#But for now! Some quick and easy line sketches

[manekijinx]

Three more Hi-Fi Rush OCs from a personal project of mine! Introducing Mikan, Paprika, and Dr. Camembert.

More info on these guys below!

Just a bit of lore! These guys are connected to the OCs I posted over here.

Mikan is Yuzu's younger sister! She's 19 and the lead singer/bassist of her indie rock band, Harmonia Rocket (ハルモニアロケト). They had started off with a pretty small following but have had a big boom in popularity in recent years. Yuzu used to play drums for the band before their current drummer joined. ✨

Paprika is Vandelay Security's top unit with prodigy level skill in combat and leadership. She's been recognized by Korsica as her most efficient and competent guard and is often tasked with the jobs that require an expert's attention. She volunteered for Project Armstrong to replace a paralyzed leg and is now capable of the gymnastic level athleticism she formerly was in highschool. She and Cayenne volunteered for the project without knowing the other had, making for a very awkward reunion after years of not seeing one another.

Dr. Camembert is one of Vandelay's most brilliant minds. He assists in conducting studies involving robotic implants and neurological technology. However, despite his expertise, he's often kept in his lane by Roxanne Vandelay due to his bizarre interest in the removal of human necessities for the body in favor of achieving "peak efficiency". He was kept under Macaron's watch for most of his time working at Vandelay Technologies, but was left with a bit more leeway when Kale took over the company and replaced Macaron with Zanzo. Nowadays, with Roxanne back at the helm, he's once again kept in check, but now has a body much more cybernetic than she last saw him.

[omaano]

SW Hades AU March-April Update

Some links and previous updates: May - June - July - August - September - October/November - December - January - February - everything else in this AU

I'm here with another two-month joint update because at the end of April I can hardly call it a March update, and truth be told I don't think I did much for this AU in the first month of spring anyway.

I started playing Hades 2 again, and made some progress with the Omega and Boba redraw of the Warsong update wallpaper :3 The more time that passes between posting and writing this the happier I am with this piece. Who could find all the gear that Omega wears from the Batch? 👀

Which cannot exactly be said about Sabine and Ezra as well, but I finally have something to show for them!!

Next up is Satine (now that I can show a small illustration in my skethcbook for her, it should go easy - I hope), and maybe Fennec or the Armorer. And lining Axe and laying down flat colors for him and Koska as well. I'm trying to get a drawing for all the missing characters and get them to the part where only detailed shading is missing. If my hand doesn't hurt too much at least ^^;

I'm also gearing up to drawing a new Ares!Boba too, but I'm still in denial about that ^^;

I did not have a particulrly good time with these drawings, I will be very honest upfront. I had to redraw Omega two times because I tried to line that piece in CSP and for some reason faces are just not happening for me there; It hadn't go well with Echo either months ago. I don't know what's up. The tilt of my tablet or that I don't have o zoom un until all I can see are pixels?? OTL

...and then the colours fought me something awful too. Between Boba and Omega they had red, yellow, green and blue covered, and all that with Boba's white flightsuit was not fun ^^; I don't know, I just cannot deal with that many colours - so figuring out what and how I should desaturate was quite an experiment in patience for me until they looked somewhat cohesive. Thankfully the added moonlight turned out to be distracting enough that I'm pretty much warming up to it all now.

I'm afraid I will have to use actual Multiply layers for the full shading.

And Sabine. Oh Sabine.

I've struggled here, big time, and I'm still deeply unhappy with her. I experimeted a lot in my sketchbook with her pose, but any time I thought I was finally on to something as soon as I went in to fix some minor anatomy issues digitally and add some details things just fell apart.

It was the tooka that messed everything up, I'm sure of it D: ^^; I wanted something to visually tie Sabine and Ezra together, and my decision fell on the little white tooka that was in Sabine's mural too at the end of Rebels. But now Sabine's shoulder had to stand in a way that the little critter can perch on and judge from...

Honest to god I almost cried with relief when I came across Eurydice in Asphodel when I switched back to playing Hades for a bit, and realized that she has the lean and attitude in her pose that I was looking for with Sabine. So it was either the coward's way out, or to throw the entire project out the window and become a hermit in the mountains or something.

You can see which option I picked XD

I am deeply, deeply fond of Ezra however Q^Q He was so cooperative after a few initial testing sketches, his hair is perfect, I didn't forget his scars, and I will find it in me to forgive his weird not-really-chainmail shirt, because that one I did to myself XD

I also finally got around to drawing a quick sketch for Fennec - for a hot minute I was very very tempted to pick for her a pose that's a lot closer to Widowmaker from Overwatch, but the vibes just didn't quite match. That was a very sad realization :'(

(Yes, I took the picture after Satine bled through the page in all her alcohol marker glory, yes, I regret it, and no, I cannot relably draw faces on paper. It is a real tragey. I'm in mourning.)

And just so that I cannot really sigh in relief, Leia is my next struggle. I still don't know how to make her work, and it's been months. Terrible. Horrible. Really really bad. Why am I even trying...TT^TT

So that's it for this month. It's both less and more than how it feels, and I'm also kinda losing a bit of steam - my mind is at re-drawing the entire background section for the House of Hades, so on the backburner i'm trying to cook up various background elements to fill the halls up with. Hades is such a beautifully designed game with such amazing shapes and colours, and Star Wars is such a different style especially when it comes to decorations... So there is a lot of cooking that will have to happen here. But I spent a not insignificant part of my last week (I'd been sick, I could get away with it) watching Drawfee speedpaints (they are so fun and so educational sometimes) and Jacob really popped off in one video creating a pixel art game of some sort? And ever since all I could think about is how and IF I could make my pocket Din move through my version of the Hades AU. Just a section of it. I'm itching to draw the backgrounds, but goddamn I am tired, so I just keep distracting myself from the important character art stuff with these daydreams X"D

I also very badly and incredibly distractingly want to re-draw Boba - I've drawn him so long ago, and it feels deeply unfair that I tried to puzzle out the style on him - and while Din got his upgrades bit by bit Boba just didn't. Also. Ares. Ares looks so good in his character art just sitting around like that - all casual-like - and Boba also has his trademark sprawl and... Look. I'm back to Boba being my most favourite clone, okay? I miss him. I miss drawing him. There.

Okay, rant over. Maybe this way I will be able to concentrate again XD Here's to hoping 🤞 I hope you guys are doing better with your creative projects! ❤️ See you all in May! Hopefully with something a bit more substantive and some proper links, not just wips like these ^^;

Taglist of anyone who wants to be pinged once a month for these updates <3 If you want to be added to the list send me a message, or just reply to this post (a 👀 would do, nothing fancy required ;))

@elwinged @yeehawgeek @velsayshi @lionsaint @hastalavistabyebye

If you want to be taken off the list just message me and I’ll take you off, no hard feelings :)

[celandeline]

Things Have Changed Pt. 3 (Carl Grimes X Reader)

Part 3 of 9. We're picking up the pace a little in this part, things are getting a little steamy - don't worry though! We have plenty of parts left before things get actually raunchy.

It’s become something of a tradition for the members of the council (and some of the other, more senior, members of the community in general) to meet at Aaron’s house on Friday nights. After a hard week (and they’re all hard weeks, with the way the world is nowadays) it’s nice to know that you’ll have a few hours of true relaxation and enjoyment, drinking Ben’s moonshine and playing dumb board games with the people that you’re closest to. 

It’s Pictionary tonight, which Aaron had seemed so excited about before you’d started playing. Now, he keeps making more and more urgent noises, gesturing to the crude drawing on his page as the little hourglass runs out of sand. Across the table from him, Ben throws his hands up before slamming them down on the table, shouting. “I don’t fucking know, man!”

The timer thoroughly done, Aaron groans. “How did you guess every animal but horse!”

Ben’s mouth drops open into a loud guffaw. “That’s supposed to be a horse?” 

A chorus of laughs go around the room, and you can’t help but giggle yourself, bringing your mason jar of moonshine and iced tea (mostly iced tea, given Ben’s moonshine is a bit too strong for your taste) back to your lips. You’re pleasantly buzzed, on your second jar of the night, and it’s becoming harder and harder to remind yourself to stop staring at Carl, who’s sat across Aaron’s dining room table from you, looking absolutely delicious with his flannel sleeves rolled up to the elbow. He’s forgone the hat tonight, meaning you can appreciate his hair fully; a rare treat. 

“I can’t.” Aaron says, passing his pen and the pad of paper to you. “Here. Knock yourself out.”

You take the supplies from him and lean towards the center of the table to pull a prompt card from the pile. Careful not to let Carl see, you glance at the word. Ship. Should be easy enough. “Ready?” You look up from the card to make eye contact with him across the table. 

“Born.” He responds, nodding at you. 

Aaron flips the timer, and you start, arcing the pen across the paper in a rough sketch of a pirate ship. Carl watches you carefully, eye following your every move. “Boat?” He guesses. You rapidly shake your head and begin working on the sail of your drawing. You’re not ever half finished when he guesses again. “Ship?”

You nod and quickly grab another card. Ladybug. Moving to a clean area of the page you start your next work, looping the pen in a circle. As quickly as you can, you add legs and a head, and Carl begins his guesses. “Bug? No- beetle?” You shake your head, quickly adding the tell-tale dots to the body of the critter. “Ladybug!” He grins triumphantly when you nod. 

