!!!! Check out these kindergartners who are being gaslighted into thinking they should paint with red and blue paints!!! The colour wheel DEBUNKED!!! » videos and I got annoyed. It’s annoying. It’s inaccurate and it’s wrong and I’m mad about it. Red and blue are fine, the local art store isn’t scamming you by not including cyan in the starter paint pack, and your colour wheel « debunking » is ridiculous because you’re only mixing with red and yellow and blue without using white at all and then you tell me that red and yellow doesn’t result in magenta. Ofc it doesn’t, magenta’s a breed of pink, you absolute walnut!!

Anyway, TL;DR: red and yellow and blue are good starter colours for paint, CMYK is Big Ink propaganda, and yellow & white are the only true « primary » colours when it comes to paints.

#art #colour theory #if the read more doesnt work I am so sorry #art explainer #colour science #infodumping #source: i am autistic

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beatlesonline-blog · 2 years ago

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bretwonnacott · 5 years ago

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These two things just go together. #superposed #browning #browningrules #sharptail #nomoretastelesschicken https://www.instagram.com/p/B3QZ-1DlC_P/?igshid=xc52ss73h1oy

#superposed #browning #browningrules #sharptail #nomoretastelesschicken

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apod · 3 years ago

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2021 July 13

Saturn's Iapetus: Painted Moon in 3D Image Credit: NASA, ESA, JPL, SSI, Cassini Imaging Team; 3D Rendering: NASA's VTAD

Explanation: What has happened to Saturn's moon Iapetus? Vast sections of this strange world are dark brown, while others are as bright white. The composition of the dark material is unknown, but infrared spectra indicate that it possibly contains some dark form of carbon. Iapetus also has an unusual equatorial ridge that makes it appear like a walnut. To help better understand this seemingly painted moon, NASA directed the robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn to swoop within 2,000 kilometers in 2007. Iapetus is pictured here in 3D. A huge impact crater seen in the south spans a tremendous 450 kilometers and appears superposed on an older crater of similar size. The dark material is seen increasingly coating the easternmost part of Iapetus, darkening craters and highlands alike. Close inspection indicates that the dark coating typically faces the moon's equator and is less than a meter thick. A leading hypothesis is that the dark material is mostly dirt leftover when relatively warm but dirty ice sublimates. An initial coating of dark material may have been effectively painted on by the accretion of meteor-liberated debris from other moons.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210713.html

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cyanid-apple · 4 years ago

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[ID: watercolour and pencil illustration of the bust of a white man with curly yellow hair. His left eye looks like it is melting, and is brown. His right eye is four superposed eyes, that are magenta. He is wearing a white shirt and a baby pink and baby blue striped suit. The entire illustration is shaded randomly in red, orange, blue, green or purple. End ID]

Michael Distortion my beloved

#tma #tma fanart #fanart #michael distortion #anyway #headcanon that the spiral really fucked up his eyes when he was taken #to be sure to completely sever whatever connection to the Eye he might still have #body horror #eye trauma #eyestrain #cy makes art #🪡#🔅

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just--space · 5 years ago

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Rho Ophiuchi Wide Field : The colorful clouds surrounding the star system Rho Ophiuchi compose one of the closest star forming regions. Rho Ophiuchi itself is a binary star system visible in the blue reflection nebula just to the left of the image center. The star system, located only 400 light years away, is distinguished by its multi-colored surroundings, which include a red emission nebula and numerous light and dark brown dust lanes. Near the lower left of the Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud system is the yellow star Antares, while a distant but coincidently-superposed globular cluster of stars, M4, is visible just to the right of Antares. Near the image top lies IC 4592, the Blue Horsehead nebula. The blue glow that surrounds the Blue Horsehead's eye -- and other stars around the image -- is a reflection nebula composed of fine dust. On the featured image right is a geometrically angled reflection nebula cataloged as Sharpless 1. Here, the bright star near the dust vortex creates the light of surrounding reflection nebula. Although most of these features are visible through a small telescope pointed toward the constellations of Ophiuchus, Scorpius, and Sagittarius, the only way to see the intricate details of the dust swirls, as featured above, is to use a long exposure camera. via NASA

#NASA #space #astronomy

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moirai-au · 5 years ago

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Timeline: Arc 5 - The Oracle, some time after Just a bad dream.