Pulling another card from the stack you start anew. Bark. A bit more difficult. But you start again, this time whipping together what you hope is a passable dog. Your fears are assuaged when Carl guesses - “Dog?” - but you shake your head and keep going, drawing lines extending from the creature's mouth, hopefully to indicate noise. Carl blinks at the drawing for a moment, and you circle your lines insistently. “Oh- bark!” 

“This is ridiculous.” Ben mutters as you reach for another card. 

You glance at the timer to see it nearly empty - you’re going to have to be quick with this one if you want to get the point. Chimney. Simple enough. As fast as you can, you start on a house, which has Carl guessing - “House? Home?” and draw one line of the chimney before the timer finishes and Aaron slams a hand down on the table. 

“Done!” He says, plucking the pen from your hand. 

“It was chimney.” You say, tossing the card back with the others. “Still,” You extend a hand across the table with a grin. “Nice job team.”

Carl returns your smile and your high-five, and you try to ignore the way your stomach flutters at the simple contact. Damn these drinks. 

“It’s unfair.” Ben gripes, nursing his own cup. “How many points are they ahead now, seven? Eight?” 

“Eight.” Alice, who's taken the seat at the head of the table and thus volunteered to keep score, confirms. 

Ben throws a hand up in the air again. “How can me and fuckin’ Picasso,” He snarks at Aaron. “Be expected to compete with the telepathic couple over here!” He levels a finger at Carl, shifting in his seat to stare him down. “You’re cheating, somehow I know it.”

“You’re just embarrassed that you’re worse at this than the guy with one eye.” Carl shoots back, a grin on his face as he sips at his drink. 

“Exactly!” Ben says. “This kid can’t even fuckin’ see and he’s still winning!” He levels a finger at you now. “I’m motioning to not let you and him partner up on game night anymore, it’s downright unfair advantage.”

You busy yourself with your own drink, and try not to let your mind run too far with the way Ben had so easily referred to you and Carl as a couple. He hadn’t meant it like that surely, but hearing it slip so simply from his lips… You pass the pen and pad to Gabriel, on your other side, and the game starts again as Aaron flips the little hourglass. “I withhold the right to choose my own partner for game night.” You set your drink down. 

Ben rolls his eyes. “Have you ever partnered up with anyone but Carl?”

“Not my fault you old farts are no fun- and!” You gesture to Aaron beside you. “Aaron and I partnered up-”

“Yeah when Carl wasn’t here.” Ben snarks. 

“Alright, alright.” Aaron placates, chuckling. “Lets not start name-calling.”

You stick your tongue out at him before returning to your drink. You catch Carl’s eye from across the table and he grins, pulling a face at the back of Ben’s head when he looks away. The pen and paper is passed around the table a few more times, and you get a third drink, nursing it as the night continues. It’s fully dark outside when the conversation and game finally dwindles to a stop. You finish off your drink as you do the rounds, saying goodbye and getting your last few jibes in at Ben (which he takes good-naturedly and gives a few more back). You approach Carl last, intending to just say a quick goodnight before your moonshine-fueled thoughts make you do something stupid like try to kiss him. 

“I’ll see you around-?”

“I’ll walk you back.” He cuts you off, completely talking over you. “Sorry.” He quickly amends, grinning sheepishly. 

“No sweat.” You say, stomach fluttering. “Let me grab my jacket.”

You move to retrieve your jacket from where you’d stashed it, folded across the banister of Aaron’s stairs, and shrug it on. Carl follows you, saying his last goodbyes before you open Aarons front door and step out into the muggy night. He shuts the door behind him, and then you’re alone, with only the empty Alexandria streets for company. 

“We absolutely dominated.” You break the silence, grinning at him as you step off Aaron’s porch. 

“Hell yeah we did.” Carl grins back at you, tucking his hands into his pockets as you begin to walk down the street, heading back towards your homes. “We make a good team.”

You know he doesn’t mean it like that. You know he doesn’t. But you still have to stop your tipsy mind from taking that simple admission and running with it. If Carl had any sort of… feelings about you, you’re sure you would have noticed. Not that it’s even really a possibility given the fact that you made a point of hating him when you first met. If you could only go back in time and talk to your fifteen year old self…

“Do you think they’re actually going to stop us from playing as a team?” 

His voice brings you back to reality and you glance over at him to find him already looking at you. “They better not.” You laugh. “You think I want to sacrifice our winning streak to have to sit through Ben’s bad jokes?”

That gets him to laugh. “God, he was on something tonight.” He says. He pauses, tongue darting out to wet his lips. “Do you think he actually thinks we’re a couple?” He asks, chuckling softly. 

It simultaneously relaxes you, that he also noticed Ben’s slip of the tongue, and makes your stomach flutter, that he’s bringing it up. You laugh a little, echoing his chuckle. “I don’t know, I mean…” You trail off. You didn’t deny it, and neither did he. And you can see how, from the outside looking in, you might appear like a couple. You do hang out with Carl pretty often, and tend to gravitate towards him in group settings. Normally you would have just chalked it up to being the only two people in your age bracket in the community, but you know that’s not the truth anymore. “I guess he wouldn’t have said it if he didn’t.” 

“Yeah.” Carl says, the word barely more than a breath leaving his lips. You can feel him looking at you, but you keep your gaze steadfastly forward, your heart already beating too fast with just the knowledge of his eye on you. “Do you ever… think about it?”

It catches you off guard completely, and your gaze snaps to him. But now he’s looking ahead, face partially curtained by his hair. 

“Sorry.” He says quickly. “I-”

“Sometimes.” You say, cutting him off. Maybe it’s that you’d been drinking, or maybe its that the honesty just feels right. “I mean its…” You pause. “You’re the only person that is my age here, and I’ve known you for a while, right? It’s not crazy to think about, I think.” You trail off softly. 

“Yeah.” He says, sounding almost relieved. “It’s like… sometimes I feel like you’re the only person left in this place that I can actually talk to. Or that knows me, really.”

You understand him completely. There’s something about your age that separates you from the rest of the people in Alexandria. You’re not young enough that you don’t remember the old world, but you’re not old enough that you lived most of your life pre-outbreak. It means you understand each other in ways that some of the people around you dont. “God, yeah.” You say, laughing a little. 

A silence falls between you then as you approach the Grimes’ house. One of the upstairs windows still bears light - no doubt Judith waiting for Carl to come home before she goes to bed. Carl’s steps slow as you approach his porch, and you find yourself stopping with him, not really wanting the conversation to end. You turn to look at him, only to find him already looking at you, and for a moment you just let yourself take him in in the dim light streaming from the windows of his house. Absently, you realize that he can see you, watching him. 

“Sorry.” You say. 

“For what?” His lips curl upwards into a smile. 

“Staring.” 

“S’okay.” Carl says softly. “I am too.”

It’s all the permission you need to let yourself keep watching, noticing how his gaze dips down to the collar of your shirt for a moment before finind your face again. He takes a step forward, lessening the distance between you, and you let him. He takes another step forward, leaving you almost chest to chest, and still you let him, more focused on trying to reign in the rapid pounding of your heart. It’s all too much - the drinks, the conversation, now this. “Are you trying to kiss me?”

“Yeah.” Carl says, still grinning. “If that’s cool with you.”

You nod, pressing forward to close the last bit of distance between you. “It’s cool with me.” You breathe, eyes fluttering shut. 

Your lips meet tentatively at first, almost hesitant to abandon the last semblance of boundary between you. But you feel him sigh into it, like he’s been waiting for this to happen and your brain shuts off. All that exists now is the soft feeling of his lips against yours and the way that he licks into your mouth when you deepen the kiss, pushing it past just a chaste brushing of lips. It’s all made even better when you feel him fist into the back of your shirt, holding onto the fabric like you’ll melt away the moment he lets go. 

You don’t know how long you just stand there, feeling him. Kissing him. Filling up on all the little touches he litters across your back and shoulders, on all the soft sighs that escape when you pull back for air. The moment only ends when the light from Judith’s bedroom turns off, dousing you fully in darkness. 

Carl pulls away, glancing towards the house. “I should-”

“Yeah.” You say, a little breathless. “I should probably head home too.”

You step away, and it’s almost tortuous, feeling his hands slip from where they’d made home on your back. You can barely see him now that the light’s gone, but you smile anyway, whispering a soft goodnight as you peel away to head towards your home.

“‘Night.” He whispers back.

[previous part] [next part]

[escapedaudios]

Ok, if you're a VA who uses commissions or art from image libraries, I'm gonna give some quick tips on how to avoid getting scammed or duped by AI images. It's getting harder and harder to avoid them. Besides the known visual signs, here's some red flags I've found the hard way.

If I want custom art, I normally commission or request it from people within the audio RP community, but there have been times when I used sites like Fiverr when on a time crunch. I myself almost got scammed there, so here are some easy red flags.

No line art or sketch option available on their pricing list. This is a big red flag. Actual artists usually allow this option.

No work in progress options offered by the seller. Revisions only offered when a complete product has been delivered. Real artists don't do this, and would rather get revision feedback at the sketch stage.

No interest in reference images. They're only interested in prompt input.

If you don't use custom art, be careful. A lot of image libraries are clogged with AI images now too. Most have them tagged. If you use any, be mindful to look for images tagged as AI-generated and avoid those platforms completely. Even paid libraries like Adobe Stock now have more and more AI shit clogging their output. If you're searching a platform like deviantArt and asking the artists permission to use an image of theirs, check their other art. If there's no consistent, discernible art style, they're probably posting AI shit. Avoid them too.

Also, look for all the other tell-tale signs of course, and never hurry. It's easy to get tricked if you just give a cursory glance. I've seen VAs get duped before and I very nearly got duped once on Fiverr before because I didn't look closely at the "artists" portfolio (I was thankfully able to get a refund after fighting tooth and nail for it). I've seen VAs that used to rely on services like Adobe Stock or free image libraries like Pixabay get duped when they started introducing AI to their stock images. I hate that this is an issue now but you have to be careful.

Anyway, I think the best option is to use art from people within the audio RP community. Showcase their work, buy commissions, whatever, just stick with people that you know are real human artists and part of the community. It's hell out there right now.

[the-universal-sun]

Part two of the fic about Lee going little after Ford pushed him, please?? ❤️

Okay! So a couple of you wanted a part 2 to the drabble about Stan regressing after being burned, and I am more than happy to oblige! Sorry it took so long for this, personal stuff, you know? I’m also going to bounce between Ford and Stan’s POV!

(there are mentions pain medication and sedatives being used on Stanley for his burn, but don’t worry, it’s not super nefarious (it’s ford) and it’s only a quick sentence or two that starts around

“Come on, Stanley, drink your juice.” and ends at “back of his refrigerator”)

Stanford looked down at his brother, sleeping soundly on the couch with his raggedy looking stuffed bear clenched tightly in his arms. Stanley was acting…odd last night. After he was…branded for lack of a better term, his mental state seemed to almost dissolve? No that’s not right, he didn’t act unhinged or crazy, just younger? Stanford details his brother on his Journal page, sketching out the soft lines that make up his sleeping face; the worn Teddy Bear. Could the symbol have caused this phenomena? He didn’t know exactly what the symbol meant-an oversight on his part-just that Bill had told him to put it there. Was that just another one of his tricks and treacheries? Did Bill know this would happen and purposefully tell Ford to put that there so he’d burn his brother, leaving a permanent reminder of this encounter engraved on his skin? Ford has to set aside his Journal before he rips a hole in the page with his pen. He sits there, barely rested after locking himself up in the specialized cage he made, it was his first time using it. He had made it with padding on the walls, no sharp edges, and can only be opened via retinal scan; Bill can’t get out and can’t hurt him too badly, not with his hands wrapped up with excess padding. He wasn’t well rested but it was enough for some of the brain fog to dissipate, he can finally think.

He’s thought a lot in the last couple of hours; how he could apologize to Stanley for the burn and his words-looking back they’d been so cruel, so much like Bill how he could find a way to at least keep Bill from this dimension, and most recently, what happened with Stanley. He doesn’t think the burn had anything to do with his mental state-at least not the symbol. He already had that ragged looking stuffed toy with him in his knapsack. And Ford, upon looking through Stanley’s meager belongings, found a worn but seemingly well-loved large patchwork quilt-neither the bear or the blanket were things he can ever remember Stanley having back in Glass Shard before he was kicked out left. So he must have gotten them somewhere between that time and now, and judging by the looks of the comfort items, they were acquired a while ago, probably when Stanley was still in his teens. Which… that thought brought forward unpleasant feelings about how young they both were in Ford that he’d rather not think about right now. ‘

Is Stanley used to this phenomena? Has it happened before? Could it be psychological? I wish I knew where F left his psychology books, somewhere in my living room I think…’ Ford’s pulled out of his thoughts, pulling his hands down from tugging on his hair, by movement on the couch beside him. Stanley seems to be waking up, the light of the sun hitting directly in his eyes. Hopefully Ford can get some answers from him about what happened last night. He watches as his brother stirs from his sleep, one hand reaching up to rub at his eyes, Stanley was never much of an easy riser, always wanting to stay asleep and bundled in his warm blankets. Ford gets a look at Stanley’s eyes, just to make sure they weren’t yellow with slitted pupils; a sign of possession. They were his regular eyes, the iris color matching Ford’s own, but the look in his eyes was the same as last night, when he acted off. When he acted like a child. Perhaps…perhaps the issue is more psychological than magic or anomaly-induced, in which case, Ford’s going to have to deal with this with a light hand, he doesn’t want to mess up Stanley’s mind as well as his body. He still cares for his brother, even if he’s mad at him. He’ll try his best to help Stanley, even if that means that, for now, he has to treat him with near literal kids gloves.

Ford does his best approximation of a gentle smile as he can muster, he doesn’t think it turns out well though-he can feel the corner of his mouth slightly twitching and his eyes are probably entirely too wide with his ever present dark circles on display. Something must work, because Stanley, sleep now rubbed out of his eyes, is giving him a small smile back.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Stan snuffles into Poindexter as the sun wakes him up. He wanted to stay in his blanket of warmth, he hasn’t been this warm in so long. But he remembers where he is, at Ford’s house, and Ford has never wanted to sleep in, and he wants to spend time with Ford, so he gets up anyway. He rubs the sleep and eye crusties away, squinting against the light burning his eyes. He goes to look for his brother and finds him on a chair next to the couch Stan slept in, giving him a weird smile. He looked…Stan didn’t know how he looked. Crazy? Like a mad scientist? He doesn’t seem like he’s mad at Stan or wants to hurt him, so he smiles back, clutching Poindexter to his chest and wrapping the blankie further around him. Ford’s house-Sixer;s house?- is warmer than his car, but Stan gets cold easily, so while he can, he’ll bundle up. It’s not his nice and big blankie with all the cool patterns some granny in New York gave him, but Ford’s sweater and blanket will do for now.

“Stanley, can you tell me how you’re feeling? Do you feel any different from last night? Physically and mentally? Do you know who I am?” Ford lists off too many questions for Stan to think through at once this early in the morning. And Stan can’t answer him anyways, not in the ways he wanted. He closes his eyes tightly, trying to find the ability to speak in him, bunching up Poindexter to his face and rocking slightly, feeling a tiny distressed. When the idea hits him. He holds up Poindexter and points between him and Ford like he did last night, trying to form the word in his mouth.

“The bear? Stanley I am not-Yes! We went over this last night, the bear and I have the same glasses!” Ford isn’t getting it! He’s supposed to be the smart one! Stan guesses he’ll have to try his best to speak, even if he’s not happy about it.

“P-Poinde-x-ter.” Stan tries to slowly say the word so he doesn’t mess it up. He doesn’t know what he’d do if Ford made fun of him for how he spoke when he was feeling all fuzzy in his head. He points between Ford and Poindexter while saying the word. Ford better get it this time, because Stan’s tongue is feeling really thick in his mouth now-and his body hurts too.

“Poindexter? Stanley, I-” Ford stops and just stares at Stan, making him fidget nervously. Was Ford made he named his Teddy after him? It was one of the few comfort items Stan had, he cuddled him even when he wasn’t feeling all fuzzy headed like now. It reminded Stan of hugging Ford.

“Did you name the bear after me?” Stanley nodded shyly, hiding his face in Poindexter’s back, scared of Ford’s reaction. It’s been so long since they’ve seen each other that he COULD get mad at Stan for naming his Teddy after him, kicking him out into the cold again, to be alone and scared and to never see Ford again-

“I see. That’s…that was sweet of you, Stanley, thank you. A-are you okay? Are you in any pain?” Ford’s voice was softer than it was before, when he was asking all those questions. Stan wonders why. He lifts his face up from his stuffy and looks at his brother, his Sixer, and sees his face. It looked softer than when he was smiling before, he was sitting on the edge of the bed too. Stan didn’t even feel the bed move, and he had gotten really good at that after all these years. Ford must have had some sort of ninja training to be so sneaky when moving. The thought of Ford being a ninja makes him giggle, his shoulder moving with his laughs makes him wince, though. He points to his shoulder, the one that hurt. Now that he’s focusing on it, it hurts really bad, like really REALLY badly. So bad he wants to cry, but he can’t cry because then Ford will think he’s a big stupid baby. And Stan’s NOT a big dumb-

“I thought that would be the case. I never got to give you any pain medication,” Stan cringes at the thought of medicine, “and I doubt I have anything truly strong enough to numb the pain of a burn to that extent. I do have a mild sedative that I could give you, it would make you loopy for the duration until it wears off, but I…I doubt that would be a problem with how you’re acting now.” Stan doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with how he’s acting, Ford’s just a Fuddy Duddy sometimes, like right now. He pouts at Ford from behind Poindexter where he’d hidden his face again, his brother looked like he had this thinking cap on and working at full capacity, holding his chin in his hands and thinking with his eyes closed. Stan can’t help it, while Ford’s not looking, he sticks his tongue out at him.

“Are you still afraid of needles? If you are-” Just the thought of needles or any sharp object of any kind has Stan clutching Poindexter and hiding under the blanket, body shivering. He HATES needles and anything involving the doctor’s office. Distantly, his mind knows there’s other reasons he hates needles, but he can’t bring himself to think of them right now, not when Ford wants to jab him with a big giant needle! He whimpers as his shoulder moves, making it hurt even more than before. His face hurts too. So does his whole body. He just wants to go back to sleep, but he knows he can’t, not with the pain and not with Ford here, who probably wouldn’t even let him go back to sleep.