Warnings: blood

Taglist: @immabethehero @bupine @tabbynerdicat @i-maybe-exist @its-ethan-bro @sandinthetardis @honestlyitsjustkenna @taikeero-lecoredier

Marius shot up on his bed with a high-pitched cry, warm brown eyes flying open. It took him a minute for his breathing to slow down, his hand clutching the front of his black pyjama top.

That… was scary. He couldn’t remember what the nightmare had been about, but-

A flash of red in the corner of his eye interrupted his trail of thought. He turned to his window, spotting a small, bright red bird just behind the glass. It didn’t move, didn’t chirp or anything. It just stood there- its beady black eyes staring at him. His crest was a bright, lime green.

Marius blinked- that was strange. Birds like those didn’t usually stick in this kind of climate, and...

...and…

How did he know this? Since when did he know about birds?

His head pounded a little. He slid off his bed, watching quietly as the bird tilted its head and spread his wings, taking flight and escaping out of view.

Marius pursed his lip and shrugged, his worries fading from his mind like magic- oh well. It wasn’t important anyway. He wondered what Maman had made him this morning...

The boy smiled at the prospect of breakfast, walking towards his bedroom with enthusiasm- but he stopped dead in his tracks. A cold feeling of dread bloomed in his chest, the imperious urge to crane his neck to the side and look at-

His arms dropped at his sides, eyes glazing over as he was suddenly unable to remember what he had been doing. “It’s just…” the boy whispered dreamily, smiling fondly at his surroundings. “It’s just… such a good day!”

Blood dripped down from his nose as he smiled. He wiped his face, not noticing the streak of red on his sleeve as he turned back towards the door and walked out.

A blurry, dark figure behind him lingered.

There was a stumble-jolt.

***

Marius shot up on his bed with a high-pitched cry, warm brown eyes flying open. It took him a minute for his breathing to slow down, his hand clutching the front of his pyjama top.

That… was scary. He couldn’t remember what the nightmare had been about, but-

He suddenly felt the urge to look through his window, the deviation straining his brain painfully- but there was nothing there.

Of course. Of course there was nothing there. This was just… a perfectly normal day…

“Such a good day, such a good day,” he repeated quietly. His mouth tasted of copper, but he promptly forgot all about it.

He slid off his bed, smiling placidly as his little feet padded quietly on the carpet- his teeth stained with red.

There was a dark shape in his peripheral vision.

Marius pursed his lip and shrugged, any worries fading from his mind like magic- oh well. It wasn’t important anyway. He wondered what Maman had made him this morning..

His eyes widened, his body seizing up in shock and terror- there was someone in his mirror. Someone that wasn’t him.

Oh, it looked like him enough, true. The silhouette did share his current clothes, petite frame and shaggy brown hair, and mimicked all his movements perfectly. But things were wrong.

The other boy’s face was completely wrapped in white, red-stained bandages, patches of wild hair poking from between the seams. Like a mummy.

But the most disturbing thing about him were his eyes: too wide for it to be right, and they weren’t a warm chesnut like his- no, they were yellow, and his pupils were like thin lines, like… like a cat’s eyes.

And as he stared, the other boy started to move his arm and touch his own face.

W̵.

̶A̴.̷

̵K̷.̷

̴E̷.̴ ̴

̷U̴.̷ ̶

P̷

And then it was over, the strange vision gone as fast as it’d arrived, only leaving in the mirror the face of a perfectly normal little boy.

Pale. Eyes blown wide with terror. Half-dried blood coating his upper lip.

There was something on his desk. A grey snapback. He didn’t own a snapback. He never did. That he was sure of.

Whose was it? The smell of chamomile tea filled his nose, mingling with the metal tang of blood.

There was a dark shape in his peripheral vision.

There was a stumble-jolt.

***

He was somehow lying on his bed again, his pillow damp from the tears flowing down his temples. Silent, trembling, he sat up, his little fists clenching his blankets tightly.

Dark shape. Peripheral vision.

Marius’ brow furrowed, trying to blame anything other than that shape he wasn’t allowed to acknowledge for what it was that had made the whole world go wrong.

He whimpered, feeling the thing move through the room. It felt like he’d been here for days, the presence horribly familiar, like a jailor walking past a cell. But he still couldn’t force himself to think of what it meant, static buzzing through his mind whenever he tried to directly think about it.