“Relax, Stanley! No needles, I promise, I’ll find another way to give you the sedative, so please just relax. I need to look at your shoulder and change your bandages, can I do that? Please? Let me take care of you, at least for this.” Ford taking care of Stan? He hasn’t thought about that at all, he thought he was hated by his brother, but if Ford put him in a cozy sweater, let him sleep in his house, and says he wants to take care of Stan, then it must mean that Ford still loves him, right? Stan sits up, blanket still draped over his head and eyes Ford, his hands are up and his eyes still look soft, but they look tight at the edges, like he’s stressed about something. Stan’s gotten good at reading faces. Is he upset because of Stan’s burn? That’s stressing him out too, he doesn’t like pain, not one bit. He nods his head and moves to get off the couch, blanket still wrapped around him and his Teddy still in hand, and Ford moves off it, too, standing in front of Stan. He grabs Ford’s hand before he starts to walk forward, making Ford just stop and stare super intensely at Stan, and Stan stares back. Are they having a staring contest? He doesn’t know if he’ll win or not, he’s still pretty tired and his eyes still burn, but Ford has some BIG dark circles under his eyes, so who knows? They don’t seem to be having a staring contest, his brother looking away and starting to walk forward, gripping Stan’s hand very tightly.

They end up in the bathroom again, with Stan’s shirt off and his brother fixing up the ouchie on his shoulder. He bites his lips, and then Poindexter’s ear (He’s sure his friend wouldn’t mind if it helps with not crying out) because his ouchie hurts worse than last night, and the pain is making his head go even fuzzier, fuzzy like last night, which is the bad way because when it gets even fuzzier then he really is just a big baby. But…but Ford said he’d take care of him, so is it really bad, right now at least? He doesn’t think so, it’d be real nice to be taken care of when his head gets so fuzzy he can barely think. It’s probably for the best that it happens with his big brother here, because he blinked and suddenly he’s at a table, not in the bathroom anymore, and he has a new sweater on. He still has Poindexter and Ford’s blankie in his arms, though, so he doesn’t panic as much as he thought he would, especially not with Ford sitting next to him at the table. He just lets his mind go into that nice, super fuzzy feeling.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Ford’s getting worried about Stanley. While he was redressing his burn in the bathroom, Stanley’s mental state seemed to worsen, reverting back to the glaze eyed and clingy person he was yesterday, except it seems that this Stanley seems more…stuck in his head? Ford doesn’t know and he’s internally panicking because he cannot tell if this is indicative of some head injury Stanley had gotten-unlikely as his pupils contracted all the way and his head had no bumps, cuts, bruises, or scars-or if this was something to do with his inner psyche, a concept Ford has scoffed at and derided but is in sorely need of a deeper understanding of it now. It does seem like Stanley can understand him, if not slowly, which is good because that means that he still has his cognitive abilities about him, but he can’t find any reason as to why his brother would be acting like a child. It doesn’t seem like Ford’s done anything wrong beyond mentioning needles-driving Stan to hide pitifully under the blanket he still has clutched in his hands. It’s fine, he’s fine. He’s Stanford Pines, he can take care of his brother, he’s capable and in control enough to do that.

“Come on, Stanley, drink your juice. It’s-um- peach juice? Maybe?” Ford had taken the sedative from his first aid kit and emptied a dose from the needle into a cup of some juice he found in the back of his refrigerator. The label was mostly rubbed off, he can’t tell what the flavor is but it smells like peach so it might be. He can’t remember getting it, but the best buy date printed on the side has it listed for still being good for a week, so he’s sure it’s fine to let Stanley drink it! He holds the cup steady when it appears that his brother was going to just lap at it from the table, which would just end in an all out sticky mess that he doesn’t have the energy to deal with. It’s a bit tricky trying to get Stan to go up the stairs after that, the juice working fast and making his legs quake and look close to giving out, but he makes it to the room eventually, gently depositing Stanley on the couch and looking around for his Journal to write down his observations. He left it here when he tended to Stanley’s wound. He finds it and opens it to the bookmarked page, a rough sketch of a sleeping Stanley greeting him. Hmm, now that he was looking at it, Stanley did seem almost…cute…in a way. The look of peace on his face with the way he was clutching the bear-Poindexter, Stanley had called it (Ford is going to ignore the feelings it stirs in his chest and the ache it brings to his stomach, imagining a young teenage Stanley holding the bear tight and calling it Poindexter like-). He pulls the ear of that bear from Stanley’s mouth, the sedative mixed with all of the tension in his brother’s body must be having a toll on him, he can barely keep his eyes open. But he still has such a tight grip on the bear and the blanket, luckily Ford was able to take the quilt from Stanley’s bag while he was in the kitchen, and he tucks it tight around his brother, a small smile lifting the corners of his lips as a small sigh is released from his brother’s at the feeling of such an obviously loved item surrounding him.

Ford’s about to get up and head down to the basement to find a way to stop Bill the portal when he feels a hand tightly grip his own-it’s Stanley, of course. The first time he had done it, Ford could only bring himself to look at his brother, his eyes not seeing the almost 30 year old man, but the younger, gapped tooth version who insisted they hold hands on the pier so as not to get lost. It stirred feelings long pushed down inside of him-taking care of Stanley in this way has been doing that, bringing these feelings he pushed down up the the surface. He looks at the hand gripping his vest, then looks at Stanley’s face, his eyes, hazy as they are, seemed downtrodden and he let out a whine. He did this last night, didn’t he? Holding on to Ford and silently begging for him to stay. And who was he to deny Stanley, really? He knows he wouldn’t be able to concentrate much down in his labs, not with Stanley up here like this. All alone and in a very vulnerable state of mind. No, he’d better stay now, too, to keep watch over Stanley, who knows what kind of side effects the sedative could have, either? He settles down on the bed, sitting next to Stanley, just brushing his hair back with one hand and writing down the events of the morning in his Journal with the other, his mind feeling a bit more peaceful now than it had in a while. He’ll talk to Stanley about this later, hopefully he’s feeling better. Hopefully he may let Ford take care of him like this again. Ford doesn’t dwell on those thoughts for long, slowly sketching out another image of Stanley in his Journal, for his own safekeeping, this time.

[kombuuuu]

OMG WAIT WAIT WAIT

MILES (42) BEING ASKED TO PAINT A MURAL WITH THE CUTIE IN HIS ART CLASS

“You started without me?”

“Not my fault you’re slow.”

“Slow! Am not! I was — busy.”

“Uh huh…”

You have him a quick smile and easy stare, teasing him as you shook the spray paint obnoxiously.

“Stop stressing, Miles. I’ve only done the rough outline.”

His name rolled off your tongue so nicely, and he faltered for a moment as your voice rung around his head.

“Did you stick to the sketch?” A quick recovery.

“No. I went rogue.” A quicker retort.

He snorted at your blatant lie, and turned his attention from the mural above your head, to you. He watched you sort through paints, choosing complimenting colours to the backdrop provided by the school. A brick wall, not much but we’ll make do.

You glanced up, and caught his eye, giving him a curious look right as he looked away.

“You gonna help out or not?”

He fumbled, before ultimately deciding to stay quiet and nod. You watched him grab a light blue, and grumbled appraisingly.

“You have experience with this?”

“Art?” He looked over at you with a sort of ‘stupid question’ look. You laughed lightly and shook your head. “Well, we were asked to do this for a reason.”

“No, dumbass. I know you’re in my art class—,” You look away bashfully at the slip up. Not like some of your more personal works are of him, or anything.

“,—I mean — you grabbed that can with a lot of confidence. You got experience in vandalism?”

“Wh— Uh. No— It’s not.. Ehh—”

When you busted out a short laugh, quickly covering your mouth and trying to stifle it. His face dropped into a playfully annoyed glare.

“Oh, fuck you.”

“Sorry! Sorry…”

A small tear lingered at the corner of your eye, and if it hadn’t made your eyes glisten so prettily against golden light, he might’ve reached out to swipe it.

“I’m no snitch.”

“Hope so, cause you just busted my ass.”

You giggled again, squinting at him and reaching down for a different can. “Better help me get that A then, Miles. Now I have something against you.”

You teased him again, and he gasped playfully. Indulging in your harmless taunts.

“Oh yeah. I just have to make this perfect now.”

“You weren’t gonna before?”

He watched you drag a smooth line down the wall, flicking your wrist off to end it in a fade. Then deadpanned towards you when your focus returned to him.

“You take every chance, don’t ya’?”

“I like to think it’s one of my better qualities.”

The smile you gave him had his stomach fluttering.

“Maybe you think right.”

You looked almost taken aback by his affirmation. Bashful eyes leaving his and a mumble of something he couldn’t tell if was agreeing or not boosting his confidence back up.

“Just—, Help me out with this, Miles.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Maybe he has the same affect on you, as you do him.

[ambicutiebutt]

amber ur art style makes me so happy and it's so nice to look at. ive always struggled w lineless looking styles, and i really like the way you have some accentuating lines...... im rly curious abt your process!!! is that ok to ask!!!!! how much time do you spend on sketching vs coloring?

You're so sweet!!! I do lineless because I realized a long time ago that I HATE doing lineart! Also, the act of erasing/adding to a shape to make it look right works better with my brain than erasing a line and redrawing it.

I take more time sketching than I do coloring, usually! It's always the idea process and figuring out poses, anatomy, ironing down the details of the drawing, that's all what takes the most time. Coloring is just fun for me! I don't have to think, really, I just put the colors down! It's my favorite part!

I'll use the maid day drawing I did as a quick example of my process!

First I start with a very very tiny thumbnail. I skip this sometimes, but it's often pretty useful just to get a general idea of how I want the poses to be.

This is usually very very teensy tiny. Like my canvas usually starts at 8.5" x 11" at 300dpi. But the thumbnail will be maybe one inch at most. This is to prevent me from thinking too much about details at this point. I JUST want blocky silhouettes, gesture, pose. When I'm done with that, I can blow it up to be way bigger, lower the opacity, and use it as a base for my rough sketch.

There's the rough sketch. It's not perfect, obviously, but I have the general idea of everything. It's still wonky, but that's okay, this is just the rough sketch! I can allow myself to be much looser with things here! See that break in the lines on ferdie's neck? That's cause at this stage it's easy for me to select, resize, rotate, and stuff like that. I can also do that in the next step if I want, but I do not want to do that sort of thing once I get to colors, as it will make my nice crisp lines look a tiny bit blurry- No one will notice but me, but I'LL NOTICE.

Final sketch time!!! Ironed all the details out! I know where everything is going, and now I get to move on to the fun bit of coloring!

putting a cut here since this is getting long!

When I color, each color will be flat on it's own layer, and I can put the new layer wherever it needs to be in order to overlap or underlap what colors I already put down

See! A lot of individual layers! If I'm doing two characters who aren't overlapping, I can have similar things be on the same layer, like skin! Also see how I didn't color in Daisy's hand, even though it's skin? That's cause it's going to be overlapping a lot of things, so I'll add that later. You can also see that I usually have two "hair" layers (layer 10 and 11, i don't generally name the layers). One overlapping and one underlapping the head.

I have the opacity of the final sketch turned way down and turned on multiply, so I can easily see how the shapes look. You can see that I don't care too much about parts that aren't visible. Like, I want to make sure I am filling the skin color everywhere it needs to be, and it's clean on the edges you will see (sides of face) but it doesn't need to be clean where you won't see it (under the hair)

Eventually, once I've gone through all of the colors one by one, turn off the sketch, I end up with this!

It looks nice and clean!

I am of the opinion that not everything needs lines. Like, why bother adding lineart to the outside of daisy's outfit? There is plenty of contrast there already, the lines wouldn't add anything. Same with the bottom of ferdie's dress. That doesn't need an outline in order to read well. But some things do. Like, we don't have the little bit of ruffle on Ferdie's apron. It would be nice to add detail to Daisy's shoes even if it's not super visible. There should be some lines where folds are happening in clothing. See how daisy's horns don't show up well, because the color is too close to the background? It's things like that I want to make easier to read by adding lines. And some on the hair. This will all create detail and make it read better.

And there! Now it's all done!

Hope this was helpful or interesting!

[princeoferror]

Kohga Slay

Would Kohga love or hate me for doing this-?

Commission info | Buy a Print! | portfolio | Twitter | insta | Discord server

Progress pics below!

Sketch:

I've been using Pinterest for finding poses a lot at the moment so I wanted to use a very confident fashionable reference. I was only going to put him in the dress but since the lady in my reference image is wearing heels I gave Kohga some very stylish banana heels.

Line art:

I always struggle to say much for line art cuz it's the exact same process every time.

Flats:

I did yet again steal all these colours from concept art- I might need to start using my own colours but colour picking is so much easierrr- ok fine I promise in the next piece I do I'll get my own colours so I can grow as an artist or whatever-

Finished render:

Moving into the rendering I wanted two light sources to push the form, very similar to studio lighting as if he was doing a model shoot. So there's the bigger light off to the left then a small light on the right so I can do some rim lighting. Rim lighting can often be a quick and easy way to add more form into a piece if it's looking a little flat.

I'm so happy with how this piece turned out, my favorite thing is the raw attitude Kohga is giving, he is so confident and serving looks in this outfit. Of course he's still wearing his uniform underneath he's got a Repuation to uphold! Wouldn't want to look like an idiot now.

If you'd want a physical copy of this you can get one at my inprnt page!

After this I'm going to be working on different art to use for examples on my commission sheet. So the next post should be some headshots; I never realized how I tend to only draw full bodys.

And speaking of my commissions are open, all the info can be found through the link in my bio or just shoot me a message :3

Oki see u next week byeee

[kuradex]

I wanna know about your art style. How you draw like that??

i tried putting down considerations as well as a (very) general step by step of what i do; if there's anything more specific you want me to explain lmk i guess?

first off, general (self imposed) constraints / purpose of project -- this informs what i draw & how i draw it

i.e. "kuradex" is pretty different from my normal art (my 5 latest rough illustrations):

or my monster hunter charms:

or my pokemon tcg contest illustrations that im not allowed to show until june (😉):

although i've said its for merch purposes, ive started drawing these because i wanted to practice conveying "liveliness" and noticing key features / nuances of a given design, but i didn't want to spend a large amount of time on each one.

so what i came up with is

i want to draw things on-model in terms of proportions ( + take note of weight / tapering of shapes / etc )

no backgrounds & minimal "props"

experiment with / practice line/texture/color/flow/rhythm/etc

spend <1 hr on each pokemon on average (this is a bit more difficult for me to track, but for example, the cyndaquil line took me less than 42min to color, combined, and means at some point in time instead of focusing on cleaning up the art as much as i can, i stop after cleaning up most of it)

that said, the pose & the rhythm/flow of lines are key in conveying liveliness, and if i have a concept in mind i usually end up going with it, but i may go thru a few if i dont.

i consider pokemon origin / lore or a key point in its design, and if i'm particularly stuck, i try looking up pokemon card illustrations for inspiration. (i noticed the research i do is essentially a truncated version of how Atsushi Furusawa does research before doing an illustration.

(& even despite all this i do get stuck sometimes and don't exactly understand a pokemon and just opt for "as cute or cool as i can make it i guess?", but i think it's part of the process...?) (theoretically things that are A Shape should be really easy to draw but with what i want to practice in perspective i find them difficult...)

this is from my latest paid req but these are my first sketches of chesnaught -- i was thinking of how one of its inspirations is a warrior / tanker from RPGs, so i drew a pose where it's shielding its face.

i do another pass and take note of details.

in general i draw overlapping shapes and erase (it's a bit visible on one of the spikes)

because i opt for quickness i start coloring at this point -- i just use a colored "color burn" sketch layer for the "lineart" & colorpick official art & lay down messy flats & set the color layer to 60%

60% multiply layer for shadows. i tend to use both hard and soft brushes

for bigger projects i would use 2-3 shadow layers to create more "layered" shadows

here i use overlay layer (60%). this is just throwing colors at it and seeing what works and doesn't work. i personally prefer to throw red under the eye and a yellow or blue near the top of the head. this is mostly done with a soft brush

before this point, everything is under the rough lines, but now i start drawing/painting over it

i just color pick the colors that have been laid down from the previous steps and clean up / render textures (making the green on its arms look fuzzy) / fixing anything that i forgot or looks too off (i.e. the spike on its shoulder and the way the tail curves)

I could potentially keep cleaning this up, but this is where i usually stop 🫡

[kimeoshi]

hello it's me again! Your biggest fan (LMAO) The one who asked for tips on coloring...

Another question has came up on me while I was coloring (finally aughhh). How do you shade hair? Without it looking unnatural?

Thank you for your help before!!! 😊

Hello and welcome back! I'm glad my previous advice helped! That is a difficult question as I do admit it is a bit challenging to me as well. It is guesswork + studying references, adjusting tid bits until it looks right, my own process relies on a trial and error approach.

Therefore, I suggest you pick some pieces you like where you find the hair gorgeous, and figuring out how the artist does it, or how might they do it, per active learning principles. Try to deduce it. While the following guide can be good for your starting concepts too, it's important to adapt it to your style and preferences. And I even encourage you to go against it, as creativity thrives on experimentation.

That said, I'll guide you through my own thought process, however. (With a quick Ratio sketch, because I really love to shade his hair; fluffy hair is very forgiving.)

Let's start off here (I'll be skipping the black and white part for simplicity's sake from the previous guide. I'll also be using a white environment with a pale overlight):

For highlights, I begin laying down a Glow Dodge layer with a hard brush that doesn't have full opacity, and draw a halo-like shape. After that, I refine the shape by erasing parts of it with a rough eraser to get the desired effect.

Alternative to the Glow Dodge layer, you can use pure white, or other layer types such as Lighten, Screen, Add and Overlay, etc.

In the following pictures, note that I adjust the layer's opacity freely.

Above, I simply blended it a bit to my own liking.

With an airbrush I softly start introducing shadows (Multiply layer, dark purple/blue color).

Then, I start introducing sharper shadows in a separate layer.

You can use a lasso tool for this to map out a jagged like shape which should remind you of mountains. You can blend this out too at certain segments.

(Sidetrack: if you feel like, I suggest reading up on the balance of hard and soft edges in painting, the topic is very interesting and I am still trying to grasp it as well, yet I find it immeasurably useful. This can come in handy upon rendering principles. A very skillful master of it is the artist Yuming Li.)

Furthermore, I add reflections. I've used a Lighten layer with a subtle blue color. As this is subtle, I want to point it out that it appears on the lower parts.

For a final touch, I pick out the skin's color and airbrush, shift the picked color to a more saturated one and apply it near his face/to the bangs, with an airbrush.

For the fundamentals of hair shading I usually wrap it up here and go off to rendering. I use a painterly brush to do this and pay attention to the jagged shape I mentioned earlier. The brush I use is already tilted, so it's easy to manipulate to make such shapes.

Additionally, I experiment with Overlay, Multiply (or any!) layers with either airbrushes or hardbrushes— as I said there isn't a specified way of doing this. Go wild; for such is the nature of hair. Add any shapes or lines you find appealing, introduce new colors from the environment nearby too to make it moredynamic and interesting as well.

EDIT: An addition! On Rendering tips and advice

(apologies on leaving this out initially! I only realized I should include this now )

Including astray curved lines to simulate how hair flows also builds to the hair-like quality. I also prefer to use it closer to the silhouette of my character as it adds further detailing and a fluffier look in the end!