E v e r y t h i n g i s a l r i g h t.

It was there...

D o n o t w o r r y y o u r s i l l y l i t t l e h e a d.

It was always there.

Y o u w i l l b e s o h a p p y h e r e.

Tears were streaming down his cheeks and blood dripped from his nose as static filled his head.

There was a stumble-jolt

***

He was in the kitchen now.

His mother was smiling stiffly robotically mechanically rehearsed repeated over and over and over and over and over warmly at him, the kind of smile full of unconditional love that all good mothers had.

It made his spine feel like cold ice.

“Mais qui voilà? Good morning bunny.” she cooed, her slight accent rolling pleasantly on her tongue.

Dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape dark shape

Dad turned to look at him, sitting on one of the stools at the edge of the high kitchen isle. “What’s up buddy?” he waved at him, setting down his morning coffee. “Slept okay?”

The sight of his parents’ faces made him feel sick. He couldn’t focus. Why couldn’t he remember going to bed the day before? Why couldn’t he remember the day before?

Why couldn’t he remember?

It was watching him.

The woman frowned, concern visible in her light blue eyes. She got down on one knee, gently brushing strands of hair out of Marius’ face. “Ça va mon lapin ? Tu es tout pâle.”

He stayed silent. No. He wasn’t alright. Nothing was alright. The walls were morphing, breathing, shifting.

There was a dark shape in his peripheral vision.

“Hélène, quit coddling him.” the man rolled his hazel eyes, reaching down from his chair to ruffle his hair. “Of course he’s okay, he’s a sturdy little one! Aren’t you Marius?”

Marius only frowned at the man that wasn’t one.

“Atta boy,” the man that wasn’t one chuckled. “Now, get up there and eat up, yeah? You have a big day ahead of you.”

There was. A FUCKING dark shape. In his peripheral vision.

It didn’t seem to realize he knew it was there. And acknowledging it himself made his skull throb and pulse with stabbing pain- like brushing up against an electric fence, a barrier meant to keep his mind where it was supposed to be. But that was the problem with using pain as a motivator.

Eventually, you build up a tolerance.

“No.” he hissed between clenched teeth. None of this was right. Dad wasn’t right, Mom wasn’t right. His mind kept conjuring brief glimpses of another person, the afterimage superposing itself with his father’s towering frame.

A pair of rectangular glasses. Greying hair. A disapproving scowl, softened by a fond light in dark grey eyes.

Dreams-memories poking their way into this world, seeping through the cracks. His reality was starting to fracture, about ready to fall apart at the seams- pieces of the floor and walls were flickering in and out of view, the colors shifting back and forth between too dull and too vibrant, like a screen malfunctioning. His “parents” didn’t even look human anymore, shrieking undecipherable words in a distorted, unified voice. Faceless.

The dark figure was gone. Instead, a mirror in front of him. Where it’d just come from, Marius didn’t know.

His reflection stared at him, still and emotionless, eyes dull and lifeless. Yellow. Not brown. Never brown.

Lies.

Ever-so slowly, it tilted his neck, hands rising up, up, and up, grabbing each side of his face. There were scars. So many scars.

And then it snapped its own neck with a sickening crunch, staring down at Marius disapprovingly as dark blood started dripping down his eyes and nose and mouth... “You just couldn’t play along, could you?”

There was no more house. Only formless ideas of walls and floor and ceilings and inside and outside and skies and clouds.

Marius turned away and ran.

#moirai au #arc 5: the orator #mars #the orator #jse au #tw blood

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thetimeandspaceblog · 6 years ago

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Rho Ophiuchi Wide Field

The colorful clouds surrounding the star system Rho Ophiuchi compose one of the closest star forming regions. Rho Ophiuchi itself is a binary star systemvisible in the blue reflection nebula just to the left of the image center. The star system, located only 400 light yearsaway, is distinguished by its multi-colored surroundings, which include a red emission nebula and numerous light and dark brown dust lanes. Near the lower left of the Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud system is the yellow star Antares, while a distant but coincidently-superposed globular cluster of stars,M4, is visible just to the right of Antares. Near the image top lies IC 4592, theBlue Horsehead nebula. The blue glow that surrounds the Blue Horsehead's eye -- and other stars around the image -- is a reflection nebula composed of fine dust. On the featured image right is a geometrically angled reflection nebulacataloged as Sharpless 1. Here, the bright star near the dust vortex creates the light of surrounding reflection nebula. Although most of these featuresare visible through a small telescope pointed toward the constellations ofOphiuchus, Scorpius, and Sagittarius, the only way to see the intricate details of the dust swirls, as featured above, is to use a long exposure camera.

Image Credit & Copyright: Mario Cogo(Galax Lux)

Time And Space

#rho ophiuchi #Nasa #nasa image of the day #hubble space telescope #hubble #Space #astronomy #Universe

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bapydemonprincess · 5 years ago

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A Human Trap

There’s a huge forest somewhere, and a lone human living in the middle of it, hunting and killing whatever he pleases...

-----

Todd stretched and groaned as he finally got up from his old rocking chair, smiling and breathing in the crisp night air.

This winter was sure to be a doozie, but Todd knew he was well prepared.

Dozens upon dozens of frozen meats of all kinds were stored in his nice little cellar. Duck, pheasant, turkey, deer, moose, and even fish as well.

He’d also kept many a nice fur hide or two and made them into coats and quilts and rugs! It was almost like living in a lap of luxury for Todd!

And no one was even around to give him a single gripe about it!

Sure, there were once in a while a coupla stragglers, folks who either got curious, lost, or heard rumors most likely, but they were easy to deal with.

Humans were even easier to hunt than animals sometimes.

So Todd felt no threats. Even before he became well armored, loaded with traps of his own custom making, and an expert shot with his ol’ friend Vicky (A lovely little Browning Superposed shotgun), he’d let the forest itself do its job of taking on the riffraff.

This forest had also felt like his old friend, hiding him from all else, and supplying him with everything he needed.

And no matter the season, it stayed that way, considering there was nothin’ but big old evergreens for miles and miles.

“Goodnight, pretty thing.” He couldn’t help mumbling to it, smirking like a fool in love, and heading for the front door.

As the door closed and everything grew considerably more quiet, except for the soft chirps of crickets still trying to enjoy the last of fall and the whispering hiss of the wind through the branches of the trees, another noise came from somewhere in that darkness amongst the forest.

A simple little hiss of a voice.

“... Goodnight, Todd...”

....

...

After that, it was as if even the wind and the crickets froze up in shock, not expecting there to be suddenly something new amongst them. Something not of that forest truly; Not an animal, not an insect, not a human.... not exactly anyway...

Black goop suddenly seemed to pour out of a crease between to evergreens, spilling out and spreading quickly.

But it had an end and that end separated from the shadows of the trees, as the thing that was a simply a black blob on the ground made its way closer to the little old house in the clearing. It would almost remind one of the shadow of a big fish in the water, circling and gliding along.

Once up the porch steps and in front of the door, it started to change, though. It morphed up and up into a small, human-like shape. It looked like a pre-teen or so of some kind.

Dark skin even darker in the night, exposed and not perturbed by the cool late fall wind in only a soft white cotton shirt, the human-like person also had simple plain dark blue pants, rolled up at the ends a bit, though.

And on their little feet, toes strangely colored in black, were only wearing simple sandals.

The person stared at the door, hands up and entwined together by their chest, slightly wringing as if they were unsure and uncertain of something.

They looked behind them briefly, back at the forest, bright shimmering red eyes staring at the trees as if they could ask it “Are you sure about this?” or something like that.

Finally, taking a breath in and out, the little one raised a hand.. and knocked on the door.

....

There was no response at first, just a soft whooshing going through the area, reminding the youth that they were most certainly alone right now. On a stranger’s property. On a stranger’s porch. In front of a stranger’s door.

Trying to get a stranger’s attention.

Swallowing, they tried knocking again. Harder.

And this time they heard it. The tromping of booted feet, the loud ruffling of someone moving and/or getting on clothes, and then the STOP of all the commotion when the other reached the other side of the front door.

Tiny keen ears also heard a soft clicking and clattering of something that was likely a weapon.

“Who issit?!” The man finally spoke, voice cracking with age and nerves that were tense and rattled.

This scenario had certainly never happened before...