Attempt to render each strand according to this diagram in mind, note the parabole-like(?) shape for the light, and note standard 3d spheric shading for shadows.

[dark-drawssss]

Technically, it seems like both Leo and Danny die in the bad ending.

Something that's quite obvious is that the bad ending section is one of the more poorly written parts of Manhunt 2 (ironically a fitting punishment for the player for deciding to be violent, lmao), from Dr. Whyte randomly saying that Leo should be locked up instead of killed despite being very educated on how the brain works, the cell itself being something so easy to escape, to the ending cutscene itself. The ending cutscene doesn't make a lot of sense because "Why would Whyte ask Daniel to come back into the Project after everything that happened despite the huge change of what the Project is now?" (with it now focusing on fixing everything that it destroyed) and such. But then (about more than a year ago from now on) I thought of something:

What if Dr. Laura Whyte was "testing the waters"?

What I mean is that she was potentially checking who survived after the removal of the bridge, Danny or Leo, so she decided to ask "Daniel" questions and tell him specific things to see how he would react.

Whyte and Danny were clearly friends in the past, not to mention that the way she acted towards him was motherly/warm through any interaction they've had, so she knew how Daniel would react in that situation. And she was more than aware of what Leo was like, and knew that although he would lie and play along, he wouldn't properly pretend to be Danny as Leo "ignores the past" (unless it suits his own needs, what a hypocrite) so he wouldn't care to remember how Whyte and Danny interact.

She doesn't refer to him by his nickname at all during this ending despite previously doing so, only calling him "Daniel" and even "Dr. Lamb". Stating that she "followed the protocols exactly as [he] left them" despite the fact that it was never established that Danny had left any instructions, even if he was involved in the making of the bridge he is still a lab technician, and they're never involved with actual patients so he couldn't of have know the full "protocol" (not to mention that she was involved with placing the bridge inside of Danny's head, so she would already have an idea of how it works). After she states that she made the decision to remove the bridge, she pauses before stating "We're very kin to resume the work on the Project, shall I gather the staff?" and after Leo responds she leaves while keeping her eyes on him, and she out of all people left would know that after everything that had happened Daniel would not want to work with the Project.

So my theory is that she's intentionally behaving "formally" knowing how Daniel would at least react in some way and knowing that Leo would just "play along with what she said". She lies about "following the protocols he left" knowing that they didn't exist, if it was Daniel he would be quick to question the said protocols, while Leo would assume that it did happen and brush it off. This would already make it clear on which personality survived, the realization could even be why she pauses as she tries to keep her cool, but just to confirm it she says the next line. "We're very kin to resume the work on the Project" she most definitely knew that after everything that had happened Danny wouldn't even think of working with them again, regardless of the fact that she's the head now and intends to right the wrongs Pickman made (at best it would take convincing, but it's the first reaction that matters), at best she expects Daniel to just refuse, at worst he'd probably go on about everything, it's no rocket science, and expects Leo to just go along with it which would be why she asked "shall I gather the staff?", so that she could prepare to kill Leo if her worry is proven to be 100% true. It ends up being proven true since he says to do so and dismisses her, and there she takes one last look at her ex-coworker.

Didn't mean to imply that she'd kill him herself I just thought of this and had to sketch it (funny thing I was gonna sketch the regular auto-shotgun from the game but then I saw the beta version which reminded me of the one I use in L4D2 and I've been playing that game more recently so.)

[fafameow]

Sorry to come out of nowhere but I just wanted to say that your art is so warm and so colorful and so ROUND in all the best ways and your style really captures my favorite things about Kirby! I've always found it really inspirational!

Also, I love the way your line art looks?! I have to ask (you don't have to answer though) is there a specific brush or technique you use to get that soft, multi-layered effect?

Either way, wishing you a wonderful day!

Thank you so much for your nice message, it means a lot!! I've been wanting to make a small tutorial about how I make my Kirby art, so I guess your question came right on time hehe ^^ As I'll be explaining all of my process, I'll also answer your question about my line art! Btw my art program is Paint Tool SAI and I'll also be showing the brushes I use as well as their settings (i made up most of them a long time tho).

So first here's the brush that I use for basically anything, whether sketch or lineart!

It took me a while to understand what you meant by multi-layered effect, but no the brush doesn't do that, that's actually my way of doing "lineart" (ig it's not really lineart cus I just do sketches that I clean later on).

I then clean up everything, add the details and block by using a grey color.

Afterwards I add the flat colors! I already have my own made up color palette, but otherwise I always use a purple color as overlay.

And I also use that same shade to color the lineart!

Next comes the fun part, shading! Here's THE brush that gives that soft effect to all of my drawings ^^ It's the same setting as my eraser too!

And yeah I also shade with light purple lol

There's also some other brushes that I use for more effects, like the airbrush! (I don't think I've touched the settings that much) I mostly use this one for lighting effects.

And finally the water brush! I sometimes use it for blending or for quick backgrounds,

but you can also see that when put it to "Spread" it also becomes the one that I use for my blushes hehe

Aaand I believe that's all of the brushes I use for my art! I do have more, but I only use those for other specific stuff like animation or pixel art.

Adding some details AND VOILÀ!!

Now you know how I make my Kirby art! (but this also applies for all of my art) I sometimes redraw on the contours to give that "pop up effect" a bit like what they did in rtdldx lol ^^

I really hope it was easy for everyone to understand cus this is my first time making a tutorial! And to Desultory Novice, I hope I managed to answer your question too!!

Thanks again and have a great day :D

[pareidoliaonthemove]

Another Pitch

Sequel to "The Pitch"

Scott sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. As if loosing Dad wasn’t hard enough. As if having to become a guardian to his underage brothers wasn’t hard enough. As if taking over the reigns of a multi-billion dollar corporate empire, when his dad had only just started showing him the ropes wasn’t hard enough.

No. Now here he was being buried by an avalanche of opportunistic pitches and deals, all looking to take advantage of his grief and inexperience.

He was working his way through them, albeit slowly, with the help of Grandma and Quinn Johnston, his fathers – and now his – PA of long standing.

Quinn had smiled sympathetically as she forwarded him five files first thing in the morning. “Let’s get some momentum going by knocking over some easy ones, shall we?” she’s said.

It had become the norm – five easy ones to start the day. Scott recognised the tactic. Start of with five (or some other arbitrarily chosen number) quick, easy tasks, and that way, when you got bogged down by the big stuff, you had still accomplished something that day.

Dad had liked the number five. One job done for each son.

Quinn had suggested three or four, but Scott stuck to his guns. Dad did five, so Scott would do five.

Everyone pointing out that his father had slowly worked his way up to the work load over years of developing the company went unheeded. As dis assertions that nobody would blame him for passing some down the line, but Scott was worried about missing something important, and letting his family – his father down.

He sighed again and hit play. The last of the five was an advertising pitch that the other company claimed was ‘a mutually beneficial partnership, increasing product brand awareness while raising Tracy Industries CEO’s public recognition and supporting the narrative of International Rescue’s suspended operations.’

The words made Scott feel sick.

That crack about his ‘public recognition’ was designed to make him feel insecure in his new role – not that he needed help with that. And as for the ‘narrative of International Rescue’s suspended operations”, well, that was an … interesting way of saying IR (otherwise known as the Tracy family) had been grief-stricken by the sudden death of the founder and father of the organisation and its operatives.

Scott privately thought ‘death’ was also euphemistic for what had actually happened to Jeff Tracy. ‘Annihilation’ or ‘vaporisation’, maybe even ‘atomisation’ better seemed to fit the bill of the fireball that Scott saw every time he closed his eyes.

Saving the world may have cost Jeff Tracy the ultimate price, but it seemed to Scott as if he was paying that prices’ interest.

Still, in about ten minutes the unsolicited pitch would just be a minor detail in another long day.

Scott jolted as his father’s voice boomed out of her speakers: “Five!” and the blank screen cut to a rough sketch of a space station that claimed to be Thunderbird Five. As the voice counted down – accompanied by “sketches” of the appropriately numbered Thunderbird – Scott realised it wasn’t his father’s voice at all, but a very good sound-alike. As the countdown reached “One” the visual cut to a so-so facsimile of Thunderbird One sat on her jet engines in a large hanger that couldn’t have looked less like her real silo if it had tried, which had Scott’s eyebrows reaching for the heavens.

“Thunderbirds are Go!” the faux-Jeff Tracy declaimed triumphantly.

Nothing happened on screen.

Scott leaned in, captivated despite himself.

“Thunderbirds are go!” It was insistent now.

The visual paused, and then switched to the product, enticingly displayed on a dainty china plate, it’s logo superimposed in the corner of the screen, and then the familiar extortion to “have a break”.

The camera pulled out, and Scott started to see a look alike of HIM, dressed in a mock-up of his IR uniform reclining in what must be ‘Thunderbird One’s cockpit, feet on the control panel, sipping a cup of – oh dear God – tea.

The advert finished with the faux-Jeff screaming over the radio “Go, Thunderbird! Go!”

There were several seconds of silence, and Scott started as Quinn gently touched his shoulder. He realised that he had been staring with his mouth hanging open.

“Are you okay, Scott?” she asked, gently. “I’m sorry, if I had the slightest idea what was in that video…”

“I – I’m okay, Quinn. Thanks,” he smiled, a bit sadly. “It just took me by surprise, you know.” He tapped his fingers on the desk absently. “That soundalike was very good.”