“Uh- um, I was wondering if you could come out... a-and talk to me, please?” The younger one asked, raising their voice an awful lot higher than they were used to, and it showed in a crack here and there in their tone.

...

Todd went a lot slower and quieter this time, slipping over to the side window to carefully lift the curtain and get a peek of who the hell could be out there at this time of night, and with a voice like that.

But peeking out at his porch, he froze up instantly.

The kid had turned right there to look right back at him.

“THE FUCK?!” Todd shrieked out and stumbled back, staring at just the window now as if it was the one to blame.

.... But, wait. WHY was he suddenly so utterly frightened?! Yeah, that little squirt out there had surprised him in doing that, but... this was HIS property, dammit! HIS house!

“...Whattaya want from me, kid?” He called out again, shotgun firmly in front of him, even if there was no way a little rugrat could open a double bolted door that was also made of thick wood.

“Just to ask you somethin’.” Aarushi responded, staring up at him where they stood beside him now, hands demurely laced together behind their back.

Immediately following this came a scream of absolute horror as well as FOUR shotgun blasts in a row.

“...HOW DARE HE!!!” Sebastian Michaelis snarled and was about to shoot out of his and Agni’s hiding spot in the forest, until Agni himself latched onto the demon he deemed his love and held on as tight as he could.

“Whoa whoa whoa whoa, calm, Sebastian! Caaaalm!!” Agni hissed frantically “You and I both know Aarushi can withstand bullets now, almost just as well as you!”

“THAT DOES NOT MAKE HIM ACTUALLY SHOOTING MY PRECIOUS KITTEN AT POINT BLANK RANGE ANY MORE BLOODY ACCEPTABLE!!!”

“Shhhh, moonlight. Everything will be alright. We trained them for this. We knew what could happen. They knew what could happen. It will be fine.”

Sebastian had stilled but was certainly not done growling and baring his fangs as he glowered out at the house. And not even Agni’s soft, soothing petting could help him this time.

Aarushi stood stock still after the racket died down, not even breathing.

Todd on the other hand was having quite a tizzy at the moment, huffing and puffing and shaking in place.

His eyes darted around and what he could see in the dim light was.. four holes, all in various places around his living room.

And not a single one had hit the child standing in front of him.

He lowered the gun just a bit, staring now in utter horror of the.... thing in his house that most definitely could not be a human child.

“Wh-wh-what the hell do you want?!” He hollered, but did nothing else this time.

Aarushi opened their mouth, then closed it just as quickly. Their little eyebrows knit and they clenched their fists at their sides and looked down at the floor.

“Um.. well, I wanted t-to ask you if um, what I was told about you was... was true.”

Todd just stared some more.

...

“Are... are you a hunter? Are you.. killin’ lots of animals around here, Sir?”

Todd’s face morphed more and more into utter confusion.

“Uhh, well uh... ye-yes..?” He answered, but ended it in a question for some reason or another. He just didn’t know what the hell else to say or do now! What was going on?! Was this just a dream he was having? Oh lord, he hoped so...

The child tilted their head, also looking confused now.

“All of the animals around here? Even the squirrels and chipmunks and tiniest fishes in the ponds and running streams?”

“I- I- Well, yeah! I hunt what I want and when I want!” Todd found himself managing to gush out, his mind just gradually adapting to whatever the hell this was and going with the flow. “There ain’t no one around ‘cept for me, after all, so I figured I might as well.. do what I want!”

“Stop it.”

Todd froze up at the sudden change of tone from the child’s mouth.

“I- I beg your- your pardon..?”

“Stop it.” Aarushi simply said again, eyes still huge but now glowing in the dark, and pupils in the middle slimming down to almost thin lines. “Stop killing and harming the innocent free spirits of this forest; the old and the young; the big and the small,” Aarushi’s lips curled down in a snarl no one that knew them had ever truly seen, teeth sharping in their mouth to fine points in the process. “the animals and the humans.”

Todd’s heart was now pounding in his ears and ready to jump straight outta his chest. What the fuck kinda nightmare was this, some kinda message from some forest god or some such shit?! He tried to speak, or at least wet his lips again and try to make something come out that could be considered english.

“I-I-I was just- just tryin’ to survive myself! To- to just.. live and- and flourish, y’know?! Just like- like everythin’ el--”

“YOU BROUGHT MAN-MADE TRAPS INTO THE FOREST, TRAPS YOU DESIGNED YOURSELF, TODD. YOU HAVE HUNTED THESE CREATURES DAY IN AND DAY OUT AND HAVE ALSO HUNTED THE INNOCENT, LOST HUMANS WHO KNEW NOT WHAT THEIR FATE WOULD BE!”

The form of the child, while speaking these words in this ethereal bellow and beginning to slowly step closer and closer to the man, began to morph, and do so as if they were made of nothing but some kind of liquid. Their sandals disappeared, feet growing and nails on toes elongating. The same size change happened to the rest of them, till they were just inches from the ceiling. Arms longer, hands and fingers stretched out, now sporting what could only be black claws, strange beaded bracelets dangling from wrists, and then something like fabric was forming around these appendages, covering up hands almost. A robe enveloped their entire form, and yet still their head remained uncovered. Once short curly black hair now elongating too and twisting up into a thin, long braid at their back. And finally, at the creature’s back was something sprouting out that could only be not one, but two pairs of black feathered wings. And at the crown of their curly head, two black horns emerged..

The creature was now glowering down at the trembling mortal man with a scalding, enraged look that no human, and certainly no child could’ve ever pulled off.

“This is not your land, mortal. This land belongs to no one but Mother Earth herself, and the animals she gave it to centuries ago.”

And then the creature changed it’s language to something else.

“Even the great Goddess Kali would not show such a cruel human a single ounce of pity.” Aarushi hissed in Hindi, the very first language they’d learned to speak out loud.

After having witnessed this entire scene and having only managed to move just a bit back as the creature came looming closer, Todd somehow managed to muster up enough brain power to twitch his shotgun right into position aaaand...

BANG.

Bits and pieces of the thing’s face and what looked like red, human blood went flying as the bullet hit it straight in the middle of the forehead.

As the creature started to make more ghastly noises at this new predicament, Todd bolted as fast as he could for the door, scrambling to unlock it as he recalled the goddamn thing hadn’t even gotten in that way somehow!

He kept looking back though, seeing the monster grabbing and clawing its face, blood streaming down black cheeks. But the blood seemed to be coming from it’s eyes not the wound in it’s head. Was it crying BLOOD, now?!

No time to think anymore on that. He got the last lock off and swung open the door, nearly inhaling the night air as fast as he could as if oxygen could help him get outta this.

But as he stumbled down the porch stairs, he heard it behind him, coming in HOT!

“GET AWAY, GET THE FUCK AWAY!!!” He finally shrieked out, turning around and trying to aim and shoot again.

But this time the creature whom he’d only seen take a few steps in the past, LUNGED OFF THE PORCH and tackled him down.

It’s weight felt like a million goddamned blankets all at once, and Todd also felt the vibrations of it’s growl that it was making, and he faintly recognized that as something similar to a big cat.

There was movement on the side of him, and Todd looked over to see some kind of black tentacle had grabbed his faithful shotgun, was raising it, and now crushed it as easy as a tin can. Then threw it off somewhere, to be forgotten and never used again.

Looking back up into the black hellish face inches from him, Todd saw the wound that was once clear as day in that forehead was now totally gone, and indeed the blood had been coming from those horrible big red eyes. It still was coming from them. Leaking down and dripping blood everywhere.

“Do you have any last words you wish to say, Todd? Before you are nothing but an empty husk in the ground? Fertilizing the Earth you so abused?”

“I... I...” Todd looked around, though he could not really see anything. Nothing but the creature’s face right there and a bit of the black sky above them, stars so itty bitty and so meaningless... “I’m- I’m sorry!” He cried, the first thing he could think of. “I’m sorry, I really am! I didn’t know I- I’d upset someone like this! I didn’t know I’d been so bad!! Please! Please just... show mercy! I... I swear I’ll be good, I’ll be better! I’ll stop harmin’ and killin’. I’ll-”

“S-Stop.”

The beast suddenly stuttered, and the tone sounded almost... almost like that child’s voice again. Their big toothy mouth now crinkled up into a small frown, trembling. Were they... actually crying now? They shook their head back and forth and narrowed their eyes further, looking almost in pain instead of mad.

“You’re.... You’re lying.”

Aarushi nearly whimpered.

“... Just like.... Mamma said you would.”