Quinn nodded sympathetically, as she retook her seat, then asked, “And the ‘Thunderbird One’?” Her voice was carefully casual, but Scott could hear the burning curiosity in her voice.

He smiled. Quinn was one of his father’s oldest and most trusted friends, she had known about International Rescue even before Scott had, but she had never even been to the Island, never seen the craft.

“Rather less convincing,” he replied.

Now that their cover had been broken, there was no reason Quinn couldn’t see the Thunderbirds, he thought. He’d talk to Grandma, John and Virgil, see what they thought. Kyrano, too, if he would accept Scott’s call.

Quinn’s next careful question broke his introspection. “And your answer to the sales pitch?”

Scott blew out a heavy breath. “Had better go through PR. How I feel about it won’t help ‘raise my public recognition’ in a positive way.”

Quinn nodded. “That’s good. Delegating things to people better equipped to handle them is the single most important thing you can do as a CEO. Just give me the main points, and I’ll get PR to write them up for your approval.”

Scott nodded and thought. “Dad never agreed to participate in third party advertising campaigns – authorising his likeness to be used for this would be disrespecting his known wishes.”

Quinn nodded as she typed. “And?”

“International Rescue is not ‘taking a break’ – we are on a stand down as we grief and restructure our operational protocols after the death of our father who is … was” the past tense was still hard to admit “our commander and lead operative.” Scott frowned as his considered his next words. “This is an unavoidable break in operations, and we feel this ad campaign would be disrespectful to the victims and their loved ones that we are not currently in a position to assist.”

Quinn nodded, even as she privately wondered what would happen when the boys inevitably needed to ‘take a break’, due to the demands of running a rescue operation, a multinational corporation and god-only-knew what other side projects they each worked on.

Scott paused again, clearly going over what he had said so far. He obviously thought there was something else to say, but either couldn't decide what it was, or couldn’t find the words to articulate it.

“May I make a suggestion?” Quinn asked. Scott nodded. “The product – a candy bar – is in direct opposition to several health and nutritional foundation and education plans that Tracy Industries and your father personally have championed and founded. This advertisement would be undermining that message.”

Scott nodded ascent and flashed her a grin that Quinn recognised from when he was a child -and she had snuck him and his brothers illicit candy under their parents not-so-completely oblivious noses.

Quinn typed. At the end of the paragraph, she looked up at Scott. “Anything to say about the bit about ‘raising your public profile’?” she asked.

Scott flushed. “Nothing that Grandma wouldn’t wash my mouth out with soap for saying,” he conceded.

Quinn snorted. The ‘retired’ doctor had a vocabulary that had frequently made Jeff and Lee – astronauts and combat fighter pilots both – blush, and had sent several hard-bitten special ops generals running for cover. Sally might have made threats for forms sake, but she doubted the older woman would be shocked by any profanity Scott could utter.

The same could not be said about a reverse situation. Sally Tracy had always been a shadow player in Tracy Industries power structure for a very good and compelling reason.

Quinn scanned the document she had produced. “I think we’re done with this one,” she announced, filing in the ‘To’ and ‘Subject’ fields before adding a note for the draft reply to be ready for Scott’s review first thing tomorrow morning.

A final check, and she hit send.

“Okay, Scott. That’s the five. Here’s your choice of the main problem of the day.”

A the mention of ‘five’, Scott sat up straighter, his gaze flicking to the row of framed photographs on the desk.

Four brothers. And his father.

The five people Scott was fighting this paperwork war for.

Notes:

Sigh. The sequel I never wanted to write, but Scott was really upset about the “slander” of the ‘Kit Kat’ advertisement, and wants everyone to know that he would never EVER prioritise personal downtime over an emergency call out. The idiot.

And I’m pinning this one squarely on @tikatu , it’s her fault for directing me to the advertisement in question.

The standard disclaimers, I do not own Thunderbirds, either the TOS or CGI Series. (Although I do own copies on DVD.)

Oh, and Kit Kats were DEFINITELY harmed in the making of this fic! (Although not with a cup of tea, REALLY Scotty: tea and chocolate?)

I do not do this for money, but for my own (in)sanity and entertainment.

[hordraomin]

Krita tutorial the way I know it.

Basics: What is where.

Gimmicks.

Specific advice on specific tools.

Basics: What is where.

Upon opening the program this is what you're met with. First of all, must comment: The layout is HEAVILY editable so you can just drag menus anywhere you want, even leave them floating amidst the sheet you're drawing on.

You can create custom art templates, I have two o'mine here as both have my signature background color.

As well, you can edit the custom document settings, as in what size you want it, what resolution, even the initial content of the image. As well you can create from clipboard: Just copy some image from your browser and Krita will recognize it (useful for making meme edits lol).

Now, once you have your file, I will show you what is where.

Brushes:

Brushes are easy to edit and there are tons of free bundles to download online. I myself only got one bundle, Jackpack (bit hard to find now due to original source being lost, it is still available but bit tricky to come by).

There. Are. Tons.

Some of these are my custom brushes for calligraphy in neography, you might even guess which ones. You can edit existing brushes, make new ones from the ones you've edited without changing the original, and all sorts of stuff (more below in the third chapter).

There are numerous packages of brushes once you enter Krita, but only one/two are available when you first open it. To unlock them all, click here:

And make sure all bundles are dark gray in color (example of both dark and light below).

Now Tools Options: those will pop up depending on what tool you're using.

Symmetry: Fun stuff. You can drag the lines depending on how you need them and then center them back to the center of the screen if needed.

Gradients and Textures also have their tools options, you can play with those to get the feeling what they can do (more in third chapter).

The Filters tab is useful too. Blurring, motion blurring, color mapping, artistic filters and all that: Quite fun.

Gimmicks.

Krita allows you to customize your workspace freely. Floating menus, tabs, anything you want. It has quite many drivers at that-

To access the workspace templates, go to Window and choose Workspace.

Krita allows for copy-pasting any image onto the sheet. Though, for me it sometimes crashes if I accidentally copy-paste text into it without choosing the Text tool first.

The software allows for both raster and vector work. It is basically Photoshop sharpened to be used by artists primarily.

There are some interesting mechanics regarding the Eraser (default bind E).

You can use it with any brush, allowing for textured erasure/quick work. Good for sketching.

You can use it on gradients (given there's a transparent point on the gradient preset).

There's a Multibrush tool:

People say Krita is good for animation but my brain can't wrap around it yet honestly @~@.

The keybinds:

B - Brush tool.

E - Erase tool option.

M - Mirror (useful for checking accuracy from a new angle).

Ctrl - Color pick (when used with brush or other color-using tools).

Shift+L.Mouse+drag - Changes the size of the brush by dragging left and right.

Ctrl+E - Merge layer with the one below.

Ctrl+G - Group selected layers.

Ctrl+A - Select whole sheet.

Ctrl+Shift+A - Deselect everything.

F - Bucket tool.

G - Gradient tool.

Ctrl+S - Save document.

Ctrl+Shift+S - Save As document.

Ctrl+N - New document.

Ctrl+O - Open document (will be seen in a new tab on top of the sheet).

Ctrl+C - Copy selected layer or selection.

Ctrl+X - Cut selected layer or selection.

Ctrl+V - Paste copied/cut layer or selection.

Q - Multibrush tool.

R.Mouse - Interesting thing: Opens up a quick selector for brushes and colors you've already used in the piece.

1 - Zoom 100%.

2 - Zoom to fit the piece vertically.

3 - Zoom to fit the piece horizontally.

4, 5, 6 - Turn 15 degrees (4 and 6) or undo the turning whatsoever (5).

Ctrl+I - Negative filter applied to layer.

Ctrl+U - Color editing on the layer.

Ctrl+Y - Soft proofing mode (for color mistakes and stuff like that, mostly annoying for me tbh).

Ctrl+T - Transform selection/layer.

Ctrl+R - Square select tool.

Ctrl+J - Lasso select tool.

Honestly you can just hover your mouse over tools and see their shortcut binds, as well. Or edit them in Settings.

Specific advice on specific tools.

Brush:

Brush editor is a great tool for making custom brushes, and it even has a sratchpad to test them out. Lots of settings, but no need to be afraid; Most of them you might never use on purpose.

Use Brush Smoothing for great and pretty lines in lining pieces or making calligraphy.

Gradient:

The four icons to the right top are:

Mirror gradient.

Arrange by lightness value.

Arrange by color value.

Space the stops evenly.

Click the gradient to add a new stop. The three things to the left are:

Make the stop use Primary Color.

Make the stop use Secondary Color.

Make the stop use a fixed color.

[cant-shake-it]

How to Make a Printing Screen from Home

I wanted to share a quick cute little tutorial for how I made my own screen for making patches (and other things that don't require exact measurements). Cute lil how-to under the cut >:)

Disclaimer: I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing at any given moment. There could be a better tutorial out there for you. I'm just guessing for a lot of the things I do and this is no exception. With that out of the way:

THE SUPPLIES YOU DEFINITELY ABSOLUTELY NEED:

a small/medium canvas (depending on what you have and how big your design will be)

paintbrushes

a tight-woven sheer fabric (preferably not stretchy and STRONG)

a fine-tip pen

water-resistant gloss of some kind (mod podge works, but make sure it's a waterproof kind if you want to make more than one print)

paint that won't come off in the wash (acrylic/spray paint work)

good strong tape

a good sturdy card-like thingy

an easy/cool design for your print :)

THE SUPPLIES THAT ARE RECCOMENDED BUT NOT NECESSARY (aka things I like to use):

a good canvas fabric/thick cotton for printing on

fabric paint (will stay on the fabric best duh)

a 1/2in, 1/3in, and fine tip paintbrush for details (depending on your design)

some company for fun :)

Alright, so first you'll want to figure out the design you want to print out and get a good sketch over it. I'm a detail freak so I like sketching out my design then going over it in a black pen. The ideal is hard contrast and clear and discernable lines/fill-in spots, like pictured below:

(Note how I emphasized which spots were to have thicker lines, which parts of the stripes were to be printed, etc. I tried to think a lot about which portions I wanted to show up on the finished design and how they would look on the fabric as a whole.)

So you've got your design. Great! Next step is a fun one: Grab a canvas you are willing to part with (this one was a painting I made when I was 16. I hate it), and rip all the fabric off of that fucker!! If you pull off some staples in the process, don't worry. Just make sure you can retain the shape of the frame, since that's the part you'll need to keep. You don't need to take off every single bit of the fabric, but as previously stated, I'm a freak, so I did. You'll come out with something like this:

For the next steps you'll need a good pair of scissors as well as your pen and your sheer fabric. You're going to want to set the frame on your fabric and cut about an inch and a half around it so there's extra to wrap around the frame and tape down. You can draw a guideline for where to cut if you want, but once again, I'm a freak:

Now lay the front of the canvas frame (the part without staples on it) face down on the fabric and grab your tape! Now we're going to tape down each end of the frame so the sheer lays taut on the frame. I like to put one or two strips of tape on the ends parallel to each other and pull them tight, then do the same with the other side, then continue adding tape until the whole outside of the frame is covered. See below:

(Note: your goal in this step is to stretch the sheer as tight as it can comfortably go so there are no wrinkles or depressions in the fabric.)

So now you have you're frame. Fuck yes!!! Go ahead and grab the design you came up with as well as your pen (you can use a pencil too, but the pen shows up much better through the fabric so I definitely prefer it), and put the frame front side down onto the sketch.

If you're worried about keeping the frame steady, feel free to tape the frame down and go ahead and trace over the design with your pen. Make sure to fill in all the dark parts enough that you can differentiate them from the light parts.

Once you have your sketch copied to the frame, now you can grab your gloss!!! Hurry!!! You're almost done!!!!

With this step I like to start big and go into the details once all the larger portions of the sheer are covered. Pretty much you're going to paint over every part that isn't the black of the pen with your waterproof gloss. This ensures that once you start printing, the only parts that are going to bleed through the fabric will be the black parts that weren't painted over with gloss/varnish/mod podge/whatever you used as long as it's waterproof!!! Take all the time you need, it's not a race. Once you're done and the gloss has dried, your screen is going to look something like this when put up to a light:

Now that this step is over with, congratulations - you have just made a mesh screen!!! Keep reading to learn how to use it lol

So for the patches that I make I just went with black and white paint, and black and white fabric to keep it traditional, but you can use any colors of paint and fabric you want, truly! The world is your oyster! I do not care! That being said, we're keeping it simple today.

Grab your screen, a piece of fabric that can cover the design and leave at least an inch of space around it, and a surface you won't mid getting paint on on accident. You'll also want to grab that card-like thingy for this as well. It can really be anything that can provide a sturdy, even pressure across the screen consistently. Go ahead and pick up that fabric paint too, I guess. We'll probably need that.

At this point, this is what your workspace might look like:

Next up you are going to center your design onto your piece of fabric-

-and grab your fabric paint. put a thin little stripe over the top (start slow and add more - as you can see I added a little too much and kinda fucked up my design) then grab your card thingy. Make sure you have even pressure on it and swipe it down at a medium speed so you're dragging the paint down the screen:

Once you've got everything covered I like to go over it a few more times for even coverage. Then you pull it up from the screen (which you might want to rinse off so no paint sticks to it!!!), wait for that bitch to dry, and you're done!! Congratulations, you have your very own fun silly patch! Go sew it on something! Or not! I do really do not care!!!!!!

[newsourceofnonsense]

The missed signals

Part 2 of Lights, Camera, Attraction

Part 1 here

The next few days shapeshifted into a whirlwind of professionally crafted chaos. Y/N found herself absorbed in a world of hushed whispers, yelled orders, and the constant movement of cameras. Filming was intense filled with precise movements and perfectly timed lines. Her scenes alongside Emma Myers, who plays the character Enid, were filled to the top with laughter and easy closeness, which had become a welcomed contrast to the sometimes-overwhelming pressure of the production. Emma, with her contagious enthusiasm and bubbly personality became an anchor to Y/N,     Emma's friendly face help Y/N stay strong amidst the swirling vortex of activity. She often found herself easily falling into conversations with Emma between her takes, exchanging many stories and laughter which has formed a instant bond between them.

Yet, besides all this, Jenna remained a captivating mystery. Y/N stole some glimpses of her between scenes, a quick moment where Jenna's eyes would meet hers from across the sprawling set, leaving only a quick smile to be exchanged before both will guild naturally back to their respective tasks. These short-lived interactions, small gestures that had left Y/N with a teasing sense of something unspoken, something unfulfilled.

One afternoon, during a break in filming, Jenna approached Y/N as she carefully sketched in her sketchbook, going back to capturing the intricacies of the gothic archways. The quite hum of the set seemed to fade way as Jenna stood beside her, her presence creating a quite shield around them.

"Shit... that's incredible" Jenna hummed, her voice smooth and low, barley cutting through the ambient noise.

Y/N jumped, her pencil momentarily leaving her grasp. She raised her head looking up towards Jenna unable to hide the delicate pink brushed over her cheeks, a contrast against her warm skin. Jenna's eyes, dark and intense, held a genuine appreciation that has now momentarily taken Y/N's breath. 

"Oh, thank you" Y/N stammered, her voice barely strong enough for a whisper, she felt a tsunami of self-consciousness being to drown her, the simple compliment throwing her off balance. She swiftly tucked her sketchbook back by her side, suddenly self-conscious about the casual nature of the art.

Jenna tilted her head, her expression beginning to mix with curiosity and a hint of disappointment. "You're incredibly talented" Jenna continued, her gaze now lingering on Y/N's hands, being gently smudged with pencil. "I have seen you sketching a lot. I can't help but be mesmerising by it."

Y/N shifted in her awkwardness, her gaze retreating to the floor. "Well, it's just something I do to pass the time" she mumbled. Her words sound small, even in her own ears. She felt a familiar sense of shyness, a uncertainty to fully engage in the conversation.

Jenna seemed to gain an understanding, a subtle shift in her demeanour reflecting acknowledgment to Y/N's feelings. "I'm Jenna and it's Y/N isn't?" she questioned, proceeding to extend her hand inviting connection with Y/N. "I would love to actually she your work, I can't enjoy it as much as I want to if I only get the few glimpses from now and then"

Y/N excepted her touch, her fingers brushing against Jenna's, a momentary spark of electricity running between them. The contact delivered a flutter of warmth through Y/N's chest, a physical manifestation of the nervousness she felt.

"Y/N, you got it." she replied, a small smile gracing her lips. This was quickly over shadowed by her nervous habit, going to nervously tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. 

"It's for some reason so calming to watch you draw" Jenna continued, her warmth in her tone managing to cut down the underling tension. "The way you seem to go to your own world just really intrigues me" Jenna blushed lightly.

Y/N managed a strong "Thank you" once again feeling the blush being to burn her face. She felt as though she has failed to properly show her acknowledgement to the compliment that warmed her heart. She began to search for more words, but they seemed to out skill her, and a counterattack of shyness being to approach. The conversation falling victim to this war spluttering and dying, leaving behind a lingering silence that felt heavy with the unspoken feelings.

Jenna, despite her initial enthusiasm, misread Y/N's quite demeanour. Y/N's brief replies and her tendency to evade eye contact, mixed with her natural shyness, started to paint a picture of indifference in Jenna's mind.

In the days that followed, Jenna tried again to connect with Y/N. Jenna initiated small talk, learning more about Y/N's art, her experience on set, and her journey to where she is today. But Y/N's responses remained locked in a polite but brief answer, her focus always seeming to float back to her own universe, her sketchbook ever-more present, transforming into a comforting shield taking hits for the overwhelming social dynamics of the production. 

Jenna, feeling her attempts declined, started to retreat, her beginning enthusiasm slowly losing light turning into subtle disappointment. She decided that Y/N's reluctance was a consequence of her lack of interest, which wounded more than she wanted to acknowledge. Y/n, meanwhile, remained blissfully unaware in the comfort of her universe, massively missing the subtle gestures, the lingering looks, and the quite attempts at conversation, all lost in the hurricane of filming.

The missed connections were a heart-breaking dance of unspoken feelings, a silently played symphony of missed opportunities. Y/N, lost in her creative dimension, interpreted Jenna's advances as professional courtesies, not as gestures weighted with unspoken affection. Jenna, misinterpreting Y/N's silent nature as disinterest, eventually reached the belief that her feelings were not shared. Unaware of the other's longing. Both emerged with a bittersweet sensation of longing and unmet affection as the set, a vibrant show of controlled disorder, ironically turned into a silent witness to their unsaid wishes, an environment where their hearts danced a tragic waltz of missed signals. The tension between them suffocated the air, a confused mixture of attraction and misunderstanding. Their paths, so intertwined, yet a strong struggle to collide with each other, a collision that could forge a connection.

*Hope you all are enjoying this as much as i am writing this. So happy to be back to writing. As always feel free to leave any advice or comments.

Love from Dot <3

Part three in the works.