And before the mortal man Todd could even make another sound in response to this, Aarushi dove in, and finally took out what they’d come here for.

Still crying and whimpering softly, Aarushi sat up straight and held the familiar looking orb of bright light in both if their big hands.

Wait... big hands..?

Aarushi suddenly froze up, shakily staring at their own arms and hands and then down further at the rest of themselves.

“AAAA!!!” They yelped and the soul went flying, while Aarushi went scooting away and curling up into themselves.

....

Sebastian felt like facepalming but quickly took the better route and ran out of the forest to comfort his little kitten.

“Oh sweetie, it’s alright! You’re fine! This is normal!” He told them, scooping up the soul as well in one free hand.

“I-I’ve NEVER looked like THIS BEFORE!! WHY?!” Aarushi wailed.

“Oh my little tiger cub, there is nothing to fret over,” Agni came forward as well, kneeling down and.. hesitating a moment as he saw the blood coming from their eyes. “.. I believe your Mother speaks the truth, sweet one.” He lowered his voice further and took out a handkerchief to help soak up some of the bloody tears. “This form may be new to you, but it is yours all the same. It is how you are meant to be. Do not fear your self.”

Sniffling, Aarushi finally uncovered their eyes and finally looked back again at the soul hovering in their Mamma’s grasp. Almost perfectly still as if it were a piece of art, and Sebastian was the proud artist.

But no, Sebastian moved the glowing thing closer...

“You have earned this, kitten. Please.”

Although Aarushi could not fathom the logic of “earning” a human’s soul, they sighed and lifted those strange black clawed hands, letting Mamma put the soul in them.

They now stared down the glowing thing, as they had many others they’d been fed before... But each and every one had had a different taste.

.. And Aarushi had an inkling they knew this one’s taste would certainly not be the best out of them all.

But nonetheless they brought it up close and opened their mouth, already feeling the pull from both themselves and the soul; It was strange, like there was a straw there to suck up a liquid like chocolate milk or something, but there was nothing.

And soon the light was gone, and Aarushi was feeling it, already taking root inside the half of them that needed it. Could taste it.

And oh.. the.. taste...

So.

Much.

Sin.

Aarushi started violently shaking, face scrunching up, and mouth opening. But no loud noises this time. No screams, either. Just broken, choked squeaks.

This man had been even worse than Aarushi had been told about. Things were surfacing from his soul that even other humans would probably be horrified to know about him. Things.. a child like Aarushi really shouldn’t have had to see or know of.

It boiled inside them, like thick greasy oil and tar and it was so bad that Aarushi finally tore themselves away from their Mother and hunched over on the ground, hands supporting them, and started heaving....

“Aarushi, NO!” Sebastian cried when he realised what his kitten was trying to do. He forced them back up, even as they struggled and flailed and grabbed their own abdomen like they wanted to tear it open and take the soul out that way.

“Please, listen to me, Aarushi! I know you are suffering from whatever it is you taste, but you must keep that soul down! You MUST! It will be USELESS to ANYONE if you throw it back up now! It has already been altered by being inside you!”

“It’s- it’s the worst!! Please! Mamma!! PLEASE! I DON’T WANNA SEE ANYMORE!!”

Aarushi continued on as the soul was absorbed into them for quite a while, for it took a long time to be fully absorbed when the human who had possessed it was not only very old, but had also had quite a lot of life changing experiences.

And though Sebastian did not wish for his precious only child to suffer, he knew all demons, including himself, went through these experiences of eating a soul that truly went against their pallet.

And yet... energy was energy. And it was necessary for a demon so young to keep going.

He stood from the ground finally, cradling his kitten who had resorted to their human form close, like he hand many, many times before, and looked to Agni.

It was time to go home.

Go home, where Aarushi could curl up in bed with their many dozen soft plush bunnies and Miss Bunny, and Mamma and Pappa right there on both sides too, and continue to deal with the outcome of this experience.

It would take a long time this time, Sebastian and Agni knew, but they would be there all the way..

For though the results of this were not the best, what had transpired and lead to this had surely shown the two parents that their little one was learning and growing and soon... maybe soon.. they would find souls that they would enjoy eating.

And no more Todds.

#My Writing #Sebagni #Aarushi #My OC #Tiger Cub #Drabble #Long Drabble

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